Quiet Sunday Afternoon--Really???

My friend Lori told me yesterday that I really should set up a blog. That she thinks I'd like it. That it is an easy way to keep friends updated. I have no idea how long this blog of mine will last, but I've taken her advice and here we are. I sat down over an hour ago and wrote about 6-8 paragraphs. I hit a "preview" button and from there it went downhill. Those 6-8 paragraphs are now part of cyber history, never to be dug up again. So I'll try one more time and this time, I will stay away from "preview" and keep writing until I decided to publish this post.

It is a near perfect Sunday afternoon at the Custer homestead. The temperature is in the mid-60s, the sky is clear. The only negative part of the weather is the raging wind. That wind is the only part of life here in Alamosa that I'd like to change. Except for the wind, I love it here!

Most everyone who will read this post will want to know what is going on with our house, so I'll start with that subject. It is coming along slowly. Last Sunday afternoon I packed up all the kitchen stuff from the camping trailer and moved it all into the house. Wow! I feel like I cook in a mansion these days! No more tiny three burner stove. No more two square foot counter space. We don't have the stove in the house working yet, but I do have a microwave, and electric cooking utensils like a cookpot, skillet, and roaster oven. When I packed up the refrigerator in the camping trailer and moved it over here, it looked like our refrigerator (the one we moved from Arizona) was made to be used by a dozen families! It is nice to have more space to store things though--I was able to stock up a bit from sales this week. That was good. And I didn't go shopping every two days this past week either. THAT was nice!

Probably two months ago now we had the foundation inspection on our home (a used manufactured home we moved from Pueblo to our property). We failed our inspection--ugghh!! Alamosa County requires that an engineer draw foundation drawings, which naturally means you have to hire the engineer and pay them. We did. Unfortunately, when we installed the tie down straps, we did not consult the engineer's drawing. We put the straps on the way we'd seen it done on the internet. Bad idea. We have to do it the County's way or we won't pass inspection. Then there was another blunder, but this time the engineer goofed up. He neglected to put cap blocks on the drawings. We have 18 stacks of six blocks each that our house sits on. There is supposed to be a cap block on top of each of these stacks. We didn't do that because we didn't know it was required. So we have to jack the house up again, fill the stacks of blocks with concrete (instead of going 2" higher for cap blocks that would then mess up plumbing). We procrastinated on getting started on this project right after the inspection because we were too busy licking our wounds! That isn't getting it done though. The straps we ordered should be here early this week and hopefully we'll be able to call for a second inspection by the end of the week.

Another positive accomplishment to having to work under the house is that Dana will be plugging all the potential mouse entry points. We are seeing signs of mice daily since we moved the kitchen over here. I Lysol the countertops every morning and keep everything in mouseproof containers. But they still come out to investigate. I do not like critters! I hope Dana is able to put an end to them very soon.

Eli was home for a weeklong visit at the beginning of the month. It was the best week we've ever enjoyed with him. He has grown so much since he went to Teen Challenge. We are so thankful for the work they've done, with God's help, in Eli's life. He is a very different young man. He is hoping to complete his Teen Challenge curriculum by early summer and then he wants to come home. We have talked with Eli and the staff at Teen Challenge and the decision has not yet been made whether he will come home right away or whether he'll stay on there a little bit longer. We all would rather delay his homecoming if that will better serve his needs. We will see.

Cody is still loving his work at The Bridge. You can see a little about the place here if you are interested: http://seniorhousing.botw.org/Community/Colorado/Alamosa/The_Bridge_at_Alamosa
There are two ladies at our church that live at The Bridge and every week we get comments about what a nice young man he is and how hard he works. Makes this mama proud! He also is the proud owner of a driver's permit. Doesn't seem possible that my "diddle boy" is ready to drive, but that's the way it is. In Colorado you must hold your permit for a full year before you can drive without a parent or driving instructor in the vehicle, so he won't be on his own for a while yet.

Amy is still very much the horse girl. In fact, several days a week she smells as pretty as a horse barn! She DOES stink when we pick her up from her work at the barn! She is still working to earn her second horse, which she's named Dima. Dima was the name of a naughty little boy at the orphanage who liked to pull her hair. Her first horse, Mr. Friskey, is no longer the docile big dog that he was when we brought him home. He's feeling his oats lately and it is obvious that he needs some training. Amy isn't doing much of that, though. She's waiting until Dima gets to come home and then Mr. Friskey will take Dima's place at the barn. Amy has decided that she'd like to train horses for her future job. She's at a good place to learn the skills she needs. The barn she works at is huge. It has stall space for 20 horses and an indoor heated arena.

Shane celebrated his 12th birthday on Friday. He's had a really good week and it has been a delight. He is a good kid when he wants to be. Prior to this past week, we've suffered through months of turmoil. I'm very thankful for the "calms" before the "storms" in his life.

Abby is now known as the Chickie Mama. She has wanted chickens for years and now she has her flock of little chickies. She purchased 18 of them with her own money as soon as Big R got them in. She deliberately bought three roosters because she wants to be SURE we don't ever want to eat one of the girls. She has many plans. Three of her girls will be set aside to be mama chickens and the rest will produce eggs for the family. One rooster gets to be the daddy and the rest of them are fair game for the chopping block. I am surprised at how "okay" she is with this whole process. She made sure she asked her dad if he'd be the butcher though--she does not want any part of chopping off heads. Yesterday was traumatic for Chickie Mama. We felt so bad for her. The chicks were out and had been sitting under a bush. She went looking for the last one and accidently kneeled down on it and broke its neck. She brought it in with big tears and asked if I could fix it. So sad. It got a proper burial, complete with a custom made grave marker. I hope we don't have too many more of those! I think she will learn from the experience though. We've been trying to explain that the chicks are fragile. She likes to dance with them and cuddle and pick them up and carry them everywhere, etc. You get the picture.

Maddie had to be spayed this past week. No more plans for puppies. Actually, as yucky as it was, at least now we know whether or not to breed her. Her hips are fine, but she seems to have allergies and we haven't been able to pinpoint the problem. She got a BIG, yucky, gross infection in her uterus and it had to be removed.

Dana is having fun with blacksmithing again. He is making all kinds of fun things and plans one of these days soon to have a booth at an art fair or community event of some kind. He needs to be seen so that people know he's here. He made towel bars for the main bathroom in the house. They turned out great. I am busy picking out ideas for the rest of the house. He's going to make all the curtain rods, towel bars, toilet paper holders, etc.

As for me, I am busy driving kids to and from work, as well as trying to spend some time at work myself. Valley Horizons needs all the time I can give. I never feel like it is enough, but at least we're making progress.

We had a pastoral candidate visit church today to preach. He was good. It will be nice when we have a regular pastor. We all miss Pastor Bill, but he can't move to Alamosa, so we'd like to have another pastor in our church lives. After church was a potluck--the biggest yet. So much food and so many people! One thing I really like about Alamosa Christian Reformed (and Fellowship of Grace could learn this tip) is that when we have a potluck, the seniors are ALWAYS the first in line. I think it is important to show them that honor.

We have a nice group of seniors at ACRC and they get together for lunch once a month. Last month I "crashed" their party and had a wonderful time. I even got invited back!

And that is all for now. If I don't "shut up," I won't get any reading done before the gang comes back in and this quiet house will be chaotic again.