Baseball Season

Well its that time of year again.  The time to bring out the old baseball bag.  Little Russell has been playing little league for a few years now.  It seems like the same old thing year after year.  We take out the bag of his equipment and try it on, and well, nothing fits.  He is growing like a weed.  He is 13 and is 6 feet tall now.  He wears a size 12 or 12 and a half shoe.  Boy I am just not sure when he will stop growing.  We are so lucky, he is a handsome young man.  He is a nice natured young man.  Not quite sure how to keep up with his growth.  But he likes being his size.  He loves sports and is not afraid to try something new.  He loves to play first base.  He is trying pitching for the first time this year.  With his size and build he does pretty good.  With some good coaching he might do alright.  His place is on first base for sure.  He feels comfortable there.  We all look forward to a great season this year.  He has been busy with practice everyday after school.  I can wait for the first game.  I will also be a good way for our family to meet other families in the area. 

Puppy Love

When we bought our home in Maine the first purchase was our puppies.  Our two boxers have become such a part of our family.  They are the best puppies we have ever met.  Not because they our part of our family.  They are the truly the best natured animals we have ever met.  I am not sure if it was because we got two together or we just got lucky.  They do not bite us.  They have been fairly easy to train.  They will just climb up in your lap and lay on you like a baby and fall asleep.  When they sleep together they cuddle and hug.  That is the cutest thing.  They love to run and play.  They are easy to train new tricks.  I just cant say enough about them. 

This is Sophie and Melanie, it is just the cutest.

This is Melanie and Bailey, she will just cuddle with you forever.

They are only five months old, we are hoping they get a little bigger.  But we are totally in LOVE so we don't care.  Melanie calls them her best friends.  She writes stories about them all the time.  She even tries to make videos on them.  They let her.  Where she goes, they follow.  Sophie and Bailey completed our family for sure.

Weekend Family Fun

For the first time since we moved to Maine we stopped working on our new home.  We took time to get out of the house and spend some family fun time.  We didn't spend a lot of money doing it either.  On both day's my 13 year old son said he was glad he went.  That is great coming from him. 
Saturday we went to a silent auction at the local American Legion to benefit the 4H Club.  What a great time.  I am not sure if you have ever been to a silent auction but they are fun.  Almost everyone wins something.  The kids think its great.  It cost us $11 and we spent the day and walked away with about $50 worth of items.  The kids thought we hit the lottery.  Better yet we spent a nice family day together.  We helped a local club.  We won nice items.  Great time by all.  The auction was listed in the local newspaper.  We came home and had a wonderful dinner together then watched a family movie.  It just was a great day for us.
Sunday we woke nice and refreshed.  Feeling good about our family day from Saturday we found another cheap activity our family would like.  There was a home and garden show going on not to far away.  So we got the family up and going and hit the road.  We stopped at Walmart for the boys to get some hair cuts.  Then we were on our way.  Again my son not sure if he was going to have fun.  But again he stated he was glad he came. 

The kids enjoying a display at the show.  We were able to get many great ideas for our own home.  Lots of work for us but I am sure well worth it when it will be done.  

The snow is almost all gone off the ground.  Soon the ground will thaw.  We cant wait till we can do some improvements on the outdoors of our home.  We have so many visions and ideas for the yard and land.  The home and garden show gave us so many more. 

We took a small Sunday drive after the show.  We still need to explore the area when we get a chance.  We are still in such awe of the beautiful scenery Maine has to offer.  Mountains, farms and rivers it is all so pretty to see.  It seems as if I just want to stop the car and take pictures every mile.  We are so lucky to live here now.

Living on a Budget

One day when it seemed as if we were so in over our head I looked at our life.  To look at us from the outside you would think we had it all.  I mean most of the time we do.  But that does not mean we don't struggle.  We struggle and that causes problems for sure.  When you struggle you rob peter to pay Paul.  Then forget to pay Paul and say screw peter.  Then forget it, you lost the battle.  Your relationship suffers for sure.  It cant be helped.  You hide this from your friends and family.  Most of all you never let your children know they cant have something or you cant afford something.  If you did that you would have to give in to the fact your in over your head.  Well I believe most families are in this same place and have yet to admit it.  Well, we finally did.  We said enough of this fighting over money.  We still fight over money for sure that will never change.  We have a different perspective on what is a need and a want sometimes.  But for the most part we both came to agree what we want at the end of our life together as a family.  Before we buy anything now we talk about it and talk about it for days even months.  We never buy something on an impulse.  We never buy something without being an informed shopper.  I say informed shopper, that means we research the Internet, stores and any way we think to try to find the best price.  That is after we have decided it to be a need for our family and it will have a purpose for our life.  Even food, I don't buy alot of junk food that we don't need.  I mean sometimes my husband will say I want munchies.  Well if that happens we makes some from scratch.  The kids love to bake and cook and it brings us together as a family activity.  And most of the time its the cost of some flour and oats.  A much healthier munchies than normal.  I buy flour in bulk at Sam's club and we use it all the time.  I never buy bread anymore.  We always make our own bread another way to save big time.  Just think of how much you spend on a loaf a bread.  Add that up and see how much you spend a year on bread it is crazy.  Homemade bread is delicious and easy to make.  I use a bread machine to do the needing and then I take it out and put it in my own pan and bake it in my oven.  I make two loafs at a time and freeze one.  A bread machine can be expencive, but worth the price.  But one place to find them cheap is at a second hand store.  A lot of people buy one and never use them then donate them out.  I bought two for ony $14 each.  That was a steal.  Now I have an extra for when I burn one out.  Or I can make two at a time.  I have made a utube video showing how easy it is to make follow this link  and you will see how easy it is http://youtu.be/k8gGFQjVz7Q this should take you to the recipe and how to make it.
We go shopping once a month at Sam's club and fill the freezer.  We eat a well balanced meal every night.  It cost so much less than shopping at the local super market or even Walmart.  I do buy some things at Walmart.  Like cereal, most of the time I make waffles for the family, but we do have cereal on hand for a quick breakfast.  When I say we make waffles, that is from scratch of course.  Again using flour and a few other household staples.  It cost pennies.  We make extra and feeze them when they are needed just pop them in toaster oven.  Always a hot breakfast on hand.
Shopping at Sam's club we can feed the family each day for under $20 a day.  That is for the whole day and the whole family.  That includes my husbands lunch at work.  He never eats out during the day.  He always takes a lunch from home.  A good homemade lunch usually left overs from our dinners.  Some homemade snacks and drinks.   That is better than take out, any day. 
Now our dinners don't include fancy steak but we eat alot of chicken, pork, and beef meals.  We all watch the food network on TV and pick different ways to cook it.

 Pasta is always a family favorite and of course with our homemade sauce. I don't even eat meat myself I eat a vegan diet and we have enough veggies and beans for my meals in that budget.  I could go on and on about what I buy and don't buy to try to save.  Please ask me questions about my shopping habits if you want I will be glad to comment. 
One thing we don't have anymore is car payments.  We both at one time or another worked in the car business.  My husband still does.  It was always hard for us not to have a nice car.  My husband really likes a nice car and when he was making good money we would justify driving around in a nice car.  I mean you have to look a certain way, I think that is the way we would think.  Well when we looked at our budget years ago that was the first things to go.  We didnt need the fancy cars.  We both new they were the worst investment someone could ever make.  We seen that everyday when someone would try to trade one in and they would owe more than its worth.  So good thing we were not in that position and we were able to sell our vehicles and pay them off.  Then we bought used cars without a car payment.  I mean they are old cars.  They need work every now and then.  My husband does as much work on them  himself as he can.  We are lucky he works in a dealership so he has help when he needs it.  But we save thousands a year owning our cars outright.  Who cares what they look like, they get us around and they are paid for. 
Next was credit cards.  Well our motto is, if we cant afford it we dont buy it.  If we dont have the cash in hand we dont get it.  We have stopped living beyond our means.  That is the hardest thing.  You always want more.  In a fast world you try to make excuses why you deserve things now rather than waiting.   But if it is that important you wait.  I looked at my grandparents,  they were the dearest people in my life.  I know they never had a credit card.  I dont think they ever financed a car.  They lived their whole life without owing a sole.  They lived into their 90's.  Respected by all.  With a nice home and a great family and even money to leave behind for their children.  I want that to be me.  I want that to be my family. 
Now that we have started on our road to living on our budget and always really trying to stick with it.  Now dont get me wrong, nobody is perfect.  I am sure we have strayed here or there.  But we are on track to making the most out of our life.  We hope to next start using our land and home to raise some livestock to suppliment our food source.  First chickens, my daughter cant wait.  I want the fresh eggs to cook with.  Next we will try some pigs.  Then we will take it from there.  We will also start a garden for all my veggies hopfully enough for the full year.  We will plan on canning them and feeding them to the animals.  We hope to use our resources wisely. 
One thing I know, if we can do this anyone can.  You just have to know you want a better way of life for you and your family.  Then take it one step at a time.  You will get there.  We look so forward to Maine being our forever homestead.

Winter Fun

Its funny most things hibernate in the winter. Not here in Maine.  The locals around here look forward to the winter and the snow.  They have so many activities geared toward the white stuff. 

We have learned that a snowmobile is called a sled.  That in school they go skiing at gym.  They teach the children from real young how to snowshoe at school, and they love it.  They go out everyday for recess unless it drops below 10 degrees.  Boy that is cold. 

To be honest it looks pretty with all that snow on the ground all the time, so its not so bad.  Your body does get used to the cold. You just dress warmer.  Well, me I just stay closer to the fireplace. 

Well of course the puppies join me.  That is, when they are not playing outside or going for a walk with their little girl and boy.

We did move to Maine in the middle of the winter so we have not had a full Maine winter.  We look forward to next year to capture the full affect.  We will be prepared.  We will take advantage of all of activities that are at our disposal.  Of course on a budget.  Most things are free to local residents on certain days.  You just have to search it out.  We even have a snow tubing mountain right down the street.  That is a definite on our list for next year.  Not for me of course but the kids cant wait.

Make a fun Chalk Board Wall

I find when you add fun to things it brings a smile to the whole family and all that comes to visit.  Well a chalk Board Wall will do just that.

  It makes it fun to write a cute message for the day.  You can use it to make a to do list so everyone knows what needs to be done in the house.  I do that and my husband seems to get to it faster.  ;) 
My daughter loves to make some cute pictures on it each month.  When we get visitors they seem to want to leave their names stating they were here.  It makes it hard for me to erase it :(. 
It is a real easy project to do and just takes some tape and chalk board paint.  You can make it as small as you want and as big as you want.  You can frame it in and you can just leave it as it is.  I did one once with a magnetic backing which was fun also.  The great thing about it is if you tire of it or you move you can just paint over it and its gone. 
So here I go I will show you how easy it is:
First decide how big you want to go, make sure you make it the shape you want and tape it off.

I made mine real big.  But again have fun with it. You don't have to make it a square make a circle or rectangle.  Whatever is your style.

Next I put paper under.  You can use newspaper, I have done that before.  When you are rolling on the paint it will splatter.  You will want to protect the floor and wall under your project.

This is the paint I bought.  I purchased it at Home Depot.  For my wall I used just this one quart.  I still have some left over that I will keep for small projects.  I chose a black color, I think you can choose other colors.

 

Now just roll on the paint, stay within the tape line.  Use a small sponge brush to get close to the edges.

You will need to give this two coats or maybe three.  But always let dry overnight between coats or follow directions on the paint can.  I just cant tell you how much fun my whole family has with our wall. We use it every day.

Then I went to walmart got some big sidewalk chalk and I keep it in a basket near the wall.  It has lots of colors I even find my husband drawing a picture now and then.  When you want to erase it I use just a cloth and water.  I have read that when it gets dirty you can use W D40 but I have never tried that.  Water has worked fine for me. 

 

Painting & New hardware Kitchen Cabinets

When we bought this house I didn't like the look of the kitchen from the start.  I was not sure how I wanted it so I started looking in books and online for ideas.  Finally I found an inspiration picture off Pintrest.  Here it is-

Now you can see in the picture it has white cabinets and dark wood floors and a wood counter top.  Well that is the look I am going for.  I found other pictures that are like it but I look back to this one.  I mean my kitchen looks nothing like this but I see mine in my  head. 
So next we took and researched over the Internet the best way to paint over stained cabinets. We found a great way was to use the stuff called liquid sand paper.   It works great. 

I bought it at Home Depot and it was not expensive.  It goes a long way, I bought two bottles but returned one.  I didn't need it.  We  used gloves to apply it and an old rag and you just wipe it on and it takes off any residue and gloss your cabinets have.  Please do yourself a favor and don't skip this step.
Next we took all the doors off and all the hardware off.  That was easy, we threw everything away. We were replacing  all with new chrome ones. That alone makes the remodel look like a million bucks never mind the paint.

Next you need to buy stain kill paint.  I bought a better quality stain kilz paint I dint want to have to do this again, it is a lot of work.  So do this right the first time.  So after every door is off, each one gets two coats of stain kill paint front and back.  It takes days.  You will need room to keep them, a basement maybe.  I used an empty spare room. 

You will need to do the same to the base cabinets on the wall also.  I left everything in them.  Just cover the counter top with a cloth.  You will need to let each coat dry overnight. 

As you can see in this picture it is a lot of prep work and taking things apart but I am telling you totally worth it. Wait till you see the ending result.

 

you might see in this picture above I numbered the doors as I took them off.  The paint went over the numbers as I went so don't bother to do that you will see that only certain doors fit in certain places. So I don't think you need to number them.

So a recap for you:

1. Wipe all cabinets down with the liquid sandpaper

2. Take all doors and hardware off

3. Paint two coats of stain kilz on all surface front and back of all doors, allow 24 between coats.  You might want to light sand between coats if you find any drips.

Now you are read for paint.  Now I used a semi gloss white.  I use semi gloss on just about anything I do.  It is easy to wipe clean.  And I think has just the right shine.  I mean you can use what ever color you like, go crazy.  Its paint and if you dint like it you can always change it.  Paint is cheap.  Now I have a lot of cabinets so I dint want to do this again for a long time. I am spending more money on a good paint so it last.  I used a latex paint.  It came out great. 

We did the tops first, then the bottoms but the over all change in the kitchen was amazing.  If we had to pay someone to do this or to get new cabinets it would have cost us a fortune.  This was One gallon of paint and really the biggest expense was the hardware.  But again totally worth it I am sure I will be happy for years to come.

In the picture above I have one more door left under the sink but mostly complete.  Even the floor.  Our next big job will be the counter tops.  But it kinda looks like the picture at the start of the blog, my inspiration picture.  I say close enough on my budget I am happy.

 

Farmers Market

Maine is a beautiful place to live.  Whenever you take a ride the scenery is just so pretty.  I mean we have always lived coastal and we just love the ocean but the living with the mountains and trees and rivers all around you is just amazing.  The wildlife, to see a deer run across the street in front of your house just brings you a breath of fresh air.  My family drives so slow down our street just in hope to see that again. 
We live about ten minutes from town, such a cute, quaint town it is.  They seem to have a farmers market a few weekends a month.  One weekend when we went into town we came upon it.  It was cold and I really cant take the cold for to long, but I thought I did not want to miss this so we stopped to check it out. 
Maine has residents like no other.  The people are so kind and welcoming.  They will just talk to you like you are their old friend.  Give advise or wisdom of the surroundings.  You just cant walk into a store and not have some stranger just spark up a conversation with you.  They make you feel like  you have known them your whole life.  Makes you feel like you are home.  Or part of a home town for sure.  Well the farmers market was the same way.  The smells, the look, the taste yes the taste.  They had samples of their goods my daughter just loved that.  And must I say we had the most delicious cookie.  I just dint know what was in it, but it was to die for.  We bought some home made cheese, after trying a sample of course.  I mean we just had to get out of there before we went broke.  But for sure we will go back in warmer weather.  The whole way home my daughter talked how she cant wait till we become farmers so we can sell some of our goods at a market.  I love the way she thinks. 
Again the ride home as pretty as the ride there.  It just seems as if you would never tire of this picture perfect surroundings.  Makes me want to become an artist, if I only had the skill.

driving the mower

hey guys, it's Melanie again from meet Melanie.On Easter I got to drive the lawn mower, with a trailer on the back!

  Today in school we did a play called We Are The Planets! We finished writing our space reports, I studied MERCURY!
Here is a little poem

CLOSE TO THE SUN
IS MERCURY
IT TRAVELS FAST
AND IT'S HARD TO SEE
repeat 2 more times

Did you like it?

New wood floors

We just love our new home in Maine.  We fell in love with it from the first time we seen it on the Internet.  It is not your normal home.  It is made of two dwellings joined together by a breezeway.  One half of the home is a round house and the other half you would call a Gabriel style home.  I think that is how it is spelled.  The round side is our living room and kitchen and a loft with a fireplace in the center.  The other side of the home is the bedrooms and baths. 
I new the first project would be the floors.  I do not like carpets, and with two puppies I wanted them pulled up as soon as possible.  So it took Russell, and the kids of course a weekend to pull them out.  It was funny there was another rug under it.  We were lucky we didn't find the floor to be bad under it.  But to make the floor even with the kitchen side we did decide to put down a sub floor of 1/2 plywood.  That made Russell a little stress in his life but he got through it.  With the room being half round the cuts were tough.  I mean he is not a carpenter.  He really hates doing this kind of stuff but we cant afford to hire someone.  Well he did it.  And it came out great.  The kids, even my daughter hammered in the nails. 

before and after

 

this is what the lovely carpet looked like before we took it out.  Also you will see the old hearth that we took out.  It was all broken tiles I did a blog on the new hearth we have now.  So I new that old orange carpet had to go.  I just didn't want the dogs to have accidents on it and I didn't know how many other dogs had already had an accident on it.  I just wanted it gone. 

 

So Russell and Melanie went to it and here is a picture of the nice shag rug under it.  So that had to go to.

Now we had to level the floor up with plywood.

After it was done we painted it because we didn't know how long before we would be able to afford the floors we wanted.  We also wanted to do some work in the kitchen before we finished the floors. 

But next we did the Hearth. Then the kitchen cabinets. Which I will post in another blog.

OK so I will continue with the floors.  I wanted them to look like a reclaimed barn board floor.  But we could not afford that so after doing some research we found some high grade plywood in 4x8 sheets.  Russell cut them in 8'' x 8' strips.  Then he bought a blade for his table saw that would make tongue and grove on each piece.  So each 8'' x 8' board he made a tongue and groove on with my son.  That alone took a couple of days.  But they came out great.

 

Now they didn't go down that easy.  Russell would get frustrated at times.  The floor is not perfectly even and the tongue and groves were not always matching up.  When that would happen he would put a nail on the top which I liked anyway because if you look at an old wood floor you see nails anyway.  He just wanted you not to see nails. 

You can see it looks real nice along the new hearth we put down.  I say we but it was Russell, lol.  I must say Russell did not use any fancy nail guns we are doing everything on a budget.  He used a hammer and nails and a nail tap that was my grandfathers.  Most of the time was getting the right piece to fit.  And with it being cold outside he would have to go up and down the stairs to the basement to do all the cutting of the wood.  We are living in our home during our renovations. 

When Russell would get frustrated I just kept telling him I was in love with the floor.  He worked so hard on it but I know for years to come he will be so proud of himself for doing it. 

He finished the living room and went into the kitchen.  Then we had to stain it.

We wanted a dark stain to go with the white cabinets. We let the stain dry for a couple of days before we started the poly stage.  We did this at night after dinner.  We put the dogs out and in the crate.  Then started the floor. Then we let it set overnight it was set by morning and we could all walk on it during the day.  We did the same for the next three nights.

you would never know this is just plywood!

I think this is amazing I just love my new floors!

it was simple to apply the poly

 

I can't wait till I can put my furniture back.  Please, if you have any question feel free to ask I will answer back!

Here is an update I put the furniture back and we just love it!

 

hearth remodel

Well I did say our new home was in some disrepair.  Well my husband has been hard at work every minute of the day.  When he is not at work at his day job he is at work on the house.  He has my son right at his side.  Also my daughter helps, she is the greatest helper.  One job that was a lot easier than we thought it was going to be was doing the tile around the hearth.  We had to pull all the rug up in the living room and decided to lay down a new sub floor.  That was not easy because part of our home is a round house so the cutting was hard but Russell got through it.  He only threw the tools a few times. 

this is the ending result it came out great!

 

We started with a clean floor, we picked out tiles that matched the stone fireplace

Then he put some tile cement down with the tile scrapper in a thin layer just one square at a time and put spacers in between them to make sure they were the same space apart.  We picked out a small square trim, we did it this way so we did not have to make any cutting.  We wanted it as simple as possible.  Before we used the cement we dry placed everything so we new what our pattern would be and how many tiles we wanted to use.  We were not sure if we wanted to go out two or three tiles and decided to go out only two tiles.

So just keep doing this one square at a time then you have to let it sit overnight

then you take the grout with a sponge and just work it in and wipe it off with water till its clean.  Then you let it sit overnight again.  We wiped it down again in the morning.
We love it and think it came out great.  Russell said it was easy and we bought all the stuff at Home depot and the guy there was real helpful.  It took us the longest time to pick out our pattern.  We did buy to much cement but we took back the extra container and they gave us our money back.  Love +Home Depot.

Life is Short

OK after being a mom I could say I am a jack of many trades.  I'd like to say I have always been up for an adventure or wanted to try something new or needed to work for myself in someway or form.  I have always tried to be independent.  I should make more than a man not less.  I have always worked my way up, not with education, school was hard for me.  I was a hands on type of person.  I did go to college, but not till my late 30's.  I quit high school in my senior year of high school but did get my GED when my daughter graduated from high school.  That was a big deal for me.  In my life so far I have been- a babysitter, cook, waitress, cashier, Certified Nurses Aide, Home Health Aide, Manager, Bartender, Daycare Provider, Biller, Service Advisor, Cellular Phone Manager, Customer Relations Manager, Owner of my own Retail business, Finance Manager and a Lead Paramedic. Most of my jobs I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top.  I still hold my Paramedic license but do not work anymore due to medical reasons.  My last job as a medic is where I learned life is short and you must treasure what and who you have in your life.  You never know when it is your time and even the best medical care is not going to help you.  Some things are beond your control.  So live your life for you and the ones closest to you.  That is what truly counts at the end of the day.  And that is really what brought us to Maine.  We want our family to know what it is like to be a family. 

Our daughter Jennifer and her husband Zach and their two wonderful children.  It is so amazing that my daughter has children of her own, what a blessing.  Something so beautiful as my daughter has made two more beautiful babies and this tree grows.  Life is an amazing thing and to be a part of it makes me the proudest mom ever.

A little history

Its funny since I started this blog all I can think of is writing in it.  I feel as if I need to give some history about myself and my family.  Not sure how much you want to know or need to know but here I go. 
As I have stated before I am a mother of five wonderful children and I will always say that is my best part of my life if nothing else had ever happened to me ever those five life's have made me who I am.  You always think you will have children and teach them but really they teach you who you will become in life for sure.  If that makes sense.  I started parenthood at the young age of just 18 and believe it or not he was very much wanted not a mistake at all.  I was young and crazy in love, yes very crazy.  I had some very close friends even try to talk me out of it but there was no way of doing that.  My son soon became the love of my life and well then a year and a half later his sister became my second love in my life.  They were my world.  My life was not the best with my husband at the time so the children and I lived in our own little world most of the time.  They will never remember that but it was how it was. 
That marriage did not last and soon I did find husband number two.  I was not meant to be alone, so I thought.  And soon I had child number three.  My wonderful Jessie Bear is what we called her.  She was only one maybe two when her father and I divorced and we became a single family household.  We lived fine like that.  I worked hard and we survived. They had me and that is all my children needed.  I had my parents help and a sister that I was close with.  But my children went to daycare and we had a small apartment and we survived.  It was the way it had to be. 
It went on that way for years.  We had fun and I had fun.  Being single was nice but there came a time when I thought I should find a man at some time for me and my children.  I should settle down.
Then all of a sudden it happened, when you least expect it.  I was switching jobs and they had a party for me and we all went out to say goodbye.  Well one of they guys I worked with for the past year asked me to dance and well its history from there.
I mean it.  A year from that date we were married.  Not really sure how it all came to play but he called and kept calling.  I thought he was crazy at first.  He was 4 years younger than me, no children. A stable guy, no baggage, came from a good family, that didn't care I had children.  It just worked.  We just worked. 
The kids love him and he loves the kids.  Not to say that it was all easy.  There was adjustments I mean the kids were used to just me for years.  I was a push over.  I was used to doing things my way and having someone else have a say in things is hard.  We still have problems with that.  But Russell has gone on to adopt the older children about 6 months after we were married and we all became one happy family for the most part.  I mean every family has problems and we do have problems.  We are not perfect.  I will not claim to have a perfect family.  We fight. The kids fight.  We fight with the kids.  But we always try to work it out.  And in the end We all Love each other more than life itself and would do anything for each other.  That is what family is all about. 
Well we wanted to expand our family for sure so two years after we married we had our first child together and then five years after him we had our daughter together.  Wow that is five children.  I would of had 10 children but Russell said no.  He said we have been blessed with five happy (most of the time) healthy children lets not press our luck.  I do agree.  I still wish I had more.  But we are so lucky that our daughter Jen (my second child) has two children of her own, my loving grandchildren.
Oh man I wanted to tell about me but it seems my children are one of my biggest joy's and I need to put the dogs out so I will have to come back and blog about other parts of me.........

This was taken a few years ago now my younger son is taller than his older brother

 

My honey and I, when my son Little Russell was small we asked him what he thought mommy's name was and he said "Honey"

One of my favorite pictures again was taken a few years ago it is hard to get us all together now.  Chris my oldest live in California, Jennifer lives in North Carolina, and Jessica lives in Hawaii.  We never get them all home at the same time.  We miss them like crazy but with skype we get to see them almost everyday or at least weekly.