All You Need is Love…

This year for Valentine’s Day I wanted to have a little fun.  Not only did I paint my nails red to show my festiveness, but I also created some projects of my own.  Normally I am busy preparing valentines for my class, carefully hand making each valentine and sticking a pencil and piece of candy in a cellophane baggie.  I felt a little empty not having to complete this task this year, but decided to make some handmade valentines for our nieces and nephew.

I forgot to take a picture of the actual Valentines so one of the final products will have to do!

I also made a new little door hanging.  With Trent’s assistance we cut out a heart and I got right to work painting away.  A few coats of paint later and it was ready to be hung on the door!  Welcome to casa de Laune…

And while it is so much fun to give, it’s also fun to receive!   I got the sweetest card in the mail from my mom along with a half dozen of sweet goodness from Trent’s parents. 

Trent also brought home a fun surprise.  Not only a beautiful orchid, but also a 3 foot tall house plant.  Not going to lie, it was a little random and I got a good laugh out of it.  He was so proud of this find (it was on clearance for $3).  He hadn’t planned to buy it, but like me, can’t resist a good deal.  Plus he thought it was cool, as do I.  And, it is the gift that will keep on giving all year.

Saturday night we ventured into Fairview Heights, a city on the Illinois side of St. Louis.  It has lots of shopping and restaurants and we had heard about it, but never experienced it before.  We made a reservation at Outback Steakhouse (and thank goodness we did, hello 2 hour wait).  We learned our lesson last year after trying to get into Olive Garden and Applebee's only to be turned away by a long wait.  Hello twenty fourteen Valentine’s Day meal at Fazoli’s followed by an e-mail coupon for a free slice of cheesecake.  We ate until we were stuffed and then did a little shopping.

My funny Valentine 12 years and counting…

{The Launes}

Megan Laune and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day…

Maybe not the worse day on record, but it probably is my dumbest day since the sliding glass door incident of 1995.  Yep, in the spring of 95’, little fourth grade Megan managed to run full speed through a sliding glass door without even realizing what hit me (literally) until I was standing outside surrounded by shattered shards of glass.  Who does that?!

Anyway, fast forward nearly 20 years to yesterday when I had a similar run in (pun intended).  However, this time it included a garage door and motor vehicle.  That’s right.  In my frugal state of mind I like to conserve energy by getting my car in and out of the garage with the garage door open for the least amount of time possible.  Somehow I just wasn’t with it yesterday when I jumped in my car and hit the garage door opener button before slipping my car into reverse on a mission to get to the gym.  I then mindlessly started going, soon followed by a  terrible noise.  Stunned and confused I suddenly realized what I had done.  I backed into the partially opened garage door.  I pulled slightly forward and then continued backing out before getting out to assess the damage.  Nothing too serious on my car…a little scratch toward the top.  I almost cleared it!  So the real test was checking the garage door.  It started going down (thank goodness), down (maybe no one will ever have to know) until it hit the 2/3 mark when it started going up (shoot!), up (I really hope Trent can fix this).  Seriously, who does that?

While it could have been worse, like another car or person, I was hoping Super Trent could come to my rescue and fix the garage door without having to pay an arm and a leg.  He showed me great grace through the whole ordeal and even got a good laugh out of it.  I too got a good laugh out of it, although I was afraid I might cry if I didn’t laugh at myself.  Thankfully with a little teamwork, sheet metal screws and an exceptional amount of patience and grace from Trent the garage door is up and running again.  My pride is a little bruised but otherwise the extent of the damage was minimal.

Looking into my track record, it appears that I will have another 20 years before my next major run it.  Hopefully I will be on top of my game at that time to defend any stupidity that I might initiate.  But until that time comes…Happy Friday the 13th!  It’s looking much better than my Thursday the 12th!

 

{The Launes}

 

Weekend Fun…

Weekends and evenings in my neck of the woods can be a little boring.  There’s Joe’s Pizza for a night on the town or Redbox rentals and Netflix for a night in.  Netflix is seriously the best $8.99 we spend every month and a must in our household without regular TV channels or cable. 

So anytime we have visitors it’s always fun!  The last weekend in January Trent’s parents came out for a visit and brought our niece Ellie.  She is as cute as all get go and we had lots of fun.

Friday night we celebrated Kirsten and Steve’s birthday with lasagna and cake!

Saturday we headed into the St. Louis area and explored St. Charles, Missouri.  It is right on the Missouri river and has lots of little shops in the historic downtown area.  They also had ice sculptures displayed in the streets.

It was a quick weekend, but lots of fun crammed in! 

Until next time…

{The Launes}

 

Random Acts of Kindness…

A week or so ago I was on the receiving end of a random act of kindness.  I was so excited!  I went to Redbox to return a movie and lo and behold, sitting on the machine were two packages of microwave popcorn neatly bundled together with a free movie rental code.  To say that it made my day is an understatement.  It was exactly the pick me up that I needed right then.  I may or may not have been having another pity party for myself…

I am certainly a fan of random acts of kindness.  The past few years I have completed my own list of random acts of Christmas kindness during the month of December.  It is fun to bless someone when they are least expecting it.  It is also fun to be on the other end of it!  This is one I just might have to repay!

Thank you to the mysterious person who made my day!

{The Launes}

Top 8 of Twenty Fourteen…

I’m a little late, but 2014 was a great year!  I’m not always the best about blogging, but there were some really great things that happened to the Launes in 2014.

In no particular order…

1. We went to Africa…again!  I love this place and the people there. 

2. I turned 30.  I’m a little melancholy on this one because 30 still seems just old to me.  However, I got to celebrate it with some of my favorite people!

3. 30 before 30.  I decided around the end of January to create a list of 30 things I wanted to do before I turned 30.  I was mostly successful, but am still chipping away a little bit on some of the items.  Some I am most proud of are that I ran over 500 miles, climbing a mountain and reading the entire Bible in a (little over) a year.

4. Made the move to Greenville.  I don’t know that it is at the top of my list, but it definitely was a big change in 2014.  In June we packed up and made the move 500 miles east to Greenville.  Just today I unpacked the final three boxes of leftover junk that I stored for 6 months.

5. Market to Market Relay…this was my 6th time running Market to Market and our team kind of rocked it this year!

6. The Rustic Edge…I participated in my first craft fair.  It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  Now if I could only get my Etsy shop up and running!

7. Mount Elbert…on our summer vacation to Colorado Trent and I hiked Mount Elbert, the second highest peak in the lower 48.  It was brutal, but awesome!

8. Audrey Rebecca…my sweet new niece entered into the world on April 25th.  I can’t believe she is already almost 9 months old.  She is getting such a personality.   We love to hang out in person, but FaceTime is pretty fun too!

Twenty fourteen was a great year, to say the least.  Picking just eight moments that stood out wasn’t easy.  There were so many little moments in the everyday that didn’t even make the blog (partially because I am not always so good about blogging).  I am looking forward to seeing was twenty fifteen has in store!

{The Launes}

 

Merry and Bright…

For the first time in a long time I can say that I’ve been too busy to blog.  Kind of.  I subbed 4 days this week…3 in kindergarten and 1 in first grade.  They were not all full days, but as Trent said, “I’m bringing home the paper!”  And they were exhausting.  All I can say is God bless kindergarten teachers (and I know some really good ones!) 

Anyway, before I get any more behind I am going to do a quick picture update of Christmas break.  It was two and a half glorious weeks home in Nebraska! 

Friday night we headed out to our annual girls’ night Christmas outing.  This year we ate at Mark’s Bistro followed by A Christmas Story at the Rose Theatre.

Monday evening Jamie and I rang the bell for the Salvation Army at Hy-Vee.  We had a lot of fun singing our favorite Christmas carols.  We had a particularly special rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas…

I also got to play a little catch up with a special little girl.  She’s getting so big.  We had lots of fun!

Christmas Eve morning we celebrated Kooper and her 1st birthday!

Na-na-na-na…na-na-na-naaaaa Landry Man!

Christmas Day…

Little fingers playing the piano…

Another tradition continues with New Years Eve morning breakfast…

And New Years Eve we celebrated!  Dinner at Toast and time with a few of my favorite people and favorite games.  And my fancy Trader Joe’s Chardonnay grape juice that I got for Christmas :)

Happy 2015 to you!

{The Launes}

R.A.C.K. Twenty Fourteen….

For the 4th year in a row I have created and carried out a R.A.C.K. list (Random Acts of Christmas Kindness).  It brings me so much joy to share the spirit of Christmas with others…especially those who are least expecting.    It’s a work in progress…some have been completed and some are still on the to do list. 

Buy a hot cocoa or latte for Salvation Army bell ringers: Coming soon to a bell ringer near you! 

Playing Secret Santa: For the past few years we have adopted a family that might need a little extra Christmas cheer.  It’s completely anonymous and so much fun to think about how a family’s Christmas has been blessed when they were least expecting it.

Bell Ring for Salvation Army: Still coming…can’t wait to ring the bell with Jamie in Omaha on Monday!

Donate canned goods to food pantry: In the past I have matched my classes donation to the food pantry. but this year I just donated some items on a couple of different occasions.

Volunteer at the food pantry: I spent a Thursday afternoon a couple weeks ago volunteering at the food pantry in Greenville.  I really enjoyed helping the people and also meeting some of the other volunteers (who were mostly retired :) )

Deliver Christmas treats to neighbors: We have always been lucky to have good neighbors, both back and Nebraska and here in Illinois.  It is always fun to deliver some Christmas goodies to them.  I didn’t do quite as much baking this year, but I was able to throw together a nice plate of cookies with some not so pretty Oreo balls and make a delivery.

Leave a gift for the mailman in the mailbox: For whatever reason this is one of my favorite R.A.C.K.s each year.  It is so much fun sneaking a little gift card into the mailbox for our unsuspecting mail carrier.  This is such a busy time of year for them.

Invite someone over for dinner: We have had lots of dinner guests over the past couple of months.  Players come over almost once a week for a nice home cooked meal (or as close as I get to a home cooked meal).  We also unintentionally fulfilled this R.A.C.K. with some dinner guests last night.

Donate Clothes to someone in need

Nursing Home – Adopt a Resident: For the 4th year in a row I also played secret Santa to the nursing home in Ashland.  The first two years I created several small gift bags for some of the residents.  However, the past two years some local community members organized an adopt a resident program.  This year I was able to purchase a gift for a resident that will be delivered in time for Christmas.

Buy items for soldier care packages: Bond County (the county that Greenville is in) was collecting items to make care packages for local soldiers.  I have always wanted to send a care package to a soldier, but didn’t really know how to go about doing it.  This was the perfect opportunity as all I had to do was buy the items and drop them off in town.  Soldiers give so much to us by sacrificing their time and families to serve our country and protect us.  I wasn’t able to actually help pack the care packages, but 65 boxes were packed to send to soldiers who are from the Bond county area!

Operation Christmas Child: Back at the end of November, Trent and I packed two boxes to send overseas as part of Operation Christmas Child.  This year I was able to get a tracking number to hopefully see where our boxes end up.  Also, have you seen this story?  I came across it online and it was a simple reminder that God is so much bigger than anything we could ever imagine. 

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/love-finds-a-way/

Donate to The Raining Season Christmas party at the orphanage: It has been a long couple of months for the kids and staff at the Covering in Sierra Leone.  Ebola continues to rage on in West Africa and the number of cases in Sierra Leone has surpassed its neighboring countries.  The children at the orphanage have been on lockdown for about 4 months and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.  In the past we have sent small gifts for the kids that we sponsor, but this year there is no way to get their gifts to them.  Instead,  we will donate a small amount of money so that all of the children can have some type of a Christmas celebration.

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness are about taking the attention away from a “me” world and bring the focus back to the real meaning of Christmas.  While it does bring me so much joy to do these things, I am most grateful for the joy that it brings to others. 

For today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, He is the Messiah, the Lord.

Luke 2:11

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

 

{The Laune's}