Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A Lazy Sorta Day!

We've had one of those lay around and be lazy sorta days.

I figured that we were allowed at least one during Christmas Break.

I made some phone calls that needed to be made,

attempted to upload all the vacation pics to Flickr,

played the Game Cube,

and that was about it.

Sometimes I suppose it's good to sit back and relax.

Doesn't happen very often around here.

Always things that need to be done after the lazy day.

I figure I might as well get it all done to begin with.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Shots and teeth

What in God's green earth was I thinking?

We just home from vacation last night.

I have a week's worth of laundry to do for 11 people.

My house is a disaster after unloading the van last night.

My Mom bought us a PS2 for Christmas which was waiting for us when we arrived home.

The kids wanted to play the PS2 over unpacking.

Who wouldn't?!

I guess I had momentary lapse of judgement when I scheduled Taniyah's well baby appt for 8 am.

Where she recieved 4 shots.

The four shots that are MOST likely to cause fever and irritability.

She gets fever and irritability with the shots that are LEAST likely to cause them.

If that wasn't bad enough I ALSO scheduled Angie to get her teeth pulled.

Not 1 tooth

Not 2 teeth

BUT 4 teeth!!

4 teeth that are so infected that the local anestethic didn't want to numb her up.

And of course her dental is to cheap to pay for anything else.

Next time I decide to do something like this would somebody please kick me!!

I Spy


We had a LONG drive through the desert and we were staying out in the desert so this is what we saw a lot of.

My children decided that the perfect game to play on the trip was "I Spy".

Now is it just me or does anybody else see a problem between this picture and "I Spy"? This is what it looked like on both sides of the road and then the road stretched out for miles.

So what did they come up with to "Spy"?

Brush, grass, dead grass, power lines, sand, rocks, the road, the lines on the road, the reflectors on the road. You get the idea!! Needless to say it wasn't hard to get through the list!

Monday, December 26, 2005

Back From Vacation

We got back from vacation today. We had a great time in Arizona but it was definetly good to be home.

One week in a two bedroom cabin with 9 kids is enough to test anybodies sanity!!

I have blog entries to add to the blog from vacation as well as more pictures but I have to replace my CD-rom drive in my computer. I burned everything from Rod's laptop. It would have been the perfect plan if the CD part of my computer hadn't decided to go caput on me.

Tomorrow I will have to buy a new one so that I can upload those photos and entries.

I uploaded a few photos to FLickr though.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Happy 10th Anniversary

10 years ago today Rod and I were married. We were married at the kitchen table of a minister that we found in the paper. I was 6 weeks pregnant with our daughter Brayana and we decided that we should welcome this baby into the world with a mother and father who were married. We were married but not necessarily committed to each other. It was to be more a marriage of convience than anything else.

Neither one of our parents knew that we were married. My Mom found out on Dec 23rd when we went to visit her in Oregon. She saw my ring and asked what it was!! She didn't even know that Rod was there!!! I asked if she wanted to meet her son-in-law. She said she could she was in her pajamas. He said the same thing!!

Rod's parents didn't find out until after the new year. He was going home for New Years and his Mom told him not to come home if he was married. He went home and just didn't tell her that he was married!! After he got back she called and wanted to know when he was going to "make things right" by getting married. He told her that he already was.

That first year was rough. We were so young and certainly NOT ready to be married, let alone old enough to be expecting a first baby. We were not in love with each other but felt that we needed to "put up with each other" for the benifit of our child. We spoke often of divorce that first year and often went out on dates with other people.

As my belly started to grow things started to change. I started thinking differently about this person that I called my husband. I had obviously liked him prior to getting married but I don't think that we were truely "in love" with each other. It's sad to think back to that first year. To think about all of the things that we missed.

I have to say that God knew what he was doing. He took something Rod and I could have easily messed up and he started to work on our conscience. When I was pregnant with Brayana Rod met a guy who was cleaning windows at a store that he was going into. They exchanged numbers. Ron and Glo were a great couple who, even if they didn't realize it, became mentors to Rod and I. They invited us to come to their church. As we started going to church things between us started to change. I started seeing Rod as the husband that God wanted me to have, not just the person who shared my apartment and bed with. I started falling in love with him. He on the other hand was not so easily convinced!

Rod was young and didn't want to become held down. He still wanted to become single and felt that I was trying to trap him. He bought divorce papers from the local office supply store but he couldn't file them as 1) we were broke and 2)we had a child which made him unable to do the papers himself. Once again God was in control!

I know that God was working in Rod's heart as I prayed for him and for us. We became closer and were falling in love with each other. I still remember the first time that Rod said "I love you" and felt that he really meant it! I cried as I believed that the words that he said were true.

At 5 years Rod and I reflected on the fact that we had made it to 5 years. Nobody that knew us then believed that we would make it that far. Rod and I didn't even believe it ourselves. But we had made it and we had worked hard on getting to that point.

7 years and thankfully neither of us experienced the seven year itch. I think we got it out of our system at the beginning!!

Now here we are at 10 years!! We have come so far and looking back it's hard to believe that we have made it to where we are. So much in our lives have changed. God has blessed us with 7 wonderful children plus the privelege of caring for the numerous foster children that have come through our home. I can't imagine spending my life with anybody else. I miss him when he's at work. Our life is full and we are full of love for each other. God is certainly faithful. He has placed many people into our lives as examples and mentors -Dennis and Julie, John and Liz, Betty and Roger, John and Cindy, Joe and Linda,my Mom and Keith, Rod's parents. I thank each of you for being the couple that God has made you to be and for being an example to me.

I thank God for the husband that God gave to me and for many, many more years together!!

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Off to vacation

We will be leaving on Monday to go camping. We will be renting a two bedroom cabin on the lake and will there for a week. That's were we will be spending Christmas. We figured that since Rod won't be here next year at Christmas we would spend it together as a family. This is also only one of two times that the kids are all out of school at the same time before he leaves in July. I will have lots of pictures to share I hope when I get back. I hope that everyone has a very Merry CHRISTmas this year.