Tuesday Nights

Adam and I just started our Tuesday night softball league. We play with some of my teacher friends from Elkhorn and it is a pretty good time. I have never really played softball...I think I once played tee-ball when I was little and it just all stopped there. Ha. Anyways, Adam is amazing, as he is in all sports, and I am the catcher. I went up to bat three times and didn't make it to base once. So...Adam thinks we have some practicing to do...which probably is a good idea so my teammates don't kill me. Anyways, I just wanted to show you how serious I am about softball...this clip pretty much explains it...mainly, the snow cone part:) 

Easter

This Easter was fun, refreshing, and yet exhausting. With getting Bruce the day before it made for a little longer day! We headed up to Lincoln on Saturday night to go bowling with Adam's family and celebrate Thomas's birthday! It was 90's night at the bowling alley which made things oh so much more fun:) 

 

We went to church in Lincoln and had a yummy Easter lunch with Adam's family. There was delicious food left and right! Everybody met Bruce and then we headed off to have dessert with my family. 

We stopped to say hi to my grandma Barb and chatted with her for a bit. The folks at the nursing home loved lil Bruce. Grandma said that "he was prettiest ugly dog I have ever seen"...Ha. Got to love her bluntness! Adam thinks she could be a stand-up comedian.

What I thought would be a pretty simple afternoon turned out to be "very active" because Miss Mary (my mom) was in charge...I should have known. We had a thrilling egg hunt...My brother Austin ended up with the overall win..."big blue egg" with $10 bucks in it. An egg we were all so jealous of.

We had a kite flying contest. 

Bubbles. 

And the Crazy Sapp Bros card game....Ashley (soon to be sister-in-law) won $10 and Suzanne was the loser...getting more then the rest of us...$1.

We had a wonderful Easter. Praise God for sending his son Jesus to die for us! Sometimes with all the "holiday celebrating" it's easy to forget the main purpose of Easter. My grandpa kept saying after everybody left and there were just a few still at the house cleaning up that "no matter how silly some of the games we play are, it gets people talking, laughing, and enjoying simple time with one another". I think that made me challenge myself to appreciate all times...whether I am running carelessly through the yard looking for my "9 Easter Eggs as a 25 year old", trying to figure out whether to lay the high spade or the trump heart, or cleaning up Bruce's poop! Ugh!

*And thanks to Suzanne for the great pics of Bruce in action!

Bruce the Bulldog

Finally, today was the day...we met Bruce and got to take him home! We set our alarm clock for 7am this morning and headed off to Kansas City to meet Jan, the Bulldog breeder. Jan was as cute as all get out when it came down to loving her dogs and her attire proved it: a pink shirt with a bulldog face smack in the middle covered by her quilted bulldog jacket. She pulled out our folder with the information we needed for taking care of Bruce from her bulldog purse! Not kidding. Intense bulldog lover and we loved every second of it! We received tons of goodies from her...everything from food and treats to toys and "puddle pads(used to help potty train pups)" and headed home!

 

 

 

We took Bruce in and set him down in our living room/kitchen area and watched him explore around. In the first 20 minutes he went to the bathroom three times on the carpet. Ha. We immediately started throwing more and more old towels down, of course he hasn't gone on the towels once, he prefers the white carpet, precious thing. 

He took about a two hour nap while Adam did some freelance and I baked a giant cupcake birthday cake for Adam's brother, Thomas! I don't know what I would have done if the Neuberger girls hadn't gotten me that mold! :)  I would probably be five pounds lighter (because I of course ate all the part I had to cut off)! Here is a quick glimpse of that. Not the prettiest...in my mind I was picturing finished products like on Cupcake Wars...Adam had to remind me a couple of times that baking is not my full time job so I shouldn't expect mine to be like theirs...true, true. 

Bruce is eating right now from the bowls we painted a few weeks ago...Whenever he eats or drinks Adam and I always say "you know what's coming soon..."...ha. Adam has already had to pick him up mid-pee and sprint over to the "paddle pad" to set him down three times now while I've been typing...of course he is ALWAYS done by the time Adam gets him there! "I just can't ever get their fast enough when I see him start" -in the moment quote by Adam. I think it's kinda entertaining at the moment, not gonna lie. We will keep you updated on this potty training experience. 

We are now heading off to Lincoln to celebrate Thomas turning 21 and Easter tomorrow! I'm sure we will have some good pics hopefully. *Jan sent an Easter day outfit for Bruce...we might have to put it on...just for 5 minutes to make us laugh.

Spring Break 2011!

This year Elkhorn had one WHOLE week for spring break. I was told this has never happened before and will never happen again. So...I made sure to book tickets to someplace warm as soon as I heard that! It actually worked out super nice because last June, when Adam proposed, on the way back from Arizona we were asked if we could stay and switch to a later flight, thus receiving plane vouchers:) So we did, and the vouchers expired in June...so it worked out amazing! We went to Gma & Gpa Sapp's house down there (thanks so much!) and relaxed poolside basically the whole time! We basked in the sun, we ate everything that has a million calories, and we read. We try to read a few chapters of the Bible together daily, so it was fun to switch up the scenery when doing that. One of my favorite times, no offense to Adam, was early morning. The sun would always shine in and sparkle around 6am, so I would get up, make a little cup of vanilla latte or mocha deliciousness from the fun little "single cup" coffee machine they have down there, and sit out on the porch and read. It was just amazing to unwind and appreciate God's creation. Granted, we should be doing it all the time, it just is a little easier when the only noises you hear are the songs of the birds instead of the screams of 20 third graders:)  I finished Bittersweet and dominated Heaven is for Real in less than 24 hrs- so good!


Adam and I had talked awhile back about both getting haircuts. A couple weeks ago I scheduled an appointment without him knowing and chopped of seven inches of my hair:) I remember when I came home I was so excited to hear his response...he was loading dishes in the dishwasher when I came in...I waited for him to turn around...and waited...(COME ON BABE)...finally, he turned around and was like "Whoaaa, I love it"- good thing he added in that "I love it" or there might have been some tears, sometimes Adam might say I get a little over-dramatic on little things...hmmm, I don't know what he is talking about;)!  Anyways,when we were on the plane to go down there he mentioned buzzing his hair when we got to the house. So, we took the minivan to Target and made that purchase stat! 

 

The weather was perfect, 80's and 90's! We ventured off to a couple different shopping areas and restaurants. 

A Heart-Shaped Chip!

And grilled out...

And Adam busted the floatie by doing this over and over...don't worry cousins, we bought a new one for future reference.

We appreciated this getaway a lot. No itinerary. No obligations. Just us.

S'mores and Some High Schoolers

This year Adam and I volunteered with the high school group at our church. Last Sunday we celebrated the year of new relationships, sleepovers, and learning about the "Man Upstairs" as we roasted marshmallows and exchanged personal letters of gratitude. 

Adam and his guys!

A.Ehly "coaching" it up

The whole gang

Adam had one year of experience on me as he led the same group of guys last year as well. I was unsure what to think when getting into this. Over Adam and my honeymoon I read the book Cold Tangerines (which might sound familiar to some of you because I've talked about it way too much) and there was a chapter that focused exactly on how I felt about this year! I read it aloud to Adam and found myself about to tear up a couple of times throughout the chapter because it made me think of the girls in my small group. Yes, girls, I know you probably would have never guessed I would be "tearing up" about you- and I can already hear your "smart" comments yee- but I was;)! I wanted to share a couple parts of this, and yes, it is dedicated to you: Angie, Emily, Hannah, Courtney, Kira, Shirley, and Ashlee:) I'm so thankful to have ya! 

The pretty little ladies in my group:)

"...Somewhere in between going through my trash and asking me about tampons, in between the recitals and games and phone calls, they burrowed into one of the deepest parts of my life and my heart. They became something between friends and little sisters and extensions of my younger selves. They became a central part of my world, my thoughts, my prayers. My schedule became more and more wrapped around their term papers and prom and problems, and my home became more and more the safest landing spot for this strange, whirling little gypsy wagon of girls.

...I began to love them, not because they were the finest, most-upstanding kids in our student ministry, because actually they weren't. They had their moments of upstanding-ness, and they had moments of absolute insanity. I loved them because they were mine, because we were  us, because of the funny and sweet and strange things they did and said. They're smart and honest and they make big mistakes and dream gorgeous bright dreams. Sometimes they tell me everything, and sometimes they try not to tell me things, but then the other girls tell me anyway. I think at this point, I know almost all the things they think I don't. And I love them more than they know.

...When I think about how God made us live, when people talk about true community or true intimacy, I think of them, this lovely, bizarre group of teenage girls who came over unannounced and never left when they were supposed to, who let me into their fears and secrets. They loved me with a force that I think only comes with youth, a wide and fierce and expressive force, and I loved them with that same love, because being with them let me live like I was young." - Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines







Whether it's them coming to my classroom on their day off or dancin' at our wedding...they are always fun and have so much energy it's ridiculous! From Yee's sarcastic comments to Hannah's delicious baked goods to Emily's weirdness and passion for dance to Courtney's nike kicks and pink hair to Kira being a good story-teller while eating Chinese food to Shirley still attending the sleepingover like a champ after working all day to bringing Ashlee JuiceStop at work just to make her smile (and then Yee complaing about herself not getting any)....I love 'em all:) 

 My junior girls...totally acting like junior girls (aside from Court of course...she is a year older and much more mature..I mean she did rock hot pink hair for most of her senior year and it was amazing)!

Here's to next year!