Right Now

I am...
drinking Disney's Official Unbirthday English Breakfast Tea

eating Orange Cranberry Scones

and contemplating my future and my life.

It's been awhile!

My best intentions of posting more often don't seem to be happening.

But, life if so crazy busy here and strangely different and the internet stopped working on my laptop. I do want to name a few of the major events that have past and are yet to come in my life:

• I had an incredible Memorial Day weekend visiting a very good friend on the coast and hanging out with my sisters, brother-in-law and good friends.
• Slow, steady progress is being made on the "castle".
• We caught the 2 rats in our new house.
• My brother, sister-in-law and their two children now live here locally. Very locally. Next door in fact. It's awesome!
• At work I am getting ready for my second fundraising event. It will be interesting, as I do not like that kind of music even. But, it's on a farm. I love outdoors. Usually. *smile*
• A very good friend is visiting us over the 4th of July and I'm planning things to do with her, both for the group she knows up here and private events for just the family.

As I type this (one handed), I am cradling a sleeping 7 month old in my left arm. She is the 4th child of some friends that are helping with building right now. She is very warm and I feel hot and sticky, but she needs her nap. I will still have to get the tea I missed though.

~am

Day Off

Because I worked extra time for the banquet, I got a day off - and that's today!

So, I have been "pottering around the house" to quote my current favorite author and just now got onto the computer down in the wellhouse. I'm hoping to tackle some sewing that has been at the back of my mind for a few weeks now and a blouse for my sister. We'll have to see how much of that I can get done today.

And, I have to figure out if the same song was played in two movies or not! We were either confused or wrong yesterday and I need to know which it was! :-D

~am

Absent

I had great plans for actually keeping this blog more up to date, but our internet was moved to our new place which makes it quite hard to sit down and write for long periods of time.

I shall return as soon as I can.

~am

Mice and Screams

(Yes, we scream. We readily admit it. But, there is a difference between screams and exclamations of exasperation and if you can't decipher one from the other, I am truly sorry. You missed out in life.)

Now onto the original subject…

This episode took place the other day just as we were retiring for the evening. All the girls were reading in our room and after two of us saw the same flurry of activity, we decided that we weren't seeing things and there truly was a mouse in our room! What do you do when you see a mouse? Call our brothers, of course!

Brother #1 comes in armed with badminton racquets which he promptly hands out to all the girls so that we were ready and tells us "hit it if you see it!" Even though it wasn't accurate, you can get quite a reaction out of a sister when you declare that the mouse is under her bed!

At approximately the same time, the "timid" mouse made an appearance while scurrying from the dresser to under a bed (the exact one "predicted"). There was a scream and a shrill screaming like voice saying "There he is!!!" If you've seen The Quiet Man, imagine it ala Father Lonergan, a fact which she did not realize until afterwards.

After we (ie. the brother) rustled around under the bed, the mouse bee lined for the desk and the safety of that corner. There was another scream and another "There he is!" Yes, we like to keep things the same. :-)

Someone had the brilliant idea that our Chihuahua should prove that she was worthwhile and Boo was fetched to come make the catch. She was unaware of what was expected of her (after all, where was the buttered bread or spilled tea that she was surely summoned for?! Fickle dog!). So while Boo was still trying to figure out what she was doing invited into the girls room, the mouse reappeared to high tail it across the room to the area of the closet or the other bed while the fearless brave dog ran as fast as possible past the mouse and to the safety of her mother. All of that commotion was accompanied by another shrill "There he is!" and another scream. We like to keep things consistent, you know.

We tried to discover where the mouse had gone from there, but to no avail. We had lost him. We baited 4 of those no-bait-needed mouse traps because everyone knows that they don't work unless you bait them and settled down again for the night.

The next morning, we had caught one mouse elsewhere in the house and the trap set under our dresser had vanished and we still have not found it. I'm also sorry to say that mother was awoken by each "There he is!"

I tell you, our life is entertaining.

Squeeee!!!

So, this might be not super exciting to anyone else, and even though I don't like her style of music, I am going to be eating dinner with Rebecca St. James in 10 days!

:-)

More about the event later.

A Post of Colossal Proportions

I know… I know… I always seem to start out a post apologizing for not posting in a long time. Well, I’m not going to do that now. I was busy. Get over it. :-)

I guess I should update on a few momentous occasions that happened since I posted last August.

Late August 2009 – My brother married his sweetheart after a whirlwind courtship. Seriously, they courted for two weeks before becoming engaged, and then were engaged for almost seven weeks before their wedding. Whirlwind is right. On the Thursday before the wedding, I made eight chocolate cakes that I then stacked so that we only had four nice tall cakes before getting ready under extreme pressure (aka. very late!) for the bridal shower. On Friday, between directing and cleaning the entire gym for the reception, I had a cleaning job to do and I was exhausted. Saturday morning we got ready for the wedding and headed into town to take pictures of the bridesmaids and bride getting ready and do some last minute decorating and frosting. Before we had time to blink (figuratively), the ceremony was starting and Dad married the happy couple and it was all over. The reception and cake were lovely and the newlyweds waltzed so elegantly. Then they rode off into the sunset and started living their happily-ever-after!

Following right on the heels of the August wedding, we started prep for my sister’s November wedding including wedding dress shopping. After much contemplation, my sister decided that with some altering, the dress at the bridal shop would be perfect. I was asked to be the maid-of-honor and we found a beautiful silvery green fabric for the bridesmaid’s dresses. Booking the facility, printing invitations, and gathering decorations followed. I did some of the altering on the dress and it was ready the week of the wedding.

With watching the health of a certain sister, baking all the cakes fell onto my shoulders to do on Thursday. It took WAY longer than we thought and we made it back to our house late for our own bachelorette party. Oh well! At least, we got some ice cream! We had a lot of help setting up the day before the wedding, decorating the cake and arranging flowers. The rehearsal was full of laughter and we did it through three times to make sure we got it right. The grooms' mother and friends made a delicious dinner that evening that we purposely stopped and enjoyed. Afterwards, we went back to the cleaning and rest of the prep. My brother and sister-in-law graciously opened their home to us as the central station for all the wedding prep, so we ended up back at their house popping cookies into little bags for wedding favors. We tied them with brown raffia and attached little green tags.

November 7th, 2009 - We started the morning of the wedding out leisurely! It was marvelous! We finished our hair and makeup before we headed into town. We let the bride go get coffee with her groom for awhile and then he dropped her off at the facility. Our next step was getting ready and changing and taking pictures. Then we were whisked off to the other building to wait because people had started arriving. At 1:24pm, I took the bride over to the main building and we waited in the scio. At 1:27pm, precisely, Jay escorted Mom up the aisle to her seat and the wedding began. I walked up the aisle with the flower girl (very shy, but very cute!). Then, as I stood there watching (and holding the brides' bouquet), Dad married them.

Once cake cutting, photographs (that were hilarious) and visiting were over with, I helped the bride change and the bride and groom were off. We stacked up some of the chairs and pulled out our dancing CD and my little brother and I led the Virginia Reel. We also danced the Patty Cake Polka and the Posties Jig before we decided to clean everything up. After cleanup, we played Volleyball for a mere half hour and then we headed home where my brothers, sister-in-laws (with their children) our good friend, and the family just chilled. It was a late glorious evening!

November 8th, 2009 – I only mention this because it becomes more important later on. While playing volleyball Sunday evening with our game group in town, we noticed a huge fire right about where our house is across the valley. After some phone calls to the house, we were finally able to gather the information that it was the next door neighbors’ house. We packed up and sped home (yes, sped! I beat some of the fire trucks even!). By the time we got home, indeed by the time Dad and Mom went down there, the house was already lost. A very late night and few gallons of hot cider later, the fire had died down enough and everyone left. Because I know some of you will understand this when I say it: watching your neighbors’ house burn down is an interesting experience.

Christmas 2009 – We had a nice quiet family Christmas with the two married young couples. It also included a stray dog and a small herd of runaway cows or maybe it was a runaway dog and stray cows? Oh, well. I think either would work. The owner came and got the dog that evening, but it was a few days before the cows were retrieved and taken home. Anyways, we had our traditional turkey dinner and then a dessert feast later on. A relaxing afternoon and quiet time just visiting with the family. The day after Christmas, we were invited to an ice skating party and thus far it has been the only ices skating we’ve done this winter. Some of us also attended a special Christmas program at some friends’ church and had lunch afterwards at their house. It was a perfect opportunity to show them all Chinese Numbers! We quietly rang in the New Year as always.

February 2010 – I started working part time for the crisis pregnancy center here in town which services the whole valley. It took me a few weeks to settle into the routine and even now I find some things that surprise me still. I am officially the Office Manager/Receptionist, so I see most of the clients that come in. Thus far, it has been a very interesting job and I’m really enjoying it!

My newly married brother and sister-in-law announced that they have a baby on the way!!! My sister and brother-in-law also announced that they have a baby on the way!!! Several of us had our suspicions in both cases, but it was very nice to know for sure! This summer is going to be wonderful!

Valentine’s Day 2010 – A few days before the weekend, my brother and sister-in-law decided to come up and visit us. They had originally wanted to come at New Years, but their vehicle needed a new transmission and his work schedule is crazy. What a delight to see our niece again and spend some time with them all!

March 21st, 2010 – We had been very much looking forward to a good friend visiting us during her Spring break and we were able to “baby” her quite a bit because she injured her knee. As she knows our “group” here, we invited them all to our house Sunday afternoon for Bible Study and dinner and games afterwards. There was only one person in the group that we did not tell because we wanted to surprise him and the double take he gave was a sufficient reaction for all our efforts. We had an extra party on Thursday as well playing indoor games at the community center because our friend could really partake in those before we all headed up to my brother and sister-in-laws' for pizza and more games, also in honor of my brother-in-laws’ birthday. It was a marvelous visit and we have so many fond memories of it! My only regret is that my friend and I didn’t get much one-on-one visiting in with my work schedule and our planned activities after my work hours.

And, the latest date of importance is today (April 12th, 2010). Today, the deed was recorded for my parents’ purchase of property “next door”. This is the property that lost the house in a fire last November. The owners decided that they were not going to rebuild out here and offered us the property first. Through some circumstances and direct leading from God, my parents purchased the property. Now, we will be quickly turning the existing shop into living space and moving down there. The close proximity has been a huge blessing already. Four o’clock tea coming up! :-)

Until next time,
am

My little sister is engaged!

On Thursday, my little sister became engaged to her guy! Her ring is very pretty and very much her and I don't think Jay has ever looked happier in his life!

They are planning an outdoor wedding in November. So, I think we shall be very busy these next few months!

This last week was intense!

Monday was a nice quiet at home day before the whirlwind took over.

Tuesday - I had to go clean for a client, take her to lunch, finish the cleaning and then take her to the grocery store and bank. It was the slowest grocery store trip I have ever taken! Even my grandmother goes faster than that, but this lady is probably ten years older than her! I got her back about 2pm and then I had a slew of errands to run before Dad and Mom left town with the only working vehicle that I can drive. Across the bridge to WA to pick up some sewing supplies for projects to work on during the week, small things to pick up at Walmart, groceries to pick up last minute, gas station, etc filled the rest of the time and I got home much later than I'd wanted to!

Wednesday - Dad and Mom were gone before any of us even thought about waking up! The animals had to be done, house cleaned, etc (and we managed to get in some weeding in the flowers beds) so that we could be ready in time to be picked up for the games. I baked cookies, but did not start them in time, so they weren't ready to take with us! Oh, well! My sisters' guy picked us up and we had one stop to make before we went to the park and started Badminton and Volleyball. Later in the evening when it was cooler, we played a full game of Frisbee! It had been awhile since we'd played, so it was good to be running that much again! Plus, my team won! Woohoo!

Thursday - Well, honestly, I don't remember what we all did on Thursday. But, I did laundry, sewing, vehicle research and talked to an incredibly sweet friend for almost 2 hours among keeping the kids under control, and life moving forward for those of us that were home.

Friday - There was an extra game planned, so we spent the morning cleaning and I did more sewing and laundry before we again got picked up for the game. This game was the most exciting I have ever been to: there was a fire! We saw the column of smoke, and then went back to Volleyball until we heard sirens and noticed the smoke column was larger and quite black. So, we ran to the edge of the park, but couldn't see enough, so we ran down to the main street where quite a crowd was gathering already in all the parking lots, the used car lot was rapidly pulling vehicles off the lot and the deputies were closing the streets down. We watched for awhile before we decided that we did want to play Volleyball, so we walked back to the park and started a game. We also played Mafia while we waited for the weather to cool down a little and tried some different variations to change it up.

Saturday - We had to get up very early to get ready for a hiking/fishing trip to Elk River. I barely had enough time to pack a picnic lunch and hustle the kids to get ready and miraculously, we left only seven minutes late! Once we had arrived, one of my sisters and brothers went with the fishing group, but my two sisters and I went with the hiking group to see the waterfalls. After we were joined by the fishing group, we headed to the last fall and went wading. Rolled up the pants, and into the water we went. Some rocks were slippery and some were sharp, but we had a lot of fun anyway. For the most part, we stayed out of the water fights that were going on. After eating a picnic lunch, and stopping at the Inn in town for huckleberry shakes, we headed home.

Sunday - We slept in because everybody was *exhausted*!!! After quite a bit of confusion, we packed another picnic lunch and headed to Waha Lake with my future brother-in-law to meet up with his siblings. We waded around in the water until a snake showed up, then we dangled our feet in the water on the other side for awhile and talked while the people with licenses fished. After lunch, we played a version of Volleyball for a circle, and then went home to get ready for Dad and Mom's return.

Those few hours at the Lake were the most peaceful few hours I've had in quite awhile!

~am

My sister is courting!

My sisters and I have known for quite awhile now that one of our dear sisters, H is downright dippy about this guy that we know. She tried hard to hide it and though she never downright told us, we just knew. We are her sisters, plus they seemed to be just a natural match. We watched intently to try to detect signs of partiality on J's side and while we saw several convincing signs, we just weren't sure and didn't want to be presumptuous. We just watched and waited while we secretly all talked about it.

On Sunday, J approached our father, got permission to start a courtship on Tuesday and then asked H if she was willing on Wednesday. She said yes, and they have been talking tons ever since, as well as chatting, fishing, being around our family and his, delivering hay, etc. It has been different having a sister in a courtship; I've been through 3 brothers courtships, but a sister is just different.

It is exciting to see God working in their lives like this!

~am

Dancing

My siblings and I have been English Country dancing three times in the past few weeks with a small group of friends. The first occasion was because some friend's had friends visiting, the second we had a friend visiting and then the third was for a birthday yesterday.


I have very high aspirations for our little dance group and I know my sibling share my goals. We want to be extremely elegant and dance them correctly in time with the music. But, somehow we aren't getting there. I think not having music for all of the dances and then practicing on grass doesn't help very much. We get too energetic and skip through the dances. While it's more invigorating, it doesn't work very well for a ballroom!


And, I feel bad being a girl and leading the dancing with my two younger sisters. It just seems wrong, but there aren't any guys that are enough into it that they could lead it! And then, there are guys that just flat refuse to dance at all!


~am

Journaling

I've never been able to consistently keep a journal. I've tried and tried, time and time again, but it never lasts very long. I started my first journal right around my young teenager years; it lasted a short while and then I burned most of what I wrote, just keeping a few of the best entries. Throughout 2006 and 2007 was the longest time I'd ever kept a journal, but it eventually died, too. And, I haven't been able to keep one up since then.

Then there is this internet journal. In my attempt to keep it somewhat more private (I naturally am more a private person - blame my British heritage!), I think it's been neglected and sadly lacking in anything interesting. And, that is what I'm hoping to change! So, if New Years Resolutions count in June, I'm making one. More blog posts!

~am

I took a little trip!

And, I mean farther than just the Volleyball court ropes. :-)

My brother was moving back to Oregon and needed a driver for his second vehicle. Because of schedules, I just happened to be the only option. It was all decided in one day; I woke up Monday morning with great plans for sewing and cleaning, but then Mom asked me to go with the kids. So I packed and headed out the door later that morning.

Ten hours of driving later found us here safe and sound and quite tired! But, it was a good tired. I enjoyed the warm weather the whole way and kept the AC low as I prefer to be too warm rather than too cold.

I'm afraid that my nephew will have to wait until I leave to get used to not being held all the time! ;-) We had quite a fun day yesterday, including examining the chickens, garden area, goats, etc. He's not quite interested in animals yet, but he'll get there. We also did self portraits together and while he does enjoy smiling for the camera, he also grabbed for it a lot!

I also got to hold my niece for awhile last night as she and her parents are staying here, too for a little bit. She was in a very good mood and smiled and giggled until she got demoted to the floor in favor of her cousin eating his dinner on the couch. She was not super happy for a few minutes, but quieted down eventually.

So, it's pretty much bliss in babyland for awhile - along with spit-up and diapers, but ya know? They're worth it! :-)

Signing off,
~am

Exercise and This Last Week

I did not used to be one much into sports of any kind. But, lately that has changed. My siblings and I have been playing volleyball and frisbee usually twice a week and lovin' every minute of it. I prefer volleyball to frisbee in some ways, but frisbee requires more energy and thus, I get more of a workout. So, it's better for me. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. :-) For the last few weeks, we've been playing volleyball for an hour or two, then frisbee for about an hour and then back to volleyball for awhile.

I have many bruises right now, and the worst one is not even from volleyball! I tried to catch a water bottle from my brother, but I didn't do it right, so I have a nice bruise on my arm. I tell myself that it's to blame for not being able to serve the ball very well yesterday. And, then I should have taken my watch off while playing to avoid the nice little bruise I have on my left wrist. *rolls eyes*

Instead of the usual volleyball on Tuesday, I planted little trees along with 23 other teens and young adults for the Fish and Game Department out by a lake. We planted the trees in record time, so we were able to pick up trash and clean the tumbleweed off the fencelines for quite awhile before it started to rain, so we packed up and headed out. By the time we reached the parking lot, the drizzle had subsided, so I played Slap-Jack with my sister and a friend on the sidewalk. This friends' brother informed her that "we couldn't play cards in a parking lot!" Why ever not?! I've done stranger things. :-D

Today, I took to hard work and slaved away on painting the kitchen cupboards. The project had been dragged out much too long already. So, with my older sisters' help, we completed the project. I was very happy to be done with the whole thing, as I'd already sacrificed one sweatshirt to this project. And, it was my heavy-weight sweatshirt perfect for walks in the winter. *sheds a few tears*

Alrighty, I could probably keep writing for a long time, but I need to go start sewing now. :-)

~am

Pink balloons...

Pink confetti... pink blankets...pink sleepers....pink...pink...pink.

I have a niece!!!!!!!!

She was born at 5:40am on March 3rd, 2009 where her parents are calling home right now. She was 7 lbs, 7 ozs and 20" long. She is small, darling and oh-so-precious. She is sleeping in my arms so that her parents can get some sleep, so I am typing this one handed.

Our family is blessed indeed!

~am

I guess I spoke er... wrote too soon.

Yep, that cold that I didn't want to get?

I've got it now.

But, today I tackled re-arranging the girls room and I'm mucho happyo with the direction that it is going. If I could just get all my sewing projects and inspiration under control, our room would be much better.

In other news, I accidently deleted about 13,000 pictures and files yesterday while I was organizing and moving them. *gulp* I was in the deepest depths of despair for the rest of the day and after a few tries to recover them this morning that weren't successful, I gave up hope of ever seeing all the family pictures for the last three years again. All our vacations, holidays, road trips, two brothers' weddings, a few receptions, first meeting our nephew, and our family visiting us were... GONE. It all capital letters, yes.

This afternoon while I was busy in the girls room, my father came in and said that he'd found my entire file and could restore the whole thing!!!! He'd taken quite a bit of time working on "my problem" even though he is leaving on a business trip tomorrow.

So, I have ALL of my files again and I doubt you could begin to imagine the joy that I am feeling! :-)

All the organizing from yesterday is out the window, but having the pictures back is worth any duplicates that I might have to deal with! :-D

~am