Mid-month update

Thought I would take a few moments and update on what's been going on here. The month has been a quiet one so far. Delmar & I have both been sick but praise God Emily hasn't gotten anything yet. Well, that's not quite true, she did manage to get one bug.

Lucky for us, it was an award! On January 13th she received her first BUG award. This is an award that is given to a student for Bringing Up Grades (BUG). To be eligible for the award, students must maintain a combination of A's or B's and cannot go down a letter grade in any subject. She had all A's and B's and brought up every grade. The school had an assembly for the third graders and Delmar and I were both able to be there. We are soooo proud of her!!!

We also got to go to a birthday party. I've been babysitting this guy since he was 13 months old and now he 5!!!!! Happy Birthday Tristin!
We have gotten quite a bit of snow. Last week we were able to make snow ice cream and from the looks of things this morning, there may be a chance of another batch today. :o) That will make Emily and Delmar both VERY happy. Me, I would LOVE to be able to get up some morning when it is snowing like today and just be able to go for a walk. It is soooo quiet when the snow is blanketing the ground and everyone is still in bed.

On a final note, KitCat has taken up residence in Emily's cradle. Guess he thinks it's far enough away from the kiddo's that he won't be bothered. Emily has found it quite funny and enjoys covering him up "because he is cold". :o)



I pray that you are all having a safe month with all of the crazy weather happening everywhere.

Another Blog

I've decided to start another blog that focuses on my love of cooking, couponing and keeping the home. Please join me for my adventures at Cookin' And Savin' With Amy

Oops I did it again!!!!

So remember back in April of 2009 when I did this deal and got 10 bottles of Purex for tax only? Well, I DID IT AGAIN!! Ten bottles of Purex for $2.07~!~!~!~!~!~!!!!! I still have about 5 of those bottles left but I also went thru these bottles that were bigger than the Purex ones so I may have to go out tonight at get 2 more bottles. Hopefully that will get me thru the year until this deal happens again next year????? One could only hope.

I love saving money and I love spending it too. I spent the day with mom yesterday and went to Gordman's in Bloomington for the first time ever. LOVE IT!!! I have a wall in my hallway that is kind of my family picture wall and boy is it gonna be purdy after I hang up the frames, etc. that I bought yesterday. I'll post pictures of that later. I have to wait until Tues. when my photo ink is delivered from Staples to reprint some of my pics.

Gotta scoot, mom & Bob are coming over for dinner soon.

Snow Day!!!!!!!

The kids had a snow day today so Emily and I took advantage of the time and worked on her Valentines and her Valentine box. This is the first year she has got to make a box at home, they have always done them in school. The only thing she requested was that we were able to use my Cricut to get the job done. :)

This is also the first year that she did her Valentines completely on her own. She looked thru each one to find the best fit for the person she was giving it to. She also mentioned how hard it was to find "just the right one".

So, here are pictures of her Valentines box. She is very proud of it.


Front:

Front & Side:



Have a blessed day,

What do you get....

when you mix piles of clean snow and the coldest day of the year? Why snow ice cream of course!! Emily and I put our culinary skills to work this evening making this delectable dessert.

The software includes:

A large bowl of CLEAN snow
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk (preferably whole)

1/2-1 t. vanilla

Combine sugar, vanilla and milk:

Mix in enough fluffy WHITE snow until it is the consistancy of ice cream:

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Mommy to Emily): "So does yellow snow make lemon ice cream?"
(Emily to Mommy): "THAT'S DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hope you all have had a blessed day!

Rainy days and Mondays...

can be made better with tomato soup, tamales for hubby and I and a grilled cheese for Em. YUMMO!!!!!:o)

This was my gourmet dinner after a day of tackling Mt. Washmore, paying bills, getting the house back in order from the weekend and canning my first batch of green beans solo. Aren't they pretty???

Between the rainy evening and Y camp, Emily was exhausted and said she wasn't feeling well. I hope she isn't coming down with something!! This is how she spent most of her evening.
Hope you all weathered the storms without any damage.

Goodnight all,

Got my internet back...YEAH!!!!!

Last Wednesday, a storm came thru that sent a surge thru my phone line into my modem and then on thru to the ethernet cards in both our computer and Emily's computer. It fried all three items and thus began the process of replacing them all. This should have been a simple thing, just call the phone company and have them send a new modem out and then replace the cards in the 2 computers. HOWEVER, my computer has Windows Vista on it...big pain in the butt!!! We were able to check email and such thru Delmar's wireless laptop and by "borrowing" a connection from a neighbor but updating the blog was not able to happen because of the spottiness of the connections.

But, all is well now and we are once again connected to the world. So, let the blogging begin!

Have a blessed day,

Open windows!!!

Big deal you say?!?!?!?!? Then it must not be February in the Midwest where you are right now. You can't imagine what a blessing it is to be able to have your windows open in February. Right now it is 62 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be 65. We are supposed to get thunderstorms tonight but for now, I'm just enjoying the sunny, breezy, warm day...with my windows open.

Have a blessed day,

Cuttin' Firewood, Hair Cut & A Christmas Parade

I have decided that I LOVE my fireplace, after living in this house for nearly 4 years! So, when Bob (my step-dad) posted a bunch of firewood on Freecycle, I jumped on it. We have a friend of a friend who has a friend that has a log splitter that we were able to borrow. Delmar and Emily spent the early part of the morning splitting wood. Emily was having a ball operating the hydrolics while Delmar did the heavy work.

After resting for a bit, Delmar headed off to be on a float for the bank in the Decatur Christmas parade. Meanwhile, Emily and I headed off to get her hair cut. It had been getting a bit unruly and was in desparate need of a trim. We ended up getting about 5 inches cut off of the back but not too much cut off of the front. The picture isn't real great since I didn't actually get the back of her head...gggrrrr. Anywho, we all love it.

We met up with daddy on the parade route and prepared to freeze our rearends off. It was soooo cold. I got to drive the truck and Emily got in about half way thru because she was too cold. Recognize the Jack in the Box?

June 16th Moon

I woke up in the middle of the night to pee (as I usually do) and Delmar opened his eyes long enough to notice this HUGE moon blinding him. He asked me to close the shade and went back to sleep. But I couldn't stop admiring it so I grabbed my camera and started snapping pictures. Apparently I was bothering him cause he woke up again saying, "What's that beeping sound!" Sorry honey, I couldn't help myself.

With Friends Like This...

So, while we were away on vacation, the neighbors thought it would be fun to have a party in our pool before we were able to be in it ourselves. Here is the evidence:

We found out later that it was staged. Notice how none of the adults actually have their arms in the water? That's because it was FREEZING!!!

They also enjoyed our new deck:

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Memorial Day!

Just catching up on my blogging. Quite a bit has gone on this week.

Bree graduated from Meridian High School on Friday.

L to R: Dennis, Bree's step-dad, Jill, her mom, Bree, Delmar & me.

Sam, Emily & Bree:

Sam & Emily:

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On Saturday, since we didn't get home until midnight Friday night, we did nothing. I thought Emily was going to take a nap but a friend from her bus called and wanted her to come over for a playdate and she was there for 5 HOURS!!! Delmar mowed and worked on the deck and I finished piecing in the carpet. Then he put together the jungle gym that we bought at Sam's back in February.

Delmar & Chris working on the jungle gym:

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Sunday was CRAZY. We had nursery duty at church, then ate lunch at CiCi's Pizza with Tori and Harrison, went to Graceland to put flowers on Lori's grave and bought 2 cemetary plots. Then we were off to Bryce's birthday party back at the church, to Elwin for a graduation party for our nephew Christopher, to Mt. Zion to drop off tables to my dad for a rummage sale and then to Walmart where we bought a dining table for our deck. We didn't get home until 8 PM.

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Today has been very relaxing. We put the table and chairs together and Delmar finished his part of the deck, so all construction is complete. I still, however, have staining to finish. Don't know if it will be done before vacation or not.

Delmar working on the table.

The completed deck!!!!

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Other misc. photos of the week:

Emily & Lauren making Caterpillar Stew. Didn't want to know if it was stew FOR caterpillars or stew MADE FROM caterpillars.

Emily must have gotten a hold of the camera. This is her best friend Lilly.

A wall hanging on our deck that I bought for Delmar a couple of years ago.

My pie safe from the dining room. Had I known how good it was going to look with a coat of Poly on it, I would have done it years ago!!!

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That's about it! This coming week includes the last day of school for the summer and the end of my babysitting for 2 of my kids. Antonio is moving to Bloomington and Lauren and her sister will be going to Y-Camp for the summer. Looks like the neighborhood will be quiet for the summer!

Off to have dinner with Chris, Tori & Harrison!