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.

What a fun trip! (continued)

To pick up where I left off:
Tuesday: Sea World
This was for Alisabeth and she had a blast:


Excuse the coloring, I think little hands may have gotten a hold of the camera and changed the color settings. It took me a second to notice.



I know, I know, we spoil her, but seriously it was way too cute to pass up. She spent the next 2 days touching her face gently and saying "I'm a kitty"

I love the fact that Sea World had a huge area for kids. Everything from water to sesame street shows and rides. She loved it.

And of course they had animals. I love these little guys!

Wednesday was our sailing excursion. Women only. . . and Fred the hired captain. It was very relaxing and fun.
Thursday was massages and then Jason went to the automotive and air and space museums at Balboa Park. I won't include his pictures, but please note that I am grateful for digital cameras. There are more pictures from the museums than from any other part of the trip.
Friday we went and took Alisabeth to the San Diego temple and walked around and looked at everything. It was nice. We were supposed to leave her home and go do a session with my mom, but when I got up I hadn't slept well and I felt poopy, so we decided to cancel that and just relax. It worked out well though. Then that night my mom had both of the kids, ours and Spencer, my cousin's 5 year old son. So Jason and I watched The Shirley Temple version of "The Little Princess." It is such a good movie!!

Then we got down to business. Everything was packed and ready by 10:30 pm and we left the house at 3 am the next morning headed home.
All in all it was definitely worth the wait and the money spent.
I forgot the mention the starter. . . We drove all the way there, pulled in the alley-way by the house, parked in someone else's spot while we figured out where we were supposed to park and then got in to restart the engine and . . . nothing.
Turned out our starter decided to poop out. . .
Jason was willing to fix it, but he didn't have tools and we already had plans so we found a mechanic near our rental, dropped it off to him and rented a Kia Soul for a few days while it was getting fixed. It all worked out well, but it was an ominous start to the vacation. ; )

What a fun trip!

This week was a blast!
We drove up to CA at 2:30 am. Arriving at about 9. Their traffic and freeways are INSANE! I will not complain about Tucson for at least another week.
We went immediately to Anna and Mario's house (good friends from our Rexburg days) and they made us an amazing breakfast including strawberries, juice, eggs with lots of mix ins, tortillas and so much food we were overstuffed.
Then we drove to the movie theater and saw Airbender. They were the family that addicted us to the animated cartoon, so it was only fair we see it with them.
The coolest part? The theater provides a daycare center for while you're in the movie. It's the same cost as a ticket, but they get a snack, arts and crafts, computer games, toys, games and there were about 4 adults in there with them to supervise and assist. I thought it was a great idea and wondered what the heck our malls were thinking NOT doing it.
Then that afternoon we drove to San Diego. We should have had plenty of time to get to the airport, but as soon as we hit the outskirts of town we were backed up for about 45 minutes. . . it was insane. Our poor cousins had to take a cab.
The house we stayed at was nice, but the description of it lacked a lot of important details. Not only that but check-in was at 3 and we didn't get into the house until almost 4:30 because the cleaning crew was "behind schedule."
Then we found out that the "4" bedrooms were really only 2 and there was a broken pull-out couch in one living room and a Heida-bed in the kitchenette. All in all it was disappointing when compared with the description, but if I had just walked in the place off the street I think I would have been impressed. We had the bay 200 feet to our left and the ocean 500 feet to our right. There was a boardwalk, an amusement park (unimpressive by my husband's standards because there was no ferris wheel), and lots of fun things to do.
Saturday night: Mystery dinner theater. BOOO!! It was raunchy and boring. Half the party left right after we got the food, the other half left about 30 minutes later.
Sunday: After church we went to Balboa Park:


It just so happened that Target was having a family day, and the museums were free, there were activities and a turtle exhibit. I wish we had gotten there earlier. As it was we watched an African drummer teaching anyone who wanted to try it out, painted persian tiles, and walked around the art museum.



Then we went to Jason's mission president's house and had dinner with their family. It was a blast and the food was great. Turns out their daughter and son-in-law had adopted two children so we spent a lot of time discussing what we knew of the differences in adoption/foster policies in CA vs AZ.
Monday: Six Flags!!!!
I will mention only one detail: The posted signs every 20 feet read "Do not carry loose articles on this ride." "Because of the nature of this ride it is advised that all loose articles be removed before boarding."
I took my cell phone on and halfway through I actually put my hand down on my pocket to secure it in place. . . My husband was not so lucky. Moving his hand actually caused it to dislodge just enough so that the G-force spiral which pinned us to the back of the seat freed the phone's movement and he watched as it spiraled toward the ground some 50 feet away.
I'm going to post the rest of the week in the following post. . . because of picture issues.

My daughter's first photo shoot . . and other stuff.

I decided to post a bit early this week because tomorrow is going to be hectic and then I won't be back at my computer for a week. Just imagine, I'll be laying out on the beach in 70 degree weather. I'll be riding roller coasters, listening to free concerts, touching and feeling at the Children's Museum, watching a turtle exhibit, eating out, eating in, going to comedy clubs, messing up a house that isn't mine, and in general having a blast. So sorry you can't make it.

These are the pictures I didn't have with me last week.

She seemed to really enjoy her nightgown and every time she sees it she wants to wear it. I really need to make another one, but all of the scraps I have are too small so I'm basically going to make a patchwork one with that matching scraps. I'll let you know how it turns out :)

As an update to last week's post I figured I'd post these pictures:
Before:

Please note, for those of you with circuit experience that the fuses are in parallel, except for one, which was connected to the return. Therefore though it shows 3 here 1 of them was most assuredly fried the minute they powered this box up.

The wire that you see running from the new box into the house will be replaced eventually. These ones were basically just to get the new power into the house where we hooked it up to the existing circuitry. (wow I can't spell).
Eventually all of this will be in metal piping which will keep it protected from the elements.
The new connection made immediate difference. We solved the grouding issues (there was no return line and therefore the "ground" was really a return line meaning that we had the full amount of electricity needed to complete the circuit flowing through our metal pipes. It was lovely.

And just in case anyone wanted to applaud us I wanted to include this one. Yep, that's in our room. . . Don't worry, everything is wire nutted and taped and completely safe for now, but it just looks crazy having wires sticking out everywhere. The best part? We figured out that the original installers actually used the uninsulated portion of the large wire to run actual current through. Yeah, you can't get much more unsafe than they were unless you actually sliced into a wire with a metal knife and then shoved old dried paper into the cut.

Next: Paintball wounds!! These are Jason's shoulder. He's got three hits in almost exactly the same place. I was much smarter, I got hit all over my body :)
Most of my wounds are in locations that I wasn't able to photograph, but they look about the same as this one, so no biggy there.
I do need to include here, for posterity, and because I promised he'd never live it down, that my first and worst wound was inflicted by my own husband. We were always on the same team, so how, you might ask, did I receive a wound from my very own husband?
The rental guns had hair triggers. That should explain most of it, but why was he aiming at me when he "accidentally" fired? That was also an "accident." He was skidding into the same location as me and fell forward slightly touching the trigger, but it was enough.
I cursed up a storm (without saying any curse words) and yelled at him, vowing that he would never forget it. I was so mad because it was basically point blank range and it hurt like a monkey's uncle. Luckily for him I had other concerns at that moment so I moved on and was fine by the end of the round.

Now on to my amazing daughter:
Alisabeth and her daddy do a lot of fun things together. They've explored the land around our house, they've played at the park, they've worked on the car, but I think this by far was the coolest.

What follows are photos take by Alisabeth with little or no help from daddy. She posed the animals and people as you see them and then aimed and clicked.


This photo was taken earlier in the day while her babies were still awake and happy. :)

We also had fun with cousins coming over for our "We-don't-live-in-cardboard-boxes-anymore" party. They had a blast playing out in the front yard, and after we had secured it the parents relaxed and enjoyed themselves too. :)


It was a fun event, lots of good food, and a generous amount of fun stories and adventures. Only one other couple (besides Jason's parents) were able to make it. Crystal and her husband came and brought their two little girls. I think the small event was perfect for the size of our house. We all fit inside well, and despite the humidity it wasn't terribly hot inside.

Lastly just an update on the foster care classes.
We had our first one and though it terrifies me at times to think of what these children will bring into my home (bad habits, behavior, language, anger, fear, struggles, ingrained behaviors), it terrifies me even more to think of them having to go to a group home, or never being found in the first place, or going back to their parents before their parents have had time and training enough to change. It has re-affirmed my conviction that this is something I want to do. It was so eye opening. I left the first meeting on Monday night with a headache, which is a sure sign that I learned a lot.
The training and program they have is amazing! I never knew how many regulations and rules CPS and other organizations have to follow, but I am grateful for them because as frustrating as it is to watch a young child be in the "system" for over a year while mom and dad have time to work through their issues, it would be even more frustrating if the parents weren't given the chance to have their family back, or if they went back to families who hadn't changed a thing. I'm excited for the ride.

:-(

This was a good week, and an interesting one. I don't have my camera here at my mom's house, so I can't post the cutest picture, but I decided to take a break from the curtains to make something Alisabeth would love.
While she took her nap I sewed together a fun and quick pattern for a new nightgown. I figured she would enjoy it because she's REALLY into dresses right now. I wasn't disappointed. She loved it. Of course, she overfilled her diaper the first night she wore it, and then I didn't get it clean until yesterday, so tonight is her second night in it, and she's loving it.
I used scraps to make it, so I am excited to do it again with materials that will actually work well together. It's supposed to have a frilly bottom fringe to it, however I used a stretchy material for the main part and a patterned cotton for the bottom, so it didn't end up frilling out, it ended up restraining. It still looks cute though.

So on to the reason it took so long to get her nightgown laundered. My washing machine wasn't able to pull enough power to complete the last spin cycle, so all of the clothes have been taking about ten times as long as they should to dry. Why was it not getting enough power you ask? Well, let me explain: I have no idea.
My mom came over and took a look at it (keep in mind that the landlord told us that he would appreciate any improvements we are willing to make and would deduct time and money spent from our rent. . . )
Apparently, (once she'd told me I could see it too) whoever wired the house was on crack. There were 3 small fuses coming into the house. The gauge wire they used is the kind that should be used for heavy machinery in a large production warehouse, and they hadn't used any ground. So for those of you who don't speak electronics this means that our incoming power is being severly limited (not to mention some of it being wasted).
So basically we started to put together a game plan to change out everything. We eventually traced back the power and found out that not only was the wire coming in huge, but the original wire to the house was even larger. Basically the house must have taken it's power from the same source as the tile factory that is further back on the property. Now that the tile factory isn't being used we are the sole users. So we opened up all of the boxes connected to the house ( a total of 3 where we should have 1) and saw that not only was the wire huge, but where they had brought it down to smaller guage wire they had done it both sloppily and wrongly. We weren't getting even half of the power we should have had. . .
Anyway, so the game plan was set (encouraged by the fact that the shower had a nice current for those using it any time they reach out to adjust the hot/cold. . . )
Then yesterday night I happened to go outside for something after dark, I glance toward the fuse box and see a nice red sparkly-like light coming from our power source. So needless to say I turned off as much of the power as I could and Jason went out and electrical taped everything he could touch (while wearing electricians gloves).
Then I called my mom to ask if we could move up the time-line.
She called back this morning, took off work, we shunted Alisabeth over to her cousin's house (I just need to throw out a big THANK YOU STACI to my amazingly wonderful sister-in-law) and started working on it.
We ended up not finishing, thus we are spending the night at my mom's house. We got everything wired into the new box, and turned it on with no problems, but as soon as we tried to turn on the smaller breakers everything popped. A re-wire and another flip of the switch and POP SIZZLE. This time there were no breakers on, so we haven't figured out what the problem is. We decided that 9.5 hours of working on it was quite enough. We'll try again tomorrow.
Luckily we were already planning a barbeque for our "look-we-don't-live-in-carboard-boxes-anymore" party. It would have been sad if we had had to cancel. I just hope we can get it figured out tomorrow. I was really looking forward to living in our new place :)

That was the excitement. We also got a call from the AzCA foster care program and are scheduled to start our classes on Monday. 1 day, 3 hrs, 10 weeks. I am excited. I have a feeling I will be receiving a lot of information and end up with my eyes wide open.

Up and running again.

So we moved to our new place and within a couple of days we were realizing the need for a few modifications in the technology department. We got our latest bill from sprint and had inadvertently doubled our normal cost by going over minutes and text messages. . .
I was shocked. I realized that it was mostly due to the being on the phone with all the people we needed to talk to in order to get new services connected and get everything set up, but even then we were close on our minutes. . . so we decided to get a local phone connection. Of course, somewhere between that point and the time that we actually set everything up internet was also
added, but we won't mention that part too much.

Well, it's been so long since the last update that I realized you still haven't seen the new place! Unfortunately the battery on our camera is dead, and I'm not quite sure where the charger is, so we're just going to include what was already taken, so mentally update these pictures for 2 weeks. :)

Alisabeth's room, the two bedrooms are identical in size, even down to the window dimensions. . . So she has a lot of room, but this will be great if and when we are approved for foster care. . . more on that later.

Our room, Yes, it's basically a bed with a few feet to walk around in, but hey, it's not like we need anything more in there ;)

The kitchen and living room. Apparently I forgot to include a picture of my sewing area so just imagine an extra 4-5 feet behind the couch which is dedicated to sewing and crafts. Jason says that he and Alsiabeth aren't allowed back there. It's for mommy only.

Oh, nevermind, there it is. . . :)
We decided to put up our flags, but we're probably going to move them into the bedroom so that we can hang the GORGEOUS print my mom got for me right after we were married. I'm sure you'll see the final version sometime soon. :)

Lastly our struggle to get connected! Yesterday COX finally installed the connection for our phone/internet. That was the end of a 3 week battle to get them out there. It was also their last straw before we went with a competitor. The problem was that our 50 year old house has never had cable, so they sent out a contractor, but there wasn't a close enough connection point, so he put in the work order to get a connection moved by COX closer so that it could be connected. COX sent out a supervisor instead and the guy must have looked at the wrong house because he canceled the move and said it wasn't needed. So they sent out another contractor who spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out a way, but eventually capitulated and set up another connection move through COX. Apparently they listened this time, but the contractor had said it should be about 3 days to get it done. That was over the weekend, so I figured it would be by about Wednesday, well, when I called on Tuesday just to verify that they were coming I found out we had been pushed out until Thursday of next week because of the holiday. I kicked a HUGE fit and was called back about 10 minutes later with a dig/install date and time for yesterday. (Normally the dig and the install don't happen on the same day).
So finally, yesterday they came, dug up our backyard to bury a line, and then the installer came and freaked out because he couldn't find a connection point (the dig wasn't in the system yet), so he thought he couldn't do it, so I kindly walked him to the point his buddies had dug that morning and then waited patiently for 2 hours while the poor man hooked it all up in 115 degree weather. Let's just say if we were making more money all 3 of those installers would have received a tip. I was so delighted.
So we're finally connected again!
The only other neat adventure we're having is the foster care stuff. We got a call back almost 2 weeks ago to come and pick up the paperwork. The only thing we have left to complete is the on-line portion which I will be doing today. After that I just need to get my fingerprinting done and then the paperwork is in. We missed the deadline for the next class (which starts Monday), but we should be able to get started next month and then we'll start the in home licensing and interviews and all the fun stuff. Then we'll have a bunch of costs to get our home up to par with the requirements (double locked medicines/cleaning supplies) and we'll be ready to foster!
We're getting excited.
Well, I can see that I really need to maintain my weekly updates, because there are a lot of more fun stories I could tell, but I don't want to make this too long, so let me know if you want to hear about our shocking shower, or the overloaded electrics. I could also tell about the washer hook-up fun, or Alisabeth's second head injury that she just sustained today, but I won't bore you with details you don't care about :)