The pregnancy is over

Yep, after almost 9 long months and with lots of pain and moaning, our new building was "born" this weekend!  We officially had our first Sunday worship service today and it was so wonderful.

Here's Shawn starting his first sermon in this building!

And here's our crowd this morning.  I think someone said 208 was the final count!

 

 We have had 9 very uncomfortable months but we've all hung on and today was such a reward.  We spent the weekend moving into the new building and getting the classes as set up as possible.  No one complained about the little things today because we were all just so thankful to be in.  We already had our first MASH event at the building.  We threw a 100% free garage sale for the community and gave away tons of stuff Saturday morning all while advertising our upcoming open house that will be in April.

Here's what you can see from the Interstate and this was the garage sale (we're working on signage!)

Tonight we had our first youth devo and it went wonderfully.  Now to see where this new adventure takes us next...I have a feeling that our congregation is about to start growing quickly!  Oh and on the agenda for tomorrow: move the rest of Shawn's home office to his new office! (and reclaim the front room of my house!)

 We played a game called "Maim That Tune" and we all were very successful at it.

 It's so exciting to think of all the other firsts we'll do in this building and how many wonderful memories will be made!

Office Space

Shawn is coming up on 9 straight months of no office space.  Well, that's not entirely true.  He does have a "space" but he shares it with all the other patrons at Starbucks.

 

  He has said that he actually does get quite a bit done and feels productive when working there.  I have no idea how he can concentrate.  I need complete silence and zero distraction when I am studying.  He obviously can work opposite of that.....that is until he transitions to his home office.  That is another story.  He absolutely can't stand working at home.  I don't blame him.  Even when there's only one child at home, it's still loud! 

(I am ready to have this room back and have some plans to maybe spruce it up soon!)

 Anyway, hopefully this is the last week that he'll be without his own personal office.  If all goes according to plan, this time next week he'll be soaking in that new building smell, and enjoying the silence that he's missed for so long!

50 Shades of Green

I wish I could wear an outfit like this every day...green from head to (almost) toe.  (my socks have four leaf clovers on them though!)  I love that there is an excuse for me to wear lots of green today and see so many others wearing my favorite color too!   I counted in my closet and I have 22 green shirts, 3 green dresses, 2 green skirts, and 3 green scarves...and yet I don't own a pair of green shoes (I have a mintish green pair but I don't count those.)  Guess I need to start saving and add that to the collection.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring Break: Saturday

I was up bright an early today to have a garage sale, in hopes of making enough money to get new pots and a skillet as well as hopefully get the girls new bikes.  I opened at 7:30 and didn't have a customer till almost 8!  But once they started, it was very steady for a long time.  I tried a new approach this time with no prices on anything and IT WORKED!  I was able to bargain better with people and make more money! 

Yeah for making back some of what we spent to start with!!!

So this is where I keep all my pots and skillets....it's bare except for the big pots which weren't totally messed up so they were saved :)

Our last CWACOMB dinner was tonight and I'm thankful it was simple...lots and lot of pancakes and a syrup avalanche with bacon and OJ. 

After dinner we headed to Target and Walmart to look for cookware and bikes....no luck tonight, but I have until Monday around 4pm to find pots and a skillet so I have some serious hunting to do before then!  We will check out Academy for bikes on the next free evening we have! 

 

Until today, Spring Break was really going smoothly and enjoyably....I don't know if cabin fever struck or what but today has been trying to put it nicely and I am thankful that it's bedtime and even more thankful that we go back to our regularly schedule program on Monday!

Spring Break: Friday

Shawn and I awoke to a silent house...okay this is pretty common for Shawn since he gets up so early, but for Spring Break at least, I've been woken up pretty much every day to kids making noise.  It was a nice change and Paul and Carolyn took on all that noise!  One of the many fun things they did with the kids while here was take them to Cherry Berry. 

 

While they had the kids today, Shawn and I managed to get Starbucks, eat out for breakfast, eat out for lunch, try a new candy shop in town and go to a few garage sales.  I define success at a garage sale from the picture below; seven new hair bows, scrapbook letters and glue dots, two Easter figurines and a pair of fun suspenders (to add to my awesome costume collection) all for $3. 

Speaking of garage sales, we are having one tomorrow!  It was very nice to be able to work uninterrupted to organize the garage with the massive amount of things we plan to sell.  I really need a new large skillet and two pots so hopefully we'll be able to buy those things with what I make.  We hope to be able to get the girls new bikes with some of the money also.  We shall see how ready people are for garage sale season, starting at 7am!  (Why am I using my last spring break day to get up early?!....I must really need some pots and pans!!!)

This afternoon we headed to our friend Craig's house to have a fire and shoot some guns.  The weather isn't really suppose to be good tomorrow evening so we decided to do this tonight. 

This is Shawn getting onto teaching the girls gun safety and one of them isn't taking it very seriously.

Following the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book, we had hotdogs with mustard, baked beans and a drizzling of soda pop.  :)

Man needs beans, chili, fire....and marshmallows.

Teaching Levi to shoot the gun...I think this was his first time. 

He hit the target!!!  He wanted to inspect it closer.

Daddy was teaching Levi fire safety and how to extinguish a fire.  Levi loves to be a big helper.

When we got them home tonight, I think they were pretty exhausted.....no one complained about bedtime and there isn't a single noise coming from the girl's room as I write this.

Spring Break: Thursday

Thursday morning at the library they were having a Lego Build so Shawn took Levi to that.  He said they spent about a total of 17 minutes there.  I'm thinking Levi and Legos aren't quite a match just yet....maybe in a few years.

I took the girls to a consignment sale, hoping to find them a few spring/summer things.  I can't really buy things for them anymore unless they are with me....well Ava likes just about everything I bring home and Elle doesn't like most of what I bring home unless it's mint colored.  She's a bit obsessed with that color.  Unfortunately the only things they wanted where huge toys that they'd play with for about 12 minutes before it went into our garage sale pile.

After we got home, the kids and I made something called GORP.  I'd never heard of it before but since the week of spring break is always the week the Girl Scouts celebrate Juliette Low's birthday, they give the girls a list of things to do each day in honor of Girl Scout ideals and they get a patch at the end of it.  One of the days talked about researching what GORP was and then making some and sharing it with others.  GORP stands for Good Ol' Raisins and Peanuts a.k.a. trail mix!  The girls and I went to HEB and picked out a few yummy things to add to what we already had at home and came up with a delicious trail mix!

We also went out yesterday and bought the first pieces of a fairy garden that we are going to start.  I just thought it would be something fun, creative and neat that the three of us can work on together and add to, one piece at a time.  We had a lot of fun looking at all the stuff at Hobby Lobby and Michael's and thinking of how we could make those pieces at home.  I'm excited to begin to see it shape up as we get further into spring.  The girls, who already love to do this kind of thing, are thrilled that we are starting one!

Around 4, Paul and Carolyn arrived in town and immediately took the kids for a night in a hotel!  We were so excited to have a date with no feelings of needing to rush back home so the babysitter could leave.  We decided to brave Austin during the SXSW week and eat at Shady Grove.  It's been in Austin for a long time and the atmosphere was great, the waiter was great, the food was mediocre.  Oh well, we still got to sit and talk uninterrupted for at least 45 minutes which is longer than we've had, all of 2014.

Then Shawn took me to the coolest (and highest) point in Austin, called Mount Bonnell.  It was just sort of tucked into a neighborhood.  It was so pretty and cool!

We saw a first....A group of 5 airplanes were making a large circle in the sky and making numbers with their airplane streams (?)...we finally figured out they were making the number for pi...and then figured out that either yesterday or today was pi day????  Don't really know what all that is, but google could figure it out for me if I cared enough.  It was cool to watch though.

Such a neat and beautiful place!

We ended the night somewhere that I just can't resist when I'm in Austin....Gordough's.  We ordered our favorite; the Funky Monkey and it didn't disappoint!

Spring Break: Wednesday

Today started where I left off with the kids last night.  They made cookies last night that we delivered to our neighborhood fire station today.  I have to say, it took me longer to clean up all the mess from them making the cookies, than it actually took for the cookies to cook.  Anyway, we stopped by there this morning and gave them a plate of yummy blue raspberry flavored cookies.  I had tried to coach the girls and especially Elle on a few things she could say when we got there.....she went mute when the firemen came out.  All three kids were the quietest I've ever seen.  Maybe I should take them there more often.

After doing some fun shopping, including looking for stuff for a future fairy garden the girls and I are going to start, I took them to our local art center to see an exhibit entitled Tomfoolery.  It looked funny and I figured that the kids would get a kick out of irreverent art.  The studio wasn't nearly as big as I had hoped, but it was a new experience for them so that's all that mattered.  Here's one of our favorite pieces. 

 

The curator warned me upon entering that behind this wall was one partial nude painting.  I checked it out and just decided not to make a big deal about it and try to kind of steer clear of it.  Unfortunately Levi spotted it before we left and was pretty excited to see boobies.  I just acted real nonchalant and then moved him right along.  In the car, I asked each of the kids which painting was their favorite and can you guess which one Levi said?  Yep, the boobies one.

During Levi's nap, I took the girls to an Alice in Wonderful themed tea party at the public library.  I knew it was going to be a stretch to get them there since it sounded way too fru-fru in their mind and too babyish too.  I sold them by saying they didn't have to dress up at all and they would get sweets.  They agreed to go.  This picture was a set up they had and I thought it was so cute...wish I could take it home and use it as a photo backdrop!

The entertainment was a couple that did silent comedy.  The girls actually really liked it a lot and when everything was said and done they didn't have one negative comment about the whole event!  That is serious success!

I thought the backdrop was so pretty I just had to take a photo of it all by itself!

 

Continuing on with the Cloudy W.A.C.O.M.B. theme, we had Tacodile Supreme for dinner but I didn't take a picture because really it was just beef tacos with a fun name :)  For dessert; gummie bears.

Spring Break: Tuesday

About the time I arrived at Bunco, Monday night at 6:30 I noticed that my ear, which I hadn't really been able to hear out of for about a week or so, was now beginning to hurt with occasional sharp pains.  The pain continued and ended up making my whole right side of my face hurt.  When I got home around 9:30 is was getting really bad.  I tried to take two Ibuprofen and go to sleep.  Looking back, I think lying down made it feel MUCH worse.  I was contemplating going to the ER because the pain was getting so severe....but alas, my cheapness wouldn't allow it.  I truly kept thinking to myself, "Well, at some point I will pass out so maybe then I'll get some relief."  Either way, I went downstairs and got on the couch and just stayed sitting up and praying for it to get better.  It continued feeling worse and worse and I could feel the pressure building in my ear.  It felt like someone was blowing a balloon up more and more and more.  Finally around midnight all the sudden it seems to start to subside.  I heard a lot of crackling and weird noises and then I pretty much konked out and prayed that it wouldn't start back up.  As soon as I woke up this morning, I headed to a clinic that opened at 8 am. I guess I really wasn't faking because the doctor said I had a perforated ear drum and an ear infection.  He prescribed me drugs including Hydrocodone!  I didn't have that one filled, since the pain was much less but it must be bad if they prescribe that.  Anyway, it might be weeks before it's healed up so I'm taking advantage of the ear not working too well and telling the kids I can't hear them when they are complaining or asking questions that they won't like the answer to. 

After coming home from that, we headed out to do some hiking and picnicing on a trail we've never been on.  We did two miles and it was just enough.

This picture represents us well though you can't really tell.  Elle is freaking out about the possibility of a bug or a stick touching her.  Ava is goofing off and having a great time.  Levi is crying because I asked him to sit down.

It all turned out fine for Levi...he had chocolate covered cuties, a rice krispie treat and a cookie all at once to hold onto.

Ava was such a helper with Levi and was willing to hold his hand or carry him on her back when he got tired.

To continue the CWACOM dinner theme, tonight we had spaghetti twister, tomato tornado and a gigantic meatball followed by scoops of rainbow sherbert for dessert. 

Spring Break: Monday

Monday started with going from 3 kids to 5 kids!  It really was wonderful because the girls' new friends are pretty much what I feel is mirror images of each of them!  Same ages, same interests and not a single fight or tear shed and that is saying a lot for girls!

Then we headed to the library for a Skippy John Jones puppet show with crafts and snacks.  We saw some of our favorite people there.  Levi and Uriah had front row seats. We had to try to keep them from wrestling while they waited for the puppet show to start.

Here's the kid's librarian narrating the show.  She does such a great job with the kids and Levi really likes her because she gets them to do a yoga move after story time every week and they become a rock and he likes becoming a rock.

Then it was back home for some tree climbing in the neighborhood.

During Levi's nap, all the girls found quiet things to do.  Elle and her friend spent a LOT of time tracing these figures.

Before Spring Break, I went to check out some books for the kids from the library and came across this book...which then got me to thinking I should do a week of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball dinners (not really following this recipe book though).

So for Monday night, I built it up and told the kids I had something really special having to do with the movie, for dinner.  I got their plates out and set them on the table and then started dishing out sardines! 

I got sardines on two plates before the rest of the kids grabbed their plate and started freaking out about how smelly it was and how nasty it looked!  It was like a nice little pre-April Fools warm up for me.  Quite enjoyable if I do say so myself.

I did redeem myself by letting them make DIY pizzas for dinner, which no one complained about and strangely no one wanted to add sardines to.  

After getting them all riled up, I headed off to Bunco and started a long night of extreme pain....to be continued on Tuesday.