Autumn makes a quilt

Every year the kids have to do something for their Social studies fair. This year it was Autumns turn after a lot of I don't know what to do she finally settled on making a quilt. She fits right in to the family with her ability to procrastinate! LOL I told her that if she waited too long it would not get done. she was like "oh it's not that hard to make a quilt..." ummm ok.

Well anyway she finally got around to doing it the last weekend before it was due. That's my girl!! Autumn had decided to do the quilt on the trail of tears. She choose this them because she and her sisters have Cherokee ancestry, Autumn's biological father was Cherokee so that is why she has such a beautiful tan. Autumn was excited about making the quilt and she had a lot of fun finding the pictures she was going to use.

I was able to get all of the fabric from my stash to make the quilt. I think I have a fabric hording problem but that is a post for another day! lol

here she is ironing the iron-on transfers. Her hands hurt afterwords with all the pressing.

 Here are close ups of the blocks after the ironing.

Now for the sewing of the blocks. She was timid at first but after a while she got into it and would go fast. She loved going fast. And like her mom pins were just things that get in the way and she did without. LOL

 Then came the dreaded unpicking. LOL Autumn did not like this part at all and she did a far amount of it when she was sewing the longer strips together. I lost my seam ripper and so had to use these scissors that are used to take out medical stitches. lol I got them from a military Dr. he opened a kit and did not use them and was going to toss them and said I could use them. I have used them a lot! I've had them over 15 years.

So she tried pinning them. She did this for a row or two but then went back to free handing them. She got the hang of it fast.

This next part was when she was trying out her markers and trying to find colors that would not bleed all over the place. she decided to go with a red and did bleed but then use a black down the middle of it. It looks very cool and so artsy.

Here it is all done. The only thing I did on the quilt was I cut most of the strips out. Cutting with the rotary cutter made her uncomfortable. I also did the binding but other then that Autumn did everything else.

We learned today that she won first place in the craft portion of the fair and that she is now going to go to the county fair. She was so excited.

Catching up!

I have been very bad about keep up my blog. So much has been going on and I have thought about updating but somehow the time just slips by. I even have things from the summer that I forgot to post about like Josh's 19th birthday! Happy birthday Josh!!!

 Ben is helping Josh eat his cake Such a great brother!!

This is going to be long so enjoy. First update is that of my new job as many of you already know I was fed up with my old job at Our Children First and the way they did things. I was extremely uncomfortable and felt that they were working on the edge of fraud.  The number one thing that I did not like about my job was the fact that we had to make Units this is a Medicaid system where we have to work for so many minuets and each of these groupings were called Units.

 

Here is the paper that I would calculate my units on. We were required to make 24 Units a day, does not sound too bad but the catch is we have to be working face to face or on the phone or doing research for that child. Only certain things could be done and if it was not in the service plan we could not count it. We were told we would have 20 cliants to make those units with but I was never given that many and so it was extreamily difficult to make my units. I would get calls almost daily telling me that I had better make those units or I would be fired. STRESS does not even come close to how I was feeling.

Happy day when I got my new job with Community Partnership with Children. I will be a case manager kinda what I was doing with the other company but I will be working with Foster Children and NO Units. Happy dance. We once I got the job I gave notice at the old place and prepared to move on I only had one more thing to do concerning my old job and that was to.

I burned every paper I had from that company I saved the unit page for last and I relished every moment of its demise!!

Next update. Ben had his 17th Birthday I can belive how much he has grown. We got him a computer game that he has been wanting. The girl's made his cake I think they did a fantastic job!!

The next big and I mean big update is the fact that after almost 5 years we were able to adopt the girl's. I still have trouble believing it is real and I'm just not in some dream.

 

This is the very first photo of our new and improved family. The man in the robe is the judge! LOL His name is Judge Marriott as fare as I know no relationship to the Mormon Marriott family. When he was going over the paper work he said now I have two choices to adopt or not to adopt...what should I do adopt, not adopt, adopt, not adopt. He was driving us crazy for a brief moment i thought he would actually choose not adopt my heart pounded. Finally he put his pen to that paper and stated "Your now adopted!" The next thing he said was "Girls have you ever seen anyone fired?" they all shook their heads as acted a little uncomfortable. he then said "Girl's do you see all of these people standing over here?" He pointed to all of the lawyers, case workers G.A.L's etc..." He was pointing at all of the people that had been running their lives for the past 5 years. He then said "You are all fired!" It was great! We then took photos and went out into the hall and took more photos. 

Here the girls are holding the documentation stating that they have been adopted!

From left to right Tiffany the adoption specialist. "she is an epic fail There were days I truly hatted her. But every good part has to have a little evil to make the good all that sweeter! Adrienne she has been the girl's case manager almost the entire time they have been in care. Then Hannah, Abby, Heidi down in the front, Autumn in the back. Sue the G.A.L (guardian ad litem) and on the end Carmon she is the GAL supervisor she was Adrienne's supervisor for years before that.

After the adoption we had two things that happened on the same day. Hannah's 11th birthday and the three oldest girl's getting baptized! It was a wonderful day all the way around. Hannah had her birthday party the day before and unfortunately not many photos were taken it was a little crazy. She had a number of friends over and they decorated cookies for the cake part of the party and played games and just had a fantastic time.

The morning of December18th we went down to the ward building for the baptism. They girl's were so excited they have been waiting for this day a very long time. Will pulled out the baptismal clothing he had worn with the older three and alas it had gotten a little small. must have shrunk in the wash!

We had a wonderful pot luck lunch afterwords there were a lot of people from the ward. Lost of good friends, family and food!!

 Heidi and a couple of her friends helped out with the cleanup. It's a special treat to be able to sit on the giant vacuum leaner while the room is being vacuumed! There is room for two or three on the monster!

Before we knew it Christmas was just around the corner and it got here. Heidi had a school play as did Hannah and Abby but unfortunately they were at two different schools the same night and the same time. I went to Heidi's and Josh, Ben and Autumn went to the other one.

 

The play was great, Sorry that the quality of it is so poor. Heidi is the one in the red dress. Little kids are a hoot! The photos did not turn out well at all.

Here is Abby and Hannah's play. Hannah is an elf and Abby is a reindeer.

 Abby is just behind Santa

 Abby and Hannah in this pic.

 Elf Hannah.

 Look at those greedy little glowing eyed children behind Elf Hannah just waiting to grab all those presents. LOL looks kinda creepy!!

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas. It was a little difficult for me this year due to having a new job and not being home like I have been every other year. The best thing that happened was that the kids all pitched in and made a lot of the goodies that have become a yearly tradition in the home.

Christmas day was amazing we had wanted to have a small Christmas but that was not to be. The girl's grandparents and Aunts and Uncles sent them a bunch of toys and so our nice reasonable Christmas was turned into a toy store explosion. 

We took these photos just after we got everything set out. Midnight Jess's cat is checking it all out to make certain that we got it all done right LOL so crazy! Next year I hope that it will be less, I know that the extended family of the girl's want them to know they are missed and loved but there is only so much room the house.

Well I have more pics and videos to post but they will have to wait for another day. Anyway that's it for now.

A Trip to Cocoa Beach.

 Well today we went to Cocoa Beach! I have not been there for a number of years...ok a lot of years. We went to Ron Jon Surf shop. The first thing we saw was a diver cleaning out one of the aquariums it was funny to see him in there like that. 

When the big eel came around the tank the girls were shocked!

This is what it looks like on the outside. It's one of those you just can't miss it places on A1A. 

In side there were lots of surf stuff strange...

I like all the boards up like this.

Heidi being a little cheese cake.

Where is your smile?

We met Stef and Aaron there.

I was looking at the tags on the board and had to take a photos of it.

It says that surfboards are fragile! What!? Then why do people take them to the beach and ride them on waves drag them across the sand and slam them against the rocks? LOL I thought it was funny. the price was anything but.

Silly shoes we found.

We all went out and took some picks outside. The day was wonderful.

this is a fence I liked how it looked.

After the surf shop we all went out to eat, then off to the beach. We went to the beach that was just down the road from the house we use to live in when we were in the Air Force. Some of the housing is still there.

It looks just the same but now it is no longer military housing it's for rent and yes you to can live like the ilisted military families of years past for only.

LOL I thought that was so funny that they are now for rent. They are not bad. 3 bedrooms 2 bath family room, living room and screened in porch just feet from the beach. But after driving around there it is deffanetly not the best of neighborhoods any more. sad day. I have so many happy memories of my children growing up here.

The best thing we found is they have done a major upgrade to the beach we would go to. It use to be just a small tilted parking lot that only 4 cars could fit into and no bathroom. Big problem with little's in tow. Now its all fixed up!

This photos is looking down towards the base housing. They have torn all of the homes down that were on the left side of the road but there are still about 40 on the right side.

We then all had a lot of fun on the beach the wind was up but that did not stop the fun.

 Fun running from the waves.

Alas it was not all fun and games. Poor Heidi she was caught by a monster wave and the fun was over for her.

Heidi running up the beach to safety.

Cursing the sky! Why? Why? Why?

Then the tears and a wonderful big sis to help wring out her clothes. Josh gave up his shirt for her for the drive home so she would not freeze.

All in all we had a wonderful time and loved doing something different for a change. We hope to see more family soon.