Adam's Golden Apple Award

Last week, the principal at Adam's school called to let me know that Adam was going to be presented with the Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching from KAKE News! I was so excited and so proud, but had to keep the secret to myself for a whole week! Torture.

I was able to confide in his parents, and they accompanied me and the boys this morning as we tagged along with KAKE News and reps from Freddy's Frozen Custard and Davis Moore to surprise him. They filmed an intro in the lobby of his school before we went to his room:

Heading down the hall to surprise him:

He was completely caught off guard! Here's the guy from Freddy's handing him his giant check:

A fellow teacher, the assistant principal, superintendent, and Adam's parents watching:

Adam with Gloria, the anchor from KAKE, talking to the kiddos:

Adam and Ren being interviewed:

His class got ice cream sandwiches from Freddy's, so they were happy!

Congrats, babe! I'm so beyond proud of you and proud to be your wife!

Tornadoes at a Wedding

I posted this on my photography blog, but figured I'd share it here as well:

We live in Kansas…so I guess it was inevitable.

Even so, I never dreamed the events of last night would really happen. But they did, and it was crazy, but pretty amazing at the same time.

Last night, I was photographing Katie and Chris’s gorgeous wedding in Salina (full wedding blog post will come soon). All day, we’d been battling wind and rain, and we’d heard that tornadoes might make an appearance in the evening. Katie and Chris were AWESOME and totally embraced the attitude of “We can’t do anything about it, so why freak out?” They were so calm and easy-going about it all.

Shortly after arriving at their reception, the DJ announced that there was a tornado headed our way and that we all needed to take shelter in the basement locker rooms and golf club cart storage rooms. All 200+ guests and vendors headed to the basement of the country club, where we proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes waiting it out. I took a photo of the bride and I while we were hunkered down, talking about how great this story will be for their kids.

Wasn’t Katie a beautiful bride?!

Everything passed very anti-climatically, and we were all so thankful. Dinner and dancing resumed, and everyone had an amazing time. Just as my time there came to an end, I received several texts and voicemails from my family telling me to get out of Salina now or to spend the night there. I chose to speed home.

After I’d been on the highway about an hour, surrounded by crazy fast winds and un-ending lightning, I found I was sandwiched in between storms, and there was a second one headed towards Salina, and one on the way to Wichita. I made sure my husband Adam and baby Sutton were safe in our basement and stopped midway between the storms in Newton, where I ended up having to stay the night to avoid driving straight into a tornado warning.

I heard reports that 80-90 tornadoes were confirmed in Kansas yesterday, with the biggest one touching down in Wichita. There was some damage, but thank God no one was killed. Salina inhabitants were lucky as well, and I got a couple texts from Katie saying her night was fantastic and everyone was there good.

Craziness…but definitely a night no one will ever forget!

Axl Likes French Fries

Adam just told me a funny story.

Last night, we had McDonald's for dinner. Adam took a long nap after work so we didn't get around to eating til 8:30 and I was STARVING, so we just went and grabbed something quick. Per usual, I didn't finish my fries.

Adam had a rough time falling asleep due to said nap. So he decided to get up and go downstairs to watch TV during the middle of the night.

Our entire married life, we've slept with our bedroom door closed. Since having Sutton, I've started leaving it open because, even though we have a monitor, I want to have backup in case it breaks or something so I can still hear him. Hence...our dogs have always been confined to our bedroom. Apparently, at least one of them is fond of his new found freedom.

Adam enters the family room downstairs; he turns on the light.

Axl is asleep on the couch with the McD's bag on his head. No french fries in sight.

Things That Make My Life Interesting

This evening, I was playing RockBand in our basement and I was in between songs. I had the drumsticks hanging loosely in one hand and was absentmindedly examining my fingernails on the other hand. There wass suddenly a tug on my drumsticks and I look down. Axl has them in his mouth and is gently trying to take them from me. He wants to be a drummer, just like his mama. :)

Just Wondering?

Does anyone else have a Doberman who won't stop whining til you put him under the covers in your bed? I was wondering if that's normal, or if it's just us...

Things That Make My Life Interesting

I'll let you in on a little secret. I have a morning routine that really shows my laziness. Axl wakes me up promptly at 8am, I get up, feed the dogs, grab a bowl of cereal, and head back to bed to eat, facebook, and blog on my laptop. I figure I can indulge in some laziness in these last months of pre-parenthood.

My faithful dogs are never far away. Sometimes I can't move because of how tightly they've cuddled in on either side of me. For example, right now. If I look to the left:

And to the right (please ignore the messy bedroom):

Things That Make My Life Interesting

This will be another new installment to the Dreher blog. There are so many weird things that go on around our house, I thought people should be privy to just how strange my little family is.

-Adam will never give a straight answer to any question he's asked. Conversations that should be quick, like, "What did you have for lunch?" Turn in to 15 minute discussions of me trying to get him to tell me the truth. Exhausting.

-Axl likes sleeping with a pillow on top of his head.

-Diesel must be "invited" up onto our bed at night. At his insistence, not ours. If we don't ask him to come up there, he sits on the floor next to my side of the bed, shifting his weight and whining until he's finally invited. So annoying.