Finding Krissi

I'm sitting here jumping up and down as the door bell rings. It is almost 8:30 the trick or treaters are still out on a cold, windy, rainy night. Well it just goes to show you that very few things come between kids and candy. The two younger ones dragged me out trick or treating tonight. They lasted about an hour and half before their toes froze and we headed home. It actually turned out to be fun evening as we caught a glimpse of a double rainbow in the sky moments before Santa gave me a candy cane. I love Halloween everyones inner weirdo comes out to play. About a week ago our church had a halloween party on the same night that S.'s school had a haunted house. As a member of peer support S. was able to scare the pants off of other Junior High students. She dressed up as a zombie girl. She came home four dollars richer. She was at the end of the haunted house and more than once was offered money if she would show them the way out. With everyone dressed up I actually ...

What know one tells you.... Almost 11 years ago I brought home from the hospital my second baby girl. She was a beautiful, dark eyed bundle of joy. As she grew she had a wonderful wicked sense of humor and the ability to make you laugh out loud. She was goofy and totally adored by her older sister, brother, and parents. She also developed a stubborn streak a mile wide and a mile long. One time at the age of five I threatened to take away all of her toys if she would not clean her room. She boxed every last toy into a box and handed it over to me. There is no discipline that works when Al decides she doesn't care. You could probably hang her by her toes, naked in the middle of town, and she would fold her arms shrug her shoulders and tell you, "Whatever." So for the past 10 years we have walked the line of totally adoring Al and totally wanting to strangle her. However, what know one told me (AGAIN)... Is that cute little bundles of pink joy grow into girls w...

This year we had our first taste of being football parents. It was flag football and I have been assured that it was only a fraction of what real football is. I have not made any hard and fast decisions about the football world. I dragged my feet until the last possible second to put H. on a flag football team. In fact I dragged my feet so long that he ended up on a 3rd and 4th grade team. Good thing it was flag since there is a profound difference in the size of a second grade boy and a 4th grade boy. After every game H. asked the same question, "When can I play real football?" Again and again we said, "Let's see how this goes." We made it to the end of the season he is still asking and Brent and I are staring at each other trying to figure out how to get out of it. We haven't come up with any brilliant reasons. So if you have any lying around send them my way. I guess my major concern is that he will get hurt. Football is a crunch and munch type ...

I distinctly remember the first time I referred to teenagers as, "kids." I remember pausing in the middle of the conversation turning to Brent and saying, "Since when did I get old enough to call a highschool student a kid?" It was shocking and one of those memories that burned into permanency. A shocking realization that I was no longer a kid. The other day someone was talking to me and asked if I knew who someone was. I replied I didn't know her name but I had seen her at the school and she was very young. A couple hours later I kind of gasped in surprise at myself. When did I become old enough to refer to another mother as young? She wasn't young in the sense she was a teenage mom. She was just young in the sense that she looked young and she was surrounded by a bunch of little ones. I have to admit that this stage in my life keeps taking me by surprise. I keep thinking that I am still a young mother with all these little ones. Then I see a yo...

Due to the economy the last couple of years have been financially stressful around here. It is funny how you think that you need to make x amount of dollars to live each month and then all of the sudden your making half of x and you are still living. You think to yourself well there is no way we can live off any less than this and than you find your self living off half of that. Did you follow all of that. The inner teacher in me wants to explain. We were making x Then we were making x divided by 2 Then we were making x divided by 4 To say things have been tight would be an understatement. To say that we have become excellent jugglers would be head on. Over the last few months things have gotten progressively better. It is strange and I still haven't adjusted and I have to admit I'm still waiting for it all to fall apart again. My inner pessimist is winning this particular battle. Yesterday Brent and I had the following conversation. "I'm really stresse...

In the seven years that we have lived in Utah, I have yet to adjust to the winter. I really do not like the cold and the gloom of the winter months. I could almost forgive the winters if they were quick. However, they just drag on and on through the months. With a certain amount of dread I look at the calendar and think winter is coming, YUCK!! Today, as I was riding my bike I started thinking about my century ride. It is kind of funny when you are stuck on a bike for a certain amount of time your brain just starts wandering your thoughts tripping over one another. I was thinking how at one point in the ride the rain started to sprinkle, then it started to pour, and soon I was soaked and the wind was blowing. It really sucked and it was hard to keep going when all I wanted to do was quit. It was especially hard watching others quit and trying not to follow their example. As I was thinking about this experience and the winter months that are looming in front of me I started thin...

A friend of mine is going through the process of gaining custody of an 18 month old little girl. There is evidence from the babies behaviors that she has been abused. Abused in the kind of ways that makes your gut clench and think of doing unspeakable things to another adult. Just listening to the evidence breaks your heart in a million pieces and makes you wonder, WHY? Today, I had a sit down talk with a 4th grade student. First of all I have to say he is one of those kids you just have to love. There is something about the way he talks to you, interacts with his peers, and looks at you that just makes you want to love him. During our activity today he was frustrated and just gave up. After all the other kids left I pulled him back to have a chat. A "You Can Do IT, I Know You Can Do IT Chat." As we talked he said to me, "I just have a lot of hard things in my life right now." I was as sympathetic as I could be and tried to tell him that he just had to try a...