Catching up

     A lot has been going on here. The middle boys spent a week in Oregon at Camp Baldwin. They loved it. TJ  rode horses. He is now infatuated with them. They said there were lots of deer and chipmunks, and NO raccoons!
    My little FK should be leaving by next week. Next time I take a "short term" placement, I am going to put it in writing when the child needs to move by. My husband and I knew what we were getting into when we signed up, I am frustrated when things are not communicated correctly. We have another child that is slated to move in. He was our first placement. We said we wouldn't take him back, but sometimes Heavenly Father has other plans. We are planning on taking a week to ourselves to get things organized before school begins.
     Tomorrow Hubby is going to take the paperwork I have and enroll the younger two boys. Next week I need to call the high school and get things going to get them enrolled. I like that even though they will be in another school district ( we live on the border) the schools are closer, and get higher test scores.
    Hubby has his housing and everything lined up for school ( sigh of relief). The housing is the most stressful. He will be renting from the same gentleman as last year. Its close to the school, and he can walk everyday. He finally has a job here though. He is hoping that they will let him transfer or hold his spot until he returns. He will be home around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then not until April.
    My oldest will be  senior this year. Where has the time gone? It doesn't feel like its been almost 18 years. He and my husband will both be graduating college about the same time ( how funny is that) and son#2 will be graduating a few months after.
    My three new hens are doing well. They are still kind of skittish, but are slowly warming up. One laid an egg today. It is small and white- close to the size of a golf ball. I cant believe its August already. I am not ready for summer to be over yet. We will be going to wildwaves in a few weeks. The kids are excited to  go. It will be fun. I have to work tomorrow, so I need to hit the rack .

chickens

I enjoy having chickens. I love fresh eggs. I love that they eat all sorts of bugs. Simple things in life :)

The black one above is the one the boys have named Alpha. We weren't too sure she wasn't a he at first. She can be quite nasty at times.

Later this week I will be adding some more hens to my flock. I originally started out with four ( 2 rhode islands and 2 australorps). A gentleman in my church who lives by my parents ( which is a block from my house) moved, and I inherited 4 more. He used to have more, but a raccoon got into his hen house. Only 4 survived. I had one die 6 months later- I think she was egg bound. My hens are 2 1/2 years old. I am not getting as many eggs as I used to- much to my childrens dismay. Another lady in my church is looking to rehome some of her hens. They are 16 weeks old. I am looking forward to it! They are leghorns. I will post pics once I receive them!

Busy!

This word describes my life the last 2 1/2 weeks.
We celebrated the 4th, redid our kitchen and I had cub scout day camp to attend. In my little spare time, I am the program director for cubs and tigers.
Now that it is done, I can breathe :)
My hubby started the taking down the kitchen cabinets with the help of the middle two boys. They rocked. We got the cabinets up, I stained them and then proceeded to paint the kitchen.

It was definitely time consuming!

The only thing different is I painted the walls- they are currently a primer white.
I will NEVER paint a dark color again. Its too time consuming to cover up!
We also picked up a new fridge. With 6 boys- 2/3 of them teens- we needed a bigger fridge. The new one is almost 31 cubic sq feet. I can fit 12 gallons of milk in it. I. Am. In. Love. I despise grocery shopping. The fridge was on sale, we really couldn't pass it up.

Moving on to other items- our adoption was finalized. R never stopped smiling. It was great. His other foster dad and one of his friends were able to come down and attend.

R has wanted to be baptized for several months.
That happened the same week as the adoption.
*He has never smiled so much as he has that week. It was great!
J's dad came and did the baptism.

Can you see the family resemblance?

I love my aunt! She came too.

Complete! ( almost)

I came home from work Thursday to find the old cabinets, countertops, and sink in my driveway.
Inside, the boys and hubby were working on putting in the new cabinets.
I am happy.
I have to stain and seal them. Its been too hot here to do that at the moment ( high today was 92, and yes for the Seattle area- that is just HOT!)
I also need to patch some holes and repaint. That's all easy :)
Pictures coming soon!

Sick

I hate being sick. Especially when its nice out. My room gets way to warm, which doesn't help any. Why is it that my kids willing share germs, and not other thins..
On the plus note, hubby returned home yesterday. I wont have to be "single parenting it" for a while.
I am hoping that we will start our kitchen remodel this weekend.

Our foster kids ADOPTION will be FINALIZED TUESDAY!
We are excited. As of Tuesday afternoon, we will have another son!

Beginning of Summer

I love this time of year. The days here have been pleasantly warm. Even when it rains, its not too chilly. Friday I ordered 10 yards of dirt

It was delivered Saturday, before 8am- I couldn't believe it.
We ( my kidlets and I) began to spread it. My parents loaned us their wheelbarrow and some more shovels.

I then decided to remove the side garden fence, and move the garden to the property fence. My older kids were not impressed, but they took it down for me.

 



 The fence they removed was on the left hand side of the picture.

The above picture is what it looks like now..
Same with the below pictures.

 

I have so much more room now for vegetables!

We filled in the garden area around the fruit trees as well.

I planted Marigolds under the trees, in addition to parsley and cilantro.
I am excited to see how they do.
We still have over 1/2 the dirt left, I am hoping that when hubby gets back we can finish getting the cement pad demo'd. Once that is done, we can move the dirt where the cement was. I am looking forward to the yard looking neater.

We also added dirt to the chicken coop.

 

I do occasionally let my hens "free range" in the backyard when I am back there. They are great pest control.

 

 

   Here is a picture of strawberries I picked tonite from my strawberry patch

I think I will be making strawberry jam tomorrow!

 

sun!

It's been warm here, 84 today. It feels so nice! My garden is beginning to grow, my trees are budding. I dried 6 loads of clothes on the line! Dinner was BBQ chicken and baked potatoes. Simple,easy and filling.
We have been pricing counter tops, sinks and faucets. We found a sink we like, now we have to decide on what type of counter top. I like quartz, but hubby didn't see any colors that he liked. We will have to go to some more home improvement stores and compare.
On a better note, for those who are aware, we have a foster kid. The good news is the adoption should be final by the end of this month. We will be glad once this process is done,it is so much paperwork.
We had a birthday party for our FK. I will post pics later.