January Done

I can’t believe that January is already gone. It has not been that exciting for pictures, but we’ve had a great month.

Last weekend I went down to Seattle to a Girl Scout conference. I got to teach one class on computers and then attend two other classes. One of my classes was on using recyclables wisely. I can use the ideas with my Girl Scouts. In the other I learned how to do some old-school macramé! It was a long day, but I had fun.

The girls and Michael got to go to a birthday party at a race kart track, laser tag, and mini golf place for a couple hours. I hear they had a great time shooting each other. It was super special because normally it would be WAY too expensive to go, but these friends had the whole place rented! Lucky ducks!

This weekend Mike and I had a great date night! I bought tickets to a TobyMac concert for Michael for Christmas. We both love TobyMac. I even got my hair cut and colored and bought some new clothes for the occation. You can’t see my streaks, but they are pretty cute.

The concert was down near Seattle, and since Debbie and George were willing to keep the girls overnight, we went ahead and stayed in a hotel down there. We got to go out to dinner at Red Lobster. It was super yummy! While our seats weren’t super good, the concert was still awesome. Here is our view for the first acts.

The stage was down in front of that girl. For TobyMac, everyone was standing, so we could see just fine. The music and show was fun!

The girls had fun with Gramma and Grampa and even talked Grampa into helping them with their pinewood derby cars for AWANAS. They drew pictures of their car design on the block of wood and he cut it for them. Now the girls just need to sand and paint their cars, but they have time.

 

On Sunday I took the girls on a swimming adventure for Girl Scouts. I was in charge of planning this event for our Service Unit. I didn’t get enough girls signed up to pay for the pool that we had rented out. I was so bummed to be $40 dollars short even before I ordered patches. I didn’t stress out, but I prayed on the way out that God would help it all work out. An hour into our swimming a bunch of young adults started showing up. I was so excited when I found out that the pool messed up and scheduled them to come in a half hour before we were supposed to get out. The pool had to refund us that half hour, so in the end I wasn’t in the hole! We had to leave the deep end so they could scuba dive, but otherwise the girls still got to swim. What a great little answer to such a silly prayer!

I had a great time playing in the water with my girls and some of my other little Girl Scouts. I went down the waterslide a bunch of times, then caught all the little Daisies when they came down.

Mike has been stressed out at work lately. The company is doing well again and he’s got more work to do and less guys to do it with. You can all say some prayers for patience and sanity for him. Thanks!

The sun is peaking out today, so maybe I better go enjoy it! Love to you all!

Not Much Up

As January goes, there’s not much happening around here. We’ve had a few bugs, but everyone seems to be on the mend now.

The most exciting thing that has happened around here was all the house projects that got done! My favorite is the this bar! This window used to be an outdoor window, but it is between the kitchen and a living room now. It was just the old sill and a new sill when we moved in with a seam down the middle. I puttied and painted the surface way back when, but it was a hacked job and always water damaged and icky. I have always wanted a bar where the kids could sit, eat, and do homework…and now I have it!

Thank goodness for a father-in-law that is a professional handyman! I still need to prime and paint the supports to the bar. We also got a bathroom floor, a water damaged window, and a door jamb repaired and a bunch of other sheet rock flaws puttied and textured. Now I just need to prime and paint those areas. I have to paint the whole kitchen ceiling and I’m not looking forward to that.

I did manage to finish a trim painting project that I started over a year ago. I had some trim in my kitchen that I primed and never painted…but now that is done. Whoo hoo! In the spring I will take off all the rest of the wood trim around the house downstairs and sand, prime and paint that white.

We have been trying to sell some Girl Scout cookies right now too, but the weather has been so gross lately that we haven’t made it very far. The end of pre-sales is this weekend, but I plan to hit the bricks when the actual cookies are in late-February and have the girls sell them from a wagon. I think that it will be easier to sell with instant gratification anyway!

This is Anika and our new Daisy, Nylah…she is a sweet friend! The Daisies all really like each other.

On Martin Luther King Jr. day, the girls didn’t have school. We were invited by the cousins to go swimming at the YMCA. That was a highlight to the last couple weeks. Break out the swim gear!

Last night the school had a “Math Night”. They were giving out free pizza, so the place was packed out. I was very impressed though. They had a bunch of different math games that were really fun. As you completed the games, they gave out tickets that went into a drawing for prizes. The girls had fun.

I taught the Children’s Church a couple Sunday’s ago. It was so much fun and I LOVED doing it. I will do it about once a month rotating through with other leaders. There were 19 kids in my class and I was all by myself. That was too many. I would have felt like I was in way over my head if I hadn’t had my Girl Scout troop practice! The kids were all really good kids and liked my craft.

You can’t imagine how gross the rainy weather is here right now. I am sitting looking out my front window and it is just pouring. My driveway is flooding. I hope our rivers can take all this rain. Send us a little sun or some snow please!

Love to you all!

~Shawna

Life has Slowed Down

Sad to say, I have very few pictures since the turn of the new year. Not much exciting has happened…which is actually a very nice change of pace. Here’s me with straight hair just for fun. Did this on New Year’s Eve. I don’t know what to do with it when it is straight. We got invited to a family-fun party by a couple from church that night and had a great evening playing games. We had to leave early though because Kelby didn’t want to stay up late!

We didn’t do much of anything on New Year’s Day, except I made a ham. Nothing fancy and no company. We’ve been watching football, playing games, and enjoying fun Christmas presents.

The girls had a week back at school and have settled in there again. Anika had a walking fieldtrip last Friday. I went along. They walked the whole 1st grade class over a mile to the Police/Fire Department in town. They toured the facility and then we had to walk back. The walk would have been great if it wasn’t a rainy, blowing day in January! We did survive though. I came home, changed my clothes and had a cup of cocoa…poor kids didn’t get to do that!

On Saturday we had some friends come over and watch the Seahawks win a playoff game. That was fun!

Yesterday I taught Sunday School for the first time. It went really well and I had a chance to use some of my fun crafting supplies! I’ll be doing that once a month now. I really enjoyed myself…though 19 kids all by myself was a little much. My Girl Scout leader skills came in handy!

Now it is cookie sale time again! If anyone would like to order some Girl Scout cookies….just let us know. Let these pictures tempt you…

OK…I’ll try to take some pictures of the kids this month so I have something fun to share! Love you all…

Shawna