Yes, we're alive!

We have been busy, busy, busy.  Nothing too exciting, just normal everyday stuff.  Since Rachel and Joseph will take their academic tests in May we really have been focusing on school, and lots of it.  Which has left me with little time to blog.  After testing is over I can finally let my breath out and relax a little.  Here are a few pictures of our everyday life, please don't yawn too much. 

Rachel decided one beautiful afternoon to wash her "motorcycle".

Joseph and Nicole voluntarily weeding the garden.  Uuumm!  Looks suspicious to me.  I think they are looking for marbles for their jars (more on that in a later post).

Rachel is still swimming with the swimteam in Winchester.  They swim every Mondays and Wednesdays.  She loves it!

Last week we enjoyed a field trip to the Virginia Arboretum (Blandy Experimental Farm) here in Boyce.  Talk about a beautiful place.  This trip was on "water wonders".  The students used topographic maps of Virginia to locate and describe their own watershed.  They also learned how to collect, measure and record water quality (i.e. look at little squigglies under a microscope).  How cool is that.  Next month we will go back for Virginia Natives: plants and animals).

Collecting pond water.

Now we're getting to the fun stuff.  Lots of little wiggly, slimy things to look at.

Last, but not least.  This picture has nothing to do with the field trip or anything else but I had to include it.  Yes, it is real.  I'll leave you now, with this.

Dave, thank you for loving me

Today is Dave's birthday.  Let's just say that he is 40ish and we'll leave it at that.  I wanted to post a few things about him that I love and they are in no particular order of importance (except for number 7, that's my favorite).

1. He can fix anything; electrical, plumbing, drywall, cars and crayons.  He saves us so much money.
2. He makes the best omelets.
3. He ALWAYS makes me laugh ... even when I'm mad, which makes me even more mad.
4. He brings me coffee in bed on Saturday mornings (this one might ruin his image).
5. He absolutely, hands down, is the best painter ... in the world.
6. He is a very forgiving person.
7. He puts the kids to bed every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night.  I love it!
8. He is the grill master.
9. He always takes one of the kids with him when he goes somewhere.
10. His clam chowder .... yummy!
11. He calls me every afternoon at 4:20pm, even if it's only to see what I'm cooking for dinner, I do love hearing his voice.
12. He plays Monopoly with the kids ... when I don't feel like it.
13. He without a doubt cherishes his children. 
14. He involves the kids in everything he does around the house. 
15. He goes to work every morning so I don't have, well a paid job anyways.
16. He is my very best friend, sorry Keri, Michele and Laura.
17. He trusts in Jesus Christ as his personal savior.
18. He starts singing (loudly) out of nowhere and it's usually either a song from the 80's or "Frank".
19. He makes me feel safe.
20. He tolerates my casseroles.

Happy Birthday!  I love you!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

Last Friday Dave's work was scheduled to be closed for their annual Christmas party in Owings, MD.  We had a babysitter lined up and everything.  I painted my toenails, fingernails and bought a new outfit.  I was excited!  And then ... snow was in the forcast, a lot of it.  Because Dave's employment sells snow plows and all the trimmings I guess it would kind of be important they would be open.  So ... he opened Friday morning with the intention of trying to get out by 12ish.  Hoping that would happen we still had our niece, Lauren, come out to stay with the kids.  Well we never did make it to the party.  Dave stayed at work until 7:30 that evening.  Lauren, bless her heart, stayed here all day and encouraged us to still go out when Dave got off work.  Dave and I finally met each other at 8pm in Upperville at a restaurant called Hunter's Head Tavern.  By the time we left, snow was falling heavily and already sticking to the roads.

This is Lauren and her boyfriend Nate playing Apples to Apples with the kids.

I'm sure my family in Utah is saying "Yeah, yeah, we've seen the white stuff before.  I have to post pictures to prove it actually snows .... sometimes.  This is what it looked like during the day on Saturday and no there is nothing wrong with my camera this is what it really looked like.

Dave and the kids building a fort.  Rachel is in there somewhere.

This is Sunday morning standing on the front porch.  We got a total of 14 inches. 

Dave standing on the porch, is contemplating what to do.

Thanks to my very good friend Michele for the snow outfit on Nicole. 

I think Dave has his work cut out for him.  Amazingly, our neighbor came over with his tractor and plowed our driveway. 

Thawing out!  And no Rachel does not drink out of a sippy cup.

All I can say is, "YUMMY!"  The smaller, the better.  Dave took this picture in the backyard. 

Don't ask me why Rachel chose to dress like this while playing Monopoly.

It's been a year

A year ago yesterday we moved into our house here on Browntown Road.  Let's recap a little. 

Dave bought the 3 bedroom townhouse in Gainesville in 1997.  Soon after we got married we had a baby and then another, and another and finally one more.  Eleven years and 4 children later our 1875 sq. ft. townhouse was becoming a little cramped.  Or should I say A LOT cramped.  By the time we moved, Rachel and Nicole were sharing a room with bunkbeds, Joseph, being the only boy had his own room and Elise was in a packnplay in our room.  We were utilizing every inch of wall space and closets that we had.  We needed space and we needed it bad.

During the spring of 2008 we knew that something had to be done.  Knowing that it was a bad time to put the house on the market we enlisted the help of our good friend and realtor Steve Bochan.   He was VERY patient, encouraging and put our worries at ease (at least mine anyways, Dave didn't have any).  Steve's philosophy was basically put the house on the market and see what happens, you never know.  Boy was he right.  The realtor sign went in the ground Thursday after Labor Day and surprisingly we got a call the NEXT morning that someone wanted to see it.  As to not bore you with a long story this man looked at it, loved it, and made an offer that day.  Full asking price.  I was shocked.  Oh you of little faith.  That was me, I had such little faith that it would sell in this market, but it did.  What God wants done, will get done!

This is the last picture that was taken of our cute little townhouse.  I loved it, the townhouse that is.  My favorite was the kitchen and for those of you who saw it, know what I'm talking about. We just simply outgrew it.  On another note, the giant bradford pear tree you see is now gone.  Neighbors said one day out of the blue it just split in half.  Glad I wasn't there.

Rachel is not too happy here.

Dave's parents, who live in Vienna, generously opened their home to us.  We moved in the end of September and then began looking for a house with the help of Steve. 

We had criteria for a house.  1. NO HOA  2. LAND   That definitely narrowed the search.  We looked everywhere.  We saw this house online and overlooked it because it was listed as a three bedroom.  Funny thing is, it kept coming up when we would do our search.  With Steve insisting, we decided to look at it anyways figuring Dave could "add on" if we needed. Well, it had four bedrooms upstairs, imagine that. 

So here we are in Boyce, VA.

Our property is exactly two acreas.  And it ALL needs to be mowed.  But hey, when you have this who needs to worry. 

"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Phil 4:19

We have been so blessed by this house. God has provided for us beyond measure.  We are completely unpacked and still have kitchen cabinets that are empty.  I'd like to keep it that way.

Birthday Craziness ... and coughing to go with it!!!

I know, I know.  I haven't been posting much lately.  I always come up with interesting things to post about but then never find the time to actually do it.  Along with trying to finish Christmas shopping we've had birthdays to celebrate, and yes that's birthdays plural.  First, my little man turned 8 years old this past Tuesday.  He wanted sausage links and "dipping" eggs for breakfast and insisted on hotdogs and homemade mac and cheese for dinner.  So when he tells you he had hotdogs for his birthday dinner please give me a break.  Here's a picture from several years ago that sums up Joseph's life filled with creatures of all kind.  This was taken the summer of 2006.

Obviously, I was not too creative with the cake.  Later in the week we celebrated by going to ChuckECheese with a couple of his close friends.  The robe he is wearing was one of his gifts.

The next day we celebrated Rachel turning 11.  Yes, their birthdays are one day apart. Crazy! Before long she is going to be as tall as I am.  She wanted a "breakfast sandwich" which consists of scrapple and scrambled egg on a bagel.  For dinner she asked for venison tenderloin, baked potato and salad.  This year she had a spa party and invited all her friends.  They all painted each others fingernails and toenails.  This is probably one of my favorite pictures of her.  It also was take in 2006.  Of all my children she has probably changed the most.

Right before their birthdays all the kids manage to get some sort of the flu.  First one to get sick was Joseph, then they all got it within days of each other.  They all complained of the same thing which was headache, sore throat, stomachache, and fever.  The headache lasted for days.  Over all it wasn't too bad, although that is easy for me to say since I have escaped it so far.  Now they just have a lingering cough ... which is enough to drive anyone insane from listening to it. 

The day of Rachel's birthday party we also enjoyed our first snow of the winter.  Here they are playing out in the snow with their cousins.

School pictures are here!

I really tried to narrow it down to only 2 pictures per child but I just couldn't pick.  Nancy Morrison of Pretty Pix by Nancy has again produced beautiful work.  She provides her services every year to the homeschool community.  This is now our third year having our pictures done with her.  You can see her awesome work here.

 

Happy Anniversary!

Today, Dave and I will celebrate 12 years of marriage.  Dave proposed in the basement of his newly purchased townhouse in Gainesville with the song "Reminiscing" by Little River Band playing in the background ... hints the name of the blog.  We had a beautiful perfect wedding ceremony and a blast at our reception.  We even had more fun on our honeymoon ... wait a minute... we didn't go on one.  Oh yeah, that's right, you spent the next weekend in Cape Hatteras with your friends.   You still owe me a honeymoon!

Dave, you are a wonderful, awesome, and amazing husband.  You will never know how important you are to me and how much I love you.  Happy Anniversary!

This is our engagement picture. Doesn't he look good in a suit?

Take a good look. You'll never see him in one again.

What's your favorite candy? Or least favorite?

Our Friday before Halloween started off with attending Rachel's Essentials writing class in Winchester.  During recess, Joseph, while running to catch a football, was tackled into a wooden fence.  His forehead lost to the fence.  After recovering, he quickly went back to playing with a bunch of 9-12 year old boys, this should have been a red flag.  I then went inside the church and the next thing I know a mother is bringing my crying, bloody, swollen nosed Joseph to me.  Well ... this time he was running with the football and head-butted the back of another kids head.  Ouch!  Again, Joseph's nose lost, big time.  As all of you know he immediately has a headache and wants to throw-up.  This would worry most people but it is normal for him.  After much debate I determined it probably was not broken and he then spent the afternoon on the sofa in Rachel's class, learning about verb transitive, direct object, and subject pronouns.  Joseph comment, "This is boring!"

Then .... on the way home I notice something is not right with my car.  I look down and the light indicating low tire pressure is on.  I think, oh great, as we are supposed to leave for PA as soon as we get home.  I stop to put air in the tire and notice a drywall screw in the tread, lovely.  I can actually hear the air coming out.  To make a long story short our wonderful neighbor so graciously took the tire off and took in up "to the good ol' boys" in Boyce to have it plugged.  We are now on our way to PA to trick or treat and spend the weekend with cousins.  YEAH!  Everyone has stopped crying!

Halloween night: mummies and spiderwebs

Everyone dressed up.   

White Witch from Narnia

Storm Trooper

Aslan

Elise

A survey of favorite candies:

Dave: Kit Kat  Carrie: Twix   Rachel:  Gummy LifeSavers and Sour Patch Kids  Joseph: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and Dark Chocolate Nicole: Reese Cup and Skittles  Elise: anything with sugar.  We all agreed that the most disgusting candies are Dots and Chocolate Skittles and in my personal opinion, anything with coconut.  It's wrong!

This is what Dave was up to while we were away for the weekend.

We arrived home Sunday afternoon to a very sick Charlotte.  She could not get up. To watch her try it seemed as though she has back hip and arthritis problems.  This is not supposed to happen in a three month old puppy.  Monday afternoon we took her to the vet and currently are treating her for a bladder infection, which she's already had once before, and possible lyme disease.  If she is not dramatically better in 48 hours they will start to consider early hip dysplasia.