The Man

So, since Justin's name is in the title of this blog, I figure I should finally introduce him to you. He DID post yesterday, right? So here are the stats:

His family is from Iowa, but he grew up in Raleigh, NC.

He has 2 wonderful parents, an older brother, an older sister, a sister in law and a brother in law.

He was a teaching fellow at Appalachian State University (Go 'Neers!) and now is an elementary school teacher. Last year he taught a 4th and 5th grade combo class at a Montessori School. This year he will be teaching 2nd grade at a traditional school.

He is an Appalachian Trail Thru Hiker, which means that he walked all 2,174 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt. Katahdin, Maine. He carried everything in a pack on his back, and did it in 4.5 months (the average thru-hike takes around 6 months). He is pretty amazing :) Also, he is a earth-friendly tree hugger at heart.

He is so funny, sweet, and he really knows EVERYTHING. Great to have on your Trivial Pursuit team! He plays a billion instruments, and loves apples when it comes to fruit or electronics. He loves people, is a great listener, and is very good at rolling with the punches of life. I could keep going and going and going, but why do that when I could show you pictures?

Here he is at the halfway point of the Appalachian Trail (you can see how skinny he is - he lost about 30-40 lbs on his hike!)

Here he is with a baby chick at the State Fair (we both LOVE the state fair)...

Us with my parents...

Him asking me to marry him... his hair looks extra fluffy in this pic. And Phoebe says Hi, too :)
and again...I have limited photos of him on this computer, but hopefully he can post more often and show you a little more of his life. You all will love him, he's great.

The Man's First Post

Justin Needs...
1. a partner
2. a clever display name with pictures
3. to know, and he needs to hear it from someone who cares
4. an attitude adjustment
5. close supervision
6. to hook up with Jessica Simpson
7. a refill
8. to stop being gay
9. to tie his shoes
10. to learn to stop getting embarrassing pictures of himself taken

(in response to this)

the play by play

this past weekend:
-drove to asheville
-planned a friend's wedding - seriously, the whole thing in one night
-went to another friend's wedding
-taught dance (i'll post videos later)

this week:
-work every day
-teach every day
-get internet at home (yayyyyyyyyyyyy! i can post on weekends!)
-watch olympics
-awaken stuff
-get ready for katie's wedding this weekend
-get passport
-plan honeymoon
-decide on reception band
-schedule dress fittings
-katie's wedding festivities (rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, bridal lunch, get ready, ceremony, reception)
-paint our other hallway?
-lose 5 lbs or 2 inches from my hips?

i need a personal assistant.

I'm not posting enough this week.

I hope I'm not starting to slack off.

Justin and I are hopefully going to hire a band to play at our wedding reception. They are called "soul central", and they are fun. Here is their myspace page. Go listen to them and let us know if you think they would be fun to have at our big party :)

I've been working every night this week at the dance studio. For our competitive team, we have 2 weeks of intensive summer classes at the beginning of summer, and 2 weeks at the end of summer. This week started the second half of "summer dance". On top of teaching class each night, I've been working on solos, duets, trios and small group dances AFTER regular class. It's exhausting to everyone involved, but I really like to get choreography set on the dancers as early in the year as possible. I have to brag on one of our kids - Maddie. I started teaching her 8 years ago, when she was 9 years old. This year she'll be a senior in high school, and I have to say, I dread her graduating! I know that she needs to go to college, and I know that soon I'll be buying tickets to watch her dance in a professional company, but I really don't want her to leave. Last night, we started working on 1 of her 2 solos for this year. We were supposed to have a 1.5 hour lesson, but we decided to change the music, so we really only worked for about 25 minutes. She learns so quickly, and can do anything you tell her to do. Plus, she has a weird ability to read my mind... anyways, here's what we accomplished in 25 minutes yesterday. You better keep an eye out for her on SYTYCD.

Last, another survey inspired by Jennifer P. So you type "*your name* needs" in google, and see what comes up. so here's mine...
Lauren Needs...
1. attention
2. someone with her when she is outdoors (AMEN, I'm scared of everything!)
3. to grow up
4. a myspace (have one already - facebook is better)
5. a hotel room ( i DO need one - for my honeymoon!!!!)
6. to get over it already (get over what?)
7. an acoustic drum kit (hahaha - I'd rather have Rock Band for Wii)
8. to chill out and stay out of other people's business (i think alot of these refer to Lauren Conrad from the Hills)
9. to work on her self esteem (isn't that the truth?)
10. water.

Allow Me to Introduce You...

I'd like for you to meet some new people in my life.

First, there is Hannah Elizabeth, that I've told you about before...what a cutie - all 5 lbs, 15 oz of her :)

And here is my free iron bird themed coat rack thingy.... don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it was free, so I couldn't resist.oops, sorry I didn't rotate this for you...

And lastly, the newest addition to the Almost-Stagner family...isn't she a cutie? Her little sister iTouch iPod is really cute, too.

I am so busy this week with work, teaching, and new choreography. I'll maybe post some videos on here soon :)

one quick list

So, with this one, you post photos of the answers - i'm going to try to find most/some of them on google images to spice it up a bit...
1. Your age on your next birthday.

2. A place you'd like to travel. 3. Your favorite place. 4. Your favorite object. 5. Your favorite food.6. Your favorite animal. 7. Your favorite color.8. The town where you were born.
9. The town where you live. See #8.
10. Name of a past pet.
11. Name of a past love.
12. Best friend's nickname.
13. Your screen name. N/A
14. Your first name.
15. Your middle name.
16. Your last name.
17. Bad habit.
18. Your first job.
19. Name of your grandmother. See #15
20. College major.

and.....
this took forever.... but it was fun - comment to tell me if you did it and i'll go read yours!

MFK, HEP, and Wedding Music.

MFK-
Last night, I took my first class through My First Kitchen. SO FUN! I seriously left feeling confident in the fact that I could really make delicious food. This is a big deal considering I've pretty much never cooked before, ever. If you are in the Greensboro area, please PLEASE set up a class for you and some friends. I promise you won't regret it. And for all my out-of-state blog friends, who are not in the Greensboro area, come visit and I'll take you to a class when you get here! I would love to have a girls night out cooking class with y'all!
HEP-
Yesterday, little Hannah Elizabeth Pugh made her debut! She was 6 lbs even, and apparently she looks just like her daddy, Jonathan. Jonathan and Jennifer are friends of ours that we met through Awaken. Justin and I cannot wait to get to the hospital tonight to love on that sweet baby girl. I'll take lots of pics and share them later :)
Wedding Music-
I need help. We've got music picked out for before the ceremony, when the bride walks down the aisle, during the ceremony and for afterwards. It was so easy to pick. NOW, we cannot decide on ANYTHING for the seating of the mothers, or for the bridesmaids processional. Does anyone have any good ideas?? We don't want super traditional stuff - no cannon in d, jesu..., here comes the bride, blah blah blah... Please help us!