a busy, fun week

We have had one fun celebration after another this week! :) Here are a few of the photos I've taken....

Mar. 15th, we went to an egg hunt at church. Ben was so excited when he saw eggs everywhere!: Mar. 16th, the palm we got at church for Palm Sunday:
Mar. 17th, I know I already shared some St. Patrick's Day pics, but here's another one... Em, Nick, and their pot o' gold: Mar. 18th, I took down all the St. Patrick's Day decorations and got out all my Easter ones. Here are a few that I put in the hutch:
March 19th, George brought home some daffodils, my favorite flower:
Mar. 20th, Emmalie turned 12! (I still can't believe it!) Here she is with some of her gifts, a necklace, Littlest Pet Shop toys, and her new chair for her room:
Mar. 21st, I took the kids and Em's friend to our town's indoor pool for the annual Egg Dive. While we played in the pool, just look at what it was doing outside (after having temps near 50 the day before)!:

bookworms unite!

I just LOVE to read (always have!), and am happy to say that my kiddos seem to be following in my footsteps. Emmalie is, for sure! I recently scrapped some pictures of her reading, along with something she said to me one day after school, "As Thomas Jefferson once said, 'I cannot live without books.'" She is rarely without a book in her hand:

Nick isn't really into reading fiction, but he does love any non-fiction books about animals. (That shouldn't be a surprise, LOL.) And Ben doesn't read yet (though he knows all his letters!), but he sure loves it when we read to him!

Last week Katie challenged us to blog about what we've been reading. It seemed to be a perfect challenge for me, yet somehow I never got around to it until now....

I've been in a book club for several years now. We've been meeting once a month to discuss books and just enjoy a night out. It looks like the club is going to be disbanded now, and I am very sad about that. I've always looked forward to going! One thing I've loved about it is that I've been exposed to many different books that I probably would've never picked out to read on my own. I almost always end up enjoying them!

A few days ago, I finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, our last book club book. It's a very well written autobiography that I could not put down! It's amazing to me that the author even survived her childhood, let alone managed to be so successful as an adult.

Another book I read this month (also for book club) was Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It was another true story, about Greg and how he began building schools (primarily for girls) in Pakistan and Afghanistan, trying to promote peace through education. It was a very interesting and inspirational book. You can find out more about Greg's important programs at the following sites: Three Cups of Tea and Pennies for Peace.

Image Courtesy of Greg Mortenson

Another good book I read recently was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book is fiction, and quite entertaining. I was hooked from the very beginning, and enjoyed it all the way through!

Currently I am reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Actually, I've been reading it for several months now. That may surprise those of you who know me well, because I read quite fast and it's virtually unheard of for it to take me months to read something ~ I don't know if I've ever taken so long before! The book started out very slow for me, and I kept falling asleep, LOL! I don't like to give up on books, though ~ I keep reading them till I'm done, even if I'm not particularly enjoying them. I'm finally over halfway done with it now, and am liking it more now. I may even finish it before the end of March! :)

going green

Going green... that's what we were doing yesterday! :) Em and Nick were up at 6:30am, searching for treasure left by Lucky the leprechaun. After following several clues from room to room, they finally found the pot o' gold in the washing machine! Lucky left them some art supplies, chocolate coins, and a box of Lucky Charms... a fun way to start out St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated the holiday in the evening with a special supper. I made "Irish Penicillin" (potato soup) and shamrock-shaped biscuits, plus we had several green foods: peas, honeydew melon, lime Jello parfaits, and Green River floats. Yum!

KatieJ challenged us this week to try making a mosaic from some of our photos, so I thought I'd make one with a few of my St. Patty's Day pictures. Here are my 3 leprechauns and our green meal:

It was a fun day! And now we have 2 other big days to celebrate this week, Emmalie's birthday and then Easter. Busy week!

the abc's of me...

I was tagged by Jeanne to do this.... :o)

A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Karen
C- Cake or Pie: Oh... tough choice! Probably pie, though.
D- Day of Choice: Tuesday ~ everyone's off to school/work and I don't normally have to go anywhere!
E- Essential Item (s): A good book, scrap supplies, and the internet!
F- Flavor of ice cream: Chocolate Chip Mint or Coffee
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears
H- Hometown: Ames, IA
I- Indulgence(s): Watching reality tv, buying scrap supplies
J- January or July: June! ;) Actually, I like all 3!
K- Kids: 3... Emmalie (12 in 3 days), Nick (9), Benjamin (2-1/2)
L- Last movie seen in theaters/DVD: Theaters ~ Atonement, DVD ~ Addams Family Values
M- Marriage Date: June 27, 1992
N- Number of Siblings: 1 sister, Christine
O- Oranges or Apples: Both, please!
P- Phobias or Fears: Fire and bad storms
Q- Quote(s): "Enjoy the little things... one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
R- Reason To Smile: See K above :o) Also good friends, scrapping time, and many other things.
S- Season: I love them all, and am happy to live where there are 4 distinct seasons.
T- Tag others: Mandi and Kay
U- Unknown Fact About Me: When I was a teenager, I saw The Empire Strikes Back in the theater 13 times!
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Somewhere in between. I do enjoy meat sometimes, but can't think about what it really is when I'm eating it!
W- Worst Habit: Procrastinating
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I've had several of both!
Y- Your Favorite Food: Ice cream!!
Z- Zodiac: Gemini

you oughtta be in pictures...

Here are a few of my photos from the week:

Mar. 7th, I love this little bluebird mug that used to belong to Granny! It now sits on my bedroom dresser:

Mar. 8th, B watches his favorite movie in his new "Ka-Chow!" jams:

Mar. 9th, a little ice cave in front of our house... Em insisted there were fairies living there:
Mar. 10th, Em and Nick, playing Webkinz after school:
Mar. 11th, a book I recently finished: Mar. 12th, the game we bought Nick for his birthday, a Zoo Tycoon 2 expansion pack:
Mar. 13th, B plays in his newly-cleaned room (I spent all morning picking it up!): Mar. 14th... otherwise known as 3.14... Pi Day! Em's class had fun math activities planned all day long, and parents got to come visit for awhile this morning. Ben loved the donuts! ;) :

progress, finally

About a year ago, George fulfilled a lifelong dream of his to own a surround sound system, and installed some speakers in our living room walls. The plan at the time was to cover up the wires with crown molding. Well, a year later we have FINALLY started that project! I am soooo glad, because I've really hated having those ugly brown and gray wires hanging in plain sight for so long.

We bought the things we needed on Saturday and I painted the molding Saturday night. Yesterday we started hanging it up, yay! Here are some "before" pics... the camera was aimed high, not only to get a good shot of the wires, but also to avoid getting my messy living room floor in the photos! LOL




George nailed a corner piece up in one corner, and then I helped hold the molding up while he nailed it on. Thank goodness he was able to borrow a nail gun, because my arms are very sore today, and I can't even imagine how sore they'd be if he'd had to nail it up by hand! (In the photo below, he is just pounding on the few nails that didn't go all the way in with the nail gun.)

We had to fit two pieces together to make one long strip of molding. When it was all up along the south wall, I puttied the nail holes and did some touch-up with paint. By then, Ben's naptime was over, so we quit for the day, and put all the furniture back. (I cleaned up the living room, too!) Doesn't it look MUCH better? :) Only 2 more walls to go....

eight days of photos

Here are some of my pictures from the last week...

Feb. 28th, Em and her BFF play dress-up with some of the awesome costumes made by Christine:

Feb. 29th, a few of the scrapbooks I've made: March 1st, my friends Robin and Tammy, who I got to scrap with over the weekend :) :
Mar. 2nd, well... I was hoping to have a picture of Nick performing in his play at church here. George has suggested taking video of things before, and then getting stills from that, so I took some video of the play. I found out later that we don't own the software necessary to extract stills from it! So you get a little bit of video instead. :)(Keep in mind, it was my first time working the video part of my new camera.) The play was called "Who's in Charge of the Donuts?", and Nick plays a pastor. He was very happy with his part because it meant he got to eat an actual donut, LOL:

Mar. 3rd, Em on the phone with her BFF... it's starting already, ack! :
Mar. 4th, I got out my St. Patrick's Day decorations and took a pic of one of them:Mar. 5th, B helps himself to some milk! (Luckily, he was bringing it to me to open, not trying to open the milk jug on his own!)
Mar. 6th, Webkins have invaded our house! Here are Emmalie's Elerya and Nick's Sanrock: