Life Partners

Far be it for me to judge anyone on the lifestyle they choose to live. We just try to do what we believe is right for us...and I realize what is "right" is completely in the eye of the beholder. Bearing that in mind, here's a funny story from our weekend. We were in the yard with Granny and Papa (pics to come) and playing a friendly game of "washer toss" (a.k.a. beanbag toss). We were all talking while playing and I mentioned Mike's company had new health insurance effective September 1st and they were recognizing "life partners". Little Miss Big Ears says, "mama, what is a life partner". As my eyes grew big and I looked at Mike for a little help I responded, "it is when 2 people live together but they aren't married like Daddy and I are". Without breaking stride Riley looks up and says, "oh, like Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat".
:) After I composed myself I said, "yes, exactly like that."
One more day letting her live in the little bubble we've made for her...because we can.
Life is good!

Eat your heart out Grammie...

We have been so fortunate that dad has been able to visit with us twice in the past week. While his company has never had business in this area, a recent turn of events sent him this way to do some prospecting. We couldn't be happier! It's such a long week for him, but really works out great for us! However, Grammie is a little jealous of his "new territory" and is getting more and more bitter that she wasn't a part of the trip. Dad even made Riley get on the phone with mom and tell her "not to be mad at Poppy, he was just doing his job." I'm sure mom is working on her letter of resignation as she won't stand for this too much longer (truth be told, my fingers are crossed)!
Poppy went with us to soccer practice tonight (expect pics from big girl's game this weekend) and we just really enjoyed hanging out together. Riley was too excited to see him and just couldn't wait to "play"...she is convinced that kindergarten interferes with her playing schedule (I know...don't you wish you had her problems). I added a slide show to the right with a few pictures of the two of them playing. Click on them and the pictures will enlarge.
I suppose I will have to add more since Granny and Papa are visiting with us this weekend! A devoted blogger's work is never done!

Oinky Cookies

Riley loves to get mail. She always has, but now it's even more special because it is from all her "public" that she had to leave in Knoxville. Her Grammie and Granny are great about sending her notes and/or packages weekly and she has been communicating with our old neighbor some via "snail mail". But, she recently received a card from "Mrs. Patty", another old neighbor and our dear friend (who I miss daily, sniff, sniff) with a recipe that we just had to try! They turned out great and are so very "Riley"! While we made them, we talked about Patty, Spanky (Patty's dog I love to hate), and her boys. Riley finds the fact that the twins are in college fascinating b/c they don't live at home anymore (she says she will never leave home). I wonder if I could have her put that in writing?
Check out the cookies:

Unicorn hat optional...

Check out the "pack o piggies" watching the icing process from the bar

Finished product! Yummy!

Go West Young Man...er, Woman...

I was trying to absorb myself into whatever topics of conversation Riley deemed important this morning on the way to school because our mornings have been a little sad of late. It seems she has finally realized that this kindergarten thing takes away from her time at home with her "stuff" as well as her time with her mama. She assures me she loves class, her school and her teacher, but she "wishes she had more "home hours" as she called them. So, we're talking on the way to school and out of the blue she says, "is that field over there like the Wild West"? Hummm....I'm seeing corn, lots of corn, some farm houses, straight road ahead, nope, no Wild West here, but I entertained the topic and said, "maybe that's what it looked like". Then she asked what part of the United States the Wild West was in and I started naming some western states when she blurted out, "people went to California a long time ago mama, that was the first Wild West". So I'm doing my part to keep the way odd conversation going and the focus off of the fact that she was leaving her "stuff" and her mama for a while to go to school and answered with, "that's right baby, lots of people went all the way to California and dug into the ground and tried to find gold". From the back seat, just as serious as she could; my dear, sweet, smart girl simply replied, "California must have a lot of holes..."

Witty, that girl. I think she gets it from me.

Flippin' Out!

Well, here's a little more video footage of our relaxing weekend. My 2 kids are so much fun! Hee Hee! Lucky for me they usually play well with each other.




Seriously, if I receive any comments on the redneck "wooo" I let out (after EACH flip, you would think I would refrain from letting the second one go) I'll get deeply offended. YIKES! Does ANYONE like their voice recorded? Maybe the hammering next door (building a house for our stellar neighbors God is gonna send us) will drown out my "wooo". Then again, maybe not!
Mike has been taking lots of pics of the building process b/c the house is being build by our builders so it's sorta like we're getting to watch how our house was built. That sort of thing is just what "butters his bread"! They framed the entire thing in 3 days! CRAZY!

We hadn't planned anything for the weekend since Riley showed a few signs of fatigue (i.e. little meltdowns over tiny things, lights out as soon as her head hit the pillow, verbally admitting "I'm tired") this week with her new
BIG KID SCHOOL SCHEDULE. The not planning turned into a restful day for us here at home. We found time to bounce on the trampoline, take in a book (she's getting hooked on Junie B. Jones and I can't hide my excitement), took an early morning bike ride around the neighborhood hoping to scope out some new neighbors a street away. Rumor has it that they have a 5 year old little girl, but we haven't seen her yet. Pretty hum drum day, but good to relax. I told Mike that I had been so busy in the weeks prior to the move and of course the unpacking when we arrived that I really had to learn how to "relax" again! He admitted to feeling sort of the same way. (Yes, he admitted to feeling something...I suspected he had feelings all along, but it's taken me 5 years of dating and 10 years of marriage to conclude that they do exist). ;) A few grilled hot dogs to get our nitrate fix and some homemade ice cream...cookies and cream at the request of our resident princess. She explained the early process just after she and her daddy watched Tom and Jerry (it's tooooooo hot here to do much outside), which explains why she is referring to herself as Jerry (she's always Jerry mouse, Mike is Tom and somehow I'm the big overprotective bulldog Butch).




We sought out a church (ya gotta love the internet) and visited this morning. We'll be doing some further searching...however, Riley was interested in
knowing whether it was a "sprinkle church or a dunking church". She's got some underlying issues regarding baptism and the whole "underwater" part of the process.

It was a relaxing weekend!

B I N G O!!!

We've finished the "school week" on a high note. My sweet girl jumped into the car this afternoon and announced that she won a game of "color and shape bingo" today at school and won a fabulous bracelet of her choice from the treat jar! She was so proud of it because it matched the polka dot theme of her backpack and lunchbox! I of course was pleased that she picked it (since it matched and all)! I asked her about the BINGO game and she proceeds to tell me that she won the first game (I'm so proud) and another classmate won the second one. Then she goes on to say that they used...and I quote, "unifix cubes to mark our spaces". Now you're asking yourself, "she said what", what the heck is a unifix cube? Well...go ahead and click on it so you'll know just what she marked those winning bingo spaces with! As a former teacher I gotta admit, I couldn't be more proud. I mean, she could have told me that they used these little colored boxes on their BINGO cards, but OUR GIRL used the term UNIFIX CUBE! Wow, she really knows how to make a mama proud! So, a couple of hours later I'm relaying the story to Mike and he's got this look, you know the one that says, "I can see that Kendra is really excited about this story and wants me to be equally excited about this tidbit from Riley's day, but I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT GET IT". I then explained what exactly a unifix cube was and he gave me that winning, "I GET IT NOW" smile and we moved on to discuss his day. (Incidentally it was ok, he had lots of people out today, so he was busy, but good).
Riley acknowledged a few other friends from today (new names, so I was excited as details this week have been sparse) and expressed a desire to play with her friend from the neighborhood tonight after dinner. She decided to "dress up" so that when her friend came over she wouldn't know she was at the correct house and well...this is her disguise:


Get a load of that outfit! My girl has style!


Who says a cowgirl can't wear a boa?

Not Half Full...Running Over

I know it might be a bit too early to make this judgement call, but I'm going out on a limb and saying I think she may have her mama's love of learning. She has been on "cloud 9" as my Nannie would say ever since I saw all 43 inches of her standing on the curb waiting on me to move up in the enormous car rider pick up line. Our girl's glass is truly running over right now. She jumped into the car and said she couldn't wait to go back tomorrow. She wasn't as forthcoming with the details of her day as I would have liked (DEFINITELY gets that from her daddy) but I managed to pull a few things out of her by the time she went to bed tonight. She requested a spaghetti dinner for her special day and I of course complied. We had "Happy First Day of Kindergarten" cookie cake for dessert...overall her first day seems to have been a roaring success! Mike and I are so lucky to have her!



I think they were yelling, "GO KINDERGARTEN!"


She is soooooo rotten!

She Never Even Looked Back!

5 YEARS! They all just flew by and left me standing in a quiet and empty house this morning! I really held it all together until I got back home and saw her little pajamas in a pile on her bedroom floor. Another cup of coffee and a little Matt Lauer (wink wink) and I'm in better spirits now! Here's how our last 14 hours or so went:

It's official! Someone we all know went to sleep last night as a mere babe and awoke a fully grown KINDERGARTEN STUDENT! She talked LOTS about it last night after "lights out" and even convinced herself that she would probably miss her mama and daddy while she was at school.

She woke up with a HUGE SMILE and came into the kitchen to find a little celebration breakfast waiting on her...she grinned and said, "Mama, what did you do?" I told Mike that just made my day! She sat down to muffins, strawberries and bananas but couldn't finish her plate (I think she was just too excited)!

She got dressed after breakfast and took a little time to model her new backpack and lunchbox for me. Notice the polka-dot theme (so very me...ahem, I mean Riley, don't you think)?


We loaded up the car and headed out at 7:10. Oinky and Rarity the Unicorn joined us on the trip...



Once we parked, Mike and I walked her inside. I had to swallow hard and look up at the sky at this point that huge lump formed in my throat (it's still there and it's 9:12 am here). She sang all the way to school and I would venture to say that her feet didn't hit the pavement between the car and the classroom door. She was over the top excited! She remembered the red hallway was her hallway and walked right to her door. She dropped her lunchbox in the floor, hugged and kissed her daddy and myself and she was off! Never looked back (sniff, sniff). I'm so thankful God gave her an adventurous spirit and the personality to go with it!


Finding the "red Hallway"


Never even looked back!



Riley & her teacher, Mrs. Dana.
Results of today's adventure will be posted soon! I'm praying it lives up to her expectations!

Hello Lewisburg Elementary!!!

She was doing a little dance in the driveway before we left singing a made up song about being in kindergarten! Sooooo excited!!!

Helping Daddy carry in her mat and other supplies...

Well, we've been there, done that and bought the T-shirt to prove it...She walked into the place like she was a seasoned veteran just stopping by for a visit with old friends! Here she is outside her classroom door. She found her name right away and wanted to know if there were any other "Rileys" in her class.
Once we entered the classroom we were presented with several papers to fill out. Mike and I tried to point things out to her and show her what we thought was "important" but once she entered the classroom we didn't really see too much of her until it was time to leave. She introduced herself to her teacher and then proceeded to introduce Mike and I to some little girl she met...she's so shy and backward, I don't know where she gets it! :) We put all her supplies into her "cubby" and she kept going back to it telling people that was her "locker" and all of her school supplies were there whenever she needed anything! We joined the PTO on our way out, bought her a Lewisburg Elementary T-shirt and then went to eat dinner. Her classroom was very neat and eye appealing which the teacher in me liked very much! The school itself is fantastic from what we could tell and we're optimistic about our year! I asked her to describe her new classroom and she said, "It looks like an A+ classroom". Well, can't ask for a better impression than that!
She found the foam blocks and was "comfortable" enough to bring the entire bin of them to the carpet to build with them. She had several new friends building stuff with her!

I'm pretty sure she thinks everyone is listening to what she's saying!

The No Cavity Club!

We couldn't be more proud! Part of moving means finding new doctors, dentists, hair salons, grocery stores, post offices, libraries, you get the picture....we went to meet Riley's dentist today his name is Dr. B and she and I both enjoyed ourselves! The staff was so great with her and she was so proud of her "No Cavity Club" sticker she received! They liked her as much as she liked them...they asked me if they could keep her and she was disappointed that she didn't get to go back for 6 months! She came home and brushed her teeth with her new brush and toothpaste and even wet a q-tip to brush Oinky's teeth. I overheard her in her bathroom saying, "ok Oinky, which flavor of toothpaste do you want? mint or bubblegum? Couldn't resist sneaking a picture! We found a new hair salon today too. We're all ready for our "Meet the Teacher" meeting Thursday night at school! Pictures to follow!