Tuesday fun

Weekend was good!

Got a little fishing in, some grilling, game nite with the kids(I won the monopoly game of course),bargain hunting, and put up a clothesline. The dryer is still broken, and for a family of 10, not a good thing. Have survived this long having friends dry some and now we can at least line dry. Repair dude is scheduled for tommorrow morning, hoping it wont cost an arm and a leg, just an arm might be nice.

Babysitting today, so not too much on the adgenda. Just planning on working on laundry and whatever clothing boxes i can finish packing. Tonite i multiple scout meetings, it seems like everyone has to be at a different place tonite. Lots of year end stuff keeping us hopping.

well thats all for now folks!

Satruday morning musings

I think the showing went well, no word on it yet. I dont expect to hear anything until at least next week anyway. But it turns out that my guess on which person who was coming back was right. That makes me kinda excited, cause the limited feedback we had from this person was that she was interested before and that it seemed to be priced right. So I guess time will tell.

Going fishingthe family today, hopefully it wont be too crazy. Fishing can be fun, fishing with 8 kids can be treachourous!

Well thats all for now folks!

My 100th post

How fitting for a 100th post, some exciting news. Well potentially anyway. We have a repeat showing tommorrow from 345 to 545. They need 2 hrs so they can bring their contractors thru and apparently told the office they are very interested. Im so praying that this is the one!

I managed to get some painting done this morning thanks to a gracious friend who took the 3 little ones for over an hour. She also took some of my dirty laundry to do, since our dryer is broken at the moment. Thank God for good friends, it really allowed me some refreshign time. I needed that desparetly!

Well thats all for now folks!
MJ

Another interview

Andrew has an interview at 1 pm today for a job here in minneapolis fed, just another deparetment. It seems to be a good fit for him, so im praying he gets this job.

Just trying to keep busy round here, not too hard, yesterday i painted some in the entryway So that means other housework and miscellany didnt get done. So thats on the adgenda for today.

Been walking every morning from 6 -7 am. My friend and I are aiming for 2 miles a day for now. We are tryi8ng to think of a penalty if we purposely eat somthing bad .. havent figured out somthing yet lol.

Well thats all for now , folks!
MJ

Just when you think no one is reading :)

A friend pops along and reminds you, yes there are those out there reading the daily miscellany of a large family.

Katarina is off to camp this week with her 6th grade class. We were not sure we were going to let her go(read 6th grade boys and girls cocamping together lol) but in the end we let her go. Shes pretty feisty so i dont doubt she can hold her own. I miss her already(she only left this morning) but its amazing what missing one elder girl can do to a house mostly filled with boys.

Nothing really new on the house front, still plodding away, doing usually 1-2 showings a week, roughly. So we are getting people coming thru, tis a matter of finding that right buyer. Keep praying folks, our hearts really are in winsted, mn.

Andrew has a couple of job leads right now, still far out on the horizon, is the winsted job his student keeps telling him will be coming, he heard briefly from the college coordinator today bout a tech opening at the college and he has an interview this week for an opening in another department in the minneapolis fed. The interviews went well in Chicago, but no word back on that opportunity.

So we keep plodding away here. Andrew is going to the boundary waters in the first week of June. Our new church in winsted, is taking a bunch of guys up and doing it really cheap. So hes raring to go. My deal was that i want a trip this summer to seattle. My best friend from high school lives there and ive promised to visit forever, plus i have a few online buddies up that direction id love to meet as well.

Well thats enough for now,

MJ

Interview day

Andrew had one interview with the VP guy yesterday, apparently he rarely meets with a candidate before the other 3 people interview the candidate. This is nervewracking, there is a small part of me that wants andrew to get the job. The work is stuff he really enjoys, teaching and the like, he enjoys the work environment but its the location we dont really enjoy.

There is a large part of me that is saying no way, this is completely opposite the dreams and desires we had for our family, opposite, we want out of the city not back into. So my prayer for today is that God makes it clear what we are to do, like words from teh sky :)

Gotta go get the kids to school, more later
MJ

Morning all

Went out with some friends last night, overall had a good time, stress of life overshadowed it a bit but i got some yummy drinks. And no i wasnt hung over lol

Thats one activity i have never fully understand, drinking until you are drunk. I guess the appeal of acting like an idiot and not remembering what i did that night isnt very alluring.

Andrew went out to dinner with his boss in chicago last night. They talked a bit bout the nature of the job, and houseing concerns. Andrew isnt as gung ho on the job as much as its not full time teaching as he thought but hes still interested. A lot of details would have to fall into place to make that work for us. i actually made him promise he wouldnt accept it right away if its actually offered lol.

2 more days to go until he returns, woohoo the week is almost over. I think I will need a vacation of my own to recover.

MJ

Mouse attack

One of the kids had locked our bedroom door, so i was fiddlign with the skeleton key to unlock it, so that i could put ZZ down for her nap. All of a sudden this grey thing, that I swear looked jsut like a mouse started crawling out under the door.

I kinda startled a bit until i realized it wasnt a mouse but my cats grey paw reaching out from under the door. It was actually kinda funny! She is a beautiful blue creme cat, mostly grey with bits of tan in her fur, but that paw looked just like a mouse at that exact moment.

Poor thing had gotten locked in there and was trying to escape :)

Morning

Only 3 more days to go, for some reason this week is really dragging by. I have this problem of actually liking to spend time with my husband :) The days are really long when andrew isnt home at night, im really looking forward to his return late friday night

Yesterday I had a good visit my laundry fairy. Yes I have a real live laundry fairy. She works full time, so i was very surprised to see her midday but she had the day off and came by to help fold. Its much easier to fold clothes when chatting with a good friend. I am sooo blessed!

Tonite I am looking forward to midweek recovery, I am going out with some friends late tonite to bakers square. So food, fellowship and fun :) Katarina has graciously agreed to babysit, it will be after all the kids are in bed, so not really a big deal. But i am really looking forward to getting out withotu the kids a bit.

Thats all for now folks!

I know I posted this morning...

and its not there, its lost in bloggerland. And to top it all off, i cant even remember what i posted about. Oh well , must have not been that important. Maybe it will show up later.

Good news though, our amendment got accepted on our new house. So basically it gives us more time to sell our house(til july 31) and lets them know yes we still want that house. Whew, thats a huge praise and weight off my shoulders. Now if only this house would sell, and soon, I know its all in Gods timing but its really hard to wait. But im claiming my favorite verse, proverbs 3:5, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding and in all yoru ways adknowlege him and he will make your paths straight" So im trusting him with my hearts desire, to move out of this house into a smaller community and a house that "fits" our family. Im trying to lean not on my understanding (im currently resisting the impulse to go door to door trying to sell the house lol) and trust that God has us in the palm of his hand. Im adknowleging he is my savior and the all powerful knowing God and that no matter what happens down here, with the house or without, HE is still on the throne and reigning on high. Im am trusting he will make our paths straight, whether those paths lead to winsted, chicago or some other town or whether they are blocked by a flood and we stay right here, I am trusting he is making the way for us!

Only 4 more days

Yesterday was a long day. The kids werent particularly bad but there is something to be said bout realizing you have no one to relieve you even for a little bit. And well ... Im just slightly out numbered lol.

Painting may not get done this week, my wrist joints have been very painful thus far this week. Enough that I think its time for another call into the doctor. I hate not knowing what is fully causing this joint pain, its almost always one or both of my wrists and depending on the day some of the finger joints(the pain migrates on those, i know weird) and sometimes now my hip. At one point, they suggested lupus, but i dont have enough of the sypmtoms to make a diagnosis, so i wait and take ibuprofen and when that doesnt really work, i call the doc and she prescribes steroids. Which i really dont want to take either, but its starting to affect my daily life again, so its time to do somthing.

Well gotta go run the kids need to get to school, will write more later

weekend roundup and other monday musings!

Busy weekend as usual, yard work to do, some of the kids marched in a parade, packing discovering that 2 bikes got stolen, and cleaning for a showing. Course with all the busyness and stress of too much to do, a fight erupted. It ended up along familiar lines, you dont do anything to help and you dont do enough to keep up kind aof thing. Sigh ... its getting old. Not sure what has to change but somthing does.

We did manage to make up before he left to go to chicago for the week. He is teaching a network security class this week and he interviews on friday for the job in chicago. I seriously still dont want to go, but we will see what God has in store.

Had another showing yesterday, no word on how that went and we also had one on friday afternoon. So now we wait again. No word yet on if our amendment on the new house is accepted but since i spotted an ad for the house in the paper again with a higher price tag, Im thinking they are rejecting it. Which puts fear into my heart, which i know is not where God wants us to be in being fearful. But its hard to not be sometimes, i found myself quoting perfect love casts out all fear this morning and trying to remember that God still holds us and this whole house and moving deal in his hands, not mine. I dont even know for sure yet if they are rejecting it. Its so hard to wait somedays.

Got my mothers day present early this week. Its a giant, and i mean giant hanging fuschia plant, is absolutely beautiful and I love it.

I hope to find some time to do some painting, cleanign and packing projects this week while Andrew is gone, time will tell lol. Well i must wrap up here, Zemirah is demanding food :)

MJ

Thursday roundup

The tshirts didnt create as much of a stir as I thought they would. Few teachers asked them what they were about but the fellow classmates response was what suprised me. Quite a few of katarina's 6th grade counterparts thought the protest was a bad idea and just would make the situation worse. But they made their voices known.

It turns out one of the 2nd grade teachers may not want to teach 6th grade and may volunatarily go rather than making the 6th grade teacher who is the lowest on the totum pole go.

No word on anything from the showings earlier this week and no response from the sellers of the house we want on the amendment we are proposing. Basically it just ask for more time to sell our house and that we still want htat house. Just got notice though of a showing tommorrow night. So there is interest, i guess its just finder the "right" buyer, which i hope is sooner rather than later.

Busy day today, even with andrew home, there has been lots of running. I took the oppotunity of having him home(he coudl watch the little ones) and ran the baby bird into school to show the kids and their classmates. That was a hit! Everyone enjoyed seeing him or her, its name is sunburst! Its hard to tell the sex on cockatiels, guess time will tell on that.

Choir concert tonite and fifty million other things on the adgenda. Andrew leaves for chicago on sunday to teach an it class at the federal reserve there. He also interviews on may 12, that week for the chicago job. Neither of us really wants to live in chicago or near there, but he feels he should at least check out the opportunity. I think i would need the booming voice of God saying God to Ninevah, i mean Chicago before i would be ready to go. And even then it just seems so opposite of what we have desired for our family, smaller town, more space, less urban environment.

Thats all for now folks!

Free speech as it was intended

Katarina, Josiah, Nathaniel and Elijah have decided to show their feelings regarding the budget cuts the principle is planning to make. He is cutting a classroom teacher and keeping an assistent principle, I still can not figure out how he justifies that one. Anyway, they have made tshirts that say save mr pham, or teachers rock, pham rules etc to show their support for him. I dont think it make a difference but they are making their voices known.

And i think this is how free speech was intended to work. I have warned them all to be respectul and non disruptive. I dont believe the principal can make them not wear them unless he bans all tshirts with words.

Should be an interesting day!

I almost did it

I almost left a child behind and boy do i feel like a horrible mom. I had been at a meeting, the kids all buckled in, I took a few moments to chat with the teachers over what had just transpired at the meeting. Nathaniel gets out and asks to go to the bathroom, i say sure and think nothing of it.

Five or Ten minutes later I hop into the van, thinking everyone was all still accounted for, not registering the fact that Nathaniel had not come back from teh bathroom. So i pull out and up to the stop sign and prepare to turn, as I do so, I hear this banging along the side of my van. Thankfully i had my foot on the brake and had not started a manuever as the banging was Nathaniel in a panic, banging on the side of the van to stop and let him in.

My heart went into my chest, Thank God he protected Nathaniel, he could have been easily killed in coming up to the van like that. And he is more than upset with me, accusing me of not counting and saying "you always say you count" and of knowing he was in teh bathroom and leaving him behind. He even asked to sleep with us tonite cause he afraid ofbeing left behind. I have reassured him to the best of my ability, that I did not leave him on purpose, that i seriously thought he was in the van and that I would have noticed instantly upon arriving home, since I always count then to make sure all heads are inside the door.

Lesson of the day: always count to 8!~

13 years and counting!

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. We managed to sneak out late last nite and went to bakers square and got some eats and of course pie!

Andrew works both jobs today and I couldnt find a sitter , so i wont even get to meet him for lunch. But we had a good time last night. We even sat on the same side of the booth!!! Got to talk without the kids interupting or needing somthing or having a meltdown of some sort. We set the goal of 15 more dates such as that this year. Lets see if we can pull it off.

I love my husband, sure some days we fight or annoy each other but hes the one for me. He is committed to me without a doubt, he puts up with my endless questioning of "why do you love me", he is the one i trust the most and hes funny ! Im so glad wedecided to get married 13 yrs ago today, its a decision I wouldnt change for the world! Happy anniversary honey! Looking forward to the next 37 + yrs! Cant wait for that 50th wedding anniversary party.

Thats all for now folks!