Another regular hunting season has come to a close.  JR and Jacob both harvested an animal. Jacob got a doe and JR got a buck.  We have meat in the freezer now! 

This next year, Joseph will be old enough to hunt.  Ben still does not express much interest in hunting, otherwise he would be out there with them.

I have been going through all of my pictures.  It seems I have them scattered in several different spots, so trying to spend a few hours a week consolidating them all into one spot.  Amazing how many I have, but I find I hardly ever take any right now.  Trying to remedy that because every year I print a collage for each boy of the past year's pictures.  Really hard to get a good collage when you only have 3-4 pictures. 

A few recent pictures that never made the blog for some reason.  I believe this was the picture taken on Halloween.  My little cowboy is quickly catching up with me.  He is already 4 and half feet tall!

Up until recently, this was a very common sight in our house.  I felt like it was taking over our home and unbelievable the adverse behaviors and attitudes I was seeing.  So, it is gone.  We have been screen free, for the most part in our house for over 2 weeks.  I decided I was going to invest in lots of board games and make sure that I am available and free to hang with the boys after school.  I can see small changes and hope we can only continue on the path.

A rare photo of Ben!!!!

I am currently in Abilene.  I flew down to spend three nights with my dad!  Fun to get away and be here!  Thankful that the boys are able to fend for themselves during times like this.

Snow is on the ground and looks like it is finally here to stay!  Things were slowing down a bit at work, but appears that they are going to pick up a little bit.  So thankful for the extra money and a great flexible job!!

Thanksgiving 2018

Hard to believe another year is coming to a close.  So much to be thankful for, from the really small, insignificant to the really big.

**Thankful for our health.  Aside from few broken bones and stitches, we have never experienced a major health crisis.  We are even blessed with great immune systems and are rarely sick.
**Thankful for board/card games.
**Thankful for my juicer and that I am really enjoying veggie drinks...who would have thunk it.
**Thankful for extended family close by (my niece).
**Thankful we have not found a house yet, God has just the one for us, in His timing.
**Thankful for the continued/growing independence of my boys.
**Thankful for a small handful of gals who I am still connected to after all these years.
**Thankful for recent laughter in our home ~ seems we had lost that for a while.
**Thankful for my Crossfit gym and as the years tick by, I still have great mobility/flexibility.
**Thankful for fried eggs and nutritional yeast (one of my go tos right now)
**Thankful that my boys don't argue about picking up dog poop. (our neighbors yard is nasty)
**Thankful for a group of about 8 families that gather weekly to connect and sharpen each other.
**Thankful for texting that allows a different way to stay connected to Benjamin.
**Thankful for my new coat that I splurged and bought after 10 yrs!
**Thankful that despite 1500 plus miles, I still see TX and OH family once or twice a year.
**Thankful for a 100% flexible job.
**Thankful for Netflix and podcasts that help my work hours fly by.
**Thankful for the hard.  This year has been hard, not sure why, but so glad I can grow and become a better version of me through the hard that the Lord allows in my life.
**Thankful for my electric blanket that I curl up under each morning to read.
**Thankful for JR's hard work/clients.  This is the first year we've fully funded our accounts.
**Thankful for candles and baths.
**Thankful for local friends who know just how to encourage.
**Thankful that the boys are old enough to put up Christmas lights this year.
**Thankful for the biggest blessing, a Lord that continues to love me in spite of myself!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Winter is on it's way.  We have had a pretty quiet fall.  I have been working a lot, however, they have recently starting limiting our number of hours, so I have some breathing room.

Jacob finished up his fall tackle football season.  He played quarterback and middle linebacker.  He really enjoyed the season.

Every year all the teams get invited to the University to go through drills that are put together by the university football team.  Also fun to see the kids on the big field.

Yes, this was what one of the games was like...this was probably mid October.  A little early for a big dump!  Can't wait until I can sit in the stands, versus standing in the snow.

The day of his last game, he went home and had a 2 hour break and then headed to his first basketball practice.  He is playing on a 5 v 5 team.  There are 8 boys and they will play a total of 7 tournaments between now and March.  It will be fun to travel to some nearby towns.  I am not sure how excited he is to be all in for the next 5 months.  He is concerned that he might not be able to ski this winter, since practice is every Saturday morning.

I recently had a long weekend with college roommates.  Sure was fun to get away for a few nights and reconnect.  We are hoping to make it an annual event!!

 My sister came in for the weekend to see Kristine and meet Andy.  Had a fun time carving pumpkins, wrestling and playing Sorry.

Andy has some police training, so the boys enjoyed going head to head with him.  Benjamin actually held his own pretty well.  We were all encouraging him to get into wrestling!

A quiet November is in store.  A few appointments and work, but lots of projects for me.  We are still watching the market, but have not seen anything that is a good fit for us. 

Every day I have best intentions of sitting down to write something and there is always something else to do!

I have been working over 30 hours a week.  They have us on an unlimited supply, so figured I need to make hay while the sun shines.  Not sure how long we will be unlimited, but hoping at least through the end of October.

Some changes around here these days.  It sounds ridiculous, but with JR's work and him always moving client's cars to and from the airport, it is easiest if we have 4 vehicles.  One of our vehicles recently died and we have replaced it with a 2011 Subaru Outback.  It is the nicest/newest of our 4 vehicles and that is partly because we are considering it as a car for Benjamin when he starts driving.  That is still about 18 months away, but hard to believe it is already on our radar.

We also moved some things around in the house.  We have had a 3 bedroom and all the boys have shared a room.  It was getting a little too close for comfort, so I cleared out the extra bedroom (was my office/sewing/sanity room).  Benjamin has moved into that room and it has made a world of difference!  It is interesting to see though, that none of the rooms are any cleaner!

Several weekends ago we took a Sunday drive to a nearby ghost town. 

Doesn't he look thrilled!

Joseph loved panning for gold!  He actually had a speck of gold one time.

Joseph behind bars.

He thought the desks were something cool.

I can't imagine this on a playground these days.

Yesterday Jacob had his first football game.  There was a rather large kid on the opposing team that got in quite a few hits on Jacob.  It wore him out.  There were a few illegal hits and hits from behind.  An eye opener for that kid.


It is probably hard to tell in this picture, but this is Joseph's bed.  He has about 20 stuffed animals that encircle him and 3 blankets.  (His head is in the lower left corner).  He has some barnwood on the side, so he has an awesome, cozy spot that he hunkers down in.

Fall is quickly arriving!  My favorite time of the year is jeans, sweatshirts and flip flops!

And they are off!!

Can you see the excitement on their faces????    The first two days have been good!  Ben seems to be settling into high school okay, he really enjoys open campus for lunch.

Quiet Labor Day coming up.  Jacob is leaving with a friend for the weekend and JR is going backpacking with a co worker.  Not sure what the bookends (Ben and Joseph) and I will do.  Hopefully some fun stuff and no cooking!!!!

Summer is over!  The last month has flown by and I realized it has been almost 2 months without a post.

A quick recap of the summer. 

We spent 2 weeks in Texas.  Lots of family/extended family time and very hot temperatures (we saw 109).  Thankfully, it was not super humid on the really hot days

We came back from Texas and I hit the ground running.  I have been working quite a bit.  I have gone in to the warehouse (with my assembly job) and helped them get caught up, as well as finally getting unlimited hours to work at home.  So, I have been very focused and busy.

We got in a quick camping trip with our Friday night group.  Had a great two nights out, and the weather was really nice!  The boys had a great time exploring and playing in the freezing cold river.

We celebrated Joseph's 9th birthday!  Hard to believe.

Other than a trip to an indoor nerf arena, we were very low key the last 4 weeks of summer.

Jacob starts tackle football tomorrow.  Looks like it is only appropriate that we are looking at mountain snow tonight!

Benjamin decided he wanted to join a gym.  JR has membership at a 24/7 gym, so we signed Benjamin up and myself.  It was only 10 more dollars.  He has been pretty consistent this first week.  I think the school plan is for him and JR to go in mornings before school/work and then Ben and I will go a few days a week after school.  I will probably still do Crossfit a few times a week. 

School starts on Wednesday.  Hopefully I will get a first day of school picture!

Summer has finally arrived!  The last several weeks have been cooler and very wet!  Everything is so green, which is awesome. 

One of the perks of JRs job is that we get 'hand me downs' from his clients.  Seems like whenever they want to upgrade, or change out things, we get first dibs on the items.  Well, one client did not have room for this, so JR brought it home.

I am loving it.  There is just a perfect spot under the trees and it is mostly shaded all afternoon.  I envision lots of naps and quiet times reading books!  Laying in it, we discovered that we are going to have a ton of plums in our tree later this summer...so excited!

Some random pictures I found on my phone that I thought I had downloaded, but can't seem to find on the blog.

This one just makes me smile...obviously taken last December.

I love it when JR is gone and one of the boys sleeps in our room.  However, this kid is a wild sleeper!

On Jacob's birthday, he said he wanted straw glasses, so that is what I got.  He looked so cute in them!

Some photos taken out on the land where JR rattlesnake hunts.  This boy loves horses.

This one was probably about year and half ago, but never realized the huge smile on his face.  Love it.  Not often I get a smile from this kid when camera is out.

Ben is at camp right now!  The other 2 boys have cycled through their camps and loved it!  So glad they have something to look forward to each year!  The memories are priceless.  Ben gets back on Saturday and then we are making a trip down to Texas.  We scored some awesome tickets, so will be flying versus driving...yay!!! 

Not sure how much I will be posting over the next 2 1/2 weeks!

We are finishing up our first full week and summer and it has gone well.

On Wednesday we drove Joseph over to camp...he is now old enough for their 3 night camp. It is always weird when one of the boys is gone...the dynamic is so different! I sure miss this guy.

We will pick him up on Saturday, tomorrow.


I am way behind in posting pictures from my camera. We celebrated Kristine's 23rd birthday a few weeks ago.

Benjamin 'graduated' from 8th grade and will be off to high school. They had a 'ceremony' for all 256 kids. It is the largest class to ever enter the high school.

he looks so grown up in this picture

It was fun having my mom here for both graduation and Kristine's bday.

With summer here, I have decided to do Crossfit at 6:30 in the mornings, three days a week. Although I don't like getting up and out of the house early, I sure enjoy the earlier workouts. A lot less people and cooler temps for when we are outside. Today's workout, I had been dreading for several weeks. I even went to bed last night trying to think of a legit excuse not to go. I woke up several times in the middle of the night and wondered if I was gonna get out of bed this morning or skip the workout all together. I got out of bed this morning and went to the gym. Turned out the only other one working out was a guy that tends to crush all the workouts. As the coach asked me if I was ready, I had to swallow hard and force the tears back. I did not want to do this workout because this workout was running. I do not like to run, I am one of the slowest and of late, I have really struggled with my breathing and then I feel like I almost hyperventilate and have to stop to walk. I was not looking forward to the 1 mile run, 2000 meter row and then another 1 mile run, all while being timed. My goal was 40 minutes. Matt and I started the run and with the first step, his lead grew greater and greater. After about 200 meters, I was struggling to breath. I dug down deep and really focused on my breathing and then got into a slow, steady pace. (I am doing a running clinic right now, focused on form, so I had lots to think about besides how much I did not want to be running). I put my head down, ran, rowed and ran some more. I finished in 35:57! I was so stoked. That was 12 min miles, and I even walked a few stretches. I am so glad I got out of my comfort zone and faced my fear! I think I have turned a corner in my attitude with running! Not that I will ever be a runner, but hopefully I won't dread it going forward. The gym's June challenge is to walk/run/hike 50 miles. I have been walking 2 miles most days. Joseph rides his bike alongside me, and off we go. Well, when he returns from camp, I can run with him now!

Joseph recently had a field day at school, as well as a dance party for reading 2,000 pages.

I had never seen these cool big stacking cups, but they had relay to move the stacks to the other end of the field.

Dance party..not sure why he looks so unimpressed, but he had a great time.

line dancing

doing the limbo

The lady holding the right side of the rope is the principal.  She unfortunately has resigned after 2 years.  It is more like the school board forced her resignation.  There are huge issues with our school board right now and a lot of distrust with the community.  It has only been recently that community members have been taking notice and showing up in droves to the monthly meetings.  One board member was recently voted out after 15 years of serving.  The Superintendent was also forced out, or should I say his contract was not renewed by the board!  Will be very interesting to see the direction things go in the coming months as more pressure is being put on the school board for some answers.  In the recent election, 4 levies failed, that would have added more staff/resources and expanded technology.  As it is, Joseph's elementary school has 2 computer carts (i pads) that are shared among the whole school.  We are so far behind but can't seem to get the levies passed that we need for our quickly growing district (we are the fastest growing county right now)

This is a terrible picture, but look at Jacob pogo sticking without any hands!!!

The construction in the field continues. The road directly behind our house is basically done, minus the paving. I assume they are waiting for other roads to be done so they can pave everything at once? It is nice to get out there and have non traveled roads to walk on.