We Can Totally Do That!!

Sooo, we are pretty settled into our new house. Boxes unpacked, pictures hung, rooms pretty well organized.

But getting to this point, was not easy!!

Our move in and move out was scheduled about a week apart. So I figured we could spend a few days moving boxes and little stuff with the van, and then by Friday beg a few strong men to help lift the heavy stuff on to a rental moving van.

The first day I woke up with a feeling of dread. I couldn't believe I had really thought the kids and I (because Mike was working Tuesday and Wednesday) were going to move most of the house before Friday!! What was I thinking!!

This is where I would like to add a side note. Mike and I both have this weird brain disease. I am not sure there is a name for it, but I call it wecantotallydothatitis. When faced with a near impossible task, i.e. Running in a 200 mile relay with little or no prior running experience or moving an entire house with just four kids and a mini van, something clicks in our brains and we think "Ha, no problem!!! We can totally do THAT!!" This is not such a bad trait when the odds are favorable, but unfortunately, that is not often the case.

So Monday morning we got up and since Mike and I had to finish our walk through, he was there to help for a few hours. We managed to move the entire garage over. This is a feat of extraordinary daring and courage.  Not only did we get it moved over BUT completely organized!! Not bad for our first day.

The second day, my dad was headed out with a bed he had promised to Kylee and a desk that was my grandmothers.  So, on top of Kylee getting her new bed, I was getting the use of his rented mini van for the whole week and the kids were getting a papa who loves to hang out with them!!  Two mini vans and an extra adult would make the move even easier!

So for Tuesday, my goal was for the kids and I to single-handedly move over all their bedrooms, set up beds, book cases etc. We did it!! And Mike and I were even able to move some stuff from other rooms in the evening.

Wednesday my dad and I moved living room furniture, electronics, and a good rest of the boxes!! By the time we got to Thursday, Mike was back home to help and we worked on our room and some of the heavier furniture.  It was Wednesday evening, and on the high of getting so much accomplished, Mike and I made the bold statement, "I bet we could move just about everything without a moving van!!" Thanks to the refrigerator, we didn't try it :)

The craziest story from the move would have to be how Mike and I moved our king sized mattress from one house to the other with just a rope, a blanket and our mini van!

We bought our mattress in January of this year, from Costco.  We went with a foam mattress, which was the BEST purchase we have ever made.  I LOVE our mattress.  It is super firm, doesn't sag, and is plenty big.  Its size put it on the things-that-must-be-moved-with-a-moving-van list.  But Thursday evening, the eve of the big stuff move, we got drunk on our achievements.  Mike and I looked around the mostly empty house, and the twelve items still left to go, and wondered if we could take that list down to eleven...

Mike rationalized that our mattress came in a small box to start.

That was true.

And the delivery guy delivered it.

Also true.

So, why couldn't we just roll it up and put it in the van????

Sounds reasonable!!!  We can totally do it!!!

We did manage to get it folded in half, and tied up.  Yes, this would definitely fit in the van!!

I went into the kitchen to grab something and that is when Mike decided he could get it down the stairs.  Which he did.  What we didn't bank on was, trying to lift it from the front door to the van, without the furniture dolly that we left at the other house.

I tried to lift my end, but the combination of it being awkward, huge, soft, and heavy and the fact that by Thursday evening my body had about given up on me, made it nearly impossible for me to move.

At this point we totally could have left it in the living room and shut the front door.  We totally could have waited for the next day for our friends to help us lift it onto the moving truck.

But we had gotten this far!!!  It was so close to being in the van!!  How could we just leave it?

That is when I got the brilliant idea that would save the evening.  What if we took one our old blankets and drug it to the van, then used the blanket to lift it onto the van?  Would it work?

YES!!  It totally worked!!  We got our mammoth mattress into our mini-van and then used our blanket method to heft it up the stairs in the next house.

And as we locked the door to the old house that evening, we only had 11 odd items left to be moved.  We had done it!  We had moved a huge part of a four bedroom house with just two mini-vans, two adults, four children, and one old man, which went a long way to worsening our already bad case of wecantotallydothatitis!

Kristen

Epic Fall

So, as I mentioned on Monday, the last couple of months I have been in funkville.

Not just one big long funk, but really two consecutive funks.

The first, the home schooling funk, was over pretty quick, it only lasted about a week.

That one ended just in time to be followed by the I-hate-my-birthday funk.

Now that I am on the tail end of that funk, I decided to start running again.

(I'm pretty sure that while you are in a funk it is unheard of to exercise, so I didn't)

Faith and I got up Monday morning and decided it was time to start running again.  And we weren't taking the sissy run either.

This particular run I speak of is three miles.

It goes uphill.

And when I say uphill, I mean UPHILL.

It also goes downhill, which is where I make up my time, for walking on the extreme uphill part :)

So Faith and I were running this morning and we had gotten past the uphill part.

And we were past the downhill part.

We rounded the corner and we were on the home stretch.  I was feeling a bit winded and was ready for a walk break, when we came up to a man walking a dog, going in the same direction as us.

He pulled over to the side, which I wasn't thrilled about, because that meant we had to speed up to get past him, then stay running to stay ahead of him.

We ran past him, and I started to imagine the dog was a big scary dog, so I would run faster.

***side note*** You know those little kids that have no sense about animals.  The ones who will go running up to the snapping snarling dog and try to pet it?  Yeah, that's me. ***

So you can imagine, that I was having quite a time trying to imagine what kind of scary dog was following me.

Well, right in the middle of my imaginative dog chase, my shoe caught on the uneven sidewalk.

I wasn't expecting it, and therefore didn't have time to get my hands out in front of me to catch myself.

I went down on my right side and continued to skid down the sidewalk, banging my head as I went down.

Luckily, we were running alongside the golf course, and I mostly fell in the grass.

It was a pretty epic fall.

I am pretty sure that it was even in slow motion.

I jumped up, not because I felt great, but I was super embarrassed, and the big dog was boring down on us.

And now I think I am officially a real runner.

Or, I'm that little kid I call "the little falling kid".  You know the kid I'm talking about, the one on your kids football-soccer-basketball team that falls during every game.

Come on you know the one I'm talking about.  

No, I think I am a runner.

Kristen

Lemonade, Fresh Cold Lemonade!!

My kids have this strange entrepreneur gene, and I'm not sure where they got it.

Must be Mike, because it certainly isn't from me!

As a kid, I don't remember ever wanting to sell anything. It just wasn't my idea of a good time.

And as an adult, the mere thought of me having to have a garage sale breaks me out into a cold sweat with hives sure to follow.

But my kids, they LOVE to sell stuff, and are constantly looking for an opportunity to make a buck on the street.

Last week Seth came up with his brilliant scheme.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and Seth came running in from playing outside. "Mom! Mom!" he shouted in his sweet out of breath voice.

"Yes" I answered.

"I have the best idea! You know how the lady across the street is always having garage sales?"

"Um, yes." Gulp. Uh oh.

"Well, I was thinking with all that traffic, and these warm days, I bet I could sell a lot of lemonade if I opened a lemonade stand while she is having her garage sales! What do you think?" he said with a look of utter delight on his face.

"Hmmm, do you have any money for start up costs?" (please say no, please say no...)

"Nooo, but if you buy the first lemonade mix, I will pay you back out of my first profit!"

So I bought him his start up lemonade.

I have so many thoughts about this venture.

First of which is- why in the world a perfectly healthy little boy would want to spend his time selling lemonade on a beautiful sunny California day?

Also, I wonder if my entrepreneurial neighbor is going to want a cut on his profits?

And if we aren't careful our street could, just possibly, start looking a lot like a flea market :)

Kristen

Fifi the Five Foot Vampire Goose

We have a lovely walking route, and if we do the whole thing, it is about three miles in length. It goes up hill, down hill, and past a beautiful park/golf course.

We often wait until the evening and walk it as a family after dinner, but on Mondays I go to a small group in the evening, so the kids and I have been trying to walk it in the afternoon.

Yesterday, we started down the street, it was a beautiful day, 75 degrees and sunny. The boys had brought their bikes and Kylee was running up ahead with them, while Faith and I were walking at a quick pace right behind them.

About five minutes into our walk, as we were walking by the beautiful golf course, I looked up ahead and saw three giant geese sitting by the sidewalk. As the three kids up ahead got closer to the three geese, one of the geese got up and looked quite upset.

The next thing I know she (the kids have dubbed her Fifi) began squawking and with her head low down to the ground she charged the kids!

Kylee, Seth and Joshi turned themselves around and took off back towards Faith and me. This crazy Fifi chased them down the sidewalk and even bit Joshi's tire!

By the time the three kids reached us, Joshi was in tears and they all suggested we just turn around and go down the other side of the street.

Well, I was not about to let a goose tell me I couldn't walk down the street!!

So, I told the kids we were just going to walk straight down that sidewalk, right past Fifi and we would be just FINE!

Meanwhile, Fifi had not taken her eyes off of us. We very determinedly walked back towards the three geese, and when we got about halfway there, she began screaming and charging us again!!

Okay, I admit it, I ran.

This Fifi meant business.

I decided we were going to have to just go out into the bike lane of the very busy street, and walk very quickly by this very scary avian menace.

We waited for traffic to clear and I grabbed Joshi's bike. He and I ran as fast as we could down the bike lane and got past Fifi to the other side.

Victory!!

I turned around to cheer with the other three and realized they were not behind me, they had gotten scared and were cowering on the sidewalk, being yelled at by a very angry Fifi!

I told the kids to just do what I had done, wait for the traffic to clear and run!

The girls made it.

Now, Seth was trapped on the other side of gooseland and Fifi looked like she really meant business.

She was on to our game, and at this point there was no guarantee that she was not going to follow him right out into traffic this time!

I decided to try and distract her by coming towards her from the other side, the safe side, which seemed to work. She quit giving Seth the bird-eye and came after me, which in turn made all the kids on the safe side scream.

Seth got out into the bike lane and made it to safety, and Fifi turned her goose tail and walked off towards the golf course.

We ended up stopping at a friend's house instead of continuing on our walk. By the time we got to our destination, the boys had morphed Fifi the goose into a five-foot vampire beast with huge fangs and a troll like voice.

Do you think they are going to need therapy?

Kristen

A Story About a Grill

I am laughing right now.

There is a lady on our little 12 house cul-de-sac who has a garage sale business.

She has garage sales EVERY single Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!

It is a tad bit irritating. There isn't a lot of parking room, on our street, and with the extra people on the street, perusing the goods, it gets really crowded.

But, this week we decided to take advantage of our crazy garage sale-ing neighbor.

We had some things in the move that were damaged beyond usability. One of those things was our grill.

When we moved, we chose a mover that said they would cover 100% of the cost of anything damaged. That wasn't totally true (but that's a different story), but in the case of the grill, they did give us what we claimed.

So, here is our dilemma, now we have a broken grill that needs to go, before Mike's wife :) will let him purchase a new one.

What to do, what to do...

That is when I came up with the brilliant plan! We would use the advantage of all the garage sale traffic, and put our grill out in the driveway with a free sign on it! After all, we just really need to get rid of it, right?

So that is exactly what we did this morning.

Several people got out of their trucks and looked at the grill then, drove away.

I was quickly realizing, we couldn't even give it away.

Then, I heard the clatter of the grill being drug away! I excitedly looked out the window, to see the garage sale neighbor, dragging the grill across the street to her garage sale!!!

She promptly removed the sign, and placed it prominently out in front.

After about 15 minutes and several people looking at it, she sold it!!

Don't know for how much, but she sold my broken grill to some poor consumer.

The good news is, now Mike can get a new grill :)

Kristen

Maple and Merfume

I, admittedly, have some strange quirks.

One of those being I can't stand the smell of maple. I can eat it with no problem, it isn't actually the smell of maple in itself, it's more the smell of maple on skin.

I think this comes from teaching pre-school. Have you ever smelled a child who hadn't bathed in several days?

Maple.

So, when I had children, I made two vows.

One, I would bath my children, often.

And two, if they did consume maple they would quickly get a bath.

This last week I was taking the boys to choir. They got in the van, and it became obvious that one of them had over done it on the cologne. (Santa brought cologne for Christmas, crazy Santa)

I said,"Whew! Smells like one of you might have over done it a bit with the merfume" (that's what they call cologne)

Josh quietly says from the backseat,"Yeah, that was me. I was walking up the stairs and smelled maple and thought it was me, so I went in my room and sprayed on some of my merfume, maybe a little too much..."

Maple.

Faith was burning a candle in her room, which is right by the stairs, and it just happened to be a hazelnut candle which surprisingly smells a lot like maple.

My poor children.

Kristen

Troll! Troll! Troll!

Well, we just ended a week long visit with my best girlfriend Paula and her three boys. We had a great time and had a ton of adventures. One of the most memorable was our trip to Disney.

It was a beautiful day, 80 degrees and sunny. We had to do some convincing to get Sam and Luke to ride the rides, and with some coercion, they did ride a few.

At dinner time we decided that since they had never had In and Out Burger, that it was a must. So we left the park and hunted down one of these fine establishments. It was a hit. Everyone enjoyed it and we headed back to the park.

Now, if you have ever been to Disneyland you will hear the voice on the tram tell you to please keep your parking ticket for re-entry to the parking garage.

Which we did.

Mike was in the car in front of us, since we had ten people in our party, we couldn't make it in one vehicle.

Mike pulled up, showed the man his parking ticket, and pulled on through.

I pulled my van full of boys up to the parking man, and showed him my ticket, his response was, in a gruff voice,"Where's your Disney pass?"

This is when I realized that my parking pass was obtained because we had prepaid one vehicle on my annual pass.

Uh Oh...

So I calmly tried to explain to the man, that I have an annual pass, but it was with my husband in the vehicle in front of us, so I can't show it to him. By this time Mike had slowed and pulled to the side, but the other parking attendants started yelling at him to move on!

It was at this point that the parking attendant, not so kindly explained to me that without it he would not let me in, and slapped a bright pink "EXIT" sign on my windshield and told me to leave the park!!!

I wish I could say it was at this time that I calmly smiled and dealt with the situation in a mature adult like fashion.

But, I didn't.

I rolled up my window and as I drove away, I, well, lost my temper just a bit. It is also possible that at this time, I may or may not have called the man a Troll.

Yes, I realize this isn't my most shinning parental moment. And I also realize that with this one slip of the tongue, every uplifting and encouraging thing that I had ever said to these five boys, sitting in the back of my van, flew out the proverbial window.

There arose from the back seat a chorus of Troll slurs that you cannot even imagine! I looked at Paula and we both realized that it was going to be a long time before we were going to be able to undo this misdeed.

I calmly explained to the boys, that I had made a grievous mistake in calling that man a Troll, and I apologized to them. I told them that he was a creation of our God, therefore not a Troll, but an individual, we should respect. Further, I explained, that as Christ-followers we should not let our temper get the best of us, as I had, and we should always try and treat others with respect no matter how they treat us.

I was answered by Luke who simply said,"Mrs. Jones, it wasn't your fault, that Troll should have let us in!"

Great.

So, Mike had to exit the park, and brought me my card. We re-entered the parking garage with a chant of "Troll! Troll! Troll!" coming from the back seat, which we quickly quieted as we approached the parking troll, I mean man, who, if I might add, was just as rude the second time around as the first.

We made our way back into the park and enjoyed the rest of the evening, with only a few more mentions of the parking troll.

Kristen

Okay, I admit it, Facebook is taking over. It is just so easy to post pictures and stuff, it seems that my blog has become neglected. I will try and catch up a bit.

This last month seems like a blur. Christmas eve eve service at the Orchard was AWESOME!! Mike's team did such an incredible job. Loved being there with my extended Mitchell family and getting to see all of them.

Christmas morning was so much fun, the kids opened the gifts from Santa, and Nana and Papa, granny and papa, aunts and uncles. Mike surprised me with my new-to-me Macbook! I love her and am quickly becoming a Mac addict. Then we packed up and were off for three days, two nights in Gurnee, Il!!! We went to Key Lime Cove a brand new indoor water park there and had such a great time. This is our second year skipping gifts for the kids and doing a trip instead. The kids had a blast and so did we. It was so cool to spend individual time with each kid and just relax as a family.

We came home on Saturday night and Mike and I left on Sunday evening for a fabulous anniversary over night in Chicago. Mike planned the whole thing and wouldn't tell me a thing till we were almost there. He booked a night stay at the Hyatt in Chicago on the magnificent mile and we had dinner at Aria, same as last year. We loved it so much last year and it doesn't disappoint. We had a great time. Next morning we went to our favorite Lou Mitchells for breakfast and gorged ourselves on some delicious fresh baked doughnuts, omelet and potatoes. Yum!!!

And today, Mike goes back to work and I pack away Christmas.

That about does it. I will try and give the blog equal opportunity, although with school starting for me and the kids I am afraid the blog maybe put on hold till I am done....Maybe go down to monthly updates. Don't know yet.

Here is a video from the waterpark, off of Kylee's new camcorder. I snagged it and took this priceless video. Things to look for in it- sneaky guy who appears in everyone's frame, a sharing moment, and mommy attempting to duplicate Kylee's sign off. Enjoy!!!

Pink.....The New Black

So one of the problems with having girls then boys is , there are just some things that can't be passed down.

When they were little, jeans could sometimes be passed down.

Baby toys were not a problem boy, girl it didn't matter.

But bikes, skates, etc. are a whole different story. We did keep the first bike Faith ever had to train the little guys on when they were learning how to ride without training wheels. It was purpley and pink, but was used strictly for training purposes.

Recently, they have all been into roller blades. Faith and Seth got new ones for their birthdays and Faith's old ones got passed down to Kylee.

What happened to Kylee's old ones?

The cute little bright pink roller blades?

Yeah, Joshi has been wearing them. But only in the basement, up until last week.

The three of them wanted to go to Philip's and see if he could play.

I said sure.

They said they wanted to wear their roller blades.

Hmm. I thought about it and suggested maybe Joshi wouldn't want to wear the pink skates outside.

He said he didn't care, they are roller blades and he wanted to roller blade, he didn't care what color they were.

Whatever.

Few minutes later, in comes Seth in a huff.

Apparently some bigger boys were at the park they had to pass to get to Philip's, and they made fun of Joshi :(

Kylee followed in a huff. She was agitated that someone would make fun of a little guy. She said Seth stood up to them and told them not to pick on him because he was just a little kid.

Good boy.

Then, in came Joshi. I was worried he would be upset. He said he didn't care what those kids said, he likes to roller blade.

I told him that pink was the new black.

So tonight as Joshi and I were sitting at the table eating, he started rubbing his eye.

He said,"mom, what is pink eye?"

I explained to him it was an infection in the eye.

He said,"it makes your eye pink?"

I said yes.

He said, very matter of fact,"pink is the new black."

Yes, Joshi, it is.

Caddy and Pill

This is Caddy.

Faith found him this morning out on the patio.

She gave him, well, didn't really give him because she doesn't touch bugs, insects, or larvae of any kind, but showed him to her sister Kylee, who entrapped, I mean made a home for him in her butterfly habitat.

They had to know what kind of caterpillar he was. So thanks to the world wide web we were able to identify him as a black swallowtail caterpillar.

They love to eat dill which was very good information for Seth who desperately wanted his own caterpillar to imprison, I mean care for.

So armed with an empty yogurt container and the knowledge that they love dill he set off to find himself a new little friend as well.

He did succeed and now is the proud papa of a itty bitty black swallowtail caterpillar. His name is Pill.

Maybe if he lives through his forced incarceration, I mean luxury yogurt hotel, then we will photograph him as well.

Kristen

Is There a Puppy In Your Shirt?

Here is something you don't see in school everyday.

Yes, the puppy is in her sweatshirt.

Yes, she is doing her history reading assignment.

In her defense the weather has taken a cold turn the last few days and the mornings have been quite chilly.

Cold enough to put a puppy in your sweat shirt?

You decide.

Kristen

Move Over Ulrich

This is Joshi playing his new DRUMS!!!!

During our time running back and forth from the hospital with Todd we had lots of great friends help us out with the kids. I will never be able to thank these friends enough. They were a blessing to our lives. They allowed us to be with Paula and with our friend till the end.

One of the nights we weren't expecting to go back to the hospital, we had just returned home from the hospital, when we got the call that Todd had been air lifted to a hospital in Chicago. Mike and I, of course, wanted to meet Paula there, so we called Ms. Jen up and asked her if maybe her and her boyfriend Mr. Brad would come and stay with the kids, we didn't know how late we would be. They came, no questions asked, just came. What a blessing.

We got home really late, don't remember even what time it was but it was late, or early however you want to look at it.

The next morning Joshi jumped out of bed ran into our room and announced that he was going to buy Mr. brad's drums.

Hmmmm.

I asked him to tell me what he was talking about. He told me that he told Mr. Brad that he wanted to buy drums and Mr. Brad told him he had drums for sale.

One thing led to another and the next thing you know Joshi had offered to buy Mr. Brad's drums.

For four dollars.

Because Jen and Brad are so sweet they didn't tell him, that wasn't enough money, just that he was almost there.

In his mind, he was really almost there. He began telling everyone he was buying Mr. Brad's drums.

Well, last week Mr. Brad called Mike and was so excited, he found an old set of drums for Joshi!!

Mike came home and told Joshi that Mr. Brad had found him a set of drums!!! Then he told him he would have to pay for them though.

Joshi looked at Mike and said,"you will have to help me...." when Mike said,"they are four dollars!"

Joshi screamed,"Hey, I have four dollars!!!"

Very excited.

He loves his new drums. He thinks they are the best things ever.

I just thank God for the sweet people in our lives that love our kids, love us, and continually bless us.

Thanks friends!

Kristen

The Gift of Laughter

I think God knew I needed a great laugh yesterday.

Before I begin with this story I need you to understand this is a true story.

Yesterday, when walking into the church building, for Saturday service, Seth found a cricket. He, of course, picked it up and put it in his shirt pocket. He was very excited about having a cricket in his pocket and was telling, and showing, everyone walking down the hall.

I dropped him off at class with his cricket.

After the service is when I heard the rest of the story.

Well, you see in Wahabu when they collect the offering from the kids they have a boy and a girl bucket. So as the offering bucket came around(you all ready know where this is going don't you?) Seth put in his money, and his cricket. He told me he thought the cricket was worth at least another 2 dollars.

The teacher started counting the money, the cricket jumped and scared her, at which point the offering went flying.

And although Seth and all the boys thought the cricket was worth an extra two dollars for the boys collection, unfortunately, sweet Ms. Kathrine, told them that actually it was minus 5. Too bad for the boys.

When Seth told me this story after church I laughed and laughed then asked him "Really?"

I verified the story with Ms. Kathrine and found it to be accurate.

Thanks, I needed that.

Kristen

Stuff Christians Like

This is just too hilarious. If you don't read this guys stuff you are seriously missing out. He is so funny.

But as I was browsing his blog today, I came across this and I laughed so hard. If you aren't a regular reader go and read #368 part 1 and 2.

Enjoy!

Kristen

Too Funny

Just saw this and had to share!!!

http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf

Enjoy!!

Kristen