Life Updates

Hey Friends!
Sorry it's been a while since we've posted on the blog!  It's been a little busy around here!  As you all know, I'm a teacher, and the semester is quickly winding down.  The kids are getting anxious for the break, and so are the teachers!  I have a lot of grading and things to get ready before the end of the semester.  Grade cards won't go out until after Christmas break, but I'd still like to have them done in plenty of time.  So I'm at school an hour before school starts working on things, and I stay late finishing things up.  It's a busy time of year.

Michael and I have been working hard on our Christmas shopping!  We're almost done!  We still need to pick up a few things for Nick, Maggie, and Harlee.  Otherwise, we're set!  I spent a lot of the day working on gifts and wrapping them yesterday.  Michael spent some time wrapping some of my gifts.  While I was growing up, as soon as we had presents bought and wrapped, they went under the tree (not Santa's gifts, they didn't show up till Christmas morning), but everything else was out in plenty of time.  This allowed lots of time for snooping, which I'm sure my family really appreciated.  Michael's family did things a little differently.  All of their presents stayed hidden until Christmas morning for him.  While I understand the need to keep all those presents hidden from 3 little boys, it's something Michael and I have had to talk about.  I have all his presents wrapped and under the tree, and all of the presents he bought for me are hidden away, not wrapped or under the tree.  Finally, I had to tell Michael that it was sad not having any presents under the tree, and that he needed to wrap some of mine and get them under there.  He understood and wrapped them, so now I have presents under the tree too!

We still haven't got any more of our Christmas decorations out other than our tree.  :P  We took the lights out yesterday and talked about putting them up, but never got around to it.  We still don't have stockings up either.  We're basically Christmas slackers, but at least we have most of our gifts bought.  When we get a chance to slow down and just be at home together (I've been at work a lot lately, and Michael is finishing up the semester projects and getting ready for finals) we just want to cuddle and be together, not worry about decorating.  Maybe sometime this week or weekend.

Saturday was a very nice day!  While the weather stunk, the day overall was good.  Michael and I went to Panera for lunch and played some cards.  We saw Cara, one of my best friends since kindergarten, who works at Panera.  Cara always hooks us up with free stuff when she can, so we had a special treat of a couple of chocolate mint cookies!  They were delicious!!  It was nice to get out of the apartment and spend some time together.  Then we did a little birthday shopping for Nick, then went back home for the K-State game.  I'm sure Michael has lots of things he needs to update you all on about basketball, so I'll let him do that in his next blog.

That's been our life lately.  Hope you all are staying warm.  Can't wait to see everyone over the Christmas holiday!  Here's our schedule:
Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve together in Manhattan
Dec. 25 - Christmas morning in Manhattan, then to Topeka
Dec. 26-27 - More family time in Topeka
Dec. 31 - Head to Wichita, Christmas w/ Grandma Heorman and family
Jan. 1 - Afternoon Christmas with Grandma Counterman, Evening dinner @ Sals w/ Sis and Adam
Jan. 2 - Christmas in Towanda with Mama
Sorry we won't be in town any more than that.  Michael is trying to work over break.  Love you all!  Can't wait to see you soon!  Only 7 more school days till Christmas!!  WOOHOO!!  :)