Since I started posting to the facebook page this site has seen little traffic but it’s good for info and such that exceeds what facebook’s post limit will allow.

Quick Recap of the last 7 months…

We have moved again. Just north of College Station to a smaller town. Rent is less and we are actually financially stable now. We still owe people money, But there’s a Long list and we still don’t have a wild excess. For now though, bills are getting paid, food is on the table, and we are looking to be able to start paying people back by November. Work is work but I am still seriously homesick for family and the Pacific NorthWest. The Church has been a great family to us, but I am thinking, if I can have both Church and Family, the cooler weather and gold in the hills to chase, then why the heck am I still in Texas? Cause Jobs don’t grow on tree’s. For now I will hang onto what I have, and look for government work. They at least have the resources to keep you employed after 2011. Obama is bound and determined to Insure the nations working class out of employment. How you figure? Well for every one person a company is forced to insure, is another they are going to have to Lay off in order to afford it. Imagine McDonald’s trying to insure all their employees. The Dollar Menu just became the five dollar menu.

We have another little car, a Geo Metro ( Thank you President Mitchell ! ). It gets me to work and back for the week on $20, instead of the $100 the Van was sucking down. That’s with no extra trips. We grabbed a new Digital Camera from a Pawn shop for $35. That’s high spending these days. Which reminds me. August 3rd in 2007 was when I lost the best Job I ever loved. And I miss it still. The course of the last 3 years has taught us more than the nearly 14 years we have been together. When I got laid off we managed to hang on another 8 months, 3 of that without power and intermittent water / Gas. Gwendalynn was born by the light of a Hurricane lamp. We then lived with Freedom for a couple of weeks, then moved into a 1 bedroom trailer, then a 2 bedroom trailer ( Thank You Clyde ). In January of ‘09 I got this Job I have now. I would mention the name but I learned with Xslent that’s not quite a good idea. At least this new knowledge comes to us in time to better prepare our children for the future!

We are kicking ourselves in the butts for how much better that money could have been spent. If we knew then, what we know now, yea that phrase again. Not going there. If we were to find a job like that again, we would be spending the money much wiser. Look to our facebook pages in the next couple of days for a link to the single book we read that describes the method we used to create our budget. 2 words. It Works. Moving forward we hope to get ahead of this curve and prosper. Shirley is nearly a teenager, and the rest are screaming ( sometimes literally ) right behind her. The truth is simple, and this one book, rather than the $100’s of dollars other schemes will scam you out of, is the epitome of simple.

Look for more photos in the Photo Album !

God is good, and God is great We have The Church, Family, Friends and God to thank for getting this far. Btw, we are in a House again, instead of an apartment or trailer. Keith, Warren, Benny, You’re still on the list. Pretty soon, it will start getting back you. Just keep having patience!

The Accident:
It got interesting on the 23rd when we were sandwiched between one person screwing up, and another screwing off. We were cut off and had to swerve to avoid hitting another van jumping out into our lane when we were slammed by a woman speeding in hers. I will post exact details later but the long and the short of it means we were without a van. Yes, we were hit that hard. Everybody is ok, which was a real blessing! Not even the driver that hit us. On the dark side it’s looking as though the insurance company is doing everything in their power to give us the bone. We are definitely going to have to get a Lawyer on this one. Our Van is drivable but I don’t know for how long, and how it’s going to fail. It creaks, groans, pops and squeals from various locations along the body when going down the road.

Christmas:
We are still at the point of barely keeping up, but we are still doing a lot better than we were last year. Gifts from Us weren’t overflowing and most of the gifts under the tree came from donations made from anonymous friends and members of the Church. More family sent their gifts ahead of time in the form of cash for the buying of presents, and we got a few things from the local Christmas box. But after the accident it really felt that our Christmas gifts were nobody getting hurt. The children opening their gifts seemed anti-climatic for us, but the kidz had a ball for certain. Everything was well received. Christmas for us came on the same evening that Erin came over to offer the ride to the rescheduled NST. Annette and John called and offered us their old 15 passenger van. For Free, which is newer than ours, and has a bigger engine. Needless to say we were, and are blown away by their generosity! Words cannot describe how we feel still! As soon as we have the money we can get insurance and title. The old van was insured in Florida, as it still had the Florida plates, so I just can’t transfer it to the new van in Texas. We still don’t know what to say…

Debbie’s Birth:
I went in to work as normal on Monday. Nobody is really in any serious mood to put their nose to the grindstone but we managed to make it through the day. Tuesday I setup for the in-service and clocked out for Megan’s NST appointment which doesn’t happen. I end up catching up on sleep since I hadn’t gone to bed until 4:30 that morning. Tuesday evening Erin came over and offered us a ride and babysitting to reschedule the NST visit. Almost Immediately after she leaves John and Annette call and offered us their van ( Read above) Wednesday morning Erin gives us a ride to the NST appointment at 9. When we arrive we get put on the machine to check the Baby and everything is fine. When the doctor gets there we are told we are being induced because he wants to go on his vacation and none of the other doctors will do a VBAC, Despite Megan having two successful VBACs at home, unassisted.

We are not asked, or advised, but flat out ordered, at the top of the doctors lungs no less. ( There will be *much* more on this little tidbit later. ) This has caused ripples that are going to have a most pronounced effect on the direction of our family’s lives. We intend to do everything in our power to effect a change that will prevent this kind of behavior from being possible at all. Individual discipline of the incident is a waste of effort, compared to getting above the problem and preventing it from propagating across the discipline. I have 6 girls I hope will never have to go through what we did on Wednesday. If there is anything I can do to prevent that I will.

After getting to the hospital things went pretty much as expected, Megan was induced against her will and we had our little baby girl at 12:18 am on the 31st. The date was auspicious but the means were not. Deborah Elizabeth Baker weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. Rowan still holds the record as our smallest at 9 Pounds 5 ounces. The Biggest was Jaydn at 11 Pounds and 5 Ounces. She was born on the 2nd Blue moon of the year, the next 2nd blue moon is not expected until 2028. The 31st was also the night of an eclipse in Europe. As Spaceweather.com put it

BLUE MOON ECLIPSE: Blue moons–rare. Blue moons on New Year’s Eve–really rare. A lunar eclipse of a Blue Moon on New Year’s Eve–well, that’s just ridiculous.

( Read More )

As for the birth, Outside the office, the Doctor was a different person. Once induction was started they left us alone to do our thing with the monitors on. He let me help catch which is practically un-heard of, and offered to let me cut the cord. She had lots of vernix ( Wikipedia Link ) which tells us she was due in the oven for a lot longer.

Wendy had come over to watch our brood while we went to our appointment, and then took them all over to her house to spend the night when it became apparent that we weren’t going to be coming home until the next day. Annette and John took them over to theirs in the morning for a few hours. .

New Years:
Having been born on New Years Eve we were allowed to go home a little early so we could all be together, which again after the exhaustion and getting the kidz settled made the new year really anti-climatic. The only reason I was awake for it is because two of the alarm clocks in the house that keep track of the date went off on their own accord. Knowing how dangerous I am in the kitchen, The relief Society at church has been bringing over meals so Megan doesn’t have to cook.

Other than all that everything seems almost normal. It’s been a very blessed, eventful and life altering two weeks. Stay tuned and your almost certain to hear all about it coming up!

Oh and as promised, photos are available!

It’s a little early to start the year in review for new years but this ThanksGiving we had a lot to be thankful for that describes the better part of 2009. First a Big Thank You to Aunt Debbie and Family for sponsoring a fair chunk of Christmas both this year and many more to come! We didn’t have space in the Van to take the Christmas tree with us, and the decorations we had brought were stolen from the storage unit in front of the 2 bedroom apartment. Up until a couple weeks ago we didn’t have a single ornament or Light, and there wasn’t going to be a Christmas.

Here’s the digest version of the year:

In January I got this new Job with FMI. On my first day I didn’t have a place to live until I clocked out that evening. Many Thanks to Benny who allowed me to share his apartment. In March I moved the rest of the family here. Arrangements had fallen through and Benny allowed the 8 of us to share his 2 bedroom apartment. We were going to take over the lease until the Ex-Wife started taking her money again and I couldn’t afford that location. God stepped in and sent us an angel in the form of Warren with HD&Co who rented us an apartment of our own in May. This gave us a little more room but it was still pretty tight. At the start of November Warren offered us a 3 bedroom for $25 more than we were spending on the two bedroom.

We now have the same amount of space we were using when we lived in the house in Florida, sans my workshop in the Garage. Moods are tempering and we are all eating at the dinner table again, but we are still having trouble getting the little ones to stop sleeping on the living room floor though. We have been fixated on the house in Riverview, can’t get this or that out of our head for the last two years. I am thinking it’s because until recently that was the last normal place we lived. This new apartment feels like home, and I pray things continue to improve, and begin to repay those that put themselves out to see us get ahead. It’s been a tough tough two years. I will go into better detail after new years. It’s going to take more than a lunch break to compose.

Everyone will also like to know that our latest has turned herself into the proper position and is no longer breech and is still expected somewhere in mid to late December !!

Wishing everyone Christmas Cheers,
Peace and God Bless,
- Dan.

It’s said that Laughter is God’s favorite music, Lord help me when my girls start dating cause I have a feeling he’s going to be highly amused. I expect it’s payback for my own amours when I was a teen. I wasn’t *That* bad… Was I?

It’s not like I am saying almost all girls is a bad thing, they are certainly very very beautiful. I am not looking forward to the number of boyfriends I am going to have to intimidate in as short as 5 years, and then on from 2014 through 2026 by which time Shirley will be 30, exactly as old as Megan is now. It wouldn’t be unheard of for her to have say a 10 year old of her own by then. I am feel older by the minute… I will be 55 and Megan 48 when the last one is old enough to leave the house.

Anyhow, everyone involved is healthy despite some strong contractions for a bit. We have some really awesome friends that have been helping out with babysitting and things. We will be posting more on that later.

As for the last post about garnishments on the wages, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be. They took less than $40 per paycheck, and it goes towards paying that off our credit report anyways so that is really going to help us in the long run.

Keep the prayers coming everyone they are most appreciated!

Peace and God Bless.

That means all the progress we thought we would be making for October has to be put off for November. Add to that a financial blunder in our past is coming back to haunt us. We bought a car in 2006, and we gave it back realizing we couldn’t afford it in California. When I was laid off in 2007 there was no money to give them. Now during out attempt to rebuild from literally nothing I get a letter in the mail declaring me a garnishee. I worry that we may end up homeless again if they take too much. Is there no defense for people in our situation? This has me feeling like my Back is against the wall and my only reaction to this kind of threat is going to be an aggressive one. There has *GOT* to be defenses for people like us. It would suck to have to quit this job and move *again* because we couldn’t afford a place to live. I am really enjoying working where I am. On the bright side, if they don’t take too much we can at least get that cleaned off our credit report. On the bad side, Texas will be getting too cold to live in tents soon. Keep your fingers crossed and pray please. It’s disgusting though, that you can work your butt off doing the right thing and end up just as broke as when you started. Yet someone gets a bit of coffee spilled in their laps and they go home with millions. without leaning on the judicial system like the rest of country we we are going to forego the regular holidays this year, and try and focus entirely on Christmas. We have plans to produce our own Christmas music CD, and sell that for funds to help buy presents this year. We will make links available when we have something. It’s a shame though, we had hoped we had this crap behind us. It means it’s going to be even longer before we can get money to the people that really deserve it.

Regarding Facebook, I have surprisingly been getting into touch with family members I haven’t seen in years. It’s a good thing for certain, something I hope to continue regardless of what happens to the rest of my paycheck. I also have more pix of the kidz and everyone that will be added to the gallery soon.

Anyone have any comments or suggestions on how to fix this without winning the lottery?

Peace and God Bless.
- Dan.

If you been watching the news today you might know about this:

Cnn: Texas Fire
KHOU: Fertilizer Fire

Basically a chemical plant that produces explosive products caught fire and the evac zone is 100 feet from where we live. Can’t give much more info on our location though *Wink*. I am sure you get the idea why. Whether I will be allowed to go to work tomorrow is entirely unknown. So far we haven’t been affected any more than that.

Other than that the home front is kind of Quiet. Megan has the kidz homeschooling again with the help of some friends we met at church., and we are slowly trudging our way on top of finances. I estimate we will be able to start paying people back around the middle of September.

Keep the prayers going it’s been working!

Peace and God Bless.
- Dan.

A few things happened when we got everyone to Texas that helped us and hurt us. Benny let us sublet his apartment, then the ex-wife started getting her payments again then we couldn’t afford that apt anymore and had to move on short order. That’s one mess we have to pay off. As much as I hate to say it, we finally got some public assistance with the food too. In Florida the church had been feeding us. Now it’s the state. We don’t like to, but we don’t abuse it either. It’s allowed us to keep a roof over our heads. As previously, we had been eating the money that was supposed to be going to Benny for Rent.

That’s when God worked a miracle for us. A nice Muslim couple had posted their much more affordable apartment on craigslist, which was practically given to us, as well as $400 to help with the first two months rent. This money helped us move from the old apt to this one, and get a few critical things like a shower curtain, and other similar amenities. We had practically new beds and dishes given to us by a friend form the church as well as help getting them upstairs to our new abode.

We have been in this nice apartment for less than a month, and have yet to see what power is going to be though, so I am still a bit nervous. The Ac runs a lot because it’s too small, but it keeps the place cool. And of course we have our computers. They run less than a tv, and most families have more than one of those too, but not like we do. My last paycheck was only $208 due an error the previous pay period, or we would have some money set aside already to offset rent this paycheck. That has me nervous too.

We had a friend and her family visit from Washington recently. Tamri and her crew of 6 came over two weeks ago and we all went to Lake Bryan. I took 9 children by myself into the shallows and had a blast throwing kidz into the water and other general mayhem.

At the end of the day we enjoyed a nice meal prepared by Tamri and family, then went home exhausted not too long afterward. Cost for the day? $5 admission per car. For our family that’s 63 cents per person!

We are looking forward to gaining stability in the home department. The last two years have been traumatizing and testimony building. The church here has just as good and timely messages as Florida did, so I know we are in the right place. God has been visibly working for us right and left, and we are ever grateful for it. No question.

We have a bit of a ways to go to get back everything we lost, and even then alot I think we never will get back. We have debts to friends in Florida, Keith, we haven’t forgotten you. Clyde, we owe you a lot for renting to our huge family when we needed so badly, thanks for your patience on the Van payments. Freedom and family, thank you for you for opening your home to us when everything good but God went away. We still owe you a family website. There’s a few more, and we certainly aren’t done with Florida, or our friends in California. We may even get a set of Christmas cards out this year. So please pray for us as we continue to pick up after our two year disaster.

That’s all for now. The photo album is being put back together to include a photo documentary. It’s going to be several weeks before it’s ready. pictures are scattered everywhere.

Until Later.
Peace and God Bless.
- Dan.

I am happy to report the exodus flight to Texas went off fairly painlessly. We left late, and were making good time until we hit the traffic and rain. between the two I ran out of steam and had to start a chain of naps. this combined with more bad traffic we totally missed my ETA of being back to work by Monday morning. Tuesday should be a much better start. I am ever so grateful to the lord for getting here in one piece and with no major events.

We need prayer now for a home to call our own. We find out tonight if we will have a pad to crash at for the next few days or if we will need to camp it in the van until we can get a home secured. I would have kept Megan and the kids in Florida if I had been able to secure funds for it, but considering how Sick Megan was getting I think bringing her and the family with me was the wisest thing we could have done.

I will keep everyone informed how things develop. keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

- Dan.

We will buzz ppl when we roll into Bryan.

Peace and God Bless
- Dan.

During the course of the last week we were turned down for the few places we had applications left in for in Texas. Megan and the family can’t stay behind in Florida this time as the money couldn’t be sustainably secured. Given the financial burden of supporting two households and the emotional and spiritual toll of living apart we determined that we couldn’t be apart a moment longer, nor again. The toll it took on all of us was just too great. To top it off I might not be able to afford a return trip to get them once I got a place to live for all of us. So with that we are packing everyone up and pray we can find a place in Texas before the limited funds we do have runs out. It’s a hope in Texas, vs what we know will happen if I leave the family behind in Florida again. Megan will be resuming the home search with the kids while I return to work.

The Irony is we couldn’t wait to get through Texas on our drive through to Florida. We had commented on how it would be nice to just stop and stay. By that time, we were in day three of that exodus and were ready to be done. Now we are going back and it can’t happen fast enough.

The hardest part right now, is we never had a routine in Florida, nothing we can do for a sense of closure when we literally “Bug Out”. From Working for Xslent to driving a tow truck and back into IT, The last two years have been the most unstable we have ever known. We are hoping to open a new book in Texas, diligently applying the recent lessons learned.

Whoever is reading this and is inclined to prayer, we could use a mention with the lord above please!

Peace and God Bless!
- Dan.