Christmas 2009

After reading other family members blogs, I just had to also post about the Payne Gingerbread House tradition. Here's my house. The boys also did one each. They did what we as kids did once they learned they could eat the candy on Christmas day-they loaded 'em up. Sorry I can't post the pictures of their houses as they were in the pictures.

I should of taken a picture of the cups full of candy, but I didn't.

Christmas was fun as the kids had already received 3 Christmas's prior to the day, they still seamed to have fun and of course continue to enjoy getting gifts. Mom, the boys are wearing the slippers and loving them. Thanks!

Clint and I had stayed up until 11pm the night before Christmas Eve as we didn't have the boys, but were picking them up the next day. So early (3am) Christmas morning when Santa was at the house stuffing the stockings, Clint instigated a Christmas tradition from his past that I didn't even know about until a few days before. It was blowing up long crickled balloons for the kids to pop and play with the next day. Well, Clint was just a bit on the tired side because as we crawled back into bed, he began to crack up as I have never heard him before. He was imagining the boys sneaking in the room where the tree was, in the dark, and getting scared when they stepped on a balloon and it popped. Well, this didn't happen, but it was a great treat to hear my husband having the same giggle spell that happens in my family when you are so tired you say something not so funny, but you think it is and just crack yourself up.

We went to my brother Michael's for the day and enjoyed a yummy dinner, then watching movies. Clint got sick, then I did too, so off to home we headed in the early evening. I hope that with the new year we will of put our sicknesses behind us! 2010 needs to be a healthy year.

Update

Well, it's 4:30am and I am awake trying to get over Strep that Clint has given me. He got the weekend before Thanksgiving with a 'cold' and since he claims it's against his religion to be sick, he took Theraflu and slept when he could, thus dragging out what he couldn't understand was the 'worst thing I've ever had'. He wouldn't go to the doctor as I suggested the day before Thanksgiving, but did receive a blessing. So, all precausion went out the window and kissing was now back on the schedule. Saturday night I wasn't feeling the best, so I went to bed. Slept all Sunday except for church, Monday and went to work on Tuesday. Still not feeling well, so off to the doctor as I can't stay home without a doctor visit for the work. I'm thinking it's the flu this whole time, which I was informed by the doctor that Strep gives you flu-like symptoms. Oh, well, I got my shot and then sent Clint to the doctor to get his so we don't give it back and forth to each other. But, if this is what it takes to have a few moments in the AM to read Blog's and get updated on life outside of ours, well, it's worth it.

I don't know what happened in October - I guess nothing since I didn't post anything, other than waiting for the camera to return home so I could take pictures of the garden crops. We've had great success with green beans, peas, zucchini, squash, spinach(finally), green onions(still growing from Spring crop), tomatoes(darn plants keep popping up everywhere), jalapeno's, and one VERY VERY large Turnip that shouldn't of been left to grow so big. I'd post pictures, but that would mean I have to get up and download them from the camera. Not happening right now. I picked the new background for the blog based on that fact that it was on the first page of selections and I needed to make a decision quickly if I was going to do anything else besides change the blog background.
What happened in November is that we got 3 wonderful Foster Kids. They are really great. We are so blessed. Two boys - ages 14 & 11, and one girl - age 8 months (7 when we got her soon to be 9 months). We have been overwhelmed (which I know is now suprise to you -as you laugh- and a big suprise to us -as we cry. No, really, the age difference from the youngest to the oldest is what's the hardest. We are not posting pictures on the blog as there are privacy rights of the kids that we have to honor and privacy rights of us - that the kids parents can't find out where we live. We are not to disclose the reason they came to us or a whole bunch of other stuff, but we were informed we would probably have them at least 6 months, all depending on the parents and everyone else involved in the case.

So to recap November - Kids, lice, teething, emergency room with Conjunctivitis and ear infection, Clint sick, Thanksgiving, Elle sick, doctor visits, case worker visits, phone call after phone call after phone call (can I please get back to work?). For those of you who stay home with your kids, please feel blessed, as I know you do, but here's a reminder. We've had some fun moments with all of this and again, are amazed at how blessed we are to have our first set of Foster Kids be so good. Hopefully it won't take 2 more months before I blog again.

Image This

Since Clint's little one week trip turned into 2 weeks, and he was home on Sunday and left again this morning and will be gone for 2 weeks, I decided I couldn't take it anymore with the lawn. I don't know the last time he mowed, and it did rain ALL last week, and anticipation of it raining tonight and tomorrow I decided to try for the second time to mow the lawn. Our poor lawn is patchy and thick in the green places and thin in the yellower places. I wasn't sure which was worse...the patchy needs to be mowed lawn or the patchy poorly mowed lawn. Both neighbors had to go and mow their lawns yesterday and today, so it made our lawn look even worse. (But I do like my neighbors and I would of done the same thing if I knew it wasn't so much work to use our mower.)

So, as the sun is going down, and the clouds are getting darker, I'm out pushing our push mower. It is mowing better this time now that the ground dried a little bit, but because of how our houses sit with practically ditches between them where the water flows and then sits, the mosquitoes were matured. It is hard to push the mower over the grass that's too tall and then to have to swat mosquitoes; was just a bit much for me. I finally came in and sprayed my arms and legs with Repel, but that only drove the mosquitoes to attack my shirt!

Oh, and the noise. I hate the noise of a mosquito right in your ear! Then to look down at my shoulder and see 5 mosquitoes on it and to see one on my nose under my glasses. You have never seen someone push a push mower so fast as I did tonight. I nearly flipped over it at one point pushing it so fast and it got stuck. Then, in the back yard as I hit the spot where the water runs off the roof, oh, it was an army of mosquitos swarming me, I promise. The noise decible increased 5 fold and I was moving my arms while pushing the mower and shaking my head. At one point I left the mower and ran onto the patio flailing my arms, shaking my head and ready to scream at the top of my lungs. I was praying that my underclothing was protecting me from the mosquito bites. I finally declared done.

I don't care how late Clint gets home from now on. If the lawn has not been mowed, he had better be out there mowing it. If not, then, I guess I'll pay someone to do it because manual is not going to be available any more.

False Alarm

Well...False Alarm. No kids. Is this what it's like when you're pregnant the first time and you think you're going into labor??? I thought when I'd asked our case worker yesterday "I'm saying yes, does that mean we'll get the kids and I need to make phone calls and arrange things"? meant that we were getting the kids. They needed to do the routine background check again, but that we'd get a phone call by last night or this morning saying when the kids would be dropped off. It was mentioned that 'a typical placement goes like this, but this one is a little different'. Well, it turned out that someone the CPS worker had in mind was able to make daycare arrangements, so the kids were placed with them. Much better for the kids I'm sure, and closer. We're not really close to Corsicana, which is about where they are.

I think I stressed myself out a bit. I came home early today after fighting a migraine that wasn't getting any better. I had to close my right eye it was hurting so bad and drive with the A/C on full blast on my face to help alleviate the pain.

It might of been the fact that on the way to work I realized that with Clint now coming home for about 24hrs before he leaves again that I would have to take care of getting our car inspected and turned back in to Mazda all on my own. We've leased our Mazda 6 with the option to buy, but we're giving it back. It turned out to be the best choice since we shouldn't of gotten such an expensive car that has now lost so much value. So, on the way to work I'm calling Clint and we're trying to figure out what to do. We're leasing my brother's car from him until we decide what car we want, but it needs to be fixed. Too many variables/factors and then throw kids into the mix. The Lord is merciful ( a topic we've been studing as a family) and isn't going to give me more than I can handle and I guess with everything else, this might of been too much for me right now. We are sad, but know that a call will come again and we will be more prepared each time it happens.

Thanks for all the supportive comments! We appreciate all you're love and support that you've given us and continue to give. I just won't tell you we have kids until they are running around in my house. The old proverbial "Don't count your chickens until their hatched" applies I believe.

The day has arrived...

Well, we got a phone call today to take an emergency placement of 3 kids. They live in a neighboring county and as the state tries to always keep kids as close to their origin as possible, we were the only ones closest to foster that many and the ages they are: 9yr old, 5yr old, & 2yr old. They were placed in a shelter last night and are there now while all the paperwork is cleared. I am sooooo nervous. For me, for the kids, for the change. I know you're never ready, so here we go. At least I've taken the last week and cleaned, organized, and feel comfort in being prepared that way.

Clint will be home Saturday night late, home for a week and then leave again for 16 days to Boston. I was going to fly out to Boston and spend a little bit of time because after Boston he's home for 4 days then he's off to Utah to visit family. Oh well, I do feel like I've gotten rest lately and that my trip to Houston was a mini vacation. Life is about to be the busiest ever. I don't think my 3 jobs will compare to what it's going to be like.

Let the adventure begin-----------

Food Storage

I have reorganized my kitchen cupboards, and my pantry, all in the attempt to get a better grip on food storage. I moved many things into my cupboards that I won't need a large stockpile of and this of course left my pantry bare. We did use a bit of our storage last year and are now in a position to replenish it.

One of the things I'm storing is dehydrated food. Mango's were on sale $1.00 each last month, so I bought 12 and dehydrated a dehydrator full and then tossed a large ziplock baggy into the freezer for smoothies. Well, bananas went on sale this week $.39/lb and for $5.00 I have 2 dehydrators full of dried bananas. I went back and spent $6.00 more for bananas. Clint doesn't care for them dried, only fresh, but as I grew up with home dried bananas (I don't like the store ones-YUCK) I decided to carry the tradition on. Hopefully my zucchini plants will yield a bumper crop and I can dehydrate that too.

Oh, I harvested our one and only turnip today. The greens were very big and the turnip was a little smaller than a tennis ball. There was a casualty though with the harvest. As I pulled up the leaves of the turnip, below the bottom leaf, sitting on the soil of the neighboring boxspace was one of the largest grasshoppers EVER. My spade went down on it, it jumped into the grass, and then my spade took a second hit and OFF WITH IT'S HEAD! was the result. May that be a lesson to the other grasshoppers in my back yard.

I hope the fall garden will yield good results(of food that is-not fat grasshoppers), I might need more gardening space.

Genealogy, Clint is doing it.

Clint and I have a goal to do genealogy once a week together. We started this goal back in August and didn't do very well that month. Well, we didn't do anything that month. So this month as I felt time was ticking on I mentioned one Sunday night, "We should do our goal of genealogy". So we sat down, he on the computer and I on the laptop and we logged onto the Family Search website. He was looking up his family line and putting in his siblings names and birthdates. He was very excited about the idea that you could type in 2 BC, as if it had never been done before. Whatever gets you excited I say.

So, this last Sunday while he is in Albany, NY, I mentioned that he needed to go visit the cemeteries as I had family that came from that part of the U.S. So, I looked up a cemetery and off he went finding name after name after name of my family. He took pictures, walked, and walked, and walked, all with a sore back and enjoyed himself. Thanks for all the hard work honey. Now, I just need to pass these on to my mom-who's ancestor line this is-to discover if these people are related or rather, how they are related to us. As Clint said of one family name, "They've been dying here for 100years!". He makes me laugh a lot with comments like these. Next I'm sure he'll be doing research on his own family line.

Not, one, Not two, not three, but 4

Yes, I couldn't believe it. I looked out the back window when I got home today and there perched on our clothesline were 3 hummingbirds. One was very fat too, I think it was the granddaddy of them-about 2+ the size of the others. I watched them chase each other around for a while. I went out a little later and they were still out there flying around. I was very slow in moving to the side of the patio and there they were hovering in the air, but they moved so fast it was hard to keep a watch on them, as one chased another while one was sitting on the clothesline and then yet another hanging out higher in the air watching it all. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen 4 hummingbirds in one place, especially my backyard.
I'd of taken pictures, but Clint has the camera in Albany, NY, so I'll have to wait until that happens again-maybe never in my lifetime. I've been able to see them upclose now and they have the prettiest emerald green feathers on their backs. I didn't realize they had any other color but brown.

Gardening

Well we didn't really finish our Spring Garden. We still have our jalapeno plant producing, our green onions doing well, our zucchini continuing to produce. Last month our local gardener (the bishop of the ward) said it was too hot to start the fall garden, so I was waiting. Then I looked on a few local websites that said 'August 1 or 15 - September 1' to plant xyz plants. AAAHHHHH! The local nursury just got their seeds in, how did I miss it?
So I frantically went to the garden boxes, luckily I had already pretty much preped them for the fall, just a little more compost mixed in and I planted seeds Friday night. Yes, at night after work-my only day off this week. I was already behind and I want to have a good garden. Our local nursery guy told us about a great product 'Superthrive' and I've been using it. It's gotten me my one and only butternut squash (so far) and has helped my little plumbago plant that I nursed indoors last winter and planted this spring but only once it got the Superthrive have I gotten flowers. See.


It will have more blooms coming. I am so happy :)!!
Dad had given us some of their lettuce plants in the spring, which we planted and ate. I let them go to seed for the flowers to attract the 'beneficial insects' I've read about. Well, I got to pluck the seeds and it was pretty cool getting seeds for the next crop - no need to purchase! I did the same for the romaine lettuce I planted. I just dropped the new seeds into the package with the other ones. Self replenishing is really cool. One problem with plucking seeds off the plant without cutting the flowering head off is that you might drop some on the way to the porch or they may scatter in the wind. As you can see below, a few seeds didn't make it inside, but are doing just find under the porch cover.


We made homemade salsa with our jalapeno peppers. I is really yummmy! Hopefully we'll get the timing down where the peppers, tomatoes and cilantro all can be harvested at the same time!

Changes

I got the chance to go to Houston two weeks ago for a training class from work. It was a tough decision to go or not. At work we have our fiscal year end in September and we were told we had a lot of training money from the main GIS dept last month and it's "Use it or Loose it". So, I signed up for this class on publishing web maps. The delima is that I needed to travel on Sunday August 23rd - Our wedding anniversary. Clint said it was okay and that happy anniversary for an extra night at the hotel and to get my haircut from my old hairstylest. I said "okay!" I didn't even say "are you sure"? It was a rushed trip I felt though with showing up in downtown Houston at 11pm at night-only valet parking available OR the unguarded parking garage around the corner. I tried the parking garage first - called Clint - and then went back to the valet guy. The parking would be paid for, but $24.00 a night was a choker! I was tired the first day of class, went to see a good friend Cynthia on Monday night in Northeast Houston, then tired the second day of class. By Tuesday night I'd had my haircut and just wanted to relax at the hotel and enjoy the night we were paying for (only the first 2 nights were paid for by my job). I took a bath, watched the Scarlett Pimpernel and tried to relax. Then up again the next morning early to drive back to work. It was drive back Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and Wednesday morning was so much better! Here's my new cute du, though the picture is a self portrait and I have had a nap today!!

Kid Weekends

Clint and I are now approved to Foster/Adopt children with the State of Texas. We are open to having 4 children in our home. We(I) wanted to see what it would be like to get 3 children at once, so we asked Michael and Ulyana (brother and his wife) if we could take their kids on the weekends. They said "of course!" and so we did 3 weekends ago. We took them for 2 weekends. The first weekend I thought went better than the first. Alex showed up with his own little picnic basket that he had packed that day to bring to our house. He was so cute. We watched a movie Friday night I had rented, Saturday we went to the water splash/playground park, then that afternoon we took naps, and after dinner we went swimming. Sunday was church and then back to the parents. Michael and Ulyana said it was a mini vacation for them.

Then next weekend was harder. Clint picked them up instead of Ulyana dropping them off and it was rough on the 2 kids getting picked up from daycare and leaving with Clint-without having any mom time. But, we again read books before bed, went to the library the next day and saw really cool animals from Africa. We went to the splash park, then goofed off at home. Sunday the boys built a fort out of blankets and couch cushions after church. Again, Michael said he was ready for another weekend off. We decided it wasn't fair for the kids - like a split family arrangement. Once a month would be good - like a treat, but I don't know how split families do it. That's rough on everyone - well, the kids anyway. I got some great pictures though.

I think we are better prepared for parenting than we were the first weekend. Oh, and THANK YOU Super Nanny. The reward system is a beautiful thing for 4yr old little boys. Earn your stars man and see how many books you get read to you at night-all based off of earning your stars. I love it! No bribery - (we can't use food as a bribe) it's all earned and boy no money needed either.

July 4th Weekend

I realize it's August 4th, but that's OKAY. Most of the family got together for the weekend. Jennifer's family couldn't make it, but Micael's family, mom & dad, and also Tara's family came. We started out on Friday afternoon, Michael's family, mom & dad showed up. It was leisure, we sat around, then ate dinner. After dinner we got some bubbles and played with them on the front yard before leaving for the Forney Family Night with Fireworks.

Saturday we got up, took a walk to the pond behind our subdivision (not all at the same time), breakfast, then off the the Heath Parade. We rushed out of the house for the parade because according to the Heath website where it mentioned the parade route, if we didn't show up on time - we would miss all 10 minutes of it. Well, the route was longer than the 500 yards it appeared it would be. It went past the ending location, around the block, and circled back to end up close to where it began. It just didn't say that it would do that. It was to start at the elementary school and end up at City Hall - and these are about 500 yards from each other.

Anyway, then we came back to the house, Tara and family showed up. We ate lunch, went swimming and then played CASHFLOW. I thought we would go and see fireworks, but we didn't have to go anywhere. Once again they were in our subdivision and we could see them from our front yard. Overall, I think it will become a family tradition to come to our home for 4th of July weekend. Enjoy the pictures.

fun times

Well, Clint was home this last week. We spent some time together and took care of some of the baics of life, dentist, yard work, etc. We listened to a free jazz concert on Tuesday night at the Mesquite Fine Arts Center. It was nice. I think I like the older jazz from the 20's. We were suppose to go camping to Lake Tawakoni, but it rained all day Wednesday-heavy flooding in several areas and part of Thursday too. We figured it would be too wet and decided to just go for the day on Friday. We got there and they didn't have any of the rain we'd had. Note to self-always call to check the weather of the place you are going to and don't go by the radar on the internet! Here are some pictures of us and the things we saw. It was a lovely place that we'll go back to and actually camp next time. Only we won't leave our pack out in the open while we nap in the car for the squirrel to eat a hole in while trying to get to the slightly opened m&m package.

It's been a while

Well, it's been a while since I've looked or thought about this blog. Life has gotten a little bit easier. Much has happened, but the gist of it is Clint's gotten a job, quit his job at Wal-mart, and I'm working less at my 2nd job. Clint's now working for Nissan - contract work - and it's 100% travel. Yes, when he works, it's not from home or anywhere near it. He's spent the last 2 weeks in Thomasville, GA and will return tomorrow for 2 more weeks back to GA.

We are so grateful for this job and can see it wearing on us in the long run, but for now, it's nice. Here's a few pictures of where he's been.

This is at a horse track - no he didn't place his bets!
This is one of the beautfil homes in the area and there are more plantations in this county than anywhere else in the US (92 plantations).


This is outside his motel. Isn't it beautiful? It's the same pond-just a different view.

Oh, we got a digital camera now-so maybe I'll post more pictures!

We talk everyday twice a day and we have enjoyed our weekend together. We worked in the yard, window shopped, and went to see a muscial put on by a home school group "Beauty and the Beast". It was really good for a high school age group.

Today we went to church and then walked in the woods behind our subdivision looking for blackberries. I know they aren't the size of what's in the northwest, but it was an treck since it had rained this afternoon. Definately not a good Sunday activity and you can see in the videos.





WEll, this might be the last of the videos-it takes too long! How impatient I am these days especially when I now value time more that I ever have before.
This isn't a complete update, but will have to do for now.

Relaxing

Clint and I have spent our last few Sundays just spending time together. It has been really nice. We've taken walks out behind our house in the fields, driven to Lake Tawakoni just east of us, gone to Central Market and just sat on the terrace enjoying the music and the evening. Here's a look at Lake Tawakoni.



I want to go camping here some day soon. I feel like a little bit of life has come back to me with the chance to relax a little.

OH, and I'm now down to 2 jobs. The one in Garland finally finished, but now at my job in Mesquite I'm working with fire hydrants again. This time it's only on the computer. Someone else has already gone out and collected the GPS for the hydrants. I've also been busy working a location map for the upcoming Real.Texas.Festival in Mesquite. My map will be published in the local newspaper and of course handed out to everyone to show where the events are.

I would also like to add that since I've had today off-the first one during the week in several months-that the taxes are done! Yeah, no screeming banshee this year for me. But I did hear that my dad hasn't started his yet.....AAHHHHHH. (Just kiddin')

Time..

Time is such an earthly thing, but since this is where I live at the moment, I keep track of time. Today, or maybe it was yesterday or the day before I'm not quite sure, but it doesn't matter I realized where my time is spent and I was amazed. I work 70hrs a week, which is a lot I know, but then somehow the thought came to me to check the rest of my time and this is what I discovered:

M-F 13.5hrs @ work, 1.5hrs commuting, 9hrs @ home - 6 or 7 of them sleeping = 24hrs/day
Sat 8hrs @ work, 1hr commuting, 9hrs sleeping, 3hrs date w/Clint, 3hrs??
Sun 24hrs @home and church combined.

I just had to record it somewhere and since I'm not writing in a journal right now-I thought I'd write it here.

Long Week

This has been a long week. It started out with my computer at work not being available-last post-to getting sick on Tuesday afternoon and still trying to recover. So, I'm resting in bed, missing work, so that I can feel well enough to go to work tomorrow. Ironic I think. I've lost 1/2 a week of my life in bed!! I'm feeling very wiped out and reminded of how much God has strengthened me to do all I've done lately. I am truely blessed and grateful for life and all the lessons I've learned. And I'm also grateful for sleep.....

All Caught Up

Well I had about 10 minutes tonight, maybe 15, so I cruised through the family blogs, literally, and feel a little bit caught up on your lives. Thanks for all your diligence in updating your lives. I feel so out of touch with anything but my own life right now. I am grateful for the challenges I've faced. I have grown to depend on the Lord for physical and spiritual strength and now some things have happened where I'm depending on him for emotional strength too-apparently the Lord wants me to be well rounded! No lopsided development here.
We're still plugging along, and someday I will have more time to spend on other things besides work. Clint has been wonderful to be the one to clean the house and cook and do laundry. What a man.
In addition to working many hours, I am taking an AutoCAD class (for one of my jobs). I think I'll like it, but installing the new 2009 3D version crashed my computer at work(after attempting to install it 10 times) and I'm 4 chapters behind on my homework! Also, my boss in Garland e-mailed me that a conference is coming to town in May where they're wanting people to submit work to be presented at the confrences and he said I should submit the Abstract for my paper (the one about the hydrant inventory I did). One major problem is that it's not finished yet! All that comes to mind is the Monkey's song with the line "No time, no time for you". I feel that way about everything right now. Too much to do and so little time to do it. What do you give up????

It's the end of the month already?

Well, the month has flown by. Where did all the time go? I know where any extra time will be going for the next month---Taxes!!!! Remember the screeming Banshee??? She makes me laugh and keeps me going.
Clint has been hard at work going to networking meetings and lunch meetings, doing all he can to get connected with the right people-person, who can help him get a job.
I'm still holding strong and am quite use to the busy life-nothing compared to you mom's out there, but busy for me anyway. I've had 2 nights off this week, and though I'm busy doing taxes, it feels strange. I was to go and do a genealogy presentation to the YW on Tuesday night, but the ice storm cancelled that. It didn't come in until late that night, but it was slick for sure. I do know that I'd be doing genealogy if I had nights off again. As I pulled my things out to get prepared, I started to get teary eyed when I ran across some temple card names of people that I haven't finished getting their work done. Someday again I'll get back to them. But for now-I've obviously got other things that I'm to be doing and lessons to be learning.

Happy New Year

It's a great New Year so far. Christmas Day was nice to spend with family and also New Year's Day. Now it's back to the usual. I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions Yet, anyone else? I think I'm too busy in the now to think about next week or next month or this year.

I had a brand new Sunbeam class at church today. There were only 4 and that was enough. I forgot about all the things 3yrs olds don't know that we'd already taught last years class. I had 2 crying kids today and to teach them how to walk in a line-right behind the person in front of you. They are so cute and are already talkers, oh, and they caught on really quick with wanting to lead the group wherever we went. It's nice that I have another sister in the class teaching with me. She's terrific.

Congrats to my baby sister Ashley-getting married this June. She's already got most of the decisions made and ready to go forward. Now, what to wear....