LiFe...

Seems like forever ago that I last posted. It's been a crazy roller-coaster of the last couple months. I've been debating even blogging again simply because I feel so far behind on it that I'm not sure exactly how to catch up. 

 

I think the most important thing I should do first is thank everyone for their prayers, words of encouragement and love regarding Alan's dear uncle who passed away the day after my last post. His uncle meant so much to us, and was loved by so many, and although he hadn't been doing well because of cancer, we were all shocked at how quickly it took him, but we are resting in the hope of heaven right now and knowing that his uncle is in Glory with our Lord. 

 

I think everything that happened with his uncle's passing has caused us to kind of stop and take everything in...take a deep breath of life and know just how precious every day, every minute, every moment really is, and to try to soak them up as best we can. And it's also reminded us of not just a reminder that we need to live life, but Who we're living it for. Are we living for us, for ourselves, selfishly, or are we living for the Lord? Are we continually scheduling this and that and filling up our days with mundane tasks and appointments, or are we making time for the important things-for relationships with each other, with our friends, with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and for those who are still seeking Him? 

 

I could spend this {re}entry into the blogging world catching up on all the activities and things that have happened in the last two months, but instead I'm just going to leave it at this...to let us all ponder just how precious life is, and to let it be a reminder that every day, every second is a gift from God and we are to cherish it and use this time wisely.

To Quilt, Or Not To Quilt

For my birthday/Christmas I got a new sewing machine from my mom. I previously had my grandmother's machine, though it is now in bad shape and in need of enough repairs that it was cheaper to get a new machine, which is exactly what my mom did! :)

I've been itching for awhile to start a new project, but am tired of scrapbooking, have no desire to learn knitting or crocheting (sp???), can't really have a garden at this place, and want a project that will be challenging and rewarding. 

On a previous post this week I posted pictures of the new $5 garage sale find quilt rack that I repainted. It got me thinking about my grandmother's quilt, and great-grandmother's quilts that hang on it now. My grandmother LOVED to quilt and sew, and was involved in a quilting group at her church for many years. She made enough quilts (and one for each granddaughter) that at her funeral they were draped over all the pews/benches. There is a legacy in her quilts...something I'd love to attempt to protect and preserve. 

Since we just got this new table (garage sale find!!!) that means our old one can be used for projects downstairs. Spare table + new sewing machine + itching for a new project that'll take me awhile = to quilt or not to quilt???

...I'll keep you posted on my decision ;)...

Memorial Day & Other Pics

This year for Memorial Day we did something new-we went on our first family picnic out to Tuttle Creek and relaxed by the lake (...er, uh, creek?). That evening we headed to the Weddle's for an evening of games and BBQ'ing fun!

looking cool, dude, but the lake is the other direction :)

chillin' in my lazyboy while mommy and daddy read. i LOVED watching the wind in the trees!

Go Salome!!!!

Yeah, I get all the attention ;). More cute pics of me:

Like father....like son.

All the essentials for a full day's work.

my gang and i ;)

mUsiCaL FuN!

It's summer, let's change things up a bit :). During piano lessons for a set of twins, we did 20min lessons inside, then combined their Theory lesson outside thanks to the beautiful sunny weather!

{learning the G scale, and the I, IV and V of the scale :)...did I mention the kids are only 10? Excellent students!}

...and incase you were wondering where Isaac was during this...

Summer Steals & Deals!

I heart garage sales & savings! Check out what I've found on some sweet deals these last few weeks:

Above was purchased at the Ben Franklin Closing Sale on Saturday. Woven table rug, snow candle lantern thingy, mini stocking {i collect country stockings}, Rustic Merry Christmas sign: All for $22.50, but I got it for $13!

$5 Quilt Rack from a garage sale in May {before}

annoying white shelf I've had for 4 years that I never really liked {before}

1 quart of OOPS paint from Home Depot {I was going to use a brownish color for $9, but decided for only $1 that I could settle for olivish-sage.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT after 1.5hrs painting in 99 DEGREE HEAT!!!!!:

My Summer Top 10 List

Ten things I like best about summer, or in my case, summer nights because I like them better than summer days :)

10. Home made ice cream

9. Night noises!!!

8. Watching shooting stars

7. Ice cream after supper :)

6. Warm breeze in the evening while sitting on the porch

5. Cool breeze in the morning before it gets hot and sticky

4. (This one I miss, a lot) Riding my grandpa's 4-wheeler through his fields in the evening

3. Sleeping with the windows open!...though I miss this one because our duplex only has sliding doors and no regular windows :(

2. Bon Fires!

1. Watching lightning bugs

I'm not that big of a fan of summer. My style is more autumn and spring, but alas, once summer actually hits, I usually love it. I'm 27, and yet I still LOVE going to the pool in the summer! I can't wait till I can take Isaac with me :). However, summers just aren't what they used to be now as when I was growing up...and I miss that, greatly. Remember the care free nights when all the neighbor kids or cousins would randomly show up in their yards and we'd all play together? Or what about running around the yard (and we had a huge one!) barefoot in the grass chasing fire flies :)!! Oh how I loved that! The girls would either catch them in jars and watch them, or put them on our fingers like rings (weird, I know), while the boys' goal was simply to smash them.

Oh what I would give to be 5 again and run through the sprinkler in my Strawberry Shortcake swimsuit, the cool water splashing my warm skin as I would play for hours in the yard!

I never thought I'd say this, but I also miss the sounds from the ball diamond just up town a couple of blocks. I played on the Denmark Little League teams from T-Ball all the way till junior high, so the better part of my childhood months of June and July were wrapped up in games. As I got older I would get annoyed hearing all the cheering and loud sounds from the ball diamond, but now that I live in a bigger town, I miss those small town noises.

When I was little, the best treat of all was after dinner (sorry, in Iowa, dinner is lunch or supper, but supper isn't lunch, and often supper in my family was referred to as dinner-confused yet?), my grandparents who lived about seven miles out of town would go for a drive and come up town to see us most nights of the week. My grandpa had two cars and a farm truck-if they pulled up in the nice car it meant they'd probably just eaten out somewhere and were going to sit on the porch with us, but if they pulled up in my grandpa's long red cadillac looking boat, aka The Boat as us cousins called it, then it meant ICE CREAM!!!! Whoever wanted to could load up in the car with the grandparents and ride uptown for ice cream cones, but if you didn't want to go along for the ride, you were out of luck because the deal was you HAD to go with them to get the ice cream :).

My grandpa also kept his baseball glove in the trunk of the car with a bat and a baseball for the boys/softball for the girls. It was on such an early summer's night as tonight that he took the time to teach me how to throw a baseball. I can still hear him saying, "Throw past your ear, then release..." And you learned quickly how to throw a good throw, or you had to chase the ball yourself! As I grew older my grandpa would catch for me while I practiced pitching (I played first base and pitched from grades 6-9 on that small town league).

But I think, of all the summer memories, the best of all was when my family (aunts, uncles and cousins included) would gather at one of the family farms and have a BBQ (over the fire, not the grill), home made ice cream, and sit around the bonfire...how I miss those bonfires...sitting for hours upon hours watching the stars and the flames out in the gravel road of a family farm in the countryside, blanketed by quilted fields filled sweet corn and beans, lightning bugs and mosquitos, and the faint sound of the distant coyotes.

I sometimes wonder, with a bit of sadness, what will Isaac's summers will be like. Will they be filled with BBQ's and laughter, sprinklers and sun, bonfires and lightning bugs? We live in town now...a big town. We have no yard, no tree to put a swing in, no grass to run through barefoot, no place for bonfires, no room to play catch outside, and sadly, not very much of an opening to watch the stars at night. I know that doesn't mean he can't do that a friends' houses, but there's something so special about summers and the outdoors growing up, and just going outside, and not waiting to be invited over. It's a selfish thought, I know, but a thought nonetheless. I long for a home, not a duplex. I long for wide open spaces, not a cul-de-sac. I long for a yard, not a curb.

...I miss the country life, especially at summer.

...date night...

Date Night:

6:00   Babysitter arrives on time (go Leia!)

6:10   Now running 10 minutes behind schedule as I finish picking up and telling her how to feed the boy

6:15   Arrive at cinema with tickets in hand (a friend got us movie tickets!) ready to watch SHREK 4 :)

        ...told by lady in box that we cannot put tickets toward Shrek because it's 3D

        ...told we can only put tickets toward Sex in the City (not happening!!!), or some other thing that sounded dumb

        ...told if we wanted to watch Shrek it'd be $24 for two tickets-What?! No way!

        ...left theatre and on to Plan B

6:25   Plan B: Blockbuster and dinner at Freddy's

7:00   Stop by HyVee to purchase angel food cake to go home and make strawberry shortcake. ...out of angel food cake... harass Alan in parking lot about forgetting his wallet at work.

      ...Alan begs me to go to Best Buy so he can play with the new iPad's ... :P

8:00   Done playing with technology, on our way home. Alan waves at nice policeman on bicycle by Coco Bolo's in Aggieville who is sitting on his bike in the intersection watching drivers and checking plates

       ...Go through intersection...see bike cop in rear view mirror

       ...Bike cop asks us-through the sunroof because our driver's window is broken-to pull over in the KSU parking lot

       ...Bike cop asks us if we know our tags are expired (by 5 days), Alan responds that he submitted it online at the beginning of May and we still have not received our tags, and that he was planning on stopping by the court house on Monday to check on it. ...Asks us if we know our right brake light is out (ugh, again?!? seriously?! We fix it MONTHLY!), asks us if we know we're missing a bolt and that our license plate is dangling...yep, need to find a bolt.

       ...Bike cop asks for license, insurance and registration. Alan says he doesn't have his license, that he left it at work and we were on our way to get it. Provide other info and wait on cop...

        ...Surprisingly Alan only gets a warning and is told to go get his license and to check on the registration!! Yay!!! No ticket! As the bicycle cop hands us the warning I ask if we can frame it to remember this Date Night, to which the officer laughs and says, "Oh, you're on a date?! Bet this hasn't happened on a date before ;)" to which Alan responds, "Well, actually, it did once..." 

8:30   Stop by Home Depot to get bolts and fix license plate in parking lot

8:45   Stop by Baskin Robbins to redeem the date just a bit with chocolate :)