My Rag Quilt is done!!!

Front:
Back:
Way too time consuming to do another one. I had grandiose ideas of making them for friends and family, but reality is I can't take that time away from my family to make another one. It's beautiful though, don't you think?

Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to buy costumes and to the pumpkin patch. Joel is a police officer, John will be a storm trooper, James-some kind of ninja, Joe will use our homemade Care Bear outfit, Sarah will be a Grease cheerleader, and the girls will be a ladybug and a bee. :)


Here are some pics for you to enjoy of our day at the patch.

Joel in uniform.

Adah not sure what to think about this llama and Joel wants it to lick his hand.

Joel, Anna, Mommy, Anna, and John

James in the cornstalk maze. John trying to persuade this pony that it is hungry.
Anna puckering up for a smoochie.

Adah in the pumpkin cart.
Oh to be six again.

Joe and Anna entering the cornstalk maze.


The cashier gave us six free pumpkins for the kids. They were smaller, but free is free! I told John he could get a pumpkin as big as he could carry to the car. No cheating with a wagon. I should have known that boy would have picked a $14 whopper. After he lugged it ALL the WAY from the patch I couldn't take my offer away. A deal is a deal. I forget he's so strong and will prove that he can do anything even if it kills him. He's ALOT like his mother.

Pictures

Yesterday I got home from Costco and the sky looked like this from my driveway. All of a sudden it started getting really, really smokey gray. Not knowing where it was coming from I came inside to check the news. We were good. I think it was coming from our local mountains. I live on a winding one way in, one way out road so if there was a fire coming I needed to know.

This is a pretty flower growing on our fence. Such a contrast to how ugly the sky was.

Lazy day at home

All of our soccer games were canceled this weekend so we actually have a free Saturday. We had scrambled eggs, waffles with strawberries and whip cream for breakfast. The younger three boys spent the night at Jacob's for a special treat. They watched the Robinson movie and made Gak. Jesse picked them up mid-morning.

Steve has been putzing around fixing this and that. I finished writing thank-you notes. I've been working on them for the past month or so and I think I'm actually caught up! Sarah, Joe and I watched "What Not To Wear." Joel and I played Monopoly Jr. with him whipping me because he owned both spots near the Go square.

We had a late lunch/early dinner with bbq ribs, parmesan fingerling potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, Hawaiian rolls, and buttery grilled mushrooms. I have pumpkin cobbler (boxed mix from Costco) baking in the oven for a yummy dessert.

Now that my thank-you notes are done I can work on my quilt. I'm sewing the rows together. I have nine rows and have finished three of them.

Adah is down for her second nap and Anna is happily chewing on a rib. Of course, she's making a complete mess, but hey, she's washable.

Hope you're having a non-eventful lazy day as well!

Pictures of our unexpected vacation

Boys skateboarding early, early in the morning. There's three of them on that thing.

Our retreat center-Mapleview Inn Parking Lot
Daddy and the girls after an early morning cereal bar feeding.
Mommy and the boys.
That bed slept four boys ages 6 1/2-12. The girls slept underneath it in their playpens.


Pray for Jared if you think of him. He's been working between twelve and fifteen hours a day since Sunday night. It's twelve hours on and twelve off, but he's putting in overtime and still has to report to work at the same time. Frustrations are mounting as people want to get back home and can't. He fortunately isn't making the decisions, he just has to make sure they're followed. Misinformation is abounding on the television too. We've had several calls today wondering if we evacuated again as the tv posted that we were supposed to. We didn't and all looks good on the western front. Everything is put away and the kids are at church painting "sifters" to help fire victims sift through their ashes to find any valuables they might be able to retrieve. Our youth pastor took screen to make screen doors and 2x4's for the frames and made sifters. The kids are painting the wood of the frame to include them and make them feel productive.

We're back!

We had to evacuate Sunday night about 10pm due to the wildfires here in our area. We hooked up our camper and all three vehicles and headed down to our church parking lot. We set-up camp for what we thought might be overnight, but it turned into a four night ordeal.

We had friends coming over to check on us Monday morning. Went to the Willis' for lunch and television viewing. We were only getting radio updates and not able to "see" what was going on. Barbara kept Sarah busy by having her cut-up apples for apple pie. John even brought a pie by the next day for us!

We had dinner at our friend's house the next three nights. The Butcher's took care of us by providing showers for the kids, making us meals, giving us the Wii fitness challenge test. I by the way, was 67 Wii years old and Steve was 49, I think.

We came home again on Monday night about 10pm, but had to evacuate again about 3am Tuesday morning and today, Thursday we were able to come home again. All is well and no damage to our property.

I was dreading camping with our new babies, but it really wasn't so bad. Their playpens fit perfectly in the back of our camper and we were able to sleep ten people. We used the church nursery for early morning playtime, morning and afternoon naps and a place to check the radio. There were bathrooms so we didn't have to use ours since we didn't have any sewer hook-up. We were able to use the power and water from the church so we really had quite the set-up. I just hate leaving home like that. Two times in the past four years is enough, don't you think?

Loading up the van

Wildfire season. It's here. Today is a red flag day as well as the next few days. We've heard reports through the day about the fire and its proximity to us. This time we have a warning so we did pack up some pictures, personal items, adoption papers, and legal papers/documents and loaded them all into the van.

Jared just called and said its an hour away from Ramona which is about a half-hour or so away from us. In the Cedar Fire of 2003 it started in Ramona area and raged through our property hours later. We evacuated about 3am with nothing, but a load of laundry for the boys.

We were gone for days. Stayed at someone's house who graciously opened their homes to fire victims.We had been told that our house burned back then. We were thankful we were able to have gotten all the children out and that we were together-alive. Some weren't so lucky. Some died escaping the flames in their cars. Some lost houses, animals, cars, everything.

It burned through our property, leaving its wake of destruction. Our barn, outside bathroom, toys, trailer, trees, power lines, etc. burned. Our house was standing, but our yard was devasted. We live on four acres and were very blessed that our home was still here.

I remember thinking what I should take with me. All I could think of was what I needed to wear. Did I have shoes, socks, underwear? For some reason I had Sarah run back into the house to grab our toothbrushes. Now my motto is, "Take what you can't buy." If you can buy clothes, leave 'em. If you can buy books, leave 'em. This time we're taking pictures, albums and negatives.

Hopefully we won't need to use them.

How can a girl make such a mess?

I was sucking on a See's sucker a while ago. Both of the girls ended up in my lap and I lost my sucker. Decided to put them in their high chairs and let them each have one.

Adah is just about as clean as someone can get eating a sucker. She's so sweet she doesn't even like to get dirty!

Do you see the difference between Anna and Adah? Steve noticed it. The mess.
Anna is messy as all get out. That is how she attacks life. She goes full throttle. Nothing stops her except her bottle and her crib. That's why we call her Hurricane Anna.

Two different personalities. Two very different girls. Both of them ours. We love it!

New outfits and Adah's exersaucer

Adah in her new church outfit.
Anna in one of her new church dresses.
Anna in her new Gymboree dress and Mommy. (Thanks John Oakes family!)Adah in her new exersaucer. Thanks Aunt Joni! (Love that serious look?)

What is going on?

Sarah found this bottle between her bed and the wall the other day. That is the nipple totally expanded. Steve put it in the trash compactor and even after getting crushed it didn't pop.

By the way, I HATE the whole bottle thing. I have no idea why people would choose to bottle feed instead of nursing. Bottles are total pain-in-the-neck. Having done both, I can say that. :)

Anna's eyes are just fine!

We had an appt. with the eye doctors this last week for Anna's droopy eyelid. Our pediatrician didn't know if it was just a droopy eyelid or if there was a problem with her vision. After having her eyes dilated and an optometrist and an opthamologist looking at them they said her eyes are just fine. If and when we ever want to have surgery for her eyelid we can when she's about five or older. I think she's fine the way she is. She's a doll baby and couldn't be any cuter!

Thank you Lord for Anna. She's a little spitfire that keeps us young and on our toes. You made a perfect match!

Adah is turning over and sat herself up!

When we first met Adah she could only wave her legs around. She couldn't use them to turn herself over or move herself in anyway. Last night she turned herself over! Today she was laying on her tummy and she was able to go into a sitting position. She's growing so quickly! She is such a joy and we LOVE being her mommy and daddy.

Thank you Lord for allowing us to be her family. You couldn't have picked a better child for us. She's perfect.

Look what Dawn (Plaidhearts) awarded me! Thanks Dawn!

I give this award to the four ladies whose blog I read the most in addition to Dawn's.

Rachel is a young mom from church. Some of you who know me, but don't know Rachel might be interested to know that she is Barbara Willis' daughter-in-law. So you can imagine what a gem she is! She shares her life with her three little girls and her husband on her blog It's a Sunny Life. http://itsasunnylife.blogspot.com/

Marcia is a friend that I met online. She lives all the way in Utah, but we did happen to meet one time! We aptly stood under a sign that read, "Nuts from all over the world meet here" :) and had our picture taken with Sharon. Marcia is an avid knitter and shares her love of knitting and beautiful items that she creates on http://antknit.blogspot.com/ She also has four daughters that are just as lovely as she is.

Jen is another online friend, but unfortunately we have never met. Jen has a growing family with six children and a hard-working husband and she LOVES NASCAR. She too is an avid knitter and I have no idea how she finds the time to knit all the things she does. You can find all about Jen at http://sillyjencrochetsandknits.blogspot.com/

Sharon is a bosom buddy that lives in the same area. We got to know each other at an Above Rubies retreat one year and hit it off splendidly. Sharon has homeschooled her nephew and niece at one time or another and she is now homeschooling her own daughter. Sharon shares her life with her two little ones, her one on the way and her husband at http://keepinupjones.blogspot.com/

And Dawn.............If you could only know Dawn in real life. You would just treasure her. She knows how to have fun. She can laugh at herself. She doesn't take herself to seriously and yes, she is a kindred spirit. I miss Dawn. God brought her into my life in Southern California for a season and now we can share our lives through our blogs. I can still see her children growing all the way across the USA. Love ya' Dawn!

Someone to emulate

Our family with Kaye.

Many of us have someone we emulate; someone we look up to. One of those people for me and for many at our church is moving to Oregon. She's getting on in years and has no 'family' around her. She is blessed in that she has sons and daughters-in-law who want her to move in with them. Why? She is a dynamo of a lady.

This saint went on a missionary trip just a year or so ago to Africa. She knew she couldn't do much being in her eighty's, but she knew she could do something. She helped by planting gardens. She is the most cheerful ole' gal I've ever run into and she is quite the encourager too. She has the heart of an evangelist and loves to witness to people; anywhere-anytime.

At her good-bye party we had this picture taken with her. She, by the way, is one of the original members of our church. She has been faithfully attending for forty-seven years. May I even be a glimpse of what she is.

Pumpkin Bread recipe

I made this delicious pumpkin bread today. I found the recipe on the back of the label on Libby's canned pumpkin.

Pumpkin Bread-It will make four 9 x 5 loaves.

6 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp. salt
6 cups granulated sugar
1 can (29 oz) Libby's 100% pure pumpkin
8 large eggs
2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup orange juice or water (I used oj and it doesn't taste like oj at all.)

If you desire you can add 2 cups sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries.

Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease your pans.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, oil and juice in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil and juice in large bowl with wire whisk; mix until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; sitr until just moistened. Fold in cranberries if used. Spoon 4 cups batter in each prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 75-80 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Enjoy!!!

Awana Conference

Yesterday I spent the day at our local Awana conference. I attended the Cubbie seminars and I learned a great deal of information. One teacher had been in Cubbies for twenty-six years. She was a treasure chest of info!

The whole conference was very well done. Our other leaders went to Truth & Training, Game Line, and Sparkie, and Commander classes. The Cubbies classes taught us everything from the design and set-up of our room to record-keeping to crafts and games.

I have come full circle. I started out in Cubbies back in 1988 as a parent and then became a leader or director. Not sure I was actually a leader before I became the director or not. Then I was in Chums & Guards for awhile as well as leading the girls in our Awana Olympics. Speaking of the Awana Olympics I've heard that there not called "Olympics" anymore. I'm not even sure what the new terminology is!

Seems as the whole setup has changed except for Sparks. Cubbies is a new system to me now. In Cubbies the whole club works on the same verse each night. The whole meeting is centered around the truth found in the verse. Back in the day the kids could say as many verses as they wanted and I don't remember lessons plans available like there are now. I'm glad there are lesson plans, but as I get more comfortable in the club I'll tweek them to fit our club.

I'm excited to get our Cubbies club to where it should be and watch it grow. I remember when we had about twenty-five little ones in our rooms. Now we only have nine, but it's a start! There are so many little ones out there to reach for the Lord. I'm honored to have a small part in His ministry.

Adah is growing in leaps and bounds!

Earlier I stepped on the scale with her this week. She is up to almost sixteen pounds! That is great news! She was just a little over thirteen pounds in late August. She had been at thirteen pounds for months. She is just taking off with good nutritition.

Adah has started physical therapy with a therapist from our school district. She comes once a week for an hour and works with her. The first week Adah didn't want anything to do with her, but the second week she was actually quite pleasant! When we first brought her home she couldn't put any weight on her legs at all. She would just instantly go into a sitting position. She didn't have any muscle tone in her lower half. Now, she's scooching a bit forwards and backwards and if we stand her up she'll at least put her feet on the ground now.
She's still not turning over on her own, but she is pivoting around if she's on her belly.

Yesterday she started puckering up for kisses. Of course, we all take advantage of it! She's just a little dream baby. So adorable. I just wish I'd had her the first eleven months too!

The Zackey Family: Have you heard of them?

Hold on! This might make your head spin!!!



Zackey family featured on Local Television
Posted 6/6/2007
The local television station, WIVB TV4, featured a story on the Zackey family. Below is a link to the video and a transcript.
Story with Video
Large Family Tries to Make World Better Place
(June 2, 2007)
The next time you feel overwhelmed with the daily stress of family and work, think of this story. It's about a family of 17 children and their two parents who have opened their hearts and home to make this world a better place for others across the world. News 4's Victoria Hong has their incredible story.
Meet Tom and Candy Zackey, and their seventeen kids, nine birth children, eight African adopted children, plus an exchange student from Liberia.
Candy Zackey: "I have always wanted to adopt. It's just been a desire God just placed in my heart."
Victoria Hong: Did you ever imagine seventeen?
Candy Zackey: "No, I just wanted to adopt one little boy."
Initially, husband Tom was against the idea.
Tom Zackey: "We were having our own family. I had no desire to adopt children."
He had a change of heart after a banquet about the plight of orphans in Sierra Leone, and in 2004 they adopted two girls from West Africa.
Candy Zackey: "We're not a real loud rowdy group, but we just have lot fun together."
The children range in age from three to twenty-one. They share nine bedrooms and six baths, and all the chores, which is the key to Candy's sanity.
Candy Zackey: "I don't cook, I don't clean, I don't do laundry. I don't do most of the work of the house, unless I choose to."
Tom Zackey: "The kids do it."
Candy Zackey: "...because I've trained the children to do all that work."
Candy homeschools all the kids. Their school year ends in April, so all the boys and one of the girls can help Tom with his landscaping business.
As the master organizer, Candy's biggest challenge is...
"...adjusting to the amount of food we have to make."
So what about food?
They go through ten gallons of milk a week, fifty pounds of rice a month, and eight loaves of bread a day, which they make. Dinner never costs more than twenty dollars, total.
Once a month, they prepare as much food that can be stored in three refrigerators and one freezer.
And if that doesn't have your head spinning, this will.
Tom Zackey: "For the last two years, we have been working with three orphanages. Right now, me and my oldest son Jack are leaving in about three weeks. We are looking to build our own orphanage that will hold 750 children."
...in Liberia, West Africa, where they adopted six of their children.
Between the parents and oldest children, they spent 38 weeks over there last year. It's their life calling.
Tom Zackey: "We're busy, but it's not stressful busy, it's enjoyable busy."
Candy Zackey: "I couldn't imagine doing anything else."

I am not scatterbrained.

My friend Debbie was tellling me how my wonderful husband, I won't hold this against you Hon, mentioned that I am quite scatterbrained lately. I instantly protested. "I am not scatterbrained!"

I no sooner get home and see this darling husband of mine and tell him that I am not scatterbrained. I also explain that most women would not be able to do all the things I do and he agrees. I tell him that I just have a lot to keep track of. He agrees.

So the question comes. Where's Jesse? We know that Jesse was just behind us at church. "Sarah, Do you know where Jesse is?" "No," she replies. The question goes around the room. Okay so no one knows where Jesse is. "Joe, hand me the phone," Steve says. "Jesse, where are you?" "I'm at Isaac's." Ummmmm......"Oh yeah," I say sheepishly, "I forgot he told me he was going to Isaac's." I get this look from Steve that says YOU ARE SCATTERBRAINED!!!! He wasn't going to say it, but I know he was thinking it!!!

Steve says, I can see if he told you last week, but he told you tonight! I protest because is forgetting something the same as being scatterbrained? I don't know. I explain that when he told me he was going to Isaac's I was making some very important quilting decisions. I was deciding if I should put the black square next to this creme square or next to the green square ? Does the burgandy need some purple or black next to it?

Just don't tell me anything important. I might just give you a blank stare. I don't think anyone is home in my brain lately. If you see me wandering around just point me to someone in my family. They'll know what to do with me.

Rag Quilt

Last night at church I worked on my rag quilt. Shenna showed us how to lay out all the squares. My quilt will be seven squares across and nine down. I am bucking the system though and am going to have 1/2 seams instead of one inch seams. My teacher is not happy with me. ; ) I asked her if she really expected anything less from Jake's mom, but to buck the system.

First I laid all my squares down and decided how I wanted it to look. I tried to balance out the cremes, greens, maroons, and black/purple. When I was satisfied with that then I had to flip it over and match my front squares with a back square. Then they get flipped back over to the right side of the quilt. Shenna labeled each row for me and now they sit in a pretty stack. I have been told NOT to touch them so I don't mess them up. Can I possibly follow directions and keep my hands off them. I hope so!

Potato Soup

Today I made potato soup for dinner. It's a nice meal that you can leave on the stove and ,most everyone can help themselves. This recipe is from our pastor's wife with some of my directions added in.

Potato Soup
(I often quadruple this recipe for our family and have it simmering for several meals.)

6 slices bacon (save grease for onions)
1 cup onion
2 cups cooked potatoes
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup (10 1/2 oz. size cans)
2 cans milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons parsley
Cheddar cheese for the top of soup (optional)

Fry bacon and set aside. Take some grease from the bacon and fry your onion until the onion is transluscent. Fill pot with some water, enough to cover your potatoes, then peel and cut up potatoes to desired size. Drain water from the potatoes when done. Add everything to your soup pot and set on low. You don't want this to boil, you just want to keep it warm. After serving top soup bowls with bacon and cheddar cheese.

I usually make corn bread in my cast iron skillet when I'm done with the soup. Yummy!!! I'll add the corn bread recipe tomorrow. If I did it now that would require me to get up and it's 1:33am in the morning. If I get up now it's to go back to bed.

Happy 27th Anniversary to me. Happy 27th Anniversary to me!

Monday was our 27th wedding anniversary! We've been celebrating all weekend by going out every day for a bite to eat. We even went to see 3:10 to Yuma and LOVED it. I love westerns anyways and this one was really well done.

Steve and I have been together since 1976. I moved in with him when I was fifteen and he was sixteen. We lived at his mom's house for about two years. When I was a senior in high school we moved into our own duplex. Not too long after I graduated high school Steve bought a house where we would live for the next sixteen years We also got married, received Christ as our Savior, and had four children while there.

Our wedding was quite small. In fact there were only five people there. The pastor, me and Steve, his brother and his brother's girlfriend. After the ceremony we went to lunch and then headed off to the Covered Wagon across the street from Knott's Berry Farm. Disneyland and Knott's was our destination.

I never thought we would make it to twenty-seven years. I thought one of us would have killed the other in the process somewhere along the line. But, we didn't and now our marriage is stronger than ever. I still find him wildly attractive and have a hard time keeping my hands off him.

We often prefer to be alone than with others. We're each others best friend. I would never dream of having a woman as a best friend. It's just not me. I did when I was a teenager, but since I've met Steve he's been it.

Now with ten children total and eight still living at home. We make it a point to go to bed at the same time and to spend time together every evening. We like the same things except for football. I am not a football fan in any way, shape or form. Now that I have my iPod, I can sit there and look at the TV with my earphones on while he watches football. :-) Other than that we're very compatible. I challenge you to make your husband your first priority. He'll love you for it.