Friends.

The past two weekends have been filled with some of our favorite people. Last weekend, Sam's college roommate and great friend, Nathan, came for a visit all the way from Boston. It was so good to catch up with Nathan. Sam and Nathan especially enjoyed a mandate evening that included; music purchasing at Euclid Records, a cold brew at Schaffly Bottleworks, and a late night run to Jack N' the Box for some $.99 tacos (yuck). Nathan took the bus back to Wheaton last Sunday and is already back in Boston, studying/working hard at Boston University.

Sam & Nathan reunited.

This past Friday, Anna and Scott came to visit! Oh how we've missed them. It was a fun and exhausting weekend. One in which, Sam and I actually stayed up way past our 9pm bedtime. Friday night we stayed up catching up until midnight and then slept in Saturday (Sam had to go to work at 6am). Saturday when Sam got off work, and the rest of us woke up, we headed to the St. Louis Zoo. It was gorgeous outside. We walked around the zoo for about 3 hours before we were totally wiped. Its a beautiful zoo, and its free! We ended the evening with dinner at Dewey's, frozen custard at the famous Ted Drewes, and playing some board games. Overall, it was such a great weekend to visit with such great friends.

Today, we are napping, relaxing, and getting ready for a busy week -- as we enjoy this beautiful day our Lord has made. Sam has officially started spring break this week and I have concluded mine, back to work tomorrow! My spring break was filled with a few days of working at the daycare, lots of house cleaning/organizing/laundry and a coffee date with my good friend, Christy. It flew by. Sam has already jam packed his break with paper writing and reading -- hopefully he'll find a little time to relax!

So blessed by this lovely lady, Christy.

We hope you all have a great week.


Love,
Katelyn & Sam

We like food.

This weekend we LOVED having the Haist's of Wheaton here for a visit. Ben flew in on Saturday from New Orleans, Jim and Gaye drove down from Wheaton and we all had a grand old time.

As usual, our weekend revolved heavily around food. We like (great) food. We ate at Square One on Saturday night and enjoyed some delicious fish n' chips. Ben especially liked their fried Eggplant (right, Ben?). We came back from dinner and fell into deep food comas. A full stomach, combined with the springing ahead of the clocks made for an early bedtime on Saturday night.

Sunday, we woke up and enjoyed some scrabbled eggs in a muffin pan for breakfast. As I told Jim and Gaye, even if they didn't taste good (it was a new recipe), they were awfully cute and that is all that matters. Fortunately, they ended up tasting pretty yummy. We enjoyed a wonderful service at South City and then headed to the Schlafly Tap Room for lunch. Yet again, another delicious meal.

We came back to the apartment for a homemade cherry cheese pie, coffee and some of Gaye's delicious shortbread, dark chocolate, caramel cookies! It gave us a little more time to visit while enjoying some more great food.

Overall, it was a very short but refreshing few days of being with family. Not to mention, great food. We love you guys and miss you already. Come back to visit soon.

Love,
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

Picture taken at Square One. Obviously, having a blast.

Family picture.

What is a blog post without a new picture of Ethel?

Our sweet dog.

Biggest blog slackers ever, I’m sorry to all our loyal blog family and friends. It has been a crazy few months and honestly, we haven’t had very much excitement to blog about. Our daily routines have gotten the best of us but I vow to be a better blog for the month of March.

All to say, here comes an exciting blog post. A year ago this week, we adopted our sweet little Ethel. We spent some time today going through all of her pictures from a year ago and feeling so overjoyed that she turned out the way she did.

Her add at the rescue read, “1 ½ year old Cocker Spaniel and Poodle mix. Overly timid and shy. Used as a dog breeder since she was 6 months old. Give Kammie a good home today!” I remember us asking that day at the rescue, will this dog ever like us? She hid under a chair and wouldn’t come out and was shaking uncontrollably. When the lady left the room and let us have some time to “talk it over”, my eyes filled with tears and I told Sam there was no way in a million years I could leave that dog at the rescue. He agreed and we brought home “Kammie” later that afternoon.

Wow, have we ever come a long way. Take a look at the pictures below.

Ethel had never been outside when we got her (disgusting to think they didn't go the bathroom outside). Our first walks with her were not enjoyable ones. Now, we let her run free the backyard sometimes. She loves the great outdoors (see a video of her first snow below)

Ethel's hair a year ago.

Groomed. So fresh n' so clean.

A year ago, bribing Ethel with treats to come to me.

Sleepy snuggle time.

A year ago, Ethel snuggling with Sam.

This past week, Ethel giving Sam a "hug".

 What a great dog we have. We are thankful you entered our lives a year ago and that we took the risk to bring you home. You have been nothing but awesome.

Love,
Katelyn & Sam