Various updates

For those of you who didn't know, I no longer work in Fayetteville. Praise the Lord!! I now work for a long term care pharmacy in Fort Smith called Encompass Health Group. It is a new company, so we are starting from the ground up. I love it! I've been there for a couple of weeks, and I love the relaxed atmosphere. I really like my co-workers. They are very nice, but they work hard. It's exactly the kind of place that I have been looking for.

Shawn is doing great in school. Unfortunately, he is now driving 5 days a week to Fayetteville. We are hoping that he won't be doing that next semester, but with the classes that he needs to take to finish his degree, he probably will.

Alivia is also doing great in school. She is reading at the highest level in her Kindergarten class. We read every day, and she amazes me! She loves her teacher, which helps with her interest in school. The best part is that Alivia loves to teach Aleigh, and Aleigh wants to learn. When Alivia is doing her homework, Aleigh asks for homework, too.

Alivia had a Fairy Tale Ball at school a couple of weeks ago. She was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Even though I had only been at my new job for a week, my boss said I could go! We had so much fun! We danced, ate, and danced some more.

Halloween 2010

Jessie and Batgirl to the rescue!!

It took a while, but we finally convinced Aleigh to be a girl character for Halloween. After she found out that Alivia wanted to be Jessie (from Toy Story), she wanted to be either Buzz Lightyear or Woody. I'm not sure where Batgirl fit in to the whole scenario, but at least she's a girl!

Once again, we raked in the candy after just a few houses. We came back home early (like we always do) and managed to hand out 7 bags of candy in less than an hour. The girls are so generous! They would call to the kids as they were walking away "Hey, did you get one of these?!?". It was impossible to keep them from giving out less than 5 pieces of candy per kid!

And, no...I did not ask them to pose.

Kindergarten Orientation 2010

Alivia's kindergarten orientation was on August 17th at 6 PM. We decided to take Aleigh with us so she could get excited about school, too. Everyone was sent to the cafeteria where the principal spoke for a while. Tons of fun for the kids!! After that, the students went with their teachers to their classrooms while the parents listened to the PTA president give her pitch.

Aleigh was definately getting restless. After the kids were finished in their classrooms, they came back to the cafeteria to play while the parents went to meet with the teachers. Aleigh and I didn't last long in the classroom. She was cranky and loud, so I had to take her out while Shawn listened to Mrs. McKeown's presentation and filled out paperwork. We found Alivia and went back to look for Daddy. We met up with him in the hallway, and he said he had one more paper to finish filling out because he couldn't remember something. I told him what to put on the paper, and Alivia and I started looking at the class schedule that was posted outside of her classroom.

I thought Aleigh was standing right behind me. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise. I felt like I was moving in slow motion. I turned and saw Aleigh backing away from the fire alarm. Yep, she pulled it.

A couple of ladies walked up to make sure there wasn't really a fire, and they reassured me that this had happened several times before. Needless to say, we then left quickly and didn't let the girls stop to check out the firetruck parked outside.

Tyler and Katelin's Wedding

My nephew, Tyler, married his beautiful wife, Katelin, on June 19th of this year. Alivia and Aleigh were the flower girls, and I thought they did very good...with the exception of Aleigh's outburst after all of the clapping when the couple was introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Tyler Nicodemus. She started crying and saying it was too loud. I guess she's never heard how loud she can scream when she is wanting to get some attention. Also, she was quite the entertainer during the photo session.

Back to School

The big day finally arrived! First day of kindergarten. As you can probably tell, she was ready! She told us right before we left...."I am officially a Rena Rocket!".

I took the day off, and Shawn didn't start back to school until the following Monday. Shawn, Aleigh and I all piled into the truck to take Alivia to her first day of class. She was so big! I got out and opened the door for her. There were several ladies on the sidewalk helping the kids get from the cars to the playground. Alivia hopped right out and went with one of them. I really wanted to walk with her, but she seemed so comfortable. I teared up a little, but I didn't cry. I shocked myself and everyone else!

We got Aleigh a backpack to match Alivia's to take to Granny and Pops' house. She really wants to go to school, too! She packs it full of books, movies, and little toys.

Summer Fun!

Mimi and Papaw got a boat!! We spent the 4th of July weekend in Russellville with them, and stayed on the boat as much as possible. Alivia loves the water. Aleigh is still a little scared. Despite wearing a life jacket at all times, she thinks she is going to sink. She is content with hanging on to the ladder and slowly climbing down into the water, but she will not let go...even if we are right beside her in the water. Alivia's favorite thing to do is jump off of the side of the boat....

That picture cracks me up every time I see it!!. Look at those legs!

This is how Aleigh and I prefer to spend our boat time...

She's my little Sun Baby. (Yes, she is coated in sunblock. No sunburns were acquired in the making of this picture).

We are having a great summer, so far! Hopefully, we will have a few more weekends on the lake. It's going by so fast!

I can't believe that it's only a month until Alivia starts kindergarten and Shawn starts school at the U of A in Fayetteville. Aleigh wants to go to pre-school so bad, and it's hard to explain to her that she still has one more year until she can start. She wants to do everything Alivia does. I think I will have to buy her a lunchbox to take to Granny and Pops' house. She's already been looking at them because she knows Alivia is getting one for kindergarten. They are growing up!

Vacation 2010

We wanted to go back to the beach again this year, but decided it would be nice to go visit Shawn's grandparents since we don't get to see them very often. I guess we made a good decision! About a month after we changed our plans, the oil spill occurred.


We went to Memphis first. We've been wanting to take the girls to the Memphis zoo for a while now. They have one of four panda exhibits in the United States. It is a very beautiful zoo. They have made a couple of expansions since our last visit, and they are planning another one that looks amazing!

Our next stop was Holly Springs to visit Mamma. The girls enjoyed visiting her house, but they were a little shy. Finally, Alivia came out of her shell and sat down by Mamma and told her all about the nightmare that she had the night before. I have no idea of why she decided to tell her about that! Aleigh just asked for snacks...does this surprise anyone???

That afternoon, we left for Vicksburg to see Grandma and Grandpa Simons. Of course, Shawn called them right as we left Holly Springs to let them know that we were coming. That was fine with them. We had a huge, delicious meal waiting for us when we arrived that evening...steak with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, jello with fruit, and cookies!! After all of the driving, we relaxed some the next day. We took the girls swimming and went back to Grandma and Grandpa's that evening for another great supper! Chicken, potatoes, green beans, cold macaroni salad, and more desserts!

Of course, I had to hit the outlet mall the next day. We bought a ton of clothes for the girls at the Osh Kosh outlet!! They are both shoppers, so they loved picking out and trying on several different outfits. I could have spent the rest of the day (and our money) at the Kitchen Collections store. Did I need anything? No. Did I want everything? YES!!!










It was a fun trip, but it's nice to be home. We definately want to go back soon!