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!

 

Hotel Taulman

The past few days it has been hotel Taulman here and we sure have had fun!! On Wednesday, Nathan's parents came down for a few days! It was really enjoyable and fun to be able to sit on the back porch and catch up on life with them.  We planted some flowers, cooked out, played some golf, chatted and hosted a healthy chocolate party!! side note: Yes, we are hooked on a new thing called Healthy Chocolate and it is making a WORLD of difference in my life. Think- eating chocolate while getting healthy, having LOTS of energy, losing a few pounds, fast recovery times after workouts, clearing up my acne and it GOOD FOR YOU- I mean really really good for you!! (sara, I am emailing you about it...I am pretty sure you would be in complete love with it- its totally up your food science alley). I also hosted a kids volleyball camp last week- we had a great turn-out and I saw a BIG improvement in the girls. It gives me hope for the future of AHS volleyball!!

 After they left on Friday, and I had a photo shoot in the evening and then Shane and Jana came for the weekend! We played golf, did a little shopping and met Kelly & Tim for dinner in Louisville(we missed you Heather!), the three of them studied, we stayed up REALLY late chatting about life and bouncing future ideas off eachother.  It was so nice being with such great friends all weekend. On Saturday night we got a crazy storm here (3.5 inches of rain in less then 3 hours!) and they were calling for more tornado's. So I woke everyone up around 3 and we had a slumber party in the basement for a few hours- talk about fun!! I listened to the guys snore and Jana talk in her sleep- needless to say I had a few good laughs in those couple of hours.
 Yesterday was a LAZY Sunday. I pretty much spent the day on the couch- Nathan and I went for a walk and made dinner but found ourselves back on the couch to finish off the evening.
 I am LOVING summer and wish it would slow down!! I am going to wash the sheets from Hotel Taulman today, catch-up on laundry, then head to volleyball later tonight(by the way we won our game on Wednesday night!!).

the week that was...

Well, thankfully I survived last week. After a little over 1,500 miles on my poor car(and I didnt even drive to Florida!) Sunday afternoon I was thankful to be home and very thankful that we no longer travel via horse and buggy!!

 warning. this post might just get REALLY long but I want to write about everything so if you get bored...click on! :)

Saturday started the weeks festivities with our trip to Bloomington. We picked up Nathans race packet and enjoyed dinner at an awesome brewery in bloomington with our great friends Shane & Jana. It was one of the most fun 'couple date nights' I have had in a really long time. We pretty much covered every topic under the sun and realized that is pretty scary how much Jana and I's are alike. We have always know Nathan and Shane have been brothers since birth and I guess great minds think like when it comes to picking their spouses!! :)
 Sunday morning we were up bright and early and ready for Nathans Olympic Distance tri-altalon(1 mile swim, 26.2 mile bike and a 6.1 mile run). side note: I was SICK I was so nervous- now I know that sounds silly but ALOT of people don't finish these kind of things and since my dear wonderful husband had not swam since LAST July and only biked about 5 miles the day before I was SLIGHTLY nervous about this).
 I was SOOOO thankful that Shane and Jana were there too keep me calm. Once Nathan FINALLY got out of the water-I am pretty sure it was the longest 36 minutes of my life- I was a little better. They had to head back a study for the bar they are taking at the end of July so I stayed and watched and waited to see him make it off the bike and onto the run and then come across that finish line. Within those 3 hours that I sat there, they had to pull 2 people out of the water that couldn't make it and three ambulances went by...and you wonder why I was a little apprehensive!! I was one VERY VERY proud wife as I watched him transition each time and when he was finished I will admit I was a little teary. He really is pretty stinkin amazing if I do say so myself. Especially after I heard the professionals finishing up saying it was the hardest and most terrible course they had ever done!!
a few pictures of the day...

thankful for great friends to cheer him on!

ready to go!(sort-of!!)

bike, helmet, shoes....

last few seconds before hitting the water

GO NATHAN GO!!

and he is off...

he is out there somewhere!

here he comes!!!!

out of the water and headed towards the bike!

there he goes again...look at that hill! NO THANKS!

made it back from the killer ride and looking forward to the run.

a smile of reassurance for the wife!

a little chug before he hits the road again.

and he is off again!

this one is for your dad!

headed for the home stretch!!!

he can see the finish!

3 hours and 18 minutes later he is finished!!!

Nathan- I am so proud of you!! I love you so much and everyday you continue to inspire and amaze me. 

After we loaded up the car we headed back to S&J's for some much deserved pizza and water! We enjoyed the day their house then headed back to pick up my car so I was could be off to Dyer. 

It was so great being up with my dear friends and our old home. Bridgette and I enjoyed Monday at the pool and we finished off the evening with some MUCH needed girl time and dinner with Vicky & Hilary. I am so thankful God put them into my life. I am not sure I would make it through some of the tough things without them. 

 A few funnies that I want to remember from the time up there: 

-B & I went to Subway in our bathing suits- I sort-of forgot we were not in the county until when we walked in and the dressed up costumers look at us funny. opps!

-We saw some 'snannagins' as B calls, it at the pool. 

-We stayed up way to late watching the Bachlorette. 

-Our kind neighbors told me they prayed everyday for our house to sell and asked if we could do a prayer walk- it was one of the coolest and nicest things anyone has done for me. 

-We almost left the restaurant without paying! on total accident!

-The two days up there were well worth the drive!!

Tuesday morning I got up and went into Kolling and all I can say is WOW! It was so good for my heart. I have missed those kids like crazy and it was evident they missed me too(such a great feeling). They all asked if I was coming back and told me to 'Tell Mr. Taulman he needs to quit school so you can come back' too cute!! It was a great few hours and I got to see some wonderful friends and co-workers. I wish I could have stayed longer but it was off to the next stop!

After the visit to Kolling I jumped in the car and headed for Cinci to meet Nathan, Shane & Jana for a Cubs/Reds game and a round of golf!!

ok this post is getting long and I am getting tried soooo I will leave with: to be continued.....