Nate came home and said he was voted in to be one of three class representatives for student council. Apparently they weren't running for class president, they were running to be class reps. Anyway, he is very excited and said he received the most votes out of anyone. The poor girl who went to all that trouble to do the talent show didn't get voted in.

Brent and I got new callings at church on Sunday. Brent was called to be the ward choir director and music chairman and I was called to be the 1st counselor in the primary presidency. We are both excited about our callings. I feel a little inadequate but am very excited to work with the other ladies in our presidency. They all know what they are doing so hopefully I won't feel too lost. I have to start working on the primary sacrament meeting presentation that we will be presenting in October. If anyone has any great ideas, I would love some help!

Brent's celebrity look alikes!

I found this site from another blog I was reading and tried Brent's picture. He's blowing out the candles on his birthday cake if you're wondering why the face. I thought it was hilarious who they came up with as his celebrity look alikes. I always had a thing for Johnny Depp, now I know why!

Talent shows and eye problems

I took Sarah to the eye doctor today to get an eye exam and contact fitting because her corneal doctor cleared her for hard contacts. The doctor took a long time studying her eye that had the ulcer and finally sat back and told us that she still has an opening in the middle of where her ulcer was and that he doesn't feel comfortable giving her contacts. You should've seen the look on Sarah's face. Glasses are not what a ninth grade girl wants to continue wearing. I did notice just the other day that she still squints her eye more than the other one when she is in the sun and I asked her if the sunlight still bothers her. She said it did and when I told the doctor yesterday about it he said that that's a sure sign that the ulcer isn't completely closed up. He's gonna call the corneal doctor and call us back in a few days to let us know what they decide needs to happen now. Will this eye problem ever be over?

So onto another topic... Nate is still on the campaign trail to be class president. He told me the other day that there's a girl in his class that wants the position too and that she was going to have a talent show in her yard for everyone in her class to come to. He decided he should go since everyone else in his class said they were going. I went to pick him up when it was over and there in her front yard was Nate, his best friend Tanner (or Mason when he feels like being called that) sitting on chairs with about 10 girls around them on chairs watching two girls with microphones and feathered boas around their necks singing. Sarah, Rebecca and Jake were with me and we could not stop laughing. I was so mad that I didn't have a camera in the car!!! I'm so glad they were such a good sports and just laughed with us as soon as they got in the car. Rebecca was laughing so hard she cried. He was just mad that the other boys in his class weren't there because he would have for sure gotten their votes after that party. He might have to have a tea party or something to compete for the girl's votes.

Explanation of the video

My friend sent me the link to her blog today and in it there was a video like the one that was on So You Think You Can Dance. I left the blog up while I took Jake to the allergy doctor and Rebecca, Sarah and Nate saw it. Being the smart kids they are, they clicked on the link to the site and started making their own videos. When I came home I heard them in the office laughing hysterically. I got in on the act when I saw one of the videos they did and we had a blast all night. We've got one with Rebecca and Lady (our dog), Jake and Nate, Sarah dancing alone, there's even one of Brent and his brother that I thought was funny enough to put on the family blog. Anyway, it was another fun night in the Krummenacher household. The girl in the video with Jake is his really good friend Maddie. If anyone wants to see any of the other ones, I'll e-mail them to ya. I've got a great one of Kristen. I did one of Grandma but deleted it after I saw it because it didn't seem right.

jake and maddie

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

The first week of school came and went in a flash. The kids are all adjusting very well. I still worry that Jake has no friends in his class that are boys. He doesn't seem to be worried about it so I guess I shouldn't worry either. Easier said than done when your name is Laura Krummenacher.

Rebecca seems to like Junior high although this week she is very worried that she will get PAR. PAR is the school's after school detention. If they are late for a class or forget anything they were supposed to bring or do for class, they have to go to PAR after school for an hour. They do give them what they call wedge cards which are basicaly free passes but they don't have very many of those. This is the first week that they are enforcing PAR and I noticed on Rebecca's folder that last week she would have gotten it in two of her classes. I have told her many times that all she needs to do is listen to what the teacher wants her to do and write it down so she won't forget. She told me today that she really does try to listen. She has always had a hard time focusing in school so Junior high is going to be a real struggle for her I think. I told her today when she was worrying about it a lot that she needs to just remember in her prayers every morning to ask Heavenly Father to help her focus better. She thought that was a good idea but still seemed worried. She did good today though and didn't get PAR...yeah Rebecca!

Sarah went to her second stake dance on Saturday night. She said that she danced once and was really mad at the boys in her group of friends for not dancing with the girls in their group. She told me her group is lame. Ahh the days of stake dances.

Nate has decided that he wants to run for his class president. He said that his friend Mason has already said he would be his campaign manager but he needs to find more people to be his campaign managers because a boy in another class has 7-8 campaign managers. He is the biggest crack up.

Speaking of crack ups, I spoke to Rebecca's Beehive advisor yesterday. She told me that she loves Rebecca because she is so dang funny. I'm glad other people see how great she is and not just us. Her leader said that they were discussing what they should and shouldn't wear to the lake when they go with the whole mutual. Everyone was asking things like, "Do we need to wear shirts over our swimming suits?", "Can we cut the shirt into a V-neck if we have to wear shirts?" Apparently Rebecca thought the line of questioning was dumb so she asked with a very straight face, "So, I guess we shouldn't wear our bikinis?" Her teacher couldn't stop laughing about it when she told me. She said that a lot of the girls just don't get her and that she is way beyond her years with her sense of humor. I think she can owe that to her dad.

After school on the first day, the kids put on the Hairspray sound track and danced. Brent got home from work and got in on the fun too. I love my family, they are so much fun! Nate also did his midget impersonation for us. I know, it's not very politically correct but it was funny.

I got to go on our Relief Society retreat over the weekend. We went to Pinedale and stayed in a beautiful brand new three story cabin (really it's a house). Only 16 showed up this time but we had a great time and I think I got to know the sisters better with the smaller group. We played a game like the newlywed game and I was picked to be one of the players and my partner was Eldeane Heugly, the lady I clean with in the mornings. When she was asked what my favorite book was she answered: Cinderella. I'm not sure I'm gonna live that down for a while....CINDERELLA??!! If anyone is interested, my favorite book is The Hiding Place....not Cinderella. I don't even think I've read that one to my kids. Other than that we made a pretty good team and came in second place. After the game we had a little spa party. A lady that is inactive came and shared her spa products with us. We tried to relax but we laughed more than we relaxed. The next morning Mary McGrath and Holly Winters led us on a photo hike and showed us how to use our cameras. I learned how to take a close up of something and have the background fuzzy. They were great teachers and we learned a lot. Hopefully now I'll remember what I learned because Brent always teases me that I am a horrible picture taker.

Beggining Middle and End of Summer 2007

Summer is now almost over and I have some time to finally write. What a summer! We have had tons of fun with lots and lots of family. We started the summer with a Bradshaw family reunion in Colorado. It was beautiful there and so much fun to see people I haven't seen since I was little. We had the reunion at a YMCA camp in the Rocky Mountains. We were all placed in the same area and had our own meeting room to have nightly get togethers and games in. There was an indoor pool, goofy golf, canoeing, zipline, etc, etc. I think the kids had the most fun just playing in the area behind our rooms. We all had doors that led to a big area in the back that we could sit around and visit. Just a few steps down from that was a forest area that had a homemade tee pee and a little stream. The kids spent hours in that area playing with cousins. Kristen and I planned some family Olympic games and Jen helped us out a ton with it when we were there. We had a soda chug as one of the games and all the kids ended up getting sick. We felt so bad! Not bad enough to not laugh (a lot) when the kids weren't looking though. Another one that wasn't thought through good enough was the choco put. The teams had one player with whipped cream all over their face and the other player who would throw cocoa puffs at his team mate's face to see who could get the most to stick. What a mess!!! Very funny to watch.


All in all it was a very nice trip. We are so grateful to Aunt Nancy and her family for putting so many hours of time into getting us all together again. It had been way too many years that we hadn't seen each other. It made me really miss dad but also feel a lot closer to him by being with his family. I was especially glad that my kids were able to be around all of my dad's family so they could understand more of who he was.

Kristen's family came to Arizona a week after we got back from Colorado. It's great to see how close all the cousins are even though they don't all get to be with each other year round. They just all picked up right where they left off and are very close friends. I really love the friendship Brooke and Jake have. Jake is very quiet and doesn't open up to very many people but when he's with Brooke he can be himself. They spent hours and hours just talking and hanging out. I'm so thankful to Kristen and Jeff for making it a priority to come and spend time in Arizona as often as they do. I know Jake and Brooke wouldn't be as close as they are if they didn't make the time to come. No pictures available for this time other than a few Kristen sent me via email because my camera stopped working while they were here and I can't get any pictures I took with that camera until I remember to get the attachments from the store.

A few days after Kris and family got into town we had a get together with Ted's family at Scott's house. Scott's girls were anxious to get us all together again and we were all for that. That morning Sarah started complaining that her eye was hurting her and that she had a headache but it didn't look pink or swollen so I didn't worry about it. We were even at the doctor that morning for her routine physical but I didn't think it was worth mentioning. While we were at Scott's house that night, Sarah's eye was very pink and hurt her so bad that she asked to be taken home early. She went straight to bed but was unable to sleep during the night because it was so painful. She woke us up at 2am and asked her dad to give her a priesthood blessing because she was in so much pain. The next morning I took her right in to the doctor and he told us that he thought it might be pink eye but because she had other symptoms such as light sensitivity and dizziness he sent us to the pediatric eye specialist. They luckily were able to squeeze us in (he had 63 patients that day because he had just come home from vacation). He told us that she had a very thick corneal ulcer and that she needed to see a corneal specialist right away. In the meantime Sarah was hurting so bad that she felt like she was going to pass out and started getting clammy and sick to her stomach. The last thing she wanted to hear was the she needed to see another doctor. We got right in to the corneal specialist and he gave her two shots in her eye and sent us home with three different drops to put in her eye every hour around the clock. The next day we went in again and the eye was actually worse instead of better and the doctor was no help because he told Sarah that she could get a hole in her eye from this or maybe lose her eyesight. He told us that she would probably need a corneal transplant after it was all healed because it will leave a scar that would affect her eyesight. He gave her another shot in her eye with a different kind of antibiotic and some different drops to take every hour around the clock again. Poor Sarah came home that day so stressed that she was going to get a hole in her eye that she ended up with a fever that night. We asked family members to fast for her that next Sunday and she got another blessing from her dad and Uncle Matt. Fast forward to yesterday....We went to the doctor and he is absolutely amazed at how fast she has healed from this. He told her that normally right now we would be discussing surgery for a corneal transplant especially with how bad hers was. Sarah went from 20/400 with her glasses on to 20/25 now and he tells us that if she wears hard contacts her eyesight will get even better. I am certain that Heavenly Father played a huge part in her recovery. We are so thankful for all the family members who fasted and prayed with us for her. Here are her pictures. The first one is the second day she had the problem and the second picture is how it looks now with the scar.

While Kris was here we had a mini Willis family reunion. Mary and her family, Karen, Kelsey, and Shaun and his family all came for Crystal's and Amy's weddings. We were able to have a lot of get togethers while everyone was here and had our annual fourth of July party for one of them. Brent and I got to cater Amy's wedding which turned out to look beautiful. A lot of the women got together the night before the wedding and cut up the fruit and veggies for the reception. They all made fun of me because I was so particular about how everything needed to be cut the same length.

Rebecca got her braces a few days before Kris and Jeff went home. She was happy that they got to see them on her before they left. She looks very cute and very expensive.

My birthday was on the day that everyone went home. Kristen and Jeff were nice enough to stay until after we had a little celebration. Mary and her family, Grandma and all of my extended family came to my mom's and had lunch together and Brent made my favorite lemon raspberry cheesecake. Kristen, Jen and Brent surprised me with a trip to Tennessee in October to see Kris and her family. Jen had a ticket she needed to use up by October so she generously gave it to me. I can't wait to see Kristen's new home and spend time with them in their surroundings.

A few days after all my family left, Kelly and her family came into town so we were able to have a mini Krummenacher family reunion while they were here. The cousins spent lots of time together either at our house or at Andy and Joni's. We spent one day swimming at Kim's, another day swimming at Lisa's. One day we all went to Barro's for lunch and decided none of us wanted to deal with the heat and kids at our homes so we went straight from Barro's to McDonald's for ice cream. That night all the girl cousins spent the night at Andy and Joni's while any of the boys that wanted to spent the night at our house. I felt bad because I didn't have anything planned and we have no video games at our house. Think about it, what are a bunch of boys going to do in a home with no video games??? We thought about going to a drive-in movie but that didn't pan out, thought about a dollar movie but no one could decide on one. So we ended up getting some take out and going to the park to eat. We got home and the boys had fun trying to figure out some kind of skit they wanted to do in front everyone when we were to have our family get together on Friday night. While they were doing the skit they had loud music on so didn't hear all the girls outside tee peeing our house. The girls rang the door and drove by honking the horn and screaming. The boys decided they couldn't let the girls have the last laugh so they spent about an hour making signs that said "boys rule" and crumbling them up to spread all over Andy and Joni's yard.
We got to their house and as soon as we got out of the car, the girls came running out. We were caught! So much for getting them back! They had fun though and that's what counts. I think if there was a contest for the coolest aunt that night, Joni definitely won. (I'm thinking long and hard about how I can win that title next year Joni!)

Sarah had her birthday on the 22nd of July. Kelly and her family were still here so a lot of us met at the movies to see Hairspray the morning before her birthday. Great great great movie! Sarah got a cell phone for her birthday. You now never see her without that thing. I think we did good. Two nights before her birthday, her friend Lia threw her a surprise party so she had a very nice birthday. On her birthday we went to Sacrament meeting at church and then went to Payson for a little picnic with our friends the McGraths. It had just rained right before we got there so it smelled great and everything was green and beautiful. It was nice to get out of the heat and have just a nice relaxing time with some of our favorite people.

This weekend we got to go up to Pinedale and stay with our friends, Tom and Tammy Taylor at their family's cabin. It rained all day on Sunday after we got back from church up there. It was exactly the weather you want when you're staying at a cabin. We had a nice and very relaxing time there.The only problem I had with it was that only the kids would play games with me!

Now we are finally settled down, and have a few days before school starts. I am very ready to be back on a normal schedule. I think the kids are ready for it too although they say they aren't. The kids met their teachers yesterday. Jake's class has 17 girls and 7 boys in it. He is going to have a great year!!! Hopefully they all will.

I think that about covers everything for the summer. Hopefully now I can stay better on top of my blog now that I'll have some quiet time at home while the kids are at school.