Some ornament pics

Just a collection of some pretty tidbits! For more, see the photo a day page. :)

Christmas slideshow

Our Christmas this year was calm and quiet. We were very low-key and it was nice! The children were thankful for their gifts and we enjoyed opening them and really liked that it wasn't an overwhelming amount. We had breakfast and a big lunch here y ourselves and then had some friends over for leftovers and desserts. It was a good day!

UNO!

I told the kids that we could play a "quick" UNO game before we had an hour of quiet time (I was really hoping for a nap). We started the game at 2pm - and didn't finish until 4:45. I think it was the longest game I have ever played! This is what my hand looked like almost the whole time... the problem was I was trying to get SOMEONE to win and didn't want to play Skips and Draw Twos. :-)


We had fun, but it was a really long game. For a little added educational value, we spoke Spanish for the second half of the game. Who says learning isn't fun???


Will has been really, really enjoying games of any kind lately. They spent much of the day yesterday playing Boggle - which was fabulous, Rose even got out her phonics workbook to show the Will all the different ways to spell (to, too, two)!


Tom started a RISK with Rose and Will on Monday and they left it set up for a whole day and then completed it last night. Tom won! They had a great time, which completely surprised me. Will has been begging me all day to play RISK with him - "sorry, that's a daddy game".


Anyway, just wanted to share our fun since Tom is on his way home now and all chance of a nap is now lost... maybe I'll go to be at a decent hour tonight and sleep well! That would be lovely. :D

Wedding pictures finally done...

I just now completed editing the 758 photos that I took at a friend's wedding just over a month ago. Well, edited and burned to CD and then culled and put in order for a slideshow set to the music they had at their wedding, then burned another CD. It was fun. It was a LONG process that took a lot more time and commitment than I had originally considered. It feels SO good to be done, Tom is going to drop the CD's off to them tomorrow, wish I could do it but I won't be in town until Friday eve and don't want to make them wait any longer! Tom and the kids will be glad to have me "back". :-)

Here are a few that I can share. I don't want to share any that are identifyable to protect their privacy, but here are a few just for fun.

Project today

The kids and I worked on this today. It wasn't as fun and relaxing as I had hoped, but we got it done and it IS pretty! It is made from squares of newspaper - came originally from Martha Stewart website, though I have seen it elsewhere.

I was hoping it would be easier - was considering making some mini ones for ornaments to give as gifts - a bit too much work though, waaah!

At least we accomplished something on this Monday. :-)

Some new changes...

I finally found a site where I could make my backgrounds more interesting! I love this one, will likely change more frequently now. There is a button for the site that created these at the top left. Enjoy!

I also made a new blog page, and moved the "shopping" posts to it. You can find it in the sidebar on the left and click there to see my recent shopping deals if you want! This page will remain as a more family-news type page. :-)

First Real Snowfall of the Year

We had one day when we got flurries for about 5 minutes and then it stopped. Tonight it snowed enough to have a light ground covering. The kids went out and played for a couple of hours. They tried to sled down our little hill in garbage can lids and the wading pool. Will rolled a fairly large snowball, which surprised me. The snow was pretty - but won't last long!

Thanksgiving pictures

Some pictures from our Thanksgiving. I rigged up my tripod and set the timer so we could get a picture of all of us around the table. It was a lovely, relaxing day and surprisingly I got the whole meal done and on the table with very little trouble or worry.

We talked about the things we were thankful for later in the day.

Heather said "Parents to take care of me, a house to keep me warm, and food to keep my tummy full." Rose said "God to take care of me, a home to keep me sheltered, and a bed to keep me warm." Will was feeling sad because he had a rash from (we think) laundry soap and his legs hurt... so I prompted him a bit, finally he was thankful for "legs - even though they hurt, better than not having any, arms, and a head 'cause without it I'd be dead". Well then, there ya have it! :D

I told them I was thankful for messy toys, dirty dishes, and stinky socks. The kids were quite perplexed and laughed and laughed. I then explained (borrowing from the little poem that had floated around the internet), that those things - though they drive me crazy some days meant that I had children who are healthy enough to play, food to cook and feed my family, and a husband who worked hard and came home to me every night.

Ignore the dirty dishes in the background, and my lack of makeup. ;O

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our dear friends and family!

We are spending a quiet day at home (after our CVS haul this AM). Turkey is in the oven - yes it is upside down, trying that this year to see if it really does make the breast more moist. :) The girls and I made 2 pumpkin pies last night and put together the cornbread casserole and green bean casserole. I have stovetop stuffing and scalloped potatoes <ducking> to make still, but everything else is under control. Oh, do have to make the crisp toppings for the apple crisp. I got a 25lb turkey for $11 (thank you Kroger and coupons!), so it will not be ready until around 3:00.

Tom is playing Monopoly with the kids, I should go relieve him soon... that can be a little daunting. They always want to play it, but takes so long to finish a game - so we will take turns.

We pray you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones and are thankful for the people and things God has blessed you with, most importantly the gift of Christ and forgiveness and hope that comes in knowing Him.

New dining table for us!

This is the new table that Dad and Laura gave to us. It has a corner bench and 4 chairs,

and the benches lift for storage! I am SO excited. We thought we would put it in the kitchen, then once we got it there I didn't like it but LOVE it in the dining room. We took the leaf out of Tom's grandma's table and put it at the end of the kitchen - so lots of seating room here now. :-)

This pic is our kids and our friend's children all eating lunch around it - with plenty of room to spare!

Request for prayer

Please keep us in prayer. Our business is not doing well in the current economy and we are struggling. I know that God will provide and we trust for our physical needs to be met and see that already, but it is hard to see Tom so down and stressed. Please pray for us to glorify God in all things and to learn and grow through this. Pray for strength for me as I try to support and encourage Tom. Prayers for more work and for past customers to send their payments would be much appreciated! We also covet God's wisdom in future decisions. Thank you!

Internet Down

We have only one choice for high-speed internet where we live, and apparently they decided to start regulating band-width the same month that Tom had to update his software. We exceeded our limit and so now have no access until Nov 30th. I am SO frustrated!!! So, no updates from me for a while unless I get lots of spare time and can go to the library (ha!). Only a moment here now... will be back, miss you all!

Fall family pics

We visited a corn maze with our homeschool group. Tom took the day off and came with us. He really did have fun, though he doesn't look to enthused in this pic!

For more pics, see the homeschool page - and the kids' pages for individual pics. :-)

Photo blogs

In case anyone has been wondering, I had gotten dreadfully behind on my daily photo posts on the Pic A Day page with school starting and just being super busy. I have not even taken nearly as many pics as I had been, and have not yet made it to take the fall pics of the kids on the Parkway. Anyway, I finally took some time yesterday and this afternoon to get completely up-to-date with my photo posts. Nothing spectacular, but no longer hanging over me as being neglected. Yeah!

Awards and Six Things...

Thank you to Mary for my blogger awards! See them about half way down in the side bar on the left. What fun! With the Creative Blogger Award came the challenge to write about 6 things that make me happy, so here goes...

1). Assurance of Salvation and the knowledge that God has good plans for me and can see what is ahead of and behind me in a way that I never could.

2). Snuggling under blankets on cold winter nights.

3). Overhearing my children being kind and considerate without prompting.

4). A clean kitchen and stocked fridge.

5). Sunday naps.

6). Spring and Fall with their mild temps and pleasant breezes - open windows!

I could go on...

In the kitchen / Home Ec Day

We had a "home ec" day on Tuesday. I had lots of kitchen work to do and Tom suggested we take a day to work on it together. The kids and I had a great time, we needed a break from the papers and it was a fun day. We had a half bushel of apples that I had picked up from a local orchard and we sliced those all up for pies, crisps, and applesauce. I like to freeze sliced apples in gallon bags with the seasonings already mixed in for pies and crisps so that I can take them out and dump them into a pie crust or top for a crisp. We made a couple quarts of applesauce also. I didn't touch the apples - the kids did that all by themselves! I made a meatloaf and shaped some burgers that went in the freezer. Will de-boned a pre-cooked chicken for me so that I could make a soup for dinner. I cooked some squash to make my favorite fall recipe, Butternut Bisque with turkey ham and broccoli.

I have been baking 2 loaves of bread twice weekly to help stretch the food budget. It's been a nice routine, though I shouldn't eat so much bread. I love using my Kitchen Aid mixer and have the process down to memory now. I use a sourdough starter that my sister gave me. It is a sweet sourdough and gets the most consistent results of the ones I have tried.

Autumn flowers

We have had a lovely mild fall. I love that we once again have the windows open day and night and are enjoying fresh air and breezes indoors and out. The children picked this sweet little boquet for me the other day. Lots of flowers have given us a bit of revival and a fall bloom this year. The rose bushes, the lilac, black-eyed susan, morning glories, etc... The purple lilac in this boquet was actually growing wild near the back of yard. We will likely try moving it up near the other one so we can enjoy the beauty and sweet fragrance more.

This evening I looked out our bedroom window around 5pm and saw a large buck standing at the edge of the yard not far from the house. I grabbed my camera and almost got a decent pic but he heard me and lept away - as he ran I suddenly saw 6-7 does at the back of the yard also go leaping through the woods. Wow! Still plenty of daylight and they were all right there grazing. I can hear them outside now walking on dry, crumpled leaves and munching on whatever they can reach.

We are planning a garden for the spring. I hope that we can keep them out of it! :-)

Dishwasher!

It's funny how God works sometimes. Our dishwasher stopped cleaning well and so we decided not to use it for washing dishes, just as a drying rack. That was working quite well and we had a great system of only using what we need and each person washing their own after each meal and assigned a different person to each meal for the "extras". Then this lovely stainless steel dishwasher in much better shape comes in our door for free - so Tom put it in and now the kitchen looks much prettier (matches the black stove better, now when the fridge goes we'll just have to match them!). But, Tom has been so pleased with how we are handling the dishes that we aren't allowed to use this one, except as a drying rack!!! :D Actually, we all like the way things have been running more smoothly at the house and don't mind at all. It's been nice to get a handle on things here. We will run the dishwasher occassionally, but it's put things in perspective and helped me see the beauty of doing jobs in little chunks and not letting them pile up.

Pics of my kids

I hadn't posted any pics of my kids here on the main page for a while, so here ya go! Heather
Rose
Will

Wonderful working weekend

We got SO much work done this weekend. It was wonderful! :D

Sorting closets, vacuuming, dusting, re-arranging, making piles and piles of things for yard sale, listing lots of items on e-bay, others on Amazon. It's great to see the piles of things that will be LEAVING the house soon and creating more order and less clutter. So very exciting!

Tom was home all weekend, so he was able to help us get lots done - it's great to have him around. He may be able to be here Tuesday morning, so I hope for us to be able to price items and start loading them on the box van.

Here is a list of my priorities for this week:

1. Advertise yard sale on Craig's list, La Niche, etc...
2. Sort through Tom's dresser-top and my jewelry for items to sell, throw out trash
3. Sort through our bathroom cabinet
4. Sort through kitchen cabinets for things to get rid of
5. Go through the schoolroom/Heather's room and clear out some things, organize shelves
6. Go through Rose's toys, clothes and books
7. Go through Will's toys, clothes and books
8. Sort through TV cabinet shelves for movies to sell / organize
9. Look through hall closet and bathroom for things we no longer need
10. List books on Amazon
11. Help Heather list T-Tapp DVDs on Amazon or E-bay
12. Price yard sale items

Another great day!

We got a lot done today and the children continued to work more quickly and we had an enjoyable afternoon. We are saving our fresco painting for tomorrow, didn't want to push it and had other things to get done. Tom is working late so we went ahead with dinner and actually ate at a normal time! The children got out their winter clothes this afternoon and the girls have actually done well with sorting through things and finding what would fit, what needed stored longer, and what summer things to put away - hooray! :-)

I am busily putting books up on Amazon to sell right now. (TOGbooksandmore if anyone wants to see). I made spaghetti with spaghetti squash for dinner, it was quite yummy. I also started bread and cooked a whole chicken for deboning and using in several meals. The kitchen is still clean! Last night I worked on clearing off my bedside table, tonight I will do one dresser too. I have also been sorting through things for a yard sale, and have planned our spending for the month of October.

Tomorrow I need to take inventory of the kitchen food supplies and wipe out the upper cabinets. I am going to try to make groceries last another week! We have our regular milk and produce pick up tomorrow, but other than that I think I can creatively make do with what we have.

Oh, check the kid's blogs and homeschool blog for some pics from today!

That's it from here, back to work for me now. Good evening!

A Good Day

The kids and I had a great day today. We've had good days overall lately, but today was great. Tom was home this morning until after lunch and he worked outside, burning wood and mowing - he is working hard to claim the acreage next door for a yard. The breeze was cool and the burning wood smelled great, with a hint of cedar from the saplings being mowed and burned (a shame, but there are so many of them!). It has been around 70 during the day and 50 at night here, perfect for open windows and warm blankets at night, socks and warm drinks in the morning. I love the fall!

Back to our day... we got to work on school on time after breakfast with daddy (rarely happens) and I *think* the children are starting to get the idea that if they work quickly without chatting and goofing off, they will get done in plenty of time for outside play and free time in the afternoons! That is what happened today. :-) Heather finished up by lunchtime and Rose was done by 2pm (she is SO easily distracted, she is the one that dawdles the most). I was able to lay down and listen to a homeschool talk radio show while closing my eyes for about an hour - aaaaahhhh, lovely. The kids ran around outside and then did a replica painting of the Cretan "Toreador Fresco" on paper in preparation for doing it on wet plaster later this week. They had fun with that and really did great jobs!

We then worked together in the kitchen until Tom came home. Rose pretty much single-handedly made dinner. Browned hamburger with seasonings, cooked and mashed potatoes and then threw them together with a can of peas and a can of corn. Will scooped the flesh out of 2 small pumpkins and a spaghetti squash I had cooked this afternoon. I threw the pumpkin together with ingredients for a pie and Heather made the crust all by herself! Yummy!!!

We are making some routine changes and really enjoying our busy days AT HOME. I wake up in the morning and sigh with relief that I don't have to run around anywhere but here that day. We enjoy our Fridays when we go to classes, run our errands and have dinner with friends - but SO enjoy our days at home too!

Today I also got a good bit of housecleaning done. Our dishwasher is not cleaning well anymore, so we finally gave up on it and demoted it to a drying rack. So, our new system is that each person is assigned 1 cup, 1 plate, 1 fork, 1 spoon and they are responsible for hand-washing them at the end of each meal. I do the extras. Ideally, we will not have big pile-ups of dishes this way. I got that organized, washed up all the dishes, did 2 loads of laundry, washed and re-organized counters, swept and vacuumed floors, scrubbed our bathroom, cooked or froze the produce I had sitting out, made 3 meals and a pie - hooray!

I am planning to have a yard sale in a week or two and am working on getting things together for that. I have lots of closets and piles to sort through, hope I can really minimize some of the clutter around here, and make a few dollars.

I am now working on finalizing our new budget, paying bills and making a home-management schedule. Tomorrow I need to start working on a menu and grocery list. We have a church picnic on Saturday, so I need to try to get next week's school planning done on Thursday/Friday.

Goodnight everyone!

Revealing, Refining, Challenges and Blessings (an update)

I haven't really done an update here for a bit, so here goes...

Business has been S-L-O-W. It is hard when you planned for growth based on the last couple years and then the economy throws you for a loop. As of this week, I am fired... :-) I had been getting a small salary to answer the phones from home and be available for questions and to go in and help at the office when needed (pretty much oversee, but not do day-to-day), now that is gone. I only pray that we can afford to continue to pay Tom each week, though that would be next to go, our employees come first. So... please pray for us in that!

The good thing is that we are FINALLY seriously setting a budget and a plan for getting out of the financial mess we created when we were first married and that snowballed from there. We had very little if any idea of how to handle money when we got married and we created debt and allowed payments to slip and interest rates to rise, etc... SO this has been a wake up call (been getting a lot of those lately!), that we are not prepared for emergencies or lack of work! I've been reading Dave Ramsey, and finally ordered a CD and put it on where Tom could hear. So we sat down and are working through getting some financial peace!!! Which means lots of sacrifices... but is totally do-able, as long as Tom gets paid. :-)

We have been blessed already in our efforts. Less strain, more a feeling of control - having a direction feels good. We dropped the kid's Friday Arts and Fun classes, though we hated to do it. We got e-mails today from teachers who want to offer the classes for free!!! What an unexpected blessing! God is so good.

We sold one car, and have continued to repair the van rather than get a loan for another. The van has been paid off for a year and we don't want another loan. Lord-willing, we can keep it running until we have enough saved to buy something with cash. Another blessing there, we took it in for some repairs and were going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel... but the repair man offered to curve the cost way down and swap for plumbing work! That was a HUGE help!

We are doing some e-bay, yard sales, and selling some larger things to get some extra cash in the bank. All good things we've been needing to do for a while. Has felt good to clean out and organize a bit and see some profit for that too.

This year has been full of refining/refreshing/renewing, fun but hard too!!! The kids and I read in Proverbs 17 this morning about how gold and silver are heated to refine them, remove impurities and make them beautiful... and God does that to our hearts too sometimes. That's what this year has been about for us. Also a lot of *uncovering/revealing* what needs dealt with and learning to rely on God for strength to do what He asks of us! :-)

Let's see, what else? We are feeling a little more each day like our new school routine is normal. It is a full day of learning, hopefully they will get faster as we go through the routine daily. We have been having fun and I am seeing benefits in the behavior of the children, as they have my full attention for much of the day for the first time in a few years. We are enjoying one another and our activities with school.

I have been struggling with my health a little again, I have let my eating slip, am not exercising or taking my vitamins and am getting back into my patterns of not sleeping normal hours and being tired and achey all day. It is SO hard to deal with stress, focus on the children like I should, try to maintain the house, and take care of my "special needs" too... just so overwhelming. I am in pretty good spirits though, and I think I can get it back - one thing at a time, with God's help.

I guess that's it... more on the homeschool page, and kid's pages of my blog if you want to read them. I am still enjoying my photography, though not as much time to pursue. I signed up for some daily photo prompts at HerSpace:MySpace, and a weekly Thematic Photographic challenge, those are great fun when I have time to do them!

Love to all! Tom is on his way home now, so better close.

Happy 50th Mom!

She looks amazing doesn't she? Even with coolwhip and a sombrero! :-)

Hummingbird Slideshow

At the request of my mother-in-law! :-)

View Album

Get your own

Kids being creative!

The kids have been drawing on some big huge paper that we were given. They had a great time yesterday. See their pages for pics of their individual projects!

Hooray! A rainy day!

We are so thankful for the 4" of rain that we received over the last 36 hours. It was a nice, gentle, calm rain - perfect for the ground to soak up. We opened up all our windows and enjoyed the sounds and the cool breezes and the clean scent of rain. It was wonderful! We had been in a drought, with huge cracks in the dry, dry ground. Everything was brown and dying. So we are very thankful!

Oh, and we had a visit from a pair of hummingbirds drinking from a feeder hung in our open window. Seemed one of them was at the feeder every 5 minutes throughout the day. I wonder if they need to drink more to stay warm? There is a picture on my Photos page. I took about a hundred and that one is my favorite. Fun, fun!

Dinner last night...

What was for dinner at your house, or what's for dinner tonight? Leave a comment and tell us!

Dinner last night was chicken thighs with spicy plum sauce. All diet approved! We really liked it - this is the 2nd time I have made it, but the first time we grilled it and burned it - so had to try again! Here is the recipe I used as a guideline:

Spicy Plum Chicken Thighs (submitted by Beth Curran of Crozet to our Horse and Buggy Produce CSA).
Sauce Ingredients:
2 Tbsp peanut oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, coarsely chopped
1 Thai chile, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 lbs red or purple plums, pitted and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
Sauce Preparation:
Use side burner or grill. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add ginger, chile pepper, cinnamon and cloves and cook for 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook until plums are soft and mixture has thickened. Place mixture in a food processor and mix until smooth. Let cool.
Grilling:
8 chicken thighs, skin on , bone in
Plum Sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
Preheat grill. Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Grill, on 1 side for 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn the chicken over, brush with sauce and continue grilling for 3 to 4 minutes, turn over and brush with sauce. Continue grilling and brushing with the sauce until the chicken is cooked through, approximately 12 to 15 minutes.
Yield: 4 servings.

Check out the kid's blogs...

... for pics of the lizard hunt we went on today, that met SUCCESS!!!

A stinky situation...

This spring when I was cleaning out the flower beds, I raked out a bunch of leaves from under the big rose bush... and was shocked to find 2 chicken eggs!!! We have not had chickens for at least 2 years, so this was quite the surprise. I gingerly picked them up and set them into this pot. They felt pretty light and I was curious what would be inside at this point - but not brave enough to crack them. Well, as you can see... there is only one there now... when our friends were over for dinner Saturday, their oldest son picked one up and was surprised at how easily it broke - and how bad it smelled, LOL!!! To satisfy my curiousity, I looked inside and there was a black yolk and that was about it, but oooooweeeee did it smell.

A few pics from the gardens...

... we are in a drought now, so there is not much left that isn't completely brown and dried up - but here are a few things. The pumpkin came from the mysterious "volunteer" plant near the front porch. Between the deer and the drought, things are pretty sad out there. :(

Puzzle

The girls and I pulled out a puzzle to work on. We have a table in the kitchen just the right size and Heather chose one from a pack of them we received for Christmas. I must admit, I worked on it the most, but the kids did enjoy sitting down with me for a few moments every now and then. It is a mother with her son and daughter on mother's day - a pretty victorian-era picture. Here is a picture of the work in progress!

Bulletin Post!

My new camera has arrived, and I have one lens 18-55mm and the correct memory card in hand - there will be lots more pictures as I learn, and they may not all be pretty (as in focused - good light, etc...)! :D Here are a few of my very first ones with the Canon Rebel - of my kids of course. I am about half way through reading the manual, which is 180 pages long!!! I am enjoying the dof, but struggling with getting the crisp images that I want, without blur. I am forcing myself to not use flash too - which has a huge learning curve! Fun, fun, fun!!! :D

Bathroom blues

There's nothing like sleeping on the bathroom floor at 4am so that you don't continually wake your husband by tripping over the dog while running to the bathroom. Sick tummies are the worst :(

Lookee what I learned!

Minnesota Trip synopsis (the "good")

"God works all things together for good for them that love Him."

The trip was super stressful, but some good lessons were learned. Two of the most important are probably these:

*I cherish my husband's physical presence and covering more. I truly missed having him by my side to get through things. It was hard for him to not be with us and able to help too!

*We need to pray more about such things. Thank you Amy for pointing that out - tactfully and sweetly - I stubbornly didn't "get it" for a while, but it is very true and I am finally able to admit it.

Some great things about the trip:

Of course, not everything was negative - just seemed that way some days! :-) I was so happy to see my grandparents again, and my sister and her husband and 3 precious boys, and to visit my friend Heather and her family! Mom and I got some good time together during the week at our house (getting lots of housework done - thanks so much mom!), and while traveling in the van. Mom drove MUCH of the way on the trip there, both days. That was very helpful to me. I got LOTS of barn photos on the trip there! I got to know Amos and Ethan better, and see what a great wife and mom Angela is. I was able to meet sweet little Reuben before he got too big, he is a beautiful and very calm, quiet baby. We had a lovely time at Joe's parent's farm, playing and visiting several times. We had some nice, quiet afternoons while Angela and her boys napped - that was very relaxing. Our children and I had some good conversations and times of prayer together in our little basement room. I enjoyed drinking pots and pots of coffee with my mom! :-) Mom, Angela and I had some nice evenings doing puzzles and watching movies. I had my first slice of key lime pie, yummy! Will was able to catch many, many toads and tree frogs. Heather was given the opportunity to take care of some kittens from the farm, her job was to feed, water, and "tame" them - it was a great thing for learning some responsibility and keeping her busy. The kids all got a tractor ride at the farm. Will had a good birthday party while there, with a spaceship pinata and store-bought cake (a rarity). We enjoyed seeing lots of seagulls and herons and lily pads and cat tails. We enjoyed the county fair, the kids had some fun rides - including the roller coaster for Rose (a long time dream of hers), and saw lots of great farm animals. Another day we went to a big, new park and then to swim in a mine pit! My children were given some great exposure to what it is like to have a baby and younger children in the house, and in the car. I got a new appreciation for my mom's life with 7 children - Angela's and my children are: Heather (10), Rose (8), Will (6), Amos (4), Ethan (2), and Reuben (newborn)... that was my mom's kids - EXCEPT there were twin 4 year olds!!! It was great fun to have the stair-step kids in one house, but the days were definitely full - and there were 3-4 adults most of the time! As always, after traveling, we appreciate home and our own routine and our daddy much more too. :-)

Okay, I think I am done processing it all now. On with the day!

Minnesota Trip synopsis (the "bad")

Outline of Events that Caused Us To Ask:

"What were we thinking? "
"How could so many things go "wrong" in 3 weeks time? "
"Was it worth it?"

*I made plans, with Tom's blessing, to travel to MN when Angela had her baby
*We checked into flying, but couldn't settle on a date or find tickets for not too much $
*We decided to fix the Astro's transmission and drive
*Our home a/c stopped working
*The transmission place said the Astro did not need a transmission, just a tune-up
*The home a/c was fixed with little $ - praise God!
*The Astro had a tune-up and we decided to get a 2nd opinion on the transmission
*We had a rebuilt transmission installed in the Astro
*Paid for the tune-up, tires, etc... and found out the a/c hose from front to back had a hole in it
*Decided to go without a/c
*Discovered my debit card was being charged without my knowledge by a website (see below)
*Called my BP credit card to tell them I would be traveling and where
*Left for our trip
*Van broke down 1.5 hours away - "rear end went out"
*Got van towed to repair shop
*Decided to have work done there and rent car to come home
*Picked mom up in rental and brought her home with us
*Got lots of work done on cleaning house, but ate lots of the food we had left for Tom
*Van completed a week later - got rear axle replaced, a/c hose fixed, a/c recharged, rear brakes, repairs on van now total about $4,000!
*Mom, kids and I leave for mom's house and then on to MN
*Pick up van on the way, engine light stays on and it runs rough when a/c is on, but we leave
*Arrive at mom's and realize her dh really doesn't want her to go
*Sleep for the night
*Rise very early, have b'kfast out and hit the road - mom does come
*Stop for gas and realize BP card is not working ("card not recognized")
*Call BP and they will send new card, other was old due to their changes - will take a week to get them!
*Arrive at grandparent's in Indiana, have lovely time
*Leave bright and early for MN - long drive!
*Arrive at Angela's - hooray!!!
*Bank says they will deactivate my debit card and send a new one so there are no more fraudulent charges - ask Tom to send the new one when it arrives (along with new BP card)
*Cell phone company send back warranty phone and I have to get a new one -no Alltel stores where I am, so Tom buys one and mails it to me
*I have to mail loaner cell phone back within the week, new one arrives just in time
*Angela's washer stops agitating and has to get repaired - couple days with no laundry and 11 people!
*While the repairman is there for the washer, he looks at her oven thermostat/regulator and accidently drops a tool on it and completely breaks it - no oven for a week! (11 people, remember?)
*Pipe under Angela's bathroom sink springs a leak, wait a few days for Joe to return and repair
*Mom decides to fly home so her dh will be happy
*Major behavior issue with Will causes some serious stress
*Drive mom to the airport
*Debit card and BP card arrive in mail at our house - but Tom doesn't realize they are there (!)
*Tom calls, missing us and stressed with office work needing done - can we come home?
*We go to county fair - my camera breaks
*I get cash to travel with since I won't have debit or BP card (hate traveling with cash)
*We say sad goodbyes, leave bright and early for Iowa
*Visit a friend in Iowa for one night - very nice time
*Leave early next morning - alarm didn't go off, so should have been earlier!
*Drive, drive, drive...
*Our invertor that allows the TV and small fridge to plug in stops working, take a long stop to buy a new one for my sanity
*Drive, drive, drive...
*Very sad can't take more time and visit family in Illinois like we had planned
*Drive, drive, drive...
*Around 4pm, a/c compressor freezes and it is HOT and I am tired!!!
*Drive, drive, drive...
*Arrive home around 3am - after over 18 hours of straight driving
*Whew - I am exhausted!!!

It shipped, it shipped!!!!

Hurrah, hurray! My camera could be here as early as Friday - but likely early next week. I can't WAIT!!!

Guess what I just ordered??? :D

EOS Digital Rebel XTi Black 10.1 MP Digital SLR Camera (with EF-S 18-55 mm Lens)

I am SOOOOOOO excited! It doesn't ship for 2 whole weeks though - waaaah!

I was just asked to photograph a friend's wedding (don't worry - I told her, I am NOT a professional, and I have never shot a wedding before BUT I am happy for the opportunity and will be happy to snap away and see what we get!). I am super excited about it all!

Homeschool Court Decision

From the HSLDA E-lert Service...

Homeschoolers Win Landmark Case
In a 3-0 decision the California Court of Appeal reversed its earlier ruling which would have required homeschoolers to be certified teachers in order to homeschool. (HSLDA) More >>

(Link above for more info!)

Website Warning!

I have had a bad experience with a website and wanted to put a warning out. 2 years ago, for Will's 4th birthday I ordered him a pair of pin-stripe engineer overalls to match daddy. They cost $6 + shipping. On July 8, they suddenly charged my debit card $69.99 - and today I discovered another charge of $79.99! I have contacted my bank and each time they investigated, removed the charge from my account, and sent me a new debit card. When I talked to the lady today, she said that they had lots of calls regarding this company and that they must be having some sort of computer system errors???!!! So... watch your statements, especially if you have every purchased from www.classiccloseouts.com . Their website is not suspicious really - I have purchased from many just like it, but going back I see that they don't have contact information listed other than 24/7 e-mail assistance, which they don't reply to... I got their phone# from my bank and when I called after the first charge, it was busy constantly. Today I did get an automated answer, but each dept that I tried to talk to (called back 5-6 times) only spit me into voicemail - and yes, I did leave a msg at each "dept"! We will see what happens, but I am thankful that my bank will work with us on investigating the charges. Very frustrating!!!

Home again, home again... jiggety jig!

Arrived home at 2:30 this morning. Drove for 8 hours Thursday and almost 19 hours on Friday. Resting LOTS today! Thank you for all the prayers and support.

Amy sent over a large basket of food and groceries, for which I am eternally grateful. As I was driving the last leg of the journey, my mind was racing to what would need done today... I am so thankful that I can wait until Monday morning to go grocery shopping! Thank you my dear sweet friend. :-)

Driving Home...

We are in route home. Staying at dear friends in Iowa tonight and driving home tomorrow. It will be a LONG day but we all miss daddy and can't wait to be home. Please pray for travel mercies!

We are doing well, enjoying our time here. I miss everyone!

We are at Angelas safe and sound. Reuben is darling - seeing everyone is so worth the drive. Amy, thanks for feeding Tom!

In Mn - couple hours to go!

Now in WI!

Stuck in traffic near WI border. SLOW :(

We are in IL!

Safely in Indiana

We are safe and sound at my grandparents in Indiana. Trip went well, a long day but good. We have a 12-hour trip tomorrow up to MN. Thank you for your prayers!

We are off!

We are hitting the road again as soon as we load up.  Tom is driving us to Roanoke to pick up our -newly repaired van and then we will drive to my mom's house in WV to sleep tonight.  From there we will drive up to IN to my grandparents to stay the night Thursday.  We will arrive, Lord-willing to Angela's in MN on Friday night.  Please pray for our safety, travel mercies, and a wonderfully working vehicle.  :-)  Thank you!!!

--
Amber
Child of God
Proud to be helpmeet to Tom
Blessed mommy of three

The Rest of the Story...

Our trip came to an abrupt halt when we were only about an hour from home. We got as far as Roanoke and our van (which had just gotten a new transmission) started making a horrible noise in the back end whenever I took my foot off the accelerator. It was a grinding/howling sound and was getting worse and worse. I called Tom and had him listen to it and then pulled over and looked underneath. It was dripping black stuff from this joint back there... I have no idea what that stuff is called. I took a couple pics with my phone and sent them to Tom. He called our mechanic and then called someone to tow us. We waited in the parking lot for a good while, the kids were SO dissapointed, but behaved well.

When the tow truck arrived, a very nice man from the company also brought his personal vehicle so that we could all ride to the repair shop. He even had a car seat and a Dora movie for the kids to watch. They have a family run business, he is the 3rd generation. I was thrilled when he pulled up to the repair shop to see that there was a park across the street, though we didn't end up using it.

We were at the repair shop for a good couple hours. They got it in to look at it pretty quickly and the man came in to tell me that "your rear end is gone". I almost laughed and thought of lots of snappy comebacks, none of which would have been appropriate. ;b

Tom thought about towing it back home, but when I told him it had cost $100 to tow a few blocks away, he decided to let this shop repair it. It was another family-run business and seemed good. They weren't able to begin working on it until Tuesday, so we called Enterprise and had them come pick us up with a rental. They only had a Ford F-150 left, so we squeezed into it and put all our stuff in the back. We couldn't afford a one-way rental to MN or to rent a car for a month, so we had to head back home. Since we had a full day rental and unlimited miles and we were all so dissapointed, we consoled ourselves by going to pick up my mom from WV and brining her back to our house for the week. That has made things more bearable. We made it home around 9pm - a long, tiring emotional day but we are safe and sound.


A few things to note and be thankful for:
1. We were only an hour from home.
2. We did not get stranded on a busy road, but were able to pull over safely in a Hardee's parking lot where there was a bathroom for use. :-)
3. The people with the towing company and the repair shop were kind and helpful.
4. The children were very well-behaved, even in their dissapointment.
5. It was a mild summer day (no a/c remember?)
6. I did not take our dog with us - can you imagine?

Our plan now is to wait until the van is done, and then decide what to do. I would love to pick it up and then hit the road from there, but it depends on WHEN and HOW MUCH?