I've got names running through my head like crazy. I've been typing and re-typing them for the last two weeks. Lots of Megans, Emmas, Jareds, Zacharys--normal names. And then there the unique names. When I see one, I immediately feel sorry for the poor kid. I've been there. I know what it is like to sit in class on the first day of school while the teacher reads the roll waiting for the pause--the how on earth do you pronounce this name pause. Klissann- it must look intimidating. The older I got the more I dreaded the pause. It meant unwanted attention.

I would love a normal name, something like my sisters: Michelle, Kelli, Lacey or Ashlee. How great would it be to go the the store and buy a pencil, sticker, license plate with my pre-printed on it? Why did my parents get so creative when it came to me?

Plenty of people have told me that they wish they had an unique name. That's just because they haven't thought it through. I spend my life spelling and explaining my name. I spell my name to nearly everyone and even then it usually ends up spelled with a C. But that is the least of my worries. The first letter is the easy part. I try; I'll say "it's like kiss with an L" or "ss like salt, sand, Sam, Santa...." All to no avail. While I worked in phone customer service I heard, "Cliff is a strange name for a girl" at least once a week. I wanted to correct them but what was the point? I dread giving my name over the phone. I will answer to almost anything: Cliff, Chris, Clifs maybe even Kliss if anyone ever got it right.

Then there is the explaining. I did it twice today. I appreciate that people are interested in my name. I am not. I've had it for nearly 34 years so I'm kind of over it. But people want to know where it came from. And I don't have a good story. Sometimes I'm lazy, I fib, and I say that my parents made it up. If I am feeling saucy, I'll go into the lore behind my name. How my my mom knew a girl in college named Kliss (I am not alone) and always wished that she had a different name. Mom wanted to name me Kliss Andra but Dad was against that so they went for Klissann. Sometimes people call me Klissandra. Sometimes people call me Klississippi. One guy called me Klisstopher Robin. Feel sorry for me yet?

Every once in awhile I Google my name, just to see who else is suffering. Kliss is also a last name. Which probably explains why people sometimes ask me for my first name after I say it. The fact that I married a Francis just adds to my pain.

With all the names I have seen lately, and the life I live, I feel like I can be considered an authority on the matter of names. So, before you give your child a crazy (some might say unique or unusual) name or name spelling think it through. I am fine if you want to mix it up a little with the spelling: Haylee, Hailey, Haeli, Hayleigh--whatever. Knock yourself out but just keep it legit. I am sorry but SCHUYLER, looks an awful lot like it should be pronounced "shoo-lar" not Skylar. And Gryphon? Really, I mean really. Come on people, help your kids out. Do you want to doom them to a life like mine? Are you certain that the innocent little baby you are naming is going to want to have attention drawn to them? When she makes cheerleader in 7th grade, do you want her name to be printed in the newspaper as Cliff?

My mom told me she doesn't have any regrets about my name. And for all my complaining I still haven't submitted name change papers. But at least once a day I wish for a simple, common name. I would have drawers full of personalized pencils and stickers. Oh, and no more of this:

24 hours in St. George

If we limit fluids and obey the speed limit it only takes us 4 hours to drive to St. George . We love going to visit Papa and Nana and this trip we had an extra reason: Grandma Shirley. It would take us at least 20 hours on an airplane to visit her house, so we are always excited when she changes hemispheres for a visit. I love talking to Grandma Shirley--she has that great Australian accent--but besides that I love hearing about her life. This is the last time we'll see her so we had her record some of her life history. She has lived an interesting and exemplary life. She's a great example and such a sweet lady. We love her a lot.
It was a really short trip but we packed a lot in. Adam and Courtney were also there and it was nice to see them again. Make no mistake about it, St. George is still really, really hot. We swam at about 9:00 Saturday night and it was still hot enough to dry off outside without shivering. We were glad to have access to a pool this trip so that we could cool off and practice synchronizing cannon balls.
Zacky loves the pool especially when Matt throws him
or when he can catch a ride on Papa.
Zack is all about palm trees lately. It's one of his favorite things to draw. He really liked the baby palm trees and decided that when he is about 500 years old he will be this tall.

Hopefully our next trip will be longer.

The Grind

The life of leisure is over. It's back to daily backpack checks, 20 minutes of reading & homework.

Sunday night, Noah had his entire back to school outfit laid out on his bedroom floor-socks in shoes-the complete look. It reminded me of how excited I was to get dressed on the first day. I guess it's not just a girl thing. Monday the kids were excited to start school. School starts at 9:15 but all the boys were up, showered and styled by 7:30 without my nagging or assistance. It's been a little different since and I expect to be in full nag mode by the end of the week.

Here they are on the big day. Noah & Ben are looking too cool for school. Zack started preschool on the same day. I know, how lucky is that? He was very excited and disappointed that he didn't get to take a lunch so we had our own little picnic in the park after I picked him up. It took him 45 minutes to eat his sandwich because he was talking so much. He loved school even though they sang that "same song they always sing at every preschool."

Here's this year's walking group. We are down a few kids who moved on to middle school.


So far so good for teachers. I know that might be a little premature, but I am pretty easy to please. As long as my kids don't cry or complain about going to school every day and are learning I am happy. I am loving Ben's teacher because she sends a little calendar home every day with a face representing how he behaved. He had a straight face on Tuesday because I guess he got a little restless during the safety discussion. Let's just say it better not get any worse than that--I expect straight smileys from here on out.

It's back to work for me too. I'll be a fixture at the school for awhile but I just couldn't turn my back on this little project. I guess I am a slow learner. But if you are reading this and your child is at Harvest in grades K-4 and you want to be my favorite person feel free to come help out. I might even have treats.

End of summer....bummer

I can't believe summer is already over. For once I have not been counting down the days until school starts. I am actually sad to see this all come to an end.

I guess there is something to be said for the peace and quiet I will enjoy during the day, but still, summer was way too short this year.

The Games of the XXIX Olympiad--Winter Wheat Style

On 8/8/08, in honor of these Olympic games we held our own Olympic Party.


Chinese food before the opening ceremonies:
And some cupcake carbo-loading to help the athletes prepare for the events to follow.
On March 24, 2008 the Olympic torch relay began in Athens, Greece. 21,880 torchbearers traveled 85,000 miles in 130 days to get the torch to Beijing. That must have been a logistical nightmare. It was hard enough to get our 15 kids to space out along the side of the road stretching from the Benham's to the Dobson's houses so they could jog the torch to each other. You'd think this was their first Olympics or something. I can't imagine what it takes to get a torch across countries. Maybe that's why they don't use kids.

This was our first opening ceremonies and it showed. I have to admit that China outdid us, what with all the music, dancing, fireworks and all. But we've got four years to plan and improve so watch out London.

Let the games begin. The first event was track and field. Our athletes are so well rounded and capable that limiting their skills to one event seemed wasteful. Instead, we created an obstacle course:

First, throw the yoga ball
then jump the hurdle
stop for a long jump
and run to finish with a high jump.
It was timed and the distances for the throw and jump were recorded. This one was too fun to leave just to the kids. I was too busy keeping time to take pictures of the adults, but boy do I wish I had. I do have the results though, in race order:

Men's Track and Field Obstacle Course- Official Results
Athlete	Throw Distance (feet)	Jump Distance (feet)	Time (sec)
Paul	35'	7.5	6.9
Matt	42'	5.5	9.53
Richard	49'	7	8.34
Tom	36'	7	11.4
Jerry	35'	6	12.35
Mark	46'	7'	15.72
Kevin	48	7	8.26
Women's Track and Field Obstacle Course- Official Results
Athlete	Throw Distance (feet)	Jump Distance (feet)	Time (sec)
Laurie	14	4.2	9.09
Lori	21	6.2	8.87
Lynne	14	3.5	11.53
Kliss	21	6.1	7.3
Lyn	23	5	10.98

From track and field we went to a very impressive gymnastics competition. The kids had to perform one trick on the trampoline.

Then show their balancing skills on the beam:


Noah's tricky dismount increased the level of difficulty for his routine.

And finish with a cartwheel. Zack added a little additional tumbling (rolling around) to the obligatory cartwheel. He's always so fancy.

But some judges are impossible to please.
Also included in the games was a target shooting competition
and, in the interest of time, the triathlon was limited to cycling.

Of course we finished with the medal ceremonies. My camera is against taking good pictures at night. The only viewable picture is of the results from one of the heats in track and field. Noah won gold, Rilie silver and Brayden bronze.
Sadly, it wouldn't be the Olympics without some sort of tragedy. Our favorite gold medalist gymnast/babysitter Dana broke her foot in a non-Olympic event shortly after the end of the our games. I am sure it will only make her a stronger competitor next time.

Theater Room

Eventually we have some big plans for our basement. Not that we don't love it in its current state:
I swear it was clean a few days ago. The project Matt would like to do first is to finish a movie room. The kids beat him too it.


Silly me, Matt had me convinced that it would require thousands of dollars in fancy electronics, not to mention sheet rock, sound proofing and leather reclining chairs. Apparently all you really need is a whole bunch of chairs, pillows, blankets, an extension cord and a 13" tv/vcr combo.

Wiki-love

I have an unhealthy fascination with Wikipedia. It's right up there with Harmon's on my list of things that I shouldn't like so much but can't help. Just thinking about Wikipedia (and Harmon's for that matter) makes me happy. Wikipedia is just so darned useful. If you need to know something, chances are Wiki (you can call it that if you love it like I do) will have an entry. It's the best. How else would Matt & I have answered the burning question of who makes Kyle Korver's basketball shoes? But the beauty of Wikipedia is that one search often leads to another and another and another. It's all just a click away. I can waste a lot of time educating myself. Which technically isn't wasteful because I am learning.

For instance, from that little shoe inquiry I now know that Pella, Iowa (Korver's hometown) is also the hometown of The Killers' guitarist and 4 other famous people including Wyatt Eyrp. Obviously this meant I had to research the fame coming out of Rexburg, which incidentally has nearly twice the population. What I discovered was shocking: there are a total of four "notable natives." Worse, I'm not convinced that two of them should count.

The lead singer of the Aquabats was born there. Is that legitimate? It seems like maybe you'd have to attend high school or something a little more significant to be considered native. I don't know, I'm probably being nitpicky. Maybe birth is enough, it certainly helps the numbers, and if it does, then we can possibly add a few more names.

The Yo-Gabba-Gabba producer? Is that really notable? He doesn't even have his own Wiki page.

That leaves the Disney Exec and Matt Lindstrom. That's two (possibly three depending on your definition of native) solid, well sort of solid, famous people to Pella's six. I have to say it's a little depressing; I really thought Rexburg would have been a little more competitive. I suppose I can't complain because I am certainly not notable which, I am aware, makes me a part of the problem. However, through my extensive research (at least 3 clicks) I have come to this conclusion: If your primary goal in life is to raise a child that would be considered notable and your choices are Rexburg and Pella, load up the truck and head for Iowa. The odds of greatness are much higher (1: 1639 vs 1: 8628-which is Kliss math so you may want to run the numbers again before you reserve the U-Haul.)

See what I mean about Wikipedia? It is magical. A few days ago Matt made the best Wiki discovery yet: David Francis (Cyclist). I know that guy. That little entry peaked my curiosity (not hard to do) because we don't know who wrote it. So I did a little more research on Wikipedia, using, of course, Wikipedia. Here's what I found out: David's article falls under the category of "wikiproject cycling." Which has -I quit counting at 50- lots of people contributing articles. So the author could be DocOctupus, radiokillplay, or lordandmaker. Or not. We may never know, but who cares? I know someone on Wikipedia! If only he was born in Rexburg.