strike midnight

So Jake has a job now! I am so happy. We might be able to get our own place by Nov. Plus Jake was able to do some temp work a few weeks ago, so that will help with our bills for this month. He is probably starting work on Monday, one week from now. Once he starts work I am not really sure what I am going to do all day. I am putting off finding a part time job until we get our own place. Because I want to see where we are going to live, and look around there for a job. Since we are in the city, I am really hoping to get a job somewhere that I can walk to. Gas is so expensive! I have been really really tired lately. And I have been irritable, and impatient... bad Vanessa. So I have kind of been in a stinker mood for the past week or two. Still happy sometimes, but kind of just down and not wanting to do much with Jakes family. But I am better now, see :D Anyways, Jake and I have been so blessed, not only recently, but our entire marriage. Right when we are in a spot that we don't know what we are going to do, God blesses us with everything we need and more! There have been times when we didn't know how we were going to make rent, at all, and all the sudden a student loan that we were supposed to get some months before (that we didn't even realize we were missing from back then) shows up as being deposited in our bank account! And then just a few weeks ago we had some bills that we needed to pay and we had no money since Jake was out of a job and I hadn't found one yet either, and one of our elders gave us some money that a family from Michigan sent over to our church for anyone who needed some help! God is so amazing. After Jake got the official offer from his new employers we got a gift of money for work clothes for Jake! So we were able to go out and get him the work clothes that he'll need to start out. Then we can get him some more after he gets paid. Anyways, I am just so thankful for all the gifts that we have been given, and for Gods provision! I have not been crafting too much lately. I think mostly because I have not had a table to do it on. When Jakes family went on a one week vacation I took over their dining room table and made cards all week with the two girls that are staying upstairs with the family Jake and I are staying with. We made so many cards that we ended up going out to the local craft store to get some more cardstock for us! They made such wonderful cards too! I made my first mini craft book with some book marks, mini cards and tags inside. I really like how it turned out. I might make some more as gifts for some other friends. I gave that one to a wonderful woman in our church as a thank you gift for all the hard work she does. I also made some little felt purses/bags for the two little girls to put all their cards in, because they are traveling back to Holland soon and I wanted their cards to stay nice! I will post photos of all my recent creations on my crafting blog :) Well Jake and I are taking the day off from his family. Because I realized that I need a break every once and a while, and I need Jake to take the break with me, otherwise I feel really lonely and lame. So today we are resting together. We have both skipped breakfast in order to have a really nice lunch out together :) And my tummy is GROWLING! So I think its about time to go get that yummy food! TFR! (thanks for reading)
~Vanessa

here's your change

ok so I have more news to tell than I can remember...
Well... Jake is still looking for a job. I have started looking for a part time job as well. The family reunion was so much fun! I met Madeline and Elisabeth my twin 3 year old cousins! At one point in the camping trip all the parents went out for a nice expensive dinner and Tiana (my older sister) and I took out all 17 other kids!!! It was not nearly as bad as it might sound. The only problem we had was the older kids getting a little too loud while we were waiting for the check to come after we finished eatting. But all the little ones were so well behaved! I was so proud of them. And I was SO happy that the parents let us borrow their kids for a nice time out. Many of you who know me know that I LOVE doing things like that. Spending time taking care of kids. Its my thing.
Anyways, I am going dairy free for about five weeks!!! "WHY?!?" you may wonder, well I am trying to find out if the reason I have been feeling sick has been because I am lactose intolerant. I found out that it might run in our family (my grandmother is lactose intolerant). And I have all of the symptoms of it. So we will see. It has been only five days so far, I am going to try to go 3-5 weeks without dairy. And let me tell you its been a little bit of a challenge! I have since realized that I LOVE LOVE LOVE so many things with dairy in them. I never really realized how many things use dairy. I had a hard time finding a loaf of BREAD without milk in it! But most of all I have missed cheese. My husband and I have grown to love lots of cheese... and now I cannot have it. However I have noticed a change in my body. My stomach has felt better, I've lost some weight (!), and my runny nose is not so runny. Perhaps by the full 3-5 weeks most of my health issues will have gone away :) I will let you all know how it goes.
Speaking of all this dairy free stuff... I have since started drinking SOY MILK. To replace the milk in my diet. It seemed to be going well. I didn't mind the taste of it, in fact in some recipes I liked it better with soy milk anyways! I did miss my milk, but it was alright with soy milk. But then last night... I had one of the most firghtening experiences of my life. I had what I believe was an anaphylaxis shock reaction. It was so scary. I'm not trying to just be dramatic, or get attention from my friends. But I really feared for my life for a moment. I couldn't force any air in my throat for a little bit, I just couldn't breath. Finally after I threw up for a minute or two I was able to stand up and gasp in a small amount of air just in time to start throwing up some more. Once I was done throwing up I was still having a very hard time gasping for air. But I was able to breath. Last night when it happened I didn't know what caused it. But the only thing that Jake and I could think of was the half a banana I had had that night, or the soy milk. I assumed it was the banana since I used to be allergic to them. But then today when I had a little more soy (I had just a little to try it again because I was worried) it bothered my thoat again. So I think that I am allergic to soy milk... Tomorrow I will run off to the store to get some rice milk to try. Hopefully my body will react well to it, and that I like the taste of it :)
Ok well I am really tired... and I know there are many more things to talk about.. I'll save them for later! Sorry, I must get some more sleep :)
Goodnight!

sparkle

So as things turned out, Jake ended up going to the A's game! He felt better, and he REALLY wanted to go. I thought he should stay home and rest, but in the end it was up to him. And he wanted to go. So that way I didn't have to take everyone by myself. The game was pretty good, but we lost! Oh well, you can't win them all. Then on Friday all the Rothenbuhler kiddos went to Great America with Monika. Except Micah stayed home sick :( Jake was looking for jobs most the morning and I was making some cards for a friend. Then Jake got a call from a friend of his for an A's players signing in Oakland. So Jake and I took the Muni and the BART (the bus and "subway" type things here) to get over to Oakland and we were there 10 minutes before it was supposed to be over and they were alreay gone! So instead we just went out for lunch with the friends. It was a nice time visiting , but we spent too much money on it all! LOL. We spent $17 on just the Muni and BART in order to get there! Then when we got back Jake did more job searching and I did more card making :) Then today we went to the bbq party for our friend who's baby girl is 1 now! It was fun. I had a yummy burger, some salad, and some potato salad :) Some people played frisbe and football. Even Elisabeth played along! She was so cute trying to throw the frisbe straight! My allergies were really bothering me though! So I pretty much just watched all the action. After the party we had some pizza for dinner and I got Jake to go on a walk with me down to the store to get some Half-Half so I could try out a recipe for 5minute ice cream in a bag! It was SO YUMMY and SO easy! I made two batches, for all the boys that are over playing video games into the wee hours of the night! I took some benadryl tonight, and it didn't work for my allergies. It just made me tired, but restless. Does that make sense? Anyways, tomorrow we have morning service, lunch, a little break, and then evening service! Surprisingly I didn't make anything today in the craft department! Well unless you include the ice cream creations! I don't know if I will tomorrow or not. I have so many cards and letters I want to send to my friends, but I have no stamps!!! Argh... Well its getting really late here for me and I am at the point to where I am not making much sense.. so goodnight and God bless!

coffee grinds

So I think that Elisabeth is the only one that started her morning off the way that she wanted to this morning! She started it off with a cupcake! Of course as soon as Monika saw what she was doing told her that she cannot have that for breakfast. Elisabeth tried to plead her case saying that it was her "after lunch dessert", which Monika simply replied to "but its not after lunch yet, go put it away". I can understand Monika's frustration, the kiddos have been having lots of sweets the past few days. And much of those sweets have been right at breakfast time. Of course it does seem like a great way to start your day ;) Much better then how Jakey started his day! He is sick :( He has thrown up four times so far today! I walked down the street to get him some Gatorade by his request. But he is mostly just falling in and out of sleep sitting up in the living room chair...



Poor guy! And I started my day by waking up alone in the neighbors room. Ok wait, that sounded wrong,... we are staying in the neighbors spare bedroom and since Jake was sick he woke up at 5am and went over to his families house, and I was still sleeping in the neighbors room. So when I woke up I was alone, in the neighbors bed. So yeah. I got up and made the bed and got dressed and went over to the families house. I started getting things taken care of for my community service that I have to do. But after I already made three phone calls and paid $20 to get my papers and community service transfered to San Francisco from Los Angeles I was informed that I would still have to come back to Los Angeles before September 29th (my due date for the amount that I owe) in order to turn in my certificate of completion for the community service. So after I talked to the manager about it some more and found out that I really couldn't just mail the papers there that I had to go in person. So I finished that phone call and got online to find the cheapest plane ticket. And then I was talking to Jake about it and realized that I would also have to rent a car. Then the lady from the Los Angeles community service called me and had my papers transfered to San Francisco (so far I have paid $20 for this) and she told me that at that office they are going to charge me an administrative fee. Which would be at least $30. Ontop of that because I had a snippy judge I had to pay $100 out of my total fine (he didn't want me to be able to pay off the whole thing with community service). So so far we are up to $150. And then to fly there and rent a car it was about $275! So now we are up to $425! And my fine is for $319. And that doesn't even include the gas I will need to get to and from community service and for the rental car in Los Angeles, and for the food that I would need while I was out taking care of all of that. So I called back the courthouse to ask them if once the judge has granted me community service if I can just pay the fine instead. Or if there would be some complications with that. Once I got to the part in the automative message where I could put in that I wanted to talk to on operator I was told that there were 79 other people on hold before me waiting for an operator!!! So I put the phone on speaker phone and make an early Christmas card! What fun that was :) Anyways so I FINALLY got to talk to someone and ask my one little question. And then I had to call back the community service office and ask if they could give me back my $20 since I am not going to go to the San Francisco community office to do the community service anyways. Thankfully the lady there was really nice and refunded me and called me back when it was all done and taken care of to let me know. So we have that all taken care now except for mailing in the check. And I don't know if I can still take traffic school. Because the judge set it up with my paper work so that I would get awarded traffic school if I finished my community service on time. Well now that I am not going to do the community service I don't know if I am going to be awarded the traffic school. ARGH!!! Oh well, I am just not going to worry too much about it. This is life, things like that happen. So we will see if after I send in my check they give me traffic school or not. If not, then oh well. I am pretty much done stressing about it. And while I was taking care of all of this all the ice in my iced mocha that I made this morning had melted and made my drink really watery! So I just dumped that and went outside and took a photo of the cute Christmas card that I made while on the phone so that I could post that on my craft blog over at http://craftsbyvanessarothenbuhler.blogspot.com/ ! Then I went to have some lunch and all the roast beef was gone, and all the chicken was gone! So I had to have a BLT without the tomotoes! But it was alright :) Then I updated my card blog and now this one. It appears that tonight I am taking all the kiddos over to the game since Jake has fallen ill today! So that will be an adventure for SURE!

strawhat shadows

Well we have moved to San Francisco!!! The move was hard, and not too hard at the same time. I got really sore and stiff from all the packing and moving. Then we had to worry about how we were going to move my little aquarium! Because we have to leave on the lights, heater, and filters. So we had to take it in the car with it plugged in. Well thats not too hard, except for the fact that we couldn't take out any of the water or the filters wouldn't work. So we had to get some plummers putty and try to seal the lid on the tank and move it that way. It worked, just barely! towards the end it was leaking water out of a hole in the lid where the cords to the filter and heater go in. Because my husband was driving fast and crazy once we got into San Francisco in order to get to the storage place on time! You see two weeks before the move Jake graduated, but he didn't go to the ceremony. Because...


he officiated his cousins wedding the same day that he was supposed to be graduating! Of course we chose our cousin over the graduation ceremony! We were out of town for the wedding until June 18th and we hadn't packed a box yet at that point! Then the next Monday (one week before our moving day) Jakes younger brother Micah (14yrs old) flew down to help us move. He didn't really help us pack boxes because he didn't know what to do. But he was a big help when it was time to move all the boxes and furniture! So my last day of work was the Friday before our move out day which was June 30th. So over that weekend we just packed packed packed. And on Sunday we went to our church in Long Beach for the last time, and we went to a Dodgers baseball game! It was a fun afternoon but as soon as we got back we had to clean all the carpets and stuff. Then on Monday morning I had to leave from the apartment EARLY to take Jake to get the U-haul and then I had to go to court for a ticket that I had. And I got out of that late, so I had to rush home and help get the rest of the things into the car to leave. Then we were on our way! We have most of our things in storage. And then a few things are here at the Rothenbuhler house! Its not too bad of a squeeze yet because we are sleeping in their neighbors (who also go to our church here in San Francisco) spare bedroom. But in a week or so we are going to have to sleep on the girls bedroom floor on our matress from storage! Then it will get much more crowded! But its been pretty fun so far! We got here late on Monday night and then on Wednesday morning EARLY we left for a four day backpacking trip out in Mt. Shasta! Boy was that fun and hard at the same time. I have never been backpacking. And the pack was so heavy! So part of the way up it was so so tiring. But once we got there and got everything set up it was so beautiful and nice. I love camping with friends and things like that. The fellowship was very nice :) And tomorrow we are going to an A's baseball game! Wahoo. One downer is that I have impetigo right now, which is pretty much open sores on the inside of my nose that hurt really bad, and it spreads and such. I have a cream for it that helps it go away in just a couple of days, but I cannot find it. So we'll see how long it takes for it to go away this time. And until then I will miss my walks with my friend downstairs from the Rothenbuhlers. I FINALLY got my card blog updated with all of the cards that I have made so far! That made me happy. I took most of my cards outside and took photos of them out there because the lighting in the house was really bad. Well, its getting close to dinner time and I am really tired so I might go lay down until dinner is served in an hour or so! I love not having to work, I just don't like not having any money :P Well have a great day everyone and I'll be around again sometime soon!

spider in the corner

well my last week here in Los Angeles is finally here. I am really excited to move. But at the same time so many things are still up in the air! Jake doesn't have a job yet...!!! And so we are moving in with his parents until we can afford to get an apartment of our own. We still haven't packed ONE box yet! We are so bad. But we are starting tonight. Speaking of tonight... tonight Micah my brother in law is flying into Los Angeles to spend our last week here with us :) We plan on going to Malibu once, taking him out for some good food, and we are going to a Dodgers game as well. And hey, if he wanted we could even show him what the inside of a Los Angeles County Courthouse looks like :P Because I have my second court date the morning we are moving! Monday morning at 8:30am. I hope that goes well. As it goes I am going to plead guilty and ask for traffic school and community service. Because if we wanted to fight it we would have to come back for at least one more court apparence. Plus if you want to fight it you have to pay the full amount of the bail until you are able to win the case, if you can win the case. So way too much hassle, I've learned my lesson. I just want it to be done and over with. So thats that. Anyways, moving on. I got to see my dad in sacramento and my dad (in law) in San Francisco on Fathers Day! It wasn't planned out that way, but it was a nice surprise for the day. I have kind of been in a little bit of a crafting funk. Can't seem to kick it. I think once I get settled into our own new place and I can get some nice stamps and papers from this company that I like I will have more to work with. So we'll see. I almost bought some this weekend, but I didn't. For the past couple of days I have been having and on and off again pain in my stomach! How annoying. And my muscles have been SO sore, for what seems like no reason. Jake thought maybe it would help me feel better in general to get out and get some exercise... so we went down to the park and played tennis :) It was a lot of fun. And in the end we tied 3 games to 3 games. it went ME-HIM-ME-HIM-HIM-ME!!! And the last game, that I won, was so much fun! I was so happy to win it :) At first when we were playing I get tired really fast. But as we kept playing and I worked through that tiredness it went away. So that was nice. We had a great time, but this morning my muscles are even more sore! Blech. Another thing. It seems like I have had a runny/stuffy nose for almost six months now! Its so annoying. I have to make sure that I have one of those pocket sixed tissues in my purse at all times! It got worse when we went to San Francisco because of the park right across the street. And its just all together an area I am not used to. And since then I have had bright green snot, which usually means an infection. But why hasn't it gone away?! Also in the past few days my chest (on the inside) has been itching like crazy. And I have a cough. Its a dry cough though. So last night Jake got me a big glass of water to put next to my bedside so that if I needed it in the middle of the night I wouldn't have to get up, he's a sweetheart :) There are SO many people right now that I want to send a card to, it just seems that I don't have the right time or amount of time to do it. So maybe I will just put it off until after we move. Its not like they will even know that I meant to send it sooner anyways. This way its one less thing for me to worry about this week! Wow, my last week of work with the Cokers. They have really been such treasures to me. I know that I am going to cry when I say goodbye to them. And I am going to miss them so much. Life isn't going to be the same not going out for coffee and breakfast every morning with them! Jack is a really great guy/old man. And I hope that he gets a lot more years out of life! Peggy, well I think its time for me to leave according to her anyways. She is getting frustrated with me being there for some reason. I think it might be because she sees how connected I am with Sarah and Jack and how much I care for them and that upsets her. Because if it wasn't for her strokes she could be in my shoes. But I still love her dearly...(even though in the last two days of work last week she spit, yes I did say spit, at me three times, she hit my sholder, she kicked at my face as I was trying to put her shoes on, and she slapped me square across the face, and a lot of yelling, and refusing to get out of the car!). I am going to miss her too. Anyways, enough sappy stuff! I am reading a neat but weird and kind of creepy book right now. Its called the Thirteenth Book, I think. Anyways, its a very interesting book. ok well I have hit the point that I just want to move on to something else... so see ya later!

~Vanessa

would you like some fries with that shake?

Hello Hello Hello
So I have not been on much due to work work work! Plus I have picked up a new hobby... making greeting cards. I'm practically obsessed with it :) I have all my stuff "set up" around and on this card table in the corner of our living room. Its a pretty cluttered area, but I love it. If you want to see/read more about it I am going to post a new blog solely for my greeting cards and othe crafts. So... Friday at work was horrible! LOL, I don't even normally work Saturdays. But I was doing it as a "make up" day because I had to take Wednesday off to go to court. So I offered to work Saturday so that the son (of Jack the old man I "watch") that had to skip work on Wednesday could go in to work on Saturday. Little did I know how bad of an idea this was! You see the main thing was that on Sunday it was Sarahs birthday party, the 7 year old granddaughter. So when I got there at 10am she was watching her Hannah Montana show on tv. So I just got to work around the house. But then when it was over I told her it was time to clean her room (which is always an AWFUL mess). She started to throw a fit, and it just got worse from that point on. Her fit went on until at least 1pm. But during all of that, as she was SCREAMING, and throwing things, and hitting walls, and stomping, and saying rude things, Peggy, the gradmother got upset too. So then she came wheeling out of her room (with no pants on mind you, because apparentlty she was out of underpants) yelling too. Then Peggy got even more mad because I was there, and it was Saturday. And I think she was mad because she was frustrated that she didn't know and couldn't understand what was going on. And then she started crying and yelling because of Sarah, and me being there. Meanwhile I am trying to figure out what to do, and the two uncles in the house are not making it any easier. Steven has taken a "parenting" course that has told him to not fight with your child, to just listen and sit there. Because you will never win in a fight with your child because they want to win. (WHAT THE HECK?!?) So he just sat there on the floor in her room seemingly doing NOTHING about everything that was going on. Then John came out of his room because he heard all the commotion. He kept trying to get Peggy to calm down because she has high blood pressure and could have another stroke that would more than likely kill her this time. So then Jack (the grandpa), for some reason, decides now is a good time to tell John that Peggy had a bad visit with the doctor on Fri because her blood pressure was really high and that John needs to be giving her her pills, because apparently he hasn't been. And he hasn't been because she won't swallow them and she won't eat them if you grind them into her food! So John got really upset then too! He started storming around the house using the F*** work every other word, and yelling and banging. And Jack was yelling at him to watch his language and calm down. And oh my goodness I wanted to get out of there so badly! Eventually John left the house with Peggy to get her to calm down (he took her to the beach ALL DAY LONG). And Kathy (Sarahs mom) came to get Sarah and take her out. So then it was just Steven and I to do the work of the house. And there was a lot of work to do. So Steven sits down on the couch with some meatloaf and cheesy potatoes and a newspaper and just SITS THERE. Meanwhile I have COMPLETELY cleaned out the bedroom (changing the sheets on both beds, re-folding their clothes and putting them away, taking out the trash, vaccuuming, and so on), the bathroom(sweeping, and mopping, with mopping detail around all the edges of the floor, cleaning off the counter and scrubbing out the sink, then I had to scrub out the bathtub for more than 30mins, it had like mold and mildew in it!), the kitchen, doing all the dishes, sweeping, mopping, clearing the table, the stove, and the counter) and the living room(the couches, cleaning behind the tv corner, cleaning off the tv entertainment center, clearing all 4 tv trays so that they could be used in the party, and the big shelve structure in the living room, Steven surprisingly vaccuumed the living room while was I was mopping the kitchen floor)!!!! And all that Steven had done so far was water his flowers in the front yard, and vaccuum the living room floor! At this point I was tired, and hungry, and so stressed out. I said I would come into work (for a normal work load) just so that Steven could go into work and catch up on anything that he missed on Wednesday. But Steven decided that I was coming in to work on Sat just to clean the whole house for him for the party, I overheard him telling this to Jack. So at 1:30pm I went out of the house to get something to eat for lunch. Then when I came back I went to clean out Sarahs bed. I took ALL the clothes out of her THREE dressers one by one and started folding and putting them into sorted piles on the bed. When I finished the whole bed was covered about 2-3 feet high! Then I put everything back into the three dressers, just sorted this time around. Then I printed off labels for every drawer and stuck those on. Then I washed her comforter and cleaned off all the toys, beads, papers, books, dvds, and other nicknacks off her floor and off her desk. The end result, an AMAZINGLY cleaned up room. Then I went into the back yard and put away a lot of the things they had just sitting around out there. Then I left for the day around 5:50pm. A few minutes early :) What a rough day! But then I got to come home and craft my worries away ;P First Jake and I went out for dinner because I was way too tired to cook, plus my body was so so sore! Then we came home and walked to the bank to deposit my check and mailed off most of Jakes graduation announcements. And once we got back home I started making some cards. On Sunday we went to church, went to the fish store, stopped off at Sarahs party, went to Costco, and Albertsons, and then we finally arrived back at home! Whew! So now today, Jake has a final, and I have work. But then tomorrow on Tuesday, I have the day off and I plan on sleeping in!