Mom's have the best resume ever...

Ok, once you've been a mom, you could get any job in the world, right? Of course everyone knows we can write Taxi Driver on our resume, and Chef, Laundress, Receptionist, Nurse, Accountant, Dentist (think extractions), Teacher, Dietitian ("you don't get dessert until you eat your veggies"), Maid, Dishwasher, etc. etc. etc... But this week I discovered that I am also a Plumber... sort of! I'm going to paint a picture for you, because if I really posted a picture, you would start gagging and never read my blog again, and then what would you do with all your spare time? Here it is... (this material is rated "G" for gross, and may be unsuitable for pregnant ladies) ...mad, naked toddler (I told him bath time was over and drained the tub) + bathtub drain (withOUT one of those little screens that keeps things from spontaneously going down the drain (aka. being forcibally pushed down)) + busy mom trying to get 5 kids fed and ready for church + BM from the afore mentioned toddler who apparently eats a high fiber diet + yellow gloves + permanent marker to mark yellow gloves with the word "CLEANING" so they never, EVER get used for dishes again = my plumbing experience. An MP3 player was needed to drown out any swearwords/brain waves that might occur during the cleanup process and there is apparently just enough fiber in his diet... too loose to pick up, too firm to wash down. Brody took one look and said "well, I guess he showed you who was boss!" I don't think I will be putting "plumbing experience" on my resume... I don't want that job... plumbers are either SERIOUSLY PAID or not right in the head.

May Madness!

Well, it's may, and now I know the meaning for the expression "May Madness" (or is it March Madness?), oh well, for me it was May! Our school, in the interest of saving money, decided to shorten the school year a week (take all the "snow days" that we didn't use), and as a result, everything was crammed even tighter into the last few weeks. I try to get involved and haven't had a spare moment lately. First there was Cynthia's field trip, out west of town to some sand dunes. Everyone brought snowboards, sleds, etc, and it was FUN:We buried the kids here, the whole class! Cynthia is on the very top right, just a head.

They when we were done with pics, they all escaped.

Then there was "field day" which got rained out (bummer!). Then Christy had her Kindergarten Graduation, with party/fieldtrip included. That was a blast! She was very proud and pleased, and she loved her teacher. Here they are:

Christy and her wonderful teacher Mrs. Fabanich. She was awesome! Brenda and Tyler had their babies last month, so we watched their older kids a couple of times, that was fun! here's some snapshots: Here's one of Axel getting dressed up as a unicorn... looks like his arm is being twisted...NOT! And here's Hanna and Millie. Hanna's getting better at handeling her, not just poking her in the eye! I've gotten some cute pics lately with those two.Well, that wasn't too mad was it? The farming is going so slow, because the rain hasn't ceased for more than a day or two at a time since last month. Brody is still waiting to get the second half of his crop in, and at the moment it's looking like that might not happen. We'll see!

When things start to melt here in Idaho, we don't put away the snowmachines, no-no! We just turn them into wave runners, lol. Brody was having fun skipping this pond out behind our house, so he called a friend and told him, to which the friend responded "I'll be there in 20 minutes." Who can miss a great opportunity to get in some redneck farm sport! We loaded all the kids up (including Millie, 6 weeks) and went out to join the party! Us girls went out on a Razor A.T.V. but apparently 2 feet of snow is a little too A.T. for even that, so the guys had to rescue us with the snow machines. We actually made it quite a ways, you should have seen us digging! When the wheels got through the snow we were flinging mud on everything! Good times Sabe!

Here's Cynthia, riding along.

Here's Brody and Travis, doing what guys do - lookin' cool! (and racing)

I even got in on the action (not with Millie) but did manage to look a little dorky (embarassed chuckle). It was my first time, next time I'll sit down and relax, lol. My pants and shoes were so wet afterward (no, I did not pee).

Fun stuff! The main reason I put these up is to see if I can upload a video successfully. So there you have it.

what's up, y'all?

ok, here's the super brief update!

December - holidays at home, very fun! Jen got a new TV. Brody and Jen built a "shelf" for it, and as of today, no one has broken/pulled down the tv yet. see the cool red wall, nice!

January - we remodeled our kitchen/living room! we knocked out a wall, a brick fireplace, another wall, a staircase, and the worlds ugliest built in pink china cabinet (sorry to those who loved this work of art, but I'm glad to see it go). we replaced it with (in order) nothing, nothing, a support beam, a new and improved staircase (anyone recall our old one?), and nothing (but hopefully a built in bookshelf/computer desk one of these days). oh, and we removed all the plaster on the ceiling, installed all new lighting, and replaced the green lenolium. I use the term "we" loosly, because we had a variety of friends and family do all this, and we paid them. My contribution was "giving instructions" and "design". Brody did the "demo" and forked out the bill. the kids were patient to live under constuction for a week, except for the week we went every day to grandma's, the construction dust about killed Axel, he has asmatic tendencies (sp?) when he has a cold. it turned out awesome beyond our imaginations! everyone hussled because I was due very very soon, actually, we weren't done until about 5 days after my due date, but thanks to my blessing of always being late, that was 2 days early! here's some pics:

here's from the living room, you can see the new inproved stairs and lighting.

here's the kid's handprints in the wall texture, that was fun. too bad we missed Millie, but what do you do?

here's another form the kitchen to the living room. a better one of the stairs and awesome floor!

February - we had a baby (that pretty well consumed the month). Jennifer Millie Harshbarger was born on February 14th, our valentines baby. she hit my "predicted" due date right on the head (much to my dismay, and relief (think, remodel+baby)). everything went well, except that she was posterior (for those of you not familiar with this term, it means "ouch!"). she didn't turn and she took longer than I was hoping to come out, and when she did it was "ouch" but we made it. I had a midwife instead of a doctor (still went to a hospital) and for anyone wanting to have a good experience with natural childbirth, I would highly recommend using a midwife, it was awesome. She was very helpful and empathetic, she encouraged me in all the right places, and let me call the shots (something I love). I only with I had come up with this bright idea 4 babies ago, lol. Millie was fine through it all and nursed right away, and we came home 2 days later. The kids have adjusted like no big deal, which has been great. I took a while to recover, longer than other times, but by a month or so, we were feeling more or less back to normal. Millie is doing great and thriving, surviving such things as being cared for by a 4 year old, and fed by a 2 year old. Cynthia has proven very helpful with household things, and is learning to cook, and christy is a very good baby sitter. I can always depend on them. The kids are all doing great, in school and otherwise. I try to stay involved in their school, helping out in class some weeks, and attending fieldtrips. We go to the library once a week if Cynthia has been organized that week in school (she hasn't missed a week, this reward has really helped her stay focused). It's fun and rewarding, I try to only get a movie for myself, if I have a book, the results are disasterous (see above picture, notice the dishes, table and floor... oh wait, you can't see that).

April - we had a baby blessing for Millie, here she is as cute as she can be. I made the dress, one of my vavorite hobbies, sewing. It was fun and rewarding.

Erik and Jessica came up with their kids, I got them a little out of order here, oops! I have 2, then she has 2, then I have 2, then she has 2 and then I have 1, sounds like I'm next, lol!

Here's their baby, only 5 or 6 days older than Millie. (can't remember)

anyway, this wasn't brief, but... oh well, better than doing the dishes. we sure feel blessed to have our loving family and wonderful home to raise them in. Farm life is good to us! We can run and play and spread our wings out here in Squirrel, and we love it! Hope all of you are well, and we love you!

what's up this week

So, I'm determined to post once a week or so, the trouble is that I don't know what the heck to talk about. Then I looked through my recent pics, and there's none of them either, except this one, of Cynthia and Hanna sleeping. I could come up with a more comfortable place to sleep than the back of a couch, but to each his own I suppose. One thing I did recently was put all my digital pictures from the last two years in photo albums. One for the family, and an album for each of the kids. Since getting high speed Internet, picture organizing has become much easier. I just upload them to Walmart.com, tell them how many I want of each one, and they sent them to my door for cheap, I never had to leave the house! Another thing I did was had a friend come over and we organized the basement. My basement is a dirt floored un-inhabitable area of my house, so we use the whole thing for storage. It's so gross though, and so we had to install shelves (there were none) and it's still gross, but at least we can put things off the floor. All my food storage is down there, and all my extra stuff to (ie. hand me down clothes that are too big, Christmas decorations, etc.). Getting that organized was nice because then I could put all the things away that were cluttering up the rest of my house (mainly all the too-big or too-small clothes). What a relief! This weeks project is I'm in charge of a Halloween party for Christy's kindergarten class. It's going to be so fun. We have games planned, and the kids want to have Pumpkin pie for a treat, and then they get to put on their costumes and parade around to the other classes. There's lots of moms who are willing to help, and it will be fun to get to know Christy's class-mates a little better. Then we get to see Cynthia put on her costume and her class is parading too. Cynthia is a Witch, Christy is a Butterfly, Hanna and Axel are Crayons (costumes that my brother Erik and I wore when we were little, I'll see if I can find a Pic. of us to show with the pic. of them, we'll see). The kids have been sick, fevers and sore throats and colds too. Hopefully by Halloween we will all be better so we can enjoy our day. Brody is still very busy with fall work and Cattle, but hopefully we will see him soon. Everyone have a great week!

Finally!

Ok, so I'm up with the times (this is a little loose) and got high speed internet. It only took me 1 minute to figure out how to post a picture. (Pat on back)

Here's an update: Farming is good this year, the crops are the best we've ever seen, and I think the best Brent (Brody's Dad) has ever seen also. Brody is very busy, but we're used to that. The kids and I are good. Christy has started Kindergarten this year, so both her and Cynthia go to school together. It's fun for them and fun for us too (can anyone say "peace and quiet" and "afternoon naps?") As you can see, we're expecting our fifth! It's another girl (poor Axel and Brody) but we're excited. We're due the same day as my SIL, Jessica (what are the odds?). Hanna and Axel are good too. Hanna has two babies in her tummy, I get to listen to them alot (they mostly gurgle, kind of like... tummy noises) and Axel is as cute as ever. It's fun to dress up a boy, maybe even more fun that girls. I'll just show you:

See what I mean? Anyway, I keep busy but not too bad. Brody was called to be in the Bishopric (second counsellor) and so as a result (of my almost-mental breakdown (joking... sort of)) I was released from my more difficult church jobs of Primary chorister and 11-year-old-scout leader and put into a much easier Relief Society Newsletter and Young Women's Secretary. These are two of the funnest callings I've ever had. They are fullfilling (newsletter) and just super fun (Young Women's) and I can be absent with sick kids once in a while without having to get a sub, it's great! Well anyway, that's about all for now. More soon (anything sooner that a year will be soon for me, but I'll get better!)

what the #*^%???

OK, I know you all mostly want to hear about me, but I'd like to put some pictures of my kids on too, just for fun, you know? But true to form, I can't figure out how to! I hit the "add picture" icon, and go through the steps, and then I hit "download" (or whatever) and it freezes. So bear with me, I'm sure you're bored to death, lol. But this is what's going on up our way. The snow's finally gone (WOOOO-HOOOOO!!) Well, most of it anyway. I shoveled the last of it off my garden (you heard me right) and then built a raised strawberry bed and then I was going to rototill and plant. But then it started raining, and it has been for over a week now. Luckily Brody got his wheat crop in (there was a deadline) and that's when it started. Farming has stopped cold (wet?) but I think it's OK. No one seems to be very nervous yet. I'm sure I'm a week out planting my garden yet, two weeks later than usual. We're all just amazed and humbled with all this moisture. This area was promised with an end to the drought when we built and attended the Rexburg Temple (pending on our faithfulness) and gratefully, here it is. I'm amazed at all the rain and snow, and you all should see the green everywhere. Anyway, the family's good. Brody is getting a lot done with his cattle, he's very busy despite the weather. Cynthia is almost done with Kindergarten, it's been so much fun to see her learn to read, and her teacher's a miracle worker. I went on Cynthia's field trip and it was enough to convince me of what I could not be (Kindergarten teacher). Four kids is more than I can handle for now. Christy is finishing up her preschool year, it's been very fun. She's been getting some help with speech, and I can see that she's much more aware of the things she can't pronounce. "mom, can we go to the paaaahhhhhk... paaaahhhhk... paaaahhhhk(park), how was that mom?" "good job Christy, you said park!" (sort of). I guess "r" is one that some don't learn until 2nd grade, so we have time. The funniest was "mom, there's a sock in the bathtub" "a sock?" "no mom, a sock!" "well, why are you wearing your socks in the tub?" "mom! a SOCK!!!" (I guess louder is better?) and finally "mom, a SHARK" (this was Cynthia) "ohhhh... a SHARK!" "that's what I said... a sock!" (duh, mom's such a dingbat!) fun (and funny) times! Hanna's still alive (miraculously). She's the biggest handful! She's rather clumsy, and has LOTS of energy (not a good combo.) but she's so darn cute! She's starting to get her "I'm two and I want to do it MYSELF" attitude. For some reason (another blessing) I have more patience (aka. less determination/energy) with her than with the other two at that age. I have a friend that said her mom had little patience when she started her family of 8 kids and by the end... lots of patience. That's what I'm going for (lots of patients, not 8 kids, although...). We get so many comments on how CUTE she is, does anyone else have one of these "CUTE" varieties? We're buying child safety bars for our upper story windows... enough said. Axel is sooo fun! He had a spell where he wasn't growing (gaining weight) very well, but now we're back on track. I feed him constantly! He's sitting up and scooting (backwards) and learning to fend off the girls. He's a ladies man (what other choice does he have?) but he loves it. He's his dad's pride and joy, at least that's what dad wants to believe. He's really just a Mamma's boy right now, but soon... I'm doing well also. Loving motherhood! I hurt my foot last week sky-diving (aka. getting out of my car.) Tore some ligaments and broke a little piece of bone, but it's healing good, and I'm very glad it wasn't worse! Watch out when you get out of your car, that's dangerous business! anyway, sorry it's so long, if you took the time to read all of this, have a good day, and we love you all!