Total Pageviews

Monday, August 27, 2018

The Night Before Kindergarten

My, oh my. I don't know how this happened. All the cliched sayings come to mind. The days are long, but the years are short. It goes by in the blink of an eye. You know them. You've heard them. And you've probably said them, too. But here we are, Luke starts school. TOMORROW.

My heart aches and I'm a little bit more than anxious for him, but this child knows no fear and is ready. He wants to go. He wants to make new friends. He wants to learn. And I think I'm being left behind in the dust a little bit.

The memories of the past five years are tucked away in my brain. They're not all good memories, but I can even look back on the stressful times with fondness right now. The dreadful trip to Destin, temper tantrums, me passing Luke off to my mom and driving around for an hour and a half because I just couldn't take it anymore, stomach bugs, rashes, colds, and times when I had absolutely no clue as to what I was doing. And then there's the trip to Disney World, the cuddles at night, Luke singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with his daddy, short stubby legs running to me, "family hugs", Luke seeing Thomas the Train in real life, Luke holding his baby sister for the first time, Christmas mornings... I could go on and on. It hasn't always been a walk in the park, but it's been life, and I've loved life with little Luke.

He's a rough and tumble little boy. He's loud, he's rambunctious, he's hard headed, he has a hard time with boundaries. But he's also loving, and kind and can be gentle (at times). He likes making friends and running fast. He also likes reading and math and building with Legos. I think he'll like school.

And so, tomorrow, we make a new memory of him walking into his classroom and starting this new, big adventure. Please, Lord, give his teachers patience and grace and kindness and the ability to see that sweet little boy. He may have a hard time listening, but he does aim to please, I promise. Also, Lord, protect his spirit. Let kids be kind (I know they won't always be), but help his heart hurt a little less when it does happen. And please help me. Help me to let him go just a little bit more and to guide him the best I know how.











And just because I feel like being morose... Luke as a baby. <3



Sunday, August 26, 2018

5K's, Applesauce and Kindergarten

It's been another crazy week in our household but we've survived! Now we have to get through Tuesday and we can be on our way to a new normal.

Dillon had a big lab inspection this week, I had the 5K that I've worked on for 8 months now and Tuesday is Kindergarten for Luke! Charlie also had an issue with her eye this week, which always happens when we're at our busiest (not necessarily her eye, but someone seems to always be sick).

So anyways, Dillon did well on his inspection, Charlie's eye has gotten better, my race was successful and I'm sure the first day of school will follow suit. We're just all worn out by this point, though.

We also decided that today was a good day to start making 20 some odd quarts of applesauce. I don't know why, but we did. Well, I guess I do know why... Dillon's daddy has an apple tree in his back yard that has produced an abundance this year. He picked apples for us, but we just have not had a chance to get up there. My dad went up that way yesterday and swung by Eddie's house and picked up probably 3 bushels of apples. I'm halfway through right now. I'll make the other half on Tuesday while the kids are in school. I just can't turn down free apples. And they're good apples. It's old timey apples that aren't the prettiest, but they sure taste good because there's no chemicals on them and the tree has been there for years. So, if you're in need of some applesauce, you know where to get some.

We did do meet the teacher at Luke's school this week. He didn't want his picture taken at all that day so I obliged. His teacher is very sweet though and he didn't want to leave the day that we went. In fact, he's bummed that everyone gets to go tomorrow and he has to wait until Tuesday. They split up the kindergarten classes in our district so the teachers have more time with them on the first day. While the rest of the county starts tomorrow, Luke's name was chosen to come in on Tuesday so we have one more day of summer. I'm kind of glad for that because some students have to go in tomorrow, have a day off then go back on Wednesday. It'll be better to start with a good routine from the start.

I'm tired like the kind of tired that coffee doesn't help. Dillon and I both have off on Tuesday, but I'm not sure what we'll do with a whole day waiting for the kids to come home. If it's one thing I've learned, things change all the time. We just have to keep rolling with it.

Luke had to sign some paperwork for school saying he would follow the rules for his teacher and bus driver. I hope he listens!




Race day set up! 



Dillon's co-worker, Montana, ran our race!
So did Seth!








I also decided to make blueberry pancakes this morning...whyyyyy?




Oh my goodness, these smell sooo good!




This was Charlie's eye at the beginning of Wednesday morning...

And by the time I got her for the eye doctor it was swollen shut. :(

runners at the race! Almost 300 people were there yesterday!

Our committee!



Oh and did I mention Luke's bunk beds came in this week? And he refuses to sleep in it. Dillon said he thinks there's just too much change going on so Luke always goes in to sleep with Charlie when he's ready for bed. I guess it doesn't hurt anything. 

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Richmond Trip!

We're back! We're back! We had an excellent trip to Richmond this past weekend, but it's always oh so good to get back home, even if it is a mess! We had an awesome weekend with family and had such fun running around and staying at home. We stayed with Dillon's cousin, Cory and his wife, Lindsay this weekend. They live about 30 minutes outside of Richmond in a sweet home with their pups and kitty cats and a beautiful backyard. We wanted for NOTHING this weekend! Lindsay had gotten all kinds of food that the kids would eat, and snacks for us and good drinks and she made us a delicious meal on Friday night. They even had an "at home" water park made up for the kids with water balloons, a slip and slide and a water blob, which was extra neat! We had such a good time catching up with them. 

We left after work on Thursday and made it there around 10:30 that night. Dillon had to come back today because he needs to get to work tomorrow so we decided to go down that evening so we could at least have two full days. Friday we went into Richmond and went to a cool record store, where they had albums for $1! YEAH! Then we met Dillon's sister, Kenzie, and her family at PBR for lunch up the street. Afterwards, we went back and enjoyed the water activities. Did you all know that Richmond is hot? Like, really hot? This mountain mama cannot tolerate it very well. Driving down there on Thursday night it was still 90 degrees in Durham at 7:00 at night. Ugh. 

Saturday was little baby Indie's first birthday party! We all went to a pretty park in Henrico and enjoyed some good food and time with family and on the playground. 

I'm sooooo tired today. I drove back the majority of the way because Dillon didn't sleep last night and he was afraid he was too tired to drive. It's so unusual for me to get behind the wheel when our family is together, but I really enjoyed it! Ha! Next week is my big 5K so I'm getting a little stressed and a little excited. We also do meet the teacher this week at Luke's school and he starts Kindergarten next Tuesday. There's not much downtime coming up, but that's ok. If you see me and I look a little frazzled, just smile at me, maybe offer a hug. It would be appreciated!! :)

I've sworn off having dogs after the ones we have die, but this guy may have changed my mind. He was such a sweetheart and I would bring him home in a minute.







I don't think our kids wanted to leave their house.












We also had a lot of fun playing cards and teaching Luke to play dominoes. He absolutely LOVED that game!





Dillon accidentally threw the frisbee over the fence so he went to get it. The next pictures are ones Luke took!!



And, yes. My 5 year old took this photo!



You can now look at Charlie and say "Give me your stink eye" and this is what she does. 


Luke is Cory's shadow.




























These are from last week! Our friends the Feavers, invited us to go to a water park in Greenville with them. Luke went down a real water slide!







She did not go down the slide. She was not a fan.