Leaping for Joy on Leap Day

29 reasons why I love my husband:
1.  We have an ongoing joke about who is funnier, but I'll at least give him that he is funny.  He makes me laugh and smile.
2.  He has an amazingly strong work ethic.  We work beautifully together.
3.  He is a wonderful father.  There's a lot of estrogen going on in our house; he is a trooper to handle it all so well.
4.  He is romantic.  I love all of his innuendos.  He makes me feel wanted and loved.
5.  He brings me flowers just because (and most likely because he knows I love that he brings me flowers).
6.  I appreciate his knowledge of the scriptures and gospel topics.
7.  His mind is full of random facts.  He shares them.  (Don't watch airplane-related movies with him though--he'll ruin them every time.)
8.  He loves to travel.  When we travel as a family, he researches the area finding cool activities and adventures for us to experience.
9.  He rubs my feet.
10. He washes dishes on Sunday.
11. He loves electronics, and I love that he encourages me to be tech savvy as well.  He strongly encouraged/made me give up my Franklin planner for the lovely Ipad he gave me for Christmas.
12. When I am not so tech savvy, he is my go-to-guy for technical support.
13. He works extremely hard at his job and to be the best he can be.
14. He is a great kisser.
15. I love his hands.  They are masculine and strong, yet they know how to quickly pull girl hair back in to a pony tail.  (Speaking of hair, he has some of the best guy hair ever!)
16. He serves others.  Christopher has a very giving heart.
17. This man is not only talented at carrying on a conversation but also in drawing people into a conversation.
18. I love that he is tall (and dark and handsome).
19. He is conscientious about maintaining our vehicles to keep us all safe and likes to keep them spotlessly clean.
20. He is an engaging teacher.
21. He is quick to forgive.  I have learned much from him.  And when I am not so quick to forgive, he loves me still.
22. I am the first one he calls when he has exciting news to share (and when the weight of the world is on his shoulders and he just needs a listening ear).
23. He holds my hand.
24. Financially, he and I are on the same page  We are both willing to sacrifice here and now for peace of mind later.
25. I love that I am a better "me" with him than I could possibly be without him.
26. He married me forever.
27. He takes his daughters on dates.
28. He puts up with my weird obsession with finding the "perfect" handbag.  Now that I have a DSLR camera, I might just have to start all over again.
29.  Out of all the people in this world, I want to be with him the most.  He is my best friend, and I would choose him again and again and again.

Only Kristen....

I say that, because only Kristen could come up with some of these things that make us laugh.  In our house, jeans are not often worn out.  My older two girls especially, are growing and outgrowing pants all the time.  Chris ordered some new Guess jeans the other day to add a little more stylish look to his casual, business, after-hours attire.  Kristen, in all of her six-year old wisdom, asked of her father, "Are you growing or is your butt just getting bigger?" !!!!!!!!  Crazy kid.

How to Embarrass Your Daughter

On Friday evening, Amy, Kristen and I were in Dick's Sporting Goods looking for Christopher and Misha.  My phone rang and it was Christopher, who had left the store, and was looking for us back at Aeropostale where the two girls and I had originally started.  I rounded up Kristen easily enough playing on the little putting green in the back corner of the store, but when I turned around to find Amy, she had disappeared.  I don't enjoy walking through a store calling for my children, but I kept calling for Amy and looking for her.  No luck.  No Amy.  Chris was now waiting for us in the entrance and I sent Kristen to stand with him and to not get herself lost.  Misha came in to the store and suddenly I was missing two children.  Seriously, was there some kind of vortex that was sucking my children in?  As a last resort, I went to the front desk and asked the employee working there if there was PA capabilities in the store.  I looked over at Chris, smiled, and he seemed to know exactly what I was going to do.

"Would Amy and Misha please meet their party at the front check out counters."  What do you know, all of a sudden two girls appear out of nowhere.  None too happy, I might add.  "Why did you do that?  We were just right over there!"  Well, I had looked over there and over here and everywhere.  Chris and I shared a self-satisfied smile and high five as we walked out the door.

Skull Candy

I know, the name sounds weird, but when you know that it is a company that makes and sells headphones, it makes a little more sense.  Anyway, Misha received a pair of Skull Candy headphones for Christmas.  It was not a surprise that a few weeks later, they were left on the living room floor.  What was a surprise is that my foot found them there and without realizing it, I busted the headphones by yanking out one of the wires as I stepped.  She could get sound out of one ear still, but really, what ten-year old wants that? I felt somewhat responsible, but we also told Misha that leaving them on the floor was a bad choice and that she was responsible for replacing the headphones.

So here's where I am became impressed with Skull Candy as a company.  I was inspired to check out the warranty on their website.  I learned two things:  1) if you break a pair of Skull Candy headphones, and it is YOUR fault, they will give you a coupon for half the value of the headphones to be purchased from their website (and then shipped to you free of charge), and 2) if a pair of Skull Candy headphones break and it is a manufacturer defect, they will give you a coupon for the full replacement value of the headphones.  Impressive, because they too will be shipped to you for free.

I packaged Misha's headphones up and shipped them off.  Since I was the one who broke Misha's original pair, I felt somewhat responsible.  Skull Candy's impressive warranty helped me to relinquish my guilt--I got her half off.  I told her what I was doing, but she didn't give it much thought until I received an email from the company saying she had a coupon for $20 off a new pair (she could have chosen any pair she wanted).  Misha was responsible for the remaining $20.  She picked out a similar pair of headphones--gold this time for a little bling on her skull.  I haven't noticed that she has left them on the floor since.

Spelling Test

Kristen has a spelling test every Thursday.  Apparently...this eye attire helps you spell better.  And that's a pair of protective goggles over a dorky pair of plastic glasses with no lenses.

A Date with Dad (and shopping)

Chris and I try to regularly take our girls on dates.  I suppose we concentrate on time with Dad a little more than me since he travels.  The girls love the opportunity to spend time with their dad and often argue over whose month it is to go.

I suppose it wasn't a true date since the rest of us tagged along, but Misha had a blast regardless.  She and Chris scheduled a time on President's Day to use a Flight Simulator coupon.  The business happened to be located in the Colorado Mills mall in Golden (so you can understand why the rest of us went too).  We arrived at Aviation Xtreme as other people were finishing up their time.  Since they wanted a hard copy of the groupon, Chris got on their computer to print it out.  With brief instructions, they each climbed in to their respective simulators and donned head phones. 

Amy, Kristen, and I left them to their flying and headed out to explore. I think Kristen had formulated a plan in her mind previous to arriving at the mall, and when she spied Build-A-Bear, she took off. She used all of her birthday money and traded me some gift cards in order to purchase Cindy along with a dress and shoes. Oh the excitement. The lady filling her bear was a little kooky, but I suppose to a six-year old, it didn't really matter. In fact, Amy and I were both standing right there and the employee kept talking to Amy as though she was in charge. Kind of bugged. Amy may be as tall as me, but she definitely doesn't look like an adult. I digress.

Once the bear was stuffed, Kristen and Amy headed over to the primping station to comb and fluff. Amy was into this as well, so I just stood back and let the two of them go.

As we were finishing up, Misha and Chris found us. Misha was all smiles. Apparently she trounced Chris. He said he was going easy on her to begin with and even when he started "trying", Misha beat him. Go Misha!

We ate lunch in the food court (late since we had breakfast at 10 am) and then walked around the mall. I have tried to be on a buying moratorium this month, so we just passed by a lot of stuff that we didn't really need.

President's Day Breakfast

Oh lucky day!  Chris had the day off too.  We took the girls out for breakfast at The Egg and I in Longmont.  We happened upon The Egg and I a month ago in Estes Park and were quite impressed with the selection and the taste and the pancakes that are the size of a serving platter.  If you happen to go and Manny is your server, you'll not find a more personable young man.  I forgot my camera, but imagine us eating pancakes, waffles, steel cut oats, fruit, and bacon.  Yep, that's exactly what it looked like.

Drama Queen

We have three drama queens living at our house.  Their performances/outbursts take on completely different forms, but Amy, Misha, and Kristen can each lay claim to the title.  Yesterday, Kristen was in full drama mode when I countered her behavior with, "You are not the Drama Queen around here."  She didn't even miss a beat as she looked up at me and queried, "Well, who is?"

Misha's Heart

There are days when the angels sing for joy at the presence of an earthly angel.  My heart joined that chorus yesterday.  Misha was at lunch.  One of her classmates did not have lunch and the money in his lunch account was all used up.  Misha quietly moved to the lunch line, purchased a school lunch using her own lunch account, and returned to the table with a lunch tray.  She set the tray down in front of this hungry young man and then returned to eating the lunch I had packed for her.  I can't even begin to express how this touched my heart.  My daughter is an angel.

Zits

While sitting at the breakfast table this morning, Kristen looked over at her dad and announced, "Dad, you have a big bite on your forehead."  Nothing gets past that girl.  Chris and I both started chuckling.  "It is not a bite, Kristen."  She didn't let it go at that and jumped down from her stool and came in for a closer look. "It looks like a bite.  What is it?"

I reply.  "It starts with a 'z'."

"A zebra?"  Yep, my husband has a zebra on his forehead.  Don't mention it.  He's kind of sensitive about it now.

Babysitting

Amy had her first, official babysitting job.  She was sooooooo excited.  She has been our babysitter for a while now and has been looking forward to sitting for others.  So, even though I'm not ready to give her up as my babysitter, I'm willing to share her a little bit.

A Bunch of Sickies

Ugghhghg, it all started with Misha.  She stayed home from school on Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday.  Kristen joined her on Thursday (though by the afternoon, Kristen and I both knew she could/should have gone to school).  Then we had a snow day on Friday.  Everybody stayed home.  I was sick by then.  I thought everyone else was doing fine until Kristen woke me up in the middle of the night with her deep-chested coughing Friday night.  Meanwhile, Chris was stuck in Arizona due to the crazy snow here.  He didn't want to be there, but neither did he want our germs.  He finally made it home on Saturday late afternoon only to pick up the slack and start disinfecting every surface in sight.  Sunday.  Chris was still healthy.  Woohoo.  Amy had succumbed and she, Kristen and I stayed home from church.  Chris left for Arizona again early, early Monday morning.  Amy stayed home with me, and I knew exactly how she was feeling.  Sadly, the older I get, the longer it takes for me to recover.  Amy was back to school today, though I have worried about her all morning knowing she probably feels like crap times two.  Homework and missed classes and assignments and tests--ahh, the life of a middle schooler.  She'll be wiped out when she gets home but she also has a math test tomorrow.  And me?  Excedrin is my friend.

Honor Choir

Back in October or November, Amy came home and announced that she wanted to audition for the Middle School Honor Choir.  It just so happened that she was sick the week of auditions and missed the ones at her school.  Her last chance for auditioning was at the middle school in Erie.  She was still sick but being the great mom that I am, I drove her over just so she could do her five-minute audition.  Since she was sick, she wasn't terribly hopeful that anything positive would come of it, but was later delighted that she had been selected for the honor choir.

The kids had been working with their Music Directors at school (and supposedly on their own as well) to learn the music.  On Thursday, February 3rd, they had the entire day away from their classes to rehearse and work on their music together at Skyline High School.  I had the great fortune of driving kids to the school in the morning and then picking them up in the afternoon again AND then returning once again for the performance in the evening with Amy and Kristen.  (Hooray for iPads that keep little girls occupied while waiting for things to start.)

Fortunately the program wasn't too long as I was worried about the snow storm that was predicted to start.  The kids did a great job.  The boys sang a few songs on their own, the girls then followed up with a few on their own, and then they combined for three songs at the end.

It's No Madonna

So, I've never baked anything before where I saw an actual image in my baked good, but I thought this was pretty cool--an almost symmetrical butterfly on the top of my cornbread.