A Valentine's day to remember

I was hoping for a nice peaceful Valentine's day. I had about 8 single girls over for dinner, since David was out of town, I figured we should do something fun. Well, I don't know why I think any day will be peaceful. First, back it up 2 days, Flint again with the fire. This time he put a coloring book in the fire and then pulled it out. So we now have a nice burn in the carpet the size of a coloring book. I called David crying and that's when I realized I was starting to wear down. So yesterday, I'm getting stuff ready and Barrett and Luke are in their room yelling. I go in to find that Flint has climbed their ladder all the way to the top and has his hands on the ceiling! So after several spankings he finally quite climbing. For toady anyway. Then they were all wrestling and Luke somehow did a back flip over the couch and hit his head on the coffee table. He hit it so hard that the table actually broke. Then we made it til bedtime, I sent Peter in to go to the bathroom. For some reason he was on top of the countertop and fell off head first. I still can't figure out how going to the bathroom involves needing to climb on top of the sink, but he now has a nice golf ball sized bruise on his forehead.
So we survived Valentine's Day. The boys spent about 5 hours sledding today which wore them out nicely and they were all sleeping peacefully be 7:30. Ahh, the joy of a quiet house.

What's in a name???

I've been trying to think of baby names and as usual I've got nothing. Whenever we have picked a named we always look at the meaning and want it to be a strong name with a good meaning. Well, the name Flint means "to spark a fire". Sounded like a good, strong name. however, I never really wanted him to literally live up to the meaning of the name. But apparently he's going to. David's been in Santa Fe, NM this week, so i've been single momin it, which I don't know how single mom's do it. Anyway, the other day I started a fire in the wood stove and went to fill up the dishwasher, I look in the living room and realize that Flint has gone and found a stick that Barrett's been widdling and has stuck it in the fire and is now running around the living room with a torch! He hit the fleece blanket with it, which burned a nice size hole in the blanket and i'm yelling and frantically chasing him while he just looks at me with a look like, "what's the big deal?" oh my! So I recover from that and then yesterday, the boys had gotten home from school and one of them had gone to the bathroom. I can't understand why it's so hard for little boys to flush the toliet, or close the seat cover, or shut the bathroom door, but apparently it is. So I realize that Flint is in the bathroom, I run in to find him swirling gloves around in the toliet, which if full of human by-product. Again, I'm yelling and totally grossed out, trying not to throw up as I fish out poopy gloves. Flint has run out of the bathroom and into the living room. I come out, and realize that he's thrown yet another pair of gloves into the fire!! If we can somehow harness the love for gloves and fire into something good, then we're onto something, but for now, this little boy can just wear me down.
So, for this next little one, i'm looking for a name that means sweet angel that sits in the corner and reads books and doesn't provoke his/her mother to anger! If anyone has a name that means that, then by all means please share it with me. So the lesson for the week is making sure the meaning of the name is a good one. At least Flint is giving me lots of good stories to share.

Luke lost his first tooth

So I gave the boys a bunch of carrots for the snowman that they were making, and I came outside and realized that Flint was just shoving them all in his mouth. Luke was so proud of his first lost tooth. Lately, Flint is found all over the house wearing my boots. he can hardly walk because they go up to his knees, but he doesn't care.




Here are some pictures from Welcome to Montana night. It was a lot of fun for the boys. They all dressed up in cowboy attire and we had some BBQ.













The boys had their first "snow day" on Friday. Except it didn't snow, just rain, which then turned to a thick sheet of ice on the roads. They were so excited to not have to go to school. I didn't have the heart to tell them that they'll have to make it up in the spring. They spent a few hours today sledding down a hill of ice/snow in our yard. Only problem was that there was no snow on the street, so they would go down the hill and land on the road. They just kept getting hurt. Apparently they thought that I was kidding when I said it doesn't work real well to sled on the asphalt.
David left today to go to Santa Fe, NM with a few guys from the base here. They are going to frame in a building which will be used for staff housing at the YWAM base down there. It's a 22 hour drive so they'll have a very long night and day tomorrow.
Every quarter when a new school comes we have International Night at our weekly community meeting. They've decided this time to have a US table and have asked me to make the food for it. So of course my plan is to make some sweet tea, fried okra and boiled peanuts. One slight problem: I can't find okra or raw peanuts. I called every natural food store within 30 miles. One guy actually asked me what I was going to do with raw peanuts with the shells. I told him I was going to boil them and then, no joke, he said, " and then what will you do with them?" Are you kidding me? he acted like I was a crazy person that I was going to eat peanuts after boiling them. It's a little sad if you ask me. These native montanaians have no idea what kind of good food they've been missing out on. The past week i've introduced 2 people to sweet tea. And they're both hooked now. My goal is to intoduce these westerners to some good southern food. I'm hoping to make some fried green tomatoes soon.

A busy week in Lakeside

It's been a very quick, busy week here in Lakeside. The weather has warmed up a bit, which is nice except for the think layer of ice that covers everything. David and his crew have been busy to say the least to try to clear the ice off of roofs, sidewalks and streets. We welcomed a new DTS (Discipleship Training School) there are 27 new students from 8 nations. We had a big welcome morning on Monday to welcome them to the base. Tuesday, we took Barrett to a Mongolian Grill for his birthday dinner. He loved it, you can watch them cook your dinner in front of you. Wednesday was his birthday party at school. Everyone in the class made him a birthday card and we sent cupcakes for the class. Thursday was eventful, started with taking Flint to an Orthopedic hand specialist. His broken finger was not looking right, so they did x-rays and the dr. said he thought it was fine, still broken, but straight and they could see new bone growth. Then I had a dr. apt, we got to see baby ice cube on the ultrasound. we're happy to announce that we're having...... a healthy baby!!! We didn't find out, I think it's a boy, but of course at one point I thought we were looking at the face and it was really the kidneys, so i'm not banking on my predictions! I'm hoping for a calm weekend, I think the boys will go skiing and I may try to paint a wall or two and get rid of the white color that covers this house.

Barrett turns 8

We had a great birthday yesterday. We all went up to the ski slope, Flint and I hung out in the lounge, Flint ate everything he could possible find on the floor. Peter skied for the first time, which was quite the adventure for David as he took 3 boys by himself down the slope.
After a day of skiing, we made pizzas and had a bunch of people over for cake and ice cream.
It's crazy to think that Barrett is now 8. It seems like just the other day we were so thankful for a healthy baby and how things could have gone so different if the dr. hadn't been right there on the floor. He's such a blessing, his kind, gentle spirit humbles me. We had friends over the other night and she said that she hopes her little boy is as kind as Barrett when he grows. The way he takes care of his little brothers is amazing. He got his first pocket knife for his birthday, and we prob. should have included a first aid kit, but he sure loves it.

bathroom re-do

here are some pictures of our bathroom before and after David's handy work. It's so nice to have a clean bathroom, getting rid of the moldy, 50 year old nasty stuff that was in there.

I think this is enough snow!

So we've had a little bit of snow the past few days. Our poor little light up reindeer, his head is now under the snow. David, Barrett and Luke have found they're new favorite sport, snow skiing. There's a ski area about 10 miles up our road, and kids ski free which makes it even better. They've gone several times this week and all Barrett wants to do for his birthday is ski.