~ Naomi's Wedding 2009 and May Report ~

THE WEDDING CAKE
NAOMI'S COLORS WERE APPLE RED,
BLACK AND IVORY

ZANE AND ABBIE BEFORE THE WEDDING

MY SISTER NAOMI

SAMUEL LIGHTING THE CANDLES DURING THE
CEREMONY

MY SISTER SARAH

THE WEDDING PARTY WATCHING NAOMI COME
DOWN THE AISLE...UNFORTUNATELY SARAH WAS
BLOCKED BY THE CANDLES!

THE FLOWER GIRLS...MY COUSIN GRACIE AND
ABIGAIL

NAOMI AND OUR DAD COMING DOWN THE AISLE

SAYING THE VOWS

AFTER LIGHTING THE UNITY CANDLE

US GIRLS IN THE RECEIVING LINE...THAT'S ME
HOLDING SHELDON

CUTTING THE CAKE

ABBIE LOOKING PRETTY!

JAMES AND I ...THIS IS A REALLY NICE
PICTURE OF US!

MY BROTHER SAMUEL(13) AND TWO OF OUR KIDS
BEFORE THE WEDDING!

OUR FAMILY MINUS SHELDON

ABBIE AND I DOING OUR NAILS BEFORE THE
WEDDING!

Well, those are some of the pictures we were able to take from Naomi's wedding. We were quite busy the entire time and I am grateful to anyone who had our camera and got these shots for us! :)

We left to go to Idaho on friday night, the 15th. We got in at 9:30, since luckily James was able to get off early around noon. Otherwise we would have gotten there at about1 o'clock. Our trip was good, and the kids were good. On Saturday, we left to go to the church around 9 or so, with the rehearsal around 1 o'clock. It was a very stressful day, but the ceremony itself was beautiful, except that the candelabras were too close together and cut Sarah and Samuel out of the view... Naomi was a beautiful bride and it was a very emotional time for all of us, I think. Sarah cried through the whole wedding and made me start crying, too!

Naomi and Jesse went to Montana for their honeymoon (not too sure where, though). It was kind of a crazy day, since James and I had just gotten there and really didn't know what to do except fill in wherever needed.

On Sunday, we went to Trinity (our old church in ID) and afterwards met with my good friend Lori and her husband and children at the park for lunch. We visited and let the kids play. It was a wonderful time. Then we headed over to my mom's to pick up Naomi's old bed (a rose day-bed) and my sisters' old set of bunkbeds for the boys. We headed home after that and got back around 11:30 or so at night. We were all exhausted the next day, especially James who had to get up for PT at 5 am.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


So, for the rest of the month of May (before and after the wedding), we have just been focusing on homeschooling and getting things wrapped up for the summer. Zane will still need to read everyday throughout the summer. He is done with everything else, but needs to get through 1 last reader. He is a little behind, but personally I think he is doing extremely well and it IS the curriculum that is a bit too advanced for a Kindergarten student. I am so proud of his accomplishments though, this year! His handwriting is beautiful and his Math skills on target. He did very well in his Phonics book, which I thought was a bit advanced, too. We got through it though.

Our garden is doing ok, but there are a few things we will need to replant soon, as they didn't come up or they were killed by a light frost. We have Potatoes, Tomatoes, green and red Peppers, corn, Pattypan Squash, Bush Green Beans, Radishes, mixed Salad greens, Spinach , Beets, Brocolli and Cauliflower. We will need ot replant the cucumber, winter squashes and watermelon. Most of the cooking herbs that I planted in pots, also came up. I have Dill, Thyme, German Chamomile (medicinal actually), Sweet Basil, Cilantro, and Chives. My Rosemary, Sage, Marjoram and Tarragon didn't sprout so I am thinking about replanting those. James bought me lots of houseplants. I am new to having houseplants and didn't realize that they really do need very little suinlight and definitely not bright light. I set them out for the weekend while we were in Idaho and burned them all up pretty bad. I have a huge fern, an ivy plant, a Polka Dot Plant, a Cactus, a Martha Washington and this other one that I got from AWANA for leading that I don't know what it is. Anyway, the cactus (obviously) and Martha Washington are ok. I hope the Ivy and Polka Dot plants revive. I trimmed the fern back until it was green again, so I think it will be fine. So the obvious lesson is this: If you have houseplants...keep them in the house! :) I am a nerd!

James also bought me a new beddingset, that was greatly on sale at JC Penney. It was normally 250.00 and he got it for 89.00! Woot! All bedding was on sale, so we also got summer (cotton) sheets for Abbie, Zane and Sheldon, and a beautiful set of gold Satin sheets for our bed that matches the bedding set. Then I happened to see Flannel sheets half off at K-mart and bought all of the kids a set for the wintertime! :) I think each set was 10.00!

My birthday is on the 24th, and my brother and law and his wife are coming up from Boise to visit, since they haven't seen James since before he went to Korea. So, we are thinking about the next weekend doing something for my birthday! I suggested that James have a "backyard" camping trip in the camper with the kids on Friday night and leave me alone! :) I have been dying to just sleep as late as my body wants to!!! So, I told him, that if we do this, that he will have to take the kids to the park in the morning and no one is allowed to come in the house until nooonish! I think that is what we will do, because I am exhausted! I am so looking forward to it though, so I hope it works out. A quiet morning where I can sleep as late as I want is the PERFECT birthday present in my book! :) And cheap...


We are still waiting on more money from our move, from the Army. We love doing a DITTY move because we usually make out pretty well. The money will be going into savings for when times are tight, or we have an emergency. We had to dip in just a little bit to our er fund, so we need to get that back up. For the Dave Ramsey plan, you need to have 1000.00, but I just feel more comfortable with 2000.00 in there. So, with the money we will get from our move, we will have almost that, I am thinking! YAY! Hurray for the Dave Ramsey plan! I hope you will all read about Dave Ramsey's financial plan to Freedom at www.daveramsey.com or read his book The Total Money-Makeover!


So, not much else going on! I am loving being a soldiers wife, as I always did! I am quite spoiled to be one again! :) TOTALLY LOVING LIFE RIGHT NOW!!! :) James starts an 8-week course on Monday called Cross-fit. It is a civilian fitness program paid for by the Army. He is excited, but he will have some very early mornings for 8 weeks. Plus, some late nights, I am sure, at work. But he is happy to be able to go through the program.



Well, summer is almost here! I am anxious for my favorite 80 degree temps! I hope you all have an awesome June! :) Blessings!

~ Just some recent pictures ~

A picture of me on the trampoline

Abigail on her birthday

A picture of our new schoolroom/office...

The kids at the Seattle Zoo

Abbie on the trampoline...

A picture of Abbie's cake...I made it homemade, with strawberry
frosting in between the layers...the cake itself, was a yellow cake.
It was delicious!

A picture that Anne (the kids adopted grandma) took on Easter
at our church!

I need to get some pictures of our house and property to put on here...it is really looking like home now, and everything is organized! :) We are enjoying it so much! Take care!

April Update

Wow, what an awesome month this has been! Very busy and a bit stressful with the move, but AWESOME! I am just loving this new season of my life! It feels so strange to actually be a family after two years of sporadically seeing James and one year, of him being in Korea. What a great change!

Let's see...the first week of April I spent doing last minute moving stuff. I packed up the basement stuff but didn't do a thing with all of our tools. I brought everything up from the basement and stacked it by the door. Pretty much everything was ready to be loaded by the time James got home on the 8th. I even had time to clean all of my tack, saddles, bridles and saddle pads. I washed all my saddle pads by hand in the tub with a scrub brush and bleach (for the white ones), and they came out so nice and clean! I am so happy I was able to get to the tack, because our garage is so nice and I wanted all the tack to be clean and dust-free, since it has to go in the garage!

On the 8th, we picked up James at noonish, and came straight home. I told him I had a surprise for him but he had no idea what it was. I had made arrangements with my next door neighbor to watch the children for a couple hours. So, when we passed our driveway, he said, "Is Lori watching the kids for the night?" I told him it was just for a couple hours, because I felt that they should be able to be with him, too! So, anyway, we had an interesting couple hours to ourselves! :) It was so awesome...and I am so thankful that Lori agreed to watch the kids for me, and was understanding about it! What a great memory we made! ;)

The 9th, and 10th we just relaxed around the house and then the 11th and 12th we loaded the uhaul, went to church, and then we left on Monday morning the 13th.

Our church had a farewell party for us after the Easter services. They had a huge cake for us that was delicious, and they also laid hands on us and prayed for our family, that we could make an impact for Christ in our new neighborhood, and church, etc. It was a very emotional time, with a lot of tears and hugs. It was hard to leave. They also (much to our disapproval) took up an offering for our family. It was crazy. I kept telling them we didn't need or want it, but they insisted. When we got in the car we didn't even want to open the envelope. I cried when we finally counted it. We didn't know what to do with it, so we put it in savings...what an amazing group of people, that I love so dearly and will miss so much! At least we are only 6 hours away! :)

On Monday, our friends Ty and Amanda and their little daughter Mia, showed up with their truck and horsetrailer, loaded Hope up for me, and James and I did a few measly last minute stuff and we left. James drove the U-haul and our little black lawn trailer, I drove the Suburban and our Camper, and then ty and Amanda drove their big trailer with Hope in it. It was quite the caravan. We had an awesome trip and were only about two hours behind schedule. Nothing whatsoever happened on the trip which was nice! :)

We got to our new home around 8:30 pm. We LOVE it! :) My husband is about 25 min away from work, and he doesn't even have one stoplight to go through, to get to the east gate of Ft. Lewis. His drive is very stress-free...with mostly roads full of forest! :) Our road was worse than we thought, and has some very interesting people living on it. I say hi to them and they won't even wave. We live at the very end of the road, and have the nicest home and property on the road, so I think that they probably refer to us as "those people who live at the end of the road", and won't associate with us. I have some extra Army Bibles laying around and I am thinking about walking over next door and giving one to that family and try to get to know them better.

Our house has a nice privacy fence and we can't see anyone who lives on our road, the driveway to our house is really nice and the property perfect for Hope and the kids. My landlady is working with the county to get an easement road put in for us that will take us down to 2nd Avenue instead of 8th, which will by-pass our horrible pot-hole road and the very un-friendly people who live on it. we are hoping that happens, soon.

Our house is bigger than I ever imagined! The bedrooms are huge! The wall-space is incredible, and I have had a horrible time trying to decorate all of it. It seems like everything I have is too small and the walls too big. The cheapest way to go is probably to get some very tall house plants to put on some of the walls. I have looked at big pictures and clocks and they are just too expensive for our budget.

When we got here, James fried my dryer, so he bought me (with CASH) a brand new Whirlpool front loader Washer and Dryer and a huge chest freezer for the garage. I love them! Unfortunately, the control panel went out on the washer and it took them a week to get out here. Then the lady didn't have the right part, so it still isn't fixed. Hopefully, it will be fixed by Thursday. That will make it two weeks without my washer! My launrdy has really piled up and I will be doing laundry everyday all day! At least it was under warranty! I thought that I had ruined it and just started bawling. James was outside, and he came in to find Abbie in tears. He asked her why she was crying anf she said she didn't know. I was in the bedroom crying and told him that she was crying because I was crying. He asked me why I was crying and then I just started bawling and told him that I was sorry and that "I am just a hick, redneck woman who can't even operate these new electronic things". He started laughing. Fortunately, the lady who came out to look at it, told it was impossible for me to be the one to break it! That made me feel better!

James also bought a little beater truck for shoeing horses out of and running back and forth to work. We paid cash for that too, and still have our emergency fund! :) So, with all the money that the Army gave us to move and our wise spending of it, we got everything we needed and still have the emergency fund! :) I am so happy! We really need new furniture but it will have to wait! Ours is so hick, but oh well.

I have ridden my horse a few times, and James put front shoes on her since it is so rocky here. She seems to be very happy! :) And I also have a really nice area for teaching the kids how to ride!

I will have to add some pictures to this post tonight, later...We went to the zoo in Seattle on Saturday, and then we just have a lot of cute pictures of the kids! :)

Even though it is wonderful to be a family again, it has been a time of adjustment for everyone. It is hard not to treat my husband like one of the kids and I think it is hard for him to not treat me like one of his guys. The kids have had to adjust a lot, too, to being disciplined by him, instead of just me. We will work it all out though...it is just a matter of time.

James goes back to work on the 1st of May. I think he is looking forward to it.

We used the time while we were moving for Spring break from homeschooling and we started back up on the 20th. We will be done on June 5th and I am so excited for the summer break! :) Zane is really reading well, which is so fun to watch.

We visited Sarah Neblock's church, Emmanuel Bible Fellowship. We really liked it, though the music is different from Trinity. At Trinity we sing hymns and praise songs by request. Emmanuel is very similar to the church that we went to before Trinity (Grace Bible Church), so it was easy to swing back into their form of worship. The sermon was good, and was by their associate pastor (I think). I am looking forward to hearing Kieth's messages (though I have listened to him online before already). The kids were awesome during the sermon. I stood up in the back and held Sheldon until he fell asleep, so I got to hear the whole message. The kids had already gone to Sunday School and I didn't feel comfortable sending them to another one during the sermon, so they stayed with us, which Zane and Abbie are used to anyway. I want the kids to be with us, during some point in church, so they can learn to sit and listen and be patient. It seemed very strange that no kids were in church during the singing/worship time. That was the only thing I didn't like about it. Hopefully they won't mind if my kids stay in for the worship time...


Anyway, I need to attend to things in the house and I will try to post some pictures later! :) Blessings!

March Madness

It has definitely felt like a month of madness, for us so far this month. It's the 21st, so I figured I had better post for the month, since the rest of the month will be really, really crazy!

This month we have really been blessed in so many ways! James re-enlisted for 6 more years, in the Army. At first we were supposed to get a 14,000 bonus, but it ended up that someone didn't know what they were talking about and it was actually less...so we got 11,000. We were both really disappointed but very happy to get something, at least. We actually only got 7,000 and most of the rest we will get back at tax time.

We were also blessed by getting the house we wanted to rent! You can see pictures, if you haven't already, on my last post. We are very excited about it and the landlady even said she will have a barn put up for us, if we want. We will be getting the garden in as soon as we get moved in. It is top priority for us. We will save money if we can have lots of fresh veggies. We are also planning on doing major berry picking and fishing, to fill the freezer! :)

It's been very cold and rainy, but the snow IS melting and it won't be long before the driveway is clear. I am positive that there will still be snow when James gets here. There is still a lot out there! We had one nice day this week, where it was about 52 degrees or so! It was really nice and I opened the doors to let the house air out, which I love doing.

The kids are doing so well! Zane is taking off in his reading, Abbie is learning letter sounds, and Sheldon finally said two sentences. He is so late in talking and it is so frustrating! It was so cute to finally hear a sentence from him! :) They were, "Uh-oh Mommy", and "Uh, Uh...Uh, Doggie" (he was telling the dog, no). Very, very basic, but when you have boys who talk late, it is a joy to finally hear something!!!!! :)

We cut Abbie's hair to about jaw-length. It is really cute and she will love it for the summer! A few days afterward she cut her bangs really bad though! I had to straighten them out and they are so short, but have grown a lot in a week!

I have just been packing here at the house and trying to sort, give-away, and take things to the thrift shop. I have this table that is full of odds and ends...it is so frustrating when I am really organized! :[ I have just been throwing little things that I am finding on that table, and it is driving me a bit crazy! :)

I am just ready to be done with this season in my life! We have 18 more days until James is home and I just want to have a normal life again for awhile! God has been so good, and even though there have been some bumps in the road this year, He has taken care of us, blessed us, grown us, satisfied our longing hearts and given us fresh bursts of energy and refreshment and just DONE everything! :) I don't think James nor I give much credit to ourselves for having done so well this year! ;)

I need to upload some pictures on here, of recent stuff...I have no idea what is on my camera right now! :) I will be so happy when I have high speed internet, and can upload faster! Way...faster ! :)

*Pause and reflect time*

Has God been teaching me anything this month? Have I slowed down to hear His voice? How can I encourage someone reading this? I want my posts to be worthwhile....

I have tried to slow down to hear God's voice, but not enough! I am still reading His word, daily but my prayer life is still not doing well. Will it ever? I hope so. It is actually a bit better, but not enough...

What God has REALLY been laying on my heart lately, is to respect my husband more than I do. God wants me to stop assuming things about my husband. He wants me to have a few seconds of quiet to assess my attitude before I speak to my husband about something. Especially during an argument, or more importantly, at the beginning of one. I am so disrespectful when I get mad, or hurt....I just hate that. I am going to work harder on it, for him and for God. I love my husband and there is no excuse for blowing things out of proportion, even when I am hurt.

Well, I will end here! I hope you are all having a marvelous spring, preparing for your gardens and doing your spring cleaning! :) I am looking forward to all of those things, myself! :) God Bless!

Pictures of our New Rental....

I really, really, really like this house and the yard! It has 4 fenced acres for Hope, which I am very excited about, also! There are no pictures of the horse area...

I so do not deserve such a beautiful home! :) Take a look! :) The pictures I wanted first ended up being last, but I don't have time to fix it!

One of the other 3 bedrooms...they all look similar to this one...

The master bedroom

Master bathroom

Master Bathroom

Living Room

View of kitchen from livingroom...

Close up, of kitchen and island...

Dining area off of kitchen...

I think the Laundry room/Mudroom is through that door in the Diningroom
leading to the garage...

The backyard with fire pit and in-ground hot tub...there is a sliding door there
on the end of the house, from the master bedroom, to outside! :)

Another view of the backyard...

There is plenty of room to park our camper here, beside that low privacy fence.

The front yard with some low-maintenance landscaping started...

The front/side view of the house...it is 2200 square feet...4 bedrooms...and built in 2005.
There are trees all around it and not many houses around...the house is in Roy, WA which is a little south of Fort Lewis, WA...out in the country! :)

~ 20 Things I Want To Do Before I Die ~

*Originally from my Facebook*

This is a personal list I have been wanting to write down for future reference, but anyone is welcome to use this idea in their notes!

These are not in order of importance...


#1 Visit Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, especially the USS Arizona!

#2 Go to Ireland...my dad is almost full Irish, and I would really love to go someday!

#3 Visit the common European places that everyone gets to go see...Spain, France, England, Italy, etc...just general sight-seeing.

#4 Go on a cruise

#5 Become Debt Free

#6 Tithe 10% on a regular basis

#7 Compete in Cross-Country Jumping again....obviously not with my horse, as she is 20 years old, but maybe after James retires from the Army..

#8 Buy brand new furniture...especially a bedroom suite, Livingroom set and a china cabinet

#9 Complete my fine China set

#10 Go on a missions trip to a third world country

#11 See one or more people truly come to Christ because I witnessed to them, and God worked through me!

#12 Work at a library after the kids are gone....books, and quiet! Two of my favorite things! :)

#13 Do some college while my husband is in the Army and possibly get a degree of some type.

#14 Learn to knit and crochet.

#15 Finish my kids scrapbooks (birth to one year, and one year to two years)...and any others that I have in the works...

#16 Be baptized with my husband

#17 I want to live to see each of my children marry godly spouses! And I want to live to see grandchildren!

#18 I would be delighted to see my boys serve in the military, but this is totally up to them...I think it would be especially cool if my boys were 3rd generation Nightstalkers, like their daddy and both of their grandaddies...and you know, it would be cool if Abbie was a Lady Nightstalker like her momma and both of her Grandmas! :) This is probably impossible, but it WOULD be awesome! :)

#19 I want to have a marriage made in heaven, and live to be married for over 50 years! :)

#20 I want to know that I mattered, that I pleased and served God in everything I did, and with everything that I had! I want to make a difference in my kid's lives...and want them to know the Lord, and serve Him, because of mine and my husband's example to them!

I guess I better get to work....

February Update

The month of February was pretty much annoying, but we made it through! Even though it was a short month, which was nice, it was just so slow! I wish I had written a post about it a week or so ago, because now I can't remember all we did! :(

Around Valentine's my friend (Cheryl) and I went to a free showing of Fireproof, at the church where I lead AWANA. My friend is separated from her husband, and my husband is gone, and neither of us really wanted to go alone, so we went together and it was a nice evening out of the house. There was free childcare. I own the movie, but I could watch it over and over...
On Valentine's Cheryl and I, and the kids all went to a Spaghetti Dinner/Feed in benefit of the Back Country Horsemen Club here in our area. I have a friend in that club who paid my and the kid's way, so another cost-free outing. :) Valentines was annoying...it is my favorite holiday, so ....

About a week after Valentine's I was sick of arguing with my husband over the phone, the general distraction of Facebook and the internet and people calling me, or me calling people... Also, my prayer life hasn't been what I have wanted it to be, so I decided to go on a communication fast for one week.....no internet (we didn't even turn the computer on), no making phone calls (I didn't turn my phone off or anything...people still called me, but I didn't chat with them. I just got off as soon as possible), no radio, no tv..... It was really hard at first but then I had no desire to even get on the computer. My husband and I didn't even call each other. It was very needed. I was at the point that I couldn't focus and was turning everything into a fight and being generally disagreeable.

I also started preparing myself mentally for moving so I could get started packing on the first of March. We have found a rental that we really like, and are pretty sure we will get. It's really nice and I will add a link to this post... :)


We didn’t get any snow in January or February, except an occasional powdering. It was so nice not to have to shovel snow. Everyday when I go out to feed my horse, a teeny bit more of the driveway is showing, but there is still a lot of snow out there! And the temps are still cold...freezing at night and just above freezing during the day...our highest temp this spring has probably been about 40 or 41. I am getting very discouraged! :( I hate cold weather and I am so happy to be finally moving to a different part of the northwest!

We have about 37 more days until James gets home. I have already gone through all articles of clothing and sorted it all, given stuff away, and found the clothes that Sheldon will need for 2009...(out of Zane’s old things). And then yesterday I started packing all the fragiles, pictures, music and movies. Today I am doing the books and part of our schoolroom. I love moving because it gives you a chance to sort and give things away that you don’t need or want anymore!

The animals are doing well. Hope (my horse) will need her shots, coggins test, and health/traveling certificate this month (the end of March or very beginning of April). We have friends that will be moving her for us, since we gave our horsetrailer to my parents in 2008. They are good friends we have known since 1999. :)


The kids are all doing well! :) Zane is almost done with his Kindergarten this year....he has a few pages in his mathbook, 2 readers left and about 50 pages in his Phonics Book. He is excited! We will do school until the 8th of April, take a break to move and then continue around the 20th of April, and into May and a few days in June. I was hoping to be done by the time James gets home but it is not going to happen, mostly because of his Readers. I can’t push him, so that will be all we will work on finishing in May. I am looking forward to the summer break!

Abbie is doing great! She is so smart and never ceases to surprise me with what she already knows and learns from Zane. She can memorize scripture better than most of the kids I teach in Sparks and she is only a first year Cubbie! :) I am so proud of her! I need to more randomly post things, because nothing really changes month to month with the kids! It just seems I only have time to report on a monthly basis right now!

Sheldon turned two on the tenth of February and we haven’t celebrated, yet. We are planning to have a little party for him at our new house. It will probably just be a family party! Birthday parties are actually really expensive, and I tend to go overboard! Ha! Anyway, he is becoming a monster child and I am having several obedience issues. Part of me just wants to let it all slide because of the move coming up very soon and just the fact that I am so tired! I need to buckle down, though! The other two are getting annoyed with him, his screeching and his bad attitude and yelling! Just writing this down makes it a lot easier for me to come to the conclusion that I need to do something about this before it embarrasses my family! .....

Well, that is about it for now...I will try to post more whenever I want to write something (which happens a lot). I have things I want to write and then I tell myself to remember it for later, but I never do!

Anyway, sorry for the most boring post ever!................. Happy Spring you all! :)