Santa Letters from 2nd Graders

        (It wouldn't be Christmas without Kate sobbing about something)


Dear Santa-

May I please have a Wii and an X-box. You're a nice guy and you are cool.
From, Nathan

Oh and 3 more things. I want a D.S.I., nerf bullets, oh and mistletoe for me sister because she might want to kiss her friend haha!


Dear Santa,
I'm trying to be very good and ho ho ho Merry Christmas! From, Carson
Oh yea I am so sorry I woke up and saw you. Please can I have a little bag of coal one piece please, and three lego sets, and a new teddy bear. Thank you!


Dear Santa,
I have been very good this year, I have never flipped a card. I am going to put two socks out for my mice so you can get them some presents. Love, Abby


Dear Santa,
I wish you were my brother and I want to meet you and your elves too. Please let me have a bike and a basketball. I have been good to my mom and my teacher. I love you Santa very much.  From your best friend, Tommy.  My best best friend is Santa.


Dear Saint Nick,
I want you to have an easier life so please no toys this year but give my brother my toys!
Love, Benjamin

Nie

I just finished reading a story about Stephanie Nielson aka Nie Nie. If you don't know who she is you should change that. I blog stalk her on a very consistent basis. She is a plane crash survivor, Mormon, mother, wife, and positively inspiring gal.

I found my eyes welling up as I read her story. As I listened to her sweet voice speak of the accident and her life since. Trials and adversity give you a certain perspective. I know that. She has incredible perspective. It is a very underrated tool.

I don't know Stephanie  personally. But I feel like I know her. And although our adversities and trials have been very different, I can relate to her, in feelings of frustration, anger, question, loss, hope, faith, and a belief that things will get better. They do get better. And in this life, we have to go through all this crap in order to earn something far greater in the next.

Thank you Nie Nie.

To visit her blog and read her amazing story, click here http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

Love,

Kate

Santa

It seems that I am a tad busy lately. You'd think I was trying to graduate from college or something. My 'to do' list before my semester is officially over is daunting. But I continue to chip away, while downing massive amounts of Diet Coke (with lime these days). 

But, when you wake up to this... it's hard to be in a bad mood. Because it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Which means...

...this guy is coming soon.

The "Old Bastard" which my grandma Mary so lovingly calls him. And all I have to say is that I can't wait for that "Old Bastard" to climb down my chimney this year.

JTT where are you?

Remember J.T.T.? Pretty sure I watched Home Improvement just for him (and Tim Allen of course, in my 7th grade year book I wrote that Tim Allen was my favorite actor).   I think Hollywood could use a little J.T.T. right now, I know I could.

Halloween, Craft Fair Secrets, & Bunco!

Halloween is over and I'm pretty happy about it. I'm more of a Christmas gal. But, this Halloween was pretty darn good {except that I started to get a killer sore throat}. Scott, Cel and the kids were here for the holiday and Hen and Ruby were psyched to get loads of candy to rot their teeth. Abe really didn't know what was going on, but he was as pleasant as always.

The highlight for Becca and I was going to Petsmart that day and picking up a $3 costume for Rrrosa and Tau {Scott's K9}. We tried out a few different costumes on Rrrosa, but knew we found the right one when we were laughing hysterically and creating quite a scene for ourselves in front all the customers in line. {Surprisingly, Petsmart is quite the happenin' place on All-Hallows-Eve}. I think the costume we picked really sums Rrrosa up, ya know, who she is as a dog. Celia picked out a nice costume for Tau and we were on our way.

Rrrosa and the kids obviously couldn't wait to put on their get-ups and hit the neighborhood. Tau, on the other hand, didn't dig his costume idea as much as the others. He wouldn't move an inch or look anybody in the eye, it was awesome.

Rrrosa, our little princess...{HA! If you know Rosa at all, you know this doesn't suit her.}

Irresistible

The Cheerleader and the Monkey

Ahh Abe

Batman and his sidekick {forget Robin} Tau aka Devil

On a different note, Becca found this beauty at a craft fair we went to. What a find, right? Paul Millsap is her favorite Jazz player, so she couldn't pass this up. I came across a beautiful purple, vintage Jazz "Pistol" Pete Maravich shirt that I just had to have. Ah the Christensen girl's going to a craft fair and leaving with Jazz attire, priceless.

This month I was in charge of hosting our monthly Bunco. 12 of us get together every month, eat dinner and play a rousing game of Bunco! If y'all have never played Bunco, you are seriously missing out. I think it gets a bad rep because mostly 87 year old gals play it, but I'm here to tell you this game is for one and all! I'd be happy playing Bunco every month until I'm that 87 year old lady.

This month was especially entertaining because we had a tie for the "most Bunco's" prize. In the past we've just done Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine the winner, but since I was hosting, I wanted to make the tie-breaker, shall we say... interesting. So first we had the two gals play a game of basketball on their knees. After we got a good laugh out of that, we decided a leg wrestle might be fun to watch too. So we made them leg wrestle. In the end, Tiffanie dominated, {she's much stronger than she looks} and took home the "most Bunco's" prize, which was the much coveted Christmas PJ's and the movie Christmas Vacation.

Then, Cortnie introduced us to a game called, "Ninjas"? Yeah, it's just as awesome as it sounds.  Here I am bowing and saying, "Nomaste". I pretty much owned that game. Turns out I have a knack for "Ninja-ing". All those years of practice as a kid, I guess.

Becca won the "high score" prize taking home the beautiful and cozy Santa nightgown and red Christmas socks.

Thanks for another grand night of Bunco ladies! Merry Christmas to all!

Good News Minute......Rejected!

Once I posted about how much I hate something called good news minute (scroll down a little). A few weeks ago I got a text from my new relief society president (who happens to have been in my fourth grade class) that said, "Say good bye to good news minute." And that is the best news I've heard in a while people! Becca F. I am thanking you publicly from the bottom of my heart!

"Kate don't madder in this family" / Student of the Month

This special note has been saved since 1993, better known as, “The Year of the Martyr”. Kate got a stamp, more specifically a name stamp. This stamp wasn’t just used on special occasions, it was used regularly and was taken to school daily. In her defense, Kate says, “It saved time.” And that is debatable. Obviously, the girl was having a rough day “I probably felt picked on, unnoticed, Cody probably threw me over the couch again, or maybe he looked at me with that dirty mug of his, my friends probably couldn’t come out and play, maybe it was raining, Ronnie probably messed with the Lego setup, Seth was probably breaking his leg on his bike, Becca probably wanted me to play Barbies, it could have been a number of things. The point is, I was feeling a little neglected and I needed my family to know. So how could a scrawny, tie-dye wearin’, bowl cut sportin’, six-year-old girl get her family's attention? Thus entered the name stamp. And I think it worked.”

[Kate don't madder in this family. This family doesen't need me. Sighned Kate]

One ordinary day I was sitting in Mrs. Jorgensen’s 1^st grade class diligently working on my studies (or my name stamp), when I looked up to see the principal (Mr. Glad) talking to Mrs. J. I thought nothing of it until they both looked at me and called me over. At first I thought I was in trouble, but then I knew better because I was perfect. Mr. Glad then told me that I had been chosen for student of the month (the most prestigious award Monte Vista Elementary school had to offer). While we were walking to the front office to get my picture taken and to receive a major award, I thought to myself how lucky that I decided to wear my favorite tie-dye shirt that day (after all I only wore it three or four times a week). Another lucky coincidence was that my loving brothers had convinced me to get a bowl cut over the summer. As to not look like such a dude (or Scott’s twin) my mom would curl it under (ensuring that I looked like a pumpkin pie hair-cutted freak) and slap a bow on the top. Man, I knew I looked good! And when I smiled my big gap-toothed smile, I did it with confidence in knowing that I was the best. And this picture proves it.

I Need Your Help!

I am doing this project for my marketing class and I need EVERYONE to please fill out this questionnaire. Everything will remain anonymous and it only takes like 30 seconds to do. Please just put your answers in your "comment". You don't even have to tell me your name if you don't want to. Please just do me this solid and I'm yours forever. Thanks gang.

This questionnaire will close on Monday (the 26th) at midnight.

Name: ________________________

Age: _____

Male / Female

1. Do you like ice cream? Yes / No

2. Which is more appealing to you?

A coupon that states:

1. “Buy a cake and get a free quart of ice cream.”

or

2. “Buy a cake and get three dollars off your next cake purchase.”

3. Which coupon do you think has a higher value? A / B

4. Would a $1 Sundae special on Tuesdays appeal to you? Y / N

5. If yes, would you have interest in coming back to the ice cream shop on days other than Tuesdays, if you had a positive experience? Y / N

Dear Columbus, if I had a day, it would be better than yours

Today is Columbus Day and I am stuck in the library. How does one get their own day? Must I become an explorer and discover great lands? Well guess what, it's 2009 and every land has been discovered. I'd say there was a slight advantage in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

I wish I was in elementary school today instead of college. I want to color the Nina, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Wow, I can't believe I can remember those names. I just reached back into a dusty corner of the "grade school crap" part of my brain.

I wish I had my own day. If I had my own day, there would be no work or school, everybody would sleep in, go out to eat, take a nap, and play whiffle ball. Yeah... that would be my day. Oh and at the end of the night, we would sing Christmas carols in front of the fire. What a great day.

Something they probably didn't teach you in elementary school was that the great Columbus died of Syphilis. Now that's a bad way to go.

Happy Columbus Day!

Blog Currently Under Construction!

I wish I knew code so I could figure out how to make this mess of a blog better, but I teach school ya know? Let's make a deal...I'll teach your kid if you fix this! So, hopefully in the next couple days we can get this figured out.

Here are some pics from recent events. Enjoy...................

So, my dad is a little high maintenance and insisted that we get a table by the kitchen so we could watch the cooks. We were the only table over there and we were in the middle of the walkway, but it did please the man so whatever!

My dad snorkeling in wave filled waters. He was the only one, and I loved watching him!

Ally and I found baby hats at the mall. They clip right into your hair, you never know when you'll need a little tiny hat!

Karaoke got out of hands with costumes this year, but we found some awesome stuff like a little tiny circular rug. Weird!

Here it is! What a beauty.

Hawaii............ahhhhhhhhhhhh.......bliss..............

Kate had no idea my dad was taking pictures of her while she was telling a story. She's very animated!

Fun & Games

Hike in the mountains.

Some bad, mostly good.

Some great things happened last month.

I caught a special moment in time of my parents at the cabin.

Karaoke outfits emerged.

And a lady pimp showed up.

I found this GIANT picture of my roommate Robyn on the window at Wendy's. (She hates it)

I found these lab goggles in Robyn's car.

I found this at school.

I found this at the gym.

I found this mysterious door at Haley's apartment.

I found this wonder at Wal-mart of all places. I was enthralled. And jealous.

And then some not great things happened.

Rrrosa injured her leg in a dog fight.

Don't worry, we're taking good care of her.

I haven't seen this girl... because she's some over-achieving student or whatever

And I didn't even come close to winning at Bunco.

All-in-all, it's been a pretty solid September.

VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE!

Firstly, I just want to point out that this is my (Kate), THIRD post of the day. Which I believe is a new twoladiesandnobaby record.

Secondly, and most importantly, my very crafty sister-in-law, Celia (whose received several shout outs on this blog, which proves how cool she is), has started an etsy shop. She crochets the most adorable hats for boys, girls, and adults. She is doing a giveaway on her blog this week and the lucky winner receives their choice of one of her super cute hats. So check out her blog here and comment to win:

http://christensenboomerang.blogspot.com

And her etsy shop here:

janehenry.etsy.com

The holidays are coming up (yay) and they would make grrrrrreat gifts.

I'm just looking out for your fashion needs. You're welcome.

The many faces of boogy boarding

...but mostly of Becca. The whole time I was cropping these I was laughing out loud.

For the most part I stick to one facial expression the whole time, and that is "The Happiest Girl in the Whole World," face.

On the other hand, Becca's face changes with each wave. Some are big smiles, others are looks of surprise. But no matter what face Becca is pulling, I promise you, they are mostly hideous. Thanks Beck, for all the laughs.

********Click on pictures to make bigger*************

The "Happy Hal"

The "Blowfish"

The "Surprised Asian"

The "Mocking"

The "Scary Smile"

The "Rat Fink"

The "I'm scared but pretending to like it"

The "I Did It!"

The "Beaver"

The "Oh Crap"

The "What's my leg doing?"

The "Eat that Becca!"

The "I just got worked"