OK. So, I thought my neglecting the blog was a result of the emotional stuff I was dealing with after my mom passed. And, no doubt that was part of it. But, now that I'm doing better (thank you, anti-depressants!!), I'm finding that it's just life in general that is keeping me from posting. I'm working full-time for the first time since I've had kids and their lives are increasingly busier, so I'm just not committing the time to posting. So, I'll be updating the blog, but I've decided it won't be a daily. weekly, or even monthly thing probably. Sorry. So, when I do update, well.....it's going to be quite an update!! So, here is our last 4 months, in a nutshell. :-)
VALENTINE'S DAY PARTY
Now that Madie and Noah are in Jr. High, the only parties I go to now are for Livie. We had a fun time, so I thought I'd share a couple pictures of her that day. :-)
SPELLING BEE
Madie won the Spelling Bee at her school in Feb, so she was able to attend the county Spelling Bee that is held at her soon-to-be, new high school! She was very nervous, but made it to the 4th round. We were really proud of her! She misspelled "Wiseacre". She spelled it with an "er" instead of an "re". She had never heard of that word before, but I told her it was another word for Noah. ;-) Two of the judges that day were the choir director and his wife from our church. Seeing them up there really helped calm her nerves. And, in their sweetness, they called afterwards and let her know how proud they were of her. I love our church family!
WALKING DEAD CONVENTION
For Christmas I got Pete tickets to go to the Walking Dead Convention up at Navy Pier. For those who don't know what that show is about, it's our very favorite show and it's about zombies. Sounds weird, yes, but it's a fantastic show and we (I) was so excited to go! Especially since some of our best friends were going with us. They too are diehard fans! We got to meet a few of the actors from the show, which totally geeked me out, and we just had the best time! It was the first time in a long time that Pete and I were able to hang out together without the kids. It was an awesome day!!
Our friends, Jayson and Laura, outside of Glen's RV.
This is one of the actors we got to meet. I was a total dork when I met him, but it was great!
I took Livie's "Pat the Zombie" book, which is a take off of the "Pat the Bunny" book, only with a zombie rabbit instead of a cute, cuddly one, and had the guys and gals from Face-Off sign it. That's one of HER favorite show and she was so excited to get all their autographs. :-)
This was the other actor Tyrese who was there. We didn't get a picture with him, because every actor you get an autograph from or take a picture with cost about $40-$60 a pop! We tried to though, but he was sold out. Darn it! We love him! We did a picture with Glen, one of other favs, but I can't find the picture to post now. :-( He's a cutie though, let me tell ya!
MADIE'S BIRTHDAY
Madie's 14th birthday came in March and we let her have a sleepover and got her one very special present. An iPhone! You can see from the pictures, that once she opened it, she was pretty darn excited! She's been on that thing almost non-stop ever since. ;-) Her slumber party was the first one she's ever had and they had a great time. We hope to have another one next week to celebrate her/their graduation from 8th grade.
LIVIE GOT GLASSES!
I'm totally going out of order with these pictures, but Livie got her very first pair of glasses in February. She looks so cute in them!
NOAH'S BIRTHDAY
Noah celebrated his 12th birthday, also in February, and he got lots of cool presents. We even took him, and the rest of us too, to a local indoor fun park for the day and the water park on the following day. He got to ride the zipline, go down the big slide, ride a few rides, and more. The day we went to the Water Park, it was like 1 degree. It was bitterly cold, but that didn't stop us from having a ton of fun that day!
SCHOLASTIC BOWL
Madie and Noah were BOTH on the Scholastic Bowl Team this year! Noah, being the smart boy he is, got to be on the A Team as well, so they got to compete together. It was really fun getting to see them do something that is so them! Noah plays basketball, but he's not great at it. But, get him to answer math, science, etc.. questions for points? Well, that's right up his alley! Madie too. So, we enjoyed each meet we got to attend.
KENDALYN'S DANCE RECITAL
We drove back for a quick visit to IN to see Kendalyn's dance recital. She was a penguin and an adorable one at that! We love seeing my sister's kids. They're just so cute! So, it was a fun trip back and we were able to plant flowers at Mom's grave the following day for Mother's Day, which happened to be the following Sunday.
VISITING THE PRESCHOOL
Because I'm a preschool teacher, I loved taking the opportunity to go with my nieces to their preschool while we were back for Spring Break. And, they were pretty excited to have their Aunt Lori go with them. I had to split up my time between their rooms, so neither one of them felt neglected. :-)
EASTER SUNDAY
We had a really special Easter Sunday this year. The kids looked adorable and helped prepared the playground for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Just love my family!
PASTOR APPRECIATION SUNDAY
When we discovered that we weren't going to have enough money this year to give our Pastor a raise (this was the 3 yr we weren't able to do it, because of budgetary issues), I and a couple other elders, decided that we had to do something. So, we decided to throw a special Pastor Appreciation Sunday event for him and take up a love offering to present to him as well. It took a lot of planning, but the people in the church came together and really made it a great morning for him and his family! We were able to exceed our expectations financially for his gift, with people giving THREE TIMES the amount we had hoped for! Then seeing so many come together to plan the luncheon and speak in the service was just awesome!
The kids packed cookies, with little love tags on them for John, to pass out to all that came that day to celebrate with us!
The worship team sang his favorite worship songs and we sang his favorite hymn.
The kids made signs to hang up by the pulpit for him, with messages about how much they like him. :-)
We had four speakers, say something throughout the service. about him. Noah was our youngest and he spoke, briefly, about hos much it meant that Pastor John visited him when he was in the hospital after his Diabetes diagnosis. It was cute!
This is our Pastor, his wife, and one of his daughters. His son was working that day and his older daughter couldn't get home from college. We LOVE this family tons!!
NOAH'S ROOM REDO
Since I started working, 4 years ago, I've made it my mission to do one project a year. Well, the project I have in mind isn't doable until I save up some more money, but we did decide to update Noah's room a bit. We painted it and added some shelves to house all of his geeky stuff.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
END-OF-YEAR PRESCHOOL
I've been working as a Lead 2s Teacher in our Parent/Child Program for 4 years now, but for the first time I was also the Lead Teacher for our 3s class, both morning and afternoon, and I subbed in the 4s classes as well, so I went from part-time to full-time and it's been a VERY full and busy year, but so much fun as well! I'm thrilled that I'll be doing the same thing next year, because I believe in the benefits of preschool and I love building relationships with these kids, their families, and my co-teachers. :-)
This was my morning 3s class this year. They were very high-energy and challenged us at times, but I loved these kids and loved spending my year with them. My co-teacher Lori is my mentor. I was her assist last year and learned so much from her. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with her again this year. I'll have a new assist next year, which I'm excited about, but nothing will replace my time spent teaching and learning from her.
This is my afternoon 3s class and my assist in that class was my friend Cim. We've never worked together, but knew each other, because she's worked there for 8 year. Working together was a total dream this year! She taught me so much about how to build relationships with the parents and is just the funniest, nicest gal ever! We had the best time this year and I'm more than thankful for our time spent together, both in class and not. :-)
I had 3 2s classes this year, so trying to take pictures of them would take up this whole post, that is already too long at this point, but this is my co-teacher, Katie. She and I have worked in this class together for 3 years now and she is just the best. My friend first, my co-teacher second. She's awesome and amazing and I love that we'll continue this class together next year too. I LOVE my job!!!!
END-OF-YEAR SUNDAY SCHOOL
I have just finished up my 9 year as the Sunday School Director for our 3-11 year olds. There were times this year that I thought I wouldn't make it through. The stress of dealing with mom's death took a toll on me, not to mention working full-time for the first time in 14 yrs! But, I made it, with LOTS of help from Pete and my two reliable helpers, Diane and Debbie. Not only did I get to see these kids (and more not pictured) learn the Word of God and hear about his disciples and miracles, but I got to see their faith grow and there is truly nothing better! Not to mention, Livie FINALLY learned all of the Books of the Bible! She's been working on that for a few years now. She was quite proud of herself!
Well, that about does it. That's a LOT to post, but hope it catches you up. We have graduation, concerts, and recitals coming up, so I hope to post more in the next couple of weeks. Whew. I am officially up to date and now you are too!
