Sunday Packing

Well, we have a new soccer star in the family! Jack is having a BLAST!!! We will be having games 2X a week.

We are leaving on our Dinosaur vacation tomorrow morning. We had Ken and Sabrina's youngest 3 last night overnight and Tristan and Dale just got here. Tristan and Dale are guarding our farm while we are gone--pray the animals survive.....LOL They are actually excited about hanging out at home this week. In the midst of all this, we have stuff everywhere trying to pack!

Please pray for our safety while we are gone. We'll be taking lots of pictures!!!!!

Have a blessed week!!!

Tuesday

I am alive up here on our little mountaintop. My computer has been having issues getting online--I really should take it into a computer doctor! :)
Things are well. Jack starts soccer practice tonight! I forgot how small the shin guards and cleats are at this age. I'll try and get some good pictures. Jeremy is working in Bellevue this week (again). So as usual to kill time during the week, I decide to start 'cleaning' and end up with stuff EVERYWHERE and end up doing a mad dash trying to find some kind of home for it all before he gets back home!
Yesterday, I took Jack to the pet store and I bought him two zebra finches. They are pretty cute: orange beaks and feet. Jack named them Bob and Oscar. I've been trying to place what their little tweets sounds like. Then it came to me. Have you seen the Pixar short called "The Birds"? The funny little chirp those birds make actually sound like Bob and Oscar. (yes, making that connection makes the birds more fun for me). Jack absolutely loves them and spends a lot of time making sure they have food and water.
This week will also be spent getting things together for our little Dinosaur Vacation that we leave for on Monday. Tristan gets here on Sunday, we leave Monday and come home on Thursday. Jack has a soccer game Thurs. night and Saturday morning. Tristan leaves on Friday. The Jetmore's get here on Sat. pm and everyone is leaving on Monday. My only question to myself--"are you going to be smart and make a menu so that you are not stressed?????????? " I'm all over it......as soon as I put all this stuff away that I'm organizing..........LOL!

Fall is Here

It is only the second day of September, but the beautiful season of fall seems to have arrived! The air has a crispness to it--sunny and warm, but has the feel and smell of fall. The grasses that have been brown due to end of summer dryness now has a golden/orange color to it. The leaves are already changing colors---can you believe that? That started a couple of weeks ago when it should of still been warm lake weather! This last Sunday we actually had a fire in the wood stove since it was really cold and pouring rain! Today and tomorrow are to be our warmer days, so though the water maybe cold, I may still take the boys down to the lake just for the heck of it!
Aside from the weather, we started school this last Monday. Jack is LOVING it!! As soon as he finishes one thing, he is asking 'what's next???' I actually had to convice him that for the greater good, mommy really needs to eat lunch......and yes, we are going to be done for the day because we cannot do a whole year of school in one day. His response, "why??" hmmm......
We are leaving for 4 days in a couple weeks to meet up with my in-laws at the John Day Fossil Beds in eastern Oregon. Look it up online-I think that we will be staying in the booming town of Spray, OR. Yes, that means camping! Though if it gets really cold there are a couple of hotels at a nearby town. Jack is excited to go camping and go to a dinosaur museum. I'm going to be buying him his own camera so that he can document the trip from his view and also so that he is not constantly borrowing mine!! :) His photography has gotten pretty good and like his sister, can take some GREAT self-portraits!
Back to finishing up baking bread (another great 'fall' smell!) .

Social/Sick/Training

Yes, I am here and still alive! August can be summed up in three words: social/sick/training
Social and sick actually go together in the sense that we had LOTS of wonderful visits: My sweet friend Martha and her kids drove out to visit for a week. On the first morning she was here, Martha's little Eric threw up. It was quick and he was back to hard core playing and running within an hour--weird, but we went with it. We had such a great time and were even able to hold conversations at times that were more deep than, "Do you want a hot dog or chicken nuggets???" LOL The day before Martha was heading out (Sunday), my brother Alan and his family came! Yes, on Sunday night we had a grand total of 15 people in the house: 5 adults and 10 kids!!!! It was not as crazy as one would of thought! Sunday night about midnight, Jeremy and I found Trevor walking in our room and heading for the bathroom.......you guessed it sickness flowing from his back end. As I was tending to him, Jeremy went to Trevor's room and found that he had threw up EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!! Oh goody!!!!! So, we got that all cleaned up and got him settled back in bed. Too bad for me though because literally EVERY hour and a half he was sick from both ends, if you know what I mean! So, on Monday morning Martha headed home (well, probably running since I doubt she wanted to get sick again, which if you follow Martha on her blog, you will have noticed that Bridget got sick again.....). Monday was visiting and hoping that Trevor recovered quickly since his birthday was on Tuesday! Alan and Jeremy did take Julie on the grand tour on Okanogan and Omak--she was highly impressed! :) Tuesday was Trevor's 18th birthday!!! He was feeling better, so we headed for Omak Lake for the day!! Met up with the Kinzle family--soooo much fun!!!!!!! Wednesday all is good until lunch time, when my nephew Chris gets sick at lunch......Wed. about 10:30 pm my neice Paityn gets it. My other neice Syrenah feel AWESOME this whole time!! :) Alan's family heads out on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night; Friday night and all day Saturday Jeremy and I are at foster parent training classes. Oh, yes, I'm sick all day Friday. We had the last of our training classes this last Thurs; Fri; and Sat. and are done with those!!!!!!! We were so blessed to have our precious friends take time to care for the boys while we were gone!! :)
In the midst of this month, I should mention (for whatever reason) that 3 out of 4 weeks of August Jeremy was out of town working! ~~even with all the craziness, it was a great month with lots of memories!!

Homemaking website

I also found a cool website:

www.homemaking911.com

Shelves and Relationship

I cannot believe that it's only 1:45 in the afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For some reason, this has been a VERY slow moving day! On the upside, I did clean and reorganize the kitchen shelves. That was a gross job. I honestly thought I cleaned all that not that long ago but was I wrong--who would of thought that dirt got THAT sticky......... So I do feel slightly better about myself for cleaning that one portion of my house--(no I didn't take any pictures!) :)
Last night we had the most amazing lightening and thunder storm I have ever seen! The lightening bolts simply lit up the house and a few seemed to touch the ground in my fields! The thunder cracked and shook the house! Praise the Lord, we didn't have any fires on our mountain and didn't lose any trees around the house. Today is breezy and sunny--no sign at all of anymore storms, though according to the weather service there is a chance of another tonight. The cooler weather is nice, but it does mess with our lake and pool time!

You know how I said that it is a slow moving day? I think I'm just in thought regarding a book I'm reading called 'Walking in Total God-Confidence'. There are a few things that are standing out to me, but one at this point is what I 'get' to do for God--not what I 'have' to do.~~forget about the "Rules of the Christian Life" and focus on my "Relationship with the Living God".
Which motto will I choose to live by: Have to? or Get to?

Quote from Hannah Whitall Smith:
Here Lord, I abandon myself to you. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself and make myself what I know I ought to be. But have always failed. Now I give it up to you. Take entire possession of me. Work in me all the good pleasure of your will. Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you. I leave myself in your hands. And I believe you will, according to your promise, make me into a vessel unto your honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work.

Ramblings for the Day

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to go over and visit with Jeremy and the kids! Jack and I left on Thursday morning and had lunch with Jeremy and Tristan at Costco! Jack loved the big pizza! :) Then we met Veronica after she was off work. We met at the most beautiful store! It's called Common Folk~~beautiful vintage and antique pretties! Even with Jack in tow, we managed to spend over an hour and easily spent thousands of dollars in our heads! :) Jeremy, Jack and I were able able to go out to dinner with Clay and Veronica and stayed the night at their house. Friday, I was able to have a short visit with Martha and the kids -- got to hold the beautiful, squishy baby Kally, aka Peaches! Then had a short visit with Melissa and her kids and then Jack and I picked up Trevor. We were then on our way back home!
Jeremy was home for the weekend, but is now back in Bellevue for another 2 weeks--
In the 1.5 days that he has been gone so far, Tina and Lucy both managed to get their heads stuck in the fence--thankfully at separate times. Oh, on Sunday, (thank goodness Jeremy was home for this!) Tina somehow managed to get her lip caught on some chain link and was standing on her hind legs hanging from the fence via her lip...........not a boring moment around here!