I sit here on this lovely Monday evening enjoying the strawberry wine Nate was so kind to pour for me. For those of you wondering, it's not Boone's Farm, although a good bottle of Boone's straight out of a paper bag from Git-N-Go always did do a body good, didn't it? Here's a shout out to my girls.
I'll start with the quick rundown of what's been shakin' in the Bice household. Then I'll find some sweet, funny and possibly just ridiculous stories to tell. For those of you who have been asking me for an update, here you go (Julie, Tamara, Greg, Grandma M., Lisa):
- Brayden completed Kindergarten with straight +s. That's akin to straight As as far as I can tell. On to first grade we go.
- We have a contract on the house in Blue Springs. The inspection was tonight, and assuming all goes well we will be house-free on June 30. Wahoo! THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Mike Peterman and Greg for helping Nate move the last bit of stuff from the house. And to Grandma and Grandpa Zellers for dealing with the air conditioner guy tonight.
- We got kicked out of our house in Bentonville. Apparently the people who own it decided after two weeks of living in Atlanta that they wanted to move back. They currently live 3 streets away and will be taking their house back on July 1.
- We luckily found a house to rent that has a pool in the back yard. Wahoo!
- We're headed to Florida on a family vacation with Dad, Debbie, Stephanie, Ele and Mazy in two weeks. I had to make a count down calendar because every day for the last month Beau has asked if we're leaving for "bacation" tomorrow.
- Nate successfully finished his first year as assistant principal.
- Sadie got a hair cut last week, and Beau thought we got a new dog. This is the first time in her 14 years (she's more than 100 now in human years) that they shaved her tail. It's quite a site to see.
- Last weekend we finally put the boat on Beaver Lake. Can you believe that it's taken us a year to get the boat on the water? That should really tell you something. I skied ONE TIME last summer. We'll be rectifying that situation this year for sure.
- I enjoyed some great girl time with Julie and Cristi when they came down for spa weekend a couple of weeks ago. They couldn't believe we had such great spas in Arkansas. . .
- We're officially legal in Arkansas as far as car licenses go. Drivers' licenses are a different story. We're still not exactly sure what we need to do to get those changed over. It'll happen eventually.
- I started coaching at the local gymnastics gym. I couldn't stay away. The added bonus is the boys both get to take gymnastics for free.
- And. . . Drum roll, please. . . We sold the Porsche! After four years of trying, it finally happened. And my dad had a complete come apart about it. But the new owners love her.
Deet, deet, deet . . . deet, deet, deet: We interrupt this broadcast for a very important message from Beau to his cousin Mazy:
I find new sunglasses that were SpongeBob and new sunglasses that were Lightening McQueen. And, uh. . . I like Power Rangers. I'm so drinky. I'm drinky all the time. I'm going on vacation with you. And that's it.
Let the stories begin
Here are a few, brief stories about some of the antics that have been going on here.
Skinny Brayden (hee-hee)
Nate brings home Brayden's report card. The good news: He has all As. The bad news: He's obese. WHAT?! You know those fantastic body matrics indexes (BMI) that are so, so accurate? The ones that I remember in college said I should weigh 97 pounds because I'm 5-foot tall? Well, they apparently do those in elementary school. Because Brayden is of modest height, but built like his dad on top and his mom on bottom (AKA a brick _____ house), he weighs 57 pounds. This, by the BMI standards, is obese. There is a small paragraph that says to consult a physician, though, because sometimes children can have significant muscle mass that does not necessarily mean they have health risks. People, we've been consulting a physician since the kid gained a pound a week for the first 8 weeks of his life. This child is THICK for sure, but hardly obese.
Beau loves his mommy
Nate was in KC last night finishing up some stuff with the house. Beau said that he needed to sleep with me because "You don't have anyone to sleep with since daddy is gone." I asked him this morning if he likes to sleep in our bed and he said, "Yes - because you are in your bed."
Beau got kicked out of preschool
This is where rumors get started. Statements just like that. So he didn't exactly get kicked out. Some things in Arkansas are just as they are stereotyped to be. The school he was going to isn't exactly known for being flexible. So when I told the gal that runs the school that Beau's last day would be June 16, she took that as our 2-week notice, and effectively dismissed him from school as of May 29. Oh, and she didn't bother to tell us. So I'm in Philadelphia and Nate is running his school when we get an E-MAIL from her saying that we need to pick up Beau immediately because his last day was last Friday. If you know me at all, you can imagine the conversation I had with her from Philadelphia that day. She got it all figured out so he could stay, and then we promptly pulled him out. We're lucky to have found some good friends down here, and Miss Tiphanie is watching him for us until Nate gets out of school. Grrrr.
Just livin' life
For those of you who so often ask, we really do love it here. Aside from people who ain't got no soap to bathe with, living in a dry county (ok, so it's a moist county - they can serve at restaurants), not having family around and the true, general hillbilly-ness of many things here, it's really, really great. And as Nate has always said, I'm a hillbilly anyway, so I'm right at home. For some reason that always makes me think of Silver Dollar City and "Fyyyyrrreee in the Hoooolllleeee!" Maybe it's because last time we were at The City, they were playing bluegrass and we stopped to dance. Brayden said, "Dad, are you a hillbilly?" Nate: "Nope, but ask your mom." Brayden: "Mom, are you a hillbilly?" Nate: "Yes, Brayden, your mom is a hillbilly." Brayden: "Ok, so I'm half hillbilly! Are MiMi and Pa hillbillies, too?"
Anyway, the land is beautiful. The people are nice. Our jobs are good. And we're more centrally-located here than we were in KC. Think about it this way. In under 6 hours we can get to KC, St. Louis, Dallas, Memphis, Little Rock, Springfield, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
The boys are happy, the dogs are healthy, and we're moving. . . again. . . in two weeks. But not until we go on vacation. And I'll try to blog some from there. Happy summer!
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