Random Updates

-My Brennan turned 14 on the 26th.  I remember his being the longest pregnancy known to man.  I so desperately wanted to be a mom.  What a blessing he is.  He is such an affectionate, kind, intelligent young man of conviction.  We couldn't be prouder.  He started his first job and is working towards earning his very first compound bow.  He has wanted a job since he was 12.  I love his work ethic and desire to work and earn the things he wants/desires.  I just love love love that kid.  Happy Birthday Brennan!

At the Bow shop in Lawrence

 -We've been schooling all 5 for about 2 months now and it is the best year we've had by far.  Jared has really increased his involvement and I couldn't be more thankful.  He has taken on the lion share of the grading (a tedious task I avoided at all cost).  On his days off of work he insists on doing the bulk of the teaching allowing me an extra day off.  This is our second year of using the Robinson Curriculum and it is going much smoother now that we have a little experience under our belt.

-Liesey K Cakes was insanely busy over the summer months and has actually slowed to a much more manageable pace this fall.  I am super thankful with school to have a lesser work load but still steady to help with bills and building our emergency fund.  I had no idea what a blessing creating that Facebook business page would be to our family.  God is so good!

-Jared's Birthday is Saturday and he has planned a two day stay-cation for he and I.  The kids are headed to grandma and grandpa's and that's about the extent of my knowledge.  He has a planned a surprise and I'm so excited.  We have been married 18 years and I really do have to say it just gets better every year.  Who plans a surprise for their spouse on their own birthday?!  This guy:

-Our summer vacation and stop in Grand Junction to see my siblings is proving to be a gift that keeps on giving.  My sister, Heather, is coming to spend a week with us soon.  We are so excited and counting down the days.  Staying in a house with 5 kids may prove to be a bit of a culture shock for her :)

-Speaking of our trip to Colorado, my mother in love sent this to me last night after finding it on Sean Cannon's website.  A picture of Liesey and Paige during our stay in Alamosa, Co.  They were just the best of friends and I am going to print and frame this for Anneliese as a reminder of her cousin in Indonesia. 

He Loves You

On Jared's day off we were headed to the lake for some family time.  A work related call came in and he jumped out of the truck to provide the caller with privacy.  

I don't think anyone can understand the commitment this man has to the church but his family.

We see him sad after hours of counseling.

We see him happy when people reunite and reconcile.

 We see the sadness and empathy pouring from his pores after the someone suffers the death of a loved one.  The emotional fatigue that sweeps over him while he loves on those who mourn and prepares for a funeral that will help bring closure to those who remain.

We are witness to the faint light in the office during the early morning hours as he puts final touches on his sermons and Sunday school lessons.

He loves you, he prays for you, he weeps with you and for you.  God has granted him an extra dose of empathy and sympathy to make him an effective minister.

October is Pastor Appreciation Month.  As his wife, I ask that this October you would say an extra prayer for him.  Prayers for God to sustain him, fill him, grant him rest.  When you see him, bless him with words of encouragement.

He doesn't desire gifts, he doesn't desire accolades, he is content serving where he knows he is called. 

Back To School 2014

This picture is getting posted a month late since I took the picture with my camera and then lost the USB cable that allowed me to upload it to my computer :)

Our first year homeschooling all 5 children. 

Brennan 8th, Tanner 7th, Elijah 5th, Graham 3rd, Anneliese K

Gus Gus

We have the cutest sweetest dog ever.

Just so you know.

He's pretty ridiculous.

Angus T. Altic AKA Gus Gus, has been a part of our family for a little over 2 years.  If I am completely honest, I have to admit he was not always my favorite. 

He was the hardest dog to house train and non house trained animals are the bane of my existence. 

BUT, he is trained now and we finally found a solution to his constant crying at night and kennel anxiety.  We contain him to the workout room and he does much better. 

He really is a sweet little creature, he just had some hiccups but I think we're past all that. 

Our friend Heidi is a groomer and we take Gus to her once every 3-4 months.  She typically threatens to keep him due to his passive sweet self.  This time she took before and after pics of our fluffer nutter. 

Quick side note, I have always called him my little fluffer nutter and Tanner was convinced that was his breed and he was not impressed to find out it was a phrase I made up.  Especially after he was confident he was right and desperate to convince his cousins.  Ha!

So here's our little fluff before Heidi's magic:

yes he has eyes, they're just shy

She brushed him out but typically he's covered in ringlets

And After Heidi's magic:

There's his eyes!!!

Doesn't he look so happy?!

Thank you Heidi!!

Menu Planning

I know that there are those of you who plan your weekly meals like a boss.  I have always envied them and felt like it was a great idea but my day to day is so full I was just sure there was no way to fit in another thing.  Let alone planning meals for 2 weeks to a month.

Wellllll, when you have 5 kids they sure do seem to want to eat all the time.  Every day even, multiple times a day and they are all super curious about what that food may be.  So curious in fact, that they ask....a lot...   When you have 5 (6 when it's dinner time) asking what we are eating multiple times each...well you can imagine it makes mommy a bit stabby.  Meal planning started to sound more like a sanity saver than a time taker. 

I decided to do a pay period at a time.  My first meal plan is for two weeks and we started Monday.  I wrote out a ridiculous list of grocery items and collected it all from Wal-Mart, Sams, and Aldi.  I am hoping that menu planning will not only remove the constant badgering of what is for lunch/dinner, but will also save us from multiple trips to the store and eating out due to frustration or lack of planning.

Week 1:
Monday    Grilled Cheese       Homemade Pizza
Tuesday    Totinos Pizzas       Chicken and Dumplings
Wednesday  Mac&Cheese      Wednesday Church
Thursday    Sandwiches          Beef Enchiladas
Friday        Hot dogs                teriyaki chicken
Saturday    waffles                   Chicken tacos
Sunday       out to eat               Bierocks

Week 2:
Monday   Pigs in a Blanket    Chicken tacos
Tuesday   Mac & Cheese       Spaghetti meatballs
Wednesday  Sandwiches       Wednesday Church
Thursday   hot dogs                homemade pizza
Friday       grilled cheese       BBQ meatballs &fried potatoes
Saturday   Totinos pizzas      Hamburger helper
Sunday     out to lunch           waffles


We have already learned sometimes switching one day or one meal for another helps.  For example Monday I went to Savers for their 50% off sale and Jared was home with the kids.  He decided to let them make the Totinos pizzas (Tuesdays Meal) vs grilled cheese.  Since they had little frozen pizzas for lunch they didn't want homemade pizza for dinner so we just switched the whole day.  It worked out great.

I haven't been to the store since Saturday (when I was getting groceries for the pay period).  That is huge!  I even made sure I had all I needed for upcoming baking orders.  That alone will save us money.  I'm hopeful this will get easier and we'll come up with better meals and new recipes as we go but for a first time experience it's a success! 

Braced, A Year In Review

September 3rd marks the one year anniversary of having my braces.

I have had several people ask "why" I have braces and comment that they never noticed a "problem" before.

Let's start with the "why."

I never had any kind of orthodontic care as a kid.  I have always had a small pallet/gummy smile and honestly didn't think too much of it until the last few years as the kids of started their ortho care.  Some unfiltered people have asked me why so much of my gums show when I smile.  Brennan told me that there were people at camp "like you mom" meaning that they had a whole lot of gum show when they smiled.  I've never been someone to draw attention to my mouth with lipstick or want my picture taken.   To be completely honest, I went in for a free consult out of curiosity and insecurity about my mouth/smile.  What started out as a hope for cosmetic improvement became a blessing just in the nick of time.

The "problems" were numerous.

One of the reasons my pallet appeared so small was because my teeth rolled in and laid almost completely on their sides causing decay and wear at the base of my teeth near the gum line.  I was on track to lose my molars in the near future due to the inappropriate wear and tear.  I also found out that I had a cross bite that was causing deterioration in my right jaw joint.  I have been plagued with a loud heartbeat in my right ear for years and couldn't find the cause.  The cross bite was causing such extreme inflammation in the joint, my body was sending blood to the inflammation to help heal it.  The beating can be so loud it affects my hearing.

I wish I could say the heartbeat and jaw pain were gone but the damage was bad enough it won't ever go away completely.  It is better and we know that it won't continue to degenerate and that's a blessing.

I had several consults and several opinions of what to do to fix the different issues each doctor felt was necessary.  One doc wanted to break and reshape my nose due to a deviated septum and shave down the mandible (the bone your top teeth are attached to) and break it expanding my pallet, which would leave me eating soft foods for 3-5 months.  After all of that, he wanted to do braces.  I was very overwhelmed and worried I wouldn't even look like me after all of that.  I understood it would help my breathing and sinus issues but it really felt like too much.  After a few more consults and couple other crazy ideas, we prayed and felt like addressing the dental issue was sufficient.  The sinus and pallet issues were not affecting my day to day and while they could be fix, they didn't need to be fixed.

Here is a picture of me before side by side with a current picture.  I am so thankful every day for my braces at 37 years old.  My teeth are healthy and this care has insured I will have them for decades to come.  I am looking at another 6 months to a year of changes and tweaks.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

What a difference a year makes!!!!

Our New/Favorite Office Space!

Now that we've talked about how we found ourselves in this beautiful neighborhood/home HERE and showed you Anneliese's room's transformation HERE we can move onto the our favorite part!

This office space (where I currently write) is an incredible blessing.  While on our epic road trip this summer we had hours upon hours to chat and discuss this and that.  I brought up the idea of switching rooms sooner rather than later.  We have this pipe dream that someday we will remove all the carpet (remember the pet damage??) on the main floor and replace it with hardwood or a nice laminate.  We figured by the time we would be able to financially take on such a project one or more of the boys would have moved out and we could move Anneliese downstairs to one of the existing bedrooms and turn the upstairs bedroom into an office with matching hardwood floors.  I had the idea of making the odd space downstairs a bedroom and creating the office now so we could benefit from it sooner.

Jared was intrigued by the idea and after much discussion about removing those sliding glass doors, removing the drafty ill fitting exterior door in the downstairs space (not wanting the girl to escape), we realized it was actually a pretty great idea.

In true Shannon fashion, as soon as we arrived home from vacation, I hit the ground running.

Here is the best pic I could find of her room upstairs before the office transformation.  It was slightly different right before we moved her just because she has a different bed, but you get the idea. 

She loved the apple green

bye bye apple green hello chocolate!

All painted and a bit nervous, SO DARK

Found THE curtains at Target

Found a great desk on craigslist

A couple visitors chairs and a desk chair cheap!

Jared insisted on something other than the pink and green chandelier :)

A little spray paint for G'pa Ted's oak lamp

brought up the old bookshelves and some odds and ends

Ordered a way cool map from Amazon $27!

Such a difficult room to photograph due to the wall color.  All we have left is to frame in the map.  If I could use one word to describe it it would be "soothing."  We all love it.  We do school in there every weekday.  Jared has already spent countless hours working in a comfortable space with his shoes off and in the comfort of his own home.  A door shuts easily for privacy and the guest bath right outside the door makes this just a perfect space for both personal and professional use.  I am so glad we didn't wait another minute.  We absolutely love it.