Can you feel that?

There is a cool breeze blowing and the temperature has dropped enough to wear a jacket...could it be...Fall? I sure hope so! I LOVE Fall and I love wearing jackets, sweaters, jeans, and boots...maybe not all at once, but you know what I mean! I love the leaves changing colors and covering the ground with all their different colors. I love seeing Fall decorations on everyones porches or lawn! I LOVE FALL! I highly doubt it is here yet for us, it is still early and I am sure there will be a few more days of 100 degrees or higher for us, but today felt like a true Fall day and it just made me so excited. I can't wait to start baking Pumpkin Pie, my favorite and burning all of my Fall candles soon. Speaking of baking, I have decided to hold a Bake Sale to raise money for our Children's Church. We need money to buy our curriculum and what a better way to do it. I just really hope that it works out and we raise LOTS of money. If anyone wants to give me a great recipe that you know will go over well...PLEASE share!
So you might find it funny that my son is in his PJ's in the following pictures. Don't worry, I have not lost my mind since Steve's been gone! Today was Tyler's PJ party at school. His class has done really well and got many compliments on their good behavior, when they do this they get a part of a train. When the train is complete they get a PJ party. There are ten parts to the train in all and they have already managed to get them all since school started! Way to go Tyler's class! Tyler has grown so quickly that he doesn't really have any matching pj's anymore that fit him, so mommy and Jaelyn went out yesterday to buy Tyler some PJ's as a surprise. He was so happy and excited, you would have thought it was Christmas! He is so easy to please and so easy going and I just love that about him! This morning was so easy to get him out of bed because he was so excited about his day. He was walking down the hallway and said "Mommy, I just love growing up, it is so much fun." My heart melted, but it made me sad all at the same time! I don't want my son to grow up!
So things have been going well while Steve is gone. Jaelyn doesn't understand where Daddy is and Tyler has had a little bit of a hard time too. I am sure it is because the last time he left it was for six months. They will be happy to see him on Saturday.
School is good. Speech is going well, I got an "A" on my MAJOR speech on Tuesday. I was pretty excited. The rest of my classes are going well too and I am enjoying all of them!
Here are some pictures. Don't mind Jaelyn, she had just woke up!

This look tells me that today is going to be a "not so good day!" Jaelyn had a rough night last night and woke up really grouchy! Good thing she didn't have school this morning cause it would have been a tough one!


Isn't my little man so handsome? He is getting so tall and looking so grown up.I just love his smile and personality! He is such a love-bug and I wouldn't want it any other way...

Taking a Break...

that is what I am doing. Steve left Friday in the middle of the night. It had been a busy day on Friday. I had Jaelyn's twin friends over and then a friend of mine asked me to watch her kids on Friday. Her grandma was diagnosed with Cancer a month or so ago and she was getting worse, so I took the kids so she could go spend some quality time with her Grandma. The kids had a blast! And I loved having a houseful again! We played outside on the trampoline, played on the swings, and even got Bun-bun out to play with for a while. We also did some painting to pass the time until Chelsea and Tyler got home. It was a great and busy day. Steve spent most of the day running around getting ready for his trip, so I didn't see much of him that day. Steve made it to Florida safe and sound. He said it has rained there some and the bugs are horrible! Poor guy. He is sleeping in a tent and on a cot for a week. I am sure he will be happy to get home!!
Today has been a stressful day for me. Tomorrow is a BIG speech for me and I am stressing about it. The funny thing is, that I stress internally. So I now have an upset stomach and a canker sore too. If anyone has had canker sores....THEY HURT SO BADLY!! I usually get them when I stress. So I took a break from my practicing my speech to do some cleaning. I wonder how in the world my house gets so messy SOOOO quickly. I have got the kids involved in helping clean by giving them certain chores to do around the house, but it still seems to get out of control some days.
I have been working on my procrastination problem this semester. I am HORRIBLE at procrastinating and it does nothing but stress me out or makes me rush through things that I need to take my time on. So far I have been doing really good this semester with my school work. I have been getting things done on time and staying ahead of schedule. Now I just need to work on this in my housework!
Here are a few pictures of the past few days. It was a busy weekend. The little boy I watched on Friday woke up sick Saturday morning (they stayed the night) and I worried all weekend that my kids would get sick. So far so good! No one has had any problems.
Enjoy the pics. They are all out of order.
Left to right: Hannah, Elizabeth, Tess, and Jaelyn. Aren't they cute taking a little break from playing?
Jaelyn pushing Hannah on the swing. They love this swing even though it's for younger kids.

Elizabeth entertaining Bun-bun with a carrot.
Jaelyn working hard on her painting.
Tess concentrating on her painting too....
A couple of pics I took last week. It was picture day for Chelsea, so we curled her hair.

Where's the Fire?

That was the question of the day today....where is they fire? I sat down at my computer desk this morning to start on some school work and looked outside to see what I thought were clouds. I thought to myself, "rain, no way." So I walked out on my back patio, and I knew immediatly it wasn't rain, something was on fire. It was so thick and you could smell it burning, that I thought for sure it was right outside the back gate of the base. So, I loaded up Jaelyn and Chelsea (she goes to school late on Wed's) and we went on a hunt for the fire, but with no luck. So I just took some pictures of the smoke. It was like this all day today and put a horrible taste in your mouth. I came home and went online to find out that there is a huge fire up in Susanville and with the wind, it is blowing it down here in the Valley. I couldn't believe how bad the smoke was here since we are a good distance from Susanville. It seems like California is burning up right now. You can see how BROWN everything is in my pictures. It is sooooo dry here. I am praying for rain soon. It probably won't come until November, but I am praying for a VERY wet winter this year. We had such a mild winter last year that it didn't even make things really green like it usually does.
Well, I should be getting to bed. I have school in the morning (Speech) and I need my rest. On Tuesday she surprised us with our impromptu speeches we had to do. That is where she gives us a topic and we have five minutes to prepare information and then we have to give the Speech. It was kind of terrifying, but fun. I enjoyed my topics and actually got an A on both! Yeah! My big speech is on Tuesday and I am excited to get it over with. I am the 5th person to give my speech, so once I am done I get to sit back and watch everyone else....stress free!!! I am doing an informative speech on "The Good and Bad of Caffeine." It will be interesting.
I hope you enjoy the pics, more to come soon.
Goodnight!
I know you can't tell from these pictures very well, but the smoke was BAD today.

Chelsea with her best friend Hunter. (Don't mind Chelsea's outfit, she was going to bed) Hunter came over the night before they left to say goodbye and I am glad that Steve took a picture. (I was at school) Hunter lived in the house connected to us, but her and Chelsea were best friends before they moved in next door. Hunter and her family moved to Ohio...sniff sniff.

This our Pastor praying for our Children and their new school year. This was promotion Sunday a couple of Sunday's ago. Chelsea promoted to the Youth Group and Tyler promoted to the 1st Grade class!! YEAH!

Chelsea taking a picture of Tyle and Jaelyn at Church a couple of Sunday's ago. Aren't they so cute?

I'll just sit for five minutes....

is what I keep saying to myself in the midst of doing my homework! Needless to say, I get side-tracked doing dishes, straightening the house, or feeding animals.
Sorry but no pics today. I just thought I would jump on here real quick to post how things are going. Everyone is adjusting to school very well except Jaelyn. She is NOT liking leaving me at all. I knew it would be hard for her.....but not this hard. It makes it harder on me leaving her when she is not happy. I have been trying to prepare her the night before, but it isn't working very well. I am just going to have to stick with it. It makes it harder because she only goes two days a week, so she isn't on a schedule yet on what days she goes and what days she doesn't go. It is confusing for her. When Tyler started pre-school, I started him at five days a week because I knew he needed that consistency. It worked very well, but I also could afford it then. Now is a different story....ha ha. So hopefully Jaelyn will start adjusting soon. Today seemed to be a better day once she was there, even though she fought me the whole way there!
The other two are adjusting well too. Chelsea is trying out for the volleyball team, which I am thrilled about! I just hope that she makes the team. I have decided to put Tyler in basketball when it starts. I worry about Tyler playing sports due to his asthma, but I think he will be ok. I will just be sure to keep his inhaler with me.
School is good for me too. Lots of projects due in all my classes and my Speech class is going way better than I thought. I don't mind speaking in front of people, it's just that I worry about my content and presentation being right. It feels like this week I am getting into more of a routine and I don't feel as overwhelmed as the first two weeks. I thought for sure I had got in way over my head! Luckily I think it will all work out. Tomorrow I meet with a counselor to see what I have left to take next semester to graduate. I have my classes picked, I just want to double check. I have also been checking into what University I want to transfer to next Fall. Yes, next Fall I will be starting my BA and I think it will be in teaching. Just not sure of that yet. I DO know that I will probably only teach K-2 grade. Nothing is for sure yet though. I really enjoy Early Childhood, so who knows!
Steve is leaving on Saturday, poor guy has to go to Florida for training. Training that he has to go to before he deploys again in March or April. I am hoping that he doesn't get deployed because that means he misses me graduating!! My number one fan will miss my graduation and that will just break my heart, but that is how it goes in the military!
Well, that is our update. I wish I could say that we lead a more interesting life, but not at this moment! We went to Dillon's Beach last weekend and had the BEST TIME EVER!! I will share pictures soon!

Back to school and our little visitor!!

So I just got home about an hour ago from class and picking up Jaelyn and it is tooooo quiet here for me. It feels weird and strange not having my children running around here playing and fighting or running in and out of the house! Jaelyn is so tired from her first day of pre-school and is passed out on the couch right now. She had a great time today with Ms. Saira. I think it's going to be really good for her.
I walked Tyler up to his class this morning since it was the first day of school and am glad that I did. I REALLY like his teacher, Mrs. Santini. She came out this morning (we met her yesterday too at the orientation) and greeted each of the children by name and then hugged them!! It was so sweet. She seems like she is going to be a great teacher. I think the hardest part of kids being in school is that you worry about getting a good teacher for your child!
I then took Chelsea to her school and dropped her off too, but I didn't walk her up to her class. She is getting too old for that I guess. She left me feeling very confident in her first day, so I wasn't as upset as I thought I would be. I just told her to remember that it's every 7th graders FIRST day today and everyone is new! That helped her alot!
My first week of classes went great. I have Friday's off, which will give me a day to work on all of my homework and not intrude on my family time during the weekends. I love ECE Creative Arts class, ECE Music class, and my ECE Science class. History and Speech are going to take alot more work for me to enjoy. My first day of Music class we all had to sing a fingerplay as part of our introduction. It was sooooooo much fun. We all joined in each song that we knew and also learned some new ones. I can't wait to apply everything I learn once I start working in the childcare area again....wherever that may be!!
So here are some pictures of our visitor and this morning getting ready for school.

Our little visitor...bun-bun is her name. We acquired her from our neighbor that just moved out of their house that is attached to us...Chelsea's best friend. They couldn't find their bunny a home, so guess who took her temporarily...yep me. I WILL be looking for her a new home when I get the chance this weekend. I would really like to keep her, but right now she is just not in our budget. (so says my husband) Hopefully I can find her a really good home soon.

Little bunny "chaser." Jaelyn won't leave Ms. Bunny alone and she follows the bunny all over the house! Poor bunny....

Tyler all ready for the 1st Grade. He didn't want to take a picture with his backpack because it was REALLY heavy he said!

Chelsea all ready to go to Jr.High. She loves her backpack, but I think she will regret it after she starts carrying all of those books.

Jaelyn loves the bunny. She asks to play with her all the time and the bunny is very friendly with the kids.

Jaelyn ready to go to school.

My three "amigos"!

I thought this pic was so cute!!!

A very tired girl!! She begged me to bring her home so she could lay down and rest! I was shocked! Maybe I should put her in pre-school everyday....ha ha!

Cooking with my kids and back to school for me...

So tonight was my first night back to school and it was my ECE Creative Arts class and boy is it going to be a fun one! I am so excited about this class and can't wait to go back next week. For my homework, I have to make an "All about me" book. It is going to be fun to make because her rule is that ANYTHING you do in the class, you have to do it with the opposite hand you work with. So for me a right handed person, I have to use my left hand!! AND we have to draw it! This is horrible for me cause I can't even draw with my right hand! You would not believe the concentration it takes to draw with my left hand, it is almost painful! SHe wants us to see what it is like for a child to do art! What a creative idea!
Tomorrow morning is the class that I fear most....SPEECH!!! Yikes!! This is going to be absolute torture for me! I am trying to go in it with a positive attitude, but it isn't working very well. I am PETRIFIED to speak in front of a group of people! It's a good thing I have been doing my Bible study (momtime) on Thursday's, this has given me good practice.
So today the kids and I made a Chef Boyardee pizza together. It was fun to cook with my kids. They were so excited about their creation!! I am trying to do something fun each day with them before they return to school on Thursday.
Chelsea goes for her orientation tomorrow morning for Jr. High. She gets her schedule and gets to tour her school. I am really sad because it is my first day of my speech class so I can't miss. Steve gets to take her this time. It is good cause he missed out on all the "first day of school stuff" last year while he was deployed.
I am excited about this semester. It is going to be overwhelming I can tell already. I have several projects due in this class tonight that I need to get started on right away and that is just for this one class! My goal this semester: Not to procrastinate!!!!

Mr. Chef boyardee himself!! Isn't he handsome? Can you tell that we all had a lazy day today? I don't know how many times he checked the pizza in the 20 minutes that it cooked. Jaelyn and Tyler had a great time cooking together today.

Ok. I can't believe I am posting this pic of me and Tyler because I look horrible, but this is me with no makeup, no hair do, nothing....me on my lazy day!
These two stayed in the kitchen the whole time the pizza was cooking. They had a nice conversation about cooking, the pizza, and how much time was left while the pizza cooked. It was so cute to listen to them chat away together.

Of course you know who was watching every minute the kids were in the kitchen. He's not stupid! He was just waiting for that moment when something would drop on the floor. He is my backup vacum cleaner....HOOVER!

Already the "teenage" attitude starts! Can you see her chin? It is healing up really nicely and looked way worse than this when it happened. Chelsea was busy today hanging out in her room and I guess is too old to help us make a pizza. Look how old she looks...

A quick post...

I am sorry about the slack in blogging, but it has been totally and completly crazy around here. Here's a little of what has been going on around here...
Skuttle (our new bird) is doing great and I have actually taught him how to whistle a certain whistle. I didn't think he was getting it at all until three days ago, now he loves to whistle and he sings little birdie songs too. He has a cute personality. If you want an easy pet, a bird is the way to go.
Anyways, back to my crazy life. After we got back from a camping a few weeks ago, we got a call for a foster child....a two year old. It was interesting because when they called they needed an answer right then, well we agreed to take him. They called us back and said that they had another home that would take him too and they would call us if they needed us to take him...well they never called back and the phone hasn't rang from my agency since. At first I was a little bummed about the whole thing, even though I don't need another toddler in our life right now, but now I know that God has a plan for us and it will all work out one way or the other.... I am learning patience.....slowly.
So right now I am focusing on school and if we get a call then we do, but I am not going to sit here and fret about it anymore. I was kind of hoping that by the time I posted again I would be posting about our foster child, but there again, I am wanting it my way...Not the Lord's way...
Yes back to school... we have been shopping for clothes for the kids, getting school supplies, making sure the school has all the paperwork (for Chelsea for middle school..), and buying books for me! School starts for me officially on Monday, but my online class has already started. So I have been online already trying to get a good start on that class. The kids' first day of school is Thursday (not sure of that one) so this week we are getting back into the routine of getting to bed early and up early...YIKES!!!
I have also learned that I get a reaction from something in pain medicine and muscle relaxers. A couple of weeks ago, my shoulder was bothering me really badly so I resorted to a pain pill that my doctor prescribed and ended up deathly sick the next day. The same night I took the pain pill I pulled something in my neck, so the next day I woke up sick from the medicine, shoulder still hurting, and unable to turn my head without being in excruciating pain!! It was horrible! Soooo no more pain medicine for me!
Ok...well that's about it for me the past few weeks! Oh wait...did I mention babysitting everyone's kids in there somewhere? The past few weeks I have been babysitting a one year old three days a week (temporarily and now I am done) and the twins here and there! My house has been full of kids and I wouldn't have it any other way! I cleaned up the garage and made it a play area for all the kids and they have a blast in there!
Here are a few pics of my cutie Jaelyn. She is going to be going to pre-school two days a week while I am in my one daytime class! She is excited to go, but doesn't want to leave mommy! It will be tough the first day.
Oh don't be scared by the picture...yes she has a black eye!! Oh I forgot to tell you about the emergency room visit...oh yes...my lovely little three year old daughter got new flip flops in the midst of school shopping and well she tripped while wearing it once we got home and fell right on the coffee table and split her eye open on her eyebrow!! It was very scary and I thought for sure that she was going to have to have stitches, but luckily they were able to just glue it shut! She was such a trooper and won over all the workers in the ER!! She was telling them what happened and that her eye was "dripping" (that would be the blood!!) and had everyone cracking up laughing at her. I was so proud of her because she didn't cry at all after it initially happened.
We also had an incident with Chelsea running into a tree last Friday, so now I am just waiting for something to happen to Tyler. At least they are getting it all out of the way before school starts!! Chelsea is fine, although she scraped up her face really good. I thought for sure she broke her nose. She was rolllerblading down a hill on a path and couldn't stop and tried stopping herself with the tree. Oh she stopped alright...it was very scary for me too cause I wasn't sure if she gave herself a concusion or what!! Well, we are all healing now and ready for school to start.
I probably won't be posting as much anymore due to my school schedule. It is going to be a crazy semester, so I am not sure how much time I will have to get on here. We will see after the first couple of weeks!! WIsh me luck, I am trying to make it on the Dean's list again this semester!!!
I will keep you posted about our Foster care too! I know that phone call will be coming sometime, but until then I will just pray for that little boy out there!

Here are a couple pictures of my sweet girl. The next day after it happened she woke up with a black eye!!