Tracks....

Harry running on the path at our house.

A couple of fun things we did the past couple days:

A walk to the railroad. Just around the corner from our abode is a railroad. (hey, that rhymes.) Anyway, it's close enough that the kids can walk with us w/o a stroller. And they have so much fun.

Clues. Another new game involves an old magnifying glass (best 50 cents ever!) and the kids going around outside looking for "clues" or "tracks". It could be a hole in an otherwise perfect leaf ("how did it get there?") or a track in the mud ("are racoons my pet?") or a really pretty flower ("mom, why do skunks stink?")Now, I am not sure exactly what these objects are pointing toward, what they are clues of. But oh well! We had a great time and it can occupy their tender, sweet, beautiful minds for quite a long time. In fact, when Harry's preschool was at our house this week, this was the activity of choice, lasting for about 35 minutes. (Can you believe that?!) It was really fun to watch them all work together. Not one kid was left out or unengaged. Now that is amazing!

Saturday Snakes...

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a rite-of-passage that I feel a pressing need to share. I have officially shrieked my first shriek upon being introduced to my little girl's pet snake that she caught in the garden, whose name is Sasha. Now if that isn't a rite-of-passage I don't know what is.

Friday morning, I was blissfully unaware of all creepy crawly creatures residing in our small corner of the world. Now I am on entirely too intimate of terms with this snake who slept in the garage. Bella wanted her on the bed with her. I won that battle, by darn. The same snake was also up on it's hind......tail thing with his head (Bella says it's a boy) touching the lid looking at me as I made my sleepy way out to the garage to collect a couple of things for breakfast making. I made Kent get out of bed, to tame the wild thing "IT IS STARING AT ME!" For all of you brave things, with no issues with reptiles, I would like to state for the record that I have the same problem with anything that has beady eyes and maintains uncomfortably lengthy eye contact. Just wanted to put that out there.

In the end, the snake was released out into the wild to regain it's composure and eat. The kids have caught two a day since then. Bless their hearts.......

See it's huge!!

All in all a good Saturday. Next time we will try to go snake-less for a complete breath of fresh air.

Happy Mother's Day....

"When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. The women of God know this." -Neal A. Maxwell

"Before you were conceived...I wanted you. Before you were born.....I loved you. Before you were here an hour, I would die for you. This is the miracle of life." - Maureen Hawkins

I am so grateful to be a mother! I have learned more about my Heavenly Father and my relationship to Him, and also about my loving Savior, through being a mother then I think I could have learned any other way. It is the most humbling, demanding, rewarding, hardest job in the world but the greatest job ever! Having your heart walk around outside your body is often, well, 'heart-wrenching'.

Happy Mother's day to all out there! A day of rejoicing for the sacred calling of "mom"!

Love,

Me

Microwave...

I feel like the punchline to a redneck joke. "Ya know you're a red neck if....." Alas I am getting ahead of myself (don't I always?). Let me explain...

We haven't had a microwave for about 2 years. It became part of our lifestyle to not have one. And then I tried to find a silver lining to that situation and I decided that not having one was the silver lining (Right? Sure? Yes? Anyone?).

And then came some of our favorite people ever, Quin and Joy, shedding light, laughter, love oh yeah, and MICROWAVES as they went! They came for dinner and left us with a microwave, A REAL LIVE MICROWAVE! The kind that warms things up, and pops popcorn all by its baby-self, and beeps loudly-but-not-too-loudly when finished and doesn't get a pan sticky in the process of heating up syrup, and softly glows out the time of the day without me ever asking it. GOD BLESS YOU QUIN AND JOY! We knew not what we missed! Thank you, Thank you!

So, my redneck joke would read something like this: "Ya know you're a redneck if..... your five year old comes in the kitchen in the morning and points at the microwave and says 'What's that?'

Ya also might be a redneck if in response to the simple question of "What would you like for breakfast? you receive the gleeful answer (including the jumping up and down!) "Something from the microwave, something from the microwave!"

Coming right up!

Miscommunication...

I would say miscommuncation can be a real gem in a marriage. I know it is in mine. For instance, may I just share one such nugget from yesterday.

Kent: "So do they close at 7:00?"

Kristin: "I am pretty sure that they are open until 8:30 or so because it is a holiday."

Kent: "Are you sure they are open until 8:30?

Kristin:"Pretty sure."

Kent: "Can you find out for sure?"

Kristin: "Honey, I know they will be open when I get there."

Kent: "But how sure are you?"

Kristin: "Fairly certain."

..........Here's the punchline..........

Kent: (nicely, patiently, with exageratted hand gestures) "Sweetheart, can you please make some progress towards attempting to become more sure?"

"Yes, honey!"

I love my husband!!