Blessings and Transitions

In March my husbands' seizures increased so much that he had no more time off at work - even with his doctors FMLA paperwork for time off. She was unhelpful this year in changing medication to something that worked better as the two he was on had stopped working. Unhelpful with filing the new needed paperwork for him to retain his job and unwilling to do anything that might have helped us. Needless to say, she isn't our doctor anymore.
Not that it makes a huge difference as we are uninsured until I've been at my new job for 3 1/2 months. At that time we most likely would have been searching for a new doctor who took our new insurance anyhow.

Leap ahead I was offered 3 jobs - huge blessings as I've been a stay at home mama for 13 years - on my 39th birthday I was offered the job I truly wanted. Its 7 minutes from my home, I stay busy all day long and time vanishes quickly. Even better I have work I enjoy and feel like I do a good job in my position.

Hubby's having a go at being the stay at home dad. He's doing a great job and he's still mostly sane even being around our dastardly duo 24-7.
Our life has been full of ups and downs, after 12 years at his job building up a decent 401K we cashed out enough to pay off tiny bills and buy ourselves a small unretirement gift.

After searching for a while we found a wonderful gem. A 40 yr old class C motorhome in near perfect condition! (insert squeal here - louder)

I made a joke as we drove it home that he had just bought his own dog house (joking, just joking).
He came back with that as long as we have it we will never be homeless - touche, he wins the point.

Our amazing friends S & S thought we should run it up for a quick trip over Labor Day Weekend (since I had it off paid) to test it out - they, of course, came with us in their RV to make sure we were safe. Also, they adore camping. S's parents also bought a class C RV (2018) this year and wanted to test it out so they joined us. We had an incredible time.

This year has been full for us, so many blessings, so many changes and lots of new experiences.
Prissy was asked to Homecoming next week and our small circle seemed to flip. Dress from a friend, shoes from our neighbor, nails being done by my bestie S & hair cut by me - most likely styled by me as well.

Winter will be spent fixing up the motorhome, we want to paint inside and outside, fix the brake light, the hot water line & change the valve on the propane. We also are going to give it a tune up and change out the fuel filter. Lots of little things that will give it the TLC love it needs to shine. It truly surprised us camping - everything works! Furnace, AC, propane, stove, sinks, toilet, onboard generator etc. Even more amazing it made it up Parleys Canyon! (For those of you who don't live in Utah it is a main road up a mountainside with a 6% grade for MILES to reach the top. It's not the grade of steepness that makes the road so hard to get up but the length in which you need to drive your car up that steep of a climb. Its burnt out more than one engine.)

So while our garden has been amazing and I've already canned several fun things this year I really have been to busy to blog - on any of my blogs. Not even the most amazing surprise birthday love from all my neighbors this year - so hi, still alive, still here, still making it one day at a time.

PEAP from POTUS

My son G'man was awarded the Presidents Education Awards Program for
Outstanding Academic Achievement!

G'man was over the moon to receive this!
Something signed from the President himself.

After the last year of nasty politics, insults and hate it was eye opening to see such 

simple joy because the PRESIDENT signed it.
Respect and love for the office of his country.

We've gotten to embroiled in the details, the whose doing what that our country seems to have forgotten that we are one country.
We are one people, all wanting similar things.
To live well, to live safely and to grow old with those we love.

Also my adorable cutie really enjoys to pose for the camera!
Button is our lovely little lady.

Meet Button!

  Please welcome Button!

When Button was only two days old a girl in my daughters online Academy class held up a cute brand new puppy!
Long story short, we went to see the puppies!
This photo is from when Button was only 4 days old!

That day she was ours!
Named and paid for!
All we had to do then was wait! and wait and WAIT!
(I hate wait*)

Button came home at 8 weeks old
on the day of our 15th anniversary!
The photo above is her meeting our other pure bred Shih Tzu Patch



This is our darling today!

She is our sunshine!
Her and Patch are FINALLY getting along,
Patch was jealous, annoyed and afraid of the little darling with razor sharp teeth.
I've currently nicknamed her Tiny Teeth of Terror and its more than fitting!

 My life is richer, fuller and more filled today!

So welcome to the family my cute baby Button!



*Favorite quote from The Princess Bride

Camping!

Camping!

Our camp site was roughly at 9,000 feet.

However we did take a day trip down to Current Crick.

Just one of the amazing days up in the mountains with the best people!

Our camp site! 

On one of our many nature hikes I stopped to take a great photo and the hubs snapped one of me!

So here is the shot of me, followed by the shot I was taking!

I could have stayed there forever!
(please forgive my disheveled appearance it was day 3 of camping and I really didn't care at all what I looked like.)
I mean really, who needs to look beautiful when everything around you is stunning!?!

I have to say I needed this camping trip!

Its been a stress filled summer and taking a week away to rest, relax and unwind was heavenly!

The stars at night were magical! 

Our site was directly underneath the milky way and at night (the moon NOT up) 

the sky was bright!

There are no words for how amazing the sky is far from the city lights!

I could try to talk about the inky blackness, the dark deep velvet of night, the shimmer and the brightness along with the depth of light.

How it looks so deep you could dive in and swim away to the furthest star in no time at all, yet if you don't have the imagine in your mind its just not the same.

Fall is coming.

Already the trees were turning yellow!

Sorry I haven't been blogging much, I've had a rough summer. 

Then I've two weeks of constant apples (canning, slicing, peeling ect)

Today is prayerfully my last day of apples - next I start on cucumbers!

A 10th Birthday Party!

Yesterday G'man turned 10! 

Today we celebrated with a fun filled day at the Nickel Cade - a local video arcade place where every game is only five cents to play!

Two amazing hours of games, friends, presents, cake and prizes! Everyone had a blast! I'm just thrilled that it turned out perfect!

All eight kids (6 not including mine) that were invited showed up! Everyone enjoyed the goodie bags, cake and soda. Most of all everyone loved the games!

We did have one down side, today when we got home G'mans friend and next door neighbor stole one of his toys - IN FRONT OF US!

I kid you not, he refuses to give back the small toy and his family's response has been, yeah he's been caught stealing from some of his friends.... That's it.

So while the party was great, we did end up having to ban one child from coming back to our home.

I am very disappointed with how people are raising kids, allowing them to consider this not only okay but normal behavior.

Also one of the funniest bits is his Lego Mine-craft toy came with a treasure chest full of --- a french baguette...?
Not what I picture as treasure but hey G'mans happy with it!

So another year has disappeared, vanishing quickly and we have a fantastic year ahead! Both my kids are in double digits now! Not sure if I should be thrilled or terrified. 

Also I've decided that from now on every year they age, I'm getting younger. I'm done with aging. No more sore muscles, strange aches and grey hairs. So let the good times roll! 

Easter

First off HAPPY EASTER! 

I had some fun today with Zorro, our adorable sweet male rabbit. He's so large and adorable now! I need to post new photos of him soon!

Gifts this year were different our kids are older now, Prissy is 12 and G'man is turning 10 in a few weeks. They did the Easter Egg hunt at Hubby's work like we do every year - this is where they bagged a ton of candy and a few nice prizes!

We however got them big kid gifts.

G'man got a wood burning kit and will be learning how to use it, while Prissy got a new art box.

For our adult friends and family (that live close by) we made up Easter Omelet baskets!

Highlighting our farm fresh eggs of course!

Each basket had 2 sets of 3 eggs. One set blue/green from our Easter Eggser (Americana's), one set brown from our Rhode Island Reds.

To go with the eggs we added cubed ham, cheese wedges, peppers, tomato, mushrooms and an onion.

We dropped them off yesterday so that they could wake up to an have a wonderful Easter Breakfast! So while we are all still feeling a little under the weather and haven't been very active. I hope to be posting more wonderful photos of our new cute additions soon!

Until next time, Happy Easter!

wink emoticon

Early Morning Mountain Walk

Sunday morning  I took our dog (tiny one Patch) and Rocko (HUGE one) for an early morning walk, while the men made breakfast.

There are few ways I'd rather wake up in the morning than a solitary hike through gorgeous terrain.

Very few. 

Maybe only one.

The dogs were well behaved during both our walk and the whole trip. For two dogs that don't spend a lot of time together then being put into a camper for a few nights they were amazing!

Most of the time the sky was a bright blue, the first night we had a light fog roll in over the mountain range, making some of my photos hazy, but it cleared up and stayed clear the rest of the trip.

Glasses not mine, overalls mine

Breakfast Saturday: Pancakes, eggs (fresh from our girls) and sausage.

Then of course I headed back out with my camera to do more exploring, photos and hiking.

More on the wildlife and adventures tomorrow! 

Camping Night One

Did I mention that I'm biased to Utah's stunning beauty? That I find our mountains to be gorgeous?
If I haven't I've been lax.
Camping this weekend, the end of summer, Autumn already starting to show signs of starting in the mountains was glorious!
I loved our whole trip. Friends, food and an amazing view.

The sunset over the ridge the first night lit up the entire sky, soft rosy reds, pinks and a light orange hue rounded it out.

Our entire group consisted of 13 people. 9 adults 4 kids. Most of us have been friends for years but there were a few new faces. M is recently engaged to R. Welcome R to the group! Also L & N came along getting to know the rest of the group. L and I've been friends for years, but her life recently changed where she can go on adventures and play again.

If you click on any of the photos you can view them larger. 

No good camping trip would be complete without S'mores!

This was a fairly short trip, we went up Saturday and came home Monday. I still managed over 300 photos, some of which turned out amazing!
More posts to follow!

Magna Arts Festival

Five years ago we moved into Magna. Its small, charming and unique. This however was our first year going to the Magna Arts Festival!
This was also our first summer going to the music and movie in the park on Fridays as well. Before my husbands strange schedule made it hard to do things as a family.

This is going to be a yearly thing for us from now on! The music was fun, the vendors amazing, the prices FABULOUS!!!

The earrings in the corner hubby bought me for only five dollars and they aren't cheaply made!
Paparazzi had an amazing stock of jewelry with fabulous prices!
G'man was able to create HUGE bubbles and the kids came home with several free arts crafts!

There I made a connection with a book publisher who takes new writers. They are looking for YA lit and encouraged me to send my work in! So here's crossing your fingers! One last read through and hopefully I'll send it off within the month!

I was also able to acquire 6,800 steps walking around Magna main as well as walking to and from our home.
I'm still working out, still losing weight slowly but I'm getting healthier. I have more energy, which is key at this point.

We are a tiny town, but our community is fun. I can't imagine living anywhere else. ;)

Bonfire in the Mountains

Now I know not everyone is as lucky as we are. We live right next to one of the most incredible mountain ranges in the world, the Rocky Mountain's. (I'm 100% biased)

Friendships are built. Memories created. Energy restored. I can't even begin to explain how much fun we have doing absolutely nothing!
My three (hubby and kids) all climbed and fell down the mountain. I wrote, having just started a new book idea.
We planned a future girls night and a future camping trip a few of us are going on in a few weeks.

G'man fell in the stream - a few times. The first time was on accident, pretty sure the other times weren't!
Some days are better than others - this day last week - Extraordinary! 

Tires or Saturday's Sage part 1

I know dramatic title. However I felt dramatic on Saturday - and very worried.

Bald tire, G'man watching them change our tires - new fabulous tire!

It all starts at the end of Fridays sleepover, by noon the neighbor kids were gone and we were getting ready for a full day.
Our plans were simple.
Get the car legal and registered for another year, come home fix the hot water tap (Prissy accidentally broke the handle last week so we ordered in a new one.) Then I would get ready to go out at 5pm with my bestie to the concert we've been dying to see Pentatonix and Kelly Clarkson!!!
(It was even better than we'd hoped for! However that will be tomorrows post.)

At 1:30 pm we'd failed the safety but passed emissions. What failed? As the title of today's post reads Tires, I'm pretty sure you can guess that the tire treads failed. Also the windshield wiper blades.

On to a near by tire store! By 2 pm we'd selected our tires and were in line for an open bay. Being told the wait was long and they would start work on the car around 3:30 pm we went across the parking lot to shop while we waited for all four new snow tires to be put on the van.
I scored the book Wicked, (Yay!) as well as two Mystery Murder dinner games! Still I was getting unhappy with the late hour.

It wasn't until 4:10 pm that they pulled our van into a bay and started our tires. 4:50 pm we were done, running to see if we could get the car legal (it was closed - so we'll try again Monday.

Thankfully this put my bestie and I only behind by 30 minutes - which was good since the lines to get into the concert were MASSIVE!!!
That however is tomorrows story ;)

Boxtrolls w/ Friends & Family

8/7/15 Friday Night Movie

Friday nights we normally attend our local music and movie in the park near by. This years summer movie line up has been wonderful!
Tonight's show was to be The Boxtrolls, however due to weather they had to cancel both the band and the movie. (massive rain and wind)

Since we love to share things, we'd invited friends and neighbors to join us for the movie.
My kids have been looking forward to this movie for an entire week!
The first time my son watched Boxtrolls he sat in boxes for the entire next week! They were both so excited to see this movie in the park they wanted to bring boxes to sit in and spent a few days perfecting (decorating) their boxes.
So tonight when I knew it was going to rain and the show in the park would be cancelled, I invited our group to come to our place instead.

To make things even more perfect we turned the kid portion into a sleepover event! Blankets, boxes, kids and noise have been happening ever since!

Summer time for the kids is almost over but we are making the most of each and everyday. Best part was after we'd invited them we found out that we were hosting J's very first sleepover! Which of course rocked!

As for the movie this was my first time watching it (hubby watched it with the kids while I was out) I think this movie is very cute.

The Boxtrolls are adorable, the story line cute and engaging, the villain you really do dislike extremely. The end is hopeful.

The kids loved it, rooting for the good guys, booing the bad ones, staying in their boxes the entire movie. (those that had boxes)

Prissy shared her box with our new neighbor J.

I recommend this movie for all kids over 6, any younger and I'd recommend the parent viewing it first to see if it would be something they would like.

(ie being able to follow the story line and not being scared by some of the mild intense scenes.)

Tonight we had kids ages 7-11 over and each one loved it!

Footstool - Ikea hack

Padded Foot Stool

Time: 2 hours
Cost: 9.99
(more if you don't have all the extra items on hand like I did)

We recently rearranged our living room. The change is a good thing but it did alter one area of my husbands life - he no longer had a place to rest his feet when sitting down.
For someone who had lower lumbar surgery a few years ago, finding a comfortable way to sit is extremely important.
I started to come up with ideas on how I could get him a footstool that at the same time didn't look like something the horrid woman in Harry Potter would use.
Ikea (like always) had a great garden stool called the Vildapel, you can find it in the garden area for roughly $9.99.
Since its meant to be sat on its durable and made well. It took less than 5 minutes to assemble the original stool.
I added a round board, cut up my daughters old jeans, stuffed it with padding and then secured the jean material to the board using our staple gun.
If you look very closely we lined up the holes in the round board to match the slates in the footstool allowing us to easily attach the newly fashioned cushion to the top of stool.
Saying this project took 2 hours is very generous. That includes finding all the materials, lining up boards and a deep house search of the longer zip ties.

Voila! Easy project! Its the perfect height for him and can easily be recovered when and if the material wears out.

Eggs, Girls and Life

I know its been ages since I've blogged (again) summer here has been HOT. Our garden is hanging on by a thread. Parts are growing well, while others are withering and dying.

The kids are having the time of their lives even as their school supplies have started arriving. To keep them on track they have been doing very light summer school and reading each day.

On to the fun and insane topic that I really, really find funny. Our chickens! First off a few of them are laying already - cute tiny half sized eggs. We just ordered their legs bands so I can finally start naming all of them - instead of the two names I had because they were the only ones I could tell apart from the rest.

Tiny egg next to a golf ball

Also side note - out of the 12 babies we bought 9 survived to adulthood. ALL 9 seem to be female. What are the odds of buying unsexed babies and finding they're ALL girls!?!
Hubby added another set of laying boxes since we ended up with more girls than we thought we would.

Now back to naming the ladies. Drumroll....

1. Lemony Snicket (yes male name but since my beautiful Americana looks like lemon pepper seasoning it works. Lemony Snicket pen name for Daniel Handler)
2. Henrietta (You can't have a flock of hens without this name. Don't argue with me, I'm convinced this is a must.)
3. Clary (Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare)
4. Hermione (Harry Potter by J.K Rowling)
5. Anne (Jane Austen's Persuasion)
Anne has been changed to Lizzie from Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice having both an Anne and an Annabeth was too confusing for the kids. Later on down the road when the flock changes we will have an Anne again.
6. Polgara (The Belgariad & The Mallorean by David Eddings)
7. Vin (Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson)
8. Kahlan (Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind)
9. Annabeth (Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan)

I don't know if you can tell but I LOVE reading. There were a few names that we cut out because we knew they would be uber popular and/or no one would know they were from books.
Cut names were Arya (both from Eragon and Game of Thrones), Esther (Dickens Bleak House), Tris  (Divergent), Rose (Vampire Academy) & Poppet (Night Circus).

Not all of the girls but most of them

Summer seems to be flying past! Highlights so far include my amazing B-day weekend, 4th of July party at Shayne's, lazy pool days with the kiddos and my sister scoring an amazing job!
Hope everyone else is having an amazing summer!

Nine Years and Winter in Spring

Lets start with the odd but somewhat normal Utah oddness. Winter in Spring. This year while the rest of the country was hit with blizzards, snow and frigid temperatures Utah had the most mild winter I've ever seen!
Seriously it snowed 3 times in the whole of winter and nothing very severe or lasting, a very un-Utah winter.
Yesterday was far more normal, even though we all complained and talked of it all day long - it was nice to feel like Utah was once again acting like itself. Bizarre.
You see, we started out the day with very strong winds. Winds that increased as the day went on.
50-80 mph winds gusted through the northern valley for a good 8 hours.

This would have been perfectly fine - even with the damage to cars, garbage cans, trampolines and other various out door items and fences - but it was coupled with mild rain, which caused MUD RAIN.
Everything was caked in dried MUD. You see the wind was blowing so harshly that you could barely see for all the dust and dirt. Add a sprinkling of rain and all that dirt stuck and then immediately dried again do to - the wind.

It was during this time that the kids and I went to pick up my dog from the groomers. This meant taking wash clothes to wipe the mud off the windows, keeping them in the car so I could do it again in the parking lot of the groomers - normally this type of behavior would cause laughter and pointing, instead I got nods of appreciation and a thumbs up for my cleverness!
Once home our power continued to flicker but stayed faithful as the rain finally over powered the wind and started to wash the mud away.
This is a good thing as soon after the mud washed away, the snow started. SNOW. You know the white soft squishy stuff that we normally get during winter time but didn't this year? Yeah that stuff.
Lots and lots of that stuff...

Bottom car left - Dried Mud. Bottom car middle - snow (yesterday)

Today is my sons 9th birthday! He is 100% under the belief that Jack Frost likes him and arranged the snow especially for his birthday. I am not dumb enough to disabuse him of this, as at least he is happy with the snow and not complaining that it's STILL coming down!
So far I've cleaned 4 inches off my car and shoveled the sidewalk. I will go out again in an hour and do it all over again. (Finally I am using the shovel I bought for winter!)
I am fairly sure G'man will decide snow in April sucks when his present arrives today in the mail.
We bought him a new scooter - his other one broke after two years of near constant use and abuse.

The weekend should bring warm weather, thankfully since I am planning a BBQ bash to celebrate my sons birth. (Okay not to big, but still full of love)
Right now the snow doesn't show any sign of stopping, instead its coming down harder and stronger than ever!
Have a safe and fun day!

Chicken Haven Complete

I'm sore and tired, but extremely happy that one major summer project is finally complete.
Sure we may tweek the top of the coop come fall, we may add another set of laying boxes to the other side of the coop, but for now at least, its done.

We lined the insides of the fence with chicken wire as well to keep them in and Patch out. He LOVES the chickens but wants to play, bite their necks, so he has to stay on the outside of the fence.

Update 8/8/15: Patch actually LOVES the chickens (not in a bad way) when they are together in the same yard the most he does to them is to try to gently herd them back into their smaller yard and out of his yard. We still have to keep them separate though due to his LOVE and OBSESSION with rolling in their wet poop!
Now they share the yard, he gets it in the morning to mid-afternoon and they get afternoon into evening. Thankfully this has been working for them all.

We really did a lot of work to get the entire area completed. Not to mention I ran out to have lunch with my bestie. I was trying to get to the ER before she was discharged but I didn't make it. On a good note - she's fine. Her arm is in a splint for a few days but she is recovering.

The chickens seem to love having some room to run around. They chased each other around for a while before settling into the happy task of eating all the ants that had been biting my hubby for digging a hole into their home.
My hubby was childishly delighted that the chickens were eating the ants - every time he looked over at them scratching the nest he would beam.

I can't wait for them to start laying eggs! Hubby wants to make custard, I want flan and everyone in the house adores breakfast for dinner!

Each year we have continued to work on more projects. Already we have this years garden half way started! The kids will get the last of the fencing wood to add to their playground - so even though the season for yard work has just started, we are well on our way!
To the outer chicken yard we will be adding a dirt bath area, a chicken swing, possibly a few perch poles and a small mini salad buffet. (That's a lettuce grow box with chicken wire over it so they can't get at the roots.)

So for a fence that cost us 26.00 dollars (1 penny per piece of wood) I think we got quite the deal! I adore the cull section of Lowes!
Next project is the kids playground, planting the rest of the garden and then dismantling our fireplace chimney - but that's another story!