Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Make a Ponytail with a Vacuum Cleaner

Someone on Facebook posted a YouTube video of a dad who did his daughter's ponytail with a vacuum cleaner. We laughed until we cried ...and then decided to try it out.

Here is the result! My mother is going to love this one!

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Storage Stairs? I Want Them!

Check out this site to see all about these cool stairs and more cool options. These are pretty, huh? But the three on the right are not practical in my household, what with the kids who can't put things back or pick up after themselves. I would hate to come flying down the stairs and bust my hip tripping on a drawer someone left open. Also I would need a handrail or some sort of support or my people would be jumping off the higher steps. See how I have to think these days? Practical over pretty. Safe over glamourous.


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

9109 High Grove Road, I Love You & Merry Christmas!

Yes, I am aware that I keep posting photos of houses I fall in love with. I have a category of posts called Country Living. I should make one called House Hunting. The thing is, the other two I have posted pictures of on here I did not post the address and they were both $400,000, WAY out of our price range.

Today I'm posting the address and I'm not sure why. I just love it and have not seen it in person. My mom and Dave drove by it today on their way home from our place and thought it was super awesome and that there were deer tracks all over the snow. I should not post online how much I think I love this house. That would mess with negotiations, but Mr. Kerrie says he is not ready to move yet. Still, I have talked him into LOOKING at it from the outside maybe Friday. I hinted that maybe the agent could MEET us there ... why not? What could it hurt to see the INSIDE? I did see the layout of the place after some heavy duty internet stalking of the place.

Here's the link for family and friends and anyone else who just loves houses! Don't freak out on photo #5 because that is my favorite part: PINKSPLOSION (kinda like the pinksplosion we created at our own place recently)! The house was built in 1940 but someone in the 1960s took some acid and decorated this room. Oh, and the SUN PORCH is kind of a hit in my world. So Merry Christmas and enjoy my house love affair #3 (only more affordable).
Don't judge my ugly room. I love it. It has more character than anything in Overland Park any day of the week!
Okay, so it didn't speak to us. Here is a post on Bubblews that talks about that and leads to more about why it was not perfect for us. And in the comments section someone named Tim says he and his wife bought it, which is AWESOME! I hope they are very happy there and have 8 babies just like the previous owners had.

Merry Christmas 2013!

Hope you are having an awesome day!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Being Santa Is Like Being a Spy

Why do the Santa thing when it is so exhausting? When the kids notice the handwriting on the tags, the wrapping paper, that there is a dog hair from OUR DOG in the tape on a package? I'll tell you why. Because I feel like a super spy doing it, making this magic my parents made for me. I shut myself in my room to wrap in secret. I shop in secret. Mr. Kerrie comes up to the bedroom to grab a box of wrapped gifts to cover up and take to the basement. SNEAK to the basement and hide. I guess it's exciting for the adults, too, and we love to see their faces when they are surprised! Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

How to Pose for Photos ... by Mr. and Mrs. Kerrie

These photos were taken in August and I'm finally getting them off DropBox and onto our external hard drive (better not lose that!) because Mr. Kerrie is freaked about our stuff being on DropBox. Duly noted. Anyway, I had him take a picture of me in our newly wood-floored living room and I stood like a normal person, as shown below:


Then I did this POP thing that I learned from our sitter, Jordan. You put one hand on your hip and then POP out the opposite knee. TRY IT! (yeah, I know I look dorky trying this out but I don't really care)


Somehow when I tried the photo shoot with Mr. Kerrie he was not amenable. Poor dude tolerates me; you know that, don't you?


Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Would You Live by a Cemetery? Check out my Potential Kerrie Dreamhouse! #househunting

So back here in August I talked about and posted a photo of the house my family had fallen in love with. The problem was that it cost $400,000, a wee bit over our budget. It's still AMAZING, of course, but no house is perfect. For instance, we love our current house but with all the Little Kerries running around we're growing out of it, plus we're on that busy street corner where nobody stops for little kids. The house we fell in love with in August was a little far from Mr. Kerrie's work, in another state, and the pond right out front always freaked me out. I am always going to be freaked out about something, mind you, but drowning is a special freak-out that is dear to my heart.

Yesterday Mr. Kerrie was off work. We FINALLY set out around 3 to go to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our our tree for the first time. I had looked on the internet and found a place and wrote down directions. Welllllll ... the info was out of date and I did something I never do: I didn't do my research. I did not call the place first to make sure we could just go on their property and cut down a tree like the Christmas tree website said I could.

Thankfully the people who lived there were home and, after a wild goose chase to find it, Mr. Kerrie asked and NOPE, they are not doing trees anymore. I felt so HORRIBLE! It was the 16th of December and we still needed a tree and drove half an hour to get there. As we left we saw a NO OUTLET sign, which always turns me on. I mean, the thought of a dead end street and my kids being safe is pretty cool. Alas, there was also a FOR SALE sign pointing down the road. Hmmmm, let's go check it out. After some exploring we came up this stately thing, which instead of calling it South Fork I would call it something goofy like Spoon Fork:


ACROSS FROM A CEMETERY yet at the end of a road! Can't have everything on your home checklist, I suppose. Did I mention I watched too many scary movies as a kid so moving to the country AND being by a cemetery is EXTRA FREAKY?! You can't shoot a ghost, people!

Okay, lemme calm down here before I tell the rest of the story.

Whew. Of course we pull up in the driveway, mesmerized. I mean, look at that beast! Room for kids to run around and LAND, glorious LAND! And trees! So I whip out my handy dandy cell phone and call the realtor.

Well, it's 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms on 40 acres of land. Aaaaaaaaaaaand it's another $400,000 beauty we have found ourselves with. Now, if you are living on one of the coasts of American and reading this, you are wanting to smack me because that is cheap in your world. In my world, I live in a house that we paid about 1/4 of that for. That's a lot of moola. Like I said back in August, I'd better keep writing and hope for that bestseller to take off soon. (buy my ebooks; shameless plug)

Of course we came home and I internet stalked the house. I found out one of the owners died in 2009, was a Gemini like me and her name is the same as Aron's grandma, the name we would name our next kid if it ended up being a girl. Interesting turn of events indeed.

I'll keep ya posted. And if you can't get enough of this topic, I write more about it here.





Saturday, December 14, 2013

My Son Is Baking 120 Dozen Cinnamon Rolls Today ... and I'm Chillin'

No, not by himself, silly! With his Boy Scout troop! Thanks to the ever-rockin', fire-fightin' Bill Schneider for taking this photo (I like to give a shout-out and don't do it enough).


Mr. Kerrie is off work for THREE WEEKS so you might be seeing me on here quite a bit posting fun holiday happenings. Know why? 'Cuz I found the external hard drive so I can transfer all the pictures to it that are backing up like a dude who ate too many beans and too much cheese. I've knocked out some big proofing jobs and it's time to concentrate on preparing the house for Christmas.

Wow, reading that back it is a big fat wonder I make any money at all to write because I just jump from topic to topic. Sorry about that. Lemme slow down.

My point is that my camera should be empty so I can QUICKLY post new pictures in the coming weeks. I know the grandparents love that!

Mr. Kerrie has been working insane hours (like 16+ hours per day) and it's been Crazy Town here. I'm looking forward to my man being off work so I can have some fun with my kids instead of policing them, to working on my Laid-Back Homeschooling book and getting it out in time for all the people to receive their Kindles at Christmastime. And then there's shopping for stocking stuffers and other last-minute fun. Maybe the growing pile of clean laundry will get put away magically, as well!

And finding the Excel file with all the addresses for Christmas cards since our PC shot craps. It's cool, you know I'll also post the humblebrag Christmas letter on the blog!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah (wait, that's over), Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!

Love, Kerrie

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

#Free Ebook: The Cut-Out (Spy Thriller Based on a True Story)

This book is free through tomorrow, Thursday, December 12, 2013, so you have nothing to lose by downloading it. Just go to this link and grab it. You DO NOT NEED TO OWN A KINDLE to get this ebook. I don't own a Kindle (even though I write for the Kindle format!) and just download to a handy little thing on Amazon where they hold onto all my free ebooks for me to read when I want.


Description:
LOGLINE: When the American called me up and said he wanted to talk, I never imagined he would tell me what he did: that someone of global renown, “within days from now”, would be assassinated. Why tell me? A low-key conspiracy journalist? I didn’t know. And quite frankly, I didn’t believe him, either—until the assassination happened… 

SYNOPSIS: Britain in the nineties was obsessed with the X-Files. The high street was awash with X-Files type magazines, and as senior editor of the biggest selling one on the market, I was accustomed to receiving phone calls from anonymous sources promising inside information. So when the American called me up and said he wanted to talk, I took it in my stride. Why wouldn’t I? He was a former Special Forces Green Beret, he said. A CIA runner. He also said that the information he had was best not divulged over the telephone. So we arranged to meet. Nothing unusual in that. 

What was unusual, though, was what the American told me, not at our first meeting, but at a subsequent one some months later. On this occasion he said he'd been made aware of an imminent prime-target assassination, that “one of the most prominent figures on the world stage” was about to be taken out, “within days from now”, though he claimed he was unable to reveal who the target was. 

“Watch the news networks. You’ll know who it is soon enough.” He added: “The media will tell you it was an accident. You’ll know it wasn’t.” 

I came away not knowing if I’d been fed a line or let in on the world’s most terrible secret. And I had no way of finding out, either, other than to wait, and watch the news. 

I didn’t have to wait long. Because a week later the “accident” the American had alluded to was all over the news: the assassination he’d forewarned me about had happened. 

Of course, at this stage I had no idea I was being set up. Only that I’d been told something I wished I’d never been told. And that, because I had, I now faced the most terrifying challenge of my life—to get to the truth before the intelligence agencies got to me... 

The catch: please leave a review for this book if you enjoy it. (let me spoil it for you and tell you this is about Princess Diana's death!)

Thanks for checking out this edition of FREE EBOOKS FOUND BY KERRIE!

Eva at Her Birthday Party: Wordless Wednesday


Friday, December 6, 2013

MY WIFE

MY WIFE

This is a guest post from Kerrie's blessed husband.··You can call me Mr. Kerrie.··I saw a picture of her this morning and thought 'my wife is pretty'.  This is the picture



Of course I  think my is wife pretty in all of her pictures.  And pictures don't do her the justice compared to seeing her.  But don't let her looks fool you she's smart too,... and funny,... and a great cook, and the BEST mother to our children that I could have prayed for, and a perfect wife. ...  I could go on for a while, but probably the best thing that I could say is the she's as good of a mom as mine.  Did I mention smoking hot pretty.  I love you Kurvy©.  Kurvy is my copyrighted name that only her husband may use.

Happy 6th Birthday to my Eva!

I'm cheating a little bit today because I'm going to be super busy. Aron is having to work a lot of long hours this week and today is his day off, but he's gotta work most of it. He'll take off to come ice skating with us, though, and after all these years of birthdays and kids I think I can handle the rest of it and the party prep and the making today special for Eva.

So happy birthday, Eva! Here's the cheat: a post I wrote on another site today. Check it out! It even leads back HERE to a post of her FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Here are some pics of this ornery little light of our lives:

At the park in Grandview on a sunny day.

At the apple orchard. This girl has fun wherever she goes.

Resting in the van after a long day of being sunshiney and naughty



Thursday, December 5, 2013

Holiday Gift Guide 2013: Babo Botanicals Holiday Promotion!


This newest Holiday Gift Guide 2013 addition includes a product that is great for any age person, but it most perfect for that new or current parent on your shopping list. And if you know someone who is due to have a baby next year, stock up now on Babo Botanicals for your shower and new-baby gifts!

Babo Botanicals offers a full range of natural and safe skin, hair and suncare products for newborns, babies, kids and the entire family! Babo products are made on a certified organic farm in upstate New York and are ultra-rich in vitamins A, C and D delivering maximum nutrients, protection and moisture to your child’s hair and skin. Babo’s mission is to provide the perfect balance between optimum results, natural ingredients and family fun.

Babo Botanicals is having a special holiday promotion of 50% off all products available at their site here! Just remember to use promotion code HOLIDAYBABO.

HURRY and save this link! This offer is only available from December 11th through December 18th and the coupon does not apply to the VIP Gift Basket.