Mom 0, Paint, Ribs, and Buffalo!

Mom O came to visit for the weekend. Friday morning I left for work and Zach and Mom O had the day together. They were quite the dynamic duo because they got right to work taking on the job of painting our basement! I arrived home and Zach led me to the basement with my eyes closed to see their work. The basement has been transformed and it looks great!
Before...

After!


They even painted some accent walls...my favorite!

Here is the dynamic duo after a hard days work.

Mother and son hard at work in the dining room.

On Saturday we headed to Buffalo to go shopping at Home Depot and hit our favorite restaurant, Famous Daves!

Sunday Mom and I posed for a picture before church... Ladies in Red...(oh, that song takes me back to high school).

Thanks so much for coming Mom! It was so great to spend time with you and get some projects done around the house. Come again soon!

Mom and Kasey's Excellent Vacation

For my Spring break my mom and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Florida for a few days in the sunshine! We had a fantastic time, full of humorous moments and lots of laughter.
When we arrived we were both shocked to see the rental car we were given. It was a 2012 Ford Mustang! We were the first drivers of this sweet ride, minus the Enterprise worker who drove it to us from it's parking spot. It was such a fun car to drive. I enjoyed every moment behind the wheel. The roads in Florida are so smooth and clean, no pot holes or slush...I love it!

My cousin, Lindsey, lives in Fort Myers. We called her husband and arranged a surprise visit by showing up at her soccer game. She was pretty shocked!
Below is a picture of Mom and I eagerly waiting to surprise Lindsey...


We spent another evening hanging out with Lindsey- never a dull moment with the three of us. I found a big bone in my soup, so our waiter gave us a free dessert- alright!

The Big 4.0 Birthday!

Pieter recently turned 4 and I was able to make a quick trip to GR to join in the celebration. I drove to GR, slapped a bow on my head, and rang the doorbell. It was so fun to surprise the kids with a visit from their Auntie Kasey!
Below is a picture of Pieter and his awesome Thomas the Train cake made by his talented Auntie Jayne.

So much frosting...so little time!

Rachel had fun watching the fun from a higher perspective.

Presents!

Mom enjoyed the birthday fun with Bryson on her lap. Check out Blake in the background with the fork... :-)

I spent the afternoon watching Pieter and Sarah. We had fun coloring, learning cheers, singing, and putting together puzzles.

The next morning I went for a walk with Anne and her kids. Pieter loved climbing the snow mountains (snow banks).

Sarah enjoyed sneaking Auntie Kasey's scarf on without me even realizing it!

Paint!

We recently had the three main living rooms of our home painted. We invited our painter over and she showed us a bazillion colors to choose from. I picked the color for the living room and Zach picked the color for the kitchen/dining room. It is amazing how much of a difference a fresh coat of paint can make. It looks so nice!
Before...

After...Walah!

Before...

After... Oh Yeah!

Before...

After...Voila!

Project Weekend: Fun!

Dad O, Tracy, Cal, Hannah and Baxter came for a weekend visit. On Friday the guys had the project of putting in the dishwasher.



It was a great father son project and they did such an awesome job!

Here is a picture of me putting in my first dish in our very own, installed dishwasher!

Zach, Cal and Hannah had a snowball fight.

The family drove to Hamilton to pick me up after school and see where I work. It was fun showing them where I spend my days. After that we headed to our favorite Canadian restaurant, Montanas! We stopped for some Dairy Queen on the way home- what a night of good eat'n!

When we came home Hannah and I danced to Kung Fu Fighting in the kitchen (a tradition) Hoo...Hah!
Zach, Hannah, Cal, and I had a slumber party in the living room together.

We recently had our home painted so on Saturday Tracy and Dad helped us tremendously by hanging our pictures/decorations. It is amazing how much a coat of paint and picture on a wall can change the feel of a room.

Tracy and I worked on several projects together like cleaning our coffee maker, hot water pot, and the stove. (Vinegar fixes everything!) Zach and Dad also fixed a leaky faucet. Cal, Hannah, Zach and I had tickle fights, boys verses girls, and the girls totally won!
Tracy and I took a break to eat our Super Blow Pops we bought at the store.

Baxter got a treat too!

Saturday afternoon we started making pasties, an Olson tradition, for dinner. Tracy and I cut up the vegetables...

while the guys made the crust...

Assembly station...

Putting on the finishing touch...butter!

Zach and Hannah...

They turned out awesome!

It was the funniest thing. I was taking out the dishes to set the table and I turned to get something out of a cupboard. When I turned back around this is what I saw...Cal was here. :-)

So was Hannah...

Saturday night we had a taste test to try the two new Doritos flavors. We weren't too impressed with either A or B flavor.

Thank you so much Dad, Trace, Cal, Hannah, and Baxter for coming for a visit. It was so great to spend time just hanging out and enjoying each others' company. Thanks for all the laughs and wonderful memories. Come back soon!!

Wake up to Water...

So, Friday morning while I was at work I received an e-mail from Zach. Here is a part of it:
Tonight you and I are going to have some good quality "together" time. And we're going to have it in the basement. Our basement flooded last night. I was going down to take a shower this morning and when I turned the light on I noticed about 2 inches of water at the bottom of the stairs. I took off my slippers and socks and waded around and found the whole basement was under water. For some reason, our sump pump (the thing that takes water out of the basement) wasn't plugged in. I plugged it back in and before I left for church there was no standing water except for a few puddles. So tonight, I'm going to vacuum out the water from the carpet and hopefully we won't have to replace it. Alot of our cardboard moving boxes are going to have to be junked, though. As far as I can tell, we didn't lose anything except the Guitar Hero guitars. Most everything else was above the water.
Other than that--I've had a great morning! I hope you are too. I'm very thankful that none of the power strips by my desk sparked and caught fire (don't worry...I unplugged them!). It could have been worse than what it was.

Yikes! I left work as early as I could to come home to help. We ended up spending the evening having our "quality time" cleaning the basement. Ahhh, the joys of home ownership.



Like Zach said, we are very thankful it wasn't worse than it was, and that my mom and dad taught me to use plastic bins to store items in the basement.

One Two Three...Eyes on Me!

One Two...Eyes on You!!
That is a phrase I have been saying quite a lot in the last week with my new class of second graders. Two weeks ago I was called in to interview for a maternity leave position at a school in Hamilton. (The teacher went into labor 9 weeks early!) Two nights later I found I got the job! God's faithfulness and timing are truly remarkable. So I resigned from the part-time position at the school in town and had to stop coaching the basketball team to make time for this new job.
I survived my first week of teaching: 22 eight year olds, 8 different lessons a day, recess duty, and no prep. period makes for one busy day...and one tired teacher. I do feel my teacher stamina coming back more and more every day. It's been a lot of fun to be back in a classroom full time again, and I'm having fun getting to know this new group of kiddos.


There is a Smart Board in my classroom. I have only used it to show short videos so far; I am eager to explore and learn how to use it!


Mrs. Olson...or as the kids like to say, "Yo Mrs. O!"