Jack's Room

Oh, I forgot to explain a little of Jack's room. He has decided to make our downstairs bedroom his room. He says that he likes sleeping with his toys. So for the past week or so, he has been happily sleeping downstairs while the rest of us continue upstairs. Though he says that when we have guests over, he will let them borrow the room. If he wakes up in the night, he walks up to my room; wakes me up and asks me to sit with him downstairs. So down we go -me trying not to kill myself as I'm sleep walking down the stairs.
It is interesting that he is doing this. Up until the last year, he was actually afraid to go upstairs by himself if everyone else was down. Now he is ok with sleeping on a different floor? Go try and figure the mature 5 year old brain........

Cleaning Day

Today has been a 'stay home and clean day'! It is going surprisingly well. I even moved the couches and cleaned the dirt flim from under them--vacuumed and mopped. In order to do that, it meant taking the cushions off the couch. Which means pure enjoyment for my little man. I've got everything moved back now, except the cushions. Him and his stuffed animals made a fortress outside his bedroom door (which is also our guest room--i'll explain that later) and the room is the dungeon. He has socks on the heads of the animals (they needed hats since they are guarding the gate). It is actually pretty fun to listen to and watch.
Trevor has been gone since last Thursday visiting with Bill and Jeremy left yesterday am to work in Bellevue for the better part of 3 weeks. Last night Jack and I were going to see Dispicitable Me but the sound was NOT working at the theatre so everyone got a refund to try again tonight. Yes, I left the theatre last night with a crying five year old. Not pretty. We went to the library though and he turned in his reading program paper and got a little prize. That did help a bit. So we are praying that we can see the movie tonight.
My little brown goat, Tina, keeps going under the fence to the wrong side of the pasture. So last night, I was hammering 8' long 2x6's along the base of the fence for a temporary fix until Jeremy comes home for the weekend and try and fix what I was trying to fix. (does that make sense??) Well, I was feeling pretty good about myself since that was more effort than I was expecting (he makes it look so easy!). This morning when I was awakened a 5:30 by a crying goat, I look out and there is Tina with her butt in the air and her neck stuck under the one part of chain link that I did not put wood in front of. Out I go in my jammies to free her. After Jack woke up, I went out and put the last piece of wood up. So far so good. Jack informed me that I'm a good builder girl like Wendy on Bob the Builder..........that would be great if I could actually read a tape measure correctly!
I will now go back to finish the day's cleaning so that I can hit the movie tonight.
More later!!

The Garden is Growing

By request of one of my blogging "fans", I'm posting a couple of pictures of our garden. Out there in that craziness is: strawberries; raspberries; lettuce; onions; tomatoes; peppers; corn; peas and beans. All are doing well except the tomatoes and peppers. That is a bit of a bummer since I was planning on using those to try and make salsa.......oh well. Maybe it will be better next year! I really enjoy having a garden--that is a big thing for me to say since there is NO WAY I would suggest such a thing several years ago. I still don't like weeding very much, but am willing to deal with it. I really have a problem with those darn biting flies, but have found great joy now in the wind--blows those little pests away!! :) Jeremy had to work this morning, so I managed to wash the swimming clothes/towels; vaccumed up and downstairs AND clean the bathroom floor. I feel really accomplished, though I still have a HUGE bunch of papers to go through; get Jack's school papers organized for the beginning of the school year; empty the pantry so that Jeremy can seal the floor; and empty the basement-which included sweeping it out and organizing the junk (aka: go to the DUMP).

Off to enjoy the day on my back patio and read my MaryJane Farms book...........

Aimless Rambling

This is really turning out to be a bit of a lazy day. I'm actually ok with that since yesterday we were out all day--swimming lessons; picked up Trevor in Wenatchee and then went to family swim at the pool. Today Sabrina guarded Jack and his towel for me during swim lessons while I took Trevor to the department of licensing to get his WA State ID card. He is now official. Jack thought it was his drivers license and figured that Trevor could take him to the park and Mc Donalds. He was a little bummed at the news, but was glad to hear that I can still drive! :)
My plan today when we got home was to get the dusting done and bathrooms cleaned. So far I have washed dishes; read a magazine; watched a movie w/ the boys and worked on a blanket for my friend's birthday. Now that I'm looking at this list, it does LOOK like a lot. There is still time though to get my stuff done before Jeremy gets home today!
I got our application all sent into DSHS for foster parenting. We are signed up for our class for the end of August! Now we just need to get through the 'make your house safe' list. It is all stuff that really is a good idea, but that for some reason have never really got to: smoke detectors; fire extingushers; fire escape ladders; fire escape plan; make sure medications are all together in a SECURE area......little things so that we don't appear to be negligent parents! LOL
I did have one friend ask me what our 'story' was for wanting to be foster parents. I don't know if there really is a story. We do know that we really want more children and with Jack being 5 now and he is still currently the youngest, our big question/prayer was: Ok Lord, you placed us in this huge house in the mountains--what are we to do with it all??? Not long after that we both felt that maybe it was to foster parent. So far all doors have been WIDE open in this direction. So we continue on in this direction. At this point we have put in child age ranges from newborn to age 6. Depending on what goes on there, will determine raising our age range. I just pray that we can give a hurting child hope in their lives through Jesus Christ and give an example of a normal family. (well, in our case--crazy, loud normal!!) We just keep praying for guidance in this area.
My brother called today and him and his family should be out next month!! Can't wait for them to come and visit!
Ok, I need to stop rambling and get the housework done while Bob the Builder is building on TV in the background!!!!!

SUN!!

Does this picture say 'summer' or what? LOL! They both think they are pretty cool sporting goggles around the house.

Today is another hot one. Supposed to get to 101 today! After all that rain, and now it is suddenly summer! Notice that in the background of this picture, the fields are still green and there is still water in the pond!

Going to meet the Kinzle family at Omak Lake this afternoon (sorry Martha....). We will be pre-bathed in sunscreen and will simply working on staying as comfortable as possible. Off to make snacks....... Have a great day!

Fourth of July Weekend Fun

Dave and Melissa and the kids came over to visit on Saturday afternoon and stayed until this afternoon. It's amazing what you can do in less than 2 days---on Saturday evening we went to family swim at the Okanogan pool. After feeding the kids a quick dinner after we got home, we put everyone in bed and AFTER that we had a great adult only dinner of bbq meat and corn on the cob! YUM!! On Sunday all were up early so that we could head out to Twisp to go to church. In the midst of getting all ready for church we needed to pack the coolers and bags up with picnic food and towels. After church we headed directly to the city of Brewster which is located right on the Columbia River. At the city park, our church had a great picnic area right on the water complete with bbq; LOTS of food and jet skis! There was a little parade as we were leaving. LOVE small town parades--as each parade participant goes by, they throw out handfuls of candy for the kids! We didn"t stay for the fireworks since everyone was so tired! After coming home and getting people in bed, all us big kids went out to the fire pit and made smores. This morning before they left, Jeremy and Dave made bat houses and got those all hung up.
So needless to say we are ALL going to sleep well for the next week or so! :)

Swimming and Goats

Wow-time really got away from me regarding blogging! Things have been good. I had a good birthday and we had a good anniversary. Since the blessed day was on a Tuesday, Jeremy got off work early and we took Jack out to mexican food thanks to money that was sent by my mom and dad. Calvary Chapel Eastside was visiting our church for the week with VBS activities. We were unable to attend VBS due to the fact, that many of you know, that Jack had his first week of swim lessons. We ended up going up to church for dinner on Thursday pm; on Friday after swimming we went up for lunch and there was a huge bouncy castle; lego table; facepainting. On Saturday we went back up and after picking up hay went to church for more activity. Saturdays adventure had all the above activities for the kids and also included a huge blow up water slide! Needless to say, Jack (and us!) were exhausted!

This last week was week 2 of the first swimming session. We picked up Trevor in Wenatchee on Monday afternoon. He has had a cold all week but is feeling better now. As for swimming--we had Jack signed up for the preschool class since he had never did lessons before. Since he was doing so well, they ended doing all the level 1 skills also and now this next week during sign ups for the next session, he can go straight to level 2!!!! We are so excited for him! Also we got him signed up for soccer! 5 years old is starting out so far to being a big year!

The other thing this last week, is that we traded Edmund the goat for a little female goat. We named her Tina. She is 12 weeks old and her and Lucy are enjoying each others company. Tina has been taking her time to get used to us, but we found her secret love--animal crackers! Not the frosted kind, but regular everyday ones. Lucky us, we have a huge container of Winnie the Pooh ones from Costco. We will win Tina over yet! :)

Dave and Melissa called last night and asked if we are going to be home for the holiday and since we are, they are coming over today until Monday. Need to get the house picked up!!
Have a wonderful 4th of July all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!