Titles

I've been thinking about the many titles that I go by and the meaning that they have in my life.
There's Mrs. Christiansen, Sis. Christiansen, Melanie, and of course Mom (plus others that I'm not addressing at this time).

Mrs. Christiansen means so much to me. It means that I was able to marry the love of my life for all eternity!!! Even after 20 years that still amazes me, that I found someone to spend eternity with. I always tell people that when I met Neil it was like a scene out of "Saturdays Warriors" (anyone whose LDS or who saw it will understand that). I am so blessed to be Mrs. Christiansen, to have a man whose such a hard worker, loving father, and awesome husband (and still good looking :-D).

Sis. Christiansen means that I believe in something bigger, more then myself. It means that I belong to a church that teaches of Jesus Christ and I know He is our Savior, that I know there is a living prophet on the earth today, and that I am able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I am so blessed to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!! I love the gospel!!!

Melanie...What can I say, but I like my name. My mom always told me she named me after Melanie Hamilton from "Gone With the Wind" in hopes that I'd be like her. You know, soft spoken, polite, selfless, etc. I think I'm more like Scarlett O'Hara, but I do love the sentiment behind my name.

Mom...I love all my titles, but I have to admit that this might be my favorite. Knowing that my body carried and gave birth to 3 healthy children and then fed them for the first year of their life. Now they're older, but still depend on me. I enjoy being a Mom more then words can say. Yes, there a days, but I think we all have those. But, I wouldn't trade this title for all the wealth in the world!!!

RIP Robin Williams

Beloved actor, Robin William, passed away Aug 11th 2014. Normally when actors/actresses pass away, I am like oh that's to bad and go on with my day. This one hit me a little harder then usual and that is due to a character that he played,  Genie in "Aladdin". As may of you know my sweet brother, Mikey, was handicapped. He passed away two years ago and "Aladdin" was his favorite movie and his favorite character was Genie. All my mom or I would have to do is ask Mikey if he wanted to watch "Never had friend" and his face would light up. He would sit for hours and watch it over and over again. Every time Genie would start singing "Never had a friend like me" Mikey would start to laugh. I would have loved to meet Mr. Williams and tell him how much that character meant to us. Now, that is not possible...So, thank you Mr. Williams for giving my brother so much joy when his life was full of so much pain and suffering. I only wish that you could have found the same joy in your own life. You will truly be missed.

6th annual school is starting tribute

It's that time of year already!! For some school has started and for others (like me) it will start at the end of the month...Hallelujah!!!
On a side note, I love celebrating my mom and keeping this tradition alive in my own way :)

Braided Rug

I have never posted a "how did you do it" before, so please bear with me if this doesn't make much sense.
I didn't take step by step photos because I was not expecting to do this, for that I apologize.

1) I took all the scraps of material that I had and cut them into strips. In this case it was all flannel from previous projects.

2) Braid the strips. This is what took the most time. My strips were of various lengths, so every time I reached the end I would tie a new piece on. I guess you could sew them together, but I hate to sew and I was also lazy, so I just tied them.

3) When the strips were braided I just laid them in the pattern I wanted, in this case a oval, to see if I needed more or if I liked the size I had.

4) I decided to put a back on it to make it look a bit nicer, and to also hide the ends that were tied together. So I laid the strips out on a piece of 1 yard material that I had. Then I hot glued it on to make sure that everything stayed in place. I also hot glued all the pieces that were sticking up down.

5) If you really want to you can stitch everything together, but again I am lazy and I don't like to sew. (plus my machine sucks and can't stitch something that thick, so I'd have to hand stitch it all and that isn't happening!)

Ta da, you have just made a braided rug. I know these aren't the best instructions, but it should give you somewhere to start.

This is what mine looked like before I trimmed off the excess fabric and hot glued it to make a nice border around the rug.

My view on guns

This post is intended to express my view on the issue of guns and guns control. These are solely my opinions and you may or may not agree with them. That is what this nation was founded on and that is what makes this nation great!

Guns have been around for centuries, yes they have cause a lot of death and heart ache. That was not the fault of the gun itself, that fault lies in the hands of the user! Notice my children are learning to shoot. They are learning to respect guns, to treat them how they should be treated (which is as a tool, nothing more), and what a gun can do. By some miracle these guns did not jump up off the table and go bang, nor did they go off before the trigger was pressed. How on earth can that be?! The idea being spread is that it is the guns fault that people are dying, that they just jumped up and shot whomever was there. It takes a person, an actual physical pull of the trigger, to make that gun go off. Without that force these guns will never, ever, ever discharge. People need to educate themselves, stop blaming the tool, and start blaming the person.

Blaming a gun for killing someone is like blaming the hammer for putting the nail in the wall. The nail cannot enter the wall without a person hitting the hammer onto it. A gun cannot go off without a person pulling that trigger.

 

 

End of another school year

I have to say that this was probably the best year I have ever had. I had the best kiddos and I'm going to miss them.
I'm leaving 3rd/4th grade and movin' on up to 5th, so I hope that I have some of my great 4th graders next school year.
So here's to some great kids!

Classes starting at top..

Mrs. Morales's 3rd grade

Ms. Layton's 4th grade

Mrs. Chappell's 4th grade

Miss Berg's 3rd grade

 

Happy 12th Brithday Nicholas!!!

My youngest is now 12 years old! No more Primary, no more cubscouts or 11 year old scouts, no more elementary school! Now its Young Mens, Jr. High, Boyscouts, and everything else that comes with this! So, enjoy these pictures of Nick from birth to 12