Back to School.....

Well it is that time of year here in Florida and Monday the kids returned to school. To us that meant that Kaitlyn is entering the first grade. She was so excited and I admit it was almost more stressful for us than Kindergarten was. We got up early and Kaitlyn had her requested breakfast of cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins with a glass of orange juice. Sounds a little gross but we told her she could pick. After that she got dressed in her new school clothes and mommy did what any good scrapper would do and had her pose for her going back to school pictures. Taking pictures of Kaitlyn is always about the pose. I don't know if she has watched too much America's Next Top Model or what but she literally poses for every picture. There are the three most common the squat half turn with the full grin. The full standing quarter turn with the full smile and the slight turn with the hand on the hip with full or partial grin depending on whether or not we have said something to embarrass her. I think it must be a recessive Huffeldink gene that only she possess. Although as you can see from the pictures she has started to train her brother on posing.

Once we got to school we walked to her class and of course all the while there is mom behind her snapping pictures of her walking away, sitting at her desk and then like any good parents we assessed the children in her class and tried to determine the good eggs from the bad. Kaitlyn was lucky to have 3 kids she knew from kindergarten. The downside is it appears they be some of the bad eggs. One of her friends from last year is a little trouble maker named Gabby. I first I thought it was short from Gabrielle but then I realized it describes what she does all day long. And that is Gab. Talk, talk, talk, talk, she would talk to the wall if there were not people around her. The limited time I have spent around this little precious child I don't think I have witnessed her take a breath. I believe she may have some sort of gills that allow her to not take a breath but continue to speak. I am calling ABC and getting her on the news. But all and all she appears to have a really good teacher and seems to be doing well. However, tonight she announced that there may be a small problem with one of the boys that sets right next to her in her group. It seems that this little boy may have a slight odor. Kaitlyn announced to Kristena tonight right before she went to bed that the boy who told the lie the other day also stinks. She claims it may be because he pooped in his pants or does not take a shower she does not know but what she does know is he reeks. We were laughing so hard that it was hard to remember to tell her that we should not make fun of people and that maybe there is some reason that he smells that way but really what do you do when she is so serious that she has her very own little pigpen.

My final little story is about something we did a few weeks ago. I was on my blog break and Kristena decided that we had stockpiled too many items that she had gotten for free or for pennies and it was time to donate some of it to a worthy charity. So we found a women's shelter and began gathering our items. Now we did not take any pictures so I will have to describe some of the items to you. First was the hair dye. So she starts pulling out the boxes of hair dye. She says there was seventy boxes of dye in our closet. Enough dye to dye each hair on my body a different color for about the next 100 years. That is a lot of dye and because I love you all I did not post a picture of me shirtless so you can see the hair. Then came the pads (you all know what I mean by pads, you know feminine products). To say we had too many would be an understatement. We loaded about 40 boxes/bags of pads into our box. I realized after we donated them that maybe we should have kept them all so if a hurricane hits we could have slapped them to the outside of the house and stopped any type of flooding from occurring inside. Actually Kristena must have had the same thought because before I could get the box to the van she was rummaging through the box taking some out. Some of the rest of our haul was shampoo and conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and many etc............ There was a lot more but it was a million degrees when I was loading it into the van and I could not inventory it all. When we got to the home the lady brought out a little cart and I asked her if she had another because we had a lot of stuff. I am not sure what she thought as I stared into the box of hair dye and pads but she did wonder if we were with the Girl Scouts. It actually was great to be able to give it to them because as I said Kristena was able to get most of it for free that is because she is che....I mean thrifty. She is so ch...thrifty that the other day when I went to add a dryer sheet to the clothes in the dryer I realized that she took the time to cut all of the sheets in the box in half. That's right she cut them in half. She claims she did this months ago and it was sad that this was the first load of laundry I had done since she did it. Now if you think that is ch.... thrifty she reuses them also. That's right, not only have we cut them in half but she leaves them in the dryer until they disengrate. I guess she knows its time to but a new one when the other one disappears. So claims the max number of loads for a half dryer sheet is 3 loads of laundry. She claims that all of you out there cut your dryer sheets in half I say it may be a slight unusual so please let us know (Kristena only wants you to respond if you agree with her if you don't then don't answer this question). She is defending it by saying they are the Bounce dryer sheets and that they are really expensive and that is why she does it. I think that if you only needed half they would make it half the size. I defend that by reminding her that the other day I walked out of the house with a sock stuck to the inside of pant leg that did not dislodge until I was in a meeting at work. Now that is embarrassing.

Well can't think of anything else that is going on. Kristena is now officially 13 weeks into the pregnancy and things are going pretty well. It has been really hot down here and I am sweating like Rush Limbaugh waiting to clear customs. Anyway we are doing well and hope the same can be said for you and yours. Talk to ya soon!