I just had these two pictures from Thanksgiving break. This is my sister's dog, Lola, and it never fails when we come to my parents' place for a visit, her favorite place to hang out is Jerod's lap. Which is pretty funny, because it's Jerod's least favorite place for Lola to hang out. :)
This is the welcome sign to Massena, Iowa, the town where Jerod's Aunts and Grandpa live. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. I've always wanted to get a picture of it, every time we drive by, and finally I made Jerod stop (okay, he refused to stop, but he drove super slowly so I could nab a photo). 
Stay warm out there!
It's a Wonderful Life
I have to say, although Thanksgiving week is completely exhausting from driving all over the western half of Iowa, I love nothing more than spending time with family. Jerod is anxious to have kids because he's under the impression we won't have to be gone so long if we have a baby with us.....except I think that's all the more reason our families will want us to be there as often and as long as possible! We stopped in Fontanelle first, to visit with Jerod's Grandma Carole, we had a nice chat and found out that she's recovering from a broken pelvis which was news to us! So we're keeping her in our prayers. Then, we went to Jerod's parent's place where Deb had a soup and sandwich supper in the works, it was delicious, and we topped it off with some apple crisp and cherry cheesecake, yum! We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at his Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dan's, where I purposely ate small amounts of Thanksgiving dinner in anticipation for Chocolate Truffle (this amazing chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, peanut butter sauce, whipped cream delight that Jerod's mom makes and I get to eat once a year).
Our Thanksgiving evening was spent traveling to Sioux City to see the Wyants and perusing the Black Friday ads from the newspaper. Let me tell you- never have I been so pooped from shopping as I was after this particular Black Friday, we aren't crazies on this day like other people, it's just a fun way for my mom, sister, and me to spend time together (and get some good deals). I was especially emotional about leaving my family this year and even cried during church knowing we were leaving right after, but it was a really wonderful couple of days. Sometimes it's just so hard to be this far away, hopefully we'll see them more often after next summer. In the meantime, Happy Holidays to everyone, I really hope that yours are full of family, friends, warmth, and lots of great food :)
P.S. I got to hold my cousin's 3-week old little girl, Alexis, who was the cutest little thing ever, and I thought to myself, "I could get used to this...."
Seattle Pics
You'll be disappointed if you wanted to see pics of the great city of Seattle, we didn't do much sight-seeing just visiting with family on this trip, which was really nice. But, I realized I had posted so long ago and forgotten to follow-up with pics, so here you are!
(Mom, Grandpa Danny, Me, my brother Tom, and Grandma Naty)Grandpa is looking pretty good I think, he seems to be doing well.
Back L-R: Mom, Me, Cheyenne, JazmineFront L-R: Michelle, Tom, Naty, Grandpa
And that's Nicholas right up there in his mom's lap.
This are my two beautiful cousins Chey and Jaz, I remember coming out to Seattle when I was in 5th grade and Jaz was only maybe almost 2 years old, now she's a junior in high school. Am I old much?!Quick update...more to come!
I have pictures to share from the trip I took up to Seattle with my mom and brother, but we're hanging out at a friend's place in Des Moines watching football, so I guess they'll have to wait until I have my camera. It was a good trip, my grandpa looks like he's doing pretty well. I went up to visit because we found out he has Parkinson's Disease and it seemed like things were getting bad quickly, but after seeing him I think it's not as bad as I was thinking originally. I'm glad I got to visit though, I hadn't been up to Seattle since just before Jerod and I started dating, life has just gotten in the way. It was good to see my grandpa and his wife Naty and my uncle Daniel. We stayed with my mom's sister and her husband, Michelle and Carl, and it was good to spend time with them, too. Not to mention having a couple days away from work! :)
Pics will come, life is good, we're celebrating some little things :) Happy Halloween!
Busy, Busy!
Long time no post! We've been super crazy the past few weeks with all sorts of things. The weekend of the 25th we were tailgating for Iowa State/UNI, then we headed out to Clinton to spend the weekend at our friend Tony's for the Iowa/Penn State game, and we also found out that a very good friend of ours has FINALLY been offered a full-time position as a firefighter in Washington D.C. He found out a couple weeks ago and already had to pack up and move out there this past week, he reports for academy on Monday. We couldn't be happier for him, he's been working on this since Jerod and I started dating, basically. He was volunteering in Altoona, then got a job part-time with the Indianola fire department a few months ago and has been going back and forth from D.C. taking physical and written tests and doing interviews. Yay Matt!
So anyway, we did a little celebrating with him the past couple of weekends, and we will miss him while he's away, but hope to visit him over the summer. Here's a couple photos of our fun!
P.S. We finally broke down and got internet through Verizon- whomever we'd been tapping internet off of is not showing up in our networks anymore....we had to, but it's okay :)
The proud firefighter with our friend Caylee in Ames after the tailgate.
Alison, Shane's fiance, and Tori, Clint's wife. You can't say enough about your husband's friends having amazing love interests. It's so nice to not be the only female in the group like when we were dating!
We had our own little house party at Tony's on Saturday night- bad idea. I remember why house parties were so great in college, it was cheaper because you had drinks and mixers on hand. As you get older though, you can't quite do it like you used to, your body hates you a lot more for it now.
Read more...Date Night is Back.....and needs some ~PiZzaZz~
And I'm not talking about bedroom pizzazz (I know the thought crossed someone's mind when reading the title, hee hee). We started doing date night last fall. It's one night a month where we grab something to eat and do something else together that doesn't involve sitting on the couch in our living room. So in the past we carved pumpkins, caught a movie, went to a hockey game, caught another movie....and then it just became dinner only.
The purpose of date night, to me, is to get us out of the house together, spending time outside of what we usually do (which is usually watch TV- insert show here: __________). Time for us to shake up our routine and try new stuff together. I'm pretty easy to please, going on a walk would be activity enough for me, because it's NOT TV! My husband, however, is another story. Unless it is a sporting event or a movie, he's not into it, and if we try something new his "idea" about the activity turns the whole thing sour.
I guess what I'm wondering is: What are some new date ideas we could try??
I feel like if we don't make time for our relationship now, we'll really be in for a wake up when kids are in the picture.
P.S. If you read this and you don't blog, but you have ideas, just email me: marybrown1124@gmail.com
4 days down, how many to go?
Just kidding, I'm not counting down days of school quite yet. That usually doesn't start until right after spring break when we have no more days off until summer vacation. I just wanted to give an update on my class this year at Carver. I've never had the same kind of class twice, which makes sense I suppose, different kids, different personalities, different "quirks" (I use that word lightly, meaning they could be good or bad). This year's preschool class is no exception, we have such a wide range of abilities from barely speaking English and just potty-trained to sounding out the spelling of familiar words and having the vocabulary of a 60-year old woman!
I see this melting pot of students as a challenge to my teaching, one which I will fully embrace- hopefully someday soon :) When I think about it more though, I makes me appreciate the insanity of myself and my co-workers even more. Who in the world wants to be a preschool teacher?! We're nuts, insane, loco, whatever you want to call it, that's us. If you've ever had to get lunch ready, while helping your kids wash their hands, while cleaning up milk spilled on the floor by someone who wasn't supposed to be touching the table because they just went to the bathroom and still need to wash their hands, while putting out the fire between the boy who looked at the other boy who burst into tears, while politely (yet firmly) telling another child that you will not wipe their bottom like mom does at home, while singing songs to occupy the children who are starving and ready to revolt unless their friends "hurry up so we can eat!"......then think about doing them with 18 children between the ages of 3 and 5, how could you NOT believe that preschool teachers aren't one fry short of a happy meal?! (And that's just lunch time)
I say all this, but of course I love my job and working with small children makes me appreciate the little things in life, like hugs, "I love you", holding hands, bubbles, being silly, and best of all- just enjoying what's in front of me. If you have a preschool teacher that you know and love, make sure to tell her exactly why you do- the kids and the families are why we do it.
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