Today at work I decided to splurge and buy a paper because it was going to be a long day.  Thursday's paper not only includes the fun variety section, but includes the taste section so there was extra incentive to get the paper.  After I had read through everything and was working on the crossword puzzles, I noticed the following ad:

I couldn't believe what I was seeing!  For those who do not know Mill End, it's an awesome fabric store that has tons and tons of fabric (there are several in the Twin cities and surrounding area).  So, I told Ben I'd be stopping by there on my way home, and I'm glad I did!  They had some great stuff!

Besides some white terry cloth and brown corduroy, I found these great fabrics:

 

 some space stuff for Ben and some cute fabric that I liked and will make something with

some baby boy/gender neutral fabric since Ben thinks I have too much girl fabric

some holiday fabrics for some projects I have on my mind :)

I was looking to see if they had any specialty fabric that would be hard to get out here (like BYU or church related or anything out of the regular fabric store norm).  They didn't have tons of novelty fabrics and most were not was I was wanting (Elvis).  But, at the end of the row I found a huge bolt of "I Love Primary" fabric!

 

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it!  I've been trying to think of something I could do for my primary children when they get baptized/birthdays/Christmas and had toyed with the idea of pillowcases or tote bags or something small.  When I saw this fabric I knew I had to get it, so I bought 3 yards and hopefully that will work with whatever project I decide on.  But, I'm super excited that I found primary fabric.  The lady at the cut counter probably thought I was crazy because I bought little bits of all the other fabric and then bought 3 yards of the primary fabric (and there was lots on the bolt).  

Now that I have lots more fabric, I'm on the lookout for new craft ideas.  Have any you want to share?

Magnifying our callings

When we first moved into our ward it took Ben and I forever to get callings.  After 5 months of just kind of hanging out in the ward not doing much more than going to church on Sunday and doing our home and visiting teaching (it took several months to get those assignments, too), We were finally asked to come and meet with a member of the bishopric.  We talked about what  the callings would be, if we'd be doing the same thing (like co-teachers in primary), and were pretty excited to finally have callings.  They called Ben to be the secretary in the young men's presidency.  We were excited for his calling but, sad that I still had no calling. 

Eventually, (about a month later) I was called in to meet with a member of the bishopric and was called to be a primary teacher.  I was excited.  I had substituted in primary a couple weeks and would also be co-teaching with another teacher.  When the year changed so did our class. We would be teaching the 6 and 7 year olds.

There are 6 kinds who come on a regular basis and all are from very active families.  It has been fun teaching them because half of them are going to turn 8 and be baptized this year.  I had some lofty ideas about how our class would be: reverent, spiritual, lots of willing cooperation, a pretty decent understanding of the gospel basics.  Boy, was I mistaken.  Don't get me wrong.  Most of the kids in the class are great.  They listen once they've had time to share something from their week.  They answer questions.  They read scriptures (if they have them).  And I do realize that they are only 6 and 7 so it isn't going to be spiritual or reverent all the time.

But, there have been some Sundays where my patience has been pushed too far.  One boy in particular has decided he doesn't like me because I won't let him get away with goofing off or distracting the other kids.  I asked him to be reverent, listen, sit still, etc and then had to tell him if he wasn't going to behave I'd have to get his parents all in one 35 minute class. Slowly my co-teacher and I have been able to make it possible to get through an entire lesson each Sunday and still manage to have a class of happy kids.

Even though we have made significant progress in the past 3 months, I still have felt like I could do more to help the kids understand what we are teaching and make it stick with them.  I haven't felt like I have been making a very big impact on the kids.  However, today I got some encouragement.  The first child in our class is getting baptized in a couple of weeks, and she wants me to speak at her baptism! I was so happy when I got the email from her mom asking if I could do it!  It makes me feel like I really am helping them develop their testimonies of Jesus Christ.

I love my pillows!!!

The Sew Scoresby Sewing Challenge has been such a great motivation for me.  It has inspired me to finally get around to redoing the pillows on our couches, and I'm so happy I got it done.

  

The pictures don't do them justice. You should come and see how awesome they are in real life!

Oy!

Yes, I realize that it has been almost a month without any blog updates from us.  It's been quite the month ( and good thing it was a short one!)


SO, without futher ado....

 
We made a trip to Wausau for the long President's day weekend.  We enjoyed celebrating Mom's birthday at Ben and Shannon's.  Ben J. cooked a very delicious Italian dinner and Ben S. made a pretty yummy carrot cake.

 

Ben also enjoyed the foot of snow that fell while we were in Wausau.  He couldn't wait to get out and enjoy the snow, so he jumped on the chance to clear the drive way!

 

 Yes, his hair is frozen!!

We also had a fun Valentine's Day.  We went out to breakfast and enjoyed some fun presents before I went to work. 

 

 Two of our Sing-a-ma-jigs helped us decorate sugar cookies that night.  Thanks to Becky for the awesome apron that lets our Sing-a-ma-jigs join us in the kitchen!

I also did a little crafting/sewing.  Mom started a sewing challenge blog and it's been fun to sew something new each month.  Here are some of my latest projects.

 

A burp cloth

Some hot pads

A ribbon wall-hanging

 

A car seat cover for a new niece (and perfect for Wisconsin weather!)

Our wildlife adventures continue in our apartment.  Remember these?  Last Sunday while we were sitting in our living room, we noticed this thing outside our window.

He was oblivious to us even though he came right up to the window.  He tried crawling into the hole right at the corner of the building (to go down under the stairs), but when he decided he couldn't make it in he tried crawling up onto our grill to check out any left over grub from the last time we used it in October.

Ben won the Regional ABA Mediation Representation competition held at Hamline last weekend.  That means he and his partner move onto the finals in Denver next month.  We have no pictures of this past weekend's competition, but we'll get some in Denver.

Now that you had a very quick recap of February and the beginning of March, I'm going to try better to keep things up to date.  But, now I need to get back to watching Wipeout.  I know.  We are really exciting.

When nothing else will grow

Our potatoes will!

We haven't had lots of potatoes lately.  

Guess we need to hurry up and eat the last of our 50 pounds.

Our family is growing!

They first arrived on Christmas,

the next two arrived on my birthday,

and now we have a happy little family.

The Christmas one was a big bargain!!

St. Paul's Winter Carnival

In protest to a New Yorker's comment that Minnesota is another Siberia, the city of St. Paul started holding a winter carnival for 10 days between January and February.  And, it's lasted for the past 125 years!  Ben and I checked out the snow sculpting competition Friday for my birthday and it was super cool (no pun intended).

You can see how intricate these snow carvings are.  The competitors are given an 8'x8'x8' block and they just carve away at it.

This castle was a little maze for children.  Unfortunately, we were a little too tall for it and we could see our way out.  It was fun, though!

And, this is only one of the fun activities.  They have royalty, ice carving, a medallion treasure hunt.  The fun is endless! See, winter can be fun!