Rylee starts preschool.

I think I have mentioned before that I journal to my kids.  Normally my entries are just private for the kids to read someday, but I thought I would share this entry to Rylee since I discuss my feelings about her going to preschool and give an update on her development.

Dear Rylee,
You start preschool in two days.  I have mixed emotions about you going.  Mostly I'm very excited for you, because I know you will love it.  It will definitely be strange to not have you at home in the mornings though and not be able to see/know what you are doing.

After several months of being nervous for school, you are finally very excited to go!!  Last week your teacher and associate came to our house to meet you and play games with you.  This helped ease your nerves a lot, and you liked the teachers.  That same day, we had preschool orientation in the evening. We got to see your classroom again (we saw it a few days earlier when we went to the school to enroll you and the principal gave us a tour - we really loved the principal), but this time we got to really look around so you could see where everything is.  The room was so colorful, very organized, and had lots of space.  You got very excited about the things you saw in the room and seemed very "at home".  Mommy loved the size of the room and that you have a private bathroom inside the classroom so you don't ever have to leave the room without the rest of the class.

We all loved that you get a locker!  It was so cute watching you try to open and close it.  I think Daddy's heart was melting a little at this point, because he asked Mommy if I had my phone so I could take a picture of you with your locker :)  Unfortunately, neither of us had a camera...but we will get pictures at the school on your first day.

Halfway into the orientation, you got to go outside with your classmates (you have 11 kids in your class) to play on the playground while your teacher talked to all of the parents.  It was so cute to watch you get into a line.  When you came back inside from playing you were so hyper and excited to tell us all about the playground!! Yep, you will love school!!

I've been telling you that I will miss you while you are at school and you keep saying, "Oh Mom.  I will be fine."  :)   You used to tell me that you will cry on the first day, but after orientation, I don't think you will.  I bought you a necklace to wear the first day.  It's an owl, which stands for "wise", to remind you that you are at school to learn.  But mostly, I bought it because it also says "BF" which stands for Best Friends, so you will remember Mommy at school and can have a part of me around your neck.

I'm so excited to see what you will learn this year.  The September calendar we got shows the letters and numbers you will be learning each week.  I hope this part won't bore you as you mostly already know letters and numbers.  I'm guessing they have creative ways to teach you so that those who already know them won't get bored.  You are a very smart little girl and are always surprising Mommy and Daddy with what you know.

Numbers and Math:
You can count to 100 (but sometimes you forget quite a few numbers)
You can count by 10's (but you always want to start with 20 for some reason)
You can do simple addition (1+2, 3+3, etc.).  Mommy and Daddy hope you will love math like we
     both did.
You know which number is greater (or less) when given two choices.
You can recognize the numbers 0-9
You can write a few numbers
You can recite mommy's cell phone number (and learned it just by hearing Mommy say it over the
     phone to several people in one day..I couldn't believe what I heard when you repeated me!)

Letters and Writing:
You recognize all 26 uppercase letters and most lower case.
You know what sound nearly all of the letters make.
You can tell us what letter a word starts with, by listening to the sound.
You can write a few letters.
You can write your name.
You can spell your name, forwards and backwards (we have NO IDEA why you can spell it
     backwards)
You can spell your last name (which you also learned by hearing Mommy say over the phone
     several times)

Art/colors/shapes:
You know all the basic colors.  Purple is your favorite, but you also like pink.
You know all of the basic shapes, along with many others: sphere, cylinder, crescent, hexagon,
        octagon
You have used crayons, colored pencils, markers, water color paints, finger paints and glue.
You have only used scissors a couple of times, and weren't quite coordinated enough to make them
       work.
You love to draw.  The only thing you have drawn that looks like what you say it is, are people :)

Science:
You know too many things for me to list.  This is definitely the one topic where you really blow our minds with what you know.  Sometimes you even teach mommy!  I doubt I will ever be able to help you with your science homework!

Other:
You know your left from right most times (or you are just a really good guesser).
You can "pump" your legs on the swing
You are starting to enjoy the monkey bars, but can't quite do them yourself yet.
You love to run, but you trip a lot.
You dance around the house every day and always ask us to watch your new dance moves.
You love to sing and make up your own songs.
You share well, for the most part...we'll see what your teachers say.
You like to be in charge and tell others what to do.
You don't like to disappoint adults, so we will be surprised if you ever get in trouble.
.
You want to be an ice cream maker when you grow up!  Please give Mommy and Daddy a life time supply of free ice cream!! :)

I can't wait to compare this list to what you know and can do at the end of the school year.  I'm looking forward to your first conference to see what the teachers say about how you handle everything that will be new to you (standing in line, taking direction from the teacher, etc.).  It will be a fun year for all of us!!

Enjoy your first day, Baby Girl!  I love you and am so proud of you!!

Love,
Mommy

Getting Paid to Write!!

I have always enjoyed writing.....well, except for required college papers.  When I was young, I would write stories.,,that I never finished.  When I worked out of the house, I enjoyed writing lengthy emails and proof-reading them before I hit "send".  Starting a blog was a no-brainer for me when I decided I had way too much to say and wasn't possibly going to post it all on Facebook!

I thoroughly enjoy blogging...it's so awesome to have a platform that's all mine to write whatever and however I want!  Aside from a children's book that I plan to write some day, I had never thought about writing anything other than my blog.  Actually, that's not true - I have thought about submitting an article to Our Iowa magazine sometime in the future.

Last week, I received this message from a friend of mine who writes for magazines, that went something like this:

"My editor just messaged me and asked if I knew any writers in Ames.  I highly recommended you and he really wants to talk to you.  What e-mail address should I give him?  I think the job is yours if you want it.  No pressure."

Uhhh...WHAT?!?!?!  Haha. I think about it for a few minutes and then decide "why not?!" and give her my email address.  30 seconds later I get a very short email from the editor asking for a link to my blog so he can view my writing.  AHhhhh, No!!  He can't view my blog....it's so full of all sorts of grammatical errors!!!  I give it to him anyway, along with the message that "It's MY blog, I do what I want!"  (I could tell he was super laid back and this wasn't a very formal process, so I felt free to be candid with him).

I quickly went to my blog to see what he was going to be reading first and saw so many errors in the very first paragraph.....so, I immediately emailed him with my edits of the first paragraph...and reminded him I really don't give a hoot about the "rules" when I write my blog.  His comment was something like, "Well, since you knew how to edit that, I think you will be fine."  So, he gave me my first assignment (with VERY little detail I must add), and told me to turn it in in 5 days.

5 DAYS?!?!?!  No way!!  How am I even going to find someone to interview, let alone get the story written in that short amount of time.  4 days later.....I was finished and had my story submitted.

Let me tell you something.  Writing for a magazine (at least this one, which by the way, is Ames Living), is so much different than writing a blog!!!  Like, I'm talking day and night here.  Where my blog is all about my experience, my feelings, my opinions, etc....a magazine story has absolutely nothing to do with me and I can't even reference myself in any way, shape, or form.  That was extremely challenging for me.....I love to write about myself ;)

James read my first story before I submitted it and said, "This is boring; this isn't you.  Where is all the humor and exclamation points?!?!"  I reminded him it isn't about me at all and I'm just delivering information essentially.  But, I agreed with him that it was definitely not as exciting as writing my blog.  I decided to scratch the first story and start over the next day....my second attempt was much better.  I tried to add a little humor to it, but the editor took it out after I submitted it to him :(  Boo!!!

Anyway, the editor decided my first submission wasn't terrible and, as far as I know, it will be published in the September Ames Living magazine.   What's really crazy, is that he assigned me the cover story for the following month!!!  Eeeek!!  He only gave me two-and-a-half weeks to find and interview 3-4 people and write the story, which is 4x longer than the first story he assigned me. Additionally, I am also writing a second small story for that issue too...also due in 2.5 weeks.  This will be a true test of my ability to meet a deadline!!

As crazy as this all still feels, I'm super excited to have been given this opportunity (THANKS, Courtney!!!) and am looking forward to becoming a "real" writer someday ;)

Adventures in Moving, Schaack Style.

You never can predict where the Schaacks will end up. My sister-in-law says James and I buy and sell more things than anyone she's ever met.  As James always says, "Everything is for sale for the right price."  So....we sold our subdivision lot that we were going to build on.

As you may recall, I once told you how excited I was for that lot and subdivision.  James, however, was never very thrilled with it.  He has always preferred that we buy multiple acres away from people. Early this summer I was driving some back country roads and the beauty and peacefulness of the farmsteads I was passing really pulled at my heart strings.  I thought, "What did I get us into with the subdivision lot?!?!"  I have always thought it would be neat to live in an old farm house, but more than anything, like James, I want freedom and space.  Those are two things that definitely do not come with subdivision living, at least not the one we owned a lot in.  It was originally the attraction of having neighbors that made me want to live there, but as we have had neighbors all summer now, I realize it's really not that great, and I would prefer to be on an acreage.  Plus, even though all the neighbors we met in the subdivision were very friendly, neither of us really felt "at home" there.

As James and I met with builders and tried to create a custom floor plan, it was obvious that neither of us was overly excited.  It just didn't feel as fun as it should have and we didn't have that fire lit under us to keep the project moving.  Seperately, we we were each checking the internet daily trying to find some place else to build.  I have always been open to an existing house and one day I saw this beautiful victorian farm house for sale and texted it to James.  I didn't even expect a response at all, let alone the one that I got: "Wow. I could live there, Let's go see it soon!"  What?!?!?!  So, we drove out to check it out that evening and then called our realtor to have her set up a showing.  She called us back and delivered the unfortunate news that the sellers accepted an offer the day before.  Darn!  But...this opened our eyes a little to look for more than just bare land.  We broadened our search to include existing homes and looked at several acreages with said homes.

At this point, we both came forward about definitely not wanting to live in the subdivision and we let the neighbors know we were going to sell it, in case they wanted first dibs (so that no one would build next to them).  The following day, a neighbor with horses called us and asked to purchase the lot to be used for their horses.  We easily agreed on a price and 5 days later had it sold and closed.

One of our favorite past times is to drive around the countryside.  We loaded the kids into the van one Sunday morning and drove around an area we hadn't seen yet, that I thought James might like.  We both really enjoyed the scenery and decided to focus on that specific area.  It also happens to be very close to his current work facility.  I was planning to tell our realtor to keep an eye on this area too, and hadn't gotten to it yet when she sent us info on a place coming up for sale....in that area!!  And even better, on a paved road!!  James used to say "It's not country living unless you live on gravel, " but has since changed his mind about that.

James looked at the aerial map (and all of the other technical maps that look foreign to me) and got incredibly excited about this place.  It was nearly exactly what he had been hoping for. There was timber, tillable ground (for income), pasture ground and outbuildings. We didn't have any pictures of the inside of the house, but the one exterior picture we had was all I needed to see.  The ONLY thing I have cared about for the exterior of my next house is that it have a long porch.  And wouldn't you know it...this one did!  As we figured this place would be a hot item, we called our realtor right away and expressed our very high interest in this place and requested to see it the second it was available.  Unfortunately, the sellers weren't going to be ready to show it for 5 more days...but our awesome realtor was on the ball and got us the very first showing.

Over those 5 days we did some more research on the place to get information on the soil, possibility of splitting the acreage, did a drive by, etc.  We were pretty certain this was going to be "the one".  A few hours before we got to see it, we received pictures of the interior.  It wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be and I was a little disappointed....but still hopeful.

When the time finally arrived, we made the turn into the property and made our way down the long drive.  I was already in love and hadn't even stepped foot into the house yet.  We got out of the van and I turned 360 degrees in my spot, taking in the view from every angle.  Yep, in love!  I thought positive thoughts and headed into the house with the rest of the clan.

Surprisingly, we really loved the layout of the house and it wasn't near as bad as I thought from the pictures.  I mean, blue carpet and green countertops are easy to change out :)  Even Rylee, who had zero desire to go see this place, was already picking out her bedroom.  "We have to buy this place," I thought.  From a construction stand point, James was pretty blown away with how well it was built and there were plenty of features he enjoyed as well.

By far my favorite part of the showing was what came next.  You see, I have always dreamed of a large flat country yard for my kids to run in.  We didn't have this at our last house as it was super hilly and one could easily twist their ankle running through the yard.  The large, flat, beautifully manicured lawns are what have always attracted me to farmsteads I see on the side of the highways. So after the kids had seen every room in the house, they asked to go outside.  I opened the front door for them and when they took off running full speed into the yard, my heart melted and I held back tears.  Wyatt even fell down and rolled around a bit. At this moment I knew this place would be ours. Rylee has expressed her feelings about country living a lot this summer...she has no interest in it. But, after running through the yard for awhile, she told me she loved it and wanted to live there.  She also asked if we could keep the horse, dog, and kitties that were there.... maybe we can get a goat instead.

We were at the property about an hour and a half and made an offer before we left.  We knew there was another showing after ours.  Long story short...we both made offers and endured an incredibly long four days, but were finally blessed to make a deal with the sellers.  We couldn't be more thrilled and are hoping for a smooth next 45 days until we close!!!  Now, to find a subleaser for our rental....

Although we are beyond excited for this place, it means a change in schools for Rylee.....just a week before classes start.  I'm probably stressing about this way more than I need to.  We already had the school supplies for her original school, and had been planning to attend the four events at the school this week.  I had taken Rylee to the school several times over the summer to tour it and get used to the idea of going there.  We also had a play date at the playground there with some other kids who would be in her class.  I felt we were both prepared for this new transition.  And now we start over....
Luckily, the new school district still had some spots available and they have the same start date as the school she was originally going to attend.  I have explained to Rylee why we are switching schools and she is more than okay with it.  Phew!  I have a good feeling about this new school already, as the principal was extremely friendly, provided me with wonderful information, and really helped me feel better about this last minute change.  I think it will be seamless.

We welcome positive thoughts for our next 45 days until we close, and if anyone knows of a family or students looking for a house to rent, send them our way!

Annual Iowa State Fair Trip

Well, the score today was ISF- 1, Emily- 0.  For the first time that I can remember, I didn't make it longer than 4 hours at the fair and did not get to see everything I wanted to nor eat many foods.

Last year I went to the fair 3 or 4 times, including a 14 hour day, and would have gone even more if I could.  This year I had a hard time getting excited about it for some reason.  I may have even skipped this year (okay, maybe not), but Rylee has been talking about "the big fair" all summer.  We got our discounted tickets a few weeks ago and started talking about the things we would do at the fair.  We settled on today for the day we would visit, and asked my aunt to watch the kiddos in the afternoon so James and I could spend a majority of the day there without tired cranky kids.  It started out to be a great day.

"Mom, take our picture!"

We left the house at 7:40 this morning, hoping to get there early enough for good (free) parking in the street and have a few hours of cooler weather.  The kids were so excited, particularly Rylee who actually remembers the fair from last year.  Once we got inside the gate, she asked to do the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.  This is always a hit.  On our way over there (of course it was on the other side of the fairgrounds), I stopped to get us some mini donuts....those never disappoint!!  They were very warm, sugary and perfect!  Wyatt got to do the Little Hands on the Farm for the first time this year and he loved it too.  They chose a rice krispie treat (Rylee) and chocolate milk (Wyatt, via Daddy) for their treat at the end of the exhibit.

Planting crops

Heading to market to sell crops

First "cow milking" experience

Next we visited the animal learning center..not very many babies yet..just some adorable little goats. The drinking fountain in that building has very cold water, FYI!

Following that, we walked through all of the animal barns.  We saw horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, bunnies, a giant elk, etc.  We got to pet a few as well.  We always like to stop and talk to the "patrol" horses who are usually very friendly.

And of course, take our annual "how many hands tall?" picture.

Last year...she has grown 1 hand. 

We stopped to watch some cows being milked at the dairy barn and then headed towards the playground to let the kids run around a bit.  The playground turned out to be super boring, but on the way we saw Bandaloni, the one man band, playing and enjoyed listening/watching him for a few minutes.  This was the first I have ever seen him (I think).

About this time we had been at the fair two and half hours and it was getting pretty hot.  Rylee came to me and said she was hot and ready to go to her aunt's house....but first, she wanted to ride one ride...the giant slide.  She wanted me to ride it with her, but I rode with my niece a couple years ago and had a hard time holding onto a child with one hand while keeping my other on the mat because I was sure it was going to come out from under me.  So, she rode with her daddy.  Wyatt and I watched them go down, and recorded it per Rylee's request.  When they made it to the bottom of the slide, Wyatt said, "My turn!!".  I told James he wanted to go too and we debated whether or not he was big enough...ultimately we decided to let him go for it.  He loved it and I got some video of him as well!

After the slide, we met my aunt back at our van and loaded the kids in for her so she could take them back to her house for lunch and naps.  She parked her car in our spot so we didn't have to find a new spot :) On the walk back in to the fairgrounds I started to feel very weak.  I was super hot and sweaty, needed food and more water.  I thought I had been keeping hydrated, but looking back, I don't think I did as well as it seemed.  James said he could use some A/C, so we headed into the Varied Industries building.  Right as we walked into the door, I was sure I was going to pass out.  I went to find a place to sit while James got me some water and a chicken sandwich.  I drank and ate a little and was actually starting to feel worse.  I was pretty sure I either going to pass out or vomit...both would have been equally bad.  I started thinking about how pissed James was going to be if we had to leave and tried to get through it....but I was feeling even worse as the minutes passed and finally told him I needed to leave.  Once we got back outside away from the crowd that's always in the VI building I started feeling slightly better, but figured we should just go anyway before I got over heated again.

So, not only did I only last 30 minutes after ditching the kids, James didn't get a single food item at the fair....normally he gets several and had one in particular that he was looking forward to.  It included a visit with an old neighbor friend who owns a food stand that he only sees once a year -- at the fair.  Not to mention, he used a day of vacation from work.  I felt pretty horrible.  I probably should have just visited the first aid building for a little bit to recharge and then tried to get another hour or two in. Ugh, even my 2 year old did WAY better than me this year -- he was pretty impressive to be honest!

I have to say I'm actually not really bummed to have missed out on any fair foods myself.  I never really have any specific foods that I look forward to.  Normally, I just kind of get whatever sounds good at the time I'm hungry.  On our way to the fair this morning I was thinking about the fair foods and honestly, couldn't think of a single thing I HAD to get. I am glad I at least got the mini donuts though.

Exhibit wise, I'm a little bummed to miss seeing all of the amazing photography, and the 4-H building.  I'm always so impressed by the talent in this state when I visit these 2 places...particularly the 4-H projects. Overall, just being at the fair and surrounded by so much agricultural information makes me so proud to be from this great state.  I know several people who don't go to the fair and "don't get it", but I think it's a great representation of our state and a great place to be reminded of how much our state does for others.

See you next year, Iowa State Fair.

Isn't HE one beautiful cowgirl?!?!

The Evolution of My Cell Phones

Do you remember your very first cell phone??  Let me guess....was it this one??

The good ole days...all you could do on your phone was talk or play snake.  If you really wanted to get fancy, you could change your phone cover frequently.  I never did that.  I loved the cover I originally got with my phone and didn't change it for a very long time, until my mom gave me an Iowa State one.  I got a new phone (and provider) shortly after that cover change though......  Traded up for a flip phone!

It wasn't this same one, but pretty close.  About the only cool thing it could do was change screen color by caller.  I think there were 4 colors.  I probably had all family members as one color, boyfriend as one, and friends as another. 

When my roommate's boyfriend came home one day with this cool new flip phone, I had to have it.  I switched providers in order to get it.  This was the first phone I had with a camera and color screen.  Super cool!!

About a year or so later this phone crapped out and when I took it in to get fixed, it was going to cost way more than I was willing to pay.  I also wasn't due for a phone upgrade, so I had to buy a used phone from that store....unfortunately that day they only had 1.  It was super boring and didn't do anything cool.  The pull up antenna was flimsy too.  But, I made due with it for about 6 months or so until this beautiful phone came out.....

Of course this one was only sold by the provider I wasn't currently using....so yes, I switched providers again.  I could have gotten this same phone with the provider I had, just not in this color...and yes I had to have the red one!  Also, I could have gotten the silver one my provider had for much less because it was upgrade time....but I really wanted red and was willing to pay quite a bit more for it.  I loved this phone...a lot!  That is, until the touch screen phones came out and I decided I needed one of those instead. 

This one didn't have internet on it or anything like that, but I loved being able to move the little icons around on my screen. It took decent pictures too. 

Sometime after I got this phone, I went into a cell store with my mom.  They were trying to talk her into a phone with a data plan (internet)....mostly because that's pretty much what all the new phones had.  I was appalled!!  I remember telling the store rep that I would NEVER get a phone with a data plan and they better keep making phones that don't require internet.  He told me how the U.S. is so behind the rest of the world, because everyone else has internet on their phones.  I was not having it.  I was about ready to give up my cell phone all together just to boycott data plans.   

But, now I'm on my 2nd phone with internet (and another provider change for a total of 4 changes with 2 providers) and of course I just cannot imagine living without it!!!  Many times I've considered getting rid of it, but there are too many conveniences that I just don't want to give up now.  I'm constantly looking things up when I'm out and about...checking addresses for a place, or their hours, or phone number.  Or standing in front of an item at a store and looking up the reviews for it, or price comparing.  I also love that I can locate an item in a store via their app on my phone, or show the store clerk my coupon from my email or the store's app. 
Recently, I've been enjoying the "map my run" app to tell me how far I've walked or jogged.  I've also watched tv on my phone.  Plenty of times I've also needed to look at the map on my phone (I still refuse to use GPS). 

To be honest though, all of these things are just nice luxuries, and not necessary.  I can still use the map I carry in my car, print my coupons from my email, ask a store clerk where an item is, call information for a phone number and then call the place to ask about location and hours.  But to simplify things and carry all information in 1 spot, having internet on my phone really is a luxury I'm not sure I would want to part with. 

Last week I pulled up at a red light and noticed the guy next to me talking on his FLIP PHONE!  I thought, "Wow, haven't seen one of those in a long time!" And then my next thought was, "I bet his life is simple.  Bet he doesn't spend a ridiculous amount of time on his phone.  Bet he isn't distracted all day by his phone."  In that moment I considered ditching my phone and data plan for a much simpler, text and talk only phone.  And I knew exactly which one I would go back to..... 

Hands down, the best phone I've ever had!!  Never had a single problem with it.  Never dropped a call.  I loved the buttons, the lights.   It was just simple and life seemed easier in those days.  Don't you think??  Sure, we can access information so much quicker now, but do we really need all of that information that is shoved in front of us?  I'm still trying to decide....