Happy 13th Birthday, Cole!

It’s hard to believe that Cole is a teenager! He’s grown up so much in this past year. He is super tall, has a deep voice and has found a new niche in junior high with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). It’s so wonderful to see him mature into such a sweet young man.

We celebrated this year with a family bonfire at home after school.

We bought Cole a laptop this year for his birthday. We don’t normally spend that much money for birthday gifts, but I bought it on Black Friday and he truly has needed one of his own for awhile. We thought it was going to be a surprise, but Audrey had told him that he was getting a ‘dy’ as a present. Somehow he figured out that it was a laptop. The reason she called it a dy is because on my laptop, when it’s closed, you see the letters hp upside down and it looks like dy (see the second picture below). Although I wasn’t too happy with her for giving him clues, we thought it was pretty funny that she thought his laptop was a dy.

So proud, as always!

Cole was recognized tonight at the school's monthly Board meeting for achieving an advanced score in Math on the state MAP test. Congratulations, Cole!  We are so proud of you!

Autism Walk

Friday and Saturday was our school’s first Step Up for Autism Fun Run/Walk. On Friday, we had a 1 mile family walk for parents to walk around the track with their children. Saturday, there was a 5K Fun Run/Walk. Saturday started out with lots of rain and lightning, but cleared up before the 5K started. We were so thankful. I think our turnout would have been even bigger had it not started out raining.

I loved being on a committee where we had such a variety of strengths that everything came together because of all the talents the group possessed. Especially those who were able to get businesses to sponsor the cost of all the t-shirts. The event raised over $7,000 that will go toward the purchase of new sensory equipment and items for our students with autism. They will also use some of the money to create a lending library for parents.

Cole kept shying away from the camera, but here he is with his friend and our Superintendent.

Lisa, a fellow Kdg. teacher, me and Betsy our Secretary.

Our wonderful committee after a hot day Friday outside.

Even our mascot isn’t immune to a leg cramp. :

Cole had the important job of holding the finish line sign on Saturday.

I cannot wait for this event next year!

Chair stealing and fish healing

After school today, I had to run to Walgreen’s to pick up a steroid pack for my first poison ivy rash of 2011. Not fun! I have it on my eyes, cheeks, neck, lips, ears, arms and tummy. I feel like an itchapotamus! However, our fence row is looking better and I’m so thankful that my eyes didn’t swell shut this time. I’m suppose to do something with Kim from Helping Me Up tomorrow, but I’m not sure she will want to be seen with me.

I’m so thankful that there is medicine that gives me quick relief in the early stages of itchiness. I have no self-control when it comes to itchiness. I barely got out of the Walgreens parking lot before I was popping

When Cole and I got home, we ate dinner quickly and took Audrey outside to play. She wanted to wear her pajama pants and ladybug boots.  She immediately headed straight for the mud puddles.

We took a walk to the pond and found an almost dead grass carp. We just had the pond stocked last summer, so it was nice to see such a long fish, just not in this condition.  John tried throwing it into deeper water, but it kept coming back to this spot. It made Cole sad that it was likely going to die, so he found a stick and tried to get it to swim back to the deeper water, but it wouldn’t.

On the way back to the house, Cole broke out the metal detector. He loves trying to find things around the fields. He’s found several neat, rusty, old farm machinery pieces, but no big treasure yet. 

Cole finally let me take a few pictures of him. When he got tired of it, he got silly.

After bubble blowing, Audrey chased Cole down to tell him a secret.

I love this picture!

It ended in her running off to her chair in fear. I’m not sure I want to know what she told him. However, when she got to her chair, this is what she found.

She wasn’t thrilled because every time she got out of her chair tonight, our dog, Copper, would jump in it and steal it away from her. At one point, Audrey was leaning forward in her chair and the dog jumped up between her back and the chair and sat there while Audrey held the cat. There is barely enough room for Audrey in the chair, so seeing all three of them in the chair was hilarious.

I am so loving this weather! I hope it sticks around for awhile before it starts getting hot. We left the windows open in the bedroom all night last night and it was so comfy to wake up to this morning.

Spring Break Recap

Our Spring Break has been filled with so much fun I don’t want it to end! I have truly enjoyed this time with my family. It allowed me to do lots of fun things with the kiddos, actually talk with my hubby for more than two minutes, and the time to get a few things done around the house.  I also got to spend time with my grandmas, my parents and my mother-in-law and a good day of scrapbooking with friends. You can’t ask for much more!

On Wednesday, I went with my family and my mother-in-law to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. We had a great time! We bought several packs of vegetable seeds, some onion starts and some dianthus and morning glory flower seeds. We enjoyed walking around the little town and seeing the animals and vintage and antique items. Then, we made a little trip to Springfield. John went to a flea market. The rest of us went to DAV and then we headed to Hobby Lobby and Braum’s.

(Several times on this trip I noticed John and Cole standing the same way or looking very much like each other. I think the first two pictures show this very well.)

On Thursday, Cole, Audrey and I went to my friend Kim’s house to scrapbook. Shelly and her kiddos came, too. The kids had a great time playing inside and out and eating Kim’s brownies and the big girls were able to scrapbook a few pages. Cole & Audrey played hard! 

When we got home from Kim’s, we worked out in the field and driveway. Cole was cutting down cedar trees and Audrey and I were cleaning up the fence line in the driveway and at the road. It’s amazing how overgrown things can get.

On Friday, we took it easy. It was super windy outside, so we didn’t work as long as I’d expected us to.  John drove his pick-up down to the road so we could throw lots of limbs in it to be burned.  He and Cole did all the hard work while I broke the rake and only did about an 1/8 of what I needed to do. We still have a lot of work to do in this area.

Saturday was my Dad’s birthday. We spent the morning at home cleaning up the house and then headed to town to pick up my grandma. We went to three drive-thrus to get everything that everyone wanted for supper and then we headed to my parents house to celebrate. Cole & Audrey absolutely love showing off for my parents and they also like to get rowdy. They were having a great time! Dad decided he wanted a cake, so Mom and I headed to the store to pick up a German chocolate cake. After we ate and visited a bit more, we headed home.

Sunday has definitely been our day of rest so far. I’m still battling a cold that makes me cough every time I lie down. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten much sleep the last week. Plus, with the time change, I seem to be getting up even earlier.

It’s going to be hard to get up tomorrow and get back into our routine. However, each school day gets us one day closer to summertime and I can’t wait to have some more time off with my family!

Audreyisms

Audrey was on a roll with hilarious talk today.

This morning, she came into the living room and crawled up into my lap. She put her arms around my neck
and said, “I love you so much I want to kick myself.” 

We went to visit my mom in the hospital today and as we were leaving a medical helicopter was taking off. Cole mentioned something about it and I asked Audrey what it was and she said, “It’s a helicopter. I haven’t seen one of those in years.” Yes, she’s all of 4.

Boppa (my dad) took the kiddos to the hospital cafeteria to eat lunch with him. My kids love going to the hospital cafeteria as much as I enjoy going to Olive Garden. I know it’s weird, but they love it! Cole had pears and pudding since he had already eaten lunch. Audrey had a corn dog, fries and a huge Hiland chocolate milk. When she got back to mom’s room she stuck her belly out, put her hands around the sides and said, “Look at my chocolate milk belly. It’s big!” Since she was wearing a sweater dress, her tummy stuck out like she had a balloon inside it.

Dad took Mom to the hospital last evening. Her blood pressure was dangerously high and she was having trouble breathing along with chest pains. The doctors are checking her out and she will have a stress test tomorrow. I know she isn’t looking forward to it because she gets winded right now going from one place in her room to another. Walking on the treadmill tomorrow is going to be exhausting for her. I hope she does well and gets to go back home soon. 

Let the thrifting begin!

Being at home for Christmas break has made me realize how much I want to change in our house. Unfortunately, I’m not someone that likes to spend a lot of money. That has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that it allows me the creativity to find new and inexpensive ways to spruce up what I already have with just a few new to me items.

Before we left for town yesterday, we ate lunch at my mother-in-law’s house. We go there every year on New Year’s day for black-eyed peas. I still think they taste like dirt, but it doesn’t keep me from eating a few (3 to be exact) so I won’t be the only one that misses out on good luck and prosperity.

Cole, my mother-in-law & Audrey

Cole, Audrey and me

Audrey sporting the new shirt that her daddy lovingly chose for her. They call it a ‘cat’stronaut.

Cole about to dive into the banana pie if he doesn’t get a second piece.

Begging….Puss in Boots adorable eyes trick style.

Audrey and I had to visit Chick-fil-A before we left town.

We ended up making a trip to a thrift store and Hobby Lobby. I only brought home a few things. I found this ceramic urn marked down to $1.98. The picture doesn’t show the true color. It was a pale shade of sage green. It looked really strange. The top and bottom are both metal.

I used an Elmer’s school glue crackling method to paint the urn. First, I used brown craft paint for my base coat. I only used one coat, as you can see. It doesn’t have to be perfect because it’s just going to be the underneath color that shows through when the paint crackles.

Then, I divided the urn into thirds and brushed on Elmer’s glue.  I let it sit for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Then, I painted over the glue (while it was still tacky) with my top coat of ivory craft paint. I used an embossing gun to dry the paint to create the crackle effect.  You could probably use a hair dryer if you don’t have an embossing gun.

The color is completely off in this picture because there was so much light streaming in the window, but I ended up putting a plant in the urn and setting it on my computer desk.

I didn’t like the looks of the fern in the white pitcher on top of our piano, so I picked up some new greenery at Hobby Lobby.

I spent about $11 on the different floral stems and dark red bouquet. The price of floral arrangements is crazy! This is my first real floral arrangement. My sister-in-law, Niki, had made one for me for fall, so she showed me a few tricks. Mine is by no means perfect, but it’s better than the fern.

It looks better in real life, but here’s an idea of what it looks like now. We will be giving the piano back to my parents soon, so it should free up a lot of space in our tiny farmhouse.