Wagon Play

Lunch with Tyler

Tyler came over yesterday. Since Katie was getting lunch, I gave him a cracker. And another. And another!

Getting Some Sun and Horeb Park

Bryan and I acted like kids on Saturday and went to the local pool together. I tanned nicely--he burned nicely!

Two Church Announcements

During morning services at Westbrook Church, a few minutes is usually set aside for weekly announcements or updates. Today there were two very different, emotional announcements.

First: Due to budget constraints and a movement to pay off our church's building debt, our church removed the Youth Minister's salary from the yearly budget. This stopped any search efforts for a youth minister (we haven't had a full-time youth minister in 2 or 3 years). However, "a few" anonymous church members stepped up (unbeknownst to each other) with extra gifts that would total a prospective youth minister's salary! (My guess = 40K total). I thought this was an amazing announcement, especially since the people gave gifts independently of each other, and these gifts were "above and beyond" their tithe and efforts to pay off the church's building debt!

Second: One elder at our church is especially near and dear to our hearts--his name is Tom Godar. We've volunteered with Tom and his family on many occassions. On Friday night, Tom's 21 year old son (Jake)was killed in an auto accident. Needless to say, the Godar family was not present this morning.

These two announcements echo the sentiments behind the verses of Matt Redman's song Blessed Be Your Name:

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Another Play Date with Gianna

Katie and Gianna did such a good job playing together! Katie showed Gianna her toys, and they shared well (until they got tired of each other :).

Rocking in the Chair

Trying to get the small group kids together for a picture

This is the best we got! They're wiggle worms for sure!

Garden

Loving Carebear

Thanks, Uncle Jimmy for the birthday gift! I carry it with me everywhere!

That Squirrel is Mine!

Saints and Soldiers

Here's an off-the-beaten-path movie for a World War Two buff like Bryan. We watched it on Friday evening from hulu.com. One thing I noticed about the movie is its presence of the the LDS group (Latter Day Saints). I found out today from my friend Ruth that the movie is produced by Excel Group, which is a Mormon company. We really liked the movie! It's based on a historical event, not as violent as Saving Private Ryan, and shows the possible redemption of the human spirit. Definitely a great snuggle movie! (And a conversation piece for the next day!)

Girls' Night Out!

Michele Stawicki won a makeover session at a local charity auction, so she took 4 girls from work to get our makeup done at Blush in the Third Ward. After the 2 hour makeup session, we grabbed some dinner at Flying Waterbuffalo and went to hear some great music (and dodged some really weird guys) at the Irish Pub.

(L to R)Michele Stawicki, me, Julie Kollenbroch, Roberta Hawes & Becky Wolnniakowski.

Favorite Pewaukee Hotspots: Bubba's and the Beach

After dinner, the three of us went to Bubba's to share our beloved Cookie Monster sundae. We drove by the beach and decided to stop--after all, Katie has never been in the sand. She loved it, and she whined every time we took her away from the water!

Wedding and e-Tickets

Jaime, one of Bryan's admin. assistants, married her long-time bf yesterday. Bryan, Katie and I went to the wedding/reception. The ceremony was outdoors and luckily we sat on the shady side of the lawn! After the reception, Daryl and Karen (Daryl is the optician) came to our house. They checked out our red chair and we helped print their airplane boarding passes from our computer. Like many 50-something people, they were "amazed" we could do this!

Garage Sale Deals!

Super-heavy, red leather wing-back chair: $25
Red hurricane lamp: $3
Antique shoe-shine stand: $2

Bowing toward Mecca

...or maybe he's just trying to fool the mosquitoes.

A few reasons why Bryan is an awesome dad

Bryan happily does these things each day, and Katie loves their time together.

1. Bryan gets Katie from her crib in the morning and brings her to me.
2. Bryan feeds Katie breakfast while I enjoy my coffee and make his breakfast & lunch.
3. Bryan brushes Katie's teeth in the morning and night.
4. Bryan plays with Katie after dinner and teaches her cool things (like how to get off the couch) while I clean up the kitchen and make smores in the microwave.
5. Bryan bathes Katie and lets her splash around to her heart's delight. He teaches her to love the water.

12 Month Stats

Katie saw Dr. Sawall this morning, and charmed him with her smile. Dr. Sawall always asks patients to "bring a joke" to their appointment. Here's my joke (I made it up myself):

Question: "What did the cow say to the chicken who was trying to cross the road?"
Answer: "Why don't you mooo-ve!"

Dr. Sawall thought I was extremely talented and should think about a career in comedy. Here's the joke he shared with me:

Question: "What is one thing given to you but other people use more often?"
Answer: "Your name!" (I knew this answer off the top of my head).

Katie's a healthy, growing girl! Here are her stats:

Height 29.5 inches - 64 percentile
Weight 19 pounds - 17 percentile
Head circumference 42.5 cm - 2nd percentile

Life is Fun When You're 1!

I'm so glad Katie's birthday is one a Wednesday! Bryan didn't have to be at work until 11am, so we had a relaxing breakfast. To top off Katie's food, we gave her a tiny piece of her leftover cake.