couple o cates

V-Day fun

2012-02-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

Last week, we were generously given some money to go out for Valentines Day by one of our youth families. Just one of the many blessings the Lord has given us recently. We decided to go out on a double date last weekend with some of our good friends from Seminary. We tried a fun new restaurant downtown called Range. It is a burger and milkshake joint, yet anything but ordinary. All the beef used for the burgers comes from local Missouri, grass-fed cattle. All the bread and condiments are made on site as well. The restaurant was full of character, as it is housed in an old building downtown. We all enjoyed our burgers and fries with choice of dipping sauce very much. Brittany and I got normal milkshakes to finish off the meal, yet the boys got a milkshake called Sweet Sweet Bacon. This milkshake is made with bourbon, candied bacon and salted carmel ice-cream. It sounded great, yet the mixture of bourbon and ice-cream did not satisfy. Oh well, other than that it was a fun night out on the town, with great fresh tasting food and good company. Check out some pictures of this new hot spot.

Menus, the drink menu was pretty incredible and I think we may go back just for milkshakes soon

Fun long dinning area, and expansive bar. There is seating lining the exterior walls all around the top. We sat upstairs and were able to look down on this area and the kitchen.

Basic burger and homemade catsup

Sweet Sweet Bacon Milkshake

Cute Valentines

2012-02-13T17:44:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Pinterest, I have made some cute valentines for the kindergarteners. I can't wait to see them with big red lips or a mustache tomorrow :)

Click here to head over to Blond Designs Blog to make your own.

Ka Ka o

2012-02-10T18:10:00.003-05:00

Last Monday night, I went out with all the girls in my small group to celebrate our friend Dara who will be welcoming her daughter into the world any day now. Instead of doing a typical shower, we decided to take her to a local chocolate shop, called Ka ka o, which does tasting parties after hours. It was awesome! The owner taught us all about how chocolate is made.

Here is a quick tutorial:

A Theobroma cacao/cacao tree grows fruits called cacaos.

Inside the cacao are pods, and inside these pods are cocoa beans.

This is what the cocoa bean looks like before it is roasted. (We were able to see these at the store)

After the bean is roasted it looks like this:

(We were able to try the cocoa bean at this stage and it was very bitter!)

After a quick lesson, we started tasting! We tried all sorts delicious treats. First we sampled a lavender truffle, which tasted just like lavender smelled. Then a chai tea truffle that was full of rich flavors. We also tried a truffle that was made with fig, bacon, thyme and balsamic vinegar called Pig Vs. Fig. Next, we sampled was a vegan cherry truffle which tasted like an awesome chocolate covered cherry. Lastly, we sampled a truffle(mushroom kind) truffle, which was very earthy tasting.

We also tasted a marshmallow pie that reminded us all of a smore :)

They make their own marshmallows and flavor them with all natural ingredients. We tested a vanilla marshmallow, yum!

Lastly, we had some sea salt caramels. The caramels were freshly made and the sea salt made the flavors pop beautifully.

I came home with a tummy ache, yet it was worth every bite. I have never realized the vast difference between mass-produced chocolates and locally made chocolates. This store uses all natural ingredients and local ingredients when it is possible. It was such a fun way to celebrate a friend, and I would definitely return again for any kind of party!

Demolition Ball!

2012-02-10T17:31:00.002-05:00

Marty and I have had a busy few weeks. This past Saturday we hung out with the other youth leaders from our church. Our youth director planned a fun evening of demolition ball and Qdoba. What is demolition ball you ask?

Well, I experienced it for the first time too, and was not very good but had a ton of fun. Think bumper car meets lacrosse. We divided the group into two teams of 5 and each got our our car to drive around. There was no brake pedal, just gas, so imagine lots of bumping and crashing. Each person also had a curved throwing device to catch and throw a whiffle ball. Below are some pictures I found on the good 'ole world wide web and NOT of our group.

Overall, a fun game and may be in the running for Marty's 30th birthday celebration next year :)

Breakfast on the go

2012-01-29T18:45:00.000-05:00

Let me begin by saying how much I love Pinterest. It has made weekly meal planning so much easier and fun!

I found a great recipe for breakfast cookies. They have no dairy, sugar or flour in them. Once I heard this, I had to try them. Marty is not the best at planning to get up with enough time to shower, dress and eat breakfast. These cookies are great to grab on the go, and he can also take them to class as a snack.

All you do is combine 1 1/2 cups oats, 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce, 2-3 ripened bananas, a handful of craisins or raisins and cinnamon. Then you bake them at 350 for 35 minutes (spray the pan because they have a tendency to stick). One batch makes 12 big cookies, and each cookie is 1 weight watchers point (I assume that is healthy). I store them in the fridge because of the banana.

Here is the result:

Friday, Friday....

2012-01-26T19:35:00.003-05:00

We have big Friday night plans this week. Being mature, grown-up, late twenty somethings you would expect that we would be doing normal things such as going to the movies, having dinner out or getting together with friends.

Nope!

We are hanging out all night long with middle schoolers :) The evening of fun begins at this amazing establishment:

Bounce U

Then we are heading back to the Youth House for pizza, movies games and more fun. What should a 27 year old, teacher (at the end of the week), that goes to bed regularly around 9/9:30 from exhaustion pack for an occasion like this?

I'm thinking it will take lots of diet coke to get me through this night :)

Tim Keller's "You Never Marry The Right Person"

2012-01-11T08:01:00.000-05:00

Marty showed me this article a few days ago, and I thought I would share it with y'all. It is an excerpt from the book The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller, who is a pastor in NYC. My Mom gave Marty this book for his birthday and it has been a great read so far. This article talks about how culture views compatibility and the purpose of marriage. It is a quick read, yet thought provoking whether you are married or not. Just click on the link below to read...

"You Never Marry The Right Person"

Boden SALE

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

Boden is one of my new favorite clothing companies. They make beautiful and fun pieces that are great focal points of any outfit. I received a gift card for Christmas and ordered this skirt which arrived yesterday! I love that you can wear this skirt with many basic tops and keep it in the closet from Fall to Spring. Most of their clothing is out of my price range, yet they have great sales at the end of each season. Click here to see the Winter Sale items

Happy Shopping :)

Travels

2012-01-05T20:50:00.003-05:00

After our trip to NYC, we relaxed and prepared for Christmas at my parents house in PA. We visited with extended family, Marty read the entire Hunger Games Series, we saw high school friends, shopped and ate lots of great food. We had a great Christmas morning with one set of Grandparents and my Grandma.

Christmas eve appetizers for dinner while watching a Christmas Story

Beth and Marty taking in some coffee

Grandma and Ma

The beautiful tree before the room was covered in wrapping paper

Sisters and the Martster

After Christmas, we traveled down to Richmond to visit with Marty's parents. We had a great time seeing extended family at a family reunion, saw War Horse, shopped, ate delicious meals and visited so college friends. Oh, and also celebrated Marty's 29th birthday. We will continue to celebrate his birthday with friends here in a few weeks once the craziness of Jan Term is over.

I wish I had more pictures to remember our travels. I am notoriously bad at taking pictures, yet love to have them to remember special events! I'll try better next year :)

Christmas in NYC

2012-01-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

My sister, Bethany, lives in New York City. The Tuesday before Christmas we went up to the city for a short visit and Beth came home with us to celebrate the holidays. She was a great tour guide and we got to see most of the fun Christmas things the city has to offer. Here is our trip in photos...

Our travels began with an hour drive to Trenton and an hour train ride to Penn Station

We walked to West Village and went to lunch at The Meatball Shop. What a cute restaurant! We chose what kind of meatball we wanted, the sauce, and if we wanted a sandwich or noodles. We wrote our preferences with a dry erase marker on our menus and the waitress took our orders. The interior was decorated with old pictures, rustic fixtures, and mason jars with flowers on the table. Overall, great lunch spot to visit.

A HUGE Barnes and Noble for a bathroom break

Walking, walking, walking...

The largest department store in the world!

The window displays were interesting...a little bit too new age for me. I liked traditional looking window displays at Lord and Taylor much better.

We traveled to the 8th floor on old wooden escalators to see Santa. The waiting line was set up like a train and then you entered a wintery wonderland.

When we got to the end of the displays, we went into a little gingerbread house with Santa to get our picture taken. They even took a shot with my camera. Christmas card photo next year? Hilarious! Marty promptly asked Santa for a motorcycle and he said he would try his best to make Marty's Christmas wishes come true.

We walked and walked some more and stopped to see Bryant park and did some shopping at local Holiday markets. Last stop was Rockefeller center to see the tree and ice skaters.

We ended our visit by having dinner at a local brewery, and walked through Times Square on our way back to catch a train at Penn Station. It was a long day, but a great visit and way to start our Christmas vacation :)

Where did December go?

2011-12-17T09:52:00.000-05:00

Can you tell it is December? I feel like every night has been booked since Thanksgiving and we are just coming up for air. Does anyone else feel that way?

Well, Marty finished his last exam yesterday...yipee! He has been working day and night for the past two weeks on final preparation, papers and group projects. He feels confident that although the tests were hard, he passed them all. We will see when grades are posted.

Last night we finished our Christmas shopping, wrapped everything and enjoyed some time reconnecting at Bread Co. (Panera here in STL) thanks to teacher gift cards. We have a wedding tonight to celebrate the marriage of a seminary friend, and then we are on the road bright and early heading for PA.

I had the sweetest moment with a child yesterday that I want to share with you, even though it is mostly so I remember. One of the students I work with everyday on reading is named David. He provides me with daily laughter because of his cute comments and sweet spirit. He came to find me yesterday as I was doing carpool at the end of the day. He gave me this big bag of baked goods, and I proceeded to tell him thank you and to have a Merry Christmas. Then he looked at me with his first grade voice and big brown eyes and said, " Mrs. Cates, I have really enjoyed reading with you this year. Thank you so much for teaching me how to read. I can't wait to come back to school and read with you more." I teared up like a big baby and so did all the teachers around me :). God is so good to give us these brief moments and glimpses of affirmation, to know that He has planned this job for me, when I didn't want to move out the STL, to help David and kids like him. He knew I would love this job and see other options for me to still teach, yet not be overwhelmed by an entire classroom of students. God is good, all the time!

Giving Thanks

2011-11-25T11:03:00.001-05:00

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon His name;

make known His deeds among the peoples!

1 Chronicles 16:8

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

1 Chronicles 16:34

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

Psalms 9:1

God is good! We have been so very blessed this year. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with a family from church who have boys in our youth group. Then we had dinner with our dear friends that we knew from Norfolk, that just finished up seminary and are working locally. Tonight, we are getting together with a bunch of friends to have a Thanksgiving potluck...so let the festivities continue!

God has been so good to give us such a rich community of friends here in St Louis while we are so far from home. Today I am looking forward to some more baking and cooking for tonight, setting up our Willow Tree Nativity set, ordering Christmas cards and trying to talk Marty into setting up our little artificial tree. We may even squeeze a Christmas movie in there as well :) I hope y'all are enjoying the long weekend off with family and/or friends!

Gobble Gobble

2011-11-19T17:51:00.001-05:00

I wish my table looked like this, all white and beautiful!

We are super excited for Thanksgiving this year. We are staying in Missouri for the second year in a row and are looking forward to the three dinners we have planned :) Here are some of the dishes I am trying this year...

Honey Glazed Carrots

Bacon Braised Green Beans

Sweet Potato Biscuits

We have missed country ham ever since moving to Missouri. Marty's Mother so graciously sent us some in the mail...talk about exciting!!! We are going to make these sweet potato biscuits with the country ham and some peach preserves. Delicious!

Paula Deen's Crunch Top Apple Pie

Peanut Butter Pie

These are just some of the new things I am trying this year. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? What new dishes sparked your interest this year?

Christmas wish list

2011-11-17T22:05:00.000-05:00

This year more than ever, I had felt strange about making a Christmas with list. I know it is very helpful to people who want to know things that we want to receive. I understand all the logistics behind the with list, yet this year it seems harder than most years to find anything to put on the list. I find myself wishing for things that cannot be put on a wish list. They are things that cannot be bought at a store. So here is my wish list, until I can think of a real one...

a sleepover with my college roomies filled with late night chats, freshly baked cookies, arrested development episodes and a Starbucks run in the morning
a family game night with my family which includes the game Clue and refried beans and lime chips
snuggling with my dear friends new little ones LK, Caleb, Luke, and little Baby Hill ( when she arrives)
an outdoor shopping trip in Richmond with the Cates and an Olive Garden lunch
a crazy Christmas dinner with my HHS girls filled with life updates and the Greed game

That is my 27 year old wish list until I can come up with some real "things" to ask for :)

results...

2011-11-16T18:29:00.001-05:00

My sweet hairdresser did a great job yesterday. I decided to get some of the length cut off and do some long layers. Nothing is better than someone else washing and styling your hair...love it! I discovered that the last time I was there was February, and if that didn't feel like a long enough time, my hair dresser was 7 months pregnant and I didn't even know she was expecting until arriving :) Here are the results of the not so dramatic hair cut...

Still long, but touched up and layered

Thanks for caring :)

Important!

2011-11-14T21:20:00.001-05:00

I am getting a hair cut tomorrow. I am in a "I can't stand my extremely long hair anymore" mood. The last time I went to a hairdresser in this mood, I cut all my hair off in this awful bob, and cried the entire way home ( dramatic, I know).

Awful bob, posing with a Disney princess ball. This is one of the only pictures I have of the bob which says lots about my true feelings for the bob :)

I can't decide if I should go for a conservative trim, or a more dramatic style. These lovely ladies are sporting some hair styles I like, yet am not sure that I can pull off. They are also blond and I am pretty sure do not have naturally wavy, uncontrollable hair. We will see what tomorrow holds :)

November

2011-11-11T15:54:00.001-05:00

Well Hello November! Where has this Fall gone?

This is what we have been up to...

We took our middle school and high school kids on a Fall retreat. We had a dance party on Saturday night which was a decades theme. I always love a good excuse to dress up in 80s work out gear.

Most of the girls were 80s, because that is what is "in" right now. We had a few 50s and 70s girls as well.

Field games at the retreat

Marty dresses up most Wednesday nights for youth group in some kind of silly skit costume. Christmas card pic?

Couch-A-Rama in STL...awesome. We carried a couch under the arch, and were kindly asked to promptly leave after taking our picture by the nice Cop.

Happy Weekend! This weekend, we are raking leaves for the elderly, attending a chili dinner and a 30th birthday bash. Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T20:48:00.008-04:00

The past few weeks, most of our evenings have been spent cheering on these guys...

It has been so fun to live in St. Louis during this exciting time. Missouri does not feel like the South, yet the past few weeks people stop and talk about the Cards at the grocery store, library, mall, etc. It is neat when a city comes together for a common cause, even one as trivial as a baseball team. We are super proud of our underdogs and may have been transformed into life long Cardinals fans :)

Anyway, today is Halloween. I hope you are enjoying some good ole Charlie Brown and his great pumpkin.

Marty found this article about Halloween that has made us think about how we view this day.

Through this article, the author is encouraging Christians to be a part of their community and to embrace this holiday as a way of loving their neighbor, instead of having an event at Church. By dressing up and opening our homes to children excited about filling their candy buckets, we are getting to know those around us. At what other time of the year can you see every one of your neighbors? Here is a paragraph of the authors thoughts:

"Jesus said there are two commands that matter: love God and love your neighbour. The Easter holiday is all about the first command. Halloween is all about the second.

What other day of the year can you put on funny clothes and be welcomed at your neighbour’s house? In my neighbourhood Halloween is the only day of the year that that people actually get out of their houses and chat with the neighbours that they don’t know. It is a night of celebrating community."

Click Here to read the whole article- Just some thoughts to mull over while you are enjoying yummy chocolates tonight.

Tonight, we enjoyed the costume parade on campus and got to know some of our new first year neighbors. The best costumes I saw were: Pebbles and BamBam ( 3 year old twins), and a newborn baby dressed as a puffy St Louis Cardinals baseball. After the parade, the kids ran around the 6 apartment buildings and collected as much candy as possible :)

Go Cards!

2011-10-08T08:58:00.003-04:00

Marty and I went to Busch Stadium to see the Cards play the Cubs a few weeks ago because two of our good friends were given tickets and invited us. It was such a beautiful afternoon to sit at a ball game. We have our favorite food stand outside of the stadium where we grabbed hot dogs for $2.00 and packed the rest of our snacks in the cooler- all of which you can bring into the stadium. When we found our seats, we were 4 rows from the ball field next to third base- awesome seats! I felt like I was in the game the whole time! It was a close game until the 9th inning. Cards were up in the bottom of the 9th, and were down by 1. At 2 outs, a player ran home and scored a run to tie the game. Then they stole home to win the game! What a fun and exiting game :)

Our friend won the opportunity to buy tickets to a playoff game against the Phillies this past week while they were playing in St Louis. He invited Marty to go on Tuesday night, which was the night they lost to the Phillies, yet Marty had a great time and even brought home a rally towel :). Last night we went to a local pizza place to watch the Phillies-Cards face-off and cheered with the rest of St Louis to the Cardinals victory.

To say the least, we have jumped on the Cardinals bandwagon and are excited to cheer them on however far they make it :) The past two Fridays, we have had Cardinals days- which means teachers and students can wear jeans and Cardinals attire. This alone makes me a Cardinals fan as we never ever have jean Fridays :) This whole city is so excited, and it has been so fun to be a part of it here with them!

What we've been up to...

2011-09-17T11:22:00.010-04:00

Marty is continually singing the Hebrew alphabet, learning to read backwards and practicing the Hebrew dialect which sounds like he is coughing up a lung

We celebrated our good friend's wedding over Labor day weekend in Charlottesville, VA. We rented a house with a bunch of friends and family, and caught up with our dear friends from college and Norfolk. It was a whirlwind weekend, with a 12 hour drive there and back, yet worth every minute!

We have been busy with the youth group at church Here are two videos of what we have been up to with the youth :) Just click on the titles: Gladiators and Gospel (Marty made the tennis ball gun that you see been shot at the end. After many hours of putting together PVC piping, it worked and he was super excited) and Pantyhosers
I have been busy at work teaching the little ones to read and write. Here is my classroom in a bag :) Thanks Brenda for the great thirty-one bag, the individual compartments are great!

Second Year has started

2011-08-30T20:50:00.000-04:00

My second year of seminary has officially started. You might be thinking right now, wow Marty is alive. I apologize for my long absence form posting or sending a newsletter out. This summer has been terribly busy for me with my internship and travels.

The school year has begun though and that means back to the grind of class and assignments. This semester I am taking a full load of class, 14 hrs to be exact. I've listed my classes below with a little one liner that gives some kind of idea about them. I've also included a link to what I am currently listening to morning, noon and night.

Second Year Fall Semester
Hebrew-Im in beginning Hebrew meaning im learning grammar. Im bad at English grammar, supposedly Hebrew is easier. This is still doubtful.
Church History- I will be learning about the historical Church I think its early to medieval though Im not completely sure. I like history and the Church so this should be good.
Christ and Salvation-This is a systematics/biblical theology class where we learn the specifics of what is taught regarding Christ's role in Salvation.
Christ Centered Preaching- This is where we practice making sure our preaching and thought process about preaching are all GRACE centered. As we learned today all text has a redemptive context.
Educational Ministry Foundations-We learn how to teach, evaluate, and design curriculum. I think we learn other things as well but im not totally sure.

Here is a link to what I am currently listening to. Listen to me

Marty

Hi-Pointe

2011-08-24T20:56:00.000-04:00

I recently went with a friend to see The Help. (It was a wonderful movie, it made me laugh and cry and feel every emotion in between. It is definitely worth the 2 hours) I went to see the movie at a local movie theater that has been running for 88 years, called the Hi Pointe Theater. It was so charming! They have one theater, show new movies and most movies are $5.00, Take a look...

Cute concession stand with candy, popcorn, beer, wine and St Louis' famous Ted Drews custard.

It felt like I was traveling back in time to go to the movies. There was even a candy bowl at the entrance with wrapped caramels and those strawberry candies (the ones with a wrapper that looks like a strawberry). Sure, the seats didn't recline or have headrests, yet it was such a fun time!

Date Night

2011-08-22T21:46:00.003-04:00

School is back in session, and I wish I could post pictures of all the little cutie pies in kindergarten this year. These kids are just adorable- big bows, smocked dresses, happy smiles, and they are ready to learn, well as ready as five year olds can be :)

The past two weeks, Marty and I found a great new date night spot. We have never been very good at "date night" as a couple, mostly because I like to save money and, well, Marty isn't a very "scheduled" person, and time just slips away. I think we have found the perfect combination to help with both of our flaws concerning date night...

EL INDIO!

Classy, I know. Every Monday and Tuesday night, El Indio offers great $1.00 tacos. This helps el cheapo (ME) and el noscheduledano (Marty), to have a regular night out to catch up during both of our busy school years. Just another little blessing to be thankful for...Praise the Lord for good, cheap taco nights :)

The little things...

2011-08-13T12:54:00.009-04:00

Summer is my very most favorite time of the year. Last week, I went back to school for in-service training, and will welcome new students this week on Thursday. It is always sad to see the free days of summer go away. Here are some little things that I loved about this summer...

BLT with fresh tomatoes from our garden, fresh fruit and sweet tea

Time for crafts and projects, like this picture frame menu board. The dry erase marker writes well on glass and wipes off with a paper towel. I used some left over scrap book letters to put on the word "menu" and the days of the week. I am excited to use this for our meal planning this year.

Time to watch instant streaming Netflix TV shows such as Friday Night Lights and Mad Men

Time for trips to the library for new books and magazines

Time to travel and relax in the sun.

Summer catch-up... July

2011-07-25T18:27:00.001-04:00

July started off with a great week long trip to the beach. We drove from PA down to Corolla, North Carolina in the Outer Banks. Marty met us there, and we relaxed with my parents, sister, aunt, uncle, 2 cousins and grandparents. Marty played so hard that he got swimmers ear towards the end of the trip. Talk about one unhappy boy! Overall, very relaxing trip with great tanning weather :) The house came with tons and tons of magazines that I love- House Beautiful, Coastal Living, Rachel Ray, Real Simple- What a fun bonus! I didn't take any pictures except for one at the lovely Sanderling Inn, because a parent from school gave me a gift card to enjoy lunch their over my vacation, how sweet!

Next, Marty and I said goodbye to my family, and traveled to Norfolk. We spent a fun-filled packed 3 days in the beautiful city. We were so loved, welcomed and served by so many sweet friends. Marty and I have never eaten as well as we did those 3 days. After Norfolk, we traveled to Colonial Heights to visit with Marty's family. We enjoyed lots of shopping, visiting, and eating well (again). We tried a new frozen yogurt place that was to die for called Sweet Frogs. If you have one nearby, give it a try! On Thursday, our good friends in Norfolk had their first baby, and we were thrilled! They invited us to come and see the little one on Friday morning, yet made us wait the whole drive back to Norfolk to discover the sex and the name! The wait killed us, yet we were so happy to find out when we arrived, it made it all worth it!

Ally looked great and is a total natural

On Friday night, I traveled into Richmond to visit with my college roomies, Stacy and Erin, to celebrate Erin's little boy who is arriving at the end of September. We went to a classy, grown-up southern spot for dinner called Julep's. If you are ever in the area, try it, you won't be disappointed. It serves upscale southern cuisine, huge portions, has great service and is a great place to celebrate something special.

So cute!

Erin, Stacy and I loving baby D

We had a great time visiting with everyone we got to see on the East coast. It is hard to come back to Missouri, yet exciting that Marty will begin his second year of seminary next month. We are 1/3 of the way done, and I couldn't be more proud of the work Marty is doing at school at in his internship! Happy Monday!

Summer catch up- June

2011-07-20T12:49:00.006-04:00

Wow, I have been gone pretty much all summer until now. School starts back on August 10, so I still have a few weeks at home before the back to school blues begin.

I traveled to Pennsylvania to visit with my parents for three weeks in June. The first weekend I was there, my cousin Kirsten graduated from high school. We celebrated together at my Aunt and Uncle's house with a fun Penn State themed party!

The next weekend, another one of my cousins, Emma, graduated from high school. Her graduation was in Harrisburg and we celebrated with a fun dinner out! Here is Emma as a new high school graduate!

After two weekends of high school graduations, I spent the next weekend with my own high school girlfriends. From Thursday night to Sunday we had sleepovers, great conversations, lots of laughs, lounged by the pool and threw a baby shower for our second Mama to be in our group. Overall, it was a refreshing weekend to be with friends who knew me when I was young, silly and nieve about the world and still love me dearly.

STL

2011-07-17T09:33:00.003-04:00

This afternoon we will begin the drive back to STL and will arrive there late Monday night. After sleeping in 6 different cities over the last 5 weeks, I am excited for the comforts of home. Updates to come :)

Green thumb Marty

2011-06-07T17:29:00.003-04:00

Along with being a seminary student, a youth intern, and on call maintenance man, Marty is in charge of our community garden. This year he organized our beautiful community garden and led the planting at the beginning of May. We have zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Here it is today...

Shabby Chic look for less

2011-06-06T10:51:00.000-04:00

Friday night, after a nice date at Pei Wei (courtesy of the Cates), we decided to go for a drive in an older area of the city with huge beautiful mansion-like homes. After a long drive around the city, we passed an antique store I have always wanted to visit. It closed at 7 and it was currently 6:50. We have been looking for a chair to fill our corner space in our "living room" area of our apartment so we can sit more people. We decided to split up, and look for a chair to work in that area. We proceeded to speed walk through the entire store. In the second to last row of the store I heard loud whistling. Apparently that means, "Meredith, I found the chair that we have been looking for, come now!". 6:55- I run to the last row, make the fastest decision of my life, and say yes I love it. 6:59- Annoyed antique mall worker rings us up for our cute $20 chair. After lots of scrubbing with magic eraser here she is...

I love the spindle detailing

Still working on finding the right pillow that shows off the chair but gives a little cushion as well.

The Big Bad Cicada

2011-06-04T11:32:00.002-04:00

We are truly being invaded! The past few weeks, I have enjoyed the singing of the cicada...it reminded me of summers arrival and beautiful warmer weather. Yesterday, my love of the cicada quickly halted.

St. Louis is currently home to the 13 year cicada, last seen in in these parts in '98. They are no longer minding their own business and hanging out on the trees all day. They have taken flight!

This means you can no longer walk outside of our apartment without ducking for cover and running to your destination. On my walk from the car to the door yesterday I was smacked in the head multiple times by these bugs. There are currently 4 on the window screen right by me. Our steps into our building are covered with dead bug remains. ICK! All the neighborhood boys are loving catching the bugs and it is no surprise that there are only Dads and boys on the playground. I guess I will not be sitting out in the sun this week before my trip East.

Schools Out!

2011-06-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

Cicadas are chirping loudly here in St. Louis...to me that means summer is here! The last day of school way on May 27, also my birthday, great present! We had to work all week this week, yet it still felt great with no children. It is such a change for me to be finished school before Memorial Day, yet I know August 10 will come way sooner that I am used to as well.

This summer I will be on the East coast visiting family and friends. I am excited to have the time to travel and visit with loved ones. Here is a glimpse of my summer...

I will be flying to PA to visit my family and friends outside of Philadelphia next Friday.

Two of my cousins are graduating from high school on back to back weekends in June. Congrats girls!

This is my group of high school girlfriends from 2002. We have been meeting together annually since graduation. We will have a girls weekend together and I can't wait to catch up with these ladies.

My sister lives in New York City, and I hope to visit her during my stay in PA. She knows the city well and I am excited to see all the unique things the city has to offer.

My parents are putting in a pool and I am hoping its done by my visit there (not this exact pool).

We will be driving to the Outer Banks for a family vacation in Corolla. Marty will come and joins us there too. I miss the beach so badly, and I can wait to soak up the sun.

Necessary for soaking up the sun! My favorite brand that is getting harder to find out here.

Also necessary for soaking up the sun...Target has some cute polka dot options for this summer.

Marty and I will travel to Norfolk and Richmond to visit more family and friends before making the long trip back to Missouri.

Fruit and Flower Anniversary

2011-05-21T16:06:00.000-04:00

The 4 year anniversary is the fruit and flower anniversary. Marty is a man's man and I didn't think he would appreciate the whole flower thing as much as I would, so I decided to be creative. I made cake pops, and arranged them as though they were flowers. They turned out great! I made the cake balls following Paula Deen's cake ball recipe using red velvet cake mix and cream cheese frosting and just added the lollypop stick before the freezing step.
Here are Marty's flowers:

Here are my flowers, I will let Marty share his story of getting these beautiful peonies for me another time :)

4

2011-05-20T07:54:00.003-04:00

Four years ago (yesterday), we left our wedding reception and started this thing called marriage. We haven't figured out all the secrets to marriage yet, but we have figured out that marriage is work, it is not always fun, and does not always make you happy. We have figured out that marriage has been a huge blessing to us both, we have learned to repent and forgive, we have learned how to love selflessly and our marriage has made us better. Thanks for all the well wishes! We are so blessed to have so much support and love in our marriage. Here's to many more anniversaries with my best friend!

Basic Apartment Updates-Part 2

2011-05-14T14:30:00.003-04:00

Most of the fixtures in our home are straight from the 80s, singing Eye of the Tiger and wearing MC Hammer pants. Although, the 80s produced great rock-out in the car classics, they did not produce fixtures that are pleasing to the eye. Enter our brass and frosted glass chandelier. I just scrolled through my iPhoto and don't even have any pictures (accidental, I think not).

Anyways, Marty decided he wanted to replace it last weekend with a more current shade and assured me that this would be an easy job to accomplish. My Grandma Z gave us a Pottery Barn gift card for Christmas, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to put that to good use. We found a great shade with a blue and green floral print, a perfect match to the rest of the blue and green decor in our living space. And even better it was on sale. Yippe! So we paid nothing and got a great new look above our dining area. Thanks Grandma!

Quick fix to a basic apartment

2011-05-02T20:49:00.003-04:00

We are so thankful to be in seminary at this stage of our lives; we are young, childless, and know that we are called here right now...

That being said, sometimes living in a small, plain apartment stifles my creative decorating juices. I have heard from HGTV and many design blogs, that a quick way to change the look of your windows is to higher the curtain rods to give the allusion of big, grand windows. Last week, we tried this and it made a huge different. If you are in the same situation, in an apartment with little freedom to change anything, this is a great and easy project.

Before...
After...

Cardnials Stadium Tour

2011-05-01T15:09:00.004-04:00

On Easter Monday, I went back to work and Marty took his parents to tour Busch Stadium, the home of the Cardinals. Here are some pictures from their trip...

In the dugout!

After learning more about the Cardinals and the history of the stadium, the visited another St. Louis attraction, Ted Drews. This is an amazing custard stand that beats any frozen yogurt or ice-cream joint I've ever been to. Their specialty is the concrete, which is somewhat similar to a Dairy Queen Blizzard, but better ingredients and delicious flavor combinations.

Easter Happenings Part 2

2011-05-01T14:57:00.004-04:00

We had a small Easter dinner with the Cates after church on Sunday late afternoon. Instead of fixing a ham, we chose to fix pork tenderloin since it was just the four of us. We also had roasted fingerling potatoes, bread, and a pear, goat cheese salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. We used our china, Lenox Spring Vista, which always makes a dinner feel more special. After we recovered from a delicious dinner, we enjoyed a mixed berry cobbler and ice-cream for dessert.

Easter Happenings

2011-04-30T09:42:00.005-04:00

Marty's parents came in town last week to celebrate Easter with us. While they were here, we were able to explore more of St. Louis with them. The Cates really wanted to go up in the famous St. Louis arch and see the city from the top. Marty and I had no desire to ride up in the arch, yet we had heard that the other attractions around the Arch were excellent. We decided to go on Good Friday morning, and as the Cates bought tickets for themselves to go up the arch they also bought us tickets to join them. Marty whined, fussed and decided he had no choice but to go. Little children were walking by us excited to ride up the Arch, so how scary could it be?

We arrived at the entrance to our pod that was going to take us more than 600 feet in the air. The door to the pod, was 4 feet tall ( the picture shows the top, yet the door did not go all the way to the floor, it was about 1 foot off the floor)

As the door opened and revealed the itty bitty teeny weeny pod we were traveling in Marty started to sweat. All 4 of us made it into the pod, and as the doors were about to close, Marty shouted...

" I CAN'T DO THIS!"

... and bolted out of the pod, and the doors closed.

We held on tight as the pod swayed back and forth all 600 feet in the sky. Here we are inside of the pod.

Once we got to the top, we were able to see for miles through little skinny windows. The Arch swayed so dramatically at the top you could hardly stand still.

Overall, a great and hilarious trip. Although Marty was too scared to go up the Arch, he did test out the model pod that was safely secured to the ground...

We're Not In Virginia Anymore...

2011-04-25T17:32:00.002-04:00

We are in the midst of Spring here in St Louis, which is very different from Norfolk. Spring in Norfolk is mostly Summer-light. Warmer temperatures that lead to some beach trips, all around enjoyable weather and lots of pollen. St. Louis spring includes the rainy season, lots of rain, lots of huge thunderstorms and tornado season. We are not in tornado alley, yet it feels like it so far this Spring.

I wanted to assure everyone that we were unharmed/untouched by the tornadoes that ripped through the area on Good Friday. After our Good Friday service, the sirens sounded and we camped out in the basement for a while for some neighbors. The tornadoes hit mostly to the Northwest of where we are in the County. Many lost their homes, cars and one entire terminal at the airport was damaged, yet no one lost their life. Praise God! We are getting good at quickly unplugging our electronics and heading to the basement quickly. Just one more new thing about living in the Midwest.

4-16-2007

2011-04-16T22:03:00.002-04:00

Our hearts are in Blacksburg today, even though we are 700 miles away.

Joy!

2011-04-11T21:41:00.003-04:00

Gone with the Wind is now available for instant streaming through Netflix on the Wii. The perfect background movie for just about any chore! Dusting, scrubbing the kitchen, and packing lunches are just more enjoyable with Scarlett and Rhett in the background :)

Currently I am loving...

2011-04-02T14:01:00.006-04:00

that it is now in the sixties and the windows are wide open

planning for a high school gals reunion weekend with these ladies

going to the library on a free afternoon. The public library close to us is enormous. It is so easy to get lost in their looking at great books and my new found love, magazines. There is any magazine you want to look at, all the current issues, and you can check them out as long as your books. It is so nice to have a big pile of magazines and books to read through in the evenings or before bed.

Trader Joe's sweet potato chips

the Peter and the Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. This series is almost the prequel to Peter Pan. It gives you the history behind why Peter Pan is the way he is. Barry and Pearson did their research and even asked Barrie's, the original author of Peter Pan, family to approve the series before publishing. This is great children's literature appropriate for ages 10ish and up

SB2K11

2011-03-23T18:52:00.002-04:00

I'm 1/2 way through enjoying Spring Break here in Missouri, and so far it has been everything I desired. The weather is gorgeous! I have had plenty of relaxing time (a.k.a sitting in the beach chair and reading magazines from the library), and plenty of social time with friends. I have rediscovered my love for the park that is across the street from the seminary. Complete with its mile long trail around a pond, this park is the perfect workout spot on a nice day. On Monday I loved it a little too much, 6 miles too much, and got two blisters on my feet. We have been able to spend time with our friends on campus and hang out with their kids, which there isn't time for when I'm working all day.

There are signs all around that Spring is finally coming to Missouri. We discovered that this huge tree right outside our windows is a beautiful Magnolia that had just started to bloom. It does not have the typical white blossom you think of as a magnolia blossom, it is pink and white like the pictures below ( from the computer, my photography skills are not that great). What a beautiful reminder of Spring right outside of our window!

Spring Break Soon...

2011-03-17T07:58:00.004-04:00

Next week is Spring Break! My school's calendar follows a local Christian high school's calendar, which follows Covenant Seminary's calendar; therefore, Marty and I have Spring break together! Such a blessing. Marty has to be on-call all week, so we are not able to travel anywhere. It will still be a wonderful time to slow down together. Here are some of our to do's for the week:

try out some new farmers markets in the area
install some shelves in the living room ( see inspiration picture)
go walking in a nearby park
visit with a fun friend from Norfolk
have some phone dates with friends back East
free breakfast dates with Marty at Chick-fil-a, thanks to our new neighbor who graciously shared her coupons with us :) It is nice to know people who work at Chick-fil-a
update my MO drivers license, since I am legally Meredith Grace Grace right now, how I missed that the first time I have no idea!
do a little Spring cleaning
relax!

One more work day until the break begins, yipee!

Updates...

2011-03-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

Update- After the last post, I put my brave face on, went to work, proceeded to throw-up my lunch in the shared student/teacher bathroom, cried to one of the secretaries and went home early. I slept from 1-5, woke up ate some Cheerios then slept from 7:30pm-10:00am. I finally think the crud has left our home for good, praise the Lord.

In other news, we sold our truck and are now a 1 car family. The poor truck just sat and sat in the parking lot and we just paid and paid for the thing. We were "casually" looking to sell it and a dealer offered us a good price (more than Kelly Blue Book) so we sold. It is so nice not to have a monthly car payment, monthly insurance payment, property tax bill, and to be debt free. I think Dave Ramsey would be proud, thanks Ashley for the introducing us to Dave :)

We have decided to stay here for the summer. Marty was deciding between two internships, and we chose the youth internship at our church here in Missouri. Not only does it pay, but it is an internship that will continue through the rest of our time in seminary. We have been feeling more called to serving youth/teens since we have been out here and I think this is a great opportunity for Marty to learn the ins and outs of youth ministry.

And in really important news- I am currently drinking my first diet coke all week. Ever since the crud hit the house, my desire for DC has almost diminished. We haven't purchased a pack of it for at least two weeks. Maybe something good can come from getting sick :)

2011-02-22T19:33:00.003-05:00

Is 6:30 too early to go to bed?

At 26 years old, I really just asked myself that question. In correlation with our previous post, our lives have been revolving around sickness recently. Just as Marty regained strength and broke his fever, I got a fever and went downhill. It started Saturday night, with uncontrollable shaking/shivering which resulted in me putting on all the clothes I could get to and piling blankets on the bed and nearly suffocating Marty. We skipped Church on Sunday, slept in and camped out on the couch all day. Sunday night I threw up multiple times and whined to Marty that I hate throwing up and I will never get pregnant b/c I hate throwing up ( I get a little dramatic while sick). Monday, our housing director had planned on having all old windows replaced, wonderful! This meant I had to put make-up on (dramatic) and that the house had to be kind of clean (again, dramatic) for the complete strangers that were going to be replacing the windows. From 12-7:30pm 5 men were in and out of my apartment cutting out the windows, leaving holes open to the elements, gluing new windows in (stinky) and banging, drilling, and making all sorts of loud noises. I tried to get up off the couch, hoping to be able to leave for a while, yet 5 minutes into standing up I felt both nauseous and headaches. I camped out on the couch, politely making small talk with the men as they walked in and out, and watched every girly movie I own. After the men left, I decided #1- I had no voice and #2- I felt bad, not just a little bad but cry out loud bad. #1 and #2 ( and Marty) helped me to call into work and tell them I wouldn't be coming in. Praise the Lord I don't have my own classroom this year and, with some guilt, I was easily able to take the day off. I am finally feeling better, not 100% better, but not-infectious better. Who knows what this bug actually was...Marty and I are very different in many ways, yet share this common fear/dislike of doctors. Not a great thing to have in common, but so far we have survived.

I just took the longest hottest shower ever and think all the phlegm is gone for now. I was contemplating going directly to bed, yet thought this weekend/week was too funny not to write down for us to smile at later. I think I will wrap up the evening with some Glee ( 7pm central time:) ) and head to bed.

* This post is so long probably because I have only spoken to Marty, the window repairmen, my Mom and the Target cashier for the past 4 days :) Thanks for listening, back to work tomorrow

Sick...

2011-02-19T17:16:00.003-05:00

Our home has been taken over by meds, movies, sweatpants, and Clorox wipes. Marty has been sick since Thursday, and literally hasn't left the house in 3 days. Bless his heart! Thankfully, Thursday and Friday were unseasonably warm, 65-70, so we had the windows open airing out all the germs. He has been through lots of homemade chicken noodle soup, Gatorade, water, Tylenol, and cough drops. Any other advice for a fever/cough/congestion? I think I am going to strongly encourage him to visit a doctor tomorrow if his fever hasn't broken. Let hope my immune system can stand up to this one.

At least we have these beautiful tulips from V-Day to enjoy. I love the little spot of hot pink :)

Literacy Conference...

2011-02-16T19:35:00.004-05:00

I had a great time being surrounded by lots of Vera Bradley lovin' women at the conference last week. People in St. Louis do not love their Vera like they do in the south, yet I was pleasantly embraced by the love of Vera at the conference. Anyway, here are some highlights:

- 11 hour drive in the snow with 6 women in one mini-van, lots of potty breaks
- sharing a hotel room with 3 co-workers close to my age, slumber party!
- seeing Lucy Calkins and Debbie Miller in person!... these are two major big-wigs in the education world if your response was "huh?"
- learning more about Reading Recovery, and thinking it is my calling in the education world
- watching The Bachelor with my 5 co-workers in our cozy hotel room, lots of chocolate
- dreaming bigger goals and ideas for our small Christian school

Overall, this trip was such a blessing for my relationships with some of my co-workers. We learned a lot about literacy in the classroom, and about each other. I was totally ready to return home because of lack of sleep and a tiring schedule, yet loved every class, speaker and chance we got to hang out.

You Are More...

2011-02-11T19:04:00.006-05:00

At our late start meeting this week at school we continued our study of multiple intelligences. Our gifted specialist was introducing the visual-spacial intelligence. She used this music video to introduce the idea of a visual-spacial learner; a learner that sees words and ideas in pictures. This video is so powerful, the way the director represented the words of the song in a beautiful visual of Christ's work on the cross. Usually, I am not a huge fan of Christian music, yet this was too good not to share. It would be a great addition to a young life/ youth group talk. ( click on the title to view the whole picture, I am not sure why only half of the video can fit)

Meredith's First Business Trip

2011-02-05T08:15:00.003-05:00

So, as a teacher, travel is not really a part of the job. The past few years since college, Marty and lots of friends have traveled to cool places for work such as Las Vegas, NYC, San Fransisco, etc. Well, today I get my first taste of traveling for work...to Columbus, OH ( not so cool, I know). A team of five women and I are traveling to the National Reading Recovery Conference, which takes place Sunday through Tuesday. As of now, it is snowing pretty hard on top of all the ice we received from the "ice storm of a century" we just had last week. We are driving 7 hours today, registering for the conference and going to bed to prepare for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

The First Day of Semester Two.

2011-01-27T11:46:00.002-05:00

Meredith has asked that I start blogging more about my classes to keep everyone up to date on how my education is going. Today was day one of semester two, and it seems like it will be an interesting semester. As Meredith pointed out I am taking a pretty hefty load this semester, and it is heavy on theology this time around. This is a good thing as I prefer theology classes over language classes.

Today was what my normal Thursday will be, so I only had "God and Humanity" today. First classes are always heavy on syllabus readings. Dr. Williams was pretty quick in explaining the class though. He reminded us this is the first of 3 systematic theology classes that will work through the Apostles' Creed. So for class one we will be dealing with, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth." The subsequent classes are named "Christ and Humanity" and "Ecclesiology and Eschatology".

I really look forward to this class as we examine, tear down, and build up the theology of God the Father and his Covenantal Lordship. We will also explore, hopefully pretty in-depth, the idea of "image bearer". I have posted below the reading list for the class. I thank you for your prayers for us, and for my classes.

The Mission of God, Christopher Wright (Luckily I own this)
Reformed Dogmatcis, Vol 2: God and Creation, Herman Bavinck (I will soon own this as I ordered it on amazon about 5 minutes ago)
Not the Way It's Supposed to Be, Cornelius Plantinga
The Doctrine of Humanity, Charles Sherlock
Why I'm Not an Armenian, Robert Peterson and Michael Williams (Both Covenant Professors)
Westminster Shorter Catechism and Westminster Confession of Faith (As a good Presbyterian I own multiple copies of these)

A new semester

2011-01-26T21:43:00.002-05:00

Marty begins spring semester classes tomorrow. It has been one long Christmas break for him, and I know he is itching to get back into a "normal" school routine. He is taking the following this semester:

Covenant Theology II
Elem. Homiletics Practicum
God and Humanity
Gospels
Pastoral Issues: Sustaining Ministry for Life
Apologetics and Outreach

Pray for his transition back into classes and studying. We are still working on finding a good balance between home life and school work, and learning how to prepare in advance for the BIG assignments so that Marty doesn't have to live in the library for nights on end. :)

Snow day!

2011-01-20T12:13:00.003-05:00

The good thing about living in Missouri is that when it is bitterly cold, you usually get beautiful snow with it and the occasional snow day! Here are some pictures from our window...

Marty does not start his Spring semester until Monday, so we are going to enjoy an entire day together! Our to do list includes finishing thank you letters, working out, watching movies with homemade popcorn, reading, and baking my Aunt Lisa's yummy scones. We may try to venture out and do a little sledding, yet the warmth of our apartment is more appealing to me at the moment :)

Nashville

2011-01-17T09:51:00.005-05:00

We drove to Nashville this weekend to be a part of Tyler and Amy's wedding weekend. Tyler is a friend we met in Norfolk through church and our community group. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating their marriage together. We arrived on Friday night to the rehearsal at the church, then ate a lovely dinner at Belle Meade Plantation.
We enjoyed at delicious dinner and shared stories of Amy and Tyler.
On Saturday, Marty had lots of obligations as a groomsman, so I explored historic downtown Franklin with some girlfriends. Franklin is about 25 minutes outside of Nashville, and is such a cute town. Little shops and boutiques line the streets with brick sidewalks and old trees. We had a great time exploring this sweet little town.
The wedding ceremony was at five that evening. The church was beautifully decorated with white candles, white and light blue hydrangeas and greens. Amy wore a strapless, lace dress and a low veil . The bridesmaids wore strapless blue JCrew-ish dresses with nude pumps. The service was short and sweet and both the bride and groom shed joyful tears.

After the ceremony, we headed to the reception at an old factory in Franklin called The Factory. It was a historic building with brick walls, high ceilings with white lights. They played fun music and had great food. They had a photo booth with lots of dress up clothes to take funny pictures. After the picture was taken, we put our pictures into a photo booth for the bride and groom, and we got to take a copy home...I think this was Marty's favorite part of the reception, apparently he likes to dress up in silly costumes.
Overall, we had a wonderful weekend celebrating with our friends! I hope you enjoy a long weekend wherever you are :)

Not your Mama's Rice Crispy Treats

2011-01-09T15:55:00.000-05:00

Y'all have to try this recipe. A parent at school gave it to me and it is the best variation on the normal rice crispy treat I have ever tasted. Yum!

Crispy Chocolate Cherry Treats
Makes 16 squares (I doubled for a 9x13)

3 tbs butter
1 10 oz. bag of mini marshmallows
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups of Rice Krispies Cereal
1 cup dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1. Prepare pan- line 8'' square baking pan with foil, allowing excess foil to hang over pan edges. Grease foil.
2. Melt butter in large pot over low heat. Add marshmallows, white chocolate chips and some salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth ( 8 minutes or so). Stir in vanilla.
3. Assemble treats- Off heat, stir in Rice Krispies and cherries until incorporated. Scrape mixture into the prepared pan, and press into bottom and corners with a greased spatula. Let cool completely, about an hour.
4. Drizzle chocolate- Drizzle melted chocolate chips over cooled treats. Allow chocolate to cool. Using foil overhang, lift treats from pan. Cut into squares and serve.

Our Christmas vacation in road signs...

2011-01-08T17:04:00.004-05:00

We had a wonderful 2 weeks visiting many friends and family on the East Coast. We feel so loved and supported after this long trip. We are truly blessed to have wonderful people in our lives. Thanks to all who were so hospitable to us!

More travels...

2010-12-26T17:16:00.004-05:00

We safely made it to PA today. We left snowy Richmond earlier than we expected to in order to beat the worst of the snow. Now for a week with the Ford family before heading back to St. Louis. Praise the Lord for a long Christmas break this year!

Christmas Travels...

2010-12-22T10:41:00.001-05:00

HERE IS A LITTLE RECAP OF OUR TRAVELS SO FAR (MOSTLY FOR OUR MEMORIES)

We traveled from Missouri to Roanoke to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins- 11 hours

We traveled from Roanoke to Norfolk and visited with lots of friends- 4 1/2 hours

Then we traveled to the Dickenson's lovely home in Glen Allen, VA for dinner- 2 1/2 hours

Then we traveled to the Cates in Colonial Heights- 45 minutes
We will be here until the 26th weather permitting...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Random...

2010-12-09T21:28:00.005-05:00

Lots of random thoughts on a random Thursday night:

I am currently loving Bigelow Vanilla Chai tea. Just add a little milk and some sweetener and you have a delicious treat in the morning.

I have currently been finding joy in the rare morning that my car is not all iced over. The past two weeks I have become VERY familiar with my ice scraper. Is there a product out there that stops your car from icing up? If not, I am going to start inventing one!

People out here don't say y'all or you guys, I am still trying to figure out what is the appropriate plural form of you.

For the past 3 weeks I have eaten the same exact salad- spinach, goat cheese, cranberries and pine nuts- for lunch at school. Could there be such a thing as too much of these things?

Today was Shop and Save's $10 off / $50 purchase Thursday deal. Thursdays are incredibly busy because of this deal, yet to me it is worth it so I go. I waited in a super long line- with people who seemed to be stocking up on groceries for life...anyway I spent $51 at the register, yet my $10 did not come off because I bought milk, and milk and alcohol don't count towards your $50 purchase- who knew. So- I had to go back and buy 1 more item that cost $2.15 or more...she wouldn't just let me grab a diet coke and gum that was in the aisle...annoying!

We are traveling to Roanoke, Norfolk, Richmond and West Chester this Christmas- all in two weeks starting next Saturday...we can't wait!

Marty and I went through an entire bag of muddy buddies/puppy chow in two days, and he wonders why I don't ever make it.

Tomorrow at chapel I will hear 300+ children ages 3-12 sing worship songs and that fills my heart with such joy!

Happy Thursday Y'all!

30 Before 30 update

2010-12-05T16:59:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of November, we had a good friend who is also a professional photographer take some pictures of us. I have always wanted some nice pictures of the two of us, and I am happy to be able to cross it off of our 30 before 30 list...
~~14. Get professional "family" portraits made (just Marty and me)~~
It was a beautiful Fall day, the leaves were at their peak. The pictures turned out lovely! Thanks Kacey for all your hard work! Check out some of her other work here.
Here are some of my favorites:

Movies...

2010-12-04T07:52:00.002-05:00

We have a great movie theater "chain" here called Wehrenberg Theaters. Today, if you bring 5 canned goods to donated to the Red Cross, you can see any movie before 5pm. We have been waiting to see Harry Potter at a discounted price, but since it has been so new there has been nothing available. Well, today we can go and see Harry for $3 each, and feel good about donating canned goods. We are going to an early show so we can come home and watch the Hokies play at Charlotte- GO HOKIES!

Happy Saturday!

You know you live in the Midwest when...

2010-11-30T17:33:00.005-05:00

your school handbook states that children may play outside for recess unless it is below 20 degrees.

I think I need to update the winter wardrobe with some of these to survive the winter here...

Happy 4th Hayes/ Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T09:02:00.004-05:00

We have some good friends from our home church in Norfolk that are also in seminary here at Covenant. They are in their 3rd year, and live on campus with us. To say the least, they have helped in our transition to St. Louis a ton. In a new place, it is so nice to know people that already know your story.

Yesterday, we celebrated their youngest child's birthday along with them. It was Toy Story themed with a yummy Buzz cake! He is turning 4, so we decided to get him some Legos. There is every theme of Legos out there, you can even build Hogwarts and Harry out of Legos. I decided to get him a knight theme set with a castle and a catapult. When he opened it up this is what he shouted...

"Its Legos and it has the shooting thing I've been dreaming about!!!" He came up to me and gave me a big squeeze and said Thank you Thank you Miss Meredith.

He continued to come back to the Lego set throughout the party, and look at it and study it and talk about putting it together.

This is such a neat picture of thanksgiving for the smallest of things. There are so many times I covet what others have, or grumble about having one very small salary. But, we are truly blessed. We have been provided with jobs, support, a great apartment on campus, friends at home and friends going through seminary with us. We have never had to rely on the Lord for our finances until this year, and He has provided and will continue to provide. Praise the Lord that we are healthy, we can fix dinner every night, we can pay for tuition and books, and that we can give to others that are in need. All too often Marty and I take these things for granted, and do not stop to say "Thank you Thank you" like little Hayes. What a wonderful day of the year to have the opportunity to stop and praise the Lord for His love, grace and provisions.
James 1:16-17-
"Do not be deceived, my beloved dear brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Target Ads

2010-11-20T14:29:00.005-05:00

I love Target! My sweet friend, Amanda, and I used to spend hours in Target when we were roomies at Tech and when we both lived in Hampton Roads. This holiday season, Targets ads are seriously cracking me up. The over enthusiastic shopper in BIG pears, side ponytail and sweat suit is hilarious. I hope there are more Target shopping tips to come :)
Have a laugh:

Holidays

2010-11-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

I can't quite believe that the holidays are right around the corner. It feels like we just arrived here in St. Louis with all our belongings and no clue as to what this huge life change was going to look like. Teaching around the holidays in a Christian school has been a completely different experience than I had in public school. We are putting on a huge Thanksgiving play, complete with pilgrim and Native American outfits for the children. In this play, the Pilgrims praise the Lord for their safe arrival on Plymouth Rock and sing hymns of joy. I can't wait to prepare for Christmas with the little ones, and be able to talk about Jesus' birth for the first time in school.

We are staying in St. Louis for Thanksgiving this year, and having dinner with friends. We are attempting to make part of the Thanksgiving meal and are looking forward to making the turkey, sweet potato casserole, pecan pie and Marty's grandmother's tea rolls. Yum!

Happy Saturday!

Stacy's Wedding

2010-11-10T18:15:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful time in Virginia celebrating our friends wedding. We were in central Virginia, about 45 outside of Charlottsville. No cell phone reception, no cable TV, just a good ole' country weekend with friends. We stayed in a cabin with two other couples and stayed up way to late catching up and doing puzzles.

The wedding ceremony was held in a quaint old church near town. The reception was held in a picnic lodge, and was decorated with lights on the ceiling white pumpkins as centerpieces, and a huge fireplace warmed up the room.

Cute little country church up in town

There were mason jars hung from the ceiling with candles inside. The place cards were tied onto the branches in the center of the table.

We wrote Stacy and David a note and put it in these tiny envelopes attached to a scrapbook.

The ceiling was covered with stings of white lights and a huge fireplace warmed the room.

White pumpkins with gold splattered paint were the centerpieces.


Cute stamped napkin rings and apple butter as the favors

We had such a wonderful time visiting with friends in Virginia. It made us miss living on the east coast a lot. I am glad that Christmas is right around the corner and we will be able to visit again soon!

Virginia...

2010-11-03T21:41:00.007-04:00

We are flying back to Virginia tomorrow to celebrate the marriage of our dear friend, Stacy. Here is the happy couple:
We can't wait to celebrate with these fun folks:
And I can't wait to visit with my two sweet college roomies Friday morning!
I got 5 magazines and 3 books from the library, the new Taylor Swift CD is on the ipod, and clothes are packed...we are ready to go! Pray for safe travels, and for Marty to get some studying done on the plane.

Christmas card promo!

2010-11-02T17:59:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is receiving Christmas cards in the mail from friends and family. I especially love the cheesy/sweet photo cards! I remember one Christmas in high school, my Mom put a picture of my sister and I in our marching band uniforms ( yes, we were in marching band...) on our Christmas card. We had on tall hats with a huge feather on top, high pants and all...super cute! We ended up being mocked for the entire holiday season, yet I still love photo cards! Whether you enjoy photo cards, or mock them endlessly people enjoy receiving cards during the holiday and feel loved by the gesture.
My friend, Ashley, found this Shutterfly giveaway. All I had to do is fill out a simple survey here. They e-mailed me today and I just have to post about this giveaway and I will receive a code for 50 free cards. Here are some of my favorite photo designs!

The card above is my favorite so far. I think we may add a verse in the green section on the bottom.

I loved the polka dots incorporated in most of the designs. They have a lot of different styles to choose from, I don't think I will be able to choose just one! You can look at the following links for other items that Shutterfly offers:
Christmas Cards
Desk Calendars
Greeting cards

Have fun exploring their website!

We are official

2010-10-29T18:31:00.005-04:00

Today was parent-teacher conference day at school, and because I am an assistant I got the day off! I have never been happier not to be teaching. Conferences were my absolute least favorite part of my job as a teacher. I took advantage of this day off to become an official resident of Missouri. It is sad to see my Virginia tags and license replaced, yet the experience was way more pleasant than I expected. In Virginia, you go to the DMV and wait and wait and wait. After waiting, you may receive the help you need, you may not. It is extremely complicated and stressful procedure. Here in Missouri, they have no DMV (gasp). They have little License Bureaus that are located in small store fronts in strip malls. There are many of these offices. Yes, you take a number, yet there are usually only 2-5 people in line ahead of you. I went to get my license and my plates separately today, and each trip took a total of maybe 20 minutes until everything was said and done! 20 minutes! I have to say, that this is one thing that Missouri does better than Virginia.

Kids say the darndest things

2010-10-19T18:13:00.003-04:00

At my new school, I am a kindergarten teacher in the morning, and a reading intervention teacher in the afternoon. During my reading lessons, I use Post-it Correction tape to cover up the kids writing mistakes. Instead of calling it "Post-it correction tape" to the kids, I call it boo-boo tape, because it covers their writing "boo-boos". I have been meeting with these students for about 4 weeks now, and a student just asked me why I keep calling the tape booby tape. Ha, for 4 weeks he has assumed I have been saying booby tape multiple times throughout our lesson!

Yesterday we got a new student, and I did some testing with her to determine what she knew. After about an hour of testing, we took a break and walked around the school. During this time she just looked up and me and said, "You know what Mrs. Cates, you sure do sound like a cowgirl!". HA! I guess we don't talk like everyone else here :)

Beer with the Cates :)

2010-10-10T15:55:00.004-04:00

The Budweiser headquarters are located here in St. Louis, so we decided to visit last Saturday with the Cates. Even though I am not a beer fan, I enjoyed learning about the company's history and the process of making a beer. The plant was very beautiful, with nice landscaped lawns and old brick buildings. At the end we got two beers to try. I tried the Bud Light Lime, yet being 11:30 am did not need another sample. Here are some pictures of the tour:

Beautiful stables for the Clydesdales.

This used to be an old schoolhouse for the Anheuser and Busch children. Once they figured out that running a school on the property of a large factory wasn't smart, they turned the building into an office building.

The inside of the buildings were all in use, yet they were beautifully crafted with intricate iron work and huge chandeliers for lighting.

It was a fun visit that lasted about 2 hours complete with a beer tasting at the end. We decided it was a great St. Louis attraction that we will do with most of our guests that come and visit. Best of all it was free! Happy Monday!

Cardinals with the Cates

2010-10-05T19:14:00.004-04:00

Marty's parents drove the 15 hours to come a visit for a long weekend this past weekend. We has a wonderful time catching up and sight seeing together. We went to a Cardinal's game on Friday night, and the Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies! This was my first Cardinals game, and it was such a fun evening I hope we will be able to attend more next season.

A few Covenant students told us about a concession stand right outside of the stadium. They sell all your normal baseball food items, yet for really cheap (compared to the stadium food). Hot dogs and brats are $2.oo, as apposed to the $8 ones across the street in the stadium. They have an agreement with the stadium so you can bring all their food into the stadium with you.

You are also allowed to bring in a cooler of drinks in plastic bottles. So we enjoyed diet coke and waters throughout the game.

There was also a Build A Bear workshop in the stadium where you could make FredBird stuffed animals or bears with Cardinals uniforms. I haven't been to a major league baseball game in a while, so this may be standard at all stadiums, yet I was surprised to see that!

Overall, it was a great, Fall evening to sit outside and enjoy a good ball game!

Library Etiquette ?

2010-10-04T07:50:00.005-04:00

For a while now I have been searching the public library's catalog waiting for the book Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt to be available. Last weekend, one copy was available, yet it was a large print copy. I saw nothing wrong with checking out the large print copy, besides I am practically blind at night without my contacts in anyway! Well, Marty was appalled that I would "steal" that book away from the elderly that were probably waiting to read that one copy in the large print section. This brings up my question...What is library etiquette regarding large print copies? Do you leave them to the elderly? Is it polite to pass by the one copy of the book you have been searching for because it is large print and your eyes can read regular print? Hmm. Still thinking about this one!

Well, I finished Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt in a week, and as a working girl this is a big task. I couldn't put this book down. I could smell the magnolia blossoms and taste the sweet tea as the author painted such a vivid picture of Savannah. If you can find it in your local public library, it is a quick read that is worth the time.

30 before 30 update

2010-09-26T15:12:00.003-04:00

Elizabeth has posted a new give away on her blog for participants of the 30 before 30 challenge. I always love the opportunity to win free things, so I will update my 30 Before 30 list for y'all and hopefully win a beautiful new accessory!

My 30 before 30...
1. Take cooking classes
2. Finish making a quilt
3. Read the whole Bible
4. Become a dog owner
5. Move with Marty to a brand new place for us both - FINISHED- we moved 14 hours away from both our families to St. Louis this summer
6. Stop biting my nails
7. Sew a piece of clothing
8. Grow a vegetable/ herb garden
9. Kick the diet coke habit= 1 diet coke/day for 30 days straight- DEFINITELY STILL TRYING
10. Read 10 American fiction classics
11. Regularly write letters to friends far away and close by

12. Learn to golf
13. Learn to cut Marty's hair- FINISHED
14. Get professional "family" portraits made (just Marty and me)- IN OCTOBER :)
15. Make jelly/jam
16. Drive cross- country
17. Host baby shower for a good friend
18. Create a wedding album
19. Go away with Marty for a 1 week vacation
20. Pay off the CRV- COMPLETED
21. Re-watch all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls- ON SEASON 6
22. Visit Nashville, country music capital :)
23. Find a regular walking buddy
24. Donate my hair to Locks of Love
25. Go on a vacation with friends- COMPLETED- Spring Break to OBX this past March with college friends
26. Watch Marty graduate from Seminary and be ordained
27. Throw a bridal shower for my sister Bethany
28. Take tennis lessons in a cute tennis skirt
29. Buy a house
30. Become a Mama/ Start trying

Still working on a lot of these, and some will not be possible for a few years. I hope y'all are enjoying this lazy Sunday afternoon. It is really cold here in Missouri today. We woke up with the windows open and couldn't get out of bed it was so cold! I changed out our closets yesterday, so from now on it is long pants and Dansko (cowboy boots for Marty) weather. Enjoy a cozy, relaxing Sunday!

Fighting Gravity

2010-09-15T19:09:00.003-04:00

I don't watch America's Got Talent. I think it is kind of strange that there are so many types of performances, and in the end there is a winner over all the performances. I just don't understand how you judge that. Anyways, Marty and I just discovered this group called Fighting Gravity. They are a group of fraternity brothers from Virginia Tech who have made it to the finals on America's Got Talent. They created the idea for a talent show called Ancorsplash at Tech, and decided to audition for this show because of the positive response. It is such a neat performance, you just have to watch it. Go Hokies!

Movie suggestions

2010-09-12T17:51:00.003-04:00

Marty and I have been enjoying renting free movies at the local library. I made the mistake of going on Saturday, which I found to mean all the newer movies are rented. I searched through movies such as Flicka and Armageddon and found Father of the Bride. As a girly girl, of course this is an all-time favorite movie. As I looked closer, I realized that Steve Martin was not on the front cover and that there is an original Father of the Bride made in the 50s. Who knew? I excitedly rented it and the sequel, originally called Father's Little Dividend. I greatly enjoyed both movies, Spencer Tracy plays the Father (Stanely), Elizabeth Taylor plays the daughter (Kay) and Joan Bennet plays the Mother (Ellie). Both movies have an all star cast, and are truly entertaining. If you have a chance, I would definitely recommend them. :)

Opposites do Attract, and we aren't just talking about magnets...

2010-09-08T21:04:00.000-04:00

So class has started and life has just gotten crazy at the Cates household. Meredith is taking one class with me this fall called Spiritual and Ministry Formation. A big part of this class is learning about how your personality and spiritual gifts fit into the work of the Church at large. Meredith and I were really enjoying this time of self discovery until it came time to take the Myers Briggs assessment. I know there are some out there that don't think the Myers Briggs is a worthy tool for assessment. In fact I know at least one good friend who happens to be a Pediatrician who thanks its a load of crap. Something about it not accounting for things Schizophrenia and other similar disorders. With that said Meredith and I both sat down to take the assessment to find out our personality types. Low and behold we are exact opposites. Not just opposites in some places, but literally everywhere. I'm an ENFP (we all knew this already and didn't need the test to tell us this, but I had to take it) and Meredith is an ISTJ. We don't know what this exactly means yet, or how to handle it. We thought it was interesting though, and thought all of you should know as well. It is true opposites DO attract.
-Marty

Morning Commute

2010-08-27T07:54:00.003-04:00

I have not written much about my new job yet partly because I am tired and adjusting to a new routine, and partly because I am still learning what my role is and figuring out how I feel about this new role. I will post more about that topic later. Although, I do know about my morning commute. I have been lucky enough to find a job that is only about a 15-20 minute drive away. During this time, I have struggled to find a radio station that I like at all- there is not too much country out here and if there is it is not the new fun stuff :) SO, in the absence of tunes I have started listening to some podcasts on my IPod that have been a really encouraging way to begin my day. I have mostly been listening to Jack Howell, the pastor of our church in Norfolk and have been blessed by hearing words of truth and encouragement on the way to work. If you are looking for something to enjoy on the way to work you can look here: Click Here Just download them to the IPod and try it out :) Some I have enjoyed this week are Aug. 8-Jesus, Our Motivation in the Christian Life, July 4 Jesus, the Motivator Of Our Lives, July 11- Jesus, The Hope for our Wayward Hearts

Happy Friday!!! :)

Roadtrip

2010-08-22T20:44:00.000-04:00

This weekend we traveled to Wisconsin to visit friends, Amy and Marty, that used to live down the street from us in Norfolk. As a true East Coaster, it feels very strange to be able to make a weekend trip to Wisconsin! They welcomed us into their beautiful home for the weekend. We shared a too-short weekend catching up, enjoying cool Wisconsin summer weather, and loving their two beautiful children. Thanks for having us friends, and can't wait to hang out again at Stacy's wedding!

Footloose

2010-08-09T16:15:00.003-04:00

During the summer months, an outdoor theater in Forest Park called The Muny hosts off Broadway shows. We went with friends this past Saturday to see Footloose. Tickets cost anything from $10-$30 a seat, yet they offer free seating in the last 10 rows of the theater. To get free seats, you have to get there early and wait in line. We decided to bring picnic dinners and wait in line. We arrived at 5:30 and put our picnic blankets and coolers out and relaxed, ate, and chatted until 7:30. You can also bring your coolers into the theaters, so we continued picnicking throughout the show. This was not the best cast of singers and dancers that I had ever seen, yet who can compare to Kevin Bacon in Footloose? Overall, it was a really fun evening with friends and there was no cost to attend!

I'm Employed... Whoot Whoot!

2010-08-03T14:20:00.002-04:00

Ha!

Today I accepted a job that I am thrilled about! I will be working as a kindergarten aide at a local Christian school. The head of school described this position as way more than an aide position though, which excites me. I will be the aide for both kindergarten classes in the school, and I will focus primarily on working with small groups of students on reading and writing skills. This school offers a 1/2 day and full day kindergarten program, so in the afternoon when "1/2 dayer's" go home, the other students will go to specials such as PE, art, music, spanish, etc. During this time I will plan with the kindergarten teachers, and I will also work with small reading groups in first grade. It sounds like a great mix of the challenges of teaching, yet will still provide me with the time in the evenings to audit classes at Covenant and take care of our apartment and such. It offers me a fair salary and good benefits for me and Marty. I am excited to be a part of such a positive school environment and I can't wait to meet the teachers I will be working closely with. This position is such a blessing from the Lord. It will meet our needs financially and will give me the freedom to support Marty as he is in school and I will be able to audit classes too. I could not have imagined a position like this, and I am thrilled to yet again watch the Lord provide for us!

Fabric headboard is up!

2010-07-31T17:15:00.004-04:00

We finally hung the fabric headboard and put the finishing touches on the bedroom. Here are some shots of the final project (mostly for my Mom who was such a BIG help):

In my spare time (most of my time these days) I decided to re-do the guest bedroom curtains to go with the white linens. I found these great pillow cases at Wal-Mart and turned them into a cute valance for the guest room.

Whitaker Music Festival

2010-07-29T08:58:00.005-04:00

Last night we went to the Whitaker Music Festival with another couple from seminary. This is a free music festival held in the Missouri Botanical Gardens most Wednesday nights in the summer. The gardens are free anytime after 5 and the concert goes from 7:30-10. Marty and I arrived about 7 with our two beach chairs and a picnic basket filled with yummy snacks- grapes, cheese, wine and pretzels. When we arrived, people were everywhere enjoying their picnics. Some people had normal picnic materials like we did, yet some were enjoying a full dinner spread on portable tables and chairs, they even had candles lit on their tables for when it got dark. It seemed like there was a big group of people that did this every Wednesday in the summer. It was a really fun evening with friends, listening to live music, enjoying good food and company. We will definitely attend the music festival next week for their last week of the summer.

We did not see this cooler contraption, yet it would be nice way to picnic in style!

1/2 way done...well summer

2010-07-25T21:17:00.003-04:00

Wahoo! Marty completed and passed Greek 301, the first summer session. He came out of the class with a B or B+ (we aren't sure yet), which we were both very proud of. In this class, he learned the basics to the Greek language. You know Zeta Tau Alpha, and Tri Delta... HA. The alphabet is totally different, so he had to learn a brand new character system. He memorized lots of vocabulary, and learned the rules of their grammar. Last Monday, he began NT Greek 302, where he is translating all of 1 John. Every class he has a quiz on vocabulary and homework to translate a part of 1 John. He is enjoying putting what he learned in greek 301 into practice.

I am still looking for a job. I had a good interview on Friday, so I will keep you posted on the results of that. I have various resumes out there floating around in internet la-la-land. We will see if I hear back from any of them. We continue to work at making new friends, and being patient with that as well. We had our first BLT of the season tonight for dinner (YUM) and are enjoying spending A LOT of time together, which we haven't had the luxury of doing the past few years.

STL Shopping

2010-07-20T19:32:00.004-04:00

Schnucks- One may think Schnucks is a term of endearment or a nickname to call a spouse.

Example- "Hey Schnucks, will you pass me the salt please?" or "Welcome home Schnucks, I missed you!"

Don't be mistaken, Schnucks is now where to do some of our grocery shopping (when there are good sales). It is similar to Harris Teeter if you are in Virginia or Wegmans if you are in Chester County. FYI- Missouri grocery stores carry wine and beer like VA, yet they also carry liquor.

Hobby Lobby- This is one of my favorite new finds in St. Louis. I have heard of this store before, yet have never lived close to one. They carry excellently priced fabrics and every sort of decorating and/or craft item you could want. I literally spent 1 1/2 hours in this store today and only spent $3.15 on fabric. Although it is July, they have fall, winter and spring holiday decorations and decor. I know I will spent a lot of time there within the next three years.

First interview...

2010-07-20T11:42:00.002-04:00

I have an interview at a new charter school in St. Louis on Friday at 3. Please pray for that interview that I would know if it is a good fit for me, and that I would communicate clearly. I heard about this position from a new seminary student's wife who just got a job there. She sounded excited about the position, yet it seems like a lot of work starting a new charter school and the expectations that come along with that. I am hoping to get a clear understanding of the job expectations on Friday, and hopefully it will turn out to be a good fit! I am excited to at least have some communicate with a potential employer!

Job Search

2010-07-13T13:51:00.002-04:00

Please pray for a job for me. It is not a good time for teachers to be looking for teaching positions. There are virtually no teaching jobs out there, and most that I have applied for are teaching assistant positions. This is very humbling process when you have a Masters degree at 3 years of experience. I hope to get a teacher assistant position in a school district with hopes of getting a classroom the following year. I do not want to have to look at Daycares, yet that may be the next step at the end of the month. Pray for patience and wisdom during this search.

Hot or Not...

2010-07-11T18:29:00.000-04:00

Every summer I always return to my love for crafts. This summer my love for crafts was rekindled when I made curtains for our new apartment in St. Louis. I also have a strange love for cute hair bows and hair accessories. I stumbled upon a blog that had a tutorial for flower hair pins. Now, I know that I am above the hair bow age, yet stores like JCrew and Ann Taylor Loft sell cute hair accessories. I need some help...am I too old for this look or should I make one in every color and rock it often? Either way will not hurt my feelings :)

Soulards, Somali Wild Asses and Stacy

2010-07-06T18:03:00.007-04:00

Marty has the week off of class, so we have discovered some fun things to do in St. Louis. There is a HUGE farmers market downtown called Soulard's Farmers Market. We have enjoyed getting some fresh produce there and beautiful flowers.

Today we went to the zoo with some new friends from Covenant and their children. It had all of your typical zoo animals and some nice exhibits. Best of all it was free, so we can visit the lions, tigers and bears anytime we want!

A sweet new friend, Mary Elizabeth

You can see the antelope, leopards, lions and the Somali Wild Asses!

In our spare time we also discovered how to video chat on gmail with Stacy. Miss you and love you Stace-Face!

fabric headboard

2010-07-01T14:32:00.007-04:00

Here is a quick tutorial on how we made the headboard. There are lots of sites out there with great advice too. We just kind of went with what we had and could find in stores around here, so there are some modifications.

Step 1- Find your fabric- I loved a lot of fabrics we found at fabric stores, yet the price of nice fabric was not in our budget. We thought about getting a sheet set and using the flat sheet as our fabric, yet most nice sheet sets were around $40.00. We ended up finding a tablecloth at Home Goods for $10.00 that was the color we wanted and has a subtle paisley pattern. I purchased 2, one for the headboard and one to make curtains with.

Step 2- Buy your plywood- Most plywood in the store is 4 feet wide, so the height of our headboard is 4 feet. We measured the width of our queen mattress, which was 60 inches, and added two inches to the headboard width. We asked the helpful Home Depot man to cut our plywood at 62 inches. You can use 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch plywood depending on your budget and/or preference.

Step 3- Buy batting and foam- I went to Hancock Fabrics to get my batting and foam because foam was on sale. You can go to most craft stores for batting, yet the foam was harder to find. I got 2 two inch foam pieces, to fit our 48'' by 62'' headboard. FYI- Foam was much more expensive than I thought. I got each piece of foam for around $20.00, yet full price would have been $44.00. The foam is worth doing, but just look for sales before you start this project.

Step 4- Cut your foam to fit the dimensions of your plywood. I used an utility knife to cut, yet it took a couple cuts to get through all the foam. It does not need to be perfect, because it will be covered with batting and fabric.

Step 5- Assembly- Iron fabric/tablecloth and lay it flat on the floor ( front side facing the floor). Lay the batting down next on top of the fabric. Then place the foam on top of the batting. Last, lay the plywood on top of the foam.

Stapling- Use a staple gun to secure the layers to the back of the plywood. I started with one staple in the middle of the top and bottom edges. Then did one staple in the middle of the left and right edges. Then I stapled about every 2 inches all the way around. The corners you have to play with to see the look you like. I cut out some extra batting from the corner and folded the extra fabric like hospital corners with sheets. This gave the corners a more flat look.

Step 6- Attach your headboard to the wall. We have not completed this step yet. Our headboard is resting on the ground right now. We purchased 2 professional french cleat picture hangers at Home Depot. It has interlocking brackets that hold 100 lbs. each. This will position the headboard higher on the wall for a more dramatic look, yet it will still be very sturdy. I will post the final look once Marty has some time to hang it :)

Overall costs:

Tablecloth- $10.00

Batting- $13.00 lots left over

Foam- $40.00- 2 for $20.00 each

Wood- $23.00

Wall mounts- $20.00- 2 for $10.00 each

_____________________________

Total- $106.00

That beats the $499.00 +$75.00(S&H) Pottery Barn Price.

Any advice for finding cheap dressers and linens?

Pappy's= Yum!

2010-07-01T14:19:00.002-04:00

Barbecue is an important food in the Cates household, so it was only necessary to check out the best St. Louis had to offer immediately after moving here. We were told to try Pappy's, and it definitely did not disappoint. Ribs are the St. Louis style of barbecue, yet I don't really do meat on the bone, so I opted for the pulled pork sandwich and sweet potato fries on the side...yum! Mom and Marty enjoyed the ribs though, and Marty didn't speak the entire meal which proves how good the ribs were. If you ever get a chance to visit St. Louis and want some good food, Pappy's would be a great place to visit. Beware- you may have to stand in a very long line, but it is worth it!

Free Chick-fil-a on Mondays

2010-06-28T20:40:00.002-04:00

On Mondays, you can get a free chick-fil-a sandwich when you bring a church bulletin with you. This apparently is a big deal at a Seminary. We decided to go and saw about 1/2 of Marty's Greek class there. You do have to purchase a drink and fries, yet for $6.00 you can get two sandwiches, two drinks and two fries. Our date night just may turn into Monday nights at Chick-fil-a.

Our new home in Missouri

2010-06-28T18:07:00.006-04:00

Here are some pictures of our new apartment at Covenant. My Mom was such a huge help throughout the whole process, I could not have set up our entire apartment in 4 days without her!

Immediately to the right when you walk in is our dinning area.

Where all the learning and studying happens :)

The living room/dining room/office is kind of all in the living space. We tied the areas together with blue and green paisley curtains. They are actually bed sheets from Walmart that we made into curtains and it turned out great.

The kitchen is roomy and has a huge pantry in the corner.

The bathroom. It has a linen closet too which is awesome for storage.

The second bedroom. It is very spacious and we were able to fit the bookshelf and color coordinate it again :) I left the left side of the bookshelf for Marty's class books.

The master bedroom- We made the fabric headboard, and we just need to hang it a little higher on the wall and it will be finished. I also made curtains to match. I found brown, paisley tablecloths at Home Goods to use instead of fabric and it worked great and saved a lot of $. We are still searching craigslist and furniture stores for a dresser to complete our bedroom.

We have not hung anything on the wall yet, but at least the basics are covered. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Sad to leave, happy to be here...

2010-06-27T20:15:00.006-04:00

We are now in St. Louis and all settled into our new "home". My Mom drove with me (well drove me) all the way here from PA. We spent the night in Ohio, and arrived here on Tuesday afternoon. From Tuesday until Friday we worked on the apartment non-stop, from unpacking boxes to sewing curtains to shopping for odds and ends. My Mom was such a big help I don't think I could have done it all with out her here. I will post pictures of the apartment tomorrow.

Today, I would love to show you some of the highlights of our "last days" in Norfolk. We were so blessed to have many going away gatherings, and felt so loved and blessed by our friends and co-workers.

Here is our beloved Tazewell Place loft after everything was moved out.

We moved in two TINY pods that were a 1/2 a parking space each. Good thing we did not have too much stuff!

Our friends, the Sabins and Dickensons, planned a going away party at the Drinkwalter's home. They invited all of our Trinity friends, planned a nice lunch after church and prayed for our transition to Covenant.

The Youth Group had a celebration for us as well after our last meeting. They got us a cake and the leaders and kids made us a video where each kid shared something about me or Marty. It was so sweet to hear their hearts and their funny comments. The youth group boys called me Dith, so there is no misprint on the cake :) How funny is that cake! It would have only been ordered by two boys!

After Marty left me to finish out the school year, I stayed with a sweet friend named Hannah (in the middle). We enjoyed being roomies for the two weeks, shared our love of Gilmore Girls, diet coke and even went to see a Tides game.

I went to Rita's with my sweet middle school gals Bailey and Maddie to say goodbye. I will love having two fun pen-pals over the next three years!

I packed up my classroom and left it to the next lucky kindergarten teacher that gets room 131 next to my sweet Ashley in Room 130.

My fellow kindergarten teachers also had a fun party after school to celebrate my leaving with yummy snacks. Teachers can cook and bake! I celebrated my last dinner at Baker's Crust with an old friend/roomie from Tech, Amanda. Then had dessert at Rita's with lots of girlfriends. What a great time we had with friends in June! We again have felt so supported and blessed by our friendships and family. Thank you all for loving us and helping us through this transition.

Ben's Graduation

2010-06-18T19:43:00.006-04:00

I made it through the last week of school, said many tearful goodbyes and now I am relaxing at my parent's house in PA. We have felt so loved and supported through the changes so far and feel very blessed for wonderful friends and family. Once I am in St. Louis, I can post pictures and details of our last few weeks in Norfolk.

Last weekend, I drove to Roanoke to see my cousin graduate from high school. I am so proud of Ben's academic and athletic accomplishments and his decision to serve our country and study at the Naval Academy starting in July. I spent a wonderful weekend celebrating with ALL of my Mom's side of the family. It was a blessing to visit with everyone before I move to Missouri. All of my cousins have grown up into beautiful young women and men in the past year or so. Here are some pictures from my family members.
Yay Ben! (Hannah and Tim still do not like to have their picture taken)

All the cousins-(Me 26, Bethany 23, Ben 18, Emma 17, Hannah and Tim16, Cali-Sue 2, Elam 6 months)
The boys have to stick together...

I taught my Grandma how to play Cornhole, and she beat me!
Cali-Sue loved to play popcorn on the trampoline
The babies!
The time in Roanoke was precious. Thanks for having me Radfords and best of luck Ben!

WOW!!!

2010-06-16T11:13:00.001-04:00

What a Wednesday. I just walked out of my first Greek exam of the summer. A mere 5 days in and we have already covered 10 chapters, and boom an exam (the five includes today's exam so really 4 days and 10 chapters). There was a lot of information, and I missed somethings. I totally botched a translation I had to do by mistranslating a word that is faithful into holy. Crazy sentence ensued. I also forget some conflation rules and added an extra sigma to a word. Oh well.

Part of today really helped me remember why I am here. Our professor came in and made some jokes about trying to cram for vocab and let us know he was going to take 5 minutes of our time and we would forget whatever we were just staring at. He then put up some of the original greek text on the board and asked us to translate, knowing that we couldn't. He went back to the beginning and started to help us, and guide us and while a lot of the vocab was more advanced and further down the road for us the grammar made sense. So we were able to with his help pull pieces together. He went on to remind us that we are not in his class to be the best of out of class, and to get upset that so and so got an A. We are in class and at this Seminary to be changed and shaped by the Gospel. It was refreshing to hear that amid the choas and stress of an exam.

I left today knowing I didn't get a 100, but knowing that my understanding of the Word of life is growing and my love for the Gospel is as well.

Marty

Safe and Sound

2010-06-05T14:31:00.002-04:00

Marty arrived in St. Louis with C.L. this morning. Marty says the trip went well and the apartment looks good. We are on the top floor, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. The kitchen and bathroom look nice and clean and workable. Also, all of our furniture made it there safe and sound. They are unpacking the PODS today and tomorrow. Yay! Happy Saturday!

Let the crazy life begin...

2010-06-02T19:22:00.002-04:00

We have packed up all of our belongings into two tiny "PODS", each the size of 1/2 a parking space! We feel very lucky we did not have to get rid of any nessesary items! We have had many farwell parties, and have been very well loved! Marty will leave for St. Louis on Friday and I have 11 days of school left. Right now, we are staying with a great friend, Dean, while we are both still here. On Friday, I will move in with a girlfriend who owns an adorable little home and have some girl time for the next few weeks. On Monday, June 7, Marty will start Greek. Just a little update while we are in this whirlwind of a move. I will have more time this weekend to update with more details and fun times we have had so far.

30 Before 30 Update

2010-05-29T08:23:00.009-04:00

#20- Pay off the Crv...check!

We cut our loan short 3 years and decided just to pay off the CRV. Now we will have no monthly payment while we are in Seminary. Yipee!!!

#25- Go on a vacation with friends...Check!

We were invited to spend my Spring Break with friends in Corolla, NC. We got summer-like weather, so we were able to hang on the beach for hours. It was such a fun time to spend with college friends!

Sweet Virginia

2010-05-16T13:43:00.000-04:00

The title of this post really says everything. This became really evident at a house show I attended last night where the artist (Wendell Kimbrough) played a song titled, "Sweet Virginia". During that song it hit me that I really am about to leave this fine land they call Virginia.

Many of you probably know I would consider my self a southerner, but more importantly at least to me is that I consider my self a Virginian first. Most of you won't understand the place this state holds in my heart, but it is as much a part of me as I am of it. You see my father's family has been in VA for as long as we can trace back the family line, my mother's family can trace their line back to the prominent Virginian Zachary Taylor. Virginia is just in my blood.

With all of that said this sate is the only place I have called home. It is sad to think I am leaving this the hallowed ground of Washington, Jefferson, Lee, and countless others for a place that calls itself the Show Me State. Im sure I will cry many times over my last few weeks here, but the tears I shed last night listening to Wendell sing "Sweet Virginia" were my first.

I will miss this state, but more than that I will the community we have here, the family that lives here, and the memories that were made here. I leave with a song that while not politically correct to many, is currently on my mind.

"Carry Me Back to Old Virginny"

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and corn and taters grow.
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

There's where I labored so hard for old Massa,
Day after day in the field of yellow corn;
No place on earth do I love more sincerely
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born.

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

Carry me back to old Virginny,
There let me live till I wither and decay.
Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wandered,
There's where this old darkey's life will pass away.

Massa and Missis have long since gone before me,
Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore.
There we'll be happy and free from all sorrow,
There's where we'll meet and we'll never part no more.

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

With much Love,
Marty