New Fridge and Dishwasher

We won the appliance lottery! Well, sort of. Our dear friend Nathan had a brand new fridge and dishwasher that he no longer needed due to his new home providing appliances. So we ended up with them! The dishwasher is a wonder machine! We can actually get through the day with all nine of us without needing to run 2-3 loads! Thanks Nathan, you made my week!

Busy Busy!!

Oh, how I love the sound of jars sealing coming from my kitchen! These last few days have been super busy as I have bottled 36 quarts of peaches and 27 pints of salsa. Reecie and I have also been batch cooking in order to freeze some meals for during fall semester. Having the ability to pull something out of the freezer and pop into the oven was so nice when the work load was high during summer semester. Mark and I also baked 10 dozen cookies, and put 6 dozen balls of cookie dough into the freezer to pull out at a later date.

Layed Off

Mark was layed off a few weeks ago, much to our disappointment. Even worse, NO ONE within a two hour commute is hiring electricians. So far we are holding things together financially, but emotionally it is an entirely different story. We have so many things going on right now between the lay off, Mark's legal issues, both of being in school, having the Glanvilles live with us (not that we aren't happy to have them!)and just the normal issues of life. There have been many days recently when I have just wanted to pack things up and run away. I am so overwhelmed, and I just don;t know where to start in order to straighten things out.

On the other hand, we do have a few good things going for us. Mark is about to start his last year of school. Well, maybe. He is actually looking at pursuing a degree in electrical engineering, so he may well have many more years left, but we'll see what happens. I am back in school after a four year hiatus, and I am enjoying the challenge. During fall semester I am taking seven classes in order to get done faster. Once I do that, all my general eds and prerequisites will be complete.

So all in all, some good, some not so good. We are just plodding along and we'll make it work no matter what comes!

School

Oh my! This semester really has gotten the better of me. I have never put so much effort into classes to do so poorly. I will get pretty much straight B's across all my classes, but I have never worked so hard for B's! There are only two weeks off before I get a break, and I am anticipating it with glee.....

My Fur Babies

I haven't posted any pictures of my fur babies in a while so I thought that I would. I mostly wanted to show everyone how much Nutmeg has grown now that he is a year old, but I can't leave Mazie out, right?



Mazie still doesn't like the camera, but every once in a while I manage to get a shot before she slinks away.


Lazy Nutmeg kitty...what more can I say?

Montana Again!

Once again we took a road trip to Montana to visit my parents and little brother. We had to be about a month and a half early for Christopher's birthday, but it is the thought that counts right?


While we were there we visited the 40 foot "coal chute" slide in Anaconda, It was a blast even with the risk of friction burns! I particularly love the sheer look of joy on Robert's face as he and Mark race down the slide.


We also managed to find time to go fishing at Georgetown Lake with our family friend Garrett and his daughter. My mom and I mostly just sat in the shade and chatted, but it was good to have the opportunity to bond.


While we were at the lake, Christopher decided to try wading...I love the look on his face from deciding that it was too cold!


While we were in Montana we also got the opportunity to visit thrift shops, tour an old state prison, visit a western museum, toy museum and car museum. We also got to stop and play at Prospector's Playground which was fun because we got to try to pan for gold. We also were able to stop and see the trout hatchery...sounds boring, right? It was actually really neat, they had a visitors center with all sorts of cool displays and information.

The Fourth of July

We did all the typical 4th of July things with the barbecue and fireworks. Thanks for joining us Glanville family and Nathan!!!