The Parentals

There are so few pictures of my parents together and smiling, the result of their choices not mine. So I was really surprised when I came across this one after my Mom's passing, I didn't ever remember seeing it before. Growing up I always thought my parents were the biggest NERDS ever and super OLD. As a parent of teenagers, I now understand that my feelings had nothing to do with my parents and everything to do with the flawed logic of all teen aged kind.My Mom & Dad Anaheim, California - late 1960's
Along with this picture we also found a box of love letters between my Mom & Dad. It was surreal and heart warming to get a glimpse into the ideal life (at least for a time) that my parents had lived before Kelli & I came along. My parents left Utah in 1963, just weeks after getting married on a whim in Las Vegas, chasing the California dream. And by many standards they had achieved it. Both were high school teachers, dad drove a VW Bug and mom a '64 Burgundy Mustang. They bought a small house and played gigs most weekends. From their letters we learned that they were happy and very much in love.

My parents weren't nerds at all, they were down right GROOVY!! I hope someday that my rug rats will realize how SWEET, RAD & TOTALLY AWESOME Grant & I are :)

You're the Parent of Teenagers When.....

You know you're a parent of teenagers when....

1. You own seven handsets and you still can never find a phone....

2. You go through 2 gallons of milk in 12 hours, yes 12 hours, making you contemplate buying a cow

3. You don't even bother to investigate why there is chocolate cake batter on the ceiling in the living room, no one will admit to it any way

4.You do no less than 25 loads of laundry a week and the funny noise the washer is now making causes you to include the appliance in your prayers

5. You no longer own your own clothes (or anything for that matter) because the teenage philosophy is "what's mine is mine and what's yours is now mine"

6. You seriously think about wrapping your new car in pool noodles and duct tape, in hopes that you can keep your insurance rate from spiking.

7. You have said "Would you like a snorkel with that?" at the dinner table, as you are continually amazed at the volume of food you go through. 22 quesadillas, 18 sloppy joes, 3 gallons of beef barley soup...but who's really counting this week

8. You have come to accept the fact that you will never text as fast as your offspring and they will talk to you like you're the village idiot anytime they are explaining something technical.

9. You yell at them to get off their facebook page because, they have spent too much time on it....so you can go on yours :)

10. You would seriously pay a million dollars to the first finder of the parenting owner's manual you are sure they came with, but have been searching for since each of them was about 9 hours old.

Today I felt like I had entered the parenting twilight zone before my darling rug rats had even left for school, I knew I should of locked myself in my room when I had the chance :). Just hoping tomorrow's a better day :)

Snow Day :)

Although there was only 2 cm of snow on the ground at 9 last night, the kids where all praying for a snow day...me not so much. Around midnight, after watching a car slide in to the neighbours front yard, 4 wheel drives struggling to get up our hill and a transformer flash every time the wind blew hard, I was pretty sure their prayers would be answered....When we lost power around 3 am, by then there was 15 more cm and it was snowing hard, I was wondering how the heck Grant was going to get his car out of the driveway much less up the hill to be to work by 6:30 am.

The power was back on at 5 am, when Grant asked me to get the kids up to start shovelling. My kids were less than thrilled, but they did get up and kept their grumbling to a minimum. There was more than a foot on the driveway by then

It took the 4 of us an hour to shovel the car out and down just one side of the driveway, to the street. It was now snow/ raining and blowing hard....I was colder than at the polar bear swim....

Grant then got stuck at the end of the street, 20 more minutes of shoveling and pushing, he finally made it to the main road and made it to work....


It always amazes me how quickly the weather can change around here....4 hours later the sun was shining and it was 10 degrees warmer.....

The grader clearing the drifts the ploughs had made....metal scraping on concrete is such a lovely sound ;)

Alex and Dallyn had to take advantage of the snow day....

The rain is supposed to hit this afternoon and keep raining for more than a week so the white stuff won't last long.

***Official snow fall total for Courtenay, BC : 35 cm / 14 inches ***

Lessons from the Short Bus

Grade 5- the year I had surgery and rode the short bus

Last night I laid awake for hours because my legs & feet just ached. This is nothing new, but they haven't ached like that in forever. Pretty sure its 'cause I wore high heals two days in a row (Grant's management party & Church)...I know I am such a slave to fashion, NOT! First time I've worn heels since the six hours of torture at High School grad....



I don't ever remember not dealing with muscle spasms in my legs and feet. Its the only annoying side affect of my mild cerebral palsy. At least the lazy eyes, bad coordination, and drooling when I'm tired don't hurt :) Anyways....



As I laid there last night I tried to think of all the good things I have learned from having to deal with physical challenges. (I think I was just trying to talk myself out of a pity party.)





When I was around 4, I started attending a rehabilitation centre, after school, three or more days a week. I spent countless hours there for physical and occupational therapy, which I didn't always enjoy. I was super jealous of my sister who got to go home and watch after school cartoons. But at RIO (can't remember what that stood for) I was surround by other kids who had many more challenges than I did and I learned early to focus on all that I could do, instead of what I struggled with.





At 10, I distinctively remember the appointment with my pediatric orthopedic surgeon as he told my mom that I had finally grown enough and it was time to do the reconstructive surgery on both feet. The inside muscle on both feet had pulled so tightly it had caused my feet to be severely pigeon-toed and both heel bones to curve. Making walking very difficult. It involved major surgery, several months in a wheel chair and then many more in walking casts. I was terrified. As part of my preparation for surgery I attended a class for kids, at the hospital (CHOC Children's Hospital of Orange County) that went through all the different procedures. There was a boy in my class the was having major heart surgery, his mom told my mom that his survival was in question (I never did know what happened to him) Even at ten I understood that my surgery although scary, was not life threatening and I felt sorrow for this boy and his family. I learned empathy early.





After surgery, the casts and wheelchair made it necessary for me to ride the special needs bus (aka the short bus) to and from school and yes sadly I was teased because of it. On that bus however, I met a boy named Bill. Bill was in a motorized wheelchair and only had limited control of his head and hands. He was the funnest kid I had ever met. Happy, always had a joke to tell, and showed me how to write dirty words upside down in a calculator :). From Bill I learned that attitude is everything. No matter what our lot in life is we can still choose to be happy.





My surgery was successful, the recovery was painful but the benefit of an empathic heart and straight feet has been awesome, I still fall easy but at least its not from tripping over my own two feet. I honestly wouldn't change a thing.





After a hot bath and good old Advil I was finally able to drift off into never-never land. I will always have to weigh the price vs benefit of wearing high heels, So "I told you so" is certainly in order if you ever hear me whining about this again :)

Sticker Shock

I am usually not afraid of the mail man (although Tater loathes him) but I think this week I have changed my mind. Tuesday, right in the middle of me blissfully soaking up the peace and quiet of all my kids back at school, the kind mail man slides the BC Hydro bill through the slot. I was expecting it. I knew it would be high with the Christmas season and all. But, when I saw the numbers 6-2-5 with the decimal point after the five I became weak at the knees.(We are billed two months at a time.& everything in the house is electric. Heat, hot water etc.)When I announced the number to Grant he thought I was kidding. I wish I was. Apparently my kids think the power bill is a contest...the highest one wins, I think we are in the running. I'm definitely NOT a tree hugger, but even I have to admit that we have wasted energy and need to make some drastic changes.

After the initial Sticker Shock wore off, we had a rather intense family meeting with our "power piggy's"(the eye rolling was hard to ignore)....We came up with the following rules/ideas to lessen our power consumption.

-5 minute showers, strictly enforced
-one towel a week, one outfit a day
-one TV on at a time (our kids have a habit of watching all 3 TV's simultaneously, usually on the same channel)
-leave the light on in your bedroom- lose your light bulb (H&B have already lost theirs)
-wash all laundry in cold, run full loads only...teenagers have this annoying habit of washing one pair of jeans and a hoodie, ignoring the mountain of laundry sitting there
-I also discovered that electric base board heaters should be vacuumed out at least twice a year, dust build up lessens their efficiency (who knew?)
-Turn down the heat in bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry and storage rooms and leave the doors closed
-shut all blinds and curtains at night, can cut heat loss by 30 %

-I also discovered that BC Hydro offers a BC Hydro Energy Conservation Assistance Program (ECAP)They will send you a kit that will help make your home more energy efficient, and if you are lower income, its free. You can also apply to have a technician come and install all the stuff for you, for free...but the kit is faster and less paper work

www.bchydro.com/ecap

I am hoping we can get our power bill under control or my power piggy's can pay the next bill :)

Holly....Surprise!

Like I've said before....I HATE throwing my kids birthday parties and if that makes me a terrible mother and a birthday Grinch, I can live with that... So when Holly's BFF Milena offered to throw a surprise party, at her house for Holly's 17th I secretly jumped for JOY. Thanks Milena for bailing me out of my dreaded parental obligation.
The fact that Holly still has not forgiven us for abandoning her on her 16th birthday(we handed her her new cell phone and took of to Ucluelet for the weekend) made it all that much more fun to act like nothing was planned this year :) We have discovered however that keeping a secret in the Kramer household is darn near impossible. We had to threaten to return any and all Christmas presents if anyone dare spill the beans.(I even showed them my stack of saved receipts) The threat worked and Holly didn't have a clue.

Milena did an awesome job of everything, all I had to do was supply the dollar store decor. If you ask me this was the perfect way to throw a party.

Holly had a fantastic night and thanks Laura (Milena's mom) for providing the parental supervision and your beautiful home to all of Holly's hooligans.

Wow, Sisterly love. This is a rare shot. Most days they have a hard time sharing their rooms, the bathrooms, the hair straightener, the same air space.....OK you get the point. Even if they are just pretending for the cake, I'll take it :)

Oh Holly you are so mature now. So maybe you can forgive us for last year??? You know, forgive and forget :)

Polar Bear Swim.....BRRRRR

We live in a really fun, all be it, slightly crazy ward. So, no one even batted an eye when the Bishop suggested a Polar Bear swim for New Year's Day.

Airforce Beach-19 Wing Comox We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day. But don't let the sunshine fool you, it was cold. 1C /34 F and there is frost on those logs.
Grant, me, and the kids, except our chicken Bailey, were game.

Lined up waiting for the insanity to begin...I was the only woman over 18 stupid, I mean brave enough to enter the water.

Yes it was sooo COLD, my feet were instantly numb and I only made it up to my knees before a moment of sanity hit and I headed for dry ground. Grant, Madison & Dallyn went all the way in.

I don't care that I didn't get my head wet, The Polar Bear Swim is now crossed off my bucket list.

Thank heavens for the campfire and the endless supply of Hot Chocolate and Turkey Vegetable soup to warm us up. I'm hoping by morning to feel my feet again. It was all worth it. I was in the Pacific Ocean today with some of my favourite people in the world and it was SSSO MMMUCH FFFUN!!!!