Sarah Kempf

Thanksgiving at Siesta Key Beach

2009-12-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

This year we spent Thanksgiving week at my favorite spot: Siesta Key Beach. We stayed at a condo that was only a short walk to the beach. Check out their webcam: http://www.sarasotasurf.com/accommodations/webcam.cfm.

We had a great week with 4 out of 6 days of great weather (one day of rain and one day a little chilly bit sunny). Thanksgiving day was spent walking the beach then dinner at Grandpa's with Grandpa, Margaret, one of Margaret's children and her husband and my mother in law, who came with us for the week.

Here are a few of my favorite pics of the week:

Marissa and Mason in front of the condo.

Marissa and her brother hanging out on the beach. Mason had to stay in his stroller most of the time we were on the beach because when we put him down he tried putting the sand in his mouth.

The sand castle Marissa and Daddy built.

Rough day on the beach for the little guy:)

Marissa and Mason outside the condo. They had Christmas decorations everywhere.

Marissa and Mason with great Grandpa on Thanksgiving day.

The family in front of our favorite restaurant in Venice: Sharky's on the Pier. Timmy has been going there since he was a kid.

One of my favorite Christmas decorations.

weekend at the lake

2009-07-21T11:56:00.000-07:00

We recently went to the Ozarks for the weekend with some of our good friends. There were three families and a total of 6 kids: Mason (2 months), Ayla and Chloe (3 years old), Gavin (4), and Marissa and Loralie (6). So we had 6 kids ages 6 and under. The men got ahold of a fishing boat for the weekend although I don't think they caught many fish. Mr. Mason decided he wasn't going to nap on Saturday so I didn't much chance to get in the lake.

It was still a great time and I got some good pics of the kiddos.

Miss Ayla enjoying a popsicle

Marissa and her best friend, Loralie. They have known each other since birth. Marissa is only a month older than Loralie even though she stands atleast a head taller.

The girls partying on the deck

Mason is already a party animal:)

My husband worries me.....

2009-05-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

My friend Alexis bought Mason a Build a Bear with a Blues Hockey outfit to match his nursery:

My husband had a bright idea to take the outfit off of the bear and put it on our son to use for his announcement picture. Yes, he wanted our son to wear an outfit made for a teddy bear. The result didn't actually turn out though because Mason's head is too big for the jersey. The paints worked out but we had to lay the jersey on him. We definitely will not be using this picture for our announcements. Had the jersey fit, I probably wouldn't have minded....

The poor baby is not even 2 weeks old and he is already being subjected to his father's wonderful ideas. I guess it is better for him to get used to it at an early age so that maybe he thinks our family is normal:)

Mason Elijah Kempf

2009-05-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

Mason with Marissa

Mason Elijah Kempf

Born at 3:42 p.m. on May 1st. 8lbs 0 oz. 21 inches

The enthgrader

2009-04-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

The other night my family was hanging out in the family room when Marissa announced that she knew where the enth grader was. Tim said, "the 8th grader? what are you talking about?"
"no Daddy, the enthgrader, you know on a map?"
Oh! The equator...............
Its so cute when she says things like this but she hasn't been mispronouncing it since we corrected her. When we laughed she thought we were making fun of her but Tim explained that we just think she's too cute!

Shower for Baby Kempf

2009-04-20T07:01:00.001-07:00

Anyone who reads my blogs knows that my husband and I are Saint Louis Blues fans. I also wrote a blog about our son's Blues themed nursery. Well my friend, Alexis, wanted to throw me a baby shower and called to ask me what our nursery "theme" was so she could plan the shower to match the nursery. I told her we tried to use a Blues theme but to do whatever she wanted because I didn't want her to have to go through too much trouble. She decided to stick to the Blues theme anyway even though after she starting the planning she realized it would have been much easier if we had been Cardinals or Rams fans (they don't sell alot of Blues items in the stores). I told Tim he had to come and atleast see everything after she had it decorated. Of course he couldn't stay long because he was going to a Blues game that evening!

My friend and her husband made the diaper cake. It took 215 diapers! It is sitting in our nursery because we don't want to undo it yet.

Marissa with her "big sister" shirt on.

mommy and Marissa with the cake

Party favor cookies

She even had blue and yellow balloons, plates and napkins.

My favorite, the Blues piggy bank. There is also a really cool picture frame that says "future Blues fan" but I need to get a better pic of it.

Awesom cake!

Special thanks to Alexis for the shower and thank you to everyone that came! Hopefully we will get to meet the little guy soon. My due date is next Friday! Also, special thanks to my ever patient husband for being so loving and understanding the last 8 months:)

Happy Birthday Marissa!

2009-04-02T06:49:00.001-07:00

My little girl is 6 today. She has been my baby for six years and yes, I still call her the baby. I have been told that she will not be my baby any more when my son arrives but I just tell everyone that I will have two babies. Your kids are always your babies no matter how old they are. They just get to a certain age where you can't say that in front of them.
This morning I tried to remember exactly what I was doing at this time 6 years ago. Well, obviously I was having a baby but what where our thoughts and actions at 8am? I had Marissa at 1am (an hour past April Fools Day). I was probably asleep at 8am. If not I was looking at my new daughter wondering what in the world had we gotten ourselves into! Just kidding.... (kinda)
Anyway, Happy Birthday to My Marissa! You are a wonderful child and bring way to much joy to my heart and your fathers. We love you!

Marissa's first Halloween. My mother bought this lovely costume.

Fall of 2003

I think this was late August of 2003

The little monster now

The tooth fairy visits the Kempf House

2009-03-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

If you read any of my earlier blogs you might remember that Marissa had her 1st loose tooth. Well Friday afternoon Tim left the office to pick Marissa up from school and once again they called me on the way back. Marissa wanted to tell me she finally lost her loose tooth. When they got back to the office she showed me her tooth in the treasure box her teacher gave her then she showed me the spot where it had been. She also mentioned that some of the kids in her class got $5 or even $10 for their first tooth!!! I told her that the tooth fairy in our area usually leaves pennies but she just rolled her eyes at me.

Most of the time I try to stick to my own parenting principles but this time Tim and I gave into the parenting peer pressure. The tooth fairy left Marissa $5! Since my baby shower was the next day Marissa managed to collect another $9 from Grandparents and other realitives when she showed them her missing tooth. All together she got $14 for her 1st lost tooth. I made sure that she understood that was only going to happen with the 1st tooth.

Wow, a $14 tooth. I think my 1st tooth was worth about $1.

To Gregg and Tim:

2009-03-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

I have been as nice as I can about the whole Nintendo thing even though I don't understand the obsession. As Gregg mentioned in his blog I even initiated you guys playing online together. But as I mentioned to Dianne (whose side is she on anyway?) the Mario Kart Madness is starting to effect my TV time and my time with my husband. I don't even watch TV that much. In fact, the only show I really want to watch is American Idol and maybe Greta or Bill O'Reilly and of course Blues hockey but that we agree on. Since American Idol is usually on during the Blues game Tuesday I have even given up watching that. Mainly because I can completely understand the Blues obsession (sorry Gregg. I guess that says something about my character, too). But little did I know when I called Gregg to race Tim online what this would lead to. Tim has even gone as far as suggesting other things to occupy me. The other night he said, "why don't you go take a bath, honey?". He was trying to act like a nice husband who wanted his wife to relax but I read right through it. He was really trying to buy more nintendo time! Then there was the night that he said "Just one more game babe and then we can watch a movie together." Well one more game turned into 10 more games and he didn't even realize I had given up and just gone to bed (or he realized it and was secretly pleased). What makes it even worst is that Marissa is into the whole Mario Kart thing. So now its 2 against 1 in our house. On weekends she can stay up as late as she wants and join in on the whole madness.
As Tim mentioned, there is a solution to the whole disagreement and that would be to move the Wii downstairs. Of course that only solves one part of the problem which is me being able to watch TV in my living room. It doesn't solve the problem of me not getting to spend time with my husband. I can get over that though. After all, we do work together all day.
And for the record, I didn't even buy that darn game. My cousin let him borrow it, along with both remotes. So if I really wanted to solve the problem I could just pack it up and send it back to her. But I am way to nice to do that, right?

Blues Nursery

2009-02-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

As soon as my husband found out were we having a boy he was determined that the nursery would be a Saint Louis Blues theme. No teddy bears or cute little animals for our son. Tim was determined it would be hockey from the beginning. Well of course this caused a stir among the other family members. Both of our parents thought it was silly to do a nursery in a hockey theme. They argued, "what if he doesn't even like hockey?." My husbands reply was always, "what if he doesn't like teddy bears?" or any of that other "baby" stuff parents choose as a nursery theme. So any way we were set out to find a way to tactfully do our Blues themed nursery. After looking at different sports stores we determined that it would have been alot easier if we would have been Cardinal fans. We finally decided to just stick with the Blues color scheme and maybe we would be able to find a few Blues items to put in the room along the way. So then we decided we had to paint the walls blue and yellow. Here is the end result, which I am very pleased with:

It took my husband a very long time to paint these stripes. It was even more dfficult due to our textured walls. But I think it turned out great. And our family said it they even liked it. Now we just need some hockey decor to hang on the walls.

To ankes and beyond!

2009-02-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has kids has those moments when your kid either sings the words to a song wrong or pronounces a word wrong and the results is something very funny.
Yesterday on the way to church Marissa was in the car counting. This is something she has been doing since she started Kindergarden. First she had to learn to count to 100. After she mastered that she realized she could easily figure out how to keep going to 200, 300 etc. It can actually be really annoying unless you can learn to ignore it because she never stops. Well we were almost to church when I realized she was at 190 or something. Thankfully my husband and I had managed to have our own conversation while she was busy counting. We all started talking about really big numbers, like a million and a trillion and a billion, etc. Marissa said, "mommy, I know what the biggest number in the world is."
me: "what's that?"
Marissa: "ankes!"
hmmm, I was quiet for a moment while I tried to figure out what in the world ankes was.
me: "oh!!!! You mean INFINITY!"
Marissa: "yeah! Thats it!"
by then we were laughing so hard that I could barely talk.
I explained to her that infinity wasn't really a number (or is it?) it just meant never ending. And the only thing I could think of to describe this to her was Heaven.
I am going to try to blog about all these funny mispronunciations so I can remember them myself. It's an easy way to lift your mood. Now that I will have another little one, I'm sure when he starts talking I will have many more to document.

Dolphin Picture

2009-01-30T07:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a better copy of my previous dolphin picutre.

This was right off the coast and not too far from where we walk out in the ocean.

I was very excited when I took this picture because while I was trying to take the shot Tim told me to give up, there was no way I could actually get the dolphin in the picture with as slow as our camera is. but I did and here is my best shot.

Marissa's Blonde Moment #2

2009-01-19T10:37:00.000-08:00

I was getting ready for work today when, "Mommy, could you please come in my room? I need you!"
So I stopped ironing my clothes and went in her room. She is sitting on her bed with her VTech, which is a hand held v smile. she says, "I keep turning up the volume but I can't hear anything at all. It's broken."
Great. Her favorite Christmas toy is broken. So I grab the head phones that are attached to the VTech and put them in my head.
"Marissa the sound is working just fine"
"oh, I forgot you had to put the headphones on"
She had been turning the volume up and no sound was coming out because she didn't have the head phones on her ears.
DUH!
I just looked at her funny and we both laughed.
Seriously, my child is smart, but her blonde moments are reminding me of myself.

But I'm not Ready for This!

2009-01-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

If you read any of my earlier posts you know how hard it was for me to let my baby go to Kindergarten. I just wasn't ready when the time came. I could no longer hold on to the toddler years at that point. When your kid goes to Kindergarten they are no longer a toddler but a regular school aged kid! That was part of what made me want another kid. The other reason it was hard was because for 5 years I had been working part time and hanging out with her the rest of the time. Now I had no excuse not to work because she would be in school all day. Well there are some things I can't control and her going to Kindergarten was one of them.

Today I was sitting at work waiting for my husband to pick Marissa up from girl scouts. As soon as he picked her up he called me so she could share some news with me. "Guess what, Mommy! I have a loose tooth!" Well being pregnant and really emotional, tears instantly formed in my eyes. Of course I didn't let her know this. What kind of crazy mom would cry over a loose tooth? me, of course. It was just another reminder of how my child is growing up so quickly. Just like I couldn't control her going to Kindergarten I can't control her loose tooth either. So now my baby is going to be a toothless Kindergartner.

What's next?

Christmas Vacation

2009-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged much lately due to being gone for a week after Christmas. My family had a great Christmas which consisted of visiting lots of family and Marissa opening lots of presents and of course, celebrating the birth of our Savior.

The Saturday after Christmas we left for a family vacation. In the last four years all of our vacations have been company promotions. While I am truly grateful for the opportunity, company events mean that I either have to leave my daughter with her grandparents or take one of them with us so Tim and I can go to dinners and misc. functions. This trip was our first totally non-Farmers related trip. 7 days of just the 4 of us. We left Saturday morning and arrived in Atlanta in the evening. This was the first time we didn't drive straight through but my doctor advised me to stop often since I am pregnant so we stopped halfway. The next day we left early to head to Venice, Fl which is where we were staying since Tim's Grandpa lives there. The drive should have taken about 9 hours but we hit really bad traffic and didn't arrive to Grandpa's house till after it was too late to get a glimpse of the beach. So we went to bed eager to wake up and set out for my favorite beach, Siesta Key which is about 20 miles from Granpa's house. Grandpa only lives about 2 miles away from Venice beach but Siesta Key is my favorite and worth the 20 minute drive. Monday-Thursday we spent four days doing nothing but walking the beach, swimming in the ocean (yes, in December) and site seeing Florida. We also got a chance to see Grandpa and go to dinner with him. Overall the trip was great. Probably the best vacation I have ever had. It is so hard to come back to cold St. Louis (which apparently wasn't that cold while we were gone).

Here are a few of my favorite pics. I took mostly pics of the beach because I don't really like my overall appearance at this stage in my pregnancy:) Of course I took lots of Marissa pics too.

Siesta Key Beach and a sailboat out in the ocean. I really like this pic and I am thinking about inlarging it and hanging it in my family room.

my 2 favorite people. This is at the end of Siesta Key beach where you can look out and see Long Boat Key.

A picture of Long Boat Key from Siesta Key.

Long Boat Key Beach

See the Dolphin in the distance. This is actually not very far off the shore. I am going to try to zoom in and edit the photo.

Marissa's blonde moment

2008-12-22T12:35:00.000-08:00

Marissa would be very upset with me for posting this but since she can't read much yet she'll never know:) Saturday morning Tim and I cleaned the house and threw away some of our junk. I got done mopping the floors and cleaning the bathroom late afternoon and had to get dressed for our date to the Blues game. Marissa was going to Grandma Patty's for the evening. Marissa was all dressed and waiting for me to finish getting ready when I heard her call out from the bathroom, "uh oh Mommy, Come help!" Geez the kid is 5 years old. She shouldn't need help going to the bathroom. I was praying she wasn't sick. I ran into the bathroom to find her standing in a puddle of pee with pee all over her pants, underwear and snow boots she had just put on. She had run upstairs from the basement to go pee and sat on the toilet without looking and peed with the LID CLOSED! Yes, she peed with the lid completely closed, which caused the pee to overflow onto the floor and her pants and underwear. I stood in the doorway laughing and called Tim in to come see the mess. I knew I would have to reclean the toilet and the floors I had just cleaned AND change her clothes that she had just put on but it was too funny to be upset about. We didn't have time to give her another bath so I told her to tell Grandma to. Tim's bright idea was to rub hand sanitizer all over her legs (which he did).
So that was Marissa's blonde moment over the weekend. She had done that one other time but she was half asleep that time. This time she was fully awake!

Christmas Picture

2008-12-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

Here is the picture I took for our Christmas pic this year. It is just Marissa. We haven't done a family one the past two years but probably will with the new baby next year. Marissa is all dressed up and ready to go to her school concert, which was last Friday. I just ordered these pics on Sunday and I am hoping they will come in before Christmas so I can put them in our cards. Obviously I will not be mailing these cards due to time. I just stick the picture in the card and hand them out to family on Christmas day. I will hand them out to church friends Sunday if they are here on time.

This is the one we printed for the family to put in our cards.

Here is one of Marissa posing. She always wants to do really weird poses and I keep telling her to just stand "normal"

Another Marissa pose.

Who is the parent anyway?

2008-12-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

The other night I was a little crabby. Tim was going to another hockey game and I really didn't want to be home by myself. Well I wouldn't be home by myself, Marissa would be with me. But I really didn't want to stay home and do all the dirty work myself (cleaning the kitchen, laundry, bath time, etc). So I was basically throwing a fit. Truthfully, I don't mind if Tim goes to the games. Everyone deserves time of their own. Especially him because he doesn't ask for much for himself. I was just in one of my pregnancy moods (I will post on that later).
Marissa is rarely ever crabby. She never has been. She is basically ALWAYS in a good mood. She hardly ever throws fits. She has been like this since she was little. So the other night she could tell I was in a bad mood as I stomped around the kitchen doing the dishes. "Mommy, let's play a game." I told her I had housework to do till midnight (much exaggeration) but I would play a game anyway. We got out the game SORRY to play first. She was winning by alot. It didn't really matter to me. I'm not a sore loser in my old age. But she didn't want to win. She wanted mommy to win so that I would be in a good mood. I explained to her that I was already in a much better mood just from playing the game with her and it didn't matter to me who won. I was still having fun, thanks to my five year old who was much better spirited than me.

Timmy's pumpkin

2008-12-12T11:29:00.001-08:00

Dedicated Blues Fan.

pictures of the cold camping trip

2008-12-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of Tim and Marissa outside of the tent. It had rained right before we got there so we had to take our shoes off everytime we got in the tent. Notice the pop-up right behind our tent?

Decorations on the picnic table outside of our campsite.

Who are those hoosiers at Forest Park?

2008-12-12T11:14:00.001-08:00

Most people can figure out that you aren't susposed to let your kid swim in the waterfall at Forest Park. But there's always that one family......

The Santa Clause Conspiracy

2008-12-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

I am not a Scrooge. Christmas is my favorite holiday. BUT there is one thing I don't like about Christmas: Santa Clause!
Ok, I know that makes me sound like a bad person but let me explain. Every since Marissa was born our family has wanted to take Marissa to see Santa. Especially her Grandparents. I really don't understand why. Her first Christmas she was only 7 months old. My mom was determined to take her and my nephew to see Santa. No one could believe I wasn't planning to take her myself. Seriously , do you know any kid under the age of 2 who actually likes Santa? You could tell them anyone bought those presents and they don't really care. They don't even understand. So anyway, my mom decided to take Marissa since I wouldn't. Thankfully my husband didn't really care about taking her either. He hates long lines and hates the mall during the holidays. So my mom took her and my nephew. In the pic he is screaming (he was about 14 months old) and Marissa looks terrified. Wow, great Christmas pic. Couldn't we have just put them in front of the tree and gotten a good picture?
So I decided at that point I just wasn't going to tell Marissa there was a Santa Clause. The following year she was old enough to get excited about Christmas. I explained to her that it was a birthday party for Jesus! She already heard about Jesus from going to church so this made sense to her (as much as it can for a 18 month old). So I was all set. I had dodged the whole Santa thing. But wait, who is the fat man in the red suit that everyone keeps telling my daughter about?
So I couldn't escape the whole Santa thing. This year I even attended a breakfast with Santa! I tried to get out of it but my in laws kidnapped me and made me go (it wasn't so bad).
So every year I buy expensive toys for my child and instead of signing them with my name and my husband's name I sign the name of someone who doesn't even exist and he gets all the credit. And the really amusing thing to me is that in a couple of years I get to tell her that I lied to her for no reason at all and that there really is no such thing as Santa Clause. Now does any one see my point? Or am I just crazy?
But I still make sure to tell her the real reason behind all those presents. A birthday party for our Savior: Jesus! (I should have stuck with my original plan:)
Anyway, Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season as much as I am.

And the next Kempf baby is.......................

2008-12-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

A BOY!

We had our ultrasound today at 11:15 am. Tim picked Marissa up from school so she could go with us. Tim was very happy when we found out the baby is a boy. On the other hand, I could tell Marissa was a little disappointed (I think all little girls want a sister). Marissa said, "I wanted it to be a girl, but I guess I'll love a brother." Well, that's good because she really didn't have a choce! I am happy either way.
Well the not so good news is that after taking the babie's measurements the ultrasound tech pushed my due date back to May 5th! So I am really only 18 weeks, not 20! Now I feel liked I've gained too much weight to be only 18 weeks and Tim will have to put up with my crabiness 2 weeks longer:)
Everything went great and the baby appears healthy so thats good news! Now we just have to decide if the baby will be a Timothy jr. The Kempf name will officially carry on.

Boy or Girl?

2008-11-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday is the day! December 2nd Tim and I find out the sex of our baby. I am very excited. I am not a patient person and it is so hard for me to wait for this. Plus, I would like to get started on the nursery, which will either be a Blues theme (Tim's choice) or something that Marissa and I pick out if it is a girl. What makes it even worse is that I will be 20 weeks by then. You really only have to be 16 weeks (although that is a little soon if you really want to be accurate). There is another agent that works with us and she is due 3 days before me and she has already found out. So, now I only have to be patient for 4 more days!
Stay tuned. I will post as soon as I have my ultra sound.
I also never realized how many people don't find out the sex till the baby is born. I don't know how they do that! One of my best friends is pregnant with her 3rd. They found out with the first 2 but they are going to wait till the delivery for this one. I also realize that people my parents age didn't really have the option back then. So I guess waiting 20 weeks isn't so bad. After all it's alot less than waiting 40 weeks....
Well Marissa is rooting for a girl (of course). My husband would like a boy since we already have a girl and I would like a girl since I always wished I had a sister. Of course we don't really care either way as long as it's healthy but it is fun to discuss. I know all of my in laws want a boy because there are already 3 girl babies (Marissa and my 2 neices) on that side. So all the discussions will be over by Tuesday.

Top 10 things I am Thankful For

2008-11-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

I am aware that this is kind of corny but I have alot to be grateful for. Plus, writing it out makes you more aware of your blessings. The following are the top 10 (not really in order):

1) God

2) Marissa

3) My husband and are wonderful marriage.

4) the baby growing inside me

5) my church family and bible study group

6)my neices and nephew

7) my parents and the rest of my family and Tim's family

8) our house

9) our health

10) our jobs

A few other things I'm thankful for: Family vacations, the beach, a day off with my family, Holidays, float trips, camping (in the summer), my friends, and cold beer on a summer day.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you have as much on your list as I do.

The October Camping Trip

2008-11-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to blog on this topic since the trip but haven't had the chance. Let me start by saying that camping is meant to be done in warm weather. I did have a great time thanks to good company but I will definitely not be going camping at the end of October again UNLESS I own a trailer with heat!

Tim and I are in a wonderful bible study group (later blog). Our group usually meets once a month on a Friday. One of the couples in our group loves to camp (Ted and Kristi). We went camping with them on our July trip which I posted about previously. Anyway they had reservations to camp at Babler the 24th & 25th of October. They invited the bible study crew. The plans were to carve pumpkins, eat chili and make smores by the fire. Since Babler is only 30 minutes away those who didn't want to camp could just drive home after the bonfire. Our friends who were hosting the outing own a travel trailer. Somehow they convinced us and another couple to stay overnight in a tent. I am absolutely ok with camping and outdoors but I HATE cold weather. I think any temperature below 70 is cold. So anyway. We were the only ones with a tent so the other family, The Muellers(Gregg, Dianne, Rachel and Rebecca), were going to stay in the tent with us. Gregg wasn't so happy about the camping thing and would probably end up driving home after the bonfire.
So anyway the Friday of the planned camping trip I was getting everything ready and decided to call Kristi who was hosting the campout. She informed me the the youngest Mueller kid had the flu and so the family would not be going (Marissa was very sad about this). Great, now we were the only fools staying in the tent. After my husband got home from work and packed the car (that's when the mini van statement occured:) we set out for our cold camping trip. The evening was great. Another guy from our bible study group showed up with his daughter and her friend. We carved our pumpkins, ate chilli, made smores, and chatted around the bonfire. But as you know the later it gets the colder it gets. By the time we were ready for bed it was about 48 degrees. And since we were sleeping outside it wasn't going to get any better. We had an air mattress with a blanket on it to sleep on. We each had on 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts and 2 pairs of socks. We had a sleeping bag and two blankets on top of the sleeping bag. IT WAS STILL COLD. You are not meant to sleep outside when it is below 65 degrees unless you are crazy. Anyway, my daughter fell asleep watching a movie on the portable DVD player. That girl is so easy she can sleep anywhere. She was not complaining at all (unlike her mom). So I snuggled in next to her and it really wasn't so bad. I convinced myself that I could sleep for a few hours and by the time it was morning I would barge into my friend's trailer and warm up. Or take a walk to the heated bathroom/shower house. Except for one thing.... The was a VERY loud man at the campsite next to ours. It seemed as if he was having a one sided conversation. Sure he was talking to someone but the other person couldn't get a word in. The later it got the louder he got. So now I just had to wait for him to fall asleep and then I could finally get some peace and quiet. Around midnight the drunk man finally piped down and went into his pop up. Great! I could sleep finally. I dozed off for about an hour when I was suddenly wakened by a loud roar!!! Holy cow! A bear? a train driving right by my tent? No, it was neither of these. This load roar that wouldn't cease was the LOUDEST snoring I had EVER heard in my life. and it was buzzing right in my ear. I turned over to kick my husband when I realized it wasn't him. I should have known better because he never snores. The snoring was the loud drunk man in the pop up behind us!!!!! I decided to wake my husband anyway. I wasn't going to suffer this alone.
"honey, are you awake?" (me)
"I am now"
"Do you hear that?"
"How could I not?"
"I can't sleep"
"me neither, now"
"ok, take me home"
"no, go to bed"
So I lay there trying to drown out the snoring. I put two pillows over my head and could still hear it. I shut my ears with my fingers and could still hear it (my husband can't fall back asleep now but Marissa is sound asleep.) Finally around 2am. I loudly announce I am going to sleep in my car because of the loud snoring (I tried yelling this in hopes of waking him but it didn't work). Once in my car with door shut I turned the car on to see what the temp is. 42 degrees!!!!! I shut off the car and curled into a ball and finally fell asleep till about 5am. I couldn't lay straight because my car is too small. Then I dozed for a while and finally left the car about 7am. The snoring had finally ceased. I took my little one to the bathroom and when I came back our friends where finally awake. Kristi asked me if Tim usually snored that loud. The snoring was so loud they had heard it in their pop up with the door closed and the thought it was Tim (poor Timmy). I explained to her that it was not my husband and pointed out the pop up right behind our tent. She laughed. I didn't.
Anyway they made us a great breakfast and we took a long hike after that. They weather warmed and we ended up having a great time. We grilled for lunch and then made smores again. We all headed out around 3pm. We were going to stop somewhere on our way home and the other couple was going to head back and stay another night in their nice heated camper. Our family was heading home. There was no way I would sleep there another night.
It ended up being a wonderful experience (except for the snoring man) but I made it clear to my friends that I will only be camping between May and September!
another note, most people who know me know that I exaggerate ALOT when I am telling a story. Whenever I tell this story Tim makes it clear to everyone that for once I am not exaggerating about how loud this man's snoring was!

Free Time

2008-11-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

Now that the Music Man is over I will have tons of free time on my hands. I wish I had written a blog about the Musica Man but I never got around to it. Anyone who went knew it was a fantastic show. I only had a small part but the last month is VERY time consuming. I'm not complaining though, I love it!. My tech week schedule looked like this:
Sunday: 9:15-10:20- help Sunday school in the 3 year old room
10:45-12:15- church service
12:15-1:00 eat lunch
1:00-5:00 practice at church for Music Man, run show
5:00-6:00 dinner break
6:00-9:00 practice at church, run show again

Monday: 11:00am-4:30 work (did laundry and packed everything for the day in the am)
4:30-5:30 eat at my moms with Marissa
6:00-10:00- Music Man run show

Tuesday: 8:30-2:30 work
3:00-5:30 eat, bathe Marissa, get ready for practice
6:00-10:00 Music Man, run show

Wednesday was the same schedule as Tuesday except it was a dress rehearsal.

Thursday & Friday were the same shedule as Tuesday and Wednesday but we preformed the show instead of having a rehearsal. My husband was not able to help with anything around the house either because he was helping the set crew and had to be at all the same practices. Marissa either went with us or went to my moms house. Saturday Tim's mom took her while we did the Saturday night show. Sunday we went to church and then there was a show at 2:30, then a cast party and then we helped clean up. We got home around 8pm and Music Man was finally over. As you can see I barely had time to eat and sleep last week. Now I will have tons of free time. We will be back to watching the Blues atleast 3 nights a week and we also need to get our house ready for the baby, which consists of cleaning out extra bedroom (not extra anymore:) and cleaning up the basement. Then in January I plan on starting my VBS work. Tonight I am going to try to relax (hard for me to do). I will also have more time with friends and I am going to try to blog more. I need more blog topics. Any suggestions?

I Can't Believe I Said That!!!

2008-10-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night my family was getting ready to go camping (that will come in a later blog). I have a very small family (for now). There are just 3 of us. My husband packed the cooler and loaded the car. After I got in I turned around and realized that the seat next to my daughter was full of blankets and bags. The trunk was full with the cooler, more blankets and more bags. I realized with the new baby on the why the little one would have no where to sit! Knowing I would totally regret it I turned to my husband and said those horrifying words, "Honey, I think we really do need a mini van." I CAN"T BELIEVE I SAID THAT! I think I aged 10 years instantly in that very moment.
Seriously the whole mini van thing is really a joke BUT I am already regretting the words. I prefer to just rent a mini van when we take long family trips. My husband is an Insurance Agent and gets a 50% discount. I started looking at mini vans and the gas mileage stinks. We both drive cars that get over 30 mpg. I don't like wasting money on gas when I could drive the same distance for less money. 2nd, I have a hard enough time driving my little car. I have never had an accident with a moving vehicle but I have bad judgement on the amount of room I have between non moving objects when driving in reverse. Most recently (about 6 months ago) I hit my Grandparents mail box. This mailbox is positioned to where it would be almost impossible to hit. Somehow I managed. 3rd, it really would make me feel like an old lady driving a mini van around taking my 2 kids to miscellaneous activities
So if anyone has any suggestions on a fuel efficient vehicle that is roomy but not too large and won't make me look like a soccer mom, I am totally up for the advice.

Go Blues!

2008-10-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

It's the beginning of my favorite Saint Louis Sport Season: Hockey! Basketball would be my fav but STL doesn't have a basketball team so I kind of lost touch. Anyway, for my birthday my dad bought tickets for me, Marissa, my mom, Tim and himself to go to the game. The home opener usually falls on my birthday as it did this year so I get to celebrate my birthday watching the Blues Game. My husband is a huge Blues fan. If we are having a boy he has already decided that the nursery will be a Blues theme in which my sister in law (a talented decorator and artist) will paint a Blues sign on the wall (she has not agreed to this yet but we still have time to convince her:). Tim went to over 20 Blues games last year. So far he has been to all of the home games. Tonight he is at the 3rd home game of the season. He always says he will stay home and watch the game with me but then one of his friends calls and he looks at me and says the same thing every time "you don't mind if I go, right honey?" Of course I don't but I am jealous because now I am stuck at home watching it by myself. Oh well, he is always in a super good mood those days and helps more with housework. So far the Blues are 4 and 1. Legace is undefeated. Hopefully they will make the playoffs this year.

Go Blues!

My family before a Blues game last year.

Marissa has been to 3 games in her lifetime. 2 last year and one this year. She loves to go and cheer on the Blues with mommy and daddy. She has never made it to the end of the game without falling asleep (they usually last till atleast 10pm). This year she made it the longest and fell asleep with only a few minutes left.

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-10-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my 27th birthday. For anyone who may read my blog, that is probably not very old. For me, it is the oldest I have ever been (hahahha). Seriously while I don't consider 27 to be old it does mean that I am coming upon that dreaded number of when I totally lose any hope of being considered youthful. I think the number is 30.
Anyway I am not posting to sob about my old age, really, I'm not. But to say how grateful I am to be where I am at my age. No, not materialistically. I have a great husband. He supports everything I do, even when he knows I am pushing myself over the limits. He has never ending patience for me and Marissa. Sometimes I think God took all the patience in my family and gave them to Tim and left me without! I have a healthy, happy daughter who brings so much joy to many people. I have another child on the way. I have 2 great nieces and a great nephew and a great step niece. My parents are still in great health. Most importantly I have a strong faith in God.
This is more than I could ever ask for on my birthday. So Happy Birthday to Me!

12 week appointment

2008-10-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

I am 12 weeks along in my pregnancy and I had my 2nd appointment today. Timmy is able to go with me now that he can take a break from work. When I was pregnant with Marissa he could not take off at all so he didn't get to go to any appointments. He will probably not go to all of them but I wanted him to come today because they check the baby's heart beat. Well the nurse located the heart beat quickly and everything sounded great. It was exciting because it helps give you a little peace of mind knowing the baby's heart is beating fast and steady.

The first month of this pregnancy I was VERY tired. I felt like sleeping all the time. The 2nd month I was VERY nauseated. This is something I didn't experience with Marissa. I have been feeling sick everyday for a month straight. The last week has been a lot better. Now I am starting to gain more energy and not feel nauseous any more. I am very happy about feeling better because I have a lot going on (The Music Man, work, Marissa, etc) and I don't plan on cutting back with any of it.

After I picked Marissa up from school I told her about my doctor's appointment and about hearing the heart beat. She wanted to know if that meant that I knew if it was a boy or girl. She is just like her mommy and daddy and can't wait to find out the sex. I told her we still had to wait about 2 more months. The week that I could find out is over Thanksgiving so I guess I will have to wait till the 1st week of December.
I am so happy that my family will have another blessing in April. We can't wait to meet baby Kempf.

Good News!

2008-09-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

Timmy and I are happy to announce we are expecting our 2nd child! I am due toward the end of April. We found out about a month ago and we wanted to wait till I went to the doctor to share the news. Well of course I couldn't wait to tell my mom so I called her right away. Then we slowly told the rest of the family members within the next few weeks. Last Tuesday I went to the doc and found out my estimated due date (April 22nd) and how far I probably am so then we decided it was ok to tell everyone. Well last week Tim told one of our friends from church and his 12 year old daughter. Then one of Marissa's friends announced it to her Sunday school teacher this morning so the word is pretty much out! We are very excited. We knew we wanted another child but didn't want our children to be close together at all. I have had 5 great years with Marissa as my only child but now it is time for her to experience a sibling. Back in July Tim told me he wanted to try for our second. Within 2 weeks I was pregnant!
We are very happy and anxiously await our new family member. Marissa is already picking out names (Miley, Mira, and many other disney characters appear on her list of names).
We will find out what sex the baby is sometime in November.
Thank you God for this wonderful blessing!

Tagged -Six Absolutely Unspectacular Things About Me

2008-09-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

If anyone visits my blog (and I'm not sure if anyone does:) they have probably noticed I am lacking on the posts. I am new to the blogging thing and have a hard time coming up with interesting topics to write about. Well my friend Gregg has helped me out today! He tagged me in a blog so I am supposed to write a meme about 6 Absolutely Unspectacular Things about Me. Pardon me if I don't follow the rules but I'm new to this!

1) I work in a 500 sq ft office all day with my husband. I have been asked many times the following questions:
1)have you ever wanted to strangle each other? 2)How are you still married? 3)Do you still want to be together when you get home?
Here are the answers: 1)YES!!!! 2)Love?? Insanity??? 3)and of course we still want to be together when we get home. We work great together and wouldn't change a thing. Well, I wouldn't but I would have to ask if he feels the same:)

2) I look at real estate online when I am bored or even when I have things to do (atleast once a day) and secretly dream of being a realtor or investor. this goes along with my obsession with the TV show House Hunters and House Hunters International. I would also love to drive around on Sundays to look at Open Houses but gas prices do not permit me to do this.

3) Between the ages of 11 and 18 I had a strange obsession with Charles Barkley. My room was decorated with 8 posters of him. I had 5 or 6 tshirts of the Phoenix Suns (from before he went to the Rockets), I have over 40 of his cards and I have atleast 3 of his books. I was a big basketball fan and he was my favorite player. I watched almost evey game he played that was on TV. I was very sad when he retired from the game and I haven't watched much basketball since.

4) My husband and I look forward to coming home at night to watch Fox news. Especially Greta Vansusteren and Bill O'Reilly.

5) I live in St. Louis and love to drink beer but have never toured the brewery. WOW! That sounds totally pathetic. I love going to the city too so I'm not sure why I haven't been there. Well I think because I didn't know until recently that you could take kids there so I never wanted to get a babysitter to go. Now I really need to take the time to go because some friends told me the brewery is totally kid friendly. Why would I think YOu couldn't take a kid to a brewery??

6)I absolutely positively can't stand to be at home and be bored. Sometimes this drives my husband nuts but I think it might have rubbed off. I always need to have something going on and I love to get involved with as much as I can. From February to June I work on VBS at home after work. Then from August to November I work on the fall musical. Then I have a little time off for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Next comes the Spring Musical and then time for VBS again. I don't just do these things because I'm bored though. These are all outreach programs through my church. I love my church family and like to help in any way possible with mission outreach programs. For me, I would rather target my energy toward something I hope can make a difference. Other things I do if I am bored: visit family, go to parks, watch movies, bug my kid or husband, shop for things I have no intention of buying, etc.

Meme terms & conditions
1. link the person who tagged you-Gregg http://onedadslife.com
2. mention the rules on your blog
3. list 6 unspectacular things about you
4. tag 6 other bloggers by linking them- I am going to break this rule because Gregg already tagged all the bloggers I know except my sister in law who I am going to tag-http://keepingupwiththehaners.blogspot.com

Goodbye Summertime

2008-09-10T05:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's cool weather made me realize summer is pretty much gone. Alot of people look forward to fall but I will really miss the hot summer weather. I was a little sad that summer is over so my husband reminded me of all the things we got to do over the summer. Here are a few of our summertime highlights:

1) Our trip to Daytona and Siesta Key in which we got to visit Grandpa and eat at Sharky's twice. and dance in the rain at Sharky's.

2) Our camping trip in July to Bennett Springs with the Anderson's and Eberley's.

3) Four trips to Goose Creek which means relaxing and swimming in the lake with friends

4) VBS

5) my nephew visiting St. Louis for a week. He lives and Chicago and his parents let him stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a week over the summer.

6) our final trips to great Grandma's on Fridays. This was a tradition my cousin Stacey started about 3 years ago. Whenever she was in town from Chicago she would call me to meet her at Grandma's Friday. I started going there every Friday even when she wasn't in town. We met for lunch for 3 years and it finally ended when Marissa started Kindergarten.

7) many BBQ's

8) Marissa's first sleepover

I will miss all of the fun things you can do when the weather is hot but now I can look forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas and the fall Musical.

Reliant Community BBQ

2008-09-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a free afternoon so we decided to head to Reliant Church for their community BBQ. Reliant Church is located in the Central West End at Pendleton & Olive. Obviously this is no where near the community where I live but Reliant is a church that was formed by one of the Pastors at Christ Memorial and a few other young adult members so I wanted to go and check it out. Before Reliant held there Sunday morning service there the church was known as Saint Stephen's Lutheran and they were down to only about 10 members. I think there are currently about 80 people that attend the service on Sundays now. The church is a beautiful building that could use a little restoring but still has great wood work and stain glass windows. Here are some pics my husband took for me:

Check out their website for more info:http://www.reliantchurch.org/.

Marissa had a great time too. My aunt came with her grandson and her great nephew. One of Marissa's friends from church came too. They did face painting, games, ate BBQ, and played on the playground. There were quite a few members from Christ Memorial there to help so we had good adult company too.

Here is a pic of Marissa with her face painted:

It turned out to be a great time and a success for the community out reach. Some people from the neighborhood came and said they were going to check out the Sunday morning service.

McCain Rally

2008-09-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday our family headed to O'Fallon to join the John McCain rally. We left around 2:15 pm. Our friend Jeremy and his daughter followed us out there. Once we arrived we met our friends Jen and Shawn and their two kids. Here is a pic of my family at my mom's house before we left for the rally:
The rally was at TR Hughes ballpark in O'fallon, MO. We could have gone at 2:00pm to try for good seating but since we had 4 kids in our crew we figured it would be best not to go too early. We were stuck sitting in the field but it worked out great because the kids sat and colored while we waited for McCain and Palin.

After the political speeches (Mitt Romney, Matt Blunt, Kit Bond, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Sarah Palin) we made our way toward the front to see if we could get better pics. We saw some of our friends from church. My friend Larry emailed me his pics this morning, which I decided to use since they turned out better than mine.

John McCain at the O'Fallon rally. Picture by Larry Jost.

another John McCain pic by Larry Jost.

It turned out to be a great day even though it was incredibly hot. Th kids kept entertained and we got to show our support.

Musicals at Christ Memorial Church

2008-08-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

Every year my church puts on a fall musical. The first one they did in 2005 was Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor dreamcoat. I went to see the show but was not involved in the performance. The show was great (it was nominated for some Arts for Life Awards) so they decided to do it again in 2006 (total of 5 shows in one weekend). That year I was asked to be the Props Director (even though I had no "props" experience). I had alot of fun and decided I would definitely be involved again. In 2007 we did Once Upon a Tree in the early Spring for a Passion Musical. I was Props Director again and also took part in the women's chorus. This probably seems funny to anyone who knows me very well because I don't have a great singing voice. My husband and dad were both disciples. Once Upon a Tree was a wonderful experience. I was able to get to know alot of new people at church and we were able to show the story of Jesus' death and Ressurection on the Cross. The fall of 2007 we performed Narnia. This show was nominated for 5 Arts for Life Awards! Again, I was Director of Props and also in the chorus as a "Crulie". My husband had a part in the end as one of the children once they became adults. Here is a pic of my family before the Sunday Narnia performance:

In the Spring of 2008 our church did Once Upon a Tree again. My whole family was in the production. My husband was Judas and Marissa and I were townspeople. Here is a pic of Marissa in her custume before the play with her friend Rachel.

Here is a pic of Timmy and I:

I love the story and I am sad that last year would be the last time we did Once Upon a Tree. But after 2 years in a row we have to move on in the spring.

This fall our church is doing The Music Man. There are two main differences this time than all of our previous shows: 1) this is a secular play 2)they opened auditions to the public.

I think they opened auditions to the public because just using the members of our church doesn't usually give us enough people for the cast and we end up begging people to join. Also, this is a way to involve people outside of our church and bring more people into our church for the performances.

I am VERY excited this year. Expecially since I made the cast and they didn't take everyone! (maybe they took pity on me or was afraid I wouldn't do the props).

I will post more info on the Music Man as it becomes available or feel free to check out the website for CM Productions: http://www.christmemorialproductions.org/.

Florida trip June 27,08-July 4,08

2008-08-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Over the summer Tim, Marissa, Kathy (my aunt), Trever (her grandson) and myself went to Florida. Part of our trip was a Farmers Acheivement club (for top agents in the country). The Farmers part of the trip was in Daytona. Kathy came to help us with Marissa while we went to the company dinners and because we wanted a fun vacation together.

Here is a pic of the view from our hotel room :

Hilton Daytona Ocean Walk

Rissa on the beach.

A favorite pic of Rissa and I on the beach.

On Wednesday we left Daytona and headed over to Venice to visit Grandpa. We went to dinner ar Sharky's that night.

Our family dancing in the rain at Sharky's.

We went to the beach all day Thursday. We went to Siesta Key. I like that beach better than Daytona. The water is very calm and you can sit in it without fighting the waves. It is also clearer so you can see a little of whats swimming around.

Beautiful Siesta Key

We went to Sharky's again Thursday night so we could walk along the pier and dance on the patio.

my family on the pier

Sunset at Venice Beach

We hope to go back to Siesta Key sometime within the year to visit Grandpa and hang out on the beach and eat at Sharky's.

A day at the Garden

2008-08-23T06:18:00.001-07:00

I was off work last Wednesday before Marissa's first day of school. I wanted to do something fun with her so I decided to take her to the Missouri Botanical Garden. One of my friends works there so we can get in for free and I also get some adult company while Marissa is playing in the kids area. I love to go to the Garden but I don't get to see alot of it because I end up hanging out in the kids area most of the time. Right now they have sculptures by an artist named Niki De Saint Phalle. I really like her artwork and it will only be there till October so I am trying to see it while it is in St. Louis. My friend that works at the Garden told me that Niki made a lot of the pieces to be used with water but no one had ever hooked it up with water until it came to the Garden.

Here is one of the sculptures with the water feature:

This picture was actually taken at a different trip over the summer.

Marissa and I in front of another sculpture.

Marissa in the Climatron. Marissa is wearing her swimsuit because there is a play area with water in the children's park and when she finished playing she still wanted to wear her swimsuit.

Marissa and mommy.

Lilly Garden

Kempf Family soccer player

2008-08-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

Marissa has decided to start playing soccer for her school. Although this is my absolute least favorite sport I am trying to act excited for her. Well not really. I've decided to let Tim deal with this. I figure Tim will enjoy this anyway because him and his sister both played soccer. I'll probably just show for a few games. I must admit she does look cute in her soccer gear. Check it out:

Not only do I have to digest being the mother of a Kindergartner but now I am the mother of a Kindergartner that plays soccer (no, that does not make me a soccer mom). I swear, I will not be caught driving a mini van now. No offense to anyone who drives a mini van but that would be way too much for me: a mini van driving mom of a school age child that plays soccer. How could I possibly hold onto to the little bit of youth that I have left?

Marissa's first day

2008-08-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was Marissa's first day of Kindergarten. Yes, I had to say goodbye to my only baby. The first 3 years of Marissa's life I only worked at night or on the weekends when daddy or Aunt Michelle or any of her Grandparents watched her. When she entered preschool I worked while she was at preschool and also in the evening when my parents watched her. Her 2nd year of preschool I signed her up for extra classes and activities so that I could work about 30 hours a week. My point is, I have been with her alot over the past 5 years. For 3 years I took her to my Grandma's house every Friday for lunch. Last Friday was one of the 1st Fridays I was unable to do this because of school. In the last 5 years we have had trips to Loralie's house, the mall, the bridal shop, gymboree, Starbucks with Grandma, and anything else we could come up with to get out of the house and have a little fun. My mom has watched her every Monday for the last 5 years except for a year when she had to work on Mondays. Today is my mom's first Monday without her. Although she will get some time to herself she is still sad over not having her "fun day" with Marissa.
Well Marissa was not as sad as the rest of us. She could not wait to go to school. Aside from having to wear a uniform she was excited about everything else. We got her to bed early the night before (after a few tears over trying on the uniform:). Thursday she got dressed and was ready to go. She was so excited she even commented that the uniform wasn't so bad! My husband and I both went to drop her off. Here are 2 pics of her outside the back of the school:

She always has to pose and make faces.

Once we got into the classroom and she saw that everyone else really did have to wear the same type uniform she was even more excited (she thought we had made it up to torture her). We put her school supplies in her cubby and found her desk. I made the process take as long as possible. A few other moms had tears in their eyes but I was trying to keep composed. Finally the teacher assistant called the children over to listen to a story and we knew it was time to go. I said goodbye and my husband and I hurried to the car so I could shed my tears in privacy.

Ok, I know I'm being dramatic. But that's ok. It's a moms given right.

When I went to pick Marissa up she was just as excited as when I dropped her off. She loves school! (so far). She said she couldn't wait to go back the next day. While I wanted her to somewhat miss me I am quite relieved to know she is happy while I am at work. I made it through the 1st 2 days and now I just have to adjust to being the mother of a wonderful Kindergartner.

Here is a pic of Marissa washing her hands at the sink before we left. As you can see she is extremely happy to be there:

I'm famous

2008-08-17T15:08:00.001-07:00

My friend Gregg has a blog that he keeps up with regularly. He is a very funny guy which you can tell from reading his blog. He has a lot of blog traffic and I recently joked with him that I would like to appear on his blog so that I could be famous. Amazingly enough, someone actually listened to me! I made it to his blog. Truly, I feel privileged. There is a link to his blog on my page. Check it out.
or click on the link below:http://www.onedadslife.typepad.com/

family day before school starts

2008-08-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Tim and I took off work Friday to spend time with Marissa before she started school. We wanted to go to Pickle Creek but because we only had a few hours so we went to Forest Park, The History Museum and then Wilmore Park.

Marissa at the Waterfall at Forest Park

Tim and Marissa at the Waterfall

The Waterfall at Forest Park

Tim and Marissa at Wilmore

Beaches I have been to in the past 3 years

2008-08-05T19:44:00.000-07:00

Siesta Key, FL

July 2008

Hollywood, FL

July 2006

Ponte Verda Beach, FL

June 2007

Daytona Beach, Florida
July 2008

Cancun, Mexico

January 2008

I would have to say my favorite beach is Siesta Key, then Hollywood. My favorite water is Cancun. The only reason Cancun is not my favorite beach is because there was no sand to lay on. Only about a 6 foot stretch of sand. This pic shows how close the water was too our resort wall:

But the ocean water was warm and crystal clear.

I love these pics because the beach is my favorite place to go no matter what beach I go to. I hope to be able to go to the beach every year.

Goose Creek Saturday August 2nd

2008-08-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to Goose Creek with our friends Tom and Christine and their family and other friends. Marissa loves to swim in the lake all day. She swam from about 1:00pm till about 9:00pm. Here is a picture of Marissa in the lake.

After swimming everyone decided to sing Karaoke. The kids loved singing Hannah Montana.

Marissa's first camping trip

2008-07-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

We took Marissa on her first camping trip over the weekend. We have taken her floating (1 day trip) before but never camping for a whole weekend, in a tent. We went with Katie and Mike Anderson and their two girls, Mollie and Maria; our friends from church, Kristi and Ted; and Katie and Mike's friends, Jodi and Bill and their kids. Everyone but us had travel trailers so we were the only ones tent camping. We arrived at Bennett Springs Friday evening around 9pm, so we had to set up our tent in the dark. We did not book reservations with Ted and Kristi so we had no idea where their site was. We had decided to put the tent on Katie and Mikes site so that Marissa could be close to the kids. Katie and Mike had called an hour before so we knew they were not there yet. We found the site and immediately spotted Ted's and Kristi's truck. Yippee!! They were right across the street! It worked out perfect.
Ted helped us set up our tent in the dark (thankfully they were there or it would have taken all night). Katie and Mike arrived around 10pm right after their friends.
I wanted Marissa to sleep in the tent to experience the full effects of camping but she fell asleep in the trailer with Mollie. Being the wonderful mom that I am (ha) I knew better than to move her out of the cold air conditioning so she slept in a trailer the 1st night.
Well the next day we floated with Ted and Kristi while the rest of the crew stayed back and fished and swam in the pool. The river was too crowded but we had a great time anyway.
After we got back and had dinner Mollie and Marissa went into the trailer to watch a movie. Of course Marissa fell asleep again. I was determined for her to sleep in the tent atleast once so I carried her over to the tent and she slept in there. Atleast I could say she really went camping! We left Sunday morning around 10am. We had so much fun we already have another trip planned for September. Hopefully we'll arrive before dark this time so we can set up the tent in daylight!

The dreaded day

2008-07-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have been dreading Marissa's first day of Kindergarten all year. I have been pondering the words to write this blog. I finally figured I can sum up all my feelings in one sentence:

Can I please just have my baby at home for one more year?

Here is a pic of Marissa as a baby:

Here is a pic of Marissa now:

The dog bite

2008-07-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening, June 26, 2008 I was on the computer in the office room in our house. I was getting ready for the last day of Vacation bible school (I will post more on that later). I was also getting ready to pack because Tim, Marissa, Kathy, Trever and myself were leaving the next day for Florida around 6pm. Marissa wanted to go play at her friend Emma's house. I thought that would give me a chance to pack and prepare for the last day of VBS. Well Emma lives on the other side of our subdivision. In order to get to Emma's house Marissa has walk to the culdesac (which is about 5 houses up from ours) and walk through some one's back yard and then she will be in Emma's back yard. The yard of the person she cuts through is not fenced and neither is Emma's. The homeowners is aware that Marissa cuts through their yard and they have no problem with it. Well once Marissa gets to Emma's she can either call me and ask when she has to be home (after asking Emma's mom) or her and Emma can walk to our house together and play. If Marissa has not called in about 3 minutes I go outside to see where she is (usually playing with someone else who was outside already).

Well, a few minutes had gone by and she hadn't called yet. I stood up to go outside when I heard loud crying coming from the front of the house. I wasn't alarmed at first because my daughter has actually come home crying over something as simple as the other girls not being home or not playing with her. My first thought was that Emma wasn't home and she was throwing a fit about it. Before I could get to the front door Marissa came into the computer room and screamed "it bit me! the dog bit me!" Now I was panicked! She turned around and right above her knee on the back of her leg was a large bite! there four teeth marks at the top and a little blood coming from them. Under the teeth marks was a bruise that had already formed that was a little larger than a golf ball. Well I started crying and screaming. "what happened?? Oh my gosh, what dog?????" I figured it had to be a stray because she had been walking to Emma's for almost a year and had never been bitten by any dog. Well I called Tim and he said to take her to urgent care. Then I called my mom and she said find the dog first and then take her to urgent care. Then Kathy called and she said the same thing as my mom because we had to see if the dog was stray or if someone owned the dog and see if it was up to date on the raby shots. Marissa was more scared then hurt. I told her to take off her clothes so I could put her in the bath tub. For some reason I thought if I washed it then it would not get infected??? (Obviously I was not thinking rationally at this point). Then I ran out front looking for any signs of a dog so I could see if it had tags so I could see if it had rabies shots. I ran all the way up to Emma's and there was no sign of a dog any where. Strangely there was no one outside either when usually half the neighborhood is out. I ran back home and told Marissa to put her clothes back on. She thought I was crazy at this point but since I couldn't find a dog any where I wanted to take her to Urgent Care. Well once I was in the car I drove over to the other side of the subdivision to see if there was a dog out. I started asking Marissa questions since my head was clearing and she wasn't crying any more. I asked where the dog came from and she told me the neighbor's yard. I said, "oh, well then did it run off after it bit you?" That would make since because I couldn't find a dog any where in the whole neighborhood. She said "no mommy, the girl called it in." WHAT!

Now the story was coming clear. By then I was on the other side of the neighborhood. Marissa pointed out which house the dog was called back into and I turned around to drive her to Urgent Care. I called Tim to meet me there and then called my mom and asked her to find out if the dog had it's shots. I told her what the house looked like so she could talk to the owner. '

While I was driving I couldn't help thinking how the heck could someone call a dog in and not hear my kid screaming and crying and check to see if she was ok. I felt sorry for Marissa that she had to walk all the way home by herself after getting bit by the dog. Like I said earlier, it is rare that no one was outside. My parents called while i was on my way to the urgent care center. They contacted the police who had told them to let them get in touch with the owner. When the police first went to the door the lady asked how my mom new it was her dog. Well, my daughter pointed out their house, it's right next door to Emma's, and they have two dogs. hmmmmm. Then the lady's daughter told her that she saw Marissa leaving Emma's yard and running home while she was calling the dogs in but she didn't realize the dog had bitten her. Then they said they had an electric fence so Marissa had to have been in her yard but they are still responsible either way. Well I asked Marissa whose yard she was in and she said the dog bit her when she was running up Emma's deck to get away from it. I found out later the dog is so hyper it runs through the electric fence so fast it doesn't feel it. The owners had papers saying the shots were up to date so I started feeling better. I just didn't want to have to have Marissa go through the whole raby thing.

Well we went to the Urgent care and the doctor cleaned her leg and then another doctor looked at her leg and told us as long as the raby shots were up to date she would be totally fine. What a relief! I did not want to postpone our Florida trip. Most importantly Marissa was fine.

I went home and my mom said the owner of the dog wanted to talk to me. Well by then it was about 8pm, I still had to get ready for VBS and I hadn't started packing for our 8 day trip. So obviously now that I knew Marissa was fine I just wanted to deal with everything when I returned from vacation. The next day after VBS someone from animal control came to look at her leg and confirmed it was a dog bit and then the police came to talk to me about it. They tried to convince me to go to their house and talk to them. I tried to convince them I needed to pack. I would have gone there any other time but I was already running behind. I told the police she could call me at home and i gave them my number.

Well, now that the whole thing is over and Marissa is ok we only have one new rule:

No walking to Emma's without mommy or daddy!

VBS

2008-05-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

So I have somehow managed to land the responsibilty of being the director of Vacation Bible School at church. Last year was my first year. I cleary remember driving in my car when Pastor Jeff called my cell phone (I was at the intersection of Vogel and Old Lemay). He said my name had been recommended by someone and he wanted to see if I was interested in Directing VBS. I asked who had given him my name and he said it was a little birdy. I am pretty sure I knew who the little birdy was but that is besides the point. Anyway, I told him I would think about it. I called my husband and asked what he thought. He said, "but honey, you don't even like kids!" Then he told me that whatever decision I made he would help out if I needed him. So I thought about it for a long time. I wanted to make sure i could handle the responsiblility. Well my husband is right about one thing: I am not very good with kids. It's not that I don't like them. I just don't have the patience to work with them. I know that makes me sound like a bad person but I swear, I'm not! So I called the director from the previous year and she assured me that she would walk me through the process for the next 6 months (yes, it takes 6 months to plan for VBS) and she would help me set everything up. She also assured me that I didn't really have to work directly with the kids. Now I was getting a little excited. I could set everything up for the kids to enjoy a fun week and then find volunteers who actually like working with kids to do the teaching, crafts, games, etc. So after I couldn't find any reasons to say no (aside from the fact that I have a young kid of my own and I run my own business) I called the pastor back and told him I would.
I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS GETING INTO!!!!!
For one, I had no idea what I was doing. The old director literally had to hold my hand for the next 6 months. I had never done anything like it before. At times I wondered if she thought maybe she should have just done it herself.
Since I never done any of it before I didn't know how much time certain things would take. While some things I got done quicker than I thought, other things I put off till the last minute and ended up staying up till after midnight the entire week before.
VOLUNTEERS! calling people to volunteer nearly put me to tears! Everyone was "on vacation" or "had camp" or "worked part time". Then all the teenagers wanted to be in the same group as their friends if they volunteered.
Lastly, the children's sermon. The previous director warned me about this. Although I am not afraid of public speaking, who wants to prepare for a children's sermon the Sunday before VBS starts, when you have 1 million other things going on?
Well the Saturday before VBS I remember laying on my bed in tears wondering what would happen if I didn't show up for the children's sermon or if I didn't show up that Monday for VBS.
Now, this blog may sound like I just want to crab about how much I don't like VBS BUT read on.....
The week of VBS turned out great (aside from the registration process Monday) and after Friday I realized there is nothing more rewarding than to see 200 kids go home with their crafts, singing songs that they learned from the music director, telling their parents what a great time they had. 6 months of being overwhelmed and I finally figured out why I had said yes and why I am again the director of VBS this year. Yep, I volunteered to do it again. (well, I say "volunteer" but I do receive a small payment for the 6 months of preparation)". All I had to do was convince my husband that I would not have a break down again this year and I really do enjoy it.
Vacation Bible School is only 6 weeks away. This year has been soooooooooo much easier. Apparantly everything just took twice as long since i was just learning how to do it. And people are actually volunteering on their own, without me having to call! I have all my supplies and a wonderful group of volunteers to work with. Now if I could just make it through the children's sermon......

Good Day

2008-05-03T20:49:00.002-07:00

Today was a good day. We took Marissa to swim lessons, went to the mall, went to costco then hung out with my cousin Stacey, her fiance Tom, Aunt Kathy, Trever, Uncle Den and Matt. There is nothing I would rather do than hang out with my family.