Easter

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, 

not in books alone, 

but in every leaf in spring-time. 

~Martin Luther

We had a relaxing morning at home, egg hunting and enjoying our easter baskets. Then headed to my Mom's for an early dinner with family. It was a beautiful day.

Little Moments - Mixer

My boyfriends Mom bought a brand new Kitchen Aid mixer and sent me her old one!! It was like Christmas in April when it arrived on my front porch! With my oven not working, I haven't been able to bake but I still use it all the time. So far my favorite use is to shred chicken and mix ground meat for burgers (I usually mix half beef and half turkey for our burgers with an egg and breadcrumbs plus whatever seasoning we want). I have wanted one for years, I love it.

House Edition - Insulation

I got phone call from an unrecognized number one afternoon and a very fast speaking lady was on the other end of the line. She introduced herself and her company and told me the two of my friends, Derrek & Ali had referred them to me.

She explained that her company, Energy Savers, will come out to your house and perform an energy audit of the insulation in your house and use the power and gas companies rebates to pay for additional insulation if your house qualifies.

I was skeptical but agreed to set up a time they could come to the house. Then immediately texted my friend to make sure it was legitimate . Turns out he was referred by his boss who had already done this at his home with great success.

Their technician showed up and checked both of our attic spaces, took some measurements, and explained the process to us. He had a breakdown of the different R values of insulation and being that my home was built in 1965, there are certainly better options now 50 years later.  We could have increased the insulation to just what is required now-a-days and it would have been free with the rebates through the utility companies, but we opted to get the max possible and it was only $110 out a pocket.

The next step was to set up a full energy audit with the utility company because they had to see what we have before signing off on some major rebate checks.  It was a really neat experience. The utility company performed a 'blower door test' where a high powered fan sucks all the air out of your house... you then walk around and can feel with your hand where the air is pulling from to find drafts. Doors, light switches, it was a great way to find all those pesky drafts so we could take care of them on our own.

Energy Savers was great. They were friendly and professional and left my house free of insulation debris (some parts can be a little messy). The paperwork they left had clear instructions and 3 stamped, self addresses envelopes to send the rebate checks to them as they were mailed to me over the next 6 weeks. Everything went just as they said it would. I have since referred by mom to them and she now has new insulations also. I'm looking forward to comparing my gas and electric bills next year.

Little Moments - It wasn't me

We bought Copper a really nice dog bed last year. He thought it was a toy. One of the stuffed animal nature. I spent an hour stitching it up when he was left unsupervised with it. For the longest time, it was kept in the living room for him to lay on when we were in the room with him.

Since he seemed to have lost interest in ripping it up, we thought we would try putting it in his kennel. Day one was fine and I was happy for him. I'm sure the memory foam dog bed was more comfortable than a few blankets. This, however, is what I came home to on day two:

Jackson - Happy 11th Birthday!

I always plan to have a fun little surprise as soon as my kids wake up on their birthdays. It makes a great start to their special day. Jackson's celebration started the night before his birthday. After he fell asleep, 'Operation: Fill Birthday Boy's Room with Balloons' began. Ashleigh and I blew up balloons to scatter around his room for a fun surprise when he woke up. It was late and we may have been light headed from all the 'hot air' but it was hard to sneak into his room without waking him up with all the giggling.

 Ash wrapped this about 8 times, each layer was a different type of wrapping paper!

Jackson had really gotten into Pokemon again, after finding out a lot of his friends at school play. He got lots of new cards, trading boxes, sleeves and a new binder to organize them into.

Russ' parents watching Jackson open the gifts from them (they live in Iowa)

 Jackson got to split part of his birthday with us and part with his Dad. So before heading to his Dad's we stopped for my part of his birthday gift. We went to Scheels and he got to pick out new arrows and targets for his bow. We ran into some 'wild animals' while we were there and even had time for a little fishing!

Stinky skunks

Jackson at 11:

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite animal? Wolf

What is your favorite food? Steak

What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know

What is your favorite book?

What is your favorite song? Some Nights by Fun

What is your favorite TV show? Don't have one

What was your biggest accomplishment this last year? Wining a trophy in Lego Robotics

What is your favorite season? Spring or Winter Why? Because it's cold in winter and spring because it's not super hot or super cold and it's my birthday

Where would you most like to go for vacation? A foreign country

What is your favorite thing to do? Playing video games with my friends

Where do you like to go for dinner? Somewhere with a good burger

Who is your best friend? John

___________________________

My Mom always does a special activity with my kids for their birthdays. I love that every year they have a new special memory instead of a gift they will out grow or eventually forget about.

This year, his birthday date was a surprise coupled with a sleepover. He absolutely loved spending night at grandmas. He got special treatment and got the guest bedroom to himself. They stayed up late watching a favorite tv show, then his favorite breakfast in the morning. They rode the horses, collected eggs from the chickens, and he learned how to drive their 4-Wheeler!

His surprise was trip to an indoor archery range!! He LOVED it, and was quite a hit with some of the other people there. He's getting to be quite the little expert.

Little Moments - Car selfies

Ashleigh likes to take pictures in the car. She loves photography but I think she's just finding a way to entertain herself when she is bored. It's not uncommon to randomly hear, "Mom.. smile".