EARTH HOUR!!!

Today there is an earth hour. Do your part!

"March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.
Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. View cities involved around the world.
We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.
What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.
Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.
One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!"

Easter weekend

I love to read everyones stories about their easters and the fun things they did. Mine on the other hand was uneventful but awesome at the same time ( thanks to my wonderful thoughtful husband). Justin's Club team had a tournament this weekend so he left to go coach on thursday. It was in Spokane Wa. So I was left alone for easter weekend. I was not looking forward to it for many reasons, First I hate being alone on holidays, second I don't have a lot of friends here so there is not much to do, third our TV was being fixed so I couldn't even occupy myself with mindless entertainment. I read two books this weekend cleaned my clean house and enjoyed the first warm day since september. The highlight of the weekend was when on sunday morning I get a call from Justin, he tells me something about the easter bunny talking to him and leaving something in the bedroom closet. I go to look and there it is my easter basket that was thoughtfully planted ahead of time by my SWEET husband. It wasn't really a basket though it was a beautiful purse and my favorite candy. I was feeling so sad before that we were apart for the holiday but that made everything better.

Little side note most of you know Justin and I have a cute cat that is the center of our lives, well this weekend Justin was gone and I was left to take care of him. Justin left on Thursday and I forgot to feed the entire weekend monday was the first day that i fed him since justin had left. I feel terrible and i know why he would not leave me alone. (I just thought that he really loved me) Also this is why parenting is so scary to me I can barely handle a cat.

Mothers and Autism

With my job I get to witness some pretty amazing and humbling things everyday. Here is one that I thought was especially touching. This is teacher appreciation week so on Monday some of the kids mom's came to run the class in the morning while we went to breakfast. Before they got there I was getting C. off the bus and he was off to a bad start. He came off the bus screaming at the top of his lungs and thrashing his backpack around. (C is a boy that is as tall as me and SOLID. so when he has melt downs we all brace ourselves for the impact.) So we start walking back to class with him screaming trying to tear things off the wall, me in best efforts trying to comfort him. We get to class he throws his backpack and a student tears our thank you poster off the wall. At this point all I can think is "not today C not today." So I am following him around the room keeping him from hurting another student and destroying the room. That is when his mom walks in the room and when he sees her everything changes, the best way I can describe it is, at that moment the world was right again for him. His mom was here and he had nothing to worry about anymore she would make everything better. He just got the biggest smile and his whole countenance changed. He ran to her like you see in the cheesy love movies but not cheesy at all. He gave her the biggest hug and was just the happiest boy in the world because his mom was here. I felt a little dumb I actually started to cry there in class. He may not have been able to tell us why he was so mad or how we could help, but all he knew was he needed his mom to make things better.

People ask a lot when they hear I work with children with autism if it is hard because they don't show affection. From now on when I am asked that I will just refer to this story and let it speak for itself. These children may have a hard time expressing how they feel or understanding their feelings but they are capable of the same if not more than we are.

This just made me hope that when Justin I do start our family I can be the kind of mother that is the soft place for her children to fall. The person that makes the world right again for my children when it seems wrong. Since working with these kids my respect for mothers and what they do has grown so much. Especially the mothers of these wonderful children, they are raising spirits that are so pure they are ready to meet there savior at anytime. I feel so amazed that I get to spend a few hours a day with them. They have taught me and continue to teach me everyday. To all you mothers who read this I applaud you, what you are doing is amazing and special. I am not a mother but I just want to say that when it seems hard, and like it is something that you can't do just remember those children of yours love you with a love that only can be described as heavenly.

More pictures!!!!

I know two in one day is a lot for me but my parents wanted to see some pictures of the new place with furniture in it. And I thought that I would change the colors of my blog to welcome in spring. So here are the pictures...

Justin's two loves me and his new 72'' T.V. you have not watched sports until you have watched them on this. (He still loves me more fortunately:) and yes it is taller than me and I am 5'9 1/2

Here is the kitchen with some little touches. I love my integrated sink cleaning the counter tops is so easy now.



Our kitchen table ya it's table, pretty exciting.


Food storage as previously blogged about, it's a start.


The office, it is a little barren the futon is being used as living room furniture until our couches get delivered.

Here is where the magic happens, for those of you who have never seen MTV cribs that is what every celebrity says when they show their room. There is a ceiling fan but I cut it out oops

This is our new dresser we got it at IKEA which is my new favorite store. I love that you can be there all day and still not see everything. I love this dresser next to our couches this is my favorite purchase.

so there you have it and I promise this is going to be the last post about our new house.

GO! food storage

Justin and I are frequent watchers of the Glenn Beck show. He is a politically conservative radio host who also has a show on CNN. He is very right on about the state that our country is in, and very blunt about it. I Don't agree with everything he says but when he talks about how economically screwed up we are my ears perk up. The dollar being in a free fall on the world market, our debt is something that we no longer control but controls us, and our idea that borrowing more money from the Chinese to off set our horrible spending habits. (little side note while all this is going on and Hillary is still saying that universal health care will be free and better for us. Google patient stacking) Anyway I have been wondering for a long time what I can do as an individual to help solve the problems, aside from just getting out and voting. I am at a loss. I use reusable grocery bags, live within a budget, buy as many American produced products as I can (there are not a whole lot of them), I have energy efficient appliances, all that I can, I do.

Here comes my point, in recent discussions with my wise husband we have decided that the only thing we can do is continue doing the things that we are, look for more ways to help, and BE PREPARED! We have gone this far in our marriage with just the essentials to live for a few days, but with all the scary stuff that is going on that is not good enough. We have decided to take the advice of our church leaders and start a one year supply of food and water. I know this sounds a little dooms dayish to most but natural disasters are happening in places they shouldn't more regularly than they should. I was surprised how easy it was to get started, we made a list of things that we normally eat and would be easy to make with a camp stove or over a fire in case power and gas were out. We went to the grocery store and just bought a few or more of everything that we listed, canned veggies, canned fruits, canned meats (I know sounds gross) peanut butter, jam in a jar, soups, cup a soups. Basically anything that would not have to be rotated that often. So now when we go grocery shopping we can get a couple more of everything and grow the stash over time. Bottled water is not that expensive, so we just get an extra case every time when we go to the store. Then we got our flour sugar and wheat in big air tight buckets and two 55 gallon water barrels. I am not trying to say that everyone should go out tomorrow and do this, but if you can it would probably be a good idea. The peace of mind that it brings knowing that heaven forbid if something happened we would be ready and able to take care of our families. Most literature on the subject suggests to start with getting a three to five month supply of all your canned goods that you normally eat oh and candy they say that in times of crises it is nice to have small luxuries. Then after you get the three to five months then start on your freeze dried and dehydrated foods for your year supply. These usually have a 25 year shelf life. WATER is the most important thing! store as much water as possible. I know I probably seem crazy but this is something that I am getting passionate about and I want to share what I am learning with everyone I know and love because in times of crises I want to know that the people I love are taken care of.