Lydia – 6 months old
28 Jul
Lydia at 6 months old with her strawberry.
Happy 1/2 year Lydia!
Archive | July, 2011
Cat by the tail…
27 Jul
Lydia was playing with her little purse, and it ended up on her arm like she was fixing to go shopping. I just had to take a picture of her with it on her arm and her looking up at me as if to say “okay Mommy, I’m ready to go out with you!”
Also…a new way of “Having the cat by the tail”. I thought it was cute anyways… 😀
What a cutie! 😀
Finished Quilt and the AFHE Homeschool Convention
22 Jul
One more project to cross off the long term project list. 🙂
Hand stitched butterflies…
As well as pre-embroidered butterflies…
With Matching pillows and shams. 🙂
In other news…
The AFHE (Arizona Families for Home Education) convention happened this weekend. It was huge. They had Ken Ham this year as the keynote speaker for the first morning session, and he was quite good. He is the director for the only Creation Museum in the world, located in Ohio. He had some good things to say. I had some of the sessions lined up, but…some of the speakers were better than I pictured, and others I was disenchanted with. Angela Baggett was able to come for the first day before flying out to Canada that evening, so she and I ended up picking all of the same sessions, but ended up walking the curriculum hall near the end. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, and as a Canadian Educator, she was unaware of all of the curriculums available to homeschoolers. She did say that she was unhappy with the American school system, and any future kids would be homeschooled. She will be very good at it.
Attendance was up from last year, so…guessing somewhere between 4,000-5,000 people. We hung out with the Couba’s, Semrocks, Wallaces, Martins, Roberts, and a few other people the first night. We went to “My Big Fat Greek Restaurant“, and got the flaming cheese. As Lydia was hungry, I had to excuse myself into the restroom to try to nurse her, so I missed the flaming cheese at our table, but apparently we set a trend that night as there were quite a few other “flare ups”, so I felt satisfied to have gotten my show.
The next day, Jordan and I spent a bit of time together in some of the sessions (trading off caring for Lydia), and ended up in the Curriculum hall together. We got the 1828 edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary from Vision Forum. Jordan has wanted that for a while, so I felt satisfied walking away with that. It is amazing the difference between the dictionary of today, and Noah Webster’s definitions. As a Christian, it would make a wonderful study guide, and as a Christian parent (and homeschooler), consider it as a teaching tool. It has scripture references, and meanings that the world has long since has tried to ignore in order to do what they have wanted to do. If the dictionary condemns you, then change the dictionary. *sigh* What a degradation of our society.
That night after the convention ended, we went with the Wallaces and three ladies from Canada (all the way from Canada to Arizona just for the convention!) to a place called Thai Elephant. It was quite good, but I filled up on my dish rather fast. Jordan and I ended up with all of the leftovers. :-p good times!
Lydia sleeping
21 Jul
Lydia was asleep on the bed, shop and she just looked too cute to pass up on taking a picture.
Note her crossed ankles. I love that! 😀
She is so peaceful! 🙂
The Centipede
17 Jul
We’ve been traveling back and forth from Tucson to Sierra Vista because of Jordan’s job, and we’ve enjoyed the variation in the week, as well as the generous usage of the Wallace’s 5th wheel. But I forgot what an adventure that the Wallace’s (and anything to do with the Wallaces) can be. We (Jordan, myself, Lydia, Austin and Zachery) arrived sunday night at the trailer, after a long farewell at the Peterson’s, and an already long Sunday with two services.
I happened to be in the bathroom after unloading when I heard Zachery and Austin talking in excited, albeit hushed, tones. I came out very suspicious, and for a good reason, as they were both bending over the garbage can, trying to act casual about what was going on. When I asked, they said “oh, you don’t want to know”, and tried to brush it off. REALLY suspicious at this point, I asked again, and finally they admitted to having found a centipede and were trying to kill it, and then further admitted to the fact that it was the second one that they had found since moving the trailer from the Wallaces!
I was personally thinking Millipede myself, but as they kept admiringly and awedly gasping “He’s still biting!” after Zachery had already stomped in the trash can several times, I had to just take a peek. I didn’t get a good look, but it was good enough! Millipede it wasn’t! Needless to say, Jordan was quite disturbed to discover that there had already been one Centipede found, and now here was another. I hardly even wanted to step anywhere, much less crawl into bed! I finally asked Jordan to please pray over the place, and he did. I felt better afterwards, but stepped around much more carefully after that, and I try to be careful in watching where I put Lydia. There have been no other sightings, thank the Lord.
A few of my favorite things…
14 Jul
Some of my favorite pictures in the past week or so:
Lydia”s first Stroller ride upright…
Eating dinner with Daddy…
Austin holding Lydia in the Lunchbag…
(Austin: “See? She just fits!”)
(Lydia: “I wonder if this thing tastes any good…”)
Cloudburst…
Lydia sitting on the bed by herself…
On the floor and Happy… 🙂
Sucking in her bottom lip…
Moving to Whetstone
11 Jul
So here we are in Whetstone, just outside of Sierra Vista, staying at an RV park. Getting down here and getting set up was quite the adventure! It started with just a couple days of Zachery traveling with Jordan and Austin for work, and deciding that he had enough of traveling! So first opportunity he got, he convinced Austin to go up and to get the Wallace RV to park it down near the fort, eliminating an hour and a half drive to 15 minutes. They were up bright and early the Saturday following Zachery’s first work week, and by the end of the day they had pulled the trailer into the Peterson’s front yard.
As it was the end of the day, and the next day being Sunday, we didn’t get any opportunity to get in and clean, but first thing Monday morning, I was over with my cleaning gloves and supplies, ready to get started! After spending a few hours *cough* all day cleaning and loading it, we were ready to hit the road, which involved stopping at Costco for groceries…and yes, dinner. 😀 Costco combo pizza (Jordan’s favorite) and two berry smoothies to split. We were driving and eating (I’m sure much to the chagrin of Austin), and talking about how his truck was doing pulling the trailer.
When we finally got down to Whetstone, we decided to look at one or two other parks before pulling into Quail Ridge RV Resort, but decided that our first choice was our best choice. We pulled all around the park before deciding to park under two mesquite trees. The boys busily got out and started hooking things up, unhooking other things, and Zachery ran around with the trailer jack trying to jack the trailer into the proper angle and position. Meanwhile, inside, a foul smell started making itself noticeable. We searched for a while trying to figure out what was going on and where it was coming from. I’m sure we found out what it was, but currently I do not recall what it was. I just remember the disgusted expressions on everyone’s faces as we tried to rapidly cure the problem!
Overall, it was nice to find a quiet spot to settle down and to rest from the eventful day!
Living room/dining room/kitchen
Master Bedroom/front door/kitchen
The freezer and refrigerator (yes, it is as small as it looks!)
The Living room
Master Bedroom
The Bathroom with it’s shower/tub, and the bunks just off to the right
Call it “cozy”, and call it short term. 😀
Healthy Lunch
6 Jul
I decided to have a salad for lunch the other day, patient but instead of having just a simple lettuce salad, I decided to add some fruit that needed to be eaten, reminding myself of what Panera might have in their salads. I also wanted to have a honey poppy seed salad dressing, so I made one from the best that I could remember.
I sliced strawberries, apples, cucumbers, and sprinkled craisins on top.
I like a wet salad, so I was generous with the salad dressing.
I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed eating it. 🙂
4th of July weekend – The Isaacson’s yearly branding
2 Jul
Every year, the Isaacson family has had a branding and then a potluck style cook out afterwards, everyone is invited, bring enough food for your family. We had been invited by Jonathan (the oldest of one of the families, who now has kids of his own), and the rest of the family was invited by Amos Garcia (also an Isaacson). The ranch is deeded to where it cannot be sold out of the Isaacson family, so this 400+ acre ranch is owned by various members of the Isaacson family, some owning just an acre or so, while others own much more. The property runs along the San Pedro River, and it is absolutely beautiful there.
Jordan and I were house sitting for the Fraijo’s who were in Mexico at Shiloh’s wedding at the time, so we were coming from Sahaurita, aaannnd…as is the case many times, we were running behind. I had wanted to see some of the branding, as I have never seen branding done in real life (not as to my recollection), so I thought it would be a neat thing to experience, and, of course, blog about. We took a very scenic route through some mountains, and I enjoyed it.
As we started to come into the Whetstone area, (outside of Sierra Vista which is right next to Herford where the Isaacson’s ranch is), Jordan pointed out a few areas where the fire had been just a few weeks ago. It got started by a few drug runner illegals to try to get the border patrol off their tracks.
Justice served itself, and the 3 who started it got caught up in it and they didn’t survive. There were many people evacuated, I don’t know if there were many (if any) who were killed, but they lost 50 +/- homes.
I got a couple pictures of the prairie, but as we got closer to the ranch, I started just watching more and took no photographs. As we got more into Sierra Vista, we saw many homes to where the fire had burned the shed and all around the house, but left the house unburnt. Many Cottonwoods were destroyed, devaluating very valuable property.
As we got closer to the ranch, it was more green and lush. We also passed A.A. Allens old Bible college on the way there, which I found to be rather neat. Dilapidated old buildings and a “for Sale” sign now occupy the once active campus, and I found myself picturing what the campus must have looked like back in the old days.
After a few turn around’s (due to distracted directions from someone), we were able to find the drive, and got there in time to see about the last bit of Immunizations. We pulled up and got out. There were small children on horseback being led around by adults, dogs, children, a pond with a gushing wading pool that ran into the pond with little kids and their parents splashing around in it.
I was quickly introduced to quite a few people, and so for a bit there, my head was whirling from trying to take a few pictures, take everything in, and remember people’s names and the associations. Fortunately, the rest of Jordan’s family had come…last minute decision, for as of the night before, only 3 of them were going to come.
This one was either being pushed from beind, or just wanted it over and done with! 😀
After about 45 minutes, they had finished with the immunizations (with Jordan’s Dad helping).
They directed everyone to the river side where they were going to be setting up lunch. We all drove down there, and quickly the tables and food were being set up. The activity is too much to describe to you…
there was a climbing rope (Jude and Jordan both got up about half way, but realized that they had better be saving their strength for work)…
(Jude)
…they brought in two piñatas for the kids…
…a volleyball game got set up after lunch, there were kids playing in the river (which was low, but covered in algae, which, yes, meant that the kids were covered in it too!), and horses being ridden.
We set up zome blankets in the laundry basket so that Lydia would have a clean place to hang out.
Eventually I was asked if I wanted to ride, and I said yes. Someone lent me a skirt, and Melissa Isaacson (Jonathan’s wife) and I went on a ride. I found it to be very pleasant, as away from the group it was very quiet, peaceful and relaxing (albeit dusty :D).
When we got back, Jordan was ready to call it a day, as was I. We collected our things, and we headed back to the Fraijo’s where we were staying. Needless to say, we slept very well that night!
A huge thank you to the Isaacson’s for their hospitality.