Let's start with the joy!  Several great things have happened since my last post.  My nieces, Brooke and Cassidy, both performed in "Seussical, Jr." and we got to see it!  They did great!  My mom made Ella a dress out of the leftover material from Brooke's costume.  Ella loved matching her cousin.  She was perfectly behaved through the whole two-hour production!  We were so proud of her. 

 

Jeff's Concert Choir at school competed in the regional organizational contest and received a Gold!  (The highest rating!)  It was quite an accomplishment for this small choir from an urban school which doesn't always even compete, let alone do well!  I was their accompanist, so I got to be there with Jeff for the whole thing and celebrate with the group.  I know how talented he is, but it's always nice when others recognize it, too!  And I know it's a confidence booster for him.  Word of his abilities is spreading.  He has been asked to be the assistant director for the district Honors Choir next fall, he will be accompanying one of the area's two largest summer musicals this summer, and he was asked just yesterday to play piano for a perfomance with the city's Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.  And one of the best parts of all this is that they are all "paying gigs" (as we call them)!

 

Last Tuesday, the girls and I joined several mothers from our church for a day at our city's Children's Museum.  It was a fun experience, as you can tell from the pictures.  Next month, we're taking a trip to the zoo. 

 

Ella can now recognize all 26 letters by sight.  She loves to spell words to us as she sees them on books, signs, cereal boxes, etc.  I'm thankful she is excited about reading.  My goal is to keep her interest up by teaching her new things at her level without getting her so far that she is bored and uninterested when she goes to school.

 

And we've also had some chaos.  We recently made an offer on a house and it was accepted.  We were SO excited about buying our first house.  However, after the house inspection on Saturday, we were very disappointed.  Though the house looks great on the inside and meets our needs, there were many problems that, when added together, seem to be too much for us to take on.  It will need a new roof within the next 5 years, it needs all new windows, it has a 24-year-old heat pump (not a furnace) which could go at any time, there is evidence of previous termite issues, and there is standing water, mold, and mildew in the crawlspace.  It just seems like too big of a risk.  And to make matters worse, when we got home from the inspection, waiting in our mailbox was our tax returns...returned to us.  There was a form missing.  We were expecting to get our tax REFUND any day and we were counting on using that money as part of our down payment.  Now we have to mail it in again and wait another who knows how many weeks. :(  We haven't met with the realtor yet, so I'll have to give an update in my next post as to what we decide to do.

 

And as if that wasn't enough, our house has been attacked by ANTS!!  It started small several weeks ago, but has continued to grow and worsen until our kitchen is now unusable.  Ants are in every cabinet and on every counter and have taken over the dishwasher completely.  After several ant traps and complete spraying of our house on our own, we finally had to call a pest control place and have them come out this morning.  We really hated having to put the money into that, but the problem just got bigger than we knew how to handle!  Hopefully, it will be under control now and we can get our kitchen cleaned and sanitized and back to normal again.  Yuck!

 

Through the joy and the chaos, we thank our Heavenly Father for never leaving our side.  We know all things happend for a reason that he desires to prosper us and not to harm us.  Please pray for wisdom and guidance as we determine what route to take next!  Thank you!

Those are the three main events of this week's blog:

 

A Concert: On the evening of Sunday, April 6, our church held a Children's Choir Spring Concert.  We noticed a big change in Ella since the Christmas concert.  She was laughing, singing (some), talking, very animated in her actions, and dancing across the stage.  We all got a good laugh at her antics, but I was really very pleased to see that she is feeling comfortable and at home again.  It took several months after moving to a new church for her to come out of her shell and be the outgoing, extraverted leader (i.e. bossy 3-year-old) that we all know and love.  She was in the Prechool Choir.  After that was the K-2nd Grade Choir, followed by the choir I lead, which is 3rd-5th Grade.  Everyone did a great job!

 

A Musical: After 4 months of rehearsals, and 2 solid weeks of living, breathing, and eating nothing but musical ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT, Jeff's school finally presented "Kiss Me Kate" on April 10-12.  Jeff was the musical director.  He chose which songs to do and which to cut, and rehearsed all the music with all the characters.  During the performances, he ran the sound board, which was a first for him.  The school and community seemed to be impressed with how it went.  Our family is just glad it is over so we have our Daddy and husband back!

 

A Party: On April 12, my niece, Brooke, turned sweet 16!  I was 16 when she was born, so I am officially twice her age now!  Jeff had stay home for the musical, but the girls and I went to the party and celebrated the big excitement with Brooke.  After some crazy drama during the preceding hours, she did finally get her driver's license.  Congratulations, Brooke!

 

And a teaser...Assuming inspections go well this week, Jeff and I have just bought our first house!!  More on that in my next post!!

On Tuesday of Spring Break week, we left Jeff's parents' house and traveled the two hours to my parents' house, with one very special stop in between!  I have recently been reconnected with a good friend from my childhood whom I hadn't spoken with since the early 90's!  Keirah's family moved away after our freshman year in high school.  The first picture shows us on the day I gave her the "prizewinning" cross-stitch I made for her.  This was one of the last times I saw her.  (Notice the braces?!)  I was thrilled when she found me online a few months ago and we have had a great time catching up.  It was so fun to see her again and introduce her to my family.  She and her husband own a restaurant now, and they treated us to a DELICIOUS meal.  I am looking forward to seeing her again in a few weeks.

 

We all got several nice gifts (and candy!) for Easter while at my parents' house and a few things are shown.  Ella loved her butterfly wings and soon transformed herself into a butterfly by "flying" around the room and speaking to everyone in her butterfly language. 

Jeff: Ella?

Ella: Fly?

Jeff: What are you doing?

Ella:  Fly Fly Fly Fly.

Jeff: Really.  Are you having fun?

Ella: Fly Fly.

 

Another set of before and after pictures comes next beginning with me in rollers in 1978!  I was actually getting my first perm.  Ella's rollers were just the temporary kind.  I didn't even include a picture of her afterwards because, unfortunately, it didn't turn out very well.  I'd like to try it again some time with a different kind of rollers.  Lucy also had a hair first as you can see.  It turned out pretty cute.  Hard to believe her hair is long enough to do that now!

 

We left to come back home on Saturday in time to get to the Toyota Easter Egg Hunt.  Our friends, Jason and Lynne, invited us to go with them.  Jason works at Toyota (and also as the part-time music minister at our church).  It was a cold, muddy day, but the kids had fun.  There were bounce-arounds, climbing walls, a train, an egg hunt, carnival games, and they even fed us lunch!  More than anything, Ella wanted to ride the train, but before we had a chance, its batteries died.  She and some of her friends still sat on it, though, and pretended.  Ella REALLY did not want to get in or on any of the inflatables, but at the end, she finally decided to try the big slide and she ended up loving it!  She did it over and over and we had to pull her away!  Maybe next time we go somewhere with inflatables, she will be more brave in trying the others.  All in all, it was a fun day and the kids got LOTS of eggs full of stickers and candy.

Last week (beginning with Good Friday before) was Jeff's spring break from school, so we took the opportunity to spend time with our families in Illinois.  We were with Jeff's family from Friday til Tuesday.  I'll include pictures from our time with my family (Tuesday til Saturday) in my next post.

 

We enjoyed getting to spend some time with Jeff's cousins and their kids whilke we were there this time.  I especially enjoyed getting to hold the newest addition, Haydyn Joy, born just five days earlier.  I've included a couple pictures of Lucy with her second cousin, Mabry, who was born one week before her.  Yes, that's her OLDER cousin!  It's pretty comical to see them together.  I've seen pictures of Jeff with his cousin, Heath (Mabry's dad), when they were babies and it was a pretty similiar situation.  They come by their sizes honestly!

 

We enjoyed celebrating our risen Savior on Easter Sunday at Jeff's parents' church.  Afterwards, the girls hunted eggs at Jeff's grandma's house.  Ella shook all the eggs looking for money, and Lucy kept sitting down to open them instead of hunting for more.  They had a fun time, though, and came away with plenty of loot!

 

Shortly after my last post, I found 2 more teeth in the back of Lucy's mouth!  I hadn't even been checking back there!  They were already pretty far through when I found them.  Who would ever think I would have a child who would do things out of order?    Some of Lucy's latest feats are counting "2" and "3" after I say "1," pointing to her bottom when she's telling me she went "poo-poo," bringing musical toys to me and saying "ON!," pointing to letters and saying "A," and singing "do, re, mi" and up the scale in imitation.  Her verbal abilities continue to amaze us.  She just turned 17 months this week.

 

Some cute quotes from Ella:  As we were driving down a busy street the other day, she stared out the window looking at the cars going by for a while, then said, "Mommy, none of those people out there know my name!"  And later as she was talking to Daddy on her pretend phone, she said, "What? Daddy?"  Then she said, "He broke off!"  (In reference to hearing us say "You're breaking up" when there is poor cell reception.)  The main accomplishment for Ella is she went about a month without an ear infection!  Unfortunately, it didn't last any longer than that.  We went to the Dr. yesterday with her 6th double ear infection of the winter.  I sure thought we were done this time.

 

More to come in a few days!