Home Sweet Home

If you are reading this, I'm guessing you probably already know that we are officially homeowners! It has definitely been an exciting couple of months and we were pleasantly surprised how smoothly the house-buying process went for us. I know it's not nearly as easy in some situations so we are counting our blessings that we were able to get the house we really wanted! It's a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a huge living room and kitchen that are connected by a vaulted ceiling, which we love. It's one of my most favorite features of the house, along with the beautiful brick fireplace! Definitely can't wait to use that! : )

Our original goal was to be in the new house by Thanksgiving, but our goal probably wasn't all that realistic since we didn't close until October 31st and we wanted new carpet and paint on the walls. Since the last people who lived in the house were renters, both the floor and walls are in pretty sad shape. Have I mentioned that the kitchen and both bathrooms had wallpaper from floor to ceiling that needed to be taken down? That took a lot longer than we planned as well, especially when we took into consideration that we both work full time and Mason is a full-time student on top of that. Despite that, the carpet is ordered and we finally got all three rooms done other than a few finishing touches before we texture the drywall. And then it's time to paint!! Since we're not going to make the Thanksgiving goal, we are now hoping by mid-December at the latest. I really want to be able to put up the Christmas tree in our new house!

Our amazing help from last weekend-- Greg, Eric, Shelly, and my wonderful husband!

And of course Tabitha and our handsome nephew, Carson!!

Gus wanted in on the fun as well! On a side note, I positively, absolutely, CANNOT wait to take a bucket of bleach and a scrub brush to the kitchen and bathroom floors. They are simply filthy. This picture can't even begin to show just how gross they are.

That's been about it otherwise. Mason has already managed to get a few deer, which is exciting. He got one during bow season and got a couple more when he went to Bethany this past weekend. His family has land up there so he's like a kid in a candy store in the weeks leading up to opening weekend. The man won't pack his own suitcase when we go out of town, but for deer season he was packed by Wednesday (he didn't leave until Friday) and all of his hunting gear took up residency in our living room. *Sigh* He's sure lucky I love him so much, and I suppose I'm pretty lucky too! ; )

While Mason was out shooting Bambi and doing manly things, I spent the weekend up in Kansas City with some wonderful women. We hung out, did some serious damage to our bank accounts at the mall, and just enjoyed one another's company. Since we only get girls' weekend roughly every six months we get so excited for it but it always goes so fast!

Other than that, we are just trying to get prepared for the holidays. I personally can't believe they are practically here again already. Any takers on finishing up my Christmas shopping? We don't have really anything planned for Thanksgiving since we'll probably be working on the house, but our Christmas vacation is filling up quickly! Even though it will be busy, we are definitely looking forward to seeing everyone again!! Anyways, that's about all I have for this time around. I hope everyone has a fabulous week! : )

I Love Me Some Fall

There's nothing too much to report, just giving a quick update! First of all, I can't believe we're nearing the end of October and we are into the second quarter at school. Before we know it the holidays will be here and that's slightly scary! Guess I better start doing some Christmas shopping! Ha! Despite the fact that Christmas is coming much quicker than I'd like, there's a really good chance we will be celebrating Christmas in a different house this year! I'm not going to go into much more detail than that right now, but we're staying hopeful everything will work out! Speaking of house shopping, it's ridiculous how much it costs just to get to the point to where you can actually have a mortgage...crazy! I'm sure all you homeowners are probably getting a good chuckle at that, but seriously, there is so much that I never knew went into it as a first-timer! I probably should have invested into one of those "House Hunting for Dummies" books..Haha!

On Friday evening, we attended a surprise party for Mason's dad, David for the big 5-0! He seemed genuinely surprised and it seemed like he and everyone else had a good time. There was a lot of good food and even better company. Yesterday, Mason spent the majority of the day working on putting a new roof on the garage here at this house. He is actually out there as I write this, hammering away. He seems to be making quite a bit of progress, which is good, but he was still able to sneak out for awhile to take a quick trip to the pumpkin patch with Tabitha, Greg, and Carson. We went to Pete's Pumpkin Patch in Rolla, and it was great to hang out with the three of them! I can't believe how big Carson is getting, and how CUTE!! Of course, we're biased, but seriously..adorable! He's already going to be 7 months old in November. Time sure flies!!

Don't you just want to kiss and squeeze those cheeks!!

Between enjoying this wonderful weather, running back and forth to school, and attempting to take care of this house-buying stuff, we stay quite busy. However, I've decided to forfeit any and all grading this weekend. Yes, I have at least four assignments that really need to be graded, but the way I see it, it will all get done at some point. School has been slightly stressful lately so I am enjoying this low-key weekend!

I'm going to go lose myself in a book now, but hopefully I'll have some more definite house news here in a couple of weeks..maybe sooner!! : ) Have a happy fall day!!

Running, Running, Running...

Last weekend Mason and I went down to Branson. Mason's mom Shelly and step-dad Eric were supposed to come with us, but Shelly ended up getting sick so they had to stay home. Despite that, we still had a great time and even participated in a 5K to help raise money for the cancer foundation down in whatever county Branson is in. : ) When we initially signed up for the 5K we were really excited about it because we were running a lot and were in pretty good shape. However, school started again for both of us, and that kind of kicked our butts! So our main goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. And luckily, we did! Mason came in 74th place and I came in 76th. We figured there were approximately 300 people running, give or take, so we were happy with those places!

Mason even got second place in his age group, which was super exciting until we found out there were only two people in his age group! : ) We both had a good laugh over that one, but he still got his medal for placing!

After surviving the 5K we went back to our hotel to get ready to head to Silver Dollar City. Since we bought season passes for the year we wanted to get at least one more visit in. It was the Fall Harvest Festival, and it was just beautiful! They had so much fun stuff set up, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

The weekend before we went to Branson we were in Iowa again for my cousin Amy's wedding. We actually took the day off Friday and got into town a little early because we wanted to visit a couple people and run some errands before we headed off to Dunkerton for the homecoming game. It was definitely fun to go back because I can't remember the last time I was at the homecoming game. Plus we got to see a lot of family and friends. My sister Laura was in the band, my other sister Leeann was in color guard and she was also on hospitality court (I believe), my cousin Madison was cheering, and my brother was doing his thing with the football team. Sorry if I left someone out! From the game we spent some time at the OP because Mason was adamant that he would get some taco pizza from there before he came home! So we had our taco pizza!

The next day (Saturday) we headed down to Cedar Rapids for Amy and Cody's big day! It was definitely a beautiful day for them and it seems they both had a great time! And Mason and I had a great time also...a Steffen get-together is never boring! But all good things must come to an end and we had to head back Sunday morning; not before we fixed the blinker in Mason's car. Since he is on probation we didn't think it'd probably be a good idea to drive 7 hours without any turn signal. So after a massive breakfast at IHOP with my brother we fixed the car and made our way back home.

The happy bride and groom! And now that Amy and I are both married we had to get our official ring picture. The last time we took a picture like this neither of us had a ring! So we had to make it official! : )

Aside from our travels, everything has been going great. Mason has been enjoying his new job. It has definitely been an eye-opener for him because he is in a special education room for children with autism. Even though it has its challenges, he is learning a lot and is enjoying himself. I, on the other hand, feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off! We had a half-day on Friday and I finally feel like I'm starting to get caught up with everything I need to do at school. Aside from the craziness of the year, I have a wonderful group of kids and I'm really enjoying having them!

We have also been looking at several houses in Rolla which has been fun! The process, so far, has been very smooth. Much smoother than I expected in fact. So hopefully before too long we will be homeowners, so keep your fingers crossed that everything continues to breeze along like it has been! : )

I also celebrated my birthday at the end of September (the 28th), but Mason was nice and gave me my birthday presents a few days early. He bought my the movie Bridesmaids and a nook, which I love!! We celebrated by going to look at a couple of houses. Since Mason has class three nights a week, that limits the amount of time we can spend looking, so we didn't have a lot of options. But we did go to Jimmy Johns (absolutely love that place) and then to Central Dairy for some ice cream. Tonight we are officially celebrating by going out to eat at Matt's Steakhouse in Rolla, which is also a fabulous place to eat!

We're having a lazy Saturday today which is way overdue, but I suppose if we're going to go eat relatively soon I better get my butt in gear and get ready! Enjoy what's left of this amazing weekend! : )

Answered Prayers

It finally happened. Mason has a new job!!! We have been waiting for this for quite some time (a little over a year actually). He has applied at countless places and has even had a few interviews here and there, but nothing ever came from any of them. As you can imagine, we were getting very disgruntled. When he did work, it was great, but it seemed like the company he worked for just couldn't give them enough to stay busy for long, so he spent A LOT of time unemployed.

Well, last spring Mason took the paraprofessional praxis so he could apply for that type of a position this fall since he wouldn't have his 60 hours yet. When positions finally came open in the school districts he applied, but still heard nothing. Finally, on August 29th, Mason got a phone call from the Waynesville R-VI School District about a couple of interviews that would be held that Wednesday (the 31st). One was at Freedom Elementary which is where I taught 5th grade my first year of teaching; it's a 3-6 school. The other was at East Elementary which is a K-2 school. Mason acted like both interviews went well, but felt very confident about the one at East. With the interviews out of the way, he was able to relax a little and just wait. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long. Friday morning around 9 I received a text message from Mason saying that human resources had called and wanted to offer him one of the jobs, and it happened to be the one at East Elementary. He obviously accepted, and he is now just waiting on the paperwork to really make it official. I'm definitely proud of him, and it's a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. Even though he's a little nervous about starting, I know he'll do fabulous! To celebrate, we spent last Saturday in St. Louis shopping and getting him a bunch of clothes so he had something appropriate to wear that wasn't old ratty t-shirts and jeans with holes in them! ; )

Not only did Mason get a job on the 2nd, but so did my brother and Mason's sister! My brother had been searching for jobs ever since he graduated in May and had been on countless interviews, with no luck. But that particular Friday, he was offered TWO! Talk about a lucky day!! We (Mason and I) have been praying for quite some time that something would fall into place for not only us, but for my brother and his sister's family, and it finally did! God definitely had something in mind for all of us, we just had to be patient and wait!

Other than that, I have been staying busy with school starting. It has been going well and I have a pretty good group of kids. Mason's classes are also going well (at least that's what he tells me) and he's excited that after this semester he'll hopefully only have roughly a year left until he graduates. Speaking of Mason, remember the accident we had? Well, he had to go back to court again on the 7th, and it was decided that he is going to have to do two years of unsupervised probation. It really only applies when he's driving, but if he would have any kind of moving violation in those two years, it's possible he'd have to go back in front of the judge who has free range of punishment...ugg. Here's hoping we don't have to even worry about that!

On another good note, we've begun the house-hunting process. We've looked at 5 so far, and there's one that really caught our attention. We have several more we are going to be looking at in the next couple of weeks so that's pretty exciting as well. We definitely want to make sure we take our time so we find something that will really work for us, especially since we don't have to be out of the house we are in at any point.

I think that's about it as far as updates are concerned. We are going to Iowa next weekend for my cousin Amy's wedding..woohoo!! And luckily, it happens to be Dunkerton's homecoming so we will have the opportunity to attend the game and watch my brother coach. And then the following weekend we will be going to Branson for the 5K and to wander around Silver Dollar City. Guess I better get back to running in a hurry..: ) Even though the Hawkeyes lost, it's been a pretty good weekend so far! Hope the rest of you have had a great one also!

School's In Session

School is officially back in session! I'm not exactly sure where the summer went, but it sure flew by! We have only had two days of school, but I'm hopeful I have another great group of kids. Aside from all the craziness, I always enjoy the start of a new year. Everyone is fresh and excited to be there (for the most part). Not only that, but now that I'm starting my 4th year of teaching (wow, time flies), I feel a lot better about my own abilities and what I should expect. Mason is also getting ready to start school again. This will be the beginning of his third year and he is getting close to that halfway point, which is great! He will definitely make a fabulous teacher someday!

Other than that we have been staying busy, as always! My best friend Lindsey got married at the beginning of this month so we traveled up to Western Iowa for all the festivities. It was a beautiful wedding and it was wonderful getting to see everyone again.

She sure made a stunning bride! I didn't get a great picture of her handsome husband, but he looked great as well! : ) Speaking of weddings, my cousin Abby is getting married today! We definitely wish we could be there, but I'm sure that she and her groom Matt will have a fabulous day!!

We do have a little piece of not-so-great news...remember the car accident we had a couple weeks before our wedding? Well, because another person was involved, Mason had to go to court. They actually ended up setting another date for court because Mason's attorney didn't care for the judge he was supposed to have. But, the attorney said that even though we probably wouldn't have to pay a ticket or have it put on his record, that Mason may have to have two years of unsupervised probation. It's pretty frustrating, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

He's also been on the job search for quite awhile too, and so far, we haven't heard back from anywhere. But, we did hear a little piece of information the other day that does sound slightly promising regarding a possible job opportunity. I don't want to say too much in case it doesn't pan out, but please keep us in your prayers that it will work out! Every little bit can help!!

We are also pretty excited because we will be traveling up to Iowa again mid-September for my cousin Amy's wedding! Since JJ (my brother) is helping to coach football again this year at Dunkerton, we are going to drive up a little early because homecoming happens to fall that same weekend. We always look forward to visiting Dunkerton and everyone there, of course!! The following weekend we are heading down to Branson to spend some time there. As far as we know, Mason's mom and step-dad will also be coming with us, so we are really looking forward to it. While we are down there, aside from visiting the strip and Silver Dollar City, Mason and I will be running a 5K! The money will be going toward the cancer foundation. I haven't ran a 5K since college so I'm pretty excited! We were doing a great job of running everyday, but I started getting shin splints so I had to back off a little. They've finally gotten better so I need to get back into the swing of things so I don't die while running! : )

Well, I better get some cleaning done around here. It kind of looks like a tornado hit...have a fabulous weekend everyone!