7 WIERD / CRAZY / FUNNY THINGS

I know I have kept many of you in suspense for some time now. My apologies and the worst part of it is, that this post will probably not be awe inspiring or anything much better than mediocre and I am sorry to have built up such expectations only to let you down even harder. But here goes anyway...

1) In keeping with the season, I only like red and gold ornaments on my tree! No exceptions, I won't even put up kids art unless it is red or gold. I choose the angel for the top of my tree, as the family I grew up in did so too. I do not see the "new star" being more significant in the Christmas story than the angel heralding the birth. Therefore, to each his own. I won't think less of you for having a star just because I don't. And I still believe in Santa Claus.

2) I openly admit to liking country music and that I used to even teach line dancing. Someday I will start something like that here and see how it catches on.

3) 1 in 10,000 babies born are born with the Mercedes of all heart diseases - Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrom or HLHS for short. It's like winning the lottery or something - and I got lucky! On September 19, 2002 Jeffrey was born and on his 4th day of life was diagnosed with HLHS and almost pronounced dead as well, because it was found so late.

4) I love to organize and be organized! I have tips for anyone and everyone on how to organize and save time and money better. When I see a mess I visualize the best solution on how to sort, alphabetize or just plain clean up, as well as what kind of container, shelf or whatever will aid in this task. It makes me absurdly happy knowing I have gotten rid of clutter somewhere.

5) My husband and I share an uncommon (I think) love for PIZZA. We eat Pizza at least once a week at our house, but we COULD eat it every day. I think a large portion of our attraction for each other lies in this shared pleasure.

6) This summer I had corn rows put in the top front of my hair. It was peer pressure and I caved. My neice Kali was here and she was with us in Italy and she really wanted to have it done, but wanted me to go first, so being the cool aunt that I am, I did it too. I would have to say it was the coolest summer "do", but hurt sooo bad to have done, that I don't think I could ever do it again.

7) When I was 4 months pregnant with Tori, Benjamin and I were chosen from 6,000 couples to be on a TV game show to win a house. To make a long story short, we didn't get the house, but we won 15,000 DM and a coconut door mat. It was really a "crazy" experienc.

THE PROUD LOSER

Jeffrey lost his very first tooth yesterday. He was sooo excited that the tooth fairy could now bring him money too. (Niklas is hard to beat in the tooth losing department and Jeffrey has been watching his example with some envy for years now.)Yesterday, before he lost the tooth he said he was too sick to go to Kindergarten for the day. Ten minutes later he came down and showed me that he had lost his tooth. As the realization dawned on him that he would not be able to share this great news with his friends if he didn't go, one could literally watch the recovery happen. All of a sudden he was feeling quite better and definitely wanted to go to Kindergarten.

JET-LAG SUCKS

After 4 flights and over 24 hours of traveling we arrived back home and made it through the first day and the first night ok, probably because we were so exhausted. But day two was really tough. The kids literally dropped in the middle of the day and were up in the night because they were so hungry. Here's what that day looked like...

10) WATER POLO AND SWIM MEETS

I have finally reached the last of my best of. The very first thing we did after we landed in Salt Lake was to go watch my neice's and nephew's last water polo meet. And one of the last things we did before we left was a swim meet too. I really enjoyed watching them and participating in a relatively big part of their lives.

As we are avid sports fans, although none of our children swim competitively, we are not strangers to competition. Jeffrey jumped right in to it - almost literally. By the time our visit was over, the entire swim team, probably most of the cheer team and most sideline observers knew who Jeffrey was. He can cheer with the best of them and has an enthusiasm for sports that is not hampered by him only having half a heart. The fact that he could cheer on his cousins of all people, of course tripled his enthusiasm. Go Kali Go!! he yelled with all his might over the sound of the blaring music and cheering audience.

For me, I am interested in sports photography. It is not my favorite, but there seems to be a demand for it here for our local papers and for the sports and teams my kids play on. Oft times I am confused with someone from the press due to the size of my camera. I find it quite a challenge to get really good action shots, so here are a few of my attempts at the kid's water polo meet, before I upgraded my camera.

Kira goes for the ball.

Kyle moves to quick and injures his shoulder.

Is there such a term as "Swimmer's Shoulder" - something like "Tennis Elbow"?

The world's greatest fan! GO JEFFREY - we are your fan.

Kali in posession.

Mom and Dad are avid swim supporters.

9) WE LOVED BELLA

Bella was a novelty for my little boys. We don't have a dog anymore (Benny's parent's dog passed away in summer) and I don't think they've really been around a puppy before. She wasn't so big as to give them a scare if she came up to them and they could get their arms around her. Jeffrey assumed a caregiver role and was always concerned about her food and water. Just today he told me he wanted to fly back to America to visit Bella. She sure made a lasting impression.

8) THE BEAUTIFUL INDIAN SUMMER WE HAD

Although they had forcast snow for the weekend we flew into Salt Lake, it turned out to be soooo gorgeous that I never even pulled out our winter coats. At times short sleeves and shorts were even enough. It was so GREAT!! Here are some of the beautiful pictures of fall...

7) BEING AN AUNT AGAIN

Although her due date wasn't supposed to be until after I left the US, Reni surprised us all by going into labor early (10 days - gee could it have helped any that we painted the whole upstairs together just 2 days before?) and delivering the smallest baby she's had yet. On that point especially I am extremely happy for her. I think ALL of the other kids were around 10 pounders. Thaddeus Ray Kimball was born on October 24th, 2008 at 1:48pm. He weighed in at 6lbs 14oz and 21in long. We do forgive you Reni for not making it to the "White House Reunion", we did miss you though. I still can't believe that an hour before you are supposed to be there you call and let us know you are in labor and about 2 hours later you call again to let us know the baby was there. We sure appreciated being in the close loop on all the happenings. We are all happy everything went so well too (especially since you are in the middle of about nowhere having a home birth.)

A very beautiful baby - 9 days old.

Lot's of "mommy kisses" as they are known at our house. (There are butterfly kisses and Eskimo kisses and mommy kisses.)

Auntie Gusti gets her turn to hold Thaddeus.