What's up in Scrivnerburg

January 29, 2012

2012-01-29T22:16:00.001-07:00

(This was supposed to post to my 365 blog, but I sent it here by mistake. I decided to leave it.)

I made Stuffed Wheat Bread for the church potluck today. Apparently it was okay - we didn't get to bring any home.

Blessings:
1. A great joint church service.
2. A nap with a boy. I love it when one of my kids wants to nap with me.
3. Health and safety. I have heard some heart-wrenching stories over the last few days. I pray for the affected families, and I thank God that my family is okay.
4. Music. God's music.
5. A new week. We get to start a whole, brand-new one!

It’s a crafty Saturday!

2012-01-14T15:03:00.001-07:00

The kids are all outside (except for Dale, who is playing with Little Man), so it’s the perfect time to get my craft on! I’ve been busy today. I started off by making a rice bag – I made one for Felice’s husband for Christmas, and he would like another one (one for each knee), so I needed to get that done.

Then I moved on to a project I’ve been wanting to make for a while – a little diaper and wipes case. I’d rather not take the whole diaper bag every time I need to do a quick diaper change, so here’s my nifty new case!

Then I decided to make a headband for Kristi that would match the skirt I made for her yesterday. I’ll show you the whole ensemble tomorrow (she’ll wear both for church), but for now here’s the headband.

And finally, I got tired of fighting with my tiny little pincushion, so I decided to make a larger one that wouldn’t move all over the place. I like the idea of the mason jars with pincushion tops, but I didn’t want it to take up that much space. What I decided to do is use an old mason jar lid and make the pincushion the same way (as the ones in the link), but instead of using it to top a jar, I turned it upside down, put sand in the now-upside-down lid, then hot glued cork to the bottom of the ring. Now I had a weighted pincushion! I thought it needed a bit more “oomph” though, so I hot glued buttons around the ring just for the fun of it. (Sorry for the blurry shot – these are all cell phone pictures.)

Here’s a peek at the bottom.

Whew! I’m exhausted! Well…that might be an overstatement. I’m just ready to move on to something else…like boys’ haircuts. (Not nearly as much fun as crafting!)

What do YOU eat on New Year’s Day?

2012-01-02T13:08:00.001-07:00

We tried something new this time – bacon pancakes!

The kids think we should do this every Sunday!

Happy New 2012

2012-01-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

Welcome to 2012! I’m sure this is going to be an amazing year!

As I’ve done the last two years, I took some pictures of the kids today just to see how they’re changing from year to year. We were without Rose and Virginia today, but I’ll get shots of them soon.

Here is today’s collection of kiddos…

Just for comparison, here is last year’s…

And 2010…

I think Kristi and Caleb have changed the most. I think I’ll start a collection of these collages on my hallway wall. I just love them!

P.S. For those who don't know my family, two of the girls in the previous years' collages are not actually mine - they just spend the majority of their free time here. The older girl in the 2011 collage is our 18-year-old daughter who moved out of Scrivnerburg in 2011.

I have to show off a few gifts

2011-12-31T20:09:00.001-07:00

I made a lot of our Christmas gifts this year, and I had to wait until after Christmas to show them off, but now I can! Well…as long as Jenny and Phil don’t let the kids peek at my blog. They haven’t gotten their gifts yet.
I made hedgehogs for Rose and Virginia. This one is Virginia’s – he’s the only one available for a portrait.

This is the pattern I used for the hedgehogs.
This happy hippo is for one of my grandsons. I just finished him, and I think he’s adorable!

This is the hippo pattern.
And here’s Oink – a piglet for my granddaughter.

Click here for Oink’s pattern.
I made a bunch of other things, too…but they will have to wait for another post. My 6yo has asked for a cuddle, so it’s time for a cuddle!

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Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T09:01:00.001-07:00

Scrivnerburg hopes you had a wonderful Christmas day. We were busy ALLLLLLLL day long, but it was a great day. As expected, there is never a boring moment on Christmas day in Scrivnerburg. All the kids were thrilled with their gifts, and everything went exactly as it should have. A perfect day.

It started VERY early – 6 am – so we had time to open gifts before getting ready for church.

Kristi loved her Fur-Real Pet! The dog’s name is now Foofoo, and Kristi and Foofoo are very happy together.

Nathan and Andrew are thrilled with their gifts, too – a Nintendo DS game and a remote control Spy Car.

After opening gifts at home we had breakfast and headed off for church. Our pastor wanted us to dress up as our favorite Nativity character, so the kids all had costumes…

Kristi was Mary, Caleb was Joseph, and the other boys were wise men.

Our pastor was a camel (with Austin on his back), and Felice was a star – this shot doesn’t show her star, but it was awesome! Pastor used all the kids in their costumes to help tell the story of Jesus’ birth. It was a great way to remind us of the reason for Christmas!

After church we went home for a few minutes – just to sit down for a sec – and then we headed to Nana’s for gifts and dinner.

There were a few gifts at Nana’s house. Of course, these did have to be parted out among 19 people…but it still turned out to be a LOT of gifts for everyone!

The kids had so much fun tearing into everything!

And the adults had so much fun watching them!

All that chaos was followed by a great meal and fun conversation – which was probably followed by numerous naps! I never took one, but I would be willing to bet I was one of the only adults who skipped that part.

Now it’s on to the clean-up…

Two posts in two days!?!

2011-12-23T15:47:00.001-07:00

We’ve been having Christmas fun around here again! We’re making cookies for the neighbors. Kristi, Austin, and Caleb mixed two different types of cookies, and then Nathan, Rose, Virginia, Clara and Ken helped put them on the stones for baking. All the kids helped wrap the cookie tins (formerly formula cans) too. Can you tell?

We managed to get almost everyone involved in this cookie process!

School’s out for Christmas break!

2011-12-22T21:43:00.001-07:00

We have made it through our first few months of homeschooling! We are done for 2011. I can’t believe how quickly it has gone! I’ve mentioned before that we have people who come in to help us with the kids’ reading – they have been such a blessing to us. I’m sure that’s why the year has gone so quickly and so well – the 5 people we have who come in at least once a week to listen to our kids read.

To thank them, and to start off our Christmas break we decided to have a Christmas party. We put on some Christmas music, decorated ice cream cone Christmas trees, and gave our helpers gifts. Here are some photos of our party.

Scrivnerburg Academy Christmas Party 2011

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These were our gifts for the school helpers.

Once the party was over Ken and I parted out our kids (thank you Nana and Liner family!) and headed off to Great Falls for a meeting regarding Little Man. And I thought Scrivnerburg was busy before! We took these shots while we were off on our two-day adventure.

(Holiday Inn, Great Falls – this fountain is huge. I was on the 3rd floor when I took this picture. The bear is life-size – and it’s all festive!)

Little Man enjoyed the nice, comfy, king-sized bed. I enjoyed it too, because I was able to share it with two “boys” and not get shoved off the bed!

At our meeting we found out that the state will be taking the next necessary step in making Little Man a permanent part of our family. We are so excited! We still have a wait ahead of us, but at least we know which direction they’re moving now. We can’t wait for it all to be done!

Here are a couple shots taken from the truck on the way home. It was a good trip, and the roads weren’t bad.

It was pretty blowy on the way back. That ghosty look is snow blowing across the road.

What a crazy-busy week this has been! Now I’d better get off this computer and finish up some of my Christmas preparations!

Be sure to check back for another update after Christmas – something tells me our Christmas will not be boring.

Scrivnerburg has been BUSY!

2011-12-16T21:47:00.001-07:00

Zowie, Howie have we been busy! We’ve been schooling, working, playing, and some of us have been handcrafting Christmas gifts. It has been a very fast fall/early winter. I would love to show you some of the things we’ve been working on so hard, but I don’t want to give anything away, so the photos will have to wait until after Christmas.

To catch up a bit… We had a lovely Thanksgiving – great food, fun fellowship, lots of pie. I think everyone enjoyed it.

(part of our Thanksgiving table décor)

We have been enjoying school. One of my favorite parts about homeschooling is the funny, funny, funnies my kids inadvertently come up with.

Test review question: Who was the general commanding 8,000 men who was sent against Quebec?
"Oh! I know - General James Bond!"
Preparing for a test at Scrivnerburg Academy:
Mom - "What two materials were used to make linsey-woolsey fabric?"
Nathan - "Wool."
Mom - "And...?"
Kristi - "Wildcat."
...
Mom - "Okay - what material was used for the 'LINSEY' part of 'linsey-woolsey?"
3 kids - "Thread."
(at the same time) Austin - "Eisenberg."
"I hate these poems! They're so 'not-make-sensey!'"
Kristi - "Mom! 36+46=82!"
Mom - "Yes! Hey - 27+34=61!"
Kristi - "Yep." then she walks away as if we just had the most insightful discussion. Funny girl.

Christmas break is coming up fast. To be honest, I’m looking forward to a whole bunch of days without school. But I can’t believe we’ve made it almost halfway through the school year already! I feel like we’re really accomplishing something! We have several helpers who come and read with the kids, and that is such a blessing. I think the kids are really making progress, and all of the helpers seem to enjoy working with them. So far it’s been a great situation for all of us.

Here’s one more photo just to tide you over until I can share my Christmas crafts…Little Man in his Christmas finery – sorta.

Scrivnerburg Academy’s first field trip

2011-10-17T23:06:00.001-06:00

We took the kids to Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge for a field trip today. We wanted to look at different trees and talk about the fall changes. It was a great time!

It was gorgeous out there today – lovely fall colors.

Here’s another shot of the views…such a lovely place!

Okay…last one of the colors…

The kids had so much fun investigating…

Dale was taking bark rubbings for part of his Science assignment – and fighting to get out of the trees…

Everyone had fun on our field trip. We’re going to go back in the spring and see what’s new!

A headband kinda day!

2011-10-14T17:48:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a headband kinda day for Kristi! I saw this cute, easy braided headband on Pinterest recently and decided to make a couple. I made one for me, and then made one with a flower for Kristi. Here is hers…

By the way, I liked Kristi’s braided headband with the flower so much that I added a flower to mine!

Then we got a wonderful surprise in the mail! A box came from Doll Face Designs! The owner, Samara, is a friend of mine, and she sent this lovely gift just because. I can not tell you how much I love this headband! She makes some really lovely pieces – check out her site!

Stay tuned to see more wonderful goodies we received from Doll Face Designs!

Talk about being busy!

2011-10-11T08:31:00.001-06:00

I don’t know how time slips away from me so fast! Well, I do know – we started school. Homeschooling, working, parenting, and lifing (Live Writer says that’s not a word, but it is now!) takes up a lot of time!

Little Man is growing and getting cuter and more interactive every day. I still can’t show you more than bits and pieces, but here’s my favorite, recent foot shot…

I had to laugh about this one - Little Man LOVES trees, but Nana's back yard is short on trees, so Dale asked Austin to go get a twig with some leaves. THIS is what Austin brought back from allllll the way off in the background. Dale waved this branch of leaves over Little Man for a loooonnng time. My boys are so funny.

Here is a cell phone panorama of our classroom. (Click the little arrows to move the scene.) This setup seems to be working out well, and we’re actually all enjoying homeschooling!

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Fancy asked me to take some pictures of her and her boyfriend, Damian. I needed to do some light testing, so I asked Caleb to help me out. He’s so funny…no boring light tests for him!

He’s such a ham…

I did finally get a shot of just Fancy and Damian…

I’ll have to just post this and come back for more updates…I hope that will be sooner than a month!

Why Homeschooling?

2011-09-11T18:19:00.001-06:00

As we prepare to start our first year homeschooling six kids, I find myself explaining our reasons over and over. Many people – while supportive of our decision – think we're crazy to take on SIX students AND a new baby. It sounds a bit crazy to me too, but I just keep telling myself that it will be important family time. Because the kids needs some quality time with us before we completely lose our minds.

We haven’t explained all of our reasons to the kids because…well…kids have a tendency to share too much information with their friends, and people get offended. We’ve essentially just said, “We think home will be a better environment for our kids.” Since we haven’t explained it all to them, I decided to find out what their impressions were. I found it interesting. The question was, “Why are we homeschooling this year?” Here are their answers:

Austin: Because we’re not allowed to talk about God.
Kristi: Because it’s more easier for school.
Nathan: Because we had problems last year.
Andrew: Because we had problems. (further clarification – bullying problems)
Caleb: Because… I don’t know. I don’t have a lot of thoughts right now.
Dale: Because we don’t like the school.

The true reasons vary from child to child, but (despite what Nathan and Andrew seem to think) none of the reasons have to do with misbehavior on our children’s part. We want to keep Dale and Andrew out of the mess that is junior high. The unkind kids they dealt with in sixth grade tend to become just plain mean by the time they’re in 7th and 8th grade, and those kids are particularly awful to special kids. Austin and Kristi both need shorter school days – they get so worn out that they can’t attend to school by the time lunch is over. We’re hoping homeschool will decrease the sensory input and make it easier for them to stay focused on their work without being exhausted. Nathan needs a different style of learning. He needs activity and hands-on learning – sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher just doesn’t do it for him. Caleb has always wanted to be homeschooled – he found the “crowds” in preschool to be overwhelming – a full classroom would be even more so. All in all, homeschooling just makes sense to us, and allows us the opportunity to teach them about God as we teach them about His world.

Nathan was playing with the self-timer on the camera – taking self-portraits. When you don’t have a brother around to give you rabbit ears I guess you just have to do it yourself!

I’ll try to keep you updated as the year progresses – it will be an interesting experience, I’m sure! As I’ve said before, there’s never a boring moment in Scrivnerburg!

Warp Speed!

2011-09-08T17:36:00.001-06:00

Can someone explain to me how Little Man got to be 3 months old already? We were just bringing him home last week! He is growing and gaining skills every day. His current favorite game is kicking at his toy bar. I think I might even have a video…

Fancy got a job at Bitterroot Valley Ammunition & Components – full-time. I think she’s excited about having a “real” job, but the reality is not all fun and games. Standing on one’s feet all day, doing dirty work for 8 solid hours is HARD! She’s also very excited about the money she’ll be making – does anyone else think she’s going to have a rude awakening when the bills are all paid? I can already hear it… “I made a thousand dollars this month – why do I only have $7 left?”

I’ve been spending most of my “free” time moderating a group on Facebook – Oh, Shoot! It’s a group of amateur, hobby, and professional photographers, and we’ve been having a lot of fun with photo games, photo sharing, and daily challenges. If you would like to see what I’ve posted there you can peek at some of them here - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.263862300296499&type=1.

Okay…it’s time to get the store bought lasagna and garlic bread on the table. Thanks for stopping by!

I’m sorry it’s been such a long time

2011-08-28T23:02:00.001-06:00

I certainly did not intend to let almost a month pass between blog posts! It seems that this year has been “January, February, March, April, May, Little Man, September…” I just can’t believe how quickly the last 3 months have passed.

We had a busy summer without as much family fun as we would have liked, but we have tried to get some activities in this month. We’ve been to the river a couple times…

That sure has felt good on the hot, hot days we’ve been having. Last week we finally got to go camping for 2 days. It was a quick trip just up the road, but it was fun. It was definitely needed! I read once that the family that camps together, stays together…I don’t know how true it is, but we sure do enjoy camping together.

Camping at Bass Creek

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We are getting ready to start the school year. We will be homeschooling the kids this year, and they’re a bit sad that they’ll miss out on the brand new school building, but excited about the changes. I’m eager to get started and get a rhythm going.

Life is Scrivnerburg would not be normal if things weren’t constantly changing… A couple of our recent changes include Fancy returning home from Indiana – she’s bunking with Kristi and looking for a job – and Ken beginning a night shift position at the local grocery store. He’s never worked night shift as a regular job before, so none of us were really looking forward to this change, but it seems to be working out okay. He likes the work and the people he works with, and the schedule isn’t wreaking too much havoc on our family. It’s been a blessing to have him working, for sure, and I’m very thankful for a man that is willing to work such icky hours for his family.

Little Man is growing and gaining skills every day. He’s the happiest, smiliest, talkingest baby I’ve ever had in my care. He’s just adorable, and all the kids love him! They vie for the chance to hold him, and whine when they don’t get chosen to feed him. This Little Man is definitely going to grow up believing he’s loved.

That’s all I have the energy for tonight, but I’ll try to post a little more often. Thanks for stopping by!

How can July be over already?

2011-07-31T19:44:00.001-06:00

Wasn’t it just June 6? I think the time since June 6 got lost in a time warp. June and July just passed waaaaay too quickly!

On July 16 my wonderful in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. To commemorate that amazing milestone we planned a surprise party for them including a surprise visit from their youngest son and his family, and a book of photos and messages that brought back many memories of the 50 years. The party was a success even if my prayers for cooler weather were answered a bit more thoroughly than we expected (thunderstorm, heavy wind, chilly evening). John and Barbara were surprised and pleased. The party was followed by a wonderful week-long visit with Jerry (their youngest son) and his family. Here are a few photos from that party.

John and Barb's 50th anniversary

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During that week that Jerry and Evelyn were here we also had the opportunity to visit with a cousin of Ken and Jerry’s, along with her family who were traveling through from Arizona. None of the Scrivners had seen this cousin in 23 years. It was a fun afternoon with them, and the kids had fun at the park.

Visiting with the Wolff family

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Since that fun and exciting week life has been just normally busy. I hardly picked up a camera at all, except for some cell phone shots of Little Man, and some flower shots at Mom’s house. (You can check those out on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.261719297177466&type=1 – if that link works.) Today I decided it was time to really use my camera, so I went outside and took pictures of everyone that was around my yard. We had friends, family, bikes, and HEAT. I didn’t get a shot of the heat, but it was HOT! Everyone was gathering under the maple trees because it was so much better under their shade. It was even better in the air conditioned house though! I won’t complain about the heat – it took a long time for it to get here, and I’m glad to finally get it!

Quick Little Man update:
He’s growing like a weed! He’s eating well, only waking once at night, and doing all the normal 2-month-old things…smiling, laughing, flirting, sleeping, pooping, staring, grabbing…so, essentially, he’s perfect! You will be able to catch glimpses of bits and pieces of him in the photos here.

How can July be over already?

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So now I’m caught up…I’ll try to be more faithful in the coming weeks.

I loved this idea for a post…

2011-07-13T21:59:00.001-06:00

My amazing friend Nancy posted a wonderful blog today of things she learned. Not only is her post entertaining and insightful, but it was inspiring! I liked the concept so much that I decided to figure out what I’ve learned today.

Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to mind was referenced in my last post – I’m not as young as I used to be. When I slip and fall I can’t bounce right back up and keep on truckin’ like the kids can.
When maple drippies coat the plywood ramp, and torrential rains pour down on it, it becomes like Pledge on hardwood.
Twelve-year-old boys can’t stop themselves from laughing – even when they know they shouldn’t.

I also learned:

Austin can clean the table when he wants to.
I love the sound of rain on my new hat.
I’m not as good with change as I like to think I am.
- I’m really struggling with getting rid of our satellite tv service
- I hate hate hate that my favorite burger place is moving to the “big city.”
I used to own a Kindle. I do believe it is now my husband’s Kindle. (Does this mean he now has to buy me an iPad?)
I’m too tired these days to think about what I’ve learned on any given day. In fact, I’m so tired the room is spinning. ‘Night!

Life is so busy around here!

2011-07-13T21:41:00.001-06:00

We have so many things going on these days! Baby feeding, me working, Ken working, baby cuddling, kids’ appointments, baby feeding, plans for family activities, baby cuddling, people visiting (the baby, I’m sure), baby feeding, housework, more appointments, more feeding, more cuddling…

(This close-up makes Little Man look bigger than he is – he actually weighs somewhere around 9.5 lbs, and is probably 21-22 inches long.) He’s really not very big, but he’s growing well! At his well child check last week he had gained 14 ounces in 14 days. Whoohoo, Little Man!

He’s still waking up 2-3 times (at least) a night, so I’m not getting nearly as much sleep as my body and brain would like. I just keep reminding myself that I’ve made it through this 4 times before, so I can handle this. The only problem with that is that myself always responds with “you were younger then.” Whiner.

Dale is turning out to be a great babysitter for Little Man. He is a natural with a tiny infant – he isn’t afraid to carry him around or change his diapers. That is such a help to me! The other kids love to hold him, but most of them are very stiff and awkward with such a little person. I’m sure they’ll be more comfortable when he’s not so fragile.

I am so thankful for all the blessings that friends and family have bestowed upon Little Man and our family. He is completely outfitted now, thanks to the generosity of so many people. I also discovered Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program! Yay! We can subscribe to have things like diapers sent to us on a schedule, and we get a discount on them. It’s a great deal for someone like me who lives near the boonies and can’t get to a discount store easily. And I discovered that the price was actually less than I could get in Missoula, anyway (as far as I could tell from home). Whoohoo! Convenience and savings! I love it!

Okay…I must get on with making dinner. These kids like to eat. A lot. Tonight I think they’ll have bread and water. I don’t have the energy for anything more complicated than that.

Oh – and one more picture, just because I love my son’s fashion sense…

(For my long-time followers – I apologize that all my photos these days are cell phone snaps – I promise that I will pick the big, bad 7d up again soon.)

Oh, and an update – Ken has suggested that we toast the bread so the kids have toast and water. Variety, you know.

A Welcome Home Baby Party!

2011-07-04T09:05:00.001-06:00

My fabulous friend Felice threw a party for Little Man! She invited my church friends and work friends and friends-friends, and it was wonderful! (Gotta love Facebook connections!) I am so thankful to have so many people who are supportive and encouraging – all of you make this journey so much easier than it could be!

Here is our lovely hostess…

Everyone needs a friend like this woman. She’s the best!

The only game we “played” was “Pass the Baby.” It was great game except that some people didn’t really want to pass him on! He’s so sweet and cuddly – we had to remind people that it was “pass” the baby and not just “hold” the baby.

Felice made her wonderful crab puffs, and there were other great goodies including these pretty and delicious red, white, and blue brownies.

Of course there were gifts…these are adorable little socks that look like athletic shoes. I love them!

(These, of course, were from the ShoeDiva Felice.)

Here are the ladies of Scrivnerburg – I just loved this shot because it has me, my youngest daughter, my mother, and my mother-in-love in one photo. It also has Little Man, so I had to put a heart over his face.)

It was a wonderful time. Thank you, everyone! Your thank you notes will be in the mail tomorrow!

Finally home!

2011-07-04T07:50:00.001-06:00

How can two short weeks seem so long? The time between finding out about our new Little Man and bringing him home seemed so very long in terms of getting him into our house, but so short when you think of preparing for a new baby. It was a crazy, hectic, stressful time, but we all survived it, and we got the Little Man home to Scrivnerburg. Although I’ve seen him get overstimulated on several occasions, he handled the first evening of chaos quite well. All the kids wanted to see him…touch him…hold him, and Grandma and Felice came over to visit him, so there was a lot of activity. He got the hiccups (an indicator of overstimulation) but he never fussed acted stressed. Whew! This place overstimulates me at times, so it must have really been something to a new person who had rarely encountered more than one person at a time.

To be honest, I barely remember that first week at home. I know we had WIC and doctor appointments and they both told us he’s doing great. I’m pretty sure I fed the family and did some work. And I got up at night. I think it was 27 times a night. Or something like that. June 21-28 it just hazy to me. If I said or did anything strange, rude, or ridiculous during that time please chalk it up to sleep deprivation.

We didn’t suddenly start sleeping after the 28th, but I have started feeling a bit more human. Little Man has started taking more food at each feeding, so he does sleep a little longer, and he’s much more content to just lay and look around now, so I can doze even if he’s awake. I’m still not getting more than a total of 5.5-6 hours of sleep each night, but it must be better quality sleep, because I don’t feel quite so addled this week.

Stay tuned for the baby shower report!

Sorry!

2011-06-28T09:16:00.001-06:00

It has been brought to my attention that I have been neglecting this blog. This time I have a perfectly valid reason though – brand new baby + work + large family = exhaustion. Last night I got almost 6 hours of sleep (total) – I think that’s the first time that’s happened since we found out about our Little Man.

Let me back up to the last weekend in the NICU…

I left for Great Falls late Friday morning, and made my first longish car trip alone in over 23 years! It isn’t a very long trip – it only took me about 3.5 hours, but I haven’t driven that distance alone since Ken and I were “dating” long-distance. It was a great drive – quiet, pretty and not too long. I arrived at the NICU shortly after he’d eaten, so I just gowned up and cuddled him for a while. He seemed to be happy with that arrangement – in fact, even in his sleep, when I walked in and spoke to him he turned his face toward me. He knew it was Mama.

I was able to spend the whole weekend rooming in with him in that fabulous NICU. I went out and about over the course of the weekend – Old Navy looking for cute baby clothes, Michael’s for yarn for a hat and booties, Goodwill to see what they had…but then I just came back and hung out in the NICU. Between Little Man’s feedings I was able to watch movies in the parent lounge, Skype with the kids in the waiting area, enjoy sunsets, grab a snooze in the recliner… That NICU is just amazing.

Saturday morning Little Man decided that the medical professionals were taking too long in deciding to remove his ng tube, so he just went ahead and did it. He had been getting just enough by mouth for about 18 hours, so they decided to leave the tube out and see how he did. We decided to let him eat on demand (rather than the scheduled 3-hour plan), and see if he got all his required formula in that way. It took a bit of coaxing because his energy would run out, but he did it! Late Saturday they told me that unless something changed in the wrong way, he would go home Monday morning. Whoohoo!

Little Man kept up his end of the bargain and met his goals all weekend, so as soon as all the appropriate people cleared him (dr., social workers, nurses with their paperwork), we were sprung from the “Big House” and allowed to head home to Scrivnerburg! Of course, after the two of us had spent so much time in that NICU room it took 3 trips to get all of our stuff out of the hospital. But then we were off!

The trip home was not quite as fun as the trip over. I was exhausted from waking several times a night and spending close to an hour tending to Little Man. I discovered that Little Man doesn’t like the car seat, also. When he wasn’t sleeping, he was fussing – the first time he’d been fussy in alllllllll the days I’d known him. Too bad, Little Man – seatbelts will be a way of life for you soon. We had to stop in the middle of nowhere for him to eat. Apparently “the middle of nowhere” was in the midst of some military operation – I had seen a few military police vehicles after leaving Great Falls, and then I saw a convoy that included several more. When I finally found a pullout to stop and feed the starving baby there was a military police truck stopped at the same pullout. He watched me very carefully – I wanted to offer to let him change the poopy diaper, but I thought it might create an incident, so I didn’t. Chemical warfare or something. After I left that pullout I saw several more military vehicles and that one that had been in the pullout followed me for about 5 miles. Weirdness. I did see two fenced satellite/antenna sites that looked military-ish, and the MP who was following me turned around at one of them. I guess I just happened to pop in on an interesting day in the middle of nowhere.

We had to make a couple more stops – I had to take a snooze for a few minutes, and he needed to eat again – but we finally got back to Scrivnerburg just before dinner time. Whew! Everyone was so excited to see us, and we were very happy to be home! Little Man managed to get through the admiration from the family (including Grandma and Felice) without too much stress, and we were finally able to relax a bit.

More to come…

The Little Man is growing!

2011-06-18T00:06:00.001-06:00

Our Little Man is getting bigger and stronger! He has taken at least 5 full feedings from the bottle today, and possibly 6. His suck is so much more effective, and he’s guzzling right through the first half of each feeding. Yay, Little Man! I’m back over in the big city to hang out with him for the weekend. I’m really hopeful that he’ll keep up this good work and get himself kicked out of the NICU quickly!

One of the great things about being on the plains is the sunsets. The mountains in Western Montana create some beautiful views and colors too, but not like the ones that show up out here where there’s so much open space. I wish I could keep my eyes open enough at sunrise to catch that too. For some reason I haven’t managed to catch a single sunrise while I’m over here – could it be the fact that I’m getting up every 3 hours to spend an hour with Little Man? Hmmm…

We had to come home.

2011-06-15T22:44:00.001-06:00

I know it had to happen. The kids needed us, the caregivers needed a break, there were things to do at home…I know, I know. But it was so hard to leave Little Man there and come 199 miles back home! My brain has remained over there all week. Of course I’ve called a couple times each day to check on him, find out about his feeds and weight, etc…but it’s still so hard to be here when he’s there!

We had a good report today – he had a couple good feedings yesterday, and then all through the night and morning he did well. He only had one tube (gavage) feeding on his night nurse’s shift. That was awesome! I am hoping that when I call again I will hear that he seems to have left the gavage feedings behind!

Today I’ve had 3 different (non-medical) people tell me that they believe he will be coming home Saturday. I so hope that’s true! I can’t wait to have him here. It will be exhausting, frustrating, busy, overwhelming, overstimulating…and so so so complete.

I’m still marveling that two weeks ago I hadn’t even considered the possibility of adding another family member, and now I can’t imagine our family without him.

I will be heading back over there Friday to stay with him for the weekend or until he comes home. It’s going to be my first trip of that length all by myself in many, many years! I don’t mind traveling alone, but I’m really hopeful that I won’t be alone on the way home!

(This is a view on the road to my baby.)

The NICU is amazing!

2011-06-15T07:26:00.001-06:00

When Andrew was an infant in the NICU I spent a lot of time there with him. I remember it being dark, somewhat oppressive, and rather crowded, as all the babies were in a single room. They each had their own space, and there was space for families to visit, but there was no privacy. The NICU our Little Man is in is very different. Private rooms with big windows, space for a family member to sleep in the room, meals provided for parents of NICU babies, a bathroom for parents with a shower…it’s wonderful! And, of course, the nurses are magnificent! We didn’t encounter a single unhappy, disgruntled, or grumpy employee at that hospital. That tells me that the hospital takes good care of their employees as well as their patients.

Another great feature is that the hospital will provide up to 3 nights lodging at the hotel right by the hospital. We hardly had to pay anything out of pocket for necessities (lodging, food, gas for the truck), but between the hospital and the state’s reimbursement program it was all covered. Praise the Lord!

Ken and I both spent the first night at the hotel. I got caught up (sorta) on sleep, and then got to the hospital for Little Man’s 8am feeding. He had pretty good feedings for most of Saturday, but then during the night he dropped off – he couldn’t keep it up. I was quite disappointed that we had to give him gavage feedings because that meant he wouldn’t be coming home with us, but if he’s not ready, he’s just not ready.

The next two nights I roomed in with him at the NICU and Ken went to the hotel. We would order breakfast in the morning, feed Little Man, and between feedings we would go out and drive around the city a bit. And stop at Sonic. We don’t have a Sonic near us – it’s a treat! We also had dinner at Noodle Express. Twice. I love love love Noodle Express!

We met with the doctor and nurses on Sunday morning and on Monday morning – they started talking about the possibility of sending him home with a feeding tube. They don’t want to do that, but if he’s not going to learn to suck, that’s what will have to happen. We are praying that he figures the sucking thing out – pronto! I’m not afraid of having to deal with a feeding tube, but I just feel like he doesn’t have to do that – he can learn to suck!

By the time we tore ourselves away from him on Monday to head back to the big kids he had gained up to 7lbs 15.6 oz, and he was outgrowing the newborn diapers and the newborn size clothes. He’s obviously doing well, despite the little sucking issue.

So that’s what’s up in Scrivnerburg as of Monday, June 13.

Crazy-busyness!

2011-06-14T11:00:00.001-06:00

There was so much to do to get ready for the trip to see our little man! We made arrangements for Felice and Nana to watch kiddos, I had to get all my work caught up and finished because I had vacation time planned for the upcoming week – I couldn’t leave loose ends for someone else to figure out, we had to pack, get our travel plans arranged with the state, the hospital, and the hotel…there was a lot to accomplish!

In the midst of all the preparations we heard from Little Man’s nurse and the hospital social worker that he was doing well enough that he might get to come home with us over the weekend! That was really exciting, but it meant we needed to make a special trip to Missoula to get a car seat. For us, a trip to Missoula is an undertaking. It’s only a 35 minute drive, but when we take the whole crew (or most of them) and plan to have lunch in town, even a simple trip to Target becomes a 4-hour adventure. It was a great trip to town, and all went well, but when I got home I felt even more pressure to get my work done. This was Thursday, and we wanted to leave by 9:00 on Friday morning. GAK! So much to do, so little time!

Oh!! I just could not wait to get my hands on that little man! It’s funny to me that I had not even thought about having another child in our family for years, but when I found out about this little man my heart was knitted to his immediately. He was my baby!

We did finally get everything done and only got out of the house 35 minutes later than planned. The trip over was great – perfect weather, no problems, overall a quick trip. Well, four WHOLE hours…only made bearable by the companionship of my beloved husband. We will be celebrating our 23rd anniversary in a couple weeks, and we still just love being together.

When we finally, finally, FINALLY got to the hospital it was just time for Little Man to eat. We barely even got to introduce ourselves to his nurse before she got me all gowned up and sanitized and sat me in a chair with him. Ahhhhhh… It was wonderful to hold his little 7lb 12oz (back to birth weight!) body in my hands. We worked on eating and I just gazed at his sweet little face, touched his silky, wavy hair, and of course, burped him a hundred and sixty seven times. Well, maybe not quite that many, but just like his older siblings, he swallows a lot of extra air, so he has to burp a LOT.

After I fed him I handed the little prince to Daddy and I took a few pictures.

We did find out that he probably wasn’t quite ready to head home yet. His bottle feedings were not going quite well enough for him to get off the feeding tube, but we wouldn’t know for sure what was going to happen until at least Sunday, so we made plans to stay until Monday morning. The other kids would be sad, and Nana and Felice might go crazy, but that was what we needed to do. We’ll pay for Nana and Felice’s psychiatry later.

So that’s what was up in Scrivnerburg as of June 10.

She finally called!

2011-06-13T20:46:00.001-06:00

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I got the call. First, I was relieved just to get the call – it seemed like I had been waiting forever! Then she told me we were going to have a new family member. A 3-day-old boy. Zowie. That’s young. Brand-spankin’ new!

I was finally able to get a few more answers:

He’s in the NICU
He isn’t able to suck very well
He was 7lb 12oz at birth, and 20”
Currently he is being bottle fed and fed through an ng tube
He’ll be in the NICU for a while yet – until he’s bottle feeding completely
We can go visit him – the state and the hospital will help us with costs

Now the only problem is that he’s 199 miles away! Having these answers was very helpful, but then came the waiting. We started making plans to travel over on Friday to spend the night. We also started letting family members (and others) know about the new addition to Scrivnerburg. Several people asked us if we were crazy, but in a happy, amazed manner – not like they truly thought we should be institutionalized. Yes, we are crazy – crazy about a little man half a state away who is just waiting for his family!

Now we needed to get the licensing in order. It’s great to have a friend help us get it all done. With her help we were able to get all the paperwork, fingerprinting, and safety check done lickety-split. That was such a relief! It took a loooonnnnngggg time to get the paperwork done (and my right arm hurt for two days – I don’t write by hand much anymore), but it felt great to have it all done so quickly. I didn’t have any fretting time.

Included in the paperwork was a form to fill out about each child, in which I had to describe the child’s relationship to parents and other children, describe their personality, and tell how they felt about the new baby coming. I interviewed each child for that portion, and some of their answers were just fabulous!

Here are a few of their responses:

Dale – It’s exciting and stressful. The stressful part is getting ready for the foster care licensing.
Kristi – I’m fine with it. (This cracked me up because she was talking nonstop about the baby coming until I asked her to – then all she said was, “I’m fine with it.”
Caleb – I’m excited and happy and sad. I’m sad because things are changing and I don’t like change. I think the baby will be cute like me.

So that’s what’s up in Scrivnerburg as of June 7, 2011.

Ramblings about fostering

2011-06-13T20:03:00.001-06:00

(I wrote this post last June 6 – before we had any answers. I’m going to post my thoughts on this whole situation in order, starting with the day we found out there was a baby.)

At this moment I can’t even say anything to anyone about all the possibilities and craziness rumbling around in my head and heart. We were called this morning about a brand new infant – a half-sibling to Kristi and Austin – that will need a permanent home. We had said “no more” several years ago, and in Montana we couldn’t have taken any more anyway (Montana will not license new families if there are already 7 children in the home). I never seriously considered the prospect of taking any more foster children. We finally got the last ones potty trained! And my youngest can finally do his own seatbelt. And we don’t have to take enough bags for a month any time we want to leave the house. And we get to sleep all night. And we don’t have to clean a billion bottles every day. See? There are so many reasons to decide that we don’t want any more foster children.

But then…

When the friend/social worker calls and says, “there’s a baby” my very first thought was not “we couldn’t possibly” but “do I still have the crib?” The possibility of a tiny, needy bundle cradled close to my chest is just too wonderful! The grip of teeny tiny fingers…the reflexive tongue sucking while they’re asleep…the super-smooth skin…the amazing moments as new realizations dawn in the little eyes…I love it all! Except the potty training. But otherwise, it’s all awesome in the original sense of the word.

I’m rambling all over the place here…but I have to get all this stuff out of my brain so I can continue with my work day.

This baby has two half siblings in our family, and one half-sibling in another local family. We don’t yet know which family, if either, that this baby will go to. I don’t want that other family to be broken-hearted because they don’t get this baby, but the more I think about all of it, the more I want this baby in our family.

There are plenty of families in Montana that want/need babies, but we have seen even in our own home that the bond between biological siblings is more than just proximity. Fancy and Dale, Kristi and Austin – they are birth sibling pairs, and each pair has a different connection to each other than they have to the other kids. That doesn’t mean they get along better, but they have a different, innate understanding of each other. For these precious children who don’t have a history, that connection is important. Kristi and Austin often talk about their birth parents, and they tell each other (made up) stories about their birth home. That bond is important to them. I hate to think about another family that is waiting for a baby not getting this one, but I also feel strongly that a home with biological siblings is important for children in this situation.

I’m eagerly awaiting the phone call from my friend/social worker. I am preparing myself for her to say, “the baby will be going to the So-and-so’s home,” but I’m hoping she says, “Can you go get a baby?”

One more note – we are no longer licensed foster parents. Since we were maxed out in our house we let our license lapse. That’s not a big issue because know what’s involved in getting license, and we’re already more than halfway there. I don’t think we would have had the phone call if there was an issue with us getting re-licensed.

Why hasn’t she called yet?

I need to stop obsessing about this and get back to work.

But I have to go to Missoula this afternoon. Do I need to stop at Wal-Mart for baby stuff, or not? Is it a girl or a boy? Does the baby have a name already? Does he/she have special needs? How big is this precious baby? Does this baby, in fact, have a reflexive tongue-suck? His/her big sister Kristi did not. Where is that beautiful, crocheted blanket we got when we were expecting Nathan?

Okay. I really must get back to work!

This is crazy.

Why hasn’t she called yet?

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T11:55:00.000-06:00

Our Easter celebration was wonderful this year! We started on Friday evening with a Passover Seder meal at the church. I had never participated in anything like it before, and it was great. I learned a lot more about the Passover Seder than I had ever known before.

Sunday morning we made Resurrection Rolls for breakfast. The story was well-received, and the rolls were delicious! Our church service was great – I loved the music that we did, we had a moving testimony and baptism, and then a good sermon. It was a great day in the Lord’s house! I love Sundays like that!

But that wasn’t the end of our great Sunday! We went to Nana’s house for our traditional Easter dinner, and this year we had 20 people there, so it was noisy and energetic…but it was so much fun! It was a great group of people, and there was non-stop talking and laughter. We invited a friend and her son who had never met most of the family. We were wondering if he would enjoy the kids or feel overwhelmed by them – the fact that we only saw him and most of my boys as they raced through the house makes me think that he probably wasn’t overwhelmed. All the kids had a wonderful time – even without an egg hunt.

Here’s another slideshow – Flickr has made this a much easier and slicker process, so this is better for me than posting 20 images in one blog post. I hope you enjoy our Easter 2011 – we sure did!

Dad and Michael visited Scrivnerburg!

2011-04-26T11:18:00.001-06:00

(I’m sorry it’s been so long since I updated this blog. I have a hard time keeping two blogs going – in case you haven’t been there, check out my 365 blog.)

April has been a busy, busy month. We started baseball practices/games… We are preparing for Fancy’s graduation and party… Ken is trying to finish up his school semester… I’m working at home… There are many church activities… It’s been a whirlwind! Last week we got to squeeze Dad and Michael into our whirlwind! I’m sorry we couldn’t do more fun activities with them, but time just didn’t allow. We made the most of what we could do though. Here is a slideshow of some photos from their visit.

Bitstrips!

2010-11-13T13:03:00.001-07:00

I just found bitstrips.com. I love it!

Apologies

2010-09-13T21:18:00.001-06:00

My apologies to my readers if the 256/365 post confused anyone. I accidentally posted it to the wrong blog…I’m just going to leave it there…who knows…someone may want to see it on my family blog! If you aren’t a 365 follower, you can see it on my 365 blog too!

256/365

2010-09-13T21:16:00.001-06:00

I didn’t have time to search out the subject for The Daily Shoot today, and I sure couldn’t post today’s shot monochrome, so here it is…

I’m not gonna get all wordy tonight. I’m too tired. “See” ya tomorrow!

We took a vacation!

2010-09-12T21:05:00.001-06:00

I’m having the hardest time keeping up with two blogs! I update my 365 blog daily, but even updating this one monthly seems to be more than I can do!

This was our summer for a family vacation, and Jenny and Phil wanted to meet up with us so we could all vacation together. We decided that the Black Hills area of South Dakota would be a good, almost-central location. For us it was 2 easy days of driving. For them it was 2 longer days, but they’re younger, right?

It turned out to be a great choice! I never knew there were so many activities and sights around there! We stayed at Rushmore Shadows Resort. We had two end sites that worked perfectly for us and our tent city. Once we were all set up we had 2 large tents, 1 medium tent, 1 small tent, and 1 canopy on our sites. As we were setting it all up two ladies walked by and asked if we had a scout troop! We got quite a laugh out of that.

Here’s a shot of our tent city…

(The small tent is hidden by the nearest tent – it was directly in front of our Suburban.)

Of course, we went to Mt. Rushmore. It was awesome! I was quite impressed!

We also went to Reptile Gardens. That was fun! There were some amazing creatures there! This tortoise is somewhere between 120 and 150 years old!

Philip made arrangements for all of us to spend a couple hours out on a pontoon boat on Pactola Lake. That was awesome! All the kids got to drive the boat, and it was just a really fun day!

While we were camping we made some great new friends…

Went swimming…

and spent some time doing the normal camping things…

Unfortunately, the end to our time with Jenny, Philip, Ethan, Aidan, and Kate had to come. Before we went our separate ways we took a photo of the entire clan…

It was really a fabulous vacation! Everything went well, the kids were well-behaved, and we were actually able to relax even if all the adults were working part of the time. I hope we can do it again next year!

Finally - our trip to Bigfork

2010-08-07T09:56:00.001-06:00

I've been planning to post this blog for almost 2 weeks, but I just haven't had time to get to it. So here it is!

A while back Mom said she'd like to go see Bigfork because it looked like an interesting place. We decided to plan our trip for July 24, and let me tell you - Kristi was NOT letting us forget that we were going to Bigfork that day! In the 3 weeks before the trip she must have said, "We're going to Bigfork on the 24th" a hundred times a day!

We don't have a vehicle large enough to take everyone - Ken, Me, Mom, Fancy, Dale, Andrew, Austin, Kristi, Nathan, and Caleb - so we borrowed the church van for the trip. Except for the fact that the church van is hard for Mom to get into, it worked out pretty well. So we packed a cooler full of drinks, some snacks, some activities, and 10 people into the church van and headed off for Bigfork.

We enjoyed the drive up, but we didn't see much of interest (except beautiful mountains) until we got very close to our destination. In a small pasture along the highway we saw yaks. Yes, yaks in Montana. I've never seen a yak in Montana. I guess it's not any more strange than llamas, but llamas are fairly common, and yaks are not. They were so interesting we had to turn around and go back to see them again. I wasn't able to get any photos of them, but it sure was neat to see live yaks! My further research on the topic shows that there is actually a yak ranch in Kalispell. According to their site there are an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 yaks in North America. Who knew?

Bigfork is a quaint, artsy, fun little town. As we followed the road to the touristy part of town, we saw this great building reminiscent of an alpine cottage.

'Turns out the whole town is cute and quaint like that.

We enjoyed a good lunch at the River Street Diner & Pub, although all the kids found the air conditioning to be too much (Ken has to trek back to the van for sweatshirts). I had a Frisco sandwich, and I think I'm going to have to make those for dinner soon - it was sooooooo good!

One of the things were were most impressed by was the hanging flower baskets all over town. They were really spectacular.

Here's a peek down the main street...

While Mom, Fancy, Kristi, and I shopped and poked around Bigfork Ken took the boys to Flathead Lake to splash around.

Fancy really enjoyed all the artwork there was to see...

Before we left Bigfork we stopped at an ice cream shop for a cool treat. Most of us had ice cream, but Caleb - ever the rebel - got a muffin. We all enjoyed our treats, and got quite a few comments and stares from passers-by. It couldn't be because 10 people were sitting at 2 little ice cream shop tables, dribbling ice cream all over the sidewalk, could it?

It was last afternoon by the time we headed out, and the sun was quite bright...Caleb found it overwhelming...

I think he (and everyone else) was pretty tired by this time. (Photo by Fancy)

We stopped in Polson to eat a snacky dinner and use the restrooms. We just stopped at a little park to nibble on the goodies we had in the van...pretty laid back dinner.

We stopped a few times on the way home to take pictures of the scenery with the golden evening light...

As we approached Missoula Caleb got to the very end of his oomph. (He did what the rest of us really wanted to do!)

This poor, tired boy didn't even wake up again until Sunday morning. (Photo by Fancy)

It was a fun trip with no mishaps and no big problems. I'm looking forward to going back again - maybe with my mother and my aunts? I think that would be a kick!

Okay...I must quit showing off photos and get ready to watch the Creamery Picnic parade!

Western Montana in Business – Missoula, Montana �Business, Commercial, Networking news and resources

2010-08-06T08:47:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to share this with my friends and family - this is the company I work for. So cool to see "us" in the newspaper!

Western Montana in Business – Missoula, Montana �Business, Commercial, Networking news and resources

I was just playing...

2010-08-02T08:05:00.001-06:00

I was having fun with a feature over at BigHugeLabs. Check out my flower slideshow!

Gotta share a couple funnies…

2010-07-01T14:03:00.001-06:00

The kids are cleaning their rooms. Fancy was supervising this while I was gone – kudos, Fancy! Shortly after I got home Nathan came and told me that their room was done. I asked, “Is everything out from under the beds and all the clothes put in the dressers?”

“IN the dressers?” Nathan asked in astonishment.

(Yes, Nathan, most people keep their clothes IN the dressers!)

Fancy was helping Caleb clean up the room he shares with Kristi. Fancy discovered that several of her own socks were in their room. She said, “I keep finding my socks in here!”

Caleb answered, “Mine TOO!”

(Why was he surprised to find his socks in his room? Could it be because his brothers always steal Caleb’s socks?)

I love kids!

Happy 11th Birthday, Austin!

2010-06-05T19:02:00.001-06:00

We celebrated Austin’s birthday today. I can’t believe this little man is 11 years old already. He was just 2! He’s such a sweetheart. He loves to help people, is cuddly and huggy, and finds humor in everything. I love you, Austin Ray!

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the afternoon…

Dragon Egg Relay. Austin tells me this was his best day EVER! Yay!

Wishing.

A party wouldn’t be a party without Felice.

This one cracked me up.

How can she race like that? Does she know where she’s going?

Thanks for stopping in!

Wow – I think it’s time for an update!

2010-04-20T19:52:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I updated this blog! Apologies!

It’s been a busy month. We celebrated Nathan’s birthday on the 10th with a party here at the house.

We got to celebrate my birthday on the 17th. I invited friends over to have a Thirty One Gifts party here, and then Ken had a surprise for me. He had asked a bunch of our distant friends to send something that would remind me of them and let me know how much I am loved and appreciated. It worked! I had a PILE of gifts!

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For the past several years my Dad and my brother, Michael, have come to visit in April (they usually bring my uncle Rick and my pseudo-uncle Dean, too). This year they didn’t get to come all the way here. They spent a couple days in Seattle and Michael ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and other issues. We are very sorry that they can’t get here this year, and we are wishing Michael a speedy healing.

I just can’t believe we are coming up on the end of another school year! The time is flying by so quickly. Baseball started up for my boys last week, we finally got beautiful weather, kids are busy playing outside – all this stuff makes the time just speed by. I stopped it briefly today by snapping some photos of Caleb and Austin…

I suppose these photos don’t actually stop time, but they do freeze a moment for me to remember.

Anyway, that’s the update for today. Thanks for stopping by!

74/365

2010-03-15T14:02:00.001-06:00

It’s Monochrome Monday on my 365 blog! As Caleb and I were taking a photo walk today we passed by these air conditioning units. Caleb pointed at the filter portion and said, “That’s black and white!” He was absolutely correct, so I shot it for my Monochrome Monday photo. I like the pattern. I also like the fact that he knew what I was looking for!

Word of the day – Catkin. We also discovered these wonderful treasures on our walk. I knew they were the cottonwood flowers but I could not remember what they were called. Caleb and I talked about it for most of our walk, and when we got home the first thing we did was Google it. Catkins! That was it!

Here are a few shots from the weekend. There was no school on Friday, so Fancy’s friend Josh came over to spend some time with us. I snuck a photo of them talking out front. Fancy kept shooing all the other kids away. It was kinda comical, actually. All of the other kids kept coming over to talk or play with them one at a time. I think she must have sent 5 or 6 different kids away!

The second one was taken Saturday – Kristi just adores Molly, and apparently it’s mutual.

The last one was taken Sunday afternoon. Nathan had to miss church again because of another stomach bug. He spent a good portion of Sunday afternoon sleeping all snuggled in Dad’s lap. He’s much better today. Yay! (I’m sure it’s because of the snuggles.)

Blessings, blessings!

2010-03-11T17:12:00.001-07:00

It’s Thankful Thursday over on my 365 blog, so it’s time for a Blessings list!

1) Renewed zeal for God. I have really been enjoying my time with God lately, and He’s really been sharing some great things with me.

2) Quiet time in my house. I cherish the times I get to spend alone in my house. I’ve had several hours lately, and I really enjoy it!

3) Paid bills. Ken was out of work for a very long time. There were a lot of months when bills were partially paid or left unpaid altogether. I am so thankful that all of our bills are paid up at the moment! What a relief for me!

4) A 3-day weekend. The kids are out of school tomorrow for who-knows-what, and it means that we don’t have the stress of getting everyone up and ready tomorrow. Three days of relaxed mornings! Yay!

5) Spring! Okay – the calendar says spring doesn’t start for several days, but the weather says something else!

Holland

2010-02-24T10:52:00.001-07:00

I was reminded today of a piece I read a few years ago about parenting children with disabilities…Welcome to Holland. There are so many days when I feel like Holland is just too hard a place for me. Like I’ll never learn the customs or the language. I wonder if they have toilets in Holland. I wonder if people have two-way conversations in Holland. I wonder if other people in Holland ever feel sad or discouraged about the change in travel plans. Then I run across people like this (click the link) who remind me that I’m not the only Mom in Holland. I’m not the only Mom who sometimes feels overwhelmed in Holland. And it’s true. Holland has tulips.

Fun times!

2010-01-30T08:50:00.001-07:00

I love this article in the Ravalli Republic. Click on the images to view a larger version – they don’t have this one posted online, so this is as good as I could get it. (If you get the email version of my blog, you can click here to see the post online if you have trouble reading the text in the images.)

“’Cause I’m a rock star” I love it!!!

What would it be like…

2010-01-28T13:26:00.001-07:00

…to have a week without an Emergency Room visit? I dunno.

Well, in reality, I’ve only made 2 ER visits this year, so we’ve had a couple weeks without such trips…but still…the staff knows me by name.

Andrew and Dale participated in the Winter Special Olympics this week. Andrew was invited to go, and he could choose a buddy – he chose Dale. Fun stuff! They’ve been so excited about this for weeks! Tuesday was great fun, and they both learned how to snowboard – good times…

(Andrew during a time trial.)

(Dale learning how to snowboard.)

Andrew’s snowshoe came off during his race…

And it took his boot with it!

Dale had a bit of trouble on the second day of Special Olympics though – after winning a race against Andrew, he was practicing some of his new snowboarding skills, fell, and landed in a way that broke his left wrist. Owie!

It doesn’t look like much here, but I’m sure it hurts like nobody’s business!

(Don’tcha love those boy nails?)

Dale is doing well today and went to school with just a bit of pain medicine. Dale was the only member of our family who had not been treated at the Marcus Daly ER. Since that’s covered now, I think we can be all done with ER visits!

Family Game Night

2010-01-24T12:58:00.001-07:00

We started a new family activity right after Christmas…Family Game Night. During the week the kids can earn “dollars” that they then use to pay the “entry fee” and buy snacks during Family Game Night. They can earn these dollars (I found packages of $1 play money at a dollar store) by doing things like being kind, doing extra chores, sharing, or doing especially well in school. They can also lose dollars for misbehavior, disobedience, or bad attitudes. Here is a little storyboard (from CoffeeShop) that shows a bit about Family Game Night.

The first shot is our money pouch board. We keep it on the piano so they can see how many dollars they have, and how many they need to earn to join the games on Saturday. We charge $2 to play, and $1 for snacks, so they need to keep at least $3 in their pouches (there is a 7th pouch down below but it didn’t fit in a square crop). The white trunk stays in our living room and keeps all the games safe. The kids are not allowed to get any games out except for game night. The last shot is the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies we had for our snack last night. Yummy!

The kids are starting to learn that the dollars are worth working for, and they ask for opportunities to earn them. We often reward nice behavior toward siblings with dollars too. No one has had to miss game night because of a lack of money yet – we’ve made sure of that – but I don’t think anyone wants to risk it either!

Thanks for stopping by Scrivnerburg! Have a great Sunday!

It’s January

2010-01-21T10:53:00.001-07:00

I think we’re kind of hitting the winter doldrums. The weather isn’t good, but it isn’t bad…there are no breaks in the school schedule…there are no birthdays this month…it’s all just the normal daily stuff. January is not a very exciting month in Scrivnerburg.

Here are a few photos I’ve taken this month…

Dale took these shots of me cutting Caleb’s hair. What an adventure! I think it took me longer to do Caleb’s than it took to do the other 4 boys combined!

Ken was hired on as a permanent part-time employee at Dayspring Restoration. Whoohoo!

These six kids can always find ways to entertain themselves. If it’s not building something, or cutting paper into tiny pieces, it’s wrestling en masse.

Oh, take a look at this too - http://www.sassart.org/ – this wasn’t in January, but Fancy had a pencil drawing chosen as one of the art pieces to be part of a mural. Yay Fancy!

In case any of my Scrivnerburg readers have missed it, I’ve started a new 365 project. Check it out for more photos of the family and the beautiful Bitterroot Valley!

What’s up in your ‘burg?

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T15:32:00.001-07:00

It’s a brand new year! We have had a lot of fun with the Christmas break and all of our new goodies – especially the Wii! Here’s a 6-minute video of the kids playing with it…

New Year’s Eve day was a little more exciting than I would have hoped. Kristi was having a rough time being nice to people so she got sent to her room to be alone for a while. She didn’t like that at all, and she threw quite a fit. In the midst of her tizzy she punched her hand through her bedroom window!

She was not injured, except for her sense of justice. Apparently sitting on time out on a chair while Mom cleaned up the mess was not in her New Year’s Eve plans.

We had a Wii bowling tournament last night…it was fun, and a great way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. It might be immodest to tell you who won the tournament, but I will tell you it wasn’t Ken, Fancy, or Dale. :-)

One last bit of Scrivnerburg news…I’m starting a new 365 project! Yay! I’m starting today with Friday Food! You can find my 365 blog at http://scrivnerburg365.blogspot.com. Please bookmark it, follow it, share it…and hopefully, enjoy it! Let me know what you like and don’t like about it, too!

Happy New Year blog readers! I hope this is a great one for you!

What a merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T16:09:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! I got up early to start breakfast and was able to enjoy 30 minutes of peace, quiet, and coffee! Yay! Then everyone got up and we had fun with gifts…

After enjoying a fun morning at home we loaded into the vehicles and headed to Nana’s for more Christmas fun…

Fancy got a wonderful gift – a brand-new netbook computer. Here is a video of her reaction…

We also enjoyed a marvelous meal with the best ham I’ve ever had! What a great day all around.

Oh – one more note. Jenny and Philip sent up a Wii for Christmas! Yay! Keep watching the blog for fun videos of the family playing Wii games!

Here’s one video from the Christmas Concert

2009-12-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

The Stevensville Community Choir had our 8th (?) annual Christmas Concert on Dec. 6. Here is one of the songs we did that evening…

Some fun with friends

2009-12-13T19:11:00.001-07:00

We had some friends over to enjoy our Sunday dinner with us today. It was a great afternoon with fun, funny, easy-going friends. We had quite a crew of kids, and they were loud, but not actually any louder than the adults. We spent the entire afternoon laughing! It was great!

I treasure these opportunities to visit with Christian friends – as Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Sometimes we sharpen with laughter.

Testing a mobile blogging app

2009-11-28T08:15:00.001-07:00

I just downloaded an application that's supposed to be an easy mobile blogging app. So far I'd have to say it's not stellar. Thanks for stopping by!

I am blessed

2009-11-21T10:20:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving is coming! I’m sure all my American friends have been thinking of things they’re thankful for. I’m going to share a short list for today. And, of course, there will be pictures. :-)

Healthy children
A cozy home (complete with crackling fireplace when I need it!)
A beautiful, snowy day
An empty day on my calendar
Sweet, calm, refreshing quiet. (while the kids are playing in the snow, it's peaceful and quiet in the house! I absorb every minute.)

So sorry, so sorry.

2009-11-17T17:28:00.001-07:00

I’m sorry I haven’t posted here in so long! I finished up my 365 project and kinda let the whole blogging thing slide.

Just to give an update, Kristi is now sling-free! She actually got to toss that thing a week early! Yay! She’s very happy to have both arms again, and I’m thrilled! I hadn’t realized how many little things I was doing for her every day (putting socks on, tying shoes, zipping clothes, buckling the seat belt, lots of others) until I didn’t have to do them anymore. What a relief for both of us!

I was able to do a lot of photo sessions in October and November for the church, and if you’re interested in seeing some of those, there are quite a few photos in my Flickr stream.

We celebrated Andrew’s birthday at Qwivals. You can see in this photo just how thrilled he was with the party hat, can’t you?

(Actually, looking at all these photos, it seems that Kristi is the only one who wasn’t hating the hat.)

Here’s something else I want to share – my sweetie bought me a set of awesome car magnets to advertise my business!! Wasn’t that a wonderful gift?

(If you click this photo it will take you to my business site.)

And last thing for today…I found a new backdrop last week and I had to test it out in my little studio. Here’s one of the test photos…

This has been the week from Hades

2009-10-09T14:12:00.001-06:00

What a week. On Monday Kristi broke her left collarbone. If you’d like to see the x-ray check out my 365 blog entry for October 5. It was Andrew’s birthday, but we didn’t get to enjoy it because Ken and I had to take Kristi to the ER.

(Her arm is in a sling under her sweater.)

That was also the day that we discovered that someone was overly concerned about Andrew’s toileting problems, and made a referral to Child Protective Services. We ended up dealing with that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I have been told it’s all done and all is well now, but it was awful! It wasn’t just awful for us as parents. It was also hard on the kids who had already been through such things before. We’re still dealing with some of those issues, like a regression in Andrew’s toileting skills. ARGH!

Today I almost got locked in the elementary school during a lockdown! Someone who wasn’t thinking walked down the school street with a gun slung over his arm. The school had to lockdown until there was no danger to anyone. Unfortunately, I was inside the school at the time, and Dale and Caleb were outside in the car!! The principal let me out when she found out my boys were out there. Whew! I almost came unglued thinking about being locked in for who-knows-how-long while Dale and Caleb waited – worried – in the car.

Dale is home sick today. I changed my shopping plans so I could stay home with him, but I was still going to hang with my ladies this evening…until Caleb started showing symptoms of being sick. I don’t think my ladies would appreciate me sharing those germs. Waaaaaahhhh!!

So, this all brings to mind my post on CafeMom a couple years ago about “Monkey Days.” This hasn’t been a Monkey Day, it’s been a Monkey Week!!

First day of school

2009-09-08T10:08:00.001-06:00

First day of school, originally uploaded by snaphappee.elli.

Well, we made it! At least the kids who started today. They all got to their classes and found their desks...all is good. Fancy and Caleb start tomorrow, and I'm sure they will be fine too, although Fancy's a bit nervous because she has a quiz the first day in one of her AP classes.

I'm going to get kids off to school tomorrow and then clean something. Then I'm going to sit and watch it stay clean. That's my plan.

Tomorrow is the first day of school!

2009-09-07T17:27:00.001-06:00

School Clothes Ready, originally uploaded by snaphappee.elli.

The kids go back to school tomorrow. I can't believe this summer is over already. It went so so so fast! All the kids are eager to get back in school! I'm glad they look forward to it. We rarely have any school trouble with our kids - they all love it so far.

Fancy will be a junior this year. That's just craziness! How did she get to the last half of high school already? Dale and Andrew are in 5th grade, Austin is in 4th, Kristi is in 2nd, and Nathan in 1st. Caleb will start his second year of preschool on Wednesday.

Looking at it from Caleb's end of the school career it looks like we have a lot of school years left...but we thought that about Fancy last week. At least it seems like last week. I'm sure it wasn't actually 9 years ago that we got her enrolled in 2nd grade in Victor. It couldn't have been, because I remember my conversations with Mrs. Gingerich (her 2nd grade teacher) much too clearly. It must have been just last week.

Do they get a year older every time we go to sleep?

Where do the years go?

2009-08-25T20:58:00.001-06:00

Today was my youngest daughter’s birthday. I’m pretty sure I was just bringing her home from the hospital…wasn’t I? That scrawny, greyish, floppy baby with the barest bit of black fuzz on her head…limp arms and legs…a poor prognosis…and a will of iron. Well, she’s obviously overcome the lack of hair, the limp limbs, and the poor prognosis…and that will of iron is quite intact. I believe that she survived her rough start because she was too stubborn to give in. I praise the Lord for that, although there are days when that stubbornness is enough to make me run around the neighborhood shrieking in frustration. But that’s good exercise for me, and Kristi’s will is going to serve her well one of these days.

Happy, happy birthday Punkindoodle! I love you and love you and love you!

(Oh, the t-shirt says “Crowns are always in style.”)

If you’re unfamiliar with our story, you can find it (and more about Kristi) here.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

2009-08-22T17:32:00.001-06:00

Today is Caleb's 4th birthday, so we had a party! I only took about 200 photos...and I narrowed those down to 25. My slideshow will only take up about 50 seconds of your life, but be warned anyway. Lots of photos.

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Thank you, Nana, for a great party!

A little photo update

2009-08-21T13:13:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry I've been so bad about keeping up with this blog this summer! I've been keeping my 365 blog up to date...I guess I can't do two blogs reliably. If you follow my 365 you've probably seen these photos, but here is a slideshow of images from this summer...

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Another Andrew recipe

2009-07-25T09:22:00.001-06:00

Andrew loves to cook! He created his Fried Honey Dinosaurs a couple months ago, and now he’s come up with Andrew’s French Toast.

He cracks a couple eggs into a hot skillet, lets them cook for a bit, then puts a piece of bread on top. After the eggs have cooked into the bread for a bit he flips the whole thing over so the bread is on the bottom. When the egg is all cooked he puts it on a plate and pours a generous amount of syrup on it. Voila! Andrew’s French Toast!

We went to the river!

2009-07-23T19:20:00.001-06:00

It was a hot one today! It was 97 today – quite warm enough for me! Ken took all of us down to the river today to cool off and and splash around. It was fun!

This was when we first got there. Boy, did that water feel good!	Walking on those big, round rocks is difficult. (Ken took this and the next 4 photos. Thank you, Ken! Nice job!)
I was trying to teach the 3 older boys to tread water. Hmmm.	Ken took this shot. I love the photo…but I think she should have dunked her face.
Austin was “swimming.”	Caleb was “swimming” too.
I wonder if Molly enjoyed the trip.	Hmmm…maybe I should ask her if she had any fun.
I love this because my boys were helping each other walk on the rocks. A sweet moment.	I think the kids had fun.

I think it’s time for bed!

Another birthday, but not one of our kids

2009-07-18T19:13:00.001-06:00

Today we celebrated Rose and Virginia’s birthday at Qwivals. This was their first birthday party ever. Before we got started with all the fun stuff I took pictures of the girls and the family together…

This was my favorite shot of the two of them.

Here’s a shot of the adorable family. I don’t get Tracy in my sights too often, so I was happy for this opportunity.

Next we moved on to spending token after token at the games inside…

Dale gets more toys out of these crane games than any person I’ve ever seen. He’s also the luckiest at the ticket games – he got 923 tickets today! Kristi got 28.

Kristi tried her foot at Dance Dance Revolution. Ken was telling her, “front, front, left, back…”

We had lunch (the kids and most grown ups had Qwivals pizza, but Felice and I were very good and only ate foods that fit in our plan) and then cake…

(It’s so grainy because my ISO was so high and I underexposed this one. It’s quite dark inside Qwivals.)

Time for some go-kart rides!!

Tracy and Felice had a little battle going on…

Back inside, the moment had come for the best part of Qwivals…

Turning in all the tickets! The Ticket Eater is the best attraction at Qwivals!!

And then choosing goodies from the boxes and boxes of treasures (this is only one case – there is another case and a whole wall of offerings).

Whew! It was a fun party, but boy, was I ready to go home! After all that fun, Ken still had the energy to take most of our kids down to the river to play! I didn’t get to go on that journey, so there are no photos…maybe next time.

Thanks for partying with us!

Small-town excitement

2009-07-11T08:10:00.001-06:00

We live in a small town. The last time I posted about small-town excitement it was because a house was coming down our street. Not much happens here in Stevensville, and I’m not complaining about that. Crime is minimal, Main Street almost rolls up the sidewalks by 9pm, and as my friend Jill recently said, “the interesting thing about living in a small town is when you don't know what you're doing everyone else does.”

Today (this whole weekend, actually) has been exciting! Blacksmith Brewing Company has put on a Summer Fest. We haven’t been able to participate in all the festivities (although I’m hoping we can go enjoy a bit this evening), but we have gotten to see the exciting part – hot air balloons!

These were floating over our little town this morning…

It’s time to rush off to Nana’s for the yard sale, but I might be back with more photos later!

It’s been too long

2009-06-27T22:03:00.001-06:00

I haven’t posted blessings in forever and a day. I need to post some blessings…

I love this man. He’s smart, funny, thoughtful, sincere…did I mention that I love him?

Funny words from this little guy brighten my day. He comes up with something funny at least once every day. Today it was “my body says it wants to lay down with you because you are cuddly and soft.” How can a mom resist a plea like that?

I live in a really beautiful place. Now that the old maples across the way are gone we even have a view of the mountains from our dining room. I was noticing this morning how peaceful it looks when I look over the rooftops and just see the trees and mountains.

I love singing with the Praise Team at our church. This video was shot with my cell phone during a Sunday morning rehearsal/warm-up.

I really enjoyed our whole camping trip, and I’m looking forward to doing it again soon, but this was my favorite part. The kids were in their sleeping bags, we had a nice fire, and Ken and I were both contentedly reading by the campfire (until I got up to take a picture).

A fun thing to do…

2009-06-25T09:32:00.001-06:00

I was just reading one of the blogs I follow – Complete Organizing Solutions – and she mentioned that she had been challenged to share a photo of “Right Now”. I liked the idea, so I did it too! Except that with my family it was necessary to take a few photos to see what was going on right now. (By the way, these are completely unedited. All I did was use the Polaroid plugin for Live Writer.)

Don’t miss out!

2009-06-24T18:01:00.001-06:00

There’s a great giveaway going on over at Organize With Julie! Don’t miss out! http://organizewithjulie.blogspot.com/2009/06/still-wishing-that-it-was-all-made-like.html

Our first camping trip of 2009

2009-06-20T18:44:00.001-06:00

We had a great time! We spent 2 days at Charles Waters Campground in the Bass Creek Recreation Area. We didn’t do any hiking this time, but it was nice to just hang around and enjoy God’s creation.

One of the things I love most about taking the kids camping is that they are forced to use their imaginations. My boys do not have much trouble doing that even at home, but when we’re out in the boonies, they take it to a new level. They had a great time hiding in their secret hideouts, sneaking up on each other, and exploring the “jungle.” They also had a great time climbing the “mountain” (a rocky hillside), although Caleb now calls it the “Slippy Mountain” because he discovered that sliding down the mountain face first is the fastest way down, but it’s not fun.

Felice and her family came out to have some fun with us in the wilderness – a brand-new experience for all of them! I’m so glad they came out and tried on the great outdoors! Another family – the Brush family – also came out to make s’mores with us. It was such a fun evening with 13 kids running around, and marshmallows sticking to everything.

We didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife – I can’t imagine why we never see all the animals I know are out there…it couldn’t have anything to do with a passel of noisy children, could it? We did see a lot of squirrels, insects, birds, and even a snake! Oh, and you’ll see the dragonfly in my photos – he(?) seemed to pose for me – instead of flying away when I got close he stayed put until I was all done and had put the camera down.

It was a fun, short trip, but I sure am tired.

Here are some photos from our brief adventure…

View Full Album

An awesome site!

2009-06-11T15:13:00.001-06:00

My beautiful friend Julie sent me to a fabulous site today. I have stolen several not-so-free minutes to browse through MomMostTraveled today. There are fabulous giveaways like this one – Feelin’ Groovy – and great articles like this – Sensory Processing Disorder. Take some time to check out this wonderful site!

Austin’s Birthday!

2009-06-06T16:25:00.001-06:00

Our Austerbug turned 10 on June 1. Today we went to our favorite party place, Qwivals, to celebrate his big day. We all had fun even if the weather wasn’t great for outdoor fun. Most of us stayed indoors the whole time, and it was still very entertaining.

This is Austin’s friend. It was his first trip to Qwivals.

Austin had fun playing the games and riding the bumper cars.

Andrew is such a fun goofball!

And speaking of goofballs… Felice and her daughter Virginia fit that category too.

I wanted a few photos that weren’t our standard Qwivals party photos.

Waiting for everyone to gather for pizza. Qwivals has yummy pizza!

I love all of her expressions during Dance Dance Revolution!

Nana lighting the awesome pirate ship birthday cake.

Thank you, Nana, for another wonderful birthday party!

Summer fun!

2009-05-30T20:26:00.001-06:00

Felice hosted a Slip-n-Slide afternoon! Whoohoo! My big boys were off working with Dad, but Kristi, Nathan, and Caleb got to go romping in the water with Felice and her girls. What fun!

(Nathan)

(Caleb)

(Rose)

(Felice!)

Progress and stuff

2009-05-27T21:29:00.001-06:00

My desk was a total disaster, and I know perfectly well that I don’t function effectively when my space is a mess. But I kept leaving it messy, and even adding to the mess. Today I decided to do something about it. Here’s what it looked like “before”…

And here’s the “after”…

Whew! It’s so much more peaceful here now! (Looking for some tips on how to get organized? Head on over to Organize with Julie – she has some great ideas!)

Fancy was in a play at school this evening. It was a drama based on the story of the women of Troy. The kids did a good job, and I enjoyed it!

Kristi has to go to bed at 7 every night, no matter what. If she doesn’t do that, she has trouble functioning properly for the next several days. Since Ken and I both had to be in different places with different kids this evening Nana (Ken’s mom) came and watched Kristi and Caleb for us. She took them to the store and while they were gone, I left to take kids to church, and then pick my mom up so we could enjoy Fancy’s play. Apparently Caleb didn’t understand this whole plan. When I got home tonight he came running outside to see me and said, “Mommy I misseded you! I was worry ‘bout you!” Awwww…that boy is just too sweet for words!!

Huh.

2009-05-26T21:22:00.001-06:00

I was just going through some of my old posts over on CafeMom (I don’t go there much anymore – not enough time for multiple social networking sites!), and I found a few that I am really glad I wrote. I realized that for a long time I was chronicling my family life and the ups and downs through my journals over there. I have missed doing that, and I don’t know why I let it slide away. I will try to pick that up again here.

I ran over my first bike today. I knew it would happen eventually – we have 13 bicycles around here, and 9 kids who ride them (including the neighbor girls), so a bike was bound to get left in the wrong place. What made me really sad was that it was Caleb’s adorable little Radio Flyer with the training wheels. It was a garage sale bargain last spring, and Caleb had just learned to really get it moving. Oh well. It wasn’t even the fault of my own children. A visiting child (a very young one who didn’t know better) left it where I couldn’t see it, and it got crunched. Waaaahhh.

Don’t miss out on the photos I post on my 365. I post there daily, and I usually post more than one photo, so if you need more visual stimuli, A Scrivnerburg 365 is the place to go!

A busy day in Scrivnerburg

2009-05-23T20:09:00.001-06:00

It has been busy, busy, busy around Scrivnerburg today!

The day started with Andrew concocting a new recipe…would you like some Fried Honey Dinosaurs?

Dale came up with an invention today – not a new thing for him, but I thought this one was pretty clever. One of these days he will be able to make some money off his inventions! This particular one is a new way to fill a water balloon…

The first photo is just to show what the contraption is (water bottle with a water balloon nozzle attached). The second shot shows him successfully filling the balloon without getting everything wet. Please also note the lovely grass behind him. Isn’t that wonderful!?!?

Tomorrow is Fancy’s 16th birthday, so we’re celebrating it today. Ken and I sent Fancy and three of her friends on a treasure hunt around town that ended at Fiesta En Jalisco for dinner. It took us a lot longer to prepare the excursion than it took them to finish it!

After dinner, Fancy and her friends came back to the house to celebrate with the rest of the family and extended family.

Here are most of the grownups who attended (I was busy taking the photo)…

Fancy opened her gifts…

(This necklace was a gift from Grandma – she had received it for her 16th birthday.)

(Fancy loves art, so this was a great gift for her.)

And then she and her friends went down to the basement (dark, dark basement – sorry for the grainy photos) to watch movies.

But it wasn’t all fun and games in Scrivnerburg today. Caleb had a crash-and-burn on the sidewalk today, and scraped his knee up pretty badly. It has been a terrible trauma for him.

This injury didn’t occur today (it actually happened 2 days ago), but I finally got a shot that really shows Austin’s poor eye. He and a friend collided on the playground, and it looks like Austin got the wrong end of the collision.

(I’m amused as I look at these last two photos – Caleb and Austin look like blood brothers, but they’re not. God knew what he was doing when He put this family together!)

So there you have it. A very busy day in Scrivnerburg!

It’s working!

2009-05-18T07:41:00.001-06:00

(Sorry, I didn’t realize how long it had been since I updated this blog!)

The grass Ken was planting in that last post is growing! Yay!

School will be out in 3 weeks! I can’t believe that this year is almost over already. It has been a fast school year for me. The kids are really looking forward to summer, and I’m eager for a chance to get out and do some camping! I can’t wait to go camping!!

Here’s a recent shot of all the kids…

I’ll be back sooner with another post, I promise!

A fun Sunday afternoon

2009-04-19T18:19:00.001-06:00

We were all outside enjoying spring weather…enjoying it the way it was meant to be enjoyed – watching someone work! Ken was seeding what IS GOING TO BE A LAWN! We have tried for 3 years to have a lawn in the front yard, and this year it IS going to happen!

While Ken worked, the kids were all watching, and I got an opportunity for a rare snapshot – all 7 kids in one frame!

Andrew and Nathan were trying to jump at the same time so I could get a shot of them in the air…

I never did succeed in catching one frame with both of them jumping. Oh well.

Caleb didn’t want to miss out on the photo fun, and begged me to take a picture of his pose…

He sure knows how to work it!

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-04-19T17:57:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was my 40th birthday, and my sweetie had a surprise party for me! It was very low key and fun. I loved it! Here are a few shots of the party and the gifts my beloved friends and family gave me.

First, I have to share the card Ken gave me…I love this!

Ken came up with this neat cake!

Here’s Ken with his black band – mourning the loss of my youth.

Mom and Chance were enjoying the birthday cake and ice cream!

Thank you, everyone, for a great day!

Wondering what’s up in Scrivnerburg?

2009-04-14T07:19:00.001-06:00

We’re starting a Spring Health Challenge! Ken and I and a few online (and local) friends are going to get healthy 6 weeks at a time! We will be challenging each other to lose weight (if necessary) and to stick to a healthy life style. If you’d like to join us, we would love to have you! We’re doing this on Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook profile it is free to sign up. This challenge will begin on Monday, April 20 with a weigh-in and a weekly challenge!

Come and join us on our spring journey to health!

A fun Easter Sunday!

2009-04-13T08:53:00.001-06:00

We had a nice Easter. We had to be at church very early because we had 2 services at church, and I was singing at both, but it worked out fine. I enjoyed both services, and the kids loved the egg hunt they got to do at church! After we were all done at church we went to Nana and Grandpa’s (Ken’s parents’ house) for Easter dinner and another egg hunt. This time Dale, Andrew, Austin, Kristi, Nathan, Caleb, Rose, and Virginia hunted for 86 eggs all over Nana’s property.

One more note – thank you Nana for a wonderful meal! The food was fantastic!

Happy Birthday, Bean!

2009-04-10T14:14:00.001-06:00

Our Nathan/Naterbean/Nate the Bean/Beanie Baby/Beanorama/BeanMan will be 6 years old tomorrow! Happy Birthday, precious little man!

Seattle!

2009-03-31T16:17:00.001-06:00

Ken and I parted our kids out to three different families and went to Seattle for a long weekend! It was great!

Click photo to view entire collection

Ken and I spent Saturday morning exploring Seattle (see the photos), and afternoon and evening with my high-school friend, Priscilla. What a fabulous day!!

Our main purpose in going over there was a photography seminar that took place on Sunday afternoon. It was great! It was done by Sandy Puc'. I learned a lot, and I can't wait to start putting some of the new knowledge into action!

After the seminar we got a good night's sleep, then picked my brother Michael up at SeaTac airport so he could come and spend some time in Montana. He'll be staying with Mom for a few weeks. The trip home was uneventful, and fairly quick (for a 10-hour trip). We're still recovering, but it was a great weekend!

Testing my new phone

2009-03-23T09:14:00.000-06:00

I love that my kids love to read!

An Interview with Caleb - 3 years old

2009-03-04T21:47:00.001-07:00

I've seen several of these around lately, and I thought they were cute, so here's mine.

An interview with Caleb, 3 years old.
1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you.
2. What makes mom happy?
Pee in the toilet.
3. What makes mom sad?
Peeing in my pants.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Tickle me.
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Making a circle out of trains. (True – he plays with one of my old toys at Grandma’s house.)
6. How old is your mom?
Um…I don’t know.
7. How tall is your mom?
Taller than my head.
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Tickle me.
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Make stuff pretty (clean the house).
10. If your mom is on TV for something, what will it be for?
Make a tv show.
11. What is your mom really good at?
Hugging me.
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Doing the hard stacking game.
13. What does your mom do for her job?
(no real answer)
14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Spaghetti.
15. What makes you proud of your mom?
You hug me!
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Dora (may have been affected by the fact that Dora was on).
17. What do you and your mom do together?
We go potty. We also sit at the table. (Can you tell he's recently potty trained?)
18. How are you and your mom the same?
We are funny.
19. How are you and your mom different?
I want to be Superman when I grow up.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
We hug together.
21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
At home.

What's up?

2009-03-03T15:31:00.001-07:00

Zowie! I didn't realize how long it had been since I had posted here. I'm sorry! We've had a busy time...

After Dale's birthday party Jenny and her family came to visit. Here is a link to some photos from their visit (be sure to click "play")...

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php?id=62260

Dale is 11? How did that happen?

2009-02-15T06:48:00.001-07:00

We had a great birthday party for Dale today. I didn't have any time for well-thought-out photos, but I took some snaps of the party. There were only two of us big people, so I wasn't able to get photos or video of the games. Here's a little slideshow of the party..

Potty Party!!!

2009-02-08T13:50:00.001-07:00

Whoohoo! "What is a potty party" you ask? It's a celebration of no more diapers! No more pullups, no more stinky pants, no more "somebody needs Mama for a change!"

My youngest child, Caleb is now dry all the time! Good job, Caleb! Nana, Papa, Grandma, Felice, the twins, and our whole family are going to rejoice in the dawn of a new era in Scrivnerburg...

The Age of Underwear!

(Some may not realize just how great this is - I've been changing diapers multiple times a day for over 10 years. I'm ready to be done.)

A kids' party wouldn't be complete without party games. Here's Musical Potties...

We played a preschool version of Musical Potties - instead of someone being "out", they just got to pile on the remaining chairs. It was actually pretty funny to see them trying to pile on fewer and fewer chairs, although a couple of kids were a little tired and overstimulated by this time.

And how can you celebrate without a cake?

It was a fun, loud, tiring, exciting afternoon. And everyone slept well last night! Whew!

Nice kids

2009-01-22T07:29:00.001-07:00

I just had a conversation with Caleb about complimenting people instead of being mean to them. He was telling me that Andrew hits and Kristi says mean things. So we talked about what we should do instead...walk away, say nice things...

Mom: You could say, "I like you. You help me with things," or as Mommy says, "You have nice cheeks!"

Caleb to Mommy: "I like you because you have nice...kids."

There's modesty for ya, huh?

So sorry!

2009-01-14T19:41:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry I've neglected this blog lately. I've really been working on and studying photography, and all my online stuff has gotten pushed out of the way if it doesn't directly apply to that. I'll try to do better...but in the mean time, if you haven't been following, check out my 365 blog!

My husband saw this great video on YouTube a couple days ago, and I wanted to share it.

I just love how well this portrays Jesus' love for us, and how He wants to pull us out and protect us from the influences of the world.

I hope it was a merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T20:32:00.001-07:00

We had a lovely Christmas...even though my brother was unable to join us. The weather kept him from getting to Montana, and we missed him, but we did have a fun day. It was crazy at Nana's house! There were 19 people - 8 young children. It was noise, busyness, cacophony...and fun! Not to mention the great meal Nana prepared! It was wonderful! I got more than I deserve for Christmas, and got to enjoy a very happy day.

Here's one of my favorite shots from the day - it's terrible from a technical perspective, but I just love that goofy dog peeking in the window...

I got a new lens for Christmas, so I've been playing with it...

I have a bunch of other images from our Christmas celebrations, but I haven't edited all of them...I might get a few more posted later.

I hope you have a safe and happy New Year!

Caleb's Christmas program

2008-12-20T08:28:00.001-07:00

It's Christmas at preschool!!

A Cute Christmas Concert

2008-12-18T07:02:00.001-07:00

Here is a short video of Nathan and Kristi's Christmas concert yesterday. I have also included our neighbors Virginia and Rose. Oh, and in the third segment there's another neighbor starring the program. His name is Sam, and we took video for his mom because she wasn't able to. These kids were so cute, and so well-behaved when it wasn't their turn to sing. Good job, kids!

Cast-free!

2008-12-13T12:00:00.001-07:00

After three short weeks, Caleb got his cast off yesterday. Yay! He's still being very careful with that arm - I think it's because he got so used to not being able to use it. It doesn't seem to hurt, so that's good. The doctor said it looked great on the x-rays, so all is well. He also said, "don't come back broken." Good plan!

The end of the gall bladder issues! Yay!

2008-12-04T17:46:00.001-07:00

Do you know (remember) what an ERCP is? Well, today I got to have a second one. They had to remove the stent they put in 6 weeks ago. This one was much better than the first one - they asked me if I wanted more or less sedation than last time - I said MORE! I remember absolutely nothing of the procedure. Yay! The only issue is the sore throat I'll have for the next couple days. Whew...glad that's over!

We got to the hospital a little early for the procedure, so I took a few photos. I kinda liked this one of me and my sweetie...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T18:13:00.001-07:00

I hope you all had a wonderful day, and I hope you took the time to think of some things you are thankful for. Here at our house we each shared something we were thankful for, and at the top of my list was having my mom living close enough to celebrate the holidays with us. I also made a short list for my friend's blog...I'll add that here too.

1.) A wonderful friend who "gets" me!
2.) A family that is non-traditional and traditional at the same time.
3.) A day to spend special time with friends and family.
4.) My precious Lord who provides for my every need.
5.) A 3-year-old who enjoys washing dishes.

Here is one of our centerpieces (we had 3 dining tables)...

Third post in one day!

2008-11-22T21:44:00.001-07:00

I rarely do this, but today I'm posting 3 different times! Talk about craziness!

After Caleb cooked his snack he sat on the table to share it with his brothers. When they were done he cleaned out the bowl, and then went to climb off the table. Apparently something went wrong, and instead of just climbing down he fell. He cried and cried, and I could tell he was going to cry himself to sleep, so I put him the bathtub before he could pass out for the night. He cried all through his bath, and then cried until he fell asleep on the couch. We let him sleep through dinner, and as we were finishing our meal, he woke up crying again. We decided that this was more than just a bruise, and we called Nana to come and babysit while we took him to the ER.

After a quick admission to the ER (really quick!), and some peeking and x-raying, the doctor showed us a picture of our little man's fractured humerus. Our 3 year old has the first broken bone in our Scrivner family (I must note that my mother - who is not a Scrivner - broke her arm a couple months ago).

So, we are home, he has pain medication, and he's drifting off to sleep. Whew! What a day!

Craziness!

2008-11-22T16:23:00.001-07:00

If a 3-year-old came to you and said, "I wanted my marshmallows cooked", would you panic? Now, if he came and said, "I want to cook my marshmallows" I wouldn't be too worried. But the past tense thing definitely causes alarm.

Yesterday I made a snack mix for the kids with popcorn, Chex cereal, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. Yummy stuff! But they ate it all! So Caleb decided to make some more, without any adult assistance!

He put some Cheerios in a bowl, put the rest of the mini marshmallows in, then put in the remaining Ritz crackers, and put the bowl in the microwave. Fortunately for all involved (especially the microwave) he only pushed the quick start button that only runs for 30 seconds - especially fortunate because he had his concoction in an aluminum bowl! I stopped it with 11 seconds left.

By the way, he did share this creation with at least two of his brothers.

Just wanted you to know!

2008-11-22T09:06:00.001-07:00

My friend who is a personal organizer is having a contest just in time for the holidays! She's going to give away a great prize if you enter TODAY! Check it out!! http://www.organizewithjulie.blogspot.com/

And make sure to check out her Simplify the Season series - so very helpful! Why stress through the holidays??

Molly

2008-11-14T17:05:00.001-07:00

We have really been feeling the doggy void lately...we all miss Aspen terribly. We know she will never be replaced, but we needed another dog. While we were checking out the local shelter's adoptable dogs, we saw a precious face that just called to us. This afternoon we went to the shelter to meet her, and we found her to be sweet, friendly, and relatively calm. What a great combination for a family dog! She's just a little over a year old, so she's still a very young lady. After a visit and some discussion, we decided that Molly was our dog.

Here is our newest family member...

She is already amusing us...she was unprepared for the laminate floors when she started running through the house with the kids. The first several times through she slid all the way across the living room! And her first task as the new family dog was to clean up Caleb's mess under the dining table - a task she did quite well, and without complaint.

I hear that she's going to need some training, but so far she has been a perfect lady. I think she will be a wonderful addition to our family.

Day 17

2008-11-12T16:38:00.001-07:00

Today is a special day in our family. It's the 44th anniversary of my husband's birth. In case I haven't made it clear, I have the most wonderful husband I could possibly have. He's thoughtful, generous, and affectionate, and he always strives to be the best husband and father he can be. I couldn't ask for a better man to spend my life with. I thank God for bringing us together, and I pray daily that God will fill Ken with joy.

Here's an extra photo - we saw a rainbow today that "followed" us all up and down the valley. It must have been in the sky for close to 3 hours! (But it was a very dark afternoon otherwise.)

A Sad Day

2008-11-03T17:40:00.001-07:00

I did not take this photo today, but I had to share it. This beautiful old lady, Aspen, fell asleep for the final time today. She was much more than "just a dog" to us - she was our guardian, playmate, companion... She will be sorely missed.

A Fall Festival!

2008-11-01T19:47:00.001-06:00

Our church hosted a Fall Festival today! It was fun, and we had a great turnout! There were a bunch of fun, easy little games, and lots and lots of candy!

There was a cake walk...

A fairly simple ball tossing game...(my son Austin was a little closer than regulation!)...

A beanbag toss that was harder than it looked...

(He made this shot, by the way)

A ping pong ball toss...

And several other fun games. There was also a nice little "food court" in our youth group room...

(Here are 3 of my men in the "food court" - my darling husband in the red plaid shirt; my second son, Andrew, watching Dad; and my littlest man, Caleb, getting a drink.)

My husband spent most of the time making cotton candy. He was a very popular man! The man supervising is our esteemed pastor. (Oh yeah...and there's the goofy photographer in the mirror.)

I loved Nathan's face paint! Isn't that sweet?

And my favorite part...a hot dog from my sweetie...

Can I go to bed now?