It looks awfully dark ahead...please hold my hand.

Today we found out that Ken no longer has a job after 9/19. :( We had no knowledge of layoffs in the past two weeks when we purchased a new (used) van and when we took the kids on a family vacation to Yellowstone (which we loved, by the way).

We are now looking for new jobs and amazingly I feel rather calm about the whole thing. We have a plan that we can stick with until unemployment runs out and then we will be in a real bind. We are prayerfully seeking the way to go. On the upside, Ken has hated that job for years and it did not provide paid time off or insurance that was affordable. I am trying to look at this as a positive move to get us into something better.

Since I last posted we had a great trip in Yellowstone. We saw so many sites and we stayed at some fun places and had a great time as a family. We visited both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We saw the new Temple in Twin Falls and I was able to revisit the Idaho Falls Temple. We went to the new Rexburg Temple too. I think our kids saw all the temples in Idaho in the same day. Our new van worked great and we loved the trip and time away.

Upon our return we have gotten ready to head back to school on the 25th. We met the new teachers today and we saw the new desks. I think the kids are excited. Brady may not be attending preschool this year. With the job loss I will only be able to send him if I can trade babysitting for his tuition. While we were at the school today I found several Preschool & Kindergarten books on the free table. The books contain enough that I could teach Brady at home if he cannot attend preschool.

We are excited to attend the Twin Falls Temple Dedication Ceremony on Sunday. Ken, MaKayla, Sebastian and I will be able to attend the broadcast at our church building. We love to hear the speakers dedicate a new house to the Lord. We were able to attend the open house so this temple has become very special to us.

We would ask for your prayers at this time of need. We really need to find another job for Ken. We have been paying our tithing so we know that the Lord will take care of us. We are really grateful that this is happening now and not in November or the holiday season. Hopefully by then we should be in good shape with something new.

We are truly blessed.

We are getting ready to go on a family trip to Yellowstone next week. Due to the fact that we had an old van we decided to rent a van to give us AC & to make sure it would get us there. We looked into rental prices a few weeks ago and it didn't seem to be too much. When we went to reserve our rental last week the cost had doubled. We looked into fixing up our van to make the trip. When the mechanic was doing a transmission service he found a disturbing thing. We had parts of our transmission in the pan. He showed me. There was chunks of metal and parts of gasket. The mechanic put it back together and said it would probably lose transmission function very soon. Ken and I drove it straight to the dealership. We were offered $700.00 for the van on trade. We were thrilled about this because we had only paid $900.00 for the van a year ago. We purchased a 2007 Toyota Sienna. Ours is like the one pictured only it is white. We will be making payments on it for some time :) We love it though and we hope to drive it into the ground 20 years from now.

The monthly payment made me think a bit and I was mental inserting it into our budget. As soon as we got home I received a message from a lady in our ward that is going to do preschool next year. I called her back and it looks like it would be free for Brady to go in exchange for me watching her 2 littlest children. That puts $75.00 a month back into our budget that I would have paid for Brady to attend the same preschool he went to last year. I also worked a deal with the kids mom to let me watch them on her weeks instead of having them go to daycare. That should give me another 120.00 per month. These two differences and some of our other money should cover the new payment. We are so blessed. The Lord truly knows our needs and watches out for our family. We felt guided in our decisions. We are so grateful that this problem was discovered before the van stopped functioning. We were able to get very good money out of it and get a great van that will last a long time and we should be able to go on this vacation and many others in it.

Home Improvement

Our home was built in the early 70's. It was outfitted with stylish fixtures for the time. They were mostly golden in color and are now out of fashion. Our light fixtures also had very little wattage. So it was unattractive and very dim.

Over the time that Ken has owned this home he has replace several fixtures and almost all of the door knobs. We really like the look of brushed nickel so we are switching to that.

We have two sliding doors on the rear of the home that had vertical blinds covering them. Our front window also had vertical blinds. Last summer Ken and I replaced the vertical blinds in the front of the home with some sheer curtains and a brushed nickel curtain rod. We loved the difference but decided to wait to do the back two doors due to the cost of acquiring something new.

A few months ago I purchased some table cloths in a pattern I really liked. They were about $5.00 each and they came with napkins. They were so large and so inexpensive I thought I could use the material to make drapes. I procrastinated for a while and the table cloths sat waiting for me to get started. A couple of weeks ago I decided to do it. We bought some brushed nickel curtain rods and some clip hooks and about an hour later I had completely changed the dining room. The next day I bought more supplies and did the family room sliding door too. I used the matching napkins to make small curtains for the octagonal windows in the family room.

The following weekend Ken surprised me when I came home with a new light fixture for the dining room. Together we selected a fan for the family room and a light for the entry way. The picture above is my new dining room light fixture and curtains.

This is a shot of the family room with new ceiling fan and curtains. This light has a remote to operate it.


This is our new entry way light. I love it because it has one bulb that shines into the hall closet. In this picture you can see some paneling and some spindles and that lovely '70's popcorn ceiling. We still have some jobs to do.

In our kitchen we have darkly stained cabinets. On my last trip to home depot I purchased some stripper. I have one door that I am experimenting on right now. I am going to strip, lightly sand and varnish them. That is my next project. I am waiting till the kids are back in school full time to really get going on it. I will take some before and during pictures on that one so you can see the difference.

Anyone with advice for my cabinet project PLEASE post a comment or email me. Even if it is just to pity me for all the work (24 doors, 9 drawers) place your bets now on how long the job will take to complete...

Multitasking...

I have been encouraged to begin a blog. My sisters all have one and I have contributed to one but I have never sought to create my own. I guess I have been unwilling because it seems arrogant to think that what I have to say would be important to the rest of the world. My father recently encouraged me because he felt it would keep our family in better touch and I could show others an example of an woman who belongs to the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (I have no horns, my church isn't a cult, yes we are Christians, ect...) After considering these things, I thought of a few things I could accomplish by having a blog. This can take the place of a family scrapbook. I can keep in better touch with my family and friends wherever in the world they reside. I can post a Christmas message on the blog and not feel guilt over the holidays when I fail (yet again) to send a Christmas greeting by mail (think of the postage savings!). I can post pictures and document our life so my kids can see that we are an active family that goes on vacation and does fun things a lot. Since I love multitasking...here we go.