CAMPING - DAY 1

It's amazing to me that 90 miles from our "high desert" terrain, we find WOODS..... I mean they are not the forests of our Pacific NW home. No redwoods in sight. No towering mountains...but certainly denser and greener foilage than say cactus and mesquite. It's refreshing.

Here's our campsight. We find that camping mid-week provides lots of solitude. ::grin:: It really wasn't even bad Friday night and Saturday...probably had something to do with the storm...but that's a story for a later day. The first day we found our site, set up, hiked to the fishing hole and dropped a few lines, had dinner and read some Patrick McManus.

Campground and site....

This sign appealed to our love of irony

Prayer Alert

The girls traveled to Mexico last week for a missions trip. They'll be down there another week. If you think of it, pray for their safety, their ministry....fruit, fruit, fruit, as they've been faithful, faithful, faithful. I do miss my babies (21 3/4 and 19 3/4).

Sunday - Chapel and Other Events

Today was our first Sunday back at a chapel service as a family. What a treat!!! Zander sat through the whole service with Mike. I know, I know. Some of you have 2 year olds that do this...but this is an accomplishment for Zander. I received the notice to renew our membership in the FG association. I'm not sure I will. However, the latest newsletter arrived and I was reading the stories and latest news etc. It caused me to think back to how far we've come in just over a year. I get discouraged...but really things ARE looking up. Last year Zander was chewing his shirt and fingers, he hadn't BEGUN to potty train, he banged his head on walls and such, had

multiple daily meltdowns (really worse than what many would term "temper tantrums"), didn't want to interact with us, wouldn't interact with others unless it was TOTALLY on his terms and timing, would "zone out" for hours or days....in short he COULDN'T respond to the training we were so desperately trying to provide. This past year he's potty trained (within the first week of Stage 1 FG), he rarely chews, doesn't bang his head...yes we still have a strong willed boy but NOW he responds. He "gets it" when we talk to him. He doesn't have those "meltdowns" when he's corrected.....all in all....lots of improvement. I need to remember this because this lifestyle is tiring and hard. Things that I'm told "will always work", simply don't work with him. However, at this point those who meet him would simply think he's head strong. I don't think they would believe all his alphabet labels. I at times can't believe the ODD, ADHD, ASD stuff....until we have a bad week. ::snort:: He has blessed our family. He forces Mike and I to rely on GOD for parenting him and not our years of "expertise". ::snort:: He proves that parenting never becomes "old hat" - after 9 children, he's still a NEW individual. ::grin:: He has been the motivation for us finally going crunchy and making changes we needed to make. I hadn't realized how tired I had become parenting him "single" but it's been wonderful to have Mike home. Zander is happy again. He's not had one of those huge meltdowns since Mike has returned....and really not many "naughty strong willed" type behavior either. He's playing well with Nolan and Arielle. He's responding well. I think he'll be ready shortly to begin some "school type" things. I am excited to be able to look back a year from now to see what new mountains we've climbed with our alphabet child. Mike and I talked last night. We KNOW that GOD has created Zander with a strength of will and character. We want to do nothing to break that. Someday he will meet that challenge for the kingdom and/or himself...that challenge that caused God to make him STRONG willed and we want him to have that strength of will and character.....we aren't out to change his personality....only lead him to fear God and to a wholehearted, passionate, personal, pursuit of God. Hmmm....I've been thinking a lot the past week. LOL

Other than church, we went to Double Dave's today for lunch - Jamin's request. This is a pizza spot in town that we'd not tried. They had UNIQUE pizzas. I discovered last time we lived in TX that I would not find BBQ Chicken or garlic artichoke pizzas down here...but they had some of that type pizza here.

We then came home for "home project day".

Josiah had a work event that lasted until late. Jamin helped all over the place with all these jobs...he must have always been busy when I had the camera out. I also finally, took down all the snowmen. I need to switch out plates tomorrow but couldn't reach the boxes of plates when I was ready for that chore today....and by the time the boxes were approachable...I was too tired to tackle a new chore. LOL

Jared works on defrosting the monster....some day I will own a frost free freezer....tonight I have a list of what is IN this freezer....and the ice is gone...it gets bad quickly.

Mike worked on the dryer vents....I now have a dryer that works amazingly well. I also have a new understanding of what it means to "clean the vents".

Through the day, we kept the laundry going....trying to make up for the camping week. I do at least 3 loads 6 days a week.....now if all would consent to run around nekkid until I got caught up...I'd stand a chance.

Arielle and Nolan tackle the sock basket...after I told Mike that they didn't need new socks...just needed to match up the socks in the basket. ::snort::

Mike decides it's time for some play - snow ball fight

Jared Goes on the offensive

I'll work on photos and such from camping for tomorrow. I wanted to PLAY today, but it is very good to have some major projects taken care of. Mike begins work again mid-week. We've been on "holiday schedule". I believe this was a bad choice as I need to get the littles back on a sane bed time schedule by Tuesday night.
We started reading Jamin's book as a family read aloud tonight.

WE'RE HOME....

We arrived home yesterday afternoon. I'm dreaming of posting photos, or geocaching or PLAYING....but Michael has decided we need to do home projects this afternoon.... if anyone wants to phone...of course I'd need to answer....::;wink::

Off to the many home projects that have been patiently waiting.....

Monday

I had two jobs to take care of FIRST today - figure out the invoices etc for Shop Natural co-op tonight and pay bills. Mike had one job to do first - file our AK PFD's. I was ready to run the mortgage to the bank, checked the clock and it was 4:55 - had to meet the truck at 5:15. Mike is still working on PFD's, as the website isn't working so we can't file online. He had to go buy paper so he can print out forms....THAT'S the way the day has gone.

Co-op is pretty much over, except for 10lbs of dates that have no home, I need to put food away and then um....who KNOWS.

I planned on spending the afternoon packing. I think I'll have to do that first thing tomorrow a.m. I need to figure out some budget things before a PAC meeting tomorrow a.m. Jamin planned menus and made lists etc for food for the trip. What a help - I'm supposed to find time to double check everything...we'll see if it happens.

We'll be out of touch for a few days - don't worry about us.

SUNDAY

We have had a lazy day. We went to lunch at Cheddars....where they tried to sit 9 of us at a table that would comfortably sit 6. Then we went to a graduation meeting for Josiah. Next was bringing the trailer home to get ready for our next outing. I helped Mike finish unpacking. Mostly, I've been reading Jamin's book. I'm really enjoying it. In fact, we are probably going to make it our next family read aloud. We'll see. We've had fun discussions about some of the characters and such in the book. We tried to guess who of our friends and family show up in the book. ::snort::

Burka Babe

What would you do with a man who brought home something like this to YOU? No offense to anyone - but I think I preferred the Korean robe. ::snort:: The boys were VERY close to daring me to wear this to chapel....but they refrained.....probably afraid that I would.

Accessories - Mike informed me that you don't accessorize a burka