Our getaway

Wow...the weeks fly by...and the minutes now that I think about it. I sat down to do a post 'quickly' while I waited for my bread to get done and had 17 minutes to do it in. Then Ariella started crying. By the time I got her all situated for nap time, I had 12 mins. Then I jumped over to facebook quick to see if a lady I knew had her baby yet. And now I have 1 min and 58...57...56...seconds. Guess I'll be finishing this post when the bread is out of the oven. ahem.

So during the past couple weeks, I have been doing everything I can think of to make my extremely long week days go a little faster. Each week we've been able to make a trip to the Walker beach so that takes up a few hours which is nice. The thing I am mostly excited about though is that we are moving!!! Yes, AGAIN!!! But this should be so much better than where we are currently for most days during the week.

(The bread turned out wonderfully, by the way...I was kinda worried since it has been forever since I've made my loaves with the Bosch, I kinda forgot how to do it!...but they are wonderful...just so you know)

So where are we moving to? To a little condo in a resort up north. It's small (820 sq ft...please don't complain about your "small" house...we have 4 children remember and this will do us just fine, almost 3 times the sz of the camper!) but here's the good part....it's fully furnished! We will have a couch to sit on, a bed to sleep on, and yes, a table to eat at!! It's real crazy now when I feed the kids, I get their plates ready, set them on the floor and tell them to come and eat! I feel like I'm calling the dogs. I just tell them we are having a picnic for every meal and they could care less where they sit. But for us, it will be nice to have a table! The price also includes all the utilites so that will be nice to not have to worry about what the cost of heating it in the winter will be, etc.

We will be 'moving' there after labor day. And I saying 'moving' because we're not really moving...just moving to work...if that makes any sense...

Anyway....onto the fun stuff.....

Last weekend Nathan and I went away for a much needed date! Some friends of ours we willing to watch the kids for us for a few days while we relaxed and did whatever! We decided to go down to the cities to find some stuff to do there. Before we left, there were only 2 things that I had booked for us...1) a twins game and 2) a brunch cruise on the mississippi. The rest of the weekend we were going to take on the fly.

We dropped the kids off at about 9:30 Friday morning and headed down to the cities. We stopped first at the Christian bookstore in Maple Grove while we waited for Don Pablos to open :) Nathan bought a book about Tim Tebow (which he says is awesome) and a Tenth Ave No CD (which we will see in concert on sept 15!). After lunch, we were off to find the James J Hill mansion in St. Paul.

Wow! Is that place huge!!! 36,000 square foot house...can you image??? It was built in the 1800s which makes it even more amazing. The detail in the woodwork was phenominal and all the nooks and crannys...wow. It was definitely worth going to tour..and it's a guided tour so you learn some more stuff about how life was lived back then and a little more details about the family. For those of you who don't know, James J Hill was the founder of the Great Northern Railroad and a bazillionaire...the richest man in the world at his time.



Some of the interesting tidbits I remember from the tour:

1) The are 427 keys for the doors in the house
2) The built in organ in the music room has 1200 pipes.
3) There was a safe behind a secret door in the formal dining room.
4) All the dust collected by the women cleaning was put down a shute and taken out by the men.
5) There are 42 rooms (largest one being 1500 sq ft alone), 13 bathrooms, & 22 fireplaces.
6) It cost just over $500,000 to build (just under $1 million with all its furnishings and land, etc)....today that would be over $16 million. (After seeing it you would think it's even more than that)

There are really so, so many things and I could go on and on...you just have to go visit for yourself. You can go over to this link http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/55/v55i06p234-249.pdf and see a pic of the outside (and read the article if you want, actually I would recommend it as I'm reading some of it now...very detailed about the house and shows the floor plan as well) It really is amazing.

After the mansion tour, we were off to the zoo! We made a swing through the Como Zoo and enjoyed looking at the animals at our own pace instead of 4 kids pulling us in 4 different directions...it was a nice change of pace :)



After that we checked into our hotel....The Westin...in downtown Mpls...just a stones throw from the Target Field, to which we headed at about 6:00.


Since this hotel used to be a bank, which they converted in 2007, the bank vault is now a wine cellar.


The weather was absolutely perfect and I don't think we could have even asked for much better! The twins lost to the Yankees horribly but it was nice to see the new stadium in person. When the game first started, there were 2 completely annoying people in front of us...in 2 different groups of people. One of them was a 9ish yr old girl who kept screaming and demanding food from her parents and they left the game before the 1st inning was even over...yes, it was that bad. The other was a drunk indian who kept yelling obsenities and who was just obnoxious...and he got kicked out of the stadium. So after that, everything was clear sailing!




At one point in the game, we looked over and to our surprise, this camera was right in our face...uh...do we wave? Why is he here? Since we haven't been to a game before, we had no idea was the "kiss cam" was until the camera man came out from behind the camera, looked at us, and said "Kiss!" Ohhhh!!! ***smoooooch*** So yes, we made it onto the jumbo screen :) Guess the camera man knows a cute couple when he sees one.

After the game, we returned to the hotel to eat a burger and fries at the hotels restaurant....completely horrible, awful food. Shoulda complained but we didn't.



On a weird note...twice I found valuable stuff in that hotel that I turned into the front lobby. One was in our room, on the desk, there was this jewelry box sitting by itself with a note to someones name that was not us, with a silver pocket watch in it....the other time was a womans wallet (with a bit of cash in it) left on one of the chairs in the lounge area. Hmmm.....

...Ok, I was going to finish our whole weekend on this post...but I'm actually getting tired and I have waaaaaay too much stuff to get done this weekend for me to be sleepy, so I'm going to stop here and hopefully finish tonight or tomorrow. The best part of the trip is coming up next so don't miss out! What we did on sat was unbelievely fun...can't wait to tell!! :)

the beach

Well, it's the weekend again...and again we are getting ready to head back up north to work. This will be a short week though as Nathan has class in the cities on Wed and we'll get to come home just after a couple days.

I'm getting more used to our 'cabin' but I'm not used to the packing and cleaning and unpacking and then packing and cleaning and unpacking and...and...and....and... Going back and forth, back and forth is a little challenging but what do ya do? I bring all the dirty clothes back with me to wash at home, and then when i'm home, I do all the shopping and meal planning and bring that back up there.

Last week I desperately needed something to do as the 14 hr day of sitting in the cabin was enough for me. I saw on the map that Walker had a city park. I had no idea what kind of park or how big it was or anything but I thought any park was better than no park, so even though it was sprinkling out, off we went exploring. Well, to my surprise, it was awesome! A huge city park with tennis, basketball, volleyball, playgrounds, and even a sandy beach!

I told the boys they could 'wade' in the water and not get wet. Well, that lasted about a whole minute and in the water they were! But, boy, was it fun!! I'm not sure if I've heard so many giggles come out of all my kids at the same time. It was super windy coming off the lake, which made for huge white-cap waves. They sat in the water and let the waves knock them over. Or they stood up and jumped over the waves as they rolled in. Because of the wind, they got cold quick outside of the water but we ended up staying there a good few hours, even had a picnic on the picnic tables!

(Sidenote about the picnic, I forgot to pack food for me (duh) so I thought I'd just go one block over from the park to the DQ and get a chicken strip basket. I pulled thru the drive thru and they say "We don't have chicken strips." Uh..... "Ok, just give me a burger." "We don't have hamburgers...we have hot dogs and grilled chicken." SERIOUSLY?!!? What Dairy Queen doesn't have hamburgers?!? So I kindly said "Thanks but I'm going somewhere else"..and drove next door to Hardees!)







Few quotes from the week:

"Mom, I almost sank but I saved the day myself."--Caedmon in the water at the beach

"Mom, I'm looking at the sun with my eyes closed." --Caedmon laying in the grass at the beach

"What are you going to make for supper in the morning."--Caedmon

And once Brayan realized that we were getting close to our actual house last week, he says very excidely "We aren't going to the house with the mouse poop, we are going to the house with three potties!!" --That just shows the tiny difference between our two places :)

Our "cabin"

Well this past week has been interesting, to say the least.....

On Monday, I was starting the morning with my usually phone calls to any place that I could find for rent to see if we could find a place. I called one lady who had 2 rentals about 30 miles south of Bemidji. She told me right away that both of them are rented but asked if I would like to leave my name and number and if something fell through, she could call me. I declined and said that if I couldn't find anything in the next couple days, I'd call her back and check the status since I didn't really want to live there anyway because they were trailer houses. Well, she called me back a few minutes later (info taken from the caller id) and said that she called the people for one of the rentals and found out that they had broken up and didn't need a place anymore, so she had one available. I said I would come look at it.

Well, long story short, it became our rental. It's a older 2 bedroom trailer house. It's actually a bitter-sweet thing. It's exactly what we've been wanting and praying for...close(r) to Nathan's work show up, it's south so it's closer to home and shaves about 35 mins off our drive time (not to mention gas money!), and it has a large, beautiful, secluded yard for the kids to play in. The few things that it doesn't or does have that we didn't exactly pray for is that it seems to have a big mouse problem (which has been really gross), it's not exactly clean or even close to, and it has no air conditioning. But it does have a (modern) one stall attached garage with 6 huge windows in it which makes it great to play in when it's raining and it gives the kids a big extra area to ride their scooters. It also has a cement patio in the back with a big picnic table that we can use...which is on the side of the house that faces the yard and the woods, giving it a super peaceful feel out there.








When we moved in on Tuesday, I vacuumed and wiped down all the floors, counters, cupboards, everything with rubbing alcohol so I could feel a little disinfected. I actually felt a lot better before going to bed that night but then was very disheartened when we woke up to find mouse droppings all over the kitchen counter, two holes in our bread bag with 4 pieces of bread eaten from, droppings all over the clean dishes in the dish rack.....yuck! Well, we learned quick to put everything, even crackers, in the fridge so it is safe from the mice :) We set out traps last night where we thought they were coming onto the counters, only to find more droppings this morning so we think they are coming in through the stove. We rigged the whole place with traps and hope to find them all full when we come back after the weekend :)

We get a kick out of the landlord too. She's an older lady, I'd guess in her early-mid 70s, but sometimes I wonder about her. For example, when I was checking out the place, she was sure to tell me about the 2 switched on top of the stove... “One is for the light by the microwave and the other is a safety switch for the oven. The oven will not lite if this is flipped.” So making sure I understood her... “Okay, so all I have to do is turn the temp dial and it should turn on”. “Yes, and if it doesn't, it's because this switch needs to go the other way.” “Okay, got it.” Well, in the evening when I was trying to see if the oven worked, after I found out that the stove didn't work, I flipped that switch, only to find out that it was the oven light! Hahaha...ok, lady...safety switch...try oven light! :)

Another thing she told me was about this water softener that was in the 2nd bedrooms closet. She says “Oh, and we still need to plug that in...” But then later when her daughter was there (who also takes care of the rentals) says “Don't worry about that softener in that closet, we need to come and get that, but whatever you do, don't plug it in or it will clog up all the pipes.” Then the older lady pipes in “Yeah, and we think it's stolen!” Uh...ok....

Then, again when she was showing me the house, she notices this device that's plugged into the wall in the living room “What the heck is that?!?” she asks. “I'm not sure...looks like some sort of serge protector or something?” “Well, I'm sure it's Dougs (guy who lived there before us), I'll hold it ransom...he still owes me $100.” And then a different time she was over she asks “What is that?? We need to get it out of there.” I told her “It really doesn't bother me, it's fine if it stays.” Then when she was over (yeah she stops by a lot for various reasons) with her daughter, she goes, “You know what that is? (pointing to it) That's the thing that they use for the internet to go from DSL to whatever it is now. You know how I know??? Because I have one in my house too.” WHAT?! You just asked me for the last 3 days what it is and now you're saying you have one?? Ok..... :)

And then probably the funniest thing she said was when she was talking about how she doesn't allow animals in her rentals, cats especially (which is probably why there are so many mice!). So she says about cats... “Yeah, if you see one, and you're good with a gun, kill it.” Haha...just picture an old lady saying that...it was funny. :)

A few “incidents” already....
Not even 20 minutes after I picked up the keys and was unloading the van, I looked at my phone and saw that I had a voicemail from the landlord. I listened to it and she said that the neighbor next door had called her and said that some kids were trying to open her door and were playing in her bird bath in her lawn. Oh great! We haven't even been here a half hour and I'm already getting called about my kids! Well, it was Caedmon and Ariella who were the culprets and I think it was just that they figured that that was our place too, they were just excited to finally have some space! So after explaining that that was the neighbors and not ours, they haven't gone back over there :)

And yesterday, we were outside playing when I realized that Tiernan had gone in for something and shut the door behind him (which is ironic that I think of it because he never shuts the door at home and we are constantly on him about that). Well, they have those knobs where you can turn them from the inside but they are locked on the outside. And yes, my keys were inside. 2nd day, we were locked out. Thankfully I had my phone so I didn't feel completely helpless but when I called my landlord to come less us in, she wasn't home. Maybe she just didn't hear the phone? Since she only lives 2 doors down, the kids and I walked over and yes, she was gone. Hmmm....it wouldn't matter if Nathan got home because he didn't have a key anyway. What to do, what to do....I know! The windows were open last night...lets try them! No luck...front door locked, all the windows have screens on them and I coudln't get the screens out because of those black tabs were on the inside and I couldn't pop them out. Finally on one of the windows I noticed that the black tabs were on the outside, someone had put it in backwards! Yes! I whipped the screen off, only to remember I had locked the window in the morning after we closed it. Bummer!! After about another hour and lots of “I have to go potty”, I noticed that the window next to the window with the tabs outside that the frame on the screen was bent so I was able to get my finger in there and pop the screen out. Then I slowly tried the window, praying that it wasn't locked. And it wasn't! I slid it open a little and called for Tiernan. I lifted Tiernan up and her went thru and opened the front door. (Remember last time we did that in the camper?) I'm glad the neighbors next door had left, not sure what they would have thought about that!

So we are on the drive home, peace and cleanliness for 3 days, 4 nights...can't wait! I've never been so ready to take a shower! Yes there is a shower there but once you see my picture of it, you'll see why I just wait to get home...plus with no a/c we get all sweaty anyway.

I guess I'm starting to think of it as our own little cabin...we are there 4 days a week, and only 3 nights, we have to plan meals, put away our food so the animals/rodents don't get it, we go to sleep with the fan on full blast right next to us, it's up north in the middle of nowhere, it's by a lake (not on though), we live next door to some indians, we have no washer or dryer, there's poison ivy everywhere (which Brayan is covered in and Caedmon also has his fair share)...but the best part, we are all living under one roof. :)

Funny quotes from each of the boys at this place so far:

Brayan...”Mom, why does it smell like poop everywhere?” ...good question Brayan...

Caedmon to the landlord...”We don't really like this house because there are mouses everywhere.” ...couldn't have said it better myself...I was a little nervous once he started that sentence...didn't know where that one was going!

Tiernan...”One thing that's really weird about this house, there's no kitchen table!”. Nope, there's not. The kids sit on the floor and eat off of the top of the cooler and I stand, and Nathan sits on the cooler when he gets home. We have yet to eat on the picnic table but I'm thankful for it anyway!

So what do you think this week will hold?? Well, stay tuned and find out! :)

Yay! Internet Finally!

I honestly can't remember the last time I sat down to write a blog post! Yikes! That must means it's been a little while....I know that we were in Blue Earth at that time so I will update it quickly from there.

By the way, I'm writing this in the car again (I'm not driving though...just in case you were wondering...I think that would be even worse than texting ;). It seems as though it is when I am forced to sit for an extended period of time is when I finally have time to blog.

So once we left Blue Earth, Nathan took 2-1/2 weeks off so we could be home and relax for awhile before moving again, this time up north! During those 2 weeks, we spent lots of time visiting with friends, getting caught up with some dear ones that we haven't seen for over 2 years! They have 4 children, 5 and under so with us together there is 8 children with Tiernan (6) being the oldest! It makes for a lively time but they all play so well that it really doesn't seem like that many kids most of the time.

All the kids...


The dads having fun on the scooters


We also were able to see some of Nathan's family we don't get to see very often...Sarah and her kids who we lived by in Virginia came to visit as well as his brother Jonathan and family from Texas. We got together with them a few times, at his sister's house for a meal and also at the splash pad to play. Jonathan has another foster daughter (Rita, 17..along with Alma, 16 who we met at Christmas) that is living with that we met for the first time during this visit as well so that was fun.

Rita with Ariella


Spending time at the park with Nathan's parents, his sister Amanda and family, his sister Sarah and family visiting from VA, his sister Maria & kids, and his brother Jonathan and family visiting from TX.




Nathan also spent a lot of time in our yard picking rock. Hours and hours and hours he raked, dug, picked up, and moved the rocks in our yard so when we seed, the grass will have a better chance of growing well. Although right now we've just let the weeds grow in the area that we didn't lay sod, and it actually looks kinda nice! They are thick enough that it almost looks like grass and when Nathan mows it, you can hardly tell the difference.

We spent some time at a "beach" on the 4th. It was this tiny little public access that had a ledge where you could put a chair and then a drop off to the rocks which led in to the water. Yeah, it wasn't exactly my idea...it was Nathan's. He bet me no one else would be there...and there actually was, so now that I think about it, he owes me a 30 min back rub...





So, after all that fun stuff was over, it was time to go back to work. That meant moving up to Bemidji!

He started this job, a line going from Bemidji to Grand Rapids, last Monday and it seems to be going alright for him...the only tiny problem is that we can't find a place to live!! This is my 8th or 9th time trying to find housing last minute but never had I had this much problem finding a rental, ever. Usually it might take a day or two of making a million and half phone calls but eventually we find a place. This is different. We have found nothing...zilch...nadda. I have been searching online, calling resorts, realtors, landlords, random people, banks, co-workers of in-laws brothers, you name it and everything is either 1) already rented, 2) too far in the wrong direction, 3) too expensive, or 4) requiring a long-term lease.

There was one place that we thought would be a good fit. It was in decent shape (horrible construction, but livable) that was a 1000 sq ft, 2 bed apt in a tri-plex that was made out of a pole shed....yes, fancy, I know. It was only 10 mins from Nathan's show-up for work, in the country, had great neighbors, and (relatively) inexpensive. I talked with the owner and everything seemed to be a go. He told me to fill out an app and we could move in the next day. Well, it was after I turned in the app that I didn't hear from him so I had to call him...not a good sign. “yeah, you have 4 kids?....Well, in my opinion it is not appropriate to have 4 children in a 2 bedroom.” UM, EXCUSE ME?!?! It's 1000 sq ft! Do you know how big our camper was?? Like 300 sq ft...I think we can handle 1000. Why don't you let US decide what's “appropriate” for our family?? I told the guy that we have a 3500 sq ft house back home and our boys still share a room, that's just how we live! So whatever, he wouldn't rent to us. So we were back to square one.

There is a slight possiblity of a town home in the city of Bemidji that would work out but again, I'm waiting for the owner to get back to the management to get back to me about when we could get in, etc. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm really hoping that it will work out because it's in a nice location, fairly reasonably priced and it's the only thing that we have on the table that the moment. I called a place yesterday that I spoke with the afternoon before who had a cabin south of town. We decided we would tell the guy we'd take it without even looking at it bc it had what we were looking for but once I called him, it had already been rented. So anyway, that has been and is our struggle with this move.

So where are we staying in the meantime?? At my cousins house of course! :) My cousin, Gina, and her family live in Bemidji and have been sooo kind and generous to offer us their son's bedroom to stay in while we look for a place to live! I seriously don't know what I would do if I had to do all this searching and being so stressed with finding a place if we were in a hotel...I would probably pull out all my hair. So it has worked out so nice. Nathan and I get the double bed and the kids all surround us on the floor. Gina does daycare during the day, which makes things even more fun :) The kids wake up in the morning, we eat breakfast and outside they go! She has 2 kids of her own...8 yr old Braden and 5 yr old Ava...and then anywhere from 3 to 6 daycare kids. We buy all our own groceries and Gina and I just take turns in the kitchen making meals for our respective children and families. It has worked out just great! And for some evenings we've had places to go....grocery store, resorts to try to find housing, etc, so it gives them time to themselves and then we go home on the weekends so they have some space as well.

And as of this week, Nathan said they are working 50 hours in 4 days, 12-13-13-12, so if we still don't have a place by the weekend, we'd at least be able to get out of their hair on Thursday night. :) The kids are really enjoying themselves and Gina and I enjoy the adult conversation we get during the day which neither of us usually have!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention too that our house is for sale!! Yep, that's right...as of last monday our house is officially on the market. We love our house but Nathan wants to be completely debt free and once we are, we will be able to move back and start our farm. We can't exactly start it with being on the road and he needs a job to pay for a house, so until it sells we are kinda stuck where we're at. So let me know if anyone knows of anyone who wants a beautiful, custom home on 5.1 acres in the country just 10 minutes from St. Cloud!




Being together as a family is the most important thing to us right now and we are obviously sacrificing a lot for that to happen but to us, it is totally worth it. I have a husband, my husband has a wife, and my kids have a dadddy. Nothing can beat that. I was given this quote my a friend of mine and I absolutely love it....

“Parents often forsake their children (or their spouse) for jobs, ministries, sports and pleasures, all of which pass very quickly. Men need to feel like what they do for a living is important. However, the reality is that many men soon realize that what they did for their company can, and will be, replaced shortly after they leave...We can all be replaced in the workforce, but NEVER replaced in the home. Whatever we may accomplish in our jobs is nothing compared to what we can accomplish in our homes. I understand we must work to live, but we do not have to live to work. I pray we will work for what will remain after we leave this life.” Jeffery A. Klick from the book called Generational Impact.

another ride & pics

Well, it's about that time again....to write another post in the car! :)

We are heading home (again) for the weekend since Nathan doesn't have to work Sat or Sun. I've been putting off getting groceries for the last few days since we thought we'd be leaving last night for good, but after him not working much this week due to rain and then wind yesterday, he needed to work today and tomorrow (so he thought). So I finally went to the grocery store to get a few things for meals and Nathan's lunch. It was about 4:00pm when he calls me and says “So you have the car packed?” I'm like “Uh, I'm in the grocery store and have a bunch of groceries in my cart!” He says “I know, I just found out. The job got done today and we can go home for good.” Yay!! So I tell the kids we have to hurry, buy the groceries, go back to the house, make supper, pack the whole house, cause we're going home! Once I had supper started, I went into our bedroom and started taking the sheets off the air mattress, getting all our clothes back in the suitcase, and I unplugged the mattress to let the air out. That's when Nathan comes in talking on the phone to someone and says “Can I come back here and work next week?” Uh...I guess so? And then he leaves. Okay...so I turn on the pump and fill the bed back up :) That's how things roll around here...never know what the day will bring!

So since he's got the weekend off anyway, we are heading home to spend two nights in an actual bed...and ours to be exact! Then the plan is that we will be back to work Mon-Thursday and then off for 2 weeks before he's transferred up to Bemidji! I'm a little hesitatant to say that we are going for sure since I know how plans can change, but for now that's what it's looking like.

So what do we bring for toys for the kids while we travel like this? Well, they each have their “backpack” which is actually a lunch bag and whatever they can fit in the bag, they can bring. (And I brought their scooters bc they fit under the seat in the van). Then when we were home last weekend, I went to a garage sale that had a whole free box, two actually, full of those McDonalds toys and little trinkets. I filled two bags full (the bags were in there too!)...maybe about 30-40 individual toys and kept them in the car. Once we got to our rental, I took them out and they kept the kids busy for days. It's so super easy to find that stuff at garage sales for free bc it's those kind of stuff that people want to get rid of. And it's awesome for me because 1) they are free, 2) if they get lost, wrecked, forgotten somewhere, it's no big deal and 3) I can throw them away or recycle them when we are done with them! I have done this for long car rides too....put some of these toys in 4 bags and give them to each of the kids during the car ride. It keeps them busy for hours and they can rotate bags if they want. Thrifty way to have some fun!

This is what can happen when you jump off the counters and the drawers have knobs on them...and yes, I stopped and took a picture before I helped him :)


Our rental house...




Tiernan havin' a grand 'ole time at the dentist


This is how/where we eat. Our landlords (friends) were kind enough to lend us their card table and 3 chairs and 2 little chairs and a left-over end table from a previous tenant! Yes, that's only 5 seats...I usually stand or sit on the rocker in the living room (which they also brought over for us!)


Tired kiddies


Ariella praying at supper time...this is her usual 'pose' during prayer :)

Our kids

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted something about the kids and what they have been up to, what they like, etc so i'm going to take some time and go through them all!

Tiernan:
6 years old
favorite color: green
Loves to pull his ankle socks as far up his legs as possible so the heel part of his sock in in the middle of his calf...drives us nuts!
Just got his first tooth pulled out at the dentist...wouldn't stop smiling the whole time at the dentist, even during the procedure. We think he was liking that goofy gas :)
still steals food whenever he can, including eating the brown sugar directly from the container, leaving the cover off and spoon in it!
Is amazingly awesome at baseball, hitting to be specific and has been since I can remember. He will consistantly hit the (foam) ball with the (thin foam) bat when Nathan pitches it over-hand to him. He gives Tiernan a dollar everytime he hits it over the roof of the garage at our rental in Blue Earth. He's made a lot of money. Nathan walked it off and figured it's close to 90 feet.
He's best at math, making equations out of everyday stuff. ex) “There's 9 pieces left. That means there will only be 3 left after we all have one because there are 6 of us.” or “I have 6 sticks because I have 3 right here and 3 over there.” He also prides himself on knowing how many things there are without counting them but knowing what “5” looks like, or however many there are.
Reading doesn't come that easy to him but he is getting very good at sounding out the words
Goes to bed as late as possible and is up before 6am, everyday, never needing a nap...
Likes to ride his bike a lot, and more recently, his razor scooter (which, I might add, was a $2 find at a garage sale, probably the best $2 I've ever spent!
Is only in size 10ish shoe, although he can still fit into a 9
We still call him Biggie
Wants 3 dogs to name them Blacky, Sniffy, and Boomer

Caedmon
Age: 4 (will be 5 in 2ish months)
Favorite color: Red
Favorite animal: cat
hes in this stage right now where he talks like a baby with an accent, that's the best way I can describe it...drives us crazy.
He holds his left hand open with his fingers spread almost constantly...that also drives me crazy.
He LOVES to color and will do so for hours
Hes obsessed with anything 'pirate'...even though we won't allow anything with the whole skull and bones thing.
He laughs uncontrollably when he's overtired
He rides his 3 wheeled scooter so proud :)
Would eat only watermelon if we let him
sleeps with his soft blue blanket that gma barb made

Brayan
Age: 3 (will be 4 in 2 months)
Favorite color: Blue
Is still our 'tough one'...likes to box
will always get out of bed a few minutes after we put him in there and ask for a drink of water
Weighs the same as Caedmon, also wears the same size pants and shoes as caedmon....yes, I have my twins without actually having twins :)
sleeps with his blue fleece blanket

Ariella
Age: 2
favorite color: pink, of course!
Loves the doll strawberry shortcake
still naps about 2 hours a day if I lay her down, otherwise she won't.
LOVES her nuk, which will be hard to get rid of.
Also LOVES her pink fleece blanket we got from our friend & farmer in Seward NE as a going away gift.
She talks in full sentences and knows more words than we ever thought she would at this age, it makes us laugh everyday
She loves shoes and clothes and definitely has an opinion about what she wears. Once her outfit is on for the day, she needs to go show someone, either a brother or daddy.
Her hair is long past her shoulders in the back which has beautful natural curls. Her bangs are growing out, which I usually keep in 2 ponytails.
She eats a ton, ex) she ate 2-1/2 hamburgers, bun and all, when my aunt and uncle were over visiting. My aunt couldn't believe it!
She has been deathly afraid of ladybugs, even waking with nightmares that they are biting her. Being around her brothers that keep spiders in containers in the house has gotten her a little more used to insects but she still dislikes them, esp flies and ones that can land on her.
Even though she can say their names, she calls Tiernan “Nah-nah”, Caedmon “Yah-Yah”, and Brayan “Sha-bah”. She also calls a banana “bah-boo”.
Has been potty training herself...which I love! :)

Wrote this in the car :)

What better time to write a blog post than when I'm sitting in the van on our 3 hour trip back to our rental! I figured I'd type it out in my word processing program and then copy and paste it on my blog when we have an internet connection tomorrow at the library! This way I have no (almost no...) interruptions and lots of time :) I even brought my adapter thing to plug into the lighter in the van when my battery gets low.

So we traveled back home this weekend since Nathan had a nice 3-1/2 day weekend! It was so nice to sleep in our own bed and not run out of dishes after one meal. Nathan hasn't been home in a month, and he was definitely glad to be back....although he wasn't too excited to see the sod in the yard :( As one friend put it, it looks like it has cancer. We are hoping that after the rains we had this weekend and Nathan pampering it while we were home that at least some of the brown patches aren't completely dead and that some of it will come back to life!

Friday we hosted lunch at our place, even though I didn't make any of the food. My parents, my brother and his family and my sister and her kids came over to visit! Leah is up for her annual summer trip to MN and it worked out perfect to see her since Nathan had this weekend off! All the grandkids were together once again, the last time was at Christmas, so a group picture was definitely in order.


Siblings: Dawn, Leah, & Darren


Top Row: Parker (5), William (6), Ariella (2), Abi (9), Brayan (3), Faith (7)
Bottom Row: Tiernan (6), Caedmon (4), Eliana (4)

After they left we got ready and headed to the park for a graduation party for some friends of ours oldest daughter. It was nice seeing friends we haven't seen in years and the weather cooperated wonderfully!

Saturday I spent the morning garage saleing! It just so happened to be the city wide sales this past weekend and since I haven't seen a garage sale since moving down south with Nathan, I was in dire need of one!! I found some sweet deals, including a lawn mower! Nathan told me in the morning before I left that once I got home he was going to go into town and buy a push mower since we don't have one. And can ya guess what happened? At the very first sale I stopped at, they had exactly what we were looking for! It was a craftsman 22” self-propelled bagger! It was fairly new and in great shape and we got it for a fraction of what a new one would be! How awesome!

Today is Father's day and we spent it running errands, visiting at Nathan's parents a bit and packing to head back down south....and driving ;) But the nice thing is that we will be back before the weeks over! The job that he is on is finishing up ahead of schedule and there are just cleaning up the job sites this week! Then what? Well, isn't that just the million dollar question!!

I wish I knew! It'd be a lot easier to plan...but I don't know so I try to remain as flexible as I can be and supportive of where my husband feels like he is being led.

Some of you may ask, why would you build your house if you weren't positive you'd be staying in the area for good? Well, first of all, does anyone ever know if they'll be where they're at for an extended period of time? Anyone who is employed can get laid off, fired, transferred, whatever at any time. But here is 'why' behind our decision...

Accepting the apprenticeship position gave us a 'ticket' back to Minnesota from Virginia and since he's chosen MN to be his jurisdiction, then all the work throughout the apprenticeship has to be within the state of MN or he doesn't have to accept the job. Given that, we knew that we'd at least be within the state. Nathan has had plan and long-term goal for years and that is to build houses on his land and the land his dad owns. He wanted to get going on that plan and building the first house would be the big first step! (Well, actually the 'first' steps were to get it all platted, surveyed, build the road, etc but that was already accomplished a few years ago :). By building the first house, he is starting to see his vision become a reality!

Another reason why we wanted to build was because we wanted a place to call home, a place to come home to on holidays and vacations if we were on the road, and one location for all our belongings! Granted we had very very little 'stuff' left, we did have a truck load in Nathan's parents garage and attic (although even though everyone was blaming us for taking up their whole third stall, when we got our stuff out, it was still half full! I think other people left things here and there and convieniently blamed us :) We also had a few things at my parents too...and stuff still in our camper. So to have everything in one place is a lot easier to deal with.

Another reason why we built was because we were (and still are) hoping that he can find line work close to home so we can live at home. There is a transmission going up from St. Cloud to Fargo and for him to get on that job would be such a blessing! So we are still hoping for that. In the meantime, we needs to keep going where they send him, as he doesn't have a say in the jobs as an apprentice like he did when he was an operator.

We had a very very very hard time making the decision for him to accept work away from home bc that left 2 options...1) he lives on the road and we stay home, breaking up the family which is no good for anyone or 2) we move with him, leaving behind our new house (btw we have people watching and in and out of there often so no one get any ideas :P). We have made the decision that he will never work on the road again, away from us, so where ever he goes, we go. It makes life exciting :) Guess it gives me more to blog about :) If he didn't accept the job to go down to where we are currently at, he would have to drop the apprenticeship and the goal of becoming a lineman would be no-longer. That would also mean that he'd have no job and we'd have no source of income. On the positive side, we'd have time to get a hobby farm going and we'd be challenged to find ways to earn money and quickly....we love us a challenge! :) But when it came to decision time, we figured since this job was only set for 5 weeks, we'd take it and figure out details later. Staying in this field at this time also allows us to continue with our financial goals of paying off our home and being able to build our next one without a mortgage. Did you know that it cost us like $8000 just to close on the loan?! That's ridiculous!! No more dealing with mortgages! :P

So which brings me back to the question of what are we going to do when this job is over? Well, there is a chance that he'll get laid off, in which case he would sign the union books and wait to get called to go out and work for a contractor anywhere in the state of MN, hopefully by home :) Or, he can get transferred to the next job with this contractor that he's currently working for, and that is to Bemidji. I have mixed feelings about both those options but I guess it's not really up to me! So a few days will tell where we'll be going or what we'll be doing...so stayed tuned! Will we be doing this forever? No. Actually, if he were offered a job close to home, even in a completely different profession, he'd probably accept it, giving us the opportunity to do what we really love...farm! Chickens, pigs, cows, rabbits, cats...can't wait!! All grass-fed and free-range, of course! We've been reading an absolutely outstanding book by Joel Salatin (remember him? The organic farmer who lives in VA who's farm we went to see on Nathan's birthday of 2010 who was interviewed in the movie “Food Inc”? Well, he's the guy...:) called “You Can Farm”....Man, is it good! Best quote yet “If you smell manure, you're smelling mismanagement” Amen! Anyway, time will tell and we'll continue to go where the Lord leads us.