Time marches on.  Seems like I start every post about how long it has been since I posted.

School has ended!  I now have a 4th, 7th and 10th grader in the fall.  They all finished strong!

Here is a picture of Joseph's field day.

Jacob's grade did a color run

On the last day of school, we had ice cream sundaes.  Lots of toppings to choose from

Benjamin has officially gotten into driver's ed and will have class July 8 - Aug 9.  After the first week of class, we will start working on his 50 hours of drive time.  It will be interesting because 10 of those hours must be night time driving.  This is a hard feat, given that it is light at 5:30am and does not get dark until around 10pm!  So, looks like some midnight drives are in our near future.

He will also be starting football practices.  So he will have football two days a week from 7-9am and then driver's ed every day from 9am -11am.  Then he is hoping to work 15-20 hours a week, but has yet to secure a job.

Jacob is spending lots of time with friends at the skate park.  It amazes me how they can spend 8 hours there!  The weather has been cooler, so that has been very nice for being outside. 

The development behind our house is still moving along.  There are over 40 plots that are somewhere between foundation dug to house completed.  It looks like they will be paving a lot of roads soon, which will make for great walking/biking.

Joseph and I recently took a trip to Ohio for Kolby's graduation.  Pretty nice, low key week hanging with family.  A few pictures from the airport.  Can you see the enthusiasm at 5am!

He was wiped out!  I loved how he just fit under the armrest.

We went to a place called Play Cleveland.  Really fun, with high ropes course, ninja warrior type things, climbing wall, etc.  A place we will visit again.

In the picture below (because I can't find the actual picture), if you look just to the left of Joseph's arm, there is a long vertical punching bag of sorts.  And to the left of that is a blue platform.  I climbed onto the platform and jumped and wrapped myself around the bag.  Pretty cool, but boy, was that platform small.

Some other pictures from the trip.

Cousin Kenna and Joseph

Granny with her youngest grandson and oldest great grandson

Joseph had fun with Colton (my great nephew)

Time has slipped away, once again!!

It has been relatively quiet around here.  JR and Jacob made the trip to Utah for a few days!  They had a great time but was frustrated by quite a few roads being closed and the river too high to hike the narrows.  So, another trip will have to be planned at some point!  Benjamin, Joseph and I hung close to home over Easter.  I was in the thick of my face cream adventure.

I used the cream for 21 days and it was not nearly as bad as I expected.  Everything was normal for about 11 or 12 days, then it started getting more red and noticeable.  However, it was not until probably day16 or 17, that heads started turning.  And around the time I finished it, it was really bad.  Once I was done with the medicine, I bought some aloe vera plants and lathered on the aloe vera multiple times a day.  Once my face started healing, it healed pretty quickly.  Most of the spots are very light red, hardly noticeable.

I have a new appreciation for those that live with permanent conditions/disfigurements on their face.  You can hide almost any other part of your body, but not your face.  I would look down and avoid eye contact when out in public and man, was that hard to do.  At one point, I was shopping and a lady and her 3 or 4-year-old daughter was checking out in front of me.  The girl kept looking at me and trying to get her mother's attention so she could look at me too.  The mother had taken a glimpse of me and was trying to distract/diffuse a possible situation.  Finally, the girl got so mad, she stomped her foot and said: "Mama, look at that lady".  I just laughed.  I think the mom made a comment along the lines of me having the chicken pox.

It was interesting because half of my face never responded to the medicine.  Here is a picture of when it was probably the worst.  Fortunately, it looked a lot worse than it felt.

Now, most of my freckles are gone and I do look different!  I took pictures throughout the journey and maybe one day will get them all uploaded!

We are on the downhill stretch with school.  About 4 weeks left!  All of the boys are doing well.  They are signed up for camps this summer so June and early July will be busy.  We will know soon if Benjamin made the cut off for driver's ed.  If he did not, we will have a very quiet summer.  I anticipate my workload to increase again to unlimited hours sometime around early June.  Joseph and I are headed to Ohio late May for my niece's high school graduation.

We are in work mode around the house.  We have talked for almost a year of things we need to fix and it is now in the works.  Because they are building the subdivision behind us, our property boundary changed.  They technically could have taken several feet of our back yard, but instead, they gave all the landowners some extra land.  So, we can push our fence back about 4 feet.  The question we have now is what to do with the yard.  We currently have trees that line our back fence.  If we move the fence back, that 4 feet of grass is really useless with the island of trees just in front of it.  Too expensive to replant the trees/bushes.  So, we are looking at options.  Would be really nice to plant trees along the new fence line and gain more useable grass/space.

That is about all that has been happening.  Enjoying the spring weather and have finally put away the snow gear!!!

Back in the fall I was challenged by a friend to think of the things that make me happy.  It was during a time in my life when things were crazy busy/chaotic and I was getting lost in the day to day of life.  So one day I took some time to write out things that make me smile.  Here is what I came up with.

baking
woodworking/building things
leisurely lunch
hitting tennis balls on the wall
organizing
reading
quiet/calm
candles
sitting still
being home
games/cards
curling up with blanket
bath
quilting
low music
not being rushed
keyboard/harmonica/guitar (although I very seldom attempt to play any of them, makes me happy thinking about it)
sitting in hot car

Have you made a happy list?  A great exercise to do.  I am trying to be more intentional about doing something from my list when I need to recharge!  Will be interesting to see how the list changes over time too!

This kiddo got his braces off! 

Benjamin and I went to court a few days ago and got his name changed.  Actually, the name we changed it to was the only name he knew, it was more a formality to have social security and birth certificate match up.  He DID/DID NOT MAKE DRIVERS ED

I am on day 16 of 21 days on my face cream.  Things were great up through day 11.  Then slowly more spots started showing up.  (Interestingly almost 3 times more on my left side of my face...must be all those driving miles.  I very seldom put on sunscreen when I am only going to be in the car.)  I still look way better than I anticipated, but it is very noticeable.  Not too painful.  Today is the first day it has hurt more than it has not hurt ~ like a sunburn.

We have had a little snow this week, but it has not kept my from breaking out my sandals!

The boys are all in a really good groove.  Hope it continues through the rest of the fourth quarter.  With the warmer weather, the boys have been outside a lot and discovered some new friends who have moved into the neighborhood.  (Not hard for that to happen with all the building behind our house.)

Continue to watch the housing market.  I am hopeful!  Just praying for the right thing at the right time.  We are slowly doing some things to the house to spruce it up a bit.  Amazing the wear and tear on a house of boys over 12 1/2 years!

My hours at work have been cut!  I am down to 10 hours.  Will miss the money, obviously, but am really excited to have some down time to tackle projects at home!  It is interesting though, the less you have to do, the less productive you seem to be.  When I have more on my plate, I have to be more diligent about getting everything done.

JR is heading to Utah in the near future, wanting to explore some of the national parks down there.  The plan is for Jacob to go with him! 

Here are some random pictures.

Before the snow melted, one of my runs with Bree.  There is a 5 mile loop that I take her on.

We finally have a trampoline park!   Managed to get one picture of Benjamin.  Boys have a great time!

I have finally learned how to use the saws in the garage and made myself this book case.  Found it online and really like the design. 

Jacob bought this hilarious bike from a friend, who made it in wood shop at school.  I don't think he realized how slow it would go with small tires and they certainly did not take into consideration a weight limit, as they have already popped the tires!

I love these photos, when the boys are so tired they just fall asleep where they land!

Not much else happening around here.  Loving the quiet days with no crazy extra curricular activities!

Just some ramblings....
Recently my neighbor (and friend) backed into the van.  It was a small dent, but unfortunately, she caught about an inch of the driver's door and 3 inches of the back sliding door.   Such a small dent, yet a lot of money to fix, because it requires ordering 2 new doors.  Her insurance decided to total the van!  I was bummed, but at least I had planned on driving the car until it dies.  I opted for payment and then 'bought' the van back from them.  Now I have to go change my title out for a salvage title!

With Benjamin on the wait list for driver's ed, one of the things they made very clear was that all of his documents must have the same name.  Ugh.  It reminded me that the name on his birth certificate is different from the name on his social security card.  In JR's culture, the kids take the dad's last name and then hyphenate and then the mom's maiden name.  Of course Benjamin being the oldest, in the hospital I filled out the birth certificate form with a hyphenated name.  A few weeks later when filling out social security paperwork, I decided I did not want the hyphen.  I expected it to be an issue when I signed him up for kindergarten, but it was not.  Well, it now appears it is time to legally change it.  I have filled out all the paperwork and am now waiting to hear from the courts on a court date....yes I have to go before a judge.  I don't anticipate any issues, just a formality.

One of the things I have enjoyed doing over the years is donating blood.  I have O negative blood, which means anyone can receive my blood.  I also recently learned that I am CMV negative, meaning I don't have the CMV or cytomegalovirus.  This virus can be deadly to low weight infants, so my blood can be given to the low weight babies.  I have tried to donate regularly, but have been denied the last 4 times.  I finally took their advice and had my ferritin levels checked.  The test determines how much iron my body is storing.  Turns out I am low. That would explain why I have struggled with endurance/stamina during my workouts recently.  I am taking iron supplements now and hope to get it back up.

I also recently went to the dermatologist for my annual skin check.  I have a few spots on my forehead that we cannot get to go away.  So the doc decided it was time to try a face cream for 21 days.  He was very casual about it but at one point told me to try for 21 days but if I had to stop at day 15 no big deal.  He had me curious.  Of course I came home and googled the cream.  It has a chemotherapy agent in it and it basically burns/destroys all the skin.  Although I have just a few spots, he said as long as I am doing it, to do the whole face.  It sounds like it is going to be potentially a very painful process.  I have finished up day 3 and no issues, but most of what I read about other's experiences, is that things don't get bad until anywhere from day 7-12 and continues until about 5-7 days after treatment stops.  Fortunately, we don't have anything going on, so if I need to hide out at home for a week or so, I can.  I have decided to take pictures and document my experience.  There are lots of people on message boards looking for information, since it seems a lot of the doctors out there are no being upfront with their patients about what they can expect. 

The boys just finished their 3rd quarter at school.  One more left until summer!  Looks like we have left winter behind and spring is here!  Still have lots of snow to melt, but green grass is on its way!  Looking forward to wearing sandals this week and putting the snow gear away!

We are at the end of the boys' spring break.  Wow, 2019 is 1/4 of the way over!

It has been a very chill week.  We started it by celebrating Jacob's 12th birthday.  He did not want to have a party, so he just invited a friend over.  This past Tuesday, JR and Ben headed to Miami.  JR's cousin's youngest daughter had her big quinceanera (15th birthday).  His parents also came up from Honduras.  Here are pictures from the big party.

Benjamin and JR's mom (Abuela)

JR's brother in law, sister and parents

They get back on Tuesday.

I have enjoyed a week of no cooking and very little cleaning!  Jacob, Joseph and I have just fended for ourselves.  The weather has been warmer, so they have gotten out on their scooters and also played with a lot of friends.  I think Jacob had 5 different sleep overs!

I am slowly trying to go through things again.  It seems that I am always thinking about what I could do to maybe get the house looking better, in the event we find something and want to put our place on the market.  I have been on the hunt for a small, comfy chair for the corner of our room.  I found one I liked.  The store (a local one, not a chain) told me I could take the chair home and if it worked, then swing back in and pay them for it.  The man let me leave the store with just my name and phone number.  I did not leave a credit card or driver's license.  Blew me away that there are still people out there that took me on my word.

Speaking of driver's license, the day of driver's ed is approaching.  Not too long ago Ben and I were running errands and I needed gas.  I told him to pump the gas and he informed me he did not know how.  So, he got his first lesson.  We have also been to the bank and he has learned how to deposit and with draw money.  So many life skills I just assume people know.

I am looking at several trips in the near future:  going to South Dakota to meet up with a friend for a women's retreat late April, a Cleveland trip late May for my niece's graduation, a NYC trip with Benjamin  late June(we have been saving for 2 years and have yet to make the trip happen) and potentially one or two more trips later in the summer/fall.  That is potentially a lot of traveling!

I have finally learned how to use both of JR's saws and have recently made a book shelf.  I am hoping to spend more time out in the garage once it warms up.  So many ideas I have for things to make!

We are at the end of what has been a huge snow week for us.  In the 12 years we have lived in town, we have never received as much snow over a short amount of time as we have this week.

The snow plows are struggling to keep up and our road has not been plowed in several days.  Fortunately, I have not gotten stuck.  (I have a front wheel drive van and I have regular tires and not winter/all season tires...that will change next winter!).  A lot of activities were cancelled, due to travel concerns.  When the sun is not out, the light is very flat and it can be hard to tell where the road ends and the snowy ditch begins.  It was so bad Thursday after school that the bus drivers refused to continue driving with the roads so deep.   We got more snow Thursday night. And, school was cancelled yesterday!  First snow day we have had probably since the 80s.  It was interesting to see all the remarks on Facebook.  Many were thankful, but then the other side is, come on, suck it up, Montanans are tough!

Here is our backyard.  Notice the snow on the fence shelf.  Our meter boxes are now completely covered.  (Also see the houses behind our house..makes me sad we lost our big open field.)

One of the many huge parking lot snow mounds Joseph wanted to climb.

Our porch light is covered with icicles. 

Looks like we will only see full sun one day in the next two weeks and we won't be above freezing until March 12th!  It is safe to say that everyone is ready for spring!

Jacob has his last basketball tournament this weekend.  So glad it is local.  Will be nice not to have any weekend commitments for a while!  Benjamin is considering track this spring, other than that, should be a quiet extra curricular next couple of months.

There is light at the end of the tunnel...winter tunnel that is.  Every day we are one step closer to the snow being gone.  We have passed mid February.  I am so excited!!  In some respects the winter has been milder but I still don't like the cold or the snow day in and day out! 

Jacob has one more basketball tournament and it is local!  He has been practicing/playing tournaments since October!  This is the longest sport season we have ever had!  Ready to get our Saturday mornings back!

Joseph finished up his snowboarding.  He is interested in soccer, but not sure yet if he will play.  Looks like it will be a quiet spring in the activity department! 

I am still working unlimited!  So hard to have a slower week when I know there is money I could be making.  I am finally getting in a groove and not committing to too much, so I have time for other things.

Almost 4 weeks ago, a good friend of mine lost her husband in a tragic train/car accident.  We have attended church with them for about 10 years and they have kids similar in age with some of ours.  The husband taught two of the boys' Sunday School classes.  It was the first time someone close to the boys have died, so lots of conversations about funerals, cemeteries, dying in general, etc.  When we attended the grave side, there was a 21 gun salute.  Those services are always so special.  He was buried in a small community cemetery, just down the street from our church.  I honestly did not even know it was there, because it sits up on a bluff.  An amazing view of the whole valley.  I told my boys that it was the cemetery I would love to be buried in.  Would be a wonderful place to walk through once the snow melts and see all the names and dates on the head stones. 

One of Joseph's former baseball coaches has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Just an amazing man/coach/mentor.  This past Friday they had a celebration of life for him and he was able to attend!! What a wonderful idea!  For those that are terminal, why have the celebration after they are gone.  Again, lots of discussion about quality of life issues, cancer, treatments, etc.

Tomorrow I am participating in a 7 day clinical trial.  I have to be at the local mall at 7am for the next 7 days to walk for an hour.  This is through a local lab that I have always wanted to get involved with, but never have followed through.  I will have to wear patches on my shoulders for the whole week to test how well they stay on.  The best part, I am going to get paid $450 to walk at any pace I choose, indoors for an hour.  Excited to put some more money in my fun/travel account.  I have several trips I am hoping to make in the next 6 months or so!

JR is staying busy with work.  He is over the snow, so there just might be a party when it is all gone! 

Benjamin missed the driver's ed cut off, because he is one of the youngest in his class.  So, he continues to anxiously await until he can get behind the wheel.  He is saving up for a car/insurance and gas!

January has come and gone!  Where did the days go.  I have been working 35-40 hours a week (so thankful for the work and it looks like it will not slow down anytime soon).  However, I feel like I can't keep up with everything.

On the 13th I celebrated my 50th!  My mom and sister flew up and surprised me for the weekend.  It was a totally chill Saturday and then on Sunday we went for brunch, to see a movie and then cake with the boys.  I think this is the only picture we took from the weekend.

Joseph has just finished 5 weeks of snowboarding lessons.  He did so good!  He picked it up really quickly.

Jacob has another 5 weeks or so of travel basketball.  Nothing else lined up for the spring right now.  Maybe soccer for Joseph.  At some point hopefully we can get Benjamin into Driver's Ed!!!

Nothing else really going on with us...basketball, snowboarding and work for me! 

Again, photos that never posted...

Here are Christmas Eve photos.  This is JR with his cousin and her husband.

The step son (who is not leaving FL and moving to MT), the oldest daughter and her mom.

The cousins!

Our crew!

The cousins did a few outings of sledding and one day of ice skating.  I took the two girls, their brother and my three to the ski hill one day.  They really enjoyed it, although the girls struggled some and one of them said it was probably their first and last time skiing!  We also had a few rousing games of Pit and Spoons (thought of you Jan, Mason and Kelvey).  It brought a smile to my face to hear Jacob tell the cousins that he did not want me to play because I was too good and would beat him!

Speaking of Jacob, he has a friend that he invites over every so often.  I really like this kid, but Trentin seems to bring out the rowdy in Jacob.  One day I asked Jacob why they never went to Trentin's house.  He said, 'to be honest, their house is messy'.  I said like really messy and he said yep, stuff everywhere.  I asked him how he liked it and he said he did not like going over there.  Then I made sure to tell him all the cleaning and chores sure paid off at our house!   He has learned to appreciate my cleanliness/organization. Brought another smile to my face.

Speaking of organization, I finally rented a storage unit.  We are just busting at the seams and I am tired of tripping over the out of season stuff.  Plus I am wanting to get everything out of the crawl space and to the storage unit.  Then I will have plenty of room to spread out and really go through/organize/label everything.  (Plus I am secretly hoping that this is a first step to decluttering a house that we will need to put on the market!)

Here is a photo taken at an ugly sweater party we attended mid December.  It was with our Friday night dinner group.  Almost every one showed up in a regular Christmas sweater, none of which I thought were really ugly.  I think I set the bar pretty high.  I won the Christmas gnome, which is now the traveling trophy from year to year.

(I had several posts pre dated to post and for some reason they did not...so these are really late, but oh well....)

More random pictures from last month or so.

Gingerbread making!!  Kristine seemed to be the best builder.  All the boys struggled with the frosting and being patient while it dried!

I wish I could say that the houses made it until Christmas, but their time was pretty short lived

When I was at my Dad's early December, I went to Hobby Lobby.  I found this mug.  I have learned when I really like something, I should buy it.  Just makes me happy.  The back side says "Let it Snow"  We are getting a Hobby Lobby sometime this spring and I need to start a cash envelope for my Hobby Lobby fix.  I think it might become one of my new happy places!

One of Jacob's bball games.

He actually made this shot!!

One of our new games, is called Bounce Off and seems to be the biggest hit.  You bounce ping pong balls and try to get 4 in a row!  I highly recommend it, if you are looking for a new game.

Some ice skating pictures.  Not sure how well you can see it, but behind Jacob is a small goal he made using the saw and drill at home!

He is so fluid.

Here is Joseph, yes skating in shorts, with 'tights' underneath them!

Every time I am back in Abilene, I drive by the old stomping grounds.  Sure loved this house.  There have been additions added since we lived there but the circle drive and basketball hoop are still there!

 During one of Jacob's basketball tournaments we had a 5 hour break and explored Phillipsburg.  We found an amazing candy store, which ships things all over the world!  This is a taffy machine.  It rolls about 300 pieces of taffy in just a few minutes.

 So much candy to choose from.

This is a drawing by Joseph, done free hand!  He is getting pretty good!

Another month of silence and a new year has been ushered in!!!  Things have been so crazy here, but I am also excited because after probably 3 months of no internet capabilities on my regular computer, it is fixed.  Which hopefully will mean easier for me to download and post pictures!

The boys went back to school on the 2nd!  We have a lot of activity for Christmas!  JR's cousin and her family were here for 12 days.  They did not stay with us, but we saw them every day but one.  It was his cousin, her husband, their 2 daughters (aged 14 and 15) and then a step brother, who is early 30s.  These are the same cousins that came to visit over the summer.  The reason they came to visit in the winter, is because they wanted to experience the cold and see if it is something they could handle permanently.  And  guess what, they loved it and are making preparations to move here this summer!!  They would live in our community and the girls would go to school with Benjamin.  They are a lot of fun.  My mom and niece got to hang out with them too!

My mom was here for 5 days.  We spent lots of time hanging around the house and playing games.  Christmas Eve was spent at the cousin's place...lots of food and music.  Then Christmas day we were at our house.  We had our annual scavenger hunt before opening gifts and then spent the rest of the day eating and playing games.  I am glad to say that I don't even think the tv was on during my mom's visit. 

We have been on a screen free kick lately.  I took away the gaming system early November and then removed the tv (so no movies) a few weeks before Christmas.  And you know what...everyone survived!  Joseph even said recently that he has enjoyed the break and the older two have not had a huge desire to play the PS4.  It has been nice seeing them playing board games, inside football, building things with their hands, etc.  I was always quick to point out to them how none of those things would have happened if screen was an option.  Jacob and Ben both alluded to the fact that it was nice not having the arguments that often ensued with the gaming system.

With the exception of a few cold, cold days, the winter has been mild.  Temperatures for early January have been above freezing, which is very unusual.

I have been allowed back to unlimited status with work!  Very excited for the boys to earn some money and for us to get more money in the bank.  I am still watching the housing market and just praying for contentment until we get more space!

JR has been busy at work!  He had lots of clients in town over the holidays.  He even picked up a new client and is in negotiations with another potential client.

Jacob continues with basketball and Joseph starts snow boarding lessons tomorrow!

Pictures are coming very soon!!

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!!