I am a horrible blogger!!!

Hey all! I am a horrible blogger. There has been so much going on in recent weeks that I have slacked. I am sorry!! So much that I am not sure where to start, lol. We had drama, we had laughter, we had sadness, we had silly days. What a roller coaster!

I was recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and told to change my diet fairly radically. I have a minimum of sugar (as in a sprnkle if a regular recipe calls for it) so have been sweets free for over a month. Low dairy, low red meat, high raw foods. It has been rough but I have lost 15 lbs at last check and while I still have most of my symptoms it is not nearly as often!!

I have been working to repair one damaged relationship with someone I love a lot and allowing myself to let go of one that can't be saved. That has been amazingly hard. I am such a quiet person and I do not do well with confrontation. Stress make my FMS issues worse. So I had to really take a minute and see that if something is so toxic as to cause me physical pain it needs to not be in my life. It has broken my heart but it also has needed to happen.

My Big Hunter Man (hehehe I love you babe!) went on a 10 day bear hunt to the deeper parts of Canada with his Dad and some of the men from work. He even got a bear but it wasn't much of a bleeder and the wilds so thick that they guides weren't able to track it. He plans to go back next year with his Dad and brothers!

I had some wonderful time with a SIL and her family!!! They have always brought such joy to my life. (See epic weekend post!)

Anyway...... I was catching up on my blog reading when I saw a wonderful piece on our Brother Blog about single income families. We are a single income family. (Since I tend to give my web designing away, haven't sold a book and only make a little with my shop. Oops.) We are very blessed that we are able to do this. We are lucky that Hubby makes enough for us to not need to watch every penny but we weren't always here. When we moved to the PNW we had the crib, our kitchen table, clothes, dishes and a prayer. Hubby and I slept on the floor for a while as we slowly bought furniture. Even then it was important to both of us that I be home with our children. I think the best gift you can give your child is the relationship with yourself. My girls know that Mama is always here for them. I get to see the first steps of the first book read all alone. I can make sure they eat good things and are always safe. That is so important to a child. I had a lot of nanny's as i grew up and it was rough when one left and another came. I fell in love with them. I needed them. BUT when the job was done i had no place in their lives so i always had a feeling of abandonment. My Dad and my grandparents were the only constants through those years and while they were amazing I still was tough. I love knowing my children don't have to worry about any of that!!

Squash A Plenty

We got a very late start on our garden this year, because the PNW decided it wasn't going to be spring until mid-June. Which can be especially annoying when you decide to take the proverbial bull by the horns, and get over your gardening fears by planting a HUGE garden. Huge. Like 35x60 feet.

Okay so maybe that's not huge. But it is considering last year my 'garden' was two small planters. Sometimes things are all about prospective.

The issue is, since we didn't really have time to seed in the ground this year, we just went ahead and bought starts. I took my list, Monster in tow, and drove to a smaller organic nursery nearby. Now, I'm not insane about organic food. I think it tastes better, but I'm not going to go pyscho about it. One thing I have found though, is that organic vegetable plants tend to have better tasting fruits, on top of being tougher and more hearty in general.

I also found out that this particular nursery has much better prices then I had planned after looking at several other nurseries. So I went a little crazy. Okay, a lot crazy. Like a lot, a lot.

I bought 8 different kinds of squash, not counting cucumbers (pickling and slicers). And in multiples.

I think I'm going to be buried in it.

The Epic Weekend Of Awesomness!!

For the first time in a long time my guy had a 3-day weekend. This is magically rare. Even most holiday weekends he has work because if they are tunneling the machine has to be monitored 24/7 and by someone who knows the machine well enough to fix any issues. Anyway, we decided to go to Apple Valley and see my awesome sister-in-law and her hubby and kids. Hubs really hadn't had much time there since their newest addition came along. They are pretty much our favorite couple. She and Hubs are 13 months apart and have always been incredibly close. They married about 2 1/2 years before us. They were our couple friends. The ones we would hang out with or double date with (even with a tag along baby, lol.) One of the hardest things for us over the past like 7 years was not living close enough to see them regularly so we knew once we moved here there would be plenty of back and forth trips. This weekend was just another display of the awesomeness that is being together. We packed the kids and the pup up and left Friday as soon as Hubs was off work. (We pulled Bug from school an hour early.) On the drive we had some drama as Monkey (formeerly known as Squeak, lol.) decided to choke on a pretzel. Really choke. SO with me diving to the back seat and Hubs crossing 4 lanes of traffic to pull off we had our adrenalin rush. Luckily she has a good gag reflex and puked up the pretzel. She also puked up everything else she had eaten in the previous 3 hours but oh well. At least she was okay. Then we had to stop for a potty break for Bug. Then we stopped to get last-minute supplies at the store. Then we stopped to pick up pizza. So our normal 1 hr 40 min drive took more like 3, lol.

So we got there and put pizza in the oven and just visited and spent time together. It was just a wonderful peaceful evening. Then it was time for bed. Monkey refuses to sleep in her travel crib for long so she slept on the air mattress with us. I curled up with her to nurse and get her to sleep and realized I had made 2 mistakes. 1- I forgot one of her blankets. She has to be with a blanket to go to sleep these days and 2- I forgot a fan to mute the noise. So every time someone would laugh or walk by the room she would jerk awake and cry. It took hours to get her to sleep and even then it was rough because Jasper was not pleased about being tied up outside to sleep.

Saturday morning dawns with my SIL needing to go to the dentist. We convince (read BRIBE) the guys to help get the kids ready and we all went to town. After dropping her and my MIL off the guys and I took our baseball team shopping. We went to walmart to rectify the whole blanket/fan thing and then we got down to paying the bribe. We went to Sportsman's Warehouse. My BIL bought a .22 rifle so that he could shoot with Hubs who had brought our new .22 with him to sight in. (They live in the country so we shoot in the back yard.) Hubs bought this crazed rabbit on a stick thing. It is a coyote lure. The stick plugs into a little box and then the rabbit dances around and chirps. The men were in heaven!! We went back to pick up our missing compadres and then went to lunch at my favorite place of all time, Winger's. Seriously they make the most amazing chicken wings/fingers/nuggets coated in this sticky, spicy, yummy sauce. After some sly check grabbing by my BIL (Thanks!!) we loaded up and went back to the house. The boys loaded their guns and spent some time sighting them in while I chilled on a 4-wheeler and watched. All the kids watched too. Then Hubs let me shoot. OMG!! I love this gun. No kick so I don't bruise. (I bruise easily which is a whole other blog.) I shot the bejeepers out of a paper plate tacked to a pallet. So fun. Then I took a nap. It was so decadent and I obviously needed it as my guy woke me up 2 hours later to tell me the lasagna I had made and froze was refusing to cook. Sucker ended up taking like 4 hours so we had steak and hot dogs instead. We all relaxed together and went to bed. Jasper was super noisy, whining, barking and growling all night long. I think some night life came a bit to close for his liking.

Sunday dawned as another beautiful day. We spent the morning just being together with them getting ready for church. Once they left we decided to take a 4-wheeler ride so we got on a big Polaris and left on an adventure. I think we rode for easily 2 hours. It put Monkey to sleep, lol. We went through some rocky formations, through a gully and back up to the ridge. It was beautiful and so much fun that we are going to buy a 4-wheeler of our own so we can play more!! Then we met the family in town. As it was memorial day we wanted to all go and visit the grave of a very special baby. It was the first visit for me and I have to say it brought so many emotions to be there. I loved seeing the tribute to such a precious life and in a way it brought me peace about my own losses. It was a beautiful moment. We then went back up to the house and played games. I always love playing games and this evening was no exception as I rocked!! (I am so modest huh?) We played Phase 10 Twisted, Imaginiif, and Apples to Apples. Such a blast!! We were all shot by 10:30, lol. So much for being hip young adults!

Monday we got up and cleaned up and then went on a 4-wheeler ride. My guy, Monkey, and I were on one machine. SIL, BIL and Baby B were on the other and were pulling a trailer holding the other 6 rugrats! BIL led us all over in places we hadn't seen on our previous ride and it was a blast. I especially loved this little wooden shack that was so old it was tipping a bit. It was huddled next to a huge boulder and had a clearing surrounded by beautiful trees. Just absolutely amazing to see and so much fun. I think we would have played all day had we not needed to get home.

So all in all it was an absolutely amazing weekend. We had so much fun being together as a couple, as a family, and as a brood of awesomeness, lol.