Hello? Is this thing on?

Where to begin....Have a seat, you may be here a while.....

We've been pushed head first into our  wildly busy summer. It's been a while since I've written anything, of course I know you're all frantically desperate to know what we've been up to. I'm taking a stab at that humor thing again, working? Ha!

Last week was our final week of the school year. We had our final meeting with our ES and were declared DONE with 7th grade. Whew! We have one more lesson in Social Studies/History to finish, but I am holding off until right before school starts. In 8th grade we will be doing Early US History,  our final 7th grade lesson leads us into that. I'd rather it be fresh in their minds. We will continue with math over the summer, math skills seem to be easily forgotten and I don't want to spend the beginning of the year playing catch-up. We have received some of our 8th grade curriculum already, mostly math and the manipulatives for Pre-Algebra and all of our Advanced Physical Science experiments. I am going to scour over the internet this summer to find an acceptable History curriculum. The California Standard text books are boring not very detailed. They try to sum up a range of hundreds of years in just a couple of paragraphs. It'd be nice to find something a little more detailed. I did find an awesome book on the Constitution at my favorite thrift store last week. Score! Oh, and I got a full Strong's Concordance for just $1.00. I was stoked. Anyhoo, I ordered Emily and Julia's unit study curriculum. They will be starting Kindergarten. I will write a blog post on our curriculum once we get closer to the school year. I don't even want to think about most of it for the remainder of the summer vacation.

Last weekend, Adam went on a “roughing it” camping trip with some of his friends. The four of them went to  Indian Valley Reservoir. This is not your Mama's camp ground. They had to 4-wheel in, sleep with huge fanged spiders, and dig latrine holes. There aren't showers or bathrooms. Each day they would pack up the trucks and go on a 4-wheel excursion and camp where ever they ended up.  One of the guys nearly lost his truck in the river. He hit a deep spot and it started to float away, luckily the passenger hopped out and tied it to a tree. They were able to get it out of the water but there was some flooding that killed the stereo and power seats. I'm sure that was scary. They fished, and shot their guns, lassoed lizards and did "man" stuff. It sounded like quite a weekend. I was happy that Adam as able to get away and relax. He works very hard and it’s nice to have a break.

The wives of the men who were camping, and I all went to our girlfriend’s daughter’s 1st birthday party. It was a Hawaiian Luau, with a roasted pig and everything. She had a ton of activities for kids to do; the kids had a great time. I made a wooden initial bow holder for the sweet little girl. She always has the most darling bows in her hair. Here are the pictures:

(click pictures to enlarge)

Our 4H year ended this week. It was quite the feat to finish the girls' record books and get them turned in for judging. They took 12 different projects (classes) this year. Each project has to have a report turned in detailing what they’ve learned at each different  meeting. Most of the projects only have 4 or 5 meetings, others have 7 or more. In addition to the project report pages, they also had to make a Personal Development Report and list all of the other activities and community service acts they participated in. They have to include pictures of activities of their choice and work samples, it all goes into a 4H report folder and has to have 5 divided sections, their picture, a table of contents and a cover page. It's a big deal, they get judged on it. We only submitted ours to be judged at club level this year, next year we may submit it to compete at a county level. The record books were due Wednesday. It was so much work the girls vowed to stay on top of it throughout the year next year so it's not as overwhelming. Kiley and August have several different 4H things they are entering in the County Fair this year. Each has 3 different art projects, and August is also submitting a quilting project and a table setting. I really am enjoying the 4H program, as are the girls. Our particular club has a daytime 4H group; this is the one we belong to. It's all homeschooled kids and their parents. The girls and I have developed some wonderful new friendships. I am grateful we found this group. 4H offers such a wide variety of learning opportunities(our club doesn't do animals). This year the girls' projects were, Healthy Living, Quilting, Physical Science, Educational Games, Mini Mall, Softball, Musical Presentation, Cake Decorating, Fine Arts, Arts and Crafts, Table setting, and Drama. We meet twice a month on Monday's for an entire day. Our club has some wonderfully fantastic kids. There seems to be a different type of maturity in homeschooled kids, I've come to discover. They also participate in various community service projects and competitive areas. Kiley and August both signed up to work at the 4H cake booth at the fair this year and August has signed up to be an official 4H photographer next year. This is all in addition to their regular school subjects. And people think that homeschooled kids have no socialization and stay home all day. *humph*  Actually, our ES Charter School supervisor said my girls do more than any kids she's supervised.

We signed up both sets of twins for city league soccer this year. It will be August and Kiley's 6th season playing, and Emily and Julia's 1st. Kiley and August are fantastic soccer players. Kiley is one of the best goalies I've ever seen. I played soccer for 15 or so years, and loved it. I'm glad my girls share my love. Emily and Julia are thrilled to be playing this year. Haley will be continuing her basketball career, which coincides with the soccer season. Are you starting to see what I mean by our wildly busy summer?

I have no idea when I'll get back on here to write more so I'm just going to put as much as I can now. Aren't you fortunate?

I came across this charming little organic herb box at Trader Joe's. It has Basil, Oregano, and Parsley. Isn't it cute?

Yesterday I baked some snacks up. I have been making my own granola bars for a couple of months. They are so much better than the store bought ones and my family gobbles them up. It's hard to keep them in stock.  I made 36 yesterday, I'm sure they will all be gone by Sunday. I turned my very ripe bananas into two loaves of banana bread for our breakfast this morning. I am NOT a breakfast person. I really am bad at making/eating  breakfast. My poor, poor kids usually fix cereal or eggs. I'd much rather cook lunch and dinner than breakfast.  Oh well, can't be perfect in every area *snort*. 

And I'm about ready to wrap this up. Emily and Julia are going to spend the weekend with my Dad and Step-Mom. They are overly anxious to go. Weekends at Grandma and Grandpa's are ALWAYS great fun. 

Father’s Day is fast approaching June 19^th. I still haven’t figured out what I’m doing for my Husband/Dad/Father-in-law… I have a feeling, with as busy as we are, it’s not going to be as exciting as it could be. I think I may just take the kids to the store to pick out gifts for their Daddy.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone. God bless.

*ETA, I can't figure out why my post is in two different colors. I can't fix it either, oh well.*

The Best Mother's Day

First, Happy Mother's Day to my Mommy readers. I had a fantastic day; truly a memorable one. This year, I told Adam that I wanted to go on a hike and have a picnic. The weather has been so warm lately it seemed like a great idea. On Saturday, I made fried chicken and potato salad to bring for our picnic the following day. I quickly learned that it's a bad idea for my family to be at home while I'm cooking fried chicken that they can not immediately eat. Daddy went ahead and took all five girls shopping for Mother's Day gifts. They were so excited to shop, they even used their own money. Kiley said it made her feel more grown up and responsible to buy her gift herself.

Sunday morning we woke up early; all five girls gave me the gifts they had been so excited to buy. I have never seen them so anxious to give me something. It was fascinating to see what each girl picked out. Kiley bought me the cutest purse. I have been saying I wanted a new one. Haley bought me a new wallet; this was such a nice treat,  because mine has been falling apart. August bought me a set of gorgeous stone and bead bracelets. Julia picked out an adorable notebook for my purse. I told her that I really liked notebooks, and she said, "that's what Daddy said when I picked it out". I could just squeeze her guts, she's so darn cute. Finally, Emily picked out a small pink lantern that holds a tea light candle. I loved it. I was so overwhelmed with the care and thought they put into the gifts they bought. I think the fact that they chose to use their own hard earned money, shows such a huge amount of love for their Mommy. Of course we would have given them money, but thy were all so excited to buy the gifts themselves, we couldn't deny them that. I can't even begin to express how utterly blessed my life is, and how completely wonderful my children are. I hope to have more some day. I love being a mommy. I can't think of anything in life that could be better.

We all went to church as a family and then headed out to the park. We met Adam's parents in downtown Sunol and drove out to Sunol Regional Park to picnic and hike. I'm bummed I forgot to take pictures of our picnic, but the 150 other pictures should make up for it. We found a nice place to lay out our picnic blankets and we ate. After we ate we were ready to hike. The weather was cooler than I was hoping for but it wasn't uncomfortable. We hiked along a trail named "Little Yosemite" It's about a 3 mile hike round trip; halfway up there is an area with rocks and waterfalls. It was quite beautiful there. On the way back we hiked along the creek. It was fast running water and the white tips were pleasing to watch.

August and Emily loved the hike especially. A brought her camera and took a bunch of pictures and Emily thought everything was, "SO BEAUTIFUL!" Julia mostly complained that she didn't like the walk. It's a little bit of work for a 5 year old. so I don't blame her. She did much better on the walk back along the creek. Adam and I took turns taking pictures. I'm so glad his mom and dad were able to come share the day with us. I love my family.

I'm adding a ridiculous amount of pictures: You've been warned.

Wait....Where did November go?

My nephews and 2 of my daughters on Thanksgiving

November just flew right on by. I haven't even had time to sit down and write a proper blog post.

We've had so many things going on........

My oldest twins celebrated their 12th birthdays earlier in the month. It's amazing to me how much different they are than I was at 12. I don't really tell them much about those years but of the few things I have said, they told me I sounded mean and needed a spanking. They are right. I told them I was such a brat I made sure they were not. They have completely different personalities than I did though. They really desire to never do the wrong thing. They would rather just avoid it all together then have to deal with a punishment. I on the other hand, was the queen of sneaking and hoping I wouldn't get caught. I am grateful to God for his grace in the children he has given me. They are such wonderful sweet girls and I surely don't deserve them.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my In-laws house. This is our usual tradition. They don't live too far but we like to spend a few days there and enjoy the family and the out of towners. Thanksgiving was wonderful as always. I love large family gatherings. I also love my husbands family. Adam spent most of the day outside frying 3 turkeys. They sure were good. We usually fry a couple and cut them up and freeze them. It's great lunch meat.

For the last 11 years I've been one of those crazy early morning Black Friday shoppers, but for some reason this year I just wasn't feeling it. My friend and I have gone together every year and usually we have a big plan and shop till we drop and then have breakfast and go home to sleep. Maybe it was the lack of money for gifts this year since we are buying a house, but none of the sales seemed very exciting. We did however go to Toys R Us at 10pm on Thanksgiving night. My 3 older girls all wanted to buy something with their money they have been saving. My mom and my usual Black Friday shopping friend also came. It was very cold waiting in line outside, and the inside of the store was complete madness. Of all the years I've gone shopping I think this was by far the worst I've seen. I've never seen the chaos that they report on the news about fights and tramplings, though I believe it. As we were waiting in line in the store (for nearly 2 hours) there were people arguing about who was in line first and how long they had already been waiting. Those behind us were complaining about how crowded and slow it was. This is annoying...It's not a regular shopping trip, and part of getting that item so cheap is waiting for hours to pay for it in the crowded hot store. The girls each got what they were wanting so that made it worth it.

My mom had a birthday right after Thanksgiving. She came out to our house and spent the day being lazy with us. We lounged around and watched a couple old movies, Anne Frank and I can't remember the other. I made dinner and Adam snuck out to get her a cake. It was a nice day. I made her an case for her flat iron so she can travel with it without wrapping it in a towel. I used this website for the instructions. It came out cute. I don't have a picture. =( sorry.

A few days before Thanksgiving we found out that we  had an offer accepted on a house. After putting in 6 or so offers we were getting discouraged. Actually, the house we got had 5 offers already on it when we put ours in. Basically the realtor told our realtor that they could show it but, it really wasn't necessary since they already had 4 cash and 1 conventional offer. We wanted to see it anyway. Of course we really liked it. It had everything we were looking for. We went ahead and submitted an offer despite the other agents comments. Lo and behold, they called us the next day and said they liked our offer. Yay! I couldn't believe it. Then again I kept telling Adam, when the right house came along it wouldn't matter about how many offers there were. All in Gods timing, not ours. It's now set to close right before Christmas. We will have to do a little work to it before we move in so we will be here in the little mobile home for about 6 to 8 more weeks. The kids are elated that they are getting a back yard. My husband is elated about his new garage and I'm just glad it's bigger than 900sq ft. Actually the kitchen has been remodeled and there are nice new cabinets and counters and I'm very excited that it's large enough to have more than 2 people in it.

Yesterday Adam got my tiny Christmas tree out of a box so I could decorate for Christmas. We are keeping all of our decor packed this year. The little tree looks so cute. I got a pack of ornaments at the dollar store it took very little time to decorate but it looks nice.

I also attempted my 2nd year to make turkey soup from the left over carcass, legs and wings. Last  years was a total flop. It was really not good. This year I  used this recipe and it was REALLY REALLY GOOD. I actually can't believe how yummy it was.

My brother in law who has been in Afghanistan is now on his way back home safely. Thank God! He and my sister are expecting their first baby in early April. I can't imagine how stressful it must be to be pregnant and have your husband over seas.

That's all for now. Have a fantastic week.

Surgery in Tennessee

After I had the little twins, 4 1/2 years ago I had a tubal ligation (tubes tied). It was a very hasty, un-researched decision. Since having this done, I have, what I feel is extreme PTLS. It took me a few years to figure out what was wrong with me. Many in the medical field do not think that PTLS is an actual problem. The treatment for it right now is antidepressants, birth control pills or a tubal reversal. The tubal reversal is not covered by insurance. PTLS is like living in a nightmare half of every month. It's one of the worst things you could imagine. I'm sure I've managed to ruin several relationships during the last 4 years because of this, and the extreme emotional psychosis it seems to cause.

About a year and a half ago I started to research the tubal reversal. I quickly learned in my state that it costs about $10,000 out of pocket for the procedure. There is no way I would ever be able to afford that. I have a friend who had a reversal done about 6-7 years ago. She told me about her Dr. and it sounded fabulous, the only thing is, I'd have to travel to Tennessee. After a little more research, I decided this was where I was going to go. I prayed a lot, since we didn't have the $6,000 or so I would need for this trip. The money was provided for me quite quickly. The power of prayer is amazing.

Last month I scheduled the appointment with Dr. Lisa Rogers at the Jackson Clinic. She took over for retired Dr. John Carlin who was a very successful Tubal Reversal Dr. The more I learned about her the more I knew this is where I was supposed to go. I was unable to find any other female Dr.s, or any others in this country who had such a low fee. She is the lowest in the entire country. She is a Christian pro-life Dr. and belongs to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Baptist Medical and Dental Fellowship.

Last Monday 9/13 my mother and I flew to Nashville, TN, and then drove another 2 hours to Jackson, where the hospital was.

My mom, in the waiting room at the Dr's office

The hospital

Me 2 days after surgery, in the rocking chair. The pain meds made it hard to open my eyes. Everywhere you went there were wooden rocking chairs to sit in. It was so cute.

More rocking chairs

Being in Tennessee was like a trip to another world. Everyone was so friendly and hospitable. It was so clean there, and the roads were nice. It seemed like all the people were dressed nice, and we didn't see junky cars. It was a very happy place. It had that family feel to it. Truthfully, I didn't want to leave, and if I could, I would move there tomorrow. There were more churches than Starbucks. At the hospital there were Bibles and devotional books in the waiting room instead of gossip magazines.

I was even more impressed with the Dr.s when I heard them praying with their patients before surgery. My Dr. even made accommodations to have only females in the operating room with me. She came to my bed before the operation and held my hand and prayed with me. It was the most wonderful hospital experience I've ever had.

The surgery took about 2 hours and then I had to recover for an hour before they would let my mom come in. For those who are going to send nasty comments about "where was your husband". I preferred my mother to come with me. He wanted to go, but sometimes a girl just needs her mom. Anyway, they had a bit of trouble getting my pain under control after I woke up, it really really hurt. I was surprised it hurt so much. They do a 4 inch incision across the bottom of your abdomen. It's no walk in the park. I was able to go back to our hotel that night after the pain was controlled. We stayed in Jackson for 2 more days and then flew back home on Friday. I got wheel chair service at the airport, which was sorta neat. We got to board the plane first.

We saw this man and his dog on a Harley, they both had helmets. It was really funny.

It's been almost a week now and I'm still moving very slow. I still have to rest a lot. My older girls have been angles helping take care of the house and the younger girls during the day. My husband has been a saint cooking dinners and serving me meals in bed. I'm a little restless not being able to do much. I still have to take the pain meds so I can't drive anywhere. I'm hoping by next week I'll be able to be semi-normal. I wont be able to help us move since I can't lift anything. I guess I'll be the director. ha ha.

Beautiful Tennessee

I wish I would have felt better so I could have seen more in Tennessee. I would love to go back someday and see more.

Me with Dr. Rogers after surgery

Now my hope is that everything will go back to normal the way God made me. I hope my PTLS symptoms will disappear and I can become human again. Thanks for your prayers.