Always Missing Something

Today, my thoughts have been on missing people, events, places, and things I enjoyed doing...Not because I am not happy with my current life; I have just been thinking about lots of different things lately. It started when a student from last year told me they missed me, which is hard because I miss a lot of my students from last year. (I also really like my new students) I miss a lot of my colleagues in Council Grove and I really like all the staff at my new school... Do you see the dilemma? I love being at home and being able to stop by my parents to eat dinner when I make it home early enough and at the same time, I miss parts of living in Alta Vista. I am also missing seeing all my college friends and having those close relationships every day, and yet I am building new relationships every day with new people. So this is my conclusion...No matter where we are in life, there is always going to be something, someone, or some place that we will miss because everything we do and every experience leaves an imprint on our lives and helps us to create the story of our lives...I guess all we can really do is treasure the relationships we have and hold onto the memories we are given, and then continue to move forward and continue to become better.

1st Year of Marriage

As of tomorrow, I will have official been a Vaughn for ONE year...A lot of people have been asking me if I have enjoyed my first year of marriage, and my normal response is "Well, we survived" (disclaimer, this doesn't not mean I didn't enjoy being married, read on to continue understanding). I don't think anyone truly tells you what an adjustment it is to be get married, maybe even a little harder for us, because we were so use to our single lives and living situations, but it has been a big adjustment for the both of us. I also don't think people tell you  about the hard times, (Facebook is only for the wonderful part of your life, not the hard part), but all in all we survived, and still want to be married, therefore I think it was successful....Everyday is a learning process, and we will continue to fight, and make-up, grow, and change, and become better because we work at it, and we love each other and want to make our relationship work, so even though I say we survived, it also means we are enjoying this part of life, including all the work it takes to make a happy marriage. Here are a few things we have done in this last year as the Vaughn's.

1. MOVED...3 times to be exact. I moved into Mike's house for one month, we then moved to Alta Vista for the school year, and we have since moved back to Frankfort and are currently living in my parent's other house until August when we can move back into our house here.

2. VACATIONS....We honeymooned in Branson (lots of fun), I went to Utah for a visit, and we are packing our bags to head out on Vacation next week. We are heading to South Dakota to visit Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Badlands, and Sturgis....It has been our goal to go on at least one vacation together a year, and so we are beginning this tradition with South Dakota...Maybe next year we will go on a cruise, or visit another part of the country.

3. DATE NIGHTS....Our usual date night consists of dinner and grocery shopping...But we try to at least go out to dinner together once a week...Right now, its going to eat Chinese in Marysville (my favorite food of all time!), but hopefully this will be something we continue to do even after we have children (which will not be anytime soon).

4.LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER....I am learning to deal with Mike not closing a drawer, and he is learning to deal with me being a clean freak....Our story of compromising will continue on the rest of our lives.

We also spend lots of time riding around, seeing our families, discussing plans for the future, and working...I don't think I could have survived this last year of school if Mike hadn't been around to keep me sane, and tell me it was going to work out, or to show my students how big my work boots were (not that I ever really understood that one)...I believe we are given the exact people we need in our lives, and we are brought together because we are suppose to be together...So here's to many more years of being the Vaughn's...

May Madness

I am a truly terrible blogger, but maybe that's because we haven't had a free weekend since April...Here is what we have been up too, and things we will be doing soon...
1.  I was able to see the visit the open house for the new Temple in Kansas City Missouri. It was absolutely beautiful.
2. Mike and I went to our first prom together...As chaperones of course, but it was fun to see everyone dressed up and having a good time.
3. Terron graduated from high school, and we spent the day eating way to much food and spending time with our families.
4. NHRA Summer Nationals...Mike is really big into drag racing, and since we started dating, he hasn't went racing at all...So since the National Drag races were in Topeka this weekend, we went and watched...I was really impressed at how fun it is to watch cars race down a straight track for a whole 4 maybe 5 seconds...It was a really fun time.
5. I am finishing up my last week of teaching with school ending on Thursday...Somehow, I have actually survived my 1st year (lots of love and support from my husband and family, and a large dose of Dr. Pepper helped). I will be blogging about this more later.
6. My sisters and mom have decided to make a mad dash to Utah this weekend for the Scandinavian Festival, and because of my wonderful husband, I will be able to go with them. We are suppose to move home this weekend, so Mike is moving what is left of our stuff back home and I am leaving for Utah early Friday morning.

So by this time next week, We will be residents of Frankfort, I will be traveling back home from Utah, and I will have successful completed my first year of teaching...Here's hoping I have some time to relax this summer...

8 Wonders of Kansas Trip # 1: Eisenhower Museum

Eisenhower's Childhood home is behind us (white house)

Mike and the statue of President Eisenhower

I recently attended a conference, and there was a guest speaker who spoke about a book she developed. Its called the 8 Wonders of Kansas. It has the top 8 wonders and then sub-categories with all these different cool things to see in our lovely state...So Mike and I went to Barnes and Noble found it, and purchased it. We decided we need to start visiting some of these cool places, and so our first stop was the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene Kansas. Its only a little over an hour from our house, so it made for a perfect day trip. We seen the house that Dwight D. Eisenhower grew up in, the museum that has a large amount of WWII information, and Eisenhower's Place of Meditation that has the final resting place of Eisenhower and his wife. Next we are off to see the Kansas Cosmo-sphere Museum in Hutchinson (its next on the 8 wonders list).

Moving Home

We (Mike and I) have some big news....We will be moving back to Frankfort in June. I have accepted a teaching job at Rock Creek High School (20-25 minute commute), so we will be moving home. (When I called my mom, she cried she was so happy). This was hard decision for me to make since I love my job, but being close to our families and our personal happiness ended up having to be more important....So that is our big news for the month, we will be residents of Frankfort Kansas once again.

My Top 10 of 2011

1. Mike and I got married on June 25, 2011. It started as a very rainy day, but turned out to be hot and sunny. It was a great day spent with our close family and friends.










2. I graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Human Ecology and a license to teach Family and Consumer Sciences

3. I received a Teacher of Promise for Secondary Education award from the State of Kansas. I went to a conference and was able to rub elbows with some of the best teachers in the state of Kansas. It was a great experience and a neat award to receive.

4.  I applied and received the job at Council Grove High School as the Family and Consumer Science teacher. This was a huge decision for me to make because this is the start of my future as a teacher and I wanted to make sure I was going to be in a place that I benefit from and also one that fit me. It has been a great learning experience and building year for me as a teacher and as a person.

5. We moved to Alta Vista, Kansas. This was a HUGE deal for us. Mike and I figured we would be able to settle down and build a life in Frankfort, so moving for us was a hard decision, but one that had to be made for me to start my career. We miss Frankfort often, but are enjoying spending time together and building our marriage and relationship.

6. We honeymooned (is that a word) in Branson Missouri. It was a TON of fun. We had a little cabin in the woods at a quaint little bed and breakfast. We rode the ducks, went to the Dixie Stampede, toured all the little shops on main street, and spent one day at Silver Dollar City. We are looking forward to going back and seeing all the things we missed the first time. Its a great little place, and absolutely BEAUTIFUL, so if you haven't been, you need to go on vacation to Branson sometime soon!

7. We added lots of members to our family this year. Mike, Colette, Tessa, and Khloe were all added to our family. I was added to the Vaughn's family and have enjoyed being a part of that family. I am so lucky to have such amazing families.

8. Along with getting married, we had to get engaged first! In February right before Valentine's day we got engaged, and I got to pick out my perfect ring. We then started wedding planning and working and creating a future together.



9. In May, I was able to go on vacation with my Mom to Utah over Memorial Day weekend. It was a fun trip full of quality time with my Mom before
 I got married. Another highlight to my trip was going to the Scandinavian Festival. We used to go ever year when we lived in Utah, but since moving to Kansas, we hadn't made it back until this year. It was fun to see Snow College again also reconnect with my heritage a little bit.

10. I was able to coach Volleyball this year as an assistant. I coached the JV and C team, and even when I was beyond tired and stressed out, it was a lot of fun to teach the girls new skills, help them develop skills, and build great relationships with them.

2011 has been a very eventful and great year for us, and we are looking forward to the new year ahead of us.

Christmas Decorations

Here is a few pictures of our Christmas decorations. I  made the small trees out of foam cones, yarn, and some glitter spray. I made the wreath by using a plain garland wreath and added a lot of berries, glitter, and a cute bow. We have enjoyed making a few Christmas traditions of our own this year. We decorated our house with lights, and spent one day searching for a tree, lights, and a cute our 1st Christmas ornament. Hope you are all enjoying the Holiday season as well!

 This is my early Christmas Present from Michael. Every time we go to a home improvement or farm store, I see these rocking chairs and wish I had one. Michael obviously listened to me all those times, and bought me a rocking chair for the front porch. I am definitely looking forward to the spring and summer when I can sit on my porch in my rocking chair!

 Our very first Christmas tree

Last 5 months of Marriage

It is crazy to seem that Mike and I have already been married for almost 5 months. We have also been living in Alta Vista for the last 4 months. Time sure flies when you are busy. Here is a quick update our lives:
1. We do a lot of cleaning and laundry every weekend...I never realized how much laundry my mom did before I left home.
2. I just finished up volleyball and I am now enjoying just being a teacher with more time to plan. I do however miss seeing my volleyball girls everyday, lucky for me several of them have transferred into one of my classes.
3.  I have survived my 1st trimester of teaching, and I am so far had a rough start to my second trimester of school, but it is slowly starting to get better.
4. We are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with the Vaughn's. It will be my first Thanksgiving with them, so I am excited about that.
5. We have bought a Christmas tree, and a few lights to hang up at our house. We are working on creating our own little family traditions.
6. Mike is busy with work, but winter is starting to arrive, and I am looking forward to him being home more often.
7. I am busy crafting for the holiday season. I will post pictures when I finally get around to taking a picture of them, but I created some pretty cute trees out of the styrofoam cones and yarn, and a wreath with glitter and berries on it.
8. My brother Waylon got married in October to a wonderful girl, Collette. We are very happy to have her in our family.

Happy Thanksgiving...Eat lots, and enjoy the time you spend with your family.

Wedding Pictures

Here is a few of sneak peeks of my wedding pictures...We had a friend take them, and they turned out really well...

Latest Happenings

I should be better about blogging, but life has been crazy these last few weeks...We have successfully moved into Alta Vista, and there are only about 5 boxes that still need to be unpacked...I started school on the 17th, and it has been no stop going since then...I am also an assistant volleyball coach, so my day starts before 7 and ends after 7 each day...That is just being at school, not the extra work of a first year teacher...So my whole world is school right now...Hopefully things start running a little smoother and I can have a little bit of a life...We got our wedding pictures back, so I will upload them soon, I love them....And I'm just happy to have pictures of our wonderful day...Besides school, nothing new is happening in our lives...We are simply enjoying being married and being as busy as a bee!

New Blog

Since we are moving and starting our new life together, I thought it would be nice to have a new blog to share all our live happenings with everyone! Hope you enjoying reading about all the ups, downs, and happiness that is going to happening in this journey of our married life