More to cheer about!

A few final performances to get posted...here's the video of the cheerleaders at their Winter Festival on February 9th. They really had a strong performance and brought home 7 trophies! Of course, the camera angle isn't great...but you can kinda see what's going on. My husband reminds me that in coaching, the team's performance is never as good nor ever as bad as the coach may think. I guess you can be the judge? Just keep in mind these are my girls and they've really come a long way! :)

FACSie Lady

I doubted it would ever happen...but I think it's happening...or at least I'm starting to believe that with time, it could happen. What, you say? Me...becoming a FACSie lady. Sounds alot like FOXY lady but pronounced like FAXY, but standing for Family and Consumer Sciences. There were always those in my classes...those girls born FACSie. Been making their home-made bread and mending their own clothes (for fun) for years. But I wasn't one of them. Don't think so. But after a lifetime 4-H career, 5-ish years of Family and Consumer Sciences courses, being a wife for over 2 1/2 years, and 10 weeks of student teaching...I'm seeing signs of life...FACSie life.

Examples:

**Making a cake (and frosting) from scratch for the dessert at Bible study

**Insisting on eating every meal at our place rather than taking advantage of dinners out when my family comes to town so I can try out new recipes

**Discovering I not only have heard of all the ingredients, but actually have most of them on hand when browsing through my recipe books

**Exercising not to get a "hot bod" but because I want to have a healthy heart!

**Organizing breakfast brunch when in-laws come to town so I can try out new coffee cake recipe

**Testing out new recipes and baking more is actually FUN

**Last but not least, washing tons of dishes while baking and cooking at home...but not really noticing because I wash so many dishes at school!

Am I lacking in some areas? SURE! I'm desperately in need of about 2 weeks of Grandmama's Sewing School this summer...but just these brief signs of FACSie desire and know-how are reassuring to me that I can do it! I can succeed in the FACS world! :)

I know, I know...

It's been forever. But since you all love me so much, you will grant me forgiveness in this situation and just kindly read the update and forget about holding a grudge.
Here's a quick recap:

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!



Matt and I had to stay in Topeka since there's a Washburn tournament over Thanksgiving weekend. It was a little sad since it was the first time for us to be "alone" on a holiday. But I went all out and used some Rachael Ray recipes for a fancy meal. Next year we'll probably just eat out. :)


Holiday Festivities!


We were feeling festive so Christy and Mitch organized a limo ride for us all to look at Christmas lights around town. We rode around for 2 hours in an Excursion limo and had a grand 'ole time!

Merry Christmas!




(pretend like there's an embarassing picture of Cindy, Christy, Beth and I in our new matching pink and purple Christmas pjs rather than this incriminating one of me--dang missed photo opportunities). Holidays in GB are always fabulous. You see Gentry and Mike excitedly unwrapping some gifts. Gentry watched (and quoted)Christmas Vacation so many times we had to get her the movie themed t-shirt when we saw them at Wal-Mart for $7.50. We (I) felt fortunate to not have any WU basketball games for a 10 day stretch over Christmas. We were able to bounce back and forth between the Sauder's and the Keeley's and enjoyed a short visit from David, Pam, Zach, and Nathan. Sledding behind Dad's SUV with only a 10-year-old cheap plastic sled between you and the snow covered rocky ground proved eventful. ;)

Happy New Year!




I resolved to send out New Year's cards rather than Christmas cards every year from now on. Gives me a few extra days to get the pic taken (see the top one in "New Year's" section) and our letter written. Genius. We rang in the new year (known as the year of Cindy & Erin's wedding) with Christy, Mitch, Cindy, Erin & friends by getting smoked at the Newlywed game. Note that we have been married the longest out of all the contestants. It's fine.


Now I'm a teacher...kind of. Student teaching has proved less eventful and more uncomfortable than expected. It's very strange for me to be a tag-along in someone else's classroom, working with middle schoolers and teaching classes I'm not going to teach. I am learning from my cooperating teacher though and really enjoy getting to know the kids. I recently was offered a position for next school year teaching Interior Design and Textiles at Washburn Rural High School and am SO excited to begin on August 1st!
Well, did I catch you up? Ichabods have dropped some heart breakers on the road as of late but look forward to playing at home and hopefully getting some more wins. They're in the heart of their conference-play and are sitting at 11-6.

WU basketball, life as a coach's wife

The basketball season is under way! The Washburn University men's team is 2-1. They've played two exhibition games (University of Nevada-Las Vegas & UMKC) and three "real" games. The pic is from the KU game last Thursday. (I tried to get him coaching in the huddle but it's kinda far away). Matt's having a blast! He loves what he's doing, fulfilling his passion, coaching basketball full time! And it's definitely a full-time job. They travel a bunch and he frequently forgets to tell me that he's going to be gone overnight until the day of...but I'll adjust. It's a transitional time for us. I just can't wait until I have an actual teaching position that I can immerse myself in. :) Maybe student teaching will be good practice for that?

MHS Cheer at CheerFest 07 in Olathe

I should have zoomed in more so it's kinda hard to see, but you get the idea. There were a few stunt bobbles, but nothing I was angry about. :) This is the first time MHS cheerleaders have ever gone to a festival and only the 2nd time some of them have prepared a routine. Most were brand new to this kind of thing! Dedra's choreography is alway fabulous so I thought we got robbed a little. Their average score was 87/100 which gave them a "2" rating--think choir and band festival rating. Hopefully they learned from watching other groups and will continue to improve.

Friday nights under the lights!

This is where you can find me! Hanging out with Dedra (who I keep forgetting to take a picture with, we have the same hair so everyone thinks we're sisters) and these fine little ladies: the MHS cheerleaders. It has been a fun year so far and actually not that cold yet! (Knock on wood, I don't want to jinx it!) These are just some pictures I pulled off of the girls' facebook sites. I'm commuting an extra 2 days a week and subbing in the Manhattan district just so I can continue to coach these girls. As my third and final year coaching at MHS, I can say it has been a great experience. This year we've worked the girls pretty hard and we're headed to a cheer competition November 10. This will be a new experience for all of us so we'll cross our fingers and hope it turns out well! So, every Friday night of the school year so far has been spent in the "Blue & White, Friday night lights" and I must say...I can't wait for basketball season!!!

Matt's Birthday present!

A little background, Matt was dared in college to attempt a backflip in the yard. He landed on his head because he obviously hadn't had any training on how to do a backflip. So it was kinda a (forgotten) life-long dream of Matt's to be able to do a flip. For his birthday this year I arranged a private lesson for he and I at a gym so we could perfect some of our tumbling skills. At first, Matt was very embarassed that I had given him a lesson as a gift and was "pretending" not to be excited about it. And I'll admit too, when we walked into the gym and saw all the little girls and their parents sitting in the bleachers watching them...I felt embarassed. But they cleared out when our lesson started and it was a lot of fun! Watch the video below to see Matt's progress at the lesson. He's so talented!