Afternoon!

For those who haven't seen UP, that title is useless...my girls call the movie "Afternoon" and think they are hilarious when doing it.

Anyways...lol...on with more fabulous posting. It's almost over, I promise. But, no one blogs anymore, so you should be happy....

Sunday morning we vegged and got everyone ready for church. Just like on Saturday for the 4th, Lisa and I wanted our girls to match. I found these cute, bright skirts at The Childrens Place (on sale + 25% off, yay!). I think I am going to have to do a post on just this little photo shoot...this one was the best one...but in each picture I took, they are each making different silly faces.

After church, Sadi Babi's were prepared (so yummy) and James made the Dr Pepper Cake he bought for his mom for her birthday. You can buy all things Dr Pepper in their online store. James thought he was one hilarious dude buying that, since mom loathes Dr Pepper with a passion. (as in, spit it in your face if you try to fake her out and give her your Dr Pepper at Jack in the Box). The cake was actually pretty yummy and really sweet, almost too sweet even for me (shocker, I know).

After dinner, we headed outside again to take advantage of the awesome weather and Mom & Dad's new backyard. Well, new-ish....to us. They revamped it, put in the patio and a BEAUTIFUL pond and waterfall. They even got a firepit for us to roast marshmallows on. So nice and relaxing! I couldn't imagine anything better.

The Eagle Scouts proved themselves and built us a fire. No burning of anything, thank goodness, since our family fireman went home that morning.

All I was doing was taking a picture of James and he looks at me and says "Why are you taking a picture of my shelf?" I was like "Huh?" Dude...that's just not funny.
So happy together......nah na nah na na na na naha na....

Tia and the newest member of the fam, Kaleb.

Grammy and Hyrum.

Topher trying to get the Koi and goldfish to eat the fungus off his feet. Ü

Have I said how beautiful the weather was in Minnesota? Really? Hmm...It was such a relief to get away (from the hell known as Texas) and feel the cool breeze. 85 was the high and 50 the low. Heaven! They totally deserve it though, they get whipped during the Winter...and Summer is their payback. Mother Nature says: "Here, MinneSOtans, is your reward for surviving winter weather that would make a polar bear groan in agony."

Seriously, so pretty. We even got to see a lily bloom on the day we left.

It's a swimsuit kind of day.

Our thermostat says it's 117 degrees outside right now. Weather.com says its 103, feels like 103 with 23% humidity. Ummm....I didn't know we were living in Vegas again. It's only June, Texas! Give us a break!!
10 day forecast:
Sunday 102
Monday 94 (with a chance of Thunderstorms!)
Tuesday 96
Wednesday 98
Thursday 102
Friday 100
You get the picture....

It's a swimsuit kind of day. It's almost too hot to take the girls outside to swim...we are waiting for the tree shade to go over the pool so it's not so excruciatingly hot. So, we are just keeping our swimsuits on from the water birthday party we went to this morning. It's that kind of day.

Crazy clouds.

This is what the clouds look like outside. I took the picture just in the nick of time, too...cause it's raining (well, sprinkling and thundering, fun!) now.

It looks like the angels are jumping on a trampoline of clouds. Ü I remember when we were kids, we would lay underneath the trampoline while another one of us jumped on it. Kinda cool. It looked alot like these clouds!

Well, HELLO Spring....

Since today is "officially" the first day of Spring (though I think we've been feeling spring for awhile now), I thought I'd share a few things I LOVE about Spring. It's officially my favorite season. I THOUGHT it was Fall, but Fall doesn't have the FLOWERS that spring does. Fall does have color...but not as bright and cheery as Spring. But Fall, you are still my #2.

#1....I love the sunshine. Especially thru my front windows. I have a love/hate relationship with my house. It's old...which I hate, and I dream of buying a brand-spanking new house one day. But the way it's set up, with the windows and skylight, and the room for the girls to play...I love it. #2....Gellie shoes. (Jelly shoes?) Don't they bring back MEMORIES? oh man! I loved my Jelly shoes. I've been looking for a pair for the girls...Walmart has some, but they are ug, ug, UGly. Thank goodness for Old Navy. $9.50 online, but $8 in the stores. Bella loves hers.

#3....Watermelon. I know, this is traditionally a summer fruit...but Bella saw one at the grocery store and was so overcome with joy, I just had to get it. We sliced it up and enjoyed an afternoon snack in the sun.

And there are other things that I just don't have pictures for:

#4....the abundance of wildflowers seen on the sideroads. I saw my first patch of bluebonnets today and can't wait to get pictures taken in them again this year. And also, these pretty red ones, that I have no idea what their name is.

#5....the weather....it's wash-you-car weather and roll-you-car-window-down weather. It's play-outside weather, weed-the-flower-bed weather, mow-the-lawn-without-feeling-yucky-but-that-is-only-if-you-can-get-the-mower-to-work weather. I wish I could find a place where it would be like this all the time.

And that's about it for now...you get the gist of it...hopefully you were able to enjoy the beautiful day, too!

This morning....

.......we woke up to some wicked ice. It closed most of the schools down and delayed or cancelled work.
I'm sure my family and friends in colder places make fun of us for getting all freaked out over our winter conditions Ü. I mean, we don't get snow...we don't get negative tempatures. But ice is ice where ever you get it. I was crossing my fingers that James would make it to work in one piece. Crazy drivers. (This is from Tuesday night, and not on the roads, but crazy in itself.)
Gratefully, James was able to stay home till 11 this morning. I was hoping he'd get the day off, like most of the metroplex seemed to...but I guess the real-job stuff he does can't wait!

Of course, the sun was shining like crazy ever since it came up this morning...so even though it was still cold, the ice melted off nice and fast. The forecast for the weekend: high of 64.

Brrrr.....

**FIXED!***and for only $50. It helps to know the repairman in the ward. Turns out...the pilot light was out ;) hehe.

Last night, around 11pm, I noticed that there was cold air coming out of the vents. I didn't think much of it...I was working and busy and I thought it was probably all in my head anyways ;).
But then I took a break just before midnight and noticed that a good 45 minutes later there was STILL cold air coming out of the vent....I wake James up, he goes and checks it, saying it's probably the heater just cooling itself off. So he turned the heater off, telling me to turn it back on after awhile.
Before I went to bed at 1:30a....I turn it back on...at first it was cold air, but it seemed to warm up, and I was really too tired to worry too much about it.
Well...this morning, I wake up FREEZING COLD. Like, can't-get-out-of-the-bed cold. Looks like the heater is broken...on the COLDEST DAY of the week!!!!!! It's 30, maybe 32 degrees outside (feels like 22 says weather.com)...thankfully this old house has an itty-bitty-bit of insulation, and it's a mere 57 inside! We are seriously SO COLD. To the point where even Aube, who hates socks...want to put socks on b/c her feet were "hot" (the girls have hots/colds, ups/downs mixed up these days).
Thankfully the water heater is ok! No cold showers here!!
But of course this would happen when Krista is coming TOMORROW!! So, I'm crossing my fingers that it's something simple that can be fixed easily....and doesn't cost an arm and a leg!! I want to have fun and eat out this weekend with my friend!!

My nose is cold :(.

Ice, Ice Baby

Brrrrrr.....
Whodathunk we would get ICE?! But it's kinda nice. I was complaining to James on Saturday that the weather is just ick, too warm in JANUARY. But a cold front came in, like it always does....and woohoo! Brrrrr.....The holidays are "officially" over here at the Kirchmann residence...the first full week of the new year has started. My Christmas tree is STILL up....yup thats right...I took the last few ornaments off this morning and I should really go back in there and take the lights off....but I think we are drawing this out just as much as we can! (Hey we paid too much money for that dang tree...and you can still catch a wiff of the real-tree smell, it's staying up as long as possible.) The sight of piled up trees in the Home Depot parking lot is such a sad one.

Rain, rain....please don't go away!

I've been meaning to blog about the delightfully dreary weather we have been having lately! Of course, Today has shown no sign of the weather we've enjoyed...with the return of the sun and bright blue, Texas-sized skies.

The sun is always welcome....but so are the scattered thunderstorms! Our lawn was 95% dead, ground cracking...and now, thank goodness...we have some moisture back!
I was able to have some night off during this wonderful weather, so after dinner, our little family would go out for a walk in the rain. The first night, it was mostly just drizzle, and we went up and walked at a park, watching the little baby duckies and seeing an armadillo (of course I forgot my camera!) on the walking trail! The next night, when we started our walk, the drizzle was a little heavier....and turned into a nice little downpour as we came 'round the bend.

The girls have had the loveliest time out in the rain......it takes ALOT of coercing and promising to watch The Little Mermaid (Aube's new fave movie) to get them to come inside!!

Ahhh....Surely, Texas will keep a-blazin' for a few more weeks now, though the 10-day forecast shows RAIN, GLOOOORIOUS RAIN for 10 days.....but I do remember Halloween last year, the poor kiddos sweating in their costumes! But this glimpse of rain gives a glimmer of hope Ü and beautiful memories of fall!!

A Whirlwind....literally

So, as most of you know, I work into the wee hours of the morning for my shift at work. Last night, my awesome shiftlead let me off an hour early so I could sleep (did I say awesome already?). I happily left early, leaving her my cell number...just in case. Well...like the moron I am, I stayed awake, finishing up a scrapbook for my sister-in-law. And good thing I did!
All night we had KNOWN there was a huge weather system heading our way. I had watched earlier in the afternoon as they called for tornado warnings in cities to our west, and when I tracked this system into the night on weather.com, it was obvious where it was heading.
So....at about 3:30am, I hear the rain and hail pick-up tremendously, the lights flicker and go out, I lose my computer and TV...but no big deal cause the lights flip right back on, even though they do remain flickering here and there. Ten minutes later I get a call from my service coordinator from work....telling me that more than half the girls had to take cover and that if I could pretty please come back and work, it would be much appreciated.
This was almost immediately after my power had come back on, so I got my computer started again and rejoined my coworkers. We had 3 people answering calls, and 2 people with me behind the scenes making sure the information could get to the radiologists. Then those 2 people had to take cover and it was just me and my shaking hands trying to assure everyone that they would be ok, making sure the radiologists were taken care of and trying not to interrupt the Patient care that we are in charge of. My job is not a glamourous one, I'm not a nurse or doctor on the frontlines...but I feel in a way responsible for patients in these hospitals across the country that we read for.....my job is a stepping stone in the path that some patients have to take to find out what is causing their pain, if they need surgery, or if they are well.
The storm moved very fast, the winds blew at the windows...but no sirens were heard! I feel blessed to live in the area we chose....sometimes James and I jokingly call it a "black hole" b/c the tempests seem to rage all round us, but we never get the worst of it. I remember a line of storms last year that stretched from north of the Metroplex, down thru the south.....and it bowed and cleared as that line crossed our city.
2 hours later, at 5:30am, everyone was back to work, unharmed...going about business as usual. I was able to blow out the candle I had lit for precaution and slip soundlessly into my bed, husband and children still sleeping dreamily, unharmed in their beds.

Happenings.....

Yay! James gets to come home early because of the "Winter Weather Warning" we have going on here (Please don't laugh to hard, Mom). We might get 2-4 INCHES of snow! hehe...Snowmen all around!
I'm just glad he gets to come home and take care of me and my poor, sore arms! Last night was the first volleyball practice for our ward. We are playing in a stake-wide tournament in April *so excited*!! But I did feel a bit like I was back in 9th grade again, trying out for the volleyball team. My arms were bright red and I successfully rolled my ankle twice (this is becoming a really annoying habit...I rolled it at church on Sunday and went head over heals in the hallway). BUT...I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time...it was SO.MUCH.FUN. It reminded me of my love-hate relationship with sports. I love to play them, but being sweaty and sore afterwards is the pits. But I love to play SO much, to have that comraderie with teammates, laughing and joking with each other. Our new ward has been hard to get "in" with...if thats a good way of putting that. It's a more "established" ward....so younger-ish families are few and far-between. BUT...thru my new calling and thru this volleyball, I'm getting to know more people and feeling more at home in the ward...it has taken some time and some actually BEING there, but it's paying off, thats for sure.
We have a week before we practice again, I am thankful for the "healing" time...lol.