Ten on Tuesday

1.      1 test left. Chris has 1 more test on Thursday than he has completed his first year of law school. So proud of him and all the hard hard work he has put into school this year. 

2.      Spring – I have always said that Fall is my favorite time of the year. This Spring I might have changed my mind. The blooming of flowers, trees etc had made me realize how beautiful this season is. Maybe I’m much more appreciative because of the long cold winter. But something has made me more thankful for the beauty that Spring is.

3.      Rochester. . . no not NY but MN. I took the youngest 3 kids with me to visit some friends from when I lived in AZ. Julie and Cylynn. It was so much fun to see old friends. I loved that there was no awkward moments and that to me they haven’t changed. I think that’s why I have the friends I have, is because we will always be the same. We are hoping to head back up to MN sometime soon, this time with the whole family. 

4.      Ear infections. We have been very lucky to have very few of these in our house over the past 6 plus years. Well Sunday night Jeffrey woke up at 11pm and was not doing well. I put him back to bed (I was so tired that I didn’t really notice how hurting he was another mother of the year moment). He was back in at 11:30 I went and tried to lay by him in bed. He was tossing and turning and kept telling me his jaw hurt. By 12:30 I decided to give him pain meds, and he fell asleep on my in my recliner. Then by 3:15 he was back awake and in more pain. Needless to say when we went to the Doctors Monday morning she did not need long to tell me what was wrong. She said his ear drum is at the point of bursting. AS of Tuesday morning it has not yet burst and he is on antibiotics. Annmarie got to look in his ear too. The Doctor was so kind. Love doctor like that. Thankful for modern medicine and kind doctors.

5.      AC – so I figured that we could go without AC until at least June hoping July. But yesterday it was about 85 in our house with really high humidity. I broke down and turned it on at night. It is supposed to be in the 90’s today with high humidity again. So it will probably be on again tonight but then if is going off. I was really looking forward to spending less on my electric bill these few months.

6.      Bosch – so I’ve got this new (to me) whole wheat bread receipe (it has grape juice in it) and love it so much but it either has to be made by hand on in a bosch. Well I’ve been searching craigslist, ebay etc and found 2 but didn’t get either. Then I remembered that I had a sibling that I gave my mom’s old one too and decided hey why don’t I call and see if they are using it. Well they were not. And they are sending it to me! So excited instead of spending a few hundred on a new/used one I get one for free. Thanks Jill and Rob for being so kind to send it to me.

7.      Since Chris was going to get me a bosch for mother’s day but no longer needed to he decided to get me a new MP3 player for mother’s day. I have gone to the dark side. I got an IPod. It has been wonderful I just have to figure out how to get all my music off my home computer and onto the laptop then out of media player then on to my Ipod. Oh yeah I got angry birds on it. . . so addicting. Anyone know any good Aps for the kids? Or for me?

8.      Mother’s day was wonderful. I stayed in bed, had breakfast in bed. Got to drive myself to Church (alone) wore a dress that I’ve only worn to a wedding. And got to spend the afternoon with my hubby and kids. I thankful for a wonderful husband who treats me right. Plus I got a box of Chocolate covered strawberries. They were massive and tasted so wonderful!

the box from the strawberries

 

 

the Instructions - Close and lock door. hide behind Large piece of furniture. Quietly open box. Savor and Enjoy! This box was so funny.

9.      Annmarie’s quilt . . . well I got 5 of the 9 rows sewn together. If life turns back to normal hopefully I will have it finished by next Tuesday. If I get it done sooner I will post photos. 

10.  My goal for the coming week – is to go to the gym or exercise 6 times before I post again. This is my goal because since my half I have not made it all that frequently to the gym. With kids that have been sick it makes it easy to not exercise. But I really need to try out my new running shoes. Plus when I don’t exercise I’m much more lazy.

Seven for Sunday

Once again copying my sister.

In case you were wondering I have the world’s best mother. I’m sure there are at least 9 other people in the world who would agree with me. So here are 7 thoughts about her.

1.      My mom could always make me laugh. While growing up I would sometimes get a little  upset about somethings. She always had a way of making me smile and laugh while I wanted to cry or be upset. 

2.      She was always serving. Whether it was making cinnamon rolls for women in the ward on their birthday, making my breakfast after seminary and before school, going on 4^th year, summitteer, watching my children so I can go on a date with Chris, or just listening to my rants. She is/was always serving. Hopefully someday I can be like that, or as close to it as possible.

3.      Teaching me important things. Teaching me that wearing cut off jeans, old t-shirts and old shoes is ok. While I was more embarrassed about this as a teenager today not so much. What this taught me was that clothes don’t matter what matters is what you do with your life. I have never met anyone who has met my mother who has not said kind things. 

4.      Being a hostess does not mean changing who you are. While she has had this role more recently than she would like, I can still remember times from High School and my wedding that have stuck out to me. Whenever we had people over for dinner we would always say a prayer. Even if it was my whole basketball team from school. She would let you have pretty much the lay of the land. If you were in our house you were welcome to go most anywhere (Bedrooms, and upstairs if you were a boy were strictly of limits), She liked people to feel comfortable. 

5.      You can do it. As a mother I have often wondered how my mom cold have done it, when I struggle on a daily basis it seems. She tells me her secrets, Sesame Street, and not keeping a spotless house. She has never once told me I’m doing it wrong. She has always been nothing more than encouraging and loving in how we raise 4 of her many grandchildren. 

6.      It’s ok to cry (sometimes). During some difficult financial times while I was growing up I vividly remember my mom getting off the phone with their bank. She was so upset and was almost yelling (ok probably just a stern voice that I got all too often) I saw her crying as she left the room. As an adult I’m grateful that I knew my mom cried when things got hard. Because it doesn't mean that I'm week when I cry when things are hard.

7.      Lastly I know that my mom loved me and each of my siblings more than we can ever know. I know that she still cries with me today when bad things happen. I know she is worried about me and my friends the ones she has met many many times (and camped with) and the ones she has met for a few minutes or has only heard me talk about. This woman is such a wonderful example of Love to me that I’m lucky to have her in my life. Someday I hope to be half the woman she has been and continues to be and will be even in the life after. 

Thanks mom, thanks for being the best example a person could ever ask for.

Ten on Tuesday

1.      Drake Relays – so every year Drake host’s this invitational that includes High School track athletes form Iowa, College athletes from all over (I heard Utah, Notre Dame, Ohio St, Illinois, etc) plus Olympic track stars. While we did not attend we got our first experience of what it is like to live near a college campus. ASU was different, we lived .5 miles away but were surrounded my members of our church. Here we are surrounded by many college boys. Most undergrads and a good portion of drake athletes. Needless to say the races brought lots of excitement to the area. We live about 100 yards from the stadium. Classes were canceled on Friday, and the partying began at about 10am on Friday. The one positive of the kids starting to party so early is that they were actually pretty quiet by night time. Friday and Saturday were pretty much the same. There were fireworks, a huge military plane that dropped out Navy parachuter’s on Friday and Saturday. That was the most awesome thing I’ve seen in a while. Over all, the atmosphere was lots of fun. We are some very kind neighbors (grad students) who let the kids play with them. While some other not so smart neighbors who offered Jeffrey a drink. Needless to say a smarter person said “dude his mom is right there.” 

2.      Saturday morning Chris was kind enough to join me in running the Drake on the Road half marathon. I signed up with the intent to actually have a goal and motivate myself to keep running. Well sick kids, vacation etc did not help my “training.” Chris offered to run with me, with me not run the race and leave me in the dust. This was huge for me. We ran Saturday morning while a good friend watched our kids. Chris was great. I would not have finished within 30 min of my actual time without him. He made me keep going even though I wanted to give up. He endured my wine and poor breathing and he still loves me. My favorite memories are when he would say Breathe! I guess I don’t breathe quite right when I run. Maybe that’s why I’m so slow. Then Kristol brought my kids out to see us with in the last mile. It was so nice to see them. Chris and I also wore our Ragnar shirts (because those are our only running shirts), it was so nice to hear about 6 people yell “Go Ragnar” I thought no one here had heard about it, guess I was wrong. Plus it encouraged me to keep going. Needless to say after the race Chris said he wanted to do the Des Moines Marathon in October. So he will be doing that one without me. I forgot to add. I told him a few times I felt like I was going to puke so I needed to walk. He told me more than 3 times "you can walk when you puke."

 

3.      The Heart and The Fist – by Eric Greatens.  I saw an interview with the author on the today show and wanted to read this book. He is a former Rhodes scholar turned Navy SEAL. I started reading last week. Yesterday I got into the parts about his SEAL training and missions. It was so ironic since there was the killing of Osama Bin Laden Sunday night, and it was done by a special forces unit. After reading on Monday the Hell week that they SEAL’s go through I am in true amazement of these hero’s in our lives. Not just the special forces, but all those that serve this wonderful country. From my Granddad, Dad, Brother, sister-in-law in the military, to those who work for the military or in the intelligence area. Thanks for your wonderful devotion to this great nation. I have truly enjoyed this book and would encourage you all to grab it from the Library and read it. Even if you only read the SEAL training section.

4.      Family Home Evening – Last night we took the kids and walked about .25 mile and went and played catch and hit whiffle balls in a soccer field. This is huge for a few reasons. First I love that it was warm enough to go out and do this we are not used to spring taking so long to spring. Second we did this as a family. With Chris starting finals yesterday he has been studying studying studying. It was so nice to spend an hour playing as a family. It made me long for next Thursday afternoon (when he is done). Plus the kids slept great last night too.

5.      Finals – as mentioned above it has been a long semester. We are so glad that Finals are here. Chris has worked hard all semester long. Hopefully this will pay off in the finals. The bummer about finals here is twofold. First they are your only grade in the class. There are no other grades except this one. Second they are graded on a curve. This can be good and bad hopefully this helps us out and doesn’t hinder us.

6.      How does one prep for the first final and the one they are the most worried about. . . Pull out the DVD of the 2001 World Series. Watch the bottom of the 7^th inning and get goose bumps. Hopefully it worked!

7.      So we have flowers!! They are tulips and something else. What I love most is that they grow on their own. I weeded the area around 1 side the other day and was so happy to see the beautiful flowers growing and starting to bloom. I love love love flowers and the fact that I do nothing and they grow is the best part.

8.      The Harry Potter 7 part II trailer came out this past week. It made me sooooooo excited to see it. July 15^th needs to come now! I am actually kind of excited about some of the movies this summer. Other than Harry Potter there is Transformers, and hoping that Cowboys and Aliens gets a PG-13 rating. 

9.      Today we are going to register Annmarie for Kindergarten. Am I really old enough to have 2 kids in school? She is so excited and cannot wait. I will be so sad that she will not be around to help out at home. Other than her emotional outbreaks I will really miss her help, and her smile and her wonderful compassion.

10. My goal for this coming week is to finish sewing the top of Annmarie’s quilt. I’m posting this here so that I will have some amount of reporting necessary. Hopefully I will find my camera (hence no photos) so that I can take a photo of it. Plus I’m visiting some college friends on Friday and need some photos of them too. Can't wait!

Ten on Tuesday

1.      So my kids and I have always said I love You, I love your more, most, mostest, mostestest, mostestestest etc. So I’ve lately been telling them that I love them to infinity and beyond. Yesterday Jeffrey was trying to win and said I love you 111. He won. Love love love that.

2.      Sick kids are no fun. But if I had to pick one to be sick it would be Annmarie. Sunday night she comes into my room walking funny. “mom I puked on my knees” She had gotten to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet (This is so awesome that she made it there by herself) and didn’t get it all in the toilet. But she makes it to the bathroom. Better than they boys.

3.      Speaking of Annmarie she made me so happy this week. One night during scriptures, I started crying. It was a long day and I had not been a stellar mother. The kids asked what was wrong. I started apologizing to them, the she comes up and hugs me and then starts rubbing my back and arm. It was so awesome!       

  

4.      Will and Jeffrey shared a bed this past week. Why because it seems that the temptation of pushing Will’s bed off the top bunk is too much of a temptation for them. So they shared a bed. It was actually really cute to go in there and hear Will reading Star Wars and other books to him. Needless to say there was not much sleeping that went on. So they are back on their own beds. Although last might Jeffrey tried to go on top and read with Will. 

5.      Speaking of reading. The kids all have the reading bug. This makes me so happy. Jed will look at Star Wars books forever. It looks like he is really reading them, Jeffrey likes to pretend he can read. I read the line then he “reads” it after me. Annmarie started reading a chapter book all by herself. Then on Sunday she read Mosiah 1 during Sacrament meeting (we no longer bring anything into the meeting except scriptures and diapers). Will gets so sad when we go to the libirary without him. The boys all know where the Star Wars books are in 2 different libarary’s. Does anyone but me sense a problem here. I have to tell them only 2 books each, or there would be no Books left in that section. Annmarie always picks about 12 princess books. I let her do it because I know she will read them.

6.      Finals. . . Chris has finals coming up starting next Monday. I don’t think I like finals. In Law school your entire grade for the class is based on the 1 test. That’s it no other grade at all. So needless to say he is just a bit stressed. He always comes home to eat dinner with us, then has been heading back to school shortly after. I must say I would be a terrible single mother. I depend on Chris so much and miss him when he is not here. 

7.      Winter Quarters temple. Our friends the Kennedy’s watched our kids so Chris and I could go to a session together. Such a wonderful blessing. I miss having a temple a short 20 min drive away. But 2 hours away is much better than 4. I’m just grateful to have a temple close by and the ability to go.

8.      Star wars obsession. So Will and Jeffrey emptied their piggy banks this last week so they could get a star wars book from the book order. So funny they are willing to use their own money. I guess that I should be happy they don’t want to spend it on candy like I would

9.      Paper dolls – I loved these as a kid. I found some on Saturday and Annmarie got them on Sunday. Hope she loves to play with them as much as I do.

10.  Dinner – I think I love dinners the most when we have people over. It is so nice to talk with other adults. Whether it be missionaries or another couple or another family. It is just nice to sit around the table and talk. Usually we have people over on Sundays, it is such a nice way to make the day pass a little faster and also have someone new to talk to. So for those who have come to dinner thanks for putting up with us.

 one of my favorite photos from Christmas.

 Annmarie and Clara had so much fun playing together

Annmarie in front of our 3rd snowman in 1 day. But it was our first snowmen of the season. This was early march. funny huh.

Annmarie showing off her new bling.

Jed fell asleep watching . . . yes star wars. 

Our kids at the temple with Sister Kennedy and their son.

Side note I finally uploaded all my photos onto facebook from Christmas. . .

Ten on Tuesday

Someday I will actually take photos again, and upload them, just not today

1.      I waited to write this so I would know for sure if we were castles in the house first and . . . we are!!! Annmarie got her cast off today. I cannot tell you how excited I am that she can shower by herself (She had to do baths and I had to hold her arm. . . PAIN) again and get all clean!!!!

2.      Peas – I used to love these now not so much. Why you ask well during Confrence my kids were playing great in their room. Over a week later we found out that they had put peas in their ears. Jeffrey actually told us that day. But Will and Annmarie waited until I actually looked in their ears last Monday. We got one out of Will’s ear and thought that was all. But the next day a family friend who is a Dr looked in all their ears. Will had a pea in his other ear still! And Annmarie had tons of junk in them. Needless to say a trip to urgent care for Will and an ear flush and he is pea free. Then a trip the following day to The dr and Annmarie ends her ear drops today to hopefully help her stop picking at her ears. Morals of this story? 1. If your kids are behaving really good, go find out why. 2. Never by snap peas again!

3.      Chris is staying here this summer. He accepted the internship with the governor here this summer. I think the biggest factor was his family was going to be with him. We could not be happier!

4.      Church callings – I must say we (both of us) are learning more and more about how things go in branches than we had ever hoped to. We love our callings and are thankful for them, but are learning the “joys” that go along with callings that we have never experienced.

5.      Kris Allen – Why other than she is just plain awesome? Well her habit of 10 on Tuesday got me doing this. Plus she texted me today to remind me that she was waiting to read my oh so exciting 10 items.

6.      A new addition to our family. . . a new car! We have bought a 2001 VW Passat standard!!  I was bumed at first thinking Chris would get all the fun driving it to work this summer until I realized that I only have 3 kids at home during the day and I can drive it to The YMCA, to run errands etc. It gets much better gas milage than our van.

7.      Babies!! No I am not pregnant (see above) but in the last week I have gotten to hold 2 brand new babies. Plus my sister in law was induced early this morning so sometime soon I’ll have a new niece or nephew. I love holding newborns. Yes it always makes me want more and someday when Heavenly Father decides its time we will add more to our family.

8.      YMCA – I love love love our Y. They have treated us so kindly. When my parents came to visit they gave them a free guest pass for the whole time they were there. My kids love the child watch, early out PE and any other class I put them in. I love their exercising classes and the people who work there. They all remind me of Kindy, rec management majors! Plus they did an Easter egg hunt on Saturday. It was great. Jed was so funny. He didn’t want to pick up any eggs. He only wanted candy. It took him a good 3 min before he would accept there was candy in the eggs. Then he was good to go.

9.      Rain and cold weather – I forgot that just because the snow has melted it doesn’t mean that it will not be cold anymore. The last few days have been cold cold cold. Today is all rain and maybe snow tonight. Yes I still do love spring.

10.  Harry Potter – yes I am a huge fan. We bought the new movie and yes it was date night, kind of. Plus it makes me so much more excited for July 15^th! Also what do I listen to when I run on the dreaded treadmill? Why yes it would be Harry Potter 7. Right now I’m where Harry is walking into the forbidden forest. Oh I love that book and hope that the movie does justice to the book.

Ten on Tuesday

That's right I've succumbed to the realization this is the only way I'm going to write here.
so since Its my first I will write from how ever far back I want

1. Annmarie broke her arm. She has a wonderful sparkly pink cast. She fell off her cousin's bunk bed. She was a huge trooper and stopped whimpering as soon as she got to play angry birds on the Itouch (not ours)

2.The Lee's Sealing. For spring break (well a few days of it) we went to Las Vegas to see our great friends get sealed in the temple to each other and then their kids. Such a wonderful moment. So happy to be there to see another family be sealed for time and all eternity.

3. Chris has been offered 2 internships this summer. Now we are off to decide which to take one in AZ or one here in Des Moines

4. I (Karen) have signed up for a half marathon. It is the last Saturday of this month. Hopefully I can finish it this time since my training has been limited due to 2 weeks of sick kids, traveling and me being sick. I think there is no time goal for me this time, just cross the line.

5. Spring has sprung!!!! Oh how I have missed a spring that lasts and is not 3 days long. I have had allergy issues but am happy to have them because I love where I live so much!

6. Harry Potter 7 part 1 comes out on Friday. I know what date night will be this week.

7. Thanks to a good friend and her kind husband I got to have a girls trip to the mall complete with pedicures. So nice to sit and talk with TerriLyn without or kids and before she had her 3rd (today at 12:29pm) such a great time.

8.  Tangled. Oh my this movie is AWESOME!!! I love Maximus.  Chris laughed hysterically during Flyn and max's "sword" fight. Annmarie now wants hair like Rapunzel. Its going to take a long time to get there.

9. Star wars. Jed is so obsessed. That is all he wants to play and has his own "Anikin" jacket (a blue hoodie). He knows all the characters, and can make all the noises perfect. He even dies great.

10. General Conference! Wow it was amazing. Sunday Afternoon session was just for me. Elder Scott's talk was one in a million. So glad to have living prophets today to help us make it back to live with Heavenly Father someday.

My soapbox

I need to vent!

As I was reading online today an article about how schools in Chicago are not allowing students to bring lunch from home, because the school's is better, this really set me off. What happened to our right to choose. So some kids packs their lunch and all it is is Cheetos M & M's and Mt Dew. Should a 7 yr old be eating this, not so much. But it is the parent and the kids responsibility to make sure things are taken care of. Are some parents not so with it. sure but lets not punish everyone else because a small amount of people won't take responsibility for their job (parenting). The more and more of our choices that are getting taken away is ridiculous. I'm now waiting from the government to require all children need to be in rear facing car seats until they are 2 ( a recent study suggested that this is much safer for the child). You know what. They are my kids. My responsibility! Let me choose what happens with them. Will comes home and tells us that sugar is bad for us. Is it yes, but there is nothing wrong with every once in a while having something with straight up sugar.

I fully understand that there is a lack of parenting going on in a lot of houses, but this does not mean that big brother needs to step in and tell us all what to do. Soon they will be telling us we can only buy GM cars because that is the best for the USA. You know what, maybe I might buy a Yukon XL but don't force me. Next you know they will be telling me Each family can only have 3 kids. Well which once do I choose to get rid of. In the past I never really saw a huge issue with the government adding laws. but as I get older (and a lot more stubborn) I say get out of my hair. Will my child eating cheetos for lunch be the end of the world. No, but let me decide!

Sorry I guess I'm a little frustrated with the involvement of the government in our every day lives. How many choices do you make because you don't want to get in trouble or get a ticket by the government. I've said my peace thanks for letting me rant.

So funny

Got this off a friends blog. sooo funny. Much funnier if your from Rochester. BUt it is Jon Stewart so be forwarded. no nothing political but you get my point. 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-16-2009/windowless-news-van-for-kids---the-ball

also my new favorite Commercial Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0