The Tour

This is for all the women who care about the inside of my house enough to ask for pictures! I am happy with the progress we've made and am enjoying living here. This is a great house! Here's the dining room, my big splurge was this new pub table with 8 chairs that we bought with our tax return:

The kitchen is small as far as floor space, but has tons of cupboards and I even have some empty ones! It's recently been updated with slate floor and this tumbled rock back-splash:











Downstairs family room, this couch looks like a big brown monstrosity but the picture doesn't do it justice - this is the most comfortable couch in the history of the world!

We have lots of projects in the works, and are going to paint and personalize the house more so stay tuned to see our progress!

9 to 5

When I said we were embarking on a "new" year, I really meant it. Going back to the office (I refuse to say "back to work" because of the obvious falsehood of that statement -- working outside the house is much less "work" if you ask me) after 14 years of being a "stay-at-home" Mom, has been an adjustment. It hasn't been too hard on me but the kids are still reeling in shock.

I have enjoyed getting up and going to work each morning at Jackman Construction, working with my new "boss" (a.k.a. my little sister, Heather) and earning a pay check for my "work" has been a nice change.

Kyle goes with me and has a little play room upstairs with toys, games and movies to keep him busy. He also "helps" because his duty is to run the shredder which absolutely delights him to no end. The big smile on his face whenever he sees that there is a pile of paper next to the shredder just cracks me up!
The older kids are slowly getting used to the fact that I'm not at their beck and call and they have an hour and a half after school before I get home in the afternoon to do all their homework and chores (right!). I have Thursday afternoons off each week, so I can do some errands or go to appointments that have to be during business hours. All in all, it's working out quite well, and has been a good change for me, plus has thrust me into meeting new people in our new hometown.

Here I am with my valentine's balloon bouquet from Heather -- Kyle was the photographer-- explaining the angle of the picture!

4 kids = 4 schools

Wyoming is experiencing an oil boom right now, which has caused Rock Springs to have a surge in it's population. This little town of 18,000 has over 35,000 residents now. One of the effects of the growth has been an overcrowding of the schools here.

Since the elementary schools are so full, they have all the 5th and 6th graders going to White Mountain Middle School, which Connor is attending. When I took Megan and Max to register at Walnut Elementary, we found out that the 3rd grade was completely full and Max would have to be bussed across town to Westridge Elementary.
Megan is going to Walnut (which is just down the street from our house) and Kindergarten is all day here, so she catches the bus from Mom's office at 9:00 (as long as we're there on time - which we're still working on) and doesn't get home until 3:30.Jordan is at East Junior High and gets to have 1st period with JaNae, which she is grateful for!