First Day of School Pictures

Another School Year Begins

It's funny how the beginning of a school year can make you totally forget things (like having a blog!). The Barnett's have had quite an interesting first few weeks. One new and wonderful thing is that Daddy is taking the kids to school in the morning! My school starts earlier than theirs do, so it is nearly impossible for me to drop off in the mornings. They have figured out their plan for the morning and all is going smoothly. Blake is enjoying the time with them. I am so thankful that he is in Jonesboro full time now!

Wil is enjoying Jonesboro Kindergarten Center very much. He is in Mrs. Star Martin's class. He has been doing very well behavior wise. He still doesn't like to come home and tell me all about his day, but I have learned that if I wait, he will eventually tell me. I especially enjoyed hearing about the day that they had a substitute. He said, "Mommy, she was old and didn't know what to do or when to do it!". Wil loves routines and I guess it was frustrating to him to have someone there that didn't know their routine. I hope he wasn't rude to her!

Avery is ecstatic about being in 4th grade at Visual and Performing Arts. The first day, she was beaming with joy as she told me, "we get to dissect Owl throw up!" Yes, you read that correctly.... This is the first year that she gets to switch classes during the day. She has Mrs. Clines for math and science and Mrs. Farris for language arts and social studies. She is also thrilled that it is time for after school academies to begin. Her first choice of the year is to learn about making movies! We somehow forgot to take her picture on her first day of school, but I had her recreate her outfit so I could take it. I will post that and pics from Wil's first day when I find the cord that hooks the camera up to the computer!

My first days of school were some that I will NEVER forget! The teachers returned to school a week before the kids. I worked for two days and came down with what I thought was a stomach virus. It was awful! I stayed home for two days and then headed back to work. I noticed that I was not feeling 100%, but thought it would just take some time since I had been so sick. WELL, on the first day for students, it hit me again! I was there for 1 hour before getting dizzy and light headed. I somehow managed to stay, although everyone was telling me I looked like a ghost. By the time Blake got home, I was ready to go to Urgent Care. After 3 hours of tests, we found out that my gallbladder was to blame! So.....after additional tests, I go to the surgeon on Tuesday to see when I can have it removed!!!! I will be so glad for this to be over. Everyone tells me that it is the best medical procedure in the world and I won't believe the difference. I can't wait!

Silver Dollar City

This year's Barnett family vacation was a trip to Branson and Silver Dollar City. We had not been there in about 5 years, so we had so much fun looking forward to this trip. Avery was 4 the last time we went, so only remembered what she saw in pictures. Wil, being 1 on the last trip remembered nothing. We drove up on Friday afternoon, so that we would be ready to hit the park Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, but that didn't slow us down much. We started out by touring Marvel Cave. It is a 1 hour hike with about 600 stairs. I had not done a cave tour since we went to Blanchard Springs as a kid. Avery and I were a little slow to get going when we stepped into the HUGE Cathedral Room and saw how far down it went. After a few flights of stairs, we were loving it. Wil, on the other hand, had a great time. He decided that he was just like Indiana Jones!

We spent all of Saturday and Sunday at SDC. The rides, shows and food were great! Avery really enjoyed all the water rides and both kids loved walking through Grandfather's Mansion, which made me incredibly dizzy! Monday morning, we did a little back to school shopping and then headed home. It was a nice getaway!

CRYC 2009

For 5 years now, Avery has enjoyed spending a week at Crowley's Ridge Youth Camp each summer. It is the camp that Blake attended and served as a counselor at when he was growing up. One of Avery's ambitions is to be a counselor at CRYC when she is a teenager. This is her last year to attend day camp. Next year, we will drop her off and not see her for a week. I am sure she will handle that better than I will!

Birthday Party!

Avery turned 9 on June 27th. Wil's 6th birthday is July 2, so we had a joint party at Pump It Up. The kids (and a few adults!) had a great time jumping and sliding. Since it was Avery's actual birthday, she got to choose where we ate all day long. After the party, we headed to Wendy's for lunch and then to Target and Wal-Mart for the kids to spend the small fortune that was gifted to them. It is so funny to me that Avery had planned to spend any birthday money to help pay for a camp that she wanted to attend, UNTIL she saw the money! All of the sudden, she didn't want to go that badly! After the shopping trip, we came home for a few hours to open toys and eat a piece of leftover cake and then headed to Mazzio's for dinner. A wonderful day. Wil gets to pick where we eat tomorrow since it is his day. Needless to say, I have gained back the three pounds that I had managed to lose!!!

My Summer So Far - By Avery

So far this summer I got my hair cut the shortest it has ever been. It is right above my shoulder blade. I 've started guitar lessons at Back Beat. I got an acoustic Hannah Montana guitar. Sunday night my friend Mary Beth called. She said she wanted to have a sleep over. I was so exited. We went on her trampoline , played Nintendo and all sorts of stuff. Her older sister and her friends ran in the kitchen doing a race to get on the computer. In the morning We made play-doe. Once on the Trampoline, Mary Beth was on her club house that was a stack of bricks and I was on the trampoline, I tried to throw my shoes on the clubhouse. The first try it landed on the grass and her Golden Retriever hid it in the bushes and Mary Beth Had to crawl through and get it. In her basement ,on her radio we were singing and dancing to Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus CDs. We took very funny pictures on her camera. I am looking forward to the rest of summer.

Wil Goes For A Swim

Wil took swimming lessons for the first time this summer. We decided he would do best with private lessons. He took lessons at the YMCA with Ms. Katie. I wish I could say that the lessons were a huge success and we will be headed to the Olympics one day, but I am afraid that is not the case! He did really well the first couple of days and then we had a weekend break. When we returned on Monday, fear had set in. The last three lessons were mostly spent trying to talk him into doing things! Even though it wasn't the huge success I was hoping for, it did get us up and out early (his lessons were at 8:45 a.m.!) and gave him a little experience!