[ the piston post ]

"remodeling fever"... and other shenanigans..

2012-02-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

This time last year we were remodeling our bathroom. Boy was that a wild ride. I am so thankful we are finished with it and we love what we did. BUT- now we are ready to tackle our 2nd biggest project on this house: the basement. There is really nothing visually wrong with the basement. It is finished, has carpet, white walls, you know... but we also knew there was a few times it flooded & we had found some mold from what we could see. Our plan is to get rid of the mold, paint, get new windows/an egress window in the bedroom, and get new carpet so we can put furniture down there & utilize the great space!

Nate's birthmom, Terri, sent us these awesome crocheted hats for Christmas. They came from krochetkids.org which is an awesome organization. Check it out!

I have recently started cutting cucumbers and putting them in my water for more flavor. It is deeeelicious!!

This is the view from my bathtub. Scooter staring over the edge....

I painted these 2 canvases a few weeks ago. I love this verse.

the #1 thing we like about living in Kansas? the sky. I can't help but think that God paints it a little prettier than most places to make up for the lack of outdoors/landscape Kansas has, ha.

Anywho, life has been alright the last month or so. Nate has been doing p90x the last couple months and its been awesome to see his transformation. Maybe he will let me post his before and after pictures on here (but I doubt it, ha!) That boy is getting in shape!!

A funny story

2012-01-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

I'm really trying to stay positive about life & look at all the blessings and joys that we encounter daily- and this happens to be one that we both find pretty funny- so I figured I'd share

Back in the summer Nate & I ventured to Gordmans in Wichita to shop around. We went in the store and I stopped fairly close to the opening doors of the store to look at the jewelry. Nate was standing behind me when all the sudden something caught our attention (actually, caught EVERYONE in the stores attention). A young woman was at the opening of the store and a young man was standing behind her, arms wrapped around her, and she's yelling "GET OFF OF ME!! GET OFF OF ME!!" The scene looked like something you would see out of a movie. For a minute I thought we were on "punked" or "what would you do", you know, one of those shows. People started to stare at what was going on, wondering if someone should step in and what the heck was happening. It appeared that the man was hurting the woman and she was screaming for help. Nate, the super hero, decides this is not right and something needs to be done about it. He runs over to her and try's to grab the guy and get him off the girl. He put's his arm on the guy to help save this girl and the guy yells at Nate to back off because he is a cop (you would not know this though, he had no visible badge and was wearing normal clothes). At this point everyone in the store is just staring at this and I am wondering if my husband is going to be a hero or end up with a black eye. Nate backs off and the man and woman go back and forth, her trying to get away from him, him holding her down. Eventually she ran away from him and he pushed her down while she is yelling " I didn't take nothing! I didn't take nothing!" .

Well it turns out this woman was stealing. and that man WAS a cop. and Nate was trying to help her steal (unintentionally).

Maybe its not that funny to you, or maybe it's one of those "had to be there" things. Let me tell you though- looking back, it was hilarious.

Praise the Lord, its 2012!

2012-01-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

I really don't feel like reflecting on 2011, in fact I am just really happy that it's 2012. Somehow a new year means new hope for good things. I do find it kind of ironic though because if you look back to my post this time last year I was on this rant about how 2011 was going to be such a great year for us Piston's (merely because of Nate & I's attachment to the #11) and it ended up being the hardest year of our lives.

Christmas was great! Nate & I had a blast with my family. It was relaxing, eventful, delicious, loud (its always loud in the Shuler house), and somehow we all managed to leave with a bad cold (perks of a big family with 4 little kids running around spreading love germs). Here are some highlight pictures from the last couple weeks!

I made these two canvas art pieces for my sister for Christmas. They were pinterest inspired & pretty easy to do! (the rainbow one was much easier than the rain one). Jamie loooooved them!

Love spending time with my beautiful nieces Josie & Kaiya!!

John Jr ( aka. John John) was Mr. Claus this year

Christmas morning with the grandkids. Pretty much impossible to get a picture with them all looking at the camera/keeping their eyes open. So happy to add Jack to the Shuler family this year! He is such a sweet baby!!

I love my sister :)

The Shuler family (+ us 2 Pistons)

Grammy & Pappy with the grandkids. They are pretty proud :)

Of course we can't go to St. Louis without going to Bubble Tea. I forget how good it is because we don't have it in Kansas!

Our week in STL was really wonderful. We shopped (alot) , played a lot of funny games, watched some movies, played xbox kinect (xmas present to me from nate!!) , went to the Science Center, decorated cookies, had fondue (twice!!), ate way too much delicious food, sat around the fire laughing, talking and playing games, and my mom took me somewhere super special that I'll share with you in another post.

And so the long winter begins...

2011-12-15T18:24:00.000-08:00

I know we had this conversation last year- but I'm not a winter person. So I officially miss summer, the sun, and all its wonderful warmth. *siiiighhh* here's to a long and dreary few months (as if the last 5 months havent been dreary enough...)

In other new's, I finally chopped 5 inches off my hair. It was time. long over due. I had some weird attachment to my long hair (probably because it took me my whole life to get it?!?!) But with all the recent changes in our life- this was just the extra push to dive into more change. and I'm really glad I did it. Not only is it cute, but its easy to maintain & just feels healthier. Also, I feel like chopping that much off somehow was me saying goodbye to some of the pain we've had lately.

I absolutely love this picture. I just got an iphone & the instagram app creates the coolest pictures!

We do not do the fake Christmas tree thing. It's okay if you do- but we just love the smell of a real tree & the whole Christmas feel with it.

Scooter does this every time I get the wrapping paper out. I don't know what he is trying to communicate but it sure is hilarious...

right now I am counting down the days & hours until we are headed to St. Louis for a great Christmas break with my family. We both need it, so bad. I need to be with my family. I miss them, alot. I'm not sure what it is but during hard times, I just really miss them. Lately I have definitely wished we did not live so far away from both our families.

More later!

[.........]

2011-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

Well, life has been rough for us the past 4 months. We've been through some terrible experiences that have left us with deep wounds. It's been hard to update this thing, knowing what we are going through. So- I'm sticking to the lighter things that have gone on in the last few months.

For Nate's 25th birthday I got him the coolest present ever. A 1-day pass for high speed touring to the Hallet Motor Circuit in Jennings, OK. I've never seen him so giddy & excited about something. We got the mustang & he got to drive to his hearts content.
I'm not gonna lie- he looked like a stud driving that beauty of a car. He also had the fastest lap time for his last round of driving. Nate got to live out a dream & I got a lot of joy out of seeing him so happy :)

This last picture is from awhile ago. It was spirit week at school & it was dress up as a hero day, so a few of us teachers gathered some resources & became The Incredibles. I was Dash- and let me tell you, the kids got more of a kick out of me being a "boy" then the fact that Mrs. Piston was dressed so ridiculous. Oh the joy's of being an elementary school teacher...

The storm continues...

2011-11-13T15:53:00.001-08:00

" No matter how your first drop fell, it was probably followed by another... and another... and another. Now your heart is soaking wet and you're wondering if you'll ever feel warm and dry again. The good news is, God knows even more about rain than those scientists. He knows the destruction it can bring. He also knows how to use it to bring beauty and hope to our lives. Take a quick look out your window. Every flower or tree you see owes its life to rain. Every bird singing, every frog hopping, every living thing draws it's strength from storms. Im not saying God caused the storm in your life. We live in a broken world, and things are not as they should be. But I do believe that God is the Redeemer of the Rain. He longs to bring beauty out of brokenness, healing out of hurts, and new life out losses. "

-"Rain on Me" by Holley Gerth

Happy Birthday, Nate!

2011-10-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today is October 23 & it is Nate's 25th Birthday! This post is entirely dedicated to him, so get ready to see & read all about my wonderful husband, Nate!

I met Nate when he was 19 . It was my first week of school at JBU & right off the bat, he stuck out to me. I didnt know his name or anything about him, but I knew I liked him... ALOT.

Nate had this long wavy hair that he always wore a matching bandana with. Look at that huge smile! I was instantly attracted to him (I'm sure you can tell why! he is a STUD!)
Nate had an amazing reputation at JBU for just being awesome. The guys would call him "stone hewer" and whenever he entered into the cafeteria men would raise their glasses and say " To Nate Piston!" - it was pretty intimidating as a freshman girl who had a serious crush on him!
^ We went swing dancing together, then on 11/11/06, we went on our first official date
fast forward a couple years, Nate proposed to me in Santa Cruz, CA on 8/15/08

It's crazy to think that I have been blessed to have Nate in my life for this long. He has changed me, so much, and for the better (much better).

^ celebrating 1 year of marriage 06/06/10 , somehow i dont have a picture of our 2nd year of marriage anniversary lol.
Nate is such an amazing & unique human being. I really do believe that God really worked extra hard on creating him. If you don't know him, or don't know him that well, you are really missing out. Nate is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. Talk about a pure heart. He is tender, extremely giving, and has such a love for serving others. On the flip side, he is also such a hard worker, he is extremely task & detail oriented, and as a wife, that gives me such peace knowing that I can always rest in the fact that my husband is not lazy- he ALWAYS works hard & does his job with great execution. He's incredibly thoughtful as well.Oh & did I mention he is amazing with kids? He is going to be such a great daddy someday.

Nate is also pretty dang talented! Besides his crazy athleticism (have you seen this man play soccer?!!?) , Nate can do things with his hands & mind that I didnt know were possible! He re-modeled our entire bathroom with his bare hands! There is so much math & thinking involved in doing something like that, and he blows me away with his ability to think mathematically and logically AND build/put together beautiful things! I thank God all the time for giving me a husband who loves to use his hands (and is good at it!)

I am so incredibly thankful for both Nate's birth mom (hi Terri!) and parents (Steph & Cal). without them, Nate wouldnt be who he is today & I cant help but be thankful for that!!

Welp, I think that's enough bragging on Nate :) Happy Birthday Sweets, I love you!

Lots O' Pics

2011-10-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

We have been traveling a lot in the last 2 months. seems like every other weekend is spent going somewhere far away. Besides the many hours spent driving from place to place, it is worth it to see our loved ones :)

This picture is from a few weekends ago when we decided to see our friends in northwest arkansas. Us girls had a blast :)

Last weekend we went to Springfield to celebrate my sister in law, Holly's baby shower for Jack!! We had so much fun & we are so excited to meet Jack in just a couple weeks!!

Hesston's Coming Home weekend was a bit ago as well. This included the annual parade on the street we live. Its just so cute & something you just dont see often unless you live in a small town. Even though I do miss living in a bigger place, its times like these where I am thankful for the community that small town life brings.

I just love it that the homecoming king and queen candidates ride in car's down the street.

That picture describes our life right now. In the car. Traveling. We are really hoping to just stay put for a while & do the things we need to at home.

Its crazy how much recovery is involved physically & emotionally after a miscarriage. There is no real way to prepare yourself for it & everyone's experiences are different. So, we currently just kind of have to go with the flow, never knowing what is next for me physically, and working through the emotional aspect of the whole thing. One thing is our constant though- The Lord is my refuge & strength, and he is good to us, so, so good.

picking up the pieces

2011-09-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Its kind of hard to write another entry after the last one. What do I tell you? We are doing well. and by "well" I mean, we are putting ourselves back together after such confusion & sadness. It is hard to describe the various feelings and emotions that accompany someone who goes through a loss like that. It is weird. So confusing. Such a rollercoaster. How can I love & desire someone so much that I didnt even get to meet? I don't know, but I did, a lot. more than anything in the world. Nate & I have grown so incredibly close through this, it is such a blessing. The Lord has provided so much comfort and peace to us. We cant help but think of all the things we are thankful for through this- even if it hurts, alot. Both our families have been so amazing, supportive, and loving through this. I know a lot of people might be feeling awkward around us, or wondering what to say [ after all, what CAN anyone say? ] . Don't feel awkward. We don't mind talking about it. In fact, sometimes I find it therapeutic. I don't want to forget about this or pretend it never happened. So, don't feel uncomfortable. We are okay.

On another note, last saturday I decided to get crafty. Growing up I always enjoyed doing art & crafts. It was actually really therapeutic for me. I made this fall wreath out of felt, yarn, hot glue, a couple fake flowers, buttons, and some old piping I found in our basement.

I still need to fix a tiny part of the "P", but overall, I'm really pleased :)
This last weekend Nate & I headed back to Arkansas to spend some real quality time with our friends (+ got to see some family too!) It was much needed and just brought so much joy to us to get to see our best friends. I had a great time with my girlfriends! They were inspired by my wreath & wanted to make one of their own so we ended up crafting together all saturday. We laughed a lot, ate way too much candy, got crafty together and just enjoyed the quality time. Oh- and I made a christmas wreath too!

Empty

2011-09-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

there is no easy way to write about this. I sit here and my fingers struggle to type these words. we still cannot wrap our minds around this, or why, or how.

Nate & I are currently going through the devastating experience of a miscarriage.

you did not know we were pregnant. no one did, [ except us ]. we had wonderful plans to tell our families this past weekend. those plans were shattered friday afternoon when we received news that we were about to have a miscarriage.

just when the heart is beginning to realize the reality of such exciting news- it is snatched away with one phone call. we are devastated. mad. confused. heartbroken. disappointed.

I know God has a reason- a plan for us. that does not make this any less difficult though. I am thankful for my mom's wise reminder that God gives us a peace that surpasses understanding. I am so thankful for that. What comfort we have in knowing that we do NOT need answers for everything. we know that God is in control- and that gives me great joy even in the midst of such sorrow. We did not get to see or hold our first baby here on earth, but I know our child is in the arms of my Savior & we WILL get to meet our little one in heaven.

How could that not give us a peace that surpasses understanding?

Oh to be 24

2011-08-31T17:59:00.001-07:00

So, my 24th birthday was on the 19th and it was a good one!

Nate got me a sewing machine. I am excited to try out making some new things!

Scooter got me "A bugs life" and "the Fox & the Hound 1 and 2" . He knows I am collecting all my favorite classic animated movies on dvd now :)

Every party has a pooper....!
The weekend before that we were in Arkansas visiting my family for Josie's 5th birthday!

Also- check out the cuteness of my nephew, John!
Life in general has been a huge blessing the last few weeks. Teaching has been a million times better than it was last year just for the mere fact that its not my first year. It's crazy what a year of experience does! Nate's job is going so well! He even got called to do a small job in Hooker, Oklahoma (we had many laughs about this place...) . He was gone for 3 days. It was a nice change of pace for him!

My goal for teaching this year is to not sweat the academic stuff & to love on my kids more. I think I spent so much time/energy/frustration on trying to get my kids to keep up with the rest of their grade & this year I really want to show them the love of Christ everyday. I know I am not in Africa or some other typical missionary place- but I fully consider where and what my job is as a huge mission field.

So what one word would I use to describe life for the Piston's right now? Joy. pure joy.

a chain smoker....

2011-08-18T13:16:00.001-07:00

thats what i sound like.

Yesterday was the first official day back to school for all the kiddo's & dont ya know just my luck.... I got a bad sinus infection which is now turning into laryngitis. Do you know what else? There is no medication you can take to magically make your voice come back. The one thing you need to do is NOT TALK. Um... how do you do that when you are a teacher? of children? small children!??!?!?

Text convo between Nate & I today-

Me: ugh, its turning into laryngitis. my voice is going quick
Nate: At least I wont have to listen to you talk anymore

this was followed by a big "just kidding" but I still chuckled... in my hoarse chain smoker way.

So I think that no matter how old you are, when you are sick you always want your mom. Somehow she magically makes everything better because she knows just how to take care of you. Nate did a great job earlier this week being caretaker of a not-feeling-great-wife. but that all stopped once he started feeling terrible yesterday too. Now were just two pathetic spouses laying on the couch wishing our mommys would come to the rescue. and YES, i do realize how ridiculous & pathetic this all is.

also- I turn 24 tomorrow. I am starting to feel like I'm at that stage of life where I'm officially getting "older" . I keep forgetting that tomorrow is August 19th. Pretty soon I will be forgetting how old I am... *siiiiighhhh*

quick'n

2011-08-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

as usual things got busy & I keep forgetting to write! Here's a few things till the next real update (real? i guess that means this ones fake?!)...

- I spent some time in St. Louis with my parents & it was fabulous

- Nate & I leave for arkansas tomorrow for more family time

- I started back at school this week. What does this entail? Meetings... lots & lots of meetings. and organizing. and getting my brain back into shape to teach. *siiiiighhh*

- We finally got more than a drop of rain in Hesston! There might just be some hope for our poor yard.

- Ive been having lots of dreams about the ocean since Cali (Darby! So similar!!) Only these are not good dreams. Actually this is a series of re-occuring dreams I've had since I was little. All of them include being trapped in something (like a boat,a car, a plane,etc) while getting immersed into the ocean. Then I am trapped! How do I get out?! more on this later...

- I turn 24 a week from friday. 24 sounds so much older than 23 to me.

more later!

Adventures along the Cali coast

2011-07-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

well, we are back from our amazing 10 day vacation in California! This post only has a few snapshots of our awesome time in Cali, so if you want to see more, check out my facebook album coming soon :)

We started our vacation with a few days at one of my grandparents homes in Palm Springs. It was hot (a GOOD hot, not a Kansas kill me now hot) , relaxing, and extremely enjoyable. One of the most enjoyable things about it was that my cousin Jessie was also there while we were, so we got to spend some quality time before her wedding the next weekend.

we loved driving Mema and Pop Pop's golf cart around the neighborhood picking which pool we'd swim in that day (there are 5 pools to choose from including the one in their backyard!)
After a few days there, we got on the road and headed north up the Coast along Hwy 1 . It was the most beautiful drive I have ever been on. We stopped when we wanted to, taking pictures and enjoying the gorgeous ocean and mountains. It was curvy, a bit scary at times, adventurous and so beautiful. We stopped in San Luis Obispo for a night to rest and visit Nate's Nana. Then we headed back up the 1 to Santa Cruz where the rest of our vacation & wedding extravaganza's were.
My beautiful cousin, Jessie, got married to an amazing man named... Jesse! (awesome right!?) Jess & I have been best friends since birth & spent nearly every summer of our lives together in California. She is an amazing, hilarious and joyful woman that I couldnt have been happier to see get married.
Nate, myself and my parents visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium & it was amazing. It was so cool to experience sea life right before your eyes.
Jessie & Jesse got married in the most beautiful wedding venue I have ever seen. It was Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch in Carmel, CA. Beautiful pastures of grass, mountains, the ocean, and sheep grazing in the fields. Oh- and did I mention it was like 65 degrees!??!
We also got to go back to my favorite place in the world- Mt. Hermon, CA. This is a christian conference center that I spent every summer of my life at. It is set in the redwoods of Santa Cruz & if I could afford to live there- we'd move there in a heartbeat.
Nate proposed to me here on August 15, 2008 :)
This is my grandparents cabin that has meant so much to me since my childhood! There is nothing like the crisp smell of the redwood tree's, cool air, blackberry bushes at your fingertips, and gorgeous trails to hike right outside your door. It is by far my most favorite place in the world. I highly recommend you all visit there!
J&J got married on July 23! It was such a gorgeous day even though I just about froze to death during the ceremony :)
I loved getting to spend time with the other bridesmaids as well as our entire extended family on my moms side (with the exception of my brothers, all the cousins were there!)
We are so happy for these 2! We also wished they lived in Kansas so we could hang out more.
It is crazy to see how much our cousins have grown up. This is all of us cousins on my mom's side, except 4 (Jessie, Kristy and my brothers John & Richie).

The last couple days of our vacation were a bit sour- we got stuck in major traffic on our way back to LA to fly out- had a major plane delay in Denver & eventually made it back to Kansas just in time to crawl in bed at 2 am. When did flying become so difficult? Seems like with all the advances in technology, flying has only become a bigger hassle than it used to be. *siighh* still though- our vacation was amazing!!! Our favorite parts were: the weather!!! (65-85 degrees), the landscape (sorry Kansas, you suck in this area), the ocean, the family, oh and the Nate not having to be at work part.
also- i forgot to mention that the week before we left for Cali we bought a new car! It kind of just fell in our laps and we took the opportunity! We are extremely happy with our Acura MDX!

baby, you're a firework

2011-07-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

My brother & sister in law & their beautiful kids finally made the journey to Kansas to visit us. It was an amazing, fun and crazy weekend.

Kaiya & Josie loved the water park across from our house :)

Baby John John is the cutest little booger. Such a happy little chunk!

John & Nate.... fireworks & boys. always a scary combination!

In just a short week and a half Nate & I leave for our 10 day California adventure! YAY!!

Storms & Heat

2011-06-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here's Scooter enjoying a nice stick on a hot summer day :)
So- lately Nate & I have sort of been storm chaser wannabe's because I have really wanted to photograph lightening. We have had a ton of crazy lightening storms the last couple of weeks. Nate woke me up at 5:30 am the other day on his way to work to capture some lightening. However, I ended up right under the storm & only got lots of rain and this pretty sweet picture of a sunrise :)
I did end up capturing this lightening right over our house a couple days ago.
I got this sweet deal on these outdoor rocking chairs & I just love 'em. There's not much better than sitting on the porch at the end of the day with a snow cone & your husband :)
So- Nate & I got a flip video camera and I'm trying it out here with putting on the blog. Does anyone know how to put 2 video's on a blog?! I had to go through youtube & could only put one up :( After much frustration I gave up & I now leave you with a cute video of Scooter performing his tricks :)

2 years & counting...

2011-06-06T07:38:00.001-07:00

Today, June 6, 2011, is our 2nd anniversary! We can't believe that this was us 2 years ago:

Time flys. That was us on that gorgeous June day 2 years ago... and this is us today!

Nate & I cant believe that its already been 2 years. I can definitely see how life just moves along and suddenly you're old & wrinkly & have been married for 50 years. We spent the weekend doing fun things to celebrate our marriage & just really enjoyed ourselves & this scorching heat. We: watched a movie, took many walks, went to Wichita, ate cold stone, sat on the porch playing games, had wonderful JBU friends stay with us for a night, had a picnic in the park, went swimming, and just plain enjoyed each other :)

Today were taking it easy (since Nate will be at work til 7ish anyways). We'll watch our wedding video & reminisce on that wonderful day, maybe shed a few tears & laugh a lot.

Memorial weekend we headed to my brother Richie's house to celebrate with almost the whole family (missed you lots Jamie!).
Kaiya is almost 3 & she is at that stage of life where she is just plain hilarious & entertaining
I fell in love with this little munchkin- my nephew, baby john john. He is so sweet & cuddly!
We celebrated Richie & my sister in law Alaina's 30th birthdays. It was a blast seeing the family again. We shopped, the boys golfed, we hung out, and played some fun games!

OH-also- I just found out that my brother Richie and sister in law Holly are having a baby boy!! Jack Shuler will make his debut in October! Cant wait to have another nephew!!

Reflection

2011-06-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

As an Education major in college we were always required to reflect on pretty much everything. It was pretty exhaustive and ridiculous if you ask me- but I get why they wanted us to do it. As a teacher you always have to reflect so that you can be better next time. Does that mean I write a 5 page reflection about each lesson after each day of teaching? No. heck no. who has that kind of time anyways?! Its much more of an internal mind thing. with that said, I have finished my first year of teaching! I made it!! Everyone says that your first year of teaching is usually your worst & I'm just pretty darn happy to say that I have a year of experience under my belt! With that said- it is time for me to do a little reflecting on what this year has held for me...

This year...

1. The things I thought would be hard were not & the things that I didnt even anticipate being difficult were terribly hard!!

I found it pretty darn easy to do the things you have the most passion about- loving on the kids & teaching! I really do love teaching- it gives me such joy and feelings of worth knowing that God is using me to mold my students lives! It is a huge responsibility that I love :)

2. I knew that God was going to challenge me a lot this year. I knew taking a special education job was not going to be a breeze- and I really feel like God used every opportunity he could this year to teach me many things. I experienced so many things this year that I never even had a true concept of before teaching.

- early in the fall one of my kiddo's tripped in my classroom while holding a pair of scissors (talk about giving me a heart attack!). He got a concussion & broke fragments of his nose.

-I learned how hard it is to teach children with behavior disorders & learning disabilities. I realized very quickly that God was going to have to give me lots of patience & an even softer heart for these students. And... he did. Seriously folks, it was amazing.

-I had to deal with the heart breaking experience of child abuse, neglect, children who don't have a bed to sleep in at night or come to school with nothing in their tummies. How can we expect children to learn curriculum when their most basic needs are not met? We cant! They just need love. lots and lots of love.

-I learned that some women are still mean when they "grow up" .

So, what one word would describe my first year of teaching? .... Challenging.

That is my honest answer. It was not easy at all. It was hard majority of the time. I cried many day's, whether that was because I was stressed or because my heart was breaking for one of my students. However, it was all worth it. God challenged me to a job that was to serve him by loving his most needy & difficult children. And I am proud to say that I completed 1 year of that.

Rain Dance

2011-05-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

I know the rest of America wishes the rain would stop- but it's been REALLY dry here in Kansas & I'm tired of wondering how much our water bill is going to be this month from our little tractor sprinkler, so I have been secretly praying for rain. We finally did get some last week & just today for a bit. Scooter & I did a happy rain dance :)

There we are! We are celebrating 2 years of being married in just a short couple weeks! Its crazy to think that almost 5 years ago my journey with Nate started. I sure do love that boy
mothers day weekend we went down to Arkansas to see our families & it was wonderful as usual :) Baby John John is already an avid Cardinal's fan. His Pappy & daddy have taught him well ;)

Every time we visit our nieces, they go crazy over Nate. I dont know what it is about him but kids literally flock to him! Maybe its his huge smile and inviting face?! I dont know, but we always used to joke when I was dating Nate that I had to stay with him merely because Josie would have been devastated if she never saw him again. When she was just a few months old you could tell she just LOVED Nate (she used to call him "neeeeet") & now Kaiya has joined the Nate lover crowd.This picture does not even do justice of how excited the girls were to see Nate when we walked in the door :)

Bathroom Remodel

2011-05-19T19:29:00.001-07:00

Here are the before & after pics of the bathroom remodel! Here is BEFORE:

blue countertop, blue bath tile, yucky floor, only a half wall built for the pretty gross tub (no shower)

Annnnnnnnnnd..... *drum roll please*..... the AFTER!

Feel free to click on the pics to see them bigger. It was a LOT of work on Nate's part, but I really feel it was worth it! I love using our new bathroom, especially knowing that my husbands hands created it! He's pretty darn talented! The pics really don't do the bathroom justice, so please come visit us in little ol' kansas & see it for yourself :)

Fun Times

2011-05-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

Last thursday I flew to Dallas,TX to spend 3 amazing days with my best friends from college celebrating my awesome friend Darby's wedding. It was beautiful & soooo much fun to spend time with the girls. It felt like we were all back in college, staying in a dorm, and man, it was just so much fun. Don't get me wrong, I did miss Nate & Scooter, but I knew they'd manage with out me :)
Jenna was my first real friend at JBU freshman year- we have been best friends since :)
There we are.... all the bridesmaids! It was so much fun getting to know the girls who didnt go to JBU. We all had so much fun together!!

I have great news to report to you! (no,we are not pregnant)..... Our bathroom remodel is FINISHED!!! 3 months of terribly hard work has paid off and it looks so awesome!! Next post will include pictures :)

I have a few weeks left of school and I cant tell you how ready I am for summer! This has been a great first year of teaching, but I am desperately needing a little break :)

One Day...

2011-04-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

One day I will learn to close the lids, caps and drawers all the way shut

One day Nate will learn that Halloween is on October 31^st ... And always will be. It doesn’t change, my love.

One day I will learn to the load the dishwasher the “right” way

One day Nate will learn to put his dirty clothes IN the laundry basket, not next to it.

One day I will learn to not leave a trail of shoes all over the house

One day nate will learn the difference between fabric softener & detergent

Oh, and one day scooter will learn how to put his toys away… but probably not

One day I will beat nate at Chinese checkers

One day Nate will learn to use less of his finger and more of a tissue when gold digging.

One day I will learn that you cannot put oil instead of gas into a mower and expect it to work. ( okay,okay, this was just an accident on my part. the can's were not labeled!!)

while one day we both MAY do some of these things, I think its more appropriate to say that one day, we will both learn to not care about each other's differences- and instead, enjoy the hilarity of them. Oh the joy's of marriage...!

[ warm ]

2011-04-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally come! Hopefully there wont be anymore freak snow storms but with it being Kansas, thats a very real possibility. Life has been moving so fast lately. I will be done with my first year of teaching in just a short 7 weeks- crazy how fast it all went! I've been doing a lot of reflecting on this year lately, but that'll be saved for another post. Nate has been working his buns off on a job that he was given much more responsibility for. Such a blessing for him and his growth in the company.. however, this has meant even longer days for Nate & shorter time for us. I'm so proud of him though- he is such a great construction manager! Makes a wife feel safe :)

We ate out at Chinese the other day and this was Nate's fortune cookie...lol! Not too long after this picture was taken, I threw up all my delicious chinese food (apparently my stomach didnt agree with my taste buds!)
I LOVE the blooms of this tree in our backyard. Giant puff balls of white!
This purple tree surprised me in our front yard. I didnt know it was going to turn purple! Its gorgeous.

You know when you desire something so badly that you start to not feel happy for people who do get to have something you want? I have been experiencing this lately and its just not good. God continually puts me in my place and pretty much shouts in my ear that "your time will come" when HE desires it to. Timing is such an interesting thing. Sometimes I wonder if we are actually really listening to when God's timing is for things instead of our own time. Then again, God usually surprises me quite often with plans for me that weren't in my head at all. I mean, we are living in a tiny town in Kansas. Do you really think thats what we "wanted" or planned? nope! I am teaching Special Education... definitely wasnt what I thought I'd be doing. But the spectacular thing about it all is...everything God has had in store for us, whether its what we originally wanted or not, has turned into the most amazing and beautiful thing ever.

That being said, I should probably shut up and listen & wait!

bathroom remodel

2011-03-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is what our bathroom looked like before we started renovations on it!

It was not functional with only a bathtub, not up to date with blue tile and countertops, and well, it just didnt look good period!
That was a scary moment! Once you made one mark in the wall theres really no turning back!
We stopped to celebrate Scooter's 1st birthday on March 6th

I LOVE the tub we chose. It is super deep and big yet easy to step in for a shower
It must be tough living the life of a spoiled dog...
We recently set the tile~! Its really starting to come together!! I loooooooove having tile on the floor instead of the laminate. So clean & crisp!

Next on our to do list is: replace drywall, put in new countertop & fixtures, paint walls/trim and .... DONE!

I am ready to be done with this big project so our house can stop having tools, boxes and general crap everywhere. I am also ready for this to be done so Nate & I can have a normal weekend again!! I'll keep you posted with more updates to come!

On the upswing

2011-03-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

I know, I know.... I'm overdue for an update.

Currently: Nate & I are in full swing of remodeling our main bathroom in the house. You see, when we bought the house, it was the biggest eye sore ever. Blue tile, blue laminate counter top, ugly laminate floor, and a small gross tub. It is the main bathroom in the house, so it just made no sense that there was no shower- just a gross tub! Luckily, we have another full bath with a shower in the house, otherwise Nate & I would have been taking baths everyday, lol.
I know we both look exhausted & weird here... but the thing is... we were!

Our days are spent at work, and our nights are spent slaving over the bathroom (I say "we", but really I mean Nate is working his buns off while I watch, help and provide moral support). Its a TON of work, but its something Nate & I wanted to take on and say that we could do it. I promise I'll put pictures up soon :)

We went to this awesome marriage retreat last weekend & I cant tell you how amazing it was for Nate & I. I know it sounds cliche, but it was like a renovation on our marriage. Opened our eyes to truth and personally, it made me fall even more in love with Nate. He is amazing.

I promise a more in depth awesomer (ya,ya, I know thats not a real word) update soon (spring break is next week so I better get a chance to breath & think!!)

Quick One

2011-02-24T17:50:00.000-08:00

1. We are currently remodeling our main bathroom. It is a huge project! I'll get pictures on here soon of the before and during... (and of course, after! whenever that time comes!)

2. We just bought our california summer vacation tickets- no turning back now! We are going to spend 10 days traveling up the coast and stopping in our favorite places (palm springs, san luis obispo, carmel, santa cruz, etc etc etc) Seeing family, participating in & enjoying my beautiful cousin Jessie's wedding, and having a blast on a married adventure we have always wanted to do!

3. We cut our cable about a month ago. Sadly, I thought I wouldnt survive without it! But we have found all the loopholes & are now watching all the shows we want without paying an extra 70$ per month! Its crazy to think of how much money we are saving. I highly recommend it!

4. I hate cleaning the shower/tub. it seriously grosses me out for some reason. Nate usually takes on this task for me but tonight he informed me that my job (and my ONLY job, as he said) this weekend is to clean the tub/shower while he is remodeling our other bathroom. (what am I going to do!??!!?) ((( i HATE cleaning it))) Anybody want to come clean my tub for me? I'll bake you some cookies & feed you a delicious meal ;)

a rough patch or two

2011-02-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today I was thinking a lot about heaven. I was listening to this beautiful song that you can listen to by clicking here that gives a beautiful description of what we have in store for us in heaven.

"No weeping, no hurt or pain

No suffering, you hold me now.

No darkness, no sick or lame

No hiding, you hold me now

In this life I will stand through my joy and my pain, knowing there's a great day

There's a hope that never fails, where Your Name is lifted high

and forever praises rise"

I read this book over Christmas called "Heaven is For Real" you can read about it here. It is a book I think everyone should read. It details the chilling and amazing story of a little boy who got to experience a glimpse of heaven upon his near death experience with a serious sickness. it is a true story. it is amazing to here his details of heaven. I wont spoil it for you, but man it made me excited for heaven. The mystery we have here on earth of not knowing what its like to live in a perfect place, to have nothing but happiness, no sickness or pain, and to praise our Lord for eternity... I seriously cannot fathom it!

The last couple of months have been really rough for me, and in turn, I think they have been equally as rough for Nate. I have experienced some really negative things at work that have really tested my patience, my ability to continue being kind and loving, and it has thrown me off quite a bit. I am learning now that even as adults- I cant expect everyone to ACT adult in every situation. I have learned that there are mean women at all ages of life and getting your feelings hurt at 23 feels just like it did in high school... or in preschool for that matter. [ sucky ] I'm also in the process of learning that I only have control over my actions and that I cannot change how people are or how they deal with problems. Thats really hard for me! I am a fixer. I am assertive. I see a problem & I go to fix it. Unfortunately for me, not everyone is like that!

Anyways, God has been especially good to me in the last 2 months despite all these shenanagins that I have been dealing with. He has held my tongue. Which is, if you know me well, something that I can definitely struggle with! He has given me the words to say at the right time. He has given me strength. He has drawn me so close to him because he knows that I am hurting and lost. Its a beautiful thing, isn't it?

Onto something more exciting.... SNOW!

yes, we got hit with that giant blizzard this week. Somewhere around 20" of snow in Hesston!
Nate looks happy here, but dont be fooled. It was miserably cold out. But I wanted that money shot so he did this with a smile on his face. Oh husbands :)
[ Please dont judge me for my Uncle Eddy trooper hat.] It is EXTREMELY warm. Nate shoveled the driveway so that I could get our car out to go to work. We have a big circle driveway that goes up a hill, so I worried about not being able to get it back UP the driveway coming home from work. Embarrassingly, not once this week was I able to get the car up myself. LOL. After this snow storm, we decided that next fall we will sell this new car and get an SUV... or something with 4 wheel drive :)

also, I realize I did not talk much about Nate in this post, so I'll leave that for another day. But dont worry, he is alive & well :)

How long is January?!

2011-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

January needs to be over. It has felt so long. This has been the craziest, busiest & snowiest month yet. Dont get me wrong, I love snow... but is not quite the same when you have to trudge to work 30 miles away over ice and snow. Its scary & not fun! and all day you are left cold and wet ankled. We did get 2 snow days in so far- which has been the biggest blessing ever. But Nate doesnt get snow days (poor guy!) and rain,shine,blizzard, tornado or monsoon, he goes to work in that truck every single morning.

Scooter seriously enjoyed the snow. He would dig his face in and run frantically around the backyard. It was pretty comical. When he had finally had enough, he came inside and sat on the couch so he could watch the snow from the window.

this has really been a tough month for me at work. I feel like im getting pulled in so many different directions and I can barely catch my breath. Its been emotional, hard, and has really tested me. However, this month I have also felt so close to God & he has given me a fire inside to draw near to him. Isnt it beautiful how God just knows that this is exactly what we need? The more I draw near to him the smaller my problems become.

11

2011-01-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

11 is our lucky number. Our favorite number. For a number of reasons actually that all date back to when Nate & I first locked eyes at JBU. Before we were even dating, we had a ton of crazy 11:11 coincidences that always seemed to pop up. I dont know if your familiar with the luck of catching 11:11 on the clock but when you do, your supposed to make a wish because its apparently lucky. I'm not really into the whole "luck" thing, but I've got to admit that every dang time I saw 11:11 on the clock (which was a CRAZY abnormal amount of times back in college) I would make a wish about being Nate's girlfriend & then eventually, wishing to be his wife. We both always talked about how we would always look at the clock at 11:11. Our first date was on 11/11/2006 and eventually he asked me to be his girlfriend somewhere around 11:11 on november 15. Anyways.... my point in saying all of that stuff you didnt need to know is, that it is now 2011!

And to me, this is our year. We have a thing for 11's.... 2010 was great, but I'd like to believe that this is going to be a great year for the Pistons.
Christmas was great but didnt last very long. I had my first Christmas ever without my family. Honestly, it was hard at times and a little weird feeling, but we both really enjoyed ourselves and Nate's family so much. My nephew was born and we got to enjoy seeing my brother become a dad of 3 kids now. We traveled to St. Louis the week after STL to see my parents and sister for a few days & one word can describe being there: relaxing. We really didnt do very much (other than see Chronicles of Narnia in 3D as that picture above shows) but it was great to just relax by the fire, sipping tea, and playing games.

Now, 2011 is here and I am back to teaching my students & Nate's back to building things in freezing weather.

Here is a recap of what 2010 held for us:

- We bought a house

- I graduated college

-Scooter became part of our family

-I became a Special Ed teacher

-We majorly fixed up our house

- We celebrated our 1st anniversary!

Tis the season

2011-01-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry we havent written in so long. I kept waiting for a good time to write, when things slowed down a bit, but that really hasnt happened yet. This will be a brief post until I can get a chance to gather my thoughts & pictures. On December 20th, my first nephew by blood was brought into the world!!

Meet John Jr. He is adorable & tiny & cuddly & the sweetest thing. We got to spend a couple days with my brother and sister in law helping their now family of 5 out & it was great. In the past week we spent Christmas at Nate's parents, a couple days at my brothers and now we have ended our vacation in St. Louis with a few of my family members. Vacations are awesome... until you realize they are over & you have to go back to work.

I'll write more later, but for now the Shuler's are about to play a game of Cranium!

thanksgiving & beyond!

2010-12-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Our thanksgiving was spent in Bolivar, MO at my brother Richie's house. Everyone was able to be there except my sister (because we get to see her at christmas instead!)
Scooter was in play heaven over t-giving. He got to play to his hearts content with his two cousins mini & elway. He would get so tired after playing and just fall asleep anywhere,ha!
We all cooked parts of the meal & it was amaaaaazing. Talk about delicious food! between Alaina's sopapea cheesecake, my moms cheesy potatoes, our cheese dip and everything else... I think we all had to loosen our belt's by the end of the weekend!

Josie & Kaiya are growing up so fast. Its crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks they will have a baby brother!!
When we got back to Kansas we put up our christmas decorations & tree. I just LOVE this part of winter. Actually, this is really the only thing I love about winter. Sweet smell of candles, hot apple cider, soft christmas music and a cozy home.... MMmmmm.. it just warms the soul.
This was also the first time we got to put up our own christmas lights on our own house! We were so giddy about the first night we plugged them in- it was quite the Clark Griswald moment!
This is Scooter's first Christmas & I was wondering how he would do with a tree and presents in the house... WELL, its been quite a little game for him so far. He enjoys eating pine needles (why!? they are so pokey!) and I recently came out of the shower and found him sitting next to the tree with wrapping paper sticking out of his mouth as he was just staring at me like a deer in headlights. I guess he felt entitled to open a gift while no one was looking!
I really miss summer already. Im really not a winter person-especially in Kansas. When everything turns brown and dies and the wind is blowing so hard and cold that you wonder if you still have a face left.... its just not fun. Its dark outside all the time. I love light, I love the sun, I love warmth on my skin, and really I dont even mind sweating.... but winter, I just dont like you.

goin' to the chapel...

2010-11-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

Nate & I made a quick trip down to northwest arkansas this weekend so we could go to our friends Stephanie & Andrew's wedding (congrats!) It was so short but so fun to see my girlfriends from JBU, Nate's parents, as well as my nieces & brother & sister in law. Its always so good to see my friends from college even if its really short. We just pick up where we left off and its awesome. I miss them, a lot.

details you dont need to know: currently, I am biting off my fake nails while Nate is drooling over a sports car show

You know what I think is interesting? Our perceptions of ourselves compared to our spouses perception of us. Through my eyes, I have always been an organized person, fairly clean, task oriented and efficient. But when I think of daily life here, compared to Nate, I am considered more carefree, not detail oriented and NOT that clean. Even if you think you are a certain way, there is probably someone out there that is much more of that than you are, making you not really that way... Hmph!

Fall Picture Post

2010-10-30T18:02:00.001-07:00

We taught Scooter how to "praise Jesus". This is him obeying :)
handsome handsome handsome....
Nate's 24th Birthday on October 23!
[ adorable ]

Fall is one of my favorite times to do some photography. I mean, its pretty easy considering God does all the work of making our earth just plain gorgeous everywhere!
In the last few weeks:

- Celebrated Nate's birthday. It was very special this year for awesome reasons that I'll let Nate share sometime. We had a blast :)

- We have both been extremely busy at work (me with conferences, him with turn around )

- My mom came for a fun filled girls weekend complete with massages, chick flicks, good food, shopping and an all around wonderful time!

- Scooter ate my retainer

"lets vote for the taco bell race car!"

2010-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Nate & I were given free tickets to Nascar (great seats too!) So we took the opportunity and drove to Kansas City to have our first Nascar experience. We did not realize Nascar was such a big deal- only a mere 80,000 people were there (no biiiiiiig deal... HA) We got stuck in traffic for a little toooo long.
We enjoyed it once we were there! I wish I could have video taped Nate's reaction when the race cars started their engines and took off... just imagine a giddy little boy on christmas day (hilarious!)

Fall is getting more and more beautiful here. I cant believe its already mid October and Nate's 24th birthday is just around the corner (next saturday)!!
Scooter was not a fan of his bumble bee halloween costume... lol!

October is the month where Nate & I roam the grocery store and buy too much candy and act like its for halloween. when we get home I put it in bowls and before you know it- halloween is here and that bowl is empty. (oops!)

As we learn more about each other we have noticed some interesting things about the way we work. Sometimes its easy for us to forget that my brain is not his and visa versa. For instance:

-Apparently there is a correct way to load the dishwasher? And apparently I do NOT know how to do it right. LOL

- Apparently leaving your glass of water on the coffee table every night is okay with Nate (but with me? hmm...not so much)

Those are just a few of the silly things that you encounter living with your spouse. I assume we will run into a lot more of these annoyances as we get older. The most important thing to me though is learning to pick your battles. I mean, does it really matter that he cant remember to put his glass in the sink at night or that I load the dishwasher sloppily? No not really. At least he puts the toilet seat down and hangs his towel up (even more than I do!)

He's wonderful and thats all that really matters.

"I was born without nostrils" ...

2010-09-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well, there we are! Still here, alive, in love, working, enjoying life and living each day as husband & wife.

Teaching is going well. I am finally starting to feel like I am getting the hang of some of this stuff (which is always better than feeling like a lost lamb!) Nate has yet to do the night shift at work and this makes us both happy :) I forgot to mention earlier that Nate is coaching 1st and 2nd grade soccer right now. Its SO fun to watch him coach. Plus a lot of the kids that are on his team were my Kindergartners during student teaching last year- so its just even more fun.

In the last month or so- these are some of the quotes that have been part of the Pistons:

1. Nate forgot how old I am... and how old he is... and how old ANYONE is.

( side note: I am 23. I just had my birthday not too long ago. Nate is 23 almost 24)

Nate: " Wait, how old are you? 20?"

Kris: *looks at Nate like he is insane*

Nate: "19?"

Kris: "NATE!" " Really?!?!?!" " I am 23!"

Nate: "wait... how old am I ?!"

This was an eventful, hilarious and informing talk we had.

2. " Did you know I was born without any nostrils?"

One of my goober 2nd graders (by goober I mean goofball) tried to convince me that he was born without any nostrils the other day. I could NOT stop laughing. He was trying so hard not to crack a smile on his face as he said "No really Mrs. Piston, look, check out my nostrils! " (of course this was a joke...heaven forbid he was for real!)

3. "Ugh .... you're terrible at being OCD!"

This is something Nate said to me in complete seriousness and with much frustration. It was hilarious. You see, Nate does have OCD and I do not & this was obviously very frustrating for Nate at one point a few weeks ago. Can you imagine if we both were?! I'd like to think my lack of obsessive compulsiveness compliments his quite well. Anywho- that was a hilarious moment in our lives none the less.

SOMEONE had a little too much fun with this toilet paper roll. This someone has short legs, a long torso, wears a bandana.. and no its not Nate. Little man Scooter has been enjoying himself some fine Charmin dining.

life in fast motion.

2010-09-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hello, all! Life on the Piston front has been flying by... so fast.

Since the last post we went to St. Louis last weekend because my family's church threw a celebration of my dad being pastor there for 15 years. I still cant believe that my family has been in St. Louis for that long. I still feel like California was such a huge part of my growing up years even though I was in St. Louis longer. Anyways- that weekend was too short, but still fun. It was so great to see both sets of grandparents :) SO, fast forward and now it is labor day weekend and Nate & I are currently busy working on the house. It seems that every time we go to do a project that seems relatively simple- it turns out to be not so simple and more of a headache. Its all worth it though when we see the results.

This upcoming weekend we are heading back to St. Louis to go to Six Flags! Nate has only been there once and he has been dying to go back. We are both roller coaster fans so it should be another fast but fun weekend with the family.

Work, on both ends, is going great but very busy. Nate's job is about to enter what is called "turn around" at the oil refinery they work in and basically it means they will be working crazy hard for a month straight. As of right now, Nate is set to work the night shift- 7 pm to 7am. I cant say that either of us is happy about this, but life is life and we are just grateful he has such a wonderful job to provide for us. For the next month though- its going to be rough on both of us. Barely seeing each other, him sleeping when I am at work, me sleeping alone while he is at work... no fun. not at all.

Luckily, my job is keeping me insanely busy and tired. I love teaching- I really do. I am definitely where God has intended me right now. In the next month, I will be praying that during my times of loneliness away from Nate, that I will cling to God and really be able to pour my heart out to my students.

So, if you read this and think of us in the next month or so - please pray for us. That we would both be able to work diligently at our jobs. Especially for Nate (who LOVES to sleep, so becoming nocturnal will probably be difficult for him). and mostly that we would draw nearer to God during this weird time for us.

my 23rd Birthday & first day of teaching

2010-08-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

It was a busy and eventful few weeks for us! I started at my teaching job full time 2 weeks ago! The past two weeks have been filled with training and meetings. Then, on August 19th, I turned 23 and went to work as the first official day of school started!! I cant believe I have made it (as a teacher). It felt like this day would never come :) I am so busy and so happy!One of Nate's gifts to me was super mario brothers for the Wii! I have been wanting this game forever (I LOVED the old school nintendo and its even more fun on the wii!) He's the best :)

Fruit is my favorite thing,ever. Part of my dinner surprise was fresh fruit cut up. I know this might not sound like a great surprise- but if you know Nate & his dislike for certain fruits because of their texture, then you know that this is such a nice surprise for me because I finally got to have fresh pineapple (I never buy it because he hates it!)
At my first day of teaching, I got a wonderful surprise of birthday/first day roses from Nate. It made for such a great day!!

the two men in my life... (well technically Scooter is at "teenager" years in doggie time)

August, already?!

2010-08-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

We just spent the weekend with my whole family in Arkansas celebrating a joint birthday party for my nieces Kaiya & Josie. It was so much fun & so good to see everyone. Nate & I still miss being so close to my brother John's house. We used to babysit the girls every week for 3 years, and now that we live in Kansas, we just dont get to see them nearly enough :( They are a beautiful family of *5* . you cant see the little one in Alaina's tummy yet, but in 5 months we will!!
Josie enjoyed her hawaiian party!
Kaiya- hilarious & adorable.
Back in Kansas- I think a storm is coming, what do you think?!

Well, we are doing wonderful. We have been so so so busy with traveling & having company this last month. We had Nate's parents for a weekend, my best friend Jenna for a weekend, spent a weekend in Arkansas and finally this weekend we are going to the Lake of the Ozarks for a mini vacation with Nate's family. Busy, but so fun.

This upcoming monday August 9th, begins my journey as a teacher! I have a week of training, meetings and setting up schedules & my classroom before the students come back to school. I am extremely excited but also seriously nervous & scared. I know that God is going to challenge me through this position. He is going to stretch me & I am going to grow. It is exciting but still scary not knowing what is ahead of me. At this point I would like to run away & hide but I know that's not right nor possible- so I just need to take a deep breath and JUMP!

pray for me :)

| I cant think of a good title for this one |

2010-07-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Nate's summer soccer league is over. He did so awesome. This man can play soccer, seriously! We are hoping to find another league for him so he can keep playing.
As you can tell, sometimes its really hard to take a picture with Scooter.
My latest summer craft project was creating these blocks for my photography. I had Nate cut me 10x12 pieces of wood. I stained them, then painted blue over them and scraped it off to give an antiquey feel. Then I sandpapered them to bring out more of the "rough" look. When they dried I glued on 3 of my favorite photographs I have taken. It adds a nice touch to the living room :)

Um, I'm not sure what happened to the dry heat of Kansas, but last week we had the most ridiculous mosquito infestation ever. You could not go outside without literally getting attacked like a swarm of bee's, only they are mosquitos, HUGE ones. They enjoyed the taste of bug spray and it was a horrible week. I know it sounds pathetic, but I had to hide inside because even if I stepped out my front door for 5 minutes I would come back in with at least 10 mosquito bites. Nate said they were even biting him through his huge thick nomeck jumpsuit he has to wear at work. I don't know what happened, but they are gone this week (luckily!) .

I am getting so excited about school starting. I feel like a giddy 3rd grader who cant wait for the first day of school- only this time I am not in 3rd grade or a student- I am the teacher!

Crazy couple of weeks!

2010-07-07T10:26:00.001-07:00

Well- we have been everywhere the past couple of weeks. Two weekends ago Nate went down to Arkansas to hang out with his college guy friends & I went to St. Louis to go to a Beth Moore conference and see Wicked with my mom. We both had amazing & tiring weekends away. Nate said it was much needed seeing his best friends all weekend. Wicked was SO cool & I want to go again as soon as I can! Then when I came back from STL I only had a few days before I packed my bags again and headed out to Los Angeles, CA to spend a few days with my sister. It was an amazing weekend full of fun & good sister time. Sorry this post does not include any pictures of Nate! He has been so busy with work & we have been away from each other quite a bit in the last 2 weeks with all of our traveling.

Can you find Scooter in this picture? He loves to sit in the bookcase, haha!
I finally got to see my cousin Jessie again!! We are about 8 months apart and have been inseparable since birth. We had not seen each other since my wedding last June, but somehow we always pick up right where we left off.
Jamie & I went to Venice Beach for a day, saw our favorite band play live, visited our old house, and hiked up a mountain to watch fireworks for 4th of July.
This was at the top of Garcia Mountain on the 4th of July. It wasnt an easy climb, but the view is well worth it.

It was so cool to see the whole city from a mountain top. We saw about 10 different areas fireworks shows!

Its hot... its really hot.

2010-06-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

Life is good on the Piston front. Nate's been busy with new projects at work & playing on a summer soccer league. I love watching him play soccer, even if he thinks he is horribly out of shape, he is still SO good at it. I've been reading this theology book I got for graduation (I LOVE it), working on the house, and taking care of our little man, Scooter. I still cant believe we have been here for a year already! If you had asked me a year ago if I thought we would be in a little town in Kansas, I would have said "heck no!" haha. But this is where God wanted us- and I am so thankful. We took a leap into the unknown & have made a life here. God is so good.

It has been in the 100 degrees for the past 5 days & its almost unbearable. I mean, we LOVE warm weather, but its hard to even do anything outside for longer than 10 minutes because of this scorching heat! On a cuter note- Scooter just keeps adding more joy to our little family.

Scooter enjoys being chased, playing fetch, bringing us peaches that fell off our tree, napping on the air vent, licking us, taking things & hiding under the bed, and sleeping belly up.
This weekend I am heading to STL to hang out with my parents, go to a Beth Moore conference and.... see WICKED!!! While I am gone Nate is thinking of going down to Arkansas to see family and friends (he has really been missing his JBU guy friends lately)

When I get back on Sunday I only have a few days before I head out to California to visit my sister!! I haven't been out to just see her since my freshman year at JBU so it is much needed. We are going to hang at the beach, see our favorite band live and see my awesome cousin Jessie.

A Year Later

2010-06-13T07:16:00.001-07:00

That picture was taken a year ago on June 6th, 2009. Our wedding day. Can you believe its already been a year?! I still cannot believe that I had a wedding, got married, went on a honeymoon, moved to Kansas, bought a car, bought a house, got a puppy, graduated college and got a job all in 1 year. It literally feels like I blinked my eyes and a year passed by. This really puts things into perspective for me- that we are here for such a short time and life cant be wasted, not even for a second. It has been such an amazing & blessed year for Nate & I . God has seriously abundantly blessed us with an amazing first year of marriage. Some have said, " so you survived your first year, huh!" but I dont look at it like that at all. If by "survived" you mean "enjoyed every part of it" then yes, we survived our first year :)
We spent the weekend away & it was SO fun. On our anniversary I tried my wedding dress on again. WOW, it felt crazy. Put me back into that fairy tale happy mood where I felt like a princess about to wed her prince (cheesy, I know! But thats what that dress did to me & thats why I got it to begin with!)
Here we are a year later :) Happily married with a year of experience under our belts.
We were so excited to taste our 1 year old wedding cake top. I didnt get to eat ANY of it on our wedding day except the one bite Nate shoved in my mouth, ha! So I was excited to actually taste it this time :)

It actually tasted pretty good! After we ate what we could, Nate was about to take another bite when...
I said, "Nate does this cake smell weird to you?" & in response Nate bent over to smell a handful of cake. This was the opportune time to smash it in his face (considering we were done eating & were just going to have to throw it away anyways!) He was taken by surprise & got me back pretty quick. It was hilarious, unexpected and made the whole evening fun
We spent the weekend at a gorgeous hotel, swimming, relaxing, eating out and shopping.

Its amazing what 1 year of marriage can teach you. I think that Nate & I have learned way more in the last year of marriage than in the 3 years we dated prior to our wedding. On our anniversary we were laying by the pool and talking back and forth about things that surprised us about being married, things that were amazing, things that were hard, etc. I wish I had written then down because some of them were pretty funny. Maybe later Nate & I will come up with some and I will put them on here.

a glimpse into parenting...

2010-06-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Scooter gets SO tired and will fall asleep in the funniest positions.
SO... we headed down to arkansas last thursday night to babysit our nieces for a few days while John & Alaina went on a little vacation. It was a blast and exhausting :) Thursday was one of those "terrible horrible no good very bad days" for us Pistons. Nate was at work and I was trying to get everything ready for us to leave for arkansas when a series of "ugh" moments happened. We had another leak in our basement, scooter chewed on my new baseboards, and then to top the day off we were on the road to Arkansas, stopped in a McDonalds drive through when the lady behind us got confused which pedal was the gas and which was the break and SLAMMED into the back of our new car (do NOT ask me how someone could be confused with the gas and break!) She crunched the back of our car to the point that we could not get the trunk open (thank goodness we were able to get our luggage out of the backseats). Thursday was an interesting day.
The weekend was wonderful. We got to spend some serious quality time with our nieces Kaiya & Josie. It was great natural birth control for us, ha!
This is Kaiya Ann Shuler. She is goofy, independent, loves the outdoors, shoes and snakes. She will be 2 in a couple of weeks :)
Josie Raye Shuler is almost 4 years old! I cant believe she is getting so old. She is all girl. She can dress herself now and will talk your ear off about anything and everything. She told me some seriously hilarious things this weekend.
It was so refreshing being back in Arkansas for both Nate & I . We got to be back in the hills of Arkansas with our families and I got to see my best friends which was MUCH needed. It was definitely not a restful weekend (taking care of 2 little girls, 1 puppy and 1 weird dog is exhausting!).

This weekend is our * 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY* !!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it?! We cant! Time seriously flies (cliche, I know, but for real... time FLEW) . We are taking the weekend and spending it in a nice hotel without Scooter and responsibilities. We are going to relax, reflect, and enjoy shopping, eating, and going to the movies.

Meet Scooter Piston

2010-05-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Scooter Piston is our adorable scrumptious baby miniature dachshund we just could NOT resist. We wanted to get a puppy since I am home for the summer and would be able to train it, etc, but we didn't anticipate it happening this fast! Either way, he is perfect & we are in love.

He is the calmest little goober! Most wiener dogs are not as calm as Scooter is- and that is why we love him. He just wants to snuggle and love on everyone. Potty training has started and he is doing surprisingly well! Today he has not had ANY accidents in the house!!

Graduation & Mothers Day

2010-05-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well, my face in this picture pretty much sums up how graduating through Southwestern College was... weird. It felt so odd to be walking in a school I had never stepped foot in until graduation day, to be walking with people I didnt know, and to be told I was a "moundbuilder" when I most certainly am NOT. (golden eagle all the way!) None the less, the weekend was so awesome because I had supportive family there to celebrate that I have finished college- despite not finishing where I had hoped (JBU).

It was so nice to have my brothers come out and get to stay at our new house and enjoy graduation, mothers day and the weekend with us. Thanks guys!
Nate's parents also made it up which was great! It felt like it had been forever since we last saw them so the weekend was extra special .
My MolMol and her husband Gene came up which was wonderful!!
Although they are a nuisance, this weed looks awesome from the lens of my camera :)
we have HUGE elephant ear plants in our backyard. The texture in this picture is great.
Our 4 rose bushes started blooming this week too!! They are gorgeous!!

our broken world

2010-05-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

The last 4 weeks I have spent my student teaching in a preschool for at risk and special needs children (at-risk can mean anything from having a 1 parent family, to living in poverty, to having a teen mom). The biggest and most important thing that I have learned and realized through this placement is how broken our world is.

my heart is broken.

I have invested in the lives of 3,4, and 5 year olds who have had to deal with everything horrible you can possibly think of in their young lives. Many of these children are neglected, sexually abused, and all together forgotten.

Why is our world so sick? So broken. So sinful. There have been so many times in the last 4 weeks that I have left work with tears in my eyes because my heart is so broken for the lives of these innocent children. They did not ask for this kind of life. I am astonished by how many broken homes there are and this is such a small town. I cant even imagine how many there are in this entire world. This is not the way God intended life to be.

We need to love. We need to pray. We need to serve. Our world is so incredibly broken. Are we just going to accept it as that and go on with our perfect lives, leaving behind all those who need God the most? I know, for me, that is the easy way out. But that is not what we are called to do. Thats so evident in the way I have been so broken for these children in the last 4 weeks. We are SUPPOSED to be broken for the broken. We are SUPPOSED to love and do everything we can to serve them and share Gods abundant love and mercy.

He is preparing me for my job. My heart is broken for these children because I will be teaching and serving these exact children next year. Its so easy to dismiss children as behavioral disasters and give up on them because their "too hard" to deal with. But thats not right. God has called us to love and serve.

This song has really gotten to me lately. the lyrics are so beautiful and truthful to today's culture. Please listen to the song and if you want, read the lyrics. its Leelands "Tears of the Saints" song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7eFLs03aYo

Homeowners

2010-04-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

We officially are homeowners and it feels wonderful! Last week we moved and it was crazy. The DAY we moved in we had a major leak in the basement bedroom. It turned out to be the sump pump, which after another leak a day later, Nate bought a new one and fixed it all. I guess you could say that was one of the major mishaps to our moving in process. But life wouldn't be adventurous or awesome without some hiccups moving into your first home, right?! On top of that, I got another bacterial infection that mimics strep the day we moved in, so all weekend I was sick. Moving is crazy all by itself, but add a sick wife and it gets even crazier, haha.

Besides all that unexpectedness, we are here, moved in, and it is wonderful! We still have some boxes to unpack, but I am waiting till we finish painting to unpack them. This weekend we painted the living room/dining room and did major garden work in the front yard. When it is all complete, you can definitely expect to see some pictures up here.

We are both sore now (who knew gardening was such a work out?) This is my LAST week of student teaching and I couldnt be happier. Graduation is so so so close!

More changes for the Pistons!

2010-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Good News!! I was offered the Interrelated K-3 teaching position at Bentley Primary School! In simple terms- I will be the Special Education Teacher for this elementary school for kindergarten through 3rd grade!! I could not be more excited & a wee bit nervous for this great opportunity to serve children in need!

In more great news, tomorrow we will officially be HOME OWNERS!!

We were so excited to see what kind of trees we had in our yard since spring was blooming everywhere. These two pictures are of a Bradford Pear (thats what Nate thinks it is) tree in our backyard and another beautiful purple/red tree!

We are extremely busy this week packing, moving, & cleaning. I promise I will put pictures of our house up soon, but I want to wait till we can put our own touch to the house :)

Spring & Easter

2010-04-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Today was filled with gorgeous weather, a great church service, wonderful friends that invited us to spend Easter with their family, and a great time at the park flying cheap kites.

We got these kites from the dollar store. We figured it was time to take advantage of the ridiculous windiness of this place. It didnt last long- my kite couldnt withstand Kansas winds and broke in about 5 minutes. We had fun anyways :)

Nate got me a bike! Now we can actually go on bike rides together instead of one of us ride while the other runs, haha. We took our bikes out a couple days ago planning on riding for a long time- but the wind was so strong that our ears hurt too bad to go on for more than 20 minutes, haha. pathetic I know - but if only you knew the strength of Kansas wind in your ears!
Spring is FINALLY here. Days feel longer (in a good way) and we both feel more energy and excitement to go outside. Plus- we are getting super excited to plant our own garden when we move into our house in a couple of weeks.

This start of spring has reminded both of us of JBU & our friends. We are both missing the easy carefree flow of college life and wish we were closer to our best friends. If you see this- we miss you guys.
This past week was my last time with my Kindergartners. It was extremely bittersweet. I am so ready to have my own classroom but it was difficult to leave my kids. Doing this student teaching has only shown me how this is exactly what I was meant to do. I have so much energy and love for teaching- its great :) Now if only I had a job... Tomorrow, Monday, I start my second placement. I will be in a special education classroom for 3-4 year olds. I will have 6 at risk students and 7 special needs. This will only be for 4 weeks, but I know I will learn a lot from it.

We close on our house April 15th and we are SO SO SO excited about it. Our minds are flowing with ideas and we are so ready to put them into action. We bought our first washer & dryer yesterday. cute samsung front loaders. I am a little excited to do laundry in our new house, haha.

Please keep praying for my potential job as well as any other opportunity that might arise. Also- please pray for Nate & I as we go through the house buying & moving process.

A year of firsts

2010-03-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well, we just bought our first home! We close and move in on April 15th. We are so excited to have a place to call ours. We cant wait to paint and make this place our first home :) Things we are the MOST excited about are :
1. having a garage! (you do not realize how nice they are til you dont have one!)
2. to have more than 1 bathroom!
3. to have SPACE to put all our stuff
4. To have a yard to play in, mow, have a dog in, and garden in
5. Painting and fixing up the parts we dont like
6. being above ground :)
7. being across the street from the park (we will be engaging in MANY summer walks)
8. and most of all.... we will have PRIVACY... hallelujah :)
This is my kindergarten class! I have grown super attached to these little ones and its going to be so hard to say goodbye to them in a few weeks. They have taught me so much and I have really understood how much I LOVE teaching.

I hope to hear about my job interview soon (probably next week since this week is spring break). I am applying for a 3rd grade position in Hesston, and there is another possibility at the school I interviewed with for a kindergarten and/or 1st grade position opening, so the more options the better. God knows where he wants me, and for that I am at peace with whatever happens.

9 months and its still flying by

2010-03-07T06:46:00.001-08:00

Wow, yesterday was our 9th month of marriage and neither of us can believe it has flown by so quickly. Life is great- God is even greater.

So- some quick news on whats been going on in the Piston home lately... We put an offer in on a house! We are more than excited about it and I daydream much more than I should about painting, decorating, arranging, everrrrrrything. Please pray that things go through the way that they should :)

In other news... I had my first job interview! I really felt like it went well and I was really pleased with how I did and how they reacted. So, who knows what will happen, but in the end it was the perfect first interview experience!

Nate's job is keeping him busy. Its amazing to see how much he is learning. Whenever we talk about construction related things I am amazed at how much he knows- he is so smart!

I picked up my cap and gown this past week also. Little did I know that this would turn out to be an emotional experience for me, haha. I was already on edge this week because of my interview and my last observed lesson on the same day, so I'm pretty sure that probably contributed to the emotions a little bit when I went to go the cap and gown. I sort of broke down because I was in a room full of the color purple and people I didnt know. It once again got to me that I would not be graduating through John Brown. I know that God led us here for a reason and now I am able to look back and really be thankful for everything (we have friends, a great church, nate's job, and I have an endorsement on my degree that I wouldnt have had if I stayed at JBU).... but I still couldnt help but just get a little choked at how much I wish I was graduating through JBU. In the end, it wont matter, and JBU is still the school I went to, but that purple tassle and southwestern alumni garb just irked me to the bone, ha!

We will update more on the house/job status when and if it happens!

"Elixer of Love"

2010-02-15T14:10:00.001-08:00

We got to celebrate our first married Valentines together!

Nate had to work all day Saturday (bummer!) so I caught up on homework while he was gone all day. Earlier this week Nate surprised me with part of our Valentines day plans : going to an OPERA! Neither of us had ever been to one, and we figured it would either be awesome or we would enjoy laughing at it together. We got to the Opera theater, dressed up, ready to see "Elixer of Love" which happened to be in Italian, ha! I wont go into detail- but we both enjoyed it and the many funny things that happened that night from different smells, to a weird old woman with a plastic face. We both agreed by the end of the night that we probably wont go to an Opera ever again (we love musicals though... in English!)

Yesterday, Valentines Day, was spent relaxing, having breakfast in bed, watching the olympics, having an awesome rotisseri chicken dinner, sparkling cider, Nate drew me a bubble bath with roses and while I soaked in the tub he read me poetry (although this was "romantic" on Nates part it turned out to be too hilarious to continue... we both agreed that some poets are just too ridiculous & try way too hard to be deep, haha)

8 months of marriage

2010-02-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

Hello! We cannot believe it is already February! Yesterday we celebrated our 8 month of marriage... and by celebrated I mean Nate took care of me because I have been sick the past couple of days :( I knew it would hit me sometime. All of my kindergarteners were slowly getting this disgusting cough/sneeze/sick thing and sure enough, it was passed on to me.

In the last couple of weeks we had quite a bit of snow and up and down weather. I dont know about you, but I am so ready for sunshine, sandals and green grass.

We have some updated news on our decisions of buying/not buying a house. Shortly after I wrote that last blog, we were introduced to a house that is not yet on the market but will be soon (our friend is selling it for his father). We are currently still thinking about that house and waiting to get all of the information on it. If it all pans out, we may end up buying this house. It excites both of us because the location is AWESOME (right across the street from the park, big corner lot) and it has a lot of potential for us to put our own taste in it. It is not a new house and definitely needs some work, but that is what is so exciting for us. Nate is a handy construction guy and I have the eye for creativity, so we have always wanted to take something with potential and make it our own :) SO, who knows if it will work out or not, but we are excited for the possibility none the less!

decisions.

2010-01-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

So- life is great.

My praxis II test was a grueling 7 hours long, but I walked out feeling great about it. I wont know my scores for another few weeks, but for now, the stress of it is all gone and for that I am thankful.

Nate's work is going great- keeping him busy!

My student teaching is wonderful! I love my kindergarten classroom and I love my cooperative Teacher, Shea. She is such a great example of what it means to be a wonderful teacher and I am absorbing so much from her.

I know that before we mentioned that we were possibly going to be building our first home soon. After a lot of thought and feelings, we are not going to build. We had to re adjust our focus goggles and really understand what will be best for us financially and in our marriage. The last thing we want is a mortgage we cant afford that is stressing out our first year of marriage! So, we are still really unsure of what to do. With the tax incentive and low mortgage rates we wonder if now is a good time to buy, or if waiting and saving for another year is wisest. We would appreciate your prayers in discerning what God desires for us. For now, we are perfectly content!

Marriage is amazing and just keeps getting better. I dont say that to make you think we are doing well when we're not... because in all honesty- we are doing SO well! We have both heard that the first year of marriage can sometimes be your hardest.... but it has been the opposite for both of us. We just enjoy each others company so much and being here in Kansas with not an ounce of family or best friends nearby, has really made us rely on each other for everything. Also- reading Love & Respect has given us so much insight into how we work and how we can make our relationship even better. We are seriously crazy about each other.... okay enough mush gush!

Shuler Family Christmas Picture Post

2010-01-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

There we are! Our entire family got to be together and it was wonderful. Nate & I had so much fun this Christmas. Our time was spent hanging out with the family, sitting by the fireplace, playing bananagrams, watching movies, going shopping, and checking the weather everywhere way too often. Nate even got to go to his first Blues Hockey game! He loved it!!
Our first Christmas together!!
Josie was ready to decorate cookies with her Santa apron!
the little Kaiya kunky was all entertainment this Christmas. Look at her cute little leggings!
She LOVES Mickey Mouse so when she opened her presents she was SO happy! "M'ney Mow!"

Josie has been asking for a camera for the last 4 months so she was SO happy to see that grammy and pappy got her a kids digital camera
It was so fun being able to be with Jamie again. We hadn't seen each other since the wedding. I love my sister :)
We spent Christmas in our PJ's all day... it was great.
Christmas and New Year's was great! Nate & I really enjoyed being able to spend time with the family for more than a weekend. It snowed off and on from Christmas til New Years so it was great! My dad, brother and Nate got to go to a Blues Hockey game on New Years Eve and they had a blast. While they did that my mom, Alaina and I (Jamie already left to go back to California and Holly was in Florida) , took the girls to the mall to ride the carousel. We came back and ate Chinese food by the fire... it was great :)

Now we are back home in Kansas. I am studying like crazy for my Praxis II PLT and ECE Unified tests on saturday Jan 9th (these are the tests to become a certified teacher) so I would greatly appreciate your prayers! My first day of Kindergarten starts next week and I am so nervous and excited!!

just keeps getting better...

2009-12-22T07:12:00.001-08:00

The first real snow of Kansas was a few weeks ago. It was great, minus the -11 degrees.(poor Nate!)
I have really been enjoying doing some photography with my new camera :)

So homey... we love it.
Nate had never had a stocking before. So we surprised each other with stocking stuffers and couldnt wait until christmas to open them. We were way too excited!
We had so much fun putting together each other's stockings

Tomorrow night we leave for our very first christmas together in St. Louis with the Shuler family! We are both SO excited!!! I cant wait to actually spend Christmas day with Nate (a first for us!) We cant wait to see my family and spend time hanging out with our nieces and everyone.

I finished all of my classes, which feel SO good. Student teaching is all that is left, and one online class, but I think I will manage just fine. I cannot wait to have my teaching degree!!

6 months already?!

2009-12-02T08:22:00.001-08:00

This is our first real ornament together! You cant read what is on the hearts but it says " Nate & Kristin, first Christmas 2009" We love it ( thanks mom!)
Here it is !! the final product of our first Christmas tree/decorating together. We love our tree and the smell it brings to our house.

That hat is now at the top of our tree ( we didnt have a star!)

So- as you can see in the pictures above, we got our first Christmas tree!!! Although I have been sick since sunday when we left arkansas, it was still a really fun experience. Just when I thought my immune system was starting to get stronger ( I hadnt been sick since last spring!) I managed to get sick the minute we left the Piston's house. Not sure if its a virus/flu/or what, but today I feel better than I have the past 3 days. Anyways- we had so much fun going to Wal Mart and getting our tree, the stand, and a few decorations. We both really felt that we are our own little family. This past week we have been at Nate's families house for thanksgiving and it was wonderful. We loved getting to see all the family (minus daniel) and just hang out! Oh- and we finally got to meet our first nephew, Matthias, who is a cute little chunky thing :)

The weekend before thanksgiving we made another quick trip to Arkansas so that we could see our friends! It was MUCH needed and so much fun. It can get hard being in Kansas when all of our best friends are in Arkansas, so it was so nice to be able to just hang out with the girls, and nate with the guys for a weekend.

So- that is what we have been up to- LOTS of traveling. Nate working. I am sick. Sunday is December 6th and that means Nate & I will have been married 6 months. Time goes so fast on this side. Its amazing.

Some exciting news- Nate & I have budgeted, planned, and carefully thought through- and we are going to build a house in the spring :) This week we are planning on meeting with a couple of builders to pick the best one for us. We are SO excited!!!

**** more exciting news! I just realized that I havent written on here yet that I got my placement!!! I will be student teaching in Hesston in Kindergarten for 10 weeks and the remaining 4 weeks will be spent in a "unique" environment such as special ed. :) ! I couldnt be happier with my placement or the cooperative teacher I was assigned to! God is so good & I cannot wait to start this in January!

my sleeping husband

2009-11-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 3 am , wide awake, hot, and squished to the edge of my bed by my sleeping husband. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't so I gently pushed him to the other side of the bed, waking him up for a second before he dozed back off.

I got up and got a drink of water, turned down the air, and stumbled back in the room and attempted to go back to sleep. Nate, however, was entertaining me way too much to go back to sleep. I mean- this man gets a work out in his sleep! He twitches, jerks, and breathes heavier than anyone I have ever seen. At one point he was breathing, mouth wide open, and he let out a giant burp- never once waking up. I buried my head in my pillow trying not to laugh too hard and wake him up. After burping he let out a HUGE sigh through his mouth and nose at the same time. I dont know if you have heard anybody sigh through their nose and mouth at the same time- but it is a hilarious sound. Again- I buried my head in my pillow- laughing.

At some point after 4 am I started ignoring his twitches and mumbles and finally fell back asleep. Point behind this ridiculous story? Nate is a crazy sleeper and laughing at 3 am about his shenanagins only makes me love him more.

birthday/family/traveling

2009-11-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

Woops- sorry it has been so long since we updated! Life has just been moving along and I havent had a lot of time to update. SO- these two pictures were from Nate's birthday on October 23rd. There he is, blowing out all 23 candles.
Life has been good since the last update. Nate's job has been keeping him busy and he is learning so much. I am so proud of him :) One weekend Nate's parents came for a short visit which was fun. We showed them around Hesston/McPherson/ and took them to Spangles. A few days after that I drove to St. Louis by myself to hang out with my parents for 4 days. It was fun just being at home, shopping, shopping and more shopping, and just being with my parents. Nate held up okay - he bought himself an Xbox... then tried to convince me he bought a motorcycle... then I decided it was time for me to come home, haha (NO, he didnt buy a motorcycle).

Now I am doing 4 classes (12 hours) and trying to juggle doing that online. They are not necessarily difficult, just very time consuming. I am so ready to be done with classes. I still haven't heard back about my placement yet so I am anxious about that. I had a meeting at Southwestern to go over the requirements for next semester's student teaching and it made me a little nervous. It's going to be a LOT of hard work and time....the degree will be worth it, however, I think Nate is in for a surprise. He has been spoiled with having me do everything around the house/for him because I am at home- we will see what happens in a couple months!

We are loving our community life group. we finally feel like we have "friends" and its nice. We are starting to feel a part of Kansas.

Also- it is WAY too windy here.

Crazy couple weeks

2009-10-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, Nate & I went to Lindsborg ( a small town near here) because they were having a Swedish festival (its a Swedish town, ha). As you can tell in the picture, it was FREEZING. It was like Fall waved goodbye and winter swept in. 30 degrees, wind blowing... it was awful. But the festival was fun. We got to see cute Swedish things, boys & girls doing dances with their clogs and skirts, and left with some really amazing kettle corn.
Last week we had a family medical emergency and so I packed my bags and left for Arkansas to lend an extra hand with our nieces and John & Alaina. The girls just get cuter and cuter every time we see them. Nate was jealous that I got to spend time with our nieces, but he managed well without me because I made 2 giant casseroles for him that would last about a week.
When I came back from Arkansas on Sunday, it was crazy awesome to see Nate. It doesnt matter how long we have been together... being away from him for 5 days made us miss each other like crazy. Seeing each other on Sunday afternoon was amazing. He totally surprised me with an extremely clean house, beautiful roses, candles lit, sparkling cider, and this awesome heart made out of wire that Nate had been working on for days... I am the luckiest woman in the world :)
For those of you who know about our family medical issues, thank you for your love & support for John & Alaina. It has been so neat to be there with them and see the out pour of love and prayers from their surrounding friends and family members. God is so good. Please continue to keep Alaina in your prayers.

In other news, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23rd, is my amazing husbands BIRTHDAY!!!!! Give him a shout out and make him feel loved. This weekend in honor of his birthday, we will probably be going camping (the weather has started to look more like fall, so we wouldn't freeze to death) and going to a corn maze that Nate went to last weekend with our Community Life Group.

a big fall picture post

2009-10-05T11:28:00.001-07:00

Fall is here ! Last week the weather just sort of flip flopped & now its chilly, windy, and the colors are changing everyday!

Here are some pictures of the backyard I took this week & last. Summer used to be my favorite season but over the past few years I have realized how much I love love love fall.

Much like corn and sunflower fields, there are also a lot of these kinds of fields everywhere here. Nate says that they are soybeans.
OKAY- so, on saturday Nate & I were wondering what to do, so we decided to drive to Hutchinson b/c I havent been there. So we got in our new car and headed to Hutch and low and behold, they were having a HUGE classic/muscle car show downtown. Nate was in car heaven and I enjoyed seeing all the crazy cool classic cars (alliteration much?) The pearly white hotrod was my favorite of the day and the one below that is Nates favorite (I cant remember what its called... its either a chevelle SS, or a nova). ALSO- as you can see in the picture below, apparently there are igloos you can ride...I'm sorry, but we couldnt get over how hilarious this woman was.

Besides the car show, we have had so much fun the past few days. Last Thursday we were about to head out to get the truck washed when we noticed practically the entire town of Hesston gathering on the main street near the park. we stopped and asked what was going on only to find out that apparently they have a "Hesston coming home" weekend. They were about to have a parade to celebrate so we parked the car and joined the crowd along the street. It was SO cute. A parade of firetrucks, boy scouts, girl scouts, the high school football team all throwing candy to the crowd, and the high school homecoming queen and king nominees riding in convertibles sitting on the hood with their sashes and crowns waving to the crowd (yes, just like the movies, haha). It really made me understand that I do love it here and couldnt be happier that we are here.

Friday we went to the high school football homecoming game. We stayed til half time, watched the cheerleaders attempt to dance (they need a dance team!) the pep band play, and see hesston slaughter the other team 22-0 (and that was only at half time). It brought back so many memories (hesstons school colors are the same as my old high schools) and we enjoyed it alot.

Other than enjoying each other & Hesston, we are doing wonderful. My interview went fantastic and they said I was more than qualified to student teach. They were extremely impressed with my portfolio & lesson plans. So- thanks JBU for preparing me so well! Right now our home is filled with the scents of cinnamen, apple and cranberry fall candles & life couldn't be better.

Bye Bye Penny Lane... Hello new car!

2009-09-28T12:47:00.001-07:00

This is our new car!!! 2 weeks ago we suddenly sold our jeep and I was left car-less. We searched and searched in Wichita but couldn't find much. After a pretty rough week in more ways than one, we headed to siloam friday night in hopes to get a car that weekend. We wish we could have seen our friends but knew that our first priority was finding a car. We finally narrowed it down to two cars we liked the most: A Nissan Versa and a Hyundai Sonata. In the end, practicality won and we got the sonata. The Versa was fun and zippy, but the sonata was a more long term and comfortable car. Now, we need to think of a name for this beauty of a car.

Also- Saturday the 26th was my sister, Jamie's, 24th Bday. We love you Jamie & miss you :)

TOMORROW is my HUGE student teaching interview. Please be thinking of me at 8:00 PM as I will be in my best attire, with portfolio in hand. This interview is to see if I am "ready" to student teach and get the placement I requested. I know I am ready, but they have to see that. There is a big chance that I will be doing my 15 week student teaching in Kindergarten in Hesston, which is great & I cant wait !

I bet you didnt know...

2009-09-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

that Nate watches the TV Guide channel as if it were a show.

that I am so worried about our new couch cushions getting flat that I rotate them so that they all get sat on equally.

just little tidbits of info for you.

A real update to come later

.wow.

2009-09-10T05:25:00.001-07:00

Chigger me timbers

2009-09-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!
Nate & I have spent our labor day weekend relaxing,relaxing and... more relaxing. We wanted to go camping and packed up our stuff and everything but the weather did not cooperate. Also-once again, I have chiggers. I give up. they win.

Nate took me to hobby lobby yesterday and I got my first canvas to paint on. I have some ideas and I just hope I can execute them right. If not, oh well, this is just for fun anyways.

God is faithful and he has finally given me some peace about choosing Southwestern College to finish through. Nate & I were so fed up with their shananagins that we drove down there and talked to them in person, getting everything worked out perfectly. Thank the Lord for saving all of my previous emails through them... in the end, it saved me and everything is worked out. Nate's work is going wonderful and he is really loving his job. He has also adjusted to waking up at 6 am and getting home at 5-5:30ish . He used to be really tired when he came home but now he has so much energy and is able to get by on a lot less sleep. Its awesome & makes me happy

We've had a few bites on our car but nothing serious (bummer), but were not in a hurry so its all good. Nate and I have decided that we would like to build a house starting in the spring so that its done and move in ready by mid summer and I will hopefully have a job by then. We are excited to have our own place and have some privacy which we feel we are lacking. In the meantime we are saving our money for that & we started the envelope system off of dave ramsey. Its much better seeing the tangible money per month that we can use.

Nate & I are a little too competitive! We started a Chinese Checker war the other day. He is very good at it. its frustrating to me and I wont stop till I won. Tonight- I finally won!

76 days of Marriage with Nate & Kris

2009-08-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

I am sort of attached to this man!
Nate took me out to PF Changs for my 22nd Birthday! It was amazing :)
He got me the best birthday present EVER. a Nikon D5000!!!! I have never been so excited about a gift in my life!

This is one of the many pics taken with this awesome camera. I love Silhouettes

Note: having a weekend star wars trilogy marathon slumber party with your husband will prove to be one of the best and most fun times of our married lives! Also- I promise nate does wear clothes. He doesnt like to wear shirts at home though (our house is hot)
This is the before & after of my summer project. Turning a dresser into an entertainment center!
So, we have been married 76 days now (crazy isnt it?) Nate & I have learned so much already about marriage and here are some of our thoughts:
- Living with your best friend = the best thing ever
- Marriage costs money. name change, social security, food, furniture, rent, you name it, it costs.
- We live for the weekends. Nate works so much during the week that we both have a new thankfulness for weekends.
- Marriage DOES take work: dont expect your spouse to suddenly change upon entering marriage.
- Marriage= sacrifice
- I love cooking & cleaning for Nate (we'll see how long this lasts, haha)
- Nate loves doing the dishes for me after I cook
- Its amazing how fast a house can get dirty
- We have to learn how to mesh how we each do things. Ex. nate likes the toilet paper roll put on a certain direction & and I have a "no farting on our new couch" rule
- Waking up next to your best friend is one of the best things about marriage
- People think Kristin Piston is the funniest name ever
- One of the most joyful times of the day is when Nate walks in the door coming home from work. its just love all over the place :)
- Sometimes your spouse may scare you while they are sleeping. (Nate talks in his sleep almost every night)
- Sometimes your spouse may accidentally crowd you on your side of the bed. note: do not attempt to put them back on their side. I gently put my hand on nates chest to try to get him to get off my side and he pushed me in his sleep!
- wake up on time for church, or your wife will leave without waking you up ;)
- In the past 76 Days I have never had so much fun in my life or laughed as hard as we do. Everything seems to be funnier when your married!
-I love & appreciate Nate more than I ever have in the past 3 years

there are more, but I'll have to wait til Nate gets home to add on!

back to arkansas & prepping Penny Lane to be sold

2009-08-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

you should click on this picture to make it big. I love the reflection. The water was so still and I just think its beautiful
Nate & I have been canoeing a lot more lately. We like to go around the edge of the lake and look for giant frogs that hide around the edge. Despite liking the beauty thats in our backyard, now we BOTH have chiggers. I havent been without chiggers once since we moved here! I'm a little tired of it. And now Nate can feel my pain around his ankels
JOSIE TURNED 3 !!! Nate & I headed back to Arkansas and got the best of both worlds (both our families!) We loved getting to see Nates parents and enjoy a great reception they put on for us!! We also got to spend a lot of saturday with the Shuler's for my mom's birthday & Josie's 3rd Birthday Party. The luau theme was great & we enjoyed seeing Josie in her grass skirt playing games and interacting with a bazillion other kids. Kaiya is funnier than ever & somehow kept getting a lay stuck around her legs as she independently walked around the party.
Nate & I have been thinking more and more about selling my jeep to get something more gas efficient since now we don't live near any family. Traveling gets expensive with a jeep & a truck! Last night we cleaned it, took pictures and put it up on craigslist, hoping for some hits. This morning we have already had 2 people interested!! Cross your fingers!!!

Next week I get to see my best friends, Lisa & Jenna!!!!! They are coming up and I am SO EXCITED!! OH yeah- I also turn 22 next week! I am getting old...

Best fondue ever & a canoeing adventure... in our backyard

2009-08-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Nate & I finally took advantage of the canoe we have at our house and went in our horseshoe shaped lake. It was so fun!!

Nate got the big paddle and I got the midget one

These are all the ducks that roam the lake around our house!
Nate and I made cheese & chocolate fondue on friday and it was so amazing. The cheese fondue was even better than the melting pots! (ask me for the recipe, I promise you wont be let down!). We also made peanut butter & chocolate fondue for dessert :)

Nate put together the dessert tray just like they do at the Melting Pot. Also- I promise Nate DOES brush his teeth, although this picture doesnt show that. It's just chocolate :)

family with a side of Coldplay

2009-07-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Nate & I traveled to St. Louis to see COLDPLAY!!!! John was surprising Alaina with the trip and coldplay so we decided to meet them there and go too! It was Nate's first big concert experience and I hadnt seen Coldplay since I was a sophomore in high school. We had so much fun and Coldplay was SO AMAZING! Talent talent talent... We also got to see my parents and our adorable nieces who are growing cuter everyday. Kaiya even said my name 3 times ("tin tin"...but thats good enough for me!) We missed seeing the girls so much. I guess you could say we were extra spoiled for getting to see them 1-2 times a week for 3 years.
There we are. Siblings enjoying Coldplay in our lawn seats :)
there he is, the love of my life!

Nate & I have been enjoying some picnic dinners in the park lately. The Arboretum is absolutely beautiful with flowers everywhere, a beautiful lake and walking path. We discovered when my parents came to visit that at this one spot on the lake there are a TON of fish and turtles that gravitate toward people. Nate and I went back there and got fish feed to try to get the fish and turtles to come back. about 20 or so turtles made their way to us including 1 ginormous snapping turtle, a few turtles with moss growing on their backs and some catfish and huge carp. We had fun :)

That picture displays SOME of the fish, a couple moss backed turtles and the head of the scary snap turtle

Nate & I are super excited for August 7-9th weekend to celebrate a double birth bash (Josie & MOM!), a reception, and major family time.

chiggers & love

2009-07-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

hola from kansas!

2 weeks ago I stumbled into some hungry chiggers in our backyard and was eaten alive in the worst places possible. They are FINALLY starting to go away. Nate and I had the privilege of having my parents come stay with us and spend the 4th of July here. They had not seen our house and we had a great weekend. Thanks mom & dad for the seriously fun weekend!

I started taking apart our current "entertainment center" that is actually a dresser to make it into an entertainment center. Its fun, but I can only go so far before I have to wait for Nate to get home from work so he can help me with some of the technical parts

The past 3 weeks Nate and I had been looking into possibly buying or building a house. We went to a coupe lenders and got pre approved for a loan. We knew of 3 kansas grants that we were "eligable" for to help shave off the cost of buying a house. A rural housing development grant that finances 102% of the house, the Kansas First Time Homebuyer grant which takes 15-20% off the cost of the house, and another small kansas grant, plus the 8,000 tax credit. SO- it appeared that things were in our favor. Things went along great, we met with a builder and got excited to possibly move forward with this. We both felt a little pressure to make a decision quick and had been praying about it, talking about it, crunching numbers like crazy and trying to just let God put things into place, however they fall. Yesterday I wanted to find out for sure if we qualified for the Kansas First Time Homebuyer grant (it is income based) and after a whole day of my lender searching for the answer, we found out that Nate makes too much and we dont qualify for the grant.

With that said, we really feel like God just plainly told us NO. not right now! And we are totally happy with that decision. Now we can stay here in our wonderful apartment with amazing rent and save our money until we are ready to buy or build

OH YA, today Nate and I have been together for 2 years and 8 months. woohoo! I have never been so in love as I am today.

sunsets & couches

2009-06-30T17:08:00.001-07:00

Yay, we got couches! Brand new microfiber soft as can be couches

The one good thing about Kansas being so dang flat, is that you get to see some SERIOUSLY gorgeous sunsets.
I did not photoshop this or color correct or anything. This is purely God's beauty
Nate and I chased the sunset til we couldnt see it anymore!

So, we got our couches and we love them! We went into Ashley Furniture Store knowing the price of the loveseat and couch (they were on sale for a great price) and knowing that we wanted to try to use our "bargaining" skills to save even more money (thanks dave ramsey). Nate and I discussed beforehand that I was just going to step out of the way and let Nate do this one (I tend to talk to much, apparently). Right before we got in the store, I told Nate that I found the couches for cheaper than the price they were selling them here at Nebraska Furniture, and if nothing else works, to pull that out and use it to try to get them to lower the price. And... after trying to negotiate, Nate sure enough pulled out the Nebraska furniture price and it worked. We saved a wopping 50.00 on an already great deal.

We just met with a realtor here to look at a couple of houses in our "price range" and it was good. We really just dont know what to do or what is best for us right now!

Couches, Heat, and Work

2009-06-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

   Nate and I had a picnic in the Arboretum park, it was great!
   Part of our beautiful backyard pond
   We live in that bottom portion with the door and windows. Its great.
Our Kitchen

   Our temporary living room

It has been so blazing hot this week that Nate was getting off work early Monday & Tuesday. It was great because we were able to make a trip down to Wichita and start looking for some couches (this futon is cute, but its no couch ) . We found a couple we like and are spending today and tomorrow going back to hopefully bargain with them and buy them. We were hoping Nate would get off work early the whole week, but despite the heat, they have a deadline to meet and he has ended up staying later than normal the rest of the week (bummer).

The mosquitos are different here. they're HUGE and they love me (thats no surprise though). I was walking along our pond talking on the phone yesterday and the biggest frog I had ever seen jumped right in front of me. I have also learned that our pond has HUGE fish in it... I might just have to break out my fishing rod!

I found an intergenerational preschool here in Hesston (the place is attached to an old folks home, and the elderly work with the young, its awesome). I went in and talked to them about doing observation hours for one of my classes next week and she ended up wanting to hire me to teach Pre-K in the fall. I am not sure if I will take it since I still wanted to substitute to get my foot in the doors of the elementary schools. Plus- she laughed at me when I told her my first and last name. Can I blame her? No, not really.

Life in Kansas

2009-06-24T05:23:00.001-07:00

Well, we decided to start a blog so our friends and family could keep up with our lives here in Kansas! We have been here for 2 weeks now and its been quite a ride. We moved all of our stuff into our house and Nate started back at his job. I, Kristin, have been spending my days putting together the house, cleaning the house, starting back on my homework, and taking care of the billion and one things that you have to do after you move and get married. New driver's license, car titles, social security, new phone, you name it, we are taking care of it!

Kansas is hot, flat, and pretty. I will put up some pictures of our gorgeous backyard soon. We have a beautiful pond, tons of flowers, ducks, and green everywhere! More to come later!