Summer Recap

Well, as summer comes to an end and reality awaits (sigh), I decided it was time to dust off the ol' blog and get a post up.  This summer has been too jam-packed full of goodness to remain quiet behind the screen.  Summer is a definite perk for a teacher, and being married to a teacher is definitely double the fun!  I've absolutely loved spending the days with Scott adventuring to wherever the day takes us.  A good chunk of the summer has had us busy with house projects.  I'm convinced the hubs could host a DIY show.  (And I'd be the fun sidekick, of course).  He says I'm a good helper; he's very kind.

Last summer we re-tiled the bathrooms and this summer jumped all in with paint, new counter tops, stained the cabinets, and new light fixtures.  We also bit the bullet & began repainting our oak trim white all over our upstairs.  We talked about this for awhile, and finally just started doing it.  We're still doing it. Lot's of oak. #giftthatkeepsongiving

You can find a before pic of the bathroom here.

Here's an after pic!

I don't have a full before picture of our guest bath, but here's a before of the vanity. 

Here's an after pic!

We used a gel stain on the vanities and cabinets.  I would put this all over the house if Scott would let me. 

We also painted our bedroom gray and are in the process of hanging up our beach accessories.  I'll (hopefully) blog with pics once complete. 

We enjoyed another week at Carillon Beach, Florida.  And even though there was no proposal this time around, my entire mom's side of the family joined us for the fun! 

It was so fun to celebrate my Papa's 80th birthday all together!  Here's the grand kids, spouses, and great-grand kids.

The grill masters.  (Quite a knife Art was entrusted with)

We rented a golf cart this time around and it left me wondering, how did I manage to walk the five minutes to the beach last year??  Papa was a wonderful on-call taxi for everyone. 

It was another successful year of crab hunting.  You know you're serious when you've got a headlamp. 

Speaking of headlamps...Scott can fix anything with a headlamp and his MacGyver skills.

Enjoying some beach time.  Reese missed the memo that we're at the beach, and therefore life is good. 

Scott and I also enjoyed a trip to New York City & Washington DC.  Look for a separate post to capture that fun.  

As always, I'm in pure disbelief that it's August.  I found myself on the school supply aisle at Wal-Mart this evening and just wanted to cringe.  Ugh. I've got one more week to stay up late, have no alarm, read good books, hit up Sonic, and lounge around before the real world resumes. 

This year, the real world will find me teaching 8th grade.  An opportunity arose at my school and after much consideration I decided to take the jump from 6th to 8th.  I enjoyed those little 6th graders, but I'm excited for what this year has in store!  If you've stuck with me this long, you're a true pal.  Until next time. 

Goodbye, 27

Hello, 28. 

I must say, 27 goes down in the books as my favorite year so far.

 This past weekend we headed down to Stillwater to celebrate MaKenzie's graduation.  I'm in shock and awe that she is old enough to be a college graduate!  Real world, get ready, because you're about to gain a Rock Star!  We're so excited for her future journeys on staff with the campus ministry, Student Mobilization, at OSU. I'm sure she'll always be wearing "America's brightest orange."

Her graduation groupies!

I was in charge of capturing our graduate on the big screen.  Not too shabby. 

What's a party without cupcakes?!

Jana made her famous birthday sugar cookies to celebrate as well. Cade celebrated his golden birthday on May 5th. 

Cade and Reese sported their best Cowboy gear for the occasion.  

After celebrating the graduate, Scott and I drove on to Claremore to spend the night with my Grandmama and Papa.  Boy do I love spending time with them.  It was so fun to give Scott a tour of the place & introduce him to playing the organ.  

And what's a trip to Grandmama and Papa's without stopping by the casino?! 

And boy did the slots know how to make this birthday girl happy! Within five minutes our $5 became $61.46!  Needless to say, we immediately cashed out and left with our winnings.

  Gentry-1 Casino-0

Turns out 28 has been pretty good so far!

Twenty-One.

Would anyone like to take a guess at the significance of this blog post title?  No, not the age the average college student looks forward to.  And no, we're not headed to Vegas in hopes of striking it rich at black jack.  (Although, that doesn't sound half bad.)

We are down to twenty-one school days, my friends.  Yes. Twenty. One.  Only four Mondays left.  Approximately 168 hours.  But no one's counting down around here....nope, not me.  

Honestly, year six of teaching has flown by.  It's definitely been my most memorable one thus far.  I started the year as a Sauder and end it as a Peltier.  I've watched this group of kids come in as scared, awkward little sixth graders, and I'll pass them on as confident, boisterous, (still awkward) soon-to-be seventh graders.

 I hadn't realized how much I've really grown to love this group, until I was sitting at our 6th grade orientation earlier this week  looking at a young, fresh crop of kiddos.  And all of a sudden I had a hint of sadness at the thought of letting this current group go.  They'll be my last kiddos who even know who Miss Sauder is.  The thought of training a new group on the routines and procedures of Room 610 exhausts me.  That is why summer never sounded so good.  

I've tried to remind Scott of my summer must-haves.  Pool.  Sonic Happy Hour.  Live with Kelly and Michael morning show.  I have a feeling I'm in for earlier wake-up calls and a few more fixer upper projects.  The most exciting thing on the project list for me is painting our bedroom and bathrooms!  Luckily I married someone who loves the beach just as much as I do, so we've got a beach theme all planned for the bedroom. Please don't think cheesy palm trees and bright, tacky colors.  Think classy and sophisticated meets the Sunshine State. 

And because this has shaped up to be a very random post, I'll leave you with a few pictures from the last bit of life around here lately.  (Also because I'd hate to break my own rule of every post needs a picture.)

My mom and dad came for a weekend to enjoy seeing Scott in coaching action at the League wrestling meet.  I must say, I was a very reluctant wrestling fan at the beginning of the season. Surely you're not surprised this was my first real experience with the sport.  But I must say, by the end of the season I was their biggest fan.  I found myself yelling for the kids during their matches and even getting some high-fives from a few of the guys on his team.  

Spring break had me spending some time at my usual favorite spot, Grandmama and Papa's house.  We enjoyed a night at the casino, where we were not big winners. 

My mom made the Spring Break trip with me for a fun change.  We got together for lunch with my uncle and great aunts.  

The end of March had Reesie celebrating the big THREE! Jana never disappoints when it comes to hosting and serving delicious birthday meals!  I told her our kids will likely be celebrating at Pizza Hut.  

At the end of March, we finally made MaKenzie's dreams come true.  We visited her in Cowboy Country and had a Sauder sisters slumber party at the sorority house. (Say that five times fast) As the youngest, she had made visits to come stay with us when we were both in college, so it was a must we join her for a night before she graduates.  (How can the kid be graduating from college?!)  Needless to say, it was a fabulous weekend with lots of laughs and memories!  We tried to seem as cool and young as possible :) 

Of course we had to take our picture with the Gamma Phi rock! 

Scott recently won the award for Husband of the Year the night he hung our wedding collage up in the living room! This guy has a plan to execute for any project.  We're talking laser beams across the wall for level hanging & a scaled model on paper to plan it out just right.  Genius.  

It's almost May, which means it's almost one of my favorite months of the year! Birthdays, graduations, and summer time!! Can't get much better than that! 

Jamaican' Me a Honeymoon!

Sandy beaches that tickle my toes, a warm sun bronzing my skin, and shady palm trees to nap under...these are a few of my favorite things!  And lucky for me, my husband agrees.  So where better to Honeymoon than in sunny Negril, Jamaica at Couples Swept Away all-inclusive resort!  This place was awesome.  Seriously.  You should all go.  Tomorrow.  We'll meet you there.

They had everything you could ever want to do plus so much more.  Paddle-boarding, snorkeling, glass-bottom boat tours, catamaran boat rides, shopping, scuba diving (I was too chicken for this one...but my husband, who would willingly admit is the weaker swimmer of the two of us, so wanted to! Sorry babe. Maybe next time.).  They also had a beautiful rec center complete with a ping pong table that we dominated, tennis lessons, the list goes on and on.  Typically I'm more of a beach lounger, low-key, read a book and relax kinda gal.  But that was before I married Mr. Active Man.  We definitely had our fair share of relaxing, but managed to squeeze in some water sports, tennis lessons (I'm sure I was the worst player my guy had ever had), and snorkeling.  We loved the snorkeling so much we did it twice!

A definite highlight was the food (I'll spare you the details on the other highlight)... We ate like kings and queens for seven days straight. Scott woke up early and worked out most mornings, so he deserved to eat the many courses and desserts each day. I, however, chose to lay in bed and let him bring me a fruit smoothie post workout.  A perfect system, really.  

Luckily, Scott discovered God's greatest gift on earth early on in the week.  Banana-stuffed french toast.  Oh my.  Let's just say we had it every morning and even googled recipes for it once we were home and attempted it ourselves.  

The resort also had fun nightly entertainment.  Musical groups, a bonfire on the beach, talent show (featuring brave, not-so-talented guests), piano bar, etc.  They even have some night clubs, but no matter how hard we tried to stay up and check it out, we were usually wiped out from the sun by the end of the day.

Unfortunately I've waited nearly four months to get this post up that I'm struggling to remember all of the details, but know that we completely recommend this place!  

Now for pictures...

What I would give to be here again!

Breakfast in bed...before we discovered the to-die-for french toast at the restaurant. 

THE banana-stuffed french toast

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Compared evening temps of Negril and home.  Reason #3,876 why I'm meant to live in a tropical location

This was our sad face selfie on our last day in paradise.

I don't know why I've been in such a non-blogging funk lately, but I'm facing the fact that I probably won't catch up on the past 3 months.  So just know that we had a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Valentine's Day, President's weekend, and are looking forward to Spring Break :) Until next time...

Wedding Day

Well, I didn't meet my goal of posting a wedding blog by our one month, but I'm skidding in before our two month anniversary, so surely that counts for something.  The thought of putting that big day into words (and pictures) has been very intimidating.  I definitely want to communicate the joy and fun of the day without the annoying undertone of "perfect fairy tale."  And as I reflect on these past 56 days of marriage, I'm reminded of the true sovereignty of God and his faithfulness to bring a man into my life who is far better than I ever imagined or deserve.  I'm truly the lucky one.

The whole wedding weekend was the best days of my life thus far.  All of the hard work and planning came together perfectly and I felt like I was able to just relax and soak up the day.

I guess when you're the bride, there's really no need to have your phone with you throughout the day because anyone you love is with you and anybody else can just wait another day (or 7) to hear from you.  So I really don't have a ton of pics on my phone to upload at this time.  We've begun the oh-so-overwhelming process of sifting through professional photos, so maybe those will make an appearance on the blog at some point.  At this rate, could be months from now.  :)

The girls all got ready in the basement of the church while the guys camped out in classrooms upstairs.

Nothing like feeling like a princess all day!

Wouldn't be a Sauder girl pic without 3 mouths wide open :)

Our florist was Stems at Woodlawn & Central and they did an amazing job! 

Everyone said the day would fly by and boy were they right.  I really don't think I've ever been so giddy & excited before and we've got about a billion pictures with my silly facial expressions & wide-open grin to prove it.

Our videographer was Free Spirit Production  and they were amazing! They spent the entire day with us & provided a top quality highlight reel & wedding ceremony video.  If you are in the market for a videographer, look into them! 

Cutest little flower girl and ring bearer you'll ever see.  And they walked down the aisle like champs! 

I didn't think I would cry during the ceremony, but it turns out I was wrong.  All of a sudden during our vows I lost it.  I'd like to think it wasn't an all out ugly cry, but more of a choked up, light tears, pretty kinda thing. 

Most beautiful Matron & Maid of Honor

The reception was at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview and they were excellent to work with! Always went above and beyond to help with the planning process and the execution of the day.  

Scott and his brother, Terry, spent countless hours of hard work creating these LOVE letters.  Needless to say, we loved them and they were a huge hit!  We've even talked about renting them out to people for the right price. Haha.

It was so fun to have all of our favorite people in one place for the day!  We had our send off from the ceremony (with a butt load of bird seed that we seemed to find for days), so we didn't have a set departure time from the reception.  And it turns out we were having so much fun that we stayed till the very end when the lights came up & clean-up began.  I really didn't want the day to end.

The past two months truly have been the best days of my life and the journey is just beginning.  We've enjoyed making memories with our families over Christmas and are headed down south to cheer on our Wildcats for the Alamo Bowl! Let the good times roll!