Monday, April 23, 2012

my latest project :)

The last two weeks I've had a nasty sinus infection and didn't really feel like going anywhere or doing anything.  I was starting to get a little stir crazy, so I decided maybe I should do something productive, so I painted our door to the garage in chalkboard paint!  My very clever friend, Katie L, gave me the suggestion when I was complaining to her that I didn't like the color of my door.  It's so nice to have friends who have good ideas!  She also told me about "chalkboard markers" so if you want something to stay on longer and not get erased, you can use the markers.  So like if you wanted to draw a calendar on your door like this...
then when you go to erase the dates/events, the calendar part will stay put.  And when you want to erase it, you can used rubbing alcohol and it comes right off.  Cool, huh?  Maybe you already knew about those markers, but I never had!  Maybe I need to get on Pinterest more... ;)

Below our family calendar, I made a chore chart for the kids and also made some magnets to go with it.
 
The "$" column is for chores they get paid for (just a quarter), so when they put their magnet there, I know I need to pay them.  Sure helps trying to remember if I gave them their quarter yet or not.  They don't take the magnet off until they have their money! :)

The kids LOVE their new chore chart.  They especially like getting to move their magnets to the "Done" or "$" column!

Here are a few examples of our magnets... they're not perfect, so please don't judge me or look too closely...
dusting...

cleaning the bathroom, setting the table

folding laundry, watering plants

If you've never made magnets before, they're easy breezy.  Here's a quick tutorial:
*You need (1) those glass round things (don't know what they're called, but you can find them in the floral section of Hobby Lobby), (2) some magnets (the round, stronger kind), (3) some clear tacky glue, and (4) hot glue or E6000.  I actually just used E6000 for both types of glue.  That stuff is seriously the strongest glue I've ever seen.  It ate right through a foam plate I had it on one time.  So don't put it on styrofoam!  And be careful because the back of it says prolonged exposure to skin has been known to cause cancer in California.  Not sure why just California... maybe their beautiful, tanned, beachy skin is more sensitive? ;) 
*Then find some cute clipart online.  Print it out on cardstock or matte photo paper.
*Use packing tape to "laminate" the pictures so they don't bleed when you glue them. (this is an optional step... some papers don't bleed as much as others)
*Cut the pictures into circles the size of the magnets.
*Use clear tacky glue or E6000 to glue the pictures to the magnets.
*When mostly dry, use hot glue or E6000 to glue the magnets to the back and Voilà! You have homemade magnets!

Back to the door, I'm not thrilled with this bottom part here, but I wanted the kids to have a place to create their works of art too.
If I decide to keep the frames, I may need my uber-talented friend Abby to come over and re-do them for me.  Up for a playdate, Abby? ;)

Here's what Millie and Tate did today.  It was too nice out when Addie got home from school, so she'll do her picture tomorrow.
Tate wanted me to draw a raincloud for him and he did the "grass."  ;)  And Millie's is a yellow heart in a blue sky with green grass.  Sweet. :)

And here's the door all together.  I thought it looked too busy with the magnets there, so I moved them so they line up down the right side of the chart.  Looks much better.  
And I'm still not sure about those frames... Maybe I'll do one big one to kinda match the chart and calendar?  Any ideas?

Oh, and here's a picture of the door before I did my stuff on it.  This was waiting for me when I came home from a retreat a few weekends ago...
Aw, isn't that sweet!

So now my sinus infection is over, but I'm on this nasty antibiotic until Sunday.  Seriously, the nastiest pill I've ever taken.  It's ginormous and makes my mouth taste metallic-y ALL DAY. It's so bad that it makes me nauseous.  Not kidding.  My doctor recommended sucking on candy to help with the taste. Also she said if I'm in the sun, it'll make me break out in a rash and it also causes the Achille's tendon to weaken and tear, so I can't do my normal workout. (This is what you get when you're allergic to penicillin and sulfa drugs!)  So my teeth might rot, I may gain 5 pounds this week, break into a nasty rash and tear my tendons... all thanks to my sinuses.  ;)  Has anyone else ever been on such a nasty antibiotic?  I never knew one as lethal as this existed!

And, just a reminder... please continue to pray for my cousin's son, TJ. Click here to read about him.  He's been without a feeding tube now for 26 days and is deteriorating right in front of his parent's eyes.  Can't even begin to imagine how difficult that would be. Please pray that God will take him home peacefully.  Makes me feel like a HUGE baby for complaining about my pill. Really gives life a whole new perspective.

Monday, April 9, 2012

this week

Yup. That's the most original title I can come up with right now.  I have a cold.  I'm tired.  But I just wanted to get these pictures on here before life ran away with me and I forgot.

Wednesday night we had a church skate night.  This was little Tate's first time skating.  He skated for about the first 30 minutes and then tuckered out.

 Addie and her friends helped each other out.  They were so cute.


Millie taking her try at independency.
 Sorry these pictures are so blurry.  I guess zooming in from the sidelines doesn't do much for photo quality.


Me and my little man hangin' out watchin' the big kids.

 Thursday night we dyed our eggs.  Yeah, I know.... kinda last minute, but we squeezed it in!




They did such a great job!

Sunday morning we got dressed in our best and started the morning with an Easter egg hunt.
On your marks, get set, GO!





Checking out the loot.



After an amazing Easter service at church, we headed down to my parents house where we posed in their backyard for a family picture,
looks like somewhere along the way the girls lost their arms...

spent some time with great-grandpa,

had a delicious dinner (which I have no pictures of, so you'll just have to trust me),

and had yet another Easter egg hunt!  
 Those guys know how to hide eggs.  Waaaaay out of any kids reach! ;)

And here are the kiddos with all their new found treasures!

Hope you all had a lovely week too!  Now I'm off to take some Benadryl and get some zzz's.  G'night!

Monday, April 2, 2012

spring break (or is it summer?!)

If it weren't for the fact that our weather has been unseasonably warm this past winter, I would've thought yesterday's weather was some kind of April Fool's joke.  87 degrees! On April 1st!  No kidding.  We even had to get our kiddie pool out to cool off.  I'm sure you all have been experiencing similar weather too.  I LOVE IT!!!

So, anyways, Addie and Chad had spring break a few weeks ago and it was so fun to get to hang out as a family for a week!  Here are a few of our highlights:

We headed down to my hometown of Oskaloosa on Sunday night because we had a tax appointment on Monday.  I know, it's crazy we drive over an hour to have our taxes done, but we just love our tax guy! And he's very inexpensive :)

The kids had fun checking out Baba Cornie's big truck.


He even let them drive it! ;)

 This is my truck driver face.

 We didn't trust Chad to drive it by himself, so Tate helped him out.

 On Monday we headed out to the big wooden playground with Nana.



 My favorite part of the playground is the "old school" part.  This is what I remember playing on when I was a kid.
It's so fun seeing my kids doing the same things I did when I was little.




Back home on Monday night.  Chad spent the next 3 days working on finishing the basement (I'll show those pics in a later post!).  So we set aside Friday for some more family fun.

We took the kids to the mall for a surprise bowling trip.  Although they didn't know there was a bowling alley in the mall, so they thought our "surprise" was watching these bunnies.  I think they were a little disappointed. We played along for awhile and then took them to our real surprise! :)

Our first family bowling adventure!


There's more than one way to get a strike!

After bowling, we headed downtown to tour the state capitol (or the "palace" as Tate calls it). 

What is everyone looking at?

Ah, the top of the dome.  Beautiful!
Gotta love free tours!

I thought this case of first lady dolls was very interesting.  They're all dolls of the governor's wife from every term wearing their inaugural ball gowns.  So if we ever have a female governor, they'll make a male doll for her husband.  Wonder if that guy will be a little humiliated? ;)

We were lucky enough to even get to see the governor's office.

My favorite room was probably the library.  Stunning.

Here we are in the House of Representatives.  Cool to see the room where lots of important stuff goes down.

 Chad and Addie got to go all the way to the top of the dome, but Millie and Tate weren't old enough, so we hung out below.

Addie thought that was quite a treat! I tried to get a pic of them at the top, but couldn't get the camera to work. :(

 Playing around on the capitol lawn.

Saturday night, we headed back to Oskaloosa to go to my cousin's son, TJ's, fundraiser.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, check out my last post for a link to his CaringBridge site.  He was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor just a few months ago and is already in Hospice preparing to go home to heaven.  Truly heartbreaking, but I encourage you to read his CaringBridge page.  It's so full of hope.  His parents are truly amazing! 

 So, back to the fundraiser... here's my niece Taryn and Millie showing off their "TJ Tough" bracelets.

 Tate hangin' out with my brother Travis and my dad.
Addie and Kaiden were there somewhere too, they were just too busy to get a good picture of!

Lots of fun inflatables for the kids.  And Tyler Sash was there signing autographs!  (He's our hometown hero who plays for the NY Giants who just won the SuperBowl. Pretty cool!)  Turns out there were over 6,000 people there that night!

It was so great to see all the support for TJ!  

Eventually Sunday came around, signaling our last day of spring break.  So we headed out to the Circus for one last hurrah!

It had everything a circus needs... trapeze artists,

tigers jumping through rings of fire,

clowns (the freakiest part for me),

crazy guys who like to defy death in balancing acts,


13 year old girls doing tricks on prancing horses,

and this guy,

balancing elephants,


and impressed onlookers.


So, that was our Spring Break 2012! Hope you had an enjoyable one as well.  And enjoy this summer weather! :)