Growing Up

Today I went to a Bubble Party at Livie's school.  I brought some fun games, as did another parent and the kindergarten teachers.  It was a lot of fun for everyone, especially on such a beautiful day!!  I took this picture of Livie and some of her friends.  She LOVES school, because she LOVES her friends!   Just seeing her with her friends today shows me how much this first year of school has changed her.  She's always been the most social of all my kids and today I saw that first hand.  She's growing up fast!

End-of-the-Year Books

Another one of the reasons I have been putting off blogging is because I've been working on completing the End-of-the-Year books for all of my students.  If you're counting, that's 25 books. 

I decided to do them all in primary colors, based off one of their projects.  We did a lesson on their ABCs and with that we did a marble painting of their initial in red, blue, and yellow.  It turned out so well, I decided to make that their cover page and went from there.



You can see from this picture that I cut out their letters, added a small page with their signature on it for the cover.  I have a page all about them, some photo pages, a self-portrait (that I'll add when they do it on Tuesday), and their handprints.  I have nearly all of the 3s done, just have about 3 left.  I have all 14 of my 2s left to do.  Theirs will be a smaller version of this though.  Only a cover page, a couple photo pages, their handprints, and a letter with a picture of us -their teachers.  It's been a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to giving it to them.  But, it's taken up a lot of time.  Making sure I have enough photos of all of them, getting their artwork completed and laminated, etc...  But, I think it will make a great souvenir of their year with us. :-)

Finally... an Update!

It's been nearly 2 weeks since I updated this blog and, for me, that's like an eternity!  I've been totally slacking as of late.  Partly because I've been busy and partly because I just didn't feel like sitting down and blogging.  Forgive me?  I decided to just do one blog post about our last few days just to fill you in.

First thing to report?  I am currently sporting a 3-eyebrow look.  After a little waxing mishap at the salon last Friday, I have not two, but three beautifully shaped eyebrows.  How does this happen you ask?  Well, it's called being a little too expressive when talking to my stylist and getting wax all over my eyebrow.  Try as she might, she was unable to get all the wax off and thus I lost a big chunk in the middle of my left eyebrow.  I just tell people I'm channeling my inner '90s rapper with the slash through my eyebrow.  They can call me Vanilla Ice or shout "Hammertime" when they see me, I totally understand why.  Gotta say, it's been quite the conversation piece and has brought lots of laughter to those around me.  I think everyone should try out the 3-eyebrow look.  It's actually a lot of fun!

Last Saturday I headed up to the Chicago area and had a short visit with my bestie who was in town to see her husband compete in another karate tournament.  Hopefully he'll have lots more up there, because it's a quick, easy 1 hour trip up and we get to not only see each other, but shop too!  Can't beat that!  We headed over to Ikea this time, so I could buy my girls a much needed dresser.  Now I have lots more room to buy my girls clothes!  Hear that, Caroline? ;-)

Noah was a little disappointed that I didn't get him anything, until he realized that he got to build it.  Well, that's all the present he needed and he got right to work!  His interest tapered off once Indiana Jones came on, but he did a lot of the work himself and did a great job!

On Tuesday night, Madie had a band concert.  It was a lot of fun!  Noah and his best friend Nicky sat by me on the bleachers.

While Pete and Livie sat above us at the very top of the bleachers.  For all future concerts, find a way to sit on the floor on the chairs.  Those bleachers were the most uncomfortable things ever!

Since Madie is in Beginning Band, she and her bandmates opened the concert.  The 6th, 7th, and 8th grade bands and choirs finished up the concert.  She did a really great job!!  Even had a flute ensemble solo during one.  Way to go, Madie!!

She got to sit on the floor for the rest of the concert with her friends.  She loved it and everyone there that night did a great, great job!

As we're winding down towards the end of school, I getting busier as I try and finish up all my own school things with my students.  Since this is my only year teaching 3s, because of cut-backs next year, I'm trying to soak in every moment.  Last week I was busy getting prepared and having Parent/Teacher conferences (one of the reasons I didn't get around to blogging) and as a way to say goodbye to that busy work, we were able to take the kids on a field trip to the firestation.  The kids were very excited, especially since we could just all walk down there.  It was a fun day off to enjoy together.  So, that's our last two weeks in a nutshell - concert, field trip, 3 eyebrows.  Good times. :-)

Sabbatical Send-Off

This weekend was a busy, but fun one! Our pastor is going on his sabbatical leave for 4 months and we had a great way of celebrating his send-off.



First, we had the Chicago Staff Band, which is a great Salvation Army band out of (you guessed it!) Chicago. We had the honor of having them come last year as well and it was so moving to hear them play. I was brought to tears several times last year and this year was no different. Music seems to bring me closer to God than most other times. It's a way of worshipping that speaks to me. I think King David had something going there when he sang and danced for God! Last night's rendition of "God Bless America" was beautiful and emotional and truly uplifting.

Because the band was spending the night and playing the next morning they needed people to help house them. We were fortunate and blessed to have Mr. Jeremy (L) and Mr. Brian (R) stay with us last night. They took up the kids' rooms and the kids slept in their sleeping bags in ours. The kids LOVED having them stay and asked them all kinds of questions and told them all about Yetis and lots of other silly things. They didn't want to see them go this morning. When I was a kid, we had lots of visitors. Visiting pastors and missionaries, friends of my parents, family - so many stayed with us over the years because of dad's ministry and it was always fun for us kids to meet new people. I was excited that my kids would get to experience the same thing.

After we dropped the guys back at the church we quickly ran out for breakfast and got back in time to enjoy the service with them again. Again, the music was amazing and just such a great way to worship and prepare for John's departure.

After the service we headed down to the fellowship hall to have a lunch together for the Sabbatical Send-off. The cake says it all!

As everyone was getting lunch ready downstairs, the fellowship team had made up sack lunches for the band and asked the kids to deliver them. You'll see Livie and Pete in the background there. Livie made a note for Mr. Jeremy with sad faces and tears to tell him she would miss him. It was really cute. :-)

Roy and Cathy, our fantastical food creators (is that a unique enough term for them?), made up the meal today. Roy even made up a kids' buffet complete with chicken nuggest and dinosaur-shaped pb&j sandwiches. I helped serve.

My friend Donna and I got a quick picture from our other friend Debbie to commerate the day. Donna and her husband James made all our sabbatical videos leading up to today. I would love to find a way to upload today's version, because it was HILARIOUS! It was done in a silent movie style and cracked us all up! They are such talented people!

Several people got up and spoke with blessings for John and John too talked and shared his thanks and his excitement about his leave. He's going to be doing a lot this summer while he's away, thanks to a special endowment grant we were approved for. I'm very excited for him!

We gave our hugs and promised to pray for a wonderful time of renewal and relaxation for him and his family. This is our pastor, John and his wife Debbie with his mom and sister. What a great way to celebrate something so important. And, to do it with people we've come to care so deeply about has made it that much more special. It was a great, fun-filled, powerful weekend!

Floors - Day 2000

You'll notice the title of this blog is "Floors - Day 2000" and I put that because, though it's only been actually about 16 days since we started this project, it certainly feels like an eternity!! But, the end is in sight. Here are some updated pictures from last week.




On Tuesday we began in the kitchen. By Wednesday night we had gotten this much done. It was starting to come along. However, since we had no room for the kitchen table while we were working that was in the middle of our living room all week. We worked on it a little every night and made the final push yesterday to get it done. We had guests coming last night, which you'll see in my later post, and we didn't want them walking into a house that had a dining table in front of the tv and a partial floor to walk on. We got it all nearly done, just a bit by the pantry and inside the pantry - and, of course, all the trim. I'll post pictures of the final product once we're completely done.

Today we decided to leave our mark on the house as the first owners of it. Madie and I love to watch "If Walls Could Talk" which shows old houses and the history left behind by previous owners. We decided to have each of us decorate our own little square on the lino in the pantry, so that the next owner(s) might some day find it if they ever take up the planks we put in it. Pete wanted to put "Why did you pull up our wood flooring?! Don't you know how much work it was to put in?!". But we thought it best not to accost any future owners of our home. ;-)


Pete is working as we speak, trying to lay the final planks in the pantry, so we can be just one step closer to having a finished floor, but I'm feeling so much happier to know that at the very least my house is 99% back in order. No more table in the living room or refrigerator pulled out in front of the pantry. We actually even ate at our table last night with our visitors and it was GREAT! Can't wait to share the final project of our first major inside home-improvement project. Yay!

Day 8 - The Foyer is DONE!

FINALLY! After 8 long, hard days we finished the foyer. Hooray!



And, I've gotta say, it looks terrific! Of course, now I want to paint the foyer, but we'll get to that later. :-)

This picture shows where we ended our foyer work. I haven't been much help these past few days, because it was basically all trim work. So, Pete's been working very hard to get all those pieces cut - especially the ones he had to backcut around all 4 of the doors in this area. Ugh!

Now that the foyer is done, it's time for the kitchen. Sigh. Hopefully this will be the easier of the two spaces, but I have a feeling we'll be in for more surprises and set-backs. At least Tater is excited!