Make summer slow down!

The weeks are flying by!  Im doing great and loving it but sure not ready to go back to work! Also that pool has been one of our best purchases ever!

ALayna had an amazing time at EFY!

We only had her for 2 days and then she was off to girls camp. 

On Friday, 27 tornadoes touched down in Iowa!!!  Alayna was at camp right in the middle of it all!! I was so worried about her and if she was ok. They were all safe but the cities around them were heavily damaged. You should see some of the videos! t is so scary and Im so glad the girls were protected.  Alayna is home safe and utterly exhausted!

Our garden is flourishing! 

Tyler finished another class with a B-!

Kayla and Brandon were at Bear Lake and it looks like they had a great time.  Ellie’s hair looks so red!

Marisa is back at work. Getting ready to move into an apt all to herself August 5.

We are excited to have Ha; and corey come visit in a week and the BKE right after that!  Who else wants to come try out the new guest room? Bring your swimsuits!

Reunion pics- whoohoo

Blog update July 8- Part 2

We had a Happy Father’s Day!  Hoping all the fathers in our family had a fantastic and relaxing day!  We enjoyed skyping the kids and we got Bob this awesome tshirt!

My friend and fellow teacher is also into animals.  She is actually a certified wildlife rehabilitator.  Anyway, I babysat a momma bunny and her 5 babies over the 4th of July. They are so dang cute!!!! Now I have 14 animals in the house and Im missing Alayna!

I am also so grateful for the beautiful gifts!  Thanks to Hal and Corey for this beautiful oil lamp from Israel!

Thanks  also to Marisa and Riberas for exactly what I wanted from the British Isles.

I love what this beautiful tree of life necklace says

as

“It is said to symbolize the forces of nature coming together to maintain the balance of the universe. Ancient Celts believed it possessed special powers and is described as a force to take care of Life on Earth.” I guess I’d kinda like to think I have that- taking care of life on earth with kids and animals.

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~Sam Keen

I wonder how it’s July already?!  It’s going way too fast!  It looks like everyone is home safely from Europe and the reunion.  Im sorry to have missed out on both, but I FINALLY broke through my sleep problems and have slept solidly 12 hours a night for a week.  that's worth its weight in gold!!!  I think everyone else though is exhausted and I think Ellie’s picture sums it up best!

Marisa and Riberas looked like they had a fantastic trip the British Isles. I've added Scotland and Ireland to my bucket list! Glad everyone is home safe and sound!

Bob and ALayna flew out to the Hart family reunion and Kayla’s family was able to go.  I barely got any pictures from them but I assume they had a great time?  This is my favorite pic that bob sent me!  Im very sad I missed time with Ellie

Alayna is now in Missouri heading to her 1st EFY tomorrow!  Bob will pick her up on Saturday and then she goes straight into girls camp! 

Tyler finished one class, is working on the other 2, and has registered for fall classes plus a CNA class. 

I went to Ames for the Reading/ School Librarian Conference.  As always I loved my 3 days there and learned a TON!  My presentation was a huge success and I even got some great feedback! Like this one: “Kristina, you have so much energy! This was great fun! I feel like I just took a world tour in 50 minutes! You've given me so many ideas to expand my students' world as well as my own.”  I had 3 speakers I loved the most.  One was the author of Mr. Lemoncello’s library.  He was extremely entertaining and my students are obsessed with his books.  The 2nd one was an incredible lady who spoke on “Chasing Imperfection.” While it may not seem reading related, I think we all needed it- me especially.  I wish I could have recorded it!  The last one I also posted about on fb. His name is Dean Jacobs. It is amazing and thrilling to hear him speak and I kept thinking "OMGSH he is living my dream life!" After a way-too-close-to-death accident happened, he sold everything he owned and has literally been traveling the world ever since. He spent 7 months with the gorillas like Dian Fossey. You should see the videos he took. His pictures are breath-taking, his videos are riveting, I just can't say enough! Now traveling with him to the tribe he works with deep in the Amazonian Rainforest is now on my bucket list!  Wouldn't that be amazing?!

While I am not even close to perfectly balance in my life I have done much better this week.  Sleep makes a world of difference for me.  I have been able to tackle projects I have been wanting to do forever.  I have worked out every day while watching a Star Wars marathon in chronological order.  I did tons of sewing projects including new decor for my reading area and new fleece liners for all the guinea pigs while watching the full Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon.  At night I have been watching some other movies that I highly recommend.

The Promise: When our students skyped this year with author Marsha Skrypuch (who write "Making Bombs for Hitler") she mentioned that she had even received death threats for a book she wrote on the Armenian genocide during WWI. It intrigued me...and I just finished a movie about it that all of you should see called "The Promise" released in 2017. Based on the true story of the Armenian Genocide- an event that the Turkish Govt still deny happened.

Partriots Day: True story of the Boston Marathon bombing. Watch edited on vidangel though!

A quiet Place: My absolute favorite new movie of the year!!! What an intense thriller!

I organized ALL our pictures, photo CDS, video DVDS and family treasure boxes.  All that cant be replaced are in our fire safe box.  Then I went through all of it and organized piles of the years we dont have blogs for.  Again a huge thank you to Grandma JO for saving all those newsletters.  My goal is to get these all into books into the next few years.  We Gave kids digital copies of all the blog books, family videos, and year slides shows at Christmas.  I am SO EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that I have been taking pictures and writing blogs because there is no way I would ever remember this stuff!  I was also thinking that this is a perfect way ofr grandkids, great grandkids and so on to learn about me when Im gone. Our family history is so very important!  So I hope you kids are all recording your lives now!

I got through all of our food storage and 72 hours kits.  They are cleaned, updated, and ready to go.

Got my ring resized (as it was cutting off my circulation) and even though the picture doesnt show it- it sparkles now like Ive never seen before!

And here are some pics of the new guest room.  The new bedding isnt on yet til I kick tyler out. But all the posters on the wall (except ellie and batman) are photos either Corey or I took on our trip to the Caribbean and I blew them up to poster size. Im pretty pleased with myself.  Alayna and Bob did the painting.  We also have a crib and changing table and new baby bookshelf.

Dont worry- the green “curtain” goes with Tyler lol

Wishing it could always be summer!

I finished my last 2 brutal days of school and now I am free!  I need the break to focus on me and my health: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual!

The pool is amazing and relaxing and comforting! Alayna and I have been working hard to find balance between working on projects, and relaxing. For me its hard to find balance.

We have been doing a family Summer Fit Challenge and its been great.  I already feel better! Its wonderful to sleep and work when my body tells me to. Its been so great!

We finished deep cleaning the shed.  We took 1/2 a van full of crap to goodwill- realizing we need to stop buying “things”. We took an entire van full of cardboard to the dump and an entire van full of trash to the dump. Its crazy! and cathartic!

We’ve been cleaning all the carpets, redecorating the guest room (who wants to come visit??), deep cleaning and rearranging the cages, working on the yard outside, etc. However, today while mowing, I ran over one of our baby robins and murdered it!!! I held it in my hand and stroked it as it died.  I dont think I can take nature anymore. It hurts too much!  Especially watching the mom all afternoon flying everywhere calling for her!

I’ve been working on some puzzles and we saw some interesting movies this weekend.

“Meru”- Super interesting documentary about the 1st climbing team to ever reach the top of Shark’s fin on Mount Meru.

“Into the wild”- Based on the true story researched by John Krakauer. Good book.  Really makes you think about life, priorities, etc.

“Pele”- If you havent seen this yet on Netflix its a MUST SEE!

Updates:

Marisa is packing for the trip to Europe. Cant wait to see all the pictures and hear about the trip.

Kayla Brandon and Ellie have been crazy busy!  Kayla should update her blog hint hint

Tyler is doing great in his classes and new job. Hes hoping to find an apatment closer to campus and move in July

Bob and Alayna will be flying out for the Hart reunion in park city. I will be presenting at the state conference.

Alayna got a new calling as a Family History Consultant- which is exciting because she loves that AND we are working on family history projects this summer!

Not the best pic but I chopped my hair, got highlights and covered the grey!

Bring on the rest of summer!