For those of you who know about Ft.Collins you are not shocked to hear about 60 and 70 degree days scattered randomly throughout the winter. We have enjoyed such days these last couple of weeks for sure here. While Bart worked on his course work several friends went on a hike that overlooks one end of Horsetooth Res. Polly's husband Mark was awesome enough to carry Kira on his back!! She adores him and calls him "UH- Mark." Kira has photos of them together coated with fingerprints and kisses. When she is at their home she can be found in one of their little antique rocking chair or cuddling with Mark on the big one. We enjoyed the fresh air and I sure needed the work-out right POLLY?!
Another day the boys insisted we have to have a picnic instead of just playing on the playground... I like to plan such things but it all worked out none the less! It's kind of strange to lay out a blanket on our dead grass though! A couple of other days the kids enjoyed helping me spread some new mulch we got for free from our recycling center while the two little ones napped. As the pictures show they were more interested though in scooping up our driveway stones and filling my garbage can! I've got a funny story for you... I asked to borrow my father-in-laws trailer to ambitiously and very unrealistically get a load of mulch on my way to or from my dentist appointment. No one questioned my ability to do this aloud for some reason: ) No, I have never hooked up a trailer to our Jimmy and sure didn't budget lots of time to do this while my dear friend Polly watches over the Daycare. Well I found the trailer in our driveway and said my goodbyes here... only to realize I couldn't find any car keys. I wasted a lot of time looking for them and stressing only to find them in my purse of course! In frustration, I tried to attach this contraption to the Jimmy and had it all hooked up ready to hop in when I looked at the trailer in a rush to make my appointment NOTICING the thing was stinking FULL OFF MULCH already!!!!! Dave--- would have loved to see my sweat and stressing!!! I was SO worked up to find my keys and get it hitched I NEVER thought to look in at the load he had painstakingly filled up FOR ME! What an awesome surprise!! You'd have to know me to know this is not THAT shocking!! Well over the next days I got it unloaded with NO help from Bart dearest! If it's not his project he sure is not inspired to help... glad Dave was!
Speaking of Bart he is starting new shorter hours at work due to cut backs... no more mandatory overtime days just 8 hour days. We are sad to see the loss of pay coming. In the end this cut means a fifth/20% paycut in what he used to take home after taxes and insurance. Bart is looking at taking a second job at the new Walmart a couple blocks over that is opening end of April. Hopefully I will take on a sixth child full-time. This last year I had kept one slot open incase we had a baby of our own. I've continued one kiddo before and after school (he's my sixth kid in many senses). I am so glad Bart is working on his Masters in Computer mumbo-jumbo!!! It will be awesome to see him shine and feel like he is really using his mind. He's talked of running a little charity where he collects donated CPU's and updates them and gives them to those who are unable to purchase a computer. All I know is that we always managed to be blessed and to be a blessing no matter how much money we make. To think he got this news just after we commited to helping one of our missionaries in Mexico once a month with shipping donated items to the children she interacts with and we wanted to send a pastor and his family on a little vacation! Satan would love to foul things up but I need to have faith we can stick to our commitments!!!! We're hoping all of you are finding ways to overcome the obstacles coming our way... we really are a blessed nation despite this economic challenge.
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