Our New Castle

I am living in my dream house! No our house has not been built. We have decided to rent a place (or rather i encouraged Benjamin). There was no way i could endure the summer with four children in a small travel trailer. At Least during the school year the girls could escape, I mean go to school, and the boys and I could have a little more elbow room, but the summer would have been too much. I know my limitations and I had passed them.

So what is this dream house..... A double wide! We now not only have one bathroom but two! The master bathroom even has a garden tub to boot! No more port-a-potty...... It is grand! There is a boys room and a girls room and an awesome wood paneled kitchen, oh yeah! But the laundry room is my personal favorite. Having used a laundry mat for ten months, it is so nice to pop in a load at will. It sits on an acre with mature mesquites and a fenced yard, a must for my escapee Parkin. It is amazing how when you go with out how appreciative you become ( I know their are people who have lived in worse, I can empathize on my own scale). So here is a list of forgotten comforts.

10. A sink large enough to wash dishes without flooding anything.
9. One step better a dishwasher!
8. Room for everyone of my kids to have a bed (instead of 6 people to three beds).
7. A normal size fridge!
6. Room for toys indoors.
5. A vacuum. My favorite chore, little effort with amazing results.
4. Couches!
3. Elbow room at the dining table, a dinning table.
2. bedroom doors
1. Indoor toilets, did you have any doubt that wouldn't be number one!

We are at this rental for a year and the way things are looking with the bank, our future build is uncertain to say the least...... My new phrase has been, "The lord giveth the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord." We may not get our "dream house" but for right now I am so grateful for the comforts we are enjoying.

I thought of putting in pictures, but I thought it best for your mind to imagine how cool the house is, because its just so great!

Bella's Baptism

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet. Thanks to Kim for posting about Kaylee's she reminded me to do it :) Crystal too is on the ball with writing about her son, I will get there.

It was so neat to have family and friends come down for the special day. Bella has been waiting for this day for a year. Benjamin and I have also been doing last minute cramming making sure Bella remembers everything that she has learned. First and foremost that after baptism she can always repent when she does something she knows is not right, and that those mistakes can be forgiven too. What a comfort that it doesn't have to last only a day.

Bella was baptised in the dress that I was baptised in and she and I made the dress she wore afterwards.

After the baptism we went over to Kartchner ponds for a barbecue, and thanks to cousin Madison a swim too. She went in the water and started the trend. The kids had a blast.

Mothers note to Bella:

Bella we love you so very much! You are the perfect older sister, always lovingly helping your younger siblings who adore you and you genuinely adore them too! Thanks so much for being an awesome example of always looking on the sunny side of life, your attitude is contagious! Keep up the great job we have all the confidence in you! XXXXOOOO

Tie Breaker

We thought that given this stage in our life it was a perfect time to have a baby. Why not we have such luxurious living conditions, three beds for six people, a port-a-potty conveniently located near our trailer and now running water. Heck a friend gave me a washing machine so I can do my laundry one load at a time right here on the property. Life couldn't be more stress free.


We are calling the baby our tie breaker. Right now we have an even number of boys to girls. So we will see which camp gets a new member. The tie breaker will join us late November or on Holman's birthday December 1st. On June 22nd if our little guy (yes I think it is a boy) is corroperating we will find out exactly who is "winning". Surprisingly that doesn't seem to far off to me.


I am just so thankful that the house is going to be completed by the end of November. Thank goodness who wants three to a bed anyway?

The answer is blowing in the wind

Goodbye tent, hello 55mph winds.

The winds have been getting stronger lately so we knew this was going to happen especially since the wind ripped the giant hole in the tent as seen in the picture.

Luckily we have cleared most of our items out like our couches, piano and all our clothing. We now have a new dressing chamber, that doesn't, at lest not yet, blow in the wind.

Goodbye tent, you made for such fun stories. I will not miss the smell you gave my clothes though.

Monkey See Monkey Do

It's official, Parkin has learned how to climb the playhouse and now he can sit on the roof just like his brother and sisters. He was very proud of himself as shown by him lifting up his shirt to show his belly, a gesture that he does when he thinks he should be rewarded. We of course tickle it, who could resist an open belly. The dismount I am told was quite eventful, Benjamin couldn't stop laughing,.

Better Than Fiction

In the early morning I woke up to a terrible nightmare. The kind that you can't go to sleep afterwards. I tried everything, sing a song, say a prayer, no relief to my suffering. I am so sick of dreaming, I hate the chases, the foreign lands, the spy's the old friends from elementary school and all other random things my mind comes up with. I will gladly trade the ability to fly for just a dreamless sleep.

Anyways because of the nightmare my day did not start off well. It didn't help matters that I remembered that Olivia was in charge of snack for her class (why do they need snacks again?). Now I not only need to make sure the girls are dressed the boys must be semi dressed as well, to go shopping to get the snack before school. Parkin never did make it out of his PJ's. Anyways I needed to do my laundry so I was racing to get that all ready to go. We make it to walmart, get the snacks for both girls (bella has it later this month, 2nd grade has snack rotation !) we check out and thats when I realize I left my debit card at home, so I can't get cash back, which i need to exchange for quarters at the laundry mat. I drop the girls off at school drive all the way home again and pick up my debit card. I have to go back to the walmart to get some random item so I can get cash back. We make it to the laundry mat and i drop the boys off inside and go back for the clothes baskets. I try to carry everything at once, and that's when my laundry soap hit the pavement and crushed the cap, spilling over half of the already low level laundry soap. I get all the loads started and have to guess with how much soap to use. Meanwhile the boys and I go back to the car to watch a show on our dvd player. Finally the washing is done. I start to put the clothes into baskets to transfer to the dryer and in walks a lady with a bunch of wet clothes in baskets and she proceeds to fill the remaining available dryers. ARRRG. So I wait for other dryers to become available..... Meanwhile a lady starts smoking outside, close to our open window movie theatre. I reach for the keys to role up the windows so we can role down the other side windows , only to realize I can't find the keys. Twenty minute late after I have gone through two trash cans ( because I always clean out the car while we are waiting) we find the keys on the back seat, giving the lady just enough time to smoke a pack and fill our car with her addiction. The dryers finally become available, the clothes dry, I start to fold them and I find Holman's PJ"S that he had peed the night before. I hold them close to feel the warm and notice they smell like hot urine..... I guess the measuring cup for laundry soap is actually important.

After we leave the laundry mat the boys and I go to the Library to request new books because the ones we want are never there; I over hear the librarian complain that he is having a very off day. I bit my lip and thought amen brother, amen.

Sharks in Benson, they smell fear

About once a year I re-learn why you can't send a woman to do a man's job. What can I say I am a slow learner. Benjamin saw in town a sign that read "Have you gotten your oil changed for free today?" So naturally when he called from work to have me go check it out, I was leery. But the Yukon was in need of an oil change and i wanted to find a place in Benson I could go to and support the little town. I am not completely gullible, I did not think they would actually change my oil for free, but I did think that at the very least I would get a card to buy "four get the fifth free." Well when the boys and I were sitting in the lobby reading a Pooh Bear story in walks the repair man. "After looking over your car you need to replace your whodawhata for 35 dollars as well as your thingamabob for another 35. Also your chunkochange needs to be replaced for 110 dollars." Then he shows me the air filter from my car and says this is very dirty and recommends that it be replaced for 20 dollars. I think to myself are you kidding me I run a vacuum cleaner filter into the ground and it looks a whole lot worse before I bang it clean. What am I suppose to say, put it back. So I tell the man I need to call my husband because he is the car guy. Which I am sure he knows when he saw the fresh meat walking through the door. I try to recount to Benjamin all the jive that man was spinning at me, Benjamin tells me just get the oil changed and air filter and then we will take it to Jen's dad (thank goodness there are honest car mechanics). Well the price of the oil change plus filter still came to 70 dollars, ouch. I know it could have been worse by almost 200. And as for the "free oil change" my name gets entered to win a free oil change, they pick one weekly. Yeah sure you do.......