Once again I have been bad about writing on my blog! Updates....we are pregnant with our 6th blessing! It is another girl! Alicia Jayne Vallejo is due October 19th. We are in Weatherford TX. We like it here alot! We have been so blessed...we have a great campground, hosts, and neighbors. Since we have been here since March, we have been able to establish roots. We have been blessed with some good friends here in Weatherford, the Hurds and some others in their church. I have found a GREAT organic grocery store and found a couple of people to buy fresh and chemical free meat from.

That leads me to my latest learning adventure....trying to feed my family as healthy food as possible. I am also trying to establish(or reestablish for me and Jamie) healthy eating habits. WOW! It is a tough but much needed change! It has taken a lot of prodding by God to get my attention on this one because I always thought we did ok before. But after watching Food Inc., asking alot of questions of a few well educated friends in this area and doing my own reading. I knew we were not heading down the path I wanted for our family. Unlike the popular diets and such, I am not looking at short term weight lose as a goal. I am looking at long term health benefits and establishing it as a habit(not a fad). For instance today I am working on my 1st batch of Kombucha Tea! It is full of natural probiotics and enzymes that Jamie needs is his digestive systems. We actually all need it but we only bought it for him because it was really expensive. But it is cheap to MAKE like most everything. I am also going to make croutons today too. Really I am making that only because I have bread that is about to go bad.

Well on to the fun stuff.... we just gotten back from vacation a couple of weeks ago. We went to San Antonio TX. Jamie's brother Jesse met us there. Jamie's cousin Rachel and her family were with us most of the trip too. Rachel lives just north of SA. We spent one day at Six Flags and 2 days at SeaWorld. We even made it down to the Riverwalk for dinner one night. Lots of walking, sun and swimming. We had a great time and have lots of memories. Thanks Jesse!

We went back to KS the 1st week of June, then we were at Weatherford for a day and a half. Then we went with Jamie to Houston for 5 days. He had to work there. We didn't pull the camper. We are not fans of Houston to say the least! The kids and I did go to Voddie Baucham's church and heard him preach. That was a nice worship time and the kids did a good job in the service. Then the day we were leaving we spent a few hours at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. It was AWESOME!

We have been to other neat places here, in the last 4 months too. We went to the US Treasurery Western Division in Ft Worth. It is 1 of 2 places in the US that make our currency. We took a great and FREE tour. We also went to a great Civil War Musuem in White Settlement. We really appreciated the perspective it came from. It told the story of the Civil War from the Texas view point which fought for the South. Not something you usually hear. We also went to a Creation Musuem just south of here. It was small but very interesting. We were given a pass to the Ft. Worth zoo so we have been there a few times. We also went to Austin for a few days with Jamie because he had meetings. The kids and I visited to capital. We all watched the bats come out one night from under a bridge. We had dinner with 2 of Jamie's aunts too. The kids and I met my friend Stasia at the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens one day for lunch. We need to go back this fall. We have been to play miniature golf twice and went bowling once. We are also regular visitors to the parks here in Weatherford. I took the kids to the Peach Festival yesterday here in Weatherford. It was about 60% craft show and 40% food booths. We rode the "shuttle" from the parking lot to the festival. Well the shuttle was a school bus. The kids first ride on a school bus. They were thrilled! Well not Luci. My mom has been here twice to visit. We even enjoyed the Ft. Worth rodeo with her. Jamie's parents have been here twice and Jesse is a regular visitor too.

Well that is about it for our big adventure for now. Jamie is going to apply for a job with another company so we are praying about that. We also have friends the Glinskis from KS that are coming down in about a week. We are looking forward to their visit. We are going back to KS the 1st week of August again. Thanks for the continued prays :)

Still in San Antonio

Wow! We have been so busy I have not written and I should have. Lets see on the 28th the kids and I went to the New Braunfels Railroad Museum. It was really neat! While we were there one of Jamie's trains came by. It was a long one. At the end of the train another engine was pushing it. Which means it was really heavy. Well that night I mentioned it to Jamie. He said that they were just up the tracks waiting on it. It was full of rock. For them to dump. He said it was 76 cars long! Way cool!

On Friday the kids and I met up with Cousin Rachel and Ashley. Rachel treated us to playing at the Jumpy Place. It is just what it sounds like. An indoor place with like 5-7 BIG blow ups. The kids had a blast!!

Saturday the 30th was Jamie's 34th birthday. He took a personal day so he could spend it with us. Well we went to check out Gruene TX. It is a historic old town. We really didn't know what it would be like. LOL!! Not for us. It was FULL of antique stores!! And bars! Well forget the FACT that we have 5 kids. BUT we also don't really care for antiques and we don't drink. But we did find a cute toy store. It had unique toys in it.

Then on Monday it was raining and cold(in the 40s). But that was the only day we thought we had to go into San Antonio. So we went to downtown SA. We usually love it. But not that day. We went to the Alamo(1st time). It was really neat! We talked to the kids about the culture of the time and why the 1st people came to TX. The film they showed was mostly on the battle. The kids really enjoyed it. Then we went to the Buckhorn Saloon. We would have checked that out BUT it was going to cost us $62 to get in!!! No thanks!! So then we headed out. I wanted to go see another misson San Jose(which is what the Alamo was to begin with). So we headed that way. I think we drove through some of the WORST parts of SA. So by the time we got there, Jamie said we are NOT getting out. LOL!! So we saw it from the car. It was beautiful and huge.

We had planned to leave on Wednesday. So Tuesday we were getting ready. We went over to Tom and Rachel's house to visit them all. And we did our laundry. We were there all day. Tom feed us again with his great cooking! The kids so enjoyed playing with Ashley. We got to visit with Tom, Rachel, Becky, and Elizabeth.

Well yesterday we had every intention of leaving but when we woke up it was pouring. So Jamie checked the weather again and it was showing a HUGE storm all the way up to Dallas. So we would have to drive up in it all the way. That is after we sucked in the slides that ofcourse would be soaked! So we decided we might as well stay until Friday which is suppose to be nice. So we had a good family day. The kids did school, took naps, and then we all went to Walmart. When we got back Jamie grilled out hamburgers(our picnic table in covered). They were delicious! Then we all played Uno. It brought back memories of my own childhood. We played it alot when I was a kid. We had fun. Then after the kids went to bed I put on a pot of coffee. Yes Jamie and I are old!! And we played Scrabble. Good time!! Why is simplicity so sweet?!

Well we are going to go and visit Aunt Becky and meet her boyfriend. We are hoping to head to Ft. Worth tomorrow.

Enjoying the weather

We have gotten back into the swing of things. We started back up with school. It is so nice to get back into a routine! The kids and I have been outside everyday after nap time. There is a little playground here. They have also been riding their bikes. We have been taking walks(the kids say that we are exploring) too.

Jamie has been working really hard on this gang. They work 10 hour days. He says that they work hard the whole time. He is at the front of the gang pulling spikes. Then everyday they go and dump rock. It is as physically demanding as it sounds! There is about 40 guys on the gang. And this isn't even considered a "big gang". His hands hurt and his body is sore. Who needs the gym! But of course Jamie makes the best of it. He embraces every chance he can to be a witness for Christ. Which starts with the way he lives and works.

Well today is laundry day....BIG job! I am sure glad I have so MANY helpers! I have to go and get quarters first. Then I will probably have about 5 or 6 loads of laundry. That is 5 days worth. We are suppose to be getting rain the next few days. So I better get done!

1st trip in 2010

Ok I have been very bad about writing. I hope and pray to be better! We have been at Jamie's parents' house since November. We enjoyed the holidays there and got our storage cleaned out. We sold most of the big things except the kids beds. We moved them into Grandpa and Grandma's house. Jamie was laid off for almost 2 mos! It was defiantly tough. But grew alot spiritually!! Jamie did not get unemployment. We sold our stuff, he did some handyman work for Bridget, and rode "extra" on the local gang for a week and a half. We got by. We also got a nice gift in the mail this month. God is good!

Well Jamie got a bid down in San Antonio TX. He made the first trip down by himself. Which was tough emotionally on everyone! Then we all left on January 22nd for our trip down. We left at 10AM. We got to Ft. Worth at 5:00PM. YUCK rush hour!! So we stopped and hung out at Cabela's for 2 hours. We left there at about 7:30PM. And we STILL hit rush hour! But we decided that we would boonedock at a Walmart in Austin. We got there at about 11:30PM. We were all EXHAUSTED! We didn't even unhook. We just popped out the slides and went to sleep. Well the kids and I did. Jamie stood guard, I guess. He said he only slept about 1and a half hours. There was even 4 other campers in the lot. The kids thought it was so crazy because we had them just sleep in their clothes! LOL!!

Well we got to New Braunfels at about 10Am on the 23rd. Well we checked 4 different campsites:

#1 Place-close to Jamie's work, ok price, no playground, no picnic tables, kids not allowed to ride their bikes.

#2 Place-close to Jamie's work, cheap "$20" a night(LOL the place I will never live down), SCARY location.

#3 Place-about 10-15 mins from Jamie's work, had a playground, BUT ONLY ALLOW 1 KID!! LOL! guess they didn't want us.

#4 Place-about 20 mins from Jamie's work, $50 more a week than #1 place, but they a playground, covered picnic tables, and welcomed all our kids.

So yes we chose #4!!! We got all set up and cleaned up. Then we went to Target to get a few things. After that we went to Jamie's cousin Rachel's house. I had never met her. But her mom Becky used to live with Jamie's parents but she lives with Rachel now. Super nice people!!

Yesterday was Jamie's 1st day back on this gang. He actually got off at 4:30!! I let the kids play with these cool markers that you can write on the windows. They got them for Christmas and had been looking forward to using them. We went out and had dinner at Mamacita's. Good stuff! We ate there 6 years ago when we were here on vacation. Well today the kids got back into their schoolwork. We got some light cleaning done, school done and all the kids had a nap today. Now we are going to go outside and explore. BTW it is in the 70s today!!!!!! Pretty normal for here! We plan to go into San Antonio next week when Jamie is off. I do need to go to Vision Forum on Friday since that is the only day that they are open. It will be hard to not over spend there!! We are all so glad to be back on the road again!