I took this picture one night before we sat down to eat dinner. It just made me laugh to see all of the sauces we had out! There's hot fry sauce, yum-yum sauce, BBQ sauce, ranch, mustard, and salad dressing. And I'm about 99% sure we probably got out one more ranch bottle after this picture was taken! You know because all the ranch dressing taste different and one kid likes one brand of ranch and the other kids likes the other brand of ranch! So if you ever need a condiment, stop by our house!
Lucy had her dance recital a few weekends ago and did such a great job! It was so fun to watch Lucy dance. She really is a good dancer! She's so very graceful, has all her moves down perfectly, and smiled the whole time! Her dance class was a ballet and jazz class so she did two dances. Her jazz dance was to a song called "Zero to Hero" and her ballet dance was to a song called "Put On A Happy Face." I got a front-row seat to watch her dance, too! I volunteered to help backstage during the recital, so when she was on stage, I got to sit in the front row and watch! It was a fun experience and I am so very proud of Lucy and her dancing abilities!
I really wish I didn't have a picture like this to share, but I do! It's of all the face masks we have at our house, and this isn't even all of them! It's Lucy's, Molly's, and some new ones I had to buy for Ross since he needed some for his new job. The three masks I rotate between are in my car and the masks the girls already wore this week aren't pictured, either.
But, as much as I hate this picture and hate wearing masks, I'll do it if it means we can go places and the girls can go to school! I just really hope masks won't be required when school starts again in the fall! I am so very thankful, though, that the girls have done a fantastic job with wearing their masks at school. They never complain about it and sometimes I have to remind them to take it off once they get into the car after school!
The girls both have sleeping masks and they actually sleep with them on their face! I check on them each night before I go to bed and I'm always so surprised and tickled to see the masks over their eyes and them fast asleep! I have no idea if they stay on all night, but they do for at least a couple of hours!
Each year I plant flowers in the pots on my front porch and in the flower bed area in the ground. Each year I also think about buying new pots for the porch and finally went through with it this year! I like the new pots and think they look good and are definitely a little more modern than what we had before. I do different flowers each year and this year decided to go with red, pink, and white pansies for the porch pots, along with a spike thing and some ivy. I can't wait to see them grow and fill out! I had some flowers from Wanda that I put in the pots on the side of the garage and think they will look great, too!
I planted $2.97 mums from Walmart in the flowerbed areas, hoping to have the same luck with these as I did last year! The picture below is from my mums last October. These purple mums started just like the tiny mums I have planted this year that you can see in the pictures below. I was so impressed with how much they grew and I so hope the same happens this year!
2021 flowers:
I've been our PTA secretary for the last two years and have really enjoyed it. We host several events during the year, although this year hasn't been normal due to Covid. One event that we were able to do this year was Teacher Appreciation Week. This is a nationwide thing and is the first full week of May. The PTA provides meals and snacks each day of the week for the teachers and staff and we also pick a theme for the week and try to do decorations as much as possible. This year we chose and Olympics theme since the summer Olympics will be held this year. I love our theme and love how we decorated! This is the teacher's lounge where we set up all our food for the week. One lady on our PTA board is an artist and she drew the eagle (because we are the Horace Mann Elementary Eagles) in the picture at the bottom. I'm so impressed with her talent!
One thing we thought was really funny....If you notice in the first picture below there's boxes that say 2, 1, 3. These are supposed to be podiums you would stand on when getting your medal at Olympic medal ceremonies. We provided breakfast items in the picture below and we placed some Pop-Tarts on the #1 podium, muffins on the #2 podium, and little chocolate and powdered donuts on the #3 podium...as if to say the Pop-Tarts win the gold medal! We just thought that was too funny and had some funny comments about it, too! I really enjoy my work with PTA and look forward to being the PRESIDENT for the next two years!!!
Larry and Wanda came to visit the weekend of May 1-2 to celebrate Lucy and Ross' birthday. The came on May 1, which is May Day and Wanda brought us May Day flowers and yummy cookies! It was such a nice treat and everything looked so good. I remember bringing May Day baskets to our neighbors when I was a little girl and always enjoyed that. I've meant to do that with my kids, but it always seems to sneak up on me. Maybe next year!
Ross is so handy! I've written about this before and now have more of his handy work to share! A few weeks ago we saw a small clip from a home improvement show that had a wall similar to our fireplace wall. On the show they put shiplap on the wall all the way up to the ceiling above the mantle. I really liked the way it looked and told Ross we should do the same. He agreed and started looking into it. He found the boards were fairly inexpensive and realized it would be pretty easy to do, so he did it!
He bought the shiplap boards, measured, cut, nailed the to the wall and just like that we had an updated family room wall! I think it looks so nice! It updates our family room and lightens it up a bit, too. We've had these walls painted this brown color ever since a few months after we moved in and really like the color. It is a little dark, so the white going up the wall really helps it. Ross plans to redo the tile around the fireplace to update it. I can't wait for this to be done because it really looks dated now! Good job, Ross! I'm really proud of your work!
Ross has a new job!! As of May 3, he is now a Rate and Fuels Analyst for City Utilities here in Springfield. He was at his previous job at KPM CPAs and Accountants working as an Auditor for 3 1/2 years. He did like his job at KPM, but wasn't fond of the travel and lack of benefits, and has been wanting to find another job for over a year. He has heard very good things about City Utilities and watched and watched their website for job postings that would fit his skill set. In March he saw the Rates and Fuels Analyst position was posted and applied for it right away. He has a few friends who work at City Utilities and they put in a good reference for him. He had an interview on April 2 and then got the call on April 12 that they wanted to hire him! He was beyond excited and of course said yes!
Ross' coworkers took him to lunch on his last day there and also surprised him with some treats and two giant cookie cakes! He really appreciated that! Ross did a fantastic job finishing up his work at KPM and was told by their HR manager and a few people in his department that he would always be welcome back at KPM. I think that speaks wonders to his character and work ethic! Ross is such a good employee. He does a good job and always get the work done, no matter what. I'm so very excited for him and this new position!
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| First day at KPM, October 9, 2017. |
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| Last day at KPM, April 20, 2021. |
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| First day at City Utilities, May 3, 2021. |
I had a very, very nice Mother's Day! It was filled with lots of special surprise presents and my family definitely made me feel special! Molly made a flower pot present for me at school and I just love it so much! She came home with it on Thursday and wanted me to open it right away instead of waiting until Sunday! The girls and Ross gave me one of my favorite drinks, flowers, and a garden gnome and bunny! I love the gnomes and am excited to add it to the other gnome my Gramma gave me! The church gave each child a little flower bouquet to give to their mom that Sunday and the flowers I received were so very pretty! My parents came to church with us and then over for breakfast and we took some pictures before they left. My dad also made me a robin birdhouse (which I don't have a picture of, but will soon) and I look forward to putting it up on our tree outside.
In the afternoon while I took a nap, Lucy worked on a special present for me! She made me a drawing on her canvas frame and also made a book saying all the reasons why she loved me. It was such a special gift! I love the details she put into it. It was just the best Mother's Day!
