Meet the Teacher - a nailbiter!

I'm waiting for Jarad to come home so we can go to "Meet the Teacher" night. This is a much bigger deal for me than it is for either of the kids. I'm so nervous. I have heard great things about Fisher's kindergarten teacher (he'll be in all day K this year and I'm almost ashamed to say I'm soooo glad!), but I haven't heard anything at all about Emma's teacher.

So wish me luck :). And pray that Emma's teacher knows what she's doing (our school has many many many newbie teachers, and it showed last year).

One reason I love wood floors

Potty training accidents. Need I elaborate?

Oh, here's another. Sharpie markers clean up off of them, unlike the carpet in the twins' bedroom. Tess got ahold of a bright blue Sharpie this afternoon. It came off of her face (she had drawn a kung-fu moustache on herself) and her leg (an Angelina Jolie-looking tat around her ankle), but not out of the carpet. Ouch.

Night O Fun ... and more!

I'm feeling very loved today :). You see, it's my birthday, and we've been celebrating for about 24 hours now. And the party hasn't stopped yet!

Yesterday Jarad kidnapped the kids and me for a Night O Fun. He planned it all out and surprised us all!



First we went to Red Robin and filled up on lots of fried food. It was the best. Always a gamble whether the twins will make it through dinner. We give it a go about every six months to see how they'll do. Last time was an utter disaster. They made it through ordering, but Jarad was out in the car with the twins before the food was even delivered to the table. They brought it to me and I had to immediately ask for take-away boxes. But last night was a dream! They both did great and loved their pizzas :).

Next was a stop at Mesa Riverview Park (to kill time on the way to our next adventure). I got some cute pics of the kids, and it was a great opportunity to let them run around and get their wiggles out before our next surprise, which was...

Wall E at the drive-in movie theatre! You think we're crazy for going to a drive-in in the middle of July in Arizona? Slightly. It was warm when we got there, but the storm that blew over Mesa and Gilbert also blew some cool breezy air our way. It was cool to watch the lightning behind the screen, and we were glad the storm didn't make it out to Scottsdale! The kids had a blast - their first drive-in. There was so much going on that it took us about 45 minutes to figure out where everyone wanted to sit, who was too hot to sit in the car, who wanted snacks. And who wanted to watch Wall E. Problem with drive-ins is that you can see all the other screens. So Case was more interested in Space Chimps, Jarad probably would rather have watched Hancock. Emma had her eye on Mamma Mia... you get the picture. But about halfway into the movie we had all settled and enjoyed watching Wall E and Eve save the planet.

It was great fun!

Today I had a nice lengthy lunch date with my awesome sisters-in-law. It's rare we get to sit and chat without a million kids running around (OK between the four of us there are only 14 kids ... only ... but sometimes it seems/sounds like a million). It was a great afternoon.

And as we speak, Jarad is at Cold Stone picking up my birthday cake. Nice way to round off the 24-hour celebration!

Thanks to everyone who has called and sent cards to wish me well!

One-word survey

OK one more of these posts, then I'm done for today. I got this survey via email from my friend Victoria and thought it would be fun to post here. Now copy it and post on your blog!

The catch is that you can only use one word for your answers.

REMEMBER - ONLY ONE WORD

1. Where is your cell phone? -- dead

2. Your significant other? -- Jarad

3. Your hair? -- blondish

4. Your mother? -- happy

5. Your father? -- wise

6. Your favorite thing? -- family

7. Your dream last night? -- odd

8. Your favorite drink? – water?

9. Your dream/goal? – salvation :)

10. Room you're in? – bank (don’t ask)

11. Your hobby? -- reading

12. Your fear? – losingkids (one word, right?)

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? -- here

14. Where were you last night? -- home

15. What you're not? -- angry

16. Muffins? -- chocolatechip

17. One of your wish list items? -- lens

18. Where you grew up? -- anchorage

19. The last thing you did? -- read

20. What are you wearing? -- tee

21. Last person you talked to? -- Case

22. Your pets? -- nope

23. Your computer? -- laptop

24. Your life? -- full

25. Your mood? -- bored

26. Missing someone? -- Mom

27. Your car? – minivan (stop laughing)

28. Something you're not wearing? -- makeup

29. Favorite store? – shopping?

30. Your summer? – over :(

31. Love someone? -- kids

32. Your favorite color? -- green

33. When is the last time you laughed? -- minute

34. Last time you cried? -- Thursday

Curti Memories

I just left a comment on my friend's blog who did this, and thought I'd give it a go here. I don't know how many people even read this thing, so here goes...

Directions: Leave a comment on my blog about a memory of you and I together (that's either me, Katie, or someone in the Curti). It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, just whatever you remember! Then repost this on your blog to see who leaves comments for you!

Could be fun, right? C'mon just humor me! :)

Is it time already?

The unavoidable is here. I've put it off as long as I can. It's time to potty train the twins. I waited until we were done with all our road tripping (for obvious reasons), but alas... it is time.

And I'm totally dreading it! I have no idea what I'm doing!

You see, with our older kids we had this wonderful secret weapon in our arsenal. Her name is Christy. She watched our kids while Jarad and I both went to work. So in all honesty, she did the majority of the potty training, and I am FREAKING OUT about having to figure out how to do it, two at a time! Christy, if you're out there, HELP! (Christy is also a mother to triplets, so she knows exactly what I'm going through here)

Tess is actually driving this effort. I knew it was coming, but she has gotten up the last two mornings in a row, taken off her diaper and gone potty on the Dora Potty (I love having to give "potty candy" to kids at 7 a.m.). So today I busted out those thick training panties and she has only had one teeny accident so far. Go Tessie!

Case, on the other hand, is fighting it tooth and nail. I coaxed him into wearing a pull-up, but twice already today I've put him on the potty, he sits and sits and finally says "I can't." Both times I've taken him off the potty and was getting ready to put his pull-up back on and he pees on the floor. So I dediced to try to bribe him with Scooby Doo underpants. "Don't pee on Scooby! He'll be so sad!" He just peed on Scooby.

So that's day one. And it's only 1 p.m. I have a feeling I'll have more stories in the coming weeks, so if you're sensitive to yarns about bodily functions, you might want to take a break from The Curti.

Wish me luck!!

Newfound respect

I have always had a deep respect for my husband. In his innate sense for what's right. In his patients with our kids (and others'). In his beyond-his-years wisdom.

Now it's gone even further.

He invited me to do a swim workout with him the other day. I cannot hang! I swam a couple of laps and was sucking in air, holding on to the edge of the pool, willing myself to just ... swim ... one ... more ... length! I can't believe these crazy triathletes who get out in open water, where there are no lane lines and no walls to hang onto. Who knows WHERE in the heck the bottom is! They swim 1/2 mile, a mile, and longer with no options to stop or hang on!

So my props go out to Jarad and my sister Kristin (who recently placed 2nd in a half-ironman and has a sponsor!) and all those other insane triathletes out there. More power to ya. I'll stick with my pool swim, thank you very much.

Emma's growing up!

A few indicators that Emma isn't my little baby anymore:

1. She lost yet another tooth, in the car on the way from McCall to Orem. The tooth fairy had to come to Grandma and Grandpa's house.


2. She insisted on cutting her Rapunzel hair as soon as we returned from our trip. I held off as long as I could. It's cute though! As soon as her hair was short again, we started getting the "she looks JUST like Mary Kate & Ashley!" comments.


3. She is officially online. She has started her own blog: especiallyemma.blogspot.com. Check her out (she's also on my list now). I helped her with layout and her first post and now she's an addict. Much like her mama. "This is soooo cool Mom! I'm onLINE!!"

McCall Madness!

The second week of our trip was spent in McCall, Idaho with my side of the family for a reunion. McCall is this fantastic little town on Payette Lake about 2 hours north of Boise. We have twice been lucky enough to rent this house with enough room for 35 people, two kitchens and its own private beach and dock. We are so bummed this is the last summer they will rent it out, though, since the couple who owns it will be living there full time when they come home from their mission in January.

Anyway, we spent the week getting to know each other again (it's been four years since our last reunion, and we are spread out all over the West) -- tubing and wakeboarding (I only went tubing thank you very much), fishing, doing puzzles, watching my brother Mark's slideshows of the day's activities :), playing water volleyball, and just sitting around on the beach/dock. We even found time for some spirituality with a Sunday meeting where Mom and Dad shared experiences from their mission, and a great testimony meeting around the campfire on our last night there. Although I spent much of the meeting wrestling Teslin and trying to keep her quiet, I was still able to feel the spirit so strongly and it was wonderful to hear testimonies from my parents, brothers and sisters, my aweseome in-laws and even a few of the nieces and nephews. We just don't get a chance to share those kinds of things with each other, so I'm so grateful we made the time to have a testimony meeting. I hate the end of a reunion because I feel so close to everyone by the end of the week and then that closeness gets lost so quickly when we get back to daily life. Especially the closeness to the nieces and nephews because who wants to text thier fuddy-duddy old auntie, or read her blog??

Anyway, sorry to get morose. I just want to say thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this reunion happen. We all had so much going on and everyone pitched in to make it an awesome week! My poor brother Matt, whose Alaskan skin hadn't seen the sun in, well, maybe ever, got a serious sunburn early in the week. He developed blisters the size of golf balls on his shoulders and back. It was unreal.

Here are some pics of the fun!

My niece Jayme was so great with the little kids. She has so much energy, it was great to "let" her play with the kids and get them all run down (Jayme included).


Our last night there was Fourth of July. We were all geared up to watch the fireworks display the town put on in the middle of the lake. Alas, all we could see were some sparks behind the trees. I guess the shoreline turns more than we thought! But Trent and Josh (with help from Bridger and even Jarad) put on a show of their own. Here's Emma and Fisher watching the amazing display :).


We all converged on Caryn and Mark in Boise the night before we went to McCall. Emma and Payton picked up right where they left off four years ago with craziness in the pool. You can tell neither of them like having their picture taken!


Tubing buddies Gabe, Coleman and Fisher. These guys would have rode the tubes 24/7 if we had let them. They kept asking for more turns and more speed. Crazies.


Emma's fish. The guys found this great lake for family fishing about 10 minutes up the road from the house. The kids were pulling them out! And by the way, that isn't sunburn on Emma's face - it's colored zinc sunblock.


Fisher's fish.


Case's fish.


This is the twins asleep around 7pm on our last night there. They were just plum tuckered at the end of every day, but at the end of a week of nonstop fun, they just crashed. I felt the same way!

Timpanogos Hike and Cave Tour

I made what I considered to be an awesome trade one afternoon with my sister Karin. She has a granddaughter who was born two weeks before the twins as well as a six-month-old grandson. When she heard Jarad and I were wanting to take our two older kids to hike to the Timp caves, she piped in with the offer to watch our twins (she was already watching Avarie and Wyatt that afternoon... how hard could it be?) if we took her two teenaged kids with us on the hike. I didn't hesitate for a SECOND to accept that offer! So here's me with Emma, Fisher, Jayme (happy 18th Jaymes!), Josh (15) and Grumps on our way up the 1.5 mile 1000+ foot elevation gain hike. I took a cue from Emma and her cousins on the hand signals in this pic. (Karin's adventure was much greater than ours, I assure you.)



Fisher was the funniest ever on the tour. Every time Ranger Logan would explain something, he would ask if anyone had any questions. Of course, Fisher always did. Just to hear himself speak. For example, Ranger Logan had just finished telling us why this room was the wettest in the cave. Any questions? Fisher raises his hand. "Um... why ... um ... why ... is ... Why is this the wettest room in the cave?" Every single time.

Here are some random pics from the hike/tour.

More vacation photos. Nowhere near done!

My dad has this ancient Triumph TR3A convertible (is it a 53?, I can't remember) that he had shipped from Alaska to Utah before their mission. It's now sitting in their garage, not really running (it was driveable when we had it in AK), but the grandkids sure had a great time pretending to zoom around town in it.



After visiting with my parents for a few days in Orem, we headed down to Fairview Canyon for a Curtis family camping trip. Jarad's brothers and their families were all there, as well as Grannie Annie. We missed Sara and her family though!

Emma, Tess and their cousins Ashley and Milan. I gave up trying to get Emma to look normal for pictures. She'll just love all these pictures of her with crazy faces when she gets older...



We had a massive tent (thanks Kristin and Ted!) that we dubbed The Timeshare. It was four rooms with palladian windows. Ridiculously huge. Anyway, this is a picture of Case reading stories before getting tucked into bed. We did it with headlamps. He loved it!



I love this picture. Emma can't take a picture without making a crazy face or some sort of hand sign. I sat and tried to get Emma and Ashley to stop making hand signs, and then I see Tess busting out a peace sign.



We took the whole crew fishing one afternoon, and evidently Uncle Tony needed a nap. He plopped down right in the weeds and dirt next to the lake, put his hat over his head and went to sleep. I call this photo "peeking at the hobo." Case wasn't sure what to think of this strange heap of a person lying in the middle of our fishing spot.


There was this huge see-saw made from trees at our campsite, which provided many hours of entertainment for all the kids (and adults too!). There were a handful of injuries from falls, but Case hung with the big boys on it. He loved it!

And the photos begin...

It seems like forever since we got home from our trip, but it's really only been a few days. I guess reality always goes by slower than vacation, right? So here are the first of what will probably end up being too many photos of our recent travels up north (well, north of Arizona, not the REAL north!).

The first event of the trip was Jarad's triathlon in Provo. My parents were nice enough to watch the kids so I could be Jarad's cheering section. My job was to time his events and let him know how he was doing while he ran past me during/after each event. He told me beforehand that things like "Go Jarad" were meaningless and not motivating, while comments that would whip him into gear were more helpful. To a man that means insults, right? So when I yelled out his time halfway through the run, and followed it up with "UNHITCH THAT TRAILER!" the man standing next to me had this horrified look on his face and was totally laughing at me. I explained that my husband WANTED me to verbally abuse him during the race. Just being a good wifey!

Anyway, here are some photos of my future Ironman.

Swim (well, coming out of the lake)


Bike


Run

Thank Heaven for Monsoons!!

We had a blessed thunderstorm last night and got about 1.5 inches of rain in our part of Arizona. This means that our temperatures have dropped about 20 degrees from last weekend (it's a balmy -- and muggy -- 95 rather than 115). Welcome to the Monsoon Season in the Valley of the Sun!

One more reason I'm glad we waited until Wednesday to drive back... our air conditioner in the bedroom part of the house had gone out while we were gone and we are just now getting it worked on (this happened to us about this time last year, but thankfully it's a much less expensive fix this time around!).

Hopefully we'll have a great (read: cool) night's sleep tonight!!

Have I ever gone this long???

I have an excuse for not posting for more than a month. Honestly.

IT'S SUMMERTIME!

Summer break for The Curti is nothing less than THE MOST FUN. With Jarad home and my extremely flexible schedule, we have nonstop good times! We just returned today from a three-week vacation **yes I said three weeks!** to Utah and Idaho. Some might think a road trip with four kids for three weeks would be a nightmare. Honestly, at times I thought the same thing (Tess is so OVER having her "buckles on" ugh). But in all it was such a fun trip.

It started with Jarad's participation in the Provo Triathlon and a weekend visit with my parents in their brand-new Orem home. Believe me, we broke that bad-boy in...

Then we spent a few days camping with Jarad and his brothers' families in Fairview Canyon before heading up to McCall, Idaho for the Stastny family reunion. We had 35 people in one house for a full week. Again, some might think that is a nightmare in the making but it was serious fun. All my brothers and sisters were there with their spouses (a first ever -- I had two sisters in law who had never met each other), and all the grandchildren (plus a couple of spouses) with one exception (my nephew Jeremy is on his mission in South Africa!) and all the great-grandchildren. It was amazing. A week in a three-story house on Payette Lake with a couple of boats and a private beach... I have a few pics, but I'll have to post them later.

Just wanted to pop on and tell all my loyal readers (hi Mom and Dad) that I'm still around and I promise to post more often now that our summer is winding down. We only have three and a half weeks until school starts. I can't believe it!