If you think of it..

Could you pray for us? Daniel just spiked a fever this afternoon, has quite a headache and his "stummy" isn't feeling well. These things usually don't visit without hitting at least half the kids...or us...and with the close quarters ahead it may not be pretty. Thank you...

A restful blog...

Our blog is going to take a break until Sept 15. We are leaving tomorrow on our trip to California. We are packing and stuffing and cramming the trailer. The van and trailer are stamped by Daddy as A-O.k. and ready to travel. New tires, towing insurance and the like are all in place. This is our biggest Family Adventure yet, I am so excited! If this goes well, next year, the good Lord Willing, we are hitting Yellowstone.

But for now we will be traveling to a couples house who bought a puppy from us back in March. They live in Fortuna, right along side the Redwood Forest, yeah!. We will have blinders on and drive straight down, then on the way back take the children to see the Oregon Sand Dunes in Florence, the Evergreen Aviation Museum(home of the Spruce Goose!) the Tillamook Factory, if time provides and a stop at some dear friends' home whom we churched with before heading for Washington and our own beds..I will miss my big comfy bed.

It has been a chore finding care for all the animals. My sister took the hermit crabs and gerbil, My mother took the parakeets and the fish(though she doesn't know that yet), and our wonderful tomato sandwich neighbors are taking care of our rabbits, dogs and cats and chickens! If you know where I live you are welcome to pick all the dahlias you want. They are in full bloom and will be wasted...oh the shame.

So, unless I stumble upon a puter in Cali, this here blog will sit rather quiet for some time.

So, stay tuned faithful bloggers.

It's official.

A select few have known our secret for a few weeks, including our oldest daughter. She has been driving us nuts since March asking when/if the next baby will come. So we had to tell her. I am 13 weeks along and Lord willing we will have a little bundle by the end of March. My due date, by the book, is March 7...but my midwife bumped it back to March 21 since I have been consistently two weeks late.

Gracie and this little one will be 20 months part, my closest yet. No complaining here, that is great spacing! I haven't been sick, other than being tired and coffee disgusts me. For the first time we are not worried about our vehicle not fitting us! We have 7 seats to fill yet! Yeah!

After family devotions last night Daddy was praying for those with request in our church and at the end of the prayer asked for the Lord to watch over the new baby he has placed in mommy's tummy and keep it safe and mommy safe and healthy. I heard two little gasps and as soon as Daddy closed Jessie slapped her forehead and sighed "Finally! I can talk about it!!" The other kids got up and starting jumping around. Micah asked me"You gotta baby in yer tummy mamma?" I said "yup!" He said"Oh good, it will come out some day and cry"...Yup, your learning little man.

I really feel like the more I have, the more excited I become and we cherish each pregnancy more than the last. In a world of much barrenness we have no more right to have children than all the couples out there who can't, so it is nothing to be proud of. But we can be thrilled at the gift he has seen fit to give us. Humbly thrilled. The Lord Himself choose to give us another human soul that will either spend eternity in heaven or in hell. That is just huge to me.

For those of you who like riddles...

I have one, it is more of a scavenger hunt than a riddle.

1. First word of the riddle is the second word in the title of the post on 7/14

2. Second word of the riddle is the 6th word in the title of the post on 7/26

3. Third word, can you guess? Is the third word in the title of the post on 6/1

Leave a comment and let me know what you guess the answer to be...

4 minute Delicious Kettle Corn

Wanna make your children all smile? Make kettle corn at home! Jacob got a bag of kettle corn for his birthday and well, it went waaaaay too fast. I went to AllRecipes.com and found this very simple quick recipe and even added some tips.

1/2 C unpopped popcorn

1/4 C white sugar

1/4 C oil

Do not double recipe, remember it fills the pot when popped so make several batches if need be. Have a popcorn bowl ready to dump freshly popped corn into.

To cook; Put the oil and 2 kernels of corn in a large pot(I used my stainless) and heat on med high. As soon as the first kernel pops you add the sugar and stir it around quickly. Then add the popcorn and put the lid on the pot. IMMEDIATELY shake the pot back and forth for 3 seconds on then 3 second rest over and over until popping ceases. It takes about 30 seconds for the popping to begin and maybe a minute for all the corn to pop. Immediately remove from burner and dump in large popcorn bowl. Salt the daylights out of it, call your husband, run in the bathroom, lock the door and eat a whole bunch if the children haven't smelled it yet and are not standing there with puppy eyes. Then return to the kitchen, call the children and serve the rest. Remind them that this deserves hugs and kisses.

The Birthday Party

9 pre-teen boys is a LOT more energy than we had expected. WOW. The party was a hit largely due to the great group of boys. I just shake my head at how wonderful of a church the Lord has provided us. Of all these age 9-12 yr old boys for the 2.5 hours we had them never did we hear an off color word or phrase. Never a reprimand. Never an unkind action or exclusion...really, we are awed by this. Daddy ran the show. He gave honor where honor is due by thanking Jacobs true Father and giving a sweet devotional from Boyhood And Beyond. Every aspiring godly boy MUST be read this book, preferably by his Daddy. After the reading and prayer the festivities began!!

I googled *Boy Scout Games* and came up with a plethora of big boy games. The first of which is called Tea Boiling. The boys are divided in groups of 2-3, given a tin can with an inch of water and a book of matches(what boy wouldn't like this game already) As their eyes lit up Paul told them they had unlimited time to created their own fire in the driveway and the first group to boil their water, wins.

These are the B. brothers, absolutely a kick in the pants.

These two won the game all too quickly.

Rhett(with a smile on his face) informed Mr. J that his mother and he had just driven past a fire station and a county wide burning ban was on....thanks Rhett. So anyway, happy happy young men!

The winning fire!

Next we gave each new group of boys a 1 gallon zip lock bag with assorted *stuff*. I stole this from BakersDozen blog(link to right). They were told they had 15 minutes to created a *thing* - name it and state it's function. This was a robot sent to another planet to fetch some thing and return it to earth, their explanation was much more detailed. 3rd place.


This team created a catapult along with a 5 min story about Egyptians and Romans fighting each other so they created this catapult to break down the walls of the fortress. 1st Place.

Close up of the catapult.

A radar bug. It's radar(the spoon on top) tracks enemies and uses it's amazingly long tail to whip and catch the enemies therefore turning them over the the police forces. 2nd Place.

Then we had canoe races where two boys had to pack a canoe out around the old sandbox and back through the yard. Any chance to show off strength.


Next was a scavenger hunt. Again, a hit. The list was something like this - chicken feather, 3 blackberries, thimbleberry, horse hair, mushroom or fungus, quartz rock, nail or screw, three leaf clover, bird nest, mud, pine cone, birch bark, a bee in a bag and much more. Within 15 minutes two teams had found all but 1 item!


Time for gifts. Jacob is my sentimental one. He will shake your hand, but would rather have a hug. I was a little on edge wondering if he would just shake hands or go for the gusto and hug these boys and hmmm...how will they take that? So right off the bat, he gets his first gift and goes over to the boy and shakes his hand and uses it as a tool to pull him into a big bear hug. I cringe inside thinking "OH! He needs to get over this!" But you know what? All the boys were willing to hug back and not one acted "too cool" for a hug. They must know Jacob by now. I am resolved to let my son hug, so what? That is who he is.


By the last few gifts, everyone would jump in and give a hug to the gift-giver with Jacob. It was a great time. My son, the hugger. I can think of worse.

We finished with a game of clothespin tag and prayer. You know, we had asked the Lord for good weather and it was rained all morning. It stopped for the duration of the party, it misted, but did not rain, then returned to rain as soon as the last boy had left. We had much to be thankful for!

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Danny was born to work in the shop with his Daddy. Ever since he was itty bitty he would toddle out to *work* with Dad. Picking up every tool , pushing every button, staring at every working part. Daddy asked him to come do big boy work and Danny was VERY excited. Here are all the pipes Daniel measured and cut with a loud scary saw thing. He is quite meticulous and Daddy can explain things once and trust Danny will set to the task without mistakes and diligence.

Measuring 60" on the dot.

Cutting the poles. The sparks are the best part says Daniel!

Finally, two sons to work with him. Happy boys & a less burdened Daddy.

Tomato Sandwiches

No really, you have to try this before you wrinkle your nose. My neighbor lady told me about these a couple years ago and now we are hooked! Thanks Dee!

2 toasted slices whole wheat bread
butter
several 1/2" slices of red ripe tomatoes
pepper

The butter waterproofs the toast, short-term. Place your tomatoes one layer(or 5 layers thick) and sprinkle with pepper, don't hold back pour on the pepper. No ones seems to care for pepper in our house, however, we use a gob on T.S. The kids LOVE this! Enjoy

The Dentist "Broke if you do, broke if you don't"

I made appointments for the five oldest to be seen today. Then after thinking about it scratched the three year old...why? I can see his teeth are fine, they still recommend it...but I win, I'm the mamma.

So, our dentist is GREAT. We finally have insurance, which I'd take dental ins over medical any day(and we do). It's right across the street from a quaint little espresso booth(score!). They had all four children done in 1hr 15min. Pretty good. Headphones and a remote for the flat screen overhead...pretty happy place for those of us without T.V.!!

They are all really, really nice people at the office, except Mr. Dentist seemed to have a small issue with our decisions(no fluoride treatment, not spending thousands on cosmetic dentistry) therefore he was a little grumpy today, but all is well. He'll get over it, he really is a nice guy. We had two with cavities, two without. Of the two cavities one was preventable, one was not so I feel pretty good about today's visit. Each assistant came out and said our home care is spectacular, makes me feel like all that nagging is worth it morning and night!
Our family is goofy. Why you say? It seems Paul + Me = children with missing permanent teeth. Lateral incisors to be exact. To tell you the truth the dentist said this is a pretty common congenital defect. So far Jessica has two missing top teeth and Jacob 3, with the warning that the others are at a "risk" of having this too. The dentist was bothered that our daughter isn't getting implants and braces NOW. I see no reason, we take things slow especially when implants and braces together cost upwards of 15k...um no thanks. After much deliberation over the last few months Paul and I have decided to find an orthodontist in Canada(MUCH cheaper, same high quality work and they love US cash, even it it worth less) and pull her teeth forward to fill in the gaps. It will look something like the picture below. Not bad.

We had a little issue with this one assistant. She obviously does not care for large families. She made this face(you know, jutting out the bottom jaw while raising the eyebrows) when I had to kindly interrupt as my little one from running away from me in the waiting room, like I was wasting her time. Never smiled. Not a happy camper. As she was explaining how if we cared about our children they would have braces right now(o.k., that is my interpretation) she stated that Jacob's missing teeth are not "life threatening".....I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or pretend to take her seriously, I opted on the latter. Life-threatening missing teeth????

Jacob is on his birthday date with Grandma where he gets to eat lunch anywhere he pleases with is 2nd favorite lady. He picked Chinese food. Then off to Fred Meyer to spend all that birthday money on Legos.

So, today Danny, Ems and I picked blackberries and made another pie. Jessie sat on the couch all day with a flu-like headache, Danny now says he has a headache so I think our first Fall 2008 flu bug is rearing it's ugly head. Tonight is Bacon, eggs and pancake night so I have it easy! Oh and another reason to be happy...it's Tuesday, DQ Blizzard night. Yum.