Arbor Day

Do Arbor Day and Earth Day always fall in the same week? A lot of talk this week of going green and planting trees. We got awesome coupons from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, so last night we got two red maples from Home Depot - one Autumn Blaze and one October Glory. We've been trying to get some trees growing along our side yard for almost two years. Just after Boo was born we planted four maples. How nice, I thought, the trees and Boo can grow together. But by the time spring came around, all four trees were dead. But three new saplings sprang up over the summer in place of our dead trees. These will be hardy little trees, we thought. And they were - they survived this last winter and were budding this month. But then there was an incident with mowing the lawn in the dark that took out two of the saplings. *Sigh*

So today was a great day for yard work. Despite a lot of wind and cooler temps, I mowed the lawn (in the daylight) and we planted our new trees. Boo was a lot of help.

She swept the sidewalk for us.

And patted the dirt around the trees.

All with her bag Chex and her book in tow.

It's so nice outside

We spend most of our days outside. We draw with sidewalk chalk, we go to the park, we visit the neighbors, we point excitedly at dogs. Spring is a great life. The hat is Boo's own touch.

Children's Museum

Another great visit to the Children's Museum.

House Plants

I want to get some house plants, but I have never had them before. Does anyone have any recommendations for me? I'm thinking small plants that can go on high shelves, unreachable by toddlers.

Em and Big Red

My youngest sister, Emily, is just finishing her first semester at college. The last semester has been great - we have talked on the phone more than we ever have in our lives. She has a cell phone now and a lot of down time while walking home from class, so she gives me a call and we chat while she walks. We are 12 years apart, and I left for college when she was six years old. I always spent my summers away from home working or taking a summer course, and then I moved across the country. So we haven't spent a significant amount of time together for a very long time. But now we talk all the time, and she is coming to spend May with me. It's like finding a new friend.

The other day, Em and I were talking and she mentioned that she is driving my old college car for a few weeks. This is an amazing car. When I started my junior year of college, I bought a little red four door 1988 Mercury Tracer. It was a cute little thing, I called it Big Red, and it was already 10 years old. Four years later, I got a job and a commuter car, and Becca took over the care of Big Red. Now Emily is driving it for a few weeks until it is sold. Big Red has not been without his quirks and issues (including a time when I could not get in or out of the driver's side door), but I am quite impressed that the little thing lasted from my college days to Em's.

Swan Lake on toe steroids

If you've not seen this video yet, you've gotta see this. The frogs at the beginning are cute, but wait til you get to the man and woman. Besides being made of flexi-bone, you would not believe the places this woman goes on point and then turns on point. Thanks to Anne for sending me this link!

We'reveryverybusyandwe'vegotalottodoandwehaven'tgotaminuteto

If you haven't heard it before, check out "Philadelphia Chickens" by Sandra Boynton. Listen to track 13, "Busybusybusy". That has been our theme song for the last two weeks, and why I have neglected my blogging. For about 4 reasons:

1. Snot - Boo has had a cold and I have had allergies, so we have seen an obscene amount of snot around here. I feel like I spend most of my day wiping someone's nose, or wiping gunk out of Boo's hair. Ugh.

2. Sheets - I have been buying fabric and making Pack N Play sheets like crazy to have a new batch to take over to Growing Spurts. I was not expecting her to sell the first batch so quickly, so I had to get busy. I know I've said it here before, but I love fabric.

3. Singing - I got a new job at church! Now I do singing time with the kids. My first week was last Sunday. I think it will be fun, but I have never done it before so I am spending a lot of prep time making visuals for the new songs I'm teaching and learning the songs myself. They are learning a really pretty song called "If The Savior Stood Beside Me". If you haven't heard it, you should take a listen. Click on the MP3 icon under Words and Music.

4. SPRING! - My favorite reason for being busy. We have had gorgeous weather this week and part of last week. We have been to the zoo twice, where the daffodils are in full bloom. We walked to the library and the neighborhood park today - I wish I could have bottled up the neighborhood to post - it smelled so good, was warm with a little breeze, and beautiful popcorn trees in everyone's yard.

We spent three hours at the park yesterday - it was so nice! Boo could slide all day. She had one incident - she was walking towards the steps to the slide and a little girl ran up behind her and shoved Boo right into the dirt. Poor kid had dirt in her mouth, scraped up nose and cheek, and wasn't sure what had just happened. But mostly it was fun. Here are a few pictures.

Shakin' goin' on

J and I woke up at 5:40 this morning to a creaking, shaking house. An earthquake in Indiana? It lasted about 20 seconds, and didn't wake up Boo (thank you). It was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, centered just west of the Indiana-Illinois border. It was the biggest earthquake in the midwest in over 40 years. It was felt in Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, St. Louis and Cincinnatti. We didn't have any damage, nothing even fell off the walls. But as you can imagine, it was quite the news event. No Today Show today, just continuous coverage of THE EARTHQUAKE. I'm hearing just now that there was an aftershock while Boo and I were at the park this morning, but we didn't feel that one.

Good news and bad news

Good news first. I sold six of my Pack 'N Play sheets at Growing Spurts. :)

Now the bad news. Michael Johns was kicked off of American Idol. :( What, what what???

Cold Eeze

My mom talked me into trying these Cold Eeze lozenges when I've felt like I was getting a cold. The manufacturers claim that taking these lozenges will decrease the length of your cold.

I was skeptical. But now I am a believer. I have sucked on these (one every two hours) as soon as I have felt a cold coming on, four times now. The first two times, I felt better the next day, the second two times I felt better after the second day.

Just note, I am talking about the lozenges. There is some question as to whether the nasal spray causes you to lose your sense of smell, so I don't recommend trying that. I like the lemon lime flavored ones, but don't care for the honey-lemon or cherry flavored. I buy them from CVS, but I have seen them at Wal-Mart as well.

Becoming Jane

I saw "Becoming Jane" last week at Elizabeth's. It wasn't a movie that was on my radar, and I'm not a huge fan of Anne Hathaway, so I went in with little expectation. I didn't like it for the first, hmm, probably 30 minutes or so. I think if I had been watching it alone I may have turned it off and never finished it. But then the movie really turned around for me, and by the end I found myself loving it. And I thought about it for several days. It wasn't an especially profound movie, but I guess it was so emotionally moving that it affected me for a few days afterwards. Once again I find myself thinking I really ought to read a Jane Austen novel. BTW, I really liked the male lead, James McAvoy, who was also in Band of Brothers.

I would recommend this movie...if you're in the mood for something heart-wrenching. Otherwise, watch Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre - it's full of drama, but the ending is so happy.

Rees

Ashley (over at The Comeau Clan) was here visiting this weekend with Rees. We missed Benjy, who had to stay home to work, but it was great to see Ashley and Rees. It was the first time we have seen Rees, and we had so much fun. Boo was pretty tolerant of me holding another baby, and after she got used to him, was very sweet...

she lavished him with kisses....

...hugged him tight...

...and pointed out his nose, and thankfully didn't poke out his eyes.
Did I mention that Rees was very tolerant of Boo?

Here are three of the cousins. Vincent is missing, he's not into having his picture taken. I love the identical looks of Boo and Gabe. And Boo took possession of poor Rees' blanket.

I Have A Dream...

Friday was the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. He was in Memphis to try to help settle a sanitation workers strike.

Bobby Kennedy was campaigning here in Indianapolis when Dr. King was shot. There was rioting in many other cities in the US, and Kennedy's speech that night is attributed for keeping the peace here. A bit of trivia - in the Kenny G Millennium mix, there is a quote from Bobby Kennedy: "I have very sad news for all of you tonight, Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis." That bit is from the speech he gave in Indianapolis that night.


When I was in Atlanta I visited the King Center. If you are ever in Atlanta, I would absolutely recommend that you take a couple of hours to visit. The exhibits and videos are breathtaking.

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

And if you go down the street from the King Center, you can visit the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Dr. King's brother was co-pastor there, and Dr. King spoke there several times. During visiting hours, you can sit in the pews and listen to recorded parts of Dr. King's famous speeches. It's very moving.

"Freedom has always been an expensive thing. History is fit testimony to the fact that freedom is rarely gained without sacrifice and self-denial." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baby Tyler

Congratulations to my sister, Becca, and her husband, the proud new parents of baby Tyler. He was 6 lbs., 3 oz., 20 inches. He's a cute little buddy, isn't he?

Dressing

Boo is now dressing herself. At least her bottom half. She digs pants and skirts out of the laundry (dirty and clean) to try and wiggle her way into them. She's getting pretty good. And when she can't get her hands on any pants, she finds her hair bands, sticks her little legs through the holds and pulls the band up around her waist. Ta da! She is very proud. Once she found a tank top and got it pulled up around her waist and waddled around like a penguin for a few minutes. Got a picture of that one.

Going somewhere in a handbasket

C clamps, anyone?

So I plan the Enrichment activities for church, and last week I did a dry packing activity at my house. I have never dry packed food in my entire life, but it seemed like this was a good time to start.

Unfortunately, the borrowed dry pack machine is supposed to be clamped onto the table with C clamps, of which I have none. It was a heavy machine, so I figured it would stay on the table by itself...but not so much. Lucky for me, all the women who came to the activity were good sports, because two of us had to hold the machine on the table while one person sealed the cans. It's comical now, but I at the time I was embarrassed. Oh well, I'll know better next time.

Long time, no blog

It's been a busy 2 weeks since Easter. I can't believe I have neglected my blog for so long. The good news is...there is a lot to post.

Last week I took some of my Pack N Play sheets into a local children's store (Growing Spurts) and the owner agreed to sell them in her store. I've been selling them on ebay for a year, but I'm getting tired of shipping them. I'll still sell a few on ebay every now and then, and I've considered an etsy store, but....I'm still considering it. I should have taken a picture of them once they were all packaged. I was very pleased with the way they turned out. Since I don't have a picture of the finished, packaged product, here is a picture of my favorite fabric.
If you live in the area, you should check out Growing Spurts. It has a lot of used children's clothing and some used toys, Pack 'N Plays, strollers, swings, etc. I have found cute pants and skirts for Boo there. They also sell new Melissa and Doug puzzles for cheaper than even Wal-Mart.

I was on deck for jury duty this week. I had to call each evening to see if my group was needed, so I tried to keep the week free of scheduling. I ended up never being called, so Boo and I ended up with a lot of free time at home. So out came my unfinished project box. Ok, in all honesty, I have an entire closet full of unfinished projects. (I think that this character trait of mine may eventually drive J to drink hard liquor). But this box contains the ones that are nearly finished. And I finished three projects. I think I deserve a victory lap for that. ;)