In Support of High School Extracurriculars

Oh the wonder that is high school football! This weekend I finally made it out to see my sister and brother-in-law, Adam & Kristin, at their new digs in Ottawa. Adam is a coach for the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans (I think they are 4-1 right now!! Which is more than the Browns can say. Ick.), so the Schafer family (sans Mom, who is touring St. Louis with her galpals) caught their game! And the Titans won! And it was homecoming! Every girl in their homecoming court wore a crown....I never got tired of Halle and Emi pointing and squealing out, "THERE'S A QUEEN!!" 

(Taken from my iPhone--sorry its a little blurry!)

I had forgotten how much fun school-supported events can be...

What I love about high school sports in Northwest Ohio:

1. Kids demonstrating their skills in sports or musical instruments or dancing or flips just because it makes them happy...after a long, hot summer of practices.

2. 50 - 50 drawings...and then the winner usually donates some or all of their winnings back to the school.

3. High school bands playing the theme from Zelda and Super Mario Brothers.

4. Adults providing grass-roots support to their kids and communities with pats on the back, handshakes and hotdogs.

5.  Character development: Sometimes you drop the baton, sometimes you throw an interception, sometimes you lose the big game...but you keep on keepin' on...

Most of the kids (and adults, ahem: the coaches, referees, and music directors) out there that night were not doing their thing in hopes of getting a full-ride scholarship, or being discovered by a scout in the stands, or for any monetary reward. Just because. 

I hate to see these school programs dissolve when tax levies fail. Vote YES when your school's tax levy comes up.  Support intangible things like teamwork, perseverance, and community values and all the tangible things that happen in the classroom, too.  A failed levy causes families to consider other school districts first, or worse, causes a mass exodus of established families out of the district so their children can have the benefits of all the things I wrote about before. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now and watch the Browns lose AGAIN. 

Honeymoon!

Sometimes when I blog about really great things, the song "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds plays in the backround...

When planning our wedding, we weren't really sure if we could go on a honeymoon...I had already taken a lot of time off of work that month and still needed more time away to take my Oral Board Exam in pediatric dentistry. Its hard to make your staff take almost a 50% paycut because you aren't there! But, after hemming and hawing about mini-trips to Chicago or Niagara Falls, and then taking a bigger trip at Christmas, we said, "what the heck, we're only doing this once, let's do it right!" Here's Jeremy celebrating our good decision on the 2nd floor of the Moana Surfrider hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was the most amazing hotel ever! (Except for maybe the Greenbrier of my past posts...) It is the oldest hotel on Oahu, completely open-air, and felt like taking a trip back to the 1900's. Lots of rocking chairs and history. So, so cool.

This is our view from our room at the Moana. You could see Waikiki Beach and Diamondhead perfectly...we didn't want to leave our balcony!

Later in our week, we flew to Maui...we biked down Haleakala, an active volcano great after watching the sunrise from the summit! Great suggestion, Tracy!

 After a freezing cold experience on Haleakala, we spent lots of time at the beach, visited the towns of Lahaina and Paia, and ate at Mama's Fish House. Wonderful food again! They had cool parrots and this cool MC Escher sidewalk...I hope you can see it...

This is an example of the quality of food at Mama's Fish House: The Black Pearl dessert. Yummy chocolate mousse with a ganache coating inside a cookie oyster shell. Amazing. I'll never eat anything so perfect ever again. 

More great eating. (Our sight-seeing pictures are on my yet-to-be-developed disposable cameras...) My bestie, Meredith, who used to live on Maui, recommended the Lahaina Grill for dinner. They were very nice and took a picture of us to celebrate the occasion!  As you can see, Jeremy didn't totally follow my advice on suncreen...

In between all this eating (and I didn't even tell you about the conveyor-belt sushi!!), we toured Pearl Harbor, swam and swam and swam, slept for 12 hours straight every night and drank lots of kona coffee. We were happy as clams...or oysters...whatever, it was spectacular. Hopefully one day we can go back to celebrate our 25th anniversary!

I got married.

And it was everything I hoped it could be.

My husband is:

1. Patient

2. Organized

3. Handsome

4. Funny

5. Smart

6. Kind

7. Handsome

8. Conservative

9. Motivated

10. Thoughtful

I really didn't know if men like Jeremy were still available, you know? Every night I go to bed thinking that I really got lucky when I found him. Lots of those qualities that are listed above are not things that I consider my strong suits. Its cliche, but as a wife to Jeremy,  I am far better than as myself on my own. I won't speak for Jeremy, but I hope he feels the same way. 

And, I know its only been three weeks, but he hasn't disappointed me yet. :) And no, we are not yet expecting. ;)