Electricity

We moved into our friend's empty house at the beginning of the month. Things have been going pretty well. We have dealt with one toilet for 5 of us. (not counting 2 in diapers).
Ugh! Last night around 6:30, Aaron had just gotten home with Madelyn from B-ball practice.
And the lights went out. It was pouring rain, but not storming. Seth freaked out because he happened to be in a room alone when it happened.
Aaron quickly figured out that it was a problem with the fuse box. The breaker box was running, but the fuse box wasn't.
So I called Mom to see if we could bring the kids over, since they were running around in the dark, getting in the way, and Aaron and I were irritated.
We took the kids to Mom's, Aaron grabbed the large fuses he thought might be the problem and we drove 25 min to Lowes to find new fuses. They had every one but the size we needed. So we drove to Home Depot. Same thing, every fuse known to man, but there was one little space empty - the one we needed. So we drove back to town, got sleeping bags and blankets, emptyed our fridge and freezer into baskets ( I had just stocked it at walmart that morning), and carried it all to our empty "No water" house. Because at least our "no water" house had lights, unlike our "no electricity" house that had water.
What a nightmare our housing situation is!!!!!
I want to cry, but what is the point?
Aaron and I drove separate cars to the "no water " house last night, so he could drive straight to work. Mom had to work this morning, so after packing some food that didn't have to be cooked from our '"no water" house to take to the "no electricity" house so we could eat.
Add to this, that our van is making bad noises and I am afraid to drive it. But it is the only vehicle that we all fit in. Our mechanic is closed until Jan. 2.
So this morning, I picked up the boys and Madelyn and Mom brought Natalie and Hannah over on her way to work.
I called an electrician we used to go to church with. He came over about an hour later and was able to diagnose the problem quickly and fix it with the flip of a switch. He didn't even charge us, so that was a blessing.
Apparently, we flipped a breaker with our fuse box. So confusing.
So, now 95% of my food is at the "no water" house in the fridge, but I can't go get it because I can't fit all the kids in the working car I have.
Aaron normally stops by our "no water" house to feed the pets on the way home. When he does that he normally gets home between 5-5:30. But tonight, Natalie and Hannah have practice at 5. But I can't take them - again - van broke, until Aaron gets home. So I will probably just tell him to come straight home. Then one of us can take the girls to practice, while the other one drives out to the "no water" house with the other 3 and pick our food back up and bring it back here.
By the way HAPPY 14th ANNIVERSARY to us today.
Aaron left me the sweetest note this morning. On a paper plate, because we were at our "no water" house without supplies. I will say this... I would rather have all these housing problems with my Aaron than to be without him or with someone else. Any day!

Oh the pain!!!

For the past few weeks the left side of my mouth had been aching. I was past due for a dental cleaning and figured I had another cavity so I got an appt. last Wed. I did have a small cavity on the left side, but the real problem is that one of the teeth I had crowned last year now needs a root canal. After much tapping to figure out which tooth was the problem I went home.

Starting that night I got stopped up and felt like I was starting a full blown sinus infection.

Then my side my mouth gradually hurt more and more, until Sunday afternoon, I had to pull out some leftover pain medicine from the last root canal.

Monday afternoon, I was scheduled to fix the small cavity ( I have to go to an Endodontist for the root canal).

Mom was planning on taking the kids to B ball practice and I was planning on driving to the dentist 40 min. away. Well, by noon, i was in so much pain I called Aaron to beg him to come home so he could take the kids to Bball practice, Mom could drive me to the dentist, and I could take a few more pain pills. ( I refuse to take them and drive)

So that is how it went down. I rode to the dentist with an ice pack on my face, still in severe pain. He was so nice to numb not only the cavity he was fixing, but gave me an extra shot up top so I could have some relief from the root canal tooth. He thinks the sinus infection was putting pressure on the tooth and causing the pain, so he wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic and more pain pills.

Yesterday was so bad, Aaron called into work and I pretty much sat around doped up on pain medication, still in pain, with an ice pack to my face. Awful!

Finally, this afternoon, all I have is a throbbing instead of a stabbing, pain. And I can finally lie down...

I have had to sleep sitting straight up on the couch the past two nights. Tonight I am going back to my bed. I am so happy to be almost pain free!!!!

And we should be getting a new camera soon. We never found the old one. Probably will find it if we move some day. So, when we get our new camera, I will post some pictures!

Contentment

What can be learned from us not having water?
I don't know if I have the answer, but I keep having this feeling that God put us here, without water, for a reason. I at least know that God is aware of it.
My attitude has been so crazy. For a while when our water dwindled, I was ok because I love it here. Then when we decided to sell, I had to make myself hate this place in order to sell it. Which brought with it a stinky attitude.
Well, now that we have hade the house on the market for months and no offers, perhaps God expects me to be content.

Phil 4
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
(with city water and without)

So, when it drives extended family nuts that we don't have water, I can be content. Sometimes it seems like it bothers them more than it bothers me. And really, it is so far from being the worst thing in the world.
Right now, I am content. I can't predict the future and what will go down with our house.
Will we get water in 6 months like we were told a few weeks ago by a county commissioner?
Will something else hold up the project?
Will we sell the house and move into our friends house?
Will we sell the house and immediately find one that we can buy that can better suit our needs?
Will we Not sell the house and get city water and be able to build on here and stay?
Will we get city water and then sell our house for more?
I HATE being in limbo. Bad thing is, I can do nothing to answer any of these questions. They are all out of my control. So I am learning to be content. Right now, where we are.
And also building up some pretty strong arm muscles from carrying jugs/pots of water in and our of the house.

Still haven't found our camera. Seems like each day there is something I want to take a picture of and can't. I really want to find ours rather than go out and buy another.
Not much going on. The boys both go over their fevers.
No one else caught them.
I was supposed to take a math test at work yesterday. On my calendar I had it down as Nov. 1st 10am. I had left Natalie and Ethan at Mom's to spend the night trick or treating Monday night and took Madelyn, Hannah, and Seth home with me Monday night.
My plans were to go to Mom's about 9am, take a shower and leave the kids there while I ran over and took the test real quick.
At 8:30, I had not taken a shower and Madelyn and Seth were still asleep. I thought I should call work to make sure they were still doing it. I hadn't worked in about a month and sometimes things get cancelled and I wouldn't know.
So I call the pharmacist and ask if they are still doing the test. He says "Yes, at 9am" WHAT!!
Here I was 15 min. away, 8:30am, no shower, and two kids still asleep.
I ran and woke the kids up. Completely changed Seth's clothes because he had peed through everything, and took off for Mom's. Thankfully, I had washed my hair late in the afternoon on Monday, so it wasn't Horribly greasy yet, just a little.
And I made it to work by 9:02. Pretty good. Got there before they started the test.
They called again at 5am wanting me to work today.
I am working 12 hours tomorrow and Saturday. I have to get my mindset on "work mode" it is all mental. Since we are ahead in school days, I can take off some days and get some work in.

Fall, Fevers, and Where is my camera?

I love fall. It is getting so pretty driving down our road to our house. Almost the whole 2 mile gravel road we drive down is surrounded by trees. I am also loving the cooler weather.
I had to miss church services yesterday. Seth had a fever around 101 on Saturday night, so we knew he was staying home. We decided Ethan would stay too, since there is no sense in wrestling with him if you don't have to.
Thankfully we did because about 30 min. after he woke up his temp was around 101.5.
Seth woke up at 8:30, after everyone had left for church. He could hardly walk straight and his temp was 103.8. So I stripped him down to a diaper, gave him some ibuprofen and held him on the couch for an hour while it went down to a more tolerable level. He would cry every time I tried to put him down.
Ethan was walking around eating crackers while the ibuprofen was working on him. He finally got jealous of me holding Seth, so it was 2 whiny babies.
I finally had to take a bathroom break and just let Seth cry while I went. I had so many dishes that needed to be washed at Mom's that it ended up taking me about 6 trips in and out of the house to get them all into the van.
Since both boys fevers were now down enough I felt more comfortable, I took them to the van, turned it on and took the many trips to get all the dishes loaded up. Then we drove over to Mom's who was also home. I was able to get the dishes in, but had to sit there and hold Seth even though his temp was down, he was still very clingy. Finally, he fell asleep for about an hour and I was able to lie him on the couch and wash dishes. Ethan had fallen asleep on the way over and I put him straight in the crib.
I had taken our leftovers to Mom's so Aaron called and I told him where we were. He came straight over and we all ate there, then he took the boys and Natalie home. While I went to our weekly store run.
Seth slept almost all afternoon. I was afraid he would wake up with a really high fever. It was after 4pm and his medicine wore off at 2:30pm. But we were so blessed because he woke up cool and had completely done a 180. You wouldn't even have known he had been sick just hours before.
Ethan, however, woke up with a fever of 104.1. So same thing with him, stripped him down and gave him the ibuprofen and he then had to be held by someone all afternoon. pretty much until he went to bed. I am praying he wakes up this morning cool also. Those crazy kid viruses.
Oh and we lost our camera. I keep looking for it, but no luck yet. Very depressing. A lady from church took a picture of all our kids in their costumes and is printing us copies. Hope we find it soon. There is no telling where it is.
We were planning on moving our beds to the other house, but we went over there Saturday, and the heat wouldn't turn on. Not sure what we will end up doing. So hard to make decisions when you don't know the future!
I think I will let the kids wear their costumes again and go trick or treating at Mom's apartments tonight (they are apartments for senior citizens). Then our homeschool coop church is having a trunk or treat and I think I will take them there.

Soccer is Over!

I am so glad that soccer season is over. What a relief! I love watching the kids play, but every year by the end of the season, I am so ready for it to be over. All three girls had games last night. I think there may still be a few pizza/ice cream parties to go to.
Let me tell you, soccer was a chore. especially with the boys. Now the boys acted real good, but you arrive at the soccer fields. Then you pull out both umbrella strollers (the only ones that fit in the car), put the boys in. Hang purses, diaperbags, coats, blankets, etc. on the stollers then grab the folding chairs, water bottles for everyone, then lug them all to the end of the trail where the soccer games are. Watch Hannah's game first, then pack everything up and push/lug it over to the big soccer field for Madelyn's game, then after that is over, push/lug it over to the smaller field again for Natalie's game. Then finally back to the car where it takes you so long to pack everyone back in and get them buckled that the lights are out in the parking lot and you are the last one there.
Madelyn and Natalie are thinking about playing basketball. At least in this sport there are bleachers and that eliminates carrying in chairs.
We still haven't moved into the new house. We have been soooo busy since Aaron got home.
When Aaron got back to work Saturday, the Montero wouldn't start. So we had to get it towed to be fixed. New starter.
Sunday between morning and evening church services, we had an activity for the girls for their age group. Monday night we had 3 soccer games. Tuesday night we had 3 soccer games. Tonight is church services. Maybe Tomorrow night we can work on it.
Mom is off for the next 9 days and that will help. She can probably watch the kids for a while so we can pack up and move big things.
Good news..we had someone look at our present house yesterday. I hope and pray they make an offer. The realtors said these people were looking for a camping spot and even brought their camper with them yesterday. That is exciting if they don't need or want the house as a primary residence. This would be the perfect spot to camp. (still having a little trouble letting go, but I am getting a little better.) It would truly help a lot financially to go ahead and sell this place, move to our friends house and have time to decide where to go next. And in the meantime not be paying a mortgage on a house we aren't living in.

Aaron's coming home today!!!!!

24 long days without my Aaron. Let me tell you, it has not been the easiest 24 days. Whew! About day 15, the girls and I got the stomach virus. Then Natalie with the throat infection. So glad he will be here this afternoon!
I don't like to blog about him being gone until after he comes home. But he went to TX for a fire detail, bulldozing fire lines for the first 16 days he was gone. Then he headed straight to another town in TX for a fire class that he had signed up for a long time ago. Now he is about 4 hours from home.
We are getting ready to go to Mom's and take showers. I already have the kids in the car, but am now waiting for a welcome home cake to finish cooking. Once I get it out, we will be off to Mom's.
They have called me at 5 am the last two mornings to see if I would come to work. Unfortunately I can't, and I have only worked one 12 hour shift while Aaron was gone. Hopefully I will make it up soon and work. I signed up to work both Thanksgiving 12 hours and New Years Eve 12 hours. They wanted me to work part of Christmas, but since it is a Sunday AND the first Christmas with the boys, I declined.