more california pictures

Ronda, Tim, James and Rick at Disneyland.

James

I heard Tim made sure James got to ride all the best rides. Even when Rick was tired, he would say "we can't leave yet, James hasn't gone on such and such ride"


Grandma and Grandpa's Krissy.

Rick and James' trip to Califonia

What a great trip they had. The special times visiting, the beach, Disneyland.
James was one excited boy!






Here is James holding his ticket, at the airport. Talk about an excited little boy!

Rick and James ready to say good -bye to me.


James wrote his name with pretzels on the airplane. the stewardess asked James for help gathering trash. James went around with a bag and helped her. Then she paid him $1.

Monica and I had a quiet weekend

I brought Monica to the new Mexican restaurant. Very tasty. We rented some movies and spent some time at Michael's house. Nice weekend.
We watched about Jane Austin's life, (pretty sad) a couple of other good movies. Went to church on Sunday and ate lunch at Michael's. It was a very nice quiet weekend.
As far as house projects when Rick was gone. Well it didn't happen. Instead we just lazed around and didn't do anything.

Trip to California

Rick and James are going to California for almost a week. James doesn't ever remember meeting his grandparents! We just realized this a little while ago. They are now in their 80's and we thought we better make it a priority. They were here for a visit 7 yrs ago, when James was only 2 yrs old.
So James is going to California with his Daddy. He's never been on an airplane, has never seen his Grandparents house, etc. He was so excited. It was so fun to watch him. He counted the days down to his trip. Started packing a month ahead. Couldn't sleep the night before. I sent my camera with him, so he could take lots of pictures.
Sometimes it's so hard to come up with money for things like trips. We don't usually think of a trip as a necessity, and so it gets put aside. But the family ties, the excitement of little boys, visiting and enjoying time with parents. How can we put a price on these things. Yet where does the money come from? Well thankfully my little Dakota project paid for this trip.

So what am I going to do with my time with Rick and James gone?
I'm trying to decide if I should go hang out in Kalispell or should I finish a house project, or maybe start another! LOL.

The next mom due is having a lot of "warm up contractions" That's what they call false labor now a days. I'm tending to think I should stay close to home until she delivers.

I'm going to look at a foreclosure today. I need something to make some steady income. I figured our budget and our income right now pays our bills, buys food and some gas, but leaves no money for anything else. Like clothes, household items, repairs, upkeep of cars or house, piano lessons etc. So midwifery has to make some money for these things.
Besides I want to pay someone to come and clean my house once in a while. Lol, I wish!
But it would be nice not to have to stress over every single little purchase or repair. At least I understand why we can so easily get into debt if we are not really watching things.

Tree house

I'm not sure if I've ever put pictures of our neat tree house before.
A couple of years ago Joe was in the back looking at a tree house that the boys were building. He said "that's dangerous" Lets build a real one. So the next weekend, Joe , Michael and the boys started building , and they built an built. It's the most incredible tree house probably in the whole county.

This is the swinging bridge that goes to another little miniature tree house.


Our swing

swimming

The swimming pool has been so much fun.
Kendra and Nettie have been up this week. Everyday in the swimming pool! I got in with them today. It's such a nice way to get some exercise. Except even when the temperature outside is 100 degrees it's still cold in the water. Probably because it gets down to 50 at night. It's much warmer then it was at least.


This is my old birth tub. They use it like a boat.

I'm so tired!

We had 2 births this week. Again not simple births. The 1st one, it was her 6th baby and yet it took a long time. We missed 2 nights of sleep.
We got one good night of sleep and again we start with the next client.
She called about 10 pm so I headed to the birth center to find the church all set up. I rent the BC to a church. They meet there Thur night and Sunday morning. They like to leave it set up in between. Lately they move the couch, and everything into the birth room, so there I was at 2 am moving couches and tables around.
Well after 38 hours with the 2nd mom we had to transport because even though the water broke she never really went into labor. Even if I lie down to sleep, when I'm in midwife mode I can't sleep good. I sleep the weird sleep, maybe 30 minutes at a time.
Now I'm a bit worried that the next birth will start without me getting a good night sleep.
Hope this next birth is a butter birth!
I have one person after another due though Oct.. One in Nov and none in Dec & Jan. That will be nice with holidays.

Our good freinds!

Our very special friends from Canada came down this weekend. It was so nice to have them come and see us. It's an 8 hours drive and with gas prices that a huge sacrifice!

We met Gene in YWAM in 1984. That's a long time to stay in touch with friends. They have watched all our children grow up, stuck with us through the ups and downs of life. They don't just like us when our children are "so well behaved" or when we are "walking in the spirit" But they are like family, brother and sister in Christ that just love us, period. Not many friends in life like this.


Gene with Hans and James
Lori and Martha catching up.

Feeding the crew and nice taco dinner with shredded beef.We started our visit with our Sherry's family in Bonners. Sherry's family of 13, Gene's family of 10, Martha 5 and our 6. We made a good crowd.

Today we hung out and had a great time of devotions. Gene read about King M. (I can't remember his name) He was an awful King, ended up in such a bad way, he cried out to God and God gave him another chance. Neat story. There is hope when you read this. God is so merciful.

We ran out to the Farm to Market store and Orpha loaded us up with the rejects (rejects, are things she can't sell, but still good). Brought back memories.

Sunday we all went down to Kalispell, went to Martha's church, and then out to eat at Applebees. there was 31 of us at dinner and Miriam was our waitress. that was fun to see her work. she is really good at her job.

Enjoyed the rest of the evening at Moriah's.
Another busy weekend, but very worth while.

What a busy summer!

Just about every weekend we have been doing something. This summer seemed especially short because the weather was cold and rainy way into June I think it was. Then all of a sudden it's time to get ready for school.
School!
I love homeschooling! I love having my children around and I love teaching them real life lessons. I love teaching math out of a cookbook, I love teaching them how to shop, and how to buy a house. Teaching them vocabulary when reading the bible. It's fun to teach them from real life.
We were driving home from Kalispell the other day when Mark asks if I know how much Mishael's house will appraise for, and Monica starts giggling. She says most kids don't even know what an appraisal is!
Well my children know what appraisals are, what a title company does, what closing costs are, how to figure out if you really are going to make money flipping a house. We all learned a lot from our project. Probably some things more useful then what they would have leaned in the school books. Not that I'm against school books, but I don't do as well with those. I get them and try to get then done every yr, but I usually feel pretty guilty when I look at them, and see how little we are actually getting done.

Well the children really missed going to school this last yr. So we gave in and 3 of them are going to the Adventist school again. This yr there will be 12 children in the school. It's a good school and a great teacher, but I'm really going to miss home schooling!
Well not all together, because I'm going to home school Jon! Whew, Jon is the hard one to school. He hates the books, does great with real life experience, but he really needs some book learning still. Well my life is devoted to doing the best I can to raise them right. Only by the grace of God!
Rick and Jon cutting down a dead tree in the back yard. They were trying to keep it from falling on the pool, but on the other side is the tree fort.
So trying hard to aim it, and it went the wrong direction, landed right on the swigging, rope bridge. Which we found out is extremely strong, as it didn't hurt it a bit.

What a weekend!

I'm having trouble with my title. I could name this "wow, finally a good night sleep" or "family camp 2008" or "God saved our lives", or "what a week!".
The whole week was a busy one. Monday I had a list so long that it was humanly impossible to finish it. Tuesday I had prenatals and in the evening Shonda Parker was coming.
Shonda Parker is an herbalist. She also knows midwifery, home schools, has 7 children. We put together a conference for her to speak at. So we had about 7 women staying at the birth center that night, plus Martha and Sherry here at the house. There were about 26 women at the conference, it was great!
Then Wednesday was an all day conference. It was so good. Shonda is so balanced with medical vs. natural. She gives doses, and says this herb only works on an empty stomach because this one needs acid, now this herb needs alkaline........Shonda is very smart, she not only knows how to say words I've never heard of, but she can spell them too! I again learned so much.
For herbs to work you have to learn how to take each one. For instance echinacia, has to be taken every 2 hours for it to work. Htp must be taken 30 min before meals. Chastberry only works after taking it for 2-3 months.
I really enjoy learning this stuff! :)
So the conference ended Wed night and Thur we were leaving for family camp.
We worked all day to get ready and the children and I left with the camp trailer in tow. Rick was hitching a ride after work on Friday. The camp was in Plains a good 2 hour drive.
Gina and John Hale

Martha, Paul, Hans and Eric

Lots of good food

James and Hans

Mark and Eric

Monica reading a book to Eric in our little camp trailer

Monica and Eric

Mark and Eric doing a free rent a toy .


Becca and Mark


Our camp


We ended up setting up the trailer in the dark, a few screws were missing here and there, and when your tired you just wish you had gotten a regular trailer instead.

Camp was great though. There were meetings in the morning and evening. Lots of stuff for the children. Swimming in the river, talking all day and through midnight in the mess hall. The food was good, but too many desserts that I ate!
Sat afternoon I lazed around in my bed all day, reading a book, watching kids play flag football, just doing nothing. I haven't done that since I was sick!
Sunday we took off for home, and stopped in Thompson falls. We started to hear a squeaking noise. We couldn't find anything wrong, but we thought we would have to leave it there. Well we added air to the tires and the squeak stopped. So we drove home without a problem. We decided to leave it at Les Schwab here in Libby and as we looked at the tire, it turned out the bearing must be gone. It looked like nothing was holding on the wheel! Thank God for miracles! We could have been in a horrible accident! Praise the Lord for his saving mercies.
Well I slept so well last night. At camp I did not sleep well! The tent trailer has decent beds, but your either cold or hot, babies cry, people have to go somewhere to use the bathroom, giggling children, etc. etc.
What an busy but good week!