Lots of Life

As I looked back through the pictures I've taken in the past few weeks I realize I have some catching up to do.  I also realized just how fast the green foliage has taken over the landscape.  You can hardly see that wooden fence today with all the nasty, invasive honeysuckle that's taken over.  Evangeline loves to work in the yard.  She has her own ideas of what needs to be cleaned. 

 

Evangeline and I went with mom a few weekends ago to see the Fab Four at ISU.  They sounded so authentic.  It was incredible.   Evangeline loved it.  She even told me that she was in love with "Paul McCartney"....oh, brother.  We did lots of clapping, dancing and singing a long.  

 

Here's Evangeline in her typical bedtime attire...channeling Laura Ingles Wilder, of course.  We had a sleepover at Mom's after the concert.  The next morning we went out for breakfast and did some shopping downtown.  It was a fun girly weekend for us.  

 

My sweet loves took me to brunch at St. Mary's for my birthday.  Here it looks like Evangeline is directing Kyle through the labyrinth.  

 

Oh....and then there was Mother's Day.  That Saturday we went to the Mother/Daughter banquet at church with my Mom, Peggy, Granny and the Hwang girls which was lovely.  Get a good look at the next two pictures...these were the last moments of hearing in my left ear for over a week.

 

In the wee hours of Mother's Day morning I woke up to the worst pain I've experience next to labor pains.  I felt that my eardrum was going to irrupt.  I tried every natural remedy in the book...my next stop was the on-call doctor who turned out to be a horrible, horrible creature.  I will not even elaborate on that because I would rather it be wiped from my memory.  Lets just say it was a day I was glad to put to rest.  I managed to drag myself to church to watch Evangeline sing with the choir, and then to lunch at our annual picnic at the lake. 

 

Kyle took me to Ambicare and I started my antibiotics.  All there was for me to do was lay on the couch with a heating pad on my ear describing my symptoms over and over to anyone within earshot.  Aside from all of that, my goodness, I must be the luckiest mommy in the whole world.   

 

Evangeline participated in a cheer clinic which is put on each year by the high school cheer team.  She asked me that morning if she was going to get a bow.  I told her I didn't think so, but by golly, she walked out with a huge bow in her hair and a smile spread from ear to ear.  It was so cute to watch her do her little cheers at the 10 minute performance they did for the parents at the end of the clinic.  Afterward we went to eat at Subway.  She was doing a tuck jump in line and told me that she noticed someone saw her do her jump and smiled at her.  She said, "I bet he knew I was a real cheerleader because I bet he has seen cheerleaders at games before".  She's big stuff.  A real cheerleader now.   

 

Scanning the crowd for Mom and Dad....

 

Found 'em.....

 

And then there was her first softball game.  She rocked it.  She only needed the tee once.  All the other times she hit from a pitch.  She was the first one up to bat for the team.  She told me she was nervous.  We were so proud of her.  The game was quite entertaining.  The girls did a great job, but still didn't have too much of an idea of what was going on. 

 

Her little Hutson jersey is just too much.  Mama can't take the cuteness.  She was excited about the socks because she thinks they make her look like a mermaid. 

 

Her coach gave her the nick name "slugger".  The night he first started calling her that Kyle asked her on the way home if she knew what that meant.  She said, "a slow moving slug".  He made sure she knew what it meant and that it was a complement.    

 

Running for home....

 

The last of the kindergarten papers have been trickling home.  This is just a typical paper, but I just couldn't get over Walter.  He just looks so happy walking to school with his little backpack.  I had to snap a picture of him.  

 

Baby news...in addition to gaining too much weight I now have anemia.  So I'm off the antibiotic and on to the iron supplement.  I can't believe I'm already to the point in my pregnancy where I see the doctor 2 times a month.  How is this going so fast!  This little guy has been kicking up a storm.  Some of the kicks can be down right startling.  I love it.  It's a miracle....thank you, God.  I feel so blessed to be able to experience all of this again. 

Evangeline has a little list of baby names going that she thinks we should consider:

Barnacles

Junior

Prancer

Vixen

Sparrow

Captain

 

Barnacles has my vote.



 

A Day With My Kindergartner

I took a personal day last Thursday to go on Evangeline's field trip to Dobbs and Deming Park.  It was a perfect day.  I took several pictures of her little classmates.  I love being able to put faces with the names of all the kids she talks about.  It was also so much fun watching Evangeline interacting with her little peers.  They all seemed so precious in their "Class of 2027" tee-shirts.  I know I'll be singing a different tune when some of these little darlings are in my class next year, but right now, just seeing them as Evangeline's little pals, they all seem adorable. 

 

 

 

Evangeline ran around with her little buddy, Reagan Wernz all day.  

 

 

At Dobbs Park the kids got to go on a nature trail and visit the Native American and wildlife museums.  (I use the term "museum" loosely.)  They listened to a woman tell them a little bit about Native American life.  They also got to make a little animal necklace.  They really enjoyed a scavenger hunt of various artifacts around the wildlife museum with their own little clipboards.  

 

Next was Deming Park where we had a picnic and played at the playground.  

 

 

I signed Evangeline out early and we decided to get some ice cream before heading back to Marshall.  I instantly fell asleep on the couch when we got home.  We were both exhausted. 

 

Mrs. Reynolds is finally coming back tomorrow!!  She's been out for 6 weeks.  We are so excited for her return.  I'm just so very thankful she will be back to finish the school year.  I was really thinking she'd be out for the year.  Evangeline has some pretty pink tulips to surprise her with.  

Birthday Blessings

I just love having a spring birthday.  It's such a wonderful time of year.  Everything is so beautiful and full of anticipation.  Couple that beauty and anticipation with a birthday and it's just makes for a great day.  This picture was taken one morning a few weeks ago.  The green is really filling out now!  The neighbors houses are disappearing again.  I love it.   

 

Dad hosted a fabulous fried chicken dinner for me and Candice's birthday.  Evangeline enjoyed making biscuits with her Grandpa.   

 

I got to try out my new rainbow cookie cutter for the cookies I brought to school (we provide treats for the work room on our birthdays).

 

My actually birthday was so very lovely.  Kyle and Evangeline surprised me with cards when I woke up and gift card for a pregnancy massage....such a thoughtful surprise.  One of my students brought me a gorgeous bouquet of lilacs.  I enjoyed their fragrance and beauty all day.  I brought them home that evening, snapped a picture and then thought....I really should have moved all the paper off the table....nah, this is what life looks like right now. 

 

Mom joined us at the lake for dinner followed by a little hike to the playground.  My camera is on it's last leg, and there are so many pictures here of Evangeline in about the same place and in about the same pose, but seriously....I just couldn't handle her cuteness.  She is so into looking like a prairie girl.  She even wore her sun bonnet to school yesterday.  I kept looking out the window during her recess and seeing her bopping around the playground in that bonet and it just made me smile from the inside out.  

Well, I'm 35 and it seems like any time you hit a birthday that's a multiple of 5 or 10 you gasp a little bit, but I'm having a baby for crying out loud.  If that doesn't make a person feel youthful I don't know what does.  I'm really looking forward to this new year of my life.  It's going to bring me one of the two biggest blessings I've ever received.