Greene Center Market

If you live in southeast Iowa, make sure to stop by 3167 WW Ave., rural Wellman next Saturday between 8 and 3...because it's the Greene Center Market. And it's gonna rock!

Greene Center Market is a yard sale/market of items from 6 or 7 households in the Greene Center, Iowa general area. There will be so many fun things for sale: antiques and vintage finds, regular household items, repurposed things, handcrafted items, and many, many other awesome items!

Check out our website for directions to the market or for more pictures!

You won't want to miss out!

the storm's a comin'

In honor of the rainy/overcast/stormy weather that we've been having this weekend, (this summer, really) I thought I'd post pictures from a storm earlier this year. I think this may have been from April.

And judging from the dandelions, it had been a while since we mowed. :)

Yes, we did go inside shortly after this picture was taken and at the first sight of lightning.

I think we maybe just dodged a rather large storm tonight. For now, at least!

back to blogging

Well I don't know that I'm actually back to blogging.

I mean, I don't want to make any promises that I can't don't keep.

And since I've taken such a long break, I feel like my first post has to be really good. Or...interesting, at least. 

And where do I start since it's been almost 3 months since I've last posted?

Maybe I'll take another few months to figure out what to say. Or type. I'll leave you with pictures from one of the best days this summer.

Our time at the beach in Florida. I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could.

Slumber Party

Kent was gone last Thursday through Sunday. And we've been having issues with Jesse and him sleeping through the night. As in, he doesn't. Ever. He usually comes over to our bed between midnight and 1. And then spends the rest of the night tossing and turning and kicking and waking us up. I had a particularly rough night with him on Thursday night. As in 2 separate tantrums at 2 different times in the middle of the night.

So on Friday night I decided to try something different partly because of Jesse, but also because I knew Meredith would love it.

On Friday night the 3 of us camped out in our living room and watched a movie and then had a slumber party there.

On Saturday night we did the same thing, except in my bedroom (so I could sleep in my own bed).

Jesse slept longer than usual on the floor on his own "bed" and Meredith LOVED it. As soon as I told her what we were doing on Friday, she hugged me and called me the best mom in the world...

I'm thinking I should be taking more advantage of her getting excited about things that are so easy to do!

Our spring

Yes, I'm still here.

We've had a lot of fun lately playing and working outside. In the past few weeks we have:

• tilled and planted the garden (I'm sure the guy who was planting across the road had a good laugh at me while tilling. The rototiller basically drives drags me around the garden instead of me driving it!)
• dug out a new flower bed and then tilled it (hoping to plant some bushes there this week...Mom, I was going to get some of those snowball hydrangeas from your house that we had talked about earlier. If you have tips for me on replanting, please comment or email!)
• added more flowers to a few flower beds (Mom, I got some of your day lilies...hope that was OK?!?!?)
• weeded all flower beds and mulched the ones that have mulch on them
• weeded and mulched all of our trees that are not a part of our windbreak (weeding and mulching those trees is a month-long project, at the very least!)
• planted almost all of my planters (and wanted to kick my cat to the curb when he used a planter for a litter box 3 times!)
• mowed 3 times (and considering this takes multiple hours, that's saying a lot!)
• took a long mule ride (the vehicle, not the animal) to Old Man's Creek on the black diamond...they are finally done with the bridge but are now working on the road on both sides leading up to the bridge
• and played countless hours of Yankee baseball (a.k.a. t-ball) and soccer with the kids

Anyway, we've had so much fun being outside that I just haven't taken the time to come inside to blog...have you noticed??

the little things.

It's been a while since I did a little things post.

In case you've forgotten, I'm all about the little things in life...

...that make me smile.


...that make me happy.


...that make me laugh.


... or that make my day.


Anyway, we recently discovered one of those little things that makes us smile and laugh.

Rhythm Kung Fu on Wii Fit Plus.

It rocks.

And both kids LOVE it.

And sometimes they are actually in sync with each other and the characters on the screen!

The characters on the screen do this funny head moving thing, and Jesse has it down pat. (No, that's not what you are supposed to be following when you do the "exercise", but it's something he's picked up on and learned that it makes Kent and I laugh. So he does the head move all the time!)

Anyway, I think rhythm kung fu might be calling my name...

Easter hike. I mean walk.

We had a free afternoon and evening on Easter Sunday, and just about didn't know what to do with ourselves. Since my parents are now gone to American Samoa for a while and Kent's parents were in Florida (which meant no road trip to Indiana,) we didn't have any big family gathering to go to.

So we decided to have a picnic at a park and do a little hiking walking and playing outside.

And had TONS of fun!

(Note that I did not get any pictures of our actual picnic. Yeah, 'cause the kids had Lunchables and Kent and I had Chinese takeout. Yup, that's right, Chinese takeout. Not exactly my first thought for picnic food, but it's what we were hungry for!)

Also, I do realize that no matter how many times I boost the color of the photos in Photoshop, it still comes across as a bit of a dreary day. I didn't even think about how colorless everything was. We were just so happy to be outside that it didn't even matter!

Egg-cellent

Last week we had a fun evening with my niece, Lauren, and her friend Celia.

We decided to enlist Lauren and Celia's help in dying Easter eggs.

The problem was that the 12 eggs I had hard boiled were gone in a flash. So we had to resort to dying our regular brown eggs. Not quite as pretty as the white ones, but at least now I can tell which ones are hard boiled and which aren't!

Easter

Here are the prerequisite Easter pictures...

Jesse was upset that he couldn't help Meredith hold her doll. So he got to hold his new badminton racket and then he was happy.

More pictures to come on what we did in the afternoon...

April Desktop

Here is my latest project with photoshop. It's another background for your computer desktop.

And yeah, it's a bit busy.

And girly.

And springy.

Not sure if I'll like it for the whole month.

 I guess we'll see.

**To use the background, click on the picture above, and a larger version will load in your browser window. Right click that and choose Set as desktop background. Hopefully it won't be distorted. Please let me know if you have problems. Or if it's too busy for you. Or if you want the calendar on the other side because of your icons. Or if you like it. Or if you don't. Or if...

Cool, II

He's cool too.

Cool

Yup. He's pretty cool! :)

Party On, Take 2

Decorations? Check.

Party favors? Check.

Presents? Check.

And check again.

Cake cupcakes? Check.

Friends? Check.

Birthday girl? Check.

All the necessary ingredients for a wonderful birthday party!