Wanna play catch (up)?!

I know, I know, it's been forever. I still have a week off of school for Winter Break so I will get this thing caught up.

School
What a crazy year so far! We can't believe the school year is half over already! Courtney has been busy coaching wrestling and is at practice right now. This coming weekend is our last free weekend until March because he has a tournament every Saturday (& some Fridays too!). State wrestling is the last weekend in February and then baseball practice starts the following Monday. We will have 3 weeks of just practice with no games and then it begins...2, 3, & sometimes 4 games a week! There are a few weeks that I'll be watching baseball every night Monday - Thursday!! Good thing I bought a stadium seat because my butt is going to be tired!!

Pregnancy
I think I am at 16 weeks as of Tuesday the 30th. I will know for sure on January 14 when I finally have a sonogram!! I am so excited! We heard the heartbeat again today and it was 152 bpm. Apparently the earlier in your pregnancy the higher the heartrate so it dropping from 160 to 152 is a fine and dandy thing. How were we to know - this is our first rodeo! I'm dealing with my weight gain which has not been too bad so far. I know it will get worse! Clothes are beginning to get tight and I'm down to 1 pair of "normal" jeans that I can wear...sort of. They were tight today when I put them on but I'm attributing that to the fact that they just came out of the dryer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I did however buy a tub full of maternity clothes off of craigslist that I'm excited about. They aren't the cutest but the number of pants alone is worth the money they cost! I have a feeling maternity clothes are going to be so comfy I may never want to go back to "normal" clothes.

Aside from all of that I can't think of anything too interesting to tell. Our lives are pretty boring right now, I know. We did have a fabulous Christmas with all of our family. Joy was even here for a week! Hopefully she'll come back in April and I'll have a baby shower then. Hope everyone has a great New Year!!

160 BPM....what a beautiful sound!

In case you haven't figured it out - Courtney & I are expecting!!!! We just had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and heard the heartbeat for the first time! The doctor told me we might not be able to hear it and if we didn't we would have a sonogram. He put the jelly stuff on and then the machine and there it was - loud and right away! 160 beats per minute!!! I couldn't believe how clear it was. the look on my husband's face was priceless. He was so interested and happy. That made me cry a little. He was leaning forward to hear it better and smiling. It's real to me now that I am carrying a little life inside of me. Wow! We won't see the baby for another 2 months because they don't do sonograms until at least 17 weeks. I'm going in every 4 weeks so in 8 weeks I will see it. I will be about 19 weeks then. Due to the heartbeat the doctor has bumped me from 10 weeks to 11 weeks. Yahoo!!! Only 1 more week in the first trimester!! Kate thinks I'm having a boy (she's having a GIRL by the way!!) because of the heartbeat. We'll see. The strange part is that by the time I see the first sonogram I could find out the sex. We're not sure if we want to know yet or not. Anyway - so far so good. I seem to be having a good pregnancy (knock on wood). I feel like now I can breathe a little easier and really bond with my baby after hearing it's heartbeat. I've been afraid to become connected in case something was wrong but the Dr. said I should feel good about it now. Now I will relax and enjoy being pregnant!! Mark your calendars to come see our new bundle of joy in June (I'm shooting for Father's Day - June 21).

My husband is the star of the front page - a controversial star but a star nonetheless

Spanish teacher brings Puerto Rican experiences

Easton, Kan. -
Courtney Marsh said he realized that he should teach professionally while instructing a little girl from the Republic of Guinea about five years ago.

As a student at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan., Marsh volunteered several days a week to teach the girl at the Butcher Elementary School on campus. The girl spoke French but no English — Marsh is fluent in both French and Spanish.

“She learned so fast, to see her transform from this scared little immigrant girl who’d only been in the country a few days to a fully capable kid,” Marsh said.

Marsh, 29, is the new Spanish teacher at Pleasant Ridge High School. He previously taught for two years in Puerto Rico.

Marsh received a bachelor of science degree in education with fields in Spanish and French. He also received an endorsement in English as a second language.

His wife, Kelly, teaches kindergarten at MacArthur Elementary School on Fort Leavenworth. The couple taught on Fort Leavenworth two years prior to teaching in Puerto Rico. Courtney Marsh also has teaching experience in Sabetha, Kan.

Marsh and his wife attended an international recruitment fair at the University of Northern Iowa. They received three job offers in Armenia, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. The couple ruled out Armenia pretty fast because of geography, he said.

“We had a really tough choice between Guatemala and Puerto Rico,” Marsh said.

For the Guatemala job, two American women interviewed Marsh. He said he asked them, “Do you feel safe when you go out?”.

“They kind of danced around the issue,” Marsh said. “They wouldn’t come out and tell me ‘Yes.’ I wasn’t going to jeopardize my wife’s or my safety for a job.”

The decision between Guatemala and Puerto Rico was a difficult one, but Marsh’s wife had a great idea, he said. They knew they wanted family members to visit them, so they checked airline ticket prices for the two locations.

“It was almost three times as much for Guatemala, so we knew no one would ever come see us,” Marsh said. “We chose Puerto Rico.”

In Puerto Rico, Marsh learned a significant amount of Spanish and honed his skills, he said.

“I learned what it was like to be the minority, which was a pretty powerful and pretty moving experience,” he said. “You walk into a restaurant and a grocery store, and you get looked at and people say things.”

Several cultural artworks hang on the walls in Marsh’s classroom, including a photograph of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and “Three Musicians” by Pablo Picasso. Marsh tries to incorporate arts and history in his teaching — the works of art are good conversation pieces, he said.

His favorite Spanish proverb is “En boca cerrada, no entran moscas,” which means “Flies don’t enter a closed mouth.”

As a hands-on teacher, Marsh incorporates cultural quizzes, crossword puzzles, vocabulary quizzes and map making in all of his classes.

“Keep your expectations reasonable,” Marsh said as advice to those who learn another language. “It’s going to require a lot of work if you’re going to succeed. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

*************************************************************************************

This article was written about Courtney and is on the front page of the Leavenworth Times this week. It's an okay article - the writer wasn't very good - and it took FOREVER for her to finish. She no longer works at the paper by the way. Anyway! I say it was "controversial". If you read the article it talks about posters that Courtney has in his classroom because he teaches everything about the hispanic culture. There was also a picture in the article of him that showed a Mexican flag in the background. He has a Mexican flag, a Spanish flag, and of course a U.S. flag. If he had a Puerto Rican flag he'd hang that up too (hint, hint Puerto Rican friends!!!!). Anyway - when the article first showed up on the internet there was a comment section. What started out as a nice, harmless, informative article about Courtney and his experiences blew up. Two men started leaving comments about how Courtney is un-American, he's a marxist revolutionary, and his heroes are murderers, etc., etc. They deleted the comment section because it got out of hand. Well Courtney started looking under other articles and their comment sections and sure enough the men moved to a different article to bash him. They started talking about how they should report him to the board of education and his principal because he is incorporating his own politics into his teaching - blah, blah, blah! Well Kelly got pissed. I called the editor of the paper yesterday!!! I basically told him that what they were writing was bashing my husband and they were trying to take something innocent and give him a bad name and I wanted to know what he was going to do about it. I got him to "screen" any comments from these two men and I even got their real names! Ha! After my phone call Courtney stopped in to meet him. In the end nothing really is going to happen but we feel better that their comments were removed and they will not be able to write anything about him unless they re-register under different e-mail addresses. I don't understand how some people can be so ignorant and have nothing better to do with their time then read these articles, pick something little out of them and try to cause problems. Oh well! If you want to read the article online and see the picture you can go to: http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/news/x466653797/Spanish-teacher-brings-Puerto-Rican-experiences.

I'm not sure how long it will be up there but it's there as of today. What a week!!

The Last Week

Nothing too exciting has been going on. Last Tuesday I went out with 2 of my Kindergarten teacher friends to a cooking class on post. It was an authentic Mexican food "class" put on by one of my students' parents. We had tomales, mole, and salsa verde. Sssoooo good! Courtney had PT conferences until 8:00 Tuesday and Wednesday so I went out with the girls. We had a lot of fun. Then the rest of the week was pretty boring aside from dropping a large chunk of change on the pups at the vet on Thursday. Winston has a yeast infection in his ear, Miller has colitis (enlarged colon - ew! This caused him to do nasty stuff IN HIS KENNEL IN MY HOUSE!!), they both needed shots, and they both got their heartworm meds. Winston is now on ear drops and Miller in on pills. We brought them home and they're falling apart!! Friday we went to the PRHS football game again, Saturday was spent cleaning, and Sunday was spent watching football. Don't ask me about the Cowboys...I don't want to talk about it. :( I am so happy that I can finally annouce this.....MY KATIE IS PREGNANT!!!!!! We've known for a while now and we are so excited for her!! She & Brent will make great parents. I am already planning on going down there for part of my Spring Break in April after the baby arrives. She is due the first part of April. Yes, we're trying to catch up to them but it just hasn't worked...yet. One day! Have a great week everyone!

The Weekend

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Friday night we went to the first home Pleasant Ridge High School football game. Courtney has several students that play and asked if we were going. We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter because they were ahead 35-0. They have some good runners on their team. I think we're going to go again this Friday. Saturday morning we got up and Courtney worked on his truck. If we're not having drama with one of our vehicles we're bored! I did some school stuff to prepare for my Smart Board....that's another exciting story!! Then we went to a High School soccer game. PRHS doesn't have a team so the boys that want to play go to Immaculata to play. We'll just say the boys from PRHS make up half of the Immac team. We stayed until halftime and then left because, well, we don't know anything about soccer and their was no scoreboard so we had no clue what was happening or the score. I'm sure we'll go to another game because we'll probably take Nicolas - who is quite the soccer player himself! After that I went to my school to play with my new toy...so fun! I got a SMART board installed in my room on Saturday. If you don't know what that is you are missing out!! It's a big screen connected to a CPU and a projector. I can scan in pages, pictures, etc. and project them onto my screen. Then the kids can "write" on them, draw on them, whatever I tell them to do. It really will make things so nice because I can put anything on the screen and everyone in the room can see it. Since it's hooked to a CPU I can get on the Internet and get video clips for different themes and lessons. The kids were really excited about it. I will try to get some pictures of my classroom up this week - I've been waiting because I wanted to get that darn board!! I was supposed to have it a week ago but I got cancelled so that's why it's taken so long for pictures. Be looking for them soon!! Let's see - oh yes, yesterda was spent at the Lyric Opera in KC. We saw La Boheme with Dr. Clamurro. He got us season tickets this year as a welcome home gift because we were too poor to buy them ourselves. We honestly weren't in the mood to go yesterday but it ended up being a really great opera. After that we drove to The Legends and ate at Stix which is a sushi restaurant. It was pretty good but the service was terrible. We might go back some day... Of course last night was spent watching the Cowboys win 27-16 against the Packers!!!! I don't mind saying my 'boys are looking good this year - could it be the year to end the "curse" in the playoffs?!?! We'll see! This coming weekend I think we're staying close to home - Courtney might be teaching "Saturday School" at PRHS and then the 'Skins play the 'Boys on Sunday - I hope we get the game. Don't worry, it won't get too bloody here!! I hope you all have a great week and I promise, one day, this BLOG will get more interesting!!

Hi. My name is Kelly Marsh and I am a Dallas Cowboys addict.

I've been telling people for years that I was born into Cowboys football. I don't think people realy believed me. Now maybe they will. It all started with a man, Charles Johnson, my Grandpa who would watch (through his closed eyelids) every Cowboys game on TV. My Aunt Sandi lived in Dallas so my Dad, Grandpa, and a few rowdy friends would fly down to Dallas for games. (Maybe once or twice but hey that's more than I've been to!) They were cool too because they would fly themselves in their plane. I've seen pictures of the games...or at least pictures of the Cowboys cheerleaders. I don't hate on those ladies - I always wanted to be one but it's a little thing called I'm short and I don't live in Texas. Anyway! When I was growing up we would go to Grandpa's house on Sundays and watch the games. I learned early on not to change the channel even if Grandpa was snoring because he WAS watching. If the channel was changed....bad news. I remember getting a pink shirt with a picture (cartoon picture) of a Cowboys cheerleader and I loved it. I also received a Cowboys jacket with my name on it. A few weeks ago while looking through family pictures I discovered it. A picture from the day I received the beautiful jacket. Oh so lovely! You can't tell from the pictures that it was a Cowboys jacket because you can't see the star but I know it and so does everyone else that was there. There is even a picture of my sister getting her personalized Cowboys jacket so even if she won't admit it her blood run blue also. And then this past week I received something in the mail more beautiful than words can describe. Perhaps the most beautiful shirt in all the world. My beloved friends, the Dills, in Texas really do love me!! And I think they are becoming Cowboys fans, too (right?!?!).






This picture was taken when my Dad and some others flew down to Dallas for a Cowboys game. My Dad and Grandpa owned the plane and my Dad had a license to fly. No wonder why he drives so fast!








Here I am putting on my new Cowboys jacket with my name on it and beside the man who is the reason for my blue blood and my tattoo.









Could it be the most beautiful shirt ever to be made?!? I believe it is!! Thank you Pickles!!!!!

Updates...

So I haven't been real good about keping up my BLOG lately. I apologize. You must understand that our lives are much different than they were a year ago - lots of differences between weekends at the beach and weekends at...home. Let's see - where to begin -

School is going great! Courtney & I are both enjoying where we teach, the kids, the subjects, everything. I am actually enjoying Kindergarten so much more than I thought I would. The days go so fast with these little ones. They are already starting to surprise me with what they can do after being in school for 21 days (we count every day). Courtney was a lucky one last week and got not a 2 day weekend but a 4 day weekend. Sure, sure, sure, blame it on a broken water main if it makes you feel better. So last Monday he had no school and it was a cold and rainy day. We had the Bridges clan over for dinner and karaoke that night - so fun! Nicolas, as it turns out, and quite a singer!! I went first, then Nic, then Anna, then Amanda, Nic and Anna lots more, Jim, Amanda, me, Nic and Anna, etc. During all of the singing Courtney got the call about no school on Tuesday. Life is rough! Last week it rained basically every day. I had a "Freedom Walk" at school on Thursday and then our "National Anthem Project" that afternoon so Thursday was a nothing day. Friday was a rough day because it rained and rained and rained. Yesterday it was still raining - seriously we had rain pretty much non stop for 48 hours. I had to take pictures because we had a river running through our backyard. It was interesting - especially when all 3 dogs decided to run through it. Yesterday we got up early and headed to Lenexa to help mom and dad move to their new apartment in Overland Park. The new one is so much nicer. Even the outside of the apartments are nicer. We ended up not leaving until almost 8:00 last night to come home...in the rain. Other than that we haven't been up to too much. Today is being spent cleaning, doing lesson plans, and watching football. My Cowboys rocked last Sunday and I'm sure will do the same tomorrow on Monday Night Football!! It will be quite a change seeing MNF at a decent hour here in Kansas. I can't wait! Here are some pics of our river. Have a great week everyone!!








The white speck in the middle is Winston's toy floating down "the river". Don't worry - it floated out of the river and is drying safely in our now soggy yard!

Labor Day Weekend...

...was spent in Wichita with my parents, Aunts and Uncle, cousins, and 3 Great Aunts. I spent Friday night in Lenexa with my parents so my hubby would get to sleep in on Saturday morning. I made the mistake of letting my husband have a choice about whether or not he would go to Wichita - of course he picked to stay home. Anyway - bright and early on Saturday we headed to Wichita. We got there and started going through pictures from my Grandma's house. Mind you the pictures have been sitting in my parent's house in Minneapolis since my Grandma's death in 2002. A little while later my 3 Great Aunts and cousin came and helped us go through pictures. My job in all of this was to scan any pictures people wanted copies of into my computer and then transfer them to a jump drive. My scanner hasn't worked that hard in a long time!! Sunday my Uncle and Aunt and 3 cousns from Larned came and we had lunch and looked through more pictures. By the time we got home Sunday night I was exhausted!! It was fun though to spend time with my family. It's been 2 years since I last saw my Aunts from Oklahoma and probably a year or a year and half for the relatives from Larned. Yesterday we did, well, nothing!!! Today it was back to school for another 4 day week...gotta love those! Hopefully this weekend we will head to Boone, Iowa to watch Dave Hardesty in the finals at the IMCA Nationals. Here's a picture of my family from the weekend:

Aunt Sandi, Great Aunt Billye, Dad, Sharon Arlene, Great Aunt Irene, Great Aunt Vera, Mom, and me

Hey Boys!!!

We're not in Puerto Rico anymore, Toto....

And partying in KS is certainly not the same!! We had our house warming / birthday party for Courtney last weekend and it was.....A BUST!!! The important people were there like: me, Courtney, the dogs, mom, dad, Aunt Sandi, my friend Anne came, Ada, Susan, Carol R., Jackie Q., and -seriously folks- that was it!! I couldn't believe all the people who didn't come. I was, to be quite honest, embarrassed and a little hurt. So yesterday I had a meltdown. It was ugly. It was bad. It was really depressing. I melted down because of the party Saturday, I got a new student (again!), any weight loss I was having has stopped, and we're broke! So I thought it would get better yesterday because I was getting paid....WRONG!! The bank number they had had too many digits so my payment was rejected. Isn't that a kick in the balls?! So I had to call around to figure that out and spend 24 more hours in the poor house. I did finally get paid today and, what's that, in the poor house again?! Already?! Oh yes people, poor again. That's called paying bills. I know life will get better and "easier" soon when Courtney gets paid and we pay off our Blazer but for right now things bite. But anyway! I'm done bitching. It's time to put on my big girl panties and deal with life. School is going pretty well, Courtney is enjoying his school so far, we have a beautiful house, we have wonderful friends, and this weekend is a 3 day weekend! The only thing that could make life better would of course be if we were on the beach but we'll take what we can get! Hope you all have a fabulous week. Thanks for listening to me vent.

Happy Birthday, Courtney!!

Today is Courtney's 29th birthday!! We are having a house warming / birthday party on Saturday night at 6:00 for all who can come. Happy birthday my love!!!

You like us - You really like us!!

Wow!! Over 2,000 visitors to our BLOG!!! Thank you all for following us through our journey in Puerto Rico and now back home in Kansas. There will be many more adventures to come...just you wait and see. I started school a week ago tomorrow and it's going pretty well. No major problems so far. I do not, however, like starting school on a Monday - especially when I'm teaching 5 year old Kindergarteners!!! I did get a transfer student on Thursday that had a few meltdowns but he came back to school on Friday and was great! Whew! Courtney had a meeting on Friday and he has meetings Monday and Tuesday of this week. His birthday (the big 2-9!) is Tuesday and then he starts school with kids on Wednesday...guess he'll have to be good Tuesday night! Poor guy! Yesterday Nicolas came over and we picked apples from 2 of our trees. The damn deer ate EVERY apple from our Asian Pear Apple tree - of course our one exotic tree gets eaten. Damn You Deer!!! Our Macintosh Apple tree I think is pretty bad right now. We got bag worms in the tree (the people who lived here before didn't spray before this apple season) so most of them are gross. I hope they didn't kill the tree completely and we'll have big beautiful red apples next summer. Nic and I picked some from that tree and almost all of them from another tree (the 5 in 1 tree) but the last tree isn't quite ready yet so maybe next week. We made bets on how many apples and were waaaaay off. In the end we picked 156 apples!!!! Can you believe it? Today we're headed to Lawrence to have lunch with Courtney's Aunt and Uncle for his birthday. This week I don't have kids on Friday because I have parent/teacher conferences...fun, fun! Saturday is our house warming / birthday party for all who can make it. Hope to see some of you there!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Mr. & Mrs. Dustin McCown

We had a busy last week and weekend as Courtney's cousin Dustin finally married his woman. Dustin and Monica got together a month before Courtney and I did in 1994 (can you believe it?)and 14 years and 1 son later they got married on July 26, 2008. We went to Salina last Wednesday and stayed with Courtney's dad and step-mom. On Thursday was the bachelor party. The bachelor went home by 11:00 and, of course, my hubby, his dad, and his cousin Curtis partied without him until 1:00. You know me - I can't sleep if my husband is gone so I stayed up and waited. I think I forgot to mention that we are babysitting Curt's dog, Cricket, because he's getting ready to head to Colorado Springs to taxidermy school (I know - what?!). We took all 3 dogs home so when Curtis showed up at Calvin's we were anxious to see Cricket's reaction. Yeah she's pretty pissed at him! She would walk over by him and then keep on walking to me or Courtney. Imagine what she'll be like in October/November when he gets home and comes to get her! Friday morning came way too early and the dogs were anxious to get outside so I was up by 7:30 after getting to bed at 2:00. We ran all around doing random things on Friday and then had rehearsal that night. Saturday we helped Dustin get their 900 beers (yes, 900!!!) on ice and then drove him to Minneapolis to get ready for the wedding. He was actually pretty smart to get can beer because what happens if you don't drink all of a keg? Anyone? That's right - it goes flat! Now can beer on the other hand you can put in the fridge and drink as you want. How smart! We were at the church in time for pictures and I ran around taking all sorts of pics (I may quit my teaching to become a photographer....) and then I videotaped the wedding and parts of the reception. Yesterday we came home and went to bed early because Courtney started a conference this morning in Olathe. I start meetings tomorrow (thank goodness they're only half day!) and I start with kids 2 weeks from today - the summer's over already?!?! I'm pretty damn stressed right now because my classroom is filled with boxes and furniture from the preschool class that has been there for 2 years. I can't even get to my stuff yet!! How can I get ready for the school year??? I guess I'll figure it out!! Here are some pics I took at the wedding. Let me know if anyone needs pictures done - I won't charge too much...



Word of advice: never tell Courtney your room number for your wedding night!












I love this picture of Dustin and Grandma Charlotte!










Thank goodness they didn't let him escape.












No, you're not seeing things. The ushers (Curtis in blue) wore the tuxedos from Dumb and Dumber!












One of my favorite pictures!












My, my, who are these lovely people?!












Fourteen years for both of these couples!











Me & Nicole Noon hanging out at the reception.












I stole this picture of Alta from Nicole's computer...isn't she pretty?















I also have a new cousin!! David and Jen Cole welcomed #3 on Friday morning. Courtney and I saw him that morning. His name is Walker Curtis Cole and he weighed 6 lbs 5 oz and was 19" long. Jen is the master of giving birth: induced at 8:00, started pushing at 10:28, had the baby at 10:31. I told her to knock it off and give someone else a turn!

Dave & Buster's Fun

We met up with our college friends for a night of fun at Dave & Buster's last weekend and then this weekend was spent with some PR friends. We've been busy! We met John & Mary, Travis, Justin & Sarah for dinner and games. Kate - Mary tried your virtual jump rope game and it's hard!!!

Killing the evil Zombies
















Travis challenged Courtney to a "dance off" - which Courtney won! We have since been dancing on our own Dance Dance Revolution pad at home.














The boys were thrilled to find a Madden game on the BIG screen. It was Travis & Courtney vs. Justin & John. My hubby and his teammate won!!















The gang: Courtney, Justin, John, Mary, Sarah (due in a few weeks!!), and Travis.











This past Sunday Tori and Tom from Puerto Rico were in town! They were headed to TX where Tori will be teaching from Chicago. Tom leaves in a week to go back to the island for his last year. It was fun to catch up with them.

The drama that is Miller's life

Poor Miller! He's had a rough time of it lately. First he was having problems with his claw. We think we let them get too long when we moved back because our clippers were packed away and when we was digging it just split open. I took him to the vet and he put Miller under and clipped it back as far as he could and filed it down. I sat at the vet's office for 2 hours for the surgery and then his recovery. That was a trip! When he "came to" they got him standing up but he wouldn't walk. They called me back thinking if he saw and heard me he might start walking. I got back there and he could hear me but he couldn't focus. He looked like my very own Stevie Wonder dog! Then when he started getting feeling back in his tongue he kept sticking the tip of it out. It was kind of cute! I got him home and we babied him for the rest of the night. The doctor said he needed to keep the bandage on his paw for 5 days but of course we didn't think he would wear it that long. That was on Wednesday. Then on Friday we went home to Minneapolis to help mom and dad with moving the rest of their things from their house. We were staying with Sharon & Wilbur because my parents stay with Grandma and there aren't enough beds for us also. Sharon & Wilbur live on the "outskirts" of Minneapolis - basically in the country. There are all sorts of critters at their house - not counting Curtis' now 7 dogs. We had let the boys run around outside with Curt's and Travis' dogs when we heard a terrible noise. We ran out to see what was going on and that's when we saw the mountain lion. We had heard these hung out in that area but had never seen one. We tried to get the dogs away from it but you know Miller! We sent Curtis in to get a shotgun while the rest of us threw things at it. Next thing we knew Miller was racing towards it. It was crazy! It really felt like a scene from a movie! By the time Curtis got out to shoot it Miller had gotten too close and that damn lion got his ear! We had to rush him to the vet to get bandaged up (hence the bandage on his ear). Of course he was pretty bloody on his face and head. So now he had a bandaged head and paw. He was such a good boy and kept the bandage on his paw for the full 5 days. I would say Miller had a bad week!
























My bad! It was Odie, not a mountain lion!!

Royals game

It's been a while again. I am guessing posts will be a little farther in between since we're back home. I'll still try to put up some interesting things but I'm afraid our lives are a little boring now! Last week we went with some friends to a Royals game. We had a blast! Keep in mind though that we were at a ROYALS game which means they lost. We kept tying up and then leading, but in the bottom of the 13th (yep, 13) we were down 1, we got the bases loaded with only 1 out. We brought out the big guns - Grudz...something. I asked Courtney if he was a good hitter. "Oh yeah, he'll do great!" And then it happened. Double out. How are you gonna double out with bases loaded and only 1 out?!?!? The game started at 7:05 and we were finally headed home at 11:45. Damn Royals!!! Here are some pics from that night.

The Marshes at the game - Ben let me wear his hat because it started raining.














The gang's all here!! The 14 (counting photographer Courtney) of us at the game.













The largest screen in the MLB. Everything's bigger in Kansas, not Texas! (Although I think technically we were in Missouri)














Jorge - do you play for the Royals? We thought this guy looked like our little Jorge!














This is Baxter, one glorious hound.

Finally Moved

Well we did it. We officially moved into our new home in Leavenworth 1 week ago. After a crazy few weeks of thinking closing wouldn't happen on the right day we finally got it all worked out. We closed on Thursday, June 26th, and drove to Salina that night to stay with Courtney's dad and step-mom. Then on Friday we went to see if we could get our U-Haul a day early so we could load some stuff Friday and get to LV earlier on Saturday. We got the truck on Friday about 2:00 and by 7:00 that night we were COMPLETELY loaded!!! Not just 1 storage unit, not 2 storage units, but 2 storage units, a table from Grandma's, misc. items from mom and dad's house, and many misc. things from Courtney's Aunt Sharon's house. We really worked our butts off and got it done quickly. I felt like I was in the way most of the time but I did help some. My husband is a very picky packer and mover so I mainly tried to stay out of the way with my mouth shut. Saturday morning we got up, picked up our lawn mower from the shop (we got a bagger for it), and were headed to LV by 10:30. We got there and got unloaded in just about 2 1/2 hours. Yes, I was a little freaked out about my husband driving a 26 foot truck but he did it like a champ. My mom & Grandma, and Courtney's Aunt Sharon & step-mom really helped out a lot by unpacking and washing everything for our kitchen. Then they worked on getting sheets and towels washed because we had everyone from Minneapolis spending the night. Sunday morning mom and I went groccery shopping and I spent all of her money!! Aren't I a sweet child? Sunday afternoon and evening was spent doing more unpacking until Allyn (I'm calling him our son that I didn't have to give birth to and he's already 21) moved in that night. He's living with us while doing an internship with the KC T-bones baseball team this summer. The rest of the week has been spent unpacking and getting our house in order so we actually have some of a summer. Yesterday we got up and our fridge shot craps so after living here for 1 week we had to spend money on a new fridge....will it ever end?!?! We did however get a nice fridge that works very well. Last night we went to Olathe for an amazing dinner at our friend Jared's parents. Today was spent at Anna's birthday party. I can't believe she's 4 already!! I think this week we might actually get to take it easy...until the weekend when we go to Minneapolis to help mom and dad get the rest of their things out of the Minneapolis house. This summer is going so fast - in 3 weeks I'll be starting meetings to start the school year. Here are a few pics I got while we were moving. None of the inside of the house yet - I'm waiting until it's all put away. Katie got her job in Texas this week so we are excited to hear if they are finding a house yet. I'm so glad I'm done with that - your turn Kate!!

















I got pictures of Curtis and his EIGHT (yes that's 8!) dogs last weekend. Let's see if I can name them all: the bull mastif is Odie, the medium sized one is Cricket, the one with no hair except for on her head, tail, and feet is Pop Tart (Princess Strawberry Frosted Pop Tart to be exact), and the basically bald one is Karma, and her puppies are Meatloaf, Harriet Tubman, Irok, and Piglet.

Isn't She Lovely....

Boredom, baby, and the boys

Yes people - I am bored out of my mind!!! We are staying in Leavenworth at Jim & Amanda's while they are on vacation and I am BORED!!! I'm getting frustrated with our house because we haven't heard anything about our resolutions (crap that needs fixed) or our loan. Right now I assume we will close on June 26th (still 2 weeks away!) but there's always a chance something will go wrong and we won't even get this house. We've been calling our realtor with questions today and he has not returned any of our calls. My frustration level is VERY high right now. I just want to know - either way - if I will be moving in 2 weeks or not. Things are definitely not going as smoothly or as quick as they did last time we bought a house. It's safe to say that once we FINALLY get moved in we will stay put for quite a while!! This week we've done, well, nothing except for going to dinner with mom and dad a few times and Travis, Nicole, and Alta stopped by on Wednesday. It was fun to show them the house and play with the baby. She's my girl! Also (you can now tell how bored I am) the dogs haven't made an appearance on the BLOG in a while so I took some pictures of them. This has been the longest 3 weeks in my life!!!


Winston's chair









Winston is loving having grass to lay on!











The Bridges's dog - Angus









Miller was feeling a little shy - HELLO!!! The camera is over here!!








Isn't she precious? Just a few days before she turned 2 months.






How do we look with a baby?!?!

Home Sweet Home (not yet but almost)

We had our inspection today so I finally got inside to take some pictures of our house empty. The people who lived there before us are the sweetest, cutest people ever! In the fridge were 4 beers, in the downstairs bedroom was a bed, and on the countertop was a book and sweet note. The book is all about the house, the neighbors, and everything I need to know about every kind of flower on the property - including pictures of each flower in bloom. The note was so sweet - those are the kind of people you WANT to buy a house from. They put so much love in to that house and I promise them we will do the same. I'll put up a few pictures for now and I promise I'll put up more when we finally move in. We're almost ready for visitors...
The pictures: 1 & 2) The front of the house; 3) the AMAZING deck (it's 2 tiers and has built in bench seating on the 2nd tier! We're gonna have some great parties!); 4 & 5) Apples, anyone?; 6) Where Chef Kelly will cook; 7) Whirlpool, anyone?





















I think that's good for now - oh I'm such a tease!! Our inspection went smoothly and hopefully the adjustments needed will follow just as smoothly. Our next step is getting insurance (decision to be made tonight) and then put the loan through! We're on the downhill slope leading to moving in!! I'll keep you posted (get it?)!