Juliana Goes to School!

It doesn't seem quite possible,  but yesterday my baby started school! :(
It only seems like it was a few days ago that I held her in my arms, a helpless baby - but she's not a baby anymore.


Out the door...

For five and a half years, I have spent nearly every waking moment with her - and quite a few un-awake moments, too! I've fed her, dressed her, and along with her dad, we've protected her as well as we could. We couldn't protect her from every boo-boo along the way, but the ones we
couldn't protect her from, we kissed and made better. We've taught her almost everything she knows - from how to crawl and walk, to how to use the big-girl potty, to how to act like a lady (ok, maybe that one hasn't stuck too well, but we're trying!) among many other things.


Across the parking lot...

Yesterday, she set out on a new learning adventure. She'll have many new teachers on this journey, who will teach her many things. She'll have fun times, sad times, frustrating times, and she will feel pride at accomplishing some new thing.

Down the hall, to left...and we've arrived!
I can't protect her from everything any more. There is sure to come a day when she is hurt by one of her classmates, or a teacher who speaks carelessly or harshly...but she is learning. And each little hurt, each little joy, every moment along the way, will help her to grow and to become the woman she will be. 

The little brother wasn't very happy to leave his playmate.


No, I won't always be there to keep the hurts from happening, but I WILL be here to hold her when she hurts. I'll be here to listen when she doesn't understand. I may not always be her best friend - in fact, there'll probably be times when I'm downright unpopular in her eyes, but I will always be her biggest supporter.

Doing the first homework.

And when she needs more than I can give her, I'll be sure to point her the One who will be everything she ever needs. The One who loves her even more than I do, and knows more about her than I will ever know because He made her.



All finished!

And so, I'm sad. It will take a while to adjust to having one of my chicks missing for most of the day, but we'll survive. But this is life,  and it's a new learning experience for her.
So I'll be happy for her.

After I cry for a while.

Happy 4th of July!

TN Trip Part 2 - The Grandparents

The trip continues....
We left the Fogleman's house Sunday afternoon and headed on to Tennessee - Brad had to be there by late Sunday evening to check in. We took him to his hotel, got him situated, and headed out to my parents house (out in the country, about 30 minutes from Nashville).
The kids hadn't seen them in over a year (Brad & I got to see them in December when we were there for his work Christmas thingy, but the kids had gone to Missouri 'cause we couldn't take them along), but they marched right in and pretty well took over! It took them a little longer to warm up to Grandma, but they took to Pop right away!
Unfortunately, Juliana has this odd fear of clocks that chime - and Mom & Dad have not just ONE, but TWO grandfather clocks in their house - that chime every 15 minutes! (One is theirs, and one belongs to my brother) She eventually got to where she didn't notice them most of the time, but she still didn't want to be in the room alone with either clock, so that took us a bit of convincing to get past...

The next morning, they hopped out of bed before Mommy or Grandma got up and gave Pop his marching orders; by the time I got up, he's already fixed them breakfast, and they were getting ready to go out and feed the chickens.
They had a great time. I think by the time we left Pop was ready for a good rest! :)

 'Helping' Pop in the garden

'Planting' the seeds

(I think Jonathan was more picking the seeds back up going, 'Pop, you dwop dis!')

Make that row nice and straight!

 Terrorizing the chickens...Jonathan thought it was great fun to yell and jump at them so they would run off squawking! :-0

 They helped Pop 'mow the tractor'

 And they got to meet the horse - my sister got this horse when I was 10 or 11, so he's getting a bit old, but he still loves kids. Jonathan was quite sure what to think about him, but Ju liked petting his nose.

My dad mows their property a bit at a time and catches the grass to feed to the horse and cows. The cows have their specific spot where he feeds them, and the horse has his - and they know not to get in each others' spot. Thumper (the horse), however, is sneaky, and when Dad turns his back, he goes and eats the cows' leftovers, at which point Dad fusses at him, and he goes back to his spot. It's like this little ritual that they have.   

So, the cows had their food, the horse had his, and Pop went to go back to his gardening; as soon as he turned his back, of course, Thumper went to snitch some cow food. As soon as he got there, Dad hollered at him, 'Git out of there, Ding-Dong!', and the horse went back to his spot. A few minutes later, he tried it again; Jonathan spotted him, and got very excited. 

"Pop," he yelled, "Ding-Ding gittin' cow's food!"

Pop told him to 'tell Ding-Dong to get out of there', so he would run up the fence and say very authoritatively,

 "Ding-Ding, you GIT!"

And Ding-Ding would oblige! 

Don't look now, Pop, but I think someone just hijacked your tractor...

While they were draggin' Pop around, Mommy was taking care of Grandma's pile of mending that she hadn't gotten to yet. It was some nice mindless sewing - I'm normally making stuff, so changing elastic and hemming stuff was a nice change! :)

The kids did play with Grandma, too, but she has this camera aversion, so no pictures there. I tell her that when she dies, her grandchildren will only be able to remember her by the palms of her hands, because about every picture we have of her, she has her hand up in front of her face!

Between feeding all the animals, chickens and fish, gathering eggs, gardening with Pop, and trying to coerce both of them into reading them stories, I think the little people enjoyed their time there.  

The cat, on the other never did figure us out. I was in my early teens when we got her as a kitten, so she's getting pretty old, too. She did come out one night after everyone else was asleep and rubbed against my ankle once or twice, but as long as the kids were out, she was absent. Poor kitty...she's not used to all that racket! (For that matter, I don't think Grandma & Pop are, either!)

We did run into Nashville a couple of nights to see Daddy - Monday night we went and had supper with him, and Wednesday night after church we went and wandered around Barnes & Noble for a bit. It's no fun when Daddy's gone! :( While we were farming, he was studying about pizza sales - I think we had the better end of the deal! 

Friday afternoon we went and picked him up, and we headed back home; we arrived tired, but happy to be home again!