I'm not as agile as I used to be.

So, as a child, I was quite the monkey, climbing trees and hiding in the top shelf of our linen closet and even using both walls in our hallway and my legs to climb up to the ceiling. So, it was my misguided thought that I could straddle the two short dressers on opposite sides of my closet to get the hammer out of the toolbox on the top shelf. Very stupid idea. It's just that darn toolbox is all the way up there and it's heavy and a pain to put back once I'm done.

I get up with minimal pain, one foot on each dresser, but as I straighten up, I smack the back of my head on the overhang where some vent work goes through. Doesn't feel good, but I mostly recover. I retrieve the hammer. Sweet. Now I need nails in from the tackle box next to the tool box, but with the front turned to face the toolbox, so I have to get it down to get anything out of it.It has two mag lights (yes, the big heavy kind) sitting in front. In trying to maneuver them out of my way, there's really not a good place to move them, and oh did I mention this is the only closet in our apartment (literally) and it is packed, I knock one mag to the floor. Not a big deal. It hits a shoe. I carefully pullout the tackle box, but perched up there, there's just not a good way to get into it. It's going to have to come down with me. I carefully pull it out, managing to leave the 2nd mag light on the shelf.

You know what's coming. I try to get down. I mostly have to jump, because it's fairly high up there. I'm not sure what I did exactly, but I feel a strong, almost sharp, bump in my rump, and in that sudden flash of intuition that comes in situations like this, realize I've nearly tried to sit on the vacuum handle on my way down. Did I mention this is our only closet? And then, as a final parting gift, the second mag light is attracted to the back right region of my head, seemingly by magnetic force. I never touched it.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

This is cool! Photo of the Day, here I come!

So, from now on I will be posting my photos here. It's an awesome site called Shuttercal, where you can post a photo per day. I will probably still update my blog from time to time, but if you want to see what I'm up to more regularly, I will update there.

A shout out to the other Kara Henry! We share an awesome name.

Also, someone asked about my camera. I shoot with a digital Rebel that is 4.5 years old. I will probably upgrade soon. Most of the photos on my blog recently were taken with the kit lens, but I recently repaired my Canon 50mm 1.4. Love at first site with that lens. I also use a Speedlite 430EX flash, which I usually bounce off the ceiling or a wall, since we live in a basement without much natural light. My dream house has floor to ceiling windows with a view other than metal window wells. Not too picky about that.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Whohooo! My movie star status has been reclaimed (or something like that)

Check out the new episodes of the Nth, with my new bestest friend, Meridith. She is so cute and a natural at this stuff. I've loved each of the gals I've hosted with, so I'm glad that Merry is that way too. She is just awesome. Seriously. We have the most fun and I hope you enjoy watching them. And I'm crossing my fingers that they will be up every Friday. We have worked really hard on them.

First of new episodes. Oh, and check out how hot I look in that first frame (Cameron, I know where you live. I'm just saying). Luckily, I know from using my DVR frequently that even the most beautiful people look like blind chipmunks when paused. So THERE!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project 365, Week Two

Here's week two.
Jan 8: Griffin has been asking me to make him a dinosaur. He's really into dinosaurs; in fact, he got two remote control T-rex dinos for Christmas, which he adores. So, I set out to make him a dinosaur from some bright green yarn. I had a lot of fun figuring out the pattern and I'm happy with the end result. Even better, Griffin loves his long-neck.

Jan 9: Today we took our kids to see Bolt in 3D. It was my first real 3D movie (I did see more of a documentary at Thanksgiving point once, but it wasn't full-length). The kids thought the glasses were awesome and of course, they wanted to bring them home. We watched Hyrum, Maddy and Miles so Melissa and Jay could go on a date, and they were pretty popular with them as well. I just had to snag a picture of them.

Jan 10: (Still need to take the picture, but I didn't want to forget to write the journaling). It's been snowing so much this year that for the first time in my adult life, I seriously needed a pair of snow boots. It's very annoying to treck out into knee deep or so snow without appropriate proctective footwear. So, David and I went on a search for some. We tried Walmart and Target, before giving up on those and deciding to go for the serious stuff at Sportsman's Warehouse. I found this totally cute pair which had the duel advantages of being cute and on sale. I snagged the last pair, so glad they fit. Now, if you give a girl a pair of cute snow boots, you also have to give her a cute pair of straight-legged pants to tuck into the boots to show them off properly. Old Navy, I will see you soon.

Jan 11: This is Sunday night, just before bed. Typical choas and couch cushions and half of the children in pajamas and half not and toys wherever and blankets dragged out of the bedroom. I love having children, but no one can deny that it's not very good for your house. This is the side of our life that I normally try to hide from the camera. So take it in, in all it's glory. You may not get a chance to see it again.
Jan 12: I hate to admit it, but I dread getting the kids food, especially lunch. It's a process, let me tell. Step 1: Try to figure out what they want to eat without anyone throwing a fit regarding what they will/will not eat. Step 2: Get Xander some lunch before school (pictured). Step 4: Get Xander off to school. Step 5: Make something that hopefully will feed the remaining children and actually get eaten, but not be gone before little tummies are full. Step 5: Wash dishes. Or at least, pick up them up off the floor after being thrown down by the littlest monster. Step 6: Take a rest after all that work. Step 7: Realize I still need to feed myself. I've got to figure out a better system for this.
Jan 13: David and I were sitting in Artic Circle, when I got a call from my mom to tell me that my Great-Grandma Jensen had passed. They had made the decision a few days ago to take her off her medications, because she was miserable and her qualtity of life had decreased so much in the past few months. I had such mixed feelings on this. I will miss her so much. I won't ever eat her famous, home-made fudge, have her worry and fuss over me or play her antique piano for her, while ignoring the woefully out of tune notes. I won't sit in her living room on her old davenport, enjoying the view out her huge picture window while she coos at one of my babies on her lap. I won't get an envelop adressed to me in her old-fashioned handwriting with a little birthday money in it, given with love. On the other hand, she is finally free. She had a long, full and happy life and made the most of each of her 102 years (she would have been 103 next month). She loved everyone and was delighted with each new great-great grandchild. And now she is reunited with her husband and her daughter (my grandmother). She missed them so much.

This photo is of her with my niece, Madolin. Madolin was born on her 99th birthday and named Madolin Jane in honor of her great-great grandmother, planned even before her birthday happened to be just the right day.

Jan 14: The boys got tons of Legos for Christmas, and now they have quite the collection. They love to play with them. Aubriana loves to throw them on the floor; therefore, they usually only get to play with them while she is sleeping. Their favorite things to build are the Star Wars sets, of course. Here is Griffin with one of the ships, which is manned by Storm Troopers.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project 365, Week One

I don't know why I decided to do this. Probably because I didn't take a lot of pictures last year. So, Melissa and I are taking a photo a day and then we are going to find an easy and efficient way to scrapbook them. I thought I'd share week one with you all, plus get the journaling out of the way. I am missing one day; I need to get a picture of Melissa in her hat I crocheted for her.

Jan 1: I can't think of a better way to start out the year than this little girl's smile. We had a laid back kind of New Year's Day. Aubrey wore her new shirt she got for Christmas. David played games with the family left from the party last night, then we headed off to the store. I, of course, wanted some new yarn for the new year. Here's to a new beginning!

Jan 2: I thought it would be fun if we played Go Fish with the kids. They love card games, and we rarely play with them. So, I gathered Maxton, Xander, David and Griffin and we used the Rook cards to play Go Fish. Griffin was on my "team." He diligently tried to show my cards to everyone, probably trying to level the playing field, because I regularly saw Maxton's and Xander's cards. Whoops!

Jan 3: Angie thought of a fun game for our party on New Year's Eve. She had everyone take goofy/ugly pictures and then we voted on the worst. I was surprised to see almost this exact face from Griffin up on the big screen (I hadn't realized Angie had taken pics of my kids), and since he had already gone to bed, I knew I needed this precious face for my own. Today I finally got around to getting Griff to do it. Just for the record, Griff didn't win, but I am apparently married to the ugliest guy at the party.

Jan 5: David was watching the old Superman movies with the boys this Sunday, and Aubrey thought it would be the perfect opportunity to grab her blanket (actually, it's Griffin's, but she steals it all the time) and her binki to snatch a snuggle session with Daddy. David says she crawled up and it arranged herself without his help. She looks so cute and cuddley! When is it my turn?

Jan 6: See previous post. ;)Jan 7: Today Melissa came over to scrapbook. She brough Carl's Jr, so who was I to argue with her? We had a great time scrapbooking and goofing around. I got a migraine and before my meds kicked in, I was apparently pretty loopy and very intertaining, right Sis? Anyway, Miles was being so totally cute that I had to get this picture of them together. He loves to point and oo and ahh at things. He's getting so big! I love the messy face too, courtesy of Aubrey snatching chocolate from our stash on the table and sharing. Am I raising great kids, or what?

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Xander is a Star!

Maybe I'm a little silly, but I'm SO excited that Xander is the star of his Kindergarten class this week. On Friday, we will all be going to share a treat and talk about how wonderful Xander is! I also had to make a poster for him. I actually forgot until Sunday night. I probably would have finished in time if I had remembered that Monday is early day and school started 30 minutes before I was thinking. Luckily, I know myself, so I had an alarm set on my phone. They got there exactly on time.

Anyway, I finished his poster last night and Xander is itching to get to school and show it off. Not that I can blame him much. He wrote all the captions for the photos and helped me pick them out. We have a lot of photos. I didn't even get to go through 2005, 2006 or most of 2007. Yikes. This has also motivated me to perhaps better organize my photos and maybe put searchable tags on them. We'll see.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Amigurumi crazy!

If you haven't heard, my latest thing is crochet. This has resulted in watching episodes of House and frantically stitching away, followed by almost peeing my pants because a. House is funny b. I hate to stop in the middle of a project and c. I've had four kids, need I say more? My newest discovery: Amigurumi animals. Amigurumi is Japanese for crochet-stuffed-toys-that-are-cool-and-not-for-old-ladies-who-think-crochet-is-a-interior-design-genre.

First of all, we have this little rectangle monster. He went to my nephew Miles. He likes to squish his face into the monster's face. I like the lop-sided eyes; he's just screaming for a hug. This pattern came from the Lion Brand website.
This little ugly monkey is one I made up after crocheting a ton of these things and figuring out how all the stitches work. He looks addled, like he's got a banana hang-over. I put a pipe cleaner in his tail so it's posable. This one went to my dad for Christmas; really, he asked for one. Xander got a similar one.
This little frog is one of my favorites. He's from the Lion Brand website too. He just looks jolly and as if he could turn into a chubby, yet sweet prince given the right circumstance. He went to Griffin for Christmas and is currently suffering from dilated pupils due to rough treatment. He needs new french knots on his eyes.
I think this is my favorite. This is like the kind of Siamese that would pee on your rug and think it was the litter box. I followed the pattern from the Lion website again, which was a bad idea in the case of the ears, since they don't point. On the other hand, it makes it rather ambigious and Aubrey has the option of pretending she's a lemur or perhaps a chihauha.
Lastly, we have a turtle which I made for Maxton. I like this little guy. He's also from the Lion Brand website (they really do have some cool free patterns).

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.