Ben's graduation!

On May 17th we boarded the plane and headed to New Orleans... it was a wonderful trip and we had an absolute blast celebrating Ben and spending time with family! 

The night we arrived in New Orleans, we took a tour of the city. It was neat to see the city at night and all lit up. I must admit, I was pretty exhausted and fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel :) The next morning we were bright eyed and ready to go. 

We took a tour of Tulane's campus (it is gorgeous), and got to sit in on Ben's accapella group as they sang a few songs (including Ben's solo song!) and they sang The National Antheum. They are a very talented group and it was fun to see them live singing instead of on YouTube! Friday, we also got to see the Art Exhibition. Ben did a beautiful job making the advertisements for the exhibition, and his piece in the exhibition was extremely creative. Ben was and is a very valued member of the Art Department at Tulane and is very well respected by his professors. It was fun to meet a few of them, and some of Ben's friends. 

We stopped Friday for lunch at The Rum House, which was to die for. The tacos were out of this world! Let me tell you something about New Orleans -- if I can take away anything from my short time there, they know what they are doing with food. It was some of the "best eating" I've ever experienced. That afternoon we enjoyed a walk around Audubon Park and the Wave Goodbye Party on campus that evening. After the party, we took the Street Car (so fun) downtown and I experienced for the first time ... Cafe Du Monte. One word- amazing. Beignets are out of this world. Coated in powdered sugar, a billion deep friend calories a piece, and worth every single melt in your mouth bite. 

Saturday morning we woke up early and got ready to roll for the BIG DAY OF GRADUATION at the Super Dome! Tulane's graduation was no joke -- complete with bag pipers, jazz bands, Trombone Shorty, Ruby Bridges (the first ever African American to walk into an integrated public school during the Civil Rights Movement) being awarded an Honorary Degree, fireworks, confetti, and oh the list could go on. Talk about a celebration! And of course, the best part of the graduation-- Ben earning his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Digital Media. We couldn't be more proud of him. Ben is extremely gifted, and we know that whatever he puts his heart into he will succeed. First stop, UCLA in the fall. Next stop, we're anticipating seeing his name in the credits for Pixar in the near future ... Congratulations Ben, we can't say it enough, we are SO proud.

The night of graduation we had an exceptional meal at Commanders Palace. Words can't even explain the delectable food, wonderful conversation and the overall experience that was...Commanders Palace. That night, we headed to bed early in anticipation of a very long drive home on Sunday. We arrived home Sunday night after a wonderful trip to New Orleans. We couldn't have done the trip without Gaye and Jim's generosity. We were so happy to have been there to see Ben graduate and get a small taste of where Ben has been the past 4 years.

Congratulations again, Ben. We are glad we got to be at your big graduation day. UCLA is going to be blessed to have you join their campus... and oh the places you will go... 

Love,

Sam & Katelyn 

Waiting to hear Ben's acapella group, THEM sing. 

Riding on the Street Car! 

Po'boy sandwiches for lunch-- YUM!

Just a small glimmer of the fireworks...

A very proud momma with her two bow-tied sons!

What a great trip!!!

Life lately...

 HELLO from Sam, Katelyn and Ethel! 

Sorry we have been missing in action from our blog, life lately has been crazy. 

May started off with 3 birthdays, Sam on May 8th, Ethel on May 10th and Katelyn on May 11th. Birthday week was definitely a success! Above, you can see that between my sweet husband and myself the kitchen was festively decorated for the week.

 Happy Birthday Sam!!!! Enjoying breakfast before heading off to work/school. Sam requested birthday brats for his b-day dinner and I put in my request for waffles. Overall, we had wonderful birthdays and felt very celebrated and loved by our family and friends. A few weeks later, Sam completed his 2nd year of seminary on May 16th-- I am SO incredibly proud of him and I finished up the school year at Hancock on the 23rd.

 Happy 3rd Birthday sweet dog! We celebrated Ethel's birthday by giving her some new Dingo Chicken Chews. She was pretty pleased with how we celebrated her 3rd birthday. She even got some leftover steak that night. She's pretty spoiled -- just look at that sweet face!

Other exciting news in the month of May- we got a new couch!!! Our good friends, Anna and Scott bought new couches for their house and asked us if we would want their current couch... OF COURSE we did! Here is a picture of Sam and Ethel relaxing on the couch. Special thank you to Jim and Gaye who brought the couch down to us AND spent 3 hours helping us put it together. It was much more complicated then you think. 

May has been a crazy, busy and fun month for us. Not only did we celebrate birthday week, complete our 2nd year of seminary and finish up the school year at Hancock-- we also attended one very important and exciting graduation for Ben Haist!  We thought his graduation deserved its own blog post, so see the next blog for our adventures in New Orleans! 

We have spent our Memorial Day weekend relaxing, taking naps, hosting our Community Group BBQ, and tomorrow we are planning a picnic in the park with our good friends, Amber and Sean. Tuesday I (Katelyn) start back up at the daycare...just for the summer! We hope all of you are enjoying your long weekend, and remembering our soldiers both past, present and future this weekend.

Love to all of you. 

Katelyn & Sam

Praise the Lord!!!!

I am ecstatic to announce that I signed my first teaching contract this morning! I will be teaching K/1 at South City Community School! I couldn't be more excited! Even though I can't start setting up my room (I love the sound of that) until August 10th, I've been going through all of the teaching stuff I have accumulated in the basement tonight and it is so much fun!

A little more about the school. This was taken from the school's website. The SCCS's teaching philosophy relies heavily on the 19th century educator, Charlotte Mason. Here are few of the things both Mason, and South City Community School value:

Children participate actively in their own learning – wondering, observing, exploring, experimenting, mastering, creating – and become communicators of that knowledge.

Narration, or telling back, is used in all subjects as a tool for learning and assessment.

Living Books - books (either classic or modern) that are excellently written, tell a story, and inspire children to love the subject and hunger for more - form the foundation for our curriculum.

Nature study, Artist and Composer studies, foreign language, Art, Poetry, and Music are a regular (at least weekly) part of every student’s experience, building an appreciation for the fine arts and nurturing these gifts at an early age.

Enrichment Trips extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom.  Classes at SCCS take monthly or bi-monthly trips to various locations throughout the St. Louis metro area.

Support for homeschooling families through a Homeschool Community Day program offered one morning a week for Kind - 3rd grade.

Small class sizes –  (below are maximum class sizes)

    8 children in PreK3

    10 children in PreK4

    14 children in Kindergarten

    14 children in 1st grade

    14 children in 2nd grade

    14 children in combined 3rd / 4th grade

Family involvement is seen as a vital and required role for the success of each student and our school community.

You can see more of what goes on at the website:  http://www.sccommunityschool.org/home.html


I don't know a whole lot about Charlotte Mason's Philosophy yet, but I am SO excited to learn more about her and her view of education. One of the things I love about Mason is how much she values and nurtures the whole child.  I will be going out to North Carolina for a conference with one of the Heads of School and three new teachers June 6th-9th to learn more about Mason's philosophy. I will begin training on August 8th and setting up my room, then school starts on August 23rd!

Thank you to all of you who have been such a wonderful support system. Thank you for the prayers the past 2 years and all of the encouragement you have given me in some of the most discouraging times of my career. I am so blessed.

Praise the Lord, for he is GOOD! 

Love,
Katelyn (and Sam)

He is Risen!

Hello family and friends!

Happy Easter (a few days late)! This past weekend we celebrated Easter with the Dean family (including Grandma Dean). They drove down Friday evening and we enjoyed a yummy dinner of Dewey's Pizza (mentioned it several posts, its one of our faves!)We watched We Bought A Zoo (GREAT movie) and headed to bed for an action packed day on Saturday.

We woke up Saturday, and after showering 7 people with one bathroom, found it noon by the time we were all ready to go! We had waffles for breakfast and had a quick lunch before heading off to The City Museum. This place is unbelievable and gets neater every time we go! Jesse was in heaven, and Sam was a great sport :) We climbed the tunnels for hours, enjoyed the circus, and laughed harder then we have in a long time. We left the museum around dinner time, grabbed a quick dinner, and then headed to Ted Drewes for the best frozen custard in St. Louis! When we got back home, we mustered up the energy to dye Easter eggs before heading to bed.

Sunday, we got ready for church in record time and even got to the service early. It was a beautiful service at South City. We are so blessed by such a wonderful church family, and it was fun for our friends to get to meet our family! After the annual balloon launch, we headed home for Easter lunch. We stuffed our faces with good food and dessert, opened our "blessing buckets" and a little something from the Easter bunny, and then said our goodbyes. Weekends with family always go by too fast.

We had a blast with the Dean's and another successful Easter of hosting our families! We are thankful for such wonderful families that have made the trek to spend this glorious holiday with us the past 2 years, celebrating our RISEN KING! 

After the Dean's headed home, we spent some time video chatting with Mom and Dad Haist before taking a much needed Easter nap.

We hope all of you had a blessed Easter.

Love,
Sam & Katelyn

Saturday night, we dyed Easter eggs!

The City Museum. If you look closely, that is us in that tunnel aprox. 40 feet above the ground!

What is better after a long day of climbing then Ted Drewes?

He is Risen! Beautiful service at South City on Easter morning and the annual balloon launch.

Whole family together again! Easter morning picture.

And then...we feasted! Honey Baked Ham, broccoli salad, pretzel salad, sweet potatoes, fruit skewers, tomato mozzarella salad and the list goes on.

But of course, we saved room for dessert. Birds Nest cupcakes (from Katelyn's addiction to Pinterest), Grandma's delicious sugar cookies, jelly beans and cashews.

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