But, I Don't Want to be Sad....

I have hated filling out forms since the moment I had more two in school....I usually have writer's cramp all of September...{SIDE TRACK: In a million words or less describe your child...Oh please....Am I a bad parent when I can only come up with 37 words???}

That writer's cramp has come a bit early....

The last week or so has been nothing but forms:

Passports
Birth Certificates
Notaries
California Retirement Forms

The paperwork is overwhelming and I am not even on the front line of it (Thanks to my best sister, Kelli)

{So nobody ever told California that my Mom died (Nearly nine years ago), So we have the delightful task of untangling and settling both estates at the same. And let me just take a moment to congratulate the state of California for their amazing clear as mud approach to estates and probate (Insert eye roll here). 'Cause like totally yeah, grief ain't hard enough}

"Please accept our deepest condolences at this time of loss..." Standard form letters, Now for both parents at the same time. Weird. The reality that they are both gone, staring us right in the face.

This week I realized grief has no time line, 5 months or 9 years, that piece of my heart still aches. No anger, just....

SAD.

Tears are never to far from the surface. I really don't want to be the grown up right now. I don't want to be...

SAD.

We leave in four weeks to clean out my childhood home. It's been twenty years since I have faced that home. I pray my heart is ready.  It's time for healing.

Life doesn't slow down when you are SAD. Not when you are a Krazy Kramer, ....

 I hate to admit how overwhelmed I feel right now. Is praying for Halloween to come early sacrilegious???

My heart knows I am not alone in this, even when my head tries to tell me otherwise. A dear friend sent this to me, a while ago. {She sees straight thru my inappropieate sarcasm and sun shiny blog posts, DANG her}

I'm not quite ok yet....there I said it.

I'm really kinda sorta SAD.

 

 

Man Child Comes Home, A Man

 The Man Child headed, last week, to his first YM Camp ever....

A regional scout camp, including all the boys in our Temple district. 400 plus boys from BC and Washington. "Prepare to Serve" was the theme. And by all accounts he got to do amazing things and meet amazing people...Repelling, bronco riding, zip line, knife making.... A testosterone mecca for 6 days....

But we all noticed it the minute he walked in the door....HIS VOICE DROPPED, MOM!!!!

Kay so I wasn't just hearing things.....The poor boy, {I mean man}, He then proudly enjoyed all manner of taunts from his sisters for hours. We all took great delight his cracking voice.

The Man Child came home a man....well kinda....

It seems he now has new definitions for beef stew and dutch ovens.{So all boys are obsessed with farting...sigh}

4 hours later....


At 9:30  pm Saturday night Dallyn pulled his only white shirt out of his pack and says..."I guess you need to wash it, before morning"....YA Think????

It used to be white?!?!

 

I did what any self respecting mother of the year does....

Called the Superman at Wally and told him to pick Dallyn up a new one.

 

I'm a miracle worker, but COME ON?

 

He looked very handsome in the nice and shiny new shirt, as he spoke about his camp in Sacrament Meeting the next morning....

 

Mom, promise not to laugh if my voice cracks, kay {Good thing I was sitting behind him :)}

 

He wrote the following entirely by himself (proof that stuff does, on occasion, sink in)

 

Well done, my little MAN.

 

Camp

Good morning brothers and sisters today I was asked to speak on the young men’s camp we went to this weak. I’m going to talk about what we learned and what we got to do. Our theme of the camp was Prepare to Serve that meant we were preparing to serve the lord by serving a full time mission teaching people about the gospel. Every morning we would wake up at 6 30 in the morning just like the missionaries we did our scripture study had breakfast and got started for the day. During the morning from 9 to noon we would do activities (such as repelling, high ropes, adventure chase, and much more). After we finished our morning activities we went to lunch. After lunch we did a couple more activities and we did a special activity right before dinner it was called helamins army we did 1 of the 4 activities they where service project, preach my gospel , meet with the general authority (elder Christensen of the 70) and strong. Every activity had a gospel lesson tied into it for example repelling was hold to the iron rod and god will not let you fall and if you let go you will fall. After dinner there was one more activity and then there was camp rap up. We all sat in the theater and listened to the speakers for the night we heard great stories form different people my favorite one was Paul cardel who was born with half a heart, he struggled until he was 33 years old when he got a new heart   from a brave donor I got the opportunity to listen to him tell his amazing story and played some beautiful piano pieces. After that was mug up this was the best part we went to the kitchen and had hot coco before bed. After this we went to bed at 1030 and that was the end of the day we would arise to another fun and spiritual day. I learned a lot at camp and it brought me closer to the gospel I know now that I must serve a mission of the lord.

 I’d like to  bare my testimony I know the church is true and the book of Mormon is true that serving full time mission will not only bless others but it will greatly bless you.

In closing I would like to close by quoting a scripter in mosiah chapter 2 verse 17 and behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of you fellow beings ye are only in the service of your god

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen

Tie Addiction

So I guess we need to add another mental disorder to the Kramer legacy....

 

Hi...My Name Is Grant...and I'm ADDICTED to Neck Ties...

Ten years ago, I was married to a construction worker who went to church just enough, not to become a project ;)

Now he's a white collar retail manager who serves in a bishopric and wears a tie 6-7 days a week....go figure. I think he's just trying to justify his addiction...

The fact that he is currently colour-coordinating his hoard collection.... is a discussion for another day.

WEIRDO

Admit it Superman...You. Are. An. ADDICT!!!!

76 ties and counting.....you need professional help...

Oh, never mind :)

The Cotton Pony

***Warning if you are a prude and/or the talk of feminine hygiene products grosses you out, don't you dare keep reading***

Last week: Kramer dinner table.

"Mom, Are you riding the "cotton pony" or what?" Holly snaps after a particularly snarky interchange....

I sprayed my mouth full of Dr Pepper everywhere...Laughing so hard I thought I was passing out for sure.

"Riding the Cotton Pony" is my new favourite....Much funnier than "Auntie Flo's visiting"

Rewind nearly twenty years....

Newly weds, grocery shopping, A Superman in training, holds up the biggest box of maxi pads he can find and yells across several aisles at his bride "NEED ANY OF THESE, ROBIN?!?!" I don't think I even blushed. I knew I had married Mr. Right (sometimes)

Little did we know at the time, what a grand roll maxi pads and tampons would play in our lives.

It wasn't long after the birth of our fourth daughter, a wise sage suggested we by stock in Tampax....They weren't kidding.

I remember how excited I was, when I discovered they now came in boxes of 100.

But, Nobody ever warned me....

Its 11:47 pm, on a Saturday....I have spent the last 14 and a half minutes searching every bathroom, purse, glove compartment and couch cushion in our humble abode....Nope not a feminine hygiene product in sight....Thanks daughters.

Is buying feminine hygiene products on the Sabbath? Going to send me to H***?? Oh never mind...I found one....Coat pocket saves the day :)

Wish I could say this is a rare occurrence but that would be a lie, and I never usually never lie :)

Honestly, It happens about once a month ;)

Does any one know if Tampax ships residential???

Back to School Tears

Okay, normally the thought of sending the rug rats back to school after their tag-team effort to make me crazy crazier all Summer long, makes me brake into a song and dance, reminiscent of Julie Andrews in a Nun habit. But this year is different,  way different....

I've shed more than a few tears, as I am forced by the Back to School supplies on my way to pick up milk...I've actually avoided shopping in general. Why the h*** should glue sticks and Crayola bring tears?

It's my Dad....

This will be the first school year, he won't be putting my kids back to school....

Dad placed a great importance on education, it was the public school teacher in him....

Every August, Dad would call and ask "How much do you want??" And then send me a check for that amount, and then some...

In the earlier years, while he was still able, he would go to the Vans store in Orange County and pick out a unique pair of shoes for each one of them...His taste was impeccable.

Dad was a life saver. I never paid for so much as a pencil for all of Holly's education. Clothes, shoes, back packs, supplies they had all they needed and more. I never took it for granted or for one second forget how blessed we were by his gift.

But now that he's gone, Crayola and glue sticks bring tears.

The Superman and I are able to pick up the torch and buy what they need...Still....It's just not the same.

I miss him.

Cousins and Critters

The Kramer cousins (the slightly less crazy ones) have spent the week with us. We LOVE it when they come....Endless colouring, crafts and nail polish...while their mother and I trade secrets on how to survive being the wife of a Kramer, over copious amounts Starbucks and Slurpees. Its awesome and everybody would be content with never leaving the walls of Casa de Kramer. But, Today we visited our friends' bison farm.....

Who doesn't love a baby water buffalo?

 They really are like over grown dogs (the water buffalo, not the niece ;))

 

So sweet!!!!

 Holly hanging with her homies :) Water buffalo left, Holly middle :) Bison right.

All went well until he attacked the hair :)

 

Such a fun afternoon! Thanks Vance's!

 

Whale Tales

The Superman mentioned a few weeks ago, that he wanted to do something memorable with the kids... There has not been a single day or weekend when everybody has been home. So we made everybody take this weekend off. And bit the bullet and went whale watching off Telegraph Cove, BC. A place none of us had been before. Three hours north of us, truly in the middle of nowhere.....

A tiny quaint boardwalk village...with original wooden buildings on pilings from the 1910-1930's.

A step back in time, in true west coast fashion. Every minute of the drive was well worth it.

Setting sail....Grant refused, the titanic shot....but settled for this one :)

We heading south down the Johnson Straight, trying to catch up to a pod of orca seen that morning...

An hour and a half later and just when I was beginning to think...If we don't see a D*** whale, I'm going to be P******!!!...There they were....more than a dozen resident orca playing in the calm waters....

 We were so close you could here them breaching....It was AMAZING!!! For more than an hour and a half we watched and listened and took it all in. I gave up worrying about "the Shot"(moving whale, moving boat, moving water, crap-tastic camera) and just marveled in the amazing world we live in....

It was worth every penny.

Memories don't have a price.

The ride back was long, but beautiful...

We got back just in time to check out the Whale Museum and have dinner.

It will only be a short time, until they start leaving home...What a wonderful memory.

We loved the Stubbs Island tour and would totally do it again.

Hints:

Don't do with kids younger than 8 or 10....it will seem boring to them.

Bring your own food (we had coolers full of drinks and snacks) food there is EXPENSIVE.

Book way ahead...we wanted to stay in the board walk cabins...but they were completely booked.

Get a good camera with a telephoto lens...we had our two crap-tastic point and shoots and I was ready to throw our newer one in the drink, within the hour.

Gas up in Campbell River...there are no stations on the highway for nearly 200kms and no station in Telegraph Cove.

Dress warm....it is always COLD out on the water.

Never Consume Root Beer Floats in Public

So I kinda forgot to mention, our starter child received McDonald's employee of the month (August) for all of Comox Valley and a promotion all in the same day.

 Holly texted us a picture of her certificate,  on our way up the Kootenay Pass (the first time, before I desecrated the car with spray cheese ;) ) It took me nearly 4 1/2 minutes to text back "Way 2 Go!!! " With the road trip and all I kinda forgot about Holly's little over achievement...Until last night...

Holly and I joined the Superman for a quick coffee break in the Mc D's in Wally World....Get a root beer float, mom they're awesome, MC D's doesn't have floats???  Ask them to add soft serve to your root beer and they do? (no wonder she's employee of the month;))...

So we each get a float...Super knows better and gets a blizzard knock-off...It only cost us a couple of dollars and as I look a little confused...someone mentions that its the employee of the month discount....Then I remember my offspring's little over achievement :)...."Mom not one word!" I keep all the employee of the month comments rolling around my skull to myself, Oh the restraint

At the counter Holly started to drink her float and instantly sets off a geyser...I start laughing hysterically as she tries to stop the overflowing float and clean up the mess all at the same time (The I Love Lucy candy factory episode comes to mind)....

Apparently I'm a real SLOW learner....


So I shove the straw in my float and take a drink....Geyser number two instantly explodes. I did the only thing that came to mind and put my mouth over the straw to stop it (I suck at science)....The fire hose effect of float caused me to cough and sputter and essentially spray root beer ever where....The geyser is continuing to send float all over me, my white carpi's and the floor....I look up to realise Holly's coworkers are finding complete enjoyment out of my demise....

The Superman is laughing, Holly is laughing all of Mc D's is laughing (Pay back's a...)...The Superman stops snorting long enough to grab me a sleeve of napkins...Thanks.

And you wonder why Holly never wants to be seen with us :)...And now we know why Mc D doesn't serve Root Beer Floats.

Congrats Holly on your crowning achievement of the Summer :)

And why can't I eat in public or wear white pants???

{Finding} My Calling

Just over a year ago I was released from my favourite calling ever.... {In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a "calling" is a position or assignment in which members have been asked to serve or perform.} Serving in the RS presidency was my comfort zone and I have missed being involved terribly....

This last year has been full of change and lessons and growth...Ward Chorister suited me just fine, but I missed the creative opportunities other callings can provide.

A few weeks ago I got a new (another) calling...

Primary Chorister ... I gladly accepted.

Who wouldn't love having fun with music and kids for 20 minutes each Sunday???....

I have big shoes to fill....the prior chorister is a gifted teacher and musician, put she's moving :(

I'm not a soloist and I don't play instruments But...

What I lack in talent I can make up for in laminated visual aids :)

This week I focus on making visuals for the songs for the presentation coming in a few short months.....

Nephi's Courage....I found a pdf for these stick figures here . It only included the first two verses so I picked my own pictures for the 3rd verse and used print shop to match the size.

As a Child of God....Word strips with pictures from a pdf file I can't find again.

I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus....I picked through an old gospel art kit and found pictures that matched each phase and added a few picture or word reminders to fill in the blanks

 Choose the Right....I made a flip chart and THEN realized that several already existed on line.

Stand For The Right....Poster with key words/pictures

When I Am Baptized....clip art and pictures cut from magazines

The Wise and The Foolish Man....I made a rain stick, following the tutorial here to use on the chorus...the next one I make will be longer for a better sound, but this will work for primary

At some point I want to teach the kids about whole notes, half notes and quarter notes....a felt pizza (made up a pattern as I went) will teach the concept using something they can understand...

I then made felt birthday crowns for the famous birthday songs... Pattern found here

I'm in the process of assembling simple instruments we can have even more fun with and annoy the teachers ;)

It's been so therapeutic to break out the laminater again...

This last week, grief has been my ever present companion...I am missing my Dad terribly(not even sure why now). Working on music, music, music has provided great relief...In some small way  allowing me to honour his legacy. He loved teaching music and did so for nearly 50 years.

I'm going to love this calling.

It's no coincidence that our callings are exactly what we need at time :)

Angel Falls...Kramer Style :)

Tonight was the first night EVERYBODY was home at the same time, this Summer....The consensus...Lets go to Angel Falls...All I wanted was the classic "we live in paradise" sibling shot. Parting a body of water would have been simpler....

Just flipping smile!!! Sanding within arms distance(of each other) won't kill you!!!... 

That'll do, donkeys...that'll do...sigh

But seeing who could do the best jump....didn't take any effort at all

Not in focus...but the fact that he's sticking his tongue out like that...makes me laugh....

Warm summer evening...we had the place all to ourselves...

 I realized how much are kids are growing up....Time all together is golden. Thankful for tonight, even though they are the least photogenic kids in Canada ;)

I Heart BC

How can you tell you live on the west coast of BC  .....

A barefoot man, in skin tight yoga pants, is doing yoga, minus the mat, in the middle of the outside deck on the ferry....and everybody just politely steps over and walks around him...with barely a sideways glance.....this is the G-rated shot ;)....

Another BC summer must buy, especially driving thru the Okanagan....

Fresh fruit...straight from the orchard....

Peaches and Cherries were in season....

The trick was to get them in the freezer fast enough....

 Pitting 20 lbs of cherries by hand :) Thanks Maddie....

I guess I better learn to make pies :)

I heart BC.

Simplicity

We just spent last week picking up the man child from my In Laws....

Dallyn has spent the first five weeks of summer, in middle of nowhere....Yahk, BC (population 127). The in laws don't actually live in Yahk, they live 3 klicks outside of the thriving metropolis. In a 400 sq ft cabin, completely by choice....

No cell service, no Internet, no grocery store....few creature comforts, I never really understood it...but this visit I totally got it...

SIMPLICITY....

They have all they need.....Wood stove, big screen tv, two lazy boys and this.....

The world's best fire pit....I think everyone should have one, it would sure save on the therapy bills....

Bruce even put in a second bathroom this year....an out house, complete with electric lights, inside and out.

I left, completely envious of their life style....Its made me stop and think about priorities and necessities. I think its time to simplify.

Dallyn lived a twelve year olds dream...

Climbing trees, tubing the river (that backs their property) and driving this.....

Grandpa's truck....only on the property...The Superman and I weren't out of the car five minutes before Dallyn had to show us...he even backed the truck in and parked it...the 12 year old drives better than some un-named older siblings ;)

Simplicity... I think I like. :)

{Don't } Say Cheese

The in laws live {in the middle of nowhere} a few kilometers north of the Idaho/BC border....They insisted we spend a day shopping in Idaho. Wandering thru a US grocery store always bring back memories of growing up in California. {The fact that most of my memories involve food, would be a shirks field day to figure out ;)}

I had picked up the usual things we can't get in Canada....Hawaiian Punch....Cherry Coke....then I saw it....

Oh yeah, Cheese in a Can....I love cheese in a can...Memories of Ritz crackers and spray cheese and road trips to Canada with mom flooded my mind....

"Robin, that stuff's nasty....how could you eat that?!?" The Superman interrupts me. Come on it's not that bad...I grab a can and a box of cracker's....

We head home the next morning...We start to head up the Salmo-Creston pass as I start to enjoy my processed cheese treat. Nozzle to cracker, I start dispensing cheese onto my forth cracker.....

It sounds like a gun shot and the Superman yells "What the hell heck was that!?!"

 It takes us a split second to realize that an aerosol can of cheese and a rapid change in altitude equal cheese all over the driver's side of the car....Sorry Grant...

After that the stuff didn't seem all that appetizing...

After we got home the kids thought it was hilarious, even the dog wouldn't eat the stuff.

Another childhood memory debunked ;)