Since today is the first day of school for some of our kids here in Middle TN, I thought I might share a little tip that I started (and have continued) since Abby was in Pre-K.  

I think everyone may have their own strategy for overcoming the School Work Monster, you know, the mound of paper, art, writings, spelling tests, etc. that accumulate as the school year progresses.   I will share what works for me...

When Abby comes home with her school bits, I look them over with her....if there is something particularly awesome (a drawing, a story) I tend to scan it, send it off to the kin folk and then post on fridge.   But for the most part, after reviewing an appropriately praising her for her fabulous work - the school bits go in a box like this:

The school bits box - usually resides on the floor by my desk in the office

At the end of the school year, it's pretty much full.    Then, at some point over the summer (or on the first day of the next school year like me today) you make yourself a strong cup of coffee, sit down and go through the box.    You make two piles....one to keep and one to give to the garbage man.    Yes, I know....it's hard to let go.   But you must....


Now you may be able to do this process on the day your little cherub brings it home.....not me.     I'm too emotional and attached.    I would save everything!    After the school and summer have passed, I'm a little more objective about what to keep and what to throw.    Plus, if I need to go back and look at something from earlier in the year, it's all there in the school bits box.


So - once you have your "keep" pile, you put it in a nice little file like this:

Organized folder of school bits

What am I saving?   I'm looking for a snapshot of what Abby was doing in this school year.   I'm also saving certain pictures and stories that will capture who she is.    At the very front of the folder, I have a thin file folder that contains her report card, school picture, class picture and any special notes from her teacher.   I label the front of the folder with a sharpie - Grade, school, teacher name.

Once my folder is done, it gets put in the closet with the others:



Some day, I can give these to Abby to do with what she pleases....I know for myself, I have a box in the deep recesses of my closet that contains school work from my childhood.    Every once in awhile I pull it out, touch it, read it, laugh, remember.  

So there it is....maybe this will be helpful for you.    Maybe you can take something from this and make your own tip.   Bottom line, stay on top of the School Work Monster.....it will overwhelm and destroy if you let it!!

May your school year be blessed!!

Today was Abby's first day of 3rd grade....you know what that means, right?  By now, you know what these posts are all about....the evolution of the Care Bear backpack!

We found out that Abby's teacher is a huge Florida State fan.   A homework assignment that Abby received this week was to find a picture of someone performing an action, write a sentence and highlight the verb.

Time flies....

Signal the conductor...the train needs slowin' down! Was it not yesterday that I was giving birth to my precious child and now she's going to 1st grade?

I always wanted to sucker punch those people who would sigh and say, "enjoy each moment because it goes by so fast". Ugh! "Get over the cliche's already" I would scoff to myself. Ahhh, it's so refreshing to look back and see how mature I've become since those days. Now instead of scoffing, I'm just trying to enjoy each moment...you know, it goes by so fast!



I realize that I just did this comparison less than 2 months ago (read that here). You may find comfort in knowing that next year I may be over the taking-of-the-pictures-with-the-backpack phase. I'm not sure I can give you that assurance just yet, but the thought may help you endure another round of Care Bear backpack pictures.

Actually, this was Abby's idea...she thought it would be a good "joke" to take another picture of her this year with the infamous CB backpack. I agreed that it might be a good tool to measure her growth. Won't it be fabulous to see her wearing the Care Bear's backpack on her first day of work?

Let's review:








Take special note of the shoes here in the last picture. Yes, those are shoelaces. Although Abby has known how to tie a bow for awhile, I've hesitated to buy lace up shoes because I knew that it would add an additional 16 minutes to the morning routine. As it is, the production that she does with her socks takes 3 minutes per foot. Not because she can't navigate the sock - it's the cuffing. Ohhhh the cuffing....it must be just so. Will never know where she gets that from.

It was a great first day at school...Abby's very excited to have her same teacher this year as she did for Kindergarten. She has all the same classmates (with the exception of one who moved out of state and one new boy). We are looking forward to all that 1st grade will bring.

I'm especially looking forward to my daughter officially being smarter than me.

Big hugs from
Care Bear Backpack Central,
k

I could have called this post, "my baby's done growed up" but I thought it would be wise to display my edumacational aptitude so you all will think I'm smart.



Can you stand this picture? Inspect the cheeks...take them in. Commit them to memory. Nevermind the hack job on the bangs - c'mon, I can only do so many things and now you want me to have a cosmetology degree too? Look past the bangs. The cheeks...THE CHEEKS. I love those cheeks.



Ahhh...Jr. Kindergarten (otherwise known as glorified second year of preschool). Of course Mom has made her wear the SAME Care Bears backpack that she wore for preschool. How embarrassing that must have been for her. You know how cruel those junior kindergartners can be about that sort of thing.

On a completely unrelated note...I'm having a moment looking at my flowers from our house back in CA. Maybe soon I will have some flowers in my TN flowerbed. ~~sigh~~



NO! NO! Not the Care Bears backpack.... Fortunately for Abby, after the first day of Kindergarten, her teacher dropped a subtle hint that perhaps the Care Bears backpack might be "a little small".





Is this a new trend? Since when do I need two school pictures? Does that much change in 8 months? Do I not take enough pictures at home that I need the staged Olan Mills shot? Where is the wagon wheel? Or has the metal rail replaced the wagon wheel as the prop of choice?

Hey, I'm a sucker just like the next Mom. The picture peeps got 2 checks from me, don-cha-know.



Today was Abby's last day of Kindergarten. No more Kindergarten escapades to write about. More importantly, my spell checker will finally get a break from the word Kindergarten. I always spell that word wrong! Now I can move onto numbers. I'm very excited.

People, my girl is growing up...I can hardly stand it...it's happening right before my eyes. She's a beautiful, smart, funny, tender-hearted little person who can't talk without moving her hands. I love her so much!

Thanks for letting me have my Mommy moment.

love,
k

After two "Thought Provo-K-tions" in a row, I figure I'd better keep this one light. I know it's been a few days and I'm sure my peeps are chompin' at the bit to know T.A.C.A. haps.

Not only will this be light, it will also be short...and maybe boring. Due to the fact that I am S-I-C-K...when I swallow, I feel like I have a ball of nails in the back of my throat, my neck is swollen and I have a nagging cough (which is not at all helped by the ball of nails).

Here is a picture of my girl...no, that is not dandruff on her head - it's SNOW.


The first day back from Thanksgiving break, it started to snow...so they let the kids outside to play. This is the first official "snow" of the season...how exciting! Abby could not stop talking about it.

As I have been highly anticipating the first snow, this should have been a momentousness occasion for me...complete with 1,243 snaps of my playskool digital camera. But alas, I was in the hospital when this snow happened. Yes, I made a little trip to the ER Monday morning.

First of all - I'm fine - NOTHING is wrong with me (well, except I have a ball of nails in my throat).

This last weekend, I ate only fruits and veggies (long story). In order to ease back into my regular eating pattern, I opted to indulge in some delish 2-yr-old-birthday-party-frankenfood, followed up later by a batch of my famous popcorn with a generous sprinklin' of spicy chipotle seasoning. This is a recipe for disaster, people.

The readers digest version of the rest of this story is I woke up at 1 in the morning convinced that I was having a heart attack. I sat up in the living room all night pondering my condition. Mike woke up, got wind of the situation...we got Abby off for school then headed over to the ER. To be quite honest, it was a wonderful experience that boosted my somewhat low expectations of Middle Tennessee medical services. They rushed me right in, got me all hooked up and started running blood tests. The ER doc came in and told me that the chance was pretty slim that I was having a heart attack - being the young'un that I am. But, just in case, she's running all the tests. While she was running the tests, she was going to treat me for acid reflux. I was a little embarrassed that I didn't know the difference between a heart attack and heart burn...but, apparently some of the symptoms are similar. So there you go. Too bad they could not do anything about the nail ball in my throat.

On the holiday front, we put up our Christmas decor over the last few days - this included our first Tennessee Christmas tree...a nice 6 foot douglas fir. Smells good. NO TINSEL! I have tinsel issues. I have alot more to write about this, but I'm sick and tired. I really should have gone to bed some time ago, but I go the extra mile for my peeps. Who loves you more than me? Come on...

If you beg me, I will post a picture of the ginormous bruise on my arm from where the nurse messed my IV thing up.

loveitis,
k


SECRET MESSAGE: Does anyone even read these?

This is Abby holding up her entry in the "Fire Safety in the Home" contest. I think it's a great poster, which depicts 5 fire safety rules.

1. Don't leave the house with anything (in other words, don't try and grab a bunch of stuff, just leave with yourself)
2. Touch the door before you go out the door
3. Don't play with matches
4. Stop, Drop and Roll (my personal favorite - not sure if you can see but she drew a picture of herself rolling where all you see is the back of her head)
5. Call 911

Abby spelled most of the words on the poster...however, she copied the words at the top from something I wrote on a piece of paper. Unfortunately, I spelled "safety" incorrectly.

Yeah, I know.

At leest if she dozsn't win the contast she can blaame it on her mom.

loev,
k

SECRET MESSAGE: I love you Bobbo Fett

Thought y'all would like to see Abby's coustoume for "Character Dress Up" day at school. She was required to pick one of her favoirte books, dress up like one of the characters and give an oral book report in front of the class.



Indroducing.........RAINBOW FISH!

I made this from 4 different color foamie's, sequines, a little glitter and some foamie glue. I hand sewed the "scales" onto a cheap blue shirt I bought for $2. It turned out pretty good, I think - and Abby was proud to wear it :)

SECRET MESSAGE: There are no horses

Just a quick update for ya on the haps at Club Amaro.

As of yesterday our apartment is FINALLY empty...and CLEAN! I never thought I would see it empty. Good grief. I spent 4 hours cleaning that place - spic and span it was when I was done. The fella came in to do the walk through and said, "Awesome" and "Ah man, I sure pray-shate this" about 7 times each and then signed off on it! They are real relaxed here about deposits - we were not required to pay a one - not to mention our first month was free. The guy doing the walk through was so grateful for me having cleaned it the way I did that I got the sense that it wasn't something that was required. Oh well...it made me feel good to do it.

Boxes are slowly but surely disappearing, thanks to B & M who are going to be moving in a few weeks (I think). They are still working on their house, which is going to be incredible once it's finished! We are looking forward to being down the street from each other (and we're also looking forward to being settled!). Rooms are starting to become functional (I cooked my first official meal on my new stove tonight). There's always the reorganizing that will take place for the next few months, but it feels good to have rooms in working order.

"Painter Rob" just finished the guest bathroom - it looks fabulous. The color is "Swiss Almond" and it's a major improvement over the wallpaper. The prior owners must have gotten a deal on this hunter green and maroon stripped wall paper because it's everywhere. The cool news is that Painter Rob needs an updated website....and, I just so happen to know someone who does websites and also needs her living room painted. The sunny-yellow is a little too perky for us and it's not quite right with the merlot couch and chairs.


Abby is having a blast in Kindergarten...the above shot is a pic of their Teddy Bear picnic they had today. This was "bear" week at school...they were asked to bring a stuffed animal bear to school to hang out for the week. They learned all about bears, hibernation, types of bears and all that kind of stuff. Abby had her first trip to the school nurse on Thursday after she tripped, fell and bled. She told me every last detail on the way home from school that day and at the very end she said this about the school nurse: "She sure knows about being a nurse".

Last but not least, we had a fun spur of the moment outing tonight - all the way to our next door neighbors house. The husband is part of a garage band (and I mean that literally...they play in their garage!). They had a huge table of food, a whole bunch of guys playin' stuff and a nice big couch for the wives. They played country oldies, and they were REALLY GOOD! There was a stand up bass, steel guitar, piano, guitars and a full drum set. They were just jammin' the night away. The male singer had a great Johnny Cash sounding voice and there was a gal there who sang a few and she sounded like Loretta Lynn. We hung out there for quite a while just listening and laughing at the 'back and fourth' banter between the musicians. Even Abby got into it. We are excited about having such cool neighbors!

Well, I hope that everyone has a great weekend in store...I can pretty much sum up the weekend ahead for us in one word: BOXES. We are excited for our first official visitation, which is coming up in less than a month...but, before that happens, there's a little matter of someone turning into a new decade. HMmmmmmmmm....

love and 30 somethings,
k

Abby had a "show and tell" activity on Friday...teacher asked her to bring 3 things that showed something about herself. She choose: Her road trip scrapbook, her play microphone and her camera. Of course, I knew that she'd come home with a few new flicks in her camera! Her teacher was nice enough to snap a pic of the class...then offered to snap one of the two of them. So here's a pic of Abby with her teacher:



The first week of school is in the books. A routine is starting to be established and I'm figuring out the whole "pick up" thing. It's quite a nice time of solitude, I must say...sitting in the "line" with nothing but the hum of my engine choking away gas at $3.75 a gallon. My new goal in life is to try to be first in the pick up line. Each day this week I would go a minute or two earlier but could never get that first spot! The closest I've gotten is probably 10th. I notice that the higher grade pick up line (they get out 30 minutes AFTER the kinders) is starting to queue up before I even get to the kinder line! So you have people sitting there for an hour...I don't get that. Of course in order to be first in line, I may have to get there an hour early. Oh the sacrifices...we'll see just how bad I want it.


The new Club Amaro is slowly but surely being established. Mike went and got the contents of our storage unit and placed everything in the garage. Today, I took advantage of our state's "no sales tax" day and purchased 3 major appliances and a guest bed. On top of no tax, the appliances were 10% off...yay! We still haven't started the process of boxing stuff - it's still a little too painful to think about. I may go over to the house and put some batteries in the smoke detectors. Yeah, that will definitely push the progress meter forward. We are praying that somehow a little man would come and paint our office before we move in. I know how Mike and I are - once that office furniture gets in there, forget it...it's hunter green and harvest gold crackle forever! Complete with "books" wallpaper strip) see this picture for a refresher.

There are all those little things that you need to find out when you take over a house...here are some of my current questions:
1. How in the world do you use a riding mower?
2. What in the world is a water softener, why do I have one and do I need to touch it?
3. How do I light the water heater pilot light (NO the gas company will NOT come out and do that here....TITO, WHERE ARE YOU??)
4. Where is the filter on that monster air conditioning unit outside?
5. Which of these 8 light switches turns on the light?

I remember when we sold Charlotte Ave...I made this awesome document for our new owners...I put EVERYTHING in there, right down to the name of our mailman. I had a tidy little folder with all appliance documentation and other information of note. And, I even left a nice gift basket as a housewarming gift! All we got from our sellers were cobwebs and a riding mower (sans instructions). I think there was a pamphlet about the stove and dishwasher - but that's it! Oh well...

That's it for now...I'll try to come up with a post that's not related somehow to school or house stuff. It's sort of our life right now, I'm sure you understand.

tax free love,
k

A quick update to let you know that we OFFICIALLY own a part of Tennessee. Well, to be completely technical we owe money to a bank who owns a part of Tennessee - but that doesn't sound quite as exciting. We closed escrow today and got the nod from our Realtor that it's Ok to use our keys. What's next? MOVING. More on that to come.

Secondly, Abby has completed her 2nd day of Kindergarten. She is loving it. The afternoon "pretend school" time is in full swing already! (This is where she sets up all her babies and stuffed animals and pretends to teach them).

One cute item of note...yesterday after her first day, she was telling me about eating lunch in the cafeteria. I will mostly be making her lunch this year, but her school also has a full service cafeteria there as well. Abby had eyes the size of saucers as she told me about the "other side" of the cafeteria where the kids go up with a tray and select food from a table. She said, "And you know what?" (There was a long pause where I think she was waiting for me to guess or something)....she puts her hand up to her cheek like she's going to tell me a secret and then whispers, "then they PAY for it".

I think the cafeteria concept is very exciting to her...I guess she's led a sheltered life. I guess there are worse things to not know about, eh?

Anyway - we are very excited about the things going on around here...we also acknowledge that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17).

Love,
k

We survived the "phase in" day for Kindergarten...looking forward to the first official day of school on Monday. I did great on my drop off and pick up, although I had help from Gdaddy (and there were only about 1/3 of the kids there).

I have to share a little moon funny...the night before her phase in day, we were all sitting at the table eating dinner. I asked Abby, "So Abby, what would you like to wear tomorrow to school?" She didn't skip a beat as she responded, "Sumthin' cute".

She is my child, really she is.

I'm so excited about her school...after attending the "Kindergarten" room meeting w/ her teacher, I am thrilled about the stuff she'll be learning and the way that they will present it. I'm sure there will be lots of fun material for future posts.

Gdaddy snaps his camera ALOT more than I do these days, so there are tons of new pics to view. Please visit the Dropshots page to see them...here are some links if you're feeling like you want to pick-n-choose:

• Legos/Logs and Date with Grandaddy @ Discovery Center
• PHASE IN DAY of Kindergarten!
• Grandaddy Visits, Abby's Haircut at the Big Girl Salon
• Swimming Lessons!

We have a weekend ahead showing Gdaddy the sights of Middle Tennessee, then will say goodbye to him after the "drop off" on Monday. On Tuesday, we have the big "closing"...a real answer to prayer there is that all the numbers have gone done (as they usually do) from what was originally sketched out. We feel very blessed and know that God has special plans for us in this house. Looking forward to posting more adventures about that too!

Enjoy your weekend everyone...hope you'll be wearin' sumthin' cute!!

hugs & kisses,
k