Writing about all the big & little things

Category: Uncategorized (Page 82 of 201)

It’s days like today that get me excited for Spring!

Still brutally cold here.

Not quite as cold as yesterday, but still cold enough to call off school.  I read an interesting article yesterday, announcing that the amusement park inside Mall of America was offering free rides all last night in order to give people a chance to get out and do something since it was so cold.  I thought that was neat–here’s the link to the story:

http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_24854788/mall-america-free-amusement-park-rides-cold-weather

 

I’m so excited to get to explore our new neighborhood when it warms up this Spring.  We live so close to a ton of trails and parks and sidewalks.  Plus we have a nice big backyard now.  Oh, and we have a deck that wonderfully overlooks the whole back yard.  What’s not to be excited about?!?  If only we had been able to enjoy it before it got too cold… in the first days we moved in, it would have been nice enough to spend some time outside, but I was too busy unpacking and organizing.  I’ve also decided that I want to try and run one or two 5k’s this summer and I I’m pretty sure one of them will actually go directly past the back of our house!  I’m excited to get out and get some exercise with the kids in the fresh air!  So, how many days until it is spring again?  🙂

Thinking back about our rental house I can honestly say that the back yard is the thing I truly miss the most.  It had the BIGGEST tree right smack dab in the middle of the back yard that provided cover for over half the back area.  If it was raining the kids could still play out there, because it seriously acted like a giant umbrella!  It had two giant gardens (which I’m sure were awesome back in their day) and even a bird bath area… I could see how with a little more TLC it would have been charming.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t willing to put that much energy into it since it was a pretty dumpy rental… but I do miss that backyard.  Plus it was fenced.  And now that we DON’T have a fence here, I really, really, really, want a fence again.  🙂

Here are a few pictures of the rental backyard.  It probably doesn’t do it justice–nature pictures never really do capture it quite right, but you’ll get the idea.

This was the view stepping right out of the dining room patio door.  I did like that it had a deck--the kids really loved playing on that.

This was the view stepping right out of the dining room patio door. I did like that it had a deck–the kids really loved playing on that.

Under the giant tree!

Under the giant tree!

 

There was another patio area (we had our grill by this one)...

There was another patio area (we had our grill by this one)…

 

the two gardens--like I said, they were in need of some more TLC

the two gardens–like I said, they were in need of some more TLC.  I liked the little bench.  🙂

And there was a giant sand area that would have been for a pool (or so I was told) and then a quaint shed in the back with a loft area and window up top.

And there was a giant sand area that would have been for a pool (or so I was told) and then a quaint shed in the back with a loft area and window up top.

 

Merry Christmas Eve (if I stay up late enough it will actually be Christmas day…)

We went to our Christmas Eve services at church tonight–we had 3 this time and Tim was playing Bass guitar for all of them.  So he left early, the kids finished their naps and then we went to the middle service and enjoyed watching him play on stage.  My photographer friend, Tara, took some pictures for the church and I just HAD to steal them from the facebook page…. 🙂  I love how they capture the moment.

It was a nice service.  Lots of music (which the kids loved) and then a short but great message.  A wonderful reminder of the grace God extended to us in sending his son.  Praise God for loving us so much we can’t even comprehend it.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Singing together--I love how Josiah is playing with my hair...

Singing together–notice how Josiah is playing with my hair…  🙂 

Talking to Chloe...

Talking to Chloe…

 

I love how the Christmas tree on the screen is right behind Tim.  It looks so festive!

I love how the Christmas tree on the screen is right behind Tim. It looks so festive!

Christmas Recital 2013 another Success!

Annual Picture of me with the kids at the piano

Annual Picture of me with the kids at the piano

This year I moved the recital to Saturday so my students could travel if they wanted to earlier in the weekend, and because of that we had a much larger crowd at the 2:00 recital.  So large in fact that they were still downstairs eating cake and socializing as the performers for the next recital were arriving!  I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen before…

Both recitals went very well.  Except for the time that I started the song for one of my vocalists in the wrong key.  Ooops!  I realized what I had done after 2 lines and stopped her and apologized to the audience and restarted and it went MUCH better in the correct key.  😉  Gah!  Hopefully I’ll never make that mistake again!

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Cover Contest Board

Afterwards we went out to eat with the Bakers and Jen and Patsy at Pizza Ranch.  It was a great way to wind down after a busy day.  I meant to take nice pictures of the kids in their cute outfits but the day was just too busy, so I guess I’ll try again this week sometime.

4 oclock recital

4:00 Recital

2 oclock recital

2:00 Recital

In other news, Chloe has her first play-date at a friend’s house tomorrow.  It’s Maddy from preschool (if you remember the picture from the other day).  She’s very excited but also a little nervous.  I hope it goes well!

I had a fun baking party with some gals from church today–but I’ll post more on that tomorrow.  We spent 5 hours making goodies and then we split them up between us.  It was awesome!

Cute Video: Piano Duet

I can’t remember if I’ve posted this before, but even if I did, it’s so fun–we can all stand to watch it just ONE MORE TIME!  😉

I think it might be impossible not to smile while watching it.  So I’m spreading some SMILES today!  Enjoy!

 

First Christmas cookies of the season!

Today we made our first Christmas cookies–those peanut butter ones with the hershey’s kiss in the center.  I admit it was the first time I can recall making them. And it was so easy and fun!  Chloe had a really good time unwrapping the candies.  If you look closely at the picture here you’ll notice that she’s lined them up in a design on the paper plate as she unwrapped them… that girl cracks me up!

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And this probably doesn’t sound like much of an achievement to most of you, but I was so proud of myself for not snacking on any of the cookie dough OR hershey’s kisses as we made them.  In fact, I made myself wait until after supper to try one.  Yay me!  It’s the little things in life sometimes.  🙂

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

This weekend simply whizzed right by!  We were able to go over and spend the afternoon with Tim’s side of the family at Bakers house enjoying good food and fellowship.  Then I went Black Friday shopping for a few items, which is always fun!

But really we spent most of the weekend working on the garage… which was necessary, but tedious.  In order to finish organizing the garage we needed to get Tim’s tool bench table finished, but before we could finish that we needed to hang pegboard to put all the tools, but before that we needed to put up the sheetrock (that we already have), but BEFORE THAT we needed to put in the insulation (that we also already have!) underneath the sheetrock!  So… you can see how that one thing had so many backwards steps before we actually got around to being able to organize the garage.  But I’m happy to say it’s mostly finished  We were able to get most of the walls insulated and sheetrocked, the peg board up, tools organized and hung, shelves hung, bikes hung and boxes put up on said shelves.

Ah!

It feels so good to have one more space in our house getting completed.  I’ll take a picture tomorrow, but it’s probably not as exciting to most of you since you didn’t really know what a mess it was before.  🙂  Now the extra stuff we had waiting in the basement can finally fit in the garage so that Tim can finally start clearing out his train room, which has been a storage room up until now. 🙂   Apparently we have a lot of shuffling things around that we need to do!  We have so much space here, but it takes a while to get it organized.

 

Progress. Slow but steady

I’m slowing making my way through the piles of boxes. The house is mostly done, except for the storage room where there are still lots of boxes. And the garage which has been a big “catch-all” for stuff we don’t know what to do with yet. Today’s big news was that Tim was able to come home a little early and set up the long awaited playset that we acquired over the summer. We made a slight miscalculation on how long the slide is when we put it together, so it comes down VERY close to our neighbor’s fence… so we’ll look into fixing that. Later. For now it will have to do. 🙂 I’ll try and take a picture of it soon–right now it’s night and it’s getting covered in snow.

It is finished.

I spent 4 1/2 hours cleaning the rental house today and mowing (and bagging) the lawn. We are planning to do our final walk through this week and turn in our keys and hopefully get our large security deposit back.

I was really dreading going back there to clean, but I must say that it feels really excellent to know it’s done. And we can move on now. 🙂

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