Mrs. Rainwater

Today I went up to Westminster to meet with the teacher who is leaving. I got to see my new room and she walked me through her organization of all of the curriculum. It was fairly overwhelming to get all of that information all at one time, but I was pumped to get my key to the classroom and school. I also got to talk to the other second grade teacher (Sarah) and I already feel thankful to have her to work with. Next week I'm going to try and go up there every day to start feeling organized. While it was a lot to take in, it made it so much more real and made me very excited for the fall.

Me, at my new desk!

Looking into the classroom from the door.

From the corner of the room.

Look at all that storage!

One last view.

Memorial Day in Little Rock, Arkadelphia, and Mountain Harbor!

Even though we were just in LR for Mother's Day, we couldn't wait to come for the long Memorial Day weekend!  Rachel finished her job at KCCS on Wednesday, so after we transported Sooie to the vet, we took off.  We stopped on our way through "God's country" to visit Nick and Caroline Rhoads and their beautiful new home in Rogers.  We had a great time together eating tacos and catching up.  

Being in Little Rock was so much fun and relaxing.  We played golf, went bowling, and just enjoyed being home.  On Friday Rachel and I along with Mom and Dad went to Arkadelphia to ride horses with Mom and spend some time on the farm.  We ate chicken and dumplings and lots of other great home cooking. We took some good pictures of us "loping" on the horses!

     

On the huge, new tractor.  

                  

Loping like a champion!

     

Feeding "Skip" an Alfalfa (sp?) treat.     

               

Showing us how it's done.

Utter joy?

After spending some time in Arkadelphia with Mike and Kathy and Grandma and Grandpa we headed to Mt. Ida to spend some quality time at #3 Downhill Road. We arrived on Saturday morning and headed out onto the lake. The water was freezing but the sun on Saturday was INTENSE and we both got burned. Dad grilled some ribs Saturday night and we had a great lake meal. It rained on Sunday and we spent a lot of time playing "Peanut" and watching movies on TV. Sunday night we headed down to T-Dock to see Uncle Benson, Cynthia, Adele, Lee, Ellen, and new baby William. We all ended up going to eat a Shangri La for dinner and had a great time. David also got to talk with Dr. Wardlaw and share some dental school stories when he came by the trailor. On Monday we were able to take a boat ride and then we headed back to Kansas City. We even got to make a stop in Fayetteville and have dinner at Viejo with Tripp!

On the porch with the family.

The road that used to lead to the ramp to C-Dock. UNDER WATER! The lake was SOOOO high.

On the boat!...getting burned.

Typical look from Tripp.

Mom and David.

Tripp and Dad being Tripp and Dad.

Foot Loose and Fancy Free

Rachel and I are welcoming summer with both arms outstretched! I am completely finished with school for the year, and have been done since last Friday. Rachel has completed grad school, and is almost finished with preschool, which ends tomorrow. We are so excited to be coming home again for the long memorial day weekend!

This last week, I have tried to make myself useful by working in the yard and trying to improve our curb appeal. Matt and Susan gave me a Japanese Maple for my birthday, which was what I had been wanting to plant in the front flower beds. It turned out well, and I hope it either survives or dies within the warranty period. We have been trying to pamper it with enough water. 

Another project I completed was to make a flower bed around the tulip tree in the backyard. To do this, I compiled my Rainwater/Pippin/Cashion transplanting knowledge and moved some bushes from the front yard and some stray ones from the back into this new bed. It may not win Fairway's yard of the month, but certainly looks much better than before. Rachel is wanting to attract some birds into our yard with our new feeder, and hopefully we will find a birdbath soon. It was such a great week, just relaxing and working in the yard. There is still more I would like to do, but I think I might wait and see if these transplants survive first!

The most recent news, however; is that we purchased a new driveway last night. Our neighbor, Larry, was getting a new asphalt overlay on his drive yesterday afternoon, and the man said that he would do ours as well. This was an improvement Rachel and I have been wanting to do, and felt like the time was right. So from around 4:00 to 9:00 last night we watched as we, and Larry, got a new driveway. It was quite an event! Rachel supplied the workers with ice tea, which they loved and one dude even requested more. I had a really good time talking with the workers, and most importantly, the driveway looks great. Its a new look for our house, and we are liking it. We can't wait to see everyone again in LR!