Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

We've been here for just over a month and Mackenzie and I have already made it into the local newspaper - (and NO it wasn't in the police report). Mackenzie's class made an ABC book about healthy things that each of the kids had a part in - illustrating a picture or writing something. The book was published so she was pretty excited to find out the the picture they took for it was put in the newspaper.

As for my debut it was just the luck of the draw...I was at a chamber luncheon and they drew my name to be the next featured chamber member in the newspaper - I hope I represented Carpet Technologies well.

The funniest thing about this was when Mackenzie came home from school asking about being in the paper I showed her my section (no one had mentioned her class being in it) and there on the opposite page was her class picture with her cute little mug right in the middle holding the book. She was very excited and went to school the next day and had show her teacher I was in there too. Too cute!

Here's the links to the pages if you want to check it out...

Mackenzie's article:
http://www.c-dh.net/articles/2009/03/12/affiliate/advertisernews/schools/01spring.txt

Suzanne's article:
http://www.c-dh.net/articles/2009/03/12/affiliate/advertisernews/business/01chamber.txt

My New Friends

I got a new cell number so I could fit in with the locals (and stop using minutes on my sister & BIL AT&T phones). Not long after, I got a text message that said "Keith it's Jeff...just wishing you well...U jammed their other night at the Grammys! Take care..." Ok. So the only Keith I know that would be jammin at the grammy's is KEITH URBAN. Kinda cool right?! Hang on it gets better...so Monday I get a text that says "Now I'm in your town! Playing on wed. We should do dinner. Hit me back if you have time. If we don't get a chance to hang then be safe and be well!" Then the next text came right over "Chad Kroeger". So, I'm thinkin...who could be playing in Nashville on Wed named Chad Kroeger...do I know a Chad Kroeger? So of course I had to GOOGLE it and who's name had appear??? None other than CHAD KROEGER from NICKELBACK!! Seriously what are the odds of that??? Could I really have Keith Urban's old number and DO I REALLY HAVE CHAD KROEGER'S PHONE NUMBER?!?! CrAzY hUh?!?! If that wasn't confirmation enough, I got another text today that started out "Mr. Urban!..." It is confirmed! I do and I do!

Man, livin in TN has been a little more exciting than I expected! (I know a little sad if that's my BIG excitement) but it makes it fun anyway! And who knows what other "friends" I might holla... :D

Hey Ya'll!

WE MADE IT!!!

Well...ok 3 weeks ago. But we are officially in SPRING HILL, TENNESSEE now and all is good. Still haven't completely unpacked - finding the time and space to put everything has posed a small challenge, but nothing we can't handle...eventually.

I think the kids have settled in really well. They each have a cousin close to their age and love having a buddy to play with everyday. Well, Mackenzie does for sure...Kohler is trying to be patient with Reagan - she LOVES all of his "boy" toys and he's not used to having someone else around that likes them as much as he does. I'm glad that he at least has another guy around (I think Randy is too).

Tennessee is beautiful! Even in the winter. There is so much character and natural beauty out here and I hear the spring and fall are absolutely gorgeous - I can't wait! Plus I have a SUPER TARGET just 5 minutes away! It has been over 2 years since I've lived so close to one. The first time I went there I got goose bumps : )

More times than not life takes us on a different path that what we had planned out ourself. And usually we can't really see very far to know what's ahead. But "what would life be like if we never had the courage to attempt anything?" ~Vincent van Gogh

Kenzie's New Style

About 2 weeks ago, after I had styled Mackenzie's hair, she started talking about wanting to have her hair cut like Violet Beauregarde from the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So, last Thursday I took her out to shop for Kohler's birthday and surprised her with a hair apt to get it cut. Even though I was the one that made the apt, I still wasn't sure I was really ready to let her do it since we'd been growing it out for so long (Honestly~I really don't know why I'm so attached to my kids hair) but she really wanted to and even used the argument, "It's just hair Mom. It can always grow back." How can I argue that!?!

Here's a picture of her new doo...after we styled it the next day she told me, "I am SO likin' my new style!!" And I have to admit I think it looks ADORABLE on her, and in a way easier to do. What do you know...we both lucked out!


(Please try to look past the fingerprints...not matter how many times I wipe them off they just show right back up)

Tricked out costumes, crafty fun and lots of treats

The kids were very indecisive this year about what they wanted to be for Halloween. Kenzie first wanted to be a Panther, then changed to a Fairy, then a Witch, and then back to a Fairy. Kohler on the other hand really wanted to be Batman for quite a long time, then changed it to just a Bat.

They had a chance to go to Vegas the week before and picked out costumes. Here's what they came back as...


Kenzie kept with the Fairy - pink and green (and this particular one because it had a special hair tie in it). And of course no fairy is complete without her body glitter...Oh...I mean fairy dust!









Kohler decided on changing it completely to the Black Spiderman. He got to dress up 3 days that week - church party, school, and Halloween. Since he couldn't wear a mask and church or school I painted one on him. He was fine with it until about 30 before we were to leave the church party and wanted it OFF! The next day for school I asked if he wanted me to just outline his eyes instead of painting the entire area so it wouldn't bother him...he was cool with that. Just as I finished the bus pulled up to the house to take him to school and as I was throwing his costume on he told me he wanted me to wash the mask off. I asked why he had me paint it on if he wanted me to wash it right off? He said, "I just wanted to see what it would look like..."



Here's some more pictures of our Halloween festivities...

Catchup

Since I'm just getting this started there is one event that definitely warrants a blog post...

Wednesday (9/24/08) I got a call from the nurse at Mackenzie's school saying she fell and hit her head on the merry-go-round at recess and got a huge goose egg on her forehead. She never lost consciousness so they weren't concerned that it was bad enough to take her to the doctor. So I took her home and iced it...the only thing she was worried about was missing a birthday party that day. Well Saturday she work up with 2 black eyes...Sunday was even worse...so to make her feel better I put some green sparkly makeup on her eyes and tried to cover up the bruise on her forehead. Then I gave me a bruise (with makeup) on my forehead, darkened my eyes a little, and even gave Kohler a black eye so we could take some attention from her. Well after sacrament that day about 10 people came up and asked what happened to all of us...thinking if all 3 of us were hurt we must have been in a bad accident together. So much for trying to make things more subtle.

I didn't think to get pictures of all three of us but here are some of Kenz:

The next morning

Three days later...

Four Days Later...

One week after the accident...

She had school pictures the next day and was worried about having "rainbow eyes" in her pictures. I paid an extra $6 for them to touch up the picture. Here's how it came out...

They did a really good job seeing it has now been almost 2 months since the accident and she still has faint discoloring under both of her eyes...and beautiful as ever!

Some of Our Favorite Dance Moves