New blog address

For those of you that i don't have email for, i've started a new blog because i couldn't receive comments on this one, and it had some funky stuff going on with it. so you can now view at

steffam5.blogspot.com

thanks so much and sorry to be a pain, but i want to hear from you!

Scary raccoons!

For those of you who don't know, we have a very small poodle named Pepper. We recently moved out into a small town with lots of country around it, with lots of wildlife. Ok, not lots, but the worst kind. Raccoons. My first run in with them was when I was living in Oakland,CA with my aunt and uncle and my room was the basement. The only way to get to my room was outside, down some steps, past the decking. It was very spooky going down there and night and I did not like that it was the only way to get there. One night I'm heading down and I hear some awful hissing sound. I turn around and there are like 4 raccoons hiding under the deck staring and hissing at me. It scared the living daylights out of me because I thought I was going to get eaten by a bunch or rabid creatures, and sliced to bits with their claws. So ever since that time, I have not been fond of those beasts.
So we let Pepper out at night to go to the bathroom before she gets in her kennel and we have a lot of yard that is overgrown with blackberry bushes and other such things, and we know that lots of feral cats live in the bushes, and now we know raccoons do to. The first encounter happened when I was mad at her for pooping in the house. I put her outside with the light on and forgot to check on her. Adam comes along and turns the light on, not knowing she is out there. He gets in the shower and as he is getting out, he can hear through the bathroom window the dog screaming and comes out buck naked yelling "something is getting your dog!" I jump up and he followed me and we both go out back, and I see what looks to be a large cat chasing Pepper into the shadows. She is screaming the most horrific dog scream and as they come back towards my voice as I'm calling her, I see it is a large raccoon that is making grunting noises. I freaked and tried to jump up onto the deck and it's wet so I slip, and after that the raccoon runs for the bushes and Pepper goes in her kennel for safety. It was so scary. I thought she had been torn to shreds and luckily she was faster than that coon or she would have been a midnight snack. That was a month or so ago, and now we go out with her and watch her in the light.
Well, she's kinda a dork, and whenever we let her out, she always runs to the same corner barking her head off likes she's some pitbull or something. The other night I'm getting the girls ready for bed and i put Pepper out with the light on and my sliding door cracked so I can hear her. She goes straight for her spot, and suddenly her barking turns to terror and the coon is back at it again. This time I'm right there and run to the door to call for her, thinking she'll come and the beast will high tail it at the sound of my voice. But as Pepper is coming towards me to get into the house, the coon is right on her tail and I have to close the door or I'll have a raccoon in my house, which is not an option. I felt bad because it closed right when Pepper got to the door and so the raccoon was right there on her as she darts away. It made me sad. I opened it back up and called for her and the coon finally headed away for the bushes as I throw my hummingbird feeder at it to get it moving faster. Pepper comes in and goes into her kennel again to settle down. My heart's a beatin and the girls are in hysterics. They were both crying for Dad, and he wasn't there at the moment and so I had to try my best to settle them down, and they were crying in bed for a long time until Adam got home and I sent him in to settle his girls down. And now they are terrified of going out at night and when Pepper has to go out. Luckily she avoided being eaten or hurt once again. We put out a live animal trap to catch it, but dorky Pepper got caught in it because she wanted to eat the bait, so we are still waiting to catch that pest.

What can ya do?

So I prepared long and hard to choose the right outfits for the girls this year, do their hair really nice, go over smiling and smiling with them. Yes, I am slightly neurotic. I was even there at the time they were getting their pictures done because I was volunteering in the health screening area. I went over and smoothed their hair, went over smiling somemore, and this is what the pictures turned out like. Am I just being a mean mom?

Emma's head is so cockeyed it looks like it might fall off, and she doesn't seem to look happy about that.
Natalie looks like she is about ready to cry, or already was crying. And the way her arms are folded aren't helping the situation. I give up. Luckily Natalie's are just preschool pictures so she has next year to redeem herself. Maybe she will know what "smile" means then. Ok, now I am being just plain mean, but pictures cost a lot and I'm a little annoyed that this is what happens when you only get one shot to make a first impression. The picture people should take two shots at least. Ok, I'm done griping.

All about Garrett

I'm doing this post to see if my comment form comes up, because what is the point in posting if no one can comment?

Something funny, or not so funny, happened recently. The stove in our new house features the knobs on the front of it, not at the back. So they are at kid level unfortunately. And me, being not so bright, just scolded him everytime he would turn on the burners, instead of me thinking of taking off the knobs. And now I know what you are thinking and you would be right! Well, I was being especially lazy this one night, while Adam was in the garage doing homework, and I was laying on the couch watching the girls play the wii. Garrett had been in and out of the kitchen playing with various kitchen utensils so I wasn't keeping a close eye. BAD MOM! Next thing I know, Natalie looks into the kitchen and she says "Mom, fire". Now, those of you who don't know my girls, don't know that they are terrified of the stove. Especially Emma. So when they say it's on "fire" that normally means the burner is red hot, or something is boiling over. Not this time. I go into the kitchen and there is a straight-up fire on top of the stove and the counter top. I freaked and started getting water from the sink and pouring it all over. The fire alarm was going off about this time. Adam comes in and is like "What the H&#^!" The girls run outside because they "know what to do about fires"-says Natalie. I could hear them talking to each other outside and it cracked me up. It was pretty commical now that I look back on it. And luckily not a lot of damage was done. Just the girls terrified yet again and a little burn mark on the counter. Now the knobs are off.

Also, Garrett went in for a vcgu-a test to check for kidney reflux. He was born with it in both kidneys and so has been on an antibiotic everyday since he was about 6 mths old. I hadn't been giving him it because I thought all was good, since nobody ever contacts us about his tests and what to do or how things look. It is a very yucky test where they strap him in a papoose type thing and insert a catheter. Poor baby. Of course he screamed on that one. Turns out he still has it in the rt one, and the left looked healed. So I guess I continue the meds. Which makes me sad because I don't want him to build a resistance to antibiotics and they don't work on something more serious. But he is good, and no problems...but now we have to go in and go over the test results and they made it sound like it is kind of more serious.

He has turned into the spawn of satan! He was sick with a pretty high fever for 4 days and that was his only symptom. And he was still a happy boy, so I wasn't concerned. But working in a medical office, I know when it's time to be seen and so I finally took him in and it looked like he might have strep. It was negative, but maybe his throat still hurt. The next day, his fever was gone but he was the crabbiest little boy ever! He wouldn't sleep at night, and is constantly screaming at the top of his lungs if he gets mad. I am so frustrated! Welcome to the terrible twos, for the 3rd time!
I am happy to announce that he is now back to his happy, smiley self. I guess I just needed to have patience and realize he was still not feeling well.

Finally getting around to the first day of school post. We moved so Emma had to transfer to a new school. I was pretty upset about moving because I loved her old school and she had good friends there, but I don't worry about her because she doesn't struggle with making friends. So now she goes to Coburg Elementary. There is one class in each of the grades, I believe. Her class only has 15 kids in it too. This was the school Adam went to as a kid so that's kinda neat. It is out in the country with farm fields around it. And it is right next to the fire station. The coolest thing about it is that the offer a bus route, so she catches the bus everyday before and after school. She was so excited. That had been her dream, to ride the bus. And I gotta admit, it's pretty great to just watch her walk down and not have to get us all ready to go. She has been kind of struggling, but i'm sure with the move and whole new school, it might just take some time for her to find her niche.



Don't they look like twins? Natalie is in the pink shirt.
Natalie gets to attend a preschool at the Elementary school which is awesome. Before we moved I was stressing about where to get her into preschool because I felt like she needed to go, and every option was so expensive and inconvenient, especially with Adam as a full time student. When we knew we were moving out here, my mo-in-law had gotten my niece into the program and signed Natalie up for me which was great because I had no clue about it. So Natalie and Kyla get to go together and they love that. It is great for Marcia and I too, because we can help each other out. The school is 3 days a week, tues,thurs,and fridays from 8:30am to 11:50am and it is only 75 bucks a month. I was so happy! It is a co-op so you have to help out a lot, but I don't care. I like to do that anyway. I also watch Kyla two days a while Marcia is in school, and in return she watches Garrett for me when I need to volunteer and she is teaching Emma piano. I was worried about the cost for that because I really wanted to get her into lessons, and now I don't have to worry.
It truly was a blessing how we ended up out here. If we had sold our house sooner, this house wouldn't have been available. It is owned by a friend of ours who is willing to help us out on rent, if we help out around the house. Adam will be doing some remodeling and we will get reduced rent so it is a win win for everyone. Plus, having the preschool and we are back in Adam's home ward, which we weren't too excited about because we loved our old ward and were going to miss our friends very much, but we have been greatly blessed and I can't deny the Lord's hand in it. It teaches me to have faith and patience, because things really do work out how they are supposed to.

The incredible, globe-trotting Stefaneks

This is going to be a looonnnng post but I need to get caught up. We had a pretty great summer this year. We moved for the second time this summer into a more permanent place-like for a couple years (maybe). Good grief, will we ever be settled permanently? Anyhoo, we now live in Coburg which is a cute, quaint little town on the outskirts of Eugene and we love it out here. It's farming community, so it is small and quiet. I was so tired of living in the middle of Springfield. So nice to not be worried about the drunk walking down the street, and all the scary people around. I feel bad for the folks that bought our house. We are happy here so far and things are great. With the money from our house, we bought the kids a trampoline which rocks. Don't know why it took us so long. They love it and I love it cause they are getting exercise too. We are renting now, but we have a big back yard (overgrown with blackberries) and once we clear that out, we have a chicken coop that i might get chickens. Don't know much about that but we'd get eggs, so that's good, right? There is also a playhouse that was back here and a deck on the back. Down the street are some kids that my kids go to school with and we have befriended that family so that is really cool. So that is a little about our current situation.
We got to go on a family vacation this summer to San Fran California area. We stayed in a little town called Clayton and I loved it! Except for the brown and dry everywhere (no offense Rob or Lisa) It was a very cool place to stay. We stayed at my aunt's boyfriend Rob's house. He has a really cool house out in the country and a little ranch area where they keep their horses. I loved it there. It was so restful. Rob and Lisa kept asking what we wanted to do, like go into the city, and we were just content to stay at his house and relax and rejuvenate. They also had gotten some gifts for us that we opened the next morning after we got there. To my HUGE surprise, Rob bought us a Wii. I couldn't believe it. That was the coolest since I am such a video game nerd now.
Emma got up bright and early every morning to help with the horses. I knew that would be the highlight of her vacation. So Rob would go out with them and do stuff outside and keep the girls busy so Adam and I would get to sleep in. That rocked!
We stayed in Clayton for about 3 days and got to swim at the Horse club pool. It was a little scary because the kid's didn't have life vests and they wanted to just go. The next day Adam and I went to Kmart and got them vests and they used them in Rob's neighbors pool which was perfect. The neighbor is his best friend and they invited us over for swimming and bbq. It was so yummy. I think they loved us because they had a little girl our girls age and she never has friends to play with.
The best part of the vacation for me was when Lisa had a masseuse come out to the house and she let Adam and I get in home massages for an hour each. It was AWESOME! After mine, i went and laid down and took a nap. I said to Lisa "what kind of alternate universe have I stepped into?" She laughed and said "the Rob and Lisa one." No kidding. I used to live with her for awhile before I got married and it always felt like a fantasy life to me the things we got to do.
We also went into the little town of Clayton and they had a cool park in the middle and it is soooo cute! It looks like a little old western town, but newer. I was eating it up. I want to go back again soon!
After staying in Clayton, we traveled down to Santa Cruz to go to the boardwalk and so we stayed there a night. The weather was perfect so it wasn't too bad walking around there. The girls go to go on a lot of rides and I had to go with them. Adam wasn't feeling very well.

Their favorite part was the beach. It was so pretty. The played in the water and got all sandy. It was really cold so I don't know how they enjoyed it. Kids are warmer blooded or something.
Daddy buried Garrett in the sand cause the kid was everywhere. It was pretty annoying. And since he wasn't feeling good, I was the one to constantly be chasing him. It was great that we got to do that though. The drive was pretty long from Clayton to Santa Cruz, but I'm glad we did it.
This was us the next day on the pier before we got ready to head back home. We got dressed up and went to see my aunt at her client's property so she could do family pictures for us. She was already going to be there doing pictures for another girl. They turned out great and I can't wait to post them. It was fun to be outside in the country for pictures. The kids were having a hard time of course.
I love this picture of Garrett looking up at the Boardwalk. His little tiny body compared to the roller coaster. He looks like he is in awe of it.
This is my aunt Lisa and cousin Chelsea holding birthday cupcakes because we took the trip originally as a gift from Adam for my 30th birthday. We just did it a little late. So it was cute of them to celebrate it when we got there. Our trip was the middle of August.

The girl's favorite part of the trip were the horses. My aunt's horse Pete was out of commission because he was having some problems with pain and bucking her off, so we stayed away from him. Emma was scared at first because she thought she was going to get bucked off, but we talked to her about it (we had been to the rodeo so she was all spooked) and she finally got on. The girls got used to them by feeding them and petting them first, and Rob was really great about teaching them ways with the horse. Emma got much more confident and started riding. She went on a pretty long trail ride with Rob one morning, where they saw a couple coyotes. Pretty cool. The day we left, she got to ride again and actually rode by herself and gave the horse commands. Rob was very impressed and said she was a natural. I need to find her somewhere to take some lessons out here. Natalie let Rob lead her around on cowboy which is a HUGE deal for her. Considering she is deathly afraid of any large animal or mascot. Adam and I would love to go to Disney Land at some point but instead of being the happiest place on earth, it would be hell on earth for Natalie. So we are waiting on that one. I was very proud of her riding. It shows big strides.

So that was our vacation. The driving was long and a little tough with kids, but we would do it again. Those of you in Utah, look out cause we will probably be coming your way next summer. We haven't visited in awhile and it would make a fun trip. So that was the highlight of our summer and it's nice to be getting into fall, although we are tons busier now because of school, but life goes on.

Stay tuned...

We have just moved, yet again, and so i have no internet until next week. I am writing this post at work, which is where I do most of my web surfing anyway(shh, don't tell my boss.) so anyways, as soon as we are hooked up, i will hook everyone up with the latest on us! stay tuned!