We are moving to Colorado!!

... Just kidding! But seriously, isn't this beautiful?!

Road trippin'

Hello from Fort Collins!!

Matt and I are spending the weekend in Colorado. He had some vacation days at work and we needed some time away from Wichita and work and all the things that keep us going, going, going. It is going to be a short trip, but we are so looking forward to spending time with Matt's best friend, Zack and his sweet wife Missy, and their new fur baby, Miles.

So far the trip has gone smoothly. Our super dog was been such a good travel companion- she just laid in the back seat and would occasionally get up to nuzzle our necks before laying back down. The only issue we encountered on the way here was a bad case of the "alti-tooties" for Matty. If you are wondering what exactly the alti-tooties are then you probably aren't alone. I had never heard of them until Matt told me about them on our Dower family vacation to Aspen in June. Apparently going up in altitude can cause a person to have bad gas? Jury is still out on whether or not there is any scientific reasoning behind the altitooties. Regardless, I am just glad Matt was comfortable enough with my family (remember, this was his first Dower family vacay) to not be embarassed about his struggles. Of course having two younger brothers means that farts are a common form of entertainment around my parents' house. Boys, ha. I have some cute [and some funny] pictures from the weekend that I can't wait to post, but until then I will leave you with one of the few I have on my phone from "Old Town" last night.

Love all the Christmas lights!! Hope your weekend has been as fun as ours :)

Bets 

bar stool

This past year Matt has been teaching both the middle school and high school students at Eastminster. It has been fun but exhausting. We look forward to the blessing that the new associate director of student ministries will be to the students and to us! This morning I interviewed with the elder board as the final step in my membership process (YAY!) and when I came out from my interview I met up with Matt who had been teaching Sunday school. Usually he goes and picks up donuts or bagels for his Sunday school classes but this morning he left a box of graham crackers on the counter for the high school students and wrote a note on the whiteboard that said "I am teaching the middle school students. Will be back at 10:05. Enjoy a graham cracker. -Matt" When he came back from teaching the middle schoolers the students had changed the sign to read "I am teaching the middle school students. Will be back at 10:05. Enjoy a gram of crack. -Matt" Good thing no parents saw that message- they might have questioned his methods.

In other news, I thought I had ended the year-long hunt for bar stools when I got a great deal on 4 stools at Kirklands.

These babies were a mere $59.99, which, in the world of bar stools, I have learned that is quite the deal. However I continued my Sunday afternoon shopping journey back closer to home and ended up at World Market. I love that store. I have been eyeing some of their tables (because I am tired of windexing our glass table after every. single. meal. and while there I discovered some real beauties-

Now that is my kind of bar stool. When I showed the two pictures to Matt he laughed and said they looked the exact same. So not true. The ones I bought from Kirklands have a janky zipper on the back and do not feel as sturdy as the World Market chair. But then again you probably get what you pay for and these babies retail at $169.99... almost triple the cost of my Kirkland chairs. What is a girl to do? The good news is that World Market is running a 25% off all furniture sale through the end of November so that makes their bar stools slightly more realistic. Right now I am planning on returning my 4 chairs and buying two of the chairs I love... because quality over quantity- right? Basically I can sum the whole debacle up in one Pinterest quote:

Amen.

Hope you all had a happy Sunday!

Christmas is coming!

I am a firm believer in starting Christmas celebrations November 1st. That means as I pack up my Halloween decorations I simultaneously am pulling out Christmas decorations. I have been helping a decorator friend of mine do a few homes for Christmas which has me feeling a little underwhelmed with my own decor. However I found some cute letters while I was out and about yesterday and did a little garland project. So here is a [very] little sneak peek of Christmas at the Jaderstons.

For a craft that only cost me $1 and 20 minutes I am pretty pleased! More to come later :)

Bets

Highs and Lows, part 2

Annnnnnd we are home. Again. So thankful for this past weekend and the time we got to spend with the students and so thankful to be home. I am in the market for a new camera and my sweet sis let me borrow one of her nice photographer cameras so I could see if I liked using that particular model. You may notice that some photos are dark, out of focus, etc. and you will just have to bear with me as I am learning how to use a camera that requires more than just pointing and shooting. It is a whole new ballgame, and I am excited to be learning! To continue my camp tradition I will go through the highs and lows of this past weekend after I give you some of the results of my [very] amateur photography.

 silhouette of my sweet husband as we were heading west on 400... I would love to say that it was intentional, but alas, I don't know why it ended up so dark- but I like it.

 

 and here we go, you can actually see his face... love that face.

 this is what I have dubbed "retreat hair"

 we had the jeep packed to the brim and poor Boo dog wasn't left with a whole lot of space

selfies are not near as easy with "real" cameras

 love these sweet sophomores

 :)  

 my small group... some of who got cut out of the shot on the left side, my bad.

the speaker, Jon Brubaker, was a friend of Matt's from high school they hadn't seen each other in 4 years! I think one of my favorite parts of the weekend was hearing them reminisce on the good ol' days on our way to drop him and his wife Alexis at the airport... Jon was laughing so hard he was in tears in the backseat!

Joey's small group had a singing dance party in the kitchen during their KP duty... I wish I had learned how aperture worked before this happened.

 what. a. babe.

 love this group!

the freshmen dance party in the chapel during free time- these kids LOVE to dance... there was also a swing dance party after the bon fire on Saturday night. I think there may be some kind of swing dance event in the works for the summer retreat now..

 little Pepper was cracking me up... her moves, her expressions- hilarious

 Tuesday night D group! :)

 peace

 beautiful girls

 more prettiness

 Katherine and the sophomores... and photobomber in the back

Betsy-Katherine-Lauren-Caroline-Kalynn

the girl leaders (minus Joey and Rachel)... it was such a fun group of leaders this past weekend!!

so here we go-
Low: I have been fighting through a sinus infection since last Thursday. It is no fun being somewhere so fun when you don't feel great. Aside from that I would have to say the only real low from the weekend was when Matt brought Boo up to the lodge from having been down at the bonfire [being there was likely her weekend high] and she had s'mores in her fur. Whenever he takes her to activities she usually comes back either covered in stickers, wet, or with a nice layer of lily pond scum on her face- but to come back covered with marshmellow (which then was coated with dirt) was a new predicament. I ended up having to cut the sticky mess out of her fur and she has these spots on her legs and the side of her stomach that just look mangy. After two consecutive weekends of being at the woods we had planned on taking her in to be groomed this week and now that her fur is all patchy I feel like I should wait until it grows out until we take her in. It is like when I was little and my mom always made us clean the house before the cleaning lady would come... seems kind of redundant. I know the groomer has probably seen worse, or at least that is the idea that I preach to myself every time I go in for a pedicure.
High: There were a lot of highs this past weekend, but I think worship in the chapel was probably the best part. Katherine did a phenomenal job leading. I loved when they sang the song "Oceans"... that chapel holds a lot of great memories from a different time in me and Matt's relationship and it is fun reflecting on that as we build new memories together in this newlywed stage of life. Being there constantly reminds me of God's goodness and how much I have to be grateful for!!

Looking forward to an exciting [and busy] week ahead! Starting with my favorite person's birthday tomorrow :)

Betsy