Catching Up: September and October

Yes.  Yes I stink at blogging now.  But I will try to redeem myself a titch by updating a few things here.....a photo update of last September and October.

Henry's 2nd birthday was fun.  We got him a mini trampoline to burn off his endless energy!!! 

Here's his cake.  I wanted to try a new technique....Frozen Butter Cream Transfer (FBCT).  Learned a lot, and would like to try it again....with something not so DETAILED!!!

I only have a few pics of our trip to Disney World and the Disney cruise.  Not sure why.  Maybe they're hiding somewhere.  But here are a few.

Here's the fun water area on Castaway Cay:

The picture below is SO Henry.....running at full speed, mouth wide open, ZEST for life!!!

Even the older girls got in on the fun.

Just a cute pic of Henry from our hotel room.

Audrey was kind enough to fly us to Florida.  It was a homeschool project.  

Yeah, we do that kind of stuff all the time.

Peace out, homie-schoolers!

Fun lunch at the Sci-Fi drive in at Disney studios....it was also Spenser's birthday.

Audrey and Madi, our virtual scuba divers

And Halloween of course:

Austin, Nerd Extraordinaire 

Emma, the Witch

Thomas, Private Eye

Audrey, Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games)

Henry, Buzz Lightyear.....um, acting out the scene where he finds out he's not really a space ranger and gets upset.  Yeah, that's it.

Thomas and Harry Potter

Katniss befriends a gypsy woman

...and then gets help from Buzz Lightyear to defeat the Capitol (Go District 12!  Woohoo!)

But watch out, because there are eyes everywhere.

And that, my friends, catches you up just a bit.  Well, at least through last October.

And four months later.....

....she posts.  Sorry.  Life has been a little bit of a whirlwind to say the least.  I have been prodded to get something up, so here it is.

Rick is still without a "real" job, but since the holidays are over companies are back into the swing of things and we are getting a few calls.  He is currently interviewing with a company in Seattle.  Still preliminary interviews, so no news yet.  A few months ago, Rick started doing web design/marketing on his own for a few clients.  That has been going well, and he has been enjoying having something to do other than watch Henry while I homeschool the kids!  We don't know if we are supposed to pursue this self-employment path or go with a salaried job with a company.  We're still praying about that and trying to figure it out.  Of course, when you have no job offers, the choice is fairly simple....at least in the short-term.

I have been very busy lately.  I have gotten back into webwork for LDSEHE, an LDS homeschool organization that serves the eastern half of the U.S. and parts of Canada.  We are growing quickly, and my hope is that it will be a national organization before too long.  I am on the Board of Directors now, and am also the Web Team Leader.  We are working on getting our conference info up for this year's conference in Virginia Beach, VA.  After that info is up, heavy work will begin on an entire site redesign as well as the addition of an audio store.  Yeah.  Don't count on a ton of posts from me.

Audrey had a gingivectomy a couple of weeks ago.  I was in the room with her, per her request, and watched the whole thing.  I've never been squeamish with blood, so that part didn't bother me.  But I had a hard time watching someone "cut into" my daughter.  The mama bear in me wanted to rip the periodontist apart.  But he was very nice and, I found out after, a homeschool dad.  Bonus!

We are having a health and fitness week her at home (our own little Biggest Loser....wait, does that make it the Littlest Loser?...I dunno).  We haven't done all that we have wanted, but we have tried out some awesome recipes and worked out together all week doing Couch to 5k, weights, and Wii Fit.  Some of our favorite light and healthy recipes this week are:

• Banana Bread
• Chocolate Chocolate Zucchini Cake
• Buffalo Bleu Cheese Salad
• Tropical Sorbet
• Sweet Potato "Fries"
• Turkey and Sweet Potato Sliders
• Philly Cheesesteaks

and we're not done with all our recipe experiments yet!  It's very important that our family learns how to eat the way I need to.  I have hyperinsulinemia, which is a prediabetic condition caused by having PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome).  They're being real troopers about it.  Of course, I promised them healthy desserts every night, so that helped.

Austin turned 12 and got the Aaronic Priesthood.  He now passes the sacrament as a deacon.  I can't believe he's that old.  Next thing I know I'll be sending him off on his mission!

I really can't think of anything else to add right now.  But even if I could, I have to run off to an LDSEHE conference call anyway.  Sorry for the long hiatus.  Maybe one of these sleepless nights I can do a bunch of updates WITH actual photos!

Catching Up: September

Yeah, so I haven't blogged in a awhile.  What's your point?  Okay, sorry.  I feel bad...really I do.  But I've been so overcome with homeschool prep and job (-less) worries that I honestly forgot I even had one.  So, time to catch up.

Here's a little rundown on the last little while.  And for those who have seen these pics on facebook, I beg your pardon.

Thomas' 10th Birthday:  he requested a cake that looked like a stack of pancakes, so Mom delivered!

We took a trip to Busch Gardens.

A peace rally that we attended in Hungary.  Oh, wait.  

No.....that's a picture from our geography club slideshow.  

Moving on.......

Went to the beach......

And the aquarium....

My kids decided to make a cardboard house complete with chimney/fireplace, shelves, front AND back doors, windows WITH simulated glass, mail slot, shingled roof, and lighting (flashlight jammed in a hole in the ceiling.

So yeah, that's what's been going on with us.  Other than that, we've been sitting around waiting for THE job to arrive.  We have had a couple of jobs that we thought were THE job, but they were just A job, apparently.  Memphis and Buffalo were contenders, but ended up not panning out.  Right now, we are waiting to hear about applications to jobs in Sacramento, Knoxville, Cleveland, and Chantilly VA.  Wish us luck!

134 eggs

Turtle Nest on the Beach Today

Still here....

Yes, I know it's been 2 months since I've posted anything.  We are out of our usual routine.  With Rick home all the time, everyday feels like Saturday.  Still no job.  It's been 5 months since he lost his job and we're still looking.  Lots and lots of applications....no job.  But we're trying to be patient, "trying" being the operative word.  I can't even count the number of applications he's put in.  But I remember most of the locations:  North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Minnesota, not to mention some mysterious location in the Middle East.

We just got back from the beach, where we visited with my sister and her family who were visiting from Utah (except a daughter who lives in NC).  Next week we're going to Busch Gardens as a reward for:
1.  having a stressful 5 months
2.  the kids getting their math caught up
3.  because it's fun and we haven't had a vacation yet!

Not much else has been happening.  I got released as the Gospel Doctrine teacher a couple of weeks ago, and am now teaching Valiant 8/9 (Thomas' class).  I taught Gospel Doctrine for 3 years!!  Wow.  Nice to have a different audience for a change, but I will miss it too.  Still teaching Old Testament, which is good since I know the least about that of all the scriptures.  And I LOVE being in Primary because they sing more than any other group at church!!!  And that's my favorite part of church.  Rick is out of the bishopric and in as the Young Men's President, which he enjoys.  It'll be nice since Austin turns 12 in November, and he'll be in there with his dad.

Other than that, we've just been kicking around trying to get a few home projects worked on in case we have to sell the house.  Oh, and I've been working on the usual homeschool summer planning, with the volume turned up quite a bit since I'll have a high schooler now in our homeschool.

I'll have to post pictures later.  Emma wants a smoothie right now and so do I!