Update

The past couple of weeks have been busy - Chris came home from a job he did in Indiana for a few weeks, and we got right to work.

The afternoon he flew in, he came and got Jacob and Carter, packed them up and went to the father and son's outing. He was really tired, total travel time was 10 hours prior to the outing - but he had promised his boys, and by 10 that night they were all sacked out.

Bailey and I went to go and see the Hannah Montana movie, and out to dinner just us girls (and Brayden). We had a lot of fun and even hit the dollar spot at Target. I love looking there, they always have good stuff.

The next morning we started on our garden. Man oh man, project and a half - we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We had to take up all the sod first - and thank goodness for awesome neighbors - one got us a sod cutter to use, and another came in with his tractor and spread all of our compost and rotatilled it up. The project was slow going - lots of interruptions with the kids and baby, and it was HOT! We of course got burnt because we didn't put on sunscreen; we do it every year, and are sorry every year. Another awesome neighbor brought us their leftover pizza from lunch - only one piece was missing - I was so happy because it was 7 pm and everyone was hungry and dirty and I was about to run and go get some! The other neighbor that brought over their tractor even invited all 6 of us over to have dinner with their 6 - even though I know we were dirty and rambunctious - we had already eaten, but I am continually surprised by the generosity and good works of so many we come in contact with. We have been so blessed with good friends here!! It sure makes up for all of the hard stuff, and I really recognize that the way my heavenly father is answering my many prayers of discouragement, is with all of the kindness that comes through our friends. I really feel so blessed.

We ended up getting the planting done the following Monday (and Tuesday morning), Chris had taken those two days off because of the consecutive weeks of work he had done in Indiana. Yay! We were so glad to be finished and see if anything would actually grow.

Well, it has been about 16 days since planting now, and everything is coming up great, except the tomato's. They are dead. I guess you aren't supposed to overhead water them. We have 3 types of pumpkins, corn, zucchini, red and yellow potatoes, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, green beans, 3 types of peppers, onions, 2 types of peas, raspberries, strawberries, 4 types of lettuce, spinach, and... dead tomatoes.

The following weekend, we finally had some time to attack our 2 ft tall weeds in all of our un-landscaped flower beds and along the front of our house. We haven't done anything to date, because last year we thought we were selling, and besides, I was on my deathbed, and Chris was traveling constantly... so nothing got done. Now, we are trying to make a few improvements at a last attempt to sell our house in a couple of months. We always do this, make it all pretty for someone else to enjoy.

It took all weekend, but it does look pretty. The dirt is like CEMENT here! I just can't get over it! Also, our property used to have the snake river run through it (supposedly) and the soil is just overloaded with river rock! I am amazed even our grass grew! It makes it really hard to weed, dig, and plant anything and made the planting take twice as long -because I was obsessed with sifting out the rock - I want to give my plants a fighting chance after all this effort!!! We planted some trees, and it came together nicely. It has taken every night about the past 12-14 days - but it looks a lot better. I love my house, and I don't want to sell it.

Chris and I have finally decided enough is enough with the past year and a half. We are getting him back to school in August for sure - whether we have sold the house or not, and whether or not his work is willing to work with him. By this time next year, he will have his Journeyman Electrician's license, and an additional associates degree (he already has one in arts and science with a specialty in criminal justice); this new degree will be in the electrical instrumentation program at Idaho State University. He gets to skip the first year of the 2 year program because the past 4 years of schooling to get his Journeyman's license already covers a lot of the classes he needs. Everyone that graduated the program last year had a job to go to - there is a big market growing in this instrumentation field. It works a lot with new energy. We really want to him to go ahead and get the Bachelor's degree in this field - it is an Electrical Engineering degree, and I just found out is rated among the top 7 best jobs to have in this economy. So that will be next.

His work he is currently at keeps saying they have a huge education fund and they want their employees to go to school, but Chris has approached them twice and they keep saying that they won't work with him because the program is from 8-3 M-Th. It just doesn't make sense to me because having employees with this degree would be of great value to this company. Chris has since talked a lot about this program to several other employees and now 4 more have signed up for this class! I guess a meeting is now arranged between the owner, the professor, and the HR guy and maybe, just maybe they will work with these guys to get them to school and allow them to have a job in the process. I am hopeful, but am not holding my breath. Our decision is made regardless, we may be unemployed and living on student loans, but in 9 months will be able to get a much higher paying job, and hopefully not have Chris traveling as much. Totally worth it to us.

Here are some other updates:

Yesterday Carter turned my fireplace up to 90 degrees, the air conditioning was blasting, and I just happened to notice an unpleasant aroma - of melted plastic. Yes, all of my silk flowers behind my fireplace screen got the back side of themselves melted all down the front of the fireplace glass. Such a great thing to clean up, (and smell!!!) He is so busy. He turns 3 on Friday, and I love his little busy bum. The wheels in his head are constantly turning. Also, I have attempted to bring plates of cookies twice now to two friends in my ward that have had babies, and wouldn't you know it, he had gotten into them both times now. Their blankets are made, maybe I just need to go with that.

And, I totally broke my little toe on my left foot. I was in a hurry and hit it against the door jam as I was leaving the room; it is black and swollen, and I still can't fit a shoe on it. I did it this last Friday, and on Saturday, it got jumped on by Jake - he felt so bad! I totally skipped church on Sunday because I was vain and didn't want to wear flip-flops! I have been babying it so I can wear heels on this coming Sunday - we are going to a baby blessing in Utah for some of our dearest friends, and just today, I hit it again on the door - it is swollen up humongous again, and I am limping around, it really hurts!!!

Other than that, school is out on Wednesday (Jake) and Thursday (Bailey) and I am so excited for this summer. I totally missed all of last summer from being so sick, and I can't wait to do so many things. We have swim lessons set up 2x a week, we got 1$ movie passes to go to once a week all summer, reading at the library on Wednesdays, free lunches at the schools we can hit, we are going to bear lake around the 4th, and I am looking forward to having Chris home a lot more. I also am finally feeling like I can mother 4 children, and just maybe have a little bit more of a schedule in tact. I am going to try to work out in the mornings before they get up (wish me luck!) I have about 40-50 pounds I would like to lose. Who wants to be on my cheering squad?! I need lots of support. I am not opposed to phone calls checking up on me to see if I worked out and avoided chocolate chip cookies. I need my friends behind me!