Our Status . . . As of Now

Here is the latest and greatest with the work and living situation:

Hubby is no longer expected to work 12 hour days and is able to stay with his Monday through Thursday 10 hour day regular schedule. Unfortunately, the extra drive time means going in much earlier to work to still get home at the same time and in time for classes. It's stinky for both of us since we both are awakened by his alarm clock and I am not the type that easily falls back to sleep. Consequently, when he gets up, I get up. However, this schedule means that he can graduate from school in December! YEAH!

He, and everyone else, is being moved out to the site this week. We still are not sure what day exactly when this will happen. We just know the movers have shown up and have started moving things over. They also have informed everyone that they do not know when their computers will be back up and running. This is a HUGE problem since my husband's team's work consists of all computer work. Plus they have an audit coming up in two weeks. Consequently, he is hoping to be allowed to use one of the in town computers until things are more settled and put together. Our hope is that they will eventually change their minds again and pull everyone back into town, especially with the huge amount of people that have either already quit or have given their notices due to the changes. (The lease on their current offices is not up until December, so maybe they will move them back before the lease is up. FINGERS CROSSED!)

Midterms have arrived which means we are half way through the semester!

After the audit, we are going to start looking at our options and see what other opportunities are available, We figure that by then it will only be a month before graduation, so it is a good time to start looking. I am hoping that something locally will open up, because I am not too keen on moving in the middle of winter. However, if we have to, we have to.

Regardless of finding other opportunities or not, we will most like be putting our house on the market by the first of the year. With this housing market who knows how long it will take to sell. Also, we figure if it does sell before we have a permanent solution presents itself, we can always temporarily live in an apartment or a rental townhouse until something more permanent comes along. That way we can just walk away instead of stressing over trying to sell a home quickly.

So that is our situation in a nutshell. Still a lot unkowns and "what ifs" and such, but sometimes that is just life. At least my hubby is still employed; we have a roof over our heads that we can pay for; we are generally in good health.

Stay tuned . . . . .

It's Time for "BOO"!

In our ward, the Young Women have started a tradition of starting a ward/neighborhood "boo". What is a "boo"? It's a fun little thing that anyone can start and is kind of fun to watch as it spreads throughout your neighborhood and/or ward.

It starts with you getting a poem and sign that looks like this:

You can get this from "organizedchristmas.com"

The poem says this:

The air is cool, the season fall.

Soon Halloween will come to all.

With ghosts and goblins, spooks galore,

Trick-or-treaters at the door.

The spooks are after things to do.

In fact, a spook brought this to you!

The treats that come with this short note

Are your to keep. Enjoy them both!

Excitement grows when friends like you

Will copy it, and make it two.

Neighbors will have smiling faces;

None can guess who "BOOed" which places.

A day or two to work your spell.

But keep it hidden! Hide it well!

Join the fun; the season's here.

So spread these "BOO's" --and share the cheer!

This is left on your door with instructions to make two "BOO" baskets with the poem/print out to give to two other people in your neighborhood anonymously. You then take the print out that you got and make sure that you post on your front door or front window to let everyone know that you have been "BOOed" so that you are not "BOOed" again.

Since the Young Women, "BOOed" us on Tuesday night, it was our turn to spread the love. I was able to find some fun little Halloween items for $1 or less at Target, so it doesn't need to cost a lot or take a lot of time to put together.

Give it a try and watch the fun spread around! It's kind of fun to drive down the street and watch the signs goes up as the weeks progress.

October Card

The theme was "Thank You", so I figured this would suffice. I wasn't happy with the large pop up dots, but it was all I had on hand and I was putting this together at 11 pm the night before I had card club. However, everyone loved it, so I guess it turned out okay.

Husband Tested/Husband Approved

I am always on the lookout for new recipes. I get bored so easily and my husband is so picky that it really limits what I can fix that I know will be eaten. Due to the cold weather, this week is soup experiment week.

My hubby is a pretty good soup eater, as long as there are not too many ingredients that he can recognize that he normally won't eat. I, however, will admit that I am not a big soup fan. Although I am way better than I used to be (as a child I hated all soups except New England clam chowder, I still can be selective when it comes to soup. However, I think I have found some recipes that we both may approve of.

In fact the first one I tried last night received a HUGE thumbs up from my hubby, which means most people will like it. Plus, I love it because it includes veggies, which are always a struggle to get him to eat. I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com, but modified to make it a little healthier. (I am sure you could use regular cheese, whole milk, and regular ham and it would be wonderful as well. We're just trying to cut back on our fat intake.)

Here it is:

Ham and Cheese Soup

3 c. cubed potatoes (I used red potatoes and did not peel them. More vitamins that way.)
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 cube chicken bouillon
1 c. water
1 t. dried parsley
2 g. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. skim milk
1 1/2 c. low fat cheese
1 c. lean chopped ham
Salt and Pepper to taste (I used sea salt, since it provides more flavor with less salt.)

1.In a large stock pot add potatoes, celery, onion, chicken bouillon, water, and parsley flakes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until vegetables become tender.
2. In a separate bowl mix flour and milk. Once it is well blended, add to soup mixture and cook until soup becomes thick.
3. Stir in cheese, cooked ham and simmer until cheese is melted.

Adapted from "Golden Potato Soup" at Allrecipes.com

Sad but Happy

This weekend was both happy and sad. Due to the weather that came upon us suddenly, we quickly realized that our garden this year had its season's end. Once again we learned a lot. For example:

1. Just because a seed packet says it is one thing, does not mean that is e produce you are going to get. Mistakes do happen, especially when the seeds look the same. Instead of Walla Walla sweet onions, we got green onions.

2. You have to take into account not only location, but obstructions from neighbors when planting. We are going to have to talk to the neighbors about cutting back their trees if we are still here next year and want a garden. Not only did their trees provide too much shade over our garden because they have grown over our fence, but the roots have encroached into our garden as well.

3. This is our last year for any type of melons. While the plants look good and we got plenty of fruit, we just do not have a long enough growing season or the correct type of greenhouse to properly grow them until they are big and ripe.

4. We will definitely need to plant more grape tomatoes next year and every year. Little Man is a tomato freak. In fact when we ask him what he want to eat for lunch or dinner, he usually will declare "matoes" and then say "garden" and head for the backyard. He is really good at only picking the ripe ones, but hasn't quite grasped the concept of handling them carefully. We had many tomatoes that suffered death by squishing.

While I am sad to have the yumminess of garden fresh garden produce come to an end. I have to admit I am glad to be done with weeding and being overwhelmed with the excess produce. However, I am grateful to have another fairly successful harvest.

It will be interesting to see what next year brings. I don't think we will be here, so we will see if I continue Idaho gardening or get to learn how to garden in another climate and area. We will see.

in the meantime, I had lots of tomatoes to roast, jalapeños and green peppers to freeze, and corn to cook, cut and freeze. It was a busy weekend!

For My Mother

Other than adding the buttons it is done!


Glad I added an extra section on the length, but probably should have added two. I can't believe how long his torso is!

Here is the front (with Little Man attempting to pull off the sleeve):

Here is the back:
Didn't think I would get it done, did you? Tada!

A Sigh of Relief With a Side of Anxiety

Well, today was the day. The layoffs occured and the final count was at 204 people lost their jobs. This may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that is 204 families impacted in a community that is not that big, it is a pretty big deal. Never mind the fact that several groups were already down to "skeletal" staffing levels and now have been cut even more. Yet, the deadlines and amount of work needed to be completed are still the same. Consequently, we are relieved that Jim is still employed, but are nervous about what type of employment and even where that will be. (They are looking at closing the in-town offices,where he currently works.) This is especially since we are concerned with his ability to complete the semester and meet the demands of his employment. Just two and a half months. That is all we need! After that . . . . . . come what may. No matter what I think we will be looking at our options upon graduation since we want something more stable and longer lasting, especially for Little Man. (This project only has three more years, regardless.).

It has been hard hearing the stories of those who have lost their jobs. We received the first text message at 6:45 am and it has been steady ever since. For example, one is our former home teacher who just built he and his wife's dream home that they planned on living in for the rest of their lives. It is scary because this is the type of field/jobs that are specialized enough that you can't just get a job anywhere. It has to be nuclear related, which means moving to another state and the housing market is already not really great. (Which is one of the reasons why we haven't put our house on the market, yet.)

Bottom line . . . . . We are feeling grateful that he is still employed, but there are still a lot of unknowns that hopefully will be answered in the next two weeks and to our favor. Until then there is still a lot of anxiety and still a need for lots of prayers.

Stay tuned . . . . . . Welcome to our roller coaster ride!