Pause for a Tuesday Update

Happy Tuesday! As promised here is the much anticipated, I'm sure you are waiting with baited breathe update. =) First off, let's talk about my cutie, Adaliah. She is going to be 3 in January so she is not old enough to start pre-school, but this girl needs to be kept busy. So, Maria, Nicole, Keb, and I all started homeschooling are kids 2 days a week. It's going really well and we are having fun. We try to do a color, number, and letter a week. With the colors we strive to get them to start identifying objects for themselves that are a certain color. This skill is pretty much master with all of the kids. Since all of the kids have been able to count to at least 10 for a while we are having them write their numbers. The letters have been the most challenging. All of the kids love, love "Big A" so they seem to only wanna write "A' no matter what letter we are on. So, we have only progressed to the letter "E". The kids write the letters and know the sounds they make. Here is Addie on the first day of school.

Ok, not sure why this picture is next but I do not feel like moving it, so I will tell you about it next. =) We have been wrapping up the harvest of our garden. Tomatoes and most of the other veggies did not do well at all, so we were not able to can many of those. Peppers did fantastic so we have a bunch froze up for this winter. A sister from church and another lady had tons of green beans and had enough for their families so they graciously gave us some. This is the picture of the PILE we worked on one day. The second lady told us to just up root the whole plant so we could just work on it at home.
Notice the little helpers in the background. All of the kids helped for a bit, but Maria's two won for staying at it the longest.

As you can see we were at this for many a hour. I believe Maria, Nicole, and I worked for 9 hours or so on this pile. But, our work paid off and we each have about 60 cups frozen for this winter. Now back to Addie. =)
Her and her buddy/cousin Micah.

Grandma Esther send this adorable dress and headband. Thanks Grandma!

Another one of Addie. She loves to wear "bubbles" which is polka dots to the rest of us. =) And yes, that is a sneak peek at one of the heart stopping purchases behind Addie.

This is the most recent picture of her taken only a few days ago before church. She is pretty good about letting her curl her hair and it stays soooo well. =) She is styling a zebra print outfit from Grandma Janis in this one.




This is her dressed up for some fall fun. I know there are mixed feelings of that holiday in October, but Miguel and I both feel there is no harm in letting her dress like something nice and go and play the kids games that were taking place in town. We feel its a balance with everything. Just like we do decorate for Christmas and teach Adaliah about Jesus, not Santa. (Not wanting to start a debate on here and I am sure some disagree with that, but that's ok. God leads each of differently and we have different convictions about the "gray" areas. I said all of that to explain why Adaliah is dressed like an Indian Princess. lol)

With that last picture of Adaliah its pretty clear now what one of the purchases is, a new ventless fireplace for our living room. We have one already that was in a dining room but it was not decorative and it wasn't centrally located so it didn't heat the areas of our home that we are in the most. We love it and pray it helps with the heating bills! I thought I had a head on shot of the fireplace, but I can't find it. So, I will post one soon.

Drum roll...............

Behold, the other heart-stopping, major purchase. A 2012 Ford Focus. Here's the story. A couple of months ago we sold my Jimmy. It is a gas guzzler (yes dad and grandpa you can say "I told you so") and was costing more and more money to maintain. So, good bye to my first vehicle it was. Then Miguel purchased the scooter which I told you about in an earlier post. Well, that left us with the 2000 Ford Contour and the scooter. The weather was turning and my Arizona born and raised husband didn't think he would like riding a scooter 30 miles to work in the cold. I tried to tell him he was being a baby, but he wouldn't listen to me. ;) just kidding, honey. Well, that means he would need our only car pretty much full time and I would be left without a vehicle. I was fine with this, but Miguel wasn't real comfortable with the idea. So, here comes the clincher. I was driving Adaliah to her very first day of pre-school and our only car started acting up. I was pressing the gas but it was losing speed and it was making a really funny noise. So, I pull over and thank the Lord Miguel wasn't working that day and he came to help. He had no idea what was going on and was not to keen on further examination along the highway so I had to drive the car across all 4 lanes of traffic on 30 while it was stalling. I was praying and crying thinking "If I stall in the middle of this highway a semi is not going to have time to stop". God was watching over us (as always) and I made it across, but I was very shaken up. This incident happened after we put $700 into the car just a few weeks prior. We only paid $1700 for the car 2 years ago. So, Miguel went car shopping. The thought of a car payment, after 4 years without one made me sick to my stomach, but I told Miguel I believe you are the head of this house and I will trust your judgment. That is how I have my very first brand new car sitting in my drive. I do love it and it gets excellent gas mileage. About 47 on the highway and approximately 33 in town. It also has the inSync feature where my cell phone is linked to the car and I just say "Call Dad" and it does and I speak and hear through this speaker thing. Pretty cool stuff.

Well, there you have it folks. You can stop holding your breathe for the update and go on with your regularly scheduled Tueday. Blessing!