Strange Sightings

Ok... it's weird to see my face {here}. Very weird.

Getting Wired

Have you ever tried checking your email on a computer hooked to a sixty inch high definition television? No? Well, just picture it... you rearrange the furniture just so that you can see comfortably. Although the screen is large you find it hard to even read small print. So, you make sure that your glasses are on so that you can even read the email in the first place, all for the wireless mouse and keyboard to shut off. You change the batteries and it still doesn't work. So, to get the work you need to get done during a limited time, due to your son's nap schedule, you hook up the wired keyboard and mouse to the desktop PC. The mouse's wire is only about three feet long which requires you to rearrange the furniture once more to reach it and the keyboard. In the end you get a migraine for sitting that close to the television and results you closing yourself in a dark room, medicated, and going to bed far to early for a thirty year old.

What a Week!

Last Tuesday started a whirlwind of events in the Evans' household. I got a call from Craft Warehouse saying that I won the contest I entered and am now a part of their design team! I am still a little shell shocked and not sure if it has truly sunk in yet. You can read my bio here. I will be designing for their website, stores, and ads. Totally amazing!

Wednesday I spent the morning at Aldersgate Conference Center helping clear out plants in one of their gardens. They said I could have anything that was taken out! So I filled my car so full with plants that I am sure there were roots hanging out the trunk. When I got home, I put Ethan down for a nap and got to work planting the starts in the garden. I can't tell you how happy I was. But, afterwards I was really tired. I was surprised that a bit of gardening wore me out that bad.

Thursday I woke up with the stomach flu. I could barely move. Pretty much the rest of the week I felt like that. In the meantime, my laptop died. I knew it would be hard for me not to have the laptop, since I did 100 percent of my work on it! But I am slowly getting use to the fact that I can only get things done on the computer at night - after Dave is finished using it. You see, our computer is connected to our television! We will have to learn to share!

I started to feel better Monday and Tuesday of this week and just in time too! Dave burned our enormous burn pile in the back yard. It was there when we moved in three years ago and now it is GONE! Whoohoo! I also finally conquered the grass that surrounded it - we liked to call the "jungle." It took quite a bit of mowing but it is done! I had to get it done so that my mother-in-law could come over on Wednesday.

Mom came over Wednesday (she always does for her birthday). She always comes over so that she can work in the garden. I wanted all the hard work and chores done with before she got here so that we could just have fun planting. I still had about 50 irises that needed to get into the ground from Aldersgate. Mom helped with that, moved a new found clematis to a new home, and planted annual seeds. Ethan just had a ball playing in the sand box and with his dump trucks outside. Before nap, Grandma had to read to Ethan.

I am so glad to be feeling better and back online!

Easter Joy

We had a blessed Easter! My first Easter Bible-Bash at church went as planned and was better than expected! The children had so much fun and the parents were totally blessed! From there we headed home for Ethan's nap. We couldn't wait for him to get up because Dave and I were so excited to get over to Mom and Dad's for Easter dinner. After we stuffed ourselves terribly, we went outside for the traditional Evans' egg hunt. This year was the first with just plastic eggs! Tammy was so kind to fill all the plastic eggs so that Ethan could have his hunt too.

Ethan found the same egg here last year.

After having a great time of fellowship with family, we went over to see Becca, Josh, and Sarah. We got to hang out for a bit before Ethan became too exhausted to do any more! We are still playing catch up...but it was worth it!

Ethan's First Zoo Trip

We still had tickets to the zoo from when I worked at the preschool last year. Since they expire next week and the weather was perfect, Becca and I planned a zoo trip for today! Ethan had a blast and was on his best behavior... for a two year old boy...

Here he is staring down a kid for wanting to pet "his" goat.

I loved when the goat picked up a stick and started eating it. Ethan was screaming, "No eating the stick!"

Ethan was so serious for most of the trip. He was computing it all.

I was so embarrassed. After lunch we gave Ethan some time on the grass to run around. Ethan ran right into a roped area up to two people sitting down. It was zoo personal giving someone an interview. She laughed and said to the guy she was interviewing, "Well, you are good with kids!" and pretended to scribble notes on the application. All Ethan kept on saying was, "Two people!"

This was way better than interrupting interviews.

Ethan watching the elephant walk back and forth.

I took so many photos to get this one. I just wanted the silhouette of Becca and Ethan. It was so sweet. Becca was asking Ethan how many hippos there were and right when I took the picture was when a kid next to them answered, "Two!" So, Becca and Ethan aren't even looking at each other in the photo!

Ethan looking at the Larakeets.

I had to take this picture with Ethan and the HUGE poster of Bob the Builder at the Children's Museum across the street from the zoo. I hope we can get to go before it closes in June.

Afterwards, we were driving by Dave's work during his lunch break and stopped. That made Dave's day since he had to work overtime and wouldn't see Ethan otherwise. When we came home, Ethan crashed and slept for a few hours. Which meant I got to play in the garden and mow my yard! What a beautiful day!

Our Week in a Nutshell

We haven't been doing too much over here. Ethan has been teething his two year molars; which could explain our week in a nutshell.

We have had fun with some new activities and this I think this one is Ethan's favorite so far. After we did our lesson, he was having a blast playing for a while at the table by himself.

Other than that, we have been just stuck in the house. It has been raining all week without stopping! The only glimpses we have had of spring has been the birds feeding from the feeder in the back yard. I love this time of year when the birds collect items in the yard for their nests. We will have to cut Ethan's hair this weekend and leave it in the grass for the birds. It would be cool to find a nest with Ethan's hair weaved into it! Or... is that gross?

Laughing Out Loud

Ok... I was laughing at myself last night. I was turning the lights out and I thought I saw this huge spider on the floor. So I started beating it with Dave's shoe. After beating it senseless, I saw that it was just a fly from our game earlier today. Ha!

Girls Day Out

Being a SAHM it is a treat to get out for some girl time! Last week was Sarah's birthday and her best friend, Christie, came from California for the celebrations. They invited me to join them for a girls day to lunch and loads of shopping!

Let's just say they whooped me! I haven't done mall walking like that since before Ethan was born! It was so much fun to window shop and help Sarah spend some birthday money on clothes! I found my new favorite store! Was so inspired by it that I have already created a top on my own! (I love Becca for letting me borrow her sewing machine!)

Here we are (minus Becca taking the picture of course) at the Woodburn Outlets. We went there after lunch, Bridgeport Mall, and then afterwards went to Becca's for a movie and yummy birthday cake! I got home at 11:30pm! All I have to say is that I need to do it more often! It was loads of fun! Thanks girls!

Photos of the Week

Here are some of our photos of this week's art projects. To see details of the projects go here.

Ethan stamping away!

Painting his little piggies... not his toes, the paper. ;)

We Love You Mom and Dad!

The day before yesterday was Mom and Dad's 36th anniversary! I had been planning something special for their day since October. When I was working on the family project for Thanksgiving and collecting photos for their book, they had mentioned that the wedding photo they let me borrow was the only one they had.

I took several boxes home of photos that Dave's grandma had in her home before she had passed away. Jack and Sharon had kept them in a closet and haven't been through them. When I opened one of them, the entire box was filled with negatives. All of the negatives were labeled from before she passed away to as far back as the early 1900's!

The best part was finding all the negatives to Mom and Dad's wedding! So I used Scan Cafe and had all the negatives scanned, restored, and put on a DVD for Mom and Dad!

These are my favorite two pictures of the wedding. You can just see the love in their eyes! I cropped these and made them black and white. I am so glad that I got a copy of the DVD too because now I have these pictures and can use them for any project, not worrying that I will hurt the original!

Mom and Dad of course... cried. Well, Mom cried and Dad kept on repeating, "You did good girl." It was so nice to bless them with pictures that they hadn't seen in 30 years!