Monkey gets his Wolf Badge

My mother's necklace.

Our first Pack Meeting in our new/old ward and Monkey got his Wolf badge. He and his friend both received the Wolf badge and had to "chug wolf blood" and then howl to join the pack. Below Monkey is putting the mother's pin on me. My friend gave me a scouters necklace ribbon thing that I love (especially after Monkey got his Bobcat badge and tried to pin it on me like I was a bulletin board). It is a necklace that has the boy scout colors on one side and the cub scout colors on the otherside. As the boys get their awards, and I get my mother's pins, they can pin them to my necklace and I have a nice collection of all of my boys pins.

The Dirt Pile

I peeked out my kitchen windown yesterday afternoon and found Lemur and Monkey lounging on the dirt pile and playing in the dirt. I few minutes before this they were racing around the yard with Lemur in the umbrella stroller. Monkey was taking him for a joy ride... and Lemur was full of joy! I think it might have worn them out because they were just quietly sitting on the dirt pile - not talking, not wrestling, not doing much of anything but feeling the dirt and soaking up the sun.

Lemur repetitedly grabbed handfuls of dirt and poured it on his pants. It was a balmy 50 degrees outside and the two boys had a wonderful time playing in the good old dirt.

Three Angels

Monday afternoon some ladies from our ward called and said they were so glad we had moved back. They knew I am expecting and said they were coming over, so get ready to put them to work. They said they knew I was organized (I had to laugh my head off at that one!) so they didn't know what they could do, but they were coming.

I told them to come in grubby clothes because I had a big surprise for them!

Our project for that afternoon was to unload the moving van which was full of "shed stuff" from our old house.

My three angels gladly jumped right in and started moving things into the shed (tools and gardening stuff) or "bomb shelter" (all other miscellaneous junk).

They laughed and chatted, and got quite bossy when I tried to lift something they thought was too heavy for me to be lifting "in your condition." (if they only knew what I had been doing the past three weeks...). The critters jumped in and helped too - they were a little surprised at how much work the "old ladies" as Monkey said, could do. These three ladies were friends of mine when we were in this ward 2 1/2 years ago. One was the Relief Society President, one was my visiting teacher for a while, and the other just a friend I got to know. All of these ladies are old enough to be my mom, but that hasn't stopped a wonderful friendship from forming. I was surprised and yet, not surprised when they called me and came over. That's just the way people are in this ward. It feels so good to be home!

It started pouring rain after we had been working for about 45 minutes, and I mean POURING! Then we were treated to beautiful double, full rainbows! The "bossy" ladies made us get our picture taken. The rainbow was brilliantly bright... so beautiful!! I told my angels it was the Lords way of telling them thank you for coming over to help us.

Been 2 Busy 2 Blog

We have been super busy moving lately, too busy to blog. I didn't even take very many pictures, and now I'm sad because so many people helped us move and I wanted to make sure I took pictures of them - although no one but me appreciates that. (when I did take pictures of the ladies cleaning, they got mad at me.) Anyway, we REALLY APPRECIATE! everyone who helped us either pack, move boxes, help with the windows, do sheet rocking, painting, pruning, lifting, moving furniture, cleaning, packing boxes out of the house, packing boxes into the new house, making us dinner, cleaning my toilets etc. etc. We have been SO blessed the past few weeks with lots and lots of help. THANK YOU!!!

We have been in our new house for one week now. The first night we were here Hunter said, "it feels like home." It does. We have lots of space and are truly wondering how in the heck we fit all of our stuff in the other house. The upstairs (which is the main level of the house) is pretty much done - I just need to finish the living room book cases and the office - my scrapbooking stuff. Other than that, bathrooms, bedrooms (ours and Lemur's), kitchen and dining room are all tidy and livable. The basement is another story. With the boys bedrooms torn up, most of their stuff is either in the laundry room or the family room or the extra kitchen, so those rooms are all a mess. Hunter did finish mudding and sanding the boys room this week and we hope to texture and paint this coming week.

We need to finish putting up some closet rods and shelves in the closets. We have a moving van full of shed stuff to put away this week and then lots and lots of landscaping to do outside. It is so nice to have OUR OWN home and not be renting. There is pride in fixing up your own place. It might take us a while, but it'll be fun doing it!

I got the kids registered in their new schools and they started late this week. Bee and Monkey did great and seem happy. It was a huge new experience for Martin as he has always attended small schools and his middle school is really, really big. His first day was Friday. He is excited that his two electives are Band and Art. The other five classes are core classes and he is going to have to learn to use his planner and stay organized - and do lots of homework!

I am supposed to start working again on Monday. I hate the job that I just got doing pediatric cardiology. My boss is a flake and I am having a really hard time understanding the terminology and getting the right medical terms. I have another contact to make on Monday with a different company - the one that took over my clinic here. I am praying that will work out so I can quit the pediatric cardiology one. Anyway... I have wondered if anyone could endure more stress at once... starting a new job, moving and being pregnant. At least we are all healthy (knock on wood.) I am super tired and look forward to when things slow down a bit... please tell me they will slow down!

Okay.. so here are a few pictures that I did take the last week.

How would you move a shed?

So, if you had to move a shed, how would you do it? Here's Hunter's Way...
He borrowed the Crane from work, put a few cables around the shed and lifted it up and over the power line. Notice the Crane is on the OTHER SIDE of the power line. Yes, it made me nervous.

Hunter is really good at placing things right where they need to be. He gets practice doing this at work when he has to move a pump house to get to the well... he just picks up the whole pump house and gets it out of the way.

On the trailer, ready to be strapped down.

Lemur goes everywhere he can with Hunter. He got to ride in his car seat in the Crane with him today. He thought that was pretty cool. Hunter even let him be up on the Crane with him and Lemur thought he was helping run the controls.

Here we are, at the new house. First Hunter had to "fly the play structure/swing set" to it's spot across the yard. Then he could...

"fly the shed" to it's spot.

And gently set it down in its place.

The Phone story

It's probably really not that big of a deal, but it's been a pain in the rear. I had our phone service started on Friday the 13th. The phone didn't work. So Monday I called them and they sent someone out. The guy couldn't find the phone meter box. So the next day he and another guy came out. They couldn't find it, but could see phone jacks all over the house. They finally found some phone line, but it was burried beneat the stucco. They decided that when the previous owners stuccoed the house, they ripped the meter off and buried all the phone line. So the next day, Wednesday, they came back with the supervisor. I think he saw my state (being six months pregnant - frazzled hair, bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, critters running all over the place, boxes everywhere), and took pity on me. He said they would treat this like a new construction and bring in a new phone line from the box out at the road. Then it would be just the $100.00 installation fee for one phone jack. So the next day, Thursday, the phone guys come back. They showed me where they were going to bury the line, install the phone meter and asked where I wanted the phone jack installed in the house - I showed them, and said, I'm on my way out the door to a doctors appointment, so just go ahead and put it in. He said I can't go in the house without you there - tell you what, with everything that has happened I'm just going to leave a coil of phone line and the jack on the back deck. It looks like your husband knows what he is doing. Tell him just to staple gun it to the fascia (I think that's what the over hang of the roof is called), run it down the house, drill into the house with a masonry bit and screw it to the wall. That'll save you $100.00. So that's what he did. I'm glad Hunter is such a handy guy... now if he only had time to install the phone line so I don't have it running into the house through the sliding glass door! I know he will get to it eventually. Oh, then the phone company said they would give us 50% off for the next three months. That's good customer service!

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning

WEDNESDAY: Again, the Relief Society in our old ward got together at my house to clean. In a about 2 hours, the WHOLE HOUSE was spic and span, shiny bright, super, duper clean. I just waited until Saturday to mop once more because we had a friend fix a few things and I didn't want the floors to have foot prints on them. I was SO THANKFUL for all the ladies that helped. It would have taken me hours and hours and hours to do it by myself.

Bee, Monkey and Martin were great helpers too. They did lots of work and very little complaining. We celebrated a clean house by going out to lunch after, and registering them at their new schools.

One of my cleaning angels.

Moving In

I got the computer hooked up on Sunday the 15th. I was so happy the Internet worked! As you can see, there is still a ton to do! I was really bad about taking pictures while we were moving. I wanted to get pictures of all the people that helped us. SOooooo many people helped pack the kitchen, move the kitchen, bring boxes into the house, move furniture, bring furniture into the new house and clean the old house. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help.

MONDAY: was presidents day so none of the critters had school. We did more moving in and unpacking and even cleaning. The Tnuh boys spent the night on Monday night because they didn't have school on Tuesday either. I picked them up at 2:00 and we went over to the other house. The boys loaded the moving van with all the stuff that was in our two sheds. Some of the critters and I cleaned up the last few things in the house and did a bit of cleaning. We then went and met Hunter at Costco for dinner - with 11 kids. Yes, we got some looks. No, they are not all ours (but most of them are). We went home and the critters played outside for a long time. It was SO NICE to send the critters down stairs to the family room to watch and movie and go to sleep. Hunter, Lemur and I went up stairs and went to bed. The critters reported the next day that they stayed up until 2:00 a.m. I didn't hear them once!!!

SUNDAY: We went to our new/old ward. It is the ward we used to live in 2.5 years ago. The critters were all happy to go and already knew kids in their classes, so that made it nice. Even Lemur went to nursery really great. We got lots of hugs and comments like, "welcome home!" It feels good to be home.

SATURDAY: Valentines Day... my Valentine gave me a house for Valentine's Day... what did yours do for you? I told him he is going to have a hard time topping that one in years to come. I got him a new ax. I think next year I will welcome a nice relaxing dinner and evening together versus moving. I'm exhausted. A guy in our old ward let us use this moving van. It was nice because it was covered and we didn't have to worry about things getting wet. It was snowy when we got up, it melted, and of course created lots of mud... which was tracked all through our house.

FRIDAY: Ladies from our old ward helped me pack up the kitchen on Thursday. Thursday night Hunter and some other guys and the critters loaded all the kitchen boxes into a friends horse trailer. She drove it over to our new house on Friday and Yvi, Martin, Bee and I took them all upstairs to the kitchen. Then Martin, Bee and I unpacked everything and put it away... except for the few boxes that were marked "office" and were put in the office because I forgot to tell Yvi that EVERYTHING in the horse trailer was for the kitchen. I found those boxes a week later... thank goodness nothing was supposed to be kept cold!

THURSDAY: Ladies from the Relief Society helped me pack up my kitchen. We had it all done in less than 2 hours. All the boxes FILLED my living room. Hey, what can I say, I love Pampered Chef and food! It was SO NICE to have all the help. What great ladies! I think there were about 8 children two and under there. Lemur had fun sitting in my closet eating pretzels with a friend.

Martin and Porcupine's room.

Steelhead and Monkey's room. The big new windows sure make the rooms brighter!

This was after the cement guys cut the cement. Hunter just knocked the window out and the sheet rock then put the new windows in. We are lucky he is so handy!

More "Before" Pictures

Well, one picture, anyway. This is Steelhead and Monkey's bedroom. They are getting a new window where the cardboard is. Don't you love the back wall? They had glued carpet to part of it. We are going to scrape it down, and then Mama and Papa bear are going to sheet rock it for us this weekend. I think we are going to have to get new carpet too - when the guy was there this morning cutting the cement, there was muddy brown water running down the wall onto the carpet. There wasn't a ton, but I'm sure it's going to make a mess. We'll go back tomorrow to find a big hole in the wall here and in Martin and Porcupine's room. (Forgot to take pictures of that). Hopefully tomorrow Hunter can install the new windows and window wells.

Deck Railing

Here's the deck railing that Hunter and Steelhead built last weekend. It turned out so nice and matches the other deck railing perfectly!

Here's Lemur on the patio. The sliding door goes into the dining room. The window to the left is over the kitchen sink. Some day we might make the patio into a big dining room - we'd still have deck and patio to both sides and it would be nice to have a larger dining area since Tortoise is going to make us a new dining room table out of walnut that Hunter has milled - the table is going to be HUGE!! I can't wait! Oh, we'll also build steps down where Lemur is standing.

A view from down by the car port. We are still waiting for the sellers to take away that old freezer... it has a bunch of rotten meat in it - talk about stink!!!

Workin' on the new "Barn"

Saturday we started putting in new windows in Steelhead and Monkey, and Martin and Porcupine's bedrooms in the basement. We rented a mini excavator to dig the holes - 6'x6'x 5'. BIG holes! Lemur thought he was in Heaven: A little tractor to watch and ride on, and all the dirt he wanted to play in. It was really sunny and fairly warm - a nice day to work outside. This coming week Hunter will put in the windows and window wells, but in rock and back fill it. HOPEFULLY we'll still be able to close this week and move in this weekend.

Here's the hole for Martin and Porcupine's window. Hunter used the excavator to rip the window frame out - it was poured into the walls so it was really in there good.

We had to make a new deck railing on the back patio too - I forgot to take an "after" picture, but here is the before... I'll try and remember to take one and post it.

Steelhead and Hunter made the new front porch railings. I like how "country" they look.

Ramdom Cuteness

Nice stack of boxes hu? We are getting lots of packing done. We took a few loads over to the new house on Saturday (2-7-09). I was glad to have them out of my living room!

Martin and Lemur chillin' - I think they were having a snack.

It's nice to settle down with a good book.

Lemur is so funny - when I take his shoes and socks off, he likes to smell his feet. Wait until he gets Steelhead's age - I promise, he will NOT want to sniff his feet!

Lemur had fun looking at himself in the mirrors - just one of those baby moments when they start to recognize themselves in the mirror.

Bathroom Art

I forgot to post this when it happened back in December and it's a pretty funny story:

So when we celebrated Porcupine's baptism, some family came over, including the Fish family. The critters were running around playing and having a good old time. I went into the critters bathroom to do something and noticed a picture on the bathroom door of... ME! My critters have been really good about not drawing on walls, so I was pretty sure it wasn't one of them - although nothing surprises me at this point in the game. When I saw Bass (7 years old) I asked him, "hey, did you draw this?" He had a very proud smile on his face when he nodded his head and said, "YES!" It then dawned on him.... ooops, that was a big mistake. I told him it was a very nice drawing, and I'd love to have one on paper, but could he please not draw in my bathroom door again. I then offered him a Clorox wipe and he wiped the door off. I had to force myself not to laugh. It was just too cute. Of course his mother was upset that he had drawn on my bathroom door in MARKER! But I told her, she had to admit, she has a budding artist on her hands. I'm glad I got a picture of it... I think it is a flattering picture of moi... I like how skinny I am!

Lookin' back at the week

We were really busy last week packing and cleaning and doing projects at the new house. (see the post below this one). My last day of work at the clinic was Monday. The timing of losing my job has been interesting. I have been praying I will find a job where I don't have to drive every day and pick up tapes, print my work and return it. I think this is the answer to my prayers; just didn't expect it to happen a few days after we signed to buy a house! Anyway, not working has given me time to do lots of packing and cleaning. That's pretty much what I did during the days this week.

Martin had Hunters Education classes on MWF and then he had the Field Day on Saturday night at a shooting range (indoor). Classes were from 6:30 until 9:30... and if you know me, you know I like to be in bed at 9:00, so that was a sacrifice to stay up and go get him... I know, I know, this is only the beginning as he is a TEENAGER now!! (I think I forgot to post him a happy birthday post... I'll do that soon).

Thursday night I started singing in a Tri-Stake choir to prepare an Easter Cantata. It is going to be very beautiful. I love singing in big choirs and our director is so fabulous, he is really fun to sing for. We get to preform three times, one time at each Stake, and once at the United Methodist Church here in town. It's gonna be great. I know, I'm crazy to be doing this while pregnant and moving, but this is my MY TIME - just for me. More relaxing for me than taking a bubble bath. I love it.

The critters had a good week at school. The quarter is over and report cards are coming home. Everyone is doing pretty good... room for improvement in others.

Saturday Hunter helped a friend cut down some power poles (they were given to him, and no they were not connected to wires) and take them to his house so he can build a zip line for his grandkids... we're hoping we get invited over this summer, that will be fun. Then he, Steelhead and a friend went to the new house and built a front porch railing and started on railings on the back patio. We had to do that to pass the FHA inspection, and they were going out today (Monday) so it was a must get done! They worked really hard Saturday but didn't get it quite done. Sunday Steelhead and Hunter went back and finished up. It looks great, but I didn't get a picture. It was super cold outside, but they said they were working hard and didn't get cold. It seems like I spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday running kids here and there and taking toosl and parts to Hunter at the new house. Lots of good quality NPR time. (I love Car Talk, Calling All Pets, and the What Do you Know show with Michael Feldman).

Another busy week ahead of us - more packing and cleaning, and hopefully getting a job for me!

We THINK we have a house!

We have been house hunting for almost 11 months now. I mean hard core, have a realtor, looking almost every weekend, pre-qualified, HUNTING for a house. I think we have about worn our realtor out, she has been such a trooper! We made an offer on this house and it's been accepted, everything is going through and we should close on the 11th - next Wednesday. (keeping our fingers crossed, you never know, anything could happen.) It is a fixer-upper, especially on the outside (Lots and lots of yard work to do) but we love to work and to tackle projects.

We are really excited to have more space (almost twice as much space as the house we are renting right now) and I'm especially excited to have a family room down stairs where the kids can play and go outside without running through the upstairs where the kitchen, dining, master bedroom, my office, living room, baby's room etc are. It is a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom home with 2 kitchens - one in the basement which will be a great place for my craft stuff as well as canning when that time comes. I'm also planning on stocking the downstairs kitchen with cold cereal, paper bowls, plastic spoons, and milk for the critters on Saturday and Sunday mornings... and I can sleep in!! :) Right now our bedroom is off the dining room and I always hear them when they get up on Saturday morning and make their own breakfast. Heck, in our new house, we might not see the critters for days!

We are excited to be back in our old ward! The critters are really excited about that. We have just under an acre of property at our new house, quite a bit less than they are used too. I know the critters are really going to miss playing in the canal in the winter time. They spend a lot of time down there breaking the ice, skating, and playing games. I'm sure they will find fun things to do at our new house though, who knows, maybe even a canal somewhere close by.

The yard boasts several mature fruit trees: apple, plum and pear, as well as a younger fruit tree... not sure what kind yet - it didn't have any fruit on the ground below it for me to tell what it was. There are also two English walnut trees so we'll have plenty of nuts. (although I think we're plenty nuts already). Then there is a garden area that we will make much, much bigger, a nice compost area, and a big raspberry/strawberry patch. Lots of room to build a chicken coop, pig pen and shop, some day.

So, if you're not busy on Valentines weekend, come on over and spend a romantic day with us moving! :)

I'll post more pictures later.

Orichids just because I love you

So the other day Hunter called and said he was going to be a little late - nothing unusual, he is often held up at working finishing things up. I asked, what do you have to do? He said, Just finish some things up here at the shop. I said we'd hold dinner for him and "can't wait to see you!"

So he came home, we had dinner, I got done, started cleaning up, went into our bedroom, and Lemur followed me and handed me a card. I opened it and read a love letter from my handsome Hunter. Of course I got all emotional, because that's what I do these days, and went out into the dining room to give Hunter a big hug and kiss, and there was this orchid sitting where my plate was! Yes, he surprised me! It is so beautiful. I've never gotten an orchid before. I love how unique the flower is. The critters thought it was pretty cool how the stem of the flower grew out of the side of the base of the leaves - not up from the middle of the leaves. It's super tall. So far it is still alive... I hope to keep it that way. Hunter is usually not one for surprises, so I was totally shocked... and we hadn't even had a fight for me to deserve flowers! :)

All the orchid smells I have smelled are very fragrant -lotions, perfumes etc. This doesn't smell at all. Does anyone know why? Also, does anyone know how I take care of it so I don't kill it? I'll have to google that.