more pictures

The boys' room. Yup, all four boys in one room, it's working quite well!
Part of the living room.
Standing up girl!!
Cowboy Sam, he found that hat at the rummage sale and absolutely loves it!
a little of our kitchen.

Pictures...as requested

Our room!

the girls' room! The other walls are the purple and blue that you see in the big blobby thing.

A favorite spot of mine. You can see this when you walk in our door.

There's still lots to paint but we're very happy with what we've done so far!

Quick Update

For those of you waiting for word on our life, I apologize profusely. It has been an adventure since the moment we arrived at our new home. There was a fierce storm with extremely high winds, we needed to cover the 45' cattle trailer so our stuff wouldn't get blown full of snow. The only tarp dad had on hand was a huge thing to cover a bin - it's about the size of a large parachute. Between dad, mom, Kelly, the two boys and myself we finally managed it but it was NOT easy.

We've been working hard at getting our house settled, painting, trying to get started farming, running back and forth to the city to finish up the music business stuff, getting the kids settled in school and trying to do all the ordinary stuff. Oh yeah, and start a youth ministry in the meantime.

Kelly had the opportunity to be a chaperone at the 24 hour World Vision famine that the SRC at the school was running - that was cool. Tonite we had our first big youth event - it went very well. We've been to the big town rummage sale, eaten at the town restaurant and have a local Co-op #. KElly even got his first farmer hat today! We've bought chemicals and sprayed a couple of fields. We also have grower contracts for chick-peas and Camelina - an oil seed with Omega 3 and 6 in it.

Boy #2 and Girl #1 are doing really well at school. Boy #3 had a couple of trial days to see if they could push him ahead to grade 1 - the teacher decided he wasn't ready (mommy wasn't either!).
We are still homeschooling Boy #1 for the rest of this year.

OUr first family night was a walk out to the big slough to see the birds. Hundreds of birds stop through our farm on their way north. They are very loud. We get swans, eagles, snow geese, Canada Geese, snowy owls, great horned owls, blue herons, robins, sparrows and crows. The boys enjoy looking for different kinds of feathers.

Kelly preached his first sermon as pastor-on-duty. OUr house-warming party is on Sunday night. and.........WE HAVE A NEW NIECE ON THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Bill and Tamara are expecting to pick up their little girl on Thursday this next week. She is just a couple of months older than Princess Peanut. We're all very excited!

I've only had a few meltdowns, but thanks to Harden & Huyse chocolate I've managed to pull through. It still feels a little like we're on an extended visit to mom and dad's house, the weirdness factor is still pretty high. We've gotten three bedrooms painted so far and some decorating loveliness has taken place which is helping things feel more like home.

That's all for now, need to get to bed!

I HATE MICE

Possibly my last post from this physical location. I am surrounded by boxes and boxes and more boxes.

Last night my husband and I realized that we're beginning to get a little viscious and vindictive toward those rodents that are co-habitating with us. I told my kids a grisly tale of death as a bedtime story - that's what ya get when you ask me to tell you a story about mice. Later we sat quietly sipping tea when we heard Mickey dancing in the oven drawer. We went, weapons in hand but I think we only hurt him a little - RATS! Then that little thing crawled out from underneath the couch, ran across the floor to the safety of the other couch and had the nerve to peek out at us from over there. THEN, my husband gets large heavy objects and is prepared to drop them and make mouse pancakes. This is not conducive to have a quiet evening tea time.

So just in case you missed it...I HATE MICE!!! okay, gotta go and make the next to last meal in this house. Wowzers, did ya know we're moving?

the last few days

The last few days have been a roller coaster ride of emotions. I performed my last services as a leader at Hope - leading communion - what a sweet way to go. The ladies retreat was wonderful and difficult at the same time. I couldn't stop weeping for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I felt like I was carrying other people's burdens, another time I was weeping for the losses coming up, and at other times feeling the pain of people I love at odds with each other. I came home tired and drained in a good way.

This morning was back to packing and cleaning. I've been amazed at how my kids have been rolling with this. I haven't been all that available to them, at least, not as much as usual and they've been doing pretty well. Today the garage started cleaning out - three loads have already gone to the dump. THREE, I can hardly believe there was that much crap in there, okay, acutally I can believe it. It wasn't even all ours. But it won't be coming along!!! Yippee! Only a few more days before we head down there and paint and put in floors as fast as we physically can. Our days in the city can be counted on one hand. wow.

Tonite, my wonderful husband took me shopping with his first paycheque as a pastor. He let me get whatever I wanted (within reason of course). I felt like a queen! I got three new shirts, a pair of shoes, and bras - wonderful, new, non-nursing pretty bras! I got shirts and shoes for my girls - so fun! And school supplies for the kiddos going into school in two weeks. We even found pants for him on a clearance rack that are new! We have not really shopped for clothing that we didn't absolutely need for a number of years - it was quite an experience. God has so faithfully supplied everything we've needed for these years in the desert. We feel a little like we're moving into the promised land.

I had to get up close and personal with the fact that I am being stripped of all that I've ever known and done and am getting a whole new portfolio. This should be interesting and will most likely supply good fodder for writing material. I'm okay with it but a little fearful, too. I'm looking forward to God painting me a new picture to look at.