I took this  a year ago today.  It is still one of my favorite pictures. I love the dark shadows of arms and legs echoing the black lines above and below. It feels like summer. Light streaming through the frame. Shades of red, white and blue.  This is the sort of thing I love about Photojojo’s Time Capsule. My flickrstream is autobiographical, an ongoing visual diary of my life. My Time Capsule reminds me of where I’ve been.  I can also see how much my kids have grown! Generally, I appreciate the pictures more in hindsight than I did at the time.

Check out my Photojojo Time Capsule or go get your own!

One thing that we always stress with the kids is the importance of family. Friends come and go but your family will always be there. Mike and I were going to spend some time alone together and the kids were going to his mom’s house. We told Mia she could take them to a movie if she felt like it. Not only did she take them to a movie, they spent the whole day together! She took them shopping, out to lunch and to see Transformers. I love that my kids love each other!

I was eating lunch when she sent this picture to my phone along with this message:

went to the movies and to chic faley and got kids meals with drinks and fries even tho the cupons were for just the nuggets so that was fun and got balloons too so here is some more pics im the back up mom while your gone stuck behind the camera

She may have terrible spelling/grammar, but she makes a great ‘back up mom’!

This morning I passed Mia in the kitchen and sighed, “I wish it would rain.” It is almost July, my favorite month of the summer because the the monsoon season begins. The extreme heat is tempered by afternoon thunderstorms, clouds tower over the mountains and water turns dry arroyos into little rushing rivers. It always reminds me of when I met Mike. We spent every minute we could outside, drenched and happy… laughing and dancing in the rain.

As soon as I wished for rain, we looked outside and saw raindrops beginning to fall. Mike laughed and said that I always get my wishes. I protested that I didn’t get EVERYTHING I wished for. “What if you did?”  “I would be happy.” He kissed me and left for work, but now I’m thinking that having every wish granted might not be a good thing. People need to want things. People need to dream. People need hope. It is what keeps us moving forward.

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential — for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.”      Soren Kierkegaard

having a ball from kristyk on Vimeo.

I love this ball. The kids borrowed my video camera and ever since there has been a black spot. Boo! I can’t clean it off… But I still had fun filming my new toy. It’s funny how such a little thing can brighten up my whole day. This weekend, find grace in small things and remember that LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!

* Not to be confused with this set.

Gossip. Everyone loves a little, whether they admit it or not. But enough is enough. I am sick sick SICK of the circus surrounding Jon and Kate. Seriously. Does anyone stop and think that they have EIGHT kids that are having to deal with this situation? I watched most of the show with their ‘big announcement’. I felt like throwing up. Watching them together in front of the kids, involving the poor play house guys in their argument and playing happy family while cutting back to them discussing their marriage in the interviews… ugh.

Personally, I don’t think that having a show about their family is a bad thing. I like to see how other people live, especially when they have a lot of kids because I have a lot of kids. It’s when their family starts revolving around the show that makes it a bad thing.  Arguing, a messy house, kids pooping in their cribs… that’s real. I can relate to that. Eight perfectly dressed children in a million dollar home performing for the camera while their parents don’t talk to each other?  That’s just sad.

I bought one of those gossip mags at the grocery store and we were reading it while working outside. The conversation went a little like this:

“OMG! She hit her daughter.”
“She didn’t hit her. She spanked her.”
“OMG! She spanked her daughter!”
“Why? She’s so mean…”
*reading article*
“The little girl was blowing a whistle while her mom was on the phone.”
“She should have told her to stop.”
“She did but she kept blowing it.”
“Really?! Why is it in the magazine? You would be mad at us too!”

Everything is blown so far out of proportion. I’m not saying that Kate is right or that she is a perfect mother, but I sure wouldn’t want a spotlight on me 24/7!

In other news…
I took this picture yesterday. You may notice that the boys are sitting on the van seats. We really need a passenger van because of the number of people in our family but I’m not willing to pay the money for a new one. Our kids are very hard on things and by the time they tore up a new van we would still be paying for it. No thanks! Plus, Mike and I worked very hard to pay off all our debts. The only payments that we have to make every month are our house payment, child support and utilities. With this economy, I don’t feel comfortable adding another obligation to our budget. Our rule when it comes to finances is that if we can’t afford to pay cash for it, we don’t do it.

The van has a good engine. Most of the problems that we have with it can be fixed. For example, I hate that I can’t get it clean. Our old van was lined with rubber instead of carpet and we could wash it out with a hose. Mike and the kids pulled out the seats and ripped out the carpet. Mike power-washed the inside to get out the glue/dirt left behind. Mia glued the ceiling material back up where it was starting to sag. Voila! A better smelling and easier to clean van.

Now we need to get some freon in that air conditioner and get a cd player/speakers that work and we’ll be good to go!

“The best ammunition against lies is the truth, there is no ammunition against gossip. It is like a fog and the clear wind blows it away and the sun burns it off.” Ernest Hemingway