I am becoming my mom

For years we have joked with my mom about forgetfulness. She has always said it is just because she has so much on her plate it is hard to remember everything for everyone. Yeah right, or so I thought. I think that I may have to start using that excuse for myself. I usually post blogs about funny things that everyone else does, so I think it is only fair to tell on myself. Today I locked myself out of the house. I thought oh well I will use the garage door I never lock that. Wrong, I locked it today. So I thought I have an extra key in my purse in the car, but silly me I had locked that too!!! I tried to call everyone but Kris because I locked myself out about a month ago and the extra key in my purse is his key to the house. My mom came to my rescue. She is a pro at picking garage door locks. She is no stranger to locking herself out of the house. After she drove 30 minutes out here we tried to pick the locks with no success. Jack was very helpful though. First he kept telling us to move so he could karate kick the door in, and then he went to get tools to help and set off the alarm to the house. Like I said BIG HELP!!! So before we left I thought I should try the back door even though I was 99% sure I had locked it this morning before running errands. Obviously my memory is failing also because it was open. I am becoming my mom. I still do not think I will beat her record of locking herself out of the car 3 times in one day, but who knows at this rate I could be the record holder one day.

Kait starts 4th grade

Well it is official, my baby is in her last year of elementary school. She started school yesterday and is such a big girl. She uses her alarm clock, and fixes her own breakfast. She did not even want me to walk in with her. I guess the days of needing me to do everything are ending. I have said I could not wait for them to be self sufficient for years, but now that she actually is I'm not so sure I want it. I can change my mind you know I am a woman. Time goes by so fast, and I should not worry too much. I still have Jack who I think would let me wipe him until he goes off to college. Kaitlyn is in Mrs. Samuel's class with several of her girlfriends. It should be a great end to her elementary school days.

I think getting back into the swing of things is as hard for me as it is for the kids. Going to bed early and waking up too EARLY!!! I am just not liking it. Luckily Kait buys her lunch everyday so I don't have to make lunches until next week when Jack starts. Our goal this year is to not get any letters about tardiness. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you though.

Kaitlyn takes matters into her own hands

From: Kris Kraatz [mailto:kris.kraatz@verizon.net] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 7:56 PMTo: 'info@kimdawsonagency.com'Subject:

Hi my daughter kaitlyn wants to try out for modeling.And we took the pictures of her…we did not know if we were post to take a full body shot and a full face shot or just 2 full body shots or 2 face shots!

Above is a copy of an email sent by Kaitlyn to one of the most well known modeling agencies in DFW. She has decided that she wants to be a model, and it is all she can think about. Tonight she told me that she had emailed Kim Dawson to ask a question. So I quickly went to the computer to see what she had done. I realized that not only had she emailed them, she pretended to be me. I now look like I am illiterate, and I am sure they got quite a laugh at my expense. I know it is a good thing to have a competent child who can do things for themselves, but sometimes it can backfire. Instead of emailing she could have just asked me for the answers. I knew all along what we are "post" to do.

Jack (A.K.A. Spiderman, Sand Man, Indiana Jones)

Indiana Jones

Spiderman

Sand Man

(Or Sand Land as Jack calls him. For those who do not know this one, he battles Spiderman in Spiderman 3)

I realized that I have done some blogging about Jack, but not as many as Kait. So I felt like it was time to show you how Jack spends his day. Jack goes 90 to nothing from the time he wakes up until it is time for him to go to bed. We spend our day being a variety of different superheroes. Some are pictured here, but we are also sometimes Batman, Peter Parker (Spiderman's alias), and Johnny (torch from Fantastic 4). I am sure we would be more if we had the suits. He is very creative with his costumes. The Sandman pants are his Indiana Jones pants that we had to have even though the temperature here is over 100 daily. He found the shirt in the give away pile and realized that it looked like the shirt "sand land" wears. So now it is a part of our costume collection. Indiana Jones in our house wears a tuxedo jacket because we do not have a leather one, but Jack makes it work and it doubles as Peter Parker's jacket. He has a suitcase that he carries one of the costumes in to Kait's gym because you never know when Indiana Jones or Spiderman will have to help someone in need. Every week he tells me "Mom someone might need to be rescued." How can I argue with that? If we are playing leggo Indiana on the wii then we are dressed as Indiana. If watching Spiderman then of course we are dressed in Spiderman and perched on the top of the couch in a crouching position as spiderman does. It can be very confusing sometimes I call him the wrong name, but he quickly corrects me with a roll of his eyes. Silly mom Indiana was so 5 minutes ago!! I know these are the little things that years from now when we do not play dress up anymore I will look back on and remember. For now it just keeps him busy and gives me something to blog about.

Our Anniversary

Today is mine and Kris' 8th anniversary. Though we have been together 11 years. Wow time goes by fast!! Today Kris had to leave early for a meeting so he was gone when Jack woke me up. Jack kept telling me to get up he had a present for me. This is a normal thing for Jack to say though, and the present usually consists of a picture he has colored and wrapped in a box. So I was not in any hurry to get up. I told him to bring it to me thinking he might get side tracked for a few more minutes so I could sleep a little more. No such luck, but I must say I was very surprised to see a large coach box with a pretty blue ribbon tied around it. Jack could not wait for me to open the present so of course I could not upset him. Kris had left me a beautiful new purse, and the all important Kung Fu Panda birthday/anniversary card that Jack had insisted on. What a wonderful husband I have!! Jack informed me that he had picked out the purse and that Kris just wanted to get me a watch. He really just helped pick out the card, but in his little mind he did it all! Someone once asked me to tell them the best thing about Kris, and I told them that he puts up with me. Anyone who knows me, knows this is not always an easy task, but he does it so well. Eleven years ago I never would have thought that my life would be like this. I truly am a lucky woman with a wonderful husband and kids. I love my family!!!

Summer Days

We have been keeping busy around here. This week we went to Six Flags with some friends. It was a great way to start the week. Kaitlyn was finally tall enough to ride Batman so now she can say she has ridden every ride there. Jack started his roller coaster riding this trip too. He rode the Runaway Mine Train. He is not quite like Kait. The rule in our house is you ride it once and if you do not like it you never have to ride it again. This worked great with Kait she likes them all. I think it might backfire with Jack. He rides and says he likes it, but doesn't want to ride again. Oh well I guess I will have to think of a new rule.

We also went to build a bear this week. Jack loved it!! This time he really got into washing the bear. Although on the ride out there he kept calling it "kill a bear." Don't ask me where that came from. I guess the idea of running around shooting at bears sounds fun to boys. Luckily, he liked building a bear without the killing part. Now we have a new Batman panda to add to our collection. Kaitlyn has a new puppy named Sassy.

Kris also had a softball game this week. He was the catcher, and this was an "important" game. They were playing the same team they played in the championship game last season. They were losing which always makes Kris happy. The other teams pitcher is a loud mouth and looks like the guy on King of Queens. Everyone knows him in the league. Anyway, toward the end of the game a ball was over thrown to home. Kris is getting to it when he notices that King of Queens is running for home plate. Any of you who know Kris already knows he was not about to just give him the run. Needless to say there was a large collision that sent King of Queens( all 250 lbs of him) flying through the air. I am telling you if you have not experienced recreational softball you need to!!

I can't believe summer is almost over! It is almost time for school clothes shopping and meet your teachers. Although this means some free time for me. I can't complain about that!

Kaitlyn's performance

Here is a link that has Kaitlyn's Desperado performance on it. She is in the very front on the right. It is a little hard to follow, and I did not record it so of course it does not follow Kait the whole time. But it gives you an idea of what she does, and of course how good she is!!

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36182959