Lost, But Holding Hands

Hello, poor neglected blog.  Every night, when I am driving home, I think that I will get home in enough time to cook dinner, go running, and blog.  Every night, by the time I get home, one (or more) of those things gets removed from my to do list.  Between grading papers, planning, and try desperately to spend time with my hubs- our blog has basically been abandoned.  I know it won't get any easier in the future---so, for now, my goal is one entry per week.  This blog is as much for us as it is for everyone else.  We want to be able to look back over this process and remember fondly everything we have been through!  Maybe, I can convince Tyler that we should each write an entry per week.  We definitely have different perspectives as we move through this process.  We want to keep everyone in the loop and up-to-date on what is happening as we move toward becoming parents (as I type I am sighing with stress and excitement!) Tomorrow will be w...

Let me start by saying that growing up I thought Foster's in Blue Springs (by St. John's Catholic Church) was a place that you could go get parentless children. Needless to say it's a laundromat- which better explains the clothing rack icon! However, many years have passed since I thought about those poor kiddos that lived, abandoned, in the laundromat and I am writing this entry to explain our recent decision to enter into foster parenthood. If you would have asked me 10 years ago, I would have told you that I would have a husband and many, MANY kids by the time I was 30. Now, with 30 not seeming so far away, I have my amazingly handsome husband but no children (except for Rory). Tyler and I have spent the last 9 years- since high school- working and learning. Between the two of us we have 5 degrees and several years in the classroom under our belts. We love our jobs- a LOT. We love the kids that we teach and each year we seem to take on more and more job responsibilit...

we've talked a little on this blog about how we've made a shift in the way we buy, prepare, and consume food. since making the change we've gotten loads of questions, comments, and even some strange looks. here's a breakdown of the most common questions we've gotten and our answers. what kind of supplements/pills are you guys taking? none . our food routine doesn't include any vitamins, pills, or powders. so, are you guys vegetarians now? no. we still consume meat, we've just drastically reduced our intake. when we grocery shop we plan for 5 dinners per week, knowing that one or two meals will be improvised or eaten out at restaurants. in those five meals, we plan for 1 meal that features meat. it's generally chicken, but sometimes we will buy ground turkey. we rarely buy beef and never buy pork. what about protein? don't you need meat? several of our weekday meals feature beans and other plant-based sources of protein. it's a misconcept...

I have to preface this letter by saying that I spent the day today in a writing professional development for my school district. During which, we were asked to complete several writing tasks because, hey, we can't ask our students to do something we wouldn't do ourselves. Anyhoo, while I was writing, I realized that I had written something worth sharing----maybe. I am not promising that this will change your life- but it is about an experience that changed mine... Dear Centerpoint Hospital, 6 months ago you opened your arms to my sweet mother- taking her into your family without question, without judgment. For you, it was like any other night in the emergency room. Your waiting rooms were bursting- not just with people, but with deep emotions. I remember thinking how tired the automatic doors must become after watching them open for the 100th time in a matter of minutes. It seemed that while waiting people found it especially hard to sit and be still. Each time your...

/well, we survived our week at camp! it was everything we hoped it would be and more. as we packed for camp galilee , we didn't know exactly what to expect. lucky for us we were pleasantly surprised. we arrived sunday afternoon and met all the other adults we would be counseling with. some people we recognized, many we didn't. we've been members at grace  for a couple of years now, but have evaded much genuine connection to individuals outside of sunday mornings. that was about to change. awkward introductions led into an awkward dinner which connected to an awkward first night in our cabins with just our co-counselor and ourselves: the kids would arrive the following day. what had we gotten ourselves into? lucky for us, the last bit of remaining awkwardness evaporated the moment the kids got to camp. from the moment they arrived camp came alive . we had 15 elementary campers in grades 4-6. kelly had 6 girls and tyler had 9 boys. (jr and sr high was ...

{A few weeks back, I read a blog in which the writer tested the notion that fast food was not food, but in fact, a combination of many preservatives and additives mixed very little "real" food. The blogger, suspicious of the fast food industry, bought hamburgers and fries from several extremely popular chains. Each meal was left out, uncovered for weeks. That's right- weeks. Guess what? Not one of the meals molded, rotted, or did...anything. It freaked me out. For. Real. T and I have virtually stopped shopping in the middle of our neighborhood grocery store. These are the aisles filled with highly-processed, yet sometimes disguised foods. Some with labels claiming to be healthy (low fat, low carb, vitamin fortified, no trans fat, etc.). We used to buy them. Granola bars loaded with all kinds of great things- vitamins, minerals, fiber... And they are so yummy! But I challenge you to do the following: next time you reach for a box of your favorite cereal, br...

[kell and i have gone through a lifestyle transformation this summer. it started with our desire to identify factors that influence our life and take steps to ensure we were maximizing our potential. while there are lots of things we can't control, there is a great deal we can  control. neither of us were looking for perfection, just an uptick in personal responsibility; a desire to ensure we're doing all we can to establish a quality existence. we wanted to make the best choices. as immanuel kant would say, we were seeking a "universal maxim" in all we do. we looked at everything: our faith in the church, the possessions we hold, how we treat our rubbish, the relationships we keep, the trajectory of our careers, the food we put in our body, and the priorities we set with our money. we studied every compartment of ourselves as individuals and as a husband and wife--including taking stock of our exercise habits (or lack thereof). kell is...

[kell and i are lucky to belong to an awesome church family. we've belonged to grace united methodist for a couple of years now and have seen first hand how gracious and full of love a church can be. it would be impossible to list all the kind things we've witnessed church members do in the three or so years since we've been there. needless to say, grace is a great example of what it means to walk in the dust of christ. this week our youth is headed down to camp. each year we take our elementary, jr, and sr high kids to camp galilee in el dorado springs. the last couple of years we've been asked to go, but have always had commitments with our jobs that didn't let us go. it seemed like pd meetings or my graduate school always stood in our way. this year, though, the timing was perfect and we jumped at the chance to go. kell and i will be the counselors for the elementary boys and girls and we're excited to help our campers take a week out of their summer break ...

{T and I pride ourselves on not being materialistic. Or I should say that we DID pride ourselves on not loving material possessions. That was until we started a venture that would last these last few days. It all started on Thursday. "let's go through our closet and get it cleaned up," I said to T. He was hesitant, but obliged. Another reason I love him. What T didn't know when I shared my organizational plan is that we were beginning a venture that would take 14+ hours. Poor baby, he is such a trooper. Have you ever seen the show Hoarders? A quick synopsis: cameras follow a therapist into a house filled with junk, er, I mean, filled with prized possessions. You know, like 8,000 empty soda bottles, newspapers from the last 15 years, and carpet you can't see without a shovel. Anywoo, a cleaning crew helps the habitants get their life in order. I tell you this not because our house was anywhere near the condition of the houses on this reality television sho...

{Anyone who truly knows me, knows this...I. Despise. Change. I'm not bragging. It is not one of my strong points. I love to travel, but I like going to the same places again and again. I love food, but I like going to the same restaurants- over and over...and over. I love the familiar. Turns out, the familiar was slowly making us cranky...and fat. However, all of this changed about 6 weeks ago. T and I started on a journey of health. Not only did we start focusing on movement and exercise, we started learning about and altering the things we put in our bodies. Food. The more we learn the more we RUN from the places we used to eat. Yikes! So, today's post is a restaurant suggestion. Cafe Gratitude. Go there. Now. Gratitude is completely organic (no preservatives, no antibiotics) and completely vegan (no animal products). I was nervous. It was amazing! From the eccentric vibe, the super-sweet and knowledgeable waitress (Shelly), to the extremely tasty food- ev...

/A Little Piece of Food Knowledge- from our friends at 100 Days of Real Food- We no longer buy shredded cheese. We no longer buy anything but white cheese. Let us tell you why. Do you know what "they" put in pre-shredded cheese to keep it from clumping into one BIG jumbled mess? Wood. That's right ya'll. Wood pulp is put in nearly ALL shredded cheese to keep it, well, shredded. The ingredient you need to look for us "cellulose fiber". If that is listed, you've got wood pulp my friend. We also stopped buying yellow (or orange) cheese because we made the obvious observation that dairy should be white. Generally, the whiter the dairy product is the less processed it is because coloring it is just one more step in the factory. Take our advice- shred your own block of white cheese. It takes like 20 seconds. Be Healthy. Start today./ /we/

[we had vegetarian quesadillas the other night and i wanted to make sure that it was all good for us. the only ingredient we planned to use that was not freshly prepared from our hands was refried beans. i hated them as a kid, and now i can't imagine a mexican dinner without them. i had a hunch it wouldn't be hard to make my own. turns out i was very correct. easiest thing ever. we will never buy canned refried beans again. i suggest you do the same. they freeze well so you can make a few batches at once if you like. here's how to make them: INGREDIENTS 1 yellow onion (cut into 1/2 or 1/4) 2 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed and drained ½ chopped fresh jalapeno (seeded unless you like it really hot) 2 cloves garlic, minced ¾ teaspoons salt ½ teaspoon black pepper pinch of cumin 6 cups water DIRECTIONS combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high for about eight hours. remove bigger onion chunks and drain the excess liquid, but save liquid until the...