A Weekend at Home...Finally

Last Tuesday was an exciting evening for Evangeline.  She was given her recital costume at dance practice.  She has been waiting for weeks and weeks to get it.  She got to try it on and wear it during the class time.  She could not wait to come home and show her Daddy!  The costume is aptly titled "Sunflower Babe".

It has been a lazy Saturday here at the Hutson home.  We needed lazy after the past couple of weeks.  I was awoken at 6:30 this morning by a little person in my face asking me if it was waffle time.  Breakfast with Evangeline is one of big things I miss about being a stay-at-home mom.  She is in such a good mood in the mornings.  She is so talkative and just such a little joy to be around.  She loves to help me bake.  She has gotten pretty good at pouring the ingredients into a bowl and mixing gently enough to where the ingredients aren't flung from the bowl.  She likes to learn and participate in most everything I do.  

This child is such a piece of work.  She just hams it up constantly.  She loves the days when she gets to stay home with Mommy and Daddy.

Later in the morning Kyle took E.B. to Lincoln Trail to play and walk around in the woods.  It is amazing what this mama can get accomplished with just one hour by myself, too much coffee and perhaps a pinch of ADHD.  I folded several loads of laundry, changed Evangeline's sheets, spruced up her room, loaded and started the dishwasher, put away a ton of clothes, washed up the table tops, put away things in the kitchen, tidied up the laundry room... in short made our house just a tad less disgusting than it was.  

My birthday is coming up.  I don't think I will ever reach a point where I don't like my birthday.  I like the time of year and I like the memories my birthday evokes   I also like to hear from people that I don't hear from too often.  I got a beautiful flower arrangement today from my father-in-law and Karen. They always brighten my birthdays with a gorgeous bouquet (and every other big day and holiday for that matter). 

Aren't they lovely.

My friend Maria is the florist in town that we patron.  When I told Evangeline that Maria was going to be stopping by she giggled and said "like Anna Maria and Samuel Whiskers?" (The Tale of Samuel Whiskers). I said, "no, like the Maria from church.

After Evangeline caught wind that my birthday was coming up she set to work making me a surprise out of her "assessories" (as she calls them).  She is such a thoughtful little one.

Here is another early gift that I am particularly excited about.  Beatrix Potter and knitting...two things I adore coming together.  This is a fun book to thumb through.  It's just beautiful and very inspiring.  Evangeline loves to look at it too.  She knows the characters and already has plans for some things she would like me to make for her.  (Thanks for the book, Mommy!)

This is one of Evangeline's latest illustrations.  It's a snowman with a snowflake nose underneath a rainbow. 

And speaking of artwork...our little darling has been getting up in the wee hours to go "bumpy".  Then she finishes out her night's sleep in the coach.  Lately she has been up at the crack of dawn and has been doing who-knows-what.  We find her playing, coloring, changing her clothes.  It's been a little unnerving, but that's another story...  One particular morning last week Kyle woke up to find her coloring.  She had gotten out her Christmas coloring stickers and was busy coloring them at the table.  This wouldn't have been such a big deal until Kyle gave her permission to stick them all over the window.  A few days later when I decided it was time for them to go I realized that Goo-Gone will be needed in order for them to be removed.  I guess it will just have to look a little like Christmas in the dinning room for a few more weeks...

How festive. 

Out With the Old and In With the New

Let me see...it has been busy, busy, busy around here.  I think I've seen my friends more in the past couple months than I saw them all last year!  It's been nice, but boy has the house work been piling up!  Last weekend Mom and I went to Indy for Jess' shower.  It was nice and relaxing.  We just chatted, ate lots of appetizers and drank some tasty wine.  In addition to seeing my friends, it was nice to spend a few hours with Mom.  We topped off the day with a little shopping.

We have been in the final stages of the selling of our Carbondale house.  It's embarrassing to say, but we still had so much stuff there to get out before we close.  Really, since we didn't miss it for over a year it should all just be sent to the Goodwill, but much of it is stuff that will be nice to have when we buy a house.  Better to hoard it away now that have to go buy it again I suppose.... So Kyle and I drove down last Sunday to try to cram our car as full as we could.  Even with a stop at the Goodwill we had to leave some things behind that just would not fit in the car.  Mostly things like my flower pots and my trash can.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but I loved my flower pots, and man, what a great trash can.  Maybe Kyle can swing by and pick some of it up before he goes to the closing.
It was bittersweet to say goodbye to the old homestead.  I took a big walk down memory lane before I left the place for the last time.  So many memories in that tiny little house on Carter Street...Kyle carrying me over the threshold in late May, 2007,  the endless trips to and from SIU for school,  walking my doggies around the neighborhood,  cuddling with little Rocky as he basked in the sunny spots,  hosting pot-luck dinners with our amazing friends,  turning a whole garden bed at 7 months pregnant, bringing my baby home from the hospital, playing in the yard with my toddler, introducing our visiting friends and family to the weirdness that is Carbondale.  I will really miss our beautiful Japanese Maple in the front of our home that was nearly obliterated when one of our front trees fell inches from our house.  We got so much enjoyment from it's pink buds in the springtime, red leaves in the summer and fall and all the Downy Woodpeckers and Chickadee's that ate from our bird feeder.  I will also miss the 4:00 sunlight that poured into the house every afternoon.  We had wonderful neighbors too.  Our neighbors were like our family in that town....Yes, saying goodbye was bittersweet, but Kyle and I decided that when Carbondale is done with you, it is done with you.  We were done with it too.  We sure do love our life in Marshall.

I don't know if it's the warmer weather, the thought that I only have 17 more school days before summer vacation, or if it's just one of my kicks, but my mind has been racing from one crafty idea to the next.  A week or so ago we were at Dad's house and I raided his linen closet for old sheets.  I was thinking of all the yardage in one pair of sheets and all the things I could make from them.  Besides, there is nothing quite like a good old pair of worn sheets.

There was something about the smell of sheets fresh out of Dad's linen closet that reminded me of my childhood, so of course I had to snuggle with them on the couch a couple of nights before I started cutting into them. 

Aren't the pretty!  They just don't make 'em like they used to.

 

Here is a picture of a few of the things I've made so far...matching pajama pants for me and my bug. My mom said that these were some of the sheets my parents received for their wedding.  I was happy to be able to breath new life into these dandies!

Woodland Romps and Other Weekend Adventures

Yesterday my dear friend Lesley was inducted into the Terre Haute South Hall of Distinction.  I was ever so proud of her.  She is the living example of following a dream no matter how big.  As long as I've known the girl she has wanted to be a Disney animator and she has stopped at nothing to achieve her goal.  There was a special ceremony at the Country Club last night for the new inductees.  All of my high school friends were there.  It is always so nice to catch up with the old crew.

I also need to mention that we may have sold our house!!!  We are in the last few weeks before closing so we are really holding our breath.  Kyle and Wayne went down yesterday and packed up the last of our belongings still left in the house.  Our garage here in Marshall has shrunk considerably since yesterday afternoon, but what a relief!

After church today we went down into the woods by our house to look for mushrooms.  We were really hopeful that we would find some with all the rain and mild temperatures we've been having, but there was not one to be found.  Grandma Esta always told me to look around the May Flowers. There were plenty of those, so maybe next time we check we will have better luck.

Evangeline was really into mushroom hunting even though she had no idea what she was looking for.

This little girl was fearless.  She was scouring tree trunks and making her way through brier patches like an old pro.  She didn't let the fact that she was wearing her Mary Jane's stop her one little bit.

She even made her way toward her Daddy as fast as she could when she heard him say "hey, there's a snake".  

I found a tick crawling in her hair and she barely could be bothered to hold still long enough for me to get it off of her.  Although, she did make this face when she heard a bee buzzing behind her, but she quickly recovered and excitedly reminded me that bee's were signs of spring.

After I gave up my fruitless search for mushrooms for the day I started toward Kyle and Evangeline.  I found this precious sight....

She had decided to plop down in a bed of May flowers and pick a bouquet.  

Once she decided we had enough she was ready to go back up the hill to the house to find Daddy.

Let me just say it was a lot easier getting down the hill rather than back up.  It is a really steep incline riddled with brambles.  Evangeline was a better trooper than I was about climbing the hill...maybe because she was being carried.  So I had her, her bouquet and a ball that we found that had bounced down the hill.  This mama needs to start working out.

At any rate, we Hutsons are really enjoying this warmer weather.  Kyle has been reunited with the fishing pools, which were stored in Carbondale, and he gave them a whirl later this afternoon at Lincoln Trail.

I took Evangeline down to the lake after she rested.  She was very excited for her first fishing experience. Her method was to reel it in as soon as the line hit the water.  That was a real thrill.

I think Kyle was hoping for better luck with the fish than we had with mushrooms, but when I asked Evangeline if they caught anything she told me, "all we caught were worms".

Welcome Spring!

We finally had some real spring weather last week!!  It started to warm up just a little on Friday.  Kyle and I decided that we could have a fire in the pit and surprise Evangeline.  She has been so into camping.  I think I remember they had a little unit at Miss Linda's back in the fall where they talked about camping and since then she talks about it a lot.  She got a book a couple months back called Ladybug Girl and Bingo go Camping.  It's about a little girl that dresses in a tutu and goes camping with her family.  Evangeline was just mesmerized.   That would be one of her dreams come true.  So anyway, I picked her up from preschool and told her that we were going to have a campfire and make S'mores.  She was so excited that she wanted to go back to Miss Linda's and tell her friends about it.  Of course we didn't, but we did invite Ammie to join us.  We had lots of fun that night.

When we left church on Sunday we walked outside to weather that was clear up in the 70's with not a cloud in the sky.  Wow, I needed the sunshine.  It was amazing how good I felt all day.  Every moment was spent outside.  We played...

 

We painted out toenails...

We ate our lunch outside and I even did all of my lesson plans for the week outside.  Kyle cleaned out and washed the cars.  We organized our garage.  It's amazing what some sunshine and warm weather can do for a person.  

This is us saying "spppprrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg"!

My baby brother turned 30 on April 5th.  We celebrated at Sushi Umi with my dad, mom, Kyle, Evangeline,  Zachary and Candice.  Evangeline was hamming it up as usual.  She loves to "read" the Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Here she is "reading" it to Uncle Zach at his birthday dinner.

They adore each other.

Can't believe my little bro is 30.  He has really grown into an amazing man.  I'm so proud of the kind and loving person he is.  I love the wife he chose.  It is such a joy to observe him and Candice together.  It's so evident that they love each other so much.  She is a wonderful addition to our family.  Zachary is such a hard worker.  He has really bloomed at his company.  He has worked his way up to a rather high position and was even sent to Japan last month.  His employers think a lot of him.  He has not always made life easy on himself, but he has overcome all of the bumps in the road and really made something wonderful of his life.  Anyway, I love him.  I wish him another year of blessings, good health and happiness...and many, many more after that.  It is a privilege and blessing to get to share my whole life with a person like him.

For the past several years mom and I have gone to Greencastle, IN for the annual Fiber Frolic, a fairground full of all things to do with fiber arts.  Each time I go it's almost too much for me to handle...just so full of inspiration!  Sadly this year we missed it.  Mom had an Autism convention in Indy on Saturday so Friday was our only day to do it.  I picked up Evangeline after school and we met mom at her house.  We loaded in her car set off.  About two blocks away from her house we realized that it was only open until 7 and there was no way we were going to make it in time.  After getting over our disappointment we decided we had better go shopping instead.  It turned out to be a very fun girls night.  We all three got some spring clothes and then went to dinner together.

Love my two best girls.

Easter Sunday

Evangeline could not contain her excitement on Easter morning.  She got up and laid out her whole Easter outfit.  She ate breakfast and got her bath with little complaint.  Anyone who made eye contact with her at church was greeted with a twirl and a pose. 

The Easter Bunny came to our house while we were at church.  



Checking out her new cup with the secret snack compartment. 

The Easter Bunny didn't leave too much junk food this year.  Just a chocolate bunny.  She also got a picture Bible, a kite, flip flops and a few little accessories.  She was ready to fly her kite that very instant. 

That afternoon we went to Papa and Karen's house for the big Hutson Easter celebration/Savannah, Ira and Wanda's birthday party.  It was a big day.

There were more Easter baskets....

more Easter egg hunts....

and more fun with the cousins.

Always with the poses.

Easter Warm Up

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  On Saturday morning we dyed Easter eggs.  Evangeline had been excited all week about this activity.

It was a thrill to drop in the little color tablets and listening to them "hiss".  

She chose all the colors.  

And she was mostly careful when dropping in the eggs.

Gently she placed them on the box to dry.

She was ever so proud of the end result! 

Later that afternoon we went to my dad's house for a little Easter celebration Walters style.  It's a smaller crowd without my beloved Aunt Jeanne, but she is always with us in our thoughts and conversation.  It was also a little smaller because Candice couldn't be there.  We missed her too.

The typical scene at Daddy's house...plants, pottery and signs of a delicious meal shared.

Evangeline had a bonus Easter egg hunt with Grandma and Uncle Zachary in Daddy's front yard. 

She loves to point out "signs of spring" and I showed her how I used to stamp them when I was little, the way my mom taught me.