It's a Bird, It's a Plane. No wait, it's really a Bird!

So as stated and talked about previously, My mother in Law, Eileen, has taken our kids on a vacation for a week!  They are having an Absolute blast and I hope they bring back some fabulous pictures to put up on the blog!  So while they are out, Mike and I are taking care of her Animals. This only seems fair since she has our animals, I mean kids, with her.  She is always so gracious to take care of our two kids and our two Great Danes when we leave town,  I am thankful we can return the favor.

I don't know that many of you know this but as an 8th grade graduation gift, Mike was given a bird.  Because birds are kind of fiinicky and need certain kinds of care and light and such Bo has lived with grandma for a number of years.  Instead of going back and forth to the house every day we brought Roxie (she gets her own blog post after her shinanigans today) and BO to our house while my brother in law has been feeding the cat.  

Bo has been living in our family room, he makes just enough noise to let you know that the house really isn't quiet just when you think it is! :)  He loves Mike but Bo and I have a mutual "I don't know if I care for you" relationship with each other.

Brutus could care less about BO but our Great Dane puppy, Gus.  Well that's a whole different story.  Gus has figured out that Bo's cage sits in front of a window that goes to the back yard, so Gus has tried more than ones to get in through that window to "play" with BO.  Gus still doesn't understand his size so many times, he is trying to stiff him our or get a little closer to Bo and he is going to end up knocking the cage over.  Let's just say when I am home without Mike I keep Gus outside, Bo inside and try to be a peacemaker. :)  

Bo Bo Wants a Cracker... And a strawberry too!

Just another Manic Monday

Ok so there was really nothing Manic about our Monday.  I was just simply trying to make us sound far more interesting than we actually are.  There were some super exciting things that happened in our days however.  Let's back up a bit though.

This weekend was one of the rarest weekends ever.  Mike and one of his best friends hung out on Friday after we dropped the kids off to Grandma for them to spend a week in LA with Aunt Tess and Uncle Jim! I think they are having a blast already and Mike and I are a bit jealous of our kids.  They went to American Girl yesterday and Lanie got her hair done (thank goodness it was a mess) and today they went to a water park.  They don't know it yet but they also have tickets to go to Lego Land this week!  These two are being crazy spoiled by Grandma and Aunt and Uncle.  So anyway back to us not being manic or exciting.  Friday night I took my Kindle to Panda Express and sat there and finished a book an bought cleaning supplies at Walmart at the same shopping center and came home and cleaned.  WOW.  Ha ha.

Mike worked at Cache Creek on Saturday.  He worked for 16 hours plus 3 driving hours.  He got home at 3AM on Sunday and I didn't hear a peep out of him until after 3PM Sunday, Poor guy.  We did get to hang out with our friends Chris and Alyssa for a couple hours Sunday evening so that was nice and the first time I got to see my husband since our kid free week began.  Such is life.

Some great news from the weekend  is that Friday I found out for sure that I got a job!!! YES!  Let the celebration begin!  :)  I am now working at Destiny Christian Pre-School as the Kindergarten Teacher's Assistant.  I am super excited!  I am working with wonderful people and I had my first day today!  I am just worked three hours a day for the next two weeks and then around Mid August I will start working the full days.

Some great news for today is that Extant (Our Acoustical Consulting business) has been getting a lot of interest lately and Mike had an absolutely WONDERFUL meeting today with a huge construction company!  They signed a contract today at a meeting and it looks like Extant will have a good amount of business from this company in the future.  Extant has a job this Thursday as well and had many other people interested along with a job that will be starting soon hopefully that will involve us working with a company on an ongoing basis.  This is SUCH GOOD NEWS!  We just hope and pray this company continues to grow, continues to bless others and for our family to be able to have a living.  We pray that Extant will let us be servants of the gifts and talents we have been given as we try to reach out to churches that have Audio and Visual issues and help them solve them for a discounted rate.  I just know God has a plan!

Well, I don't know that I can sit in this office much longer.  For those of you who know my father, let's just say Mike is in major competition with him tonight.  It's time for a breath of fresh air.  This Carr is heading out of the shop!

Much love.

Your Carr Report!

It seems like it should be Wednesday or Thursday already.  We had a good weekend.  The new weekend norm around here is Mike working at Cache Creek Casino in the entertainment department for their summer concert series.  He usually leaves somewhere around 9 and gets home at about 2AM.  This Weekend Aliyah helped lead worship in 5 services at Bayside where she was attending a sports camp this past week.  Nathan got home from Boy Scout Camp this Saturday as well.  He earned 4 merit badges, has now completed Tenderfoot and has several items signed off on 2nd class and a few on 1st class.  He is starting to get the hang of everything with the scouting program.  I felt like he came home all grown up it was so strange.  

This Sunday we tried out another church.  Well we have all been to it before but it was good to go again.  We went to Bayside where Aliyah was singing and dancing and leading worship.  I really like the feel of the church.  I enjoyed how it is laid back but serious about having a relationship with Christ.  Bayside is truly reaching out to the community and we have been so blessed by them lately.  We are really struggling financially and they provided a scholarship for Nathan to go to boy scout camp (his troop is sponsored by the church) and we also applied for a scholarship for Aliyah and received it for her to go to Breakaway Games. I hope in the years to come we can help others out in the ways they have helped us.  

Brutus went to the "Carr Shop" tonight. We had to do minor Surgery on his ears tonight.  That was fun.  I was crying a little he was crying a little, Mike was being strong for all of us.  He was given lots of treats and a helping on benedryl to help with the allergies and knock him out a bit.  He was a brave boy.  He got pockets of blood and serum in his ears from allergies and shaking his head to hard.  

Well it's off to bed for me.  I have an interview tomorrow and a 31 party on Wednesday and Thursday.  It's quite the busy week for all of us actually.  It feels good to have something to do each day! 

This Carr is letting her battery recharge! 

Oh Happy Day

Today was a day for the Car shop Literally.  Well the Smog Shop anyway.  We sold our jeep about a month ago and forgot to put that lovely "as-is" clause on the bill of sale.  Though the man Mike sold the Jeep to was told about a few issues the Jeep has, he was insisting we fix it in order for it to pass smog.  The man had taken it to be smogged and said it didn't pass and it was going to need $850 in work done to it.  Mike knew the guy was being taken and offered to take it to be smogged.  Wouldn't you know, it passed the first time.  While Mike was doing that Aliyah and I went to Ikea that was only a few minutes down the road.  

I guess it was a girls day at the "Carr Shop" as well.  Her and I have needed to spend some quality time together for a while but usually whenever we have alone time together... well it doesn't go well.  She gets mad at me, I start counting down the seconds until Mike gets home and the attitude will be gone.  We had a good day.  She wasn't as interested in being in Ikea as I thought she would be but we got along.  I took her a treat and we went to In and Out.  We don't normally eat out and if we do it is off  a dollar menu  but i felt it was important to show her that good behavior and respect gets her respect back.  

We all did some housework when we got back and I had a great phone conversation but details on that will have to wait for a few days.  Aliyah went to Breakaway Games up at Bayside.  She is doing Cheer and loving it.  We watch cheer moves and listen to cheers a lot these days.  It is great for her to gain the esteem and self respect during events like these.  I am really excited to see the growth that has been happening in her this summer.  Here's to praying that it sticks and also continues!!  

We have been going for a lot of family walks lately.  So when we got back from Breakaway, we got the dogs ready and went for a two mile walk.  It felt so great and its been a great habit for us to get into as a family activity.  It's maintenance for us Carr's and boy do we need it.  

That's what I know I personally need to concentrate on these days the "maintenance" part of my life.  Right now the Maintenance needs to be a tune up, oil change, tire rotation, new spark plugs, gasoline and so much more but daily taking care of these areas... well it will become maintenance!  

Down a Kid

This week Nathan is attending Summer Camp for Boy Scouts for the first time.  He has been to camps before but I think Boy Scout Camp is going to be a new experience for him.  There isn't cell phone service there so I suppose if he gets homesick he is just going to have to deal.  Apparently a phone of any kind is not easily accessible just a satellite phone or something like that.  I was a bit of a "mom" about him going away.  I was making sure he understood what each dollar we sent with him was for and telling him to make sure he showers and brushes his teeth and talks to the other boys and has fun and works on merit badges and here are your clothes for each day and blah blah blah.  He was probably so ready for me to just drop him off and let him be.  So he is off at camp and hopefully earning his first merit badges and maybe making a rank or two... next court of honor should be exciting.

It has been funny to me to see what a difference a kid makes.  Our house is so quiet (and Aliyah is the loud one).  I am not spending the majority of my day breaking up fights, I am not feeling stressed throughout the whole day and when Aliyah goes to her "Breakaway Games" camp in the evenings this week.  Well let me tell you, I just about get bored.  Mike and I were sitting here tonight thinking,

 "wow--so what would we be like without kids?" 

 Not that we would wish our kids away but it is very rare that we get time away from the hustle and bustle of kids to just be... I am sure this is something that we should work on.  Even when we go on business trips or home to Missouri we aren't actually getting away because there is always another agenda... oh how we need a cruise again, Wait.  I have digressed.

It blows me away the difference that one person makes.  I guess we can sit back and really look at that in so many different ways.  One person changes the dynamics of a group.  One person can make life amazing or rotten for another person.  One person can be a stresser or an encourager.  One person can make life loud or quiet.  What are you?  I love my kids and I love my husband, but I won't lie, the hours of 5:30 to 8:30PM this week are very nice.  It's quiet, it's calm.  There is not yelling, no fighting.   I think God knew we needed some hours of peace this week.  I mean tonight I got to take a bubble bath, fold laundry and make dinner without being interrupted a gazillion times.  Tomorrow Mike and I are going to go on a walk and get to have adult conversation.  So I guess this week it's Mike and I going into the Carr Shop.  One kid down and one half gone, it's time for us to get tuned up and enjoy the ride.

The Climb--A story about a walk I went on about a month ago.

I don’t even know where to begin but I know that this afternoon brought me some clarity, rejuvenation and hope.   I have been struggling with a lot lately but besides the whole we don’t have money and we both need to find jobs part… the biggest thing I have struggled with is my weight.  It’s not new news to anyone it is just a part of me at this point, but I am seriously tired of it being a part of me.  I gave up soda when I came back from St. Louis and I haven’t really missed it too much.  I am addicted to unsweetened iced tea now but I think that is a step in the right direction.  Today I felt cute in what I wore to church (it’s the little things) and when I got back I decided my puppy and I needed some quality time together and we went for a walk.  I decided to challenge myself a little bit and walk up this HUGE hill that you just keep climbing and climbing… It seems so much smaller when you drive it.  As I was hiking up this hill I keep telling myself and Gus… just a little bit further, a little further.  I would get to the spot that I thought was the top of the hill and it was just a little bit further.  The hill seemed to never ever end.  Once we got to the top, I decided to walk to the corner (it was flat ground for a while).  As I got to the top I loved the relief of the breeze and just not climbing any more. 

I turned around and started to head back and oh my goodness.  The view was beautiful!  Rocklin was beautiful. You could see the beauty, you could see the mountains and it was absolutely lovely.  I realized at that moment that this right here is life.  The climb, the view, the pain, the relief the breeze, the storm clouds I saw, it was all LIFE.

Our family is climbing a hill right now.  It seems to get steeper and steeper the more we climb.  I feel like we are coming to the top of that hill, oh Lord I pray we are coming to the top of it.  If we are I know that we will have an amazing view soon.  That view is amazing as you start to head down the hill but I also know that when we get to the bottom of the hill you can’t see that same view.  We will have another hill to climb, we will have another battle to overcome, we will have the joy of knowing what the view is and the courage to keep pressing on.  

The Carr Shop

I have had 3 blogs and I really just want to have a place where I can write about my family, about my ups and downs, about our families joys and struggles and just let loose.  I will be serious, silly, uplifting, depressing... who knows... but this is what I know...

The Carr needs to go to the shop.  "Car's" need Maintenence and so do "The Carr's".  Our life has been ever changing... Being newly weds isn't always easy, being a blended family has its ups and downs and being a unit trying to work together, be together, have fun and love one another while together and make it through the different terrain's of life.  WHEW.

So Here it is.  The Carr Shop.  Laugh with us, cry with us, Thank God you aren't us... whatever it is... just enjoy.