First Day

So the past week has been a big one for us: it has been a time of talking, planning and buying for the very special event of Emily's first day of Kindergarten. We went clothes shopping, I spent a ridiculously long time searching frantically online for an adorable backpack that I saw in a magazine and felt that Emily simply had to have, and attended an orientation geared much more towards nervous parents than the kids.

So this morning I actually had to go in and wake Emily up at 7 (if any of you actually know our daughter, you will understand the irony of this), helped her put on her clothes she had picked out, and fed her breakfast. Then after the traditional first-school-day-picture-in-front-of-the-door (my sister and I have picture proof of our terrible fashion choices for almost our entire school careers), we hopped in the car and headed to Richland. Traffic was crazy and we ended up getting there after most of the kids had already gone into the classroom. It was still absolute pandemonium. It made me really pity the teachers and administrators, and question whether this is really the profession I want to be in. :)

We took her into her classroom, dropped off the last of her supplies, and reluctantly let her go when she pried us off of her. (Kidding. Kind of.) She sat down at her desk and started getting out her school supplies, while we slipped out the door. We looked at each other , sniffled a bit, and walked hand in hand back to our cars amidst other shellshocked parents and frazzled administrators.

Our baby. In Kindergarten. It's still unbelievable.

Retrospecticus

So, I always try to write about me, Kirsten, and Emily's life in a way that's entertaining and comedic. And, to the 5-6 people who've read this blog and have been following it, I give my deepest thanks. Nothing means more to me than knowing that people I care about, and in some cases I've never met before, follow so closely to the happenings of my family.

On that note, I want to talk a little bit about my wife.

Kirsten and I have had a lot of stress in our lives. I'm not belittling anybody else's stresses, but we've been through stuff that really, really tested our fortitude. I've done and said things that I am not proud of, and will probably regret for the rest of my life. One day, after a particularly grueling few months, when I looked over her shoulder, I found that she had made a blog. In fact, this very one. She started it when I moved to my parents house to start a new job in Kennewick while we find a place to live.

She never told me this blog existed.

I took a moment and read all the entries she had written while I was gone and I made the most obvious revelation in my life; Kirsten has the biggest heart of any person I know. I want the whole world to know how incredibly fortunate I am that the good Lord saw fit to give me the finest of His creations. Not only did He give me her, but He instilled upon her the patience to stick with me until I came to my senses.

Now don't get me wrong, she still:
- Begs me for a golden retriever every time she even thinks about one.

- Leaves drinks half finished. Everywhere.

- Brings home dogs she wanted to save (it happened once, but would've happened more if I wasn't there).

- Etc. Even I know when to quit lists

But, Kirsten is pretty damn near perfect in every way. And as long as I live, I will treat her like the queen she is. I promise. I swear. Hugo Weaving.

Well, tonight we are going to make rice crispy squares. I pretty much demanded it. I don't think I've ever made it, and I'm sure it's not that hard to make. But the delicious amalgam of marshmallow and rice crispies demands my attention.

Get Moving! The Musical

Imagine, if you will. A slow crescendo . Violins, surrounding you with their infectious melody that leave you gasping for air. Sweet, tasty air. Thus, moving day has swarmed upon us. The day of the damned.

Over the course of the month, we have been moving things from the apartment to the house. Everyday (or so...) I would finish work and head over to the apartment to pick up a few things. And that was the song and dance of the month. In the end, we rented a Uhaul to end this monster, once and for all. Boy, we have a lot of crap.

We purchased the smallest moving truck, believing after all we've moved that we have only a few items there. Yeah, the closets weren't done. Emily's room was half full (i'm an optimist!). There. Was. Stuff. Everywhere. I swear, things I thought I had already taken were there. It's almost as if the landlords, upset about our departure, broke into our house and stole the stuff we moved and put it back into our apartment. Like how the Grinch stole Christmas. But with landlords.

It ended up being two trips before we got everything in. I put together a few stats from the moving day:

- Times traveled up three flights of stairs: 108
- Times purposely moved in front of Kirsten to keep her from doing something: 1,028

- Times it looked like Kirsten was going to punch me: 134.5

- Number of bags moved: 30

- Number of boxes: 20

- Number of items I tried to convince Kirsten we didn't need: 300

- Number of items I had to pack because we "needed it": 299

- Percentage of stats that have been made up: 99% (one of these stats is true, try and guess which one!)

In the end, we were both happy it was done. Everything is now here, and not somewhere else. We came home, ordered pizza, filled our cups with root beer, and celebrated a successful move. Hugo Weaving is awesome, by the way. I'm only mentioning him because I think it's hilarious that there's a tag on our site for him.

Cheers, fellow readers. May your dreams take flight. I have to go walk the dogs.