It’s About Time

Okay folks.  I know, it is about time for my once-a-quarter blog post.  Here is the deal.   I know that last time I blogged I was sad because I couldn’t find the cable to my camera.  Well, the lucky woman that I am, hubby got me a new one!  Guess what…can’t find it.  I KNOW!!  Can you believe it!?!  Being the organizationally-challenged individual that I am I have now lost 2 cables in the last 4 months. 

It wouldn’t be so bad except we went to Disneyland and all the pictures from Disneyland are on the camera to which the cable is missing.  I am really pretty bugged, if in fact you couldn’t tell.  So, the Disneyland post will have to wait.  On to other things.

I have a friend named Julie.  I have been friends with Julie since high school.  In fact, I think I survived high school because of Julie.  Julie and I went to different universities, we lived hours away at times and there have been large breaks between us talking, but it never fails to amaze me, when we get together it is like no time has passed at all.  We just get each other, you know?  No pretense, no watching what we say, afraid we might offend.  It is just easy. 

Lately I have missed Julie.  I have called her a few times when I have been thinking about her, and frankly it has been times when we have both really needed to talk.  We finally found a chance to get together and had a great time.

Not only did we get together, but our youngest boys played for the first time (that they would remember) and they loved it.  They were hilarious together. 

We went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.  My sissies and Mom came too.  Yes, the triplets were there!  It was so fun.  It was a perfect day.  The only problem is that perfect days end too. 

I really hope I don’t let so much time and so many missed opportunities pass before I see my friend again.  Seeing her made my heart happy.

 

Pete showing us the pony.

Pete and Julie’s son Porter

 Maddie, one of Ju’s triplets

Molly,  another of the triplets

Hunter, the last of the triplets

Pete and Nat’s son McCoy looking at the horses

Nate’s Truck

About a week and a half ago I was waiting for Nate to get home from work. He was taking a long time.  I figured he was stuck in traffic. Then I  got a call. It went something like this:

Nate:  “Kris, I got in an accident, I am almost done with the police. Can you come and get me?”

Me:  “Wait. What? You were in an accident? Are you okay? Where are you?”

Nate: “I am okay. I am just down the highway, not far. You’ll see the emergency vehicles. I’ll watch for you. Bye.”

Click.

That is my husband, a man of few words.

He was headed south on 89 right by the Jefferson Center and someone who had been headed north turned left into him.

His airbag went off.  His left arm got hurt somehow. His neck and back have been hurting.  As a result my heart has been hurting. 

Nate never complains. Not about being stressed or that he doesn’t feel well. He never lets me dote over him, even when he is sick in bed.  Now I know he hurts and I don’t know how to help.

The truck was totaled. That made Nate sad.  He liked his truck.  Those of you who know him well are thinking he would revel the chance to buy a new car. He would, but he is busy and he is facing not having a car until he finds one. Once they paid us for the truck they took away the rental. His process usually involves looking and thinking about it for a while before he takes the plunge.

The wreck reminded me of something I shouldn’t ever have to be reminded of.  I love Nate so incredibly much. My life would be nothing without him in it.  Since the accident I have spent much more time thanking my Father in Heaven for Nate, and that he was not injured any worse in the accident. I love you Nate.

Oh, and icing on the cake was the $700 we spent on the tires the day before. Nice.

Another Reason I’ll Keep Him

Here’s the thing.  I am not a good gift picker-outer.  I always try and think of something marvelous for my honey, but alas, gift picking-out is definitely not one of my talents.  Nate on the other hand is a pro.  He is always finding the most fantastic gifts ever.  Which, of course, makes me feel terrible when I give him whatever is my pathetic gift. 

Not only can I not pick out gifts, I can not keep them secret.  This is not because I spill the beans, but I am just not sneaky enough.  Case in point.  One year I thought I was oh so sneaky.  I was giving him a futon for his office.  So, I had my parents purchase it and keep it at their place until right before Christmas, when, while we were away one night, my sister and her husband moved it into the back of our basement. So, Christmas morning comes and Nate has gotten a curio for me.  It was beautiful.  I then escorted Nate downstairs to show him his gift.  He started laughing.  Apparently when my sister and her husband had put the futon in the basement they leaned it right up against the curio.  So, when Nate had gone to get the curio, he subsequently saw his gift.  NOT SNEAKY. 

This past Valentine’s Day was no exception.  Nate got a new keyboard for my computer because a certain unnamed kidlet has wreaked havoc on mine.  He also did this for me. 

 

                      Think we have enough hot cocoa or cereal?  Me either.

Being organizationally challenged as I am, this pantry has been the bane of my existence.  He made me shelf/drawers.  Rolling shelves?  I don’t know what to call them but they are marvelous! 

I am the room mother for Em’s class, and frankly whoever thought that I would be a good candidate for that was not in their right mind.  So, by the time I was done with the whole V-day party for her class I was done done.  I did get him a windshield washer thingy that they sell on TV, but I got it at Walgreen’s (pronounced Walgrins by most around here).  So, pretty much a great big FAIL on my part.

Which continues the saga of Nate=awesome gifts, Kris=lame gifts. 

 

Christmas and Birthdays Wrap Up

Here is the deal.  I have yet to find the cord to hook up my camera to my computer.  I know everyone is thinking, “Why didn’t you just use your computer’s card reader?”  The thing is that the card in my camera doesn’t fit in my card reader.  I know this because I got it stuck in my computer once.  When it didn’t seem to click in right I thought sticking it in further with my nails would help.  It didn’t.  Don’t do that.  So, luckily I am married to a very computer savvy man (surprise) and he was able to retrieve it.  Point of the story, I can’t get the pictures off my camera yet.

I have a few pictures on my other camera that I will share with you. 

First was my birthday.  No pics.  Sorry.  Maybe there will be some later.

Then Christmas.  I only have a few pictures and because of the early morning nature of present opening, I am hesitant to share any with you.  There is one that is moderately acceptable.  Here you go.

Nate’s Birthday.  It is always hard to figure out how to celebrate Nate’s birthday. The whole ‘New Year’s Eve’ thing gets in the way.  We did try to go to a Thai restaurant, but they closed early.  Weird.  So, we found somewhere else to eat and then went home and had pie.  Yes, he gets birthday pie.  He even orders it himself.  This is not because I won’t make a cake, he prefers pie.  Pie from the bakery down the street.  If it makes him happy I will not complain.

 

We celebrated J’s birthday and E’s birthday on their actual birthdays at home with cake and ice cream and then on the Saturday between by going to ‘the diver place’ (the Mayan) with Grandma and Grandpa McGuire.  A fun time was had by all. 

 

 

 

Whew.  There.  And now I shall sleep. Don’t wake me.

 

 

Always Late

Every Christmas I try so hard to get a start on things early.  It just isn’t my nature to be overly prepared for anything.  So, every year I decide to get things taken care of early so I can enjoy the season.  Every year Christmas comes and I am kicking myself for the things I didn’t get done the way I had wanted. 

So, here’s the story this year.  Those of you beloved friends and family who have yet to receive a Christmas card.  They are in the mail.  Yes, they were just dropped tonight, but they are technically “in the mail.”  I did get pictures done in the fall so they would have beautiful colors and be ready for Christmas cards.  No, I didn’t get on top of the whole card thing until like a week ago.  Lame.  I make myself so mad. 

I do have a fun Christmas post coming, but in the chaos of my home post-present opening, I seem to have misplaced the cord to my camera.  It has been a wonderful day, and I am super-duper excited to post the video of Pete.  He was so dang cute this morning.  I, on the other hand did not look so cute, so there may not be any pictures of how beautiful I look on Christmas morning.  I know, you are all very disappointed. 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  Remember I love you, and to prove it, the card is in the mail.  Or, because I am an airhead you can tell me if I forgot.

‘New Moon’

My friend Jaime rocks for a million-bazillion reasons, but lately there was one particular thing that she did that stood out.  She got us tickets to an advanced showing of New Moon.  So, a bunch of us girls went together on Nov. 19th (Thursday, that’s right, booyah) to see the movie.  We got there extra early so we could sit together which apparently isn’t important when the theater is reserved.   We felt kind of silly sitting there an hour and a half before the movie started with hardly anyone else in the theater.  It was okay though because it was good company.  We talked and laughed and our butts already hurt before the movie even started.  I took some pretty rad pictures, but I don’t know if the girls are going to kill me for posting them.

That is actually the main purpose for this post, seeing as I saw the movie a month ago, but only found the cord and downloaded the pictures now.  Now, I am putting it out there for all of you to see what a goof I am. No teasing.  

This is Becky, Jaime, and me.  Apparently when I hold the camera AND take the pictures I get crazy eyes.  I know this now because I have crazy eyes in every picture where I am holding the camera.  Of course, my friends look lovely.  On account of the crazy eyes, I handed my camera to Jaime to take pictures.  Here is what we got.  Notice, no crazy eyes.

A Jaime centric photo.  This does in no way reflect her personality, I assure you.

After several tries we all got in the photo. Jaime was not pleased with the way she looks while holding the camera, Becky looks a little tipsy, and I was practically sitting on Jaime to get into the picture.  But, no crazy eyes, mostly.

These are pictures we took while the others were getting their snacks, etc.  My lens had a fingerprint on it when  we took pics of the whole group of us, so I will have to see what I can do about that and post later.

The movie was good.  I have to remind myself that it will never be as good as the book, so take it easy on the criticism.  Things like, I thought Jacob’s house would be light yellow.  I don’t know if it says that in the book or if that is something I made up in my head, but having it be red was a little disappointing.  Little things like that always bug me when they make a book into a movie.

So, all you Twilight fans, its some good fun, and Jacob’s not too bad to look at for a couple hours regardless. 

 

Hair

So, it happened.  I always knew in the back of my mind it would.  I tried for years to dissuade her.  I thought the years where I would worry about it were coming to an end. Then it happened.  She cut her hair!  I had often told her, as a good mother should, that if she cut her own hair it would make her ugly.  Now that I think about it, that may not have been the best approach.  

When I saw her and what had been done I could actually physically feel the anger heating up my chest.  I knew in that moment I had better just not talk about it then.  I very calmly called the mother of my daughter’s partner-in-crime and we talked about it. 

I guess today will be another haircut.  Her usual stylist is booked out through January, so unless I can persuade her with my desperation, I have no idea what we are going to do.    I will hopefully have pictures to post of the new haircut soon. 

Opinions please.  Should I let her keep bangs, or make her grow them out?  I will not tell you my opinion in hopes of getting honest answers. 

Gettin’ on my game face for a call to the stylist now. 

  While I am at it, I can’t help but put up one of the beautiful pictures Haylee did.