Christmas was wonderful, busy, and a perfect passage into the new year. Our kids were very giving and creative (as always), and they totally deserve the gifts that they received. We spent our Christmas Eve at home, together. Tiffany arrived in the evening and is staying for a few days, and we enjoyed David's (Kait's boyfriend) company from Christmas Eve through breakfast. On Christmas day, we visited Grandma's house, then Shelby's family, and, finally, my parent's home to wrap up the night. It was a happy and exhausting day! Now we rest and prepare for a new year. We have gone through so many changes this year and look forward to even more during 2012. One of the family gifts from us this year were two alpacas that we are scheduled to receive next month from Spruce Hill Farm. The kids are so excited, and we now have a defined start time to our livestock farm. We will put up temporary fencing until we can put up our barn in the spring, and then we will also add shee...

Life is an amazing thing. You think you know where you are going, or what you want, and so you guide the reins in that direction. Yet, somehow you arrive in a totally different place. When I was divorced from my first marriage, I assumed that I might find someone some day, but that kids were probably not going to be a part of that relationship. Then I met Shelby, and my world changed drastically for the better - we have three beautiful children together, plus the fortune of having our two girls from my previous marriage in our lives as well. When we moved to Florida, we were ready to settle forever and buy a house close enough to the beach to be able to go after work whenever we wanted. And now, here we are, planning the livestock and garden of our new home in rural Ohio. Our journey would make a great book - our adventure has always been to move forward, strive to reach our goals, but to never, ever lose the fun and love in life and our family! The difference of our life between Jan...

It's the eve after a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed our traditional at-home Christmas Eve with a nice variety of snack food (healthy and not) and Christmas movies - this year we watched our pick of favorites: Christmas Vacation, Elf, and our traditional end-of-the-night movie, It's a Wonderful Life. (We started this at-home tradition while living in Florida and realized that it greatly reduced the stress level of Christmas, compared to the running around to both families and then laying kids down and THEN finishing Christmas preparations that needed to happen before Christmas Day! So we decided that this tradition is a necessity, even upon our return to Ohio.) Christmas morning came fast, and it was a great beginning to Christmas day with all seven of us home, and each of us fully aware of the gift that our togetherness actually is. Our kids enjoyed this Christmas with giving as much as they enjoyed receiving, which is a wonderful thing to see in your children. The day foll...

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Christmas week is upon us, school break is here, and the kids are enjoying their mega extended weekend. I love this time of year for our family, but I'm finding myself more excited to begin the New Year and begin what I hope will be our transitional year to our new life. As the end of this year approaches, Shelby and I have developed our plan to make things happen...as we realize things may also change as we begin our strategy! #1 We have determined that it is most likely that we will remain in the SW Ohio/Indiana area unless some awesome twist of destiny is bestowed upon us. But the likeliness that Shelby's job will evolve and continue for at least a few years here is good, so we have decided that our best location for our home will be Preble, Darke, or Mercer counties. We are going to start our quest with open houses, and find a realtor that we're comfortable with and who can help us to do the things we need to do to make this happen. #2 Get a job. I have an appointment...

Wow - it's been quite a while since my last post. We've been busy with Shelby's store visits, the apartment, events, and our sad trip to New York for Lynn's funeral. Seems like we're on the road or catching up with some chore, always... But here I am, finally, thanks to a long holiday weekend :) My biggest accomplishment this weekend was finalizing my Consortium application after several months of setting it aside for one reason or another. I finished my teacher preferences (whys and hows), added my certificate information, and attached my documents. Quite a bit more to finish up than I had thought! I am so glad that this is done, partly because it is off of my plate, and partially because it makes me feel like I'm more in the game now. Shelby and I decided at 7am on Black Friday to go shopping, and it worked out great! We had fun together and were able to score a few of the deals we had discussed on our Thanksgiving Day ad review. It was a cold but sunny day, a...