Update

So, this is what my craft room looks like right this minute. What a relief. I'm feeling inspired to create!! =) And because I needed to do something a little more creative than cleaning I did two things. The first is barely noticeable but I enjoyed it. I was looking for a ribbon for the cow toy the girls are giving Jennie. (You can see it on top of the wire basket stacker next to my tall dresser) I pictured a big pink or red ribbon/bow. The only big ribbon I had was a light blue. I know that little girls can have blue things but I just wanted a pink or red. So remembering what I've read somewhere in blog land, I took my blue ribbon and a packet of black cherry kool aid and some boiling water and voila, I have a beautiful red ribbon.


This is my next creative endeavour. And it went over quite nicely thank you very much. =)

And this is what the garage looks like at the moment. I'm sure you noticed that the craft room doesn't really look ready to be a guest room. Well, that's because after talking a little to Mom and doing some measuring in the craft room I have decided to use my woman's prerogative to change her mind and switch back to my original plan of using the garage as a guest room. =) It is looking better you just can't tell from photos. Josh's table has been moved and a dresser put in its place. The shelves are being cleared and moved. The stack of boxes in the corner is waiting for someone tall to take them out to the shed. And there's a few posters and Chinese lantern-y things waiting to be put up.

Most exciting of all is that Mom and Dad will be here this time next week!! YAY!!!

to my little brother

Happy Birthday to you,
You live in a Zoo,
Because you're my brother,
I can say that to you!!!

Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

p.s.

I forgot to say that Beka opened the pantry door yesterday to get a snack and started screaming RAT!! RAT!! Yeah, we have a mouse in the pantry. Better get out those traps.
Also, we got to have morning tea/lunch with Jennie and Roseanne and her boys. Very nice to get out and have a chat with friends.
And we had some friends share their "little bump" news on Sunday!! Yay, I love babies.

I got the laundry all folded while watching The Farmer Wants a Wife and Criminal Minds. YAY!! I also spent most of the day yesterday finishing a project I started 5-6 months ago. We sing out of the "yellow book" on Sunday nights at church. It is basically a collection of choruses that we've typed out the words. It has a yellow cover hence the name. Anyway, Steve and Jennie wanted some new songs added to it. No one had the disk with the original songs on it so I started from scratch. Plus I wanted to put it in Publisher because I like Publisher better (2003 not 2007. I hate 2007. And yes, everyone I know thinks Word is better so please don't tell me that. I don't like Word.) With Publisher I knew I could type the songs in the order I wanted them and the computer and printer could figure out how to print them in the correct order. (Yes, I've heard Word does that too but I don't like Word!!) Anyway, I got through the original 255 songs and added about 30 more then hit a song that I wasn't sure how to type out. "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" awesome song but that chorus is kinda tricky to type without the music. And no one here knows the song and it makes it that much worse. Anyway, I put it all aside and left it while the Sauvageot's were in the States. I pulled it out yesterday and finished it. It now has 329 songs. The worst part was the index. I should've just put the songs in alphabetical order to begin with. HArdest thing was that I changed some of the original songs from their original order and lost the paper that told me which ones. So while I had the new songs in front of me with their numbers written on the page I had to painstakingly go back through page by page and remember which songs had which numbers and put them into an index in the same file. I finally opened the file on Josh's laptop and went through page by page to see the names of the songs and the numbers while typing them into the index on the file I had open on the desktop. Sound confusing?? It was and very very very slow. But it's done now. Jennie is proof reading it for me and Josh is in charge of printing and binding. oh..."Wonderful Grace of Jesus" ?? I ended up just scanning the music in as song number 329.
It's been very chilly here the last few days and nights. The rain had something to do with that but today is bright and sunny but cool in the shade and a very cool breeze. I was even cold in bed last night so I've decided that the garage is probably going to be too hard to keep warm. Instead I will finish clearing out the craft room and move all that stuff into the room formerly known as the garage and now to be known as the homeschooling/computer repair area. Mom and Dad will be more comfortable in the craft room with insulated walls and carpeted floors. It's smaller but it'll have to do. Friends of ours have offered the use of their queen size spare bed for Mom and Dad to use. Which will be nicer than the double size futon bed they were going to be using. And it also means I can use my queen size flannel sheets too. Of course after changing the plans it will probably be hot the whole time they are here. =)
Speaking of them being here, they will be in the air exactly one week from right now!! How soon is that?!?!?! Hmmmm....do I do all the big cleaning jobs that never get done before they come or wait and have Mom's company while I do them??
We have a guest speaker from Union, South Carolina at our church this week. He also brought his son and a man from the church. Steve asked us to provide their evening meal on Thursday so they will be coming over here. Yesterday Steve called and asked if I could subsitute teach for the prep teacher on Friday. I said no problem. The girls will go with me. I'll put Beka in pre-prep and keep the other two in the prep class. Today I met with the teacher to find out what they're working on. She informed me that actually it is Thursday not Friday. So I'll have to have the house in order tomorrow so that we aren't scrambling around after school on Thursday before the men get here. It made planning dinner Thursday easier though. Something that can go in the crockpot/slow cooker. So I'm doing BBQ pork sandwiches.
Saturday I've been invited to a Tupperware party. Gwen is also attending and asked if she could pick the girls up on her way home and have a sleep over. Hmmmm....let me see...YES!!! of course. anytime!! So, I've invited a couple ladies over last minute for a ladies evening. Should be fun.
Well, that's enough rambling. Don't have any photos that really go with this post. Oh well. Have a great day!!

This is what happens...

when you spend two moderately sunny days trying to catch up on a rainy week's worth of laundry.
I guess I'm off to fold. and it's raining again =(

Random--as usual

Just a quick post today.

• Josh took the 1930's husband quiz for fun. (He saw it on my blog) and he scored 114!!
  
• we took a load of rubbish out of the garage to the tip, some baby stuff to the S's, and the chairs out of my craft room over to some friends.
  
• While I'm off to a bridal shower I think Josh is planning to move more stuff out to the shed!! YAY!!
  
• i'll post pics of the garage soon. It is looking so much better.
• we went a/c-heating shopping today. This is so we don't freeze mom and dad in the garage. =)
• We bought Beka a big girl mattress today. She has graduated from the cot to the mattress on the floor. Guess I'd better get her quilt done. Course I need to actually start it first. =)

Better go keep working while Josh is delivering stuff. Hope you have a productive weekend!! =)

cool

very exciting!! we just ate our first snow pea. I was showing them to Josh because they have just gone crazy blooming this week. I found a 2 inch pea pod, pulled it off the plant and we ate it. Very yummy!! No pictures though. It's pouring rain outside.

I will however share photos of our pansies that I took the other day. Sorry for the blurriness. Hard to take photos of tiny little plants that turn their heads away from you. Plus I'm just not a great photographer. As I'm sure you've noticed. =) anyway, I love the ruffled one.




And these "stick trees" as Josh calls them?? Well, they are my maple trees. I saw a maple tree during the fall at Bunnings and wanted it so badly. Such gorgeous yellow, orange and red leaves. Which we don't really get here in QLD. BUT it was almost $200. So when I found them a few years younger but lots of dollars cheaper ($13 each plus shipping) I bought two. Now I need to plant them or actually have Josh plant them. I buy, he plants. It works well. =)

Happy Birthday Meghan!!!

I hope you have a wonderful 6th birthday!! We love you and miss you heaps.

Whatcha working on Wednesday

Leslie at My Country Home hosts Whatcha working on Wednesday. This is what I'm working on.
My kitchen was a complete disaster area yesterday but did I work on it? No. Instead I painted 4 frames, two little crates (I wouldn't have painted them but they were already painted a hideous orange colour), a clock backing (that's the big square. I only need paint around the edges, hence my "creativity" in the center.=) ) a sign, and the stand for the clock. I am going to sand the edges of the frames to distress them a little and probably sand a little all over just to take some of the gloss off. I couldn't find a matte red paint. I have a great print of a star with a berry garland that I'll use for the clock. The sign is for a bridal shower gift. I'm going to distress the crates a little and then hopefully find a vintage-y vegetable crate label for them. I'll use them for Jennie's garden theme baby shower and then in my kitchen.
Speaking of Jennie's baby shower I also made this nappy/diaper cake yesterday. It was good fun. Obviously the ultrasound on Tuesday confirmed it is indeed a little girl.


And then this is the big job of the month. Cleaning out the garage. Not very crafty but very necessary. And then I get to decorate it!! And while it looks really bad it is actually better than it was. In the painting picture you can see that Josh has almost completely cleared off his work table. And the piles of boxes are actually organized. They just need to be taken to the shed or stacked neatly in a corner. And there is a big pile of boxes that need to be taken to the tip/dump along with a few other things. The metal shelves are getting moved out to the shed as well.

That's it for today!! What are you working on??

hmmm...

77 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

I find this very interesting. I was sure I was going to do very poorly.

p.s. Mom and Dad get here in exactly 2 weeks!!! Yay!!

Happy Anniversary, Todd and Debbie!!

sorry for the crappy scanning. And obviously I cut part off. Because I'm smart that way. And aren't I just the best at scrapbooking, too? HAHA Anyway, this is not about me.

Happy anniversary to my little bro and sis in law. We love you heaps. Can't believe it was 8 years ago that you got married. Man, you're old. =) Hope it's a great day for you. love ya

gone but not forgotten

Today would have been Grandpa's and John's birthdays. we miss you both!

Weekend ramblings

well, I forgot to ask Josh where the batteries are and haven't gotten to the cleaning of his table/workspace in the garage so haven't found them. So, no pictures of a nice clean back patio, the new grass that Gordon, our lovely neighbour, placed around the edges of the patio or the girls "helping" Gordon. I also don't have pictures of the large kookaburra we found dead in the corner of the backyard. not that I would have taken or shown you a picture of that. =) Thankfully, Josh came home to grab something from the garage and willingly spared a couple minutes to bury it.

We went mattress shopping on Saturday to find a single mattress for Beka. She really is too big for the cot/crib but there hasn't been a baby to kick her out of it. =) We suddenly realize after looking at 4 shops then going to the mall for a birthday gift for Josh's brother, Matthew, that it was 12:30. This week we didn't have youth group on Friday night like we normally do. Instead we planned it for 1:00 Saturday afternoon so we could go to some houses of people in our church and do some odd jobs for them. So, rather than take the children home and feed them lunch and put them down for naps as was the plan until we remembered youth group, we came home, grabbed what we needed for youth group, went to church, Josh got out, I drove to Hungry Jack's because we had to eat something and were out of non-frozen bread at home, waited 20 minutes!!! in the drive through, got a meal that I wasn't happy with (why doesn't the mega meal come with two whoppers as an option? who wants to eat a chicken sandwich with dill??? they used to come with two whoppers and whoppers are cheaper!!! Come on, HJ's, give us what we want!!) came back to church, fed the girls, kept three boys to do odd jobs around the church, sent everyone off, forgot to get the nappy wipes and extra nappies/undies/pull-ups before loaning the van to one of the groups, has to send Jake up to his house to get us the spare nappies and wipes we keep there, cleaned Beka up, cleaned Jake up from his "stack" on his bike (riding downhill one handed on a rocky dirt track!), finally got the church windows clean (note to self: all blue liquid cleaner is not window cleaner. also, all-purpose cleaner is not good for windows. it will smear. BADLY!!) served afternoon tea, came home, gave the girls showers, did some last minute bulletin stuff, went to Risser's house for Matthew's birthday, ate, played Taboo, came home, went to bed. (HA, beat that for a run-on sentence.) It was a good day though. Got new shoes for Catie and Emma that 1. they can put on by themselves 2. are cute enough for church and 3. are hardy enough to use anytime they need shoes. spent $90 at Big W!!! stuff adds up so quickly. At least it wasn't all shoes. =) Had a great group of kids come on Saturday to clean people's windows and cars and mow lawns. It was really fun to spend the evening with family. Jenni is home for a couple days before she heads off to Cedarville for 5 years. (Although I think she is planning to come home for a couple weeks at Christmas) Catie watched the football with Grandpa and fell asleep, Emma got in her bed and read herself to sleep. Not sure what happened with Beka but I think Grandpa put her in her bed and she went to sleep. We played through the whole stack of yellow cards for Taboo. Good fun.

Sunday was a good day. Steve preached in James Sunday morning. Before he went to the States we were up to James 3 but he preached an overview of the first two chapters yesterday. Very convicting sermon about making time to be holy. Putting the right things first. Doing and not just hearing. Knowing to do right and doing it. Then we had the Sauvageot's over for lunch. I made beef and vegetable stew and corn muffins. I have found the best recipe for cornbread here.(yesterday I only used about half the sugar and they were still really yummy.) Good thing Trevor and Susan aren't home because I wouldn't have had enough food if they had been. =) We miss them though. Choir was great. We haven't had choir the last couple months because our choir is very small and losing 2 people for 5 months, 2 people for 3 months and 1 for 1 month left us with a bunch of altos and one soprano. (why don't us altos ever get to go on holiday??) Anyway, with Steve, Jennie and Tim back we started choir practice again. I posted one of our songs yesterday. Still have it running through my head.

Well, that's quite a bit of rambling. I guess I really need to find the batteries, hey? Hope your week starts off right!!

p.s. the photo doesn't really have anything to do with this post but I found it quite funny.

p.p.s. Pray for Jennie. She is 36 weeks pregnant with this baby and just found out Thursday that she has gestational diabetes. Thankfully she hasn't had any problems so far and doesn't feel bad because of it and only has 4 weeks or less to go. Still, pray for there to be no complications.

Sunday choir thoughts

I don't want to say much because I can't say exactly how this song makes me feel. But it is a choir song based on the verse below. Such a beautiful song. And the Scripture behind it...knowing that God loves me so much that He rejoices over me with singing. He sings over me.

Zep 3:17 -

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing

When the Night is Falling
by Dennis Jernigan

When the night is falling, and the day is done,
I can hear You calling, "Come."
I will come while You sing over me.

When the night surrounds me, all my dreams undone,
I can hear You calling, "Come."
I will come while You sing over me.

When the night would hide my way
I will listen until I hear You say,
"How I love you, child, I love you.
How I love you, child, I love you.
How I love you!"

When this life is over, and the race is done,
I will hear You calling, "Come."
I will come while You sing over me.

Random

• I took photos today but my batteries died just after the last photo and I'm not sure where the other rechargeables are or any other batteries actually
• I have gorgeous pansies growing in my garden.
  
• The peas are starting to flower. YAY!!
• I went through 3 boxes of stuff today.
  
• The garage is slowly being emptied.
• I washed 4 loads of laundry, including baby stuff for Jennie and sheets and blankets for Mom and Dad's bed.
  
• I partially organized my pantry.
• I partially organized my linen cupboard/cupboard of everything.
• I reorganized my homeschooling stuff.
• The dust is really bothering my allergies.
• I still have piles of stuff around the dining/kitchen area that i'm not sure what I'm going to do with them.
• I have a headache. And I'm sure you do too if you've read this far. =)
• The sun is finally out and I got some clothes dry on the line.
  
• I think I'm going to make something with chocolate in it.
• hmmmm....I've ran out of random thoughts for the moment.

Things to learn from the dishes

• Don't try taking turns on different nights. The girls prefer doing it all together.
• Rinsing is a VERY important step when you're learning to wash dishes. (granted, tuna noodle casserole makes for messy water very quickly)
• At this age, they beg to do the dishes. so let them.
• Have all the pre-dinner dishes done and a sink of clean soapy water ready before you sit down to dinner.
  
• Aprons are a must! =) note to self: make them each another apron in case they don't get cleaned, dried, folded all in one day.
  
• giggling and messes are okay
• thank whoever invented plastic plates. =)
• Remember how fun it was to do dishes at Grandma's house every summer
• Working together makes jobs go faster and chores more fun.
• Plan for a BIG kitchen next time around.

cinnamon rolls

Surely today will be better than yesterday if it starts like this...Right?? Please!!!

for Tasha

Just wanted to say that this (scroll down to July 8) made me think of Tasha. Love ya, miss ya!!

a reason to celebrate!!

See my countdown on the right??!!!???!!!

Mom and Dad are coming to visit in 26 days!! I'm so excited!!

** edited because apparently I shouldn't have used the other photo. oops!! =)

Too tired to clean?

optional titles:

• the thought of cleaning wears me out
• I'm never going to get this room clean enough for mama
• I can't be bothered
• better things to do than clean
• Maybe Mama will be so happy that I'm quiet that she won't check my room

Favorite Things Swap

I received my package from Anna for the Favorite Things Swap yesterday. I happened to be on the phone with Mom while opening it. Good fun. Anyway, isn't this a great package?

• Burt's Bees cherry lip gloss--proclaimed yummy by all females in this house
• Peony scented candles--ironic since mom and I had just been discussing planting peonies. Very nice scent.
• Cupcake deck--25 recipes with pictures for different cupcakes. Can't wait to try them all.
• Water for Elephants--I spent several hours yesterday and read this. Very intriguing book. I kept Josh awake for awhile last night telling him about it. I am going to wait a couple weeks and re-read it.
  
• A gorgeous handmade card with a photo of pebbles on it--very nice.

Thanks Anna.

I forgot to take pictures of what all I sent Anna. Hopefully she likes her package too.

If you're interested in doing a swap and helping out a family in need check out Pink Christmas.

Grandpa's in the Navy

Dad got my hint the other day and sent me some pictures of Grandpa in his Navy uniform. Isn't he handsome? I love the picture of him walking down the street. I'm going to put that one in a frame with the picture of Granny standing on the street. And I think I'm going to get an 8x10 of the colour photo to put next to the Willow Tree figurine. Not sure yet though. Anyway, I love these pictures so thought I'd share.

Land's End giveaway

Monica at The Homespun Heart is having a giveaway. A $120 gift card from Land's End!! Land's End has great clothes at fairly reasonable prices. I like that they even have good shipping prices for overseas. Anyway, to enter all you have to do is leave a comment on Monica's blog letting her know what your favourite article of clothing is from Land's End. They have some great swimsuits.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

The girls decided to try out the Armour of God costume that showed up in the mail last Friday. It's for VBS next January.

Weekend

So, we had a wonderful weekend. We travelled 5 hours to Toowoomba to visit our friends. It was such a relaxing fun weekend. J and I were able to visit Spotlight while Josh and C took the children to a park. We met at a restaurant, Montezuma's, for some wonderful Mexican food for lunch. After a lovely long nap (I woke up at 5 after laying down with Beka at 3) we had a light dinner and settled the children into bed. On Sunday I stayed home with the baby so J didn't have to take him out on a cold rainy day to the markets. We enjoyed lovely homemade scones for lunch made by C and E. Very yummy. After another relaxing restful afternoon (I didn't sleep this time but read a book) we ate a beautiful roast dinner made by J. We (the adults) got talking about our favourite desserts so J made caramel dumplings and lemon sponge pudding after the children went to bed. very nice!! J and I watched Battle of the Choirs and Private Practice. We headed to bed soon after that. I think the boys stayed up until 11 or so enjoying their last bit of WoW time. We got up at 7 Monday morning and headed 2 hours west to Brisbane to pick up the Sauvageot's (well, 5 of them anyway) from the airport. Then it was the 3.5 hour trip home. We extended that into more like a 4 to 4.5 hour trip home with a couple stops to eat, drink and/or use the facilities. =) We stayed at the Sauvageot's for a couple hours and helped them stay awake and eat pizza. Jennie did some unpacking and gave us some gifts. They brought the children some stamps and lip gloss, Josh got a couple t-shirts and I hit the jackpot. I got a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt, an Eeyore t-shirt that Susan sent back for me (thanks Susan, it is so adorable), a 24 pack of mint 3 Musketeers (YUMMY!!) and a gorgeous Willow Tree figurine that I've been wanting but is hard to find here. Thank you so much Sauvageot's!!

My plans are to put this figurine next to a picture of my Grandpa in his navy uniform. Well, if I can get Dad to email it to me. Hint, hint =)

This morning when I went out to check my front garden I found some surprises. This rose bush used to flower like crazy and would have 20 blooms on it at a time. But it hasn't bloomed hardly at all this year. I've been debating whether to just cut it back as I usually do in winter or take it out completely. Maybe it knew that it needed to do something but anyway when I went out there it had a beautiful bloom on it and a couple buds as well. It's kinda hard to see but it's a miniature rose.

and look!!! one of my pansies bloomed!! and it has another bud on the plant. and just so you know those aren't weird white spots but raindrops.

and this is my gorgeous double delight rose. This bush flowers like crazy but it grows like crazy too. I need to cut it back but it just keeps blooming. This bush is about 6 feet away from my front door but you can smell the roses when you walk out the door. mmmm....like raspberries.

Random

• We love our couch. This was yesterday morning. The girls were watching Playschool and Josh was just waking up. =)

• I am such a klutz. I somehow managed to fall over yesterday and roll one ankle, twist that knee and land on the other knee taking the skin off and bruising it. Such a dork!!
• Emma and Beka stayed with my friend Roseanne on Tuesday while we took Catie to Brisbane. From the state of their clothes I could tell they had a marvelous time. I should've taken pictures of their shirts--dirt, glitter, glue, cupcake batter, marker,etc. It all came out though. And they haven't stopped talking about their day and want to go back soon.
• The girls got a package from Grandma Gwen yesterday. Oh the joys as they ripped into it. Activity books, blow up frogs, stamps, stickers, crayons. Thank you Grandma. These will keep the girls occupied on their trip to Toowoomba tomorrow.
• It got down to 9 degrees Celsius here last night. Positively freezing for QLD. =) It is so nice and deliciously chilly. And it was down to 5 in Toowoomba last night. Josh really is going to freeze this weekend. Better pack heaps of long sleeved layers for him.

• I have another 3 blooms on my strawberry plant. And my snowpeas are 10 - 12 inches tall now. They are climbing up the fence nicely. I have one daisy. No roses yet but the bushes are sure growing.
  
• We're heading up to the Sauvageot's to check out the state of their house for their homecoming on Monday. We can't wait to see them. The girls are very excited.
  
• I got my bread maker working again so have been making cinnamon rolls like crazy. But only when there are other people to help eat them. =)
  
• Hmmm....I'm sure we have plenty more random things but I'd better save them for another day.
  
• Unless something extremely interesting happens today I won't be posting again until Tuesday. Have a great weekend and an awesome sparkly 4th of July!!
  

Happy Anniversary!!

Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary for July 1st to Mom and Dad. This is an extended family pic (all our immediate family plus Mom's side of the family) that was taken at Mom and Dad's 40th Anniversary party two years ago. Love this picture. Mom and Dad are on the right hand side. click on the picture to see it full size.

Love you Mom and Dad!!