Tagged for a Cause

I've been tagged...but it's okay, because it is for a good cause. It's the season of giving, you know.

My friend Jen's husband works for Habitat for Humanity (HFH) out in Colorado. Now, I don't live in CO, but I know that Dan's job means a lot to him and that it does a lot of good for A LOT of people! That makes me smile. So HFH is doing a fundraiser so that they can reach out to even more needy families. It’s called “HFHSVV Five Dollar Difference” and it goes like this - five minutes of time to donate five dollars and pass it on to five friends. The goal is to reach $15,000 by the end of the year.

So I thought about it and decided that $5 isn't really much of a sacrifice for us right now and that it was feasible. If you think that you and your family could spare $5, please consider donating.
I'm supposed to tag 5 people, but if you are reading this, just go ahead and consider yourself tagged.

Here's what to do:
Click the picture below. Donate 5. Send to 5 more friends. Then, leave a comment on Jen's blog page, cause she'd like to keep track of how far this can go. Plus, if you comment, she'll even send you a copy of her fun Christmas mix CD that she likes to call, "Christmix 2009". Piece of cake!

click here to donate!

Family Photos

Erin Duggin took some fall photos of our family recently. I am in love with them for so many reasons...here are a just few:

1. I think Erin is amazing and so talented. She always captures the perfect moments, like this one:

2. I LOVE fall!! I love fall weather and fall colors! It is my favorite season and it just makes me happy to have some family photos during this time of the year.

3. I bought the dress Sophie is wearing in the pictures for her 1st birthday, and I think it's so cute on her, so I'm glad we have some great photos of her in it! :)

4. I've always been a fan of fields. Yep, you read that right. I love fields. I love the patterns made by the tractors; I love fields of grains that turn a deep red in the fall; I absolutely LOVE fields with one single oak tree in the middle (there's a great one on the way up to the rural town where I went to college), and I especially love fields of tall grasses in the fall...which is perfect, because that's where this photo shoot took place...by happenstance, actually.

So, if you want to check out the rest of them Click here and enter schaeferfam as your password. I think you'll see why I love them so much!
Thanks Erin!!

My Big Brother

I have to give a little shout out to my brother. Click here and here for some cool stuff he's featured in. (The video takes a while to upload.)
As we were growing up, I always said he'd be the next Frank Lloyd Wright and that students would learn about him in their art history and architecture classes in the future. I do believe he's well on his way.
Sooooo proud of you big brother!!

More Cute-ness!

She refused to put this apple down. Don't worry...we were watching her closely.

Her bangs were in her eyes, so I put her in her first pseudo "pony-tail."

A visit to Kansas

We went to Lawrence for Poppy's birthday mid-October. She's four and I can't believe how fast it has gone! As always, it was great to see my brother and his family!

My parent's with all the grandkids.

Poppy & Oskar adore their Uncle Matt (I mean, what kid wouldn't?!), and that warms my heart!

I love how this pic captured Sophie banging on Oskar's head.

It doesn't get much cuter, folks! This one's a keeper.

Swings in the new house while it's under construction. How fun!

Grandma & her girls.

Poppy & Oskar think it is hilarious to make goofy faces for pictures. It was a challenge to get them to just smile.

My brother was able to take a break from working on their house to have dinner with us Saturday night...which explains the paint all over his face.

We hit the pumpkin patch Sunday morning. It was COLD, but fun! Oskar was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin, and Poppy collected about 10 of them before she chose her favorite.

This was the best one we got of them with our pile of pumpkins. After about 30 mintues of searching, Oskar finally found one he was satisfied with. He's got his hand on it in this picture.

Back That Thang Up

Let's back up here a bit.

When we got back from Wisconsin, I only had about a week before heading back to work for the school year. Sophie was moving around like crazy at that point, and you could totally tell she was going to take her first step very soon! I prayed and prayed that she would take that first step before I had to go back. I even sat her down and made her promise that I'd be there when she did it. TWO DAYS before my first day, we were in the church nursery and she reached that major milestone! I was SO relieved that I was there for it and that our sitter didn't have to lie to my face to avoid telling me she did it while I was gone.

Then school started and the craziness began. First of all, this transition back to work was definitely harder than my transition back in December. Sophie is so much fun now and we had such a great summer together. It was much more difficult to leave her all over again. To make matters worse, after three days back with our old sitter we decided it was time to switch daycare situations. We found a friend who said she was willing to help out for the year. Well, two weeks later she decided it wasn't working out for her, so we were back at square one. Matt was still job searching at the time, so we decided he would stay home with her. About 2 days into that he got a job! MAJOR PRAISE! We are so excited, but it put the pressure on for finding a new daycare. Needless to say, all of that was very stressful. Thankfully, we had a week or two before Matt started, so we had a little leeway. Matt starts this Monday and on Friday we finally found a great fit for Sophie! We are praying it works out as well as it seems that it should and that Sophie transitions smoothly.

In the midst of all of the daycare drama, my school thought it was a good idea to rearrange my schedule and the classes I teach on the THIRD day of school. Yep. You read that right. School had already begun and they gave me a brand-spankin-new class to teach. Freaking awesome. Not really. I pretty much feel like a first-year teacher all over again. I'm teaching 2 preps I've never taught before, along with my tried and true 11th grade English.

There was a night after work when Matt and I had put Sophie to bed and we were sitting out on our patio, when I realized that I had NEVER been so stressed out in my life. My baby was being jumped around from place to place and not dealing with all of the transitions very well at all, she was getting 3 new teeth all at the same time, my life at work was a disaster, Matt was hitting dead-end after dead-end with the job search, and the only thing that could solve all of my issues would force us to declare bankruptcy. Quitting my job just wasn't an option...but it sure was tempting.

Now that Matt's working (or about to start), we have a great daycare option for the school year, and things are settling down at work, I finally feel like I can exhale. And that's a good feeling.

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA lately. Life has thrown a few curves and I've had a hard time keeping up. Regardless, I have lots to post about. Not sure when all that will happen, but just know I'm still here and haven't given up on blogging...yet. Hopefully life will slow down soon and I'll be able to catch all of you up on some things I want to share. Primarily, Sophie's first birthday and all of her new tricks. Stay tuned...