YEAH... I'm Winning:)

And no.. this is NOT a referral to some dorkus celebrity (although Chad has been extra fun going around "winning... I'm winning..."

I am SO excited that I won a prize on my friend Annalea's blog!!!! 

She was throwing herself a little blog birthday party (doesn't this totally sound like something I would do?) and giving away presents.  I was lucky enough to win one of her hand made crafts.  Check out her blog, she is super fun and crafty, and a great momma... I know there is something on there you will love.  And... if you are jealous of my prize you can buy yourself one for your next birthday on her Etsy shop!

Easter Time

I put out my first Easter decorations today.. woohoo... I am excited to read on all my blogs on how they celebrate and the crafts they make for their homes and for gifts!  One great blog, Kiki Creates is really partying it up for Easter, check her out!

Reverberation Vinyl

As I type this my dear friends John and Heather are on the verge of opening a new business here in Bloomington.  Heather has been one of my most dear friends ever since junior high (proof positive of the "selling speech" I give my students on how the friends they meet in orchestra are the friends they will have for life!)  I guess you can say John just inherited me or I him, either way Heather has been in my life for *cough* at least 20 years... YIKES!  We have literally been through so much together it is crazy... I know everyone has friends like this, but I feel very fortunate to have a friend that has been so loyal for so long....  I am writing this blog post to feature John, who is braver than most people I know.  When his former employer decided to restructure their programs and employees John took a giant leap of faith a decided to be a house husband and figure out his business plan.  John has been "collecting" albums for years and really is quite the music connoisseur... he has now taken this hobby and made it into a business.  He started out online (which he will continue) but after building a little nest egg and having some connections on a location he is opening a real life store front in Bloomington.  Here is the logo for Reverberation Vinyl

So now here is my plea... go for a visit, if you are local, please stop in, John plans to be open TOMORROW, and will be open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The address is 1302 N. Main Bloomington, it is near IWU and Mugsy's if you are a landmark kind of person.  They are planning a big "party" for a grand opening a little later but would love some foot traffic to get things rolling.  The link above is to their facebook page and you can also follow them on Twitter.  If you have collections to sell John might be interested in those too.... Stop in, check it out and spread the word. 
And John if you are reading this, Congrats Man!!!  I can't wait to come see your finished place!!! ~Luv ya

Playroom Complete....

Very excited to say that now the playroom is COMPLETE!  The toys have relocated to the basement and the momma is already feelin' at ease with the amount of space in the front room.  It is a cozy, crazy boy space downstairs and I am VERY happy with it!!!  Thanks to everyone who helped out, especially my brother, Larry.  I definitely owe him dinner for building a wall, hanging a light fixture and adding trim to the basement.



A baby gate and a curtain (thanks Amber) block off the "not used" side of the basement.




See even the grill is happy to be in the basement!

 


Reusing old furniture YEAH!

 

Spring Break....

We are VERY glad to be on spring break, this mama definitely needed a mental break and the daddy in this family needed to spend some quality family time.... Pics from our visit with the Kalley family coming soon!

Show n Tell

There are definitely some perks to having family members in all different occupations!  All year Killian has wanted to take his cousin Dece to school for show n tell.  In the fall we just couldn't make it work with Dece's schedule and Killian was so sad; he took a potato head Dece instead. (It was very cute, I might have even blogged about it, I will have to look for that picture.)  But today was FINALLY the day, he has been SO excited that he was even singing about it last night! 

Here are some pictures from his day.  Thanks Mrs. Kauten for sharing:)

 

Happy Pi Day

To all my geeky friends Happy Pi Day! Hope to find some pie to celebrate with tonight!!!

New School

Here is a slide show of pictures from the community tour at Evans Jr. High School, the newest school in Unit 5.  It is located on Rt. 150 and will have house students in grades 6-8; the entire facility is gorgeous!!!

Baby Skinner's Shower



Cakes by Missy Baker!

 Well, after what seems like months of preparation today was Ruthie's shower.  We had the shower at our church in the garden room, it is such a nice space with great windows and all the right furniture.  It was a bit tight with over 40 people in attendance, but was perfect for this event.
For the shower we had a nice buffet of food to start off the day, here are some pictures for you!




While we ate and after we did a few activities, one was to have guests address thank you card envelopes, another to write advice to Ruthie and Chad (so when they have a bad day they remember why on earth they did this, meaning have a baby!,) and then a game like activity with Easter eggs (baby skinner is due 1 day before Easter.)  The Egg activity was this; come up with questions for the guests to answer about guest of honor, cut them into strips, put them inside plastic eggs (thank you to my Chad for filling the eggs.)  Then put them in a basket, pass basket around and each guest takes an egg, they introduce themselves and then answer the question.  I decided to take a different route with "prizes" and "favors."  Instead of buying prizes for traditional games or giving each guest a favor a donation will be made to the Babyfold a local agency.  Here is the card I put at each guest's seat instead of a favor.

It was a great shower, they received many great gifts, including LOTS of pink... I love pink... that was a really fun part.  Instead of centerpieces and big fancy decorations I kept it homemade and inexpensive.  Each table had a cake (made by my friend Missy Baker) one is pictured at the top of this post and here is another one!

A break is coming...

Well, the past 48 hours have really just been completely crazy.  On Monday night we had Unit Orchestra rehearsal and on Tuesday night we had Unit Orchestra Concert.  This is a concert where we have the combined orchestras play (grades 5-8; it used to be 5-12 but we are TOO LARGE! good problem right?)  With grades 5-8 from multiple schools we still had around 500 students perform a ratio of 100:1 for student:teacher.  I can't complain the fact that we are growing is a great problem, but man am I tired after that!  (Proud comes in a close 2nd:)) 
Tonight will continue with a busy schedule as I am performing tonight at church for our Ash Wednesday service. Wish me luck, it has been awhile since I have done a recital type performance.....

Progress 4

• Carpet/pad installed on stairs, landing and room
• paint touched up (although this may be repeated)
• trim (base and corners) purchased
• baby gate purchased (needed extra wide)
• tension rod for curtain purchased
• curtain and lamps borrowed from Amber

Getting much closer to having a functional playroom in our basement, it is really looking awesome, the carpet is much softer then I anticipated.  Now if I wasn't so busy this week I could finish this project up!

Less than a week...

Less than a week until I host Baby Skinner's shower... the details are all coming together very nicely and I am excited for how it will look in our church's garden room next Saturday, the only thing that would make it better if if the grass were green and the flowers were blooming.  Here is my latest "creation," I wanted to have a cake on every table (a way to avoid purchasing cake AND a centerpiece for each table,) so with that in mind I decided small simple cakes and cake stands were the way to go.  Here is a beautiful crystal cake stand:



Retail $235.00

Although it is really gorgeous, this is NOT the option I went with, instead I went with this, Do It Yourself Priced $2 (plus tax.)  I purchased a plate and bowl at the Dollar Tree ($1 each) and then glued them together and TA DA.... a just as cute, simple, elegant cake stand:)


side view



top view

Help a girl out...

We all know that I am a bit blog obsessed these days (but hey, I have to escape somewhere or I would be a whole heck of a lot crazier.. and that would be BAD!)  Anyway, long story short I found a new blog to follow called Kiki Creates; some fun stuff and LOTS of great links to other fun stuff and other fun blogs.  Get the idea it is lots of FUN!  Well, everyone is happy it is Friday and so she is having a giveaway, and if there is anything I love more than blogs it might be free stuff:)  Check out her giveaway HERE and tell her I sent you then I will get more entries into the drawing, and I REALLY want these I love you because _________ prints for our bedrooms.

Quote

Quote of the Day from Real Simple:
“What a difference it makes to come home to a child!”

― Margaret Fuller

So proud...

Proud momma today, Killian came home with all sorts of cool things.  First he had a certificate for participating in Young Authors.  This is so special to me because participating in that program was one of my most clear memories from elementary school, I loved it.  My mom recently brought in a couple of my entry books from when I was at Hudson, what a cool thing to share with the boys, thank goodness their NyNy is a pack rat:)

The next things he had came from Chess Club; he won these things and he asked me to take this picture so you know that he was excited!!! (and yes, he is in his pjs in this picture, this is  NOT what he wore to school today!)  I will be the first to admit that I was very hesitant when he came home from school talking about joining Chess Club, but then thought, hey I am a teacher, I know that kids who are involved are the good kids, the more a child is at school and involved in school activities the better it is.  So off we went to the chess club meeting where they started explaining it to us, man that was intense!!!  Well that was back in September and now here we are in March, Killian went to Chess every Thursday after school and really liked it and learned a lot, as a kindergartner you learn the basics, naming the pieces, setting up the board, how the pieces can/can't move, the rules, basic game concept and what to say during a game.  (This is the lesson that made me smile the most, he told me it is appropriate to say "Good Job" "Nice Game" "Thank you.")  So now, as a 6 year-old my child knows WAY more about chess than I do.  He only participated in one tournament (which again I am totally fine with because did you know you have to pay to enter EVERY tournament!!!) he said it was about making friends and learning to play, oh and he realized that some of these other kids are like little chess wizards.  In the end, he did win a few games, got a t-shirt, participated in his first school club and if you asked him the best part was that he had pizza today!

Painting done...

Well, its blue..... not that you can tell from this... but still this is your update.  Carpet gets installed tomorrow!!!

Circles

Today I feel like I am totally going in circles, nothing is getting done, getting no where on time, making nobody happy... hmmmm.... insert quote here:
"Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness." Richard Carlson

Progress 3

• Primer Finished
• One wall painted (Valspar - Blue Sail)
• Carpet purchased (thank you state tax return)
• Carpet install scheduled for Friday (funded by IHSA judging gig on Saturday)
• Banner made.....
• mommy, killian and cohen still REALLY excited.....

  Stay tuned... it is still a work in progress:)