*walks in, hears her footsteps echoing...*
Anybody here?
(Echoes...)
*Picks up a broom and starts sweeping.*
Well, it has been quite a while since I blogged anything, and I guess that isn't all bad, because I have been too busy for the Internet, but Spring is here, sort of, and I am feeling a new lease on life. My camera also went wack (wiggety-wack, not just the regular kind) and so All the pics I had for blogging are all wasting away, inside my camera.
So.
Done esplainin'.
I am planning several birthday parties for my children, they all go in a row, and I wanted to put a bunch of my ideas here to store them for myself, which is why I started blogging to begin with. For my soon to be 13 year old young man, we are going to do a huge luau thing, with squirt guns. He was very specific about the guns. But the luau thing is only mainly for food.
I found this recipe which sounds so blatantly not authentic, that I think the kids will love it:
2 lbs. of keilbasa,
1 jar of cherries with juice
2 cans chunk pineapple w/ juice
1/2 cup of sugar
8 oz. canned pineapple juice
Put in crock pot-And eat when warm.
We are also going to attempt some kind of exploding volcano cake, and look for some good movies with hawaii in them, if he will let me get away with it. I doubt I can get them to play the limbo, but you never know- if we don't invite girls, the boys may not be too cool for school and may play along.
Mr. Soon to Be Six wants a Clone wars Party. I think we are going to make light sabers out of Paper towel tubes.
And the Girlie girl wants Twilight. Bowls of apples, and I think some mushroom ravioli, don't you think? Then we must watch the movie, and take pictures with a huge cut out of Edward, because he is drool worthy when you are 15. Any one else have any ideas??
This is the post you have been waiting for! It is part one in a series of the most redonkulous visit to the zoo of all time! And because it is so epic, it will probably take me a month to get all of the pictures up! Ok, I will dispense with the Exclamations! Maybe!
Awhile ago for my Cute Talk Peeps. Here it is for all to have:
http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/118984/Cute_talk
Enjoy.
Sorry I am a craptatstic blog-friend lately for anyone who still bothers to visit here. Life is overwhelming of late. Funny how you have no time to blog when you have actual stuff to blog about.
Later peeps, later.
20 minutes is a long time to spend watching an internet vid, but it is quite a short time to spend to change your life.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html
Thank you Mr. Zander, I am now aware of whether or not people's eyes are shining....
Ok, so I gotta tell you all about my morning, so
you can all feel like your day is going so much better than you though
it was. I got up at 5 to help Mallory get off on her trip. Mr.kRista was
taking her to drop her off, but I wanted to make sure she looked
presentable and was ok. So after they left, I went back to bed because
I was not feeling so hot. I sleep. A few minutes later Mr. Five is
standing by my bed crying his cute little eyes out. I am like, what is
it baby? Fortune smiled on me, as I was pretty disoriented and really
wanted to go back to sleep, other wise I would have immediately picked
him up and put him in bed with me. He says, I pooped all over Mom, I'm
really sorry! I didn't mean to! I tried to clean it up! I am so sorry!
I sigh. that's ok, I say, where did you poop? Visions of his mattress parade horribly through my mind.
He says, the bathroom, it is all over the toilet and the rug ! I am
relieved. The toilet can be cleaned, and the bathroom rug can be
bleached. Sleepily I say, sweetie, fold the rug over and go get in the
shower, I will be there in a minute. He has recently learned how to
take a shower by himself. But he is still screaming and crying. I
can't! He says I can't!
I am waking up more now, and I sit up. Why not? I say.
He says: because it is all over my feet! Look! I look- he has
literally a cup of poop smashed all between his toes, and he has walked
this all over the house from the bathroom to my room, and now there are
poop prints all over my nice new fluffy cream carpet. I scream and jump
out of bed, scoop him up and run him into the bathroom. He is saying
I'm so sorry mom! So Sorry! I didn't know what to do!!!!!
(This really is a pet story, wait for it.)
So I put him in the shower, and start surveying the damage. The
toilet is full to the brim with toilet paper and poo. It is hard to
believe that so much could come out of such a little guy. I realize
this is the results of trying him on some corn to see if he was able to
tolerate it yet. No dice. I ask him does your stomach hurt? He says,
not anymore!
I start to clean it all up. I unclog the toilet and get all of the worst on the rug and fold it up to take down to the laundry room. I start walking through the house cleaning up poo as I go. I get back to my room, and start trying to clean the carpet- It is a lovely cream color, and like I said brand new. It is not like it is really expensive or anything, it was just a remnant, but the idea of it was nice, I have never really had anything nice like my new bedroom before. I have always lived in basements and dorm rooms and crappy apartments, and so this room means a lot to me. I get it all out finally, only I don't know if it will ever be the same, and go back to the bathroom to check on Booster, and the DOG IS IN THERE EATING THE POO THAT I LEFT FOLDED UP IN THE RUG.
the end.
_________________
I have to say, this summer has been jammed packed. I have not read anyone else's blogs, and am smaller for it. I did not anticipate how busy having four school age children would be during the summer! So I am sorry if I have not been to your blog lately, it does not mean I have forgotten anyone!
We have just returned from a small vacation to Catawba Island with some of our extended family. It was fun but the most fun for me was getting to meet Bugmom, of this very blog, and of Cute Talk fame. We stopped in Detroit to catch an Indians/Tigers game, and she met me there, which was extremely foolish and/or brave of us, depending on how you view meeting strangers you met on the internets. We took some pics and here they are. Warning: Cute Talk inside jokes present! (but keep in mind, Cute Talk is open to all- we would love to see lots more Vox and Cute Overload peeps come over and visit- it is our little getaway during the
work day.)
When we took pictures we decided that we needed to make some smilies, so here is Pure Ebil:
Here is Shock!
It makes my head look like a skellington. next is Shock and awe again but Bugmom didn't get the memo:
Here we are posing like Movie Stars at my daughter's suggestion:
Just check out her awesome pinkity hair. It is so pretty. Here I am looking sort of stoned:
And here are the kids enjoying the game. I ended with the Booster, because he is the cutest one of all! The Bugmom just texted me that she has more pics, so we will go check that out in our email and BRB!
I feel guilty because I haven't checked out anyone else's blog in weeks. I have no idea how Py is doing, no clue if Carlisa is as jovial as ever, or whether or not Annie's animals are happy and here I am posting a meme. I am a terrible neighbor, but Metz tagged me, and so I must obey. It's that middle-management whip you wield darlink, it scares me.So here it is:
The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago, I was living in a tiny townhouse, raising a kindergartener, a three year old, and had a newborn baby. The newest addition to the family had colic and screamed 24/7 for over a year. He never slept for longer than 20 minutes at a time. My husband and I would take turns trying to get some rest. He would come home from work, see the state I was in, and order me to bed. We watched a lot of TV that year, while we walked the floors. Mr.Krista in particular got fond of Nick at Night, and watched a lot of Pokemon in the middle of the night, because that was all that was on. I remember this because we didn't let our kids watch it, and he got caught once by the oldest child and she was really mad. The rest of that whole year is kind of a blur for me, I didn't do much except walk that boy around and stress out. He had to have a scope stuck down his tubeage trying to grok what was wrong with him. We never did find out, but he is sensitive to a lot of foods, and I suspect he probably has had celiac's from day one.
What are 5 things on my to do list for today?
1. Pack to go camping on Monday.
2. Drill holes in all of the sweet altered art charms I made out of printable shrinky dinks for the girls at camp. I will try and post a picture, they turned out so cool.
3. Clean up my altered charm making mess so my friend Shelley can come over and I can help her screen print her t-shirt for camp.
4. Go to the store and buy my girly a new swimsuit (since she inexplicably is shaped like an adult instead of a child now) rabbit food, and water softener salt among other random things.
5. Read some of the New Testament, and go over some of my teaching materials for seminary.
Snacks I enjoy:
I will pretty much eat anything, but I love Neopolitan Dynamite Ben and Jerry's, Dark chocolate (the kind that doesn't even taste good, the darker the better), and Root beer floats. I am also a big fan of anything in the Itos family: Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, etc. Since most of the people in my family can't eat any of this stuff though, I barely ever have it in the house, and we tend to eat stuff like homemade salsa and hummus on tiny pita chips. I am a sucker for the fancy junk food at the health food store too- All of the mixes in the bulk bins that are anything but good for you, sesame sticks and my favorite: pecans covered in maple sugar covered in dark chocolate. Those things set your brains to vibrate for the rest of the day after eating like 5 of them.
Things I would do if I was a billionaire
This is an interesting question, because if you are a billionaire, it stands to reason that you could do lots of good for others and still do whatever you wanted. So after the donations to cure autism, and paying off everyone's everything, college for the kids, giving tons of it away, all that jazz, I think I would first acquire a very eclectic wardrobe. I love clothes, but what I really love are quirky, one of a kind clothes, so that would happen first, I bet. And I am afraid I would probably buy a lot of shoes. I would also build an art studio tree house in the woods, somewhere with a view of the water, where it never snows, and I would indulge in making art all day long. I would pay someone else to do all of the tedious shopping and cleaning and cooking I normally have to do, and I would spend all of the not making art time with my children, reading them books, and playing with them. And of course, Mr.Krista could have his barn full of animals that he has always wanted, and could cease being a pasty faced office worker bee. We would probably travel, but since we are homebodies, we would probably live somewhere that was like being on vacation all the time, like Hawaii. And as for charity, I don't think I would give to big charities. I would ask the Bishop in my local church who needed help, and I would anonymously buy them a house or something. That would be fun to do. Really change the world, one family at a time. And If it was possible, I would pay for Mr. Krista to go into space, because he always wanted to be an astronaut, but couldn't because he has glasses. Off to the moon with you, CBD!
Places I have lived:
Born In Salt Lake City, Utah
Moved to North Ridgeville, Ohio When I was in 1st grade
Moved to Carmel, New York, 6 months later, to live down the street from Metsakins, although we were unaware. I lived in a house with huge windows and beautiful wood floors, In the middle of a grove of trees. In front there was a rock wall that dated back to the civil war, that we would climb on. The backyard had a huge glacial boulder, right next to an apple tree that was covered in huge grape vines. We would rake the leaves into a huge pile at the base of the tree, climb the tree and swing on the vines like Tarzan into the pile of leaves. We played kick the can and jailbreak with the neighborhood kids late into the night in the summer. Where were our parents? Who knows. I loved that house.
Then we moved when I was in 5th grade to Avon Lake, Ohio. The kids picked on my New York accent, and were generally not very nice. The house is one of those "modern" homes from the seventies with stained wood siding and exciting chunky bits that just look dated now. My parents still live there. The people who lived there before us had hideous taste, and every room was covered in the most horrific wallpaper you have ever seen. It took my mom about 10 years to get rid of most of it, and a lot of it is still up. But the backyard made up for the house- outside we had woods, with bike trails in them, and a creek where we could wade and go fishing. I spent a lot of happy hours getting poison Ivy back there. I went to high school in that town, met my husband there, and visit it often to see our parents. I guess it would be "home" in the traditional sense.
After Graduation I left to go to BYU, in Provo, Utah. I loved going to BYU, but I didn't last long because I got married and started having babies. We lived in Oxford, Ohio, where Mr.Krista was going to school at Miami, and then we moved to Stow, Ohio, when he got his first job, the same one he has now. We moved to Aurora a few years ago to be closer to his job and because the schools are really good here. Who knows where we will go next?
Jobs I have had:
I have had many jobs watching/teaching children over the years. I have worked in daycares and babysat, and while they haven't been paid positions, I have had many volunteer positions at my church. I was Primary President for several years, where I was in charge of running the programs for about 40 kids between the ages of 18 months to 12 years. They had Sunday classes that needed to be taught, and cub scouts and achievement programs to run. I also was in charge of the nursery for the littlest ones, and we had big activities quarterly. The children would perform a big program with singing performances and speaking parts once a year. It was a big job. Since then I have had lots of littler positions in Primary, nursery leader and I have taught classes. Right now I teach my 5 year old son's Primary class on the New Testament every Sunday. I was also Young Women's President for a while, over the teenaged girls, and my favorite volunteer job was running a craft thing once a month for all the ladies in our ward.
I also teach Seminary, which is a class held every morning before school for teenagers aged 14-18. (Yes, it is at 6 am and they do come. I have about a dozen students every day.) This next year I will be teaching the New Testament as well. I really love teaching Seminary, it is the best part of my day. I am on break now, but I just received my teaching materials for next year and am excited to get started.
Other jobs I have had:
I worked as a receptionist at my Dad's office, when I was younger, and then again at a large company in downtown Cleveland. I ran a switchboard at that one, and had fun saying sweetly to people, could you hold please? And then putting them on perma-hold. Apparently I have a sexy phone voice, or so I have been told. My voice is quite deep for a woman's, and I always thought I sounded like a guy, but whatever.
In college I had a job working in the cafeteria where the BYU football team would eat before every game. I have never seen human beings that could eat so much in my whole life. We would make up those little bowls of pudding that you only see in institutional type food services, the kind where you have a splodge of pudding with a tiny flowerette of whipped cream on the top? Well, these guys would take a tray, and fill those up with pudding bowls and eat them all. We could never make bowls-a-puddin fast enough. My main job when I worked there was to cut up fruits and vegetables for the cooks. They would bring over a huge wagon of watermelons, there would be around forty of them, and we would have to have them deseeded and cubed in an hour. I learned tricks for cutting up just about everything- Like mangoes and pineapple- things that other people have trouble figuring out how to chop- well I am a ninja. It really is the most valuable thing I learned at college, to this day. Also, when I first got married, I worked briefly at a Burger King. That was a horrible job. It was hot and the people were morons. Not because they worked there, it was just that particular crew were awful to work with, because there was no one interesting to talk to. We were the only place open after the bars would close (this was at Miami U.) They ran this special there , 2 burgers 2 fries 2 bucks, and it would go for a couple of weeks, and then they would end it. But every night the drunk kids would come in and wave around their last two dollars, and demand 2 burgers and two fries. There was no explaining to them that they couldn't have them. I hated that place.
The only other job I have had was I worked for a while as a videoette. At least that was what we jokingly called ourselves- I worked as the girl that checks out your videos at the local video rental place. That was a very weird job, because they also rented porn, but there were all of these rules about it. We kept the vids in plain brown boxes, and all of the titles were in this black folder. The perps would come in, and ask to see The Folder, and would go into a corner to slaver and read descriptions. When they had picked their vid, they had to ask for it by number. If they didn't, and were creepy in any way, we were supposed to tell them we didn't rent that kind of thing any more. I have to say it was never the college guys who rented this stuff- it was always creepy fat old guys. There was this one regular who would always call and ask if we had any new titles. He gave me the jibblies. I hated touching those brown boxes and always wanted to go scrub up afterwards. One of the funniest things that happened there was someone came in and seruptitiously put stickers on tons of the videos that said "do not rent this movie, it is degrading to women" on all of the soft porny hot tub type crap that they rented there. The boss lady was furious that we hadn't noticed, and made us reshrink wrap all of the boxes. I thought it was hilarious, but thought it was too bad they didn't put them on all of the "Disney Princess" movies.
Well that's all folks. I tag any and all who want to play. Have fun peeps!
You know how you never think of the perfect thing to say until later? When you have an autistic child, people say the most obnoxious things. Sometimes people mean well, or they don't know what to say, so they say things that make you want to hit them. One of the worst ones, which is meant as a compliment, is "God must have chosen you for this" Or a variant is "You must be a special person to be chosen for this". So God chose for us to be miserable and live in non stop drama, trauma, and screaming? Thanks for that. But I read a mom's perfect comeback today. When someone points out that God chose her, she says, "God chose you to babysit, can you come over this weekend?"
I haven't been voxing much lately, and a large part of that is that we have been working non-stop on finishing our new bedroom. It is really quite surreal that it is finally done, and is a huge accomplishment for us. We have been working on it for three years. I have always wanted to have a really nice, pretty bedroom. When I was a little girl, I dreamed of having a canopy bed, pink walls, and big windows with flowing cutains. My room was generally in the basement next to cardboard boxes with Christmas ornaments in them, with what ever left over furniture nobody wanted upstairs. Then I moved on to dorm rooms, horrible apartments, and rented houses, and I never really could have a room that was mine. When we finally were able to buy our house, we knew it was too small, and would need another bedroom at least. We really couldn't afford to though, so we crammed our furniture into the tiny "master" bedroom, and tried to make it work. It has horrible blue and salmon wallpaper right out of 1982. Then TJ's Grandpa died, and left us a small inheritance. We used the money to add an addition onto the house, 16' x 16', for our new bedroom. The problem was, we only had enough money to frame it out- we couldn't afford to even do the drywall. TJ is very handy, and did all of the electrical stuff, HVAC, and insulation himself, ten dollars at a time. The only thing left was drywall, and we knew it would be a cool thousand bucks to get it put in. That might not be a lot for some people, but it is for us. So it sat, all but finished, with no drywall, for two years. It was so frustrating. Finally, this year we were able to use our tax refund to put in the drywall, and after that we just went crazy painting, putting up trim, etc. We really can't afford any of it, but it is finally done. Nearly everything in our room was recycled, and I am actually kind of proud of that- for me this room is more than just a room, it really symbolizes that I can do anything I want, if I am willing to work hard, and think a little outside the box. For those of you who think it is sickeningly pink, I gotta say, I love it, so there.
The desk used to belong to my BIL. It was orange. The chair was from our church- they remodeled and got rid of chairs, and I reupholstered this one. The frame still needs a piece of mirror, but I kind of like it empty, too.
Our nightstand beloged to Tj's Grandma. They were really dated oak. We painted all of the furniture, and put new knobs on everything.
The dresser was from my mother's basement, when she saw what I did to it, she wanted it back. The mirror was a cast off from another Grandparent.
One whole wall is covered with curtains- there are massive wardrobes behind them...
Behind these curtains are french doors- I have them drawn because we are not quite done with them- they need trim and some paint. They lead out into our backyard, and it has the most awesome view of the forest. The Ivy looks corny in the pic, but nice in real life.
We got these sweet wardrobes from Ikea- they have all kinds of baskets and shoe racks and organizing stuff. Compared to our old closet, it is like heaven.
The last two pics are for my Cute Talk friends- I have two pics up in my room that only you guys will understand. Sorry they are kind of blurry:
