WE MADE IT!!

Okay so Thom has been out of town since Sunday. No big deal, he goes out of town all the time, right? No, this annual trip he takes with his buddies to Fish Lake, has notoriously been rough on the family. He is only 3 hours away, but he has no reception whatsoever. And generally the weather is very rough. And there has not been one trip that he has taken that I have not ended up in the ER with one or more of our children, unable to reach the person I need the most right now. Or he ends up getting stuck there because of the weather, and I don't even know it, cause he can't call me, and then I worry. But he got home this afternoon, as per the plan, and me and the kids were just fine!! Guess our bad luck is over:-) I dread this trip every year, and walked on pins and needles while he was gone. But God was watching over us all, and we made it!!!!:-)

WHEN WILL I DIE?

An interesting, enlightening email:

WILL I LIVE TO BE 80?

Here's something to think about.

I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing 'fairly well' for my age.

A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, 'Do you think I'll live to be 80?'

He asked, 'Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer or wine?'

'Oh no,' I replied. 'I'm not doing drugs, either!'

Then he asked, 'Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?

'I said, 'No, my former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!'

'Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?'

'No, I don't,' I said.

He asked, 'Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?'

'No,' I said.

He looked at me and said,....'Then, why do you even give a shit?

FAT CAT

Here are my preggo Belle pics:-)

A LITTLE SAD

So I have a Facebook and Myspace account, I keep in contact with friends from back in the day, and family from across the US. And sometimes, like today it is a little depressing. Everyone, I swear, everyone! is having babies, either just had or is currently expecting. I feel so out of it. I know I already had mine. But I guess now is the time in my life that stuff like that should be happening. I feel so sad and left out. I know that is so silly. But as most of you know, I DO want one more baby. And now seems like the time, with everyone else having them. But I know that is not going to happen. And I am truly grateful for the 5 blessings that God gave me. And congratulations to all you starting your families, may you be as blessed in them as I have been.

WILL'S GOING INTO HIDING

Apparently Will must be hid away for awhile. As per Nic's requests. I was doing bills yesterday on the computer, and the boys came in (i only have Will and Nic at this time of day), and the inaguration is on the tv, Nic hears 'Obama', and he sys what is a obama? I laughed and explained that is he the new president, and Nic looks at Will, very concerned and says "Oh, is he the baby killer one?" I said, yes he is. Nic says, very seriously, "Well we better hide Will away for awhile and never let him see him, we don't want him to die." So I chuckled a little, and explained to him what that really meant. But he still seems convinced that we need to put Will in hiding somewhere, LOL.

On a side note about Obama, our fears are slowly coming to realization about him. Before he was ever sworn into office, he made plans to do away with the military's life insurance, as well as to allow gays back into the military. I am quiet upset about the life insurance, and Thom is LIVID about the gays. So as this is only a pebble in the "Cannot stand obama" campaign, this is just the beginning to what he is going to do to my family. And we can only pray it does not get worse. I am scared,honestly I am terrified.

BOY, ARE WE IN FOR IT!

Well I had a light bulb moment while I was trying to sleep this morning, it did not work out well, I am EXHAUSTED! But I am too busy thinking about the future, and it is scary:-) I have two BEAUTIFUL princesses, who are only 18 months apart, and will be teenagers together. Now I always knew this, but I had my light bulb moment now. My daughters are perfect! They are adorable, and have always been told this, as well as how they look just like me. I always thought that was cute. But now I am realizing how much they act like me too!

Makayla is very quiet and shy, as I was when I was younger. Which seems okay at first, but then I remember how much my shyness caused problems in my life, and how I am still scared from some of the experiences I have had, due to my personality. And I know this will cause her issues in life. So we are in for drama with her.
And my beautiful Rylie Noel. She is more like me than I really want to acknowledge or admit. She is very what I like to call "passionate". Her emotions are very strong and she is very outspoken about them:-) It cracks me up and terrifies me at the same time. She is definitely her mother's child. Very dramatic and high strung.

So we are definitely in for it! Watch out world there is two more of me coming for you!!!:-)

TODAY

Not much to write, not much going on around here, so I will just update on everything:-). Belle is getting fat!:-) We figure she has about two weeks left. Her little middle is swelling out, and you can definetely tell she is preggers from all angles now, it is so cute! And she is getting obnoxious, she is looking for a place to have her babies, and apparently cant find a safe place in the house (go figure with fifty million kids running around all the time). So she keeps trying to get out, and I will not let her out, cause the last thing I need is her giving birth out there somewhere, that would not be safe, we have coyotes at our house near every night (or so Mike,my neighbor says, I have only seen them a couple times, but he says he sees them almost every night), so I will not allow my little one out there in her condition. I am trying to convince my husband that we will be keeping all her babies ( I made the kids a deal, if she has 3 or less, we will keep them all), apparently a typical litter yields 7ish, but my last mommy only had 2, and we kept them both, I could not part with them, and feel that will be the case this time as well, especially with 5 kids becoming attached. He says if we are in our new house, he will consider it. Which leads me into my next update. We are to be closing on our house in 8 days. Are we? NO! We are having some issues. Pardon my language, but the credit people are dicking us around. There is one line on one of the reports that one of the credit agenices is reporting, which is causing us issues, and our underwriters are refusing to underwrite our loan until it is corrected (apparently they can not sell it with this one line written the way it is). All agencies and companies involved are admitting that it is incorrect, but nobody is willing to fix it! But now one guy at one agency is "going to fix it", but he said it may take up to 30 days! We have received an extension until the 20th of February, and we are going to try to light a fire under this guy and get it all done. This si the most frustrating experience! AND, we have to be out of our house now on the 28th of February, so we are hoping everythign falls together in a timely matter:-), I guess we have our trailer to live in if need be. Which is another segway. We bought our 12 passenger van because I was babysitting 14 kids over the summer last year, and because we needed something bigger than my Explorer to pull the trailer. Well lets just say that it has been broken down for 4 months now. We finally got it fixed two weeks ago, and NOW the starter went out on it!!!!!!! So it will sit there for another month or two while we try to get it fixed!!!! So frustrating. But aside from the house and van situation and Kaiden situation(will not go into that one!!!), we are doing great!:-) Been busy working and enjoying the new year. Things are picking up for Thom at work which is wonderful. I am still babysitting kids, and have picked up an extra few days from one kid that will be doubling the time I have him, and money I will be receiving from him:-) I am still not sure how long the store I am working part time at will be in business, but I have finally got it down to part time (from 50 to 10 hours a week) and my Scentsy business is going alright, i don't make a lot of money, but I do enjoy it. If oyu would be interested in shopping or hosting a party please call me, or visit my website, www.scentsy.com/tobin. Thanks:-) That is all for now, we are going to go play with some friends and I am late:-)

I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH I NEEDED THIS TODAY!

There comes a point in your life when you realize

who matters,

who never did,

who won't anymore...

and who always will.

So, don't worry about people from your past,there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.

'Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

PICTURES FINALLY

These are from Kaiden's game on Saturday. Of course they won again! This is a great team!

Waiting to get in on the action!

Final score!

I THINK WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!!

No not me you crazy people! That would take an act of God at this point:-) We believe me little Belle is preggers:-) She is losing hair around her nipples, and she is 'nesting', not in the traditional sense of nesting, but she won't go outside and play anymore, she is content to just sleep the days away under or on a bed. And she keeps PUKING!!! I know that is not a symptom of cat pregnancies, but it makes sense to me:-) We figure if she is she has about 3 weeks left. The kids are SO excited, heck so am I:-) Thom? Not so much:-) I guess we will see, but all signs are pointing in that direction.

A GREAT REMINDER FOR THE NEW YEAR

STRESS

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked 'How heavy is this glass of water?'
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.' He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding itagain.' When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'
'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.
Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.'
So, my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Have a great Year!

CHATCHUP 7 OF 5:-)

We are in the middle of trying to buy a house, it is not a new house (built in 2001), but it is nice and fits us perfectly, and is close to the city pool, ball fields, and new park. We are real excited about it. We are 'in escrow' right now, the bank is wanting to close the 26th of this month, but our agent is calling to have that extended, cause we will not have all our stuff done by then. It is a short sale, so apparently if we are not in compliance with what the bank wants they can pull our offer, and sale to someone else??? Not sure how all this works. But we are hoping to be in our new house the first part of next month:-)

THESE PICTURES WERE TAKEN OFF THE MLS LISTING.

RV PAD FRO OUR TRIALER (PICS STILL TO COME:-) )

VIEWS OUT FRONT AND BACK

KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM
MASTER BEDROOM(THIS ROOM IS ON THE SMALL SIDE:-( )
BOYS' ROOM

KAIDEN'S ROOM

GIRLS ROOM

SO I LIED, CATCHUP 6 0F 5

Again, no pictures. But Kaiden is playing basketball now. And he loves it! I love that little one but he is not very athletic. He is doing his best, and every game and practice he is getting better! He is a great learner. But his personality and disposition are not aggressive or in your face, and I think if he was more that way, he would do a little better. But he is doing good,and we are real proud of him. He has had two games so far, and they totally slaughtered the other team in both games:-) It is so fun to go and watch them play! His best friend is on his team, and his best friend's dad is the coach( he went to college on a basketball scholarship, so he is awesome!), so it will be a fun season. And we are really enjoying it!

CATCHUP 5 OF 5

On New Years Eve we had a large party at our house, it was fun. I have no pictures, of course! We had friends over till about 1:00, which I know is not late, but it is lately for us! Especially Will, he had a rough go of it, he was so tired! We had soup and games, it was fun, and very safe:-)

I have new year's eve 'goals'. I will not disclose them all, cause I will probably fail at them and then you can rub it in my face. But no, I really do want to lose about 65 pounds (I know big numbers, but sine I am done having children, I want to get back down to my pre children weight). That is my main one. And probably the hardest one! I have the inspiration, and the 'buddy' system, and my family behind me, so I am praying it works, but I just have so little will power over food, and energy to work out! It is going to be HUGELY difficult! All your prayers and good thoughts are greatly appreciated:-)

CATCHUP 4 OF 5

Christmas Morning we woke up early, opened presents then went to Gramma and Papa's and opened more. Of course the kids were spoiled! This is the day that my 'on the fritz' camera officially died! So not many more pictures. I received a new camera from my wonderful hubby for Christmas, but I just barely got it working as well, so there is about a week here of no pictures:(. Then we had a large DELICIOUS meal at Gramma and Papa's. Then we went to a movie with some good friends of ours, the Wilkin's. We went and saw Bedtime Stories, it was way cute, and I highly recommend it! Then we came home ate candy out of stockings and tried to clear trail ways to our beds:-).

CATCHUP 3 OF 5

Christmas Eve was challenging, I had to work in the morning, and ended up stuck there for an extra 2 hours, which is per normal. And before I left for work Rylie was sick throwing up, through the night and into the afternoon, needless to say we were EXHAUSTED! She finally started to feel better, but we had canceled our dinner plans, We were having a large Christmas Eve dinner at our house, but because Ry was sick nobody wanted their children sick for Christmas, it ended up just being us and my parents, which was fine. We did end up going to the Christmas Eve candle light service at our church. That was beautiful and fun. I did make the kids get dressed up and look nice, though it was EXTREMELY hard to get them to sit for pictures, AUGH!!!! Here are the pictures of my beautiful children!!!!

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH!

CATHCUP 1 0F 5 PART 2

Well I realized I forgot these pictures in the original part 1 of 5, so here is another portion of it. If you know me well, you know that an occasion HAS to be celebrated on its origninal day, regardless of how we celebrated before. So even though Rylie had a HUGE party, we still had to go out on her actual birhtday! We (just our family) took her to a new restuarant in town, it is called Pirate Island Pizza, and then she got to have a movie night. Pirate Island Pizza is a way fun! We had a blast. These are pictures of her getting her birthday cake from the restaurant, and them singing "Pirate Queen" to her. It was great!:-)

CATCHUP 2 OF 5

The Saturday before Christmas our church did their annual children's Christmas play and 'happy Birthday Jesus' party. This year they performed the Singing Christmas Tree from Veggie Tales. It was WAYYY cute!!! All of my kids except Will were in it this year. Kaiden was a French Pea, Kayla was a sheep, Rylie was a cow, and Nic was a camel. All except Nic had a solo of some sort. It was so cute, I was SO proud of them, they did such a good job, and it was so stinkin cute! I am hoping to get the video of it. And keep it for ever, it was just so precious. Here are some pictures, again camera on the fritz.

CATCHUP 1 OF 5

So I have not posted for awhile. Sorry! I have been in a quiet a 'funk' lately. But now I am going to try to play catchup on some of my posts here.




RYLIE'S 6TH BIRTHDAY


Rylie's brithday was two days before christmas. We had a party the weekend before. This was her first real party. Cause it being so close to Christmas, not many people have ever showed up, due to being out of town and other issues. Except her 1st birthday was HUGE! But she does not remember that. And also this was her first year in school, so she was able to invite her whole class. We had a quite a large party, it was extremely loud and she had lots of fun! My camera is on the fritz, so these are not good pictures but you get the idea:-) Let me see there was probably 35 people, it was CHAOS!!!!!:-) But she was SOO blessed!