Paw Prints...

So, after dropping Maddy and Tyler off at their singing group, Macee asked where we were going. I said, "You know." She said, "Oh, to get your paw prints." Heehee... Chuck and I started laughing. We were on our way to get my fingerprints done for my Nursing Program application. But in Macee's mind, they were my "paw prints". I'm such an animal. ;)

Flagstaff/Grand Canyon Trip

Before heading back to school, we decided to take a weekend trip up North. We had been to the Grand Canyon earlier this summer, but due to the rain, we didn't see or do much. So we headed out of town on Thursday morning (8-6) and took the scenic drive up to Flagstaff, via Payson and then on to Mormon Lake (or as we called it when we saw it "Mormon Puddle"). It was a nice drive. I made up travel books for the kids with coloring pages, activity pages, games and fun stuff to do to keep them occupied, because we were terming this get-away "non-electronic"... I know... we are so mean!!! But it worked well!

So we got to Flagstaff, checked in at our FABULOUS Super 8 and headed out for some early dinner. Then we headed to Lowell Observatory... it was cool. We got to look through some big telescopes and saw super far away stuff! Then we headed back and got some DQ and went swimming in the indoor pool. With tired kids, we went back to the room and crashed!

The next morning (Fri), we took our time getting up and getting going. So after breakfast we headed out to Walnut Canyon National Monument. It was "fun" climbing down a bunch of stairs (185 feet down into the canyon) and we walked around and saw the Indian ruins down there... then we had the walk up. Macee of course was not thrilled she had to walk even part of this trail... so Chuck put her on his shoulders and we then proceeded to climb back up (all 240 stairs!!! YIKES!!!). The kids earned their Junior Ranger Badges (they are proudly sporting them in the picture below).

It was super windy...

as you can see by this demonstration my hair did!

We took a drive down through Sedona and saw the beautiful sights that way and the kids all got a bit of a nap in (BONUS!) When we returned, we were trying to think of something to do to kill time before Grandma and Grandpa Rowley showed up. I called a bit earlier and they said they just barely got out of town, so it wouldn't be until about 6 or 7 before we would see them. So we hung out a bit in the hotel room... played a couple games and then we got a call from them (g-ma/pa) wondering where the motel was. I asked my mom where she was and she said, "I think right outside the motel!" YEA!!! They tricked us and got there super early! So when they got their stuff unloaded, we took off to go to Sunset Crater. Macee insisted on taking a picture of me and my mom & dad.

A pretty flower on the walk.

We went back, ate some KFC take-out and then went swimming. Super fabulous!

The next morning it was time to pack up and head out for the Grand Canyon. We decided to go to the IMAX theater to see the Grand Canyon movie. I'm glad we did, because it was really neat! Then we headed out to see the sights. We walked the famous path from the Visitors Center out to the Canyon edge (with Macee crying the whole time that her knees were killing her and she couldn't do it!). Then walked the edge to Vercamps. The picture below is actually the path Chuck, Billy (my bro) and my dad will be coming up when finishing their rim-to-rim hike in 4 weeks. CRAZY!!! So I hiked down a bit to get the pictures.

Maddy, my dad and Chuck coming up the path

(they went down further than me).

This was a cool rock.

The whole gang.

My cute kiddos!!

Guess who's the boss???

After a long day at the Canyon (and earning the Jr. Ranger badge there as well), we took off for home, stopped at McDonalds in Flagstaff and headed for home. I think we tired these kiddos out!

Nichelle... this is for you!

Heehee... memories, eh?

{Notice Macee}

I'm getting over my perfectionism...

CRAZY!!! OK... I have no pictures to post with this and I find that VERY hard to do! But I'm doing it anyways! I'm gonna try and post more on here about what I do in my life... because I believe you all are just sitting around DYING to know ;)

So I'm back at school and I love it! My teacher is a bit off the wall, but I think she will make it a great semester for us. My favorite Bio buddy is in my class this semester which makes it even better! We're working on blood right now... SUPER FUN! One fun thing I was told in class about pharmaceuticals is... it's the management of poison. I found that very interesting... true, very true! Oh- and my last name is "Meiser" according to my teacher. Would you correct her, or just let it go? The past 2 days I let it go because I assume she will mispronounce it again... what would you do?

Macee and I had a great day here at home. After 4 hours of sleep I got up, got the kids out the door for school and then played the computer for awhile and then made my lazy bum go to the gym. Had a great workout and even went swimming w/ Macee afterwards. Super fun!

Maddy bruised her tailbone pretty bad yesterday (Monday) falling off the monkey bars and landing straight on her bum... she's going to school with a little pillow in tow for the next couple days to help it not hurt so bad when she has to sit all day long (because she is NOT staying home over a bruised tailbone!). Tomorrow is Enrichment... a Back to School theme... should be fun (at least getting out is always fun!). Last night had a girls night out... saw PostGrad and went to Chili's afterwards. Super fun girls to hang with. My poor family (OK... poor hubby) has not seen me hardly this week. But that's OK... he's been gone hiking lately on Saturday's, so now it's my turn!

Hummmmmmm.... I think my brain is DEAD so I'm gonna crawl into bed so I can get a good night sleep!

Tomorrow's To-Do List...

1. Visiting Teaching

2. Macee's pre-school open house

3. Make Maddy's baptism invites

4. Irrigation... well, the open ditch time...

real irrigation is Friday at 3something AM

(too early for me!!!)

5. HFPE mtg!!!

Super fabulous!

Have a great night!

MIA...

To see why I've been gone (if you care)

go check out my other blog...

www.beaperfect10.blogspot.com

And if you don't care, that's cool...

Hopefully I will get my rear in gear and get back on here.

I start school tomorrow...

YEA ME!!!

I feel so backed up...

maybe I'll get caught up, or maybe not...

Maybe I'll just get over the perfectionism

and be OK with not having it my way all the time.

We'll see! :)

Just Returning from HP6...

YUP...

we nerds went to the Midnight Showing of

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (#6)...

Instead of waiting outside in lines (there was a heat advisory today) they allowed us to sit in the hallways in the movie theater (thank you very nice movie theater people!)!!! So we brought in our card table and chairs and played a game of groups and piles. Super fun. Then we (Fawn and I... our boys stayed in line waiting) decided to take the tables and chairs back to the car and go get dinner.

When we got back, they had been let into the theater (at 6pm) and got us the BEST seats! Now we had 6 hours to kill before the movie began. So we ate, played a game of 3-13's, visited and some tried to sleep. It was fun. I love the energy that is in the theater!!!

Look at us... we are FABULOUS!!!

Chuck, me, Fawn and Devon

Me and my hubby

Me and my Fawny!!!

Even Itty Bitty joined us! He was super good and slept through the whole movie!

We saw some weird dressers... some girls in too short of skirts that I cannot blog about. TRUST ME... it was awful!

And saw some people I haven't seen in FOREVER... like JR... can't remember his last name right now, but I graduated w/ him (he came w/ Devon's cousin... small world!).

All in all it was a great night!

Thanks for all who joined us

and thanks Mortensens

for being willing to go

to all the Midnight Showings

with us and helping us feel young!

We love you guys!

Goodbye Beautiful Blue Eyes...

Hello (soon to be) healthy eyes!

Today was a sad day in the life of KaraLyn Melser (that's me).

I went to the eye doctor assuming that I would be getting new contacts (blue, of course) and some cute new glasses. I came home with new clear contacts, no new glasses and a report that isn't so happy. For the past X amount of years (since 9th grade) I have been sporting the most beautiful blue (fake) eyes and today I was told that I have to stop wearing them due to the lack of oxygen my eyes get from wearing these non-breathing contacts. Since my cornea (the clear covering over the iris... that's the colored part) has not been able to get enough oxygen from the outside air, it has been getting blood vessels in it (it's suppose to be avascular... meaning without blood vessels) to try and get oxygen there another way. And now I have cornea edema (swelling in my cornea). The only way to fix this is to get rid of the oxygen depriving contacts and wear the best contacts out there that gives the most oxygen to the cornea. So here I go on a new road in my life... no more flirty blue eyes... this will take some getting use to, but it's the health of my eyes that is the most important. Now I'm condsidering Lasix or something of the sort when just last week there was no way I would do it because it meant giving up my blue eyes. So when I get my eyes back to normal, that may be in the future for my eyes! To me this is all very interesting and I wanted it all down to refer back to... plus for those interested in the anatomy and physiology of it, you could understand what's going on! Oh- I also had a retinal scan and I saw the back inside of my eyeball. In there I saw my optic nerve, and the blood vessels coming and going from it. It was awesome!!! No macular degeneration for me and he said condsidering what is going on with my eyes, I have no other problems. I have great periphreal view, no signs of glaucoma (whew... caz it is in my family history) and diabetes will do something to the nerve opening and it all looks good! So my eyes, besides the blood vessels invading my cornea, are in good shape! OK... this is forever long about my eyes... but it's super sad for me to have to say good-bye to my blue eyes...

May you rest in peace Beautiful Blue Eyes

1993-2009

A late night snack...

Nothing better than a late-night bowl of cereal! Trix is the one of choice tonight!

Had a great day... ran into Mortensen's at Costco... ended up going to their house to eat dinner and play games... decided to go swimming... got home a bit ago w/ WAY tired kids! I love it! Now... I'm off to finish my cereal, read "The Fire of the Covenant" and hopefully fall asleep soon!

A new focus...

You can't organize clutter; you can only get rid of it! - FlyLady

So that's what I'm gonna be working on. Go check it out if you feel overwhelmed with the tasks in front of you! Comment here if you already do FlyLady and it works for you... I would LOVE some pointers. My house isn't too cluttered, but when it comes to schedules I stumble... and Chuck is a total schedule/list person. So my "gift" to him is to get our house on a "schedule" (running on complete rigid flexibility) before I start school next semester (in just 7 weeks)!

Go check it out and learn to FLY with me!

4th of July... Part 1

So we started our fun celebration of 4th of July Fun with our Friday Funday... which, thankfully, got to include Chuck (YEA... no work for him today, it was their holiday off!) So last Saturday, Chuck went to the library where he secured a pass for 4 of us to get into the Arizona Science Center for free (so we paid for one kid only... can't beat that deal!). He decided we should use it for when he had off work (which was today... Friday).

We took the Light Rail over to Phoenix and enjoyed a ride on that (I've never been... but the kids and Chuck had been once). It was fun! Maddy enjoyed getting to stand up while driving.

(Thanks Macee for taking our picture)

When we got to the Science Center we had a great time going from exhibit to exhibit. After we were done we asked the kids what their favorite thing was...

Macee said, "The house... you know with the garden."

Maddy said, "All the hands on stuff."

Tyler said, "The thing with the pipes and balls."

I had fun sitting in the seat that you had to pull yourself up to the top using only your arm strength.

Chuck enjoyed the tug-o-war... such a boy at heart! I love it!

A few other fun things...

The Lego exhibit... all on a castle theme.

This screen they could go behind and "catch" the falling stuff... it was cool to watch it from the shadow side.

And one last favorite of mine was the computer program that had you take your picture right there at the computer and edit it! Don't Macee and I look CRAZY???

When we were done with the Science Center, we were hot, thirsty and hungry, so we found a Starbucks nearby and used the otherwise useless giftcards on some expensive water, cookies and a yummy smoothie (hey, but it was all free to us!). Everyone was happy again and off we were to catch the Light Rail back to the main station and head for home.

When we got home, Macee took a nap, I baked cookies and the others rested and played Tetris on the TV for the afternoon and then we went to the drive-ins with the Mortensens! We saw UP and The Proposal. It was super fun. What was really fun was the storm that blew in and we watched the movie from under easy-ups (one between the vehicles and one over the back of the Mortensen's truck). They worked out nice. Grandma Mortensen and Lance even showed up to watch UP with us! It was fun and we love to go to the drive-ins! You can't beat getting a family of 5 in for under $15 AND see 2 movies AND you don't have to smuggle your food into the theater in an over-sized purse!

So... pictures of everyone BEFORE the storm hit!

Jonny, Macee and Maddy

Jack, Fawn, Itty Bitty, Damon and Tyler

G-ma Mortensen, Lance, Devon and Gunnar

Me and Chuck

I think we tired them out today!

I know I'm tired...

and I have to be up at 630

to go to the Ward Breakfast...

I should go to sleep!