I did it!

Well I reached my goal and ran my first 5k this morning. I was pretty nervous, especially this morning, but once I started running...I actually had fun! And the best part is I finished in my best time yet...right about 35 minutes.

So will I do it again...yes! It was pretty cool to watch some of the half marathoners coming across the finish line...very inspiring. And I just kept thinking..."if those people can do this...so can I!"

She's 24!

That is what my sweet 3rd graders wrote on a TON of signs and put all around my room for my birthday on Wednesday.

Well, Wednesday was my birthday but we really started celebrating last week when we were home with the rest of the Branigans and finished up our celebrating last night! On my actual birthday I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of red gerber daisies and a funny card from the hubs. Then when I went to school my sweet friend/teammate Shelley greeted me with a starbucks coffee tumbler full of starbucks chai latte! Yumm!! Later in the day after lunch my class gave me a birthday party which was out of control/chaotic/hysterical. My homeroom mom brought in cupcakes that spelled out "Happy Birthday Mrs. Branigan" and ice cream. She even brought in toppings for the ice cream so we could make sundaes! On top of all that my class gave me a really cool gift...There is a Culinary Center in downtown Overland Park that has cooking classes and they gave me a gift certificate so I could go take a class! The funny thing is that I have been wanting to do that since we moved here and they didn't even know that. They also gave me some fun cooking gadgets and one of my little boys gave me planted tulips. (I hope I don't kill them...I don't exactly have a green thumb...)

Well Chris and I finished up the celebrating last night at Red Lobster. We ate coconut shrimp, garlic shrimp, and crab legs! It was SO good. And I have to give the "Best Crab Leg Cracker" award to none other than Chris. I don't know how he doesn't but he gets all the meat out! Haha.

All in all I would say it was a fabulous birthday!

Culture Shock

So as of late, we have come to realize that there are many of our friends who are completely unaware of our highschool mums. We have actually had quite lengthy conversations and mixed reactions from our friends as we "google image" search for pictures. Well the wait is over...while we were home we each dug out a mum and garter, dusted them off, and took a few pictures!

kick'em!

Spring Break!

Oh my goodnesss...where have I been?!

Well, Chris and I got to go home to Dallas for just a few days during spring break and we had so much fun seeing Chris's family. (My family was in the Grand Canyon with Taylor so we'll have to catch up with them next time!) Most of the time we just hung around and vegged but we did manage to make it to Spring Creek for some barbeque! My birthday is coming up so we celebrated a little early and I really can't think of a food I miss more than Spring Creek. Haha. These Kansas people really don't know how to do good barbeque.

We also had some yummy Red Oven, Red Velvet Cake. I don't think it could get much better than that!

Ok, since this post has turned into a food fest, I'll just leave you with a few pics!

(We are really working on taking more pictures I promise...)

Can there really be 24 candles on that cake?!

Chinese New Year!

Well for almost the past year I have been involved in teaching ELL (english language learner) classes at our church. The majority of my students are Asian and it has just blessed my heart so much. I really fell in love with the Asian culture when I had the opportunity to go to Taiwan during college and I have been wanting to go back ever since. So anyway, each Wednesday night I get a small taste of what that would be like.

Today however, we got a BIG taste of what that would be like when we went to a Chinese New Year celebration at the Chinese church that many of my students go to. We rushed there right after church and made it just in time to eat. We ate rice (of course!), noodles, shrimp, egg rolls and more. Chris was more adventurous than me and had the pork and chicken with his meal. Everyone we met was more than kind and hospitable toward us. I'm really glad we were able to go for my students and for our sake. In college Chris wasn't able to go with me to Taiwan and eventhough he has completely adopted my love for the Asian culture as his own, I was glad that today he got to actually experience some of it.

Unfortunately we forgot the camera so I figured I would put some pictures up from my trip to Taiwan! Because no blog post is complete without pictures!!

I know Christmas was almost a month ago...

But we still want to share some pictures!! We got to spend almost our entire Christmas break back home in Dallas and it was so, so good to be home. We had a wonderful time with both of our families and were a little sad when it was time for us to come back to KC. ( I think I was a little more sad than Chris, mostly because he was drugged with Dramamine the whole way home due to the stomach bug that is going around...). Here is our vacation in pictures...

Liz got engaged!!

Yay!!! And they have the sweetest video of the proposal...

We went to the Christmas Eve service at Fielder...it was very nice.

Christmas at the Penland House

Steven and Jenny

This was one attempt at a Branigan Family Photo. (note the t-shirt...awesome.)


Finally got one!

My creation from David's birthday celebration at Macaroni Grill. This is what happens when you mix a teacher with crayons...

Merry Christmas!

New Look!

Well, Robin inspired me to make a new header and I really love it EXCEPT for the fact that now I cannot figure out how to keep it white in the middle where the text is and put a cute design in the background that shows up on the sides...If anyone can help me with that PLEASE help me! Also, I really can't figure out how to make my header wider...if you know how to do that too...that would be FABULOUS!

Well I also haven't updated about all our Christmas adventures yet either but that will have to be another time! We are having friends over tonight and I need to start cleaning!!