FIRST. DAY. OF. SCHOOL!!!

I'm not ashamed to brag on myself today: I did not cry.
That doesn't sound like a huge feat to most people, but this mama fully expected to shed some tears watching her baby board the school bus for the very. first. time today.

& i love you to the moon & back! ♥♥

Nope. :D I held it together. Barely. But I did it.

Bottom line: This little girl is a kindergartener. My heart.. is happy. I am so proud of the beautiful soul she is becoming.

So here they are: DAY 1 - KINDERGARTEN!

first day! 

my beautiful girl ♥

and this is my world. 

hangin' at the bus stop with mallory

The time finally came.. 

it's here! 

It was time for hugs from Mindi. This was special for me, since Sydni has been in Mindi's daytime care since she was 6 months old. Aside from the time we lived out of state, Mindi has always been there for Sydni, and for me as well. What a sweet moment! 

thank you, miss mindi! 

sweet mallory [mindi's daughter] being a watchful friend for day 1! 

After the extensive 8 minute journey to school... ;) 

:D 

day 1 in class.. meeting new friends & finding a rhythm.. 

There ya have it. My baby girl is a school kid, as she calls it.
I am one.. proud.. mama. ♥♥♥

The day must go on, of course. Off to work it was, to finish out the Tuesday. As a reward for holding my composure for the day, Rob and I took advantage of the evening and made a second attempt to see the new TMNT. Fortunately, bad luck didn't strike twice, and we made it through the entire movie with no theater power outages. (:

tmnt!

P.S. - Tuesdays -- at least this Tuesday -- are discount days at the theater in Oakley. NOTED.

*Whew! That's a wrap, kids.

xo | cmd

Farewell for Now, 'Nati :|

[#backdated.entry]

Did I mention it's amazing to be visiting back home? Well, you should've gathered by now that it's incredible seeing familiar faces, going to old favorite hangouts, venturing into new places that didn't exist when I last lived there, and above all realizing that I am still home in Cincinnati.

We visited our old church for the service this morning, not realizing it was a baptism Sunday. Andrea Jones and one of the youth girls made their show of faith with Pastor Poe today, and it was a blessing for us to be witnesses to the event. Congratulations!


baptisms @ new harmony!
congratulations, andrea!!

Another thing I dearly miss about New Harmony is hearing Julie sing each week. There are some people who can "sing" [I sometimes fit into that category], and then there are people who can SING. Julie is the latter, among the ranks of say, Trish here at Towerview. She picked a great song, too; definitely not a shabby Sunday to be at New Harmony!


julie singing - beautiful!

After church, we made a quick stop by Mindi's, who was our full time in-home daycare gal whenever we still lived in Cincinnati. Since Sydni is scheduled to stay a week with Joe's mom, she'll be spending the weekdays at Mindi's while Sandy's working. It was incredible to see them again, to catch up, but ultimately to know that Sydni is going to in good hands all around while I'm back in Illinois. 

love love love & LOVE her.

It was then off to It's Just Crepes downtown to rendezvous with Jimmy & Mo -- WAIT A MINUTE! Aren't you in Cincinnati still?! -- << I know, right?! As it so happened, Mo's sister lives up here, and she got married yesterday, too. That put the Prescotts on our turf on the same weekend we were scheduled to be here, so of course we wanted to show them around some of our favorite spots. Oh, and I did their maternity pictures, too! I can't show you those just yet, because they've still not seen them. Nothing personal, and don't worry, I'll have them up soon. I can however, give you a glimpse of the best photographer's assistant, ever... Haha.

*sigh.
So obviously this is backdated, but the good news is, I'm back safe and sound in Illinois and getting ready to take on the week sans husband and child. Holy smokes.. I may actually get this place clean after all! ;)

And
heeeeeere

we.... GO.

xo | cmd

Dinner with Dawne

Work didn't yield much interesting news to share with the class, so I'll just fast-forward to the fun part of my day.

When Joe and I left Cincinnati, one of our biggest regrets was leaving behind our in-home daycare provider, Mindi. She was the first and only daycare Sydni had attended up to that point, and we loved everything about it. In our eyes, Mindi had set a standard for daycare that we were nearly certain we wouldn't be able to find anywhere else. It wasn't much of a concern for a little while; I didn't get to work immediately after our relocation, but the time came for me to go ahead and make the transition back into Express, at the local office here, and thus Sydni would need somewhere to spend the day. 


dawne [on the right]
love her. :) really do!

 We weighed our options, and decided to try out the on-base in-home daycare program that was offered to enlisted families. We matched ourselves up with a gal, but after a few months, it was simply too taxing mentally to keep up with unreasonable requests [such as, the supposed mandate to at least offer my child milk even after we'd specifically requested she not for a few days]. It seemed that each time one of us arrived to get her, there was some unecessary bit of advice or rant to be offered. They fell eventually on deaf ears, for ours were honed into finding the quickest possible remedy to what had become a real headache.

There's no doubt in my mind that a God-intervened thing took place when I found Dawne through a Craigslist search for in-home daycare. This is just another testament to my faith in Craigslist; Mindi had been a result of Craigslist digging back in Cinci when I'd first started with Express, and we couldn't have been more thrilled. It only took a few short weeks for me to connect with Dawne, and after just the initial conversation, I was pretty sold on the whole thing. Once Joe and I had the chance to visit her home and meet her, we were entirely certain this was the best move. We jumped, and I am SO, SO, SO glad we did. She is amazing!

With Joe being out of town, Dawne and I figured it was time we got together and did dinner. We decided on Texas Roadhouse [hello, sweet potato] and met there with Sydni this evening to grub and have a conversation lasting longer than the 5 minute standard each time I pick Sydni up after work. I realized tonight how very blessed we are with Dawne and everything she does for us and for Syd. She loves that kid almost as much as we do, and I have no doubt in my mind that she's well cared for whenever we leave her [even for the overnighters, which we've done!].

We've since returned home and Syd's down for the count. I'm about to follow suit.....

Joe gets home tomorrow.
JOE GETS HOME TOMORROW.
HALLELUJAH.

*can't wait!!

xo | cmd