Even without any motivation...

I was able to get some serious work done today!!! My Christmas decorations are all put up, I am down to about 3 loads of laundry and my house looks cleaner...all without motivation...that is pretty good for me. Dwayne laughed at me a lot, because I would wonder in and out of our room today just bugging him. I am sure he will be really glad to have me go back to work next week.

Nothing...absolutely nothing...

I got nothing done today. Absolutely nothing...I had great plans, I was going to clean up my living room so that I could get to my sewing machine. I was going to do laundry so that my son could wear jeans instead of the camo pants he has had on for 2 days now. I was going to put away the Christmas decorations so that I could move around my house again. But no...it did not get done. The 3 oldest kiddos and I headed into Muncie to visit my mother in the hospital, then we had to return a few things, and by the time we got home we ate leftovers and watched the BBC version of Sense and Sensibility. Very good version by the way! Now it is close to bed time and I have not much to show for the day. I guess I will have to try again tomorrow...lol.

All Done

This morning my kiddos opened the last of all the Christmas gifts...Yea! I am thinking that after we go into Muncie today we might come home and un-decorate the house from Christmas. Christmas never really felt like Christmas this year and my decorations felt very lacking, so I am very ready to get my house back to the normal order. I am really looking forward to this week, because I am not doing anything major...I am going to sew, I am going to have lunch with a good friend, I am going to spend New Year's Eve just chillin't with friends...it is all good!

What day is it?

For the past month my life has been at a really fast pace...really fast. In fact, my poor hubby has been playing mommy more than daddy lately...poor guy. And now I am looking at the calendar and seeing that it is Dec. 23rd...WHAT?...already? Oh my goodness...I have so much to do, and in so little time, but hey...I don't have to go to work today...or tomorrow...or the day after that...or the day after that...I really am looking forward to a few days off. I worked every day, but two last week. It was good to know that business was doing that well, but it has worn me out. Then on my days off I tried to do Christmas shopping, but I was not very good at it. I have never gotten this close to Christmas with my shopping not finished. But now it is time for me to start cooking, and wrapping...oh well...my hubby didn't need that much for Christmas, did he? I am excited about Christmas though, I am ready to enjoy my family and relax, we have such a good time together. My kids have been working really hard on keeping the house cleaned up while I have been at work, so that much is done these days.

On another note...My mom is doing much better. I have had some really good visits with her lately, she is talking and she finally got moved out of ICU. I really want to thank everyone for their prayers, I can't imagine what might have happened without every one's prayers. She is recovering well and we look forward to seeing her come home after the new year. Thank You!

A Good Evening!

Yesterday was a good day, even though I did have to work...lol. I spent the day packaging tons of fudge, caramel popcorn that was drizzled in chocolate, caught some white chocolate pretzels coming off of a conveyor belt, and finished the day packaging regular caramel popcorn in plastic tubs and peanut brittle...lots and lots of peanut brittle. In fact, I had to leave before all the peanut brittle was done being packaged, because I had a bunch of teenage girls waiting on me at home. Why were they waiting on me? Why would I hurry home to spend time with a bunch of giggly girls? We were going out for dinner and to see the movie Twilight! I stopped by to pick up my friend Patty and then we headed out with 6 girls, my goodness they were giggly. We headed out to McDonalds for a quick dinner. It was a great time bieng with these girls, they were all good and fun to be around. We got the movie theatre in plenty of time, in fact we were the only ones in our theatre for a long time. The girls had fun deciding where to sit...very far from Patty and I was the chosen location...lol. This was fine with me, because they had all seen the movie and I had not. I did not want to listen to them drool over Edward while I was enjoying the movie. I will admit that the movie started off a little slow. At first, I was kind of disappointed in some changes made to the story for the movie, but by the end I was pleased with the way the it all went. Once the movie was over, we all loaded back up in my van and I took all the girls home. It was a very good evening, so much fun taking all those girls, and I can't wait to do it again sometime.

Better!

My mother is doing better! I got to see her this weekend, she is awake, and alert. The infection is looking like it is finally under control. I am just so thankful that she is doing better, she still has a long road ahead of her. We took the kids to see her on Saturday and to them she looked pretty sick, but to Dwayne and I she was looking tons better. As we were leaving the hospital, I was trying to explain to the kids that she was out of the woods, well later in the conversation I was saying she is still really sick and Tobi said, "Yeah, she is still walking around in the woods"...lol. It was just so funny.

On a totally different note, I am taking my daughter and a group of friends to see Twlight tomorrow, this will be my first time seeing the movie. I may have to sit far away from these girls so that they don't give away too much.

Absorbed...

A friend made a comment to me that it had been a long time since I have blogged, and man...they were right! I can't believe it has been a month since my last post. Only a month since our fun weekend at our re-enactment event. It has been a long month. My mother went into the hospital on Nov. 22nd and has been in the Intensive Care Unit since she was admitted. Nothing much has changed with that and I have been spending most of my free time at the hospital.

Another little distraction in my daily life has been a new book series. Now, I have told many people that I try hard not to read. Because when I pick up a book, I rarely concentrate on anything else in my life. My daughter has been very excited about this new Twlight series and was greatly looking forward to the movie that came out on Nov. 22nd. So, since she was enjoying it so much, I thought I would give it a try, it was just 4 books, a mere 600 to 700 pages per book, which is not much for me. Thanks to Kim Harris, I started the first 2 books and was done with them in 3 days, just waiting to get my hands on the third book. My hubby and daughter went to see the movie the day it came out and picked up the 3rd book for me while they were out. It gave me something to do at the hospital, Sari already had the 4th book, so by the following Monday, I had finished the entire series. A very good series indeed. I find it amazing how well the author describes first love feelings. It starts off as a very teenage romantic novel, with a twist...the guy the girl falls for just happens to be a vampire. Not only is he a vampire, he just happens to be a vampire with morals, wow! The thing I really like about this book, is it shows girls that a true man, someone who is thinking about the girl he loves and not just his own wants, a true man can and will want to wait to have sex until after they are married. Talk about holding guys to a higher standard and teaching girls that a guy should want to be held to a higher standard. Of course he also plans to turn her into a vampire after they are married, but hey...it is a fantasy book, what do you expect. I really liked this story because my wonderful daughter tries very hard to read books that don't describe sex. You would not believe how many books she has started to read, then showed them to me, I have read a few lines and had to tell her that she could not finish them. Sometimes I can just get her past the bad parts, but it is so frustrating when it comes to today's books. I know there are lots of movies out there that show more than they should, and she has probably seen too many of those, but there is just something that triggers more in a girl's mind when she reads about these things. In this book, even when the couple do get married...the author stills does NOT go into detail...YEA! I know everyone is different about what they let their kids do, and I am sure that there are lots of people who would disagree with my take on the vampire romance novel, but for me...I am thankful for a better standard for guys (even if they are not vampires...lol.) And thankful for a different outlook for girls...maybe they should not always think guys are out for just one thing from them and that it is possible to find a guy who would want more than just the physical from them. Anyways, this is just briefly my take on the novels.

I promise to post more when I know more about my mother, I appreciate everyone's prayers for her.

A Beautiful Weekend!!

Where has this week gone?

We had an absolute fantastic weekend last weekend. The weather was so nice and it was a very relaxing weekend. The kids had a good time. Pastor Kris was showing his deluxe accommodations from his vacation, so I thought I would show off ours.

Saturday at camp.

Inside the tent, Dwayne rests on our wonderful rope bed.

Camp on Sunday morning.

Camp at Night.

Amazingly the kiddos can have fun, even without electronics, just doing some chasing, hiking and rolling down the hills.

Brighton leads Tobi, his prisoner, around.

The kids rest at the end of the hill after rolling down it many times.

We had a beautiful hike.

A quick photo spot during the hike.

A little rest after our hike.

A quiet Sunday morning, all the kiddos had something to do.

How about a little "guess what I am drawling"?

Brighton spends quality time cleaning wax off the table, at least he gets to use his knife...

Tobi plays her new flute, which mysteriously disappeared on the way home... :)

It was our last re-enactment for the year, but we are looking forward to many more next year.

P.S. Work is really picking up, so I may be a little slow in blog updates.

Moving Back In...

We might be a little ahead of the game, but we took some time to move back into our house this Saturday. Just a few pieces to keep our clutter to a minimum were brought back in. Brighton got his loft bed back, so that meant the futon bed had to leave. (Does anyone want a futon bed?) All the kids got book shelves brought in and the little girls got their doll house back. Now technically the doll house creates clutter, but because they actually play with it, it got brought back in. We are getting so close to be done with the For Sale sign in our front yard, we are very excited about that. Just 12 more days to go, then all of you who have told us how much you would miss us if we left...well, you got your wish and now you are stuck with us.

New Test...

So...have I learned anything at my new job? Well, today was a new test for me. The lady who has been training me, the lady who is the only one who knows it all at work...well, she got sick today and had to leave early. I had just finished popping 41 patches of popcorn and I was getting ready to start helping her with Carmel popcorn. She had to leave about 3 hours before we were suppose to get off from work, so my boss asked if I thought I would be able to do it. I told her I would be willing to try, so we decided to try one batch and see how it turned out. I passed the test! I can make Carmel popcorn on my own in at least one of our cookers. I just have to learn how to use the other one. Still, I felt pretty good about it, but very tired!!!

Knock on wood...

I THINK my family has pulled through this round of sickness without Dwayne, Sari or I getting sick, that is pretty good, only half of the family getting sick. Today I have my little neighbor girl, because her mom had to work and she has strep throat, so she will be resting here today.

Our family is preparing for our next weekend re-enactment. We will be going to Muster on the Wabash. My kiddos will be missing on the usual Halloween/fall festival activities, but they are good with that, they are looking forward to doing another re-enactment event. We know nothing about this event, we have turned in out application and we will just be heading down and hoping it will go well. Our friends the Clouses are not going to be able to go, but the other family we camped with at Mississinewa 1812 will be going with us, so we will not be all alone. It will be good for us to get to know them a little better since we have just met them. It is going to be a colder weekend and Dwayne has been working on finding us a stove for our tent, but if we don't get one in time, we will just bring some of our propane tent heaters and have all of us in the one tent.

All this re-enacting is causing me to dig into more history books. I went to the library last week and picked up a few books on Indiana history. I will be looking for more books on the French and Indian war, and the war of 1812 soon. It is really cool to read more on this and be able to take little pieces of this past and work it into our stories when we talk to people who come through our camp. Dwayne and Sari were doing a great job of this at 1812. Now I just have to catch up with them.

Just one of those weeks....

At first I thought this last week was going to go fast, but then *BAM* it slowed way down when all my kiddos started getting sick...one by one. Sari is the only one that has stayed healthy. Tobi started with a headache and a slight fever. She stayed home on Wed., just when I thought she might be feeling better, she puked all over me...YUCK. Next came Dora, she came home from school early on Thursday, and missed on Friday. She complained of the same thing, headache and then slight fever...lucky for me I was working at the church when she puked. Brighton had the headache and fever all weekend. Whew...I just hope this next week goes better.

Recovering...

Oh my goodness, my whole family was so tired on Monday. I had to go to work, the kids had to go to school, and Dwayne, well, he had to work, but it was in the comfort of our house. Monday evening Dora and I had to head off to town for her violin lessons and her soccer. Her teacher was very excited to hear how much Dora had practiced over the weekend (She played for about 5 hours, which is easy to do when people are paying you to do it, she better not get use to it though, I am not paying her to practice...lol.) Her teacher is getting ready to push her a little harder on some of her songs, so more practice. Off to soccer next, I always wondered if it was possible to wear my little super energy child out, and I have found out yes, it is possible. She was out there on the field doing her best, but I could tell the girl was very tired. Tonight is her last night of soccer which is good, I think she is tiring of it. Then I came home Monday night to find that my wonderful husband and 2 oldest kiddos had done tons of cleaning up of our re-enacting stuff. They sorted through all our totes, did up all the dishes, sorted out the laundry and made dinner!! What a wonderful surprise, this meant I would be able to pick up where they left off on Tuesday with my cleaning.

Tuesday came around and you could tell everyone is still a little tired, but starting to get back to the reality of life. I was very lazy Tuesday morning, but finally got started on laundry. I am not doing any sewing this week. I am trying to get all my projects sorted through and put away some extra material that is not needed right now. I did finally finish sewing the binding on my stays Monday night at the soccer game. Let me tell you right now, that really starts some interesting conversations, when you are sewing stays at a soccer game.

Today, still more laundry for me. I had to keep Tobi home today because she is running a slight fever. I am sure it is nothing serious, just a little cold. This week is going by so fast. Our weekend is not overly planned out, but still enough stuff to keep us busy. I will be in the A/V booth this weekend, so I will be at the church this Thursday night. I really enjoy working in the A/V booth. Brian Cline does an awesome job of keeping his volunteers informed, which is really nice.

Well...off to do the laundry now. Have a great day everyone!

Mississinewa 1812 (2008)

It was a great weekend. Very cold on Thursday night, but the other nights were not too bad. The days were very warm, but the mornings were nice and cool. We all stayed busy and the time went by way too fast. We are looking forward to our next outing. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but it is easy to just get busy and forget about my camera.

Here are a few pictures I did take....

(Brighton and Jeremiah's camp)

(Brighton and Jeremiah doing card tricks.)

(Sari, Sara and Dora relaxing on the pier.)

(Our Camp)

(Our Kitchen)

(A view into camp)

(Sari and Sara's camp)

(Dwayne during the pirate and indian battle)

(A group breakfast)

(A group breakfast)

(Preparing ammunition for the battle)

(Dora playing the violin, she made lots of money)

(Brighton and Jeremiah chillin' at their camp)

(Dora opening her birthday presents with her new friend watching)

(Tobi checking out her handwriting with a candle lighting her way)

(Dora in her new birthday dress, while it was still clean)

(Dwayne during the indian and pirate battle)

(Matt telling Tobi to get to work)

(Sari and Sara enjoying a little boat ride)

(Sari and Sara coming up the hill)

(Dora and her friend playing under Capt'n Bob)

(Brighton taking wood to his campsite)


These are just a few pictures. It was a great time. Thanks to all those who came to came by to see us.

Starting to slow down...

Today has been so busy. I did lay down for about 2 hours this morning after my all night sew fest. I got quite a bit done and even straightened up my sewing stuff afterwards. Then I headed into Muncie to do some much needed shopping for this coming weekend and a little for the following week. Together with my little shopping partner, Kaden Vickery, I went to about 3 different stores looking for the best deals. I even got a wonderful Starbucks peppermint latte with extra whip cream....yummy. When I got home I had to start getting my 3 oldest kiddos ready to go to concert with their dad. They were going to a Marine band concert and their band teacher told them to dress nice, no jeans. First of all, their dad would have made them dress nice, but second thing....Brighton doesn't have dress clothes. The boy just keeps growing. I keep buying things for him, or my mother finds some things, but I just buy what he needs to get through until the next growth spurt. So, sorry Mr. Band Teacher, Brighton was wearing jeans, (hint...hint...mom...Brighton needs size 32 black dress pants), a button down shirt that was really too small (hint... hint... mom... Brighton will need a men's med or large white dress shirt, just in case you see any ;)), but he did have nice looking sports coat on, thanks to my mom who bought him one at a resale shop. It was even hard to find dressy clothes for Sari and Dora, just because still so much of our stuff is packed up. (By the way....on 1 month to go today until our contract is up and Dwayne will tell the company we will not be able to move after all.) But they did all get dressed looking nice, although Dwayne wanted him and Brighton to wear ties, but someone still has all our ties....I will have to get those back. We only were able to get 4 free tickets to the concert, so Tobi and I stayed home while everyone in their fancy clothes headed out. I have been cleaning up the kitchen, putting away groceries, but I am not sure I can last much longer. I have a feeling I will sleep well tonight. Tomorrow I will work my only day of work this week, come home, take Dora to soccer, and then head to the important church business meeting. I will then have a very busy Thursday trying to get everything packed and read for us to leave Thursday night...we can't wait.

Quick answer to a question in the previous comments, Milah, I don't have an actual address for Mississinewa 1812. The only directions I have are 7 miles Norht of Marion, IN on State Road 15. Sorry I am not more help. Dwayne always does the driving and I have not paid much attention.

Well, I think I am really looking forward to sleep tonight. I love staying up, I get so much done, but I also love the feeling of being so tired that I really fall asleep when I finally do go to bed. I am one of those people who let their thoughts keep them awake way too long, but not tonight, I am way too tired to think...lol.

3 am...

So, what am I doing up at 3 am? Sewing...I bet anyone could have guessed that. I must say I love these all night sewing times, because it is the only time I get to work on my projects without anyone asking me questions. I am surprised that I am not just knocked out all the next day, but I seem to do just fine. A little tired, which might have shown on Sunday, because I was up in the A/V booth running the slides for both services...over 4 hours in a little sound proof room. Anyways, I stayed up all night Saturday night making a surprise birthday dress for Dora that she wanted, I went to bed around 6am only to get up at 7:15am to head off to church. So, if you thought the slides were a little behind on Sunday, now you know why...lol. Anyways, I am up tonight, getting more done than I thought I would. I just put the the finishing touches on Dora's birthday dress, I completely made my cape, made an apron, and now I am getting ready to start a new petticoat for Tobi and make a few quick neckerchiefs. I am doing this, because I really need to put my sewing stuff away sometime tomorrow and concentrate on packing and making food for this weekend. All the other little things that a mom has to do, so I will not be staying up any more nights, just sleeping.

By the way, for anyone who might be thinking about coming up to Mississinewa 1812 here is a little information for you:

• Hours: Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. 9am-4pm
• Prices: At the door, Adults-$7, kids (6-11) $4, but some Marsh stores are offering advanced tickets, Adults-$5, kids $3. You might want to check that out.
• If you are looking for us, we are the first campsite on your left side, by the river. We are with the River Rogues (Pirates).
• There are TONS of merchants selling all kinds of cool things and foods, so be prepared, plus there is a really cool battle re-enactment that I think is done maybe twice a day...
• Last thing, I know that I will be in a sewing information class on Saturday from 10am to about noon, but all my kiddos should be around.

Allrighty then...it is now 3:15am, I better get back to my sewing. I will hopefully get my picture software loaded to the new computer soon so that I will be able to post tons of pictures.

Internet Problems!

We have seriously been experiencing internet problems around here. On Tuesday morning we tried to log on to the internet with no luck. This is really bad for Dwayne, due to the fact that this is how he does his work. He called Verizon and found that there were some outages in the area and we needed to keep checking through out the day. By Tuesday night we still had nothing, so Dwayne called again. After spending about 2-3 hours on the phone being told it was not their problem, but our computer problem. Ok, if that was true, then how in the world do they explain that it is not working on any of our 3 computers that connect to the internet? Ummm....they all went down in the same day, same moment....I don't think so! Well, we obviously HAVE to have internet, so it was time to change providers. Dwayne called comcast, but they could not get us installed until Friday. Well, now we have new internet, seems to be working...funny, not our computers after all. Amazingly enough, Verizon was very willing to send a technician out to check our internet connection once we decided to cancel our DSL. That would have been a nice option when my hubby asked for it on Tuesday, but since they were convinced that it was our problem and not theirs, they lost our business. And now as soon as comcast finishes running their networks, we are going to switch to their phone lines as well. Too bad Verizon. So, anyways, we finally have internet again, but we also got a new main computer, so it will still be a few days before I get some new photos uploaded to my blog.

Buried...

I am feeling so buried these days, buried under tons of fabric that is. With just less than 2 weeks until we leave for 1812, I am trying very hard to get a few more things made for my family and for some friends of ours. Last Monday I was able to find some much needed wool to make Sari and I's capes. I spent last week working on short gowns for Sari and I, regency dresses, short stays, haversacks for the kiddos, and last night, finally, I made my first cape. I have a few little loose ends to finish on each of those projects from last week. On top of all the sewing, we had the usual activities of life, violin lessons, soccer, a pampered chef party, more soccer, clarinet and baritone lessons, and then early Saturday morning, Angel food and then Sari had driving lessons later in the day, while we were all working on more sewing. We have had the tents up in the backyard all last week, so Dwayne was planning to take them down after we went to lunch with some great friends, but no...Dwayne was very sick on Sunday. He spent the entire day in bed, while the kiddos and I just hung around the house and did what....oh yeah, more sewing. I will be sighing a deep sigh of relief when this is all done, but really it will never be done, I will always want to make some thing new, but I will be glad when it is back to a slower pace and just not trying to finish before we leave. I hope to be posting some pictures of the new pieces of clothing and the tents, including the rope bed Dwayne made for us. We slept out in it last week and it is really pretty comfortable.

PS. If I have acted distant or ignored anyone lately, please let me know. When I get this buried in my projects, I tend to forget there are other people in the world. I hate that I do that, I really need to work on that. But at least I should be back to the land of the living starting around Oct. 13th. Even though we are going to another re-enacting event the first weekend of Nov. I will not be sewing so much for that one, I hope...lol.

Koh-Koh-Mah 2008

We had a great time on Saturday. We day tripped to the Koh-Koh-Mah event, which is a re-enactment of the French and Indian War. We will definitely be camping there for the whole weekend next year. We have friends who camp there every year, so we did some scouting for a bigger space for all of us for next year. The kiddos have so much fun just walking around on their own, check out the cool things to do and then also just sitting around camp and chatting. Here are few pictures that were taken, I should have had my camera out tons more than I did.

Here the kids are walking in the children's parade.

Here I am just chillin'.

Here the kiddos are just hanging out at camp.

Sari in her new stays...much more comfortable for her than last years.

The whole family.

Happy Birthday...

to Dwayne! Today is my hubby's 37th birthday. The kiddos and I could not wait, so we gave him his presents early this morning. Some new green (the new color of choice these days) t-shirts, a few old school hip hop cds and a wood lathe. A pretty good birthday, of course I am leaving him tonight with a bunch of kiddos while I go work at the church, but hey, every birthday can't be perfect...right?

I love my kids...

and I love their excitement! Dora was so thrilled to start back to violin lessons last night. She told me that she was more excited about violin than she was soccer and she is really loving soccer. Her teacher is just so good with her and gives her the right amount of praise and encouragement to keep her love for the violin alive. She was telling us yesterday that there will be a recital in December and a music contest in March. She was so encouraging to Dora that she almost can't wait until December for a reason besides Christmas. I can't wait to see how well she does. Tobi went with me to all of Dora's stuff last night and on the way home I reminded her that tomorrow, which is today, is her ballet class, to which she is very excited about that. I like that fact that we do not allow the kids too many activities, so that they can truly enjoy the activities they are in. Sari usually ends up with the most activities, but most of them are school related. The kids all keep me on my toes with all they have going on, but I love it, I love watching them enjoy what they are doing.

A day off...

I have the day off today, which I must say is awesome, I love it. My supervisors had to work on Saturday, so they got today off, which means I get today off because there would be no one to tell me what to do. Of course in a house filled with kids, there really are no days off. The house needs to be straightened up, dishes need to be done, laundry needs washed and tonight Dora has tons of activities. But...I will be home all day and I will be able to do it. I love my work, but I will enjoy these unexpected days very much when they come along.

The kids are getting very excited about Saturday. We will be heading to one of our re-enactments and they can't wait. I have just finished up some clothes for Sari last night, and I still need to finish up some other clothes, but we will pretty much be ready for our day trip....yea...we can't wait!

We made it.

The whole family survived my first full week of work. Yea!!! I really have lots of sewing that I need to be working on during any free time I might have. Next Saturday is our first re-enacting event of the season. We will just go for the day to Koh-Koh-Mah, this is an re-enactment of the French and Indian War. We are hoping to stay the whole weekend next year. Then in too short of time for someone who has lots of sewing to do, we will head off to Mississinewa 1812 for the whole weekend. Dwayne might go early on Wednesday, Oct. 8th, while the kiddos and I will head down Thursday evening, Oct. 9th. Too short of time. I still have so many clothes I wanted to get made, but there is just never enough time. Sari still has a dress to finish sewing and the other kiddos need to sew up some haversacks, which is just a period correct bag. Dwayne has found us another re-enactment that we might try to go to, it is down in Vincennes, IN on the first weekend of November. I am hoping to fill our calendar next year with a few more events, just for fun. It ends up being a free weekend of camping, plus each event teaches the kiddos a little more history. I really hope the more we get into this, the more the kiddos will want to research history to understand the the times we are portraying. Well, it is 6am on Saturday and it is a good time to start some of that piled up sewing.

Popcorn...lots of popcorn!

I spent my morning at work yesterday learning to make popcorn. After about 40 batches of popcorn, I am pretty sure that I know how to make it now. It was fun to do, kept me really busy, not that bad to clean up after, but the smell...ohhhh...the smell. I felt like I could smell the popcorn oil all day and evening. I took Dora to soccer after work last night and by the time I got home, I had to take shower to see if I could get rid of the smell. I am sure I am the only one who could smell it, but it was strong. We also put together lots of boxes of chocolate. That is very fun. The kids are settling very well with mommy working. Dwayne is a huge help. He had to go pick Sari up from school yesterday, because she was still not feeling well. She had a fever all day on Tuesday. Next week will begin a serious rush for us on Mondays. Dora starts her violin lessons back up, so it will be violin from 5pm to 5:30pm, then off to soccer from 5:45 to 7pm. Busy Mondays...lol. I am so glad Dora is getting into some extra actvities. Sari just has clairnet lessons for now, but academic season will be starting soon and Tobi is enjoying some dance classes on Tuesdays. Brighton only has trumpet lessons for now, but maybe something else will catch his eye soon.

Where does time go?

It has been a busy few days. There have been school open houses, church activities, work and just life. Today is my first breather day. Dora started soccer last night, and starting next week she will have violin and soccer on Mondays. I am just trying to get some organization done, so that we can keep all our activities straight and our life some what on track. This is a new phase of life for me. I am enjoying it, but it is going to take some getting use to.

First Day of Work

I survived my first day of work. I rode my bike to work. I got there by 8:30am and started in wiping down some candy molds, then I worked with another lady to package candy. That takes a lot of time. Next, came making turtle candies, yeah, my hands were covered in chocolate. No, I did not lick my fingers. I do believe I will really enjoy my job. There is a lot of work to be done, not much down time. I will definitely keep busy all day. My kiddos were hard at work on the dishes when I got home, which was great! I need to get a little more organized and have something in mind, or started for dinner on the days I work. I am sure we will get into a nice little groove with this whole work thing.

By the way...I have no temptation at all to eat any of the candy, it did not even appeal to me yesterday. As much as I like candy, I like it when I am in the mood for it, working on it all day yesterday did not tempt me at all...guess I am just a little weird like that...lol.

Feeling Good!

I spent all day yesterday getting the garage cleaned up and reorganized. Dwayne is a neat freak, I am a pack rat...the two rarely mix well. My hubby puts up with my pack ratishness, and I have been trying really hard to give up more and more stuff as I find that I don't need it. Yesterday, I threw away stuff, I packed up a whole van load of stuff and took it to Goodwill. In the process I gave my hubby some much needed working space in his garage. We had moved a whole bunch of things out to the garage when we thought we would be moving, but seeing how that is not looking like it is going to happen, we need to decide how we want our house to look, what we want brought back and what we don't want brought back in. It felt good to show him all my hard work last night. It paid off well for me, he gave me many compliments of how nice it looked and he is out there right now working on our tent poles for the canvas tent we will be using at 1812. Now today it is hard to get myself motivated to anything...lol.

Joining the work force...

It looks like I will be once again joining the work force. It has been years since I have had to go into an actual building and work all day, but starting next week I will be quickly reminded what that is like. I have been hired on to make candy at the Main Street Coffee shop. I had my interview today and I will start working 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, & Friday) 8:30am to 4:30pm. Those are really good hours for a mom who does not want to be away from her kids too much. I am so excited. I have wanted this job ever since I heard about it. Talk about awesome timing, just one week after my kiddos start school, I start to work. Plus, the lady who interviewed me said that the hours will probably be way less in the summer time...how perfect is that!

Our first meltdown.

I knew it would come, but I did think she would be able to make it at least the 3 days this week. Tobi cried this morning. There are boys at school that like to scare the girls, and she misses being at home, but between Daddy and I, we were able to calm the tears. We reminded her that we loved her, we missed her too, and that we are here when she gets home. Also, we pointed out what fun she has while she is there, that she likes her teacher, she has new friends to be with and that the weekend is coming. She has made some new friends at school, one we hear lots about is Tiffany Oren. They sit close by each other, plus Tobi remembers her from mega sports camp, so that helps.

Dora brought home a paper on soccer yesterday and since the deadline was Aug.30th, I quickly signed her up and mailed it out. The mega sports camp really got her excited about soccer and Dwayne and I are always on the look out for things for Dora to do, she needs to get out there and make friends. This little 3rd child of mine is a goofy one. She will occasionally talk of friends from school, but that is about it. Nothing about wanting to have them over, nothing about planning a huge birthday party with friends from school and no, absolutely no sleepovers for this girl. All my other kiddos like to do things with friends outside of school, even Tobi is already bugging me about wanting to invite a friend over for dinner, but not Dora. Besides grandparents, the only other place she will stay the night is at our friend's house, the Clouses. I think that is just because we do so much with them, that they feel like family to her.

Well, I am glad today is Friday, the kids will have a 3 day weekend to rest up before they return to school. Tobi may need all 3 days to recover. I do like the fact that the kiddos are kind of eased slowly back into school, 3 days this week, 4 days next week and then on the full school week. Tobi may need that slow transition, but I think in the end she will do fine. All of them will.

Everyone Survived

Lucky for us, everyone survived the first day of school. Tobi ran into a problem at lunch time, a little boy bit her bag cheese crackers. He even ripped the bag! That was the very first thing she told me when she got home. Then she said, "I did not eat them after that." Well, I would think not...lol. Dora loved her day. She really enjoys school. Sari talked non-stop about her day. Brighton just made it through the day. He does not like school. They all seemed to like taking their lunches, so far. Dora said she did not have enough to eat, so we sent more food in her lunch today. We went out to Chuck E Cheese last night to celebrate the first day of school. I even survived the day with no kids at home. I must say, I did sort of miss hearing some little voices during the day. I went and turned in an application for a job. That will be weird, I have not really worked outside the home for a really long time. I did medical coding at home for a long time, but I haven't even done that for at least 3 years now. Now, today I have lots to keep me busy. (And if I don't keep busy, Dwayne WILL find something for me to do...so, I better get to work...lol.)

First Day of School Pictures!

First day of school for my kiddos....Finally!


Dora is very ready!

Brighton will go if he has to go, not because he wants to go.

Tobi and Claudia are so ready they are outside wait for the bus!

Here comes the bus! Everyone on!

Now...what in the world am I going to do today. Oh yeah, get caught up on my blog...lol.

Stays Pictures!

I have been working hard on a new set of stays for our 1812 weekend. Here is the inside layer.

There is metal boning in most of these sewn in channels. This took tons of stitching. Thank goodness I have a sewing machine.

This is the outer layer being pinned on.

This is the pieces sewn together, with the binding hand sewn on. I just need to get these all laced up and then try them on Sari, I think I made them a little too big for me.

Camping Pictures!

OK...I have tons of pictures to share, here are just a few. We had so much fun at Spring Mill State Park.

Here my little beauties are not quite out of their beds yet. We have a huge tent and the kiddos all sleep side by side on their cots on one side of the tent, Dwayne and I get the other side.

Here my kiddos are checking out some of the pioneer games. I am sure they are all taking notes, so they will know what to play with when they go to Mississinewa 1812.


So, off to the next house. I love walking through each house, looking at the tables, the dishes, the cast iron pots, and just the over all look of the way people lived back then.


Can you walk on stilts? Dora did a really good job, Dwayne can do it, Sari tried, but was not the greatest, I am not sure if Brighton ever accomplished it, and Tobi...well, I am pretty sure she never made it either. ME...I did not even try.


What an absolutely beautiful family I have!