Lack of Motivation

So you would think that bad weather (all of winter) would be the perfect excuse to sit down with my laptop and update my blog. I just find it difficult to get motivated to do much of anything. Except maybe bake. That's what bad weather makes me want to do. So........no posts in February and most of March? Shameful. I have always bragged that the weather doesn't affect my mood much, but I'm starting to think I'm a bit of a liar.

So what's happened the past couple months?

Well, Kalyn had her 15th birthday on January 16th. Such an awkward age for kids. Not an adult, but treated more like an adult, but not at times when you want it. It's a struggle for her and for us.


Bless her heart. I am very proud of her. She is doing very well. She's smart and has a dry sense of humor that I appreciate. She argues more than she should, but so do other people in this house who shall remain nameless (but first initial is Troy).

We had lots of snow in February. Blizzard of the century. 20 inches or so. I helped Troy feed cattle in the mornings, which is something he really enjoys doing in the snowy weather and makes me feel good to do with him.



The girls and I baked a lot, made Valentines for Alina's school party, we made the most of our snow days. I'm glad they're over. So looking forward to spring. Which has officially begun but feels so far away still. Yucky, dreary, wet, cold days. But the milk I bought today had an expiration date of April 9, which made me feel good. It's good to know April is less than a milk's refrigerated shelf life away.



One morning after the blizzard Alina and I were heading out to Helen's with Troy to feed cattle. I took my camera and took the picture of the sunrise through the window as we were driving. I entered it in a local magazine contest for best blizzard pictures and won 3rd place. I got a gift certificate for lunch at a Greek style restaurant in Joplin, which I used with my friend Carrie one Saturday. I love taking pictures.

God Bless Us.......EVERY ONE!

I love family! THEY are the reason holidays are so great. Those people love you unconditionally and are the most comfortable to be around. Here we are, my mom, sister and our children at a production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in KC before Christmas. Great time! We try to do this every year, make a trip up there to visit my brother David's family and go to the Plaza, maybe ice skate if it's not too freezing cold and windy (which it has been the past two years) and eat at Fritz's.

I am ever so grateful for my family and here's why:

I never assume that I think like most people. In fact, I've found over the years that I'm usually safer to assume the opposite. I'm just a bit of an outcast, everywhere I go. It's okay, I'm totally used to it.

You know, the most popular movies or tv shows....I don't get them. I don't want the same things that other women my age seem to want. Shoes? Unless they're a new pair of muck boots, I don't care. My kitchen doesn't have granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances, it looks a lot more like your grandma's kitchen. I have knitted chicken pot holders hanging on my wall. By choice. And I flip out over vintage Tupperware.


One Christmas gift I really appreciated.

I don't wear makeup much. My ideal vacations are camping and hiking. I don't care what I drive and I couldn't tell you what my friends drive, I don't pay attention. If someone left me a three bedroom mobile home to live in for free I would totally take them up on it. I can do a lot of traveling if I don't have to worry about making payments!

I took Alina to get her hair done before her Christmas program, because I am useless when it comes to doing hair.

I totally appreciate my husband's creativity in what he does for a living, but I would never be a good client for him because I'm not impressed enough by good quality to pay for it. I am very grateful there are people out there who do pay for it! He gets annoyed when he uses my kitchen because I don't use high quality anything. I would use a stick from the yard if it got the job done.

Some people may think I display a lack of ambition, and that notion is not totally without merit. Some people, however, may equate that with a lack of intelligence, and I do disagree with that!
I simply don't care about things that a lot of people care about. And I admit to being a little too judgmental at times of people that I feel care too much about things that I don't think are important. And I don't care much what people think of me, even when I would benefit from caring a little more. I'm actually working on that one.

I do care about creativity, family togetherness and I do have a passion for teaching the young kiddos that I teach.

I'm just saying.....I have friends (who think I'm weird) but I am never surprised when people don't immediately relate to me.

But my family......they just think "That's Karen and she's fabulous."

That's awesome.

And I also think they are fabulous.

Pics from Christmas:


Loving my new camera! Which was quite expensive, by the way, so I do care a little about quality.


My girls at the Cheesecake Factory picking out dessert after A Christmas Carol.

My eldest and me. I hope one day she truly appreciates the person her mother is. I love her dearly.

Little elf Harrison, running around maniacally on Christmas Eve.


Mom, displaying some new hypo-allergenic Christmas bling.


My creative husband made metal signs for Dyson and Dad.
Twin cousins

Ever smiling and thoughtful Emily.


We like to line the kids up on the couch for a picture.

Brother, sisters and spouses.


And at our house Christmas morning. Would you believe we actually have to get our girls out of bed and then they're grouchy for awhile, they have to warm up.


Troy's brother Tim called multiple times throughout the week to make sure we would have chai at our house for him Christmas morning. I went out and bought some and when he got there he told me it was the wrong kind, he doesn't drink that kind anymore. He drank it anyway, in his self-stirring cup we bought for him.



Alina asked for and got neck pillows for Christmas. And now we have pillow pets with neck pillows!

like it or not, here it comes

Winter sucks. It's not so bad right now, because we are still in the Christmas season, but January, February and March are soooooo loooong! I was feeling kind of blue when I saw everyone beginning to decorate for Christmas because it meant my fabulous fall was coming to an abrupt end! And it was a fabulous fall. We were trolling around in the jeep all the time and it started to get chilly enough to wear a jacket....then we needed gloves and hats......then we were layering coats....then piling on blankets (oh yes, we are die hards!) and now the jeep pretty much just sits in the driveway for the season. So sad.

I don't know when I became such an outdoors person. I'm sure my mom, dad, brother and sister wonder the same thing. I know it was after I met Troy. Our first vacation together was a rafting and camping trip in the Grand Canyon in 1989. We have taken virtually nothing but outdoor vacations ever since, always including hiking somewhere, sometimes camping as well. The first week of October we threw the tent in the back of the jeep and drove down to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which is about a 3 hour drive from home.



We camped at the base of the dam at Beaver Lake.



This is the view of the river from the dam.

We have been here before of course, I say this all the time....but it's one of my favorite places! Tent camping is one of my favorite things, I just can't personally think of anything else more peaceful than waking up gazing out of the mesh ceiling of the tent at the trees above us and listening to the birds outside. To wake up outside is pretty cool. And coffee and bacon and eggs cooked over the fire! There is just no better way for me to start a day.





So this trip was all about me. I got to eat at my favorite German restaurant, The Bavarian Inn.



Roast Duck or Wiener Schnitzel anyone?

And also shop in some of my favorite shops for antiques and specialty items on those pretty, winding, hilly streets downtown.



I came home with a green glass rolling pin, a big multi-colored bag from the leather shop, and some colorful plastic fish shaped paper plate holders (to hang on my kitchen wall).

And this time we drove up the hill to see the Christ of the Ozarks up close.



The next weekend was a fall festival in my hometown, the town where I teach, Girard. It's 8 miles from our home. We decided to ride our bikes over Saturday morning. We did this one other time. It was great weather for it again!




There were vendors set up all around the town square. Very nice turn out this year. And a car show. That's my dad's '51 Chevy in the picture.

The following weekend the Smiths invited us to their lake house at Lake of the Ozarks. Another pretty fall weekend. We took the boat out on the lake. Troy and I drove the jeep and our girls went with the Smiths. We got to take our time on the way home, touring HaHa Tonka State Park near Camdenton and stopping at antique stores along the way, again coming home with more goodies (that only Troy and I would appreciate).



I spent another 3 day weekend in DesMoines scrapbooking the next weekend. It had been a year and a half since I'd been able to go. I got a lot accomplished while I was there and had a great time with my friend Nancy's cousins from Minnesota. Going back again in February.

And then it was Halloween:



Adorable Case family kids!!!!

The same weekend Susan's beau, Troy, had a very sweet surprise 40th birthday party for Susan. He put so much work into it and she was genuinely surprised! The pictures say it all.

He had this cake made representing all the decades of her life so far, picking up items from the scrapbook store to represent our family dog, her interests growing up, jobs, children, etc.



Susan's lifelong besties were there waiting for her to show up. Susan thought she was attending a party celebrating my Aunt Betty and Uncle Charlie's 60th wedding anniversary.



Room full of people: family, friends, co-workers, waiting for Susan. Good beer, wine, food. He put together a touching slide show of Susan growing up and today also.



And there she is! Realizing that it's all about her. Very sweet, eh? Nice evening.

And my Troy's brother, Travis had a baby girl this fall. We made the trip out to visit them when they had their first born, Liam, 5 years ago, so we made another trip this fall to see baby Veda. It was very pretty there in North Carolina in early November, here's Troy walking Travis' property. And Kalyn holding baby Veda.



We went to a flea market there, Kalyn didn't have luck finding the sunglasses she wanted, but Alina found some shoes she HAD TO HAVE. She is still wearing them a few weeks later even though they cramp her toes a little.




Kalyn has some of the better pictures from this trip on her camera so I took a few from her. It was about this time I decided I needed to get a better camera of my own. Above here are pictures of Liam, Kalyn, Alina and me, all of us sitting around a fire pit in their driveway, and body stamps the kids really enjoyed while we were there.

We came home from that trip and the leaves had fallen off the trees here and everyone had decorated for Christmas. And I knew my fall was over. Even though it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet.

So.....Troy, Kalyn, Alina and I were sitting at Applebees together Thanksgiving weekend and Troy mentioned seeing a good deal on a Cannon EOS T2i with a nice lens online and I ordered it that night. To cheer myself up about the onset of winter. It arrived today and as I type, Troy is looking it over while he's watching tv. Merry Christmas to us!

God Bless Us, Every One.

Hey, we're going to see A Christmas Carol this weekend in Kansas City! I'll have some nice pictures to post!