Hi there...

This is our family snuggled in watching the KC Chiefs game on Sunday!  We're going to the Super Bowl!

It's been fun to watch Katie and Asher's relationship bloom as they've grown up together!  Katie has moved out on her own now, but she still visits often!  We're so thankful for the beautiful adult she has become!

Hi there! It's literally been years since I've posted, but I wanted to jump on super quickly on a break at work and give a quick update in case anyone is still subscribed!  Our three kiddos are growing so much!  Katie is almost 23, Asher is almost 15, and our Baby Claire is nearly 12! I won't tell you how old Kris and I are...because we're getting plain OLD! Ha!  We are getting ready to celebrate our silver anniversary-25 years-in April!  I can't believe how fast time seems to go by!  It seems like yesterday that we were two nervous 20-somethings trying to figure out how to date each other while working together!

We also have two fur babies, Benny, who is a 3 year old yellow lab, and Scout, who is our shelter baby! We're not sure how old he is but he's the best boy!

Six years ago I decided to go back to college to pursue teaching.  I had gone back to work as a paraprofessional because Claire started kindergarten and started feeling the call toward teaching. I started teaching special education in our neighborhood school five years ago!  Again-time sure flies!  It's been an adventure, and I am so blessed that I get to teach!  My students are such a blessing to me!  

I also started a little business a few years ago, Annie Fannie Designs!  I began making silicone beaded teacher lanyards to sell to make a little extra money for classroom supplies and it really grew into a fun side business! I'm excited to be well on my way to 500 sales on Etsy and I sell at occasional vendor events too!  I also recently accepted an invitation to have a little booth at a popular nearby flea market!  It's been so exciting!  I really enjoy making happy things for others! I love to bless others with things that brighten their days!

Well, I need to get back to all of the busy-ness of life!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

2019

Um, I forgot to post this year...but we're still here, still blessed!

Summer Update!

Hey!  Long time, no blog! Whew!  What a whirlwind I've been in for the past 12 months! Last summer, I decided to go back to school to seek what I thought was a second bachelor's degree in Elementary Education.  I started with Wichita State University in their Teacher Apprentice Program in June.  This program allows a person with a previous degree or previous college credits to obtain their BA in education while working as a para educator.  This past school year, I had the amazing privilege to work with the Title 1 reading teacher at Jefferson School.  I worked with amazing third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers and students, while going to school full time online.  At the end of this school year, I was eligible to apply for teaching positions for next year.  I applied at Jefferson, but was not offered a position.  I was really discouraged, but knew I would have the opportunity the following year.  I decided to be content with the plan that was laid out before me, and prayed for God's will.  A week later, I was approached by an administrator from our local special education center, and a week after this meeting I accepted a position as a 2nd grade resource room special education teacher!  I'm so very excited!  I knew I had been drawn to my special education students in the 3rd and 4th grade rooms I had worked in, but I had no idea that this was God's plan all along!  The best part is that the degree I am working toward is called an Early Childhood Unified Degree, which allows me to work with pre-K through third grade special education or general education.  It's quite amazing, and has opened this wonderful door for me!  I will be working in the same school/grade level as our little Claire! She's so excited to be able to eat lunch with Mama sometimes!  This past year, I was in the same hall as Asher, so I got to see him several times a day for a smile or a quick hug!  As I type this all out, I can hardly believe the amazing blessings that God has given me!  I don't know why he loves me so much!  I can't wait to teach and love on my 2nd graders next year!  We have a loooooong way to go to pay off debt from my years of being a stay-at-home-mom, and of course there is more debt with student loans but it is so worth it!  Being able to make a difference in my own children's lives for those 5 years was amazing, and I plan to spend the rest of my days making a difference in my students' lives!  I'm ready!

In other news, our sweet girl, Katie graduated from high school a week ago!  These 18 years have flown by!  Just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital! She looked so beautiful in her cap and gown, and started "adulting" within 24 hours of walking across the stage!  She has been working for Walmart since November, but is applying for a position as a pharmacy technician to advance her career while she goes to school full time.  She also made an appointment (all by herself) to get her car repaired with her graduation money that she received!  She has grown into a strong, independent, Jesus-loving girl and we are so very proud!

Tap, tap, tap...hello? Anyone here?

Hello!  Can you hear me tapping on your screen?  Can you see me waving from afar, like a long lost friend?  I've missed you!  I've missed this blog, so very much!  I have a million excuses for not visiting or sharing more often here.  It's been a whole year!  In some ways it feels much longer than a year ago!  So many things have been happening around here!  We still live in Southeast Kansas, we still have three kiddos (four if you count Walter, and 12 if you count the hermit crab, fish, and tadpoles!) Kris is still working for Walmart.  We are still incredibly blessed and so very thankful for our sweet family and life!

Everyone keeps growing---too quickly!  Katie is going to be a senior this year! It's just the craziest thing!  One minute she's being born, and the next she's driving everywhere, working at the ball fields, and graduating from high school!  She has been such a great teenager.  I'm not sure we could of asked or prayed for a better girl.  She has hung on to her morals, gives Jesus praise and glory, and thinks of others before herself.  She has spent a lot of time with her sweet friends, Adam, Taylor, Brooke, Cassidy and Cortlan this summer. She is still a carefree, silly, energetic girl, with plenty of humor and antics to keep everyone laughing (or in the case of her siblings, sometimes crying!)  She loves music, loves playing her ukelele, and her bff, Walty.

Asher is going to be a 4th grader this next school year and is still our amazingly wonderful boy buffer in the middle of his wildly sweet sisters!  He has become obsessed with Minecraft, and still loves Legos!  He loves the KC Royals, the KC Chiefs, collecting sports cards, hunting and fishing!  He is reading chapter books and graphic novels, and keeps getting better at reading as the days go by.

Our sweet baby Claire is going to be in the first grade!  She loved kindergarten and cannot wait to go back to school in August!  She is the sweetest thing, she is still the most affectionate, most loving and snuggly girl!  She's also very smart and can be super curious and ornery because of this!  She loves My Little Pony, Barbies, playing on her kindle, and reading books!  She also loves LalaLoopsy, and I don't think she'll ever get tired of Disney princesses!  She and Asher are very close, and don't fight {too} often.

I have recently started something brand new!  I am going back to school for a second bachelor's degree in elementary education.  This past school year I worked as a special ed early childhood paraeducator and I really enjoyed it!  After working as a para, I knew that I had the ability to teach, I just wasn't sure about going back to school.  I found out about a program through Wichita State University that helps paras become teachers!  I've been taking two classes this summer, and will take classes for one more year before I can receive a provisional license to teach!  Then I'll continue through one more year of school while I teach!  I'm really excited about it, but have felt overwhelmed at times with the amount of work it's going to take!  I know it will all be worth it!  I'm hoping to teach 3rd or 4th grade. When I was a substitute teacher, those were my favorite grades!

I sometimes think life is going by faster than I can soak it all in! Every day goes by in a whisper, and the weeks and months go by even faster than that!  I want to savor every moment, but I find myself taking things for granted at the same time! I feel so blessed to have this life that I live.  I have an amazing husband, who loves me without question, we have a safe happy little home, and those beautiful kids...they are more incredible than anything I could have ever imagined for my future. We have an amazing church family, great friends, and a Heavenly Father who loves us beyond all comprehension.  I need to remember how incredibly blessed I am every day!

I always say this, but I really want to visit here more often.  I love this ol' blog!  I started it in June, 2005, I believe, so it's about 12 years old!  It's absolutely amazing to look back through the pages of our story and see how God has worked and moved and moulded us.  I am blessed beyond measure.

It's summertime already!

I once heard that when you have children the days are sometimes very, very long, but the weeks and months just fly by.  This is so true for us.  Some days seem very long, but before I know it, it's Monday again, or June again! I say this every time that I write a blog post, but I really want to try and write more often!

We have had a great summer so far! The kids got out of school on May 20th, and we have had lots of friend time and relaxation time since then!  We also took an impromptu vacation to Colorado a few weeks ago!  It was truly planned in about 30 minutes, but we had a great time!  We started out early in the morning on a journey across our beautiful state of Kansas, and arrived in Colorado that afternoon! We visited The Garden of the Gods, took the Cog Railway up Pike's Peak where we encountered a lightning/thunder/snow storm, and rode the gondolas across The Royal Gorge in high winds! It was an exciting adventure for our whole family!  I took over 700 pictures during our short 5 day vacation! Lots of amazing memories were made! Some of us (ahem---me!) didn't handle the heights very well, but we had a really wonderful time!  I'm so thankful we were able to go!

 A beautiful giant Van Gogh in Goodland, KS!

Western Kansas Wind Farm

Colorado border!

Garden of the Gods

Colorado Rocky Mountains

Colorado Rocky Mountains from Mueller State Park

The Balanced Rock at Garden of the Gods

The rest of our summer will be spent celebrating our beautiful country on the 4th of July, going to swimming lessons, church camps, and hopefully harvesting some yumminess from our little garden! We planted tomatoes, peppers, and have volunteer pumpkins and squash from our fall decorations that I tossed out there last winter!  I'm excited to see what comes up! We are also watching sweet Stephen and his new baby sister, Sydnee this summer, so our days will be full!  I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with the kids again this summer. I've been filling out applications and updating my resume to hopefully work within the school system next year, since all of the kiddos will be in school!  I am not ready for an empty nest all day!  These summer weeks will surely fly by, so we're going to try and enjoy them to the fullest! We are blessed!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!  Once upon a time, I used to write here pretty regularly! It seems these days I'm lucky to get one post written per season! Since it's still technically winter (for 3 more days!) I'll count this as my winter post! I can't believe spring is just around the corner! Here in our neck of the woods we already have pretty little blooms on our trees, and green grass peeping up from the ground already!

If you're visiting from Kelly's Korner, please allow me introduce myself! My name is Karrie Alexander, and my family and I live in Southeast Kansas.  My husband and I have been married for almost 18 years! We have three kiddos, who are truly our best and most amazing blessings.  We still look at them sometimes, then look at each other and shake our heads because of how good God is to give them to us! Our oldest daughter, Katie, is about to celebrate her sweet 16! We struggled with infertility and miscarrage for 8 years between Katie and our son, Asher, who is almost 8! Through many tears, and prayers, he finally arrived and not long after, we discovered that our little Claire was on the way too! She just turned 5 years old and keeps us on our toes! Kris and I are in our 40's so having these little ones so late in life is keeping us young (I think!)

My blog is mostly a personal blog, where I try to share stories of our life. I consider it to be a memory book of sorts, and I do it just for fun! I've been blogging for 10 years and my total earnings are $10.93! I don't feel like I specialize in any particular blogging area like cooking, home decor, parenting, or saving money, although I really enjoy attempting all of those things!  I just enjoy sharing our silly ups and downs of everyday life (at least once per quarter)!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you'll add me to your blog list and come back soon (at least once a season!)

Just a little update!

I haven't blogged in such a long time, but this time of year makes me just want to savor and record every moment of these beautiful, cozy days!  We have had a fun fall season!  We enjoyed Neewollah, and Trick-or-Treating on Halloween!  Asher dressed up as Captain Rex from Star Wars Rebels and Claire was Hello Kitty!  Katie did an amazing job with her marching band in the parade, and they received a 1 at the marching band competition that afternoon!  She absolutely loves being part of the drum line! We've been rakin' up huge piles of leaves!  I'm not sure how it happens, but every leaf in the neighborhood ends up in our yard!  I've been trying to hold off on decorating for Christmas, and just spend some time enjoying the last of the fall pretties, but it's taking a lot of self control! I love Christmas decorating, it's just my favorite!  Speaking of self control, I have not had much in the food/eating department, but yesterday I started over, and I'm so thankful for God's mercies being new every morning!  He is so good to give me such an amazing life...my kids and my husband are the best blessings God could have ever given me!

 

 

 

Summer Lovin'...

The spring flew by, and now the summer is 2/3 over already!  Time just goes by so quickly.  Weeks and months go by faster every year as these kiddos keep growing!  I try to remind myself to enjoy each moment, but that's hard sometimes!  Asher ended school/started summer by having an appendectomy.  He spent a couple days in the hospital, and a few days recovering at home, but was back to his active self so quickly!  Even though we have been on a really tight budget this summer, the kids have had fun, with a couple of trips to the pool and splash pad.  We also went to see "Inside Out" at the theatre.  It was Claire's first movie in a theatre!  She loved it! At home we've been keeping busy with lots of popcorn and movie afternoons, a few crafts, lots of coloring, and digging in the back yard for bugs, frogs, and worms!

 

 

Our family has grown this summer, with the addition of Walt!  We had been thinking of getting a dog for the kids for a long time, but had been putting it off.  Now I know why God wanted us to wait!  Walt has been such a blessing!  He is a great dog!  We all enjoy him!  We found him at a shelter, and had to wait for him to be neutered before we got to bring him home.  Since the day he came home, he has not been more than a foot away from one of us at all times!  He loves us, maybe as much as we love him!

I am still trying to balance having the kids home and sticking to my Trim Healthy Mama eating plan and just caring for myself in general.  It's harder with them home, and I haven't lost any more weight, but I'm maintaining the weight I have lost, and I'm hoping to go full force back to it soon.  I'm still drinking lots of Good Girl Moonshine, and still trying to choose good meals, it's just more difficult to stick with it being on-the-go so often. I made a little collage of my favorite THM drinks, because at least it makes it more fun if your drinks are cute!

Kris's dad had heart surgery a few weeks ago, so Kris has been up and down the highway to visit and help his parents as much as he can on his days off.  We have missed him so much!  Things aren't the same around here when he is gone.  We are so glad that he is able to be a blessing and a help to them though. Papa will hopefully be back to his ornery self very soon!

 

Even though there are sometimes difficult moments, difficult days, even what seem like whole entire difficult weeks, we are still so incredibly blessed!  God has been so faithful and generous to us!  He gives us so much more mercy and grace that we could ever begin to deserve, and he willingly gives that mercy new and fresh every morning.  I am so thankful for that!  As a mama, it feels like I need a "do-over" just about every day, but it helps to know that God is with me...he never leaves me.  I am so thankful for this family, and for God's unfailing love!

A Star Wars Birthday!

For about a year now, Asher has been obsessed with Star Wars!  He absolutely loves it!  He loves the movies, he loves the TV series, he loves all of the characters, he is just crazy about it!  So naturally he asked for a Star Wars themed birthday. We have been on a pretty tight budget, so I had to be creative in finding affordable decorations and party ideas.  I just wanted to share some of those here so he can remember his special day, and so that anyone else on a tight budget might have some hope that a themed party is doable!  Many of these ideas I found on Pinterest.  There are tons of amazing and frugal ideas!  The best part about kid's parties is that they love EVERYTHING whether it's perfect or expensive or not! So give yourself a break, Mama, they will love it, just because YOU did it for them!

I made his cake, and since it was supposed to be a fiery lava lake, it was very forgiving and didn't have to be perfect!  I grabbed a couple of his star wars guys, washed them up and put them on top of the cake!  You can find these playschool action figures at Dollar General for $3.00 each!

For light sabers, I used pool noodles cut in half, then we used duct tape and black electrical tape to make the handles.

One of my favorite parts of a birthday are balloons, so I grabbed 5 foil silver stars at the Dollar Tree! I grabbed Asher's Darth Vader out of his room and poked him in a bowl full of candy for a fun addition to the table! 

Wal-Mart had a 10 or 12 pack of bubble wands for a great price so I tied on the little thank you cards that came with his invitations, and each guest took one home along with a bag of Darth Vader's candy!

I decorated our mantle with Asher's Star Wars toys, and bought the banner and swirly decorations at Wal-Mart for around $3 each. 

I forgot to take a picture of the green punch after it was made, but it was simply lime sherbet and a bottle of 7-up stirred together!  I bought a package of the store bought cups from Wal-Mart, but thought I might need more, so I stuck some of Asher's Star Wars stickers onto inexpensive clear cups. The kids actually preferred those because they could pick out their own character!  Asher had fun taking his action figures and "decorating" with them while I was getting everything ready. :)

I made tie-fighter s'mores with graham crackers, chocolate icing, and marshmallows. I downloaded the Stars Wars font and printed out the little signs for each snack.  Asher helped out by adding the stickers to each sign.

I had planned to make homemade no-bake cookies for the Wookie Cookies, but ran out of time and energy.  I bought Star Crunch Little Debbie snack cakes and glued on candy eyes with chocolate icing.  These were a hit!

 

Asher had a great 7th birthday!  So thankful that some of his friends from school, and some of our neighbors could come.  He had a great time, and made some great memories!

Trim Healthy Mama Pumpkin Bread!

Kris and I are really loving THM-he calls it Trim Healthy Man (ha!) but we are just really getting used to it, and even enjoying it!  Every time I try a new recipe, he says that he just can't believe we are losing weight eating all of this yummy food!  To date, he has lost 31 pounds, and I have lost 21 pounds!  We are just thrilled! And aside from losing weight, we just feel amazingly better!  His rosacea has cleared so much, he is no longer snoring at night, and his back hurts so much less!  I feel so much better also!  I feel so much better mentally that even if there were no physical improvements I would still be eating this way.  I really had NO IDEA what sugar was doing to me...to my brain, and to my body.  I feel incredibly blessed to have found Trim Healthy Mama!

I was so excited to order the baking blend from Trim Healthy Mama and tried it for the first time today!  And let me tell you, I am so excited!  I made pumpkin bread, because I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry that I wanted to use (plus it's my favorite---even when it's not fall).  I used a regular pumpkin bread recipe and modified it to be THM friendly! 

THM Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 C. Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
2 eggs
3/4 C. THM Sweet Blend or P'yure Organic Stevia sweetener (from Wal-Mart)
1/2 cup softened or liquid coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 C. THM Baking Blend (or you can make your own baking blend like this one!)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 heaping tsp. cinnamon
1 heaping tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix first five wet ingredients together, then add dry ingredients and stir together until blended.  Spoon batter into one greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes until toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. I could have let mine bake a little longer in the oven, but didn't want it to become dry.  The batter is very thick, so it seemed like it needed to go a little less time in the oven.

Asher, Claire and I loved it!  It really was delicious! I am so happy that I tried it! I am going to *try* and save a slice for Kris and Katie but can't make any promises that it will still be here for them! (ha!)
Hope you enjoy it too!
Thanks for visiting!

(PS-the links above are not affiliate links, they are just there to help you find the products.  Thanks!)

Trim Healthy Tuesday: One month on plan!

One month ago today I decided to try "Trim Healthy Mama".  I bought the book, started reading through it, and it just made so much sense to me!  One month ago I weighed 10 pounds more than I do today and Kris weighed 21 pounds more than he does today!  We are so very thankful for THM!  I am excited to keep going and finally set myself free from this extra 100+ pounds I've been carrying around for the past 10 years! I am excited to be able to do more things with the kids, and have the energy to do them!  I am excited to have hope again! 

Right now...

I saw a neat blog post of one of my favorite blogs from Aimee Weaver, where she shared a fun list of things that were happening in her life at the moment, and I wanted to try and do that today!  I really want to get back to blogging, so I am going to try a few "writing prompt" posts to get things rolling!

Right now I'm:

Loving//  Springtime!  Seeing everything bloom and become green again just fills up my cup! We went out the other day and I got some pretty shots of these blossoms (cherry, maybe?) that I just love!

 

Reading//  Trim Healthy Mama, by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett! I am learning so much, and have lost 8 pounds this month!  I feel so much better, mentally and physically!

 

Waiting For//  School to be out!  I am ready for a more relaxed pace of summer break and for time with the kids! 

 

Excited About//  Our garden!  We started seeds this year, so growing the plants "from scratch" has been kind of neat!  The kids and I planted Jet Star hybrid tomatoes, mild jalapeños, carrots, and squash! 

 

Trying to//  Get healthy and I'm on my way, slowly but surely!  I mentioned THM above, and I really feel like this is an eating plan I can live with for the rest of my life! 

 

Working on//  Getting my relationship with Christ in the right place. 

 

Wearing//  Lol...I am sure this question is for someone more fashionable than myself!  I am currently wearing capri jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt, but I can usually be found in yoga pants, running shoes, and a t-shirt or sweatshirt!

 

Planning//  Asher and Katie's birthdays this month!  I am way behind in my planning and preparing for their celebrations...I will need to get it figured out this week!

 

Learning//  To be patient, to enjoy each day, and to trust God!

 

Dreaming of//  Kris and I are constantly dreaming of living in the country.  We just so desperately want to be in a home where we can see the sun come up and go down each day.  We want a place that the kids can just run around and explore nature in.  It's our dream, and our prayer!  God has always been so faithful and good to us!  I know that if we are supposed to be in the country he will make a way!

 

Thanks for reading all of that!  And kids---if you are reading this when you are adults, don't forget to call your mama! XOXOXO!

 

 

 

 

 



I'm still here!

Just a little post to say that I'm still here!  I really want to try and keep blogging, so I am going to give myself some grace, and just post when I can.  I know the kids will still enjoy looking back on these, even though they are not consistent.  Hopefully they will look back and know, deep in their hearts, that I loved them so incredibly much, in spite of my daily struggles to keep it together as a mama. 

Speaking of keeping it together, and mama's...on March 12th, I started the "Trim Healthy Mama" eating plan.  It has almost been a month for me, and I have lost about 8 pounds.  Kris started about a week later, and has lost 19 pounds!  We are really enjoying trying new recipes, and we both feel so much better!  I have over 100 pounds to lose, so I know it will take a while, but I am enjoying simply feeling better and watching Kris shrink before my very eyes!

 

The kiddos are growing and changing like crazy-cakes!  Katie is just growing into such an amazing girl.  I am so happy that she enjoys life!  She is just a happy teenager most of the time!  I think her friends give her a hard time for being happy all of the time, but I am so thankful that she can keep a positive outlook, even in high school! She just picked out her classes for her sophomore year, and that just seems impossible to me!  She is going to learn to drive this summer, and that truly scares this mama! :)

 

{Katie and Kris on Easter Sunday!}

 

Asher is shooting up so tall!  He just keeps growing and growing!  He has struggled through first grade with reading and spelling, but he is pushing through and we're counting down the weeks until summer break! He is still my sweet, calm buffer between our two crazy girls, and still loves to hug and snuggle us!  He is playing soccer this spring, and loves it!  He is pretty good at it too!  He is just a joy! 

 

{Asher with his egg score on Easter Sunday!}



 

And Miss Claire...oh Miss Claire!  She is something ELSE!  Kris and I agree that we are thankful that her cuteness is equal to, or greater than her orneriness! She is BY FAR our most curious, adventurous, and mischievous child! She just turned 4 in February, but is so smart!  She knows all of her letters, and the sounds they make!  She can drive us crazy and melt us with her sweetness simultaneously!

 

{She wanted to pose with the rabbit!  She was obsessed with this bunny for the first full two days after I got him out for Easter! She wanted to carry him everywhere!}

 

 

We are so blessed!  Just looking at these people, who God gave me as the most precious gifts humbles me!  He has given me so much, and sometimes I catch myself whining or complaining when I already have everything I could have ever dreamed of!  I am just so thankful!

 



Fall and Stuff...

I have been struggling to find time to blog...with two in school, it seems like things have gotten 20 times crazier around here...instead of just twice as crazy!  We are not so busy that we are never together, and I don't feel like any of us are incredibly overloaded, but there are just a lot of things that need to happen each day, and I have trouble finding lots of free time to blog.  I still take lots of pictures of the kids doing the things they do, and to decompress at the end of the day (or in the middle during Mama's "time-out") I love to look at Pinterest and Instagram.  So...all that to say...I still love and plan to blog, but sometimes there are just not enough quiet moments in the day to get it done.  We made it through Neewollah, Kansas's largest festival, that's held right here in our town, and we made it through Halloween, so now we are just enjoying the beautiful autumn colors and cooler. quieter days leading up to Thanksgiving...love this time of year.  It's just my favorite. The hustle and bustle of Christmas isn't quite here, but the warm feelings, sounds, smells, and excitement have begun, and I just love it!