Rainy Day Song

I love rainy days!

Strolling along country roads with my baby

It starts to rain, it begins to pour

Without an umbrella we're soaked to the skin

I feel a shiver run up my spine

I feel the warmth of her hand in mine

Oh, I hear laughter in the rain

Walking hand in hand with the one I love

Oh, how I love the rainy days

And the happy way I feel inside

After a while we run under a tree

I turn to her and she kisses me

There with the beat of the rain on the leaves

Softly she breathes and I close my eyes

Sharing our love under stormy skies

Oh, I hear laughter in the rain

Walking hand in hand with the one I love

Oh, how I love the rainy days

And the happy way I feel inside

Neil Sedaka

My Newest Little Joy

...is crafting these precious, tiny little hats for preemies!

My best friend Emily is a Respiratory Therapist and works in the NICU where up to 70 tiny babies a day are fighting for life.  Little hats like these help them maintain their body heat and keep them snuggly warm.

It's easy to adjust the size of the hat too, depending on the baby you're making it for. 

I wonder what little ones Em will pass these on to?  I don't know who they are, but I've prayed for them.

They're so cute!  Check out the pattern

There are so many hospitals in need of donations like these sweet little hats.  You can use scraps of yarn from other projects, and they whip up in minutes.  If you know how to crochet and are looking for a simple way to bless others, give this little pattern a try!

Also, Jon's girlfriend Megan passed on the awesome website ravelry.com which is where this pattern came from.  I've quickly fallen in love.  You can share your own pattern, browse through others, and post pictures of your completed projects.  It's a crochet/knitter's heaven!

I'm Windflowers927.  Check me out :)

Flower [pen] Pot

I made these for two special ladies at First Lutheran as a gift on my last day of subbing at First Lutheran School.  (I still see them almost every day since I'm just across the parking lot at the preschool now, but I wanted them to know how much I appreciated them while I was working there all year)

Hence, the Flower Pen Pots!

To make the pens, I gathered tacky glue, silk flowers, ball point pens, and floral tape.

Also, a terra cotta pot and some pinto beans.

The decorative scissors and paper are used for the card, and it's fun to have a cute ribbon to tie around the flower pot.

I peeled the green plastic off of the flower stems to expose the wire, glued the wire to the pen, and began wrapping with floral tape.  I used dots of glue all along the way to make sure that the floral tape (which isn't incredibly sticky) would adhere to the pen and not unravel the first time anyone picked it up to write with.

I used a piece of paper to cover the drain hole in the bottom of the pot, and filled the pot with pinto beans.  The beans are a great way to keep the flower pens standing where you put them.

After the pens dried, I put them in the pot, tied a cute ribbon around the top of the pot, and voila!

How cute is that?

It came out to costing less than $5 to make these.  It's always exciting to find a way to make inexpensive gifts!

Easter Break

Yes, it was a month ago, and yes, I am posting about it now.  It's been a crazy few weeks!

Easter break was wonderful this year.  I got to spend it with so many people that I love!  It was light on my Jesse time, but I get to see him all the time ;-)

On Tuesday, I drove down to Costa Mesa to visit with Gramma and Papa Davis.  Papa had had back surgery a few weeks beforehand, and was recuperating at a beautiful rehabilitation center a quick drive from their house.  When I got there, I was really surprised by what a pleasant place it was.  I had been envisioning a convalescent home like the one Papa Chuck had been in around Thanksgiving time (which was utterly horrible) and was thankful that Papa Don had much better care.

Gramma wheeled Papa out to the lobby to meet me, and then we went out into the lovely garden area to sit and catch up. 

So happy that Papa is doing well!  Pinched nerves and back surgeries are NO FUN!

Gramma is happy too :)

We had a wonderful visit, and they treated me to lunch there, too (which doesn't sound exciting, but it really was!  Turkey, potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, a salad, juice...Papa was living the high life!)

I'm so glad that Papa has since been able to come home and continue his road to recovery there instead of away from Gramma.  And I'm glad that Gramma can enjoy having him at home instead of driving to and from the hospital twice a day for over a month!

After saying goodbye to Gramma and Papa, I got back in the car and drove down to San Diego to visit Emily.  We had a wonderful time!  We love being total lazy bums when we get together...at least for a day ;-)  Crocheting, chatting, painting toenails, watching girly movies, putting on PJs by 4pm...it's a wonderful life!

We began our Wednesday with a trip to the mall

People must laugh when they see us walk in to clothing stores together...I'm 6' and she likes to think she's 5'2 (maybe in heels!)

We're perfectly sympathetic with each other, though.

"This is too long! I think I'll trip!"

"Grr, these shorts look like hotpants on me!"

We have fun, though :)

After our shopping trip, we went back to Emily's condo to meet Arlen (her "he's just a friend"  a month ago, but her wonderful boyfriend now!) and Emily sister, Sara, and her boyfriend, Chris.

We drove to the Point Loma Lighthouse to enjoy a beautiful afternoon at the beach.

Happy gang!

Chris and Sara are so sweet together.

Sara and I are compensating for Em's height!  :)

We've been best friends for 18 years now!

Gosh...this beach girl misses her ocean!!!

After leaving the beach, we headed over to Golden Spoon for Arlen's first time.

We had a wonderful time!

I came home on Thursday afternoon, and on Friday, I headed up to Oxnard to spend the weekend with Ami.  We had a wonderful time going through pictures, crocheting, and putting on an Audrey Hepburn marathon.  I loved getting to spend time with her.  Things have been so busy; I hadn't spent the night at her house since the day Papa Chuck died.  She amazes me with how well she is doing.  God certainly has blessed her with a peace.  I can't imagine losing Jesse.  Now, or in 60 years!!!

I got to see Dad and Laura on Saturday morning and have breakfast with them.  Mom was at  the OPC Women's Retreat, and Jon and Kate were at school.

It was a whirlwind break, but I'm thankful that I was able to spend time with so many of the people I love!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had the preschool class I'm taking care of right now (12 adorable 3 year olds) help me make cards for their moms for Mother's Day by filling in some sentences I had created. Some of their ideas were sweet, some were funny, and some make you go, "whaaaaa???"
Here are some of their answers:

"My mom's name is...Mommy."
--Sophia

"My mom is prettiest when she...puts her make-up on."
--Cayden

"I like to make my mom smile by...saying 'cheese!'"
--Kimberly

"When I am sad, my mom...gives me a bandaid."
--Sophia

"My mom is a good cook! My favorite thing she makes for me is...McDonalds."
--Cayden

"I know she loves me because...she hugs me."
--Zion

My mom is prettiest when she...wears pants."
--Juan

"I like to make my mom smile by...playing with her."
--Sophia

"When I am sad, my mom...makes silly faces with me."
--Sammy

"My mom is prettiest when she...is being happy."
--Jaden

"My mom is a good cook! My favorite thing she makes for me is...breakfast."
--Victoria

"I like to make my mom smile by...putting on a show for her."
--Zion

"I know she loves me because...I make her laugh."
--Cayden

"I like to make my mom smile by...making pancakes for her in the kitchen with Daddy."
--Sammy

"I know she loves me because...she's my mom!"
--Jaden

"I Wanna Kiss You"

I wasn't quite sure what to say on my first day of subbing in preschool on Monday, when a cute little 2 year old came up to me and said, "I wanna kiss you!"
"You want to kiss me?" I asked, "ok, you can kiss my hand." And I held out the back of my hand for him.
"Noo! I wanna kiss you!"
"What do you mean," I asked, confused. "Show me."
And with that, he got out of his chair, ran over to the counter, and pulled a tissue from the Kleenex box.
"A KISSYOU!" He said, and wiped his little nose.

Angel Food Cake with Strawberries

You thought this would be another recipe, didn't you?

But it's not.  It's a sentiment.

Angel food cake has made it into every special day with my family as long as I can remember.  As a little girl, I looooooooved Sundays when Papa and Ami came to visit, because I knew that on their way to our house, they would stop at the little farm stand on the side of the road and buy a few baskets of strawberries.

People who have tasted Oxnard strawberries know that it's not worth buying them anywhere else.  That's why my grandparents would drive from Ontario (Cali) to Oxnard before picking up the pièce de résistance for Ami's angel food cake.

Strawberries grow year round in Oxnard in the fields that take up the 1.2 miles of land between the house I grew up in and the ocean.  But they start smelling their sweetest right around Easter when the ocean breeze lifts the scent of warm, sun-ripened strawberries and swirls it around our homes.  There's nothing like that scent.  I've lived away from my parents' home in Oxnard for 5 years now, but every time I get off the freeway and go over the bridge into Oxnard, I roll down my window so that the sea breeze and strawberries can welcome me.

Ever since we began dating, Jesse has called me his "Celtic-harping-beach-strawberry girl."  It fits me pretty well :)

Pretty much, just combine these two pictures and there I am!

Anyway, back to angel food cake: today is my last day in Kindergarten, and really, at First Lutheran School.  On Monday, I'm moving over to First Lutheran's Preschool which is run completely separately.  As happy as I will be to be back in a preschool setting (if you don't believe that I miss my "Miss Bethany" days at Turtle Rock Preschool, check here and here), I will miss being a part of this school, and the kindergarten class.  They make my days so much fun!

Today being my last day, I decided to bring angel food cake, strawberries, and whip cream with me today for all of the teachers and staff.  Somehow, bringing a childhood favorite with me today made me feel better about the whole thing of having to say goodbye to what has been my job since August.  I still can't believe that I came here to fill in for a teacher's maternity leave the first week of school and have been here ever since.  What a blessing!  I loved teaching 1st grade; I grew exponentially while teaching 4th/5th combined class, and I'm having a blast singing my songs and dancing along with the kindergarteners. 

God showed me through this year that I really can bloom where I'm planted.  To step into three very different classrooms and be able to lead in and learn from all of them has been incredible.  A year like this for a substitute teacher is very rare!

I'm just hoping that God will plant me in a classroom of my own this upcoming year.  I've learned so much in the past two years as a substitute, but I am starving for a place to call home.  Please join me in praying that God already has it all arranged for me, and that He's waiting for just the right moment to show me.

Today is my last day, and I'm sitting in "my" class for the last time, watching precious little sleepers as I eat my angel food cake and strawberries.  Truly, it does make life feel better!