Spring

I love Spring. Not as much as Fall, but I do love getting back the color in nature. It is exciting.

I drew this on my white board of Rivesville. Trees on the brain.

I have been on a plant kick lately. And by lately I mean since Jan. I bought an a granny smith apple tree and planted it on a warmer day (above 30) in Jan. It is actually still alive! I was a little surprised. It is budding and look healthy and the deer haven't eaten it yet. I borrowed a tomato cage from my inlaws and wrapped mesh around it. They haven't figured out how to get into it yet.



So after the first tree, I couldn't stop thinking about trees. I bought a few more and now we have 8 redbuds, 4 apple trees, and 1 pear tree. I want an orchard in the back yard. That would be awesome.



After the tree phase, i went through a seed phase. Here are some pictures.

This first picture is 4 eggplant seedlings! They are doing really well. Better than I thought they would actually.

This is crimson clover. It came with an herb packet of seeds from ebay. I don't really know what you use it for or what it would look like. Its very bushy and looks like....well clover. Go figure=)

The middle is crimson clover and the other two are peonies. They are doing ok. We will see as they are still very newly sprouted.

These are my baby tomato plants! These didn't start well but when I moved them under this light they just shot right up. If you can see, the one is under the lamp shade! Can't wait to get these in the garden. These seeds came with a kit from the dollar store=).

These are the tomato plants from that same kit. I have it rigged up in the kitchen until the weather gets better and I can hang them outside. They did really well at first but now, they aren't doing so well. They have stopped growing and some of the leaves near the bottom of each plant are dying and falling off. I have been spraying them with epsom salts and I might have over done it. Any Suggestions???

This is close up of the above plants. The leaves are yellowing and they definately are not as big as the others. These sprouted first and were doing much better, but then they just quit.....

So anyways, if anyone out there has any suggestions, fill me in! It might be the epsom salt and water mix i was spraying, or something else. I just want tomatoes!

Zach is putting up with my planting frenzy pretty well. He just chuckles and lets me do my thing. We just got a new building from Lowes to replace the one that got blown away in the storm. Zach is pumped about it. It is much bigger and ncier than the old one. He went today and got a zero turn lawn mower as well. That boy and his toys. Atleast the lawn will be mowed and we will have a place to put the mower=). I am happy about that!

Kole man is doing great. He is reading now and is very good at it! We are thinking about putting him in soccer soon. Karate was fun, but after 6 weeks, they repeat the lessons and I think that he is geting bored with it. We will finish this session up and move on to something that can keep him moving and interested!!!!

I ended up not geting RIFed!! That was such good news for us! It was such a stressful time not knowing if I was going to have a job next year or not. I am glad it is over for now. We are going to push for a bill that requires FACS to be offered in middle school so this doesn't happen again. We will see what happens next year.

So here is the update my friends. Enjoy!

The Family Bird House

I am stressed. There are many things going on in our family's life and I am just a little overwhelmed by it all.

What do you do when you are stressed? What I wanted to do was pull the drapes closed, turn off the lights, curl into a tiny ball, and never leave the house again. But this is not what we did. Instead, we decorated a bird house.

This was really fun and lifted my mood. It was just what I needed to forget about the grown up, stressful, life changing events of recent and live in the moment. I was able to enjoy my family, have fun, and be creative. This was just what I needed.

Here are some pictures of our awesome bird house. Those birds are super lucky to have such a talented family living near by=)

The house was premade but in thr rough. Just needed some lovin' to fancy it up! As you can see, it is a gas station for birds.

Even excavators need gas......

Rust-eze, will get your bumper/beak sparkling!

Even spidey stops by the bird pumps.

Kole was so proud of himself. He did most of the painting. Zach and I just helped a little!

I am so thankful for moments like these, where we really can enjoy each other as a family.

Wind storms, Court Case, and Karate!

There has been alot of goings on lately! I thought I should probably do an update so that I wouldn't get stuck with another 6 month one=).

We had a huge wind storm last week! It knocked down part of our huge tree in the front yard and narrowly missed the power line and house. We also lost our metal shed behind the house. We found it the next morning crumpled in the woods about 75 yards from where it had been! The wind just picked it up and threw it........crazy. We also were without power for a few days. No fun. We were so bored and it was so dark at night....and quiet. I didn't realize how much ambient noise is in the house until we were without electric.

Here are some photos from that adventure:

Here is where the shed used to be. You can see the metal crushed in the woods.

Here it is up close.

Dad, John, and Zach are trying to pull the hanging dangerous limb. Thank goodness no one got hurt!

In other news, we had our court hearing on Wednesday to determine a temporary parenting plan concerning Kole. I don't want to write details on the web, but mainly it went pretty well. Call me or email me if you want to know more than that! I am more that happy to share it with family and friends....just not random cyber space people. I just wanted to thank everyone for praying for us about this situation. I felt more calm than I anticipated I would and I am sure it was because God answered those prayers.



School is going well. My students are now in the relationship unit. It is so interesting to learn about my students. I am really enjoying teaching them better ways to communicate with their families, siblings, and friends. Zach is going great. He is working very hard with his job right now, pushing himself to the max. He is just so good at what he does! They finally broke ground on the transitional housing project that he has been working on for such a long time now. He has really babied this project and I know that it is such an acomplishment to get it to the building stages. He is such a wonderful person and I am so glad that he is mine=).




Kole-man is doing well. He has been counting his "good" days at school because Zach has told him that when he reaches 100 he can have a puppy. We will see how long that will take...ha. Honestly, though, Kole is doing really well at school. He is reading!!!! I couldn't believe how well either. He had told me he was practicing reading at school and he knew some words but when he brought home the Dick and Jane book and read through the whole thing......I was amazed. He really sounds words out and figures them out! Once he has sounded them out he just remembers them as "sight" words. I knew he was smart, but man, I just am so impressed with how fast he is catching on to this. He has already read through the second Dick and Jane book and he can's wait to start the third. Being an avid reader myself, I love it!!!!!




Kole also finished up his karate class first session on Wednesday evening. He did really well! He got an award and was so proud of himself. Here are a few pictures and a video.

Here is the whole class!

Kole getting his award

"Sparring"

Snow Days....YEA!

SNOW DAYS!!!!!! Today we had a snow day, and yesterday was a snow day too! This is a teacher's favorite time of year (except for the summer of course=).

We were kinda lazy yesterday. On snow days, I like to do things I can not normally do during the week. I baked FOUR loaves of bread! Three regular white loaves in the oven, and one wheat loaf in the bread maker. I cut one loaf up and made french toast for dinner last night (we are fans of breakfast for dinner). We ate the whole loaf. It was delicious if I do say so myself.

Zach didn't have to go in to work yesterday because it was so bad out, so he got to work in the "man cave" for a few hours and then just hang out with us. Zach and Kole shoveled snow, though I think Zach did most of the shovelling. I salted. Everything is iced over now, though, but atleast we got a little workout!

The freezing rain started coming down around dark so Kole and I went sled riding. We went soooo fast down the hill because it was a sheet of ice!!!

This is the crazy snow man we made with the "perfect kind of snow" as Kole says.

Yes, his eyes are mandaran oranges. The carrot nose. Twigs for hair. And last but certainly not least, beef jerky for the mouth. We are a creative bunch.

Kole was freezing by this point!





And I will leave you with a short clip from Karate class last week. He didn't have a nap this day and you can tell by the lack of attention span. Anywho, enjoy!

Here it is folks....

The last 6 months:

September:

I started my new job at the end of August and it has been so rewarding (and challenging). I really like what I am doing! I wasn't sure if I would but with each month it got better and better. I think that my students have really enjoyed FACS class and have learned some valuable info, though I think that I am actually the one who learned the most!

Kole started into a pre-K program. It started well ( atleast as far as we knew). More on that later.

Prepping for the wedding. This was stressful! Getting all of those last minute details finished and trying to make sure that we were are prepared as could be was way more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined.

Overall, September was a busy month for us but we got through it.

October:

Wedding! Otober the 4th we were married at Deer Park Country Inn. It was so amazing and everything I could have ever wished for. We were so pleased with how everything turned out.

Our First dance with the bluegrass band in the background.

The awesome cake! Thanks, Aunt Donna!

Right after we had the ceremony! I like this pic.

Kole is such a ham. We got alot of these super cute photos of him because of that trait.

My awesome flowers! They did a wonderful job on these and I loved them.

Some love.

The guys.

The girls.

The siblings.

Ok so you get the picture. Actually there are 634 of them! I have yet to make a book with the best but I did narrow it down to just 75 awesome ones. The photographer was seriously jumping out of bushes shouting cheese at any and every given moment.

Staying at Deer Park was a wonderful experience and I am so glad that we did. We really enjoyed being able to relax there before and after the festivities.

In other news......We went on our honeymoon in October! First to Williamsburg where we skipped the Colonial part and went to the outlets!. Then on to Ocracoke which is the last island of the outers banks of NC. It was so beautiful. A small quaint town with kickin coffee, miles of national seashore, and really good food at Howard's Pub. We stayed at an awesome Villa...At the Castle! This was our View........The Harbor!

Overall a great trip! We really missed Kole though and were glad to get home and try out the new house!!! The house has been wonderful and we are enjoying the new found space.



When we came back from Honeymoon, I got served papers (the Schmidt is taking me to court for parental rights) and we found out that Kole's pre-k was not really working out. Ends up the guy that ran the place was a huge jerk. He told us he didn't like Kole. WHO DOESN"T LIKE A FOUR YEAR OLD?!?!? Needless to say, we pulled him outta there pretty quickly and it was so amazing the change in him just getting him back to his old school. He is doing great and learning so much there....and they LOVE him!



Also in october:


Halloween: Kole was a robot, Zach and I didn't dress up and I really wish we would have. Guess theres next year!

Our Pumpkins...these were fun!

October as super super crazy with much goings on.....but it was so awesome as well!


November:


Thanksgiving, Koles B-day, and much inbetween! Sadly, this is the only picture I have to represent November. This is the aftermath of Kole's Birthday...it is the morning after I believe.

December:

Christmas, parties, and cookies. It was a good month overall, though we will really miss Papaw. He was such an amazing person and example for all of us.

YUMMMY
Kole's Christmas Card PhotoOur mismash of a tree=) Matching "overhauls" as kole says. We had so much fun on this trip.
These are repeat pics but I wanted to post them again=).January:

New years eve (celebrated at home with close friends), Koles Karate class.

New years was so much fun! We played guitar hero and had good food with friends at home. There wasn't much else to do and we ended up really enjoying ourselves so we might just make it a tradition!

Kole started Karate this month and is having a blast with it. He can not wait until Wednesday of each week. It is a six week program, once a week for about 45 minutes. Each class, if he listens well, he gets a stripe on his belt. Last week they practiced punches, this week was blocks. Kicks are next. By the end, they are actually going to use the moves on each other! The class is for 4 to 6 year olds so I have a feeling that this is going to be hilarious! He is the tallest child (except for an autistic child who is 8) in the group which consists of around 13 students. One the first day we realized that his best buddy from school was in the class as well as our new neighbors son! That was really exciting for Kole. Here are a couple of videos of Karate class (watch for the dancing at the end)!

So, there you go folks, you are up to speed. This has taken me hours to do so I have learned my lesson and will never go for six months without blogging. I promise. If you want to see more wedding Pics you can visit my facebook page. I have posted most of them there.

Much love to all!

It's coming....

So I am sitting at my desk in Fairview, reading everyone's blogs. I haven't posted since we were all wearing tank tops.
I apologize.
I am sure that no one is checking my blog anymore. But if you are hanging on by some glimmer of hope that I will soon update my blog, the time has come!!!

Except that time is not this very minute. You see, I am on my work computer at school. I have no pictures to show with this computer. And I will not sum up the last 6 months of our lives without some pictures.

Speaking of, if any one wants to see some wedding pictures I have posted some (180) on facebook and plan to post the rest this evening. It is time I stopped neglecting my cyberworld people.

You can trust me. Come back in a week (or less) and there will so much wonderment to behold, it will blow your face clean off.

Until then, my faithful bloggers.

The Fair and a New Friend.....

So here it is, folks! The offical pictures of the Mannington Fair in all its glory. Enjoy! We certainly did!

This child had no fear! He made friends on every ride he was on.

This is the most awesome picture, simply because this is what we did that night at the fair (watch Kole), and because of Dad's expression!!!

Kole waas obviously excited.....the entire night.

This ride scared me. Kole kept ducking down to where I couldn't see him over the edge. Not good !

SO fun, and he made another friend...!

The alligator roller coaster. Hands up and screamin' like a girl the whole way!

This was so funny to watch.

Any ride that goes up in the air with my child is terrifying to me!

Look at that sky!

This was actually the first ride of the night. He was so pumped!

Here are a few pictures of another friend. We often go as a family on walks on the rail trail. There is often pretty flowers and good scenery that we enjoy. On our last walk, Kole and I collected some queen anne's lace and some green wheat looking plant. We put them in my mason jar flower vase and they have been very pretty for a while now on my kitchen table. As I was sitting at the table the other night, I saw something unusual on one of the flowers. Here it is:

He must have been very small when we picked the flowers and grew on my kitchen table! On claser inspection, I noticed that a few of the queen annes lace looked as though they had thier head eaten off. Haha. This is how he grew so big!!! By eating my flowers!!!!







I promptly took the whole vase outside, where this little guy, along with the flowers, now live on the patio table.

I took so many photo's of him because he really is a good lookin' caterpillar!

Thats all for now.