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 :)

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.

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...

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.

Miscellaneous ramblings of the week...

We had a slow Labor Day weekend...Stan organized the garage, I shopped, baked bread, and went to the Stake Women's Conference. It was fun to talk to all the women from Livingston--they filled two rows in the chapel.

The Bishop called last night and asked us to speak in Sacrament on the 14th. That always makes me nervous.

Yesterday I canned 14 quarts of chili. I figured if I was going to make it, I might as well make a really (really) big batch and can a bunch for later. It saves time later and on freezer space. I think I will try beans for beans and rice next.

Sarah has decided to do Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (Apologia Elementary Science) this year. The style fits her personality. It is quite a bit of reading since it is in a conversational style (which she loves, but the boys can't stand). She will then tell me what she remembers, I will write it for her (since she can't write fast enough), and she will draw a picture that relates. It has roughly one experiment a week to do that I am sure Joseph will do with us. And Stan has decided to do some experiments (unrelated) with the twins also.

Sarah and Joe are loving Learning to Read with the Book of Mormon. Thanks, Jenny, for recommending it :) It's what they always want to do first. I think that's about it for now...

Vacations this summer

We went to my family reunion July 14-18. Stan was unable to go because his barley plants were "heading out" during that time and he had to take "heading notes". Which he did. The rest of us went and played in Utah with my family. We stayed in the Snydermill Lodge owned by my brother's stake and played at a lake (can't remember the name) one day, went to Utah Olympic Park the next, and to Lagoon the day after that. We all had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we will be leaving for Glacier National Park (Stan with us this time) to camp for four days. Jessi has been looking up things to do in Glacier the last few days. Looks like we will be hiking and fishing a lot. Sounds like fun :)

This summer has been filled with moving and vacationing. As soon as we get back, I have to finish unpacking and get ready for the next school year.

Massive update. Again.

Well we moved. And moved again.

Two days after we moved into the farmhouse, a breaker popped over. No big deal. We couldn't get it to come back on though. We told the farm manager that we needed to buy a new breaker and asked him how he wanted us to deal with it. He said that he didn't want us to mess with the electricity and he would call Facilities Services (MSU electricians).

Facilities Services came out and said that they couldn't replace those breakers--they're not made anymore. And this box needs to be replaced. And all this wiring doesn't look right...let's look inside. When all was said and done, they gave the Dean of the Department of Agriculture a bid for $10,000 for the work that needed to be done. They also told the Dean that they would not allow anyone to live in the house if he didn't pay them to fix all of it (they are apparently allowed to do that--and no one but them is allowed to fix it). The Dean didn't want to put that much money into the house. He decided to tear it down instead and put up a manufactured home instead. He sent a message to us through the farm manager that we had to move as soon as possible. Two days after we moved in.

Stan made an appointment with the Dean to discuss all of this. We just put out quite a bit of money to move and didn't have the money to put down (first, last, and deposit) on another place. We certainly weren't moving unless we had another place to move to and with no money, there was no way to get one. He called his boss (on vacation) and his department head (also on vacation) to apprise them of the situation (they knew nothing).

Stan's boss said not to worry, he would pay for the electrical to be fixed out of his own budget and would go to the meeting with the Dean with him. When they went to the meeting, though, the Dean said that he didn't want the house fixed, he wanted to tear it down. They agreed to give Stan a 23% raise instead.

We couldn't save like we would have living in the farmhouse, but we could at least afford a decent house in Bozeman. We live 2 blocks from church and about a mile from Stan's work. With on campus parking the way it is, Stan walks to work and we all walk to church. We are saving a lot on gas at least.

We're Moving!

We have been looking at buying a house for the last few months, but an opportunity to rent at a price we couldn't refuse came up and we took it.

The house is at the Arthur H. Post MSU Farm. That's where Stan works all summer. He will no longer have any gas cost for work. Most of our homeschool activities are in Bozeman already, and we shop there, so my gas costs should fall dramatically also. The house is smaller than where we are living now, and needs a little fixing up, but we can make it work. It has character--It's probably close to 100 years old.

This week...

Stephen, Shane, and Jessi had a wonderful time at the Rexburg Temple Open House last week. They talk about it for 3-4 days. The boys did not sleep before they had to leave at 2:15 am. I feel sorry for the leaders. Jessi slept at least a little.

Jessi and Stephen have been taking a class for the last month at the Museum of the Rockies on Montana history with one of the curators. This week was the last in the series, and they both are sad. They wanted it to keep going for a few months, not a few weeks. I talked to the instructor, and she said she was working on another class but it wouldn't be ready until April. Something to look forward to.

I am doing sharing time this week. I decided to do it on Pres. Hinckley and how a new prophet is chosen. We have quite a few convert families in our ward. I'm sure some of the parents don't understand how this happens since it hasn't since they were baptized, and wouldn't be able to teach their children. Hopefully we will have some good discussion (at least with the senior primary).

They're off!

Almost. Stephen, Shane, and Jessica are leaving at 2:15 tomorrow morning to go to the Rexburg Temple open house. The Stake has decided to rent a Greyhound type bus and drive them all. At 3am. Why they had to leave from Bozeman at 3am, I'm not sure. They aren't letting any of the ward leaders go, just stake leaders.

Stan invited 4 of the other young men (besides ours) to spend the night tonight, and he will drive them all over to Bozeman.

Update

It has been forever since I posted anything on here...so here goes!

We had a great Thanksgiving at home with just us. We ate turkey with all the trimmings.

I had great plans for learning about Christmas for schoolwork for the month of December, but the bishop had other ideas. I was called as Primary President the Sunday before Christmas, but I was interviewed 2 1/2 weeks before that. I couldn't seem to accomplish anything at home after finding out, so our Christmas school went out the window.

We went caroling and had Christmas dinner with the Claars. We all loved it--I hope we can do it again next year. We had fun making homemade gifts to exchange with them.

We had our 8th annual New Year's Eve party on Monday. There were 29 people there this time, the most we've ever had. It was lots of fun, but I think we need to keep a table upstairs for the adults to play games on next year.

Today is the first day back to school for public school, so we started also. We watched a Netflix movie on Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry, then the kids did their sit down work (math, grammar, writing, scouts, church).

Well, that's it in a nutshell. I'll have to write more often from now on. But I'm not making any promises.

Spay and Neuter Clinic

Jacob and I took our cats to the free spay and neuter clinic at the fairgrounds yesterday. They had 4 vets doing cats and 3 vets doing dogs. They said that they would "fix" 150 cats in 8 hours. What a blessing to have this available! Can you imagine 150 more cats running around our little town making more kittens? We would be over run. And they do that many every year.

When we checked the cats in, they asked if we would like to volunteer. We did :) They had us keep the cats warm by covering them with a towel and putting a sock of rice that had been microwaved next to them. Then we sat and petted and rubbed and talked to the cats until they woke up from the anesthetic. That took anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. It was a good experience for Jacob and I. Maybe we'll do it again next year even though we won't have any more cats to take in.

Halloween

I received an email yesterday morning from some RV homeschoolers. They said they were in Bozeman and were looking for something for the teens to do for Halloween. We invited them for dinner and to the Trunk or Treat/Carnival at church (and they came).

It was fun. They are Jewish, and their 15yo son said a blessing on the food in Hebrew. We had a good discussion about religion, then about homeschooling. They are traveling the country for two years to see the sights and learn about American History/Geography.

The shed

Yesterday Stan, with the help of a few friends and the kids, rebuilt the shed. Before it had a wood and pvc (on the roof) frame and was covered with plastic. It looked something like a greenhouse. With the high winds we have here, we had to replace the plastic 3 times in the last year. He decided it was time to replace the plastic with something more solid.

They started at 9am and by 5pm they had a complete shed with metal siding and shingled roof. That should hold up to the winds this winter :) The friends that came started calling Stan a master scrounger--we paid $25 for all the materials that we bought (some of the plywood). All the rest of the materials he found used for free (roofing nails, felt, shingles, plywood, 2x4's, metal siding...). It came from freecycle, burn piles, and a friend of ours with a roofing company. The roof is in 4 different colors of shingles (they were leftovers) but it's solid. It's amazing what you can find when you start looking around.

Stephen and Shane used this for a project for the Family Life merit badge. It fit right in at the right time.

Boffering

Shane has discovered the wonderful world of boffer fighting. Here is a picture I found of some men having a battle (no one I know) .


They take pvc pipe and cover it with swimming noodles or pipe insulation. Then they cover the whole thing with duct tape. Here is picture of just weapons.


Shane was sssooo excited about the whole thing that he decided to start a medieval war group with our local homeschoolers and see how many show up. Today was the first meeting (at the park since it was warm). We had about 20 kids, which is pretty good for our little town. They all had fun, we had no major injuries and everyone wants to do it again . We decided to meet once a month at the civic center gym to war some more :)

I'm baaaack....

Yesterday was my last day of work :) The first three weeks I worked outside, but the last two days I worked in the seed room. I found that I am definitely allergic to barley. I was supposed to work through the end of the week, but couldn't take being in the seed room anymore.

Today we are going to go over what the kids got done for schoolwork and clean house. Both deteriorated considerably in the last week or so.

Stan brought home some black wheat a while ago for Jacob to sell at the farmer's market. He didn't get it ready in time for the farmer's market though. Last night he took a couple of bundles to our local grocery store to see if he could sell them there...They said he could! They are going to take 30 bundles and sell them for $2.50, then Jacob gets $2.00 for every one that sells. I need to find a ledger book for him now to keep track of his business.