cuz I'm 36..36 years old!

Dang! Not me! JIM!!

So tomorrow (June 13th) is Jim's 36 th birthday, AND our 12th anniversary!! A very exciting day indeed. Although usually I hate it because Jim always outdoes me with an anniversary gift that makes my birthday present to him look like I got it from the dollar store. Come to think of it... I might as well. So, in honor of our special day, I'll just have a basic cheesefest for Jim.
We met in April 1996. We immediately started dating other people. (Although I always kept my eye out for him). I thought his name was Tim. He thought my name was "Helga, or something". He scared the crap out of me. My friend told me I had no chance with him. But later told me he was the one. We were always together. I thought I would get arrested or something if I went to his dorm. We were engaged on Dec 11 1996. We were married on June 13th 1997. We went on two honeymoons... Seattle, and Mexico. Jim had a lovely time in Mexico with dislocating his shoulder, getting burned to a crisp while snorkeling, losing his watch, and picking up a wonderful thing called Montezuma's revenge. Oh well, at least I got to lay out more. We were stationed in Virginia right away, and had our first baby right away. Kimrie was born 13 months later. Then off to Japan where we welcomed Mallory. Colorado Springs,(blessed with Abbey) Greeley, (Jim made me get rid of the cat, but gained a PhD)then Colorado Springs. Jim is a wonderful father, very loving, very strict, very involved. He teases the girls mercilessly, luckily it takes some the heat off of me! (Only a small fraction though) He loves to harrass and tease our friends as well. You know Jim likes you if he makes fun of you.
Jim and I are opposites in many, many ways. But one thing in common, we love to be together.I am so lucky to have Jim, we laugh so hard together, and I wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else!

Here is a picture of us "working together"..

Graduation video and pictures

The moment! The announcer was harrassing Jim while announcing his name!

A really wonderful weekend

This past weekend was Jim's graduation! We had the most wonderful time with all the family who came to visit and celebrate with us.
On Monday, my mom came, and the poor thing immediately started painting with Jim and I. We had to paint the entire house for the renters.. I cannot understand why anyone would use flat paint. We had to cover everything with 2 coats of primer then 2 coats of satin. It was hard work! On Tuesday, we had a little recital at the piano teacher's house. They did so well. Actually it was only Abbey and Kimrie, Mallory stopped piano because of her broken arm. I think she may have done it on purpose! I don't know if the girls realize what a wonderful teacher they have had! On Thursday, family started arriving, and boy was it rowdy around here! We went bowling, shopping, played outside. etc. Also in this week we had a fence put up. It is so depressing to have it now just before we move! Oh well, we will just enjoy it while we can.
Friday was a big day for many reasons.. It was graduation day, but it was also a fun shopping day for me and my parents. We went and found Jim a graduation present together, we got him a cool watch. That was alot of fun. And it was also D Day for Jim in 2 ways. Obviously it was graduation, but the scariest part of the day was in the morning....
A little background, we have good friends who the husband is a cow breeder. Jim has been so fascinated with his job and is always pestering him with questions. For months now, Jeremy has patiently offered to take Jim to work and let him see a typical day. Jim has always chickened out until now! I think it took taking his brothers to get the courage! Anyway, they all had a great time breeding cows... And yes Jim and David did participate. Paul said no way!
Friday night was graduation. I was so proud and choked up to see Jim walk in in his "Harry Potter" robes! I am so happy that it is over, and so proud of him for all his hard work!
The next day, just hung around the house, and prepared for the party later on. Shirley had a quick trip to the ER, she is a tough cookie! The party was at our neighborhood park that night, and it was such fun! We loved seeing our friends, and were so happy they all came! And I was happy that I had enough food, and that everyone ate it all!
My mom and dad were so amazing helping me get ready, and my sister in laws, Amy and Jeanette kept the food ready at the party. I was so happy, usually my parties are so lame. (ask anyone in the book club)
So I will attempt to post some pictures, I have tons more that I have to figure out how to get off my phone!

Just stuff

I needed inspiration to post because I couldn't think of anything, so I looked at my recent pictures and realized that we have had some fun things happen around here! So here we go:

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Here are Mallory and Abbey on St. Patricks Day wearing all the green we could find. I thought they looked so much alike on that day.



Kimrie was invited to a cupcake tea party with her friends. It was a chance for them to dress up, it was so fun for her! And me too, because it gave me a chance to give her an updo.

Finally motivated to post

So it's been forever, I think I've been allergic to posting. I forgot that I was using this blog as a journal for the kids, and then once I remembered that, I was too overwhelmed with all the stuff I missed. So here is a quick review of the past few weeks.
Kimrie was an MC for the school talent show. In addition she also did a skit about swimming that she made up herself. She did awesome! She was such a ham, and got a ton of compliments about her comedic timing. She wrote her own jokes to MC, and I must say she did great! (much to Our huge relief.. I know that's terrible, but let's be honest!)


After the show, I told Kimrie what a fabulous job she did, and that we should find more plays for her to audition for. She said "No I don't think so" Oh, why not? I said.. She says "Because plays are cheesy!" Had to laugh at that one!! And no I did not remind her of the previous 1.5 hours of her life.
She really is a funny girl, full of one liners. I need to be writing those down more. Well, here's one... Kimrie really wants to go to the Air Force Academy, and every time she says that it gives Jim a mild stroke. Anyway, I said to her one day "you know, your first year will be terrible and so hard.. They will be yelling at you all the time!" She said " How is that different from my life now?!" Jim and I were hysterically laughing!!

On to our next adventure... Mallory. This last week she fell off her bike and broke her arm. Of coarse we didn't actually take her in until the next day. But she seemed so much more upset about her skinned knees. So the next morning when it hurt to push herself out of bed, we took her to the ER. She was such a tough chick, and actually she was pretty excited to be getting a cast. I'm sure that will wear off soon. But she has been taking great care of her cast, and being such a good sport. We bedazzled her cast, and made it fancy.. She seemed to enjoy that. Jim will be happy that her cast will slow down the art projects.. She has an endless supply of creative energy. She thinks of an art project for all aspects of her day. And speaking of Jim and mild strokes, every time he sees a scrap of paper on the floor, that's what happens. Followed by a very loud MALLORY!!!!!. We just had parent teacher conference and her teacher had great things to say about her, and we are so proud of Malzy! AKA Larry the dinosaur


And now miss Abbers.. She swam in her first swim meet! It was so cute, and she took it so seriously. And to our great surprise, she didn't get disqualified! For being 5 years old, and first meet, that is awesome! She swam the 25 back and 25 free. Jim told her whatever you do, do not touch the lane lines, and float on your back if you get tired! She didn't even need to do that. It was so cute. Abbey is a superstar at school, and has improved so much it is crazy. We love having her home for this last year. She fills our days with constant chatter.... Abbey always shares, and always is such a helper, one of her papers at school was about what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her paper was all about being a mom. She talked about putting the baby in the stroller, giving it it's bottle, putting the baby down for a nap, and playing toys with it. It was so sweet, and so her, she'll probably end up with 7!

cute kid stuff

I've got to write this down before I forget... Last week Abbey and I were driving in the car when we passed a big tractor on the side of the road. Abbey said" Look at the tractor, boys like tractors. Yah boys like tractors, and girls like hearts, stars, rainbows and waterfalls." So so cute..

Today, Mallory got her first phone call. It happened to be from her best buddy Ben. Yesterday he asked for her number, so she made a lovely envelope to put the paper with her number on it. So, at school today, Ben gave Mallory his number. As I was waiting in the car to pick the girls up about halfway home, I saw Mallory and Ben walking together. Just like every other day. Mallory rushes into the car and says" MOM! I have to hurry and wait by the phone, because Ben is going to call me as soon as he gets home, and he lives close so we have to hurry!!"
I just couldn't help but think that was so cute, although let's not start waiting by the phone for boys so soon.... Okay let's never do that...

Announcement

Dear Everybody,
On July 24th, in Salt Lake City, UT the Bjorn's are running the Deseret News marathon. ( or half, 10k or 5k).... I should just say the Bjorn's are running...That includes, two Binns', a Merrill, a Price etc.. So, I am inviting any and all to come join us, it will be a great fitness goal... Come run, or in my case shuffle and drag over the finish line with us and it will be such fun. (I'm not delusional yet, wait till mile 22) I'm tempted to blog the run, but I'm afraid it will have too many swear words.