Hashtag Blessed

I wish I could tell you that I have a reason for slacking so hard on the blog. 

Really and truly, I'm just trying to enjoy life and the time I get with Ben. With him working six days a week, some days for 12 hours between the bank and teaching lessons, I'd rather watch Fringe on the couch with him than get out the lap top and be spaced out. C'est la vie! He's at work right now, so I've got a few.

Things have been exciting around here. Ben found out this week that he received a promotion at work. He will now be a "Relationship Banker," which means that 50% of the time he will do what a Personal Banker does, and 50% of the time he will teach customers how to utilize technology to perform their transactions. This comes at a great time for us with us moving into the house and having new bills to pay, etc. PLUS, Ben is great at his job and he DESERVES this. He works really hard so that he, Evvy, and I can have the things we want and need. We ended up going out to celebrate at Em Chamas (a lower-scale version of Fogo for those that don't know). We got a pitcher of sangria, ate more Brazilian meat than we should have, and then used a Groupon to help pay. We're old people - it's okay.

Skipping back a few days to Memorial Day, we were able to spend our holiday at a fun BBQ with ones of Ben's student's families. It seems silly to introduce them as that, because really they've become friends. Greg smoked up some ribs, boiled corn, and there were a bunch of other delicious sides (baked mac & cheese, deviled eggs, etc. etc.). Deanna's sister, brother-in-law, niece, and a couple other friends were also there. We spent the evening chatting, indulging in Corona, and watching Alex play because he's so stinkin cute. Here's a side-by-side photo of when they came to our house for dinner back in the fall versus at the BBQ. Alex has gotten so big!! He's a cutie.

   

Other than that, things have been consumed with getting ready for our big move. In the last few weeks we've dropped some moolah on a new sectional, a new washer/dryer set, and a new fridge. Basically, Nebraska Furniture Mart loves us right now. Our washer/dryer will be delivered on moving day, but the fridge won't arrive until Friday, June 5th, so we will be living without for a few days. We ended up custom ordering our sectional to get the perfect fabric (psoriasis problems) and set up, so it will be arriving sometime around the 27th. Until then we're moving our current couch to use.

Here is what our apartment looked like as of Friday, May 29th at about 11:30 in the morning.

Here it is as of Saturday, May 30th at 4:15pm. [Sorry, it's a little blurry. I'm still new to the panoramic photo game.]

As you can tell, my mom and I worked our butts off packing on Friday. Basically everything is put away aside from toiletries and electronics. We'll take care of those things tonight and in the morning.

Other than that, there's not much else to report. I leave on June 7th for a trip to the North East with my parents and cousin. We'll be stopping along the way a lot of places, so it should make for some interesting blog posts. I'm still debating on if I want to take my lap top with me. I will have my phone and Kindle Fire, so I'm sure I could live without it.

Anywho, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures that just make me smile. Catch y'all later!

   

Breakfast in KC (Stop 5/16*)

You know what's awkward? When you and your husband (or wife) find a list of the 13 best breakfasts/brunches in KC and you decide to try all of the places on the list... and then... they change the list. SAY WHAT? Seriously, my fourteen-year-old cousin is coming to town next weekend and Ben and I want to take her to breakfast on Saturday. I break out my phone to access the list online AND THEY HAVE ADDED TO IT! It is now the 15 best breakfasts in KC, but ironically, the list actually has 16 restaurants on it.

So here's the breakdown the of the new list (in no order). Restaurants that are bolded are ones we have already tried/have been reviewed on the blog (my amature ratings are included). Italicized restaurants are ones we have been to (and why) prior to starting this tour - we may or may not try them again.

1. You Say Tomato
2. Julian
3. Beer Kitchen (brother's graduation)
4. Blue Stem
5. Happy Gillis
6. 12 Baltimore
7. Genessee Royale (9/10)
8. Blue Bird Bistro
9. The Farmhouse (9/10)
10. The Corner Restaurant (9.5/10)
11. Succotash
12. Eggtc. (post-wedding family brunch)
13. Room 39 (6.5/10)
14. Westport Cafe and Bar (?/10)
15. Chez Elle Creperie and Coffee House
16. Harvey's at Union Station


With that said, for our May stop, we tried Westport Cafe and Bar for brunch. Different than usual, we actually had three other people with us for the meal, but I didn't ask to take pictures of their food - I save that for Ben! :)

The first thing I want to note about WCB is the value of the meal price. The price on the menu not only includes your entree, but it also includes hashbrowns and your choice of a Bellini, Mimosa, Bloody Mary, Coffee, or soft drink. So if you look at the picture below this and to the left, I got all of that for $12! Not too shabby!

   

I ended up ordering the Eggs Benedict for my meal. It was described on the menu as "WCB English Muffins, 2 poached eggs, canadian bacon, and hollandaise." As noted, I received hashbrowns, and I ordered a mimosa to go along with it.

Ben ordered the Crepe Madame, described as "Sweet crepes, burger's country ham, gruyere, and fried egg." He also received hashbrowns, but ordered a peach bellini as his drink.

   

Overall, we were impressed with WCB. We had initally made our reservation for three people. but when we told them we would like to add two (if possible), they were very helpful and made it happen. Our service was also pretty good. The waitress was attentive, but didn't hover. I really enjoyed that they left the bottle of water on the table for us to refill our own glasses.

This is the first place that we've tried that we did not have the coffee. This may have been because it was more of a social event, or because the drink with the meal was such a good deal. Retrospectivally, I wish that I had tried it so that I felt my judgements were more fair across the board.

Overall, I would give Westport Bar and Cafe a 8/10 for our visit. The food was great, but nothing has truly compared to our experience at The Corner Restaurant yet. Although, the company for this trip was the best we've had! ;)

Check back for June's review early in the month, as we'll be going just next weekend!

A Beautiful Life

This is a story about losing life too quickly. It's a story about cancer. It's a story about heartache. I promise though, even though it may not seem like it now, the ending will be satisfying.

My grandmother passed away almost eight years ago. I was [nearly] nineteen, freshly graduated from Truman High School, and ready to take on the world. I was due to head off to college in the Fall. Betty's death shattered my entire existence. I was forced to rush my orientation for funeral purposes [shout out to MU for handling that with ease and class!], and I spent solid weeks mourning the death of my best friend, who had been taken from all of us too soon. I went away to college that August, and spent the majority of my freshman year drinking more than I should to cope with the depression I was suffering from. I missed a lot of classes because there were days that I could not get out of bed. I felt like there was something wrong with me. How could I miss her this much? I spent the year pulling B's and C's in my classes; getting by. Then it hit me: she wouldn't be proud of this reaction.

I've spent the year since then doing everything in my power to make her proud. There are still days that there's nothing else that I can think about. I cried when I went wedding dress shopping - she was supposed to be there. She was supposed to meet and love Ben. She should have been at my college graduation [that I ended up making it to, with honors, so that she would be proud]. Mostly though, I know that even though missing her is hard, I was so incredibly fortunate to have her in my life for those 19 years. I was fortunate that she let me come spend the night with her so often. I was fortunate that she loved me the way she did, and supported my choices no matter how stupid they were. Loss is hard though, no matter how close you were to the person.

  

I played softball for about 10 years as a kid. Of those, two were played in high school on the "C" Team. I was never the best, I will admit, but I worked hard because I wanted to be there. One of the greatest things about playing softball was getting to practice under Steve Broughton. I never played Varsity for him after deciding to pursue color guard rather than ball, but for those two years I got to receive his pointers. That, and having him as a gym teacher while at Truman, led me to getting to know this man. A funny man, a father, a coach, a friend. All of these things were shown to be true when the Broughton's Brawlers alumni game was put on. Players from years of coaching came back to play to honor coach and help raise money to help him in his fight against this ugly disease.

Steve passed away on May 5, 2015 at 55 years old. There are not words to express the feeling of loss that I, as his former student and now an educator, feel. As weird as this sounds, how great is it that in the wake of his death, that so many feel loss? There were literally HUNDREDS of people at his wake. What a man he was to have impacted us all.

  

My dad said something yesterday that I thought was noteworthy. He said that he doesn't think about my gramma dying often, but when he goes to visit her grave, he thinks about for weeks after. I guess, I'm different because I want to think about it. I want to remember people who have impacted my life in positive ways. I want to celebrate great memories and new life. I want to celebrate the good things.

    

Our nephew was born on April 30th. Carl is one of the most perfect little humans that exists, and I pray that he knows that life is beautiful. I pray that he knows that even though parts of the story are scary, and hard, and hurtful, that in the end, there is good. I pray that he knows that while loss hurts, we must move forward and not be jaded by the negatives. I pray he knows he is loved by many.

2nd Year DOWN!

At the end of my first year of teaching, I put into words all of the things that students had taught me over the course of that year. I actually put that list into my thesis presentation, sharing how I felt that I had grown since starting the crazy, overwhelming, and amazing Fellows process. I met amazing kids [who are now amazing adults], learned from some of the best, grew to be a better partner for my [now] husband, and somehow managed to work on my craft in the midst of it. My first year of teaching was amazing.

With that said, I have now finished my second year of teaching. I moved to a new district to work in a brand new position. Moving into Special Education was the scariest, hardest, and most rewarding thing I've ever done in my career next to being a Fellow. Would I be good at it? Can I really help these kids? How will I figure out all of the paperwork? Who will help me? Questions like these floated around my head for the duration of summer last year. I was fearful that I wouldn't build connections like those that I had with my former students. I was fearful that I wouldn't feel like I belonged as part of the staff. I was terrified that I wouldn't pass my SPED certification test to legally be able to keep my job. Alas, I did all of those things.

  

Moving into SPED was one of my greatest choices. I met and was moved by children in a way that I never thought possible. I was able to watch students celebrate small victories, like growing their reading level by 6 months, because progress is PROGRESS. I was able to support students in their extracurricular activities [and even learn some things about FFA along the way]. I was able to help struggling learners connect with the content by providing the support they needed, while doing everything in my power to allow them to keep feeling like a human. I talked sports, I asked questions, I even helped arrange for students to have coats who didn't have them. This year has been a learning and growing process for all of us.

 

  

I finish my second year of teaching thankful that I was able to be here, in Cameron. It has been a blessing to come to know these students, my mentor, and to be taken in as [almost] a real member of the English department. I'm looking forward to coming back here next year to watch some of my kids graduate, co-teach FIVE sections of English, sponsor the junior class/Prom again, and maybe even make some sort of difference. It's gonna be a ride!

AE's Blessing

Today, you guys are going to be flooded with beautiful pictures from our God daughter, Aniston's, blessing last weekend. Ally was my college roommate for the semester I went to Missouri State. I frequently tell people that I didn't go to MSU for the school, that ultimately, I was meant to go there to meet Ally. Seven years later, we have celebrated each other's engagements, been bridesmaids in each other's weddings, grieved each other's loss, and now Ally and Aaron have asked Ben and me to be a part of their lives and family. It's been a journey.

    

Last Sunday, Ben and I drove to Warsaw so that we could be present for AE's blessing at church. In the Baptist church, babies are blessed as infants, and then the child chooses at an older age to be baptized. This was such a neat day for us. Having decided to put off starting a family of our own for a while, having such precious babes in our life makes it a bit easier. PLUS, ISN'T SHE JUST THE CUTEST!? Look at her gripping Ben's thumb like that!!

     

    

After the blessing, Ally's mom took us out for a great lunch in Sedalia, MO [home of the MO state fair]. It was nice to just be able to sit and chat with everyone. Living hours apart, it had been a long time since seeing them in person.

Overall, this was a really special day to me. I'm looking forward to being a part of AE's life for years to come, including stealing her for a couple weeks every summer once she's big enough. :)

Home-Closing Celebration

As you guys know, Ben and I closed on our first home on May 6th. We are very fortunate to have worked with a great realtor, who found us the home we can see ourselves living and growing in for the next 10 or so years of our lives. We've been very excited to go through this process, despite the bumps in the road. Thus, a celebration was in order!

Unfortunately, Ben had to go straight to work after we signed the papers and received our keys. Instead, we celebrated the next night with dinner! It has sort of become a tradition to go to Yard House when something great happens. We've celebrated Ben's birthday and Ben's promotion there in the past, so it felt right to go back there to celebrate being homeowners!

  

  

We will be "officially" moving into the house on May 31st. We've started moving smaller things [clothes, pictures, etc.]. I'm still working even though school is over, so after Memorial Day, my mom and I will pack up the big stuff for the movers to move that Sunday.

We are planning to have a small get together so that friends and family may come over and see the house once we are settled in a month or so.

Thanks again to everyone who supported us through this journey!

I'm starting to look like my Mother does

    

I woke up this morning after a rough night's sleep and decided to check social media before I got going. As I scrolled through Facebook and Instagram, my feeds were flooded with proclamations of love for mothers. Some their own, some not. Some mothers who play mom and dad. Some mothers who must do the hardest thing in the world - be a mother even when they don't have their child anymore. I read their proclamations of appreciation and thought to myself,

"Why don't we thank our moms more?"

I think back to all of the things that my mom has done for me, and I regret to inform you that I don't say "thank you" nearly enough. It's something I need to work on. I'll use this post to express a couple of those:

To my dearest mother,

          Thank you for stepping up for Michael and me when we needed a solid parent. You always worked hard and went without so that we didn't have to. You always made sure we had everything we needed, got to do pretty much anything we asked to, and felt loved and safe at home. Thank you for that.

          Thank you for always being there when we do stupid things. When we dated the wrong person, put our trust in the wrong friends, drove when we shouldn't have, or just couldn't bring ourselves to make the decisions that we knew we needed to make - you were always there encourage us [right after reminding us how stupid we were being]. Thank you for that.

          Thank  you for taking my husband as your own child - for allowing him to live in your home and providing him stability away from his immediate family. Thank you for being supportive of our choices and relationship, while not being afraid to tell us to "slow down" and enjoy our lives. You've always been more aware of what I needed when I needed it. Thank you for that.

          Thank you for washing my hair when most of it was gone. You argued with doctors, paid outrageous amounts of money for medicine, sat in the room when I had my biopsy done and my head shaved. You were my voice when I was so beaten down by my health issues that I couldn't see straight or process the future. Thank you for that.

          Thank you for the vacations, for all of the steak that was "on sale for a good deal, so you bought us some," for the new summer clothes you bought me just this month even though I'm married and moved out. Thank you for taking us to countless sporting events, paying for concert tickets, letting me have a pre-paid cell phone in middle school so I didn't feel left out, and for always buying Ben and me Groupons so we can enjoy nights out on a reduced dollar.

           There are 101 other things I should thank you for; countless other things I should say, but I need to be at your house soon for lunch, so I leave you with this: Thank you for showing me what true love is FIRST in my life. Thank you for always having my back.

                                                                                                                 - Kimmy-da-lee-lee

Mrs. Girard's class

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sitting in on one of my colleagues classes to observe. Mrs. Girard is a Language Arts teacher here in Cameron who has a classroom-teaching style that I would have LOVED as a high school student. We'll put it this way: the students self-reflect regularly, she has contests over number of books read, she hates using her overhead lights, and it's a COMMUNITY. Sign me up! So when I had to observe a peer, there was no doubt where I was going!!... Across the hall to her! :)

When class started, she had the kids make a list of 20 things they want to do before they die - a bucket list. I decided to play along and make one too. After a while, she stopped the students and asked them to evaluate their list and asked them this: WHAT DOES YOUR LIST SAY ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON???

Oh, crap.

I looked at my list and what my goals were... are these real goals I should make? Are they attainable? Is that the point of a bucket list? I ended up revamping what I'd written down and I thought I'd share with you guys what I came up with in the end.

BUCKET LIST [As of May 2015]

1. Plant and sustain my own garden
2. Backpack across Europe
3. Be a mom
4. Go fishing for the first time
5. Learn how to drive a manual car
6. Open my own business
7. Write a book
8. Take a cooking class on 3 continents
9. Advocate for education in Washington D.C.
10. LAW SCHOOL
11. Build my dream home
12. Celebrate 50 years of marriage with Ben
13. Make my mom proud
14. Bake the perfect Pumpkin Pie from scratch
15. Spend a holiday with both the Helms and the Duvalls
16. Be in 2 places at once
17. Rescue a puppy
18. Revisit where we honeymooned
19. Visit Disney Land
20. Skydive

So.... how about it?? What's on your bucket list??

House-Buying Process (Part 4)

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!

  

  

It has been a long, trying process with a few bumps in the road, but we did it... We found the perfect house for our first home and we closed yesterday! We couldn't be more excited for this next step, and we look forward to having an open house in June for everyone to be able to come over and see it! :)

Hodge-Podge

Today's post is going to be a little bit of a mish-mash of catching up. I've got a bunch of really exciting things happening all at once, making it hard to keep you all updated on everything! So here's what's been happening:

Snail mail is making a comeback in my life. It makes for a pretty great day when you get home to find not only a birth announcement for your God daughter, but ALSO a note from your best ladies congratulating you (via poem) on having your offer accepted on a house!

At the end of last month, I also scored a pretty cute date to accompany me to Cameron's Prom. For those of you who don't know, I am one of the junior-class co-sponsors. My co-sponsor and I run football concessions, organize a winter fundraiser, and then coordinate meetings for the kids to make prom plans. We then chaperone, and I convinced B to go with me! :)

  

More recently, along with B's sister and brother-in-law (and the rest of our family), we welcomed our first nephew, Carl D'Anthony Cundiff, to the world! He was born on April 30th, and even though I haven't met him yet, I know he is the most perfect little creature in existence. Ben will be flying out Friday morning to see everyone in Indiana. With school and such, I couldn't make the trip, but I'm hoping that when I drive through next month with my parents that I can have some one-on-one time with little C. Between Aniston and Carl, I have one baby of each gender to spoil until we have our own in a few years!

For those of you who don't know, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. Yesterday was quite the Monday. Not only did we get breakfast provided to us by our PTSA (pictured), but I got the sweetest text from my friend Sammie to start the day. Today, I got a doughnut from a student for breakfast and a card. Our district has planned a number of fun things for teachers this week including luncheons and gifts delivered by our Superintendent. I do what I do because I love it, but by the same token, it is nice to receive a little extra love.

    

Other than all of this, we've been VERY busy with house stuff. Check back on the blog tomorrow for a post about that!

XXO

Summer Reading List

This is going to be a short and sweet post, but I feel like if I post it publicly, I'll stay on track! Essentially, I have been keeping a running list of books I plan to read over the summer... and here's what I've got so far:

1. UnSouled - Neal Shusterman
2. UnDivided - Neal Shusterman
3. Everwild - Neal Shusterman
4. Delirium - Lauren Oliver
5. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver
6. Requiem - Lauren Oliver
7. Paper Towns - John Green
8. Cinder - Marissa Meyer
9. Scarlet - Marissa Meyer
10. City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

I'm hoping to get through this many; with more free time, but a new house, I'm not sure how things will go!! What about you guys? What are you reading right now that I should add to my list?