May - Photos of Kids

They weather was amazingly warm and wonderful this month.  We spent a lot of time outside and we took a huge amount of photos.  Here are a few of them.

Angela:

Hanging out while Dad installs the microwave.

Proudly displaying her bird project.

Having fun with the slip and slide.

My beautiful daughter!

Connor:

The sandbox got turned into a pool.

Washing Mommy's car.

My handsome son! (and his purse)

Helping Dad mow the lawn.

Emeric:

Look at me in the sandbox.

Playing got to be a bit too much.  Time to nap.

My handsome son!

Enjoying my first carosel ride.

Emeric at 8 Months

Emeric turned 8 months on the 19th. Many people of said it must have seemed so long ago that he was born, but truly it has not. He is weighing in at just over 17 pounds. This is funny because the other day Connor was 33 pounds. It again makes me wonder where Emeric will be in a couple of years. He has got five teeth that have cut through the gums and one more that will be coming through any day now. That gives him two on the bottom and four on the top. He sits up really well, which is so nice. While Brian was out of town working the past two weeks straight Emeric became a little clingy. He would cry if I sat him down or if anyone else was holding him. This made for some tired arms. He loves to laugh and giggle at Connor and sit and play with Angela. He also loves the outside. He has been suffering from eczema since around three months old. He used to have it on the top of his head and he would scratch it over and over. That has since cleared up. He now gets it mostly around the mouth where he is often drooling from all the teeth he has gotten. He will also get it on the backs of his knees. It doesn't seem to bother him too much.

I'm listening God

This morning we had an 8:20 AM appointment. Normally we don't schedule our appointments until 9:00 so that we are not rushed; but alas, not so today. I was rushing to get Angela ready and out the door as well as getting myself and the boys ready and out the door. At 8:00 Emeric is crying because I am not holding him. Connor is crying because he wants me to put on his sandals and I am trying to pack the diaper bag for a morning out of the house. As the volume of both boys is increasing and I am trying to tell them to knock it off, I can not handle this screaming this early in the morning; I run to grab a book. You know you always should have one when you leave the house, you never know when you'll have a few minutes to read. This was a new book so I grabbed a bookmark too. It reads, "This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24. Okay, I'm listening God - Thank you that my boys are alive and healthy and that their lungs work. After offering up my quick prayer we raced out to start our day. It sure was funny how he placed that bookmark in my hand to change around my view of the day. Thank you Lord for setting me straight!

Mother's of Preschoolers Fundraiser - Come and Help us Out

  

We are having a Spaghetti Feed & Silent Auction

Come join us and help a good cause!

MOPS is an organization that helps to support moms with kids age 0-6. In Portage, nearly 50 moms participate in this group that holds twice monthly meetings at Grace Bible Church.

Saturday May 15th, we are having a fundraiser at our host church (Grace Bible Church) to raise money for our group which includes providing scholarships so no mom is denied access to the group. Here are the details:

Date: Saturday May 15th, 2010

Time: 5:00-8:00 pm

Place: Grace Bible Church, 2939 Cty Hwy CX in Portage

What's Included? Dinner includes spaghetti, garlic bread and desserts.

We will also be having a silent auction that includes many items from local businesses and from many of our talented mom members! (There is even a gift certificate for three pies from yours truly). I believe we have over 60 items to bid on!

Tickets are $5 for anyone 13 and older and $2 for kids aged 6-12. Children 5 and under eat free! You can buy tickets at the door on the day of the event.

Please join us for a fun filled night and bid on items from community business. And thanks for supporting moms!

If you have any questions, please email me and I can fill you in! bandljamison@hotmail.com

Librarian Saved

This past Sunday afternoon, the local Portage children’s librarian was on her way home from Neenah after visiting some family. This hour and 45 minute drive usually passes without any difficulty. That is until Sunday's drive when her van broke down. After assessing the situation she grabbed her cell phone and then reached into the trunk for her emergency roadside kit. Making sure she had all the necessary items for survival: jack, tire iron, spare tire, flares, jumper cables, gloves, first aid kit, silverware and Laci's Pies; she contentedly sat and waited for the tow truck to arrive.

 

Laci: this one's for you!! I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm not happy that my van has died on the side of the road ... I'm waiting for a tow truck & decide to eat what's left of my rhubard pie!!!

1st Weekend of May

This past weekend, the first weekend of May was full of new fun for us. Brian got home in time for dinner on Friday and he had a bit of time to relax before we got moving on Saturday. Angela's school is trying to change fundraising efforts from having the kids sell things to hosting a fun run/walk. The Run for Rusch is a 1 mile walk or a 5k run/walk. We participated in the 5k walk pushing Emeric and Connor in the stroller and trying to keep up with Angela who was running ahead with two neighbor boys. We came in at about 51 minutes. Brian said that next year he wants to come in around the 21-25 minute mark. I would be happy with the 51 minutes again, especially since I have the boys with me.

Saturday afternoon was spent installing our new microwave. A few weeks ago we bought the cupboard that goes above the microwave.

It looked pretty silly sitting there all by itself. Brian worked hard to get it all in nicely.

The bummer of this is that he will have to uninstall the cupboard and microwave and move them about three inches to the left when we buy all the rest of our cabinets. Fortunately for him that will not be for a while.

That night for dinner I decided to make him happy and use the microwave. I made a meal of enchilada casserole

and brownies.

Sunday we had a day of new adventures. We were grocery shopping and noticed that the price of a gallon of milk has really gone up. We used to buy a gallon for fewer than two dollars. Now it is almost three dollars. We had heard that a local gas station had milk for cheap so we stopped by. It was much cheaper ($2.04 for a gallon), but it was also a little different.

It is sold by the half gallon pouch and you dispense it by putting the pouch in the special pitcher and serving. I am up for trying anything especially if it saves. One dollar per gallon will really add up the way this family goes through milk. Our other adventure was dinner. We had spaghetti squash with mozzarella stuffed meatballs and peas. I had never had spaghetti squash. It was pretty good. Maybe not a meal we would do every week, but it is one we would do again.

April - Photos of Kids

Here is the April installment of the photos of the kids.

Angela:
Hunting for Easter eggs.

Opening the Easter eggs and eating all the treats in under five minutes.

What I look like when Mom wakes me up after her meeting to take her picture.

Connor:

Hunting for Easter eggs.

Opening the Easter eggs and stuffing as many treats into his mouth as he could.

Getting ready to climb out onto the roof with Dad.

Emeric:

Hunting for Easter eggs with Dad.

Opening Easter eggs with Mom.

The Toads:

Angela's

Connor's

We found these toads under the sandbox.  The both had fun playing with them, although they did get a little bit rough.  Angela's ran away later on the day we found them.  Connor's stuck around, we even went and bough a toad house for him, which we got set up all nice.  That evening Connor went to show the babysitter the toad and he was gone.  We didn't even get to relocate him to the house.  Maybe another toad will move in.

A Frock By Friday

I participated in Grosgrain's A Frock By Friday sew-a-long.  It ran from this past Monday to yesterday.  The project was to sew a dress for yourself.  Each day she would post on her blog a step to making the dress.  If you had questions you could e-mail her and she would respond (very quickly I might ad).  I also had a friend in WA who participated.  We spent each night on the phone talking about this and that and our dresses.  

She started this out with a "Hey would any body be interested?"  She got such an overwhelming response that she went for it.  Each day she would tell us what would happen the next day.  The planner in me wished she would have laid it all out from the beginning.  I wanted to have my dress done by Thursday evening so I could wear it to my MOPS meeting.  That meant that I had to cut out all of Friday and step it up a day.  Here is what her week looked like for us:

Weekend: Buy material and print out pattern

Monday: Piece pattern together and cut out material

Tuesday: Sew together bodice and attach ruffle, sew facing together

Wednesday: Attach facing to bodice, sew skirt pieces together

Thursday: Attach skirt to bodice

Friday: Zipper and hem 

But this is what my week looked like.  I purchased my material the week previous while Brian was out of town.  It was super hard for me to pick a fabric.  I have never sew clothes, besides costumes, and I didn't know what to be looking for.  I then got my pattern printed.  I went ahead and pieced it all together over the weekend.  After reading her post I learned a much easier way of doing it for next time.  I try not to get onto the computer too often during the day.  So Monday morning I got on and she had not made her post yet.  Then I got on that afternoon and realized I should have pre-washed my fabric.  While I was waiting for it to wash I decided to start sewing an apron.  I used another apron for the pattern and got the bottom two-thirds of it done.

That evening after the kids were in bed I cut out my fabric.

I realized I should have a tall bar height table for cutting out patterns/fabric.  It was back breaking being bent over the entire time.  Tuesday I again did my work after the kids were in bed.  I put my bodice together

and then started on the ruffle.  This seemed easy, but it was one of the harder parts for me.  I was trying to gather it when my gather thread broke.  I had to rip it all out and start again.  Then as I was sewing it on, which in itself was a tedious time consuming part, I sewed in some extra spots of the bodice.  So I had to rip it out and start again.  Once done it was almost midnight, I didn't even bother going onto the next step, that could wait until tomorrow.

Wednesday was the facing and skirt.  It was really easy to sew the facing together and onto the bodice. 

I messed up a tiny bit sewing my ruffle on.  The facing didn't hid all of the mistake, but I think I am the only one who would notice.  Sewing the skirt pieces was also really easy.  It was a rewarding day of sewing.  Thursday was the day I wanted my dress to be done.  I was a bit worried that it wouldn't happen since I had been doing all of my sewing after the kids were in bed.  I needed to sew during naptime and I didn't know if it would be enough time.  Putting the skirt onto the bodice proved to go quickly.  Then onto the zupper - as I was attaching my foot the handle for the screw, to tighten it on, broke.  I spent unnecessary time trying to fix it when it occured to me to just tighten it even more.  After that the zipper just flew on.  I decided to adjust the pattern a little and ad a ruffle to the bottom.  It saved me from having to truly "hem" the dress.  Long post short, here is the finished dress:

Yes, I did get it done in time for my meeting.  I was pleased with the over all product.  But I did wonder if it ended up looking like a moo-moo.  I did get asked at my meeting if I had neglected my kids to make this (since Brian was out of town the whole week)?  No, there was no neglectful behavior - unless tying them up and looking them in the closet is neglectful.  Kidding!  After looking at other finished dresses I think I should have used two different colors.  Alas the joy of hind sight.  Friday since I wasn't sewing the dress I went to work finishing the apron.

Next time I will need to remember to put the pocket on the right hand side so that it is easier for me to get into.