Always Something to Tell

 

Our first produce from the garden

Kaitlyn's birthday wish: Camel Ride. :)

 Kansas City Royals Game!

 My daugher, the author

 Liza was cold and instead of getting her a sweatshirt, I put her in mine.

 Kaitlyn's first day of school!!!

It's taken a bit to get my act together and back in the groove of life.   We have so many fun and adventurous things going on and the best part is we've never left the city!  We're SOAKING it up here in Lees Summit.  We have been out on the lake skiing with friends a lot and the hubs was able to do it before work regularly until he pulled a muscle in his low back 3 weeks ago!  He rested well for 1 week but couldn't help getting out there again and re-injured it... bummer.  So I gave him a massage tonight and he's still taking meds and trying to stretch.  Poor guy!  He's never hurt his back before and it's a shocker to him.  He's gotten some good perspective on what my lower back is always feeling like though, so at least it's been educational. :) 
Hubs says he had his best birthday yet.  He didn't really want anything except some necessities so we didn't have a big plan for the b-day.  I figure my signature gift is always great food so we had corn-flake crunchy french toast for breakfast, taco salad for lunch, and RIBS for dinner with Apple pie... YUM!  A gift to us all.  But he did decide on a b-day present that day at Home Depot.  We purchased supplies and built a fire pit in the backyard.  It's AWESOME!  We've had a couple fires out there already and it's been so much fun with the weather so nice.  We all worked in the yard and trimmed the trees, weeded, built a fire pit and felt like it was really productive and fun.  We feel like we're playing house a little since we're renting so it makes the home chores fun.
Kiatlyn is LOVING school.  Her favorite part is being picked up at our driveway by the school bus.  Mr. Mel, the bus driver, is so nice and she gets a huge kick out of it.  She's slowly learning kids names at school and starting to re-regurgitate real info to me about what she's been doing.  We have a neighbor that comes over every morning for an hour and 1/2 to ride the bus with Kaitlyn because he mom's a teacher so we've been enjoying the friendship they have together.  Kaitlyn's so sweet and smart.  She loves to make story books about puppies and kittens.  She's currently working on Charlie the Cougar kitten's adventures... keep you posted.
Liza's... so Liza right now.  She's been a joy to have since Kaitlyn's been at school and loves the 1 on 1 time together.  She's a great helper and such a great companion during the day.  Once her sister comes home, she is all over the charts with emotions.  One moment she's sweet, the next she's destroying something or bullying.  It's a full time job just keeping them alive in the same room sometimes.  We're working on it with a sticker chart for being nice. :)  That said... I feel for you all because I feel like I'm watching myself when I see her sometimes.  Sorry about the sibling abuse that I'm positive went on thanks to me.  Let's just remember that Liza and I are have/had extreme sweetness to balance it out.
Mary's decided to start a dance class in the basement.  You heard me right.  We took the kids to a festival in town and there was a little dance company performing.  I was so excited to show them what that was like and excited to get Kaitlyn involved in dance.  BUT, they came out to perform and I was appalled to see the 3-5 yr old wearing skimpy 2 piece costumes and doing embarrassing dance moves to totally inappropriate music.  YIKES!!!  I was floored and realized that I'm not in Kansas anymore... errr, or I'm in Kansas now.   So Inspired by Emma and Caroline's recital at the church last Christmas, we're doing a 3-4 class and 5-6 class.   My basement is one huge room with linoleum tiles and we purchased mirrors for the length of a wall.  Wish me luck!  I've also figured out a playgroup with 10 other mom's each week that rotates and we get to socialize while the kids enjoy and a mom's morning out with a few mom's each week so I get 3 mornings to be productive each month. Good stuff.
In other news... I got another calling today.  Prepare yourselves.  Call it Karma, but I've been called as the Choir pianist.  Gasp!  I was petrified today at practice.  They called me before church and I was doing it after church with no practicing.  It's just what the dr. ordered I think.  Lots of humility and hard work ahead.   
So between our busting at the seems garden, fire-pit, forest trails, play dates, school schedule, zoo pass, boating, church, and loving each other, it's been a great time.  No luck on the baby-front yet so send the prayers and please come visit us.  It's a joy here, sheer joy.