Progress

Slowly but surely, further in and further up!

 My chair is sanded and stained!  It's not varnished yet because I haven't had time and I apparently didn't clean my brush well enough last time and it dried stiff... oops.  

 

 Bob brought Cecily home her own little bag of chips because she figured out how to get in the chip cupboard and would sneak off to eat them.  It's pretty much all she would eat that day. 



 So I got to play with satin and hot glue one afternoon...  hair options for Tonya for Nicole's wedding.  

 And then Wednesday and Thursday were painting days!  Also known as total chaos days...  Mom brought lunch over Wednesday and kept little miss out of the paint in the afternoon.  It was still a crazy mess, painting on one half of the room, toys all over the other. 

I kept going after she left.  Bob had to work late and Cecily was wound up so I turned up the volume and streamed church services while I finished my first gallon and cleaned up some of the mess.  Note the paint tray up very high away from little hands.  hehe.

 And this is little miss guzzling watered down Dr. Pepper... hey, she was begging and I got more painting done! 

  Lena and my Mom came on Thursday to help/ babysit and we got the rest of it done!!  I love it.  It's a pale green, sometimes it looks grayish, sometimes more greenish.  It makes the whole room feel more cozy and not so stark.  Stan does a great job at picking color.  (insert plug for Tim's Ace - Interiors Roecker's) 

 Ooo and hopefully soon we will be replacing the exercise equipment with my rocking chair and a chair from Austin.

Still not sure if I should paint the beam and re-stencil (really don't want to).

 

 Silly girly.  I think she likes the paint and all the fun people who came to play.  :)

 Thursday night I went to Apples of Gold after quick cleaning up a little bit.  It was really fun.  The food was wonderful and I really enjoyed the lesson... although, it was a little funny/ convicting because we were talking about loving our husbands and how we should try to keep a clean house and cook good meals.  aaahhh. um...  well, the last two days there has been paint flotsam, furniture, and toys everywhere, and Bob's had to bring home Wendy's and eat leftovers from the freezer for supper.  Yup, pretty much a failure.  *grin* 
 
Blessing.

One misty, moisty morning

Hm... yes, I'm behind.  We've been fairly busy...

Bob and I went to Josh and Nicole's singing shower and left little miss at Bob's parent's with Grace and Eden.  His Dad was alone with all three girls... they all survived.

I dragged Bob to Menards to spend my Christmas money.  We came home with a bigger bookcase, more shelves for the basement, and a cabinet for laundry supplies.  Boring stuff.  Oh well, it fits the William Morris quote- "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

We had Bob's family for supper Sunday night.  I didn't burn anything so I'd call it a success.

Monday evening I stopped at Grandma Koch's and got to bring home more treasures.  (Grapefruit spoons!  Vintage sheets!)  Then I went to quilting, which was fun. 

Stan D. came over and helped me pick out a color to paint our family room.  Now I just need to go get the paint.  And then actually do the painting.  woot woot. 
Thursday evening was sewing club... I'm slowly making progress on my knitting project... slowly...

Bob and I left little miss at the farm on Saturday evening and went with Jakey to rotating potluck at Elliot and Pam's.  She accidentally emailed me instead of Jakey and then ended up inviting us to tag along anyway.  It was an enjoyable evening with people I don't get to see very often. 

Yesterday was Michelle and Andy's wedding in T-town.  Church was packed and little miss was being really squirrely.  So we took her home after church and she took a nap with Bob and I went back to the reception and got to refill water for over an hour.  I'm getting too old for that job- my arms hurt and my feet hurt by the time I was done.  I'm glad I changed into more comfortable shoes...

Blessings. 

Tools

My dad likes to give me tools for Christmas, which I love.  He likes to give Bob tools too, and I may or may not take advantage of that at list making time.  *grin*  I have been using them a lot recently.  

So anyway, our green bathroom.  Black counter top, plain mirror, awful light fixture.  Seriously, we got a new one to replace it and I can't wait to put it up! (That's the box under the counter.) The old one is so dim and yellow and depressing.

I used my new staple gun to make a frame for the mirror.  And the miter saw, of course.  I'm getting better.  It's just glued to the face of the mirror with some kind of construction adhesive.  I love it.  It makes the whole room seem a little bit more classy, and makes the black counter top (would probably never be my choice) look less... black.

I've also been using my new palm sander on my rocking chair.  It's coming along.  Unfortunately, I can only work on the chair when little miss is sleeping, and the sander wakes her up every single time.  *sigh*  Oh well.  Slowly but surely.  Last night I got to work on it for a long time because Dang came over and she was having a great time upstairs.  She thought his "dancing" was hilarious...  and tried to mimic him. Silly girl.  

Blessings.

whirlwind

So we made a quick trip to Leo this weekend for Kacie's baptism...  we weren't even there for 24 hours...   not sure why we didn't go out earlier.  Anyway, we left Saturday morning and even though my car didn't start right away after a stop we got to Rita's in time to eat and change for testimonies.  Cecily did really good in the car (as long as she had plenty of snacks!). 

We left her at Rita's with all of the younger cousins and actually were early-ish to church!  It was a good night, although, Shelly and Kendra and I picked a very creaky bench.  *grin*

After church we spent the night at Abby and Tyler's with Matt and Lena, Pearl, and Paul and Jean.  Their house is decorated so cool!  And they did a ton of work to it so the kitchen and bathrooms are new and sparkling.  Little miss was wound up and had a great time exploring...  then she didn't fall asleep until 1:30 (IN time.  *sigh*).  It was an early morning for all of us.  

She was tired all day and not interested in sitting still so we didn't spend much time in church.  We left pretty fast after the baptisms because of the storm that was coming.  It rained most of the way across Indiana, and then the sun went down and the temperature dropped and it was ice.  It only ended up taking us a half hour longer than normal though, because most of the Illinois roads had been salted and were clear.  

So the drive home was fairly uneventful, other than my washer fluid pump is broken again, and the low coolant light is perpetually on.  Still not as bad as the drive from O'Hare in '99, or the drive to Ned's baptism in '07, or home from Minneapolis in '09.  

Somebody was so glad to be out of the car!  She put her tutu on herself.  Hehe.

Little Miss must miss Auntie Shelly.  I let her play with my phone on Monday while I was doing something else and all of the sudden I heard talking on the other end.  Thankfully she just called Shelly and not someone really random!   They talked for a while.  It was funny. 

Blessings.

Grey and white and winter all around

So I think we're all mostly recovered this week.  Bob went back to work, and Cecily has cheered up a little bit.  We walked past the discount flowers at the grocery store and she said "oooooh" and pointed at them so I got them for her...  poor girl has been sick and/ or teething for three weeks, and she loves flowers.  hehe.  And lets be honest, I do too.  

Grandma taught her how to use her oven mitt- hopefully she doesn't try it in the real oven.

Little miss and I met Lena and Shelly for lunch today at Chick-fil-A.  It was my first time there and I really, really liked it.  The food was good, but the service/ atmosphere was even better!  I loved the clean highchairs with the table mats for kids and a wet wipe- so nice!  And I got her a kids meal (that she barely touched because there were so many distractions... and french fries to eat... oh well) that came with a Franklin book.  So much better than a plastic toy.  We all went to the mall after lunch because I needed to exchange something and we left with lots of shoes.  Hehe.  Little miss had a great time wandering between racks and dancing to the background music.  

Then I went to target for wedding presents and came home with this mirror.  I think it's about the right size for above the mantel, but I'm not sure if white is the right color.  Advice anyone? Di?  If I painted it I could fix the small nick in the frame (I'm so proud of myself- I asked for a discount and they gave me one!  I'm not sure it makes me frugal though... this definitely was not a need...).       

Oh, and on the way home from shopping I stopped for a pick-me-up.  Somebody please remind me next time that medium means huge in fast food speak...  Anyway, little miss really wanted a drink so I let her have the last of the melty watery Dr. Pepper.  She was quite pleased with herself.

Blessings.

Happy New Year!

So far it's started out with sickness....  Both Cecily and Bob got the GI bug that's going around.  ugh.  Late nights and lots of laundry for me...  So far I'm healthy.

Little miss got to try out her new sled with Daddy.  She's not so sure about the snow suit or boots and refuses to keep her mittens on so she wasn't out long.

We had Dale & Meg, Greg & Mary, and Nic & Amanda at our house after church on New Year's Eve.  I really enjoyed having them, so I hope they all had fun too...  I think the kids did- they put all of Cecily's toys to good use.  Little miss was not at all sure what to make of it all.  She walked back and forth from the big kids to Bob and I all evening with a slightly shell shocked expression on her face.  hehe.  They were playing with her toys.  She didn't know what to do.  *grin*

So anyway, we ate lots of good food (including pomegranate seeds in the Brazilian tradition), played a fun game, and all but Hanna and Tirzah made it until midnight!  Max and Nora and Maria were very excited to count down and blow their noisemaker horns.  

Otherwise it's been quiet around here.  Trying to lay low so everyone gets better. We got the Christmas decorations down and put away.  Little miss is still not so sure about that tutu.  

On Wednesday little miss and I went and made a t-shirt quilt with/for Sprout.  I have a bunch of t-shirts from high school and college that I want to do this to someday, and I told her I'd help her make one for practice.  It's not quite as nice as Amber's (our inspiration!) but it still turned out pretty good.  And it only took us about 4 hours! 

Little miss had a doctor appointment on Friday.  She's skinny and healthy.  And she got a shot.  And she has two teeth coming in.  And she's running a slight fever.  And the GI bug earlier.  It's been a long week with a crabby baby.  

Bob's cousin Carrie got married today.  My mom came over to watch little miss during the wedding and reception.  It was really nice... simple and reverent and her dress was gorgeous.  Bob and I got to refill punch at the reception. Woot woot.

Blessings.     

Christmas Everyday

"Take it you horrid thing!"  Ok, so probably only my family gets that reference...  hehe.  After four days of Christmas I was starting to feel that way.

The 26th we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's for the Day of Days, aka the Wyss Christmas.  Brunch, musical entertainment, presents, gondolas, presents, games, supper, games, 'twas a good time as always.  Cecily was a grouch most of the day and super clingy.  It didn't help that she did not get enough sleep the night before and we had to get her up early to make it on time for brunch.  And she would not sit still, lie down, rock, anything that would get her to sleep.  We ended up driving around the section twice during the day so she would take naps.  She cheered up after supper.  Thankfully.  Anyway. 

Grandpa, Clayton and Ned played 'When the Roll is Called Up Yonder.'

 

Secret sewing project #1 was revealed:

It's a tea towel with Grandma's recipe for cinnamon rolls printed on it in her handwriting!  I didn't get a picture of the one with the Taffy recipe in Pearline's handwriting.  We made one for each of the daughters and granddaughters.  I saw the idea here at Spoonflower.

Grandma helping little miss take her new tutu from Aunt Rita OFF.  She was not impressed with it or the crowd of people standing around taking pictures of her in it.  hehe.

 After all the presents were opened and things were cleaned up, Little Miss got a ride from Grandpa in Bob's new wheel barrow.

So Thursday we were lazy bums all morning recovering from festivities until we headed to the farm for Christmas with my family.   Mom made the usual Cornish hen feast and then it was on to more presents.  Cecily was more interested in the noisemaker part of her new riding thingy than anything else.  *grin*

We give each other weird presents.  This is authentic Czech snow camo.  It made little miss slightly nervous.

Doesn't everyone need a Zombie survival kit?

On Friday I left Cecily with Bob and spent a too short afternoon with Amber and Sarah at the Drake's.  I miss those girls. 

Auntie Shelly and my mom picked out some sweatpants for Cecily... they totally look like what the sorority girls wore around campus, so I put on her U of I shirt, gave her a high pony tail, and tried to put boots on her.  She wouldn't keep the boots on, and she doesn't have a north face jacket, but hey, it's close!  hehe.

This morning Lynelle came over to play while Gary and Kathy were at a funeral.  She was great.  Cecily kept stealing her toys.   They are about the same age, and I am so glad little miss is not twins!

Ok, so this last picture is for Aunt Karen:

She gave me some mini quilts for Christmas and I don't have any frames, so I hung them on a line on the wall of the 'sewing room'.  Kind of like bunting, which is trendy right now, only quilts!  I like it!  Thanks K!

Blessings.

O Come, O come, Emmanuel

Well, we are in the middle of Christmas festivities. Tomorrow is the Day of Days and then my family the day after that.



It snowed!!  I was pretty excited, especially since I didn't have to go out into the storm.  *grin*  Little miss and I went out on Friday, but she tripped in her slightly too big boots before we even got outside so she really was not impressed with the snow.  O well. 

 

My mom hosted Schlipf Christmas on Friday evening.  The soup was good, as always.  And we sang some lesser known Christmas carols.  Personally, I think they can stay that way.  Auntie Shelly cleaned out her closet and little miss decided to play dress up- such a stylish girl.     

 

Saturday morning Grandma Koch's granddaughters had a tea party with her.  We got to eat brunch on her good china and crystal.  It was yummy.

Somebody is pretty sure that an open door means she can go in...  even if it's a wet shower...

 

 

We headed to W-ton for church on Sunday.  Cecily was super grumpy and clingy all day long, so it really wasn't very fun.  But, we made our token appearance, which is what counts, right?  Hehe.  

 
Such a little mimic.  Although, I'm not sure where she figured out the phone thing because I almost never talk on my phone.  I never do both at once either. 

Christmas eve we went to Christmas with Grandma Koch.  It was nice... and Cecily had a great time following all of the other kids around the fellowship hall all night.   
 
 Little Miss opened her stocking while we were getting ready for church this morning.  It was full of new church toys, which we need.  I love her dress.  It's going to be a sad day when she has an opinion and I can't pick out her clothes. 

 
She's got the present opening thing down.  She opened one of mine this afternoon before I could get to her.  Hooray for Hobbit Legos!  I haven't had a lego set in a long time...

 
We gave her an adorable kitchen and some pots and pans.  She started stirring things right away, but I think her favorite thing about the kitchen is the phone.  She's a little young for it, but I'd rather she have it to grow into.  Plus it's just so cute and retro.  hehe. 

 
We all played with Legos while I put my Bilbo and Gollum set together.

 
We went out to Bob's parent's for supper and presents.  Bob's dad didn't really give us a list sooo...  he got a pie.  I am usually not a fan of cherries but I think this pie might have changed my mind.  The recipe is from the Farm Journal Pie Cookbook and it is phenomenal.  Dark, sweet cherries, cream cheese, and a lard crust.  It is so good.  Listen to me raving about a cherry pie... what is wrong with me?? 

 

Little miss wanted to open everyone else's presents.  *sigh*  

 

Anyway, it's getting late.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

I love birthdays.  *grin*  This year Bob went above and beyond and had one present for me to open every day until my birthday.  Somehow it makes turning 28 not so bad...  

 

 

 The list of things was pretty random, which I love:

1.  2 Liter of Dr. Pepper

2.  Set of specialty needles

3.  Camping egg carton

4.  Wildflower seeds

5. Russel Stover chocolates

6.  Pride and Prejudice

7.  Cupcake wrappers

8.  Pincushion

9.  Gourmet cocoa

10.  Serenity tree ornament

11.  Cupcake book

12.  Mulan

13.  Cupcake potholder

14.  Gardening book

15.  Chocolates

16.  Orchid

17.  Out to eat at Jonah's without Little Miss!

We left her at the farm and then ate cake and opened my present from them when we picked her up.  Best birthday ever.  Even though I had to make my own cake... o wait, that's fun.  I am not very good at it, I need lots more practice!

 

 

So Saturday night Little miss woke up 7 times between 4 and 6:30am.  Ugh.  It was rather awful.  I guess the only good thing was that she was better in church because she was tired... and we had Christy's toys! (Thanks!)  She fell asleep on the rug after church with a shirt she pulled out of her laundry basket clutched tightly to her chest, silly girl.

 

Sunday evening we went to the Beutel Christmas- the first one of the year!  It was fun and Cecily had a great time running around after all of the other little kids.  And stealing Anika's bear.  She slept so long that night, it was wonderful.

I'm finally starting to strip the finish off my chair that we got last spring!  Yay!  The two garbage bags behind it are full of the original wool and horsehair batting... why, yes, I do feel like a horrible human being for getting rid of it.  *sigh*  But, I am not an antique restorer and it was kind of dirty...

Blessings.

Christmas things

We got to go Christmas caroling this year... it was great fun.  We went to Hopedale nursing home and little miss had a great time toddling around.  She and Aaron ran off down a hallway and ducked into a room- thankfully there was no one in there.  They wanted to play with the stuffed animals and root beer.... haha.   

Daddy likes to feed her all kinds of things- this is the aftermath of powdered donut.   

 
We piled in with Rustin and Sharon and girls and went to the festival of lights.  I think Cecily was more excited about seeing Grace and Eden than the lights, but the rest of us enjoyed them. 

On Tuesday night I went to the W-ton Christmas tour of homes with Mom, Di, Trent, Donna, Katie, Sally, and Martha.  Extremely random group!  Little miss got to play with Grandpa, Jakey, and Lori's family for the evening.  We went through four pretty cool houses.  My favorite was the brick four square, but the big white house with the cupola was pretty awesome too.  The owner said it has 12,000 sq feet... and there had been a crew working on the house every day for 15 years... yeah... crazy, but it was beautiful! 

Somebody has already discovered cell phones...   

Little miss and I ate lunch at Java Junction and then we went and finished our Christmas shopping!  Yay!  Now we just need a little bit of snow...
Blessings.

The days are just packed

We've been keeping busy.  Rustin and Sharon came over one evening and we roped them into helping put up our new mantel.   

 It looks so good!  And I love decorating the house for Christmas. 

 So much less bare than when we moved in...   

 Jingle bell garland...  little miss likes it a lot.

 Little miss and I went Christmas tree shopping with my mom.  I set it up and decorated it while she was napping.  She was pretty excited to see it when she woke up.  So far she hasn't broken any ornaments or pulled it over. 

 We got a  little tree from Great grandma K's basement so she plays with that and leaves the big one alone. 

We've also been baking and decorating Christmas cookies, and shopping, and wrapping presents.  Little miss and I met my old coworkers for lunch today and then we did some more shopping.  Still not done though....  *sigh*

Here is Little Miss's version of 'Pat the Bunny,' or at least the three pages she hasn't destroyed.

Blessings.