Scrapbooking With A Budget In Mind

If you are a regular reader of my not too regularly updated blog, you probably know that I dabble a bit in the art of scrapbooking. Well, I'm now the Scrapbooking Expert at Experts123.com.

Read my first article here and tell me what you think: Scrapbooking With A Budget In Mind

Catching my breath!

We're in our new house, still looking for some furniture, still unpacking and trying to find this and that, and now school has started. Wow. It has been pretty crazy around here, but the dust is starting to settle a little bit.

School started today, and I felt like I was throwing the kids into a den of lions. I SO remember what it was like to be the new kid in school, not knowing ANYbody, not having a history or shared past with a single person on the campus. It's a scary feeling, and they were a little bit anxious. Do they look it? Fez must have been nervous, cuz he NEVER cooperates in pictures, and I have stacks of crazy photos to prove it.



Luckily, they were all sporting their Cons. Sally's weren't her actual Converse (she's got a pink pair) but they were reasonable facsimiles.

Homeless

We made it. We’re here. Whew! Now we’re getting settled in at Nonni’s, just to (hopefully!) find a house in the area that we need. Summer break is so much fun, but the kids are just darn worn out from the lack of schedule and being late to bed and early to rise. Mario had a skinned up knee that needed attention from the keeper of the band-aids (that would be me) and I set him on the edge of the bed, bandaged him up, gave him a kiss and headed back to the kitchen to finish making dinner. In all of the commotion, I didn’t realize that he wasn’t back out with everyone else until we were sitting down to dinner 15 minutes later. I walked back to the room and he was literally passed out, flopped back onto my open book that was laying on the bed, and snoring away. We tucked him into the bed, still wearing his swim trunks, and he was konked out for 12 hours. Wish I could do that!

We’ve been visiting with friends and family, and eating tons. Why does any and every get-together involve food?

I’ve seen some really interesting (read:crazy) things since being here.

1. There are more Prius’s here than I could even begin to count.
   
2. While spending a nice evening at Lake Mendocino with friends, the neighboring group, which included children in the group, kept lighting up their “medicinal marijuana” while letting their pit bull, who was sporting a nice studded choker chain, run rampant all over the area.
   
3. Strange Missouri-ish weather: clouds, rain, cool weather
   

I’m sure there are more, but I’m not remembering them at the moment!
Grandpa has an AMAZING patch of lettuce in his garden and we cut a whole garbage bag full. It lasted all week, and I even gave some away to a couple of people. YUM!

The cousins here are all having fun hanging out, but we miss the Missouri cousins a ton.
I talked to Abrahm on the phone last week and he says, “Aunt Annie, you’re not my best friend.” Sounds mean, but he just cracks me up!

On the road!

We are heading out west, on the road for the third day today. Even while I'm typing this, I've got tears blurring the screen, so please overlook any typo's I'm about to make!

We left the farm in Missouri on Sunday, and it was so much harder than I thought it would be! I knew I wouldn't want to leave everyone, I'll miss all of the family terribly, but it was really sad.

Brian stayed behind to go to scout camp with his friends and maybe keep up the mowing until he leaves. We have Carmen with us, and it has actually been a much quieter trip than our usual road trips since Natalia and Carmen have made themselves a little spot in the backseat and sleep half the day away. I'm not sure how they get to sleep at night!

Joe is a pretty good traveler, just wants to make sure he gets his fair share of gameboy time, and an occasional snack or meal.

Monkey, on the other hand, is a little more high maintenance. If he has to pee, it's gotta be now! If he's hungry, he's starving! If his pinky toe has an itch, we all know about it. We stopped in Nebraska at Wal-mart, of course, and picked up some "garlic" pills for his cough. Luckily he hasn't figured out that garlic is not spelled d-r-a-m-a-m-i-n-e. A half a pill bought us a couple of hours of peace yesterday! I know, it's not great parenting, but it's carrying on a family tradition.
Monkey took a nap the first day, then woke up, stretched as much as he could while strapped into a booster seat, and said,"Can I call Aunt Emily? I want to tell Jack and Ephraim that I'm going to miss them." Breaks my heart!

Our car is pulling our packed-to-the-gills trailer, (Picture Beverly Hillbillies if they had a Suburban) and we're headed through some more mountains into the Salt Lake Valley this morning. We'll make a quick stop at Temple Square for our break, then keep on trucking. Keep us in your prayers, we're gonna need them.

It's a simple life...

So, I've been working as an enumerator for the U.S. Census. A lot of that work has involved driving around the rural roads of the area, and into the Amish communities. I've written before about going to the Amish store once upon a time, and I still frequent a different Amish store because the original one has since shut down. It's the only place I can find Polenta for 50 cents a pound, and herbs and spices for cheap, cheap cheap!

I love seeing the adorable children dressed in the perfect miniatures of their parents' clothing, down to the little black bonnets on the teeny girls' heads. I know! So cute! I also love the Martin houses; little bird houses that are about 15 feet in the air. They're for the Martins, birds that eat the pesky insects that are around. Some are made out of gourds that are hollowed out and painted white, and are just beautiful!

I spoke with an Amish farmer yesterday who also has a sawmill. I wish I would have asked him how he powers his mill, but I didn't think about it until today.

Anyway, they are the only ones who ALWAYS wave to me. Even the guy who was riding horseback down the road gave a big ol' wave. I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time!