Home Sweet Camper

Hi Ya'll! We're back in the blogging world, and oh boy was November a busy month for us! Here's what's been happening since our last post:
We found renters!!!
Heavenly Father listened to our prayers, even though it took a few leaps of faith on our part. After a few fall throughs, including one that happened after the lease was already signed, we decided to go public and placed a sign in the front yard. Less than 3 days later we had our renters. I believe that Heavenly Father's sent us the exact type of renters we could want to take care of our home. They're an older couple who both work, and don't smoke or have pets (pets would have been fine, but the smoking thing turned out to be a deal breaker for some other renters and calls on the house). They seen to be really quiet-type people, who love our house as much as we did.
We moved!!!
OK, our house isn't finished. In fact we had a few stalls in that area because of the trouble we had finding the right renters and once we had them, they wanted to move in immediately. But thanks to some very wonderful friends and a few compromises we are currently staying with said friends and sleeping in our camper at night. It's been a challenge, but it will all be worth it in the end.........i keep promising my self.
Bye-bye Bullseye!!!
After eight years with Target, I've finally said "goodbye". There were several reasons that contributed to my decision to leave, none of them pretty. I won't be specific here, but lets just say that it was time I found another job that suited my personality and life style better. That being said, I have found another job, with a different company where my primary role is to input information that I find on criminal background checks. So if you do anything bad...I'll know! and I LOVE IT!!! It's only been a week and a half there, but I love all the people so far, and the hours are just the best that I could ask for. And in addition to all that, I feel like I finally have a "grown-up" job. Is it too soon to say that I think I'm happier here than I ever was at TGT? Maybe. I was positively miserable there the past year or so, but I don't think I've been at my new job long enough to tell for sure. But we'll see.....so far I really like it!
Branching out!!!
Since our move, we are no longer in the Irmo Ward, even though we still see most everyone every week. We are now in the Chapin Branch. We have been fairly warned that the callings are coming, but I say that's fine by me. I suppose it's because I was raised in a small branch, but I just feel more at home when it's such a small group of saints. I have a serious problem with names, and the less I have to remember the better. Just joking! But really I am loving these people! They've already made this family feel so at home, it's almost as if we were always here. 
Thanksgiving
With so much gong on this year, I didn't get to make a grand feast like I wanted to. (You know me...I LOVE to cook!) But we did get to enjoy one! Aunt Mel and Uncle Troy hosted this year's spread. Everything was so good I didn't want to stop eating. In addition to all the good food there was something else to be grateful for this year. Just a few days before Thanksgiving Day, Aunt Mel and Uncle Troy signed adoption papers for their son Jacob! They've been working through this process for almost a year now, and now it's final! YAY!!! He's officially theirs! We're so excited!

All in all there have been so many changes this month it's been a little crazy. But all of these changes have been for the good. Now that we're all settled in at our friend's place, I can tell a definite change in myself. I'm not nearly as stressed now as I was at the beginning of this month. Soon we'll have the tree up and Christmas will be here before we know it! Get ready!!!

It's fun to be 1!!!

We don't have a bitty baby any more! I can't believe it's already been a year. It seems like it was just yesterday when I waddled into the hospital and a couple of days later was wheeled out with a little teeny bundle wrapped up in my arms. Now that teeny bundle has grown into a chubby little rug-rat, who toddles all over the place and knows how to work mommy and daddy's phones. I am amazed at how much her personality shines through and how opinionated she is! She's such a sweetie and too smart for her own good. I miss my tiny baby every now and then, but for the most part I just sit back and enjoy the adventure of raising 2 little CRAZY WILD girls.

Where is that present?!

Yummy Cupcakes!!!

Yes, Kiera turned one last month but we were expecting a very special visitor all the way from UT, and decided to wait until Grandma came before we celebrated! We had a nice week with grandma, although there was some major construction going on around the house. And a party was just the icing on the cake! (no pun intended ;) She got soooo many presents, and Big sissy Sydney wasn't left out of the fun, thanks to a prepared mommy and yaya who got her a few small presents of her own. And we had a bunch of kids close to Kiera's age come to the party. I think all the kids had a blast. I also want to give a special thanks to Aunties Annette, Krissy and Bridgett for coming to the rescue and helping me get the party finished before everybody else got there. They were my heroes that day! Here's some party pictures:

Can I check my stocks on this?

Because of this...

Syd has a fever blister on her tongue! This nasty bugger showed up Friday evening and still hasn't gone away. Of course it would make an appearance on a major holiday weekend when the next available appointment for her would be the following Tuesday. Unless I wanted to take her to the ER, which I absolutely did NOT want to do. We tried everything and it just seemed to get worse. She lay around all weekend crying. It completely broke my heart. It got to a point where she completely stopped eating drinking and talking. Talk about scary! We did get her to drink some milk a couple of times, but that was pretty much all she would let pass her lips. Fortunately Tuesday finally came and her pediatrician gave us something to take the pain away. I am happy to report that as of yesterday I have my normal girl back.  It's still a little sore in the mornings when she first gets up, but for the rest of the day she eats drinks, plays and talks. I never thought I'd be so happy to have to clean up one of her messes again, but I found myself rather cheery the first time since she'd been sick.

And a one, and a two......

And away we go!!! September is here! There is so much to do I hardly know where to begin!

On our agenda:

*Meet some old friends! Some where, some how, some way, we just gots ta! No question about it, It won't be easy in the least.

*Party! Kiera's turning one! Can you believe it? Where did the time go?! Now with so much other stuff on our plate we gotta throw a shin-dig. And you know me: Ms Crafty! You think I'm going to let this party be decorated with store-bought stuff? You got another thing coming! I've already got in my mind the things I need to make, I just have to write them down and find the time to make them.

*Move on outta here! Not only do we have to get out, we gotta finish what we started. That means painting the kitchen, installing all the new appliances, clean like there's no tomorrow and the spot you get in heaven depends on how clean this house is! (or maybe that's just my slight OCD coming out) But fortunately I may be able to con my sisters and mother into helping. (insert evil laughter)

*Make Halloween costumes! OK Now you may be thinking, "But Amber, it's only September! You still have all of this month and the next to make those." To which I reply, " Oh, no I don't. With our living situation being what it is about to be, I will not only have my machine all packed up, but there will not be anywhere for me to sew!" Kiera's going to be Tinker Bell and Syd is going to be Rapunzel. And I'm already half-way done. I just gotta get them finished. This year instead of making myself something elaborate, like I've done in the past, I've opted for His and Hers M.A.S.H. costumes courtesy of some hot red lipstick and a t-shirt from Target. Say hello to "Hot-lips" Hoolihan and Dr. "Hawkeye"Pierce. I do have to track down a stethoscope though.....

* Find some one to rent our house. I think the renters we had lined up are having second thoughts. Oh well, such is life. No hard feelings and all. I'm disappointed, cause that means we might be having complete strangers living in our house. Not that I'm adverse to strangers in my house, but the group we were going to have were people I knew and trusted. My worst fear is that someone will come in, destroy all our hard work, and leave owing back rent for months! I know that not everyone who rents would do this but Murphy's Law keeps creeping into my mind. I just have to keep my chin up and have our friends at the Sheriff's Dept do a THOROUGH background check on any one interested in the house. And possibly have a good lawyer on the side.

And this isn't even all of it! It's already been a crazy few months, and it's about to get even crazier! I keep singing "Wake me up when September ends." in hopes that I'll wake up and October will be here, and everything on my to-do list will have magically been done. OK Maybe I won't sleep thru a few of the things going on this month, but would it be so much to ask for my fairy godmother to get to work on the other things?

TP and Ramen

Kiera and Sydney have been doing their best to make me wonder what's going on inside their little brains today. Loulou has been climbing as high as she can get (usually onto Syd's bed) and then screams "mamamamamamamamama!!!!!" when she wants to get back down. Then she wants to hang all over me while I'm cleaning. Classic cry for attention. Textbook even. Unless I'm paying attention to Syd. Hmmmm.....that one's a head scratcher. These are the times she uses to find the toilet paper, or my Avon catalogs, and proceeds to meticulously tear them to shreds. With all the recent sales on school supplies I have the notion to get her a bunch of notebooks and then her have at them. We'll just recycle the shreds.
Sydney on the other hand is very much her father's daughter. Many of you who know him well know that he can go all day without feeling any twinge of hunger, unless someone waves a 22oz. steak in front of his face. Lately this has been Sydney (sans steak). I have to tie the child down to her chair to get her to just look at food. OK maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, but I swear this kids can survive on the microbes floating in the air. That's how little she eats.
Then this morning she wakes up and requests eggs. 'OK.' I'm thinking, 'she likes eggs. I'll make her some.' 30 minutes later she's requesting gogurt. Also normal, she loves those things. What I wasn't expecting was a food request every 15-30 minutes for the rest of the day ranging from more eggs to hotdogs to mac and cheese. I have spent more time in the kitchen today than I usually spend all week. Then came the kicker: My child climbed into a box of stored food and found a case of Ramen noodles. She then brought me the box and said "Look Mommy! I found noodles! Have some?" Yes you may. I already had some "noodles" out, so she kept the box and wouldn't let me have them back! She was so afraid that if I took her box she wasn't going to get her noodles. Call me an opportunist, but I had to get the camera out on this one. This is one of those days when I'll look back and say to her "I don't know why you thought you were starving that day, but you held onto that box of ramen like your life depended on it! And yes....you were naked."

Playing Catch-Up!

OK, yes I know it's been a while. That being said here's whats been going on in the Asmus Clan:

*We're trying to move!*

Not far, still in SC. (sorry west-coasters. we aren't getting any closer.) Also note the word "try". It's been very challenging! Who knew there was sooooo much you had to do to get land ready for habitation?! OK so we knew most of it, but that doesn't mean it's not time and money consuming. I won't bore you with the details, but lets just say it's a LOT!
*We're trying to sell/rent our current house!*
Also a challenge. Our house is a little bit torn up at the moment (read: being renovated), because we're still on the fence about the buy vs. rent argument. Each side has it's pros and cons. I'm pro-anything-that-gets-us-out-of-this-house-and-into-the-new-house-without-losing-money-or-getting-deeper-in-debt. So like I said before: the house is torn up at the moment. Anyone that knows Jesse, knows that he's Webster's definition of "Handy-man". Needless to say, our current house has many fabulous features that have my husband's sweat in them. But with the sagging market for selling and the rising market of renting......it's a tough decision.
*The kids are getting BIGGER!!!*
"Duh!" you say?! yeah well...you got me there. I really shouldn't be surprised. But then I take LouLou to the Dr. and find out how much she's grown, or take out a picture of Syd as a baby and I get all nostalgic. Time is flying, and there's not enough battery life in my camera to capture it all!!!! And I know I can't (read: shouldn't) keep all of their baby stuff.....but dang it! It's hard to let go of my baby's time being a baby! (read: Why oh Why can't they stay this little and cute forever?!?!*sniffle*)
*I'm going crazy!*
Also "Duh"?! Again.......you got me there. It seems that juggling being a mommy with 2 other jobs, a home renovation, and home building has left me very little down or me-time. See? I'm even taking a brief over-lapping nap time to write this up. That's what I mean: crazy as a loon! while I could be painting my toe nails, or even getting a shower (by myself), here I am catching up on some neglected blogging. Oh, well. A Mom's job is never done. Maybe the next post won't be so far off.....if I can ever slow down for a minute!

Easter Holiday

We spent Easter with my (Amber's) family. It sure was fun. We actually spent over a week with them so Jesse could hunt. But alas! The closest thing to a dead turkey Jesse will get to this year is named Butterball. It wasn't for trying though. He went out in the woods twice a day every day. He saw lots of birds at one point, but happened to spook them since he accidentally walked through their nesting spot.

Anyways, the girls really enjoyed their Easter. Sydney couldn't get over the bubbles (so much joy for so little!), And has wanted to read "George" every night since (Thanks Nana & Papa!). Kiera only cared about the grass and eggs. She tried to eat them both. And I have to brag a little bit...I made the dresses and the shrugs! I couldn't find any matching dresses, since the girls have such different sizes. So i just whipped up something simple.

Later we went to Uncle Troy's and Aunt Mel's for Easter Dinner. After dinner we had the egg hunt followed by the traditional 4-wheeler rides! YAY! (yeah I know we're rednecks.......) This time, since there were so many of us, we got out the trailer and the 4-wheeler rides ended up being a hay ride (without the hay).

We love spring!

It's been a busy few weeks! We went ahead and moved the swings out to Nana's and Papa's.
Picked daffodils in Bluffton.


And got our seeds ready to plant in the garden. And we're steady going! This family refuses to slow down! (scroll down to see Pics of our gardening in action!)

S & K Farms

Here's our little Garden! Ok, so it's not so little. It's about 1/2 acre. We've just gotten everything planted. We're going to have corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, squash, butter beans, green beans, and WATERMELON!!! That's the best part, of course.

Here's our tractor. Syd will only ride with Mommy so far.

And this is what we do when it starts getting dark: Hang out in the back yard with Daddy.

We'll put up some more pictures as our crops grow!

Neglected!

There is no other word for it....My poor blog has been sadly neglected! In my defense we have been very busy, and hardly ever home. So here are some pics of what we've been doing the past few weeks:

Learning to sit up! Now Mom can sit me on the floor and let me play by myself so she can clean!


I've discovered how soft puppy-dogs are, and I LOVE THEM!!!!



Sydney's Trying more and more to be a good Big Sister. Including: Feeding Kiera, picking up all the toys and helping Mommy clean!

We've also been to Bluffton, and to Meme's farm and been sick for the majority of this past month! We're getting better though, and hopefully (if we slow down any) We'll get to blog more.

All Worth While

The kids have been driving me crazy! Kiera is very clingy, and despite my almost constant use of the sling, I can rarely get anything done. Sydney on the other hand will go right behind me and make everything Jesse or I have spent hours cleaning an absolute disaster area. Or throw a ball and it lands on the baby. Or squeeze out all the juice from her juice box all over the couch.....you get the picture. We used to joke about having a Velcro wall and suits so we could just stick the kids there. Of course that would never happen, tempting though it is. I think Sydney would be less destructive if she could go play outside, but alas we have no fence to keep her in the yard and off the train tracks, and it's too cold for the baby to go out for long periods. I still work nights and don't get off until late. This makes for a tired and grumpy mommy. I need a vacation, or just a couple hours by myself with no kids or husband so I can feel like I'm getting something done. Even if it's just a nap!

Then Syd snuggles up to me and says "I love you Momma!" or


Kiera gives me one of her infectious giggles (complete with toothless grin)
and it makes my life and all the craziness that goes with it all worth it.