Friday, March 18, 2011

1720 Lariat Lane

While I was in Grand Island for the weekend, I went for a run in Capitol Heights. There are so many places that trigger so many memories. I snapped this picture of our old house as I was running past. Notice its not blurry at all. What does that say about my speed??? Its like the camera was on the back of a tortoise.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

70 beautiful years

The weekend before Valentine's Day, the Christensen family celebrated something very special...The 70th anniversary of my grandparents Ray and Rhoda Christensen. 70 years! These two people are the most amazing example of love, patience, and generosity you will ever meet. The weekend was so much fun, starting with a Cousin's Night Out in Grand Island. Happy hour at the martini bar and then drinks and dancing at the hotel bar. On Saturday we had lots of family time, including taking Willa swimming. That girl is turning into quite the little fish! We also presented Grandma and Grandpa with a gift called a Voice Quilt which was very cool. It is a box that plays a recording of all of us wishing them well or sharing a story and some of their favorite songs. Sunday was the big reception and dance, hundreds of people came to be a part of the wonderful occasion. You can read more about Grandma and Grandpa in The Independent, as they were featured on Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The offices of Purely Maid

Check out those snazzy curtains! Very few people have seen the inside of the Purely Maid office in the Apothocary Building in Lincoln's Haymarket. So here is a little taste...Mama Cindy made the curtains for us.

Business is positively booming, and we now have one employee! Her name is Tara and she is a busy mom of 3 young boys. She helps us out once or twice a week and she does a terrific job. I'm not sure what we would do without her.

Don't be surprised if you hear in the coming weeks/days that Purely Maid is branching out into a new area of business...Tosha and I can never seem to find enough to do. An initial planning meeting is taking place later tonight so we'll see what happens!

Willa stories to spark a smile or two

-Willa has had a few time outs in her 19 months on earth. They have mostly stemmed from pounding on the computer keyboard or hitting poor old Luther. These time outs consist of me walking her to the corner of the living room and asking her to look at the wall, while I bite my lower lip to keep from laughing out loud. The last time she took one of these "time outs", when it was all over and I had explained to her why she had a time out, she looked me right in the face and licked me. How can you be upset with someone who will lick your face???

-in the above picture, Willa was attempting to put a pair of her pajama pants on both Luther's front and hind legs. She was unsuccessful.

-Willa's piggy bank is in the form of a ceramic owl. So she calls any form of money "owl." Or anything that you put money into, like a parking meter, atm, billfold, etc. Anything associated with money is "owl." She is very good at getting people to give her "owl." We find wadded up, green "owl" all over the place. Lots of times when I put my shoes on, there is some form of "owl" in my shoes.

-some of Willa's favorites: shopping carts, broccoli, na-nee (candy, usually suckers), soy milk, orange juice, her stuffed dog Arf-Arf, her LeapFrog phonics video, apples, plums, peanut butter, any person that you put the word Auntie or Uncle in front of, Target, Shrek, Fox and the Hound, Toy Story, her belly button and tootsies, the word "babies" (although she seemed terrified when she met an actual baby at book club), her cousin Abbey, barking, hats, headphones, ba's (baths), jumping on the bed.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Apologies for the lame cell phone pictures

I keep putting off any blog updates, as our computer at home is on the fritz and I have been shying away from downloading any pictures to it. But my blog is just getting so sad and I am so bored at work that I decided I would just go ahead with the cell phone pictures and a few little tidbits on the lives of the Van Boenings.

The biggest thing going on in our lives is the selling of our house. It has been on the market for a little over a month, we have had a few open houses. We have a very kind and helpful real estate agent named Elizabeth who listed our home and has taken us to look at lots of places to consider for our next abode. Right now we have our hearts set on a small acreage just outside of the Lincoln city limits. It has amazing potential for flowers, vegetable gardens, chickens, play structures and MAYBE even a small dirtbike track. Fingers crossed that our house sells in time to snag this one!!!

Other goings-on: Brad's newest band, Chasing the Sun, has been playing a lot all over town and in Omaha, I am training for the half marathon again (and I am actually registered for it this year), Willa is still into hoarding stuff and carrying it around the house in various bags/baskets/purses, lots of fun things coming up to include St. Patty's Day, a snowboarding trip, Brad's 30th, a road trip to St. Louis, all jam-packed into the next few weeks!

Monday, March 14, 2011

NO idea how to rotate a picture

If you would all just kindly pick up your computer screens and turn them in a counter-clockwise fashion. There! Now you can see our Willa, sitting on the toilet! Before you go thinking she is some super-genius-baby and that she is potty trained, she only sits there. She has produced nothing on the toilet. And, I made the mistake of using my hair dryer to warm up the seat the first time I put her on it so that the coldness of the seat wouldn't turn her completely off to the idea of the potty. Now, she expects me to warm the seat each time. One of these days, she will understand why she is sitting on that seat, I'm just sure...