Trying to catch my breath.  

I have started working and still trying to get use to time management.  I have taken a job at a cleaning/property maintenance company.  There are about 20 employees, with hoping to hire another 5-10 in next few months.  It has been fun learning a whole new industry (although I am somewhat familiar with property maintenance side, with Jose's management business.)   It was real unclear when I started working, how many hours or what my job description would be.  I am currently office manager but thinking it will morph more into a general manager in the coming months.  I wanted 25 hours a week, but working closer to 35.  My boss is open and flexible and as I learn more of the systems, etc, I am hoping to drop down to 30.  The best part, I can take Bree, our dog.  The owner has a Dalmatian and her and Bree get along well.  It is fun to see Bree dominate and herd Zoey.  She holds her ground and makes it very clear when she has had enough of Zoey's antics.  Bree comes home every day tired!  There is a picture below of me with a helmet on.  My boss has a really nice side by side and we took it out for a spin recently.  

I have also officially started meeting with an 'official' financial coaching client!  So fun to be walking alongside someone on their financial journey!  The Turo cars are still parked, but anticipate we will start getting reservations in the new year.  Not sure if I am up for another winter with the cars.  Fortunately, if it proves too much, I have a friend I can hand them off to.

Joseph has his last basketball game this Tuesday.  Their team is undefeated.  It helps when you have a player that looks like he is 17, instead of 13.   Joseph has enjoyed the experience and has done really well with the early morning (6:30am) practices.  I wish there was another sport he enjoyed, because the activity and social interaction has been great for him.

Jacob had his first basketball game yesterday.  A very intense game that they almost pulled out  at the end.  He made the sophomore team.  There are only 7 kids on the team, so he is getting lots of playing time.  Shortly before Thanksgiving they had their end of season football banquet and he found out he letter, despite missing half the season with his hand injury.  He was so excited.  A picture of his letter is below.

Hunting season we ended up with 3 deer, 2 bucks and a doe.  There are still a few elk tags to fill for shoulder season, which is through February sometime.  A successful year!

 Thanksgiving 2022

Some of the big and little things that make me smile and bring great joy.

1Chronicles 16:34 - Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever.

Thankful for Jacob recently getting his driver's license - the kid that always needs to be someplace :-)

Thankful for my new Vionic slippers, that keep my feet really warm and have great support.

Thankful for an amazing summer with my mom being here and the family that visited.

Thankful for the means to fix all of our recent vehicle issues.

Thankful for my new job (will post on it next week!)

Thankful for my morning cup of hot tea while I read my bible!

Thankful for another year of amazing health.

Thankful for basketball and the outlet it has become for Jacob and especially Joseph.

Thankful for my 2 new pots I found for my plants.  (Sounds silly but there are very few things I find and immediately love enough to purchase)

Thankful for my ability to be able to think outside the box.

Thankful for a church that doesn't waver on preaching the word of God.

Thankful for airplanes that help bridge the gap between me and my family.

Thankful for texts and memes, that give me another way to stay connected with the boys.

Thankful for snow shovels, which we have had to use way more than I would like :-)

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

 It has been a while!  We are on auto pilot!  

I went to Texas last week to spend time with my dad!

Joseph has started basketball and won their first game.  They have one this afternoon and hopefully can get some good pictures.  Joseph has started going to the gym with JR, instead of me.  I think he enjoys time with dad and much rather take lifting advice from his dad than his mom!

Jacob will start basketball just after Thanksgiving.  He has been going to open gym and shooting hoops several times a week.  He is still working every Sunday afternoon.  He is not much of a spender, so his account is slowly growing.  He is itching to get out on the slopes too!  

Speaking of slopes...our area has just been hit with another 12 inch dump of snow.  It is coming early this year.  And I am not ready for it!  Fortunately this time around it was the dry snow, so not real wet and heavy.

I went and voted today.  I don't recall ever seeing so many people out voting!  So good to see!  Will be interesting to see how things turn out and what the next 2 years hold.  Regardless of where anyone falls, I think we can all agree that some areas have gone sideways!

Benjamin is into a week of snow removal and I think he might be regretting this decision.  You are paid whether you work or not, which means he can go 10 days without working and still get a paycheck, but when you do work, it can be very intense!  He worked yesterday 7am-7pm, come home to sleep and then went back from 4am-noon today.  He has to be back tonight from 9pm until probably noon tomorrow!  Bless his heart.  He has committed to the end of March and I think it will be a long hard winter.  That will be like 35 hours shoveling in about 50 hours, plus the 45-60 minute commute one way!

Benjamin recently took a weekend trip to Seattle, all by himself.  The travel bug is alive and well with him.  He went to a Seahawks game.  Got a hotel room, took public transportation and shopped.  He certainly doesn't mind going and doing by himself, but wish he had a friend to go with.  He said most of his friends don't have the money to spend.  He is hoping to pile up money this winter and maybe take a trip next April or May.

While Benjamin was in Seattle, the rest of us carved pumpkins.  They had a good time!  I didn't get any pictures of the finished project, but I read to cut open silica gel packets and put inside and that will make them last longer...and it worked.  We got over a week out of pumpkins.

It is hunting season!  Between JR and Jacob, they have a total of like 6 deer tags and 2 elk tags.  So far we have 2 bucks (deer).   It has been fun to see Jacob start going out with friends to hunt.  He sure enjoys it.

I have completed my first 'blog' book.  I got years 2008-2015 formatted.  I sent it off to be printed in black and white.  Wanted to make sure it was going to turn out, before committing to color printing.  The book ended up being close to 400 pages!!!  It will look so nice in color.  Trying to format 2016 through end of this year.  Then early next year, I will send both of them off to be printed in color.  Not sure the boys will appreciate it, but in due time.  It is neat to go back and put a timeline together of trips, big events, illnesses, etc.  I am also trying to go through all the digital pictures and clean up/delete duplicates.  My goal with this is to give each of the boys the blog books, as well as a flash drive with all photos on it!!!  

Random pictures that were on my phone....

Fall is slowly rolling in!  The boys have been in school for a month and I have yet to get their 'back to school' picture.  

Things have been pretty quiet with the boys.  Jacob has football every day after school and then he works Sunday afternoons.  Several weeks ago he chipped a small bone in his hand.  Due to the location and nature of the injury, they could not really splint it in such a way that he could continue to play in football games.  So he is sidelined, but hopefully might get clearance just before the last game of the season.  He is still going through all the drills and footwork, but has been discouraging for such a small injury to sideline him totally.  It should heal on its on though!  He has decided he will play basketball, so that will start just after football ends.  He also gets his driver's license tomorrow!  Hard to believe!  Given the crazy car market and some other car issues we have had, he is going to drive Benjamin's old Mazda.

Not sure if I mentioned but Benjamin bought a new truck (with cash - yay).  He is currently working out at the airport, just trying to put some money back.  He is committed to helping a friend move snow this winter.  After that, not sure any plans.  He would love to move out but the rental market is still nuts here!  I anticipate things will look very different for him 6 months from now.

Joseph is currently doing a basketball academy once a week and I think is planning on playing basketball this winter.  He and I go to the gym most days after school.  He is just putting his head down and crushing 7th grade!

JR is moving into a slower season, before the snow comes in November.  Hunting season (bow) is here.  JR and Jacob are both geared up to get an animal and there is talk of maybe Joseph, but not sure.  I am trying to empty out our freezers so we have room for any game that comes home!

I am still in a lull with work.  Trying to get some financial coaching going but I have stalled out.  Just need some motivation.  My mom has been here all summer and it has been wonderful.  She leaves on Friday, back to Ohio.  Will miss her for sure!

Just a few pictures below.  We attended our fall festival and they have a free lunch and they roast pigs the night before.  Always cool to see their cooking set up. I jump at the chance anytime I can to get a picture of Benjamin!  Jacob and I after a shutout (we lost 63-0) but it was cool because they got to play at the university stadium.  Joseph and my mom's dog, Bingo.  Jacob and one of his best buds (Jacob is in green jersey!) 

 Another outing we took this summer, a boat tour of a nearby canyon.

A few other outings we have had:  Saw Tarzan in live performance and saw the musical Sound of Music.

 Still trying to catch up from summer photos

Jacob and JR went on an overnight back packing trip with two other men.  The weather was beautiful, the fishing amazing (think they caught about 80 fish total) and the hiking hard!

My mom and I recently went to Medora ND to see the musical.  What an amazing production.  Incredibly patriotic second half!  Lots of music and history of Medora and Teddy Roosevelt.  Highly recommend it if you are ever near SW North Dakota.  Before the musical they had a pitch fork fondue with steak and all the trimmings.  All held on a beautiful cliff overlooking the badlands.  It was just shy of a full moon and beautiful evening!

We have had some warm summer days recently.  Headed to the river with Bree and boys!  

Leave it up to Jacob to find a snake!

Jacob is trying to get Joseph to reach down and pick it up.  I made sure to stay far away!

The boys saw a tortilla challenge on Tik Tok and had to participate.  You fill your mouth with water and then take turns slapping each other across the face with a tortilla.  Sounds ridiculous and it is, but hilarious to watch.  Not sure who or how people come up with these ideas.

 

 A selfie of us at the Elvis movie

We checked out a Dueling Piano show.  I had no idea what we were going to but it sounded fun.  We both weren't expecting what it was.  Enjoyed the music but the banter was more crass that I would have liked.  Fortunately, the accoustics was terrible so I did not hear everything that was being said.  We ended up leaving early.

Jacob has had a couple of football scrimmages this summer...not a bad view and it was a beautiful evening.

School starts Aug 25th.  Football 2 a days started on Friday.  Summer is quickly winding down!

 Just some more summer stuff!!

We celebrated this kids 13th birthday on Sunday!!!  Our third teen ager in the house!  Pretty low key birthday, went out to breakfast and had gifts and cake/ice cream

It was also my mom's birthday the following day, so we did a few things that weekend.  We went to a local drive in movie.  This was started just after COVID by a teen ager looking for ways to make money.  This was the beautfiul sunset as we waited for the movie to start after dark.

The movie was my all time favorite ever!!! The Man From Snowy River....I had never seen it on the big screen!

This kid got creative one day with his pringles!

 Random summer photos!!

A recent hike!

Jacob's football team had some 7 on 7 skills.  He mainly played safety on defense, but was ready if he was needed for QB.

Bree got to experience a paddle board....too bad she only stayed on long enough for me to take a picture!

Jacob has caught some big carp....they are bottom feeders so not good to eat.

Did not even know that pup cups were a thing from DQ, but Bingo (my mom's dog) has introduced Bree to them!!

My mom and I recently went to see Tarzan at a local theatre.  She was blow away by the production...it was really good!  We had dinner beforehand!!

Some more football action!

Things have recently shifted in a huge way for me!  I am no longer doing my work from home stuff.  The company has decided to move their production to California (this decision still baffles me and everyone that worked in house...).  I am thrilled to be done!  I had wanted a shift but the pay, flexibility and ease of work was hard to give up.  However, I am not exploring financial coaching.   God is opening up some amazing doors with this opportunity.  I will share more as things fall into place!!

 Mid July!  Time marches on!  I came across some more graduation pictures.

When Ben went with the school on the senior trip, we filled his car with balloons for a surprise when he came back.  Last time I checked there still were balloons in his car!!!!

My mom, brother, sister and I.

This was Ben's buddy, Kaden, who he had a joint grad party with.

This was everyone that came for graduation!  Sure was fun.  This was taken on the balcony at the community center where we had the party.  A great location!

I am also way late posting, but we recently celebrated Ben's 18th!!!  He is now a legal adult!  He is still holding tight with the restaurant job.  He did help during a 5 day stint at a fireworks stand over the 4th.  A friend told me he killed it as a sales person!  I really think that is a gift/talent he has and needs to explore it further.

 Wow, the last month has been a whirlwind.  Can't believe I haven't gotten pictures uploaded since graduation!!

A lot has happened in last 30 days.  School is out, Ben graduated and my mom is here for the summer.

We are trying to find out summer groove!  Joseph is attending some summer school for last half of June and first 10 days of August.  He goes M-Thurs from 8:30-11:30, so that is becoming my work time.  (I have cut my hours almost in half, because I never seem to get as much done during the summer).  Jacob is all over the place with sports camps, work, school workouts, basketball tournaments and friends!  He is continuing with driving hours and officially has 30 out of 50 hours.  He is scheduled to get his driving permit towards end of September.  This is one momma that will be glad when this kid can drive by himself.

Ben's graduation!!  We had a great weekend.  We had a party Friday night with one of his friends.  Both of my parents were here, as well as brother and sister and my brother's two kids.  (The Ohio clan couldn't make it, minus one niece that tried but the stand by flights just did not line up!!  It was weird to have the grandsons outnumber the granddaughters, a first!!)  We rented an airbnb for 3 nights and was nice to all be together.  Lots of pictures, with the exception of just after graduation.  

My dad with the grandkids

My mom with her grandsons!

I love this picture, still stairsteps, just in a different order now!    (Still predicting that Joseph will be the tallest, which would make it youngest to oldest being tallest to shortest)

And the graduate!!!!

My mom and I made the trek back from Ohio.  I landed in Cleveland on a Saturday at 5pm and we immedately hit the road.  We pulled into our place that Monday at 1pm.  Less than 48 hours.  We boogied.  Had no issues and just drove and drove.  The dog Bingo did well.  They are both settled into the RV and loving it!  It is parked at the end of a dead end street, so very little traffic and very quiet!  She has made it her own and the space is just perfect.  She has gotten a little part time job too!  We have taken one overnigth trip to watch Jacob play basketball.  I am hoping to get out more, but the price of gas might prevent as many road trips as I had hoped!