Merry Christmas to my friends and family!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and enjoy your friends and family. We are missing our family this Christmas for the first time. Joe is working over the holidays. We're happy he has a job and is at home with us for the holidays.

I got two more As on my last classes. Wahoo! I'm done! :) At least I think I'm done. I haven't heard that I need to do anything else. I'll take it. :)

Merry Christmas!

'Tis the Season! :) I love this time of year. I love celebrating the birth of our Savior and worshiping him through singing Christmas Carols. I love Christmas Carols!

This year is going to be hard because we're not going home for Christmas this year. Joe has to work, and might even work on Christmas day. :( So we might have to rearrange some things.

I am looking forward to spending time with the girls over the break. We are going to do crafts and visit with friends. :) It should be a fun two weeks. :)

I hope you all have a great Christmas. I love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Faith is downstairs sleeping on the couch in front of the TV. After all, that is one of the things thanksgiving is about. :) Jamie is playing on the computer playing Sims. Joe just got off of the phone with his mom. (Hi ma!) I am up here in the bedroom doing homework. Fun! Fun!

Do not fear though, the turkey is in the oven, the jello is in the fridge. And the rest of our dinner can't be prepared until 5:00. So we're all set. No more eating until dinner is ready. :)

One week and a few days until my Master's work will be done! :) I am excited and nervous about getting all of my work done. But luckily I'm a substitute teacher and can take next week off to study. :)

I know it is strange...

I know it is strange, but we were so excited to go to WalMart today! There are no WalMarts around here! URG! So we drove to Woodburn to go to WalMart. We didn't buy an exorbitant amount of things. We just really missed WalMart so we went. And since we had to drive so far away, we couldn't buy groceries there that would spoil or melt.

I have two cute pairs of boots and not skits to wear with them, right now. So I went out this evening on my own and bought two cute skirts, two shirts, and a pair of jammies. :) It was fun to get out and go shopping. I only wish I had a girlfriend to go with me.

Staying Busy

I've been staying busy subbing. I didn't think I would be quite so busy. I've been to 1/2 of the elementary schools in the district, all but one of the middle schools and one high school. I just got signed up for the girls' school, so hopefully I'll be subbing there soon. I would love to sub there most if not all of the time.

I subbed in a classroom that is the same as my old classroom, with the very special ed. It was fun. Of course, there was none of the paper work, meetings or politics. But it made me miss my old job and hope that I can work with those very special students once more.

The girls are busy with school. Jamie is taking an art class once a week. And Faith is coming with me to homework club. I tutor two students during homework club and help other students when I can.

As promised! Halloween pictures!

Coming soon!

I am going to have the girls try on their costumes for Halloween. I'll take pictures and have them up here today or tomorrow. :) No worries.

In the meantime, and update on the family. Jamie is doing wonderfully in school. I couldn't ask for a better students. She's thriving at Quatama. Faith is getting a lot of help at school and I look forward to seeing her grow this year. She has started to play the recorder and loves it. Maybe I can get her to play the flute. Speaking of music, Jamie has started with piano lessons again. She loves it, and so far her teacher seems like a great teacher.

Joe is working those wacked out shifts still. It is crazy! He is working around the clock shifts and only 3 or 4 of one shift before he switches to anther shift. Poor guy. Thank heavens to Niquil.

I am working 2-4 days a week as a sub. It is challenging and interesting all at the same time. Middle schoolers like to push buttons and see how far they can push their sub. But the elementary students are gems. I love subbing for the elementary kids. My Master's program is wrapping up. I'm so excited to be almost finished with it. We're going to party here in December, that is for sure! :) Graduation isn't until May though. So we'll have a big party at our house in Meridian then. It is empty so there is plenty of space for anyone to sleep if they want to come to my graduation. :)

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

The rain has started!

That rain has started and should end in March or April. :) The girls love it! They were out with their umbrellas earlier. I had to make them come in since Faith is still sick. We are going to look at rain boots today when we go to Target.

Jamie is going to cook dinner tonight. She has been missing Papa and his cooking. He always let her help cook with him. I make easy dishes, so there is less opportunity for her to help. But she picked out a recipe for tonight that she is going to make mostly by herself. I'll have to help her with the gas stove, of course.

Faith is getting better. She seems mostly back to normal. No fever, just an annoying sniffy nose and cough. This makes me very happy because I was pretty worried about her on Monday. Jamie is 100% better as well. :)

Today we have parent/teacher goal setting conferences at school. They are today and tomorrow with Friday off. So the girls have a 5 day weekend. I could have worked today, but we have the conferences so I turned down the job.

Thursday I have to go see my dentist to get a filling repaired. He is in Seattle tomorrow. He is my dentist from Boise. So that is closer, but in unfamiliar territory. I have a good friend up there that I haven't seen since high school, so I'm going to hook up with her. That should be fun, and make the trip up there worth it. :)

Sick Girlie number two!

Faith is now sick. :( She is just coughing so far, but that is how it started with Jamie. Later after an appt I have, I'm going to get them both Jamba Juice again. They can use all of the fruit and vitamins they can get. Me too, because I sure don't want to get it!

Poor sick girlie!

Jamie is at home today with the flu. :( She started losing her voice a couple days ago, now has a cough, runny nose, fever and a headache. So being the good mom I am, I went a picked up the flu essentials at Walgreen's, along with Jamba Juice. She's happily sitting on the couch now with her Jamba Juice and a movie. :) Well, as happy as one can be while sick. When she gets better, I'll have to take her to the doctor to get a flu shot. Of us girls, she is the only one not to have the flu shot.

Shopping with the girls

We went shopping today on this fine fall day. There were a few clouds, but no rain. :) It was nice to be out with the girls instead of watching football at home. hehe!

The girls needed some pants. Last years are too short, of course. And it is now too chilly in the morning to get away with shorts, even on the warmer days. So Jamie got some jeans, and Faith got some stretch pants. She loves comfort, that one. :)

I made pork loin and butternut squash the other day in the crock pot. I liked it and Joe liked it, but the girls didn't. It needed something. I'll have to experiment to see what I can add to make it taste better.

I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer! I need to get serious about my weight and doing it by myself hasn't been working so well. I'm just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I've met with my trainer twice. He kicked my butt last night! Wow! It was hard, but I felt stronger for doing it. :) I also swam for 30 minutes on Thursday. I felt good about that too. :)

Finally, Back to School Pictures!

Here you go! Back to school pictures. The girls are really enjoying their teachers. Jamie will not be getting the perfect attendance award. She's already out with a low grade fever, sore throat and the sniffles. That's right folks, I think she has the flu! OI! I will see if her doctor wants to see her tomorrow to confirm what is up with her. It would be nice to know when I can send her back to school.

Cash for Toys!

Back to school pictures coming soon!

Our girls have tooooooooooooooooooo many toys! They also have a hard time giving up toys, but they want more toys. So I came up with an ingenious idea. I am buying their toys so they can get cash to buy a new toy. I am offering them a quarter for small toys, fifty cents for bigger toys and one dollar for big toys. They've already brought us quite a few toys, and we just started this last night. If they bring us a bunch of toys for just one new toy, that works for me! :) When we have a good pile of toys, we'll take them to a charity and give them away. Well, the nice toys anyway.

Thanks to my sister for recommending her peeps to come visit me. I love the encouragement.

SAHM again?

I think I might be a stay at home mom again. Even if I do get to sub, I will probably not be working as steady as if I was a teacher. So this might be an answer to prayer. I was soooooooooooo busy the last two year with work and school. I only have a semester of school left, and it won't be as busy of a semester as it has been in the past. Then in the spring semester, I won't have school. So I think I'll work on my praxis for the state for my Teacher's certification. I'll also be able to get this house unpacked and organized. Some of that means getting rid of stuff, and some means sending stuff back to Boise. At least I'm getting some decluttering done.

So that is my life in a nutshell. The girls start school on Tuesday. Jamie seems to be calmer about it than Faith. Faith says she's a little scared. :( I know she'll be fine. I hope she doesn't cry like last year. I'll keep you all updated on how they do. :)

Not only did we move in, but...

The ants moved in too!!!!!!!!! So, I have ant bait all over our house. My mil gave me advice on getting some ant killer and spraying it where ever they can come in. I found where they were coming in, in the pantry. So I put ant baits there and they are eating that now. Hopefully that will work. I can see them in my bedroom going for that ant bait. Eat it up you little buggers!!!!!!!!!!!

On a side note, I keep typing aunts, hehe. :)

Random!

We say this a lot these days with Jamie. She comes out of the blue and blurts out something. So we reply, "Random!" hehe

*School starts in a few weeks, and still no job, or teacher certificate in hand. I might have to be a stay at home mom. Which I am okay with, really. I can get my house in order and finish my master's degree. I also want to lose some weight, so more time for that would be nice.

*I'm sitting here staring at boxes. My bedroom is 1/2 packed. Faith may end up with the most boxes per room. She has 20 boxes of stuff just for her room! We're going to have to go through those when we get to our new home.

*Tomorrow they finish packing.

*Thursday they load the truck.

* Friday I clean.

*Saturday we drive to our new home in Hillsboro.

*Monday we sign papers and Tuesday we start moving in! Wahoo!

I am excited to move and get the girls started in school. Fun! Fun!

The Discovery Center

No pictures of the girls, they moved from display to display too fast. :)

The girls and I went to the Discovery Center Science Museum today. The girls had a ball playing with all of the displays. They have a "Good Vibrations" area right now. It was pretty neat. They even have a piano display that is just the insides of the piano so you can touch it and pluck the strings. Pretty neat.

Afterward, we headed to DQ for lunch. The girls love going there. They get an ice cream treat for dessert. Now we're home, "freezing." The girls are freezing, but it feels good to me. We have a cold front here right now and it is only 69. I can only imagine how chilly my Phx family would be if they were here right now. :)

I am kind of aimlessly wandering around my life right now. With not major school project to work on at the moment, I am restless. I'll get used to it. :) I took up a cross stitch project that I started last fall before Christmas. It says 08 on it. OOOPS! I think I'll just leave it. I started it then. When I sign it, I'll put 09. :) Or 10 if I put it away again. :)

I hope all are well. I miss you all and would love to hear how things are going on in your neck of the woods.

My thesis is done!

My thesis is done! I handed it in. Baring any major mistakes, I should get a good grade on it. My professor said it was a great paper, so I don't see that I'll have any trouble with it. What a relief to be done with such a big project. Whew! This fall should be fairly easy. So no worries there. Then I'm done in December. :) Wahoo!

Statistics!

I have too much information for my Master's Thesis and am totally confused on what to do with it. I gave up and e-mailed my statistics professor and asked him. I just am at a loss on what to do.

Joe is working on his Mustang trying to get it to work. He had to put his old heads back on because the new one is warped. :( As long as he gets it running, I don't care. I don't think it will come to Portland, unless he parks it on the street. We only have a 2 car garage.

The girls are playing nicely together, whew! I don't know how I would have gotten through this master's program if they didn't play well together. It would have been a nightmare.

Do you snore? I snore and am wondering if I need to see someone about it when we get to Portland. I know I need to lose some weight, but I snored when I was in a size 2! So that can't be all of it. Sometimes Joe doesn't know how I don't wake myself up.

Well, that got random. :) I avoiding going back to my paper. I'm stuck and will probably have to wait until I can get help from my prof.

Oh yah, BTW!

By the way, Joe is home! I did take one picture of the girls holding a sign for him. But there was too much hugging and kissing to get a picture after he got home. We are very grateful to have him home. We've been cleaning the house up, and relaxing since he got home. I have time now to clean, until I start working on my paper, which I will do tomorrow and Sunday. I want to have it turned in by Monday.

We are going on a house/apartment hunting trip on Tuesday for four days. I hope we find something in that time. We are torn on whether to find a house this size and move all of our stuff and rent this one out. Or leave 1/2 of our stuff and move to an apartment for less rent. Depending on how well renters take care of our yard and house, both options would be about the same money wise. Plus we'd probably go with a rental company to rent the house, so that takes a chunk out of the rent.

See, JOe and I haven't been up to much since he got home. Nothing exciting for me to write about, today anyway. I'll write about our anniversary on Sunday. Our anniversary is tomorrow. :) 17 Years.

New Bike and New glasses

Jamie was riding a little girl bike and it was getting too small for her. So we went to Walmart and got her a new street cruising bike. She wanted a bike that didn't have hand breaks. So we got her this cute bike. :)



And here are Faith's new glasses. The ones she gets to take home. :) She looks so cute. I hope they help with her reading.

Zoo and Glasses

The big news is that Faith needs glasses! She only needs them to read and may outgrow this need, but currently her eyes are working too hard to see the words so she has to wear reading glasses. If you know her parents, you know she may be in for a life of glasses.


Here are the ones she picked out.

Now for the Zoo. We went to the zoo yesterday and saw the new, well new to us, Africa Exhibit. There are lions, giraffes, hyenas, and warthogs. The new Lion exhibit lets the lions go right up the the glass so you are less than a foot away from them. So neat! I love that. A lioness was sleeping right by the glass. They have huge paws! :) Here are some pictures from the zoo.


The girls in front of an Elephant statue.



The lioness by the glass.

Less than three weeks!

Less than three weeks until Joe comes home! Wahoo! I'm so excited. Yipppppppeeeeeeeee!!!

Today was part 2 of 3 of dentist appointments for me. My dentist wasn't happy with how an inlay (inner strong filling used to replace using a crown) was looking. The margins were weak, so he decided that he'd replace it with a crown. It was originally supposed to be 2 parts. Well, during part 1, they did an xray and found that my tooth is dead and there was an abscess. I didn't even feel it. So I had to have a root canal. No biggie, it is my second one. That made my dentist experience last 3 parts instead of 2. Today was the crown preparation. Next will be the cementing of the crown. What an ordeal! At least I had the girls in VBS, so I didn't have to find somewhere to take them. Whew! Part three will be after Joe gets home. Joy! :)

The girls are having fun playing with friends, and going to VBS. Fun, Fun! We might go bowling on Thursday, and the Zoo on Friday.

VBS, homework, job hunts

This is the summer of lots of reading for my Master's, taking the girls to VBS at many churches, and looking for a job in Oregon. Busy, busy, busy. Not busy enough for the girls. They wish we were doing more. Jamie wishes I didn't have homework, but I'm almost done. Next summer I shouldn't have any classes, hopefully, unless I have to take something for the state of Oregon.

This week Jamie and Faith are going to VBS at Meridian First Baptist. It is called a Passport to the Promise Land. Faith had a ball this morning. She didn't really want to go, so that is a good sign. :)

The job hunt is still on going. I don't have my Oregon Teaching Certificate yet, so most people won't even look at me. Oh well, hopefully I'll still get a job next fall.

VBS Week!

The girls are at Church this week for VBS! Too bad there isn't better weather. I feel a little bit guilty not helping out, but then I think of all of the homework I have to do for school this week and I don't feel so guilty! I have a lot to do!

The girls will have fun, and I'll get some work done. It's a win, win situation! :)

No Three Bs today

The sky was dark, dark, dark. So we just did breakfast. We'll do books tomorrow to make up for it. The girls are playing school, so they are getting their books that way. They did "Fun Friday" today and watched movies. hehe! Apparently Faith is a "bad student" and Jamie has had to write her up. (rolleyes) KIDS!

Since we've been home...

Wow! Since we've been home I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to call anyone, except for my bff Kristi. I've done homework, two weeks worth in one week. I weeded the front flower bed which was full of weeds and grass. I then put down weed blocker and mulch. I have unpacked about 1/2 of my things. Not all of it yet. I am working from the curb, to the downstairs to the rooms upstairs. I want to have company over eventually.

The girls and I saw "Up" today. It is a good movie. We'll have to buy it when it comes out on DVD. The girls loved it, especially the talking dogs. They thought that was hilarious.

We started the three Bs today: Breakfast, Biking and Books. Books includes Jamie working on her piano, and Faith and I working on reading. That way we get the exercise, reading and piano done in the morning before we get on with our summer relaxing. :)

Home sweet home!

We are home! It is so good to be home. :) I had to get re-acclimated to my house. Now we're unpacking and getting settled. The girls are playing with all of their toys like Christmas morning. Too cute!

It felt good to sleep in my room last night, but a little lonely. We're almost in the 40s for how many days until Joe gets home. In the mean time, I have a lot of homework, housework, reading to do with Faith, and yard work to keep me busy, busy, busy until Joe gets home. :)

I made it, but some of my stuff didn't

I made it out of Phoenix! We are currently in Vegas. Not a long drive today. Tomorrow will be longer. Then we stop in Twin Falls, Idaho. Joe is worried that I will get too tired to make it all the way to Boise. Fine by me. It was really hard to stay awake just driving from Phoenix to Vegas.

I made it! But some of my stuff didn't. After living a year in Phoenix, inspite of losing my doggie and her huge crate, some of my stuff had to stay in Phoenix! YIKES! I left behind about 8 bankers boxes and a few other odds and ends. That will easily fit in the van when we come back at Thanksgiving to get it. I was so determined to get it all in there. But darnit... I would need a conversion van to get it all home.

I'm so excited to see all of my friends in Boise. I miss them dearly!

Stressed out!

There is a list of things I need to do this weekend, and not enough time! I need to finish packing my things, into the van. The key is into the van. I'm not sure how our things got so out of hand. But I have too many things now! I'm not sure it will all fit! We did come down here with a dog and a huge crate. But it seems that we have more stuff.

I also have a lot of homework to do, and haven't had a chance to work on it all. OI! When am I going to have time to do all of that? Plus spend time with family before I leave? HELP!!!!!

Family!

This was a great weekend with family. My sister and her baby Sarah are here. My Grandma was here. My youngest brother Justin graduated from Arizona State University. And we had the girls' and Gavin's picture taken yesterday. Whew! What a great weekend. And I managed to get all of my homework done too. :) Enjoy the pictures.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all have a great Mother's Day! Here are some flowers for all of the wonderful Mother's I love.

Finished my class!

Wahoo! I just finished my class. I turned in my last assignment, and will now be on pins and needles until I find out my grade. I hope to keep up my straight A record. We'll see! My next class starts the day after Mother's day. I hope it is as interesting as it sounds. :)

Scrapbooking retreat

I am at a scrapbooking retreat this weekend. I finished all of my pictures that I brought, and am now working on my cross stitch. I'm no where near caught up, but the girls' albums are in Idaho. I don't want to start on new stuff until I am with their albums. I don't want to miss days. Plus all of my stuff is up there.

I did however manage to get a nieces and nephew album started. I have all of these pictures of the nieces and nephew, and thought that instead of scrapping them in the girls' albums, I would start an album for just their cousins. I made one for my mom too that included all of the grandchildren. All of the pictures I had anyway. Since we've been down here for a year, almost, I have had a lot of pictures of the grandkids. :)

Well, back to my cross stitch! :)

Last Piano lesson

Today is Jamie's last piano lesson down here in Phoenix. Next month we are moving, so I didn't sign her up for piano lessons. I figured we'd be busy with moving back to Idaho, and the end of school. So we'll resume piano lessons as soon as we get to Hillsboro.

Jamie is sad that she's done with this teacher. She has loved working with her. She's a very nice teacher and has a gentle way of getting Jamie to learn more without making her upset. I hope that we can find a teacher like that in Hillsboro.

Meanwhile, she'll practice the few songs they skipped in her book. I might practice along with her so that she knows she playing the song right. And I could use the practice too. :)

My Cross stitch

When I'm too tired in the evening to do my homework for school, I sit and do cross stitch. :) Here are my results. My sister's mother in law asked about what I'm doing, so here you go! :)



My progress



What it will look like when I'm done. :)

I think I'm going to like it there!

I have been tracking the weather in Portland and I think I'm going to like it there. I am not a big fan of sun, it is too hot. And I like temps in the 50s and 60s. That is normal temps for them. :)

I'm hoping to get a job there in the fall and work with kids and their reading. :) And I want to live by Joe's work, and I would like to work in the same school as the girls. That would be awesome. In my perfect world. :)

2 more weeks, and 4 more weeks

I have 2 more weeks of the current class I'm taking. I have a ton of work to do for it. And yesterday I totally didn't feel like doing it. OI!

We have 4 more weeks of school here. The last 2 weeks will be just fluff and stuff because we'll have progress reports in already, and all of our other paper work done. So that will be me packing and the kids reading. I'm mean, I'll still make them work. :)

Other than that, nothing else is going on. There really isn't time to do anything else besides pack! :) Oh, Jamie's last piano lesson is next week as well. She's bummed. She likes her teacher. We'll have to find a teacher as soon as we get to Portland.

An experience to remember!

Today Jamie and I went with a friend of mine and her two daughters to a Nascar race. We were very close to the race, which made it two things: very hard to see what was going on, and very, very, very loud! Praise God for ear plugs. I have to say it is very surreal to be walking right next to cars whizzing by you at 200+ mph with nothing more than a chain link fence separating you and the cars. The cars looked like blurs going by us. We were almost across from Tony Stewart's pit, so that was cool.

We walked around all day looking at all the sites. It was fun, fun, fun. We spent way too much money on food and one t-shirt. I wanted a shirt that says Phoenix International Raceway since we are moving to Portland soon.

By the way, Mark Martin won and Tony Stewart came in 2nd. :)

Easter Egg Hunt in Warm Sunny Phoenix

The weather was beautiful down here today. No wind, plenty of sunshine. Beeeauuutiful!

Here are some pictures!



Jamie finding an egg.



Faith with her eggs.


Jordan looking for eggs.



Tatum looking ever so cute!

Happy Resurrection Day!

He is Risen, He is risen indeed! I asked my girls what "Easter" is all about and Faith piped up with Easter Eggs. NOT! So we talked about why we celebrate Resurrection day and why it isn't all about the easter bunny. Christ died on the cross for our sins, so that we could enter the kingdom of God without the blemish of sin. I told them about the awful things he went through before, during and after the cross. Someday, when they are ready, I hope to show them "The Passion" movie. They are not ready for all of that realization yet.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Faith's turn!

Faith was jealous that I just posted about Jamie, so I'm going to post about what an awesome, sweet, caring girl Faith is as well. Faith is so vigilant. Whenever I have dairy, she reminds me to take a dairy pill. In the evening, she reminds Papa to take his restless leg pills. She always tries to make sure everyone is comfy and happy as well. She's an all around caring girl. Ultra Sweet! :)

My sweet, sweet girl

We were watching Marley and Me tonight. It was getting towards the end of the movie,and Jamie knew I was going to cry. We watched this movie in the movie theater. So Jamie knew what was going on. She said she had to go get something and came back with some tissues for me! Wow! :) She's is such a sweetheart. I love her so much.

Moore inspirations

We are doing the video section of the "Wishing Up" Bible study by Beth Moore. Tonight we talked about how much good our tongue can do. Last week we talked about how much harm our mouth can do. One of my favorite quotes from tonight was from Proverbs 15:4, "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit." Also, "But few words bring the joy of the right word in the now moment." Proverbs 15:23 KJV "...a word spoken in due season, how good it is." Beth Moore said in closing, "God will tell us what to say, and how to say it."

So for all of those who have put their foot in their mouth, or just spoke without thinking, God can be a tool for you. Sometimes he will lead you to think about what you say before you say it, and sometimes he will provide you with the proper thing to say in the moment.

One more week done!

The girls and I are getting excited to go home. And to live with daddy again! He might be home in June now. That would be nice. We'll go straight home to Portland with him right away then. We think.

We had an uneventful week. Same old, same old. The nieces stayed over night for the weekend. That was fun. My niece, Tatum, is growing up so she isn't as much work as she was before. She's also able to play with the other girls better. It was great. Of course all this happens right before we leave. :)

Joe was "jet setting" all over Europe this weekend. He went to Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. They saw where Patton is buried, along with over 5,000 other soldiers. It was very surreal for him to see. He also saw a German Car show, as in a car show in Germany, not a car show with just German cars. Pretty cool. I got a new picture of him to put on my wallpaper too, so that is nice.

My sister is doing well with her baby. The baby needs to let her sleep longer at night. Too bad. My sister is so tired.

I hope you all have a great, great week!

A week in the life...

Life had been crazy. So I thought I'd give you a little picture into my life, along with the girls' life, as they are a huge part of my life. :)

Monday: Piano lessons for Jamie and some reading for school. Help Faith with her homework for 1-2 hours.

Tuesday: Run errands, and some reading for school. Help Faith with her homework for 1-2 hours.

Wednesday: Help Faith with homework for 1 hour, run and get fast food. Then we go to AWANA and Bible study.

Thursday: Read for school, homework with Faith for 1-2 hours.

Friday: stay after school and plan for the next week. And then relax with the girls.

Saturday: Laundry and homework

Sunday: Church and homework.

Wow! When I'm done with my Master's I'll have loads of time to scrapbook, cross stitch, read, etc. :)

Sunday Grattitudes

I haven't done grattitudes for a while. It isn't that I haven't had things to get grateful for, I just have been so busy that I haven't posted. I'm on spring break for work and school, so I have a little bit of time to post.

1. Spring Break! I'm thankful that my school is flexible on when we can do spring break to coincide with our work school schedule. I was able to do spring break for work and school this last week. It was nice to be able to relax with my husband for a week. :)

2. My husband, Joe, is here! Wahoo! I miss him so much. I am going to be very sad on Friday after he leaves.

3. My girls have enjoyed spring break as well.

4. I'm grateful for the seminar I went to this week. Lindamood Bell is a great program. I can't wait to start working on it with Faith this coming week. Then in Portland I may open a clinic for teaching this program.

5. My new meds are working. So far, so good.

Book nut!

I am a book nut. But right now I am in a season of my life that I don't have the time I would like to read my beloved books. I do read. I read about helping children learn to read. Not quite the fiction or inspirational reading that I would like. It is very helpful though. :)

The reason I wrote this, was a blog friend of mine lost her favorite Bible. :( She's having a hard time finding it, and I was thinking about how many Bibles I have. Here in Phoenix, my temporary home, I have four Bibles! YIKES! I have a NASB study Bible. That is the original Bible I came down here with. I decided that I wanted a smaller Bible, so I got a thin line NASB in brown and pink. Too cute! Then I heard about a Chronological Bible that has a plan to read it in one year. Well, I had to have that! I don't think I'll get it done in a year, but I have been reading it as often as I can keep my eyes open before I go to bed. Well, then our church, my Bible study and Sunday school uses NIV. So off to the Bible store I go to buy another Bible. I got a fuchsia and pink very small NIV Bible. It is the cutest Bible I've seen, besides Faith's Easy Reader NIVr Bible. :) So that is how I came to have 4 Bibles in Phoenix. Crazy! I also have a 4 translation Bible at home. I miss it, but didn't want to pack it up and bring it down here.

As for books, I have bought my fair share of them as well while I've been here. And I've been able to read a little more than half of them. Not too bad. :)

Tell me about your books and Bibles. :)

Lessons I've learned

I've learned a couple of profound lessons in the last few weeks that I wanted to share with my friends. :)

"Low" self-esteem can be too much focus on yourself. Always thinking that someone else is talking about you, thinking other think you are ugly, or that everything you do isn't good enough, is self focus. God does not want us to focus on ourselves, good or bad. He wants us to focus on Him and how we can show Him though ourselves. Wow! This was a shock to me, since I've had a low self esteem. I thought that when I walked past someone, and they were talking, that they were talking about me. Beth Moore says that even if they are talking about you, so what! As long as you handle yourself with a dignity that reflects Jesus, that is all that matters. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Next, I heard a great quote today in class. We were talking about the pitfalls in life and how we can be going along just fine and all of a sudden we've fallen into a pit. A quote from James McDonald was that is isn't how many times we fall, but how long we stay there. Whoa, back the car up! I thought that as a maturing Christian I wasn't supposed to fall anymore. I was supposed to constantly stay on the path. I felt bad because I'd fallen. The fact is, that we fall no matter what we do. We can't help it. We are in our earthy bodies, with earthy desires, on earth!

With these two tidbits of wisdom, I think I will be able to survive the adventures we have ahead.

A tranformation

My sister has been transformed. She was a woman, who hadn't gone through the rite of passage into motherhood. Now she's there! It is so sweet to hear her talk about her little baby. I called my mom yesterday and I just listened to her singing to her little baby, and loving her. She may not even know that I was listening to her. Dan and her are awesome parents! And I know they are going to be the best parents for Sarah.

It is hard to believe that my girls were that little once. I wish I had my baby books here.

Sunday Grattitudes

I haven't done Sunday Grattitudes for a while. I've been worn out! Worn out, worn out. YIKES! I don't know why? I am just working, going to school raising two beautiful little girls and all as a "single" mom. If it weren't for my dad, I'm not sure how I'd be doing this. Glory be the day when Joe, the girls and I will be living together as a family again.

So now for the grattitudes.

1. My happy, healthy niece is doing awesome! And my sister is healing nicely from her c-section too. I'm grateful that she has lots of help from my mom, Dan's mom and Dan. :) I wish I could hold little Sarah. That will have to wait until May when they come for Justin's graduation.

2. I got two more As in my master's program! Yahoo! I've gotten 2 A-s, so I don't have a 4.0 anymore, but pretty dang close. I am just so excited about this. I had a hard time in school. Listening to lectures just wasn't my thing. This on-line learning rocks! :)

3. I have a loving husband who loves me more than anything. He is missing us like crazy. Too bad I couldn't send one of the girls back with him. hehe! But we're all in school and have to stay here.

4. Jamie and Faith are very happy and love each other very much. They play so well together. It sure makes doing my homework that much easier. I'm also happy that they love each other so very much.

I have to get back to my homework. I have to read, read, read. :) Thanks for reading!

My niece is here!

And she's super cute. I just wish I could go see her. :) Here are some pictures.

New post on my teacher website

I just posted on my teacher website about the beautiful children that I am honored to teach. Check it out! http://christianspedteacher.blogspot.com/

Wild and crazy girls weekend!

Well, we had a long weekend this weekend, no school tomorrow! :) I have had the last two weeks of from school and classes start up again this week. So I don't have any pressing homework to do. So the girls and I have had a "wild and crazy weekend." hehe! We have been watching family and kid movies galore! We've watched "Space Chimps," "Snow Buddies," "Madagascar 2," and "Open Season 2." We also have a couple Air Bud movies to watch. We went to the mall today and bought Easter dresses.



Faith's Easter outfit, I let her get a tunic and stretch pants.



Jamie's Easter dress.

Tonight Jordan stayed overnight and we're having pancakes in the morning. :) Fun, Fun, Fun! :)

Big spending day!

Holy Cow! I didn't set out to spend all of my upcoming pay check today, but I did! YIKES! Sorry hunny! I called and ordered three text books this morning that didn't get ordered via a website last week. (I hope I get those before my class starts this weekend.) Then I hit Target to get a binder for my upcoming class. They had swim suits! My swim suit died, so I got two new suits. I'll try them on, and see if they both look good. That and some other things from Target made for a nice bill! At least the suits weren't expensive. Next I took the girls to Olive Garden for dinner and we went back to Target to get them some suits. Jamie out grew hers and Faith's fell apart. I think Faith could still wear the same suit she wore when she was 2! She's so skinny. When I got home, I realized I hadn't made hotel reservations for my conference in March. YIKES! So dang, there goes my check for this week.

I guess I'll be staying close to home and off of the online shopping for quite a while! :)

Girls weekend!

No, not the I'm going out with girls my own age weekend. My nieces are here this weekend! And my dad is way far out numbered: 5 girls to 1 guy. 6 girls if you count the dog. :) But do you know what? He loves it that way. He loves all of these little girls here. It is just too bad he has so much work to do this weekend. I on the other hand am off this weekend and next weekend from what I now call "learning school," AKA my master's degree. So we are going to play, maybe do our nails and watch cartoons. :) Hopefully dad will have time to make pancakes in the morning for breakfast.

Tonight, my dad is taking Jamie and Faith to a Father Daughter Dance. He is excited about it. :)

My sister is 37 weeks! I'm so excited! After two miscarriages this is awesome! Little Sarah should be here soon. I so wish I could be there. Her husband got a new job, so they'll be moving back to live by Langley. Gracious! A new baby, selling a house and moving. Busy, Busy, Busy!

Bad blogger! Bad blogger!

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I've been sooooooooooooo busy! My current class is done this week. So I have a lot to do. But I figured I'd let you all know that we're still here.

Joe had a coming back to the US date, June 26th. That is one day after Faith's birthday. We should be back home by then. But, where will Joe be working when he comes home? That is the question that is on my mind? I suppose we'll find one sometime before he comes home. I hope we can sell the house quickly, and can join him before school starts.

I'll post more next week when my class is done. :)

We're on the move!

Joe just accepted an offer to transfer to Hillsboro, Oregon. That is a suburb of Portland. So sometime this year, probably next winter we'll be moving. We have to sell our house, and Joe has a machine to finish building in Holland and then install in Oregon. We're not sure when all of that will be done.

What an adventure! After this time apart from Joe, I don't care where we live as long as we can all be together. :)

A broken record

I feel like I'm a broken record lately. It is all about the homework with me. I'm finishing up a class right now and it is requiring me to do a lot of homework. YIKES! I tried to do all of the reading, but even with my half time job, there is no way for me to fit is all in. Right now I'm just focusing on getting all of the assignments done. 11 more months of this and then I will have my Master's degree. It is sure a lot harder than getting my Bachelor's degree. I don't think I will work on my doctorate. Not unless we win the lottery.

This week will be busy. I'm thankful that tomorrow we have the day off. I am going to try to finish my homework tonight, and then spend some time with the girls tomorrow.

I'm so thankful for all the help I have. It is still very overwhelming to have all of this work to do, however. Please pray that I can get it all done.

Busy week

So I've been pretty busy this week and haven't had a chance to post. I did get news from Joe that he is going to be the machine "father" of the machine he's helping build in Holland. That means he will continue to help build it, and when it goes to the customer who bought it, he'll install it there. So next summer Joe will be in Portland installing the machine. We will go out there for a while and hang out with him. The bulk of our summer will be spent in Idaho enjoying our house, the girls and I that is. We are going to hang at the water park, and declutter my house. At least Joe will be in the country and able to visit us often.

As for my week, I've had a lot of meetings this week. I've also been testing some students at school. I love testing kids and see how they do with the assessments. Things are work are going much better now. I'm enjoying my job again. My heart doesn't race as I drive to work anymore. Praise God for that!

I started a Bible study at Church this week. It is on Esther by Beth Moore. I already know I won't have time for the homework. I'm basically doing this study to gleam what I can during class and make some new friends. I think I need to get out of the house and make some friends. :)

Sunday Grattitudes

I have a lot of stress in my life. So focusing once a week on what I'm thankful for is sure a good thing!

1. I'm thankful that I am here in Phoenix getting help from my parents. Although I really want to be back home in Boise, I'm thankful for all the help with the girls.

2. I'm thankful for a new roommate at school who is starting to be a good friend. We went to see "Chicago" yesterday. It was a good musical.

3. I'm thankful for good books. I bought some Francine Rivers books. I'm reading "Redeeming Love" right now. It is a good book.

4. I'm thankful that Joe has a good job. Although it isn't good for us to be apart, at least he's able to provide for his family. We'll be together soon. We miss him so much!

5. I'm thankful for my healthy, happy girls. They get along so well together. They could keep each other company and play together well all weekend.

6. I'm thankful that this is the year I graduate from College with my Master's degree. I forget what it was like to not have homework!

7. I'm thankful that my sister's baby is happily still growing in her tummy.

I hope all of you have a great week! I hope to hear what you all have planned. :)

Julie: let me know when you have time to go out for a drink! :)

Who had the most fun?

My brother Brandon, my dad and my nephew Gavin spend all day on Friday setting up these train sets. It was unbelievable. They used a 10 foot table, and a 5 foot table. These are the tables we used to sit 18 people on Christmas day for dinner. The trains are Thomas trains.

I think my dad had the most fun! With my nephew in a close second. :) My dad kept getting calls for work and didn't want to leave his trains. It was pretty cute.



Here are the girls playing with the train on Saturday morning. They had fun with it too, but not as long as Papa, Uncle Brandon and Gavin did! :)

Lunch with a dear friend

My sil, Julie, took me out for lunch today. She's been reading my posts and responses to my sister's posts, and figured out that I'm depressed. So she offered to take me out to lunch today. :) It was nice to get away and talk with an adult. We went to Chevy's and I had fajitas and two sour apple margaritas. YUMMY!

Thanks so much Julie! I had a great time. :)

New Blog design, New music, New year

I am usually very sad to see Christmas go. December 26th is a hard day for me. I love the Christmas season and hate to see it go. This year was no exception. I got my usual Christmas-day-after let down. Joe know it and is used to it, bless his heart. But on the 27th, I snapped out of it. I was ready to help my mom tear it all down and put it away! I think in my own little mind, the quicker we get over with it, the quicker we can get on with the year and the quicker Joe, the girls and I can be back together. Crazy I know. It also means that the chaos has ended. With all of the other chaos in my life, the Christmas chaos was just about more than I could handle this year. I realize that things started to go down hill for me when the season started. So I'm hoping that with the status quo being re-established, my life will be a little less chaotic.

I have one more week to get caught up with my Master's homework. I planned too much to do for the last week of school, so we will continue with those studies. And this week will bring a lot of moving. My school roommate and I didn't get a chance to move our classroom over break. So we will be doing that after school this week.

I am looking forward to the changes that this year brings. I am really looking forward to living as a family again. I miss my best friend. He is such a huge part of our lives, and he misses us just as much. I will never take our little family for granted again. No matter what happens, as long as we are together, that is all that matters.

My resolution this year is to stay sane, and love my family as much as I possibly can. :)