Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Interview on KPLR

I absolutely LOVE this segment Dan Gray put together for Channel 2!!!  Here's the link to the story.  I sure hope he gets to put it up on Fox 2, as well...don't tell, but it just might be my favorite!!! 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Oops!

The KPLR News11/Fox2 story airs the 22nd...which is Wednesday, actually.  I'll try to link here if possible!

Hope you're having a great week!
k

Fox 2 News Tonight!


Just in case you haven't heard, Erin Bode wrote the most amazing song about my daughter Katelyn with her heartbeat embedded within the song.  You can buy the song on iTunes by clicking here.  It is seriously the best song ever.  And I'm not just saying that because it's Katelyn's story and her heartbeat.  I promise you ~ you will love this song!  (Seriously - go buy it!!  ;))

Last week, Dan Gray, of Fox 2 News and KPLR Channel 11, came to interview Katelyn here in our home.  You can hear his interview {here} and more about the story of the making of THE MOST AMAZING SONG tonight during the evening news.

I had a fun time with this interview because it was very laid back - in my own living room!  I was surprisingly quite calm and so appreciative of all the chores the kids have been assigned lately because the house was presentable without much tension or work!  {How nice is that?!}

{They're fake interviewing here for my photo - I love the facial interactions between Katelyn and Dan Gray
 - asking the tough questions!!  And I actually found it interesting that they had me close the curtains due to the intrusion of natural light through the window affecting their video quality.  So different from a still photo standpoint!}
The videographer arrived later than Dan Gray, so we had the chance to really sit down and talk with him ... in retrospect, I should have asked him lots of questions about what it's like to be a reporter and his transition from one big station locally to his current big stations.  But I'm a mom.  So I talked to him about his family.  And his travels.  Maybe he's just lucky I didn't ask about his lunch menu and afterschool plans?

Anyway, it was another super fun opportunity for us and we continue to say thank you to everyone involved in making this one of the most amazing and memorable winters of our lives!  Later in the week Katelyn participated in a photo shoot for a magazine which I'll talk about later.  In the meantime, watch the news tonight!  I'm hopeful that Dan mentions the one thing I haven't been able to say during any of our previous interviews...and just in case he doesn't,I'll say it here anyway:
I want everyone to really understand at the beginning of the song when Erin sings, "I wanna make you understand the world that I know, surrounded by angels, here now we go again" that this really is our story.  We are surrounded by angels who were our sweet friends, who traveled this road with us, and the many amazing friends who still are traveling it with us every day.  Ultimately, this isn't just Katelyn's story or just Katelyn's heartbeat.  It is all their stories.  It is all their heartbeats.  And now they are getting the chance to be heard, too.   
So, I just think that is super cool.  Watch the news tonight, but seriously, go buy the song, too. 

{{Heart Hugs!!}}
Karin

Monday, February 20, 2012

The week the family went down.

Last week was crazy.  Early Sunday morning, T plopped into the middle of our bed and announced that he'd been sick in the bathroom for three hours.  I hadn't heard a peep of the poor kid, so we were pretty amazed when indeed he further demonstrated signs of the stomach flu.  He was down two days.

Monday morning Pooks woke up with the same scenario.  Down two days.

Wednesday morning, Sashi woke up.  Ditto.

Thursday morning = Meiners' Day.  And then the dad went down, too.


This girl prayed.  I prayed boldly and reeeeeeeaal hard.  (That's me giving the stomach flu the stink eye up there...)

Prayer and Stink Eye worked, cuz so far?  I am still standing tall.  Thank you Jesus.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

We sure enjoyed a fun Valentine's Day here yesterday!  A few old traditions were rekindled and a few new ones begun.  All in all, it was a special day focusing on these sweet relationships we have growing right here in our midst!

I stayed up way too late the night before putting finishing touches on the kids' Valentine's Day gifts!  Using Photoshop, I created individual pieces of artwork for each child (modified from this Pinterest link), listing some of the things we love most about them right now, and capping it off with a life verse that seemed best for each of them.


I love how the projects turned out, and I sure appreciate that each kid took their framed artwork and found a special place for them in their rooms!  My hope is that they'll reflect on these words when life gets hard in the years ahead and receive the mental and spiritual boost that the printed word can give.  Framed Heart Attacks from their number one fans - Mom and Dad - nothing better than that!


I took another Pinterest idea to complete a gift for the man who already has everything.  We've been blessed to take some truly fun and remarkable trips so far in our relationship from Jamaica to Ireland and several stateside, as well.  Although I look forward to the days when we can travel a little more freely again, I sure love these current days just as much and wouldn't trade them for anything!  Nonetheless, it seemed simply sentimental to put together a print of the places we've visited so far just the two of us ~ and the dates of those excursions. 


It was fun to reminisce about some of these experiences while completing the project, and I received some valuable design advice from the twins who were home recovering from the stomach flu the day I finished it.  Now, it hangs on the wall in our bedroom as witness to where we've been together and a promise for where we someday hope to go!


Then, of course, what Valentine's Day would be complete without some {heart}y food.  We went hog wild yesterday on that lovely shape.  Here are some of our favorites of the day!








It was a such great day.  I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by some of the coolest kids imaginable, and hubby gave flowers and a shopping spree to buy some new running gear, so I have that to look forward to, too.  I hope you, also, were able to make the day memorable one way or another!

Happy Heart Day!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Who Won the Game?

Sunday afternoon we hosted our annual family football gathering for The Super Bowl!  I guess the Giants played the Patriots or something like that.  There was a lot of talk about Eli Manning and Tom Brady, anyway.  And Madonna.

The thing about our family is we are serious about something.  And that something is Super Bowl commercials.  We tend to stop everything we are doing on Super Bowl Sunday to watch the advertiser's pitch!


LOL - but more important than any car, drink, or H&M underwear commercial on TV Super Bowl Sunday is the FOOD!

Anytime our family gets together, it is over food.  There are lots of great things to be said about connecting with family over a meal (loved this book on the topic) ... but I'm sure a table full of appetizers and snacks suffices just as well!  :)

And regardless of what's on the plate or what's on TV, it's always just more fun with family...

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Maple Festival

I know it's a broken record you've heard here before, but we live in the greatest area! 

Last weekend the kids and I trekked out to Rockwoods Reservation for a quick glimpse at maple sugaring!  No, we don't live in Vermont nor the northeast corner of anything ~ but apparently all you really need is the right sized sugar maple tree, a few supplies, and time.  With a little educating you, too, can have fresh, pure maple syrup on your morning pancakes! 


Y.U.M.!

We took a hike up into the woods where the park rangers showed how to identify a sugar maple tree by the number of points on its leaves and its branch patterns. (Did you know trees exhibit one of two types of branch pattern?  Who knew, right?  You totally learned something on my blog today, didn't you?!)

The kids got a taste of tree sap straight from the collection buckets!

Sara said it tasted like toothpaste.  :)  Everyone else said it tasted just a little sweet.  I didn't have the guts to play baby birdie getting squirtied. 

We also learned how settlers heated the sap in stages of three buckets...

(do those kids look super enthusiastic, or what?  In their defense, it was cold and raining!)

...and sampled some tasty maple sugar!

That certainly appealed to everyone - and all agreed tasting maple sugar was the best part of the trip! 

After the hike, we hustled back to the main area of the festival to try more samples (my bucket list includes trying candy on snow - like in Little House in the Big Woods when Ma drizzles hot maple syrup on a bucket of snow to make a delicious treat for Laura and Mary - but alas, we were too late and the campground was a ghost town.)

 
Guess that just means we have to allow more time and do it again next year! 

What a cool thing to try in the middle of Missouri!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Heart Attack


I decided not to scare the bejiggers out of all of you by calling this post:

Dad Had a Heart Attack

Nor the close approximation:

WE GAVE Dad a Heart Attack...

Wise, no?


But, we really did give him a heart attack!  It has become our tradition, in following the amazing creativity of blogger Shawni Pothier, to give each other heart attacks during the month of February for a couple of years now.  Since Dad was turning 39 over the weekend, we thought it would be fun to write out 39 reasons why we love him and plaster them all over the house on his birthday.

So, without further adieu, here are 39 reasons why we love John/Dad:
1.


2.  He is always there for me. (Katelyn)
3.  He makes me laugh so hard I cry.  And pee.  (TMI)
4.  He is good looking!
5.  He helps in the kitchen (at least with weekend breakfasts)!
6.  He sometimes lets me have a bubblebath when I want to. (Sara)
7.  He holds my hand.
8.  He helps me with my homework.  (Katelyn AND Matthew)
9.  He gave his iPod to me and bought me my new radio.  There is so much more I could not possibly list all of them.  (Tommy) ... ;)
10.  When he doesn't go to work, sometimes he plays with me.  And when he does go to work, I still love him.  (Sara)
11.  He helps me with Skylanders.  (Tommy)
12.  He is always willing to go outside and play sports with me.  (Matthew)  ... :)
13.


14.  He plays soccer with us.  (Katelyn)
15.  He cares about the kids' education and quizzes them.
16.  He takes us on awesome trips.  (Katelyn)
17.  He and Mom bought me Pokemon Black.  (Tommy)
18.  He helps me with picking new books to read.  (Tommy)
19.  He let me read The Belgariad and The Mallorean from when he was a kid.  (Tommy)
20.  He does math with me.  (Matthew)
21.  He is always on top of current events and he fills me in!
22.  He always has a logical answer.  { ; )}
23.  He sticks to his guns, sets goals, and sees them through.
24.  He plays video games with me.  (Matthew)
25.  He makes delicious pancakes. (Katelyn)
26.  He is a super star at the office.
27.  He is an AWESOME dad.
28.  He helps me with my pinewood derby car.  (Tommy AND Matthew)
29.  He has an awesome personality.  He helps me with things and teaches me new things.  (Tommy)
30.  He is smart and super good at trivia games.
31.  He knows how to do stuff and he researches the things he's not quite sure about.
32. 


33.  He is good with electronics.  (Matthew AND Me!)
34.  He knows my love language is icee mochas yet he helped me give them up in January.
35.  He always keeps things interesting.
36.  He's a super running partner.  Most days.  ;)
37.  He fills my van up with gas every weekend.
38.  He takes us to church every weekend.
39.  He's my best friend and the love my life.


Happy Birthday Honey!  We sure do love you!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

"The Space Between" in the news

The news segment sharing Erin Bode's song The Space Between featuring Pookie's heartbeat  aired last night!  You can see the whole thing here.

Thanks to everyone who's watched it, bought the song on iTunes, or just sent us a big 'thumbs up!'  Yesterday was such a fun day ... I'll say more later, but just wanted to get the link up on da'blog!

Love to all...

Sunday, February 5, 2012

fame

Pookie's story and song have made it onto the hospital's website!  You can find it here.

We hope you'll also head over to iTunes and purchase The Space Between by Erin Bode.  It's a fabulously catchy song ~ with a great beat (Pookie's own heartbeat)!

Here is a link to the actual music video on YouTube!!

Finally, Monday, February 6th (Today!), our local NBC news has a special segment planned about Katelyn and the song at 10:00.  We can't wait to see it (commercials have been playing since Thursday)!  We've sure enjoyed the attention and certainly owe our friends at Children's Hospital a huge thanks for letting us be a part of this whole experience.  Ultimately, we pray God gets the glory.  He sure is giving us a great ride!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

busy tuesday night?



If you're looking for free, fun, kid-friendly things to do in The Lou, you should check out the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park on Tuesday nights.  If you're a city or county resident, you can get in to the Mastodon Exhibit for free ... and it is uber-cool ~ for kids AND adults.


No pics are allowed within the exhibit, but there were tons of hands-on things for the kids, plenty of facts for the adults, and entertaining science videos to keep us all involved and interested. 

The exhibit was put together by the Field Museum in Chicago.   We give it two thumbs way up and highly recommend you give it a try if you're in the area!

We sure do live in one super cool city!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

where I admit I gave up icee mochas for new year's


I never really shared my new year's resolution with the world ... you know, in case I embarrassingly failed myself.  But I am here to report that our entire family gave up going to Bread Co in January as a new year's resolution...which might not seem like a big deal until you figure somebody (and it wasn't always me!) went literally every day for most of 2011.  So, having admitted that shamefully here on the blog, I can now announce to you that we were ....*drum roll* .... successful!

Wooohoo!

John and I treated ourselves to a morning date at our local cafe this morning (it's a new month baby!) - and I must say, they were packed, so economically speaking, the restaurant chain has not gone under without us.  But we banked a serious amount of cash and are definitely reaping the benefits of it.

It is surprising - astonishing - and quite sad, actually, to consider how quickly eating out can add up.  And we had let it snowball totally out of control.  Even in spite of being pretty self-disciplined about cash flow.

So over a pumpkin muffie and a chocolate pastry (and let's just admit it - an icee mocha) this morning, the man and I agreed that Bread Co will continue to be a treat versus a staple through the month of February.

We'll all be better for it.  And Bread Co will continue doing just fine without us.  ;)
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