Pictures of Paris

I hadn't gotten around to posting about our Europe trip yet for two reasons: trying to sum it all up in a post or two seemed daunting; I've been getting ready for our next backpacking trip which leaves Saturday for Colorado. This time we'll be going without showers and climbing a mountain, but we will have lived out of backpacks for 3 of the 4 weeks in July. Sounds like a great month to me!

I won't even try to tell you all about our Europe trip. If I know you well enough, I can talk to you about it anyway. I will give you a sampling of pictures from the places we visited and explain those a bit. Every time I travel I have a new appreciation for other cultures and it intrigues me to find out how other people live. We traveled with another couple and enjoyed having their company. Sometimes it helped lighten a tense situation (for example, not being able to get the train we wanted, communicating with someone whose language we do not speak, lost hotel reservations) when we had other people around to joke with about it. We divided up our almost two weeks between Paris, Cinque Terre in Italy, Barcelona, and Madrid. We packed it in and saw as much as we could. We spent our first few days in Paris which is where these pictures are from.

Shelly and me on a street by our hostel

Shelly and Brandon: weary, jet-lagged travelers trying to make themselves sight-see our first night instead of crashing at the hostel which is what we felt like doing.

Brandon and me in front of Notre Dame
Sitting in a pub across the street form our hostel
A beautiful garden we walked through on our first full day in Paris

Brandon and me in the same garden
Group photo in front of the Eiffel TowerBrandon and me take the mandatory tourist photo
Getting ready for our night bike tour through Paris
We rode into the courtyard of the Lourve as the sun was setting and a street musician was playing. This may have been my favorite moment of the trip!

We enjoyed chocolate desserts in a tea room on the Champs ElyseesWalking to the Arc d' Triomphe

View from the top of the Arc d' Triomphe after climbing a long spiral staircase

Sitting in our windows at the Young & Happy hostel. Fortunately, it did not make us old & grouchy!

Enjoying dessert on my 27th birthday

Still to come: pictures from Italy and Spain!

Weekend with the cousins

Tuesday night I cooked Japanese food and had my cousins over that live in Abilene. During the school year, several of my cousins get together for cousins lunch about once a week, and I'm always jealous that I only have 30 minutes for lunch and can never make it, so I decided to start a cousins dinner and at least participate that way. All of the cousins on my mom's side of the family are really close. We're really lucky that we all get along so well and love getting together.
Over the weekend we had a cousins float trip in the New Braunfels/Gruene area. Friday night we had dinner in Gruene and stood outside Gruene Hall to hear Hootie and the Blowfish performing. On Saturday we floated down the Guadelupe River which was surprisingly cold. I wish I had video of that because I was cracking up watching everyone try to get on their tubes without getting wet. The water was like ice and we were all trying to keep our bodies as straight as possible so as not to touch the water. After lunch it warmed up a bit and I even got out of the tube and swam a little.

Here we are in Gruene before dinner. Brandon had signees in town so
he couldn't make it. We also missed Summer and her family, and Kasey.

Bradyn and Bryce monkeying around

Listening to Hootie

Ben and Carly

Chris and Jenny

Saturday night after dinner at Mamacita's

And this next video is of some of us on the blob. Jason and Laci are working at T Bar M, so we got to go swimming there Saturday night and get launched off the blob into the water. It was hilarious. My aunt said it was more fun than watching fireworks. After each person launched, everyone "oohed" and "ahhed" about how high they got. The last one is me flailing through the air. I don't know why I feel like I have to run while I'm in the air. Enjoy the video! We had a blast.

Brandon has been paying attention when I have given advice to people about registering. I always say to register for a KitchenAid mixer because I wish I had. I found this one from the 1950's at a garage sale and have used it quite a bit. Just last Tuesday I was bragging to my mom about how great it's worked even though it's old, and as soon as I said that, it quit working!

But when I got home Sunday evening, there was a note from Brandon saying that he got me something silver for our 5 year anniversary. This was waiting for me in the breakfast nook! I love it!

Dedicated to my husband of 5 years on our anniversary

*I apologize in advance for the gushy romantic stuff and the excessive amount of photos.
**Our anniversary is actually tomorrow, but I will be floating down a river and not able to blog. I didn't want someone to read this and think I forgot what day I got married.

This is an excerpt from a letter Brandon wrote me on November 13, 2001 (we had been dating a couple months; we got engaged a year later):

I know that I have already kind of said this and I hope that this doesn't scare you or make you feel weird about anything, but.....Kate, I love you! I know this because I have never felt this way before. I know this because I want to do anything that I can to make you happy. I know because your happiness matters more than mine. I know because your problems become my problems. I know because your feelings matter more than mine. I know because your experiences and history are important to me. I know because I want to know you. I know because I want to understand you. I know because I want to build a great spiritual relationship with you. I know because you are such an outstanding girl from such a great family. I know because my family likes you. I know because your family likes me...I hope. I know because my friends like you. I know! I know that you don't have to feel the same way that I do, but I just wanted to tell you how I am feeling. I hope that all of this doesn't frighten you or make you freak out about anything. I just want to tell you what is on my heart and I honestly want you to always understand exactly what I am feeling and going through.

As you can tell, I tended to get a little freaked out when he said things like this early in our relationship. I would usually counter with reasons why he shouldn't love me and how we didn't even know each other that well yet, but he was patient and just kept reminding me that he knew he loved me, and I came to trust and accept that and fall in love with him too. I love the Jack Johnson song "Better Together." Hum it to yourself while you look at the pictures.

All you need is LOVE...and something to wear

We had a great time in Colorado over the weekend for Landon and Whitney's wedding. We've gotten to know them well over the past year and a half and love them so much. They are both sweet, caring, easy-going, fun-to-be-around, make-you-feel-good people. (OK, easy on the hyphenating, Kate.) We broke up the trip by spending Friday night at my aunt and uncle's house in Amarillo, so we enjoyed visiting with them a bit. On Saturday we got into Colorado Springs about 1:00, and got a call from Zach asking if we could do a favor. "Sure," I say, "we can't check into our hotel until 3:00 anyway." "OK, here's the deal..." He continues to explain how the tux rental shop didn't have one of the groomsman's pants, and we could either A) find pants that match the groomsmen's suits, or B) that groomsman could wear the groom's and we could get a new suit for Landon. So we go to the hotel where the wedding party is staying, pick up Zach, and head to the mall to find a new suit for the groom without him there and without him or Whitney even seeing it. I loved what Zach said on the phone to Kara as we were on our way, "We're about to call a Sheets family audible." In fact, there were lots of sports lingo being passed around: The pressure's on, we got to knock this one out of the park, it's game time, rise to the occasion team, etc. Fortunately, like I said earlier in my run of excessive hyphenation, Landon and Whitney are cool and calm, and just excited to be getting married, so it wasn't quite as stressful as it could've been. Landon said to me, "Hey, I'll be getting married no matter what I'm wearing." And it all worked out fine. Landon looked so handsome, Whitney was gorgeous--just like a photo from a bridal magazine, and the wedding was beautiful. We had a great time, and are so happy for them.

Here I am with my cousins, Seth and Carly.

Brandon and me in the reception tent.

With the newlyweds.

And posing with Kara.

You can kind of see in this picture where the wedding took place behind us. It was outside in this courtyard area in front of a beautiful building. And it was in Colorado, so the weather was great. I was sad we didn't get to stay longer than a night there and enjoy Colorado a little more, but we'll be going back in July for Trek, so that made leaving the mountains a little easier.

Gladiators ready???

Brandon and I helped out at Highland's breakthrough retreat by being gladiators and battling against middle schoolers in inflatable obstacle courses and jousting. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Oh the joy of wearing wigs. It's good to know how Brandon
looks in a mullet just in case that look ever comes back.

I'm very fortunate to have the group of girlfriends that I do and to have been able to see several of them in the past few weeks. Tonight I got back from a trip to Dallas with Jenna, Jody, and Reese (her mom and daughter) where we visited with Jaymie and Kanyon, Beth, and Christine. It was great to talk to Beth about her wedding plans and to share in this exciting time in her life. She joined us at the hospitals to visit our other friends.

Jaymie's been with Kanyon at a "feeding camp" where they've been working with him on taking food for six weeks. I got to hold Kanyon for the first time, and he has the prettiest blue eyes. Every now and then while I was holding him he would look up at me and put his little hand on my face and I would just stare at those eyes. I don't know how Jaymie has done it living in the hospital and being away from home. I don't think I could be as positive as she is about it. For them, please pray for Kanyon's progress and development, and for energy and strength for Jaymie and Kory.

Christine is back in the hospital again with a lot of pain and very few answers. I know more than anything she just wants to be home with her two little boys and to be a wife to Matt. The past year and a half has been so trying for their family with her hospital stays. She is a strong and faithful woman who seems like she has had so much more to deal with than anyone should in a short amount of time. Please pray that Christine will be able to go to the Mayo Clinic and have specialized doctors give her answers and solutions to her health problems. And pray for strength and encouragement for her family as they help take care of her and the boys. Pray for energy for Matt as he balances time between the hospital, work, home, and being with his sons.

Seeing both Jaymie and Christine makes me realize how much I take for granted and how easy I have it. They have handled the trials of the past year or so with grace, perseverance, strength, and faith. I wish I could do something to help them and their situations. I just felt so helpless leaving the hospitals and going back to my great life. I know God is with them and in control. Please say a prayer for each of these sweet girls.

A Taste of Summer

This 3-day weekend was just a taste of what's to come. It was long enough to feel like summer vacation was already starting. And I enjoyed getting to see some girlfriends who were visiting Abilene. On Saturday Brandon and I went with my parents to Lake Brownwood to enjoy Memorial Day weekend with some of my family. We enjoyed taking out the boat and swimming in the lake and visiting with family. Sunday we had the pleasure of hearing our friend Josh Ross preach at Highland and visiting with him and Kayci and their son Truitt. This is a picture from church of Jenna, Kayci, Leah, me, and the kids. Leah was so nice to let me borrow one of hers for the picture!

I love the feeling of going to bed without setting an alarm to wake up at any particular time in the morning. Monday I celebrated the holiday by having lunch with Jennifer, Jenna, and Leah.
I also went to a matinee movie, a cookout at my sister's, and played miniature golf and laser tag. Such a fun weekend made me really anticipate this summer. I am so excited to spend a summer in Abilene with Brandon!
As excited as I am about the school year ending, I am going to miss my students. By the end of the year, we know each other so well that we get along easily. Next year the students I taught my first year as an 8th grade Language Arts teacher are going to be seniors. Our huddle will be seniors as well. Tonight Brandon and I went to a retirement dinner for John McCabe, my freshman U.S. history teacher. He has taught for 46 years. I can't imagine how many students he has impacted and how much things have changed since he started teaching. He has become a fixture at Abilene High with his idioms and "McCabisms" and he will be missed.

12...

The number of school days left until summer vacation...amazing! My week is even shorter because I was sick on Monday and stayed home all day watching TV and reading The Brothers K. I am loving this book about baseball and religion and how they both affect the relationships of one family. Here's an excerpt about the oldest brothers growing up and apart:

"To me it felt as though two old and intimate friends, after sixteen years spent hiking shoulder to shoulder, had come to a fork in the trail, and without even noticing had taken different paths. When they first looked up and saw what had happened, they were not at all far apart: they could still speak quietly to each other, could still see each other perfectly well. But they just kept going! All those years spent side by side, yet they didn't hesitate, didn't wave goodbye, didn't even acknowledge that they'd parted! Somehow this chilled me to the heart. It seemed that only I understood that, blithe as their divergence had been, it was permanent. So as my big brothers hiked intrepidly on, I--the slow, over-round, over-adoring brother who'd spent his whole life traipsing happily along behind both of them--just stood back at the fork, watching them veer farther and farther apart, and grieving for us all."

Tonight one of my students' parents had their daughters' teachers over for dinner. They have a great outside patio where we ate and visited. It was a really nice way to feel appreciated and rejuvenated for the end of the year. Another thing that is rejuvenating is getting a good laugh at my students. By this time of the year I really enjoy and appreciate them (some days that's easier than others), and joke around with them, and sometimes get a long, good laugh at their expense.

So last week we were reading To Kill A Mockingbird and one of my students fell asleep with his head on his desk. I guess he fell into a deep enough sleep that he was dreaming and he thought he was falling down the stairs, so his body jerked like he was trying to catch himself, and he ended up catapulting himself out of his desk and almost fell on the floor. I couldn't help but crack up, along with the rest of the class, at how ridiculous it looked. It was even better when he looked around with his half-asleep face trying to figure out what was going on and why everyone was laughing and that he was not actually at the bottom of the stairs, but in English class. 12 more days of fun stories like that, and then I'm on summer vacation! What a good job!

I've been doing some blog reading lately, but not so much writing. Just haven't felt in the mood for it I guess. But I just went back and read some of the things I had written about in 2005, and it's so interesting to see what was going on at that time. This summer Brandon and I will celebrate our 5 year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long! Our first year of marriage I was student teaching and he was the grad. assistant at ACU. We lived in a one-room garage apartment. We cleverly positioned a screen to be a divider between the "living room" and the "bedroom." I remember when we moved out of that apartment and into our rent house I was so excited that we actually had a closet for our vacuum cleaner and didn't have to keep it at the end of our bed. In the garage apartment we shared a tiny closet. We did enjoy having our parents and my Nana over a few times for meals. A couple people would sit at the table (that had a leaf down and was pushed against the wall), some could sit on the loveseat, and one or two would sit on our bed. It was cozy, but it was ours, so we loved it. Then after a year we moved to a rent house on E.N.11th. It was really cute and had just been redone with new paint and carpet. Our landlords were so nice, and like I said, we had a place to put the vacuum cleaner away, so I was way excited! The house we live in now (and have for the past 3 years) I just love! We were really lucky to get it the way we did. Summer, Chad, and Ava had just bought a house around the block, and our friends were moving out of this house, so she called and asked if we were interested. Without looking at any other houses, we decided to buy it from them. It's been great for us. We love the wooden floors, the exposed wood, the breakfast nook. We had the kitchen redone to add storage and paint the cabinets.



And this is my favorite addition to the kitchen. I love it when this cute little girl comes over and makes cookies with me! She is the sweetest niece and I love being her aunt!