My little Marsupial

Matthew's Blog: Matthew Marsupial

Happy New Year ... and some words of thanks

When we count our many blessings, it isn't hard to see, that life's most valued treasures are the treasures that are free.

For it isn't what we own or buy that signifies our wealth.

It's the special gifts that have no price: our family, friends and health.
-Author Unknown


O God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry;

when I have work, help me to remember the jobless;

when I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all;

when I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer, and remembering, help me to destroy my complacency;

bestir my compassion, and be concerned enough to help;

by word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.
-Samuel F. Pugh

Beaver Blog Cabin

Timmy sent this to us today. He has started the rows for the upstairs. That will be Matthew's window... he's got a great view of the mountains. Mike was teasing that maybe we'll just have Matthew take a room in the basement and we'll save that upstairs room for guests.

The rest of these were taken last weekend while my sister and I were up for a visit.

This will be the master bedroom w/ french doors.

Looking towards the family room and dining room and kitchen area.

The french doors off the dining room.

The back of the living room... there will be lots of big winders and a french door.

Look at that grin.

Here are the "bad ass log builders". I hear this is what they've been calling themselves. The big sillies. Tanji had a couple T~shirts made for the guys that says "bass ass log builders" on the back. Tanji is standing there, too.. but she's wearing overalls that match the color of the logs.

This is the front of the kitchen.

Matthew in his new little snowsuit, mittens and boots that grandma bought him.

Oy vey. The big lugs. This is Amy, Quixa's BFF.

A quick picture before we left. This is outside our dining room.

They sure have made a lot of progress. It's really looking like a cabin, huh! We went up at the end of October to stake out the site.

We're going back in a couple weeks so Mike can help to put up those main beams and trusses, to prepare for the roof.
I want to hurry and get that done, I guess it's been quite windy up there... I'd hate to see those walls blow down. They are braced, but it could happen.

Merry Christmas!

Foster parenting/adoption

Mike and I completed our last class for foster parenting/adoption today ..... thanks Mom and G for coming to watch Matthew for 8 hours! (Had to give them a crash course on replacing the mic key button if it happened to come out.)

Apparently Las Vegas needs 450 families to help care for these kids.
We've taken about 27 hours of classes ..... today's class was the most eye opening of them all.
The instructor said things to help us to see it from these kids perspective, and frankly... it was so sad. I can't imagine being passed around and not having my very own loving family.

We were actually "certified" as of October... but we all decided to wait until the end of RSV/flu season before we start taking on children ~ for Matthew's sake. We have agreed to take on mildly medically fragile babies .... no trachs ... or wheelchairs.... but I can handle g~tubes, breathing treatments and medications... We are practically nurses by now anyway.

I think for now, I only want to take only newborns straight out of the NICU... I think they would be the safest as far as sickness is concerned. I simply can't take any chances with Matthew getting sick.

I am shocked as to how many of these poor children are out there w/o loving and caring parents. A lot of these kids don't even have pictures of themselves from their past.
Not only that, but so many have been abused!! It's hard to believe that adults can be so awful to children.
Don't they realize that they are screwing them ROYALLY??? They're causing permanent damage in these children. How can they not care?? I don't get it.

They told us today in class that more than 1/2 of prison inmates were foster kids ... and that most of the homeless were foster kids ... *shakes head*

It makes me so mad that people choose to have children, but then they are so selfish and continue to do drugs and live the wrong kind of life. I was so irritated today during the class, listening to how screwed up these kids are BECAUSE OF THE CRAPPY PARENTS!

We feel the break down of the family is the biggest reason why our society is such a mess.

It makes me sick too, that dads can just run out on their children and force the "government" to be the daddies. You can't even begin to imagine how much all this costs the state/government.
Mind boggling!!!

Selfish selfish selfish people.

I am scared to death ... that's for sure. I hope I can handle it all ... I have my doubts.
Matthew is a lot of work ... but Mike is quite convinced that we need to do this. He listens to podcasts of Focus on the Family and this is how this all came to be. He is also into the Adoption Stories. He's leading this thing... he's the "good one"...

This is how I feel.....what about you?

I swiped this off of DD2's blog, too.

I LOVE IT!

Hard to believe it was only 2 weeks ago that the logs were delivered!

This is the front and side of cabin, dining room/living room on the right side. Kitchen is in the front and the mudroom on the left side. Front door area is in between the mudroom and kitchen.

Looking at where the door will be to the mudroom. Ramp to basement on left. Master bedroom on the left.

Ah, they put the winders in the basement already.

Looking towards the mudroom, front door area and kitchen.

The staircase will be above the window going to the basement... the master bedroom and bath is past that, along the wall.

Mikey before the scaffolding came.

Inside the mudroom.

Mudroom... the wide open space is where the front door will be.

The location where the picture is being taken, looks like they're standing where our master bath will be ... looking towards the mudroom. The staircase is in between the mudroom and the other side of bath.

Yay, the scaffolding arrives.

Brrrrrrrrrr!!!

What a trooper she is! This girl is amazing in all honesty ~ she can do it all. She cut up two elks on her kitchen table. Her hubby lovingly calls her "his squaw". (They each got an elk this year.)

Kitchen area. *screams* This is sooo exciting. The kitchen is my most favorite part of the whole house.

Quixa running up the construction stairs.
Mike doing his thing.
Family room corner. I'm bummed, we WERE going to put our woodburning stove in that corner, but the roof line won't allow it... we need to schootch it over a bit.
Winter view from the mudroom. Beautiful, huh!
Kitchen again.
Kitchen. You can see where the winder is going to go.
Getting there! I hear it's just freezing cold... Mike said it was nine degrees this morning... and didn't get above freezing today. He said the last couple days were kind of brutal.
Bedroom corner... looking like a cabin.
Mike goofing off. This guy always has a smile on his face. He's amazing. I'm so lucky.
Hum....looking puzzled.
Trying to keep warm.
Our steel building that Mike built w/ my dad and brother. He finished the wall paneling while it was raining. He ran some line around the sides for his air compressor.
Humm... now... I think that's Mike.. but his face looks different!! ?? I think he has safety glasses on... maybe he has a beard go'in on.

Awwww.....my little Quixa Binka, Mike's best friend. I miss her sooo much. I'm used to her being by my side allll dayyyyy longggggg.

I simply can't get over how much these guys have done in two short weeks. The logs were delivered on November 30th. I think they should start their own log cabin building business... Busy Beaver Builders... hee hee... what do you think??? Can you imagine answering the phone like that.

Ugghhhh... as I sit here so full ... from eating too much crap since Sunday.... I think I'm going to be at least five pounds heavier when Mike gets home...and he'll be 10 pounds lighter b/c they are working so hard. I better starve myself for the next week!! I need to get my assets back on that treadmill... and fast!!!

Christmas baking

*lots of pictures below*
We spent 12 hours on Sunday getting our Christmas baking done.

We baked/cooked up 11 different items. No pictures of the little elves ... after we finished the shopping, we got in our comfy cozies and started baking to Christmas music. Let's just say we weren't beauty pagent material! The elves included
my sister, my sister in law, our lifetime friend from school and me. My nephew came over for a bit to help us w/ Magoo. My "twonager" is a job in itself. We simply couldn't keep this kid out of the kitchen otherwise.

Talk about tired at the end of the night. OH BOY! My sister kept calling for "union breaks" throughout the day, she was funny.

We spent the day getting our list together, shopping, teasing each other, measuring, whipping, stirring, giggling, baking, cooking on the stove top, non stop chasing after Matthew, non stop washing bowls and dishes.

We did have one cookie casualty, the Pumpkin/Choc Chip cookies. Too bad, they sure looked good ~ but tasted like crap. *giggling* The recipe didn't include the 5 cups of flour we needed, so we didn't include it in our shopping ... so, my friend had her husband bring us the flour she had in the freezer.... major party foul.... it was freezer burned and *gag*... made the cookies taste nasty... they tasted like the flour smelled... you know what I mean???

Some of the ingredients.
The assembly line!

Little Santa cookies ~ made w/ Nutter Butter cookies... aren't they adorable!! We didn't have to bake these, but they sure took a while!

These are Chocolate & Cream Cheese sandwich cookies. These are so rich, you can only eat one. The Fantasy Fudge is in the back.

My goodness, these are the Chocolate Mint Dreams. We will double or triple this next year. I screwed these up, actually... I left out 1/2 of the 1 cup of the mini chocolate chips ... GAH! These do not look like the picture at all!! Oh well, they sure taste good.

Candied Spice Pecans. I could not stop picking at these. SO ADDICTING. My parrot sure wanted some of these.

Mom's homemade, easy breezy, yummy Peanut Brittle from when we were kids.

Ginger Snappies.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars. A big time favorite, too.

Mom's No Bake Chocolate/Coconut/Oatmeal/Peanut Butter drops. It's an old family favorite, too! We need to triple these next time.

Fresh Cranberry/Orange cookie drops. I wasn't sure I'd like these, but they are sooo awesome.. I could not keep my hands off them. Love that tangy, tart and sweet taste.

I am so totally bummed... I had a picture of the table filled with all the goodies on their tins ... but I must not have "saved" to my phone. *big sad pouty face*

This is Sunnie checking out all the treats!! He was BEGGING for some pecans ... but the sweets won't be good for his beak. I had to put my foot down and say NO.

This is Matthew trying to help keep up busy. We had taped up all the recipes on my cupboards for easy reading.

Finally, about 9 o'clock ... we ordered pizza. Get this, the pizza delivery guy pretty much hustled almost a 50% tip. I could not believe he practically "guilted" my neib for a huge tip!!!!

Of course we were going to tip the guy ... but not a gosh darn 50% tip ... it put my friend totally on spot .... after asking for our change back a couple times, he just let the guy have it.

I won't be ordering pizza from that pizza place again. It's a very well known popular pizza joint. Not sure they'd be happy knowing their pizza driver begs.