This week in pictures and some lamps

We are having Easter lunch at my house. I wanted to use my china for Christmas, but we had breakfast and left town right afterword. It seemed easier to keep it a bit casual. I really want to have the table look nice. My mother-in-law is the type that always sets a fancy table. If we were to give her 20 minutes notice that we were crashing her dinner, she would have the china out and a nice dinner ready to go on the table. She certainly doesn't demand that from others, but she says that she enjoys setting a fancy table to show her family she appreciates them. I can't see myself doing that too frequently with a toddler in the house, but I do want to make holidays special. Anyway, I'm spending a bit of time this week planning the menu and table.

Here are some pictures from the week. I'm getting better at taking pictures frequently again!

A sleeping bag we got from a garage sale the weekend

Wearing a crown (made from a pant leg I cut to hem)
"Hi Mom!" Wearing gloves.

Also, Jared installed lamps for me this week. I fell in love with these lamps a month or so before Christmas. They were pretty expensive, so I didn't think I'd be able to get them. I wanted to hang them above my sewing table for task lighting. My sewing machine has been in a room with no overhead lighting since we moved back home. It's hard to sew with no lights, but it isn't necessary to have two expensive lamps either. :( Anyway, for Christmas my parents gave me a gift card for a little over half the cost of the lamps! Jared and I went ahead and ordered them, and I was so excited! However, since the room has no overhead lighting, it was going to be quite a chore to get them up in the vaulted ceiling and figure out the switch. Well, he and his dad took care of most of it this weekend, and Jared and I finished it up Tuesday! I LOVE THEM!!

My lamps!

Sent this email to my Mother In Law (subject: Ransom)

I, the eyeless bandit, am holding your hat for ransom. Meet me at my house, and bring with you, your family (including dog), hugs and kisses. We will meet tomorrow after church. Be there or never hear from your hat again! (insert maniacal laughter here)

Love Miles (the eyeless bandit)

P.S. My mom updated my website with February, March, and April pictures (I should hold her hats for ransom to get it done sooner)

Easter Egg Hunt

The playgroup/Early Childhood PTA that we are in had their annual Easter egg hunt today. Jared and I were going to take Miles, but last week Jared got notified that there was a work day at his shooting club. He had missed the last one and felt like he needed to make this one. I called in the backup. My mom took him with me. He had so much fun! We got there early enough to play on the playground before the hunt began.

So did everyone else! There were so many kids there! Miles still had fun. For the most part I was able to hang back and just let him play. Finally everyone started lining up for the hunt. We went over there and found out that they were going to begin by age groups. The little kids (one and under I think) were first. Ten minutes later Miles' age group was to begin, and ten minutes after that the oldest kids would hunt.
On the way over to the hunt area, I was telling Miles that there are surprises in the eggs, and explained to him that he had to find them and put them in his basket. I may have done too good a job getting him excited. When we got there and I told him that he had to wait he was not happy and a tantrum ensued. Anyway, he managed to wait and they started his group. He did a great job "hunting," and had fun.
As a side note, even for the oldest group, they didn't hide the eggs. Everyone had to bring two dozen filled eggs and they just tossed them out on the ground. It was fine for the age group Miles is in, but I think it would have been a let down for the older ones.


We took advantage of the other kids preoccupation and went back to the playground. He had fun, but at some point picked up his basket and started back for the area where the hunt had been. I followed him and he shouted "fun" and went to the area where his age group had hunted. He was disappointed that there were no eggs left, but then spied the ground where the younger age group had been. It looked like they hadn't hunted at all! He ran over there only to be disappointed again. I guess the parents had set their kids down in an area and let their kids pick up, open, and explore. Then put back down. All the eggs had been opened. He still enjoyed sitting and going through them. After that we went over to the Easter bunny. Miles actually went up to him for a little bit. Then it was time to head back to the car.

I signed up for a quilting class today. When does it start? Oh, I do things in advance. I have a ton of time to pick fabrics. It doesn't start until tonight! :) My sash-ing is blue and I have corner squares of yellow. Here is my main background fabric.

Jared has started to get involved in more and more "extra-curricular" activities. Things where I have to watch Miles on the weekend or later on weekdays than normal. I don't mind too much, but I want some "me time" too. A quilting class is probably not my ultimate idea in luxurious time wasting activities, but I have been interested. The two main reasons I picked this class are that the shop is very close to the house, and it is a very low cost for what you get.

This weekend we went to my grandmother's house. For Christmas we gave her new linoleum tile for her kitchen and told her that we would replace it for her. The house she is in is the only home I remember her and my grandfather living in, and this tile has never been replaced. It was not in bad condition. We went this weekend and scraped it off the floor. It was hard, and we didn't get much help from my parents for a couple of reasons (understandable, but that didn't make the job easier for us). After we finished we realized that we would not be able to replace the tile on this trip. We needed some tools and supplies that we didn't have. Also it had taken longer to remove the tile than we had planned. I feel terrible, but we left my grandmother with no kitchen floor. She said she was fine with it. She doesn't have company over often, but still I feel bad about it. My parents go every other weekend, and Jared and I try to go with them as often as we can. The will not be going two weekends from now as they will be out of town and it is the weekend of Easter, but they will go the weekend after. We are going to have to be sure to go that time and be prepared to lay the tile.

Miles on St. Patrick's Day at playground

I've had no real progress on the spring cleaning this week or last. Breaking the house up into a room a week makes it a very long chore. Next week is to be the front porch and front garden. If it were not for the garden out front I wouldn't have made the porch a week. My front garden is a mess! I can't wait to get it in shape, but it is going to be a LOT of work. I'll post pictures for before next week before I start. The real issue with this is when my house was built someone decided it would be a good idea to plant crape myrtles as a bush right near the foundation of the house. Yeah, I have a tree growing right next to my house. Several actually. They need to go.

Miles playing in puddle in front of Nana & Grandpa's house

This week has been really hectic. Monday I helped my MIL go through an Aunt's things. They needed financial proof of expenses to get her into a bed at a retirement home. Tuesday was St. Patrick's day and Miles' playgroup had a picnic at the arbouretum. Apparently it's also spring break. The line of cars to get in was crazy and when we finally got there, the parking lot was full and we were late. We opted for a park, but our favorite was full. Kids everywhere, every picnic table was taken. I thought if all the school kids were at the arboretum or our park there should be no one at the school. We had our picnic there. It was very nice and quite with a great playground.

Nana, Grandpa, & Aunt Jessica playing with Miles

Wednesday a new grocery store was to open. It was not overly close to my house, but I was interested. They are a competitor of Whole Foods and are supposed to be cheaper. My MIL was going to go, and I found a mediterranian restaurant not far from there. We made a nice afternoon of it. I left Miles with his grandfather and Aunt and my MIL and I went to the store and restaurant. Miles had so much fun!

Thursday we stayed home and played. He still took nap and was very exhausted. Thats really all I remember, I was so tired.

Miles sleeping off the excitement on the way home
(all his clothes were wet and he put the jacket on)

Today was pretty good. Miles played independantly very well this morning and I got a ton of work done. I'm all caught up on laundry (it's even almost all put away)! Around 11 he was ready to leave the house for a while. I had ordered new drip pans for the stove top and some things for the garden and they were in so we went to pick them up. I made a wrong turn but saw a sign for an estate sale so we went there. I found a cute pair of boots, then we went to get the drip pans and garden stuff.

This weekend is shaping up to be crazy. Hopefully I'll get to take lots of pictures though! Hope you have a great weekend!

It's begining to look like spring

It's been two weeks since I posted anything, and I've hardly taken any pictures! Oops! I really need to get back into doing that. Everything is going pretty well here. It's been raining a LOT! The sun finally started shining yesterday. Today it warmed up and dried out a bit. Just before the rain began we got some real progress on the garden. Of course that all came to a screeching halt with the rain. This afternoon when Miles got up from his nap he caught me watching T.V. He'd fallen asleep in the car so I laid him on my bed and he just gets up from there when he's done. Because Mommy had the T.V. on he wanted to watch one of his shows. That was fine and I put it on for him and got to work another 30 or so minutes. After that we actually got to go for a walk and I pulled out the tiller to till the garden. By the time Jared got home, I'd broken the tiller. He fixed it, tilled, and wanted to go for a walk too. We did, and came home to grill dinner. Then we ate outside just like summer!

On the down side, I completely ignored spring cleaning last week. What? I really didn't want to clean the den! This week is a really light one (if I skip the den from last week), so I may try to force myself to do both. This week is the Entry, and I don't really have too much of one. The only furniture that's in there is the china cabinet. That won't be too hard to clean.

successful week

This was a great weekend. We go so much accomplished! Saturday we went to Lowe's and bought a new microwave and wood to get my raised vegetable garden together. I'm so excited about both of those things. I had found a 10% off coupon and Jared had gotten a $50 American Express gift check as a reward from work, so we saved a little. The microwave had to be ordered but we could pay for it so we were still able to use the coupon. It will be in this week. We also went to a Korean market near the house, and picked up carry out from our favorite Italian restaurant! Yumm! Lasagna and minestrone soup. Does it get any better? Oh yes it does! I also had washed the duvet cover earlier in the week and finally had a chance to iron it and get it on the bed. Then in the evening we were reading to Miles on the bed and he coughed up a little phlegm. Jared grabbed a tissue for it and cleaned it up. Then he held it under Miles' chin (in case he had to cough more) but I think Miles took it as a queue that he should cough more. So he did. He coughed a couple of times and threw up! On my freshly washed and ironed duvet cover! As well as his pajamas, my pajamas, and our blanket.

Sunday we mowed our weeds and did some trimming on the trees in the back. We cut the wood to make the raised vegetable garden, and laid that out. I ran basically all the laundry (including the comforter & duvet cover) and put most of it away.

So far this week I've done almost nothing except spring cleaning of the kitchen. The good news? I'm basically done. I scrubbed the baseboards today. I need to finish a bit of putting away, and I skipped the drawers and spices. I recently did the spices so they are ok. I really need to do the drawers, but today is only Wednesday. Oh, one more thing...I'm almost done with the dining room too! I don't keep things in the dining room. Just a table, chairs, one picture and two windows. While I was scrubbing baseboards in the kitchen I went ahead and did the dining room too. Just a couple more things and I'm done in there and a week ahead on the cleaning plan! Woot!

Tomorrow is playgroup. We haven't been to anything for Miles in weeks. He got sick around 2/13, and then Jared and I got sick. Now it's basically a month later, and we CAN NOT STAY IN THIS HOUSE A SECOND LONGER!!! Ok, not really, but yeah. We went to Jared's parents house today for lunch, and we saw my parents this past weekend; but it's not the same. It isn't getting out with other kids. I think he's going to enjoy (I hope). This playgroup is at an indoor playground with bounce houses. He never enjoys that as much as I think he will. Hopefully I'll take and post pics too. I have got to get back into the picture thing!