5 Years Later

Shoot- I put this off for way too long now and while I feel like my life has not progressed as much I might have expected I'm overwhelmed at how much I have to catch up on and how many changes have happened. I lived at home in Michigan for only a year and loved every minute of family time, but working on expanding my circle of friends and potential companions was disappointing. I attended the singles ward but didnt make any connections I wanted to pursue. I did enjoy my calling as a relief society teacher though. And where home was concerned I really wanted to start my own home and having two birds trying to feather one nest is difficult, although Mom and I did successfully work on some pretty fun projects which I am quite proud of:

I got my bedroom in order,

Made some artwork for Mom's formal living room, which we painted green and got a purple rug to go with,

and one of my favorite projects was turning an upstairs bedroom into the best craft room! We tore out the carpeting and painted the sub-floor navy blue with stenciled birds and flowers, followed by a nice coat of polyurethane. We planned for all the desk space we would need for cutting fabric, sewing machines, paper and all that good stuff as well as all the storage we would need to hide any unfinished projects and all our supplies not in use. We switched out the light fixture and added pendant lights in the corners to get a good view on anything we would work on.

 So, with a fabulous room to work on all the other projects I got busy! I made this happy headband for my niece Alice.

 Mom and I also added a pergola to the front porch which had been very un-sheltered for a while. The wisteria growing on the side was part of our motivation because it needed somewhere to travel.

 Doing projects is so fun, but it seems every time we get a brilliant idea for a project the planning process its all sunshine and butterflies with the sky as our limit... until we actually get into the thick of the work feeling it was a bad idea, getting in over our heads, wishing we could just get it finished instead of taking 5 trips to the hardware store in one day. However, we always push through and reach our goal with something to be proud of.

 We also redecorated a bedroom for Mom&Dad's good friends the Belchers for their grandson Gabe, who would be spending a lot of time in their home being confined to his room because of an illness. I love that we were able to do something so fun with such an awesome theme!

I also turned the formal dining room into a play room... because at Grammies house there's gotta be a play room!

(pics to come)

While living at home I also had the great privilege of spending lots of time with my sister and her family! Adrienne and Bryce had 2 awesome girls at that time and we spent time together at least once a week.

We went to the Ford factory where we took a bus to get there, we then went to a McD's with a play place for the girls to get their wiggles out.

Then Easter came and we had to celebrate of course:

I have noticed that I have a tendency to be way more enthusiastic than necessary where children are concerned:

For Mom's birthday we surprised her by taking her to a skating rink with the kids and rolled the night away! It was super fun- just like my Mom.

For the 4th of July we went to downtown Detroit where they have an excellent fireworks show we were privileged to watch from the GM building where Adrienne's friends in her ward worked.

For My birthday we went bowling, which was also super fun- I love doing any activity with my favorite people!

I really do love these girls!

For Halloween I dressed as Snow White- awesome costume a la Valerie Asvitt! I have always liked Snow White for some reason so I finally went with it for my favorite holiday. 

We frequented the Great Lakes Crossing mall regularly as it was 5 minutes from Adrienne's apartment and had an excellent play area for Ollie... not to mention the merry-go-round she couldn't get enough of:

We also went to the zoo where we got to feed a giraffe! It was pretty cool, although Ollie kept as much distance as she could while in my arms.

My year in Michigan was just what the doctor ordered for a recharge after 3.5 years away at school without family nearby on a regular basis. I will always cherish that year.