Happy 15th Birthday Randy

Randy has really enjoyed his birthday today. Dad drove him to seminary so I could sleep in, so for the first time EVER, I did not get to tell him a Happy Birthday morning. Jason more then took care of that for me though. He woke up 15 minutes before Randy did, climbed into his bed (Randy sleeps in the top bunk) and pounced on him to zerbert his belly, side, what ever he could get to without taking an elbow to the face. :o)

I was thrilled to have the day off so that I could actually BAKE his cake instead of running to the store. For years we dreaded the thought of store bought, but over the last couple of years, that was what the kids all have wanted. Ha - not after today.

It took me a good part of the day to figure out how to accomplish the decorating though . . . because I wanted to make a guitar for my little Guitar Hero Addict, but didn't want to squeeze out a million little stars. I learned about fondant ... and for a first time attempt, I think I made it work out pretty well. I learned things TO do and NOT to do...should I ever attempt this form of decorating again. I also will be more careful with the cake shimmer color stuff. But, all said, he really loved the cake, and we ALL got a lovely reminder how much we LOVE and Miss me making our traditional family chocolate cake. Yummmmm.

Since Jason's birthday is tomorrow, they combined their birthday dinner out, and went with each other. Then we did presents together since we've got activities at church tomorrow. It was fun. Randy was THRILLED with the new 4 gig MP3 player he got. Thankfully I know that this one will last way longer then the last one did. (that was only 30 bucks, so I didn't exactly shed tears when it broke.) Jason also received a gift he actually did NOT know about. Yeah, I pulled it off.... they each got something they had NO clue they were getting.

Now, it's been a long day, and inspite of the chocolate kick, I'm worn out. I've got a full day of work, so I'd better get off to bed. I'll try to take time Thursday to write more and post some pictures. But I just couldn't let today go by without letting Randy know he's the greatest!! and we're thrilled he had such a fun birthday.

Busy Busy

Can you tell I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing yet? I have had so many funny or interesting things happen over the last couple of weeks that I think to myself "I've got to add that" (especially because I'd love to have this printed into a book for my kids...like Andrea did - which was part of why I think I actually set this up.) The worst part is getting home and being so tired once I get time to sit at the computer that I can't remember a single thing I wanted to write. Either that or I'm SO busy that I'm all go till bed time and I don't TAKE the time to sit and write.
Ahhh, I remember when I used to LOVE to sit and write real letters, receive them, write in my journal regularly. Now, even though I know I had a really good day, got alot accomplished, or the kids had a great day at school...I still feel on edge come evening time. I know alot of it is my inability to relax because sometimes I'm the ONLY one in the house with a brain that's working, and thinking for 7 can just exhaust a person. Jason struggles with PTSD, and some days are great while there are others he's just not interested in doing anything. Those day's get hard for me to watch and be a part of while being detached. You can't emotionally get upset with the person, because he's not CHOOSING this. Jason is on some VERY helpful meds, but still, I'll be happy when he's happier on a general overall basis.

The kids enjoyed a week off of school, and actually managed to not TOTALLY destroy the house. Of all the weeks I ended up working 3 weekdays instead of 2 it ended up being that week. I actually think we made out pretty well, all things considered. We didn't do anything great or majorly fun because we are saving our time off and money for our ROSBACH FAMILY REUNION!!! Wa-hooo, we can NOT wait. This summer we will get to enjoy my whole side of the family. Just enough to love each other, laugh, drive each other bonkers, and head home. I'm hoping all the kids will get the chance to connect with their cousins and they will all take the chance to keep in touch after all is said and done. With email, text messaging, and the fact they still Occasionally see me use REAL mail...and they love to write letters too - sometimes ... maybe we'll see some great family bonding from this. All I know is I can't wait to see all my brothers and their families, and my sister and parents. Three years overseas with visiting any family at all never an option, that got pretty frustrating. It's good to be back on the same continent with nearly all our family. :o)

So, this weekend I was working a full day on Saturday, and had made a chore list (listed by priority of what MUST be completed, would LIKE to see completed, and COULD be completed for extra allowance -- BEFORE I got home.) Friday nights are the only night Jason gets to stay up late, enjoy movies, or play video games, or draw without looking at the clock, because when he takes his sleeping pill, no matter what time it is, he can still take the time to sleep in for a FULL night of sleep. So to add to the list, I even bribed the kids with extra stuff and money should they get this stuff done AND let Dad sleep.
I was thrilled to get home and have ALL the bedrooms cleaned, vacuumed, stuff NOT in heaping piles on the shelves or shoved in the closet. They'd done ALL the rest of the house (I'd done the bathrooms, so that was a HUGE help for them to not have to do those), including starting the rotation of laundry. We've started to hang nearly everything out on the line to dry. First, it was getting way to hot in the laundry room when we'd run the dryer a lot, and I didn't want to turn on the ac to fight it off. Secondly, I wanted to save money. I did this a lot when I was in Okinawa and our electric bill was $450 over the spring months. By summer, only underwear was dried in the house unless it was raining, and we only used the air conditioning in the rooms we were IN...daytime the living room, night time the bedrooms. Also, no cooking in the oven. Even with all those efforts our summer time electric bill was in the $800 range 3 months in a row. YIKES!! (I'm telling you, we are magnets to energy IN-efficient homes).
Anyway . . .
So since the weather has been so nice, and the humidity levels are low right now, I figured I needed to really push to save some cash. The kids actually listened, and while rotating the laundry, hung stuff OUT to dry. Last month our electric bill was nearly $100 less from that and a couple other things we changed. There may be hope for our summer bill here yet.

Thanks to their efforts, everyone was really able to reap the rewards -- not only did we trade in marbles (that's how we do allowance. They get paid in marbles for chores, helping, etc. They lose marbles for naughty behavior, and they have to pay marbles if they want PlayStation time, computer, etc...unless we've chosen to give ALL the kids rotating turns.) So, they traded in and got their allowance, and while some saw how awesome it was that they worked so hard that day, one saw that his choices to be a trouble maker, or to keep leaving to go off and play instead of help, got him a measly little allowance of less then $2. Thankfully, this child did NOT complain, fully understanding that this was of their own choosing. Whew...I got thru with ONE life lesson somewhere that stuck.
The evening was games, movies, and chill out time. I'm trying to crochet or something. I was too darnd fidgety to really DO anything.

Now we've got a full week ahead of us, and I am hoping it's a good one. I've got a clean house that I'm hoping can be more easily maintained. We've got TWO BIRTHDAY's to celebrate this week. In 2 short days, I will be the mother of a FIFTEEN year old! What the HEY???!! HUH. Okay, fifteen I can handle, till it sinks in, eventually I might want to help him get into the Drivers Ed class and go get his North Carolina equivalent to a learners permit. (Under 18 they've got different levels of driving privileges...I'll probably post about it once I figure it all out.)
Then, Wednesday, Jason will let us celebrate HIS birthday. He could sort of care less, but WE enjoy it and are awfully happy HE was born, so FuN we shall have (till I have to leave for scouts...can't get out of this one, darn it.) I'm excited because I was able to get him a really cool gift, and I was afraid it wasn't going to be delivered on time. However, it was delivered only 3 days after I placed my order....OH was I stressed to figure out how to hide the box AND not tell him about it. Yeah, this is the only thing I like about him not being Fully "connected" all the time. He has not picked up on my excitement for his approaching birthday. I'm sure I'll write about both birthday's later, but for now, can't say a word for fear the birthday boys will actually take time to READ the family blog by Mom and suprises will be ruined.

So, although there are lots and lots of cool things I wanted to say that are still flying around the house somewhere, until I managed to re-capture those thoughts, this'll have to do for tonight. Even when I drop my thoughts and can't manage thought provoking entries, I will still attempt to NOT neglect my blog.

Hope you are ALL well, getting healthier to those that have been ill, and that spring is bringing better weather to those in states not able to enjoy all the fun and sun and warmth we've had here so far.

My Last few Days, birthday included

I'm still trying to figure out the easiest way to post pictures and add stuff, so if anyone has any tips, tricks, or handy websites for information so I can make this less blahh, let me know.

Sunday was my birthday. I'm 35 now, and funny enough, my age has never been something I dread watching creep up. When I was about 23 my mom told me I'd lived the life of a 40 year old, so I figure I'm still working on catching up to that. When looking at the photos I post, please keep in mind....I really don't like to be IN pictures, I'd rather be behind the camera...and hey, with 5 kids, even on MY birthday, I've GOT to have WAY more shots of them then myself.

Sunday morning, thanks to it being General Conference weekend for church & us living in the east coast time zone, I was able to sleep WAY in (something I rarely get to do). The kids woke me up with breakfast in bed, accompanied by some really funny cards. I like this one...a true reflection of my kiddos sense of humor when left to choose on their own what THEY thought I would enjoy.

Zacky's favorite card isn't as effective to share in photos. It's a musical card. "You aren't old till the fat lady sings"....open card... WOW does the ongoing opera singing scare the living daylights out of you when your not fully awake - and WOW does it send little kids into total hysterics LOL.

Of course, everyone made me wait ALL day to get presents. It only made sense because a large part of the day was filled with watching General Conference. Also, every Sunday we have our next door neighbor over for dinner with us. Mr. H is 77 years old, the father of 2 who live too far away and don't have much contact with him, and BOY of BOY are they missing out. We've decided HE is the Dad Jason needed, so HE is the one we'll claim for his dad :o). The BEST part of having Mr H over (sorry, he's not ready for his name being out there...so Mr H he stays.) Anyway, when he first started coming over, we were a bit concerned that he'd go a bit NUTS with the chaos of all the kids around, because it's just him and his little itty bitty doggie, Brandi. Well, he has TOTALLy gotten over that. He NEEDS hugs out of each of the kids as soon as he gets here or he guilts them with his killer pout (honestly, I think since he wasn't allowed to pout in front of his father growing up, that he saved all that hidden talent for the days as Grandpa. )

Okay -- back to the birthday stuff.

We finally got to the point they'd let me have my gifts. Now, I knew I was getting an overlock sewing machine (serger...the kind that does those lovely clean stitches you see in t-shirts and nearly all store bought clothing). I knew this because we bought it from the fabric store I work at AND it's been sitting, staring me down, taunting me for the last 10 days...from Right next to my sewing desk. Yeah, would've been way to easy to get it out of sight...not as much fun as me sitting wishing I could just USE it already. LOL...so the thing is, I was exhausted, AND had to work the next day, so there was no chance to open and play around with it until after work. Ahhhh, yessss, the life of a mom --- here is what my lovely little White looked like Monday evening when I was enjoying watching everyone relax and let loose around the house a little bit.

--->Here's what else I get to figure out to enjoy (uuuhhmmmm, yeah, could someone please share some awake and functioning brain cells for me to use to while I do this?. please!)

<~~ Above mentioned Serger

Digital Picture frame AND alarm clock/radio/mp3 player ~~~~~>

(the photo is WAY to blurry to post and be useful, but I also got a key chain that's a small digital photo frame. Cool huh? I'll try to remember to add a photo later... maybe... go back to the brain cells I need that are awake and work. hmm. )

ON to the when the family was having some hang out CHILL time........

Ever since we got "Guitar Hero" for the family for Christmas, we've added ALL versions of the game -- and can NOT wait until July when the "Aerosmith Guitar Hero" comes out! We also have "Rock Band", where you can have players not only play guitar, but drums, and even sing (trust me, NO singing talent is required. NONE_at_all.) The other favorite in the house is Robbie's karaoke cd player. Thanks to the fact that Jason is a walking juke box, and we ALL love to sing along with our music (Yaahh BLUE OCTOBER!!...select songs are edited) Robbie spazzed when she got this player. Sooooo - here's what the family ended up doing after homework was done and we cleaned up after dinner....

Jason & Curtis took on guitars while Randy kicked things up on the drums.

Craigan would 'practice' while playing air drums and waiting his turn.






Robbie was Zyzax' little 'groupie' while he performed.

Spring Time

(Sorry to those of you that have been experiencing gobs and gobs of snow, cold, or yuck…. )

WOW!!! I completely forgot just how beautiful spring time in certain places can BE.

Normally I enjoy taking care of the yard of the home we are living in, and try to keep up with regular maintenance and making it look better then I started with. We rented this house immediately upon our arrival, and -- well -- we’ll just say that the home and yard haven’t exactly made me feel motivated to take good care of them. The agency that handles the rental for the owner never trimmed up the bushes or cleaned up around them before our taking over the place. We didn’t have our tools and such because our stuff had not yet arrived from Okinawa OR long-term storage (that took over 3 months to all slowly trickle in.) I certainly wasn’t going to go out and buy a bunch of stuff I knew would be coming, so I got ONE rake and pair of hand clipper trimmer things and tidied up just a bit. But Now, we have our tools, the weather has changed, and it is time to put them to use.

(okay, as I've been working on this I keep laughing because all that keeps going thru my head is that part in Willy Wonka where they're all in the Invention Room, and Mr. Wonka hops on the bike to 'stir' what ever the concoction is...and he sings "Spring time, the only pretty ring time....birds sing, hey ding -- a ding a ding. Sweet lovers, love -- the spring".)

--- back to what I was saying

The weather here last week got up into the 80’s, and it was perfect because I actually got two day’s off IN A ROW! That’s big for me because it means when I have to stop mid-project, no one’s going to mess with it before I can get back to it, so I this 2 days together lets me tackle the bigger projects on my list. Anyhow, so I really wanted the kids OUTSIDE and soaking in ALL the fresh air and sunshine we possibly could when they got home from school. I also wanted to get on with getting the yard cleaned up. I may not LOVE the house we're currently in, but it IS our home for now and I love my family and want us all to enjoy being here together in anyway we can work to improve things.

We pulled out the rakes and got to work. I had every intention of getting out the hedge clippers, but time slipped by SO fast. I even took some before pictures of the bushes to show how desperately they need a ‘haircut’.

Man are they in need of a buzz. I just laughed because I’d been out the week before trimming the huge hedges on the side of the house (now not nearly as huge) …and I now know that those are basically the ONLY bushes in the whole dang yard that do NOT flower. Sheesh. Oh how nice things would have looked had they been neatly pruned before blossoms took over everything? *shrug* Oh well, how the heck was I to know the yard would fill with so much color?

The kids and I started with the BACK yard for 2 very important reasons:

1.) Since it is fully fenced in, I can toss them out there to burn off some energy. The cleaner it is, the less risk of injury. VERY important to continue to enjoy ones day.

2.) We HAD to give it a good raking. There are these Spikey Balls that fell from the trees all fall/winter that HURT to step on. I have an awesome neighbor that told me what they are called, but I couldn’t tell you. ( the aliens did a mind swap and the brain they left me with doesn't remember names well. ?did I tell that in a blog or just an email to someone??)

In all Honesty - We've agreed that knowing the actual name of such a pain inflicting item will NOT change it’s effect on our feet. We just need to get'em gone.

As we were cleaning up that lovely Friday evening, it started to rain. It’s been doing so on and off ever since. Just enough that there’s no way I can pull out the step ladder to follow thru with the hedgecuts Sooooo necessary to perform. I can live with that though….because of all the rain, the lovely Yellow Blanket that has been coating the local area has been washing away. And check out ALL the color that has bloomed in the yard. . . .


… I used one of my shots to change my computer desktop, and the kids were in awe (I'm not usually so talanted and cool...not where they notice anyway.) – they thought I’d gotten it off the Internet or something. Nice flattery. Jason is a Photographer as his sort of second Job in the Marine Corps, so to have his compliment was even better. All I was trying to do was have some pictures to remember the day and the beauty that bloomed - showing me that this house isn’t a total pit of frustration to live in. Everything has an UPside. Right?

Late night ramble

Another day down, and I've spent tons of time surfing other blogs, messing around with my settings, and wishing I had my former 'computer wiz kid' brain, because the one the aliens switched out and left me with isn't workin' too hot these days. Things are simple enough, after I go into my saved photos and alter the size so once I try to put in into the header it's not taking over half the screen. Hmmm, I'll mess with it later. I sat here an hour and a half ago, enjoying that I had the quiet house ALL to myself -- nothing to interrupt me. Yeah, nothing to smack me upside the head to tell me to get off the computer because I'm doing the LONG BLINK (funny, why did the clock change from 11:12 to 11:14 in one blink? hmmm.)

So, I tend to go thru these times of looking back and enjoying old photos. I've always loved to take pictures, still do. I remember heading off to youth conference one year, and someone asked me how many rolls of film I'd brought with me. Only 6. I answered simply. (for 3 days of events....never enough...lol.) "Only?" with a chuckle was the normal response. I was used to it. I'll have to say though, once those rolls of film were developed, I don't recall the laughter being anything other then enjoyment over the memories captured.

With the way everyone has a camera on their phone, and all the digital stuff so there's SO little to carry around, I think it's great to have a better way to capture and enjoy frozen moments/memories in time.
Now -- if only I'd remembered to mark who the heck was IN all those photos?? Hmm. As much as I wish I had a slide scanner, I doubt it'll happen any time soon. My sewing machine died and we had to replace it. Seeing my birthday is next week, that sort of ended up my part birthday present. Bummer huh? No! -- wait --- I LOVE to sew, so it's not a bummer that I got a new machine. I'll just have to save for the scanner. I'm good with that.


ANYWAY..... I'll scan what photos I still have a print of and post them little by little. I hope those of you IN the photos that have found your way over to my simple, new little blog will not be unhappy with future postings. For me, these are snapshots of the people and memories that I've held tightly to for many many years, and have helped me not give up on people thru lots of hard times. I had great people in my life, and I love learning little by little, where some have had their life path lead. Oh, and if you know people in the photos, I may have to ask for some to be Identified so I can go back and write it down....at last. I look and I remember the person, but gosh darn it I have NO brain for holding onto names anymore.
Here's to future picture postings :o).

Oh, and I was asked what other Projects I've done. I'll scrounge up some of those photos to scan as well. I think it'll be easier to know what to write about if people just start asking stuff here and there.