MA in Art Education at UNI

I have been working for the last two years to develop a new program to earn an MA degree in Art Education for working teachers.  We are getting ready to take applications and I am getting excited!  I will hopefully start teaching, in late June, my first group of students. Wish me luck!

 

Don't you want to come spend the next four summers with me?

Baby Shower time!!

  Rachel and Kirsten threw me the most wonderful shower at Home Ec in Iowa City in early January.  Everyone was asked to bring a favorite children's book.  It was so much fun to read each book that was given to us and I am so excited to read them all to our sweet baby! 

    The greatest surprise though was decorating onsies!  Check out all the talented friends that attended my shower and their beautiful work. My baby will be the best dressed baby in Waterloo! What a wonderful way to celebrate!

 My mom made this great bag!

 Rachel and Kirsten (the greatest hostesses and greatest friends!)

 One of the sweet baby books- it looks like Roosevelt and Mabel!

 Here we are decorating onsies!

 My mom and my sister are freshening up on their sewing skills!

 Aren't these just amazing!!!

   ____________________________________________________________________
    Back in Cedar Falls,  we were given a couples shower by our dear friends Steve and Elizabeth.  It was a perfect day- we had 6 couples attend the shower at Steve and Elizabeth's new house.  It was an afternoon filled with fabulous food, hilarious games like guess how many nipples Elizabeth is holding up, and my all time favorite shower game-  pick the parents of the famous people on the card.  The mayor of Cedar Falls was my favorite ( inside joke in CF).
      We received lots of great sock monkey outfits, blankets, and bibs... I feel a photo opportunity coming on for this little one in all the great outfits!
How wonderful it is to feel so warm in the cold month of January!
 Here are a few pictures from the couples shower!

 Elizabeth has 13 nipples- who knew?

 Andrew ( my colleague at UNI) and his wife Leah

 Jeremy sporting some of the new baby gifts!

  Thank you everyone!!! We feel so lucky to have such great friends!

Only two and a half months to go!!!!

Catching up!

It has been a busy few weeks and I have had a difficult time sitting down to share these few weeks!

Christmas break was fabulous!  We spent a great deal of time at home, working on house projects and baby preparation.  We decided to remove the last little bit of wallpaper in the entry of house. To our surprise- there were many layers of paper and lead paint underneath. With the new baby on the way, Jeremy wanted to cover the paint ASAP!  He researched and had some estimates and found out that drywalling the entry way was the best way to go. He amazes me with his ability to learn new skills on the job.  Jeremy successfully drywalled the entry way and I helped as I could with texturing and painting.  I'll do a before and after for you now...

Christmas was wonderful. Mom came up with this great idea for everyone to go bowling!  Jeremy and I volunteered to make 25 bowling trophies to give out and we made Grandpa Mike the "King Pin" and he got to choose the winner of each trophy.  Check out some of these great bowling shots!

Look at that face!  The trophies were a hit!

Merry Christmas!

We have been having a wonderful time celebrating Christmas all week!  Jeremy's parents and sister came over this weekend for dinner and lots of Wii playng.  They gave Jeremy Wii Karaoke for his birthday and the Wii FIt Plus for Christmas.  We went to see the grandmas on Sunday together and had a wonderful visit with Grandma Beth in Iowa Falls.
Spent Monday at the movies and the mall with Jason- my dearest friend from my days at Prairie!  We saw Black Swan- which I recommend, but I will say it is a nail biter.... then off to mall for a few last minute things!
Steph and Kyle arrived on Monday night from Portland we were able to spend the day with them on Wednesday.  After seeing "Tron" the movie and getting great Indian food, we exchanged gifts and played cards.  A perfect evening! To top it off- Steph's mom made us this fabulous blanket- perfect for winter and our upcoming arrival! 

We are preparing for our family bowling game on the 26th! Jeremy and I stayed up late on Tuesday making 25 trophies for everyone in the family!  I am now off to look up soup recipes and make a few more last minute gifts!
Merry Christmas to you all!

December is flying by already

We celebrated Jeremy's big birthday last weekend - woo hoo he's now 35!  We went lunar bowling and out for sushi! 

On Saturday we painted the baby's room and it is finally coming together.  It was fun to incorporate some of my art with some of things we have collected over the years together with some of my childhood toys. Here's a peek at the baby's room!  The kitties really are enjoying the changing pad on our new dresser.  It has become the bathing/napping station for them!

 

Today was my last day of classes!  Just gotta get through finals week...
Then it will be time to buckle down and figure out our Christmas cards and finish up Christmas shopping! December is flying by!

Victoria's Secret

My dear friend Vicky who I worked for many years ago at Preucil Preschool held a lecture and art exhibit Friday at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids. It was a fabulous show filled with great paintings and a Graphic Narrative about the death of her father from Cancer.
I am so happy for Vicky earning tenure at Appalachian state University and having such a successful exhibit!
Here are a few pictures from it.  It was great to see her daughters Emma and Nelle, who played chello at our wedding and a few other old friends!

If you want to see Vicky's work:
Victoria's Secret - A Graphic Novel of Mid Day Ghosts
Victoria Grube, head of Art Education Department at Appalachian State University
November 12 - December 9
Artist Reception: November 19, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. in the Janalyn Hanson White Gallery

Gallery Hours
Monday - Friday
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Viewings outside of normal business hours can be arranged by checking out a gallery key from the Lundy Desk, or by calling 319-363-8213.
The exhibit uniquely showcases the artist’s journey of sculpting a personal narrative of her late father. As Grube studied photograph after photograph of her father, her intent to translate him into the future ended up providing a bridge to her past. “My feelings were telescoped into loss, confusion, joy, shock, disappointment, regret, surprise and anger. I was imaginer and producer, the ruthless critic, the archivist, the mourner,” says Grube.

20 week Ultrasound

We had our 20 week ultrasound on November 5th and a second ultrasound at the University of Iowa Hospital on November 10th because of my age.  Both looked really fantastic and the doctor in Iowa City commented the perfection of the baby's head.
So... I guess we're doing ok growing this baby!
Updates on pregnancy-  I am moving into some maternity clothes thanks to my mom who took me shopping this month.  I can actually feel the baby move especially after a good meal. Jeremy got to feel the baby move as well when we were laying in bed other night. What a wonderful experience!
We are hoping to paint the baby room this week while on break but not sure- school work just keeps piling up!  We are thinking of painting it a buttery yellow and I am working on a mobile to go above the crib! 
No new cravings since soup obsession and need for lemon desserts!

Here are some photos:
The first is a picture of the baby's face and the second one shows the little legs crossed. It's kinda like those magic books when you have to focus your eyes real well to see the image!
The baby's legs were crossed in both ultrasounds so even if we wanted to find out the sex of the baby- we were not going to!  Good thing we really like surprises!   Love to you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

From Jeremy, Wendy and baby!

Happy Halloween...

We spent the weekend getting geared up for Halloween.  We went to the pumpkin Patch on Friday and got three beautiful pumpkins to carve tomorrow!
Jason came up for a visit on Saturday night and we went to two haunted places. The first was a haunted funeral home in Waterloo. I was not disappointed!!! It was fun and scary but a little hard to climb through the tunnel like hallways.  The second place was called Heart of Darkness and it was a big castle in the middle of a farm field. I was impressed by how popular it was, it had venders, a DJ, games, and you opt for a FASTPASS for a few extra bucks- like the rides at Disneyland!!! We toughed out the wait and it was fun!  We all had to walk together on a rope as to not get lost in the darkenss!  Jason is not fond of clowns and this had many fun neon scary clown-like monsters so you know it was a hit! We ended the night with a scary movie and pumpkin coffee and hot apple pie a la mode!!!

Soup Exchange is successful!

We held our first soup exchange last night!  I read about this idea in my Readymade magazine a while back but it wasn't until I was craving soup constantly that I put my idea into action! We invited 3 couples over and each brought a different soup then containers to fill up with others soups and of course the recipe! 
Jeremy and I made pumpkin scones, garlic cheddar biscuits, fresh wheat bread, and for dessert Grandma Klaas'es Sshmandkuchen! ( a German custard pie/cake that is amazing!!!)  We made Wassail too to warm everybody up as we ate on the screened in porch!

Everyone brought really good soup and I now have tone left over for the upcoming month as it gets colder!  Everyone should hold a soup exchange- it is so much fun and filling too! 

 Spicy corn Chowder

 Pumpkin Scones

 Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

 SchmandKuchen

 Hot Wassail

The best part- leftovers!!!

More house updates!

With fall finally here, we are working hard to get a few more home improvement projects in before it is too cold and I am too pregnant! 
Here is a picture of the new trees we planted to replace the one that fell in our yard this summer. One is an Autumn Blaze Maple tree and the other is a Honey Crisp apple tree- yum yum!!!( it is the small tree in front of the blue truck!)

 Next we tackled the chimney ( or really we hired someone to tackle the loose bricks at the top of our chimney).  The storms this summer loosened a few more and we decided we better not wait to see what the winter would add to this! 

Last, it was time to start tearing down the garden.  We are still getting lots of peppers and broccoli and a few beans but will be too cold soon for any of those!  Here is my last harvest of the season!

Now I think it is time to carve pumpkins!!!!  I need to investigate where the best pumpkin patch is in Cedar Falls/ Waterloo!!!

Breaking in the new house!

We are really enjoying our new house- especially the basement.  Last month we had a make your pizza party with Chef Jeremy and in October we are hosting our first soup exchange!  ( I am craving soup like crazy...)
Here are a few shots from pizza night!

Elizabeth squeezes Jeremy's dough...

Tara and Sarah test out our pool table... don't they look like real sharks

Jeremy and Steve playing so furiously that I think I see the puck smokin'

Come on over and join us anytime! 

April Fools Baby

I am sure everyone knows from family, myself, or facebook that we are expecting a baby on April 1st!! This would be an interesting April fools day prank, but it's true.  Here are some pictues the little one at 11 weeks!  We are so excited!!!!!

We are also getting very excited about picking out a good color to paint the baby's room and what  baby names to put on our list!  If you have any ideas, send them my way.  I will use this blog to send some updates as I progress along. I am now 14 weeks and feeling fantastic!  I go in for my 20 week ultrasound on Friday the 5th of November! 
Love to everyone!!! xoxoxo

composting!

This spring I started up our compost in Waterloo. There was already a great spot started from the previous owner so it was a snap.  I moved some of the black dirt to our flower beds in June and everything took off. In July I noticed some funny things were growing around our bird feeder and to let them be see what I got.  I found several sunflowers that the squirrels promptly ran off with when they got big and beautiful and rich with seeds. I also noticed some cantaloupe growing.  I think it is about time to finally pick our cantaloupe.  It is starting to take over our yard!!!

We also lost a tree in our front yard during a vicious storm in early July.  Last weekend, Jeremy and I picked out two trees to put in the front yard. They will be delivered today. One is an Autumn Blaze Maple. It will turn the brightest red. The second tree we decided upon was a Honey Crisp Apple tree. It won't have apples for about 5 years but that's ok- I figure I might be done with my PhD that year and have time to pick it then!!!