Matthewism...

Matthew came in after cleaning a room and said, "I have two ideas!"...I had to take a picture!!!

Exciting---Brick and Dry wall!!!

Our brick!!!  mortar may dry lighter(or so I've been told)...I love it!!!  Brick is called Old River, I think.

our room---or at least the ceiling!

our fireplace and built ins!!

our living room...
That's all for now...I didn't go in many rooms...they were working hard and I was told that if anyone got in the way, they probably would be hit by dry wall.

Baby Girl!!!

My new niece!!!  How I wish I could be there for her birth!!!  Our class voted on whether she was going to be a boy or a girl...the girl votes won!  We didn't know the sex of the baby, so this birth was extra exciting!!!  Mom's doing well and I think Dad is proud to be a papa and proud of his wife!

Mark is turning 9!!

 Snuggled in mom and dad's bed!!! 

Mark is turning 9 on Monday, so he had a few people (2 cousins and 2 friends) over to celebrate!

Mark opening presents...

Mark wanted a lego man/Batman cake...so here was the end result.---he told me how to decorate it, and I did it...my ears heard a bit different than he meant, but he was so grateful...it was sweet to watch.    Notice the dead lying down lego---and the robber next to him...Mark's idea!!!  I made some candy lego men...some multi colored, some yellow, red, green....they were tasty and cute!

LCS Gym

This is the new gym where I work!  Our church had a dedication service last Sunday.

More progress 2....

 This is inside the missionary living room...you are looking toward the door that goes to the garage and the missionary kitchen.  The small closet looking area is where our stack able washer and dryer will go for the missionaries.

This is looking at the living room towards the front of the house and right out those windows is the front porch.










This is looking at the future stone archway for our stove area in the kitchen.  Pantry is in the corner.









This is looking toward the kitchen...outside the double doors is the back porch.  Small window is the pass through window from the kitchen sink to the back porch.

This is looking from our master room into the "sitting area" under the arch.  This may be a future exercise room or just a sitting room for quiet times.  The space on the right is our closet---I know I know...it's big!!!  I guess I need more clothes to fill it:)!

 View of game room...you are looking toward the stairs that go downstairs

view of future game room looking out the window above the garage.  This room is enormous!!!  I can see twin beds along one side for sleepovers!!

More progress...

 Front view with Melissa again---she comes out to the land with Mark more than the other kiddos.  Katie wants most of it to be a surprise!!

 Garage view.  Stairs go up to the game room...they will be inside the house, not the garage.

 Our framer made some cute accent pieces on our posts for our front porch.

 back porch with hardy plank on it...no it is not painted yet.

 John is caulking dormers on the roof!!

This is in the garage looking into the missionary suite---the room on the right is the bedroom.

More walls....blue roof...and porches!!

This is our gabled living room roof.

Even more house....

The open part is our garage; the white part is the missionary side of the house.

Blue roof paper!!  Gotta love it!  Melissa---shorts and boots...only in Texas!

Back porch beginnings...and middle---Gabled cedar....

And that's all I have for now.---this last one was last night...we have windows...and the trim is painted!!!....still lots of work to do.  By the way, outsides of houses go up fast...insides---slower...especially when two working people are doing some of the work--John and I!!    We plan to move in in Spring...and slowly get the missionary house ready as mula and time allow:).

Walls...in progression.

This was the first day we had walls...we all went out and walked our house.  It was so exciting to watch it come up!  Second photo is the kids' rooms.Third photo is the next time we visited...even more walls...and roof!

Slab

our slab---

My days...

Since starting my new job, building our house, and life, I am finding I am busier than I was even in Russia--that was when I just thought, "I've never been busier!"
Well, our house is coming along...I still must figure out how to upload my photos from my phone...the progress is amazing to me, and so is my husband!!!  He has painted, caulked, worked and worked more!
My job---it's hard, but  I love teaching.  I love being by my kids and even teaching two of my kids!  My kids are loving "school."  If they didn't, what I am doing would be too overwhelming!  I am learning new things every day about life science and earth science.  The math--nothing new so far, except something called "casting out nines."  It's a method of checking your math problems to see if they are correct.  I find that checking takes as much time as just redoing the same problem and checking for the same answer!  Hmmmm.  I have wonderful students---they make me smile:). 

My day---wake up at 5:30---I love waking up early---I love the morning...call me--"my father's daughter" or just plain weird?  I do laundry, fix my coffee, take a shower, have my quiet time, put dinner out on the counter in c-pot or just to have ready,  check my email and even facebook, if I have time and then, we are all out the door at 7:30!  I teach from 8:30-2:30, then I have an off period.  I usually stay till at least 5 with my kids...working on my lessons or grading or copying.  Somedays, I get nothing done after school b/c of the girl's volleyball playing.  I come home, cook or just have dinner ready from the lovely crockpot.  At 8, everyone makes their lunch.  I prepare my coffee, get dinner out to thaw, and relax if I have the time!  Bed by 10!  Rinse, repeat....you know the drill....this goes on till Friday---on which I start relaxing til Saturday night or afternoon---work 3 hours on school and take a Sabbath rest---til Sunday evening!!! 
There you have it!!  My days!  Oh, and somewhere in all this, I go see our house in progress and help John work on it on the weekends and clean house and do more laundry!!

Spoki Noki for now!! (sweet dreams in Russian slang!)

That "day" has come

When John and I got married, I looked for a teaching job and found one that started in less than a week from my interview---it was not the classiest of positions---I didn't have a classroom, I traveled with a cart to each class.  I taught math and science in 8th grade and was severely warned that this was a hard position for a first year teacher or any teacher.  Boy, was that year rough?!!  I learned a lot about people, forgiveness, patience, pregnancy hormones(My supervising teacher had a super bad day one day and took it out on the first year teacher--me---and I felt very relieved the next year to find out she was pregnant:) --it explained everything),  and much more.  That was 16 years ago.  I taught for 4 years, then stopped the day I went into labor with our first child(Friday before a spring break---great timing!). 

Through the years, I've thought  and wondered time and time again...would I ever work full time again?  For the last couple of years, I have worked for my mil as a kind of secretary...very part time(3-5 hours a week).  I've learned a lot about taxes, money and more!   I am very grateful for that experience.  But, now, it's time for full time teaching!!! 

I start in-service days today at a local Christian school.  Although I've never taught at a Christian school, this is my "return" to the working/teaching world!    My kids will all come with me this year and either be in my class at some point or down the hall.  Tomorrow night is Parent Orientation...and I think back to all my PO's in the past...and I was a lot younger and NOT a mother!  Funny to look back on those years.  I met some of the nicest people teaching in Plano, and I will never forget them.  I will now be working with a totally different set of teachers, but I feel at home with them already, having worked with some of them over the summer getting the "new" campus ready.  I have my very own classroom, and more resources than ever!!

Exciting times!!  My classroom also has blinds, thanks to the good Doctor!! :)  Thanks George!

A word post...don't read if you want pictures...:)

Just a writing post...A lot has passed since May(my last post)---I think I've started taking pictures on a device that I don't know how to hook up to my changing computer...one over heated one too many times.  So, we are old schooling it on a new, but not laptop computer!  The over heating one was stopping John from finishing jobs and jusr plain frustrating...but, we are fortunate enough to even have a computer, right!? 

I've been reading posts from a web missionary friend in Honduras, and it sure is bringing perspective to what problems I do not have currently!  Even as I write, I am realizing the stress I felt at "Just" is just not really all that bad...it's deal-able(I don't think that's a word, but oh well, this is my blog---not a research paper).

So, currently, we(our church/school family) has put in much hard work in  cleaning up a jewel in the rough...our new campus.  Yes, you heard it, we are going to "school" all of us this year!  Since I couldn't move IA(our awesome international school in Russia) to Texas, we are grateful to have a church that has a school to be a part of.  I have been homeschooling my kids since Katie was in Kindergarten...that was seven years ago.  I never was for sure what I would do for school for my kids, but we were very happy with our choice of primarily homeschooling, it worked for us.  After the girls' experience in Russia at IA, all the kids were thrilled with a prospect of schooling with their friends!!  We have been involved to different degrees with co-ops for homeschooling, so they did enjoy that part, but I saw they wanted more.  You see---they are from me, and I LOVED school!  Hmmm....maybe that's why I became a teacher--hehe!  So this year, I am teaching and they are all down the hall or in my classroom for the day's schooling:).

 As much as it pricks my heart when parents put down homeschooling(and yes, I've had it done to my face---when people know that's what we had chosen for the time), it also pricks my heart when homeschooling families put down other avenues of schooling.  I keep seeing that it's each family's choice to decide.  Boy, oh boy, do I realize that I am not the "black and white" person I have claimed to be all these years.  Here is where I am black and white---if you see it in the Word of God---it's black and white; if you are a child and your parents require it---unless it goes against the Word, it's black and white; if you have submitted yourself to an authority(church or job),---unless it goes against the Word, it's black and white!  All else, you seek the Lord's direction!! Got it? :)

So, after this summer's working on the school, this upcoming full time teaching position, our process of building a home, my tear ducts are tired---I think my body is tired, so it brings the tears...so, pray for us as a family as our adventure has a bit of adjusting to do...


Ok, so I put a picture in here for fun....no, it's not our kitchen, but it's pretty, right!?  It's a kitchen that a friend of mine redid...he's out of Dallas, if you need a remodeling job---I can send you his name.