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!!!

Today we celebrate 10 years with this amazing kid!  Happy Birthday, Joseph.  This past year it has become evident that you are a planner and have a knack for details!  Your endless string of questions wears me out some days!  On one hand you have a sass about you and on the other hand, your tenderhearted compassion shines through! 

A month from now the boys will be in school!!!

All three of the boys have cycled through overnight camp!  They all had a great time and made new friends!

We celebrated Ben's 15th!!!!!! 

And he started driver's ed.  He is a pretty good driver.  He has not enjoyed the instructional time and according to him, his driving partner is really struggling.  Sounds like the teacher is also having a difficult time, so he has not enjoyed any part of the actual driver's ed.  I love driving with him because he is usually pretty chatty and will often ask for my advice/input.  Not often I get inquiries from him!!

The Florida cousins arrived July 1st with a big ol' moving truck.  We usually see them at least twice a week.  They are about 5 minutes from us!    The girls will be a sophomore and junior.  They are very excited to start school and meet some friends!

I just returned from a week in Texas.  I went down for my aunt's internment.  All my time was spent with family and it was very nice being free of responsibility for a week.  I did not miss the heat though.

I am still on unlimited hours with work.

Ben spent this past weekend at the lake with his friend Rayce.  They had a great time and sounds like some wild rides on a tube behind the boat.

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!