Baby Day

I think every church in the Indianapolis area (probably across America) experienced Baby Dedication Sunday this week. I guess Mother's Day is a good day for that. ;) We attended Northview Christian Life, where Matt and Ashli attend, to witness the dedication of Rachelle Brooke. Their pastor did a nice job of explaining the dedication service and that this does not serve as a baptism for these babies nor are they in need of salvation at this time in their lives. The dedication service is an act where the parents make a promise to God publicly that they will raise these children in God-centered homes. Their pastor even said it might be more fitting to call it a Parent Dedication.

Matt, Ashli, and Rachelle:

Matt, Ashli, and Rachelle during dedication prayer:

Matt, Ashli, and Rachelle after the service:

I knew this would be a special day for them and wanted to add my own special spin. I decided to put my talents to good use and created a little book for Rachelle. Each page has photos of Rachelle and/or photos of Rachelle with family. The pages also have scripture to remind her how much she is loved by Jesus. I made it with little hands in mind and I hope as she grows she will find joy in looking through the pages.

Front of album:

Back of album:

Here are the digital versions of all the pages:

p.s. Since I mentioned salvation, I don't want to leave any visitors hanging. If you have questions about salvation (How am I saved? or Why do I need salvation? etc), please, please leave a comment with a way for me to email you.

Rain Rain Go Away

At least Saturday was a rainless day!

BirthVerse

I stumbled upon a new website this week and thought it was pretty neat.

My "birth verse" is:
Matthew 5:6 NIV
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Here's a link to find yours.

Family and Flowers

Saturday we had our first summer get-together at our house. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate so we didn't get to enjoy the yard or playground. Oh well, there is a long (hopefully) summer ahead of us.

We celebrated the two May birthdays (Matt's and mine). We had great food and enjoyed a few rounds of Boggle.We spent Sunday on various tasks around the house. Mark cleaned the gutters, mowed the lawn, and tiled. Yes, tiling in the bathroom has commenced. But I'll save the details of that for a separate post dedicated to the bathroom project. I spent most of the day potting flowers. We now have a big pot on the front porch, a medium pot on the tree stump in the back, three hanging baskets, five small pots on the back deck, and the "window box" on the back deck. No wonder it took me so long! :)
Even Sheba enjoyed some quality time outside. What a great Sunday afternoon!

Repko Park is now open

This is what 6 cubic yards of mulch looks like sitting in our driveway.

This is what the driveway looks like 7 hours later.

Repko Park has been re-mulched and is ready and open for business.

This is another example of the mulch being put to good use.

I took a vacation day to beautify the yard. The mulch was delivered late morning and I started loading the wheel barrel around 1:30pm. By the time Mark got home from work I had the front and most of the side yard finished. He and I finished the rest together around 8:30pm. Wow, what an exhausting day!

5.4 on the Richter

We woke to rattling this morning around 5:40. Earthquake? Really? Turned on the news and yes indeed! Did you feel it too?

Read more about it here.

Trading Services

I made this:


Peeper is making me curtains. Fair trade? Probably not. I know I'm getting the better end of this deal!

No wonder the bartering system died. Too many talented people were probably getting the short end of the stick. LOL!

Spring?

Don't you think there's something a little bit wrong with this forecast? Ugh...

Another Animal Post

Spring is finally here and to celebrate we met Jason, Jenny, and Avery at the Zoo Sunday afternoon. Our favorite animals are the elephants. They are so amazing! One seemed to be posing for the crowds and was clearly the favorite. LOL

Besides the zoo, we did a lot of yard work and even pulled out the grill for it's inaugural use. Those were the best burgers we've had in at least 6 months. Happy grilling season!

ASPCA

Wondering why it's only Sheba in the header? Well, it's in tribute to ASPCA day (April 10th). ASPCA = The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

For the few of you interested in digital scrapbooking there is a kit available for purchase and all of the proceeds go to ASPCA. What's nice is if you want to dabble without having to create your own designs, you can buy the album instead and just plop in your photos.

Info here: Info
Kit here: Kit
Album here: Premade pages

If you have questions or need help, let me know. :)

Our One and Only

Nephew, that is.

It's always a treat for us to see Frankie. He's growing up so fast! It's hard to believe he's 8 and over half way through with 2nd grade. His spring break was last week and his treat was to spend a few days in Indianapolis at a hotel with a pool. :) My mom and Aunt Debbie brought him down for a two day visit. One full day they went to the Children's Museum with Avery in tow. Frankie said his favorite part was the Science Works exhibit. Of course, he also enjoyed Dinosphere.

They came that night for dessert and Frankie wore Sheba out. She had a lot of fun chasing him around the house and he kept saying, "Don't eat me Sheba!" LOL


He's such a good kid and knew just how to win Uncle Mark over. He told him if he could learn any sport this summer he would pick golf! :)

Baby Bunny

We both got some cuddle time with Rachelle on Easter afternoon. She is quite the happy baby! She had no idea that we were waging a Monopoly war while she was napping. ;)


Notice how pleased she was about putting that $1 in her piggy bank.

Happy Easter

Seven Years Ago

Happy Anniversary to us!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!

Uncle Mark

I think I know of one baby Rachelle that has her Uncle Mark wrapped around her little finger! We babysat Saturday night and Matt & Ashli almost had to pry Rachelle out of Mark's arms to take her home. She was the perfect guest and is welcome anytime. :)

Amanda asked...

Is anyone else interested in learning to digital scrapbook? I'm happy to host a "here's the basics" session at my home.

First you will need a photo editing program. I use Paint Shop Pro because it was affordable and pretty easy to figure out. Other people use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and I think I would be able to transfer my knowledge from PSP to one of those programs.

The digital pages I create, I print professionally (usually from an online service) and then slide them into an album. That is the number one question from most "traditional" scrapbookers.

For those of you with traditional supplies on hand, you can also hybrid scrapbook. That would be to create part of the layout digitally, print it, and then add some of your traditional elements. I have not explored this option although I can imagine that I would like the finished product.

If you want to learn, leave a comment or shoot me an email. I figured since Amanda asked maybe someone else out there is interested too. :)

Time according to Sheba

I'm not sure Sheba knows that the clock does not tick just for her. She has a certain schedule and she let's us know if we are not following it to her satisfaction. For instance, she likes to eat at 7 am and at 6 pm. I swear she knows how to tell time. When the clock strikes either of those hours she gets up from wherever she is and goes to stand by her food bowl. She gives us about 30 seconds to notice and then promptly begins whining or rattling her bowl.

She also has an established play time. It is shortly after dinner time. All of her toys are in the basement in a basket and she will dig through the basket until they are all spread around. She knows the names of most toys too. There is rope, monkey, purse, and frog (the others are nameless). The other night she and I were sitting upstairs and she was starting to get a little rowdy so I told her to go get a toy. She ran through the kitchen to the stairs and I heard her abruptly stop. Apparently it was too dark for her to go down alone so I flipped on the light and she ran down, grabbed a toy and scurried back upstairs. It was hilarious!

This is how she greeted me tonight as I came down the stairs. Obviously it was playtime.


As I write, she is laying in her bed waiting for me to come and say goodnight.

The Saga Continues...

The young prince has made a lot of progress on his bathroom project since the last time we heard from him. He finished the framing, the plumbing rough-in, the electrical rough-in, the hanging of the drywall and tile backerboard and has even started mudding and taping. The next major step is tiling the shower. In addition to the main project at hand, the young prince added a hallway light upstairs with 3-way switches. No longer do the prince and princess stub their toes or run into walls as they walk from the top of the stairs to their bedroom at night. The incandescence of the flaming dragon eye now lights their way along this treacherous path. In addition, the young couple now lights their handy ceiling fan/light with the flip of a switch on the wall, rather than searching in complete darkness for the tiny little cord hanging from the fan. Alas, another modern convenience finds its way into the castle of the young couple.
Shower Taping & Mudding process

This was another blog installment written by Mark.

To see his other entries, click the Remodeling link to the right.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all have reason to pucker up today. :)

Long Day = More Work

Yesterday, a colleague and I drove up to Chicago for a client meeting and then back home. Thankfully, we beat the winter storm they are getting today. Below is a video about the machine I went up to see. Now I have to struggle through writing lessons on how to use this bad boy. Anyone else know how to use the In-machine Presetter? ;)

Baby Art

Another layout I worked on last weekend. Ashli sent me some journaling to add and voilà!

Shopping tip...
If you are in need of a new sweater run to your nearest Old Navy! I stopped by during my lunch today and they had most of their sweaters marked down 50% and then took another 50% off at checkout. I bought two sweaters for $7.25 each. Score!

Another Cutie

These photos were taken one night when we watched Avery for a few hours at our house last November. She was being a little silly when the camera came out, but totally Avery!

Rachelle - Day 2

Click the Play (>) button above to see video.
I also added more photos to the album. Scroll below or click HERE.

Welcome to the World!

Introducing...

Rachelle Brooke Hess
January 15, 2008
5:18 p.m.
6 lb 1 oz
20 inches

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Congratulations Matt & Ashli! She is cute as a button.

Click below to see all the photos

Rachelle Brooke

Marketing

Over the weekend I spent several hours working on my real estate website. There is still a long way to go before the big reveal! I did get these calendar magnets ordered for my buyers from last year though. I hope they like them. (Sensitive info whited out for web.)

Quick & Delicious Recipe

I made this last night based on a recipe from the Kraft Food & Family magazine. Wow, it was delicious and easy! Most of the ingredients I keep on hand so it was perfect on a night I had to work late and didn't want to spend much time preparing dinner. I did not follow the measurements in the recipe but just kind of threw stuff in until it looked good. I also added black olives.

If you haven't already, you should sign up for their FREE magazine. :)

1 pkg. (9 oz.) refrigerated cheese tortellini (I used frozen)

1/4 cup KRAFT Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained

3/4 lb. cooked cleaned medium shrimp

1 bag (6 oz.) baby spinach leaves

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (I used dried)

2 Tbsp. KRAFT 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese

COOK tortellini in large (4-qt.) saucepan as directed on package. Drain in colander; set aside. Heat dressing in same pan on medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook 1 min. Add tomatoes and shrimp; mix well. Bring just to boil. Stir in spinach; cover. Simmer 1 to 2 min. or until spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally.

STIR in tortellini and basil; simmer, uncovered, 3 to 4 min. or until sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally.

SERVE topped with the cheese.

Holiday Recap

I'm a little late. Maybe I just wanted to stretch out the holiday by one more week. ;) We didn't take a lot of photos this holiday season, but I'll show you what we've got.

We traveled to Dallas for a few days during Christmas. During our stay we enjoyed lots of good food, 10 rounds of Puerto Rico, and many movies! For those of you who have never met Mark's parents, let me introduce you...
Photo 1, Doctor Reverend Dad Repko
Photo 2, Mrs. Mom Repko
...now you have officially met. :)
Photo 3, from the First Class window getting ready to land in Chicago (one stop before Indy)


Our next Christmas celebration was dinner out with Matt & Ashli, but alas we have no photos of that event. Just believe me when I say we enjoyed yummy food and quality time together.

Our final get together was with Jason, Jenny, Avery, and my mom (AKA: Grandma Sylvia). One highlight of our time together was hearing Avery pronounce my name. We all know S's are difficult to say, but she has mastered Aunt Stephanie. Yay!
Photo 1, Avery unwrapping a box from us
Photo 2, Avery playing tea cart
Notice the "costume" change? I think she changed one more time that night into her new monkey pajamas from Grandma. The best was when she convinced her mom into changing into her new monkey pajamas too. LOL!
New Year's day we enjoyed our traditional stuffed cabbage and bean soup lunch that Jason prepared. Later that afternoon we babysat Avery so J&J could enjoy a movie out. Shortly after hearing, "I don't want to take a nap but please read me some books" Avery fell asleep with Sheba guarding over her.
And that was the end of our long holiday break. Hope you enjoyed the recap!

Stay tuned in 2008!

Winter Wonderland

Snow, rain, ice, and more snow. That pretty well describes the weekend in Indy. Saturday Sheba and I went to separate beauty salons to get dolled up for Christmas. We both have much shinier hair now. ;)

Sunday morning, we woke to more snow. Sheba was happy to play outside with Mark for a bit. She finds pure joy in romping around in the snow! (She also tries to eat as much of it as doggedly possible while she is out there.)

We hope you are enjoying the winter weather as much as we are!

Sweet Little Sheba

Sheba has been a great nurse this past week. I hurt my back last Wednesday and was pretty much recliner ridden through the weekend. She stayed by my side most of the time and every once in awhile would put her head on the recliner arm and just stare up at me as if to say, "Are you feeling ok yet? Wanna play?" Of course my real caregiver was Mark but Sheba watched over me when he was busy preparing soup or on a quick trip to Lowes.

Here she is about as close to the Christmas tree as she'll go.

And just for fun here is a squiggly picture of our tree.

1st Snow

This is the picture we woke up to yesterday. Sheba enjoyed licking up as much snow as possible!

Better late than never

I've been a bad blogger and skipped right through Thanksgiving and all the "what we are thankful for lists." It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, we are thankful for all of our family members and friends we have scattered across the country. We've been blessed beyond what we can measure.

Here are two of the little blessings in our lives.
We wish we could hug on them everyday!