Progress Report

We all survived the first week of Kindergarten, Yeah! Brynn absolutely loves it and really likes her teacher, which is a blessing. She looks forward to going and has been up every morning before the alarm.

Braden on the other hand, misses her a lot and asks about her several times throughout the day. He is slowly adjusting to her being gone all day. He greets her with hugs and kisses when we pick her up after school, which I think is so sweet.

When Brynn got home this afternoon, I decided to interview her about the first week of kindergarten.

Here is her responses...

How do you like Kindergarten?

It is the best ever!

What do you do all day?

We say the pledge, have center time, meet on the calendar carpet, go to the bathroom a lot, have recess, play with play-doh, pipe cleaners and jewels, go to P.E. and Theater Arts.

Do you like P.E.?

Yes, but Theater Arts is my favorite because you get to dress up.

What is your favorite part of the day?

Today, it was playing in the family center with the baby dolls and dishes.

What are you new friends' names?

Shania and Isabel

What do you do during recess time?

Slide down the pole connected to the monkey bars and slide down the slide.

Do you like your teacher? What do you like about her?

Yes. She is nice and likes to give hugs.

Do you want to go back next week?

Absolutely!

The Big Day!

At 6:30 a.m. I walked through Brynn's bedroom door to wake her and before I flipped the switch to turn on the light, she shot straight up in her bed and said,

"I can get myself dressed, Mommy".

Talk about excited! There is no telling how long she was laying awake waiting for me to come in. Last night before she went to bed, she reminded me to set the alarm clock so she wouldn't be late for her first day of school (as if I have a reputation for being late).

She dressed herself and made her way into the kitchen to eat breakfast. We got through our new morning routine in a little under an hour and headed out the door at 7:25 a.m. Being it was her first day, Danny went in late to work so he could go with us to get her settled in at school and I am glad he was able to because it was very crowded.

Brynn led the way to her room (I was glad she remembered from Kindergarten orientation) and without hesitation walked right in. We were immediately greeted by her teacher and given instructions on what to do next. After we unloaded her lunch box, snacks and school supplies, we made our way in the direction of the lockers to put her backpack and extra change of clothes in. She was thrilled to have her very own locker with her name on it. (The ear-to-ear smile on her face gave me peace and kept the tears away, my baby girl was is so excited to be here.). Eventually, she found her spot at the table with her name on it, put on her name badge and started the activity in front of her.

I am very grateful this morning played out the way it did, it made things ten times easier for Danny and I. It was hard to be sad, when she was so happy. I left the school feeling good, but nervous about how the rest of the day would be for her. I cannot wait until she gets home this afternoon to find out how the rest of her day went.

I hope it went well, so tomorrow will be just as trouble-free.

On a side note:   Braden has been a mess today. He was upset we left her behind at school and the first couple of hours he asked repeatedly if we could go pick her up and bring her home. It made me realized just how strong their bond is with each other.

the count-down is on

Brynn is counting down the days until she begins Kindergarten. Her excitement is growing daily and after last night something really hit me, in a few short days she will be heading into a world where her father and I will not be the only influence in her life. This is not a bad thing, but I must admit it makes me a little sad. For the past five years, we have been everything she needed (and wanted) and now she will be venturing out and having new experiences we will not be a part of. It is the beginning of a new chapter for all of us.

Last night we attended Kindergarten orientation and met her teacher, who is a sweet woman who has been teaching Kindergarten for 13 years. Several of the kids on our block have had her as a teacher and we have only heard pleasant things about her. She made all her students little gifts bags, which won Brynn's heart right away. I expected Brynn to open a bag full of candy and pencils, but instead it was a bag full of random items with a note attached.

Cotton ball - The cotton ball is to remind you that our room is full of kind words and warm feelings.

Hershey's HUGS - The hug is to remind you that everyone needs a hug sometimes, especially your teacher!

A Star - The star is to remind you to always shine by doing your best.

Eraser - The eraser is to remind you that everyone in our class will make mistakes (even you and me) and that is okay.

Band-aid - The band-aid is to remind you that we can help each other heal our hurt feelings.

Happy Face sticker - The happy face sticker is to remind you to wear a smile everyday.

Tissue - The tissue is to remind you to help dry someone's tears.

Lifesaver candy - The lifesaver is to remind you that you can always count on me to listen and care about you.

Penny - The penny is to remind you that you are special and valuable - especially when you are in this class.

I have a good feeling we ended up with the right teacher for our sensitive little girl. In fact, Brynn asked to put the happy face sticker on her backpack and the tissue and band-aid in her backpack. When I asked her why she wanted the tissue and band-aid inside, she responded, "just in case someone cries on the first day of school" (little does she know, it just might be her mom).

We spent the rest of the evening touring the school and meeting different faculty members. Brynn even got to experience riding the school bus. She was excited she got to do this, but in the end was fine with knowing she would not be riding the bus when she found there is no air conditioning (My girl likes her A/C).

It was cute to see all these little first-timers making there way in an unfamiliar place and every once in awhile I would catch one of them looking back for mom or dad and it would make me smile knowing, they will always need us.

Four more days to go....

Wow, has another month gone by again?

I cannot believe summer is almost over and in two short weeks Brynn will be starting Kindergarten. I, myself have mixed emotions about this new chapter in our lives; but as far as she is concerned, the first day cannot come fast enough. For her the only disappointment is she will not be riding the big yellow school bus.

I am looking forward to having some time with just Braden and me before he heads off to Mother's Day Out after Labor Day. I am not sure he will feel the same way, Brynn is his best friend and he will miss her dearly while she is at school.

This past month the kids and I have stayed busy with play dates, trips to the Library (which they love), staying cool in the water (it is the only way when it is 100 degrees), doing arts & crafts and baking. We even made cookies the old fashion way! Brynn could not believe it took so many ingredients to make cookies. And more recently we baked eight loafs (yes, I said eight) of banana bread, which I discovered you can pull out of the oven even when they have been baking for 15 minutes to add two very important ingredients you left out (salt and baking soda). Surprisingly, they still tasted delicious.

The last few weeks, I have been redecorating our living room, which has been the same color for the past eight years (a record for me). I started with caulking and repainting all the baseboards bright white and then moving to the framework and doors. I love the cleanliness white gives. I painted most of the living room a Soft Carmel color and accented two walls with the color Coffee (which is not near as dark as a I thought it would be). My original inspiration came from artwork I found on-line, but then I headed in a completely different direction after a trip to IKEA (that store gets me every time). My inspiration now, this pillow:

July 30th, we celebrated Danny's dad, John's 80th birthday. We threw him a big party at the local recreation center and had a wonderful turnout of family and friends. My mom, Jerry and Erin came in from New Mexico to celebrate with us, which turned, into double the fun for Brynn and Braden.

The picture on the cake is when John was in the Marines, he is 22 years old.

John with the last two grandchildren (Brynn and Braden) and five of the nine great-grandchildren.

In addition, probably the best and most unexpected news came on Saturday, July 24th. Danny was offered a permanent position at Applied Materials where he has been contracting the past seven months. He became a full-time employee with benefits August 2nd and I cannot explain the heaviness that has been lifted from us. We are so relieved and feel like we can breathe again. We will be facing several changes in the months to come, as he will be moving to a new group with new opportunities.

Fourth of July

Last night we met some friends of ours at a local park we have been going to the past few years to watch fireworks. Each year we get there at the same time, park on the same street (practically in the same spot) and claim our same spot to watch the show. In addition, each year I plan to take pictures of the fireworks, something I have wanted to do for quite some time and each year I capture complete blur for a million different reasons (forgot my tripod, wrong camera settings, etc.).

Well this year was going to be different, because when I purchased my new camera I also purchased a cable release, which is ideal for getting crisp and clear photographs of fireworks. I did all my homework and read up on taking firework photos, mastered the camera settings and packed my tripod. I was all set. All set, until a few hours before we headed out the door and I could not find my brand new cable release, a major kink in my plan. It is important because with the cable release I would not need to touch the camera to take the photo, which would prevent blurring and produce a crisp clean shot.

Disappointed about the cable release, I still took my camera. I managed to get a few shots out of the 50+ shots I took with just using my tripod. Here are few shots I liked (even with the blur).

I especially love watch the blur did to the one below. 

The good thing is there is always next year and I have plenty of time to find my cable release.

On another note, the show was good and the kids had a blast. Brynn's finally gotten over her fear of the fireworks and really enjoyed herself this year. Braden literally ran around us until the fireworks began (if we could bottle his energy in pill form, we would be rich) and managed to sit through the entire 15 minutes of fireworks without moving, a huge accomplishment. We did have a little help from a little girl whom we did not know that was nice enough to pass out glow bracelets to the kids, something Braden was quite fascinated with. So fascinated he evidently began chewing on it on our way home, broke it open and ended up with the liquid gel in his mouth, which caused a skin reaction around his mouth that resulted in me Googling glow bracelets, which resulted in 1 teaspoon of Benedryl and staying up later than planned. He is fine, turns out you would have to ingest quite a bit of the liquid for it to be toxic and skin irritations are common. I do not think he will be chewing on one of those again. 

We hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th of July!!

One Less Organ

One week ago, I was pulling myself out of bed at 4:45 a.m. to be at the hospital by 5:30 a.m. for my 7:30 a.m. surgery. I was there for laparoscopic cholecystectomy (the fancy name for laparoscopic gallbladder surgery) and an umbilical hernia repair. I found out I had gall stones and an umbilical hernia when Danny was in Singapore, but obviously couldn't have the surgery at the time. And then well.....I just put it off.

I don't sign up for surgery easily and I absolutely hate being "put under", I tend to have the worst lingering affects with anesthesia, but this time around I was completely surprised by how well I coped. The first few days were mostly uncomfortable, but so far the recovery has been a lot easier than expected. My doctor has given me a six week recovery period (due to the hernia), no lifting anything over 10 lbs, no sauna, no baths (yes I can shower), no swimming, no gym and no fatty foods, but it is really hard to imagine it will take that long. And seriously, no pool, is she crazy? we do live in Texas and it is 100 degrees, that is something I will be questioning at my follow-up next week.

One positive note of having surgery was my mom being able to come stay with us and help out with Brynn and Braden. They were both ecstatic to have her here and kept her very busy (busier than she expected, I think). There were presents, a couple trips to McDonald's, playtime, movie watching and lots of pool time in the backyard. My mom also brought her dog Foxie along, who probably wished she was left behind in New Mexico because Braden tormented her every chance he got!

Besides playing with the kids, cooking, doing laundry and keeping my house picked up, my mom also managed to do the unimaginable with Mr. Braden; she got him to pee in the big-boy potty. Now I have been working with this kid for a couple weeks, he peed once for me, and it was on our living room rug (after sitting on the toilet for 45 minutes). She shows up with a wrapped present and tells him if you pee in the potty, you get to open the present. Well...Braden literally wasted no time and peed for her and then peed again and again and again! Sure, she promised McDonald's and bribed him with "treats", but I tried the same thing and got nothing but a ruined rug (or wait...maybe I got a new rug.) Anyhow, I am very grateful he is excited and willing to go in the big-boy toilet. Thanks Mom! I am already thinking about all the money we will be saving on diapers.

So all and all my first week of recovery has been pretty good, the hardest part is sleeping (comfortably), not being able to drive, not being able to eat what I want, tiring easily and forgetting and doing something I shouldn't have (you quickly know when this has happened). It has been frustrating at times, but I am sure in the end it will all be worth it when I am pain free and hopefully enjoying food again.

On a side note, I have become addicted to the ridiculous show, Jeresylicious (which I never watched before this last week) which is exactly why I fear big hair, bronzer and animal prints.

Conversation with Brynn

I was getting ready for the day when Brynn popped in to see what I was doing which led to an unexpected compliment on my shoes that happened to be a pair of flip-flops.

The conversation went like this.

Brynn: Mommy, I really love your shoes, are they new?

Me: Thank you, sweetie. Nope, I've had them for years.

Brynn (with a perplexed look on her face): How long?

Me: Oh at least four years. (I only remember because I bought them when we went to Park City, Utah for a family vacation).

Brynn (looking a little confused): I don't understand.

Me: Understand what?

Brynn: Did you stop eating your vegtables?

Me: What?

Brynn: Don't your feet grow?

Me:   My feet stopped growing a long time ago sweetie and someday yours will too and when they do you will wear the same shoe size for the rest of your life (well most of the time, but I didn't want to confuse her anymore).

Brynn: Strange things happen when you get older, don't they mommy?

Me: Indeed they do.

Brynn: Well...at least I will have lots of shoes like you and then I can buy those containers you have under your bed to put my shoes in because I'll have so many they won't fit in the closet.

I think I'm off to purge some shoes...

I'm back....

Hello there.

Is anyone out there?

I would not blame you if you jumped ship and deleted me from your blog roll; after all, it has been well over a month since my last posting, but no worries I'm back now to catch you up on what we have been doing the past month and a half.

April 16th - Danny's Homecoming.

(This above photo is what happens when you leave your camera on manual mode with a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second trying to catch action.  Nope, it's not clear, but it's a keeper, after all it's the moment I was after.)

Overall, Danny enjoyed his business trip (minus the heat & the plane ride) to Singapore. It rains there everyday and the temperature was in the low 90s with 100% humidity. He said it never cooled down, not even at night.  He did enjoy that Singapore is super clean (no trash anywhere, the fines are outrage), has awesome food, beautiful scenery and very friendly people. Somewhere he would consider traveling back to, only in the winter (if they have a winter?)

Here's a link to the pictures he took while he was there.  Singapore

April 19th - The Beginning of the Whirlwind

Danny took the day off work and we hung out at the house. I started my Week in the Life project from Ali Edwards's blog. The project involves documenting an entire week of your life with photos and words. I made it through the week carrying my camera with me everywhere and documenting our life. I am still in the process of putting everything together, but when I have the album completed I will share it with you. It is definitely something I will do again. I really enjoyed the process and think it will be cool looking back on it several years from now.

April 20th - Braden's Birthday!

Our little boy turned three. We had a small celebration with our family opening gifts and eating ice-cream cake. He got a new bicycle that he was super happy about.

April 23rd - G-ma, Grandpa Jerry and Aunt Erin arrived from out-of-town.

(Brynn and Braden help carry in their bags.)

April 24th - Brynn's Birthday!

Our little girl is five! Another small celebration with family opening gifts and eating chocolate cake with white frosting and pink flowers (her request). She was surprised with her very on cupcake maker.

April 25th - The BIG party!

Another birthday celebration, this time with all our friends and family for both Brynn and Braden at Main Event. This was the first year we have not had their party at our home and the excitement over this party was insane, especially for Brynn.  It is all they talked about the weeks prior to this day. They had a blast and I am so glad we did this and would do it again in a heartbeat (especially since I did not have anything to clean up).

After the party we had a big surprise for Brynn and Braden, but it required a nap first (which there were no complaints about). After their naps, we woke them up and took them to see Disney on Ice, which was awesome. It was geared more towards little girls and Braden figured this out after the first half hour, but they did have a Cars scene he was crazy about (and so was I).  Brynn enjoyed every minute, she kept saying, "Hey, I know this song."

The next week was 'recovery' week, My mom, Jerry and Erin headed back home, Danny started back on a normal work schedule, the kids went back to school and I got caught up on laundry, making room for the new toys and getting our house back in order which only led to the bright idea of having a garage sale. I think it was the fastest I had ever prepared for a garage sale, but in the end it was worth it. It always feels good to purge out the old stuff. Now, if I can just keep the new stuff coming in. ;-)

By now, I have made it to the week of May10th, which is when all the craziness starts at Brynn and Braden's school. There was Splash Day for each of them on two different days, end of year lunch celebrations, Spring Fest, teacher's gifts, class photos and Graduation for Brynn. And let me tell you, I was not prepared for the Graduation ceremony. I was well aware of the fact they would be walking across the stage in their cap and gowns getting their diploma, but I was not prepared for the flash forward that played out in my mind. Sitting there watching how proud she was with the biggest smile ever on her face put me several months into the future watching her walk into her kindergarten class. I am so excited for her, but at the same time, the reality my baby girl is growing up really hit me.  This was her last year home with me.

Our Little Graduate!

May 18th, 2010

May 21st - Headed to Hobbs, MN

Packed up, loaded down (literally) we are headed to my mom and Jerry's for my stepsister, Erin's high school graduation. It's about a seven-hour drive and for the most part the kids did pretty well. After all, this time they did not have any movies to watch. They each had their own personal backpacks packed with items they wanted to bring.

Braden: His drawing board,Leap Frog, a few Thomas the Train books, three matchbox cars (an ambulance, fire truck and police car) and a Thomas the Train motorized train.

Brynn: Her drawing board, a pad of paper with markers, a few coloring books, her baby doll and her Leap Frog.

The scenery is not really much to write home about especially after you pass Brady, TX. Up to that point, you are going through winding hills covered with green trees and wild flowers.  After that it is brown with a few patches of green. Once you pass San Angelo, it becomes flat and brown with the exception of the big blue sky overhead. There is an area in West Texas we go through covered in windmills (pinwheels is what Brynn calls them) that is pretty cool, but after that it is fields of dirt blowing across the highway (literally).

May 23rd - We headed back home. It was a long drive and we got in late.

May 25th - The Tooth Fairy visits our home. Yes, that's right Brynn lost her first tooth. Well, actually, Daddy pulled it out, but it was at the request of our daughter. And if you sitting there with you mouth open, we were to. Apparently, the extremely loose tooth was bothering her and she was agonizing over the fact she might swallow it in her sleep and wanted it out. (Good thing this happened while Danny was here, because I really don't think I would have been able to pull it out).

May 27th - I did a photo shoot for a girlfriend of mine who happens to be a make-up artist. She is working on building her portfolio and asked me to take some pictures for her. It was something new and different for me, so of course I was up for the challenge. It didn't hurt that her client was photogenic.

Well that about sums it up to date. We are glad the weekend is here and we have no big plans. We are just going to stay home, enjoy the sun and use the grill so I have very little dishes to clean. Have a safe and good Memorial Day weekend!

P.S. I will be back, I promise!

The count down is on....

In less than two hours, we will be heading out the door to pick up Danny from the airport.  Yippee!

No Pain, No Gain

I am SO sore. My legs hurt, my shoulders hurt, my arms hurt, my back hurts, muscles I was not even aware of hurt, EVERY THING hurts. I can barely type this blog post as my forearms hurt in a way I never thought possible. This morning it took two hands to grab the gallon of milk from the refrigerator and putting my socks on was excruciating.

What you ask is responsible for such pain?

Well...it all started with the decision not to do a full garden this year, so the huge lime stone rocks we used to create the garden needed a new home and my girlfriend Darlyne volunteered to take them off our hands. It's a win, win situation right?

Therefore, yesterday while the kids were at school Darlyne and I decided to tackle the rocks and get them from our house to hers. She showed up prepared with her husband's truck, a shovel, gloves, a wheelbarrow and a great attitude. One thing I do not think she realized was just how big and heavy these rocks were going to be.

There were 32 rocks in all and our system went something like this; dig up rock, lift into wheelbarrow, haul to the front yard (which is not a hop, skip and a jump), lift into truck and repeat. It literally took both of us to lift each rock; this was clearly not a single woman job. Because the rocks were so heavy (and we were not sure just how much weight her husband's truck could hold) we ended up taking half a load to her house and unloading them in her back yard and then came back to get the second half.

Needless to say; in the middle of all our hard work, high fivin' each other and patting ourselves on the back my dear husband calls from Singapore. I proudly tell him what we are doing and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: "How heavy do you think these rocks are?"

His response: "Oh, about 40 pounds."

Me: "What? No way...they weigh more than that."

Him: "Okay, maybe 50 pounds."

Me: "No, it is taking both me and Darlyne to lift them. They have to weigh more than that."

Him: "Don't think so."

So don't you know the minute we hung up the phone I decided we were weighing the next rock. We took a little detour to the garage scale (which resembles the one's in the doctors office that never lie) and weighed our rock. 

81 POUNDS

No wonder I am SO sore. I am just scared of tomorrow (for me the second day is always the worst.)