Mr. January Organization

It takes me approximately one year to undo all of the fabulous organization that is in my home and done by my husband. That is why January is dedicated to organization for the month. It is what we learn about in FHE and it is what we do for activities. My husband was blessed with a lot better sense of order than I was, and he is really good at helping me organize. I'm very good at making messes but also finding things to contain my mess. I also provide us with some humor because usually by about September, it becomes very dangerous and fun to open our cupboards. It also reveals some interesting finds! So every year, I help him pull out all of the messes I've made and let him work his magic.

As you can see below, this is our pantry. We aren't quite done with cleaning it, but Andy has started and it is already looking better than what you see below.

The next order project is usually my cupboards in my kitchen. It gets to the point after that whole year that some of them don't even shut. I'm very good at messing up the order he tries to create. But I do really well if I can tell him where to put stuff I use a lot. He is so amazing, he has even organized my closet. He did that a few years ago, and for the most part, I do very well with his system. He arranges by color and by style. So pants are all by each other. Dresses and skirts are by each other. Short sleeved shirts are all arranged by color and long sleeved shirts are arranged by color.

These pictures of lovely cupboards that you are looking at, are ones that I've messed up and that don't close very well. This one below was so full that every time you opened it, something would fall out on top of you. Sometimes it did it without even opening the cupboard.

As you can see, the before and after is a very amazing transformation. He takes my mess and provides order. I love opening up this cupboard and finding what I need a lot more quickly than I did before. I even used the lemon pepper that I didn't know I had and spiced up our chicken dish the other night.

This was my favorite messy cupboard. It is above my stove and it is where we keep the medicine, but also my gum, vases, and other random things we don't use very often. However, because I'm a gum addict, I open this cupboard quite frequently and much to my surprise, even though I know it is going to happen, something would fall out of this cupboard. Sometimes it would even fall into what was cooking on the stove. It usually made a huge mess when it did this. This is the final product of Andy's organization.

This shows him in the process of doing the job just so you can see it really is him. I believe he hires out for 100 dollars a house! Just kidding. This is the last cupboard I took a picture of just so you can see. It was jam packed with papers and magazines and other odds and ends and he just whipped it into shape. He cleaned out our game closet so that we can actually find a game to play without pulling out all of the others on top of our heads. Just to make you all very jealous, even organizes my sock drawer according to color. Besides all of his added attributes that I love, I love that he provides order to my chaotic life. I like to think that I not only provide him with a winter hobby but a little random chaos and confusion! :-)

The Only Reason I Love Winter!

So yesterday the weather was really yucky from a Sunday quick blizzard. Our roads were covered in drifts. I thought for sure we would be out of school on Monday. Our school board (who shall remain unnamed and only referred to as a much loved and respected group from this author's opinion) felt that it wasn't that bad outside. Even though I was mad I had to be in school, I kind of agreed with them. I was able to make it to school fairly easily. However, others were not as much in agreement as I was. Granted, I didn't sleep all night waiting for a phone call telling me school would be out, but it never came and I ended up at school very tired from not sleeping all night waiting for a phone call that would tell me I didn't have school. But I did!

So last night (Monday night) I went to bed with a little hope of getting out of school, but not really believing it would happen. I guess it was supposed to be cold, but my mom said it wouldn't get that cold. So I went to bed and at 5:50 a.m. I received a phone call telling me it was too cold to go to school. Needless to say, I was very delighted to be able to have a "free" day off and be able to sleep in in a warm and cozy bed. I guess some areas around registered -31 degrees below, however, I am convinced that our school without fail always has a "make-up" call day to make up for the fact that they should have let out school the day before but didn't. Then they get a bunch of mad people calling them and they let school out the next day to make up for it. I'm an avid lover of basketball and have seen this phenominon happen all the time by officials who knew they made a "bad" call. Then they make one to kind of make up for it. Whether it was too cold or just a make-up call, I'll take it. It is one of the few professions that provides these nice "mental" health days for its employees, because we have to keep in mind the safety of the children. I love my job on days like this. I even like winter when it does enough to keep me home! Everyone pray for more cold!

There's no day like "Snow" day

So we got some snow yesterday, and it actually was kind of nice outside, so Peyts conned us all into going out and playing the snow. I will admit that I do not really like snow or playing in it, but it was pretty fun yesterday. Our cute little angel had to make a snow angel first thing. It was funny because as soon as he got up and moved he would fall back down into the snow to make a new one. We finally went and tried out Dad's snowmobile. We couldn't figure out how to get it working, so we had to call Dad. I guess it was a good thing, because you only had to push the gas to get it going. Once we got it going, we decided it was pretty fun to ride on it. It really has some get up and go....

I actually pulled Peyts around quite a bit and we only once about wrapped around a pole. He must have been in a good mood because I dumped him off of the sled about 10 times and he would just giggle and get back on.
We tried to go over by grandpa's house, but the problem was the snow was melting and so we had to go to our back yard...which was actually kind of fun. We have a lot of hills and we had a lot snow that wasn't tromped on.

It was also pretty fun, because Peyton usually gets so cold, but it really was nice outside. The best place to dump someone off was going into our garden down the hill. Peyts kept getting dumped off, but he loved it. I will admit that I usually don't like to go out in the snow, but it was fun.

Our fun ended when I broke the sled pulling Andy. I went a little bit faster with him and it snapped the rope out of the plastic. Maybe after the snow we got today, we will be able to go back out and play some more in the snow.

I guess it isn't so bad. But I still wouldn't mind the snow melting so we can have an early spring.

Little Horse, Little Cowboy

This is one of the reasons why I love living in Hamer. Even though I have no intention or desire of my child becoming a cowboy, while he is little there is a world of possibilities that he can explore in safety and without me worrying too much. My dad bought this little mini horse and before the nasty cold weather hit, Peyton really enjoyed feeding and walking this horse. He even got brave and lead her around. She is a little more spirited though and gave him a few nips on the back that he did not like. I was impressed at his bravery though and I hope they have some fun adventures. I think my dad bought her for all of the grandkids to enjoy and we hope that this spring and summer we can get her a little more tame for the kids.

Peyton was very brave, but got a little gunshy after she bit at him. However I know he thought he was a good cowboy while doing this. It also gave him some chores to do because we went and fed her every night for about a week. (sorry dad!)

He has been brave enough to sit on top of her, but she isn't broke yet. I had some students who actually raise them and they use them for chariot racing. You wouldn't think that these little mini ponies would do much, but they actually have a lot of power. My two students said they would work on getting her broke and more kid friendly this summer. I sure hope so, so that Peyts can grow up liking horses and making memories like I did.

These little cowboy boots were actually Jake's boots. When my mom found them, Peyton just latched onto them and has worn them down more than they already are. I had to hide them from him because nails were coming up through the bottom into the inside of the shoe. Peyton wore them all of the time and he wore them all over. I finally got mother's permission to throw them away. I took one final picture of boots that served their time well! Thanks Jake!

My "Super" Birthday Boy

So on January 14th, my cute little noodle had a birthday. I realized that this was his last birthday that he would actually be home for (school). He is getting so big. This birthday and also Christmas was so much fun with him. Everything was so exciting. I don't know if you remember attacking a present with such determination and speed, but everything he wanted to know what was in it and who it was from and he had to open it immediately. It was pretty cute.

Peyton received three little farm sets from Cal's...every farmer boy's favorite store. I couldn't pass them up because they were so cute.
He also got some real working clothes like Ace, Badge, and Tyrell as he says. He has the overalls, coat, real leather working gloves and boots. After he opened it all, he asked me where his hat was like Ace...so I failed in the hat. Later in the day he had to put this all on and go outside and work. He got cold in like five minutes!

So like most little boys, we have hit a super hero phase. Peyton loves costumes and loves to dress up and think that he is the person. Back at Halloween, I purchased a variety of costumes (on sale) and he now has a whole repetoire of superhero costumes. He really thinks the muscles in the stomach are his. However for a kid, he really does have some great abs on his own! He loved his Batman and Robin costume, however, I think he would have more fun his Brock and Jays were here to be superman and the other caped crusader. I told mom that Pam needs to have them dress up in these and take presents at her wedding. That would be a hoot! I haven't run the idea by Pam yet.

The accessories attached to Robin's costume he really tried to use. One is the hook that Batman throws and then pulls himself up buildings. I am worried that Peyts will actually try to do this and then break it because it is cheap plastic. But man does he think he is cool in these! This is the little farm set all out. He has been having a lot of fun. A moment of madness possessed me because the grain bins will actually open up. So I got a bag of rice for him to fill up his bins with and there is rice all over my living room. We tried to think of something that would be easier to pick up, so we got out beans. Now I have rice and beans all over in my carpet, but he has loved playing with that so much. I don't think I've seen him play for over an hour with anything. He was really being a farmer. This set has a grain truck, graneries, milk truck, barn, windmills, tractors, pickup, all kinds of things to pull.
In this picture you can see the rice mess we have going on here. But he just loved it, so I guess it is worth the mess. But trying to get him to pick it up is another story. The last couple of years, I've purchased a cake pan for Peyton's birthday and we had a big party with the family. This year, we actually met at Angie's house and had a bigger family dinner for Kaysha and Peyton. It was fun. That left us kind of by ourselves at our house. It was fun, but I think Peyton missed having a house full of people. I wasn't really sure what to do for his cake. He kept changing and he wanted me to do the Tigger cake I did when he was a baby...but we were kind of having a super hero party and he has been into Star Wars, so I free-handed a Darth Vader cake. You can tell I'm definitely not professional, however I am fairly impressed with how the Darth Vader cake turned out. Peyton had to help me, so the orange blob at the top is a spaceship that he did. The only problem with this cake is that it turns your teeth, mouth, and lips black and blue. We had some funny laughs about everyone's teeth. Peyton and I got into a fight with whatever you call these silly blower things. Andy was trying to get a picture of both of us with them out, but he couldn't.


Granny and Pop ended the night by bringing over their presents. Peyton was just ecstatic to see that they had gotten him a ride on four wheeler. I don't have him on it because that night Andy had to put it all together. It is pretty cute and he loved it. He had such a fun and nice day.

He blew out his candles and went to bed very happy and tired to be five. The next day we had his yearly check-up and had some exciting news. He has reached another milestone...we finally hit into the 25th percentile of weight. Since he has been a baby we have always hit the 5-10th percentile of weight. Andy and I were excited. He was 44 inches tall and weighed 37.8 pounds. He then received another present that we had been talking about...his school immunizations. He had actually found a little place to hide in the office and it brought back memories of Dr. Peterson's office and those doors you could lock yourself into (Holly!). The doctor kept teasing him about getting 50 shots. Peyton wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. Pop kept telling Peyton he only had to get one. I didn't know how many he had to get, but it ended up being four shots. The nurse at this doctor's office is amazingly fast. She had me hold his hands down and he wasn't quite sure what was happening, but he ended up getting pretty scared and insulted after the first poke. Then when she continued, I had a crying little guy. However, he settled down pretty quickly and we were able to get him laughing again. I think it kind of hurt his legs for a few days, but he is back to normal and ready to go to school. When I told him he could now go to school at the Doctor's office after his shots...he replied, "I don't want to school. I want to go home and make pie!" Not sure where they came from or what he was thinking about, but he was not thinking school was worth those shots at that moment. I'm glad all that is over.

As I think about this birthday, I was glad I took the day off and spent with him, because he is now entering the world. This is his last little birthday of childhood before school starts to corrupt and change kids! (yes I believe that!)I was kind of sad throughout the day, but we had a great birthday!

My Freakin' Lucky Day

So I have to share this story, because it is probably one of the coolest "lucky" things that have happened to me in my life. I've entered and signed my name to many things to "win" something like the car in the mall, the trip to Bermuda, the free money...whatever. I've never won anything. Even at my English conferences I've never won anything cool. Most people win like 200 dollar shopping sprees to a book store and I get a catalog from a company of a kid's book that costs two dollars. So over the last couple of years a company called Galaxy Press has sent to some of the English teachers at this school some really bad books. I saw that because I'm am not a fan of science fiction. I always thought it was nice they sent the books, but I don't read that genre. Well I felt bad just letting them sit, so I starting given them away to students after I added some to my school library and classroom library. They continued to send the same books. Well last year, they improved and sent an adventure story on tape. I kept that because I've really been interested in books on tape and thought that I could use it on one of my classes. All of these books were by the author L. Ron Hubbard. My students tell me he is the guy who started scientology....whatever that is. Anyway so the other day I got a package in the mail and opened it and saw the familiar L. Ron Hubbard stuff. I was busy at the moment and just slide it under the podium. So today while I was bored (my students were working in groups planning a project) I was fiddling with the box. It seemed like the tapes like last year, yet when I opened the box it seemed more rectangular in length. I was a little confused. As I pulled it out of the box it was sent in...I couldn't figure out what was in the box. So as I was looking at it one of my students noticed that there was an ipod logo on the side. I was in complete shock and couldn't figure out what it really was. There was no way in my mind that it was really an ipod and yet after all of my students rushed up to the podium, and we opened it, it was indeed an ipod 80g and loaded with all of the L. Ron Hubbard stories. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it felt like I had won the lottery. It was so cool. I've never really won anything of significance, let alone received for free anything of significance. I was so excited I left my students in the class (who were all jealous and tried to steal it) and went and showed a variety of people. I hope they weren't too jealous, but I know I would have been! I wasn't showing them that for that reason, just because I was so amazed. So one of the people I showed was my principal. I asked her if it was mine or the schools and she said it had my name on the package so it must be mine....Needless to say I didn't argue, but I feel kind of bad because I own an ipod. So I thought I would figure out a way (whether I switch it for my thirty gig or keep it the same) to load just one of the them full of books and if kids want to check it out, we'll do that...(I think that is what I'm going to do anyway...we'll see)

I will however say that I may press my luck as I drive home and stop and buy a lottery ticket....You don't have days like this too often. I'll let you know if I win anything!

Winter Rumination: Spring Fever

I have spring fever. Since Christmas has been over, I've received about seven different seed catalogs in the mail. It makes me think of warm sunshine, weeding until my legs ached. Yummy cold dinners full of vegetables and fruits we had grown. It makes me think of tans, zuchinni, green beans and lettuce. It makes me think of eating raspberries until I'm sick to my stomach. I can't wait to begin planning my garden again, planting my garden and enjoying the fruits of my labors. I've decided I just don't like winter. The snow at Christmas was nice, but it can now melt and we can move into spring. I came across these pictures from the summer. I had intended to publish them then, but must have ran out of time at school and alas I stumbled upon this post while I sit in my classroom freezing and look out and see snow and ice. This was our garden just beginning to grow.

I think my favorite thing that we grew were my raspberries. My dad informed me that they probably wouldn't produce fruit. When his started producing and mine didn't I was really sad, but then low and behold in the fall they produced tons. We were eating them clear until that really hard frost in October (I think!) How nice was that. I ended up getting two raspberry seasons (my dad's crop and our later crop...and even though I loved it...it was not very nice on my hips because my preferred method of eating raspberries is with cream and sugar....if you've never done this, you've never lived!)
This is our whole garden patch and I really thought it was small but most people thought it was gargantuan. I will say the only thing I planted too much of was green beans though. I thought four rows was not that much, but we picked until we were dead and I even invited over people to come and pick as much as they wanted and we still had more! The rest though was great!

New Year's Resolutions

So I have some grand plans in 2009. I love to make resolutions and they have gotten better over the years. They are more specific and ones that I know I will be able to accomplish. I'm sharing a few of them with you, but I made quite a few. Some of them are personal and I've never really been too picky about how well some of them were addressed. If I did good one week and then struggled, I knew I could still go back to them and it isn't the end of the world or really drastic if I don't get them accomplished. I have a journal at home that I keep resolutions and I've done that for the last 15 years. It is funny to see that I wrote for nine years straight (I was deathly afraid of the dentist) to go to the dentist. I never did for those nine years (yes I brush my teeth all of the time and floss...but...I was a chicken). However, now I'm doing so much better. So even though it took me nine years to get up the courage it is something that is now very easy for me to do. We get it sometime. If we don't set our own personal goals...not for our kids or our spouse, but for ourself...can we truly learn and advance? I know these are grand an I may only get to half of them and it may take nine years to accomplish some of them, but I'll get there. Thank heavens we may have an eternity to achieve all we want. I'm also making a new goal to write on this more frequently. I would like to have it be like a journal (did you know you can publish your blogs into book format)....so sorry if my responses start coming more frequently. They may not always contain pictures either...I hope you all set some New Year's resolutions and that you have some grand goals!

Kristie’s List of Stuff She is Desiring to do in 2009
1. Finish Adoption paperwork by end of January
2. Finish applying for psychology position at BYU-Idaho
3. Read text for English class at BYU-Idaho

6. Teach or work on teaching at BYU-Idaho Education week
7. Write 2 books-
8. Finish Poetry book for Drew and Rochester trip
9. Paint playroom
10. Go to eye doctor, dentist, and doctor for check-ups
11. Find out more about working with my master’s degree

13. Organize and type my loose recipes and go through collection
14. Read one parenting book, one marriage book, and one other book of choice per month
15. Go to temple at least 2 times a month work on memorizing thing at the end
16. Support Andy in his goals

18. Organize files at school and in my craft room
19. Plan menu better and be better at shopping for that plan
20. Plan and do something fun with Drew at least once a month
21. Work with Peyts on his goals and in getting him ready for school

23. Look into information with regards to Doctorate degree??
24. Work on putting together my England book
25. Help Andy organize his Africa mission into a book

26. Make adoption book for Peyton