"I missed a few minutes of recess"

Belle and I are heading out to my parents bright and early the morning of Tuesday. Belle missed school on Monday because she was sick... as we are driving out there and not really talking because I had just woke her up, she tells me "I missed a few minutes of recess."

...Why you ask? I did too.

Belle: Because Mrs Montgomery needed to talk to me.

Me: About what? (oh my gosh.... what could this be about... breathe.... be ready for ??? anything...)

Belle: About talking while she is talking.

Me: (whew, not as bad as it could have been... but what is she SAYING?!) Well, what are you talking about?

Belle: I'm playing the word game, and we aren't supposed to be talking when Mrs Montgomery is talking.

Me: What is the word game? Who are you talking to?

Belle: It's where I say 'ball' and then Reagan says 'tall' and Joshua says 'hall' and Ben says 'doll'. Joshua and Ben had to miss the whole recess but me and Reagan only missed a few minutes.

Me: (great, now she thinks she wont get completely punished for things... oh I can play the word game and it will only cost me a few minutes from recess) Why arent you listening to Mrs Montgomery? You know the classroom rules... When she is speaking you are to be listening.

Belle: I know and I told her I wouldn't speak anymore.

Me: I hope you don't because when you are talking and goofing around, it means you aren't learning and that everyone else is having a hard time learning because you are being a distraction to them.

ps. Hector sits at Belle's table. The children she was playing the "word game" with don't even sit at her table, so I can only imagine what was going on in that classroom. I have heard Belle playing the "word game" and she eventually runs out of things to rhyme and starts making up words and these words are quite hilarious in her mind. Add 3 other 5 year olds and you have a situation.

I am looking forward to Parent Teacher Conferences. I better find my paper bag....

The Bus

I need to post a few pics from the first day Belle rode the bus to school. I had our neighbor, Candy, follow her to the bus with my camera and capture the moment. On school days, Belle goes to a neighbor lady's (Becky Brown) house before and after school. These are two of her three boys. Andrew is in 3rd grade and Tanner is in 1st.

Crossing the street... thats a nice straight line, eh?

Climbing on... bus 94.

I just want to be a little bug in her hair for one day. I'd love to ride around and see exactly what she does and who she talks to.

First Day of School... !

I have taken WAY to long to do this post... I'm so sorry....

Thursday, August 27th, was the Open House at Butteview. Belle and I went after work and all it really was was chaos. Parents were tearing around getting their children signed up for the bus and for lunch. I had no idea what I was going for. I thought we were meeting the teacher and looking around. Chaos. We went in and met Belle's teacher, Mrs Montgomery. I asked her what I needed to do. She told me to go into the lunch room and sign up for lunch and the bus. So we go in there and there are two long lines. We hop in the lunch line. I put $20.00 down on lunches for Belle. Each lunch is $1.75. Ugh. The lunch lady tells me to "pound it into her head this is not breakfast money". I guess they have problems with the "Kindygartners" coming in in the morning from the bus and seeing the older kids eating breakfast and then go through the line and eat too. Then parents get a bill in the mail for the breakfasts. So, I pounded that in to Belle's head. (Haven't gotten a bill yet.) Then we went to the bus line. I had already called the bus garage so I knew what bus she would be on and what time it would come for her. All we had to do was fill out the paperwork. Belle had to sign a paper saying she would follow the bus rules. It was funny to watch her sign that paper. Then we went home.

Her first actual day of school was the following Monday, the 31st. She stayed at her dad's house Sunday night and he brought her to school. He said she wasn't acting nervous or scared. She was annoyed that he kept taking pictures of her, though.

Getting in the truck to head to school:

Here she is hanging her backpack on her hook:

Sitting at her desk:

The first thing she said to my parents when they picked her up was "someone stole my lunch". She was having "hot" lunch on the first day of school. The teacher walked everyone to the bathroom and told them to go potty and wash their hands. Of course, Belle didn't have to go to the bathroom, so she just headed to the lunch room. She got her lunch and sat down at the table and started eating. Then she realizes, Oh!... she does have to go potty. So, she gets up and heads to the bathroom. She comes back to her lunch and eats a bit and then sees other kids "goofing off" and so she gets up to "goof off" with them and comes back to her lunch and it is gone. The teachers had taken it and thrown it away, thinking she was done eating. Fair enough. She was starving the rest of the day. She asked my mom if she even had a mint for her to eat on the way home because she was so hungry. Lessons learned. She now goes to the potty before lunch and doesn't leave her seat until she is done eating.

Belle is a very slow eater and has a hard time just eating her food. I'm sure lots of kids are this way. She has told me that sometimes she doesn't eat all her food because she doesn't want to miss out on recess. I think this is sad, but someday she will learn to just eat her food instead of talking and teasing, and she will still have plenty of time for a good dose of recess.

She doesn't really come home talking about the great things that happen at school. I don't know what to think about this. I feel like I am quizzing her when I ask what happened. I ask about friends, because she doesnt talk about anyone in particular. She claims she doesn't talk to boys, but then when Annie was here, she whispered to her that she has a crush on Dakota, which means she "loves" him. ? She has PE on Mondays which Belle calls "excerise" and they go to the library and music on Thursdays. She doesn't like music because they can only use their bodies to make sounds and she wants to use instruments. She says when they go to the library, her whole class is alone in the library and there aren't any teachers. I find this hard to believe. I just really hope she is learning and not bored and is having fun and making friends.

Her school schedule is Monday, Thursday and every other Wednesday. She gets on the bus around 8:36am and gets home around 3:45pm.

Kindergarten is exhausting.

Flower Update!

Back in June I posted about all the flowers Belle and I had planted. July was a bit of a hectic month and I never got around to snapping a few pictures of the flower's progress. Now that August is about over, I remembered and actually took a few pictures of the flowers now. I must say, I love flowers...

Starlight Mountain Theatre

Last night I took Jesika to the Starlight Mountain Theatre for her birthday. We saw Footloose and it was great! We got some snacks and drinks and took our seats. When I was buying our tickets online, I didn't get the general admission ones. I really didnt want a "crappy seat". My mom had told me that there wasn't a bad seat in the place. She was right! The show was sold out. It was so much fun! We are definitely going to go to another show. We thought about taking Tren and Tom with us to one, but as the show went on and the slow songs and "love" songs were being sang, we decided the boys wouldnt be happy with it. It's a good thing for a girls' night out. Next summer we'll do it again!

First Post

Time for a change...

Bellami Bea Bare

I cannot believe it has been 5 years. It was a Tuesday morning, and Shem and I went to the hospital around 7am to be induced to have our baby. Dr Livers broke my water and I remember telling him she would be born before lunch and he didn't believe me. Such a foolish man. Mom, Annie, Shem and I took a few hot laps down the halls of the hospital and I got bored (very impatient actually) with that quick. We went back to the room and I kept feeling like I had to pee, constantly. Finally, in the bathroom while "pee-ing", I had the urge to push and Mom went to get the Dr. It was like he tele-ported StarWars like, into my room. He checked me and said I could push if I wanted to. Honestly, this scared me because it meant business. Suddenly there were several nurses in the room and they were taking my bed apart, putting my feet in the stirrups, and getting trays with surgical tools ready and oh baby, the contractions were coming... Then I hyperventalated and actually breathed through a paper sack until they got me hooked up to the oxygen mask. I was so scared. I felt like I was having an outter body experieance. I was in a whole other world. I remember a few contractions went by and I really didn't push as hard as I could because I was so scared of the potential pain. Then my nurse told me the baby's heart rate was dropping so I had to get her out. So, I finally pushed like I needed to and out she came. 10:59am. Dear, sweet, beautiful, Bellami Bea.





I cannot put into words h0w much this little treasure has changed my life. She makes me laugh and makes me cry. She frustrates me and tests me. She teaches me and makes me young again. She helps me remember the simpler things in life, like finding shapes in clouds, watching the sunset and seeing a shooting star. She is the reason I go to work. I do not know who I would be or where I would be without her in my life.



Belle is turning 5 and this has been a very hard thing for me. I registered her for KINDERGARTEN at Butteview and this nearly killed me. I had to take a few deeps breaths before I could get out of the car and go in to the school. I am dreading the first day of school. I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that she isnt a sweet little toddler anymore. (this must be why women keep having babies) I also am worrying about her being in school. Will she be the class clown because she is such an attention hungry goof ball? I worry she will not pay attention to things and be the last kid on the playground after recess or something. How will she know where to go? She will have no friends and no one to go about this blindly with. When we started talking about her going to school she asked me if she would ever go to the Principals office. ?!?!? No child should be worried about the principals office when they are just starting school. (She knows about the principal because one of her dad's step-children went to their principal and Belle knew that kid had done something naughty.) I know. I know. Everything will be fine and she will do great. Lets just hope I can do great as the mother sending her child to school for the first time. I may need a paper bag...

Nerd Alert!!

I took this picture of Belle a while ago and just came acrossed it. She looks like a true nerd!! I'll keep this picture on hand for bad days to cheer me up.

Fishin'

Tren went fishing after work last night and here is what he caught...



Yes,... this is a SHARK!! He had seen someone (just a random person) catch one the day before and he wanted to try it. So, after work he went out and threw some line in the water. He used chunks of other fish as bait. Can you imagine!? I would have died! I am not going to be frolicking in any of the waters over there, now!!

Flowers

Mother's Day weekend, Belle and I went to Kings and bought some flowers to plant in the backyard. We picked out our "flat" of flowers and then a few other random ones and some filler flowers. We went home and got to work. We had been working out in the yard all day and saved the planting for last. As I was popping each flower out of the plastic I realized we had a TON of flowers to plant. Belle's job was to place each flower in the dirt where she wanted it planted. She did a good job spreading them out and not clumping a bunch of colors together. Then the planting. Belle got tired of this very quickly, which meant I had a lot of planting to do. I had been hunched over for so long, I ended up with a nice sunburn on my back...between the bottom of my shirt and the waist of my pants. Real nice. Finally, all the flowers were planted. All 64 of them! Holy crow, right!? But they looked great.



The next day we went out to water them and all of this one kind we had picked out had shriveled up and died! I was about to rip them out of the ground and march straight to Kings and get my $2.00 back! Instead, I have been giving them TLC and some of them are recovering. The day after:



They all look kinda sad in that pic, but they just had a watering from Belle and she is a bit rough. :) You can tell the orange ones are hurting.

I went and took a new pic today of everyones progress and they are looking fabulous!