Proud

Tonight, Tony, Charlie and I headed over to Byron to the school I worked at last year. They were having their annual art auction. The proceeds go to Starry Night Collective which is a non-profit organization that funds arts for students who have emotional and behavioral disabilities. One such program it funded was sending our students to The Lion King on Broadway last year. This was an experience these students would never be able to experience with their families due mainly to socio-economic hardships. The kids were truly amazed at being in the presence of such wonderful music and entertainment. 

Kids with emotional and behavioral disabilities are able to use art as an outlet for anger and sadness that many of them are incredibly burdened with. Unfortunately many of them have seen and felt things I could never think possible. I don't understand why I was lucky enough to grow up in a home with two very loving and caring parents, but since I did, I feel I can give some of that love and caring back to children living without it. 

After the auction, there is an awards ceremony. We were going to leave before it to get Charlie to bed, but my friend Carrie said one of my former students was getting student of the year. It is a huge honor that the entire staff has to agree on. I HAD to stay and watch. I worked so hard trying to connect with this little guy last year when he was a third grader. I've never seen such a young child have so much anger. He was the student who cried last year when he found out I was leaving ZED. There is a special place in my heart for him.

This year, this student has grown immensely. His anger is getting under control, and he is growing academically. He smiles daily! You'd be surprised at what a huge accomplishment that is. When my friend Sarah gave the speech about how much he's grown, tears were running down my cheek. I looked over at him and he was grinning from ear to ear! Once he had the trophy in his hands, the smile never faded. 

I'm so glad we made the trip over there tonight. It made me realize I'm in the right field for sure. Those kids need caring adults in their lives, and I'm so proud to be one of those adults. 

Congrats G! 

It's Official!

It's official! We have daycare secured starting mid-August! Woo hoo! This has been a stressful search for me, but it is now over.

I know I posted last week about finding a daycare, but we had to pay a deposit and she had to decide if she could take us part-time. It's a go!

Tony works on average a 3 day week. About once a month he works a 4 day week. When that happens, we may be calling on our families to help out a bit, but it is so much easier financially for us to go with 3 days a week. Wow is daycare ever expensive these days...

Thanks again to Pastor Wahl for sending us to this daycare mom! We're very grateful!

Not just another Tuesday

Today I turn in my final paper for my masters! Woo hoo! I'm not in the clear yet, I still have to present my paper to a board of Augsburg people in late June.

On a different note, I have some fun pictures of Charlie to share. These are from my camera, so they'll be better quality. I've noticed lately that my blog posts from the iPad have poor quality for pictures. Sorry about that...

Charlie ALMOST rolled over the other day during tummy time.

He likes tummy time a whole lot more if he's propped up on his whale friend Willie. 

Charlie and I are both VERY happy that Tony's done with the play now. Here they are bonding after several days of not seeing each other. 

You may recognize this jumperoo as one of my garage sale purchases. I checked to see if Charlie could hold himself up in it yet. He sure can. He can't play with the toys on his own yet since he's not moving his hands purposefully, but if I sit on the floor in front of him and play, he really likes it. Note the drool flowing out of his mouth: he has become a super drool master lately!

Photobomb by Sol on the right side of this picture. Here's a happy jumping Charlie!

Memorial Day 2013

This year I was excited to expose Charlie to one of my favorite Stewartville traditions. Unfortunately, the rain hindered me from doing so. He enjoyed the parade from the warmth and dryness of his Great Grandpa Arnie's house. I ventured into the rain with Laura and Michelle. I discovered that my rain coat aid not in fact waterproof! I was SOAKED, 

I've been forgetting to bring my camera places lately, but I did get a few pics on my phone. Here's Meg with hear Girl Scout troop walking.

And here's Connor with his Boy Scouts.

Since I convinced Laura and Michelle to go to the cemetery for the ceremony, we were even more soaked!! 

I like this shot because its my Grandpa Clarence and Grandma Barb's head stones with the legion vets in the background. Grandpa was always proud to be a leader at the Legion and to have served in the Army. 

When we got back to grandpa's, we asked if we could borrow some of his clothes while we threw ours in the dryer.

They were a little big for us...

Charlie and I went out to Willow Hill for a second lunch. Mindy sent me some texts while I was busy in the other room. Here's one of Natalie and Charlie.

Uncle Jon sleeping on the job...

Harvey shared his lovey with Charlie. So cute!

It was a fun day with family!

Track and Field

Charlie and I decided to head out for a walk this morning. On our walk, we noticed elementary kids at the high school track. Turns out it was track and field day. On our way back,  I noticed my cousin Connor out on the track. Charlie and I took a detour and watched him do a few events. He was so excited to see Charlie and me there! I asked him where Megan was, and he said she came over in the afternoon, so after Charlie's nap, we headed over to watch her too. Then to make the day even better, we walked with Amy to pick the kids up from school. Of course they were really only excited to see Charlie...what a great day!

Unfortunately Charlie has a bit of the sniffles. I'm not sure if babies get seasonal allergies, but he doesn't seem to be "sick" just sneezes a little more and has some boogies. He did have a low grade fever this afternoon, but he seemed ok. He's also VERY drooly, so maybe he's an early teether. We shall see! 

Charlie and I have no plans this weekend, so that seems a little strange. I don't quite remember what my husband looks like these days. I believe I mentioned that he's in a play at the rep, so we don't see him much. He's also working all weekend...I've got to give single parents a lot of credit. It sure is difficult to do this alone especially when trying to finish up my masters. I'm not complaining, just commenting. 

Back to work on the paper! 4 more days till its due! 

Moby Time

I've discovered my favorite baby item thus far: the Moby wrap. It worked great for Kaylee's concert the other night, and Charlie and I went on a walk with it today. He falls asleep and stays asleep! When he's in the stroller he wakes up right away when we stop moving. He's also pretty darn cute when he's poking his head out to look around and check things out.

Here we are before our walk today. By the time we got to city hall to pay the water bill, Charlie was snoring like his daddy!

The other day Sol was rolling around the kitchen rug trying to catch her tail. She is the silliest kitty I've ever met. Here's a cute shot of her when she caught it briefly.

In case you've been following my daycare dilemma, we may have had our prayers answered today! Pastor Wahl had given me the name of his grand children's daycare not knowing if she had any openings. Turns out she does, AND she's willing to let us be part timers! Tony works on average 3 days during the week. We'd like Charlie to stay home with him when he's home. Another bonus, she lives 3 houses up from my brother and Amanda! And yet another bonus, Pastor Wahl's grand kids also go to Bethel, and their youngest daughter is just a few months older than Charlie. He'll know some kiddos at daycare then!

I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I had come to the conclusion that Charlie would have to go to a center. While they are not the worst places in the world, I wanted him to go and have a similar experience to the one I had; a loving daycare mom or dad with kids of all ages to learn and grow with.

On that note, I'm going to get some more work done on my paper before I collapse into bed after another tiring but wonderful day as a momma.

Random Charlie Post

I have a lot of pictures on my phone/iPad, so I figured some of you may enjoy them!

Meg helping us take care of the little man. She really wants to walk and hold him, but we told her she has to wait until she's older. That's not something kids enjoy hearing...

Sunday was  Pentecost Sunday in church. Bethel asked us to wear red to worship in celebration. Here's Charlie in his red. We also greeted before worship as a family. Charlie was one of the youngest greeters.

Here's our snoozing boy!

Since we got new curtains, Charlie's been sleeping in until 7! Woo hoo!

Close-up!

We walked over to Kaylee's band concert last night. I've been practicing with the Moby wrap, and it worked great! The auditorium was so full, I had to stand through the whole concert. 

Aunt Amanda and Charlie

Tassle's worth the Hassle

 I drafted this post on Sunday, but Blogger has been difficult for me. It hasn't been letting me upload pictures...FINALLY I could today!)

Today (SUNDAY), as a tornado warning swept over Mitchell County, IA, my little cousin Michelle graduated from high school. The ceremony was paused just towards the end so everyone could be in a tornado safe room. After a little while, the ceremony finished! I wasn't able to attend the ceremony, but we headed down there yesterday to help Michelle celebrate!

When we arrived, Michelle didn't let Charlie stay in his car seat for even a minute! I have picture after picture of all the relatives and non-relatives that held Charlie throughout the party, but I won't bore you with them.

I've posted about my cousin Hannah's amazing cake talents before, and here's the cake she made for Michelle's party! How neat is that?! (Recognize the pictures on the cake? Yup, I took her senior pictures...)

Michelle has 2 older sisters who like to give her a hard time. They've always told her she was born in China. Hannah made up a birth certificate to prove it. HILARIOUS!

As always, grad parties are full of food. Michelle's was no exception. Here's Tony, Kaylee and Meg enjoying some yummy food from the nacho/baked potato bar.

Michelle has been an incredibly involved and community oriented high schooler. These are all the scholarships she earned for college. We are all SO proud of her accomplishments. 

My Aunt Christa has made each of us cousins a quilt when we graduate from high school. Here is Michelle's. Simply beautiful. 

Whenever there's a family gathering on my side or Tony's, we seem to accumulate little helpers. Megan enjoyed helping Tony change Charlie's diapers. She rode down to IA and back with us so she could help "take care of Charlie" in the car. What a sweet little cousin!

Michelle has chosen to follow in her sisters' footsteps and attend Riverland Community College for her first 2 years of college. She will complete her generals to put her on her way to a 4 year degree in the area of social work. Choosing to do this will save Michelle a lot of money in the long run. She can still live at home and commute to campus.

Good luck Chelle!

Hip Hop Journey Style

Yesterday morning my cousin Megan had her first dance recital for Tippey Toes Hip Hop! She was in the absolute last group to perform, but it was worth the wait! They closed out the show with a little Journey!

The girls had a lot of fun on stage.

Meg smiled through the entire dance! 

Here's the beauty

Amanda and I wanted a picture with the celebrity

Family!

Funny family!

Aunt Becky. 

It was fun to watch Meg up there!

Rainy Day

Charlie and I ventured up to the cities during the rain on Friday to visit my pal Jenna. We had a great day visiting and catching up. It was the first time I'd seen her newly built house, and it is just gorgeous! We're hoping to see her again soon!

We had to be back to Rochester by 4 so we could help Jill celebrate her retirement from Mayo. There was a very nice reception in the gazebo for her. I got all teared up when Jill's boss (I'm assuming that's who he was) told a story about how a patient's family was missing Jill. He was visiting with them, and they found out he was the boss and they said "so you're the guy who let Jill retire?!" She clearly touched a lot of lives during her time at Mayo! Congrats again!

Not the best picture, but its the only one I got of her.

Charlie enjoyed talking with his Great Grandpa Bob during the party.

My Day

Tony and I were eating at Wildwood tonight, and he told me I had to blog about my Candy Crush Saga experience...

I was stuck on level 70 for weeks. Note the plural of week. WEEKS! It doesn't help that I only attempt a few times a day being that my mom duties joyfully take up the majority of my days. I had been toying with the idea of quitting altogether. So, yesterday morning, I made a drastic promise: if I fail this level 1 more time I'm quitting and never looking back...

I PASSED! Clearly God wants me to play Candy Crush! Ha!

On a different note, today I was given the gift of time. Time to work on my final grad paper. Time that has not been there because of my adorable, lovable baby boy. Mindy, Natalie and Harvey took my Charlie for the day. They even drove here to pick him up so I could have more time studying! So from 9:30 until 5 I was diligently reading, highlighting and outlining journal article after journal article for my literature review. 

I still have a lot of hours to put in, but thanks to Mindy I have a nice chunk under my belt!

I wasn't the only one who missed Charlie. Luna and Sol were wandering around looking for him. I put Charlie by Luna for a bit when we got home so she knew he was ok. 

Cute

Now that the weather is finally warming up, I'm quite busy with finishing my masters degree. Poor timing! I should have been finishing when we had all that snow on the ground! Oh well! I found out last night that my big thesis paper is due in 2 weeks! Yikes! Luckily I have one of the best sister in laws around, and she offered to watch Charlie tomorrow so I can work away. (I actually have 3 of the best sister in laws around!!) 

Tony is taking a last minute role in the Rep's spring production of Man of LaMancha, so his Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are now all booked up. 

I didn't have too much to blog about, but I did want to share this cute picture of Charlie in his new sun hat.

Starting young

If you've talked to Tony and I, you've probably noticed that we love to talk about the various birds we see at our feeders. Yes, we are bird lovers (sorry Mindy)! Yesterday there were over 20 gold finches feeding away in our backyard. Charlie figured he should have a look...

This morning Charlie has been enjoying his big boy Bumbo seat and warm weather clothes! We're heading out to look at flowers to add to our yard. Hope you're enjoying the weather like we are! 

Photobooth!

My first Mother's Day as a mother was jam packed full of activities. I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers and some terra cotta planters with a note saying "some assembly required". Tony is going to make me a tilted planter. I won't explain, but I'll post the final product eventually.

We then went to breakfast at Fat Willy's with my parents, Auntie Elinor, and Will and Amanda.

We went to the later church service today since we went out for breakfast. It was strange to not know anyone! We're frequent 9 o'clockers.

Then we had a delicious lunch at G and g's new apartment complex. The whole crew minus the St. Pete K's were there. Jon (and the rest of the crew) watched Charlie so I could run to Kohl's and Target with Mindy. It was a nice little break for me.

When I got home, Charlie and I had some playtime. Then my parents stopped by. My dad rocked Charlie to sleep, so all I had to do was lay him in his crib. Bedtime went a lot smoother tonight!

The only pictures I captured from the whole day were on our iPad using the Photobooth app. Natalie and Harvey had a blast!