tub time

Here is the pic that I tried to post last time about the kids doing their school work :)


And Ariella thought that she should play in the tub....with water in it....with her clothes on.... I remember that there is a picture of myself about her age sitting in the tub, with the water, with my pajamas on....guess what goes around comes around, huh?? :)

98 hours

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is willing to work hard to provide for his family!! This job that he is currently on has the hardest hours he's worked yet, and if you've been following my blog for quite some time, you'd know that he's had some tough hours before! This job is schedule for 6 days a week, 14 hours a day. If that wasn't enough, he said last night that he heard they were working Sunday and could be going to 7 days. That's 84 hours a week currently and 98 hours a week if he works Sundays too. That's two full time jobs and a part time one to boot! They start at 6am and get done at 8pm. He's got just enough time to get home, shower, eat, read the kids a story (the ones who are still up) and get to bed. Oh yeah...but then there is all his books, workbooks and exams to study for. Ugh..good thing it's supposed to only go until February!

Here are some pictures from recently:

At the hotel


The poles and building at Nathan's climbing school


Snugglin' with Gma Barb after bath


The moving trailer, which had tons of room left inside...and the kids helping unload it


Family picture on Saturday


The $50 garage sale couch


All doing some school work yesterday morning :)

new home again.

Sorry to keep everyone hanging!! We survived the last day at the hotel and traveled back up to my parents house for about a week. Then we moved where Nathan is working.....in....southern MN! We are just minutes from the Iowa border where he is working in a substation for the wind towers. Since it is a little over 3 hours from our 'home', we decided to get an apartment down here so Nathan could be close to work and so we could live with him while our house is being built.

So here we are, in a brand new apartment building in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment. Yes, it's only a 2 bedroom and yes, they 'broke' the rules for us, but to us....it feels like a castle!! It's AMAZING how much space we feel like we have! I can't even imagine what the house will feel like! I LOVE LOVE LOVE how much space I have in my kitchen and CANNOT get over how much room I have in my fridge! I could actually get ALL the groceries I wanted (or needed) at the store without having to think about if it would fit or not! ie) I could get the BIG container of the sour cream rather than the little tiny ones all the time! :) It's the little things that like that make me excited :)

We are on the main level, with a patio door facing no neighbors. All our other windows face the river, and the apartment across the hall is vacant. It actually is a nice set up.

Again, my parents helped us move and get settled. I'm not sure what I would do without them when it comes time to moving, they've always been such a big help. Thank you mom and dad for all your time and hard work!! Each time we move, our trailer/truck that we move in gets smaller and smaller. This time we used a 5x8 enclosed trailer and we had a ton of room still in it. All we brought was our bed (box spring and mattress) and then a bunch of totes...not much of anything else. We use a card table and chairs for our dining room table, ariella sleeps in a pack n play, and the boys are each on a blow up mattress we are borrowing from my parents. Works out great!

Yesterday I happened to stop by a garage sale and at the last second I saw a couch they had for sale. Long story short, I bought it, we took it apart, put it in the van and brought it home! It's super comfy, matches well, and has 2 recliners on the end! (although we still need to get one to work...stuck or something) but for $50 it does the job well. Then I picked up a lamp at Walmart and a little tv stand at family dollar and our place is furnished! :)

No pictures this post, I need to load them off my camera. Just wanted to update everyone saying that we are here and that yes, we did survive the flooding down here. Although my parking spot right outside our patio was taken when I got home from the store by a sandbag and plastic wall...but thankfully it was never actually needed. The water started going back down today.

Anyway, all for now!

one. more. day.

It's finally Friday and we have one...more...day...here at the hotel. Whew. At least we've been getting a good nights sleep since we feel like we are sleeping at home. If you remember that we stayed at a Fairfield Inn hotel on our way out to VA last winter and slept so well that we bought the mattress?? So we have a marriott mattress in our camper, which is the same mattress that we are sleeping on now...so no waking up all sore and tired from the hotel beds!! sweet deal!

What we've also enjoyed here is that we are right next to the airport, which makes for some pretty sweet looking take-offs and landings. Watching planes has got to be one of my favorite things to do...always has been...just don't make me get on the plane :)

Nathan passed climbing school yesterday which was a huge relief to him so he didn't have to think about it anymore. The only test he has left is passing pole-top rescue which didn't seem like a big deal to him. 3 out of the 10 guys in his class are gone due to 2 dropping out and 1 getting injured the first day of class. So today is the big day that we find out where he will be working next week!!

Will it be in southern mn? Will it be around the cities? Will it be around our 'home turf'? My Grandpa thinks he'll get sent up to Baudette since there are some lineman working up there, but Nathan says he'll quit if he's sent there...hehe...just kidding, he probably wouldn't quit...but Baudette isn't exactly where we want to live. I would just like to keep Baudette in my mind as a nice little town we'd drive through on our way to Grandmas and Grandpas :)

So for now I sit and wait for the call or text from Nathan telling me of our next location....

With all that said, we still are pretty sure we are going to be building our house this fall regardless of where the job is. This will give us a central locale for the family and by the time the house is finished Nathan will probably be on a different job anyway. Plus it gets us started on our dream of getting the development going. So needless to say, we are very excited and can't wait to finally be in a house that is ours!!




So sweet...when they are sleeping :)

Ariella's First Year

UPDATE: Realized that if you click on this link you'll be able to view the book a lot better :) Then you can give me your feedback...

Please check out Ariella's book I made using Mixbook.com!! Tell me of any errors you might find before I print it! Thanks!! (I noticed some of the page is cut off of the slide show...but you get the point :)

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

room #2

Well, I thought I would say that yesterday actually went really well. And, it did, for the most part. But there was this tiny thing that happened during the afternoon...

The two youngest were playing in the bathroom. More specifically, the toilet.

I didn't actually see it happen, but I'm pretty postitive, based on previous experience, that when Caedmon went potty later and said that "the toilet has a lot of water in it", it had something to do with Brayan and Ariella playing in there eariler.

I tried flushing and sure enough...clogged. I called the front desk who brought me a plunger. Plunged it...nothing. Nathan plunged it...nothing. Still clogged. We told the front desk who kindly gave us another room. I asked for one on the first floor (we were on the 3rd) and there was one open right across from the dining room! perfect!

What wasn't fun as moving all our stuff! Toys, food, refrigerator, clothes, papers, computers...everything needed to go. We loaded up the wheely-thing they have to help move your stuff and made a couple trips downstairs. After we got settled in here, there was really no time to do anything else....we went to bed.

But before all this happened, I took the kids outside while housekeeping cleaned our room. Holy smokes did that make a big difference! I don't know why I didn't have them clean it the first two days, I thought since we were staying there we didn't need it. But she vacuumed, clean the bathroom, etc and pyschologically it helped so much to have a freshly cleaned room! So we stayed outside and walked down the street to look at some worm things the kids found. It kept them busy anyway! What will today bring?? I'm kind of afraid to ask....



Checking out the worms


Where's Ariella going?


Too bright out!

second day.

Well, thankfully I can actually say that I think yesterday went better than the first. The initial excitement of the hotel stay died down a little bit and the kids weren't as wild. I even ventured downstairs with all of them to get breakfast in the morning and they did extremely well...just sitting at the table patiently for me to bring them all their stuff. I even had a guy comment this morning on how well behaved my kids were...haha, if he only knew! :)

I really wish we could open the window in here more than an inch though as it's starting to get really stuffy in the room. I've had a headache both yesterday and today and I think it's because the air blowing into the room from their ac unit smells like really stinky feet. Not exactly a smell that you want blowing in your room for hours on end...or days on end for that matter!!

Meals have been going really well though. With a little preparation before we left, I figured out 2 meals a day (since breakfast would be provided by the hotel). The first night I made tacos. I just browned the hamburger before with taco seasoning and then put them together when we were ready to eat them, complete with soft shells, hard shells, sour cream, olives, refried beans and cheese. (we have a fridge in our room). Yesterday we had chicken, rice, celery & carrots in chicken stock in the crock pot. That was yummy! Just throw in the stuff in the morning and ready for supper! Tonight I am making pork roast in the crock, along with potatoes and carrots. A few more meals I have planned are quesadillas, chili in the crock, and sandwiches. Not too bad for staying in a hotel if I do say so myself! :)

Trying to 'wind-down' before bed with a little movie...



They ate their lunch in the 'fort'.



And as far as getting those darn knots figured out...Nathan figured them out last night. He called me on the way home yesterday and says "I have bad news."...then continues to explain that he has to tie 4 more eye splices and then has to tie back slices. I'm like, okay...we are staying in a hotel, our camper is sitting at a friends house, we don't know where we will be moving and we are waiting to build our house....please don't start a sentence with "I have bad news" if it only has to do with knot tying!! But he came home, got right at it, and figured them out with no trouble. Whew! I wasn't too excited about staying up late again staring at a piece of yellow slippery rope!

Well, I think we are going outside for a walk, although I did just realize that Nathan has the van, which means he also has the stroller....guess we won't be going too far!

first day.

Well the first full day at the hotel is over...but I'm not sure if I will be able to handle 6 more!!! I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking and I probably should have taken my Dad's sugestion to stay at their house while Nathan's at climbing school. But, I'm here with the kids and now we'll just have to make due!

Nathan came home last night a little exhausted with all the material that he received. We spent the whole night, until almost 1am, trying to tie eye splices. That is a kind of knot where you have a 3 strand braided rope which you loop around and weave it back into itself...if that makes any sense. Anyway, we did that until late and then we were up at 6am tying more, trying to get it down-pat.

Supposedly Nathan has to climb a pole 65 ft in the air, then tie the knot while he's up there and can only come down once the knot is tied....so we practiced, a lot. The only problem was that sometimes we tied it just perfectly and other times we messed up along the way but weren't sure what we did...so it got kind of frustrating. Nathan was second-guessing his decision to join the apprenticeship, to which I just smiled because in the past he has doubted himself in the first few days of something new (which almost all of us do!) but then he ends up being real good at it. For example, when we first started on the road he was driving semi. He had never driven semi or shifted a big truck like that. He didn't think he'd be able to do it. Well, guess what? After a few days, weeks, he could drive and shift that thing in his sleep. Same goes for being an operator. Once he started operating the "big stuff" (cranes, dozers, etc) he had second guesses...now, he can operate pretty much anything and the lineman who he's operated for lately have said he's been the best operator that has work for them before. So there ya go. He'll do fine...it might just take a few days to get the confidence level up.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel.....here are a few pics of the day yesterday...

two 3 yr olds

So this is a couple weeks late (big surprise, right??) but I wanted to post a pic of my (then) 2 three year olds!


And last year, this was my then two 2 yr olds....they grow fast!



And I thought I had a pic of when they were 1, but I guess not! :)

For now we are staying in a hotel in IA while Nathan is at climbing school. Today is his first day so we'll see how it goes!....and we'll see how we held up in a hotel room all day. Hopefully it'll be good seeing how I have 6 more days of it!! yikes!! More to come soon since I have nothing else to do this week! :)

birthday party

Since hurricane Earl put a damper on going to the ocean on Saturday, we decided to make a trip to the DC zoo for Caedmon's birthday! It was PERFECT weather...upper 70s, sunny, and a cool breeze! Naomi met us out there and we checked out the animals....well, that is as many animals as we could see. A lot of them weren't outside or they were huddled in the corner in the shade or something...it could have been a little better in that way, but I think the kids still had fun!

Here are some pics from our day....










We are now at a hotel in Crawfordsville, IN after a LOOOOOONG day in the car. (And you know it's been a long day when you have to ask the lady at the front desk of the hotel which time zone we're in. And to make things even more weird, her answer started with "I think we are in....". Excuse me?? You THINK??) We drove for about 11 hours, 12 hours time. We stopped once, after 5 hours and 45 mins. Pretty good seeing how we are driving in 2 vehicles and have a gazillion kids under 6. But like I have said before, our kids are THE GREATEST car riders, not hardly saying a PEEP the whole time!! I had to keep checking to make sure Caedmon was still in my van b/c he was so quiet!! NO complaiing from them the entire time, it was grand!

Anyway, I'm off for now...time to LIE DOWN and get off my backside...i've sat on it enough today!! :)

mn or bust.

Sorry for keeping you all guessing.....but YES we ARE moving....and MINNESOTA is the state!!

We don't know where yet, we will find that out in about a week and a half. So here's the scoop...

Nathan will be changing careers so-to-speak and going from being an operator for the lineman to being one of the lineman! He got called to join the lineman apprenticeship program (he was interviewed for it etc about 2-1/2 yrs ago) in MN. Which means that for the next 3-1/2 to 4 years he will be working only in the state of MN, doing work for different contractors so he can get all his required hours in.

What this ALSO means is that we are going to BUILD OUR HOUSE!!!! YAY!!! Even if we move around in the warmer months in our camper if Nathan's on work that is not within driving distance, at least we will have a warm house in the winter and a central locale for everything.

We are WAY excited!

There are MANY many many unknowns...for example, we don't know where, for how long, for who Nathan will be working for...whether or not we will be able to travel with him (which we will make top priority)...heck, we don't even know if Nathan will LIKE the apprenticeship....but I guess it's better to find out that he doesn't than to wonder for the rest of his life 'what if?'

We plan to leave on Sunday, making the trip back to MN. We will be there a few days and then travel to IA for training for a week....yes, me and the kids will get to stay in a hotel for 7 straight days...yippee :)...and then we will travel back to MN to where ever his job is located by (hopefully central MN!) and hope to find a trailer court or somewhere to park our RV until it's too cold to live in it (or until our house is done...whichever comes first! :)

Which, speaking of weather, did you know that today it's 95 degrees out here and in the 10 day forecast in MN TWICE it said a HIGH of 64?!?!?! Are you kidding me?! That's 30 degrees difference! Looks like we will say 'goodbye summer, hello winter' and skip fall all together!

So with that said, we will be busy packing and getting the camper ready (but NOTHING compared to getting the whole HOUSE ready! Nice!) so I will try to update soon (as I do still have lots to blog about from this past week) Time just slips away....

Minnesota or bust!