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.

Well...

Life sure likes to throw sideways.
I started a new blog (yay!) and things are going well over there, though some of the ideas I had for it are on hold because of.. complications.. in other areas..
In early February Hubby got laid off.. surprise, out of no-where.. know we told you we were going to have work and gave you an assignment for this week, but, oops.. we lied..
So we've been income-less for a month and a half now. This has not been fun. Money is tight, but so far we are managing. Not sure how much longer that will all last though. I am very anxious for our tax refund to show up soon. But we have had some blessings through all of this:
We had gotten a line of credit last summer that was supposed to be used this coming summer as an emergency back up for a road trip Hubby wanted to take. (Motorcycle across the country type thing..) His lay off last fall pretty much put an end to the plans for that trip, but we have had that money as a cushion. Even though we HATE touching it, we are very grateful to have had it available.
I am so grateful that I listened to all the messages and promptings over the years about food storage. We have needed to buy very few things this past month and a half because we have plenty of food and supplies stored up. And it's all stuff we normally eat anyway. So there is no, "ugh, we're sick cuz we've suddenly changed our diet" period of adaptation. We have been able to eat regular food, and regular meals, even roasts, steaks, french fries, cookies, etc, and all the trimmings, because I have a well stocked pantry and freezer. I'd been contemplating the idea of getting another freezer and/or fridge for a while, I think I might be able to convince Hubby of it now.. (Ok, we did have a second fridge in the basement, but it kinda died.. we still use it for shelving and storage though.. we'd gotten it for free. It was very old.. avocado green type old... the freezer on it still works though..) But, yes, food storage rocks. I highly recommend it. Even with my food allergies and dietary restrictions, having supplies of things I can eat and not have to worry about any of it has been wonderful. Also, I've somehow managed to accrue a 3 to 6 months supply of my prescription meds. This is one of those things that gets forgotten a lot of times as well. While my meds aren't horribly pricey, it is nice to know that, if we need to, I can skip ordering them for a month or two.
Even failures can turn into successes. I was attempting a recipe creation using some of the bottled carrots form the pantry. It wasn't working out the way I was hoping. I didn't want to throw it out, of course, so I gave it some thought and turned my failed recipe into dog treats, that, let me just say, my dogs go NUTS for. They love these things more then anything else I've ever seen them react to. Even our shy little Petey who is the biggest scaredy cat in the world will come out of his hidey holes and DEMAND these cookies.. And Hubby has been applying for everything he can find. He has even been pointed into directions that he'd really like to go, but never thought he'd qualify for. One company even cold called him about a job that would be _exactly_ what he wants to be doing, but he never thought they'd even look at him. And they called him! Out of the blue. They'd seen his resume online and wanted to talk to him. We're still waiting on call backs about a lot of things, but this lay off might be the chance for him to make some HUGE changes. He's also had the chance to meet and talk to some new people that have pointed him in other directions. He's off talking to Big brothers Big Sisters this afternoon, and he's found a local group that are restoring an old steam locomotive. Now, Hubby LOVES trains.. his father worked on the old steam engines back in the day, so he's just loving having the chance to work on bringing an old one back up to snuff. We went and talked to them a bit on Saturday and he will be going over to fill out paperwork and such for helping out later this week.
I'm really hoping he hears back from one or two of these companies this week. It's a hard time for electricians right now. One of the local companies laid off about 70 or so of them a week or so before he got laid off, so there are a lot of them looking for work right now. Everyone keeps saying that hiring will be picking back up in "March or April." I'm really hoping for sooner over later..

Playing catch up

Ok, I've kinda slacked off a bit, but things got crazy. Thanksgiving was hectic and emotional. We had our family dinner on Friday and while I was home getting things prepped, Hubby and the girls went shopping. While they were out, we got a call from OCS about a possible placement.We got very excited as it was one that would likely have lead to an adoption. Sadly, it fell through within hours of our being notified of the possibility. I was a complete and total wreck the rest of the weekend and, honestly, am still sad that if fell through.
Then first week of December we a quick, short term emergency placement of a sibling group. Unfortunately, we had to call that placement off even shorted then it was meant to be because I went and got very, very ill. I was looking at hospitalization and there wouldn't have been anyone available to watch the kids. (They'd been waiting on grandparents to come in from the villages to get them, they were able to get grandma to come in earlier then originally scheduled.) I hated having to call that short, but there really wasn't much other option. I barely managed to stay out of the hospital and eventually recovered, but it was not a fun week. And annoying when a "2-day bug" winds up lasting a week and being 5 times worse then everyone said to expect..
M went down to her mom's for Christmas, so it was just Tom and I and the dogs. He wound up having some unplanned time off over the holidays, so we got to spend time together working on projects and such.
We still haven't gotten another foster placement yet, but we have some classes scheduled in the next few months covering adopting through the foster system.
The dogs are all still crazy. Willow has somehow managed to hang in there and is refusing to die, though it can't be much longer now. We will all be horribly sad when she passes, but, she's had a good run and she has taken a turn for the worse this past weekend, though she keeps trying to perk up.
And, after some cajoling and repeated suggestions, I've gone and started a gluten free food blog!  Click here to check it out! It's not much yet, but it's a start, and not nearly as much work as doing the cookbook everyone keeps saying I should write.
B2 was up here for the past week and a half doing some work for the company she worked for over the summer. They had a job up in Fairbanks that they needed extra hands for, so they talked her into coming up for it. She went back to school yesterday, but seems to have liked it up there in the -40 temps and dark and, oh, did I mention cold... She has pretty well decided that she wants to go to school up there next year.

So that pretty much brings us up to speed.

Gone

Last Friday our little foster girl left us. It is a good move for her. They found a foster placement that could take her and her siblings, so they can all be together again. So ti's a good thing for her. Has been hard for me though. Tom was gone most of last week, working on a little island out in the middle of nowhere. The sort of place where you bring all your food with you because there isn't anything at all out there. So he wasn't home for the transfer. So this week is Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I run out to the airport to pick Bree up. Will just be us and all the girls this year as the boys are all off working the slope this week. I'm finding it very hard to get into the holiday spirit this year. If I didn't know there'd be mutiny I'd be tempted to skip the big dinner and all, as it is, we're doing things on Friday cuz the girls wanted to go do dinner at their grandparent's house on Thursday (and, surprise, their mother is going to be flying up to be there this year as well... Bailey was not thrilled and will not be going, Mattie wasn't keen either, but it was too late for her and she will be going anyway...) Going to keep things fairly simple though this year. Last night was the first good, solid night's sleep I've had in about 2 weeks. The waiting and not knowing was really messing me up, along with the stress of trying to get everything cleaned back up in time for this week. It's just hard though. I'm getting the room all ready for Christmas though, just in case we get another placement by then. I really hope we get an adoptable placement soon. I need that. Really. I need that.

Ok.. I swear I posted last month.. I know I did.. *sigh* anyway. It has been crazy and hectic and tear inducing. And, oh please let this be the end of it. So, last month we had H's caseworker come to do a home visit. I haven't actually had the time to clean the house since her arrival, so I was trying to get the worst of it taken care of. In doing so, I managed to wrench my back. So, massive amounts of pain. So needed to go see the chiropractor, so did not have time for it, because we had the home visit, then the next day we were having our septic tank pumped, and then I needed to take M to go get her eyes checked out and get new glasses. So it was basically a week before I was able to go and get my back taken care of. Then the usual massage therapist, whom I have seen since my accident in 2007, no longer works there, so saw a new guy, and youch! he dug deep and got everything worked out, but it took me 2 days to recover from the pain of that. Chiropractor was able to get me adjusted as well and over all, it was good, except that on the way home, the truck died on me.. *sigh* wound up being something simple and stupid, but we weren't able to get that sorted until it was towed home the next day.. I really wish that were the end of it.. Halloween afternoon, I got a call from the case worker, wanting to set up a visit with H's mom for later that afternoon. We get there and find out, after waiting 20 minutes, that mom doesn't have gas money and we need to go meet her. So we all haul over there for a quick visit, missing daddy's phone call for the evening, and half the things we'd planned for Halloween itself. Then we get home to find out that M had taken off with her sister into Anchorage for the evening, which was allowed, _IF_ she had finished her homework, which she hadn't, so she wasn't supposed to go. But since no one was home to enforce it, and she certainly wasn't going to tell her sister that she couldn't go.. so now M is grounded.. That's still not the end. Thursday morning, M comes up as everyone is getting ready for school/work, and informs us that the basement has flooded.. *sigh* so, Tom does what he can and ends up taking most of the day off from work.. and we eventually call the plumber.. we eventually wind up thinking we'd gotten everything taken care of... and we started the clean up... and things went well.. until Saturday. We were getting ready to leave for M's roller derby practice when the water sensor that Tom installed Thursday went off. so.. instead of going anywhere, I called the plumber again and we waited. They came and checked things again, and it was determined that the clog was out in the tank, and they couldn't reach it with the stuff they had on the truck. So today we went and rented the power auger and ran the lines ourselves.. *sigh* Hopefully we finally got everything settled and it will all behave itself now. I really don't think I can handle anymore stress. Today we also got a call from the caseworker letting us know that H will be moving, likely sometime this week, into a home with her siblings. We will be sad to see her go, but it will be good for her.

September update and NEWS!!

It has been a crazy, crazy month... Mattie is settling in and doing ok at school. She is having a few problems with some subjects, but that is always to be expected. And she is doing Junior Roller Derby. We took our 11 year old Jack Russell to the vet. We've had some suspicions about her health, and we were right. She has lymphoma cancer. Not much we can do for her but put her on steroids and wait. She is doing well on the meds, but it always an unknown, she could hold out for another year or two, or she could get worse and pass away in another month. The average survival is about 2 months from diagnosis. So we are waiting.. We've had lots of crazy weather.. Alaska does, in deed, have hurricanes. But they are usually in the middle of winter and it all falls as snow and we just call it a winter storm.. but this year they are coming early and we have had lots of rain and high winds, and more rain.. roads and railways have been washed out, homes flooded, power has gone off several times for everyone, and we are just very happy not to live closer to water. We are nice and high up enough that we don't have to worry about flooding. Though we do have worry about the roads. But, at the moment, things seem to have lightened up and we are, at least, between storm systems. And now for the really exciting news... After having our license for a month, and waiting, and waiting for a placement, Thursday I had a doctor's appointment in town and as soon as I walked in the door, there was a phone call from OCS calling to see if we would be available to take placement of a 3 year old girl. So, of course, I said yes and I went in Friday at noon to pick her up. We don't have a whole lot of information on her just yet. She is 3.5 years old and she has a younger sister and older brother also in foster care. They have been in foster care since last Monday and while at their emergency intake placement, she had been bullying her younger sister, so it was decided to separate her for the time being. (Of course, all new foster homes are limited to a maximum of 2 children in care at a time for their first year anyway, so there was no way we could have taken all 3 regardless..) She is very bright, already knows her letters and numbers and colors, full of energy.. of course, she's 3 so the word "no" is a favorite and we are having the usual "i'm tired but not going to take a nap/go to bed if i can avoid it" melt downs as we try to establish a schedule and all, but over all, the last 2 days have gone very well and we are excited to have her here. We don't know yet if this will be a short term or a long term placement. They are still trying to get in touch with family members to see if any of them could take her and/or any of her siblings. If so, she could go with them at any time. So we are trying not to get too attached or make any long term plans with her just yet, but it's so very hard.. lol.. and we're kinda doing it anyway :)

August..

Well, it has been an "exciting" month here. On or about the 26th of July (I can't really remember exactly, but I know it was right about then..) Tom's youngest daughter (age 13) informed us that she REALLY didn't want to go back to her mother's at the end of the summer. So much so that, if it came to it, she was going to refuse to get on the plane. We told her that she really needed to call her mother to discuss this with her, but she didn't want to do it right away and put it off.. of course she was going to camp the next week, so it wasn't until she got back on the 3rd that she got around to calling.. and there was much discussion.. and just this past Friday (the 10th) she got a verbal ok from her mother to stay for the school year. So now we are scrambling to get her ready for school, which starts this Thursday... Going to be LOTS of changes around here because of this... And the 18 year old has gone back to school, left on the 6th. This is her combo senior/sophmore year. At the end of this year she will be done with high school and have her associate's degree from college as well. Woohoo! But, that's not the only change going on... On the 28th of July, Tom got a phone call informing him that he was being laid off. *joy... sigh* This meant the postponement of Tom's planned trip to drive his motorcycle down to my mom's this fall so he could ride it around the lower 48 next summer. He was not happy about that. It also means a slight postponement in our plans to do foster care. But, we've got everything else we need done, so as soon as he gets a job lined back up, we can jump right on into that. He'd been looking to switch companies anyway, as things were not looking good with the company he was with, and it turns out he was right. They've been laying people off left and right there.. but, timing could have been better. He's been putting in applications left and right, and even had an interview this past week, so we're just waiting to hear back. It shouldn't be too long, but I'd certainly like it to be over with. :) I've got things to do and we have bills to pay. At least we have a very well stocked pantry and freezers so we have more then enough food storage. We've also got 2 great little pommies in dog foster right now. We picked them up about 4 weeks ago. Older pair, mother and son, 10 and 7 years old. Their owners passed away and the daughter had come in from out of state to take care of things and wasn't able to find them a home before she had to leave. So we took them in. I have to say, i am so very tempted to keep them myself.. lol.. but we already have 3 of our own, and our max is suppose to be 4... They were very overweight, the owner fed them "table scraps" almost exclusively, so it took a while to get them to adjust to kibble, but Emily is doing great and has already lost weight. She LOVES going on walks with Tom and just prances on leash. Petey is also a little chubby ball of love. He is very shy and stand offish and was VERY dependent on his momma the first week or so he was here, wouldn't go anywhere unless she went first.. He's now started to come around and he is just the sweetest little boy. He reminds us a LOT of our first pommie, Pepe. Both have been good with the 4 year old grand daughter, Emily especially. Petey takes some time to get use to people, but he does come around. Their previous owner did have them de-barked, which is rather sad. Makes them quiet, but that made it hard to hear them the first few days when they wanted out (they have since figured out the dog door..) So that's about where things are at this point. Crazy as usual. Hoping for news on the job front early this next week. Monday we will be running around getting M enrolled in school and hopefully get all that sorted. So, how has your month gone? :)

Home Inspection done!

Yesterday we had our inspection for foster care. I, of course, had spent the prior week getting the house as clean and tidy as I possibly could. Not the biggest concern in the inspection, but, it was something that everyone always does in the midst of the "will they think I'm good enough" panic. We passed with flying colors! We do need to build some steps under the basement windows to make them easier to access in an emergency but that will be easily done next week after Tom gets back. So I think we are set. Just have to wait for paperwork to clear, mostly Bree's dual state background check, and we will be off and running. Meanwhile, now we can start messing up the place again and get all of Mattie's stuff ready for girl's camp in 2 weeks. And maybe pick up another foster dog. I'm so very excited about things though. woohoo! :)

Crazy, Crazy..

Ok, noticed I've _really_ let this blog fall behind.. oops.. I swear it's been for a good reason.. more or less anyway.. In February we went in and signed up to start the process for foster care. Our plan is to eventually adopt via the foster care system. So please keep your fingers crossed for us there.. Anyway, we had some classes, lots of paperwork, background checks, more classes, etc.. and now we have our home inspection scheduled for July 10. That is the last thing we need before we can get a placement. So I will be busy this next week doing some cleaning and such to make sure the house is ready for that. We've also been fostering dogs still. That has been fun. I think last time I posted we had Ollie, or had just gotten him adopted out. We've had a few since then. We had Benji for nearly 2 months. He was a pappillon mix with a few health problems so it took a while to find him a good home. Then we got another peppy, Lucky. Didn't have him very long, only a week or two. Then we got Gifford. He was an older pommie that we only had for 2 days. If we'd had him longer, he might not have left.. lol he was a great dog. Then we had Jyll for all of 2 days before I had to send her back, she and Kikkoman just did NOT get along at all. Then we got Fuzzy. She just got adopted yesterday. She was another little pommie, only a year old though she behaved like a 6 -8 month old. Not her fault though, she spent her entire life inside a breeder's cage and had already had a litter herself. But she's got a great home now and should do well. Right now we are foster doggie free so I can concentrate on getting the house ready for inspection. The girls are up for the summer now. Bree's been here almost a month already and found a job. She's doing concrete finishing work. Keeps her busy but it pays well. Mattie is mostly doing computer art work with her time since she got up about 2 weeks ago, though this weekend she's over a Bailey's babysitting her niece. Progress has been made on our bed/bath remodel. Not as much as we might have liked, but it is coming along. We've got my closet in and, more to the yay, the tub is in!!! next we need to get the flooring in the bathroom area and then tear out the other closet and bedroom flooring so we can redo those, and build the bathroom cabinets. I think that's the "big" updates for what all has gone on in the last few months.

February updates

Well, lots have happened in the last few months. We have enjoyed doing doggie fostering. We have fostered 3 little boys so far, and wound up keeping one of them. The second little guy is a pommie (mix?? no one knows..) who had suffered abuse from his several past owners. He'd been sent to the pound twice. He had a lot of trust and behavioral problems, but you could tell that he really wanted to be a good boy, he just didn't know how. We've been working with him the last 2 months and he is already showing wonderful improvements, so, yay!
Christmas came and went. The girls were here and we all had a good time. I think they enjoyed their time here and the gifts they got this year.
And our big news is that we have decided to work with the state and are going to go through the foster to adopt system. We went to our first orientation meeting last week, and today we turned in the first round of paperwork, background information, and got our fingerprints taken, so now we start the first round of waiting. So glad to be finally moving forward on this. yay!

New additions..

And Now for an update from the ever so thrilling lives of Davina and co...
There have been some new additions to the family. My younger brother and his wife welcomed their 4th child, and first son into their home last month. yay, they finally got their boy. They named him after our father who passed away in 2003 and only ever got to meet my brother's oldest daughter and my step son.
And closer to home, we decided to do some fostering. We are fostering dogs. We got our first one in November. His name is Baxter, he's a mix of maybe 300 different terriers. He's a very sweet little boy, some minor separation anxiety but that has eased up a great deal already. He is a very people oriented boy though. And very much a terrier. Oh and only about a year old, so add "puppy" into that. lol
And today I brought home an approximately 4 yr old pom or pom mix. no one is quite sure. he looks full pom to me, but he's bigger then most, so he could be mixed with something that looks similar but is a bit bigger.. but my mom had one about this size that was full pom, so who really knows.. he's been here just over an hour now, and so far they are all getting along fairly well. Baxter is the main one following him around and likely the main one that might get into trouble with him since they both want attention and play time all the time, but, tomorrow I will theoretically have others in the house, and Monday for sure, for a few weeks so that will help. And even more hopefully, Baxter has started going to adoption clinics and he is sure to find a home fairly quickly, which is exactly what he needs.
But right now, I need to go bathe a dog and probably do some laundry or dishes or something, and certainly need to dig through recipes in preperation for the Christmas invasion.. Bree gets in tomorrow, Tom on Monday, and Mattie next Saturday and then just about everyone will be here. Except, of course, Dakota and that's only cuz no one knows where he's gone to and he's not talking to anyone these days. Silly boy.. ah well. On to bath time!

dang time sneaks up...

and I get busy and forget to take time to update this.. I've spent the last few months off and on busy, some at work, but mostly canning! I've bottled all sorts of things. I've pickled potatoes, turnips, beets and carrots. I've bottled carrots and apple pie filling and applesauce and beef broth. I've even bottled french fries! And I've been playing with some other gluten free recipes.
I've tried making naan bread for hubby, though so far we haven't found a recipe that works for him yet and is gluten free for me. I have got cheese crackers figured out well though, I can't seem to make them fast enough to keep up with hubby eating them! We're hoping to try a few more recipes this weekend. Maybe even the long awaited pretzels.
And I've been trying to get a blanket done for my new nephew, who should be born any week now..
A while back I let hubby convince me to go to a salon and got my hair cut and highlighted. It looks very nice, but I still cringe at the cost of it. I'm just too darn frugal.
I'm finally fairly recovered from Gobo's loss. I still have moments, but I'm not a complete basket case and don't burst in to tears at the thought. I'm toying with the idea of fostering dogs for one of the local rescues, but haven't decided for sure yet.
I have had a bit of a set back health wise, but we're pretty sure it's ok, just part of the normal process of making such 'drastic' changes to my diet and getting all the gluten out. Lots of long term things to get resorted and balanced back out. I have been very tired and just unenergetic for the last month or so, but this week I seem to be finally improving some. Sadly, that was just in time for a head cold.. *sigh* but there we are. lol
Adoption is still in holding pattern. Hubby's dr appt is taking forever since he's going through the VA. He finally got his first intro appt this month, but now we have to wait til next month for his actual appt with the doctor. Still hoping I can manage to get everything turned in by the end of the year though. That will be so nice to finally have done.
And we've made some progress with the remodel! Hurray! Not as much as we'd have liked, but money has just been too tight this year. But, we have gotten the closet completely walled in. I just need to caulk the corners and do some painting, and I can start getting the closet set up. Still need to do the flooring in there and get the bathroom itself done. We're hoping to get the drywall around the tub up before hubby goes back up this time.
Girls will be here for Christmas this year and we've got their tickets ready to go. Bree will get an entire extra week this time, which will be nice. Thanksgiving will be quiet this year though. No one will be here but me.. Bailey and her family will be doing stuff with her grandparents and aunt, so I get to have a quiet day of not much. Will still do some cooking, but not the whole shebang.. save that for Christmas. This will be our first major holiday since I've gone gluten free and I've got to make sure everyone is happy with the food so they can better understand that we don't have to miss out on anything even with my new diet. I don't think I'm missing out on much (cept maybe the convenience of lazy food.. and travel food.. travel food is hard.. eating out is ok, but limited here in Alaska..) and they need to feel that way too.
So, that's my update for now. Hopefully I won't get so behind again for a while.. :)

Gobo Update

My poor little boy didn't have as much time as any of us hoped he would. Sunday, July 31, 2011, Gobo passed away. He'd basically stopped eating Friday and wasn't drinking much on Saturday. He sat and stared at the wall for a bit and was very lethargic. I honestly didn't expect him to make it through the night, so was very happy when I got up Sunday morning and he was awake and alert. He followed me around most of the morning and early afternoon. I thought maybe he'd gotten a bit of energy from somewhere, but he still refused to eat or drink anything.
Then, shortly after 3 PM (I'd just texted with my husband to let him know Gobo was still hanging on...) his legs gave out on him. Based on how things had gone with Rocky 4 years ago, I thought we had a few more hours. I wrapped him up in a towel and his blanket so I could hold him for a while and he went limp on me but was still breathing; then he started coughing. I thought maybe he needed to stretch out more so I moved him onto the couch and he just kept coughing up blood for a minute or two; still had no control over his muscles, he was completely limp. He finally quieted down and then he just stopped breathing. He was gone. From the time his legs gave out to when he was gone, was about 15 minutes. 3:20 and he was gone.
He'd been my baby for 4 years and I've been completely devastated by his sudden loss. The girls were out camping with their sister and brother in law that weekend, and Hubby was still away at work far off up on the slope. I miss him and want him back. I had to put this post off until now because I just couldn't handle writing it. Honestly, I can barely handle it now. I still cry sometimes and keep calling the other dogs by his name. We've lost other dogs before, but his hit me hard.

Gobo

This past weekend my little baby, Gobo, was sick. he seemed constipated and eventually decided he really didn't want to eat. When we did get him to eat, he'd eventually just throw everything back up. So yesterday he and I went to see the vet. I was hoping they'd find a blockage or something that could easily be "fixed" though deep down, I suspected something more. We spent 3 hours there yesterday while they ran blood tests and tried to collect a urine sample to test that. Unfortunately, we got our answer. My poor little boy is dealing with kidney failure. He was born with several obvious birth defects and we always kind of wondered if there might not be some internal issues he'd eventually have to deal with as well. We never expected this, at least not his soon. He is 4.5 years old, barely out of puppyhood and kidney failure this severe and sudden is very uncommon for one so young. Because things have already progressed as far as they have, and as sudden as this all was (he really didn't seem at all sick or have any sudden changes in habits until this past weekend, though he has lost nearly 3 pounds since last year's visit..) there really isn't much we can do for him except wait and try to keep him comfortable. He has managed to keep some food down since yesterday, so that is good.
At this point we are just hoping that he can do ok and keep going for another 2 weeks at least. Tom would really like the chance to get to say good bye. The last 2 dogs we had that passed, both went while he was away and very suddenly. This time we at least have warning and can prepare, though that just means my grief has already started to set in. They figure he probably has a few weeks, maybe even a few months. Any treatment we could do would be very expensive and, even then, maybe only give him an extra month or two, if it did anything at all.
I really do wish there were more we cold do for him, but at this point, there just isn't. The numbers from his tests were insanely high, several were well beyond the parameters, they were literally off the charts.
I'm loosing my baby and it's tearing me to pieces..