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A glimpse inside our new house (and life) in Pawhuska, Oklahoma

Ann — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 19:51:21 +0000

It was two weeks ago yesterday that we moved into our new house in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and we are so excited to be here! We spent much of the first week unpacking, getting utilities hooked up, and just finding our way around town. We brought a U-Haul full of stuff from Nebraska and are trying our best to fill in with purchases made locally in Pawhuska. We’ve been to four auctions, scavenged the local thrift and consignment stores, and found some things at local places like The Buckin’ Flamingo, Prairie Cottage, The Book Burrow, and The Pioneer Woman Mercantile. Admittedly, we’ve had to run to nearby Bartlesville for a few items and did some online shopping for things we couldn’t find in town, but the house is really coming together and feeling more like home every day. The decorating is not complete and we still need to finalize a few details like end tables, lamps, and chairs (ha!), but we wanted to give y’all a little peek inside our place, anyway. So here we go! First, you must know that the former owners did an amazing job remodeling this 1,500 square foot, 1930’s craftsman house. They stripped all the wood […]

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How (and why) we served 250 meals in a week and what we’ve been up to lately

Ann — Sat, 19 May 2018 16:10:03 +0000

So, we’ve been just a little bit busy the past week. Let’s catch up. Having arrived home from a trip to Oklahoma the Friday before, we spent the weekend cleaning the house and getting things organized for house guests. Last Tuesday night (well, actually early Wednesday morning) a family of five from St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean arrived at our house. They were staying with us for a week to and attend and celebrate their son’s graduation from Doane University in the town where we live. We’ve known their son, Michael, for three years and had met the Tross family when we visited St. Kitts in 2016, so it was a real honor to welcome them to our home. Wednesday was also my 49th birthday and can I just say thank you all for the hundreds of well wishes and Happy Birthday greetings you sent? I heard from so many old friends, new friends, family members, former colleagues, and high school classmates. It made for a wonderful day and I felt so loved. We had a busy evening as I presented scholarships at a high school awards banquet and then we cheered on our Crete High men’s soccer team […]

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Traveling with my mom and the lessons I learned

Meghan — Sun, 14 May 2017 11:55:45 +0000

Note: This guest post was written by our daughter, Meghan Shrewsbury in 2017. Meghan is now a cardiac ICU nurse in Tulsa, Oklahoma. By Meghan Shrewsbury I think I was born to travel. My first trip traveling with my mom (aside from the one through the birth canal) happened when I was only five days old. I flew on a plane from South Carolina, where I was born, to Nebraska to meet my grandma. Since then, I haven’t really stopped traveling. My mom had me when she was 24. She was single and working full time as a sports writer for a newspaper in the south and it was just the two of us until she married Steve when I was 16. And while we didn’t necessarily have a lot when I was growing up, she always made sure I knew about the world around me. She made it a priority for us to travel, and over the years I learned so many important lessons traveling with my mom. I’m 22 now and just so you know, I’m not big on blogging. But as I thought about it, the lessons I’ve learned traveling with my mom have made me the woman I am […]

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So, I kinda quit my job.

Steve — Fri, 05 May 2017 12:03:38 +0000

A little more than a month ago, I sat down and wrote a letter to my boss. It is one I’d been thinking about for awhile, and as I said in the letter, I wrote it with mixed emotions. I have been an educator most of my adult life. I didn’t really set out to be one, it just kind of happened. When I graduated from Lawrence University with majors in Spanish and anthropology, I had taken no classes in education and swore up until graduation I would never be a teacher. That was all well and good, except I had no job. Then, I heard that the state of Mississippi offered a unique opportunity for anyone willing to move there to teach. So, much to the relief of my parents, I agreed to teach for two years in Mississippi in exchange for a salary, health insurance, and a free masters’ degree from Ole’ Miss. With the exception of one semester off when I learned to fly airplanes, those two years turned into six with Greenville, Miss., public schools and my career in education was born. Eventually, I decided it was time to move back to the Midwest to be closer to family. […]

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Our Journey of a Lifetime

Steve — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 22:18:39 +0000

It has been said that a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. It was Aug. 27, 2011, that Ann and I took our first step together as we walked down the aisle at Westminster Presbyterian Church as a husband and wife. Since that day, we’ve been on an amazing life journey. As we celebrate our fifth anniversary today, we thought we’d share some of our most memorable experiences. As we look back, we are thankful for the opportunities we’ve had, and are even more grateful that we could experience these things together. Honeymooning in Costa Rica Great weddings require a lot of planning. I was happy to be involved in planning our wedding. I told Ann from the start that I trusted her judgment—I just wanted to work on the honeymoon. I cooked up a wonderful week in Costa Rica with what Ann called the perfect mix of relaxation and activity. We basked in a volcanically heated river on the side of Arenal Volcano, took a zip-line adventure 400 feet above the treetops, and enjoyed what is probably the most romantic dinner of our lives—in a private gazebo in the rainforest served by our own chef and waiter. We loved the Costa […]

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