Change in Custody awarded

So Tom's youngest has been living with us for the past year or so. She has said that, this time for sure, she wanted to stay with us full time and asked that we get custody changed. We got started on all of that this past spring and, finally, as of July 15th, she has her wish. Tom now has primary custody and we officially have a teenager in the house (again...)

#GNU Terry Pratchett

The last few days have been... interesting.. Thursday morning I awoke to learn the news that a beloved author had passed unexpectedly. Terry Pratchett has been one of the world's best authors. I don't think anyone can actually argue against that if they take a look at what he has accomplished in his 66 years.  He was the author of over 70 books in that time, and there are several in line to still be released in the coming months. His books and stories were.. inspirational. He used humor and satire to sneak all sorts of philosophy, social and political commentary, historical and literary references and all sorts of obscure knowledge into the minds and hearts of his millions of readers around the world.
In 2007 he was diagnosed with a rare, early onset form of Alzheimers. He knew that his time would be limited, but that this particular form of the disease, known as posterior cortical atrophy, was likely to take his physical abilities before it took his mind, and he started making plans. When he could no longer write or type, he set up a method for dictating his stories, he got in assistance for day to day tasks and he kept up as best he could. And he got angry and fought hard and made sure that people knew so that attention could be called to this disease as it's one that doesn't always get the research it should. He also campaigned hard to save Orangutans and for the right of people to die with dignity. He had plans to end things before his mind went, but, as Fate would have it, he passed suddenly and unexpectedly from other complications with his mind still intact.
There are lots of articles on the web right now about him and the impact he has had on people. I am one of them and I have to say, it has been a wonderful experience. Not his death, but the outpouring of love and support that has been shown by his fans.  The past 3 days on facebook have been.. amazing. It has been referred to as having been like a 3 day wake as everyone shares there stories.. how they came to know of his writings, if they ever got to meet the man, the fun of the conventions, their tatoos and other artwork that has been shared. There have been plans made for get togethers and meet ups, over $37,000 dollars have been raised thus far for Alzheimer's research in his name https://www.justgiving.com/Terry-Pratchett is one of the sites for this..  and they've started up collections for the orangutans as well.
His loss has been a heavy blow for his fans, and we are certain it has been even more so for his family and close friends. Our thoughts and hearts go out to them. He will live on forever through his works and in our hearts.

fall canning!

So it's been a bit of a busy week for me.
Hubby brought home a bunch of raspberries that he got from one of his co workers last week, and a few weeks ago, so Monday I made 2 batches of jam and we sent some of it back to work with him for his co worker. Then Tuesday I bottled some chicken stock that I'd been making in the slow cooker all the previous weekend.
And, speaking of last weekend, Hubby went out and gleaned potatoes with the Big Brother program. His little brother went home with about 25/30 pounds (his mom didn't want any more then that as her other 2 children were also out doing that..) and he brought home an insane amount of potatoes for me. He took some of those into work for the same co worker who had given us raspberries, and the rest I have been processing. I've gotten through about a quarter of them so far. (I swear there is at least 75 pounds, if not more...) So far this week I have processed 20 pints and 5 quarts of potatoes, and have a large bowl in the fridge that have been boiled and are chilling so I can start dehydrating them.
And it seems I've barely made a dent in them. So I will be busy next week, and maybe the week after that as well. Still need to make bottle fries and pickle some, but I'm running out of bottles and am probably going to need to pick some of those up this weekend as well. Busy, busy, busy, but it's a good busy. :)

Summer is over..

Well, it has been an interesting summer.
Mattie left back in May to go back down to her mother's for the summer and the school year. We will see her again at Christmas. A few weeks later, Brie showed up with all of her stuff and then about a week later, one of her friends came up to visit as well. They kept us busy. It was an unusually hot and dry summer, which was nice, and it really didn't start raining at all until just last week. Just in time for the Fair :) as usual..
Brie bought herself a "new" car and then her friend left near the end of July. Brie then packed back up and headed off for Fairbanks, as she planned on going to school up there this year. She wanted to go up early so she could find a job and get all settled and had found a place to live, at least for a while.. but, she also broke up with her boyfriend just before she left... so.. about a week ago, she decided she was going to take some time off after all and just work for a while, so she moved _back_ down here and has sort of moved back in with us, at least for now, though she has spent most of her time back over at her older sister's. Who knows what the next few months will bring for her.
We had an emergency foster placement this month. We got a little 3 year old (day after her birthday...) and her 7 month old (and teething..) little brother. I, of course, can't go into detail about their situation, but it was sad. They have since been moved to their grandparents (along with an older sibling that had been on vacation with the grandparents when things happened..) and that will be helpful for the children. But we miss them.
We did get our foster care license renewed. Yay. It's good now for the next 2 years, we just have to make sure we keep up on on "classes." We shouldn't have any problem with that. lol. We went a bit overboard last year in our training, so we'll just keep up with that. We have asked to move to pre-adoptive placements only, so maybe we'll get some kids we can adopt soon. It's just been getting very hard on me to keep sending them back. At any rate, we'll see what happens next.

I have a little Etsy shop....

So  last month I came up with the idea of starting up an little shop over on etsy. Eventually, I hope to offer some home made jams and such as well, but for right now, while we wait for things to ripen up here, and suffer through an unusual heat wave that would make me not want to do any canning anyway... I've been finishing up a pile of baby quilts that I've had squirreled away for years and have them posted. I hate giving most of those up, but they are certainly not doing anyone any good just sitting in my craft bins.
I've currently got 10 items up and listed and am working on several others. Wanting to see  how many I can get done this summer while waiting for jury duty summons... I'm on call for district jury duty for all of July and August.. so who knows how that will play out. But it would be really nice to get some extra cash from these quilts, it will help us pay off some of the remaining bills we have from Tom's unemployment bout and help us save up for our adoption.
I went to a training session for foster parents wanting to adopt last month and found out about a new program they are getting started. It will help us to network with all the social workers in the state, mostly within our region, but outside of it as well. This could help us get a placement sooner and speed things up a bit. Which would be very good, so we are working on that as well.
Things around here have been busy.. After our weird late 3rd winter, Spring decided it need to play quick catch up and over did it on the heat for a bit. Youngest step daughter has gone back down to her mother's and we won't see her again until Christmas. Middle step daughter is up here now and spending the summer getting ready to go to college this fall in Fairbanks. She has a friend visiting for a few weeks right now, and today they are up in Fairbanks for a job interview and apartment hunting. We had a surprise about 2 weeks ago when I got a short notice message that a cousin's son was going to be in state for a month, would be arriving in a few days and would like to meet us... So that was quickly arraigned. He's up here taking an outdoor leadership course and doing a month long backpacking trip. I'd never met him and hadn't seen his mom (my dad's cousin, actually..) in over 30 years, so it was nice to meet him and I think he enjoyed himself.. Was a bit of a rushed visit because he had a pretty tight time line, but, it was still a nice visit.
So, that's where we are at the moment.. if you find yourself in need of baby quilts right now, or know anyone who might be, please visit my shop, spread the word, etc.. :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AccidentalPerfection

April

Well, Tom is back to work.. yay! He is really enjoying the new job, so we're all happy.
I'm going to be very busy the next month and a half or so.. One of our neighbors has to go out of state for a while to help her parents with some medical issues. She didn't want to take her kids with her as that wouldn't be helpful for her parents as they recover, so I will be watching them during the day while dad is at work.
So I'm gonna be busy keeping them busy and on task with their home schooling (a simplified version anyway...)
So not sure how much time I will have for blog updates for a bit.. but I will try...
We're also getting ready for the end of the school year. M will be going back down to her mom's and then a few weeks later B2 will be coming up for the summer and then will be headed to Fairbanks for school. And it looks like B1 and her little family will be moving. They've found a place a bit more remote, which is what they want, so they will be moving out there and renting out the house they have now. And who knows when our next foster placement will happen or when we might get an adoption option.. so who knows what will be going on. :)
This is also going to put a wee bit of a damper on some of my family history research and post pone some of the training I'm taking for my calling as a ward family history consultant, but.. I'll be doing what I can there as well.

Back to work!

Yay! So happy to be able to say that Hubby's first week back at work is done! woohoo!!
So very glad to be able to look forward to a steady income that will actually pay the bills.
We've also been taking some adoption classes through the local OCS offices and their affiliates. Lots of good information, and lots of depressing information. *sigh* But we press onward.
This past weekend was also General Conference for our Church. We missed all of the Saturday sessions because of one of the adoption classes, but Tom was able to make it to the Priesthood session in the evening and we were able to see both of the Sunday sessions. We're going to be catching up on the Saturday sessions this week. Lots of good messages there as well.
It was a hard weekend for me emotionally. Friday was the 10th anniversary of my father's sudden death, so having lots of emotionally charged topics from Conference and our class, combined with the huge emotional release of Hubby finally having work again and no longer surviving on stress and trying not to worry... well, I was a bit of an emotional mess this weekend.
In the midst of all of this emotional turmoil, Hubby decided that maybe we needed to boost our odds and look back into working with LDS Family Services about traditional domestic adoption. So I've contacted them this week and we will be having our first meeting with them on Friday. I'm excited and nervous, and still more then a bit emotional this week. I just want to be "mommy" so badly. Money is still going to be tight for a while. Months of unemployment have taken their toll and we were really only just recovering from last year's bout of unemployment (and emergency septic repair..) so, I've set up a fund raising web page to help raise some money to cover our upcoming expenses. The link is up there at the top. Any contributions will be welcome.