ok...what are you telling me

Have you ever wondered just what God is trying to tell you. Well..ok maybe its just me but I wonder all the time. I listen, talk, listen more, talk more, talk more and more(yes, I love to talk- maybe that is half the problem). Over the last few months we have had some big changes happening in the Taulman house and I 'thought' I had made a few correct decisions regarding parts of our life that needed a little help. They were not easy decisions to make- ones that took ALOT of thought, prayer, tears, and long hours of dicussion but I THOUGHT in the end that we made the right decision.
 Then today happened. I got an email questioning about one of the big decisions and a face to face question about the other. Neither one did I expect AT ALL and neither one was I ready for. I must say, they both kind-of took the wind out of me and now they are both making sit at my desk, shake my head and start to ask 'ok what are you telling me'.
 God's plan is NEVER easy to understand especially right now. I am working at understanding it but boy oh boy this is hard. really hard.

about time...

I guess its about time that I update my blog! :) It's only been about three months. I was told that for Christmas I would be getting a voice recorder to help make this blogging thing a little easier but for some reason that hasn't ended up in my mailbox yet! haha  So I guess I am left to type. :) Here it goes...if I can remember how to do this!

Wow- what a Christmas we had. It was full of LOTS of family time. I soaked up every second of it. One of the worst things about moving has been moving further away from my brother. I know- my mom is probally in shock reading that but its true. I LOVED hanging with him and I know Nathan did too. I so enjoy watching them get along so well and share so many good laughs. It is something that I always prayed for but wasn't sure would happen. It really is awesome.

With that being said- we enjoyed having Gavin and Mom home with us. Mom, Gavin, Nathan and I enjoyed Christmas Eve service at four and then came home to spend a quite Christmas Eve where we played cards, drank wine, shared our 2012 goals, told funny stories from the year, and just enjoyed being together. We were then headed to bed to wait for Santa to come! Christmas day was really fun too!! We opened our gifts and then it was time for a little nap. After a nice snooze for everyone except Nathan(he was too busy shinning his new shoes!), the guys started cooking on Nathans Christmas present....The Big Green Egg! It is pretty stinkin awesome if I do say so myself, and I think the guys loved it too! We then had a wonderful dinner together and enjoyed the ribs that were cooked on The Big Green Egg!

Ribs....YUMMY!

the boys workin' the Big Green Egg!

Putting it all together! Master-minds @ work. :)

Monday morning we were up early and headed for Nathans parents. We had a great day there with Mark, Mandy, Morgan & Marek and Duane & Linda. It is always fun watching little ones open presents- they get so excited! I made out like a domestic champ! From Nathans parents I got a bread maker and from the M's I got a sewing machine!! That was really fun to open! I had posted on FB a few weeks ago that I wanted to learn to sew over the holiday but Nathan suggested that I learn QuickBooks instead. I guess Mandy saw that and decided to help make my sewing dream come true!! I can't wait to learn how to use it! haha The bread maker was another added bonus- about two months ago I went Gluten Free so it has been hard to find yummy bread- this is the perfect fix! I even made my first loaf the next day and to everyone's surprise it was delicious!

my first loaf of fresh baked bread!

Not only that BUT we woke up on Tuesday morning to snow!We enjoyed a day of resting up, watching it snow and getting ready for our crazy adventure for the next four days.

The first real snow of the season!

On Wednesday we headed to Texas to photograph the ranch. I will save all the details for a post on the 721Photography blog but I will leave everyone with these photos.....

or how about this! :)

doesn't everyone want to hire a photographer in an outfit like that!

We arrived back  on Friday night around midnight and then Saturday we had the Taulman Christmas in the morning- then raced to the Purdue game in the afternoon. After an AWESOME victory we raced to Louisville to meet some friends for New Years! It was a typical Taulman-style day! :)

Boiler Up!

:)

Yesterday Nathan and I took down all of the Christmas decorations and tried to get the house ready for the crazy month in January. Why does it always seem that its much more fun putting things out then putting things up. I must say that I am just very thankful that I have a husband that will help! He really is the best.

can you guess who took these lights down...

or how about these! :)

Today I am getting caught up on 721 and working on lesson plans for school tomorrow. :( I want to get everything done before the Bachelor is on tonight!! Its my silly addiction and Nathan is so awesome that he already taped it for me! I told you he was awesome!

Last thing...as a new years resolution I have decided to take a picture every.single.day. It might not be fancy, of anything amazing, just a picture. I am really excited about this AND I am going to try really hard to post them on here at the end of each week! Maybe that will help my blogging.

January 1, 2011- the view from where we are now.

Happy Monday and Happy New Year!

I am back!

Yes that is correct I am back in the blogging world....well at least for today! Ha. Just kidding I do plan on getting back into the swing of this again because I know a few people do enjoy it and frankly I miss it too!

Life has been full the last two months.
Full of....school, work, tears, tough decisions, friends, photography, questions, football games, fall candles burning, piles of laundry, my grandparents from Las Vegas,my big sis from college wedding, volleyball, edits, long nights, my dear friend Hilary having a baby girl, my college roomie Mara having a baby girl as well, Bon fires, a visit from my bestie Katy,keeping track of our 'zoo',watching the leaves turn colors, searching for God, and so much more.
Fall is my all time favorite time of the year, but to be honest this has been an emotional one. I am not going to blog the details however, I will say that has been some of the reasons why I have MIA from the blogging world. I hate to burden others so until now I just decided to sign off for a while.i am glad to be back though and hopefully it won't be another two months before I blog again!

This week is fall break from school and our last volleyball game is Saturday. I am ready for that.it will still be a full week- I have seven, yes seven! photo seasons this week so it will be busy but something I sure love doing so I don't mind one bit!
Today I should be inside catching up on edits before the week starts but instead I am sitting on the front porch, enjoying this blustery fall day, watching the corn dry and being thankful for the blessings I do have.
Until my next post...have a blessed day.

a little bit about our life lately.

Gosh I don't even know where to begin. Life has been a crazy mess for the past month or so, its hard to even know where to start. I am thinking that bullet points might work best for this.



-My wonderful, amazing and beautiful mother celebrated her birthday last week! I am not going to tell her happy birthday on here because from all of the crazy things that have happened when we say that, its best that I don't. (a terrible dinner, lost flowers, lost card...you name it, poor mom has had a rough time celebrating her day!!) I love you mom!!! Thanks for being such an amazing mother and happy day!

-Nathan finished up his week at IU! I sure did miss him and was so thankful to have him back.

-My new teaching job is maybe one of the best ever. I REALLY enjoy teaching high school health(so far!). I sure miss the little ones and their smiles but I do enjoy what I am doing now.

-I have amazing friends!! I couldnt make it without them. Nathan and I have spent some weeks with some great friends lately and it sure makes other things so much easier to go through.

-Cookie, our cat, came back!!! She was gone for about two days, and Nathan and I really missed her so we were both very excited when she came back this week.

-We went to the state fair(for only my third time) and watch Mark sell his piggies.

-721 Photography is GROWING!!! Such a blessing and a joy.

-Volleyball is going. :) enough said.

-We finished moving out of our Dyer house... we are just waiting on the papers to go through and it will be SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please say a prayer that it all goes through. It has been a huge blessing to know that it will be sold.

There is so much more and has been so much more but the weather is beautiful out, Nathan just asked me to go for a walk so its time to enjoy the remainder of the weekend with him. :)

for sara!

one of my very best friends, college roomie and pal posted and said that I hadnt posted in a while. I guess I kind-of forgot about my poor blog. Its now 10pm, I just got home from a volleyball game and I have about 4 hours of work ahead of me tonight, laundry to do and a house to unpack. Needless to say, my poor little blog is being left in the dust for a while. 

 Life is crazy. I mean really crazy. I promise one of these days I will write all about it...until then...

HI SARA- thanks for blog stalking me! I miss you and it too!

a post with no title.

Dear August-
 How did you get here so quickly? It seemed like just a few posts ago I was celebrating being off for the summer and now I am scrambling to get lesson plans up for my new teaching job that I start on Friday. Life has been flying by and it seems like I pass myself coming and going. I have even started waving because I don't want to be rude!
 Could you please take the next four days VERY slowly. I am not wanting school to come so soon! Thank you.


 This week was the first official volleyball practice and I have to say I am looking forward to seeing if our hard work has paid off. I know there is always that chance that it wont be pretty, I am trying to stay positive and hopeful for a successful season.
 On Sunday we 'helped' Shane and Jana move into their new house. That help consisted of a pizza, bottle of wine, 2am trip to Walmart, oatmeal cream pies, Steak & Shake and Bob Evans breakfast all within 12 hrs. IT WAS AWESOME! I felt like I was back in college, we hadnt laughed that hard in a long time. Lets just say my stomach wasn't sure what hit it...its been a while since we have had a 2am S&S run! I sure didn't want to come back to the real world Monday morning thats for sure!!
 Monday night was a sad night at the Taulman house...it was the season finale of The Bachlorette!! haha Nathan was a trooper and watched the ending with me. I am thinking that this one might actually work out... :) I can't wait for next season!!
 Tuesday I went into school and found out I was now teaching Health. So I have been really busy trying to get things ready for that. There is NOTHING worse than walking into a HS classroom with nothing prepared! At least with the little ones you can pretend like you know what you are doing! haha
 Today Heather & I met for a walk and got poured on! I just had to laugh because it rained for about 15 min. and that was the 15min. we were out there. As least we had a little time to catch-up before we both head back to school.
 Tomorrow I have another full day at school and then volleyball. I do have a web-seminar tomorrow night that I am REALLY looking forward to.

Thats all for now. I started this post @ 9 and I am finally finishing it at 11:26...trying to do too many things at one, guess this is why I have three 'draft' posts from last week that never got posted. oh well. night all!

yes...I am still around.

Its been a looong while. The blogging has been nada this month for many reason but mostly because I have been busy and when I do sit down @ the computer it is to work on 721 and the last week we were at the lake! However, today I decided to let all of my friends and family know that I am still around and will get back to the blogging soon.:)

Today I am trying to get work done but I have a million-ok like a billion thought running through my head and I can't focus on much- I wish I was back at the lake.

my view for most of the week..it was awesome!

It was a wonderful wonderful week with my family, I feel so blessed that God has given us something that we all enjoy. . Mom, Gavin, Nathan and I shared many stories, laughs, tears, memories, fishing stories, boat rides, super Nintendo games, sunsets, Ginos pizza, reading, talking about life and missing dad ALOT.

dinner compliments of Nathan!

paradise!!!

The weather was HOT but we were thankful to not have too much rain. We spent many hours in the water trying to stay cool.

mom enjoying a little peace and quiet.

Our friends came to visit which was another added bonus, Uncle Kevin made a trip over and Aunt Mary & Jim came too, it was so great to see all of them!! 

Nathan and I also celebrated our 4th anniversary!

Overall it was an A+ week.

Yes we were very bummed to have to head back home(although I really missed Hoss and was sure glad to see him!)Nathan and I pulled in last night and I ran to get the mail and start sorting it. It was a fun tradition that we had when the four of us would get home from the lake...I will spare you the details of the rest but lets just say we would race to pick our favorite magazine and then race to the 'office'. Seems silly but I missed those moments last night. I was sorting the piles of the mail a wave of sadness hit... I miss those moments that we had as a family. Its the little things that I miss. Little things like racing to sort the mail makes my heart ache.

a beautiful sunset..one of dads favorite things @ the lake

As thoughts run through my head today I wonder if others have these thoughts. Thoughts of when. where. how. why. what. who. Today I am searching for answers to some of those. Most are totally out of my control, I know that.  But maybe by the end of the day and after a billion thoughts I will have a more clear answer of at least one of them or be so tired that I will just need sleep. Either way, the thought are running and I do mean running.

back to work, thoughts & thinking of the lake.

about to land @ the lake...so cool!