three strandy pants

random fun pix

2011-11-19T19:31:00.000-08:00

Scout and her bestie Mr. Bucklesworth

Apple Picking

Cousin Cannon

Future Musician

Sleepy Heads

1 year old!

2011-10-20T19:44:00.001-07:00

more scouty pix

2011-02-03T06:07:00.000-08:00

random fun pix

2011-01-25T10:59:00.001-08:00

making applesauce

2011-01-25T05:32:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Bethany and I got together and made some yummy applesauce this fall. Good fall fun!

2010-10-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

2010-10-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

Baby Scout pix

2010-10-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

Dining room

2010-10-14T17:52:00.001-07:00

Here are before and after shots of our dining room. The pix with brown walls are before and the blue walls are after...not the best lighting. Jon also put up the chair rail, molding, and baseboards.

2010-09-21T09:36:00.001-07:00

2010-09-14T06:54:00.001-07:00

Breech baby

2010-08-29T07:10:00.000-07:00

Things that I did to try and turn my breech baby....
1) swimming
2) Handstands in the pool
3) Headstands at home
4) Stacking pillows to elevate hips
5) Version at hospital ( ouch-still sore)
6) Chiropractor- webster technique
7) Time on all fours

I feel like I tried everything I could. People love to tell you how they got their baby to turn. Which is great but I think I might have used that information to put a lot of pressure on myself. Like if it worked for them it should work for me. However, lesson learned. Little breech baby arrives tomorrow and that is still very exciting.

Nursery

2010-08-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the first before and after pictures of the work we have done on our house. It's the nursery and by far the coolest room in our house. Our painter did these awesome stripes on the ceiling that I love. My sisters helped me get this room all put together in about a week's time....the cute owl bedding was made by my sister Emilie.

Before

After

37 weeks

2010-08-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here is my family and how we look when we are 37 weeks pregnant.

35 weeks

2010-08-15T18:58:00.001-07:00

Here we are in the new house...getting ready to start unloading the vans. But first a quick 34 week photo op.

Baby Shower

2010-08-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

My sisters threw me an awesome shower! There were a lot of fun owl things happening at this shower. Loved it. A lot of my dear friends from high school came to celebrate with me....a reunion of sorts. It was so good to see all of them.

Time with fam

2010-08-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun pix of time with the family.

Family over the 4th

2010-07-19T06:47:00.001-07:00

My oldest sister Emilie was at her in laws in Nashville, TN over the 4th of July. How am I gonna stay away when I have nephews that are this cute?! So I Jon, Megan, and I drove down to get in on some of this cute action.

Joseph cheezin with his juice.

Jacob chillin with George (do not show Joseph this pic of George cheating on him)

My beautiful sisters- Megan and Emilie

Just an all around precious moment.

3 Year anniversary

2010-07-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

June 30th was pretty low key this year but as always there was a cool breeze in the air. We make a tradition of returning to the house where our reception was. We hang out and take pix with "the barrel." This year as we are sitting on the front porch...who should stroll by but our lovely wedding photographers! So we took pix of each other. Love them.

preg pix

2010-07-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

Forgive our horrible picture taking skills. Here are some preg pix from the last couple of months.

11 weeks

18 weeks

25 weeks

30 weeks

New Home!

2010-07-07T12:49:00.001-07:00

Obviously, nothing is final until you close but we sold our Lockerbie house and are moving into a new home. This is all planned to happen in about two weeks. Here is a picture of our new house in Butler-Tarkington.

baby shower

2010-07-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful family friend Robin threw us a couples baby shower at her amazing house in Muncie. It was such a fun evening...perfect weather, best friends and family, yummy cakes, and baby gifts!

first family pic

2010-06-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Is it me or does Jon look terrified of his family in this pic...?

Happy Birthday Buckley!

2010-02-22T08:27:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Buckley! Buckley turned 2 on Feb. 19th. He is really growing up fast. Sorry I don't know how to turn this picture the right way.

new paintings

2009-12-20T14:27:00.001-08:00

Here my latest paintings. I will have some painting hanging up in January in The Mass Avenue Wine Shop.

Greece

2009-08-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pix from my time in Greece. Amazing!

Buckley in the country

2009-06-25T07:21:00.001-07:00

Here are Buckley's pix from his time in the country.

time in the country

2009-06-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

To start summer break off I spent a week up at my parents. Here are some fun pix from their house....donkeys, my nephews and niece, their huge garden, and Buckley roaming the countryside.

It's all Greek to me!

2009-06-17T05:39:00.001-07:00

I am going to Greece in a couple of weeks with two of my friends from school. I am so excited. Now if my passport would just get here...

In other news...goals for the summer.

1. Spend time with family and friends.
2. Build all of the panels that I need to finish my thesis
3. Finish decorating/setting up my dining room
4. Put moisturizer on my face every day

those strands

2009-05-31T17:10:00.000-07:00

So Jon left yesterday morning for two weeks. He will be in Denver working and Buckley and I will be at home missing him. But...he is getting in two days of quality family time before he starts his work. Today he sent me a picture of what that looks like....family pedicure time!

Beautiful Moment

2009-05-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

This was a beautiful moment for me. I love peonies. They are my favorite flower. These peonies are from my own yard which makes them even more special to me. And, I love the combination of my peonies and my new favorite plate from Anthropology. So it's not much of a post but...treasure the small things right.

Here is the link to my mother in law's blog if you want to follow. Jon recently posted a letter to his mom. http://www.upapaddle.blogspot.com

First Friday

2009-04-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jill for letting me hang up some of my paintings in her wine shop for First Friday. It was such a fun time and I had some really great supportive friends show up to see my paintings. Here are some pix from the big event.

Forever Change

2009-03-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

I am probably not going to share a whole lot about this on my blog because I would rather talk about it in person. A week and half ago life was forever changed. We found out that my precious mother in law Laurie has cancer throughout her liver. We are in a word, devastated. There are too many emotions and phases of emotions to list here...we did decide to take a quick family photo before Laurie starts her treatment. Our wonderful friend Nicole made herself available on short notice and you can see some of the pix here on her blog. We had a lot of fun as family taking these pictures.
http://nicolegreenphoto.blogspot.com/

Painting1

2009-03-06T06:29:00.001-08:00

This shows the progression of my painting over the last week. This is pretty ugly stage where I just start throwing whatever color of paint is on my palette at it. All of these ugly stages help make it great later on by adding history and texture to the painting.

Happy Birthday Buckley

2009-03-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

This is a little late but on February 19th Buckley turned 1! We helped him celebrate his birthday by taking him to the vet where he learned he had abnormally dry skin and that we don't feed him enough. Something he has suspected all along. Here is a very serious picture of all grown up Buckley.

Colorado

2009-02-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

Me

Tony and Jon

Brother Jon and Sister Heather

Me and the Beaver

Happy Face

Me and Jon

Me and Jessie

Good friends...great times.

long time coming

2009-02-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

Well...I haven't had the time to get on here in awhile but here is what I have been up to. Painting/thesis, michigan ski trip, upcoming CO ski trip. Here are pix from Michigan and then pix of my latest project. I have been working an a huge project....building the panels for my next painting. It is 12 and half feet long and made up of about 13 pieces. First I had to cut the panels out which just transferring from a sketch to masonite was a huge feat. After I had them all cut I had to back them all with 1 x 4's. Each 1 x 4 had to be biscuited together at the joint on the back. To do this you use a tool called a biscuit jointer which has a little scoop blade that cuts a little half circle in each piece of wood. Then you slip a little football shaped piece of wood in between the two ...blah, blah, blah. I just got tired of typing. Last step...Use a router (sp?) to re cut out all of your panels. I am including a picture of all the panels separate, how they all fit together, and all of my hard work on the back of a panel.

So far I have put in about 45 hours and $250 into this project. So if you wanted to buy it for me now as is I would have to charge about $2350. The price is going up by the minute;)

Birthday Weekend

2009-01-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

I had the best birthday! We went to Chicago for the (4 day) weekend! We had amazing food...we are really wishing Indy would take more pride in their culinary skills. Also, Jon got me fun presents.
1) Key to better blogging- a digital camera
2) A shopping trip for dress clothes (Apparently "You don't have the essentials"-Jon)
3) Couples salsa dancing lessons

Here are some fun pix from the weekend.

Happy Birthday

2009-01-15T18:35:00.000-08:00

Brownsburg Community Schools canceled school for my birthday. 29 is going to be a good year!

Mug shot

2009-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Megan ended up photo shopping the Christmas pic of the boys to go on a mug for my dad. This is the finished product. It's a running Shetler family theme to give my dad a mug every year with a picture of his grandson. Since these are the only kids Megan and I have they are goin on the mug.

Sunday morning.

2009-01-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

Jon left Buckley and I early this morning to go skiing in CO for the week. Boo. Buckley and I decided to keep up with the Sunday morning routine to make ourselves feel not too lonely. We got up and walked into town for starbucks. One small oversite- when I got there I realized I was missing the necessary second person to stay outside with the dog while the other person goes in to order. So I did the only thing left to do and let some complete strangers watch my dog while I got the goods. I am the worst mom ever.

Now I am sitting at the kitchen table eating an egg and toast and Buckley has positioned himself two rooms away but so that he can still sit and stare at me from afar. What a stalker. But on a day like today it feels good to be stalked by someone even if it is my dog.

tough christmas

2009-01-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas has been tough on the strands. We have contracted some brand of black lung and recovery is slow and long and some days non existent. I am starting to stress about going back to school on Monday and having to function. Right now my only goals are to sleep, eat, and watch tv. On a positive note here are somethings I am looking forward to in '09.

-Getting better
-the return of LOST!
-turning 29
-possibility of some home improvement projects
-finishing my masters
-Buckley turns 1!

Cousins!

2008-12-16T10:51:00.001-08:00

These are pix from a cousin photo shoot. Rudy is the tinier one and Buckley is the bigger one that looks part golden retriever. They have matching Christmas sweaters so those pix are on the way.
Last night I accidently left Buckley out for about 3 hours all alone. It stressed him out so bad that when I finally go home he threw up everywhere. so sad.

fragment recap of the last week

2008-12-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

-10 year high school reunion
-stomach flu
-recovery
-christmas tree
-thesis proposal accepted
-10 loads of laundry
-stringing pop corn
-flannel christmas sheets
-tired, annoyed with all people that are under the age of 20.
-happy friday

New Painting

2008-11-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is the painting I am currently working on. It has 3 parts but they are kind of hard to see in this photo. I have to present my thesis a week from today and I am very nervous. Yikes!

Flora

2008-11-12T05:33:00.001-08:00

My painting is finally finished. This is bad lighting but you get the picture. My prof. asked me to enter it in this show which opens on Friday called "Seeing the Land." I am excited because it is a juried show and this looks good on resumes. I named the painting Flora because it is about plants but also sounds like a pretty girl's name.

old blog

2008-11-02T17:17:00.001-08:00

I have been reading through my old blog on my old xanga. Turns out I used to be really funny in another life called 3 years ago when I was 25. I think I am just going to repost stuff from there on to here in hope of getting my funny back.

In that spirit here is an old poem of mine....

parties and pants and puppies

haystacks and hair of make

slides that go swoop!

eyes have blue

names that belong on tattoos

Christmas

2008-10-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

For some reason Christmas has really been on my mind this year. I just keep thinking about it. We just painted our dining room red and that reminds me of it. The weather is a little cooler and that reminds me of it. and it just keeps coming up again and again. I guess I just really enjoyed Jon and me having our first Christmas in our new house and I am looking forward to the next one.

2008-10-06T12:35:00.001-07:00

This is the lates pic of my painting. I am a little lost right now with it. On my way to class in a bit to try and figure it out. I spent most of my weekend in the backyard making 3 more of these shaped panels to paint on. Pictures of those coming soon!

exhausted by relief

2008-09-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

So tired today for several reasons. Work, house, school, husband, life, etc. Just when I am at the end of my energy along comes a really big weekend. I drove up to my parents' on Friday just in time to get into the car rider line at my old elementary school to pick up my nephews. Then off to the Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.
This is a yearly tradition for us and this year I really did it up right. On Friday night I helped serve Haystacks. Here is a brief explanation of Haystacks minus the peanuts. I was in charge of serving the onions and tomatoes and may be solely responsible for the shortage in tomatoes for the last half of the dinner because I apparently lack rationing skills. Saturday morning it was up at 6:30 to Run for Relief. Megan and I did the 5k. Megan left me after the first 1/2 mile but I still thought I was awesome because I ran the whole thing, kicked at the end, and finished in 33 minutes which is fast for me because I am slow. High/low lights of running for relief are when you lose the course and are just running randomly around a fair grounds. After that was the big pancake breakfast. Yum. Then a little bit of relief sale shopping during which I purchased some non-sugar free apple butter.

I also tail gated the Notre Dame game but that is another story for another day. Now I am back in Indy and exhausted. Oh and Buckley went with me to all of those things so he is exhuasted too.

collage gone awry

2008-09-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

To set up the next two situations here is a little background. I asked 1st graders to draw a self portrait of themselves. Then I gave them magazines and asked them to cut out pictures to collage in the background. To give the collage a little more focus I put out two guidelines. 1) It has to be something you like- self portrait should be about you 2) Make it a category i.e. I like puppies so I cut out all pictures of puppies.

Story #1- I see a group of boys huddles around a magazine sniffing one of those enclosed scent flaps. Everyone is agreeing that it smells "so good." Upon closer investigation I realize they are all smelling the new tampax scent. Awesome.

Story #2- Someone chose for their category- soldiers. But not just your friendly neighborhood army reserves. These were soldiers with huge automatic weapons, black face masks, and a will to do evil. Horrified.

Examples of other categories chosen by random 1st graders. round things, raw meat, flowers, playground equipment, ipods, sofas

2008-09-15T18:28:00.002-07:00

angry painting

2008-09-15T18:28:00.001-07:00

The bottom picture is of my painting when I went in to class tonight and the top pic is how it looked when I left. I was absolutely so mad and just in a bad mood. Ordinarily I tend to be a pretty productive person. I am really good at multitasking and getting about 3 days work done a day. But...when I am provoked to anger my productivity takes on superhuman qualities. I just painted away furiously for the entire three hours. I know from the photographs it may not look like huge leaps were made but it's there. I like taking pictures of my paintings each time I paint on them and then later I look through them all at once and watch how the painting takes shape. It also helps me somehow see the painting better when I look at the picture of it instead of standing right in front of it. Anyway, bottom line....if you really want to get me workin just make me mad enough.

2008-09-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Buckley all grouchy because he is going to lose his man parts tomorrow. Just kidding. He doesn't know. He is just generally grouchy. Anyway this is going to be the official pre losing man parts picture and tomorrow I will post a post losing man parts pic to so we can all see the significant change.

2008-09-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is Buckley thinking he is an ultra cool dog on his way to the dog park. And me doing some risky driving/picture taking/holding dog on my lap in Jon's car.

2008-09-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Every time I try to get Buckley to go to the bathroom he stands at the top of the stairs like this and questions my judgment. He looks down at me, cocks his head to the side, and says, "I just don't know about this. Doesn't seem like a good idea." I try to make it sound like it's gonna be a total blast but Buckley is unconvinced. Oh Buckley say goodbye to your man parts.

Doggy Day Care

2008-09-08T19:48:00.001-07:00

Jon left for Minneapolis this morning and will be gone for a couple of days so it's just me and Buckles holdin down fort Lockerbie. The big problem is what to do with Buckley while I am at work.

So this is Buckley after spending all day at doggy day care. What you can't see is the blood shot eyes. Turns out he just played all day and forgot to take a doggy nap. they said he was too much for the little dogs so they put him in with the big dogs. I guess he had a real party of a time.

I can't wait till this blog turns out to be mostly about my dog.

Oh and I am totally taking a half day from work tomorrow to be home with Buckley.

commitment

2008-09-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

So I decided to start a real blog and really be commited this time. Hopefully this will be a good way of filling in family and friends on the day to day happenings in this family. I will try to add pictures because I know that makes it more intersting but the real hang up is that Jon and I both have either temporarily or permanently misplace our cameras. We are holding out on the permanent verdict as of yet. My personal suspicion is that Jon was cleaning and put them in his special hiding place for things that he wants to go missing and then hit his erase my memory button and there you have it....no more cameras. But here are some random pix just for the time being.

Me and my niece Kimmy 80's style

Me and my sista with a couple of brotha's

My Buckley Boo

Meggie and cousins=Rudy and Buckley

Emilie and Lil Joe-famous for only one of them ever looking good in a pic. this time it's Emilie's turn