It helps that my left blinker doesn't work and I carry a paintball gun for protection.

This will be my first post form the great state of Kansas (I will be posting a plethora of pictures later, including the largest cross in the western hemisphere. I can tell you are already salivating but I have to find my camera cord first). It is cold, windy, and road construction prevents me from turning left…EVER. I live very near the ghetto and I am pretty sure that someone was kidnapped from the mall that is about 7 minutes up the road from us on the day before Christmas (they found her alive later that same day). There are no turn lanes and I had to take a toll road to get here.

In short, I think I like it here. I have been to the mall twice (I usually avoid the mall like the plague because of my many littuns but my husband has been off work since we got here and I am leaving all of them with him every chance I get. It’s called payback and he has a lot of it coming.). They have a pretzel place and everything is on clearance (it is like heaven for a frugal shopper like myself).

It is chilly when the wind blows but I have a very stylish down feather jacket that makes me look skinny and I do love to wear sweaters. When the wind doesn’t blow, it is actually quite nice. The sun doesn’t melt the average human who mistakenly steps into it. I could get used to it.

We have only been to church once but it seems really cool. The ward is small but friendly and they all seem really nice. I wonder how long it will take me to tick one or all of them off. Not that I am trying, it just happens to be a common side effect of my being.

The one down side is those darn tornados. The weather has been so erratic that I have already not slept thorough one of those warnings. Nothing happened but just the warnings are enough to frazzle a mother with no rope (I have formulated a foolproof emergency plan that requires duct tape, a length of rope, candles, and a cement room with 6 outlets. More on that later).

I have also been alerted to the best eatery in the Wichita Metro area (This is super important to a chubby girl). It is called Freddie’s Frozen Custard. I have not yet enjoyed the custard (it is freezing as I mentioned before) but the fries are better then bacon and the burgers are yummy. I am sure this joint will kill me with clogged arteries but it might just be worth it.

This place has also had a very desirable effect on my husband as well. Since he has been here (he got here in September) he sent me flowers (2nd time in 11 years) and he wasn’t even in any specific trouble (I have been a little grouchy being a single mom of 5 for so long but that was more a continual state). Then, for our 11th anniversary, he got me diamond earrings (Generally I am not a girlie-girl who would enjoy or even wear bling of any kind but this was surprisingly pleasing to me. I might have a little girlie streak in me after all) and they are real. I was sure that spending real amounts of money on anything that is not technological might literally kill him. It is a nice development of a more then stressful moving process.

I invite any and all to come and visit (you might have to wait until some of our crap is put away or burned). We are centrally located and willing to be a pit sop on a much longer journey. I will take you to Freddie’s and show you my ghetto. Spring is prime tornado time so, depending on if you are a thrill seeker or not, you might want to plan accordingly.

For those of you who know me and care, my phone number is the same for now but will be changing eventually and I will let you know when it does. If any of you out there want my address drop me an email and I will get it to you ASAP.

Until next time, I hope that all of you had a Very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. I feel that my family is and has been very blessed and I wish the same for each of you. I promise that you will have a wonderful year if you look for the good and laugh about the bad (after you are done crying a little if that helps). Plenty of faith and a good sense of humor will change your life if you let it.

Love to All,
Katy

No, it's not what you think. What you are seeing is pride.

I am so completely pleased with me. Why? Because I usually make ID badge lanyards for the kid's teachers for Christmas (I figure they have enough soap) but this year Lou has a teacher that has taught one of my kiddos before and therefore has her lanyard so I got creative and this is what I made for her. I hope she likes it because I was so pleased that I almost decided to keep it to show off my massive skills.


OK, so maybe the picture isn't great but I still have the pride and pleasure of accomplishment and ingenuity. What do you think?

Merry Christmas - Carroll Style (as in my family not the music of the holidays)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

What are we celebrating? It doesn't really matter to me (I will be there with my glow stick and blinkie flashlight in 15 minutes flat).

I love parades. I don’t exactly know why this is. I just know that it is so. This may seem like a strange statement to some of you but keep in mind who the stater is.

The thing about parades is that they have no designated place or purpose. They can happen anywhere at any time. That is what is so wonderful about parades. You want to celebrate a victory? Have a parade. You want to show off your car? Have a parade. You have buckets of left over confetti or ginormous cartoon shaped balloons? Parade. I love parades.

It is not even enough to say that I love them because it is really so much more. I will go and sit in the street on my tush to watch people pull their pets (whom they have dressed up in adorable costumes) in the back of a radio flyer wagon. (I enjoy it more when the owners are dressed up like the pets) But plenty of people will do that. What sets me apart is that I don’t have to like what is being paraded. I think people who dress their pets up are a little scary (no offense to any of you that choose to participate. I am not judging just cautioning that you might not want to include me in that part of your life.) but I will not only go to that parade, I will show up early to get a good seat and push little kids out of my way so that I get an unobstructed view and can take as many pictures as my camera will allow.

Why is this you ask? I HAVE NO IDEA!!! If you must know this is a recent discovery about myself. It has always been so; I just couldn’t pinpoint it until now.

This past Saturday, I was dropping my beloved off at the airport when I got a call from my sister in law. It was an invitation to the Tempe Fantasy of Lights Parade. I changed every imagined plan and priority I had that night to sit and watch Girl Scouts wrapped in Christmas lights march down the street pulling the generator they were plugged into (bear in mind that I am moving in 19 days and have not even come close to packing or cleaning up me or my 5 children and I have to do it all by myself). It was not only Girl Scouts. There was also a garbage truck wrapped in lights and some horse drawn carriages. It was so much fun. I whopped and hollered, waved and cheered. I just about when crazy when Sherriff Joe rolled by in sort of a Humve tank thing. I just love parades.

Some day I hope to be in a really big and legitimized parade. I have made the occasional appearance in the odd Halloween Costume parade and I have been known to do the bunny hop (which is sort of a parade (another thing that is so great about parades, you can parade any which way you want)) but I aspire to do something bigger. I want to ride on a bumpy, creatively constructed, highly flammable, plastic float while throwing candy and waving at on-lookers. I think the super bowl of all parades is the one that rolls through Disneyland. What I wouldn’t give to dress up like a princess and dance down Main Street.

Some of you who have read my writings before might think that I am being critical or sarcastic, but that is not at all the case. I am dead serious. This is just another one of those quirky things that makes me uniquely me (aka: crazy as a loon).

I Love Parades!!!

GoeCashing (It's like treasure hunting for dorks to find junk that is worthless in places that are hard to find for a reason.) Goodtimes!!!

We really do love doing this. I recommend that everyone try it but dress for the search. This one was hidden right next to the mall about 20 feet from the homeless man's winter home. I found it.

What I spent my Black Friday Money on this year (I totally didn't get a good deal. $300 used to buy so much more.)

There was a tooth involved as well, but that cost me extra. The tooth Fairy apparently pays a premium for trauma. On the upside I not only got the stitches, but the most expensive stuffed bear and High School Musical pom poms money can buy.