Birthday wishes for MR Z

 

  One of the challenges of a birthday post is to adequately honor the birthday person without repeating what you've said in past years or using the same pictures over and over again!

Someday we will get Rob's baby pictures digitized from slides and then I will have a TON of new pictures to post 

- just hope we can still afford the internet after getting them converted.

It's been so fun to have Rob home from his mission

and I've enjoyed spending his birthday with him.

He is an amazing young man.

Very smart - straight A's since he's been home.

He's a great server at LaHolla Groves resturant

and it has inspired him to cook like a real chef...

He's so sensitive to the needs of others

but won't be walked all over - even if it means failing a cleaning check!

Rob is very comfortable in his skin and has the ability to make all those around him feel at ease too, and he can always make me laugh. 

I realize this only skims the surface but hey,

I need to save some of the good stuff for next year!

Happy Birthday Rob

Love you!

20% chance of rain

sun shining + pouring rain = 100% chance of rainbows

99% chance of missing it as it only lasted a minute or two.

I'll take my chances.

Finding out...

This is Amy three weeks ago at 17 weeks

{I copied the picture from her blog}

Last Friday we found out if she's having a boy or girl.

After considering everyone's schedules - not an easy task. We finally decided on 4:00 pm as the time to skype and discover the exciting news... granddaughter #3 or do we have a little blue in our posterity?

But just blurting it out seems so... un Amy like

Amy has always loved celebrating and goes the extra mile to make events extra special. This is certainly an extra special event soooo...... the two of us put our heads together to come up with a method of announcement worthy of the news!

It involved a little prep on my part but it was worth every second.

Because her appointment wouldn't be over until 11:30 at the earliest I need to make sure we were covered for both possibilities (and I could safely hide the evidence) I baked two cakes:

 let them cool and then followed the Recipe and idea here

(a link from Amy's blog)

 Basically you break up the cooled cake, add some cream cheese frosting and mix it in. Then your form it into little balls, chill and dip them in chocolate. I should have thought about how I was going to do it because it wasn't a very smooth delivery BUT the results is the same:

BOY

Here he is sucking his thumb!

We are SO excited!

Proud mother moment

Jenn came home yesterday sporting this T-shirt.
(and yes it is huge on her)

She was chosen T-Bird of the Meet

Meaning the cross country meet last Friday

and here's why:

Calm, cool, and collected before the meet...

but don't let this smiling face fool you.

While Jennifer is a kind and compassionate runner,
slowing down to encourage a runner from another
school who was crying as she walked,

DON'T EVEN THINK
that when it comes to finishing, 

she will just sit back and let you finish in front of her.

These girls never knew what flew by them:

 Jenn didn't finish first but she finished

STRONG!

That's our girl!

Creating

There's something about taking warm silky bread dough out of the bread machine and forming it into loaves that is so satisfying to me.

Something about taking kernels of wheat and making them into something

that smells and tastes so good and is also good for you.

(Butterick pattern picture)

Amy is making this Cinderella dress for Ruby. 

(Like the one in the picture but blue of course)

It's her first big project. It looks amazing and Ruby is so excited,

We were talking the other day about the experience of taking a piece of fabric

and working with it until it's something usable and beautiful.

It's challenging and sometimes frustrating but overall 

it seems like kind of a miracle that we can do that.

Jennifer sat down at the piano the other day and began to play a song.

It's not one that I had heard her play before.

I assumed it was a new song. I was right - in a way.

Jennifer was creating a new song.

We printed out some paper so she could write it down and play it again.

It's still a work in progress but amazing to me as I listen and watch her work on it.

And then I think about the most awesome act of creation.

I think about the little baby moving and growing inside of Amy

How amazing is it that she can be partners with God in creating people!

And Friday we will learn a little more about this little person.

Boy or girl? Any predictions?

More about creating here

I finished my training!

 {picture credit}

Jump up, do a little dance,

and go here for a chance to get $50.00 off Kindermusik tuition.

That is all.

Carry on

I'm no Miss Julee

WARNING - this is another Kindermusik post, if you've had enough feel free to skip it, 

but it's what's going in my life right now.

{this is Miss Julee with Carol Penney - one of the head honchos at Kindermusik}

(Julee, I got this from facebook - I can take it off if you want me to, does that count as getting permission? ;)

I had three classes today. 

Yesterday, after talking with Miss Julee, I discovered that I had scheduled them too closely (and now I wonder if I had too many too). I couldn't get the music to load on to the ipod yesterday, or today and finally gave up after wasting precious prep time fussing with it. 

I had a good turn out and many people brought friends. 

I began feeling calm and completely able, getting to know the moms and their children, answering questions and singing the songs with confidence but as one group left and another came I knew I was on a tight schedule and was not able to answer questions as well or greet the parents and children as well as I would have liked. After the last class, as the last mom was about to leave she turned to me and said, "You need to have more passion for the children.... and get a gate for the stairs, that's what Miss Julee did." It stung a little but the reality is that she was exactly right and I appreciated her honesty and candor. It must not have been too bad though because she still signed up for class 

(even though I wasn't able to make change for her deposit).

I survived the morning and I realized that I have a lot to learn

(which I already knew in my head, but the rest of me was just shocked at the reality). 

I felt a little like crying, but not enough to need to reapply my mascara.

Next I wanted to drown my disappointment in
a three scoop gelato at Costco

(Costco was on my to do list right after I took Jenn her running clothes)

- but really all that would do is give me a stomach ache
and then I'd feel worse. 

I decided instead to indulge in half of a nuts about berries salad at Zuppas along with a half serving of garden vegetable soup (I can only get lobster bisque when I'm with Amy and Jenn and yes, I ate the chocolate covered strawberry first).  Without a growling stomach I could think about this more logically. While I could have done better, I didn't totally flop and people still signed up. So it was a success in some ways. I hoped I'd bee as good as Miss Julee but really, how could I be, she has been doing this for so many years and is totally amazing - still, with all the plans and prep I thought it would have been better than it was. I was really glad to have Miss Julee there to help out and making sure I got the right child in the right class - which almost happened. I did charged a few people the wrong amount but always in their favor.

While I'm no Miss Julee I also realize that she's no Miss Karen.

I'm not sure exactly what that means but I'm willing to continue to work and prepare and find out. 

Miss Julee believes in me (I hope she still does), the moms believe in me enough me to sign up...

I CAN do this. 

But right now I'm going to take a nap.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, while I had the camera ready and was planning to take pictures the batteries were dead.