Our big adventures

This week we've just been living life - going to work and school, grocery shopping, the usual. And it still feels different here. Even though, according to my mom, I "don't get home until about the time I would have anyway," (meaning that I get home around 6 most days, which is when I got home living in Blue Springs) there's still more time in the day. You see, now the store, dinner, ice cream or anything else we need is always less than 5 miles away. We spent a couple of evenings this week just letting the boys ride their bikes out front. This let us visit with neighbors and enjoy the weather. The resident 12-year-old told me this week that there are 20 kids under the age of 12 in this neighborhood - on three streets. Baby time! And not for us, if that's what you crazy people may be thinking. I just wanted to shout out to Donato Carroll Ruggeri, Dave and Karen's new little guy who was born on Sept. 19. AND to Carson James Gift, my cousin Erika and Landon...

The big news Karen had her baby!! Donato Carroll Ruggeri was born on Sept. 19 at 6:23 p.m. at St. Mary's Hospital in St. Louis. He weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and everyone is doing well. Congratulations, Karen and Dave! If you'd like to send them well-wishes, Dave's e-mail address is davidruggeri@yahoo.com. A new car First of all, Shelly Thorington, if you're out there, the day finally came. I traded in my 8-year-old Xterra and bought a 2009 Honda Accord on Thursday. They gave me well over blue book for the trade-in of the Xterra (wahoo!), and we got an extra set of tires and wheels thrown in with the car. If that didn't sound strange, read it again. We got an EXTRA set of TIRES and WHEELS. So here's a tip for anyone going to look at new cars. If the car you want has wheels other than what came on it as stock, or if you want them to put something else on, don't let them charge you for the tires and wheels that they took/take off and don't give to you. My...

Hurricane Ike was supposed to have brought rain to Arkansas the entire weekend. As my good friend Julie Nurski says, "Since when did Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas get hurricanes?" Well, we only got rain on Friday night and Saturday, and it was a nice, gentle rain. Grandma Zellers and Granny came to visit this weekend. We went to see bull riding at the Benton County Fair on Friday night. And on Saturday, the boys and Nate met them at Denny's Diner for breakfast. The rain stopped just long enough for Brayden's 2 p.m. football game. Go Raiders! (I can't believe I just wrote that.) So if you've been keeping up with my blog, a few entries ago I went on a rant about how I couldn't believe that there was no football here for kids younger than the second grade - and how we finally found it. Boy, did we find it. Here's my shout out to Mutt and Lisa Ketteler for responding to the quiz about the football team name. It is, in fact, the Raiders. Ugh. Double ugh tha...

When we got to school on Tuesday after Labor Day, we found this poster that said Beau was a "Star Student!" Here's what he has to say: I am a star student because. . . I put my hands in my head at snack time. What I like most about school is. . . going outside. I am good at. . . riding my bike outside. My favorite subject is. . . play with the purses and phone. When I grow up I want to be. . . a speed racer. I am proud of myself because. . . I'm a big kid when my mom brings me to school.

So the worst part (really one of the very few bad parts) of moving here was that we couldn't find football for Brayden. You'd think in the South - where football abounds, where everyone knows how to call the Hogs, hook 'em Horns, can spot the likes of Boomer Sooner, knows the Dallas Cowboys star from any other star there may ever be, knows intimately the story of the Marshall Thundering Herd (from We Are Marshall), where we are already seeing Darren McFadden Raiders jerseys on children and where Friday Night Lights are more of a religion than something to do - where the high school football team has an indoor practice facility that rivals anything the Chiefs have (seriously) - you'd think that of all places that here they would start boys early in football. This, my friends, is not so much the case. We looked everywhere for a football program for 5-year olds. Most athletics are run through the Boys and Girls Clubs here, and they don't start until second grade. Now...

Last week Brayden finished his first week as a big Kindergartener while Nate finished his first week officially as an assistant principal. It was a fun time for all. A trip to the lake that doesn't take 4 hours We headed to see MiMi and Pa at the lake (Table Rock) on Saturday. I just can't explain how excited I am about this. On Saturday, we did work around the house, ran errands, headed to the lake, dropped off the boys, visited with Dad and Debbie, went to Springfield, ran a couple of errands and made it to a party at Donnie and Winnie's by 6:30 p.m. Now in our "old life," our entire day would have been spent trying to make it to a party in Springfield by 6:30. But here, in this new place we call home, it took an hour and 40 minutes to get from Bentonville to "Pa's lake." LOVE IT! Now that hour and 40 minutes doesn't come easy, especially for a little boy in the back seat of dad's truck. For some reason I hear the narrator from the Dukes of...

Should I put once upon a time? One time, my brother, Beau, threw the ball in the pool so I could go get it. And one time he threw it in the deep end. And I still went down and got it. And I kept doing that. (Editor's note: I'm losing him here. I think we're going to go the Q&A route. . .) Q: What did you think when you got up this morning? A: I don't know. Q: What were you thinking on the way to school this morning? A: I DON'T KNOW!! Q: What was your favorite thing about school today? A: Going outside and playing. You know those things you hang on? But they are triangles? I tried to go across those. Q: Did you play with anyone? A: Yes. Q: What were their names? A: Uh, I don't know. I didn't ask them. Q: Were they bigger than you or smaller than you? A: About the same size, I guess. Q: What did you eat for lunch? A: Chocolate milk, mashed potatoes that smelled like gravy, sausage in a bun with ketchup and, uh, half a banana, and some yellow food, but I di...