A little this, a little that...

Well we took the Christmas stuff down even though there is actually one more week of the Epiphany season.  But we have Madelyn's birthday coming and a busy day scheduled for this coming Saturday so we got it done.  Kids held a great protest!

We also changed the living room around trying to make a little more space, family time and movie time is getting harder and harder to do in the rectangle shaped living room, I am now of the opinion that living rooms really should never be rectangle but should be square!  haha.

We got report cards back for the younger kids, all did well...honor role for Madelyn and Evelyn.  Rosie is learning to read and Mikey needs to work on his handwriting.

I got back on one of my nutritional supplements and I'm already feeling much better, not as fatigued feeling, I really need to stay on this, when pennies need to be pinched, sometimes I give it up, but I think I'm going to have to find another area to pinch!

Making plans for this spring as far as which rooms are going to get painted this year.  I can't wait until warmer weather.

So saw a little quip about things don't always happen for a reason...wow, what a sad thought.  To imagine people to think of such a lonely universe, that has no higher power, that puts the right people in your lives at the right times, that you are in peoples lives at the right times, that each experience guides us to the next and helps us to be whom we need to be, know what we need to know and not only help others but help ourselves giving us the graces that we need.  I'm most certainly thankful for all the right moments, all the right places and right people.

In other news archery is getting started and Katelyn has even decided to give it a whirl.  So we should have Evelyn, Joe, Katelyn and Jaclyn as archers this year.  Very excited about that.

We we finally got that pic done I do every year for the Christmas book.  We take a yearly pic in front of the tree.  Funny thing is, our family has grown so fast and has gotten so big, you can barely see the tree now.  hahahaha.

Steve's birthday 1/20/14 at OneTrueMedia.com

Stevie's birthday

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Happy Birthday Stevie

Had a great birthday for Stevie.  Evelyn and Carolyn actually got him a Hulk pillow.  We went to dinner a joint effort of Katelyn and Carolyn and me pitching in together.  We made pizza the day of his actual birthday, we had cake and we just had a really good time together.

Stevie...you are the best.  Everyday is something special, I cherish every moment.  Happy Birthday Babe

Six months today! 1/22/14 at OneTrueMedia.com

Just a real quick video taping right before bedtime.

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Six months...

Yep, she's six months old.  Amazing how fast the last six months have went.  Six months ago tonight was one very happy night in the many happy nights of my life, but with Gwena it was about the biggest relief to have her safe and sound.  A rainbow baby for sure.  Rainbow baby, many do not know the term, it is a term that is used widely in the pregnancy loss world.  The baby after a loss whether miscarriage or infant death, is always a hard pregnancy.  The fear of what could happen is so vivid in our minds all the time.  A few months before Gwena was conceived we miscarried a twin pregnancy.  This just caused for much anxiety and  nerves.  My pregnancy with Gwena was wonderful.  But of course, as you get to the end you are just tired and done, and well the last few weeks in late July I was done.  And so we had this little baby, with a wonderful labor and so this night six months ago I felt nothing but joy.  There were no regrets or wishing it had been this way or that way, it was perfect.

Our Gwena is so darling.  She is happy and sweet and funny.  She makes us all very happy all the way down the line to Tony whom says she is his best friend.

The Culinary Institute.

We both me and Katelyn were pretty impressed.  The Institute is huge.  They have a Bistro Resturant that the front door, the students cook and serve the Bistro.  Anyhow they also have a lot of community outreach, big conferences and gala's.  Which was explained to be beneficial to the students, often times it gets their name out to the resturants way before graduation.  

We also toured the gourmet kitchen where they record a program for area channel cooking.  It was an amazing kitchen.

Finally we toured where the classes are.  You can walk through the hall and look into each room via glass windows.  We saw the kitchen classroom, that basically has an idenical kitchen at each corner of the room.  4 students to every corner they explained.  There is another classroom that is just chopping block counters and that is called the protein room, the students learn to cut all the different meats and fish in this room.

They had many more rooms, pastry rooms, mixing rooms, chocolate room and each room controlled via special temps for the various foods.  And of course they had traditional classrooms.

The schooling begins with core classes, English, Math, Sanitation, basic cooking.  As it continues the classes continue, and then it comes to a point where you choose 1 of 3 options.  The first is a 4 year transfer to Lincoln Nebraska which is not an option we consider.  The 2nd option is specializing in all areas of cooking and the 3rd specializing in baking.  Katelyn is veering towards baking but keeping an open mind.  And then it ends with an additional 25 credits (optional but we believe its the way to go) into management with this added a certificate in Culinary turns into an Associates of Science.  So we are pretty impressed and looks like our plan.  

Next step is Financial Aid in February and then making an appointment to meet with the advisor and get enrolled.  She will take a basic test for entry, but its an open enrollment school.  

Gwena at OneTrueMedia.com

Gwena is almost six months old. She says da-da, mum, and does the sign for Mom. She also has taken to jumping.

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College Tour

Tomorrow Katelyn and I are touring the Culinary College at the area college.  She is very excited, and so am I!  Little steps...here we go.... 1, 2, 3.

An Idea...

An idea for fellow Catholics is to learn about and pray to a new Saint each year.  Find a way to pick a Saint that is not preplanned on your part.  So you can pick a page number in your head of your favorite Saint book, and whatever saint you land on, that would be the saint for the year.   You can come up with different ideas to find a Saint.

Good luck finding your Saint for the year.  Remember we learn until the day we die, keep learning about God's Holy Saints.

Go Go Gwena and puppy dog eyed Tony.

Gwena's new name should be go-go Gwena. She does that thing where she'll be laying down but her legs are moving like she's running or dancing. haha.  I noticed during nursing sessions she is claw, claw, kick, kick. haha.  Today I put her in the jumparoo for the first time and she totally went crazy.  haha.  In other news, I swear Tony has the key to my heart.  He was not being good at naptime and I scolded him, then he went straight to sleep, I knew he was tired.  When he woke up I talked to him about being a good boy and listening to Mommy and he looks up at me with his big eyes and says, "and so mommy won't be mad"  the kid kills me with those big sweet eyes.  I'm so glad he still likes to give me kisses.  haha.

Where oh, where has Terrie been?  Where oh, where did she go????

Ah, I'm still here.  First let me say HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Well lets see its, the 8th so I'm a bit over a week late, but I'm here!  I have no excuse except enjoying time for the kids and hobby time.  We had a glorious Christmas break and New Year.

Traditions, I talk about traditions quite regularly.  I do believe not only the Traditions of our faith but the traditions of a family make a family strong.  So starting with the New Year, we did our annual dinner with another family as large as ours is.  We added some area teens to the festivities.  It was a loud and active fun packed evening.  We always enjoy getting together with other families that have similar lives as ours. So many times in the world we being a large family seem like such the minority, so its so nice to visit with those we have so much in common with.

I tried to spend time with each of the kids at some point individually or in smaller groups.  We did some game playing, learned our new monopoly game, did some activities with the little ones, lots of cooking and baking and I have a few extra pounds to prove that.

Well here we go, 2014 is here, in five months our eldest will graduate highschool, we have Archery time now, we have ordinations in March with company coming in, we will have spring choir programs and a dance recital and so we must push through this winter and go into the New Year with hopes and prayer.