Long-needed Updates...

Hello all! I know it's been WAY too long since anything has been updated, but I'm finally getting around to doing something about it. Picking up from where I left off...

August 4-10: Island Park, Pocatello, and Grace, Idaho

We went to the Millward Family Reunion, and it was a blast! It was so good to see all of my family and to introduce Shaun to everyone. We flew out Tuesday, the 4th, and drove back with TJ, Hailee, Mom, Dad and Dustin on Sunday/Monday, the 9th-10th. At the reunion, we did all kinds of fun things. The first night we went to a play at Island Park and saw "Footloose," and the cast did an incredible job. The next day we toured West Yellowstone. We saw Mud Pots, Old Faithful, a few other Guisers, and many animals such as Bison, Moose, and some saw a Bear. My favorite was going to the 'Grand Canyon at Yellowstone.' It was a long hike down, and harder on the way up because we had to try not to fall off the edge of the path, but it was worth it! (See pictures below).

We did some fishing, spent some quality time in Grace with everyone at Gma's house, and went to the Extended Millward Family Reunion. I only knew a couple of people there, but it was nice to go and support Gma and all of her hard work to organize it.



SCHOOL...

We have been very busy lately. We are both in school and working. Shaun is a Full-time Graduate student at Kansas State University (KSU) with 3 semesters left until he graduates with his Masters in Industrial Engineering, and he working part-time at ICE Corporation as in IE Intern. He is doing a wonderful job at work helping the compan, and his boss really likes having him around.

I have been working 2 jobs--Full-time at College Hill Preschool as a Para from 7am-1pm, and Part-time as a Babysitter/Tutor for a mother w/ 4 kids (ages 7,7,7 and 8--triplets) from 2:40-5 or 6. When I get home from a long day of work, I quickly grab something to eat and get started on homework. I am a part-time student at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), and taking 3 online classes.

It is really hard sometimes because Shaun and I don't get to see each other very often. During the week I leave for work before he wakes up, and I'm in bed before he gets home most nights. On Saturdays Shaun is usually at the DZ helping with a First Jump Course, and I keep myself busy catching up on homework, cleaning, or more babysitting. We do our best to have a Date Night every week though, and that helps a great deal.

TRAVELING...

While Shaun has been busy with the Parachute club on the weekends, I have been doing some traveling every other weekend or so to see family. I went to Overland Park for Ashlee's baby shower and to get pics of my two pregnant sisters, then 2 weeks later went to Wichita to a friend's baby shower, then back to Wichita 2 weeks after that to throw Hailee a baby shower, and Shaun and I both went this weekend (3 weeks later) just to visit. Hailee was supposed to have a baby this past week so we were going to be here to see Addison, but she didn't, so I'll probably be back in another week or so...we'll see.


RECENT EVENTS...

Right now we are in the process of looking for a new apartment. The one we have has worked for us up until this point, but with recent findings and events, it is time to get out. We have had bats in the attic since we moved into the house, but a few months ago we learned that we also have mice. When we caught 3 mice and a bat in the wall, I wanted to get out right away. Shaun wasn't too convinced, and after talking it over we decided we could probably be alright living there for a while longer. THEN, events from a couple of weekends ago did it for us, and we want out ASAP...

There are two girls living on the second floor of the house we live in (we're on the third floor). They have recently started dating army guys that have been over quite frequently. The like to all sit on the front porch at night and drink and smoke, and the boyfriends stay the night quite frequently as well. At first we ignored it all because it's none of our business--even though the contract says that there is no smoking, no drinking, and no boys (unless married). (The property is leased by Manhattan Christian College, and they have certain rules to keep their Christian values and morals enforced on their property.)

We continued not to say anything and deal with everything even though we knew it wasn't right. We could tell there was something wrong with the guys when we met them, but didn't know how wrong. ANYWAY, a couple of weeks ago we were sitting in our apartment getting things done, and we heard some yelling and fighting outside. We figured it was the neighbors since they often have arguments and fights. We heard the cops heading to our neighborhood, but realized the police, firefighters, and EMS were coming into OUR house and not the neighbors...

Long story short, one of the boyfriends tried to commit suicide by over dosing on prescription drugs that belonged to his girlfriend.

We left when the cops were questioning everyone to get out of that environment and stayed at Shaun's parents' house that night. We don't know what all happened, but we know the boyfriend had to go to the ER and have his stomach pumped. I was hoping that after everything had happened that my neighbor would get rid of him and open her eyes and see what had happened and figure out that it could happen again, but he was back the very next night laughing and joking around, everyone acting like nothing had happened. When I asked the other boyfriend what had happened a couple of days later, he just said that "D*** is going through a rough time right now...," and wouldn't tell me anything else. Well DUH he's going through a rough time! He just tried to kill himself!

When Shaun and I were leaving while the cops were at the house, he said "We can move now. I'd be okay with that."

So, we're looking for another place with no success so far.


APARTMENT HUNTING...

Well, we have been looking and looking for available places to start beginning of November. We found a couple of places we really liked and made appointments to tour them last week. Wednesday we showed up at 1:30 as planned, and the Manager was a no show. We waited 20 minutes and left because we had to get back to school and work, but I called and left a message. He called back apologizing and saying he had a "personal emergency," so we rescheduled for Thursday 1:30. Shaun could not go because of class, but I went. We walked in, and the manager started telling me about the place, then said "actually, now that I think about it, we don't have any of these available anymore because just this morning a ton of people turned in applications to fill all availabilities... the only one I have left is $*** a month" which was WAY out of our price range. FIGURES! If he would have met us the day and time he was supposed to, and we would have decided that was what we wanted, then we could have had one. Instead, we had to meet a day later, which gave others a chance to turn in applications and fill all availabilities. Grrr...What a waste of time and gas!!!

Well, I finally decided that there was no use in being angry because that wouldn't help anything. We had another viewing on Friday at 1:30 at our second choice and we were pretty excited. We thought this would probably be where we ended up. We arrived right on time and...AGAIN, no manager! WHAT?! We called and called, and waited and waited. We walked around the place looking for the manager too because the sign on the door said she was on the property. Just as we were getting ready to leave we found the maintenance guy and asked if he had seen her. He called and called with the same luck as us, but he was able to show us the apartment. It was nice, and we could definitely see ourselves living there. I continued to call the rest of the day to try and get a hold of the manager to learn more information. I finally got a hold of one of the assistants, and she told me the requirements and conditions for the apartment, and we found that we don't earn enough per month to be able to rent at that complex, and that the rent was actually higher than advertised. ARGH!!! Why don't people tell us these things BEFORE we waste the time and gas?!

Shaun went on Friday to pay rent and discuss our living conditions with the woman in charge of housing at MCC. They talked for a bit about the events that had taken place, and about the mice and bats, and she told us there is a cockroach problem as well... great... She said they have a duplex (1 or 2 bedroom) available in January, and they want us to take a look at them. We might look at it, but the problem is that we don't want to have to stay in our current place for 4 more months, and I'm not so sure I want to have them as our landlord anymore after seeing how they DON'T take care of their apartments and a few other things that have happened...

Wish us luck in finding a GOOD place to live!!!

Summer 2009

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating my blog. Things have been SUPER busy this summer! Shaun and I have been traveling a ton, and are not done yet! The beginning of the summer was pretty much just 'wake up, go to work, come home, watch a movie, go to bed, repeat' during the week, and the weekends were pretty much all the same too--Saturdays Shaun is at the DZ, and I'm at home not doing much other than sleeping in and maybe some crafts.

However, I am happy to say that our weekends have been completely booked since mid-June--the week days are pretty much the same though-- and I haven't had a chance to tell you all know about it. So...

June 19-21: Mount Vernon, MO

We got off early and went to Mount Vernon, MO where the Hillbilly Boogie was taking place. For those of you who don't know what a boogie is--it's a big skydiving event where people come from all over to have fun, see old friends, and jump out of a cool airplane they don't usually get to. We carpooled with a couple of guys--Jason and Ian--and all shared in the price of gas, which was nice. I convinced Shaun to get a cheap hotel for the nights, and I'm glad I did. It was so HOT and HUMID at night especially, so Ian ended up chipping in and staying in his sleeping bag on the floor of the hotel room where it was nice and air conditioned.

Anyway, it was a really fun weekend! Shaun made 9 jumps, which was perfect for him because that was his goal, and I hung around meeting people and taking pictures. (See slide show below). The "big deal" this year was a King Air (plane) owned by Mike Mullins. Mike has souped up his plane to make it have about a 7 minute turn around. He was going so fast that he beat the jumpers to the ground!!! It was nuts! There was also a hot air balloon that came in Saturday night and did a couple of loads--one Saturday and one Sunday. They may have done more, but we left Sunday morning, so I don't know. We made it back just in time for church, and we were tired and sunburned!



June 25: Country Stampede
We got some free VIP tickets to Country Stampede for Thursday, which was the first day of the big event. We went and saw some people sing we have never heard of, but it was fun. We walked around to the different tents that were set up, and watched some of the performers. We saw Low Cash Cowboys, Julianne Hough, Luke Bryan, and left before Creedence Clearwater Revisited went on stage because it was so late. We had a good time though.



June 26-28: Omaha, NE

We decided to go visit Whitnee and Derrick in Omaha for a weekend. We figured they wouldn't be there too much longer, and I wanted to see them. So, we took off Friday night after work, and came home Sunday evening after church and a bbq at the park with some of their neighbors.

Whitnee, Shaun, and I were going to go to the temple on Saturday late afternoon (6ish), but Shaun forgot his recommend, so Whitnee and I went. It was really neat to do a session with just Whitnee and I becuase we received our endowment together, and it meant a lot to get to spend some one-on-one time with my big sis that I don't see very often.

I think it was Friday night that we waited for Derrick to get off work, then we we to the bridge (view slideshow below) that divides Nebraska from Ohio. We were standing in 2 places at once! :) Saturday-before the temple- Whitnee had to work for a few hours, but then we went and walked around downtown Omaha. There was some kind of craft carnival going on, and roads were closed. Vendor's lined the streets with their projects. We walked around a bit, then went to these big slides they randomly have in the area we were near. We also went to Greek Islands restaurant for lunch where Shaun and I had our Wedding dinner. We have decided to make it a tradition to go to Greek Islands every time we go to Omaha.

Sunday we went to church, then had a bbq at the park with some friends, and had to leave. :( We had a blast and didn't want to leave.



July 3-4: Independence Day

The 4th of July was pretty fun! My mom and dad came into town on Friday (3rd) to visit us, and we had a Korean BBQ for dinner. The next day we were all kinda lazy and slept in (except Shaun because he had to go out to the DZ to jump and get ready for a demo he was participating in). Mom and I got up a little earlier and went to the Farmer's Market not too far away, then came home and made pancakes and we all took another nap after breakfast. When we finally got up, we went to Wamego where there was a parade--mostly tractors, cars, and random people we didn't know. We went and picked Shaun up at the DZ, and went to the carnival to ride a few rides. Wamego is supposed to have the best firework display in the Midwest, and it was really good. It was about 25 minutes of continuous fireworks--said to cost about $45,000. We didn't have a very good spot, but we were being rained on by the ashes, and it was fun.

Mom, Dad, and Dustee had to leave early Sunday morning to get back to church on time. I was sad to see them go, but was greatful they were able to come visit.

July 9-13: Ogden, Utah

The Smith Family Reunion took place for Grandpa Smith's 85th birthday, and we weren't about to miss it. Shaun hadn't been to a reunion since before his mission, and really wanted go, and I wanted to meet all of the family too.

We drove out-- just the two of us-- Wednesday night at 11:30pm, drove straight (switching off driving, of course), and made it to Mona, UT by 2:00pm Thursday afternonon. It was nice to be able to see my grandparents for a little bit since we were going to miss my mom's side family reunion the following weekend.

We spent the night there, and had to leave Friday afternoon to get to Ogden for the Smith reunion. We had a lot of fun seeing everyone, and I wasn't the only one who didn't know everyone! We stayed at the Hampton's house (Joan's brother), and met all of them too, so I got to meet all of both sides in one day... except 2 cousins who couldn't make it. I think I can still name them all. :)

Saturday morning we hiked up to this somewhat hidden waterfall at almost the top of a mountain nearby. It was absolutely gorgeous! I was thinking it would be some dinky little trickle, but it was enormous, and so pretty! We went with a couple of Shaun's cousins--Ann, Alice, and Alice's boyfriend (now husband, I believe) Stonewall Thomas. (see slide show)

We drove back with Heather and Joan Sunday and Monday while Robert kept our car out in Utah for a few days. We didn't want to leave Utah so soon, and definitely didn't want to go back to work the following Tuesday, but had to...such is life. :s



July 17-25: House-sitting

For the past week and a half or so, we house sat for some people I work with. They went to Canada, so we stayed at their house and looked after their 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 20 chickens. We also looked after their garden that was overridden with weeds. We got to eat anything we picked though, so it wasn't all bad. We tried to help weed, but hardly made a dent after a couple of hours.

We began Friday night, the 17th, and finished this past Saturday, the 25th. It was fun, and we miss all of the animals, but I was glad to be at my own place once again. Not because of the apartment itself--which we are not too fond of--but because it's home. I missed the feeling of my home after so much traveling, and I was ready to come back.

August 4-10: Island Park, Pocatello, and Grace, Idaho

We are getting ready to go to the Millward Family Reunion next week, and I'll be sure to get pictures. We fly out Tuesday, the 4th, and drive back with TJ and Hailee (?) on Sunday/Monday. I'm excited to introduce Shaun to all of my family, and I think he's pretty excited too. He really wants to go fly fishing, so I know he'll fit in great! :)

Our Family...

We have crabs! Hermit crabs, that is. =)

We're finally getting some pictures of our babies on here too. The first weekend in April I bought hermit crabs while Shaun was in Utah. He came home and quickly fell in love with the two new additions to our little family.

Shaun really surprised me. Anyone who knows him is aware that if he is interested in learning about something, he will research about it until he is satisfied with his knowledge on the subject. Well, the crabs were no different. He would come home just about everyday and tell me something he learned about the crabs and how we need to do something new or different to take better care of them. Sometime the first week we had them, he came home saying that we needed a bigger tank so they would have more room to move around. Two days later he came home carrying a 10 gallon tank, some different stuff to take the chlorine out of the water, a couple of extra sponges for the water, a new squirt bottle, and some new food. It was SO funny!
He also informed me that he found and requested to be a member of the Hermit Crab Association. This made me laugh! I never imagined that there would be such a group, let alone that Shaun would want to join it. =)

Anyway, Shaun soon informed me that we needed to get a couple more crabs because "they like to live in packs, and two isn't a pack." We went to Wichita for Easter and bought my brother a couple of his own little crabbers, and came home with 3 more of our own...as per Shaun's request. The sad thing is that the three we bought at Easter had names before the 2 we bought before. We are happy to report that they all have names, and seem to be pretty healthy and happy.

--Meet the crew--

Now let's meet them one at a time...

--Squirt (My personal favorite)-- The runt.

--Sid--The shy one-always burying himself to hide.

--Jeff--Speedy!

--Rocky-- Just kind of there.

--Leopold (Leo-Shaun's favorite)-- The BIG one. He eats a ton!

You may think they're kind of ugly little buggers at first, but they grow on ya after a while! They're great when you can't have any other kind of pets at your apartment. =)

Our Home

Well, we're finally getting some pics of our apartment on here. It's not much, but it works for our first place. We may complain a lot, and there may be good reason for it, but overall this is a good place to live for the time being. Cheap rent, and close to campus--We can't really ask for more than that. It may be small, but we've made it our home.

Stairs and Hallway:


Front Room:

Bathroom:

Bedroom:
Kitchen:


Let us know what you think and if you see any place where improvements can be made. =)

Girl's Night In!!!

I had a Girl's Night In last night (Friday), and had a bunch of people over. I had a lot of fun preparing. I was pretty proud of my "Sunflower Cake" made out of a plain yellow cake with hershey kisses on top, and twinkies surrounding it. We also had rainbow sherbet punch, strawberries, bananas, and pretzels to dip in chocolate, and some M&M's.


We watched "Just My Luck" and a few episodes of "Home Movies" (on adult swim).

Shaun's Mission Reunion 2009

Shaun was able to attend his mission reunion this year. It was a very spiritual experience, and he said it made him feel like he did when he was in the mission field. I'm glad he was able to go see his old companions and friends.

Shaun spent the majority of the weekend visiting some family, but neglected to get any pictures. You would think that with his dad being a professional photographer and all, he might have taken at least a couple of pictures with grandpa or the Hampton's.

Tim and Viv Carlson's Renaissance Wedding

What's New?!

Well, there's not much going on right now. We are both interns and full-time students, so staying busy is not a problem. Scheduling time to be together, however...that's a different story. Such is college life for the young married couple though.

I'm sitting here at work trying to pass the time while Shaun is out at the DZ. I hope he's not jumping becuase it's really windy out. He's smarter than that though.=) He is having a hard time getting out to the drop zone much with everything going on, but we're figuring it out.

I just started jumping too. I made myfirst working tandem a couple of weekends ago-- making a total of 2 jumps so far. I am officially a student, and on my way to getting an A license... eventually.

Shaun is going to Utah this weekend (first weekend in April) for his mission reunion. He has yet to be able to attend one since he's been off his mission because they are usually during the week and he has school. He is excited to see his old comps and some family while he's there.

I will be spending this Shaun-less weekend with my sister, Ashlee, and her family in Overland Park outside of KC. I have a lot of homework to do, but it should be fun. I'm excited to see some family.

We are planning on going to Wichita to visit the parents and little bro for Easter weekend and next month on Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I can't wait to see Shadow, my cat, too! We can't have pets in our apartment, so I have to leave her in Wichita. Maddie, the dog, will be fun as well! We can only have fish. Wow... what a pet to have... I know I want one... :S

Hmmm... oh, Shaun sent me a big bouquet of flowers at work today for no reason! They are beautiful! There are all kinds of purple, pink, and white. They smell sooo good! I have the best husband ever! They had a note that says "Love you, babe! Can't wait to see you!" I almost cried, I'll be honest. It was very surprising seeing the delivery guy walk in with the order. I thought he had the wrong address until he said my name...... Awww!!!

Anyway, I guess that's about all that is going on. Mostly just school and work with the occasional jumping out of an airplane. Life is busy, but full of surprises.

Sky Diving...

Those who know Shaun know that he is a go-getter, and will do whatever he puts his mind to. When he was in High School, Shaun decided he wanted to take up sky diving. Without telling his parents, he started jumping the day after his 18th birthday (Sept. 2002). The following January he went to the bank (by himself) and took out a loan to buy his first rig, which he bought in March 2003. His parents didn't find out he was jumping until he had close to 100 jumps.

Currently, Shaun has 800+ jumps with only one cutaway. He has been the president of the K-State Parachute Club (KSUPC) for the past almost year-and-a-half, and loving every minute of it.

---> KSUPC has their own plane--a Cessna 182-- which just had a paint job a couple of weeks ago. They teach their own jump courses for those who are interested in taking up the sport. I doubt you will be able to find many, if any, cheaper places to jump in the country.<---

I (Katee) have jumped tandem once, and it's a thrill! I am looking forward to taking the classes and getting my A license within the next few months. I'll let everyone know how it goes...

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

This blog is a way for friends and family to stay connected. Read the stories of how we met, when we were dating, engagement, wedding, and the present. Also, a bit about our hobbies, friends, families, etc.

We are planning on making weekly updates of events or just random things going on in life as it comes. Please feel free to comment and keep in touch!

Enjoy!

S&K Smith