First Day of Kindergarten

Little Man had his first day of Kindergarten on Monday, August 15.  We woke him at 6:10 and had plenty of time to get ready. On our way out the door, Shad and I took a few First Day of School pictures with him. We arrived early enough to go to the gym where we waited until the first bell. From there, the Kindergarten kids and parents were led down the hall to the Kindergarten wing. I had to remind Little Man which room was his. Once in the classroom, the kids sat in their seats and worked on a coloring page while the parents put away all supplies. A note from one of last year's Kindergartners was sitting at Little Man's place. It was a fill-in-the-blank note handwritten by the little boy welcoming him to Kindergarten. Little Man's teacher, Mrs. B, took pictures of each child with their family. They'll be used in a Kindergarten portfolio that he'll get at the end of the year. After pictures were taken, all the kids sat on the carpet while Mrs. B read the book, "The Kissing Hand." The book is about a little raccoon going to school for his first time. All he wants to do is stay home and play with his mom and toys. At one point while reading, Mrs. B asked the kids why the little raccoon went to school at night instead of during the day. Christopher raised his hand and, after the teacher looked to see if anyone else wanted to answer (he'd already answered other questions), was called on. He stated, "Because raccoons are nocturnal!" Hubby and I had a good laugh! How many Kindergartners use the word "nocturnal"? 


After the story, Mrs. B gave each child a baggie with a surprise for their parents (a note from her, a package of tea and a cotton ball) as well as a heart sticker for each parent. We then said our goodbyes and left him there. I'm happy to report that I did NOT shed any tears! Mrs. B sure tried to make us, though, by reading that book! Also, the note she included in our little goodie bag almost made me cry. I went home to enjoy a quiet house for a little while and then went grocery shopping ALONE!


His first 3 days are half days with half of the Kindergarten class. Day #4 is also a half day, but with the entire Kindergarten.  Day #5 (Friday) will be his first full day. It's also School Pride Day, so he'll wear his school colors and have a class picture taken on the front steps of the school. I guess we need to find an outfit for him to wear since we don't have any school clothing yet! 


Pick-up went much smoother than I expected. I got there about 10 minutes early and enjoyed just sitting and waiting. That school sure does have dismissal down to a science! Once the kids were released, we were in and out of there in about 5-10 minutes! I was impressed! Of course, that was only half the Kindergarten, so we'll see how Day #4 (entire Kindergarten) and Day #5 (Kindergarten plus Grades 4 and 5) go. 


When Little Man got into the car, my first question, of course, was "How was it?" He said it went BETTER than he expected, that he LOVED it and that he couldn't wait to go back the next day! When he got home, he re-emphasized how much he enjoyed his first day by holding his arms out and behind him and saying, "I enjoyed it THIIIIIIIIIIISS MUCH!" I'm so happy that he enjoyed his first day of school so much! I hope and pray that he'll always love learning and school, even on the roughest days!


I'll end here and leave you with a few First Day of School pictures:

Little Man and his teacher, Mrs. B

Mrs. B reading "The Kissing Hand" to the class

July 2011

Highlights from July:

- We went with our friends, Bill, Jenn and their kids to a nearby drive-in movie theater to see Cars 2. SO much fun!

- Instead of hosting our annual 4th of July party for friends and family, we attended a party at a friend's house. We had a lot of fun shooting off our own fireworks and watching the show from the neighbors.  Little Man had lots of fun swimming in their above-ground pool and playing on the Wii.

- We added Josiah, a beautiful blue Beta fish, to Little Man's tank.

- Casey Anthony was found Not Guilty of murdering her daughter, Caylee. It was a sad, sad day!

- I read the book, "The Help" and LOVED it! I was excited when I learned that it was coming to the movie theater!

- I teamed up with my friend, Renee, of Batter Bowl Designs, to sell cupcakes to raise money for my mission trip to Belgium.

- Started getting e-mails from Little Man's principal, which meant school was right around the corner!

- Watched the US Women's soccer team play Japan and lose in the World Cup.

- We spent 3 days and 2 nights with some friends on Dale Hollow Lake. We were completely cut off from the world thanks to AT&T not having ANY signal out there. Frustrating! Other than the lack of news and the extreme heat, it was a fun few days with friends, boating, night fishing for Crappies and swimming.

- While on our lake vacation, I attempted to go night fishing once. We left at 9:30 pm and returned around 4:00 am for a total of about 6-1/2 hours of fishing. There were 7 of us on the boat. Everyone except me caught at least a few Crappies. I caught absolutely NOTHING! I didn't give up easily; I fished for all but the last 20 minutes. I then determined that, while it's nice to try it once, I won't be doing that again!

- Little Man lost his first tooth on July 27 as he was getting ready for bed! The Tooth Fairy (Flossie) came and left him a certificate and two $1 gold coins. Now, we're down to 3 loose teeth left. :)

- Little Man quote: "The clouds are crying."

A few July pictures:

At the drive-in movie theater

Little Man and his other best friend at the drive-in movie theater

My attempt at photographing fireworks on July 4th

My First Speeding Ticket EVER

Monday was a horrible day. One of the worst that I've had in a long time. My birthday is this Sunday (April 20) and I'm turning 30. That means it's time for a new driver's license. unfortunately, the station here in town is closed on Mondays, so I dropped off Little Man (who was already very whiney for me) with my next door neighbor and drove 30 minutes or so to LaVergne where I waited for approximately 1-1/2 hours. I finally got through, got my license and left. I remember thinking as I put my new license in my wallet that I'd better not need it! Sure enough, I had just barely entered Smyrna (about 5-10 minutes after I left) when I got pulled over. I was talking on my cell phone and didn't see that the speed had dropped, so got caught red-handed. To make matters worse, for some reason, the current copy of my insurance wasn't in my car, so I got cited for that, too. Thankfully, that'll be completely dropped when I show up for court in June. Also, I can go to Traffic School to get the ticket dropped. Seeing that I haven't had Driver's Ed in about 14 years, I know Traffic School will do me some good. However, I'm still mad at myself for speeding in the first place. Grrr! I've NEVER been ticketed in my LIFE!!! That's 15 years worth of driving!

The rest of that day only got slightly better. Shad and I both had softball games that evening and it was COLD!!! I think it got down to about 38 while we were playing. I layered up, though, and Shad sent some hot chocolate for the team, so I ended up doing much better than expected!

My team had a double header: we won our first game 11-2, but lost our second 9-8. The 2nd game was againt our nemesis, Lady Elite. That's the team that beat us twice in the regular season last year (we ultimately beat them twice in the post-season tournament and took 1st place!). Dadgummit if they didn't beat us the EXACT same way as last year's games! We led the ENTIRE game until their last at-bat. We had a rally. When they went to bat, they also had a rally...and went ahead of us. We had 1 more chance, but couldn't pull it off. We get to play them once more this season (we'll be home team), so hopefully we'll beat them then!!!

So, that was my Monday. Loads of fun! Hopefully, I won't have anymore days like that for a LONG time!