BUSY LIFE

So life has been so busy that I have not even had time to apply for a job. This weekend's treat: a wedding and a funeral. So we will go to the funeral, run to the other side of town to drop our children off, run to another side of town for a wedding, run back to get our little people.... AHHHH!!!! The stress of it all.

I NEED A HOLIDAY!!!!!!! Alas, the bank has said no - you will stay home this year so you can put your 6 year old in piano and your 4 year old in preschool. I tried to talk the old man into NOT putting Abby in preschool this year, but he says what 1 gets they all get, so I guess in the face of fairness, I will put her in preschool. Bring on the fundraising and volunteering. YUCK!

I have been neglecting my post because my weight it NOT comming off. I am so extremely frustrated. I can gorge myself or starve myself and there is no movement on the scales. I am hoping after the medical issues with the ol colon are resolved, the weight will come off easier. I have an ultrasound on Monday. Wonder what the consensus will be.

Check out what I got at the dollar store the other day. How cute it this??? For 2$!!!!

This week is dedication to Chelsea. She is learning so much and I just hate how fast she is growing up. Makes me sad. I love each and every stage but that first year is so special, and my last baby will only be there for 4 more months. Things she has learned this month:

- to move her feet one in front of the other when you hold onto her hands

- to wave (her first 'baby sign'! Working on 'more' and 'eat' now)

- to get up on her knees

- to roll from back to front (okay this is long overdue but Abby didn't roll until 8 months either and was walking at 11 months, so no worries there)

She still has a major anxiety attack when anyone holds her. This is getting really really old, but is secretly okay because I just want to snuggle and soak up as much as I can. Soon she will be running away from me. She is fat and bald and so beautiful. She still refuses most baby foods so it eating baby cereal and table foods. Last night she tried feeding herself and sitting in her high chair for the first time. Yes....these little milestones are just as exciting the 4th time as they were the 1st. Here are some pictures of this week's featured child.

Next week's child : Kylie Rachelle

Oh....we are also still accepting donations for the "Help Steve and Jen raise farm girls" fund. We are about $355,000 short. :)

Love you all,

Jen and Steve and Hayley and Abby and Kylie and Chelsea and Charlie....I would add Buckley but he would just chew up the computer. If he chews 1 more thing, like he did the girl's blow up waterslide, he is going to suffer from lead bulletitis. Yes Steve....I know where your gun and bullets are. I may not know how to use it, but there is a fluffy piece of target practice in the front yard.

Prune juice and laxatives

The prune juice and the laxatives are in the process of waging a full out war in the depths of my colon, but alas we don't have a winner yet. Will it be Brutus blockage or Prunella laxaday? We're cheering for Prunella, but hoping she waits for the end of the day as I have 7 little peanuts here today, and then soccer tonight. There is no toilet at the soccer field. This could prove to be an interesting experience.





We had Abby's birthday party yesterday with her friend Ashley, and it went surprisingly well. The hostess was amazing and kept all 10 kids entertained and fed etc... Glad we did it at let's play and not one of our houses. I got to come home to a clean house.

We get to have the workers for supper on Sunday! A nice treat since we did already have them for our 3 nights. They are hoping Steve's contact will join us in the event he had any additional questions. Hard to believe we only have 3 meetings left. Then it's preps and convention. Already the summer is going too fast!!!!!!

Well I don't know much else. Will update on Monday with my weight results. Lets hope Brutus has been evicted and I've lost 10 pounds!!!!

Later.....

Happy Mom's day and all that

The yummy coffee treat I made for Steve and I

Natalie and Chelsea playing together

Cute grin

This doesn't look like broken bones waiting to happen at all!!!!

My breakfast in bed

me!!!!

I have the world's greatest mother, sorry to say, but I'm sure your mother is wonderful too! Heehee. My daughter made a portrait of me at school and the teacher framed it. I am wearing a dress, which is nice since some days I never get out of my pajamas, so it's good she's portrays me as dressed. However, I have an exceptionally long neck. It was so cute I had to hang it on my wall and can't wait for the next 3 portraits to come in the next 5 years. She also made me breakfast in bed. I got a little tart cup full of chocolate chips, a yogurt, and a chocolate chip cookie. I also decided I drink way too much vanilla roiboos tea, as she had it made perfectly. Boiled the jug, put in the tea bag with some stevia and milk and then poured the water on top. ahhhh.....

So we've been having a blast with this budget thing, although we seem to spend an awful lot on food!! I managed to stay under budget even adding in a booster seat for Abby that wasn't totally planned on. I was so proud. This food now has to last us the next 2 weeks. Think we can do it????? I supposed it will work if I put a lock on the fridge so I can supervise breakfast time AND sleep in.

So here is the weigh in:

Current weight: 168.4! A loss of 2 pounds. Pretty sure I blew it tonight with the papa Murphies pizza and 2 starbucks coffees, but we'll see next week.

Goal: 155.

Weight left to lose by June 30th: 13.4 pounds.

Anyone out there competing with me? It'd sure help.


Well my darlings, I am off to bed as tomorrow is an EXTREMELY busy day. Have to run pick up convention dresses for Chelsea and Kylie before they are all sold out, playgroup, dr. appointments, and a date with my sweet friend Charlene (She has 4 boys so we validate each other on why we wouldn't want the opposite sex!). Tuesday and Thursday nights: Soccer. Wednesday: Abby's birthday and meeting at our place.

Somewhere in there I have to apply for a job. Anyone looking for a transcriptionist? Got 90% on the practicum and 97% on my pre-employment exam. Yae me!!

Love you all. Take care.

Jen and her lovebugs.

Country living

Ahhhh....the smell of rain, the brisk morning air, the big yellow bus bumbling down the road. I LOVE living in the country. Where the neighborhood dogs come to wait with the kids for the bus and the horses come up to the fence. Where I can sit in my backyard around a fire and talk with my husband without the neighbores hearing. Where I can let the kids play outside in the front or back yard and not worry about them. Ahhhh.....I envy my sister with her upcoming brand new house and all, but I will never by choice leave my place in the country. I will suffer with the ants and sand and endless renovations and yard work.....for the love of the land. I am so thankful for my home and my family and all the privilages I have.

An update on the guy from Steve's work who comes to meeting with him.....he came again so that's wonderful. Too bad we only have 4 meetings left, but he knows about convention, perhaps he will come. His comment to Steve after this week...."You're kids are perfect!" HAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha and I am STILL laughing. I told him he would have to come over some evening for a dose of the truth!! Every time he has been there, all 4 have fallen asleep.

I am trying 2 new things this month, so you are welcome to follow my progress if you are at all interested.

1. I have written out a budget. I am DETERMINED to have money left over at the end of the month. So far, on day 3, we have stuck to it. HA!
2. I am going to lose 10-15 pounds by convention. So because there is no room in the budget for weight watchers, I am going to broadcast my weight and that will be plenty of motivation to lose. I have 2 months to succceed.

Weight today: 170.4
Goal: 155

Well here it is 8:00, Hayley is at school hopefully since it started 5 minutes ago, Abby is playing with a frisbee???, Kylie and Chelsea are still sleeping, and I need to get dressed for playgroup.

Until next week....
*HUGS*
Jen

Happy birthday Hayley and Abby!!!!

So my big girl turned 6 on March 30th!!! Hard to believe!!! In 2 months she will be in Grade 1. YIKES!! full time school now. This week, her artwork was chosen to represent the Kindergartens from our school for the county! I have no idea where she gets the artistis talent from. Must be her aunty. We're very proud of her. We went horseback riding for her birthday. They played games like red light/green light, what time is it mister wolf etc...on horseback. They had so much fun, and now I'm told that she'd much rather take horseback riding lessons than piano lessons. Can't say I blame her. Sure wish we could afford a few horses. Here are some videos of our bubble fun. Shoot. Can't get the videos to work. Will try later. Here's a few pics of the birthday.

Then today Abby turns 4!!!! She is starting preschool this year and I am so excited for her. I am hoping she breaks out of her shell. She's so shy in a group setting. We are having her party at 'lets play', a big indoor playground. She was ripped off that we have to wait a few weeks. Oh well....that's my Abby. Hormonal already:)

I better get off here and lock up the dogs. PLaygroup is in half and hour.

Hugs and Kisses

Jen

Time to say goodbye

How horrible it was to watch gramma break down in sobs before she walked in to see grandpa in his casket. How does a person possibly say goodbye to someone they've shared 61 years of their life with? My heart aches for her and the lonely days she has ahead.

Grandpa looked spectacular by the way. He looked so peaceful. Hayley said "Why were his hands a funny color?" but I didn't notice! I could just picture him taking it all in and rolling his eyes:) A Tingley trait that was most definately passed down through the generations. Not to me of course. I am a gentle Johnson/Krapu. (See....there's my dad rolling his eyes. HA!)

My Hayley is having a hard time with granpda being gone and it just blows me away because I didn't think she'd have a good grasp of the concept of death. Poor child. My Abby was crying all the way home until I figured out that she didn't think her picture got put in the coffin. I reassured her it did, and it would be buried with grandpa. She said "So he can see it when he isn't dead anymore?" So she doesn't quite understand but that's ok. We have lots of pictures to show her when she grows up.

On the bright side of life, Steve brought a guy to meeting last week who said he had been reading the bible, and was "sick and tired of the churches that were all singing and dancing, and he just wanted to learn about the bible!" so today he says to Steve "Hey have a good weekend. Can I keep coming on Sunday afternoons!" So that is exciting for Steve. Our workers are having a prosperous year! Too bad we only have a month left of meetings. Maybe he'll come to convention. He's a nice guy. Our age. Not married.

Well the shower is calling me and the bed is looking inviting so I am signing off. I will need my rest for the busy and emotional day tomorrow. Pray for grandma, Dad, Al, and Jan (and their spouses) to have strength for the day.

Love,
me

ps. Thank you for the comments.

Positive thoughts from the Valley

I feel a bit like I am going through a 'valley experience'. Perhaps the good part of that is there is no where to go but up!! I can look around and dwell on the things that I don't have that everyone else in life seems to have, or I can focus on what I DO have that few other do.
1. Hope
2. Praying parents....the reason I am where I am and have what I have.
3. A husband who loves his family more than anything and works very hard to support us. Who still has the time and energy to give his kids airplane rides, or push them on the swing, or build them bunk beds even when he is tired from work. Who can have a spiritual conversation with you. Who doesn't laugh at you when you start a 'dream house' folder and get all excited about the house you will likely never have anyhow. Who lets you stay home to raise the kids. There is no husband like mine ANYWHERE out there.
4. Four of the most gorgeous daughters ever created.
5. A roof over my head, food on the table, and clothing (we're all grateful I have this one!!).


I hope no one actually reads this blog because it's been a bit of a downer lately and I promise I'm not normally like this. I just need to vent. I am so very very very very tired. I am up at 4 every morning to get Chelsea a bottle, which may seem fine since I can go back to bed, but I only went to bed at 1 in the morning since I have to type all evening, and am up again at 6:30 on Hayley's school days to get her ready and off, and by then the others are up so I'm up for the day. That makes 5.5 hours of interrupted sleep a night. I cannot function like this much longer. I find things are bothering me that absolutely SHOULD NOT be bothering me, and my little feelers hurt way too easily.

That being said.....I am going to bed. I wish for all 'mountain top experiences' and perhaps one day I will be able to join you.

*kiss*

Ponderings

Well I guess I am a little behind in the blog world. I think that perhaps this is a better way to express ones self than facebook. I have no problems with FB, in fact I will probably keep my account to snoop at what others are up to, but how many of those people really care about my life? I know I don't care about half of theirs, and the ones I do care about, well....we can email or phone each other right?

Today my little girl came home from school with a butterfly to color and decorate. So she's sitting there at her little desk and she says " Mom how do you spell grandpa?" So I say "G-R-A...." Well you get the picture. Then I say "Hayley what are you doing?" and I look over at this butterfly and it has "grandpa" written across the middle and big blue tears coming from it's eyes. If I had known how much understanding a 6 year old could have about never seeing grandpa again, I could have better prepared her for his death. Alas, I failed in that regard and will rely on God to help her have better understanding and comfort.

My peanut Abby was saying grace today and she said "Amen. Oh wait...." and then she whispers "Pray for grandpa. Amen." Ahhhh the sweetness of a child.

I've had a hymn going through my mind. Not sure why this one in particular, but it says "Sometimes you sit and ponder, over your life so vain. Knowing the God who gave will one day require it again." Food for thought in those little verses. Grandpa didn't have much in a natural sense.....not piles of 'stuff' really. But he had 3 professing kids, all 6 professing grandkids, and 10 little great grandkids with hopeful futures. What more could a person want. I often have to remind myself when the bank threatens to dip in the negative and my dream house folder gets dustier with the years, that "I (will) have no greater joy than to see my children walking in truth." Even if I have to live in the house where the ants love the downstairs bathroom forever.

Well it is now 1 in the morning, and frankly I'm quite sick of typing since I have been doing it for 5 hours, so I am going to go drink more of my laxative syrup, go to bed, and pray for a big bowel movement in the morning. Now aren't you glad you read my blog?

Time is passing oh so way too quickly...

How is it that 3 kids can be so completely different and be made out of similar genes? We have Hayley the boss and the eager to please, Abby the sensitive and emotional, Kylie the lover AND fighter. Hmmm.....I have come to the conclusion that when the baby pops out, an instruction manual should follow. I would even endure labour twice for that! But alas that's not how it works so I guess we will bumble our way through life. We heard at covention of a mother who stated there was a lot of prayers said at her kitchen sink. I can see my sink having a similar story to tell. Especially when these 3 add hormones into the bloodstream.

Another interesting thing this month. At 1 week shy of 2 years old, Kylie decided to potty train herself. Literally with no help from me. I wanted to wait until AFTER convention. She didn't. She wakes up dry every morning and takes herself to the bathroom whenever she needs to go during the day! NO MORE DIAPERS!!! WOOHOO!!!! Okay for 2 more months anyhow. But I'm thinking this is great after 2 that were very difficult to train.

Our summer, if you can call it that, it going so very very fast. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. I'm having a hard time winding down from babysitting. There is so much to do around the house that I couldn't do in the winter with extra kids and it's not that hot, so we're just hanging out around the house. I start prenatal aquasize tonight and am really looking forward to that. I loved it when I did it before. Even if it's not that much exercise, it's still kinda nice to get out.

I have to put in 20 hours a week into my course now that I am on an extention too so that is keeping me up until the wee hours of the morning. Thank goodness for kids that just crawl into bed and read comics until I feel like getting up in the morning.

Okay this is really dull so I should go. Oh by the way we sold our trailer. I was thinking 'well....with the economy the way it is, it may take awhile to sell.' so I listed it about 2 or 3 weeks before convention hoping we'd still have it for then. The thing sold in 3 days!!!!!!! Feels so great to have that money in the bank....or paid off of the line of credit I guess you'd say. We found an amazing tent and I didn't miss the trailer at all. We were toasty warm every night in spite of some rain, and I even kicked off the covers one night!!!! Now......what else can I sell. The house??? I have a plan all drawn up for the next one ;) Well......that'll likely be years. I may not be in love with my house, but I do like our small bit of land too much to move right now.

Have a spectacular July. At the rate I am going, the next post just may be to welcome baby Campbell the 4th. Here is a little video of Kylie in love with her birthday card from gramma K.

Hugs and kisses
Jen

A SOCCER FRENZY!

Okay so I'm not procrastinating. I am actually taking the day off. Tuesdays are absolutely horrid on my nerves anyhow, and we only got home at 9 since we had to grocery shop after soccer, so I am ready to head to bed with my cup of tea! Or I would do that if tea didn't make me throw up of course. IT's so wierd. Had the same problem with Abby's pregnancy. Couldn't drink tea the whole 9 months without getting sick.

So there are some bad fires burning just North East of the city. The whole sky is one big haze and the smell is enough to burn your throat. They are really hoping for rain tonight. Doesn't look too promising. One of the main problems is the wind keeps changing directions on them. floods and fires....swine flu....what next?

So soccer looked like piles of fun!And totally exhausting!! They did 2 laps around the 3 mini soccer fields, then did some drill type work, then separated the 3,4, and 5 year olds onto seperate fields, and played a little game. Hayley ran for the entire 75 mintues!!! It'll be so good for her. Then near the end they sent some 5 year olds over to the 6 year old team, and they asked Hayley (cuz she's so awesome of course) but she said she'd rather stay there because she was afraid the big kids would take the ball from her! HA!

We find it so interesting to watch Hayley with a teacher or instructor. She concentrates so hard on what they are saying and tries to absorb everything. It makes her a cautious student, almost needing to have approval to go to the bathroom. Very interesting. Classic first born perfectionism comming out. I am having fun reading about birth order and am a strong believer in how it shapes personality.

Here are some pictures. Hayley's shorts are too big making her look a little like a fat little boy, but she was so cute and did so well!! ALMOST scored a goal.

And this is the princess house that Steve brought home from a lady at work. I am needing a bigger basement I think.