Don't Turn Around

Today is Katie's last day of kindergarten. It has been proved once again that the days are long but the years are short. It makes me rather sad to think that her kindergarten year, which has been full of new adventures, is over. She has learned so much and her personality blossomed. Her physical changes are also noticeable in the below two photos. The top picture is from the first day of kindergarten. The lower photo was taken this morning, her last day of kindergarten. 

In the picture below, Katie is stepping onto the bus for the last time as a kindergartener.  I have been told that once your child enters school, the years seem to speed up. Well, the years were going too fast before school. Now I am scared to turn around because if I do she'll be graduating from high school. Please Lord, make the years slow down.
(From where is all this melodrama coming?) Ciao, kindergartener.

Awards Ceremony

This morning I attended the awards ceremony for grades kindergarten through 2nd. Katie got her kindergarten diploma; an award for walking 20 miles on Wellness Wednesdays and an award for Excellence in Writing! Excellence in Writing is given to a kindergarten student(s) who excels in writing sentences independently. Another girl in her class also received that award. I am so proud of the Doodles. I am also tickled that she is starting to exhibit the signs of being an avid reader.

 Katie at the awards cern  v

Funny note:  I bought Katie the book Green Eggs and Ham or at least that is what the cover says. Inside, the pages are for Go dog, Go. I have to email Random House. I am not going to return it to Wal-mart because maybe the book will be worth some money some day.

Making Space on the Camera

I have had so much going on; a camera full of pictures to match and a crazy long blog post.

First off Katie's ballet recital was this past weekend. It took me 1 1/2 hours to do her hair and make up, but not because they were complicated but because Katie gets bored and wiggly. Have you ever tried to put mascara on a wiggly child? For the recital she was a Woodland Fairy and danced to a slow song as opposed to a cutesy song. She really is elegant and more expressive in the slower dances. Dress rehearsal was Friday night and the audience attended Saturday night. I may be subjective, but Katie did a great job. During rehearsal we can take pictures, but not during the real performance, so the following photos are from Friday night. Excuse the blur, but in the dark theater my flash is a little useless.

Such a serious ballerina.

This picture makes me laugh. None of the ballerinas are doing the same thing. However, what is hilarious are the 3-4 year old ballerinas.They have no qualms about yelling directions to the other dancers on the stage. One little girl cracked me up because she was very concerned about staying on her marked spot. Most of the time she was bent over, looking at the floor and trying to find her dot.

Two out of four is not bad.

The following photos are from performance night.

Posing before the show. Kate is in the tunnel that leads to the stage. The tunnel is actually underneath the left side of the audience.

Still in the tunnel but this time doing a leap. She got some pretty good air.

Curtain call.

 Outside the Paramount with the bouquet of flowers that Rick and I gave her. I was trying to keep the flowers a secret, but Kate saw them in the frig. So naturally I lied to her and said they were for Rick. She bought it.

 Posing after the performance. This picture shows how beautifully she does the classic ballerina hand position.

 A rare thing, Kate and I in a picture together.

 Daddy's Li'l Doodlebug.

 Doodlebug kissing her daddy.

One more pose and we are done.

Monday I had a MOPS brunch to attend. It is when we say good-bye to steering team and table leaders who are leaving and welcoming the steering team for the next year. I wasn't looking forward to the brunch. I didn't want to cry and was fearful that I would blubber. The was pretty sure I was going to cry during the blessing. The blessing is when you stand in front of the room with a Mentor and they read a personalized blessing that they wrote for you. The only thing that saved me is that the mentor that I am closest to did not deliver the blessing. It was actually a new Mentor so I didn't feel the same connection. After the ceremony, I stopped to talk to my favorite Mentor and I cried. I high-tailed it out of there before I got to the point of uncontrollable tears. Leaving MOPS is bittersweet. I truly feel that I have outgrown MOPS especially since I am no longer a mother of a preschooler. However, I am very sad to lose the regular contact with other moms. When it comes down to it, MOPS was the only place that I got to talk with other women. What am I going to do now?

Yesterday was Field Day at Kate's school. During Field Day the kids participate in contests like tug-of-war, transporting an egg in a spoon, etc. At one point it started to rain, but it stopped as soon as I got to my car to retrieve my umbrella. Kate wasn't in the best mood. She was very weepy and cried, cried, cried about not winning her heat in the foot race. Rick likes that Kate takes winning seriously; however, we are concerned about how she gives up if she is not winning. No one got a trophy or ribbon for winning a contest, but the recognition from the crowd was a reward that Katie craved. Here's Field Day.

Field Day. Katie looking a less than excited.

Another contest. Flipping a little bean bag on a Frisbee.

Hula-hooping. The little boy in the foreground had told Katie, "Don't cry. Watch me." The little boy's grandma also encouraged Katie to pick up her hula-hoop when it hit the ground and to try again. They were supposed to sit down once the hula hoop went down. I wasn't too happy about the grandma "ok-ing" Katie to cheat.

Tug of War

More tugging.

The egg in the spoon transport. The fun was taken out of the game because the kids had to carry wooden eggs. But I can understand not wanting to deal with the egg mess.

Foot race.

I have been taking pictures of my outdoor flowers. Last year I did not clean all of my planters out and lo and behold some of my petunias came back. One pot of last year's petunias looks better than the fresh petunias that I bought this year.

I had bought Katie a first grade workbook that she can do throughout the summer. One of the instructions said to draw a box around the word "the". I had to look at it for awhile before I understood.

 See instruction #3

Katie's boxes around the word "the" in the third line. They are cardboard boxes with the flaps open. Bless her little heart.

Hobo is still trying to conquer his fears. I noticed that when my in-laws were here he went into hiding more often than usual. He doesn't welcome new faces. This past weekend, Kate and I were outside tending to my flowers when Hobo walked up to us and let Kate pet him. I had to hold jealous Cody by the collar otherwise he would have driven off Hobo. Here's Hobo.

 

 The hanging basket of flowers that my mother-in-law bought me and Cody eating grasshoppers. ("Oh, crunchy Scooby snack.")

One last picture before I go.

Katie and I before dipping in the pool.

And that's all she wrote. Ciao.

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon

The cow died this afternoon. Kate and I stopped by to check on the cow after school. She was breathing heavily and kept on sticking her snout in her water bucket but not drinking. Shortly after we got home, our neighbor called and told me the cow was in the last moments of her life. About 20 minutes after that, Rick called to tell me the cow had died. (Our neighbor had called him.) I held off telling Kate. She had a private tae kwon do lesson late this afternoon and didn't want to tell her about the death until we had driven by the cow's body. When we did drive past the cow, Kate was busy playing with my iPod and did not see the cow dead. I, however, did glance over. She was on the ground like she had been the whole time I have known her, but her head was over her shoulder. Once Kate and I were a few miles down the road, I told her that the cow went to heaven and was no longer in pain. Thankfully Kate and I have had a couple of conversations about the cow dying. She took the news rather well; however, I was another story, but I am thankful that the cow is no longer in pain. I was being foolishly optimistic that particular cow was going to be a miracle. (If a cow goes down, you need to get them on their feet as soon as possible otherwise they get crush syndrome and the muscles in their legs apostrophized. Cows will get on the ground but apparently the the position of their legs determine they can get up or not.) What made me cry was how man failed her. It is depressing to realize what bastards humans can be. I would like to know how that cow ended up on our neighbors land. She did not belong to anyone around here. We are not even sure if she got hit by a car or if she fell off of a transport truck. (Did she get hit elsewhere and that person dumped her in our neighbor's pasture out of fear of legal repercussions? Had she been wandering for days on end without food and water? Just a few of my questions.) Regardless, humans really did her wrong from her owner down to the owner of the land on which she died. Everyone seemed so la-di-da about this suffering cow. Matter of fact, Rick, who is in Springfield, Illinois, is the one that called the sheriff, which is what you are supposed to do with a stray cow. He cared more about that cow 1000 miles away than those who could take action. (The sheriff did come out to check the cow. They went back into town to get the vet so the cow could be put down. The vet doesn't use a gun, but an injection. However, the cow died before they got there.) I am glad Kate and I were able to make her last days a little more comfortable despite not knowing anything about cows. An interesting tidbit about the cow is that she had already started to recognize Katie and I when we pulled up in the car. It didn't take her long to figure out who was the hand that fed her.

So the saga of the cow is over and I can put my riding boots back into the closet. I am grateful that Rick didn't have to put her down. If he would have had to shoot her, he would have been in a stupor for a long time, but that is what we were looking at since no one else would do the humane thing because of worry about the liability. (If you kill another's cow you can end up in court and shelling out big bucks to compensate the owner.) Rick said, "Screw it. Her owner--if they ever surface--can come after me." (If you recall from my last post, the land owner wanted nothing to do with the cow because he didn't want trouble from the cow's owner, whoever that may be. But the Lord took that option off of the board. Thank you, Lord.

One last note, it is true that cows have the sweetest eyes. She had those incredibly long eyelashes and big brown eyes. It was very easy to become emotionally invested in her. Here's one of the pictures that I took yesterday.

In this picture you can see her long, thick, black eyelashes. You can also see a hole through her ear. A identification tag once hung from there. The tag she had on the other ear was a generic tag like the ones that get attached to cows that are auctioned.

Ciao.

New Do and Cody Too

As promised here is my new do and a few of Cody too.

 At the last minute Cody walked into the shot. It then dawned on me that I do not have any pictures of Cody and I. It was harder than I thought.

 When I called him over to me he plopped down, rolled over and wanted me to rub his belly. Hence only 1/3 of him in the picture.

Here he is poking his nose in my new hairdo and trying to lick my face. I think he liked the smell of the detangling spray my hairstylist used.

 Here I have a grasp on his head trying to turn it towards the camera. Explains my gritted teeth.

Don't know what I was doing here, but it looks like Cody has his head bowed in prayer.

As for my new do, I asked Katie if she liked it. She said, "No. It's too short." Gotta love the honesty of a child.

Three Items

I have a few things to talk about today. First off is I got my hair cut up to my chin--it was past my shoulders. The main reason I opted for a short do is not because of the coming hot weather, but because three weeks agoI had used dry shampoo spray on my hair and then attempted to curl it with a curling iron. The result was burnt hair. . . hair stuck to the curling iron burnt. . .burnt black. I only singed one 1 1/2" section of my hair and not the whole head, but rather than trying to hide it I opted to chop, chop. So word to the wise, DO NOT USE A HEATED APPLIANCE ON YOUR HAIR AFTER USING AEROSOL DRY SHAMPOO! I did email the maker of the dry shampoo and suggested that they put a warning on the can. I have also found out that aerosol dry shampoo is highly flammable. "No kidding." says the girl with half a head of hair. A picture of my new do is forthcoming.

Second item on the blog agenda is that yesterday I attended my last MOPS meeting. Did I cry? Yes, I did but not until Gayla spoke with me. Gayla is one of our mentors and the mentor to whom I have been the closest. I marvel at the person I was and the baby Katie was (she was 13 months) when I walked into my first MOPS meeting. I was still a nervous mother and relatively new to the area. I realize that it is time to move on and that MOPS had a place and a short time in my life, but MOPS was incredibly important to me as it eased my worries about mothering. I still have a brunch to attend next Monday and I know I will struggle to keep it together there.

Third item is about a cow. About last Wednesday I noticed two cows on our neighbor's land. I thought our neighbor had gotten rid of all of his cattle, but assumed he got some more. The cows were laying down. The next day that I drove by the neighbors, the cows were in the same place and laying down. On day four, I drove by and the black cow was dead. I left a message for our neighbor, but I did not hear back from him. Come to find out the cows were not his. They were strays that apparently got hit by a car. Because they were somebody else's cows, nobody would assist them and definitely not put them out of their misery. (You could get into legal trouble for shooting someone's cow even if you were putting it out of their misery.) The fate of the remaining cow was tugging at Rick's heart. He called some friends who have cattle and asked them to bring food to the cow. At first they said yes and then changed their minds because they could not get a hold of our neighbor and "you just don't go on someone else's land without their permission". About then is when I got angry. Yesterday after I picked Katie up from school, Katie and I gathered every large container that we could think of, filled them with water and drove them over to the cow. The cow quickly lapped up those first 5 gallons of water. Katie and came back home and filled up the buckets and headed back down the road. I called our friends, the ones that won't trespass, and asked them what cows eat. I was going to buy food, but they offered to bring the food to the cow because the cow had moved to the fence and you could feed it without going on our neighbor's land. Come to find out, Rick had already told our neighbor that we would be feeding and watering the cow so the whole uproar about trespassing was unnecessary. Our friends dropped some food off with the cow--hay and pellets--and brought the rest here so we can feed the cow. After tae kwon do Katie and I feed and watered the cow and this morning I fed and watered the cow. I am still upset that our neighbor and friends wanted to take was to starve and dehydrate the cow to death. I realize I am not a tough farm girl, but that is inhumane. When Katie asked why we were going on our neighbor's land without his permission I explained we were doing so because watering and feeding the cow and it was the right thing to do. I don't know if the cow's hips are hurt or if she even got hit by a car. I think she doesn't stand because of the deprivation from food and water. I know nothing about cows, but I am learning. For example, I learned I need to wear boots when I go and visit her. Here is my cow tending outfit from this morning.

The reason why I took this picture because it is the first time I have felt like a Texan and because I think it's funny that I am wearing my expensive riding boots to take care of the cow. When I originally purchased the boots I did so to look fashionable. Little did I know I would need them one day to tip-toe through the cow patties.

Here's the cow. I call her Chloe. I am still trying to figure out the tag on her ear. Maybe, just maybe, we can find her rightful owner and he/she is a nice person. However, I have a suspicion that she may have been dropped at our neighbors.

Below is a picture for Rick. It is Katie, or Eagle Eye, shooting her BB gun. I kid you not. That girl is one hell of a shot. 

I'll keep you up to date on the cow and will post a picture of my new do when I am presentable. Ciao.

It's broke and I am broken-hearted

Crazy busy, once again--I imagine you are tired of that excuse--and my in-laws have been visiting us for the last week. As for news. . . .

You know that 60" plasma TV that I got for Valentine's Day? It broke. I believe the board that controls the power supply blew. Also, a small crack showed up on the screen/glass. We can only guess how that happened, but Katie did have a new frisbee. But here is the real kicker, Panasonic no longer makes that screen/glass. Yes, a 3-month old TV and we cannot get replacement parts for it. Rick ended up returning it to Wal-Mart. So I am fancy-TV-less. I miss streaming the free movies from Amazon Prime.

Yesterday Katie got her Taekwondo school pictures taken and we should have them in 6-8 weeks. In the meantime I will share her official kindergarten picture which we received last week.