My Garden

Well I have officially started my garden. With the rising price of groceries I couldn't say no when on of Jaime's cousins offered me high quality seeds. I have never really had a green thumb, so we will see how it turns out. I started my tomatoes before we left for San Antonio, they were doing great until last Thursday when half of them died and the rest got moldy dirt and wilty leaves.

This week I have been rototilling, it's basically like taking a bucking bull for a walk!! my arms hurt, but I really don't mind hard work, (I did pull up all the carpet by myself.) I'm really excited about canning, I usually freeze everything, but I've been making jams jellies and fruit butters for a long time. I'm looking for help, so if anyone out there is willing, let me know! I plan on trying to go fruit picking this spring and summer Godwilling there is fruit that survives this cold snap. I'm thinking it could be a great girls day out thing. Any takers?

Almost like a real job!

Well today was the first time I went to a school and known what I was going to be doing, it's great! I got a call last week from the Principal at one of the schools I've been subbing at, asking me if I would be willing to fill in for a teacher for the next two weeks, possibly for the rest of the school year. I was really excited to find out that they would request me for such a long period of time. The best part is, that it's part-time so I only work from 7:30 until 11:00 and then I'm done for the day. It's great, because I still have plenty of time to do all of the things that I want. I really like knowing what I'm expected to do, it's not exciting but it is definitely more comfortable.

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Home at last!!

WOW!! That is the word that sums up our trip to San Antonio. The bank sure knows how to party. We made sure to take in all of the tourist attractions, and then some.
We almost didn't get there on time though; we arrived at the airport around 7:00 a.m. and our plane was supposed to leave at 8:20, then we were supposed to have a 1 hr layover in phoenix, well plans changed after we got on the plane and they informed us that they were having mechanical errors and we were going to be about an hour delayed, Jaime and I were both thinking, crap, hopefully we will get there in time to catch our connecting flight. They fixed the problem and we arrived in Phoenix at about 9:00 their time. Maybe we could make it, wrong, a fuel truck was blocking us from getting to the gate and it took about 10 minutes to get it out of the way, and of course our connecting flight was at the opposite end of the airport. We missed our flight by less than 5 min. So we go to the customer service desk and she tells us that the next flight to San Antonio isn't until 9:45 P.M.!! Jaime says," that is not going to work!" He called the bank and they booked us on a flight with Southwest for 10:40 a.m., unfortunately they don't transfer luggage and the whole place is crazy packed because of spring break. We barely made it, but thanks to the awesome travel agent with bank, we were able to get there only an hour later than we originally planned.
San Antonio was beautiful, the weather was great, mid 80's the whole time, it was really muggy but it felt like being in a warm steamy shower, I loved it, especially since my skin has never looked so good!! I am so proud of Jaime for working hard enough to make this trip possible. We met a really great couple, we clicked with them right away, and ended up hanging out with them almost the whole time, it was great to have someone else to experience everything with, and the added benefit of someone to take pics w/o having to worry about a stranger stealing our camera. We had a great time visiting Jazz and piano bars and a couple of pubs. We also did a lot of dancing, I'm not much of a dancer but it was super fun anyway. We even danced on the bar at Coyote Ugly!!! The Alamo was interesting, I think they have done quite a bit of restorations on it, I'm also not exactly sure what the whole story behind it is, other than it was a total ambush where a lot of great men died. Jesse convinced us to go into this Ripley's believe it or not house of horror; OH MY GOSH!! It was so scary. People where bringing their kids in with them, I don't know what they were thinking, I was so scared I couldn't even scream. We also took a ride on the riverboat, our guide was awesome. We went in the evening and it was beautiful.
Same thing happened on our trip home. Our flight was scheduled for 6:45p.m. W/ a 2hr layover in Phoenix getting home around midnight. Well about 20 min before we were supposed to leave they informed us that they were having technical difficulties and we wouldn't get to leave until after 8:30 so we were going to miss our connecting flight again; and there were no flights leaving to Boise from anywhere. Thankfully they put us up in a decent hotel and were able to book a flight for early the next morning. This time everything went smoothly, and we were able to get home by 3 in the afternoon, but boy was I ready to be home!!!

The best time of year

I had a really great Easter, we didn't do all of the things that we usually do, but maybe that is what I loved about it. I really love the Easter story, we had a special communion service on, there was a video about the crucifixion of Christ,it was called Sunday's comin' at first Ashlynn wasn't sure what was going to happen on Sunday, but she figured it out pretty quick. It was such a powerful message.
Instead of coloring eggs this year we made Resurrection cookies. I think Gabrielle had to much fun eating "Jesus' broken body" she really took the whole thing to a place I wasn't expecting. She kept asking for more "Jesus body" it was weird, but fun. We went to church on Saturday night, Jaime needed my help up in the "crows nest". I'm sure happy I don't have to be up there every week! After the service they had a huge Easter egg hunt, every year I am amazed at all the work everyone puts into these special services, I think it's awesome that so many people give their time and money, to make a difference in the lives of not only the people who go to our church regularly, but also people who don't know the Lord, or who are searching for a church to call their own. There were a lot of new faces, and it was really great to see some of Jaime's employee's there (go Scott and Jess!). Jaime had to go to church Easter morning but I stayed home with the girls and watched "Enchanted". After Jaime got home we went to his Grandma's for a BBQ, then we went to my Grandma's for Easter dinner. Everything was delicious, and super low-key, which made it even better. I spent a lot of time just thinking about how much Christ sacrificed for us and how nothing we could possibly do can make up for that. He gave his own life for ME, knowing that even after I accepted him into my heart, I would continue to sin, and fail and forget. Sometimes his awesomeness completely overwhelms me.

Family Chess night

Ashlynn's class has been learning how to play chess for the last few months, she really enjoys it and seems to be pretty good for her age. Anyway, the 1st/2nd grade teachers put on a family game night at the school tonight, everyone brought a dessert or snack and they had about 3 rooms set up with tables and chairs and chessboards. It was a lot of fun, Jaime and I have never played chess before so it was a new experience for both of us, Ashlynn was a really good teacher, even though she beat both of us rather quickly!! Also every kid that came got to take home a chess set. Gabrielle had fun eating all the dessert she could possibly consume, that girl really loves sweets!! Who knows, maybe we'll have a couple of chess champs on our hands

Fake it 'till you make it

Well if you don't know by now, we didn't get the house. I was really surprised, we offered the builder his asking price, the only thing we wanted was for the fencing to be put up; he regected it, and as far as I know, it's no longer on the market. I really don't take disappointment well, when Jaime gave me the news I felt like someone died, I felt like such a dork to take something so material to such an emotional level. I felt horrible for wanting something so badly that wasn't a need, and on the flip side of that I was mad for not getting what I wanted. I really wish I could be like Jaime and just say, "well it wasn't God's will for us right now." and just get over it without all this resentment. Right now I'm at the "fake it until you make it" point. I just keep reminding myself of all the really great things about our house and all of the other things that I have been blessed with. I am still really needing prayer right now, that my heart will be in the right place about all this.