The Beach Is Calling!

We're headed to the beautiful sandy beaches of Oahu, HI. Try not to miss us too much! We'll be back all too soon!

Sweet Snippets

My adorable cousin, Megan, found this cute idea on a blog she reads. I love reading Meg's Pocket Post, so here's my version.

Dear TJ Maxx,

I love my new dresses. More importantly, I love how much I paid for them.

Dear Cap'n Crunch,

I wish I could eat you everyday.

Dear Zumba,

I hope I get to visit you again soon. If you weren't so much fun, I wouldn't have sprained my ankle and had to miss the last month of class. It's all your fault!

Dear High Heels,

I can't wait until I can wear you again without limping.

Dear Channing Tatum,

I could look at you all day.

Dear Glee,

You make me smile.

California Dreamin'

A fine blogger I've turned out to be. I'm done making promises, but I will TRY to blog more often.

If you know me well, you know that my memory pretty much sucks. Trent likes to tease me about the time I told him I counted limousines on a post-it when I went to California as a teenager. It was actually something one of his mission companions did. That was humiliating, but I really believed it was me. {Pretty sure I've got early onset Alzheimer's.} I used to be really great at journal-keeping. Not so much these days. My intention in starting this blog was for it to be like my journal. A way to help me remember things that ACTUALLY happen to me. So, it's important that I get back to it, even if I don't catch up.

A few exciting things have happened this week.

1. I got an A in Microbiology! Cool, right? I really didn't enjoy that class like I have some of the others I've taken. The lab was awesome; growing stuff like E. coli and staph was really pretty interesting. The lecture class was the hard part. Our teacher was fairly young and new to teaching. It was obvious that she knew her stuff, but had difficulty explaining things clearly. I found my mind wandering frequently. It's amazing how much difference a good teacher makes.

I was planning to apply for UVU's nursing program in March, but when I went to their website to fill out the application I saw that all of the requirements had changed and I needed a 2 credit hour class to finish my prerequisites. Major bummer. Major melt down. Can I just say that I have the most incredible husband? He totally knows how to handle freak-out-phase-Kacie. So, thanks to him I've come to realize that it's not the end of the world to have a setback. In fact, we've decided that I won't be taking that class this summer either, which is a total relief. Further setback, but I'm looking forward to being a mom this summer.

2. I sprained my ankle doing Zumba. In case you don't know, Zumba is the most awesome aerobics class ever. It's a lot of latin dance, shake your hips type stuff -so much fun and right up my alley. On Wednesday I was absorbed in my own little world, shaking my butt and working hard, when my left ankle rolled out from under me. I went down with a thud, bruising my tailbone in the process of spraining my ankle. My foot and ankle are really swollen and my butt hurts. I had to wear flip-flops to church today because they're the only shoes that fit my giant "cankle". It's bruised up and ugly, but it doesn't hurt too much. I'm hoping to get back to Zumba soon. I really miss it!

3. Our trip to California is booked! Got a killer deal on a hotel through priceline.com and I bought our Disneyland/Universal Studios/SeaWorld tickets on Friday. Trent is not thrilled about this vacation, but after a long, uh...discussion, he's being much nicer about it. I'm so excited! In case you missed it on FB, I'm posting The Woodledge Mama's version of California Dreamin' for your viewing pleasure. California Dreamin' is what I'm doing. I can't wait!

Make a Smilebox invite

Gavin turned 14 this month. Boy, do I feel old! I'm so grateful for him. He's such a good kid (most of the time.)

Pink Day (a.k.a. Cklog #1)

This is the first of {hopefully} several 'backlog' blog posts. I've affectionately named them "Cklogs" {that's backlog, minus ba, in case you didn't notice} because they are clogging up my desire to blog and making me feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I've put off blogging about. Since this is my form of journal-keeping these days I want to post them, but will be making an effort to post current events among them. I hope you don't get too bored.

Anyway, on to Pink Day. It's a pretty dang cool Christiansen family tradition. I wrote about it last year, but in case you're new, here's the scoop. Pink Day was founded by my Grandma Chris when I was young. She invited all the girls in our family to a party at her house. We all wore pink clothes and ate pink food. I don't really remember much about the original Pink Day, but I know we had a good time. Check out this photo. It's totally retro. {Thanks, Julie!} Can you find me? I look HOT!

When my Grandma passed away, my Aunt Rene' and her daughter, Cori, brought Pink Day back and we have been celebrating it ever since. This year, we all headed to Ferron, where Pink Day was hosted by Marie & Glenys. We always play silly games and exchange gifts. {Check out Julie's awesome gift-isn't she lucky?} Grandpa had the honor of being the only boy invited for this year's big event. He brought 2 pairs of Grandma's pajamas to give away. I was fortunate enough to win a pair. I love little things that make me feel a connection to her. She was such an amazing woman. Happy Pink Day! {Just a little late.}

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I've been playing around with blog signatures (thanks, Heather!). Just checking it out to see how it works.

WARNING

Prepare to be inundated with photos, stories and news from the last 8 months. I have been MIA, but I'm back with a vengeance!

My Favorite Night

You may not know this about me (seriously, if you don't, what kind of friend are you?), but I ♥ ♥ ♥ Dancing! Every year our stake holds a dance for Valentine's Day and it is, truly, my very favorite night of the whole year. It is NOT Trent's favorite (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it is his least favorite), but he knows how much I love it, so he humors me. I always make sure that we arrive at the precise moment that it starts, which I realize makes me a dork-but who cares about being cool when there is dancing to be done? This year, especially, I made sure we were on time since the old fogies in charge decided that 2 hours was long enough. (I think I'll volunteer to help on the committee next year. Really, 2 hours!?!) 

We started our night by going to dinner with some friends at the Texas Roadhouse. Good food and even better company. (Note to self: When preparing to go dancing, limit Diet Cokes to 2.) We arrived at the dance at 6:58 PM, just in time. When the music started, I dragged Trent to the middle of the floor. The one other couple that was dancing was barely on the dance floor at all. I proceeded to dance like the free spirit that I am when moved by music while Trent rocked back and forth, feeling self conscious about the people watching who were at a dance, but not dancing. The friends who went to dinner with us arrived sometime later (they are not up to speed on the whole dancing-is-better-than-being-cool thing). They joined us in the middle of the floor and some of us had a fabulous time. Some were just counting the minutes until the torture ended, but they were good sports.

At some point, our friend, Aaron, accidentally stomped on my foot (which was bare because of a whole "Footloose-kick off your Sunday shoes" thing). That really hurt. And left several small bruises. Then my left knee started screaming, "You are too old for this!", which I did not appreciate. (Note to self: Don't go running the same day as the dance.) By the time the dance ended I was in rough shape. I don't know what was wrong with my knee-it seems to be fine now. I guess 2 hours was long enough after all, but I will still be pushing for more next year. They usually take pictures, but didn't this year. Bummer.

Valentine's Day is quickly becoming my favorite holiday. I love being surprised, but sometimes it's hard for Trent to think of what I might like for Christmas, my birthday or our anniversary. For some reason, inspiration seems to strike for Valentine's Day. I have gotten fabulous surprises for the last 3 years. This year he gave me a day at a spa to prepare for our cruise. Last year he surprised me with my iPod and the year before that I got my very own nickel-plated, pink-pearl grip .22 pistol. I gave him a can of nuts and a bag of M&M's. Aren't I thoughtful? I guess I'm claiming this as my day. 

Las Vegas Escape

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Back in January, Mom found an awesome rate on flights to Vegas, so we decided it was time for a sisters get together. Karen, Katie and I got to fly down (I LOVE flying!) and hang out with KeriAnne for a few days. We went shopping, ate lots of yummy & fattening food, scrapbooked, quizzed each other, talked seriously and laughed hysterically. Here are a few things that you may hear us say, (which you won't understand because you weren't there) but, I predict, we will be laughing about for years to come:

"Dr. Wilkinson's Office..."

"This is NOT watermelon chapstick!"

"I'm sorry?" followed by "It's okay."

"Cynasha, Lyn Rae, Taythea & AnnLee"

"I know how you hate a hole there."

"Want me to pierce you?"

"You want ketchup with your Frosty?"

The Krispy Kreme lady hates us, but we sure think we are funny (especially Karen).

Our Sweet Ryker

Ryker is such a thoughtful kid. This picture was taken a few days before Christmas when I caught him shoveling the driveway without being asked. This morning when I got back from taking Gavin to school he was outside shoveling again.  

As a mother there are a lot of times when I look at my kids and think about all the things I haven't taught them or the things I didn't mean to teach them which, unfortunately, they learned anyway. But on days like today I think maybe I did something right.

Scrapbook Blog

Clearly this blogging thing has me addicted. Now I have to have a blog for my scrapbook pages. What a freak! I also started a blog for Saige called Saige's Pages, where she can post her own creations. She's getting pretty good at scrapbooking. I still help her some, but she comes up with some pretty creative layout ideas all by herself.

I made a New Year's Resolution to scrapbook once a week, so that I can use up the ever growing stash of paper, embellishments, etc. in my crap room (oops, I meant scrap room). This is my attempt to make myself keep that resolution. Saige and I decided that with church being at 9:00 in the morning we can scrapbook on Sunday afternoons. We'll see how it goes. 

Check out Saige's blog at www.saiges-pages.blogspot.com. Mine is www.kaciesscraps.blogspot.com.

Church Art

Saige was drawing a lovely, scenic picture today during sacrament meeting-you know the one-the top inch of the page is blue for the sky, the bottom inch is green for the grass, the middle has a few flowers and maybe a sun. Here is the conversation that occurred when Trent looked over to see her picture:

Trent: "What's this down here?"

Saige: "Grass"

Trent: "What's this blue up here?"

Saige: "Sky"

Trent: "What's in the middle?"

Saige: "Lines" (She was drawing on lined notebook paper.)

Trent: "But what's between the grass and the sky?" 

Saige proceeded to add mountains to her picture between the grass and the sky.

Trent: "What's between the mountains and the sky?"

Saige: "Air"

Trent: "Well, what's air?

Saige: "Um, sky?"

Trent: "Yeah"

She then filled in all the white space with blue.

It turned out to be a very lovely picture, but my very favorite picture ever drawn by Saige is this one (also drawn during sacrament meeting):

She drew this when she was 3 and a half years old. It was me watching her draw this one and I could not stop laughing. I watched as she drew a body, hair, two big circles with dots in the middle for eyes, two big circles with dots in the middle for...hmmm...

Me: "Who's that picture of?"

Saige: "Me, when I'm a grown-up."

Me: "What are those?"

Saige: "My muscles."

BEST PICTURE EVER! 

Christmas

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Finally getting around to blogging about our holidays. We had a fabulous Christmas. We always prefer to stay at our house for Christmas morning and just be together for a little while before we head out to see extended family. We had a great morning. I won't bore you with a long list of every gift, but the favorites were: Trent-iPod Touch, Kacie-gorgeous new coat and scarf, Gavin-iPod, Ryker-skateboard and Saige-Hannah Montana electronic journal. We got ourselves a new video camera as an early present, so we kind of neglected the regular camera. 

The plan for this year was to head to Castle Dale by noon, which we actually did, but got detoured to my parent's house as the roads were absolutely horrible between our house and Lehi because of the storm. So, we spent Christmas Day at the Powell's constantly checking road conditions on Hwy 6, hoping that we might be able to get to Castle Dale sometime that day, but it didn't happen. We took ZERO pictures at my parents house, but we had a really good time. We had a delicious dinner, opened presents, played ping pong and sang around the piano. We were grateful that we could spend the day with family; even if it wasn't the family we had planned to spend it with. We left first thing in the morning on the 26th and the roads were still pretty bad, but it had stopped snowing so at least we could see. Once we got to Price the roads were much better, so Trent had to make up for lost time by going 80 mph. We got pulled over when we were just a couple of miles from our destination. Of course, Trent managed not to get a ticket. (I picked up some pointers on how not to get a ticket the next time I get pulled over.)

We had a great time with the Keele family. We did some sledding, went swimming at the new pool, ate too much, played games and watched bootleg movies (thanks, Sam!). Once again, we didn't even touch our camera, so thanks to Jaime and Samantha for the pictures. Even though the vast majority of us left the Keele house with the stomach flu, we still had a great time. The last count I heard was 12 out of 17 having gotten sick, but the flu passed and we wouldn't trade being together for anything.

We had to rush home on Sunday morning because I had to give a talk in church. (I didn't get sick until Sunday evening-what excellent timing!) We spent a couple of days playing with our new toys at home and then the kids and I went and stayed in Lehi for a few days. We had a blast sledding on the pond behind my parent's house. We tied a couple of sleds behind a four-wheeler and took turns being dragged around the pond. The kids and I got a particularly memorable ride when my mom thought she would drive around the edge and then send us up the bank. Instead, we all fell off our sleds and after a moment realized that for some reason the edge of the pond wasn't frozen (I still don't get that because the middle was solid). We got a little bit wet, but the worst part was the smell. But, it made for a good memory. The last day we were there Grandpa came home from work with a monstrous new sled, so of course we all had to have a turn in that. This is the way to go sledding! No hills to hike up while dragging multiple sleds and you can go inside to get warm anytime you want. We did get plenty of pictures of our ice sledding adventures; my favorite is the one of Saige next to the swampy mess we landed in. 

The kids and I also spent New Year's Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Powell's because Trent had to work. We were really grateful that he didn't have to work Christmas Day this year-we sometimes have to get creative with Christmas, so we enjoyed having him home with us. We had such a great holiday break. The presents were fun, but the best part was being able to celebrate the birth of our Savior with the people we love the most.

Brace Face

Still playing catch-up here...on December 17th Gavin got braces. He is officially a geek. (Don't tell him I said so, but with the combination of glasses and braces there is no denying it.) He's going to look great when it's all done; so far he's enduring it well. He has an RPE (rapid palatal expander), which is quickly creating a sizable gap between his two front teeth. Following the Christmas break, lots of his friends asked if he had lost a tooth-the gap is that big. I had one of those in 7th grade, too, but my orthodontist hadn't put my braces on yet, so it was really weird to see myself with that gap. I tried very hard not to smile during that time. My ruthless English teacher gave me the nickname, "Gapper," which did not help me to feel better about it. Gavin has one tooth on the left side of his mouth that is blocked by other teeth and because of this his gap is not in the middle-it's off to the left side, which just adds to the geekiness factor. Here are the before, after and gapper photos:

Before

After

Gapper

2013!?!

I submitted my application for SLCC's nursing program today. By Fall of 2013 I should be able to START my nursing classes. Gavin will be a senior in high school for crying out loud. What a joke! Needless to say, I am looking into other options. Good luck to me!

Piano Recital

My awesome students-one is missing.

Saigey

Ryker

Gavin

Elise & I

I love Christmas music! I guess that's why my piano recital always seems to end up being close to Christmas. It does prove to be a little hectic with everything going on for the holidays, but you just can't beat the tunes! My students all did such a great job! I love being able to teach piano lessons. It is so rewarding and I have awesome students. Teaching my own kids is a challenge; especially trying to teach a teenager. Gavin did NOT want to practice and came to the recital quite unprepared. I made him perform anyway. I keep hoping that he will figure out how cool it is to play the piano...maybe someday. Ryker and Saige did a fabulous job. Any of you who spent any time with Saige during the holidays know how much she is loving it. I think I've heard her songs about 1,000 times each. Because of school I didn't take as much time to prepare my own song as I usually do. I finally decided what song to play about a week before the recital, so it obviously didn't go as well as I would have liked, but I didn't even care by that point. I was just glad to have the recital over with and to have a break. Elise, my most advanced student, and I played a duet that turned out really well. That was a lot of fun and something that I think I will do more often. Pictures of a piano recital aren't very exciting, but there they are anyway. 

Saige's Dance Concert

Wow! I've gotten so behind. I guess the holidays will do that. We get so busy. I'm going to try to catch up this week. Saige had her Christmas Dance Concert at the beginning of December. Her class danced to Jingle Bell Rock. She did such a great job. I love to watch her dance. I hope that she will always love it like she does now. We got a new video camera as an early Christmas present, so I am posting my first video. Saige is the 3rd girl from the right. I hope it works! 

 

Christmas Update 2008

Merry Christmas!! It is Christmas Eve and I finally made a Christmas card (of sorts)!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Temple Square 2008

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A Touch of Faith

This is a long post, but believe me, it is worth reading. (The majority of it was written by my friend, Wendy Fayles, who is a true writer.) The photo above was taken by Marshall Barker from my stake.

"And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole." Matthew 9:20-21

I have had a couple of wonderful experiences this year related to this woman. As a counselor in the Young Women program I got to go to camp in July. Unfortunately, because of tests at school, I was only able to go for 1 day and, therefore, was not a lot of help. We didn't have a camp director and our YW president had just had a baby, so the other counselor (Julie) had to totally take care of camp. We had an assignment to prepare a short presentation of a woman from the scriptures who had interacted with the Savior for a spiritual hike. Julie chose the woman who was healed and said she would write the material if I would present it. The week of camp came and Julie had not had time to write the script and asked if I could possibly take care of it. I agreed, knowing that she had so much on her plate already. The problem with that was A. I am not a great writer and B. I was trying to study for 2 big tests. I looked around for information about this woman and the only thing that I could find was the song "Close Enough to Touch". I thought about just reading the words to the girls, but knew that it really wasn't enough to bring the spirit. I was getting very stressed out about the whole thing, when, at 9:30 PM, I was prompted to call my writer friend, Wendy Fayles. I don't know why I hadn't thought to call her sooner, but I am so grateful that I was inspired to call and even more grateful that she agreed to write something for me. Here is the incredible monologue that she wrote and that I got to "perform" for the Young Women of our stake (I left her directions to me for visualization):

Kacie: After thinking about how to do this, I thought it would be easiest to present it from the woman’s point of view after she had been healed. So I envision the scene opening with you (as the woman) standing in your little kitchen sweeping or washing the dishes or some routine household chore like that—keeping in mind that this woman probably had not been able to do any of these things for the past 12 years because of her illness. So she performs the routine chore with joy and appreciation for being able to do it at all.

Sighing contentedly, the woman stops her work. “Oh, my,” she says. “I’m tired.” Slowly, she smiles. “Yes, I am tired. And it feels so good! It feels so good to be tired from working and caring for my family – and not from laying in bed with an illness no doctor could cure.”

“Twelve years. Twelve years I was sick! Twelve years of exhaustion and pain. Twelve years of watching everyone around me live their lives while all I could do was watch and wish – wish that I could be whole, like them. Wish that the doctors could find some way to help me. Wish that I could just have the strength to do something as trivial as sweeping my own floor or … or, braiding my own hair! (At this point, if you were wearing your hair in a long braid, you could kind of touch the braid with a sense of wonder and awe.)

You know, I was even beginning to question God. I just didn’t understand how he could let this thing happen to me. And yet, I knew that there must be a reason. And I knew He cared. In my darkest moments, when it was almost impossible to feel anything but pain and despair, I could feel God. I could feel His love. And I hung on to that feeling with every last bit of strength that I had.

And then, one day as I was lying in my bed after a particularly bad night, a neighbor came to visit me. She said she couldn’t stay long because this man named Jesus had come to our town and she wanted to go see him. She had heard that he might be passing near where we lived.

“Jesus,” I thought. Even as sick and bedridden as I was, I had heard of this Jesus. People were saying he was a mighty prophet. They were saying he could do miracles.

After my neighbor left, all I could think about was this man named Jesus. Could he really do what people said? Could he maybe even help me?

I decided I must try to see him. I carefully rose from my bed, praying that God would give me the strength to find Jesus and ask him for his help. One step at a time, I made my way outside, and then began to walk towards the center of our town. (Kacie—you can act all of this out as you are telling it.) I had not gone very far when I heard the noise. It was the sound of a large crowd of people, coming my way. “It is Jesus!” I thought, and joy leapt in my heart. I was actually going to be able to see him! But then the crowd rounded the corner and I saw the huge press of people, and my heart broke. How could I, a sick woman, ever make my way through all those people?

But then the crowds parted briefly and I saw Him. I saw Jesus. And there was such kindness in His face. Such love. Such compassion. I felt like I had known him forever, and yet I had never seen him before.

In that moment, I knew I had to reach him. Gathering all my strength, I pressed forward into the crowd. As the people pushed and jostled and bumped into me, I found it hard to breathe and even harder to stand. I could feel myself getting weaker but I knew I could not stop. If I could just get close enough to … to what? This man obviously had very important things to do and lots of people who needed him. Who was I to demand his attention?

But maybe there’s another way, I thought. And at that moment, I felt my strength finally give way. I crumpled to the ground. But as I lay there, gasping for breath and struggling to rise to my feet, I saw that Jesus was only a short distance in front of me. Without thinking, I reached out my hand and touched the hem of his garment.

(Pause here.)

And I was healed.

(Another pause.)

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say. But then I heard Him speak. He said, “Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.”

The men who were with him tried to argue with him, saying with all the people crowding around him it was impossible for him to notice one touch among the many, but he insisted he had specifically felt one person touch him.

Now I was frightened. He was obviously a very powerful person. Maybe his power was only supposed to be for very important people. I was not anyone important! Was I going to be in trouble? I just wanted to run away and hide. So I stood up and started to back away, but then he turned and looked at me, and I knew he knew.

Trembling, I fell down before him, and told him what I had done, and how I had been healed immediately. And then I waited to see if he would be angry with me. but all he said was, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”

And so I went back to my home. For a while I had people coming by all the time, wanting to see “the woman who was healed” and wanting to hear the story. But no one comes anymore. They’ve all pretty much forgotten about it. But I will never forget. Never.

I had never thought much about this woman before, never really paused to consider what her life had been like for 12 years, never truly contemplated the incredible faith that she possessed.  Wendy's insight made this woman real to me and gave me such a profoundly better understanding of her circumstances and faith in our Savior. 

A few months after this experience, I got a phone call from my friend, Cheryl, who was the Enrichment Leader in our ward. Her committee was preparing for  our December Enrichment and were trying to find sisters who could sing to perform the "Women at the Well" program. She asked me to sing a solo and I reluctantly agreed with the condition that my song be for a low voice. Imagine my surprise when the song that I got was, "Close Enough to Touch". I was excited to again be portraying this woman for whom I had gained such love and admiration. It had been about 20 years since I had sung a solo and I was quite nervous. I practiced a lot on my own and spent some time with the pianist  to prepare. The entire group of singers and narrators got together only one time. I felt pretty good about my song up to that point, but singing in my own house, at my own piano and singing in front of a group of ladies with amazing voices are two different things. That practice did not go well for me. My voice shook and squeaked and just did not sound good. And then I was terrified. Why had I agreed to do this? 

After a couple of days of doubting myself I realized that my own faith was being tested. If this woman had faith enough to be healed simply by touching Jesus' robe, then certainly I could muster enough faith to be able to sing in front of a group of women who I love and who love me. I said a prayer that I could sing without being nervous & that I could help to bring the spirit to our meeting.  When my turn came, I felt peaceful and calm. I was able to get through my song without any major problems. It was as good as any time at my own piano. Was it perfect? No. Was I the best singer in the group? Definitely not. But, was it my own personal best? Yes, it was.

How grateful I am for the opportunities that we have to test our faith and to become stronger. I am so thankful for the experiences that I have been blessed to have based on the story of one woman who is mentioned only briefly in the scriptures. Her story and faith have helped me to lean on my Savior just a little bit more and to trust in Him more fully.