Finding Krissi

Sometimes the best thing to do on a summer evening is watch clouds

On Saturday the family went and saw the latest Harry Potter film. We are so not a movie family. The thought of spending all that money to see a movie makes my stomach curl up. We saved a bit of money my taking in the matinee we had to laugh when the cost of three popcorn's and three drinks was 3 dollars more than what we paid to see the movie. I have no idea how families regularly go to the movies. I have to say that in the end I thought the movie was worth the price of admission. My husband strongly disagreed. He felt that it took 2 and half hours for the movie to start and then right when it was about to start it ended. That is when my son and I just nodded our heads with big grins on our faces and said, "Yah, we know." He replied, "What do you mean You KNOW!" "Well that is how the sixth book ends." A. Said "Well that is a stupid place for a book to end what happens next." "Dad you have to read the book to know that." The conversa...

I have decided in recent weeks that I have been driving myself a little bit nuts. I'm not exactly sure how many times I have mentioned that my baby is going to first grade and I have some decisions to make but I'm pretty sure I have said it about 10 or 12 or possibly even 30 times to many. I like talking or in this case typing it gives me the sense of accomplishing something without actually accomplishing anything. :) Except when I finally get to that point that even I am annoyed by all my yacking and lack of actual doing. So for my birthday I finally made a decision and then actually followed through my decision. I know a completely novel idea. I enrolled and in a few short weeks will be starting school. Maybe, I should say I will be finishing school. The last several years I have taken college courses whenever I could fit them in. It turns out that when I went to register to attend college in the fall I was officially a Junior. I was a little surprised to find out I had pr...

I may have mentioned a time or two that three of my four kids have Christmas birthdays. I may have also mentioned that we live in Utah and in Utah December is cold, snowy, and COLD! So occasionally the kids get a Birthday/Christmas gift that really just ends up sitting. For instance H. received this remote control car for Christmas. One spin outside in the near freezing temps was all it took to convince him this was not a winter toy. Now that it has warmed up he has taken his car for a spin or two. I find it totally amusing how he runs the remote control car. When I say run I mean run. No matter how many times I tell him and show him he doesn't have to run after the car the minute it starts heading down the street he is right behind it. I have given up and am just enjoying the show.

A couple of weeks ago we had a few days of rain, thunder, and lightening. I happen to be a very big fan of summer storms. During a lull in the storm me, my favorite crocs and my camera took a stroll through the garden. Yes, these are my favorite shoes I would wear them year round every where I went if I could. However, last time I tried to wear them to church my mother's voice was so loud in my head that I knew I wouldn't make it out of the house. This is a pic of our garden. Again we have let a few random sunflowers sprout up. We love how they make our garden feel and look. Not to mention they attract birds who eat the bugs out of the garden. Here is a couple pics of the roses. It has gotten to hot for them lately but on this day they were enjoying the rain. We had beautiful flowers all June because of the cooler temps. Here are my Zinnias this is the first year I have planted Zinnias and they are quickly becoming a favorite of both Brent and I. Currently they are about two ...

From the day she was born there was only two ways to feel when you were around Al. Absolute frustration! or Absolute Elation! That is our Al.

Anyone who knows my family knows that we are not exciting people. We spend our days doing our thing which is usually swimming, chores, computering, reading and gardening. When you get down to it we are pretty darn dull. Not that we don't have our moments of excitement (in about three years I will tell you what happened to A. at his swim meet last night) believe me we have moments of excitement. However, our moments are usually more on the woo hoo I'm the first one to get a copy of a new release at the library. Your yawning I can actually hear you yawning. Knock it off! Some people have to be boring. In the mist of all our boring we have a six year old brother/son. Who has no intention spending his life bored. He also hates fighting for video game time with his older brother and computer time with one sister and TV time with another. So what does he do? He disappears outside. I know shocking! Why would a child spend time OUTSIDE in the summer? He roams the boundaries his parent...

Thank You for all the birthday wishes. Since I was telling everyone that I feel like I am still sixteen it got me thinking about my sixteenth birthday. On the morning of my sixteenth birthday I woke with one clear thought. FREEDOM! Today was the day the day, the big 16, today everything that had been a big fat no became a big fat yes. Boys... YES! YES! YES! Driving... YES! YES! YES! YES! Who needed the 4th of July I had the 13th of July. My very own independence day! Yup, let Freedom ring People I was officially 16! Of course there were a few details that had to be worked out and the very first thing on my list of things to do for the day was pass the driving portion of my driving test. Easy Cheesy! In excitement, that only a new 16 year old on the verge of getting her drivers license can feel, I raced down the stairs to wake my mom up and get going to my test. The last time I would have to depend on her to get me anywhere. As I raced down the stairs it was my habit to jump pass the...

Tomorrow is my birthday. Woo Hoo! It is crazy to think how fast the years have passed. I find it amazing that in my heart I still feel like I'm 16. Not that I want to be 16 I just feel like I am sixteen. This has been a crazy year with the economy being all nuts and causing more than a little money stress on our end of things. However, I have gained this whole new perspective on just how little our family can live on. Makes me want to be smarter with money and work on having less "wants" and a better definition of "need." I have also gained a perspective on how life continues to march on regardless of how finances are. The kids continue to grow, reach new milestones, develop into their own people, and have birthday's of their own. I'm also having to deal with the fact that this year will be the first year all of my monsters are in school full time. Leaving me with an empty house several hours of the day. The memories of chasing four little ones aroun...

The writer of this blog is currently in fantasy land. Meaning there will be no post as she is to busy pretending that she is on the sunny, care free, warm beaches of Hawaii. Apparently she is also under the delusion she looks smoking hot in a bikini and can currently (in the world of fantasy) be found on the beaches of Oahu sporting a bikini top and a grass skirt. Further evidence of how deeply she has entered fantasy land includes some very cute natives making sure her umbrella drinks are full and sunblock applied. The only thing she would like to mention to those of you still dealing with the real world and the endless hours of kids and summer vacation. "The water here is perfect and the sunsets are to die for please feel free to join me."

Hope your having a fantastic 4th of July! Save me some potato salad.

As I type this post the rain is falling. The rain is falling the thunder is rumbling and the lightning in striking. Is there anything better than a good summer storm? I love sitting here listening to the storm rage and smelling the smell of rain. It is even better that I have nothing to do at the moment but sit here and enjoy the storm. Almost as good as smelling the roses. Almost. :) The second session of summer swim ended today. This session was lots of fun for me. Each year a local daycare reserves six classes and bring all of their kids. This is my third summer at the pool and it is fun to see many of the same little faces. They are growing up as fast as my own monsters. One little boy who came back this summer was there my first summer. In fact the first six days of swim lessons I carried him on my back as he screamed and hollered and the let the world know how unhappy swim lessons made him. On the seventh day he suddenly stopped and from then on he was a happy camper. He was...