Weekend of Repairs

I love this boy! My husband was trying to work on the water pump to the truck and the stairs had been pretty bad for a while and Mekenzei almost slipped the other morning and he was worried about someone getting hurt. He took it upon himself to ask a few questions and fix it for us. Paul did have to cut a couple of prop boards because the saw is a little dangerous with it not being on a table but he did a great job!

We will have to come back in later and fix the boards underneath this last step, they need to be off the dirt so they will not rot so fast but gosh for a 16 year old this is  very functional!

As for the truck, well that didn't go so well. First off he used my quilting tables. I am thankful for DAWN dishsoap. Then he struggled for a long while to get the nut between the pulley and the fan loose. We went to the parts store to see if there was a special tool, we were able to buy the new water pump but they couldn't help us. We then took it to his brother in law and in the process of attempting it with two strong men the pulley was then damaged so they decided to cut it off with a torch. Needless to say we now needed a new pulley too. For now we are borrowing a vehicle which really helps with my busy kids schedule and yesterday he found the new part in town at a pick a part place. Hopefully its fixed before I leave just in case something happens to our other vehicle while I am gone. We haven't had the best of peace around here lately.

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Academic Decathlon

Jakob is part of the Academic Decathlon at MWHS, he seems to really enjoy it and has really grown in the last few years with areas such as interviews and speeches. It requires a lot of extra attention with school because you have to learn so much in a short amount of time. Their school took 3rd place again this year. In a way it is bitter sweet for him as this is his last year to participate and he would have liked to have gone to State. However, he has competition for Skills USA the weekend that Acadec is at State so he now has the opportunity to go try again there this year.

This year we had a ice storm the morning the first competition was to be held so they had to cancel it, at first they thought the event was cancelled altogether but after lots of planning on the part of the coordinators they managed to pull the event together for the Saturday- it would last over 8 hours

For Jakob he didn't feel he did as well as he would have liked to. I think he did really well considering every class he has this year is AP, its senior year with lots of added stress and he has been working hard to also get scholarships for college together too.

Normally the hosting school would have an award ceremony but since the competition went until 9 pm that evening they did not have this advantage so medals were handed out in class and the school district recognized the students from both local high schools at their School Board Meeting.

I am very proud of all the students and pray Jakob does really well this coming weekend in Beaumont at the Skills USA competition where last year he took third in Technical Math. 

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Jakobs Suprise 18th Birthday

Mekenzei went to great lengths to try and give Jakob a fantastic birthday. He has never had a party before because honestly he doesn't have very many friends. He pretty much keeps to himself. This year he seems to enjoy life a little more and there were several people that were interested in attending a surprise party. He isn't much for dancing, music that is loud etc. His ideal party would be a video game night. 

We ordered a half chocolate, half white strawberry filled, whip cream topped cake. It was very YUMMY! We also kept the design very simple.

The youth pastor was in on the surprise and he made it so much more fun!

His friends from school- mainly acadec and then a couple of close friends came and hid in the kitchen, he truly had no idea they were there or that even his teacher and her two children were there. I thought it was pretty funny. They came out with his sister and presented him with his cake on stage.

The pastor was great about letting them all celebrate in the kitchen while the service took place. I am glad he understood that some of them might not stay for the service.

Mekenzei was super excited to have pulled it all off and she really owed a lot to two girls and their asking around to get a few of them to show up and make it a special evening.

Jakob had never even cut a cake before so we got some assistance from one of the parents at church

Here is a teacher of his, she is very special to me because over the years I have come to be friends with her. I am so happy she would come to his get together, often teachers separate themselves and it meant alot to have her their supporting him.

Every once in a while I get a picture of a genuine smile of Jakob- those are very precious and hard to come by because he is so serious all the time.

They really did have a great time even if it wasn't your typical party and it was pretty short. It was nice to just have him enjoy cake with some friends.

And even his brother had to join in- he was trying to give Jakob a hug- something Jakob really doesn't like. I think this will be a birthday to remember when he looks back. Paybacks might be pretty stiff too- MeKenzei topped herself with Valentines Day by sending him flowers with a note that said You are a  Handsome Beast- your Secret Admirer. 

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Quilt Tops in Progress

I finished this quilt top tonight. I felt bad for my daughter as she has been at a friends sitting their dogs all day. My job was to come home this morning and get this quilt top done, however my husband needed some assistance so I started later this evening. That meant I didn't get to finish till after 9 and it also meant she was eating Mc Donalds and very late. Hopefully tomorrow goes better as I have one more to do and we have a truck to try and fix since it looks like the oil leak in the other truck is getting much worse. It seems like a constant battle to keep two vehicles up and running. Since we really can't afford a new vehicle or even a new used vehicle we need to get this sorted pretty quick.

This is one I finished on Thursday, with Mekenzei's appointments for Xrays then the Dr to review Xrays, dog sitting and the work in the yard today I have yet to be able to quilt it. This is an order for three quilts from a husbands clothing for their children- I had made this same customer three other quilts with his clothing a few months back. So I will likely work on the third quilt top tomorrow and then get them all quilted between now and thur of next week since I am off to California for my grandmothers funeral on Friday.

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More Dogs and Fences

SO this is an example of where Men and Women can be very different. Across the side front yard is a fence the previous owners had put up, its just a wire fence and timbers. It seems that the timbers are rotting away which happens over time. My husband showed me where in two spots it was really bad and they basically were non existent. He mentioned we would have to fix them this weekend otherwise the whole fence might go down- with dogs this might not be the best thing.

So I have an idea of fix, and my husband has an idea of fix. I would have taken the old ones out and probably cemented them in to make it sturdy. He decided we just needed to take the post hole digger- put in a partial timber on the back side and bolt them together in a couple of places. 

I admit this way took about an hour- the way I was thinking probably a few hours, it doesn't look very pretty- its pretty RED NECK if you ask me, but I know for now it will do the job and it didn't really cost any money.

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Dogs and Fences

We have added two great danes to our family since Christmas, one was a stray that then got away. He had been abandoned and really abused by someone in his past. We truly thought he had died and he was lost to us. Our friends helped us by getting a new great dane, which the kids instantly fell in love with. A few days later that male great dane appeared again and it took a while but we were able to recapture him. Our intention was to help him get better and then relocate him to another family but he has stolen our hearts and it looks like he found his home. 

That means we have some fence work in our future. This week the lab that we have dug out under the fence line because it was just cow wire and boards. We were able to fix that area but it was about $30. We also added some wood to the inside in hopes that our catahoulla will stop JUMPING this high fence. Thankfully the great danes can't jump it for sure.

It looks like we really should do the rest of it but we have to save a little because we figured we need about $80 in boards. It will really give us some privacy though and I am going to love that!

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Pipes are a Pain Sometimes

Well today I went out to give the livestock some water and part way through I had no pressure. I thought gosh that is strange, well I am super thankful that my husband had been right there fixing the fence because I blew the pipe he had just fixed. Gosh darn thing!

So we finished up the fence, hauled water to the animals and then later ran to town for better glue and a fitting to help with this repair. I am happy to say in the future I can turn this black knob to shut the back water off and still have water to the house if it happens again. Good to know..

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Repairs and Obstacles

Sometimes we have some tough weeks. Seems like this is one of them. The water pump started acting up in the white truck, we never did get the car fixed its a 6+ hour job and Paul has yet to have 6 hours to get it done. So thankfully friends helped with transportation issues this week. So the stairs rotted out again- not sure why this seems to be such a big issue- makes for a huge hazard with the cold nights and frozen walk way. I am praying we can fix it soon.

I came home Tue this week to find that the neighbor had turned the main water off at the street because this pipe burst. It had been on for quite some time because he had standing water in his yard- with acre + lots it tells a lot. Can't imagine what the water bill will be. Luckily my husband got off a little early so he could come and repair it so that we had water by the evening time.

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Valentines Day

I am a practical girl, my husband is finally truly understanding this. I desperately needed this dutch oven type pan. I had one years ago but it fell apart- it was  set that I had in college. While I didn't get a new set I did get this one pan that I know I will use a ton! He also replaced the waffle iron because it broke during the middle of a birthday dinner for Zekaryah. I was actually going to give this as a Father's Day gift but he beat me to it. 

Zekaryah bought me these beautiful roses with his own money- super sweet. He called from a friends house to make sure I noticed them on the table before I headed out to dog sit for a friend who had to go out of town.

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Jakobs 18th Birthday

I am so thankful for the opportunity to raise this amazing young man. The Lord surely blessed me by giving me the privilege to watch him grow over these last 18 years. He is always challenging all of us to be better servants to others and leading by example. His hard work and determination show us that anything in life is possible if you believe. Happy Birthday Jakob Wells we love you so much and hope that the Lord will open the doors to grant you the desires of your heart.






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All in a weekend

Kenzei had to accompany us to do some side work today after church, she worked on homework. Its funny how they can just make themselves at home. I had to laugh when I saw this as I went to grab a quick drink of water.

Thank goodness for laptops, sure helps get work done on the go.

Paul had helped cut and shape (probably not the right word) all this pipe and I helped wash it all today. It helps to have to people because I can get a bunch washed and he can take it over to stack so it will be dry.

I can't imagine how long it would have taken him to do this alone, it took us a couple of hours to do this together.

I am thankful that we came across some good deals at Academy today. Jakob needed a new backpack. He had two old ones that we cycled through this year and the last one blew the bottom. I had already tried to repair it but it was a lost cause to try again. The boy probably carries 40 lbs on his back so he usually goes through a couple a year. Zekaryah goes through shoes this fast. We bought two pairs one for track and one for school at the beginning of the year and he already needed two new pairs. Both of these were on sale though. The orange and gray he got for $24 and the other were a little more pricey at $40. Hopefully they last the rest of the school year. With all the running he does he literally runs through the soles. I have never seen inserts with huge holes like his gets.

Jakob helped me make a new banner for my facebook page. I really need to take a photoshop class you can do so much with the program and he will be headed to college soon and unable to help me with this stuff. It seems like our weekend has now ended. I have enjoyed  having Paul back home. I really wish he had tomorrow off too I am not quite ready to get back into the swing of things. I have three quilts to work on this week and lots of dr appointments to help the younger two feel better. It will be another busy week. 

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