We just had a great visit with Mike's mom and step-dad who came down from Idaho for a long weekend.

The weather turned out to be fabulous and a much needed break from their snow and frigid temps back home.

We went on a hike before going to a Coyotes Hockey game. They were playing the LA Kings, who they beat the night before, but shamefully lost this game. It was a fun game, but they played horribly.

After church on Sunday morning, we came home and spent some time just hanging out, played some games, and visited.

Monday we headed downtown to the new Phoenix Children's Museum. It was really cool and the kids had a blast. The adults couldn't help but play too. We had a great time. We spent the evening playing cards and took a walk to the park.

Tuesday was the day that they were going to head home. The morning was spent running some last minute errands.

It was a great visit leaving many great memories.

Photos of hike

Photos of Hockey game

Photos of children's museum

Miscellaneous photos

Christmas celebrations

Christmas Eve we went to do our bread pick up and delivery from the Wildflower Bread Company to the food bank and then we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service.

After church, we came home and got in our new jammies from Nana W. and read our traditional 'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

We woke up on Christmas morning to our stockings full and many smiles. After breakfast and opening gifts from loved ones, we headed over to Mike's dad's house for celebrating with everyone there. It was great to visit with family, eat a great meal, and join together in celebration.

Photos here...

And here...

And more here...

The Gang Meets Dollar

After church today, we headed out to the stables by South Mountain and met up with Mike's friend, Kevin and his wife Gabby. We met Dollar, the horse and we all took turns riding him. The kids had a blast. He is such a beautiful horse and was really good with the kids. We got to feed him carrots and hay and we gave him a good workout. Afterwards we helped brush him and clean his hooves and brush him some more.

It was a great afternoon.


Here are several photos of the day here

Fun and relaxing Saturday

This morning we had the luxury of sleeping in. When we finally rolled out of bed at 830, we made breakfast and planned our day.

We decided to head out to the Superstitions and hike around up there. We headed up to the typical trail we take, Green Boulder, but up at the top, we diverted off the normal trail and headed up and around the north side of the mountain. It was new territory, a new trail, one that wasn't as frequently traveled and much narrower. It was fun, beautiful, and the kids did awesome. When we got to a good place to turn around, we found a rock to sit on and watch a couple climbers negotiate the face of one of the jagged rocks. We sat there quietly, listening to the hawks yelling at the climbers and then watched as they began circling defensively around in the air. We were thinking that there must've been a nest up there or something. After a while of sitting in the quiet, we headed back down. It was such an exhilarating, peaceful, and refreshing hike that left us feeling recharged.
You can view more photos of our hike here


After a very late lunch, naps, and hanging around the house until evening came, we took our dinner of homemade chicken tenders and headed out the door again. We went to a place in Mesa to see an outdoor train exhibit. It was the one that Bethany had gone to last week. It was very, very cool. The owner of this house put a lot of time and detail into making this train display interesting and captivating for all ages. They had a "Where's Waldo" type thing where they gave you a list of things to find and you checked them off as you saw them. And of course, Santa was there too and the kids all had words with him, even Mike. We spent a great deal of time there and probably could've stayed longer, if it wasn't so cold. On the way home, we drove through a neighborhood to look at lights. Beautiful homes with beautiful lights, and lots of traffic. Fun, fun.
You can view more photos of the trains here

Jingle Jog

While Niko and Mike had their fun morning on Friday, I took Matthew to the school and we did the Jingle Jog with Bethany. It was a lot of fun. We warmed up and stretched by doing some dancing-Chicken dance, YMCA, electric slide, etc...it was cute. Then they all ran a lap around the field. then we all went in and had lunch together. Matthew thought it was pretty cool to get lunch at the cafeteria with his big sister. And to top it all off, Santa was there giving out candy canes. Fun and busy morning.
View more photos and video here

Niko's EIGHT!

Friday, Niko turned eight years old!

He played hookie from school and went to breakfast with Dad. Then they went to go see the movie, Bolt. He said it was a really good movie and he wants to see it again with his brother and sister. They went to DQ for an ice cream cone afterwards. Him and Mike walked home from the theater, which Niko thought was pretty cool. On the way home, there is a sign on this vacant lot that we pass all the time and every time we pass it, Niko says he wants to get his picture taken by it. Seriously-e-v-e-r-y time we go by. So, Mike finally took his picture as they were walking by it on the way home. Oh, the sign says, "Keep Christ in Christmas"...

When they got home, Mike took him out back to shoot his new bow and arrow that he got. It has a fifteen pound draw on it and will be something that he can grow with and learn. He did good.

He spent a lot of time playing with his new knights and his star wars Lego's and Bionicles. He also can't wait to draw with his art set. He is excited about all the fun new things that everyone was so generous to give to him.

After dinner, we went to the YMCA. It has been a while since the kids had been there, so they were pretty exited to go back. Mike got in a good workout and the two older kids had a blast in the child care. Matthew and I ran to the mall real quick, hoping to go to Penney's to finish up what we didn't finish the night before. but when we got there, we realized that they didn't have a Penney's at that mall, so we looked at the puppies in the dog store and then the cool Lego's in the Lego store, then it was time to pick up everybody back at the YMCA.

We ended the night by watching the Muppet's Christmas Carol. He had a great day too.

Man, he's getting old!

Only kidding. On Thursday, the 18th, Mike celebrated his 34th birthday.

We had had a family birthday celebration for both him and Niko on Wednesday night-cake and all...Jennifer and Aidan and Luke and Carol came over to share in the celebration with everyone. Niko requested an American Flag cake-vanilla- and Mike had requested a puddling cake dessert, which I surprised him and made both. He thought i was just going to make Niko's request.

But Thursday, Mike's actual birthday, ended up being a pretty busy day. We kept Matthew home from school so we could get our running around done without having to rush back to Gilbert to pick him up.

We started by going out to Denny's so Mike could cash in on his free breakfast. Then we headed downtown to pick up our load of bread and take it over to the food bank. It was a huge delivery this week! From there we went to Ikea and did some odds and ends shopping. Matthew got to play in the kid-land while Mike and I spent some quality time looking around.

We got home in time for Matthew to take a nap and the kids to come home. then we headed out to Penney's to get Mike some pants. That ended up pretty much consuming the rest of the night.

All in all, he had a great day.

Birthday Photos/Videos

See more photos and video here

Wow, We're behind on things here, aren't we?

I'm not sure if I should just go back a write 1000 different posts, or just update on everything in one right here...Maybe we'll do a little of both

The last I wrote, Matthew was just starting up with Kindergarten. He is still having a ton of fun with that and getting onto the groove. His first morning proved to NOT set a precedence for how things were going to go. He is still learning the rules and classroom behavior, but he's having a blast and getting a feel of how things will be next year. He's made some friends.

Bethany finished up with orchestra this past week. She got a good progress report and will concentrate more on practice, practice, practice this next semester.

Niko has been doing well at school lately since they have split the classes up. He had a two back to back 'off' days last week, but those were the first ones in a loooong time. They are all excited about their two week vacation starting this Monday.

Matthew also finished up his soccer season with the neighborhood team. It has been an absolute blessing for us to have been involved in that. It is great to be able to send Bethany right out the front door with him to practice if I am running behind on dinner or whatever and meet them down there. Or to run home and get a cup of coffee on those early Saturday morning games. The convenience of it was too cool. They are hoping to do T-ball after the first of the year.
You can view more pictures and video of his last practice here

Mike and I got away for our annual anniversary weekend without the kids getaway. This year it was nothing fancy. Just headed over to the West side of town over by Lake Pleasant to a resort over there. We went on a hike on Saturday, looked around Cabella's, played some Scrabble, etc...It was nice to have a break in routine and concentrate on one another with our distractions.
You can view more photos of our weekend here

The kids were dispersed and had fun weekends of their own. Bethany stayed with some friends of ours who have two daughters. The highlights of her weekend were playing with the girls, going to a train display (which we're going to try to visit this weekend as a family) seeing the lights at the Temple in Mesa (which are pretty spectacular)...but of everything, being able to spend time with her friends was the best part of it.

Niko spent the night with Nana and Popo (Mike's Dad and step-mom) He had fun tossing the football around and 'playing' in the garden, helping clean it up. He sounded like he had a lot of fun doing that. He really likes the time he spends over there.

Matthew was up with my mom in Prescott. They ran some errands and did some baking. It was really cold and windy out so they kept warm inside mostly. On Sunday, they woke up to snow, so he went out and played in it for a while until his fingers froze.

So it was a good weekend for us all!

Sunday night it began raining here in Phoenix. It's been stormy since and cold. It's such a nice change. It doesn't last for long around here, so we welcome it and soak it all in while we've got it. The kids have a blast jumping in those things you call puddles-not just jumping in them but riding their bikes through them, tossing rocks in them...you know, fun stuff like that.

Matthew's First Day of Kindergarten

This is how Matthew's first day of Kindergarten went...
Being that he was starting the year off a few months behind the others and that he would not know the morning routine of how to get in line and listen for the bell and all...I signed in through the office and walked him out to the playground (aka-"the park") He was very excited to go find his friend, Matthew out on the playground. After showing him where to line up when the bell rings and that I would be waiting there for him, i watched him start running across the field to the playground. Then-out of absolutely nowhere-a kid twice his size, 3rd-4th grade, came flying out head on into Matthew, sweeping him completely off his feet and flat on his back, somehow banging his head in the process.
He ran back to me crying, not really knowing what to think. I gave him a hug, wiped his tears away, gave him a pep talk, reminded him how excited he was about going to Kindergarten and got the big smile back on his face. "Do you want to go find your friend now?" He did but wanted me to walk over with him. I explained to him that we need to watch out for the big kids and walk around their football game, etc...So, thinking he was safe and secure with mom, we headed over to the playground, around the big kids' game. Then...out of absolutely nowhere, I saw a football flying straight towards us. Before I could grab Matthew out of the way, it nailed him right on the face! Ugh!

So, we walked back over to the line, i gave more hugs and kisses and tried to get smiles back on the face. I was a hair away from just throwing in the towel and heading home with him and trying this again tomorrow. But we decided to go find his teacher and talk to her.

We met up with Miss Jackobson, Matthew's new teacher. We introduced ourselves to her. We explained what had happened and Matthew helped me tell the story and was laughing while he told it. "At least you're laughing about it," she said. And she was right. So by then the bell had rang and he was getting in line with his class and walking in and off to face his first day of 'big kid' school, with a big red/blue knot on his forehead and a big red smack on the side of his face.

Catch up

Wow! A lot to update y'all on.

We had Thanksgiving at our house. Some of our friends came by to share the day with us. It was fun to get to spend some time getting to know them better. They had three boys. One is still a baby and the other two are Matthew and Nikos age and are almost as wild and crazy as our boys...almost. They had a blast playing in the yard, riding bikes, and playing some more. Us adults had a great time visiting. It had been raining off and on starting Wednesday, but had let up for the afternoon and then started back up when the sun went down. It was nice to have the windows all open and feel the cool wet air. we don't get that much here in the middle of the dessert. In fact, this week it's back up to the upper 70's pushing 80. But it was a great day full of fun and good times

We did have quite a bit of leftovers. So, on Friday, we took them over to the Small Group we go to on Fridays and we all had Thanksgiving again...They all took home leftovers and hardly any food went to waste. We still had enough for soup.

Friday during the day, we just hung out and relaxed. I worked on my transcribing, being that I had a big one due that day. Mike and the kids hung out front, riding bikes, playing with the neighborhood kids. Mike opened his 'bike repair shop' in the garage...kind of unintentionally, but he ended up fixing brakes and oiling chains and put the kids to work washing their bikes and making them shiny...Oh, not just our kids, but we had the whole neighborhood out there tuning up and shining up...

Saturday was a Mike-and-Me day. We went to go see the new James Bond movie in the very early afternoon. We usually see those on our anniversary, being that they always come out in November. But this year we had to go see it a week after our anniversary. We liked it. how could you not like a double o-seven movie? Except for the violence and sex it was great...well, i guess the guys kind of like the violence aspect of it, don't they?....Well, maybe the pretty women aren't too bad in their opinion either....Who knows? I'm not a guy, but I did like the movie.

Later on in the evening we got all spiffed out in our 80's attire and went to a couples party at a friend of Mike's. It was actually a surprise birthday for him, but since he didn't know about the birthday part and he was the one who invited Mike, that little tid-bit of info we were in the dark about. So we got there and found out it was his birthday. But it was a lot of fun. We got to meet a lot of new people and unfortunately, we had to leave just as it was getting started so we could get the kids to bed and get the sitter home. But it was fun to dress up and look like dorks and listen to some good ol' 80's music.

Sunday, we pulled out the Christmas stuff and started on the lights and the tree. It was such a lazy day, again and it flew by.

So that was our holiday weekend in a nut shell.

Monday, we registered Matthew for Kindergarten and got him set to go on Tuesday. Fun, fun! He was beyond excited and couldn't sleep that night.

Celebrate

We celebrated our day by going out for an early dinner. We went to Ruby Tuesdays. We had never gone there before and were very satisfied with the place. Yummy food. Then we walked around the mall and just enjoyed each other's company.

Pictured are my beautiful roses from my this really one guy that really 'digs' me!

Matthew's Curtains

Last weekend while Mike was away, I finally sewed Matthew's valance for his room. I've had the material for about a year now. It only took about an hour to make them. Don't know why it took me so long to just do it. here are a few photos of the room.

Entering his room.

Obviously an airplane theme
The material up close. Perfect for the theme

Coolest Pumpkin!

We found the coolest pumpkin ever at Sprouts the other day. It's called a Fairytale Pumpkin, and rightfully so. It really does look just like the pumpkins in Cinderella! We meant to cook it and make pies out of it, but after having it as a center piece for a couple weeks it rotted before we got a chance. oops.

Homemade Laundry Soap

We made our laundry soap today. It was pretty simple to make and if I wasn't taking pictures along the way, would've taken about 15 minutes to throw together. This recipe made 2 full gallons of laundry soap.

Here is the cast of characters:

1/2 cup Borax

1/2 cup laundry Soda (not Baking Soda!)

Bar Soap (Zote, Fels Naptha, Ivory)

Shave/grate 1/3 bar of soap
the finer, the better it will melt

Add soap to 6 cups of water in a pot. Start heating 4-5 cups of water in separate pot

Stir constantly over medium heat until soap is melted

(Have Borax and Laundry soda pre measured)Add to melted soap in pot

Stir until dissolved. mixture will thicken as you stir. When dissolved, remove from heat

Add 4 cups HOT water to large bucket (at least a 2 gallon size)

Add soap mixture and stir

Have a gallon and 6 cups of water measured out...

And add it to the bucket. Stir well

Let the bucket sit for twenty-four hours. It will thicken up and become gel-like.

Use 1/2 cup per load.

11 Years of 'Us'

Eleven years ago, today, Mike and I were standing before about 150 people and God, vowing that we would love each other, be committed to one another, and promise to grow with one another, "through sickness and health, richer or poorer, until death do us part..." We entered into a Covenant with each other and God....We were married and started the rest of our life as husband and wife.

Today, exactly 11 years into 'the rest of our life', thus far, it has been so rewarding. We've had ups, downs, ins and outs, but we've always done it together. I love Mike so much and he is such a blessing to me. He helps me grow, he challenges me in ways no one else could ever challenge me. He has put my true character to the test and has forced me to look at myself and refine areas that need to be refined. He loves me and accepts me and is committed to me in my strength and my weakness. He knows that the growth and change and maturity that he promotes in me, is actually just being done through him by God. I love that he remains humble and that he allows the source of his affection and love to be from above.

Mike is my hero, he's my man, he's my aspiration. I love his heart, I love his smile, I love his excitement, i love his laugh, I love his humor, I love who he is inside and out. I couldn't have anticipated a better husband to support and encourage and grow old with. God fulfilled all my dreams of who I have ever wanted for a husband when He gave me Michael. He may not be perfect, but he's perfect for me...and I love him to bits (and still have the biggest stinkin' crush on him. Quite often, I can feel my heart still skip a beat when I look at him)

This relationship is not about me and it's not about him. It's about each other and more importantly, how we together can glorify the One who made us who we are and is still working with us, changing us, and drawing us closer to each other and to Him every day and in every circumstance.

Fire update

Mike took a fire test today through a testing service that both Florence Fire and Prescott Fire will be using. He passed with an overall score of 82.69%

We will keep you posted when we hear anything from either of these departments. Prescott will be interviewing in January sometime and Florence interviews are still TBA.

5 hours after Mike got home, he got up and was thrown back into 'life'. Wednesday he went into work for an important meeting and then Thursday was another important meeting. It was a stressful week but in the end, there was good communicating and good results. Exciting stuff!

Niko has been fighting a cough all week. Wednesday he was up all night trying to breath. Thursday he stayed home, and by Friday he was back at school but still taking it easy.
He had another good week at school and was able to participate in Fun Friday again. He also finished up Royal Rangers this week until after the holidays.

The other two kiddos also had a good rest of the week.

Mike came back from Idaho with some Christmas presents for the kids. I wrapped them right away so that there was no 'accidents'. However, now the guessing games have ensued. Matthew has come up with everything up and down the toy isle as to what's in 'the big box' which he knows is his. Seriously, he just keeps the guesses coming. Too funny. I told the kids that they can't touch them or shake them until they are under the tree, they can only look from a distance and make their guesses. Golly-gee, it's so much fun to watch them.

Yesterday I had another Connector shift. It was really fun, as it was last time. The morning goes by fast. We got called to a 2n1 medical (more serious auto accident requiring 2 engines)...We were just transporting a non-injured person to their home, but we got to go in the 'warm zone' of the scene (past the police barricade where they had blocked off the road) I feel bad for the people involved, but it was all sort of exciting in a way and it was cool to be able to make a difference to someone who is possibly having one of the worst mornings of their life, being available to help them...The rest of the morning was station errands and writing reports-fun, fun.

Friday, we went to the Rio Vista Food bank in Phoenix to deliver several hefty-bags full of bread from the Wildflower Bread Company. Mike recieved a connection through a Phoenix Fire member of this sandwich place that ends up throwing away bags of bread every night because business-wise, they need to bake their bread fresh every morning and practicality-wise, no one is available to pick it up and take it to places that can use it. So this contact Mike has through Phoenix Fire got a hold of him and asked if we would be available and able to take care of it. Of coarse we jumped on that. So, we're set up now to take a load over once a week regularly! So cool. Mike put out the word that he was needing someone to make the pick up in North Scottsdale, meet up with him at work and then we'd get it to the Rio Vista Center. That was set up in no time and now we're good to go. We don't know what other opportunities this contact has for the Food Banks in the area, but this alone is a huge blessing to the community.

Now, with Thanksgiving this next week, we/I have to get in cooking mode as we open our house to anyone without a place to share Thanksgiving with next week. We are so excited to see who will come and who we'll get to know better and share this meal with.

Federal Reserve Note

Bethany lost her first molar last week and after several nights of waiting, the tooth fairy finally got her rear end in gear and made a visit to her room last night. Because it was her first molar, she got a 5.00 bill!! So exciting. She doesn't get her hands on one of those very often.

I was gone this morning when she woke up, but from what I hear, she insisted to Dad that the bill WAS NOT valid. It just wasn't real and there was no telling her different. Her words-"It says it's a 'Federal Reserve Note'. It's not real money. It's just a note..." So back and forth with Dad, by golly, he does not know what he's talking about! And what is more, what a lousy trick that darn tooth fairy played on her. Not cool at all.

I think it's so funny that she examined that piece of paper so closely and read every word on it that it no longer seemed real. How often do we take the green stuff for granted and when was the last time you read a "Federal Reserve Note"?

Homemade Dishwasher Soap

I was originally researching homemade laundry soap, which we will have to make later today or tomorrow. But in my research, I found several sources of people making their homemade dish soap. Pretty much the same ingredients as the laundry soap, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I will warn you though that, true to what people on the Internet are saying, I have started getting a white film on the dishes. We have pretty hard water, which may be a factor, but many people have remedied this problem by adding a 1/2 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle or just filling the rinse aide dispenser with vinegar. So this I will attempt to see if it rids the film from the dishes. Another option I have is adding lemi-shine to the mix (you can get it at WalMart cheapest) But it's about 3.50 for a 12-ish oz bottle and this whole thing was supposed to be about saving money and stretching the dollar. So not sure if I'll go that route. And yet another option I have is to get a box of powder dishwasher soap and do equal part homemade mixture to the store bought. it would at least stretch it. I'll give you updates on the outcomes.

Here is the breakdown of prices. Keep in mind that these are for the whole containers and I only used a portion of these containers to make the soap:

$1.97-Rubbermaid Plastic Container
$2.79-Laundry Soda (found mine at Fry's, not WalMart. Differs from Baking soda in that baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3- and laundry soda is Sodium Silicate,Na2SiO3)
$2.67-Borax
$.10-Unsweetened Lemonade packet/aka Koolaid (This not only makes it smell lemony, the citric acid in the mix is supposed to do something for the soap)

Directions:

1 1/2 cups Laundry Soda

1 1/2 cups borax

1 packet of unsweetened lemonade

Combine all ingredients into container, screw lid on, and shake well until combined thoroughly.

Use about 1-2 tablespoons per load.

Our Extended Weekend at Home

Some highlights this weekend while Mike was away:

• Matthew's Soccer Game: Saturday he played well for 3/4 of the time. then he petered out. He seems to play better when Dad is there with him. But he still did well and worked really hard on keeping the ball on the field and turning it around when he gets to the edge. He has a tendency to just keep kicking it even...right off the field.
• City of Embers: We went to see the movie this weekend. It turned out to be an excellent movie. It was the only kid appropriate movie that we hadn't seen yet playing at the cheap theater. I had never heard of it before, but watched the preview online and we went. I would highly recommend it. Only 'scary' part was a big juicy slug-like bug. But it really wasn't that bad. Go see it or rent it. Lots of symbolism in it, I thought...
• Shopping: Shopping this week was incredible. Good deals, fun stuff
• Homemade Dishwasher soap: I made dishwasher soap last night. I need to do the calculations as to how much it will actually cost per load and all. next on the list is to make laundry soap. Now that, i know, is a penny a load. and it works well, from what I've read. I will be posting instructions on both items soon. I feel so resourceful :)
• Taught kids how to eat edamames: Now I can cross this off my list of things to teach my kids before they go out into the real world. hehe. They love them. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about click here. I think they love them so much because they are fun to eat. they taste great too. I just salt a pot of boiling water really well with Kosher Salt, add the frozen Edamames, boil them for about 2-3 minutes, drain them, sprinkle a bit more salt over them and then we go to town. You squeeze the bean out of the pod with your teeth and then discard the pod. Such a fun, yummy snack!
• Dentist: Already posted about that

Mike's Extended Weekend in Idaho

Well, now that Mike is home from his trip I can freely update everyone on the past few days. I'll start with Mike fabulous weekend.

He had a long morning of traveling on Saturday and finally made it to Spokane. They went and watched our nephew play in one of his hockey games. Mike said it was a great game that was fun to watch, meaning that they played very well.

They spent their evenings playing games and visiting. Sunday morning they went to church and in the evening Mike's brother and his new wife joined in the fun. It looks and sounds like they had some fun times together.
Monday Mike helped with some things around the house and I think that was the day they did a hike around Tubs Hill.
Tuesday they dropped by to see my parents briefly at their church. Kristi is working at there now with the benevolence ministry. It is a huge church with a ton of resources because of it's size and a great ability to help the community. So Mike came by just as they were opening up and the people were coming in droves. So needless to say, it was a quick visit, but it was still good...Tuesday he also made a trip around the boardwalk. Big news up there is a recent children's book that was written with the setting in Coeur d' Alene, Mudgy and Millie. In the book, this moose and mouse have an adventure together in and around the town. It mentions real places, of which some are marked around town with bronze Mudgy and Millie statues...

So, Tuesday evening, Mike was back on the plane headed south. He got home late, but had a great time with everyone.

Dentist appointment

The Crocodile's Toothache

Shel Silverstein

The Crocodile

Went to the dentist

And sat down in the chair,

And the dentist said, "Now tell me, sir,

Why does it hurt and where?"

And the Crocodile said, "I'll tell you the truth,

I have a terrible ache in my tooth,"

And he opened his jaws so wide, so wide,

The the dentist, he climbed right inside,

And the dentist laughed, "Oh isn't this fun?"

As he pulled the teeth out, one by one.

And the Crocodile cried, "You're hurting me so!

Please put down your pliers and let me go."

But the dentist laughed with a Ho Ho Ho,

And he said, "I still have twelve to go-

Oops, that's the wrong one, I confess,

But what's one crocodile's tooth more or less?"

Then suddenly, the jaws went SNAP,

And the dentist was gone, right off the map,

And where he went one could only guess...

To North or South or East or West...

He left no forwarding address.

But what's one dentist, more or less?

The kids had their six month check up today with Doctor J...As usual it was an array of excitement with video games, TV, puzzles, tokens, prizes...fun times...they all came out with no cavities-woo-hoo.

Bethany- Has her 12 year molars 'erupting'/coming through. She was once again instructed to pay more attention to brushing up by her gums, silly girl's going to end up with gingivitis if she doesn't start following through on that. But her beautiful smile did great today.

Niko- His front teeth are finally starting to grow through, only problem is, they're coming in around his existing teeth/tooth and it's NOT budging. So if it hasn't wiggled out in the next few weeks we'll be going back for an extraction for him. Once the two front ones are in, we'll be talking about orthodontics, poor guy. Better start budgeting for that in 2009...

Matthew was pretty uncomplicated. nothing special to report from him. typical cleaning, watch for loose teeth on the bottom...that's about it.

So we celebrated our healthy mouths with a trip to Costco for lunch and then it was back to school.

Bethany's Concert

Click here for more photos and don't forget to watch the two short videos of two of the songs they did

Weekly highlights

Monday-

• Got Niko's spelling test back from Friday and he got a 20/20! Way to go. the previous week he had gotten a 9/20 :( ...so big improvement Niko, way to go!
• Bethany has crucial practice for her orchestra concert on Thursday
• i had my first shift with the Mesa Connectors...It was absolutely awesome and fun and went by so fast. We washed the truck, ran some errands, I got to do some talking on the radio-pretty intimidating, but cool...only one vehicle assistance call and it was already pretty much taken care of when we got there. fun, fun
• Went to do some coupon shopping. spent 25, saved 96 and some change. Among the free items were body soap, ice cream, granola bars, dental floss...everything else-cereal, shampoo, sugar, flour- didn't spend more than a dollar on. I'm telling you all two words, Coupon Sense

Tuesday-

• Veterans day-Kids had it off of school. Mike had to go into work though
• washing the car-finally it doesn't smell rotten in there. The kids were a big help
• Niko got the hang of his Razor Motor Scooter finally, so he was buzzing around all day on that.
• kids played at the park pretty much all day
• tried cleaning the house a bit.

Wednesday-

• Kids back to school
• Matthew got his shots done for school. Poor thing, he had to get 3 of them and one of them was the one that takes forever to put in and hurts like heck. he was so brave and just had a concerned expression all the way to the car. A little boy waiting for his shots saw Matthew and says, "Mommy, that little boy looks scared" It was cute. As soon as Matthew got to the car though, he started wailing, poor guy. His lollipop didn't even help.
• he was good by the time soccer practice came though
• Royal rangers night. Bethany went to the girls class there and they did paper mache.
• While they were at there thing, i went and did some shopping at the market. Again paid 5 bucks and saved almost 40. got to love this coupon thing

Thursday-

• Matthew had a fever and was pretty groggy and yuck. we're figuring it was a reaction to the shots. we loaded him with Tylenol and he was back to himself, still needing to take it easy though
• Started getting Mike's things together for his trip to Idaho on Saturday
• Big Highlight! Bethany had her first orchestra concert. She did fantastic and it was so special that Luke and Carol came to watch her and Grandma and Grandpa Till came down from Prescott to watch her perform for the first time. It was a special night. here are all the photos there are two videos on there too
• Mike made two more pumpkin pies and he boiled the other pumpkin that we had gotten. He's becoming quite the domestic one around here :) He's so awesome! I love that man.

Friday-

• busy day this day, finishing the week up.
• Matthew went to speech and did awesome. he paid attention and did his escersizes and focused on the tasks at hand well.
• went to the chiropracterr to get adjusted. I was out in three places and one of them was a doozey. He did my neck too. Hopefully this will do the trick. if not, i have to come back next week. At least I can put my hair in a pony tail again.
• we finished getting Mike all packed up for his trip.
• We got him some shoes he's been needing for too long. We discovered that he has lost a shoe size. His feet shrank. the guy there said that that is normal as you get older. So now he's gone from a 14 to a 13. It actually worked to our advantage becasue the shoes he was looking at didn't have any 14's in stock. So we got a great deal on those and now he's all set.
• pay day so we paid all the bill. odd enough, i love this day. It's so nice to get it all done and clear out another month of bills and give thanks that there's another month that our budget has balanced-gotta love it.
• we spent today cooking a 22-23 lb turkey for a thanksgiving feast we went to this night. Turkey bags are great! So are those little popper-out sticks that come with the turkeys now to tell you when they're done.
• we went to the feast. There were soooo many people there-fun, good people. it was great to see people we haven't seen in a while and meet new people. I got my baby fix, getting to hold a freash 6 week old little baby. He was so sweet and smelled so good...I ran the boys home after dinner so they could wind down, get in their jammies and I could finish up packing Mike while they watched a movie. Later, we went back and picked up Mike and Bethany and there were still people filtering in...with more and more food :0...It was a fun night

We all had a great weekend!

Saturday morning, Mike woke up feeling awful! We've all had this chest congestion bug going around and yesterday was the day for it to hit him hard. Problem-his CPAT test was scheduled for yesterday morning, bright and early. he contemplated putting it off, but when he got there, he just decided to go for it and get it over with. He passed with flying colors...again! He's my hero. He's so determined and willing to just do what it takes to get the job done and then worry about everything else later. He is so blessed and in turn it is such a blessing to me to see the richness within him. Gosh, i love that man!

Saturday, i also completed my training with the Connector Program. Our class of an original 18 had 12 of us get our "blue shirts" yesterday. The training was so fun and I am so excited to get going on my first shift on Monday. Kind of nerve wracking, but anxious to jump in and get going.

We went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate the high points of the day.

Today after church Mike went over to work on a website for his dad's new business. He's selling Herbalife, an incredible product (so if you're interested, we can connect you with him to place an order-great stuff)...After that, Mike and i went to the show to see Fireproof. What an amazing movie! I cried the whole thing through.

Now we're just getting ready for the week ahead. another fun filled one at that! Concerts, first days, school holidays, shots for Matthew....fun stuff!

Tonight we got the green light to enroll Matthew in half day kindergarten after the holidays. So we're getting all the enrollment papers together. He sure wasn't ready at the beginning of the school year, but it will be good for him to get back into the classroom before he starts all day next year. He's been doing really well with homeschooling. Mike's been really good about keeping him challenged...but the social aspect of it will be good. He really doesn't get a whole lot of outside social stuff now that he is home all the time.

Mike registered today for his wild land classes at the college. He will be doing those in February. We are very excited about him finally getting this certification. He's been wanting/needing it for a while. Fun stuff.

Tonight, I had Bunko with the gals and Mike and the kids went to home group. The played games afterwards and so we all had a great night.

Today Grandma and Grandpa Renwick came down to visit for the day, they are at the tail end of their trans-American road trip. It was great to visit with them and hear about all the places they've been to over the past two months. Its been two years since we've seen each other. the kids have changed so much over those two years. And it was good to get caught up. We had a nice lunch and played at the park for a while. It was a beautiful day with beautiful weather!

Voting Day...Today-History made

Today history was made.
Millions of Americans exercised their freedom and right to vote for the leader of this country, one of the fundamental rights we have living in a democracy type government.
Mike and I watched this evening as the results came in and we faced the inevitable. Soon we came to grips with the fact that a greater majority of Americans today just voted against this democracy that we live in and voted in a president that, if given the opportunity to put his agendas into action, will make history in transforming our Democratic form of government that so many people have fought to maintain, to a socialistic, borderline communistic, government. Oh, boy, what a ride we will have! Get ready.
I will be utterly shocked if we are to see a 2012 presidential election. Obama wants change, the American people want change, well, they're going to get it for sure. Hopefully people like lines-food lines, doctor lines, work lines-remember that lines are a way of life for the communistic society.
Okay, okay, so you think I'm an extremist now, huh? probably, but oh well :)

Complimentry Starbucks/Krispy Kreme for Voters

Hey, hey everyone!

Starbucks is handing out free coffees to voters tomorrow. That'll get anyone out there to vote, wont it?

Add a doughnut to it from Krispy Kreme.

Dressing Up

More pictures click here

Bethany had so much fun dressing up as a Chinese Princess. We sprayed her hair with the black wash out hairspray and made her face white with baby powder.

Buzz Lightyear wanted to wear a Hulk mask, but resigned to the fact that he needed to simplify

Niko was a ninja for the 3rd or 4th year in a row. Fine by us, he had a blast and was very happy with his choice.

Our Crazy Clan

Pumpkin carving

More photos click here

Another busy week...this week was especially busy though.

Monday we had Literacy night at the school. We went from room to room and each grade had a creative way to present a book/story. The kids did a 'book walk'-like a cake walk, but with books. Niko won a book at that. Matthew and his friend loved the 'camp out' idea. one class had a tent set up and handed out flashlights to go into the tent and read a book with the flashlights. They spent a long time actually looking through books in the tent and having fun. Bethany liked the puzzle room the best. It was a fun night.

Wednesday was a half day for the kids. Bethany had a Fall Themed B-day party that she went to. They all had a blast carving pumpkins and playing games. The time went by quickly and everyone was sad when it was over. That same night, Niko went to Royal Rangers and Matthew had his soccer practice. What a busy night it was.

Thursday was spent crossing items off a ridiculously long to-do list. Getting ready for Great Popo to be in town this weekend, running to the library, getting my badge for the connector program, picking up work from the county, going to the market, cleaning, laundry, getting costumes ready for Friday...then, when the kids got home, we carved our pumpkins. It was so fun. We used these designs we had and the kids did a good job marking their patterns out and cutting on their own. Matthew pretty much had me do his, but the other two just needed help with the smaller detailed work. They turned out awesome and it was a lot of fun.

Friday was a mayhem of excitement. the kids didn't wear their costumes to school so the excitement built throughout the day. Matthew went to speech in the morning and did well. then we ran errands, Mike and Matthew went to the YMCA while i worked. they got home and Mike stopped by his dad's to play some cards with Popo. And then when the kids got home from school, we got ready and all dressed up.

Bethany was a Chinese Princess, Niko a ninja and Matthew was Buzz Lightyear. Fun, fun! We went over to Nana and Popo's first. Aiden and Jennifer were there so we got to see Aiden in his adorable little owl costume. Every time he moved his arms, it looked like he was flapping his wings. it was too cute. The kids hit a few houses up and down the street with Popo and daddy-to hold true to tradition. Matthew walked into a house and was looking around at their dogs and such. I guess it was all pretty funny, even though he was out of line. The kid does not understand boundaries. Another house, they were looking into the windows of the home-yep, no privacy when the Clesceri's are present...goof ball kids...We came back home and went visiting our neighbors. We had an actual horse trotting through our neighborhood and the rider was dressed as the Headless Horseman. We thought that was pretty cleaver. It was fun to visit with the neighbors and have an evening to just chat with everyone.

Today was an early day as I got up to go to my second full day of Connector training. It was a bast. While I was busy there, Matthew had his soccer game today and then Great Popo came over for a quick visit. The kids played at the park and they all had a great day around here. The weather has been so HOT still. It's still been in the 90's during the day. So, no problems playing outside around here.

Tonight Mike read a stack of books from the library to the kids and then they were tuckered out and off to bed.

Fall Festival

As mentioned before, we went to a local 10 acre farm up the road for a fall festival. They had a corn maze that was at least an acre big, a lot of animals, we had a blast on the teeter totters...It was a lot of fun and here are the picture of the fun we had

Click here for the Flickr album

Week of October 20

Highlights of the week include:

• Getting 85.00 worth of groceries for 26.00-yeay!
• boys getting home safe from camp out
• cleaning out garage
• Niko having another great week at school
• Bethany looking into getting involved with the community theater play- Fiddler on the Roof. She was so excited about it, and so let down when we found off the age cut-off is 12. We were able to get some good info though on this theater company and look forward to working with them in the near future with workshops and such. Bethany could have a ton of fun with this.
• Mike had some good connection time with his mentors at their monthly b-fast on Wednesday.
• Bethany got 100% on her spelling test this week
• we had some great bike rides through the neighborhood as a family (well, I've walked until I get a bike-lol)
• Gas here in AZ is at 2.79/gal, that is VERY exciting! We filled up the Durango for 51.00 today!-woo-hoo
• Today we went to a Fall Festival at our State Farm office and sugared the kids up and then headed over to a pumpkin patch and went through a corn maze and played on the playground (the teeter-toter was the best, but OHH my legs!). We also said hi to many, many animals that were very friendly. The kids bounced in the bounce tent and then got to pick out their pumpkin. Overall, it was a great evening and everyone had a fun time with more smiles than anything else.
• beautiful fall sunsets
• great soccer practice on Wednesday
• Mike started helping out on Wednesday nights with the Royal Rangers. He is learning a lot himself. Niko's Commander is moving up with the boys next year, so Mike and another dad are going into 'training' so they can take over this age group for next year (So, Mike will not be Niko's commander-probably Matthew's though)
• Seeing the Gilbert Firefighters in the grocery store today wearing pink shirts-all due respect. It was for a fantastic cause, to support the breast cancer campaign, but i can't help from wondering who decided on the pink shirts over the modest pink ribbon on the lapel perhaps? More power to them, they definitely showed their support and brought attention to the cause, in my book. But pink shirts, really?

All in all, it was another good week. It helps when you sit down and think of all the good things and all the things in the week that we have to be truly grateful for. It helps us appreciate the good things in life.

On the flip side though, Bethany stayed home Tuesday because of a bad earache-better by the end of the day. Niko has a cold that has moved into his chest (of coarse) and Matthew has been a pill-Dr Jekyll/Mister Hyde going on with him. But even with this, we have more good than bad to balance it all out.

Boys are home

The 'boys' had a fantastic time up in the woods. So many good memories and fun times. On Saturday, they had different stations set up to teach the boys how to use different types of 'tools'...They had a bow and arrow station (Niko's absolute favorite, by the way), ax throwing, pellet gun, and BB gun. Niko was thrilled to have the opportunity to get some hands on experience with this stuff. He did really well with things too and had pretty good aim for a first-timer...They also had a great pine cone fight on Saturday and some good times around the campfire and playing cards with dad in the tent before bed. They were up there with several different Posts from the valley and their Post got first place as far as their camp goes. They were given tasks throughout the weekend in regards to upkeep and building things for the camp. See the photos below for details

Here are several photos of their trip and their Posts activities

Well, after talking briefly with Mike today, he said that last night felt a lot colder than anticipated. "It was freezing" to be exact. So he said they will be layering the clothes on for tonight. He said that they are having a lot of fun and having to do a lot of work. No use for a hammock this trip.

Matthew had his first soccer game this morning. Even though they weren't keeping score, he scored the first goal and was always out in front with the ball. He did really well and had a ton of fun, even after falling in the mud puddles a couple times. Finally towards the end of the game, he tiered out just a smidgen and some of the other players were able to get some ball time in...

We went to see Wall-e this afternoon. It was a pretty cute movie, i guess. the kids liked it. I think it had some very obvious messages in it about going green and the physical perils of our society, not only with waste management but with the self-indulgent attitude. The message was so thick that the story would not have stood alone without it. Don't get me wrong, it's a good message, but as oxymoron as this may sound, i go to the movies to be entertained, not preached at. Anyhow, there's my rant on that.

After we got out of the movies, they were doing a costume contest in the amphitheater with all the kiddos. So we sat and watched that for a while and the kids sang some songs and such. It was a fun surprise.

So, one day down and tomorrow the boys will be home.

This Week

Sunday and Monday were spent getting back into the swing of things around here. Monday and Tuesday night I was out shopping for grocery deals. I'm trying out this thing called Coupon Sense with a neighbor/friend that's been doing it forever. It's a really cool program that takes all the guess work out of using coupons and finding the best deal and whatnot. You are able to put your list in a data base thing and then it tells you where to go, what coupons to use to get the best deal, so you're not buying things you don't need either...A lot of times things end up being free. Monday she got 91 dollars worth of groceries for 22 bucks! Tuesday, i had 52 dollars of groceries for 15 bucks. It seems to be great, but a bit time consuming, so we'll see how it goes...

By Wednesday, kids were back in school and we were back to the busiest day of the week. Matthew had his first Soccer practice out on the green belt. We're telling you, this is an awesome setup. It's literally right out our front door and there are SOOO many kids participating. This will be so much fun. And they're all from our neighborhood. He has his first game this Saturday...After practice on Wednesday, Niko went to Royal rangers where they schemed about their plans for this weekend :) . they are all pretty excited about their camp out this weekend up in the mountains.

Thursday afternoon, mike took the kids on a bike ride and they had a blast. now that it's cooled off a bit and Mike finally has a bike, they are out taking full advantage of that. After they got back and cleaned up and fed, Mike went out to his FFC meeting. They got some good encouragement and as always, it was time well spent building the friendships he has made there. The latest news on the Phoenix hiring process that he is in is that they are still just putting that top tier through the process-the one Mike is in- and they are not having a recruitment process for 2009 and the second interviews will be conducted in July for a September Academy. So that's the update on that.

Today, after 'Muffins with Mom' this morning at the school with the kids, we finished getting the boys (Mike and Niko) ready to go on their Royal Ranger Camping Trip and then by noon they were all loaded up and ready to go. There are about 7-8 other Posts in the valley that all go up together and upon arriving they "construct camp"-trash receptacles, kitchen areas, meeting areas, ect- and each post is judged and then they rank. And the fun goes on from there. Sounds like they are going to have a blast. Can't wait to hear about it and see the photos. The weather should be pretty nice too- low 80's as a high and upper 40's/lower 50's for the lows, not too bad to be camping in...Has been in the 20's in years past.

So, it's just me and Bethany and Matthew for the weekend. We're watching some Shirley Temple tonight...not anything too spectacular planned other than that-haha

Oh!! And I forgot to mention that I heard back from the Mesa Fire Connector Volunteer Program. (click on the link to learn more about what they do) It absolutely blows my mind away that they actually invited me to the training and accepted me into the program. Either people didn't show up for their interviews or I don't know what, but somehow they thought I'd fit into the program well. Mike says i must have done better than I thought on the interview and I assured him that THAT was NOT the case, seriously it was an all time worst! Crazy how things work out. Mike and I are pretty excited about this though.

Photos from our trip to San Diego

Well, we've gotten all our photos from our trip uplaoded and ready to view.

Just click on this link here to take you to the Flickr.com collection for the San Diego trip

Each day is in a seperate set. There are plenty of pictures to view. have fun!

We're Home

We had a great week in San Diego!

My grandmother used her timeshare and got us a studio suite in Oceanside right on the beach-literally. We walked out our porch and were on the sand. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time at the beach, playing in the sand and the water and at the park about 20 yards away and walking on the pier...It was awesome listing to the waves crash as we laid in bed at night...we were definitely spoiled!

We had a great time visiting with family that we haven't seen in while also. My aunt was able to finally move into her home after rebuilding it. She had a house blessing party on Thursday, October 9th, which was two years to the day that the house burned down. It has been a long two years, but the house is beautiful. It is warm and cozy and still has a familiarity of the old house. It was great to see some old family friends that I haven't seen since before I moved to Idaho and got married, had babies, and grew up :)...It was great to be able to be there for that special evening of celebration.

We went to the tide pools in La Jolla and saw some cool animals, including a bunch of sea lions.

One day Bethany got to spend the afternoon with Nana, helping her in her shop. That was a real treat for her and reminded me of growing up and having the same special time. While Bethany was there, Mike took the boys and I through Camp Pendleton. Being that it was a weekday, Niko got to see a ton of activity-helicopters, soldiers doing their obstacle coarse training, some vehicles cruising around...he was happy to see that stuff...We ended up in Dana Point Harbor and visited the Pilgrim, a sail ship that Mike went out on when he was in grade school. That brought back a lot of great memories for him and got the wheels turning to take the boys out on an adventure on the ship, like he had...It's a true sailor experience, learning how to be a deckhand...

We also went out and spent some time with Mike's Aunt and Uncle and grandfather. Although it was just for the day, we wished we could've spent more time visiting with them. It's always fun to play cards with them and have good conversation.

It was a pleasant ride home and seemed to go fast. Matthew keeps saying, "I like our house" I think we are all happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds tonight. It was a beautiful, wonderful trip, but it nice to come home.

We'll post pictures when we get them off the camera.

Update Overload- Don't miss anything!

To say that we have been busy would be an understatement.

It's either the hustle and bustle of life or the fact that when I'm on the computer, I'm working and then I'm DONE with it and don't have an opportunity to get caught up here. But whichever it is, somehow I have been slacking on the updating-the-blog department.

So, what have we been so busy with?

The kids have been finishing up this quarter of school and gearing up for Fall Break.

Bethany's been doing really well in school. Academically, as always, she's doing really well. 'Struggling' a bit with math and science. I really shouldn't say 'struggle', more so than just that they are her weaker subjects. She is still getting a B in those subjects and still on the Honor Roll overall. Socially she is doing well, much better than last year. Girls will still be girls and have those silly girl issues that they work through, but she is learning how to handle things along with the rest of them...She got her bow certificate in orchestra. Only 15% of the class had earned it as of the beginning of this week. They need it in order to start using the bow. It involves proper posture and finger placement and grip on the instrument. So for the past two weeks she has learned Hot Cross Buns with her bow. It's been fun.

Bethany also had a really fun B-day party that she went to last week. It was actually a slumber party, but being that we don't do sleep overs, we picked her up real late so she didn't miss out on ALL of the fun. they went swimming, ate BBQ, and did "girl stuff". She had a ton of fun and it was still cool for her to be out past 10.

Niko is a story of his own. This has not been the best year for him or any of us really. The second grade as a whole is struggling this year. They have not found a third second grade teacher so the problems continue. We are looking into putting him into a charter school that focuses on Science and math-his strengths. being a charter school, the class sizes max out at 20 and the curriculum is controlled a bit in the science realm. They have the freedom to be much more conservative when it comes to what they teach...Right now the second grade is full, but openings do happen throughout the year and it's done on a lottery system, which means a name is pulled out of a hat. So we're putting him in the lottery and waiting to see what happens. We're just taking it one day at a time with him. He's doing really well in the classroom behaviorally, he (and the majority of the other kids) just has issues during transitions when every thing is chaotic and crazy and not properly supervised. Academically he is struggling because the substitute teacher he has does not have the time to give the attention to ANYone that is needed. It's humanly impossible for her. She really doesn't know how to utilize parent help, which is a great frustration to me. But somethings got to change. His regular teacher hasn't had her baby yet, so we're still another 6-7 weeks out. (She's due this week) Anyhow, enough about that. We're still in the thick of it as far as all that goes.

We also got Niko's bed fixed up with a side rail, being that he's fallen out of it 3 times. Before he breaks any bones or gets seriously hurt in any other way, we fixed that issue.

Niko also became an official Royal ranger member and should be getting his uniform soon. He already earned a badge. He is looking forward to going on his first camp-out. Mike will have to go with him, being that he is in the younger group. But there's no complaining there. Niko is so excited about being able to go on a camp out with just him and Dad with his friends. It sounds like they have a fun trip planned. They'll have opportunities to earn patches on the campout too.

Matthew's going to be starting Soccer with a team in the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is about 75% families with young children-lots of young children. Large families. Well, some families got together and wanted their 4-5 year olds to start in soccer but could not think to afford the $80+ the leagues and clubs around here charge. So by word of mouth the word spread throughout the neighborhood to see if we had enough interest to form our own little teams. So, that's what we did. We'll have at least two teams, play in the greenbelt, practice once a week, games on Saturday. A neighbor takes sport team photos for her business and offered to do ours at cost. We ordered T-shirts and wha-la, for 12.50 our kids are good to go for a season of Soccer...We love our neighborhood.

The other night I took Matthew and his friend to see Kung-fu Panda. It was a fun night out and a cute movie.

Mike's gone to the last couple D-backs games of the season. It was fun for him to go with his dad and finish out a great season, even though they didn't make the playoffs or anything.

Mike also got his letter from Phoenix saying that he passed the first round interviews. The second interviews are supposedly going to be in January sometime. We will be waiting for the actual interview date. In the meantime, he is staying busy with ride alongs and developing the great friendships he's made through this process this year.

We have been involved with this food drive for a center in South Phoenix the past two weeks. Their pantry was bare and they had to turn some families away. Could you imagine someone pleading with you for food for their family, in tears, not having anything left to give them, knowing that he has to go back to his wife and kids empty-handed, not having anything to put in their hungry tummies. So, they sent out a request to our church and we in turn involved some of our friends and neighbors and other people we know into it and ended up making our own trip down there with a load of food. After visiting the place, I think we definitely will be making more trips down there. It's a simple building, meeting the simple, immediate needs of the community.

I also had my interview with the Mesa Connector Program this past Monday. It was really a humbling experience and I really was not prepared for it. I will be completely floored if I turn out to be one of the 15 they are choosing, based on my interview alone. It would have to be a gut feeling of theirs, no doubt. I failed miserably in portraying to them who I am and why I would be good for their program. It is what it is though and they'll be other opportunities in other programs if this one doesn't come through. Maybe I'll be a bit more prepared.

I did get my CPR-Pro Certification and first aid certification on Monday though. That was easy and fun. That's one requirement crossed off my list to enroll in the EMT course this spring. Woo-hoo.

The Beth Moore Bible study on Daniel that I've been going to with a good friend and neighbor of mine has been going really well too. It's fun to get together with a group each week during the week too.

We went to a really fun music and dance night last weekend at the church. It was an Israli band that came to play and they taught us some Jewish dances. It was so fun and a great work out, by the way!

This week we also finally sold the truck! We are so happy about that. We got the Durango fixed this weekend and then got a final offer on the truck while it was in the shop. It's so nice to SIMPLIFY. Our budget gives me the warm and fuzzies now :) I know it's uncouth to broadcast financial stuff in our society, but just think of it as us sharing our good news with you all and involving you in the accomplishment of reaching milestones with our goals...We paid off the balance on the truck loan, have money in the savings account, no credit card or car payments, and our entire budget including food, gas, savings and living expenses, all are covered by Mike's income. Which means that my income can go into alt. savings...We are so excited to be moving in the right direction after such a rocky couple years-ugh. It's nice to reach some goals. We couldn't have done it without the Grace of God though, for sure.

Quick funny before I end this ridiculously long post. Matthew was in speech today and somehow ended up telling Miss Kelly about Yogi and the infamous homicide that took place with a neighbor's dog. I was going to link you to the post last year, but realized that we never wrote about it. Long story short, Yogi killed our neighbor's chihuahua (sp?) Discover Channel style, pretty tragic thing. This was in our old neighborhood... So, he told his teacher today, "We had to get rid of Yogi because he was a meat eater." haha, I thought that was a funny way of putting it. "Meat eater"-Dinosaur terms.

We're going to San Diego this week and visiting family on both our sides. So we'll have a to update you on all that next week. Hopefully I wont get so behind again with all this.