Boards...it's crunch time

It became readily apparent to me this weekend that this whole "2nd round of boards" thing is real, and very fast approaching. My poor, extremely diligent husband studied SO much this weekend. I think I've mentioned before that he takes round two November 21 and 22, and he is really buckling down for it. I am so thankful that we were able to enjoy Friday night together though, with no studying at all. We went out to eat at Gengis Khan in Westport, a Mongolian BBQ place and it is definitely one of our new favorites! The temperature was marginally cold Friday night, so David got us a great fire going and we drank hot chocolate and watched the world series. So. Much. Fun.

On Saturday David got up at 7:00 a.m. and hit the books. I didn't rise and shine quite as early as David. In fact, I didn't get myself up and out of bed until 9:30. Oops. :) David studied all day long. He took a lunch break to watch about an hour of the Arkansas/Vanderbilt game and then continued on. We don't get the SEC network, so this is how we had to watch the game...

It worked. :) As a sidenote, we couldn't be more thankful for a Razorback victory...no matter how close it was! The only reason that the game didn't go into overtime (which I truly believe we would have won in) was because Vandy missed a clutch field goal at the end of the game.

While David studied I had a totally lazy Saturday. I read some of my most recent book, cross-stitched, did laundry, watched TV (lots and lots of football), snuggled with my cat, and walked the dog.

Today was a great day at church and David sang on the praise team. He even sang during the offering today. After church we were starved so we took a chance and stopped a random restaurant in downtown Overland Park that we saw. It is called "El Salvador" and is supposed to be authentic El Salvador food. We have no idea if it was authentic, but it was nothing we had ever had before...

The good news? It was cheap, tasty, and filled us up. Today has been much of the same for me as yesterday. I went to the grocery, finished up the laundry, and I plan to do some cross-stitching tonight. I know...wild times, but it is quite relaxing.

I made it through conferences unscathed and now just have to make it through grandparents day on Friday (which is a half day). AND...no school tomorrow, just a half day of in-service with a special seminar on teaching boys specifically and then a curriculum evaluation. I should be done by noon though! The Hogs move on from Vandy this week to South Carolina in Fayetteville next weekend. We'll be there...GO HOGS!

And also, I'm planning on making a pumpkin pecan cheesecake with a praline topping that I found in Southern Living this week. We'll see how it goes. :)

Birthday Post

I was able to celebrate my birthday at school yesterday with my class. As usual, my room mom's did a great job and made me feel very appreciated. We had a party at the end of the day. I have really been liking owls these days and all the cute owl classroom stuff that available. They know this, and decided to make the kids owl cupcakes to enjoy.

How cute were these little things...?

I also had a personal owl cake...

One student and her Mom had spray-painted a pumpkin to be a "pig sooie" pumpkin that I could set out at my house...

I love it that when my kids think of me they also think of the Razorbacks. :)

Here's a picture of me and the kiddos. One was missing...sick. :( They're a pretty darn cute group and they definitely treated me great on my birthday.

I got a lot of great gifts and gift cards. I was again reminded how great it is for teachers to get gift cards...I plan to remember that when we have kids. We're going to be going to Starbucks whenever we want for the next couple of months for sure.

This is a really busy week for me. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip...always stressful to plan, and Thursday/Friday is parent/teacher conferences. These are not always the most fun activities for teachers. :) Next Friday is also grandparents day. The week is busy but enjoyable. It's been a fantastic birthday!

Sweet Celebration

This has been a great weekend so far! My real birthday is Monday, so we are celebrating this weekend. Although I feel like my birthday has gone on for about 3 weeks now because of how we've celebrated with family this year. We're going out to dinner on Monday night, so I guess we're making it a three day weekend celebration. :)

On Friday night we went down to the Power and Light District to eat a little sushi and go to a concert...and eat sushi we did! We finished the whole plate!

After dinner we went to see Phil Vasser playing for free! He's kind-of a "pop country" artist and he sounded great live! It was fun to take advantage of a free concert.

This morning we slept in and then I just worked around the house while David studied. Our friends Katherine and Jay invited us over to watch the Arkansas/Ole Miss game and celebrate my birthday together. So we headed to their house around 11:30. Katherine had made everything SO perfect. She had made celery and cream cheese, jalapeno hummas dip with vegetables, sausage cheese dip, salsa, and these delicious warm sandwiches with this butter drizzle. She even made cookies and pumpkin pie. We had such a great time.

Blowing out my pumpkin pie birthday cake...

We cheered the Hogs on to a very messy victory.

Katherine worked SO hard to make my birthday special and it was a total success. The fellowship was so sweet. Jay and Katherine, we cannot tell you how thankful we are for the both of you. Katherine, you made my birthday incredibly special and you are such a blessing to me. Love you friend!

We are looking forward to being at church tomorrow since we haven't been in 2 Sundays because of travel. Right now I am cozy inside my house with our first fire of the season.

Who REALLY rules the roost?

Which animal really rules the roost in this house...Deuce or Sooie?

Sooie goes where she wants, while Deuce eats whatever he wants. Sooie can put Deuce in his place, but can't stop him when he woofs down her breakfast. Both are beggars. Both are hairy. Both cost money. Deuce is faster than Sooie and sometimes finds himself thinking she is a squirrel just for a second. Sooie, we believe, finds Deuce to be an idiot...incapable of doing anything "mature" like she does. Sometimes I think Sooie dominates Deuce when she swats his face and he backs off. But other times I know she's been dominated...when she comes into the room with a mohawk from being licked on the head by Deuce.

I got my answer today when I got home from work. As usual, I got home before David, went inside, and went to let Sooie out of the basement. The basement door was wide open! I just figured that she had been hiding this morning and David hadn't been able to find her to put her down. No big deal...she's sleeping somewhere she's not supposed to be...like our bed. Not there. Not in the guest bedroom. Not in her bed in the basement. Hmm. The only other logical choice was that she got outside when I left this morning, David couldn't find her (because she was outside), and he went ahead and left, leaving her out. Normally I wouldn't care about this, but it was COLD today. Cold like it was in the 30s and 40s all day. I immediately felt bad for my little girl.

So I went to the back door, thinking to let Deuce inside and call for Sooie. Deuce was huddled in a little ball at the edge of the porch. I thought that this was weird, since he usually goes into his fully insulated dog house when it's cold. Oh well. I open the door and as usual he hops up like a jolly ole dog and trots inside. Right as I was about to do my "cat call," SOOIE very slowly came out of Deuce's dog house and calmly walked inside. While Deuce was huddling in the cold, Sooie was warm as could be in HIS dog house...proven by the fact that when I picked her up, her belly was warm.

Therefore, loser...Deuce dog.

True dominator...Sooie cat.

Happy Wednesday!

Mike's 60th Birthday Weekend

This weekend we headed to Little Rock to celebrate Mike's 60th birthday (which is actually today). I had a half day on Friday and David didn't schedule a patient, so we actually made it home to eat dinner with Mike, Kathy, John, Sarah, and Shepherd at Bravo (which is new to Little Rock). It was so nice to get into town at a reasonable time. On Saturday morning, I was able to take an alumni tour of my highschool. Because it was homecoming weekend, PA (Pulaski Academy) had some alumni events. Ironically, I was the most recent alum on the tour (2004 grad) while my dad, who was with me, was the "oldest" alum on the tour (1977). Everyone thought it was "so cute." For lunch we got to enjoy sitting outside on the patio and talking in the great weather. Shepherd, our nearly perfect nephew was in attendance and cuter than ever.

He's almost 8 months old, and really starting to show his personality.

Getting in some Gram and Grandpa time...

Sarah and I...

The sound of the pond was so nice that Shepherd had no choice but to fall asleep in Grandpa's lap.

We also got to meet up with our good friends Austin and Emily Bell for about an hour on Saturday (sorry, no pictures). So great to see them though. They are now in Memphis where Austin is doing his opthamology residency.

To REALLY celebrate Mike's big day, we went and had a dinner party at a Rainwater family favorite, Brave New Restaurant. Brave New Restaurant is actually where David and I held our rehearsal dinner when we got married. There were lots of people there to celebrate Mike and the weather was perfect.

Mike, Ben, and David.

David and I with the barely visible Little Rock "skyline" in the background.

Look to the right at dinner and you see downtown...

...look to the left and it's a beautiful nature view.

Mike and Kathy.

Action shot of dinner.

The whole dinner was just fantastic and lots of people were there, including my own parents. John made a great toast to his Dad, mentioning some of the things that they (the boys) appreciate about him. One of Mike's qualities that was mentioned was his willingness to support and guide his sons no matter what. He is also a researcher, and will commit himself to truly learning what needs to be learned; whether that is law information, farming stuff, or research on what his kids are interested in. And of course, John mentioned how Mike has set a great example of how a man is to love his wife and has spiritually led their family always.

On Sunday we went to church and visited the "young/singles" class that my parents teach. We're not single, but at least we're young! Hearing Dad teach was awesome and it made me feel so proud. John sang a duet in the second service. We haven't heard him sing in a while and he did fantastic. We grabbed a quick lunch after church at Senior Tequila, where the hostess, who we did not know, asked us how church had been and what the sermon had been about...small town Little Rock charm. :) It was really hard to leave this time, probably just because the family time was so sweetly spent.

It's hard to describe how time in Little Rock is for David and I. BOTH of our families are there, and have always been there. We have gone to the same church our whole lives, so going and see everyone at church is like seeing all of the other people who helped raise us. Both times we went out to eat we saw someone that we knew. Maybe I should have titled this post, "Blessings, Part 2."

We are glad to be back in Kansas City and getting back into routine. This was the last weekend that we will travel for a couple weeks, so we're looking forward to some time together at home. The weather has turned cold and it really seems like fall! Time to go make some apple cider!

Social Studies...off track

Today I attempted to teach a social studies lesson about landforms that went completely off track...as many lessons with 7 year-olds do. I thought some of you might enjoy the thought process, or lack their of, that took us from landforms all the way to poisonous gas in sewers. We had just talked about islands, peninsulas, rivers, and oceans when...

Me: "Streams and rivers usually flow toward an ocean. Is the ocean fresh water or salt water?"
Students: "Salty!"
Me: Animals that live in the ocean, salt water, don't travel up rivers into the fresh water because they can't live in fresh water for very long."
Student 1: "I heard about a shark that swam up a river one time."
Me: "Yes, I heard of that too. That would be really surprising to see a shark in a river."

Students laugh.

Student 2: "One time I heard about a hippo that swam out of a river, into an ocean, and onto shore."
Me: "Oh my!"
Student 3: "One time I heard about a killer whale that took a woman under water and drowned her."
Me: "Yes, that did happen, but that whale was at Sea World, not out in the ocean."
Student 4: "Near my grandparents house there are these drains and there's a whole family of poisonous snakes that live down there with really red eyes."
Student 5: "You can't go down into sewers because there are poisonous gasses down there that kill people."
Student 6: "The other day, I saw Eli (another student in our class) at Target and I got to buy a shark movie."

Now, I promise that I'm a good teacher. This conversation took in total about 3 minutes and I let it keep going because they were enjoying it so much and we had already finished our social studies reading. I actually had a hard time keeping a straight face this time. I have no idea how they got from one thought to the other, but they did! This, is why I love teaching and why I don't mind coming to work every day. Happy hump day!

Blessings

Ok so normally I would say that a post title like this is corny, but I'm just going to be corny in this post. I feel like this entire weekend with family has been filled with blessing after blessing. My Granny and Grandad came to Kansas City on Thursday night with my parents. I felt so excited for them to get here and see where we live for the first time. On Thursday night we went and ate dinner outside at "The Classic Cup" on the Plaza. The weather was perfect and we just enjoyed the weather and being together.

Mom and Dad stayed at our hosue, while Granny and Grandad stayed in a hotel room. On Friday I took a half day from work and everyone (minus David because he was putting in a bridge) came and met me at my school to see my classroom. It was fun for Granny and Grandad to see me at my work and to hear the kids saying, "Hi Mrs. Rainwater!", "Bye Mrs. Rainwater!" After we went to lunch we spent the afternoon going through "The Money Museum." We made money with our own faces on it and learned a lot. It was a a relaxing afternoon. We also drove them past the dental school to see David's spot. For dinner we grilled out at home and I made sweet potato fries and a vegetable dish. We ate outside and sat out there until way past dark just talking.

There was a big surprise after dinner from Mom and Dad to me. Since Grandad and I share a birthday and we were together this weekend, they took the time to celebrate our birthdays so that we could celebrate together! This year is was the year of the iphone for me. I completely freaked out. In my life I have LOVED to get phones as presents and this one took the cake! I screamed and then acted like a little girl who had just been told she was meeting Justin Beiber.

On Saturday morning we all headed down to Fayetteville to hang out with Tripp and go to the Arkansas/Auburn game. Granny and Grandad got to see Tripp's house and we tailgated in the beautiful weather. Grandad and I were surprised yet again when a cake was brought out! The cake was SO special. It was a picture of Grandad and I that I have in my house and Grandad has in his room in Charlotte. It is a picture from me catching my very first fish and posing with Grandad. Mom and Dad and Tripp had gotten a cake from Rick's and had them put the picture on it!

Having my birthday on the same day as my grandfather's has always been special and it was extra great to celebrate together this year. As a sidenote, I have REALLY young grandparents. When I turn 26, my grandfather will turn 74. He turned 48 years old the day I was born and my grandmother is even younger!

The tailgate was a blast and lots of people came by. We had BBQ and of course, cake from Rick's. Here are a couple of pictures from the tailgate...

David's Dad, Mike, David, and Grandad.

Some best friends from college. Allison and Katherine, you were greatly missed. Lauren is pregnant with her 2nd in this picture...maybe she'll name it Rachel. J/K Lauren.

The Razorbacks won and we had the best time at the game. The crowd, as usual was electric and we gave Auburn a good old fashioned whipping. We screamed until our voices hurt, and even my grandparents (die-hard Alabama fans) were tired from so much cheering...

The final score was 38 to 14 and we couldn't feel better. My family is such a blessing to me and I am thankful over and over again for the guidance and love they have given me. I know that it was SO much work and so tiring for everyone to come up here, and I appreciate it more than y'all know! We love you! Thank you for such a fantastic weekend...we loved every minute.

This week is a normal week, except that we have another fun weekend thing to look forward to. Mike's birthday is October 17 and we are going to Little Rock this weekend to celebrate with a birthday party. Friday is a half day for me and David is not going to schedule an afternoon patient, so we'll be able to get there early. Did I mention that I love Fall?...yeah, I love everything about it. :)

Winners of the Southwest Classic...Arkansas.

This has been a GREAT week and weekend. It was a regular week at work and in the clinic, which is nice. No news is good news. On Friday night we got our carpets cleaned. YES! It looks awesome and I am so thankful to have had it done. NO MORE SPOTS. He did a great job and got all the marks out...looks like new. I am dealing with the fact that all my furniture is still up on little blocks and there are random pieces (like a night-stand in our already small bathroom) all over the place. I just love looking at the whiteness of the carpets! Right after the carpet guy left we excitedly walked up to a new pizza place RIGHT beside our house. It is just one block north of our house and it took us about 5 minutes to walk there. It's called Pizza 51 and it was great! It's going to be nuts how easy it will be to just walk up there and grab a bite.

On Saturday morning we got up early and went to meet our friend the Heine's to go to a K-State game with them. Last fall they came with us down to the Arkansas/Alabama game (last year's loss to Alabama), so we were so excited to go with them and see their place. They both graduated from K-State and gave us a great tour of the campus. I even got to take a look at the Pi Phi house...

After our tour of the campus we went and met up with some of Jason and Jessica's friends and tail-gated for a couple hours before the game. We got to eat great food and even got to listen to the Arkansas game that one of the Heine's friends was nice enough to turn on from his truck's satelite radio (I'll talk more about that later). Here are a couple pictures from the tailgate.

The game was WAY fun. K-State was down and came back to beat Baylor 36 to 35. Here are some pictures from the game.

After the game...

...we got some souvenir cups! Jason and Jessica...thanks so much for taking us. We had a blast and love you guys so much! Thanks for being such good friends.

Now, while we were cheering on the Wildcats, the Hogs were grinding it out in Dallas. Like I said, one of the Heine's friends was nice enough to turn on the game for us. It was actually the A&M announcers, so we were listening to it from the enemy side. :) The Hogs came back from an 18 point deficit to beat Texas A&M. The final score was 42 to 38 and we were absolutely on cloud nine. Here are some pictures that I got off the internet from the game.

The game is called the "Southwest Classic" because it is a hold-over from when Arkansas was in the now non-existent Southwest Conference. Arkansas has beat A&M now for the last 3 years and is now ranked #10.

So, like I said...a fantastic weekend of good football and good friends. We have a lot to look forward to this week. My parents and grandparents are coming into town this Thursday night to hang out for two nights! It will be Granny and Grandad's first time to visit in KC and I can hardly wait for them to get here. They'll all come into town Thursday night, I'll take a half day on Friday and we'll have Friday night to hang out too. On Saturday morning the whole crew, including us, will drive down to Fayetteville for the Arkansas/Auburn game and tail-gate our little hearts out. Granny and Grandad, if you're reading this, which I know you are...we can't wait to see you and for you to get here!

It should be fun week. I think that Fall might be my favorite season...beautiful leaves, great weather for eating outside, caramel apple spice from Starbucks, football, family visits, fall decor and pumpkins!