Working Girl

My baby Sara is starting her first "real" job tomorrow! AACK! She's babysat for years and helped out in various organizations but tomorrow she starts serving and housekeeping at the Abilene Victorian Inn. I can't beleive she'll be 18 next month ... where have the years gone? ( I am going to be working here some now too but still)

I'm sure the Lord will use and bless her just feeling maudlin!


(here's the website for the Inn -- http://www.abilenesvictorianinn.com/)

Home based business?

Ok all you creative people - I need some thoughts, input, help here!

Prayerfully hubby will get promoted next month but in the meantime we could use a little extra moolah around here! I would like to have a home based business that is lucrative and different (No I don't necessarily want to do home based parties - I've tried some of those companies in the past) - what I really love to do is crafts and decorating! I have done decorating for other people in the past - weddings, parties, Farwells (military), barracks rooms, Chapel events, even a military ball - and have been told that I have a knack for it. If you ask me to help you with a decoration issue I can come up with 2-10 different ideas fairly soon!

So how do I turn that into a business that will still leave me time to homeschool, be in PWOC & FRG, etc?

Thanks!

It's all perspective!

Tonight we went to a small gathering here in town for military families to get to know each other. Met some nice ladies and such. Funny though several of them think Abilene is so "country" --- it's a nice, friendly town of about 7000 people give or take! ( Demographics of town: http://www.bestplaces.net/city/Abilene_KS-52000125000.aspx)
This to me is not country! I'm from a town of 1800 and have family and friends in much smaller places. My sister's ranch is about 10 minutes from "town" of Sunsites, AZ. Which is like 500? Ok it has a gas station, a library, a post office and a family dollar. The closest Walmart is about 70 miles if you need that for reference. The closest one here is 23 miles East or West! There are many smaller towns around here.

I just find people's perspective interesting - I understand in the sense if you are transfering from Fort Bragg (Fayetville, NC) or Fort Lewis (Tacoma, WA) but that's one of the things we really enjoyed when we were here last time - that Fort Riley is kinda in between city and country - not to big but not to small. This is one thing the Army has definetly helped me to learn - to look for the good where I am no matter how small that good may be. Do I do this everyday, of course not but it does become a habit of overall perception. Sure there's things to miss here but there's also very little crime, people say hello, they wave at each other - even at people they don't know, wave at each other on porches, stop to talk on street corners, etc! Found out today the library doesn't charge for copies if it's for our school needs - try that in Tacoma, or most big cities!


Often we are asked - which post was your favorite? So far I truly don't have one -- they've all been good in many ways. Oh sure there's lots to complain about at each one but we have truly enjoyed them all! Life is truly what you make of it - no matter where you are!

Beauty


Just thought some of you might like this photo from when we were in AZ.


The heavens declare the glory of the Lord......

The Long and the Short of it....

Well actually the short version of everything that happened between the two posts below:

We arrived at Fort Irwin and found a nice house in Barstow to rent. Tim redeployed to Iraq with 11th ACR/Blackhorse in March of 05. In June we got housing on post so the kids and I moved to 5108 A Sweetwater Springs Drive. I was active in the FRG and PWOC, the kids were in AWANA and a couple plays with Missoula Children's Theater. Tim redeployed home January of 06 and became acting 1SGT in May. I was the Programs lady for PWOC for the 06/07 year. In August Tim transferred to RHHT and worked at the "Star Wars Building" as a Regimental OC until we left post. December we were home for Christmas and in Jan had orders to be at Fort Riley in April. Add in a few trips to San Diego, The Channel Islands, The Regan Library, Disneyland, Death Valley, and other places in S. CA; dance classes for me and Tim, a retreat to plan and execute, trip to CO with our PWOC President, tutoring, home schooling, more AWANA, Violin lessons, horseback riding lessons, Chapel activities, FRG functions, walks, neighborhood drama, friendships, and love and there you have it!

The LONG of it has been this move!! 6MONTHS after leaving CA we finally have a house. The housing market here is insane right now and totally unreasonable but with the Lord's help we have a nice 3bdrm Victorian in Abilene.

Hello again

Well I'm back. Not sure anybody cares but for what it's worth I thought I would try this again!

Lots has happened since my last post! We're no longer in CA but now reside in KS (Fort Riley), my eldest son has started shaving(!), my eldest daughter will be 18 next month and I'm still trying to figure out where to put everything in our new house!

After a 6 month saga of moving - lots and lots of cheap older houses that need lots of work, greedy people who want more than their house is worth, nothing to rent that's affordable, etc it's nice to have a home! Now if I could just figure out where to put things......

More later.