Milestone: The Mini Goes to Kingergarten.

I wasn't sad until I picked up the book "Oh, The Places You'll Go" for my facebook post and then I read the note sent home by his sweet teacher.
She sent the parents a survival kit and poem that read:

You've dropped off your child, and as hard as you try, you may need this tissue for the tears in your eyes. Relax with some tea and soon you will find you can leave all of your worries behind. If you need a reminder of your little loved one, hold onto the cotton ball for the school day will soon be done. Here is a penny; it's for your thoughts. It's to remind you that I want to hear from you lots! Thanks for entrusting your child to me. I will do my very best every day to be your child's guide, in learning and exploring this bright, new world they've just stepped into!


Here's a few things I wanted to remember:
*The Mini wanted to take his lunch on the first day (he says he's going to everyday).
He took ramon noodles (I think it had something to do with the foldable spoon that went with the Thermos), a fruit cup, a go gurt, and a capris sun.
*He took a mozzarella stick and crackers for his snack.
*He walked in the classroom and asked Mrs. G if they could play trucks. She told him it was time to play with play dough at their desks and asked him if he could make a hand print.

*He wants the preschool to pick him up in the after school bus. (I'll be in the parking lot following the after school bus. :) HEY..before you call me a helicopter I just want to watch him get on the "bus" at least ONCE! Ha!
*He signed a kindergarten contract promising to attend school regularly and work hard. I forgot to take a picture of his signature. He'll be missing a few days next week for vacation, but we PROMISE not to miss much more than that or I have to visit the principal.
*Today I volunteered for an hour in a 2nd grade classroom and loved it! It helped me not having to leave so quickly.
*I think we're going to like this school.

Welcome Back Toolwoman.

HELLO??? Anyone still out there? It's been awhile, but if you are still with me after all these lonely days then I'll tell you all about my adventure with fixing the dishwasher.
I'm NO appliance expert, but it doesn't take a genius to see "this ain't right" so I called a repairman for some assistance.

He told me it would cost $215 because of the labor involved with replacing the heating element. He then went on to explain the difficulty in pulling out the dishwasher to replace the element. Apparently, I kept staring at him with a blank look waiting for the intensive labor part to reveal itself because "pulling the dishwasher all the way out" and "reaching from behind" did not seem worthy of my $215. It wasn't.

Thanks to my new friends at ehow.com this was fixed in a little over hour (including the time it took to pick up the part).
Full Disclosure: The Commander managed the water line, but the rest was all me.
The total cost: $29.99 and I offered myself better customer service than the overpriced repairman by vacuuming the years of funky build up behind the dishwasher. BONUS POINTS! Now I think a shopping trip is in order as payment for my new found appliance skills. :)

CHA CHING!

July 4th Extravaganza

Today has been a much needed lazy day. I finally downloaded my pictures from the 4th of July weekend and just caught myself grinning ear to ear as I was looking at them. We enjoyed several parties with friends and family. We spent Saturday with Butterbean, Solar, and Nanny. Doesn't she look cute with her pop sickle? Did y'all make homemade pop sickles when you were younger? I found these monster molds at TJ Maxx and they instantly reminded me of eating them when I was young. They were hit with the Minis too. I need to get extra molds because the recipe I used makes a lot, but I only have four molds.



Grandaddy did a great job preparing the food for a shrimp boil. OH it was good!


The Minis started swimming lessons at the Swim Ranch on the 4th.


Our lessons were rained out on the fourth, but the evening turned out great with mild temperatures so we went to some friends' house for another cookout and fireworks. I left my camera so there are no pictures to post, but we grilled burgers and enjoyed watching the fireworks.
We spent the rest of the week finishing up with swimming lessons. Both kids learned a lot and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile to send the Wild Thing, but it was. The most important thing I learned from it was to teach small kids to turn around and reach for the wall after jumping off the side. Most kids drown from falling off the side and don't know to turn around and grab the wall. You can bet we worked hard on that lesson.

Cars 2-My review.

Have you seen it yet? It's cute, but not as good as the first one.
Most of the show is around Mater, who was my favorite character in the first one, but I found him to be a little annoying in this one. He inadvertently becomes a spy agent and metamorphoses into so many characters that I felt myself going broke thinking of all the different Maters that will be hitting store shelves in the next few weeks.
(If you've seen our toy room(s) then you'd probably agree with me that it's time to overcome the guilt brought about from watching Toy Story in order to make room for the Cars2 toys that I'm sure will be at my house this coming Christmas).
The minis loved the movie and so did the Grandparents. Mini #1 kicked his legs through the racing scene as if he were side by side with McQueen and the Wild Thing only looked up between bites. It's amazing he didn't choke from the incessant eating of the popcorn, nerds, and milk duds.
We did not watch the 3D version, but I'm sure we'll be going back so the Commander can see it. I typically prefer the regular version over a 3D version anyway.

VBS

We survived (and loved) this week of Pandamania at VBS. The Wild Thing earned a repuation of being "very sweet" and "a helper".
His teacher just fell in love with him! Yesterday he went over to a child that was crying and began patting him on the back. I guess the Wild Thing can be very sweet when I'm not looking. :)
The Mini enjoyed having me as his teacher and I enjoyed having him. We had 17 5-6 year olds, but there was enough help to make it feel like a breeze. The kids learned some great songs, completed an array of crafts, heard stories, and made new friends. They will be singing How Great Thou Art along with the VBS theme song this Sunday.
We had a lot of fun. He asked me if I was the "potty teacher" since I was the one that walked the kids to the bath rooms. ha!
This was my first time to take a week of vacation to stay home. It's a tradition I will be doing every year! The Commander was out of town so he missed out on the fun, but being off work made things so much easier while he was gone. We had friends over to swim, went to Chuck E Cheese, and ate pizza for lunch one day.
What a great week. I hope you all enjoy your weekend and don't forget to wish all the great dads a Happy Father's Day. We're off to see Grandaddy this afternoon.

The Mini turned 6

We celebrated with a race car party with several of his friends. It was a brisk 57 degrees outside so many of the guests wore their coats. Who knew the temps would rocket into and remain in the 90's a few days later. Here's a sneak peak into the WILD, LOUD, and CRAZY raced theme event.
Robin, the super talented cookie maker of our area, made these works of art for me. She's expecting a baby so we were lucky enough to be one of the last orders she accepted before taking a much needed cookie break. I hope she's back soon. They were GREAT!

My friends in the Sam's club bakery helped me out with these delicious cupcakes.


So that gave me some time to put together a few decorations.




This was a really easy party to put together. A local tire store loaned me some old tires to use for an obstacle course.

We played red light/green light.

We raced cars. This is where it got a bit crazy, but the kids had a great time doing it.

I set up a car station with all different types and sizes of cars.

We ate cupcakes and ice cream outside then went inside to warm up and open presents.


I didn't get a picture of the party favors, but they were car bubbles and a chocolate car on a pretzel stick. They were very easy to make! I got the mold at our local JoAnn store.
This turned out to be a fun, yet jam packed day of events. We went to touch a truck in the morning, a t'ball game at noon, and the birthday party after that. I think we all slept well that night.

Weekend Wrap up and Walmart

I hope you had a great weekend. I enjoyed ours..well, except for the part where the Wild Thing threw up three times on the Walgreens counter without warning. Yeah, I could skip that part. It was one of those surreal experiences where you find yourself only able to think "is this really happening" or "did he really just unload this mess all over the place"? OH IT WAS HAPPENING ALL RIGHT! I had a reminder in the background yelling, HE JUST THREW UP AND IT STINKS! The two cashiers were long gone. They abandoned their registers and high tailed it out of there. The manager finally walked by so I asked for a mop and paper towels. He asked where his cashiers went, if I knew my child was sick, did he have a temperature, or did he over eat? After he was done diagnosing and analyzing the situation, he brought me a dry mop and empty bucket. He was not so helpful, but I got it cleaned up and high tailed it out of there myself. In hind sight, I should have IMMEDIATELY left like I wanted to! SERIOUSLY gross!!! He's acted fine ever since.

We took Dodo and G'daddy to the original WAL MART 5&10 store yesterday. It is now a newly renovated, interactive museum.


You can find Sam Walton's pick up truck and Helen Walton's wedding dress on display.

Do you think the people in the store make fun of tourists who think they are taking a picture with Sam Walton's truck? I would.
His actual truck is INSIDE the museum. The bite marks from his dog, Ol' Roy are still visible on the steering wheel.



Here we are looking at the badge from the only home office associate to retire past the age of 100. It was the security dog!

My favorite part of the museum is the returns wall. I think this is where Wal Mart has a sense of humor and makes fun of the customers.

The clock that won't tell time.

The fishing pole that won't catch fish.

The possessed mixer.

"It won't sharpen ink pens."


Detailed pictures were taken of Sam's office so it could be displayed just as he left it. There is a copy of Steven Covey's book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" on his desk. I read it in college, but didn't get the same results as Mr. Sam Walton did. Maybe I missed a crucial chapter. Ha!

The only thing that still costs a dime is the kiddie ride outside the front of the store. The Minis LOVED it!