Let the fun begin!

School ended yesterday!  I am officially on summer vacation!  There are so many super fun things that we will be doing this summer but there are also some things that desperately NEED to be done!!  We have been in this house for over a year now, we have out-of-state friends coming to visit us (WHOO HOO!!!) and we have our adoption home study.  Many reasons to get this house in order.  For those that know me, know that I like to make color-coded lists.  Organizing my organization.  Tomorrow it will all begin.  Watch out boys....we have work to do!!

5 MORE GET UPS!!

Only 5 more days to get up and get out of bed to go to work until I am on SUMMER VACATION!!!  I know that there are many out there who are saying, "Oh! It must be nice to be a teacher and have the summer off!"  Well, to be honest, "YES!! Yes, it is!!"  But that was my choice.  We all make choices in life and those of you who really want to say that to me....you should have chosen to be a teacher!  :)

I love teaching!  I love my job!  I am SUPER lucky to have my job!  I love working with my students.  BUT I am SO READY for summer vacation!!  As teachers we NEED this break to rejuvenate for the fall.  And who are we kidding...the kids NEED it, too!

Summer vacation means so many things for the Stape Fam.

1)  It's birthday month!! Both Gus and I will celebrate our birthdays in June.  I CANNOT believe that my baby will be THREE!!  Just seems so surreal!  I have been so incredibly blessed the past 3 years! I am such a lucky girl!  A few days after Gus turns 3, I turn....ummm....a year older.  But as my sister and I will tell you, that means CAKE!!  Who doesn't love birthday cake?!?

2) We get to be home together as a family all summer long!  How cool is that??  We get to be together and play.  It really does not get better than that!  I love that Joel and I both work in education.  My parents did, too, and it was awesome that we got to spend so much time together.  We always knew that there would be family trips or activities in the summer.  I just love that we get to spend so much time together.

3) I have more opportunities to do things that get put on the back burner during the school year.  This blog for example!  Unless there is earth shattering news...which isn't very often in our family, I often forget about posting new info.  As I look back on the past 3 1/2 years (I KNOW!!) that I have been blogging, I did a lot more blogging in the summer.  Clearly due to having extra time.  So watch out world....it is almost super blogging time!

4) CRAFTS!!  How many of you are on Pinterest?  You can find all of my pins HERE.  This is one of my new obsessions!  I have been pinning away and getting TONS of ideas but having no time to follow thru with them.  So....here we go!  I am ready to get my craft on!!

5) Home projects.  Now that we have been in the house for over a year, I am ready to really organize and get this place in order!  I feel like life has just been speeding by and instead of taking time for these projects, I choose to play with Gus.  I mean...who wouldn't??

6) Travel....a little bit less.  This year our goal is to cut back a little bit on our traveling.  Every summer we live out of a suitcase.  The goal this year is to cut way back on it.  Beyond visiting grandparents, and my trip to Atlanta for the Thirty-One National Conference, we will be staying close to home.  I am SO looking forward to that!

7)  Wedding bells!  My sister is getting married!!  And I can't wait!  We are beyond excited for her and Nate and can't wait until the big day arrives this summer.  (I am sure you will hear more about this as the day approaches.)

Lots on the Stape Family agenda but we are very excited to get through the next 5 days so that we can begin our summer of fun!!

Holy Moly!!

I just realized that it has been WAY too long since I last posted here.  There has been lots going on at Stape's House this summer.  Our life is so chaotic....especially during the school year with both of us teaching full time and coaching.  Not to mention being parents and this little side business I call Thirty-One.  We truly enjoy a little bit of so-called "down time" during the summer.  Here is a little play-by-play of what summer 2011 has brought us.

June

• Finished the school year.
• Prepared for Gus' second birthday party.  Those of you who know me, know that it is never just cake and ice cream at this house.  There is always a huge theme.  This year....barnyard!!  As much as I wanted to, I did refrain from hiring the traveling petting zoo and pony!
• Joel left for a week at Boys State while Gus and I roughed it alone here at home.  It was a challenging week for me.  Probably worthy of it's own blog post.
• Joel came home and the next day we left for the Great Smoky Mountains.  My parents rented a cabin up in the mountains and invited us along.  There will definitely be another blog post to follow on that.  Me + Nature = an amusing combination!

July

• We returned home from our mountain adventure to discover some damage was done to our fence and one of our cars so we have spent time this week getting quotes and talking to our insurance agent.  Ugh!  I hate dealing with that!!
• We ventured over to the west side of the state to visit with my friend, Kim, who was "home" visiting her family.  I say "home" because I am a firm believer that Arizona should not be her home but Michigan should be.  I miss her something fierce and I hate that she lives all the way across the country.  (Mind you...our parents are neighbors so as teenagers, we were only moments apart.)  We also got to visit with the Carlson's.  Their daughter, Eme, was born 3 days after Gus and is also adopted.  We have become good friends as we have traveled the adoption road together.  Eme's Uncle Joe Maly is my husband's college roommate.  Joe is the godfather to both Gus and Eme.  I LOVE that we have such a great time together and have so much in common.
• I have been getting ready for the Thirty-One National Conference.  I am going next week and I couldn't be more excited.  Because I am a director, I get to plan some fun stuff for my team.  I can't wait to give them the stuff we have been working on.  SO FUN!!  (I wish I could tell you but some of them read my blog....so you will all have to wait.)

Coming Up

• I go to the National Conference for four days!!
• We get to head up north at the end of the month to Torch Lake for a week.  So excited because we get to spend the week with most of Joel's family.  His sister, Sarah, and her family, who live 6 minutes from us, will be up there.  Gus LOVES his "Wendan and Nana".  (For those that don't understand Gus-speak, that is Brendan and Hannah!)  We will also get to see Joel's sister, Sherri, and her family.  I CAN'T WAIT!!  They live in Nebraska now and we haven't seen them since Thanksgiving.  Miss them lots and can't wait to spend some quality time with them.  Gus has been practicing their names.  We point to their pictures and he says their names.  Now that he is a little older it will be lots of fun to see him interact with them now.
• AUGUST....dun...dun...duuuuunnnn..... (that was the scary music in case you couldn't tell).  Once August hits, our summer is over so to speak.  Football and cheerleading both start up in August along with me going back to work.  Before school starts, I will spend many, many hours in my counseling office working on student schedules and enrolling new students.  I love my job...but I am really loving my time at home this summer.  I can't believe it is already half over

Loving life these days!!