I'm in Love...

...in love with our wedding video!

I picked it up last week Friday, rushed over to my mom's house and watched it with her for about the next 3 hours...and then went to my house and watched it again! ;)

Michael Terri Studios did the videography and did an amazing job! The fabulous Aletha from Pearls Events who was our day-of-coordinator posted our highlight on her blog...go check it out by clicking on the link: Wedding Video
And while you are there read her other posts for fun wedding advice and ideas!


(You can also view it by going to www.michaelterri.com/kristinadan.html)

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Don't you just love this day?!

A time to spend with family.
Aaaa-mazing food. Mashed Potatoes. Turkey. Pumpkin Pie.
Football. (Okay, not really, but it goes with the whole Thanksgiving theme.)
Giving. Food drives.
Prayer. Giving Thanks. Church.
The beginning of the Christmas season.

Thanksgiving is never that big of a deal at my family's house. But it is nice. Church in the morning. Turkey and mashed potatoes at my grandma's house. Cold turkey sandwiches for dinner. And sometimes a game of bowling. I love that we have this holiday and a time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for.

I hope that you are enjoying this day of thanks with your family and friends.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever."
Psalms 136:1

you can't stop the motion of the ocean...

I just got back from our school's Harvest Concert and now can't get this song out of my head! Love it though!

The H-Moon Finale

The rest of our honeymoon is going to be stuffed all into this post...I have other things to share and a day by day of our trip, just isn't productive enough for me.

Helsinki, Finland

I loved Finland. It was probably my favorite place that we visited. Helsinki was small enough to walk around and see everything. First, we stopped and saw two churches. And then we decided to venture off and find the Olympic stadium. It was a little more of a hike than anticipated and really not worth the hike, in my opinion...but we saw it nonetheless.
We also saw the Rock Church.



Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden was beautiful! The waterfront, the old buildings, the alleys full of unique shops. Also, home to Pippi Longstocking :) We went on a boat tour and stopped at the Vasa Museum.
You can see the 19th century war ship in the picture below.



Copenhagen, Denmark

All of the countries that we stopped at were just beautiful. Copenhagen was no exception with the canals, bright colors and intricate architecture. Close by to our port was The Little Mermaid Statue. We stopped to take pictures along with the other 100 tourists. It is a fairly large and busy city, so we joined in the bustle around the city, saw all of the main attractions, stopped and grabbed some hot dogs and cokes from a street vendor, and took a canal tour of Copenhagen.



My favorite picture from the trip! It is now hanging up in our living room.



Olso, Norway

This was the last port on our cruise. In all of the other cities we had been eying the bikes that everyone was riding to get around, so we decided to try some out. We went to the Tourist Office to get a card so we could get the bikes out from the racks that we all around the city. You could get a bike and then return it at a different bike rack in the city, which I though was cool. Anyways, the guy from the Tourist Office warned us that the bikes really were only for residents, but if we really wanted to risk it we would just have to sign something...so we signed and still lived to tell about it. We biked around the city and then stopped for lunch and decided to go to the Olympic Ski Jump. We took the tram to the stop that our travel guide claimed the ski jump was at. We walked and walked and walked and walked...but no sign of any ski jump. So, instead we saw the pretty view and got back on the tram. Perhaps next time we're in Oslo we'll finally find the ski jump.



So concludes our honeymoon...we had one more formal night on the cruise before heading back to the airport the next day to sadly return to Michigan.

Russia

The next day on our honeymoon, we woke up in St. Petersburg, Russia! At every port, there are options to take excursions. We chose not to sign up for any except for in Russia. This was because in order to get into Russia, you either had to have a visa or be on a tour with the cruise line. Therefore, off we went following the blue, numbered circle everywhere we went.

The first day we went on a tour of The Hermitage.

The second day we started out by touring the Pushkin Palace.
It is amazing all of the wealth and detail that are in these buildings- on the outside and the inside.

After a traditional Russian lunch, we went to St. Isaac's Cathedral.

And The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood.
I adored seeing the building- so colorful and beautiful.

The Neva River.

After two wonderful days in Russia, we were back on the boat and cruising to Finland.

Awards...Why Thank You!

I have been pleasantly surprised by receiving 3 awards! Well, the same award- 3 times! :)

The Superior Scribble Award!
The lovely Bama Belle in the Big City , the fabulous Mrs. from Simple Yet Classic, and the glamorous Katie from A Hokie and A Wahoo all passed on this award to me.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! You are all too sweet!

The rules of the award are as follows:

1. Post the award on your blog.

2. Link me for giving it to you. (I linked all 3 above.)

3. Link the originating post here.

4. Pass the award on to five more deserving people.

5. Post these rules for your recipients

Without further ado, here are my 3 recipients (yes, yes, I know it's supposed to be 5...):

1. Monogrammed Teacher- for being the first follower of my blog
2. Learning to be A Wife- since we are both from Michigan
3. Remembering Who I Am...- for being my newest follower

H-Moon Recap

I realize that none of you are waiting on the edge of your seats for me to post wedding pictures since I started blogging after our wedding. But, I am trying (really hard!) to wait patiently for our pictures to come so that I can post them. In the mean time, I'll start with the honeymoon, or the H-Moon, as we affectionately call it.

The day after the wedding, we slept in, stopped by our house to make sure it was still standing after about 15 of our friends stayed over night there (no, it is not that big- I have no idea where everyone slept!), gave a tour of our house to Dan's grandparents and any other friends that stopped over, and then finally went to my parent's house to open gifts with both of our families.

And then it was off to Chicago for the night so we would be ready for our flight to London!!!
We chose to go on a 12 day Baltic Sea cruise. Dan's not a huge fan of laying in the sun for a week and we both love to travel, plus we met each other on a trip to Europe, so it was perfect.

After a few days at sea, our first stop was in Estonia. Although there wasn't a ton to see, it was wonderful to be back on land and walk around in the sunshine. We had a fun day of exploring the city- looking at all of the buildings, colorful doors, and eating and Estonian lunch (okay, actually we weren't that brave- we just had sandwiches)!


Next stop...Russia!

Happy, Happy!

Really? Has it been almost a week since I have last posted?

It has been a birthday week! Dan's sister and my mom have the exact same birthday and Dan's mom's birthday is just a few days before- so 3 birthdays in one week!

I love birthdays! Especially mine :) but really any birthday is fun to celebrate. I know that birthdays are celebrated with different enthusiasm in different houses, but growing-up and even now, birthdays are a BIG deal! I don't know that Dan really appreciates how big of a deal I like to think birthdays are, but perhaps he will this year. This year will be the first year that I actually get to see him on his birthday.

What is it that you love about birthdays?

I love that it is the one day of the year where you feel like nothing can go wrong and everyone will treat you with kindness. I love eating cake! And I love spending time with family and friends to celebrate!

Today, we celebrated my mom's birthday by all going out to brunch after church and then headed over to my parents' house for Bill Knapps' chocolate cake (who doesn't love Bill Knapps' cake!) and presents.

The funny thing is about my mom's birthday is that she enjoys giving "party favors." So, here is the party favor that I recieved:


Well, they aren't the exact ones. For some reason, I can't find the ones that I got on the Victoria Secret website. Mine are black and white with a snowy, squirel pattern. But what I love about them is on the bottom, they have a little ruffle.

I'm looking forward to putting these on tonight, drinking some hot coco, and cuddling up in bed on this cold, snowy, night.

Happy Birthday to all!

How Could I Forget!?

I can't believe that I forgot one of my favorite things about snow!

SNOW DAYS!

Seriously, snow days are even better now that I am a teacher. You know how great snow days were as a kid? Multiply that by about 5 and you have how awesome it is to have one as a teacher!

Last night I saw on the news that they were closing a highway due to weather related accidents. I know that I should be worried about the people on the roads, and I am. But, I'm also excited at the possibility that maybe, just maybe (and believe me that last night there was really not much snow so it was about a 1 in a million chance) there with be a snow day the next day. I even put my cell phone next to my bed and double checked that the volume was on before I went to bed. Of course, it wasn't a snow day. There was barely any snow on my windshield in the morning. But nevertheless, there was a moment of hope.

There are some rules about snow days though:

1. It will not be a snow day if you think it might be a snow day.
2. It will not be a snow day if you are not totally prepared for the next day.
3. It will not be a snow day if you have recess duty, morning duty, bus duty or car duty.
4. It will not be a snow day if you stay up late thinking that it will be a snow day and you can sleep in.
5. It will not be a snow day even if you stay in bed 20 minutes longer than normal thinking that the phone will ring any moment and can you go back to sleep.

Don't worry- you'll hear about it if I have snow day. I'll type to you in my PJs with a smile on my face. :)

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (Or not)

Ah, it is snowing! ... and sticking to the ground.

Dan is rejoicing while I'm very sad. I should be happy that it hasn't snowed until today. Just Friday I was thinking to myself, "This is glorious weather. I could live in this weather all year around." And then it starts snowing, just like that.

Don't worry. I'll get over it. There are things about snow that I love.

Skiing
Hot Chocolate
Christmas (I know you can have Christmas without snow, but it is not the same)
Turning the fireplace on when it's so cold outside
Scarves (I must admit that I have 25 or more, I haven't counted, scarves. I L-O-V-E scarves!)
Coats (I also have a little obsession with coats, especially winter ones.)
Ice Skating

What is your favorite "snowy" activity?

School Fashion

I love hearing 4th graders' thoughts on fashion.

Yesterday, when one of my girls walked in and saw my in the hall, she said, "You must love that outfit. You wear it all the time!"

Now, I must say- one: I realize that I often wear the same outfits on rotation to school as I'm guessing most people do to work. BUT, two: I know for a fact that I had actually not worn this outfit for 2 weeks, but try arguing that with a 10 year old who could really care less. My confidence in my clothing selection for the day was diminishing.

However, later that day I received another note:

Dear Mrs. S.,
I like you. You are the best teacher in the world. And I like your shoes.
Love, K

YES! I'm back in the 4th grade fashion world! :)

Mid-week Ramblings

It's a hectic week- last week report cards went home on Friday and now I'm in the middle of Parent-Teacher conferences, so not much time for blogging. Instead I've spent time making my room pretty and coming up with nice ways to phrase things. I really don't mind conferences once they get on their way. I mean first off- we get Friday off which is awesome- can't wait to sleep in. Second of all, parents bring in dinner- yum! And third of all, it really is nice to connect with the parents and make sure you are both on the same page.

Our wedding pictures should be here by the end of the week!!! I'm SO excited- I have been trying to patiently wait for them, but it has been hard. I can't wait to share them with all of you.

I was sure I had more to write when I started, but my exhaustion is getting to me. Time for bed.

Magnet Board

So...tonight I decided to have a crafty night- sometimes they work out...sometimes night.
Luckily, I think tonight it turned out.

First, I went and bought some $1.99 frames from Target to make the stairway from the basement to our kitchen a little more cheerful.


Then, I had to make a few more stops for my next project. I have been longingly looking at the magnet boards from StealDreamingDesign's etsy shop. And maybe one day I will get one of those adorable boards, but for now my own handiwork will have to do. I searched the web to see if I could figure out how to do it by myself and found some helpful hints on Little Birdie Secret's blog.

I stopped at HomeDepot to get sheet metal, and went to Jo-Ann's to get a piece of fabric. Oh, and I already found a poster frame from Target.

So...first I had to cut the sheet metal to the correct size for my frame. I suggest asking HomeDepot or wherever you get it from if they can cut it. I'm pretty sure that I damaged my new kitchen scissors doing this, but hey- I wanted to do it tonight and they were avaliable.

Then, I cut the fabric and tried to glue it to the back of the sheet metal with Krazy Glue...but when the Krazy Glue didn't work I resorted to using tape which actually worked just fine and was easier than using glue.


Tadaaaaa!!! Here is the final product!


And testing out the magnetiness of the board...


Now I just need my hubby to come home so that he can hang it up! :)