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!!!

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)