Thursday, September 27, 2012

A Little Painting

So today we decided to try an art project.  Little girl enjoyed it.








Wednesday, September 26, 2012

A Catch up Post

So, call me crazy, but blogging hasn't been at the top of the priority list recently. I want it to be, I really do, but laundry, cooking dinner, playing with the little girl, and getting our house the way we want it have been getting in the way (not in that particular order).

I would love to catch the blog world up on what has been going on with us, but really there hasn't been much to speak of outside of everyday life.

It is hard to believe that the summer is over.  We went to the lake several times.  We spent a lot of time at the sprinkler park or zoo geysers or in the backyard wading pool.  Anything to stay wet or play in the "wa-wa."  Our girl is a fish (or fishy as K calls it, even though I don't think we have ever put the y on the end when we say fish to her...it is really cute).

I guess that is the big change around here since the last update --we have a talker.  Even if we can't understand what exactly it is that she is saying, she is talking, constantly.  She talks and sings and asks to watch Elmo, which I try and not give in to very often.

Maybe this post will kick me into gear and I will start to update more regularly.  In the meantime, enjoy some glimpses of our summer.












Friday, July 6, 2012

From the Archives: Middle of SOS 2004


This one is kind of boring, but I like seeing my thoughts on SOS when I was in the midst of it--oh and the roof I was on--not super steep--not at all. haha

6/23/2004

Hey everyone!  I'm still alive.  I am once again at the library and just thought I would update on what has been going on in my life.  Basically, I have had the most amazing 4 weeks of my life (I think its 4 weeks).  During staff week I was introduced to ideas that I had never really given much thought to such as people choosing to live in the inner-city as a ministry, and I was reintroduced to ideas like "God truly loves and adores me at great cost to Himself."  When you truly understand this idea, you can't go about life just like you normally would.  I also got to meet and get to know forty of the most awesome godly people on the face of the earth!  They have truly become some of my very best friends.

The first week with campers was a little hard.  One because it was my first week and I didn't really have a good grasp on what was going on.  I had trouble getting my adult leader to listen to me when I obviously don't have much experience roofing (Oh, that's what I have been doing).  Anyway, I learned a lot about myself and leadership and what not to do.  My kids were great though.  They were from San Antonio.  Pictures!

Last week I had a group from Cullman, Alabama and was pumped because they were hard workers.  The hardest part last week is that they just didn't get it.  They were just there to have fun and use power tools and no matter how hard I tried to get it through their heads they just didn't get it!  Then God showed me that I am not god and that only He can show them.  Thursday night I was at the end of my strength and He completely took over.  On Friday we are supposed to encourage each person on our team individually.  I truly feel like it was God's words that were spoken and not mine because I was broken about it on Thursday.  One of the girls came up to me later and what I had said went exactly with her situation, when I had no idea she was going through what she was.  It was awesome.  My prayer for the remainder of my life is that I will continually be without my strength and relying fully on God!  Pictures of that week

This week so far has been my best yet!  I have a team from Fayetville Arkansas  (GO HOGS!!).  Its just great.  My heart overflows with love for them and it is only Wednesday!  It has been really great because I was beginning to wonder how I was going to make it through the summer if each week was just going to be one hard lesson after another. 

I am working on the house of a family with 2 kids and a ton of grandkids that come over.  It has been sort of hard because they aren't very friendly and it has leaked 3 times now, so they are a little mad, but its just a lesson in that I am not doing it so that they will love me and sing my praises, I'm doing it to serve them and love on them regardless of how they feel about me.  We have been working on the mega-steep roof when it isn't raining (which hasn't been much lately), and we are replacing some of their ceiling and I reset the toilet.  That was gross, but I am so proud of myself!  Pictures of this week!  I can't wait to tell everyone all about it in person.  

One thing that I will say is this.  I have no idea how I am going to go about living my life normally after this.  You can take that how you will until I have time to explain it!

I love you people!
Kristin

Thursday, July 5, 2012

From the archives: Post wisdom tooth removal--probably still on meds

5/27/2004


What I have learned about my mouth:
 1) I am a big baby when it comes to my mouth!  This wisdom teeth thing is just annoying, and I am just basically a big baby.  It doesn't hurt anymore, but I am so scared of something going wrong that I am just annoying.  2) Your mouth is a very important part of the body.  Your mouth is where you get your nourishment, and when you don't feel like eating because of your mouth you still get hungry, and your mouth is how you talk.  If your mouth is swollen and you mumble, you are hard to understand, and no one will want to talk to you!
That's enough about the mouth!
I leave for SOS in less than two days!!  That is very exciting, but a little scary, cause I am not prepared.  I haven't even begun to pack, and my room is still a mess with boxes everywhere. 
Okay, I want to talk about the wedding now.  The people that got married grew up and graduated with me, so it was a little weird, until the actual wedding.  It was really neat all of my close friends from high school standing behind them as they said their vows.  It was really cool, like we were supporting them all the way.  I know that's how its supposed to be and all, but it was just really special.  Makes me really excited about my day, when it comes.  I of course went through the feelings of will my day ever come, because all of the people there were asking, but you know, its not my time yet, and I'm okay with that.  I wouldn't want to settle for any less than the best anyway.
Well, I'm waiting on my mom to get home from work so that we can go shopping.  I have to get a bathing suit woohooo.  I don't really understand why we can't just swim fully clothed, I mean its much more modest and safer when it comes to the suns rays.  You know, I think I'm going to bring back the 50s bathing suits.  I wonder how that would go over.
Okay, this has been totally random and a little weird, so I'm out!
Kristin

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

From the Archives: The deer incident




10/27/2004

I have a really fun fall break story:
So I went home, and ended up not accomplishing anything that I wanted to.  I knew it would happen, but I usually hope for the best.  The thing is that it is not really my fault that I didn't get any work done.  I spent pretty much the whole weekend going to my sister and brother's basketball games.  That is where my fun story comes in......
We were at Katie's game, three hours from home and were finally coming home at about eight.  I'm driving Mom's Tahoe because she doesn't feel like driving and I don't mind.  We are in the hills in the small windy roads surrounded by trees.   I come to the top of a hill which also happens to be in a curve in the road and I see a big brown thing (a deer) running across the road right toward us.  My sister yells "DEER" I slam on the brakes, but the deer also stalls for a second and the timing is just all wrong....I hit it...really hard.  It flew into the air and landed off of the side of the road.  Moment of silence for the deer please...............okay, moving on.  I pulled up to a driveway not to far up the road because the road doesn't have a shoulder.  This is a driveway to a trailer set back into the woods surrounded by cars and trucks.....did I mention that I watched "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" the weekend before?  Anyway my mom gets out and looks and says that the grill is broken, the bumper is dented, and a headlight is hanging out, but we should probably be able to drive it home.  At that moment the "low coolant" light comes on. We have busted the radiator. Mom wants to walk up to the trailer where we are and ask them to call a wrecker.  I think she is crazy and refuse to go, I mean it was really really dark and there was no one else around, remember I just saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Sooo Mom calls Dad, he tells us he is on his way, remember we are three hours from home.  Mom keeps telling him where she thinks we are which is not where I think we are but I keep my mouth shut because mom is a little excited, anyway it is this huge deal trying to figure out where we are.  Meanwhile the whole time Katie has her video camera and is "making a documentary about the whole thing"  I end up realizing that there is a Jct. sign right ahead and look on the map....I was right.  So Dad calls a wrecker and says he will pick us up there.  We turn on the hazard lights so that the wrecker can find us.  Just a little while later a van pulls into the driveway and a man gets out with this long beard a cigarette and a shirt that says "I'm gonna beat the devil with a big stick".  He asks if we need help.  My polite mother goes into the whole story and tells him that a wrecker is on the way....he lives in the trailer, so he goes home after talking about how dangerous this curve is and how stuff like that happens all the time.  Just a few minutes later this truck pulling a trailer with furniture on it starts to pull into the drive.  As he is slowing down a car comes around the curve and rear-ends him jamming the trailer into the back of the truck.  So those two vehicles also pull into the drive with us.  It turns out that the truck was stopping to help us.  The car was full of about 8 teenagers, so now there was really excited people everywhere, the man that lives in the trailer has come back out to see what is going on and is looking in and at everything with his flashlight and continues to talk about how dangerous a spot that is....the whole time Katie is taping the incident.  Dail, the wrecker man finally comes and that is a whole other funny thing, but I just can't describe it.  Anyway Dad finally got there and we were headed home by 10:30 (I am still trying to figure out how Dad got there so quickly!). 
That is the fun story of fall break.  I killed my first deer and had my first car accident all at the same time.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

From the archives:

So, this isn't my first blog.  I know you are shocked!  Once upon a time I had a xanga.  It was during my growing college/post college years that I blogged regularly.  Now while I am not going to share the address for that blog--I didn't have boundaries--there are a few entries that I would call classics that I will share here on this blog in the next few weeks.

Why am I sharing these?  Well, because they are fun!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Talk, talk, talking

My girl, she is a talker!  Her favorite word is Boofer--he is probably actually her favorite family member too.  When I walk into her room in the morning, she says "mama" and then points to the window or door and says "boofer."  Sometimes it sounds a little bit like buffa, but she can say it.

She says mama, dada or even daddy, pawpaw, nana (but only for a banana, not her grandmother unless prompted), cheese, thank you, bye-bye, hi, and uh, oh.  She is also a mimic, when I sing, she sings; when I ask her to say something, she usually attempts and does really well, unless of course someone else is there.  When she is saying something that I ask her to her words are endless, but those don't really count.

Other tricks include, the lion sound, the elephant trunk only sometimes accompanied by the noise, cow mooing, the lizard trick (her favorite), finding her belly, showing where her head and mouth are, sometimes finding her toes.  She dances like crazy and understands way more than I realize.

My baby is growing up so fast.  She has got an opinion as big as her personality, which in huge.  I just want to freeze her and make her stop growing.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Back to my roots

Little girl (she is not a baby anymore, sniff) took her first tractor ride a few weeks ago.  I've got to start her early if I don't want her to be a wimpy city girl you know.  She isn't smiling in any of the pictures, but I promise she enjoyed herself.  She enjoyed the bouncing of the bumpy ride and pawpaw let her honk the horn and even drive for a little bit.  So much fun!






Saturday, June 30, 2012

A story about a girl, a house, and how God answers prayer

So, I wrote a post a while back about how I was trying to be okay with where we live, but having a hard time with it.  During that time (behind the scenes of the blog) Van and I were having many discussions about what it would look like for us to move.  If we wanted to build, renovate, and even where we wanted to live where all part of those discussions.  Basically everytime we talked about it we couldn't get on the same page.  No matter how long we talked and tried getting the other person on our side it just wasn't happening.  We took that as a sign that we needed to sit tight.  We committed to praying about it until God changed one of our hearts or the thing that we were looking for (a needle in a haystack) came open.

See because we are committed to living in our neighborhood the problem arises that quality housing is not available.  In order to get a livable space (that was any bigger than what we had) we would either have to build on an empty lot or renovate an existing house.  I was opposed to building, Van was opposed to renovating, and neither of us had a peace about living in another part of town, so we waited.

Interestingly, we didn't wait long.  A few months ago the owners of a house that we had talked multiple times about being our dream type of house came to us to see if we would be interested in buying their house.  When Van came home to tell me about it, I was speechless.  I just knew that this was the answer to our prayers.  We now live in that beautiful house.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Come on ladies

I must say that all of the talk--via social media--about 50 Shades of Grey and Magic Mike has me stunned.  It is truly as if women don't see what they are saying.  That or they just don't respect themselves or their husbands.  Honestly if our husbands were watching porn--the equivalent of 50 Shades, or a movie about female strippers--equivalent of Magic Mike, I'm pretty sure we would be upset.  But because we are women for some reason it is not only okay for us to do it, but also to brag about it in such a public space as facebook.  Come on people.  Respect yourselves, respect your husbands, respect your marriages enough to really think about the effect these things have on your mind and heart.

Philippians 4:8--Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

Here is an article that says things better than I could.

*I have been trying to not write anything about this because, well, I feel like it will be poorly received or make me look like a prude, but I just can't sit by anymore.  I wanted women to know that not everyone is reading it, or watching it.  That just because everyone else (including women I look up to) are doing it doesn't mean that it is necessarily right.  Think for yourselves.  Evaluate your choices.

This was posted out of a heart of love.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hand, Foot, and Mouth, Oh my!

So I just realized that I shared that Kare was sick, but I never updated.

She ran a pretty high fever on Sunday night, woke up at 3 screaming and didn't go back to sleep until about 6:30, slept till 7:00 and then was done.  When she woke up her temp was at 99, so I thought she was on the mend.  She didn't seem to be herself and wasn't eating, but her fever was gone so I wasn't too worried about it.  On Monday night she went to bed at 7, woke up screaming at 10 and didn't go back to sleep or stop screaming really at all.  It was awful.  I couldn't decide what was wrong with her because her fever was gone, but she was inconsolable.  I honestly thought that she just didn't want to be alone.  What a mean mom I am to doubt that she was in pain.

We went to the early morning sick clinic at the ped. office on Tuesday morning.  By that time she was in a pretty good mood, wouldn't eat anything, but played just fine.  I had decided that either she suddenly became scared of the dark or she had an ear infection.  The dr. looked at her ears and proclaimed that they were perfect.  At that point my stomach sank because I was sure she was playing us.  Then she went to look at her throat.  K fought opening her mouth and when the dr. finally got the stick in there to look at her throat the dr. said, "Poor Baby! It is hand, foot, and mouth."  Which I automatically associated with hoof and mouth, and was grossed out.  There is actually no association.  Thank goodness!  It basically meant she had blisters on her hands (she only had one, so I didn't notice), feet (only two, again, didn't notice because they were tiny) and mouth (apparently she had a lot in her mouth and throat, poor thing, but I didn't see because I couldn't get her to open her mouth).  We were quarantined in our house all week, but after Tuesday, she didn't seem to feel as bad.

Baby's first virus has come and gone.  Praise the Lord it is gone!  On Friday I sanitized our entire house, and this week we have reveled in our freedom to go about in public.

Being Productive.

Two things that have been on my to-do (to-learn) list I have checked off this week.

I have been wanting to learn to braid K's hair for a while.  It is getting significant length to it and needs more done than just the afro with bow (because it gets SO tangled).  I have watched countless videos and read innumerable tutorials, I just needed to try it.  I was nervous about trying because she is not okay with sitting still.  I tried it in my hair a few times, but it is so different with long straight hair than kinky short hair.  I finally made the decision to just do it.  The only way to get good at it is to practice.  I put Sesame Street on the tv and just followed her around the room attempting to braid at the same time.  They didn't look very good, but they were honestly better than I thought they would be.


Because they were so loose by this morning, they looked awful, and I had to take them out.  Her hair needed to be washed anyway, so after washing I sat her in the bumbo this time (she was tired, so it actually worked really well).  The only thing is that she went to bed on it immediately, so we will see in the morning what it looks like.  They weren't any tighter this time, so...





Please forgive how bad the parts are.  It was a combination of a moving child and pulling the hair out of the clips during braiding.  What can I say, my fine motor skills leave something to be desired.



This afternoon I checked off item #2:  homemade laundry detergent.

Two reasons why I wanted to try homemade detergent: cost (I'm incredibly frugal) and I secretly want to be green, which is frequently in conflict with being frugal.  This time it wasn't so there's no reason not to do it right?

Here are my ingredients
I used Ivory soap because I couldn't find Fels Naptha anywhere in Memphis.  I don't know if it would make a huge difference or not, but I didn't want to have to order it online in case I didn't like it.  I got the giant package of Ivory because it was $.50 more than the three pack.  Silly grocery store prices.


Ingredients that aren't necessary, but help with the process:
Starbucks frappuchino and listening to Adele on the computer.


I started by grating the soap.  I used 2 bars.  I doubled it since I was going to the trouble.

Ivory soap smells so good.  Well, at least the smell has good memories attached to it.  It makes me think of going to the lake as a kid.  When I was little we camped at the lake, so we often "bathed" in the lake instead of the gross bath houses.  Since ivory soap floats it was the soap of choice for lake time. This was back in the old days before body wash was the norm.  As I was grating the soap I was flooded with fun lake memories.  I don't know if there is any part of my childhood that I treasure more than our summers at the lake.



When grating anything in my kitchen, I always end up grating my finger.  Does anyone else have this problem?



I stirred in 2 cups of Washing Soda (not baking soda) and 2 cups of Borax.



Put it in an empty oxyclean container with a Tbsp measure (1T for small load 2T for large load)


I have done three loads of laundry with it so far and I have been pleased.  I also added a scoop of Kroger brand oxyclean, which I was doing with regular detergent most of the time.  At some point I want to try adding vinegar for a fabric softener, but I still have a bounce bar in my dryer.  When it is gone I'll try that to see what I think.

All of the supplies for this cost approximately $12.  I should be able to make 8-10 batches, each batch is 32 loads.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Catching up

Since I still have another 45 minutes before I can give K her tylenol and head to bed, I guess I'll just update the blog.

March 23 was "Gotcha Day" at our house!  Van took off work so that we could spend the day as a family.  The weather was great, so we took our lunch to Shelby Farms for a picnic, and a long walk.  I love that we were able to spend this anniversary together.




I cannot get a good picture of the two of us!


K loves to watch us brush our teeth, so I finally got her a toothbrush (for her 3 teeth).  It was quite the hit.  She gets so excited when I tell her it is time to brush her teeth.  Usually the end of tooth brushing time brings about tears.  At least she is passionate about oral hygiene.




I don't remember when specifically this was, but one day I really wanted to go to the zoo.  So, I got up, packed us a lunch and got us ready for the zoo.  Unfortunately when I got there I couldn't even see the entrance because of all of the school groups there, not to mention a parking space.  Because of our membership we can go to the zoo whenever we want, but can also be a snob about crowds and such.  We went back home and had our picnic in the back yard.



Please note the poor parts.  Parting her hair is HARD!  I'm getting better though. 
I LOVE this picture!


The blog has been quiet lately.  I have several big things going on in my heart and head that I will share in due time, but until then, we have pictures of our cute kid.

An Easter Weekend

Yesterday was one of those rare Saturdays when we didn't have anything that we had to do.  Those only come around about once every three months, but we sure did cherish it.  We started the day with friends.  Their parents were setting up for our church's Easter service (at the Canon Center), so they came over to play.

Van set the tent up in the backyard to let it air out after someone had borrowed it.  I didn't know this needed to happen (I think maybe he just wanted to set it up), but Van is very particular about caring for his camping equipment!  You know, he is an eagle scout.  The kids thought the tent was just the best thing ever!




please ignore her hair, I didn't do anything to it until 4:00



K spent the afternoon napping, I made cookies and caught up on "The Voice" (by caught up, I mean, I am only through the battle rounds, so don't ruin anything for me, and I must say that the judges sent home several of my favorites....shame, and Christina, would you just wear a shirt?  Good grief!)  while Van spent some time on our yard, our very neglected yard.  If anyone wants to give us yard care, we would love it!  I'd pay in baked goods.  I'm pretty sure that if we didn't live in the 'hood, we would be booted out of the neighborhood.

We spent our evening at the Levitt Shell for the Drew and Ellie Holcomb Easter Eve concert.  We met several of our friends for a potluck picnic, and ran into so many other friends.  Apparently it was the place to be on Saturday night.  It was a perfect spring evening.  (I didn't really get many good pictures, but here are those that I did get)

K met her favorite singer/songwriter, Andrew Best


She enjoyed getting to hang out with Miss Abigail again

This morning we woke up excited to celebrate the Resurrection!  K didn't seem very excited though.  In fact we thought that her dress made her mad.  I say thought, because by this afternoon she had a fever, so maybe it wasn't the dress that was annoying her, but in reality she wasn't feeling well.  Poor girl.  Also poor girl because look at her Easter "basket."  Her mother is just too practical.  I couldn't bring myself to buy her candy knowing that I would be the one to eat it.  Van just isn't tempted by sweets, and I am trying to keep her from being addicted to such things, so I wouldn't give it to her either.  So, no candy.   And the "basket" is just a tub.  I got her this because I really want her to have a water table, but it seems silly to pay $30 for something that just holds water, so I got her a $5 tub.  Not only am I practical, but also cheap!  So her "basket" was a tub.  She did enjoy the grass though (completely impractical).  I'm sure she will think it is awesome when I fill it with water and let her play in it.


We headed to Easter celebration service where Van and I worked in the nursery.  We were in K's class with her.  She ended up wanting one of us to be with her the whole time.  Oy, this stage can be very frustrating!

After church we went to my parent's house.  She got a proper Easter basket that even had her name on it.  We had lunch and an Easter egg hunt.  K didn't partake of the egg hunting.  By that time she had a fever, so she just sat with Nana, while Van and I competed with my fam for the prizes.  We like to think of my parents egg hunts as K's college fund, but this year we did not bring our a-game.  Oh well, at least we have 17 more years to prepare, and next year she should be able to help us.

I love this shirt/bow combo so much that she will likely wear it once a week until she grows out of it

A few minutes after this picture, Van fell asleep and took quite the nap, right in the middle of the chaos.

By the time we got home her fever was up to 103 in spite of the tylenol in her system.  She and Van are both asleep now while I wait for time for her next dose.  It seems like these random fevers happen so often, but I'm pretty sure it is just my paranoia.  Hopefully she will wake up tomorrow feeling great.  And my apologies for all of those that we possibly infected over the past few days.

This past week we made a point each night to sit down with her Jesus Storybook Bible and read the Gospel story leading up to today, the resurrection.  It was a sweet time even if she was all over the place the whole time.  We hope, as she gets older, to introduce more traditions such as this in order to point our celebrations and our lives to Christ.

He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!