It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas....

everywhere you go... well at least in Iowa.
And indeed it is with more than a foot of snow accumulating here this week, things are definately looking up for a white Christmas. Apparently it was a record breaking snow storm. It's a good thing that we had a snow blower otherwise it would have been a long week shoveling... actually to mention this it just so happens that I (Alexa) was the one doing all of the shoveling, while Payton was snow blowing. Funny how that works isn't it?!? It was also our puppy's first snow. I guess he doesn't look like a puppy, but he does act like it. Anyways, he found it quite amusing I must say. Payton also got his first snow day at work... and wow was I ready for him to go back on Thursday. Lets just say he gets bored, very easily and being stuck in the house isn't his idea of fun. I couldn't find enough things for him to do, thats probably why he decided later in the day after already snow blowing once, that he better do it one more time. I don't know anyone else but him who would go outside in the middle of the blizzard to use the snow blower, but I'm not complaining, it got him out of the house.

Anyways, here are a few picture of the event.

You can see how deep the snow is compared to Payton's car (even though it is a low-rider as my mom would say)

 And here are a few other things we have been up to...

Decking the Halls... FaLaLaLaLa

And... A wedding...

This is what Payton does at weddings... talks to his friends for hours... I think he does this to stall so he doesn't have to go on the dance floor...

Well that is what we have been up to and there is still plenty more to come before the Christmas Season... ooo wait we are already there.. I mean before Christmas Day.

1. GRADUATION!!! (1 week from today!)

2. Christmas Present Shopping... we are way behind!!!

Time

Well one month has flown by since our last post on here. Truthfully it seems like I just wrote it yesterday.. but I have come to learn that I just can't keep up with everything no matter how hard I try. It has been a whirl wind in our house the last month. Truthfully I can't even recall everything that we have done... And don't worry I won't bore you with it all...
But here are a few highlights that are happening in or have happened in our life....

Payton has been really busy at work... which he is thankful to be.
He is busy helping out with my school work... yes that is right Payton is... well I'll just say returning a favor.
He (we) have been attending weddings and a wedding yet to come.
He fought a good fight in the paint ball battlefield... came home covered in welts and purple circles... it was truly incredible but he assured me it was all worth it for some reason I will never know.
He took me (and Andy whose girlfriend we went to see) to Minneapolis... we had a great time shopping at IKEA (I'm sure he loved the shopping, well at least he made it through), ate a Bucca de Beppo's and attended the Church of The Open Door (great place if you are ever in the Minneapolis area).
He has racked leaves for hours on end... but that has come to and end
He has been a great husband... taking time for me when I couldn't find time for him!

I have been busy with fitness classes... and all that that entails.
I have traveling back and forth to Ames most every Tuesday and Thursday... except for today of course, whoops.
I have been counting down the days until I graduate... 4 weeks, 8 days.. whoot whoot!
I have been up to my head in laundry... I really shouldn't wait so long.
I have been trying to figure out how to better balance my time... hopefully that will come.
I have been staring at three blank canvases hung on our wall for over 4 months now... waiting for time to come when I can finally paint them.... ahhh wouldn't that be nice!

We have celebrated (okay not too much celebrating as we have a new anniversary) nine years together on October 28th... crazy...
And we will celebrate our 6 month anniversary on November 16th... 6 months I can't believe it!

Well there it is... our lives in a nutshell... crazy isn't it. How I wish I could find a way to manage my time or take time.. too have time. Someday I'll learn, I'm sure.
But that is it.. now I need to go figure our how to manage my time.....

Flashback...

Well today is homecoming in our small little town. With the thrill of the powder puff game, homecoming king and queen, the parade and of course the big game, I thought it would be fun to take you back not too many years ago to when Payton and I were celebrating the ever loved homecoming traditions....

Dress up days were always the greatest...
One of my favorites of Payton on Nerd Day
(Nerd day was so natural for him, maybe that's why he picked the profession he did, enginerd)

It was actually Nerd/Cowboy (cowgirl) day...

The Dance... Freshman year. I think it was a western theme...
And of course supporting the jersey's.
And check out the nice car... my first one ever!
Homecoming Dance, junior year (Payton's senior year)...
Flashback Day...
Supporting the Vikings at the big Game...
And of course decked out in all of our retro black and gold...

Toga Day, my senior year...Homecoming Parade...

The joys of homecoming... It was always the best week of highschool. Well that's that. Hope you enjoyed the flashback...

Proud...

I'm so proud of what my wife has accomplished in these short few weeks with starting her new business. I don't know how many times I heard her question what she was doing and ask me if she was doing the right thing, but I do know that she feels much better about it now. She is 4 weeks into her first 6 week session of spinning classes and I can't wait to see what is in store for the future. She is enjoying every minute of it!

I took the day off of work on Monday so that I could help out with her photo shoot that she was having. We ended up rolling the bike over a block away so we could get some good shots, like the one you see below. For the entire sneak peek from Lisa Coots-Schooley and Davis Photography check out the link, here.

Stay tuned for more updates in the near future, Alexa will be working on a website and getting that up and running soon! If your interested in taking any of her spinning classes she has another 6 week session starting October 10th that you can sign up for. Give her a call at 319-241-1230 or e-mail her at fitness.vitality@gmail.com

Thanks Lisa for the great time, and the amazing pictures, I
can't wait to see how the rest of them turned out!

My little outfielder...

So those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting our child, here he is... Kip.

There was one thing that I really wanted when Alexa was looking at getting a puppy, and that was one who enjoyed to play fetch. I don't know how we ended up with the one dog who will run himself dead to go after a ball, but we did.

Second, only to wrestling other dogs, playing fetch is Kip's favorite pastime. No matter how far or in what direction you throw the ball, he is usually there to pick it up and trot back (he doesn't run very fast back). One of the things that we have recently acquired was a tennis ball thrower. Being a former shortstop and quarterback I was a little leery of why I needed a tennis ball thrower so I give it to Alexa and she uses it to throw the ball back and forth to Kip. A few people have commented on what it must be like to have me as a dad, throwing a ball to go and fetch. (It's still up in the air on whether Kip enjoys the long throws or not.)

Here are a few pictures and videos of our (now grown up) puppy, playing fetch. So if you ever see us on a walk carrying a ball, you'll know that Kip's day is about to be made!

Sometimes, even though Alexa doesn't approve,

Kip and I play in the house as you can see above!

He tends to get a little distracted when returning the ball, we're working on it!

One thing that Kip has mastered is catching the ball in the air, he loves to do this as you can see!

It's a Party!

Every year, about this time Alexa and I spend a Sunday afternoon helping out on Dwight and Bonnie Sanders' farm. For what reason, you may ask? To transform their yard from your typical farmhouse, to that of a pumpkin farm.

Alexa and I spent a few hours out there this afternoon helping to pick pumpkins in the field, place them (gently) in the truck and haul them back to the house. I think I heard before we left that there ended up being 37 truck loads brought onto the farm from the field, including big pumpkins, small pumpkins, squash and gourds. It was a great time (and very hard work), but we had a lot of fun! It's something that we look forward to each year, as a reminder that fall is just around the corner. So here is a look at our day through a few pictures:

Here is Alexa enjoying the perfect day, carrying her pumpkin to the truck.

Here is part of the pumpkin-picking crew.

Alexa, loading pumpkins in the truck to Jason.

My job-title... pumpkin catcher. I was on the truck all day

catching pumpkins and (carefully) placing them in the truck.

Alexa, again carrying pumpkins to the truck.

Here is one of my masterfully loaded trucks looked like when we were finished.

We did about 6 loads similar to this during the afternoon.

Here are a few pictures to show you what the farm looks like

after we get through with the fall-season transformation!

If your interested in visiting their farm this fall, here is a map of where they are located. We definitely had a great time again this year and look forward to returning to pick out our first pumpkins for our house!

The Knack

I think in the past Alexa has referred to me on this blog as an Enginerd. She learned this phrase from my roommate this past year, Andy. So what? I enjoy crunching numbers and look at the cost of driving to a different gas station to get cheaper gas (it's called total cost). I was shown this video by a friend and thought it would give people (especially Alexa and Andy) a good laugh!

So that video was kind of a low blow to me and my profession, so in order to regain my street cred (what?) check out this video showing the awesomeness of Engineers!

I thought you would like it! Enjoy the rest of your Friday!

September 15th, Really?

Where does time go?!? Sorry for the long break in posting... lets just say that we have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. So I just thought I would fill you in on what is happening with us.. then hopefully we will get back to regular posting. However, I'm not making any promises as we have many exciting things coming in the near future that will keep us busy (no there is no baby on the way). Other than that, Payton has been staying busy at work... okay really busy. I have been staying busy teaching spinning and going to school, which is taking up way more time than I would like it to, but that is usually how it goes.

On top of that we have done a few things to our house over the last few weeks.

The first one.. we painted two of our three porches.. and let me tell you this was a job. But they do look much better. Take a look...

(Check out the cute bench I found!)

We also have been working on remodeling our bathroom. So far we have just painted it, took out a cupboard and medicine cabinet and replaced the old lights. Here are a couple of pictures before, well as we are working...

(You can see where we took out the cupboard and the medicine cabinet)

And here is the new color...

There will be more pictures coming when we get completely done...

We have also been training for a triathlon we competed in this past weekend. It was the Cy-man at Big Creek State Park. I wasn't really too thrilled to do it, but I did. And I hate to say it, but it was fun and not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I only wanted to quit a couple of times, all of which were on the running part. But I made it through and it felt good afterward. I finished with a time of 1:29.44 and Payton finished with a time of 1:22.46 We both did really good and are very impressed with our times. We both agree that spinning helped us out tremendously as we had not really been training too hard before and we hadn't swam in over a month. Here are a few pictures.. sorry no action shots this time.. I didn't allow spectators to come and watch this one...

This is taken before the race... I was sure it was going to be the last picture ever taken of me... I'm glad it wasn't

And here we are after the race.. Alive and Well. You can tell we are both much happier at this point!

And we gave ourselves a treat after it was all over...Hickory Park!

Back to School... Part 2

So as you know already, Alexa went back to school yesterday! So I thought I would weigh in with my view of what has been happening around the house. I thought it would be easiest to explain through a top 5 list, so here we go.

"Top 5 things that have changed at the Schirm house since Alexa's going back to school"

#1 - We MUST live by the calendar.
#2 - Packing our lunches every Monday and Wednesday night will replace our dates!
#3 - Her school bag is no longer full of water toys.
#4 - Swimming suits will now be shortly replaced with sweatpants!
#5 - I now get calls to help her find her classroom from 100 miles away!

So there you have it, my top 5 list.

Back to School...

Well today was my last first day of school... Well maybe not. But for my undergraduate it was. Anyways, I started back at Ames today for my last semester. I am driving to Ames 2 days a week to finish up classes. I have three on campus and two online so it shouldn't be to bad. I was looking at some of my syllabus', and they look kind of frightening. I do recall however, this summer talking about missing school. Sometimes it is fun to learn... when it is things you want to learn about. But now that I am back sitting in lecture for a 4 hours every Tuesday and Thursday and then doing the endless papers and studying.. I think I will regret that comment. But for now I am going to feel blessed to be at school learning new and interesting things, I hope.

Anyways today was it. It was actually very strange going to class and then driving all the way back home. I think it is going to be very challenging to get all my work done being that Payton is done and nobody around me is studying. But I will do my best not to procrastinate too long like I am doing right now. But that is beside the point. Now that I am almost finished with school.. and not hating it so much anymore.. I think I will miss it when I am done, especially Iowa State. It was the best school for me. Good thing God has a plan for my life because I did not want to go there. Actually I didn't even have plans to go there until about May of my Senior year of high school. It just goes to show that God is bigger than we can ever imagine and even when we don't think it is the right choice, if God is calling you to do something, then do it because He is always right.

But Iowa State and all that it came with it (SALT) changed me in more ways that I could have dreamed. And now that I am finishing my last few classes and my last few times on the campus I can look back and just be thankful that I had the opportunity to attend such a great school, get a great education, and experience all the awesome things that God did while I was there. I mean geez He could have sent me to Iowa.....

But anyways, enough of me ranting... I really do need to study.

VITALITY

It's official, I am going to be starting up a spinning studio and hopefully later on nutrition counseling here in Vinton. It has been a long haul of working out the details, writing a business plan, presenting it to the bank, requesting a loan, figuring out how many bikes to order, ordering the bikes and now getting people to sign up, but I'm sure it will all be well worth it once I actually get to begin doing the fun stuff.

The business is going to be called, Vitality: Beyond Fitness. Here is the logo, thanks to Angie Sanders...

For the first few months I plan on teaching just spinning classes. I know, I know many have no idea what a spinning bike is or what a class involves. Here is a picture of the spinning bikes that I am purchasing:

And for what a class involves; well basicially it is just like riding a bike outside except with a lot more sweat and tears involved. I'm just joking, usually there are no tears, but there is a lot of sweat. Much more than you would think. Anyways, you will just have to try it to find out for your self.

Later I hope to add nutrition counseling and other fitness classes to the mix. Well spread the word and if you are interested let me know. My business e-mail is fitness.vitality@gmail.com if you would like to sign up.

Aloha...

We made it back from our lovely honeymoon to the Big Island of Hawaii. It was an amazing trip full of many stories of course. The trip in itself is a do again. If anyone desires and active vacation (I know that is an oxymoron to some) I would definitely recommend going with Backroads (click here). Although I'm not going to lie, it was tough and I would train more next time. I only thought I was going to die a couple of times and I only had to walk my bike up the mountain once. Which I must say I thought was pretty good. But I will reiterate that the trip was amazing!

We got to bike along the coast and around the rim of a volcano. We got to hike into a volcanic crater and through lava tubes (not my favorite part as I am a bit claustrophobic but very cool in itself). We got to kayak in the ocean where we encountered a school of dolphins and snorkeled with them in the water. We got to snorkel and cliff jump (which was a bit scary for me, but apparently not for Payton as he did it numerous times from the highest possible point of course). And yes we did lay on the beach and by the pool although, we never did it long as Payton and I always got bored. But we did relax somewhat, the last day I guess.

Here are a few pictures and narrative of our trip....

Payton body-surfing on the waves...

A beautiful sunset...

The girls happy to make it up the mountain (7 miles, 1500ft elevation gain)...

Fresh bananas straight from the tree...

Two lovebirds on an adventure on their bikes...

Cooled lava...

Enjoying the black sand beach...

The beautiful Hapuna beach (out our hotel window)...

Preparing for our kayaking adventure...

The backroads van (the van that hauled us around all week)...

On our way, (4024 feet down, 32 miles) to the beach...

The volcano venting poisonous gases behind us...

One of the many sea turtles we found sunning on the beach...

Another beautiful sunset...

Dressed up for dinner...

The wonderful, delicious food...

The bike...

The beautiful lookouts...

Snorkeling...

Lounging on the beach...

The volcanic crater...

Waterfalls...

And yet another sunset...

Payton, trying to be a native (he needs a little more sun)...

Pictures don't do this island justice. It was a great time and we hope to have the opportunity to go back some day!

MAHALO!