August 24, 2013

Well, things at the Ranch never go quite like we plan on them going, but this past week has turned us for more loops than I really care to count.  Monday was the last day I posted about, so here's a quick update of the week:
Tuesday:  all hell broke loose in our cottage.  and yes, it was really that bad.  and keep in mind, the kids are in school for most of the day.
Wednesday:  our wonderful co-workers helped us recover from the previous night, and stuff is starting to look up a bit.
Thursday:  We went to training out of town for the day, and were supposed to go off for the weekend that night.  Unfortunately, our relief houseparents had a death in the family, so we got Thursday night, and Friday night off, and go back on Saturday morning.
Friday:  ...nothing super exciting happened. just slept up, and ..well, didn't really get a day off; we had to keep running to the office about kids we have to take to the doctor before the office re-opens and other crises with kids and stuff.  ...But we weren't responsible for WATCHING (or feeding. :D ) kids.


Which brings us to today.  We came back on duty fairly early (...I guess 9ams not THAT early...), and had a pretty good day.  The one good thing about being suprise on-duty this weekend, is that the hard day to plan (Saturday), was actually pretty easy, because our kids already had their day planned out from about 9-6, and they're supposed to go to bed at 8:30.  We had a church group come visit and do some activities (and feed!) our kids, so it was pretty chill for us.  We spent the majority of the day building and shooting off bottle rockets.  I helped one of our boys make one (and it went pretty good! :D  mostly straight line, and a pretty good distance),  but somehow my husband and I ended up with this one:

yeah, cute little ladybugs all over it and everything.  Pretty sure it's not one of the boys'. ;)

In any case, we're pretty tired, but today went well, and it seems like things are looking up, and will smooth out soon. :D

August 19, 2013

So maybe you'll get a two-for one today.  This was MEANT for yesterday, but it was late, and the internet was being stupid, and...I just waited to post it 'til now, but you still might get one for actually today!

The big deal for today was that it was the first day of school.  So, Nathan and I got to kinda take it easy and do paperwork-y stuff while all the kiddos were off at school.  That was really nice, and we definitely appreciated being rested up when they came home from school all crazy and amped up and stuff.

The other kinda exciting thing from today, is part of a sort of long story.  We noticed the other day, that the living room smelled kinda funky.   The next day, one of our co-workers came to our house and was like, "man, it stinks in here...I think you have skunks living under your house."  So we got with another of our co-workers, who said to put some old meat outside of the critter hole we found, and he'd try and get it later.  So we've putting some chicken outside of the critter hole for the past few days.  Last night, we were going to bed, and saw this:

Hmm...I thought I caught him, when you could actually see the stripe across his eyes.  He's a little hard to see, but if you look close (just above the blue bucket), you can see a raccoon eating up the chicken.  

And that was pretty much our day.  

August 17, 2013

Today was fun, because I got to practice my wifey-mothery skills (and somewhat newfound crafty skills), and fix this cutie for one of the cuties in our cottage:  

 That particular cutie came up to me earlier, and asked me to fix his monkey (...except he called it a bear...), because one of his arms got pulled off.  I heard a story about he got in a fight with his brother, and his brother pulled it off...but I don't actually know how it got ripped off.   But it's a moot point now, 'cuz I fixed it for him.   

Though to be fair...they weren't complete cuties all day.  Sometimes the kids were being really rude to each other (it was really sad to see the brothers fighting), and after a while you just want to strangle them all.  But then you start tucking them into bed at night and they're just so sweet and give nice hugs, and you just want to take them all home with you...which is kind of an odd way to feel, since we basically do live with them.  

August 16, 2013

So, pretty early this morning, I looked out our back window, and this is what I saw:

notice how the background's WHITE.  yeah, that's how foggy it was (you can usually see mountains and trees and fields and stuff.  It was extra impressive and weird when I noticed it, 'cuz I was sitting on the couch and couldn't even see the trees in our yard.  

Anyways, we had a pretty quiet morning.  I hung out with our resident, while Husband went and took care of paperwork and stuff.  But then, things got REALLY interesting.  We had been thinking for a while we might ask to have two other residents in particular over to our cottage because  reasons,preferences and dynamics (and other factors that would take far too long to explain, besides probably breaking some confidentiality agreements).  Anyways, we had a conversation about that with some of our higher-ups almost a week ago, and then stuff came up, and we forgot to do anything about it until yesterday.  So this morning, Nathan sent an e-mail to the head honcho about it, and just before lunch, we got a phone call saying that that was definitely going to happen.  In fact, it was so definitely going to happen, it was going to happen after lunch.  

And then things got more interesting.  While discussing which rooms we were going to place the new residents in, we were told that we're going to get two MORE boys next Tuesday.  They told us things might change quickly, but I wasn't *quite* expecting that one. But things are definitely changing quickly.  One boy on Wednesday, 3 today, school starts Monday (after getting all three adjusted to a new church on Sunday), and then two more on Tuesday!  And then we go off Thursday night.  whew!  Crazy few days, but God is good. :)

August 15, 2013

Woah, that snuck up on me.  did not realize it had been...3 months since I last posted?  apparently moving keeps you busy. ;)

Right so, we agreed to take the job, went to visit my folks, went back to our apartment, spent about a week packing and cleaning it, then went up to visit my husband's family.  Then, his mom and sister came back to our apartment with us so we could use their van as a moving van (which we REALLY appreciate).  So we loaded up, and drove to St. Louis, hung out and did some sight-seeing for a day, and then continued on to our new place.  We're thankful to work at a boys' home, so there were lots of nice, able-bodied young men who could help us unpack the van and get it all into our apartment.

Ever since we got here, we've done a lot of training (read:  following people who knew what they were doing around) on our on-duty days, and sleeping/recovering from that or getting settled into our apartment on our off-duty days.  I've already said it about 6 times, but...I think we've got it.  the latest touch:  a TV and entertainment center.  Though to be fair, part two of that is getting a couch.  but, here's the main feature of our "living room":

We were even able to set up the lovely candle holder my cousin-in-law gave us for our wedding, but didn't have room for in our last apartment.  It looks great, especially when it's all lit up. :)  Anyways, definitely thankful to have a TV in our apartment now, because now when we go off duty, we can watch TV in our apartment, instead of having to sneak into the cottage to watch TV.

We've had even more additions in our cottage (due to our jobs and stuff, our apartment, is attached to a cottage.  When we work, we leave the door open and basically have a master bedroom on steroids; when we're off duty, we shut the door and try to forget there's a house full of people on the other side.)  First off, someone generously gave us a lot of Legos and some video games stuff, like a RockBand set, and a lot of video games.  Anyways, while we were organizing some of those things, we realized some of the Legos were REALLY gross (...think what normally happens when you leave stuff in your attic for a while, like what might come and get it...), so we had to spend a day washing them and disinfecting them and everything.  But they're all clean now, and the few kids who have come by have enjoyed playing with them, so I think we're pretty much set on that. :)

And a confession:  we haven't really been sneaking into our cottage to watch TV.  We've just been going in, because there was no one in our cottage!  But, we can't do that when we go off duty any more, because yesterday, we placed our first boy in our cottage.  

This picture is of the room we placed him in (before any of his stuff was moved in, so none of it can give him away...confidentiality purposes and all that. :) ).  I thought some people might appreciate seeing his room or something as they were praying for him, and believe me...we ALWAYS appreciate prayer for our boys.  This particular kid is pretty sweet, and seems to be making friends and adjusting well, but, we still just ask that you'd pray that the situations or behaviors that got him here would go away, and that we'd be able to show him that he IS loved, and help him work through those situations or behaviors.  And...well, I think that might be all I have on updates from around here...personal or work-related.  

Oh.  well, I guess the last personal note is from almost a month ago.  My mom and aunt were able to make it all the way out here for a visit, and we had a really nice time.  It didn't end on such a good note though...we got a flat tire, and...man, we've had a heck of a time getting it fixed.  But, such is life when you live on a 3 mile long dirt road.  On the other hand, my wonderful husband did some research about getting us some thicker tires, and we got a very helpful response from a guy at Firestone, saying some characteristics we should look for, but they don't have any tires that meet the bill, and fit our car.  But, he did say that we brought up an interesting situation (cars -- rather than SUVS -- who live on dirt roads), and it may lead to research and the development of thicker tires that will fit on a car/sedan. so...look for the Wright Choice tire in the future. :)

May 20

So, because of the camera-sharing (and a crazy busy schedule), I didn't really get to do much in the way of picture taking lately.  But, hopefully that will change and I'll actually be able to take pictures of my day and stuff. :)

Since the last time I posted...I graduated college, and the very next week, my husband and I took a road trip to interview at a place we've been looking at, and last Friday, they called us back and asked us to come back down to work permanently (or semi-permanently...we made a 2-year commitment).  So now we are working on cleaning and packing our apartment and otherwise getting ready for that move.  It's actually going to be slightly difficult - we don't have much furniture (not much would fit in our apartment), but the place we're moving into is a furnished apartment, so we don't need any of it anymore, so we gotta figure out how to get rid of it.

Anyways, the picture for today might be a little hard to understand for one of two reasons:  1) you don't understand how nasty the bathroom was, or 2) you can't tell how much cleaner it is now.  But all the same, our bathroom is WAY cleaner than it was this time yesterday.  the faucets and knobs are all shiny, and there's not dirt that's somehow pasted onto the floor, or crud in the corners of our tub, and our toilet bowl is entirely white!  I'm so proud of it, even though the hole in the wall is still there.  and without further ado:

April 2, 2013

We went up to Michigan this past weekend for Easter, and took pictures because we were on vacation.  And as I started to share them on facebook, I realized I hadn't posted anything on here in a while.  However, I hadn't realized it had been *quite* this long.  In anycase,  I thought I would share some of the more interesting pictures/stories, and play a bit of catch up.

This is a picture of the birthday cake I made for my brother-in-law's birthday.  It looks kinda silly (the candle's are supposed to be arranged in his age, but you can't tell :/ ), but it was delicious, and we had a very nice afternoon/lunch with him celebrating his birthday, so it was a good day.   :)

A while later, I was working on  avoiding some homework, and found a youtube video on how to do a five-strand braid.  technically, I didn't take this picture; my husband did, but this is my first attempt at doing it.  Well, the first time I managed to make it down to the end of my hair at least.  The first few tries, I couldn't get all of my hair IN it.  It *is* kinda difficult to manage 5 different strands of hair like that. :-/

Over Easter break, we went up to Michigan for a big family event.  We stayed for a few days in Frankenmuth, and while we were there, we visited Bronner's Christmas store.  That place is mind-boggling-ly huge, but there are a lot of incredible sights there.  (For example, think of a standard size walmart, that sells nothing but ornaments.  Bronner's does that, but they sell other things too, like trees, and lighted houses, and stockings, and lawn ornaments...)  Anyways, in the lighted house displays, I was very excited to see a Williamsburg themed section, complete with Continential soldiers playing fifes and drums.  It was really neat.  Aside from that, we got to tour Frankenmuth some, a town nicknamed "Michigan's little Bavaria."  To be fair, we didn't get a WHOLE lot of time to sightsee there, but it was a really neat little place, and we had a good time seeing stuff, and more importantly, seeing some family.

Let's see, other exciting things.  Well, we graduate in ...31 days?  Just over a month, it's kinda ridiculous. It's kinda scary, too, as neither of have jobs lined up specifically, though we DO have an interview lined up for the week after graduation that we're pretty excited and hopeful about. So anyways, preparing for graduation and dealing with a full load of classes and work (while fighting off a mild case of senioritis), has kept me pretty busy, which is probably a LARGE part of why I haven't posted anything on here since the semester got into full swing.  Also contributing to that, is that through some unfortunate circumstances, my husband and I are now sharing "my" camera, and as he's actually taking a class titled "creative photography"...there's not really THAT much sharing going on.  but summer's coming, and hopefully soon after, larger paychecks, so maybe we'll be able to remedy that problem soon. :)