God bless our home...and God bless America!

We got our new door today -- the finishing touch on our newly patriotic house that has recently been painted.

Spring Activities, home improvements and career moves

This is our Gaba at a church in Queensbury. She was nominated as 'Woman that Says Yes to God' and I was privileged to go with her. She was just tickled to be chosen and got to shake hands with the bishop.











There was this giant grub at Home Depot the other day and Thomas wanted us to take his picture with it. He's pretending to be fighting the grub.








Chris ran another 5K and happily waved to his adoring fans! He bettered his time by 2 minutes.

We've been too productive lately to update the blog much, or take many pictures unfortunately. We went to 2 banquets this week--basketball and the Blue and Gold Dinner --and forgot our camera. We've been running by the seat of our pants and just lucky to make it there let alone remember all the gear we're supposed to bring too. Oh well. Hopefully we'll remember the mental pictures we have.

So basketball has ended and both kids loved it. Now they are both learning tennis. Nolan is playing baseball. The team he is on is mainly younger players, so it's a little bit of a struggle for him to be challenged. But he's getting to pitch a lot, and he hit a triple last night (made the paper!). So he's getting good play time. Thomas is really excelling in swim lessons. He has got the hang of breathing now and can go across the length of the pool. He starts an art class this week too. We didn't mean to sign him up for so many things. It took Thomas so long to want to participate in anything that now that he wants to, we don't want to say no! And tonight was the Blue and Gold Dinner for Cub Scouts, where Nolan became a Webelos II and Thomas a Wolf Cub. I'm not going to be Thomas' leader anymore so I'll keep helping Chris with the Webelos and work behind the scenes. We all just love Cub Scouts, but it's nice that it's winding down too. We just have the Niska Day parade and a picnic in June before it's over for the school year.

Our house is almost done being painted. Home renovations are so much work! But it looks great. There's still some final touches, and a few more shutters to put up. It's a crisp white with navy blue shutters. The door is a brownish red...Sundried Tomatoes is the name of the paint. But what really makes it is the great big star between our upstairs windows. It just really pulls the whole thing together. I got a cute copper pail to put our mail in and planted a couple shrubs today. We'll take a picture soon.

Chris was promoted at work to web manager. He's slowly moving into this new role and really likes it. He hasn't gotten a new office yet, but he's psyched to get out of the closet he's been working in for 13 years. His hours are a little more flexible, which works well with the baseball schedule. I've been volunteering a lot of time in the church office while the administrator is out on bed rest. I will be working part-time in the fall running the religious education program at St. Helen's. After 10 years of being a stay-at-home mom, it's weird to be out of the house so much and trying to find time to do everything that needs to be done. And not wear jeans everyday! And the idea of actually making money, albeit very little, what a concept!

So we are blessed in multiple, abundant ways. I need to remind myself of that when I complain about having to go to one more thing. How lucky we are that we have such good things to go to. Life is good!

Florida Photos

Florida 2010

Nickelodeon Hotel, Disney and a Floridian Birthday

What an awesome trip! Beautiful weather, no meltdowns, no sickness (other than a puking incident in the pool-yuck!). Just good times and lots of family fun. We landed in Florida Wednesday morning around 10:30am with no problems. The kids really liked flying and seemed to do okay with their 4am wake-up call. We couldn't get into our room at the Nick Hotel until 3pm, so we had lunch and figured out where everything was. Once we got in our room, we hit the pool where the kids had their first 'sliming'. We also saw a show that night which was like a Nickelodeon game show.

On Thursday, we went to Epcot - loved it! They were having their flower and garden show and had beautiful flowers and topiaries of Disney characters everywhere. I think our favorite ride was Spaceship Earth. I was impressed with how everything was educational but so much fun. Like we played one game where we had to flash a flashlight at fire hazards for points. We starred in our own video game.

Friday we went to Hollywood Studios. There were fun moments but I thought it was a little bit of a dud for us. It felt like we did a lot of walking for not a huge payoff. It was also very crowded. But the kids loved seeing the Indiana Jones show and going on Star Tours.

Saturday we stayed at the hotel and did lots of swimming. It was Thomas' birthday so he was just happy to have all the wonderful attention he loves! He got to see Spongebob, so what could be better than that when you are 7?! We also saw a few movies at their 4D movie theater. The hotel was great because of the characters the kids like, the movies and 2 water parks. It could have been a little cleaner, and we had issues with the air conditioner in the beginning, but minor incoveniences compared to the big picture. All in all, we feel very fortunate we got to go to such a fun, beautiful, tropical place. We are already thinking of where to go next!

Dinner at Hana's

Sorry we've been in a whirlwind lately. We went out to dinner tonight at a Japanese restaurant and got to experience hibachi dining for the first time. It was so much fun! The boys absolutely loved it, and it tasted great. Here's some pics:

2 weeks to Florida!

We are so blessed and excited for our trip coming up! I have to pinch myself that it is really happening. This will be the second trip for the kids and the third for Chris and I. But the kids' first trip was AWFUL for all of us, so it is nice for us to go again and wipe out the bad memory. The kids were too young, Thomas got really sick, Nolan was afraid of all the rides... But this time they are raring to go. And we are also approaching it a lot differently, like we aren't planning it at all. We still don't really know what amusement parks we are going to. We have our hotel and airline, we know we are going to Disney for one day. But we aren't sure what we are doing the other days. We figure we will get our tickets when we get there and wing it. It's going to be fun no matter what, right? I'm actually a little proud of myself! I'm usually such a planner.

So we are coming into a little of a lull before spring sports start. Thomas just finished with swim lessons and we are debating whether to start one more session before summer. Religion classes end this Sunday. We have 3 more basketball clinic days. Nolan has been taking a few baseball lessons privately already, and once we hear what team he is on then practices will be sure to follow. It is a little sad to end basketball...both boys really enjoyed it this year and improved their skills a lot. Nolan seems like he loves it just as much as baseball now. I'm glad that both kids seem so well-rounded in that way...loving all kinds of different things. Like Nolan was just in a choral festival recently where he sang with elementary up to high school kids. He loved it and did great (pics soon)! Thomas is excited to start his language art classes soon. Anyway, it's nice to have a little lull before the craziness of spring begins.

With Lent in its final days and Easter coming on its heels, there are a lot of churchy things we've been doing lately. Our church is slowly merging with the church where we were married. Some people are resisting it while others are ready for change. It's in an in-between stage right now. We find ourselves connected to both parishes and know people at both. It's a little exciting to see changes happening that are for growth, but hard to let go of habits that were comfortable. It will be interesting over the next few years to see how it all develops.

Well, I'm rambling now which is a good sign to stop writing!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner