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We're Here!

We moved on the 12th, as planned, cut and put up a Christmas tree on the 13th, and were almost unpacked before Christmas.

Now we have to get ready for our 9th annual New Year's Eve Party :) Anyone want to come?

We're moving!

We're buying a house--the closing date is December 11th (next Friday!) and it looks like we are going to close on time :) If we do, we are moving on the 12th. We want to get moved quickly so that we can get Christmas going.

So...We've been packing. Jessi, Sarah and I packed her room and took 5 kitchen garbage bags of clothes to Salvation Army. We packed the family room and took another 5 bags to the Thrift Store. We just did this (culled and moved) 6 months ago. I didn't think we would have so much stuff to get rid of but that's ok. The more we get rid of, the less we have to move.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posting twice a year...might not be too good. I'll try to be more consistent. I promise. Really.

We are sitting around the house wearing whatever we want, doing whatever we want, and dinner will be ready whenever. A very relaxing day :)

Update

Easter was relaxing. The Easter bunny came and brought wonderful stuff. We went to church, and by the end of primary my CTR 5 kids all knew the Easter story well enough to tell it to their parents. We came home and then started cooking dinner. While the ham was cooking, the kids played badminton and got sunburned. (Love warm days ;)

Wednesday was my last day of work--yeah! Thursday we relaxed. Today we started getting ready to go to Utah :) Stan's little brother Josh is graduating next Friday from BYU so the kids and I are headed out on Sunday to visit and Stan will meet us there on Friday morning.

A couple of days a little over 60...

And we have to have a foot of snow. That's what I woke up to this morning. It took 20 minutes just to dig out the Suburban so we could go to the library.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

It was up over 60 today for the second day in a row :)

I started using e-mealz last week. They have a menu to download each week with 7 meals (dinner) on it. It lists the ingredients and directions next to the name of each meal and on a second page has a grocery list with the meal number next to each item in case you aren't going to make that meal this week. It costs $15 for three months worth of menus, but I used coupon code "dave" to get $2.50 off --as in Dave Ramesy.

We tried 4 meals last week and used family favorites for the other days. It worked well, and made my grocery list making so much easier. The meals we tried were all simple to prepare and included side dishes. I was worried when I looked at the menu that it would cost more than what we were already spending, but it was about the same. I think it would cost more if we did all 7 meals, but we didn't and probably won't ever do that. The kids will always want some of their favorites.

So...this morning I printed out the menu/grocery list, had the kids pick a meal (they've been each cooking one night a week), and marked off what we weren't cooking that week. I then marked off ingredients that we already have, and added things for dinner meals that aren't on that menu and for lunches and breakfasts. It didn't take much time to be ready to go shopping for the week :)

After shopping, we all went to the duck pond at MSU and fed the ducks barley that was going to be thrown out. It certainly was a beautiful day :)

Update

Well, work has slowed considerably for the last month or so. With H&R Block's contract, I only make money (over all) when I have a client in front of me. At least with my current office manager, she only has me come in if I have a client :) I've been home recuperating from working full time and hsing full time for the first 6 or 7 weeks of the year.

We are planning to hs May through December this year so that we can take time off during tax season next year. Because of this, I have already gotten all my supplies ready for next school year and am eager (not to be confused with ready :) to move on from this year.

The older kids will be doing Biology (either this one or this one--I bought both, but haven't decided which to use), a study of the Constitution/Government, American Literature/Language Arts, and math at their level. The younger kids will be doing Biology, American History for Young People I, Learning Language Arts Through Literature (this one and this one), and Singapore Math at their level.

A group of us (hsers) from gym day have decided to start a co-op :) The first day will be April 6 and we will meet once a week for 8 week sessions. The classes for this session will be Health, Sign Language, Art, and Creative Writing for the older kids and Cooking, Sign Language, Creative Arts (music, art, writing...), and...um...something else...for the younger kids. Can't quite remember what.

We have moms that are artists (that actually sell their artwork) teaching the art classes, a mom that has a degree in sign language teaching that, and a dad that is a chiropractor teaching the Health class. Some of us at this house are really excited :) Others were told they had to try it for the first couple of weeks before they said no.

What a Day! (at work)

Jacob is a Deacon! I only have one more to go...boy I'm getting old :)

I have been working at H&R Block for tax season preparing taxes. As a preparer, I am payed 100% commission but take a draw on my commission per hour so that I get some pay before the end of season. I've been keeping a daily total and figuring my hourly commission--today I made $50.60 per hour! If I could just keep that up for three months :) Unfortunately it slows down considerably in another couple of weeks.

Quote

Doesn't my new quote (below the blog name) just fit Montana? The snow here hasn't completely melted since...November? I think?

This week...

The kids did great in the performance of Hansel and Gretal--but we forgot the camera. Stephen and Jacob sang more loudly and clearly than I have ever heard them sing (a good thing to do with solos). Stephen has a beautiful bass voice. Getting ready for this took all my free time for the week. I wasn't told that we would have to find our own costumes until about a week and a half ago, so we were still tracking down stuff.

Jacob had his Primary President interview to move out of primary and will be having his Bishop's interview on Wednesday to become a Deacon. He turns 12 on Friday. He is so excited to move on from Primary. In this ward the 12 year olds move out of Primary completely on their birthday--Sunday School and everything. If we move again when our lease is up, he will probably have to go back to Primary for an hour each Sunday in our new ward until January. He will not be happy.

Saturday's Events

Stan and I have been looking at a house to buy in Belgrade (that probably won't even be there by May--that's when we get out of the lease here) and decided to go to the home show to look at a few things we would like to buy.

The first thing was a new furnace. The one in the house is rattly and obviously old. We talked to a guy about a heat pump and another about a furnace. The heat pump costs about the same as the furnace (more than we want to spend) but looks like a nice thing to have. It cuts heating costs by about half, but only works if the temps are over 35 degrees (maybe half the winter). It is also an air conditioning unit. Might be nice, but the furnace would have to be replaced first, then this is added on.

The furnace guy tried to talk us into switching to a natural gas furnace. Right now most people with natural gas have about the same bills as the people heating with electric. Not sure it's worth the price to switch.

The other thing that we were really interested in was an instant water heater. We knew that they cost quite a bit more, but last longer than a regular water heater. What we didn't know was that if you have mineral rich water or a lot of chlorine in the water you have to buy a water purifier to put before the water heater. The minerals and chemicals solidify at the point of heating. We just wanted hot showers even on the eighth one. Totally tired of cold showers. Once again probably not worth the money now. Oh, well.

For the afternoon, Stephen, Jessica, Jacob, Sarah, and Joseph went to Science Saturdays at MSU and learned about Bio-Materials. It's for kids 10-15, but younger kids can go with an adult. Stephen went as our adult...he really wanted to go too anyway. They learned how nature has inspired science and came home with that slime you play with. I know they did other things, but I'm not sure what...

Hansel and Gretel

Stephen, Jacob, Jessica and Sarah have been attending a homeschool choir this fall. They performed a couple of places just before Christmas and this month they are doing an operetta.

They are doing Hansel and Gretel. The performance will be next Saturday at 1pm at the Bozeman Library in the big meeting room. The older three will be doing some solos--Stephen is the father, Jessica is the dew fairy, Jacob is the huntsman and Sarah is an angel. They've had lots of fun with this group. We'll have to join again next year.

Sarah's schoolwork...

I keep waiting to post until I get pictures loaded up...I think I need to stop waiting. It's not getting done :\

Sarah's Language Arts today was talking about cause and effect. We read the story about Jesus walking on water from the Bible and talked about possible causes and from some effects. We discussed possible causes of Peter sinking in the water. Then I asked her what she thought the cause was of the storm stopping when Jesus stepped on the boat. She said "Jesus stopped it." I asked her if she really thought that He could do that. She said (while rolling her eyes) "Mom...He made the world." :)

The next part of this assignment was to write three sentences telling about a situation that made her worry, then one sentence telling how the situation turned out. She couldn't think of anything that made her worry except having to write these sentences. Here's what she wrote:

Mom's making me write.
I don't want to write.
It's no fun.
Hurray! I'm finally done!

She cracks me up :)

This is interesting...

This is A condensed timeline from the Investor's Business Daily
explaining "What Caused the Loan Crisis": I't's the best, short but full
accounting I've read yet.

This is quite a time line. Bush urged reform 17 times.

1977: Pres. Jimmy Carter signs the Community Reinvestment Act into
Law. The law pressured financial institutions to extend home loans to those
who would otherwise not qualify. The Premise: Home ownership would
improve poor and crime-ridden communities and neighborhoods in terms of
crime, investment, jobs, etc.

Results: Statistics bear out that it did not help.

How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing
market? Answer: Bill Clinton wanted it that way.

1992: Republican representative Jim Leach (IO) warned of the danger
that Fannie and Freddie were changing from being agencies of the public at
large to money machines for the principals and the stockholding few.

1993: Clinton extensively rewrote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules
turning the quasi-private mortgage-funding firms into semi-nationalized
monopoies dispensing cash and loans to large Democratic voting blocks and
handing favors, jobs and contributions to political allies. This potent mix
led inevitably to corruption and now the collapse of Freddie and Fannie.

1994: Despite warnings, Clinton unveiled his National Home-Ownership
Strategy which broadened the CRA in ways congress never intended.

1995: Congress, about to change from a Democrat majority to
Republican, Clinton orders Robert Rubin's Treasury Dept to rewrite the
rules. Robt. Rubin's Treasury reworked rules, forcing banks to satisfy
quotas for sub-prime and minority loans to get a satisfactory CRA rating.
The rating was key to expansion or mergers for banks. Loans began to be
made on the basis of race and little else.

1997 - 1999: Clinton, bypassing Republicans, enlisted Andrew Cuomo,
then Secretary of Housing and Urban Developement, allowing Freddie and
Fannie to get into the sub-prime market in a BIG way. Led by Rep. Barney
Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, congress doubled down on the risk by easing
capital limits and allowing them to hold just 2.5% of capital to back their
investments vs. 10% for banks. Since they could borrow at lower rates than
banks their enterprises boomed.

With incentives in place, banks poured billions in loans into poor
communities, often "no doc", "no income", requiring no money down and no
verification of income. Worse still was the cronyism: Fannie and Freddie
became home to out-of work-politicians, mostly Clinton Democrats. 384
politicians got big campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie. Over $200
million had been spent on lobbying and political activities. During the
1990's Fannie and Freddie enjoyed a subsidy of as musch as $182 Billion,
most of it going to principals and shareholders, not poor borrowers as
claimed.

Did it work? Minorities made up 49% of the 12.5 million new
homeowners but many of those loans have gone bad and the minority
homeownership rates are shrinking fast.

1999: New Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, became alarmed at
Fannie and Freddie's excesses. Congress held hearings the ensuing year but
nothing was done because Fannie and Freddie had donated millions to key
congressmen and radical groups, ensuring no meaningful changes would take
place. "We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage
our credit and interest rate risks," Fannie CEO Franklin Raines, a former
Clinton official and current Barack Obama advisor, bragged to investors in
1999.

2000: Secretary Summers sent Undersecretary Gary Gensler to Congress
seeking an end to the "special status". Democrats raised a ruckus as did
Fannie and Freddie, headed by politically connected CEO's who knew how to
reward and punish. "We think that the statements evidence a contempt for
the nation's housing and mortgage markets" Freddie spokesperson Sharon
McHale said. It was the last chance during the Clinton era for reform.

2001: Republicans try repeatedly to bring fiscal sanity to Fannie
and Freddie but Democrats blocked any attempt at reform; especially Rep.
Barney Frank and Sen.Chris Dodd who now run key banking committees and were
huge beneficiaries of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants.

2003: Bush proposes what the NY Times called "the most significant
regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and
loan crisis a decade ago". Even after discovering a scheme by Fannie and
Freddie to overstate earnings by $10.6 billion to boost their bonuses, the
Democrats killed reform.

2005: Then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan warns Congress: "We are
placing the total financial system at substantial risk". Sen. McCain, with
two others, sponsored a Fannie/Freddie reform bill and said, "If congress
does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous
risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall
financial system and the economy as a whole". Sen. Harry Reid accused the
GOP ;of trying to "cripple the ability of Fannie and Freddie to carry out
their mission of expanding homeownership" The bill went nowhere.

2007: By now Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee over HALF of the $12
trillion US mortgage market. The mortgage giants, whose executive suites
were top-heavy with former Democratic officials, had been working with Wall
St. to repackage the bad loans and sell them to investors. As the housing
market fell in '07, subprime mortgage portfolios suffered major losses. The
crisis was on, though it was 15 years in the making.

2008: McCain has repeatedly called for reforming the behemoths, Bush
urged reform 17 times. Still the media have repeated Democrats' talking
points about this being a "Republican" disaster. A few Republicans are
complicit but Fannie and Freddie were created by Democrats, regulated by
Democrats, largely run by Democrats and protected by Democrats. That's why
taxpayers are now being asked for $700 billion!!

If you doubt any of this, just click the links below and listen to
your lawmakers own words. They are condeming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68D9XrqyrWo&feature=related#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgqfM5C8lY#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9juJr8CSY4&feature=related#

Postscript: ACORN is one of the principle beneficiaries of Fannie/
Freddie's slush funds. They are currently under indictment or investigation
in many states. Barack Obama served as their legal counsel, defending their
activities for several years.

Rocky Creek Farms

Sarah, Jacob, and I went on Thursday to Rocky Creek Farm for a hay ride and a little fun with our homeschool group. Here's a few pictures:






I'm glad we went before the snow storm :)

Snow?

We've had over 6" of snow in the last two days. It's only October 11th. There's something seriously wrong here.

On the other hand, we bought a Suburban with auto 4 wheel drive so we're set for the winter :)

New Job

Rumpelstiltskin ended wonderfully. I had several conversations about the church and had a wonderful time visiting with the other moms while the kids were practicing all week.

As soon as we were done needing to go to Livingston for the play, my transmission went out in the van. Good timing for us, but definitely an inconvenience. Now all we have is an S-10 pickup to haul all of us around.

We can use the bus for anything we need to get to in town, as long as we have the time to deal with the schedule. It's free and it's kind of fun to ride the bus--the kids get a kick out of it.

The longer I am without a vehicle that holds more than 3, the more I realize how much we can't do that I had planned on this year. The bus system ends at the city limits (sometimes even short of it). Homeschool Choir is outside the city limits. History Co-op is outside the city limits. All but one field trip that we had planned are outside the city limits (I had one planned per month.). Hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, shooting range (we had just joined), 1 YW/YM activity per month, scout activities...all outside the city limits. And we can take only 2 kids and 1 driver to any of them.

So. On Monday I started applying for part time jobs that would let me pick how much I worked. On Thursday I was hired to hand out samples at Costco. It pays $11/hour and lets me pick how many (6 hour) shifts per week I will work (I chose 3 to start).

Hopefully, soon we will be able to find a vehicle we are happy with that holds us all. We are looking specifically for something that we can pay off in the next 6 months from my work. After that I plan to work a bit more so that I can pay off the little bit of debt that we have, then I will quit. I much prefer to be home full time with my kids, but I don't mind doing this so that we won't have a car payment (for very long anyway).

Queen Bea

Jessi has the lead female role in Rumpelstiltskin! At least she has more lines than anyone else other than the Tour actor/Director that comes with the little red truck. Who knew it wasn't the girl that spun the straw into gold? It's not in Missoula Children's Theatre's version--it's her mother-in-law, Queen Bea.

Jacob is Wizard #4, and Sarah and Joe are Bees. Jacob has 5-6 lines that he says alone and is thrilled with that. Sarah and Joe will probably have one line each and sing lots of songs. Lots of excitement at our house.

The performances are at 3pm and 7pm this Saturday at the Firehouse Five Playhouse in Livingston. Tickets costs $5 per person and $15 per family.

So it begins...

Tomorrow is the first day of practice for Rumpelstiltskin with Missoula Children's Theatre. Sarah, Joseph, Jacob, and Jessica have been talking about it and asking "How much longer?" for the last month. They will be performing on Saturday twice at the Firehouse 5 in Livingston...but I can't remember what times :) I'll have to post the times later this week along with what parts they got.