Our big adventure

Heading across country

2009-06-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

The boys giggle in bed. Nate checks directions for tomorrow. And I update the blog. We fit our family roles to a tee.

Tonight we are in Jackson, Mississippi (M-I-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I). Brayden knows how to spell Mississippi. We're more than half way toward our final destination of Destin, Florida. If all goes well we'll be there by just after lunch tomorrow.

Every day for the past three months Beau has asked if today is the day for vacation. And today was the day! My dad was absolutely as excited as Beau. I hear he (Dad) hasn't slept well in two nights just thinking about it. Those two are like two peas in a pod. I can't wait to get to the condo and for them, Brayden, Mazy and Ele to head off to the beach. How much fun there is waiting for us.

So I'll try to post some while we're away. I don't know if I'll have a connection. I sooo miss working at Sprint in times like this. It's hard to live without an air card once you get used to being always connected.

THUD. Brayden just fell off of the bed into the floor. The giggles continue from both of them. Today's 8-hour trip through all of Arkansas, a bit of Louisiana and into Mississippi was actually really good. I guess we got the boys used to it on the Colorado trip last year. They were amazing today. A quick stop at a McDonald's playland surely helped the situation.

So that's it. We're headed to Destin. Oh, and we finally got the signatures and final agreement on the Blue Springs house as we were driving out of town. That was a nice little pre-vacation present. Here's what happens in our crazy lives.

We're in Florida until next Saturday when we drive straight back to Bentonville. We finish packing the house we live in on Sunday. The movers come Monday morning to move us a mile down the road. At some point on Monday we have to leave that situation and go to the title company to close on the Blue Springs house (keep your fingers crossed and us in your prayers). Oh, and I have a meeting with the Executive Vice President of HR for the company at 4 on Monday. Thanks to Grandma Zellers for coming down to keep the boys under control while we spin out of control.

Surely life will commence to something called normal soon. We'll see. Good night from Jackson!

The Kitchen Calendar Still Says March

2009-06-08T18:56:00.001-07:00

And so does the last blog entry. . . so goes our lives. Have you ever had one of those months where you just wonder where the time has gone? Apparently, we're working on month four of that "where has the time gone?" mentality.

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!

What if your kids don't like water?

2009-03-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

I remember vividly driving home down I-435 one day in 2003. I was pregnant with Brayden and talking to Karen on the phone. Just before I hit the Grandview Triangle, Karen says, "So what are you going to do if the baby doesn't like the water?" Now let me pontificate for just a minute. This is what I love about our dear friends. They call it like they see it. No holds barred. If your best friends can't be straight up with you, then who can? I know that many people don't understand this, for instance, the time Shawn told me I was not holding off my baby weight very well (in fact, I was pregnant with Beau and Shawn just found out). And Karen trying to help me come to grips with the reality that I may have children that don't like water. . .

So I remember that day my immediate and very matter-of-fact response was, "That's not an option." Seriously, people, can you imagine Nate and me having kids who DON'T like the water? It's a way of life for us. Really, this is not an option. And it's nothing I had thought about before. Obviously, though, it's something I've thought about a lot since then.

So you're probably wondering, "Why am I reading this and what does it have to do with the year 2009, Arkansas and two children who are not babies anymore?" I'm getting there. This is what you call a narrative story (thank you, and rest peacefully Mrs. Gugel, my high school English teacher and beloved cheerleading sponsor). It's not a breaking news story in which I'd get to the point immediately. So keep reading. Or not. Your call. It's a free country.

The best day EVER!
Now that we live less than two hours from Springfield and Table Rock Lake, the weather is warmer and the boys see MiMi, Pa, Ele and Mazy more often. Unfortunately, we see Grandma and Grandpa Zellers, Granny, Grandma Patty, Maga, Courtney, Shelby, Rhonda and Grandma less often.

Last Sunday, we were driving to Branson so that the boys could go to Splash Country (an indoor water park) with Pa, MiMi, Ele and Mazy. When Brayden woke up Sunday morning, he ran into our bedroom as fast as the Batman PJs would let him go, and the first words out of his mouth were, "This is the best day EVER!" And that's what got me thinking about that conversation Karen and I had six years earlier.

He couldn't wait for the indoor water park. The boys started swim lessons when they were 8 months old. They have never had a washcloth held over their faces to keep the bath water out of their eyes. They've never held their noses jumping into the water. They have never thought twice about liking the water. They went to the ocean for the first time when they were 14 months and 2 1/2. They were born half fish, half boy.

The fiboys (fish/boys) we are raising spent six hours - count them - six hours at the indoor water park that day with their MiMi and Pa and cousins. And they cried when it was time to leave. Just to be clear - this place is not huge. I have dimension problems, but I'd say it's not as big as a football field. It may be as big as two basketball courts side-by-side. And they had a ball!

In the meantime
Since the weather is warming up here, we're hoping to open the pool in April. I won't be surprised if they jump in the first day they can. And they'll freeze their little bottoms off. But they won't care.

So until true lake and pool season gets here, they are both in gymnastics still. And they are both starting baseball next week. We're going to see Aunt Jenny and Uncle Jason in Springfield tonight and the boys will hit the circus in Springfield tomorrow. I'm afraid the circus may recruit Beau the monkey (not Beau the fish). Stay tuned for that one.

Spring break is the last week in March, and Beau can't wait to take the camper out. So we'll be camping around here somewhere that week. And we just booked a trip with Pa, MiMi, Ele, Mazy, Aunt Steffy and Dusty to Destin for June. Nate, Dad, Debbie and I are looking forward to diving; Nate and I may check out the surf school; Brayden can't wait to build sandcastles; I hear that when Ele and Mazy found out about the trip they screamed so loud the entire restaurant wondered what was going on; and we're glad that Dusty is an active, fun, nice family member who wants to join us.

Oh, and Nate started school again today. He has to take "the history of Arkansas" in order to keep his certification and his job. It'll be interesting to see what this class brings. Be sure to watch for your afterschool specials in which you will also be learning about the history of Arkansas.

P.S. - For those of you who were so entertained by most post months ago reliving the drive through the hills and Brayden threatening to throw up, it happened again. And this time he did throw up. We have since invested in some Dramamine.

What we've been up to, by Brayden and Beau

2009-03-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Right now I sit at the computer with two little boys excited about life. They are going to help me write the blog today. I've explained to them that this is how we let our friends and family who don't live here keep up with what we are doing. Here goes, we'll see what kind of entertainment these two have in store this morning.

Beau: I wish you live here.
Beau: We've been cleaning up. We were eating breakfast.
Brayden: A small breakfast. (Editor's note: Apparently french toast, bagels and fresh oj isn't a big enough breakfast. These people are s-p-o-i-l-e-d.)
Beau: Ele and Mazy came to my house here (a few weeks ago).
Brayden: I've been building a robot out of boxes, slinklies (Slinky's) and water bottle lids, paper, some glue and monster tape (duct tape).
Beau: We've been playing pbskids.org on the computer.
Brayden: I know how to and Beau doesn't. - (Beau: YES I DO) - One of our most favorites is Curious George making a sand castle and Word Girl watch a movie. That's our favorites.
Brayden: Harper and Kendall came over. (The Biley's from Blue Springs were in town for the University of Arkansas Men's Basketball team's celebration of the 15th anniversary of winning the National Championship. So they came over yesterday. Beau had a complete come apart when it was time for them to leave. I didn't realize how much he misses his Harper.) Brayden is giving a shout out to the Biley's if you're reading this!
Brayden: Beau just called me a coo-coo bird. Ha-ha-ha-hee-hee-hee.
Beau and Brayden: Dad has been watching TV and he may have been watching Dirty Jobs.
Brayden: Mom slept in today.
Brayden: I've been going to school every day without even going home. And I've been sleeping at school - JOKING!

Beau got tired of this game, and Brayden is off getting his robot so we can take a picture to post here. So it's been nearly a month since I posted. I've got to get on the ball with this thing.

Beau turned 4
Beau turned four on Feb. 4. I'm hoping that four will be a bit more calm and under control than three. But I'm seeing no signs of that yet. Stay tuned. The four of us went to Chuck E. Cheese's for his birthday, and I posted a couple pictures of that here. We had his four-year-old pictures taken last weekend, and I've posted one of the boys and Honey here, too.

Breaking news from Brayden - He had to glue the robot's eye and one leg back on, so we'll have to wait to take that picture. Apparently he doesn't know where the second leg is. . .

A recent, fast KC trip
Beau and I headed to KC Friday for Lisa Ketteler's baby shower. I can't tell you how nice it was to see all of my Sprint friends. I can't believe it's been so long. As I think back at happy hour, I really can't believe how many people have left and how few remain, and I'm keeping those of you who are left in my prayers this week as you find out what's going on with your jobs. Hang in there. It really, really was great to see you.

We also got to see Granny, Courtney, Shelby, Maga, Grandma, Randy, Rhonda, Brandon and the rest of the Parks family. Shelb, Beau hasn't let go of the little dog you gave him.

Brayden (he came back): Mom - Can I say something. . .I was the first one awake this morning in this family here. Be sure you put a period. (Thank you, little one. I have to say that I'm glad at age 5 he's already worried about punctuation. A kid after my own heart.)

There's snow on the ground in Bentonville, but not enough to make a difference. It took Beau and me more than four hours to get back from KC yesterday with the snow there. That would be an hour longer than normal. And compound that with our visit of less than 24-hours in KC for a fun! fun! fun! travel time.

That's probably enough for now. Until I find time to post again, here's an interesting fact so you can say you learned something today:

The world's oldest dog was an Austrailian cattle dog (blue heeler) named Bluey who lived to the age of 29!

You know you've moved to the South when. . .

2009-01-29T23:04:00.000-08:00

Common language at work includes phrases like, "I ain't got none" and "We don't have no."
The female cast of Dallas can be found within a stone's throw. Think big, Texas-style, frosted hair.
You walk down the isle at work and could swear a guy is sitting at his desk chewing snuff and spitting it into a cup. AT WORK! (this was likely sunflower seeds, but still. . .)
At Christmas you'll find in the middle of the town square a Confederate soldier standing watch over a nativity scene complete with a black wise man.
The bar and grill down the road has to have a staff conference to determine if they sell wine by the bottle.
There are no less than 36 Christian radio stations to be found when you hit "seek" on your car radio.
Sweet tea is a staple. If you're ordering tea, you bet your bottom it's going to be sweet. This is as opposed to only being able to find it at Arby's, McAllister's and McDonalds if you go just across the state line.
A winter storm sends people fleeing for home and screaming "the end is near!"
A winter storm means no school for a week and radio stations that broadcast, "Public schools are canceled for the entire listening area."
You get to take the southern route to Colorado, thus avoiding the long, boring drive on I-70 across Kansas.

Life's back to normal

2009-01-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

We returned from our big Colorado trip and fell right back into the craziness we know and love as life in the Bice household in Bentonville. I've been subbing for classes at the gym where the boys go to gymnastics, the boys have had gymnastics, we've had PTO meetings at school, and we went to St. Louis last weekend for baby Donato's baptism (Karen and Dave's 3 1/2 month old little guy).

A "bad day"
We were getting ready for Donato's baptism, and I was explaining in 3-year-old terms to Beau that we were getting ready to go to baby Donato's baptism. To which Beau responds, "Why is baby Donato having a bad day?" (bap-tism apparently sounds like "bad day" in 3-year-old boy land)

Kindergarten is big stuff
Brayden got his report card today for the first semester, and we are very proud to say that he got all pluses (but one). He can write his numbers to 100 and received an award last week for literacy and reading. I just finished looking through the work they sent home this week, and they are working on addition! I don't know when I learned to add, but I'm positive it wasn't in Kindergarten. I remember being in Kindergarten and thinking I had two noses (those would be nostrils for those keeping score). Anyone have a similar Kindergarten memory you'd like to share? I'll publish it next time I post. . . Come on, I know you have them!

Arkansas 101 - Here Nate comes!
In order to retain his provisional certification in Arkansas and be officially certified to keep his job, Nate has to take the history of Arkansas 101 class this spring. You can imagine how excited he is. I think it'll be pretty interesting - as long as he doesn't have many papers to write. We all know how that goes around here. Tom and Matt Majors wherever you are, that is directed mostly at you two.

Familiar faces at Wal-Mart
Ok, aside from Amy Schiska who moved down here and started working with me in December and Brian Khim, who worked with me at Sprint and is now working on the first floor of my building, I'm seeing a lot of other familiar faces around Wal-Mart. I encourage you to look around when you go to a new place - a job, a community, a church - and see how many people remind you of someone else. So far, I have my Aunt Sandy as our assistant, a cross between Brenda Womack and Nate's principal as our new VP, Shelly Thorington, Bonavia, Tom Cook, Jena, a cross between Mark and Shawn in one of my good friends down here, a photo on the wall that looks just like Dane Hansen, Sharon Inlow (more or less), Doug Carley, and last night when I was helping out coaching the boys team on floor at the gym (mostly so they could determine if I was qualified to take on a pre-teen girls tumbling class or if I just thought I was quailifed) I found 18-year-old Shawn who was complete with two bum knees. Oh, and in case you wondered, I passed the spotting of the tumbling test.

As there are more people who remind me of all of you who are near and dear to my heart out there, I'll be sure to let you know.

A dog's life
By now you're well aware that we are in love with our separation-anxiety-ridden black lab, Honey. She is the sweetest thing there ever was, with the exception of my dear Brady.

That reminds me, my sister came to clean the house last weekend and her boyfriend (the good one), Dusty, came with her. Brayden was sitting on the couch with him and out of the blue said, "Dusty, Brady kind of reminded me of you sometimes." I guess we all have her on the brain every now and then. It's hard to believe we've been without her for just over two years now.

Anyway, the subject of this little insertion is that my step-mom got me a lab tear-off calendar for the new year. I especially liked today's statement, and that's what I'll leave you with:

The DOG was created specially for children. He is the god of frolic.

- Henry Ward Beecher

From Ridgway to Durango and back home again

2009-01-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

We made it home tonight after another 2-day car drive across the country (or so it felt). And I have to give major props to the boys. They were amazing travelers. I was prepared for the worst, but they absolutely surprised me.

Most of you don't know that one of the things I want to do some day is write a series of children's travel books. Here's a preview of what a few entries would look like for kids traveling historic Route 66:

If you take the historic route through Santa Rosa, NM, you'll find a likeness of "Mater" from the movie Cars. Be sure to stop and get some pictures - and check out those rear-view mirrors!
Just West of Amarillo, look out to the south to see Cadillacs "planted" in a farm
Just East of Amarillo is the second largest cross in the Western Hemisphere, again on the south side of the road. It is bigger than 10 of our houses! (This was Brayden's interpretation.)
Just north east of Oklahoma City on the historic route is a restaurant/gift shop called "Pops." They have 500 kinds of soda pop and out front is a 66-foot pop bottle with straw.
Just down the road from Pops is a round barn. Bet you've never seen one like it!

There are many, many more sites and places to stop and explore on this historic route, but those are the ones the boys really enjoyed on our trip home.

The final day of vacation

On the last day of our big vacation, we drove back from Ridgway to Durango with plans to ski one last time. But after a detour through Silverton, the town that got 190 inches of snow in a matter of two weeks - that was not a typo, by the way (190 inches!!) - we arrived in Durango later than we'd planned.

If you've never seen 190 inches of snow, and I'm going to guess none of you have, it's something to behold. This little town sits down in a valley and is at least 20 degrees colder than the two major neighboring towns. Everyone seemed to have a snowmobile, and they had dump trucks hauling snow out of town. We didn't take pictures, but we should have. I doubt we'll ever see anything like that again.

Ok, so we finally got to Durango and decided there was no time to ski. So we went snow tubing. And it was a blast! My fearless boys had an absolute ball. In fact, Brayden rode by himself once and decided it didn't go fast enough by himself so chose to ride with Nate, Aunt Jenny or me to go faster. And Beau laid down on our backs and hung onto our necks kind of piggy-back style for his rides down. This is definitely something we'll have to do again. And again. And again.

We stayed at the Doubletree in Durango on Friday night. Brayden walked in the lobby with me to check in and said, "Wow. This is nice. Faaaancy." Those words coming out of a 5-year-old mouth in reference to a hotel are just funny. Maybe you had to be there.

So that's it. We're home. And we're back to work and school tomorrow. I'll try to update this more often than I had the past month or so, but we're back to the grind now, so I can't make any pinkie promises that it's going to happen.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and happy New Year!

Tails from Honey (the dog)

2008-12-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

So here's what I think about how this week is going. I love not being stuck in a kennel, even though I do love Camp Bow Wow. I've found a new boyfriend in Ajax, Jenny and Jason's border collie. We run and jump through the snow together every chance we get. I say, "ruff, ruff" to Colorado!

Now my boys have been having a tail-wagging time. Yesterday I was very confused when Dad and Brayden came to my rescue at the car without Mom and Beau (I've been keeping watch over the car while everyone is out having fun). Where were they? I couldn't find my long-haired buddy. Quickly I figured out that Dad and Aunt Jenny took Brayden down the bunny hill for the first time when he was finished with ski school. The big smile on his face was all I needed to know he needed a big, Honey lick right up his face to congratulate him on successful ski school.

Mom said when she picked him up that his instructor, Ben, told her that Bubba was the only kid all day who didn't cry for his mommy. I'm not surprised. He's a tough guy. Ben also called Brayden the "champion" of the class. That's my boy.

Mom and Beau finally got there after I'd already had my potty break and run around some. I hear that Beau was the most popular kid at school. When it was time to leave, mom said he had to walk around to every instructor with a high five. And she bought some really cool pictures of the boys so I could see what had been going on all day.

The best Aunt Jenny - the big surprise

Mom thinks about half the population has an Aunt Jenny. My yellow lab friend, Tally, does; My friend Elmo in Springfield does; Eddie and Henry do - oh, and so do all of the kids that belong to those doggy friends of mine. Anyway, today our Aunt Jenny became the best Aunt Jenny in the world.

She surprised us with a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the mountains. Ok, not us, but my family. I got to stay in the car. But they say it was amazing and beautiful and the perfect day for it. We'll put a picture or two here. My boys even got to drive the sleigh and guide Rocky and Rio, the horses.

On to Ridgway

Next we loaded back into the car - I was the first one in! I jumped all the way over the bags and into my cozy bed. I tried to nap during the drive that was a couple of hours north to Jenny and Jason's house in Ridgway, but those mountain roads can make a dog sick. Luckily, I held down my Purina One.

I was so excited to get out of the car - the boys were, too! We ran and jumped in the snow. Brayden and I had a snowball fight. I don't think it was very fair, though. I was getting hit right in the head with all of the snowballs and Brayden just laughed. I guess that's the life of a best friend. I loved every minute of it.

Right before it started getting dark, Dad and Uncle Jason started building a snowman with Brayden. We finished it tonight, and Brayden was so excited. I helped make sure Beau didn't get stuck in the deep snow when we went searching for the snowman's arms.

I guess that's it from here. Grandma, give Sadie a lick for me. Grandma Zellers, tell Maggie hi. And for everyone else with a dog member of the family, give them an extra pat tonight. Taking care of a family is hard work.

--- Honey, the dog

Today was ski day #1

2008-12-29T21:08:00.000-08:00

The night before
Last night was the big surprise for the boys - a ride on the Polar Express! They were so excited and thought it was so cool. We took their jammies and changed them in the bathroom of the train station. Brayden kept saying, "WHY are we putting on our jammies in a bathroom?" He could not figure out what was going on. Beau, on the other hand, hand our number. He came screaming out of his bathrooom changing area, "BUBBY! WE'RE GOING ON THE POLAR EXPRESS!!!"

It was a pretty cool adventure. They took us to the "North Pole" to deliver Santa, who came through the cabin and gave each child a bell. Brayden consumed three cups of hot-hot-hot hot chocolate. A fun time was had by all. Thanks to Aunt Jenny for planning this special trip!

So there's just one funny here that some of you may appreciate. Beau is in love with our 2-year-old black lab, Honey. And Honey is just as googly-woogly about Beau. Well, last night, I wake up about 1:30 a.m. to an asleep Honey groaning and grunting and rolling around in her bed followed by a still asleep, screeching and whining Beau rolling around in Honey's bed. Yes, folks, the kid and the dog both took up camp in the dog bed last night. And they were jocky-ing for position.

So I got up and put Beau back in his bed. This morning I asked why he was in Honey's bed, and his answer was simple. "I was scared in the bed with Bubby. So I got in bed with Honey."

The big day
Ok, now the boys can now both officially water ski and snow ski - wahoo! Today we skied at Purgatory/Durango. Both of the boys went to ski school while Nate, Jenny, Jason and I hit the slopes.

Brayden LOVES it. One of his instructors said to me when I checked in on him at lunch, "He's so chipper!" He made Jason pull him down the little hill at the end of the mountain after ski school was over. He really wants to ride the lift to the top tomorrow and ski down. We'll see. What we do know is that they are moving him up to the beginner 2 class for tomorrow's lesson. I'll let you know tomorrow how/if the skiing down the mountain goes.

Beau went to ski school, too. They did more of a cross-country-like skiing. When Nate went to pick him up, they told him, "This is the coolest kid we've ever had. He falls down and gets himself right back up and just keeps going." That's our Beau.

Then we hit a place for dinner called Beau-Jo's. It was very appropriate, we thought. And we may have to visit it more often. Beau, who never eats, ate two big plates of salad followed by 3/4 of a kid-sized pizza. Oh, and I can't forget about a half a box of Goldfish dipped in ranch dressing. Skiing does that body good!

As I type, they both passed out asleep in less than 3 minutes. Here's to a good night's sleep for everyone. . .

Be sure to check out the newest pics I posted here!

Hello from Colorado!

2008-12-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

On Friday we all loaded up the truck - complete with Honey - and headed out for a 2-day, 16-hour drive to Durango, Colorado. And yesterday evening we finally arrived. The boys were more or less fantastic on the drive, and we would have never known Honey was with us. Jenny and Jason say we made good time, but they weren't the ones in the car. . .

Top 10 things I've learned on this trip so far:

10 - 77 degrees in Oklahoma on Dec. 26 is a great thing

9 - It's amazing to me how little boys inherently understand video games and I can't seem to figure out how to turn them on

8 - Radio station 94.1 in Tulsa is great with tunes like Blinded by the Light, Hit Me with Your Best Shot and Come Sail Away

7 - Hay bales can also be called cow food according to Beau, "Look how many cow foods there are, Dad!"

6 - When you ahve 46 DVDs, the only one anyone really wants to watch is Scooby Doo Meets Batman

5 - There's a county in Texas called Deaf Smith

4 - Brayden plans to live in the Rocky Mountains when he grows up because he loves the snow

3 - When a mama tells her boys not to play in the snow with their bare hands, they do it anyway. And then they cry hysterically when their little hands freeze. Repeat this one 3 times to get the full effect.

2 - According to Beau, you aren't really in the mountains until you're actually standing on a mountain

And the number one thing I've learned: 8 degrees = frozen snot.

I'll update as often as I can while we're here. We're playing in the snow with Jenny and Jason today, and Brayden is determined to build an igloo. Tomorrow and Tuesday everyone is skiing. That should be an adventure!

2008-12-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

Well look at me. . . Two posts in one week. No, hell hasn't frozen over. I'm just not sleeping much.

As the home room mom for Brayden's class, I've been at school the last two days for events. And I've decided that before you sign up for this very important job, you should get a job description that says something like this:

Home room mom needed
"Sucker needed to stress out about 45-minute parties for approx. 25 5-and 6-year-olds. You should be the crafty sort because if you're not, then multiply the stress level because this job requires some creativity and energetic craft creation. You should not have a full-time job because inevitably you will get stuck later than you want to be at work and you will skate in by the skin of your teeth to pull off the party or deliver the supplies you had committed to bring. Keep in mind that this job is intended to HELP the teacher, not stress her out because you are a loser without a crafty hair on your head. Oh, and did we mention that you also should want to be really involved with your kid and his school? That's the most important part. If you fit that bill, then go ahead and volunteer. You'll just feel like an under-achiever all year."

The events of the week
So can you tell that I'm home room mom and feeling like I should be doing a way better job than I am? Ugh. I'm very happy to be involved; I just don't want to let my big guy down. My friend Chris at work has been making fun of me this week about being "teacher's pet" and "overachiever." I guess if the shoe fits. . . but the problem with these monachers is that they also come with a good amount of guilt over what you didn't do perfectly. Yes. I am Monica.

Let's see. . . This week has been filled with:

Gingerbread house making at Brayden's school yesterday. Now you haven't lived until you've taken a milk carton - you know, those little ones like you got at school for like 10 cents and only if you were lucky did you get one of the rare cartons of chocolate? One of those - and spread icing all over it and then stick graham crackers to that followed by more icing and some candy. One of the little girls in his class had icing up to her elbows. No kidding. But they did some great work. Very cute.
Christmas party at Brayden's school today. Yes, down here it's ok to call something a Christmas party. What a relief. In Sprint-world, the "C" word was not to be breathed soas not to offend anyone. Here I've been to three company meetings with Christmas trees, Christmas music and even a Unity Choir singing passionately about Jesus. Anyway, today's kindergarten Christmas party entailed figuring out the snack, CRAFT and game. I was pretty proud of myself. Little Debbie Christmas tree brownies are a hit with kindergarteners. And after wondering aimlessly through Hobby Lobby - up and down the isles and up and down - I finally decided the kiddos would make Christmas cards. So while gingerbread house decorating yesterday I took their pictures and developed them last night to use today. I'm glad that's all over with.
Christmas party at Beau's school tomorrow. I have nothing, n-o-t-h-i-n-g to do with this one. I hope the little guy doesn't get a complex that I did participate, but enough is enough. I'll attend the party, so maybe he won't know the difference.
And more Christmas Saturday and again on Sunday. I'll spare you the gory details.

Until later - I'm mailing Christmas cards this weekend. I hope you all receive them in time. If not, Happy New Year :-)

At long last

2008-12-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I've posted anything. I know below it says Oct. 31, but that's when I wrote that - it actually posted on Nov. 19. Hey, I have to defend myself and my horrible lack of posting a little!

Let's see - there's so much that's gone on. I'll start recent and see what else I can remember over the past month.

It's the most wonderful time of the year
Cousin Ele spent the night Saturday night, and we woke up to breakfast in bed from the kiddos. It was very, very sweet. Picture this - Nate getting pelted in the head by a Juicy Juice box along with Beau jumping on top of him saying, "Daddy! Guess what?!" I, on the other hand, had two, sweet angels (Brayden and Ele) on my side of the bed handing me apple cide in a cup with a lid complete with Spiderman atop and a yellow straw.

We both were presented "peanut butter toast." Here's the ever-so-sweet, yet very funny part of our "peanut butter toast." It was more like "peanut butter and stale bread on a plate." They woke us up to ask if Ele could use the toaster oven, but the problem is that she doesn't know how to use a toaster oven. So she turned on the timer instead of the toaster. And it's been a couple of weeks since I bought a loaf of bread, so we were down to the last few, gross pieces.

As good parents and aunts/uncles do, we graciously accepted and gave glowing praise for such a very nice and thoughtful thing for them to do. We ate a couple of bites, and when they were gone Honey promptly received a nice morning breakfast of peanut butter and stale bread.

As I mosey into the living room, I hear them all scurrying about in the kitchen doing God only knows what. But the best part was that Brayden was singing at the top of his lungs and oh-so-out-of-tune, "It's the MOST WondERful TIMe of the YEar. . ."

The Power Couple
In the past two weeks, we've been accused of being "the power couple" and "too popular." Both of these things I find quite funny since in KC we knew pretty well no one except for those of you reading this. And when we went places there it was rare that we'd see a familiar face. And Nate grew up there!

But this place is different, as I continue to point out in so many ways. The topic of this post is people. We have lived here for 4 1/2 months. I had a drink after work on Friday with a couple of my co-workers at a little neighborhood grill and bar by our house. One of the girls I've become friends with happens to work there part time. Her son is in Brayden's class.

Anyway, when we got there, I asked if Tiphanie was working. Strike 1, apparently. Then one of the teachers from Nate's school walked by the table and I spoke to her. Strike 2. At this point, my friend/co-worker Chris decides it's necessary to mouth me about how we've only lived here for 5 months (and it's really 4 1/2) and how do I know all of these people? He's lived here his entire life and he doesn't know people everywhere he goes like I seem to. What can I say? I know how to operate in a small town, a la Springfield.

So they left and then the couple who sat down right beside us happened to be the people we had over for dinner last weekend. Their son, Mackey, is Beau's best little buddy. And can those two get into some trouble!

The Bice's invade the Bentonville Christmas Parade
Stepping back a week, we were all in the Bentonville Christmas parade. Nate and Brayden were part of the float for their school. I've posted a picture of Brayden here. And Beau, Honey (our 2-year-old black lab), Nate's mom and I walked with Camp Bow Wow, our doggy daycare.

Now for those of you who know Beau, MiMi (my step-mom) said it best in their Christmas card. "Beau is. . . well. . .Beau. He's a ball of energy and the cutest thing you've ever seen." Emphasis here should be on "ball of energy." Imagine for just a minute this small-town Christmas parade. Between Beau and me, we knew someone about every 30 yards. And I have Honey on a leash - did I mention that she is NEVER on a leash? You can imagine how well that went over. And I did NOT have Beau on a leash. But I swear he needed one more than the dog did.

Scott that I work with, the one who deemed us the "power couple," said that when he saw me, I had ahold of Beau who was going left and Honey who was going right and I was strung out between the two of them. Lovely. Oh, and all of that with a santa hat on :-)

At one point, Beau decides to make friends with some innocent parade by-standers who had about a gallon of candy they'd collected just sitting on the ground between them. He apparently thought that being in the parade gave him celebrity status, so he just walked up and took some candy. Ugh. They were very nice and also offered him more. Just what he needed, right?!

So that's all I'm going to ramble tonight. Nate and I did finally get with the times and get on Facebook this week, so we've been trying to figure that out.

Thanks to everyone who has sent Christmas cards! Everyone's families are so beautiful!

Halloween in Bentonville (a post forgotten)

2008-10-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I forgot to post this one. Sorry. Here is Halloween just in time for Thanksgiving. . .

Beau has had his costume for well over a month. He committed to a blue Power Ranger one day in Wal-Mart, and he never waivered. His big brother, on the other hand, was a different story. He just decided earlier this (Halloween) week to be a cowboy.

If you know Nate, you know that it was a really bad idea for me to send him and Brayden alone to the Western store to buy "a cowboy shirt." They came back with a full-on cowboy hat, shirt and ostrich-skin boots. To be fair, it was all on sale and Brayden wanted boots anyway, but that was one expensive Halloween costume. He was very cute, though.

Halloween at Wal-Mart
Ok, people. I have never seen anything like this. For my Sprint friends who were at 5901, this made that look like we hardly celebrated at all. Boy, do these people get into Halloween.

In the row beside me, they turned the row and cubes into the Wizard of Oz - complete with a blown-down house; a true, beautifully homemade tin man; yellow brick road; all of the characters; a tornado that spun; etc. Adjacent that we had a huge pirate ship with pirates. There was Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, Ghostbusters, Rydell High, Spongebob, Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and more. There was even a carnival in the auditorium and a cotton candy machine on the third floor. Zillions of kids came to trick-or-treat before going home to double their loot. It was unreal, and very, very cool.

Halloween in Willow Bend
I think that's the name of our subdivision :-) We really only have three streets, so we hit the houses in a matter of about 30 minutes. But we made some friends along the way. A couple with a second and fourth grader moved in a month or so after we did. We walked and talked with them on this lovely evening.

We're all making friends - even the dog
At the Wal-Mart swaray we saw neighbors, kids from Nate's school and friends from Beau's school. Beau and his best bud Mackey (pictured here) even decided it was a good idea to begin punching each other in their newfound "muscles" right in the middle of my VP's office. Lovely.

But earlier this week was when we figured out that Honey (our 2-year-old black lab) is really at home. I was out front putting my new Arkansas license plate on my car (the new license plates are here - I'm somebody now!!), and true to form I let Honey out to run around. She never goes far. Right. Never. Ha.

I looked around for her after a few minutes, and the dang dog was gone. Nowhere to be seen. Just gone. And that is so unlike her. The neighbor kids said she was way down the street, but I just didn't believe it. After looking around and calling for a dog that never came, I wondered if they were right. Then I remembered that before I started my license plate, Honey and I were talking to two sets of neighbors getting ready to take their dogs on a walk.

So I put Beau in the car and we drove through the neighborhood looking for Honey. I see our neighbors and head toward them. Paul waves. I get closer. Low and behold they have three dogs. A yellow lab, a weimaraner and a black lab. Honey went for a walk with the neighbors. When I caught up to them, they told me to go on. She was having a good time walking. "A tired dog is a happy dog."

It's been a while

2008-10-31T17:41:00.001-07:00

Wow! I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything here. I've partially waited so that our "we've moved" cards could all get out and those new to our blog could catch up. And, I've partially just been tired. (Sorry. I hope I didn't lose too many of my readers.)

So it's Halloween night. Since we just got back from trick-or-treating, I'm going to save the commentary and post it with the photos maybe later this weekend.

Kindergarten election day
Nov. 4 is election day at Centerton Gamble Elementary, just as it is across the nation. Brayden will be voting for "the guy with the brown skin and black hair - Barrack ObaRma." And he's voting this way because "He doesn't want the bad guys to have guns. He only wants the good guys to have guns so the bad guys won't have them, so I want him to win so the bad guys don't have guns." Apparently he learned this on TV. Can you say Alex P. Keaton in the making?

The Democratic Cheertarded
While I'm on the politcal beat, I might as well share the story of our good friend, Shawn. For those of you who don't know Shawn, if I had a brother, it would be Shawn. He cheered with us at SMS and was one of the groomsmen in our wedding. He and Michael live in Dallas now. This is the oh-so-funny story courtesy of Shawn:

Michael and I were volunteering at a Democratic booth at a voting site on Monday. There was a group of Republican candidates that stopped by to have a little mini rally. We had a few others at our table and we began chanting “Obama, Vote Democrat” and such. This got the attention of a camera crew, who came over and shot some footage of us. I am standing in the front of the group, so naturally the camera is on me for some time. I stood there saying to myself what should I do?? Every instinct in my body was screaming TV TIME!! JUMP- CHEER -STUNT GO GO GO!!! However, I knew that was not the right thing to do. I ended up standing there with my hands in my pockets, frozen, deer-in-the-headlights like a complete dork. I know you are getting a good laugh out of this…..

I hope that you all, at least our cheerleader friends, anyway, got a good laugh out of it. I keep imagining what I'd do. I think I would have tumbled. Sometimes you just can't help yourself.

That's it from this nearly 70-degree Halloween night in which I wore my flip-flops trick-or-treating with a blue Power Ranger (Beau) and a cowboy (Brayden). Photos and stories to come. . .

Inground pool - what a glorious thing!

2008-10-06T18:19:00.001-07:00

If you're reading this for the first time because you just received our card and you're wondering why we're in Arkansas, read the post just below this from Oct. 4. Otherwise, read on.

Today is Monday, Oct. 6. It's in the 70s and rainy in Bentonville, Arkansas today. The boys have a new-found love for the rain. So when we got home, they ran out to the backyard (what little actual yard there is due to most of it being consumed by the pool) to play in the rain. This quickly turned into splashing on the first step of the pool. And then the second. And then kicking water at each other. By now they are pretty well soaked up to their waists. See exhibit A to the right.

If I were a boy (and I'm reminded often that I'm just a gwirl), I'd imagine this is pretty close to heaven. And this afternoon when I saw the spark in those sweet, little pairs of blue eyes, I could hear the wheels turning, "We're ALMOST completely wet. Surely it's ok if we just go ahead and get in. . ." And ok it was. If I haven't mentioned, it's Oct. 6. Long past Labor Day. Long past the date when all public and neighborhood pools close. And long past the day when many of you have asked when we are going to close our pool. Apparently we're not closing it just yet. The boys went swimming today.

The air was about 70 degrees and so was the water. I prefer to wear a wetsuit in 70 degree water. The boys preferred to wear their shorts and shirts that they had on when this adventure started 10 minutes earlier. Beau tired of the cold pretty quickly, but Brayden slid down the slide, took many jumps into the pool yelling "BLAST OFF" and generally just had a ball.

This culminated in nearly blue lips on two little boys, clothes being taken off on the porch and a great, big rainbow that formed overhead. Exhibit B is a photo of the boys and Nate and the rainbow in our backyard.

Wiggily hair

I can't finish this post without a funny from Beau. He was watching the Sunday Night Football game with me last night. I pointed out Troy Polamalu (the one with the long, curly black hair), to which Beau replies, "He has wiggily hair!!" So to all of our friends and family with wiggily hair (Aunt Jenny, Aunt Karen, Aunt Ju-Ju, Reese, Mazy and Amy Schiska), we salute you.

The backgrounder

2008-10-04T19:24:00.000-07:00

So this week I sent out most of our "we've moved" cards. I'm assuming we have some newcomers to the blog, and some friends who are shocked at the city and state indicated on the "we've moved" card. For those of you wondering what in the world is going on and why we'd move to Arkansas, here's the Reader's Digest version of the story. For those of you who already know, I'll put some "what we've been up to" info in the next section and then you can skip the rest.

What we've been up to
This week has flown by. I was in St. Louis visiting Karen, Dave and baby Donato on Monday and Tuesday. Beau started gymnastics at Aspire on Thursday, and our long-lost friend Ginnie Monnington (now Solomon) came over for a visit on Friday night. I've posted a picture of Ginnie and her lovely family here. For those of you out there who know and love Ginnie, she's doing well and has three beautiful girls and a very nice husband. She's living back in Bentonville and staying home with Alexis (3) and twins Bradie and Brooklyn (1). I had to nearly force her to take this picture. For those of you who don't know Ginnie, she was Nate's cheerleading partner at SMS.

And I want to welcome the Moore family's newest addition - Madelyn Grace Moore. Sarah, Ben, Hannah and Lauren met their new daughter and sister on Thursday.

Ok, so Beau LOVED gymnastics, and I really like this gym. They have a good program for the little ones, and if you check out the preschool portion of the Web site, you'll see the "jungle room" that is his favorite room.

Brayden had a football game today, and he's still loving it. This morning he said, "I'm not going to tackle anyone because I don't want to get kicked out of football. [Editor's note: It's flag football until he's in the second grade.] But when we play real football, you know those four guys who tackled me last time? I'm going to tackle them and get them back." And I believe he will do this. That kid has a memory like an elephant.

Those of you who know why we're in Arkansas can stop reading now. I'll post something new and oh-so-intersting again later this week.
And why we're learning to call the Hogs. . .
Back in April, I (Jen) was pecking around on the Internet and found a job at Wal-Mart's Home Office that looked pretty interesting. It's a job much like what I had done for years at Sprint, I was about ready to think about leaving Sprint, and we'd always wanted to move further South.

So, I applied online and nearly immediately got a response that the Wal-Mart recruiter would like to interview me. I went back and forth with interviews through April, May and early June. In the meantime, Nate was loving his job as the academic and behavior specialist at an elementary school in Grain Valley. It was essentially an assistant principal job without the pay or title. In mid- to late-May, he started the process of applying for his licensure in Arkansas and applying for jobs down here "just in case."

In mid-June, I was offered a job to work as a senior manager of Marketing & Communications at the world's largest company. And Nate hadn't heard anything about any of the positions he'd applied for. Both the Bentonville and Rogers' school district Web sites said strictly not to contact the principals, as all applications were handled through the district offices. And although we found it strange that he never received a call even though there seemed to be an assistant principal in every elementary school and probably half-a-dozen of those were open while he was looking, it was what it was. We'd nearly resigned to him getting Brayden settled in Kindergarten and finding a preschool for Beau and maybe he'd do some substitute teaching.

So we came to Bentonville, Arkansas (two of Beau's favorite words these days) for our Wal-Mart coordinated pre-move visit the week after July 4. And we stopped by the Bentonville administration building after we signed papers to lease our house so that we could register Brayden for school. When we did, the secretary wouldn't let Nate talk to the HR director, but she told him that there were still two assistant jobs open and gave him the principals' contact info. He immediately sent them resumes. I think the next day he got a call to schedule an interview. He drove down here from Blue Springs the next week to interview, we went to the Bahamas to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary July 13-20, he drove back down here on Monday, July 21 for an interview with the Superintendent, he was offered a position on Tuesday, and he started work on Thursday - without having yet signed a contract. And now he is the assistant principal at Centerton Gamble Elementary in Centerton, Ark. This is a part of the Bentonville School District.

There are two funny pieces of information related to the above story: 1) He scheduled the interview for July 21 from a telephone at Nipper's Bar and Grill on Great Guana Cay, Bahamas. We had to ask the bartender to turn down the music at 9:30 a.m. so that he could hear. You have to check out the Web site to really enjoy what I'm talking about here. What a life :-) 2) NEVER believe a Web site that says not to contact the principals. Apparently, that's the only way to get a job down here, we now know.

So that's about it. I started working at Wal-Mart's Home Office on July 7, and Nate officially started the job that he's been waiting for on July 24. And the moving truck arrived with (almost) all of our stuff on July 27. We're loving the small town, the weather, the beauty of the land, the proximity to the lake (1 hour and 40 minutes to my dad's place at Table Rock), the cost of living, etc. Oh, and the in-ground pool in the backyard hasn't hurt anything, either.

Please drop us a note or give us a call to let us know how you're doing. It's been a wild summer, and we still have a lot to do to get settled, but we've all adjusted amazingly. The boys never missed a beat, and although they really miss their Friday's with Grandma Zellers (Nate's mom), I think they appreciate her, Grandpa and Granny that much more when they see them now.

Take care, and check back here periodically if you're interested in my ramblings. I update about once or twice a week, depending on what I have to say.

Taking back time

2008-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

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's new little guy who was born yesterday!

I'm heading to St. Louis to spend a couple of days with the Ruggeri's tomorrow, and I'm so excited! Dave, Karen, Erika and Landon are all going to be looking for ways to take back time now that they have their little ones :-)

Back to business
So Brayden had a football game yesterday, and he's totally getting into it. And we signed up Beau for gymnastics finally. He'll start on Thursday.

Nate and I rode the motorcycle up to Fayetteville yesterday for Bikes, Blues & BBQ - the largest, non-profit bikefest in the nation. If you're ever looking for some good people watching, go to a bikefest. I'm guessing it doesn't matter where it is. We went with Dave and Karen to the one in Myrtle Beach in 2003, and it was much of the same. Here are the highlights:

A 10-year old with a fools/rat tail (I'm not sure if these are coming back in or if his parents are stuck in the 80s and are trying to start a new trend).
A mohawk in the front, party in the back on a big, 'ole samoan looking dude.
A blue mohawk on a chick.
A girl in leather chaps with spandex boy shorts that had metallic skull and crossbones on the back. The good news was that she had the body to pull this off.
The bullet above is opposed to the hundreds (and I'm not exaggerating) of women, young and old, in mid-riff tops. We saw a wide variety of belly tattoos, belly-button rings, fakies, droopies, fat, stretchmarks, and not a lot of toned bodies that, even if this look was in style, could pull this off.

So that's about it from here. The boys are still enjoying the pool - they were swimming yesterday. And we went to a 4-year-old birthday party last night of a little guy in Beau's class whose dad works with me. It was fun, and the boys had a blast.

Until I find a few more spare minutes, take care!

Just updates and a couple of funnies

2008-09-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

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 new car had upgraded tires and wheels, so we pressed the sales guys about where the cost of the original ones came out since they were charging us full price for the new ones and the original price of the car included tires and wheels. This threw them for a loop. They didn't want to take the price of the originals off of the car, so they somewhat caddily (I don't think that's a word by the way) said, "Well, you can have the ones we took off if you want them." So now we have to sell brand-new Honda Accord tires and wheels. If anyone's interested, let me know :-)
A plug for Beau
Since we're not close to anyone anymore, here's a plug for my little Beau. He's selling pre-portioned cookies and frozen Auntie Ann's Pretzels for school. If anyone wants to support the little dude's school's efforts to put in an indoor play area, shoot me an e-mail, jeniferbice@gmail.com.
Can't forget Brayden
There are a couple of things here that are notable. He had a football game on Saturday, and Kindergarten football is really heating up. The coaches are calling plays - his team has plays called Incredible Hulk, Power Rangers and Batman. The kids are progressing from all running plays to a few passing plays. And occassionally they are tackling at the flag football games. This, as odd as it sounds, makes me kind of happy.

I keep worrying that Brayden is going to get kicked out of this flag football league. You see, this is his fourth session of football, and toward the middle of last session, Coach Dad got bored with the schemes they were running, so he taught the team in Blue Springs (hey, Kendall!) how to block. When we started with this league, Brayden was the only one blocking, and he was just running over some of the kids. Imagine steamroller and asphalt. That's what it looked like.

Well, apparently this week he got a dose of what he was dishing out. He was the running back, and he had four other kids on him trying to get his flag. Being the stout child that he is, he has been just carrying the kids along as he (attempts to) runs. This time, the four piled on and literally tackled him. But he took it like a champ, according to Coach Dad.

The other funny thing about Brayden happened today. Now if you know him very well at all, you know that he's wise beyond his years, and that often he says things and you wonder where he came up with them. Kind of like the day he told Grandma Patty that "the future is God's floor."

Ok, so anyway, he and his cousins were tubing at the lake today. The story that MiMi tells is that they fell off and Caleb, who is also 5, started crying. This was Brayden's response/advice to him, "Calm down. It's OKAY. There are no alligators or sharks in the lake."

Now keep in mind that we don't think that's necessarily why Caleb was crying. Caleb, however, doesn't make it to the lake much, and Brayden thinks falling in the water is among the more fun parts of doing anything water-related. So in his 5-year-old brain, he must have decided that Caleb was crying because he was scared that something was going to get him. And this is how he addresses it. I love that kid. Get right to the point and tell him to get over it.

That's it from here for now. Until I find a few spare minutes again. . .

Singin' in the Rain

2008-09-14T18:30:00.001-07:00

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 that they beat the Chiefs today. How horrible was THAT game? Now I'm acknowledging that I'm going on a tangent, and I'll get back to Brayden. . .

Tangent #1 - There's no way to guarantee that we'll see the Chiefs games here. They may show them; they may not. Moving from KC and not being able to see a Chiefs game is just unacceptable as far as we're concerned. So, we got NFL Sunday Ticket - in HD, no less. Nate's in hog (pun intended) heaven.

Tangent #2 - What is with the Chiefs? Seriously, FOUR QBs in two games? Triple ugh. Maybe I'll cancel Sunday Ticket.

Back to Brayden (who coincidentally is sitting next to me saying, "Shake that bubble butt.") Apparently this is what happens when you watch too much SpongeBob.

Ok, so Kindergarten football. His first game was Saturday. Their uniforms are reversible, and they were the white team. There was an announcer, little cheerleaders, game music - the whole 9. Before the game started, the cheerleaders made a tunnel and the boys and the coaches (Nate worked his way into coaching again - wahoo!) were announced and ran through the tunnel. Brayden proceeded to run through with the rest of the boys and promptly slip in the big mud puddle that awaited them at the end of the tunnel.

The game was fun and muddy. The rain ceased just long enough for their game. After the game, all of the 5- and 6-year-old boys looked like my fondest memories of high school football games. You know the really fun, rainy, muddy ones where the players ended the game with mud head-to-toe? That's the way Brayden was. As we walked back to the truck he said, "I can't wait to go home and take a bubble bath. I think it'll take about 30 minutes." Now that's my big, tough football player :-)

The bubble bath commenced for Brayden and Beau, they got on dry clothes and then promptly went outside to play in the rain. I'm sad to say that this is the first time they've ever done this. There was a great stream of water running down the side of the street, and they were splashing, kicking, laying down - having the time of their lives. You'll see a picture of them here.

Their dry clothes were soaked, so we made a quick change, and off to Chuck E. Cheese's they went with Grandma and Granny. They spent the night in the hotel with Grandma and Granny, and Nate and I slept in this morning (great, big WAHOO! on this one).

That's about it. We're gearing up for another exciting week in the metropolis of Bentonville. Actually, Nate is heading to Little Rock for a conference for part of the week.

I just ordered "we've moved" cards today, so as soon as they get here, I'll get them sent out. I don't think I have everyone's home address, so if you don't think I have yours, please send it to me, jeniferbice@gmail.com. Later!

A Star Student

2008-09-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

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.

We found football!

2008-08-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

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, I'm not a crazy football mom, but if you've met our Bubba, you know that he was built for this game. And he loves it. And we love it - we just left a great group of friends that we met through 4- and 5-year-old football and T-ball. (Hey, Beej!)

Anyway, Nate stumbled upon Upward!, a sports program administered through the First Assembly of God in Bentonville. Brayden had his first practice this Monday. There were a ton of little boys, and the coordination level differences is astounding. For instance, we have to practice running backward :-)

The final piece of this little rant is that they were placed on teams that were already named. Coming from Kansas City, there are a few teams that we'd prefer not to be called, but the bad one - the worst one of all - that's what we are now. Can you guess it? The first one to tell me our team name gets a shout out in the next posting. I'll look forward to hearing from you!

The hills are alive

2008-08-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

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 Hazard in that previous sentence. I think I'm getting delirious. Read it again. You may hear it, too.

Anyway, somewhere around Roaring River, Brayden announced that he was going to be sick. And, as we would expect from our angels, this is how that conversation went:

Brayden: "I think I'm going to be sick." "Yes, I'm going to throw up." "Dad, see that great big hill up there? When we get past it, then I'm going to throw up."

Now Brayden is a puker. He has been since day 1. So when he says he's going to puke, he pretty well usually means it. I handed him a plastic bag just in case, and he says, "But what if some of it breaks the bag and it comes out?" He's always thinking.

A trip to the lake can be likened to a roller coaster
In the midst of this, Beau was taking in what was happening. He finally apparently got tired of hearing about the fact that his big brother may get sick and turned to him and said ever so matter-of-factly, "Bubby! It's O-K. (emphasis on the O-K here) You don't have to throw up." And then Beau proceeded to throw his arms in the air like he was on a roller coaster and scream, "wahooooooo!" "wahooooooo!" He kept those little arms above his head for so long (because we were on such hilly, curvy roads for so long) that they got tired and finally rested on top of his head.

You know when a song just hits you?
On Sunday, we left the lake between 6 and 7, made a couple of pit stops, and were home by 9. And along the way we saw the most beautiful sunset over the Ozark Mountains. I admit it, I'm a big dork. But I just couldn't help but think of Julie Andrews on top of her mountain, arms stretched out, twirling and singing, "The hills are alive. . . with the sound of music. la... la...la...la...."

Nate and I have vowed to always teach the boys about the beauty of the land here. After a while, you take it for granted, and I believe you have to go away and come back to truly appreciate the beauty.

My first day at Kindergarten by: Brayden Bice

2008-08-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

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 didn't eat it.

Q: Who sits at your table?
A: Two girls and one boy sit at my table. I don't know their names.

Q: Tell us about art.
A: I almost made a train. I used a huge rectangle and a little, long rectangle and, uh, uh, uh, 3 circles.

Q: Did something special happen today?
A: I don't know. Oh, ya. I got to be the line leader. I stayed right in front of my teacher. They followed me, and I followed her.

Editor: That's all I could get out of him. Here's Kindergarten from mom's perspective. Beau and I took Brayden to school today for the very first day of Kindergarten. He was such a big kid. He picked out his shirt that you see here. He likes it because it "reminds him of the beach."

We went to Nate's office to see if he was there, but he wasn't. He was, however, in the middle of the entryway, so he got to walk us down to Brayden's class. The big man walked right into his room, put up his bag and sat at his seat. Thursday's orientation was a fantastic idea, Dad.

I leaned down and got a hug and a smile - no kiss for mom today. I can't believe it's started. He's too big for his mama's kisses. Waaaaa!!! He said goodbye, and we were off.

That's our story. Oh, and I got gas in my truck today for the first time since the week we moved here. :-)

Over the river and through the woods

2008-08-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's really "Up-71-highway-for-3 1/2-hours" to grandmother's house we go. . .

This weekend we're in KC trying to finish up some things at the house in Blue Springs. We're enjoying seeing Grandma and Grandpa Zellers (thanks for the hospitality) and having dinner with Grandpa Bice last night (Marty, we missed you!). A new deck is finally being put on the house today. Wahoo!!

The big news

The big news around here, though, is that Brayden starts Kindergarten tomorrow! When he woke up this morning, I asked him what tomorrow was, and he said, "Yes! I only have to wait one more day and one more night!" I can't believe he's starting Kindergarten.

A few of our favorite things

So I asked the boys what they liked best - what were their favorite things - about Arkansas. Here's what I got:

Brayden:

1) A pool in our backyard

2) Not having crazy neighbors :-) Amen, brother!!

3) Throwing the ball into the pool and diving down to get it. Editor's note: We have to get this on tape. He just turned 5 in June, and he's jumping in, flipping over and diving to the bottom of our 5 1/2-foot pool to retrieve things. And he's loving every minute of it.

Beau:

1) A pool and a slide in our backyard

Nate:

1) His new, fabulous job with a bathroom in his office

2) 11 curves on a windy, hilly road during his 3-mile drive to work (especially on his Harley)

Jen:

1) More time with the boys (all three of them)

2) A small town - and all of the things that come along with it

3) $1 for all-you-can-drink Diet Coke :-)

Ok, the Bice family is out for now. We get DSL on Wednesday, so hopefully the posts will come more frequently.

Oh, the places you'll go

2008-08-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

Oh, the places you'll go when it's only a stone's throw
to get to the bank or to lunch or a show
When at lunch you can go to three places or four
And you only use a gallon of gas and no more

Oh, to get to work, Starbucks, doggy daycare and preschool
It takes no time at all, which is very, very cool

Preschool for Beau is something he loves
He fit in the first day like a hand in a glove
Ms. Betty is his teacher and she gives him a treat
From the treasure chest he chooses each day, which is neat

Brayden and grandma are having alone time
They're checking out the sites and doing art all the time
One is much better than two for grandma
But next week Brayden goes to school for the fall

It's been raining for days so the pool is no fun
But unpacking is going way better without sun

Things are falling into place in the house, but there's more
And more, and more unpacking to do, that's for sure.

Beau goes to school and NWA 10 p.m. news

2008-08-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

We finally found and settled on a preschool for Beau. It was quite a chore, but on Thursday he'll start preschool at The Children's Hour in Blue Springs. He's excited and ready to get going - ok, so mostly he's ready to check out the playground. Beau is all of a 3-year-old little boy. I hope The Children's Hour is ready for the likes of him. He'll keep them busy!

Brayden has been enjoying cousin Ele this week, and Aunt Snefanie and Mazy are coming for the day tomorrow. It's nice to be close enough that they can do that.

Small town news rocks
We're now in the middle of our second week here, and we just figured out that the TV in the bonus room will get local channels. We've been without our Dish since we moved, but it's getting installed on Friday just in time for the opening cermonies of the Olympics. A very, very important thing, you know.

Nate's watching the news, and the big stories are that a guy in Bella Vista (a neighboring town) lost his two dogs, Ranger and Brody. Ranger has been found, and we're all thankful for that, but the call is out to all viewers to keep reporting on if and where they think they see Brody so he can get home safely. Oh, and the Razorbacks football team has new uniforms. I love small town news. Seriously. I love it.

Just a short update

2008-08-04T20:56:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Heather and Donnie for letting me know that you're reading my ramblings here. We think we've found a preschool for Beau (yea!). So here's something about a small town with a lot of people in a small area. Good preschools are hard to come by and they all have waiting lists. This has been as bad as trying to find daycare for your baby after maternity leave. But, thanks to a fellow IABC gal down here, we're taking the last 3-year-old slot at The Children's Hour. Whew. It reminds us a lot of Duncan (the boys' preschool in Grain Valley). Ms. Martha, if you're reading this, Beau really wants to come and see you. He misses you a lot.

As we were driving back to Bentonville yesterday, we got to about Noel or Jane, Mo. when Brayden piped up, "Hey - we're in Arkansas!" We weren't, but we were in the town or two just before the border. The funny thing about that is that you never realize how much a 5-year-old pays attention. The scenery had changed just enough for him to realize that we were almost to our new home. That's amazing to me.

And my newest facination is with lunch prices. Today I bought a large baked potato with grilled chicken, green and red peppers, cheese and sour cream for a whopping grand total of. . . . drum roll, please. . . $2.19. I know all of my Sprint friends would like to hurt me over this, as if I recall correctly, at Sprint this exact same lunch would have been about 8 buck-a-roos. Yes, folks, I've entered the land of low prices. And I'm loving it.

My final observation for the night is still centered around the small town. I left for lunch and within 45 minutes I went to the bank, the post office, visited two preschools and made it to a meeting only being 2 minutes late. It still doesn't feel real that things can be so convenient. Oh, yes, and we ate at Eddie Haskell's for dinner - just because it sounded funny.

Goin' to Kansas City

2008-08-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

We made a pretty quick trip to KC this weekend for a moving party for us and a baby shower for Karen. Thanks to Grandma Edra for a fantastic party last night - and thank you to everyone who attended.

The kids had a great time - Beau got to see his girlfriend Harper (I'll post a CUTE picture when I can) and he made an older girl cry. He told Sydney Allen (Cristi's 5-year-old) that she wasn't his girlfriend - Hannah Montana and Harper are his girlfriends. This resulted in an eruption of tears from Sydney. Undeterred, she quickly took a liking to Kendall Biley (Harper's brother) and claimed him as her boyfriend. Oh, to be 5 years old and in love. Hee-hee.

The boys got to see their beloved Courtney and Shelby today during a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's while Nate ran errands and Sarah, Cass and I had a baby shower for Karen. We remain small but mighty. This is the last time we'll see Aunt Karen before the baby is here, and she looks fantastic.

So that's it. We're headed back to Bentonville now. Ele (my sister's 7-year-old) is coming to stay for a few days, and Brayden is stoked. Nate and I start week 2 of working in Bentonville tomorrow.

Oh, we're movin' on up. . . (sing along, everyone)
That reminds me. For those of you who know the work conditions at Sprint, you'll find this rather humorous. For those who don't, imagine working in a building that has an entry lobby/center area that is marble from floor to ceiling, the railings on the stairs are brass, and the woodwork is mahagony nearly everywhere. The bathrooms are immaculate - and marble - and there's a coffee shop in the lobby. We call it the Bellagio. It fits the name nicely.

And Nate worked in a school. His office was made of concrete blocks that had been painted. Carpet was laid over the top of concrete, and he was right by the cafeteria, so it often smelled of school lunches.

Fastforward to living in Arkansas. I have gone from the Bellagio to Wal-Mart. Literally. I'm not complaining; I'm just stating facts. My huge office is now a small, gray cube (called a pod, I guess that makes it better somehow); I take out my own trash; the bathroom has cans of Lysol in every stall, and I think I've been to Wal-Mart stores with nicer restrooms than are in the Home Office.

Nate, however, has hit the jackpot. His school is 3 years old this year. His office is bigger than my office was at Sprint. He has a private bathroom. He has $1,000 with which to decorate his office. There is a life-size replica of a dinosaur in the 2-story library. This school is amazing. He went from Target-like surroundings to the Mandalay Bay. Funny how things change.

Moving day came. . .and went

2008-07-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

So we're now officially Arkansans! The big, 'ole Wal-Mart-branded, 18-wheelin' moving truck pulled into our drive around 8:15 a.m. on Saturday. We loaded and loaded and loaded and got almost everything in, but not all. Oh, well. We'll have to get a U-Haul and bring the rest down.

Then on Sunday, it arrived at our Bentonville home. The boys stayed with Grandma Edra in KC Saturday night, and she and Grandpa Craig brought them down on Sunday. We have SO MANY boxes. It's incredible. And we purged a lot of stuff. The unpacking has begun, and it's going very s-l-o-w-l-y.

The boys and Grandma Patty have been spending their days in the pool while Nate and I slave away at work and then prepare for the oh-so-long and stressful drives we have home. Hee-hee. That would be 2 1/2 miles for me and 3 miles for him. I just can't get over that.

Although we still haven't locked into a preschool for Beau (he's on the waiting list), we did find doggy daycare for Honey, our 18-month-old black lab. I never thought we'd be those people who take their dog to daycare. You know, the people like Phil and Nichole Kennedy (who never thought they'd be those people, either). But, we are now part of the doggy daycare crowd. And she's loving every minute of it.

Nate's been in Tulsa this week at a conference, and I'm just working. All is well down here. We're heading back to KC on Saturday for a moving party and Karen's baby shower. At some point we'll unpack. For now, we're enjoying everything being so close, a discount at Wal-Mart :-), the pool, nice neighbors (what a concept), and new jobs.

And I hope you've noticed that I finally removed the out-of-date calendar and posted some pictures here from the move and our vaca. Until I post again. . . stay cool.

News Flash - Read All About It!

2008-07-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here's our biggest news yet - Nate has a job!!! He will be the assistant principal at Centerton Gamble Elementary School in the Bentonville School District beginning TOMORROW/Thursday. I can't say enough that the fun just doesn't stop.

Stepping into a Corona Commercial
So we had an absolutely amazing vacation, of which I'll post pictures sometime soon. When diving, we saw reef sharks, a sea turtle and an eel as big as me (Jen), among various other things. And if you've ever wondered when watching those absolutely perfect Corona commercials if there are really places like that that exist, they do. We found it. That's about the best way to describe the week we had.

And here's a shout out to our new friends Les, Annemarie, Terese and Darren from Milwaukee, whom we met and hung out with quite a bit during our perfect vacation. Guys, our trip back was WAY better than yours. (Sorry.)

The boys are getting excited
Courtney spent the week with the boys while we were gone, and we thank her for wearing them out with Oceans of Fun, the KC Zoo, swimming and who knows what else. They are now ready to get to Arkansas.

Nate, Edra and Beau went down on Monday for Nate's interview with the superintendent. So Beau has been swimming in the pool, and I hear he LOVES the slide. Brayden was not happy that Beau was first in the pool. Brayden is excited, though, that he'll get to go to school with his daddy. The school is just a few miles behind our house. Things have fallen into place beautifully. I'm so proud of and excited for Nate finally getting his true, permanent administration job.

The rest of the week
So here's where we stand. The house is nearly all packed except for electronics (this computer), the garage and the shed.
Thursday
We're all going to Bentonville tomorrow so that Nate can start his job and because I really need to be in the office for a few meetings. Grandma and the boys are going, too, and I'm sure it will be all pool, all day. We'll drive home tomorrow night.

Friday
I'm working in KC, and Nate is focusing on packing his office at his old school, the rest of what's here and moving stuff out of storage and mom's house. If anyone's looking for anything to do, I'm sure he could use an extra set of hands. The keg-o-rator is still plugged in, fyi :-)

Saturday
MOVING DAY! It begins at 8 a.m. Edra (Nate's mom) will keep the boys and bring them down to Bentonville Sunday afternoon.

Sunday
Truck arrives at the house in Bentonville.

Monday
Work begins full-on in Arkansas. Grandma and the boys will live the really difficult life of hanging at the pool all day. I feel so sorry for them.

Tuesday
Nate leaves for 3 days to go to a conference in Tulsa.

That's a wrap for now. We hope everyone is doing well as we continue to plug away and make this happen. We really do feel like this has all been a big blessing as everything fell into place absolutely perfectly. The only outstanding item is to sell our Blue Springs house. It should be on the market next week if you know anyone who is interested.

Drumroll, please. . .

2008-07-12T07:01:00.001-07:00

After a zillion people asking a zillion times, "When are you moving?," we finally have the answer! The movers are coming to our Blue Springs home on Saturday, July 26, and they will deliver our things to the Bentonville home on Sunday, July 27.

Now pardon the blog interruption for about 8-9 days as we head to the Bahamas this evening :-)

The fun just doesn't stop. . .

2008-07-10T20:51:00.001-07:00

If anyone is still reading this after the break I've taken from posting, I'm sorry for the delay. Here's what's been going on.

I started work at Wal-Mart on Monday as Jennifer Brice. Lovely. They got my badge fixed so I became Jenifer Bice, but in Outlook was still Jennifer Bice - Jenny, I kept feeling like you were the one who should be working and not me. Anyway, they fixed it today. WM is a different world for sure. I get to take out my own trash, recycling is a HUGE deal, and you can buy a cup of Diet Coke for $1 and refill it for free all day. Wahoo!

Nate had two job interviews on Monday in Bentonville for elementary assistant principal positions at Centerton and Apple Glen. They called on Tuesday and want him to interview with the superintendent - another Wahoo! This is where the fun really starts.

Get ready for the run down of our next couple of weeks. . . Nate and I leave for our 10-year anniversary trip to the Bahamas on Saturday (Wahoo!!!). I tell you this for two reasons: 1) This is a week that we are losing to pack the house and 2) when exactly do you think they want him to interview with the superintendent who is on vacation the end of this week? Since he obviously can't be in Arkansas next week, he'll be heading down on Monday the 21st for that interview. If (and when) he gets the job, he starts work on Thursday - 3 days after the final interview. Life moves fast around here these days.

Speaking of the Bahamas, and just because I'm tired and feel like making a few of my most favorite people jealous, this is where we are staying, http://www.vrbo.com/113398. You'd know I'd have to stay somewhere called Dolphin Lookout. The picture you see here is the view from the front deck. If we don't come back, you'll know where to find us.

About the boys

You may be wondering about the boys and how they are handling all of this disruption and change since the blog is named for them. . . They are FANTASTIC. Beau doesn't want to sleep at his "old house" anymore. He wants to be at the "new house." And Brayden just goes with the flow as Brayden always does.

We took them down with us this week. It was the first time they saw the house, and they were wild men. They were SO excited and would not calm down. The pool hadn't been opened this year, so it was green and nasty. They weren't too disappointed that they couldn't swim.

Nate has spent the last two days being pool boy shocking the pool and getting it ready for our return to Bentonville in two weeks. He says if he doesn't get one of the jobs that he'll just make being "pool boy" his job - and he has no complaints about that (but keep your fingers crossed on the job front).

Our favorite 21-year-old, Courtney, is going to play mom next week while we are away. I'm sure the boys won't miss us for a second with all of the fun they'll be having with her.

About the move

"So when are you actually moving?," you may be asking. We'll know that tomorrow. For now, we know that it'll be sometime between Thursday and Sunday of the week we return from vacation, which is the last weekend in July. Stay tuned for more on that.

That's about it for now. Things are shakin' here, but it's all good. I do want to give a shout out to all of my dear, dear Sprint and ex-Sprint friends who came to our happy hour tonight. It was so great to see everyone, and I was touched by how many of you came. We'll absolutely stay in touch. I miss you guys already!

Little boys' wishes come true and KC detox

2008-07-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

Nate and I spent the last couple of days in Bentonville looking for a place to live. It's getting close now. Brayden's requests went like this: 1) A house with a pool; 2) A house in a neighborhood with a pool; 3) my own bedroom. Wish #1 came true - we found a great house with a pool in the backyard. The boys are SO excited. I'm trying to figure out how this thing works, so scroll to the bottom for pictures. . .

Our new address is 3402 SW Town Vu Road, Bentonville, AR 71721! And aside from the pool, the rest of the good news is that it is 2.5 miles from work - it takes 7 minutes to get there. I can't even imagine what this is going to be like.

Even better news is that Nate got a call this morning and has two interviews on Tuesday for assistant principal positions. So the whole fam-damily is going to Bentonville this Sunday. I start work on Monday, mom needs to find a bank and doctor, and Nate has is big interviews. I hope they get the pool opened by then or we may have anarchy on our hands with the boys. . .

So we were busy during our two days in Bentonville. We found a house, registered Brayden for Kindergarten and found a preschool for Beau.

We're not in Kansas anymore

On Monday, we finished with the realtor and had 2 1/2 hours before meeting Jennifer Bedwell (Price) and Rhett and Price for dinner. This is where KC detox comes in. We pull out of the realtor's office, and I say something to the effect of, "We have 2 1/2 hours and we have to do x, y and z. We need to get moving!"

Now if you live in KC and have three things to do before getting to dinner ACROSS TOWN at 7 and it's 4:30, you've got to snap to it. I was working on KC time. At that exact moment, I realized that we weren't in Kansas anymore (imagine red ruby slippers clicking here). Not only did we have plenty of time to do what was on our list, I also managed to hit Bath & Body Works and get a bag 'o stuff for $20 (the sale lasts thru Friday, fyi) and stroll through this great shopping area called the Prommenade.

So that is the story of where things stand right now. I still have to call the movers and set a date for them to come, but in the meantime, we'll take a few things down this weekend and keep on packing. Ugh.

Workin' hard for the money

2008-06-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday, June 25, and after much prodding from my dear friend Lisa, I'm starting a blog. Right now I'm sitting in the Kansas City heat having a garage sale. If anyone tells you that Wednesday is "the best" garage sale day, don't believe them.

We've got a ton going on right now, so I'll make this one short. Here's what our week looks like. This post will be pretty boring, but sometime soon I'll hand this over to my mom who will keep it updated with stories about the boys and pictures, etc. Right now I'm in tactical mode with everything that has to happen.

Thursday - Jen's last day at Sprint and the boys' last day at their preschool (I can't even believe it). So tonight I have to make cookies for them to take to school. When that's going to happen is beyond me. If anyone knows anyone who wants to buy a boat lift TONIGHT, that would save us some work :-) Oh, and the boys have T-ball Thursday night, too.

Friday - Brayden's 5th birthday! And his last day of summer school kindergarten and Nate's last day in Grain Valley. Again, so hard to believe. MiMi and Pa will be here Friday night and we're going to go see the Cardinals beat the Royals at Kauffman with a big fireworks spectacular to top off Bubba's BD.

Saturday - Brayden's BD party! Uncle Mutt and the kids (Nathan, Ben, Jillian, Hannah) and aunt Snephanie and Mazy and Ele are coming into town and we're going to watch the Cards whip the Royals again on Saturday night. This will be the Coatney kids' first Cards game, and I'm so excited to get to take them.

Sunday - Nate and I head to Bentonville to check out the situation and find a place to live!

So that's it. Not much going on around here. I'm now looking at all of this stuff in my driveway wondering what to do with it all, as I'm ready to close up shop and call this garage sale a done deal.