October 13, 2013

So, what we do on our weekends off:  go for walks.  And it's starting to get a little cooler here, so the leaves are *just* starting to change.  (It's still mostly green...really green.)  But, what has changed looks really pretty, and makes us even more excited for it to change. One of the things we said when we first moved here, was "man, I bet it's really pretty when the leaves all change and everything in the fall," so it's exciting to see how that goes. :)

And then we came back on duty, and had one of the busiest weeks of house-parenting I've experienced yet.  The day after we came back duty, we had a boy who had a left for a short stint, come back.  Of course, his behavior showed that the reason he had left in the first place was still an issue, so, he left two days later, which was the double-edged sword:  it was stressful to have him back here, but it was stressful to have him gone too.  (But on a more serious note, pray for him).  But then on top of that, the next two days after he got back, all us houseparents went to a marriage seminar, from 8am to 3 pm (and with travel time, that goes from about 7:20 am to about 3:40 pm).  Which more importantly, means no time to go talk to office people about issues, no time to plan meals or get the food for them, any of the paper work we need to do during the day, or (probably most importantly) no time to process what we talked about at the seminar.  So in short, that was a very long two days in itself.  But, they treated us to a very nice dinner after the second day, so that was nice (and I still have leftovers. :D ).

But, we've had a good weekend.  We took advantage of the nice weather, and went down to the creek last Friday night.  We roasted hot dogs, and made s'mores, and it was even nice enough that the boys could go swimming a little bit.  It seems like the boys had a good time (and I know they had a better time than the other cottage that went camping, and then got rained out and had to come back in the middle of the night).  We also got to take all our boys to Wal-mart so they could spend their allowances, so they're all jazzed about their new Nerf guns and everything.  So, as usual, ups and downs, but overall good. :)

October 4, 2013

oops, guess it was another long one.  And to be fair, we have been on for pretty much the entire time between our last post and this one. This picture is the only exception to that; it was from our last weekend off (actually, on the same day as my last post).  We went for a walk, and these were just some pretty flowers along the road as we walked.  And so...there's a picture. :)

And that was pretty much the end of our time off; we didn't do anything particularly exciting.  Just slept a lot and got our house cleaned up.  (This time around, I got it cleaned up right before we went off. :) ).  Our time on was pretty exciting too; family visits for some of the kids, parent-teacher conferences (which took forever).  One of our kids also had to leave rather unexpectedly.  As hard as that was, it was really kinda see God teach us through that.  I was rather moved, because the morning that happened, I went to a Bible study about how God is outside of time and controls everything, and so I thought it was really cool to see not only that we can trust him through everything that happened that day, but also that God knew that I needed that reminder that morning.  Nathan got a good glimpse of that too; he said that his Bible reading that morning was about God telling people that "I'm going to take you away for a while, and it's gonna be really hard and not fun at all, but it's for the best," and that was just a really good reminder for us too.  So as we've said, God is good, even when life is hard.

But yeah, that were pretty much the highlights of this week.  Oh, nope one more.  I had felt a little rough over the weekend, but the high (or low...) point of that was Saturday night when I actually got sick, which then meant I couldn't really do anything the next day.  I felt bad leaving Nathan by himself for the next day, but it was nice to have some extra time to relax, and I had to erase this:

All month, I've been systematically using colors to make a pattern as I crossed out dates on our calendar.  Of course, what I didn't really think about when I started this, was that it wouldn't really show up until it was time to erase it.  so...I took a picture of it right before I erased it.  And as Nathan points out, the blue, purple, and black, are almost indistinguishable from each other, so that whole pattern idea might have been a flop.  (Which is why it's a checkerboard this month. :) )



And the last big deal (or at least the last thing I remembered to take a picture of), is the fly.  When we first moved up here, there were a TON of flies, EVERYwhere.  Literally, we put people on "fly patrol", where they just walked around with a fly-swatter and tried to kill as many flies as they could.  Anyways, we noticed...maybe a month ago, so that the flies got a lot better (more scarce).  as in, we didn't really have any.  And then about two days ago, we found another one.  and not even just a normal fly....a HUGE one.  and it just flew around the house, and buzzed around my ear while I was trying to nap, and basically I vowed to kill it.

Well, tonight we made it happen.  I got serious about getting it, and ran around our living room for about 15 minutes, and then finally Nathan got it.  Of course, we didn't think he got it, so we just stood guard in the room for about another 5 minutes, before we finally found where it had just landed after he had smacked it.  And I'm telling you it was a big one.  Here's the fly near my thumb:



And...I guess that's all I really have to say.  Except...maybe I'll be back sooner this time?  We'll see. :)

September 21, 2013

Whoops, I haven't done this in a while.  Just get busy during the day, and at the end of the day, it's just a race to finish some paperwork so we can go to bed.

Anyways, this is the picture of the week, I guess.  I mean, it was from over a week ago, but it's the only picture I have since the last time I posted.  Anyways, here's the deal:  every night, we have to set an alarm that goes off if any of the kids leave their room or anything.  But one day, it turned off.  Like, the batteries died, and there was not getting it set that night.  So, we had to sleep out in the living room.  It worked out okay though, because you remember that couch/bean-bag thing we got a while ago?  It turns into a mattress, so we didn't have to sleep on the couch, we got to sleep on an actual mattress.  Our assessment:  better than an air mattress, not as good as a real one.

September 8, 2013

Well, it's been a crazy week for us.  Sunday through Tuesday of last week, we were really just pushing to make it through to the end of our on-duty stretch.  We made it, and actually, as hard a time as I had making it to the end, I spent a surprising amount of Tuesday night thinking and talking (and some planning) about our boys.  And even then, we weren't really free from work, because we had to make a 3-hour trip to go to some training for work on Wednesday.  but then, we really were done. :)

Thursday, we really had some time off, but even then, we couldn't really just sit down and you know...rest.  Instead, we got our house pretty much cleaned up (or at least, we got the junk off our table. :) ), and got packed up for our trip.  And then, Friday, we got up super super early and left to catch a plane back to my home, for my sister's wedding!  Friday we got the place all set up and decorated (...which was mostly done by the time I got there...), and did the rehearsal and everything, and then Saturday we ran around doing last minute things and getting ready and taking pictures, and getting my sister and her now-husband married. :)  It went so well, and we all had a great time :)

And then today, we packed up (or you know, put the boxes we packed up yesterday in our cars), and drove home, unpacked, took my brother to the airport, and just kinda hung out (and watched Duck Dynasty, which I just found out my parents are big fans of. :) )  Anycase, we're gonna rest and sleep up tonight, and tomorrow we'll get up at a much more reasonable time than we did to come here, and catch our flight back to where we live.  And then we'll get to just sleep up tomorrow night, and then go back on duty the day after that, so we got some nice vacation time in this week. :)

Anyways, considering my sister got married, you'd think I'd have a ton (or at least one) pictures of her wedding.  However, my husband borrowed my camera...for the entire weekend.  so, I don't really have any pictures from it.  I did manage to catch a few pictures though, so because it's been a whole week since I posted something, and in honor of her wedding, you get all three of them!

This is a picture of my husband, the night before we left.  He decided to shave while in the shower (and thus, no mirror).  He did ask for me to tell him once or twice where stuff would be evened up, but...obviously not enough.  After a while, he just gave up, and shaved facing a mirror (over the sink) after he got out of the shower.  And he looked very nice after that. :)

This is a picture I took while running some errands after getting picked up on Friday. We had to go pick up a keyboard from the music store in town, and when we pulled up, I noticed that the strip of buildings in which the store was located had a funky swirly chimney.  I thought it was cool, and so here's a picture.  

This is a picture at the rehearsal dinner.  The restaurant we went to set this out as an appetizer (I think just for the bride and groom).  It's a rose, but it's edible.  The stem is made out of some fancy bacon (I heard some one say that it had something special done to it, and it sure looks like something was done to it, but I have no idea what was done to it.)  and the flower part is made out of a deviled egg.  

And this is the only picture of the wedding day that I have.  My sister and I went to run errands the day of the wedding (because we had to get our hair done, and pick up the flowers).  Anyways, I ended up needing to parallel park while we were out, which most people make a little bit of a big deal of, since it's kind of uncommon to do anymore (which probably adds to why people always say it's hard).  It was also more of a big deal for me, because (though it was debated later that day), that was the part of driver's ed that everyone (including my dad, which is kinda impressive in and of itself) thought I didn't actually need, and never made me do.  Anyways, first time time having to parallel park, and with no one else in the car (coaching or otherwise), this was my second attempt.  ...The first time, I got between the cars, but I was only like a foot in from the street.   But, by the end of the day, I was a pro at parallel parking (and backing up and down steep, curvy hills.)

Anyways, I might be gone for another bit, since the battery in my camera is dead, but once we get back home, I'll find some more stuff to take pictures of. :)

September 1, 2013

So, our week wasn't been too bad.  and then it was the weekend.  And really, it's not even that the weekend's been that bad; the kids have actually been really good.  ... it's just that we're tired, and they got out of school early on Friday, and they don't have school tomorrow, so we have to come up with stuff to do with the kids while they're not at school.  But it has been good.  we've had a lot of fun playing around the house and at the creek.

Anyways, our picture for today:

We're having a group on campus this week.  They're going to stay in their campers and do some helpful things around the Ranch (though to be honest, I don't exactly remember what they're going to do.  I know the ladies are going to decorate Christmas wreaths and bake us cookies, but I don't know what the guys are going to do.  I kinda went into "I'm going to be off-duty that week; I don't really care what's going on then" mode when they started talking about it."  Anyways, just be praying that they can do all the things that they mean to do, and that they're blessed while they're here (and especially that we don't do anything to make them not blessed).  

Also, I found this picture on my camera today.  It's not really anything special, just a moth we found on our house the other day.  But it sure did look cool, so I thought I would post a picture of it. :)

August 29, 2013

Welp, I was wrong...that chair did get here today. And I even managed to squeeze in some time to get it unpacked and assembled... well, sort of assembled.  All you had to do was open the box, put the cover on the floor, then dump the mattress-cube deal into the cover, zip it up, and squish it some to get it to decompress.  I think it's still got some decompressing to do, but it's plenty comfy anyways. :)  Even better, it's just the right size for my husband and I to both sit on, which is exactly what we wanted. :D

Anways, the only other real exciting bit of news is that we're getting two new boys today.  The other boys are all excited to have them here, so I think it's gonna work out real well.  In any case, be keeping us in your prayers, and just that they'd settle in well and all that.  Also, one of our other boys started asking about salvation and so forth last night, so keep in your prayers too!

August 28, 2013

So, as we expected things are going fairly smoothly.  I mean, we've been on the receiving end of some temper tantrums and such, but...that's what we get for working with 7 year olds, right? But seriously, it's been going really well, overall.  Having them in school is pretty nice, 'cuz then we can catch up on sleep during the day and stuff, and that's been very helpful.

So...pictures.  yeah, last night, I went to bed knowing what I was going to post when I got around to posting it, so here it is.  When we first moved into this apartment, we noticed there were no blinds in the window (but two sets of blinds lying underneath the window).  Turns out, those blinds were too big.  We put in a maintenance request to get those installed...within two weeks of getting here. But other stuff was more important (and we do appreciate all the other stuff they keep running instead of us having blinds), and they had to hand-cut the blinds to the correct size, and this that the other... but finally, we got them installed yesterday.  Or, to be fully accurate...our wonderful handymen finally installed them yesterday.  And they look great, and we're excited to have them up in our apartment. :)  (Plus, I got our kitchen table cleaned off, so it actually looks like responsible people live here and stuff. :) )

BUT THEN, came the truly exciting story of the evening.  Or rather, the next day.  We have to set an alarm system in our house, so we know if kids are getting up in the middle of the night and that sort of thing.  Unfortunately, the kids in our cottage set it off a bit more frequently than we'd really like (especially once we find out WHY they woke us up at 1:30 and 4 in the morning).  In any case, last night the alarm went off  (twice, if you didn't pick up on that), and I ran out, turned off the alarm, and started to go to the kids room, but I accidentally kicked the door I had to go through, and scraped my foot. But I didn't realize I had until after I had gotten him all taken care of, and was starting to go back to bed. (I feel like the tape all the way across my foot makes it look way worse than it really is, but at the same time...it is kinda gross-looking underneath the gauze.)   Anycase, doing that meant that today I got to fill out forms about my injury, and what time it happened, and "the specific process I was involved in when I sustained the injury" and so forth, and it was really kinda a hassle.  ...Especially since I'm pretty sure the most this'll turn into is a week or so of me having to take an extra 15 minutes a day (throughout the day, not even all at once) to make sure it's clean and bandaged nice and that sort of thing.  oh well.

And the really exciting part of the day is that we're supposed to get our couch/beanbag deal today (check out CordaRoys.com if you want to know exactly what I'm talking about).  I didn't believe that it'd get here today, especialy when it got to Memphis at 7:20 last night.  But, it was in town at 6 this morning, and on it's delivery route at 6:05, so I started to change my mind.  ...but it still hasn't gotten here, so I'm getting a bit more skeptical each second again.  I guess it doesn't really matter, since we won't really get to use it until next Tuesday or so (when we finally get some time off! :) )