Oh, Evangeline

At church one of the KFC volunteers, Mr. Ross (our former school superintendent), told me that he had a story for me...he told me that last Wednesday the kids were doing a craft that involved glue.  When he saw Evangeline she had a big bloop of goo on her leg.  Thinking it was glue he took his finger and swiped it off.  She giggled and told him that she had sneezed.  His face as he told me this story was priceless.  I thought that was so classic Evangeline considering she is infamous for sneezing gigantic sneezes all over the place and then just freezing up and letting the goo fall until someone either cleans it up for her, or she is made to do it herself.  She's such a little lady...

This is how my little lady spend her days after school.  She's such a trooper.  She's pretty good at entertaining herself with her little teacher's kid friends, and all the stuff she can get into in my classroom.

Kyle came to read to Evangeline's class again for Rotary Readers.  She loves it when Daddy comes!

 

Last week Evangeline's teacher got seriously ill and had to have emergency bowl surgery.  She will be out for at least a month of school (maybe even the rest of the school year).  I was so sad for Mrs. Reynolds.  She will be seriously missed for the time she's gone.  We've been praying each night for her recovery.  Evangeline said that she wished she could send her a Ranch salad to cheer her up, since that's what she always eats for lunch.  Thankfully Kelly Lindly is filling in for her in her absence.  I was worried about who they would get for a sub since our district is in such demand.  Kelly is a retired 2nd grade teacher and also happens to be Evangeline's Sunday School teacher and we both know her very well.  She's fantastic and has a heart of gold.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this yet or not, but Louie, Evangeline's music teacher, gave Evangeline a keyboard to use in addition to her fiddle.  She got supper obsessed with it and has kind of put the fiddle on the back burner for the keyboard.  Now when she goes to her music lesson every other week they concentrate on the keyboard.  She's really getting good.  We usually set the kitchen timer for her each day and she practices for 10 minutes.  She's got at least 4 songs under her belt and can play all of them on both hands.  Her new assignment is to learn to play Mary Had a Little Lamb with both hands at the same time, one hand with the melody and one hand with cords accompanying the melody. 

 

We bought some foam curlers last week and the results are just too adorable.  She's great about letting me put them in.  She even slept in them one night last week.  It's so funny when we take them out because her hair is coiled up in the tightest little ringlets.  She looks like a little old lady.  After we spritz them with water and touch them up with the curling iron the look is darling.  She even told me she had received 159 comments on her hair when she wore her curls to school last week.  These pictures were taken before church this morning.  One of these days I'll get a picture of the results.  

 

I have a bag of old costume jewelry broaches that belonged to my great aunt Dorothy.  Evangeline absolutely loves to spread them all out and look through them.  She always likes to pick one out to wear on the days she wears a cardigan to school.  She is definitely my child...cardigans and old broaches.  I've trained her well.
 

Evangeline enjoys telling me to "watch and learn".  She comes up with the most random little sayings.  The other day she said, "my mother always said, 'whenever there's some good music, bumpy to it'".  I can assure you I never said that. 

I always go in and give Evangeline a kiss when she has indoor recess before I leave for lunch.  It never fails, she's at her seat drawing, making a book or doing some kind of art/craft activity.  Sometimes there are other children around doing the same thing, but other times it's just her.  I asked her if she plays with her friends at indoor recess and she says "no, they always want to play zoo and I want to make books." 
As I stalk...I mean watch Evangeline from my window at outdoor recess I notice that she's becoming a tad more social on the playground, which is great.  Usually she is on the same swing just a'swingin' away until the bell rings, when she practically throws herself to the ground in a panic and races for the line.
She still likes to play with a few of her little friends from preschool even though she hasn't seen them much in the past couple months.  They are in different classes and we've had months of indoor recess.  Now that the weather is turning a little warmer we've been back to outdoor recess.  I've lately noticed her playing a lot with a certain little girl in her class that sits at the same table as Evangeline.  For the first half of the year Evangeline would always come home with stories about how Mrs. Reynolds always had to take this girl's apple (their reward/discipline system).  The other day I asked Evangeline if this little girl is making good choices now and Evangeline said, "she's trying really hard to be good.  She's practicing." 

We had our annual church Easter egg hunt over the weekend.  Last year we were wearing short sleeves, this year we were wearing winter coats!! 

 

 

A Pregnancy Post

Why is this a pregnancy post?  Because it's 1:36 A.M. (on a work night mind you), the time I usually wake up at night, totally and completely stuffed up.  I've had some serious pregnancy sinusitis this time around, which is not fun for anyone in my household.  After waking up at this obnoxious time, I typically spend about 30 minutes or so blowing my nose, using saline spray and sneezing.  This routine then results in my spending another hour or more wide awake.  By this point Kyle has typically relocated to either the couch or Evangeline's bed (whichever is available), and Evangeline can be found out on the couch (not because of my nose issues, but because she still refuses to quit "bumpy-ing").  Maybe so much time has past that I've forgotten a lot of the inconveniences of being pregnant, but this time seems to have a few extra annoyances I didn't have with my first pregnancy.
 
On the positive side, I finally got to hear this little one's heart beat for the first time at my doctor's appointment last week.  I won't break out all the medial terms the doctor used to explain why, but essentially she has never been able to find the beat with her Doppler machine because of where things are positioned in my abdomen this time around, but now that my belly is quite round she's able to cram her little Doppler wand under my ribs in just the right spot to pick it up.  Doctor James predicted not only that the baby is a boy, but also that he's going to be a little stinker.  Yikes.

Last month, because she couldn't pick up the heart beat, I got a bonus ultrasound.  That was cool because I could actually see the baby kicking and moving it's sweet little arms and legs.  The first time I saw him/her at 5 weeks, the baby was only a pulsing dot.  After my last appointment though, things have really started to feel like a reality.  I actually came home and started knitting a baby blanket for this little one.  I've been really into neutral yarns in the past few years.  This blanket is kind of a variegated grayish tan with cream strips.  Even though Evangeline is convinced this baby is a boy, she was concerned the baby wouldn't like it if it is a girl because it doesn't have an pink in it.
 
I'm going to find out the gender of the baby at my ultrasound appointment next week.  I'm looking forward to not referring to the baby as "it".  I'm also excited because they've scheduled my ultrasound for a Saturday so Kyle and Evangeline can both go with me.  Evangeline has been at my side for every single appointment.  It's been fun to involve her with all the developments.  We have a tradition that no matter which one of us has the doctor's appointment, if we've been a good girl, we go get ice cream afterwards. 

Erin Go Bragh

You can always count on Dad's yard to produce your first official sings of spring!  Evangeline and I stopped off to pick up Dad on our way to the Terre Haute St. Patrick's parade.  What fun! 

 

 

Evangeline was, um...fortunate enough to have been the recipient of this dandy little noise maker at the parade.  It provided lots of fun until it broke.  There were tears, but only a few.  Happily there was a humongous bag of candy waiting to cheer her up.  Dad and I were laughing because she was being choosy about what candy she picked up at the parade this year.  She left the Double Bubble laying where it fell letting us know it was "hard as a rock".  You can afford to be selective at the St. Patrick's parade.  A kid does not want for candy there, that's for sure. 

     

 

The brief warm snap we had was food for the soul.  Especially when it hit the mid-70's on Monday.  Unfortunately Evangeline woke up vomiting that morning.  I stayed home from school with her.  The good news was, it didn't last long and she was back to her old self at about 10:30 in the morning.  We took it easy for the first half of the day, but that afternoon was mostly spent outside.  She told me that she sure picked a good day to be sick.  It's true, she did.

 

We had a little St. Patrick's party on the 17th.  In addition to myself, it consisted of Evangeline, Kyle and Peggy.  We had beef Irish stew and cheddar Irish soda bread biscuits.  I got the recipes from a Shnuck's cookbook from Carbondale.  They used to hand them out every quarter or so.  I can't seem to part with them.  There are many things I've wanted to try.  This meal was one of them.  We've been eating it for days now and I'm glad to move on.

One more cute picture...Here is Evangeline, my little imp, at the book fair at school on St. Patrick's Day. 

Bakin' and Makin'

Maybe it's this extra hour of daylight in the evenings...or perhaps it's the fact that the snow is melting and we can finally see the ground, but I feel like spring is finally in the air.  We've been doing some spring cleaning along with starting and finishing projects.  Evangeline's feeling inspired too, I think.  She's a big help, and boy, she really loves to clean the windows...

Evangeline has quite the vocabulary.  One word I'm noticing her use a lot is weary.  She always tells me she's weary of something when she's over it. 

Evangeline:  "You know why I'm glad I'm a human?....So I can breath." 

She uses the eeny-meeny-miny-moe method whenever faced with a decision.  It doesn't matter how big or small the situation, this is her go to solution. 

For a family with not one ounce of known Irish heritage, I always love all things Irish this time of year.  This month there's been lots Celtic music, Irish soda bread and Irish butter.  I found a really good recipe for Irish soda bread that seemed more luxurious than other soda bread recipes I've seen.  It had caraway seeds, orange peel, etc...really very good. 


I enjoyed my bread and tea with a little girl that's been looking very grown up lately. 

I finally finished this doll I've been making Evangeline for months now.  She named her Lizzy.  Lizzy's dress matches one of the dresses I made Evangeline last year out of an old bed sheet.  My plan was to make a few dresses for Lizzy to match some of Evangeline's dresses, but my goodness, this doll and her tiny little dresses were a nightmare to make.  I don't think there was one enjoyable thing about the process.....oh, unless you count Evangeline's reaction to the finished doll.  That made it all worth it.  

My Fella is 40

We had a little shindig for Kyle's 40th birthday at our house over the weekend.  Due to the large amounts of snow and ice still on the ground, our driveway was totally treacherous.  Kyle had to instruct everyone to park at the bottom of the hill when they arrived.  He then he drove down to get everyone and chauffeur them up to the house.  Kyle and Peggy both agreed that this is the most snow there has ever been on the ground on his birthday.  

 

 

We had a house packed with lots of family, lots of fun and lots of food.  It was a great time. 



 

Sadly Zachary and Candice had to work, but Mom brought Mr. Cale to the party.  We were all so happy to have the cute little man around.  Evangeline loved sitting with him on the couch.  She got kick out of everything he did.  She said, "he's so cute, I can't stop looking at him".

 

Savannah and Lily had lots of fun with him around too. 

 

I think everyone did a good job making Kyle feel loved that day.  I also think everyone had a great time picking out hilarious 40-year-old birthday cards.  Kyle had a captive audience as he opened his cards and gifts. 

 

I had a picture of his guitar put on his cake.  I think he liked it.  

 

And look, my 2014 blog book came!  It was fun to get to show it everyone and reminisce about the past year.  

 

Happy birthday, Kyle!  You're a very special guy and we love you very much.