Drama

Do you have one of those Drama Queen's in you life? I do have one of those, and every time it makes me thankful to have a boring old life thank you very much. Unfortunately life has a funny way of thinking you may need other things. Thus I ended up being the drama queen.

Life has gotten the better of me again. Hubs had to have another amputation. This time his lower left leg. Leading up to this though hasn't been fun and he has been in tremendous pain. As crazy as it sounds it was the best possible thing we could have done and he is doing really well. My emotions have been running high for some time anyway with all the changes we have had over the past few years. I did fine for the longest and then it just seemed to catch up to me.

A nagging thought kept occurring to me that made drama more susceptible. "why do I always have to bite my tongue or be the better person"? Sometimes, and at this time, I feel like just saying exactly what I mean. Of course it gets me in trouble. I guess I am just going through the steps, this one anger?

Ever since hubs had been having problems I have been on the search....Why?....Why us?
But if not us it would have to be someone right? Then the search turned to the plan. I tried to make that deal," Ok, God, just show me the plan or at least the next step and i will do it and everything will be ok right?" yeah that doesn't work so much either.

Recently I had the opportunity to go to my first ever Christian Conference and Concert. Yeah! I know!!! I live under a rock. Conferences and concerts just haven't been a high priority. Anyway! Women of Joy was just what I needed before the storm of the amputation. And I let go of the idea of seeing, knowing, understanding the plan or the next step. A light bulb went on, "that is faith, duh". There were so many inspirational speakers at this conference that touched me in different ways. I guarantee I will make a point to do them in the future, what an uplifting experience.

I needed to go beyond just going to church. I need that one on one. I had it once and lost sight of it through this crazy ride called life. I have my sights set back on it. It may not always be fun but I think I may not loose sight this time, I pray!!

Thank you to my kind friend for sending me

Isaiah 35:3-4

Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
"Be strong, do not Fear!.......

It was just what I needed the day of surgery. I still think of how powerful this verse is. Thank you God for putting , my friend, in my life to give me these words . Just what I needed and didn't even know it, thank you for knowing it for me!

What are some of your favorite verses to go to in a very tough time?

Thinking it through

It is getting closer as we head into warmer weather school is coming to a close and I am trying to make sure they get them all done. I know I said it before but we will never do K-12. It's not for us. I am trying to decide what to do for the next year as Austin has expressed that he wants to go back to ps. He seems to think I am trying to put him in a bubble and protect him. Of course that is what I am doing but not the way he thinks. I am sure I am not the first hs mom with a teen that wants to go to ps. Since he has been before I feel it is a loosing battle, but why do I feel this need to give in? I know that this year has been horrible between moving and trying one school then switching. Could it be possible that I too am not the only one to have a trying year and only see the road leading one way. What if I do send him back? I survived right? yeah but I now see that is all I did. I didn't really retain any of it and had to relearn it in College. I hated school and dropped out. Now that I have been/am hs'ing for 4 years we have come into some of the most brilliant learning enviroments ever. Plus they are not being molded into the cookie cutter, they are able to develop their self. I enjoy watching them evolve on their own, not on their best friends time table.I am discontent and unsure of how to proceed. Austin says he hates hs. It saddens me every time he says it. Always in a joking manner, with intent. As I push he pulls and that needs to be fixed. Every time I have ever done anything hs oriented he ended up having a blast even if he didn't start that way. If he does stay hs how do I bring him around? I sure can't do it here (the boonies, sc)as he has no hs peers. I simply must figure this out and get a plan of action going to ensure that there is a working plan come "school" year.



Colin has also expressed interest in going back. With him I think he would be fine either way, so chances are he will hs next year. Conner has stated that he wants to hs next year. Last year we did CBS, Karate, Ice skating and various other activities with hs groups and it was great. The kids had a wonderful array of hs peers. This gave me a look at high school too as alot of those students were in this category. I simply loved these kids attitude towards their peers (kids of all ages) and to adults. I am not suggesting these kids are perfect just saying I see a clear difference in the attitude of these kids vs. kids from ps (that I have met or observed). For our family that is what I would love to see is the attitude of those hs'ing kids influencing my kids. I want them to find interesting ways to learn instead of boring lectures. Can I still do that in ps? I could to an extent. I have observed Austin in ps and I have seen him with his peers from ps and his peers from hs groups. The attitude I see in him toward myself, other adults and his peers is almost night and day and that is what I fear will be if he does go back to ps. Perhaps I should figure out how to help him act his normal self when being influence to act this way. How do I do that?

I need instruction. I need to figure out what is best for each of the kids, but haven't the foggiest on how to do that . Well I think I got Colin and Conner figured out but not Austin. How do you approach bigger decisions for the kids like that? We aren't talking about letting them have a soda, this is school and bigger even then that it is the shaping of my kids. I wish I knew the right answers. How is it that the older I get I feel more confused then ever? Alright, I have bored you with my crazy thoughts enough. I hope I got it all right as my thought jumble.

16

The amount of years I put up with my hubs will be 16 on the 16th. I can't believe that it has been that long since we met in our high school library. He was all the trouble I could handle and it took him three weeks to convince me. But really that smile got me every time and still does. We have definitely had our share of ups and downs all these years, but it has so far been a good journey. I think of all our memories and find although we had a bit of a rocky start we managed to work through it and came out on top. We are not the same people we were when we started, but come on we were 17. I also think to the future and hope we can continue to compromise any issues that come along the way. I love that pain in the neck man that drives me crazy as only he knows how..........Happy 16th Anniversary

My mystery flower turns out to be daffodils

We are putting in a fence in the back. This will be a wonderful place for the dogs. Not to mention that we have had to take them out on leashes for about 2 1/2 yrs now. Well actually mostly the kids do it, but it is wearing everyone out and this will definetly make our lives so much easier. We are putting a chain link fence up since I think it silly to go with a privacy fence. I am not the biggest fan of chain link but I must say as the project is developing I am enjoying having a perimeter for the yard. It seems more managable to just have a backyard and frontyard and not really mess with the side yards for the most part. The boys have been helping with the project and it is interesting getting everyone to work together. I got out there and finished raking most of the gutters along the driveway only to find that perhaps it may have been easier to burn it. I even managed to till up the garden a bit and plant some onions, garlic, blueberry and rasberry. I still have a host of herbs and asperagus that I need to get in the ground. The asperagus is a bit daunting but I am excited about it at the same time. I am still planting and will continue to, hopefully I will have some pic's up soon.

I have also been trying to identify the birds that come to visit. Thus far I have what appears to be....

Robin(american robin)

Small woodpecker/possibly sapsucker

~still working on a good picture of this guy






Big woodpecker(pileated woodpecker?)

It's hard to tell but this woodpecker has a pecan in his beak.




small finch like brown bird


Still working on identifying this one, he's so small
He has a red cap with white eyebrow and black moustache.

The boys are even getting into it by telling me my woodpecker is back or a red cardinal is visiting. We are researching bird identification (or related) websites. It was fun to see what to look for as we start birding. I am even trying to keep a record of my visitors. I will inlist the boys help and have them build birdhouses for the different birds that are visiting and of course the ones we would like to visit. Isn't science fun. I even found a conservation project we can participate in to attract a certain hummingbird, more on this later. My favorite websites for birding thus far are

~ enature.com

~ birding.com


If there are sites you like to go to let me know. Enjoy your week.

Let it Snow

The backyard and fields covered in snow

Isn't it comical or perhaps a bit celestial that the year we move to South Carolina they break their 20 year no snow streak? It would seem we are responsible for about 6 inches of snow that hit last week. Yes of course i took pictures. I figured it was probably the first pictures of the farm with snow. It was pretty and white for all of one day. Half way through the roads were clear. I can tell you that doesn't happen in Colorado.

I bet it will never look the same

We got some inches

Austin and Colin went with the youth group on a skiing trip. Neither have ever gone skiing, although Austin has snowboarded. They left on Friday and by the time they finally arrived, 11:45 pm mind you, we had snow well on the scene. Conner was so excited since we really missed our snow season this year. Christmas was not the same. He also was unable to go because of his age. We bundled up and went outside. Chris pumped up a snow tube we had and roped it to the 4 wheeler. WE invited Marsha and her son and his wife. Conner got to go around a couple of times but of course my camera was dead. It was funny to see locals reaction to the snow. They were simply dumbfounded and awed. Snow Angels were made. Tracks in the snow for fun and of course what winter day would be complete without a snow man? Again I am sad to say by this time my camera was 6 ft under.

The boys came back on Sunday and Colin even bought me a magnet. What a thoughtful little kid. I love collecting magnets with pictures of the places we have been. I let him designate where on the fridge it would go. Now he has a reminder all the time. After getting some rest the boys talked non stop about this slope and that slope and what they ate and who they hung out with. It was good to see them so hyped up. They had great fellowship. I must say I am really pleased with the youth director at the church we have been attending. She is so easy going and relates to all ages so well. I still miss our church in the springs, but this church will do nicely.

I got a great deal on a Cricut recently but it really does take some playing with it to get the feeling of how it all works. I am still working out the kinks but I definitely have a much better understanding of that machine thanks to my niece. She sent me this cute little bookmark and so I thought I would return the favor and made one for her and one for her sister. I think they turned out rather cute and I can't wait to know whether the girls like them. It was really nice to be able to use some of my more feminine scrapbook stuff. I had such a fun time playing with the machine and figuring out what it can do and all that. I came up with so many extras that I sent to the girls figuring they would have fun gluing them all around.

I just adore this textured paper. It has such a wonderful dimension. I played with some puff paint and it didn't turn out so well. I love the odd heart as opposed to a perfect one.

this is where I love the cricut I could never have cut those hearts so thin and perfect. I also had some fun odds and ends around that I managed to implement. I hope she likes it.

This is the bookmark and I am sorry you can't tell very well that is still textured paper. The flowers came out so wonderful.

I've had this paper for a long time but because I have all boys I have not had a need for it. this was perfect way to utilize it and I am amazed at how perfectly the cutout flowers from the cricut match the dimensional flowers on the paper.

What projects are you all working on?

20 Year old bulbs?

I love flowers, but not in the typical buy me a dozen roses fashion; yet rather in the rose bush. I mean, don't get me wrong I do love getting flowers from my hubs but really it is the fact he thought of me. Flowers last about a week, two tops, if you know how to take care of them. A rose bush will last year in and out, as you watch it grow. Gardening is definitely something I like doing and I do know a bit about (just more then average). I moved from zone 5 to zone 8b. That means I get much more selection in the type of plants I want to grow. There are some plants that would not do well with in Colorado that will do very nicely here. We worked on getting a walkway of sorts out in front and have been noticing plants around the yard for some time. I thought they were wild as they seemed to appear everywhere with no rime or reason. We took out the old brick walkway that led up to the old house since now it didn't lead to the front door. Much to my surprise ,we saw more flowers start to appear in what seemed to flank the old walkway. This couldn't be, could it? No one has lived here for 20 years. Yes, some hunters came here but I am sure they did no gardening. So could this really be Chris's Grandmothers flowers? That would mean those bulbs replanted themselves for 20 years. Chris does say that there were many more flowers when his Grandmother lived here. With this in mind I find it really neat that they have survived and now I get to dig them out and transplant them in areas that make sense. I kind of like the idea of heirloom plants even if they aren't by definitions heirloom plants. I think it's a small tribute to her, to reuse these flowers. Here are some pics around the place

This poor tree has been pretty much eaten up by termites, it will need to come down. But it looks really cool.

These flowers came out in back. Apparently there used to be an outhouse that had a path to it with flowers all around. I can't wait to see actual flowers on them so I can identify them.

This picture didn't come out great so I drew on it to show you where the walkway was and where all the bulbs are showing up. That says walkway in the middle and the circles are the bulbs. Don't you think they look like they flank the walkway. Wouldn't it be neat if they were Chris's Grandmother's flowers. What a neat way to pay

All the rain we have been having showed me that I didn't get all the bricks from the old walkway.

Superbowl or really sports in general are not a huge thing in my house. We did love doing it with my Grandparents but really we just loved hanging with them. In the spirit, Chris and I cooked food and had the game on. Colin made a copy cat KFC coleslaw recipe. He was so cute dicing all that cabbage. I ended up helping since he had to do a whole head of cabbage. Chris made chili and hot wings. I made stuffed jalapenos, football shaped peanut butter chocolate rice krispies and Liquid center chocolate torte. I had always seen them and thought "no, that looks too hard". Then my boys stumbled upon "The worst cooks in America" on Food Network. Oh my goodness, we were hooked. Anyway these cooks made the chocolate torte so I thought it can't be that hard then. You know what it really wasn't, if you have wanted to try this go for it. I used the recipe that they used on the show. It was a chocolate heaven. I am definitely making them again.

Colin dicing up some cabbage. He pays alot of attention to the food network. Notice he has his palm on the knife to hold it in place. He got pretty good after a while. It was fun. Oh and the recipe did taste just like the KFC original. Yummmm

Liquid Center Chocolate torte. OOoey gooey chocolatey center with a light fluffy yet very rich chocolate outside. Simply a chocolate lovers delight.

Stuffed Jalapeno peppers turned out very good. It was a bit of work and taking that into consideration I am not sure we will make them again. If a recipe is alot of work it better be worth it, you know what I mean.

Chocolate peanut butter football shaped rice krispie treats. I forgot to get the icing and barely managed a picture before little fingers were grabbing them up not caring about the icing. At least they liked them

The copy cat coleslaw tasted just like the real thing, definitely a keeper recipe.

I am so ready for spring . I really am looking forward to finding out what all these bulbs are around here. We are in the yard all the time and people will be planting soon. I hope to have a vege garden and continue to get the yard in shape. Are you guy's ready for spring?

Neglect

It seems as if my blog has taken a huge hit the past year. I have not really neglected keeping it updated. I apologize. I almost was tempted to ditch the whole thing but I really do like it plus it can let my family back home know what we are up to. So I am going to be making sure to post at least weekly(cross your fingers).

Christmas came and went as did the new year. Do you call it twenty-ten or two thousand and ten? Dh's Uncle passed away in January. He had cancer of the esophagus. We all knew it was coming but it was still hard. Then to top it off his dad went into ICU a week ago. It seems we are not off to a good start for the year.We seem to have found a church home but haven't made it official with the church. It is definitely not what we are used to but it is a good little church with many wonderful hearts and great christian role models. The boys have enjoyed ice skating with them and a "lock down" on New Years Eve. Austin and Colin just signed up to go skiing in February at Seven Devils in North Carolina. I hope they cooperate when I ask for a couple of nice pic's together.

I am unsure if I have mentioned this but I am originally from Germany. Thus why my blog name is in German. Anyway I am still a permanent resident and I have come to the decision before my green card expires (every ten years)I am going to take the citizenship test. I have lived in this country much longer and really don't anticipate me moving to Germany. I hope you will enjoy the posts that will involve this as I am involving our hs of course. It should prove to be quite entertaining. I have also been doing a bit of cleaning and painting. We got an old wardrobe that was dirty and stinky. A good cleaning and a shiny new coat of paint and I can't wait to show you all the pic's. We are continuing to clean up in the yard and reclaiming it. The boys have been cutting down alot of undergrowth and trees. I love trees but really we had way too many. We also seem to continue to have drainage issues. It has been raining almost non stop. It doesn't even seem to stop long enough for the water to absorb into the ground. We get anywhere from 4-8 inches. I have a rain gage outside. After it rains we cannot use either the sliding door from the living room or the back door from the laundry room. Unless of course we want to hit the "pond" as we have "lovingly" termed the pool of water that insists on collecting in our backyard. Check out these.

.

This is at the bottom of the living room stairs. This pot just floated from somewhere and the wheelbarrow the boys used to haul wood to this door for the fireplace.

This is sort of a weird angle from the living room door looking towards the laundry room door. I don't know why the litterbox was there as I had it moved to the barn.

I sure hope your guys' new year is turning out to be a good one. I have missed all of you so much so I can't wait to see ya'll back here.

Notes and such

Thanksgiving went better then I expected. The food turned out great and the table looked good. We enjoyed our meal and had a good day. At the end I counted my blessings for the things that went well. I suppose that is all that anyone can really expect. Colin and Conner both helped with various things and of course Colin made at least one dish, green bean casserole. Austin "helped" by asking when the food would be done, lol. Austin is not one for the kitchen. I suppose I need to relax a bit and enjoy things and not worry so much about whether it compares to whomever I am comparing myself to at the moment. I am always looking to improve.

So I took time out to put the new recipe's we tried and liked. I really like the red garlic mashed potatoes and the savory stuffing. The pumpkin cake was so great and is also a wonderful addition. The turkey came out so beautiful, I wish I had gotten a picture when it came out of the oven. Everyone agreed it was too salty but it was gone in no time so it must not have been that bad. The brine recipe that I used called for 1 cup of water to 4 gallons of water. I found some turkey sized roasting bags at the grocery store so we put the turkey in it and added water till it was just about covered but we still had plenty of plastic left to tie off. Then we let it marinate for two days. I am going to change it to one day and 3/4 cup of salt in a roaster bag full of water. I hope this will be the wining recipe for christmas. I typed all this up into my "master chef" software. I love this software. I even got my sister to love it. It keeps all my recipe's. At the time I was thinking back to a time I remember seeing my grammy do this. Of course she did it with paper and pencil. She always put notes in her recipe's to get them just right. You know that little hint to make the recipe taste just so. We even talked about the amount of egg in her rum cake and how she has tried a few different ones to find one that worked. I've never really done this till now and I can see how invaluable this minor thing can be for adjusting my recipes for the better. Of course that doesn't work when you aren't sure where you went wrong. I am not sure where I went wrong with the pecan pie but no one wanted to eat it. The crust was great and the pecans were good we picked them ourselves from all those pecan trees in the yard. The filling was ok but it wasn't right it had this sort of odd taste not like I used bad ingredients but like mabey something got put in there that shouldn't. I have always had problems with this pie and I am on a mission to get the thing right. It's all in the practice right?

On Thanksgiving we went to Marsha's, her mom is my husbands great Aunt Dottie. That would make her....?It was a decent crowd with lot's of family showing up throughout the day. Even though I don't know half of them. There was so much food I felt silly for worrying about what I was bringing-green bean casserole, candied yams and pumpkin cake. The food over there was good too although they sure don't make yams like my grammy. Later the boys along with the teenagers and Marsha's grown boys played football. I got a few good snaps and will try to post them soon. The boys really had a good time and I was sooo glad. Here a few shots of our Thanksgiving.

This is the pumpkin cake. It's a new recipe and it was so delicious. Like pumpkin bread in a cake. nice and moist.

Pumpkin pie. Looks good. I am getting better at the crust aesthetics's

Green bean casserole and garlic red mashed potatoes. The potatoes were the creamiest I have ever had. Yummo. There are some crescents and the stuffing in the back

Grammy's candied yams, and savory stuffing in front. Mac and cheese in back.
Ham and Turkey. It's funny because at first I thought I did get a pic of the turkey. Upon closer inspection though I see that my hubs carved the turkey and placed it so, it looks like the whole thing.

Planning Thanksiving

I took time out Friday to plan our Thanksgiving menu. In a way I like the planning and thought process that goes into doing the whole holiday thing but I sure miss the simplicity of going to my Grammy's. Let me tell you about the holiday's at my Grandparents house. I have been going to my grandparents house since I came to the USA back in 86. We took a three year break when we were stationed in Florida. My Grandparents have perfected the art of the holiday meal. Everything is special and we always know what to expect although we do have alterations and of course the regular surprise thrown in. I cannot fathom the holidays without all of that but I must work with what I got. And so it would seem that I can either sit around pouting(boy I sure have gotten good at that one the past few months) or I can try and make myself busy being productive. I know at the end of the day if I feel I have gotten alot accomplished I can sleep ever so much better. So even if it will be different I will be making familiar dishes. I have also thrown in a few new ones I want to try out. I mean if I am going to start our own family traditions I want to have some recipes of my own. So what am I making? Here is the menu

Turkey

Ham

A somewhat modified version of my Grampy's Giblet Gravy

Grammy's Ham Glaze

Savory stuffing

Garlic Red mashed potatoes

Grammy's Candied Yams

Green Bean Casserole

Black Eyed Peas

Salad

Crescents

Pecan Pie

Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Cake

Yuppers it's a dozy but my Grandparents make way more then that and it's all so yummy. Sunday we talked about that at Marsha's (cousin to Chris I think). It was mentioned that my grandparents success at holiday meals comes from years of practice. I know this must be true so I have adjusted my thinking to expect much less so that hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised. I will get another opportunity to practice at Christmas time. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here though so back to thanksgiving. I had the defrosted my turkey this past weekend and then let it marinate in brine for two days. This morning I put it in my oven and should be ready around 3-5 pm tonight. We made the stuffing as we stuffed the bird so it would come out nice and juicy. Colin put together the Candied yams and Conner and I will be making the pecan pie in a bit. I also want to get the Pumpkin Cake done today. The ham I got was an already done type so I will just carve it tomorrow and then heat it up.What does that leave? The mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, green bean casserole, both gravies which I need drippings for before making, the black eyed peas are already done and salad and cranberry sauce is the ready to serve type. Last is the rolls but the will go in 20-30 min. before Dinner time.

I had a great time learning about turkey brining and preparing and roasting yesterday. The Internet is a wonderful tool if you know how to use it. I even watched videos on prepping and carving. I also got the tablescape and I hope it will be wonderful. I will try to take pic's for you guys. Be sure to share your menu, I love trying recipes.

Low Country Tour

I know I have been promising those pic's of where we now live forever. Well here are a few shots around the house. Please remember that no one has live here since 89', which means no one has done anything around here other then nature reclaiming. That is 20 yrs that no one has weeded, raked leaves, mowed the yard, trimmed trees etc.... My FIL came here at least every other year if not every to do maintenance on the buildings. The house burned down several years ago, I will find a picture of it for you guys if you promise not to laugh, I'm all of 17 in those pictures LOL. Watch for it in a future post.

Here is our Barn. As you can see the stairs are gone and there are some temporary steps which we are going to fix sometime. The field on the left of this building is our possible Garden site.

This is where we house wood and all the animal feed. Not sure what the building was used for but it is in the best condition out of all of them.

Our driveway. It needs desprate leveling and some general cleanup. On the very far left is the grapevine growing by the "garage".

The kitchen clean. I had to take a picture so I would remember what that looks like, lol. Kidding. I could put some chairs around the island. I am considering this for more seating.

Here is a a view from an angle at the front of the house. See the bare landscape, not to mention the years of growth we need to clean up.

Here are some bricks I got from the piles in our backyard. These used to make up all three chimney's on the old house

Our fine chickens produced these, aren't they wonderful.

Our pig. We just put fencing around this pen. The pig is having a blast rooting the place out.

This is the backyard coming from the front yard. There are two huge piles where we had them put as much of the wood in one and as much of the brick in the other. All that was left of the old house that burned down several years ago.

This is our "garage", it works even if that was not it's original intent. There is a grapevine next to the building that has been so overgrown I'm afraid of killing it if I try to cut it back.

My wonderful chickens in their pen. This pen needs work but the chickens are safe so it will do. I let the chickens free range as much as possible as this makes for happy birds. They thank me with almost enough eggs for all of us. I have never had a fresher egg.

That is our tour for the day. I am off to do some yard work and to work on my Thanksgiving menu and grocery list. I will try to write later. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

A switch and project

Well things have been a bit stressful around here and hubs is just about fed up. Actually let me take that back, hubs is fed up. He is in process of switching the boys to K-12. Yup you read right we are going back to K-12. We know the system and how it works. The teachers have always been so accomadating. Anyway it will be so much easier for him to work with and I still get my boys in hs. Dh wants to send Austin to ps in the second semester. Austin has been expressive about his dislike of hs the entire time. To be honest he has worn me out but that is no excuse to put him in that enviorment. I think that by giving in and giving him that type of influence that he will just get worse. I will pray, as a matter of fact I need to do that here in a few.

Chris and I came out of the ps system. We came out alright but we sure had that time that the influence of our peers made our pre-teen through teenage years quite rough on our parents not to speak of our values. I also don't like the skewed representation of History and Science due to taking God out of our schools. I do not suggest I want to keep them in a bubble but I want to equip them with the neccesary skills so that when they do come upon a time they should need such skills that they will be there.

I will keep you guys posted

Lowcountry Tour

Down here they have a term for the area, Lowcountry. It's sort of whimiscal. Anyway I have been coming back to the blogging world and found some good ideas for my blog. With that said I am attempting to come up with topic's so my family and all my wonderful friends can find things easier. I hope anyway. I also thought with trying to get some pic's of our new "home" that it would be great to give you all a tour of where we live. I will call it "Lowcountry Tour". I hope it will help my family back home see all we are up to. It will also give you a great view into our lives.

We will start the tour with the new house. This particular one will host the trail on the back fields. you can see how outgrwon things have gotten. It takes us about 20 min. to walk it. I have yet to get out there with a pedometer to figure out the milage for my workouts. We have been training the puppies to walk with us using this trail. They are in some of the pic's.

Deer tracks, I think this one is a Fawn and her mom. These are all over the trail behind the house.

This is looking towards the house somewhere in the middle of the field

A Deer stand put there by the Hunters club that used to rent the land for that purpose

This is towards the back field. Austin is ahead walking Kenai on a leash while the little puppies follow

This is towards the right field. Great shot of the pups with Kenai

Next time I will be showing the grounds and house. See ya'll later. (lol)

Connections Academy

OH what can I say that would be nice?? Well they sent us the curriculum in record time. They have been very friendly and their teachers are too. But the website is not user friendly. Sometimes the boys have a hard time getting videos or assignments to pop up. And it's not my pop up blocker I assure you. This leads to the discussion my husband and I had about just purchasing a curriculum. I know he doesn't feel comfortable to put it all together by himself so to rely on a ready made one would be the best way for homeschool to work in our home this year. I know it is very late in the year to be talking about getting a curriculum but I have tried to stick with Connections Academy only to find myself aggravated at their site every time I go there. In the meantime I will try and quickly find all the things the boys will need and the boys will have to endure Connections Academy for the time being. That being said I think we are in for a bumpy ride but we will make it through.

When I have the stuff together I will post the boy's curriculum and a schedule of sorts that will enable them to finish the year "on time".

Mist

I must share this wonderful thing that happens in the morning. Most mornings I have gotten up to a mist covering the field behind the house. It is very magical. It also makes morning walks with the puppies a bit hard because they get wet and then cold. Speaking of the puppies they are doing really well with our training them to follow us around. We are still working on potty training though.

The boys have caught two raccoons within days of each other. The last one was in a trap in the back fields. It looked so scared and innocent I felt so awful when my boys were talking about killing it. I know people around here like hunting and all but I don't think I will ever like it. I like my meat in packages thank you very much. Apparently these creature , like the armadillo's, are a nuisance to the farm. I have heard bad stories about raccoons and chickens. Oh speaking of chickens our chickens are starting to lay eggs. We got our first egg yesterday morning. I was so overjoyed as we have had them over a month and were wondering if we were doing something wrong. I am still looking for a good movable pen for the chickens so I can get them to clean up some of the yard.

Chris went back home(Colorado springs) to get his truck. I miss him terribly and am very worried as the weather there has been in the 30's and was supposed to be getting much worse today. This prompted him to leave early, so he wants to get out of there sometime this morning. Yeah. I had him bring the camera because as crazy as it sounds I wanted some pic's of home. For some reason I never took pictures of the town we lived in for so long and the town I think of as home. I can't wait to see what he got. With him gone today will be especially crazy. Conner has a game at 10:30. Them Austin and Colin have pictures at 12:30 and their game at 1:30. I still need to make a couple of dishes for Sunday dinner with the extended family. I am trying to decide between goulash and schnitzel. Colin wants a green bean casserole. I also want to make a desert.



Our work with connections academy is keeping me on my toes. It is just not a user friendly site. They need major work in that area. Unfortunately our Internet connection is also part of that problem. Hughes Net is not what it says it is . It is very slow and truly not much faster then dial up. We keep getting timed out and alot of things don't show up that the boys need to read in order to do the assignments and it is causing alot of frustration. I have some ideas about how to fix this problem. I will share them at a later date if it comes to fruition. On this note if you have a great christian curriculum that you love tell me about it please.

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I the last post. I'm so sorry for keeping you all out of the loop but things have been just cuh-razy. We had to wait a week and a half for our movers along with a home phone. We are discovering people around here don't seem to move quite as quickly as I am used to. LOL. It has been frustrating but we finally have everything. I am still unpacking but I got most of the things where they need to be now its down to organizing. We have had a steady crop of people stopping by and that has been nice although it has ruined some nice plans we have had on occasion.

I have been lost in trying to get the house the way I want it and it has been just about the only thing on my mind. The boys are getting situated as well. We got a four wheeler that they have been having a blast with but it will definitely be very helpful around here. We also got a riding lawnmower as our yard is now much bigger then before. There were several bigger branches in the yard we had to cut up but are going to come in handy for firewood. Also the old house was put into two piles out behind the house. One is as much of the wood and the other as much of the bricks as possible. That has been interesting. I was surprised to see how easily the mortar (sp?) came off of most of the bricks from the old fireplace's of the old house that had burned down. I don't know if it was because the house had been about a hundred years old or if the fire that burned it down just has that affect on mortar but it sure has made my job easier to get the bricks sorted. I want to use them for something since they are going to be the only thing remaining of the old house. There are vines all over the ground that I hope will start going away as we cut and live here. The boys also saw and shot their first armadillo. I had no idea how fast those things can move. I know everyone here says they are a pest but I would love to find out more about them, mostly we were told they would dig holes around the yard and in our outbuildings essentially creating a lovely way to brake your ankle. Needless to say we don't need that.

I haven't managed to get out all that much because of all that has been going on. Also Dh's condition has him tired and in alot of pain which has also had us miss out on some things. But it is the way our life has been for some time so we are used to it. Other then obviously being concerned for dh I find myself apologizing alot for things we have missed. I also found that unless you have dealt with chronic illness people either don't understand and look at us as if we are making it up or they make Dh feel like he is completely incompetent. Other than that I have officially signed the kids up for Connections Academy (public virtual school) since dh will be taking over most of the schooling. Austin is still requesting ps and dh and I are considering it for high school. I hope the boys get their stuff soon so we can start. Once that is done I am sure things will be getting into the swing of things.

I am also trying to take some pic's for you guys so you can see our new digs. I can't wait to share. Please update me on what's been up with you guys. I can't wait to check your blogs and see what you all have been up to. Hopefully I will start to have more time for my blogging soon. Have a great week everyone.

Got him

Thought I would let ya'll know that we found kenai, some really nice people took care of him for the night. We are grasping at straws for what else to pack. So we just need to get all the stuff we need for the trip and load up the car. Other then that I will be up to my elbows in hot sudsy water-in my opinion still the best enviormentally friendly cleaner with a bit of old fashioned elbow grease. The movers will be here in a few hours. I must run again.

Have a good day.

A quick note

The boxes are packed and we are down to the nitty gritty. The movers are on their way. There is so much to do . I know I haven't posted much latley but it looks as if I may need to take a quick break. I won't have internet for a little bit. I'm not sure when but since we are moving to the sticks the only way I could get high speed internet was to go with Hughes Net. And they are not cheap.

I think Chris's cousin has some chickens for us. We have to put up fences since those are long gone, then we can get a cow. Chris and the boys plan on doing some deer hunting on our property. The land has been rented out to hunters for years. So I guess there must be some there. I have as of yet to see all of the property. I am super terrified. The what if's are dancing around me in circles. I will be on the hunt for a job, I will attempt to make sure we still won't have to file bankruptcy. The past year has not been pretty to my bank account. All those copay's add up quick and when you have to see that many specialist (higher copay)it gets a bit crazy. Other then that I need to learn as much as I can about being farmer jane. LOL> Oh yeah that's my new nickname, lol. I wonder who all will show and how it all will turn out. I keep hearing that there may be quite a few people there when we finally appear. I will be sure to update.

So know that for the next week or two I am packing, moving, driving to our new home, unpacking, job hunting and a slew of goodness knows what else. We are going to have our husky, two dachshund's, one cat, Austin's bird, Colin and Conner's turtle (its itty bitty and we brought it up here from our trip to south Carolina so really we are just bringing him home). We will have us and our three boys and all the basic necessities for about a week and a half. That is alot for one mini van. We have a top thing (name is escaping me).

Tuesday we went to say goodbye to my grandparents. They are taking care of my nephew who happens to be the same age as Colin and the boys and him get along fabulously. My grandpy cooked out on the grill. It was a great meal and I tried hard not to think that this was the last time I would see them for a while. I know we can't come here for the holiday's this year as we will just have moved. So it is going to be extremely difficult for me and the boys. We had a good time and I of course took pictures. Grandmy fixed up a plate to take back with me to Chris, who had stayed behind to pack. My in-laws had been helping us pack up that day. The boys and I felt pretty guilty rolling into the house at 9 ish at night knowing full well we weren't getting much accomplished that evening. Chris had bad news, Kenai got loose . We are desperately trying to find him. We are leaving on Friday and I don't intend to leave without that dog. The boys are very upset and I am so scared for him as he needs medication (he has epilepsy).

Half the house is packed. Colin got his haircute ,ahem I mean haircut. I hated cutting all those curls off but he really needed it. You should have seen all the hair under his chair. The hairdresser even mentioned it. He has pretty much the haircut he used to have before he started growing it out. He looks very nice, he lucked out with fabulous hair that seems to look great no matter what length. I dropped off two of my cats with my mom to watch for us till October when Chris will come back and drive his truck down to South Carolina. We have said our goodbyes to just about everyone. My mom is coming over today or tomorrow for coffee and goodbye. I am trying not to be sad, I know I will come back to visit as much as I am able.

I must now tell you a little secret of mine. When we moved here to Pueblo I hated it. There were no sidewalks, no parks in our neighborhood, and no decent kids around. We found a small brand new hs group that helped me find others but practically all the kids were preschoolers. I more recently found a wonderful christian group that has plenty of boys my boys ages and my boys started to make friends. But , and here is the secret, I still don't like it here. It's all so dead looking. Even the yards because most of those are nothing but rocks, ahem I mean xeriscape. Although I still feel as though I am moving to the moon there is something really great about where I am going. I can have the small town where I live. 45 min South and I have a huge town at my disposal. Savannah is 45 min south of me and it's huge. I wonder if it's bigger then Denver, which by the way should I mention is a 2 hour drive for me right now. So going to Savannah will be like going to fountain (where we used to live and about 10 min from almost all relatives). There is a huge hs group that is very active. I am excited to meet them and get the kids situated. MY MIL said only for the 5 time that we should probably put the boys in ps down there, you know just to make some friends. Umm here's a newsflash I am almost positive those are not the kind of friends I would prefer my kids to have. Kwim?

Well I should really go. I need to keep packing and cleaning, I also need to prowl the neighborhood for my dog, I need to call the pound and see if he is there. Not sure if this is my last post for a while but if so I will be back soon . I hope.

Summer smiles

Today we took our friends to Glenn Eyrie. This place is the coolest. William Palmer Jackson founded the city of Colorado Springs and Glen Eyrie's Castle was his home. This place is smack next to Garden of the Gods. OH by the way I think this place would be perfect for a letterbox. You can hike on the grounds, take a tour of the castle or have proper English tea in the castle. They have retreats and conventions and speakers that I would love to see and hear.It is run by the Navigators. Navigator's is similar to Awana if you are more familiar with Awana's as we are. They run summer camps for kids as well and you can actually stay there too. I think its' not much more then a hotel would cost. All of the grounds are exquisite. There is a rose garden I have yet to see, perhaps one day. A couple of years ago my sister and I took my mom there for mother's day tea, it was fun and fancy and we had a fabulous time. The boys and I have hiked the back forest several times over.

So with my boys, my friend, her son and one additional friend we headed off this morning to go hike at Glenn Eyrie. We got there about 11 ish and my friend was astounded at the grandness of the grounds. I bet they have over 50 acres back there and all of it is just breathtaking. OH and I think it would be such a great place to put our very first letterbox, I have been looking for a spot to put it. We drive all the way to the last parking lot as it is the closest to the hike.

We cross bridges, streams and riverbeds. Along the way a group of visitor's spotted some mountain goats and we managed a picture. About an hour or so we finally get to the end where there is a wonderful waterfall. At this point we decide to stop and enjoy that we got there and eat some lunch. I knew there were some punch bowls at the top of the mountain. Technically we were at the bottom of the waterfall but not the top of the mountain. The last time we were there I didn't feel comfortable hiking up to the punch bowls but this time my boys were more then capable so we did. The trail is rocky and slippery and you are at about a 80* angle to the top. About a quarter to half a mile through some incredibly rocky and slippery terrain we finally made it although not without a few extra scratches and bumps along the way.

What is a punch bowl? I didn't really know to be truthful. Appearntly it is a part of a stream where the water has created a sort of bowl that you can take a dip in. All the kids at first chickened out and I knew how cold that water would be (really we were in the mountains of course it will be freezing). Well the dominoes fell-one took the plunge and they all followed suit. After that it was next to impossible to keep them out of the punch bowls. They were like little monkeys crawling around and getting out and egging each other on. It was a wonderful time. It took me about 15 minutes to get them to finally stay out of the water and start going back. I actually had to start going on the trail to really let them know it was time. There was so much fun chatter among the boys all the way back to the trail about the punch bowls.

I am including a little slide show of our trip. I hope you enjoy.

Letterboxing 101

Have you ever letterboxed?? If not you are missing out. I discovered letterboxing some years ago. I was reading one of those smaller newsletter type papers that some cities have. You know the free ones. Anyway this article caught my eye. Being the mom of three boys the idea of treasure hunting in nature definitely seemed like our cup of tea, or whatever the boy equivalent is. So what is letterboxing you say? Well let me inform you. Letterboxing is AWESOME. LOL. Seriously though, letterboxing involves

1. going to the letterboxing website

2. Finding letterboxes in your area

3. Getting the clues

4. Follow the clues to find a hidden box

What is inside this box??At the very least you will find

~a stamp

~a logbook

and possibly

~a pen

~an ink pad

So what do you do? Well you have your own log book. Ours is about 5 by 7 ,spiral bound, hard cover notebook. You will also want a stamp. You can go to your local hobby store and grab one that is meaningful to your family. I had one professionally made with my dh's family crest for one of his father's day presents. It is special to us and has meaning. Next you stamp their stamp in your logbook and your stamp in their logbook. You can write a small note and the date you found it. You may also go back to the letterboxing website to tell the owner that their box is still there and in good shape, this helps them immensely in the keep up of the letterbox. And that is it lady's and gent's. These boxes are hidden everywhere.

One such box led us to our favorite family hike. The trail is called "Seven Bridges" and it is gorgeous. It is about four miles of kick butt hiking. At the right time of year there are wild raspberries that my boys LOVE. Trust me I cannot emphasize that enough. We hadn't been there for almost 2 years, due to dh getting sick. A friend of mine wanted to go letterboxing since she hadn't been and I raved so much about it. So we all gathered up and headed out on thursday. It was the perfect day for a hike. We had 7 kids ranging in ages from 4-13. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the box. My friends and I had a great time and they are officially hooked on letterboxing now.

We love the fact that our kids had a great time in nature. No T.V., video games, computer, mall, park. Just plain outdoors. Beautiful, wonderful, magnificent Nature. The kids had a terrific time and even the 13 yr olds admitted they were tuckered out. Half the kids fell asleep on the way back. We ended our day with me taking them to the German Deli I love. Both my friends are military and had been in Germany not too long ago. Here are some pic's of our hike.

Austin, Conner and Josh go in the river. The ice cold river. Can you see Conner's open mouth? That is him gasping at the coldness. Their feet turned pink and numb in a matter of 2 min. tops. It was quite funny and of course a great lesson in hipothermia.

Lindsey, her son, Colin, Lindsey's daughter and Brenda. This is our last bridge, Bridge # 7. We hung out, ate lunch and caught our breath. The boys spotted some small fish trying to swim upstream and attempted to catch them. Unfortunatly you had to get in the water to do it. So they got wet and a bit cold. The weather was hot so it just cooled them off.

Conner finds a spot to hang out in.

Austin Climbs up this hill. It is quite tall and he is far up there. That is why he is so small.

Colin loves nature and he does very well in it.