Thankful.......
Thankful for margin in my days right now (knock out back burner projects)
Thankful for Roku and the NFL (for the first time ever we can watch games live and it has been so fun hanging with the boys)
Thankful for our families incredible health
Thankful for our Florida cousins who moved here in July
Thankful that we live in a first world country, with all its conveniences (although going without sure would be a great reminder of what we do have)
Thankful for laughter, which is making its way back into our house
Thankful for our dining room table, we have been spending more time there as a family lately
Thankful for my warm fuzzy socks
Thankful for ability of flight, which makes miles between Texas and Ohio disappear
Thankful for my tech savvy oldest son, who answers all my questions
Thankful for a job that literally allows me the ability to work whenever I want to
Thankful for snow shovels
Thankful for required driving hours for Ben, means great one on one time with him, without screen distractions
Thankful for the ability to check school grades online
Thankful for JR's wonderful clients and all the work they provide
Thankful for heat with all of our early sub zero weather
Thankful for my kitchen food scale, that keeps my eating on track most days
Thankful for the independence of the boys
Thankful for my electric blanket
And can't forget the biggest one, a God who loves me despite myself.  My favorite quote right now is by Jonathan Edwards and sums it up best "you contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary"!

Benjamin had an appointment with an oral surgeon.  Just crazy with technology!  The assistant held a small pen like thing that scanned his mouth and then gave us this picture.

He has like 6 teeth on top and 8 on bottom that do not even meet, he cant bite through food.

Looks like the procedure they want to do would be to insert 4 plates in his top jaw.  I think they would crack it open and insert them to expand the upper jaw forward.  What we did not realize, is that before the surgery can be done, he must wear a full set of braces for at least 9 months and have his wisdom teeth out!  We are waiting to see what insurance will cover!

Jacob too has a lot of dental work ahead of him.  He has four crowns on his 6 yr old molars (the teeth came in without enamel and quickly rotted before we even realized it.  So, since he has zero room for his teeth, the ortho has decided the best plan is to pull the capped teeth (since they will probably only create lots more problems, with root canals and replacing crowns) and then use the wisdom teeth as secondary molars.  He also has 4 baby teeth on the bottom that have been ground down pretty low.  They still have huge roots, so something weird is going on with them since the roots are not shrinking, in anticipation of loosing them.  So, those for need to get pulled.  By pulling 8 teeth, hopefully his teeth will start shifting and coming in.

Benjamin is officially registered for Europe June 2021.  They will be going to Paris, France and Barcelona and gone about 12 days!

I love little, out of the blue, surprises!  Recently I walked into the gym and one of my coaches asked me what size shoe I wore.  She went on to explain that her sponsor had sent her some lifting shoes and they did not fit her and was trying to find someone that might want them!  So she gifted them to me.  They are used for front and back squats and it is amazing how much they help!  Yay!  Hopefully I can hit some new PRs (personal records).  I have been doing a strength template.  I took 2 weeks off because I irritated a muscle, but all better and back on track.  They have an elevated stiff heel that allows better movement at the bottom of your squat.

A little late, but here is one of the pumpkins Joseph carved.  Cracked me up.

More Benjamin pics.  I guess when he actually lets us take a picture, I need to capitalize on it!!

I took him to the driving range recently.  He hit two buckets of balls.  He did not do too bad!  I think in the spring he might do a few group lessons.  Up here golf is a fall school sport, so if it clicks with him and he enjoys it, he would have 3-4 months to practice before trying out.  I am just excited to see him broadening his horizons.   It sounds like he will have a quiet winter and then possibly do track in the spring.  He is thinking maybe discus or shot put...maybe Kenna could give him a few pointers??

The boys all had orthodontist appointments recently.  The oldest two are presenting lots of problems.  Jacob has so many baby teeth still and no room for them to come in.  We go back in 4 weeks and he will probably have to have 4 teeth pulled, in hopes of it encouraging other teeth to come in.  Benjamin...it has been two years since his last visit and one thing we were waiting for was his growth and how his jaw grew.  It seems that from his profile his bottom jaw did not grow out too much, but that his top jaw (what is that called, cause its not a jaw is it??) did not grow enough.  So, we are being referred to a surgeon.  There are other steps we could take, but nothing will totally correct the problem.  Seems if we leave it as is, it can create lots of sleep apnea and bite problems years down the road.  I did not realize it, neither did Benjamin until the ortho pointed it out, but his four front teeth or so do not meet up.  We even headed for pizza after the appt and sure enough, when he puts a piece of pizza in the front of his mouth, his front teeth can just barely bite through the crust because there is such a gap between top and bottom teeth.

These pictures are terrible quality, because of low light, but I have to take them when I come across them.  We have had some tired boys lately and for some reason, they love to curl up in our bed.

Benjamin and I recently took a day trip to Billings to see a Fluffy concert.  He is a comedian that Benjamin really enjoys.  A good show!  We had a great time.  The weather was terrible, so what normally takes 2 hours to drive, took 3.5 hours.  But we made it back safely.  Saw 2 different semis off the road and they had closed the road to semis, unless they had on chains. 

We have already had 3 snow falls and been below zero.  I hope it is not an indication of what winter will be like!

Halloween was pretty mellow this year.  I think because it was so cold, many opted for indoor activities.  Joseph went with a neighborhood kid, Jacob hung out with two friends and Benjamin had football stuff going on.

Just one photo....

Benjamin is taking welding and really, really enjoying it.  He wanted am auto darkening helmet.  Very cool feature!   Next time we have a solar eclipse, a welding helmet is what I am going to grab.

He has also been talking about 2 trips that the school takes.  Every other year they go to Europe and Costa Rica.  He is actually interested in Europe!  It is a 2 week-ish trip right after his junior year.  He has even been brainstorming some fundraising options.  Of course I would love for him to travel all he can.

My mom was here last week for a visit!  Finally getting pictures uploaded.  It was a very busy week.  Between football games, fall festival and doing some things around the house, not much time for anything else.

How easy is it to spot Jacob...The only one who has hair below his helmet, although no helmet in this photo. 

Here is Ben, on the right, number 65!

We had our annual fall festival.  The weather for the parade was wet and cold. 

Scooby Doo made an appearance

Jacob finishes football on Monday and Benajmin will continue playing until the end of October, as will Joseph and soccer.  Come first of November, life will begin to crawl around here.  It will be nice to have everyone here for dinner!!

Earlier in the summer,  a group of friends, on a whim, decided to buy an old 1969 camper.   We wanted to fix it up and then flip it.  There were 9 of us and I don't recommend tackling a project this size with that many different people and personalities.  The first three weeks, we started off strong and then things came to a stand still.  We hit a big snafu with the cushions.  The camper is pretty much finished, minus the cushions.  Not real sure when it will be completely finished and sold.
Here are some before photos.

Here are a few after photos, minus the cushions.

Flipping a house seems too daunting, but if I had the space, I would love to tackle another project like this, just with one or two others.

It is soccer time.  Joseph has had two games already and won both of them!

He managed to catch the ball and keep them from scoring.  One of the games he had the last score of the game!

Not sure what he was doing below, but this picture makes me smile.

Jacob's first football game is Thursday!

The next 10 days or so sees our high temps in the high 50s and low to mid 60s!  Fall is quickly rolling in!

Things continue to roll along behind us, in what use to be our field!  There are probably 50 dwellings that are either finished or somewhere in the process of being completed.

They have started work on the walking path behind our house.

If you look on the left, you can see the power station, for lack of a better word, they have had to build.  Next spring the new elementary school construction will begin and since the area is rural, they had to bring in all the services to handle the influx of people.  That was always such a nice view for a sunset.

A recent bridge jumping outing.  Watch Jacob, just to the left of the kid in the black shorts.

Again, I never seem to know if the video is going to load, until it is live.  (If you are receiving this blog post via email, you will have to visit the actual website, to see the video.  www.welcomeatmyfire.blogspot.com)

Jacob and Joseph have spent a lot of time at the skate park recently.

Some cool photos.  Jacob has been working on what is called a tail whip.  This is when he is in the air, he kicks the base of the scooter around, either 360 degrees or 720 and then lands back on the scooter.  I think all of these pictures I took, he landed it.

I love this one, with Joseph looking on and the concentration on Jacob's face.  I think he just grabbed the scooter mid air and then let go.

Joseph is starting to land straight jumps.

Happy Labor Day!!!  And JR's 50th today.



What is he doing, you wonder???  Over the last 6 months or so Jacob has had 2 episodes where you struggled to take deep breaths and had a persistent cough.  The only way to rule in/out asthma was to have a lung function test.  They take a baseline, then he inhales a specific drug for 30 seconds, waits a few minutes then performs the same breathing techniques.  He was to do 6 rounds of this.  Typically during round 5 or 6 is when people tend to struggle with their breathing and start showing adverse reactions to the medicine.  Jacob started struggling at round 4.  It was pretty evident, pretty quick.  The test was then stopped and the symptoms were reversed with a nebulizer.

It was quite fascinating.  Usually when someone has a 20% reduction in lung function the test is stopped and they are determined to have asthma.  Jacob went from 16% in one test and then immediately to 40% the next test.  So, he reacted pretty strongly.  However, his symptoms are not that obvious.  I think he was really surprised that he tested for asthma.  We are going to follow up with primary doc next week, but guessing he will be put on a low dose daily steroid (it is inhaled so goes directly to the lungs and no side effects that come from regular steroids, or so I am told.





He was a champ and did awesome during the two hour test.  The gal administering the test was so impressed by him!

And they are off! 10th, 7th and 4th grade!



This will be the first year that Joseph gets letter grades. Jacob is slated to take English, Health, PE, Industrial Arts and Design, Science, Math and Social Studies.
Benjamin was very excited for the classes he got: Biology, Personal Finance, English, Strength/Conditioning, Welding, Wood Technology and Math!

Joseph had his first soccer practice yesterday. Jacob starts football next week. Benjamin survived 2 a days and will have practice every day after school until 6:30!

Here is to a wonderful school year!

Jacob completed his hunter safety, so he is good to hunt this fall. And since Joseph is 10, he can hunt with the apprentice program! We have the potential for a lot of meat this winter!



Our area has been having some earthquakes lately. They are not unusual, but they are often small and usually go undetected. However, we had one the other night that woke me up! It was a loud noise and the bed was shaking. Really strange! No one else in the house woke up, except Bree! Then a week later, we had another one, about 4.2, in the evening. I was fully awake and the noise and shaking were crazy. Concerns abound that if we had a 5.0 plus earthquake, the reservoir/dam south of us would break and we could end up with 15 feet of water. I am not an alarmist, but I think it is time to pull out my emergency stuff and go through it. I put a bag together quite a few years ago and really don't even remember what I have in it. I do know I probably need to set more dried food a side, since the boys are eating more now.

Benjamin has started 2 a days with football. He has practice 6 days a week, from 6:30-9am and from 4-6:30pm. So far he has gotten out of bed every morning. Looks like he might get some playing time on two different teams, froshmore and JV.

We are down to our last 7 days of summer. I have been working a lot but hoping to do less hours this week so we have more time to play!

This has become one of our favorite burger joints!  It has been in business for 60 plus years.  It is a walk up place and often times the line is 10 plus deep.  They have a single burger for 1.50 and go up to a quad burger.  Yes, my boys can easily eat the quad.

Ben has taken interest in a local pump track and become pretty good on his bike.

This kiddo has taken a ride in the 85 Toyota!  He nailed the stick shift.

We recently made his appointment to get his actual license. (They are several months out!) I love the date. My next birthday! No better way I would rather spend my birthday afternoon than taking him to get his license! Great present to myself.

Wende, a life long friend of mine (and college roommate our freshman year) and her family were in the area.  She has two boys, the same age as Benjamin and Joseph.  We met up with them at Yellowstone National Park.  Had a great time!  Sure wish we lived closer because the boys all got along great.

All five of the boys

Wende and I

We first met up at Old Faithful and it was very disappointing. I kept standing there saying 'there has to be more...'. We were stopped at one point in traffic due to one bison meandering down the road. The park ranger was trying to coax him off the road, but it was not happening! We also had car problems when we lost all our power steering fluid! Fortunately, we were in a parking lot right next to an auto repair place. I was able to buy the only two bottles of fluid they had! We kept topping it off and made it home without incident. Benjamin happened to be driving when we lost power and I think it kind of freaked him out.

Loved seeing all the elk at Mammoth.  Lounging is pretty much a daily occurrence there.  There were over 3 doz laying in the grass.

The biggest highlight for everyone was the Firehole Canyon.  The kids found some rapids that they would jump in and ride it down.  The current was pretty strong, so they had a great workout.

Contemplating taking the plunge.

Love this picture of Ben!!

One of the many falls in the park

These signs always crack me up!!!