Monday, April 30, 2012

Court Adjourned

Today, work welcomed me back with a "bang" to say the least. I was trying to catch up on all my work from last week, solve every problem that arose, prepare for my first court testimony, all while trying to cater to the state surveyors every need for 2 different units as they decided to grace us with their presence this morning.  For those that work in the health care field, you know that state surveyors are not the highlight of the year.  Its the dreaded time of year for every nursing facility. 

But with all of the chaos that arose today, the positive was that the day went by very fast and I'm proud to say that I survived my first court testimony.  And it wasn't as the least bit stressful as I had fully anticipated.  This was the highlight of my day, and one that I can write down as accomplished and not have to fear the next time around!

So that being said,  I'm not really in the blogging mood so I'm going to go hang with these two cuties...


Good Night!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sunny Sunday

Unlike yesterday, today the sun is shining and we love it.  Although it is in the low 50's and breezy, we still braved the chilly spring air and Bryleigh and I took our first walk around Lake Wazeecha this morning. Oh how I miss my morning walks around the lake.



Although it was a bit windy so I think I will have to wait for a couple more weeks to start the 4am walks with my mom around the lake.  This was our exercise last summer every morning before we would go to work.  Its a great way to start off the morning!

We are going to lay down for a quick afternoon nap and then head out to play some more before I have to go back to work tomorrow after my 6 days off.  It's going to be an adjustment getting back to an early morning routine!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Our Sunless Saturday

The weather today was chilly and rainy for the majority of the day. So that means that we were cooped up inside almost all day. This makes for some very antsy children who get into everything. This pretty much sums up our Saturday....


Well actually, this has been Bryleigh's newest form of entertainment for the past several days.  If she is quiet for more than 2 minutes, we can assume that she has found a creme or a lotion that she is slathering all over herself, floor, or whatever she decides.  Needless to say,  I finally learned my lesson today and as far as I know, all of the cremes and such should be out of Bryleigh's reach!


This afternoon, we just couldn't handle the indoors any longer so we bundled up and headed outside. Our friends eventually came over and we had a cookout and a fire.  It was exciting to finally use our fire pit again since the last time was 2 years ago before we built our new garage. 

As you can tell, we were really fed up with the kids today so we decided to hang them up on the swing set for awhile.  Just kidding, rest assured, I did help Christian down after I snapped a picture :)


Here are a couple pictures from the past couple of days...


Also,Bryleigh is loving learning her ABC's lately, so here is a short video of her singing...


Lastly, we had the kids professional pictures taken yesterday at Nieman Photography and I can't wait to see how they turned out. For weeks, I was so afraid of their behavior at our photo session because I was sure that their strong willed personalities would shine bright at the very moment I didn't want it to but thankfully, they were little models and did amazingly well.  It was great for our photographer, but bad for Mom and Dad's bank account :)  I'll be sure to share the photo's once we get them back! 

Friday, April 27, 2012

Bryleigh's Bowtique...All Things Girly

Most of you know that I make bows and tutu's and such for little girls but today I'm linking up to Kelly's Korner for Show us Your Life Friday.  Her topic this week is "Show us what you make or sell."  So if anyone is interested in layered boutique bows, tutu's, tutu dresses,  flower clips, pig tail bows, korker bows, and any other custom headband that you desire, you can visit my page on the right side bar or you can also visit my Facebook page at Bryleigh's Bowtique.  Most of my orders are custom designed so I usually post the finished products on my Facebook page as examples of what I can do and then you can let me know the colors and style you would like.

My newest creations are the bottle cap centers that I started making for my layered boutique bows and they are so fun!  I blogged about these this week on Things I Do.
So stop on by my shop anytime and I would love to create for more little beauties!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

See You Later

Today instead of saying "Good Bye" which is so final, I would like to say "See you Later" to Grandpa Bob.  He was such a great, caring, compassionate man. Bryan learned so much from Grandpa growing up.  Bryan was always so excited to show me around up north where he spent several years of his childhood.  I know how much being on Connors Lake with his grandparents meant to Bryan and this is something he will forever cherish.  The memories will live on forever!

I'm so happy that Grandpa was able to meet both our children!




Goodbyes are not forever.
Goodbyes are not the end.
They simply mean I'll miss you
Until we meet again!
~Author Unknown
We will love and miss you always Grandpa!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Things I Do

I am always thinking about crafty things to do and new bows to make.  But usually I work on the projects over time and get them done when I have a free moment. Well apparently, stress and grief make me want to be more crafty, probably to do something with my time instead of just think.  So the past couple of days, when we have not been with family, picking out flowers, or picking up our new camper (which I am so excited about using )...

I have also been making lots and lots of bows for my favorite people...Bryleigh and my nieces! My favorite to share with you all are the matching Camo Bows that I made to match the cute shirts I ordered from Remingtons Rad Designs whom I heard about through another blog friend, The Staats, and who also offered 10% off through the end of April on all orders. So when I received my order, I was so excited to start crafting.  Hopefully my sister is not reading this because this is a surprise for my newest niece's arrival in late August.(And Katie, if you are reading this, please do not tell me that you did and act surprised when you see it!  He He)
"Camo Cutie"

"I'm the pink in Daddy's Camo World"

"I'm the pink in Daddy's Camo World



I'm so excited for the many more cute matching bows that I will be creating for my 3 beauties!

As you can tell, my newest creations are the bottle cap bow centers that I have started making. They are so fun to create and add so much to my bows! Not to mention, the possibilities are endless to make matching bows for outfits...

Rockin" my Hairbows


Minnie Mouse
"B" for Bryleigh on her Minnie Mouse Bow
3 Layers

 And a new type of bow that I tried out...




I'm so grateful that my job offers a 3 day paid funeral leave. I am able to spent the much needed time with Bryan and the family as we go through this period of loss.  I have also been spending lots of cuddling time with kids...



We are struggling right now having to explain the concept of death to Christian right now.  I think I need to do some more research on how best to talk about it.  Christian is constantly learning about God and Heaven through school and home but it has always been an abstract concept to him.  So now, having to explain Grandpa being in Heaven, I thought Christian would be okay with it. But he actually got physically upset and distressed at the thought of dying and then he fixates on death and dying, asking many questions about it and if he is going to die. And stating that he doesn't want to.  I fear I am not explaining it properly and I also do not want to traumatize him.  I think to myself how do I explain that death isn't always happy but Heaven is amazing. It has got to be confusing for a child to grasp that concept.  So if any of my readers have any ideas on how best to explain, I would love to hear. 

On that note, we said good bye to Vita today. I'm happy that she is not suffering anymore but we will miss her!
Until next time...

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

When it Rains, It poors.

Not only are we grieving over the loss of Bryan's Grandpa, but today I found out that my parents have to put our family's cat down tomorrow.

 Vita has been apart of our family since I brought her home when I was in the 7th grade.  She was never a cuddly, sweet cat and she hated kids, but she was still our family pet.  She occasionally let you love up on her.  She has been going downhill for a bit now and what's so heart breaking is that since her health has deteriorated, she has become the lovable, cuddly cat.  Its almost as if she knows that its almost her time to go. She was even letting my niece lay her head on her the other day.  Its so hard to say good bye to loved ones and loved pets.  I just hate that we have to say good bye to 2 loved ones in a week. 

My parents are struggling with this so much right now so please lift them up in your prayers.  I know that times will get better and struggles always seem to come and "dump" on you all at one time, but right now we are just sad.


"Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim." ---Vicki Harrison

Sunday, April 22, 2012

A Day of Loss

This morning we received the bittersweet news that Bryan's Grandpa has gone to heaven to be with Jesus.  To us this was quite the shock as we had just visited him on Thursday evening and was his spunky old self.  The latest we had heard was that they were running tests to find out what exactly was going on with his weakness and kidney issues.  But this morning, God called him home.  We are in a state of shock and do not know all of the details but we hope to know more soon.  Right now there are many people surrounding Great Grandma and Grandma up north to comfort them as they were Grandpa's whole life.  We hope to know more information soon as we go through this difficult time.


John 14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
 

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Night out on the Town

Bryan and I dropped the kiddos off at Grandma and Grandpa's before naps yesterday so that we could make a day of our date night. We made our first stop in Madison at my all time favorite restaurant, Hu Hot Mongolian Grill.  Anytime we find one, I make Bryan take me.  Just the idea of being able to pick out all my own meat, veggies, and sauce and have someone grill it for me gets me all excited! And it was great, as usual...
We had planned to make a stop at the Johnson Creek premium outlet malls on the way to Milwaukee but we missed our exit and there wasn't another turn off for 10 more miles so we decided to skip it and see if we could find something else to do in Milwaukee.  We arrived in Milwaukee around 5 and found the Milwaukee Theater right away.  The only problem is that we are small town folks heading into a big city and have no idea how city life works.  So to put us in the middle of huge buildings, with tons of one way streets, and horrible traffic, we did not want to venture too far from where we needed to be at 9:30pm for the show. So after driving around for awhile, checking out a "mall" if you could call it that with only a food court and several stores, we decided to park and walk around.

It was freezing and had no idea where we were walking to but we did find a Starbucks and stop for a drink to warm up!

My big city followers are probably chuckling at me right now but I find the city amazing.  The views and big buildings are just so fun to look at. Even the car ramps are 8 stories tall.  You won't find that in my small town. Although I'm pretty sure that my hubby would not be able to stand me if we lived in a big city.  I played one heck of a good "back seat driver" as we were stuck in road construction and rush hour traffic only making it 3 miles in 45 minutes.  To say that I am too impatient for city driving would be an understatement!  So to all those that live in big cities, God Bless you because I plan to stick to my small town living!

After becoming bored at Starbucks, we found a hotel down the road that we ventured in to and I'm pretty sure that we were out of our element and financial class but we hung out for over an hour. The lobby had a bar/chocolate dessert buffet and a band.  We enjoyed it, and unfortunately I did not take any pictures because that would have definitely made me stick out.  I'm sure others would have been saying, "Look at that couple,  they probably could not afford to stay here in a million years! Quite the tourists, they are!"  Ha Ha.

We headed to the show at around 9 and fount our seats! I don't have a lot of pictures to share since no photography or video cameras were allowed during the show.  The Intro to Daniel Tosh was another comedian, Kyle Kinane. I found his jokes to be quite entertaining and I laughed quite a bit. But unfortunately, he was the best part of the show, in my opinion.


I've watched several comedians before and have always been quite entertained.  Mostly because they joke about themselves of family members and you can tell that its all in fun. I've watched Tosh.0 on Comedy Central with the hubby where he pokes fun at UTube videos, which most are ridiculously dumb, so its okay that jokes are being made about them. But what I was not expecting from this comedy show, were the controversial topics that Daniel Tosh joked about.  There were a few select jokes I chuckled at but most I did not. My goal was to have a great date night with the hubby and we did have a fun night away, and that's all that matters.  But unfortunately,  the jokes that Daniel Tosh made were just too crude and rude for me.  Bryan kept trying to inform me that they are jokes and he probably does not actually believe in what he is saying, but I just could not grasp it. 
The show ended at around 11:30pm and we made a mad dash for the car since we were on the highest floor of the parking garage.  We had assumed that traffic would be horrible and we still have another 3 hour drive ahead of us.  But traffic was find and we were out of town within a half hour.  I dozed in and out of sleep the majority of the ride home and we made it home by around 3am.  Very long day for us "old" people who are usually in bed by 9pm.

We slept in this morning until 10:30am.  I'm pretty sure that the last time that happened, I was still in high school.  The kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and were even excited to see us this morning.

Our community had the annual Children's Festival today at the high school so we took the kids over there.  The activities were the same as last weekend but it was a change of scenery for the kids. The favorite activity was again, the construction area.  Dad helped Christian build a bird house today and I helped Bryleigh build a doll bed!








We also skipped the inside activities since none of the kids wanted to color or do art projects, and we went  outside to play on the school bus, fire truck, garbage truck, and airplane.




We had quite an eventful day so far and now the kids are all tired out.  Staying up til 11pm with Grandma and Grandpa and then more activities this morning, made for two very tired, cranky kids. But before I wrap this up, I have to share a funny story:

After I dropped Christian off at school yesterday, Bryleigh and I ran to Walmart to grab a few things. On our way out, I buckled Bryleigh in her car seat, shut the door, and hear a "beep beep" noise. My first thought was, "Oh no, I locked my keys in the car, with Bryleigh in it."  I look in my purse and around the outside of the car for my keys and don't see them.  I peek my head in the backseat and Bryleigh has my keys and she is smiling at me as she is pressing the "lock" button on the key.  So the next 5 minutes are spent with me trying to persuade Bryleigh to push the "unlock" button while she continues to press the "lock" and "trunk" buttons. And if you are picturing a little sassy 2 year old with a little smirk on her face pushing buttons while Mom is all in frantic wondering how I am going to get in my car...your mental picture is exactly right.  I had many giggles come my way from passing shoppers as they hear my bribing my daughter.  Luckily, she finally did let me in and it makes for one great story to tell, but I will be more aware of where I put my keys from now on!  But how can you get frustrated with this little rascal... with her boo boo bunny after she got an "owie"! 

The never ending stories of motherhood continue :)