Piano Practicathon Time

Mrs. Sibbel's Studio is once again hosting a Valentines Week Practice-ATHON

This year the studio is raising money for the Ames Emergency Residence Program.  http://www.amesshelter.org/ Specifically the money will go to updating some apartments the program keeps to provide housing for the homeless.  Each apartment needs about $3,500 in updates.  Did you know over 2000 people used Ames Emergency Residence program last year, 1,000 of those individuals were children!  This is a part of Ames I don't get to see or look beyond, and I know I need to get more involved. 
So if you would like to be more involved.  Emily would love for you to sponsor her practice time this week.  She started February 5 and will continue until February 12.  Her goal is to reach 140 minutes.  Her usual practice time averages 120 minutes/week.  She does have a recital at the end of the month so she is quite motivated. 

You can pledge a flat fee or money/minute whichever you choose! Checks can be made directly to Ames Emergency Residence or to Robert or I. 

Thanks!

and I will get off my soapbox and post more pictures

 New Years Eve sparkling juice, complete with the fanciest of cups from the dollar store and party crackers.  The kids and Robert made cookies that afternoon, I made a special chocolate mousse we picked from the cookbook that came with my new blender.  We had hot ham and cheese sammies and chips, and I think everyone was pretty happy.

 Each cracker/popper came with a special paper crown.  We used a fun countdown we found on Netflix, it had lots of dance music and then counted down from 10.  We all danced around like crazies, the kids loved it so we did it several times, and then sent them too bed at 8:30, which is late for them.

 The big snow/only snow we have had was melting and finally at the point where we could do snowmen and snowballs.  We took advantage quickly, now our front, South-facing lawn is grass covered again.

Noelle is still really into crafting. About once a week I get the right thing out that really occupies her while we get some work done.  She worked really hard on her perler bead creation. In other perler news we didn't know this big board exsisted until this Christmas when we saw a huge creation made by one of my cousins.  So if you are shopping Amazon and need a $10 item to get ya free shipping, I know a few girls who would put this to good use.

Games we play to pass the time

The kids play a couple different games throughout the week.  The movie game, one person says a movie line, someone guesses. Ispy or the quiet game is also brought out almost once a day at mealtime. 
Yesterday Dallas and Noelle were playing "when  I grow up" game. This game starts with when I grow up I ..... it usually gets pretty absurd towards the end.

From the back of the van.

Dallas "when I grow up I will have you over for dinner"
Noelle "when I grow up I will have you over for dinner too, and I will make you food"
Dallas "will you live in a house"
Noelle "I will live in mommas house so I won't have to pay monies, momma where will you live?"

I am glad they plan to be dinner friends when they grow up!

Eatting real food

I am on day 17 of a little project.  I challenged myself to do the Whole 30.  Can see more about it here http://whole30.com/ The gist, eat real food. Meat. Vegetables. A little fruit.

I would say I generally eat a  70/30% diet.  Seventy percent healthy and the rest sugar...
I went into the challenge with two goals, testing my will power and to see if I could kick my "constantly needing something sweet after a meal" habit. 

I have cheated a couple of times, so I really am probably on day 7 or 9. 
Win - I have successfully navigated a couple of fun evenings out full of beer and pizza.  I do notice when we are all hungry for lunch, I tend to eat while I make the kids lunch, snacking off their plates, I tend to go for cheese when I want a quick snack, and I miss crunchy things like chips. 
I can't say whether I feel better or not, lots of people have an aha moment once they get the junk out of their systems and suddenly don't have pains or headaches.  I never suffered from these ailments, so I can't really comment on them. I do feel like the afternoon slump I often get is a little better, but half the time I still feel like taking a rest or caffeinating up, I do hope this will continue to change. 

So, I miss cheese, half/half in my coffee, I am cheating by eating butter otherwise I would miss that, I don't miss alcohol unless its the weekend.  I still miss dessert.  I was basically drooling picking up my kids at a friends house yesterday as they were all eating Doritos.  Ugh.  Halfway.....

Sleep walking

I witnessed first hand Dallas sleep walking last night.  It was almost 9:00 pm and I was in the tub.  In walked Dallas, eyes open, he looked at me and I said "hey buddy need to use the bathroom?"

He stared back at me, dropped his pants and started peeing.  EVERYWHERE. He did not lift the seat so his stream was hitting the back of the toilet tank and then bouncing off in every direction.  It took me a second to react.  I quickly lifted the seat, and tried to point his stream down.  He then pulled up his pants looked at me again, shut the light off and went back to bed.  So in the end, not a very relaxing bath for me. 

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve ready.  Off to catch the 3:00pm service at church.

 Christmas pajamas 2015.  I had to dye the shirts red, I will never do that again!

 Christmas Eve morning the kids and Robert finished decorating some cookies and headed out to the neighbors with 15 plates of cookies to share.

 Christmas Eve dinner with some of our favorites.  We ate at the Manderin.  8 adults, 9 kids, we ordered the dinner for 12 and it worked out really well.

 The kids table had a giant lazy susan, the entrees and the soy sauce were spun several times!

 These sweet friends getting photobombed by Dallas

Back home after Chinese, prepping a cookie plate for Santa and some carrots too!

Christmas in Oskaloosa and Missiouri

 We traveled down to Trenton, MO to my Aunts house for a little Johnson get together.  It was good to see everyone and eat some carbs...Noelle loved her gift!

 We spent the night at the Comfort Inn in Oskaloosa.  It exceeded my expectations.  They had covered up the hot tub but had turned the pool to salt water and heated it.  I bet the pool was at least body temperature.  I drew the straw to get in with the kids, and Rob was going to relax poolside and take his shift in the morning.  It was really nice.

 After pool and hotel time we headed to Greg and Chelsey's and spent the day eating, chatting and opening presents.

 Noelle recieved lots of craft supplies, it was perfect

 I think Emily might have cried when she opened this gift.  It was exactly what she wanted.

Dallas got some fun new books

 One of 100 attempts to get a cousin picture

 Two four year olds battling it out Hungry Hippos style

And some family pictures too!