2 days to go, and I have too much stuff!

I have 2 days left until we begin our journey to our new home in North Dakota. My sweet friend and adopted sister Melinda was going to help me move last night, but she had other things she had to get done, so instead she sent her sweet husband Randy with the best gift anyone could have given me....4 of my boys from church. Gavin, Kit, Tyler, and Erik came over and loaded everything up before YM. It was so great to see them one last time. :)

So most everything is in the storage unit, yet there is still all this stuff in my room. I have spent the better part of this day packing and unpacking. Trying to figure out how to make a pile of stuff fit into my car. I have been know to be ingenious when it comes to this kind of stuff, but this may be more than even I can handle. I have a tiny trunk, lots of kids, and lots of stuff.



I guess we could leave our hygiene products behind, and only take one change of underware. Who needs pillow and blankets, or makeup, or even clothing. I may have to end up mailing them to myself, but I am going to try everything to avoid spending one more dime. I figure every penny I save will buy me warmer clothes :)

Saying Goodbye Makes Me Cry - 4 Days To Go!

Only 4 days until head out. It was -80 degree with the windchill in Williston this morning, this does not excite me. I am getting a block heater installed in my car today, for those of you who, like me, have never lived anywhere really cold, this is a devise installed by your engine block that plugs into an outlet and keep your gas and other liquids from freezing so it will start in the morning, gah! That is not promising.



I had to say goodbye to my sunday school class on sunday, and just writing this makes me want to bawl. I will miss them so much, I will continue to pray for them, that are the most amazing teens ever, and they are a force of strength. Thank Goodness for facebook, we can still keep in contact. Here is a picture of my class. I am missing a bunch of them, but I will take what I can get.





It is a lot easier to say goodbye to the adults in my life. They are going to be the same(ish) the next time I see them but so much can change so fast when your young. They will move on, and thats the part that makes me sad and happy.

Got a storage unit today for the last few things I can't cram into the one I have now. Melinda and her family are helping me move everything tomorrow. Weds will be finishing the laundry, and thursday will be packing the car, and two days worth of clothes. Friday we will grab our overnight bags, pillow and blankets, and head to school. As soon as the bell rings we are outta here. My sister Lacie is letting us sleep at her house, and then we will be off to Williston Sat. Morning. Huray!

Santas Lap and Dead Snowmen!

We went Ooohing and Ahhhhing the other night (looking at christmas lights) All of a sudden Alora shouts look at the dead snowman. She is so funny.

The kids and I went to our Ward Christmas Party, and they got to sit on Santas lap.

Talli was not impressed until she saw that candy cane, he could have been any crazy, but as long as he gave her that candy cane she was happy!

Boston was less hesitant. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said...That Candy Cane. He was all business until he handed over that cane. Then we got a smile, oh yeah and he wants a bag of balloons....I love this age.

And this is what remembering the Christmas party Starts in 20 minutes looks like.

Brooklyn and Alora have got this drill down. Tell Santa's helper what you want for Christmas in case he lost your email. Better safe than sorry. We want a $10 fur real friend, and an Ipod? 17 months makes a big difference.

Chase was a great sport. He wants an mp3 player with video capabilities. :) They grow up so fast.

The kids are excited about having a homemade christmas this year. We are making a tree and ornaments from paper( our is burried in storage), and we are buying only the things we need. Like Warm Clothes :) So if we don't get you anything for christmas, know we love you and we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Christmas Caroling with the Youth!

My Sunday school class invited me to come Christmas caroling with them on Tuesday for their YM/YW activity so we could spend some more time together before I had move. Okay first of all talk about feeling loved, I was on cloud nine. It is always nice to know the people you adore feel the same way about you. Second of all, It was frickin freezing, a nice reality check that the clothing I currently own is not going to cut it in North Dakota. The third thing I learned is there is a temperature where you can't sing because it is too cold, and your vocal cord go on strike...good to know. Here are some pictures

6 Days and Counting!

6 days until we leave for North Dakota. People keep asking me how I am feeling about moving...If I am nervous or excited. I haven't actually felt much of anything or taken the time to figure out how I am feeling anyway. So I decided to do it and and here we go.

1. For the first time in my life I am moving somewhere I don't know anyone. That scares me. I need people. I have always made friends pretty easy, but there is that scared little girl inside of me that worries that no one will like me.

2. The house we are moving into is the size of our first apartment when we got married The Dungeon) . Yikes!!! So that converns me, and moving there with no furniture, beds, or kitchen table will be interesting ...like camping but in a house. :)

3. I am moving somewhere that is not predominatly mormon, also another first for me. This one I am actually a little excited about. The lds community tends to take itself too seriously and forget that you can't be perfect in this life. God wants you to be happy and not to beat yourself up all the time over your inperfections, keep improving, growing, learning, but don't forget to enjoy the journey. We are such a blessed people to be living here and now in this free country.

4. I am worried about my kids adjusting. we are moving into a small school of only 250 kids. That is less than 25% of our current schools population. This will either make it easier or harder.

5. Saying Goodbye. This is hard for me. Especially to my Sunday school classes,past and present. They are the best kids ever. Most of my best friends are between 13 and 18 years old. These kids remind me how life should be. Laughter makes all the other junk you have to deal with in this life easier because you know there is joy and hope. So to my friends and family I am leaving, know that I love you, and I tend to keep friends forever so your stuck with me, and to my friends that I have already parted with in the past, I am so glad to have you in my life even if we only talk once a year or see each other rarely. I love you and think if you often.

6. We get to be together as a family. This is number 6 but it really is the number 1 reason it is all going to be okay. This has been a tough year, and the fact that we have a job, a roof over our heads, and the chance to be together, makes it all okay.

So I guess I would have to say I am nervous, sad, scared, worried, and unsure, but most of all I am happy, and I have faith that it is going to be great! Cold but great!

Counting Down The Days!

We have just 11 days left until we head to North Dakota. I have been very busy sorting stuff, throwing stuff away, and trying to figure out how to pack my car that is already full of people with enough stuff to live for 6 weeks until our stuff gets moved. I considered renting a small trailer, but too many people freaked me out about it. So I will just have to get creative, which is Code for I am to broke to buy anything that would make it easier. :)

We have had a lot blessing these last few weeks. We all sat down together and picked a day to move. Dec. 19th - the last school day of the year. We planned to just live in a hotel because housing there is so scarce. Phil was really worried about having a home for us, and then the news came that the hotels didn't want anymore families living in multiple rooms for long periods of time. Phil also got a call that he would be leaving for 3 weeks to go to the truck driving training center on the 4th of Jan. Just 15 days after we moved there. Still we planned to go. Poor phil was feeling so stressed.

We had the opprtunity to go to St George for Thanksgiving, but Phil stayed in North Dakota. We sure missed him, but his choice offered us our series of miracles.

He got a call that a spot opened up for the training center, and the people who were next in line had gone home for Thanksgiving and couldn't get back in time, so he was in... Hurray! He will get back to North Dakota the same day we get there. Perfect timing, only now he had only 4 days to find us a place to live. We are moving to a ward full of great people. When they found out that someone in the ward had a rental opening up they informed phil and helped make it happen. So we have a 3 bedroom apartment to move into. It is small but it is a home. So many other little miracles have been poured out on us these last few months.

So here is sit packing and trying not to overthink. We are leaving behind some great friends and family. We are moving to a place I have never seen, where it is -30 for weeks at a time, without anything, and without knowing anyone. Strange how knowing we will be together makes it better. Well - back to packing trying to figure out how my kids are going to breathe when I am done packing the car. Later Days

Whoa Whoa Whoa Ya Boat?

Weeping Angels & Daddy's Princesses

I spent an hour today doing the older girls hair for church, and they were so excited, then we walked out side and it was pouring rain..of course it was! We snapped some pictures for daddy to see his princesses. I told them the angels were weeping because of their beauty, they just giggled and said I was silly. Church was sooooo long today. I am going to be so glad when we are all together again and can go together. It is tough to do it alone.

For some reason when I see this picture I hear this little prayer in my head

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

Should I die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Maybe because the only time she is this angelic is when she is sleeping?

Candy Bandits

The kids and I had a blast at our church party tonight. We had a chili cook off and then the kids went trick or treating from room to room. Our costumes were created out of desperation and begging from generous friends and other suckers we hit up. Chases costume was the only one we bought, ( from a bargin bin) It was a ninja costume which he thought was la-a-a-me so he turned the vest from the costume into a biker vest, added a bandana and an eyeliner beard and whalla...a biker. Which is of course the opposite of lame.. what ever that is. For the first time in forever ( aka a long time) I had no costume, so I gave myself a black eye and a bruised cheek bone and went as "attacked by nijas" It was a hit with my sunday school class, who have a strange fasination with ninjas ....of course everyone else was just confused, or not cool enough to get how awesome I am

Big Brothers drool, Little siblings rule!

So my kids with the help of their adopted cousin Kit, duct taped Chase to the wall. There was a lot of laughing and giggling in the house. Chase was amused till he had to pry the duct tape from his flesh and arm hair. Then the giggles subsided a little bit.... not enough that the rest of them weren't jumping up and down shouting my turn.... my turn. These are the moments that make it all worth it. :)

It's cool to be drug free!

The kids had a "cool" day at school today, They are celebrating how cool it is to be drug free. So I snapped a picture at school before the bell rang. Apparnently this is what cool looks like. Whodathought?

Halloween Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins last night for family night. It was a gooey slimey mess, but we had fun. Most of the kids are big enough to clean and carve their own. Boston pick this really ugly one out that look more like larry the cucumber then a pumpkin, and when it came time to carve it he insisted that he picked it out for his little sister and my pumpkin was the one he picked. That was drama in itself, so all I had to do was take a picture of my amazing jack o lantern with him and he was extatic. I will now give pictures so you can ooh and ahh at my amazing pumpkin carving abilities.

Chase and Alora did their own pumpkins and brooklyn was totally grossed out by the entire process, so she had help from anyone she could talk into it. Talli just had a good time running around and checking things out. We had a pumpkin gut throwing fight, but no pictures due to the icky messy. On a side note dried pumpkin insides have a glue like quality. :(

And of course a picture of me with my pumpkin!

The kids wanted me to add pictures of how cool their pumpkins look in the dark for Phil since he won't get to see them lit up. We miss you Daddy!

This last one is bostons green cucumber pumpkin that did an amazing humpty dumpty impersonation, alas we were no more skilled than the king's horsemen.

Brooklyn's Baptism

We had a great day of celebration on the Spetember 13th. It was our 11th anniversary, Shelton's 8th Birthday ( my nephew), and Brooklyn and Shelton's baptism day. We got to go down to St George, and that was a lot of fun ( especially after the sun went down, we are so acclimated to Idaho) Brooklyn got a doll and some scriptures from Gramma Sally and Papa Bill, she is so proud of them.

Goodbye Daddy!

After getting so much grief from family and friends I finally sat down and started a blog.

Phil was offered a job in Williston, North Dakota, and we couldn't pass it up. He left this morning for a month and a half of training. The rest of us will follow as soon as we can find housing for our big family. It may take a while because of the housing shortage there. It was hard to say goodbye, and it is going to be really hard for the kids especially Talli since Daddy is her favorite!

We are living with my Kenny and Kayla ( my sister) and her 4 kids. Bless them for opening their home up to our crazy, noisy, destructive family. We are both looking forward to getting our own space back again, and not have to listen to 9 kids all day. We thank the Lord above for school!!! I will try to add a few more things later! Love you ALL!!!!