What Has Brian Been Doing?

I haven't posted about this until now because it's been a secret all year. Last winter I started designing wooden trains to give to my kids, my nephews, and Kathy.  During the winter I looked at many pictures of wooden toy trains online. The tricky part, was to build interlocking cars.  I came up with a design for that and built 6 cars.  I had Joel and Rachel play with the cars (which were just flat bed cars) and found out a very important thing. 2 years olds try to push trains from the rear!  So I realized that I needed to make pull toys.  I tied a string to the front and wa-la! Joel could pull them around the house. I also figured out that it takes a long time to build each car so I decided that 3 cars per train would be adequate.  I started working on the engine and put some scrap pieces on one of the cars and brought it into work.  I got lots of opinions about what I could do so I made some adjustments and the following Monday I brought in an improved design. I think I talked to the people at work for 2 o3 different times before I settled on a design. I think it was April by then.  One of the trickiest parts was the smaller dome shaped piece right next to the smoke stack. I ended up needing to build a router table in order to get that done, and building the router table was a project in its self!  I finally got most everything cut out by summer time but found that sanding took a long time.  Anyway, I eventually got them all done and delivered. Here are some pictures of them.

The cargo cars turned out fairly nice. It took quite a while to cut all those rabbits, but the joints were nice and strong.

I really liked how the passenger cars turned out.  My first try on their design was simple, but I liked it so much I didn't try anything fancier.

After I had most of the trains built I found out that my nephew Titus does not play with vehicles much.  So I bought a scroll saw, which I had been wanting for a long time, and cut out animals to go in his train set.

I never had all 22 cars I built assembled at the same time, but I did get four trains together and strung them together for a gigantic train!

Bjorks go to the Snow!

Today we went to the snow and it was lots of fun. We go to a park right by Boreal and we can just walk along in the woods and sled where ever there is a gentle hill.  This time, the snow was a lot firmer everywhere and everyone could walk around easily so it was really nice.

We found a nice gentle hill to sled down.

 

Rachel was a pro and could do it all by herself.

Joel liked being able to walk around by himself in the snow.

That's our snow man. No one else was building them because the snow would not stick, but I made a good one anyway.

The trick to getting the snow balls was to carve them out of existing packed snow.  It took a long time but I succeeded!

New Rooms for the Kids!

Rebekah and I got to go on a date yesterday. We went out to lunch, and we went shopping. We bought Joel his very own big boy bed with a 10 year warranty so it should last a good long time.  I didn't want to take apart the crib so I suggested that we move the kids around instead.

Rachel is now in the front bedroom upstairs and she sure seems to like it.  It's got three windows in it and today Rebekah put up some new wall stickers.

Joel is now in Rachel's old room with his new big boy bed. He sure does like sleeping in it!   On it you can notice the nice new Cars quilt that Grandma made him for Christmas.  Joel's room also got some neat construction wall stickers.

Kindergaten...Its Here!

Today was Rachel's first day of kindergarten.  I can't believe she old enough for kindergarten.  She has been ready to start since her curriculum arrived a couple of weeks ago.  We made the decision last year to homeschool her.  I had toyed around with the decision probably since she was born.  I liked the idea of homeschooling and over the last few years it seemed more and more like the best option for our family.  We are going through our local charter school because they offer us accountability and assistance from a credentialed teacher that we meet with each month.  She will make sure we are meeting state standards and are on track.  It is important to me that Rachel stay on track with the state standards and what her public school peers are doing so that should homeschooling no longer be the best fit she can easily transition into a public school classroom.  Well I should wrap this up and get back to my kids.  Break time is almost over. 

Another Loss

I have not blogged in quite a while.  I did not have to words to express what we have gone through over the last several months.  Two miscarriages…nothing prepared me for that.  I have two healthy kids and experienced two easy pregnancies, so I just assumed number 3 would be smooth sailing as well. 

 

Lets backtrack a little.  We lost our first little one back in January just 1 week after we learned we were expecting.  Physically it was a tough recovery, but we moved forward and made plans to try again.  I was terrified to try again, but God kept telling me to let the fear go and trust him.

 

In April we learned we were expecting again.  It was scary and exciting all at the same time.  At what should have been around 8 weeks we heard our little ones heart beat, but he only measured 5 ½ weeks in size.  Okay, deep breath, no reason to panic because the heart beat was strong.  Sadly, our little one joined his sibling in heaven a few weeks later.  I will never forget the silence in the room from the ultrasound and the doctor, ironically the same doctor who diagnosed my earlier miscarriage.  Before she could open her mouth to deliver the terrible news I knew what was coming.  Our baby was gone. 

 

I ended up having two d&c’s.  Each one was tough both physically and emotionally.  It was hard to say goodbye to my little one.  I knew our baby was gone and his soul was in heaven with a new body with his heavenly father.  What was left inside me was an empty broken shell, but my heart felt like it was being ripped in two as that last little bit if him was taken from me.

 

So here is where I sit a month after this nightmare started.  Grieving, healing, and slowing starting to live again.  I am slowly regaining my energy.  I am giving my grief to God, walking through it with him, and trying not wallow in it.  Right now I can’t see anything good in this, but I know God will use this experience.

 

Most people have been supportive and showered us with love.  I never felt alone through this whole process.  There are some things that I have learned not to say to a woman who has experienced a miscarriage.  1. Don’t ask why.  2. Don’t ask when she will try again.  Right now I can’t even think about trying again.  The thought fills me with anxiety.  If we do get pregnant again I can’t see how it will be a joy filled experience.  I think I will be afraid to dream and will be waiting for everything to come crashing down again.  3. Don’t get into a theological discussion about when the baby gets a soul.  I never ever want to question that my baby is not in Heaven and that we may not meet some day.  Don’t take that hope from me.  Right now that is the only positive thing I have to cling to. 4.  Be sensitive about sharing about your pregnancy or plans to conceive.  I can be happy for you and still be sad for me.  It is hard for me to hear when the rug has just been ripped out from under me, and I might need a few moments to process that you are blessed to experience what I have just lost.  I have learned that really all that needs to be said is, “I’m sorry,” and sit with me in my grief.  Yes, it is uncomfortable, but it is part of doing life with others and showing God’s love to those around us.  We are told to grieve with those who grieve and rejoice with those who rejoice.  Thank you to those of you who have done that for me.  Those who hugged me when I cried, brought me food, reminded me to take time for me and to grieve, and asked how I was doing.  You are a blessing!

Bigger Pictures Now?

The size limits on the blog got larger so I've adjusted Lightroom to upload larger files. I'm testing it out with this nice picture of Joel.

Ok, so now the normal picture is smaller, but you can click on it to get a really large picture.  So do we like it the new way or the old way better?

Pergola is Standing!

Rebekah wanted a shade structure in the backyard and the ones at Home Depot and Lowe's were a lot of money, so we decided that I could just buy the lumber, cut it, and build one myself.  The top 2 X 2s are just sitting on top an still need to be screwed down.  But the good news is that I got the whole thing standing this weekend and all of the lumber is now out of my garage!!!  We plan to paint it white at the end of the summer after the sap comes out, and we will buy a canvas tarp to put over the top to provide actual shade.

Things Are Growing!

Over the weekend Rachel and Joel spent a lot of time in our backyard. As you can see, our plants are growing like crazy. Especially the pumpkins!  Rachel enjoys looking at them to see how much they are growing, and Joel likes going around in the backyard in his Cozy Coupe.

 Joel is a good driver and stays on the pavement!

 These Strawberries are all nice and happy.

 The strawberries haven't quite taken off yet but I think once we get the watering proportions right then these will take off too.

Rachel enjoys her dirt area and will play there often.

Table Saw Router Table Insert

Over the past several weeks I have been planning to build myself an insert for my table saw to act as a router table.  It took a long time because I needed to buy some of the right tools to do it, and the nuts, bolts, and washers to mount it. As it turns out, some of the were a little difficult to find for an inexpensive price.  Yesterday I finished and today I stared making the fence attachment. I should be able to come up with a better fence solution in the future, but for now, I've got something that works.

Another Project. Check!

Last year our tomatoes grew really really well. So well in fact that when the wind blew in late fall, the tomato cages got blown over.  So this year I have created something that will hopefully give stability to the tomato cages so they can't get blown over. Here it is:

Where Have we Been?

For Easter we went up to Humboldt to see Rebekah's parents. Here are a few fun pictures. Apparently I was so busy resting, and playing with the kids, that I didn't take all that many pictures.  Oops.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To celebrate Rebekah made cookies and green frosting. Tonight we frosted the cookies.  And now for what you really want to see. Pictures of the kids:

Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14th, which makes the date 3-14 which is the start of the number pi. 3.141592654...

To celebrate you all get a picture of Joel eating his Frosted Mini Wheats. Like father like son!

Old School Legos Revived!

Over the past few months Joel and Rachel have become more interested in Legos. I even got down my 2 large bins of Legos and we would occasionally play with them.  In January I picked out four sets from my youth and put them together. It took a LONG time to search for all of the pieces.

 

1990: This set was my favorite Lego set from when I was a kid. It was still assembled when I finally went through and disassembled all of my Legos when we moved away from Mesa Oak.

1989: This set was cool when I was a kid but I don't think it was built for all that long before it hit the big bin of parts.  I was able to find all but one of the pieces for this set.

1987: Amazingly enough, I was able to find all of the parts required to build this. This is the one I like to let Joel hold because it doesn't break quite as easy as the rest.

1986: Holly cow! I remember getting this set for Christmas at Grammy's house all those years ago. I was only 7 years old.  This set has lights and sound generated by a battery pack. I put in a 9V battery and it still worked!  Pretty good for a set almost 30 years old.