That'll Learn 'em :)

So this morning was an epic fail....The house did not survive everyone getting out the door. If messing up a house was an Olympic sport I gave birth to 5 gold medallists. So this is the note my Superman left for our athletes.....

Some how coming from Dad, they knew he meant it. My superman has such a way with words :)

What's Shaking!!!

Grant's cell phone rings while we are picking up lunch....Alex:"Dad we just had an earthquake!" "I thought I felt the bench move" Grant says. " Alex calm down, you need to move closer to the house, the phone isn't working".....

We get our meals to go and quickly head home. All while fielding multiple phone calls from our High School kids who had been evacuated from school. It seemed that the East Courtenay hill that we live on and where the kids schools are felt it much more intensely than where we were.

We got home to two freaked out kids who had done all the right things. After the shaking they waited outside until it was safe to go back inside. Grateful for good neighbours who come over to check on and reassure them. They told a scary tale of the tv bouncing, the blinds swinging and the doors rattling (proof that they don't zone completely out while watching tv).

When the older kids got home we had similar accounts. "It sounded like someone was walking on the roof, and then everything started shaking" " The principal came on and said "We're having an earthquake, everyone under their desks!" Holly, who was in the gym was told to run out side. After, the school was evacuated as a precaution.

The earthquake was centered off the west coast close to Tofino. 6.7 on the Richter scale, later down graded to 6.4.

Read the news report here

This is a great opportunity to discuss "what to do" with our kids and maybe check on those 4 year old 72 hour kits ;)

Back to School Happy Dance!

Back to School could not come fast enough this summer.{I know bad parent!} This morning was pretty uneventful other than I was informed by my oldest that this is the last time they will all start public school together. Holly is a senior this year, something that seems impossible. Didn't we just drop her off for kindergarten last year?

They were all as happy to go back as I was to send them.

My elementry kids were up at the crack of dawn, couldn't get the darlings up before the crack of noon all summer. At one point I got up to tell them to shut up please be quiet so the rest of us lazy people could sleep. When we dropped them off, they both jumped and ran, refusing to let us help them find their classrooms...I guess they are all growing up...ahhh shucks.

Nothing says welcome back to school  on the Island, like a cougar sighting!!! This is on the way that the kids take to and from school (just blocks from our house). The kids will be staying off the trails for now, unless they really annoy me ;)

The "Fast Food" Haircut



BEFORE

my hair is tucked behind my ears



Well the superman and I both needed haircuts so we ran to the place just a minute from our house. Our whole family has gotten our hair cut there for more than a year and never been disappointed once.... 

So I go in with the above hair and ask for the same style with the back shaped up and the same style in the front just slightly shorter. I mentioned that I liked my hair to sweep in front of my lazy eye.  Ever other haircut,  they cut the back first then blend in the front. So the hairdresser starts at the top of the back of my head, holds up a piece and asks "is this how much you want off" "As long as the back doesn't stick up" I say. "Don't worry it won't"  She proceeds in four chops to take more than 4" off the top of my head right to my hair line, before I realize she is moving forward than back....

I am horrified, realizing that she had wrecked my hair....I realized I had to say something...."Umm this isn't what I wanted ?1?" "Well I asked you" "I thought you were cutting the back first." "I only did what you told me to, what do you want me to do NOW" she had become very defensive... I knew the lady cutting hair behind her was the manager{she had cut my hair half a dozen times before} so I asked to speak to her. The manager came over and asked my stylist to leave and take care of something in the back....She acknowledged that this was not what I wanted or asked for. She led my to her chair to try to fix it...I did something that shocked even me. I started to cry and the more I tried to stop, the worse it was. As I sat down I noticed my superman at the door trying to decide whether to escape to the car or not. He understood my leave and die glare, and I his stop embarrassing the family name glare....

In less than a minute I regained my composure all while the manager is apologizing profusely and complementing me on what awesome hair I have. {Like she dare say anything else}. She "fixed" as best she could. Compt the haircut and gave me a bunch of free cut coupons. I apologized for crying and explained that I am just super self conscience about my lazy eye and used my hair to cover it {when people can't tell who I'm looking at.} I hadn't really ever acknowledged or realized how much it can bother me...She again apologized.

As Grant and I walk to the car he says"Well it doesn't look that bad.."

As we drive home he his chuckling to himself.."What's so funny!!" 

"Well I hope you will stop getting Fast Food Haircuts!!" "What?!?" Now I'm annoyed...."Well complaining about a haircut from there, is like taking your hamburger back to McDonald's and saying it's too greasy!!!" And then he won't stop laughing and by the time I got home.... I was laughing too. He was right it is just hair and it will grow back. Grant also suggested I could tattoo an arrow on my right cheek pointing up {suggesting which eye to look at}. So glad I married a comedian.

AFTER

Gotta love it!

That's Gotta Hurt

Well we almost made it the whole summer with out a Kramer kid injury....We were 21 hours and 35 mins from a major accomplishment. It would have been the first summer since 1994 we didn't have a kid injury requiring medical attention....Of coarse Dallyn had to ruin it for us.

 

This afternoon Dallyn some how managed to slam his own hand in the sliding glass door on our deck...I even watched it happen and still can't figure out how he managed it. At first I thought he had slammed the palm part and thought that's gotta hurt...Then I realized he was hyperventilating and his fingers were dripping. 

I grabbed the ice and a rag all while Dallyn was reaching a new level of hysterics I have never before witnessed, in any rug rat let alone my boy....Dallyn had the injured hand in a vice grip with the other hand and would not let me look at it.

In the couple of quick glimpses I did get I realized this was clinic-worthy. The one of three cuts was pretty deep and I worried he might have broken them.

the other side of his index finger also has a nice gash on it

At least he had stopped screaming "I'm going to die, please call Dad" by the time we got to the clinic.

No stitches needed or breaks. Just two very sore fingers...and the defeat of an almost perfect record.

Draining Our Bank Account and Sanity in Less than an Hour....

So we headed out this yesterday to start and finish our back to school shopping...More than two of my children said "You mean we're going as a family, all together, at the same time??" Something I have decided to not take personally. {Maybe if you didn't fight we would love you more take you'll places}.

The fact that we drive the world's largest passenger vehicle that doesn't require a bus license, does nothing for us in the KWWF {Kramer World Wrestling Federation} department. Madison and Dallyn we both told "Touch each other again and you're walking home" before we even pulled into the gas station...sigh.

As we headed to the store I explained, there will be NO begging. Its supplies, shoes, socks and underwear. That's it. New clothes will wait til next month. I told them I would help them one at a time....Right in the middle of my rant....the boy asks "What's a hickey??" {I'll never understand how that boy's brain works} So I launch in to a detailed explanation until Dallyn said "Dad, make her stop!" That should learn him.

As we walked into the big box fun house. I instantly felt my bank account draining and my blood pressure rising.  I made it down to Dallyn's glue sticks and handed Dallyn and Alex's lists to an older sibling and said just help them find the cheapest price and pick out your own crap. Even this Mother-of-the-Year knows her limits and 3 and a half minutes in I had reached mine.

We then headed to find shoes....The child that I bought a size 5 for last year I bought a 9 for this year. Holly some how convinced me that denim boots were practical. Madison now wears the same size shoe...as her DAD. And I let one of them get white shoes? {even though I know they'll look bad in two days}...They all knew that I was at my breaking point and took full advantage of it.

After 30 minutes at the check out,we had dropped just under $400 in less than an hour and we haven't even started on the clothes yet. If spending money was a sport....sigh.

And yes I came home and took a NAP!

I Love to See the Temple

My Superman and I had the oppurtunity to go to the Vancouver Temple this week with the other members of our ward's bishopric. I hate to admit it but this is the first time we have been back since the open house more than a year ago.

Its been a long,trying month around here...which  made me even more grateful for the peace attending the temple brings.  

It was also a unifying experience for our new bishopric. 

I love to see the temple, I'm going there TODAY.

This was the sunset back on the Island has we drove home. 

A beautiful end to a beautiful day. A perfect reminder for me that life is beautiful, even in the midst of trouble, worry and heartache. Our Heavenly Father is always there for us. The blessing of this last month have been humbling.

Ever wondered why Mormons build temples? watch this.........