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Happy New Year!

We hope everyone enjoyed a safe happy new year celebration!! I can't believe it is TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN! It is already starting out to be a fast paced full new year *grins* Here are a few things that we've been up to recently....

-Kenny spent a dust filled weekend ripping out these parquet wood floors in our living room while I was having a fun trip with my sisters to Missouri to visit Julie. We are going to put these hardwood floors throughout the house, so he was prepping everything for the new floors. What a hardworking sweetie he is!

-We busted out sheet rock and 2'x4's, installed a new header beam and transformed a small doorway between our living rooms into a huge arched opening. It really opens up the flow and makes things feel grand.

-Kenny smashed up and busted out all the tile on our kitchen floor. We're planning to replace it with a natural stone.

can you tell we've been doing a lot of demolition lately *laughs* I'll try to have pictures up of the craziness soon!

-Kenny was nominated for teacher of the year!!!! I am so very proud of him! He works so hard and cares so much about his students and soccer players. He wants them to learn and do well not only in the classroom or on the soccer field, but in LIFE. You can see the sparkle in his eye when he talks about a new idea he's going to implement into his teaching, or shares a story about a discussion that really came through to the students in one of his lessons.

-We've set the usual "be healthier" new years goals....I've been using my elliptical for thirty minutes a day, six days a week. It feels good to be active. It's especially nice to have a place to workout and not have to be outside in the dark or cold or wind! Kenny has even used the elliptical a time or two when the weather is too yucky to run outside.

We're trying to stick to the no tv after 9:00pm, we try to do something productive at that time like house demolition (ha ha) or Kenny has been working on learning more Spanish using the Rosetta Stone computer software. That program is really amazing! Maybe I can even learn some Spanish *winks*

-Along with the "being healthy" plan, I've been eating a lot of soup and salad and more veggies in general. I even hard boiled some eggs to add to my salad a few days ago and it was super yummy!

-We've been reading a new fiction series together called "The Hunger Games". It's a series of three books that Kenny bought me for Christmas. The story is unique and so addictive! It is hard to put down!! We're in the middle of book two and can hardly stop reading to get some sleep at night *laughs*

Well, I hope you enjoyed my random, picture-less, bulletined update of the life of the Schells. I'll be back with some better posts before you know it! Happy New Year!

Christmas Cards

Wow, it's already getting to be that time of year again. I can't believe the time just flys by so quickly!

Ever since we got engaged Kenny and I have enjoyed choosing a Christmas card each year and writing a special message on each one to our friends and family.

Shutterfly is offering a great promotion this year which allows bloggers to get 50 free Christmas cards! That's a deal I just can't pass up *grins*

They offer all sorts of amazing designs, photobooks, calendars, invitations, all so fun and creative! You can't help but feel inspired when you visit their website.

They have some beautiful Christmas Card designs this year:
This one is neat because you can write a fun little letter right on the side of the card!

I like this one because it has room for several pictures, with writing about each!

So fun! Go here to check them all out!

Morning sky

Check out this beautiful sky that was smiling down at me while I drove to work this morning!

I was literally driving down 23rd street with my camera on my dashboard, shooting random pictures of the sky out my windshield *laughs* It was so rich and full and astonishing. I just couldn't resist capturing it on film!

It's funny how often I find myself looking at the sky. For example, when we're driving up to Kansas for a visit, I often notice there isn't a single cloud in the big blue sky and I start singing the Kansas State song "Oh give me a home...where the buffalo roam...." "and the skies are not cloudy all day". Isn't that crazy!?

Kenny just looks over a smiles his heart melting smile...

I notice the purply orange hues that come just as the sun is starting to set...

And the dark omnious clouds billowing in when a storm is coming...

Or even at night, I cannot walk out side with out looking up and gazing in wonder at the stars twinkling back at me.

And, each and every time I look at the sky, mouth open in awe I think about the fact that God painted that sky and put that wonder in my heart to think of Him every time I see it. Oh how He loves you and me!

I can't help but notice how that telephone pole makes a perfect cross in the bottom of this picture too *grins*

First game of the season!

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog posts *laughs*

I'm so sorry I was gone for so long...a lot of unexpected things came up all at once and blogging kind of got put on the back burner. Then when life got back under control I felt overwhelmed that I couldn't ever "catch up" on my blog. So, I just stopped blogging, and that isn't fun. I was missing journaling about our lives and having these sweet memories to look back on.

So, I'm just going to start fresh from today and if I have a chance to do some "flash back" posts to fill in the blanks I will *winks*

Anyway, Kenny's soccer team played their first game of the season on Monday and we were SO excited to see how it would go. Kenny purchased some new soccer coaching DVD's that he's been watching and doing drills all summer in the backyard getting ready for the new season.
Let me just say, his team is looking better and more coordinated than ever. (and they have always looked good to me!). I think the new drills and practice techniques are really working!

One thing that I loved seeing at the game was some of Kenny's former players (who are now in High School) who showed up just to see "Coach Schell" and watch the team. See them there below standing right behind Kenny...I don't think Kenny even realises just how much of an impact he has on the lives of his students and team. I'm so thankful for his generous spirit, patience and willingness to spend so much time with them!

I like to call this next picture "Hallelujah" because it looks like Kenny is throwing his hands in the air in praise *winks* We just won three to nothing!

Do you see how he's got a dress shirt and tie on in these pictures? He asked his whole team to dress up for the school day when they have a game that evening. His theme this year is to make every game special. To teach them that they are not only representing their teammates, but the school and all the past players and he wants them to look nice. I thought that was a really great idea!

It felt great to be outside in the sun, on the grass watching my hubby coach a game that I've grown to love. Here's to hoping the season continues with even more smiles!

Yosemite, The Valley

This morning our attempts to enter straight into Yosemite were thwarted a little bit...There was some light snow on the ground and the park rangers had closed one of the main roads into the park unless you happened to have snow tire chains!

Being in a rental car we certainly didn't have any of those with us *laughs* so we made due touring about Wawona until the finally let us measly non tire chained cars through.

They had a neat little "old timey" town that had some historical information and at times I believe they perform like a renaissance fair (except it's just 1800's and not Renaissance times) *grins* It's a Pioneer fair *laughs*Can you see that steam rising off this building (above) it was a cold morning and the sun must have been warming up that wet roof to make all that steam! There was an amazing covered bridge that passed right over a rumbling river.
Dad and Kenny had a good time hiking down the river to see where it headed.The rangers finally gave the all clear and we were able to drive on into the valley. Yay! Kenny really captured some beautiful shots of the park!He sure makes it hard to narrow down my favorite pictures, I love them all!!We saw some amazing views of half dome, like this...
Can you see why they call it "half dome"? It looks like it used to be a complete dome and then half of it just broke straight off! *laughs*I'm glad I wasn't around when all that rock came tumbling down!This rock formation below is called El Capitan. Doesn't it look strong and menacing!It's a favorite of extreme rock climbers...but we didn't do any of that *grins*Kenny hiked across the center of the meadow to capture some 'up close' pictures of the sweet deer who were grazing nearby. Meanwhile Dad, Mom and I drove around the meadow and picked him up on the other side.Look at this neat-o wooden walkway he got to follow through the meadow!These sweeties weren't scared at all. I guess they're used to photographers here in the park.You'll never believe what Dad, Mom and I happened upon while we were circling the meadow to pick Kenny up...A big Momma and two precious baby black bear cubs!
They were such little cuties! We were wondering if Kenny would meet up with them on his hike!?! But a park ranger saw that people were gathering around, so he ran out and gruffly shouted and scared them back out of the meadow.Kenny was pretty disappointed that he missed out seeing the bears, but he got some awesome shots that we wouldn't have seen otherwise...He even stopped and silently crept up to photograph this beautiful Stellars Jay.I had been begging him to get a picture of one. They are so bright! Kind of like a blue Jay but bigger and more light electric blue.

We all walked back over by "emerald beach" and crossed our favorite bridge *grins*No ducklings today, the must have gone on down river... Can you see the waterfall reflecting in the water above? So pretty! Speaking of reflections, this one is pretty amazing too!We hiked up a small trail to take some fun couples pictures right under the waterfall!And then ended our evening driving up to the valley overlook just as the sun was starting to set.

We just had such an amazing day! It's hard to put it all into words...but hopefully from the pictures you can feel like you were there too!

Yosemite, Cathedral Beach

Kenny and I made it back to the car through the dip n' dots storm *grins* and then Dad, Mom, Kenny and I did a little driving tour over to see some more water falls. Here is a sweet picture of my Mom and Dad!I think they enjoyed a nice vacation with us *smiles* It's been a while since they've "gotten away". Aren't they cute!
You would not believe how many waterfalls there are all around Yosemite. We chose May as the perfect time to go because my sweet researcher husband discovered that May was peak melting season for all the snow up top, thereby making it peak waterfall season too! The temperatures were great, crisp upper fifties and low sixties, a nice introduction to spring *grins*Next we drove on over to an amazing little place called Cathedral Beach. I keep wanting to call it Emerald Beach because I remember it being so very green...Wow! Isn't that amazing, let's rename it Emerald Beach okay? *winks* I wasn't expecting any beaches on this vacation, but they call it a "beach" because there is actually soft white sand at the edge of the water, just like Florida! Here's me and Mom being goofy on the beach. Do you like our cute rain hats!? *grins*

We drove on through the valley, along the Merced River to a fun wooden foot bridge.It was a great place to stop and take some pictures.We even spotted come cutsey baby ducklings and watched them toddling along behind their mother...then one by one they followed her into the rushing water and whisk! they'd zoom away down stream.One of our last stops for the day was a little bit steeper hike down to see the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. We had had a full day of hiking so Mom decided to sit this one out. Dad, Kenny and I headed down, down, down the four hundred feet descent into the grove. Look at these crazy red pinecone plants we kept seeing along the way!?! I tried to convince Dad and Kenny that these are baby giant sequioa trees *laughs* but I'm not sure they believed me. (I'm not sure I believe me)

I also saw an unbelievable root jutting out from the cliffside...Doesn't this look just like the letter "S"!? I've been trying to spot letters in nature and architecture to spell out our last name, like have you seen these...I'll probably zoom in and crop a little and that fun Yosemite root can be our "s" *grins* and at the bottom of our hike we found our "h" yay! This is the Tuolumne Grove Tunnel tree! It's so amazing that cars used to travel right through here *grins*Dad, Kenny and I walked right through. Look at the "walls", that is a tree!! wow! This was a fun hike, we were basically the only people around the entire time. But, climbing out of the grove, up the four hundred foot incline was more challenging *laughs* We got to experience some more dip n' dots icy rain *laughs* and then reunited with Mom at the car.

As we were driving out of Yosemite to head back to our hotel in Oakhurst we spied this rocky waterfall and pulled over to check out one last thing.such fun! I felt like an explorer!We made the long w-i-n-d-y drive back to town and decided to stop at the local Pizzaria for dinner.
It was so fun! They had a horn quartet playing and singing Louisanna style music out on the patio. My feet were tapping up a storm!And it sure felt good to get some warm yummy food in our tummies before we went to bed for a restful nights sleep.