2013 In The Rearview Mirror

        

Today is the last day of 2013. It has flown by for me and I'm sure it was the same for you. Thinking about the past year and all of the things that happened. I decided to put together at least one highlight from every month:

January: Spending a week at the Gulf of Mexico (Orange Beach, Alabama)

February: First time seeing a movie in IMAX 3D

March: Meeting our friend Amelia from Canada for the weekend in South Dakota! 

April: Turning 16 and recording our EP Metamorphosis.

May: Prepping for Kimberly's Graduation party...and the party itself. ;)

June: Started "Jewberly Emiris"

July: Steve Hurst School of Music

August: 8th year singing at the Nebraska State Fair

September: Sang on Main Stage at National Quartet Convention

October: Tiffany getting engaged and the surprise trip to Texas!!  

November: Thanksgiving in Texas! 

December: Helping out with the Christmas Eve services at church and getting a sander for Christmas! :)

I have also been thinking about 2014 and what the year may have in store. For one, it's going to have a lot of changes, it might even be a year of firsts because on the 9th I will be taking my first flight and secondly I will be staying with my oldest sister in Austin (TX) without the rest of my family for five days. That is two firsts for me in the first two weeks of the year! 

Happy New Year!! 

-'- Jewel

Mounting the Television

This post was supposed to be posted the week of the 15th. Better late than never I guess! :)

 

Another project from Thanksgiving at Samantha & Edwin's!

  

Having your TV on the floor in front of the fireplace in your home can be quite annoying. The time had come to give it a permanent place to live. 

Before we came down, Samantha "mapped out" where they wanted it mounted.

Removing the mantle (and a lot of glue that came with it) was the first step!

Drilling the holes where the bracket for the TV was the was second! (Dad is working so hard!)

 

We put the bracket on the bolts and mounted the TV! (There are more steps to this project but Dad did most of it without my knowledge.)

 

 

It looks marvelous! I love the fireplace! Samantha worked hard cleaning it and decorating it!

 

Hope you enjoyed that little peek into the project!

 

-'- Jewel

 

Snapshots: Hot Chocolate

 

Our cousin Caty came over today! We were really cold so we made some hot chocolate. Since it was too hot to drink at first, we had some time to snap some pictures! :)

 

It was delicious!...after it cooled down of course! ;)

 

-'- Jewel

Merry Christmas!!

Momma's Moment

The project for Mom on Samantha's list was to sew Christmas costumes for the Children Church's Christmas program. Mom was able to finish 9 angels, 3 shepherds and 2 wise men. (One shepherd is also a wise man, that's why she made only two ;))

Mom finished the three shepherds costumes, she wasn't able to get done while we were down there and mailed them down to Samantha!

I think that's all of the projects we did while we were in Texas...I honestly don't remember :)

Until next time... Have a wonderful week!

-'- Jewel

Christmas Trees

 

We did something new this year in terms of decorating for Christmas. We brought some bulbs for one of our Evergreen trees outside along the road!

 

It's so much fun to drive up the the driveway and see the sun refecting off of the bulbs! I really am in love with the look! ...Now maybe next year, Dad will let us put some lights on it! ;)

 

-'- Jewel

Winter is here...

It finally snowed last weekend. I say finally because this is the first snow of the season, and it is December. No I didn't miss it...But it's not really Christmas without it. :)

Preparing for winter is obviously something we have to do every year. One of the preparations is firewood. We have at least two households going off of our woodpile, so it needs to be stocked. And stocked good! Anyhow we planned a day for our friend Verl to bring his log splitter over and we would split it. Here's a few pictures from the hard day of work:

I was the stacker...Basically I balanced myself on the wood and played a giant version of Tetris! :)

  The wood that is brighter is the wood that we finished and stacked and the gray is from years past. Whew...I'm tired just thinking back to that Saturday. ;)

-'- Jewel

Icicles

Winter is here!

 

-'- Jewel

5 years have passed...

Today is my 5th year anniversary of being diagnosed as a Juvenile Onset Diabetic (Type 1). It's crazy how time flies! (Find out more about Juvenile Diabetes at JDRF.org)

 

 

The picture above was two days after I was released from the hospital. Wow, I was so sickly skinny...  The following picture was taken on Thursday before we sang. If you were wondering it is the same Santa Claus! :)

 

 

To celebrate Kimberly is making me a Donut shaped "Too Much Chocolate Cake"! Yes. I can eat it, I just have to count the carbohydrates and take insulin for it. :)

 

Have a great Saturday!

 

-'- Jewel

 

 

Chair Recover

 

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we were in Texas at Edwin & Samantha's we had a great time!...and of course she had a list for us to do. ;) One of the projects was her dining room chairs...

 

 

Her Kitchen colors are red, black and cream. When Samantha purchased the dining room set from the previous owners they went with her theme; unfortunately they are stained, discoloring and starting to look kind of shabby. Time for an upgrade!

 

 

(Apparently this is what the chairs looked like before the cream?)

 

 

She chose to use red fabric because it will not show stains as well as cream and won't look really dark (like black) against her chairs. And...the material she found was marked down from $29.99 to $4.99 a yard! *Score!*

 

 

(Disclaimer to my fellow Nebraskans: The K-State shirt I found in a hotel room. So don't get upset ;) )

 

 

Yes, I did help Dad, I wasn't just posing...

 

 

Before                   Original?               After      

 

 

Samantha and Edwin loved the result! Which makes it a job well done!

 

-'- Jewel