1999-2008

It was in 1999 that Michael and I started dating...now it is almost 10 years later, we are married and in the joys and tears of child rearing.
The joys of hugs, kisses and smiles. The , "I love you Mama"s are the best.
The tears of crying, discipline, loss of sleep and the wonderings of, "Am I doing this right?"
Michael and I have grown so much as people and as a couple. We look forward to 2009 and our 10th year together. What a journey we have had.
These next 10 years will put Simone at 15 (ouch) and River at 11. Oh what joy we'll have watching them grow, teaching them, enjoying them and wishing we had a few more minutes with them as little kids.
May you enjoy the time you are living in right now and all that God has given you!

God has been faithful

This past year has been full of ups and downs. Money has been particularly tight this past year. Sometimes I was afraid, yes afraid to tithe for fear that we wouldn't have enough to pay our bills...shame on me...I did tithe and did God bless. God gave me an extra tutoring student this year and has blessed me with lots of subbing jobs. Just when a new bill comes and I wonder how we are going to pay for it, I get a call to come sub. God has been so faithful.

Michael and I always (for the past 9 years) go away for New Years. This year we have been uncertain we could afford it....I told Michael it would come down to subbing days that God gives me. The last 2 weeks I haven't been called, but this morning I got called and went and subbed. 1 more subbing day and Michael, Simone and I are going to Indianapolis for an overnighter for New Years. Well go to the children's museum, and stay at a hotel with a pool (a must anymore with a 5 year old--and usually the highlight of the trip) and hopefully have a visit with Aunt Jen. So we are praying for 1 more subbing day and the trip is set.

Here is a shot of the carousel at the children's museum. Simone has been here twice in the past 2 years and absolutely loves it!

I believe

I believe that I have the most wonderful husband in the world!

I believe that children should play/imagine/explore and discover all the world has to offer.

I believe in good friends

I believe that chocolate heals most wounds

I believe in putting smiley faces on bandaids

I believe in sleeping in

I believe in travelling by car....too much is missed when you fly

I believe in cutting coupons

I believe in doing your part

I believe in holding hands

I believe that you should go looking at lights on christmas eve.

I believe that my daughter will be a great artist

I believe that my son will win others with his warm spirit and easy smile

I believe animals deserve love

I believe in reading before bed

I believe in good children's literature

I believe that we need to pray for the needy and homeless who have hungry bellies and may lay awake and shivering at night while we are warm in our beds.

I believe in letting my children trick or treat

I believe all people are important no matter if they are ugly/pretty...fat/thin....color of skin.....mentally challenged ...mean/nasty.

I believe kids should have a pet

I believe the sunrises/sunsets were made especially nice for those who are having a bad day

I believe in naps (whether I get one or not is another thing)

I believe that people have a right to their own opinion

I believe that couples should have regular date nights

I believe in happy socks (that is for esther filpus)

I believe in the magic of disneyworld

I believe that every child is precious

I believe in drama and theater

I believe that God has left us so much to enjoy

Trick or Treat

Simone had a wonderful Trick or Treat season. The week before Halloween, our local zoo had their annual ZooBoo and we went. There were so many people. We spent about 1 1/2 hours going around to the different booths trick or treating.

Then on Halloween we went trick or treating with good friends. In our local town, they have trick or treating in the afternoon on main street. It's a nice way to get people to come into different stores. There were about 40-50 stores involved and did Simone get a lot of candy. It was beautiful weather out. I was wearing a sweater and I got warm. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Simone is in the fireman's outfit and the other girls are her 3 friends. How fun!!!

Randomness

It's been awhile since I posted. October has flown by. I feel like I make breakfast and then it's time for bed and I head to the kitchen to make lunch for Michael for the next day and prepare Simone's school snack. We had our first parent teacher conference with this years teacher and I'm thrilled to report that Simone is doing Very Well. A parent always wants to hear that. River seems to be trying a new food each day. It's hard not to let him try what we are eating. He now loves, cottage cheese, popcorn, broccoli (that's a good one) and there's so many more.
I've been spending a lot of time on facebook; more than I should. I like seeing what people are up to, what people are feeling. It's helpful to know that you aren't the only one out there who is exhausted, has a dirty kitchen, has laundry piling up and just wishes for some quiet.
Wanted to give a shout out to my mom. My mom doesn't get on computers, she's not a big fan, so this shout out will go out to the void for anyone who wants to know. My mom has been a big help this past year with the kids. My mom takes them both for most of the day on Wednesdays for me....this gives her grandma time and gives me time to run errands and have a clean house for 1 day. Sometimes I get called into sub and her watching the kids allows me to keep my hand in teaching, which I love. My mom also watches them on Friday nights so Michael and I can have a date....what a treat. . Right now Michael is working two jobs and we don't see as much of him. We jam pack our weekends with family time and if Michael can, he leaves early from his day job on Thursdays and we have some family time before he goes to his 2nd job. Hopefully this will only be temporary.
Simone is going to be in the kids christmas choir at church and we've been listening to the cd everyday trying to memorize the words. I've got the songs down, hope she will soon.
I'm trying to squirrel away money so that Michael Simone and I can do an overnight in chicago for New years. Michael and I always go away for new years and last year we took simone and she had a blast. With money being tighter for everyone this year, we don't know if we'll make it, but we are going to try!!!! :D
The kids are healthy...PTL and we have so much to be thankful for.
Hope you have a great day all of you who take time to read.

Capturing the time while I can.

Here's my little guy at about 16 months. I'm looking down at him now, but I realize that in a few years I'll be looking up to him. I'm guessing he'll be about the same height as Michael 6'3". River enjoys jumping right now and does quite well at it. He also likes to dance. I'm so thankful for my little River.

Fort Wayne Zoo

Michael and I had planned for a couple of weeks to take Simone to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. We saw on the weather forecast that it was supposed to rain on the day we had planned to go. We looked for alternatives should the zoo be rained out. We found a children's science museum in Fort Wayne so we were set, we'd visit one and our day wouldn't be ruined. When we got to Fort Wayne it was a little misty/drizzly so we went to the Science Museum....it was nice for older kids, but not enough stuff for kids Simone's age. We decided to leave after 1 hour even though we had paid to get in. Off to the zoo we went, sprinkling and all. We had free admission to the zoo since we have a zoo membership at our local zoo. The Zoo was wonderful and we had it all to ourselves. It sprinkled on and off, but we had a wonderful time. Since it was near the end of the zoo season, and because it was raining, some of the exhibits and rides were closed. Simone did get to ride the carousel (the only passenger). We especially liked the rainforest walk, the red pandas, the orangutans and the seals. We will definitely go back in the spring hopefully when the weather is nice and all the rides are open.

Family Pics Long Overdue

Here are some pics that were taken at Easter and just developed. My parents and the grandkids and a long overdue Muhme family picture.

Simone's B-day Party

Here are pics from Simone's b-day party. Most of the pics were taken by Simone herself. She had such a good time.

My Daughter is 5

Sunday was Simone's b-day. What a fun weekend we had. Simone requested a hacienda b-day. So, on Friday, the partying began. We went to hacienda and the wait staff came out put a sombrero on her head, brought a cake and sang. She thoroughly enjoyed that. That night at hacienda we were able to spend with Nanny, Papa and Uncle Jerry. It was a special evening for Simone. Then on her actual b-day, Sunday, we went to church. Simone had a big B-day Girl button that she wore and her Sunday School class sang to her. After church we went to Grandma and Gigi's house. They bought pizza and my mom had puchased a horsey ice cream cake for Simone.....again, it was a special time for Simone. The fun isn't over yet, Monday was school and Simone took in some reese cups for her class. She got a big star sticker and enjoyed having her new class sing to her. Some fun things about Simone. Simone is very tall for her age. The doctor told us when she was 2 that we should expect Simone to be close to 6 feet tall. She is going to be tall and beautiful. Simone is an auditory learner, from what I've observed so far. Simone is creative and can draw quite well. She loved to paint, cut, glue and anything crafty. Simone loves to play pretend. She loves to act out stories that she has seen or heard. She loves to pretend to be different animals. Her favorite animal is the horse. Her favorite color is Blue and she loves to dance. Simone has completely captured the hearts of all her family members.

After School Fun

Simone has 27 kindergartners in her class. Only 3 of the kids are half day, including Simone. Since she is only 1/2 day she does miss out on some activities that the all day kids have in the afternoon. I try to make sure she has craft time/art class and some fun time (this is usually while River is sleeping). She also gets to spend Wednesday and Friday afternoons with my mom, which she loves and wouldn't be able to do if she was an all day student, as I tutor those days. Here is an envelope puppy that we made....we also made a bunny envelope and an elephant envelope. She loves to cut and glue.

In the other picture she is holding a car "King" from the movie Cars. Her favorite has always been "King". She has a bunch of cars that she plays with and we made a parking lot out of construction paper so they all have a place to park.

Please pray that Simone has a great Kindergarten year. So far, we are doing well!

August Rush

Yes I did see the movie, it was okay.
I wrote August Rush because there is so much to do this month. We ended last month with Michael's Birthday. Simone and I made a double layer chocolate cake with sprinkles. She was very pleased to be able to give this to Michael on his special day. Since his b-day is near our anniversary, we usually celebrate them together with a weekend getaway. This year we celebrated his 38th b-day and our 7 year anniversary with a trip to the Windy City. Usually we go see a play when we go into Chicago, but this year we just relaxed. We had dinner with friend Jerry and later went to a nice evening cafe. The next day we tooled around Chicago taking in the sites. My mom graciously watched the kids for the 2 days so we could have time away.
This month, we've had to take simone to the doctor and dentist for her kindergarten school forms. We've had to make appts. for shots and for teeth fillings as we found she has 2 caveties. Simone is going to a school where uniforms are required so we need to go and buy those. Then there is the lovely list of school supplies to buy. We have school orientation and p/t meetings all in the next 2 weeks. Plus and most importantly, our little girl turns 5 in 3 weeks. Her b-day request is to go to Hacienda as she wants a sombrero on her head and the staff to sing happy b-day to her. All this and it seems like so much more. Once September hits it will be a breath of fresh air.

More Family Reunion

Here are some more pics from our family reunion in West Virginia.

The top pic is of Simone and Emily.....they are 3rd or 4th cousins. They had fun playing together.

The next pic is of all the cousins who got together for this reunion. My dad is in the white shirt on the far right. Next to him is his cousin Abe who retired recently from the pentegon as a full colonel in the Air Force. The lady in the front row on the far left is my Aunt Donna (my dad's older sister). She's the one in my family that I take after the most. In the back row the gentlemen 2nd from the left is my dad's cousin Jim Bill. I'd not seen him since I was a kid. Well he's in education too so he and I had a nice time talking about our careers. His wife Marsha was lovely and I enjoyed getting to know her (she's not in the picture) My Great Aunt is in the white shirt and pink pants in the front row. She is my Grandmother's sister. My grandma passed away 8 years ago. My aunt who is 89 still lives by herself, drives, goes to church and sings in the choir. When she's up to it, she helps out at the Ronald McDonald House. She's been doing this for years.

The 3rd pic is my cousin Troy and his family. His 2 boys TJ and Duane got along with Simone splendidly. We stayed in the same hotel while on vacation and they were anxious to help simone learn how to swim. She loved that!!!

The bottom pic is my fav. candid shot of Michael and Simone. I love candid shots.

It was a wonderful reunion

West Virginia Vacation

Michael Simone and I took a trip to WV with my dad for a family reunion. Family reunion pictures will follow as they are still being processed. On our no family activities day, Michael Simone and I travelled to the New River Gorge Nat'l Park. This was about 1 hour from where our reunion was taking place. The picture right above is the 2nd largest (highest) bridge in the United States. We took a tram ride (pic above) down to the bottom of the gorge and then took a jet boat ride right up to the bottom of the bridge. It was beautiful. God gave us a beautiful day. 78 degrees. We stopped by hawks nest...another park and observed the beauty there. At the end of the day we went to a wonderful open aired restaurant called Smokey's on the Gorge. It was an elegant buffet and we stuffed ourselved to the gill. The family reunion was wonderful, meeting some family I'd never met before and seeing some that I hadn't seen in 10 years or so. Simone enjoyed meeting 2nd cousins and playing with them in the hotel swimming pool in the evening. I think the pool was her favorite part. Lest you think I forgot River, he stayed home with family and friends. It was a wonderful vacation!

Bathtime at the Muhme House

River loves to splash in the water whilst big sis takes her Saturday night bath. They are getting to the age where they are playing nicely with each other and usually enjoy being around each other.

Patient Chef

Here's my patient chef waiting for dinner to be finished.

My Perfect Bread

I made European Herb and Cheese bread today. I'm not an expert on bread, so when something like this turns out and is so yummy, it's quite a treat. The family loved it.

My Son Is One

River turns 1 today. River I have so enjoyed your smiles, your giggles and your sweet heart this your first year of life. May the rest of your life be filled with blessings, with love, with friends and with Christ. Mama and Daddy love you!

Simone at Stanley Clark

One thing I loved about Stanley Clark School was that they did daily blogs of the class' activities. They took daily pictures and it was wonderful to see what they did during their day as Simone's usual response when asked....What did you do today? was....I don't know? One day, at home, Simone wrote a story about building her elephant "Tapee" at Build a Bear. She dictated the story and I wrote it down. The kids had been practicing being "authors" at school and she wanted to continue at home. Well, she took her story and Tapee to school to share and she was the focus of the blog for the day. This was extra special as it was one of the last days of school. She had a tremendous year!!

Something old

We found Simone's baby blocks the other day. We brought them upstairs for River to play with. Low and behold, Simone has found a new love of them. Here is the "Moose" that she made this afternoon. She loves creative play.

I just love this picture!

I took this picture of Simone the other day and I absolutely love it.

Memorial Day fun?

Michael and I had planned to go to Potowatomi Zoo today for memorial day. The butterfly exhibit is open now and we thought simone would enjoy the train and pony rides. This morning Simone asked if we could go to the beach instead. Michael and I thought about it and decided....alright, we can go to the beach. So we packed up 2 bottles, food for river...changes of clothes for both kids, diapers, drinks, towels and suntan lotion. We drove to New Buffalo and it was about 10 degrees cooler there...or so it felt. The water was really too cold to swim in, but we did wade in it. Simone and I also played in the sand a little. Michael and River sat up on the beach and Michael was mostly busy keeping sand out of River's mouth. We stayed about an hour and then went to find someplace to eat. The restaurant was crowded, but it was by the beach. When we went to pay our bill the waitress said they only took cash or check.....didn't know restaurants did that anymore. Michael went to the atm....$3 surcharge. We ended up leaving one of Simone's cutest hats in the bathroom. DRAT! Well we were all together on Memorial day and we did have an adventure......

River eats everything.......everything but green beans.

River is going through the "I'm going to put everything in my mouth" phase. Simone NEVER did that so we are enjoying this for the 1st time. When we go outside we are constantly pulling grass, twigs, dirt and other assorted outside things out of his mouth. Inside we have to hide the catfood and he tries to find anything and everything else to try. Oddly enough he doesn't like green beans.....go figure. I want so much to say to him....it's so much better than dirt sweetheart. We have him on oatmeal, squash, bananas and peas. We don't start finger foods until 1 year....so he has 3 weeks more to wait.

Beautiful Day

This is the tree in our backyard. It has just bloomed this past week. It just blows me away at how beautiful it is. We are so enjoying our garden. The garden is one of the reasons why I wanted to buy this house. The lady who owned the house before us did a wonderful job of planting things that constantly bloom all spring and summer...no sooner does one flower die away and new and different flowers are blooming

Tonight the weather was so good that we walked to the library to drop off some videos. (8-9 blocks) It rained yesterday and there were many puddles for Simone to jump in on our way there. Needless to say we had to have a quick shower before bed.

Garden Fun

I love the wine colored tulips that we get in our yard. In all we have red, pink, orange and yellow tulips. The wine ones are my favorite.

Simone loves her slide!!!

Here is Simone in our garden this evening. She was helping Michael with the weeding. We love to get out in the garden as much as possible, especially on these nice days.

Day at the Zoo

My mom bought Michael an annual zoo pass last year. It's good up through the last of August. Well, the other day was so nice so we had to go to our local zoo. Our local zoo is nice, not very big, but nice. We got a good picture of a white tiger. There aren't many of them left. This one was right up by the window so we got a good picture. Here is a picture of Simone on the train. She loves the train ride at the zoo. River enjoyed the zoo as much as he could from his stroller.

Today in the Kitchen

Here's a pic of River today as I was cooking in the kitchen. He was having fun with the measuring cups and just smiling away, so I had to take a pic.

He's 9 1/2 months old now and just the sweetest thing. Doesn't it look like he's playing a guitar? :)

A Day Outside

Today after we got up, we visited "Nanny" for awhile. Then we went to the park for some tag and swing time. When River needed to come home we did and we went outside to the back alley and Simone mud puddled jumped which she thoroughly enjoys. She also made what she called "Stone Salad". She was collecting stones and putting them into the mud puddles.

While we were at the park, we saw a child playing with a kite, so we came home and made one.

When we were finished playing with that we hung it on a tree so we could still see the wind blow it.
Here's a pic of River in his "walker" that we brought outside. He enjoyed walking around on the cement area. He had more fun taking his hat off than anything, but he got some fresh air, while Simone puddle jumped and flew her kite. It's so nice to be able to go OUTSIDE!!!!

Alphabet Walk

Simone wanted to go on an alphabet walk yesterday. While on the walk she wanted to find something that began with each letter of the alphabet. We had a such a good time.
These are the things we found:
Awning
Blue
Car
Doors
Eight
Five
Grass
Houses
I in Oakside (streetsign)
Simone said she saw J in a patch of snow
Kitten
Leaf
Mom
Nose
O (streetsign)
Puppy......we asked the owner if the puppy's name began with a Q.....it didn't
Quick....we saw a car going quickly (we had to improvise)
Road
Snow and Simone
Two
Under and Up....we looked Up in the sky and Under a car
Van
Wet Water
X is always for Xylophone, but we didn't see one of those, so I drew an X in the snow
Yellow
Zipper
We accomplished all this in a walk around the block and had a wonderful time. Simone had an alphabet stencil with her so she could keep track of what letter we were on.

In a World of Their Own

Last night Michael and I went out with Carl and Julie Farmer to a Deaf Performance. It was part comedy, part story telling, part improv. It was Wonderful!! We were definitely in the minority as hearing people. The whole room was almost quiet and groups of people were signing to each other all over the room. I had even gone to the restroom and a lady was chatting with a little girl, she turned to me and signed a question, I signed back and she turned around and continued talking. It was assumed at this event that you were deaf, and if you weren't deaf, you knew sign language. All 4 of us have had some form of rudamentary training in sign language so we would have been able to communicate somewhat had anyone approached us. I have studied sign language for 13 years on my own and can translate almost anything into sign, but reading another person's sign is a whole different world for me. I realize how much that that skill needs to improve. The whole evening was great and it was wonderful to see the Farmer's again. Do you know how to show applause in a deaf community since they can't hear the clapping?????

4 Snowmen in a Row

Simone and I went for a walk today in the slushy, wet wonderful 45 degree weather. When we got home, we weren't ready to go inside yet so we made a snowman. Then Simone decided we needed to make a snowman for each of us.

The first snowman is Simone, the next one is me, the next is Michael and the last is River. We made him a small snowman on purpose. :)

They are all decked out with eyes, carrot nose, mouth, twig hands and a hat. It was perfect weather for snowmen today.

Sledding Day at School

I went to pick up Simone at school Wednesday and the teacher told us that they decided to spend the morning outside sledding. How fun! Here's a pic from the school website of Simone and another gal in her class sledding. Simone said when you went down the hill you had to open your mouth wide and scream, "AHHHHH". She talked about it the rest of the day. Sounds like all the kids had a great time. Simone is the one in purple. :)

Simone had her first sleepover

Simone went to the McGuires the other night while Michael and I went out of town. 2 other girls had come over to spend the night as well, so in total there were 7 kids. Joyce Mcguire showed me the pictures she had taken of the sleep over. The kids played for awhile outside. They did some crafts. The girls all took a bath and had their hair up in curlers. Simone's hair looked so cute. I looks like the kids had a lot of fun.
Simone slept well, but we came and picked her up early the next morning as she was suffering from homesickness. Overall, I think it was a good first experience for her.
Tonight we got dumped on with snow. Michael and Simone bundled up and headed out to tackle the snow. Simone has her own little shovel and works hard right along side Michael.
The hard workers were rewarded with hot chocolate and strawberry milk when they came inside.

Simone is 4 1/2 on Sunday and I'll be "just older"

Simone turns 4 1/2 on Sunday. Sunday happens to be my b-day. So Simone and I kind of share birthdays. She was born August 24th and I was born February 24th.
Since Simone's b-day is in the summer she'll always celebrate it on her 1/2 b-day at school. That is exactly what she did this past week at school. She was so excited and the school put a blog picture up of her day. It was extra special for her. Tonight we had church mice (awana without the games). Since church mice is only through the winter months, they celebrated and sang for Simone tonight. It was extra special to me knowing how much is meant to her.
Simone is quickly picking up reading and has read her 3rd book. She's so thrilled and I'm excited for her as I love to read and the world of reading is opening up to her.
This weekend is also special since Michael proposed to me on my b-day back in 2001. So Michael and I usually celebrate my b-day and our engagement with something a little extra special each year. We are going to Chicago and we'll see a couple of shows. We love theater. The kids are each being watched so we'll have the weekend to ourselves. :)

Puzzles

Today was puzzle day. Simone used some of her saving to buy a new puzzle today. Puzzles are her new thing right now that she enjoys doing. She especially enjoys doing them with daddy.

Today, Simone also read her first "Bob" book. We were so proud of her and the look on her face showed how excited she was to read her own book.

Family Time

We spend many evenings playing board games. Simone loves Candyland, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, but her new favorite one is Seek and Match. It's a cute veggie tales game. Each person has to find 4 peices and then get to the center. Simone gets very excited when she finds a piece she needs. It's so nice that she is at an age where we can spend family time together like this. Tonight we were sitting on the floor in front of the fire playing this game and River was sitting up on the floor next to us. It was a great evening.