Sickness Go Away!

I am trying to hang in there but this bug we've all got is not letting go of us, and it looks like we get another fun round of fevers/colds/sore throats/coughs!! This is so frustrating, we just get to feeling better from the last thing, but not quite rid of the cough, then Wham! we get hit with another something or maybe it is the same thing just some long drawn out morphing/regenerating bug! I just want to feel better and enjoy the nice sunny days when they arrive and quit hacking up a lung every time I turn around!

The kids are all in the same boat, we've really been considering quarantining ourselves from the outside world until we can get over this because this bug just keeps getting passed around, or maybe our immune systems are so weak now that we are susceptible to everything? I don't know what else to do.

I keep trying to take it really easy and not overtax anyone with a busy schedule, but it honestly doesn't seem to be helping much.:( I guess on the bright side it gave me time to sit and surf. I got to research all kinds of curriculum ideas and choices, I got to email like a mad woman, I have read more books than I have in a long time, I have not done anything useful for fear of making it worse, finally I have a reason to avoid my "duties" around here.

I know we are not alone in this area though, community wide, maybe even county, wide this area is getting hit hard with this bug that won't let go! The highschool was so happy to have spring break finally come so that maybe everyone would have a chance to get over it while on break. I can't imagine this type of thing in schools!!!!

Our School is Growing...

Ok so to be clear the number of students in the school is NOT growing. Only our ideas and goals are growing. Now that we have made that clarification I would like to share a few tidbits of where our thinking has changed and my hopes for our school next year.

When we first started I wanted everything laid out day by day, I wanted to not think about it on HOW I would teach it because I had no idea HOW to teach it in the first place. Anyway I am noticing I am feeling more and more confident and not feeling like everything has to be canned (basically tells you what to say to your child to teach them) to more of a relationship of learning. I want to snuggle on the couch and read a good book together and then have that lead to some questions and ideas of how we could learn more (even if I had to prompt those questions) and then that hopefully will lead to teaching the kids the skill of being able to learn for themselves later in life. If they wonder something I don't want them to ignore that I want them to know where to find the answers and to feed the desire to know more.

In the past I think our school has been hard on me with burn out happening often because I am a fairly creative person but the thought of the books and restrictions and the boredom would get to be too much sometimes. The only thing that sometimes was able to pull me thru was the fear of failing completely or the excitement of summer being around the corner and getting to do more creative learning.

I have since run accross information for two types of schooling that I want to learn more about. The first was Charlotte Mason and the second style is a classical education. I am excited to learn more about these two types of learning and how I can use them in our school. I have already decided to work slowly towards it, I want to implement several of the things this year, however where the workbooks work well for us (Math) I want to keep those in place. I am VERY excited about adding in more literature and classic books to the kids' learning plans. There is so much I have yet to learn and so much more I need to know before I think I can take the time to get it right. I think the point is to start somewhere and enjoy the process of the growth that happens.

The past few weeks I have been making a point of snuggling in and reading from a good book. The kids so enjoy this, I mean sure they are kids and they squirm and make noises and it drives me crazy some days but what I notice is that they love just having my attention be on them....doing something for just them! It is amazing how when I just sit with which ever of the kids I am working with and give them my full attention and not trying to check emails while they work or thinking about those dirty dishes or just feeling overall distracted that they respond so much better to me and their studies when I just sit and be with them. Now of course they have to be able to work independantly and they do but there are a lot of times where they are just struggling and I want to be able to line them out in something and go about my day. They were frustrated and I was frustrated when I'd get back and nothing was done. I keep thinking I need to be productive but they need me to be still sometimes. I have some learning to do, here I thought that I was teaching the kids, right?

I am really excited to share what I am learning as we go. Hang in there, when I am in planning stages, the plans are bound to change at least 4-5 times. Hee Hee

The Hayloft Suite

Wow we had such a wonderful time on our little trip to Boise. We stayed at the Anniversary Inn and it was fantastic!! When we checked in they were very friendly. Then we went up to our room, we opened the door and we were both blown over with the atmosphere!! They had only the light in the "outhouse" on so you saw the moon shape in the door and they had some music playing up in the loft as to lure you up there! Then there was sparkling cider on ice and two slices of yummy cheesecake. Also they had some awesome chocolates. It was all complimentary that is just how they do it there. We've stayed at a couple nice places and even a great B&B but this was bounds above anything we had ever seen! The room was done with such neat decor and rustic barnwood etc. I would love to go back tomorrow!! It was hard to leave.


Here are some pics.....I should point out that it is REALLY hard to get a decent pic with the overall feel and layout of the room but I will try.

Here we go....into the hayloft suite...

This is what we saw when we opened the door!! The jetted tub is on the left, with two white fluffy robes!! That opening up in the loft is the bedroom area.

This windmill actually has a fan set up so it runs, it adds alot of fun. When you turn on the shower, it goes up to the top of this windmill and down the pipes and falls into the shower area, it is pretty unique!

There is a nice fireplace to the right.

From this loft opening you look down onto the jetted tub, the neat windmill and outhouse, along with an awesome wall mural.

This is the view looking down from the loft window. Hi Mr Wonderful.

We decided to get proof we actually stayed here! We had such a good time. I highly recommend this place! They also feed you a nice continental breakfast at whatever time you specify, they just leave it at your door at the chosen time. The best part? Checkout isn't until noon!

The Bug Has hit....

...the homeschooling curriculum bug that is! Oh my it bit hard recently. So much so that I have decided to change the entire feel of our school next year! This is a bit scarey to me because this last year went the best yet.....this situation reminds me of that saying...."If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix it."

I forsee a few challenges if I don't make changes now though. Spud Man will need something of more interest and inspiration as he gets older. He is not a workbook type kid. I am thinking more of a Charlotte Mason/Classic method might be for us. At first I was a believer in simply bringing school home....then I read A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola (excellent book BTW) and it changed how I look at the end goal.

All this time I have been feverishly trying to make sure I am doing everything public school is doing......why would I do this when I have not been particularly impressed with the products of that system? There are some downfalls to that style in OUR home, it puts a lot of pressure on me to stay with a certain timeline that has nothing to do with my children's needs, aren't I homeschooling to provide the best education I can?



Part of the book mentions workbooks and text methods (what we were using almost 100%) and how it can sometimes lead to a gallon of teaching and an ounce of learning. She states that if I child can develop some kind of relationship with a subject (reading something they enjoy, exploring nature and something catches their attention, etc) that they are much more likely to absorb info revolving around it. It makes sense. I want them to be able to remember what I teach, because let's face it, teaching is hard sometimes, and it is not as rewarding as I'd like at times. There just seems to be a flow about this Charlotte Mason style and a peacefulness in the family/school.



Another seriously lacking area in our homeschool was literature. The classics specifically. We were covering all the subjects right down to science and art but it was all curriculum and a few free reading library books of interest here and there. I read very few books aloud to the kids, after school I was kinda done with all that. I felt like they got read to tons in school, little stories there and there, lessons etc.



Recently we started adding in read aloud time before school starts and it is making a nice difference, it is like it prepares their minds for learning somehow. I am really getting excited about a new method next year.



One thing I was starting to notice with the workbook method for everything is that sometimes I kept asking myself "Do they really need to learn that right now?" I felt like I needed to do it all and it was getting tiresome for everyone. Granted great curriculum but we are finding we need more flexibility. I am gaining enough confidence after 3 years to start doing a little more creatively.



One of my personal favorites from the Charlotte Mason style is they use copywork or dictation, you have the kids copy a passage and then you correct it for grammar, handwriting, punctuation, spelling, etc...it takes care of a lot of skills all in one. I love that streamlined idea, right now they have handwriting, grammar, spelling, punctuation practice, etc.



Also I love the idea of narration, where you read aloud something or they have free reading and you ask them to narrate what they read/heard. It helps you know how much they are absorbing, not to mention they develop public speaking skills, articulating thoughts and ordering facts etc. I wish I were stronger in that skill myself.



Lately I am also trying to plan my own lesson planner, I used one last year and it was a HUGE help in me staying on track and goal oriented. So this year I want to make a few tweaks and make my own planner pages (I have a lot of work to do, I have about 5 samples so far and I want to try them all to see what works best....am I obsessing? Ya I might be). I thought it would be fun to have areas for notes from friends and family members for encouragement thru the year (Jan/Feb can be hard for me when SAD sets in). Mr Wonderful for Christmas last year gave me a calendar with 3 months worth of special comments, he went thru and every few spaces in the calendar he'd write little things like "You are doing a great job with the kids." "Date Soon?" "You need a back rub huh?" or "I Love you!" It was precious and I LOVE it, so I thought it would be neat to have him do the same thing, or to have my dear friends write something funny or special if they will. Something to encourage me to keep going on this wild ride!



So far I am planning to stick with Christian Light Education for math again next year because it is working great and we love it! We also want to try some different grammar and English topics (we are thinking of trying Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons), we are adding a family read aloud time with lots of great literature, History from living books (many of our selections in history, literature, reading etc are taken from lists at both http://www.amblesideonline.com/ and some from http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/) , spelling we will simply take mispelled words from their written work or vocabulary words and use those as our lists, Science will be nature walks with a nature journal along with Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space. For Spud Man's phonics I continue to use Scaredy Cat Reading System. That is about all I have any remote idea on. I am positive it will change over the summer but it sure is fun trying to see if I can formulate a plan early.



School has been going so well this past couple weeks! We have only a few weeks left. Our last day of school for this year is May 9th! Testing is on the 13th of May and we will be able to relax into a fun summer program....my goal for summer is to read to the kids more and keep all their facts fresh. I learned the hard way last year NOT to forget school completely over summer with Sunshine....beginning of this year we had to take 3 weeks and relearn her multiplication facts! That was frustrating, but since then she is doing so great with all her facts so no complaints.



Anyway I am having fun diving into all the catalogs, websites, and friends materials looking for that just right fit for our school next year. I will keep you posted on all the fun....

Homeschooling.....

We started homeschooling because Mr Wonderful was working on a job about 2 hours from home and we wanted to stay with him in our RV during the weekdays and not have to worry about keeping the kids out of school for any length of time. It was a big job that lasted almost 2 years, it was a very financially rewarding job as well. So it was important to us to give homeschooling a try. Once we got started we knew it would be hard to ever go back, we enjoy the freedom and flexibility it gives us.

Right now we only do formal schooling with the two older ones, Sunshine (9rs 4th grade) and Spud Man (7yrs Kinder.). Tobers (4yrs) really likes busy work (but doesn't want to listen to how to do it, he just wants to do his own thing all the way thru his workbooks). We have been homeschooling for about 3 years. In the beginning, I really was not a fan of homeschool for various reasons. There are sometimes I have those days where I am tempted to send them back to public school and have 7 glorious hours to twirl my hair and drink tea, talk on the phone, and surf online all day. Then there are the times I can't imagine having them gone that long, I would truely miss them so much. I really do enjoy being a part of their education and I love how I am relearning everything with them (it is amazing how much 4th grade stuff you learn for the 1st time while teaching...how is it possible to forget that much stuff?) anyway Sunshine is a self starter and naturally likes to teach herself (can you say dream student 90% of the time?). She is the easy one.

Spud Man on the other hand, is all boy, 7 years old, and would rather be out in the dirt. Alas my patience (oh that's right I don't have any, and if I do find some I always use it up with him). He is about 75% better than he was when we first started, he used to flop around and whine and moan and groan and make my life miserable to the point that the last thing I wanted to do was start school with him (which now I know that he just was not ready then). There were times I was so inconsistant because I could not face another day of schooling this child! We weren't talking about anything taxing here 5.5 yrs old and learning the ABC's and basic phonics, or counting. He was exceptional with writing though, his handwriting was amazing! When he was first learning his hand eye coordination was great. Now he has started to get a little sloppy just because he can write faster now and it went downhill a little. Anyway right now after 2 years of struggle suddenly he is doing really well in math (he is in about 1st grade math) and he likes it!!!!





Reading we are finally making some great headway on, (he has come a long ways but it took a long time!), I keep expecting one day for him to just wake up and read for as much as we've been working on it. I think I am more committed to keeping him home simply because I know he would need meds for school since he tends to lean towards the ADD side of the scope. At home I can manage that by monitering his eating and I find ways to incorperate learning with movement, he also learns well from videos and computer programs...some hands on stuff is always better with him. This past 2 weeks he has made huge strides in progress, he is now reading and creating sentences on his own and he is gaining a lot more confidence in his own abilities as well. He is especially enjoying his cookie sheet with salt in it for a tactile way of learning. He likes to make his sentences and words in this and it helps break up the work into something interesting at times.

I found a curriculum I really like using for language arts and math (I like their other subjects too but like to mix things up a little bit). Anyway it is called Christian Light Education it is very simple, easy to teach,I beleive it is also slightly advanced. I really like the simplicty of the illustrations and the practicality of their math too. It reminds me of something vintage or classic. Anyway we've been using that for 2 years now. It is similar to Life Pacs in that it has 10 workbooks for each grade level which makes it nice for both the kids and myself to see some benchmarks and workbooks being finished. We also really enjoy the CLE reading, their readers are great to have for the family library as well, filled with wholesome stories with character and morals.



As much as we like the above curriculum we have also taken an interest in more of a Charlotte Mason style for our homeschool as well. This is something new we want to add/replace some previously used things with next year. I have been reading all kinds of info about it and trying to formulate a plan. I need to build a little more confidence in my abilities but I think it is a definate goal. We will continue with CLE Math but try to put together some more Charlotte Mason style techniques for the rest. I want to try this out over the summer to see how well we all respond to it. We do have a weakness in the literature area of our school right now so I think this would be a great fix to that weakness.

This year we used Sonlight science, Complete Book of US History, and several other basic workbooks to fill in the edges. We like to play board games like Snapshots Across America, or Sum Swamp, and of course card games too. Tobers especially likes this visual perception game.

I have no idea how I will ever manage 4 children needing to be schooled at once but I will cross that bridge when I get there. I am hoping the older ones will help teach the younger ones some things but time will tell.;)

Some of the activities we do with Tobers.

We do testing each spring locally. Even when it is not a required benchmark year for them to be tested I go ahead and do it. I also get an analysis of what areas need work or are doing well in. It really helps me to see where the weaknesses are and what they are doing well with. I feel like it is moreso my report card on how well I am teaching them than the kids' report cards.

I find that the kids are learning so much about real life in this homeschooling adventure. Mr Wonderful teaches them real life skills, he gets to spend real quality time with them doing useful tasks (he also tries to stress the important of learning and how he needs basic knowledge like they are learning in their schooling to be able to do it properly. I also teach them skills in cooking, sewing, woodworking, cleaning, art, animal care, dog training etc. As a family we process hundreds of pounds of produce and fruit by freezing and canning for our winter's supply since Mr Wonderful's income is smaller in the winter due to weather and lack of hours working. We try to do everything we can as a family. I really believe they will end up with a well rounded education.

At first I was concerned with socialization (like everyone else who starts this journey, and everyone whom you tell you are starting this journey) but we are a part of a homeschool group, church family, and we are out in the world occasionally. ;) I really love how most homeschooled children I know can talk to all ages, very young, younger, older, the elderly and can carry on meaningful conversations. You don't see a lot of that in public school....I was one of those that had a hard time relating to elderly or different ages.

Sometimes I feel like homeschooling is a huge job and very tiring in many ways for me. I think it is mostly emotional/mental, especially on the days that I struggle with Spud man, it sucks all the confidence out of me. The responsibility on my shoulders is heavy sometimes but then I think about what sort of issues I would be dealing with coming home from school as far as attitudes and behaviors and I know I actually have an easier job than the alternative of trying to parent kids effectively when they are away from you for so long each week. I am not against public school, I am just really glad that for now we have decided to choose this route.

Anyway I just wanted to share a little about our "school" and the whys and what materials we use with you. Having said all the above things I find it VERY important to have outside support, other families you can share with and get together with. That has made a huge difference for me personally to keep up with the demands placed on me. Also I find it important to take time for myself without the kids, at least once per week. It is about balance and each person has to find their own delicate balance of what works for them. It took me 3 years to figure out this much so I imagine after a few more I will have figured out a few more tips to make it more enjoyable. So there is a dive into our homeschool mission......thanks for tagging along and listening to me meander thru my thoughts.

Callie is getting old...

If you look closely you can see a small puppy peeking out of Mr Wonderful's shirt. She was so tiny!

Here she is at a couple months old. She was so cute! Lately I have been thinking more and more about Callie and her role in Mr Wonderful and I getting together. How she has been such a large part of our lives for so long...what will it be like when she is gone? Will Mr Wonderful and I lose a part of ourselves when Callie passes away?
Callie is over 13 years old and she is almost completely deaf. It is getting to the point of her being a liability when she is outside, I worry so much since she can't hear cars coming or people calling her. It is scarey for me to try to protect her. Her eyesight is also starting to fail as well. I am scared we will have to make that dreaded decision before we are ready.
For now Callie is actually fairly perky, Mr Wonderful gets home and she jumps all around and greets him, she can still jump into the back of our Dodge pick-up most days. She is kinda gettting cranky with our new dog Maggie and she will get cranky with the kids at times. She is still very loyal to Mr Wonderful. She has decided that when we are not home her rightful place is on our couch! Since she is deaf and cannot hear us come home we are always catching her snoozing on the couch when we walk in the door. She can still perk up well with no real signs of arthritis that is so common in older dogs but she does take a lot more naps between her active moments!

She will do about anything to please Mr Wonderful including becoming a retriever for grouse season. She learned to retrieve a grouse after one got away from him several years ago. She has NO breeding in her for retrieval, she is a Heinz 57 blend of cowdog. She has blue heeler, carter dog, border collie and possibly some mystery breed as well. Why is it that these mixed breed dogs usually end up being the best dogs? They don't cost a dime to get one and nothing usually goes wrong with them for years and years.

Then you go and spend hundreds of dollars on a purebred Golden Retriever puppy and she ends up chewing out her spay stitches costing a whopping $350 for a simple spay surgery, and now she has sensitive skin and needs special shampoo. Not to mention that she chewed a hole in our fairly new carpet!!!! I had forgotten how much work puppies are. It made me even more thankful for easy Callie who was already potty trained, tried and true left alone in our house, and how she is just perfect because she is all we ever knew.

Who would have ever thought she'd be this big of a part of our lives? Part of me fears that when Callie is gone I will have to face that we are also getting older and that our youth is over. It is hard to face, she has been with us thru so much of our lives, falling in love, getting married, setting up our first household, bringing home all 4 of our babies, welcoming a new puppy (she was NOT happy about this little addition), and lots of family fun to be had in the last 13 years.
I hope she can stay with us a long while! Maybe she can break some kind of dog life record right?

Younger Years Cooking...

Is everyone enjoying our story so far? Just curious. I admit I am having fun but I also feel like it is such a personal thing that it is kinda hard to put out there too. Hopefully you guys are getting some good laughs out of the deal. I know it has me reminscing and loving the walk down memory lane. It has us carrying on more dialog from our past then we have in a while too. Mr Wonderful enjoys talking about most of those times too.


Today he told me for the first time ever that once before we were dating that he had eaten up at the house (the shop where the guys worked was not far from our house) and that I had made mac and cheese and my Dad had kept everyone working late that night and he felt bad sending them home so far from town so late without feeding them. Just so happened I had made a large batch of this Mac & Cheese and Mr Wonderful initially thought, "yuck I don't really like Mac & Cheese but gosh I hate to turn them down" meanwhile as I am hearing this story I was pretty sure it was not about the food, he probably wanted to see me even though at the time he was still playing Mr Uninterested. Don't you agree?


Anyway he did come with a couple other workers for this late dinner and he said it actually was the best Mac and Cheese he'd had because it was homemade. He said that was when he figured out I was a good cook, I was probably 15 at the time. Interesting huh?


Problem is I have no recollection of this said dinner or making Mac and Cheese. Although I did cook ALOT during that time in my life because my Mom was going thru chemo and I did a lot of those sort of things for a long time. I drove for her most days because the chemo affected her eyesight and energy. Anyway I wish I could remember this dinner.


He told me this story with great detail. Why can't I remember it?


Speaking of my early years cooking, wanna hear something truely embarassing? My brother had just gotten married and they had stopped by to visit so I had to quickly get something in the oven for dinner for everyone. Our family had this great meatloaf recipe with shredded potatoes, shredded carrots, some egg to hold it together with some seasonings and of course the burger, then on top a yummy sweet ketchup sauce. So I did have all the ingredients for it. I started shredding those potatoes and carrots, I added everything, I pressed it into the pan, I smeared on the yummy topping and got it baking. Ahhh now I could relax and enjoy the visiting and evening.



Well soon it was time for serving, we are all seated around the table ready to dig in, we have our side salads, we have our meatloaf, and we all start digging in. We are all dished up and finished praying when my SIL says to me...."um did you forget something?" I am like "What?" I had yet to taste my meatloaf you see. Turns out I forgot to add the burger to the "meat" loaf! How embarassing, it was bad too, it was inedible, it was a crying shame all the work and time waiting for dinner and no meat? Ya I am not sure I will ever live down the night I made meatloaf and forgot the meat.

Highschool to Housewife...His Truck.

I thought I would take a few mins to tell you about Mr Wonderful's pick-up when we were dating. I come from a long line of Chevy pick-up drivers (don't look in my driveway because we have a Dodge, we got a lot crap about it too!) anyway Mr Wonderful drove a pick-up that had special meaning for me. You see it had been in the family a while before Mr Wonderful bought it. First my Grandpa had found it for my oldest brother who was looking for a pick-up to rebuild (a project if you will). He completely rebuilt it from engine to paint job. He put glass packs on (whatever those really are, I just know it made it sound loud and fun), then he put in a large sound system with a subwoofer (my personal favorite), this pickup was NICE in it's early days, but then my oldest brother wrecked it one night the road washed out in a flood (so on goes the first few layers of bondo), then repainted it again. Anyway this poor pick-up had been thru a lot by the time Mr Wonderful bought it, including Ornery Brother. Ornery Brother sold it to Mr Wonderful.

Mr Wonderful ended up recovering the bench seat in a really neat navajo fabric and I was particularly impressed with his choice. When Mr Wonderful and I went on our first date I noticed he listened to the radio WITHOUT the subwoofer turned on......what kind of injustice is THAT? I could not believe it, because to me the best thing in the whole world was feeling that bass "move" you. I love bass......to this day when I hear a good bass in music or movies it makes me tingle. I am pretty sure it can be linked back to our time in this blue truck with the subwoofer ON!

I miss that truck sometimes, well alot sometimes. The times I don't miss it are when I think about how many repairs it was constantly needing, how is guzzled fuel like a thirsty elephant, and of course it only seated 3 people.......those are the reasons we ended up selling it shortly before we got married. Now you want to know the true sign of good husband material? A Man willing to trade this in.....

For this.....

Shortly before we got married we decided we needed a car that would be reliable and also get good gas mileage. Turns out we made a good choice because our Honda Accord ended up being with us for a LONG time, we bought it in 1997 and sold it about a year and a half ago 2006 (when we had our 4th baby and we could not longer all fit in it). I loved that car. Anyway it says a lot about a guy who is willing to give up his truck for a family car. By the way that is his dad next to him in the pic (he passed away in 2003 just 4 days after Tobers was born). I believe we were one of the only people to stubbornly hold on to a car that we loved even though we were completely busting out of the seams with 3 kids, 2 adults, and a dog on occasion. That car was a member of the family it seemed. We get attached to our vehicles for some reason they all have names.

In those above pics that is almost the exact outfit he wore on our first date! Here are some random pics with Blue Bertha in it.

Don't I look young and innocent? NOT! What WAS I thinking with that outfit (I swear those slickie pants were "in" then!) and what was up with my hair?

By this time this truck had been thru alot, witnessed a whole lot, and been the center of a lot of fun adventures.....another fun little note about this truck is that it had a back window. Callie would most of the time ride in front when I was not in the truck but sometimes she'd ride in back. When I was there she'd ride in the back more....she DID NOT appreciate this setback in her position. If Mr Wonderful and I got to flirting and tickling in the cab or something fun (get your minds out of the gutter people!) she'd start scratching at the back window and if we let her in she'd break up the fun and protect Mr Wonderful! She still does that to this day, she protects him even if he is winning!!! Doesn't she know I named her? She is very much Mr Wonderful's dog still after 13 years! Hmph!

Now I know Mr Wonderful's truck was nothing spectacular but we sure loved it, it was well worn by the time we sold it but there is a special memory there. I still really like the looks of those chevy trucks so proud and loud. We have talked about when the kids are grown that we will find a chevy pickup in that same era and rebuild it and have that be our date rig! There are just certain things that take us back and 70's chevy pick-up's do that for us.

High School to Housewife....Proposals in the Dark.

I am about to share with you the story of Mr Wonderful's proposal. We had been dating about 1.5 years and I was more than ready, I was fast approaching 18 and I could not wait to spend my life with him! I had graduated a year early from high school and attended 1 year at a community college. I really only wanted to be a wife and mother to his babies. That was all I ever dreamed about growing up, I had no desires to be a working woman or even get a degree (to this day I still have no idea what I would be interested in if and when I do go back to college). I am madly in love and feelin' impatient I kept thinking...."I know he has a ring, I am pretty sure, or at least I think so." I am just waiting, and waiting and waiting some more...and as you all know I was born with a devastating birth defect....I was missing my ability to be patient.

So it was my 18th B-Day and Mr Wonderful took me out for a beautiful night. He drove me up on a secluded ridge (I still have no idea if this was public or private land) anyway here we are driving out onto the point of a rugged ridge just as the sun is starting to set. It is bumpy and rough and uncomfortable.....the suspense is killing me...I think to myself.. "Is this the night? Is he going to propose, something is up here?"

Mr Wonderful finally parked his pick-up and turned on some romantic music (I should mention that he had this amazing sound system complete with subwoofer that I particularly found personally moving in a raging hormone kinda way). Anyway the music is set, the sun is falling, he gets out some stemware fancy glasses from his toolbox somewhere (do you KNOW what kind of yucky, dirty stuff they normally keep in men's truck toolboxes?....ignore that) anyway he has sparkling cider. He pours me some and we take a nice stroll towards the sunset glasses in hand.....the light is beautiful and romantic. Again that darn suspense is getting to me....actually it never went away. All the questions flooding my mind. "Is he really going to propose?" I think to myself "I am 18 now, it is safe to go ahead anytime, really." We chat, we laugh, I start to get impatient, I try not to let Mr Wonderful know just how devoid of patience I really am. The suspence I tell you.

Just then he turns to face me and gently strokes my cheek and looks deep into my eyes......(my knees go all wiggly) he starts to say how much he loves me and how much I have given him and how his heart needs me to be complete and just how much he looks forward to a life with me. With that he dropped down on his knee and took out a velvet box and asked me so sweetly with tears in his eyes to marry him. I of course said "Yes, I love you of course YES!!!" He put the ring on and I was so excited, we hugged and over his shoulder I was trying to hold up my hand to see the ring....but by this time it is dark...too dark to even really SEE the ring! I had no idea how big it was, the shape of it or anything! So I casually mentioned we better get back to the truck because it is dark and I am a big weany in the dark.

The minute we got to the truck I bailed into the jockey box whipped out the flashlight and gave it a click......."ah finally some light around here.".....I gave it a glance and WOW what a sparkler, it was more than I could have dreamed of! I mean here I was 18, young naive, and so hopeful. It ended up that he had done a fabulous job picking out my ring all on his own...he only asked me a few vauge questions and went with it. He ended up getting me an oval cut, slightly bigger than a half carat solitare!!! I was grinning from ear to ear. I was completely in love with my man and all the way home I kept trying out the word "fiance"....I love that word.

There is more to the story, specifically how my parents reacted to the news as well as what comes after an engagement like wedding plans, weddings, honeymoons (yes plural, but it is not all it is cracked up to be), and babies.....lots of sweet babies.

So ladies tell your sons, "If you love her.......don't propose in the dark!" Unless of course you want to test the true depth of her love.

This was our engagement picture.

High School to Housewife...My Sr Prom.

We went to my Sr Prom together (our 2nd prom together) as you saw in the last post. There is a wee little bit more to the story. You see we went to prom of course and had a nice time, but then everyone started to leave early for different destinations. Mr Wonderful and I decided to go our own way as well. We decided on a beautiful night like that we wanted to go for a drive and find somewhere private. We drove around and finally ended up on some quiet country gravel roads. We decided to get even more private and we went up a steep road that was not improved.....have I mentioned Mr Wonderful's pick up is not a 4 wheel drive? Anyway we parked and admired the stars. Anyway it was quiet and peaceful and beautiful with those bright stars in the sky. When we got ready to leave we realized somehow the truck had gotten high centered!!! This was NOT good since we were getting close to my cerfew. So luckily Mr Wonderful had a flashlight.....he tried digging out even all dressed up in his tux! (no luck) Then we tried jacking it up and giving it a good shove while I hit the gas, that did not work either.

So we were left to start walking towards the nearest house......the nearest house was probably 1/2 mile or more away in the dark. Now of course since it was prom I was wearing heels.....we have already established that this is an unimproved road which means large rocks and potholes in the dark. It was painful, not to mention I was wearing a fitted dress with not a lot of room to walk anyway. So we walk and walk to this far off house...wouldn't you know they had what souned like at least five large mean dogs? We could not even get close to that place before we were pretty sure we'd be eaten.......problem is the only other house is MILES away!!! Of course at that time we did not have a cell phone (boy that would have been nice).

So we start walking towards more of the main road (still a gravel country road). We were pretty embarassed and worried about not making it for cerfew and what trouble that would lead to. I was pretty sure I'd be washing a lot of windows that next day. You see my parents had a rule that if you were past cerfew that you had to wash windows (we had a ton of bay and picture windows it was a huge job). Anyway we are walking when we see headlights, oh thank God!!! So we start turning our flash light on and off to signal we needed help. This car was still a long ways away and it was iffy on if they'd even be able to see our light but they appeared to! The vehicle started coming our way!!! It was such great news....until we figured out who it was. It of course had to be the police!

So if that was not humilating enough the officer insisted on calling MY parents (we wanted to call one of Mr Wonderful's buddies to come pull us out) and letting me explain what was happening and then we tried talking him into just gently pulling us out of our perdicament...he said "No". Then he drove us part way to my parents house because they were on their way.....can you imagine getting a call at 2am from the cops (2 hours after my cerfew)? Somy parent got there in record time.....we both climbed in to my parents rig said thank you to the officer. Then my parents drove us to the stuck truck and my parents helped pull the truck out of it's perdicament. Then we had to go our seperate ways. My parents were suprisingly quiet and not too mad, I think they were just thankful that I was alive after all that! I was glad they did not feel the need to kill me.

We finally made it home around 3am and that was the end of my prom night adventure.

So the following pics now have deeper meaning huh? Just imagine how I might have looked after my adventuresome evening. Shoes thrashed, dress ripped along the hemline and up the slit from trying to walk several miles, filthy ruined dress from trying to dig us out and help Mr Wonderful, tear stained face because I was scared what my parents would do, let's not even get stared on my hair! Ya, I was a mess.......so these pics are pretty hilarous to me knowing what I ended up looking like after the evening came to an end. Good thing I did not make that dress because I would have been really upset but I did not really like the dress all that much anyway...don't you think it made me look like a football player with those shoulders? HAHA

High School To Housewife...The Long Wait.

After our break-up months earlier I was more sure than ever that I really did want to spend the rest of my life with Mr Wonderful. He had remained caring, respectful and honest with his feelings even thru all our struggles and I knew I wanted to be married to someone with that kind of self-control and respect for me even thru turmoil. We took it slowly and worked towards a stronger relationship for the next year. I graduated a year early from high school and he got his associates degree in Civil Engineering. Graduating early was something that I had worked towards from the 7th grade, I had seen so many seniors in high school only have to go half days that I decided to plan out all my credits when I got into highschool so that I could graduate early and forget a silly 1/2 day for a whole year. I did just that.

Mr Wonderful and I had a good relationship and we were getting more and more anxious to be married. My parents really "encouraged" us to wait, well ok forbid it for a long time because I really was too young. I sure did not think so at the time though. We had to be patient until my 18th B-day because as you probably know parents can't say much once you are 18 right?

This is how Mr Wonderful chose to express his love at times! I loved it!

Here are some other various pics from that year.

Here I am at my last county fair with another 4-H outfit for modeling.

Here we are at my Sr. Prom April 1996.

Here is my senior pics. The top photo I had broken my foot just minutes prior to the photo shoot. I had gotten my horse all groomed and ready and had went inside to grab my saddle, when I stepped off a large step with my saddle I felt my foot snap and instantly I started to feel ill. The photographer had driven all that way out to our ranch and I felt so bad about her coming so far for nothing and I was ready (it is not small feat to get a horse ready like that not to mention myself) so I dried the tears, fixed the make up and hobbled up the hill for our photo shoot, the wincing pain is barely noticable! That photo shoot was followed by getting to the ER to wait another 3 hours to be seen, then painful tweaking for x-rays and a walking cast for a few weeks. The second pic (on the bottom) we had done in a studio, injuries are less likely in a studio we confirmed. Can you tell I was all cowgirl back then? I love it!

Here is what I made him for our first Christmas together 1995.

Good times!

Highschool to Housewife....Storm Clouds Brewing.

We had been together roughly 5 months when things started getting stormy. I got anxious and nervous about things being so serious when I was only 16 years old. We had been talking about marriage already and I was both thrilled with the idea and terrified at the same time.  I was not sure I was completely ready to settle down. I knew I loved Mr. Wonderful and I wanted to spend my life with someone like him but I also was not sure I was done with my teen years and doing fun and wild stuff.

I broke his heart, I told him how I was feeling and that we needed a break, that things were getting too serious and I was only 16 and needed a little space. Of course all this time I was the one to make it more serious I mean talk about indecisive! That was not the only reason, there was another boy showing me interest and I missed that new love type attention. I explored the idea of dating someone else, but it never really happened. I missed Mr. Wonderful, I still had not been able to break the habit of calling him to talk, he was my best friend.   So I started trying to repair our relationship as best I could after I had been so selfish.

We had been broken up almost a month. During our break-up he still treated me with respect and he even gave me a sweet B-Day card about always being friends and that he still cherished our friendship. I think that was one of the turning points for me, to know that he still cared about me deeply even though I had hurt him. It took a while to build back the trust and we were pretty much only friends for over a month after we decided to try it again. It took a while for me to be ready as well, since part of the reason for the breakup had been for space because things had been moving along fairly fast. So we slowly worked our way back to each other and learned about trust and commitment. Soon our relationship had grown to be even better than before. We had a deeper relationship now and we were stronger and happier than before. It was like we had passed a test or a major bump in the road and he and I both proved we had what it took to make it work. One of the neat times we experienced in our journey back was that we had been out to dinner eating chinese food and we got our fortune cookies and here is what mine said: "Stop searching forever. Happiness is sitting next to you." It was like a 2x4 to the head, I realized it was right, he was everything I ever wanted and needed!


We also knew that lust is what had really started to ruin our relationship. After we got back together we decided to hold off on that part of our relationship and focus on doing things together as a couple but not focusing so much on each other and our attraction to one another. It was important to get our minds on something else and learn to be friends moreso than worrying about anything more even if our relationship before would have looked innocent to most people in our situation. We maintained our decision for about 6 months.....until I dared him that he could not resist me, ya don't even dare a man they can't resist you when you both have been fighting temptation for over 6 months.......turns out I won the dare and our hiatus from serious make-outs was over. See? I was such a bad influence!

Highschool to Housewife....Awakened Hormones.

No one told me about these hormones, well I heard about them but I never pictured myself being victim to them. Those kisses from Mr Wonderful ignited something in me I had never known. I was falling for him harder than I thought possible. I wanted more!!! So far we had only ever kissed gently and sometimes passionately but it never went further than that....I was becoming impatient, I wanted to him to seem as overtaken with passion as I was recently starting to feel.

We were on our 1 month anniversary date and we were talking comfortably like we always did when my impatience bone started bothering me. I had to ask......it seemed like we were more friends than anything more.....I asked Mr Wonderful why it seemed like we were more friends than anything else, did he not want anything more? He responded surprisingly. He responded with a major come on, no talk no hesitation. All that time he had been being patient and waiting for me.

The kisses were wonderful, only this time there was way more passion and there were wandering hands (I was thinking something in between being just friends and madly passionate) so I had to put the breaks on this new development. I told him I was excited to see he did have an interest in me past being friends, but that we had to slow down a little. We had to recompose ourselves and agreed to take it slow and not get into any hurry. He was a gentleman and he was of course patient, and I was satisfied that he was burning up with desire for me. He passed the test, he was respectful of my limits that night and I knew I could trust him from that point on, I never had to question his feelings for me or his respect for me.  I had found a keeper indeed!

Here is what I did with most my time when I was not with Mr Wonderful. Training and showing my horses.

Mr Wonderful captured pictures like the ones to follow on his Pentax camera in his passtime. He also did a lot of fishing and hunting. Only of course when he wasn't on a date with me or working for my family's construction business.

Didn't he take some great pics?

Highschool to Housewife...We go to prom together.

After we had been dating a few weeks I asked Mr Wonderful if he'd be willing to go to my prom with me, I kinda doubted he would want to go back to a high school prom after being graduated 3 years but he enthusiastically said YES! Whoo Hoo I had a date for prom!




I got busy sewing my dress and making plans. He ordered his tux and we were all set. I was so excited. It was my first prom and I had a serious date and not some random date I did not even know very well. I felt like I had arrived to some elite club of people who had a real date for prom.




Here are a few pics from our special day.

I am so glad we had the forsight to have him take off his glasses.....too bad he could not see a thing!

This pic my Mom took of me in front of our front door. What I would not do to be able to fit back into that dress, or anything that size.......and to think at the time I thought I was HUGE! If only we could go back and tell myself I was fine the way I was!

I was also able to use my dress for 4-H modeling and sewing so I was able to check that off my list of things to do early in the year. Here is a pic of me taking top prize at the Oregon State Fair for style review (modeling a garment you made). Too bad we did not have the forsight that day to take Mr Wonderful's glasses off. Mr Wonderful was able to come along on the trip with my parents.

Mr Wonderful Grocery Shops...

So my energy has been MIA lately and I have been desperately needing to head to the store for some FOOD! We are all starving around here, Ok not starving because we have lots of canned fruits and frozen meats but the fillers like crackers, bread, side dishes, cheese, all dairy really, (you know all the appetizing parts of a meal) are lacking around here.

I managed to put together a nice meal plan for the next week along with a good grocery list. Problem is you actually have to have the energy to GO to the store to GET the groceries for it to do any good!

I finally called Mr Wonderful a few mins ago to feel out his willingness to get groceries for me. Sure enough he said he would be able to and that he'd call me later to get the list. Little does he know it is a LIST, complete with two full columns. Poor guy. If I know him he will do it with a smile and he will pick up a few more extremely useful items that I had no idea I needed but I really did. He is good that way.

Anyway I am feeling so very lucky right now to have such a helpful husband. He probably knows it is his only chance to get any decent cooking around here huh? Maybe he isn't being super helpful, maybe he is out for self preservation? HAHA

Now I have to figure out one more meal from the nothingness in our frig and cabinets. Can I do it? Yes I can!!!! Evidently I have been watching too much Bob the Builder....

Highschool to Housewife.....He Courted Me!

So after I FINALLY caught his attention, Mr Wonderful started living up to his nickname. He bought me flowers, he bought me easter Bunnies with Cadbury Eggs (my favorite Easter candy) he wrote the most romantic cards and letters (lots of them), he surprised me with sweet romantic dates. Here are a few pics of some of the beautiful bouquets of flowers he got me over the course of our early dating relationship.

It was the letters and cards that went with these flowers that was so touching. He was not affraid to tell me how he felt about me and he was so honest and open with me. I cherish every word in those cards and letters to this day. Now if I could just get him to write a few more of those now that he "has" me 13 years later.;)

Highschool to Housewife.... The Long Awaited Kiss

We had been dating 3 weeks and we were finding that we were very much compatible with one another and we could talk so easily. I loved that he'd talk to me and we could talk about anything!


We were on a drive near my parents home one day and we were talking about life and how we'd like our futures to look and Mr. Wonderful turned to me and said that he could see himself married to me someday! GULP! It was such a nice compliment and I knew I had arrived! Now at this point we had not even kissed yet and he could picture himself married to me? I admitted I felt the same way because to be able to talk so openly with a guy and to not have him constantly trying to get me into bed was a really nice change! I had some previous boyfriends that really hurt me and made it very clear that all they wanted was action and could care less about what I wanted to say or do.:( So Mr Wonderful was exactly what I needed, he was patient, kind and respectful. Anyway we had been talking and driving around spotting wildlife. I personally was beginning to wonder if Mr Wonderful would ever make a move to kiss me, he didn't. So I took matters into my own hands. I leaned in and kissed him, it was passionate, it was earth moving, it was wet! I decided right then and there that we needed kissing lessons....we laughed about it and promptly decided we must keep practicing because we had to get this right. (He teases I taught him how to kiss, so true, so true!) After several "lessons" we were able to get it just right and we of course decided we'd never be done learning to kiss one another from that point on. (That reminds me, I think we need a refresher course in the kissing department.....hmmmm..."Mr Wonderful, where are you?") That kiss started a whole flow of hormones that would soon be emerging in future weeks and I was not aware these sort of hormones existed personally.  I was head over heels for him and he appeared to be in the same state.

He Gets It From Me....

It's true he gets it from me......I often look like this after eating or making brownies. I don't know what is wrong with us but we just lack self control when it comes to brownies.....oh and I am still looking for my patience bone.....anyone seen it?

Energy Is Missing...anyone seen it?

I am feeling much better after the flu but the energy still escapes me.:( I wake up tired and want to lay in bed all day. I can muster loafing around the house, but then I look outside and it is sunny and looks warm out there and I want to be out working in the yard yet my energy just makes me feel like curling up on the couch.

I should be doing school with the kids but then the energy required seems too great. Why does it take so long to get over the flu? Especially this flu. I was reading that it can be normal to take up to 3 weeks to get energy back after the flu!!! I don't have 3 weeks to feel this way!

I had a root canal done on a problem tooth on Monday and it is still tender and healing up. I can't wait for things to be normal in the teeth department. I am trying to get to Boise to pick up a mouth gaurd because I clench my teeth at night which causes a lot of inflamation and pain if it is left untreated. We have had to reschedule our trip to Boise at least 4 times already, due to weather conditions and sickness! I really need to get there soon.

I suppose I should go force myself to get moving and work on the kids' school work.

Highschool to Housewife....the Catch.

So last post I told you about how Mr Wonderful named his new puppy Callie after my suggestion. I was sure this was a sign that he was flirting with me.

So now I had this excuse to call and check on the puppy. I did call him, he was friendly and sweet and the puppy was doing great. I swallowed hard and asked him if he would consider going on a date with me. Sure enough he suggested we go out that next weekend that it might be fun to go out! I could not believe my ears, at first I thought it was because he felt kinda forced into it but then later after we had talked for a while it was getting close to time to hang up and he said this after I told him that I was excited that we finally get to go on a date...he said "I am really looking forward to it". I melted, I had a grin on my face for the entire week!!!

To think it all started because of this cute little puppy.

Turns out the week went by so slowly. Finally when it was that day I primped and paced and waited for him to come. He was right on time, the rumble of his Chevy truck made my heart go pitter patter. He visited with my parents for a while then we were off on our date. He was trying to get to the passenger door before me but it did not work out and he was a little disappointed that I did not wait for him to open the door for me. Awe...how sweet!! I was a little embarassed because I bolted out my parents house so fast and into Mr Wonderful's truck that it may have been considered lightning speed, plus to have not been refined enough to wait for Mr Wonderful to open the door (I guess I was a cowgirl afterall).

We decided to go to Denny's and a movie. He ordered a side salad and in the end he decided a salad on the first date is only a good idea if the other person orders a salad too. He said he felt akward eating in front of me as we were trying to talk. I was just busy thinking about how nice he looked in his Wranglers, his blue and grey flannel shirt with elk all over it, and how his belt buckle matched everything perfectly. (He still has that shirt and belt buckle, I still love it!) After eating at Denny's we were off to watch a movie, I remember thinking I should not have eaten so much because my pants were tight in the waist. Anyway we got seated in the movies and it was so fun being there with him, after all this time of wishing and hoping, here he was, a much older guy with little old me! We watched our movie but honestly I don't remember much about it, something about my mind racing because I was on a date with Mr Wonderful, but I do remember briefly putting my head on his shoulder.

After our movie we went up to the airport to watch planes take off and land (something I have always liked) and we visited for a while. We eventually drove to my house and talked for a few more hours there, it was so neat, he was easy to talk to and I felt comfortable with him. He was a gentleman, funny, good looking and kind in every way. About midnight we decided he better head home and I walked him out to our front porch. We said good bye to one another and he gave me a gentle hug and told me how nice of a time he had. I melted and from that moment on for weeks I had a permanent smile on my face even in my sleep. I was walking on a cloud from then on.

High School to Housewife...the Chase Was On!

Mature girl that I am at the time, I left notes on his pick-up, he ignored them. One note in particular was my expressing my true feelings for him and layin' it on the line....I left it on his truck, then waited for the earth shattering visit where he tells me he feels the same way and we live happily ever after.

I waited that is for sure.....I waited and waited and he never came.....so being a patient person that I am, I called him to make sure he got it. Here is what he said "Oh I didn't open it until I got home" WHAT??? Now to me mis-impatience herself would have never been able to wait to read something/anything until I got home so I highly doubted his story....so now what?...he read it when he got home right? "Well what do you think?" He basically let me down easy saying I was the boss's daughter and that I was his best friends little sister and he played it off and never gave me the time of day...turns out this was the perfect thing for him to do, because playing hard to get is really fun for the chaser when said chaser is 16 yrs old and determined like I was.


Shortly after that he had picked out a puppy from my brother and his wife. He had just picked up this puppy and had stopped by the house to talk to my other brother (Ornery Brother), Mr Wonderful AKA Mr Uninterested had his younger sister with him and we were all messing with the puppy and saying how cute she was and on and on. Well Mr Wonderful had to run out to his pick-up for something and I proceeded to gush to his sister all about how I had this huge crush on him and I wanted to date him so bad. I figured if I could get on her good side she'd tell him what I said and I could "get at him" that way. Still did not work, nothin' happened. We did end up trying to figure out a name for the puppy though and he ended up taking my suggestion!!!!! I felt like a celebrity!! He took the name I suggested for his puppy. Her name is Callie......awe I still can't believe it. I think he kinda flirted don't you? I mean surely that was a form of flirting to take a name suggestion and use it....ya I am pretty sure.

Then I finally had a reason to call him, I had to check on that new puppy right? Make sure she was doing ok. I mean because unless I called I was pretty sure he was having all kinds of hardships with the puppy that I might have been able to help with right? Hee Hee

The chase is still on.....

Ouch!

Well last night as I was trying to stay calm about an impending root canal procedure (I get worked up about these things) and I ended up having a little accident. Whippersnapper and I were sitting on our bed watching TV snuggling and he was kinda wired up. He ended up throwing his head back and his head hit my lip, jambed my teeth and split my lip open. I was very surprised and thankful that he did not end up chipping any teeth. It hit me so hard I was crying like a baby and spitting blood. So now I have a fat sore lip, a tooth that has had a root canal today, and several sore teeth from his head hitting me! I always find it ironic that when it rains it pours.

Mr Wonderful has come down with our flu.:( He is a perfect gentleman even when sick, mainly because he is trying to be a good example because when we were all sick he complained a little that we were being a little on the bossy side and forgetting our manners. So of course he is a gentleman complete with manners and compliments. Hee Hee Just wait till day 3 of this crap, I'll bet those manners will go by the wayside. LOL

I am kinda excited about a little extra family time. He is staying home tomorrow and we will go get movies and hang out in bed together as a family all day. I am glad he waited till I was feeling a little better so I can handle things a little better. Normally he gets sick when I am really sick and then expects me to care for him too! I am really thankful I had a chance to get a little strength back before I had another patient.

Time to go tuck the kiddos in and snuggle in with Mr Wonderful.

Spring Emerges....

Certain sights this time of year make me giggy! Here is one of them.....

I was just out enjoying all the things starting to come up, taking stock of some spring planting ideas when I came accross THIS horrible injustice!

I want you to know THIS is my prized blue spruce bird's nest shrub, it is so neat I really like it. It was a splurge purchase last year. I love the blue hues to this plant and how compact it is. So I am strolling along and I see that a dog has crapped several times on my prized bush (not our dogs because they are not in the front yard)!!!! I am NOT happy at all! How dare they do that to MY bush? I wanted to cry, but then Spud Man saved me and cleared it all off with a shovel. What a nice guy huh?

I am really getting excited about spring time!!! It is warm today too so that doesn't help much, it only further ignites the need to study those seed catalogs and obsess about what to get this year and where to plant it. I am considering getting some seed starting supplies and trying my hand at some heirloom tomatoes this year. I will have to keep you posted on that process!