Why can't those boys...

I caught myself saying "why can't those boys..." then I realized I think this a lot during the day. "why can't those boys shut the door when it's freezing cold outside?", "Why can't those boys shut the cupboard door?", "Why can't those boys just sit down on the couch instead of flop down?", "Why can't those boys put the toilet seat down in the middle of the night?"," Why can't those boys replace the toilet paper?", "Why can't those boys put the milk away after getting a glass?", And why do those boys... "Why do they use 5 million pots and pans to cook something as simple as spaghetti?", "Why do they make such a mess?, "Why do they smell so bad?"... I guess the answer to the question I've been asking all my life is simple... It's because they are BOYS!

New Flash!

Okay, so I don't really have a news flash... I don't have anything to write about. But, I've noticed that "we" aren't posting as much as "we" used to. And by "we" I mean all my sisters in-law. So, I'm posting... and about what? Nothing. Let me see. This week has been... well, everything. Happy, loving, depressing, sad, joyous,frustrating, fun... I guess it's been a little bit of a roller coaster. I'm enjoying life, but it can be a little stressful at times. I've been so blessed that all the frustrations seem so small in comparison to the amazingly wonderful gifts I've received. Gifts not from the store but from the heart.

Change... I have to have a little

"Change". some people don't "like" the word. But, I tend to embrace it. I love change. Little change, big change any and all change. Since I have to let up on changing my hair, I've discovered a new thing to change. And that would be my over sized picture hanging in my living room. It has taken on a "few" changes this month.

I'm not "dying" for another month...

I've made a promise not to dye.... my hair for another month. I've caused too much damage already and have vowed (thanks a lot Molly) not to touch my hair for at least a month. Hair dye is my only" vice" in this crazy hectic life. So, please pray for my addiction to color as I struggle to come to grips. But the upside of this whole ordeal is... I got an amazing hair cut and LOVE it! I'll admit it's taking a little getting used to. But I'm falling in love with my hair, which is a new feeling. I've never "loved" like this before.

Loving Life... and all the little ones

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times... I LOVE being an Aunt! It's amazing seeing my brothers having kids. And the best part... I'm the favorite (well, I keep telling myself that anyway). But for real I love having them around. Here are a few pics from this week

Making lemonade out of rotten lemons

My oldest nephew Isaac asked me if I would take him hunting a few weeks ago, I told him that I would LOVE to! I didn't realize at the time of this promise that I would be staying up all night the night before to help out with the youth group lock in at our Church. Needless to say I was really tired when I went to pick Isaac up, but I was also excited, the excitement outweighed the tiredness. When I got to John and Molly's, John had EVERYTHING all laid out bagged up and ready to send us off on our crazy fun adventure. We decided to stay the night at the property because it's about 20 miles from the Mountain where we were going to be hunting. After getting there (to the "property) we realized that after all of Johns careful preparations we had forgotten all of Isaac's hunting gear. I felt REALLY bad about forgetting to make sure we had ALL of his stuff..."Don't worry Aunt Kristi, we'll make lemonade out of rotten lemons!" and we did! Thank goodness for Dads that hunt. We scrounged around and found just enough camo and hunter orange (not the best color on me btw!)to save the day. We had so much fun! We woke up at 4AM and hunted till 4:30 PM. Though he didn't "draw blood" he said he had a great day.
We saw 30+ turkeys, an owl, a bald eagle... and a little doe that ran across the road as we were driving home. We were both exhausted. There's nothing like getting to share something like this that's so special and important to your nephew, with your nephew. I LOVE being an Aunt!!!! Oh, one more funny thing. I found an all blue grass station on the radio while we were driving to the Mountain, I started singing along w/ some of the songs I knew then Isaac and I both started to make up our own words, I asked him if he liked blue grass and he said " Well, I don't think I've ever really heard of blue grass. Is it like green day? I've heard of green day". Blue Grass/Green Day, it was hilarious!

LIBERIA

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to view the video from Liberia

I'm broken and hurting!

I'm broken and hurting(well, I will be when I get the heating bill)!Why must we be "warm" in order to survive? This is tearing me apart. I've acclimated myself to the crisp cool fall weather, just to have William tell me when he got home from school that he thinks "it's time", time to turn up the thermostat and warm up this house. No need for anyone to worry about us. The heat is on! And I am crying (inside that is).This ridiculous need for heat! What is the world coming to?!? Even the butter was calling out to me for warmth. When I went to butter my bagel this morning the butter was solid and sad(we keep our butter out in a butter dish and it's always soft and ready to serve us, our butter is a special servant always willing and ready to spread).

Blue blood

The harsh reality sunk in when I looked at... the thermostat and realized why my blood is blue, it's freezing in this house. I might be considered a little "tight", but I think I've gone too far this time. I HATE turning on the heater in the winter and the cooler in the summer. It literally pains me. My stomach turns and I feel dizzy when I have to turn it one way or the other. I'd rather freeze than have a huge bill at the end of the month. But when I woke up this morning and saw that it was 56 degrees... I still didn't turn on the heater. It'll warm up I keep telling myself as I shiver and put on yet another layer.So, if you don't hear from me tomorrow... You might want to check on us. No I will turn it on when it gets too cold... But, what's too cold?

"Just breath"...

Why is this happening to me? I asked, but got no answer. This feeling taking over my every move. Trying to inhale but not able to get any air. I felt like a prisoner, and the cold hard reality was... I was suffocating. "Just breath" I told myself over and over again. But with every breath I took the reality that it won't just ago away became clear. What can I do? What should I do? All these questions were getting me nowhere. Yet there must be something. As I struggled to get my breath, to fill my lungs with air. I realized what must take place, it might be the only thing that would save my life... I must blow my nose and take some cold medicine. Yes I have a cold and don't feel very good today:(

Waking up

I woke this morning like every morning, wide awake and ready to take on the world. I love rising with the sun. I love waking up with the world. This morning was like every other one... or so I thought at first. What made this glorious morning different? Was it the crisp cool clean air, the quiet, the breath taking colors of the sky, the over all beauty of fall? This venerable morning, so lovely,so serene, so unraveled by the fierce unwholesome surroundings made by man! I can't help but smile when I swing out of bed. I always feel so energized. The things of this world are not yet brought to light in the early morning. Peace is still attainable at dawn. The world perceived at this moment in time I can't explain.
Yet, what was it? I still couldn't put my finger on it. But there was something different. I was filled with great surprise and wonder. The bewilderment vanished and it became crystal clear! What made this so clear? What could have made it come to light? It was... My stupid alarm clock! Yes, this was but a dream. I never wake up ready for the day. I wake up groggy and annoyed that I'm awake. So in reality this morning was indeed like every other,because I woke up.

The end of a perfect relationship...

My love, my love is gone and what can I do? I feel so alone. Will I ever have what I've dreamed of? Will this feeling of despair and regret ever go away? I did it. No one else is to blame for this tragedy but me. My motives were right, but it ended in disaster... my emotions were right what I did would be considered noble to some. Even though I did what I had to, my heart will never heal, the wounds I thought were healed have been re-opened too many times and I'm not sure if I can handle the pain again. I've tried to be strong I've tried so hard not to let everyone see my pain. But I cannot put on this strong face anymore.
Things have to change. I wanted to give up, I thought it would be in the best interest of everyone to just walk away, but walking away was harder than I imagined. When you finally think that it's all going great, when the sweet smell of love is in the air and one phone call ends it all. One call is all it took to tear my love apart. To say I'll never try again... I won't lie I felt like I couldn't move on, that I wouldn't move on. But, I will not allow this to keep me down. I will fix the problem and live to bake another day. So, if you missed out on the story my bread didn't turn out the way I was hoping. I had to pull it out early and the middle was a little doughy, it was still delicious even with the doughy middle. And I will bake bread and perfect it the next time, or the time after that, or the time after the time after that.

When others don't believe in me...

In the past I may or may not have had a few not so successful attempts at baking bread, which has lead to a disbelief in my abilities to bake bread without a doughy middle (that's what "tends" to happen to my bread). When I announced this morning that I decided to take another shot at this art I am trying to master. The response I got wasn't exactly what I was hoping for... This is what I got...
'I'm going to make bread today' (Me, with excitement), "Well... good luck with that, don't you remember what happened that last 5 times you made bread?... It didn't turn out!"( William, not so excited). Not only am I going to make perfectly baked delicious homemade bread, I'm not going to allow those who have shown no faith in my abilities (or lack of thus far) to enjoy in the amazingly warm scrumptious delight that will not only smell and look amazing it will also be baked through and through;)

To all my sister in-laws... I now feel your pain

Okay, so today is Will's birthday, and he asked my dear mother to make him dinner. So, my dear mother called me not 10 min ago asking Will to come out and get his b-day present b/c it was "too big" for her to carry in. Wondering what she got him I ran out to her car to find...
a CAT!!!! So, to all my sister in-laws I think that I now get the award for most annoying present given to your "child" even though he's not my "child" I still get the award.
To be honest I think that this little kitten will be Williams favorite present. He LOVES his little kitty and even if I DO NOT like cats, thanks Mom for giving him the cat!

Watching TV all by myelf..

Okay, so I'm sitting here (all by myself), thinking "I can watch whatever I want", well, figuring out what to watch by myself is proving harder than I thought. If only someone made a remote that flipped back and forth from three channels... I wouldn't be writing this now.
So, to end this story maybe having someone to fight over what you watch isn't so bad after all:)

My "emotional" day...

I hate to admit (not really "hate) that I had a rather emotional day (I sound like my Mom),
I was granted permission to keep my adorable little niece for the last three days and today was my last day with her (sniff~sniff).
We had so much fun playing in the garden, watching movies, reading books, fixing our hair,cooking, going out to lunch, shopping ... needless to sya we had tons of fun! I asked Micaiah if she was going to move to Nebraska and she said "yes", I asked if there were any cows on the ranch she's moving to and she said "There are green cows, deer and ELK!". When we woke up this morning she sat up, looked at me and said "I LOVE YOU!!!", ran into Joshua's room, jumped on his bed and he told her to tell me to make coffee and she said "otay" started to walk out, looked at Snosh and said "I love you Washa". How precious is my little Micaiah!?! She's so full of life and love. I love all my nieces and nephews and cherish every min I get with them. I would have 100 kids if only I knew they would be as adorable and sweet as my 12 nieces and nephew's. They are all so different, from Isaac(the oldest) down to Jude (the youngest). To have a heart of a child, to have that honest untainted love and affection. If we loved each other the way these little ones love us... what an amazing world we'd live in. We said our goodbyes when Nicole came to rip her out of our lives (J/K, but that's what it feels like), as she waved her tiny little hand I thanked God for my family.
When I was younger I never dreamed that I wouldn't live close to my brothers. Now that I'm supposed to be an adult I DON"T like it:( I always new times like these would come, I'm supposed to be the boss of the family and no one seems to be listening when I tell them what to do with their lives (like not moving away from me lol)! I can't figure it out... Now I'll have two brothers, two sister in-laws,two nephews and one neice living too far away to see every week.

On top of it being our last day with Micaiah... it was also Williams Senior day at school.
I couldn't help but thank God for the last 2 and a half years we've had Will. I didn't think we'd actually make it this far. But there we were, waiting for him to walk up and shake the principles hand. At this point I was filled with joy, just happy seeing him happy and ready to grow up. Then came the "emotions" when the Bishop told the kids to go thank their parents... He came over gave me a rose and had tears in his eyes, he hugged me for about a min and I lost it (well, as much I "loose" it). Joshua on the other hand... To see him growing up and starting to take "life" seriously, I know that no matter what anyone may say God gave us Will for a reason and I'm seeing it now. Most people don't understand the extent of our circumstances and that's okay. Some wondered why we'd give up our lives to take care of "just a cousin". He'll be 18 tomorrow and if anyone would have seen him three years ago... William will be an adult tomorrow. but you know what else? He'll still be my baby cousin that I love and would give up anything and everything for.