What fun!

This week (and last) has been very good. I've been keeping myself busy, plus we started going to Preschool so that's 3 days a week out of the house, if I can add story-time at the library I'll rarely be home!

About 2 weeks ago (for those of you not on facebook) I went and got the material for Alisabeth's Halloween costume. Now I know I could have made it a lot cheaper, but it's dang gorgeous, so it must be worth it :)
I still have the hemming to do, but luckily with toule it doesn't fray, so I just hemmed the satin for now and I'll get to the rest soon . . .
I also completed the crown and necklace to go with it. . . but I let her play with them. . . and now they're gone...
With the scraps I threw together a little skirt today. It's got a waistline in silk and a skirt of the sleeve material. Way cute. . . not at all modest. I'm thinking of adding in a pair of cotton shorts underneath so she won't have to wear a leotard or tights underneath. She loves it though, and it did it's job to distract her from the real dress which she can't wear until Halloween.
These were my main two accomplishments. (in the kiddo department anyway).

I also took the sewing opportunity to finish the pajama pants I started a month ago. They're way cute, and made from a clearance piece of silk that was BARELY large enough to accommodate the pattern. I ended up having to cut the pant legs to get it to fit with the patterned part in the right place, but the cut doesn't look horrible, and they're just for jamies, so I didn't stress too much.
In the cooking department I also had several successes. We have started signing up for Bountiful Baskets which arrive the Saturday after you purchase them. They are filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, the down side is that you never know what you'll get until you get there. We've had some mishaps (cauliflower potatoes that were too soupy) and some good surprises (like a constant source of lettuce which forces me to eat salad almost every day now), but the best part is getting things that we have no idea what to do with. In my last basket we got both okra and butternut squash. Also that week we purchased a case of apples.
I let them all stew for about a week until I was afraid they would start to go bad and then I forced myself to use them:
Okra - yoked, dipped in french bread crumbs and fried for a few minutes until golden brown and soft inside. Very nice.
Apples - nothing interesting yet, but I think I'm going to try an apple pie from scratch wish me luck.
Butternut squash - this was my true dilemma because my husband hears the word squash and automatically doesn't like it. So I used my handy-dandy search engine on Allrecipes.com and ended up with Butternut Squash soup. I figured it I got it cooked before he got home he'd never know. . . plus it had cream cheese in there. :) Turned out to be a huge success. He saw the recipe, so I couldn't slip it past him, but he tried it anyway and found that he liked it. I enjoyed it too and Alisabeth even ate a small bowl. Good times were had by all.
My last cooking success actually came today. I used our pork roasts to make sweet pork and then used that to make tamales for the first time every. I was worried, but they turned out great. I learned a bit and I think they'll be even better next time.

On to the smaller members of our family: Midnight is still alive. . .
Alisabeth started going to a preschool group with a bunch of other moms from the church with kids about the same age. I went with her the first day and it's a good thing I did because the second mom ended up having to take her daughter to the doctors for some stomach thing so she would have been all alone with 7 toddlers.
It was fun. We studied circles and made frog faces from circle shapes. We also studied the letter m and traced it, colored pictures and learned a bunch of words that start with the "m" sound.
In two weeks it'll be at my place. . . we're going to make goop from cornstarch and water and play with it outside, and make ghosts from lollipops and tissues. I'm excited. Our letter is going to be "o" so we'll have to see what we can do.
Little Gym was also really fun this week. We moved up to the next class so that she's in there without me. There are two teachers and they do a really good job or keeping the kids focused. The theme was "under the sea" and we were supposed to bring swim goggles, but I didn't know so instead she pretended. This week's theme is "Slumber Party Sleepover" so we'll be in pajamas and with blankie. Good luck on that one.

We finally finished out training this last week for foster care, now the only thing holding us back is the wiring at our place. That should be done within the month and then we'll be on our way to success!! I'm stoked.

Jason worked a lot this last two weeks, but he's still managed to be a great dad. They had a camp-out two weeks ago in the backyard complete with a fire in a pit.
He also cleaned up all the cactus that had fallen down and got that dumped. He'd done a lot of running around for me, including picking up our new (used) bookcases.
Continuing his car fetish he's fixed a few for friends, but somehow the karma of that never rubs off right because he got two flat tires this week in a row. We now have to replace all of his tires. . . grrrrr. Luckily their sales turned out to be more than we expected so we have the extra cash for the extra expense. (Amazing how that happens when God is in control).
He's also spent every other second reading through the Harry Potter series again. He's obsessed!!

Other than that it's been a quiet day in the neighborhood. Thanks for joining us.

Whoops

Again my weeks are flying!
We finally got assigned a licensing worker! This is great, it's one step closer to being foster parents.
We had our first couples interview with her on one of Jason's lunch-times. I felt bad because a 1/2 hr interview ended up taking almost 1.5 hrs, but his boss is really supportive so as long as he lets them know they seem fine with all the work missed.
Jason had his individual interview this morning. It took about 2 hrs. Mine is on Thursday. Once we finish the electrical we'll have our final inspection and then she'll have to write a 15 page report on whether or not she feels we're ready and able to be foster parents. Usually if you get that far it's in the bag, but we're not taking anything for granted.
We have a lot of work to do before then, one of which is purchasing "tot locks." If you've ever bought a video game or super expensive software from a store and seen how they open the plastic cases around the game/software you'll know how a tot lock works. Super strong magnets that can only be unlocked with another super strong magnet. We're going to purchase two of them, one for the chemicals cabinet under the sink and the other for the medicines cabinet over the sink. They're super expensive, but then we don't have to worry about keys or weird catches that take two hands to open and are usually frustrating.
The we've finished almost everything else required of us (or will by the time we finish the electrical ;)
In other news Jason is doing well at work. He had a day last week where he sold more than any of the other service writers. This was a fluke, but it was still cool. He's doing well and learning a lot. If nothing else I think this job has shown him that he has a lot of potential in an amazing amount of areas.
Alisabeth is blossoming too. The other day I finally found the new erasable markers that we had purchased and gave them to her, then I showed her the traceable numbers and letters on her writing board. She spent the next hour tracing them all. She got a little frustrated whenever she messed up a little bit, but that's normal for her. She loved being praised for this accomplishment. She even showed daddy when he got home. She's getting used to the kitty, although I can be sure that if the door is closed to her room she's in the process of stuffing him into a box of some sort.
Midnight is doing well too. He's adjusting well, although with all the rough play he's having a hard time learning to be soft. He also really loves to pull the keys off our keyboards if we leave the house for too long. We went and stayed with Jason's parent's little girls overnight and when we got home I was missing the "b" key and Jason was missing two of his.
I'm doing well as well. I'm trying to get everything organized and into a pattern. We've gotten money matters taken care of, now it's just a matter of getting the house organized and in shape (continually, and not just sporadically).
Overall it's been a normal and mellow type of week, I love those kind.

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.