Had I the Heaven's Embroidered Cloths...

Eleventy-First

2012-01-23T14:10:00.000-06:00

Busy week... hopefully this week is quieter.

We hosted potluck for the first time since we moved. It's so nice to have room. Now that I've done it once I will hopefully be less nervous about it... hehe.

Jakey came over on Saturday to hang out and play games with Bob. Cecily got all bundled up to go get the mail with me... Since there hasn't really been any snow there hasn't been much need for the snowsuit...

We celebrated her Eleventy-First day. Mostly just an excuse for cake... which we love. Don't worry, she didn't get to have any.

We have survived one hundred and eleven days...

And have discovered that I have no idea how to frost a cake... and I could use some sun and some sleep. At least she's cute. *grin*

Last night we celebrated Sharon's 30th birthday. Hooray for more cake!

Blessings.

Happenings

2012-01-18T16:35:00.000-06:00

Farmer Girl! hehe.

Freshly varnished floor- you can see where the wood is darker, but I was afraid if I sanded to much it would take off any of the original stain that was left and it's next to impossible to get stain to match in small patches. Plus we're not sure what they used. So.

Ooo, and I finally figured out some things for the green bathroom.

We took this picture on our honeymoon. The really awesome part is that it's printed right on a board so there's no glass or frame and it's way more high humidity friendly! I've never seen such a thing before, but all of the big online photo printing places have them and I found a 50% off coupon so it was cheaper than getting a paper print and a frame. Woot woot!

I am fond of box pleats. I don't know why. Maybe because they're fun to sew and make a homemade valence look a little bit fancier.

Little miss in her dress from Great Grandpa and Grandma Wyss.

Have I mentioned we've been busy? Sunday evening we went to Tim and Ruth's for a fun night of music and fellowship. Bob had the day off on Monday and we went out to eat at Applebee's for supper (yay gift cards!) and checked out the new Bass Pro Shops. I like those stores. They make me feel like I'm on vacation... hehe. We loaded up on munitions and a t-shirt for little miss because everyone needs a Bass Pro t-shirt at least once in their life.

On Tuesday Cecily and I went to the farm to look at all of Shelly's India pictures. She brought me back a real Indian tea spoon and a scarf. Little miss got a cute Indian dress. She's much bigger than Indian babies... hehe... Here we are modeling Aunty Shelly's saree and her little dress. We didn't get the saree tied quite right, it's a lot sloppier than how they're supposed to be. O well, it was fun to try! Maybe someday I can go to India and get one too.

Abby stopped by for a little bit before we left for Freida's visitation. Freida was a peach. I'm so glad we got to have them to Tremont once... and that I went to see her a few weeks ago. I remember going to visit them in their little house in Lester with the flower garden in the back yard and being woken up by train whistles. And then waking up on Sunday morning to an amazing breakfast and Andy's smoothies.

I went straight to sewing club from Washington, which was fun, as always. Cecily had about had it with social things and so we left early. She's been sleeping all day today.... poor girl... four nights in a row and church tonight.

We did not attempt to make it to the funeral today, although I did listen online. Tried to anyway, the streaming was having issues until about half way through. And then Bob took half the day off and brought us lunch and flowers. He's so great.

Blessings.

Grey and white and winter all around

2012-01-14T23:02:00.002-06:00

This week ended up being busier than I expected. I even went to Curves once. I've been back twice now and I can tell I haven't exercised in three months. Little miss just sits in her car seat and looks concerned... haha...

I was planning on going quilting again on Thursday, but then it snowed and I lost all motivation for going out. So instead I varnished the floor. Such a great cold snowy day activity, right? The previous owners must have sat in the same spots at the table for years- there were eight small spots on the floor where the finish had been worn away to the bare wood. Sooo... since we have no plans to refinish all of the wood we figured we'd at least try sealing the worn spots so they don't get worse. It worked pretty well, if you look close you can tell. And Jakey's footprint sanded out nicely. hehe. He was bored and came over to hang out and forgot about the wet varnish... I almost wouldn't have minded having another set of 'ghost' footprints...
Friday Mom stopped by and I ran some errands. She brought point-outs! Hooray! Nothing better on a snowy day than tea and point-outs.... except for cocoa. But it made me feel a little less jealous of my sister who has been gallivanting around India for the past three weeks. *sigh* The youngest always has the most fun. *mur* Haha.

Today I did the cleaning I've been putting off. Young Matt was over for awhile and we went to Rustin and Sharon's for supper.

Freida died today. Sad news.

Blessings.

Confession

2012-01-09T20:58:00.002-06:00

Might as well come clean.

I'm sure you'll find out sooner or later.

I have a drinking problem.

Last night my problem manifested itself again. Somehow I managed to spill a bottle of Dr. Pepper all over myself, Cecily, Bob, and the couch. oooops. *sigh* Our poor couch. Or maybe I have more of a clumsiness problem...

Anyway, we had a quiet weekend. Monday's wash day and then this afternoon we went to Cecily's first all day quilting. She decided she wanted to see what was going on and didn't want to be on the floor anymore... thanks Dianne for holding her! (Sorry it's blurry, I don't have one of those new fangled smart phone things with a good camera.)

I like quilting even though I'm not very good at it.

Blessings.

Three Months

2012-01-05T20:15:00.001-06:00

Today Cecily and I ventured out to get her three month pictures taken. And return some things while I was in town, which somehow turned into more things because there were sales. It was sooo nice out. It doesn't feel like January and I'm not sad.

Pictures went really smoothly, she was in such a good mood. *phew* And they didn't pressure me to buy more than the package, which was nice. Although I couldn't resist getting this one extra pose because I love the little chair...

This is the other one.

Aaaand, me at three months for comparison. (Mom, red has never been my color... hehe, and that's a scratch or something, not a fireball.) According to my baby book, I didn't hit 16 pounds until I was 6 months... Cecily was there last week...

So then we met my mom and Jakey at the mall. They were out shopping for his work wardrobe, so funny. I'm glad I wasn't with them all day, he's particular and doesn't like shopping, great combination. *grin*

That's a wrap

2012-01-02T22:55:00.000-06:00

So. Christmas is over. We took the tree down today. mur.

The Day of Days (aka the Wyss Christmas) was all day Thursday. We started off with brunch and pieces and music; then presents and more presents and more presents. Bob and I volunteered for the mid-afternoon gondola run, and then there were more presents (It takes a while for 40ish people to open gifts) before chicken crepes for supper. Cecily got passed around all day long... poor girl. I forgot my camera so I have no pictures. We came home with tools, an ice cream maker, and a terrarium- so fun.

On Friday we had Christmas with Bob's family. Scott and Ned and Jake were going to come over but Bob's fam decided to eat earlier so they didn't come. I remembered my camera but forgot to get it out. So much for pictures this year! Cecily got very spoiled with gifts.

Saturday we chilled.... little miss had about had it with Christmas by then so we didn't do anything after New Years Eve services. We saw the New Year in and went to bed as soon as Cecily was asleep.

We haven't done much these last two days of Bob's break. It's been nice to have him home... mur.

Is it just me or did 2011 just fly? And yet so much happened.... we moved, I quit my job, Cecily... nothing like three majorly stressful things all at once. *grin* We made it through by the skin of our teeth... and the grace of God.

Blessings.

Christmas

2011-12-28T00:53:00.001-06:00

Well (it's a deep subject), we had a good Christmas Day. We went to church in T-town and then came home and opened our presents from each other. Little miss surrounded by gifts... don't worry, they're not all for her. *grin*

She got Christmas books, doesn't she look thrilled?

And then we headed to the farm. Mom made cornish hens and all manner of good things to eat. Jakey made us Apple Scrumptious for dessert. I did not get to enjoy the food... Cecily was fussy so it got inhaled and then I got to take care of her. She cheered up in time for presents.

So... my parents did not make good lists this year. They ended up with some interesting things... hehe. One of the funnier moments of the night was when Dad opened the box with air holes. Mom was extremely nervous... "is it a gerbil? or a cat? or a houseplant?" O man. And Dad was totally playing it up... this picture makes me laugh a lot. Anyways... there was a toy puppy inside and they're getting a puppy when it's old enough. *Grin* This is what happens when you don't make lists.

Cecily got a sled! It's so cute! Now we just need snow...

So I forgot to replenish the supply of diapers in the diaper bag after church... oops... and we used all of them and she made a mess on Bob. Thankfully Grandma got her two more cloth diapers for Christmas and saved the day. The pink one even matched her dress. Very fortuitous.

She had pretty much had it with Christmas by the time we got home... she cried for quite awhile until she fell asleep and then she was out for the rest of the night. I woke her up in the morning and then she went back to sleep for a few more hours. Hooray!

Monday afternoon Bob had some guys over to play games. Little miss and I did laundry and chilled where it was quiet. Anytime they got loud her little lip would come out... so funny. Jakey stayed for supper; I was lazy and ordered pizza.

And now we've got a few days break before our last two Christmases. Woot woot. Shelly left for India and I am so incredibly jealous. Someday. Although, they don't get to see the Taj Mahal so that makes it a little bit less enviable.

Blessings.

The Night Before Christmas

2011-12-24T23:39:00.002-06:00

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

(We hope... so far so good, only spiders...)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

(She might be in bed, but there's no guarantee she'll stay sleeping for long...)

I don't own a kerchief and I'm pretty sure Bob doesn't have a cap. hehe. Last night we had Schlipf Christmas in Gridley and tonight we went to the Koch Christmas... good times. Three down, three to go.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All A Good Night!

Field trip

2011-12-22T12:58:00.001-06:00

Yesterday Cecily and I invited ourselves to the farm for lunch and then we went to visit Aunt Freida at the home. She's on hospice because, well, she's 95 and there's not really anything more they can do for her. I hear people practically have her dead and buried already, but, to quote Monty Python, she's 'not dead yet.' 'I think I'll go for a walk...'

Anyway. They were happy to meet Cecily and she got fussed over by everyone there. She wouldn't move her hand away from her face though...

I wish I would have tried harder to make the time to learn how to make her famous buns.

Blessings.

Merry Birthday

2011-12-20T19:39:00.001-06:00

So I'm 27 now. I feel so old. *grin* I did something to me knee the other day and I'm starting to sound old with all my aches and pains... anyway. I had a pretty good birthday. Really low key. We relaxed at home all day and met my family for supper at Firehouse pizza in W-ton. Then we stopped at the farm for cake and presents. I've decided that I like chocolate angel food cake better than regular, it was yummy.

Bob wrapped my birthday present in Christmas wrapping paper. I forgave him.

Mom and Dad got me a shirt with a Louisa May Alcott quote on it: "She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain." I haven't quite decided if I need to forgive them too. hehe.

Cecily enjoyed my birthday flowers...

Christmas started on Sunday with the Beutel Christmas. Only five more to go. woot woot.

One day!

2011-12-16T14:47:00.000-06:00

Until my birthday! Yippee!

I made my birthday cake yesterday... chocolate angel food cake. Angel food cake because I had 10 egg whites left over from making Lukovitch bread. Chocolate because it was right under classic angel food cake in the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook and I like chocolate.

Bob sent me roses today. They're so pretty.

And then on a whim and because the mess in the extra bedroom closet is starting to get to me... I tried on a bunch of my 'regular' skirts that were still a little bit snug a month ago. Most of them fit again! And are back in our closet! Happy Birthday to Me! *grin*

I love birthdays.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2011-12-14T13:50:00.001-06:00

I've decided that since it's raining and dreary today I'm going to curl up and be lazy. And maybe work on my quilt squares or wrapping presents or other cozy things. *grin*

Last night Cecily and I braved the drizzle to do something Christmasy- the W-ton Christmas Tour of Homes. We met my mom and dad (I get my love of houses honestly, hehe) and went through three of the five houses on the tour.

The first house was about a year old and was nice but not fabulous... it had a very large master bathroom with a big walk in shower with two shower heads. Really pretty, but it felt like a locker room. *grin*

Then we went through one of the big old Victorians on Main. It was originally built by the Denhart's in 1884. (They were bankers... now there's a Bakery with their name...) It was a funeral home from the 30's until the current owners bought it. It. Was. Gorgeous. The ceilings were so high, and there was beautiful wood and wallpaper everywhere. The paper on the ceiling was super cool, at least two or three different patterns on each. Two of the closets still have original wall paper- they were so rich they even papered the closet ceilings! So cool, although the lady that owns it said when they moved in they had to take out a lift that had been used to move caskets and bodies in it's funeral home days. Um. Weird. hehe.

Our last stop was just down the street at a cool little Bungalow. It was in the paper a few weeks ago and I was super excited to see inside. Way more my style house. So much more functional, but still architecturally cool. It had awesome built-ins all over. The coolest was the whole wall of built-in bookcase with leaded glass doors. *sigh* The kitchen even had the original dining nook. And to top it all off, there was a beautiful sun porch. Sometimes it's hard not to covet... haha.

The two houses we didn't go through were big, new, look-at-my-garage houses which I'm sure were cool, but it was getting late. Cecily was quite popular on the tours... we told them we were teaching her to love old houses early. Good times.

And then I went home looked up Stickley chairs. Because after seeing them on the tour I think they're exactly what would work in front of our fireplace.

Blessings.

O Come, O Come

2011-12-12T16:48:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas time. I love decorating the house... and the smell of baking springerli...packages in the mail... and Christmas shopping. *grin* Although, since I do more than half of it online, I don't know if it really counts as "shopping." More like I love finding/getting cool things to give to all the people on our list.

Anyway, it's been quiet around here. We didn't go Christmas caroling anywhere this year. Sad news... next year. Matt came over on Friday night to avoid a girl party at the farm. He's lucky he didn't come Thursday... Thursday was curry night... hehe. Saturday I ran off to Walmart and the Quilt store for a little bit while Bob watched little miss and we chilled for the rest of the day.

Sunday evening we went to the Christmas program at church. Grace was in it this year, and I'm starting to know who some of the kids are which makes it more fun!

Cecily and I went to the mall today to buy Christmas presents. We're down to two gift cards to get yet, woot woot, and waiting for a few things to be delivered. Poor UPS and Fedex trucks that have to turn around on our tight street full of vehicles... at least the boat is in storage now! Hehe.

Randomly, I decided that I don't like any of my Christmas CD's so I haven't been listening to any of them. What I want to listen to and sing along with is plain old Christmas Hymns. The old ones. Like 'O Come, O Come Emanuel' and 'Lo How a Rose.' (Katie, why didn't we ever make that CD we talked about?! I'm sure it would be exactly what I want to listen to right now!)

Blessings.

Abby and Tyler

2011-12-07T22:18:00.001-06:00

Well, we survived the weekend. Little miss traveled like a champ!

She may have been worn out from this:

Saturday morning we went to Jamie's and tried to get a picture of all the Koch great-grands. Then we high tailed it to Leo. She slept the entire way... woke up just as we pulled into the hotel and demanded food. And then she made a terrible mess all over me... *sigh* it's a good thing I packed lots of extra clothes.

We met Will and Joanna and boys for supper at Cracker Barrel. It was great fun and so good to see them again! Probably the highlight of my weekend, since I was the least stressed. New things are just hard, and trying to figure out how to deal with a baby at a different church and a reception is not my idea of fun.

The rest of the evening we chilled at the hotel... and spent a little bit of time with the rest of the family. Little miss Cecily is still a night owl, it's usually at least 10:30- 11ish before she decides she's sleepy, so with losing an hour on Indiana time we were up until midnight. This picture cracks me up; wide awake and chilling watching a western with Bob...

Sunday we were late to church... but hey, I've never been on time to Leo, so why start now? haha. I tried to get a picture for Christmas cards that morning... she was happy, but she moves her arms so much it's hard to catch a smile. O well.

The wedding was lovely... I got teary when she walked in. And then I spent the rest of the service paranoid that Cecily would get fussy and I'd have to take her out. Anyway. They got married and we headed for the reception, which was at the Alan County Courthouse. The historic Alan County Courthouse. Which is still in use so we had to go through security to get in. It. Was. Gorgeous. The food was fabulous. I took all of three pictures, not sure what I was thinking.

Kendra, Shelly, Lys

Lys did not know I was taking her picture. hehe.

The only picture of Abby and I is blurry. Sad news. But she was a beautiful bride and her dress was super cool.

I stole some pictures from somebody else who was there:

So yeah, it was quite the doings. *grin* We left from the reception after hauling our luggage in through the metal detector and scanner to change clothes... so weird. We had a pretty good trip home- Cecily cried a little bit until we could stop to feed her and me. (Convenient.) She was really happy to get out of her car seat when we got home though, so funny.

This week we've been laying low... I've been baking cookies and not doing a whole lot else. We listened to services with Grandpa and Grandma Beutel tonight because Cecily got her shots today and I was afraid she'd be super fussy. But she wasn't. O well, it's good to spend time with them and we delivered some Springerli.

Blessings.

O Cannon ball

2011-12-02T23:46:00.001-06:00

Guess who's excited for Christmas? *grin*

So my plans to have a cool mantle by Christmas hit an unexpected snag... so for now I put up a sort of mantle-like shelf that was on clearance at Menards. It was super cheap for a reason... the edges are dinged up bad and it was missing hardware... but, the greens hide the bad spots, it's temporary, and did I mention it was cheap? Hooray for having someplace to decorate and hang Cecily's stocking!

Yesterday my Mom and I went Christmas tree shopping. It's always good to have a second pair of eyes to point out bad spots and crooked trunks. hehe. I think we did good. Ours didn't get drilled perfectly straight, but it's not too obvious... and it's an otherwise gorgeous tree. It makes me smile. I realized this year that most of my ornaments are gold, silver, or white... and white lights... it might need a little more color.

I've been having lots of fun decorating our new house.

Oh, and I took Cecily to the Doc today for her two month checkup... she weighs 13.3 pounds... which is the 96th percentile or something like that. Bob started calling her Chubby Hugs... hehe, poor girl. And I panzed on getting her shots until next week. I have no desire to deal with an extra fussy baby all the way to Leo and back.
Blessings.

Amen

2011-11-29T15:59:00.001-06:00

Cecily got a baby gift and a card from a dear older couple today...

Dear Cecily,
May you someday sit at the King's table.
Our Love-

amen.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T11:30:00.001-06:00

We had a busy Thanksgiving week. With a little bit of the house chaos that seems to follow me... :)

When I got up to feed Cecily at 7 on Tuesday morning, all was well in the kitchen. When Bob got out of the shower shortly thereafter, this was our kitchen light. It pulled the screws and anchors right out of the ceiling. And of course, Bob had to go to work. So I shut off the breaker and called my Dad and he came and rescued us. Apparently, this light is heavier than the old one. We won't mention who hung it with the old anchors. hehe.

Tuesday night we went to the farm for supper with Steve and Renee's family. Wednesday we were bums. Thursday we took Cecily to W-ton for the first time... everyone in Tremont says she looks like Bob, everyone in Washington said she looks like me... so funny. I love Washington on the holidays, mostly because we get to stand up and sing at the end of the service. After church we were singing Thanksgiving songs and Matt was singing bass and holding little miss... she looked very unsure of all that reverberation... hehe. We went to Lori's for good food and more singing and more passing Cecily around. *grin*

Sprout was home so she came over for a little bit on Friday, and we went there for supper that night. Saturday was nasty and rainy so we didn't do much until the Beutel Thanksgiving that night and more good food. Sunday evening we went to Rustin and Sharon's for supper. And I'm ready to be home now for a while...

A few gratuitous pictures of Cecily:

Her sweet hat from Zoe... and a random cup Bob thought she might like to play with.. hehe.

Aw... happy baby... too bad I can't get her to smile while looking straight at the camera. I was informed by a great-grandparent that they want a picture of her not looking to the side... um... yeah... I do try.

Blessings.

Lazy Days

2011-11-22T10:48:00.001-06:00

Hm... I feel like I don't have much to blog about, but we've been keeping ourselves occupied...

Dang came for supper last Thursday. Saturday morning we raked the rest of our leaves. It wasn't very cold, but it felt like winter it was so still and quiet... There weren't many leaves still in the yard, but the alley was full... thankfully Rustin and Sharon and the girls came and helped or we would have been out there all day long. We also discovered that the monitor reaches all the way to the end of the lane... I could still hear Cecily grunting and singing in her sleep... hehe.

We went to potluck at Brent and Janelle's Saturday night. Sunday we went to Tremont in the morning and Morton for Brent and Whitney's wedding in the afternoon... we ended up leaving right after the service and skipping the reception because she was getting fussy so it doesn't hardly feel like we were even there.

Amber and Sarah came to visit Sunday night. I maybe kind of miss the days when I could run off to Champaign spur of the moment. It was really good to see them.

Yesterday evening Cecily and I got to eat pizza and hang out with the old W-ton girls. So weird to have two babies along this time... and weird how our conversations have changed over the years. *grin* Good times.

Oh, and I haven't really been all that lazy. I've got plenty to do keeping Cecily alive, our clothes washed, house clean-ish, food made... yesterday I even got some Christmas cookie dough in the freezer. And today I need to pick up my car from the shop and the kitchen light fell out of the ceiling... you know, normal day. :P

Blessings.

Beautiful Blue Bathroom

2011-11-16T17:38:00.000-06:00

Last night we finally got the medicine cabinet hung, and I finished spackle and paint touch ups today. I love it. This is what we started with: pink and very incongruous floors.

And the awful, small fluorescent medicine cabinet that was giving us fits.

Then it went to blue and a pretty new floor.

Matt started working his magic and we had one sconce...

Two sconces and a new outlet. (The tape is marking where the studs are and where the wires are, you know, so we wouldn't accidentally drill through anything important...)

Pretty new medicine cabinet. I love it, it's so much bigger! Lots of room for things we need to keep out of the reach of little hands. *grin*

And the new bath fan that doesn't look like a fan. It's great. And not centered in the ceiling because whoever designed the house put a joist right smack dab down the center of the bathroom. O well, form follows function, right?

Three cheers for Matt and TSM234! Hip, hip, Hooray! It looks awesome and I smile every time I go in there.

I think I'm going to do something different for curtains... but I'm not sure yet. And I don't know what, if anything, to hang on the walls. Eh, it'll come. Next on the list is a fresh coat of paint on the vanity; it's way more obvious that it needs it with everything else so fresh and new! *grin* Poor Bob...

Oh, and if anybody needs a medicine cabinet... it's just sitting here. I'm not sure what we'll do with it.

Blessings.

Let there be light

2011-11-14T17:52:00.001-06:00

So last Thursday I ventured out shopping with my mom and Cecily. I dislike new things... so I was glad she came with us. I think I can be brave and go all by myself next time. I think. Now that I know where the "Mother's Room" is at Toys R Us... I had to get wedding gifts and personal shower gifts, Mom had to buy Cecily lots of clothes. O man, when there are all kinds of pre-Veterans Day sales and Grandma wants to buy her a dress and Great-Grandma wants to buy her a dress... we came home with no less than four. (In different sizes, don't worry, I'm not that crazy. Two per size is plenty, hehe.)

On Veteran's Day Matt came over to work on our bathroom. For the record, bankers have just as many holidays as government employees. So we're all wired up now and have two sconces and a fan with a light. We didn't have the right size light bulbs though, and the medicine cabinet still isn't hung, so it's not quite finished yet. Getting there. I got new tires that day too. I decided to take my car to the dealer this time because it also has an electrical problem and I figured they would be more likely to have the right parts in stock... um... they don't. So I paid them a ridiculous amount for them to tell me what was wrong (which I already knew). Ugh. Anyway, I think I'll take it here in town.... it's way too much trouble to drop cars off with Cecily, and I don't want to sit in waiting rooms all day with her.

Saturday Bob helped Rustin and Sharon move in the morning, and then Jakey came over and we raked the front yard. They spent the rest of the evening playing the much anticipated, long awaited Skyrim. Our back yard needs raking again badly, but there are too many leaves to haul away with garbage cans and a tarp stuffed in the trunk of my car... Cecily and I did a load today and barely made a dent. O well, it's a start.

Blessings.

Blustery

2011-11-09T12:17:00.002-06:00

Have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of fall? Especially these cold, rainy, blustery days...

Last week we spent a few days helping Rustin and Sharon paint and move things into their new house. I love painting. It's great fun. And, it wasn't my house so I didn't have the mess... hehe. I'm also really glad we moved when we did, it looks to be ten times more complicated with little kids.

Sunday we made it to church (although a little bit late...). We stopped at Grandpa and Grandma Koch's afterwards, and then went to Grandpa and Grandma Beutel's 60th anniversary party that evening. Big day! Little miss Cecily did pretty good... but she was markedly more fussy that night. No surprise there. And since the time changed and she didn't get the memo, she goes to sleep an hour earlier! Hooray! Which is great, except that now I have to get up twice in the dark instead of just once. O well.

This week has been quiet so far. We went to Menards and got the right kind of electrical boxes so last night Matt came over and cut a few more holes. And now there are two new sconces and a hole for a new outlet and a hole into the attic. Woot woot. I'm excited.

Blessings.

Why is it...

2011-11-03T22:26:00.000-05:00

...that when Matt comes to visit we end up with holes in our walls?

It's so much brighter and looks ten times better already, even though I bought all the wrong boxes... (I just plain don't understand electricity...)

I never did get a good before picture, but this is what we started with.

Blessings.

Social Butterflies

2011-11-02T16:58:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I took Cecily to the lab to meet my coworkers. My old coworkers. *mur* Yup, I'm officially unemployed. She wore her future scientist onesie...

It was good to see them all and be back at the lab. I don't really miss work; and yet. I basically spent three years of my life in that building with those people. It's weird that it's just over.

And then that evening Aunt Joanne and Sharon hosted a baby shower for her. So she got passed around by lots of people yesterday. I think it wore her out, she slept for 3 and 4 hour stretches last night! Yay! There was great rejoicing... or something. Anyway, and then I took her to the grocery store today and now we're just chilling... in cloth... I figured it was about time I tried them, even though they still seem kinda big on her.

Blessings.

All Hallows Eve

2011-10-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

Apparently we're the grinches on our street... we don't have our light on tonight. Mostly because we maybe have eaten most of the candy I had bought to hand out to trick-or-treaters... hehe.

We had a fairly quiet weekend. I escaped long enough on Saturday to go to the grocery store and get my hair cut. Crazy hormones are making it grow so fast! And it was just long enough that when I'd lean over to lay Cecily in her crib in the middle of the night it would fall right in her face and startle her. Not good. *grin* While I was gone Bob got to deal with a mess, which I love. It's good for him.

Sunday we made it to church all day and she was really good. Overall it just felt really good to be back... We went to the farm for supper. Pretty much spent the evening watching the baby and laughing at the faces she makes. They're such grandparents... positively elderly... hehe. Troy and Trent came down to hold her too. It amuses me to watch boys hold babies for the first time.

It's Reformation Day. I sang "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" to Cecily in honor of the occasion.
Blessings.

Lazy...

2011-10-27T20:46:00.004-05:00

It's how I felt while watching John and Bryce remove our leaves. *grin* Yeah, we were panzes and got somebody else to do it. At least the somebody elses were Brad's Lawn Care... guys I grew up with... because realistically, the logistics of me trying to rake with Cecily are impossible, and Bob is busy at work and allergic to the outdoors right now. So it was worth it and our yard looks lovely and leaf free until the last four trees lose their leaves. I'm hoping it'll get really windy and blow them all out of our yard.

Today I ventured out to Kmart and then stopped at DJ's Pumpkin Patch on the way home. Cecily got to sit in the warm cabin while I picked out pumpkins and talked to Jeanne... good times.

Matt stopped by this evening to see Cecily and check out some electrical stuff. He's going to help put in a new light and medicine cabinet to replace the worlds most annoying fluorescent fixture. Seriously, you flip the switch, wait five seconds, *flicker*, five seconds, one light comes on, few more seconds, other side comes on. So hopefully one of these days he won't be busy or traveling and can come do some wiring.

Blessings.

Happenings

2011-10-24T14:10:00.001-05:00

We ended up having a sort of busy weekend. We didn't go anywhere... but we had people coming to us. And church.

So Amber and Sarah made these awesome science onesies for Cecily... they crack me up.

And here she's modeling her present from Uncle Jakey... it says "Panzer Division" on it...

My brothers make me laugh a lot. This is what Cecily has gotten from them: a stuffed hedgehog, two panzer division shirts, a John Deere onesie, and a heartland bank bib.

So Friday night Dang came for supper, but he left fairly early and then Jakey came over for a little bit. Saturday we were lazy bums all day and young Matt came for supper and the evening (we weren't about to attempt to go to testimonies with Cecily, though I'm sad we missed them). Rustin and Sharon and girls showed up a little bit later.

And then Cecily had about the worst night so far... she woke up hungry every. single. hour. Half the time I hadn't even gotten back to sleep yet. We finally gave her a bottle at 9am so I could get a full hour of sleep and still try and make it to church at noon.

She looks so sweet and innocent in her new church dress.... not like she was up all night long... so deceptive.... haha.

We on the other hand.... haha. O man.

We cut out right after the baptisms and came home and all took a nap. So wonderful. And then later we got milkshakes and Cecily had a pretty good night. Huzzah!

Blessings.

A rose by any other name...

2011-10-20T17:20:00.000-05:00

... would smell as sweet.

Or not. Sometimes we call Cecily 'miss stinky-buns'. We're terrible, I know. *grin*

Anyway... speaking of names... it's kind of cracking me up how people are having trouble with her name! It's Sess-ah-lee. (Sicily is a Mediterranean island and therefore a noun, which we are not fond of.) Granted, it's not a common name- I only know one other Cecily. But still- it's an old name. A very, very old name. So funny, because I kind of figured that our criteria of gender-specific and slightly old fashioned would be easy for people. Guess not! *sigh* We picked a weird name for our daughter and didn't even know it.... woe is us!

So last night we took her to church for the first time. I was a wimp and sat by Bob just in case. (Since, you know, if she cried he would have been able to do something about it.) She had the hiccups for a little bit, but then she slept pretty peacefully through the rest of the service. *phew* Ahhh... I have no idea what I'm doing! What if she would have been fussy? At what noise level do you take them out??

The rest of the night was not so good... third night in a row... ugh. And then today some of my coworkers came to visit us, which was fun and slightly weird. Colliding worlds...

Blessings.

Weekend

2011-10-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

We didn't do much this weekend. Lots of relaxing and looking out at all the leaves in our yard that we just don't want to start raking. Haha. I'm thinking we should borrow a mower with a bagger... or bribe some people...

It was college weekend so Uncle Jakey actually came home and stopped by for a little bit. He doesn't have much experience holding babies.... *grin*

Cecily and I went for a short walk. I feel back to normal, but a short walk is about all I can handle before I start to feel really tired and hungry.

Saturday is pizza night at our house and on a whim we decided to order Firehouse Pizza because it's our favorite. Their sauce is the best and they deliver to T-town... well, this was the last weekend they were open. So sad!! We had to take a picture of the pizza and Cecily because she'll never get to experience the goodness of Firehouse... ok, maybe that's a little melodramatic since there are a few other locations in the area. :)

Bob's aunt and uncle had a wiener roast on Sunday night. The weather was great, but we didn't stay very long. I need to ease into things slowly, and smoke makes Bob's allergies ten times worse.

Blessings.

She rules the night...

2011-10-14T14:06:00.001-05:00

..and the nights, seem to last as long as six weeks...

*grin* Billy Joel was really singing about newborns, right?

Yeah, it's still pretty quiet around here. Except that little miss Cecily has decided she wants to nurse for three solid hours in the evenings and then wakes up every hour or so during the night. ugh. So I'm tired, and Bob's tired, and this too shall pass right?!?

We are getting the house clean today... Sally is here vacuuming and I gave the bathrooms a good 'christina clean'.

One of these days I need to work up the courage to go someplace with her by myself... aahhh... maybe next week.

Blessings.

Quiet

2011-10-11T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it through the first week. And now Bob's back at work. We miss him. And it's awful quiet around here... and I'm starting to get bored because I don't have a lot to do. Since I'm supposed to be resting, and my Mom's been over a few times and done the little bit of work that needed doing, and I don't really need to cook.

Pretty much all I've done today is read blogs and go for a short walk. Boring, I know. :)

We've had lots of visitors... that helps break up the time a little bit. And I feel like we have more food than I know what to do with already! Aaahh. People are too generous. :P

Mom tells me I won't be bored for long...

Blessings.

More pictures

2011-10-07T17:17:00.001-05:00

We're home and surviving so far. I'd appreciate your prayers for us adjusting...

Introducing

2011-10-03T21:56:00.000-05:00

Cecily Rose Koch

Our second family picture... Although it doesn't look like it, my hair is now combed... not allowed a shower yet. :(

For those who care: She was born at 1:20pm, 7lbs 13oz, 20 inches long. She's already an overachiever- she joins the 4% and actually came on her due date...

As far as how it went, email me or something. :) All I'm gonna say here is that almost everything I didn't want to happen did... easy pregnancy did not equal easy L&D, unfortunately. But we both survived and avoided a c-section so it's all good.

Raise the Song of Harvest Home

2011-09-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

So I was a little bored yesterday... there are lots of things I could have been doing, but I just didn't feel like it. I'm not sure I buy that whole "nesting" thing, I feel more like being lazy. Anyway, so I went to the farm to ride in the combine and ended up driving it for a few hours. It was great.

When I got there, there was a front blowing through. I was so afraid it was going to start raining hard and I wouldn't get a combine ride... last year I didn't get to at all and it was very sad.

One of my favorite things to watch- corn falling into the head- positively mesmerizing.

Mom was combining and she let me switch with her. Trent was driving the auger wagon, Fred had the semi, and Lee R. was in the grain truck. One wonders where the Old Farmer was.... hehe.

Getting ready to unload on the go- I was driving and Mom was taking pictures. I'm not sure when Trent suddenly got old enough for this! Yikesabee, I must be getting really old!

And then... we look over and there he is, kicked back with his cool shades and a magazine. The tractor got too far ahead of me only once that I had to shut the auger off so as not to unload corn on the ground.... Hehe. Sorry Trent, have to tease you just a little bit!

It cleared up again. Such a beautiful sight. Through a dusty, smeary, combine window. *grin*

Such fun, I mean, when else can you talk about dragging your snouts and it make perfect sense?

Blessing.

Autumn Leaves

2011-09-28T16:10:00.002-05:00

The falling leaves
Drift by the window
The autumn leaves
Of red and gold

I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sunburned hands
I used to hold

Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

I don't mind fall so much when it's beautiful out like today... but the last two grey, dreary days, no thank you. Way too melancholy.

So far I'm not minding not working. I've gotten to meet up with Amy and Natalie for lunch, and I went on a walk yesterday with Aunt Joanne.

Randomly, I loooove going to OSF's Center for Health. The architecture and decor are Prairie Style and the landscaping is just plain awesome. *grin*

Blessings.

Done-ish

2011-09-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

So at least one room looks halfway decorated. :) Probably because there's been a little bit more of a deadline.... haha. Still can't say that I'm all that excited about the baby, but I am excited about how cute the room is! The white against the green-blue just makes me smile... and the nine patch blocks... sadly, with the crib at the highest level you can't see the excellent box pleat in the crib skirt that took much math and measuring.

Have I mentioned that I'm allergic to ironing?? I am. I really should have ironed the curtains before I hung them up, but... I did use my steamer on them, which worked great for the top half. Not so much for the bottom half because, hm... steam rises! O well. The mobile makes me happy too. Any thing that involves balloons, yarn, and copious amounts of glue is pretty awesome, really.

My new rocker is awaiting pads. The ones Mom ordered didn't quite match, but they were super cute- so now we need to decide if we should keep them or order different ones. Right now it will be just fine with the quilt Grandma Beutel made. Oh, and the highchair is just sitting here until it becomes useful...

These are the shelves Bob and I had such fun hanging the other night. They were left in the basement of our house so I cleaned them and gave them a fresh coat of paint. The pictures are soooo cute, I got them on Etsy. I especially like the little hedgehog one- it's called "My favorite book is blue." Yes, please! And the boy and girl duckies from my coworkers... hehe. Hooray for ducks!

Hooray for wood floors.... that need a rug. Unfortunately, area rugs are expensive. And I'm not paying ridiculous amounts of money for something that will be in a babies room....that's shag... that isn't machine washable... and isn't vacuumable. The one that I want that's fairly cheap and not shag and can be vacuumed and put in the wash is from Ikea. Also unfortunately, they don't sell it online and I have no plans of going to Ikea in the near future. *Sigh* Anybody going that wants to pick one up for me? hehe.

Now for the rest of the house... only problem is, I'm having a hard time deciding if I want to do the same things as at the duplex or not... I'm very indecisive.
Blessings.

Kicking down the cobblestones...

2011-09-23T22:50:00.001-05:00

So I've been kind of a lazy bum all week. Which I love. *grin*

I went to the doc on Tuesday and then returned some stuff. Apparently Target has registry problems because I ended up with triples of a few things... which is no fun when people see their gift twice at showers, and no fun for me because returning things is never a smooth process.

There were a few spots in our bathrooms where there was no trim and the old linoleum was curling, so to keep the new stuff from doing the same thing they told us to put in some quarter round. Not hard, except that we don't have a miter box or a miter saw... so I resorted to the coping saw and a square... which worked great. Except that the walls/vanities aren't necessarily square... it's not the best job in the world so don't look too close. Ok, it's pretty bad. But it will serve its purpose until we can get new vanities. Which I want to do right now! The counter top in one bathroom has a pointless overhang that I banged my head into. Hard. It hurt. I had a bump for a day or so.

Dang came for supper last night. Otherwise, I've been trying to put stuff away and get it out of boxes and into closets and onto shelves. We finally got some pictures hung on the walls tonight. Poor Bob got the lovely job of helping me hang shelves in the baby's room. Drywall anchors and I do not get along. At all. And he's been getting random opinion requests for what to hang where. Hehe.

So the other day I had the windows open and heard one of my favorite things... "Band, a-ten-HUT!" Yeah, I like where we live. :) Although, it's very sad that T-town doesn't have a competitive marching band so I could listen to the awesomeness every day...

Blessings.

Footloose and Fancy Free

2011-09-19T17:26:00.001-05:00

Well... it's over. Kind of sad so I'm trying not to think about it. I took in cupcakes on Friday, and the ladies that I work with the most took me out to One World for lunch. I left early because I had nothing left to do and I hate goodbyes.

Friday night was potluck. Aaron and Katie hosted at his parents house way up in the northern wilds. Hehe. Janelle and I rode with Dale and Meg and Maria because it would not have made much sense for Bob and Brent to drive all the way home and then turn around and go back the same way. Maria got to go to 'Grant and Hannah's eat pizza' so we got to see a little bit more of the Stark county countryside. Good times... and C and J's house is awesome... only slightly jealous. :)

I found my sewing machine last week so I got my quilt square done in time for quilt club on Saturday morning. And then my sister hosted a baby shower in the afternoon. The decorations were great- my Grandpa Schlipf's baby gown on the right with some of his crocheted shoes, and one from the trunk of Wyss baby things on the left, with some other awesome vintage baby things. So cool!

Bonsai san is excited to be a big brother.

Sunday was pretty quiet. We ended up going to Bob's parents for supper. Today I finally got the house clean, although, I've mostly been a lazy bum. *grin*

Blessings.

As our lives change...

2011-09-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

As we go on, we remember, all the times we, had together....

So life seems to have slowed down a little bit. Which is great. There are still boxes sitting around, but now it's mostly things that we need to figure out where we want to store.

I attempted apple cider doughnuts with apple juice instead of cider... yeah, they're good, but they don't taste like apple. Which is very sad. I guess I should have been patient and waited for cider. *grin*

We finally got the garage swept out- hooray! There were also a whole bunch of random shelves and hardware stacked in the corner... and a random pallet nailed to the wall. Um... why would you nail a pallet to the wall? We couldn't think of any logical reason. Bob sawed it all into pieces and we're hoping the garbage men take it today. One of our older neighbors saw that both of us were home and came over to introduce herself... and invited us to church... very sweet of her. I really like our new neighborhood.

The Beutel chili supper was Sunday evening. They make good chili. And lots of other good food too. I made a butterscotch peach pie (out of the Farm Journal Pie Cookbook) and I'm kind of glad that there were leftovers.

This is my last week of work. It's weird. And very bittersweet. We all went out for lunch today and Bob joined us.

To quote Scarlett, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."
Blessings.

For The Record

2011-09-12T11:31:00.001-05:00

I can still touch my toes. And hold it for quite a while. Bob can't.

*grin*

There shall be showers of blessings...

2011-09-09T10:35:00.001-05:00

For some reason, I only ever hear Willie Nelson singing that song in my head. From an old record. Yes, I know I'm weird.

I'm really not sure if I'm ready for summer to be over. I'm glad it's not stifling hot anymore, but I'm not looking forward to cold... at least this year I can park in a garage! *grin* And maybe, if we can find a cushy love seat or two comfy chairs for cheap or free, I can curl up with some cocoa in front of our fireplace. Which we probably shouldn't try and use until we get it inspected and cleaned... hm... candles on the hearth it is... hehe.

Anyways, it's been a mostly quiet week so far. Tuesday night I hosted sewing club and basically forgot to invite half the ladies. *sigh* My brain is officially mush. We've been feeling carpet tacks in the doorways, not good, so the carpet guy was supposed to come out and fix that Wednesday afternoon... I had a doctor appointment and errands to run, so my poor Mom came and chilled all afternoon and he never showed up. Slightly annoying.

My coworkers had a baby shower for us yesterday... so weird. And it makes me feel so mercenary... why, yes, you can buy me all sorts of baby things and then I'll be quitting in a week and will see you very rarely, if ever again. Mur. It was fun though, and the cake was wonderful. I got to bring home the balloons too, which I love.

Fallish weather makes me want apple cider doughnuts... I wonder if I will have time to make them anytime soon...
Blessings.

I've got my gear in my pack...

2011-09-06T15:19:00.000-05:00

We spent the first part of Labor day weekend camping with our potluck. It was great fun, but soooo hot. I'm a big fan of camping when it's not 90 degrees. Or in the mountains. Or up north. Ah well, we were with cool people so it was totally worth it. I pretty much forgot to take any pictures... oops.

One of our Christmas presents last year was thermarest sleeping pads for camping. They're pretty much amazing, when you can sleep on your back. Um... yeah, I'm not supposed to. So we borrowed an air mattress from my parents. It had an electric pump and since there wasn't any electricity at the timber we brought along our power inverter... that decided not to work. Bob ended up taking it to Rollyn's and inflating it there. By the time he got back, it had already deflated some. Ahh. Deep breaths. Just slightly frustrating. We started off the night mostly off the ground, but every time I woke up more of my body was in contact with the parched, hard, baked earth. In the morning we were on a nice flat piece of plastic... so comfortable. hehe. Honestly, the worst part of the whole thing was probably my attitude because I slept pretty well (for camping) and I wasn't sore in the morning. And I guess now I have bragging rights, because how many other people can say they've slept on the ground at 36 weeks? *grin*

Saturday was rather warm... I spent most of it in a lawn chair just chilling and laughing at the kids running around. Then the rain came through and we had to scramble to get everything undercover. I was glad we'd already packed our tent and stuff up. Mary and I went back to our house to get my veggies for the evening and freshen up a little bit and made it back to the timber just in time for the second wave of rain and the storm. We ended up eating supper in the cabin and then moving to the Beutel cabin for s'mores later on.

After church Bob and I headed over to Kaleigh's house for an Arizona trip reunion... Bob went, I didn't, but I've heard all about it. :) Mike was there, and Jomama... It was really good to see them all again, and see K's horse and mule. hehe. The weather was awesome. I love how nice and cool it got.

Monday I slept in and it was wonderful. We got the baseboard all back on and painted- hooray for no more nail holes staring at me! And some curtains hung... and the house clean and laundry done. Then I decided that we needed another lamp in the living room. The duplex had wall lights so we never needed lamps, now our house has no wired lights at all in the living room. Which, in my opinion, is crazy. I get the whole mood lighting thing, but it's really nice to be able to see sometimes... or all the time... like for cleaning, or reading, or just sitting. I don't like dimness. Anyway, we went lamp shopping and then got pizza for supper.

And back to work today... as Bob reminded me, my ninth to last day. Aaahhh. Don't want to think about it.
Blessings.

Toilets and Tomatoes

2011-08-29T15:37:00.003-05:00

We have two working toilets! Yay! Thursday night Bob and his dad worked on the plumbing... Rustin came over briefly to help move our living room furniture and he got roped into helping a little bit too. Sally and I worked on peaches and agreed that we would rather slave over a hot stove than do plumbing, especially toilet plumbing. It sounded rather miserable- it's easy to see where the toilet pipe is in the basement, but because of how the foundations and walls are it's next to impossible to work on it. They got the flange replaced by 11... and then we realized that the old, stiff water line was too short by just a tiny bit. So frustrating! We got a nice new braided one on Friday and so far no leaks so it's all good!

One bad thing about two toilets and a bigger house is that it takes way longer to clean. mur. I worked on that some Saturday, ran to the farm for tomatoes, started to tame the jungle that is the side of our house while Bob mowed, started doing tomatoes, and got lazy and ordered pizza for supper. I know, I'm such a slacker. My feet hurt by the end of the night... *sigh* I don't think I want to calculate the increase in psi on my poor feet. My days of running on gravel are long over, sadly.

Church was full Sunday and my brothers were there for the men's sing... Mom and Dad came for the afternoon program, and the Streits... They stopped by after church to see the new floors and take the tour. hehe. I really haven't gotten anything unpacked yet. Bob even mentioned that there weren't any pictures or "personal touches." Um... oops... maybe this week!

Blessings.

A few more pictures

2011-08-25T12:32:00.000-05:00

The floors are all in! Yay! Now to put the trim back on...

This is the green bathroom that is still a mess. I got greyish vinyl to sort of go with the black counter top, and to hide dirt in the hallway right outside. This toilet did not make for a good Tuesday morning... it's older and bigger than the other one, the water supply line is different, and all of the bolts were rusted. So rusted that they broke when Bob tried to unscrew the nuts. And the screws that hold the completely rusted flange pulled right out of the floor. Lovely. So it's still sitting there, while we figure out if it's a Daaad-help! job or a call-a-plummer job. Also, what's a good way to get years of lime scale off of shower doors?

The hallway- I really, really like the floor compared to the old green hexagons. hehe.

The blue bathroom got white squares, it looks more grey in this picture. The baseboard is back on, but I still need to touch up the paint and hide the nails. And probably need to break out the blue AGAIN to touch up some pink spots that keep appearing. I am begining to despise 60's pink...

And the empty living room with new neutral carpet. I love it, it's super soft. I'm also glad I didn't go with something with more color... hopefully this will not be obviously out of style in 5-10 years.

This is the room at the bottom of the basement stairs. The chalkboard has a JD tractor drawn on it. Guess which brother.

The room to the left is full of my washer and dryer and freezer, plus some filing cabinets we inherited, and one of the furnaces. (yes, we have two furnaces and two air conditioners... not sure why... one theory is that they were overselling to older people?)

The other end of that room is full of electrical flotsam right now. This is the shiny new panel, the old panel was on the wall to the right.

The house was added on to at some point and the room under the addition has a walk out cellar door. I've been spray painting some register covers... with low odor water based spray paint... I'm trying to be good.

The other side of the room has a workbench and trim pieces that are getting a fresh coat of paint.

Last night I stopped and got peaches and tomatoes from my mom... I'll be busy tonight. That is, if my stove has migrated to the new electrical panel by the time I get home. We ate microwaved leftovers last night. *grin*

Blessings.

Moving Day

2011-08-22T10:48:00.001-05:00

Or for me, days. :) I survived. I feel so much better now. This is going to be a long post, sorry, and half the pictures are from Shelly. I didn't remember to use my camera for some reason.

Thursday evening, Mom, Shelly, Sharon, and Sally came over and we packed up and moved my kitchen stuff. It was slightly sad to discover that I have more dishes than books... we must do something about that! We got it all unpacked too, which is awesome. I kind of had an idea of what was going to go where in the new kitchen, but still, waay too many snap decisions to be made and I just looove making decisions. hehe. O well, at least it's done and I can tweak things at my leisure... Somehow we managed to overlook one drawer that night which ended up being a good thing. If we hadn't forgotten that drawer, we would have had to scoop ice cream with plastic spoons. Can't have that!

We're replacing the old, unsafe breaker panel at our new house. And when Dad unhooked the old 70's era washer and dryer that came with the house he discovered that they'd hardwired the dryer directly to the panel and we'll need an outlet... and the stove's plugged in to 60 amp wire... yikes. Anyway, yeah, we've decided to upgrade to 200amp service and move the electric meter to the side of the house instead of right next to the front window. Friday morning Cilco came to check things out, so then our favorite general contractor was asking all sorts of questions about where I wanted the wire conduit run. Through the attic, along the garage ceiling, shortest path or parallel and perpendicular to the walls? Umm.... not sure I have an opinion... path of least resistance? He went with right angles. If you know Herb, that's not at all a surprise. hehe.

I spent the rest of Friday packing up all of our clothes in suitcases and bringing them over while Bob got to deal with the guy from Comcast who came to set up our phone and internet. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I have way too many clothes. O well, I guess maybe we'll see if I ever fit into any of them again. :) That evening I crashed on the couch at the mostly empty duplex and just stared at the ceiling for awhile... since we only had uncomfortable folding chairs at the house.

Saturday morning started off bright and early. There were a few last minute things to pack and clean... curtains to take down, toiletries, etc. Grandma and Grandpa and Pearline showed up with pudding and bars and went right to work defrosting my freezer.

And then they loaded up the contents plus some random drawers that I wasn't going to bother emptying to drive less than a mile.

Then the muscle arrived...

Grandma made sure everything was dust free. :)

My idea of just having some sandwiches and chips sitting out for people if they got hungry turned into quite the lunch spread (note the aforementioned pudding and bars...). (Hi Dale!)

Some of the boys checking out what's under the manhole cover in the back yard.

And Jakey of course had to go down in it.

So yeah, everyone else says it went smoothly and was a laid back moving day. Guess that's a good thing! They did manage to get all the furniture/washer/dryer/freezer moved in and the old washer and dryer moved out and donated in a pretty short amount of time. We even had some time to relax before we went to Grandma and Grandpa Beutel's for an early supper.

I wandered around and took some pictures that night. The kitchen-

Living room furniture squished into the family room until the carpet comes this week-

Bob chilling in the office- not sure yet what all will stay back here as far as furniture...

Bedroom-

Sneak peak at the baby's room, and all of our luggage-

The no longer pink bathroom. The floor looks way better with the blue, maybe we shouldn't have ordered new... hehe... o wait, except that it's covered with paint splots now.

The third bedroom contains most of the mess. At least it's mostly books and picture frames, not 'junk.' hehe.

Living room is still very empty-

It looks like I forgot to get a picture of the newly green bathroom, or any of the basement. O well.

And last but not least, my little brother, crawling through the laundry trap door. Who knows. (Why they had a laundry door in the middle of the master bedroom, and why Jakey crawled through it)

So thankful that's over. Now I just get to put stuff away. The vinyl floors and carpet are coming this week. Last night Bob got to take a toilet off for the very first time. So funny... and then I got to remove the remains of the old wax seal because for some reason it doesn't gross me out that much... Such good bonding time. *grin*

Blessings.

Soon and very soon

2011-08-17T14:07:00.000-05:00

Moving is frustrating. I'm tired of it. *grin*

So far, the worst of it hasn't even been the packing and painting... it's all the calling and appointments and changing addresses and coordinating. ugh. Add not enough sleep, a healthy dose of extra hormones, and much stress and what you get is an easily irritable, slightly cranky Jenny. Say a prayer for Bob. hehe.

Anyways... we had issues with getting mail right after we got married. They didn't bother to deliver to our new address, even though we had both filled out change of address and mail forwarding forms online. This time I set up mail forwarding online and was going to try and make it to the post office sometime when I got around to it and let them know in person that we were moving. And then Monday I got an email from our insurance agent... we switched to home insurance from renters insurance (obviously) and the address for that policy is our new house (also obviously). Country mailed our policy summary to the new address and when it got to the T-town post office they didn't know what to do with it. They called the Country office in town, who is not our agent, who called our agent, who emailed me. At 3:50. The post office closes at the ridiculous hour of 4:30. aarrg. I managed to get there before they closed and got it straightened out...

The thing I don't quite get is that Tremont is a small town. The city called Bob weeks ago, before we even closed on the house, wanting to know when we needed the water turned on. I heard that the sale has even been discussed at the library... But the letter carrier didn't notice that the for sale sign was gone? And they couldn't put two and two together? Or call us directly? *sigh*

So yes, annoying start to the week. A lot of our families came over later that night and got our books moved and a bunch of other stuff done. Shelly got up close and personal with the insides of my kitchen cabinets again, hehe.

Tuesday Mom and Donna came and painted- it's all done except for some touchups! Yay! And I like all the colors on the walls, so that's a plus. Herb was also over looking at our electrical... looks like that's going to be a bigger, more expensive project than anticipated, of course. Welcome to home ownership, right!? O well, better a little money and time now than burning the house down around our ears.

I'm hoping and praying (maybe even begging) that the rest of the week goes smoothly...
Blessings.

Just keep swimming...

2011-08-15T13:08:00.003-05:00

So we spent most of the weekend working at our new house... hooray!

We did try to sleep in on Saturday and it didn't really happen- the phone kept ringing. *sigh* O well. At least one of the phone calls was worthwhile, young Matt started repenting!

My mom worked in the kitchen.... Bob moved some stuff... Bob's mom and young Matt took on the monumental task of cleaning the basement and getting rid of years worth of spiders. Ugh. MEW came over and replaced a light fixture so now we can see in the kitchen. And I painted a bathroom in the dark. I had just started when Matt shut the power off so he could wire, and then the storm came through so there was no sunlight. Lets just say it was a pretty bad paint job and needed a second coat badly!

I had gotten a ton of boxes from friends of a friend who just moved their family to T-town, but since so much of our stuff was already in boxes and tubs and totes we haven't needed as many as we have. Plus I've been filling laundry baskets and my car every time I go over to the house. I broke down the smaller, less useful sizes and our living room is actually starting to feel empty. It's kind of sad.

Sunday was a much needed day of rest... our goal for this week is to finish the last little bit of painting and get everything but the furniture moved. Then Saturday is the big day... yikesabee. Hopefully I make it to Saturday. *grin*

Blessings.

He's Home!!!

2011-08-12T21:32:00.007-05:00

.... and already hard at work getting our internet/phone switched to the new house. hehe. SO glad that was on his to-do list and not mine.

So yeah, Bob was in Texas/Mexico for work since Wednesday. It's the first time we've spent a night apart in 2.25 years. I didn't like it. Yes, I know I'm pathetic, but I don't care. :)

Blessings.

Red Mountain Music

2011-08-12T09:29:00.002-05:00

I love it when people put old hymns that no one sings (or are hard to sing) to new music... I have two of their CD's and I've been listening pretty exclusively to them the last few weeks. And I love that this one comes from Psalm 61.

Lead Me to the Rock
Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal # 1104
Words - S.Turner or Bennet , 1838.

Convinced as a sinner, to Jesus I come
Informed by the gospel for such there is room;
Overwhelmed with sorrows for sin I will cry
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

When sorely afflicted and ready to faint,
Before my Redeemer I’ll spread my complaint;
’Mid storms and distresses my soul shall rely
On Jesus, the rock that is higher than I.

’Tis there with the chosen of Jesus,
I long to dwell and eternally join in the song,
And praising and blessings, with angels on high,
It’s Jesus, the rock that is higher than I.

The house is coming along... my sanity is slipping away... hehe. Or something. I came down with a cold this week so my head feels foggy. Slightly more foggy than normal, anyway. :) Carol came over the other night and we got the rest of the cleaning done, and Mom and Shelly and Meg helped me last night with some painting and shelf-papering. Both places look chaotic though, so it's hard to feel like there's been a whole lot of progress- and there has been! One more week. Ayiyiyiyi.

Blessings.

Whistle while you work

2011-08-08T15:09:00.002-05:00

We've been busy. Friday night Bob's mom and Sharon came over and we scoured the kitchen. It kind of needed it... Sharon scrubbed one of the bathrooms, so glad that's done! Sprout showed up from AL later in the evening and we got the living room taped for painting. woot woot!

Saturday I barely sat down, but we got a lot of things checked off the to-do list. My brothers, young Matt, Susan, Rustin and Sharon all came over to help and we got the wall paper down, the carpet out, baseboards off, other bathroom cleaned, bushes trimmed, tree trimmed, and a first coat of paint on two rooms... yeah. Many hands make light work, right? Although, too many hands and everybody gets in everyone else's way. :)

Matt and I did the painting. He insisted on rolling, so I got to cut in. Painting up by the ceilings and the corners wasn't too bad, but crawling around on the floor was not fun at all. Especially since I had to avoid tack strips in the living room. I managed to survive with only one puncture wound, and the only paint that got on me was Matt's fault... hehe. I was so stiff for the rest of the night...

We rushed home and barely got cleaned up in time to make it to the cabin for a Beutel family thing. I pretty much sat the whole time... like I said, I was a little bit stiff and sore and it hurt to move. *grin*

Sunday we went to W-ton for Troy and Ellie's wedding. They're so cute and the wedding was great and everything was really pretty. Good times, although it seems really weird that she's all married and gone now. *sniff* They just grow up so fast... hehe.

I fell asleep when we got home... I've been working too hard I guess. :) Then we went to Bob's parent's for brownies and ice cream since Saturday was his Dad's birthday. Which we totally forgot. Ooops. (Sorry!!) Someday I will have all family birthdays on the calendar and will remember to at least get a card a week in advance. Someday. Or maybe I take after my aunts... hehe.

Anyway, back to work today...
Blessings.

Home Sweet Home

2011-08-05T12:23:00.000-05:00

So on Tuesday we did a very fast final walk through, ran to the bank to meet with our loan officer (and randomly, I went to HS with his kids), then quick to the lawyer's to sign some more papers. And then they handed us keys. Yikesabee. But not the garage door keypad code... still need to get that from the previous owner...

Our new house... the red front door and porch, which I love.

This is the back yard. One of the biggest reasons I liked this house. The back fence borders the school, and the fence on the left borders the cemetery. They're completely covered with what I think are honeysuckle vines. It's hard to tell but there are also three different clumps of lilac bushes along the fence and peonies in the corner.

And looking back towards the house... my photography skills are pathetic.

So this is the living room, the green carpet is going. It's a bit dirty, but it's not worn at all, so if you want it, you're welcome to it!

Off the living room is the hallway to the bedrooms... pretty basic. :) Although, check out the parquet floors! I love it.

There are three bedrooms, they're all pretty much white boxes with wood floors currently, like this one.

And the bathroom off the bedrooms. I really like the wallpaper- it's super cute and very vintage, but... I think it's going to go. Too much pink. Every person who has stepped in this room has commented on the floor, including the guy who came to measure for vinyl. It's just such a contrast to the pink. And maybe the oddest linoleum I've ever seen.

And we've got another lovely inset vanity with fluorescent lights. Ugh. I dislike fluorescent lights intensely.

This is the kitchen, it looks really colorless right now. I love all the cabinets and counter top space and the window that looks out on the yard.

The house was added on to at some point and it's honestly a little bit disorienting the first few times you walk through it, but this is the family room right next to the kitchen. And our mantle less fireplace. One of my goals is to get a mantle before Christmas. *grin*

So the family room kind of turns the corner over here. We're not sure what it's going to be yet... maybe the office?

And next to the family room is the side entrance and second bathroom.

Lovely color choices in here, hehe. Yellow, black, and red flecked linoleum and black counter top.

And more fluorescent lights. *sigh* 2014 can take its time getting here.

So anyway, that's kind of what it looks like now. I have a feeling menards is going to be my home away from home for a little bit, which I love. One of the toilets was running (the water had been off since the house was empty) so I got to visit a new aisle yesterday. *Grin* Plus, we'll be pulling the toilets off when they install the new floors so we needed new seals. There are many advantages to growing up in an old farm house... I know what a wax toilet seal is and I could probably talk you through replacing it. Since, you know, I can't be expected to actually do the work in my delicate condition. hehe.

Mom and Dad and Shelly came over last night and we did some cleaning and prepping for paint. Poor Dad got to play plumber and remover of things that were glued/screwed/nailed to walls and doors. Good times.

Blessings.

Science

2011-08-04T10:18:00.004-05:00

I ran across this comic this morning... it made me laugh, because it's so true. Scientists don't think of some project to try and Voila!, two weeks later it's available to the public. Sometimes I spend three or four months doing the same reaction, or testing the same material. And nothing I have worked on has been a major, change-the-textbooks, discovery. Most of research is just adding to and building upon what is already known. (of making many books there is no end...)

I worked here at the lab as a student the summer of 2006. I spent the whole time mixing up plastic resins in collaboration with a company that wanted to make bio-based chairs... it's now five years later, they dropped the project and our contact person works for a different company. My boss wrote and published a paper about the reactions and data, but will it ever get used? Who knows.

I edited for language... *grin* Click on it to make it bigger so you can read it.

Happenings

2011-08-02T10:50:00.003-05:00

Life is crazy. :)

We have 16 boxes of books waiting to be moved... maybe 1 or 2 more, depending if you count cookbooks as "books." (I remember there being some disagreement when we tried to take inventory at the farm...) And a living room full of empty boxes that we got from a friend of one of my coworkers who just moved to T-town.

I went and looked at carpet and vinyl last weekend. There's a rather overwhelming selection. Plus, I have no idea what I'm doing. Any suggestions for carpet color that would go with this couch? And that wouldn't look out of style in 5-10 yrs? I don't use those reddish pillows...

We're replacing some lovely bright avacado green carpet and interesting vinyl in the bathrooms... and I don't want to hear about the green carpet- I had green shag carpet in my bedroom for years and that was more than enough for one lifetime.

I bought a bunch of paint too, and I was good and got the No VOC deodorizing kind. *eyeroll* Because, you know, I've been working with concentrated organic solvents for four years now and never had traces show up in my bloodwork... and a few afternoons of paint fumes is nowhere near my regular exposure level...

Bob got to help direct traffic at the Threshing day, and then we went to potluck on Saturday night. And last night we ate at Olive Garden with Dang and his family and some of his friends for his birthday. It was an interesting and fun evening.

We were supposed to do our final walk through of the house last night as well, I even brought my camera to take pictures, and then the lock box was missing and it was too late in the evening to get keys from the seller or realtor. Sooo... hopefully we'll still be closing this afternoon.

Anyways... blessings.

Corny

2011-07-27T21:55:00.006-05:00

O wait, that's Kacie... hehe. Good thing she doesn't read this. We were on the way to mini-golf in Kentucky.

Anyways, I took half the day off today and did corn with Mom and Shelly. Somebody thought it would be a good idea to not shuck the ears in the field so they took up more room in the bags and took twice as long to clean... out in the heat. *cough* Dad *cough* Actually, we were on the porch and there was a nice breeze so it wasn't half bad. We did about 45 pints and I somehow ended up with most of it, which I love.

I've decided that home grown sweet corn is necessary for life. I could survive on other store bought vegetables, but store corn in all its forms is just gross and starchy and bad. Yes, I know I'm spoiled. *grin*

Next up, green beans, peaches, and moving. woot woot.

Blessings.

Vacation: Take 25

2011-07-25T13:56:00.003-05:00

So yeah, the 25th annual Wyss vacation was at Kentucky lake this year. It was hot and humid, but still fun. The best part is probably not having to be at work for a whole week... and forgetting about all the work to be done at home...

We mostly spent our time being lazy and eating. And playing cards and watching lots of HGTV and 'Say Yes to the Dress!' haha.

Did I mention it was hot? I was so glad we were in a cabin with central air... pure 70 degree bliss. Although, the mattresses left something to be desired and the pillows were hard. *grin* O well, my own fault for forgetting mine.

The lake wasn't super cool, but it was better than baking in the sun! So since I'm not allowed to do anything 'high-impact' and that probably includes skiing and tubing and cliff jumping, I spent a lot of afternoons floating on a raft in the water. (While everyone else was boating, woe is me!)

I took my camera, but the only pictures I took were from mini- golfing one evening and they aren't very good. Plus, I lost. Sorry.

Bob and I spent an afternoon filling coolers with water balloons... well, I helped for awhile and then Troy took over for me... and then that evening we surprised a few people during a 'drink break' in the middle of a volleyball game. It was beautiful.

Good times. I managed to make it through the week with minimal annoyance and irritation... although one of my cousins maybe got smacked... he deserved it.

Anyway, back to reality this week. And laundry. And my wonderful feather bed. woot woot. *grin*
Blessings.

Discombobulated

2011-07-14T12:10:00.002-05:00

And tired. And slightly stressed. And confused (what is escrow anyway? can somebody just tell us what to do already?).

My sister and cousins and friends were going to come visit T-town last night... they backed out at the last minute. Except for Ellie. Which was great, I was surprised and very excited to see her. The rest of them are panzes and missed a great Bible Study.

There are only a few days until the best week of the year happens. Thank. Goodness.

Blessings.

Have you ever been down to Lyon County?

2011-07-11T13:49:00.001-05:00

Well, (it's a deep subject) I haven't seen any more evidence of mice, my brakes are fixed, Thursday was a calm night, and the house passed inspection. Woot woot and a sigh of relief. *grin*

Friday night Bob went to Father-son night and left me home all by my lonesome *sniff*.... ok, not really. I was blessed to be invited to spend the evening with some ladies, their girls, and five adorable black puppies. They were hard to resist. If I didn't feel bad for dogs that are stuck in pens and don't have kids to play with.... hehe. I enjoyed it very much, and very much appreciated their wisdom. It's a scary thing to be facing motherhood... and advice that people give can be so subjective... it's so much better to be pointed to Christ. It was good for my soul.

Metzgerfest was Saturday. Yes, it was as exciting as it sounds. I mean, they even rented a bounce house. Hehe. We put in our appearance for lunch and said hi to the people that I recognise and went home again.... not so much a reunion fan. Jakey and Clayton came over to hang out in the evening. Good times.

I realize that I have a strange sense of humor... but is asking somebody if they swallowed a watermelon ever funny? Why is it suddenly ok to say things to me that would be extremely impolite, if not just plain rude and inappropriate, said to any other woman? (Or a man, I can't say that I've ever went up to somebody and asked if they swallowed a spare tire! I mean, come on!) Does 'If you can't say something nice...' not apply anymore? *sigh* I am beginning to think that men should just not talk to pregnant women. Thankfully, the asinine comments I've gotten have taken me so off guard that I haven't lost control of my tongue... yet anyway.... *grin*

It's hot. I don't think the chillers are keeping up here at work because I'm actually comfortable for a change and I'm not wishing for a sweater... Pretty sure the humidity is sapping all of my strength and mental capacity. I maybe walked out the door this morning and pulled it shut (locked) behind me. And my car keys were still inside, hanging on the hook. Ooops. Poor Bob had to come down and let me back in... he puts up with a lot.

Blessings.

Percival, Novice of Sneak

2011-07-07T12:20:00.000-05:00

What a day. Wednesday was crazy. Not a fan. Anyway.

So yeah, work, then Curves, then quick try and get back to T-town before the bank closed (How does anybody who works 9-5 ever do any banking??), then home to make supper... which is when the chaos started.

About a week ago I found mouse droppings in the drawer where I keep plastic containers and tupperware, which is disgusting. But only in that drawer. No where else in the kitchen and it didn't get into any food. So I emptied and sterilized the drawer and Bob set some traps around the kitchen and one in the drawer. A few days went by... I had almost convinced myself that I was dreaming the mouse and it was maybe just bugs or something.... yeah. I was starting to cook supper and remembered that I hadn't checked the trap yet. (Mom, maybe you should stop reading now, or skip to the bottom.) O look at the lovely flowers Bob brought me the other day:

Anyway, so I opened the drawer and this was waiting for me. I was not expecting this. I screamed. One of those involuntary, high pitched, primal screams that well up out of the core of my being when I'm startled by spiders or mice. I was glad the neighbor girls weren't home... hehe. He was already quite dead, so I disposed of him once my heart rate went down to a more normal level.

Poor Percival, he just didn't have what it takes.

Then I had a drawer to sterilize and supper to finish and Bob worked late. We would not have made it to church on time so it's a good thing we had already planned to go listen to church with G and G Beutel. (We still had to leave the dirty dishes in the sink, which I hate.) It was fun, plus we got a snack. *grin* Grandma had us pick out a baby quilt... it's so hard to choose, they're all so pretty.

Have I mentioned my car? Yeah, it was running fine until a few days ago when the brakes started making funny noises. By last night it had progressed to awful grinding noises... so at 10 we headed out to pick up Roger's truck again. *sigh* We finally got home for good, but I still had much to do.... it was a late night.

I'm hoping this afternoon and evening are MUCH calmer.

Blessings.

At least a mile long

2011-07-06T11:10:00.003-05:00

My to-do list, that is. woot. Any tips for moving in an organized and efficient manner?

We kept pretty busy this weekend. Our house gets so dirty in a week... and there are only two of us... and we're not messy people... I don't understand how it happens... Although, yesterday everything I touched ended up all over the counter or floor. *grin*

Rustin and Sharon and Grace and Eden came for supper Sunday night. It was fun... but I felt bad for the little girls. We have no toys and our house is full of mouse traps, sewing pins, splinters... yeah... not kid friendly at all.

I was going to try and avoid being all materialistic and crazy and not spend ridiculous amounts of money on baby furniture and 'nursery' decor... so I found a cheap crib on craigslist. In Pekin. Should have been my first clue. I figured it couldn't be that bad, nothing that a little bit of scrubbing and paint couldn't fix. Um... yeah... it was dirtier than it looked and still smelled funny after scrubbing with bleach... I was getting more and more grossed out, and when I attempted to set it up the metal pieces that held it together bent. And it was missing a few connectors. At which point I decided that no child of mine would be sleeping in it and it was probably too far gone to even donate. Closest I've been to tears in a long time... poor Bob. He puts up with a lot. Anyway, it met its end on the farm with an axe and flames. It did get one parting shot at me; while the boys were chopping a piece flew up and hit my shoulder and bruised it.

After that lovely experience I've swung the other way and want new... maybe. :) The drop sided thing doesn't bother me... 32 deaths in 10 years, approximately 40 million babies born in that time- um... statistically insignificant! (Doesn't congress have better things to do with their time??) So I think used would still be ok, but we do want it to last through more than one kid. We'll see. I think maybe I should forget about it until after we move...

The rest of the fourth was fun- we went to Ron and Kary's in Eureka to watch fireworks and play volleyball and eat homemade ice cream and cake.

Blessings.

Happy Fourth!

2011-07-04T14:41:00.009-05:00

Bonsai-san is ready to celebrate.

My geranium is also looking very patriotic.

...And the reason my fern has not been getting watered very frequently or thoroughly... there's a nest of baby birds in it.

Ramblings

2011-07-01T21:48:00.005-05:00

This week felt crazy... lots of stuff going on and lots of needing to be places and drop things off before 5...

We're officially under contract for a house here in town. Yikesabee. I'm excited. And not at all looking forward to packing up and moving. In the middle of corn and beans and tomatoes. July and August are looking very daunting.

It's not my dream house by a long shot... not even close... but I like it... which makes me think it must have been meant to be. *grin* That or I'm nesting (our favorite realtor/landlord's opinion haha). Or the fact that there are five old fashioned lilac bushes and two different colors of peonies in the yard.

My car was making a funny noise... Bob laughed at me when I tried to describe it. And then Mr. Boston laughed at me when I tried to explain it to him. *sigh* I get no respect. So I've been driving Bob's dad's truck. Which I love. Except it has no running boards so getting in it is interesting and involves hiking my skirt up rather high and jumping...

Apparently it was just my tires wearing funny- yay for not being something major! AND I got the pump for my washer fluid replaced so I don't have to haul around a squirt bottle of washer fluid and feel like a total redneck. If we had a family motto I think it should be "I contrive."

I got stuck three times today... the first two weren't bad, the third one hurt. *sigh* And I had to skip breakfast and drink nasty sugar water and sit at the Dr's office for two hours. Woe is me. Nothing like mass amounts of sugar on an empty stomach. On the plus side, my first stop was Culver's for some much needed protein, fiber, starch, and fat.

We don't have any big plans this weekend. I should probably start going through all of our stuff. ugh.

Blessings.

Quiet week

2011-06-27T10:49:00.002-05:00

Which I love... Other than sewing club on Thursday, I haven't been doing a whole lot.

Contrary to popular belief, there is some sewing that gets done at sewing club... I worked on binding the baby quilt that I finally finished piecing:

I love it. These are the instructions I used. I think it probably took me a little bit longer than 6 hours total to get everything cut and pieced, but it still went pretty fast. I'm going to make a bumper and crib skirt to match eventually. And don't worry, it's all machine sewn (except the binding)- I don't have that much free time. *grin*

And I think I've decided that four coats of paint is good enough on this dresser... so that's done too. woot woot.

This is how Leann had it painted- cute, but not quite gender neutral. :)

My garden is growing!

And my flowers. Some of them look like they could use less rain, and more sunshine. Like me.

And this is proof that there are altogether too many critters in town. A petunia, growing in the cracks of our back patio. I didn't even plant petunias back there this year! I don't want to think about how the seed got there.

We both needed to get our FOID cards renewed, so we went to get our pictures taken on Saturday night... even though they use your drivers license picture for the actual card, they still require a passport sized photo. So pointless. Anyway, Bob really wanted lava cake so we ate supper at Applebee's.

Sunday evening we went to Bob's parents' for supper since Sprout is moving to Athens this week... hooray for the hot, sickly south!

Blessings.

Rainy Days and Mondays

2011-06-21T10:45:00.005-05:00

Why aren't weekends longer?

We went to potluck on Friday night... woot woot. I did not get to sleep in on Saturday since it was a quilt club morning, but then I went to some thrift stores and came home with lots of clothes for not a lot of money so it was worth it. Bob went fishing with my brothers that afternoon. In Matt's new boat. Which is as yet unnamed and he doesn't like any of my suggestions. (Just because all of the famous boats I've heard of were ill fated doesn't mean anything...)

Sunday we went to the farm for Hawaiian pork burgers and homemade ice cream. Er, um, sweet cream. Yeah, it didn't quite set up right... hehe. And G and G stopped by with a raspberry pie. Yum. I ate way too much.

It's so hard to get up and go to work on rainy dreary Monday mornings... especially when the laundry pile waiting for you is a small mountain. Who decided Monday would be wash day anyway?

So my sister posted a bunch of old pictures from my Grandma Schlipf... and a letter she wrote my Grandpa when they were dating:

"Dear Elmer,

Miriam was here today and said she and Joe are invited to go to Bluffton this weekend-and would I like to keep the kids. I felt like saying-"Do I want to break my leg"- but I didn't. So, unless they change their minds, I'll be in Eureka Saturday night.

If you want to come over and spend a nice quiet evening at home (with two kids), you may. If you'd rather skip this weekend, just let me know. I wouldn't blame you.

As Ever, Marjorie"

It makes me smile a lot... apparently I get it honest...

Blessings.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T07:00:00.010-05:00

An excerpt from an email from my Dad (from a long time ago):

"If you ever are pregnant, do me a favor. Don't post a picture of your belly on facebook! Or maybe any where else."

*grin*

NO WORRIES Dad.

And for the record, I'm so thankful to have a Dad who has always had high expectations for us kids... and has never backed down from his convictions and principles... and never been afraid to set us straight.

(Mom too, who probably bore the brunt of enforcing said principles. I maybe still check if my skirt hits the floor when I kneel down... *grin*)

Bubble Wrap

2011-06-16T10:42:00.002-05:00

One of my coworkers has a tendency to be slightly accident prone... the other night she fell off her porch. She was at work yesterday, but went home early because she was feeling dizzy (probably from hitting her head when she fell- yikes!).

So the rest of us scrounged up some bubble wrap and made her desk safer for her... hehe. Padded corners, wrapped up sharp objects, caution signs.

Yes, I know we need to get out more.

I love the lab.

Festivities

2011-06-14T09:30:00.001-05:00

Yeah. So. Busy, busy weekend again. It was great fun though!

Friday night the Turkey Fest was in full swing... I went to the Turkey Express drive through and got us turkey sandwiches for supper. And then Bob and I walked up to the park later and wandered around looking at everything. There was a jazz band playing that night... they started playing a swing tune and a few older couples got up to dance. They were awesome. Bob did not want to join them, sadly. Someday. *grin* We got strawberry short cakes for dessert and walked back home.

I went back Saturday to look through the booths... and I wanted to try a Strawberry smoothie. It was ok, but I don't think I would get one again. Too much ice and milk not enough fruit and yogurt.

Saturday night we were honored to be invited to Gab and Brian's rehearsal dinner at 3o9. The food was really, really good. Now we just need an excuse to go back... It was good to be there and it brought back lots of fun memories of U of I times. I like listening to people tell stories, not so much telling stories. Plus, half of the really good Gab and Brian stories that involved me I'm not sure I would want to share in front of my elder... and their grandparents. hehe. *grin*

The wedding was Sunday afternoon at Luthy Botanical Gardens. It was a gorgeous place for a wedding and the weather was perfect! I didn't even think about sunscreen though, and I got slightly burnt. Sometimes I get tired of weddings... but this one was wonderful. I'll admit I got a little teary, but who wouldn't watching Steve walking Gab down the aisle? So sweet.

And then we headed to the fabulous reception, where we were served more fantastic food. We were at a table full of U of I people... good times. Bovee was even there all the way from Wisconsin! So we had to get a roommate picture- 709 girls four years later:

Sadly, that's the only picture I took the whole weekend.

And then we went home and crashed. I tried to go to work Monday morning... lasted all of an hour and a half before I went home because I was feeling really weird... and I went back to bed and woke up at 2pm. um.... yikes! Don't know what that was all about because I feel fine today.

Blessings.

Sleep, Sleep tonight...

2011-06-10T12:21:00.003-05:00

I'm so tired this week... I haven't been getting to bed early enough in a very long time. Plus it's been so hot that it feels like all my energy is sucked out every time I walked out the door or got in my car with it's lovely black leather seats... (for the record, I got it used so I didn't get to pick what kind of seats. Leather is hot. Black leather is an oven.) And, my cousins were here so we had to spend some extra time with them.

We went to the farm for supper on Tuesday night. Several of my cousins are vegetarians so there was quite the assortment of food... and Peggy made scones... yum. Mom had a box of quilts still from when they were cleaning out Grandma's house that hadn't been divided yet so we all went through those. Shelly and I will have to wait to inherit 'ours' though... when we put our elderly parents in the nursing home... hehe...

I went back over on Wednesday just to hang out. They made homemade ice cream which turned out really good. Homemade ice cream is pretty much amazing. And it finally started to cool off and turned into a lovely night. There really is nothing better than sitting on the front steps watching the lightning bugs come out on a summer evening (with the sound of the tractor side dressing nitrogen in the background...). I maybe miss the farm a little bit.

Last night we went with our Dads to look at a house and then I put another coat of paint on the dresser. I propped the porch door open for ventilation, so I also got to listen to the music from the carnival midway and the screams of teenage girls drifting in on the breeze... *grin* Hooray for the Turkey Festival. Thankfully we'll be missing most of it due to Brian and Gab's wedding festivities. Aaahhh I'm so excited! :D

Blessings.

School's Out

2011-06-07T22:36:00.001-05:00

And that means that today was the last time I got to meet Dalaysia for lunch. It was also the last time I got to hang out at Whittier... sad day.

I usually wait for her on the bench outside the Principal's office, which is also where they send kids who need to, um, cool down for a few minutes. Today I shared "the bench" with three little girls and a boy... it was funny. One little girl was there for punching someone at recess. The little boy wouldn't stop talking to the girls and they were getting quite annoyed with him. And the other two little girls were very interested in what was in my lunch box. I was hungry, I didn't let them have any of it. *grin*

There's always a parade of kids coming and going from the office, and teachers trying to move classes through the hallways... funny and sad all at the same time. So cute in their uniforms and such a handful. They look so young to be getting in trouble like that... and yet, I can remember some pretty epic incidents at good old Goodfield Grade School.

Anyway, so Dalaysia is pretty cool and I'm going to miss eating lunch with her. She'll be in middle school next fall and I'll be rather preoccupied with other things... mur. I got her "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" as a goodbye and happy summer present. And a large Milky Way, which she loves. It was seriously as long as her forearm. She was pretty excited about that. Makes me smile... I've never read the book, but it won a Newbery so it must be good. :)

This was picture attempt #2. The first one is really bad of me, but it made her laugh so this one is really cute of her(me, well, you know). *sigh* I feel pale around my white friends...

On my way out, there were still three kids on the bench... they saw Dalaysia's candy bar and asked if I had any more. Um... no... sorry. And then they wanted to know if I'd bring them some the next time I came. O dear. Little beggars. hehe.

It's been a blessing. I'd highly recommend Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Summer daze...

2011-06-06T09:14:00.003-05:00

Yeah. We've had a fairly busy, social weekend. And it's hot, and it's Monday. I'm feeling a little bit dazed and drained... woot woot.

Thursday night Nic and Amanda, Amber, Sarah, and Kaleigh came over for supper. It was really, really good to see them all again and fun to have them at our house. I did not make them anything fancy for supper; one of the stromboli rolls turned out long and skinny and the other was all puffy and exploded. It's a good thing they're not picky. *grin* And Kaleigh brought us our first baby gift- a John Deere teether... hehe... it's so cute.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early because Kerry was coming to check out a water leak... and then we went and looked at a house. It was hot and we spent a lot of time in the yard... ugh. I was ready for air conditioning again. Dale and Meg rode their bikes over in the evening and brought Pinky's. My siblings showed up for a while and Shelly and I had much fun entertaining Maria with Meg.

After church on Sunday we headed to Gridley to see my aunt and uncle from California and one of my cousins... the rest of them are getting here today. They haven't been back to Illinois since Grandma's funeral four years ago, so Bob had never met them. Nor had he ever been to the Gridley cemetery... we rectified that. My Mom's cousins got together for supper in the evening... fun times. :)

This week could be busy too, since we'll probably go hang out with my family some more.
Blessings.

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T19:36:00.003-05:00

We're tenting tonight on the old Campground.
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home,
And friends we love so dear.

Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease;
Many are the hearts looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting tonight,
Tenting tonight,
Tenting on the old Campground.

It was a long, busy, and full weekend. And I loved it. Friday I made some strawberry jam and relaxed. The jars must not have gotten wiped off enough, because I had to wash the outsides with soapy water again to keep the ants away... ick. Nasty creatures.

Saturday morning I headed to Champaign to help Gab and Brian paint their new old house. It's so cute... I loved it. Why can't there be houses like that in Tremont?? Gorgeous wood floors, open staircase, lots of windows, great trim work... *sigh* I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous. Hehe. Anyway. It was a lot of fun. It was good to spend time with them and help out. Yay for painting. Gab was being a stickler and wouldn't let me get up on a ladder... and we used low VOC paint. *eyeroll* Hehe. (You know I love you, Nurse Gab!) And then I went and ate supper with Amber and Sarah and Sydney. Always good times at the Dojo.

We went to Washington for church Sunday... Rita's family was here... and we of course had to join the crowd of people who wanted to meet Tyler. Poor guy. Hehe, he has no idea what he's getting himself into. The weather got really nasty that afternoon and they decided it would be a good day to do a tornado drill. Never a dull moment over there. :) We stopped at the farm to drop off the latest KS shipment and then we went home for a little bit before we went to Bob's parent's for supper.

Monday I slept in... I don't think I could have made it to any Memorial Day festivities if I tried, I was so tired. We were home being bums all day. It was so nice, and I even got to sit out in the sun for a little bit! I read my new book.... Gustav Stickley's 'Craftsman Homes and Bungalows'... I know I shouldn't feed my addiction but, but, they're just so cool. *sigh* I get it honest, Dad usually has a few house plan magazines laying around. And it doesn't help that we live right next to a beautiful two story bungalow that's in great shape. Anyway. I grilled steak for supper for the sake of being an American. And put a first coat of paint on the new dresser. Good times.

Blessings.

Projects

2011-05-27T22:00:00.001-05:00

It's been a quiet week. Last night I went to Suzanne's baby shower... fun times. Otherwise, not much going on. I'm excited for the long weekend!!

So this is how I've been occupying myself in the evenings... this is also what happens when I freak out about having nothing to wear.... please ignore my aversion to ironing.

I fell in love with this fabric.

Basic black. And I kind of made up the pattern sooo... it's a wonder it turned out.

I already redid the hem on the khaki one once.... it looks better now.

Basic white. And I didn't realize how straight the pattern was. I'm really more of an A-line kinda girl.

I love this color blue. And I must confess it's a pretty good copy of a skirt of Gab's that I've coveted forever... hehe.

And my favorite. Shelly and I used to have blue and red skirts like this that we made from skorts. Now they sell the fabric and it's tons easier....

And then one night, Bob asked why I wasn't "knitting baby booties or something" sooo.... I crocheted a hat and booties. It took me a while to remember how to crochet.

Now I just need to repaint a dresser, finish my quilt club quilt from last year, and work on the one I got fabric for today.

Blessings.

Seafood and Hail

2011-05-23T13:48:00.000-05:00

I'm always so tired after the weekends...

Friday Bob decided we should go to Red Lobster for supper, which was great. I was excited to discover that they now have lobster bisque on their menu... plus cheddar biscuits... yum. We don't get out much. :D

Our new water heater got hooked up Saturday morning! It was very exciting and it's really nice to actually have to mix some cold water in with the hot water in the shower. Good riddance to the boiler. I went to quilt club and stopped at the car wash and swept out my car for the first time in a very long time. (There were still pine needles in the trunk from hauling our Christmas tree home.) And then I spent the rest of the afternoon weeding the patio and mulching my flower beds.

Saturday evening I went to Wendi-with-an-i's testimony. Three skirts later and barely making it on time, it was a blessing. I got to meet Ellie's fiancee... they're so cute.

We were getting ready to brave the rain and run out to our car on Sunday after church... and it started hailing. So we spent a little bit longer at church watching it come down. Bob picked some up in our yard after church- they're good size!

I don't think it hurt my garden, the trees took the brunt of it. Obviously, since my nice clean patio and flower beds are now full of leaves.

Green growing things... I love spring.

Oooooooo, and the big news in our family- Abby's getting married!! Yay! Hooray for cousins and weddings and getting to marry old friends! I'm excited to 'officially' meet Tyler...

The Ants Go Marching

2011-05-19T08:40:00.002-05:00

All over my kitchen. ick. The ground needs to dry out, and fast.

The question is: do I squish every single one that I see, or do I leave them alive so they can find the ant bait and take it back and destroy their entire families? mwahahaha. It is slightly more satisfying to squish them and mutter something like, 'go back to the shadow...'

*grin*

Blessings.

Oh we ain't got a barrel of money...

2011-05-16T14:41:00.002-05:00

*grin* Nothing like plugging numbers into formulas and online calculators to depress a girl...

Anyways, we've been busy the last few days. Friday evening I went to Gab's personal shower and Bob went to Brian's bachelor party/cookout/ smoke out (they grilled inside a cabin and he came home smelling like a chimney). I was about to walk out the door when the deluge started, and I had such a fun time driving in it, or something. Once I got there it was all good and I had a lot of fun. Fabulous food, fun decorations, and I got to see a lot of girls that I just never see anymore. And the infamous lacy pink shorts from 709 days have a new home... hehe.

Saturday morning I got up and started making bread for potluck and then we went to look at a house... this is the first one we've been through that the owners are still living there. Which was a little weird and I felt like such a snoop opening kitchen cabinets, closet doors, and checking out pictures on the fridge... Jakey came over for a little bit in the afternoon and played games with Bob. And then we went to potluck, which was great fun as always.

Young Matt graduated on Sunday so we went from church to the graduation, picked up cupcakes, and then out to his graduation party. Long day. Graduation was short, sweet, and thankfully not hot! I don't think I've ever had to bring a coat to graduation before. I had fun listening to the band... the clarinets were having issues (as clarinets always do) until the trumpets saved the day during Pomp and Circumstance. *grin* I don't have any residual bias. The speeches weren't anything special, but then, nothing can quite compare to Nick's Styx speech, or Ned's sermonette on Corinthians 13. I was so tired after the party...

Blessings.

very warm for may...

2011-05-12T09:14:00.000-05:00

It's May, we're not supposed to need the air conditioning yet.... mur. And the birds should be done trying to build nests in our windows! *sigh* It's been a busy week. :)

I've gotten a few seeds planted outside. And I took a walk one evening up to Joann's and came home with a sack full of rhubarb. I haven't had time to make anything with it yet...

Dang came for supper Tuesday. I used the grill for the first time this year! It still works and it's critter free, which is good. And I made strawberry shortcakes, which is pretty much second only to ice cream on a hot night.

I got lost trying to get to Heidi's from work... well, only sort of lost. Farmdale is not well marked between EP and M-ton and so I made a big circle. Ah well. I made it eventually.

Bob got all new tires last week... and then one of them was flat on Monday. um... what!? Can't say I'm all that impressed with the Honda service department....

*Grin* And Bonsai-San got his yearly shower. He's all clean and dust free now. And we've decided that anthropomorphizing house plants can be slightly awkward. But fun.

Blessings.

Muttertag

2011-05-09T15:06:00.000-05:00

So apparently we had a very boring week, since nothing at all happened that was deemed blog worthy... which I love. *grin*

Yeah, so Friday evening we took supper to Greg and Mary and kids, which was really fun. I realized when we got there that it was a very monochromatic meal... oops. Aren't you supposed to avoid that? Or is that just something I'm weird about? O well, it all tasted ok, which is the important part. It was so nice out! We got to play with Max and Nora outside... I was a little jealous that they got to stomp in mud puddles.

Saturday I slept until I woke up... which was fabulous, and I won't tell you how late it was. :D And then I kept busy all day cleaning and weeding and other random things that I've been putting off. Hooray for lovely days.

And then Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day plus a wedding at church. It was packed. I'm not overly fond of crowds, even though there were lots of people I know visiting. The yg served lunch... and I waited a table second shift... it was crazy busy. My parents stopped by on their way to the reception. I was showing mom the dresser we got that still needs painting and a large spider ran across it. Aaaaaaa so scary. It was a very close call and I almost died, but thankfully Bob killed it and life was good again. And then I got the Sevin out and sprayed the threshold and around the windows. We went to Howard and Janice's for hamburgers that evening, yay for cookouts!

Blessings.

Spring Bliss

2011-05-02T11:05:00.002-05:00

We had a good weekend.

Friday night we made a slightly spur of the moment trip to Champaign for supper. We had a gift certificate to The Ribeye from our wedding. Two years ago. Yeah... So we decided it was high time we used it. I love the drive to C-U and I'm not sure why. There isn't really anything interesting to look at. Maybe it's just the wide open spaces... or the destination. Anyway, the steaks were great and we even got chocolate and peanut butter pie. So good. (Thanks BDY and JNell!)

It was a lovely night. I don't think any campus can compare to U of I in the spring. We didn't want to stay super late since Bob had to be up early Saturday morning, but we did wander up to Grainger to see Jakey for a few minutes. ("You drove to Champaign just for supper?" hehe)

Bob went and helped with a roofing project Saturday and I went to the garage sales. Sort of. I didn't buy anything, it was mostly just an excuse to wander all over town on a beautiful day and check out people's houses up close. :) Then I went home and mowed, and pulled weeds, and re-potted some plants, and spent as much time outside as possible.

And then Sunday afternoon we went mushroom hunting. So wonderful. We went with Ben and Dale south of the Mackinaw. It was a little bit chilly, but still really nice out. And the woods were full of wild flowers. There's a small creek that runs through the woods at the bottom of a steep ravine. Bob and Dale and I were on one side and we wanted to go to the other side... yeah. I got about halfway down on my feet and slid the rest of the way. So much for not wanting to wash jeans this week! O well, I was just glad that Dale was at the bottom to stop me from going into the creek. Wet shoes would not have been a fun time. We didn't find very many mushrooms, only about a dozen between all of us, but we can't really eat that many anyway so I was happy. Our take:

I sauteed half in plain in butter and breaded and fried the rest. So.Good. And we had chicken crepes since I made way too many German pancakes for breakfast... happy accident. :D

Pretty sure I could handle a whole year of spring weekends....

And I hear my friend Ellie's getting married. Aaawwwww. *grin*

Blessings.

Anniversaries and Randomness

2011-04-29T09:12:00.004-05:00

Two years on the 26th... craziness. Bob got me a big bunch of gerbera daisies. (awww!) And we met for lunch. Otherwise, it was a quiet day.

And, proving my dear Dad wrong, the 27th marks three years of working at the lab. Therefore, my retirement is vested and I get 6hrs of annual leave per pay period. Ha! He didn't think I'd make it. *grin*

Dale and Meg and Maria came for supper Wednesday night before church. I have been sadly remiss in attempts at hospitality lately, so I was glad they could come.

Do bent pages in the hymn books and bibles at church bother anybody else? I always fix them.

Tolstoy is awesome.

Blessings.

Easter

2011-04-25T08:55:00.000-05:00

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed!

It was a busy weekend... I worked Friday, and then we went to Good Friday services... and I begged for Pinkies on the way home. Bob is so nice. hehe.

Saturday I cleaned the house, and did laundry, and made food, and planted a few seeds, and was very productive in general. I'm ready for it to dry out a little bit so I can plant the rest of my garden box and maybe even get some flowers! I have a few tulips and bluebells but they look rather bedraggled. That evening we went to the cabin with all the Beutels for Easter.

I honestly can't remember the last time we were in W-ton on a Sunday. It's been a loooong time. Pathetic, I know, but stuff just kept coming up! It was great to see the W-ton girls, we were all home for Easter. And my most favoritest thing about W-ton; everybody standing up to sing 'Christ the Lord is Risen Today' at the end of the service. So it was good to be there, although, I got really tired of people asking how I'm feeling. Um. I don't have a disease, I'm not ill, and I'm not sure why you need to know that. *sigh* I'm afraid that one of these days I'm going to reach my limit and say something really impolite and disrespectful. (I was complaining later that afternoon and my mother has already informed me that people just want me to know that they care and it's not all about me. But, but, I don't see people asking you odd questions and commenting about your figure! *grin*)

We spent the afternoon checking out the baby chicks and picking flowers and shooting things. The chicks are starting to get a few wing feathers so we were just in time before they get ugly. You know that awkward adolescent stage... chickens have a bad one... hehe. The boys were wandering around shooting at birds and any thing else that moved. I got to try out Dad's euthanasia plan on an already dead bird so I for sure wouldn't miss. I'm such a risk taker.

The whole family came out for supper... much good food. And amusing conversation. And over sharing. Certain of my aunts (who shall remain nameless) were discussing hot flashes in the kitchen... and Bob made a crack about it.... which sent Shelly and I into peals, yea, even gales of laughter. Good times. One of Clayton's friends joined us for the evening, not sure what he thought of us all! (Although, I think G and G approved of him, watch out MKW, KRL, and ALK! hahahaha) Hooray for Easter, and Grandma's ham, and Pearline's bread, and Freida Buns, and leftovers!

Blessings.

When I see the blood

2011-04-22T11:26:00.000-05:00

I will pass, I will pass over you.

We celebrated Passover last night. Sort of. Not exactly a Seder, but I made passoverish foods and set the table with candles and china... and Bob read Exodus 12. This year I broiled the cute little lamb chops with herbs and spices and they were much better than last year. And the potato and leek casserole was good. We had deviled eggs and saltines (they're kosher and I can't find matzah at Kroger) and watermelon and romaine lettuce and grape juice. It was good, and I'm excited about eating the leftovers for lunch. Even though you're not supposed to have leftovers or carry them out of your house. Eh, o well, we're under the new covenant right? hehe.

Maybe someday we'll do the full Seder. I think it would be cool. I read a great article on Christians celebrating passover here. And a Messianic Passover Seder here, and how the passover is all about Christ here. But I maybe wouldn't serve lamb to more than just us two, it's expensive!

After supper we ventured into the great outdoors to mow the lawn. Hooray for living in town where people care what your grass looks like. My job was picking up sticks. And providing moral support and paper towels while Bob changed the oil and tried to get the mower started for the first time this year. Kerry took a break from working on a leaky drain next door and cleaned the spark plug and fiddled with it for a while. (He said it was more fun than plumbing...) They got it working and Bob got the front yard mowed before it got dark and started raining... nobody sees the back yard and it's mostly weeds that thrive in the shade anyway....hehe. Can't say I'm too sad- we have so many violets and I hate mowing them while they're blooming.

Have a blessed Good Friday!

Elevensies

2011-04-20T12:59:00.002-05:00

Pretty sure I'm turning into a Hobbit. I eat breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon snack, after work snack, supper, bedtime snack....

Haven't taken up pipe-weed yet.

Blessings.

Easter Eggs

2011-04-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

So I love dying Easter eggs. It's so much fun. And they're so pretty. Bob humored me last year and helped... but... this year we went over to Rustin and Sharon's to dye them with Grace. She was much more enthusiastic about it. *grin*

Maybe not quite as coordinated.... that is green dye all over the table.... hehe.

Bob kept Eden entertained. He did put one egg in the dye, just for the picture. *grin*

And the finished product.... so springy. Sadly, I already used half of them to make breakfast casserole. Which was/is good, but not nearly so pretty.

Saturday I finally got the house all clean. It feels so nice... it's crazy how fast it gets dusty. And then we went to Communion.

We also spent the weekend trying to discourage some robins from building a nest on our window AC. Um... that would not be a good place for your eggs, Mrs. Robin. We knocked it down 3 or 4 times, and they kept coming back. Bob finally made a pyramid thing out of cardboard to set out on top of it so there is no place for them to even land. Hopefully they'll be done with nest building by the time we actually need to use it! I would prefer not to smell birds when it's 90 degrees outside...

Blessings.

I got better

2011-04-13T09:06:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to lay low though. It's hard when my house is so dirty. And it's so nice outside and I want to go out and plant things. I'm hoping it doesn't get cold again... :)

We went for a walk last night. It was lovely out. I love spring. And I love not feeling sick.

Otherwise, pretty quiet, which I love. Blessings.

Oh, the flu, it mkes me so blue

2011-04-08T19:45:00.007-05:00

Going on day three... ick.

*sigh* so much for never getting sick.

Monday was a good day.... I went over to Meg's to sew for the evening. It was good for my soul.

And then I started coughing Tuesday night and woke up with the full blown fever/cough/stuffy nose flu on Wednesday. Hooray. So I've been spending most of my time in bed or on the couch. Poor Bob. He's been so great, from bringing home supper on Wednesday, to taking off early today and bringing me ice cream and 'Tangled' (which is really cute). Hopefully he stays healthy.

Tylenol cold is my new best friend. Don't worry, I did call the Doc this morning....

Hopefully I'll get better this weekend so I don't have to miss more work.... although... if they don't make the midnight deadline to pass a budget.... Latest word is they could push it back three days. Do they leave their brains at home when they go to Washington?

I've very much appreciated all the encouragement and empathy- it's nice to know I'm not the only crazy one who has ever dealt with these feelings. *grin* And I'm feeling ten times better about everything just from writing it down...

Blessings.

Sooo...

2011-04-05T08:35:00.003-05:00

According to Great Grandma Metzger, I currently have one foot in the grave.

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

Bob's excited. Me, well, excited is not exactly the word I would use. It's good, it's right, it's not at all a surprise. But, I'm not excited. More like vacillating between sheer terror and resignation.

I'm not naive about what this will require of me physically, spiritually, emotionally.

I don't even like babies... and yet, I'm less worried about that than other things. That will come.

Change is very stressful for me. New things are very stressful for me. Will I actually be able to handle it?

I like my privacy. And boundaries. And that's pretty much out the window... church was rather awful on Sunday (as much as I love and appreciate everybody who congratulated and encouraged me!). I still felt like I had to play a part and act like everyone expects me to. Put on a mask. I kind of just wanted to hide in the bathroom and cry and wish that no one knew and I could be left alone. I know I can't live under a rock, but oh, I wanted to Sunday.

I dread hearing the same crass, rude, and tasteless comments directed at me that make me cringe when they're said about others. 'Wow, she looks ready to pop.' 'She's really gotten huge.' (For the record, I will say something equally nasty back. or just cry. hm, yeah, probably just cry. :P ) I don't like people touching me. I'm told I have that to look forward to also.

I'm not planning on going back to work. It's been a while since I've been wholly dependant on somebody else. Bob has even said that I don't really need him... I have a good job... I can take care of myself. I don't think my identity is tied up in my job. I don't think, but how will I feel when it's gone? It's going to be an adjustment, and not an easy one.

I mourned college life, I mourned singleness, I'm mourning being a newlywed. I don't want to go back, but I've loved every stage and it will never be the same again.

I can't deal with gushing... and when people say they're soooo excited, I just kinda don't understand. What are you excited about? That I have to deal with all this? I know they're just thinking about the good, about how they'll get to hold a baby once in a while. But I have to deal with both the bad and the good, work through everything before and after, every day. And that's not really exciting or pleasant to think about.

Anyways, and in light of all that.... I'd rather have your prayers than your congratulations or excitement... much more useful. :) Don't worry, I'm really not unhappy. I'm quite content and peaceful. Just realistic. And I think too much.

And I don't want to hear any birthing stories! Spare me please! *grin*

When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61:2

Happy Birthday

2011-04-04T13:26:00.004-05:00

to Bob. Last Friday... he's so old now. :P

We didn't do anything super exciting. Thursday night we went out for pre-birthday pizza at Firehouse. Just because we like Firehouse and it never disappoints.

Friday was a quiet day. Ha! The carpet layers showed up at 6am to lay carpet next door. O.my.goodness. I was under the impression that carpet laying was rather passive... I was not aware that it involved hammering and loud thumps and banging and dropping of heavy objects and the shaking of floors and walls. Now I know. We only had one picture fall off the wall and it didn't break. :)

We took the day off with the idea that we could go do something fun with a long weekend... yeah... Bob couldn't really think of anything and it was his birthday so I didn't want to make him do something I wanted to do. So we didn't go anywhere. Oh well, I needed a day off since the next federal holiday isn't until Memorial day. *grin*

I picked up a whole freezer full of meat from the farm. Hooray! My freezer is full of raw flesh! They got a side of beef and a pig to split so it took awhile to haul it all in from the van and then sort it out. And Dan showed up in the middle of it all with fresh liver sausage. Which, I love and which thing Bob hates. tsk. So sad. No appreciation for the finer things in life.

And then I came home and cooked up a storm. Cake and frosting for Bob and an attempt at Chicken Lo Mein and Crab Rangoon. They were both good, but they didn't taste quite like at a restaurant. It was kind of fun to try it once, I don't like Chinese ~~at all~~ enough to try very often...

Saturday we went out to Bob's parent's and took a walk through the woods before supper. It was so pretty out. Bob wants to live in the woods someday... I prefer the prairie. I need to see the horizon or I feel claustrophobic... and I don't like ticks and bugs all the creatures that come with the woods. Anyway. It can be spring now, please.

Sunday... well... I'm not ready to talk about Sunday... And today it's back to work... huzzah. Blessings.

Book Fair

2011-03-31T13:44:00.004-05:00

My favorite part of school... that and the Scholastic book orders. :)

I ate lunch with Dalaysia yesterday and they had the book fair all set up. It was fun to wander through and look at all the books. There were parents in charge, and one of their kids came through wanting to buy a book. So funny. The kid wanted to get a "Captain Underpants" book, the dad said he could only spend his money on a 'real' book. I shouldn't have laughed, but it amused me... It was pretty tempting to buy a book, but, alas, I refrained.

Dalaysia turned 10! She was excited about the cupcakes she brought to school, and the cake she got at home. And she like the singing card I got her. :)

Good times. I'm kind of sad that we can't be lunch buddies next year when she goes to middle school.

Blessings.

Busy Busy

2011-03-28T14:48:00.001-05:00

So last week was fairly busy. I even skipped out on one thing because I didn't want to be gone 5 nights in a row. Thursday night I went to Gab and Brian's shower... hooray for showers. :P It was good to see them. And Natalie was there, which was exciting since I never see her anymore. And then I went home and got to do something fun- help fish wires! Kerry was working on putting our new water heater in and was getting really tired of going up and down through the 1'x2' crawlspace access. So I got to help feed the wires down through the wall, and managed to not electrocute myself.

Our potluck ate out at One World on Friday night. Such good food. I didn't try anything new or adventurous this time... and Bob wouldn't try any humus. *tsk* boys. It's been awhile since everybody could come to potluck, so that was great fun. And then we had to go home and break into our house because we locked ourselves out. It's a little bit scary how easy it is to do...

Saturday was pretty quiet. I cleaned. And tried to rid our upstairs of the musty smell that's been hanging around since we had the plumbing access panel open. Ugh. And then we went over to Mike and Katie's for supper with Trent and Heather and Ryan and Brittany. We played catch phrase and apples to apples... fun times.

My second cousin Amber got married in Congerville on Sunday, so we went there at noon. I haven't been there in ages. And Bob said he had never been there. (What? Seriously, sometimes, ok, all the time, I think Tremont is such a bubble! *grin*) It was good to be there again and see some of my old friends and classmates... and the wedding was nice too. And then we went home and crashed for the rest of the evening. Hooray for being lazy!

Blessings.

I love the smell of paint in the morning

2011-03-22T12:10:00.001-05:00

Or not the smell of paint- we used no VOC, deodorizing paint. That stuff's pretty amazing; we could barely smell it!

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and went next door to help them paint. It's looking ten times better over there already. I love painting, and it was twice as fun because there was no furniture to move and no carpet to drip on. Glorious. Yes, I know I'm weird. I get it honest though... ask Mom what she did when Dad went to Haiti for a week... hehe. The girls that are moving in picked some really cool colors... made me want to repaint something, so it's probably a good thing that I got it out of my system.

Sprout was helping lay new wood laminate flooring in the kitchen- so pretty, and so easy! Bob is not convinced that we should try it on our side. :) Someday.

I was using a roller most of the day (and was covered with white spots from the ceiling and brown from the walls...) and woke up Sunday with very, very sore legs. It hurt so bad to sit down and to stand and to kneel in church. Woe is me. It is a good excuse to use the elevator at work though... hmm...

Otherwise it was a pretty quiet weekend. They're going to be installing a new water heater in the closet under our stairs so I had to clean that out. And find new places to put things. Yikes. I found some wedding gifts that I had forgotten about, which was exciting, but they might have to go away. Since I haven't used them in two years, they clearly aren't necessary for life and I have no where to put them. And I have no idea where to put our luggage which fit perfectly all the way at the back under the bottom steps. *sigh* How can our house be so full already!?

Anyway. Fun times.
Blessings.

Green

2011-03-18T13:24:00.003-05:00

And not for St Patrick's day... green for growing things! Last night some ladies (and men!) from church did a presentation called "Harvest of Gold." It was all about gardens and orchards and canning and freezing. Seriously, so great. I felt like I was back in Hort 106, only this was ten times more fun.

We learned all about when to plant vegetables, and how to prune fruit trees, and how to take care of tomatoes, and store produce.... and then they did canning and freezing demonstrations. I loved it. I'd never seen a pressure canner in use before, so that was interesting. I still don't think I'll ever use one, I'm afraid of pressure no matter how many safety features they have... I hate having to do pressurized reactions at work, scares me half to death.

So now I have my very own Ball Blue Book. It's actually kind of sad how excited I am/ was about all of this... Maybe it's just because it's March and I'm ready for spring and for things to be nice and green again, because when I'm doing green beans at 10pm in July I'm sure my enthusiasm will not be quite so high. *grin*

Blessings.

In the ghetto...

2011-03-14T20:59:00.002-05:00

...in the ghettoooo..... haha... I blame my parents for all of the random 70's songs that I know.... anyway, hooray for feeling like we're living in the ghetto. Our next door neighbor moved out. She had two dogs that were home alone in the house all day while she was at work... yeah... unsupervised animals in the house... bad idea. Anyway, our favorite landlords have been hard at work cleaning up that side.

She left a lot of stuff. And see all those rolls of carpet and carpet pad? They reek. Kerry and Rustin spent most of Saturday morning scraping unglued carpet pad off the floors.... because they were saturated with animal urine. Ugh. SO nasty.

And then, to add insult to injury, while they were working on Saturday they discovered that the boiler for the radiators is kaput. (We had noticed that our upstairs was noticeably colder than downstairs, defying the laws of thermodynamics...) Bob and I have decided, K and K probably have too, that whoever designed and built the duplex had to have been on crack. The boiler is in the 4ft crawlspace under the house. There are only two small openings big enough for one person to get down there. They had to have built the house around it, which means replacing or repairing it is going to be awful. We have resolved never to own rental property...

On a cheerier note, a few of my crocus bulbs have survived the proliferation of rodents in our yard. I love spring.

So other than waking up to the sounds of carpet removal and various other loud crashes and thumping, Saturday was a pretty quiet day. Bob decided to dissect my old laptop...

He was having way too much fun.

Jakey came over for a little bit to play games with Bob.

Sunday morning came waaay to early. Besides the time change, Bob's parents served lunch at church and we went early to help. *ugh* I hate time changes and early mornings. It was a good thing I was working or I probably would have fallen asleep. :) At least we got to bring home leftovers... yay for donuts.

Blessings.

My goal in life

2011-03-12T15:05:00.005-06:00

Not to be a superfluous women. :) This is from Jo's Boy's:

One day a brisk discussion arose concerning careers for women. Mrs. Jo had read something on the subject and asked each of the dozen girls sitting about the room, what she intended to do on leaving college. The answers were as usual: "I shall teach, help mother, study medicine, art," etc.; but nearly all ended with: "Till I marry."
"But if you don't marry, what then?" asked Mrs. Jo, feeling like a girl again as she listened to the answers, and watched the thoughtful, gay, or eager faces.
"Be old maids, I suppose. Horrid, but inevitable, since there are so many superfluous women," answered a lively lass, too pretty to fear single blessedness unless she chose it.
"It is well to consider that fact, and fit yourselves to be useful, not superfluous women. That class, by the way, is largely made up of widows, I find; so don't consider it a slur on maidenhood."

*grin* I love Louisa May Alcott.

happiness

2011-03-09T20:55:00.002-06:00

Nothing makes the hard work of last summer more worth it than biting into a sweet, juicy, canned peach on a drizzly, dreary, March day. Pure. Heaven.

The Old Folks at Home

2011-03-07T14:28:00.004-06:00

Friday night was the annual Koch soup supper. Lots of good food and pies. They usually have some games to play and Bob and I won the trivia game. It was a list of twenty American authors and we had to match them up with their famous work and with their picture. We got all the books easily, but the pictures.... yikes. We guessed a lot. There's really no way to tell the difference between two bearded old men dressed circa 1850's, it could easily be Whitman or Melville or Emerson. Emily Dickinson was more obviously the young, pensive looking one... and Poe's picture is just iconic. Go us.

We switched our phone/internet provider and we had to be up bright and early on Saturday to let the technician in. I guess it was worth not sleeping in, it's cheaper and so far it's faster even when both of us are online. And then I cleaned and was lazy all afternoon. We went to testimonies in the evening... always a blessing.

On Sunday, church was pretty full for the baptism. I waited a table... second shift... on the men's side.... yikes. :) Between filling glasses for boys that drained them as soon as I turned around, and finding sandwiches, and clearing, Candi and I were running like crazy. Fun fun. I just loove waiting tables. :) It's good for me, right?

My mom's birthday was yesterday so we went over there for the evening. And we went to Busy Corner for supper. I haven't been there in years, and I must say I haven't really missed it. haha... it's good food, but I prefer a little bit more anonymity when dining out. Seriously, I went to HS with our waitress and we could have easily had a singing with the rest of the patrons... *grin* And my parents spent too much time in Florida because we heard a lot of "oh look, there's so and so." Sounded so much like G and G... hehe.

Oh, and we have a two week reprieve on the budget issue. I'm glad I'm still working, but seriously, pass a balanced budget already! Anyway.

Blessings.

Louisa May

2011-03-03T12:23:00.001-06:00

So I spent some of my Christmas money on books, surprise, surprise. Louisa May Alcott books. I haven't read some of them in years, so it's been really fun to rediscover them. They're great. They've got a lot going for them:

Easy, fun reads? check.
Heavy dose of transcendentalism? check
Syrupy sweetness? check.
Little bit of early feminism? check.
Shameless plugs for Thoreau and Emerson? check and double check.
No prosy, moralistic children (*cough* Elsie Dinsmore *gag*)? check!

Gotta love 'em. Three cheers for the Age of Optimism! haha... and ACS. Anyway, they make me smile a lot. I've got Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, and An Old Fashioned Girl. I'm not quite done rereading, but I think my favorite is still Rose in Bloom. Or Little Men.... it's kind of hard to pick.

As for Elsie, o my goodness. Sorry in advance if you loved her. :) Somebody gave me the first four books when I was in middle school. I didn't like them then. I still don't like them now. (You can read them online on Google books) Besides being a completely unrealistic nine year old crybaby... she ends up marrying her dad's friend who's at least 18 years older than her. Eewww. No thank you. I'll stick with Louisa May.

Blessings.

breathe in

2011-02-28T15:34:00.001-06:00

We had a busy weekend... and now I feel like I need a weekend to relax.

Friday evening we kind of invited ourselves along with Greg and Mary and Rustin and Sharon and kids. We went out to eat at Rizzi's, which was really good, and then we went to the Home Show for a little bit. I've never been before so it was kind of interesting to look around. And since we're renting we had a great excuse to just look at things and not listen to every vendor's spiel. *grin* I recognized a lot of people... apparently it was the place to be on Friday night.

We both sang at the funeral on Saturday morning so we had to get up extra early, ugh. But, it was a blessing to be there. And it's one thing that I can do at church, since so many things require time during the day when I'm at work. Although, I am dreading laundry this week... four white shirts... woe is me. hehe. After we sang, Bob really wanted to go to Firehouse Pizza for lunch. Then he made me play a computer racing game that made me feel very, very, dizzy and sick. It was awful. But I got over it. Poor Shelly was left all alone Saturday so she came over and played games and crashed on our couch for the night. Good times.

After church on Sunday we were all comfortable and relaxed and being lazy and Grandma K called... she had decided that Bob needed to come over right away and put his name on something (for someday when they don't need it anymore). Sooo... can't ignore a summons like that, so we went over and she walked us around pointing out plates and knickknacks that he could claim. We went home with a container of chicken salad and the promise of an old butter churn someday. *grin* And then we ate supper and went straight over to Bob's parent's for the rest of the evening. I was tired.

I'm kind of glad February is over, but not really looking forward to March. It's looking full already just with stuff on the church calendar, and then there are family things, aaahh.... deep breath.

Blessings.

politics

2011-02-26T10:00:00.004-06:00

Soooo.... congress still hasn't passed a budget for 2010, and the current continuing resolution runs out March 4th at midnight. And they're on recess for President's day this week. (um... and people think gov't employees get lots of holidays...) Which means if they don't get their acts together and fast, there might be a full fledged government shut down as of 12:01am March 5th. And it would be illegal for me to go to work. And I and all of my fellow employees wouldn't get paid. And if it lasted more than a few days we're hearing we may not be paid for not being allowed to go to work. (In 1995 they got back pay for the 27 days of shut down.)

Granted, this wouldn't affect me a whole lot besides boredom because: a. we don't live paycheck to paycheck, b. we've lived off Bob's paycheck since we got married, c. we don't have any payments to worry about (hooray for being debt free!). But most of my coworkers are not so blessed and are really worried.

I do find it annoying though. Besides the fact that the fiscal year starts in OCTOBER and they're only 5 months behind in doing their jobs. And if we're off work for longer than two weeks we can collect unemployment, which probably will cost the government more than passing a budget. Plus all the time it takes to make emergency plans in case they don't pass something in time; somebody has to keep the building heated, and the plants and bugs alive, and keep homeless people from sleeping in the lobby... it would be a mess.

Anyway, so here is my shameless plug for responsible citizenship. The House has two budget related bills that go to the Senate next week. You can contact your Senators through this link. You can contact your Representatives through this link. Tell them you want a responsible budget for this year, and for next year, fast.

Politics... *gag*....
Blessings.

In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow

2011-02-25T08:51:00.002-06:00

And much death and dying all around. Bob and I have been to more visitations and funerals since we've been married than the whole of my life before.

Tuesday night we went to the visitation for my dear friend Ann. She was one of the few 'old ladies' in Washington and I always liked to talk to her. She was a sweet woman. I'm going to miss her.

We get to sing at a funeral in T-town this weekend... and there's another visitation/funeral in W-ton that we probably won't go to... ayiyiyiyi.

And it snowed again. Hooray.

O, I must be getting older...

2011-02-22T12:07:00.002-06:00

I love three day weekends. They're amazing. Except that today feels like Monday, and I'll be all confused the rest of the week.

Saturday I was fairly productive for a change... I got up fairly early and went to quilt club... I usually make it to the last session at about 9:30 and it's pretty obvious that I've just rolled out of bed. Everybody else is dressed nice and has their 'face' on... haha... o well. :) And then I came home and made food for the rest of the weekend and cleaned. We went to Bob's aunt and uncle's for the annual potato supper Saturday night. It was so good, and I love it when all I have to bring is sauteed mushrooms. Two ingredients, 15 minutes, no leftovers.

Dale and Meg invited some of their old college friends and roomies over on Sunday night for supper. They got a pretty good turnout and it was really fun to see people again. I took mini-apple pies (I thought it would be fitting) that I baked in my muffin pan. I think I might have to do that more often, we have a hard time eating a whole pie before it starts getting moldy but these are a lot more manageable. It was good to catch up... and randomly throw things when the conversation lagged... some things never change. Which I love. There were five little kids there, which was a little weird, but funny to watch.

On Monday poor Bob had to get up and go to work, and I got to sit at home and be lazy all day. Well, other than doing laundry. And I managed to beat chess against the computer. Twice! I was very excited... we won't mention that it's on the easiest level... and how many tries it took me. *grin* So anyway, back to real life this week.

Blessings.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-16T09:28:00.002-06:00

So after a lazy Saturday and spending Sunday evening with my family... back to work we went. Bob's training in the shop this week so he's getting up super early. I can't sleep through his alarm; therefore, I'm awake super early too. hooray.

I kind of forgot that it was Valentine's Day and wore black. haha... but... it did remind me of the time my roomies and I dressed in black and braved a massive snow storm to go to Olive Garden on V-day. Good times and many funny looks.

Bob didn't forget though, and he even remembered my rather broad and unsubtle hints a few weeks ago that I would love a big bunch of tulips. :D I'm so ready for spring. Anyway, these were waiting for me when I got home. So pretty. (Courtesy of Miss Fancy Plants, which I think is an awesome name for a flower shop.)

Neither of us had any desire to eat out with the entire world, so we stayed home. I made almond crusted halibut, and fun colorful spiral noodles, and green beans with extra butter. Butter always makes things seem more gourmet. Haha. I had big plans for making Valentine cookies, but as I said, I was super lazy on Saturday so they didn't happen. Thankfully, Sharon was on the ball and delivered some yummy pink cupcakes (sprinkles by Grace) so we even had a festive dessert. :)

Blessings.

Budgets

2011-02-15T07:41:00.002-06:00

Since I'm sure you've all been following congressional budget proceedings very, very, closely... the White House released the numbers for FY2012.... since, you know, the budget for FY2011 is still up for debate. The gov't fiscal year runs October to October, and we're still operating under "continuing resolution." How can they even do that?

But anyway, some crazy numbers: Proposed USDA budget for 2012 is $145 Billion. Guess what 74% of that pays for. Nutrition assistance. Food stamps, WIC, free and reduced school lunches. One hundred and seven billion dollars to feed people.

Only 13% goes to farm and commodity programs. All that farm welfare that they talk about... mere pennies. :)

And near and dear to my heart, the Ag Research Service comes in at 6%. *grin* woot woot.

Not sure what I think about it all. I'm glad I live in a country where people don't starve unless they want to. And at the same time, something's broke if we're shelling out onehundredandsevenbillion dollars a year for people to buy chips and soda and frozen dinners. I worked at Lindy's... most food stamps get spent on expensive junk food. Not all, but most.

On that note, maybe we should all just sing "It's fun to work at the U-S-D-A" to the tune of the YMCA... hehe.... with hand motions.

Blessings.