Is "green" Good?

My little Mascot

In my quest to become green, I have learned a couple of valuable lessons. I bought some powdered soap for my dish washer. It was simply called "planet". Wow..pretty powerful. It must be powerful soap. I was practically moved to tears in the store envisioning how our planet would live on a little bit longer as I made these simple changes in our household. It seemed to clean OK, but it always left an "environmentally friendly" layer of white powder on my dishes. Huh. That can't be good. I ended up either re-washing them (thus using MORE water, defeating the purpose of saving the "planet"), or rinsing them off. Not very cost effective, or time effective, let alone 'pain in the butt' effective. Now as for my washing machine. I bought some natural liquid detergent. "Seventh Generation" was the title. Does that mean that 7 generations after me are going to be living in a better world because I use this detergent? I must be mindful of my great, great, great, great, grandchildren. Cool. The first batch I did, Nathan put his clothes on and said, "These stink!". I assured him that it was just a new "natural" smell that he would eventually get use to. He brought up the fact that farting is natural and it always stinks. Clever. (I have to kindof agree with him, the clothes did smell kindof funky). My run in with vinegar as a cleaner was not good, so natural cleaners and me don't get along. What is the lesson I have learned? If the lesson is that it is a good thing to ingest environmentally "friendly" white powder, and smell like a white flower & bergomot citrus freak, then going green is OK. I, on the other hand, prefer to smell the familiar scent of Tide, and feel the squeeky clean (which makes my skin crawl as I unload the disherwasher when they feel so squeeky! I can hardly stand it), powder free, dishes washed by Cascade. Hello Tide. Hello Cascade. We have missed you around here. Welcome back.

False Alarm

Last night I decided to power up my cell phone "just in case", and to my complete surprise, it powered up! I was in total shock! I was doing the little cell phone happiness dance. I was feeling pretty pumped up about it. Me beat washing machine. Me so special!! I bragged to Trent about it, and when we got home that night, I pulled it out to show him, and of course it would not work. It now powers on, but it is all scrambled, and you push a button and it does something funky. Bummer. I was totally thinking I had conquered the impossible. That my cell phone was better than all others. One that could withstand loads of water. It is not to be. I am heading to get a new one tonight. False Alarm. Got my hopes up pretty high though.

Where art thou?

I love my new cell phone. We purchased a nice one after I dropped mine at the airport and a car ran over it. I have had it for 2 months now. It is a sassy red color, has a camera, mp3 player, a bluetooth headset, so I look like I am somebody important, or a character out of Star Trek. I just love my cell phone. Yesterday Jonathan was sitting on my lap, and he started to gag on something that he had eaten off the floor (it was a piece of dry onion skin), he was gagging so much that he hurled all over me, and him. Good thing he had just eaten a HUGE lunch. It made it a lot more fun to clean up. Anyways, we both had to strip down right there in the kitchen and throw our clothes in the washer. When the washer was almost done, I was wondering where my cell phone was. Cell phone...Where art thou? I tried calling it, and I didn't hear it ring. A thought registers in my mind. I slowly turn my head towards the washer. Ahhhhhh! I open up my washer, and there is my bright, shiny, wonderful cell phone. I tried to use the blow dryer to dry it and hope that it would miraculously work. Nope. No luck. I think I have lost cell phone privilages, or at least the privilage of having such a nice phone. Maybe I'll have to get one of the ancient foot long cell phones, like the one that Magnum PI used back in the day. Anyone have an old T-mobile phone sitting around they'd like to donate to the cause? :)

A-sock-naphobia

Imagine this. Middle of the night. Fed baby and put him back to bed. Thirsty. Shuffle towards kitchen. Mid-step into the kitchen I decide to turn on the light. Not sure why, but there... right under my bare foot, is the most ugliest, hairiest, scariest, GI-NORMOUS spider I have ever seen. (I am from Idaho, and the spiders are nasty there, but not THIS nasty) It still gives me shivers to think about it. I am paralyzed for a second, and then I retreat to the bathroom to grab a ton of toilet paper to kill this thing. I am praying that it is still there, because I would have nightmares for the rest of my life wondering where that spider was at, at all times. It was so big, you could actually feel, and hear the thing squish through the toilet paper, and it's guts spilled on the floor. I run to the bathroom, thoroughly grossed out and flush it down the toilet. (shiver). Since that night, over two weeks ago, going to bed sockless is not an option. My feet get so hot, and it is miserable. Yet, the thought of stepping out of bed in the middle of the night and stepping on a Gi-normous spider still creeps me out. Some nights I'll realize that this is crazy, and that I am letting a mystery spider dictate my actions, and I'll crawl into bed sock-less. There...that is not so bad. I am a grown woman, I don't need no stankin socks. Well...two minutes later I am diggin through my dresser in the dark lookin for socks to put on. I wonder if I have PTSD? (post traumatic spider disorder). Is there such a thing as Arachnophobia therapy? Spiders Anonymous? My feet are being suffocated each night. They long to be naked and free.

Shades of Gray

My friend Arlyn came to visit for a couple of days. We stayed up late, ate lots of good food, watched tv/movies, did some shopping, laughed, and hung out. We were like zombies though from staying up so late, and then getting up in the night with our babies. I realized that I am getting older. I remember the good ol days when I would pull all nighters and hardly feel it. Those days are no longer. I was standing in front of the mirror late last night, (or should I say Early this morning? 1:00 am) and I noticed something. I leaned forward to inspect it closer. I turned my head side to side and front to back. Could it be? Could it really be what I think it is? nah...no way. Arlyn came in and I asked her if she thought this strand of hair was a GRAY hair? She watched as I turned my head all over, and commented that it didn't change color. Had I had my hair highlighed recently? No. I pulled it out, and lo and behold. It was a GRAY hair? What the?? How can that be? Does that mean I need to start wearing elastic waist band pants and dying my hair a purplish color like the old ladies? What a wierd feeling that I have/had a gray hair? Did I scrapbook my first gray hair? Heck no... but I did the next best thing. I put it in a ziplock baggie and put it in my nightstand. I figured it could come in handy someday. Probably when Nathan is a teenager. I can pull it, "Do you see this? Do you SEE this? It has your name written all over it"...something like that. Wow...I truly am getting older. I kept hearing the "Circle of Life" song in my head last night after I pulled the thing out. Wierd.

Anniversary

May 20, 1994

May 20, 2008

Wow...14 years and I can still hoist myself up on Trents lap...barely! I remember the days when I was younger and thinner, I would ride on Trents lap quite often when we were at BYU. That is..until we burned out two motors, (still under warranty. Phew!) I am sure the motor manufacturers are still perplexed on how two motors burned out in such a short amount

of time. Huh...who knows? heh heh No more rides after that.

I am in shock that we have been married for 14 years! I still feel like I am 20 years old most of the time. I am a wife, and a mother of two boys. How did that happen? (well we know how that happened, it is still hard to believe sometimes). As I look back over these past 14 years, I am amazed at all the things we have gone through. I have learned so much being married to Trent. It is hard to describe the many things that he has taught me by just how he lives his life every day. I have never met another person, that I respect and admire more than him. And how cool is that, that I am married to the person that I admire so much? I consider myself blessed. Not only am I in love with Trent, I am in "like" with him too. I really enjoy hanging out with him. There are few people that I would rather spend my time with. Being married to Trent has made me a better person. I am one lucky gal that he chose to marry me and put up with me and love me for who I am. It's wonderful to know that he loves me no matter what, through thick and thin. (literally!).

On our wedding day, I composed a song (with some help from two dear friends) for Trent that I surprised him with and sang to him at our reception. I decided today, that since I don't have this song written down anywhere, that I would wrack my brain and remember it and record it before I can't remember it anymore. So here it is. More for my sake than any of yours. Happy Anniversary Trent. Here's to 14 more!

Lyrics

There was a time when, I didn't know, what I wanted life to be.

With you beside me, here hand in hand, I can see eternity.

(Chorus)

Together we will start our journey, that will lead us home.

Through Father's help and love unfeigned, we'll never be alone.

The world around me brings no peace, but it is within you.

His peace will tell us what we should do.

Here we are. Together. Our hearts are now as one.

The time is now, to start anew.

Our life has just begun.

When I look into your eyes, I can see who you are.

A noble nature from our Father is there within your heart.

(Chorus)

Gardener, I am not

I have been working on the yard in little periods of time. (as long as Jonathan will sit in the stroller while I weed like a crazy lady). I hated to even move the dirt at all in fear that the neighborhood cats would think I was cleaning out their litter box. The dirt was pretty hard, so as I pulled weeds and raked a little, the dirt looked "fresh". I love the look of fresh bark, but I am not getting it this year because I am sick of cleaning up after all the cat poop. (I do not own a cat by the way. In a previous post I told of how I am surrounded by cats, 8 cats next door, 4 cats the other next door, two across the street...etc.) I actually raked up all of the old bark and put it in the recycle bin, hoping that would help. Well, within a 1/2 hour of doing that, I had 4 mounds of cat poop. They saw the freshly raked dirt, and had a hayday. *sigh*.

Anyways...that is not the whole purpose of this post. I have a Japanese Maple tree out front that is so pretty. It is about 3 feet high, and all the branches hang down to the ground so it looks like a big mound of red leaves. I decided to become a gardener/landscaper and trim it up a "little" bit. Well, it is a lot harder than it sounds. I kept going around and trimming a "little" here, and a lot there, trying to get it even. I am sure the neighbors were watching thinking, "just walk away, you'll never get it even". I should have known not to attempt this. I can not even cut bread straight. Every time I go home to visit my mom, she'll yell from the kitchen, "Kristi must be here, the bread is uneven". I now have a Charlie brownish type Maple tree. I finally did walk away after doing some serious cosmetic surgery. Hopefully it will grow back. It'll be interesting to see what Trent says when he gets home. It'll probably be something like, "Looks like you did some yard work today". yup. I sure did.

Freedom

I wonder if Jonathan wants to go outside. It's hard to tell. :)

Whacky Weather

Let's take a look at the month in review
Saturday: 32 degrees and rainy
Next Saturday: 76 degrees and sunny
Saturday after that: 35 degrees and this:

Yes, a huge hail/snowish storm. Huh. Wierd, wild stuff.

And now I heard that huge heat wave is rolling into town. On tuesday I pulled out my capri's, t-shirt, and flip flops (in my mind I hear "thongs" because that is what their "real" name is, but someone started making whacko undies stealing their names, leaving us with having to call them flip flops. One year for girls camp, I had to call the girls and tell them that "flip flops" weren't allowed, well...I had a brain freeze, and called every girl/parent to really drive home the point that thongs are not allowed at girls camp for safety reasons. No one ever corrected me, and I am sure they were wondering what on earth I was smokin, but hey...when I realized it later, we all got a HUGE laugh out of it!). I went out to go run some errands and it was not a "heat wave" it was cold and rainy. I already had everything packed and ready to go, and by golly, I wanted a stinkin heat wave, so I didn't go and change. Well...it turned into a HUGE rainstorm. Here I am hauling a baby around, with my summer outfit in the pouring down, freezing rain. I had the heater running full blast in the car. I was soaking wet and my feet were pretty cold. It was quite comical really. People were lookin at me like I was some sort of circus freak. I just smiled and acted like it was totally normal to be dressed for summer in the freezing cold. Then on Wednesday, after freezing all day tuesday, I dressed in sweats, and thicker socks and my furry croc's and left out to run some errands. Well, what do ya know? It ended up being in the 70's! So here I was sitting at the park sweating like crazy while everyone else is in shorts! Once again, I just acted like it is totally normal to be dressed like a snowqueen in the blazing heat. So today...I got it right. It really was hot, so I was dressed appropriately with my thongs...errr...I mean flip flops! heh heh Welcome to the Northwest.

Laughter

Laugher really is the best medicine.

Mothers Day Hotel

The boys at church on Mothers Day

Having church at 9am on Mothers day was a real "treat". Nothing like getting everyone ready and out the door, AND to church by 9am. Let's just say that I didn't have time to eat breakfast, so I was starving. Good thing they handed out chocolate to all the mothers after sacrament meeting. I was sitting in Primary holding Jonathan, and I am feeling pretty snazzy in my new dress that I am wearing for the first time, when all of a sudden, Jonathan hurls down the front of my dress. Not only down the front of my dress, but down my leg, and enough left over to fill up my sandal. Nothing like warm lumpy vomit between the toes to liven up the morning. The moms around me were thoroughly grossed out and thankful it wasn't them. Baby wipes are a gift from heaven. When noon came, I was stinky (from vomit), hungry (from no breakfast!) and tired (being up a lot as Jonathan is cutting yet another tooth!). Our church house is right around the corner, so Nathan rides on Trents lap (he is quadriplegic and in a wheelchair for those of you who don't know that) when the weather is nice, so I just meet them at home. Well, they snuck out of church early without me knowing and on the door into the house was this sign:





As I walked into the house, Nathan and Trent were there to greet me looking all proper and said something like: "Welcome to the Mothers Day Hotel. Food for you and your son Jonathan awaits you in the dining room" (and then they swung their arms across the front of their body pointing me into the "dining room" aka kitchen). I walk into the kitchen and this is what was there:

(sign says: Happy Mothers Day Love Hotel Staff)

I was shocked! Waffles, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon AND extra chocolatey chocolate milk! They had prepared food for Jonathan and Nathan fed Jonathan while I sat and ate (devoured)my food. It was ta die fowr! There was so much love put into this meal it truly touched my heart, it still gets me choked up even now to think about it. I am so blessed to have such a great family. It brought back memories of all the times Nathan and Trent have made me breakfast in bed. Even back in the early days when Nathan was real little, they would put yogurt in a bowl, or cook instant oatmeal in the microwave, or scrambled eggs in the microwave "Power Ranger Eggs". And now they are cooking full on meals. It is incredible to me the things that they can accomplish together. Trent is such a wonderful dad. He tells Nathan how to do things, step by step, and the things they accomplish just truly amaze me. I was truly "feelin the love". And to top it off, Jonathan took a 2 1/2 hour nap, so I got a good nap (except for the fact that I kept waking myself up with my own snoring! I was out!) What a wonderful mothers day. Life just doesn't get much better than that.

Potty Talk

Conversation in the car.
Nathan: Let's play a game. Let's see how many different names we can come up with for the word poop.
Trent & Kristi: OK
Here goes the ring around the rosie of words for Poop as we all take turns. Here are a few.
laying cable, brown banana, takin a hud, shooting missiles, Target-Pooh (in reference to the infamous HUGE poop that Nathan took while in the Target bathroom, that him and Trent refer to all the time. Guess it wrapped around the whole toilet. Quite impressive), turd, brown snake, logs, pellets, brown bomb, turdnado....and on and on.
Why do I include this on my blog? Not sure. Just wondering if anyone else out there talks of such things. Who would have ever thought that parenthood would turn me into such a potty talker, and that this is common in our family. Guess it is a good thing that I am the mother of boys, and tom boyish myself. Being from Idaho helps too I guess. Family time. Aint' it grand?

Just Standin around

Looky what I can do! We walked around the corner and saw this. A whole new world for us at the Kunz Household. He hasn't quite learned that you have to move your feet before you actually try to move somewhere. A lot of face plants, and rug rash goin on around here. Nathan is the one that first noticed him, and he was SO excited. We all came rushing in with video in hand. It is always amazing to us when Jonathan learns something new. Incredible. What did we do for entertainment before he came along?

Saturday Market

My mom and I (me and my mom?), went to the Saturday Market in Portland. I've always wanted to go and check it out, but never have. Guess that is why you need people to come and visit, so you go do stuff like that. It was quite the experience. There were lots of little booths, with the most random things for sale (my mom said it reminder her of being in Mexico) Everything from homemade soap, jewelry, dolls, dog outfits, glass bongs (I swear they had to be what you smoke dope out of, the people selling them were a little shady too), to tie died underwear. Wow...how did I ever live without tie died underwear? :) My mom made a special purchase. She is the cub master back in Pocatello, so she saw these and thought it would be a real hoot to wear when they talk about knife safety. We did get a good laugh out of it. When we showed Nathan, he was a little freaked out at first. It was a fun/interesting afternoon. Here's a picture of my mom's purchase. We had a good talk with Nathan about the danger of running with scissors. I don't think he'll forget the visual. :)

Secret Ingredient

Went to a little girls night out function at a local antique shop. An author was there selling her books. It was so nice to leave the kids and get out. My mom flew in today to stay for a week. There were these brownies there that were "ta die fowr". After I downed 2, or 3....ok...so maybe I had four of them. They were cut really small. I asked the owner how she made these little delectible morsels. She then told me that it was just a Duncan Hines Brownie mix, and instead of using water, she used Espresso. I stopped mid-bite. Did you say Espresso? Oh boy. You all know that I don't drink coffee, try to avoid caffeine, and that I am still nursing my baby. This could be a nightmare. I guess we'll know tomorrow if Jonathan turns into a screaming/fussy beast. Could be interesting. I'll keep you posted.