Merry Christmas 2011!

Merry Christmas to our Friends, Family and acquaintances in and through the world wide web…

Once again our Christmas letter will be making an appearance on our ‘not so often updated’ blog! However, our good intentions will remain intentions!

I’ve posted some pictures of our family, and our summer vacation to Roseville, CA, the ocean & the Redwoods! It was an amazing vacation that we are so thankful we were able to take.

Brad has celebrated his 3rd year with Almaco in Nevada, still doing maintenance and repair, and whatever else is asked of him. Brad & I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in January and can’t believe how the time has flown.

Courtney graduated high school TODAY 12/22/2011!!! She will walk across the stage and receive her diploma with her class come May. We are so proud of her! Her college classes start on January 10th, so her little ‘break’ won’t last very long! She’ll be taking a photography course and a marketing class. She’s excited and nervous all at the same time. We are so excited and proud of her! Brooke is half way through the 7th grade! It’s crazy how time flies! She has an amazing memory and is really blessed to be able to retain what she learns. Taylor is half way through 5th grade, and thoroughly enjoys being the teacher, or just the person in charge! She is a real ‘go-getter’ and a very hard worker! Ashley is in the 3rd grade and I just so happen to be her tutor in our Classical Conversations Homeschool group which meets once a week, and Katrina is in 1st grade and is loving learning! My ‘baby’ is getting so big and is not such a little baby anymore! It’s a little sad, but it’s also very fun!

I am still teaching the girls at home and have so much fun with them. What a blessing it is to be able to talk to them about how much Jesus loves them and come alongside them and instruct them in all different areas of their life, as well as really get to know them all individually. They are so similar and yet so very different! We are truly blessed.

My newest adventure since October has been becoming an Independent Mark Kay Consultant. I know some may laugh, however it’s a perfect fit since I am already in the ‘beauty’ business, it just makes perfect since! I’ve also already won prizes for being in the top 5 for the quarter sales! So, if you would like to know more about selling Mary Kay, or need any products, please ask me! I am having a lot of fun and making some extra cash is a very nice bonus as well!

Have a blessed Christmas celebrating Jesus’ birthday…
Much love, Stephanie for the Mehmen family

Butter

As many of you already have come to your own conclusion; Brad and I are not like "normal" people! HA HA HA No, we often are "weird" and think outside the box on many things.

Our desire has been to move out into the country for quite some while, and we are still pursuing this desire, however, now not only are we wanting to get out to the country, but are wanting to live as much off the land as possible. (yes, I know, why???) Well, because we want to! :-) We'd like to strive for as much self-sufficiency as we can to a) cut costs in the long run, b) know what we're eating, and c) be able to turn around and sell it to others, in the hopes of making profit. No, not to become wealthy & hit it rich, but enough that we could work our own land full time, and have that be our soul means of living. We're not sure if this is what God's plan is for us or not, but we are trusting that if it is, a place will come available in our area, and in our price range, and slowly but surely, we can incorporate one new thing at a time. Some things we can do now, and are doing, like having a garden and growing our own veggies, making our own breads, and now making our own butter. These things, if we produced enough, we could sell at the local Farmer's Market and start building a following... but we have not gone this far yet, because we are proceeding with caution! (lessons learned, you know) So, if you would come along side of us in prayer, we would sure appreciate it. We are patiently waiting on the Lord, and listening for His direction, while moving forward with what we can move forward with! When you're in the neighborhood, make sure to stop by to try some of our homemade butter! It's delicious!

Blessings

This is our "new to us" pull behind camper. It's an '89 26' Shasta.

Kitchen in the front right as you walk in the door. Nice U shaped kitchen. Most room I've had! Dinette table that folds down into a bed. Pull out couch that sleeps2 also. And another bed in the back that sleeps 2. (6 total)

Just incase anyone has to go! :-) There is also a tub shower in the front of the potty.

As you can see, we have been blessed again from the Lord. To make a long story somewhat short; last summer after camping season, we gutted our motorhome because there had been some leaks in the roof, and it needed new paneling put in. As most of you know, in the fall of last year, Brad got a part time job, and had no time to work on the motorhome. So, it sat all fall, winter, spring, and summer with us not having the time or energy to put the motorhome back together. I had tried to sell it on and off again on craigslist just to get rid of it. Ideally, we'd hoped to sell it and eventually buy a pull behind. Well, last weekend, I thought I had the motorhome sold, but the guy was WAY low on his offer, and I chewed on it, and chewed on it, but decided to decline because I knew that it was really too low, so I held out. I wondered if I should kick myself or not, but I just let it go, knowing that the Lord would bring the right buyer. So, on Friday of this past week, I had an email that said that they wanted to come look at the motorhome. They came and looked, and liked it, and asked if we'd be willing to trade our motorhome for their 26' pull behind! A little scared of what it would look like, knowing they wanted to just do a trade; I asked if they would email pictures. So that night they did, and Brad and I looked them over, and it looked cute enough to see in person, so we went and checked it out. We LOVED it! :-) It has some things that need to be fixed, but seriously, we were the winning party with this trade! To sum this story up, they came on Friday and looked at our motorhome, we went to their house on Saturday to look at their pull behind, and then all parties agreed on the trade, and we did the "trading" on Sunday and made it official! Praise the Lord for His blessings!! It's ready to go..... we could go camping this weekend if we wanted.... YEA!!! So, hoping that the weather won't get too crazy, we'll go on one last camping trip before winter gets here. Anyone want to join us? Anyhow, I just wanted to share this fun and exciting news with you all! Here are some pix of our new treasure!

Where did June go??

Hello friends & family,
I don't have too much to report except to say, "Where has June gone?" I swear, this year is FLYING by!! We have gone camping only twice (counting this weekend) and that's about it. Not too many warm/hot days to go to the pool with all the RAIN! Helps our garden though I suppose. Will have to take a picture of that soon to show you. This years garden is going much better than last years! (especially with the deer not eating it all gone!!)
Getting ready to go visit my old stomping grounds in Cali. Looking forward to seeing family, friends, and THE REDWOODS!! Can't wait. And of course, hitting the ocean on the way either there or on the way back..... oh the ocean.... how I miss thee.... I can smell the smells now! (yes, the good smells! Don't be gross!) Plan on being in town for about 2 weeks then head on back home, and begin to prepare for the school year to start back up again in just a few short weeks! CRAZINESS! And even crazier...... I have a SENIOR this year! I don't know how that is possible, because I know that I'm not getting OLD!! No! No! I am NOT!!!
So there, that's all I have to say. Short and sweet, yes? Will post about our trip when we get home and post some fun pix from our ventures! Looking forward to seeing some of you!

Trail Period & Mother's Day!

This past week has been so fun & exciting! We were able to watch our friends 11 month old son for almost a week. It was a little bit of an adjustment, but really not too much. More adjustments of things that you need to move out of reach or needing that baby gate that you don't have any more, and then remembering the diaper bag when we get up and go somewhere! Our schedule really didn't change any, for we are normally at home, but when we did go out, it was like getting right back on that bike. It really has been an enjoyable week. I think that we will all miss him greatly when he goes home! The girls were a great help, happily, and also enjoyed every minute! This is what I am calling our "trial period" or should I say "remembering period".

For those who don't know, we are planning on foster caring children with the intent of adoption, whether the adoption comes through the children we are fostering, or not, it just depends on what the Lord brings our way, and what His plan is for us. But, before we are able to foster children we have to jump through many hoops, and fill out lots of paperwork, and then attend a 10 week class in which you will learn how to care for children that are not yours, as well as how to parent and care for them knowing that the full intent is to reunite the children with their rightful parents if at all possible. During this 10 weeks, we will also be partaking in a home study where someone comes to your home, talks to your children, and pretty much investigates you and your home to see if you are "qualified" to take care of them.

This is pretty weird and intense. I mean no one did all of these things and asked all these questions when we were having our own children, so it is a little intimidating! (Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.) We have accomplished all that is required thus far, and now will begin our 10 week class this coming Tuesday! The class will end in July & the only thing left to do is wait for our "Approval" letter from the state confirming our worthiness. We have not been stressed nor frustrated, but I have to say that the closer we get, the more excited I become. It was such a joy to have our friends son here, and I can't wait to have a little one again in our family full time!

We will move forward with adoption while partaking in foster caring. Sometimes, an infant or young child becomes available for adoption and since the state knows of specific families that are ready (read: have done all the paperwork & attended classes required) they are sometimes offered the chance to adopt said child. Again, I don't know what the Lords plan is for us, but I have to say that we are all very excited to be growing our family and adopting a child(ren) that is without a loving family or home!

Brad and I began this journey in 2007 I think it was, and then decided to open up the coffee shop instead. (That was silly!) And so to say the least, it's taken a while to get back on track and here we finally are! God is so faithful and merciful to get us back to where we needed to be! Some friends of ours were going to be adopting from the Congo and we began to go down that path as well, but while at a meeting with their agency, we heard the Lord clearly say, "There are plenty of children right here abandoned on the streets, so why are you going all the way to the Congo to care for the abandoned child?" We left that meeting talking about the clear message that the Lord spoke to both of us and so we began down a different path, still adoption, but from the states and here we are! So your up to date for now anyhow! I can't wait for July to get here though! LOL As if time doesn't fly by fast enough! However I just can't help it. We will adopt as many as the Lord wills us to & are excited about the thought! I am thinking 2 more, but we will see. I pray that He indeed does want to grow our family and allow us to adopt little children just has He has adopted us as His little children!

Well this post is two days before Mother's Day, and I wish for all the mothers' out there a blessed day, knowing that it is us that are truly blessed, to have the beautiful gift of child(ren), not that we should expect "gifts" from them, because they ARE the gift and we should be ever grateful to the Creator who created (our childrens) inmost being; who knit (our children) together in their mothers womb! Be purposeful to train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward!

May you have a blessed Mother's Day with not only your children but also with your mothers telling them, and loving on them letting them know how much you do truly love and appreciate them, especially for putting up with you!!! No, just kidding, that was just for my mothers ears! LOL

Love to you all! Til next time~

Well, hello April!!! :-)

So it appears that I've slacked off just a little bit since the last time I wrote was in December! We've had a lot of activity since then, so I will blame it on that. January Brad & I celebrated 14 years of marriage! awe... it seems like it was just yesterday when we married! I have been so blessed to have Brad as my husband! And he loves me.... the good the BAD and the UGLY! What a guy. OK, so then Courtney and I both had birthdays in Jan, Taylor & Katrina had bdays in Feb, and then we had Grandma from CA come for a visit in March, which is always fun. I love my family and wish we could get together more often, but we can't, so we make the most of it~!

What else?????? Spring, spring, spring is ALMOST here. I was just telling a friend that we woke up to snow covered trees and cars this morning, just to have it all melted away again by 12-1pm the same day. Not a glimpse in sight that there had just been snow on the ground! That's Iowa for ya I guess. So, yes, spring, I am SO READY for spring. I would really like to be HOT for a change...... looking forward to summer too!

Have been reading some really great books with a group of friends over the past 6 months or so. I have the list at the bottom if you like to read. I would recommend them all!~

Even though we school all year round, our "school year" is wrapping up and I am really looking forward to the break. Not of school, but from deadlines! We'll wrap up the "school year" the middle of April, so just a couple more weeks left. We plan to do some really fun school this summer, learning as a family, taking a little bit of a different approach to what we've been doing thus far, so I'm really excited about that! I know you CAN'T WAIT to read all about it! HAHAHAHAHAHA Yes, that was a funny.

Well, that is it for now. Maybe I can/will write more if I just make them short and sweet? We'll soon see! Love you all!

The Mehmen's