My Mommy & Daddy Came to Visit

My parents drove up on Friday evening, and got to join in our Newly-Weds Bible Study fellowship night. They were entertained & impressed with the inventor of the Tweel and his lovely assistant. We talked and ate and generally had a great time. :) Then Saturday, Ryan took Dad out for breakfast at Frich's Big Boy, where both stuffed themselves and apparantly had a grand old time. It was nice for Ryan to take Dad out instead of the other way around like it always was when we were dating. Mom treated me to Starbucks and went shopping with me. We picked up stuff for our upstairs bathroom, and the house, and she got me some new teaching clothes! (I'm wearing them tomorrow, Mom!) We came home and ate and then Ryan & I headed off to celebrate a friend and his daughter's joint birthday, while Mom & Dad unloaded all the rest of my stuff that was at home (including the last of the wedding gifts, and my hope chest!), AND raked our leaves! They know how to work!! We had Hobo Casserole for supper per Ryan's request. Footage to be posted later!!

From my Mom...

Dad Driving Up
... notice the gorgeous foliage! As Sina's Dad Ed says, "Kentucky is God's country"

Sunday Lunch at the Shuey's. Morgan's giving someone a look- I think it was to me, concerning Ryan's insufferability...

Ryan & I in front of our first home :)

My Parents & Me. I miss them.

Thanks so much for coming up, Mom & Dad! I missed you all so badly today! Can't wait 'til Christmas!

Hard to Concentrate

Home earlier on Mondays than I do on most days, and sometimes it's hard to motivate myself to start grading papers. Especially tonight, when my head hurts and I'd rather do something like... sleep. :) I caught some cold from one of my kiddos, I fear...

Anyway, Ryan & I heard this song at a friend's wedding, and he immediately pegged it as sounding like a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. We got home and checked, and, yhup! Sure 'nuf, it was. It's been on our YouTube playlists ever since (Ryan's been on an 'All-American Rejects' kick lately, too... as long as it isn't the Cranberries, "Running through my head..." GRR!). So I thought I'd put a plug in for the song (it was written for another band member to use to propose to his fiancee), and also summarize my mood at the moment. :) The song is sweet to me especially as a newly-wed. As we're married longer & longer, I see that, as imperfect and fallen as we are, Ryan truly is "perfect" for me. And I am happy... two pictures that show it, I think.

"Finally, you have found something perfect, and
Finally, you have found... yourself."
( by the way: I think I really look like my Dad's Mom in this picture)

"All I want is for you to be happy, and
Take this moment to make you my family..."

So, yeah... I think I'm gonna put in Little Women and grade 7th-8th grade choir quizzes to that. Then I'll do a craft as a reward. :)
~Mrs. Szrama
PS- I've learned to make quite convincing mocha-like concoctions in my blender! They nip my Starbucks craving in the bud; no sugar added, and using rice milk, for about $.25 a pop instead of $4.24...

Yahoo! The Parkers got their Van

Our friends, Keith & Julie, have been in the adoption process for the past 2 years, and after waiting and waiting and then getting stuck for almost a month in Vietnam, they're on their way back across the Pacific with their youngest newest son Van in their arms! Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

Check out their blog at: http://adoptingvan.blogspot.com

Me 'n Lex

I snapped some 'fall shots' of Jeff & Christy King for their family Thanksgiving pics, and then Christy turned the camera on me. So here I am with Alexis, one of my preschool students. Isn't she precious!?
Well... off to proof-read some Latin quizzes, and then to grade papers until my Lovely comes home. We're going out to eat tonight, to Texas Roadhouse. Here in Kentuckiana,they're donating 10% of your meal's cost to the Children's Hospital Fund this week. A good cause, I think. I'm just excited to be going out. We haven't had a meal nice-out since our honeymoon. (hehe except Q'doba's on my birthday and Chickfil'a on whims) I've got such a hot date, too. :)

--Christina

Last Day in the Life of Pumpkin Szrama

I sliced and baked 'im until nice and soft on Friday, while I had the oven hot for other things. Then, I spent the afternoon on Saturday pureeing, mixing, stirring and popping pumpkin-y goodies in and out of ovens.

Pumpkin Muffins & Pie (both gluten-free!) risin'

Yumminess, cooling.
Yield: 30 chocolate-chip pumpkin muffins, 1 pumpkin pie, and one pumpkin-apple bake (which I made up on the spot), plus savory mashed pumpkin for dinner and another tray full to bake with butter and brown sugar. It was a big pumpkin.


So pretty...

You'll have to turn your head. My computer has outwitted me on this one.

Friendly Fall Table
I called Ashlea and she came for a study break, punctuated mostly by fresh, hot pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Pie Lovers
I can't take him anywhere... :)

The Art of Coffee-Brewing
Ashlea brought her new Turkish Coffee set. It went so well with the pie!

PS- this post has taken me SO long to finish... internet woes. And Ryan says this batch of muffins is the best I've made yet. I agree-- the secret, I think, is milled flaxseed. Maybe the fresh pumpkin, too. Or maybe it was the beater Ryan got for me at Target (we divided & conquered on our errands)... anyway the muffins are huge and wonderful!!! Come visit & we'll give you some!

Fall Farmal

Some pictures from our school's "Fall Farmal," held at Hubris Orchard, just across the border in Indiana. Sina, Jen, the kids & I made an afternoon of it, packing picnic dinners and playing in the animal part/playground. Dave, Peter (Jen's hubby) & Ryan drove up after work.

Proudly displaying their entry bracelets: Sina, Morgan, John, Jenna, & our friend Jen Sieg

At the top of the 40-ft. slide
(So hard to get those crazy Shuey kids all looking at the camera!)
Heheh... at the bottom of the 40-ft. slide...

I honestly don't know if I've ever seen Jenna more excited about anything than these goats. "You just GOTTA see deese, Crwisteena!"

Desserts were not! lacking. HEehe we took some home, too.

One of my students (they were all QUITE enthused to see me. Ryan's words: if you ever want to be one of the most loved people in the world, teach pre-school!)

On the way to get our pumpkins
(that's Jen's hubby Peter-- Ryan's work buddy, and our fellow church members)

The guy who agreed to drive us out there even though it was dark. We owe him so much!

Pumpkin fields by night. Our pumpkin was so much better than the Seigs'.

For all you Non-Facebookers...

Mr. and Mrs. Claudio Molina
October 4th, 2007
Carlos Paz, Argentina

Ams, talking to you for 10 minutes on your wedding day made my own day! :) I wanted so badly to be there, just to see you smile! God's been so good to you! Faithful in and through everything!

Better than Folgers to Jumpstart the Day

"Entering the day without a serious meeting with God over his Word and in prayer is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons. It's like taking a trip without filling the tires with air or the tank with gas. The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep. The body does, but not the heart. The spiritual air leaks from our tires, and the gas is consumed in the day. We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of God and prayer. Thousands of saints have discovered through the centuries that starting the day by filling the mind with the Word of God will bring more joy and more love and more power than traveling on yesterday's gas."

John Piper When I Don't Desire God

Unedited Comment

I just have to share a comment from one of my students yesterday, said during Bible Story. It's still crackin' me up today. We're discussing Samson, and how he was attacked by a lion and was strong enough to wrestle it and kill it. This is her un-edited comment:

"If I was attacked, I'd fight back too. Hmm, I'm only strong enough to fight maybe a small dinosaur. Unless it was a mean one. Then I'd probably go outside and yell for help. But if it was nice, I'd keep it and it would be my pet."

The logical leaps from Samson to dinosaurs to pets is just... unique!! I LOVE PRESCHOOLERS!!! =D

Another one, this time from a little boy (they love the "what if's"):

"Mrs. Srama?" "Yes?" (walking up to me, very thoughtful, looking up in my face) "What if your head was... a dollar?"

LOL!!! I answered that it would be rather floppy...but I never did get where he was going with that!

--"mrs. szrama" (I'm still in the school building, so I have to call myself that.)

My Little Loves

... you've just GOT to see some of these sweet faces I get to love and teach every week: for security reasons, I can't put their real names, but they are so beautiful I've got to let you see them!









And, last but NOT least, here is a picture of Alexis, the oldest daughter of our pastor Jeff & his wife Christy. Don't let her pensive expression fool you. The cookie provided a RARE moment of stillness: she's quite a spunky little girl, and as Ryan says, we don't know anyone with more energy than she has!!

~proud to be called (100 x a day) "Mrs. Szrama" :)

Better than all of Italy

Our scrumptidiliumptious evening l Thursday consisted of our own cozy version of Italian favorites: pizza, wine and chocolate. This was complemented perfectly by a new wedding-gift-video, The Cinderella Man, which neither of us had seen and both of us enjoyed... and of course, each other.

Having Ryan with me, as my husband, made it all quite better than all of Italy to me.

Maybe being married makes you boring, that a quiet evening home becomes tantalizing. Or maybe it just makes you appreciate the beauty of simple pleasures all over again. I've often felt that the moment I said "I do" I was catapulted back to age 6...

A blessed, happy wife, ~Christina

[The pizza was homemade gluten-free, and quite tasty (turkey, gluten-free amazingly good pepperoni!), the wine a White Zinfandel (yummy!) from our honeymoon visit to the Biltmore estates, and the chocolate Belgian loveliness from the airport in Holland!]

Progress!

Our Upstairs, Before:

(and NO he is not peeing; he's painstakingly pushing a sander!)
Our Upstairs, After:

Ten hours, 9 rolls of sandpaper, hundreds of steps and sweeps later, we can see the beautiful grain of our hardwood floors!! We can't wait to enjoy it for the years to come... though another day of sanding isn't exactly appealing... For those of you who are disappointed that we already did so much work without you, there's still edging, staining, sealing, and buffing to be done! Plenty of work to go 'round!! :)

Proud proprieters of the house with the bowling alley upstairs,
~ the Szrama Clan, KY

Teenagers?

"Oh, you're too young to be getting married!" "Why do you want to end your life so soon?" "But you have your whole life ahead of you!" These were the sorts of comments I got when my friends & family found out I was getting married this past August. While none of my immediate family or close friends was inclined to think I was missing out on some great opportunity by wedding my best friend at the age of 21, it was still hard to hear... especially after the 30th time or so. Our pastor's wife, Christy King, said something in telling Ryan & I their own "falling in love" story, many moons ago at Josh & Amanda's wedding (last July!) that stuck with me, and helped offset all the disparagements. "It was such a blessing to spend our 20s together; we grew so much as people, and it was wonderful to grow together, as a couple through it." I remembered that, said so "in passing" and have already found it to be true. Who better to grow with than with my best friend and the one I both love and am in love with? Who better to help me, hold me, encourange and challenge me than the one who pursued my heart in the first place? And who would I rather go on adventures with, say to Barcelona or the Biltmore, or downtown Louisville?? (I wonder- did people think marriage would HINDER my travels?) There's no one I know with a better imagination and creative will to make it happen. Together, we're unstoppable!! :)

Seriously, though-- I'm not condoning rash marriages or ill-advised unions arising out of infatuations, flings, desires to cover past sin, or merely to slake lust. But Scripture does speak glowingly of the joy of the companionship of "the wife of one's youth" and I am so thankful to be that to this man who has given me his name. I love you, Mr. Ryan Szrama! :D

Ryan & I at the Old Louisville Coffee Shop, which was HOPPING during the St. James Art Fair. This is where my blogspot blog started-- free wireless in this little joint right behind Ashlea's & my old place. We were walking around the art fair, enjoying the booths and each other, holding hands and laughing and marveling at how hot October in Louisville can be... and I realized just how young we looked -- like two teenagers in love. :)

Our neighbors, the Carnifax-Needlers, whom we came to support. He's becoming quite the local folk artist. Sweet Christian couple-- and ("Mrs. Debbie") Ryan's high school FCA coach! Who knew he'd move in with his new bride across the street from them??

Me slurpin' the last of our shared Frozen Mint Mocha... this is what's great about being young & married: you still get to wink at each other over a shared coffee drink and then go read Tolkien in the park, baseball cap and all. Ok... so we plan on doing that when we're no longer young...

Continuing on the "Adventures of the Young and Married" theme: Ryan & I were given a rather diseased-looking... cactus?... by our neighbors. Until one of us has the time to adequately disinfect said organism, it resides happily enough on our back porch.