sewing projects

Back in the fall someone gave me a sewing machine. We were so busy during the school year that I never got a chance to learn how to use it.
So, my project for the summer? Learning to sew.



This morning I went to Joann Fabrics and searched and scoured their stuff for something I thought was reasonable for someone with ZERO experience to do. I finally decided on a purse. I picked out the materials and brought everything home.



I'm hopeful that this will work out, and will be a fun, not stressful, project.

I took a picture of the fabric.


The first two pictures our crazy cat was checking it out.

"Mama, what's this, is it new? Can I eat it?"

For the record, he did try to munch on the handles... crazy kitty!!!

Finally, a good picture!!!!

Let's hope it turns out like the blue bag on the pattern.. :)

flowers and cold

So... summer came, and it went...

The greenhouse man was wrong.. they predicted frost for last night, and it did indeed frost... it got down to 30 degrees last night...

I had to cover our flowers up with sheets...

I hope they survived the cold... they looked pretty funny if nothing else! :)

memorial day weekend

We had a lovely weekend. We went to Mike's parents for the weekend. We had a fun-filled, busy weekend. On Saturday we dug a firepit at their house, helped his mom clean the church, took flowers to the cemetary, went canoeing on the lake and explored the island on the lake. Saturday night we had a cookout and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows for dinner. Sunday we went to church, and just a had a relaxing time before heading home on Sunday evening. While we were there we picked up our picnic table. The picnic table was Mike's grandparents, and we had asked for it as one of the things we wanted after they passed away. So, we toted that home, and took it to my sisters house for a BBQ on Monday.

Yesterday we had a memorial day BBQ at April and Brian's house. We went over, and had a marvelous time. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, fruit salad, corn on the cob, and a frozen strawberry dessert. It was delicious! After lunch we played Bocce Ball, and 4 square. It was a beautiful day, and my shoulders and arms are a touch pink today because of it! Later in the afternoon we took the dogs to the lake so they could swim. April and Brian were dog sitting, their friends dog, Leeland. Lee had never swam before so that was entertaining. At first he would go as far as he could touching, and then just stand there. For a while, he watched Bella, and he started kind of lifting and moving his paws like Bell, and next thing we knew he was a champion swimmer! If only it was that easy for everyone! :) We went back home, ordered pizza, and just hung out for a while... it was a great day!

And today is my first official day of SUMMER BREAK! :)

YAHOO!

flowers planted

The flowers are planted! :)

We waited dutifully until after the full moon. I wanted to plant them earlier this week, but I have been still fighting this crazy food poisoning. Yesterday, I finally felt up to it.

Mike had also gotten home early from work yesterday, and I had cancelled some lessons because we were going to hook up with some friends that were coming through town, so.... we spent the afternoon and planted..
hooray hooray for flowers! :)

recitals and sickness

Friday night was my kids recital. They did an AMAZING JOB! I am so incredibly proud of all of them. We counted during the recital and had 145 people in attendance! Not too shabby! :) Only 1 MAJOR flub-up, but life goes on, and hopefully a life lesson was learned! :)

Have I mentioned I love my job? I love watching kids learn something they'e never learned, and feel confident enough to play in front of a crowd of people. Sometimes during the recital, I sit there and think.. wow.... I can't believe they are playing that piece! For all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over practicing, it is worth those moments, when I see the smiles on their faces, and the pride in their eyes, that they accomplished something SO big for them.

It is an INCREDIBLE pleasure to teach my kids, and I'm so thankful for each of them. They all teach me something every day, whether it's a little more patience, how to love a little more, or how to forget the "plans" and just let them talk if that's what they need... It is a rewarding job, and I am incredibly blessed to have it.



So after the recital, Mike and I went home. We crashed, ordered a pizza, and enjoyed our evening.. then....
I woke up in the night not feeling well. Yucky, crampy, stomach hurt really bad. I hardly slept at all.

Saturday morning I woke up and immediately threw up. Then, I felt better. April and I were planning on going shopping, but she was getting her haircut first. So the plan was to leave our house at 7:30, get her haircut in Mason at 8, breakfast, then the Okemos Mall. Well, I felt better, so off we went. However, on the way, I started feeling not so hot again. Just before we got to Mason I told April, I can't do this. So, I called Mike, and he was going to come get me, while April got her haircut. I was sitting in the car in the parking lot, trying to maintain some composure. I again threw up, this time in the bushes. Mike got there, and he drove me home, where I promptly put my PJ's back on and climbed in bed. I slept most of the day yesterday. Basically getting up to use the bathroom. I drank Pedialyte and had 1 piece of dry toast and 2 small bowls of chicken broth... Mike and I were supposed to have a "date night" Complete with Red Lobster and a movie.. Instead Mike went and rented a movie, and we sat in bed, watching a movie and eating Chicken Broth.. not quite the "Date" we'd imagined! :)

Thankfully I slept through the night, and this morning, although not 100%, I'm definitely feeling better. No more "yuckies" at least.

I decided to stay home from church just to relax and hopefully kick whatever this is. I do think that maybe it was food poisoning, because Mike wasn't feeling great either.

Such is being sick I suppose... hopefully I'm now on the up and up...

flowers and a full moon

The story of getting my flowers.

I went to go get pick out our flowers this morning. I looked online it said after May 15th. I talked to my Grandpa who is a resident flower expert and been planting for over 50 years. I talked to my mom who learned from Grandpa all who said.. No problem!!

I went to the greenhouse to get my flowers. It's a small family run greenhouse that we've known for years. Their whole family came to our wedding etc. Well, I started asking about the flowers, and then he stopped and said ... "you're not planning on planting them right now are you?" I said.. um.. yes... then he said.. haven't you been watching the weather? there is going to be a full moon on Monday Night. I said.. um I watch the weather, but I didn't know I had to be aware of the moon!! So he proceeded to tell me that more than likely we will get 1 more frost, which if it happens, will be the night of the full moon..

So he told me I could buy my flowers, but must PROMISE to not plant them until after Monday... I do however LOVE the color and will enjoy them sitting on our porch!!

So here are some pictures of my flowers.. awaiting their planting...

flowers

It's a beautiful sunshiney day!

I'm going outside to dig up our flower beds for flowers to be planted soon...

hooray for warmth and sun! :)

Mackinaw Trip

Just some highlights from our trip.

We left thursday and got to Mackinaw around 4. We went to check into our room and the room we had booked had something wrong with the jacuzzi, so we had to stay in a different room for 1 night. It was still nice, but not AS nice as the one we eventually got. We walked around town thursday night, but there wasn't much to see. We scoped out where our ferry was that we had got tickets for and discovered it was quite a ways from the hotel, which, the reason we had purchased those tickets was because we thought it was the closest.. :)

Friday morning we ventured to the island with about 100 school kids on our ferry! :) it was a bit chilly on the boat ride, but it was fun. We walked around town for a little while, and low and behold there stood one of my piano students moms. She was up with her other kid on a field trip! We went on a carriage ride, which toured downtown and then took you up into the island further. The ride was really fun, and we got to learn a lot about the island and some of the history. Like for example, they had to petition to have snowmobiles on the island because no motorized transportation is allowed there. Well they talked them into because it's not actually touching the island! How funny is that? In the spring, BEFORE the snow melts, they all have to put their snowmobiles up on planks so they never touch the ground. We went to a butterfly house, then up to Arch Rock which is just beautiful, then on to Fort Mackinac. We spent quite a while there, and then half rode\half walked back downtown. We stopped at the grand hotel and took pictures. That's about as close as we were going to get. If you wanted to get onto the porch, it was going to cost you $15 a person! Once we were back downtown we went in and out of the stores for a while, walked out of downtown and rested on a little beach for a while, then eventually headed home.
Saturday we slept in, then decided to head to the U.P. We went over to see what there "was to see" in St. Ignace, unfortunately, there is pretty much nothing. We walked in and out of a few stores then came back. We went to colonial michilimackinac which is was a fur-trade post back in the 1800's. Afterwards, we went back to our room for a while and just relaxed, then went out for the evening. We went to a nice dinner at this italian resturant, went miniature golfing, got ice cream, then went and looked at the bridge at night.
We left early Sunday morning to come home...

Overall we had a great time! I couldn't figure out how to post the pictures and the text into the same message, so you'll have to make sure you scroll down to see the pictures.

Mackinaw Trip Pictures

May 10th

On October 31st our lives changed forever. Before that moment, neither of us ever knew what it meant to have loved and lost, but in those moments, in those words, our lives were changed.

I remember when the doctor said “The news isn’t good.” I don’t remember much beyond those words. I sat in silence, tears streaming down my face. I remember him telling us what our options were. We could wait until my body forces the miscarriage, or we could have surgery. I remember stifling out the words; I just want it to be over. We were scheduled for surgery 2 days later.

The surgery was uneventful, as far as surgeries go I suppose. We were in and out within 8 hours, if only the pain went away that quickly as well. We spent that weekend in tears, not understanding what we were feeling or what we should do. But, Monday came and our lives continued. We picked up the pieces of our broken hearts and tried to move on with lives.

I worked very hard to keep busy. I hated sitting at home. I longed to feel normal, and I think for a while, I needed that. I needed to feel “ok.” In fact, the day we found out about our loss, we participated in trunk or treat at our church. I have found in the past couple of months that I needed more time to heal. As a society, miscarriage is not something that is spoken of. It is brushed aside as just something that happens. I can assure you when the doctor tells you your baby is dead, it is not “something that happens”, rather it is a life-altering experience; an experience that we are still walking in, and growing from.

We also decided we both wanted something to remember the baby by. I rather quickly, decided I wanted a necklace with our precious baby’s birthstone in it. We looked for about 3 weeks and finally bought one, and I don’t go a day without wearing it. Mike will eventually get a ring to wear, but we have been searching for the perfect one. How do you define a piece of jewelry as something to remember our baby by?

Christmas came and went. It was, I suppose, uneventful. Christmas had originally meant finding out what we were having and sharing that joy at Christmas, but instead it meant nothing more than what Christmas had meant every year prior.
Christmas Eve was hard, because neither of us ever really thought about how the service would be filled with songs of a little baby coming to earth. And our baby, the one we wanted so much, wasn’t here.

While time has lessened the pain, there are still days where it resurfaces and we both deal with it on a very deep level. As a woman, I feel as though my body betrayed me in the very act that it was designed to do. As a couple, pregnancy has forever been altered for us. I dare say that we will never be excited to see those “2 lines” again. For us, it brings doubt, fear, and sadness.

As our due date looms before us this weekend, I can’t help but feel many emotions. I feel anxious in knowing that I would be so incredibly close to holding our baby, if not already holding them. I feel peaceful knowing that this IS and WAS God’s will for us. We said from the beginning we were trusting that God has a plan far bigger than we know. Some days, it’s harder to trust in that, but we know that God works things together for HIS good, not our own. I feel hopeful knowing that we have a future together; that we are stronger together than we apart, and that our marriage has grown because of our miscarriage.

Part of our healing process is going away this weekend. This Saturday, May 10th, was our due date. We have decided to go away for the weekend to spend time together, to remember our baby, and continue to heal as a couple.

We will continue to move forward and claim the promises of Hebrews 11:1“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

lost luggage

Over the weekend I went to Chicago with one of the choirs I play for. We left early friday morning. Well, when we got to Chicago friday morning it was pouring. I asked our bus driver if I could get out my umbrella which was in my bag in the cargo hold. I got it out and tried to shut the hold, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it. I was going to ask the driver about it but he was talking to our tour director. I figured he'd get it, and left. That was the mistake. He totally forgot about it.

We went shopping for about 3 hours and when we got back he pulled me aside to ask me about my bag. He wanted to know if I put it back under the bus which I had. Well, he never latched it and he was driving downtown and apparantly some motorist flagged him down to tell him it was open. We searched for my bag, it was gone. He re-drove the route, but no bag. So we got back from shopping and I found out all I had literally were the clothes I was wearing The tour director (Trudy) said well I need you to make a detailed list of everything in your bag, and I was just staring at her thinking.. EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS IN MY BAG! I was wearing jeans, flipflops, a cotton 3\4 length shirt, I had my spring jacket an umbrella, and a zip up sweatshirty thing in my bag on the bus.. THAT WAS IT! She asked about the number I had on my identification tag. I had our home number written on this tag. Then I got a lecture about how it should be my cell number. I only had the tag b'c they passed them out that morning, and I kind of haphazardly filled it out, thinking, why do I need this, we're going on a bus for crying out loud! THANK HEAVENS I did.

The tour company was virtually unhelpful. Trudy said I could go shopping in Chicago for some new clothes... um... yeah, okay! I'm in downtown chicago do you have a target around, oh wait no, all you have are these crazy high end stores. Rox (the director) said well what is she supposed to do, and that was when the lady said well you'll have to wash out your underwear in the sink... ah... thank you for those kind words of wisdom, everything is better now..... so anyway, them being totally unhelpful, I called my mom and asked her to run to our house to check our answering machine, and God bless the woman who found it.. had called.

I called her and said that the tour company would be contacting her to get my bag back and passed along the information. Not before however the tour lady told me I could just catch a cab to go pick up the bag, and I said.. no, this isn't my problem, I'm not the one who lost my luggage... so turns out that a guy who worked at the hotel where we were staying wife worked with the woman who found the bag, so she passed it off to this lady who then brought it to the hotel when she picked up her husband at 11:15 at night I might add... but I was never so happy to see my pajamas in my entire life!

And that is the story of the lost bag on a bus!

It's May

It's May.... and I'm missing our baby.