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.