Pinterest dessert

Tried a dessert from Pinterest tonight for our community groups potluck. It was a winner!
Top a small pretzel with a Hershey kiss, melt it in a 275 oven for 2-3 minutes. Don't go much over this or the chocolate goes back to hard.
Take them out and smoosh an m&m into the top of each one. Cool and enjoy!
Pinterest sats hugs work well too but I'm a chocolate purist. My sister says her MIL makes them with circle pretzels and rolos, sound yum to me!

Church shopping and swimming crises

So with our church (and my work) move from Lakewood and Forefront, we have to find another church home.  Both for the kids to have friends in our area and for me to have women (and adult) friends close to home as well.  We have found a great contender in Journey Church!  Very near to home, kids like it, we like the teaching...  We went to the info/new member meeting this last Sunday and were very impressed with their background, vision and focus for the future!  We are going to give it a few more weeks before we jump in to become members but it is great to have found a place we think we could belong.

Saturday was the kick-off of the summer reading program at our library and my super reading guy made sure that we attended!  He's already been reading a bunch this summer and he really wants the prizes :-)  They had a little show that he got pulled up for - he was a hippo!  She went on the parade afterwards with a friend.

So then we come to the dreaded swim lessons...  The kids are fairly comfortable in the pool, we've been 2-3 times this summer already but they really need to learn to float and strokes and all so I signed them up but didn't tell them where we were going until we were in the car.  The boy cried all the way there, had to carry him in, wouldn't get into the water until the last 5 minutes when I bribed him with hockey cards.  The girl did pretty well, wouldn't go under, but tried hard on everything else.
Then today (day 2) the boy was watching the clock all morning to make sure that we didn't leave a minute too late because he was all excited.  Both kids did everything the teachers asked and had a great time - goobers!

LOVE the goggle eyes!

Strawberries from my garden - captured before the bunnies got them!!

Recent Craftiness!

I <3 pinterest and this summer I'm actually doing some of the things I've found on there!
Mother's Day gifts:

 These are "fried marbles" that I wrapped in wire to make pendants.  We baked regular marbles in the oven and then shocked them in ice water to crack them on the inside.  They are pretty cool!

 Then I used polymer clay to make hearts and ovals and had the kids press their fingerprints into the ovals.  I baked them and then put some black paint on and wiped it off to accent the prints better.  Used some ribbon to make necklaces for my mom, mother in law and I for personal gifts.  These are really great!
Knitting:

 This is the adagio shawl that I finished recently.  My mom gave me the yarn and pattern for my birthday.  It is more gorgeous in person - gradients from purple to navy!  My friend Caitlyn taught me how to wear it with the point in front and wrapped around a couple times so I don't look like a grandma :-)
Just for fun!

And this is the most recent finish!  I melted pony beads in different muffin pans, drilled holes and strung them together with fishing line to make a sun catcher/wind chime.  It is even prettier than the picture when the sun is out!  I have a few left to put into a couple more lines for the tree out back.

Now off to find the next project for the kids and I!

This is the summer of ending well and new beginnings!  Ending well in that I've just finished a great season working for Forefront and we've finished with 1st grade and preschool.  New beginnings are all over the place - finding a new church community, new friends closer to home, new craft projects, new summer adventures, figuring out who I am now that I'm not on staff at a church, lots of new things!!

So I thought I'd document some of our summer and our changes to remind my self of our forward progress!  And away we go!

Life moves so fast!

Wow! I hadn't thought about this blog in so long and I got an email from some anonymous poster to it. It made me read back through the year or so of posts and it was fun to see where I was.

Feels like everything has changed but many things are the same!

Forefront is racing along and stretching and challenging me to be a more forward thinker and leader. Some days I think I'm handling it all like a champ and other days I wonder what God was thinking putting me in this position. How many times do I have to bang my head against the same wall before I really do trust Him...

I'm so blessed to have 2 amazing kids! Andrew is enjoying kindergarten and we are trying to figure out where to put him next year - 1,? 1/2? G&T? What happened to everyone just going to one class after another?!? That little voice that says we could ruin him FOREVER keeps appearing when we try to decide what to do... Katie is so great too, loves p/s and all of her friends there and at church.

Aaron is job hunting still, good prospect (& 2nd interview) next week so we have our fingers crossed for this chance. Still working for his dad but it just isn't the right fit for him.

Trying to figure out why I am sooo tired every day. Stinks to fall asleep for a nap every afternoon and not be as good of a mom as I want to be but I guess that will always be the case to some extent.

ok, my turn!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, used to do more wrapping paper now I do more bags
2. Real tree or Artificial? I hate to say artificial now. But I LOVE real ones!
3. When do you put up the tree? usually the weekend after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime after Christmas, usually before New Year.
5. Do you like egg nog? Ack - no!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A wool sweater with ducks on it - just a special gift from my dad!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? um, I think about 8 of them. My favorite is a 40 year old one from the Philippenes that my mom gave me a few years ago.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad & Father in law
9.. Easiest person to buy for? My mom
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Polyester too short pj gown from Grandma when I was too old for it.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? can't think of one...
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Can't think of one, but that doesn't mean I haven't...
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? FUDGE!!
15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear
16. Favorite Christmas song? Hymns with an organ on Christmas eve
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? last year we stayed home for Christmas and then went to MN in early Jan for 2nd Christmas, that was nice
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I think so, but I won't put $$ on it.
19.. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
20. Most annoying thing about this time of year? too many toy commercials aimed at the kids
21. Favorite thing about this time of year? getting to see my family, getting tickled about neat presents for people I love
22. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I like the ones I got in Israel
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? hmm, maybe an ipod, some cool knitting gadgets?
24. Who will reply to this the quickest? ??

What a day!

So it's been a while and I won't bore you with all of the details, just the last few.
Busy busy weekend!
Friday we found out the location for Forefront. Can't say I'm excited to drive so far, but it is so obviously God's choice that I can't complain about it. I'm getting more and more excited about this new church! (except for the really sad part about missing my good friends - that part I just try not to think about much.)
Big shower on Saturday for some dear friends of mine who are finally having a baby after 2 years of trying and lots of procedures - I can't wait to meet this baby in just a few weeks!
Sunday was Celebration Sunday, I was pooped!
So, I slept for 12 hours last night - how great was that! But then Miss Katie decided that I hadn't had quite enough fun so she managed to get open a childproof bottle and brought me a handful of my rx meds! I freaked out, called poison control and then spent about 5 hours in the ER with her this afternoon! Happily, she's ok, I don't think she actually ate any of them but we wanted to be safe, just in case.
So there's my update! I have lots to do this week too but I'm starting most mornings with a quiet time and amazingly enough, that makes things so much better!
Love you all!
Crysti

So much of everything and yet nothing!

edit... (ok, I just read this through and it sounds way more negative than I am really feeling. I just have a bunch of things running around in my head and I threw them all onto 'paper' here so don't worry that I'm about to have a breakdown when you read this...)

Ok, ok. I have been the blog slacker too. There has been way too much going on in my life and yet at the same time it feels like a big pile of nothing!
Andrew's pooping on the potty pretty well now. He's enjoying school and those 4 hours 2x a week away from him are really great (but go really, really fast!)
Katie had a really bad fever this week and so I spent quite a few hours cuddling on the couch and trying to comfort her. Other than that, she is busy and getting a bit clingy to mom.
Aaron is working a lot, starting to realize that he has to dig into the business a bit more if he's really going to run it someday. He's enjoying it but he's tired when he comes home.
I'm tired. My house is a mess but I'm enjoying my kids more days than not :-) I have so much laundry I need to put away that I can't believe that we have clothes to wear! We're getting closer and closer to this church plant and it is kindof freaking me out! I'm knitting away on an ABC blanket for a dear friend and I am hating it - I have to make myself do it rather than the 10 other projects I want to work on because I know they'll love it and I have to get it done before the baby comes. And I'm wasting way too much time playing lego Batman on the wii and checking facebook.
How's that for an update? :-)
Oh, and we have to have to have to get a handle on our spending and our budget. We're making less than we ever have but we haven't adjusted our spending. My "close my eyes and cover my ears" way of dealing with it just isn't working on this one!
Yikes!!

day 3...

yippee! What a big boy!! And a happy mom! Who knew I'd be having so many chats in small bathroom stalls hunkered down on the floor while thinking it's all good!?!

2 days and IKEA!!!

I'm so excited I could just pee!!!
IKEA is coming IKEA is coming!!! Yep, they're going to build an IKEA just west of Park Meadows mall, down in my neck of the woods!!! No start date yet, but I'm content with just knowing that it is coming and I can watch it being built with my own little eyes!!! I've been squealling all morning like a little dorky girl!
AND! Andrew has going poop 2 days in a row on the potty and says he's going to today also. Yay!
Pretty good day for me!

Andrew Update... (i know, tmi. but it's my blog!)

So we’ve taken away all of his big boy toys, underwear, video games, tv, etc. and as he has continued to poop in his pants, we asked him what else we were going to take away so he’s lost some books, his chair at the table (booster chair now) and finally Daddy went to his beloved pacifier (nuka). He would be sad about things for a few minutes and then seem to be ok. Until we got to the nuka. He was pretty upset when it came to bedtime and he didn’t get to have it, we talked it through while he cried so he totally understood why.
So we’ve had a few more poop sits the last few days and he’s even initiated a few (finally!). Yesterday he woke me up from my nap to tell me that he was sitting on the potty – yay!!! So he got some skittles when we went to the store to reward him for sitting on his own. We had a looong nap yesterday so he was still up late last night and about 11:15 he told me he had to pee and I told him ok, then he came back into my room and whispered in my ear… “mommy, mommy… I just went poop in the potty!” I flew out of bed to see and sure enough! That naked little boy had done it all by himself!!! There was a major happy dance in the middle of the night in our house last night!! We even woke up Daddy!
So he’s earned back some big boy privileges for today but he knows he has to earn them again for tomorrow. He already sat on the potty this morning on his own to make sure he didn’t have any poop and he says he’s really proud of himself.
I can't tell you how relieved and hopeful this mommy is today! I had a long thankful prayer last night about this boy and how he's finally seeming to turn the corner. I'm trying not to have my hopes up too high, but this is pretty darn exciting!!

Where have you been???

Well, I've been MIA for a long time it seems!
Summer has just been racing along and now preschool starts on Thursday. Preschool??? How can I be ready for Preschool??? Now I have to get him there by 9, all dressed with a lunch and clean face and all? Whew, that will be a fun challenge!
Although this week is full of challenges. Since Andrew is STILL refusing to poop on the potty, we're going to treat him like a 2 year old until he decides to be a big boy. So all big boy toys are gone and all other big boy privileges. Fun for mom. This just has to work!
I had a great staff retreat weekend, very relaxing, interesting about the church plant (lots to think & pray about there...) and challenging to my walk. I'm also reading "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World" with my friend Laura which tied into the messages from this weekend.
"Come to Me, and I will give you rest" I really want that rest but He says COME to Me - I have to come to Him first. Sure seems like that there isn't time or energy to come to Him, but it is the only way to get that true rest. Doesn't make sense in my brain, but my soul longs for it. I can't even get to the next part about the yokes yet, I'm still processing the rest part :-)
Anyway, I love you all and have to be off, just wanted to fill in something here before I jump back on the roller coaster of life!

Nadeen tagged me...

A - Attached or single: Attached. Happily!
B - Best Friend: Hmm, lots of really good ones! Maybe my mom??
C - Cake or Pie: I think cake, but I can't pass up a good chocolate pie!
D - Day of the Week: Saturday
E - Essential Item: cell phone,
F - Favorite Color: Blue
G - Gummi Bears or Gummi Worms: Bears if these are the choices. Cokes & Cherries are actually my favorite gummi's!
H - Hair Product: time to actually do my hair!
I - Indulgences: really nice yarn
J - January or July?: Actually I like May or Sept - I'm a cheater!
K - Kids: Andrew & Katie of course!
L - Life is incomplete without: good friends and lots of love
M - Marriage Date: April 13
N - Number of Siblings: 1 sister - Debbie
O - Oranges or Apples: Granny Smith Apples
P - Phobias or Fears: big snakes, my parents dying
Q - Quote: "The most important thing she's learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." Jill Churchill
R - Reason To Smile: Andrew & Katie playing together, or both playing with Dad in the back yard
S - Season: Spring AND Fall, I'm going with Nadeen on this one!!
T - Tag Three: Debbie, Amber, Kendra/Tina
U- Unknown fact about me: I was on the cover of a magazine. Um, I impeached a president? (of our sorority!)
V - Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Definitely a carnivore!
W - Worst Habit: Not doing things right away
X - Rays or Ultrasounds: I'm going to choose neither!
Y - Your favorite food: Right now, the bison bolognese dish at Cafe Jordano, but I like lots of stuff!
Z - Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Getting out of my funk!

So I've been in a bit of a funk lately. There's only so much mental energy you can focus on getting your boy to poop in the potty (although he has done it once so far - Happy Dances all around!!!) and then the let down after VBS busyness and traveling and a messy house and way too much laundry and Aaron working a lot has brought me down a bit. I haven't even had anything I want to knit!

So I'm working to get myself out of it now. I cleaned a bathroom, went to tae bo twice this week, I'm making Andrew pick up legos and I'm tackling laundry. AND I had some retail therapy in the form of yarn, books and pattern shopping online! So now I have 4-5 projects I can start on now or very soon! whee!!

I'll do this on in different colors...

And this one in the same blues.

And I bought yarn online to start on this one - a whole knitted Nativity scene!

Andrew

Nadeen inspired me to go ahead and blog about this.
My andrew is 3.5, he'll be 4 in August. He will not go poo in the potty. I've bribed, threatened, pleaded, cleaned out, everything and he will not go in the potty. We are seeing an elimination specialist so he's taking miralax, ex-lax & mineral oil & doing a poop sit in the afternoon & getting check marks towards a goal. he also knows he'll get a lego ship & indy motorcycle when he (ever) goes poo on the potty but nope, nothing. He (and I, I guess) have gotten lazy and he's back to wearing pull ups only because his poo is pretty much liquid so now he's not even pee'ing in the potty. ugh.
So today i decided no video game unless he wears undies. Which he did and proceeded to pee "just barely" on the couch and the floor. fun for mommy! I threatened to take away the game if he ever did it again AND put him in baby diapers instead of pullups and he promised it won't happen.
But I am just so stinking tired of this! Why won't this child poo in the potty?!?!? He has to go to prek in the fall!
Ok, rant over, off to get more things done and check on the couch.

post-VBS summer!

Ok, I can now begin my Post-VBS summer! I mentally divide the summer into pre- and post-VBS as it is such a huge event in my life and it is now done!!! It was a pretty good success this year I think - I'm worn out, my kids are all clingy and everyone had a good time.
But now it is time to let myself think past it and holy cow is there a lot left in the summer! And some of it is coming up quick!!! We leave for TX for a wedding this Wed and I am totally not ready - eek! Then we get to go to Grand Lake for a family vacation in July and then it will be August. yikes! I need to treasure these days and enjoy them instead of race through them and lose them all.
I guess post-vbs summer really = family summer! I like that!

Tae Bo Challenge Finale!!!

So I went to my ending measurement time for the tae bo mommy challenge today and while I won't be winning any free months, I am pretty darn proud of myself!!! I've lost 4lb, 22" and 5% body fat!!! I'm waiting to see what you other girls do - YAY for us!!

Halfway there with Tae Bo!

So we're officially halfway done with our 8 week Tae Bo challenge and I can tell that I'm doing better in the classes now. Although they are not going easy on us anymore so the classes are definitely harder! I did get Sonja to do my midpoint measurements and I've lost.... 12.75 inches so far!!! I'm totally impressed with myself!! I knew my jeans were fitting a bit better but it is pretty cool to have some numbers to back it up. I haven't lost any weight really, but inches are good! I'm curious to see how I do in the next 4 weeks - she won't do body fat until then and I really need to improve that for my health.
So - yay for me (and all of us doing this torture thing!)

Women's retreat

Ok, just a quick update on the retreat this weekend. It was awesome! What a privilege to spend time with such amazing ladies and friends! To be able to laugh and conquer fears and encourage and pray and listen and yell and eat and just be real is such a treat that we don't get very often and I enjoyed every minute of it!

tae bo update...

Well, I've made it to 3 classes now (#4 in about an hour!) and I haven't died yet! I'm waaaay out of shape so I have to go a bit slower than most of the class and DANG is it hard but I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping on with it!
Ok, gotta get ready for torture, I mean - tae bo!