Fall 2011

The past few months have simply flown by. Can you believe there are less than 60 days until Christmas?? The past few months have brought several changes: In April, our foster teen moved to her permanent home. Three days later we had 2 siblings placed with us. A 21 month old boy and a 4 month old girl. Our little boy turned 2 in July. Little girly will be 1 in December. They are getting so very big and developing well. Matt has a few attachment issues that we are currently working on and probably will be for awhile. Mary is very mellow w/ a joyful personality. At this point we will have them indefinitely. I'd like to say it's a 50/50 chance the parents will be able to have them back, but reality is probably 80/20 that they won't. Our 20 year old, Tristan moved back home and is now attending WVC-Omak campus. He is taking general business classes and is doing very well. I think he may even be surprising himself! My parents moved to a cute little house in town. A very big move for them. We enjoy having them nearby--though I think they are almost a busy as we are at times! The other "little" change has been serious lack of work for Jeremy. The Lord does provide and did so in an odd, and I feel slightly stressful manner. He will be working at his old company every other week for the next year. Oh, did I mention that the work is 4 hours away?? It is going to be crazy, but at the same time I know deep inside that this is a complete blessing. It will force all involved to stay on our knees. To pray for strength in all things, even the little stuff. This truth was brought forth to me at church on Sunday. ~~ after spending 2 weeks of complaining and pretty much wanting to just cry. Now, today, even though I woke up to a very dead car due to needing a new battery cable; several in our household starting to get sick-all with Jeremy gone and a crazy schedule, I know that He is with me and will get me through it all.
Jack and Trevor are doing great with all these changes. They both absolutely LOVE have their big brother home and do so well with the babies. This is Jack's last week of soccer until spring--he is doing AMAZING!! Awanas has started back up this last month and he is so happy there!

Enjoy the blessings of every day!

Quick Update

I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but I didn't realize that it had been almost 3 months! Well, in that time period, both Courtney and Christina have been placed into their long term homes. So it is now back down to 4 of us. It is a bit quieter now and I now don't have to be in town EVERY day! Praise the Lord! I'm reimbursed for mileage, but of course that money comes when it comes and as you know the prices of gas just keeps going up! So needless to say, I'm looking forward to being home a bit more. When we do get another placement, we are really hoping for 3 and under in age. It will defintely suit our family better at this point in our lives. My sweet husband took on a regular full time job. This has been a huge adjustment for us since he has been self employed for 10 years! The hours are good in the sense that they work 4-10 hour days and your one floating day can be when you want. He mainly uses Friday for that floating day. He is fabricating helicopter parts and really loves this side of aircraft mechanics since he really enjoys building and creating things. The down side is that it's just over an hour away from home, so he is gone about 13+ hours a day. Also gas is killing us--I'm considering a moped.....LOL!! :) We are very thankful that he is working though and was able to find a job without any hang ups. Construction here is at a stand still like it is in so many other areas. Though we do know several people who are quite busy in construction right now due to where they live. With all this now supposed 'free' time on my hands I've been trying to get the paper piles back under control and working on budgeting. Hmmm, maybe I'll get back to writing more often too. The snow is all melted now except for a few patches here and there. All four goats are expecting babies. Dora is due anytime now. I believe that she is having twins since she looks like she has a whole watermelon sideways inside of her! This will be quite an experience for me since I was raised in the city. I have several neighbors who are ready to help me if I need it. I've been reading a lot but as with everything, physical experience is going to be the learning key here. If anyone has been following this for a bit, then they have read about Camp Omak. Well, I have 8 amazing women willing to come here to my house for Mother's Day weekend! We are all looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us and what can be learned from where we all are in life right now. All my boys are going somewhere....camping, hotel.....who knows. They are excited to be having 'man time'. Though Jack has made it clear that he wants to have a donut at some point during the weekend! That's it for now! More soon......

I'm Here!

Hello there blogging community. Yes, I am alive. The past few weeks have been exciting, stressful, tiring and rewarding. The week before Christmas we got our first foster placement. We received two sisters; 14 year old Courtney and 12 year old Christina. Yes, much older than we were anticipating. Its been an adjustment having teens in the house again! The girls are settling in well and the boys are enjoying having them around. So within that week before Christmas, I took the girls shopping for necessary items (boots; coats; underwear, etc); took the girls to the other side of the mountains to pick up Trevor (they had never been to the Seattle area before) and get shopping and wrapping done. Christmas morning was really nice. LOTS of activity. We received a Wii for one of our gifts and that has been great fun for all. My favorite at this point is bowling--which maybe because I hold the high score for the house....... :)
School is back in full swing. Courtney is in 9th grade and in the alternative home school program within the school district, so she only needs to check in with her teacher once a week. Christina is in 6th grade and takes the bus each day down to the middle school. We had the flu really bad this last week, so not much school has occurred this last week for Jack. Him and I were the worse off; Jeremy and Trevor only lasted for about a day and the girls pulled through with no real symptoms except some tiredness. The girls have a fair amount of things they need to be at within a given week, mainly counseling sessions. We have had one court date so far with more to follow. Given that, I'm out in town much more often than I was before--it is forcing me to be better about my meal planning! :)
My biggest struggle right now is fitting in my time with the Lord. It has changed a bit with simply keeping a bible open and try and read when I'm standing in the kitchen (if no one else is in there talking to me! LOL ) Its been a long time since I've had this much constant activity around the house, but it is getting better--just need to keep my perspective.
Work is coming along for Jeremy. He is working part time at an aircraft shop and is still doing construction as it comes up. We are in the process of taking over our friend's remodeling company since he is going into another line of work. Taking over this business, which has been in the area for awhile, should help with keeping busy. Hopefully I can keep up on all the office stuff!
Better go for now and continue with the day!