KandJRies Weblog

Weekend fun

kandjries — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:54:48 +0000

We had lots of fun with the Trooks this weekend . . . Nothing like spending a long weekend with best friends.

So the last picture is one when we got home. I was trying to get Mikaela to smile and I asked her where Jason was . . . this was her reaction – typical!

dancing princess

kandjries — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:51:39 +0000

Here’s a few pics of Riley dancing. She had ballet every Saturday for the past couple of months. The other little girl is Meg.

Easter, Star Wars and Best Friends

kandjries — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:50:30 +0000

So I’m a little over a week late in getting our Easter pics up, but it’s been a crazy week! Plus our very best friends, the Trooks came over this weekend, yea!! The kids watched Star Wars over and over and over . . . Not many words on this blog, but lots of pics.

Happy Birthday . . . again

kandjries — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:04:12 +0000

Ok. On the last post, I said that our lives weren’t interesting enough to blog about. I shouldn’t have said that – it came back to bite me.

So, for Kevin’s 30th birthday we decided to take a nice, long weekend trip to Fredericksburg. The weekend started out great. My parents came down to watch the girls and early Friday morning we headed out. All was going so well. The cabin I rented was quaint and included a lovely view of two very large bulls, some cows and horses. It also had a couple of cats that hung around the front door. We toured Fredericksburg over the next 2 days – shopping, eating and visiting wineries. It was a very nice birthday trip . . . until . . .

We were driving home Sunday afternoon when my arm starting itching. I didn’t think much of it, but it finally started bothering me more and more. I pulled up the sleeve to my polar fleece and found 30+ whelps on both arms. No idea what they were. Kevin stopped to pick up some benadryl for me, but that only knocked me out – didn’t help the bumps at all. The arm itching continued on the way home, but it wasn’t until we got home that I noticed that these whelps were all over my body! My hips, my legs, my stomach, my arms – everywhere! Kevin thinks all this is funny, by the way. So Monday morning, in agony from the itching and general pain of the whelps, I go to the doctor. I’m still thinking I’ve had an allergic reaction to something. Doc says, that’s not a reaction – those are bites. From what I asked. She said, can’t tell, but more than likely fleas or bed bugs!! Oh my gosh!

As much as a germophob as I try not to be – this thoroughly creeped me out. I told Kevin that he needed to call the cabin and tell them what happened. Again, he thinks this is all pretty funny. That is until that evening when he finds whelps all over his hips too! Not so funny now. I’ve never seen him clean so much in my life – we stripped sheets, covers, you name it. And now he’s a bit more peeved at the cabin owners. Hmm, wasn’t as worried when it was just me.

Long story short, the cabin owners don’t think it’s their fault. They say the bed is new and hyper-allergenic. But I say those cats brought fleas in the house and left them as a parting gift on my clothes. The owners are willing to refund one night as a peace offering, but only after I sent pictures and the doctor’s note.

Happy Birthday, again.

I suddenly feel old . . .

kandjries — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:20:04 +0000

So this post will be and update over the last, oh, 4 months. I know, I am not the best at keeping up with this. Between the busyness of our lives and the absence of excitement, I don’t have much to write about . . . that is until yesterday.

As you may know, yesterday was Kevin’s birthday – his 30th for those of you who are counting! For several weeks, we have been anticipating the first parent’s night out at our church (this is definately one thing we miss about Lubbock). We were lucky enough that PNO happened on on Kevin’s birthday. I was at the house getting dressed for dinner and Kevin went pick the girls up from school so we could drop them off at the church. I heard the garage door open and I went to help get them into the house. As I opened the back door, I see the car flying into the garage with all windows rolled down and Riley is SCREAMING in the back seat. I run over to her side, still not knowing what going on and yank her out of the car. Kevin throws the car into park and yells out that Riley sprayed mace in her face! Kevin had a mace pen in his coat pocket and she had somehow gotten it out and was curious enough to spray it. So after 20 minutes of crying and pouring milk in her eyes, she finally quieted down and let us look at her red, swollen eyes. We were lucky that she just got some of the mist from the spray and it wasn’t a direct hit.

Needless to say, the birthday dinner didn’t start out like we thought . . . nothing like explaining to the church nursery why Riley’s eyes looked the way they did. I don’t expect to get the best parent award this year.

But back to the title – it has just hit me this evening that I am married to a 30 year old! Makes me feel old too . . .

Halloween

kandjries — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:13:55 +0000

So I decided to be “Super Mom” this year and made the girl’s costumes. The adventure started off well. I bought the fabric and pattern a month ago, but with our busy lives, I ran out of weekends. So this week was CRAZY! I spent every evening frantically sewing tiny outfits. Kevin was great during the whole thing. He did dishes, laundry and baths for the girls. The girls’ had a carnival at their school on Friday morning so I had to be completely done Friday morning. After working all night, I had to give up at 3:00 a.m. because I couldn’t thread my needle any more . . . Anyway, I’ve resolved to never, never make another costume. I figure that Wal-mart is good enough next year.

long time

kandjries — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:29:37 +0000

So we haven’t written in a long time and that’s mostly because not much has happened, at least not enough to write about.

Kevin started working for the church and ABSOLUTELY loves it. He has many projects already and is being pulled in several different directions. He is making great connections with our youth Pastor, which will lead into us helping out with the youth when school starts. It’ll be a lot of fun and a big change for us.

Work is work for me. Busy as always, but good.

The girls are happy and heathly. Mikaela is still not walking, but getting very close. Riley is going to swim lessons twice a week. It’s parent-tot lessons, so it’s been very interesting. She is doing well, but I think the next lessons will be without me . . .

birthday girl

kandjries — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:23:13 +0000

So my baby girl’s birthday party was yesterday. I really struggled with this day, not because she’s growing up too fast, but because it didn’t look like it was going to happen the way I wanted it to. Riley’s party was greatly planned and anticipated. Coming off of vacation and living so far from everyone made for a small party. Fortunately all my struggles disappeared. Kevin made an adorable flower basket cake that Mikaela absolutely loved (see pics below). She had such an incredible time that it didn’t matter that I didn’t spend 2 weeks preparing. Amazing how things just take care of themselves.

On another note, Kevin left at midnight last night to go to Red Cloud, CO for youth camp. It’s strangely quiet at the house now. Please pray that he will get an awesome experience with God and that Riley and I get along this week.

Tennessee

kandjries — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:52:45 +0000

Tuesday
Woke up at 4:00 am, got everything packed up and then woke the girls up at 4:45 to get to the airport for a 6:10 flight. We let Riley sleep in her clothes so we could keep her in bed as long as we could. The flights were actually very seemless. Riley and Mikaela did great. We finally arrived in Nashville (Middle Tennessee) where we meet up with Ann and Gary for lunch. It took us the rest of the day to get to Gatlinburg (the far East side of Tennessee). We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was fun, but a bit intense for the girls, especially at 9:00 pm. The cabin we stayed at was quaint, and by “quaint” I mean small. Kev and I had a room that we shared with Mikaela, Ann and Gary had a room and Riley slept in the upstairs loft. We had a great view of the forest behind us, but never saw any wildlife.

Wednesday
We got up at a normal time today and headed to the Ripley’s Aquarium. It was an huge place with tons of fish, sharks, and rays. There were even these horseshoe crabs that they would let you pick up. Both girls enjoyed touching the slimy things. After lunch, Riley, Kev and I went to Dollywood. It was much bigger than I expected. They had large roller coasters (which we didn’t get to ride) and lots of shows. We did get to catch The Kraff brothers. They have a show on PBS where they talk about all sorts of animals. We got to see two snakes, a kangaroo and a beaver, plus some other animals I can’t pronounce or spell . . . We then went to the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. It was a short VeggieTales musical. It started raining on us, so we didn’t get to ride many rides, but they have a deal at Dollywood where if you come after 2:30 you get to come the next day for free, so it broke up our day. That night we had bbq at Corky’s and then played miniture golf at Old McDonalds golf course. Gatlinburg and the surrounding area is a huge tourist town, so there were 7 or 8 places to chose from to play golf. We made it home, late again with no nap for the day . . .

Thursday
We went back to Dollywood and got to ride several rides. Surprising Riley loved them! This is the same girl that would freak out at the cars in the mall that rocked back and forth. She rode the kiddie roller coaster, scrambler, and ferris wheel. Right before lunch it started pouring so we went the nearby outlet mall and spent way more than we should have, but saved a bunch too. That evening we ate a great dinner at the cabin and went to bed early to prepare for the long drive on Friday.

Friday
We got up early and packed the house to travel from the East side of Tennessee to the West side. 9 hours later, we arrived in Memphis. The trip was mostly uneventful, well as uneventful as it can be with a 3 1/2 and 1 year old. It seemed like we would barely get out of a town and Riley would say she needed to potty. Good thing for the Garmin (although at some points in the trip I wanted to throw it out the window!!)

We headed to the rehearsal, which went great. Riley was given very specific instructions, which is how she works best. A little background on Kevin’s cousin, Kim. She went to Christian Brothers University in Memphis and played volleyball. So most of her bridesmaids were college friends that played volleyball with her. Here I walk in, with my flip flops on, and here come a group of very beautiful girls who are all about 6 feet tall . . . made me feel quiet small.

Saturday
The wedding starts at 7:00, so we had all morning to spend on our own. We went to Mud Island, which most people know from The Firm with Tom Cruise. The girls enjoyed playing in the “Mississippi” river.

The wedding was beautiful. It’s funny how wedding can bring back so many memories . . . .

Sunday
After a leisurely morning, we drove back to Nashville (Middle Tennesse) and went to the mall for dinner and more shopping. We had our first build-a-bear experience, but surprisingly Mikaela was the one that was most excited. As soon as we walked in she went nuts for anything that she could get her hands on. We ended up with two hand stuffed bears, Tennessee and Smokey.

Monday
Aahh . . the last day. Our flight out is at 5:00 pm so we had time to go to the Nashville Zoo. It was huge. The only zoo I’ve been to is the Amarillo zoo, so I was quite impressed. There were so many exotic animals and we got a lot of pictures. But it was very apparent that it was time to head back to Texas. Riley had several breakdowns at the zoo, which extended into the airport. After sitting on the same plane for 5 hours, we finally arrived home – hallaluia!

I was asked about the humity in Tennessee – it was bareable for the first part of the trip, but started to wear on us by the end.

Very short blog

kandjries — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:24:42 +0000

I know we haven’t written anything about our trip, but didn’t have good internet acess in Tennessee. Here’s the blog from the photographer at Kim & Alan’s wedding. Couple of good shots of Riley and some very excellent shots of the wedding. We’ll post more this evening.

http://blog.cscottphotography.net/