Grateful

This morning I am off to babysit for a good friend of mine who is in a pinch. I am going to be way to busy today to have an opportunity to write anything so I thought I better just be thankful this morning that I got up early enough to put this much down :)

Today I am grateful that I have two girls that will help me babysit!

a little bit of winter in Minnesota :)

This is what my hair looks like all winter long after having a hat on 50 times a day. I had just got done shoveling the driveway when Elle took this picture.

Elle and I spend some time talking about all the drama of 12 year old girls each day while we wait for Emma to get out of school. Usually we can solve the problems of the world during this 15 minute time :)

Which of these objects doesn't belong?....Emma's feet get hot at work and so she wears her flip flops out in the -16* so she is not uncomfortable at work :)

I went out to get my mail yesterday and I thought I would share with all those that don't live in Minnesota what our mail boxes look like here in the frozen world of winter.

I am grateful for a kind, funny, smart, wonderful, beautiful, clever, stuborn, compassionate daughter Elle!

Snap Shot of What a Day in the Life of Krystine Looks Like!

Sister Shakespear, Sister Harris and ME (yes I am in my PJ's)

Sister Shakespear working hard to scrub the shower...I love Sister Shakespear!

Emma's new brown hair :)

Yesterday I had a great day of serving others! Started my morning by having the wonderful sister missionaries over to help me take my Christmas stuff down and then we had lunch. After lunch we choose someone in our ward that we thought could use a special treat and we went to their house and cleaned the bathroom, kitchen and front entry way. It was great to clean with the missionaries and the person we picked to do it for was very surprised and grateful. After that I came home and started my personal taxi service for the girls activities after school then I ran home and made 6 dozen cookies, took dinner to a friend who hurt her back, ran 5 dozen cookies around to people that I needed to thank for giving service in RS, made dinner for my family then took Elle and Emma to Barnes and Nobles picked Scott up from work, came home and colored Emma's hair brown. Do you think I had a productive day (By The Way...I did all this in my PJ's!!!! No kidding!!!) I crawled into bed after a hot shower at 11pm to find Scott snoring away! Now I am going to start all over today...I wonder who gets to have some service from Krystine today???? I think today I will get dressed before I start my service :)

I am thankful for hot running water...that shower was wonderful :)

It Is As Easy As 1,2,3,4

Today I woke up to 21 cups that needed hand washing (our dishwasher is stupid and I decided to start hand washing the glasses a few months ago). The problem with this is that I have asked my kids to use ONE glass a day instead of a bazillion! You would think that this is a simple request...1.get a glass out 2. use it 3. rinse it out 4. place it in a special spot so you can use this same glass again the next time you want a drink! My kids (each and everyone of them!! Jackson, Hannah, Emma and Elle) seem to get lost after step number 2! They are constantly doing step 1 and 2 but seem to be retarded as to step 3 and 4. What is a mother to do? I just made a new sign pleading with them to follow all 4 steps and then I decided to assign them all a special spot for their glasses to be when they are not using them. I will report back in a week and let you know if my kids are still retarded!

I am thankful for able hands and good health that allows me to wash dishes!

My Wish for Today

Oh how I wish I could just stay in my warm bed this morning and sleep just like Sandy! It is soooo cold outside and I don't want to go out there into the bugger freezing weather. But alas I am a mom and there is no such thing as staying in bed (at least today) when there have been many commitments made on my part I must endure and brave the cold. (Besides it is garbage day and someone has to take out the Christmas garbage)

I am thankful for my warm house, a warm coat, warm gloves, warm (and cute) hat, and warm boots.

P.S. Sandy has a 6th sense to know when his picture is about to be taken and he is deathly afraid of it. Please imagine for a moment if you will our little white poodle all cuddled up in my comforter dreaming away because the second I got my camera out and turned it on he jumped out of bed and ran away!! Way to ruin a great picture that would have gone with my blog this morning Sandy! Sandy is dumb :)

Can anyone guess who these toes belong too?

I believe these toenails have been used as weapons! Would the mother of this child please get some some clippers and teach this child to trim her weaponry :)

Another Years Goals...I can do it!

My Goals For 2010!

1. Read from the scriptures EVERY DAY! If I can find 5 minutes to watch TV during the day then I surely can find 5 minutes to read the word of God :)

2. Pray EVERY DAY! I am not very good at daily prayer and boy do I need to stay in contact with Heavenly Father....I need Him every hour!

3. Blog EVERY DAY! I want to keep it simple most of the time and mostly if I don't have any stories to tell I am going to be journaling about what I am grateful for. I would like this to be my year of GRATITUDE. Because I have so much to be grateful for and I don't think I express it often enough. It also helps me to notice the small things in life that I take for granted.

4. Do a KIND DEED DAILY! I think I serve others because I have to...this year I want to serve because I want to! I will find someone each and every day and purposefully do a kind deed for them it could be a stranger or someone that I know. I am very excited about this goal.

Well there you have it. I want to keep it simple and I will be reporting back weekly on how I have done on my goals for the week. I hope to become a better person by achieving these goals and grow closer to my Heavenly Father. Wish me luck and perseverance!

I am so grateful... that school starts today!! :)

We All Are Strangers To Someone

Our ride up to the airport yesterday. Tanner is sleeping, not knowing what lies ahead in trying to get him a ride to school....read below for details!!

So we sent Tanner off yesterday (sad) to an island called I don't know what (I just call it Hawaii, the one with BYUHawaii on it, usually my many Mormon friends know what I am talking about) without a way to get him from the airport to the school!

Not a good idea you say....what you say is correct! I thought Scott had it all under control, being the under control guy that he is. But the thing is if you don't reserve a spot on the school shuttle like I am guessing probably a month in advance (best thing to do is once your ticket is purchased you should immediately call the shuttle and reserve a spot on it for the correct time of arrival) but noooooooo not us that would be way to easy for the Greers we like to do things the interesting way!

I do have to say that the shuttle stops running at 9:30pm and Tanners flight didn't get in until 9:45pm so even if we had tried to reserve a spot for him in an appropriate time frame (a month ago) he still most probably would not have been able to get on (this is the logic Scott uses, I am sure I would have been able to sweet talk them into waiting for my only son that is thousands of miles away from me at the moment).

So to make a very long and frustrating story short....at 11:30pm our time we still didn't know how we were going to get Tanner to school once he landed on that great island of Hawaii. Tanners plane would be landing at 1:30am Minnesota cold time (in two short hours!!) Well I had just signed on to the computer and wanted to check my emails for the last time because I had been gone all day and just hadn't had the chance to do that earlier. When to my surprise I had received an invitation (from FB) to a party for a missionary who had served here in Rochester (Sister Lamb to all those who know her). I clicked on the face book link and to my surprise Brooklyn Lamb was on face book at that very moment. You are all wondering so what! What does this have to do with your poor story of Tanner being stranded at the airport all night long without a ride to school (lame parents he has!)

My heart began to race because to my great luck at that moment I knew the only person who could possibly help me at that moment was a one Sister Lamb!!! She had just returned from 6 months of working and much playing on the same island as Tanner was now getting ready to land on! I asked her with much begging and pleading as I could muster (which wasn't difficult at all because the fact was I was desperate!) if she could help me out and find Tanner a ride from the airport to school. And.......to my great relief she said she would try!

A half hour later she called me and said that she had contacted her singles ward RS Pres. (have I ever told you only saints get called to RS President) and this Saint had agreed to go pick up this strange boy she didn't know all because Sister Lamb had asked her to do it! I love the networking abilities in the church!! So just a half hour before Tanner was to land far, far away from me we had arranged a ride!

I wish I could tell you that it was a fairytale ending after that but no, alas Tanners luggage is lost and he doesn't have a toothbrush to use today or any of his nice Christmas presents he got from Santa but he did have a ride to school dangit!

I hope that there is a lesson learned here....we may all get something different out of this story, perhaps one lesson is don't procrastinate (Scott), or perhaps do things yourself instead of leaving them to your husband to do (Krystine) but the best lesson I learned is that there are caring people out there in the world who are willing to do nice things for total strangers because they are followers of Christ. This I have started to rely on that while my kids are far away from me their Heavenly Father is watching out for them and taking care of their needs by using angels on earth to do that. Don't forget that you may be some mothers angel by doing a kind deed for some random stranger! Lets all be kind and help those in need!

Today I am thankful for Brooklyn and her friend Amy who helped me out in a real pinch! Thank you and may Heavenly Father bless you as you blessed my family!

My Heart Has a Crack In It and I Am Thankful For...

Tanner is leaving today to go back to Hawaii. I am sad. I wonder if my heart will ever feel the same again. It literally feels like it hurts. I hope Tanner achieves all his goals maybe that will help heal my heart knowing that he is doing what he loves most...learning about the world and other people. I love you Tanner! I am thankful that Tanner is not afraid and isn't homesick (really).

What Winter Means In Minnesota To Me!

I am getting ready to go out and do my grocery shopping...in -1 degree weather! I love Minnesota! (I am grateful that I have money to buy my family food there are many that don't)

Elle just had her last day as a paper girl!! She is so happy! She no longer has to worry about dying in -40 degree weather! (I am grateful that Elle is happy, it makes my life much easier)

What winter means in Minnesota....a thousand pairs of shoes by the back door! (I am grateful that I have so many pairs of shoes to choose from)

Happy New Year! We made it :) I am very excited to see what 2010 will bring into my life. I am sure we will have some ups and downs but I will hope for many more ups then downs. I wanted to share with you a few pictures of what life in Minnesota is like in the winter. I love Minnesota and even find ways to enjoy the winter.

This year I am going to blog about what I am thankful for. So where there is a gray cloud I am going to try to see the silver lining. Minnesota winters mean I get to spend more time with my kids because they don't go out with there friends as much because if we can avoid being outside we avoid it! That's why I am thankful for Minnesota Winters!!!