8 months...

...is a long time without a post.  This is really pathetic.  But here's the deal, I was locked out of my own blog.  It was tied to an email address I no longer use and had frankly been too lazy to change and/or back up like blogger recommends.  Add that to the time dilemma that occurs in my life - and that'd be how and why 8 months has passed since my last post. 

So, after much research, I figured out how to get back into my blog and exported it to a new blogger log-in.  While I was going through all the trouble, I figured a name-change and face lift couldn't hurt, and wah-la!  Here we are, back in business.

In an effort to get caught up, here is a very incomplete list of what our family has been up to the last 8 months:

• I got a new job - still teaching 5th grade, but in a new school district and a brand new school (I'll share the adventures of that soon!)
• Kaitlyn entered 5th grade and is at a Middle School
• Kevin has put many hours into getting his studio in order and has only some finishing touches left.
• Riley (our 6-year-old boxer) continues to be dumb.
• We took a 10 day trip to Yellowstone with my parents, sister, and her family - perhaps that will be the topic of another post?
• We celebrated the following holidays: Mothers Day, our 1st wedding anniversary, Fathers Day, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Years (essentially ALL of the US Holidays are listed here since it's been so long - oopsie daisy!)
• I continue to work on organizing our home and purging the unnecessary items we seem to attract around here - I plan to do a little weekly project and post some updates in the new year
• Kevin bought me his business a new Nikon camera that I like to fiddle around with - when he lets me, of course.  ((sigh))
• Platinum (the high school dance team I coach with my sister) won the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Competition for the 3rd straight year in jazz and for the first time ever in pom - SO amazing!
• Platinum also was awarded the American School Spirit Award by Universal Dance Association - to see the announcement, go here!  We will be featured on ESPN in February from Orlando, FL at Nationals!
• We have spent the past 6 months seeing a fertility specialist - without success.  (I plan to blog more about this soon - I know I have benefited SO much from hearing other women's stories, and pray my story will help someone too)
• I did not accomplish even 1/2 of my 2011 goals - perhaps I'll just recycle those to 2012?

I think that's about it - plenty of excitement has been had and there is still plenty to come!  I hope the 3 people who read this blog are happy about my return!

I will post more tomorrow - after all, it is one of my resolutions from 2011 :)