Happy Refomation Day!

What Happened to Summer !?

Well, I'm back indoors now- fall is upon us and I failed at giving any true updates since spring! Our summer was busy, then school started and we became even "busy-er". Plus the fact that I forgot how to get on the blog and do any updating. I have to use technology things daily or I forget how to use them right! My on-going love/hate relationship with modern equipment.
We went on an early summer vacation- it was still spring. We went up to North Idaho- it was a chilly and wet trip but we still had some fun. We did, however, come home a day early and found out that that was a good thing as the mountains we passed through had snow dumped on them, the next day or that night, and became impassable! Whew...close call.
Our next trip was to a friends cabin with those same friends and another family of friends-- the cabin was packed with 14 people and our ever faithful pug. This vacation was warmer than the previous one and was accompanied by some human dehydration- what's a good vacation without a little bad to laugh about later.?
The fourth of July was packed in there somewhere.
We always have our goofy dog.
There was Sports-Guy's birthday.

A garden to take care of. From which we sowed strawberries, TOO MANY green beans, one cantalope, watermelon, grapes, sunflower seeds, carrots- and the garden keeps on giving. Spinach, decorative grass and ground cover was planted two weeks ago, and,of course, the weeds are the best growing things around. We got ticketed by the code cop again this spring because our weeds/grass were too tall, guess it's an every other year thing.

Then school started up again. Gekco in 10th at high-school, Hider-man and Bed-Bug, 8th grade and 2nd grade at Home-school. This school-year is a lot different than last school-year ('busy-er'). Hider-man is still doing violin with Bed-Bug joining him as well this time around and Gekco is into his drama class. No sports to speak of right now, unless you count juggling life as a sport!

Here is a photo of our lovely children, Gecko, Hider-man and Bed-Bug. 15,13,7.

And a photo of us aging folks, Sports-guy and Farm-Girl, keeping the home fort running-- actually God runs it, we just live here. (here's the photo Hider-man took of me AdMac, happy?)
We got a new back-door put in- thanks Mr. L.! and now are awaiting the estimate on 4 new windows for the kitchen as the ones we have now refuse to open. Another dear friend helped out Sports-Guy to fix a leaking cold water hose line connected to the washing machine- a big thanks to Zoo-keeper.
Sports-Guy is doing well in his new position at work- I'm so proud of him! And he's always taking care of something around the house- Thanks Hon'.
As we move on through Oct. we are heading towards even 'busy-er, busy-er' times. Reformation day, Thanksgiving, Christmas then a new year and onto the kids birthdays. Woo! It all comes so fast! God bless you all in your up-coming holidays! Farm-Girl.

Football season

You know it's football season when Pixie breaks out her BSU gear...Go Bronco's!

I don't have much time to write a lot, but I wanted to let you all know we're still alive, just VERY busy and tired. We are FINALLY having weather that is the type you would expect to have in May (in this part of Idaho). I am so thankful for the sun,the warmth and the outdoors-- I thought I was going to go stark raving mad there for awhile, whew! I will update at a later time, when I have more time to do so(and if I am actually indoors)! With love to all, Farm-girl

Happy Spring!

Seasons Poll

We Have a Loser! The seasons poll has closed and I'm very happy to announce that Winter is the total loser- not even one vote! Pack that in your nap-sac and take a hike winter! Bye-bye. The top spot was a tie between Fall and Summer with Spring being a very close second, this is no surprise. Thankfully on March 20th Spring officially begins, ahhh...life again. (Don't forget to set your clocks forward one hour this sat. night, the 8th, Spring Ahead!)

Spring is proof of life after death.

So Busy

Well, it's been over a week now since I have done any kind of updating and I can't believe how much stuff can happen in less than two weeks! "Busy, Busy, Busy" can sum up those days without having to tell you a loooooooong story, and it ain't over yet! Some exciting things have happened too, one of them somewhat of a surprise. One exciting thing, for me, was that we joined Net Flix-- OK that doesn't sound too exciting but you need to remember that I am a Stay-at-Home Mom, Home-maker, Home-schooler and I don't get out much, or when I do go out it is usually to do things like run errands ( getting movies for Friday nights is one of those errands). And now I don't have to waste time or gas or keep one eye on the kids while I look for movies with the other, since now we can pick out every single movie we ever wanted to see from a comfy chair inside our own home. Plus, the time of the day I look forward too, when another adult human being drives to the house and gives me things by putting them in a special container meant just for our house, has gotten more exciting because sometimes those "things" put into our container are movies, coming to us! Then I can get my "daily walk" by going outside and getting the mail- good exercise plan, thanks to the Mail-man! I'll save the next exciting thing for later on in this long story I said I wouldn't tell.
As far as busy goes, there's a lot more appointments to make and go to now than before-- because of all the appointments I've had to cancel some appointments, reschedule some appointments and set some more appointments...I need to make an appointment just to sit down and figure out all the appointments! Most of the time I don't know if I'm coming or going-- especially when there are two appointments on the same day plus other things going on as well. I needed to take Hider-man in to the "quick-care" Doc in the Box the other day, --the poor boy is sick ,which is rare, and on medication while living most of his days on our couch, at least it's a couch with a view (it's by our biggest window). I should have had Bed-bug checked out too since she has come down with something as well, but it's not affecting her like Hider-man's sickness is affecting him.
Gecko is busy with his high-school-- I had to go to my first parent-teacher conference last week. The teachers say he is doing pretty well and is very like-able, nice things to hear. He is busy at nights now being a part of the stage crew for the High-school play.
We have stepped out of 4-H but into Awana's, Hider-man and Bed-bug go to that meeting on Wednesday nights. We have also joined a Home-school Co-Op that the younger kids and I go to twice a month. Hider-man is taking Origami and building with Lego's while Bed-bug takes Intro to sewing and Super Science. We get to go to that with some dear friends of ours, who also attend the Co-op, which makes it even more fun.
Sports-guy is busy with Church Deacon things and also learning what to do in his new position at his job, putting up wainscotting in the bathroom and doing what-ever else comes his way. He does quite a lot for us all for which I am very thankful!
OK, I'll cut to the second exciting thing--- Sports-Guy bought me a "mommie"-van! He traded in his little KIA for a bigger KIA. 2008, one owner, 10,000 miles, 7 seats, still has a hint of new car smell and it's not white!(inside story) I am very grateful for this van and still find it hard to believe it's actually out in front! Thank you Sports-Guy! Bed-bug named the van `Pretty Blue' and Hider-man thinks it's crazy to name a vehicle, I told him it's a farming tradition and he can't take that out of me-- I just call it Blue.
So, anyways, I won't go on and on, like I said at the start: Busy,Busy, Busy!

Lots of Snow! (you can click on collage to make pic.s bigger)

These are "old" photos, the snow is almost gone now except for a little bit of the fort, we've had temp.s in the 40s-50s... which has also allowed the ants to come back to our kitchen and the starlings to move back into our attic. We're being invaded! And there's mud, lots of mud. But I thank God for the sunshine!

There are three things that will endure- faith, hope, and love- and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

Gecko Returns

Our son Gecko has moved back in with us, it was Tues. night. Then the next day we celebrated his 15th birthday, going to his restaurant of choice, The Golden Corral. Thursday morning we saw him off to his bus and first day of school at Caldwell high. It's nice to be a family of 5 again, although some major adjustments are needed. I do have some pictures to put on the blog, but I can't put them on by myself-- I need Sports-Guy to help me, so please be patient. Thanks, Farm-girl

Ahhh, February...

January is over and into February we go. Not that it's that much different outside than it was 2 days ago, but, it's still NOT January and that's a good thing! We did get up to 40 degrees yesterday, with sunshine too, it was nice. Now we'll have to see if the groundhog sees his shadow today, not that I'm into that superstition and all-- but if the critter does see his shadow I think we will be having grilled groundhog for dinner tonight! I call the chewy little ears, num-num.

January

So, January, the new year was there when I woke up and I was hoping it wouldn't be as hard of a year as 2007 had been. The funny thing about a new year is that nothing really changes except for the number of the year, there is no magic page to turn and suddenly everything is different, better. The hard times come into the new year with us as we move along, thankfully God does too. He doesn't change either, He is with us always and that's a wonderful thing. His promises endure forever and He always gives us the strength, or simply carries us, through our dark valley's.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me: Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:4

Another thing I expected of Jan. was our lives to calm down and be able to do some relaxing, I don't know why I haven't learned from my 30 some past years that this is NEVER true. Jan. 2008 has already been busier than Thanksgiving or Christmas was!

As far as business goes... The 3rd of January we went with a few friends and their children to a place called Planet Kid.

Here's Hider-man and Bed-bug having some fun. I don't know how to describe the place, lets see, noisy, crazy, full of children and a very large indoor "jungle gym". The kids played hard for 3 Hours and there was still lots of complaining when us mom's told the kids it was time to leave. Bed-bug came up to me during the playing time, took her thumb out of her mouth, said she sprained it and showed it to me-- it was red and starting to swell up and looked like it might be a bit crooked, maybe broken!(mother's paranoia). It wasn't very long until she went back to play so I figured her thumb must not be to bad, but she came back a little later and it looked even worse. We got a band-aid around her thumb so it wouldn't bend while she was playing and I had to sign a paper assuring that I wouldn't sue Kid Planet for what happened to Bed-bug while we were there. Thankfully one of my friends husband is in a particular area of medicine, he looked at Bed-bug's thumb and told me it wasn't broken, it was a good sprain and it would slowly heal up. Whew, Thank God! All in all Hider-man and Bed-bug had a great time with their friends and we mom's were the ones tired out, not the kids. Typical.

The weekend following that adventure Sports-guy and I went out to celebrate our 12th anniversary, we were able to have a full 24 hours to ourselves-- thanks Mr. & Mrs. T.! We went to a lot of different stores, ate at two different restaurants and we were able to watch a whole movie from the comfort of our own couch without having to pause it a million times! Very nice.

No time to breath, then there was a pair of parties to ponder! Bed-bug received 2 different party invitations on a Sunday,the first party was for a Friday & the second one was for the very next day--Party weekend for my little girl! The first birthday celebration was a purple pony party at the Thompson's zoo (not a real zoo, just what our friends call their place). After we arrived Bed-bug acted like a frightened filly and didn't want to play in any of the horsey games. She eventually eased up and trotted around with the other fillies and had some fun! Not long after that though I had to round her up and head her home.


Uh, A walrus pony? Those are pretzel sticks.

The next party was a bit like the first one, Bed-bug didn't want to join in the games at this celebration either. Then, just to reinforce that feeling in her, something happened... Everyone was given a can of silly string and told to spray the birthday girl after they were done singing "Happy Birthday" to her. (* Party tip- Do NOT let kids shoot silly string at each other while they are all sitting around the table that has the birthday cake, cups, plates and plastic wear on it! I won't go into details, just don't do it.*) At any rate, as the string war was going on Bed-bug and the girl sitting next to her both ended up under the table crying! After I saved my little damsel in distress she wasn't to keen to leave my side-- but you know, it's amazing how quickly cake, ice-cream and Sprite can change that attitude.
After those parties Bed-bug has been totally inspired to plan her upcoming birthday party and continues to add to the list of things I'm going to do for the celebration. Here we go!

Although we have been busy there was still time for cabin fever to strike. Will someone please turn Spring back on?

Hider-man was bored and had my camera, hi Pix!
Chewbacca's little sister?
We've been getting a lot of snow in January- a lot of snow for Idaho that is.The kids love it, Bed-bug likes to play in the snow and eat it--look out for yellow! And Hider-man always wants to build a good snow fort, which he has been able to do twice this month. Oh, and we can't forget about the snowballs everyone here likes to throw-- watch out!
One day Sports-guy took the kids to go sledding down the "mountain" at the college here in town. That day they had the whole hill all to themselves, how fun is that?

Here's Hider-man working on his first fort.


Bed-bug and Hider-man sittin' in a fort.
Here's Hider-man and just the beggining of the second snow fort
Saturdays were very busy for Sports-guy, he would go into Boise to work on a previously used church building we have since moved into and call our church home. A couple times Hider-man went to the big city with his Dad and helped out at the building.

The boys back from painting the church building. One of those Saturdays I sat down with Bed-bug and taught her how to sew by hand with the help of a kit we bought her for Christmas. She did so well, finished her first little bird and was so excited she made the second bird the next day. Now she is sure she can make anything with thread, a needle and felt! (She was planning on making gifts for everyone! She just finished a dog for Gecko to give him on his Birthday.)

Bed-bug sewing her first birdie.
She's sew proud!
We also had the usual appointments, violin lessons, covenant groups, roller skating, taking care of other children, joined a home-school Co-op, lots of different things with Gecko, things we had to cancel, the list goes on.

Another exciting thing happened in January, Sports-guy got a promotion at work, way to go Sports-guy, we're so proud of you for hanging in there!
So, at the end of Jan.-(February Eve!) here's hoping you all will enjoy this next month.

Filling in and Catching up.

Hello, "Farm-girl" here, I'm just learning how to "work a Blog" so forgive all the mistakes! The creator and original writer of this blog, "Sports-guy", has been extremely busy and worn out as of lately, as you can see in the picture below, so I thought I would try and do some filling in and catching up on our going's on around here. Bed-bug snuggled up to Daddy (Sports-guy)

OK, we'll have to back up to Autumn. The kids LOVE to play in the fall leaves, here's Hider-man the leaf boy. Followed by Bed-bug, now being a little leaf bug.
Spots-guy isn't as fond of the leaves falling as the kids are, to him it means a lot of raking and bagging, although, Hider-man has been doing that job as of lately. Good job Hider-man-- those aren't even leaves from our trees!

Also, in the Fall, "Gecko", (oldest son), moved back to ID , although he is not living with us. He is in need of abundant prayer.
Here is Hider-man, Bed-bug and Gecko together again.
(Hmmm, sounds like a super hero cartoon group)

Of course, we can't talk about Fall with out talking about football, more specifically Boise State Football. Although the team didn't win like they did last season we still cheer for BSU! So does our pug Pixie (real name) whether she is willing to or not.
Awww, cheer up chubby pug, it's just for the photo.

Much to my chagrin - did I spell it right?- Fall means that winter is just around the corner and I am not fond of that particular season. To be a bear and hibernate...ahhh. But then I'd miss out on chunks of life.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus
1Thess. 5:18

Boy, do I need to remind myself of that verse often. Speaking of Thanks, we had a quaint Thanksgiving celebration with Grandma D.S.. over. This was only the 2ND time I've made Thanksgiving dinner and it turned out to be better than the first time I "cooked" the dinner. Thanks be to God alone!

So,we move onto this winter. Christmas is the first thing to pop into many heads when thinking of winter. The day after Thanksgiving Hider-man wanted the Christmas tree up!
I told him that I wouldn't do it but if he could bring the tree upstairs and put it together by himself then by all means go ahead and do it. So he did.

Here's Bed-bug,Pixie and Hider-man in front of the tree,in November.

What else did we do in December? We home schooled and got ready for Christmas. Some days were too icky to play outside and we've had our episodes of cabin fever-- so, sometimes we get a little silly, like Hider-man here.* Here's Bed-bug ,having styled her own hair and is sitting in a cardboard box.

Poor Pixie, no one is immune to cabin fever shenanigans! Nice puggie tails.
When Christmas did finally come it was actually a white one! We had another quaint Christmas Eve celebration with Grandma D.S. This was my first Christmas dinner to cook and it was a flop! My poor family! Thankfully they took it all gracefully and Grandma D.S. said she actually enjoyed it-- she's so loving. That night we camped in front of the Christmas tree -- a tradition-- with our noise maker set to "outside at night" noises. After we woke up Sports-guy read to us from the Bible about the true meaning of Christmas, then Hider-man played us a beautiful Christmas hymn on his violin! Encore!


Then onto stockings! Here's Hider-man,Bed-bug and Sports-guy with their stockings.


Pixie: "Do I have a stocking?" She did, with a yummy treat in it. (Well, yummy for her.)


Then onto present opening. Here's Hider-man and Bed-bug opening some presents. While Pixie checks out the unopened boxes -- she really gets into other people opening presents, she gets as excited as a little kid and doesn't complain when she gets nothing! We should all be like that.


We then went and saw Gecko and had some gift exchanging. He made us a beautiful red picture frame in wood-shop. Here's Hider-man, Bed-bug and Gecko in front of the tree where Gecko is at.

We got to see many family members and lots of friends during Christmas and the days surrounding it which was the real treat! Thank you Lord for Family and good friends! May He bless you all!

Last celebration of the year, New Years Eve. Sports-guy and Hider-man stayed up past midnight, Bed-bug tried but she didn't quite make it. I didn't even try, I need the sleep and I know the new year will be there when I wake up.This picture of Bed-bug pretty much sums up how we all felt at the end of 2007!
So, onto 2008...we'll see what God has in store for us.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is it's own trouble. Matt 6:34

We Have a Winner!

We recently received a phone call from the local grocery store informing us that "Hider-man" won the Christmas coloring contest for his age group. "Bed-bug" entered as well, but unfortunately did not win (although she did a great job as well). Congratulations to Hider-man for a job well done (and thanks for sharing some of your prize: a stocking full of Tootsie Roll products!), and to Bed-bug, give it another try next year, you did great little one!