Does Anyone Need a Fix?

I don't really have any photos to go along with this post. I have had a couple of comments from friends asking me very nicely to please post something because they have nothing to do at 5:30am or 11:30pm. I am so thankful for bored friends, at any hour of the day.

School is going different. Different than I thought it would be, and much harder than I thought it would be. I knew it would be an adjustment, I just thought it would all be good adjustments. I imagined the second week being our "power through" week of being emotional and tired, but those things seem to have perpetuated themselves into week 3. We have realized that Kate gets sad on Sunday or Monday evenings, saying she doesn't want to go to school because she misses being at home playing with Nancy and misses Daddy. No, she doesn't say much about missing me. No, that does not hurt my feelings.

The eve of the first full week of school we had a very sad Kate come out of bed and tell us "I used to eat 3 meals a day with you, but now I only eat 2!!!" (add many "boo-hoo"s at then end of most of her statements and you can get a feel for how the conversation really went). We had a sweet conversation with her, though, about how God is always with her, and He can comfort her when she is sad. Also, we reminded her about last year, and how we felt God asked us as a family to do homeschool and even though we weren't excited about it every day, we still needed to choose to trust that God had led our family right where He wanted us; and the same applies to Brushy Creek. It was a conversation we would never have had if she were home this year; I would be breathing down her neck about her handwriting and math skills and controlling every step of the way and not letting her make mistakes. Instead, we all have a little (first-grade sized) pain and heartache, and learn to depend on God more.

One funny thing she said to me after the first day of school was this:

Me: Hey, Kate, did you ever find yourself talking and praying to God today while you were at school?

Kate: No. I pretty much could do everything by myself so I didn't need His help.

This just floored me. Absolutely. Not because I was surprised. But that my 6-year-old summed up in just a few words our human struggle with independence. God doesn't want us to need His help. He wants us to need Him, for who He is and all He is. Reminds me to change my prayer from "Lord, help with this, and this, and oh yeah! this." to "Lord, help me want You even if I don't need anything!! Just for the sake of knowing You more!"

We did venture up to Boone for a weekend in August to visit Ryan's brother and family. We had a great time, and I'll post some of those pictures soon. Nancy started mom's day out once a week, so she is loving feeling like a big girl in school like Kate, and I am luh-ving the 5 hours all to myself every Thursday. If you call and I don't answer, it's because I am scrubbing something clean or running. Don't take it personally.

"The Best Day of My Whole Life"

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who called to check in on me on Meet the Teacher night and the First Day of School! I feel very loved and supported! Kate did great! And I did too.

Her teacher's name is Mrs. Birckbichler (Burke-bickler) but she tells the students to call her Mrs. B. The night before school started, Kate was putting on her pjs and dancing around in her room and I heard her say "The first day of first grade is going to be the best day of my life! I can't wait for second grade!!" Aren't we always looking forward to the next best thing?

I was up around 5:30 this morning, fixed some muffins, drank some coffee so I'd be pleasant to Mrs. B, got a quick shower and dressed, and heard Kate up at 6:45. She went ahead and got dressed and ready, and we ate breakfast together (Nancy too), we packed her lunch together, took some photos, and we were off at 7:35! Kelly, you were right. Goodbye lazy mornings!

First Grade! Mrs. Birckbichler's class.

Julia was gracious enough to coach me through the drop off this morning. We met at a friends house that lives across the street from the school, parked and all walked in together. Julia has a 2nd grader and Kindergartener. I love this shot of the kids walking in together!

Kate at her desk! She sits in the front of the room - I'm wondering when she'll begin to need glasses? Totally anticipating that at some point. She walked right into the class, said good morning to the teacher, hung her backpack up, put on her badge, and sat at her desk and waited for the day to begin! We hugged her and said "Have a great day!" She didn't even get up from the desk to hug us, and said "See ya later!"

Can you see her way in the background? Behind the green box on the desk in the back? I took this from the classroom door. She looked so small to me, and alone. But she doesn't ever consider herself alone I don't think. I don't either, and when I am alone, I relish it. This is the point of the morning where I felt obligated to shed a maternal tear or two; I have a feeling that will come later, after she's gone day after day, and I begin to miss her. Today, I just got TONS of stuff done and had fun with Nancy!

After I picked her up, we went to Sonic for half price slushies and she showed me her worksheets. On the way home, here is our conversation:

K: "Mrs. B isn't like I thought she would be."

M: "What did you think she would be like?"

K: "You know how ladies have short hair? She has long hair. And sometimes even puts it up in a ponytail!"

M: "Is that all?"

K: "Um, she's kind. I thought she'd be, um, I don't know how to say it."

M: "Mean?"

K: "No...."

M: "Like a mom?"

K: silence.....

Nancy's concerned face. Her chair was wobbly.

First Grade Eve Dinner

Peaches, Tomatoes and Zinnias

I do not like hot weather, but have come to appreciate all the things that come with the peak of summertime. My favorites are peaches (I think we've bought and eaten a bushel these past 2 months), tomatoes and the zinnias and sunflowers in our yard. These flowers I plant every year for 3 reasons:

1. My mom gives us the seeds. It would be a waste not to plant them!

2. It is one of the few things I consider a "success" in our yard, so I get a gardener self esteem boost by planting them.

3. I love to bring in cut flowers and to share them with friends. This makes all the work on the front end worth it.

Tomatoes, trying to ripen. I haven't ever grown real ones, except for grape ones, so the thought of too many tomatoes makes me happy.

Every year after we put our seeds in the ground and the seedlings sprout, I think that we don't have quite enough seeds, so I go buy a couple of more packets. I think this year I learned my lesson: we always have enough seeds!

Ryan is a ham. So is Kate. I can blame so much on him. And those are Mexican sunflowers, bright orange.

Gardener in training?

An idea of where the garden is in our yard and how many flowers we have. It's not a huge space, but it gives us more flowers than we can use, so we give most of them away, which is the most fun part of it for me!

A bucketful for Laura B's shower, and so gratifying to think they were seeds in our garage just 4 months ago!

Burns Day 2009

August 11 came and went again! Kate turned 6 and we celebrated 8 years of marriage. Although, I use the word "celebrate" loosely: after Kate's second birthday party of the day, we put on our pjs, drank a glass of wine and looked at our wedding photos. Then we watched Season 8 of Friends for a while.

Kate is now old enough for me to find it hard to believe she was ever a baby; her baby face has been slowly replaced by Nancy's baby face, until I pull out pictures, and countless memories of our days spent just the two of us come flooding back. I love the convenience and quantity that digital cameras give, but nothing beats sitting down with a fat stack of photos to flip through. Even nostalgia seems a luxury to me these days.

Kate decided months ago she wanted her 6th birthday to be a fairy house building party. She has a favorite book from the library about a little girl who goes on vacation with her family, and in the woods near the cottage they stay at is an area where people can build fairy houses to try and attract fairies. The "houses" actually just attract bugs and animals, and that determines whether you are graced with the fairies' presence.

The "rules" of the woods are twofold: All materials must be natural (no man-made products) and no materials can be made of living things (like a wad of hosta leaves picked to be a fan for the fairies - I am very appreciative to the author for this rule). I read the book, then the girls divided in to teams, collected their materials, and built! There was a very special guest, Puck the Garden Fairy House Engineer, that showed up to judge the houses, and prizes went out to the teams with the brownest, greenest, biggest, and shortest fairy homes. It really was a fun party, and the girls seemed to enjoy it; so much so, they ditched the video I put in to cool them off (it was over 90 before noon) to go out and build more houses. Great idea, Kate! She's already talking about her next 4 birthday parties....I'm not sure she'll be really interested in Dora when she's 9. At least I hope she won't be!

Kate at 9 months old at Isle of Palms. This is one of my all-time favorite Kate pictures!

Kate's cake. She helped me make and frost it, and the flower she did all by herself! We added Fern, her special woodland fairy, to "fairy it up" a bit.

The big 6!

Me reading to the girls. It was so fun to have Brandy and Sarala come to the party! I know there won't be many more opportunities to celebrate things like this together since they will be moving overseas soon. These pictures are priceless to me!

Brandy got a great shot of the big girls teaming up and beginning their search for the perfect fairy house spot, with Nancy in the background wanting to keep up with them.

Team Dayleah and Harper. They got the prize for the shortest fairy house.

Team Clara and Hannah. They received the greenest fairy house award.

Team Abi/Abby, receiving the brownest fairy house award.

Team Sarala and Kate, who got the biggest fairy house award (they had their own ideas of what they wanted their house to look like, so they did all of them.)

Puck, the Garden Fairy House Engineer, in his garden home.

Puck examining the houses.

The girls just followed him around the yard! It was so funny!!

Puck and the Fairy House building winners.

Clara & Ashley Mozingo gave Kate another dress to match Clara. They did the same thing last year, and I love it!

Nancy and Spencer at Kate's party at Fuddruckers. Since we have family in town, we get the fun of celebrating all day!

Even the McGowans got to come to the party, which was so fun! It's rare all of us are all together! Emily, Chris and Cort were there, but Cohen sat beside me and I couldn't help posting this pic!

Most of you may know, but for those who don't, Ryan and I have known each other since we were 13, and began dating in high school. I am older (that will be a rare admission from here on out in our marriage), so it was my senior year, his junior, in 1996. We were married just shy of 5 years later, August 11, 2001. My dad and mom and I were talking on the phone the other day, and we all agree (admittedly biased) that our wedding was still the most fun party we've ever been to. Here are a few pics to take advantage of our scanner now working: and Elizabeth, I am not embarrassed about these, either. Well, maybe for Ryan....

About 2 weeks after we started dating, it was my homecoming, which I was in charge of putting on and running, so Ryan sat in the auditorium of the school and ate while I ran around making sure everything was going like it should. I think we danced once or twice. And no, it's not the angle, Ryan really was half my size. Not that I was big...he was just that skinny!

Our Wedding Day! See why I love your painting so much, Emily!?!

Our 8th Anniversary, taken by the Birthday Girl after a long day of partying. Eight years ago, it was hard to imagine loving Ryan more that I did then, but he is truly one of the most amazing men I know, and I am so proud to be his wife. I love you, Burns!

Chicago Trip, Round 3

Final round of pictures!

Kate's birthday is August 11, and she really took a liking to one of Mary Claire's toys, and Tyson not only bought one for Kate for her birthday, but one for Nancy too!

Thursday we went to the Children's Museum in Napverville. We had so much fun, despite behavior issues with the kids. While we were gone, the Children's Museum opened here in Greenville; I am very glad we got our museum fix in Naperville! It's $12 to go to the museum here in town!! Even for a one year old! Okay, done complaining...

In the water exhibit, they had tons of bubbles and stuff, including one you could get inside of. Kate finally got the hang of it!

After the museum, Tyson had to return home to get Reid, but the four of us stayed in Naperville for a little while. We grabbed some lunch at a Mexican restaurant (Nancy singing "if you're happy and you know it say "AMEN!" very loudly) and we wandered around the riverwalk they have downtown. I couldn't get enough pictures of the girls together. I was having one of those moments that I knew I'd remember forever, and we'll look back on these pictures and remember our trip, how small they were and hopefully how they have always loved being sisters.

Our last morning in Aurora, and Sean snuggled up with the girls still in their pjs. Mary Claire loves shoes, and puts them on first thing in the morning!

I love kids in pjs!

Nancy and Mary Claire "coloring". Nancy really just makes marker fingers and giggles. Mary Claire followed her lead.

Wednesday we went to a nearby park. It was beautiful, and Ryan went for a run while we picnicked with the kids. Sounds great, right? Nancy whined the entire time, she threatened to step into the water and mud at the edge of the pond; Kate complained of being hungry, Mary Claire refused to listen to Tyson, Reid wouldn't eat his lunch, and Ryan got lost running and ended up running for 50 minutes instead of 30. Moments like these are why we call this a trip, not a vacation. Real life follows us wherever we go, no matter how picutresque the scenery is!

Tyson with Reid and Mary Claire.

Tyson and me; Kate did a pretty good job taking the picture!

One final stop: the giant Cabela's store off exit 2 in Indiana. We spent a brief 45 minutes looking at the stuffed menagerie of animals, camoflauge and even a talking deer head with target practice. Our trip was officially complete.

Chicago Trip, Round 2

On Tuesday of our trip to Chicago, we went to the Brookfield Zoo. It was absolutely amazing! It really does have every animal you would expect to see in a zoo, and more. Tyson's mom Mary (or GrandMary to the kids) kept Reid so we were gone all morning til naptime. She and Sean's mom came back the next day and kept all 4 of the kids so that the four of us could go on a double date in Naperville together. I know they had their hands full, but they fed and pj-ed everyone like professional grandmothers. Thank you GrandMary and Grandmommy!

Looking at the camels. Actually, the kids are looking at the camera, we are looking at the camels' rear ends. Real camels, not dromedaries. Kate informed us real camels have 2 humps; Dromedaries only have one.

Outside the marsupial slash Austrailian exhibit.

Talking to the monkeys.

Nancy loved watching the gorillas. I loved watching her watch the gorillas.

Kate's finally getting the hang of looking at the camera and smiling.

I had to get a picture in front of these flowers. I thought of my mom, she would have loved them! You can't really see the flowers for the cute girls, but that's okay.

In the children's zoo part, where you can pet some animals and feed them. A goat really did grab Kate's dress in it's mouth and start to eat it for lunch. She was nervous and a bit frightened, just because the goat would not let go! It was really funny; and she's still talking about that goat at the zoo that thought her dress looked delicious.

One of Kate's favorite parts of the trip: riding the carousel. And she's really riding the flamingo in the background, not the praying mantis.

Tyson and Mary Claire.