MLK Day

Well, I don't really think we were in the spirit of civil rights or Martin Luther King Jr., but we enjoyed our day off from school.

Xander had homework from being out of school last week, and I made him get it all done on Sunday because I forgot there was no school on Monday, so he did not have to do any homework on his day off, which was a treat.

I did some laundry, made a great dinner, fixed a leaky toilet, taught one lesson, you know, all in a day's work.

Maia played with a cardboard box. All day.

Even though Matt had to work all day, Xander did bow to his pressure to try a peanut butter- pickle sandwich. I thought it was a momentous occasion, so I took pictures.







Like the pajamas? Yes, this was lunchtime, and yes, both kids stayed in their PJs all day. We like pajama days.

I Did It!

The bathroom is done! Isn't it cute?


The paint color is called "Inner Glow," which is what it looks like in the 2nd picture with no flash because I was shooting right into the light fixture.

The light fixture is on the wall, but don't look too close. It'll stay there, but the wall behind it is not pretty. Let's just say, I won't be doing any contracting work anytime soon.

The white cabinet above the toilet is a replacement for the old one, and Xander was a huge help in getting it up. Frankly, I wasn't sure how I was going to do it without Matt's help, but my little man was a big hand in getting that project done.

It's nice to have accomplished something today. The kids both stayed in jammies all day, and we chose to make it a stayin' home day because it reached a high of 5 degrees today. I'm definitely wearing a sweater and long pants to church tomorrow!

Tonight before bed, we watched "The Sandlot" together. Maia was uninterested and chose to watch a Sesame Street video downstairs instead. I thought maybe Xander would like "The Sandlot" (I borrowed it from the library this week). He seemed to really enjoy it, and even let me cut his hair while he watched. Quote of the evening, "Quit spraying my sensitive hair with that water!!!" Ahhh, boys. :)

I Must Be On Vacation

So, Monday I thought I'd just paint the kids' bathroom while Maia was at preschool all day. Of course, that's not turning out to be the little project I thought it'd be...

For one thing, I painted the room orange (which was the easy part), and I just couldn't stomach all the cheap gold fixtures in there, so I called Jim (since it's not technically my house, but his) and asked if I could replace the light fixture and toilet topper cabinet with nicer ones.

So I went to Menard's and found a simple white cabinet to put over the toilet to replace the nasty brown one, and a sleek new stainless light fixture to replace the old "dressing room" style one that was there. Of course, it's never as simple as you think it's going to be... I took the old fixture off the wall only to find that not only was there no electrical box, there's nothing but a pipe behind the wall to attach a box to, and there's a bigger hole in the drywall than the size of the new fixture base.

Jim's suggestion was to but a board over the hole and just affix the light fixture to that. So that's what I worked on today, but the problem is, there's no room to stick the wires & wire nuts once you get the fixture all attached to the wall, unless you shove them back through the hole in the board which exposes them to the water pipe and all the insulation without the protection of an electrical box. I'm no electrician, but that doesn't seem safe. So I'm back to the drawing board. Pretty much everything I did today, I had to rip out, and I'll have to try something new tomorrow. I'd really like to have this thing finished up by Monday.

OK, but that's not what I'm excited about (really? why not?). Today, I found a chair to go in my blank spot- and a lamp!

I found this combo at a used furniture store, and paid about $75 for both! And the chair doesn't even stink, and it's quite comfortable. This is now my "mother's chair" for during lessons. This is the only comfortable chair on that level of the house. I'd like to get some red beaded fringe to put around the bottom of the lamp.

My attempts to accessorize with red were also helped by my Christmas gift from my mom, this big red clock:


Cool, huh? Looks like it was made for my house.

Turns out it's...

Strep throat. Tuesday night, Xander's headache, stiff neck, extreme irritability and later bad breath were all symptoms of strep. Who knew?

He really messed with my morning on Wednesday. I had my first "well woman" exam since shortly after Maia was born scheduled 6 weeks in advance for Wednesday morning because I have a very rare 2 1/2 hours with no kids during that time. But Xander had to stay home from school, and I had to take him to the doctor. I got it all scheduled so that Xander would stay home with Matt's cell phone and I would go to my doctor's appointment. Admittedly, not the best solution, but he seemed to be feeling OK, was not complaining as much, and I really felt it was important to make it to my appointment.

Of course, they did not think my appointment was as important as some lady having a baby, so I went home after only a few minutes of waiting in the lobby.

Got Xander to the doctor, who immediately recognized the symptoms of strep (funny me, I thought he was going to die of Meningitis), and we got him on antibiotics right away.

He's feeling much better now. Got to miss Wednesday and Thursday of school, and was actually looking forward to going back today.

So Thursday afternoon, I started getting a stiff neck, headache, irritable, and stinky breath. I guess it's only natural.

I went to the doctor this morning- I tried just calling to get a scrip called in, but they've never seen me as a patient before, so I had to use my precious health savings account money. I figured while I was there, I'd get him to refill my migraine medicine and might as well cauterize my nose while he was at it. (Last night, I had a gusher that lasted a good half hour, and I've been having nosebleeds every 2-3 days all winter for a couple of years now).

So now, I'm all set with antibiotics for my throat, my nose is a little sore- but not bleeding, and I'm prepared for my next migraine attack. That should carry me for a while. I wonder... when was the last time I went to see the doctor (aside from my "womanly" stuff)? It's been a while.

What a party!

We went to Mitchell Monday night for my neice, Rylie's birthday party. She is now 6. How time flies! Casey & Heidi rented the party room at the Comfort Inn, where they have an indoor waterpark (well, a cool pool with a pirate ship and a big slide that goes outside the building, but is enclosed in a tube).

Maia claims she had fun, even though she fell down 3 times, walked right into the deep end of the water and was rescued by Grandpa Dave, and ran into a pole before the night was over.

Xander had a BLAST! He was a little nervous about going down that big huge slide at first, but they had innertubes to ride down on, so it was a smooth ride, and you never had to go under water. PLUS, they had double tubes you could ride, so most of the times he went down with either me or Casey. Once, he tried to go down with Grandma Marilyn because she was the funnest partner of the night (not only did she get the tube going really fast, but she whooped and hollered all the way down!), but they lost their grip on the tube while trying to get in at the top and it went down without them. So they each went down the slide without the tube. Fun too!

Heidi's sister Bonnie also came over from Sioux Falls. She stayed overnight- but we would have been happy to carpool with her! Heidi & Bonnie went down the slide together several times, screaming all the way because it got pitch black at one point during the ride.

I finally got our Christmas presents to Casey & Heidi's family, so Rylie got double presents. We were pretty excited about the t-shirt that we got for Casey. It's a plain navy blue shirt with white block letters that says:

South Dakota
The Few
The Proud
The Extremely Attractive

We thought it was a perfect gift for him. I don't know how he feels about it, but he looked at it for a while, then laughed and said it was awesome and that he was going to wear it to work the next day.

It was a pretty late night for us, we didn't get home until almost 10:00, but I was glad we could go.

Monday was a day off for me with no Maia. She was a preschool ("pretty school") all day, so I decided to use my time to paint the kids' bathroom downstairs. Of course, it's never the quick project you think it's going to be, and after a trip to Ace Hardware, and a trip to Menards I finally got started painting the tangerine orange room. The paint's pretty much done, but of course, I felt the need to change out the light fixture and the toilet topper cabinet and the towel racks, so the room's in complete disarray right now. I would love to say I finished it up today, but alas, I did not get much done, as I had lessons and running around to do most of the day.

Tonight, Xander had a play date at friend, Leo's house after school, and came home in a HORRIBLE mood. Leo's a really fun kid, and has tons of toys, but I think Xander was coming down with something, because he complained about everything, especially of being hungry and thirsty, but then wouldn't eat his food, and told me he had a stiff neck. (scares me)

He didn't have a fever, so I just gave him some Tylenol and sent him to bed. He went to sleep for the night at 7:00. Hope he's OK!

We got a note from the school today, letting us know that they're concerned because Xander has missed 8 days of school this year, and he might fall beind. As we all know, no child should be left behind. I guess the Sioux Falls public school district is instituting a new attendance policy starting next school year, that if a kid misses more than 10 days of school they have to take make-up sessions. And the letter strongly encouraged our family to consider taking vacations on scheduled school vacation days.

Look Indiana friends, we care about you enough to endure the wrath of the Sioux Falls School system!

Christmas time has passed...

How sad! We took down our Christmas decorations today. Everything looks so bare and sad now! I must say, Maia is much more help with the "taking down" process than the "putting up" at this age. She can just throw poinsettias in a box, and take the ornaments off the tree without doing too much damage.

Tomorrow is Xander's day to go out and spend his Christmas money. He has $60 plus a $10 gift card to a game store. That is a lot of money for a kid! (Especially a kid in our family!) We had a little talk about tithing and how it's one of God's laws and a way to honor Him with our money, and then we had a little math lesson and he learned how to figure 10%. I was proud of him, he figured it out on his own (even though he claims he just guessed).

Xander has a lot of homework to do to catch up with the 4 days that he was gone. They are doing a money unit in math, and he totally gets how to count coins. Good for him!

In other news, today my cousin, Bil donated a kidney to his 10-year-old daughter, Emma. Emma has an identical twin sister, but Bil wanted to see if he was a match (I can't blame him- I would do anything to avoid having both of my kids have to go through surgery at the same time!). The transplant was this morning at 7:30 am EST at the University of Virginia hospital. By the time I rolled my lazy butt out of bed at 7:30 CST, they were probably done. Our prayers are with them, and I'll post updates as I receive them. It is anticipated that Bil will be able to go home by Saturday or so, but Emma will be in the hospital an estimated 8-10 days.

Song Lyrics of the day

Maia:
"Christmas time is here,
Charlie Brown just died..."

This is going to be long...

We just returned from our "Christmas" vacation, taken for a week at New Year's Day, missing 4 days of school for Xander, one day of preschool for Maia and burning a full week of vacation time for Matt on the first 8 days of the year.

We went to Indiana to visit our dear friends there and so I could play for Rachel's wedding. Rachel called me months ago asking if I would consider coming all the way out to play for her wedding, because she just couldn't picture it any other way. (My students all think I'm the only piano player in the world, apparently). Rachel's always held a special place in my heart, she started taking voice lessons from me when she was 14, and in high school became my go-to girl for emergency special music fill-ins. She worked hard to develop her talent, and by the time she left for college, she was preparing for a career in commercial music (she later changed to a much more practical major in the medical field). Over the years, we developed a great friendship.

She & Jon are both Marion HS grads and have been dating for 5 years. They both graduated from Purdue in December and had promised all the parents that they would wait to marry until after they graduated. So 3 weeks after graduation, they finally tied the knot!

We left New Year's day, and it looked like this in Sioux Falls:

The roads were clear and it was sunny, but cold. I had talked to Melissa K the day before and she was talking about how it was muddy and 40 degrees out, so Matt thought he should take his road bike along and try to squeeze a ride in. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

We had a gorgeous sunrise and as the sun rose, the ice crystals blowing around in the air made for the most vivid sundogs we'd ever seen!



It wasn't long, however, before we caught up with the blowing ice crystals and it turned into a ground blizzard. We observed an estimated 60-100 cars in the ditch, and briefly toured the ditch ourselves before ending our 15 hours on the road.

We are always hosted by Brent & Kathy- here's what they look like when I'm not wearing my glasses:

They are like a mom & dad to us out there, and are so hospitable. They welcomed us in at 11:30 pm with hugs, then pretty much told us to make ourselves at home and went to bed.

Wednesday morning, Rachel came over to B & K's and we worked on some music for her wedding, caught up and looked at some pictures. She seemed so relaxed (the pressure increased as the week went on). That afternoon, we went to Dave & Teresa's and Maia & Megan hit it off immediately. D & T have their house up for sale in Marion (a common thing), but have not even had anyone look at it yet... One of the bonus features of the Brown house is that they have a toddler swing mounted in the ceiling of the living room. The kids love it...

Wednesday night, we went to Adam & Ronda's (I didn't start taking pictures until the wedding on Saturday), and the Derbys and Phinneys came over. Wonderful to see how God is working in their lives. A & R have had the most traumatic year, they had to demolish their home because of faulty construction, but the community totally supported and helped them, and one year to the day after the first fundraising letter was sent out to family & friends, they moved into their new house. They've also had some significant health issues effecting Ronda's brother and their oldest son, Elijah. But God's been faithful, and they see miracles happen every day.

Thursday morning, we started out bright and early at Keith & Christy's and saw Keith's "Man Garage" and heard all about his latest toy obsession, his debut on the stage as an actor, his purchase of a VW bus to match his Bug, and his cartoon series that is airing in Australia. He's not just another "spiky-haired, middle-aged guy" folks! What a spaz. That Christy, she's a saint! Their beautiful China-doll daughter, Grace (4) and Maia got along well, though we didn't have time to stay for long.

At lunchtime, we went to Kokomo and met our friends the Kesslers at Chuck E. Cheese... It was very... active! After we spent all our tokens (Xander & Josh spent most of theirs shooting dinosaurs together in the Jurassic Park jeep game), we went back to the Kessler home and Jeanette brought her kids and they played together for the rest of the afternoon.
Xander, Josh & Micah had a GREAT time playing together. Here they are at the wedding reception. Fast friends!


Allie...
& Leah played together, Maia played by herself, and Andrew... well, Andrew didn't burn the house down, so it was a good day!

Thursay evening, we went to Dan & Leanne's for dinner with Eric & Susan and Danny & LJ. Xander had a lot of fun playing video games with the older boys, and Maia slept through the whole thing.

Friday, we chilled out for a while. Did some laundry, and went to Kyle & Adela's for lunch (our first non-tomato-based meal of the week, after pizza, spaghetti, pizza & manicotti). It was a brief visit, but got to catch up on Adela's new job and Xander played some X-box there.

Friday night was the wedding rehearsal and dinner. Finally got to connect with Pastor Tim & Karen.

Their oldest, Cori's getting married in July, so marrying Rachel off is good practice for Tim, since the girls were so close.


Saturday, we snuck in a visit with the Lehrians before the wedding, here they are in a couple of installments:
Tim & Ian

and a blurry Renee & Collin (it was dark and my camera isn't very fancy)

We walked into their house, and Collin took one look at Xander, said, "Oh, I remember you," and they played like they'd never separated! Didn't even ask to play the Wii

Saturday was the wedding, and I have to say, it was probably one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to. It was of course, a winter wedding, and there were white lights, tulle, bare tree branches, pillars & pearls everywhere. The candles (there were many) were a deep wine-red color to match the bridesmaids' dresses. Rachel's dress was a collaborative effort, made by her mother, grandmother, mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law. They also made all the bridesmaids' dresses. When I found out what things were going to look like, and heard the samples of music that Rachel wanted for the bridal march and the solos and all, I knew exactly what kind of music to play to create the right wintery mood. It was fun to play, and hard not to cry, as the maid of honor (also the groom's sister and Rachel's brother, Zack's girlfriend) was killed tragically 3 months ago in a car accident. Also, Rachel sang "When God Made You" to Jon, and she choked up a little (she's always been solid as a rock).

Here's the remaining pictures from the wedding reception:
Jon & Rachel's first dance:


The cake:


Cutting the cake:


The ice sculpture:


John & Tammy, the mother & father of the bride:


Maia, pretty as a princess:



Of course, we were able to catch up with most anyone we might have missed in the previous days, like

Jeff & Cris (one of her rare, non-crying moments):


and Tim & Bev:


Shannon & Lucas...


and Eric, Zack & Zane:


Craig & Charlotte:


Steve & Connie with their whole brood of kids:




These kids were just, well, kids when we were here, but they're mostly in college now...
Here's Matt, Jason, Erin & Christal, and behind them is favorite camper, Hether:

... and Jacob, Caitlin & Beverly (Bubbly):


The Smiths:


...and the moment I went nuts with the camera, the father/daughter dance.

Rachel & her dad, John:


Matt & Maia:


Steve & his twin girls, Rachel & Jasmine:


Scott & Leah:


Greg & Sarah:


and Jeff & Caitlin:


Sunday morning, we went to Hanfield, both services, and sang a special music. I only cried a little. We got to visit our old Sunday school class, and the kids sang for both services. Both of our kids went to kids' church upstairs first service, then sat with us for 2nd service. Maia wanted to go up on stage and sing again 2nd service with the preschool class, but then threw a fit when she didn't get to stand in the front row. That was funny! Little diva.

After church, we went to one of our favorite restaurants with Bryan & Melissa and caught up with them. Sunday evening, Tim Tedder came and hung out with us for a while at Brent & Kathy's.


Monday, Kyle Bixler came over and had coffee with us before we hit the road about 11:00. The weather was weird, a strong, warm South wind, that brought temps up to the upper 60's and melted off all the snow.


We went as far as Des Moines, then stayed with former Hanfieldites, John & Becky, who have a lovely new home and fixed us a delicious late supper. We stayed there until noon on Tuesday, then it was only 4 hours back to Sioux Falls in windy but clear weather. Matt's poor bike rode up on top of the car the whole time, and never got to feel Indiana roads.

What a great trip! We are so rich in friends!

Kids' Christmas Program

Mercy had their kids' Christmas program last night, and both Xander and Maia were involved.

I helped with the directing this year, and we chose an "instant" pageant, entitled, "A Not So Silent Night." It was cute- takes place in a courtroom where 3 shepherds are on trial for disturbing the peace. The kids didn't have to memorize any lines because it was all done with recorded actors and the kids just pantomimed the scene. A little different, but definitely streamlines the process.

Xander was the judge- he got to sit on a tall barstool behind the big pulpit and bang an oversized "gavel" which was actually an inflatable mallet from a McDonald's happy meal. I draped him in black and made a really pathetic white fuzzy wig for him out of fake fur and taped eyebrows and a mustache to his face (they left some pretty red marks!). He also wore round "Harry Potter"-style glasses. He did a great job as Judge Willie Snooze.

Xander as judge and Maia as sheep:


Maia was in the flashback scenes as the shepherds were talking about their experience. First she was an angel, then after a quick costume change she was a sheep. I wasn't sure she was going to be either, because in dress rehearsal all she wanted to do was cry and sit on my lap, but she was excited to perform for her grandparents (all 6 showed up!) and she did a great job come show time.

Maia as angel (what a pretty girl!):

Christmas Lyrics Revamped

These are some mixed up lyrics that I hear frequently- mostly from Maia:

"The little bored Jesus asleep on the hay" (Away in a Manger)

Frequently, she inserts people's names into songs:
"Shepherds, why Miss Julie?" (2nd verse of Angels We Have Heard on High)
"Glo----ria, in Kelsey day-o" (Gloria refrain of Angels We Have Heard on High)
"Ring around the rosies, pocket...mmgnmgm...osies, Ashlyn, Ashlyn, we all fall down"

This one was actually a college student:
"So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh, come PHEASANT, king, to own Him." (3rd verse of What Child is This?)

I'm sure there are many that have slipped my memory right now.

Never a dull moment!

Quotes of the Day

"Musician humor is practically funny." - Xander

"It's making the baby Jesus scream" -Maia in reference to a Christmas song on the radio that was not to her taste.

Christmas Pictures

ACK! I just sent my Christmas card out and told you all to come here for pictures, so I'd better get some uploaded!

Here's our weird new house. Well, the outside. If you want pictures of the inside, check out the blog posts from July & August.

From the outside, the place looks like a child was stacking blocks and decided to call it a house. We live in the left 2/3. This is the view from across the street. And yes, those terraces are pretty much our yard.



This is the view as you drive up. Imposing, huh? Where's the front door? (way over on the left) We call it "The Fortress" and we've got a Bible verse for it: "He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children, it will be a refuge." Prov. 14:26


Here's some pictures of the kids. Yes, I realize they're mostly summery, but that's what I have on hand. I'll post more later.