Whats Not to Love - Days 14 - 15 - 16 - 17

Day 14:

 I love discovering that our minor kitchen fire wasn't my fault.  Okay, we already knew it wasn't my fault as it was Jacob who was playing with the toaster before the fire started.  However EVEN if I left the toaster plugged in and EVEN if in my laziness I left a piece of toast in the toaster, it was Jacob putting the TV remote into the toaster that officially caused the fire. 

And I have the proof!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I present to you Exhibit A.  The charred remains of the TV remote battery that was found in the bottom of the toaster.

Day 15:

In preparation for a girls crafting night, I needed some patterns cut from wood.  A flood of memories came crashing down as our slipper covered feet shuffled across the garage floor, scroll saw clanking away, belt sander grinding away.  Normally after being away from power tools for an extended period of time you have a bit of apprehension about losing fingers or an eye when turning them back on.  Not me.  Not this time.  I was every bit as confident about using those machines as I was a few years ago using them in Dad's shop.  However, a piece of wood did get away from me and I sanded a nice size chunk of my nail away. 

Day 16:

I love my cats. 

I would love to be a cat. 

Need I say more?

Day 17:

I do not love when my children are sick but I do love how snugly they are when under the weather.  And Jacob was sick for almost 5 days.  That five days of holding and rocking him to sleep and doing absolutely nothing.

Whats Not to Love - Days 12 & 13

Day 12:

This picture was actually taken on February 11th.  Our local grocery store let kids decorate one sugar cookie and make a card for Valentines Day.  The best part is that it was free!  How awesome is that??  I love free activities!  Bree very carefully frosted her cookie, adorned it with roughly 42 red hots, filled in the rest with sprinkles, made the card and asked if she could deliver it to "Grandma with the Papa up in Heaven."  And thats what we did on February 12th. 

Day 13:

Here it is.  After almost 2 years I will finally admit, out loud and posted on the internet for all to see, that having two kids really is the best.

http://youtu.be/quaZxDtj3Rw

(I'm not certain why my embedding codes aren't working lately.  Hopefully the links to youtube work just fine for you.)

You're Famous

These are little clips from the St. John's Luthern School Monthly Newsletter.

November 2011

February 2012

Valentines Day - The Pinterest Way

We celebrated Valentines Day a little early this year.  I found so many wonderful, fun ideas on Pinterest that I needed a full day to fit them all in.  So on Sunday we feasted on

Heart Shaped Cinnamon Rolls

Heart Shaped Eggs

We enjoyed a

Heart Garland

using twine, clothes pins and homemade foam hearts

Forget candy, give them a balloon.  Oh the hours of fun it brings.  OR give them a Mylar balloon for WEEKS of fun.

We played

Bingo paired with a

 Punch A Prize Box

See the prize box in action:

http://youtu.be/aHhHL0LZHtc

It was filled with new cups for the kids, single serve boxes of cereal and pringles,  heart shaped marshmallows for hot cocoa, and new hair accessories for Bree.

Then for dinner it was heart shaped pizzas using Pioneer Woman's Basic Pizza Crust.

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful Valentines Day.

Whats Not to Love - Days 10 & 11

Day 10:

I love the "If you can, then do" life lesson my dad taught us just by his every day actions.  He paved the path.  He showed us the way.  He left us the tools.  Its up to us to keep this legacy of his going.  I knew I was doing something right when we went to make a donation of homemade hanging oven towels to Rainbow Oncology and the nurses, knowing why we were there, started smiling before we even got all the way through the door.

"I know who you are," the nurse said to Bree. 

"Your Grandpa would be so proud."

Day 11:

Here's a little known fact about me.  I LOVE SNOW!

Snowy nights are my favorite. So peaceful.  So quiet.  So perfect.  It makes me want to grab a cup of cocoa and go for a stroll through the neighborhood.  Or on winter nights when snow finally graces us with it presence, I get the urdge to channel Jimmy Stewart and go running through the streets.  Come on, you know what I'm talking about.  

Whats Not to Love - Day 9

It was a little hard to find something to love on February 9th.  You see my day started off quite lovely.  Slept in just a tad, began helping Bree with a puzzle, then at 8:27am this happened:

Let me explain.

Wednesday evening for dinner we made toast but didn't eat all of it.  In my laziness of a busy day I did not take the last piece of toast from the toaster nor did I put the toaster away before going to bed.  Then early Thursday morning while I was helping Bree put a puzzle together in her room, Jacob decided he'd make some toast like mom. 

He plugged in the toaster.

He pushed down the button.

He walked away.

I heard some popping and snapping noises coming from the kitchen but I just assumed it was one of the cats.  The noises got louder and louder until my curiosity could take it no longer.  I barely turned around when I saw the smoke.  I flew out to the kitchen, filled a bowl full of water, and threw it on the flaming toaster.  After catching my breath and calling Jim I began surveying the damage.

This picture does not do justice to just how bad the smoke damage on the ceiling was.  You;ll also notice that the top left hand corner of the TV has quite a bit of smoke damage as well.  Also if you notice the lovely red wall behind that TV.   Our kitchen renovations has just picked back up after the holidays and the accent wall had just been painted 5 days prior.

  After the toaster cooled down, I threw it away to reveal the damage to the counter top:

Thats just about a 6 inch burn area.  Lovely, huh?

After about 4 hours of me attempting to clean soot and ash and smoke from every. single. surface. in our house, I called Jim crying. 

   

Smoke residue was even inside our cupboards!  I couldn't clean this all by myself.  I needed help. 

He called in some co-workers from ServPro to give me a hand and thats when I learned that the smoke damage was enough for us to file a claim.

Every ceiling in our house needed cleaned.

Every wall cupboard needed scrubbed inside and out.

Every wall in our house needed wiped down.

Every toy in our house needed wiped off.

Almost every carpet in our house needed shampooing.

And a lot of repainting needs to be done.

So now the fun begins of picking out new counter tops, new TV, possible new wall colors, and, of course, a new toaster all because of one little boy.

Maybe if we do this to him a little more often he wouldn't get himself into so much trouble.

Whats Not to Love - Day 8

I love my little boy.  I love bath time.  I love my little boy at bath time.  Although this time, I loved him even more.

Whats Not to Love - Days 6 & 7

Day 6:

I just love mornings, don't you?  I love the prospect of a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to handle things differently, and another opportunity to do those things that has been sitting on the back burner for far too long.  I also love that the morning brings a new found love between a brother and sister that, like mommy's ambitions and motivation, will have flown out the window by noon.

Day 7:

Our pick up truck is the dumping grounds for all things recyclable.  When it gets full, its off to the recycling center I go.  Its a chore that tends to be put off during the colder months but yesterday the desire to knock a few 'to-do' things off my list and I'm ever so glad it did.  Look what wonderful treasure I found in the cardboard bin: 

I LOVE the feeling of checking things off my to-do list and gaining an awesome (and free) toy for the kids.

Whats Not to Love - Days 3-4-5

Day 3:

I love that the kids are getting old enough to have Friday pizza, games and movie night.  Some of the most vivid and treasured memories I have are of going to Video Connection to pick out movies, home to take a bath while Dad made homemade pizza, then off to the basement to split a king sized bag of M&Ms with Matt and Becki.  I can only hope we're creating those same memories for our children as well.

Day 4:

I love the Food Network.  I love cooking.  I love that my children (generally) eat anything I make.  And I love that this night Jacob was eating grilled asparagus and portabella mushrooms!

Day 5:

Painting.  Sewing.  Woodworking.  Mod Podge.  I love arts and crafts and the feeling of creating my own little masterpiece.  And mostly I love having a daughter who teaches me that things don't have to be perfect to be beautiful.

Whats Not to Love - Day 2

Every evening this is the view I get to see while sitting in my chair.  Some days it gets a little blindingly bright and the curtains get pulled and other days its enough to give me the second wind I need to finish out the days chores.

Family Resemblence

Bree's New Baby:

Jacob:

Kinda creepy in a possessed, Chuckie doll kind of way.

How will I ever sleep at night?

Whats not to love?

Things I love about my life

Day One:

This is the view I get every morning through my kitchen/dining room window.  I'm already a morning person, but with the sunbeams shining through the glass, it makes tidying up the kitchen, making breakfast, and drinking coffee oh so much more pleasurable. 



Wordless Wednesday