Making the House a Home

Don and I have never bough furniture together. We keep talking about it but we keep deciding it is just too expensive. One day he talks me into going into a store "just to look" and we walk right into the following.

Don really likes it and I like aspects of it too. However, I was hoping for a sleeper, or an L shaped unit so we kept looking. Turns out we liked this one the best. Don does the math and it seems a good deal. However I can't get on board with spending that much money on a "just to look" visit, so we take down some information and leave with the understanding we would think about it over the weekend. 

Monday Don and I drive back to the store to make it happen. One can see the anxiety on my face. We had to order it and was told it would be delivered the end of November. 

Meanwhile we bought a rug to make the house more cozy. Rebekah helped with the breaking in process. 

I also bought a boot bench cushion with money mom gave me for my birthday. I was very impressed with the packaging. That thing was air tight! 

Don making the first cut into the sealed container. 

It expanded way fast! 

Again, Rebekah helping with the breaking in process. 

Fits rather nicely. 

The Things You Find

Seems like everyone has that catch-all closet. I decided it needed to be dealt with, and this time I remembered to take a before picture. Although you only see the entrance way, it's one of those under the stair closets that go way back and every spare inch is covered in stuff. 

Inside the closet were four boxes that had not been unpacked yet. I think these were all last minute boxes from our kitchen / office area. Each box I opened held some memory. And so I add it to the blog. 

The first thing I found was one of Rebekah's memory boxes filled with notes I put in her lunch box. Apparently they did matter. 

Then I came across a typed note Rebekah had to make for Mother's Day in one of her classes. 

A Valentines note from Don to me. 

That note the "tooth fairy" wrote to Rebekah after she lost a tooth on Christmas Eve.

Back when I really tried to get Rebekah to do the church's goal system I wrote this out with her. That was right about the same time Rebekah realized she didn't really have to do everything I ask her to do. 

And several boxes later, one can see floor. Woo-Hoo! 

Through The Years

12 is a pretty monumental birthday; it almost feels like the game changer from little girl to young woman in training. Feeling nostalgic I went through some of her birthday pictures from the blog and compiled them here. 

I remember this day very well. I'll never forget how big she was! When I finally got to hold her and she was laid on in my arms she stretched from my chest to my thighs. I also remember the nurses weighing and measuring twice. How did she ever fit? How did I ever carry this giant of a girl? 

She just started walking in this picture. We had another cute little outfit ready for her 1st Sunday after birthday but it ended up being too small. 

2, first birthday with grammy. What a cutie. And this also started her love for balloons. 

3. They're not in the picture, but she's holding balloons again, and feeling happy. Daddy got the day off work and we spent it together doing whatever she liked. 

4. You can see her personality coming through this picture. 

5. This was her first big friends party. She was in heaven. 

6 - last birthday in Pendleton / Summerlake. 

7. First birthday in the new house. She had a friend go with her to get their nails done. 

8. Her baptism year. We drove up to celebrate her day with grammy but we also had a big friend party in Columbus. 

9, The Covid year birthday. 

10. First birthday back in Pendleton. 

11. Another year in Pendleton. Thanks to the new guidelines, she started Young Womens a few months later. 

And here she is at 12.

Each picture is a tender memory of my beautiful little girl growing and maturing. It seems to me I see the greatest changes in her appearance from age 6 - 9; the greatest change in her personality / behavior would be since we moved back to Pendleton. The move to Columbus was hard on her but the move back has been much harder. Sometime last year she said she gave up trying to make friends. My heart breaks for her and yet, I see good things in her and hope the best things for her. 

When making this move I prayed greatly for Rebekah; that she would find friends and be able to receive the education she needed to help her become what the Lord desired her to be. And this is where we are. It will be okay in the end for she is loved greatly by her family - immediate and extended. We are all there to support her. What an honor it is to be here with a front seat view to see it all happen. 

Three cheers for the Bee! Go, Fight, WIND!

Birthday

Birthday prep started earlier this year. Rebekah was going for something more specific: Harry Potter. So I found some how to drawings of YouTube and got started. Eventually this came to be. 

I then made 12 Elder Wands, each with something amazing about the Bee. 

While I was searching for different ways to say things I googled other ways to say tremendous and the following came up. 

I must use this word in every day speech. I challenged Michael to do the same with the following results:

The cake was another thing. Rebekah showed me an example of a cake she'd like. It was pretty fancy. She also couldn't decide on what kind of cake to have. Eventually I told her she could have a marble cake - chocolate and vanilla. However, when I went to the store - actually several stores - I couldn't find it. Apparently they don't sell those anymore? So I had to buy two cake mixes and marble on my own. 

I went back and for trying to decide what cake to make. I almost made a monster book cake but at the last minute jumped ship and tried to go for her fancy idea. I made the small stackable cake and used the rest of the batter to make cupcakes. I then turned the cupcakes into owls. 

And a little cupcake into an acceptance letter. 

I had purchased some Harry Potter stickers and made taped them to fancy toothpicks. The end result is below. 

That evening we took the bee to Applebee's. 

That night I scored one last picture of my 11 year old. 

She finally went to sleep and I snuck in to decorate her room with the following. 

That morning she asked for chocolate chip waffles. After breakfast she wanted to open one present. She asked for this shirt a lot time ago; "UM: the element of confusion" 

Then around 10 we went to the local overpriced donut shop. We took some birthday balloons from grammy with us. 

There we met some friends.

And ate donuts. 

It was a good time. 

We came home, played around, and eventually had a quick lunch with mom / grammy followed by presents. 

Some highlights were this denim jacket from grammy.

Tinted lip gloss from grammy

Imagine Dragons shirt from grammy.

And these wand pens from grammy. 

She also scored some much loved bath bombs from grandma. 

Then around 1:30 we drove down to Shelbyville (half way to Columbus) to pick up a friend. They played for a while and ate pizza. 

Don came with us to drop her off at the meeting place. They played 20 questions with the adults in the car the entire way back. There was much giggling and happiness. And since I'm a pretty big Sherrie fan, I asked Don to take a picture of the group. 

A happy birthday to the Bee!