I Have OCHCD- Obsessive Compulsive House Cleaning Disorder :)

Last night we hosted the Bishop's Youth Fireside at Casa de Kramer and it was awesome.......

But when Grant announced the fireside last week and its location, our abode. I cringed. I have this OCD thing with my home needing to be spotless to have anybody over and everyone in my home seriously MOCKS my anxiety. My kids say stuff like "Teenagers don't care if the hand towels in the bathroom match." or "Mom no one is going to look under the couch cushions." or "No one will go in the laundry room, so why clean it."

I know that my anxieties are down right ridiculous. My kids are right teenagers don't care (Not one of them complimented me on my matching hand towels, go figure?) All of the adults that came over are dear friends, have large families, wouldn't care how messy my house is, and know that my clean house is a total fake out. They all know, if you want to see how the Kramer's really live....come over unannounced:)

What I loved last night was the Spirit a bunch of squirly teenagers brought into our home as our Bishop presented the theme "We Believe" for the 2011 mutual year.


[To watch the videos first pause the music player at the bottom of the page, otherwise the double audio is annoying]

Theme Song for 2011



Korean Youth /Standing Together/13 th Article of Faith


MY FAVOURITE : Seeking What's Good Song


I will clean my house any day for these opportunities. We have a great ward family. Have an awesome, but humble Bishop and amazing youth. It is an honour to share our home with all them, cleaning anxiety and all :)

Pretzels & Popcorn

So what do your kids do with their pretzels?? Mine, when extremely bored, turn them into educational toys.

Who knew a 10 & 12 year old could have so much fun with a bag of snack food.

Speaking of snack food.....

Today Grant and I decided to abandon the rug rats and take off for the day. A much needed sanity break for both of us. We took the ocean side route down to Nanaimo, a beautiful drive, with a quick stop in Parksville at my favourite second hand store :) We had a bunch of gift cards from Christmas and the kids decided to pool them all and asked us to pick out a "family" gift at Sears for them. Grandma & Grandpa, look what you got the kids for Christmas....

A theatre style popcorn popper.....it makes 50 cups of popcorn at a time and makes the house smell great! The kids were surprised and think its awesome. I know its not really practical but Christmas isn't about being practical. Thanks guys I am sure we will use it well.

Pretzels & popcorn made for a great Saturday.

Other notables from today:

- Water fight inside....good times

-Holly to Alex: "Alex go die!" Alex(not missing a beat) " I always wanted to meet Jesus" said in her best southern drawl

-eating popcorn, watching Star Trek (the newer one I actually like) with the kids and only saying "will everyone just be quiet!"(ok I probably said shut up) only twice. :)

I Will Survive....Parenting Teens?

The best parenting advice that I ever got was from my Grandma Beena. "Raise your kids so other people can stand them!, Robin" She told me not long after Holly was born. My Grandma was 95 at the time. It wasn't until years later I completely understood the wisdom in her words.

Fast forward 17 years, I sure wish Grandma Beena was here to help me through the teen years...This is way more challenging in a different way then I ever imagined. And most of the time I feel I am barely hanging on by my fingernails. The last week the ATTITUDE around here was in overdrive times 3 and my "perfect" home was far from peaceful. To add to it, I had to coordinate a Parenting Workshop for Relief Society and I felt like the last person on the planet who should be giving out advice of any kind, much less on parenting.

As I began to put together something I might share at the workshop, I came across a talk from the last General Conference entitled "Courageous Parenting by Elder Larry R. Lawrence"

Entire talk...well worth the read:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/courageous-parenting?lang=eng

It was the exact pep talk I needed:) This is what I shared with at the workshop from that article.........

In these last days, what the world really needs is courageous parenting from mothers and fathers who are not afraid to speak up and take a stand.

Imagine for a moment that your daughter was sitting on the railroad tracks and you heard the train whistle blowing. Would you warn her to get off the tracks? Or would you hesitate, worried that she might think you were being overprotective? If she ignored your warning, would you quickly move her to a safe place? Of course you would! Your love for your daughter would override all other considerations. You would value her life more than her temporary goodwill.

Challenges and temptations are coming at our teenagers with the speed and power of a freight train. As we are reminded in the family proclamation, parents are responsible for the protection of their children. That means spiritually as well as physically.

Also from the same talk...speaking to your teens about relationships & morality....

Parents can prevent a lot of heartache by teaching their children to postpone romantic relationships until the time comes when they are ready for marriage. Prematurely pairing off with a boyfriend or girlfriend is dangerous. Becoming a “couple” creates emotional intimacy, which too often leads to physical intimacy. Satan knows this sequence and uses it to his advantage. He will do whatever he can to keep young men from serving missions and to prevent temple marriages.
It is vital that parents have the courage to speak up and intervene before Satan succeeds. President Boyd K. Packer has taught that “when morality is involved, we have both the right and the obligation to raise a warning voice.”

Often I feel overwhelmed at the task a head of us. Getting five children to adulthood alive and so other people can stand them, some days seems impossible. I am grateful that I am not alone in my task as a parent of teenagers. I have their Aunts & Uncles who love them and always are way cooler than me, YW leaders who remind me, that my girls are wonderful when I have forgotten that for just a second and my Superman who is the calm, rational one. I will survive and so will they....Right???

A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A

Hang around me long enough and you will discover that I am spelling disabled. I have struggled in English classes my whole life, never made it pass the first round in a spelling bee and barely scraped by English 30 with a 59%. Needless to say, I can't spell anything to save my life and without spell check I am completely lost.

So when Alex announced that she had entered the school Spelling Bee I was slightly surprised but grateful I had not passed on my spelling bee phobia to her.

She studied off and on for the last week or so and wasn't worried when she left for school yesterday morning...I wished her luck and apologized for not being able to go watch her that afternoon (I know bad mommy). I had a busy day and honestly forgotten about the bee, when Alex came in the door after school.

Alex:"I came in 6th Mom!"

Me: "In what?"

Alex:"The. Spelling. Bee.!?"

Me: "Wow, that's great!", "Out of how many?"

Alex: "Seventy-Seven"

Me: "That's fantastic!"

Then the mommy guilt hit and I felt bad I hadn't made it there to see her.Sorry Alex :( Thank heavens Alex has not held it against me.

The last word she spelled correctly was ABRACADABRA and yes I had to look up how to spell it. Way to go my little spelling phenom. (I just corrected six spelling mistakes in this blog post alone.)

Beach Walk/Robin Ate Sushi :)

Today Grant had a day off, the rug rats were all in school and we had nothing to do....That hasn't happened in forever. :) So we took Tater down to Kye Bay for a walk one the beach.

The Cormorant helicopter from 19 Wing Comox was out on a training run. It was pretty cool to watch.

That's Powell River in the background (mainland BC)

There was quite the land slide part way down the beach, high tide made it impossible to get around so we had to cut our walk short....I was just happy to have had an afternoon with my sweetheart :)

Tonight our family was invited to share a traditional Korean meal with the Cho-Moon family in their home. I am always humbled when someone invites our family over to a meal, its no small feat to feed all of us (like inviting a basketball team over) and is definitely a sacrifice. June & Sugin made Sushi, a potato noodle dish, Korean pancakes, soup and a salad. It was all EXCELLENT!!!! I even ate sushi (it had ham instead of fish, but it still counts) and I liked it, I really liked it. We had a wonderful visit and are very grateful for the many wonderful friends we have here.

Sunday Shenanigans

Anybody who knows the Kramer kids well, knows that my Holly & my Madison are like oil and water. Put them in the same room without adult supervision and without fail an argument usually ensues. Their relationship reminds me of how my sister and I were in high school, so I don't worry too much because Kelli & I turned out to be great friends, once we became adults. So I figure Madison & Holly will do the same.

Today however I failed to notice that H & M were sitting next to one another in Sacrament Meeting (rookie mistake) until they were harassing each other. I made them switch spots as I muttered "will you two ever get along" as I gave Grant, on the stand, the "look what I have to put up with" glare and prayed for the patience to survive the next hour....Half way through the meeting Madison handed me her picture and said "This is the only place we ever got along, Mom" Madison thanks for giving me a good laugh on a high council Sunday :)

This is what happens with Dallyn and his friends when all of the adult supervision is in ward choir practice.....

Dallyn, Riley & Jake (thanks for the picture Ashawna)

They build snowmen, on the Church lawn..."But mom they're Sunday Snowmen, they have ties on" Yes, yes they do :) Good job boys!

Never Ask Mom Anything.....

All of my kids have learned, usually the hard way, if you ask me a question I will give a straight answer. Especially if that information will embarrass you :). Bailey was my last victim, last year when she innocently asked "what's Viagra??" after seeing the commercial :) he he he.....

Last night Dallyn was in the hot seat.....after watching a public service announcement, with all of his sisters and a friend of theirs in the room :)

Dallyn: "Mom what's prostate cancer?"

Me: "The kind of cancer Grandpa has."

Dallyn: "What's the prostate??"

Me: "The male organ the produces semen.

Dallyn: "What's semen??", every one in the room laughs hysterically

Me: "This is something we can talk about in private"

Dallyn: "Oh no!, this is one of those things we learn about in one of those Grade 6 special classes, just for boys!"

He sighs, shakes his head and leave the room...while the snickering continues. Man I love that boy!!!