our anniversary

Happy Anniversary dear! This has been the longest and quickest three years of my life :)

To reverse a bit, Corey and I got reconnected in September of 2007. Little did we know that a year later we would be madly in love, married, and living together in Kansas! When you know, you know... we had known OF each other for about 14 years before that moment. However, our encounters were limited to him being around while Kamie and I were hanging out doing teenage girl stuff at their house. I would always wish so deeply that Corey would be at home, but when given the opportunity a little squeaky 'hi' was all I could muster. And not only did Corey want nothing to do with the teenage girl stuff I mentioned, but I was also the "city" girl. Pratt does have a population of ~6,000. Needless to say, our lives took different paths as he moved to Iowa and I moved to Colorado. He moved back to Kansas and I swore I would never leave Colorado.

And then there was that one evening in September when I was back visiting his sister. And ironically, I didn't even hardly get to talk to his sister that night. But I'm pretty sure she didn't mind. Corey and I learned a lot about each other that night. Most importantly the fact that although I grew up "city" I was actually very outdoorsy! He loved that I enjoyed camping, hiking, backpacking, skiing. And most of all he was impressed that I drove a Jeep 6 speed! That Jeep was the best investment I ever made! And I was just impressed that he was talking to me. So by the end of the night, my pit stains were reaching my waistband, and we went our seperate ways. I remember saying to myself as I drove home 'well Lord, it's in your hands now'. I wanted so badly to send an encouraging message through sister or even my digits. But I vowed that I wouldn't intervene and the Lord would work it out if necessary.

As encouraged as I was that night, there was a lot in our way. The timing was all wrong on several fronts. Our homes were 500 miles apart. This was my friends' brother and I felt pretty hopeless towards relationships, so I really didn't want to screw up my friendship too. I wasn't leaving Colorado. I had plans to live in Colorado. No really, I loved Colorado.

Within a few days, Corey had taken the initiative to get my phone number and call me. I still remember trying to have a conversation with him and my heart was beating so fast that I was feeling winded but also trying to hide it at the same time which only made me think I was going to hyperventalate. But I got myself together I think. We talked on the phone for 4 months before he came to visit me in January of 2008. Luckily his cousin was going out to CO to go skiing, so Corey had a good "excuse" to tag along! After that 4 day weekend in Breckenridge we started riding the friendly skies. Almost every two weeks one of us was going here or there. He would fly to Colorado and we would work hard skiing, snow shoeing, hiking, camping. Then I would fly to Kansas and we would rest.

On May 24, 2008 he proposed on top of Pikes Peak!

Yep, that's me engaged to an amazing man!

And then the pending decision of where to build our life... We talked about it at various times thoughout dating. And I felt like I became more and more at peace with moving back to Kansas. That was not easy for me to admit. But I have always been a rational person, and it just made sense. We would be closer to our families, and knowing that we wanted a family of our own, that was really important. The cost of living is much more reasonable. Corey already had a job that he loved and that would support us and you can't take that for granted. There are fewer people and more space. So that was that!

We were married on August 30, 2008 in the foothills of Colorado! After our dream wedding we flew out of Denver to Costa Rica. Our honeymoon was an adventure in itself. Then we flew into Wichita after our honeymoon and have been here ever since!

The move wasn't an easy transition for me. I remember after several months of marriage Corey mentioned upgrading my vehicle in case the Jeep wasn't worth it in the Kansas wind. He was just trying to make me happy and take care of me. And I was brought to tears just at the mention of my Jeep going away. That was the one familiar 'thing' that I still had to hold on to. He felt pretty bad for even bringing it up. Gotta love the differences between men and women!

It's hard to believe that that was just three short years ago. Since then we have spent our timing sitting in rocking chairs sipping lemonade. Yeah right! Our wedding was the beginning of an exciting and enriching and busy marriage! Easily the best decision I ever made!

(I did make a bad decision by not buying the CD of wedding pictures. These are all scanned. Boo.)

dinosaurs and baseballs

Our family took a weekend get away to Kansas City and had so much fun. Lawrence is at such a fun age now and I know it will only get better. Corey and I have been getting the itch to get away since we haven't had a vacation this year.





So we went and visited the dinosaurs at the TRex restaurant in KC. The atmosphere was much better then the overpriced not so exceptional food. But hey, they got us in and trapped. Pretty good marketing. Why follow it up with good food?














The crayons aren't solely for eating anymore!





We also had to hit up Cabela's while we were there. It's a pretty good deal - a zoo packed with deer and an aquarium in one place and for free. Don't they know they could charge for that? Oh wait, another trap. They got us in and hooked and we bought stuff that said Cabela's. More good marketing. However, we opted out of their overpriced food.

We were also able to see our dear friends, the Toftelands. It was so great to spend some time with them and see their new house. And even take in a Royals game! We had a beautiful evening to sit and watch the game.

And about the time the kids got antsy, we took them to play. Did you know they have a carousel, mini golf, mini baseball, and more at the baseball game? Just give them a token and you're in. Yep, you called it. So you're trapped at the game with a kid that wants to mush grapes on the head of the person in front of you, so you give everyone a break by taking them to the kid zone. Cha Ching Cha Ching. Brilliant.

And this is all taking place as the Royals are actually scoring runs. Not something that typically happens. But we had fun with the kids! I had no idea that parents with young children were such unsuspecting, easy targets. I'll remember that!

Based on the pictures, this might seem like a 'boyish' weekend. Nope, I got to do more shopping than I could have asked for. We stayed about a mile from a huge outlet mall extravaganza. Didn't take pictures of that experience. I was concentrating on the task at hand. And both my boys were very good sports about it!

up to date

Hello Friends! I thought some of you may like a quick update to keep you up on our latest happenings. We are enjoying the summer. Lawrence is at such a fun age. It really makes our days and evenings tons of fun. The heat is a bit of a bummer, just because we have to watch when and how long we are outside. Lawrence inherited my sweat glands! We spend 10 minutes outside and he is dripping sweat and his hair looks like he got out of the bathtub! He will hate me for that someday when he is sitting in his high school algebra class, pitting out his shirt, and hoping that the cute girl sitting behind him doesn’t notice (or at least point it out for all to notice). Been there.

There isn’t much noteworthy news around here. But a few footnotes:

- Have you ever heard the story about how important it is to lock your car doors in Kansas? Otherwise, you might come back and find a carload of squash! I get it! We were so excited that our first garden produced… squash. Lots and lots of yellow squash. At least something likes this heat. We also got a basket of cucumbers, a few tomatoes (most were rotten), three zucchini, one nasty carrot, some bitter lettuce, a bunch of cilantro that is in our freezer, four mini red onions, and three butternut squash (even though we didn’t plant any)! Not bad for a garden rookie (me) and a retired farmer (Corey).

- On that note, I am working on my first cookbook. “29 fresh, fabulous and fun ways to fix squash”! I hope you’ll support my endeavor ;)

- I have been working hard at getting our basement in order. Let’s just say that the first time I went down there, part of me was embarrassed and the other part thought about calling ‘Hoarders’. However, in our defense, we never actually wanted to keep all the crap (yes, there is no other word for it) that had accumulated. When Corey drug me back to Kansas, he was kind enough to drive a Uhaul back with my entire townhome packed into it. The Uhaul was efficiently unloaded into the basement. Then Corey’s mom sold her house, so everything Corey could have wanted from their was packed up and unloaded into the basement. My parents were so excited that I was back within visiting range, that they visited and brought all of my crap from their attic and unloaded it into the basement. Then we had this grand idea of remodeling our entire main level. Yep, you guessed it, at one point or another, everything was moved into the basement. And then the little man was born which gave me lots of reasons to block out the basement! So that brings us to our present situation.

I have hired a babysitter to come over a few days and I have focused on tackling our basement. And it feels soooo good! I have made a ton of progress at organizing, pitching, donating, and repacking. Things were going fabulously. Until…

I was bit by a brown recluse spider. Of course I didn’t know it at the time, but by the next day the dime sized black mark made it pretty obvious. And then the red swelling began. So now I am scared of our basement and don’t intend to move anything for a good ten years. Or I am just waiting for a bug man to come out and kill those icky things. Besides reading about all the horror stories of those bites, there is very little that they do for them. Of course you have to see a doctor repeatedly, so they can glance at it and say ‘well, we just need to keep watching it’. And then they put you on medication so that the next doctor you see can tell you to not take it. And then they tell you to go to the hospital over the weekend so it can be “watched” (cha ching cha ching) so that the doctor can tell you to - keep watching it. It is quite entertaining.

- Other sick news – my thumb nail fell off last week. I wanted to see how good my car door sealed so I shut my thumb in it to verify that it sealed just fine. I thought it was ugly before so I would keep my nails painted to cover it up. Now that it fell off it is even uglier. And I can’t even paint it because it is all uneven and dry and raw. Yuck. But the sort of funny thing is I am in the process of losing a toe nail too! How ironic is that!

- Our little man is SUCH a daddy’s boy! It is so cute. He pretty much laughs, smiles and talks from the minute that Corey walks in the door at night until he goes to bed. He is happy during the day, but he is delighted in the evening! He loves playing with balls. He is also in the ‘sitting’ stage, so he loves to back up to anything that looks like it would make a good seat. He sits for half a second and then moves on to the next thing.

Until we meet again,
Abs