Did you think I died?

So, I'm just going to jump right back in here and pretend that I never left. Happy to say that this post is a lot less dreary than the last few, my husband has been working since February and we have moved into a rental and have all of our stuff back. Sadly, while it's nice to have it back most of its importance has diminished after all that we went through. But maybe that's really not something to be sad about, it's good to have your priorities evaluated once in a while. So, let me try to update a bit with what's going on and how everyone is doing.

Yesterday was homecoming, Friday was the homecoming game and we won 70 to 6 I believe. That had to be painful to watch but I was happy for the kids because we lost the homecoming game last year. The girls went with their boyfriends, they left at different times and I couldn't get their pictures together. They looked beautiful as always.







Senior year will be busy and exciting for them. Taylor now has her drivers license and Dorian will have hers soon. They are looking at colleges and hopefully scholarship opportunities. Taylor received a partial scholarship to Rochester so far and Dorian has been solicited by a ton of colleges because of her high SAT scores. Who knows where they will end up. It's looking less and less likely that they will be at the same place which I have to admit makes me a little sad. I would have liked them to be together, as their mother I would have felt better if they could have had each other. It would be nice if we could tell them exactly where we will be once they start college but we really don't know. If all goes as planned right now we will be moving to Kent after they graduate. But I have learned that nothing in life is certain so...who knows.

Oskar started kindergarten. He is loving it, in fact last night he was bummed because there was no school today. I miss him around the house during the day but Josie makes up for him being gone, she's a lively one. He's making friends, we actually ran into a couple of them in town yesterday, he now knows more people here than I do. He is reading fairly fluently, I am so proud of him. They are getting ready to test him for the gifted program at school, I hope that goes well because I think he would benefit from the enrichment. Some photos from his fifth birthday...



Josie is now two and a full out riot. She is talking like crazy and will not be outdone in anything. We are working on potty training, please pray for me. She refuses to do number two and will literally not go for days if she thinks I am going to try to make her do it on the potty. She misses her buddy Oskar when he's at school but has no problems "taking care" of his toys while he is way. Her favorite saying is currently "Yes I are!" which she promptly tells you anytime you tell her "No, you're not." She grew out of her baby glasses and now wears "big girl" ones. I can't believe how different they make her look. Here are a few recent pics...




I'm doing fine, summer was a blur and things are finally settling back down with the kids back in school. I'm itching to do something, I need to find an outlet for all my creative energy. Hope I figure it out soon. Husband is doing well too, keeping head down at work and getting through, we are so thankful for this job. Hope everyone else is hanging in there, I'll try to not be so long between post.

A Merry Little Christmas...

It's Saturday morning, a week before Christmas. It snowed last night and it's still coming down, I'm sipping my morning coffee and watching it out the window. I would say that all is calm but Josephine is awake too so that would be a lie. Oskar is snug in his bed still, pooped out from having friends over to decorate Christmas cookies last night. The girls and Jeff are still out cold as well. So, I'm pretty much alone with my thoughts, a dangerous thing.

Christmas shopping is done, are you finished too? I'm almost sad about that, I would kind of like to go one more time into the hustle-bustle, I know that probably makes me a little deranged. I do have a little more sewing to do, I made all the kids pajamas this year. Oh, and Christmas cards. They're not done. Shame on me. I'll finish them up as soon as I'm done with this post, if I mail them today they should all get there on time. You know, normally I love sending them but I have to admit, this year, bleh. I guess it's because I'm still without good news to report, Jeff is still looking for a job and I'll have to explain to some why the card is coming from PA this year. I'm just so tired of talking about it. Not to be bah-humbug, but honestly. So...I will probably sign a lot of them, Love, The Larsons and be done with it. Which should make it go a lot faster, actually.

The kids will have a nice Christmas, they are all at easy ages to shop for. Toys for the little ones and clothes, clothes, clothes for the girls. Oskar asks me every day if it's Christmas. Josie has no clue what's going on, she just loves the "balls" on the Christmas tree. I have to keep her away from it or I will see them rolling across the floor every once in a while. She has undecorated it and I have redecorated it I don't know how many times. Still in diapers, she has also taken a liking to pooping while standing by the tree, I think she becomes one with mother nature or something. Wonder what she will do when the tree is gone? Oh, well there is still the fake ficus in entry way.

Well, I hope that every one has a wonderful Christmas. I hope that you have time to enjoy it and are able to discern the folly from the true meaning of this season. For me it's a sentimental time of year. I miss my family tremendously, I don't see them enough. This year there are many families that are facing new hardships, the future is scary and uncertain, they are all in my prayers. I know Christmas is about celebrating our Lords birth but lately I often think about him returning as well, do you? Prayers for blessings to everyone, Merry Christmas!

Homemade Air Freshener

I've had so many people visit my blog for my Homemade Glass Cleaner that I thought I would post a few more homemade ideas that I know. I'm not very big on the store bought air fresheners and plug ins. I get headaches from most of the scents and they always seem to concentrate in just one area. Plus, I'm always worried that the little ones will pull them out of the outlets and play with them. So, when I want to fill the house with a nice smell, I make my own air freshener.

If you have a crockpot it works the best for this idea because you don't have to watch it as closely. Fill either a crockpot or a large pot on the stove with water and then add any of the following ingredients in any combination, the spices can either be whole or ground, whatever you have on hand.

Cinnamon
Clove
Ginger
Nutmeg
Vanilla beans or extract
Orange peel
Lemon Peel
Lime Peel
Apple slices or juice
Peppermint extract or oil
Dried sage
Dried lavender

Bring the water to a slow boil on the stove or turn the crockpot on high and leave uncovered. Add water as needed and never leave the air freshener unattended. A nice thing about doing this in the winter is that you get the benefits of a humidifier as well. In the summer, the lime and vanilla are awesome. I'd love to hear how this works for you as well as if you have any other ideas to add to the ingredients list.

Fall is here, I love this time of year

Well, I think that most of the leaves have fallen, there were so many this year! Jeff has been working in the yard three days a week, mulching, raking, and burning them. We got some pretty big piles and the kids had a lot of fun romping in them. It looked like so much fun in fact that Jeff took a dive into one of the piles and nearly threw his back out. I guess they never grow up.

All the kids are doing great, Taylor made the National Honor Society this 9 weeks and we have her induction ceremony tomorrow night. Dori almost made it, she probably will next 9 weeks. Dori got her braces off, she looks beautiful. They both have been at us to play indoor soccer on a team with a bunch of their friends but we have said no because it is like a slaughter house on the field and they have never played the sport. They have been their cheering squad instead, Dori says that they should get an extra point for their team spirit. Get this, their team name is the Narwhals (unicorns of the sea), you can bet that was their idea. They still made shirts, Dorian's says "Pocahontas" on the back and Taylor's says "Mufasa". They make me laugh. At the last game two of the girls got hurt, one had a concussion and won't be playing anymore this season. I didn't say "I told you so." but hopefully now they know why we didn't want them out there. It shook Taylor up to see her friends get hurt.

Oskar and Josie are great, they pal around all day long. Josie is building her vocabulary and Oskar has learned how to write his name. He is so excited for Christmas all ready, I asked him what his favorite part is and he exclaimed "Every part!" Every Sunday he drools over they toy ads in the paper. He's going to be a mess before Christmas finally gets here. He is having a lot of fun at Sunday school, looks forward to it all week long. I keep Josie with me and she sleeps through most of the service. I'm bewildered at that but don't question it. Oskar was a mess in church when he was little, go figure. I hope to join the choir or at least participate in it for the Christmas season, just have to figure out how I will manage the little ones for two services and all the practice times.

Jeff is still looking for work, some irons in the fire but nothing that we are too hopeful about. I think that the economy is going to take a lot longer to recover than what we are hearing from some of our news sources. We are managing fine though, we still have a lot to be thankful for.

Speaking of thanks, Thanksgiving is next week, can you believe it? I already have our turkey, can't wait to put him/her in the oven. We are planning the meal, pretty traditional like always. Wish we could have more of our friends and family with us, sorry that we are so far apart. Either way, you are all in our hearts. If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Remember to say a prayer of thanks for our troops and their families, and pray for their safe return home.

These are some random pics, the turkeys just showed up in mom's yard the other day. They went around the house twice and cleaned all the berries off her holly bushes. Jeff could have shot one as it is turkey season but he didn't have a license. Oh well, I wouldn't want to clean it anyway. The one of Josie in the hat just cracks me up, I wish it didn't come out blurry. Her expression is like, "Yeah! Fiesta!"

Homecoming

I'm so happy that the girls are settling in so well. It's kind of weird to see them running off to school football games and going to the coffee shop after school, but it's weird in a good way. Tonight was their homecoming and unlike last year, they went solo. Well, with all their girlfriends so not completely solo. I know that there were a couple of invitations from the opposite sex but they were declined. You know, I'm proud of them for seeing that they would have more fun with their friends, minus the stress of a date. They have plenty of time for that, maybe when they are 30 they should start thinking about it. Ha, in my dreams.

Anyway, we didn't spring for new dresses, they wore last years. Dori was fine with hers and Taylor asked me to revamp hers a little. She ended up with an almost completely different dress and was thrilled with it. They both looked beautiful, here's to hoping that they have a fun and safe time.

Little Man turns 4!

Oskar woke up this morning and looked at me with wide eyed amazement and said "Today is my birthday! I'm four today!" Let me tell you, we have been counting down to today for about the last six months. I don't think there was one day where he didn't ask me how old he was. This birthday was rather John Deere themed, as we are surrounded by corn fields, cows, barns and etc. I hope that you enjoy the pictures. We're all doing well here, much dryer than our friends in the south it appears.

Unemployment impacts us for the long haul...

I've pondered this post for weeks, debated it and put it off. It's bleak and ugly and sad and frustrating and it's also the truth. Some of you might remember last fall when I posted that my husband had lost his job. Prior to that, we had been through a stint of unemployment (ten months actually) before he finally found a VP position with a European company that was expanding into the U.S. We were thrilled, I was pregnant with Josie and the job couldn't have come at a better time. It lasted all of five months and then last October when the markets tanked, the company basically went out of business. We were devastated. We dug in our heels and prepared to wait it out, again.

That was ten months ago. We've had several "almost" jobs and then a long bought of nothing. The industry he works in, equipment manufacturing, is one of the worst hit industries not only in the U.S but globally. Since the equipment manufacturers are directly linked to the construction and automotive industries, their business is at a stand still. Not a good time to be looking for a job with these types of companies, most are laying off or under hiring freezes. When a position has opened up, companies are choosing not to fill it, most are waiting until 2010. We did have a few consulting jobs come our way, which have been helpful, but without a steady income we've been forced to make some serious decisions regarding our finances.

How we were able to stay in our house for as long as we did can only be described as a miracle. Fortunately, right before my husband lost his job the very first time we had become debt free, (mortgage excluded) and had put a nice chunk away into savings. He had received a decent severance as well and we made it through ten months of unemployment without even touching our savings. This second time we have not been so fortunate. Josie had major surgery five months after she was born and even with insurance the medical bills piled up. Then when the lost his job with the European company we had to fight tooth and nail to get the severance that was due him in contract when he originally took the position. I think it ended up taking six months to get the three months severance he was promised. We began to tap into our savings every month. Then we downsized my vehicle. Then with no opportunities on the horizon, we put our house on the market. Two months later we stopped making payments and began to attempt a short sale. Thank God, within a matter of a week or two we had an offer.

We didn't make all these decisions without at least some kind of plan. My husband's mother, who is truly an angel, has a large house in PA with plenty of room for us. She had offered to house us several times and we have finally decided to take her up on the offer so that we can ride this storm out a lot longer if needed. To top things off, when this all started taking place, Taylor was still in Japan. We decided not to tell her what was going on until she got home. We just didn't want to ruin her trip. So although I was running around like a mad woman, having garage sales and packing, I didn't blog or twitter about it because I didn't want her to find out.

Fast forward to today. I am sitting in my mother-in-laws living room, writing this blog post. All of our stuff has been packed into PODS, excluding the most necessary items, which we brought with us. The sale of our house is almost final and the girls are enrolled in their new high school and will start the 31st. The little ones are pretty much unaffected, except for the torturous 16 hour car trip we made to get here. As long as they are loved and fed they will be fine. Dori and Taylor are okay, I know that besides Jeff, this has been the hardest on them. I hope and pray that once school starts they will make friends and some of the sting will be taken out of having to leave Georgia. They are sharing a bedroom and they have their MAC and TV set up so they are not hurting as far as creature comforts go. I'm fine, I brought my sewing machines with me and therefore an escape when I need it. Jeff is dealing with it all, his mood changes a lot, he is struggling to find hope and fighting against defeat. Mom keeps things light and in perspective for us all, what we would do without her, I do not know.

So, please say a prayer for my family. And while you're at it, say one for the many families who are going through the same kind (or worse) of situation as we are. This is a time of struggle for many Americans. The other night Jeff was talking to his mom, discussing the frustrations of losing basically everything and he said "You know Mom, I just don't know what I'm supposed to learn from all of this." Her reply was, "Maybe that none of it was really that important anyway?". I think that we all have to nod in agreement.

So, if you have one, go hug your husband or your wife. Tell them how thankful you are for them. Show your kids you love them by giving them more of yourself and less of what you can buy them in a store. Give thanks at every meal and when you lay your head down on your pillow each night. Ask yourself if you really need all that you have and then share what you can with someone else. I have no doubt that we will pull through. I already see the valuable lessons that our children can learn from this. Tomorrow is going to come, whether we like it or not, whether we think we are ready for it or not, it will come. And tomorrow can be a better day if we just choose to endure and not give up on this day.

So there you have it, the long explanation of where we've have been, what we've been doing, and where we will be, at least temporarily. I hope that this finds everyone else in good health and spirits. Now that I have got this lengthy post out of the way, I plan on getting back to my normal blogging and am looking forward to it. Fall is around the corner and there will be lots of fun things to do with the family in our new environment so I hope to post about them. Take care everyone. Oh, and if anyone needs a seamstress or a writer, I'm available for hire.