Dear Jesus

Blake has been praying the cutest prayers lately.

This is from tonight:

Dear Jesus,

I hope Daddy doesn't see a raccoon tonight, but...

I hope I get to see a raccoon.

I've seen a raccoon on TV before

but I really want to see a REAL raccoon.

I hope Daddy gets a new job

and I can live in my old house again.

I hope Jesus feels good today.

I hope Jesus doesn't have to die again.

I hope I'm a good boy tomorrow.

Jesus name,

Amen

I just love this little boy!!

we're home

we are finally home again... what a long trip that was. all three kids slept 12 + hours last night and then abigayle and blake took longer than 2 hr naps today. we had a blast though! 3 birthday parties for 5 very special people in our lives!! we ate some good food, laughed until our bellies hurt (thank you sierra) and got a great lead on a job that just might take us back home. we have to continue to trust that God has a plan and hopefully we figure out where we are supposed to go soon. this job my husband has is absolutely horrible. we are praying for some answers soon. hopefully... hopefully... this will work out.

computers

we've had such bad luck lately. with all the computer issues we've had i guess we just needed to add one more to the list. haven't been blogging lately since my computer power cord broke. we have two laptops and both were out of service, kind-of. the borrowed computer screen is still mysteriously showing a ton of static rectangles. i plugged it into our monitor and the rectangles transferred so i know it is not the monitor but something internal. i could read posts on facebook if i scrolled down and then back up and then back down until i could figure out what people were saying. sorry for all the errors on my part since i couldn't even see what i was typing. our laptop's power cord only worked if you pushed it with your finger, held your tongue out to the left, raised your right hand and could type really fast since you really only have about 30 seconds before it would shut down. thankfully i found one on ebay for $11.00 and now it works!!

tomorrow i'll be cooking and baking like a crazy woman. i'm actually looking forward to it! i'm not going to tell you what i'll be cooking, in fear i won't accomplish it all, lol. headed to oakhurst on wednesday. we will be celebrating 5 birthdays this weekend. popi, bailey, mark, uncle johnny and paige - all within a week and a half. i think everyone will like their gifts this year =-) but i'm most looking forward to seeing family and talking with other adults. we still don't know anyone down here so unless my husband is home, pammy is available or my mom is traveling home from work, i get to talk to my kids. san pedro is very very clicky and unless you've been born and raised here you're not going to get anywhere with anyone. hopefully i'll have some yummy goodness to share with you soon =-)

laundry soap

i've started making my own laundry soap and have been more than pleased with it. i actually think it takes stains out of the kids clothes better than regular laundry detergent. i wanted to share the recipe with everyone, just in case you want to jump on the 'hippie ban wagon too' as my husband calls it, lol.

homemade laundry soap
grate bar soap. i use the small section of box cheese grater. doesn't it look pretty??

dissolve soap in water over medium low heat. the house starts to smell really good at this point =-)

once everything has dissolved you add water to a bucket, add the soap mixture, more water, stir and let set over night. abigayle helped me make my last batch and wanted to pose.

grate 1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap

1/2 cup borax

1/2 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)

in a saucepan add 6 cups water and grated soap. heat until dissolved over medium low heat. once soap has melted, add borax and washing soda and heat until dissolved.

add 4 cups water to a 5 gallon bucket. pour in soap mixture and 1 gallon plus 6 cups water. stir, cover and let set for 24 hours.

use funnel to transfer soap to old laundry detergent jugs, milk or juice jugs. shake well and use 1/2 cup per load. can use this for HE machines or regular washing machines.

borax can be purchased at walmart or target. you can use any less fragrant bar soap like dove or ivory but fels naptha is recommended. fels naptha and washing soda can be purchased online or at ACE hardware. if your local ace hardware doesn't carry it in stock you can have them order it to the store without paying for shipping. i calculated out the costs using ace hardware prices and borax purchased at target and found a 5 gallon bucket of detergent (double the recipe above) costs $2.80 to make!! you can add fragrance to it if you'd like or just use fabric softener.

to make your own fabric softener sheets you can buy 1 bottle of your favorite liquid fabric softener and pour it into a bucket. fill the container with water 2 more times and add to bucket. cut sponges in half and float in liquid. squeeze out additional fabric softener and add to dryer. reuse sponges. i actually have mine in an old ice cream container since i don't have room for buckets.

if you have any questions, just ask. we love the savings and how nice it cleans!

bargain shopper!!

i've been a bargain shopping fool these last few days, lol. yesterday i went to kohls to get a few birthday presents. found great deals and exactly what i wanted. the kids were still in a descent mood so i ventured into the little girl section. ab's has been blessed with hand me down's, yard sale finds and mimi and popi's generosity since we started this adventure in our lives. unfortunately she thought it would be fun to grow and no longer fits into her winter clothes, lol. when her new dresser arrived, i went through her clothes and found she had 3 long sleeved shirts. not going to be enough. i went walking through the regular sale items and found that prices for clothes have either increased or it is just the area we live in now but there was no way i was going to pay $12.00 for a shirt for her. i quickly went to the clearance and hit a jack pot!! i found so many good deals, i just had to take advantage of. my one splurge item was the black corduroy dress with the lady bugs on it. it is so incredibly cute in person =-) everything else was between $4.00 and $9.00 and everything has two pieces except the jeans. she got a few more items but i couldn't get them in the picture. by this time the boys were starting to be done but i decided to push a little harder.

i went to the boy section to find great deals for brayden too!! i didn't take pictures of them since boy clothes are not as pretty as little girl clothes =-) i found some long sleeved shirts. he has a few from last year from mimi and popi and some hand me downs from bradley that fit but the poor kid needed a few more. i managed to find him shirts from $4.00 to $6.00 a shirt. considering he is in the boy section and not the toddler section this is an especially great deal!! all i need for him is a few more pants and he will be set. i looked at my receipt after i was finished and realized i had saved just over $320.00.

i needed to go to michaels to finish gathering supplies for christmas presents and had a coupon until thursday. something has come up every evening this week so i decided to venture out this morning with all three kids in tow. not something i was looking forward to, michaels + three kids wanting to touch everything while i think = not a fun time. if we were just headed to gather craft supplies or christmas decorations i wouldn't mind taking them at all but this was waaaay more than that. they ended up sitting on the floor in the middle of the isle and i was able to make my decisions and leave. used my coupon and only saved 80 cents, lol. 80 cents would have been worth waiting till next week when my husband could have helped.

anyways... the salvation army is located right next door to michaels and although i donate there quite often, i've never been in a store. they had huge signs on the outside saying that all furniture and clothes were 40% off today and today only. i thought i'd go check it out since brayden needed jeans. i found him 5 pairs in great condition and only paid $10.00!! now that is a bargain and i'm smiling cause all my kids have clothes for winter and it didn't break the bank =-)

happy halloween

i must admit, i was very anxious over this halloween. we haven't had great experiences with halloween in the past and honestly, i'd be a happy camper if we could pass up this holiday. a few years ago people jumped out at our kids, chased them, etc, and it was not something i wanted our kids to have to experience again. they had nightmares for weeks. we didn't actually trick or treat for a year or two after that. we would still carve pumpkins and have halloween treats but didn't dress up and go trick or treating. last year we were in such a nice neighborhood in fresno (nothing like the neighborhoods we used to trick or treat in). all these little old ladies handing out candy so it looked like something we would try again. on the day of halloween, i rounded up some costumes i had at home, dressed up the boys and their cousin and away we went. things went smoothly and they had a blast.
this year was a different story. i was far from that neighborhood, my husband had to work and might not be home, i know 3 of my neighbors and no one else in this entire town. plus the previous owners used to go all out and massively decorate the house and pass out candy. i was afraid we might get egged and bombarded with trick or treaters. i was secretly hoping halloween was going to be on saturday so we could head back to fresno and not even be here. but... this was something i had to face. we decided to let our kids trick or treat this year. we were going to head out early, then come home and camp out in the bedroom and have a movie night. abigayle went as minnie mouse. her original costume didn't fit and i dug through her closet and found this cute outfit. she has never successfully wore it more than just a few minutes before taking it off so i was a little concerned but she left it on and quickly figured out this trick or treating business =-)

when we asked brayden what he wanted to be for halloween he said a cowboy, but quickly decided to change his mind when he saw the 'american solider pants' hanging on the rack. mommy liked this idea since they are real clothes and can be used all year =-)

blake stuck with the cowboy theme and i must say... he is a super cute cowboy most days! he prefers to wear wranglers on a daily basis and loves button up 'cowboy' shirts anyways so this was a very natural costume for him.

we stuck with our plan and trick or treated for a while then headed to our room and dug into the candy. all in all it was fun especially since my husband got off of work in enough time to join us!! brayden took off and i couldn't get a good picture of him trick or treating but here are a few of the other two.

abigayle was timid at first but then figured out that if she held out her bucket, they would give her candy so she would wait patiently until her candy was given, say thank you and walk away. one time she didn't see a man actually give her candy so she stood there waiting and waiting and waiting. we finally had to go get her and she cried her little eyes out. she thought she had gotten left out. honestly... that man should have given her another little candy but... oh well. it was really cute!

blake was a little scared the whole way through. he'd only approach a house if we would walk up with him. he sure enjoys his candy now though =-)

here they are, my american solider, my cowboy and my minnie mouse.