gift bag idea

If you're like me you like your gifts to look pretty. On the outside I mean, you want to the packaging to be pretty. But, if you're also like me, you hate spending five bucks on a cute gift bag. So, here is my super cute (well, I think so) and inexpensive solution.



I bought this plain white bag at Target for $1.99, the smaller sizes were only .99 cents. I used leftover scraps from scrapbooking, added a couple stickers, tied some ribbon around the handle and viola... totally transformed,cute gift bag for less then 2 bucks! Hannah helped me since the gift was for Lillian so it turned out to be a fun project for the two of us. I love it when I can make crafts and still be spending time with my kids!

house

This week has been CRAZY!!!! ....I have a million things I want to blog about and I'm hoping to get sometime this weekend (although we've decided to go camping with friends so that may not happen). Anyway, these pictures are long over due. Here is the progress of the house.

Mail Tampering

Chris is turning 30 this year and I wanted to surprise him with something really great to celebrate. So, over A YEAR ago I get this great idea to get him tickets to watch his favorite hockey team, The Red Wings, play the Colorado Avs. It's perfect because Chris's sister lives in Denver so we can stay all weekend for pretty cheap. Great, because I wanted to get him front row tickets which are a little spendy so it'd be nice to not have to pay as much for lodging. I start saving every penny I make (which for a stay-at-home mom without a paying job takes dedication).

Finally it's about two months before his birthday so I check out the tickets online. Perfect, the game is on a weekend our church is having a woman's retreat. I'm a little bummed I can't go on the retreat but it's a perfect cover, Chris won't plan anything that weekend b/c he's suppose to be on kid patrol while I'm away with the ladies. I look online, talk to my brother-in-law and brother in Germany to find out exactly what seats they think I should buy. I decide that I want to get front row seats...the row directly behind the players. It's not everyday you turn 30 and it's not everyday we get to go watch an NHL hockey game. I order the tickets. Chris never checks our credit card statement so I pay for them that way. Fed Ex is suppose to deliver the tickets to my door, which is perfect b/c I'm at home...all the time.

Yesterday I take the kids to the park and as we're playing I see the Fed Ex truck drive buy. I quick grab the kids and head home, remembering that my tickets were going to be delivered that day. I rush as fast as I can but I miss him. They leave a ticket on the door telling me that they'll be back tomorrow. OK, we're still in good shape, I'll be home tomorrow afternoon which is when I'm guessing they'll come.

Friday comes and we're out all morning running errands, I don't see any notice on the door so I figure they haven't made it to our house yet. At 2 pm I get a call from a friend asking me to make a meal for another friend who just had surgery. I get occupied with scrounging up something to cook for them, go get Hannah from preschool, stop at McKinneys for some last min. groceries and head home. I wait, no FedEx guy. Chris gets home and I completely forget about my tickets, I put the meal in the car and take off. I deliver the meal successfully and head home. As I round the corner to my house I see the FedEx truck. My heart stops. Please, oh please, let me get inside before Chris opens the package. I run inside, open the door and I see Chris. "Honey, I'm SO sorry." That's all he had to say. I tare inside, grab the package and go to my room. I just didn't know what to do, I was so disappointed, and a little mad that he opened the envelope addressed to "Mrs. Rachel Wassenaar."

As soon as Chris knocks on the door I open it of course and start bawling. He gives me a big huge hug and says "I am SO PUMPED to go that game." Then I get to explain the whole story of how I saved my money for over a year and got him FRONT ROW tickets to the game. I got over being bummed and he's had a HUGE grin on his face all night. At least this way he will get to look forward to the game.

On a side note, we were eating dinner and Hannah starts crying. Apparently Chris told Hannah she could open the package and when she pulled out the tickets Chris only saw the back and thought it was some coupons I had ordered. Then she flipped them over and his first thought was "Oh crap!" ...but then he was super excited. Oh yeah, back to the side note. Hannah was crying because she saw me crying and felt bad for opening my mail. I reassured her that I wasn't mad, I just wanted to get to see Daddy's face when he got the tickets. But all is good now. Chris got the tickets and we're looking forward to a weekend in Colorado and especially looking forward to our AWESOME seats at the Wings game.

Garage update

First of all let me start by saying that after my initial response to our driveway issues I've had some time to reflect on how I acted. Chris and I had a good discussion about why we were so upset about the driveway not being the way we had planned. I think part of the reason that we were upset (or rather, I was upset) is because we're paying a lot of money to have a house built the way we want it. I guess I just assume that if I'm paying someone to build the house that I want I expect them to build the house the way I want.

Anyways, Chris and I both just talked about how we could bring glory to God in this situation. How could we live with this driveway and not let it bug us every time our kids went out to ride their trikes? It was good to think about what it is that fulfills my life and makes me content? Is is having a comfortable life? Is it being in control? Is it having the perfect house? It's so easy to say that my contentment rests fully in Christ and what he has done for me and not in the things I have or the way my life is going, but when the rubber hits the road what do I do? Do I get mad and demand my way, or do I come back to Christ and I say, "all I have is yours, please show me how to have joy in you alone, not in my perfect house."

So, with these thoughts in mind we decided to meet with our builder out at the building site so that we could talk through our options with him. I, of course, was feeling quite sick; it's never fun to tell someone you don't like their work, however, we're planning on living in this home for a long time so we just wanted to talk things through. Chris helped with the talking and the discussion went really well. We weren't defensive or mad, we just tried to work out what we could do to fix the situation. In the end Ed, our builder, said that he would rip out the entire garage, foundation and all and lower it for us so that our driveway would be flat. I felt sudden relief...although I still feel bad that he is paying several thousand dollars to fix the mistake. But as my husband tells me, "that's just business Rachel."

Regardless of how the driveway turns out I am thankful that God loves me enough to gently remind me to find my contentment and joy fully in Him! I pray that God will continue to challenge me to grow more and more into a woman after his own heart.

Hannah's prayer

Here is what Hannah prayed at dinner tonight.

Dear Lord,
Please be with Mrs. Hall.
Please help her to be a really good mom.
Help her not to feel left out.
Please help her leg to get better.
Please help her kids to be really good to her, help them to make her lunch and dinner while she sleeps.
Amen

Hey Hannah, while you're at it, would you mind praying that you would be really good to your mommy and make her lunch and dinner while she sleeps? Thanks.

Firsts

It's been a week of firsts at our house.

Hannah had her first soccer game. She was a little nervous at first but I think the jitters went away once she got out on the field. She did great, she has her dad's natural athletic ability. She did get hurt a couple times and came off the field crying but I was so proud of her for going back out and trying again. She even scored her first goal!

We still have a few things to work on. Namely, being aggressive with the other kids....I guess she gets her competitive nature from her mommy. :) All, in all it was a lot of fun and she's looking forward to next week.

Oh, quick story. Chris is her team coach and he told the kids to call him coach Chris and Hannah says, "you mean daddy." Chris says, "nope, on the field, I'm coach Chris." Hannah says, "daddy... you're teasing me!" It was pretty cute.

It was also Hannah's first day of preschool. Chris was home for lunch so he watched Caden and I was able to take Hannah by myself. We had a really great time talking on the way to school about the fun things she was going to experience. We also got a chance to pray for the school year, the teachers, that God would provide Hannah with friends, that she would bring glory to God through the way she acted and that God would help her mind to absorb lots of wonderful things about His world. It was so cool.

And then she was off, hardly even a hug, just a "see ya at 3 mom." She did great and surprisingly so did I. It was actually nice to enjoy 2 uninterrupted hours during quiet time. Hannah normally has quiet time but she's seriously not sleep anymore so she sings loudly, plays in her room and keeps asking if it's time to be up yet.

When Caden woke up from his nap he just kept looking around saying "Nana, Nana." He loves his big sister...although after I told him Hannah was at preshcool and that he would have time to be with mommy all by himself he got a big 'ole smile on his face! He's never really had me all to himself. We got about 15 min. of playtime and then it was time to get Nana.

Of course Hannah loved school, but she was EXHAUSTED when we got home. We stopped by the store for groceries and as soon as we were in the door she put her jammies on and just vegged out watching the cooking channel. After dinner we decided that we would take the kids out for ice cream to celebrate Hannah's first day of school. I think we'll keep that as a tradition in our family.

So, the first day is done. My baby isn't a baby anymore. But I'm super excited about this new step in her life. I can't wait to hear her stories and watch her develop into even more of girl then she already is.

House Woes

Things are coming along with the house. The basement is poured and the garage is up!.... But, here's the woe part. The driveway.

When we picked the lot for our house it was VERY important to both Chris and I that we have a flat lot. We specifically said multiple times that we wanted a flat driveway for our kids to play on. We made that abundantly clear to our builder. The kids ride bikes and play soccer all summer and when they get older we'd like to put up a basketball hoop for them to play with; hence the need for a flat driveway.

So, we got to look at the house last night and I'm not kidding you, it seriously looks like they made a 3 foot mound of dirt right where our house is sitting and just built our house on top of it! The house is pretty close to the road too so it's not like they can make the top part of the driveway flat and then just slope it at the bottom. Nope. It's gonna be a hill. A huge hill.

I know what you're thinking. It's not that big of a deal, you're getting a brand new, beautiful home and you are complaining about a slope in the driveway. OK, to some degree I'm upset with myself for getting so miffed about a driveway, but this is my home, the one I'm gonna live in for the next 20 plus years and I want it to be usable....or at least fixable. A driveway is not fixable. I had visions of Chris and I sitting on the front porch watching our kids play outside, drawing chalk, riding bikes, playing soccer and basketball. Not anymore.

So, we're driving away from the house and I'm almost in tears telling Chris how the kids won't be able to ride bikes....we made it very clear that we wanted a flat lot....why would they decide to build a hill under our house... on and on. I keep hearing Hannah's voice pipe up from the backseat, "mommy, we can still play on it, it's OK, it's not to steep, don't worry." She's such a sweetheart. After I rant some more I hear Hannah say, "mommy, I already prayed two times for our house." Thank-goodness my children are learning the lessons I'm trying to teach them even though I'm obviously not putting them into practice myself. So, then we all prayed and I felt better. A little.

Anyway, Chris called the builder and told them about the problem. We're still waiting to hear back from them. I already know there's nothing they can do. It's not as if they can rip up the entire foundation. Oh, and even if they could, we don't have time, we HAVE to close on that house November 15th. We already paid a big chunk of change to lock in our interest rate and that is only good til Nov. 30, so basically if we don't close before then we lose the cash.

Ok, enough ranting and raving. I'm upset, but I'll get over it. In the grand scheme of life it's a SMALL problem to have. We're just hoping that somehow the builder will work with us and let us make a big patio on the back at no charge so that at least our kids have some place to play.