The Adventures of Kristi

Loved this

2010-02-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

I was reading through my blogs this morning and there was a blog post from Antique Mommy that I just loved. So I wanted to share. Enjoy!

Antique Mommy: 50 Things in 50 Years

This is for you, Leah!

2010-01-21T09:35:00.000-08:00

So, I talked about my most recent transaction yesterday on facebook and got such a huge response and a request for me to detail how I did my deal at Rite Aid. So here we go!

In this particular transaction I bought:

1 Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower cleaner (regular retail $17.99)

2 Boxes of Ziplock bags (regular retail $3.99 each, $7.98 for 2)

8 packages of stayfree pads (regular retail $4.29 each, $34.32 for 8)

So the total retail price of these items would be: $60.29

So here's what I did to MAKE money on this transaction:

*I had a coupon for $5 off of a $25 purchase at Rite Aid that I printed off the internet. (-$5)

*I had a raincheck for the scrubbing bubbles (they were out last week and I asked for a raincheck) The coupon was for a sale price of $12.99 PLUS a store coupon for $3 off. (-$8)

*I had a coupon for $7.00 off a SB starter kit that I was able to print by signing up on the SB website. (-$7)

*The ziplock bags were on sale for $1.99 each (-$4)

*I had a coupon for $1 off 2 ziplock products. (-$1)

*Okay, here's the BEST part of this transaction: A couple weeks ago Rite Aid was having a Buy One Get One FREE sale on the stayfree pads. There was also a Buy One Get One Free coupon in the paper. It doesn't happen at every store, but at Rite Aid, when they're having a BOGO sale and you have a BOGO coupon, they cancel each other out so BOTH items are FREE! How awesome is that?? So when they had that sale, they happened to be out of the Stayfree that was on sale, so I asked for a raincheck. I used my raincheck (-$17.16) and then used my 4 BOGO coupons (-$17.16)

So my total out of pocket that I paid for all this was $.97. I was totally excited about that. But after I got home, I realized that the ziplock bags and the scrubbing bubbles qualified me for a rebate put out by the company that makes them. The rebate is for $5 when you buy 3 participating items. So I submitted my rebate and I will be getting back $5.

Which makes my grand total for all these products: + $4.03.

Cool, huh?

Other New Stuff

2010-01-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Warning! Warning! Proceed with caution! I posted a blog last week and now I'm posting again! Do not fall out of your chair! It's true!

Just thought I'd get that out of the way first! I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt by seeing a new blog post so soon after my last one.

So two of my "new" goals that I decided on back in October of 2009 was that #1 I need to focus on cutting our grocery budget...drastically. #2 was that I needed to focus on feeding my family healthier. And you know- those two things do NOT go hand in hand. Organic foods are more expensive! So I didn't really know how I was going to accomplish these two goals at the same time. But so far, it's been working. My plan as you can see from my last post is to use coupons for things such as toiletries, paper products, cereal that I consider to be healthy (not so much fruit loops or whatever), and some snacks that I know are not loaded with sugar and/or things that aren't healthy. So this, over time, will enable me to save money so that I can spend more money on higher quality items like organic meat and dairy.

The first thing I started with technically was switching from milk in the store to buying raw milk. And really, I did this starting in the Summer. But you know what? Since beginning raw milk, our family has NOT gotten sick. At all. Not even with the h1n1 floating around that everyone is so scared about. Not a cold, not a flu. Nothing. AND...the best part? Bryce has almost completely eliminated his need for asthma maintenance medications AND for his resuce inhalors. Hallelujah!! I cannot attribute either of those two things to anything but the raw milk...it's the only thing that we've been doing differently. If you'd like to find out more about raw milk including where to find it go to www.realmilk.com.

Okay...so the second thing that I've been working on since October is incorporating whole grains into our diet. I've done research: read books, read internet articles, watched Food Inc, etc...and I'm seriously freaked out about the condition of our society...but that's another blog post. At any rate, I know that as the sole food provider/preparer in this house it is MY job to make the food that comes out of my kitchen as good for you as possible. So I've been doing things like gradually replacing the white flour in my recipes for whole wheat, learning to cook with dry beans (much cheaper) and rice. Learning recipes with lentils and black eyed peas and WHEAT BERRIES. If you would have asked me 6 months ago what a wheat berry was, I would not have been able to tell you. I asked for and received for Christmas the Betty Crocker Whole Grains cookbook and I LOVE it. I use it almost every day now. It's a great transition book if you're interested. It has been a totally gradual thing. I remember the first time that I altered our homemade pancake recipe. I used half whole wheat and half white flour...all the rest of the ingredients were the same. No one ate them. (kids anyway) The boys complained and the girls wouldn't touch them. But last Saturday I made pancakes with almost entirely whole wheat flour, flax seeds, honey instead of sugar and coconut oil. The kids (and Josh and I) LOVED them. The girls each ate 2! And the boys didn't do too bad either. So it takes a while, but we're getting there. And you know? I feel so much better about feeding that to my kids than I did about giving the pancakes with white sugar, white flour, vegetable oil and topping them with corn syrup. =)

There's definitely a learning curve to this as well as a taste transition curve. I've probably scortched more pots in the last few months than I have in my entire marriage career. But I'm getting it. And it's SO worth it.

Oh! Two more things I'll add as a last note on the subject of cutting my grocery bill. First, the bulk food section at Winco has been my friend. Did you know that in the bulk food section they have buckwheat flour and spelt flour and wheat berries? I never knew that. But they do and I have been buying all my rice, beans, lentils, whole grain flours, etc there and it is saving me a TON of money. My last two trips to winco (where I shop for 2 weeks worth of food at a time) has been around $130. For 2 weeks of food for a family of 7! Not bad. And those are with so many whole grain items from the bulk section. (Although this does not include meat- I'm getting organic meat elsewhere.) Second: Meal planning. I've been wishy-washy about the whole meal planning thing forever. But I found something that totally works for me. These meal planning worksheets have been super handy to me. I plan 2 weeks at a time and it's not at all overwhelming like planning/cooking for a month used to be. I save the old ones so I can look back and just repeat things. And the grocery list is right there, so I can just take it to the store with me. It's been great and works for me and my schedule.

I'm totally getting into this coupon thing!

2010-01-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for this year (No, I'm not calling it a New Year's Resolution...I don't believe in New Year's resolutions because they're stupid...Plus, I made this goal back in October of last year.) is to focus a lot of my time on saving money when it comes to my grocery budget. I was convicted several months ago about my lack of discipline in this area and as a result, our grocery budget was out of hand. One of the ways that I have chosen to do this is by using coupons and learning how best to use them. It just so happened that Josh was building a website for a client who had created videos on coupons and how to use them. Because I had "connections" I was able to gain a free membership and watch the videos to learn the beginning process of shopping with coupons. Just in case anyone's interested, the website is: http://www.moneymaniac.com/ Yes Josh built the website and yes this is a plug. And I'm sure that they'll get so much traffic from me posting this to the 5 people who read my blog. =) I'm still totally in the learning process of this, but this has been a GREAT month for coupon shopping and I'm totally getting in to it! So I thought I'd share some of my deals! I'd also like to state for the record that I am aware of the fact that the process of taking photos of my coupon deals and posting them on my blog does take me to another strange dimention of some sort...but I think I'm okay with that.

This was the first coupon shopping trip(s) I did this month. Rite Aid and Walgreens. I spent approximately $50 for everything and SAVED about $150!

This was from Albertsons. I spent about $4.20 on all this peanut butter and SAVED $53!

This one was/is probably my favorite so far this month. I spent $0 on all this chapstick and SAVED $42!

I don't know if you saw all the stayfree packages in the first picture, but I still have some more to "buy" of those...Rite Aid was out and I got a rain check...but when I go, I will get another 8 packages for FREE!!! Free is my favorite! The total amount of free packages when I'm done will be about 14 I believe!

Christmas Thankfulness

2009-12-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking the other day about my life. Not everything is always peachy keen and perfect...but I have been so incredibly blessed! As I was thinking about things, I started to get overwhelmed at everything that God has blessed me with. I know that Thanksgiving is usually the typical time to "give Thanks" but I think Christmas works just as well. As my friend Katy pointed out, every day belongs to God and the word holiday really means, HOLY day. Awesome! So in the spirit of Christmas and reflecting on my life and all that Jesus has done for me, I thought that I would write an incomplete list of some of the things that I have been blessed with and that I am grateful for.

*Josh- I'm thankful that he loves me. I'm thankful that he works so hard to provide for our family so that I can stay home with the kids. I'm thankful for his kindness, his heart, his sense of responsibility, the way his personality balances out mine and often times calms mine. And lots of other stuff about him that would take up the entire list if I kept going.
*Bryce
*Jayden
*Kynden
*Ellyanna
*Adelynn
*My kids all are so different and each bring such a different bright spot into my life.
*Our house- even in spite of all it's shortcomings.
*Food
*Clean water
*Appliances that make life easier
*Clothes
*My family
*Josh's family
*The ability to learn, study and read about new things
*I'm thankful for the responsibility of being a mom to 5 awesome kids...even though some days the responsibility feels overwhelming.
*Friends...especially the ones who know me best and I know that they've always got my back.
*Opportunities that God continually puts in my life to serve him...These seem to be coming more frequently lately and I feel honored by them...completely undeserving but grateful.
*My naturopath doctor. I love her!
*The absolute certainty that God has a good plan for me...and everything that happens will be used to bring me closer to Him if I let it.
*Christmas and what it means

The list could go on and on, but it's time for me to get the girls some milk and send them to their rooms to play...One thing I'm NOT thankful for is no more napping...however it does free up about an hour of my time each day and at least they like going in there to play together...so it's not all bad.

With the rate I've been going, it's probably safe to assume that I won't be blogging again before Christmas....So, Merry Christmas everyone!!

I'm not really blogging right now

2009-11-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone reads this anymore....=) I've been very neglectful of my blog unfortunately. There has been lots of stuff going on for the last few months...but not much that I've really wanted to be blogging about. Lots of personal stuff. It's not that I don't want to talk about personal stuff, it's just that I'm still trying to figure it all out.

At this moment, I still don't have much to say...So I'll just leave you with this: Josh and I did a little photo shoot a few weeks ago and this was one of the better ones....

What's in a day?

2009-09-22T18:31:00.001-07:00

One of the main reasons that I keep this blog is because I want to have a record my kids' lives. Memories from their childhood recorded here so we can go and look through and have reminders of what our life was like. So today I came up with an idea. I'm starting this post at 7:30am and will add paragraphs throughout the day about what goes on. I've thought of doing this before, but never thought I'd get a 'typical' day...because every day is so different...but I've realized that different IS typical. This may be a really boring post for most of you. Although you never know. It might be an interesting day!

I woke up this morning at about 5:15am. Don't know why, but I was wide awake. Josh got up around then to get ready to leave for men's fraternity at church and I laid in bed for another hour, thinking about different things until 6:30 when I got up to get the boys up for school. Picked out their clothes (it's supposed to be an unusually warm end of September day here at 94 today). Got them ready- they decided in the 3 minutes from when the bus passed our house the first time, that they'd prefer to have cold lunch instead of hot. So we threw in a couple lunchables and some cookies for them to take to school and rushed out to the bus. The bus driver was a substitute today. He waved hello to me as the boys got on the bus. I went back into the house and looked at myself in the mirror to find that I still had messy bed hair and makeup smeared under my eyes. Nice. Oh well. Grabbed a piece of toast and some coffee and checked facebook/blogs and began to write this. Now I'm going to stop so I can get some bible reading done before the girls get up. (I'm trying to memorize the entire book of Colossians...I've been slacking in spending time doing that and need to work on it some more.)

Okay, it's now 10am. I got my bible reading done, and another couple verses added to my memorization. Then I went upstairs, gathered up all our laundry and took the sheets off the bed (it's Tuesday so it's bedroom cleaning day), tidied the room and came downstairs to start a load of laundry. Then I worked out (Hip Hop Abs) and then went to take a shower. Finished my shower, dressed and then went to let the girls out of their room. When I opened the door, I found their ceiling light hanging from the cord in the ceiling. It's a chandelier...And now it's like 3 feet from the floor. Nice. I washed out some sippy cups for the girls and got their morning cocoa. They each get 2 cups of cocoa in the morning...but don't worry, it's very watered down. And then I put on a 'show' for the girls. It's our normal morning routine. Today they wanted to watch "Buzz Light". While they watch the show I'm changing laundry, cleaning up from the remainders of dinner last night, dumping poop from the potty chair into the toilet, stopping the girls from eating spoonfuls of sugar and from dumping out bottles and bottles of spices onto the counter.

At 10:15 Kynden begins throwing a temper tantrum which begins because of cereal and continues because of underwear. It lasts for a full 8 minutes before I help her find a pair of underwear that is acceptable to her. She wanted ones with bugs on them.

Alright. It's now almost 3:30. Nothing really all that eventful happened, but here goes anyway. I've folded about 4 loads of laundry while the girls watched their show...Oh and I talked on the phone for about 30 min. And I figured out where to put the "new" armoire that we got last night...it's going to go in the girls' room...and I started organizing their clothes in the drawers of the armoire. The girls ate lunch about 12:30 and then we went outside to play for about an hour between 1-2. At about 2 I came in and put another load of laundry in the wash and start getting the girls ready for nap time. But then I realized that the chandelier was still hanging 3 ft from the floor, so I called Josh in to help me with that. It's fabulous having a husband who works from home! He just took it off because whatever part kept the light attached to the ceiling had broken off and we might just need to get a new light. Bummer. So then I got the girls' milk and put them down while I read a book in their room. It took about an hour.

So now it is about a quarter after 6. Let's see...shortly after my last paragraph, my mom came by. She is leaving tomorrow morning to go to Kansas for my cousin's wedding and wanted to see everyone and say goodbye. She stayed for a bit, helped me fold some laundry and just sort of visited for a while. The boys came home from school while she was here and the girls woke up from their nap. Except for Ellyanna, who slept longer than the other two...she was the last one to fall asleep. Really not much to report. At 5 Josh got off work and I made dinner for everyone. In just a few minutes, I will be leaving the house for the evening to go and meet with Natalie. She's a pretty cool 18 year old from church that I've been meeting with to watch the Peasant Princess series. Not sure when I'll be home, but I won't add any more for today.

So now you know! A typical day! A pretty boring and unevenful one at that.

A day late and a dollar short....

2009-09-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is how I feel my life has been for the entirety of my summer. From having my cousin Lea come and live with us for 2 months in June/July and everything that went with that, to Bryce's birthday, to the girls' birthday, and every one of my kids being home day after day after day and trashing the house with no hope of ever getting it clean....yeah, that pretty much sums up my life the last 3 months.

But now....school has started and I'm feeling like I've at least in part, gotten my life back again. Allison just posted about Macy going back to school and asked if you were a summer mom or a back to school mom. I had to think about that for a while...it's actually kind of a hard question for me to answer. I like the summer time. Naturally I'm a very laid back, go with the flow kinda person so it's nice to be in my "element" of no structure, no schedules kinda living. But on the other hand, the kids (boys mostly) fight and argue and I'm never alone during the summer. Ever. And I really DO like structure and schedules but can't keep one on my own...so it's nice to be forced into one. So I guess I would say that I'm a back to school mom. September is turning into a time of "new beginnings" for me. Coming in with the bite of fresh fall air also comes my motivation to do something....anything! I get to start over. Regroup.

Part of the reason (okay, most of the reason) that I haven't blogged for so long is because I feel like there's been so much to blog about that I'll never get caught up. And it would be terribly overwhelming to try. So I'm going to go through some highlights of our summer. Then I can at least feel caught up. And then I can go back and re-visit some of the events if I want to add more details. But let's be honest. I probably won't.

*The first highlight that happened was my cousin Lea coming to visit. She lives in Kansas and I hadn't really even seen her in person for like 15 years or something like that...so she was little. But we've been instant messaging/emailing for several years back and fourth and knew each other fairly well. So it was very fun and interesting to have her come stay with us. She's 18...I knew her pretty well on the inside, but not on the outside. Such as what she liked to eat for dinner, etc. So that was fun trying to figure all those things out. Lea is at a pivotal point in her life. I felt like God used (and is using) Josh and I in her life to help her get some things figured out. I don't see an end in sight yet...but it is exciting and humbling to experience God working through you.

*Bryce turned 9! Ahhh! When did my kids get so old? Because last time I counted, I was like 24. For Bryce's party, we asked my mom to host so we had a little bbq and water party at her house. It was a great time and lots of people came out to celebrate with him. His big present from us was a rabbit. He had really wanted one and we decided that he was responsible to be able to keep one. She is all black and really very sweet. He named her Cali.

*From about May to the middle of August, I lost 14 lbs! Whoo hoo!

*The girls had their 3rd birthday. **sniff** It's so hard on me that they're getting older. However, I do have to admit, that so far 3 is shaping up to be far better than 2. They each got a little two wheeler bike with training wheels for their birthday and helmets to go with of course. They got the idea of riding right away! They were super excited about the bikes. We celebrated their birthday at Blue Lake park.

*Potty training is in full swing and honestly just about completed! It was sort of a natural progression. I knew they were ready...they'd been ready for a long time, but I wasn't ready to deal with it. But one day I just stopped putting them in diapers in the morning and they just sort of did it. Sounds easier than it was. But they're learning now that there are bathrooms in places that we go away from home, and they tell me when we're in the car and they have to go and I can take them out of the house now without too much fear of accidents. The only thing that is still a struggle is Ellyanna with her poop. It's a very dramatic thing each day. She fights the idea of going in the toilet or potty chair. I think the issue is mainly that she stands to do it...and obviously she can't stand to do it while on the potty chair. I'm kinda ignoring it for now and 'hoping' that eventually she'll figure it out.

*Kynden had surgery! We found out that Kynden had a hernia almost a year ago. They had told us that she needed surgery to get it fixed but that it wasn't super urgent. So we waited. Mostly because we were trying to juggle health insurance etc....but for the last few months, she was obviously in pain or at least discomfort when she needed to poop and we felt so bad for her. There was a LOT of drama and tears. So we decided we needed to do it sooner than later. It was an outpatient surgery, lasted less than an hour and boy was she funny on those relaxing drugs that they give before the surgery. Josh and I were laughing so hard at her that I got tears in my eyes. And lo and behold, a few days after the surgery, she pooped without any crying, or drama and she's been going in the potty chair or toilet ever since! We're thrilled!

Well, I know there's more, (such as the church camp out in August that Bryce dubbed as the "best weekend of my whole life") but I won't make this any longer than it already is. Looking forward to writing a current blog post pretty soon!

Bored?....

2009-08-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

No...more like desperate for some mindless stress relief.

1. Can you fill this out without lying?Sure
2. What was the last thing you put in your mouth?Salad with salmon
3. Who was your last text message from?Lea
4. Where was your default picture taken (on facebook) ?Backyard
5. Last person you rode in a car with under the age of 20?the kids
6. Name someone that made you laugh today?Josh
7. How late did you stay up last night and why?10:30ish Bible study and talking to husband
8. If you could move somewhere else, would you?No
9. Ever been kissed under fireworks?Yes...every 4th of July for the last 12 years
10. Which of your friends lives closest to you?Josh
11. Do you believe ex's can be friends?Depends.
12. Calling or texting?Yes
13. How do you feel about Dr. Pepper?It's my favorite
14. When was the last time you cried really hard?Wednesday
15. Where is your biological father right now?Probably at home.
16. Where are you at right now?Living room.
17. What bed did you sleep in last night?Uh, mine.
18. What was the last thing someone bought for you?I honestly can't think of anything anyone's bought for me lately.
19. Who took your profile picture?Josh
20. Was yesterday better than today?No
21. Can you live a day without TV?Every day is without tv.
22. Are you mad about anything?Yes
23. Do you think relationships are really worth it?Yes
24. When was the last time you were disappointed and why?Today- Lack of trust
25. Are you a bad influence?I am a rebel for God
26. Night out or night in?Yes
27. What items could you not go without during the day?toilet, husband...not necessarily in that order.
28. Would you share a drink with a stranger?you mean share a cup? NOOOO
29. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?Does taking my cousin Lea to the ER count?
30. What does the last text message in your inbox say?Sorry, can't reveal that due to confidentiality
31. How do you feel about your life right now?Overwhelmed, emotionally tapped out, disappointed, done.
32. How many times have you been pulled over by the police?Once while personally driving
33. Do you hate anyone?No
34. If we were to look in your inbox, what would we find?a smorgasbord
35. Can you easily tell if someone’s fake?Yes
36. Has anyone ever called you a perfectionist?Yes.
38. What song is stuck in your head?Nothing at the moment, but don't get me started on the VBS songs
39. Someone knocks on your window at 2 AM, who do you want it to be?Good Lord, I hope no one is knocking on my window at 2 am
40. Wanna have kids before you’re 30?Been there, done that...finished before I hit 30
41. Name something you have to do tomorrow?Cleaning
42. Can you whistle?not really
43. Do you sleep on your side, stomach, or back?Side. Have to start on my right side, but spend most of the night on my left
44. Do you think too much or too little?depends on the situation, right now...too much
45. Do you smile a lot?Not lately, but generally yes
46. Who was your last missed call on your mobile phone?Too lazy to get my phone and look
47. When is the next time you will see the person you like?I just have to turn around
48. Are you happy with your life?generally, yes
49. Can you handle the truth?Bring it.
50. What book are you currently reading?Breaking Dawn for the 4th time and Romancing the heart of your child.
51. Do you hate the last guy you had a conversation with?No
52. Is there something you always wear?deodorant
53. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?Eating dinner
54. Honestly, who was the last person to tell you that they love you?Josh
55. Did you have an exciting last weekend?Exciting? Eventful maybe
56. Have you ever crawled through a window?Yes.
57. Have you ever dyed your hair?Ever since freshman year
58. Are you wearing a necklace?Usually...not right now
59. What's something that can always make you feel better?Shopping
60. Will this weekend be a good one?Sure hope so
61. What do you want right now?trust, validation and maybe some alone time
62. Have you ever worn the opposite sex's clothing?Yes
63. Look behind you, what do you see?Bryce doing P90X
64. Have you ever worked in a food place?No
65. What would you name your future daughter?Olivia
66. Any summer plans for 2009?Church camp out later in August
67. What’s on your schedule for tomorrow?laundry, cleaning
68. Does anyone know your Facebook password?yes
69. Would you like some cake?No way...that would totally take me out of the fat burning zone!

Summer Commandments

2009-07-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

**I'm reading a lighthearted book about motherhood right now called, "Humor for a Mother's Heart" and I came across this poem and I was laughing so hard that I had to share it.**

Summer Commandments
by Joey Earl Horstman

You may freely climb of the climbing tree of the lawn; but of the other trees you may not climb. You may not climb of the apple tree or of the maple tree or of the cottonwood tree or of the willow tree, or of any of the bushes of the lawn, for in the day that you climb of them, they will die. Of all but the climbing tree you are forbidden. Lo, you will be tempted to climb of the other trees, but climb them not, nor hang from their limbs, nor strip the bark from their trunks. For my eyes will be open, and I will call unto you and you will be sorely afraid.

Bonk not your brother with the tennis racket, lest you be bonked. Again I say, bonk not. Though your brother's head doth appear as a tennis ball, and his taunting has made you angry yea, even to the nth degree, bonk not his head with the racket, nor, roll him down the hill when he does not want to roll, nor use him as second base, nor tie him the fence post with your jump rope. He is your brother. Afflict him not.

Your friends will say unto you, "Leave your toys on the driveway and play in the lawn with us"; but I say to you leave not your toys in the driveway. Pick up in the garage that I may drive the minivan into it. Your roller skates and baseball bats, your Hotwheels cars and bicycles, yes, even your wagon, pick them up, I say, for do they not also have a selected place to be?

Keepest thou not the refrigerator door open, for that is an abomination to me. Decide what you want before the opening of it, be it juice of a pear or a carrot. If you cannot decide, and are sorely confused, open it not. Do not open the refrigerator door and then stare inside, for it is as if you stare inside for hours. Verily, I say unto you, "Am I made of money?"

Throw not the baseball at the picture window, nor the soccer ball, nor the basketball, nor the football, nor any ball of the air or rock of the ground. For the glass it doth break and shatter from it's holding and causeth thy mother great suffering. Throw not and you shall not be thrown into time-out.

Tattle not on thy brother. Again I say, tattle not, for it is as if you tattle all the time. If your brother calls you out when you are safe, scream not for your father who art mowing, for he cannot hear you and has turned his face from you. If your brother squirts you with water when you do not wish to be squirted, ask of him that it shall not be done again, but leave your father in the peace that passeth your understanding.

Mumble not under your breath when you walk away from me. Neither whine, nor slam your bedroom door, nor throw your shoes across the living room even if you cannot have a cookie or cannot stay up past the appointed time of your bed. Why do you mumble so? Am I Not your father, and can I not hear?

Eat not of the grass of the yard, nor of the dandelions, nor of any weeds we cannot identify and which will not depart from us. For doth not your parents feed you well and provide you with every good fruit and vegetable of the grocery store and garden? Ask and they will be given to you. But eat not of the grass, lest you be sick and being sick make thy brother sick as well.

Touch not the poison oak, nor the poison ivy, nor rub your face with it's leaves, for it will afflict you for seven days and seven nights. Red will be the color of you skin and in Aveeno will you bathe.

Of the number of showers you must take in a week, the number shall be four, for I am a clean father. Do not shower three times and claim that it was four, nor shower twice and claim that it was four. Do not say that you have showered yesterday and need not shower today, for that is a lie and you are not yet good at it. Shower four times, and soak thy head with soap and clean thy body, yes, even under the arms, for thy skin perspires and drives me from you.

Wear not those pants with that shirt. For the colors they do clash. And the stripes do not conform to the plaid. It pleases me not and hurts mine eyes to look upon you. Wear your underwear clean, and do not change it several times a day so that you have no underwear at the end of the week. Seven times shall you change and the time of the changing will be morning.

Giggle not when you are supposed to be sleeping, no, not even if your brother tells a joke, for he is four and his jokes do not make sense anyway. Nor hidest thou Milk Duds under thy pillow to be eaten later, for the Duds they do melt and soil the sheet and the pillow case, yes, even thy hair. Sleep when it is time to sleep, and jump not on the bed, for it is as if you have ants in your pants. Your bed is bunked, and the ceiling is low, so jump not.

There is a time for everything, as you will know when you are wise: A time for playing on the playground and a time for feeding the dog; a time to be in the pool and a time to be on the land; a time to run and a time to sit still. Celebrate this time, for though the summer is long, it lasts not forever.

Stitches

2009-07-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, to finish off a busy weekend, what could be better than a trip to urgent care to get some stitches? Last night Bryce was playing with the girls and picked up Kynden in a piggy-back. He started running with her across the living room. While I watched in horror, he sort of jumped over a backpack in the middle of the floor and lost his footing. He then crashed face first into the scooter which was laying in the hallway. I have to commend Bryce here...as he was falling he held on to Kynden and didn't try to catch himself. The result was worse for him in that he got the full impact of the fall, but Kynden wasn't hurt at all and just was able to roll off of him. He is a hero in that regard for sure.

We thought that what he had was a normal bloody nose and had him sit with a cloth on it for a while. And then when the bleeding slowed we realized it was more serious than we originally thought. The place where the center of his nose connects to his face had totally split. My mom had just come home to bring Lea back (they went to Idaho for the weekend) and I had them both look at his nose and they both thought we needed to take him in. So- worried grandma that she is, my mom offered to drive us and we headed to Gresham Urgent care. The nurse actually was called out and took him right back to the room. As we were waiting for the doctor I snapped this shot of him.

They put some numbing gel on his nose and we had to wait for that to numb the area. Then the hard part came when they had to give him a shot of medicine in the area to numb it totally. That's when he screamed for a few seconds. After that it was pretty easy.

After it was all numbed the doctor stopped being super gentle with it and started cleaning it before putting the stitches in. The tip of Bryce's nose was flapping around and I had to look away. The doctor looked at me and said, "Are you okay?" I said yes. "Are you SURE you're okay?" "Yeah, I'll be fine" But I was feeling a bit dizzy. "Please let us be the first to know if you're not okay." I looked down at my arms and they were white. I can't imagine what my face must have looked like. But I didn't faint. It was the flapping, gaping wound that did it. For the rest of the time I just stood there an held his hand and looked in the opposite direction.

So Bryce ended up with 6 stitches! He was very brave. He's supposed to go back in in a couple days for a wound check and then the stitches get taken out in 7 days. So he'll turn 9 years old with 6 stitches in his nose. Maybe we should have asked for 9 stitches, just because.

Hi There....

2009-06-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

My name is Kristi. Welcome to my blog. If you are new here, then let me say welcome and thanks for being here. If you are a seasoned reader, then let me say, thanks for still being here through this very busy season of my life where I'm not blogging very much at all. I won't promise that I'll do better, because...well...I may not.

It has been one of those seasons of life where it seems like everything and nothing is happening at the same time. You know what I mean? I'm crazy busy, but nothing too news worthy to blog about...and even if there were things to blog about, I don't have the time because of the aforementioned busy-ness. So this will be another one of those lovely catch up posts that we all know and love. It's the easiest way!

Three weeks ago today, we welcomed a new family member into our house. My 18 year old cousin Lea. She's here for the summer from Kansas. She's found a job as a lifeguard at Mt Hood community college and we have all fallen in love with her. The kids look for her every morning and talk about her when she's not in sight. We are assimilating her into our culture and family by showing her movies she's never seen such as "Sleepless in Seattle" and "The Three Amigos". We are also watching the Peasant Princess series that I blogged about a few months ago as the best marriage sermon I'd ever seen. One of these days she's going to make us watch a John Wayne movie...still not sure about that.

Two weekends ago I got to take our "annual" beach trip with a group of friends. We found the house that we will be staying in every year from here on out and we had a total blast! It's always so fun to get a break from our every day responsibility to go away and stay up late and eat junk food and talk and talk and talk. We need to get together again soon girls! BBQ? My house? Maybe in a couple weeks when it gets warm enough to put up our big pool?

Canning season has started around my house the past few weeks. Sort of. I've made a batch of plum jam, 3 or 4 batches of strawberry jam, canned some tomatoes and have a half flat of raspberries from my mom's house that I will be turning to jam probably some time today. Maybe getting free raspberries from my mom all summer will make up for paying full price for all my strawberries. Although I have figured out that even paying full price for the strawberries, I'm still saving money making my own jam. But free is even better.

My garden is finally in! I got a very late start this year, due in large part to getting ready for Lea to come and getting the house ready for her. But a couple weekends ago, Josh cleared out the garden area for me, shoveled some chicken poop out of the coop and tilled up the garden for me. What a guy! I've planted lots of peas (they're our favorite) beans, broccoli, sweet onions, parsley, cucumber, lettuce, watermelon (although I've never had success with watermelon before, I keep really wanting to grow it) and tomatoes. I decided to forgo the corn this year as I barely got any last year because of the lateness of the crop and how much room it takes up in the garden. I'm already seeing little tiny pokes of peas come up and I'm so excited! I love growing a garden!

Another big project that I'm continuing this year is our yard. Although I'm pretty sure that that project continues and continues each and every year. Or at least it should. A lot of you have been in our yard before, but for those of you who haven't, I'll tell you about it. When we first bought our house almost 2 years ago the former owners were older and she had put in raised beds in the center area of the yard. Which obviously wouldn't work for us having 5 kids and needing places for them to run. We took out all the overgrown raised beds which left us with horribly uneven yard area. Knowing how expensive putting in new grass is, we just kinda left it, because we couldn't afford to do anything to it. In addition to that, there were no flower beds except for a couple in the back that were horribly overgrown with her mint plant. So last year I put in some flower beds with a few flowers and basically tried to make it look like someone cared. This year in the past few weeks, I've put in more flowers, Josh dug me a pond, I've landscaped all around my pond with large (heavy) rocks and lots of established plants that I've been able to get for free out of my sister's yard. We still have a little ways to go with the pond...I'd like to get a pump and a little fountain of some sort so we have a water sound and some pond plants. Also we're going to get some tadpoles to put in there so we can have some frogs. And as time goes on, I'll probably put in more plants. But for now, I'm loving it. I've also started leveling some of the dips in the yard and planting some more grass in the bare spots. The yard won't be perfect, but hopefully at least no one will break an ankle walking through our yard now.

I'm sure I could blog more, but this is already a book! Thanks for reading!

Quick update

2009-06-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a LONG time since I've blogged. We've been so busy around our house. On Tuesday night we welcomed my cousin Lea from Kansas to our house! She will be staying with us through the summer. We've done a lot of work to get her here but it's worth it. The kids already are loving her and it seems much more peaceful here! I know it sounds crazy, but with an extra set of hands and eyes to help with the work and keeping the girls out of trouble, it makes a big difference.

Today is Bryce and Jayden's last day of school. Today is really only a half day and it's field day...or something like that. It's mostly just a play day. As of 12:30 today, I now have a 4th grader and a 1st grader. How in the world did this happen???

Later tonight I get to leave for the weekend with a handful of girlfriends to go to the beach! I'm super excited! We started this tradition last year and we had so much fun that we decided to make it a yearly event. Can't wait!

Well, that is the biggest news at the moment. I want to leave you with a story that Jayden wrote at school this year. They did some studying about shadows and all the kids had to write a story about their shadow. It cracks me up.

Me and My Shadow
By Jayden McKenney
5/2009

One day I was playing outside. We were playing on the swings. It was almost dark.

When it got dark, I didn't know where I was and my shadow got lost. I couldn't see where my house was and I accidentally bonked into it and I fainted.

It was morning and I saw my shadow again and my house.

The End.

I really shouldn't be blogging right now...

2009-05-07T09:48:00.001-07:00

Because I have so much to do! I'm supposed to be painting out in our new camper trailer, but it's so cold outside (ugh, I'm tired of the cold) and my fingers were getting iced over. So I'm taking a break.

At any rate, I've been thinking about something for the past couple days...it's going round and round in my head, so I thought I'd get it straightened out on paper...or online I guess. I'm trying to decide if it is appropriate for a man (married/Christian or not) to give a compliment to a woman (married/Christian or not) about her looks. First I'll give you a couple of examples that have happened to me recently, then I will enlighten you all to my past and then I will wow you with my witty opinion. =)

Example #1: Easter Sunday a guy from my church whom I adore greeted me by saying "Hey Gorgeous!" and giving me a hug. It was very sweet...not at all creepy. It was exactly like he was greeting his sister. It TOTALLY made my day.

Example #2: Josh emailed the guy that we bought our aforementioned camper trailer yesterday to let them know that they had left a few things inside and wondered if they wanted them back. He emailed Josh back and at the end of the email said something to the effect of "You have a beautiful family and a very pretty wife...you are a lucky man." Josh actually twittered about that yesterday, if any of you follow him, you may have seen it. The one comment that Josh received from this update was from someone who said it was nice, but a bit creepy. Well...maybe. Josh and I didn't take it as creepy. We both took it as a compliment. But she may have been picturing something different than the family man that we actually bought the trailer from.

But her reaction kinda got me thinking about this subject of whether this is appropriate or not. Before I get into anything else, let me clarify that when I talk about a man giving a compliment to a woman, what I'm referring to is a man treating a woman like a sister...nothing creepy like looking her up and down and saying something to the effect of, "Damn, you're hot." or anything like that....that's just offensive and creepy on a number of levels. And let me tell you, we women ALWAYS know the difference between sincere brotherly love/admiration and lust. ALWAYS.

During my growing up years, I did not grow up in a family that was very demonstrative. Neither physically nor verbally. We just weren't. I didn't really know any different. By the time I was in high school, I knew (or was convinced) that I was not beautiful. No one had EVER told me that I was. Not my mom, not my dad, not my friends, not any boys. I may have had an inkling when I noticed a boy looking at me that he might have thought I was cute, but almost always disregarded it as false. When I started dating a boy my sophomore year, he was the first one that I can remember to ever tell me any differently. For some odd reason, he found me attractive. I realize that in Jr. High/High school, everyone has self esteem issues. But for me it was deeper than adolescence. It still effects me today although I am learning to fight it with Josh's help. Shortly after graduating high school I started working at an athletic club. I was working there almost full time for about a year in many different areas so I got to know lots of people. And as opposed to high school where just about all my friends went to church with me, most of the people weren't Christians. And you know what? I have so many fond memories of working there because this was the first time that I was ever in an environment where people openly flirted with me, guys were attracted to me and I knew it! Do you know why? Because they TOLD me! I realize that this sounds so silly and shallow and I'm sorry about that, but it's true. I read a book a few years ago called 'Captivating' and it talks all about the heart of a woman. And I learned in that book that as women we LONG to be beautiful, for someone to find us attractive...this is the way God made us.

So here's my thoughts on this subject. If you're a man, and you have eyes and you notice a woman who is attractive...if you can do it without being creepy, you should tell her. Because even if you're not like me and you were raised in a family where you were told you were beautiful from the time you were born, we are still bombarded daily, hourly with fake images of super thin perfect looking supermodels that supposedly what we are supposed to look like. It's so easy to believe (true or not) that THIS is what every man's ideal looking woman is. And we can never measure up to that. Those girls probably don't even look like themselves in person after all the airbrushing, etc that goes on. Every woman on the face of the earth has things about herself that she wants to change. And yet, we long to be beautiful. We just do.

It seems as though in the Christian circle especially we are especially conservative in this area. Men try to be more careful about lusting and improper thoughts. Which is great of course. And I support you in this. =) But can't there be a balance between lusting and making the rest of us feel like crap because no one has ever told us we're beautiful because you're too busy being conservative? There has to be a balance. Do you think that Jesus would have trouble with being able to tell a woman that she was beautiful? I don't think so...in fact, I bet that's one of the first things he tells women upon entering heaven. Because he knows how much we long to hear it.

The last thing I've been wondering about to balance out my opinion of this subject is whether or not I would feel comfortable with Josh telling another woman that she was beautiful. I really had to think about that. I think that if it was done in an appropriate way and like he was looking at and speaking to a sister, the answer is a resounding yes. Because I wouldn't feel threatened by that. If he was being completely appropriate and I WAS threatened by that, then that's probably my own issue to deal with.

So there's my thoughts. I would love to hear your feedback on this issue...especially from the one man who reads my blog. What do you think about men giving compliments to women?

Just because it's a funny story

2009-04-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

In my last blog post, I wrote about how I'd been working outside a lot in the warm weather. Well, of course, where I am the girls will always follow. Especially outside. Actually they will try to go outside when it's raining, so it's not necessarily because of me that they venture out there... The girls LOVE it outside! They really do. They could play for hours out there. As long as someone was with them of course...they do not venture far without someone with them. They generally stick pretty close to my side during the course of a day, especially Kynden who is always my little shadow. I am not allowed to go out of her eyesight. Okay, I'm getting off subject.

So last week when I was working outside, I was teaching the girls to help me with what I was doing. I happened to be raking leaves and picking up rocks out of our yard. Like I said, I have wild hopes and dreams of having grass...and we can't plant grass with rocks in our yard, right? You see how I think ahead? Anyway I had gotten a little nursery pot for each girl so they could find and pick up the rocks and put it in their pot. Kynden was so super excited about the rocks. Apparently rocks are very exciting creatures. I mean, who doesn't like to find rocks on the ground, pick them up and put them in a container? Every time (and I mean EVERY time) Kynden found a rock, she would shout in pure joy, "A rock! A rock!" Unfortunately, Kynden is 2. Her words don't always get pronounced correctly. In the case of the word 'rock' the 'r' sound is replaced with an 'f' sound...and the 'o' sounds more like a 'u'. You get the idea...so every time she found a rock, she would shout, "A fock! A fock!" very loudly...and then they ALL started doing it. Sometimes she'd mix it up...sometimes she'd find a rock that was bigger than normal and she would shout, "bi fock! bi fock" (big) It was just so funny, I couldn't help but laugh. And wonder what our neighbors must think.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know

2009-04-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a long time since I blogged. Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged and actually posted what I've written. It seems to be one of those times in life when everything is moving at lightening speed, but each day is so much the same that it's not worth writing about. Although that's not actually true. I have things to write about. Maybe I just haven't had the motivation to write.

At any rate, I'll clue you all in to what has been going on around here. One of these days I'm going to start a remodeling series on my blog. We have a slew of pictures that our realtor took when we bought our house to serve as 'before' pictures (and some of our own). I've been wanting to do this for various projects that have been done around the house, but I've noticed a trend. We finish the big main part of the project, but invariably move on to the next big project before we really get all the 'finishing' work done. And then I never quite feel like we've finished the project enough to take pictures...plus it seems like we're in a constant state of changing things...However, I do want to document all the work we've done. The reason I bring this up is because we're about ready to start another HUGE undertaking in our house. And let me tell you, this is going to (I think) be the biggest one yet...except for maybe moving the water heater...that was a pretty big job that I did not really participate in. Although, to be fair, the main reason it turned into such a large project was because my dad talked Josh into replacing all the hot water pipes while they were at it...I mean, why not, right? But I digress. We have a room in our house that we believe maybe used to be a garage...it's hard to tell. If it did used to be a garage, it was a small one. But the second bathroom was added on to the back of it and the front of it remains to be concrete walls, concrete floors exposed floor boards from the one upstairs room over head...not to mention that nothing is square and nothing is level...you get the idea. This room is where the former owners grew the marijuana. This room is where we have put everything in the last year and a half that we didn't have room for elsewhere and/or didn't know what to do with. Aka: a junk room. At any rate, I have spent the last week and a half working diligently to cleaning out this room. Some stuff went upstairs to the attic, some stuff went out the outbuilding aka, photo studio. And some stuff went away in some form or another, never to return again. It's actually been a huge sense of relief that has surprised me to get this done...it's like a weight has been removed that I didn't even recognize was there til it was gone.

At any rate, the reason that we're working on this is because my 18 year old cousin Lea, who lives in Kansas is coming to live with us for at the very least the summer. I'm hoping it will be longer. We've talked about this for years and it is finally happening. We want to turn the room into a bedroom so that Josh and I can take that room and we can move the boys upstairs and then Lea can have the boys' room...I know, a lot of moving around and repainting...but it'll be so worth it. In 'payment' for her room and board, she will be helping me with the kids, housework, etc...and I desperately need the help! She is going to be finding a job here as well to save up for college because she can make more money here than in Kansas. Anyway, I'm super excited. I don't know for sure when she'll be here...but it should be soon.

I've also been doing a lot of yard work this week when the sun is shining. I just can't help it. When the sun comes out, I must be in it. I've done a lot of cleaning up from the various windstorms that have struck over the winter...lots of leaves, tree bits etc, etc. I've also replanted my flower bed in front of our front porch. The things I put in last year were mostly sun plants...and once the tree in the front of our house gets all it's leaves there is NO sun there...so they all died. But I found a really nice variety of shade plants that I've put in there...so hopefully those will be a little happier. It really does something to my soul to plant flowers. I've noticed that in my house, I like to have things kind of symmetrical and balanced...and I guess I do in the garden too...but I don't like to have things matching...I like to just have a big variety of different things to look at. Hopefully when they start growing and maturing and fill in, it will look very natural and unplanned. That's me. Natural and unplanned. =) The downside to all these flowers and yard work is that it puts an intense desire in me to have grass. Again. If you've been to our house, you'll notice that our yard is really...um...crap. In the front section there is not grass or greenery whatsoever. It needs to much work. I so desire to have our kids be able to run barefoot outside in the soft grass. Someday I guess. All our 'extra' money is going into our new room for now. But man, grass would be so nice.

Stuffed French Toast Recipe

2009-03-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

I had a couple requests for this recipe via twitter...so here is my stuffed french toast recipe...actually, it's not mine although I did alter it a bit. I got it from my mother in law who got it from one of her plethora of friends. =)

Stuffed French Toast

8 eggs
8 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup syrup
6 TB melted butter
loaf of french toast bread (the cinnamon kind is extra yummy)

Cube 1/2 of the loaf of bread and spread in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Cut cream cheese and scatter over bread. Cover with the remaining bread. (I actually only save enough whole pieces of bread to cover the pan and tear up the rest) Mix egg, milk, syrup and butter. Pour over bread and press to soak. Bake 40-50 min at 350. Enjoy!

*Just a note...the first time I made this, I thought it was too dry, so I doubled the amount of the milk, syrup and butter...this seemed to be better

Help?

2009-03-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

This might be a strange place for this, I don't know. What I do know is that most of you who read my blog are friends/family, so maybe that makes it a bit less strange. Or maybe not. At any rate, I have a request.

In two weeks from now (first weekend of April) Josh and I are going to attempt to get away for the weekend....(Friday night and Saturday night). Currently we have a couple offers to take the boys overnight, but we do not yet have any solid offers for the girls. So I am wondering....is there anyone out there who might be willing/able to watch the girls overnight for a night or two that weekend? It would be probably easier on a number of levels if you were able/willing to stay overnight at our house but we would consider them going to someone else's house overnight as well.

So what do you think? Any takers?

Bryce's answers

2009-03-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here are Bryce's answers to the questions from 3/19/09

1.What is something mom always says to you? Do your homework
2. What makes mom happy? Flowers
3. What makes mom sad? Lying
4. How does your mom make you laugh? tickling me
5. What was your mom like as a child? like Adelynn
6. How old is your mom? 29
7. How tall is your mom? 62" (he knows this because he recently discovered that he is exactly one foot shorter than me...which is not much of an accomplishment, height wise, but for a THIRD GRADER is pretty significant)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? go on dates with daddy
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? read books
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? taking care of kids
11. What is your mom really good at? getting the girls dressed
12. What is your mom not very good at?I don't know (because I'm good at everything of course)
13. What does your mom do for a job? takes care of the kids
14.What is your mom's favorite food?" chicken? (to be fair, I don't really have any favorite foods)
15.What makes you proud of your mom? making my lunch on weekends (have you noticed a trend of my boys being proud of me when I make them food? hmmm)
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? mickey mouse (this is a weird question and deserves a weird answer)
17. What do you and your mom do together? play uno
18. How are you and your mom the same? same color of eyes
19. How are you and your mom different? length of our noses (I'm glad I'm over my self conciousness about my nose =)
20. How do you know your mom loves you? she says it often
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? funny
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? ikea

Jayden's answers

2009-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

I stole this questionaire from Andrea's facebook...I thought it would be a fun blog. These are questions answered by Jayden on 3/16/09

Cut and paste these questions and ask your kids their answers....

1.What is something mom always says to you? Get ready for bed.
2. What makes mom happy? Helping her
3. What makes mom sad? Disobeying her
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tickle!
5. What was your mom like as a child?Played with friends
6. How old is your mom?29
7. How tall is your mom?29 feet (ha!)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? playing with daddy (how true!)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Chores
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?I don't know
11. What is your mom really good at? Making dinner
12. What is your mom not very good at?cleaning up the girls' room (Probably because they trash it before I can even finish, in my defense)
13. What does your mom do for a job? coffee shop
14.What is your mom's favorite food?" hamburgers (not really true)
15.What makes you proud of your mom? when she makes me eggs and biscuits
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? spongebob (I have no words)
17. What do you and your mom do together? make cookies
18. How are you and your mom the same? we're family
19. How are you and your mom different? you're a girl and I'm a boy
20. How do you know your mom loves you? because she tells me all the time
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? kissing
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? church

Six

2009-03-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

After every single school day, Jayden comes home with a pocket full of pictures that he's drawn for me. It used to be that they were always pizza slice looking pictures of race cars, but it has more recently become pictures of hearts. He always announces to me that he's made me something and sheepishly but proudly pulls them out of his pocket, opens them up (they are always folded into very small squares) and awaits for my approval. Today was no different except for his announcement that he'd made me 6 pictures today. He pulled the lump of folded papers out of his pocket and proceeds to open each and every one of them. As he's opening them and spreading them out around me I asked him if he made me six because he's almost six years old. At first he laughed and said yes...but then he thought about it and said, "It's because I loved you six times today." "Only six?" I asked. "Well, maybe seven....or ....another high number." Gosh I love that kid.

Negligent

2009-02-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

Yes. I know. I'm fully aware that I haven't posted a blog in over 2 weeks. I don't really have an excuse other than lack of things to blog about and lack of motivation to blog. Oh yeah. And the Twilight series.

So for better or worse, I'm going to throw out some randomness of what has been happening over the last two weeks. I might even throw in some pictures.

~ 1 ~

Mostly over the last two weeks, it's been difficult to blog because of the plague. If the Egyptians had continued to not let the Israelites go, the next thing God would have struck them with is whatever we just had in our house. I'm sure of it. It started out as the flu. Jayden was literally laying on the couch for about a week. A WEEK! He definitely got the worst of it. Fever, achy, coughing, headache..etc, etc. Then it got passed around and it got me. Then towards the end of the flu, somehow Jayden got pink eye. And then that got passed. I did not get that one though. But all three girls did. And then there was some sort of stomach thing. People started throwing up for no particular reason that I could tell. On top of this, getting sick has caused Bryce's asthma to act up and it feels like he's been coughing forever. Although my flu was significantly lighter than Jayden's it seems like it's been taking a longer time for me to feel back to normal. I really only had about 1 day of not being able to do anything and one other day were I didn't do much...and then it's been manageable. But I still, even now do not feel like I have gotten all my energy back. When I go to bed, I literally pass out. And that's not normal for me. It's also harder to get out of bed in the morning and get going. But at least I can say with somewhat certainty, that we are on the upswing.

~ 2 ~

We learned a few days ago that we have an unwelcome occupant in our chicken coop. A rat. Dis.cus.ting. I've never actually seen a rat in real life, but I have a pretty strong fear of mice and bats...so I'm really hoping that I don't actually come face to face with the rat. Josh was thankfully the one who discovered the rat and he's been outside a few nights with his bb gun trying to shoot it. I do not know if he's been successful. However he did shove packets of rat poisoning down the various potential rat holes. I'm hoping that there will be some success with that.

~ 3 ~

Have I ever mentioned that I really dislike the age of 2 in children? Because I do. Really. I didn't like it much when Bryce was 2. I liked it less when Jayden was 2. Now as I deal daily with 3 2-year-olds I find that I like it significantly less. There's always a war going on in my head and my heart. One side tells me to just endure it. Get through it and it can't possibly last forever. The other side tells me I need to treasure this time because this time of the children being so small and home all day is so short. These are my last 'babies' and I can't ever go back. *sigh* But then the other side comes back and says, "yes, but won't it be so nice when they grow up and are not always in three places destroying things faster than I can put them back? and won't it be nice when I can clean a room and it will stay clean for more than 5 minutes so I can feel like I've accomplished something...anything during the course of a day?" Ugh..I feel guilty.

~ 4 ~

Here is a picture that I meant to post a while back...Remember that windstorm we had a few weeks ago and there was destruction everywhere you turned? This happened just down the street from us:
Oh. Dear.

~ 5 ~

Oh..this happened a few more than a couple weeks ago, but do you remember my "brilliant" idea about hot gluing some particular items of furniture down to our floor so that they girls couldn't move them? Well, for some things, it was a brilliant idea...but for other things it was, well, less than brilliant. Little did I know at the time that the girls were going to be using the kitchen that I lovingly built for them for Christmas for a jungle gym. I know, can you say, "duh"? Well, to make a long story short (I had intended to make a whole blog about this, but never did) Kynden fell off the kitchen (I presume since I wasn't actually in the room at the time) and ended up falling on the table and breaking her collar bone. Oops. Big oops. Although Kynden was not happy in this particular picture, she really didn't seem to mind wearing her sling for about 5 minutes at a time. She seems to be acting perfectly normal now and totally healed. But boy did I feel guilty about that glued down table.

~ 6~

I know, I know...you're wondering how much longer I'm going to make this blog...well, I have 2 more things. The first? Two words. Kitchen remodel. No, nothing like spending thousands of dollars on new cabinets and appliances....however, we have added some cabinets and are soon going to be adding new counter tops to the sink side of our kitchen...as well as 8 feet of additional counter space. The problem? I've been waiting and waiting to be able to complete this project. I finally made it down to IKEA to purchase the matching counter top that we put on the other side of the kitchen. Josh began destroying the old tile counter while I was gone. And then. I found out that they were SOLD OUT! It's been over a week of living with wrecked counter tops and their website still says they're out of stock and don't have a delivery date yet. Doesn't IKEA know how long I've been waiting?

~ 7 ~

We were able to attend church yesterday for the first time in several weeks. Our pastor challenged us to do a "fast" to get ready for Easter in 6 weeks. So Josh and I chose to "fast" from TV. We figured that anything we wanted to catch up on we could watch online after Easter is over. It's going to be interesting. Man, as I was writing that, I just thought about Lost. I did not consider Lost in this equation. Darn. We'll see how it goes. Right now, we're looking into listening to some audio books and maybe getting into a better habit of praying together. I'll let you know how it goes. That's it for now. I'll try not to stay away for so long next time.

Imagine Spot 1 - Super Bowl Ad NBC Rejected

2009-02-02T13:14:00.001-08:00

Superbowl Ad...

2009-02-02T13:06:00.001-08:00

I found this on another blog and I had to post it...it goes well with the article link I just posted a few days ago. This was an ad that NBC rejected to play during the superbowl. Thought provoking, isn't it?

No matter how hard I try....

2009-01-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

....sometimes when I see things like this, I have to laugh.

The girls seem to be especially naughty today. Every time I take my eyes off them, they are causing some sort of death and destruction in the house. A few minutes ago it was quiet in the house (always a warning sign) so I checked on them and I saw this. In case you can't tell what's happening, they had taken the bowl of sugar that I was using to roll cookies in earlier, dumped it, AND WERE LICKING IT OFF THE FLOOR. Welcome to my world.