Ryley Stories

1. Ryley's first grade class is studying the basics of major world religions, specifically Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This week they are doing the segment on Christianity, and Ryley came home really excited. She said that she wanted to bring her Bible to school so that the kids who aren't Christians can see what a Bible looks like. So I let her. We stuck it in her backpack, and I sent her off to school -- not knowing what the reaction would be, but trusting God to take care of it and to honor my little girl's boldness.

This is what Ryley relayed to me when she got home:

Ryley to her teacher: "Guess what? I brought my Bible since we're talking about Christianity!"

Ryley's teacher: "Guess what? That can stay in your backpack! We aren't allowed to share books that haven't been seen by the principal."

It sounded snotty to me, but Ryley insists the teacher was super nice about it. :-) Either way, I told Ryley that I was really proud of her for wanting to bring her Bible and share it with her classmates.




2. This morning on the way to school, Ryley said, "I have a good question."

Me: "Sure. What is it?"

Ryley: "Do army people come home for Christmas?"

Me: "No, not always. There are a lot of families whose daddies are still at the war, and the mommies and kids are here alone for Christmas."

Ryley: "It's good that those daddies stay at the war so that it's not the worst Christmas ever."

Me: "What do you mean? What would be the worst Christmas ever?"

Ryley: "Like if the bad people came on Christmas.... That would be the worst Christmas ever. So it's good that those daddies stay there and protect their states."

Then she sighed, "I am so glad Daddy is too old to be in the army!"

Me: "Oh, he's not too old. He's just not in the army."

Ryley: "I'm glad."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"The Mother of All Updates" or "A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words"

It was the most lovely day today. I am in love with the Christmasy transformation of our home this year...the tree next to the fireplace for the first time...an actual fire in the fireplace for the first time, too...sofas pushed back to make this beautiful room even bigger....

It snowed all day -- big, fat, chunky snowflakes. And we sat on the carpet next to our hearth tonight, drinking hot chocolate by the light of the fire and of the Christmas tree. It was oh so "Currier and Ives" of us.

I don't want this day to end. This day where I somehow never got around to taking off my little black dress, worn to church for my magazine release party...this day where our football team actually won big...this day where the house is as close to clean as it gets....

I have writer's block. I finally sit down to do this after a month's absence, and it is taking way more effort than I care to admit.

There's so much I want to talk about:

...like how Ryley gets confused and calls "Hanukkah" by the name of "Jessica"
...like how this guy at work said he would have guessed I was 37 or 38 because of my level of professionalism. (Ha. Thanks.)
...like how I am completely and utterly engrossed in reading the "Twilight" series. And so is Ryan.
...like how our puppy Juliet turned one year old today.
...like how our new traditions of the season are mistletoe and the fireplace. Ryley loves both!
...like how we decided to go to Chick Fil A for lunch yesterday and just happened to arrive at the same time a helicopter was dropping stuffed cows with parachutes.
...like how the fourth edition of my magazine was released today, and it looks so amazing. I dare anyone to find a mistake in it. :-)

And there are more interesting things, too, like the fact that Christie and I did our dutiful bridesmaid duty and threw Kendra the lingerie party of the century a few weeks ago....





We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful weekend with my parents!

Pappaw taught Ryley how to peel potatoes! She was so proud of herself!!





We practiced riding a bike without the training wheels:





Ryley practically bounced on this thing wherever she went:





We visited the Rhema Lights on Thanksgiving night! Ryley is at the age that she is just simply awed and overwhelmed by lights of this quantity. :-)









The next night my parents took us to the Dry Gulch Christmas Train. It took us using the map applications on three separate I-Phones to get us there, but it was absolutely wonderful!! The last time we went, I was pregnant with Ryley. Unfortunately, my pictures of the train itself didn't turn out as well as I had hoped they would. But there were plenty of other western-themed activities:











We got back home to Denver, and this week was certainly a busy one!

I took Ryley to our church's royalty-themed Christmas Tea on Thursday night. Our church does everything top-notch; it was an absolutely overwhelmingly amazing evening! How is that for adjectives? There really weren't words to express it. Ryley participated in a princess parade, so she got to dress up extra pretty. :-)





















Ryley had gotten it in her head that we were going to have "crumpets" with our tea. Not exactly sure what a crumpet is, I decided to tell her that the scones were crumpets. :-) She was satisfied.

The very next night, we had tickets to "Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy"...Yes, as if we had not already given our daughter enough visual stimulation in the previous seven days. But we had had these tickets for over a month, and the show starred Ariel and Tinkerbell, Ryley's absolute favorite Disney characters!

So here we go:



Ryley's reaction to seeing Mickey and Minnie was utter joy!!!!



The cast of "Cars" made an appearance:



And, of course, "The Little Mermaid":





Then we were reunited with "The Lion King." Simba's costume wasn't exactly family-friendly. If you only knew how long it took me to get this shot. Ryan and I were laughing so hard; I'm sure the people around us thought we were crazy!





And, finally, Tinker Bell and her fairy friends! Do you see anything mildly disturbing about the picture below?



Yes, that's right. Man with eye patch. We were sitting behind a pirate!













At the end, Ryley turned to both of us with a big, shy smile and said, "Thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for taking me here!" It was so worth it just for that.

And now that it is after midnight and I have successfully recorded our month of November and half of December for all of posterity, I am going to go to bed.

Have a wonderful week!!! :-)

"You are everything to me. You are the one I love."

My posts are few and far between. And even though it seems like these pictures were taken an eternity ago, I guess they're better late than never!

A week and a half ago, we added yet another chapter to the book on Weird Weather in 2009 with this October snowfall:



Some places in Denver reported 24 inches of snow. We only measured 13 in our yard, but it was more than enough!



Ryley got two days off from school, but I had to work both days.





We went to dinner on Thursday night and came home to this message in the snow:



The funny thing was that I had shoveled once early on, but eight new inches had undone all my work!

The next night was our church's Harvest Festival, and Ryley's best friend Amirah joined us for the fun. Ryley went as Ariel, the Little Mermaid, and Amirah is some sort of vampire princess.





Cake Walk: The girls did this at least five times and finally quit, sans cake.



I started feeling sick on Friday night, and by Saturday morning I was in the middle of full-blown Swine Flu. Because of the high fever and the fact that I slept A LOT, all of last weekend is kind of a blur for me. By the time I was diagnosed on Monday, it was too late to really treat it, so I've been dealing with it the old-fashioned way. I still have a pretty irritating cough.

You'd think that H1N1 would ruin my birthday. But since I had already planned to be off work on Tuesday to do magazine proofing at the church anyway, everything really worked out ok. I was tired, but it was nice to spend the day doing something I genuinely enjoy and am called to do -- point out other people's errors. Ha!

It was indeed a really nice birthday. Here Ryley poses with my new pink snuggie! It is so cozy. She and I spent all day today cuddled up in it and watching a "Little House on the Prairie" mini-series on the Hallmark Channel.



I also received a new IPhone, a coffee tumbler, a movie, and gift card/money so I could load up on Bath and Body Works goods and perfume. Yay! Thank you, my family!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night, Ryan and I went on a date. Beforehand, when Ryley learned of our plans, she asked if we were going to dress up really nice and drink beer out of really nice glasses. We answered that no, we don't drink beer, and also, we're going to dress normally. She was mildly disappointed and suggested that maybe we should consider a romantic date with candles, a tuxedo, and Coke in nice glasses. And she said:

"And you can say, 'You are everything to me. You are the one I love.' Are you gonna say that? Are you?"

Ryan and I were laughing so hard, especially since her voice lowered significantly when she quoted what we should say to each other. Where did she get this crazy picture in her head of what a "date" is???

So we did. We said it over our regular glasses of Dr. Pepper and Coke at Cheddar's.

"You are everything to me. You are the one I love." :-)

Life is good...especially when you feel good.

It's Been a Long Summer

One big, glaring flaw in my personality has begun to rise to the surface more frequently than I would like to admit. Maybe it's not really part of my personality, per se....I guess it would be better characterized as my "flesh," my human sin nature. And on many occasions at work recently, following quick, unforeseen outbursts of my wicked, short temper, I have had to stop, pause, and repent.

The pressure at work has not lessened any. It has simply become more manageable as we have fallen into a routine and begun to accept that insanely busy days are the "new normal" for our office. I am a reasonable person. I ask intelligent questions. I do my job to the best of my ability. I can deal with crabby customers and make the difficult phone calls that nobody else wants to make. But it has been a long summer. And every now and then, my niceties buckle. Aggression takes over. And I, ever so sweetly, tell the snippy City of Wheat Ridge employee that her customer service skills essentially suck. Or when the City of Lakewood threatens to take legal action against our company because we didn't know we had to pull a siding permit in addition to our roofing permit, I argue with the guy and stand up in my company's defense until he backs down and admits that he is overreacting. When our subcontractor comes to pick up his Friday check, I make him wait by the front desk. For an hour. Because he still hasn't gotten the repairs completed that I asked him to do a week ago. I am becoming bolder. I'm becoming more confrontational. It's necessary, but I'm not sure I like it.

I just want people to know that I'm not an idiot. I don't like being told by co-workers that my desk is a mess; I don't like being told by customers that I do a poor job of invoicing. Defensiveness builds within me. I want to know how they would do if they were in my position. I want to know if they could do any better. I want to stop being judged. I am human, but I am smart. I am operating via God's grace. And I am literally doing the very best that I can, short of eating, sleeping, and breathing roofs.

Another struggle is workplace ethics. One of our employees broke his leg a few weeks ago. He was wrestling a friend while drunk... Yeah, really classy. But I have been instructed by him to tell people that he fell off a ladder (apparently because it sounds more professional). So anyway, this sweet-as-apple-pie direct mail girl named Amy calls me once a week just to see how Brandon is holding up.

"Oh, bless his heart! How did he break his leg?" she asks, in her sweet southern accent.

"He, um, fell off a ladder," I lie.

"No kidding! Oh, those ladders are soooo dangerous! My father-in-law fell off a ladder and broke his neck!" She goes on to tell me the details of his injury and how it's a miracle that he has returned to normal life. Then, "So was he going up or going down? How far did he fall?"

I am in so deep. There's no turning back now. I have to keep up my end of the lie. I've lied about this situation so much, at his request, that I have begun to picture him falling off the ladder; I have literally constructed the situation in my imagination. But I know it's wrong. I am still mulling over this one and whether or not I should come clean with her...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I found out this week that Rick, my boss when we lived in Montana, finally lost his fight with cancer. It made me so, so sad. I shared an office with him when he found out he had cancer and began chemo treatments six years ago. I watched him get so worn down, and I helped to lighten his workload back then. But I never actually thought he'd die. I was a brand-new working mom, dealing with all those emotions, and he used to talk my ear off with all his advice on parenting, marriage, and life itself. And I listened. I learned from him, and I still think about his advice from time to time. He was just the neatest guy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's hard to believe that October is almost over. We had Ryley's first-quarter parent/teacher conference and were told that "Ryley brings a lot of spunk to the classroom." Yes, well. She brings a lot of spunk to her life. :-)

The other day, I opened up an Internet window with my blog so that I could catch up on the posts of family and friends, via the links over to the left. Ryley walked into the office and started reading aloud my previous post about the funny things she says.

"Oh, no!" she said. "Why did you put that on there? I'm angry with you. Now people can know all about my life!"

All about it indeed.... ;-)



Ryan fell asleep in the office chair, so Ryley decided to make him a little more comfy:



Trip to the nursery to pick out our pumpkins:











This is Ryley's reaction to getting pumpkin goo unexpectedly on her hand:



The tears were so many that we almost had to stop. She eventually got over it, but kept running to the sink to wash her hands every two minutes.



She enjoys a cookie while Daddy carves...



The finished product!!

Ryley Stories and Other Exciting Things

Ryley loves going to church. We are particularly impressed with our church's children's pastor, who really knows how to interpret the Word of God and make it relatable to kids. Last Sunday, the church was having a special evening "event" for the whole family. I don't usually like to make the 20-mile trek back to church for evening services, and since Ryan had to work that night, I was hoping that Ryley wouldn't ask to go.

But alas... "Mommy! Tonight is a special church service about harvest, and we are supposed to go dressed like 'the country'!" I don't ever want to turn down my child when it comes to learning more about the Lord. And since her closet is surprisingly void of "country" items, I dug into my own closet to find a Gap shirt I wore circa 1996 (on Ryan's and my first date).



Next up: the kids' Christmas program with weekly rehearsals on Wednesday nights! I am appreciating more and more the sacrifice my parents made so that I could participate in all these things when I was little. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, it was about 17 degrees outside, so Ryley and I didn't leave the house all day. It was a great day for Ryleyisms:


1. There was some situation where Ryley ended up announcing that 12 is her favorite number.

Me: "Why is 12 your favorite number?"

Ryley: "Because I love clocks. And 12 is the end of clocks."


2. While we were eating dinner, Ryley started going off on the show that she had seen on TV earlier.

Ryley: "I hate the show 'Jungle Junction.' It's all about animals with wheels, and it's for little kids. I don't think I should be allowed to watch it."

Me: "Ok, you're not allowed to watch it."

Ryley: (grinning with relief) "Thanks, Mom!"


3. Later in the evening Ryley was talking to my parents on the phone. They were talking about favorite foods.

Ryley: "No, I don't like hamburgers or chicken. I'm a vegetarian!" (not sure where she got that word! And she said it as if that was an accepted "out" to not having to eat meat in our family, which it's absolutely not)

Mammaw and Pappaw: "What about bacon?"

Ryley: "Oh, I LOVE bacon!"

Nice. A vegetarian whose only meat is pork.


4. Ryley really was well-behaved all day long, so we finished the day with hot chocolate and board games in the family room. When Ryan got home and Ryley was getting ready for bed, I said, "Ryley, you were such a good girl today -- so happy and cheerful, and I would love it if we had another day like this tomorrow. Thank you for being a good girl today."

Ryley: (looking hopefully over at her Daddy whose attention was momentarily focused on the football game) "I'm sure Daddy would like to hear that..."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been meeting my lovely friend Danielle for lunch on Fridays. She and I work five minutes from each other, so it works out, and it's wonderful because conversation has always come so easily for the two of us. It's something for each of us to look forward to throughout the busy week. There's something so nice, too, about grabbing my purse and heading out of the office, yelling a casual "Meeting a friend for lunch; will be back in an hour" over my shoulder. :-) Yes, I do have friends!! I do have a life outside of the office. I am so thankful for Danielle's friendship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can I share with you the relief I feel that yesterday, after five more hours of work, all my editing for the fourth issue of SHINE Magazine is complete? There will still be two more meetings to go over the proofreaders' suggested revisions, but all 28 articles have been read, revised, re-read, re-revised, and read again. I have literally found all the mistakes that I am going to find, and it's time for some fresh eyes to take a look. These articles are so powerful and anointed, and I am confident that they are going to be an encouragement and blessing to so many women! The magazine will be released during the third week of November.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lastly, the most exciting news of the week can be found on my sister-in-law Alyson's site.

We are absolutely thrilled! Justin and Aly have been through so much, with three miscarriages and the loss of precious baby Jonathan. They're not quite out of the woods, yet, so please pray with us that everything will continue and progress normally and healthily. And in nine months, I will be an aunt! Yay!

Thank You, Jesus. :-)

Milestones

Last weekend we took a whirlwind trip to Nebraska to wish my grandma a happy 80th birthday! What made it even more fun was that we decided not to tell her we were coming...



We just walked right up to her while she was eating lunch at Arby's. I love this picture. Ryley and Honey are such great buddies. :-)



We chatted, played board games, and had a great time! Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about 18 hours before we had to turn around and head home so Ryan could get to work on Sunday.



But we were so glad we went!! Eighty years!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, Ryley finally lost her top front tooth. This stubborn little bugger was the cause of more stress than just about anything recently. It was loose enough to cause pain, so she didn't ever want to eat, which, in turn, made her cranky. But it was stubborn enough that it wouldn't budge! Anyhow, we finally got it out, and sure, call us biased, but we think she looks absolutely adorable:





Silly girl. :-)

Friends, Football, and the Fall!

Last Sunday, Ryan and I went to the Denver Broncos' home opener with our good friends Christie and Jonathan. What a beautiful autumn day for football!

Before the game, we tail-gated in the shadow of the stadium. Team spirit was definitely in the air!



This was just one of many Broncomobiles that we saw!



Christie and Jonathan brought their grill, and we brought the bratwursts:



Ryan applies mustard to his brat. Yummmmm!!



Doesn't it look tasty? We had chips and queso, too.





Time for the game!!





Skydivers + a massive balloon release = lots of fun!





I love crowd shots! They're so interesting. :-)





Especially when we're winning, and everybody is happy!!!





Bonus pic of Ryley:



Happy weekend to all!!! Go Broncos!