Mom's Night Out Thanksgiving Celebration

Our homeschool group has a great support group for the moms.  We try to meet each week.  In the spirit of being thankful for all that God has to offer we gather in the W home and cooked for each other.  This is a wonderful group of women and I am very thankful that God has blessed me with their friendship. 

 The food was yummy!  The conversation was wonderful.  Thank you God for these ladies!

Hello To The New

. . . We ended up with a Nissan NV Passenger that holds 12.  Not enough for our family of 13 but when needed we will squeeze.  We were in so much trouble from the kids that we even considered getting rid of the old van and got a new one.  In the end I think they like this one.  We like that we feel safer (as in in won't break down if we go to St. Louis over Christmas break). 

To be honest I was a little upset.  I wanted real luxury, or so I thought.  I have driven a basic van for years with no bells or whistles.  I wanted the fun stuff.  It can't be found in these huge cars.  In fact standard car loans no longer apply. Everything over 9 passenger is considered a commercial vehicle and the loans are set up to be at a higher interest rate.  We searched for months on ebay, and other on line car options.  I didn't want a GMC or Ford.  We have been there and didn't want another one that looked like the others.  The NV is a great alternative but there are very few on the market.  I hate white but again we searched and searched and didn't want to put off the purchase that we needed to make.  Maybe we will paint, wrap or dip it later.  For now we have a safe car that holds the clan. Again we are so thankful that God has provided us the means to care for our family in this manner. 

Good Bye To The Old

When we moved to Texas - oh so long ago - we had seven kids and no regular car would work for us, not even a standard van.  We looked and looked not sure what to do  In the end we invested in a used 15 passenger van.  That bucket of bolts was a God-Send.  In it we brought home 4 more children from the hospital.  We traveled north, south and east to visit with family and friends in that car.  We have gone to swim meets, retreats, and Mass. This big old van allowed us to travel together and pick up friends along the way.  We moved people in it and we shared it when others needed it more than we did.  The van only had 117,000 miles on it but in every way it was falling apart.  I took this serious of pictures to remind me why we went back to making payments after having had that thing paid off for so many years.  Thank you God for allowing us such a luxury all these years.  We had good transportation for our growing family. 

 

 The springs in the drivers seat were broken, the passenger seat has not reclined in about 8 years.

 Drivers door handle came off and we fixed it but the fix only lasted a year or so.

 So many dents all over this bucket.  The door was hit at some point when we were out and about and no one left a note. 

 This sticker was hard to let go of.  Our favorite swim coach of the Cudas from years ago called all the kids by Pooker's name.  They were all known as little Pookers.  The kids were most upset to see this sticker go.  We have had the sticker almost as long as we had the car.

 I love that our homeschool group created these stickers a year ago. 

 The seats were messy, stained and the backs were torn to shreds on one seat.  The back of the passenger seat had a pocket that was half torn off.

 The glove box broke off about six months ago.  The cigarette lighter spots were torn out with only one working outlet left to charge a phone.

 The front license plate block has been hanging on for years.  We would fix it but the fixes never held for more than a few months at a time.

 Driving down the highway on the way to a friends house part of the car blew off and smashed behind us.  I was able to grab part of it so we didn't cause a wreck but in the end a big piece was missing from the base of the window. The wipers were no longer protected. 

Finding a replacement was a nightmare.  We have searched on line for months and first started to look for a new car before we got pregnant with the twins.  (Postponed the looking for a few years because we needed all those seats for sure with twin little ones.)  Pooker now has purchased her own truck.  We have a car for dad, Goobers, Bear and Sugar.  What to buy . . .  

Pickle is 14!

Today we celebrated Pickle's 14th birthday.  He is growing into such a kind young man.  J loves to play football with him and I enjoy watching Dr. Who with him.  Pickle is a diverse young man who happens to be the middle child in our family.  Giving him that unique roll of being in both the younger and older kids.  He is loved by his family.  At Mass this morning Father  Matthew had me in tears during the prayers of the faithful, "We offer God our thanksgiving for OUR Dillon who serves Mass for us so often.  We ask that God keeps him close and helps him find his vocation."

CCM Co-Op Week 6

 Mass starts our co-op and Pickle loves to serve with two sisters from the V family.

 We pledge to the flag of the United States of America and then to the Texas Flag.

 We then are taught a bit about our faith from one co-op family each week.  This week was the W family.  They taught us about the Nicene Creed. 

 Today was special for Pickle as it was his birthday.

 Princess loves getting her hands on a baby to hold. 

 We are not a large group but we do have a good time.  The other family was sick again so I got 4 groups for History and Geography.  Good thing I like the subjects.

Here the group is singing to Pickle but he is hiding behind his friends.