Graduated!

March 18, 2010...that was the day Mike changed his life, his passions, his goals, and his profession. He started X-ray school and we didn't know what we were in for. Lots of IF's:

If he would like it?
If he would do good?
If he could handle the blood? the needles? the injuries?
If he could handle the tests? the studying? the nights?

All those IF's became CAN's and WILL's as he walked down the aisle 17 months later to accept his diploma from Kaplan! So proud of his straight A, 4.0 GPA. Proud of his studying habits, his clinical desire, his professionalism at giving shots and working in the medical field.

We are so proud of him and was thrilled to find out that in September he passed his state license exam! All that hard work, long nights, and juggling our family paid off!

The kids kind of understand the field he is in, but it was cute because in the beginning of his schooling Makayla thought that he was a doctor. So we joked with him and his nickname was...Dr. Daddy.

It was cute at home, but when we did happen to go to the doctor's, Makayla would tell them that her Dad was a doctor. I then had to explain that he really wasn't.



Congratulations Dr. Daddy! We love you!!!!

1st Grade

In August Makayla began her 1st Grade year. She is in room 6 (she thinks it's because she is 6) and in Mrs. Dickey's class. I envy most things about Makayla, but what I envy most is that sometimes she is not fearful. I tend to over think things...okay not tend to, I DO. So I was always nervous about my first days of school so I always wonder what is going on inside her little head. It seems to me...not much about school...or at least not worrying about it. Which is a great thing considering her Aunt cried for about the first two months of her 1st grade year and her Mom would get stomach aches for about the first week. So to have her confidence and fearlessness is such a relief for me.

It was madness that first day. I took the day off because we had to something in the afternoon and also because I wanted to be able to walk her to school. Luckily we live about a mile or less away and so we walked her to school...besides if we drove, we would end up walking the same distance anyways because cars were parked practically to our development!

The madness continued on campus as it seemed all the parents came to drop off their kids (us included). We found her number on the black top and then trekked to the back of the line. Her teacher came out and said Hi to me and I introduced her to Makayla (luckily I had met her over the summer at work and had a good chat about students and teachers - this was before I even knew she was going to be her teacher) and told all of us parents that they would be fine and to head onto the back of the black top.

Makayla was excited to see that her friend McKenzie was in her class this year and only a little more than a handful of her Kindergarten friends were in her new class. (She already has a new friend that she talks about all the time...Hannah.)

The first graders line up next to the Kindergartners. We watched all those parents and remembered how we felt just one year before. We saw her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Perez-Anderson wearing the cute outfit she wore on Makayla's first day (Makayla even remembered it) and watched how she greeted each parent. We loved her and I know that we will love her new teacher just as much.

Mike and I left after watching what we thought was her class line (there were so many people!) walk to their classroom. On the way out...I couldn't help to think what had happened in this last year and where it went. It just seemed like Kindergarten started and yet here we are...a big FIRST GRADER! Soon Kaleb will be going to that school and the year after Brandon, and the year after Logan, and the year after Zachary, and the year after...Chantelle! It will be fun and exciting!!

Kindergarten...what? where?

Kindergarten? Over???? Already? How did this happen?


I was just crying a year ago about how my little baby was starting Kindergarten and how life would now be spiraling!

{first day of Kindergarten - August 2010}

Boy was I right! It's over...her Kindergarten year is actually....over. *tear* She LOVED Kindergarten, she LOVED her teacher, it was a great experience all around. I was scared that the kids would be mean to her...those kids are all little too, I guess I forgot that! She met some really great kids and I'm excited to see them all grow up together. Her friend Kiersten aka Kiki from preschool got to be in her class this year so that made me very relieved that she would know and have a friend on her first day of school.

She learned and absorbed so many wonderful things and it was so fun to hear some things that would just pop out of her mouth. My favorite was when we had rainy weather she would say "inclimate weather" because that's what her teacher would call their schedule for that day since they had to on the "inclimate weather schedule."

She learned how to read and write, stretch out words to read or spell them. She's done a great job trying to stretch out words and write letters to people or make a pretend shopping list. She adds and subtracts and we practiced rhyming words all the time.

They had a clip system and we would ask her everyday if she had to move her clip. If she moved it up to blue, it meant she got a "blue ticket" to put in for the treasure box. If she stayed on green that was good, if she had to move it to yellow she got a warning, orange was a note home and red was a visit with the principal. She moved to yellow maybe a handful of times and to orange once! For playing in the bathroom! Go figure. Other than that she was good. I just loved how she would spill her beans if we forgot to ask her about the clip. All of a sudden she would say "I think I moved my clip down today" then I would have to prod the information out of her. And if she wasn't up to confessing right away I would just say my magic sentence..."Then I'll just have to ask Mrs. Perez-Anderson what happened." Boy did that ever work! She knew that I "worked" with her teacher and that I would ask her what happened, so I usually got all the info I needed in seconds.

She had homework that had to completed daily and turned in every Friday, was that ever stressful! Sometimes I couldn't even figure out the answers...to much creativeness for my wee brain! :)

Overall, she grew a lot and is very much ready to be a 1st grader! They even got to pretend to be 1st graders and play on the 1st grader playground. That was a BIG deal that last week of school.



{Last day of school with Mrs. Perez-Anderson - June 2011}