Forgot

I just realized that I forgot the real good news that we had last week! We have our car back!! Our friend, Dave, got it done last Sunday just before he left town. It only cost $125-150 too! Don't get me wrong, I'm not sure where even that much will come from but that is easier to find then that $900 the shop was talking about.

Talk about good timing...the truck that the Blacks have started having trouble with the ignition wires just as we got the car back so they were able to have their car returned in time to have the truck go into the shop. God is good!

Still here!

I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since I have written an update. Life has been absolutely crazy! 2 weeks ago, Mark worked 72 hours because of the boat show. That was the final one of the year though so we are happy about that.

About that Friday, he started really being worn down. It just kept getting worse. Finally, this last Thursday, he went to the dr. He is now on antibiotics for a sinus infection and bronchitis. They also had to flush out his ears as one was completely blocked with wax and the other was better than 75% blocked. He is still really tired out and not feeling like his normal self but seems to be improving.

Last Wednesday, Joshua didn't want breakfast and complained of a sore throat. By 8:30 I was glad he hadn't eaten when the juice he had drank came back up. He was feverish by evening and all around crabby. On Thurs. evening I took him to the dr. to be checked. His test for strep came back negative so it is evidently the flu. He seems to be improving now as he hasn't had a fever since Sat. He still has a runny nose though and sounds all congested.

By Friday, Rachel and I were also on the miserable side. We had headaches, congestion, sore throats, and noses that just won't quit. I put her and I on echinacia right away. It hasn't gotten us completely better yet but I think it has kept us from being flat-on-our-back sick. We are able to eat and function most of the time. At least I have been able to have enough spurts of energy to get my usual work done around here.

None of us, except Stephen, were well enough to go to the Good Friday service. (I sent the cookies I promised for the fellowship with friends.) We did all make it to Sunday services though. I kept Joshua with me the whole time instead of putting him in classes to infect everyone else. I also told the kids not to be hugging people to spread this around.

Satuday, I managed to get enough energy up to go do shopping for Easter after Mark got home from work. I had absolutely nothing here for the kids baskets unless I did. I was actually pleased with what I could find. Stephen and Joshua each got a new DVD from a new series called Hermie and Friends. Rachel got a praise CD for her to play in her karaoke player.

The kids have 4 days of school this week before they start spring break on Friday. It is also Spirit week at the school. Rachel went as a teacher and Stephen as a pastor this morning. He insisted he needed a tie so he is wearing one of Mark's with a vest hopefully covering it.

Tomorrow is Heritage day. They are to dress as though from a country of their heritage. Wednesday is Alphabet day. They are to wear something that starts with every letter of their first name. And Thursday is Patriotic Day. With the heritage of these kids, I told them they should do red, white, and blue on Tuesday and Thursday. I think Stephen plans to do Irish which means probably the same thing he wore on St. Patrick's day. I don't know what Rachel plans to do. I already had them working on the list for Wednesday because I don't want them trying to find that kind of stuff that morning. (I am trying to get them organized a bit even if I'm not great at setting an example of it myself.)

Spring weather is finally showing itself here. We hit 50 over the weekend. They are saying possibly 60 tomorrow which we haven't seen since 11/8. It is even possible to see hyacinths and tulips popping their heads through the ground in my front flower bed. I haven't cut off my rose bushes yet because I am fearful of another good frost. Maybe if the weather is good during spring break, I will.

I think I am going to be working a booth at the Family and Kid's Expo this Friday and Saturday. My manager said to plan on it but I haven't heard much about it yet. I'm also keeping busy doing follow up on a lot of leads from the Women's Expo a couple of weeks ago. I actually had 3 orders from new customers from the expo with my order I placed last week! I also had 2 new customers from church with the last order. I think the word has finally leaked out around there!

Well, I think that is about it for now. Not a lot of positive to write about because of being sick but I guess that is how things go sometimes.

Survived

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have survived the weekend. It was extremely hectic and we only have a minor reprieve before Mark is at a boat show this Thurs. through Sunday.

Stephen was back to school on Wed. Thursday was AVON order day. I had a new recruit come here so I could show her how to put it on the computer. She had a $500 order. I then ended up with a $400. This was so exciting. I had to check on my other recruits but my manager was able to find out that I am a UNIT LEADER now! This means that I am able to get a bonus off of the orders of my recruits! This is what I have been aiming for and finally made it. Now I just need to keep this status.

Friday during the day, Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon, I spent at our Women's Expo working the AVON booth that our manager had set up. I got lots of leads for customers, recruits, and fundraisers, and even signed up a new recruit on the spot! This should really help keep my business rolling!

In the midst of all this I baked, decorated, and delivered a wedding cake. Maybe I'll try posting pictures when I get them emailed to me. I forgot my camera so a friend with a digital took some for me. It was a rather simple 3 tier design. I actually spent more time on the groom's cake. The groom is a Star Wars fan so the bride wanted the words "Star Wars" along with 2 crossed light sabers. I even got to try a couple of new techniques out on it. It turned out really well! What was funny was the groom had no idea it was coming. When he first saw it, he thought some friends from across the state were pulling a joke. Boy, was he shocked to find out his bride had ordered it!

This week's schedule isn't much lighter. Today is AVON pick up day. (I have customer's pick up there orders at my house for a discount.) Tomorrow I plan to deliver some orders but we also have a C.E. committee meeting here at our house (which means lots of cleaning). While the meeting is going on, Mark has a meeting at the kids' school and the kids have AWANA games practice. Wed. is our day to deliver papers and church. Thursday is MOPS (which I need to write a newsletter for) and lunch duty at the school. Friday, Stephen has an appointment and Saturday is the AWANA games and the kids' school carnival. And as I mentioned, Mark will be working 10-12 hour days Thurs-Sat. plus at least 5 hours on Sun.

Guess I better get at it.

So much for an update

Just a minute to fill you in on the weekend and this week's schedule. Mark woke up sick with vomiting and diarrhea Friday night and was pretty miserable Saturday. He was keeping food down on Sunday but still felt dizzy in the morning so didn't go to church. By evening he was feeling better still and had kept down more food so went to evening service.

Rachel and Stephen had AWANA games practice in the morning. They then spent most of the afternoon playing games on the computer while I ran to the store while Mark and Joshua were napping. They did ok for a while and they didn't fight over the computer. Turns out they were having such a good time that they got too loud and woke up both Daddy and Joshua. After I got home from the store I sent them all outside to burn up some energy. They were thoroughly soaked by the time they came in but had enjoyed themselves.

Today Mark was up to going to work but still didn't feel "right". Stephen left for school saying that his stomach didn't feel very good either. The Blacks went ahead and put insurance back on their truck so we have their car to use. In a few minutes Joshua and I are headed out to do some AVON (as long as we don't get a call from school first).

Stephen has an appointment tomorrow morning and I really don't want to think about the rest of the week. I have a wedding cake that I am doing on Saturday and our AVON team has a booth set up at the Women's Expo in town Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I have agreed to take shifts all 3 days. That also means prepping catalogs with stickers, etc. before then. There is also a church ministries conference that is held once a year that is this weekend. I'm not going to make it at all but Mark is going to try to go to some sessions, as time permits.

No word on the car yet but we aren't going to push either. With having the Black's car, we will be fine till it is done so there's not really a rush to it.

I guess I should stop sitting here writing about the week and get busy facing it. If you don't hear from me for a while you'll understand why but keep checking in. You just never know when I may get a craving to write.

So much for plans!

I made it to all of 2 customers before I received the call from school that Stephen had gotten sick and had to be picked up. I'll just have to add the other 6 to get to tonight when I had other errands planned. Hopefully, this is just the same 24-hour virus that Joshua and Mark have had. He has done pretty well since he has been home. We let his stomach rest for 2 hours and now he has had 1/2 doz. sips of water that have stayed down for an hour or more.

Just thought I'd fill you in on how my day's planning turned out.

Car update

Good news! God is working things out for us! We called our friend from church and even though the head gasket is a big job, he has done a 1/2 dozen or so of them for himself and other friends. He can also do the fuel regulator without any trouble. It may take a while but he thinks it will run around $150 for the parts for both jobs. Now $150 is still quite a bit of money the way our budget is right now but it seems more attainable then $1000. So when we picked up the car from the garage last night we took it right over to this friend's house. He has a heated pole barn around back with all the tools he needs and now he has the car for whenever he might have time to work on it. He did say he had another friend's car from church that he has plans to work on tomorrow but he may even start on ours some tonight. This is a major relief! We don't know how long we may be down to one car but it should only be a week or so.

Also, we talked to our neighbor's, the Blacks. (I do daycare for their 4th grade daughter and we share carpooling responsibilities.) They currently have 2 cars and a pickup truck for the 2 adults living there. They have the truck in "storage" in their driveway for the winter. They say that if we run into too much conflicts with 1 vehicle, they can bring the truck out of storage and let us use 1 of the cars for whatever time we need to. We have things worked out pretty well through Sunday so we will see then how things look for next week. Besides carpooling, I only have 2 days that I really have to have a car during the day. Again God is providing!

This blog really wasn't meant to be such a ranting place but thanks for listening and for the suggestions, etc that we received. I really meant for it to be a place for people to hear what our kids and family are up to. They are growing up so quickly. I have other things to get busy with but will try to post an update later and focus on the other family activities going on.

Car

Well, it turns out the there were several broken wires on the car there were causing the headlights not to work. Sounds cheap right? Wrong. It was only $30 cheaper than if he had replaced the switch which is what the machanic thought was the problem. That's the good news...

The bad news is that the mechanic also found that the fuel regulator is leaking and we have a gasket leaking antifreeze. I don't suppose I have any big brothers or nephews wanting a trip to West MI? $1000 is a little out of our price range right now. So now that we have working headlights we will be parking the car till we can figure out what to do. (The fuel that is leaking from the regulator is in/near the engine so it makes for a major safety issue.) Our next step is to talk to some guys from church that have helped with minor repairs before. I looked in the Haynes manual and the fuel regulator doesn't look too bad to work on. I couldn't seem to find the head gasket though. It really bothers Mark when things like this come up. He is not very mechanically inclined. I just keep reminding him that it isn't as if he was taught this kind of stuff growing up.

I was able to make it to MOPS at church this morning. I hated leaving any early because of the good speaker we had today. She was talking about parenting children with special needs. Some of her ideas were good for all children though too. I had to leave though so I could get out to the school and do lunch duty in the kids classes.

I, however, missed a meeting that our group manager wanted to have this morning. She says that I have to pick and choose and use my time wisely. Well, her meeting wasn't put together before Tuesday and today was already booked.

Well, I have to go. More to do before I pick up the kids from school, only to leave an hour later to pick up Mark from work. By bedtime, the $20 in gas that I put in this morning will probably be used up!

Down

This probably isn't the best time to be blogging but I'm frustrated and don't have any place else to rant. This is a really tough time around here. It really seems like the harder we work, the further behind we get. Everytime it looks a bit brighter, it gets yanked away from us. I know that God will provide. He always does but the testing along the way is really getting rough.

Right now we have Mark's car in the shop to find out why we don't have any low beam headlights. The high beams we could get along without. It also wouldn't be bad if it was summer time and stayed light till after 9 at night but right now, some nights Mark isn't home before dark. We changed one of the bulbs ourselves, outside in the snow and dark, but that didn't help. All it did was make my husband feel worthless.

I will really be glad for tomorrow. Mark will be able to start taking his Omega-3's again. He started taking them about a year ago when we were introduced to them as a possible help for Stephen when he was struggling in school. They did help Stephen some and Mark thought he would try them. They have been amazing for him! His temperment is so much more even. He handles frustrations so much better. Without them, every little thing is completely overwhelming. He has been off them for the last week and it has been rough on us all. I was never a big believer on vitamins, etc. but these are really making a believer out of me. It is like living with 2 very different people.

There was another snow day yesterday. The kids are busy preparing for the AWANA games competition in a couple of weeks. They have practices at church 2 days a week till the 19th when they have the big games.

I'm trying to push my AVON business very hard. I now have enough recruits to make a unit. If we can get our sales to a set level, I will start making a bonus on my recruits sales. Mark and I have really come to the conclusion that AVON is the best option for us. The daycare is just not steady enough. We have had just too many problems with this. There are such great possibilities with AVON that we want to see where it can take us. Of course, this takes time. Not to mention, vehicles with headlights. I could take the van in the evenings but then we are spending so much more on gas.

We are all generally healthy. Joshua was sick last weekend. He had some kind of intestinal bug but it only lasted 24 hours. All the kids take turns coughing and a bit stuffy. I have had Rachel to the doctor twice in the last month to check her cough. They say send her to school. I have a real problem doing that when she sounds like a barking seal but they say coughs are lasting a month or more and I don't want her home that long.

Well, I guess I better go. I have to get the Advance papers ready to deliver. We'll probably do it when the kids are home from school. I like to take Joshua and do part of it during the day but that doesn't always work. Sometimes, life happens. So much for the best layed plans.

Thanks for listening to my ranting and for your prayers. As I said to begin with, we know that God will provide. It is just the waiting that can be hard.