A Walk Down Memory Lane

Wow, I'm terrible at this blog thing. I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to log in. I was sure I wouldn't remember my password but alas, I remembered.
I just had a wonderful time reminiscing while reading my past posts. It was fun being reminded of activities the kids were involved in and things we did as a family.

Facebook and Instagram have been so much easier to post to, and these pictures have most likely already been posted there when the events happened. Oh Well!

Since my last post in Aug 2014, a lot has happened. Here are just a few highlights; Kaelyn started Kindergarten, we spent Christmas in Utah and surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland and California Adventure, took the little ones to Legoland, Shelby graduated from High School,  took a family vacation to Hawaii (minus Samuel & Cameron), Cameron got engaged, had all the kids home for Christmas and Shelby started her Freshman yr. at BYU-I.

So there you have it, I'm caught up through January. Maybe I'll post about Cameron's wedding in April. Don't hold your breath.

Highlights of our Summer

It's hard to believe that the kids have been back in school for a week now.  Where did our summer go?
I'd like to think we had a fun summer, although we didn't go on any family vacations we did have fun spending time with each other.

We enjoyed a week at Fort Benito's Cub Scout Day Camp. This was Kendall's 2nd yr. and I volunteered as the Athletics leader, Shelby volunteered in the kiddie corral and Kaelyn went along as a kiddie corral attendee.  It was a long and busy week, but very fun! The highlight was the family picnic at the end of the week when all of the different dens shared skits or songs.

Kendall turned 9! He is a huge Lego fan and has also started getting into Pokemon. I made him a Lego table but I have decided that it is too small and he needs a bigger one, so maybe for Christmas.

Next up in our Summer of fun, was our boating trip with friends on the 4th of July.

Shelby goes to EFY

This year Shelby went to EFY in Santa Barbra. She drove down with friends and they had a great time! It was a fun road trip for these 4. I love that she has such wonderful friends! She was even able to see Randi, who was in a different age group this year.

Gotta love Free Slurpee day!

We did a lot of Swimming!

Both Kendall and Kaelyn had swim lessons this summer, so we made sure to do a lot of swimming!

We even hit the Beach!

Shelby's last year of Girl's Camp has come and gone. I was very sad that I never had the chance to go to camp with Shelby. But I did get to drive up to Camp Ritchie on the last day to drive the girls home.

Shelby celebrated her 17th birthday at camp this year. The Cookies were kind enough to bake her a cake to help her celebrate!

A week later we celebrated Shelby's birthday at the beach with a bon-fire. The kids roasted hot dogs and made S'mores.

So, there you have it our Summer of fun has come to and end. Now we are back to schedules, homework and stricter bedtimes, but our fun times will continue! I Love these people I call mine!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

Long Over Due Post

I wanted to be better at keeping up the blog, but I haven't done that. So here I go at another attempt to update the happenings of our family.

We have been back in our own (rented)home now for 8 months and it has been great! We are so thankful for the jobs that James and I have so that we are able to be where we are now.  Since my last post, our Bankruptcy was finalized. and now we are working on building back our credit.

Samuel was able to come home from BYU for the Christmas break and it was just wonderful having us all together. We dipped chocolates, went to the movies, played at the beach and were even able to have a real family photo taken.

 

Now that we are in our own place it has been nice being able to do the daycare gig in my own place. I am way more productive at home, so my house isn't being neglected. Kendall is able to ride his bike to school and I am always here when he gets home. As for Kaelyn, she loves having kids to play with every day!

 

 

Kendall earned his Wolf badge in March and enjoyed a trip to the police station with his den.

Shelby has been very busy with school. She is in her junior year and enjoys it very much. She is on the improv team, the drama club and just finished performing in the school play: Bye Bye Birdie. She also had a lot of fun this past weekend at Mormon Prom.  She is growing into such a Beautiful young woman and we Love her tons.  She isn't driving yet, but she has been cleared by her Neurologist to get her license. So, when she gets a minute she will begin the process.

 

This Summer it will have been four years since our last family vacation (minus Samuel he was on his mission or away at school). For Spring Break we took a road trip. We drove to Idaho to take Cameron back to BYU-I.  It was such a fun vacation. We were able to play in snow, see cousins, aunts and uncles from the Wright side of the family, go fishing, see waterfalls, swim and see 5 Temples. We had such a great time! Long drive but so much fun!

 

Well, I guess I'm all caught up now.  I have said it before and I will say it again, I will try to be better at posting but I am not making any promises :) It seems to be easier for me to just do quick posts to Facebook but this blog is more of a journal so I should be better at posting here. Especially since the kids are getting older and growing up so fast. I need to try to document for myself so that I can remember the fun times and the tough times that we have shared as a family.

New Beginnings!

Four years ago we sold our home and moved into a rental. With the money from the house James started a solar company with 2 others only to have the company taken away from him in a lawsuit the following Spring.  The last of our money was spent on lawyer fees to defend us and to have the lawsuit finally settled. But the hurt and anger are still there. No matter how much I have tried to forgive and forget, it hurts that one of the parties involved hasn't acknowledged any wrong doing.

Anyway, with bills to pay, a son on a mission in Paraguay and 4 children still at home to support, it was getting difficult to make ends meet. James was taking any and every consulting job that he could and still worked on other new company ideas, but without a steady paycheck money was very tight. We had already cancelled gym memberships and satellite tv, we didn't go out to movies or dinner, vacations were out as well.  We were fortunate to have wonderful family and church family that helped pay for Samuel's mission.

Eventually we lost our health insurance, which was scary because Shelby is an Epileptic and takes medicine daily to keep her seizure free.  Right about the time that her last refill was filled I was able to sign the kids up for health insurance with Healthy Families.

In 2011 we were told  by our landlord he was selling the house, we had to move.  Without a steady paycheck and our credit score now suffering because of late payments we were concerned if we would be able to find and be approved for another place to rent. We found another house and were approved just days before we had to be out of the other house.  A month after we moved in, Samuel returned from his mission.

The plan was for Samuel to return to BYU in the Fall. Well, plans change.  He got a job and differed his enrollment until Winter semester.  It ended up being a blessing having him home.  He was a great support to Cameron when he ended up coming home after only a month from his mission.

Meanwhile, James continued to look for a real job, while also pursuing other business ventures.  We were struggling financially still and had to rely on others for help.  We discussed filing for bankruptcy with our Priesthood leaders and family members, but always felt that we would have a job soon and we'd be able to make it on our own.  Plus we didn't want a bankruptcy to hurt our chances of getting a job or a home to rent. But it was always on our minds.

In April of 2012 our landlord called to tell us the owner would be moving back into the house and we had 30 days to be out. I was able to convince the landlord to let us stay at least until the kids got out of school in June. So, on my birthday we moved.  This time we sold a majority of our furniture and put the rest in storage and moved in with James' family in Hollister. Our plan was to be there only 3 months.  Again, plans change.

James was still applying for jobs. It was very frustrating when a recruiter would call him and love his resume, just to have the hiring people say he was overqualified. This happened time and time again.  Thankfully I was offered a job, and since it was for childcare in the family's home I could take Kaelyn with me and still be home for Kendall after school.

In January of this year, Samuel was able to finally go back to BYU and continue his education.  The job that he had here moved with him to Provo, so he is on his own and supporting himself.  I am so proud of him and thankful that he has this opportunity now. 

After applying to well over 200 jobs (just this yr alone), and taking a class to help boost his resume, James got a job in July with a consulting firm, working at Cisco.  We were so excited! Our plan of only living with family for 3 months actually turned into 15 months. We are eternally grateful to them for supporting us for so long. Labor Day weekend we were able to move into our own place.  We had hoped to go back to San Jose, but because of our poor credit we were turned down for the rentals we wanted and were nervous that we wouldn't be approved by anyone.  Then I found a house in Hollister and went and talked to the landlord in person and explained our situation. I guess she took pity on me, she approved us! We are so happy to finally be in a home of our own again.

With James now employed fulltime and our family settled in a new home, we decided we needed to go forward with the bankruptcy. So we went through the process to file chapter 7. Which included a 3+ hrs of an online bankruptcy class.  We went to court on Tuesday. Our debts have now been "discharged".

This was a very difficult decision for us to make. But in the end decided it was in the best interest of our family.  We strongly believe in paying our debts but in our case it wasn't working. We tried our best, we were on hardship programs with our creditors. But we couldn't keep borrowing from family and friends.

We are grateful to all of our family and friends who have helped our family throughout our difficulties.  We are grateful that we have this New Beginning!

Gizdich Ranch

Today Kaelyn and I went apple picking in Watsonville with friends. It was a fun little trip, for some yummy apples and strawberries.

Kaelyn loved picking the apples up off of the ground, but I kept reminding her just to pick the ones on the trees. Here she is with here small bucket of goods.

Yummy freshed pressed Apple juice

Riding the tractor

We had a fun time at the ranch and can't wait to go back!