Pallet Chairs Extravaganza!!!

So Geoff and I have been on the lookout for lawn furniture for our little patio.  Well I was on Pinterest a few weeks ago and saw this really cute pallet table and commented to Geoff that someday that would be really fun to have on our deck or something.  This was a Thursday.  On Friday, Geoff didn't get home until almost 6 when he normally is home between 5:15 and 5:30.  As normal, I was freaking out thinking he was in some awful car wreck on the highway, but just when I was about to send out the search hounds, here he comes, with pallets and supplies in hand.  He immediately began to get to work on constructing the most epic, beautifully crafted pallet furniture you will ever see.  He was a man with a plan!  The rest of the weekend was spent making a pallet chair and pallet bench.  Here are some pictures!!

Geoff's workshop.  He constructed.  I sanded and sealed. 

The chair!  Very comfy!!

The bench!  We added the cushion that we found for cheap at Gordman's

Side view just so you get how massively, solid and sturdy it is! 

 So the pallets were found for free at Geoff's work.  We did replace the boards with smoother boards for the bottom seat of the bench and the whole chair.  We had fun working on our project and we are excited to get to enjoy some cool evenings out on our porch! 

Labor Day Weekend!

This weekend Geoff and I were blessed to have wonderful company!  His parent's, Kirk and Peggy,, came up from CJ and Doug and his family came from Colorado to spend the holiday with us!  I was so excited to see them, considering we hadn't seen his parents since we moved and hadn't seen Dough and Family since our wedding.  We had been planning this visit since the wedding so we were both really excited.  Kirk and Peggy came late Friday night and the fun began Saturday morning.  Of course we took them to the farmer's market downtown where we roamed for a long while amongst all the Cornhusker fans.


Side note: This was our first experience with a home football game.  The fans are a bit redic.  EVERYONE was wearing red and EVERYONE was packed into downtown for the game or just tailgating.  I can only imagine what its going to be like when they play Big 10 games.  Kinda a bummer that we aren't Cornhusker fans, cause its exciting being amongst it.  Oh well,  GO BLUE and GO 'RILLAS!!!!! 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon on the South side of town away from all the football craziness shopping and hitting up the Labor Day sales.  We also ate a Red Robin yum!  Doug arrived late that evening and we stayed up till 1:30am talking and playing with Raegen and Karsen who is almost ready to walk!!  He is such a happy baby and so smart.  He is soo ready to walk he doesn't even crawl.  He does this weird Lt. Dann type crawl/walk to get where he needs to be.  And Aunt Holly was soo happy that he enjoyed spending time with me and didn't cry when I held him!! Love that kid!  

Saturday we woke up and fixed breakfast and then the boys played golf while the girls chatted and the baby napped.  After a lunch at 5 Guys Burger and Fries (which is fabulous) we headed to the zoo!!!  I think everyone enjoyed the zoo and we even rode the train!  That night we fixed Rigatoni and Raegen and I baked cookie bars for everyone to enjoy for desert.  Rae is sooo smart for a first grader!  Geoff and I are so proud at how mature and bright she is, we are definitely going to watch her go far in life!  

Sunday we tried to eat Breakfast at Ihop, but it was just a big, hot mess so we ate a Cracker Barrel instead, then it was time for everyone to hit the road back home.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous for this weekend since it was the first time I was "hostess" to company and that I procrastinated to clean until Friday night!  haha.  That was a bad idea since we had a major thunder storm roll through and the power flashed on and off during it!! Needless to say, I vacuumed really fast!  Besides being exhausted, the weekend went off without a hitch and was really fun and enjoyable.  We love having our family visit us and miss them so much.  Its hard being this far away from everyone, but I know that this is God's plan and this is where we should be.  I'm just excited to see what the future holds for us!  (Hopefully more company!! Who's next to visit??)

All the Karhoff "kids" after visiting the Zoo

Uncle Geoff and Karsen chillin after eating at 5 Guys Burger and Fries

Watching Raegen ride the horses at the Zoo

Too cuties!

Para-Tizing

Well, I think its about time for a School update!!! If you remember, I am working as a Para at Arnold Elementary with the Lincoln Public School System.  And my last update I was a little on the Debbi Downer side of things, but that was then, this is now!

I finally  got my schedule and I am settling into the swing of things.  Here is what a typical day looks like for Ms. Holly (I HATE that Para's aren't called Mrs. Last Name at the school.  We deserve the same amount of respect, but this is a whole different subject)

• Breakfast Duty- I basically make sure the Kindergartener's sit where they are supposed to, keep other kids from creating WW3 in the cafateria and bring kids spoons and things they forgot.  Fun stuff. 
• Kindergarten Class #1- Work with kids one on one.  Right now we are working on writing our names!
• First Grade Class #1-Work with kids who need extra help during math, standard beginning of the year testing, etc.
• Second Grade Class #1-I work with one student mostly who I have several stories about.  He is a sweet kid, on the younger end of second grade, extremely wiggly and cannot focus. :)
• Second Grade Class #2- Do whatever is needed.  This teacher is really close to my age and recently married.  I feel like yelling "Be my friend!!"  every time I see her! haha
• First Grade Class #2- Work one on one, do stuff.  
• Herd Walk Kindergarten Class #1 from lunch to recess-hardest part of my day.  
• My lunch!! Usually PBJ ;)
• Lunch Duty - I'm in here fooor-eeevver, foooorrr-eeevvver.
• 4th Grade Recess - They are sooo whiny when its hot.  And I tried to teach the girls to double dutch but bless their little hearts, they just aren't coordinated.  
• BREAK!!! 
• Herd Walk Kindergarten Class #1 from specials to recess - again hardest part of the day
• Help my friend Cathy the production para with work.  Cut laminate, fold papers, make booklets, and get to chat with her!  
• Kindergarten Class #2- help kids who don't even know their name recognize and and spell it!  Fun, FUN stuff.
• First Grade Class #3 - help kids one on one, cut things out, etc
• Go Home!!!!

Being a Para has its advantages, I go to school at 8:30, do my thing and come home at 3:30 and don't have to bring home papers to grade, make lesson plans or do anything school related!  Its fantastic!! BUT, I miss teaching, I miss music, I miss being "in charge" so to speak.  Don't get me wrong, I am learning sooo much being in different classrooms and watching different teachers teach different subjects other than music.  In the long run, I think it is really going to make me a better teacher (hopefully someday).  And I really like the school and staff.  Its on the larger side; they are eventually working up to having six classes of Kindergarten through Fifth grade.  And they way the school is built, I probably walk, eh, 4 miles a day.  Yay exercise!!  I'm am just so thankful every day to have something to get up and go do!!! And to have people besides Roscoe and Geoff to talk to!! haha.  So thats kind of what my every day lives are like!  I hope I didn't bore you to tears!

This is the school, which is only 3 years old.  So nice.

Official!!

Oh I did find out that LPS is building a new school for the 2012-2013 school year, which means they will need a whole new staff!! Fingers crossed this could lead to some major possibilities!!!

When in Lincoln...do as the Lincolns do!

Friday night Geoff and I were heading downtown to grab some dinner and catch a movie.  When we drive downtown we get to drive right by Husker's Stadium and on this particular night we notice a bunch of people sporting red heading towards the stadium.  We both thought that is was just a press event for the football team, but out of curiosity I looked up on my phone what was going on.  And by golly!!! It was a BAND PREVIEW NIGHT!!! I quickly convinced Geoff to find the nearest parking spot and booked it into the stadium.  Nothing keeps me away from good ole band!!  (Luckily we were wearing red so we blended right in.) 

"The Pride of All of Nebraska"  Really???

It was crazy!  Literally hundreds of people were there just for the band preview night!  I was slightly let down to see that preview night was their pre-game show (if you aren't a Cornhusker fan, its not that exciting) and a demonstration of marching basic that ending with a drill down...to the DEATH!!! Just kidding!!

Geoff watching the Drill Down of Doom

He could not believe that some people could not follow the "plays"

Pretending to be Cornhusker Fans in order to avoid being slaughtered.

Overall it was a pretty exciting spontaneous adventure.  We did get some food later and fro-yo at Cherry On Top.  But this evening of Band got me thinking, this is the first year in eleven years I haven't been a band member.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself this fall!  And I'll admit, at times it wasn't my favorite thing to wake up on Saturday mornings during college to put on a nasty, stinky band uniform, stand on my feet for 6 hours and sweat about a billion gallons, but I look back on it now and smile.  I met my best friends there, learned how to be a leader and even scored Homecoming Queen at Pitt!  I loved my years in band and sorta miss it....almost.  So good luck to all of my band friends out there, what ever you are doing this fall, and remember the fun times we had together!  Snif, snif.  Look at me I'm getting all sentimental out here on the interwebs.  Until next time.  And I won't get all mushy gushy.

This post was brought to you by Holly and Roscoe.  Don't believe me?  Take a look for yourself!!!  

He loves his Mommy and I love my furry baby!!

Back To School I Go!

I survived!  My first day as a paid school employee with children.  Although I'm just a general para, today confirmed that I had made the right decision, education really is for me!  I have been working since last Thursday.  Most of the time I have been cutting out laminate and trying to find teachers to help in their classrooms, but I still feel lost and definitely feel like "the new kid" at everything.  Lincoln Public Schools is completely different than any school district that I have been familiar with.  There are 37 elementary schools in the district!  I expected when I got hired that my first day to work would be filled with meetings and introductions and I would find out exactly what I would be doing for the school year, but I was waaaaay wrong.  I was told to report to the office to meet with the assistant principal, where I waited for her for nearly 15 minutes only to get shown where to put my stuff and be handed a stack of laminate to cut out.  After that I was on my own.  Eventually I sorta figured out who was a para and who was a teacher, where things are, and how to ask lots and lots and lots of questions.  Friday and Monday were pretty much the same and I left Monday afternoon still having no idea what to do Tuesday morning when students were coming to school!! Needless to say, its crazy and I just wander around lost. 

Today I just plopped myself in a kindergarten classroom to help out a teacher who has quite the interesting bunch.  There I met little V, who is a non English speaker from Russia who was scared and crying.  Although I had no idea what to do with him, my heart broke for him.  How scary to be in a new surrounding not being able to understand what anyone is saying.  I automatically was drawn to him and tried my best to help him cope and adjust to this new world called Kindergarten.  I spent all morning with him until it was time for my lunch duties (That was the one thing I at least new to do for today!).  After lunch I decided to go back and check on little V and to my surprise, he was all smiles and dry eyes!  The rest of the afternoon I hung out with the same class.  Oh my, they are a bunch!  When little V left, he looked at me and gave me the BIGGEST smile!  What a feeling!! This is why I want to be a teacher! 

Although, I've graduated and have my degree I still feel like a college student myself.  I was just there watching all day; I'm ready to TEACH.  I'm tired of watching and following the lead, I'm ready to be on my own and have my own classroom.  I know I need to be thankful for just having a job in a school district that is difficult to get into in the first place, but I'm sooo ready.  I think I would even be willing to be in a regular classroom (gasp)  if it meant I got to be a teacher.  Maybe once I actually have a schedule and know what I am doing during the school day I won't feel so lost and useless and in the way.  Hopefully in the morning I will have a schedule, but I've said that since Thursday morning.  ;)

BUT, I have to mention how amazing Geoff is.  He is my constant encourager and supports me always.  Today I came home to a BEAUTIFUL flower arrangement and he cooked me dinner and cleaned up the kitchen afterwards! His butt rubb stanks and all rotten potatoes, aka butt rubb seasoned steaks and au gratin potatoes, were really yummy!  He's wonderful. 

Things Overheard at the Pool

We live in an Apartment Complex called the Links.  Its on a golf a golf course, has a club house, pool, hot tub, the works.  When we decided to live here in April we didn't realize that it would be quite the mecca for College Student Living.  The longer we are here, the more we have run into "dorm life" living styles.  I spend most of my sunny days lounging by the pool, because really what else can I do?  And oh the things I have overheard!  Kids these days, I'll tell ya what, they are not afraid to share everything and anything with their friends.  I feel like I could write a book with conversations I have overheard.  Here are a few:

"This is the most sober fun I have had in 6 months." said by a boy who was throwing a splash ball around with friends. 

"You know how I've been telling you my friend was getting a boob job, well know I want wan too!."  Girl who was well endowed already to her gay friends. 

"I think that because he still thinks girls are hot that he's not gay."

"He always promises he won't watch True Blood, but he does!" 

Also a few conversations about relations between lovers I wish I wouldn't have heard and a few "coming out" stories I also wish I wouldn't have hear. 

Its interesting none the less but it makes for a fun time at the pool.  Hopefully this can cheer up your day, I know a trip to the pool most days is the pick me up I need!

I'll take "God's Plan" for $1000

Isn't that the question we all wish we had the answer to before we figured it out.  Its amazing when you finally get towards the end of His plan when you realize, "Oh that's why I had to do that/go there/say this."  Well God's plan for Geoff and I has definitely been an adventure.  When I think back to January of this year, our lives were completely different, and when I say completely different I mean COMPLETELY different.  We were still going to get married but in a whole different church, by a whole different pastor and move to Eldo where we had a little rental house and both work for the school district.  Well skip to the end of that same month and our world had been turned upside down.  We were no longer getting married in that church or by that pastor, we weren't moving to Eldo, we didn't have our little rental house and we definitely weren't going to be working for the school district.  It was a lowest of low points for both of us.  It was like we had to start from scratch and start fitting the pieces of our lives back together.  Slowly we started to figure things out and had decided that we would be getting married in a new church by a new pastor, we were going to live in Joplin and Geoff had begun to work for CED and I was almost positive I had a job teaching music in CJ.  Then on April 1, 2011 it changed,  again. 

Geoff was approached by CED to enter the management training program, but that would mean moving to Lincoln, NE.  (And no this wasn't an April Fools day joke.)  So after a couple of weeks on consideration we came to visit Lincoln, decided to move, found an apartment and came home.  Skip forward to present day.  We moved to Lincoln because of Geoff's job, which meant I was unemployed or a homemaker as the bank says.  And we moved here knowing no one.  Meaning that when Geoff went off to work I was home, alone, all day.  Although its been fun moving here, it has probably been one of the rougher months of my life.  You can only clean so many times in one day, and unfortunately basset hounds don't hold conversations very well.  I've applied to so many jobs, praying for the right job to come along.  I kept getting turned down by different positions; a jewelry store, chiropractic office, many restaurants, Bed Bath and Beyond, and even Target.  Along with these I applied to so many school districts for anything: subbing, para position, secretaries. Getting turned down and told there were no open positions was frustrating and left me wondering, why am I so marred, what about me says don't hire me? 

We attended a church on Sunday that really spoke to Geoff and I really liked it.  This lead to Geoff going to visit with the Pastor on Tuesday.  We already knew that I had two interviews this week with two schools in the Lincoln Public School system.  I wasn't feeling super confident since I had been turned down by so many different jobs.  Both schools were para positions but I really wanted a General Para Position at Arnold Elementary which was really close to our house.  Geoff and the Pastor ended their visit by specifically praying for this position.  Well, after the interview on Wednesday I got a call that evening offering me that specific job!!! I AM NO LONGER UNEMPLOYED!!! Although its just a para position, it is still allowing me to use my degree and it is an "in" to Lincoln Schools. 

I look back over these past 6 months and how life has changed is beyond just coincidences, it was God.  Geoff and I had put God in a little box.  We were only allowing Him to do so much, only allowing Him to use us this way and blessing us by only a little.  It took a radical shake up in our lives to show us that we had, unknowingly boxed God in.  God is God and can do literally anything He wants.  He is the holder of our future and the maker of our plans, not us.  Although we had to go through a pretty big valley to reach this small peak in our journey, I wouldn't change a thing.  I am so happy we are where we are.  Things are looking up; I have a job, I'm pretty sure we've decided on a church and now I have opportunities to meet friends!

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!