more pictures

Mercie enjoying the outdoors.


Rod came home with some baby chickens the other day. 30 something to be exact. We have a cage on the side of the trailer with a heating lamp and food and water and Rod built a little pen behind the trailer where we can let them out to play when it's warm. Rod's brother Cole joked, "Rod, you've got a wife, 3 kids, a travel trailer, and 35 chickens." LOL.
Eli and "Boney" his baby chicken.



Mikaela and "Whitey", her baby chick.


Eli playing outside.


The kids playing in the play area at the mall.






I figured I'd post a few pictures of the trailer, so everybody can see how we're living for now.

This is going into the kid's bunk room, the bathroom is on the left, the pantry is on the right. I didn't get a good picture of the bunk room. There is a set of bunks on the right, Mikaela sleeps on top, Eli on bottom. There is also a top bunk on the left, and Mercie's playpen goes under that where the bottom bunk used to be. I have tubs of toys, books, and art supplies stacked on the top bunk. There's a closet in the middle of the bunks and a closet rod behing Mercie's bunk.



This is the dining area, and the kitchen is directly across from it, complete with 5 cabinets and 2 drawers! LOL. A double sink, a microwave/convection oven, which I am still trying to figure out how to cook in without burning the top and leaving the bottom soggy, and a refrigerator.



This is a view of the living room. Those doors go into Rod and my bedroom.



This is the bathroom, with a huge jacuzzi style tub. I Wish!! The tub is so small, and we only have a 5 gallon hot water heater. So long relaxing baths? Out of the question.

updates

Last week, a guy working on the pipeline up here got killed. It was a freak accident, and wasn't anybody's fault, but it still makes me kind of nervous for Rod and all the guys up here we know. Remember the man's family in your prayers.

That day, everybody got off work early, and we took the kids to Kid Zone, which is like ChuckECheese. It's got pizza, games, tokens, and bouncy slides and things. They had a blast, and I'll have to say so did Rod. He was playing just as hard as the kids were! LOL.

I got a new camera the other day, a Kodak easy share. It's blue and really cute. It takes good pictures too and I'll post some soon. Promise.

We found a better playground, and that made the kids really happy. The weather was really nice the other day, it got up to 78 degrees or so and we played for a while outside. I can't wait until it stays warm outside!

Homeschooling is going good. We are going to start on marking vowels next week. If anyone has any tips for teaching how t mark long and short vowel sounds please let me know. We just finished our Season's book today. We are going to be learning about God's plan for seeds and plants next week. If anyone has any tips for that, actitives or whatever, let me know. We are going to plant some seeds and nurture them until they grow and draw pictures of each stage for our books. I have a great science book from Abeka 'God's World'. It's really neat and I love it. They love it, too, but I didn't buy the teacher's guide, so I have to be creative, lol!

Keep all of us in your prayers. It's hard being away from home. I went yesterday and bought pictures, plants and flowers to decorate the trailer. It made it feel more homey, and that helps a little. Even the kids seemed to be a little more happy. I bought a picture that says 'Home is where the heart is'. That's true, and my heart is with Rod and the kids, so I just thank God that we are together. BTW, if you've never been to Big Lots they have some really cute home decorating things. Check it out.

One more note: Passover is coming up!! I'm excited, trying to get ready for our first Passover. We won't be drinking wine, we'll be drinking sparkling grape juice, because I don't like wine. Yuck!! And we are doing our seder a little different from traditional Jews. We'll be reading the story from Exodus, eat our meal complete with unleavened bread and grape juice' and then we'll read the story of the ressurection of Jesus, and have dessert and pray. We're not doing the traditional prayers, blessings, readings, etc. Short and simple.

wow!!

I cannot believe how much time has gone by that I haven't posted!! I have been super busy though...the kids and I left Saturday, Feb. 28 and it was a loooooong drive. 12 hours. It was alot longer and harder than I thought it would be. Mercie got car sick, had diareah 7 times and puked 2 times. Fun. We finally made it, got our travel trailer, set it up, went and bought everything we needed for it, and have been settling in ever since. The kids and I have a pretty good routine now, as much of a routine as you can call it. Tuesdays is story hour at the library. Monday, Thursday, Saturday is laundry day where we go to the laundry mat. That's a whole post in itself, so I won't elaborate on that today. We found a church we like, and have decided to start attending it. Mikaela and Eli loved it, and it had lots of kids around their age. We do our school during Mercie's nap, usually around 11 or so. School's been going great. The kids love it, which is helpful. They love to learn, and are always coming up with ideas.

Life in a travel trailer isn't that bad so far. They all share a room, and that's working out pretty good. They go to sleep good, but Eli has been waking up alot crying and coughing. I think his allergies are bothering him. I got him and Mercie some claritan, she's been coughing, too. Hopefully it will start working pretty quickly. They don't have a lot lot of playing room, and I haven't found a good "park" yet. But I am just so blessed that we can all be together as a family, and not split up across the country.

Well, I am going to post more later, I am on my brother in law's computer. He leaves it here during the day, so I will start using it until I get me a laptop. He's working up here too with Rod.

Bye!!