The Glass Castle

Just finished this book yesterday. It was so good. Hard to read - it hurt my heart a lot at times. But it was really good. It is a memoir about a little girl and her family growing up in extreme poverty. It is based on a true story and is worth the read. Gives you good perspective.

MIA

Here's what's been keeping me busy...it's been a WHILE! There is so much going on right now I've barely kept myself afloat!

* Last week we worked most evenings on our new furniture prep and set-up. We moved the bed frame out and put our old mattress/box spring on the floor the night before our mattress was delivered. Unfortunately the platform for the tempur pedic mattress was delivered broken so now we are still sleeping with our new mattress on the floor! At least it is comfortable. :) Our pretty new bed is covered in the living room with blankets. The next evening we moved our old chest and dresser out of the bedroom. We moved furniture around in the boys' rooms and got rid of the changing table and Luke's toddler dresser. So now the boys all have plenty of drawer space with their new furniture! Our new bedroom set was delivered on Thursday. We spent the next several days moving our clothes over and rearranging etc. It is now all set except for the bed frame.

* I had parent conferences last Friday - 12 showed up (out of 15) so I am a little more than halfway done. There was a lot of prep for those and for the remaining conferences I have scheduled in the next couple weeks before spring break.

* Report cards go home this week so I've been working on those and writing comments etc. One more round of RC this year!

* The consignment sale at Luke's school starts tomorrow. All of my items had to be entered, hung, tagged etc. Thankfully with a little help from Andy and my mom the stuff was ready tonight.

* This Saturday my SIL Stephanie and I are having a wedding shower for our SIL Katie. Andy's little sis is getting married this June! It is at our house so I need to clean, go to the grocery, prep food, decorate, etc. Thankfully Steph and I will work together on everything but the cleaning. We've already planned everything so once the cleaning is out of the way it will be time for the fun stuff! Pictures will come next week. We have a couple surprises planned for Katie. I've also chosen several new recipes to make for the shower. You might think that sounds crazy - new recipes for an event but that gives me a chance to try new things!

* Of course the rest of my life hasn't stopped for the above mentioned things so you can see why I've been MIA!

Many thanks to my mama who came over on Sunday to donate her time to help me. She cleaned our double stroller so we could take it to the consignment sale and helped me clean up and rearrange the boys room. She helped me bag and tag things for the sale. I so appreciated having you here mom to help me! Love you. :)

My Little Snow Skier

Skiing is so cool!

He is adorable!

He looks so little on those skis!

On February 26, Wilson got to go snow skiing with his Daddy for the first time. They went to Perfect North Slopes in Indiana. Andy was taking the youth group skiing and decided Wilson was old enough to tag along and try skiing. Wilson was very excited and Andy said he did really well! Wilson is a very coordinated little guy so Andy thought he'd be fine. They started on the bunny slope. Tried the chair lift and skied a green trail several times. Wilson did really well with learning how to control his speed and steer. After lunch he did 3 blue trails (medium level). At the end of the day he did a green trail twice without falling - and asked if he could do a black diamond slope. Ummm noooo! He also wanted to try the terrain park - no again! They tubed in the afternoon and Wilson had a great day with Andy! Here is a short video of our skier! Andy started skiing when he was 9 and loved it. Looks like Wilson will follow in his footsteps!

In Honor of My Mom!

Patti -on Left (Asst. Director), Mom -on Right

About 3 weeks ago my mom's middle school orchestra had the honor of playing at KMEA. Her orchestra had been chosen to play at the Music Educator's Conference - which is a really big deal! Basically, they were playing for a lot of music educators who... really know music! First, a little background: My mom has been teaching music for 24 years, 21 of them at this middle school. When she started at the school there were 13 orchestra students. Now there are over 100! I took a personal day off of work and my family drove up to the concert. It was so nice to be able to take the day off and go hear the concert and support my mom. I'm thankful I was able to do that. My grandparents, aunt, and a family friend were all there too. (Cara's family couldn't make it because of her new job but they were there in spirit!) The orchestra had worked very hard on their music. We arrived early and listened to them warm-up. Now, I hadn't heard my mom's orchestra in a few years and - whoa - I was blown away! During the warm-up! The music sounded fantastic. During the actual concert I was again amazed. I had goose bumps at different times because the music was SO good. That is a sign of a REALLY good concert!! Plus the music was great! The songs played included: Moonlight Express, El Diablo Azul (arranged by my dad!), The Evil Eye and the Hideous Heart, The Best of Queen, and Dance of the Tumblers from "Snow Maiden". Great music selections, excellent sound by the musicians, and classy conducting by my mom!

Mom conducting the first piece of the concert.

Furniture Update!

We ordered our bedroom furniture almost 2 weeks ago. We found a simple dark cherry solid wood (no veneer over plywood) bedroom set that we both loved. If you follow the link that should take you to my dresser. Love the door front in the middle. You open it and there are 3 drawers inside! Our bed is the panel bed without drawers in the footboard. It has brushed nickel hardware and is very simple. I love it! We bought 2 nightstands, a king sized bed (YIPPEEE!!!), a dresser with mirror and a chest. It is absolutely beautiful. It isn't a red cherry - it is darker. It has whisper close drawers- so when you start to push a drawer closed, it finishes closing on its own. Wowzers! When we looked at Oak*Factory and Hav*erty's the furniture quality wasn't what Andy had in mind. He did some research and found that Kin*caid furniture is still made out of solid wood. We didn't think we'd be able to afford it but when we went it was half price! We looked, thought about it and made sure we could swing it before we went back a few days later to order it. Thank goodness for tax returns! We also ordered our mattress through a co-worker's son who helped us to get an AMAZING deal on a tempur pedic mattress and pillows. (Thanks Brenda and Kevin!!!) Our bed is going to be heavenly...we can't wait! Now we need a new comforter, sheets, and 2 bed side lamps. I can't wait to have a real night stand with drawers for things and a lamp right next to me for reading! We will probably paint our bedroom this spring/summer to match whatever comforter we find and like.