So far it's still alive

This was a quick week. . .
Honestly I don't know what we accomplished. ;)

Friday was the most eventful night. That day Alisabeth and I drove to with my mom to view her new potential property. The pictures below are turning 180 degrees from the vantage point of the work shed across the driveway from the house:

And this last on is the manicured front of the house. It's well done to prevent erosion since the whole place is on such a large hill.


That night we furred out the living room wall. It would have gone much faster, but Jason had to distract me. Before Jason even got home I had three pieces (of 11) cut and ready to put up. Then I looked up and Jason walked in with this black little spot crawling all over his shoulder. Due to that fact it took us until almost 10:30 to finish the one wall. Our little black critter is names Midnight and is beloved by all of us. He's five weeks old, almost 6 though and was already eating solid foods and pooping without problems.
He's a cuddly kitten and even allows Alisabeth to torture him endlessly, although he doesn't have great coping skills so he tends to get backed into a corner a lot. So far though, he's still alive.

Saturday we went camping after we came home from the temple. We started out later than I had planned. We also had rain in all directions so I was quite nervous, but it went well.
Alisabeth fell asleep on the drive up and woke up with a night terror when we had to stop for directions. After that ended she was about again (about 5 minutes later) until after we had pitched the tent and gotten the fire started and the food cooking. We ended up eating at almost 7:30. She was so excited to be out there. She kept pointing at the fire and dancing around it and in circles. We set up a circle of rocks about 3 feet from the fire in every direction so that she never got close but she was so excited just to watch the huge blaze.
We found out that the rain which had passed straight through us on our way home ended up causing a total of 65 cars to get into accidents yesterday night, so we were pretty lucky on both accounts driving home from Phoenix and driving up to the mountains.
Also this week was the first long-term consequences for Alisabeth. No toys were exciting enough to cause much concern when lost, but her bed certainly is. She did great the first night, but the second night she couldn't stop jumping on it and doing things she knew she wasn't supposed to do, so she lost her new bed for the week. She gets it back today, we'll see how she does. She has been sleeping on her old toddler bed. She doesn't mind that part, but she does mention that she wants to sleep on the bigger bed. Gentle reminders of why she can't and a reminder of when she gets to try again seem to be doing the trick.
As for Jason and his work? He replaced the breaks on his truck this week after trying to kill his wife on Tuesday. There were no breaks as I drove around trying to pick up the mattresses for the new beds. Took me almost 600 feet to stop, but many prayers and VERY cautious driving got me home and safe.
He also found out that half of his spark plugs weren't connected correctly, so now his truck drives like a dream (in comparison).
His great experience with work this week was a nice lady who came in for an oil change. She was on the phone while he waited talking to someone about her finances and finally (since apparently he wouldn't let the conversation go) she said "You are the rudest man ever and I hope you get fired" and then she hung up on him. Jason's immediate thought was "I don't want to help you."
He did anyway and she kept talking about a coupon she had used six months ago. Finally he got the car into the bay and gave her a discount on her oil change, which she complained about. Then she came back a bit later and asked if the car was still in the bay. He checked and it was, then she told him her husband had found a cheaper deal and she wanted to take it elsewhere. Jason went back to check but the oil change was already done. I'm sure she had some fun things to say about that too. Well, at least he mostly has good customers to deal with.

One step at a time. . .

Looking at my last post I realize a lot has changed and no one knows!

We were thwarted in our attempts to accomplish anything electrical the first week after our trip, so instead I pulled weeds out front. This was my biggest accomplishment. Of course everywhere I pulled up a weed ten more have sprouted in it's place. Stupid never-ending job.

We also had an inundation of flies, and had two mornings of "icky bugs" that were all found and erradicated. This led to my "no fly left standing" policy. I keep my water vacuum filled and at the ready. About three times a day I turn it on and spend five minutes sucking up all the nasty little varmints. The first day I scored about 25, I haven't yet beat my record, but I still have plenty of time.

We also had the blessing of having Robyn come to stay with us for a little while. It's been a wonderful experience so far. She makes little to no trouble, and provides my husband with hours of entertainment because she brought her RC helicopters with her. :)
She has also been amazing in giving us free baby-sitting for a couple of date nights. I try not to abuse the gift, but it's a hard temptation :)

Bitsy keeps growing like a weed. She's now so long that when she's stretched out on her toddler bed she almost touches the edges. . . AHHHHH!

Thus a few changes were required. Rearranging the room was the first part.
We had to get another bed anyway since we needed a real one for Robyn, and we will need it when we are approved to be foster parents, so we broke down and bought a new bunk-bed. It's a twin on twin, but it was sturdy and a good size. I was amazed at how many of the lower bunks were hard to get in and out of. We went with one that had enough space so that we could sit upright on the lower bunk.
We decided to buy new, because the best price we could find on craigslist was 150 and they needed work. This one was 197 and brand new. We also got a new dresser because each child has to have their own. Sam Levitz furniture was great in giving us a discounted price on the dresser. The sale had ended on the fourth of July weekend, but they brought it back just for me.
The only thing we need now are the mattresses :(
(They will have to wait for next paycheck, because even on craigslist the prices are too high for now.)

This weekend also marked the first major "furring out" portion of the electrical project. Seen here are the two foot spaced studs and framing around the windows. Then we will run the wires, put in the new outlet boxes and cover everything with drywall and then paint and it will be as good as new.
This was the easiest option available. The other option was cutting into the walls (plaster and brick) so that we could run the wires through conduit to the outlets. This is amazingly expensive. We ended up using more wood than we thought because I hadn't figured in all the pieces we wound need, but hey, we knew it would be much more than we thought, so all is well. :)

Lastly, our family is still surving and thriving. We're having a blast. Jason started his new job as a service writer and is enjoying the interactions with customers. He's also learning a lot about sales and the managerial perspective.
I'm doing a few sewing projects and just working hard to keep the house half-way decent.
Alisabeth is learning her letter sounds through starfall.com and is enjoying listening as words are sounded out to her.
Robyn is about to start school and has gotten everything she needs, including an amazing deal on a used TI92 from a pawn shop for 1/2 the price of a new 83 model (very old and out of date).
She's the queen of good deals!!

Foster classes are at week 7, we are still waiting to be assigned to a licensing worker so we can start the interview process, but it will come in time.

We also started receiving "Bountiful Baskets." For $15 we get about 25 lbs of fruit and vegetables. Plus I bought an extra 48 ears of corn for $11. We can't choose which fruits and vegis we get, but it's always great quality and it forces me to learn how to use new things. Last night we had taco salad for dinner and the only thing we purchased separately for it was the hamburger.
Life is good.