...

looks like my "new attempt" was not so successful. i suppose i could blame it on being busy, or reading other cool blogs, the fact that Bryce had another birthday (darn that kid, stop it!), the laundry continuing to pile up...even though i don't want it to, or maybe the fact that that i did Christmas cards, made awesome gingerbread houses at kindergarten with Chase and Oakli, reading hordes of Christmas cards (thanks!), took Chase to the ER on Christmas Eve to get "glued" back together, had a great Christmas, cleaned up Christmas, put away all the Christmas decorations and celebrated New Year's too. maybe it is that i've re-discovered crafting again...in many different forms, swimming lessons for Chase and Oakli, scouts for Bryce, Achievement days for Ambri, 5 miles a day for me (still), sewing projects (only the necessary ones - darn those scout shirts!), movies, a messy house that i haven't cleaned, jewelry projects that i want to get done, messes that i don't know how they got there, a new church calling that is giving me "panic", major kid drama, ice skating on our pond, Doug's new High Council assignment with the Spanish branch, Ambri's (I mean Bryce...) careful planning each day to get her hair and clothes just right for school... maybe just maybe it is one or two of those things... or maybe it is just sheer laziness.

in any case, i'm still here, in one form or another.

I've finally gotten my jewelry in a place where I think it can be shown well, at an affordable price, to me and to the consumer. I have tried (a while back ago) to sell it on eB*y, but there were just too many complications with that and I didn't have enough items to make it worth having a store. I have found Etsy, and have opened a shop there. If you are interested in seeing what I have finally got going, and what I spend some of my time doing, please feel free... and feel free to spread the word. (Just click on the link to get to the shop). You can also click on the link to the left, in the side bar.

Ebony and Ivory Designs

If you have any ideas for me, or requests, send them my way!

~ Kari

Hmmmm...

I'm not really sure what I'm going to blog about yet, I just figured it has been a long time since I've posted anything, so I'd do a quick post b3efore I head off to bed. 5 words ago spurs a nice opening for this post. I've explained this to a few people, now is as good as any a time to tell the r3est of the world that I seem to have this interesting relationship with the "3" on the keyboard. For some reason many times when I type an "e" I also hit the "3" on the3 keyboard. Usually it takes just as long to explain it once to someone and then move on and leave the 3's in my words than to keep erasing them. So from now on when you see the 3's in certain words next to "e"s, it is not because I love the number 3 so much, or I am just retarded... well, maybe I am retarded, I'm just not sure yet.

Right now my life still mainly consists of walking, A LOT! We have 2 weeks and 1 day left in our family weight loss challenge. At this point I don't really care who knows how I am doing, because if you aren't doing as good as you want to be doing, it is pretty much too late. I feel like I am doing really good. I am proud of myself for how well I have done. Whether I win the money or not, I have worked so hard and I have lost a lot of weight and I have to say, "good job, Kari!". I get up in the morning, weight myself, then de3cide how far I am going to walk that morning, based on the scale. I know it sounds silly, but hey, I'm in it for the money. After my 2 weeks and one day is up, then I'll revert back to probably weighing myself just 3 times a week (which is what I did before this competition starte3d) and walking 5 miles a day, which I did NOT do before this competition started. I have resolved that if I want to keep this new body that I have worked SO hard for, it is going to probably take walking about 5 miles a day to actually keep it, so that is what I am going to do. So anyway, aft3er walking, what seems like forever, e3ach morning (in reality it is only one Raechel Ray show and part of Oprah or American Idol, or part of some other show that gets me through 64 minutes of walking on the treadmill) I feel great that I finished it! The day can b3egin. Now what? It has been nice and sunny here in Oregon? My kids keep asking if it is spring. Chase keeps asking if it is summer and when our birthdays are going to be. Poor kid. I digress. Well, I didn't really have a point to b3egin with. I'll move on.

I've been doing jewelry again. It has been a lot of fun. I've got a shop on etsy. As soon as I have a few more things posted I'll put a link up and send out a mass email for anyone that is interested in seeing what I've been up to.

Other news... Chase and Oakli both broke their glasses in the same day.


I can't think of much else to write about for now. I'll be heading to the Neurologist tomorrow for a follow-up appointmen3t. If anything exciting comes of it, I'll let you know.


Oh, I know, we took the kids to Monster Jam this last weekend. We went with our good friends the Newells. We got tickets several months ago and we had a great time with them. They all loved seeing Grave Digger and we got to go early for the "Pit Party". We got to go down and take pictures with all the trucks up close, that was great. One of the moster trucks even rolled, it was great fun. Did I mention that it was loud? Oh yeah, it was loud.