The Itch

I will openly admit I am a Christmas junkie. I will come right out and tell you that I have no problems or concerns with Christmas stuff displayed in September. Maybe I feel this way because last year we were in the midst of a move and this was my Christmas tree:

This year I began searching for Christmas ideas in, oh say, August. I began my search for new Christmas stockings. I scored some awesome stockings from Pottery Barn. I found some super easy decorating ideas on http://pinterest.com and have already put them up. Yesterday we hung lighted garland outside and I got some nice little 4ft. trees at Target for in front of my side lights at the front door.

This coming Saturday, we will be setting up the tree and decorating the rest of the house for this most festive time of the year, and hopefully my Itch will be scratched!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Dorothy and Toto!

Changes

In August I decided to leave Lil' Bloomers to go back to subbing. It was a hard decision to make because subbing isn't always the most reliable for a steady income. However, I was busy most days in September and I have worked every day in October. I have even been requested in some classrooms! So it's been nice having steady work (and income!).

Back in September, I applied for a teaching position at Richland 44 School District for a preschool teacher position. The description stated that it was only three days a week, but I thought, "Hey at least it would be a foot in a door in a school district." The posting also said that the envelopes must be postmarked by Oct. 15. On October 18 I was teaching kindergarten in Fargo and when I had a break in the morning I checked my phone for messages or texts and I had a message from the principal at Richland to set up an interview. I was pumped! Iset up my interview for this past Wednesday. I thought it went well...but not that well that I would recieve a phone call that same night to offer me the position!! Yes, I got the job!!

So, I will be teaching preschool again. I am excited to have a classroom again, and a brand new one at that!! It is still under construction and will be ready by the Jan. 3 start date. I am going to be presented to the school board in a couple of weeks and after my principal gets the OK, I will get my teaching contract. I am really excited for this new opportunity to teach and grow as an educator.

OK, 'nuf about me! Bryce has some news too: He has decided to return to Microsoft. Same position as before but more money. He will start back there in late November/ early December.

And since I have not posted forever, I better throw a picture of Emily on here because I love sharing her pictures!!

Thirty-FUN

This year marked my thirty-first birthday. I got the idea from another blog I read where the author had a thirty-first birthday last year and because she suffered the death of her daughter in her thirtieth year, she decided to make thirty-one, thirty-FUN. The idea of thirty-FUN is so do something fun for yourself each month for a year.

I don't know all of the things that I want to do for the year but some ideas I have are:

• A weekend girls getaway. No kids, no husbands. Just the girls.


• A family vacation to Disney World. This would ideally coincide with a certain someone's 5th birthday.


• A spa day. I love massages, pedicures, and all things dealing with pampering myself.

My list is clearly short. So, if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them!

Early Fall Pics

Today Bryce and I took Emily out to try to get a few early fall pics of her. She was cranky when we left the house, but perked up when she got there. We found a dirt road canopied by trees and it was very pretty. Emily was in kind of a goofy mood today so these are a few of my favorite silly pictures.

The Girls

Over Labor Day weekend, Bryce took Emily out golfing at Hawktree in Bismarck. I hadn't seen Emily golf since last year and I was surprised at how good she has gotten. While there, she was joined by her cousins, Caris and Finn. Em golfed for a good chunk of time but got bored and she and Caris wandered around. I actually got a good picture of the two girls!

Making a putt

Teeing off

Emily and Caris

We Said Good-bye

Last week we said good-bye to Bryce's grampa, Hartney. Hartney was 89 when he passed away. The funeral was very nice and it was also an opportunity for everyone to catch up and even see eachother, as it had been almost 20 years since Bryce had seen one of his aunts. Following the funeral, a very nice lunch was put on by the church. Everyone there thought that it would be a nice opportunity to take a few pictures. Here are a few of what we got.

Bryce's entire family

Bryce's dad, uncles, aunt, and Gramma Elly

The Andrisen Family

Bryce and me

Twinkling Star

Two years ago I met a very special person at the annual Midwest Kidfest. Kidfest is a day at the park just for kids. Preceding the Kidfest is a Teddy Bear Parade and at the Kidfest there are all kids of kid friendly activities. Some things you will find there include the inflatable games, gross motor activities of all variety, arts and crafts, as well as special vendors who offer services for kids. Some services you will find are pediatricians, therapists, and athletic activities such as karate and dance. Which brings be back to two years ago...this is where we me Ms. Leah.

Ms. Leah is Emily's beloved dance teacher. When we decided to enroll Emily in dance she was just 2 1/2 years old! She was definitely still a baby compared to other girls in her class. Emily was not too coordinated at this time. There was no way she could catch a ball; she could barely throw one! We knew though that Emily loved music and all things girly. We thought that Emily could benefit from dance. Not only would it be fun for her but I wanted someone to expect something from her.

Emily loved dance at first, but she began crying at every drop-off shortly after we started. It was hard for me, but I was reassured by Ms. Leah that Emily did wonderfully and that she was improving. We could tell too that she was becoming more coordinated and by her first performance we knew Ms. Leah was going and amazing job with her. First recital and 9 months later Emily knew all the steps to her dances! That was amazing to us that she actually followed the routines with minimal help.

Two years later we have this amazing little dancer who wants to dance just like Ms. Leah. Emily dances in all these jerky motions trying to hold her poses just like her teacher. It's pretty funny but also shows how much of an impression this woman has left on our daughter!

Last week we learned that Ms. Leah is going to be leaving Galaxy Dance Studio and it will be taken over by two new women, one of which we saw dancing at the recital. This has been very hard information for me to digest but we have decided to keep Emily at the studio this coming fall.

Today we went to see Ms. Leah one last time. We will really miss her and her talents!!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband! We love you!

Rain

Rain, rain go away! I have had enough rain this year so far. I have stuff to get done! On our list of outdoor projects waiting on Mother Nature:

• Sprinkler Installation


• Weed killing and pulling


• Seeding the yard for grass


• Getting concrete for our front step


• Summer FUN!

Come on, let's have some summer already!!

Ballerina

Last weekend was Emily's dance recital. She did an amazing job dancing and I think she is possibly the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. She let me do her hair and make-up, including mascara, without making a peep. Here are a few pictures of our tiny dancer.

Hair and make-up. Look at those lashes!

Good luck gift from Daddy - SQUINKIES!

The Tinkerbell costume that was oh so adorable!!

Another year of dance is in the books!

5x7 Folded Card

Chalkboard Heart Dad Father's Day 5x7 folded card

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

This is the card Emily will be giving her daddy on Father's Day. Since I know he doesn't read my blog, I thought it would be safe to post it. :)

Shoe Update

I finally found Emily some shoes. After about 8 different shoes in 5 different stores, we found some shoes that were her current size that run a little big. We ended up with theses:

Ready for Spring

Emily and the other neighbors convinced Bryce to be the pitcher in their baseball game. I think we are all hoping for a lot more of these!

Little Feet + Big Girl = NO FUN!

We have a new dilemma in our house: SHOES!


Emily has ridiculously small feet for her age. She is still considered infant size for shoes, which when you are a big girl, is a big deal.


Many of the current shoe styles out for older girls this summer have a small wedge heel and of course Emily yearns for these shoes!


Our current struggle is in the area of athletic shoes. She needs new shoes since she hasn't had this type of shoe in almost a year. While there are several cute styles out there, they seem to be the same old shoes just with a different color. I know athletic shoes aren't that big of a deal, but when you have pretty much the same shoes to pick from, it stinks. And around here there isn't a lot to pick from, which makes it even harder when you are surrounded by girls all day at school.


In a world of followers, I want Emily to be unique and individual from her friends; even if it is just a pair of shoes!

Extended Family

When you live away from your natural family, you tend to create friendships with others that are like your own family. I am lucky enough to have many people I would consider family that I am not actually related to. One of them is Emily's teacher from her time spent in the two year old room. Her name is Jen. Jen was expecting a baby at the same time that Emily was in her room. Emily grew extremely close to Jen in those months leading up to the birth of Jen's son, Pierce. Emily and Jen were inseparable and had inside secrets, including knowing the name of Jen's baby even though nobody else did, and an amazing relationship. I think Emily spent 90% of her days attached to Jen in one form or another. When Emily came out of the hospital in April 2009 she was a little messed up and Jen had taken a fall outside of work and broken her ankle. Jen was gone from work and Emily was lost without her. Even though Jen was gone for a little while Emily did OK, but when Jen returned to work it was hard for Emily to not have her Jen the way she was used to having her. Jen was confined to a chair most of the time, or sitting on the floor. If Jen was on the floor Emily was in Jen's lap; she even peed on Jen one day requiring her to hobble home to change her clothes. Jen never minded though because she loved Emily. Emily loved Jen and when Jen went on maternity leave Emily had another transition to make. She was lost again and in transition to move to the older 2 year old classroom. She transitioned fine and found comfort in her new teachers but we all knew it wasn't Jen. She missed Jen! Fast forward almost two years later and Emily and Jen still have that special connection, kind of like an auntie. But there is more to it than Emily and Jen. Jen's son, Pierce, and Emily have this weird and amazing connection. Emily absolutely adores Pierce and he follows her around. Emily asks about him frequently if he isn't at school in the morning with her, and if you knew Emily you would know she really has no time for little kids; she doesn't like them or babies. She doesn't mind him touching her stuff, she willingly gave him one of her dolls to keep at his house, and she calls him her little brother. It is almost as if they are siblings when they are together. Jen and I think they share some kind of special bond from when Emily was attached to Jen during her pregnancy. I love the idea of them knowing each other as they grow up. I love the idea of having Jen and Pierce as our extended family!

3 Months In

Three months and a few weeks into the year and I have yet to write anything. Awesome. NOT! We are settled into the house as much as we can be. We still have unpacked boxes, but that goes along with the territory of an unfinished basement. We are looking forward to the next stage of this house which is yard work. Unlike the last house, we won't have sod. We will be putting in a sprinkler system and seeding. Before that though we have to bring in at least one truckload of dirt to build up the yard. Emily has adjusted really well to living in a new house and new town. Sometimes she talks about missing her friend Rayna, but I think that she is enjoying the kids outside out here who love to mother and take care of her outside. They have even taught her that mud can be fun! Emily has a couple of new obsessions: Tangled, the new Disney movie and changing her clothes at least 3 times a day. The movie is great but her clothing changes have resulted in a lot more laundry and some very messy drawers!! A few weeks back we decided that it was time for Emily to begin the process of stopping thumb sucking. We promised her a Leapster when she kicks the habit. So far in the last two weeks she has only sucked her thumb once. I would say she is doing really well and I am really proud of her!! Not much else is happening. The snow has melted and now the area is waiting for the Red River to Crest, sometime this weekend. No flood worries here though!

New House

We officially became residents of Kindred on Dec. 29th. Closing was easy. Everything went really fast and we had our keys to the new house by noon that day.

We got everything moved in that day. Bryce and a few of his friends from work helped with the boxes and heavy stuff while I worked on putting as much odds and ends type stuff in the van and running back and forth. I remember that was my job as well when we moved into the twinhome...last time I had a Saturn car; this time I had a minivan. I prefer the van. In total the guys made two round trips and I made three. We got everything we could that day except for wall art, vacuums, and brooms.

Our first night in the house was fun. We had pizza for supper - isn't that a rule for moving into a new house?! Bryce got the TV in the master bedroom running and I got 8 boxes, all of which were kitchen boxes, unpacked.

During our first night we got rain. Then snow. Then wind. Then my in-laws. They were brave enough to make the (normally)2.5 hour drive from Bismarck in a really nasty blizzard...which actually took 4 hours! It was awesome having them here. My mother-in-law, Joann, brought the boxes in and helped organize Emily's room. Joann also made some of the most delicious meatloaf ever and I hope to attempt her recipe sometime soon!

The blizzard that we endured that first weekend here allowed for most of the unpacking to get done by about Saturday afternoon. We celebrated that night by playing dice and getting some surprise visitors all the way from Bismarck. My cousin Holly and her husband Mitch were on their way to Fargo to make their flight to Florida. Since the interstate was closed they ended up driving on Highways and ended up passing through Kindred. Luckily I convinced them to stay the night and we played some more dice. Holly and I pretty much kicked everyone else's butt. It was a lot of fun.

Since we have moved in we have hung most of the artwork, hung blinds in Emily's room, and relaxed in our new space. We still have more to do but as everyone knows a house is a work in progress!