Finding Krissi

Growing up I lived in a house that sat on a quarter acre of property. My parents loved gardening, yard work, and creating a beautiful yard. I hated gardening, yard work, and anything that made me be outside. Outside was yucky, being outside in the summer makes you sweat. I hated getting my hands dirty, gardening makes your hands dirty. I hated weeding, mowing the lawn, planting flowers, all of it in my book was the pits. Every spring and summer my parents and I had a deal. Saturday when they headed outside to work in the yard I stayed inside and worked. I thought it was a sweet deal. I thought they were all suckers. Sweating, dirty hands, grass clippings. Yuck, yuck, and more yuck! Now that I'm all grown up I have had an obvious change of heart. Housework equals yuck, yuck and more yuck. Give me the garden, sun, sweat, and summer any day. Let the sun kiss my face, let heat warm the winter right out of me, let the garden renew my spirit. There are times when I am with my mom and ...

Do you remember Monkey Bars in elementary school?  All of my kids have went through a monkey bar stage. Which doesn't explain why I was so surprised to watch H. make his way across the bars.  I am trying not to view him as my baby. I think that I am doing really good. Then I stand in total shock as I watch him cross the monkey bars. I desperately want to run across the playground and walk beneath him. Make sure he doesn't make the 100 foot fall. However, as I watch I notice he has obviously been playing on the monkey bars at school.   Obviously he has done this a time or two.  I'm trying to figure out away to stop it.   Dear School,  H. is my baby he is not allowed to cross the monkey bars.  Crossing the monkey bars would indicate he is older then he is in my head.  I would appreciate it if you would realize a mothers heart is not ready to let him grow up.   Thank You,  Crazy Mom Lady  What do you think? They would totally stop this monkey business right? 

Saturday we dragged everyone out of bed after a late night and made it to the first soccer games of the season.  I have to admit that it was a little bit chilly and I am in a reluctant soccer mom stage.  Meaning I'm not all that excited to be back into soccer mode. However, like most things once you see how much fun the kids are having you put a smile on your face and enjoy the day.   What took me by surprise yesterday was how much my boys are growing.  A. is this tall, lean fast kid on the soccer field.  I keep looking for him realizing I'm looking right past him.  He has changed so much his confidence, his ability, I hardly recognize him.   H. is as excited as ever to be back on the soccer field.  While all of my kids have a bit of a competitive streak H.s is a bit more competitive.  Okay a lot more competitive. Okay I see him being one of those screaming coach dads sometime in his future.  We are trying to teach him about being a good sport.  We are trying to teach him about...

One of those times that anything I say can be used against me. Therefore I will let you have a peak of what we did last night without commentary.  Super Saturday Soccer begins in One Hour. Happy Saturday Everyone!

It turns out that I am pretty much incapable of taking pictures of my swimmer.  Mainly because the race does not last long enough and biting your nails and snapping pictures CAN NOT be done at the same time. Here is what I got! Blurry but still cool! S. is the one with the black suit and green cap. Never hurts to see your name with a #1 by it. Way to go S!! By the way, the reason all the other times are the same, none of the others had touched the wall yet the clock was still going. :) I'm always curious at just how exciting it is to be a life guard at a swim meet.  I think it must be the most boring job ever.

Pioneer Women posted this picture on her blog today. She made it available to download to anyone who wanted it. As I looked at the picture I thought, "Who would want a picture of two bulls." She had a nice little post about the picture and what it meant to her. I just kept looking at the picture disturbed and mistrusting of the whole thing. It finally dawned on me why I didn't like the picture and strangely enough why I liked the picture. How many of us spend our lives in this position?  Head butted up against something that is just as strong, just as powerful, and just as unwilling to move as we are. I know that I have spent more then my fair share of days, weeks, months, okay fine, decades standing in this position. "I'm right, I'm right, I'm right!!!!" Guess what being right got me? Yup, standing there with my head butted up against someone or something that was, "Right, Right, Right!" Strange as it may sound the more I look at thi...

You all thought it was just me!

Have you ever had a day where you thought, "Blahhh?" Have you ever had a week where you thought, "Blahhh?" Have you ever had a month where you thought, "Blahhh?" Have you ever...okay well I think you know where I am going with this.  I am having one of those weeks. I'm pretty dang sure that it is Mother Natures fault. I need sun.  Lots and lots of sun.  I need to know that the sun is not going to go away.  I need to know that I can play in the garden and tomorrow it wont be under a foot of snow. I am growing resentful of this Utah weather.  It is affecting my whole attitude. I don't want to be cheerful, I don't want to look on the bright side of things, what I want to do is to horrible awful things to mother nature. I also want to move somewhere that "SNOW" and "COLD" are four letter words. Actually I think that makes me smile a little.  I have now discovered two new swear words.  Awful mean little swear words. In fact if yo...

The red wall! Remember when I said I was going to paint a wall red? Remember when I said that the samples were currently taped to the wall? Well they are still there. After a few weeks of staring at the samples and trying to decide what I liked and what I wanted to do I realized that I don't like either one of them. Red is a tricky color. It is a hard color to paint and even a harder color to cover up. Which is what is making this decision so hard. I went over to Lowes and grabbed a handful of new red paint samples. We have always used Behr, Home Depots paint, but I can't find a red that I like so I am going to give Lowes Valspar a try. I have a few that are in the consideration stage. I think the biggest problem is that the wall is in the kitchen which is painted yellow. I''m thinking the yellow is going to have to go and I'm thinking GREEN! Brent is not making to much of fuss about that. However, he hasn't seen how dark I am thinking of going. In fact I might ...

I spent a little time yesterday playing with spring flowers. Not outside playing, because there was snow but I'm okay with that.  I don't care one lick that it snowed yesterday.  Nope, not me, I am totally neutral on the subject. (Does anyone think mother nature reads this blog?) (Does anyone think she will stop this snow crap if I act like I don't care?) (Umm does anyone think I might be a bit off my rocker?) (Never mind I don't want to know the answer to any of those questions.) Anyway back to the spring flowers, being as it was to cold and snowy to play outside I spent some time playing with photo shop.  I had fun and only slightly cursed mother nature when I saw that these small little girls lost their blooms to the snow today. RIP my little friends until next spring. After posting yesterday I had so much fun reading your comments.  I decided that the number one reason I have a blog is because of you. All of you. You could probably tell I wasn't in the best of m...

Last week our weather was beautiful. Sunny skies, warm temperatures and very spring like days. It was bliss.  Today it is snowing.  Falling to the ground and sticking snowing. I'm not going to say what I think about this because you already know what I feel about this. Additionally, if mother nature is throwing snow at us just to get her jollys I am refusing to react. Maybe if I quit throwing hissy fits every time it dares to snow she will just stop. Do you think that will work? Maybe? Possibly? Right now I am sitting here dreading the fact that I have to go to work in a couple of hours.  Go to work and get wet.  Go to work get wet while it snows outside (said in a calm voice because I am not angry about the snow)(So take that Mother Nature). Do you think she is buying that I'm not angry? Any way on another note at the gym this morning the following song popped up on my IPOD. I laughed and laughed and giggled and got all kinds of strange looks from my neighboring treadmillers. ...

This past weekend was busy, busy, busy. S. did an awesome job at State she brought home her best times in every event that she swam. She dropped almost a minutes worth a time over 8 events. S. swam many hard races including, a 400 IM, a 200 IM a 200 Backstroke, and a 500 freestyle. She rocked them all. The most exciting news of the weekend is that the she achieved a zone time. Zone is one of the many steps on your way up the swim ladder. It is a step or two away from Nationals which is the one place all Olympic wantabes want to end up. She was thrilled to see that she had finally achieved one. She has been close for a few years now. When she learned she had broke the time she said, "I knew I would always get close I didn't think that I would really ever do it." It was great to see all her hard work and dedication payoff. It was a great weekend and I am now officially exhausted. The kids are off of school tomorrow and except for having to work for a couple of hour...

My boss at the pool has been working hard, she has been wheeling and dealing, begging and pleading, plotting and scheming. After months and months of all of the above. She received enough grant money to give every 4th grader in our city free swim lessons for two weeks. Yesterday 2 buses delivered over 100 kids to the pool. The kids were lined up on one side of the pool and told to swim across. There were four teachers stationed across the pool. Depending on how far the kids could swim placed them in their class. I was on the other side of the pool if they made it to me without looking like they were struggling I sent them on. It is a very interesting thing that happens when you put a ten year old in the water with his/her peers. There were kids who couldn't swim a lick who made it across that pool because they had a rep to protect. There were kids who looked at us like we were nut jobs and didn't budge an inch. There were kids who were downright insulted when I told t...

This is my oldest child! She came into this world and blessed two young kids lives. Who, by the way, frankly had no clue as to what to actually do with a child. She seemed to understand that from the beginning. Making sure that she behaved, gave no reason to fret and pretty much succeeded at everything she did. This parenting stuff was easy peasy. (I know that isn't a word but I like the way it sounds, go ahead say it) Anyway back to this girl! She is a superstar! She is a brain! She has beautiful eyes and great hair! She behaves. Ummm she behaved..... See this girl recently turned 12 and since then there has been some changes. There has been an awful lot of these of these looks. (I call this the, "My mom is so lame," look) More then one of these looks. ("I'm smiling but I'm thinking about the nursing home I will put you in one day" look) And a whole lot of these looks. ("Only six more years and I can escape." look) She doesn'...

As of today there is 80 days until the kids last day of school. This year is passing so quickly. This is the only year that all my children are attending the same school. Starting next year my oldest will be going to Junior High. I shutter and stutter when I think about how much things are changing around here. With the summer quickly approaching we have started to plan. Who wants to do what, how are we going to spend our days, what activities will we be involved in? S. has wanted to do Jr. lifeguards since she was tiny and is excited that this year she will be able to do it. She can hardly wait until the summer she is 15 and is able to be a real lifeguard. A. and H. want to start running every morning. We did it a little bit last summer and they want to do it again this summer. Al hated running down the trail and is hoping we don't do it again. However, a friend of ours runs a basketball camp and she is hoping that she can do that. We will probably try to do another 5k ...

I am sitting on the front porch at the end of the day. The sun is making its final descent and I can fill the rays dance all over me. Maybe at this moment I should be worrying about wrinkles or freckles or even the sun burn I have gotten, but all I can think is, "AHH." For the first time in months I am sitting on my front porch, barefooted, soaking up the warm sun. Children are running up and down the street. The sound of a basketball echoes around me, someone is motivated enough to mow their lawn, our neighborhood wood pecker has returned and he is announcing his arrival on his favorite pole and every now and then a burst of laughter can be heard. The silence and stillness of winter is being replaced with the noise and bustle of summer. With only a few days left until the first day of spring there will obviously be more then one cold day left. However, today fills like a promise. A promise that summer is coming.

With every intention in the world of starting and finishing a 50 mile bike ride our little group of riders set out. However, before we started there were a few things that we had to take care of. Starting with the fact that I am the last hold out to purchase a road bike. My friend Wendy decided that it would be a good idea for me to ride her bike while she rode her husbands. Road bikes are pretty customized to the rider so there were adjustments that had to be made to both bikes in order for this work. The only thing I can say about riding a road bike verses riding a mountain bike. "OH MY GOSH!" From the first second I sat on the bike I was green with envy and as jealous as could be. I haven't purchased a bike because I could just not see myself spending 1500 dollars on a bike. I really didn't think there could be enough difference to justify the expense. There is. There totally is. That being said there was one or two things I had to get use to. The biggest...

It has been awhile since I gave everyone an update of all the comings and goings of this family.  Mainly because there are a lot of comings and goings.  Funny how that works.   Here is what we have been up to. Growing, growing, growing, Al. has almost caught up to her big brother. Any day now he is going to have to walk around on his tippy toes. Then there is Basketball basketball basketball and more basketball. Of course there is ALWAYS swimming and more swimming. A whole lot of growing. Big Sigh! A little bit of orchestra. All of this keeping us all very busy. However, we are having a blast. Can't you tell?

Last one and I will stop you will not see another silly video from my kids again.  I'm such a liar! H. sang a song for everyone. Tell me if you can guess how he fills about Peanut Butter Sandwich's ?

Sometimes when I walk into my front room I feel sorry for you. Yes, you read that correctly I look at all of my little seedlings reaching toward the light and I grin from ear to ear. Then I think, "Oh my poor blog readers." They are going to have to put up with months and months of gardening. Pictures and pictures of tiny seeds growing into little plants growing into big plants. Aren't they adorable! Couldn't you just look at these pictures all day long? Yah, see that is why I feel sorry for you. I couldn't even resist my facebook status refelcting my garden status.That turned into a whole other story. It is flowers people! I am growing flowers and only flowers! I am not growing anything that could get me sent to prison. I will try to behave. Really I will try not to spend every moment of every day describing to you the tiny little developments of every plant. But let's be honest here. This is me and well I'm not what you would describe as a moderate perso...