20.1.05

No Sleep...No SLEEP!!

So I was thinking this template was more me...I know just pick one and stick with it, but I've felt restless today and for some reason I seem to think changing the back drop will somehow make up for not posting in a while. Honestly I don't really feel like posting right now, but I owe it to my public, I guess.
Tuesday Kerin broke her arm really bad snowboarding. She was going though this narrow path and (pretty much) tried to grab onto a tree to slow herself down. Her X-rays look like a little sapling thats been broken in half. The bones were completely detached and you could see what looked like (on the X-ray at least) a full inch of space between them. Tyler and I drove up to the University of Utah Medical Center Teus night to keep Kerin destracted from the needles and help with getting my Dad from the airport ect. Kerin stayed the night at the hospital so they could monitor her pain and was finally able to go into surgery around 5pm or so the next day (Wed). I drove up Wed around 3pm, I was able to see Kerin a little after her operation and then waited untill she was back in recovery, then had to take my dad to the airport. I haven't seen her since then, but last I heard they over medicated her pain a little so she wasn't able to be discharged until this afternoon. I say the less pain the better. The surgeon put a titanium plate her uperarm and about 9 screws to hold everything in place, like I said it was a bad break, but she's a trooper she'll get better.
I finished Reading Lolita in Tehran a while ago and started my next book. I promise to give a better update here soon. After working all day at a computer the last thing I want to do at night is go home and sit at one.

11.1.05

Karl my Kaptin

WOW! Reading Lolita in Tehran is really coming along. I passed the half way point last night. Here's a little tip for all you out there who wish you could find more time to indulge yourself in a good book= Take Public Transportation. It's amazing what you can get done when you sitting on a Bus and at transfer stations for over an hour. When I was a kid in Germany I used to have to ride the bus one hour each way to and from school. I know it sounds like one of those "I walked uphill through a blizzard" stories, but its true. We had a really friendly Bus Driver named Karl. He spoke about as much English as I spoke German, so we got along swell. Now my mom hangs a huge picture he gave us of him with my brothers and sisters and me in our house. I think I can trace my love affair with public transportation back to those days in the Rhineland.

8.1.05

FREE! FREE! FREE!

Ahh! The sweetness of a Saturday morning! Lots of good things to share today boys and girls. As many of you know, Tyler recently joined the team at Skywest Airlines as their ONLY non-pilot intern. Needless to say I am very very proud of him. It's an unpaid internship, but we do get free travel with Skywest for the next four months (So do Ty's parents). Only problem/limitation with the free travel is finding a free place to stay, and visiting places with public transportation. WOO HOO for airline jobs!
Not quite as exciting, but just as important, I got a paying job (y'know so we can eat and such). It involves calling businesses and asking them 'consumer related questions'. "Boring, but it's my life" (name that film). Pretty much it's telemarketing, only hopefully the people I'm calling this time around will be a little nicer. This job actually ups my hourly wage based on my quality, and I'm a stickler for quality! Also, NO weekends (free travel), and full time but I'm done by 2:30 everyday.
Last night Ty and I went to P.F. Chang's for dinner (Thank you Nique and Ryan for the gift card!). It was grrrreat! We got the orange peel chicken, the honey seared shrimp and the garlic noodles. The noodles were garlicy and chili pepper spicy. I want to try making them as soon as we can afford some groceries. After Chang's we headed over to the ol' Barnes and Noble and I picked up some books (Thank you Ty's Mom for the gift card!). Namely, Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (memoir), Courtesans by Katie Hickman (history), and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (fiction). This also (I know you don't care) is the order I'll be reading them, the books, in. So far Reading Lolita in Tehran has been pretty darn good. It's giving me tons of ideas for other books I want to read. I could now continue to give you an update on all the things I'd like to knit, but I won't. Why? because I am SLIGHTLY considering my audience today. Consider yourself blessed.

5.1.05

I Feel it in My Fingers, I Feel it in My Toes...

It is somewhere after 6 o'clock and I can't sleep. No, I did not wake up early, I can't sleep. That means I spent all night tossing and turning. Arghhh! I really want to sleep, I'm really tired, but I can't. I take this as a bad thing. However, since it is forcing me to finally update my blog, you made find it a good thing. We'll just have to see about that...
Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Ty and I arrived very safe and in record time (9 1/2 hrs) to lovely Encinitas and it was "Go-Time" ever since then. Every morning we woke up to my little sister Kloe screaming as painfully as she can "KEERRRLY!!!!" Of course there are better ways to start the day but I miss my lil' sis sooooooo much I seemed to get over it pretty quickly. Tyler spent his days either studying for his online class, throwing the football around with my lil' bros, 'letting' Kody beat him on the X-Box, wrestling, shopping, making plans with Kyle, and finding time to just be with me. Trust me the last one is a lot harder around there than it sounds.
I spent the week before Christmas being a personal assistant to my mother. WHEW! This involved inhuman amounts of shopping, especially for someone still (albeit barely) recovering from a bunion operation! We went everywhere looking for just the right thing for just the right person, and then after we find it, Mom realizes she bought too much of something for one or two of the kids. Naturally, you'd think that means we need to take something back, you'd be wrong. It means we have to go out again and get all the other kids caught up with each other. Add on to all of this my parents obsession with this annoying gift giving competition.
Every year my Mom and Dad compete to see who can give each other more. Seriously, this could be an Olympic event! Then, come Christmas morning, we all sit there as they pretend to be annoyed that they got too many presents. It goes something like this, "Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiim...what did you doooo? We agreeeeeeed we weren't going to do this again this yeeeeeeear. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, you bought me too muuuuuuch." And yes they say it all in sweet whiney voices. Then we have to sit there again after we're all done opening our presents and my parents still have about a gazillion left to watch them tear through it. So, yes, the gift giving is a tad out of hand in my family.

Back to the Basics: Christmas Eve at my house is the best Christmas Eve in the world! I won't go into all the details, but I will tell you that Tyler and I got to be Mary and Joseph this year and I haven't gotten to do that for a long time. I will also tell you about one other thing that happened that night....Every year we open one present...yada yada yada...its pajamas. This year my mom made the boys red-button-up-long-johns (Think Newsies), while Kassey, Kerin and Karly received complimentary fleece zip-up pj's--complete with feet. For Kloe, of course, my mom made this pink flowing nightgown that I'm sure is the envy of every other seven year old girl in the world, proving once again that she is the most spoiled child in all of Christendom.
Christmas morning we awake at the unbelievable hour of flippin 6:30 AM!! "SANTA CAME, SANTA CAME!!" You're thinking that quote is from Kloe aren't you? No, its my mom. After about one hour of oohing and ahhing through our stockings, presents are handed out from under the tree and we take turns opening them one at a time. I love this. It prolongs Christmas morning as long as possible. Who doesn't love that Christmas morning feeling. watching everyone open gifts, convinced that everyone loves your gift the most and listening to the tabernacle choir? I spent the rest of the day reading the manual for our new 'Handy Cam',eating, and playing with Kloe and Karly.
My Goodness! This has the potential to be the longest post the world has ever seen. Summarize, summarize. The week after Christmas was a lot like the one before. Lots of shopping and random events. Ty and I took Karly and Kloe to Sea World. A new Killer Whale was born on December 21st and we got to see her do her first show ever. By 'Show' I mean we saw her swim around the tank, but it was still really neat. We had plans another day to go to Mexico, but I had forgotten ID so that was a no go, instead we (Tyler, Me and Kerin) drove down to Old Town, spent 1hr looking for parking, walked around and met up with my parents for dinner. New Year's Eve-Day my dad took Kloe, Karly, Kody, Tyler and I to see a couple of ships docked in down town San Diego. We saw The Star of India (an old merchant ship from the 1800's), a Ferry boat from San Francisco (used 190?-1958), The H.M.S Surprise (Replica of a Frigate from the 1800's used in the making of Master and Commander), and Midway (an aircraft carried used in WWII, Vietnam and I think the Gulf War).
Skipping to the end-- we drove back late on Monday and I took down all the Christmas decorations yesterday. Ty and I were pleased to discover that for once we had managed to leave nothing in the garbage to stink up our apartment. Shout out to Jo and Angela! I miss you guys!