Is this really happening?

Okay, so I should probably just say I am alive and well, friends from Seattle... I just feel overwhelmed by how much I have to update on here... that I haven't "scheduled" in the time to do so. Be it as that may... I cannot help myself but share this truly depressing news.

The weather must seriously be confused. Today (and on Saturday) it has been snowing. Yes you heard me right, snowing on June 8th, summer. A week ago it was in the 90's, but right now a whoppin' 38 degrees. Hopefully this is a fluke and won't be the regular habits of Montana's summer weather each year, since Montanans are surprised as well.

Note to Shellie Ford: the weather for Thursday (when you'll be visiting me!!!) is going to be a sunny 72 degrees. So you don't need to be scared by this temporary winter, lol.

Are you Kristi's Sister? Uh, what?

So, funny story....

Short version:
So I got all dressed up all cute and did my hair & makeup, because hey it's my birthday. BUT I had to laugh when Ethan's preschool teachers thought I must be a sister of me!

Long version:
Today is my birthday so I got all dressed up all cute, did my hair with curlers so it had lots of volume, did my make up, and wore my last pair of old, irritating, blurry 5 year old prescription contacts. The kids thought the curlers were hilarious and said, "Mom, you are the weirdest person. You look so funny!" I informed them that I would in fact be taking them out and the curlers will make my hair curly and lovely. That was fascinating to them as well.
So after I was all dressed up... for myself, I went to drop Ethan off at preschool. I was signing him in when I noticed his teacher just squinting at me, pondering something. She asks me, "Are you going to be picking Ethan up today too?" I answered, "Yes, of coarse", when I realized, maybe they don't recognize me. What an odd question to ask. So I said, "Oh it's me, I just am not wearing my glasses today and I'm all done up!" She laughed and said she thought I must be a sister of me! Then the other teacher hearing us, agreed and said she didn't recognize me either! We all laughed and then I said this could be how I looked all the time if I put any effort into it...

... apparently I need to put some more effort once and a while. I used to on Sundays, but 9 am church with three kids results in nothing amazing. Ok it's been a long time (as my Seattle friends know) since I actually curled my hair each day along with daily makeup applications. But what mother does? I seem to have gotten used to my el natural look, along with glasses. I keep chuckling about this afternoon with the teachers.

Nursery, here we come!

Can I just say I am so excited. Yesterday Charlie was his first time in nursery at church!!!! He is 17 months old, but THEY TOLD ME to just start bringing him in the beginning of January since so many others will be moving up to Sunbeams. Is that not just the best news ever! My ecstatic response was, "SURE! Ok! Are you being serious!" My countdown to nursery diminished by a whole month. Maybe I can actually LISTEN in church now! I almost forgot how nice it was to sit in church and be enlightened without having to chase down little ones who try to stray away and pulling out all the stops with my Merry Poppins bag of Church things to entertain them.

Charlie "found out"about the nursery a few weeks ago when someone who was walking in front of him opened the nursery room door and so he followed them in... seeing all the toys everywhere. His eyes lit up and his mouth actually dropped as he inwardly gasped in glee as he found this wonderland! It was pretty cute. I let him play in there for a while until I had to teach the 3rd hour in Young Women's... he was pretty mad about having to leave his wonderland of toys, but I had to go find Mike so he could take him for the last hour of Church. It was that day they told me to just start bringing him in January to nursery. I take him to work out with me at the gym and once in the childcare room, he just waves me goodbye. Where did my baby go?

This old house

I am feeling the need to complain for a minute. Ok you know it is sad when you find yourself each day having to put on slippers (so the cold floor doesn't seep through on your socked feet) and a sweater/hoody... to do the dishes. I love the character that this old house has, which we are renting (minus the moody kitchen drawers that are always difficult to open/close, but if you slam your hip in it really hard at various angles they usually shut in a few tries and the fact I can only use one burner on my stove), but seriously this house has no insulation! The huge front window in the Family Room feels like a whole in the wall. We have to put the heater on at 75-80 degrees just so it will hit 65 degrees. So we really crank it up each evening when we are sitting by that window on the couch. With that being said, none of the heat really gets to the kitchen-being too far away from the heater. So I find myself bundling up just to do the dishes.

Since I am already complaining, I should mention my car has gotten stuck in the ice, three times now recently... twice only last week and all have been right outside my house. Both times, I had been praying that I would be able to get the car unstuck, so I could go pick up Lydia from school, I thankfully have had a handy neighbor who last week "happened" to drive by and see my apparent need for help. I have to say he is amazing. I had been trying for like 15 minutes to shovel out and break ice from around my tires, but he always manages to do it less than 3 minutes. What! Where is the love. J/k, I don't know how he manages it so quickly though. I am baffled.

We live on the base of a mountain so our driveway is steep and slope down toward our house Thus it doubles as a mini sledding hill for our kids and you can see why I am nervous to park on it. So I park on the street.

Sorry I have been so lame and not updating my blog much lately. I'll try to find some time to add some stuff over Christmas... We went to warm Mesa Arizona! It was awesome!