Well, Katherine's first day of school is officially over. I was so happy to see her again. When we walked into her classroom there was one other boy in there with her--all the other students had left already. And Miss Donna (her teacher, of course) was reading a story to them and Katherine was just sitting there cross-legged listening with her backpack on, waiting to go. I looked inside her backpack and there was a folder in there she had decorated with stickers and inside was this form to fill out, so the teachers and students could get to know her better. I asked Katherine all of the questions and then just put her answers down. I have to share two of them in particular.



There were 2 statements she had to complete: It makes me happy when... and It makes me sad when...



These were Katherine's answer...word for word.



It makes me happy when Kaleb and Abbey and you and Mommy give me a hug and a kiss.



It makes me sad when I have to try to go potty when I don't need to go potty.



I laughed and laughed. It was so cute and funny. That's Katherine for sure!! I'm so proud of her. Right now Kris is making her tell him what she did at school while he videos her. She really had good time and Miss Donna said that she did very well today.

Katherine starts preschool today. It is so exciting. She is SO excited!! Kris is coming home early today so that he can go with me to take her. I feel fine right now, but I don't know how I will feel when it is time to let her go. She will do so well and have a blast and it will be interesting here at home while she is gone, but it is so hard to believe she is old enough to be out of the house without me.



We went to my parents house this past weekend. It was a good trip. Glad to be home though and sleep in my own bed. We are heading back out there in September for my grandma's 80th birthday party. I haven't seen my grandma since her 75th, so it will be nice to sit with her and just play scrabble with her! After all...she is the one who taught and challenged me in that game! Dacia and Jenn....we need to play again!

So, the Evanesence concert was interesting, to say the least. Let's see...the first three bands I did not care for at all. I was hoping that Seether would have more songs that I liked, but no...they just had "Broken" and now I think that the only reason that song is any good is because Amy Lee from Evanesence sings with them. Every band that came out said things like "Hey St. Louis, how the f*** are you?" Or "Let's get this f***ing thing started!" It was horrible. And of course...almost every song had that same word or some form of it in there and so it was just not enjoyable. Amy Lee said that word once in one song...and so it wasn't as bad as the others. And she was really friendly (on stage-because it's not like I met her) and funny. Good performer. Her part of the concert was really good. My tickets ended up being lawn tickets, but it was a beautiful night and Addie and I had a good time. Saw some really WEIRD people there, which we expected but still had fun.



Katherine has her open house tomorrow night for preschool. I can't believe it is here already. She knows her teachers name...every now and then I'll ask her, and she remembers from having been told only 2-3 times that her teacher's name is Miss Donna. I am so excited that she will get to interact with other kids her age and start to learn more than what she does at home. She has a brilliant mind and it will be so cool to watch as she develops. School starts a week from tomorrow. I am hoping that the dynamic between Kaleb and Abbey will change some once Kat is in school. I think it will. I am not expecting miracles with the way that Kaleb and Abbey fight all the time...I just think the whole dynamic of the household will be different and I think it is a change that I am looking forward to. I guess we'll find out.



I had a good weekend. I stayed out at a hotel last night. It was my weekend to be completely kid free. I am really tired right now, so I can't decide if completely is spelled with that extra e before the l or not. I think I have it right. I guess it would have to be otherwise is would sound like com-pleht-ly instead of com-pleet-ly. Anyway, that was interesting and good to know, huh?

So I had a pretty interesting weekend. I kept hearing that Evanesence was coming to the UMB Bank Pavilion on Aug. 13 and so I just started looking around on line to see how much tickets were. But the problem was that I couldn't find anything about it online. Well on Friday I started listening to 101.1 constantly because they were giving away tickets the entire weekend to the 10th caller. So everytime they played Evanesence or Seether, you had a chance to win the tickets. So I started calling Friday night. I got through twice...once I was caller 1 and another caller 3. I gave up for the night and throughout the day on Saturday I made some attempts and never got higher than caller 9. There were two attempts on Sunday and I made Jim and Mary turn their radio on to 101.1 that afternoon while we were playing bridge. So I hear the familiar intro to Seether's song "Broken" and I get my phone out and take my time trying to give the other 9 callers time to get through. Then I dialed. It was busy. So I thought, well, I'll try again.



This time, someone picked up and said "Hi, who's this?" I was kind of in shock, but I managed to say "Jamie." And he says "Hi Jamie. How would you like to be caller #10?" And I said, "I would love to be caller number 10!" So, I won 2 tickets to see Evanesence and Seether this coming weekend! I couldn't believe it. I am still kind of in shock over the whole thing...because I don't win anything...EVER. So, needless to say, I am thrilled and blessed at the same time that though Addie is going out of town for the weekend, she is not leaving until Saturday so she will be able to go to the concert with me, which works out well because I wouldn't want to go with anyone but her! We'll have a blast!



Not much else is really going on right now, but I have to say I have really enjoyed this weather. This morning I sat outside in front with the kids and read while they played...for at least 2 hours. It was nice. It reminded me that I want to go camping again, and soon. Hmm...wonder when we can arrange that.



Katherine has preschool open house next Monday night and then will start school the following Monday. How exciting. Kris is even taking off work that day to take her to school with me. He's cute in how much he wants to see her go off for her first day of school. I bought her a new outfit to wear (my mom always spoiled me that way) and after her open house we will take her shopping for a backpack. She has already informed us numerous times that she would like a Barbie backpack...so that is probably what we will end up getting. She is also very excited about having to bring her own snack to school...I wasn't nearly as excited...but I am going to do my best to remember to send one with her everyday! I figure she and I can go to Sam's and pick out a couple of different snacks for her to alternate. She's going to really like school.

Well, I finally braved the grasshoppers today and went downstairs to do the laundry. Kris' intentions were good...but I am home a lot more than he is. But fortunately, I didn't really see any--yet! I tried not to look or shake clothes out...I just put them in the washer. I'd rather deal with dead ones than ones jumping around as I pick up clothes. I can tell by the weather that I will get a lot done today. I am actually motivated...it could be the thunder outside or the darkness in the house. I like it though because I rarely feel this way, and so stuff rarely gets done!



I can't believe it is already August. Time goes by so quickly. Kaleb with turn 3 this month. I can't believe that. I don't even want to think about the fact that Katherine will be four and going to preschool. Abbey now says mama like all the time. It's cute because the way she says it is just so funny. Her voice goes up at the end and she sounds really emphatic. Her other favorite word right now is uh oh. She has now started to shake her head and say hmm mm...like no. It's funny. If you ask her a question, positive or negative...the response is the same. It will be no time at all before she is talking in sentences.



We finally got life insurance! Very exciting for us. The coverages were a lot better than what we had before from Met and we aren't having to pay more than we anticipated having to pay...and we were anticipating lower coverage. I need to call my mom...she will want to know.