My favorite past time...

has got to be sewing! I hear a lot of people say that it seems to be a very stressful hobby, and not one that they would choose. I however find it to be very stress-relieving. Over the last year I have completed several projects, some for fun and some for others.

Below is a quilt I made for the Nebraska MCC Sale. I found the pattern in a magazine and fell in love with it. All the fabrics are polka-dot and the back of the quilt is a brown bubbly fabric, very soft. It is a large log cabin block. Very simple and fun to do! This is another one I made for the MCC Sale. All of this material was given to me and I just started cutting squares and then put them together in this pattern. These were both baby quilts and they sold well.This is a project I was really excited about. I decided to make a headboard for Madalyn's new twin bed. (that is when she finally decides to sleep in it). I found some great fabric online and it was clearanced, so I went with it. All of my supplies: First you start out with lots of batting and you staple it to the plywood. Then you do the same with the fabric. It is really a quite simple project.

The finished project! I am so excited about it! I hope Maddie enjoys it as much as I did making it.

I also added a piece of fabric to the back just to cover up the ugly plywood.

Now on to my next big and fun project! I decided that since we will be moving and Maddie will have her own room, I wanted to make her a quilt to go in her "big girl" room. I found a pattern in another magazine that I loved and it looked simple for my first twin size quilt. Jay Dee even went shopping with me for the fabrics and he actually picked out most of them. Below is what we came up with.

There were several more fabrics that I added as I went along. Below is a photo of part of the quilt top before I had it quilted. I have yet to hand quilt anything myself. Maybe some day I'll get addicted to it like my two sister-in-laws, but so far I'd just rather pay someone else to do it. So after I get the binding on, I will show you the completed project. These are just pictures of some of my trusty supplies...all the beautiful colors of thread.

my trusty sewing machine...

another trusty friend...the hot iron.

On to the next big project...and it was a BIG one!!! I agreed, more like volunteered to make a prom dress for my cousin Kara for her senior prom. She has been dealing with some health problems over the last few years, and I wanted to do something for her, so I thought this would be fun, and it was...but it was a bit stressful too...which before I know I said that sewing isn't stressful to me. But since I had never done anything like this before, the stress levels increased a bit. Thanks to mine and Kara's wonderful Grandma Burford though, we got it done just in time for prom. If it wouldn't have been for Grandma's help with ironing and just talking through things, I'm not sure if it would have gotten completed.

I found this material while Kara was in Michigan so she knew nothing about it. I just had a hunch she'd like the colors and I was right. The green was like a kiwi green and the black was sparkly.

And the completed project... BEAUTIFUL!!! If I do say so myself!

A picture of Kara and her sister Sondra on prom night. Just a side note, I also picked out Sondra's dress from a catalog. I told her about it, so we ordered it, and she loved it! Guess I know what these girls like! Aren't they both just so pretty?

Grandma and I with Kara. I'm surprised we didn't have bigger smiles. We were SO relieved to be done with that dress! But I must say I loved every minute of making it. Memories with my grandma that I will never forget!

Traveling AND moving...

You will notice the AND was in big print...because those two things are going to be happening at the same time. For those that don't know yet, Jay Dee and I are planning a trip to Indonesia from December 28 until January 12. We are going to visit our good friends, Jeff and Dana Selzer and their family, and we also hope to do service while we are there. The kids will be staying home with grandparents, or that's the plans as of now.

Now also during this time, it has been decided that we will be moving to the farm. We are very, VERY excited about this!! Especially me. I have always been on the farm, and 10 years in town has been enough for me. I am NOT a city girl...just ask Jay Dee. I'd rather be playing in the dirt on a tractor than making sure my yard is perfect like everyone else's. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind mowing at all, its just annoying if you're one or two days behind everyone else, because then it looks even worse!

So by December 23, I will have our entire house in boxes in storage, and we will probably head to Kansas for Christmas and then off to Indonesia. While we are gone, Grandma Elva is moving to our house, and Royce and Carol are moving to Grandma Elva's house. So when we get back, the hope is that our "new" house will be empty and waiting for us! I can only imagine how exhausted we are going to be and how overwhelming all of this is going to be. We will be having extreme jet lag - a 12 hour time difference, 2 kids that haven't seen us in almost 3 weeks, and a house to move into...which means lots of boxes to unpack. So you may want to start saying some prayers for us now!!

So now you know the exciting news in our life. Our summer as already began with lots of busyness. There should be many posts to follow!

Easter 2010

We had a great Easter weekend with lots of egg hunting and Papa and Nana visited, which is always a treat! I managed to catch Ben and Maddie in a loving moment.

This would be Maddie's "ouchie". I was starting to think this might be a permanent feature for her, as every time it was just about healed, she would fall and break it open again. Now though it seems to be all cleared up with no scar. Hopefully we can keep her injury-free until her 2 year pictures later this month...I'm not betting on it though!
Papa and Maddie were having fun before the city easter egg hunt. Notice the stocking hat. It was a very chilly day!

Ben with all his "loot"!

Easter Sunday morning. What a handsome young man he's getting to be. Might need a longer tie though next year!

My pretty little princess! (She wasn't liking the dress because it was too poofy!)

A family photo on our front porch, next year it will look different! (More on that later!)

Egg hunting at the farm.

A quick picture of the 3 Janzen cousins.

Our good friends Brad and Carrie, who I also do daycare for, had baby number 3 the end of March. His name is Mason, and Madalyn has become quite taken with him. One day when they stopped by, I was holding him and as soon as Madalyn was done eating she wanted her hands washed and away she went. I heard her yelling at me, and she had gotten up on the couch and put a pillow on each side of her and was sitting with her hands out, waiting for me to give her Mason so she could hold him. She did an excellent job! She was also trying to tell him to say Cheese for the camera.

More randomness...

So once again, I am playing catch up. Hopefully I can get back to blogging more often. Life has just been super busy lately. Below is a picture of Ben with cousin Kara. She was in Michigan for awhile at a headache and pain hospital and while she was there, Ben made her this picture of a caterpillar going to the park and we mailed it to her. So when she got home, she brought it over and wanted a picture taken with him. He was in heaven!

This following picture is of our little trouble maker. Apparently one evening she found some markers in her room and decided to color on her leg. Daddy found her and she got in big trouble, so she ran to tell me all about it. She was crying and when I asked what she was crying about, she sat down and pulled up her pants and showed me her leg. I of course just started laughing, which didn't help what disciplining Daddy had just done. I thought it was funny. Hey Aunt Christa - Can't you just see the artistic ability in her? Maddie's other favorite thing to do these days is play with play-doh.

A couple different weekends in February/March we traveled to Salina and met my parents for an afternoon. On one of our trips, we stopped at an arcade/fun center so the kids could play for awhile. They had a great time climbing around and playing in the ball pit.

This is just a funny picture of Maddie that I took. I have a feeling I'll be getting some comments from this one...that she reminds people of me at this age. Silly girl!

It's been awhile...

...so be prepared. There are lots of pictures to follow. Quite some randomness too, sorry about that. And there is a REALLY good reason for why I haven't blogged in almost 2 months. I'll get to that a bit later.

So this is Maddie enjoying her new car that Grandpa and Grandma Janzen gave her for christmas. She enjoys giving her dolly rides. On New Years, we finally got to travel to Kansas for Christmas. Because of all the snow, we weren't able to make it down sooner. The kids don't get to see Papa and Nana very often, so when they do, all they want is Papa or Nana. I absolutely LOVE this picture of them.

Christmas with my parents was a lot of fun. We got there on a New Years Eve just in time for supper and then we opened presents right away. After all the presents were opened and played with for awhile, the kids were ready for bed. So as soon as they were asleep, Jay Dee and I took off and went up to my old church for the annual New Years Eve party. We had a lot of fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Then we were back to my parents and in bed asleep by 12:20. I know, we're getting old.

Maddie had more fun laying in the bed herself, than putting her baby in it!

The big gift this year was a COOP elevator that my parents built. It looks just like the one my mom works at, which Ben loves visiting every time we're there. They even made one of the elevators so that the kids could dump corn in it, and it would flow down and out a spout into the trucks. Pretty amazing. They love playing with it!

Then when we returned we had another Christmas with my Grandma Burford.

Ben got a play-doh set which he loves.

Maddie got a new rocking chair.

One day when it was a bit warmer and the sun was actually shining, I sent some of the older daycare kids outside to play on the drifts in front of our house.

One evening Jay Dee's brother Brad, wife Kara, and son Braden came over to visit, bringing pizza for supper. It was a nice evening since we really don't see them that often, which is strange, considering they only live 2 miles away. But anyway, the cousins had fun sitting together and eating.

Papa and Nana sent some new overalls for the kids. They were pretty excited. Cute little farmers, right?!?!?!?

One of the days when I wasn't well, Grandma Carol came and got the kids and they played outside in the snow at the farm. Seems like they had a great time.

Now we're going backwards a bit. This is how I spent many days over the last several months. Sick, and laying in a chair or in bed. This picture is actually from Ben's 4th birthday on December 16. Thank you to everyone who came over and made the day special for him since I wasn't feeling so well and couldn't do much for him.

He wanted a Thomas birthday cake, and thanks to Uncle Brad and Aunt Kara, he got one.

Everyone singing Happy Birthday to him. He loved being in the "spotlight".

This was his present from Maddie. A Cars umbrella. He has been wanting one for quite some time and we had to just keep telling him to wait. I think this was probably the happiest he was all day.

He also got a guitar from his Papa and Nana. Another very exciting gift that is about to drive his parents crazy some days.

Now to a couple of pictures I will always treasure.

A picture of Ben and Great-Grandma Elva when we celebrated Christmas back in December.

A picture of me and my daughter at Christmas.

This was at Christmas. Uncle Brad got ahold of both Braden and Ben and tickled them. They loved it!

So back to me... the reason for all my sickness this winter has stemed from my gallbladder and a bacterial infection called C-Diff. I found out finally in early December about the infection, and it is a nasty infection. I can't count the number of times I ended up at the doctor's office and ER over the last 3 months. The medication for the infection is just about as bad as the infection. It makes you very nauseous and causes you to not be able to eat. So then I was on meds for that as well. Also during all of this I found out I was allergic to an antibiotic which landed me in the hospital for a day and a half due to a severe reaction which caused hives from head to toe...even in my ears.

This is also when I discovered that my gallbladder was not working well. I had wondered about that for quite some time, as I have a family history of these problems. However, they could not do surgery until my bacterial infection was cleared up. So, after two rounds of antibiotics, I finally got the C-Diff under control, and a little over two weeks ago, I had my surgery. They removed my gallbladder, appendix, and did an upper GI scope to check for ulcers. Everything came back good, except by gallbladder. It was not so good, which we expected.

So as of today, 12 days after surgery, I am feeling unbelievable!! I am still tired, and have noticed I have to be careful with some foods, but it feels so good to be able to eat again. During the month of December I lost 12 pounds. Not a great way to lose weight, and frankly, I didn't need to lose any. So if all of a sudden I start looking a little chunky, you'll know why...I'm eating again!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. And if wasn't for my WONDERFUL husband and mother-in-law, and Grandma, I'm not sure what we would have done. But now I'm on the road to recovery...and hopefully Spring. I need some sunshine!!!