Summer Snack of the Week Handout

One of my big projects this spring at work was to design another "Summer Snack of the Week" handout. I developed one last year and it was a hit at health fairs, farmers markets, etc. There's a total of 10 recipes and an activity/lesson about MyPyramid for each week too. To download a free copy go to this website address:
http://lancaster.unl.edu/nep/resources.shtml

It's the first link/title under "Educational Resources." I was really happy with how it turned out this year. By the time I was done with it though, I was so sick of it and didn't want to see it ever again. However, I wanted to share the resource with everyone because I know parents are always looking for fun, free stuff to do with their kiddos in the summer time. Have a wonderful summer!

Mya's 3 Favorite/Most Frequent Words

Mya is learning new words every day & she is saying all sorts of things. Lately she's been on a "sh" kick - saying brush, fish, show, wash, shoe, etc. However, right now Mya has 3 words that she says constantly (besides mama & dada of course). Here they are:
1.) Emmie - Emmie, our friends Brenden & Julianne's daughter, is one of Mya's best buds. She is about 5 months older than Mya. Even though they don't see each other every day or anything, Mya is always, always wondering about Emmie. Today when I got her out of her crib this morning her first word was Emmie; they did get to play together all day yesterday which was so fun for them. Anyways, it will be a sad, sad day for Mya and for us whenever they move.
2.) "Me Me" - Who is "Me Me?" Well she is also known as Jamie, my friend who is staying w/ us temporarily while she finishes up her student teaching. Mya can't quite say Jaime so she says "Me Me." When Mya is wondering about "Me Me" during the day, I have to keep reminding her that she is at school with the kids and will be home later. Then Mya misses her on the weekends especially b/c Jaime usually goes up to Omaha. It will also be a sad day when Me Me moves for us and for Mya. Mya is liking having a roommate on her end of the house.
3.) Baby - Mya LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES babies. There's a billboard on Hwy. 2 of 3 babies and she looks forward to seeing that billboard every day we go by it. Before she can even see it, she knows it's coming up around the corner b/c she says baby over and over and over. She is a good little mommy to her dolls at home, feeding them bottles, giving them stroller rides, swaddling them. She gives baby "Jace" aka Jason (at daycare) tons of loves and always looks forward to seeing him. She is always on the lookout for babies - anywhere we go. Well, you may ask then when is she getting a little brother or sister since she loves babies so much? All that I can say to that is I can't even think about that at the moment! So once again a sad day for Mya b/c life has been soooo crazy lately that despite how cute babies are it is about the last thing on my mind. Life needs to settle down first.

How many times have the Hulse's moved?

Well today I figured that I better start packing (seeing how we need to start moving our stuff on Monday & have all of our stuff out by Wednesday night). However, I could hardly muster up one ounce of energy to pack. I started thinking why am I having such a hard time getting motivated to pack (well besides the fact I don't want to leave our beautiful new construction)? Well, I shortly realized it's b/c I've moved one too many times in the past 6 1/2 years. Not that it's exciting or anything but if I don't write it down here I think I'll start to forget pretty soon. Anyways, here's a run down on where Brad & I've lived since we've been married:
1.) Highland View Apartments - While Brad was finishing his degree, he worked as a leasing agent at Highland View. As a wonderful bonus, we got to live in one of their apartments for free. Boy do I miss those days of no rent/mortgage payment!!!!
2.) Highland View Apartments - Since Brad was a rockstar leasing agent, we were able to upgrade to a bigger apartment @ Highland View. This was a pretty easy move but nonetheless a move.
3.) When Brad first started his career at Home Real Estate & I was finishing school, we decided to rent a little two bedroom house. It was a cute little house in a quiet, old neighborhood.
4.) About 6 months later, we bought our first house. It was a 100 year-old fixer-upper. Boy did we learn a lot from that house; I will never own that old of a house again. Enough said there. (This was Mya's 1st home.)
5.) We then decided to try our hand at new construction & build a house. However, that would take about 6-7 months so we needed somewhere to go in the meantime. Here's where we started calling Colonial Heights Apartments our home temporarily. Boy was it a change going back to an apartment. I'm not going to lie though; it was a bit of a nice break after all the projects we did on our previous home.
6.) Well we finished our new construction but various things occurred and we decided it would be best to try and sell it. However, I did not want to be paying a mortgage for the house, rent for our apartment, & then possible rent on our rental house we own (b/c sometimes the tenants don't think they need to pay their rent but that's another story for another day) so we decided to move into our new construction while it was on the market. We took a chance - it could sell in a month or it could have been 6 months. Well, 2 weeks of living in it, we SOLD it. We were thankful but at the same time I knew this meant another move in a couple months.
7.) After selling our new construction, we started looking for houses. We weren't seeing much (it seemed like houses were pretty picked over after the tax credit ended). Then we were thinking we would have to go back to an apartment while the house search continued. Our prayers were answered though and we find a house to buy. More details on our new house soon. We are thankful we could start doing renovations very quick & close on it so fast.
Well, so there you go, after our move next week we will have moved 7 times in the last 6 1/2 years. Averaging a move a year; way too many moves in my opinion! I don't know how people do it (like military familes) who have to move constantly. I told Brad he has to give me 5 years in this next house. If not, I may go absolutely crazy.

P.S. A special "THANK YOU" to all of the people who have ever helped with any of our moves. You are awesome!!!!!!!