Sunshine Makes Me Happy

This morning, I left my baby girl at home for the third day in a row because she hasn't been feeling well. Thankfully, she doesn't have the flu that everyone seems to have around here, but her tummy has been miserable. When I walked out the door, I saw this beautiful sunrise and immediately felt a calmness about her sickness and I am incredibly thankful that my husband is self-employed and can stay home with her on days like this. 

The sky was  absolutely gorgeous!

As I was on my way to work, Cole was driving behind me on his way to school. I stopped and waved him past because I knew he had a meeting this morning and I just wanted to stop for a picture on our gravel road. I'm so glad I did. Within 20 minutes, the sky was completely gray and there wasn't much sun to be seen. 

Tomorrow, Audrey and I are suppose to go with Cole to his college Presidential Scholarship interview and lunch and I'm getting nervous for him. His interview is only 15-20 minutes long and will determine whether he gets a scholarship for $50,000 or the $20,000 he has already earned. That's a huge deal for us, as we don't desire for him to have ton of college debt. We want him to be able to start his adult life as free and clear as possible. Please say a little prayer for him that he will get it.

I'm looking forward to a wonderful weekend with my family!

Fall Watercolor Farmhouse Sign and Craft Day with my Daughter

This week, Audrey and I have been watching Shannon's YouTube videos at The Daily DIYer for inspiration for a craft to do together during Labor Day weekend. We wanted something for fall that was easy and that we could create for some of our family and friends, as well. We were inspired by her DIY Fabric and Wood Farmhouse Fall Sign.

We tweaked the project just a little to bring down the cost and time since we were making so many. Instead of fabric and heat transfer vinyl, we printed our sign on cardstock. The beautiful watercolor printable I found was graciously offered for free by Allison at Crafty Mama Online and it added some subtle color to the sign. We also added some orange tulle to give it extra texture since the sign itself was paper.

The signs were incredibly simple and took only minutes to make. It took longer for the stain to dry than anything.We made one for ourselves and a few for friends, both of the kiddos grandmas for Grandparent's Day and one for Audrey's teacher. Literally the only hard part was running out of printer ink on the very last print, which meant a trip to town to get some more.

I truly enjoyed the time together with Audrey and we hope that our friends and family will enjoy their new fall signs!

Career Day 2012

One of the perks of being a Kindergarten teacher is being able to attend lots of events with Audrey that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. This year at Career Day, she got to rotate classrooms to see three different guest speakers.

Spangle the Clown brought clown noses and straws for everyone.

 Then, we got to see Jake Dill, a farmer at Rutledge-Wilson Farm. He is the brother-in-law of one of my sweetest friends, Shelly. He came with a rabbit for the kids to pet, along with coloring books and chicken headbands.

Audrey liked petting the rabbit because it was so soft! 

She loved the chicken headband!

Connie Frost is a caterer and owner of Three Fat Ladies Tea Room. She brought all the kids a mini cupcake to eat after her demonstration.

Audrey said her favorite guest speaker was the clown because clowns are funny!

Chair stealing and fish healing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I love this picture!

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

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

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

Spring Break Recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our Last Preschool Screening

Last Tuesday, Audrey had her last Preschool Screening. It was very bittersweet. I remember when Cole use to go and now my last baby is done. Cole affectionately refers to it as ‘Preschool Screaming’.

Although Audrey will not likely go to preschool since she stays home with John, our school offers optional screening to all families who participate in the Parents as Teachers program. So, both of my kiddos have been going to Preschool Screening since they were infants. I think it’s important to know where your child is in relation to other children their age, especially when it’s not based on competition. It has always been important to me to know that my kids have hit their developmental milestones at the appropriate time.

Last year, Audrey was extremely distracted by what all of the other kids were doing and she couldn’t focus when she heard all the bells, kids running around and all of other tests going on. Needless to say, I was nervous about what this year would hold. However, she more than made up for it this time and did an outstanding job! I am so proud of her!

Audreyisms

Audrey was on a roll with hilarious talk today.

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

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

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

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