#40 and the Flu

Our ice cream didn't look as pretty but tasted great

Source: bloomingonbainbridge.com via Kristina on Pinterest

Making snow Ice cream

 
 Well I posted an update yesterday and then deleted it accidentally while cooking breakfast burritos , so lets try this again! Well we have been out of work for a week now and right after the layoff our trailer was hit with the flu. This was something I had been fearing ever since the idea of tramping around popped into our heads. Ian was down and occupied the bedroom, Houston had it the worst , he took over the boys room at times or the couch. That poor, sweet boy was vomiting for five days.  I finally took him in and the Dr took pity on us and gave us anti nausea medicine. Little Waylon had a fever and wouldn't let me put him down for a day and a half but I was so happy he didn't get the "pukes." Wrex somehow stayed healthy, as did I. This was one of the worst situations I could think of just because there was no where to hide from each other, but in the end, we got through it and no one threw up on the carpet or the couch so it's really the small things I'm grateful for.
     When Ian started to feel better he was a huge help. He has never been laid off in his adult life so he wasn't use to the downtime and at first kept himself busy with homework. If he was bored I'd ask him to do the dishes or the laundry, it didn't take long for him to stop saying we was bored! His best one liners would come at the end of the day. One night he said " this stay at home gig is BS!" Once Waylon was up at dawn and Ian observed " I feel like we're in prison and Waylon is the Warden." Seeing that my husbands witts are still intact I'd say he's doing just fine.
     My schedule hasn't changed too much except now I can leave home without all the kids in tow, so I tried to take advantage of that this week. Also I am promoting Ian to our homeschooling "art teacher" he is much better at it than me and the kids are so proud if his work!
     So we still have 39 guys ahead of us to get put back to work. It's any one's guess how long that will take to get to us, in the mean time Ian has his monthly class in Salt Lake City next weekend. We've decided to move our trailer there. In the event that the books don't move very fast , it makes sense to be near class, it's also a better central location to wherever we get called out to next. We're pretty confidant that the work in this southwest corner has dried up a bit and If  we do go to Denver next, the mountain pass from here to Denver is not ideal for towing and we'd be better off on the highways of Salt Lake. It would also be nice to be in the city for a bit before our next adventure. Think Target and In-N -Out -pretty motivating!

     We did get some snow over the past few days . Not too much but enough to add a new fluffy layer on top of the melting Christmas snow. I'd say there's about 18 inches of snow on the ground . The kids and I hadn't been here for the fresh snowfall last time so we took the opportunity to make snow ice cream for our ice cream night on Friday.  The boys loved it and had fun collecting the snow for it, it really is the simple things isn't it? Needless to say, we spent a lot of time inside this week, so yesterday we hit "Chapman's Hill," a local skating rink where there's an outside area that kids can learn how to snowboard or ski but on the other side is the perfect hill for sledding! So we got all our snow gear on (double checked it)  and bought a disk and a tube and went out for some fun. The kids had a blast , I think it was the first time they didn't need me prodding them to play in the snow . Wrex even felt inclined to teach me how to sled down because he had become an expert in his hour of sledding . We had so much fun and ended out our day at our favorite pizza joint in town.(Which incidentally is closing down, must be  our sign to move on.)  It was a fun family day but I think we're ready to move onto new adventures. I'll let you know next week how our journey to Salt Lake goes, wish us luck!

Ian and Houston's art project

Back from the Holidays! Where to Now?

 Hey All! Sorry I left you hanging, I took the time in Maryland to relax and slack off . We had such a great time and I feel so well rested. There's nothing like being with your mom for the Holidays. It took about a week and a half just to unwind, I did this mostly by baking large quantities of Christmas cookies , which we took to calling "Kristina's fat pills." Not only did I bake my heart out but my mom brought out the old Chocolate candy house molds and we decorated chocolate candy houses which I think is way better than gingerbread or graham cracker houses.It was so  nice to be in a house that was completely decorated for Christmas it really made our Christmas special! I cannot even tell you how good it felt to have a Grandma take the kiddos off my hands so I can go to Target alone (WOO HOO!)

   Ian was able to join us before Christmas which was truly a blessing, because we were told that a layoff would be coming soon and we weren't sure of the timing and if it would effect him coming out to be with us. We were able to spend the Holidays as a family and what made it so special for me was that I actually got to go on quite a few dates with my husband, thanks to Grandma and the Uncles ( a huge shout out to Adri becasue I know Preston fell asleep on babysitting duty) who watched our kids for us.  I don't think we've had that much time together in a long while, it was very memorable for me. Apparently it was memorable for the people in their town too because Ian kept getting recognized by his moustache, one day we went to Cracker Barrel for Breakfast and Outback for dinner and it just so happened that our server worked at both places and remembered Ian, people were constantly calling him out, telling him how awesome his moustache was, I can tell you, he was very proud of the reputation the stache got around town.

  I also got to go on quite a few runs with my family members, which was good because I ate a lot of those "fat pills" I had been baking. I started my mom out on the couch to 5k program and she did great, I ran with my brother Nate, who came home and promptly told everyone that he was faster than me (this is true by the way, but I think I can out distance him so :P) Then one day Ian mentioned that I never invite him on a run, so we made a running date, unfortunately his mind was willing but his body wasn't. My poor husband, he really thought he could just jump into running, because he is very fit, but lets just say his knees were in serious protest. But what memories we made!
   My brothers all flew out and drove out for Christmas, it had been sometime since all four of us were together and we had a really great Christmas. I made an amazing Prime Rib, which was a first for me and I sent Wrex and Houston on a scavenger hunt to get their Christmas present. I could not have asked for a better vacation. We even were able to go to a dinner and a movie date  with my brothers and their wives and girlfriend in Ian and Nate were laughing so hard at "This is 40." Great movie to watch if you've been married awhile, it'll make you laugh! Seriously we had such a good time. I haven't even told you about the ice sculptures we saw, or visiting with extended family. I know I should've posted more but I truly and thoroughly just enjoyed myself. And you never would have guessed who was sleeping through the night?  That's right my little Waylon monster, slept like a baby, thank the Lord! He also left Maryland a walking boy and now there is no stopping him. It was hard to say goodbye to all of our family, but Colorado was calling. It had snowed quite a bit over the Christmas break, not much for the locals but a lot for this California girl to take in. The roads are clear and the trailer is warm, so we are grateful. Unfortunately, the job here is completed and we are officially laid off. So now we wait , until the next job, which we don't know when or where that will be. I'd be lying if I said that we didn't find this unnerving, but we know that this is a part of the apprenticeship and we know of others who have weathered it out, so we will wait patiently and see what God has in store for us next.

More snow adventures and a trip on the Polar Express

  
   We had a busy weekend last weekend! It started out by Ian inviting us to come up to Ouray to see where he's working. "come see some snow" he says, "they're having a helicopter fly in some poles" he says. Sounded like cheap fun to me. So we made our way to Ouray on Saturday around noon. It was a long drive, he told me to drive slow because the roads were slippery and there is no guard rail on most of it. There are some crazy hair pin turns as you zig zag up the mountain. Well , I forgot that Wrex gets motion sickness because it doesn't happen all the time. So when his stomach hurt, he looked at the clock and said "Mom it's past lunchtime." Being, oh so prepared I tossed him back a sandwich. It wasn't long after that,  I saw him slump to the side, when I asked him if he was okay, his reply "No mom, I just threw up." EWWWW. I pulled over, thankfully there was a snow bank to pull over in. Sure enough he had spewd all over his shoes and pants and on my floor mat. I know that people think when you turn into a mom that you don't mind picking up your kids puke, but I do. I think of those parts in the movies where someone says" If I smell it, I'm going to do it too!" And this is the attitude that had me throwing the floor mat and his shoes in the snow, I stomped on them , hoping they would self clean. I was so grateful that I had packed Wrex snow pants and snow boots. I had him change into that and then we were faced with a dilemma. Drive another 45 minutes to Ouray or an hour and 15 minutes back home. I just kept thinking "play in the snow, see a helicopter" I asked the kids and they wanted to continue. Either way we were staying in the puke mobile, there are NO little towns on this trek into the mountains to stop and get a car wash. So we continued. and Wrex was in a much better mood. I let him sit in the front seat for the rest of the way and he DJ'd with my iphone. His famous words to me "mom, I should've warned you, I thought it was just going to be a puke burp." Yes Wrex a warning would've been good. It wasn't long before we made it, Houston spotted the lineman on the side of a mountain. So we pulled over, the kids got the half packed snow gear they grabbed, Wrex had pants but no jacket or sweatshirt. Houston had a jacket and snow boots but no snow pants and socks. At this point I'd like to point out that Waylon was snow ready!

So we got out of the car and hiked up to where Ian was. We had missed the helicopter by hours! I thought it was an all day thing, it turns out Helicopters are expensive and they work as quickly as possible, where is my common sense these days? Well at least we got to see Ian working, I got some cool pictures of him and his crew working. My favorite is a picture of Wrex smiling and Ian working in the background. I love pictures of kids on jobsites, it warms my heart, like were back in the 80s.  Anyways, it wasn't long before Houston's sock less feet felt like they were going to fall off. I have never heard him howl like that. I think he believed his feet were going to fall off. So after 20 mins we got back in the car. I had him heat up his feet in front of the heater and I had to give him my socks and drive barefoot home. It was quite the day. Can you tell? Not all my adventures turn out great.

    The next night made up for it. We went on another train ride in Durango, this ride was on the Polar express. I will say in McCay fashion we showed up 5 minutes before it left and almost missed the train, so we stumbled upon our car, bumping the "chef" in the back just as she was asking "who wants hot cocoa?" In comes the McCay family. The way our seats turned out, Wrex and Houston sat single facing each other, and Ian and I were behind them facing each other, holding Waylon.
It was a really cool experience, they served hot cocoa and cookies, they punched our golden tickets, the hobo went through the train, some nerdy kid with glasses came around asking me questions about the model of train we rode, it was very exciting. Waylon thought so too, until it got dark . As we went through town, they read us the story and we were able to see all of the town and houses lit up with Christmas lights. They took us by the "North Pole" and we waved to Santa. After we sang Christmas carols. Some of my favorite parts were Houston turning to Ian saying "I really like this dad" later when Santa came through our train, Ian said he didn't see him, Wrex answered very quickly "that's because you're naughty dad" Those kids don't miss a beat! haha. I'm so glad we were together to share that experience. It may seem silly now, Wrex is almost too old for this type of thing, but he fully enjoyed it and we were together which was the most important thing.

   The kids and I are headed to Grandma's house tomorrow, it will be a nice change to have a little more space to stretch in. Ian will hopefully be joining us at Christmas. I hope when we get back we will still be in the Durango/Bayfield area but wherever our adventure takes us at least we're together.

Gobble, Gobble!

 Well we had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We drove to my friends house which was definitely in the country. On the dirt road out there we saw wild turkeys and deer. Deer we see all the time, but wild turkeys, that was different! The kids were in heaven there, the house was on 34 acres they had cows and over 150 chickens. I loved going inside someone else's house, does that make me nosey? Most of the houses here are all open beamed and gable roofs with pine wood planks on the ceiling. I'm sure theres a name for that, but I can't remember but it's gorgeous!  On this farm, which it truly is, my friend has a house on one end and her son and his family (with six kids) live on the other  side. When the cousins came there was at least 11 children running around. The kids had so much fun. While the women finished up the last touches the men folk went outside to shoot guns. Very all American. My friends son is a police officer in town so I felt like he had the situation handled of course Ian had a blast too.
    It was so cool to eat someone elses Thanksgiving menu, not only was everything cooked perfectly but we had pumpkin soup which was delicious. Also for desert we had pecan pie, which I never bother with, but oh man! I love it! WE had a wonderful time and I was so grateful for a new experience out of our comfort zone. The kids had so much fun with all the children, they were playing freeze tag, in the dark on 30 degree weather. It was a Thanksgiving to remember.
    The next day I cooked up our own Thanksgiving spread. I have to say compared to the day before, it was nothing special. My turkey dried out, the stuffing didn't turn out like Grandma Judi's, and the yams didn't look pretty because I tried to put them on the bottom of my little oven and the marshmallows just smeared. It tastes alright and we had leftovers. Besides , cooking in that little oven, it's a miracle I got it all done at once.
    The following day , I got the boys and Ian to go Christmas shopping with me. We really wanted to support local businesses and Durango is a perfect place to do that. They have a ton of small shops. This meant that some people are getting some "interesting" items, but hopefully they'll appreciate their souvenir from our year on the road. After shopping, we got to do something I have been wanting to do since we got here. We took an old Western photo. In my opinion all my favorite families have one of these and I love seeing them when the kids have grown and gotten older it makes them that much cuter. Houston right off the bat decided he wanted to be an Indian. I suggested to Wrex that wear a coon hat and he totally dug it as long as he got a gun. I wanted to be a saloon girl because when I was younger it was unacceptable to have a little girl as a saloon girl, instead I always looked like I hopped off a covered wagon. Very maidenly. Ian was already growing this "awesome" beard so he looks like a real mountain man. It made me so happy to have these and the girl gave me a couple prints for free, it was the best day ever!
  So I know this sounds like my life is a dream, but you know I try to keep it real. While I am very blessed to have so many adventures  I am human and am getting worn out. Waylon has some pretty horrible sleeping habits. He wakes up at midnight and 4 am. Ive given him a bottle a few times to keep him quiet so everyone can sleep and now of course he demands 2 bottles in the night, which isn't right. So I'm not really sleeping and then I'm a homemaker, teacher and all that other stuff I'm suppose to do. Which I love but I am very worn out. So we decided last night that the kids and I are going to Grandma Barbs house next Friday and the plan is for Ian to meet us out there for Christmas. The only glitch in this planning is that Ian will probably get laid off in the next few weeks. If he gets laid off before Christmas, he may be reassigned to a company in a new state and have to pack up and move while were gone ( where does that leave my car? I haven't figured this out yet) Also the new company may not want to give him the time off for Christmas, that would be horrible. Hopefully he will stay with this company until after the holidays so he will meet up with us. Prayers would be appreciated.  So that's where we are. I'm finishing getting our local Christmas gifts out and getting ready for Grandmas. I'll keep you up to date. Love to you all and Happy Holidays!

My spread made in the trailer

If he's pooped , you can imagine how I feel!

 

This Thanksgiving were getting a little out of our comfort zone

This is my kitchen this morning as I make mashed potatoes and Sweet potatoes, be grateful for your counter space!

  
    Happy Early Thanksgiving! So here is what I've decided to plan for our menu for our trailer living extravaganza! I really tried to tone it down, but there are somethings you just cannot live without, when it comes to Thanksgiving. So here's what I got cooking:

Hot artichoke dip- one appetizer is proof that I've toned it down!

Kings Hawaiian rolls - store bought!
Cranberry jelly I love it straight out of the can!
Turkey Gravy- I bought a packet because gravy is still something that I really haven't mastered, or I just like the packet better~I'm not sure
Pioneer Woman's Mashed Potatoes
My friend Tanya's Sweet potato recipe, complete with pecans and marshmallows
My mother in law gave me her stuffing recipe which is my favorite part of Thanksgiving
I'm going to try to recreate these really yummy green beans which involve bacon and pecans that my really cool sister in law made last year.
I ordered an oven roasted 10 lb turkey from the grocery store- My aunt gave me that idea, because if you haven't seen the inside of an fifth wheels oven, let me say, they are tiny and there is only one shelf in there!
Also, I ordered an apple pie from a bakery in town that I have heard fabulous reviews of, oh and of course I got some vanilla ice cream for that too!

When I told Ian our menu he asked "who was coming over?" Just Us!
    But then....we were invited to share Thanksgiving with a friend of mine who lives on a farm a few miles out of town. Now I have all the stuff, I'm ready to go but the kids got really excited to go to this gals house and they heard there would be a lot of kids and 40 acres to run around in....So a part of me thought, NO, it's a family day!  But then I thought, my poor kids, have family days everyday. I know my mother in law is back home spending this holiday in a way that she's not use to, I thought of my brother in laws (in Georgia and Hawaii) and my brothers (in North Carolina and California), none of us are going to be together, I thought of my mom opening her house up to anyone on Thanksgiving and how I'm usually the one thinking "why does she do that? It's a family day!" Then I realized that maybe this year I'll get out of my comfort zone, do something different, put myself in someone else's shoes, not the person running the show, the person in the corner maybe feeling a little awkward. If the kids have a blast , which it sounds like they will, then that's what really matters. We have the rest of the weekend to have family time and I am still making all this yummy food because I want more than a plate of leftovers, I WANT a FRIDGE full!
    So family, all of you. We miss you, we are thinking of you and although we are far apart you will be with us in Spirit. Love you. Happy Thanksgiving.

We made some no bake cookies that we got from pinterest, Houston and I had a ball and Waylon swiped some chocolate while we weren't looking...sneaky kid..Theyre suppose to look like pilgrim hats and acorns

Salt Lake City

 So these past three weeks have been a bit rough for me. Ian is working on a job high up in the mountains in a little town called Ouray. They call it "little Switzerland" they are putting him up in a hotel, so they can get in more work, with less drive time. So that leaves me here in Bayfield, with the kiddos from Monday to Saturday night, holding down the fort. I never intended to be out here on my own. First it was the week of Halloween, then it was Wrex's birthday now this is the third week and it's waring on me. I just figured if I was out here, we could all; be together as a family. So that's been frustrating. Of course Ian doesn't have a say when and where the work is. We've been told that we will probably be moving on pretty soon, so that tells me this can't last for too long, but three weeks is longer than I thought.
    This being our current situation, Ian had class in Salt Lake this weekend, so the boys and I tagged along to spend sometime together and get rid of our cabin fever! It was suppose to snow this past weekend and man did it dump on Salt Lake! It started Friday evening on our drive out there. I have never seen so much snow. Of course, I've hardly seen snow at all , but man, everything was covered,as far as we could see. It was beautiful and exciting. We got to the hotel at about 8 and unloaded our stuff. Ian teased us calling us Californians" as we tramped through the snow (not on the clear paths) in ugg boots. We brought all sorts of snow with us into the hotel room. The kids were picking up snow and eating it . So we have lots to learn, what else is new? The next day we went to In N Out. Wrex savored every bite, we got milkshakes, just to indulge ourselves, yes it was still snowing. We went to Costco and got Waylon some toys . I took the kids ion front of the hotel and showed them how to make snow angels. I was going to take a picture for you but, after I tackled Wrex isn the snow, we had a huge sbow fight and ruined our angels. I actually hid in the hotel room, after that but the kids had a blast making snowballs waitiing for me to come out. It was a lot of fun! As expected, I ate my through Salt Lake, we had Cafe Rio, Little Cesars, In N out twice. Yes we indulged on all the things they don't have in our little town.  We had so much fun eating that I thought it would be lovely to take the boys to a Sunday breakfast at my favorite little spot. So we dropped Ian off at class at 7am and drove to Salt Lake, which was about 45 mins away from where we were staying. It was clear when we started out but it had started snowing in Salt Lake. When we got to the little spot I wanted to go, it was being plowed, which I thought was a good sign. WRONG! Its about 2 miles up a mountain and when we got to "Ruths" there was about 2 feet of snow in the parking lot. I didn't want to get stuck so I turned around, the kids were disappointed but oh my gosh, if I didn't start sliding down that mountain. I felt very foolish for leaving my continental breakfast behind! So slowly we made it down the mountain and into Salt Lake. I found another restaurant on trip Advisor and made my way every so slowly that way. The snow kept falling and the plowers we're a little more slow at 7:30 Sunday morning. Where I come from, that's a perfect time to go get breakfast in Salt Lake, not so much. Anyway, the next restaurant was closed till 9am. So we went to Starbucks and grabbed a bagel at Einsteins and called it good. I got back to the hotel and thanked my lucky stars this California girl made it back without a fender bender.
     All in all, the snow was beautiful and when we got back to Bayfield there was not nearly as much of it on the ground. Which is good because as pretty as it is, getting the kids out and about in it will be challenging. So now we're back to normal, Ian is up in the mountains and the boys and I are passing the time, getting ready for Thanksgiving. My next big event, we'll talk more about that next week. Much Love~Kristina

  This is the parking lot of Ian's class, doesn't it look like a Christmas Card? I thought so.

Why is Houston wearing a sweathsirt? He didn't listen to the "grab your jacket warning" he also didn't bring any long sleeve shirts or gloves. Convinving these kids to dress properly in the snow was difficult.

Putting one foot in front of the other

  Hello Friends. So I have been sucked into jogging. Which should shock you if you know me. Yes me, the girl who got a B in PE because I would not put forth effort. I've always hated everything about running. Usually my lungs feel like they're going to fall out and I quit 45 seconds in. I'm the kinda girl whose not going to run unless someone is chasing me. So how did I get here. Well, I was invited to participate in this 8 week challenge to be more healthy. You receive points for things like eating 2 servings of fruit a day and 3 servings of vegetables a day. Well I'm friendly enough and could use something else to eat besides bread, so I accepted the challenge. Oh yes the winner gets around $200 bucks so there's some motivation for you. You can win by either having the most points or by having the highest weight loss percentage, according to your weight. Well I didn't take it very seriously at first. I just went ahead and modified some of the foods I ate. I ate a lot of carrots that first week. I cracked out my pilates home videos. I entered my calories and work out into my app called "my fitness pal." I burned 100 calories...go me! The thing is on this fitness pal thing, you can see how much other people are working out and I started feeling like a total slouch. These ladies were kicking it into high gear. You may not know this about me, unless you're one of my brothers, but I am actually pretty competitive. Of course I don't compete unless I think I can win. Is that too revealing? I think I'm sneakily competitive. Does that make sense? No I didn't think so.    So during the first week of my "light" workouts I had that back drama. Maybe it was because I told my body to start working out, I don't know. So I put this other app on my phone called "couch to 5k" and I started walking with the boys. The app tells you when to walk and when to jog so you slowly build up to jogging. Well within the first week I had knee trouble. I almost quit but these other girls kept burning up the calories and I'm no quitter. I also started to enjoy my 30 minutes away from the kiddos. At this point I started jogging when Ian was home. I go around the trailers, one big loop, over and over. Very safe and predictable. So I spoke to a friend who has had major trauma to her body by a quad accident and she ran. If she can do it, why not me? So she advised me to get a knee brace and keep going. There were days that I looked ridiculous. I had my knee brace on, sometimes layers of shirts(it was cold and I don't own running apparel) as I jogged at a pace that people could walk past me. I started doubting my couch to 5k app. When it told me to stop jogging, I didn't listen and would soon regret it. I thought my lungs were going to fall out but I knew this couldn't actually happen. I've always been worried that I would look really stupid if I tried to run, again I am quite slow, I don't think technically its "running" at all. But no one is here to see me that I know. So now I've worked it out where I "jog" when Waylon takes his morning naps. I circle the park and the boys open the door if Waylon wakes up . But oddly enough Waylon sleeps well if everyone is quiet in here, which we never are, unless I'm running and the older boys are watching tv in my room. Many days I don't feel like getting out there, believe me it's much colder here than back home, But dang it if I'm not getting results. My legs are trim and I do like rocking out to Pandora as I circle the park. I have mini adventures, like when I got brave one day and decided to run behind the barn. I saw a skunk (they move really weird its like they bobble) so I hightailed it back to my main loop. One day last week it was pretty dark still and out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw a kangaroo, of course it was just a deer but the way it pranced, I don't know, it cracked me up. One time I really needed some motivation so I went out to where the park keeps their cows (the cows weren't there, again I don't know why) and there was a huge flock of geese, so I ran after them just in an attempt to pick up the pace and be a stinker at the same time. Somehow, someone sent me this app that gives money to a charity every time you "run" and now I feel like the least I can do is to give to these charities, I mean everyone wins right? My little brother thought my facebook was hacked he said " so you like really run everyday?"  Yeah I know, sometimes I can't believe it either. I lost 10 pounds and who knows I may win the prize for weight loss although that was never my intention. Some side benefits is that, I get a little bit of time to clear my head everyday. I get a little bit of Kristina time which I really need when I can never really get some space from my family (whom I LOVE ;) So today my app told me that I could run 25 minutes in a row. I didn't believe it at first but I know it's usually right so somehow very slowly I jogged for 25 minutes in a row. HUGE SUCCESS for this girl. When I thought to myself this morning, How did I get to this point? It was clear that I just took one step at a time. I put one foot in front of the other and trusted that everything was going to work out. I think this is very fitting for me, I'm sure it is for all linewives. We never know where the next job will be, when will we move, should we go back home, when is my husband coming back from storm work? Just put one foot in front of the other, have a little  faith and take it one day at a time.~ a little bit of encouragements from friends and family also goes a long way

P.S I disposed of a mouse in a trap today. I am woman hear me roar!

Here I am looking particularly awesome one cold morning