First Sleepover

I did not think Gracen would stay, but several weeks ago she did. They had such a good time and thought they were BIG girls! Do you notice the American Girl dolls in bed? That is such a big deal to them right now. Ella carries around the magazine on practically a daily basis pointing out all the things she "has" to have for her birthday and Christmas.

I guess this sleepover is just a sign of things to come in the future!

And what's a post without the obligatory funny-girl picture? Heeeeeere's Lucy!

Last of the Beach Pictures

At least from the June beach trip, that is.

The reward for sitting through hot, sandy pictures? The girls washing their feet--so cute!

More Family Pictures

Nanny and Pops got into the family picture action, too!

Too Funny NOT to Share

(taken from an email I received today)

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... barefoot... BOTH ways Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in the world I was going to lay a bunch of junk like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a stinkin' Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... forever!And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You could forget it when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your lazy tail and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little twits!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!

Regards,The Over 30 Crowd

Family Pictures

As we do each year, I "made" all my family dress in matching clothes and torture ourselves as we try to pose for lovely beach pictures. See us squinting from the sun below?

But, in the end we still love each other and get some great pictures.

2009 Krull Family Beach Picture

Gotta Play Catch Up...

For a while! Really, lots and lots of pictures to post and stories to tell. I can't even begin to tell you how behind I am on documenting our lives. I know I don't do this for the people reading my blog, but I get frustrated with myself for not doing it more often. I mean, it used to be so easy.
Take a cute picture, write a story about it and hit publish. That's it. I mean, how hard is it really?

The hardest part is finding the time these days. With me going back to work and us traveling like crazy people, time has been a scarce commodity. I am praying that things calm down soon. They HAVE to. I can't keep up this hectic pace. Even now, I am fighting off an infection...likely caused by stress and my body just not working properly. So anyway, here's to catching up!

In June, my Mom and I taught 3rd grade at our church's Vacation Bible School. This was our third year to work together and we had a wonderful time. The church threw a kick-off party the night before the week began. The girls had a wonderful time, as you can tell!

10 Day Vacation

I am so tired.

It will have been 10 days since I have been in my own home with my own thoughts and with my own family.

I am tired......and home sick.

So you all know that I have been slacking in my blog posts. It's just been so darn crazy around our house. We are in Hilton Head right now and I thought I would have lots of time to get updated. Boy! Was I wrong. 5 kids under the age of 7 will keep you busy. We have been going from sunup to sundown.

I am back in the cottage right now with a sick baby. I will not share the pictures, but I just ask that you say a little prayer for Lucy. She has, what we think is, Impetigo. She has a horrible blistery-rash under her arm and on her chin. It is starting to spread to her face as well. The Dr. has called in some major antibiotics and medicated ointment and she is being a real trouper to take them without much fuss.


So we are staying back to get some much-needed rest. And besides, she can't do much swimming anyway. What better way for me to past the time than play catch-up with my Blog!


Here are some pictures from fun days in my Mom and Dad's back yard.

Ella's first attempt at skiing. She was a little nervous and once she fell was not willing to try again. Oh, well. We still have plenty of summer left.

Ella got herself ready for the pool!

Dad helping Ella climb the diving platform. I knew she was brave, but I really did not think she would actually jump.

But she did!

Self Portrait

Those eyes....

So Tired

The girls are so tired from our vacation. They have played harder than they ever have the past 3 days.

How hard you ask?

We all three were just taking a nap and Lucy just went "pee pee" all over me and the bed."

How tired am I?

I didn't even care.

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

That is where we are right now. I've only been on this side of the coast a few times. It's a lot different from the shores at Gulf Shores, but it's nice. Erik's parents have a time share at this really neat resort. It's almost like a campground, but without the tents and campers. It's more like this neighborhood of several hundred cottages. Each cottage "group" has a pool, tennis courts and playground. We are only a mile bike ride from the beach. EVERYONE here rides a bike. It's really neat. I miss being able to see the ocean from the balcony, but there are some definate trade-offs here.

One, there are cousins here. 3 to be exact (which is a lot compared to the zero that we have back home.)

Two, there are alligators here. In our back yard. 10 feet from our patio. Seriously!



Three, Erik's parents and sisters are here. We've never taken a vacation with them, so that's pretty cool.

(this is Ella spotting dolphins)

July in Review

Needless to say this month is flying by and I don't have any postings to show for it. So for scrapbooking purposes I am going to review:

• We've swam almost every day.
• I have processed over 100 tomatoes with 2 more months still to go.
• I've made more than 20 loaves of zucchini bread--all in an effort to do something with our bountiful harvest.
• We went to the lake for July 4th---it rained us out of seeing the fireworks, but we still had a great time.
• Grandma and Grandpa came to visit the first week of July.
• I have started mentally and physically preparing myself for my new job. I made my first trip to The Knowledge Tree and it was so much fun. I could have gotten into a lot of trouble there!
• The girls and I are getting ready for our second summer trip!
• I've been trying to complete projects that I put on my to-do list at the beginning of summer.
• Ella is jumping off the high-dive platform at Nanny and Pop's pond.

That is just a brief synopsis of our lives right now. I look forward to catching up on my pictures this coming week. Lots more to post in the coming days!