Our Handful of Children

Hunter, William, and Wyatt

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Proof of the mire... the OX was missing for the photo shoot

So if you have been following my blog or a friend of mine on Facebook you have heard that things are a bit "messy" at our house. My sister wanted pictures and origanally I thought that I did not want to remember these wonderful moments but as I watch the mess get messier and messier I figure I needed to prove that "YES THIS IS AWFUL AND I CAN PROVE IT!" so here is a little glimps of a tiny bit of the mess at the Woodin Nickel...

the "HOLE" a tree was planted exactly on top of our septic tank... the roots literally just broke and tore up the LID to the tank. We have to make a new lid before we can continue with our project. The beautiful Yellow badger in the background made it possible to dig out the stump and the hole that you see here. We are so greatful to Rusty for letting us borrow it and to Mike for helping us run it!
this is the tree about and hour before it was brought all the way to the ground. We decided that we should cut off all of the limbs one by one so as not to have the tree fall and break our house or our fence. You can see Jon is strapped to the tree with his Hunting Tree Stand Harness. His Hunting Habit did pay off a little bit. Jon lopped of the top of the tree not too long after this picture and then Jim came over with his chain saw and and dropped the trunk of the tree for us without breaking anything else. Then we cut it up and hauled it to a big pile for a big bon fire to be held at a later date...

Monday, April 26, 2010

Get out of the mire!

April 26 2010 If the blasted Ox would just get out of the mire we might be able to clean this mess up!!!!

Yes septic problems continue to rule the roost. While nothing has entered into the house again we have been searching for our septic tanks…note the plural form of the word tank. Jon spent much time digging and yelling for me to run around and flush everything so as to perhaps hear the elusive tank. We borrowed a little bobcat backhoe from our neighbor and finally found a pipe line. Jon and our neighbor Mike dug and dug and dug. Finally after much toil and questionable language emitting from the mouth of the EQP not to mention Rain, Jon found the tank. And in doing so Ripped a good size hole out of it…and broke the pipe to the drain field…oops. Guess where the elusive tank was buried….Right under a HUGE pine tree. What idiot planted a tree directly on top of the tank!?!?! The weight of the huge tree…any guesses as to why it was so huge and healthy?… Was crushing the tank. So now in order to fix.. Ahem… replace the smashed tank requires a chainsaw before the project can continue. I have been band from using my Bathroom and am now required to descend to the basement for all bathroom activities. (I refuse to use the bathroom on the main floor. While we are thankful for Hunter’s potty training success he is still a very poor aim) When the huge tree is cut down and removed we shall have a very big bonfire and you are all invited to bring your own hotdogs and roasting sticks…and a shovel. Then we will be able to finish digging out the crushed like a tin can tank… and then somehow we plan on dragging it out of the hole and putting a new tank in the said hole, next we will have to replace the drain field pipe which was ripped in half courtesy of Jon and then we will fill in the hole with some “roughed up dirt” It was earth day this last week I feel a need to plant a tree. I have a good idea where I will NOT plant one. However, some grass seed is now on my shopping list for this next week.
In other news Wyatt has sprouted two new teeth. Pictures on my blog show his smile with just the two opposite teeth. I called him my Hillbilly baby for two weeks but now his Tennessee Teeth are beginning to even out and he looks less and less like he in two tacos short of a combination plate. Wyatt is also a bit of a inch worm and is moving around the floor little bits at a time he is also developed a great love for tearing up paper and has got to a few books and magazines that now are a bit rumpled and chewed on. I do not have much longer before I am truly in trouble with the messes Wyatt will make.
Erica has NOT been doing well in school since Spring break. After three weeks of falling test scores her teacher called me in and we met with the principal and discussed her grades and behaviors. The end result is we are going to have her repeat Kindergarten this next school year. This will put her in the same class as Elena and Caleb, but Lyndsay, Wesley, Andrew and Mckay will be ahead of her. Which is fine. I think if I tried to push her forward into first grade I would be setting her up to fail.
This week we added 28 laying hens to our menagerie of pets at the Woodin Nickel. The birds were up in Howe Idaho and the boy who had them wanted to start some new chicks. His dad told him he had to sell some of his full grown birds to make room for the new chicks. He Sold us the birds for $2.50 a bird! There were many many people who wanted to buy the birds for that price but nobody wanted to drive clear out to Howe Idaho to get them. Kind of like no one wants to drive clear out to Kimama. But Jon woke the boys up early on Saturday and they Borrowed Fred’s truck with the camper shell and drove the two hours out there and picked up the birds and brought them home… Anybody want to buy some farm fresh eggs. I’ll make you a deal!
Speaking of deals If anyone wants a few Tomato, Pepper, or Cucumber plants from my green house Let me know and I’ll make you a deal on those as well. I might sell some flowers too but I am not sure how many of those I’m willing to let go. And Fred has got A LOT of Cabbage starts in the green house as well. If you talk to him I’m sure that he might let you get a few or half a dozen from him.
I have continued to Lose Marbles but I am getting better at keeping them in my marble jar and My children are getting a bit better at keep a hold of their Marbles as well. In the end if the Marble jars work I may not Lose my marbles.
Hunters speech evaluation was: HE qualifies for any and all Speech therapy. The question now is what program do we try to get him into. OF late though he is adding about a word a day and really trying to make the sounds. HE came running into the house the other day and very clearly said “Will on Road!” And sure enough William had escaped and was out on the road AGAIN!!! Just hanging out on the road AGAIN!!! That Boy of late will hang out by the door waiting for an opportunity to escape OUT to the great outdoors. He reminds me of how the Cat waits on the other side of the door waiting for a chance to come IN!
I don’t Know if I mentioned in Past letters that Stiles Achieved and was awarded he WOLF in the scouting program. HE was also awarded 3 arrow points. Most of which he earned courtesy of living here on the Woodin Nickel. This home has been such a blessing to us in so many ways. The biggest is that it is given us many opportunities to teach our children about hard work and responsibility. I hope Marcus can start “LEARNING” those lessons soon. HE likes to hide when it is time to work. Reminds me a bit of Crystal. Anyway… I think that for the most part you are up to date on the majority of the goings on of the Woodin Nickel. I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with even if it feels like the OX is ALWAYS in the Mire. One day all of my Little OX’s will grow up and move away and take their mire with them but then I have this funny feeling that they will bring their own little bits of mire back home with them. But I’ll just try to clean it up…like always…hey were is a washcloth and about a gallon of disinfectant?

Love Monica and the “HERD” Wallowing at the Woodin Nickel.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Hillbilly BABY

Wyatt Loves to be in his Jump Up Johnny. WE caught him catching some ZZZ's.


the pine wood derby was a blast. Stiles Won in the wolf division for our pack. But I was too dumb to make sure that I had a camera. These pictures are at the District run off derby. He did not make it to the semifinals but gave the other cars in his heat a definite run for their spots.

My Hillbilly Baby Wyatt. The two opposite teeth came in first and now the other ones are pushing through. I thought I had better capture My Wyatt with his Hillbilly smile because in another month it will be gone.







Monday, April 12, 2010

I've Lost my marbles

MJ and all you other beloved people. Jon and I have decided that our “NEW AWESOME” Computer is somehow crappy. Meaning it just doesn’t work right. We have called the store from which we parted with greenbacks for the said hunk of junk and they are willing to exchange computers with us. Something in the Way cool new processor is simply not processing the information well, fast, or in the right order. I am not happy with Intel right now and am writing this on my old laptop with the broken H and K key which means that I have to go back and carefully fix all of my Errors. But I do feel better that perhaps the reason I was HATING our New computer was not my fault. We shall see if we like the computer better after the exchange is made.
Wyatt is a wiggly worm and manages to move about slowly and with little efficiency. He has cut one bottom tooth and one top tooth and is working on the other top tooth. This has made nursing painful and NOT desirable. We are planning on being totally weaned by the end of May. So Jon and I introduced Marble Jars. In which each person in the family has a jar with a certain Amount of Marbles. Marbles are taken away when a person decideds to yell in anger, throw a tantrum or refuse to be obedient. Rewards are given for having a large remainder or marbles at the end of the week, a reduction in privileges is given for no longer having marbles. We started Saturday and will start over next Saturday. I have already lost Most of my Marbles. I am in trouble. If Mom or Dad lose all of their Marbles in a week the kids get extra marbles. I hope to not lose my marbles.
The green house is full of green plants. The Gardens have been roto-tilled and the Chickens and Ducks are growing like crazy. I see brown grass turning greener every day and the tulips and daffodils are coming up all over. I also am aware of the weeds trying to take over again this year. Maybe we will win that war this year…or maybe it will end up in a draw.
I spent most of the last two weeks cleaning my Carpets. They look SOOO Much better. I just wish I had a bunch of money to spend on Paint and the like so that the room scould all look super awesome. But do not be dismayed. William already spread into the white carpet Chocolate pudding the day after I relinquished the rug doctor into Camille’s hands. So do not feel bad if your carpets have a spot or two. My newly cleaned carpets now match yours once again.
Well I am sure that many other noteworthy things happened this week but Wyatt is crying and it is lunch time and I soon will be conducting a scout meeting here at my home. So I will end with a far off hug and kiss and hopefully new great news next week. Work Hard MJ. And Kudos to Cody. You go girl. Taking care of Babies is HARD WORK. Believe me I KNOW! And Good Luck SARA. Hope your last little bit being a “baby house” is as pleasant as being totally miserable can be.

Love Monica

Monday, April 5, 2010

the mire gets deeper

Dear MJ. Last you heard there was an Ox in the Mire…or rather A LOT of mire in my basement shower. So the story just keeps getting better…they always do right. Jon gets a hold of Bro. Jim Sant from our ward and Jim comes over and after a series of rescue maneuvers manages to move on through what ever it was that was Stuck in the line. Great now I have a big job involving much disinfectant but as high fives were going all around for the cleared sewer line we noticed a pond developing in the side yard. We were pretty certain that our Water hydrant had rusted out and we needed to dig it up and replace it … This would mark the 3rd one that we have replaced since we moved in. Well in order to proceed the Water had to be shut off. So the cleaning of the poopy bathroom was shelved as Jon and I grabbed shovels and started digging a hole to China…a rocky hole to China. There is a lot of rock in the ground this close to the river bed and gravel pit…go figure. After much digging a many bad examples in language and with the help of some of the neighbors we finally won the battle late in the 11th hour, and were able to turn the water back on. We took much needed showers and proceeded to ignore the mire still in the basement then went to bed. We recognized instantly that our Water pressure (which we have always grumbled about the lack thereof) had not just doubled but perhaps tripled in strength. We were fearful in that first shower that we would be thrown through the shower wall, the impact tore off our skin and we were no longer standing in the rain trying to get wet.
The mire in the basement did eventually get cleaned up and much bleach and disinfectant was used and some towels were indeed ruined. But the bathroom is quit shiny and clean now and all of the spiders were obliged to move out. Because of the mire and its far reaching effects to the carpet in the basement I felt that it would be a very good idea to borrow Mom’s rug doctor and do a little extra heavy duty spring cleaning to my basement carpets. Mom let me cart her vacuum home after a brief trip to the farm during our kids spring break. I spent most of last week moving furniture and cleaning the carpets in my house while my big kids are at school, I am very pleased with the results and was feeling extra pleased with the appearance of my home. Then Easter came and went and after I scrubbed out numerous jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, and robin eggs, not to mention hard boiled egg, I am wishing I had waited one more week before I spent so much time cleaning my carpets. The dumb part is that the rooms that I have not yet cleaned were left unscathed and no candy was ground into the carpets in THOSE rooms. Oh well something about Murphy and his dumb law…
We had spring break and as part of that we Participated in the Spring Fair in the Holt Arena. We spent most of the first part of the week preparing to have our booth ready for the show and the end of the week standing in the Holt Arena trying to sell our wares to the passing homeowner. Camille was a sweet heart and helped take care of our kids. And Jon has been a busy man ever since trying to follow up and give bids trying to generate some jobs for us. So far the Spring Fair has been helpful in putting us in contact with people who want some work done.
Hunter is joining the ranks of the potty trained. This last week something finally clicked and I told him that if he did pee in the potty he could wear underwear and if he had an accident then I would have to put him back in a diaper. Well he really really wanted to wear underwear and we are on day 4 with no accidents and he is the informing us of his need to go. I am so happy and do a dance every time he comes back out of the bathroom. Hunter is pleased too and is always grinning from ear to ear. We are still diapering at night but I don’t think we will have to do that for too long. He hates for us to put the diaper on at bedtime.
We really loved conference and Easter was very pleasant. I came away from conference with a new found desire to be a better Mom and Daughter and Disciple of Christ. I hope to be a good example and tell the “Stories of Jesus” to my children so that they will Know those stories and not doubt. I was very pleased today to hear Stiles Quote the story about being a used up $20.00 bill and still worth $20.00. I really didn’t think that he was listening but apparently he was. My children never cease to amaze me!
Well many more things have happened but I am totally tuckered out and want to go to bed.
Love you all, Monica