a little blue egg

Canning Corn

2009-08-11T14:31:00.001-05:00

As you can see....we have been busy canning sweet corn! We took a trip to Illinois last weekend for Drew's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary party. We had a great time with all of the Heiser family (pictures to be posted later). We were able to get some sweet corn while we were up there. By some, I mean a ton. 11 dozen to be exact. We are fortunate to have some VERY generous extended family that gave us all of the corn! We were so excited because we have never been able to get to Illinois during corn season and to bring this much home to can was a dream!

So on Monday morning, after I dropped Ella off at school, I embarked on a 16 hour canning adventure. Amelia helped to shuck the corn and I cut it from the cobs and started canning. I used Grandma Heiser's recipe, and for those of you who know her, she doesn't mess around with corn. It is the best corn you WILL ever taste.

I ended up canning 12 quarts and 15 pints of Illini sweet corn! I am quite proud that I finished this project without any mishaps in the kitchen! We are going to be enjoying this for the next year!

Now I am off to can some rhubarb jam and strawberry rhubarb jam. We also picked some rhubarb from a family member's garden while we were there. We have been blessed by generosity from the garden for sure!

Big first day

2009-07-29T12:49:00.000-05:00

So Ella is finally a big girl now. It is official. She started Kindergarden this week and is loving it so far...even though she has only been for 3 hours on Monday and today (Wednesday)is her first full day. On the way home from school on Monday we were talking about school and she said, "it was the best ever!" It is going to be a great year for her.

The family the morning of her first half-day of school

Ready for her first half-day of school!

This is Ella and Amelia in front of her new school...Discovery School.

Ella posing at her table. I can't wait to hear about all of the learning that is going to happen everyday.

I am so excited for her to be at such a great school with so many of her friends. I will miss her at home and can't believe that she is finally in school for real. I know that God has placed her at this school, with this teacher and with these kids for a reason and it is going to be a great experience for her. Amelia and I will try to keep busy this next month before she goes to pre-school...for now, we will make some snickerdoodles to have when Ella gets home. This should take my mind off of Ella being gone for the next hour at least...

Amelia turns 3

2009-07-25T16:57:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Amelia's 3rd birthday again at home this weekend. She loves mermaids, so I made a mermaid cake. I was quite pleased with the way that it truned out and so was she. She is so different from Ella in her interests in toys. She loves to play with and dress up Barbies. She recieved two new barbies, a horse for Barbie to ride and lots of new Barbie clothes! This will keep her entertained for hours! She also loves playing anything princess and dressing up. I love my girly girl!

Amelia's mermaid cake

Amelia loves her new pony baby! Thanks Lili!

Take a deep breath and blow out those candles!

Smores

2009-07-20T20:40:00.001-05:00

What kind of trip to Meme and Papa's would it be if there wasn't a fire with smores? We had fun roasting the marshmallows and making hobo cherry pies. It was the perfect evening for it too. Mmmmmm...wish I could have just one more!

Amelia is the chocolate fanatic. After she had her smores, she grabed a bar of chocolate and shoved two pieces in her mouth and was about to down a third when I intervened. I think that she swallowed them whole they were gone so fast!

Higgins Lake:part 3

2009-07-20T20:25:00.000-05:00

We always love to go tubing and only one day was calm enough to go. Ella had been tubing last year, so she was eager to go. Amelia was not...even though she is the more rough and daring child in some ways, she wasn't ready this year.

The girls had fun on these two boats this year.

The Dragonfly

2009-07-20T20:17:00.000-05:00

I had to post this funny sequence of pictures. I was taking pics of the girls playing in the sand, when I noticed a dragon fly on Amelia's shoulder. Being the great mom that I am, I moved in a little closer and was amazed that it was still there. I took a couple pictures and then told Amelia that she had a dragonly on her shoulder. I think her face says it all!

Higgins Lake:part 2

2009-07-20T20:14:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, we took a boat trip to the State Park and had grilled hot dogs! They were the best! The girls had a great time playing in the sand and on the slides and swings.

Amelia loves her meme!

Drew was right at home driving the boat!

Fun in the water!

Higgins Lake Trip:part 1

2009-07-20T20:06:00.001-05:00

This past week we took a trip up to Northern Michigan to visit my parents. We had a blast hanging out with them on Higgins Lake. Here are a few pictures of our first few days there.

The first sunny morning that we were there. The beautiful lake is in the background.

Ella has always loved going on Grizzly rides. (the Grizzly is the 4-wheeler) This year Amelia finally got enough courage to go on the Grizzly and she loved it. This is a great picture of Papa and the girls on the Grizzly.

My parents also got a new pontoon boat this year. We were able to get out on the lake 4 days. It was so nice! The weather cooperated for the most part. It was cool and sunny most days, in the mid-high 70's, and a bit windy at times, but we had so much fun!

Amelia fell asleep on Meme...the funny part about this picture is that she had just dozed off to sleep and then grabbed a fishy, with her eyes still closed, put it in her mouth and chewed it a few times and fell asleep again! It was crackin' us up!

Ella graduates preschool

2009-05-16T07:21:00.005-05:00

Where has the time gone? Ella graduated Preschool this week and is ready to go to the BIG school in July. She has two wonderufl teachers, Ms. Christy and Ms. Jo, and had so much fun this year at school. We are looking forward to a fun and busy summer with Ella at home. She and Amelia are taking swim lessons at MTSU, Ella is participating in t-ball for the first time, we have trips planned to visit family and a trip to the cabin in there too! Fun times ahead!

Ella with her friends Reese and Hannah

Greenway fun!

2009-03-22T20:09:00.008-05:00

And they're off!

A quick stop to pose on the Greenway!

Sunday was such a beautiful day to be outside at the Greenway. We decided to go over and get some exercise! Amelia has recently learned how to ride the Dora bike with the training wheels! It is amazing that she is riding that already...it was only a few months ago that Ella had outgrown it! Amelia has so much fun on that bike. She was singing away as she rode on by...too cute!

Ella has been mastering the roller skates that she received for her birthday from Meme and Papa last September. She was excited to test out her skills at the Greenway. I have to admit...she is pretty good! After a bad fall a couple weeks ago on her scooter, we made sure that she had her protective gear on today. We also made sure not to go down any big hills and we made it without any injuries! YEAH!

March 1 snowfall

2009-03-07T06:40:00.006-06:00

Last Sunday we awoke to a rare winter wonderland. Drew and I saw some snow the night before, but never thought that there would be 5 inches! They did cancel 8:30 service at church, so Ella and Amelia had fun playing in the "white stuff". Ella was out for about 2 hours playing with the neighbors. I have endless memories of playing in the snow while growing up in Northern Michigan. I love it when they get to have a taste of that...even if it is only in 5 inches of snow for one day, not 5 feet of snow for 6 months! What a fun, unexpected gift for them!

Cabin weekend

2009-02-17T20:46:00.003-06:00

We took some time the first weekend of February to go to the cabin for a short visit. We did have a great time, even though I came down with strep while we were there. These are pictures off of our back deck of the cabin...lovely view!

I brought some bubbles up this time for the girls to have a bubble bath...and did they ever! They had so much fun!

I was able to capture some sunset pictures on Saturday night! We are blessed to have this place to retreat too!

On Saturday, we took the girls to the go-carts. Drew and Ella had fun driving them on that warm day.

Unattended

2009-02-17T20:16:00.004-06:00

Hello all!

I know that I am the world's worst blogger, but I will add a few interesting things from the last couple of months.

The first one, is about Amelia! This little one has the hardest time settling down for a nap. It usually involves much crying and screaming, kicking, hitting, yelling under the door to get out, and sometimes the occasional passing out at the door. But on this day, she was quiet, too quiet...you can see why...

Ya gotta love her though! When I asked her why she did that, she said, "Cuz I want to." That is her token answer for about anything that she does.

Grizzly ride

2009-01-24T20:04:00.000-06:00

Papa and Ella on a grizzly ride! They got the grizzly stuck on this trip. Ella thought it was a great adventure. Fortunately, they were close to the road and Andy and Drew were able to pull them out easily with the truck.

Hello? Anybody out there still?

2009-01-24T18:21:00.004-06:00

Is anyone still interested in the Bollman's?

Well, I know that I have not been a very good blogger...terrible really. I have no real excuse to give. We have been busy this month with all of the normal things that life brings...school, church, play groups, zoo trips, tutoring, etc. I will try to be more consistant in keeping you up to date in our lives...so here it goes!

I have recently started working towards my Master's degree from MTSU. I am in the MST program (Master of Science in Teaching) in Mathematics emphasis in the Middle Grades. That has been an exciting thing to look forward to this month. I am taking 2 classes on Tuesday nights. I will have a couple of research papers due as well as some essays and debates. It shoudl be interesting!

Since it has been a while since I have posted, I will post some pictures from our Christmas vacation. I hope you enjoy looking at them!

First, we went to South Bend, Indiana to spend time with Drew's side of the family. We had a great time visiting with all of the relatives. It is always a busy time since Drew's parents house has become the center of all the activity.

Next, we moved on up north to Higgins Lake, MI to be with my side of the family for a few days. We also had fun with the fam. It was a great visit since we got to meet Scott's fiance, Julie, and also spend time with Leigh and his new fiance, Erin. Our family is going to be growing this year with 2 weddings being planned! How exciting!

Ella and Amelia had such a great time playing in the snow over our vacation! It was fun to see them outside in the snow... it brought back so many memories from when I was a child. Even though the temps hovered above zero most of the trip, we loved every minute of it!

Drew has been busy this new year. I think that he has been off 3 days since Jan 2. Yikes! We are so thankful for God's provisions though...

My pictures are uploading now, so I will be back to share the photos with you all! Thanks for your patience, again...Much love to you all!

We got elfed!

2008-12-07T16:32:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving trip

2008-12-06T19:21:00.010-06:00

Last weekend we took a trip to VA to visit Shane and Emily for Thanksgiving. Drew's parents, Myron and Josie, took the train out to visit too! We had a great time with them and even had a chance to spend some time with Shane's family.

Getting the girls to sleep was a challenge and poor Aunt Emily ended up sleeping with Ella on an air matress 2 nights. It worked our for us, they gave us their comfy King bed...just doesn't seem fair...sorry Emily!

Ella created a gingerbread train too. Before we opened it, the box fell on the floor, so Grampy had to put some of his engineering to work while rebuilding the train pieces.

It was difficult to keep Amelia from eating the candy. We would hear thise little "crunch, crunch" from time to time and knew that she was sneaking some candy. You can see the look of joy on her face as she spots a piece of candy stuck to her hand.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Elkton Fire Station. At lunch before we got there, Ella asked Shane what would happen if there was a fire while we were there. Well sure enough, as we pulled up, they got a call and the volunteers came squealing in. It was quite exciting! Ella said "I just knew that it was going to happen!"

Shane is a volunteer fire fighter/EMT and also drives the trucks. We got an up close and personal tour of the fire station. Ella had a blast! She wants to be a fire fighter when she grows up so this was right up her alley! I am sure that when she gets older Uncle Shane will have to teach her a few things about being a fire fighter. Thanks Shane!

Here are some pictures to share:

The photo that makes me chuckle is this one of Amelia playing beauty shop with Grampy on Thanksgiving day. Notice what she is using to "do" his hair...a basting brush. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We love you Amelia!

Larry Boy

2008-12-06T19:20:00.000-06:00

Chick-Fil-A had Bob and Larry visit for family night this week. We HAD to go. Ella HAD to wear her Larry Boy costume! We HAD to wait in line 20 minutes for a $1.49 kids meals. We HAD to wait another 10 minutes to find a table to eat. We HAD a great night after all!

New creations

2008-11-25T06:30:00.004-06:00

Hey everyone! I have been busy this past week fulfilling some bag orders. I thought that I would share them with you! This is the Fancy Bag. I created these using a pattern that I received from Stitcher's Playhouse. It is an easy and fun bag to make. This is the first time that I used piping in a bag and I think that it adds a nice finishing touch between the fabrics, without going overboard. I purchased both of the floral bag's material from Stitcher's playhouse--I love that place! I found the yellow circles material at Sir's fabrics.

I will be packing today for our Thanksgiving trip to VA! We are excited to see Emily and Shane's new house. Grammy and Grampy are also making the trip. We are planning some fun activities while we are there-eating lots of turkey, watching the Titans beat the Lions (sorry Steve), loads of shopping, book fair run, and a visit to the inside waterpark! What fun! I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Steroids and Black Toast

2008-11-22T21:24:00.010-06:00

On Friday, Ella woke up with some coughing and seemed to have some trouble breathing. She has had this in the past so I took note of it and just kept an eye on her in the morning. We went to a friends to play for a couple hours and she started to get worse and so I took her to the dr. She has been put on a breathing treatment and steroids for a few days. The doctor called it "environmentally induced wheezing" which I take as meaning she has some sort of allergy this time of year. This happened twice last year and once already this fall. Needless to say, she has been wound up and I am hesitant to give her another steroid dose. I am not sure if that is a side effect for the steroid or the breathing treatment, but she has been quite the handful.

She was up at 5:50 this morning ready to eat and was such a chatterbox. She usually gets up and camps out on the couch for at least an hour watching "Martha Speaks" and "Franklin." This morning she asked me to make her something ridiculous for breakfast (I say that because I remember my reaction, but not what she asked for...it was not even 6 am remember and I had not had my coffee) I said "I am not making that at 6 am!" To which she replied, "Mom, get up in the morning at 6 am, grab a little jelly, grab a litle jam, YEAH Toast, YEAH Toast! I want some toast mommy!" (To those of you who don't know, that is the toast song that I have become famous for.) So we made toast.

Fast forward an hour or so and Amelia is awake and I decide to make myself an English Muffin, toasted, with Peanut butter and banana slices. Sounds great. I pop it in the toaster oven to toast. Well, I go and check my facebook and get totally distracted from the toaster oven. This thing is 10 years old and has stopped the automatic toasting. Meaning that it will not shut off. I suddenly remember that I had toast in and what do I find...a black english muffin that is on fire. Yeah, a real fire in the toaster oven. I turn it off, let the fire die down, I blow it out, and chuck it in the sink under cold water. The house reeks and Ella says, "Mommy, was that a fire? Are you going to go to jail?" It was quite the morning....

Check out that tongue!

We made some banana bread earlier this week and I wanted to show some pictures of my "little cookers" Ella is a very good help in the kitchen and Amelia is now starting to want to get in on the action. It is my hope that they will be making the meals before long...

I am not sure what I did to receive those looks, but I thought it would be fun to share!

Sorry its been awhile

2008-11-15T20:03:00.007-06:00

Woah, this is not what I had in mind when I signed up for blogging. I did not intend to go 3 weesk without posting. I will try to updatemore often in the future. Anyways, I will go ahead and post a few pictures of things that we have been keeping busy with. Enjoy!

She is that hero!

Ella loves superheroes and dressed up as Larry Boy this year. She was very excited about this costume!

At the cabin

My dad came down to his cabin this month and we went out for a visit one morning. Ella had fun riding the four-wheeler and Amelia loved walking on the logs. We went for hike in the woods to see the cave as well! Thanks Grandpa!

Fall Creek Falls

Here are a few pictures from our day hiking at Fall Creek Falls. It was a beautiful fall day and we had fun grilling out for lunch, playing on the playground, and hiking to the falls.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-25T15:58:00.015-05:00

Off to the farm!

Today we took a trip to the Walden Farm Pumpkin Patch. It was a perfect day to be outside. Ella chose a great big pumpkin to carve with Drew. This was Amelia's first time to actually participate since we didn't make it here last year. We all had a great time today!

Ella had to find just the right pumpkin to take home.

Corn mazes are so much fun!

Playing on the playground is always fun!

Looking cute!

Born to farm!

Just hangin' around!

Where has the time gone?

2008-10-23T19:58:00.007-05:00

10 years? Can you believe it!

Drew and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Oct. 17th. We went on a great trip to the Dominican Republic to celebrate. We stayed at Excellence Punta Cana resort. It was a top-rated all-inclusive resort. We had a wonderful time alone together and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Even though we encountered a few issues with delayed flights and extended stays in Miami, we had a great time!

This is the view from our room! Ocean View!

One night there was a beach front dinner. Yummy!

A picture of part of the pool area. It was so neat! They really want your stay to be "Excellent"

One the beach in Punta Cana. The resort is on the Atlantic Ocean, so it was very rough. Swimming in the ocean was not allowed while we were there. We were able to take short walk toward the Carribbean and found a calm cove where Drew dove in.

finally a blogger

2008-10-23T19:49:00.003-05:00

After many months of blogger envy, I have decided to create a blog for myself. I have always been secretly jealous of all of the great blogs that my friends and family members create. I hope to keep my family and friends up to date on the daily activities of the Bollman's. I aim to post pictures of Ella and Amelia, display the sewing projects that I am working on, and to just keep my friends and family members updated on our daily lives. I can't promise deep thoughts or inspired writings, but I will have be having fun! Enjoy!