christmas haul

so, Christmas is over, the kids are having a ball playing with their new toys, and the rest of us are trying to survive their craziness.
when we got here, my sister took the kids shopping and got mom and dads presents. my kids already had stuff for us, so we got doubled up on.
grandpa gave the kids a train table that actually has 4 other activities on the table. how that works, i haven't figured out yet. the boys got swords from my brother, and shields from my sister (that was not coordinated). my girls got dresses galore. we'd had a large swingset we were going to give the kids from santa, but as we could not get it in the van for the trip here, nor did we want to, we had to figure something else out. elizabeth had apparently wanted a barbie for christmas, but the first i heard about it was 2 weeks ago, so we got her one from santa. taylor got a transforming bumblebee car, complete with sam. shannon got a drop and slide toy that teaches cause and efffect. the kids made a haul. shaun asked me the other day how we expected to get all this stuff home. i reminded him that we had brought three boxes of christmas with us that could be used to put our christmas in to get it home. the only thing we're worried about is the train table.
this has been a fun trip. not the actual trip, but once we got here, it's been fun.

driving, and driving, and driving some more

so, we left friday evening, and drove down to ogden. we got there about 9:30. had a good talk with my grandparents, and then went to bed so that we could get up and leave early.
left at 9:30 in the morning, and started on our looooooong drive. tried to find somewhere to stay for the night, but were not willing to pay $95 for a room, so we kept driving. got here this morning around 6:00. woke everyone up so that we could get in the house, it was cold, and we had to go potty.

21 hours in the car, 3 kids . . . long drive, glad we only make it every now and then.

finals . . . check!

i finished my last project last night (well, i guess technically, it was this morning). 2 am, i got everything put together. it still needs to be hemmed, as well as the sleeves, but other than that, it's done.

now i need to focus on packing so we can leave tomorrow.

all i want for christmas is my front tooth

so, taylor is almost 6, in a month. as is the case around this age, teeth start coming loose and falling out. taylor lost his first tooth on wednesday. he was out shovelling snow, and decided to eat a piece of ice. well, the tooth that was REALLY loose, finally popped out. shaun says he walked in and it was sitting on his collar :) we forgot to put it under his pillow that night, so the tooth fairy came the next night. she left him a whole dollar!

happy day!

the preliminary hearing was today, and i was scheduled to testify. the prosecuting attorney decided to try and expedite the process and see if the judge would bond him just based on the testimony of the detective. he did! i didn't have to testify today, but probably will at trial. we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

no gingerbread :(

so, the lady who wanted the gingerbread house did some searching, and discovered how long it can take to make one. she came to us and told us not to worry about making the house.

we both decided that we were a little glad, but sad too. we were both looking forward to doing it, and yet we really didn't have the time.

gingerbread anyone?

so, i think i may have gotten myself in a little over my head. we were in church the other day, and a lady mentioned that she wanted a gingerbread house for her son's reception. i mentioned to a friend that it would be fun to make that for her.
you guessed it, we're making a gingerbread house for the reception. not only that, but the date got moved up a week. we thought we had a good 3 or 4 weeks to do it, turns out, it's next saturday!
right now, we are making a mock up in cardboard. we will them use those pieces as templates. it really is going to be fun, but i also have a dress pattern to make and then the dress itself to put together. not to mention, the half-scale pattern work to finish.

oh, as for the gingerbread, i looked through my cake-mix dr book and found one. problem is, it calls for a plain spice cake mix, and you can't find any plain mixes anymore. they are all added moisture. the dough turned out really soft, and all my attempts at making it stiffer were for naught. i had to google a gingerbread recipe. hope it works out better than the other one.

"nice guy"

one of the news channels went around the neighborhood to get their response on this issue. according to the neighbors, "the real issue is the kids." right, if you read between the lines, it's their fault that they were abused. I DON"T THINK SO!! you can't blame a child for what an adult does.

if we were to find out that he as a mass murderer, we would still say he's a nice guy. there's no way that a nice guy would do something like that.

this is the reason that these instances get under-reported. no one believes the victim cause there's no way that this perpetrator would ever do something like this.

thanksgiving

this year we are doing thanksgiving at our place. we have the most amount of room. i'm actually kind of excited about it.

so, today, i started the baking and cooking for dinner. pumpkin roll is cooling, and the filling will be put in tonight. jello is in the process of being made. with the leftover pumpkin, i made bread. haven't ever done that before, we'll see how it turns out. tomorrow, i need to make rolls. that way they are still warm for dinner.

finally, some snow

the weatherman has told us for a week that we're supposed to be getting snow. we had a storm come through friday night that was supposed to drop 2-4 inches. and then they said it would happen saturday night. it didnt' start until we were in church. we now have our 3 inches of snow. not our first storm of the year, but it did drop the most, and this time, it'll stick!

great news!

we just got some news this afternoon that is the best news we've heard in months. got a call from the detective, i missed it so he left a message, he wanted to let me know that they had just arrested the guy in question, and that he was in jail until he met with the judge.

oh, a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders. the end is now in sight.

thank you Father!!!

church vs screaming baby

so, shannon started screaming in church during the last hour. nothing i did worked. i changed her bum, no go. i tried giving her some food, nothing. finally, i'd had it and just took her home.
if she does this next week, i might start skipping church for my sanity!

travel . . .

so, we went down to provo this week. rachel lost a baby, and the funeral was on wed. spent some time with gma brady and shawna. got to see gpa brady and harass him.

but, i have never wanted to strangle a child so much. on the way down, shannon cried from tremonton till provo. actually, screamed would be the better description. ok, to be honest, it wasn't the entire way down, it was periodically, but it sure felt like it was the whole way.
then on the way home, she did the same thing from blackfoot all the way home to sugar.
if this is the way it's going to be on the way out to missouri, i think i might go insane!!!

moved

so, we are finally all in, not put away, but all in. we're starting to get on top of things (sort of). my baby is finally comfortable with the new place.

elizabeth

so, we came to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter in the end if something did happen with this neighbor. (ok, it does, but for right now, there is a more important issue) what really matters is that elizabeth knows that her parents believe in her, and that she can come to us with problems and we will do what we can to help her fix them.
however, it is hard to talk to the neighbors about it. one neighbor has a hard time believing that anything happened. one knew that there was something wrong with him when he moved in years ago, and warned her daughter to stay away from him. one thinks we did the right thing, even though they aren't sure what to believe. the police have spoken with him, and he has admitted to stuff. he ADMITTED it. what more do you need?

ring instead of serger

so, we went down to IF the first of the month to get some of shauns school supplies. in the process, we upgraded my ring. the ring that i had was a little thing from walmart. at the time, it's all that we could afford, and it served it's purpose, but, it was yellow gold. for years we had talked about upgrading it, but could never justify it. we finally did it. this one is white gold (yeah), and it nests. you can see here that it has a bridal band. the two diamonds that sit on the side are actually part of the band that the bigger diamond "sits" in. there's no need to weld them together, cause unless it's taken off the finger, they won't come apart.
the best part is that we got it for half off. it's a $1600 ring, but looks like it should be much more.
it wasn't until later that it occurred to me that i could have gotten a serger (or 3) for the price of what the ring is. oh well, ces't la vie. it just goes to show where my priorities were at the time.

life . . .

life has been extremely crazy lately. we are searching double time to find a place to move to. the front half of the house we are currently in has a dirt foundation. the dirt is starting to erode away from the house. we can actually see daylight in the basement. not good.
elizabeth recently started at head start (YEAH!). she has the morning session, which isn't really an issue, except that my classes start before hers. that means that shaun has to pack up all the kids, drop me off at school, and then rush elizabeth over to head start. then he has to take them all in the building cause they won't let him leave the other two in the car.
so, there are now 4 of us in school. which means that mom has 4 times as much homework. i have my own, fortunately, some of it can double as taylors. i have taylors, i have elizabeths, and i have shauns that he frequently needs help with. however, with everything that has gone on this last week, not much of anyone's has gotten done. i need to get a handle on our lives again.

SCARY!!

ok, some have heard this and some have not. since i don't want any incorrect stories floating around, i should tell you all.

elizabeth the other day mentioned some very scary things that led us to believe that a neighbor might be a sexual predator. if he is, he either hasn't registered as one, or he hasn't been caught. i checked my neighborhood, and didn't see any near me. so, we reported it and are in the process of an investigation. it involves having the children questioned by specialists trained in child "interrogation," talking with neighbors, alerting teachers, and questioning of the gentleman in question by the police. right now we are waiting for the detectives to get back to us with their initial findings.

since i know my daughter so well, i know that the only way to keep her away from this gentleman so that nothing further can happen is to move away from him. so we are in the process of trying to get into another house nearby, but far enough away that she can't easliy visit this guy (currently, he is only 4 or 5 houses away, on the same block. the move would put us about a block away, across streets, but still in the same ward; we hate bishop hopping!) if this house doesn't happen, there are a few others that we are considering.

more crafts

these are my 2 newest buildings in my christmas village.
the barn house

the ice cream shop

tired girl

this is what happens when a certain little girl is up before 8 in the morning. typically her place of crashing is the couch or chair in the front room. NOT a camping chair on the front step.

school, here i come!

taylor started school today. grandma and nana got together and got some new clothes and shoes for him. peek-a-boo shannon!

i was able to find this way cool backpack at wallyworld for ten bucks. it's bumblebee from transformers, and has a motion sensor light in it.

the wrap on his arm is from the stitches from yesterday. we replaced it after school.

more boy trouble!

my front door is made of panels of glass. and the bottom corner sticks. so when the kids go to open it, they typically push hard on the panes of glass. the panes aren't in the door very well, and the whole thing rattles when slammed.

we were getting ready to go up and meet taylor's teacher and see his classroom yesterday when taylor comes in crying with blood dripping down his arm. he had gone to open the door, and pushed through the pane of glass.

i called my visiting teacher to come and watch the girls and he and i went up to the hospital to get his arm taken care of.

that cut is about 4 inches long. there's a ton of scratches and 2 puncture wounds. the long cut took 5, and the 2 punctures took 1 each. 7 stitches and 1 1/2 hours later, we're home. what a way to start school!

girls and their accessories

shannon has become quite the little girl. i put this scarf on her head, and she became rambo baby!

we put her in the walker to keep her off the floor and out our hair for a little bit, i think we were cleaning. she turned herself around completely, and managed to walk better that way.

i have this little case that i used for my sewing stuff at one point. right now, it's empty. shannon likes to carry it around though! oh, she really likes pens too!

boys!

the other day, taylor comes in the house crying. he's got blood on his hand, and his head. he had been playing on a pile of dirt at the neighbors house and fell and cut his head.


i didn't take him in, cause it would have been a waste of time. one stitch and a bill of $300. no thanks.

elderly

i love the elderly. their wisdom is priceless, they adore my obnoxious children, and their supply of advice is never ending. however, i do not like it when they try to tell me how to raise and discipline my children.

tonight i got a call from an older sister in the ward. informing me that the children were getting into things and that she told them she was going to call the cops on them. she called me first to let me know.

turns out, she's old, she's not well. she doesn't like kids. ookay. she REALLY doesn't like mischevious kids. what kid isn't mischevious? thankfully, shaun was with us, and i could let him take the conversation and i walked away.

the kids were trying to start a lawn mower. there's no way, even if they both pulled on the cord at the same time, that they could EVER start that lawn mower.

what am i going to do with my "unruly" children?

christmas, here i come!

okay, i know, it's the middle of august and my post is about christmas. but i've had so much fun! i've had a christmas village that needs to be painted for about 3 years. i'm finally getting around to it.
#1, the church
#2, the school
#3, the bakery

#4, the queen anne house

harvest

so, i've gotten peas, and onions out of my garden and used them. but this is something else.
this is my happy face after my meager harvest!

concerned neighbors

i just got a call from a concerned neighbor. one of those that thinks they could do a better job at parenting your children than you. to be honest, they have kids of their own, so it could be worse. apparently, my children were spraying water and throwing dirt at a neighbors house, not the one who called me. he kindly told me that he thought i should keep a better eye on my children. i CANNOT watch them every second of the day. i don't have a fenced yard. short of tying them to a post, i cannot keep them in our yard. and if i did tie them to that post, i would get a visit from CPS; not something i want to have happen.

why is it that my children are angels to everyone except me?

cops and peaches

so, the local grocery store has had peaches on sale for the last week. 93 cents a pound. needless to say, i have bought a lot in the last week. i've dried them and put them up. i can fit about 14 pounds of peaches on my eight dehydrator trays. granted, once dried it only takes up about 1/4 the space, but still good. i'm on my third batch.

i took the neighbor girls to the park for lunch with us today. nobody ate a whole lot, but i got to talk with one of the moms in the ward. just after the truck left, the kids decided they were going to bike around the park on the path. (they did this without informing or asking me) but as they were all 4 together, i didn't see a big problem. until all but elizabeth came back. i asked them all where she was, and got the same answer, "i don't know, i haven't seen her." since i couldn't see her, i started looking. when i found her, she was sitting on the grass next to the path. apparently, the others had left her there after she complained she couldn't go anymore. not sure how long she was there, but someone who saw her there called the police, and reported her "abandoned." i got to her about the same time the officer did. she's okay, i was a little rattled though.

saving money, we hope

in the effort to save some money, as everyone ought to do, i did something that i have wanted to do for a LONG time.
for a little over $9, i made myslef a clothesline. we already had the posts in the backyard, so, all i needed was the line and the clothespins. gotta love the dollarstore. i got 140 feet of clothesline for $2, and 56 clothespins for $4. then, i discovered that i needed some more clothespins, so at wallyworld, i got 100 more for $3.
if i don't have to run the dryer all the time, i wonder how much lower my power bill will be? we'll find out!

streaking?

so, i just caught my two children outside. not normally a problem, except that elizabeth was buck naked and taylor only had underpants on.

when did i suddenly get two streakers?!

oven

so, i haven't heard from the landlord about the oven since the 4th of july when we saw them at the parade. i was going to sit down tonight and type up another letter to send to them.he called this morning and said that he was going to come and put the new oven in this afternoon.

WHAT! he didn't tell us he was getting a new one. he told us he got a replacement part.

so, he showed up and put the new oven in, and i'm currently cooking dinner in it!!!

YEAH!

government programs, sheesh!

shauns school money finally came in. unfortunately, it's already gone. i didn't have enough to pay off the credit card, or pay mark and my mother-in-law back. all the bills are current, but there's nothing to get us through until fall semesters loan money comes in.

the food money finally came in also. interesting story that one. i had sent in all the verification paperwork and everything they wanted for both the food stamps and the medicaid. a month later and i was still waiting to hear back about them. so, i tried calling in to get some info and find out what was going on. i got an automated message that said, "for english press one, for spanish press two." i pressed one, it repeated itself, i pressed one again, it repeated itself again. it kept looping.
so, i drove down to the local office, which by the way no longer takes care of anything except the initial interviews, and tried to get some info out of them. they gave me direct phone numbers to call.
so, on the way home, i called those numbers. about the food stamps i was told they were VERY sorry, and would have someone run the case right away and call us back that day with numbers and the money, if there was any, would be in the account in the morning. it was.
as for the medicaid, i was told that they would get someone on it soon and i would be informed. still waiting to hear on that one. when that comes through, i can take the receipts for elizabeths medicine back to the pharmacy and get my money back. that will help, that's a hundred dollars.
basically, they had everything they needed for both of them, but no one had bothered to check back and run them again. idiots!

now if we can just figure out how to survive until fall semester starts.

oh, btw-still no oven, this really sucks!

solved!

so, it occured to me on the 4th, that we have a credit card with a $500 limit on it. it's not being used and hasn't been for almost 2 years.
activating it would solve 2 problems. 1: we have necessities that we can't get because the loan money isnt' in yet. 2: it will help build our credit back up if we use it and pay it off each month.

yes, i activated it and have gotten the things that we needed.

now if the money food would just come in. . . .

money issues

we called the school today to find out where shauns loan money was. turns out the school doesn't get it until the 6th. then cause he's out of town, they will mail it on the 8th. we'll be lucky if we have it by the 11th.
the semester will be halfway over before we see the money that is supposed to get the supplies. there's something seriously wrong with that!

frustrating

ok, still no oven, but the good news is that the landlord did come over and take a look at it. he's ordered a part and we'll see if that's the problem.

the neighbor knocked on the door yesterday morning with a complaint about the kids. apparently, the kids are getting into their garage when they are not home. AH! so i had a talk with them and tried to get them to understand that they can't go in there. i was told by taylor that if they would lock the door, they wouldn't get in there! he's way too smart.

oven

there's something to be said for taking things into your own hands, i.e. threatening. i've tried to get a hold of my landlord for over a week because the oven doesn't work correctly. it won't get up to the level of heat it needs to. so, i finally sent a letter that said i was going to wait until jul 1, and then i was going to call a repairman to come and fix it and take the costs out of my rent payment.

the landlord showed up today. he's going to try and get it fixed. yeah!!

sad and depressing

when i was in pocatello, i had a group of good friends. there were four of us. one of the group is getting married in 3 weeks. her bridal shower is tonight, and shopping for lingerie was this afternoon.

the sad and depressing part is that my babysitter bailed on me, and i am currently sitting at home with the kids instead of shopping with the girls. i even had backups lined up, and they fell through as well.

bug bite!?

so, taylor last night had a visit to the ER. the only reason i took him in cause this thing kept growing even after i gave him benedryl.
i know this pic is hard to see, but right at the hairline, there's a mosquito bite. it's swollen clear to his eyebrow and past the smaller bite in the middle of his forehead. not only that, but it was at least 1/4 inch tall, maybe 1/2 inch.
the dr said he was fine, there was no anaphylactic reaction, and sent us home.

shaun gave him a blessing before he went to sleep, and when he woke up this morning, there was no swelling left! thank goodness for the power of the priesthood!

elizabeth turns 4!

okay, elizabeths birthday was last thursday. and today we had a small party for her. grandma and grandpa and nana and kaitlyn were also there.
here's the pile of presents she got
there were some coloring books, some socks, a princess set with a tiara, a necklace, a ring, and some earings, a headband, and a second helmet. we will return the second helmet. we had her go back to her bedroom while we pulled things out and brought in the bike. she walked out and matter-of-factly said, "oh, my bike." like she knew it was there the whole time. weird!!

some pics of her with her stuff. . .






























i was going to borrow a pan from a friend who has her own cake decorating company, and make her a doll cake. when i called to ask her, she said that she'd do it in exchange for some of my close to my heart paper. OK! i can handle that! so, here's a pic of the big girl with her cake.

dishes

so, i was washing dishes this afternoon and stabbed myself. with a fork. it hurts.

magic school bus

i take the kids to the library once a week. they can get 3-5 books depending on how i'm feeling, and 1-2 movies. their favorite movies are the magic school bus series. they watch them all the time, and then they start quoting them around the house. right now they are saying, "hey, mikey, come in!"

i think i might start going insane!

teeth!

it's official, the youngest member of the family has teeth now. her bottom teeth broke through the gum yesterday.

MICE!

so, we just had an interesting experience. earlier today, shaun thought he heard a mouse munching and scratching on something in the house. we went looking, but couldn't find anything. later when shaun went downstairs to get something, he heard some squeaking. he shut the door, and we tried to figure out what we could put down there to kill mice. (sunday, no money, therefore, no d-con) we called his mom to see what ideas she had, just d-con, which she brought over, she had a couple at home. shaun proceeded to go down to try and get what he needed, and found the poor creature in the glue spider trap. it was just a little thing, but still a mouse. little being the key word, there has to be more of them, this was just a baby.

so, we replaced the trap, put some d-con down there, and we'll see what happens.

can't afford to move, but in light of recent discoveries, don't really want to stay either.

new words

we were laying in bed this morning playing with shannon, and could swear that she spoke. she consistently babbles, and some of them make sense. but this one was obvious and after some coaching.

she frequently babbles da-da, but shaun coached her to say taylor, and she did a pretty good job.
WOW!

grades are in!

i am happy to report that both shaun and i passed with flying colors. i got two c's, two b's, and one a. shaun got two b's!

it would appear that staying up all night long and turning in late assignments worked for shaun this time. next time it may not, but it did this time.

YAY!!!

children of god

so, our houseguest is no longer with us. i'm not quite sure how i feel about it. in one way, it was way past time. in another way, he was kind of nice to have around. when i needed extra help, i could always ask him.
however, i grew to love him as a brother of god and will worry about him constantly.

home evening

so, nadia did home evening by herself tonight. was supposed to be planting the garden, but since no one was helping, it will have to wait until later. besides that, i didn't have the seeds anyhow.

so, here's what i did do.
i made sure the ground was nice and dug up(again), i got my rows started(each row will have a diff veg in it), and i started the water so that it's wet when i get around to planting it.
these used to be about 8 feet long, and are the boards that enclosed the garden spaces. when we combined them we dug these up and put them off to the side. imagine nadia out there with a hatchet trying to chop them in half so that they can put out on the curb and hauled away with the rest of the yard trash.(about 20 minutes into my pounding, shaun brought out the circular saw for me to use instead. it was my first time with that particular power tool. :)

shauns finals

ok, i have just spent the last 3 days trying to help shaun with his classes. i spent one entire day finding reference for him, and the last 2 hours organizing with him. hopefully (fingers crossed), he will pass this one class and still be able to attend next semester. if not, he will probably be looking for a traditional job, as the art has not come to fruition like we had hoped.

today is the last day to turn anything in. he's working on a few late assignments and then will do the final. we hope that this will work.

projects

don't know if you can tell or not, but my fingernails are a bright pink. i have been making homemade paper, and decided to color some red. because it requires my hands to be in the goop, they turned pink.














a friend gave me some strawberry starts. so i got this planter cleaned out and planted them at the back of the house. they won't produce this year, or they aren't supposed to, but will next. can't wait. in order to clean out this flower bed, i had to dig out a bunch of tulips. since the strawberries were not in a pot, they had to planted today. unfortunately, the flowers had to go, so here they are drying. (if the wind doesnt' blow them away, they'll still be there.)














on the right is the garden spot. there used to be two seperate planters here. we yanked out the wood, and combined the spots. now i just need to get the seeds and do some work in it.










this one on the left might seem a little weird. this is where the garbage can goes. it was a dying grass spot, but i didn't like it much. so i found as much stray brick as i could and built a little tiny patio for the can to sit on . it's just barely wide enough, and not quite long enough, but it works for now.

above it, you can kind of see the brick that goes around the front flower bed. one of these days, when i can afford it, i plan on ripping that out and replacing it with red scalloped brick. and at some point, the railroad ties will also be replaced with the same thing.

one of these days, all of my projects will come to fruition. course, it might take me just short of forever and a million bucks!

pics

okay, as promised, here are some long overdue pics

this is taylors chin after it was sliced.



and this one is with the bandaid on it. i
didn't want him picking at it.

this is characteristic of the attitudes of my children lately.
this it the cute baby girl. she really does like to sit in the high chair, she's just not seen the camera much.

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

yum, fresh strawberries

crazy week!
so, elizabeth had her cavities filled today. everything went fine, until she woke up. all she could do was cry for daddy (daddy wasn't there. it was just us girls). the only way we could get her to calm down was to tell her that in order to go home and see him, she had to stop crying. got her home, and she slept for about an hour, and then was perfect. taylor slept the entire day away when he had his done, she's up and running around like it's a normal day!
i had taken the kids to the library last week. they can get a few books and a movie each when we go. the books are 3 week rentals, and the movies are 1 week. they didn't get back in time, so we have fines that need to be paid before we can borrow again. such is life. then, i went to return them, and they close at 6p on friday! i wasn't too happy.

broulims has a fabulous sale on strawberries. it's about time too. my freezer jam has run out, and we needed some more. they were $10 a flat, ($17 normal) so i bought 2! however, they were all out of freezer pectin, and no one else in town has any. seems like i may have to freeze them all whole until i can get some pectin to make the jam.

stitches (again)!

we just had an interesting day. the kids were playing outside, and taylor comes into the house crying. he had been at the neighbors house and the screen door flew open from the wind, and knocked him in the chin. he got a cut about an inch long, and about a quarter inch deep. there was a lot of blood. i cleaned him up a little, put a rag over it, and ran him up to the er.
they were able to glue it shut instead of using stitches. when i get a chance, i'll take a pic and post it.

Isn't she great?

My wife's a sweetheart. Give her a kind word and keep in touch with her. We don't want her to live only in the dry and sometimes miserable atmosphere I generate. Oh, and if anyone wants a painted family portrait, just let me know. :) Otherwise I do science fiction and fantasy stuff.

egg substitutes

so, i went to make a perry dinner tonight (cake), and realized that i didn't have any eggs. how do you make a cake without eggs? so, i called my mom to find out what you can substitute for eggs in a recipe. she was talking with stephanie, so i had dad tell her to call me back. it took a little longer than i thought, so i went online, and googled egg substitutes for cakes.
HA, vegans have many substitutes! they suggested applesauce or bananas, not an egg substitute. you can use those for oil substitutes, though. they suggested eggbeaters. those are just egg whites with food coloring in them, not a substitute. (oh, btw-it's sunday, no shopping) they also suggested substitutes that you can find from a health food store. then i found one that the ingredients were staple pantry items. it works for baked and cooked things, but not if you want just eggs. the cake was a little dry, but not bad overall.
for 1 egg:
2 Tbs flour
1/2 Tbs butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp water

on top of things, i think

so, i've done some cleaning and organizing that last few days. i got all my stuff, minus notes taken care of from last semester (i still need to type them up and print them out). i got my food storage labeled and organized again. i made master sheets that i put up on the doors so that i know what i have and what i don't. i've gotten my desks mostly cleaned off. we actually had an fhe this week, where we are trying the "bribe" thing.

oh, btw-the kids decided that they wanted to change their reward to swimming at a pool.

dead dishwasher

so this morning, i discovered that the dishwasher is full of mold. not only that, but it only sort of cleans the dishes. so, we decided that the dishwasher is toast, and we will proceed to wash them by hand.
sucks to be me!

bribery, or reward?

so we went down to provo last week for candice's graduation. the girl was practically giddy. got to spend some time with my mom and her family. i had such a good time. it's too bad that it all had to end. i wish, and i know they do to, that we weren't so far away from my parents. it was really hard to put my mother on the plane and send her home.
of course, because i can't go anywhere without having health issues, i had two gall attacks on the same day. talk about a killjoy.

so, i've started something new with the kids. we'll see if it works. i took a pint mason jar, and told them that when we got the jar filled with beans, they got to do something special. how do they fill the jar, you ask? by obeying, by doing the jobs i ask them to, by behaving. they can also lose beans, by not doing what they're told, by sassing mom and dad, and by running off. so, when the jar gets full, they get to go choose some new toys. let's hope it works.

tonsils, to be or not to be

ok, we took elizabeth in today to have her tonsils looked at. we became worried about them when we noticed that there was less than a 1/4 inch between them. so, we got a referral from the dr and had them looked at. we are supposed to keep an eye on her, see if they cause any sleep apnea. if they do, they will take them out. if not, they will leave them in.

holy crap, this is awesome!

http://confessionsofabyuco-ed.blogspot.com/2009/04/love-story.html

it takes awhile for it to load up, but the wait is well worth it.

catch up

ok, life has slowed down for a bit, and i have a spare moment to write something.
my mother-in-law, one of them, gave us a trampoline. i know, it's crazy! but, they don't use it, and it's too hard for dad to be putting up, so they gave it to us. it now sits in the front yard, and the kids keep begging to go play on it, it's dark, hello!
we got the rotten apples cleaned up from underneath the tree, so the yard looks a little better. i went to clean up right around the base of the tree. someone had put landscape brick around it, but it needed fixing and cleaning up. in the process of trying to clean it up, i found the mother lode of ladybugs.
taylor had cavities filled on friday. so we spent the rest of the day, and majority of the weekend making him feel loved and more comfortable. he got milkshakes, and puddings, and all sorts of goodies that they don't have on a regular basis. we opted to have it done in the surgery center, because his fear of needles and anything that causes pain would make him freak out. so, they completely put him under, and took care of it that way. he did have a problem when he woke up and discovered the iv. he tried to take it out himself.

milestones!

as it's the easter season, i thought perhaps we should update and post something.

the kids made a haul for easter. the easter bunny was very generous, grandma williams and nana got new clothes for them. we did easter dinner at our place, since we have room now. it was fun, but i was ready for it to be done long before it was over. apparently being a hostess wears me out fast.
as we were going through bags of candy that morning, shannon pulled a milestone on us. i had her laying on the floor, on her belly, and she pulled her knees up underneath her and started rocking. i have the feeling that she'll be crawling in the next few weeks. aahh, mama is not ready for that!

i forgot to mention that taylor registered for kindergarten today.

what?!

we went down to provo for little benjamins funeral on friday. drove home during conference satruday morning. then, i started on homework, and got in trouble for trying to do it during conference. called about a house that we were interested in looking at. sent shaun off to the priesthood session, and got to work on homework again.
about 20 minutes before shaun got home, i started having pain in my back. i tried curling up on the couch and relaxing. it didn't work. the i went and laid down on my bed thinking that might help. it didn't. shaun got home, talked with the kids for a minute, and came into the bedroom to find out what i was doing. i started moaning and not being able to talk or think. he called his sister-in-law, and she said to get me up to the hospital. he gave me a blessing, we informed rosie about what we were doing, and went to the hospital.
to make a long story short, i have gall stones and need to have my gall bladder removed. however, since it's finals week, and i'm already going crazy, it will have to wait for a bit. i need to finish up the semester, have elizabeths tonsils removed, and get the kids cavities taken care of first. i can't be down and have to deal with all of that as well.

rachel, we feel for you

for those of you that know her, rachel mothersill abbott had a baby this week. he was born alive at 22 weeks, but sadly didn't survive. they are having a funeral this friday.

our hearts and prayers go out to the abbott family.

field trips

so, i have a class that the teacher wanted to take a field trip to logan for. i told her that i had a problem with any field trip that took me out side of the state. actually, i should have said outside of class time, but the concept is the same. i have a 4 month old that i can't leave home for more than 2 hours at a time. so, she went and talked with someone and they told her that if everyone agrees that it's okay for me to take her, i can bring her with us. so, looks like i'm taking a field trip on thursday with my 4 month old to logan.
the only real problem is that she doesn't travel well, and neither do i anymore. it's easy to fix my problem, i have some dramamine. however, there's nothing i can do for shannon. i just have to do deal with it. this could be fun! NOT!

midterm projects

http://www.lib.byui.edu/exhibits/2009Patterns/2009PatternsHome.html
ok, this is a link of the display they put up in the library with our midterm projects. this is the flat pattern class that i am taking. the dress i did is an original design by my little sister brianne. i took her design and turned it in to reality. and, of course, she gets the outfit when the display comes down.

nuts, i don't want to move again

ok, more bees, and we still haven't seen the landlord yet. this is really frustrating.
so, we've been looking at places to move to, because the landlords aren't taking care of repairs. first of all, i had to completely clean the house when we moved in. the previous tenents didn't clean it, and the landlords never made it over. the front porch was full of garbage which they were going to put out and never did. then i find out that the garbage only came every other week, so we took a load up to jacquelyns place over the christmas break, cause no one was there, and they wouldn't notice. the toilet seat was broken when we moved in, and hasn't been fixed yet. the bathroom light started sparking and crackling over christmas, and he came and looked at it, but hasn't been back to fix it yet. the house isn't grounded, and the power has issues, they haven't come to get that taken care of either. and then there's the bees. that should have brought them over immediately, but we have yet to see them. bees are a safety issue, especially since shaun in terrified of them, and his mother is allergic. between those two he would have a serious reaction to them.

beware the ides of march!!

awol sitter

So, Shaun stopped working at WalMart last week. He's now working from home. It makes it kind of hard on the kids. They want to go in and talk to dad, but he keeps kicking them out.
Now my sitter is going awol. I hadn't told her that Shaun was quitting, because i knew what her response would be. Shaun told her yesterday, & now she doesn't want to watch the kids anymore. She thinks that because he's home, he should be keeping the kids. He's still working. She wanted me to talk to shaun about it. I did, already knowing what the answer would be. So, with 5 weeks left in the semester, i have to find another sitter that is willing to trade or take food as payment. Don't know how i'm going to find someone. Guess i should look on the bulletin board to see what's there.

wow, 2 am

so, i just barely finished a midterm that's due today. that might not seem note-worthy to anyone, but the time is 2:22 am. 4 hours past my bedtime. i would have had it done sooner, but i kept screwing up and having to start over. not a fun time. however, it's done, and now i can go to bed!

bees in february?!

what!? yes, it's true. we had bees in the house.
shaun had noticed a bee in the office on sunday, but was unable to find it to get rid of it. then yesterday, we were sitting in the office before taking shaun to work, when we noticed the bee again. shaun took care of him. then less than 20 minutes later, we saw another one. shaun took care of him and then we did "clean-up." we decided that we had to try and figure out what was going on, and where all the bees were coming from. so, shaun called in to work and let them know that he wouldn't be in, i informed my teachers that i might not make it, and we went to work. we took the office apart, and tried to find them. we looked in the basement, we checked outside (quite a cold, wet job), we went into the attic. we couldnt' find anything!! the bad news is we have no idea where the nest is, and the good news is, we haven't see any more bees.

Hit by the Economy to the Soul

So, we have finally met some really bad parts of the economic crunch. A good friend of mine from Graveyard shift at Walmart was fired a couple of weeks ago, which meant a loss of roof over head only because he couldn't find another job! We know of the perfect place for him, but he doesn't have anything yet, or place to call home. Therefore, it was simple...we have a hid-a-bed and an extra space in the front room. He is close to town businesses and will not have to worry about home or hunger until he lands a job. It didn't take long to get it all in tow...4 days to completely move him and make the transition. My only concern in this was the sacrifice's consequences to my schooling. I totally believe in people being first, and more than deserving of sacrifices. Somehow I must make up for the loss in schedule. I even have one late assignment already!!! I knew something was to fall out, but I did not expect one more thing to add on. It is my expectation that Walmart will fall out...unless the art clients I have do first. I would much rather that Walmart be left behind honestly. I never expected to work there this long at all. I only worry about the HUGE load of criticism I will get for doing it. We have a healthy tax return and my loan coming in, of which it is not wise to consider as a proper income, for it will not only have an abrupt end, but a lengthy consequence in the end. So, what will it be? Meleleuca is falling behind, which makes me very sad actually. Couldn't I serve my time in earnings into that instead? Especially if it is what I prefer? Well, at 2 am, I am still days behind and nearing my exhaustion point. I have been praying more and more lately, and reading my scriptures every day. It is a hard position to be in to know that all things I do directly affect my family and my friend now, and that my downfall is theirs too. I the last moments of the day with Nadia, she simply mentioned that everything might work out ok anyway. I would hope so actually. I have no need of worrying anymore, just action, work and progress. There is more than enough to do. Only the Lord can help me carry this load. I simply and truly cannot do it without him, but as the scripture says, all things are possible with the Lord. And as what I do is or is not in righteousness, I will or I will not accomplish my desires and goals. I pray that what I do is smiled upon by the Lord and He opens the windows of Heaven itself. Everyone is in need, and He is our God, and we can ALL ask. The promises are not limited as a while supplies last issue. It is time we put our faith in Him during this famine. Otherwise we are as we fear, and will remain in darkness and be swallowed by our doom, yes, even by the world and the crumbling foundation thereof... Build upon Christ, not the world. To act and not to be acted upon, we must ask of Him, learn His ways, and do them! Remember who we are. The flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing here. Stretched thin, but eager and excited. Run ragged and stumbling, I pray for us all...I do not believe myself in any special predicament that is not common to man...especially in this time of economic famine. I indeed must remember that I am blessed, and greatly so. Well, Please forgive the bad grammar, the poor exhortions...I am overrun with pressure, emotion, and grindings of the heart and mind. I would that my fears and weaknesses be swallowed up in the faith in the Lord. Either by way of Jobe's trial, or of Elijah's...Of Moroni's or Nephi's, I am seeking out the hand of the Lord, that trusting in Him will not fail me my most precious of all: my family. I have much to do, but of the many priorities, sleep must become one. I do so now, and give rest to my weariness. May we all help a neighbor, show our time to another in need, pull anothers wagon who has fallen in the dust of the journey along the way to the promised land. Let it not be that darkness fall upon us, for here faith will be built in us all. Good Night.

escapades of the nearly insane

so, life has been crazy! i know everyone says that and we say it all the time. but, it just never seems to slow down.

the week went pretty well, shaun started his masters program, i got a better handle on school and being mom. . .
and then came friday night. shaun and i were trying to do some homework, each of us, and taylor comes into the office with slime on his hand and face. then elizabeth comes in and says that taylor threw up. so, i went to get him cleaned up, and then he mentions that he swallowed a nail and it's stuck in his throat. WHAT?! we tried to get more info out of him. like what the nail was doing in his mouth, how big it was, that kind of stuff. we got the size out of him, nothing huge. it's one of those that comes with the curtain rods that you put in the hangers with. about an inch long, not terrible. we decided that i was going to take him in so that we could know what to do about it. as i was getting ready to leave, shannon woke up, and then shaun decided that we might as well all go. so we did-that was a full er room. they took an x-ray, and sure enough, there was a nail in his stomach. they let us see the x-ray, what a kid! the dr told us that it wasn't creating problems right now, and that the best thing to do was just wait for him to pass it. she said that if he complained on pain, that was a sign that things had changed, and we should take him in. that was 36 hours ago, the nail is gone now and no one would ever know that he was dumb enough to swallow it, let alone put it in his mouth.
thank heavens kids are so resilient!
oh, and the kids have broken my breast pump.

What will fall out of the picture?

So, where is Mr. Wonderful? The husband with the helping hand to alleviate the trails of the mothers day? Still at Walmart. I get home and feel a fluster of both disappointment and anger that the children are...well, children. School starts this week for me as well...and I am wondering what will fall out of the picture? Nadia and I both know that school is the right choice right now, only as to how we are going to manage it, we do not know. I also have two clients to do work for this week, and would do more if I had the work, but until Walmart is trumped...what should I do? Anyone who knows me knows that working 1-8:30 on a Sunday is a serious NO-NO. But where are guts to do something about it when the results would only seem to be inability to pay the bills? Is this a faith promoting experience in the school of temporal success from following the Lord in Faith? I would like to think so, but is this anywhere near Nephi being commanded to build a ship?...likening it unto my desire to build a freelance job to support my family that I have spent over a decade learning how to do (and adding another 3 for my Masters Degree in the process)? However possible the discouragements are, and there are many working hard to convince me of my "foolishness", I know I will not have any easier time in the future to accomplish this Degree. Life isn't getting simpler, and I am not getting younger. Some obvious difficulty we have had is the recent move. We have not had a home of our own for longer than two years, some less than 10 months...well, since we lived in gov't subsidized housing in St. Anthony years ago. And that was 2.5 years I think. Very little escapes being a test of faith, but a taste of success would be nice, and a bit of positive accomplishment too. Nevertheless, there is opposition in all things. Especially now that Nadia and I are working hard to go to the temple this summer...or late spring. Mom Williams was going to stop by a couple of times a week and help until yesterday when she tore a ligament or something in her lower leg. She won't be going anywhere, nor helping us soon I don't think...or is that only how it seems. We will have our own cable internet installed on Thursday for usage for school, and for work. Right now, as Nadia mentioned earlier in this blog, we have only one computer, and two enrolled students! And my classes are all ONLINE! I really do not expect too many to agree with my decisions. They clearly appear to overwhelm me, and thus my wife and children. But beyond the limitations of what I think I know, and what others say "makes more sense", I am doing all this regardless to better myself. So many people nowadays put off families and children for jobs and school...they put off school for later "when it will be easier" or "timed better". Many people are even more vocal about decisions ( indirect comment) since everyone is bonkers about the Economy. Well, if I may be so bold ( not to try to be crazy) but when in history was there not some kind of Famine, or curse upon the Land?!!! Lehi left Jerusalem because it was ripe for destruction....to escape the wrath of God upon the people there. And aside from Nephi, his family near constantly reminded him that it was "out of the frying pan-into the fire". And here I get to two points. One is that it was a commandment of the Lord, and He had a destination for them to reach. Second is that this "journey" was "difficult" and tried their faith in Him, whether they believed what He promised. If you reached the waters and realized you had to cross them for say over a year and you had no idea how to build a ship...would you say, "man, I was taken for a fool by a dream", or would you be believing in the face of "obvious problems" that needed solving? Nephi did build a ship, but with the Lord's instruction, not without. So, I will definitely say, I stand before an "Ocean of problems", and have no idea as to myself how to solve them of which I have "gotten myself into". But even greater a fool I would be to be unbelieving in the Lord, that He can guide me, and instruct me in the ways to solve these problems...even when everyone around me may suffer me to feel like a fool. So be it in their eyes. They do not see the solution either. So, it definitely is standing before the Lord asking for direction. I am commanded to lead and care for my family, to provide for their well being and safety. I am commanded to lead them temporally and spiritually in the ways of the Lord. No wonder that the vision of the Tree of Life had people fall away in shame who had partaken of the fruit that was most precious...because they heeded those in the Great and Spacious building. I ask then, what will I really fail at if things do not work out? Bankruptcy? Eternal Slavery to Debtors? Employment at places that I hate to work for for decades, while my decades of education rots in its stewardship? It is as if Laban and his 5,000 have come to slay me, and who do I have on my side but the Lord. :) I am fortunate to have a merciful God whose wisdom and power are greater than all of my adversaries...including me. His Love and His Words are what have sustained me. I am also greatly blessed to have a longsuffering wife who loves me, and children also who love me. I see their faces in my darkest hours and oft survive therefrom. Then what will fall out of the picture? Surely not my family, and therefore surely not me, nor the Lord then; for my family is a constant reminder of His will. I guess all other things are in question...our home, our cars, our educations, our belongings-both dear and replaceable. What is more dear to us than each other and the Lord? This curse upon the land is here...a famine of sorts. Where once they came upon the land as short supply of resource, now it appears as a curse "socioeconomically" upon the land. And how many people blame the Lord when it is us as the people who had first turned away from Him...only now to return, and from pleading to blaming Him for what is happening? The funniest thing is, MY social economic situation is not changed by this. What everybody feels now is what I have felt most of my married life! Sure it is changed by the added fear and fury of those who also now feel it, but Things are no worse. There are only fewer oppportunities in people's minds. Collectively this becomes a reality as companies downsize, jobs are cut, and the mistakes of the few affect the mass of the whole. Where can I turn for peace? In whose arm can I trust? I am just a man. And yet I am such a dreamer...even as a child. Well, I've said more than I needed to outwardly, but matched in small measure what I've said countlessly inside. God is commanding me to build a ship. He giveth no commandment unto the children of men save He prepareth a way that they may accomplish the thing wherewith He hath commanded them. Adeu.

whoa, i don't think i signed up for this!

ok, i'm a fairly patient person, and have to admit that i manage to keep my cool most of the time. yesterday was one of those days though.
i've had to move laundry days back to saturday as there is just not enough time during the week to do it all. so, i'm doing laundry and trying to do some homework as well. shannon is being very cooperative, but the older two are not making things easy. they get into the kitchen drawer and spread the snack baggies all over the floor. they keep sneaking outside, and taylor had been sick. they got a hold of some yarn and had it unwound all over the front room. i told them they needed to clean that up, when i went back to check on them, they had a whole pound of cheese out, and there was hair laying on the floor. they had gotten a hold of the kitchen scissors and cut up the yarn, and elizabeths hair. they had cut enough hair that i had to finish the job and even things out.
of my homework, i was able to get a little bit of research done. but i had 4 papers that needed to be written, lots of reading to do, and a test to study for. i didn't get any of it done.

what's that smell?

i know i just posted something, but this was too good to not tell. i wish i'd taken pictures though. why is it that you only think of that afterwards, and not when it's still there?

it's sunday, i'm sitting here in my bedroom indexing cause it's the best room in the house to get an internet signal. the baby is asleep in the crib and the kids are playing in their bedroom, or so i thought. shannon woke up and i went to go feed her in the front room. as i'm walking out, i smell something funny. i notice that the kids are in the front room, and i ask them what they've been into. taylor tells me "nothing," i tell him that's a lie cause i can smell it. then i start looking a little closer. there are large black spots on the carpet in front of the door. it hits me then what the smell was, shoe polish. they had gotten into a thing of shoe polish and proceeded to paint with it on the carpet. not a good thing. (oh, and this is after i've already cleaned up sugar once today.)

i put shannon in the swing and got to work cleaning the floor. i found the shopvac, emptied it, took the dry vac sleeve off, and got the prespot and the sol-u-mel. i sprayed the carpet with the presot, let it sit for a few minutes, dumped some water on the spots and then vaccumed it all up. i was shocked and amazed that it took it all out. i didn't have to use the sol-u-mel, the prespot did the job. WOW!! since the carpet is so old, and has very little padding underneath it, it looks spotty from the cleaning, and still looks filthy, but at least the shoe polish is out.

can openers . . . beware

you know those can openers that don't leave any sharp edges on the cans? they are pretty safe, right? YEAH, RIGHT!!
i about took my finger off last night with mine. i was opening a can of olives for dinner, and my hand slipped off the turning handle. well, my finger slid inside it, and took out a chunk of my finger.
looking at it now, i probably should have gone in and had it looked at, it might have needed stitches. it looks a lot worse now than it did last night. it borders my fingernail and i didn't think there was much they could have done about it, so i just put a bandaid on it, and left it at that. however, it's about the size of pencil eraser and about an 1/8 inch thick. not only that, but it hurts like nothing else.

CRASH!!!

ok, a few people know, but i wanted to let everyone know that we are all okay.

shannon and i had a wic appointment about 2 weeks ago. it was icy, as it had rained and then snowed and then everything froze. as we were headed to run a few more errands, the car slid through a stop sign and hit a dump truck. i had made sure to give myself ample time to stop, but because of the ice, we didn't (obviously!). i laid on the horn to let the driver of the truck know that i couldn't stop, and prayed that no one would get hurt. (btw- i had all 3 kids with me.) the car managed to turn just enough that i glanced off the back tire of the truck instead of hitting the middle or front like i would have. that was a blessing. so, it tried to take off my front bumper! i lost lights on the drivers side, and about lost my bumper. no one was injured.
the cops came and we did the whole accident thing, then i headed home to call the insurance and relax. i took the car to the repair shop on tuesday, and didn't get my rental until wednesday. it took a week to get the van fixed, but it looks great. the bill came to about $2300. thankfully, we have insurance, so we only had to pay the deductible of $250. considering that i can't pay my gas bill, that's a payment i had to squeeze out. (btw-the gas bill is $260) but, the van is better now, and like i said everyone is okay.

oh, i'm glad i pay my tithing. ie fire insurance

Masters Degree

So, with little time, and droopy eyelids I announce that I am in efforts to begin my Masters Degree at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. They have an entire online system to offer top of the line education from anywhere. A friend of mine just graduated from BYUI and started at the Academy. He saw me while I was "stocking milk" at Walmart and we had a quick chat about what he was doing. I had plans last year to try to attend the Academy, but didn't go through with it then. Time is short and things are in a good placement...kinda. This will be a true challenge to do since Nadia is in school also and I have a few clients I am doing artwork for now. We worry mostly about the kids, but if Nadia and I are going to do this, now is the time when we are young. It won't get any easier. Otherwise, I will end up working for Walmart for the rest of my life... and not doing much artwork at all. It would be really sad to give up my artwork to crunch hours at Walmart... to maybe make ends meet. Especially since I have the opportunity to make much more doing my art. We are also working with Meleleuca to earn money. With Nadia off of the phones and not working there as she did before, we can sell the products now. We have used the products for years now, and won't go back. Powerful, safe for kids and family, and concentrated for longer usage, money saving... and we like that a lot. So, in the hopes that all goes well, and financial aid works, clients are served, kids are ok and loved, time is wisely spent.... we will survive. This is also a time where Nadia and I are working towards going to the Temple this spring or summer. Mostly this will be her waiting for me to catch up to her since she has been worthy for some time now. Well, I'm exhausted, a lot to do still. Hope all is well with everyone else. Take care.

strange times

so, it's been a weird week, and it's only wednesday!
i got in an accident on monday. thankfully, no one was hurt. i was heading home from wic, when i hit some black ice at an intersection and ran into the back tire of a dump truck. there was no damage to the truck, of course, but the front end of my van was nearly torn off. ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. but it was a bad day. it nearly tore off my front bumper, bent the frame a little under the hood, and smashed off the headlights. the cops came and took statements, and pics, and then i headed home. when i got home, i called the insurance and we got appointments set up to fix the van and get me a rental. the van should be done early next week. my rental is an 08 dodge caravan. it doesn't have a traditional key!
i started school today, and that was an adventure too. i was worried that i might be doing the wrong thing, since everything seems to be working against me going back. but as i was sitting there in my class today, it felt right. i was only enrolled for 11 cr, but the class that i need to fill out my schedule isn't open at all right now. i'm going to keep trying. in the meantime, i signed up for a fit for life class. it helps you create a plan for staying healthy for the rest of your life. it sounds interesting, but i really don't have credits to be throwing around.
i've learned the hard way that when i eat too much chocolate, we have a bad night. chocolate gives shannon some serious belly aches.

New Year, New Challenges

Well, it has been the first week of 2009. Nadia and I don't really know how we are surviving, but we say our prayers with kids most every night, and try to keep each other posted on what happens during the day and what we are planning. She has some new things happening that I will let her explain later when she begins them. So far we still sleep awkwardly with Shannon through the night. We noticed that her bottom teeth are trying to break through....which baffled us to be honest. I guess three years is long enough to forget what babies go through, but it seems like Shannon is ahead on a lot of things. Taylor will be 5 by tomorrow, so he will be excited. We don't know for sure what we are going to do, but I hope we can give him a good birthday. My fifth birthday came about 6 to 10 months after my first home burned down, so I am glad he hasn't had to deal with a tragedy like that at a young age....although, he has already had six different homes! Pondiside Gardens in St. Anthony is where he lived after he and Elizabeth both were born, and then we moved into Baywood apartments in Rexburg, whereafter she and the kids went to Missouri to Lee's Summit to live with grandparents to take care of sick grandpa ( while I stayed in Idaho and finished school), then we moved into the Romney's house, then Brent and Trisha Larsens home, and now this home....phew. More homes than years alive. Poor kid is pretty resilient though. Both he and Elizabeth are. They play together pretty well, when Elizabeth isn't stomping on him and he isn't bitting her. Anyway, I hope Nadia gets to update a little. I am still working at Walmart but during the days, whilst connecting with friends and networking with their connections to try to get my illustration career jumpstarted. With the economy scaring everybody, it has been hard to find sustainable work. Lots of little low pay stuff though, that never stops actually. Art is "always" in demand somehow. So, later everyone. Take care, and drive safe.
Shaun