our wonderful workroom!

We use this room for an office, storage, and a pantry of sorts.

Now we can use it for even more!

The new counters, cabinets, desks and chairs are all from Ikea.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER

As soon as Rob gets to it, the space between those two cabinets will have open white shelves.

This is my desk. On the wall with the silver shelf, we will soon put white shelves, as possibly a small freezer.

This is the kids' art space. They each have a chair (matching mine, but lower).They have access to paper, supplies, etc.

Rob's (re) Ordination

On May 31, 2008

Robert Emilio Moses

was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church.

Having been ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1999,

this was a very special "part two" to his ministry.

To see a slideshow from that wonderful day, click here:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Slideshow of our house - Before and After

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

no sew tutu

The No Sew Tutu!

I made this for my 2 year old niece for her birthday. SO easy!

You'll need 3 yards of tulle. You could use all one color, or two or three. Cut the yard in half (so 18"), then cut 3" strips. So, you should end up with about 72 strips total that will be 3" by 18". (Remember, this is for a 2 year old, so adjust accordingly.)

Take a regular elastic headband - the kind that often come in packs of 5 or so for about $3.

Tie a strip of tulle around the headband. Try to make the tulle even on each end. I tied it so that the knot faced toward the bottom of the tutu. I did left over left twice to give it a nice flat knot.

Do this all the way around the tutu, alternating colors if you wish. Keep the knotted tulle close together. Remember that when it's on, the elastic will stretch and the tulle will not be as thick.

I embellished with ribbons and jingle bells. You could do anything!

You could use smaller elastics to make matching bracelets and anklets. You could make bows for her hair. You could tie tulle and ribbon and bells on a stick for a wand.

This entire project cost me about $3! And I was able to complete it in less than an hour in front of the TV!

a headband

I put my finger under the knot to keep it from getting too tight.

With a regular hair elastic, you can make little bracelets or hair bows.

My tutus for a Ice Fairy and Fire Fairy!

Halloween 2007

Halloween was so fun this year! John really got into the anticipation of it all.
Emma was a mermaid and John was a fish.
To make it even more fun, cousin Lucy was a fish and cousin Jake was a SCUBA diver.

Here's a slideshow:

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Disney with Nonna

It's been a month and I'm finally posting about our trip to Disney with Nonna (Rob's stepmother). She is so generous and gave us season passes to Disney. We went for the first time to celebrate John's birthday. This slideshow reveals the fun!

First Slideshow

This is my first attempt at a slideshow. It's fun!

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

cute headbands

Let there be Laundry!

YAY! Our laundry room is FINALLY done! Rob and I worked nearly non-stop this Labor Day weekend finishing the laundry room, TV room, and adjoining hall. (TV room pictures later - still a mess!)

We deliberated for a long time about what color to paint the laundry room. I finally settled on white on the walls because I just love white and think that it's often overlooked as a color choice.

To give the room an interesting focal point, I painted the window trim navy. It's actually Kilz Colors Ink Drop.

To the left of the door is this six foot set of cabinets, a hanging rod, and a shelf above that.

This is obviously the washer and dryer side. There are two shelves above for storage.

Back to School 2007

Emma started her 6 year old year (1st grade) at Lakeland Montessori. This is her fourth year there. She spent 3 years (half her life!) in the 3-6 primary class.Now she has moved up to the 6-9 elementary class. Very exciting!

John returned to College Heights Cooperative Preschool for his second year. He'll be in Miss Lynn's 3 year old class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. We went this morning and he cried when we had to leave. I take that as a good sign!

More pictures here:

http://www.familymoses.net/backtoschool2007.htm

Ballykissangel

Lately, Rob and I seem to hurry the kids through bathtime, rush the goodnight kisses, and race to the TV room. All to see an old BBC show from the 1990s.

Ballykissangel obsorbs my thoughts!

The storyline revolves around a young English priest, Peter Clifford, who is posted to the tiny Irish village of Ballykissangel. There, he finds himself having to deal with an Ireland that he is totally unfamiliar with.

The main reasons for his difficulty are the colourful array of characters that he finds himself faced with. There is Brian Quigley, the wheeler-dealing businessman and his sidekick Fr MacAnally, the Parish Priest who is not quite as holy as he appears to be. The local Garda, Ambrose and his wife Niamh who just happens to be Quigley's daughter. Most significantly, Peter meets Assumpta Fitzgerald, the young landlady of the local pub. Assumpta has little time for the English and less time for the clergy, which does not explain why she is so interested in Peter.

So, OK, Rob and I admittedly have a bit of a soft spot for the love lives and love interests of young priests. But this show is more than that. The characters are some of the most well developed and real characters I've seen on a show. It makes me sad to know that there are no new episodes coming out. These are characters that I'd like to know for a long time!

Monthly Menu

I do everything better when there's a plan in black and white. So I created a monthly menu for our family. It makes everything so easy! I even made weekly shopping lists with all the ingredients I need to make the dinners for the week.

BBQ chicken, corn spoon bread, and broccoli tonight!

Running! my latest obsession!

No clue what has gotten into me, but I'm obsessed with running. I've started quite slowly, using the Couch Potato to 5K Running Plan. It starts out pretty slowly, but (ideally) in 9 weeks I'll be able to run 5k! We'll see!

To make it a bit more fun, I bought an MP3 player and downloaded these podcasts. They are customized for each week of the CPto5K plan. I don't even have to think. I listen to this upbeat zen-like music and every so often an encouraging voice tells me it's time to run. And then, the best part, he tells me it's time to stop! But, seriously, I love it! I've even bought ugly running shorts!

Quick update on Rob and me

After years of teaching, Rob is now the Director of Religious Education at our church, St. David's Episcopal. The job is the perfect combination of priest and teacher, making it just right for him!

Outside of work, his main "hobby" is our house! It's a constant work in progress, but things are really coming along. Rob never ceases to amaze me with his ability to just take on a project, figure it out, and make it happen!

I have found myself with a little part time job that I just love! I work for the Early Learning Coalition. I go into preschool and daycare classrooms serving kids ages 2.5-5 and evaluate their learning enviroment, materials, schedule, safety, etc. I LOVE it! I set my own schedule. Each assessment takes 3 hours at the center and another 1-2 hours at home writing the report. It's perfect! I can do it while John's at preschool, which is really ideal.

Let's see... I still stay busy with our local La Leche League group, planning our state LLL Conference, serving as the facilitator for the Parent Action Committee at Lakeland Montessori, and working to develop a Montessori Middle School.

That's about it!

Quick update on Emma and John

Check out my kiddos! Cute, huh?

Emma is 6 and a half. On Monday she'll start her 4th year at Lakeland Montessori.

John is nearly 3 and is starting his 2nd year at College Heights Cooperative Preschool.

Trying again!

It's been nearly 2 years since my one and only blog post. Much has happened and changed! I'll post more in a bit, but wanted to just try to get started!

our first blog!

So, we've never done this blogging thing. I always figured our lives were far too boring for anyone to want to read about!

But - this blog is all about our big house project!
We've purchased the house across the street and have plenty of work ahead of us!

Here's where we are now:
http://www.familymoses.net/822pictures.htm

And here's where we're headed:
http://www.familymoses.net/821johnson.htm

There is SO much to do, but we are super excited about it!