Happy June!

Bob started his new job today. Ha! Sorry for those who we have not yet informed of this change. He has a temporary "high-speed" secretary job at the Forest Service Supervisors Office. He has it now as a "detail," but if they like him and no one that is vastly more qualified applies in a couple of months, he'll likely fill the position. It's year-round, 8-4:30, and cuts at least 40 minutes off his commute. He has weekends off, and no chance of overtime. Plus it's a pay-grade higher, possibly two. Bob would very much like to keep this position, so those of our friends who pray, please do so! It would mean we could make plans and be likely to keep them, go camping, not have to have a summer of being apart, etc. So that's exciting.
Also, I have more pictures of Odessa from her last photo shoot.
yellow sun dress
pink sun top
warm dress
rose dress
eyelet dress
pink hat

birthday

I had a fantastic birthday yesterday. Bob surprised me for the first time in our marriage! We have a hard time not telling each other everything, so to surprise each other is a big deal. He got up and got ready for work like usual, put on work clothes and packed a lunch and headed out. He came back about two hours later with a hair cut, my errands run and presents wrapped and in hand. He had taken the day off! It was definitely a part atmosphere after that. The girls wondered where the cake was, though. We’ll probably do that today. We still haven’t done a cake for Odessa, so we’ll do a double.

The rest of the day was great, too. Bob took the girls with him to Costco to do my grocery shopping and dropped me off at the mall. Then we took the girls to a friend’s house and went out for Italian. What a great evening! I didn’t have to cook for the girls first before going out. He thinks of everything.

Today it’s back to life as usual, but after a great day like that, it’s not disappointing.

Odessa is holding my hands and taking steps now, those huge, careful steps babies do at first, so cute.

Lily told me a story the other day. She said, “When I had a bad dream, there was fire in Odessa’s tummy and it came out her nose so I told Dad to take her back to the store and get a regular baby. We named her Odessa.” Maybe we should lay off reading “Saint George and the Dragon” for a while.

Well, it’s 8:30 AM and I haven’t changed Odessa’s diaper yet, so I guess I should do that.

a few pics

Well, when I wrote the last post, I thought the worst was over. Maybe it was, but it didn't get better just then. I got the flu right after that and Bob was out of town. And the car died. Fortunately, we have a great church family here--a friend came and jumped the car, someone brought me soup one day and another friend came over Thursday and helped with the kids and dishes, which was essential at that point because I couldn't leave the bathroom. But just then, Bob came home and had worked four ten hour days, so he had a three-day weekend. I spent Friday in bed, dreaming of all the things I was going to eat when I wasn't so tired. Then by Saturday, except for being a little tired, I was completely better. So then I ate all those things I had been dreaming about.
Last Sunday we had a showing, and the people who came through liked this house the best of what they'd seen, except they thought the yard was too small. We keep thinking that maybe they will change their mind, since you sometimes have to change your ideals if you can't find the ideal thing. The house we want is still on the market. So we'll keep trying.
Dessa had her photo shoot yesterday. She was a crack-up! I think she had as much fun as we did. She seemed a bit bewildered at first, but she saw me taking the tags off a dress, and she got very excited, like now she remembered where she was. Of course I gave her a tag. There were about five women at one point all playing peek-aboo. Bob says I'm a supermodel now, too. You can see my jeans in some of the pictures. Ha! here are some links:
velvet dress
green bubble
sunsuit
pink set

Birthday Girl!

Dessa has had her first Birthday! Michelle asked what we did for her birthday, I said, "cleaned up puke and poop!" (more about that later)
Dessa is now pulling herself up to standing!!

I found some pictures of Dessa from a while back that didn't get posted right away, so I'll stick some links in here.
Sneaky
Strawberry sweater
Sailboat dress
Pink, fluffy & lovin' it Dessa loved this one. She would fluff the ruffles and talk up a storm! I would have chosen to take it home, but it was "hand wash only." Like that's going to happen.
So in other news, we are recovering from a bout of the flu. All three girls were throwing up, fevers and runs. We're still working on the latter. What a messy week! In fact, the past two months have been crazy. I think we shouldn't get sick for a while now, since we've caught every bug in the valley.
Last week, Bob started taking the shower walls out of the bathroom and we sprung a leak, all two days before we were supposed to leave for a conference in Seattle. The girls and I stayed at a friends house Tuesday night, then all of wed and thurs Bob was frantically trying to fix the leak while I tried to get us packed for Seattle. Fortunately, we have the most amazing community of friends. The McEachran's let us call them Tuesday and stay that night, a family we are just getting to know, the Lolos family, let Bob shower at their house and then Mr. Lolos showed up Thursday morn. to help Bob. We would not have been able to go to the conference if he had not helped.
So we piled in the van at 6:00 PM to go to Seattle. All went pretty well Friday and Saturday until 10:30 Sat. night Ella started throwing up and didn't stop until 11:00 Am the next day, just before we left to go home. Fortunately, we always travel with a potty chair, because the runs were in full swing for her then. Tuesday Lily started, and wednesday Odessa joined in. Bob was able to stay home during some of it, so we are very thankful for that.
Today marked the first day of real improvement across the board. You'd never know Ella was just sick, and Lily finally started getting up off the chair to play and eat. Poor skinny Lily. I can't believe her clothes could get even more baggy on her after a few days of being sick. Breaks my heart. We'll have to start her on the all-fat diet here soon.
Dessa was probably the least effected. She only threw up three times, and has been able to nurse and hold it down. When kids have the runs, you're thankful that at least one is still in diapers.
Furthermore, we had more people call to see the house this week than all the other weeks combined. So hopefully we can get them scheduled this coming week.
Bob went on a fire at 7:30 tonight. He also leaves for a short assignment on Monday.
OK that's about enough.
Except to say that we have been so thankful through this week for the blessings of good health For Bob and me. At least we were able to care for the kids! It's been a long time since I've worked that hard around the clock and it was good for me. But Praise God it's coming to an end!!!!

The latest

Well, now that I have some pictures to post, I'll add to the blog. We do have a bit of news, though not life-altering. We had another open house yesterday and had more interest. About 12 households came through, which is up from the two couples we had the previous weekend. Still no offers, but we're content to live here as long as we need to.

We are planning to go to a homeschool conference this weekend in Seattle. We should be getting some inspiration and instruction there, as well as getting to see some great friends.

Odessa had her photo shoot on thursday. She's getting to be too busy to sit still much, (and I'm too out of shape to keep her on her mark) so we've decided to do them every other week instead of each week. She did mostly jammies this past time, so here , and here are some of the results.

Bob has an opportunity to go on assignment next week, so he'll probably be gone for five days or so. It's always nice when he gets short assignments because I know he's unavailable for a long assignment.

For Pete's sake!!!!!!! I almost forgot to mention that Odessa has sprouted her first two teeth! The bottom middle ones.

One Month away

I can't believe we're only one month away from Odessa's first birthday! This year has flown by. Here are some links to a recent photo shoot:
Summer dress
Kinda wild
Cherries
Snuggle coat

I suppose that will do.
We had a lovely visit with the Grandma Squad early this week, though we were sorry to see them go today. Ella figured that whenever they go we must go with them. It's good that Daddy came home from training today:)
We have an open house to prepare for this weekend, so that should keep us busy.
Hello to Lori and her friends at the bank! Bunky told me you get a kick out of Odessa's pictures (does a mother's heart good:)
Have a great week!

House listing

Hello!
We have finally gotten our house on the market. It's been on the market for a week now, and after the flurry of the past two weeks of preparations and showings, we're in a bit of a slow-down. Which is good because Bob and I are sick and Odessa has a mysterious rash (probably an allergy) we're trying to figure out. And our bed broke the other day. Bob did get that fixed, and as soon as Dessa's cleared up and we're all well, I hope we pick up a bit more activity on the house. It's a bit depressing how empty it feels to us, which is "spacious" when showing a house. It was nice to get a bunch of projects we had started finished.

If you'd like to see some pictures of our clean house click here for our listing.
If you'd like to see the house we are interested in, click here.

I did find my camera, but I'm out of the habit of taking pictures and still without hope of getting them to the computer. Someday I'll be back on track.
Lily had achieved a great accomplishment; she has climbed the tree in our back yard. Ella tries, but she doesn't have the determination to get up it yet (or maybe the leg length). I'm kind of glad, though, because I'm not sure she'd remember to be careful enough to stay in the tree once up it.