The Adventures of Kristi

Copy Cat

2008-11-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

While perusing through blogs this morning, I read this on Allison's blog. Since it was a quick and easy way to post a new blog, I thought I'd copy it. Enjoy!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both
2. Real tree or Artificial? REAL
3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as possible after Thanksgiving!
4. When do you take the tree down? New Years unless we're afraid of spontaneous combustion due to lack of water.
5. Do you like eggnog? I think store bought is gross..but I have a recipe from an old Betty Crocker kids cookbook that I LOVE...it has real raw eggs in it. =)
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Books...I loved to read. In particular babysitters club and Little House on the Prairie series.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Brother in law(s)
8. Easiest person to buy for? My sister Kendra..we like exactly the same things!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, finally! I've wanted one forever and last year I found/bought one that was like 90% off after Christmas and I can't wait to put it up!
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Uh..*cough*choke* I don't send Christmas cards...last year I wrote an email letter...but never sent it.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? The only thing I can think of wasn't really my worst..Last year I knew my mom was getting me something I wanted, I just knew it..and when I opened the gift from her it was a big box of folding chairs! She had gotten me a set of folding chairs and a folding table in addition to what I really wanted, but I opened the chairs first...boy was I disappointed there for a minute!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A toss up between A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...yes, this is my sense of humor and I laugh every time.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually after Thanksgiving mostly due to not knowing *who* I'm buying for since we always do something different with the McKenney's and we always draw names on my side.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Peanut Butter fudge..but it's not specific to Christmas
16. Lights on the tree? Uh...yeah!
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home and let people come to us! =)
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Roudolf
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Yes!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Feels so busy that I don't always get to enjoy it slowly enough.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Most of my decorations are silver and green.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We have a special Christmas breakfast/brunch..I always look forward to that the most I think.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have asked for some things such as books, a cordless drill, a garbage disposal...but what I REALLY want is a gift certificate for a new procedure I just learned about called LipoLift....Oh yeah, and world peace.
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? I'm not tagging anyone so whoever wants and easy way to post a blog!

Expelled

2008-11-10T08:55:00.001-08:00

Last night Josh and I watched a documentary by Ben Stein called, Expelled. I didn't expect to like it. I didn't expect for it to touch me. I didn't expect to get teary. But I did. It is a very powerful documentary about Evolution vs. Intelligent Design being taught in our schools and in our mainstream media. But to my surprise (and horror, really) it goes much deeper than that! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend watching it. I think as Christians, we need to be informed about things like this so that we can have the tools to stand up for what is right when the time comes.

**Oh, and for anyone who is interested, I have a potty update! The girls continue to be fabulous! We have yet to get an actual #2, but there have been very few accidents. They get so excited to go and they even cheer for their sisters! Whoo Hoo!

Potty Time....?

2008-11-06T07:42:00.001-08:00

So yesterday, to my complete and utter surprise was our first day of potty training with the girls. I wasn't planning on doing it...really. It just sort of happened. Yesterday morning when the girls got up, I fed them breakfast and then put them in the bathtub. While they were in the tub, I decided to take advantage of the time while they're entertained and somewhat confined and re-arrange my living room. We've lived in our house for a year now and I've never been totally happy with the arrangement. But that's a blog for another day. At any rate, when the girls were done in the tub, I was still working so I didn't want to stop and put diapers on them. Plus, whenever they have on only diapers, they come off in 2.5 seconds anyway, so it's kind of worthless.

At any rate, after being naked for a while they started whining about needing to go potty or poop or whichever. So I talked to them about going in their potty chairs. We got out the chairs for them to play with. I totally though that this was as far as we were going to get..we've been here before, I've just never pushed. And I didn't really today either. Further along in the morning, Kynden started to go on the floor. I grabbed her up and brought her over to her chair. She sat there for a little bit and then put a tiny bit in her chair. At first she acted like she was scared or like she did something wrong. But I clapped and cheered and gave hugs and rewarded her with an m&m. After seeing that, Ellyanna wanted to do it too. So without much more effort than that, Ellyanna just went! 2 or 3 times all on her own initiative! And she even pooped! I about fell over! By the end of the morning, all the girls had gone in their chairs and were so proud of themselves. I bought them some big girl underwear yesterday..so we'll work on that today. I can't really let myself believe that it's really going to be this easy. I had so much trouble with the boys! I don't want to get my hopes up...but really...can it be this easy?

Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering, I did get my living room arranged. And I think I like it. I'll leave it for a few days and then move a couple things around on the walls if I decide to keep it.

Star Wars Episode 7

2008-11-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

Evil Darth Vader getting along with a storm trooper.

Princess Leia

Padme/Queen Amidala

And finally, Yoda.

Like Mother Like Daughter(s)

2008-11-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

I have always been a big fan of painted toenails. I ALWAYS have my toenails painted. Even while pregnant and even in the winter when I'm the only one who ever sees them. I'm pretty sure that even after almost 10 years of marriage, Josh has almost never seen me with naked toes. I have been addicted for quite some time to doing a french pedicure on my toes, but the last time I re-did my toes for lack of time and motivation I decided to go red. The girls were facinated by them. So a few days ago, I decided to put a little coat of paint on the girls' toes. They were over the moon excited! They were each clamoring for their turn in my lap to get the "pretty" on their toes. Nothing like passing on a little girly tradition.

Carving Pumpkins

2008-11-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

The day before Halloween, we finally "carved" out time to carve our pumpkins. You'll notice that yes, Kynden is naked in this picture. We took off the clothing so as to not get pumpkin all over, and whenever the clothes come off, the diaper must follow. I have to say that carving pumpkins this year was pretty fun. The boys were old enough to be able to design their own and were able to use the pumpkin carving tools on their own..so they didn't need much help. The girls on the other hand, did need help of course. Ellyanna didn't seem to really care much about her pumpkin other than throwing it like a ball. Adelynn was very interested in the process, but whined EVERY time she got any pumpkin goo on a finger..even the tiniest bit. But Kynden on the other hand literally dug right in. She had so much fun spooning seeds out of the pumpkin and into the bowl and then again out of the bowl and back in to the pumpkin. She was very serious about her pumpkin seeds. Tomorrow I will post pictures of our Halloween costumes.

The Vortex

2008-10-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

In most households there is something that we like to call the "dryer monster" that seems to make socks disappear without a trace. In my house though, we do not have a dryer monster (although the dryer does regularly eat clothes and ruin them). What we have in our house I have not-so-lovingly named "The Vortex". The Vortex lives in an undisclosed area of our house and it mostly eats shoes. It especially seems to enjoy the flavor of the girls' shoes, but on occassion it will also eat mine and the boys' shoes. It seems to prefer a variety of shoes...it won't ever eat an entire pair of shoes...only one at a time and then it moves on to the next pair.

Currently the girls have about 5 pairs of shoes that fit their feet. I have spent the last few days searching and searching for all their shoes and so has Jan. They have one, count it, ONE complete set of shoes. (ie, all three matching pairs) And do you know why they have one complete set? Because I gave up looking for the missing shoe and bought a whole other pair! This is frustrating. Shoes are expensive. I have looked in their room, under their beds, in their toys, all around the house, behind the washer and dryer, outside, in the cars...you get the idea. I have a bad feeling that we are never going to be seeing all those shoes again. Sad.

The Vortex, while normally prefering shoes, sometimes also eats things like measuring cups, sippy cups and sometimes even Bryce's homework. If only I could find that Vortex. I'd be a millionaire.

Upcoming Election

2008-10-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

I know, I know a huge no no...but I just read this and I wanted to link it so that I could share with everyone. I know there are a lot of differing opinions to the race for the president, and frankly I'm just ready to have it over with because I'm sick of all the commercials. But I read this and it made me cry. And I think it's so terribly, terribly important....

Randy Alcorn's Blog

My new favorite quote

2008-10-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Nelson Mandela

A day of hard labor

2008-10-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday my friends Heidi, Christine and Andrea came over to my house bright and early and we started a LONG day of canning. Heidi had been to Growers Outlet a couple days before and bought a ton of fruit so we had a lot of work cut out for us. We had 50 lbs of peaches, 50 lbs of pears, 50+ lbs of tomatoes and 2 brown paper grocery bags of apples from Heidi's grandma's tree. It was a long 10 hour day...and even then, Heidi had to take home her box of peaches to do at home and I had 2 batches of applesauce still to make and can. But all in all, it was a great day. Such a huge sense of accomplishment when you see all the can's lined up. This is my first year of serious canning. Last year I dabbled a bit in canning. When my grandma realized that I had acquired an interest in canning, she brought me a gift. Her pressure canner, complete with all the parts and instruction manual from 1962. This is such a treasure to me! Not only do I love old things...but this particular pressure canner has family history! I have always wondered why canning in particular was so nostalgic for me. My mom didn't really do any canning so I don't remember this process as a kid. Last night my question got answered. My sister called me last week and asked me if I could look through a box of photos from my dad to see if her birth certificate had gotten mixed up in them. So last night I was looking through the box and consequently through our old photos. As I was doing this I found a package of photos. Let me give you a little background on these particular photos. When I was growing up, my mom's grandparents lived in Boise, Idaho (my grandma still does) about 3 hours away from Boise, in Riggins Idaho lived my great grandparents in a house that my great grandpa built. We called it "up on the river" because they literally lived right across the street from the Little Salmon River. We went up there almost every year growing up. I have a lot of memories of there that I won't talk about now...but when I was about Jr High or Highschool, we went up there for the last time. My great grandparents were getting up in years and needed to sell their house and property and move to a retirement home. So since I knew it was the last time I'd ever be there, I took my camera and took pictures of every room in the house.
As I was looking through this particular roll of film, I discovered this picture:

This is my great grandma's pantry. No wonder that I am nostalgic about canning. My mom never did it, but my great grandma did. And my grandma did...(actually, she still does) I most remember my great grandma always having canned cherries from their many cherry trees that grew on their property. I loved those! But I also remember peaches. It's so exciting when you find something like this. Even though I didn't know (or remember) where this came from, I knew that my desire and drive to do home canning came from somewhere. And now I have proof that it's in my family history. How cool is that?

The Great Green Experiment Part 2

2008-10-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

So the great green experiment continues on in the McKenney household. It was a few days ago that I tried the green tomato bread recipe...but it didn't last long. The bread got rave reviews from the entire household as well as from some visiting friends yesterday who have requested the recipe. The bread is very similar to zucchini bread and really tastes like fall and not at all like tomatoes which made it a winner for me!

Here is a pic of the bread. And here is the recipe:

1 cup oil

3 eggs, beaten

2 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups ground green tomatoes

3 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg (again, I omitted this since I don't like nutmeg and instead doubled the cloves)

nuts and raisins (optional; I didn't use)

Stir together oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and green tomatoes. Sift together remaining ingredients and add into tomato mixture. Pour into 2 well oiled loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Yummy!

The fourth and last experiment I did was for Green Tomato Raspberry Jam. Interesting, right? The recipe claimed that it looked and tasted just like raspberry jam....and you know what? They were right! Well, almost. There is a slightly different flavor in there, but really, it is almost the same. I'm anxious to try it after it has set to see how the consistency changes it.

Here is a pic of the jars of Green Tomato Raspberry Jam and here is the recipe:

4 cups ground green tomatoes

5 cups sugar

2 (6 oz) raspberry jello pkgs

(I just realized that I only put in half of the jello that it calls for..hopefully it will still set...oops)

Bring tomatoes and sugar to a boil in a large sauce pot. Boil for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add in Jello. Stir until dissolved. Pour into jelly jars and process in boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Closer than a Brother

2008-09-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

For the past week or so, Bryce has been coming down with a cold. One of the first signs of this is that he starts struggling with his breathing due to asthma. Over the weekend his cold really hit him hard and so did the asthma. We decided this morning that we were going to keep him home from school today.

A few minutes after making this decision, Jayden came up to our room sobbing like his heart was breaking...

Josh: What's the matter, buddy?
Jayden: I don't want to go to school today (sobbing)
Josh: Why not?
Jayden (wailing) I don't want Bryce to not be close to my heart! (sobbing)

Josh and I looked at each other. That was the cutest and saddest thing I'd ever heard. So we let him stay home. After all, it's only kindergarten.

The Great Green Experiment Part 1

2008-09-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

This week in the McKenney household we're going green. But it's not what you probably think. Due to the shortness of our summer/hot season, I've found that I have a TON of tomatoes in my garden, but very few of them have even started to turn red yet. I fear that a frost is coming soon (although today is no indication) and I don't want my entire tomato crop to go bad...so I looked up some recipes that use green tomatoes. I chose 4 recipes that I'm going to review for you in case you are having the same tomato problem that I am.

My first bowl of green tomatoes fresh from the garden.

The first recipe that I HAD to try mostly out of sheer curiosity was a green tomato pie. Interesting, right? I thought so, too. Now, let me preface this entire experiment with the fact that I HATE red tomatoes. They make me gag. I do like spaghetti sauce, etc and other things with tomatoes as the base...but eating an entire bite of tomato on it's own...gag. So keep that in mind as you're reading my opinions of these recipes.

So here is a pic of the green tomato pie. It looks good, right? Here's the recipe I used:

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (I omitted this b/c I don't like nutmeg)

1/4 cup + 2 Tb. flour

1 tsp Lemon peel (I also omitted this b/c I didn't have it)

6 med. green tomatoes tossed with 3 Tb lemon juice

1 Tb butter

Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon peel. Peel and cut up tomatoes, toss with lemon juice and add into sugar mixture. Mix lightly until sugar mixture coats all of the tomatoes. Put into prepared pie crust. Dot with butter. Top with top crust. Bake 35-45 min at 425. Serve warm.

*Josh deemed this pie: "interesting", Bryce said: "it's okay". I didn't like it...I just couldn't get over the fact that they were tomatoes. It was a little like apple pie, with a sour tang of tomatoes. If you like tomatoes and don't have a mental block like I do, I would recommend trying it though. Shortly after taking this pic of it, I took it outside and fed it to the chickens, who did appear to like it.

Fried green tomatoes.

The second recipe I tried was fried green tomatoes. A very Southern dish I believe. I have always wanted to try this since the movie. =) Yesterday I finally did. Here's the approximate recipe I used:

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 Tb Italian seasoning

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

(Mix together in a pie plate)

2 beaten eggs in another pie plate

Slice tomatoes. Dip in the flour mixture, then the egg, then the flour again. Fry in olive oil until golden brown on each side. Serve.

These were simple to make and I liked them better than the pie because it seemed a little more "natural" for a tomato to be served this way rather than in a pie. But I still didn't love it..tasted too tomato-y. But Josh did like it and the girls liked it. Again, if you like tomatoes, you should try it.

Part 2 of the Great Green Experiment will include a green tomato raspberry jam and green tomato bread. So stay tuned for those results.

House Rules According to the McKenney Children (well, mostly the triplets)

2008-09-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

1. An adult must not under any circumstance eat food that is not also offered to the children.

2. Meals are optional, but snacking is mandatory.

3. Instructions must be repeated 10 times before compliance is issued.

4. It is the responsibility of an adult to find any and all lost items. Even when the item is exactly where the adult said that it was.

5. Do not attempt to smack our hands or swat our bottoms. We will continue to do what we want to do when and how we want to do it.

6. Books should not under any circumstance be stacked in tidy vertical lines on the shelf. They should be in piles on the floor.

7. We are JUST FINE with looking like orphan children.

8. Anything inside a tube is better outside, anything on a shelf is better on the floor, anything inside a box or container of any kind really should be on the outside.

9. Under penalty of...well, whatever we decide is best in that moment, a parent should not leave us in a room alone. Ever.

10. Showers for adults are optional, but if you decide to take one, just be aware that we will find every item in every drawer in the bathroom and remove it.

11. Diapers also are optional and we will remove whenever the mood strikes.

12. When we are out of eyesight and quiet come and find us IMMEDIATELY.

13. If something is in a store, I will want it. The only exception to this rule is if I am a boy and the item is pink.

14. When you sit down, be prepared to be used as a jungle gym, a trampoline or a spotter for one of our various death defying stunts.

I'm sure there are more that I have overlooked. What would the household rules in your house be if your kids made them?

Saturday Morning

2008-09-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah, okay. So it's Monday morning...and I'm blogging about Saturday morning...I'm a little late.
My friend Katy wrote a blog about Saturday morning and when I read hers, I knew I needed to write about mine. I had already thought about writing about mine, but the comparisons I thought were just too funny. Her blog talks about a relaxing sort of Saturday morning...and mine...well, it's not really like that.
So, on Saturday mornings Josh gets up early and goes to a Men's Bible study. So he's usually out of the house until 9:15am or so, so until that time, I'm on my own. Which is fine, because I'm almost always on my own anyway. This particular Saturday morning was nice. I slept in (Bryce and Jayden were up, but they know better than to come wake me up =) so they found something quiet to do downstairs) So about 8am or so I got up, came downstairs, made my coffee and was sitting quietly at the computer reading blogs and whatever. I heard the girls up and playing in their room, but I have a rule about that. I do not ever get them out of their room unless they are crying...I let them play. And they really do like to play in their room. Well, I broke my rule this particular morning, which I guess was good. In an attempt to not make Josh think I was a bad parent by keeping the girls locked up in their room, I decided to let them out a few minutes before he got home even though they were still playing nicely. This is what I saw:

Oh dear. In case you can't tell, that is in fact Desitin all over Adelynn's face. So, of course I had to focus on cleaning up Adelynn. I got out the wipes and cleaned her face and hands. I was literally in their room cleaning her off for approximately 3 minutes...maybe 5. When I came out, what did I find? Well, I had neglected to put up the baby gates before opening their door. So what I found was Kynden climbing a stool and pulling things down off of the pantry shelf and Ellyanna, who had found a bowl of cat food and dumped it in to the large box of laundry soap and then apparently tried to get the cat food out of the laundry soap so there was laundry soap and cat food in the box and on the floor. To this day there is still cat food in the laundry soap because it is a pain trying to pick cat food out of laundry soap.

So I hauled their cute little behinds out of the laundry room/pantry and put up the gates. What I didn't mention about their room was that in addition to smearing desitin all over herself, Adelynn had also smeared desitin all over their wall and door and someone had opened a new container of wipes and pulled all the wipes out and thrown them all over their room. I'm telling you, they are insane with their destructive super powers. If only they could use their powers for good and not evil.

So after putting up the gates, I went back into their room because I had to get the wipes cleaned up while they were still wet..otherwise they dry out and become useless. So I was in there another 5 minutes or so. When I emerged from their room, I came out to the living room and found; a spilled cup of milk, a spilled bowl of cereal, an overturned plate from the kitchen counter with food all over the floor, an open junk drawer with the contents all over the floor and a box of cereal about to be dumped. So much for my quiet, relaxing morning!

A few moments later Adelynn walked over to me and she was this disgusting shade of grey...even her lips and she had her hand over her mouth and was making whiny noises. I was sure she was going to throw up. She didn't actually, but I assume that she had eaten some of the desitin. I gave her some milk and some cereal and she seemed fine. But unfortunately this state of chaos is how Josh walked in and saw us. So much for looking like a good parent!

Energeo

2008-09-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

If I thought that the week prior to my last blog was busy, it was nothing compared to this last week! I am hoping that this week will be a little less so, but I'm not holding my breath.

The biggest news that is going on in my life right now is that this coming Wednesday the 17th. The new coffee shop at our church that I am running will celebrate it's grand opening. And we (I) have finally, finally, finally decided on a name. It has been a long and grueling process, let me tell you. I mean, it's literally taken months and hours and hours of time. But I have to tell you...I think it's worth it. The name will be announced via email to all the staff at Grace today, so I feel comfortable announcing it to all of you as well. I'm pretty sure none of the elders at church read my blog. =) So without further adieu, the name of our coffee shop is....(drum roll, please)

Cafe Energeo

Energeo is a Greek word pronounced (en-erg-eh'-0) It means: "to work in", "to be active, operative", or "faith as the energizer of love."

I think this is awesome on a number of levels. But in particular, what has come because of the word...and that is our mission statement. I knew for a mission statement, I wanted a verse...but I didn't know which verse or exactly what I wanted it to say. But because of the word Energeo, God helped me find Galatians 5:6 and our mission statement via the Amplified Bible "....faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love." THAT is the heart that I have for the cafe.

I am hoping to be able to stencil these things on the walls of the cafe so that everyone will be able to understand the meaning and the heart behind it. I am so excited to be a part of this ministry. I feel like I have been waiting for years for a ministry to come along that truly speaks to my heart and my gifting and I've found it. Coffee. Coffee may sound like a strange ministry. But I think it's the perfect example of how God can take someone's gifts and their likes or hobbies and turn them into something that He can use for His work. I have ALREADY seen God working in this and it's not even open yet! So I know He's here. And in God's presence is exactly where I want to be.

Beach Trip- Labor Day 2008

2008-09-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ellyanna was so tired after a long day of playing and no nap that she fell asleep in the choo-choo wagon. All in all we had a very fun day!

What do I call this post?

2008-09-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you go for a while without blogging because there's nothing going on worth blogging about? These last weeks have been exactly the opposite. I have been so incredibly busy and there's so much going on worth blogging about that I just haven't had the time! So instead of writing big long detailed posts about things, I again have to do a 'catch up' bullet type list. So here we go!

*Last Saturday the girls turned 2. Yes, I know. 2. We had a little party over the weekend for them. It was fun. They wore cute dresses and they totally adored all the attention. They finally 'got' the whole present opening thing and it was so fun to see them figure out that if they pulled the paper off or out of the bag there were fun things inside for them. It has been such a hard thing for me emotionally to see them turn two. They're my babies! And they're getting so big! And so mobile...and so destructive...and have learned to unscrew things...waaaaa!

*I am currently working on a project for my church. We are opening up a coffee shop inside of our church and I have volunteered to run it. I know that I have 2 year old triplets and how can I think of doing something like this? Well, I'll answer that. First and foremost, I feel totally called to this ministry. Ever since a couple years ago when they first mentioned that they were putting a coffee shop in, God told me that this was for me. I didn't know in what capacity he wanted me here, I just knew He did. So that's the first thing. Second, I need a break! Having a good reason to get out of the house on a regular basis and do some good interacting with other adults has been very good for me. And it's going to continue to be a good thing for me. I'm totally excited. The coffee shop opens in about 2 weeks and this is going to be the busiest 2 weeks for me.

*On kind of a whim and as spontaneous as a family with 5 kids can be, we decided on Friday night to go on a 'last hoorah' overnight to the beach last night. (Sunday into Monday) It was totally fun. I don't believe that we've ever been on an overnight trip with our kids...certainly not since we've had the girls and if we'd done it with the boys...it's been a long time. Anyway, we went to church on Sunday and then headed straight out. We stayed overnight in a hotel ( which Bryce was totally over the moon about) with 2 queen beds and a little kitchenette so we could bring some of our own meals. Definitely not the nicest place I've ever slept, but passable. All today we spent walking around Seaside and playing on the beach and the girls LOVED it! So did the boys. All in all it was a great weekend and great family memories. Tomorrow I will post some pictures.

*Tonight is a very sad night for me. For weeks now I've been struggling with the fact that soon Jayden will be leaving me during the day and going away to Kindergarten. As the time has drawn near, the sadness has grown. Even just now as I'm thinking about it, I'm getting teary. No longer will there be anyone here during the day to have a conversation with, or tell me what the girls are up to, or help me with anything, or make me laugh because of funny things he says. There are pros to them being gone during the day..a little less work, less whining and fighting and arguing. But mostly, I'm just going to miss them. Tonight as we were tucking the boys in to bed, Josh started talking about going to school and I started crying. Jayden also started tearing up, but I couldn't tell if he was because of things he was scared/worried about with starting school or if it was because he knew I was sad about him going. I think it was mostly because of me. He has such a tender heart about him. He was sad because I was sad. He said he would miss me. Oh how I will miss him. His life is about to change. He's about to grow up and I can't stop it. He's no longer my baby boy. He's a big boy who goes to school now. Man, this is hard.

Well, these are the big things going on right now. I will try and keep updated as much as I can...there are definitely things to blog about!

Vinegar

2008-08-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know...weird. But I found this really cool article online yesterday and I want to be able to go back and read it again. I also thought that you all out there might be interested in it. The article is TONS of things you can do with vinegar. It's very interesting. You can find the article here if you wish to read it. A real blog will be coming soon.

Ellyanna

2008-08-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is Ellyanna....

This is Ellyanna on Jam....

Any questions?

A series of traumatic events

2008-08-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was HOT! Josh and I decided to stay up late and watch the Olympics downstairs where it was cool before heading upstairs where it was not. So we stayed downstairs I would say until about 10 pm before we headed upstairs. We stayed up until I would say about 11pm or so, watching TV (yea, for Michael Phelps!) and then we decided we were tired and turned off the lights. Not too long afterward, I began hearing this weird noise. Sort of like a flying insect trapped in jar...mixed up with another sound that I did not recognize. Immediately assuming it had something to do with the bats outside of our window, I raised up my head and pulled back the curtain to look out the window. Josh who had already fallen asleep woke up and wondered what I was doing. I told him I was hearing a weird noise. At that moment he also heard the noise and then I FELT something hit my head! Completely terrified, I reverse screamed (you know, inhale instead of exhale, but still with noise) and climbed on top of Josh in my terror. We both jumped off the bed as I'm totally freaking out. (Poor Josh...he was half asleep and I'm not sure he knew what was happening at that point) My entire body was shaking, because I KNOW something just flew into my head. Josh wrapped the bed blankets around me and told me to go downstairs. Which I did, gladly, but I'm surprised I was able to make it without falling my legs were shaking so bad.

A few minutes later Josh came down and assured me that there were no bats in our room, it was probably only a moth and he had killed a little moth. However, I saw the moth...it was not that big. Not big enough for me to have felt what I thought I felt. But by then, I was thinking it must have been partly at least my overactive imagination alongside my intense fear that bats are going to fly in my room and get tangled up in my hair. That can't happen, right?

About 30 minutes or so later we were still awake..it was probably past midnight at that point. Through the light downstairs that was streaming in to our room, I saw something fly into our room. Dear God, let that be a moth. I screeched to Josh that something is flying in our room. He said, "Okay, it's probably just a moth." I folded myself into a little ball and pulled the sheets over me entirely (It was my only defense) as Josh got up and turned on the light. Under the sheet, I heard some flapping wings, some shuffling, and then some squeaking. Then I heard Josh rush down the stairs and go out the back door. From a distance I heard a thump, thump, thump. So as Josh came back up the steps I uncovered my head. We just looked at each other for a long time. And then with my last glimmer of hope I said, "was it a moth?" He looked at me for a long time and said, "I don't want to lie to you...can I lie to you?" Yes...there was a bat in our house...in our room...AND IT FLEW AT MY HEAD!!!

We slept downstairs.

We are calling an exterminator.

Got Eggs?

2008-08-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

My dream of having lots of chickens and a surplus of eggs is finally coming true! Over the weekend I was able to acquire 7 adult chickens and I was so thrilled! I currently own 13 chickens. and since bringing them home on Friday night we have gotten anywhere from 4-7 eggs per day. And I have at least 5 that are not even old enough to lay yet, so in a few months I will be almost doubling the amount that I have now. So although my family eats a lot of eggs, we don't eat this many! I have now finally reached my goal of being able to sell eggs. I will post an ad on craigslist, but I thought I would advertise here first. I will be selling my farm fresh, organic chicken eggs for $3.25 a dozen or $4.50 for 18. I will also be offering a $.25 discount if you bring your own container. Let me know if you're interested!

One of my girls doing her "duty"

I just had to throw this pic in of Jayden. This is 'his' chicken named Bobbi. We've raised her from a chick since Easter and now she lets the kids pet her and pick her up and carry her around. Plus, apparently she likes to swing.

Fabulous

2008-08-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

Even though this isn't the purpose of this particular blog, I thought I would mention that over the weekend I went to a birthday party for my friend Colette. It was an 80's themed party. It was a lot of fun, but the funnest part was seeing everyone dressed up. To see pictures, check out Allison's blog or Colette's.

The purpose of this blog is to share some exciting news with my blogging friends. As some of you may know, I have been working out consistently now for about 4 months 3x per week. This is very significant for me. Normally, when I begin to work out I do it for a couple weeks and then give up or lose motivation. When I first started, my motivation was to get toned up so I could show off my tattoo. Then after I got my tattoo, I continued because I wanted to be able to show off my tattoo. (Also because I really just wanted to start getting toned up). Well, around the beginning of July, I had been working out for 3 months-ish and although I was losing inches, I wasn't losing any weight. I didn't begin the process to lose weight, but after three months, I was beginning to get discouraged about it. So I had a conversation with my sister who had been looking skinny the last few times I'd seen her about what she had done to lose some weight. She shared her "secrets" which basically was eating more fruits/veggies, eating a light dinner, eating several small meals throughout the day. I decided to change what I was doing which was (sort of) counting calories and concentrate more on eating small meals throughout the day and adding in more protein.

I am thrilled to announce that I have finally reached my pre-pregnancy weight! I had no idea what a mental and emotional accomplishment that would be for me. But it's been huge for me. I have been stuck at a weight for a long time which never seemed to budge. I not only have gotten under it, but have reached a weight that I didn't think I'd ever be at again. Now, the unfortunate part of this story is that right before I got pregnant with the girls, due to medication and crazy whacked out hormones I gained 5 pounds...plus I was already about 5 pounds more than I wanted to be...so although I'm thrilled to have reached my pre-pregnancy weight, it's definitely not the end for me. I'm working on 10 more. However, for now I'm thrilled because it gives me hope that if I can reach my pre-pregnancy weight, then I can keep losing and it's not such an impossible task for me any longer. I don't have to be stuck where I am (or was). And the most exciting thing....the reason that I wanted to share this on a blog....I put on a pair of shorts this morning that I've been avoiding because although I could get them on and zipped I would hang over the top and it just didn't look good. So I tried them on this morning...I didn't have to suck in to get them buttoned or zipped...and I don't hang over the sides! At all! Hallelujah!

My Prayer

2008-08-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Daddy,

Thank you so much for the gift you gave me in my daughters. I love them with all my heart. I cherish them. They bring a lot of joy into my life and my heart.

But God, please help me make it through the terrible twos. I am already so weary of the screeching, the hitting, the fighting, the coloring on the walls, the spilling of everything all over the floor, the dumping out of everything imaginable, the getting into drawers, the climbing, the defiance, the house that can never be clean because they make messes faster than I can clean them up and the not ever able to get anything done.

I am only one person. How does one person deal with 3 two-year-olds as well as their older brothers and still be able to run the house and get things done without breaking into tears of despair? I need help.

Amen.

Short and Sweet

2008-07-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last night after the kids had been tucked in bed for a while, Josh and I were upstairs watching TV. We kept hearing this kind of thumping noise. So I sent Josh down to see what was happening. He came back up and told me that all three girls were sitting on Kynden's bed and banging their heads agains the wall and saying "ow....ow...ow"....I thought that was hilarious! Those girls!