Fork & Spoon Museum

It has been quite a long time since I have written...let me share some pictures that you have missed out on. (Thanks to my disorganized life...it's getting better!)

Stephen and I had date night! Not last week, but the week before. =) He was sweet enough to take us to Red Lobster for endless shrimp night!

Steve LOVES having his picture taken... 

I don't exactly love having my picture taken, but was way too excited to have one on one time with him!

From Red Lobster we went to the mall. Believe it or not, I didn't find anything I wanted.

HOWEVER, Stephen did. =)

After dinner, he treated me to Starbucks!

When we got there, Stephen and I had to wait a loooong time before we ordered our coffee...

See how patient he is? 

Food doesn't always sit well in my stomach.

Little did I know there was vinegar in one of the sauces for the shrimp.

But he loves me and will wait for me...evil eyes and all!

IT was a delicious dopio!

You can't go wrong with those!

In between that date, and the museum, Steve and the kids brightened EVERY one of my mornings.

No matter how frazzled, stressed, psycho, I got - they loved me and brightened up the day!

I accidentally slept in, but Stephen helped me smile!

Abby told me at one point she loves me like a sandwich!

I look like death, but he still kisses me!

Kyle had given me a hug and kiss.

Once he saw the camera, he suddenly became engrossed in his book.

Kaden even offered me his treat!

Yes, that is his treat and not his tongue sticking out.

Now...to the moment you all have been waiting for.

Short version - I need horse fixes.

Stephen decided to surprise me with going to the horse festival with me!

We told the kids we were going to the Fork and Spoon Museum.

We got them spiral notebooks and pencils to take notes.

They had to write a report about the various historical forks and spoons they would see.

There were spoons from before there was metal work discovered.

Others were used by patriarchs, such as George Washington!

See how excited Kyle and Abby were?

Abby is a perfectionist.

By the time we took this picture, she was almost in tears because she couldn't draw a fork or spoon.

To help them feel better, we swung by our favorite local coffee shop.

Stephen & I got coffee.

Kyle and Abby split a coke, it seemed to help their moods as bit.

I tried to take a picture of Stephen and me.

9 times out of 10, he does something similar to this in a picture...

WAIT!!!! WHAT/!??!?! THE HORSE FESTIVAL!?!?!

YYYAAAYYY!!!!!

Here are a few pictures of our day  =)

This is Abby's favorite!

It took 3rd for color.

She got to go visit it in the stall and pet it!

Stephen and my favorite... =)

This horse took first place in mounted marksmen ship...Basically shooting from horse back.

The guy was super nice and let Abby feed the horse cookies then led her around a bit.

  

Kyle found a couple horses he liked... 

GOLDEN CORRAL! ICE CREAM AND PIZZA!

YYYEEEEAAAAAHHHH!!!!!! 

Now, I leave you with this final photo.

It shows Stephen and me as we truly are.

Me the ever happy innocent one...and him, well, I'll let you decide!



Wow...

What a week it was! To put it nicely, all four of us made it to the end of each day exhausted and in bed at latest (adults that is) by 10pm on most nights. Kyle & Abby fought off going to bed as much as possible but would fall asleep in about 2 seconds after their little heads hit the pillows. It's busy season for us! Parent conferences, Kyle & Abby with homework at least 4 nights a week, running around doing normal life things, the list goes on! Terrible grammatics, but frankly I'm ok with it right now.

Kyle & Abby got to spend the night at the grandparents Friday....that left Stephen and I free for a date night! We took full advantage of the unlimited shrimp and ate 5 servings of shrimp, an appetizer, a salad, and 1 biscuit. I paid dearly for eating off diet, and Steve did just fine! We went to get some coffee afterwards then headed home. It was wonderful!

Kyle & Abby? They visited Mema (great-grandma), went to the toy section of Wal-mart with MeMe (grandma), ate pizza and ice cream, visited Homosassa Springs Wildlife, had more ice cream, and spent most all of Saturday at Meme's. Stephen joined them in the afternoon so he could watch the Gator game. FYI they beat TN, which is my oldest brother's team! =) Me? I drove to a coffee shop and worked for 5 hours on grading and data entry. Yep, that's my life!

BUT on Sunday we all went to Meme & Poppa's! Pretty sure they are going to get sick of us. ;) It's just fun to visit! Plus Meme (aka Connie/mom-in-law) and I have been friends since before Stephen and I met....which was one year ago this past weekend. This blog is about to get random so I"m going to sign off.

Love ya'll! I'll post more later!

Short & Sweet

Kyle's parent conference Monday - he's doing WONDERFUL!!!!! Of course, we knew that. He's our son. Why wouldn't he be wonderful?

Abby's teacher says she is a sweetheart! Again, we knew that! She's our baby girl! What else do you expect?

Midterms came back! Abby had all Ps (aka is progressing very well.) Kyle had ONE B and the rest As!!!!!! =)

Stephen is off fishing today! He needed to go!

Kaden has to be put in the crate today. He doesn't know that yet. He's not going to be happy with me when he finds out =/

Duh! moments

I tend to have a lot of these, believe it or not. My gracious loving family is very patient with me each time too, thank the Lord. This past week was a ... challenging one. One -  my class is more challenging. Two - I'm not as effective as I thought at communicating (shocker.) Three - I'm an overachieving perfectionist (that's the killer.) Four - work is picking up. Five - I don't question if I don't think it's possible.

Kudos to all you full time working mothers! Specifically those of you fellow educator mothers! Granted, none of us have easy jobs, but educators work 8 hour days go home and work usually 4 more hours. OR they stock up those 4 hours each night and disperse them to Saturday and Sunday. I would love to know how you manage to teach, parent, and keep a semi-clean/organized home.

Talking is something I'm good at. Just ask anyone who knows me. Give me 5 minutes in your presence to get a feel for personality, and I'll talk your ear off. ...It's one of the more charming traits Steve married me for! Ok so that's not true, but it's funny! Anyhoot - there have been normal miscommunications or lack of communications here and I've been praying praying praying about how to straighten them out. So, one day I pulled Steve aside, apologized in advance, and spilled all my thoughts, feelings, and whatnot.

By the way, I don't know what marriage did to me. I used to never cry and now I cry at the stinkin drop of a hat. NOT A FAN OF THAT!

Back to what I was saying...as I'm spilling my blah (translates into "girl stuff") God starts talking to my heart. Being a typical woman, or so I'm told, I thought the problem was him. HA! For once, I was wrong. Yuck that tastes nasty coming out of my mouth! But it was wonderful to be able to talk and spill and shed a few tears. He's learning not to laugh at those tears. Enough about that. I feel better, I'm learning myself better, and handing more over to Christ every moment of the day! SO FREEING! Christa Wells has an awesome song on her Frame the Clouds cd. It talks about carrying a hidden burden. I felt like that was my baggage that  I wasn't talking to Stephen about. You should listen to that cd of hers. LOVE IT!

I like to have a clean house. Not just typical clean mind you, but slightly OCD clean. They tested me and I'm not OCD, I just have "tendencies." Mess from children doesn't bother me, honestly. BUT leaving my bed unmade, my clothes slopped into drawers instead of folded neatly, dog hair on the floor, papers strewn across the desk, boxes in my bedroom (because there is no where to unpack them), my work sitting undone on the desk. ARGH!!!! Can't handle it! So to help me out, the alarm goes off at 5am. That's my time. That's my read the Bible/exercise/laundry/cleaning time. Kyle & Abby get up at 6:15am for breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth and hair, making beds, and getting into the truck hopefully by 7:30am. Stephen gets up ...well, it varies ;) I don't mind! Let him sleep, he helps me SO MUCH!!!!! Usually we three (me & kids) get to work at 7:30am. I set up for my day. 4pm I go home, help with dinner/homework, clean up dinner, help with baths, read a Bible story as a family, and put Abby down. Stephen and I sit for about 30 minutes then Kyle is off to bed. USUALLY I am pooped so I do bare minimum work and am in bed no later than 10pm. This repeats Mon-Fri. Saturdays I get up at 5am and do everything I missed during the week until the kids get up.

I thought I was doing pretty well....until yesterday. You see, if I miss a meal there are some pretty whacky repercussions. Randomly falling asleep, grumpiness, lethargy, general "can't function-ness." I missed 2 breakfasts (I eat 3), and ate no lunches by 11:30am. Usually by this time I've eaten 2 bags of veggies, a bowl of cereal, 2 boiled eggs, and some carrots/grapes/an orange. You get the picture. We were running errands and on the way I bottomed out into grumpiness. Holiday weekend - 2 kids - a husband who does not like busy crowds, are you getting the picture? We made it through everything. We got home and Steve told me to stay home and nap before meeting the family at my in-laws (aka 2nd family) I teared up because I knew I was tired and grumpy and was trying so hard not to be. He led me to the recliner sat me down, held my face close to his, and told me that my health and happiness was worth more than a clean house. "Rest, then come over. You can't do everything." Do you have any idea how hard it is to hear that and know he is right?

Told you he is awesome!

2 hours later I woke up and joined them!

Work - ugh - it's good but it's work. Enough said!

I ran the budget only to see if we could get a good cable package within our budget. Called the cable company. "Ma'am, you have channels 2 - 99 for free." There was more to the conversation, but YIPPEE! We can watch the Colts and Gators from HOME for FREEEEEEE!!!!!

I should have asked, but I didn't. Yay for us!

Here are some pictures from today! =)

Kaden showing off his GATOR orange collar!

It's reflective - Abby is proud to say she picked it out. ;)

Blurry - but thank my phone for that one.

A late night a HS football game, late night for a Gator game (she zonked at 8:45pm last night on the couch), and she's down for the count!

Kyle showing his "western" version of a Star Wars Storm Trooper!

Getting ready to dispatch the enemy!

Stephen went outside and did a wonderful job trimming!

He thought I'd be upset by how much was done, but seriously folks!

EVERYTHING needed to be trimmed!

Kyle and Kaden are helping get the brush loaded to throw it away!

Me? What do I get to do today?

Want to guess how excited I feel about grading, writing lesson plans, and doing a reflective analysis while my family gets to be outside working in the beautiful afternoon?

Can you guess?

Notice the perfectly smooth and beautiful hair, huge smile, and general joyfulness exuding from my face.

Love to ya'll! Praying for you!

Warm Fuzzies

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, those ones where a poptart just isn’t enough? When a cup of coffee usually brings a happy warm fuzzy feeling to your heart? When a snuggle with your puppy (80+ lb puppy) just doesn’t get your heart strings like it usually does?

 

It’s one of those for me.

 

I froze all night last night despite sleeping next to a human heater. Woke up and had a cuddle moment with Kaden. (loved that!) Went to wake up our children….Abby woke up sweet and cuddly, and so did Kyle. That is he woke up sweet once he realized I had let him sleep to his alarm for 10 minutes. ;)  Mayhem! Breakfast today was “wonderful” the kids also get poptart Thursday. Suddenly the poptarts were no longer yummy to a young man who previously had enjoyed them. The little girl felt she needed to point that out. An argument. Split that up. Check beds – not made. Please go make them when you finish breakfast. An argument, or at least an attempt at one. Dad came out and got breakfast to find me frazzled trying to pack my lunch, finish the kids lunches, make my breakfast (daRn this diet!), make coffee (it’s a must), and running to get ready. Check to see if the dog was fed, nope! Abby please do it. Another attempt at an argument. I finish getting ready on the brink of tears because as we all know, we women have the choice of either crying or getting angry…I chose tears.

 

Have I told you yet that my husband is amazing? He is. J He stopped getting himself ready multiple times to just hold me and give me a kiss. I needed that this morning!

 

Then what? I get to work and well, a coworker summed up my day like this. "Langenmayr, with the class you have, if you don't drink - you should think about starting."

 

Yep

 

So why did I call this "Warm Fuzzies?"

 

Because at lunch someone monkey  climbed me, bear hugged my neck, and gave me a big kiss! Followed by, "Don't worry if they're poops, I love you!" Who couldn't get the warm fuzzies off of a 5 yr old saying that??? OR let's try, "I love you =) Can I have a big hug?"  "You look like you had a hard day, can I hug you?"

 

Like I said...warm fuzzies. What did my amazing husband do? Hugged me, kissed me, and told me he loved me.

 

I am so blessed! It amazes me that I forget to smile sometimes. It amazes me that despite every blessing I have, I still find a way to find the cup half empty. How many 28yr old women find the perfect man, with two fabulous children, own a gorgeous sweetheart puppy, and have such a beautiful home with family 5 miles away? Granted my parents are more like 16 hours away, but they have made themselves readily available by all sorts of ways! AND Stephen's family is so amazing it makes me feel as if they truly were my own family!

 

AS I said - I'm blessed and full of warm fuzzies today! =) Love to you all! I'm prayin for you!

Can't believe it!

Well, dear favorite friends and family, we called God out. Yep, it's true. Stephen and I have been bending over backwards on a certain project. For two weeks I have been daily (sometimes minute by minute) asking God to help, to no avail. However, last night Stephen finally said, "Look God, we've been doing our part and bending over backwards to get it done. We need You to hold up Your end."

God heard and gave us a break! YAY!!!!!! It was much needed....

Where to begin? Life is everything I expected it to be and so much more! I knew when God told me Stephen was the one for me that my life would drastically change. It was with full understanding that the moments for me would become few and extremely far between that I said, Yes, I'll marry you! These crazy stressful moments when more than anything I want to say, "Look, dear child of mine, if you would simply do your homework/not through a crying fit/talk back/get up in the morning/do your best the first we wouldn't be in this situation. So put your big boy/girl pants on and get on with it."...I still find so much love and laughter in those moments I wouldn't trade them for a million dollars. You couldn't pay me, or give me anything that would be worth more than my daughter's smile when she gives me a hug. Or my son's precious hugs each and every time he thinks I just need one. You see, hugs and kisses are my thing. I need those to survive. My momma prayed that my family (she's been praying this for years) would know I needed hugs. Who knew they would come from such precious packages? Let me tell you, my heart has tripled in size over the past two months!

Can it really only have been two months ago that I became Mrs. Stephen Langenmayr? Don't take this wrong, but it has come so ... almost ....naturally I guess is the right word, that it just fits.

Plus we've been through a few things most people wait years to go through. ie We have to children. We share the with their momma. We are preparing for a transfer with the Coast Guard, it could come at any time.

LOTS of stuff! But!!!!! We love our life together. It's weird when I try to think about life before my family.

Enough sentimentality! It's Friday! That means jeans at work, high school football game, and headed to Ocala tomorrow! So yes people, your thank you notes that are much over due could very likely get sent out tomorrow! In our defense (yes this is an excuse) we haven't spent a straight 20 days in our house until now! If we can just stay home for the next 5 days, we will have spent our first solid month at home without any roadtrips!!!! =)

Love to you all!

It's Friday!!!

It looks kind of light outside. Wonder what time it is...

6:12am

Oh yeah, the alarm didn't go off!

45 minutes late getting up.

Run to Abby's room...wake her up and clean up the mess that is hers. Apparently "clean your room up at the end of the day" didn't happen.

6:22am

Kyle isn't moving. How come I don't hear his alarm clock? ...It didn't go off. FLIP the lights on "Rise and shine Kyle! We have to get going!"

6:40am

Abby is dressed, mess cleaned, both brushed their teeth, run to wake up Stephen so he can help with breakfast while I hop in the shower.

7:07am

Done with the shower, working on the hair, Stephen is leaving, Abby ate part of her breakfast, Kyle is still eating. Need to pack my lunch, finish the kids lunch, fix the coffee (aka life source)...

"By the way Babe, don't be mad but...."

...Please don't be mad but Abby's broke."

"How? Who did that?"

"Abby did."

"Abby?"

".....maybe?????"


:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) I lovve my husband! He cracks me up!  Needless to say I was laughing at this morning because, who has mornings like this? I got to work praying I didn't look as crazy as I felt. NOPE! Someone kindly pointed out ASAP that I looked a bit frazzled & my hair looked pretty crazy.

Thank you dear friend ;)

My mom in law told the front office at work how my morning had gone. Later in the day a front desk worker saw me and said, "No wonder you look so crazy today with a morning like that!"

Thank you as well my dear friend :)

Honestly! I think it's hilarious! I love my job & the people I work with, they definitely help me laugh!

So any-hoot! I had to share that with you! Love to ya'll!