Bah Humbug

The snow is starting to fall, the temperature has dropped into negative digits, the sky looks like elephant skin and there are Salvation Army bell ringers stationed at every store.

It's that time of year again.


When it's this cold outside, everything freezes.
Personal motivation included.
I can't seem to want to do anything besides hide inside an electric blanket and my own head.

Alas, there is chili to be crock-potted, goodies to be baked, blogs to be written, and so I must get out of bed, peel myself away from the fire place, and continue on this lovely little path of mine.

But since we all spent last month thinking about all the things we were thankful for, and also because this is the season of making a list and checking it twice...

Here's a little random list of things I'm not so thankful for (AKA: Things I hate).
You know, to even the score between November and December.

1.The bells above gas station doors.

2. The special effect that makes babies or animals talk on TV. 

3. Mustard.

4. Raw onions.

5. Birkenstalk sandals.

6. Being breathed on 

7. Being told to calm down or chill out.

8. Mornings without immediate access to coffee

9. The majority of gum commercials

10. The Wiggles

11. Being cold

12. Pumping gas

13. Having to follow someone in their car but they drive too fast like an asshole and I end up loosing them.

14. Every kind of music my husband likes. 

15. Stubbing my pinky toe.

16. My dog's diesel fuel farts

17. Hangovers.

18. The fact that nobody ever wants to play Monopoly.

19. Getting stood up.

20. Having to do other people's jobs for them because they're lazy or just stupid. 

21. When 2 things are on at the same time, like a TV and a radio together (my head will explode)

22. Clapping in the car. 

23. Whistling.



So now you all know my likes and dislikes just a little bit better! (It's important to know things like this about your bloggers.)
Well, on that note, I hope everybody's heaters are running up to par and do try to stay warm out there!

This cold front is a doozy!

Tricks and Treats

So my old iPhone 4 had an unfortunate and sudden death. 

Having been dropped quite a distance, the screen shattered both on the front and back with shards of glass burying their heads into the key pad causing multiple FaceTime calls to everyone in my address book at disastrous hours in the night. 

Inopportune for sure.

 I was sure a few of my friends would disown me. 

After the proper amount of mourning time, I marched down to the AT&T store, explained the untimely demise of my beloved lifeline, and asked if there was anything they could do for me.

Behold, my new iPhone 5C:

 There are a handful of tricks that I have recently discovered which are so cool, I figured it was worth the share.

1. If you turn your phone on to airplane mode, it charges twice as fast

2. When taking a picture, you can capture multiple shots for as long as you hold down the button by snapping 10 photos per second. And real-time analysis suggests the best photos of the bunch.

3. You can just ask Siri to wake you up in 3 hours (or however long) and she'll set an alarm for you instead of having to open and program your alarm clock app.

4. When you're taking a video and something happens where you want to take a picture, there is a small camera button to hit which snaps the shot without stopping the recording of your video. 

5. LTE is great for crazy fast downloads and Internet connection, but it kills your battery. If you turn off the LTE, your phone will go to 3G instead, which works just great around town for regular phone calls and whatever else.  Save your battery and slow it down a bit  Settings -> General -> Cellular -> Enable LTE to Off

6. Asking Siri to launch an app for you saves time and lives when you're driving around. 

7. You can take selfies using the button on your ear-bud / head phone cord. Just set your camera on the table or wherever, face the camera to you, and click the button. This way you won't have half your arm covering half your face. 

So those are the new things I've learned this week. I'm determined to master this phone and I send my sincere apologies to those I disrupted during my old phone's toddler-esque meltdown. 

Speaking of meltdowns...

Last week I left you with the introduction of our family's new Elf, Heart. On her first day, Kalynn found her in the cupboard making snow men out of our leftover camping marshmallows. 

Day 2 didn't go over so well. Heart was found cuddled up in the Cabbage Patch hammock, wearing another baby's pajamas and snuggling with Kalynn's favorite tiny Pound Puppies. 

This horrific display of disregard for other people's things flipped Kalynn's tiny temper switch and got Heart in some serious trouble. Kalynn was so upset that Heart would do such a thing, it sparked a silent feud between the two and they couldn't even look at each other for the rest of the day. 

Yes. Seriously. 

(Who knew this would turn out to be the parenting fail of the season...)

Day 3 Heart offered an apology and was found hanging upside down from the chandelier with an "I'm sorry" note and a box of Kalynn's favorite Pop Tarts. All was forgiven and their friendship was rekindled (but not without a "don't ever do that again!" speech).

Day 4 It snowed here in Colorado and Heart must have wanted to join in the excitement because we found her making snow angels on our kitchen table. 

Day 5 she was found in the corner tuning up Daddy's guitar. 

Day 6 Heart had made herself a tiny little fishing pole and had seemed to have caught herself a Goldfish cracker!

On Day 7, Heart must have quietly crept into Kalynn's closet and taken out the Candy Land game because we found her in the morning playing with her new friends. Although the elf was winning, it looked like R2D2 was close behind and Princess Belle was about to skip passed Lord Licorice and go into the Peppermint Forest.

This morning, we found Heart had toilet papered our Christmas tree and was still napping in the evidence. 

So in conclusion, it's been an exciting couple of weeks here at the Fuller Farm. 

My blog is being considered for the new Blog Her contribution page coming up in a couple of months and one of the requirements is to write more often so you'll be hearing from me on a steadier basis!

Thanks again for all the support and I hope everyone is staying warm out there in Internet Land!

xoxo

To Elf Or Not To Elf

Ok, so I was a little weary about this Elf on the Shelf thing.

I see the creepy factor.

A toy elf sitting in the corner who flies to the North Pole and reports to Santa every night while you sleep.

I thought about it for months before I decided to dive in head first and just go with it.

After months of pinning ideas on Pinterest I realized that the elf's arrival was kind of a big deal. The way I present her for the very first time kind of sets the bar for the type of excitement I'll get out of Kalynn.

So.

I thought about all the fun stuff my mom used to do with me as a kid and one of my favorites was always the scavenger hunt.
Kalynn is just about to turn only 4, so riddle clues are a little too overboard for her taste.

But!

A picture scavenger hunt, now that's totally do-able.

We have an Autumn tree that we put up right about the week before Thanksgiving every year. We decorate it with white lights and fall colored leaf garland, pumpkins, gourds, scarecrows, little turkeys, etc and then the day after Thanksgiving we take down all the Thanksgiving crap, change the lights, and hang up all the Christmas ornaments.

So Thanksgiving morning, Kalynn walked out into the living room to this:

( Sprinkling a light mixture of red glitter and baking soda around your husband's giant size 12 flip flop makes for a fantastic magical snowy Santa footprint. )

These footprints went straight from the chimney to the tree.  

The first thing she saw were of course the footprints. The second thing she saw was that the autumn decorations were gone and the white lights had been changed to multicolored. 

Having Santa in the house way before Christmas was such a shock to her easily confused system, she immediately ran into our room and pulled us out of bed for a full assessment of the situation. Jason and I got up to check out the scene and sure enough, we both came to the conclusion that they were, in fact, evidence of a fat man in a red suit. Upon closer inspection, we found a little rolled up note left behind on the tree skirt. 

Kalynn unrolled the ribbon and found the paper to be a photo of her bedroom vanity table. 

So we all walked over to her vanity table and low and behold, there was another rolled up paper which was a picture of our washing machine. 

And on the washing machine there was a picture of my jewelry box. 

And on my jewelry box there was a picture of under her bathroom sink... 

This squealing, giggling, Santa trail went on for 20 different places around our house until the last photo brought her to our bedroom closet where she found a letter from Santa, a tiny chair and a wrapped up present. 

(Bed head at its finest)

So the majority of us as parents know the concept of the Elf on the Shelf. I've read the story, I've asked my friends, I've pinned the ideas...

HOWEVER!

There is one GIANT part of the elf concept that I just can't get around which is that the Elf must not ever be touched or else she will lose her Christmas magic and she won't be able to fly to the North Pole to report to Santa. 

Every morning this elf is supposed to hide in some new and exciting place doing some new and exciting activity and then she's supposed to just be left alone for the remainder of the day and we all have to just continue life around her. 

But what if our elf is found some place that we need to utilize during that day? This part of the plan is so inconvenient. 

So. 

I thought and I thought and I thought and I finally came up with a very simple solution. 

Santa wrote Kalynn a letter and explained in detail about the elf not being touched. BUT, he also explained that she does get 10 SECONDS of non-magic per day. Only 10 quick seconds every morning and that 10 seconds is for mommies or daddies only to carefully pick her up, run her as fast as we can to the chair that Santa had made for her. It is sort of like a viewing chair. We had special instructions, from Santa himself, to place the chair somewhere that she is able to see the most of our household activities.

So the next day when Kalynn went looking for her morning fruit bar and she found her elf in the pantry making a snowman out of our marshmallows, she shrieked with delight and then came to get me. We both did our "ready, set, go!" and I ran the Elf from the kitchen to her fancy magic chair while Kalynn counted to 10 as loud and calm (not calm) as she could. 

It was all very exciting. 

The chair is one that I picked up at the Good Will for .99 cents a few weeks back and I decorated it with ribbon, glitter, and sticky gems. It is seriously going to be so much more convenient than having to step over this creepy little stalker every time she's found in the middle of the bathroom or bedroom floor. 

So now with Elf season officially upon us, may I just say good luck, parents! 

May all your children be well behaved and may your elves be creative and effortless! 

Yuletide For Yoda

A great friend of mine is the chef for the National Science Foundation and working in Antarctica at Palmer station. Not only is he a culinary commander 12 hours a day in the kitchen, but he also flip flops bi-seasonally between the fire team and the Ocean Search And Rescue team. (You know, because he's a total bad ass.) I'm constantly seeing these pictures online that he posts of breads and tarts and pies and piles and piles of food that are sadly miles and miles away from my watering mouth. He works hard and he works a lot so his time off is obviously greatly welcomed. I feel very thankful that we are able to keep in pretty constant contact given our schedules and time zone differences. We've made the effort for the last couple of decades to stay in each others lives. Our sturdy foundation has always been based off our mutual admiration for each other, hard liquor and Star Wars. It's the time withstanding equation of a true champion friendship.

We get to chit chat a couple times per week and he sends me things he knows I'll appreciate like amazing closeups of my beloved moon as seen from the South Pole, or live website updates of his station, or videos of him and the crew screwballing around or whatever. Well yesterday when I was at work,  I was sent the most amazing thing I may have ever seen floating around the world wide web: Star Wars snowflakes.

Apparently, Francis stumbled on the find of the season for us Star Wars suckers. It is an entire webpage devoted to these, um, what do I call them, Force Flurries?
This graphic designer turned awesome blogger, Anthony Herrera, has pages and pages of templates you can download for free. Some of them are very simple and some of them will take an extra sharp X-Acto along with many minutes of spare time. But whatever you're up for, the website is worth the looksie.

I went with Darth. 

So thanks, Fran. You totally made my day. I'll return the favor by showing you off and bragging that I knew you way back when...

College.

Lets play catch up a bit here.

Kalynn is officially 3 years old.

Everyone tells me the terrible twos have nothing on the thunderous threes. So far, this is proven to be extremely spot on. She's very opinionated, very stubborn, very determined and very sassy. She makes her own path, right or wrong, and she doesn't take no for an answer. I'm not 100% sure if this is an age thing, or a hereditary thing. I guess we'll find out in due time. Either way, trying to tame the wild, or at the very least trying to keep up with her, is exhausting. Fun, but exhausting.

It seems like the crazier life becomes with a growing toddler, the faster it goes.

I'm having a hard time believing that 2012 is already over, let alone the entire month of January and half of February in 2013. Sometimes it's nice to slow down a bit and remember what is truly important. Mainly, the people I love.

When we visited California a couple weeks ago, it was really important to me to get some pictures of Kalynn with my grandmother (her great-grandmother). She's been an awesome staple in my life from before I can even remember and I really wanted to figure out a cool way to capture of all 4 generations of women in our family:

I absolutely love love love the idea of this picture. Being more physically distant from that side of my family then I have been in years is really hard sometimes, so having this little piece of them to on hang on Kalynn's wall is really special for us.

And with time flying by quicker than I expected, I also came to the realization that we need to be financially prepared for things that will come faster than we thought they would. Like Kalynn going to college.

Because she is going to college.

Every holiday I get asked by friends and family "is there anything that Kalynn needs?" "What kinds of things does she like?" "What types of toys does she play with?" And the truth is, She's three. And a spoiled three at that. She has more toys than she knows what to do with. More importantly, she has more energy than any person I've ever met so sitting down and playing with anything for an extended period of time is just out of the question most of the time. Sure, she loves to open gifts and have new toys and we're not unappreciative of the things that she has gotten and loved over the years. A few of those toys have even become part of our permanent daily routine, but truthfully, at least at this point, we're blessed to not lack any traditional type of toy or clothing that she needs.

Gradsave.com is a way for our friends and family to give the gift of education instead of traditional presents for any of Kalynn's special occasions, holidays and birthdays. College is expensive. I'm currently in the process of paying back a portion of my student loans and it's almost impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What we're trying to do, is to not let Kalynn have a giant mound of debt after she finishes her degree. After seeing the final bill of my own college experience, and imagining the inflating cost of a college education 15 years down the road, it's frightening to think where we'd be if we didn't start planning right away.

Gradsave is super easy to use and it's 100% FDIC insured. We've set up an account for Kalynn so all anyone needs to do if they wish to donate is go to her profile page. All donations big and small are welcome. As soon as she hits her $1000 goal, that money is then transferred into her 529 college savings fund and her Gradsave goal starts again at zero. This website makes it so easy for friends and family to participate in an extremely practical gift that she'll never outgrow no matter how old she gets. It's pure genius.

If you'd like to make a donation or if you'd just like to check out Kalynn's profile page, CLICK HERE.

Other than time passing far too quickly, things are returning to normal since the excitement of holidays and birthdays has come to an end. We're gearing up for Valentine's Day by planning a little photo shoot that will be posted later next week. Hope all is well with all of you!

xo

Don't Fear The Reaper

Eschatology \es-kə-ˈtä-lə-jē\  noun:
A part of theology, physics, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events of history, the ultimate destiny of humanity — commonly referred to as the "end of the world."

Alright.

So according to the Mesoamerican long count calendar and New Age beliefs about galactic alignment, 2012 is up for the Year-Most-Likely-To-Explode Award. A lot of these beliefs can't pin point an exact day, they just allude to our current general solar year. However, the Mayan Calendar highlights tomorrow, December 21st, 2012 as the end-all be-all apocalyptic grand finale.


If it ends or if it doesn't end,
I'm musically prepared.

I've made my Grooveshark playlist:

R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
U2 - Until The End Of The World
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper
Europe - The Final Countdown
Elvis Costello - Waiting For The End Of The World
Tam Impala - Apocalypse Dreams
Richard Barone - Don't Open 'Til Doomsday
The Cure - End Of The World
Muse - Apocalypse Please
Smashing Pumpkins - Doomsday Clock
Alkaline Trio - Armageddon
The Strokes - The End Has No End
Nelly Furtado - End Of The World
Julie London - Fly Me To The Moon
Country Joe And The Fish - I Feel Like I'm Fixin To Die
Nancy Sinatra - End Of The World
Southern Culture On The Skids - Make Mayan A Hawaiian

Just in case the world does suddenly come to a screeching halt tomorrow, at least I can say I ended it doing my favorite holiday activities:

Crafting

Drinking Christmas Juice

Baking cookies with my baby girl:

 And then watching her play in the snow:

And Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without our annual gingerbread house construction:

So in case the world does decide to shit the bed tomorrow, at least I'll die happy with my family and a glass of alcoholic goodness in my hand.

Cheers!

Countdowns And Meteor Showers

Once a year, Earth passes through the left overs of asteroid 3200 Phaethon and we get a little late night light show in the sky. Instead of the normal meteor showers that are caused by comets (ice chunks), this one is a little strange because it's caused by an asteroid (heated chunks). This annual end-of-the-year shooting star party (called the Geminids) is supposed to be pretty kick ass this time around. The Moon just so happens to be at the beginning of his orbital cycle, so his normal handsome glow is dimmed for the show making it way easier for us to view. We're also possibly going to pass through the comet Wirtanen and if that happens, it's going to produce a second simultaneous meteor shower.

Let's do the math here:

Meteor Shower #1 + Meteor Shower #2 - glow from Mr. Moon = Over 100 visible shooting stars an hour

I know I'm a nerd about the sky, but come on! How cool is that?!

Get a million blankets, go somewhere far away from city lights with a thermos of hot chocolate or coffee or whiskey or whatever keeps you warm, wait half an hour for your eyes to fully adjust to the dark, and go check out some spacey entertainment! Peak time is supposed to be between midnight and 5am, so 3ish will most likely be your best bet.

Anyway.

Not much else going on here at our house to report. We're counting down the days for our 2 big events with a couple of new advent calendars.

One is for Santa.

Duh.

"Santa's beard is very bare. On his chin there is no hair!

So each day add a puff of white, and when it's full he'll come that night!"

The second is for Disneyland!

Kalynn's 3rd birthday is coming up quick and the countdown to California has officially begun. We take a ring from the Mickey chain every morning!

I hope all is well with everyone and that nobody is stressing out too hard for the holiday season!

Happy star gazing!

Other posts you may be interested in:

Beaver Moon

Hunter's Moon

Harvest Moon

A La Luna Ida Y Vuelta

Hansel and Gretel Life Lessons

I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of following the bread crumbs that are laid out for you throughout life. Call them intuition, call them God, call them your conscience, call them your inner voice, call them a hunch, call them the Stay Puffed Marshmallow man for all I care. I choose to call them bread crumbs. Whatever you call them or don't call them, they are there. Day in and day out. Sometimes it's hard for me to recognize what is a bread crumb and what is not. Or maybe I've known all along but I just sometimes choose to ignore them.
This is one of the things about myself I've decided to kick to the curb. Blatantly ignoring the bread crumbs and going the easier route.

I've decided to do a little self spring cleaning.

 (Mid-Autumn cleaning? Is that a thing?)

I need inner-change.

Bread crumb navigation can be a tricky thing. When I'm mentally and physically deflated and my crumbs lead me to a magical gingerbread house made of confections and candy, the buck usually stops there.

I'm in love with taking the easy way out.

"The Easy Way and Krista
sitting in a tree,
k~i~s~s~i~n~g..."

Usually this turns out to be a temporary fix and in the long run it takes me even more time to get where I needed to be in the first place. My problem (so I've come to learn throughout the years) is that I don't look around back of the gingerbread house to see if the path keeps going. Because stopping to snack just makes me even more mentally and physically exhausted than I was in the first place. Had I just looked around back and kept on walking, I would have found an even better house made from a healthier whole wheat pasta or something.

It may not taste as sweet at that exact moment in time, but in the long run, I'll feel a hell of a lot better about myself for doing what my heart says.

Thinking logically can sometimes lead you astray.

Maybe this makes sense to you, maybe I'm sounding like a total lunatic. To me, I've had this epiphany. To me, it's as clear as crystal. To me, I've permanently turned my nose up to gingerbread houses.

Maybe it will be temporarily harder. Maybe I will need to dig a little deeper for self constraint. Maybe I will be tempted along the way to do what is easier and not what I know is best for my own happiness. But in the end what makes it worth it is the self peace that I have knowing in my heart that my bread crumbs won't screw me over. They'll lead me to where I'm supposed to be.

Sometimes being selfish is the best thing for everybody.

In the meantime, the act of constructing a gingerbread house never hurt anyone, now did it?

Strawberry Cheesecake Santas

My husband and I had friends over for a bit of pre-holiday celebration which made me want to whip up some sort of holiday treat. I found a version of these Santa strawberries that I thought were just ok looking on a website but they were definitely missing something. The Santa's I found were made just from whip cream, which is boring. So it was my duty, really, to bring to life more excitement in these little holiday fat guys. Here are mine:

After I cut the strawberries I switched the whip cream filling with no-bake cheese cake filling. I sat them on a bed of graham cracker, and I decided the whip cream could stay but only for dipping and only if it was homemade. The cheese cake was easy enough right out of the no-bake box which conveniently had the graham cracker crust already included. I used chopped chocolate chips for the eyes. The whip cream is 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 table spoon powered sugar, 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, 1 cup whipping or heavy cream whipped together at high speed until fluffy enough to look like whip cream. Perfect holiday bite sized strawberry cheesecake Santa snacks.

Kalynn's first Christmas card

Kalynn's 1st Christmas card 2010