Trick or Treat 2014

Our ninja and Batman had a great Halloween season.

It started a few weeks ago with trick-or-treating at the zoo. We've done this several times over the years with our friends, the Ingram's, so it was fun to spend time reminiscing with them while also making new memories together!

It was a chilly but fun evening of trick-or-treating in Manhattan last night.

And the boys had a great time showing off for great grandma 

and got to see grandma Ammeter's latest crazy get up!

On a sadder note, our crazy cat Leo did not come home Tuesday morning and we have not seen any signs of him. Leo always wanted to be outside and truly just wasn't an indoor kitty, so we knew letting him out like we did/he wanted that this could happen...but we are all still very sad and missing his friendly meow and giant fluffy tail.

Fall Walks and Four Day Weekends

We just got home from picking up the boys from a fun filled weekend in Nebraska with grandma and grandpa!

They had a long weekend with conferences last week and had so much time during their four days off with them.

Before they left we took advantage of the beautiful fall days last week and walked home from school....there was some protesting but we still got it done.

And while the boys were gone we had more exciting mail from Disney 

World...our magic bands arrived!

While the boys were gone, Chad and I enjoyed some time together doing things we don't normally get to do like watching an entire world series game at a local sports bar...it was such an awesome atmosphere having everyone cheering on the Royals!

But we are glad to have the boys back this afternoon! Mitchell recently presented his first book report and we are very proud of how well he did.

Fall Picture...2014

While taking care of things at my parents while they were away this past week, I was able to get the boys to pose with some awesome fall back drops.

All these photos were mostly pain free with very little bribery....mostly.

They really do get along most of the time, however they do have their moments. But they pretty much realized that mom likes pictures...and if mom isn't happy no one is happy. 😃

500 miles in October

For the third year in a row, I have ran over 500 miles! 

And with our crazy busy fall, I have not signed up for any races in the near future but have my eye on a few races in 2015. Right now I'm thinking of running another half marathon in late March in Wamego.

This week is Mitchell's last baseball game for the fall season...he's learned a lot on this team and had fun!

And we've still found time for some fun with our friends too!

Catch the Counselor

This past summer, I went to a conference for school counselors and attended a session about counseling beyond the office/classroom guidance setting.  The presenter was very creative and incredibly inspiring!  During the session, I had an idea that would involve working with the PE teachers at my school. 

I had often talked to one of our former PE staff members who I would run with occasionally about the lack of motivation many students have running the timed mile each quarter.  I had half joked/half offered to run with any students who needed some extra encouragement.  Even though that staff member is no longer with us, I was fairly certain our current teachers had the same issue and might be open to my idea.  My idea was to be able to interact with lots of students at once, in a setting that they weren't used to seeing me in, but still be there to be encouraging and motivate them to do something that was difficult.

The program I came up with  is called "Catch the Counselor."  Essentially, I challenged all the students in PE to run the timed mile with me and either finish before or with me for each hour.  I told each hour I would not be the fastest, but that I would not walk during any of the hours.

Monday was the day and it was so much fun!  Each student in every hour that made my time or below signed a banner and we hung it in the gym.  I had one class where 26 students got to sign...it was so awesome I was so proud of all of them! 

Here is a break down of my  times for each of the 7 miles:
1st hour-10:14
2nd hour-9:45
3rd hour-10:00
4th hour-9:45
5th hour-9:40
6th hour-9:30
7th hour-9:36

What a great day!  I hope to be able to do this again and find other ways to work with students outside my normal realm of school counseling.  I love what I do!!!

A Day at the Bill

Saturday we spent another fun (but warm) day at Bill Snyder Family Stadium to cheer on the Cats.

We've been a busy family this fall with work, school, fall baseball for Mitchell, cross country for me and then this past week was parent teacher conferences at EMS.

We know spending our Saturday's together as a family at football games is such a blessing and the fact that we can walk home from the stadium if half of us leave early is part of what we love about living in Manhattan!

55

55 Days!  55 Days!  We go to Disneyworld in 55 Days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This past week we were able to make our fast pass reservations. The boys of already been asking us what ride we are looking forward to the most!

I think I am most excited to see them experience this magic for the first time! It has been a very busy fall and having this to look forward to we know will make it even more exciting and special for all of us. Our flight is booked. Disney resort hotel reserved. Dining reservations made. And now fast passes secured. It's getting close!!!!!