Finding Krissi

Grabbed a book off the shelf this morning. It was just a random pick from the library. No rhyme or reason just one I grabbed from the shelf. After I picked it up and settled down to read I laughed out loud. The book is called, "The New Policeman," by Kate Thompson. The back of the book says the following; There never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When J.J.'s mother says that what she really wants for her birthday is more time in her day, J.J. decides to find her some. But how can he find time for her, when he barely has enough time to keep up with school and his music? And where will he get time to find out if the shocking rumor is true—that his great-grandfather was a murderer? It seems as though J.J.'s given himself an impossible task. But then a neighbor reveals a secret to him—there is a place where time stands still. J.J. realizes he's the only person who can make the journey, but to do so he'll have to v...

Can you believe that December is almost over? Can you believe that the year is almost over? Can you believe that a decade is almost over? I can hardly believe that 2010 is only a couple days away. Where has the time gone? Is there anyway to get some, any, just a little of that time back? You all work on that. Meanwhile, I am just going to take a deep breath and just try to enjoy the last moments of 2009. I'm also going to decide if this is a year that I break down and make a New Years Resolution or two. What do you think? A goal or two thrown in with an already crazy busy life. Maybe I can set a resolution to eat more chocolate. I'm fairly certain that is a resolution I could keep. Heaven forbid I should make a resolution to eat less chocolate. That would just be crazy talk. What do you think to resolute or not?

Two birthdays down....the rest to go.... We had a very fun filled birthday weekend and all I can say is, 'Oh my freakin gosh my kids are getting so big." I now have an official teenager. How the heck did that happen how can I possibly be old enough to have a teenager? I myself was 16 like yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was yesterday that I turned 16. So someone explain to me how it is possible that I now have a thirteen year old. Not just a 13 year old but my second one is 11. His birthday was all about Scouts. All the stuff he needs now he is officially out of cub scouts and in big boy scouts. I can't believe he isn't in cub scout any longer. You may not have noticed this but I am having a hard time with all of this getting big stuff. Where oh where did all my little monsters go? By this time next week my baby will be 7. There is a strong possibility I may need to be medicated for that one. Does anyone have any ideas what can wipe your memory that you are getting o...

I am so excited to participate in this year’s Advent tour hosted by Kalina and Marg . I have enjoyed many of your post and the Christmas spirit that has rang through. If I did not get an opportunity to leave a comment just know that I appreciate all of the wonderful post. The first thing you may notice is this is not a book blog. I love reading and I stock your blogs all the time for suggestions. One of these days, I may even become organized enough to link back to your post especially after I read one of your suggestions and love the book. This Christmas season has been especially busy for me. I guess that is the consequence of having four growing children. Christmas concerts, seasonal activities, and preparing for the big day have left me a little bit crazy. However, even with all the hustle and bustle we have been able to enjoy a few of our favorite traditions. At the beginning of every Christmas season, we put up the Christmas tree. Yes, we have an artificial tree but as I point ...

I'm here really I am here and yet I am hardly ever here. This is what happens when you have three birthdays the week of Christmas. You take the stress of Christmas and throw on top of it three birthdays. One only has only to ask? What the heck were we thinking? Tomorrow is S's birthday followed the next day by A.'s birthday followed by a Christmas Eve party of ummm oh 40 guest followed by Christmas a couple days later by H.'s birthday followed by a swim meet for A. and the next day a swim meet for S. Followed by New Years Eve, followed by..... I'm handling it really I am handling it only my life is some what in disarray and finding time to sit and blog when there are presents to buy, birthdays to figure out, cookies to bake, laundry to laundry, work to work and school to school and don't forget kids to parent. Leaves one depleted beyond measure. CRAZY!!! However, that being said tomorrow is my day to participate in the Advent calendar hosted by two of my favorit...

Last week I had the opportunity to go and see New Moon. It was a great night filled with popcorn and friends. It was a lot of fun to sit in the theater with my friends and watch a cheesy but fun movie. Yes, we all should have our hands slapped because when those cute wolf boys walked on screen... Well goodness, we are to old to have the thoughts we were having. Thanks girls for the fun night. You probably have no clue how much it means to me to have you all as friends. All in all New Moon may not be War and Peace but it served the purpose for a fun night. I have to admit I am sucker for the soundtrack. My favorite song on the album is "Possibility" by Lykke Li. I love unique voices Macy Gray, Imogen Heap and Natalie Maines are just a few of the singers I like because of their unique sound. Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't have a decent video of the song so I pulled this one, "Satellite Heart," by Anya Marina. A close second favorite. Anyway if you haven't see...

Guess what we got today?

I have decided the thing I miss most about being a kid during the holidays is the suspense. Every day in December seemed to drag on and on forever. Paper chains and little cardboard boxes of chocolates slowly tracked the days until Christmas morning. My stomach tied up in knots and little butterflies danced around in anticipation for Christmas day. My brothers and I were not the type to stay out of the Christmas present stash. The beginning of every holiday season meant the hunt was on. Under the stairs, in the trunk of the car, the far reaches of the closet, down under the bed. No nook or cranny was safe. My mom finally surrendered to our never-ending noisiness and invested in a lock and key. With stealth that even James Bond would admire my little brother managed to lift the key and ride to the store on his bike, get a copy, and return it to my mom’s purse. She never knew. Okay, well she probably knew. Moms always know. However, she pretended not to know. No matter how much we snoope...

Home! I am home. After a quick trip there and back. We are home. All though I can't complain that much about the there. Because the there was in California with the grand pa pa's and grand ma ma's. I'm sorry no matter how old you get there is nothing like a hug from mom and dad that puts the world to right. They are the very first ones we ran to with our scraped knees and alligator tears and no matter how old I get it just doesn't seem right not to run to them when life reaches the boiling point. I read this quote today and thought it expressed my point exactly. "Home is the place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to" John Ed Pearce So with December 1st upon us I am resurrecting theSwimmom question and asking a question. Hu Hu Humm. . . . What do you miss most about being a kid during the holidays? I am going to think about this myself for a little bit and get back to you. The one thing I know for sure the holidays are way diff...

Sooo. . . How did it go yesterday? Did you come across an angel or two? I actually came across one yesterday. The kids had their six month checkup at the dentist. First of all let me tell you that I hate the dentist. I have some deep seeded squirmy fears about the dentist that rears its head whenever you even say the word dentist. I'm pretty religious about taking the kids because I know I should and as much as I hate it I put on a brave face and we go every six months. I do like the dentist office that I take the kids to. It is one of the reasons I can endure these six month checkup. Usually after the x-rays are done 4 different hygienist take the kids and within an hour four kids are done and out of the the office. Yesterday Al was the first one done with her cleaning. She jumped out of the seat and said, "Lets go." "We can't the dentist has to come give the final look over." "I know I hate that part, lets go now." "No, we have to stay and s...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. It is always nice to take time out and spend time with family and enjoy each others company. I am looking forward more than I can say to our Thanksgiving break. I wrapped up my diversity class good, bad, or indifferent it is done. YAY! Reflections is all but done. This year we had 130 projects submitted three years ago when I started as the Reflection chick we had 9 projects submitted. It almost brought me to tears seeing all the kids projects and their creativity. So very awesome and soooo much work. The economy is looking a tiny bit better and it looks like we may get a little good news in the coming months. That will be a welcome break. All in all I have to say things are looking up. Which brings me to my thought for the day "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy My greatest hope for this holiday season is that I can live by the spiri...

All of this complaining is downright annoying. In one breath I am telling you my beliefs and in the next 2, 3, 4, I am whining. The two obviously do not go hand in hand. I told you I make mistakes I make them all (add about 100 l's) the time. Truthfully, I am annoying myself and it is time for an attitude adjustment. I will never survive the holidays without one. Which is why I have decided to start the countdown to Christmas with a daily, this world aint so bad, thought. Each day I'm going to seek out a thought or idea that reminds me why we celebrate the holidays and why this here life is to be celebrated and not spent whining and complaining. I will end somewhere around the end of the year with " The Best of 2009" post. Yes I will be tagging you my fellow readers so get to thinking. I loved reading your post last year and can't wait to read them again this year. So here is my thought for to day. I recently picked up a book that is a story centered around the h...

The past five weeks I have been in a diversity class. I have to be honest and say this class has been pretty much torture. I thought it would get better but it didn't. In fact it pretty much drove me crazy and I have never spent so much time and energy dealing with the obvious. In fact this class was pretty much like this: Everything, we studied was glaringly obvious. People are different, different cultures have different values, everyone has a different perspective. Add to this a text book that not once expressed a single opinion. Then write papers in which you don't express opinion. Ummm Hello, I have opinions lots and lots of opinions. Starting with the fact that this class was. Which is why I am doing the happy dance that tomorrow night is the last night. YAY!

I have decided the amount of laundry I have to do is a direct indication of my stress levels. lots of laundry means lots of stress. There is just something about digging around in a dirty laundry basket hoping to find something that isn't too wrinkled, too smelly, or too dirty that indicates things are not right in the world. However, there is something about opening a drawer full of clean folded clothes that indicates things are ok. So next time you see me take a good look at what I am wearing does it look like it has been dug out of the bottom of a laundry basket? Well then we both know things could be better.

I can handle it. Yup, I can handle anything. I got it all under control. Nothing to worry about here. Life is grand. Ignore the SOS signals. Everything is A. O. K!

Over the past three days I have had nearly 500 people trip across this blog. When those stats showed up in my email this morning my jaw hit the floor. Holly Cow! I don't really pay much attention to the stats, I just find them interesting, this morning I found them very interesting. I'm not entirely sure what caused the surge of visitors to my blog. I'm sure it had something to do with Blogher adds and something to do with my post about Grandpa Wayne. What really threw me was the "most searched," stat. Visitors were searching for my religion. Which I thought was curious. So I went searching for my religion and found out that no where on this blog have I said what religion I am. When I told my husband about the stats his first question was, "What kind of pictures did you post?" When I told my husband about the religion search he asked, "Are you hiding something?" I'm not hiding anything so next time you search, "religion" it will ...

I use to wonder why we couldn't have a time out button. A button we could push when life was out of control and we just needed a day or two off. No deadlines, no demands, just a time out. Honestly, I still want a time out button I've just accepted that we don't get one. All though, I would be willing to pay a pretty penny to anyone who invented one. Life keeps marching on and as sad as it is to say goodbye to a loved one the world does not stop and give you a time out. So unfair. Here we are back into the thick of things with deadlines, school work, church callings, kids schedules, etc.... etc... etc... I'm not complaining. No, not me, not at all.

The sun is coming up and it is one of those times that pink wispy clouds, float across the sky, seemingly, chasing the night away and welcoming the day. It is going to be a beautiful fall day. Today is also the funeral for my Grandpa Wayne. Grandpa Wayne came into my life almost 15 years ago. I was recently engaged and as it turns out so was my Grandma who had been a widow for more than 10 years. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this Wayne person, my memories of my grandpa were so strong in my heart, I wasn't sure that I wanted a Grandpa Wayne. Well time passed and the more I saw my grandma and Grandpa Wayne I began to realize how lucky my grandma was. She found a person who loved to do the things she loved to do. They traveled together, taking trips all over the country and one or two out of the country. They went on cruises and for the first time in a very long time she had a golfing partner. When she married Wayne he was not a member of our religion. However, not even a h...

Did you know that author's have blogs? Did you know that FAMOUS authors have blogs? Did you know that they update their blogs? They are like real people who have typos and everything. Which is really awesome. I'm acting like a nerd ain't I? I can't help it. I'm really excited to find out that there are author's who have blogs. I haven't tracked down all my favorites yet but I have tracked down a couple. Such as Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen. Who I love! I'm sounding like a total stalker right now. Well it is just one of those little things that makes me happy. Author's with blogs. Moving on to the not so happy news. The radio stations that have always given me lots of holiday cheer are being total Scrooges this year. We are almost four days into November and they are NOT playing Christmas music. I was so confused and sad that I tracked down the website of one and they are only going to start playing Christmas music full time 100 hours before Christmas. ...

Halloween night was lots of fun the kids bags were filled to the brim with candy. The weather that has been more than a little chilly warmed up to make for a perfect night of trick or treating. Sometimes things align just right to make for a perfect night. I can't wait to go through the pictures I took. Meanwhile, my heart is a flutter since today marks the first day of the holiday season. Don't believe me well there are two local radio stations that are playing nothing but Christmas music. So I guess them and I are ready for the holidays to begin. Anyway, hope you are enjoying the first day of the holiday season and the extra hour of sleep. Got to love when the clocks fall back an hour.

Happy Halloween Everyone, The pumpkins are all carved, the chili is in the crockpot and the kids are dancing around waiting for the trick or treating to begin. Well, everyone but S. she is waiting to pass out candy, she has taken a pass on trick or treating this year. I guess she thinks she is big. Last weekend we attended the city carnival and the ward Halloween party we had lots of fun. Below are pictures. These unlike the ones from tonight include S. (My first attempt at a scary Halloween costume, the tongue is what he thought about it) (My second attempt, this was apparently scary enough) (He told me Ninjas don't smile)

Returning to school as a mom is a challenge. However, one of the biggest blessings has been my study group. They are the best and I don't know what I would do without them. I love that when I am sitting on my bed working on homework they bring their homework in and join me. Kinda cool!

I was reading through the blogs I follow this morning and came across this video. A total laugh out loud video if you are into Vampire romance books. Thanks to Marg at Reading Adventures for the great find.

Last night was the first night of a new class. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate starting something new. First of all I walk into the classroom right smack dead in a good ole Mormon bashing conversation. The one thing you find out pretty quick living in Utah you are either Mormon or you hate Mormons. This is what you call generalizing, learned that last night in my culture and diversity class. Anyway, lets just say Utah has some extremes. I went in sat down and just shook my head the conversation was ridiculous. The subject of the course is interesting, we do live in a diverse world, we do need to accept and deal with the diversity, diversity is not a bad thing, so I see the point of the class. Last night I witnessed what happens when you put too much caffeine in a small body. This woman would not be quiet she went on and on and took every conversation way to far. Then she would stop take a breath take a sip of coffee and keep going. She told all kinds of stories peppered with all ...

I know I know I know that it isn't even Halloween yet but but but I have no excuse Except It's Christmas and Coldplay so you know well you know I just had to post it so ummm happy halloween :)

So far working at the same place the kids go to school has been an adventure. The beginning of the year I was handed the testing scores for all 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Then I had to go through the scores and sort out the top 10% of all students. Do you want to know how much it sucks to know all that information about children you know personally. Not to mention the lines you make cutting kids out of SEM only to notice one tiny percent difference. Then last week there was an incident in school that involved my 5th grader two other boys and the principals office. We will just leave that story alone. However, none of that tops what happened today. I was sitting at my desk getting ready for the next group when I hear H.'s teacher yelling for me. "Kristi, Kristi I have a child throwing up!" As I watch her scurry past me with a child's head in a trash can. "What? My child is throwing up?" "Yes!" I followed them into the sick room where she informe...

The soccer season has come and gone. Considering the weather that is a good thing. We are suppose to get snow this week. We even turned on the heat this morning for the first time. BRRR! Before we get to far away from soccer I thought I would post a couple more of my favorite soccer pics. These pics are of H. and the crazy faces he makes when he is playing. He is so focused and so into the game Brent and I just laugh. Hope you have a great Monday. After work today I start a new class, yay!

Enjoy a few Halloween Videos For Fun Cool! For Sharonda, who should be warned that she probably wont like "IT!"

My first class is over. I only have about a zillion more to go. That may be a bit of an over-exaggeration. It was a good class and I learned a ton. Some of what I am already using with kids at school. I love that what I am learning at school is so immediately applicable to what I am doing. Kind of makes learning easier. Meanwhile, I feel like I'm Indiana Jones. I'm running and running and the big rock is right on my butt. Thankfully Indie didn't get squished by the rock. Gives me hope that I won't be squished by the rock. I may get squished by laundry. One way or the other I'm still alive. There are still holes in my socks. Mother Nature is having some major mood swings and Halloween is one short week away. Holly Cow. Any ideas on costumes for 11 year old boys?

Summer is bidding a fond farewell and the bi-annual closet explosion has begun. For you out of state people who don't know what this is let me explain. Here in Utah you need two full wardrobes. You need short sleeve shirts, shorts, and your favorite pair of sandals. If your a true Utahn you can pull this wardrobe off from about Mid-April to the Beginning of November. If your a wuss Utahn, like me, you pull this particular wardrobe off from June to September. Then there is wardrobe number two, long sleeves (personally I am all about the Hoodie), jeans, and shoes to keep your toes toasty. Through out the month of October your closest explodes as every article of clothing you have has to be kept out. Is today a hot day, cold day, starting out cold getting warm, is it going to snow, rain, be gloomy, or is it going to be a beautiful blue sky day. Mother Nature has several Mood Swings when it comes to Utah weather. Right now we are dealing with exploding closets and the inevitable cries ...

At the beginning of 7th grade I bought my daughter a bug net. That’s right I bought her a bug net so that she could go out and catch bugs. One of those ironies that all mom’s live with I have never bought any of my kids a bug net. Because they catch BUGS with those nets and they bring them into the house and show them to you. Hence, no bug nets. However, S.’s 7th grade Science teacher wanted all the kids to put together a bug collection. Bugs that they personally caught. Bugs that they froze. Bugs that they stabbed with little pins then classified. Then…. As little bugs lay frozen in MY freezer we come to find that if you pull them out of the freezer to soon they come back to life. Meaning I did not have DEAD bugs in my freezer. I had SLEEPING bugs in my freezer. The Bug assignment is done. Thank Goodness. Only three more 7th graders to go.

A little over a week ago we decided to hold our first ever scary movie night. It is fun that the kids are getting older and instead of watching, "Winnie the Poo says Boo" we can watch, "Beetle Juice." Since we were trying a new activity we thought it would be fun to try a new snack so Brent and the kids dug through the family cook book and decided on, "Screaming Yellow Zonker's." A caramel corn recipe provided by his sister. The kids had lots of fun making it and of course lots of fun eating it. So if you are looking for a great caramel corn recipe keep reading. 3 Bags of Popcorn 2 Cups Butter or Margarine (That is not a Typo 2) 1/2 Cup Corn Syrup 2 Cups Sugar 1/2 tsp. Salt 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda Instructions: Put first five ingredients in medium pot. Bring to rolling boil and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Immediately pour over popcorn and mix well. Place caramel corn in a shallow pan and bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes. Watch cl...

I will be honest and tell you that I read a lot of books that I call brain candy. I would compare them to a 30 minute TV show or just the type of book you don't have to engage to much brain power. Because lets face it most days my brain power is running on empty by the end of the day. Often I pick up a book, start reading, figure out it is going to take me a little extra brain power, and quit reading. However, from the first page Brunonia Barry's, "The Lace Reader," pulled me in. I kept reading even after I figured out that it was going to take a few extra brain cells. The story had a wonderful flow that was very sad and haunting. There were moments that I thought I couldn't keep reading because I hate feeling sad and depressed. The characters just kept pulling at me. There were several mysteries intertwined and I had to know how they were going to work out. The ending of this book was very unexpected so unexpected I think I may have to re-read this book. If your ...

The Last One for today I promise. There is something so dang cute about boys in jerseys and cleats. Melts my heart.

I just uploaded over 200 pictures from my camera. So you get to humor me as I share a few of my faves. Sunset