Happy Birthday Darby

You only get to turn 30 once and Darby did it right! Good food, great family & friends, and of course chocolate cake. What else could you need? Oh yes, the margarita machine! Good Stuff! I'd like to share some of my favorite images from the day...

"I'm pretty good with a Bow-Staff."

"YEA MOMMY!"

"Run Elmo, Run while you still can!" Wait, are these two related? Red shirts...brown eyes...

I tried to warn you Elmo but thanks for the candy!

Dan will have to help me upload the video I captured of the death of Elmo in the morning... I'm not very savvy in that department. Dan and I love stocking up on Eli time. Yeah for Birthdays and fun gatherings.

Wedding Bells...getting louder!

Wow, is it really already May 30th?!? Things in the wedding department seem to be moving along nicely.

Last week Dan and I met with our cake lady...had some lovely samples...and contracted with Michelle Hyzak to bake the wedding cake and the groom's cake (couldn't miss out on the chocolate!)

I meet with Lisa (the church organist) on Friday to select ceremony music. Dan and I have GOT to mock up a program to give to Pastor Fred. He gave us a due date of June 1st and we haven't even started!

I've got boxes of wedding stuff stacked around the house and really need to get my organizing rear in gear!

We've got tons of music for the reception but I'm learning that with play lists you've got to work on the order of things...now we just need to confirm with Penny at the church that we can plug the Nano into the sound in the fellowship hall. Sorry, no Gansta Rap at this reception...

Next on our list is a trip down to the licensing office to get our marriage license!

School Is Out For The Summer!

Wednesday the 24th was my last day with the PPCD students before summer break. I forget how emotional the last day of school is from year to year. Many of our students won't be returning. Some have graduated on to general education Kinder classrooms while others will attend new campuses due to the redrawing of district lines.

My lead teacher Lisa (I'm Ms. L in the classroom...the kids know who they are talking to but the adults get confused!) is taking a position as a Resource Teacher at Live Oak Elementary. She is very excited about the new challenge and will be using much of the training and education that she has but can't employ in the PPCD classroom. Tammy, the other Education Assistant, in the classroom won't be returning either due to family commitments so next school year is going to be new in many regards for me!

This morning I registered for my Summer I class. I received my textbooks in the mail yesterday. I've started spot reading in the text about assessment of reading and writing difficulties. I loved the prerequisite to this course and know that I will learn a lot in the next four weeks. I actually really like the summer sessions because they pack the entire semester into daily classes instead of weekly marathons! Classes during the long semester make for very long days.

I've registered for two courses in the Fall semester. If all goes well I'll be slated to take my student teaching semester Spring 2008.

Mom and I used both vans to move her classroom home for the summer and nearly made it in one trip! I'm learning to LOVE my minivan! I never thought I would say such words!

Buescher State Park

On Dan's blog you can read about our first camping trip which was to Inks Lake State Park.

It was a 'one-nighter' but a great introduction to camping in general as well as camping with dogs!

On our second adventure into the world of camping we had an even better time tackling more daunting challenges such as breakfast!

I am proud to say that we had bacon, pancakes, fresh brewed coffee and fruit. Last time we had cut fruit and a danish from the store that we attempted to heat over some hot coals.

Here you can see me posing with Reese and AJ next to the elusive double-head, banded 'line-marker'. This amazing display of color was caught on camera by Mr. Dan Perkins. Not often are these beauties found in the wild! An amazing experience I assure you!

Our first day was spent setting up camp and feeding ourselves before it got too dark. The camp ground was full of cyclists and the spandex clad dudes were impressed with Dan's Guru that he brought to ride on Sunday morning.

Picture this: Dan sitting in a chair cleaning his bike drive train (happy Dan), Reese & AJ snoozing on the tent 'patio' (happy dogs), and your's truly simmering up some sauerkraut & bratwurst in a pot of Shiner Blonde (happy tummy!). Fresh corn on the cob was soaked in Shiner as well and grilled up nicely over the fiery hot coals. I nearly forgot the hot german potato salad! E-YUM!

Needless to say our after dinner walk with the boys was followed closely with S'mores and bedtime.

Wildlife we saw (aside from the double-head, banded 'line marker' that is): Lots and lots of butterflies, a huge moth in the shower, a bird flying around like crazy in the bathroom (which I reported to the park staff so they could get her out safely), an overly confident squirrel, a cool little pointy nosed frog, some crazy little inch worms and a juvenile copperhead snake. Did I mention Dan nearly stepped on the thing! I'll let him tell you about that.

My cool little frog dude. He was probably about the size of my thumbprint. One minute he posed for the photo and the next he shot back into the water.


Here are my cool little inch worm friends. They were all over the place. I got to use the super-duper close-up function on the camera to capture these little lovlies. They were just having a grand old time on the slender green vine. Dan had a hoot over how many photos I took of little inch worms along the trail. And flowers. And half-eaten trees. And butterflies. Next time I'll remember to charge the camera battery before we leave...!

You can't see the copperhead very well in the photo but he is in there! The photo was taken with AJ's lead in one hand and the camera in the other. When the snake started back to the trail and lifted his head we decided to skip the 'better shot' and move along.

I'm glad to say that I see many more camping trips in our future :) Snakes and all! Dan and I have some reading to do...!

Eli's Birthday

Almost an entire month later I'm posting just a few of the moments that Dan and I captured at Eli's 1st birthday party. (I wrote this blog entry on 4/29, but post-dated it.) He thoroughly enjoyed that cupcake! Uploading a video was NEW for me tonight. Dan walked me through the steps.


Here are Eli and Ellaiden getting interested in the RC car that Steve, Laura, and the new Perkin Twins sent. Check out the 'Sweet' Spidey in the foreground.

Here is Eli coming up to thank me and Dan for the Rockin' musical instrument set that we got him. What a cutie bug!

Dan just gets such a kick out of the mini-cammo pants. Quick! Where's Eli? Oh, there he is. Elmo was a hit at this party.

To end this lovely weekend John and Darby had the pleasure of having Eli dedicated into Mosaic (their church). What a beautiful cross outside to remind us what Easter weekend is all about.

A Year in Review

A quick recap on the year...Dan and I met in mid-April 2006 and had our first official date May 19th at the South Congress Cafe. It was a lovely evening filled with good food, great conversation, and some light flirting. A second date was certainly in store! Well, the second date begat a third date, a fourth, and well...you know the rest of the story!

June and July held plesant summer Sundays spent listening to music in the park. August held an exciting trip to Chicago for the Accenture Chicago Triathlon over my birthday weekend. Back to school while September and October blurred past.

The first week in November Dan and I visited Steve and Laura (Dan's twin brother) and their twin baby boys (Will and Alex) aren't they sweet! Denver was awesome. Mom and Dad were our guests for Thanksgiving dinner and let me say that Mom and I put on a mean Turkey dinner!

Christmas was spent in Pennsylvania with the family. Missy glowed in her last month of pregnancy. Dan's arrival missed meeting Wendy and her family by one day. We had a great holiday spending time with family. I love the holidays.

Missy went into labor on New Year's Eve. Dan proposed on New Year's Eve and I said, 'Yes!' New Year's was a BIG day for our family! Madison Olivia was born on January 1, 2007 and is a happy, healthy, beautiful little girl. She has very proud and blessed parents. (Way to go Missy and Mike!)

Oma Sherrie & Opa Chuck now have four beautiful grandaughters!

Spring Break 07 was spent with Missy and Madison. I'm not sure we could have taken more photos! What a nice visit but far to short to say the least. It was so nice to be there for Madison's baptism.

Entering the world of Blog

Ok, so I've decided to join the world of Blog and give this a shot. I don't know that much about blogging but I certainly do enjoy keeping up with Dan's family via their blogs. I'm hoping that my family will hop on the bandwagon so I can keep up with those nieces of mine! Next on my to-do list is to learn how to use my IPod...!