The Great Bedroom Flip

When we moved into our home nearly 7 years ago it was considered a 2-bedroom home.  (There was a "bedroom" in the basement, but it couldn't be called that because it didn't have an egress window.)  So when we brought Rebecca home from the hospital her and Micah had to share a bedroom.  Not ideal for children of opposite sex to be sharing a bedroom, but we figured we had a few years before that became and issue.

When Olivia came along we decided that we should egress the basement window and that the older two could sleep down there and Olivia would have the bedroom upstairs.  We stole borrowed bunk beds from Nick's parents and a dress and chest of drawers from my parent's and the older two had a nice bedroom in the basement. Olivia has been quite content in her crib for the last 2 1/2 years.

All was well until this crazy spring weather interrupted our arrangements.

I had just begun to start thinking about what we were going to do with the sleeping arrangements because at age 8 Micah should maybe not be sharing a bedroom with his sister any more.  I wasn't sure how or when I was going to make all the changes, but the weather had a way of speeding the process up.

When you take really dry land and you have 5 inches of rain dumped on you in 24 hours homes like ours get some water in the basement and along with that you get wet carpeting. Ugh.

So everything and I mean everything had to come out of the kid's bedroom in the basement. Not an easy task

It was decided that for the time being the older two would just sleep with their mattresses on the family room in the other part of the basement.   Not ideal, but they had to sleep somewhere and the living room floor upstairs wasn't really an option. :)

In the midst of drying carpet and trying to find clothing in dressers that had been moved I starting thinking about the bedroom situation.  I figured that since we had everything out of basement bedroom that we should maybe just completely flip bedrooms.  The work was as good a 1/3 done already....  I ran then idea past my hubby and then got started.

We decided that the girls would both sleep upstairs.  The bedroom is smaller, but Rebecca has environmental allergies and I just wasn't comfortable with Olivia going downstairs being as she is only 2 years old.  So that meant that the bunk beds, the dresser and the chest of drawers all had to come upstairs.  That also meant that a smaller dresser needed to go downstairs along with setting up the "spare" queen mattress that we have been hanging on to for nearly 3 years. 

It took me nearly a week (along with getting some kind of bronchial illness) to get the smaller items (clothing, items from dressers, dresser drawers, toys, etc.) moved around and then my dad came over to help with the heavy lifting. 

Two and half weeks after we had water in the basement everyone was up off the floor and sleeping in a "new to them" sleeping arrangement.  Of course, I still had to put away all of the "little" things, but that is slowly getting taken care of.  Olivia is adapting well to her "big girl" bed, but she still thinks of it as a giant play ground for her to test out every evening.  (Let's just say that she hasn't been getting as much sleep as she normally does or needs.)

Just a few pictures of everyone in their new arrangements.  So far so good!

 The girls praying before they crawl into bed.

Rebecca in the top bunk.

Before all the stuffed animals...

 After the partial invasion of stuffed animals.... I have no idea how she sleeps with all that stuff in her bed....

Micah in the big bed all by himself in the basement.  We told him that he could stay awake a little bit longer and read now that he has a room to himself.  He was THRILLED! :)

Starting Seeds

With spring sometime on the horizon I am getting anxious to see plants growing in our garden.  Yes, the garden is a lot of work (that I really don't enjoy), but I do enjoy the stash of food that is generates that my family gets to enjoy during the summer and all winter long.

My anxiousness led me to try to start a few plants inside the house.  I have never done this nor do I have a great place for the plants nor do I have the proper equipment.  Since I didn't know if this endeavor was going to be successful I didn't want to invest much $$$ (in fact I didn't want to spend anything).  Due to the wonders of Pinterest I found these newspaper seed pots on a friend's board.  A little bit of time while I was making supper one evening and I had 20 of them made.

 I wanted a greenhouse of some kind, but again didn't want to spend any $$$ on it in case the whole project was a failure.

 Some popsicle sticks and some hot glue and I had the structure to a little house.

 Some saran wrap and I had a little homemade greenhouse.... That is until it got to wet inside and the hot glue let loose... I was very disappointed, but reminded myself that I hadn't spent any $$$ on it for this very reason.

So I had to figure out what other glue I had on hand that would work.  I recently received a freebie in the mail from Elmer's glue and it promised to hold wood together so I gave it a try.

 I didn't harden as quickly so this "model" took a little longer and isn't as "square at the first one, but it is serving its purpose.

The weather has been far from ideal, no sunshine, cold and windy, so my little contraption has only made it outdoors once.  So imagine my surprise when one day I discovered that every single one of my tomato plants had spouted!  YAYAY!

 I love looking at the little plants and knowing that life is springing anew!

The jalapenos are also just sprouting.  Just waiting on the pepper plants.

I am not counting this project a success yet, but I am thrilled with the progress thus far.  The plants need to survive until they can be planted in the garden.  Hopefully pictures will be coming later this summer of tomatoes from these little plants!

Oh and someone else enjoys looking at them as well.   Here she is showing her baby the little tiny plants. :)

Weekend Fun

Seems like I always struggle with what to do with our weekends.  Should we have fun and relax or should we be productive?  Such a struggle for me, but this last weekend was a weekend of fun.

Nick got off work a little early on Friday and we headed out for dinner and a movie.  The kiddos were with Nick's parents and they spent the night which meant that I was finally able to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep.  (This isn't happening much these days because Olivia has taken to talking in her sleep and her favorite word to say is "Mommy!")  Nick and I watch the movie "42".  It was a good movie even if you are not a baseball fan.  I was surprised because really the only bad words in the movie were racial slurs.  Given the topic of the movie I figured there would be a lot of profanity in it.  It was a nice surprise and it was a nice evening out with my hubby.

Saturday morning found Nick and I hustling to be productive before the kids returned.  Once they got back then it was hustling everyone to change clothes and get freshened up so that we could head to the Amana Colonies with my parents to see a children's play at The Old Creamery Theater.  We watched "The Life and Times of the Three Little Pigs".  The kids LOVED it and were excited to met some of the actor/characters after the play.

 Waiting for the show to begin.

 With the Wolf.

 With the Middle Pig

 Olivia was so interested in the little pig that we couldn't get her to look at the camera.  She was facinated with the nose and eyelashes.  (Truthfully they kind of freaked me out a bit.)

We then spent a little bit of time walking through a furniture store in the Amanas (beautiful items!) before heading to the Ox Yolk Inn Restaurant for an early supper to celebrate Nick's birthday.  Our waitress generously offered to take our picture and we took her up on her offer!

Sunday was pretty normal until suppertime when Rebecca's 2nd front tooth fell out while she was eating supper (I think that she has last all of her teeth while eating....).  She was excited and couldn't wait until the Tooth Fairy arrived. Only the Tooth Fairy must have missed our house last night. (Oops!) Hopefully we made it on her list for tonight!

Dutch Letters and So Much More

This past Saturday our small Christian school made 1200 Dutch Letters.

That's right. 1200 sticks of yummy Dutch pastries.

The day started off early with the first volunteers showing up around 7:30ish and ended several hours later around 5:00ish when everything was cleaned and all the Dutch Letters had found their "homes."  I'm not exactly sure how many pans of dough we had or how many pounds of filling we used, but I know there were lots of empty pans and containers at the end of the day.  I'm also not sure how many volunteers were there during the day, but I know there were lots and I also know that the day would not have been possible without these volunteers.

Was it a lot of work? Yes.  In fact, I am quite sore today.  I rolled out dough for 5-6 hours and I am still feeling the affects today and am sure I will for a few more days. I also know that for the committee members who lined everything up it was several days of prep work for them.

Would I do it again?  Yes and I have several reasons why.

First - Any time you get a bunch of women together we start visiting and that in and of itself it a lot of fun! :)

Second - Many of the ladies who came and helped have been doing this for several years.  As we were making the Dutch Letters some of the ladies were trying to figure out how many years we had been doing this for.  (No number was determined, but I know that I helped once when I was in junior high, circa 1993) And with a good number of years comes a good amount of experience.  And that is experience that I am wanting to glean information from.  This was the first year that I made dough and while it was okay there was lots of room for improvement.  And the experience from the dough is only one area that some of these ladies are willing to share about. We talk and share stories from all aspects of life and all learn and grow from each other.  Mothers like myself (who have young children in school) gather all kinds of information from mothers who have sent their kids through high school, college and marriage.  Invaluable information!

Third - Every single one of us who helped has a vested interest in our little school.  (There are many more who have a vested interested who were unable to make it.)  It is such an encouragement to parents like myself to know that there are families who supported the school in the past, who currently support the school and will continue to support the school.  Knowing that there is a heritage before and beyond my children is an incredible knowledge.

So, was it really all about the Dutch Letters?  In my mind - No.  The Dutch Letters themselves are very yummy and raised precious funds for our school, but there is so much more to a fundraiser than the $$$ it brings in. It is about the development of our community of believers.  It is a reminder to all of us that we have this community that surround us and support us.

For us families with young children who are just starting this journey it is priceless information.

Uruguay Trip

Nick and I have just returned from the most amazing trip.  We spent the last two weeks in the home and company of my sister and her family in Maldonado, Uruguay.  Brian and Melinda (my sister) live in Maldonado and serve as missionaries for Avant Ministries.  When they moved to Uruguay Nick and I started saving with the hopes that we would be able to visit them.  (We don't have many reasons for international travel any more and a family member living outside of the US was a perfect reason for a trip!)  God graciously allowed the money to be there and provided us with two willing sets of grandparents to watch our 3 kids and the end of February found us boarding a plane.

Our trip was almost delayed due to an Iowa snow storm, but we were able to catch earlier flights in both Des Moines and Chicago which ensured that we would make our flight out of Miami.  We were very relieved and offered many prayers of thanksgiving!

After more than 24 hours of travel we were thankful to be greeted by my Brian, Melinda, Ellie and Judah at the airport.  The best thing was that Ellie willingly came to me within minutes of seeing us!!!  Thus began 2 weeks of making memories and just spending time together.

We had tons of fun just spending time with Brian and Melinda and seeing what everyday life looks like for them.  We spent time helping them around their house, moving firewood, grocery shopping, preparing meals, washing dishes, playing with the kiddos, deep cleaning the shower, experiencing a storm, sorting the kiddos clothing and playing canasta, Bocce Ball and Ticket to Ride.  We were also able to participate in some of their ministry activities. We were able to attend Team Worship one Sunday and Nick was also able to attend the weekly youth gathering and the weekly men's gathering.  Of course there were also the touristy areas of Maldonado that we had to take in as well.  A trip to the beach, shopping on the point, riding over the wavy bridge, visiting Piriapolis, collecting shells at Punta Ballena, a visit to an authentic Uruguayan restaurant and taking our photo in front of the Hand on the point.  There were also several ice cream runs and many yummy baked goods that were consumed. :)

There is no way that I can recount all the things we did or post all the pictures that we took (we took nearly 300 pictures during the 2 weeks).  I am posting a few of my favorites here, but more of them can be found on my facebook page and if you are really interested in seeing allllll of them you will just have to get in touch. :)

 Grateful to be on the plane leaving Des Moines!

  The skyline of Maldonado and Punta de Este.

 Nick trying his hand at grilling.

Auntie Michelle and pretty Princess Ellie!

Experiencing a Uruguay storm.  We actually lost power for a few hours. We were very thankful when it came back on!

A top Piriapolis

 Mr. Judah!

Nick in front of the grill at the authentic Uruguayan restaurant.

Good food and good company!

Playing in the waves at the ocean.

 The boys had a lot of fun jumping in the waves.

Hard to see, but this is the wavy bridge.

 Watching the waves bring in more shells.

 Horsey rides are so much fun!

 In front of the hand.

 Shopping with little Miss Ellie

 Bocce Ball in the yard

 We LOVE these guys!

 Returning our bed to its rightful owners.  Very normal to transport items this way in Uruguay. :)

 Mr. Judah trying his feet at walking.

 Getting ready to land back in Des Moines.

We are so grateful to have had this opportunity.  It is always eye opening to see how other cultures live and it was a huge blessing to be able to spend time with Brian, Melinda, Ellie and Judah.  We pray for God's blessings on them today and every day!

First Hair Cut

Olivia's hair is curly and I LOVE it.  I have always wanted curly hair and since I didn't have any I had hoped that my daughters would have it.  Well, Rebecca ended up with hair like mine (which is beautiful, btw), but Olivia ended up with soft curls. YAY!  However, Olivia's hair was starting to get nasty on the ends.  It had not been cut and I could tell that the ends were still that soft baby hair that she was born with.  While it was darling when she was born, it was becoming all messy and hard to brush.  So... we took a trip over to Grandma's house for a hair cut.

My mom is a beautician who lives right across the street. (Can you say super convenient?) One afternoon after nap time I scooped up Olivia and over to Grandma's house we went.  Surprisingly she sat very still (I think that she was still 1/2 asleep) and did a wonderful job.  Grandma only took the very ends off, but it feels and looks so much nicer and fresher!  Hopefully it will be a little while until the next haircut - I want to enjoy those curls some more!

 A little uncertain as Grandma gets started....

Finally a smile!

A little piece of our history

Last weekend we sold the vehicle that I purchased when I was a freshman in college.  It must have been over Easter break when my parents, sister and I drove to a local dealership and I purchased a black 1994 Chevy Cavalier with 74,857 miles.  Nick and I sold it this weekend.  It had 211,207 miles on it and a lot more rust. :)  Can't hardly believe that we drove it for that many miles.

5 years ago when we moved back "home" we told ourselves that we would just drive the car until it couldn't be driven any more.  There have been a few times when we thought that it was done, but then my dad would come through for us with a repair and it continued on chugging down the road. (Thanks, Dad!)  It finally reached the point where it needed a repair that we were unwilling to pay for.  We posted it on Craigslist and just like that we had a buyer and it was gone.  (Truthfully it is a relief to have it gone this quickly!)

For now we are driving my parent's spare vehicle while Nick searches for a "new" car that meets our criteria.  It is a little usual these days....We used to be able to hear the Cavalier coming from blocks away, now we have to wait until we hear the garage door before knowing when Nick is coming home. :)

(I took the above photo as the new owner was driving off our driveway in the Cavalier.)