From May 24th to May 30, John and I vacationed. It was absolutely perfect. We stopped in Decatur, IL on our way to Chicago, IL and then drove back the whole way. The weather was great. The driving was easy. It was what we needed - a great time away. I'm embedding a slideshow for you to see our adventures. The pictures have labels (hopefully they show up) so you can see what we were doing/where. Enjoy.
A year ago today...
It was a saturday night
I met John at 9pm at McCoys
He was the best looking man at the bar
After 15 minutes I knew I needed to talk to him longer
At the end of the night, before we left I already was anxious to see him again
When I got home, I stood on my patio and talked with several friends about how awesome a first date/match meeting I had just had.
What an awesome year! So thankful and so blessed.
-live your life
-be who you want to be
-think before you say anything
-somethings don't need to be said
-it's ok to let things go
-road rage isn't worth the energy
-don't be made for too long
-allow only awesome people in your life.
-realize that sometimes its time for those awesome people to leave your life and be ok with it
-do a job that gives and provides service to other humans
-be nice
-there's hardly need to yell in a negative manner
-get your feelings out, don't hold them in
-do what's necessary for yourself, and listen when others are letting you know what's necessary
-have a good group of family and friends to rely on
-listen more than you talk
-dance even if you think you look dumb
-action does speak louder than words
-don't put too much on Facebook
-try to be the best you can be in the moment
-do stuff, have experiences, say yes
-be healthy physically and mentally
-question everything, look for the answers
-realize you will always end up with more questions
-give of yourself but take some too
-karma is a smart but revengeful bitch
-don't be miserable
-make goals and achieve them, only to make new goals etc.
-find the good things in people
-don't complain too much, but do get it out when it's necessary
-don't be afraid to be the first to leave, or the last
-always be open to meeting new people
-like your body no matter what condition you are in
-if you don't like something, change
This is my first Tan Tar A conference experience (if you don't count playing in north west wind symphony here for mmea). I'm at the Science and Math interface conference. It has been awesome.
I am still living as a Special Ed. Teacher even though I teach 6th grade science. I think it will take a while to make the switch. If I was at a sped conference there would be a lot of hand outs and a lot of powerpoints. At this conference, I have stomped on plates, identified producers, consumers and decomposes. I have done a blind contour. I have done a modified contour. I played in a nature box. I have done a full experiment with color and had to change the independent variable. That's not all, and it's just 2 workshops.
I am forever thankful for the experiences I am getting as well as the opportunity to teach science. I'm excited for the time to become a science teacher with great knowledge in differentiation and making all the students feel special.
This would be my first Valentine's Day where I had a serious boyfriend and someone that wanted to share in this hallmark holiday with me. To be honest, I don't think that either John or I really love this holiday, but what we do love is finding any reason to go out and celebrate. I am so happy to have found someone who likes to celebrate as much as I do. So the night before, we went shopping and John bought me 2 dresses, because i wanted them both. Then on our valentines he brought me Christopher Elbow coffee and hot chocolate and some of their valentine artisanal chocolates. I had the coffee this morning, it's amazing! Then we went to dinner at Mestizo-Aaron Sanchez's restaurant in KC. He's a judge on chopped. It was awesome food and amazing service. We will go back when it gets warmer to the patio! It was a Valentines celebration that I won't forget!
I was thinking recently about all I was thankful for and I realized that facebook and blogs were so nice around the holidays. Everyone writes about things they are thankful for, and happy about. But then a bit into January - holidays are over and it's full speed complaining. I'm not just talking about everyone else, I'm thinking of myself as well. I'm the only person I can account for anyway. So I thought - before I do my favorite things blog, I should also do a Thankfull blog. Maybe try to get one in a month or so (missed January). They are easy to do, and it's nice to remember and put it all down.
Today I'm thank-full for:
My parents, really they do so much for me and have done so much for me. I would not be the person I am without their support.
Every valentines day I spent without a partner. It's really going to make this one special.
Not having any money, which makes me get really creative with the ingredients I have in my kitchen, which makes me a better cook.
humility - without this I would not be a good teacher, or person.
face cream - it makes my face feel awesome (will be featured in my favorite things)
days off - I had one yesterday and I'm very thankful for it. Not sure if I'll take anymore this year, but it was nice.
John - even though it hurts he reminds me to be thankful and keeps me grounded emotionally which is more than I could ever ask from any one person. And he supports me.
income taxes - I'm getting a good amount this year which will hopefully allow me to really get to a spot that I want to be at this year financially.
pinterest - it really has opened my crafty side, I love it.
fingernail polish - I love this act, it makes me stop and spend time doing something that I feel makes me look more together - it usually motivates me to do other things (pluck eyebrows) that make me look more together and professional.
christmas presents - I am still reveling in many of my christmas gifts. I love how organized my room has become because of the armoir my parents got me, I put on my beautiful butterfly ring everyday and just become speechless because I still can't believe John gave me that, I am thankful for the bag Mary gave me - I put all my fingernail polish in it, while it didn't save me any money - it's nice to have a roku box and other options to watch than my basic cable channels.
pictures and my printer - I've been able to adorn my house with pictures of John and I which makes me happy
choices - i've been feeling a little overwhelmed with all my to do's lately, and it's nice to carve out time to do them, or not do them and not feel guilty or bad because in the end it was the choice I made and I am the one living it.
February 7 is John's birthday. To celebrate we went to Cafe Des Amis in Parkville, MO. It was a wonderful experience. I love celebrating birthdays with good food and drink, we certainly got both. We had escargot to start, John had bouillabaisse for his entree and I had duck. Then we had chocolate soufflé and creme broulee. We shared a beautiful bottle of Cotes Du Rhone. Just an awesome time celebrating an awesome man. He'll be 34 by the way.
Happy Birthday John!!
I'm a very goal oriented person - if I have unlimited amounts of time to get the goal accomplished. If there's a deadline - forgeddaboudit. That's why I love new years resolutions. I love making statements that could someday be true - and if they never become true, it's totally okay, or if it takes me several years - that's okay too. So here's my list for this year:
-Exercise. I love to do this, and don't take time to do it or allow myself to be lazy. No more excuses.
-Get Organized. Every year I get better, and stumble upon a better system for myself. I'm specifically going to organize my cleaning schedule and find a home for everything in my house. I'm also going to continue my weekly/monthly declutting and trip to Savers to donate it.
-I'd like to run a 3k all the way through. This involves training, which will hopefully help with the first goal. I'm looking at purchasing a treadmill this year, which will also help.
-Becoming a more serious biker. I need to get my road bike fixed. I would like to do 2, 50 miles next summer and overall just log more miles.
-Walk everyday. Are you seeing a pattern here? I'm really setting myself up for exercise success! This summer I walked Maggie almost everyday and loved it. John joined me this winter during our vacation (because the weather is insane awesome) and I remembered how much I loved it.
-Financial betterment. I get better every year. I'm hoping this time next year I have some savings - that's my goal for this year, to actually save money to the end of the year. I'm going to be doing some bill getting rid of, and that will help incredibly (-cable, -massage envy, -bank loan).
-Because it's 2012, and the world might end, I'd like to live everyday to the fullest and try to keep the energy around me positive. I want to think twice before complaining, or getting angry (is it worth the energy spent?). I want to be able to put my best person out there, and if the world ends - I'll go out on a high note.....ha!
Cheers to the new year! I hope everyone enjoys their chance to start over and be the person they want to be. I wish for everyone good health, and great wealth.
Here are my resolutions for 2011, let's see how I did.
1. more game nights. Played a new game called Quelf (yes, I know, that's the real name of it). I am excited to play it again. Plus I also found out you can play 8 people on Just dance 2. I did not attempt as many as I wanted, maybe something to continue trying, I would definitely like to have others over more often
2. I want to bike twice as much as last year. I want a road bike. I want to bike a 50 mile stretch. I want to join a biking group that meets weekly. check, check, and check - although didn't join a bike group
3. Continue on my path of an active life style - I definitely think it's the path I'm supposed to be on. Fell of the wagon when volleyball ended, gotta get back on it.
4. Continue changing my diet. More veggies. I want to create a list of go to recipes for myself in 2011. I want to try and plan more meals and cook more for myself -I was doing it, but got out of the practice of it because it can be hard to cook for one (mentally, emotionally hard). still continuing - although looking at balance and portion control
5. Make the 'struggle' less existent. I am tired of struggling lately with decisions, thoughts, midwestern values, the parts of my life I can't control. I need to let the control factor go and just live. The struggle has gotten quite difficult to handle lately and that has to change. ecstatic to say the struggle I was speaking of here is over
6. Go ghost hunting. It has been insanely hard to find a group here in KC. But I really want to go. I have this interest, which is surprising to myself and everyone else, and I need to feed it. I feel like I can say check here
7. Travel, however this will be dependent on.... check
8. Continue to work towards being debt free. this will be on my list until....I'm debt free...or the world ends
9. Run 3 miles without stopping. must continue to try this
10. Get a new position at work, or a new job, or sell everything...take my retirement..and travel until it runs out. got a new position!!
11. hire a handyman to do all the repairs that I am not willing to learn how to do check
12. change my car insurance - it should be cheaper. check
13. Start saving money. been better about this but currently don't have money saved
14. Treat myself with more respect, so when I meet men, they also treat me with respect. check
15. Continue to loose weight. I do have a goal, but not sure if I will ever make it there. must continue
16. Go to church.....I'd like to have a church family - or go to church with my friends. There's always opportunities at a church, that's what I'm looking for...I've already found God, and he's not just in a church so it's really the opportunities I'm looking for...no church family yet.
Not too shabby if I say so myself. I will post my new resolutions after the new year. For now, celebrate 2011 like the Mayans would.
It's been John and I's first Christmas, and we have really done it right.
Prior to our school break we:
-had a photo session (I was the photographer) on the Plaza
-heard holiday tunes at Plaza III featuring Lonnie MacFadden
-went to each other's holiday concerts
-attended Olathe Community band's holiday concert (featuring a bell choir, singers and a jazz band)
Dec. 21: School break officially started for both of us
-we celebrated Christmas and gave each other fantastic-way-to-expensive gifts
Dec. 23: John performed in The Messiah, it was amazing.
Dec. 24: Steen family Christmas
Dec. 25: drove to Danville, IL and celebrated Christmas and met John's family
Dec. 26: I got the University of Illinois tour (in Champaign/Urbana Illinois), we went back to Danville and spent more time with John's family, then I got the Danville tour. After this we drove to Decatur, Illinois and stayed with John's friends Meg & Mike. Then we met up with the Decatur Choral crew (which I met at Mike & Meg's wedding). I got to experience SLB and the Winery.
Dec. 27: I got the Millikan tour. We had lunch with some of John's closest friends. We headed home, with a short tour of Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, Illinois.
And now we are just enjoying the vacation from work - catching up on stuff (like my blog) and cleaning (by my own choosing).
We plan to spend NYE at Julian's a restaurant in Brookside owned/head chef Celine Tio. I'm excited for this time and to ring in the new year with my best friend and love! It's been a great first Christmas, and everything just keeps getting better and better!
I truly enjoy playing with this band. We have fun and make great music while doing it. The best part is there are several of my closest friends in it, and it is conducted by Al Sergel who conducted the bands while I was at Northwest.
Today's concert was incredibly fun to play. We shared with a choir. I Iove the blend of choir and bands, especially around the holidays.
Happy Holidays everyone!!
I am thankful for these things at this moment.
-the universe
-the power of positive thinking
-good health
-family
-friends
-John, who has blessed my life more than I could have imagined another human could.
-food network
-money to buy good food to feed my family
-my brothers safe travels through Saudi Arabia and London and back home
-a job which challenges me and allows me to learn and grow everyday
-humility
-a warm home
-my pets
-my iPhone and Siri
-the amazing meal I cooked, featured in a photo below.
I couldn't possibly had a more perfect weekend (unless I had been on a beach) than I did this last weekend. John and I traveled to St. Louis to attend a wedding of John's friends Mike and Meg. I was able to meet some of John's friends. It was so wonderful to meet people that have known John for a long time. I feel like I have a whole new friend family of wonderful people! I am so lucky to have found an amazing man who has amazing people who love him. It says something about a persons character when they have so many good friends and people that care about them.
On top of a perfect weekend, I was able to reconnect with an old friend. Kourtney and I played oboe together for 4 years and then lived in the same river market building post undergrad.
Anyway, our friendship was one of my favorites from my 20's and I am happy to reconnect!
Life couldn't get much better. Thank you universe!!
I am having trouble with the pictures, I will fix it momentarily.
 |
| View from our room |
 |
| Some of John's favorite friends - the Brunk's |
 |
| I'm mildly obsessed with all things Lemp |
 |
| Kourtney and I at Square One Brewery |
 |
| The hall |
 |
| A Dunkin Donuts opened up by my house!! |
I got my iPhone a few weeks ago. I thought I would see if blogger had an app. Lo and behold, they do! So enjoy this blog coming to you from my iPhone 4S! I'm hoping I can post Way more blogs since this is so convenient.
I attended the Sporting KC playoff game today. The games are really fun. They didn't win, but it's fine. In fact none of my teams won this weekend.
John sang backup for Ben Folds today in St. Louis. I wanted to be there so bad but it really wasn't feasible with work. I know it had to be quite the experience, can't wait to hear about it.
Time is going by so fast, sometimes it's hard to stop and just breathe and allow myself the moment to really take it all in. I like living the dream but I want to roll around in it and really enjoy it to the fullest.
 |
 | |
| In front of the Lemp Mansion |
 |
I went on an awesome trip last year to Okoboji (Arnold's Park, Spirit Lake) Iowa. It was so life changing and full of awesomeness, I decided I'd do it again this year. You can see the blog and pics of it if you click on 'trip' in the first sentence. Definitely fun for me to read again. This year I drove up by myself on the fourth of July. I had to take 71 hwy. up the whole way because of the flooding and I-29 being closed. It was a different view, slower drive and I loved it. I didn't take as many pictures this time, I wish I did, but I did take in the beauty. So of course the main goal on the trip is to ride BRASL. We had decided to do the 50 miles this year. The longest I've ever ridden was about 30 miles (and that was a year ago). I knew that the Electra and I couldn't make 50 miles together (we're too damn heavy and take too much energy). So I invested in Schwinn. Schwinn is a beautiful yellow, and, like me, from the 1970's. I had Family Bicycles take a look and fix it up. I put on some transition pedals with one side clips and the other flat. I wasn't sure about clips, now I love them. I also am okay with the pedals I purchased. They don't have too good of a rep, but are perfect for me right now. I wasn't a fan of Schwinn, so taking it to ride 50 miles was scary. I brought along Electra (yep, traveled with both bikes on back) just incase. Plus I knew Electra would want to take a trip and tour of Okoboji again. 
So, I was duded out and ready to go for Saturday. We decided we would start a little early because we knew it would take us a little longer. So we were in downtown Spirit Lake around 7am. But it was raining. We held out for 30 minutes and then got our start. The roads were wet, but the bikes handled fine. We were off to a fantastic start. The first 13 miles weren't so bad, pretty good actually. We hit our first sag stop, I slowed down to park next to Carrie and my front brake popped out, and even though I had one foot out of the clips I fell over (probably because I was going so slow and surprised by the lack of brake all of a sudden). My chain fell off (not really a problem - just added to the hot mess). I just looked at Carrie and was like wtf?! We were chatting as we got drinks and snacks and she mentioned her tire was low. So low tire and minus a front break - we headed off. I don't remember the miledge, but we stopped next in Jackson, Minnesota. Carrie changed her tire (in 9 minutes = rockstar!). And we stopped at Caseys, used the bathroom etc. This is the part of the ride that I saw the most damage from the flooding that is still occurring up north. Part of the trail we were supposed to ride was flooded out. After our stop we continued on, into a head wind. At this time, it was the longest 7 or so miles of my life. I actually wasn't sure I was going to make it. I ran out of energy with about 2 miles to the sag stop. But I pushed through and made it somehow. Then we started off again, up another hill (did I mention head wind, and up hill). This hill was the steepest of our climb, and it curved. Once we got up it, the head wind changed into a side wind and the road became a little bit flatter and not as much uphill (although still up hill a bit). A side wind proved much worse than the head wind. It was all the grip I had to stay on the road. By this time, my lady parts were hurting bad and I was really tired of riding. But Schwinn kept going. At some point in the ride, I stopped at what should have been a sag stop but they were loading up and waited for Carrie. She had decided to have her parents meet her rather than finish it out (because the finish was uphill). I decided I had to finish and did. Carrie and her parents were awesome cheering me on when I made it in. It was a really good feeling. I can't believe that I did it, but I did. Definitely one of my bigger smiles. We celebrated by having some good unhealthy food and a beer, then a nap. It was a great day - and a great vacation. These little weeks in Okoboji have become something I look forward to in the summer. Carrie and her parents are definitely part of my chosen family.
