First month in Boise

Wow, a whole month has gone by! We started out by all getting terribly sick with colds/sinus infection when we first got here. That took about 2 weeks to pass through, but mean time I started my new job (sick). Because of the sickness and general chaos, we are still unpacking! So much fun. My new job is great so far, but I can honestly say that rather than stay in the float pool, I am thinking once my trial period is up I am going to probably choose a permanent floor to work on. Stew has been back and forth to Salt Lake several times already, and just headed back today to pick up Mom, who is going to come stay with us for awhile. Someday soon, I hope to post some updated pics.
Stew and I have also been busy with our Master's classes in mental health counseling in our spare time...ha.

Packin'

We are madly packing! I've got to work Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We head to Denver Thursday afternoon for Mattea's cardiology appointment, then on to Idaho!
We are showing the house on Sunday to potential renters, so please keep us in your prayers! Renters at this point would be a blessing so we don't have to make double payments every month.
I have to say I am tired, and even more tired thinking about the week ahead of us.

We have a place to go now

Well we just signed a lease on house in Idaho and will be leaving NM in just 14 days. Yes it will be a very busy time for us.
We have to pack up everything that is going and throw out what isn't. No all the kids get to go Darn!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will still have to return to paint and clean when everyone is gone, oh joy!
Lou has to find someone to watch the kids and get settled in at the new place and then go to work. But it is day shift and no longer Nights. So in a few years she can be maybe a normal person and go to bed at night.
Everyone seems exicted about having grass again and also being closer to lou's family.
Her mother is moving to Idaho also and we are looking for a place for her as she has decided to be closer to her daughter.
We are racing to get this first class done at college and then we get a one week break before the next class and hopefully everything here will be done by then.
I think that is all at the moment other than the last two snow storms and we are to get another one this weekend.
I just hope when it is time to leave the weather is mild and sort of warm and no storms as it is almost a 1000 mile drive to our new home.

More snow...IDAHO!!!

We are in the midst of yet ANOTHER snow storm, several inches more fell while I slept today. We have over a foot of snow on the ground right now...
And the news of the week is that I have accepted a position on the Clinical Support Team at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise, IDAHO!!! So please keep us in your prayers as we search for a place to live and prepare for another chapter in our lives.

Still here...

Life is busy as usual.
We've had a crazy amount of snow this winter, with almost a foot dumped on us in the last week or so. We had to push my car out of the driveway the other day, not to mention our dirt road that didn't really get plowed. I love my new Accord for every kind of driving except in snow. It kind of skids everywhere. That's when I do like Stew's big 4WD Ford truck.
I've been applying for, and interviewing for, LOT of nursing jobs in UT and ID. Now I have a possibility of job offers in both states. Hopefully this coming week will bring a decision and a plan. I've started trying to organize all our stuff. Ugh, what a job moving is.
Mattea is making baby steps of progress every day. She's insistent on attention and now that she's learned how to climb onto the couch, she's got to join me whenever I'm sitting there. And for the first time ever, the other day I smiled at her and she smiled BACK at me!!! She's normally a smiley girl but has never imitated or returned any sort of communication like that before. We did take her up to Ogden UT for a neurodevelopmental evaluation and are beginning a learning program for her with lots of interaction and structured activities.
Unfortunately, Kory has sabotaged his private school experience due to poor grades due to incomplete homework, schoolwork, and disruptive behavior in class. Now we will be back to homeschooling. He's apprehensive and rebellious. Should be interesting. Gotta love teenagers.
Serena, up in Orem, UT, and her family may be buying their first house and I am thrilled for them! I will be so happy to see them out of a dark basement apartment and into a much larger, sunny house with a big backyard for all those grandkids. She's excited. I'm excited!
Stew and I have begun our new career track working on our Master's degrees in Mental Health Counseling. We've got a ways to go but I am really excited about the required classes and so far I am impressed with the online university (Walden).
And finally, I am gearing up for Feb, Mar, Apr and May birthdays all coming up quickly.
I haven't forgotten to post all the holiday and Orlando pics, just haven't gotten them developed yet, so I will have Christmas in Feb on the blog. I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year!

Please help Lauren's dad...

Multiple sclerosis is a devastating disease...please help sponsor Lauren whose dad has MS. Just click on the title to this post and it will take you to her sponsor page. Even $1 will help...

Parker's Mama is having a really cool giveaway!!!

Check this out, I was excited! I thought these were pretty cool! (Click on the title to this post...)

Mattea and Minnie

Give Kids the World is an amazing, wonderful escape and a dream come true! This picture is just an example of this gift we were blessed with. We thank them as well as Make-a-Wish Albuquerque for the wonderful week we just experienced!!! We will treasure the memories forever!

Give Kids the World- Mattea's Wish

We've been traveling...

We've been in Orlando, FL all week for Mattea's Make-a-wish trip. I have two disposable cameras full of pics plus what they will give us tomorrow on a disc to take home. Once we are home, I will post a detailed account and lots of pics. Highlights include meeting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and other characters, and even Santa himself was here. There were lots of fun activities both in the theme parks and at Give Kids the World resort. And to top it off, we got to meet a very special Reece's Rainbow family today. Details to come soon....

URGENT, SOMEONE PLEASE HELP THESE BABIES!! !Click on the photos for more info...

Please Grab This Button!
URGENT PLEA!
Please Grab This Button!
URGENT PLEA!
Please Grab This Button!
URGENT PLEA!
Please Grab This Button!
URGENT PLEA!

I forgot

I start my masters program in Mental Health Counseling on Monday and then the race is on to get it done so I can be my own boss and set my own hours.
Lou will be starting the same program later as she has run into some issues from her last college and starting at the new one so she will be starting later.
Yep we don't know went we are busy so we just keep doing more until we just plain fall flat on our face then we realize we should slow down a little but just a little. Ha Ha
lou has to go to Denver I think it is next week with Mattea and then we have to go to Kory's school on the 18 in the morning and that evening we are going to the Cerebral Palsy parents Christmas party in this area. Then it is get ready for Christmas and our trip and then it is the new year and all the fun it brings. Yep things are slowing down in our world.

New events

Lou went for a job interview in Utah on Friday and we are waiting to see how it went. It lasted for 2 hours so we are hoping it went well. It would be a good job for Lou as it is days and doing what she likes to do and they are looking for someone who will stay, like forever which is a good thing as that way we shouldn't have to move again. I do hate moving so much anymore it just isn't fun with all the kids and all of our stuff to get from one place to another. Then the hassle of finding a new place getting rid of or what ever with the old house and all the crap that goes with that. I want a place where I can have a large garden, fruit trees, large garage/workshop for me and close to the mountains so when I want I can take off into the mountains to just unwind and get back to what is really important in this life.
We have had to repair the water line into the house and it is a real rube gold berg design and we were lucky to have figured it out before burying it all and then having to dig it up again. To say it was costly is an understatement and all the things the water company wants done is just plain nuts.
We had a snow storm on Friday that made traveling hard and drivers here seem to be so afraid of some snow that they tend to set things up for accidents and we had a bunch and they don't get the idea that you have to slow down well to a point. They were either flying down the road or going so slow that it was like a parking lot on the expressway. I know I am a pain on the road but I weight 4 tons so it takes more to make things hard for me but my rule is if the road is slippery or covered with loose snow that the speed is around 30 mph and sometimes even in 4 wheel drive just so I can keep going. If it is really slippery I slow to around 10-20 mph and again in 4 wheel drive. When Kory and I had to go to Salt lake City in October in a freezing rain/snow storm I didn't even realize we were in an ice storm as the truck didn't act like it and it wasn't until I had to get something out of the back that I realize we were covered in ice and then in just 8 miles we were in a blinding snow storm and I had to put the truck in 4 wheel drive just to keep going because the traffic ahead of us was going so slow and the snow was piling up. We traveled for a few hours at 20-25 mph just because of the road conditions and the snow. Then we went down this long hill and there was nothing bare roads and much warmer and I had a lot of ice to get off the truck and put the extra fuel in the tank and we took a nap before continuing on. The storm left 5-7 inches of snow that the sun has reduced greatly today.
The wood stove has kept the old part of the house warm even thou the outside temp went down to -4 Friday morning and today we are at 40 degrees and waiting for the next storm to blow in.
Lou called and said it is in Utah already and that should make for an interesting drive for her as she doesn't like driving in the mountains in storms as she got run off the road on one of our trips up to Utah.
The kids are being kids, with Esturado being the most fun as he sees all the toys on tv and says he wants them all. He can't wait for Christmas and asks every day when Christmas will be here.
For thanksgiving Lou's daughter came down with her family and Lou's mom and it was a stress filled time. Only 14 of us in a house and with 9 of them kids it was crazy.
On the 27th of December we leave for a week in Disney world which should be interesting as None of the 3 youngest have really any idea of what it will be like and just hope we can get enough pictures and not loose them. Yep the last time we lost a camera with all the good photos on it and had to deal with that.
The plane right should be a hoot also as Esturado should be a live wire and Onni is another question and then there is Mattea who is just getting to be really active and into everything.
I got my results to the tests they have run on me and have two more to get just to be sure that I am in as good shape as everything says I am. I just love getting older and all the fun it brings. My arthritis is worse but can be dealt with and that is my worst health issue at the moment.

Timosha is going HOME!!!

I just found out that my little prayer boy is going HOME to his birthfamily. His mother has notifed Reece's Rainbow that she has decided to bring him back home, and also to advocate for the other children in his region with Down Syndrome. Wow, talk about the power of prayer. I never dreamed that praying him home would pray him HOME. Tears of joy for Timosha and his family!

Happy Halloween! (Whoopee cushion part II)

Kory the Red Ninja
Marisol the Glitter Witch

Estuardo Spiderman trying hard to see through the tiny eye holes in his mask

Mattea's first Trick-or-Treat...she was SO excited!!!

Onnolee

Jesse laughed about this costume for three day straight waiting for Halloween to come

The whole of us!

2 boys and a whoopee cushion

Picture it. I was grocery shopping Saturday with my 3 year old and my 13 year old sons. And a whoopee cushion. 13 year old blows it up and hands it to 3 year old who plops it on the ground and then plops himself on top of it. Laughing hysterically.
What happened to my innocent little baby boy?

It happened Accord-ing to the way it was supposed to

Well...I had these pipe-dreams of a superfine luxury car.
Little by little I got humbled to the point, yesterday afternoon, when I began to wonder if I would have any car at all or a $500 beater car. From the kids' surgeries during the summer to the car accident to us all taking turns with the H1N1, I missed a lot of work, and I was late to pay on one too many bills, so my credit score really took a nosedive. We waited and waited and waited on gap insurance to finish paying off the totalled van so I could buy a new car, but by yesterday, Carmax couldn't even get me financed without a huge downpayment and 25% interest, so I reached the lowest of lows and came home thinking my husband was going to be driving me to work for the rest of my life. I even scoured Craigslist for a beater car I could pay cash for.
But today was another day. For the 15th time, a salesman from the Honda dealership called me wanting to know if I was still interested in a new car. After yesterday's escapades, I shrugged my shoulders and told him he was totally welcome to see if he could get me approved. Pretty sure he was wasting his time, I went about my morning and halfway forgot about it. A couple of hours later, my cell phone rang and it was him...He said he had some good news. I was approved for financing! We were there in less than half an hour and much to my absolute surprise he led me over to a brand new 2009 Honda Accord!!! And I totally LOVE it!!! One scary, unfortunate chapter in my life has FINALLY come to a close. With an unexpected happy ending.

WE DID IT!!!

It took all three of us, but we did it! The little ones' first floor puzzle!

Bubs got BONES...and PlayDough!

And he loves the fact that they glow in the dark! He says "I shine!"

Estuardo has enjoyed learning how to play with PlayDough.