Christmas is almost here!!!

And half of us are sick. I hate being sick. I hope we all feel better when family is in town next week. It should be exciting to have Ben and his girlfriend Sarah along with my parents. We'll have a big family meal with Becky and Dan with their kids. It should be great.

Odd story from our drive home...

So we decided to miss the large pass going out of Seattle due to it raining pretty hard on Saturday night. So we stop in a rest stop on the way down to Portland. We are stopped and the kids had gone out to use the restroom. I had just gone out to throw out something when some lady going in the car next to us said something...I caught something about you better not be...I got back out and said, "I excuse me?" She then proceeded to tell me that we better not be driving with our child on the front seat lap...to which I responded, in the meanest thing I could say, "mind your own business." Basically Anna was trying to change an exhausted Baby's diaper in the front seat...but Bekah didn't want it done. So she was screaming in the car and Anna had pulled her up to the front while we were sitting in the rest stop. I wanted to tell the lady to shove it...

Anyway, the ride home was terrible. We ended up stopping for the night...which was a good thing as it was apparently snowing through the passes during the night.

Thanksgiving was good...driving was terrible.

We probably won't be driving up to Washington any time soon. Holy cow that was terrible. We drove 20 plus hours going there and then again coming back. And a lot of it through snow. My body is still in tense mode while trying not to slide off the road.

Happy Birthday Rebekah!!!! We love you.

3

My baby sister is old...

She turned 25 today!!! It seems like yesterday I came home from my mission to this little girl who grew like 10 inches while I was gone who was into cheerleading. Happy Birthday Julia.

go Conservatives!!!!

Great start to cutting back spending and obamacare. Please remember this day when you are voting and being pushed to be democrat lites....

So we went to two of those presentations while in Hawaii....

Given that we had six days in Hawaii, we felt we could give a few minutes of our time for a few hundred bucks. So the first one was a vacation discount club. It was kind of expensive considering you had limited discounts. Basically they bought from hotels/airlines in their less busier times in bulk, and sold them for cheap to their vacation club people. But we only considered it if it gave us good discounts to place we were already going like Canada, Montana, Washington and California. Of course it wasn't a huge discount at those places and we said no. So we paid $25 for a night cruise along the coast of Oahu. It is usually around $180 for two. Then we did the Wyndham resort timeshare presentation. This was only for $100. But it was interesting. Really expensive but interesting. Paid for some things and I still have some of the gift card...maybe $5 of it.

Anyway, that took about 4 hours of our time, but it seemed worth it. We were already going to do the cruise anyway, so it saved us $150 for the buffet cruise. It was decent food, nothing too exciting. Great view from the water and nice fireworks from one of the hotels at the end. We met a nice couple from Chicago. Both had immigrated from South Korea. Nice people. Said they were advised to stay away from the Polynesian cultural center because there was no drinking there...pretty funny as they planned away from it because they couldn't drink that day.

Haven't downloaded pictures...we have a ton from our hikes and adventures. Had some fun parasailing...it was much easier than expected and not too rocky of a ride.

Cockroaches with my pizza please...

I will blog a few stories about our fun trip to Hawaii. This story involves us sitting at this Deli type place that served Roundtable Pizza. I had missed roundtable, so I had to order some. We shared a pizza and the server left to get a box for the leftovers. Anna left to go get some things at the small store down the street, so I was chilling in the booth. The box came and I boxed up the pizza to my right. I put my hand down to my left to clean up my area. I felt this weird sensation on my left hand. Then as I raised it a cockroach began climbing up my arm and on the table to the left. It flew across the booth and then to the table next to me. It was absolutely disgusting and brought back some nasty memories from Brasil.

BYU football sucks this year...

My excitement for college football has gone to virtually nothing. How lame is that.

Sheesh, it's been awhile.

I guess I am using facebook a lot more than I used to for interesting things going on in our lives. It has been quite the interesting summer with the move and all. Anna has gone on a few work trips and took the kids down to So Cal for some time on the beach.

It has been a slow process in getting our house in order...we seem to lack time. And now we are throwing another wrench into things by having our basement started by Anna's cousin Todd. A few weeks ago we had some cement poured in our backyard for a nice patio, shed and bike areas. But the patio ended up having some issues and they have to tear it up. It looks okay, but the guy spilled some coke on it while drying and it left huge spots where the soda acid ate away at the color/texture. So they will begin that part tomorrow.

The family is doing well. N will probably get his license soon. We had some doubts if he could handle the stress/responsibility. But he has his good moments and I think we'll probably do it soon. Damon didn't have any lineman to have a ninth grade team, so he is playing on the sophmore team this year. He may not play too much, but hopefully he learns how things work and gets better. G is doing really well on his 7th grade team. He seems to understand things better and reacts much quicker. Yesenia is going to the new elementary school starting tomorrow. She is excited. Bekah continues to be the cutest little girl ever.

Anna and I will be going on a 10 year anniversary trip in October to Hawaii. Using my parents timeshare. It should be nice to relax.

And we are all moved in....

Moving is about as fun as it gets. The past month has been crazy. Getting ready for the move...stressing about the house getting done..moving mostly on our own. Now the sealing is happening this weekend. Wow, our life is crazy!!! I think in the middle of July things will finally start to slow down.

4 kids were adopted today...

Pics to come. Here is one recent one of Bekah

Is it really that hard to follow plans to build a house?

We have had so many problems while our home is being built. It is stressing out big time as we are going to be delayed at least another week or two because of some cabinetry issues. Then we have shelving issues. Then vanity issues. Then brick issues. Anyway, we want to get the heck out of this piece of crap rental asap, and these issues are just making things worse. I guess we don't have to worry about moving while Anna is at her conference anymore. We are waiting with the manager tomorrow to hopefully get things figured out.

Any suggestions on what to make A for our

Mother's Day meals? Thanks

About 4 weeks to go...

Then the fun begins. I remember being quite overwhelmed at the amount of expenses after moving into our last home...and this won't be any different except for more expenses!!! The sheetrock is up and the mudding/taping are just finishing up. So, maybe 3 weeks of actual work left to do. Starting to get bids on a fence we'll need to put up immediately. Also need window well covers. So that's like 8k right there. Then blinds...then paint. Then finish basement.

Anyway, the kids are doing well. Only three weeks from tomorrow until adoption date. It looks like it will be the 3 younger kids for now. N probably will get his license soon. D will probably practice this summer to get ready for freshman football. G will probably continue to be the little kid he is. R had her visit to the dr the other day and was a pro. I was so proud of her. She is growing up so fast. Y is doing well in school and continues to pick up things quick. She is pretty much on grade level in almost every subject. We are very proud of her as well. All of them seem to be doing pretty well and we have seen a lot of progress in different areas...sometimes the areas in which we don't see everyday or the one's we want, but progress nonetheless.

Work is going well. I love handling attorney represented claims. Attorneys are such schmucks. It's amusing to say the least.

Frontal view of house progress

We should be moving in the new house in 4-5 weeks...how exciting!!!

Here are a few pictures:

and a few more-

New pictures:

So we just found out the court date is May 27!!!

Although it is a sad circumstance in which the kids are entering our family, we are excited to have them part of it. I didn't think it would be out that long, but it will work. We''ll probably have the sealing sometime in July for the girls.

Our house is going up dang fast and they should have the carpentry work done by tomorrow. They have been slowed a little due to the bad weather but it's so exciting to see everything get done.

The house is going up quite fast.

But it isn't fast enough living in this odd rental!!! I am going to try and put some photos in my post, so we'll see how that goes.

So the woodwork will probably be done by Tuesday by how fast they are going. It's exciting to think of the extra room.

I'm bored at work today; so what do I do?

I just thought I should write a post about my life in general. With hearing a lot of conference over the weekend and watching a few movies last night by myself...I thought about a lot of different things. First off:
I am extremely blessed to have a wife that is smart, funny, beautiful, diligent, patient and a hard worker. I can't imagine choosing a better lifemate. I'm still working each day so that she'll say the same thing another 10-20 years from now.
Second: The Lord has blessed us more than we deserve...I don't know why, I don't know how, but we feel very blessed and grateful for what we have been given.
Third: Although I may complain and whine at times, I love the kids with us. They each have their unique challenges and quirks, but they are our kids and we feel blessed to have them in our home. Some praise us for what we do, but that makes us more uncomfortable and completely wrong...we are doing what we can to help kids that might otherwise not have a normal home to live in. I can't imagine them not in our life. They have a piece of my heart.
Fourth: I'm grateful for our rational and sometimes boring thinking. We make some mistakes, but we haven't had too many that are hurting are family for a long time. It has been hard to know the Lord's will in some of our decisions..but we think things out and do what we feel best. Overall things have turned out very well. Hopefully our home being built continues to follow this pattern.
Fifth: I miss my father-in-law. Jim was very loving and kind to me and a big support. I wish the kids would have his kindness and love in their lives right now. It still hurts me to think about this. Not that my parents don't love us and accept us, but something seems to be missing at times. Maybe Marie will help fill that void if she comes and lives with us for a bit when she retires...

Sixth: I don't like small houses. No offense to those who have them. Call me a snob or schmuck, but whatever. There isn't enough room for us in this small house!!!

Seventh: Weird that my sister is pregnant and having a baby in the fall. I wish I could be there to see it..I'm not sure how often I'll see her. I wish we could all live closer. I think our Fechter family got a little spoiled by having almost all family in Sacramento growing up.

Eighth: I need to do and be better.

That's all.

And the sale went through-

We feel so blessed that our home was purchased and for a reasonable amount. I don't know why we have been so blessed by The Lord, but we are grateful. We have to have everything done by tonight and then we leave our keys. Sad to see our first home go, but it is so exciting that things are working out so well. With people having such difficult times, it's hard to be too happy, but we humbly accept any blessings we can receive.

Hedo is one smart dog...

So the wind blew open our not so closed gate yesterday. I freaked out when I got home and started my search for the two labs. I checked up the hill where we take them to be able to take them off our leashes...no. Looked up and down the straights around our rental...no. Looked around the main road...no. Prayed. Then thought to go check our old house. It's about 3/4 mile away. Then I get a call from my friend Glen asking if I was missing something. I told him yes..the dogs had found their way all the way back to our old house and were in his garage!!! I'm sure Belle just kind of followed Hedo's nose all the way back. I was for sure impressed. So Glen had put the dogs in our old backyard as we are still waiting on the funding and then signatures tomorrow to go through.

About this rental...we are simply biding the time until we get out of hear. It really doesn't fit us too well. Oh well, it was hard to find four bedroom homes. The builder just put in our foundation. So maybe about 9 weeks now.

So, I've never had good blog titles to attract

more people to my blog. Oh well. I guess I can't be perfect at everything.

So everything is going smooth on selling our house!!!

It looks like this will go through. We are kind of anxious of having to be out in two weeks, but we'll get it done someway and somehow. We will probably go get a storage unit tomorrow and will start taking things over. The rental unit won't be ready until the 22nd...so we have a short time frame to get things completely moved. It will be crazy, but so worth it in the end.

Quick update on life-

Funeral went well out in Sacramento. It was good to see some family I have not seen in forever. I honestly did not cry as much as at Anna's dad's funeral. It just doesn't make me that sad when he had a good 80 years to live. He was a good man at heart.

Court to set adoption date is next week...we are very excited. The girls are sweethearts and I think G wants to as well. It is very saddening but exciting at the same time. It really rips our hearts in two directions. It's been crazy to have five kids, but we've managed with God's help.

We may be leaving the house in a few weeks if the current offer on the house goes through. We just had the inspection today with the appraisal coming up. We will be renting until our house is built in the end of May or beginning of June. We'll be posting pictures for sure as we will watch every step of the way. It will give us tons of room for the kids, future kids, grandparents..., and other guests. It is very exciting. We have been so blessed. Both of our jobs are great.

Exercised four times already this week while burning over 1000 calories each day. Hopefully that can get me going in the right direction. I've been eating breakfast more as well.

Moving sucks. It's very nerve wracking and crazy. Due to not doing much for the past week, we are going to have a heck of a time the last two weeks before we have to move out.

I love you grandpa. We'll see you soon.

So we have taken the jump!!!

We have signed the paperwork to begin the building process for our next house. I know it sounds crazy to upgrade from a 3100 sq ft house, but it will give us plenty of room for the kids and any future kids we may have. It comes with 6 bedrooms with another 3 possible in the unfinished basement. 5 bathrooms as well. It will require Anna to work a little longer to help us with some of the moving expenses, but it will be worth it. We want the kids to feel that they can stay as long as they need after they graduate from HS..in our current home it would be extremely tight. The lot we choose is a corner lot and it's in a neighborhood only 1 minute away from where we are right now. We've had a few people come by looking at the house, but nothing serious yet. Luckily we have a good amount of equity, which allows us to lower it if needed. I think it's pretty close to what comparable houses are in the area.

Today was N's birthday. Sweet sixteen. He is having a little get together tomorrow. We are hoping he can get his license sometime this summer. Overall the kids are doing well. R is probably the most polite little girl I have known. She always says thank you jacob or you're welcome. The kids definitely have a piece of my heart. At times I think I try too hard to correct poor behavior, but I really hope we can be a good influence of what is good in life...and how life can be happy and consistent. It looks like adoption could be started as soon as April.

Brown wins in Mass...!!!!!

What a great showing from a conservative type of senatorial candidate. I'm glad the people are finally seeing the light that this socialism crap is not going to work. God bless America and down for Obama and the dems later this year!!!

So we have pretty much decided to move...

We have a realtor coming by on Monday to get us going in this crazy process. We will then most likely begin building out here in the EM city center. It's just too good of a deal to pass up on a much larger house. It will allow us to adopt the kids and hopefully have a few babies some time in the next 5-7 years. This will allow us to be comfortable in a home and also give the kids some space. It may mean we'll need Anna to work a little longer to get the home spruced up, but we feel it is the right decision right now.

We just want the kids to feel like our home is always open to them. It will be easy for the boys to just pick up and leave when they turn 18 or graduate. But we want to have enough room for them to feel like they can stay for awhile if they'd like. By having more space, this makes it much easier to tell the kids and show them we mean it. Otherwise with our current house, it would be hard to say you are always welcome when we already have a full house.

Also there is small bedroom/den on the main floor. This could be used if my parents or Marie need to come live with us. There will also be a full bathroom on this floor. It just makes sense on a lot of levels. Also we have the funds to do it this year...so why not?

Overall things are going pretty well. We are both proud of the two older boys. They seem to be taking responsibility of things pretty well at school. It has been a rough semester with what happened with their mom and they both passed all of their classes. N is excited to get drivers ed going so he can probably get his license this summer. He is turning 16 in a few weeks. It's weird to think he's that old...

I am starting my diet/exercise this week. It's time to stop the excuses and make time for myself. Plus we get a huge discount on our health insurance if I reach some of my goals...lol.