We had the great pleasure of having Rachel and the girls here last Tuesday. We love seeing them! Here are some snapshots of our time together...
All the kidlets.
Katie, Aaliyah, Riley, Gabby, Ali and Emmie
Breakfast time.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
We Have a Pet, Finally!!
Meet Herman!
He's our new hermit crab. We are really easing into this pet thing. We are letting the kids try out their pet care responsibilities on this little guy. He's kinda creepy and not at all cuddly like a puppy would be but it's a start I guess.
Riley and Ali are so excited, they just love him! They are doing so well at taking care of him. They have to change his food and water each day and spray him with water every few hours.
I'm hoping that he lives longer than the hermit crab I had as a third grader... I don't think that I knew he needed to eat or have clean water though so that may have contributed to his premature death!
He's our new hermit crab. We are really easing into this pet thing. We are letting the kids try out their pet care responsibilities on this little guy. He's kinda creepy and not at all cuddly like a puppy would be but it's a start I guess.
Riley and Ali are so excited, they just love him! They are doing so well at taking care of him. They have to change his food and water each day and spray him with water every few hours.
I'm hoping that he lives longer than the hermit crab I had as a third grader... I don't think that I knew he needed to eat or have clean water though so that may have contributed to his premature death!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
First Day of School
My cute little girl, working so diligently on glueing beans to the letter A.
First day of Preschool!
First day of 2nd grade!
First day of 3rd grade!
The Best Dessert Ever!
I promised Jason not to blog the story behind the photo. Let's just say I have waited a long time for these Dixie Cups! Thank you Josh... my big brother, still looking out for me!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Camping
We went camping this weekend with the Drechsels. Jason and Tyler have been best friends since they were eight and they are still friends and now their kids are friends. It's a lot like being with family when we're with them.The photos above are of Jason's cardboard box oven and the cookies that he made in it. The cookies from the box turned out great but the chicken hash brown dinner that we made in the dutch oven turned out awful. We actually dumped it in the river and had canned stew for dinner instead. It was a great weekend though and a fun way to end the summer. Now we are ready to start school. Oh and when we got home the title to the trailer was in the mail. So, as you can imagine, it's already on Craigslist.
Katie, Keri and Ali having fun with the Play-Do.
Justin and Riley.
Jason and Tyler...like father like son.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
What's Cookin' Wednesday
Dinner and Dessert a Five Year Old Can Make...
I'm sure this doesn't sound good but really it is. In fact it is by far the most requested thing we ever have for dinner. And truly the kids have made it (with my supervision of course) on their own. So the thing is, it's hardly even a recipe, it's so easy.
Enchiritos
1 package frozen burritos - whatever flavor your family likes or you can use chimichangas for extra crunchiness
1 can red enchilada sauce
lots of shredded cheddar cheese
Place the burritos in a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Dump the entire can of sauce over top. Cover with cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Serve with taco type fixins if you want or if your domestic batteries are running dry just serve them the way they are.
Dump Cake
1 yellow cake mix
1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches
1 stick butter
Spread 1/2 of the cake mix evenly in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Pour the peaches and the juice from the peaches evenly over the cake mix.Cover the peaches with the remaining cake mix. Slice the butter over the top. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Serve with whip cream.
I'm sure this doesn't sound good but really it is. In fact it is by far the most requested thing we ever have for dinner. And truly the kids have made it (with my supervision of course) on their own. So the thing is, it's hardly even a recipe, it's so easy.
Enchiritos
1 package frozen burritos - whatever flavor your family likes or you can use chimichangas for extra crunchiness
1 can red enchilada sauce
lots of shredded cheddar cheese
Place the burritos in a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Dump the entire can of sauce over top. Cover with cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Serve with taco type fixins if you want or if your domestic batteries are running dry just serve them the way they are.
Dump Cake
1 yellow cake mix
1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches
1 stick butter
Spread 1/2 of the cake mix evenly in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Pour the peaches and the juice from the peaches evenly over the cake mix.Cover the peaches with the remaining cake mix. Slice the butter over the top. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Serve with whip cream.
The Joy of Renting
As most of you know we are currently renting our home.It's strange.We've never rented before. From the wedding day, ten years ago, until last March we've been proud home owners. Mostly we liked being home owners. And we would still be homeowners if our life hadn't taken such a drastic change of course.
It really is an example of God's care for us and the fact that he knows whats comin' down the line.
Last October we decided we were done living in the house we had bought the year before from Jason's grandma. It was in the ghetto. There was a questionable death across the street from us that was being investigated as a murder. There were police and gangs and drug deals and angry addicts all over the place. Not good for bringing up the youngsters. Anyhow, we decided we would sell the house and move back to Post Falls. As we were waiting for it to sell we were praying about the next house we would buy and both Jason and I kept on feeling like God was telling us to just rent. Weird. Why would God care? Well, when our house did sell, we went looking for a house to buy (because we wanted to disobey God, apparently). We didn't find anything that was suitable for our family size that we could afford. So, we decided to go ahead and rent. We found our current house and realized that it would be a great place to call home. The day that we closed on the sale of our home Jason's job went bye-bye. This was a complete surprise. Thank God we had decided to rent. We were able to survive on money from the sale for a while as Jason started up his new dream job as a realtor. I don't know what we would have done if we had ended up buying a house. We would have used that money for a down payment and would have had no way to even make our first mortgage payment. Not good.
So... during our home owner years we, of course, were responsible for everything that needed fixed and maintained. The only time that this was really an awful thing was when we had the ghetto house and the sewer backed up. Now, I have heard other people talk about sewer back ups but prior to this experience I hadn't had any of my own experiences. It is much worse in real life than in other people's stories.
Early that morning both Jason and I could smell something not so lovely in the house. We didn't know what it was though. Maybe there was something yucky in the drain pipes coming out of the washing machine or dishwasher, so we ran both of those. We cleaned the toilets and emptied the trash. We checked for a hiding poopy diaper. None of these measures did anything to eliminate the smell. We went on about our day and figured that we would find the culprit sooner or later.
Later that morning, while having friends over to play, the kids openned the door to the newly carpeted and painted basement..."Mom!!! We found where the smell is coming from!!!!" This sends me dashing downstairs assuming to find that one of the kids used too much TP and overflowed the toilet. I definately was not expecting to step in sewer waste that had flowed out of the shower and all the way out in the bedroom. Yes, I stepped in our neighbor's body waste, in our basement, on our new carpet. You have got to be kidding me! Gross!! It was on our furniture and the kid's toys, it was beginning to soak up onto the walls, it was everywhere.
We had to leave our house with the four little ones, including four week old Emmie, for several days while the guys in the white plastic suits and breathing apparatus came in and cleaned up. They garbaged all our stuff. They ripped out our pretty painted walls and threw away our brand new carpet. Oh my heart breaks. And then in an attempt to save money so that we can afford to pay the $1000 home owner's insurance deductible (bad idea, do not have a $1000 deductible) Jason takes on the job of re-building the basement. He has to drywall and paint and install a new bathroom. We had to have new carpet installed again. This was not something I was prepared to deal with at this stage of my life as a post-partum homeschooling mama.
So, yesterday when the kind man from the water district knocked on the door to inform me that we must have a leak in our water pipes because we have used 115,000 gallons of water in less than one month's time, I just felt thankful. I know that it's going to be inconvenient to have them dig up our front yard to fix the leak but we don't have to pay for it. And it could be a lot worse. It could be other people's poop.
It really is an example of God's care for us and the fact that he knows whats comin' down the line.
Last October we decided we were done living in the house we had bought the year before from Jason's grandma. It was in the ghetto. There was a questionable death across the street from us that was being investigated as a murder. There were police and gangs and drug deals and angry addicts all over the place. Not good for bringing up the youngsters. Anyhow, we decided we would sell the house and move back to Post Falls. As we were waiting for it to sell we were praying about the next house we would buy and both Jason and I kept on feeling like God was telling us to just rent. Weird. Why would God care? Well, when our house did sell, we went looking for a house to buy (because we wanted to disobey God, apparently). We didn't find anything that was suitable for our family size that we could afford. So, we decided to go ahead and rent. We found our current house and realized that it would be a great place to call home. The day that we closed on the sale of our home Jason's job went bye-bye. This was a complete surprise. Thank God we had decided to rent. We were able to survive on money from the sale for a while as Jason started up his new dream job as a realtor. I don't know what we would have done if we had ended up buying a house. We would have used that money for a down payment and would have had no way to even make our first mortgage payment. Not good.
So... during our home owner years we, of course, were responsible for everything that needed fixed and maintained. The only time that this was really an awful thing was when we had the ghetto house and the sewer backed up. Now, I have heard other people talk about sewer back ups but prior to this experience I hadn't had any of my own experiences. It is much worse in real life than in other people's stories.
Early that morning both Jason and I could smell something not so lovely in the house. We didn't know what it was though. Maybe there was something yucky in the drain pipes coming out of the washing machine or dishwasher, so we ran both of those. We cleaned the toilets and emptied the trash. We checked for a hiding poopy diaper. None of these measures did anything to eliminate the smell. We went on about our day and figured that we would find the culprit sooner or later.
Later that morning, while having friends over to play, the kids openned the door to the newly carpeted and painted basement..."Mom!!! We found where the smell is coming from!!!!" This sends me dashing downstairs assuming to find that one of the kids used too much TP and overflowed the toilet. I definately was not expecting to step in sewer waste that had flowed out of the shower and all the way out in the bedroom. Yes, I stepped in our neighbor's body waste, in our basement, on our new carpet. You have got to be kidding me! Gross!! It was on our furniture and the kid's toys, it was beginning to soak up onto the walls, it was everywhere.
We had to leave our house with the four little ones, including four week old Emmie, for several days while the guys in the white plastic suits and breathing apparatus came in and cleaned up. They garbaged all our stuff. They ripped out our pretty painted walls and threw away our brand new carpet. Oh my heart breaks. And then in an attempt to save money so that we can afford to pay the $1000 home owner's insurance deductible (bad idea, do not have a $1000 deductible) Jason takes on the job of re-building the basement. He has to drywall and paint and install a new bathroom. We had to have new carpet installed again. This was not something I was prepared to deal with at this stage of my life as a post-partum homeschooling mama.
So, yesterday when the kind man from the water district knocked on the door to inform me that we must have a leak in our water pipes because we have used 115,000 gallons of water in less than one month's time, I just felt thankful. I know that it's going to be inconvenient to have them dig up our front yard to fix the leak but we don't have to pay for it. And it could be a lot worse. It could be other people's poop.
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