Well, another Christmas season is past & my family sure had a nice one. Mom, Austin & I drove out to Dighton (our hometown) for four days to spend with my Aunt & Uncle who still live there & my cousins. It was nice to go back, see friends that I hadn't seen in a long time and spend the days just lounging around being with family & of course eating!! Being back is always great & there will always be something about a persons home town that is very special. I have so many many wonderful memories there, as well as some that are not so good....haha But, as I went out with a few friends from my class that I have known since pre-school we talked, caught up with what was going on in each of our lives, I realized just how special my hometown & my memories from there really are. Carver & my dad drove out to Dighton Christmas Eve morning. We all went to candle light church service at the church I grew up going to. Christmas Eve night & attending the church service Christmas Eve night with all our family was & still is one of my best memories of Christmas. It was always so special & so magical on that night. This was the first time we have been back there since Carver & I have been married so to take him there & share that with him was very special to me. Of course we get to open presents too!! This year we did a white elephant gift exchange which was a lot of fun!! Christmas morning we woke to my 10 year old cousin getting the presents she had asked for!! Also, she pulled her tooth the night before so she also had a visit from the tooth fairy too!! We had another gift exchange that morning and it was really nice. We ate lunch and then it was time to hit the road & head back to the city we all love, Wichita. I need the city life!!!!! We were having Christmas at my parents house so we needed to get back. We went there & had prolly one of the nicest Christmas's I've ever had!!! My dad made us all martini's, we had great food, more martini's, lots of gifts, played a few games, relaxed & laughed & laughed!! It was a wonderful wonderful Christmas!! But ours is not over just yet.....we are heading out to Carver's home town (Quinter) next weekend to be with his family. So back out to Western Kansas again!! I love spending time with carver's family, we always have so much fun together!! So, with the end of 2007 almost here it has been a pretty great year. I just feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful year & can only hope & pray that 2008 is just as wonderful!!!

Hustel & Bustle Of The Holiday Season

The last few days before Christmas are upon us and the insane rush has started to affect me. Carver and I went out last Sunday afternoon and we went to several stores. We had fun laughing, picking gifts out, toys for our nieces and nephew, and just taking our time. It went so smoothly in fact I looked at Carver and said" I can't believe how easy we are getting everything and how we are finding exactly what we want." Well, I spoke wayyyyy to soon. Thought we had everything and we were finished. We went home, sat by the fire, I wrapping gifts, Carver watching football and then we came to realize....we had forgot this, and well maybe we should go back and get that, and lets get that one thing we say too....ughhhhhh So, now I have to go back to the mall tonight and finish up! On top of that, I am needing to make my famous sugar cookies with frosting. Every year since I was in high school I have made sugar cookies with my Grandma Morris's "secret" recipe. I was waiting this year to make them cause I usually make them the week before Christmas and then they are all gone. So, I figured I would wait a few days before so we would have some to eat on Christmas.....I'm running out of time now!!! My mom loves watching me and helping decorate so we decided she would come over tomorrow night and we would make them together.Ok, so the cookies are covered.....This year, for the first time since my Grandma Betty passed away we are going back to my hometown to have Christmas. It is going to be a really special time for my family but emotional as well. We are all really looking forward to it. Spending Christmas with my cousins is how I grew up, special traditions we looked forward to every year, and just being together was what was so important to all of us. It all kind of stopped when we lost our grandma. We also all grew up, my family moved away from the small town and we all have our own families now. So, this will be a very special Christmas in Dighton. But have I packed yet.....not one single thing. And if you know me, then you know I am an over packing, organized crazy woman!! And we are leaving around noon on Friday. So I am worried about that too!!! I love this time of year and now as I am sitting here, drinking my Starbucks latte I am thinking how much the running around and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season I actually like. It keeps you going and makes the days shorter up to the 25Th!! So, I will run to the mall over my lunch break, see what I can get done in an hour, get my hair and nails done after work, go home wrap more gifts, make sugar cookies tomorrow night, pack, and leave Friday.......whoohoooo I am really going to enjoy when Friday arrives! Hope all of you are having as much fun running around as I am this holiday season. Don't forget to stop, look around, count your blessings this Christmas and have a very Merry one!! Happy Holidays!!

Starting to feel like Christmas

I spent all day yesterday folding our Christmas letter, putting the pictures in the envelopes, addressing envelopes, and putting stamps on them! I still have several I need to do yet though. Every year our list grows with more and more people!! I love getting Christmas cards from our friends and family. I love reading what everyone has been up too for the last year and the new and exciting things in their lives. I went out and did a little shopping on Saturday. It was total madness!!!!! There were so many people, it was not even fun!! My mom and I always do our shopping together. It is something I have always done with her and I look forward to shopping for Christmas with her during the holidays!! I have only got a few things bought so I still have a lot to do. This year we be with my family. It will be the first time since my Grandma Betty passed aways that we will be back in my hometown for Christmas. The last time we were back for Christmas there was when she passed away 6 days later. I expect it to be an emotional time with my family. But we are all looking forward to it. It will just be a lot different that's for sure.

Turkey Day!

Well, Thanksgiving is a few days away......& I am running around like a crazy person trying to get things ready to leave to go to my mother-in-laws in Quinter. Laundry, packing, getting the puppies things ready to go to my parents, re-packing cause Carver takes clothes out of his suite case & making food to take. I am sitting her at work & all these thoughts of things I still need to do and get done before we leave are running around in my head....so work has pretty much stopped for the day...lol I love the holidays & it always gets me to thinking about being younger & all the fantastic memories I have of Thanksgiving. There is always one memory that will always haunt me though. In 2001 my dad had massive heart attack that almost took his life the day after Thanksgiving. From that day forward I always told myself I would treasure every holiday with my family and friends as if it would be our last. I have done just that. I lost my my grandma Betty New Years Eve night too. Every holiday, everyday like, like it is the last! Thanksgiving is a special time because of what happened that year, & every year that is the number one thing I am always most thankful for. I am so thankful that my dad recovered & is still with us today. So, we will head to Q~Town tomorrow when I get off work. When we get there carver's sisters, his mom, little brother, our nieces & nephew will be waiting for us, we will have some drinks, make a few plates of nachos , laugh & enjoy being together. I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving & create many wonderful memories as we will do the same. God Bless & love you all. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Getting ready for the Holidays!!

Well, my family thinks I have officially lost my mind....I got out all my Christmas Decorations this weekend!!!! I absolutely love Christmas!!!! Not only is decorating my most favorite thing to do anyways, but decorating for Christmas is something I love to do and I have since I was little! I have everything out & scattered through the entire house. Carver helped me bring everything up from the basement in between commercials of the college football games. I know most people wait till the day after Thanksgiving to get their Christmas stuff out but I first of all am not most people & second, my house is very big so by the time I get it all out, decorated the way I want it & we are able to enjoy it for a few weeks then it is time to take it all down. So.....why not be able to enjoy it a little longer and take my time in putting it all up :-) We are putting up the tree tonight and the other big things I can't do by myself. We have special traditions that we started our first Christmas together and we do them every year on the night we put the tree up. So I am really looking forward to tonight. It is hard to believe it is almost that time!! I hope you all are starting to get in the Holiday spirit too. Thanksgiving is just around the corner!!! My mom & I spent all day Saturday shopping. It was INSANE at the mall.....already!!! So much that there were a few stores we just could not get into and left.....haha I love shopping for Christmas gifts but that was just so crazy! But you can bet we will be right back out there in a few weeks!!

It's Almost Halloween....

It is hard to believe that Halloween is just around the corner. My husband and I were out to dinner a few nights ago & over our Buffalo Wild Wing supper & large Coors lights we were talking about our Halloween Costumes this year and the party we are going to this Saturday night. My husband is from Quinter, KS which means we grew up about 4o minutes away from each other. So, both of us are from extremely small towns and pretty much grew up the same way. I said to Carver, "honey when we have children it is going to be weird to not let them go all over our neighborhood and trick or treat like we used to. So this started a conversation and we both stated reminiscing about being young in a small town, going tall over trick-or-treating with our friends and having so much fun with no worries! Then, in Junior High we would get shaving cream & eggs...which (I never threw eggs), Carver did...haha I love the way I grew up and being from a small town. I look back now and really appreciate it. You can't do that anymore, especially in the City of Wichita. We were talking about what we had dressed up as when we were little & how we both always looked forward to going to school dressed. Here in Wichita, the kids can't dress up and go to school.....that was always the best part about Halloween!! Going to school all dressed up, having a party that are moms would help with in the afternoon, & getting out of school for the parade down main street was so much fun and we all looked forward to it every year! The kids can't do that anymore. I am not even sure if they do that in Dighton anymore? Things sure have changed. I feel so lucky to have got to experience things like that. I love Halloween, the candy, dressing up and another excuse to party :-) I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween & is safe!

End Of The Season

Well, the end of Trinity Knights Volleyball is coming to an end tonight. I am coaching the last game tonight with my JV girls. There is a part of me always torwards the end of the season where I get a little emotional and think about what I am going to do now not going to practice everyday and then I look back.......I will get to stay at work till 5 now and get caught back up on my work and projects that have taken a little bit of a back seat since August, I will now have my evenings back where I can start working out again, spending time with Carver and our puppies and watching t.v., and the best I think of all.....No More Teenage Girl Drama! Hahaha, I love my girls but wow....I don't think I was ever like that ;-0 Oakay maybe we all were... So the season ends and another year of coaching is behind me. I love coaching, I love the school I coach for and the head coach and her assistant are the best woman I have met since living her in Wichita. Just wonderful and friendly people. So, hopefully we can put 4 wins in the bag tonight and end the season with a great record! Go Knights!

I'm getting there.....

Hey, I figured how to get a picture up finally!! It is Saturday and so I had some extra time away from doing laundry so I decided I was going to set down and I was not getting up till I got this silly thing figured out!!! Still a little confused on some things but I will get it figured out. Well, it is just a typical Saturday around the house today. I am doing laundry, my puppies are out in the backyard playing in the nice cool morning weather and Carver is over at the store. I have plans to do a little cleaning, get our guest bathroom on the second level primed so maybe I can paint color tomorrow!!! And then if the day allows I would love to go tan and workout...but we will see I guess. Hope you all have a great Saturday!!!!

I will write more.....just so busy

I have been slacking off a little bit...I am sorry. I need to write more on here. And I think about it, get ready to sit down and write and then I get busy, or someone calls, or I need to change the laundry or the dogs need in....ughhh I could go on and on. I will I promise!!!

Our 2nd Little Caesars Grand Opening!

Well, the day that my parents, husband, brother have been waiting for for the last 6 months has finally arrived today! The Grand Opening of our 2nd Little Caesars Store located on Pawnee & Senneca here in Wichita, opened its doors at 11am this morning! I come from a very small Western Kansas town where I grew up having my first job at 12 years old....now, I was just a baby-sitter but hey, it was a job! My brother worked for local farmers in and around Dighton as young as junior high. We were both raised to work hard and work even harder then next day. Times have not changed!!! My dad is the hardest working person I have ever known. From the earliest I can remember, I have always known my dad to be a hard worker . I used love to go to work with my dad and watch him work. I was always fascinated with him working on his Oil Well blueprints or other random paper work. Going to the legion running around filling ice for him, putting place mats on the tables or filling the pickle jar. Maybe it was just being around my dad that I truly loved the most. Whatever it was I am who I am today because of him. So.... here we are 20 some (wink wink) years later and I still love to watch my dad do what he does best...WORK and build up his businesses. My dad bought into Little Caesars Franchise a few years ago, moved him and mom to Wichita and opened his first store. My brother soon wanted to be partners with my dad and help run the family business with him. A year later, Carver and I were married, we moved to Wichita and dad asked Carver to be apart of the business and be co-owner with Austin. My dad made one of the hardest decisions of his life to move from a town were he and my mom were both born and raised, take a huge chance, marry their only daughter and start a brand new business all in the same year!!! He always told me, "take chances Cherina, I don't ever want you to look back and wish you had tried or done something you knew you could have done." I live by those words from my father! Our first store on Harry & Hillside has been the # 1 Store out of 15 others that my cousins have though out the state of Texas since my dad opened it! I think he made a pretty damn good choice!! So, here we are today and the opening of the second store! In closing, I just want to say how PROUD I am of my parents, brother and husband. There are no words to describe it!! I am so blessed to have the family I have, the values, determination and the opportunities I have been given all because my dad took a chance to give my brother and I something to have and be able to do with what we want in life and our future when he is no longer with us. Family is the single most important thing in the world to me and I love mine more then life!!!

Happy 3 Year Wedding Anniversary

Well, today Carver and I have been married for 3 years!! It honelstly seems like yesterday I was planning and getting things ready for the big day. I guess that is a good thing I feel that way huh?!?! Hahaha...Just kidding! The last three years have been so wonderful and full of memories. In the last year so much has happend...Our biggest news was purchasing our first house. It was such a fun process for us!! We both loved spending the weekenda driving around going from open house to open house. Or having a beer, spending hours on the computer picking out the homes we wanted to go see. Saying we loved this, hated that, who would do that, oh I want that. It was so much fun. Then one day...there it was!! Everything we had been looking for all rolled into one huge house. We knew we loved it, made an offer, went and had a drinks and heard back the next day it was ours!!! It was such a great experience to share with eachother. So, we have been busy...Wait, I mean I have been busy painting and decorating this huge house that I just love!!! Being an Interior Designer does come with some really good perks but, Carver knows when I see something for the house like art work, furniture, rugs, or accessories there is no stopping me. We have had a lot of fun decorating our house and making it our home. The painting is coming along and I just have to stick with it. Dad and I need to finish our foyer and then put the stripes on. I can't wait to see it all finished. Other then enjoying our house, we are loving living in Wichita. We live about 2miles from my parents and my brother is close too. Having them just stop by on any day is the highlight of my day! It makes me feel like we live in a small town, the way Carver and I grew up. Our family business, Little Caesears Pizza is doing amazing and keeps Carver very busy. He love it so much, it is hard for him to be away from it at times....and other times...lol He gets to spend lots of quality time with my dad and brother and he loves that. So, other then loving life and enjoying being married to my best friend and the greatest guy next to my dad, our life is good. I hope yours is too!! Love you all!! The Ostmeyers

New On Here.......

So....this is very new to me and I am not sure what I am doing....so bare with me! I have a childhood friend that has one of these and she lives so far away that it is nice to go to her blog and read what is going on with her and her family and just "catch up" So, I decided I would start one for friends and family to go to and read all about our life and what we are up to. We live in Wichita, Kansas and have lived here for two years now. We both grew up in small, Western Kansas towns. I was from Dighton and he was from Quinter. Our towns were both so simple, quite and a place where you always felt safe. We never locked our doors at night, if you had to run into the grocery store for some milk you left your car running and kids were every where. It was a great way to grow up and we both have memories that we cherish. We grew up 45Min's away from each other, played sports against one another, and never met until our Junior year at college. What is meant to be, I guess. In 2004 Carver and I were married in Hays, Kansas where we had both graduated from Fort Hays State University. Carver with his Business Degree, a minor in Finance and a Certificate in Leadership. I, with my Bachelor of Fine Arts in In Interior Design. We had the classic "BIG" wedding with all of our family and friends. It was just perfect! We stayed in Hays one month after graduating, enjoying being married and our friends. I got a job offer with a Design company in Wichita, Kansas. It was where we wanted to be and move when the time was right and the opportunity came. My parents had moved to Wichita two years prior and they were loving it! My bother, Austin also had moved to Wichita and was attending Wichita State University. I took the job and in June we moved to Wichita! In January Carver and I bought into the "Morris" family business my parents bought two years before.....LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA Franchise! Yep, my parents left small town Western Kansas for city life and pizza....Austin was Co-Owner with my dad while he was going to college. The business was really taking off and was getting harder to handle with just the two of them. Dad offered Carver Co-Owner as well and he is now a Pizza Man!! And in the next two weeks they will have their Grand Opening for the second store!! My dad had a dream of a family business that he could pass on to his kids one day and his dream came true. There are no words to describe how it feels when he talks about it!! So, on to me I guess. I work for a firm in West Wichita and love it! I work with all guys!! I am a little on the spoiled side being the only girl there but these men have become like brothers/fathers to me! I have the 8-5 life style and and loving it! I guess that can catch everyone up to speed a little bit on Carver and I. We are just loving life and each other!! We have two babies in our lives right now..... a five year old Basset Hound, Frisbee and we just got our other baby a month a go. Her name is Carlee and she is a black lab!! Our dogs are our children and we adore them!!! In our spare time we love to try new restaurants, be with our families, go to the movies, out with friends, wine tastings, travel, and going to KU football and basketball games. I guess I will stop there with my very first blog. Hope you enjoy !!!
~Cherina