End of Summer F.U.N.

As mentioned in a previous post, we went up to Kansas City, MO over Labor Day weekend to have some end of summer fun. I snapped some pictures throughout the weekend on my phone since I didn't want to take my nice camera into amusement and water parks. As you can tell we had our "fun" faces on and we were ready to go!

My main man looking so fly! (we drove up after church, thus the suit!)

My teenage daughter chilling ;)

Saturday evening we just relaxed and went shopping in actual malls and department stores (shocker right?!). After we picked up some stuff at the mall we had to do a short detour. Yes, this detour was VERY important. I haven't had Dunkin Donuts since July. JULY!! I know, you're heart broken for me aren't you? Thanks to Kansas not investing in this amazing place I have to go without Dunkin Donuts for months (probably a good thing though...). Well, there just happened to be a Dunkin in MO so I made James stop and get me an iced hazelnut coffee with cream and sugar. Oh man, it was so tasty!

Don't be jelly!

Sunday we went to Worlds of Fun amusement park. It was a blast. I haven't been on roller coasters in quite some time so it was a sweet trip. We stayed until after dark riding the roller coasters and having a blast. Here are some pictures from our Sunday Funday.

After much persuasion and Verena begging me to try it, I finally went on this ride. Me, being scared of heights, it took quite a lot to finally get me on the ride. It was a lot higher than what the picture portrays. Trust me, I thought I was going to pass out!

Verena and I opted out to not go on this twisting ride. James, on the other hand had fun!

ROLLER COASTERS!!

Yes, we were psyched about the roller coasters :)

This ride gave everyone a headache but it was fun

Lunch break! Chinese fortunes. Insider: "in bed", "on the toilet" hehehehe...

James won Verena a Monkey

Monday we went to Worlds of Fun water park. It was so nice just to relax and lay in the sun as well as have fun on the water slides, wave pool, etc. Last official tan of the summer...tears... **insert sad face** :(

SUN.

Me and my love!

Overall, we had a blast and it was nice to have a long weekend to relax and not worry about work or school. I'm definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving vacation though!

Life Lately

Ok, so lots has been happening in the last two weeks! Our new exchange student Verena, or our "daughter", from Germany arrived last Friday. We've been busy getting her ready for school and getting through the first week of being parents. So far, so good. :) We managed to get all of the school supplies she needed, get her registered for classes, and James has done a good job of remembering to pick her up each day.

We've already done a few fun things and are helping her get adjusted to small town America. We've introduced her to miniature golf (she's pretty good at it too!) and dip-and-dots ice cream (which she liked!). Our town also had a small German Festival last night that we went to. Obviously it was no where near what a real German festival is but we had fun eating big pretzels, etc. Verena has attempted to teach us some German words...yea, don't really remember most of what she has taught us but it's been fun! This coming weekend we are going up to Kansas City for Labor Day Weekend. Since James and I have off work and Verena has off school we are going to stay up there for a few days and go to a water park and roller coaster park. That is going to be a blast! Check out our beautiful daughter Verena :)

Today we went to Laylee's 1st birthday party. It was in the park and we had so much fun! Lots of food and friends. Check out some of the pictures from this afternoon.

Me and my good looking man :)

Laylee got some sweet gifts!

 

Ladybug theme of course :)

Laylee with her Grandpa!

Laylee's puppy :)

Grandma & Laylee

Regan made a Ladybug cake

Of course Laylee went right for it after blowing out the candle!

 

 

 

She had a blast opening up all her gifts!

Laylee Bug :)

One of my close friend's Regan has one of the cutest little girls ever! Laylee will be turning 1 year old this month and Regan asked if I would take some pictures of her for her first birthday. The birthday party theme will be Lady bugs so we incorporated a lady bug costume into the photo shoot. Let me just say, it was the hardest hour of my life to get a 1 year old to stay still, keep her outfits on just right, look at the camera, not cry or want to eat, take pictures of just the baby and not get Regan in them, and take pictures when she is making just the right face. We took the photos at about 8pm at night because we were thinking it would be nice and cool. Yea, we were wrong. It was about 95 degrees! So that just added to the misery of it. None the less, Regan and I had a blast and I managed to get a few cute pictures here and there. I am sure I will be posting about the upcoming birthday celebration of Laylee but for now check out this adorable little girl!

**Note that I have not had time to edit them :)**

Definitely pretty in pink :)

Laylee makes a cute Ladybug!

Engagement

So I have some very exciting news about my little sister! I know, most people saw the announcement on Facebook or heard it from people, etc. But I am just too excited not to post about it! I finally am taking the time to update my blog and write about things that have been going on in the last few weeks. Anyways, back to the announcement...to start things off I will give a little of a back story from my point of view....

About two weeks ago my sister and her boyfriend were traveling across the country from TN to CA to get back to school. And they were traveling on a motorcycle (my sister was very thrilled by the end of that trip.. :). Anyways, obviously KS is about halfway through the trip so they stopped and stayed with us one night. If was a very quick trip but we were happy to see each other.

Crazy girl!

Two crazy kids on a motorcycle!

Sad I had to go to work and leave them :(

Anyways, through out their adventurous trip back to Cali she would send pictures and give us updates. Well, last Sunday morning (very, very early morning) I got a call from her about 2:30am. Of course I was out of it and confused about why she would be calling me at that time of day. Turns out she got ENGAGED the afternoon before!!! Her and her boyfriend had stopped by the Grand Canyon and had hiked in about 11 miles or so to a waterfall where he proposed. Since they did not have any cell signal and were trying to hike out before it flooded (bad storms had been coming through), she wasn't able to call until early in the morning. I am so flipping excited for her and cannot wait to start helping her plan those exciting wedding details :) 

Congrats Chris and Michelle!

Green Smoothies

My husband is all about a good smoothie. He usually makes a green smoothie each morning and sometimes if we want to eat a light dinner we will make a smoothie as well. Ok, just by the name of the smoothie, I may freak some people out. Do not be afraid! These green smoothies are not only healthy for you but are tasty as well. Though, I will admit, they are pretty green. We have a few smoothie recipes we use pretty often but I will just give ingredients and instructions for the green smoothie in this blog.

**This recipe makes about 1 1/2 quarts, averaged about 2-3 servings (about three tall glasses)

What you will need:

1 1/2 cups almond milk (you can substitute any type of soy milk, etc. as the base)
1-2 oranges
1-2 apples
About 3-4 cups fresh kale (if you want to cheat you can find pre-packaged, shredded kale at your local food store)
2 1/2 cups frozen fruits (bananas, strawberries, mango, etc. You can find bags of frozen fruit at your local food store or you can freeze your own)
2 frozen bananas (we usually freeze about 10 bananas a week to have on hand whenever we need them!)

What to do:

Add the milk, fresh fruits and kale together in the blender. **We use a Vitamix and it works amazing! They are kind of pricey but if you plan on using it a lot I think they are worth the money. We started off with a normal blender but after several months of using it just about every day, it started working funny.

Blend it up until the consistency appears to be like green puree, with no visible chunks as pictured below.

Add the frozen fruit and fresh (or frozen) bananas. Using fresh bananas is fine but the using frozen ones give it better consistency and a creamier texture. Continue to mix until everything is smooth and no visible chunks. 

And there you have it! Like I said before, don't let the green or the kale freak you out. It is actually very tasty and healthy. The fruit gives it a perfect sweetness so you barely even taste the kale (I really don't even taste it at all!). I say give it a try and go from there :)

Currently...

So I have  lots to blog but no time to do it. So, I'm skipping a long post and saving that for another day. Here's a random, little look into me.

I am currently.....

1. Reading: True Courage (by Dee Henderson) and about half way through another 3 books

2. Watching: One Tree Hill, season 7, episode 3 (A little bit of a marathon going on here...What can I say, just bringing back memories from when my college roommate and suite mates would come back in between classes to watch an episode. Team Brooke!)

3. Planning: International adventures! I constantly think and plan different adventures and places I want to travel to. James and I are currently planning a trip through Europe/Ukraine that we want to go on sometime in the next two summers.

4. Stressed. Currently I am up in Topeka again doing a training for work all. flipping. week. I am stressed about things I have to do for the training, at the training, and when I get back to the office on Monday.

5. Loving: Currently? At this very moment?? My Blackberry Blood Orange Sweet Tea from Olive Garden. If you have not had it, try it!! It is sooo good! (And for those wondering, I also love my hunk of a husband!)

6. Making: Photo albums and decorations for the house (Pinterest is amazing for ideas! Currently working on painting glass jars to decorate the kitchen, decorating the office with memorabilia from our travels, etc.)

7. Listening: Cicadas outside my window. Love the sound of summer. So relaxing and comforting.

8. Missing: Tennessee. Family. Friends. Of all the places I've been, Tennessee will always be one of my favorites. And I've been to a lot of places!! One thing Kansas does not have is my family. Other than my amazing husband and cute little kitties, Kansas is devoid of my crazy, fun, and loving family. I miss them! All of them, including the crazies (ok, that would be like all of them...). Yes, I have friends in Kansas but I miss my other friends. You know, the ones I knew before I moved to Kansas. I miss the fun times, the hanging out on the weekends, etc. Everyone just needs to live in the same place!

An International Experience

As mentioned in my last post, I have a big announcement. And no, the announcement is not me being pregnant, because I'm not! But it does have to do with kids :) James and I have had interest in being foster parents. When I switched jobs and started working for the state in Child Protective Services I was told we are not allowed to be foster parents because of the security clearance I have. About a month ago we were asked by a church member if we would consider being a host family for an international student this coming school year. She explained there was a girl from Germany who did not have a host family yet. We, of course, said we were very interested and filled out the applications, did an interview, etc. Well, last week we found out we are officially hosting this coming school year! We are both so excited for this opportunity and look forward to getting to know this girl. God is good and opened a window after a door was closed. I am sure there will be lots of posts about the fun we will be having this coming year.