I'm back!!!

I am finally able to update our blog -- I just looked at our previous entry -- May 30th!!!! So much has happened since then -- I will try to be concise but it might be a "sit-down-and-read-this-with-a-cup-of-coffee" type entry :)

A lot has happened in the last eight weeks!!!

June 10th we received an offer on our old house from a family moving here from out-of-state. The husband had stopped and talked to Tim one day when Tim was out putting up our boundary line fencing. They were looking to move here from Ohio but Tim really didn't think anything would actually materialize. For starters, they had a home to sell in Ohio and we didn't want a contingency offer. God's timing is always perfect however and God had laid it on their heart to move to MT. Stephen (the husband) shared with us later that he had prayed two weeks prior to their vacation in MT asking God to do something drastic to change their circumstances -- he wanted to move his family out of Ohio. They saw our home while on vacation (only the outside actually) and they felt in their heart it was the house their family should buy. He got a job with Summit an airplane manufacturing company here and they were ready to come. God even sold their home in a matter of days!!!! They asked for a short escrow and we closed in just under a month.

They have been here about three weeks (moved in the 11th). Really neat family -- a little older than Tim and I with a little girl who is six months older than Bekah. Fellow-believers in Christ - I think the Lord provided for us so miraculously -- not only to have the weight and responsibility of both houses off of our shoulders but also with neighbors who will be a blessing to us. Hopefully our family will be as much of a blessing to them!!!

It was a whirlwind for us. We have not lived in the old house for a year but we were using it kind of as a guest house for company, small group Bible study sessions and our storage unit so there was still a lot of work to do to get it packed, emptied, and cleaned. In the midst of our packing I got quite sick actually --- I don't remember ever being that sick with the flu before. I was down in bed two days and actually had Tim check in with the OB because I started having contractions because I could not quit vomiting (about every 20 minutes for around 12 hours) which scared me to tears. A VERY rough, nasty bug. It of course made its rounds through the house which was no fun.

The same week I was sick a super nice lady gave us several hundred pounds of produce for me to use. It was an extremely thoughtful gesture and the produce was fabulous. However it did make for a busy week while I canned and froze while still trying to keep up with a sick family and clean/pack the old house. It took all of us working together to get the produce put up but it was fabulous to have it beautifully preserved in the cellar. Tim and whichever kids were working with him to pack up the garage at the old house would come in at night and help me set up for the next day by preparing produce We canned somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 jars!!!

Tim, Elijah and Josiah left our third week into escrow for the Boy Scout camp in WY. It was a fun week for them. Elijah and the older boys got to do "high-adventure" camping which was a notch up from regular boy scout activities and included white water rafting and some other really fun and challenging activities. Josiah spent a lot of time with Tim and earned a super lot of his merit badges. They took Wednesday and traveled over to Cody, WY to attend the rodeo there and visit some of the sites, including the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum. They also spent some time on the way and also coming home to explore a little of Yellowstone. They were all tired when they got home but had a great week!!

Daddy came out the day before the boys left for WY and stayed with us three marvelous weeks!!! I cannot express how fabulous it was to have him here. I love the time I get with my dad!!! He saved the day for me numerous times and was so helpful to us in such a stressful time. He helped us move, built shelves for me to store things, accomplished so many little things at the new house to help us as we moved in that made my life easier and more manageable, and spoiled us at every opportunity. The day before Tim traveled home from WY I woke up at 6:30 to find the downstairs of the new house completely flooded in about 3" of water. I could see the pipe spraying water and started throwing switches to turn it off. I was SOOOO overwhelmed. Gabrielle ran to get Grandpa (he was staying at the old house). I still had been unable to get the water turned off -- I forgot the capacitor in my panic. Daddy got the water main switched off and we started cleaning up the mess. We were throwing blankets, towels and anything else we could find against the walls to pull the water away from the Sheetrock. I was so proud of my kids. Everyone pitched in to get the water mopped up and pitched out. Gabrielle grabbed a snow shovel and started shoveling water out the door!!! I called Tim for help -- he gave us what advice he could. I was glad it was the last day of camp and he would return the next day! He called and checked on his throughout the day. As the crisis abated the mess was overwhelming -- I will openly confess I had more than one break-down through the day dissolving into tears. Daddy was great -- formulating a plan and getting our house back in workable order. He even helped me load up the piles of wet laundry and head to the Laundromat!!! It was a wise investment -- I would have had days of laundry to catch up even with our big front loading machines. As it was it took us several hours and 5 of their super-sized machines and two front loading machines (like mine) to catch up at the laundry mat!!!!! Daddy took the kids to lunch (and brought me back some) while I was at the laundry. We hadn't had breakfast and the kids were getting VERY hungry. Tim laughed when I told him what Tudah and Bekah and rummaged for breakfast. I couldn't deal with making breakfast while we were cleaning and they were obviously hungry so Tudah came downstairs and started asking for things that basically he could reach. In my focus on the mess I told him that whatever he could find - he and Bekah could eat --- they had cookies and numerous other SWEET treats that I would normally never allow for breakfast. Tim said while the rest of us remember it as the flood-day -- Bekah and Tudah will hope for another "cookies-for-breakfast" day because Mom would normally NEVER allow it!!!

When Tim got home Saturday night he went immediately to work on the problem. We had left the water turned off all day Friday and used the old house for dishes, showers, etc. It was weird though - he couldn't find ANYTHING wrong. That was not only frustrating but irritating too!!! He spent several hours working but there was nothing wrong so he decided to just keep watching it during the day and turning all the water off at night (to avoid another disastrous mess) A couple of days later the problem presented -- it ended up being a run-off issue from irrigating our trees. The trees are on a little rise just above the house - the trees would saturate and then the excess water ran down the little hill and into our water box (where the pump is) The box filled with water and the house pipes syphoned the water, mud, etc. down into the house pipes and cause the water to spray out of the pipes in the laundry room. Tim and Elijah were working outside and thankfully managed to find the problem before the box completely filled again -- they bailed the water out of the box and wah-lah no more floods!! We will have to make some modifications to ensure we have no more future problems but it is easily manageable at this point! :)

We spent some great days with Daddy visiting the museum here in Helena and also in Bozeman, just seeing sites, enjoying each other's company and doing some shopping. Daddy spent a day in Anaconda researching and even came out to watch Elijah and Gabrielle participate in another competitive shooting match in Butte. He really did spoil us EXCESSIVELY --- lots of meals out so I didn't have to cook and treats and presents. We were spoiled ROTTEN - particularly my two littlest who found Grandpa's weakness for snuggling. They got up every morning and ran out to the old house (until escrow closed) and then to a motor home our friends loaned us (for the remaining ten days) that my dad stayed in while he was here to snuggle with Grandpa George and have a morning "grandpa bar" with him before breakfast. Grandpa bought BOXES of granola (grandpa) bars and numerous containers of nuts and jelly-bellies that he gave to the kids.

Daddy also attended two ConfiDances with us and helped me teach a new dance (a polka piece) to our group. It was a fun time to hear bits and pieces of Daddy's history -- I didn't know he had participated in a folk dance group when he was younger. I knew he loved to dance - he used to dance with me as a little girl but I didn't know he had done something similar to what we are doing now. It was a blast!!! He and Gabrielle also surprised Tim with a cake at our ConfiDance which was on his actual bday. We had a family celebration the next day, quietly at Tim's preference but a really enjoyable afternoon together. Daddy was also here for Gabrielle's bday pizza party with some friends and family. It really was great to have him with us for so many events and occasions. We kept him running!!!!

For my dad's last days visiting with us. we decided to leave the projects behind and head to Silverwood - a little theme park in ID. We stayed in Paraday ID which is where my great-grandfather spent his last years and did a little research for our family genealogy which was interesting. We spent the next day in Silverwood. The kids had a BLAST!!! I think Judah probably had the most fun - it was his first time and he LOVED every minute. We had a great day. Daddy left for WA the next morning and we returned home -- LOTS of tears.......... Judah cried from ID to the MT border - his little heart was completely undone. I am SOOOO blessed that my kids have those special relationships. I SOOOO much love and appreciate the family ties that bind our hearts. I heard so many times while my dad was here how lucky we were -- how true!!! Complete strangers would come up and comment how fortunate my children were to have a grandpa who so obviously loves them.

As our house closed we decided to cut our land lines and go completely "wireless". Our cell phone number is the same as our old number so no change there. It was great however to get the kids and Tim cells -- with as much as our family is running these days it will be an asset to keep us all in touch, connected and safe while we are out and about, whether the kids (in particular) are shooting, hiking, hunting, etc. The cell phones were an easy change. The Internet however has been an issue. We were completely without Internet for just a few days under a month -- TOTAL withdrawals for me!!! I went up to the library one day to use Daddy's lap top and see what emails were waiting me :) This last week we got our email up and running but I am still having trouble accessing the Internet. Please be patient as we try to get it fixed. Something with our router not being properly configured with our server or something - still Greek to me but I am learning quickly. Hopefully this weekend we will figure it out. We will be changing email addresses to our new server (when I am sure it is working) -- I will try to get an email sent when that is complete. This was able to use a backdoor to find our blog this morning and try to catch y'all up a little. As the old saying goes, there is always more than one way to skin a cat :)

The last two weeks have been a continued flurry of unpacking, organizing and trying to get our new house ready for homeschool to start and for our new baby's arrival in just a few weeks. We are almost at the six week mark -- we can't wait to see who God is adding to our family. I must admit I have my hopes set on more ruffles but my suspicion is that this is a little boy. We'll see........ Bekah totally surprised me last time. Whoever it is will be the PERFECT addition!!!! We are still noodling over names -- nothing set in stone yet. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday marked my 40th bday -- it was a marvelous day!!!!

I woke up to a sign that instructed me to "stay in bed". Elijah was making me breakfast. A HUGE sacrifice for him particularly because he doesn't like to get up early. I couldn't begin to touch all the food he brought me -- it was enough to feed three grown men!!!! Half a big Danish, around three eggs, three sausage patties, and half a plate of mounded hash browns complimented by a 16 oz tumbler FULL of orange juice -- I couldn't begin to see the plate!!!!

My dad was my first call of the morning signing me Happy Birthday. Mom was on email wishing me the same. Friends and family from across the country emailed to send me birthday wishes and the kids informed me it was a "chore-less" day for me. How rare is that!?!?!?! They all pitched in to take care of the house -- Elijah even helped with the things he normally detests like dishes and floors and cleaning the kitchen!!!

The kids and I did some errands and shopping in the early afternoon and Tim took our entire family out to my favorite place to eat. We stopped to pick up my traditional birthday dessert (cheesecake of course) and as we were headed out to the car Tim got a call from Larry asking us to come over and pick up some canning supplies Lana had found at a garage sale for me a few days before. I called Lana to make sure Timmer understood correctly - tonight??? Lana said to please come out -- Larry had some projects he would like to talk to Tim about and she was organizing so it would help to have the boxes of jars and things out of the way. It seemed a little weird to me but we were in town and I thought, okay.

We got there and everything was normal, nothing out of the ordinary in any way. The kids loaded the canning jars and played with the girls. Larry and Tim were visiting. Lana and I went in the house to chat. Bekah came running in about every two minutes to tell me what she was up to. Bekah told me she had been playing with Amanda (another friend's daughter) which I just took as a mispronunciation for Sierra and dismissed it. She told me it was AMANDA (like DUH, Mom) but I didn't even get it a second thought and scooted her back out the door to play. Lana and I continued to visit for another probably ten minutes and then I saw Nathaniel (Amanda's older brother) run by the french-doors. That took me back a little - I said that looks like Nathaniel - what are they doing here??? Lana played right along, I don't know, let's go see.......

Yes, it was a surprise party and yes, I was TOTALLY oblivious. Timmer HATES parties; I really hadn't expected one and everyone had played it SOOOO cool. Two of our good friend's families had been on vacation (including Amanda and Nathaniel's family). My cousin, Mark, had called me that afternoon and asked if he could bring over a new movie he wanted us to see. He played that he totally did not know it was my birthday. I invited him out to share cheesecake and watch the movie with us. He feigned TOTAL ignorance. Tim even made a POINT of telling me that he hadn't got enough cheesecake to share with the Chambers so to make sure and not mention my birthday since my cousin's family was coming over. We needed to just make our visit quick and get home so we wouldn't keep Mark's family waiting.

Sweet precious friends who returned from vacations in Vegas and Kalispell and came to celebrate my 40th birthday. Others who gave up evening engagements and made extra efforts to keep me in the dark about everything. Dear, irreplaceable friends who organized secretly with my husband and children to give me such a special and memorable evening to celebrate my 40th birthday. I was completely overwhelmed by the love and kindness lavished on me. Everyone brought fabulous desserts -- SOOOO much chocolate it was heaven. White chocolate silk pie, brownies, Cherry-Oh-My pie, Chocolate-on-Chocolate cake, cheesecake (from Timmer), and homemade vanilla ice cream. Everything was so fabulous!!!!

The kids got a great kick out of duping their mother -- they were EXTREMELY pleased with themselves. On the way home I heard all the details of their secret planning. It really was a marvelous day!!!

A new season of life lies ahead of me. I am excited to see what it holds for me. I told my friend the day of my birthday - turning 40 really does not bother me. It is an exciting time!! What would I trade to return to 25??? My marriage of almost 17 years?? My kidlets growing so quickly and fabulously before my eyes??? Our newest addition coming in a few short weeks??? Every year that God has given has brought such numerous blessings, what lies ahead??? Do I really want to miss it by staying perpetually young (if I could)????

So much lies ahead -

Possibly marriages for my children in the coming years and adding to our family with precious sons and daughters-in-law??? Maybe grandchildren??? More years married to a man who I love and respect ????

Things have changed most definitely but would I miss it??? Okay, I confess I wouldn't mind the return of my 25 year-old waistline. I have more silver in my hair than I would like and I have a few wrinkles on my face. But really...... in looking back at the years and looking ahead to what will come what a small price to pay for all I have been given!!!! I wouldn't trade any of it back and so much still lies ahead!!! Much still lies ahead -- I really enjoyed such a marvelous day!!!

Yesterday we had Zachy's birthday party -- we couldn't arrange it with his friends for Tuesday. They enjoyed an airsoft battle and a BBQ. Mark's family came over to celebrate also. I hid in the house to make sure I wasn't an easy target. None of the boys (friends included) would purposefully shoot me but I will willing admit I would be hard to miss. They were ducking in and out of hiding places, around the house and cars, shooting rapid fire and "enemies" --- FAR better for me to stay out of the way :) Ice cream cake completed the evening and the movie that Mark had asked about the day before.

Whew -- what a busy season. I am glad to see things settling and I am looking forward to the return of school schedules. Life is never static at our house - there are always 65 things on the burner but it should return to a dull roar anyway :)

I am looking forward to some more canning the next weeks as the garden is starting to flower-out -- greenbeans will be one of our projects and we will see what else the Lord provides that I can store. Our tomatoes did not do as well this year unfortunately. I had dreams of homemade sauces and salsa. Oh well........

I think that is all the news. Look for our new pictures and please watch for our new email address. I don't want to lose anyone in the transition :)

Hope your day is FABULOUS!!!