home sweet home

I'm home from Peoria and the happiest woman alive. Even though I was away from my husband for just a few days, I missed him tons. The longer we are married, the more I miss him when we are away from each other. I am so thankful for a sweet husband to come home to.

work work work.

Tomorrow I have to travel to Peoria, IL for work. There is a music conference at the Civic Center, so I have to set up a booth just in case any of the students need to talk to an Admissions Counselor. I'm there from Thursday-Saturday. The worst part is, Scott can't come with me:( He has to stay home and work. Thursday night I will get to see an old roommate, Kate Anderson. I'm so excited! She is awesome. I get to see her everytime I'm in Peoria and we always have a dern good time together. On Friday I will get to hang out with one of my best friends, Leann. I am way pumped to see her!  She is beautiful, loving, hilarious, witty and one of my best friends. We lived together my junior year of college, along with another best friend, Cindi.

she's so beautiful.

sick day.

I took the day off today to hang out with Scott since he had the day off. Well, I got sick. Ugh. You know what I did all day? Nothing. I laid on the couch, slept, watched a few episodes of Lie To Me and slept some more. So lame. Scott was such a good husband today. He took good care of me. When I woke up he made me tea and basically just brought me whatever I needed. Even though it stinks I was sick today, I am so glad Scott was home with me and still wanted to snuggle with me despite my germs:) That's me below.

Stay warm and healthy on this snowy day!

Love,
Janie

over a half a year!

Today is Scott and I's 7 month anniversary. We barely celebrated our 6 month and we really won't celebrate our 7 month, but it's still exciting, right? Now, for our 1 year, we have already made plans to spend a week in CO and do everything Colarado-ee while we are there. I forgot to tell you on our 6 month that it was our 6 month...not that you were sitting at home waiting for me to tell you or anything. Anyways,  here is how classy we were on our 6 month anniversary:

 Yep, we went to McDonald's. And our friend, Grant, was with us.

Scott gave me a hug for our 7 month and I returned one. Now that's a sweet anniversary.  We will probably lay on the couch tonight and relax. Perfect.

I do love thinking back to our wonderful wedding day.

Happy 7 month anniversary husband! I am beyond blessed to be your wife.

kinect sport.

One of our favorite Christmas presents we received was from Trina and Al. It's a Kinect...it's awesome!  It came with a game, but our friend, Grant, just bought a new game for his called Kinect Sport. Last week, Grant and my friend, Audra, came over and we all played Kinect Sport. Talk about a workout...lots of moving around and laughing.  We took a little video because it's so entertaining to actually watch the people during the game rather than the t.v.

birthday shoutout to my momma!!

Today is my moms --th birthday!!! Once again, I hear when you are getting a tad older you don't really want people to know your age.  Anyways, I love my momma. Her and I have always been close. I think one of the main reasons for this is because I am her only girl out of 5 boys. Yep, that means she spoiled me:)  My mom is absolutely gorgeous. I always tell her I hope I look that good after having lots of babies and being her age. Ten reasons why I love my momma:
1. she raised 6 kids and is a wonderful mom
2. she and i love spending time together (shopping, eating, watching lifetime...)
3. she is an amazing cook
4. she always knows how to make me laugh
5. she loves her kids more than we can imagine
6. she is one of the most thoughtful people i know
7. she is extremely giving
8. she will cook us our favorite meal when we come home to visit
9. she's an awesome beautician...and does my hair all the time
10. she has loved me unconditionally and I wouldn't want to have any other mom in the world!

I love you mom!! Happy Birthday!

my oldest brother, Justin, with mom

i need discipline in my life.

When people ask me to pray for them, I tell them I will.  I usually pray for them right after they ask me to, because I know if I don't at that moment, I may forget.  I truly want to be more consistent with praying for others.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to "live this year devoted to growing as a child of God" as I had previously posted here. Part of being devoted to growing as a child of Christ is to have more discipline in my life. The main areas I want to be disciplined in are spending time in God's Word daily, praying more and working out/eating better. I decided I would started working in the morning before work.  One of my reasons for that is I know I will have enough time after working out to come home and spend some time with the Lord as well. After work I become a lazy bum.  So far, it's been better. An area I definitely don't have self-control in is my bad eating habits. Now, I love me some junk food.  Actually, I just love food in general. Last night I thought of a way I could help with my temptation from junk food. Every time I want to overeat or put an excessive amount of junk food into my mouth, I am going to try and overcome the temptation by praying for someone. My goal is to have a better prayer life after I learn to make a habit of this and be in better shape. I have a few large prayer requests lately and I really, really do not want to forget to pray about these situations, so I pray this will help my prayer life. Do you want to join me in this challenge?

Praying,
Janie

tired tuesday snuggie time.

Man, I am dragging this morning!  I began getting up at 6 a.m to get my workout in for the day, but not today! There was a stupid amount of snow on the ground. Lil' Betty would really struggle on the roads, so she couldn't take me to the Annex to burn some calories this morning. Instead, my alarm went off at 7, I laid in bed until 7:25ish, got in the shower while still sleeping, got out of the shower and went back to bed for another good 10 mins. Definitely late to work this morning. Woops. Today is a tired Tuesday, which means we should all be snuggling up on the couch while watching a good movie or a good show on Netflix. This is what Scott and I could've looked like today if we both had a snow day from work:

Snuggie time! Right there it looks like we are having a little face time by staring at one another, but if we were truly home having snuggie time, we would both be facing the t.v. Oh, I would still turn to look at him occasionally becuase he's a little sugar, of course. Anyways, happy Tuesday! I hope you are more awake than I am today.  If you do have a snow day, make sure to have snuggie time with your loved one.

P.S. I thought about submitting this picture to the Snuggie Company. Think they would make it as the new Snuggie packages? It shows when you are wearing a Snuggie, you are even MORE in love, right?

adventures in STL.

This morning before I decided to start working, I checked my email and saw that I had an email from livingsocial.com.  It's a great website, first of all, and second, it's sort of like groupon.com.  I found at the bottom of my email they post, for example, #145 The Best Thai Food in St. Louis.  I clicked on it and then looked at all of the number of posts they made.  I mean, I am from St. Louis, but I still don't know a lot of cool things to do.  I probably know the same popular things that everyone else knows. I know, sad.  I went through every number and typed out everything that I wanted to do someday in St. Louis. It made me super excited to try new things and have adventures to go on...which totally would check off #14 for one of my New Year's resolutions.  Here are some of my favorites on that list:
1. The Black Thorn (chicago style pizza in Tower Grove)
2. sledding at Art Hill
3. a movie at the Tivoli
4. Farotto's (best toasted ravioli)
5. Flamingo Bowl
6. Budweiser Tour
7. McGurk's Irish Pub
8. Crown Candy Kitchen
9. Sweet Art Bakery
10. Chase Park Plaza Cinemas

I have a list of 38, but that's just some.  Yes, a lot of it has to do with food, but what's more fun than eating and socializing over food? If you are interested, check out the website, subscribe for STL and then you will get email updates. I love me some adventures!

Art Hill Sledding

Happy Birthday Big Al!

Today is my father-in-law's birthday!  I'm really not sure how old he is, but that doesn't matter. His name is Alan Schneider. I've known him for for over two years now and it's been such a delight. Alan is married to a beautiful Trina Schneider and has three lovely boys, Jered, Scott, and C.J. Here are a few reasons I'd like to give Al a shoutout on his birthday:

1. he serves his family well
2. he loves the Lord
3. he raised his children in a Godly home
4. he can fix ANYTHING...check out these antique fans he refurbished!
5. he loves to get off work and then go to his garage and work more...extremely hard worker
6. he will do anything for Jordan and I (his new daughter-in-laws) b/c he never had daughters:)
7. my husband has a lot of his same qualities...such as the amazing "Alan eyebrow"

look at Scott's right eyebrow...that's the "Al eyebrow"...sharp

8. he has a motorcycle and it's awesome
9. he tucks his sweatpants into his socks
10. he is the greatest father-in-law i could've ever asked for

Happy Birthday Big Al!! I hope it's just as great as you are!

I just love this picture of the two of them.

it's going to be a happy 2011.

I cannot believe 2010 is over! It was a great year, but I'm super excited for 2011. No reason in particular, except to see what's in store for the Schneiders.  Lots of great things happened in 2010, but my favorite definitely being that I became a Mrs. to the most handsome, loving husband in the world. I'm a lucky gal.  It's of course another first for us newlyweds! Firsts are exciting. We had our first New Year's kiss being Mr. and Mrs...how sweet, right?

Scott's finger represents our first New Years if you didn't catch that...

New Year's Eve was wonderful. We had dinner with our lovely sis-in-law (Jordan) and my bruder-in-law (Jered) plus our friends, Kaity and Austin Teer.  Then we went to our friend's house, Hillary and Chris to celebrate the New Year.

that's Hillary...she's pretty. Look at how proper our hands are.

While the boys were stuck in front of the t.v. watching another football game on ESPN, Hillary and I entertained ourselves. Another couple came over as well...Kelsey and Steven.  The three girls decided to make a movie with Hillary's new flip camera. It's pretty hilarious and very professionally made...kidding on the second part. We called it, "ESPN KILLS."  Can you imagine how good it might be? It kept us busy. We watched the ball drop, I kissed my husband, and then Hillary and I went outside and banged pots and pans.

just a tad blurry

I still celebrated inside as well.

Scott pooped out on me by 1 a.m.  I was ready to stop by Jered and Jordan's house, but he was too tired from getting up early for work that day. I ended up staying up by myself till 3. Now I'm tired today. I just couldn't fall asleep for some reason.  So while I just laid there, I thought of some realistic New Year's resolutions.  Here are some I came up with:

1. definitely try to read my Bible more than twice a week.
2. memorize 10 Bible verses
3. love and serve my husband more in every way
4. give to others more often
5. of course get my bod back into shape
6. apply and be on the Amazing Race with Scott
7. be content in Greenville until God shows us elsewhere
8. start beauty school
9. get a dog and name him Carl Dwayne Schneider
10. sew baby clothes for my new nephew/niece and for my future babies
11. cook through the Pioneer Woman Cookbook
12. be less selfish
13. volunteer somewhere
14. take more adventures with my husband
15. live this year devoted to growing as a child of Christ, a wife, a friend, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a sister-in-law, and a daughter-in-law. I want to love everyone the best I can by putting them before myself.

Happy New Year! I hope you have a great one. I am so thankful for God's grace and many blessings in 2010.  

love, love, and more love,
Janie

our first Christmas as newlyweds.

This year we had our first Christmas morning with just the two of us. We don't know if we will be able to do this again depending on future circumstances, but we surely cherished the moment this year.

Scott made a fire on our t.v.

 

Then we headed to the Schneider's house for the afternoon to spend Christmas with them.  We each opened our gifts one by one. I liked that tradition because you got to see what everyone got and gift opening lasted longer. Everyone loved what they got. Afterward, Trina and Al sent all the kids downstairs, covered the staircase with a blanket, and told us to not come upstairs. After awhile, we were called back upstairs and Al surprised Scott, Jered and C.J. with amazing antique fans from 1923 and 1924 that he bought and completely refurbished. Al is truly gifted.  It was definitely one of our favorite gifts. It will go with our antique look of our house we hope to pursue someday:)

Our last stop on Christmas was the Hayward household. All of my siblings were in town (I have 8 brothers and 1 sister), so my dad really wanted to get a family picture just in case this wouldn't happen again in a while. I don't have that, but when I get it, I'll post it. It was so great spending quality time with my siblings. I love my family so much. We were also entertained by my sweet nephew, Elijah.  He liked the wrapping paper better than his gift.

Jesse got 2 snuggies for Christmas!

Finally, the day after Christmas, we went to church and then went to my mom's to have our Christmas with her. Everyone rips theirs open at once, so it takes about 10 minutes and that's it. It's over. Patrick, our dog, sits in the middle of everyone with wrapping paper all over him. Elijah was entertained by a singing/dancing dog Jesse got him for Christmas. Good times at mom's house.

Jesse got us gift cards to Starbucks. What a sweetheart.

That evening, we went back to dads and spent time with our extended family. My cousin, Mandy, came up from Mississippi! I rarely get to see her, so it was a treat.

Whew! Long post. I just now took a breath. I hope you had a lovely Christmas a well. 

Love,

Janie