For Sale: Please help spread the word!

We are selling our wonderful 2006 Toyota Sienna. I'm a little bummed, because it's such a fabulous car (when you have kids you can't ask for anything better than this), but I'm also excited because we're selling it in order to buy a camp trailer and the vehicle to pull it! Click HERE to view the KSL Ad for more information.

We are also selling a NEW, UNUSED Pottery Barn 42" Flat-Panel TV Frame. It's a long story about how it got into our possession, but it's in perfect condition and is so beautiful! For $375 you're getting a great deal on something no longer available and still priced hundreds less than the cheesy tv-frames at RC Willey or even Wal-Mart (those two stores had them priced between $500-800 and some weren't even made of wood!). For more info, CLICK HERE.

Doesn't it look CLASSY???

time to take a look in the mirror.

What if the way we perceive ourselves is completely different than how the rest of the world sees us?

i love you. and here's...

...76 reasons why:

1. You laugh easily. Even when I'm not really very funny.


2. You make me pork chops with rice and gravy on demand.


3. You are selfless. Everyone else has always come first.


4. I love how you tickle my back. So soft and "swirly".


5. You are fair. In my younger years, I hated this. I hated that I'd come home complaining about something someone had done to me at school and your response would be "Why do you think they did that? What could they have been feeling to cause them to behave that way?" I wanted you to instantly take my side and be angry at them with me. Now I realize how wise, and fair, and forgiving you are. I like to think I've learned from your teachings. I'm not always as fair as you, but sometimes, I do take the time to think about where the other person might be coming from. I learned that from you.


6. You love every grandchild as if they are your absolute favorite.


7. You're okay to laugh at yourself. Even when basted crickets are involved.


8. You cheat at cards as much as I do. (Will we ever redeem ourselves at Milles Borne again???)


9. You're not afraid to remind me when I am taking something wonderful for granted.


10. I love your fingernails. Why can't mine grow like yours? I especially love them for reason #4.


11. You shared your bottled fruit and vegetables with me, asking nothing in return, anytime I had a hankerin' for it. Now that I know how much time and effort (and money!) can go into bottling food, I realize just how very generous this was.


12. You and Dad gave me an appreciation for music and the arts. You helped me realize how very thin the veil can be when in the presence of beautiful things.


13. You left me little notes on my nightstand.


14. You let me eat as much ketchup as I wanted. At least until, you know...


15. You gave me the benefit of the doubt when someone thought I wasn't good enough to be their child's friend.


16. You'd get up from the table to spread cream cheese on my slice of banana bread.


17. You came to the high school to watch me clumsily tap my way through the school play, even though you'd just had open-heart surgery and didn't feel good and it was exhausting. What's even more, you looked at me like you enjoyed it.


18. I love the shape of your blue eyes.


19. You sat in your chair and listened to me play the piano as though I made no mistakes and it was the most wonderful music in the world.


20. You made me feel like I painted like Monet during my painting classes. Since my kids don't even understand my stick-figures, I can now more fully appreciate what it took for you to praise like that.


21. You lit up candles on Christmas Eve and turned off all the lights.


22. You didn't yell at me when you found out I'd started shaving my legs without permission. Perhaps your anger was subdued when you saw my battered legs. Turns out an 11-year old needs more than just water to get that "baby soft" feeling. Ouch.


23. You always made enough Parker House rolls for us to have some for breakfast with your homemade hot chocolate. Words can't describe how delicious hot chocolate is with a ring of melted butter from a roll floating on top!


24. You didn't spank me when Alison and I dumped out all 30 boxes of Cracker Jacks just to get out the prizes. At least not hard enough I remember.


25. The sound of you blow-drying your hair lulled me to sleep.


26. You spared no expense when it came to providing music I could play that I would enjoy. Birthdays & Christmas always yielded new sheet music or books.


27. You didn't laugh at me when I was so upset when Melly died while I was reading "Gone With the Wind" for the first time.


28. You didn't make me get out of the car when I was reading "Jane Eyre" during our 5-hour drive home from Moab. Someone may have lost a limb had anyone tried to make me put it down!


29. You made me stop reading "Too Stubborn To Die" by Cato Jaramillo because you knew it wasn't good for me to read something so depressing and graphic. What a good mother.


30. You never made fun or reacted skeptically when I declared I wanted to move to New York and be an actress on Broadway. In your quiet confidence, you knew I'd eventually figure out that kind of talent just wasn't there. :)


31. You and Dad let me ride my new bike all the way home from the store, patiently driving 5 mph behind me.


32. You made crepes for my birthday. And you made enough for me to get full. That's a lot of crepes!


33. You let me play games with the "grown-ups". I loved having milk-jam-bread in a cup with a spoon during Kings In the Corner or Tri-Ominoes.


34. One word: Tishamingo.


35. Your ears and earrings. I remember entertaining myself many a Sacrament Meeting by playing with your earrings and flicking your ear lobe back and forth. What a crazy thing to remember! What a weird thing for me to do!


36. We'd start a movie and without saying a word, you'd go upstairs and pop popcorn, drowning it in hot, melted butter, and showering it with salt. Interesting...now I'm very hungry.


37. I've inherited your love of mustaches. OK, maybe not mustaches, but at least two actors who are behind them: Tom Selleck & Sam Elliott.


38. Speaking of loving actors, I love that you loved Gene Kelly.


39. Speaking of love, I love that you'd choose Dad over Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, and Gene Kelly!


40. I love that you get up early in the morning.


41. Your generosity.


42. I love your spaghetti sauce. I could eat it cold.


43. I love your hot fudge sauce. I could eat it cold. I DO EAT IT COLD.


44. You came to every single one of my piano recitals, except one. But that's okay. That's the year I forgot my music anyway. And let's not forget all the piano lessons you drove me to.


45. You let us do caramel-apple fondue downstairs while we watched movies.


46. I love how much you love sheets that have hung on the line and dried outside.


47. You have always been a very faithful visiting teacher. You planted the seed that became my testimony of visiting teaching.


48. I love that you are happiest with a hot (and you do like it HOT) bowl of soup and bread. That simple contentment speaks volumes about you.


49. I love that you love the color blue. It suits you. It represents tranquility, sincerity, and stability.


50. I love that you are willing to pay shipping to MAIL a birthday package in order to get it to someone "on time" even if you're going to be seeing them the day after their birthday.


51. I love that you forget to use your clothing giftcard at the right store, but you'll give it to a waitress to pay for your dinner check!


52. You took me camping. You wrapped a blanket around me and made me come out to look at stars. You drew my attention towards the sunset and filled me with a love for God's creations.


53. I love that you put ribbons in my hair when I was a little girl. And that my hair was usually curled.


54. I love that when you did put my hair back, into a french braid or pony tail, my eyes retained their natural shape. (Mark!!!!)


55. I don't understand it, but now I am so grateful for the fact that I don't ever, EVER remember you yelling at me or embarrassing me when I had a potty accident. And let's face it, with my "health problems" I had them a lot, even at times when you must have thought to yourself, "Is she ever going to grow out of this???"


56. I love your acceptance of people, despite their faults or bad choices.


57. I love that you tried to teach me to sew. That must have been miserable for you.

58. I love that you and Dad went on bike rides with me. Dad in front, me in the middle, and you in the caboose.


59. I love how in the "Discovery House" you'd comment nearly every morning how pretty the sunset was coming up through Split Mountain.


60. You go along with the madness that is present when Shan and I are together.


61. I love that you and Dad took your kids on vacations to places like National Parks or Monuments.


62. I love that you always have juice in your fridge.


63. You let me melt marshmallows in a bowl and add food coloring for my after-school snack.


64. I love you even though you let me put ponytails directly ON TOP of my head. Like maybe only 1" back from my bangs. The ponytail hung down like a fountain. Seriously, at some point didn't it occur to you to say, "Child, you are NOT going out like that!"?????


65. You didn't rat me out when I lied to you about getting into your lipstick, even when I responded with "I ate a tomato" when you asked what that red stuff all over my face was.


66. I love that you work as though you never get tired, even though we all know you do.


67. You played Barbies with me. And you sewed clothes for Ken and his Barbie harem.


68. I loved making pull-a-parts with you.


69. Your cookie jar is never empty.


70. I love how excited you get to see horses running in the field.


71. Your meatloaf is the only kind I've ever loved, or even liked, for that matter.


72. I love talking about books with you.


73. When I think about improvements I could make in my marriage or parenting, you usually come to mind (in a good way).


74. You let me wear sunglasses at the breakfast table when I was a kid because my eyes were so sensitive to the light after just waking up.


75. I love how beautiful my Sunday dresses were. I think the first half of my childhood they were pretty much all made by you. Many of my little girlfriends were jealous.


76. You not only gave me life, but then you kept me and gave me "a life". A wonderful, wonderful life!

The Kremin Family's "Surprise-Birthday Girls Night [weekend] Out"!

i love the women in my family.

thanks for a memorable and amusing weekend!

for those that could not attend,

your absence was definitely felt.

see you next year, the weekend after general conference.

get it on your calendars!

Last weekend many of the Kremin women gathered together in the name of shopping, eating, and especially LAUGHING! To surprise my mother for her birthday, we met for a weekend retreat. It's safe to say she had no idea, so watching her face light up was something I'll never forget! We enjoyed dinner with a spectacular view at The Garden, stayed up until midnight laughing and telling stories at the Marriott Residence Inn, then got up early, spending the morning (and some of the afternoon) shopping until we just couldn't take it anymore!

----------------------------------------

Here are some pictures of our fabulous evening!

Surprise!!!

----------------------------

It took us a minute to figure out this was a

baked plantain on Mom's salad.

----------------------------------

Jack and Aiden were very curious about each other!

I was glad Shannon and Nickole

brought them out so we all could play with them!

----------------

Hangin' in our hotel suite, comfy in our pajamas:

---------------

Nothin' says "yum" like

TISHAMINGO TEETH!

We laughed until our sides hurt...

"Truth" (of 'truth or dare', we're all too chicken to choose dare)

and "Spin the Bottle"

gave us some great stories and wonderful chuckles!

-----------------------

Saturday morning:

We even stopped at Victoria Secret, where

Mom found a "colorful" pair of undies.

Fortunately, we talked her out of buying them

since she already has a pair at home just like them. ;)

------------------------------Three cheers for Tai Pan!

Jack was a great sport with all the shopping,

especially when we donned him with Santa hat.

I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I saw ten women,

five carts, and all the comparisons of everyone's loot.

"Show me what you're buying",

"Oh! That's beautiful! Where are you going to put it?",

"I loooooooove this! I've got to have one for myself.

Where did you find it?"

Hilarious!

Can anyone tell me the name of these plants?

i love ya, ralphie.

I am so. dang. excited.



I just purchased tickets online to Pioneer Theatre Company's production of
...
...
(wait for it...)
...
...
..."A Christmas Story"!!!!

December 7th, Row M, Seat 22, that's where you'll find me.


I will be laughing my guts out, maybe even crying a little
(that's how excited I am),
and
it will feel like the Christmas season has arrived.

tender mercies.

Today I was invited to lunch by someone who has become a treasured friend. I love to laugh with her--and we seem to laugh a lot when we're together. I met her through visiting teaching and have felt so grateful for the opportunities I've had to spend time with her. She's a sweet, yet strong woman, with high values. She's an incredible mother and as a person just oozes out kindness. I'm honored to call her my friend.

Thanks, dear friend! Let's go again soon, only next time...my treat!

Carsonisms

"Oh, no! Harson falled!": what he says when he thinks he's going to fall.

Carson says his "K" and "C" sounds like an H (see above quote). Another example of this is when he is happy to not sit in his high chair, but rather on a stool with the big kids at the counter. He'll proclaim to everyone within earshot, "Harson sit at the hounter!"

Anytime you mention the George of the Jungle movie, Carson immediately recalls the scene where George is fighting a lion. "Oh, no! Here's a wion! George fight him!"

"Howie" (Halle) Fortunately, he says Mommy, Daddy, and Wyatt very clearly. It's just those two L's in her name that throw off every little kid.

"Hi, guys! Whatcha doin'?" Usually the first thing he says when he walks into a room.

"And that's not funny"...this is what he says when he's trying to talk about something he deems very serious. For example, one time he told his grandma with a scowl on his face, "My mom put me in time-out. And that's not funny!" Or last night he shared with Brett how he threw away "Weo" (a Leo figurine, from Little Einstein's) in the garbage can at Target. Then he was sad that I wouldn't retrieve it. "Weo go in the dumpt (dumpster). And that's not funny!"

And my personal favorite Carsonism, "I yuv you."

YOU light up my life!

Carson and I had a fun afternoon yesterday playing Light-Bright together! (When I was a kid, I was always so jealous because Alison had one of these and I thought it looked like fun! Now I can have all the plastic-peg joy my fingertips can handle, as long as I'm willing to share it with my little man...)

i - heart - general conference.

Back in September, I was reading King Benjamin's address to his people (Mosiah, Chapter 2) and as I read verse 9, I couldn't help but think it was much like our Semi-Annual gathering to General Conference:

"...My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together, you that can hear my words which I shall speak unto you this day; for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view."