Summer So Far...

Yeah, apparently, I'm not great at this blogging thing, but here goes a little update...

School's Out: I've been done with school for almost a month and sometimes I wonder what I've done the past 4 weeks, but then I realize it's summer and it is ok to not do much! I planned on late May and early June being filled with lots of time around the house and KC as Will finished up his dissertation and worked from home. Basically whenever he was free I wanted to be around to hang out and it has been really nice! July will be filled with more traveling and time away but June has been a pretty low key month.

New Car: When William did have free time we spent a good chunk of it test driving new cars! We drove 7 different small SUV's and finally settled on the Mazda CX-5! We're still waiting for ours to arrive...speaking of that, I should probably call Kenny and see where it is! Hopefully we'll have it next week!

"Babymoon": We talked a lot about going on a small vacation in June when Will was nearing the end of paper writing, but it never really worked to be able to do that, but the opportunity to take a few days and go to Mom and Dad's condo at the Lake of the Ozarks came up so we did and it was mostly free! It was awesome...pool, reading, yummy food, playing Sequence on the porch, beautiful weather, Battlestar Galactica (yeah, we're nerds) and more.

Baby Girl's Room: This has been the other big thing I've worked on this month and slowly but surely her little room is coming together! First, mom came to town and we did lots of fabric shopping to find material for her quilt, curtains, crib skirt and sheets. We went to Urban Arts and Crafts in North KC and hit the jackpot on amazing fabrics.

Her room is basically going to be filled with lots of colors and patterns and I'm so excited to see it all come together over the next 4 (OMG!) months! I also spray painted some fun things I had around the house to put on her walls and painted the dresser my parents brought to KC (that was mine when I was little and my mom's when she was little!). I have a bunch of frames I want to paint still and have been "pinning" lots of little printable ideas to put in them along with pictures too! Mom also got us an amazing chair and I can't wait to get it in a week or so too! All we really need now is a crib and nightstand!

4 Months to Go: This month has been really fun and also
more emotional as our little one grows. Early this month (at about 21 weeks) Will was really able to feel her kicking (I've been feeling flutters and kicks since about week 16 or 17!) and that was pretty amazing for the both of us. Now I'm just enjoy the frequent nudges and jabs and more pronounced stomping on my bladder! Along with all that movement has come a real sense that we're going to have a little buddy in our lives soon and that has made me feel a sense of a bond to her that I didn't really feel early in pregnancy when there weren't many signs of her except for being nauseous and tired and gaining weight! It is a truly and amazing blessing and we're cherishing everything about this healthy pregnancy and praying it continues so our sweet girl can grow and develop into a healthy little newborn! Oh yeah...still not sure on her name! I think it will be a game time decision but we'll see!

Mom and Dad's Big Move: One crazy thing that is going to happen in our lives is that my parents are moving from WG to Bartlesville, Oklahoma! This has been in the works for a while, but now its actually happening! I have a bit of Father of the Bride Part 2 going on in my head (except for my mom being pregnant too thing) and feeling sad that they won't live in my hometown anymore, but knowing we have so many friends and family still in STL that we'll visit regularly makes it a lot easier. Hopefully they can get all settled by the end of summer! It's really a great opportunity for them so we're excited!

What's Next: Will starts his 3rd year clinical rotations on Monday and will be doing Psychiatry for a month--we're looking forward to some interesting stories! It's incredible to think that he's starting his 7th year at KUMed and also hard to believe that this is the final stretch of his program! Two years from now he'll be starting residency somewhere! Wow! I'll be in STL twice in July for the 4th and my cousin's wedding later in the month! Also, more projects, organizing, purging our house and pool time to come as well I'm sure!

That's the story for now!
Love,
The Messamores

"High Five!!!!!!!"

That's what Baby Messamore is saying in it's first picture!!!!!!!!! YEP! We're having a baby! Blog radio silence is probably due to not wanting to spill the beans to early and the fact that I go to sleep really early and take naps instead of blog...although I have lots of thoughts I want to get down on the blog as we document this whole process! We are very excited and a little "apprehensive" (as Uncle Jesse would say) but just completely thankful that we were blessed with this new little life and trusting the Lord for his or her (we think "her") health and safety in the next 6 or so months! It has been a blast sharing the news with all of our family and friends for sure...all your love and encouragement has been incredible!

He or she will hopefully make it's debut around October 23rd! More to come...stay tuned!

Love,
The Messamore's (all 3 of us!)

Good Morning ________ Public School Teachers!!!!!

My first few years teaching in my district we had a ton of snow days! I grew up in a school district that NEVER called off...on fact, I bet I could count the number of snow days I remember on one hand. When we moved to KC, apparently the winters changed...because we have had 4-8 snow days a year! This year is a different story...no snow days until TODAY! I was up super early probably because I was anxiously wondering and lo and behold I saw on Facebook we had the day off! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about finding out via FB or text that we have a snow day, but it is nothing compared to my first few few years when we used to get an automated phone call message from our superintendant saying in the most cheerful voice...."Gooooooooood morning _________ public school teachers, due to inclement weather, slick roads etc there will be no school today!!". It was the best. Now due to budget cuts, text messages are the norm, but I will always remember those calls as some of the best memories of my first years of teaching. I really do love my job and people sometimes think I don't because I love snow days and summer so much, but those are just one of the many perks of teaching!! Here's to a day of watching House Hunters, making delicious soup, maps, reading Game of Thrones and hanging with my husband who left work early to hang out with me!

Now...just a two and a half day week and 1 conference night left before a 4 day weekend!

Hope you enjoyed a pretty look at the snow and a cozy night watching KU crush the Wildcats too!

Love,
The Messamores

Vacation Brain

Despite the fact that this winter has not been bad at all--no freezing temps, snowstorms, and ice to put visions of warm beaches in my head, I am still already craving summer vacation, especially because it's looking like Will is going to have a little time "off" (he'll still be writing papers etc.) before he goes back to clinics in mid-June. Also, because we haven't had any snow days YET, I'm kind of hoping we don't end up with any AT ALL, because that means we would be out of school on May 22nd! AMAZING. Every year I've taught in Liberty we've had between 5 and 9 snow days...which is crazy and we've almost always gone till Memorial Day weekend or after. May 22nd would be so early! So...here is our potential vacation list for late May/June 2012.

OPTION 1: OREGON COAST/PORTLAND/SEATTLE (Katie's Pick!)
We went to the West Coast two years ago but only did California stuff--which was a wonderful trip--but I've heard from various different people recently who've traveled there that the Portland beer scene, NW Oregon Coast, Seattle and San Juan Islands are fantastic as well--this seems up our alley, a good mix of beautiful scenery, fun cities and a part of the country we've never been before.

(Oregon Coast)

(Seattle City Living)

(Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands, WA)

OPTION 2: BOSTON AND NYC (Will's Pick)
I think Will wants to go here to check out what life would be like to live here someday--maybe when Residency time comes in a couple of years and I'm definitely up for a trip to check it out. I did this trip with my family when I was probably 5 or 6 (right Mom?) and actually have lots of memories of this trip still. In fact, probably one of our family's most classic trip disaster's was on this vacation in NYC when the valet wrecked our car and we had to basically tie the driver's side door on for the remainder of our trip and all the way back to STL it was SO loud! Needless to say, at age 5 or 6 we did not paint the town the way we would now and it would be an experience to see Ground Zero, maybe a Broadway show and I know exploring Boston would be really fun too.

(Swan Boats in Boston)

(NYC Skyline)

OTHER OPTIONS:
I'm up for any trip and things have come to mind like visiting family on the east coast in Richmond and North Carolina with a detour to the Outer Banks in NC, or possibly the Southwest to visit our sweet friends Clare and Craig in New Mexico, we could go to Durango, Santa Fe and more out there too. I think we're definitely doing a US trip, as much fun as it would be to try and plan something big and overseas, I don't think we're ready for that this year.

Now...we just have to get through the next few weeks to see how Will's spring schedule will pan out with his dissertation defense and then we can really start planning!

In the meantime, I am pumped for Spring Break with my mom and dad (and hopefully Will too!) in Destin, FL! So, I guess I should look forward to that trip first, then we'll talk summer vacation!

What trip would you recommend??? If you had to choose between the options above, what would you pick??!! Want to go with us??!! Always open for suggestions and dreaming!

Love,
The Messamores

New Year's Eve Party

This is the story of our first New Year's party...on our 5th anniversary! We had great friends and family over to celebrate with us and we also had a beer tasting contest which was such a fun way to spend the evening. We had 3 rounds of tasting and people brought a 6 pack to enter in each category they wanted to--the more beer you brought, the better your chances of winning! I think the winners were from the "Domestic" category-Goose Island 312 (from Katie and Zach Ressler), the "Foreign" winner was La Fin Du Monde (Messamore's!) and the "Seasonal" category winner was Winter Hook from Red Hook Brewery (Dave and Lyndsey Guggenmos). The winner of each category got to take home one of each of the beers that were in the contest which ended up being 10 different kinds! It was great! We would definitely do something like this again--maybe for a summer BBQ or something. Oh, and I can't forget Will's music video playlist which was perfectly timed and really fun entertainment! Great conversation and fun times were had and the only casualty of the night was front porch chair cushion that was burned with sparklers because that's where we decided to light them since it was sleeting outside (brilliant idea by me!)!

Photos are by the lovely Charlie and maybe a few from our camera too that was miraculously revived after a year of not working just days before our party! Also...Will says I can't have anymore parties when I have a week to decorate, plan, clean and bake for because it cost too much money (it really didn't...I just spent a week doing different projects for this one!)! Enjoy!

The decorations---so much glitter! I had so much fun getting the decorations all ready and the after Christmas sales with lots of Gold and Silver things for cheap prices made it easy to go maybe slightly overboard!

Entry table--found the awesome printable here in the frame which Will modified some to say "Old Friends" right above "New Beginnings". You can also see the beautiful dish that Rob and Char gave us for our anniversary! Such sweet friends!

Tissue Paper Tassel Garland--my favorite last minute Pinterest find! It was so easy to make! I'll be doing this project again for showers/parties in the future!

Tissue "Poof Balls" and 3D Snowflakes! A staple for most showers/parties I help with!

Glitter letters! Easy and fun!

The whole table...I don't think I have a pic of my embossed napkins, but they were awesome too!

Cake Balls! Debbie got me a cake ball pan for Christmas so we gave them a go...the pan worked great...the cake pops tasted just ok, but they looked cool! I'll have to try again with a different flavor!

Champagne Raspberry Jello Shots...delicious! Now for some pics of friends who came to celebrate...we didn't take nearly enough pictures with people...oh well!

 

These next 3 might be my favorites of the whole night...we may have had some wine/beer... 

And of course a few fun pictures with my guy on our 5th anniversary!

Love him.

Love,
The Messamores

One More Anniversary Post

As we celebrated 5 years, we had one more tradition to keep up, our anniversary journal! This journal was given to us by a mentor of mine from college right before our wedding and she explained the tradition that had been passed down to them. She taught us to spend some time every year on our anniversary writing down milestones, events in the news, vacations, life changes, goals accomplished, things we loved and most importantly recapping growth in our marriage and setting goals for ways we would like to continue to grow as individuals and as a couple our in our faith and marriage in the following year! Will thought this was a cheesy thing at the beginning, but now he looks forward to it every year too. We hope to pass this tradition on to others, so if you have been married for 5, 10, 30 or more years I would suggest starting now! And...if you just got married and we love you a lot....keep your eyes out for one of these bad boys on your 1st anniversary!
New Years Eve party recap this weekend hopefully!
Love,
The Messamores

5 Years!

I don't know if I'm a bit more nostalgic these days because it's our 5th anniversary--sort of a big milestone, or if it was just because of an awesome Winter Break and good time together with families and friends, but I was. Here's what I've been thinking about in light of celebrating this milestone!

The traditional anniversary gift for 5 years is Wood. Now, I didn't get Will something made of wood, although you could say his new tread desk made with some wooden shelves was part of his Christmas/Anniversary gift, but I did think about how symbolic that is for us because of how much we've grown as individuals and a couple in 5 years! Seriously...we were BABIES when we got married and it is hard to even explain how much we've "put down roots" (got that wood/tree reference?) and matured into small little saplings like those ones you get on Earth Day in elementary school in our first few years of marriage. The growth I think we've experienced in our faith, perspective on marriage, careers, and just in general as adults (what?) over just the past 3 years has been nothing short of amazing. The main thing being a deeper trust in the Gospel and looking to Jesus as our only hope instead of each other. Our early years of marriage, at least on my part for sure, Will can speak for himself on this though--(even though back then I would have said I didn't) I definitely looked to him to make me happy, lead our spiritual walk, fix things when they were broken, and do all the things I expected a husband should do...well, needless to say, that left me feeling pretty bummed out when (Surprise, Surprise...) he couldn't fulfill all those things for me. Our church really helped to shape these last few years for us as we grew to understand that to look to our husband/wife to be our ultimate hope is nothing short of idolatry--as our pastors often say in Redeemer wedding ceremonies that I help with occasionally--and that is a problem! Luckily we don't have to rely on each other for all of those things and we can put our hope and our trust that Jesus will satisfy us, make us happy, help us with any problem, guide my spiritual walk, and is the Ultimate Husband. Now, that's not to say we shouldn't try to be those things and strive for that in our marriage of course, but I think the main thing is it should free us to love each other, give grace and help one another more because we can let go of some of our expectations and just follow the example He set out for us.

This may sound a bit over the top and cheesy, but I think the fact that we've begun to understand (we aren't there yet and I don't know if we ever will be) this truth in recent years has been the best thing that has happened to us in the past 5 years. Our roots are set deeply in this truth and hopefully that will help us to grow old and strong (and hopefully not too big around) together!

I love you Will and I'm thankful that God gave you to me.

For some more insights on this perspective on marriage that has really changed our hearts--check out this article by Tim Keller which is a preview of a book we would love to read this year, The Meaning of Marriage.

Also, hoping to have a post up soon with pictures of our awesome Anniversary/New Year's Eve party where we got to celebrate and probably another post about one of our anniversary traditions--I want to keep on writing but I guess that's something I'll have to learn about blogging--keep it short and sweet!!!!
Love,
The Messamores