Kepping it real

    
   HA! I'm getting a head start on my weekly update because I have a moment of peace. I only have a moment of peace because all the children are on time out for hitting, but I'll take it! All in all, it was an average family of five normal week.
    I gave the two older boys buzz cuts. I was looking at them one morning before school started and I realized that they are never going to brush their hair, so I offered them haircuts. After the fact, I wondered if I might regret this. I really don't know when the "cold" hits around here and they might need all the body warmth they can muster being California kids and all. Too Late! It grows fast and since they insist on wearing shorts everyday, I  don't feel bad... yet. School went pretty well, our only obstacle is this history/art class they have called Paragon. From what I hear, the kids in the actual school love it. For me and Wrex it means cramming in art projects on a Friday night before they're due.
    Little Waylon, whom I just realized is 7 1/2 months old is officially crawling! I saw it happen on Monday but chose to stay in denial until he almost crawled out of Houston's bunk. I dashed from the couch and caught him, he thought it was hilarious! By the end of the week, he was trying to climb up our two stairs. Right now, I have it blocked off with cardboard boxes. Ian will love that.    Now that he can crawl anywhere, with speed, he has taken to obsessing about any power cords. It must be the "power lineman" in his blood. I realize this is serious and no baby should ever play with cords. We have the kids laptops plugged in under the table and he is obsessively trying to get to the wires. It seems like we need a gate for the table, time to get some more cardboard boxes!
    The weekend has been pretty slow. I ran out of propane Thursday night in the middle of frying up tacos. I assumed Ian would get some more but he's worked all weekend.So  I've been using the grill outside and the burner on the grill but today I had enough and figured out how to fill the dang thing up. it was HEAVY! so I only did one tank. We're talking about buying a larger tank for when the winter comes. The heater apparently runs on propane, so it's not something you want to run out of.
        Actually we got quite bored this weekend so we did what any good family would do. We got some ice cream and watched dad work. We actually haven't gotten around to spying on him yet and we keep seeing awesome pictures of him hanging from poles. Unfortunately, today was more of a filling in holes kinda day. So we ate our ice cream while he worked and came back home. We did decorate the boys room today. We brought some of those decals from Target when we moved in, back in May, so today we put them up. We had Super Mario and Angry Birds. So the kids positioned the characters into fight scenes. Who knew Mario didn't like birds?
    Sorry this isn't action packed. I'm just keeping it real. Now I shall go make chili because it was suppose to be raining. Take care.
   I was hoping to see this...

...but today was more like this...ahh the life of an apprentice

    

Letting the Days go by...water flowing underground...Once in a Lifetime

      Phew!What a week! It seems like they're flying by now that school is in session. We're definitely getting into the swing of things. Last week our teachers threw some curve balls our way by assigning paper mache and clay masks. I know the art stuff is suppose to be fun but when I see those assignments, I kinda think "really?!" Oh yes, also we have four pieces of bread spread around the trailer, some in ziplocs, some not, that we are monitoring for mold each day. Like we didn't have enough stuff crammed on our countertops! In the name of science, we press on.
   So, more adventures in Bayfield...I went to "the Grocery Store" (yep that's it's official name) last week to get some eggs and someone had sharpied out all of the expiration dates on the side of the cartons. I picked up one carton after the other and they were all sharpied out. Weird! Then I noticed a sign posted next to the eggs, telling you how you should interpret the expiration date on the cartons (it said 45 days after the date was good according to the law) which would have been something if you could have seen the expiration date to begin with! Yeah, I didn't get them, it was too much of a gamble.
     Also, we were completely invaded by bikers this weekend. There was a big bike rally in Ignacio, I believe it was for breast cancer (not sure how) but they we're everywhere! The campground was full and everyone generally had a good time.
     We went back to the rec center this weekend. Houston cannot understand why we aren't there everyday. So we went and the boys did more rock climbing and high diving. I've decided to put them into diving lessons because they think they are diving but their belly flops are painful to watch. Parent keep looking at me like "you're going to let them do that again?" Houston and I checked out the Discovery Museum in Durango. It was pretty awesome, it was like a Childrens Museum but with a heavy Science influence. The first Sunday of the month is pay what you like day, SCORE!     
      Labor day the boys and I had a picnic on the Animas River. It was different then being back home, but relaxing . The biggest moment of the weekend was Waylon saying "dada." It made me so grateful to be with Ian to share that moment. Just another reminder of why we're on this crazy journey together.
      We did a lot of cooking this weekend. We made banana bread and Chocolate chip cookies stuffed with oreos. We barbecued ribs. I'm about to start this 8 week challenge to be more healthy, fruits, veggies and excercise. I think the knowledge of that being around the corner made me hungry this weekend. Anyways, so pretty much more of the same. Never a dull moment. Now we start it all over again, at least it's a short week right? Anywhoo, take care until next time.

Labor Day 2012

  
  In honor of Labor Day and this page being called Linewife I thought I'd post some pictures from some of my linewives whose husbands are out there restoring power from hurricane Isaac.  I think everyone is well aware that Hurricane Isaac has caused severe damage. I have the deepest sympathy for these people who have lost so much.  The storm knocked out power to over 700,000 people. Now I've heard on the news how slow the lineman reaction has been to this storm but from what I've learned by being in this community, that really just isn't so. I know we're new to this career but I just wanted to share a different point of view.  Many of these wives were concerned for their husbands being in place before the storm hit. They we're definitely going to be in danger but to have a quick response the Linemen needed to be in the devastated areas. I think pictures can sometimes say more than words. So here's what I've compiled for you on this Labor Day.

Before Isaac hit, reinforcements had arrived.

From another linewife ..."They arrived late last night and were told to leave all their stuff in their trucks, (personal & work stuff) take only what they needed for the night, and check into hotel an...

d get some rest and they could unload everything in the AM. Well, around 3am they got the call that
the area flooded and they lost everything. "

 

From Entergy's Facebook  page   "Our workers have reduced the number of Hurricane Isaac outages by more than 550,000, down from a systemwide peak of approximately 769,000.

Nineteen damaged transmission lines remain in the Entergy system: one in Entergy Mississippi, 15 in Entergy Louisiana and three in Entergy Gulf States Louisiana.

Our continuing efforts are being supported by donor crews from Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin."


Some Men are staying in hotels with no power, some are camping, I found a picture of these temporary housing arrangements.

     I do know that these men love to restore the power. Most men love to work storms, there is something to be said about using your talents when they are needed most. Of course they want to restore the power, it's what they've been made to do. Several times a year our country calls on these men to perform their jobs as quickly as possible. What you may not know about this occupation is that it is extremely hazardous. There have been casualties, just from Isaac alone. So this Labor Day, say a prayer for those heroes on hooks that are away from their families and busting their tales to restore power. I guarantee they are working as fast as they can. I know their wives are waiting for  them.

Living the Dream

   Oh Man! What a week that was! You know when you think, you can totally handle something, then you try it and realize it is way more work than you thought? This happens to me all the time! I must have a lot of confidence, initially.  Anyway, we started to get the hang of homeschooling by the end of the week. After my last post, my fifth grader fell apart on me and told me he didn't want to be home schooled. So I drove him by the local school to show him other options, but when  we got home I took another approach. You see, I felt the day was successful because we managed to get our work done. He felt like a workhorse, who didn't have any fun. That is totally my style, feeling accomplished because everything on my checklist is checked off and my kids going "that was no fun at all."  So I talked to my aunt and she told me I need to make it more entertaining basically, which of course I want to, but do you know how much work that is? Sorry to whine. Anyway, that's what we did. I broke out the binoculars I brought and would send them on a treasure hunt through the RV park, looking for "natures treasures" The Park may not be too pleased with me, because the boys kept coming back with flowers from their flower beds. They also made little videos with their flip camera of their adventures. We went to the bakery one morning for a treat. This made our day considerably longer, taking all these breaks but the kids did have much more fun. So that's our new program, I need to google more fun random things to do with them. Houston likes playing with Lego's for his "recess" time. Wrex likes to snack, so I'll figure something out. It definitely felt like we bonded last week. Wrex completely caught up on his work and is really enjoying the computer games that are integrated with the school. I'm hoping our days will not be as long, now that we don't have any catch up work. I have seriously never been so exhausted at the end of a day...and then made dinner.
     Ian has had off every Friday that we've been here. Except for last week, of course. I was really looking forward to him somehow helping me, but he had to work and I honestly don't have a teachers assistant job open at htis time. (budget cuts you know! haha just kidding. Sorry I woke up too early) When he got back, I had closed school for the week because my brain was going to explode. He laid on the bed, and was grinning ear to ear telling me how tired he was. He looked a little crazy. So he started to tell me about his day. He got to work in the mountains, they got to off road their company trucks, up jeep trails to get to these power line poles that Bears had been using as scratching posts. So he got to climb up these poles (which he loves) and then with his feet attached to the pole, lean way back (look no hands) and work on some doo hickey over his head. He got to see an elk and he was outside all day and yes, he was physically challenged. Then I remembered all those discussion we had, the year prior about how neat it would be to work on some off beaten path, in the wilderness, doing line work. Then I realized that we  are doing what we came to do. This is what he has wanted to do for so long, and yes it is so hard, in so many ways, but he is doing it. Grabbing onto his dream, and his whole family is here to support him. I guess it really just had me reflecting on this past year and how many changes we've gone through. It has honestly been a tough year for me. But here we are, we're together and that's what I have been working towards.
    Ok enough, reflections. So as you can tell, I hardly got outside of the trailer last week. That made me a bit nutty. So Friday night we went to town and had an amazing dinner at Steamworks, a local brewery. I had some five cheese macaroni made with bacon and green chilies it was delicious. The next day, Ian attempted to take the kids fishing, so I could get caught up on my bookkeeping work. He was thwarted in this attempt when his truck wouldn't start at the gas station. So several hours later, we had new batteries and I somehow managed to get some work done. Still spending way too much time in the trailer.
    Sunday, we went out and had some family time. Houston and Ian had found a BMX park and Houston was dying to go. I didn't really know what that was so I didn't bring my camera. Dangit! So I took a few photos with my phone. It was so rad! I can't imagine the city allowing something like this back home. It was behind these store fronts and it was this dirt track with burms and jumps and all these little kids were biking around it. There weren't any dominating teenagers, just some parents and their kids riding the track. The boys were in heaven. After that we went to the skatepark, we we're definitely trying to make up for all the inside time, from the week before.
    We had a lovely weekend and now we start all over again. We're definitely doing what we came here to do. Living the dream! Except vacation is over and now we're doing the nitty gritty. Finding out how this life works during the school year. The important thing is we're together.

  

Im Alive and kicking!

   Still here! Today was much better. It certainly wasn't easy and my day is not done but I'm still here. I got phone calls from both teachers today and tech support. Guess I made quite a fuss yesterday...and maybe this morning. We still worked all day but our internet connection was reliable, no waiting five minutes for the page to load. I did make sure we all went for a walk and got some sunshine. We picked up some peaches and corn at the fruit stand. It was good to be outside. When I was younger my mom called me stubborn, I prefer persistent.  Today my persistence got me through. Lets hope it takes me a little further tonight, I just thoroughly burned dinner and I have to do billing for work tonight. Thanks for keeping my in your thoughts.

First day of School Blues

     Howdy! Did you wonder what happened to me? We stayed a few extra days in California, to see our family and friends. We had such a good time. I kept those kids so busy, they didn't even know what hit them. We started the first week with VBS, which left me with only Waylon. It's easy as pie, when you go from three kids to just a baby. It was very relaxing. The wedding that we came out for was beautiful. It was so sweet and  personalized, I am so glad I was able to be apart of it. Grandma kept Waylon at home with her the day of and Aunt Shell took the boys hone early So I got to stay and hang out with friends, it was such a needed break!
    The next week we crammed everything in. We hit the beach,  we took family pics (without Ian :( gotta seize the day right?) went to the wave, had sleepovers, caught a movie. In fact the kids had so much fun, Houston threw up, promptly signaling me it was time to slow down...
      We made it home safely and started school yesterday. OH MY GOSH, what have I done! Yesterday was the worst day ever. I woke up early, determined to get a good start to the day. I made the boys get dressed like they were going to school, even had them put their shoes on, Houston didn' t like that. We started with small rough patches like running out of cereal and the bread tasting like bananas, clearly Ian had not gone grocery shopping in a while. Then we went onto big rough patches like not having log in id's for the web pages, pages not loading and printer drivers needing to be installed. When I told the teacher we didn't have sound for our "live class session" she told me helpful hints like "update your software." Tech support was laughable. The worst part was we literally we're in front of our computers for seven hours and most of the time we we're working on problems with software not doing out work. It is so hard to keep your kids on task when no tasks are actually being performed! I couldn't help but think that school would be more fun than this. At two thirty I called it and took a nap. I'm not going to lie, I shed a few tears, this is not how I pictured this. I just want my kids to have a good experience and if the year continues on like this, I'm not going to be hearing any thank you's any time soon.
    The day went on with fun things like running out of wet wipes. Did I mention that Waylon hates being stuck in the trailer all day. We finally went grocery shopping, which was as fun as it sounds with three antsy boys. We closed our horrible day with Waylon having an explosive diaper that I wasn't aware of until I looked down at my shirt, yuck. So yeah, pretty bad day.
   Ian had to work late...that lucky man. I picked him up at his foreman's ranch at about 8. The day was a little better from there. We got to see all the animals. The boys got to see a turkey up close and pet the horses and cow. They are very sweet people. He assured me that we should be here at least until Spring. How he knows this, I dunno but he seemed confident.  His wife held Waylon for me, which was a much needed break. So you know, school might not have been too successful yesterday but we did learn about farm animals. I'm good with that. Anyways, today can't be any worse. It could be the same. I'm not as gung ho as I was when I woke up yesterday. I should shower, but I had to give you an update. So I know this new background is a little bright, I love owls like everyone else, but I will have to tone it down when I get a moment. Houston barfed in California when I was fiddling with the backgrounds soooo... it is what it is. TMI, I know. it was TMI for me too. Wish me luck.
xoxo
Kristina

p.s. I had to type this out twice, becasu blogger ate it the first time, not a good start

What I like about Durango

   We made it back to Durango! We rested up most of the week. Did the usual, floating down rivers in innertubes and swiming at the rec center. The boys also branched out and tried some indoor rock climbing. Now the boys and I are headed out of town again, going to California to see family and friends. Ian is hoping we'll stay put for awhile when we get back. I thought a lot about Durango, CO this week and what I like about it. I can't say that all of Colorado is like this, but our little area is.
    It is so beautiful here, I love being in the mountains. Most days the sky is bright blue with huge puffy, fluffy clouds. Back home, the clouds seem more whispy, I like the change. We have frequent thunderstorms in the evening (more than I've been acustomed to) but the rain smells fresh and it doesnt last long. It usually serves as a reminder that I should be starting dinner by then.
    I love seeing the cows and horses on the side of the road, I haven't noticed that stinky smell, that sometimes appears when you drive through areas with lots of cattle. I wonder if thats because there's so much space or if I'm just not close enough to the ranches. On my drive into town I pass a little cottage that has a sign that says "hogs are beautiful" it always makes me smile. I tried taking a picture of it for you. But taking a picture while driving is dangerous and difficult. . . Oh yeah I saw a wild turkey on the side of the road yesterday. They have these signs that light up next to the road to alert you when wildlife is near. I assume they have sensors that trigger the sign to light up. Ian actually saw a bear last week, freaky huh?
     I love seeing all the streams, rivers and lakes. The trees are beautiful as well, many evergreens but there are others too. Many people have flower gardens, that and the wildfllowers are rampid, brightening up the landscape just about everywhere.
   The houses are older in Durango. Most are craftsman style or cabins. I had the pleasure of going inside a friends house the other day, it was 100 years old and had the neatest electrical switches and a bathroom under the stairs (quirky, I loved it) the houses all seem to have mudrooms which I imagine they need for winter months. I always thought the furnishings for mudroom were so cool but in California we just toss our flip flops anywhere lol !
    The people are kind and enjoyable. Weird but even at Wal-Mart the cashiers are kind and smiley (not grumpy.) I think it's because they know who they're waiting on. Being a small town, they all seem to know each other, sometimes its funny to be an onloooker. Did you know, you can still fill up your gas tank before paying for it, out here? So weird.
    It definately has its quirks. When the wildfires were happening, there were signs telling people to smoke inside or in cars so there would be less risk of starting a fire, never seen anything that crazy at home!    Or the guys that sell fruit and veggies outside of our park. They have a strange sign about John the Baptist in front of their stand, and they give off a creepy cultish vibe, but its the best corn I've ever tasted..
Definately different from California, sometimes it seems like California is it's own little bubble. I enjoy where we are but I cant wait to see my family and friends. See you guys soon.