Kyler's 3rd Grade Wisdom II

I like the name Kylo. I like it because I get bored of everybody saying “Kyler  get this” or “Kyler get that”. Also, I like the name Ryan because Ryan is the name of my best friend.

I might give my mother a woodcraft. I might give my brother a toy, like a bouncy-ball. I might give my grandparents a note pad. I might give my other brother a CD. I might give my sister a CD too. I might give my dad a pack of batteries for his remote control just in case he runs out.

My mom is about 6’2”. My dad is about 6’5”. I think I’ll be 6’7”. One of the advantages of being tall is that you can play basketball well.

One time my sister kept on punching me while I was on the couch. I t didn’t hurt a bit so I started laughing. I kept on laughing until I couldn’t laugh no more. I laughed so hard I cried.

Kyler's 3rd Grade Wisdom

On top of the 6th grade journal were some short 3rd grade entries, with no topics written down:

I am different from my brother because he has white hair and I have blond hair. He likes fried eggs but I like scrambled. I’m in 3^rd grade and he’s in 5^th. My mom and dad are different because my dad works but my mom stays home. Dad drives in a car and mom drives a van.

The furnace in my house is old. You can hardly light it. Whenever you turn it on it blows out cold air. In the wintertime the only thing keeping us warm is the fireplace. All the other furnaces I know work right.

My mom and dad told me that I was a girl when I was in my mom’s stomach. What he tried to tell me wasn’t true!!

Kyler's 6th Grade Wisdom III

10/31/2000

Topic: Halloween

A couple of years ago, we went trick-or-treating. We came to our grandpa’s house and hid in a cornfield. We snuck up on them and tapped on a window. My grandma shouted, “Stupid teenagers! Go!” We were laughing while my brother crept up to the door to scare them. He opened the door and screamed. My grandpa was freaked out and jumped 3 feet in the air. It was hilarious. We laughed and talked for a while. That was the funnest Halloween ever.

5/1/2001

Topic: What do you do with your parents you enjoy?

I like going on vacation with them. They are really nice there and usually let me do whatever I want. The only part I don’t like is the ride in our van. Our dad gets mad if we have to stop for any reason . He’ll get us lost and get grouchy. But they’re really good when we get there.

5/10/2001

Topic: Bullies

My brother bullies me. He’ll go around and hit me for no reason. He gets me in trouble for no reason. His friends will gang up on me if he tells them to. That’s about the only bully I’ve had.

Childhood Boxes

As most of you probably know, when the Gray kids get married, they get a delivery of all the keepsakes their Mama kept for them throughout their childhood.

Last Saturday morning was beautiful, so Kyler and I sat out on the back porch soaking in some rays and going through his boxes.

Some old posters we decided were best suited for the trash...

Some old toys that we kept for our guest room...just in case a couple of little boys ever visit and need some toys. They may be old, but they'll be new to them.

There were a lot of sports pictures, school yearbooks, and journals that we decided to keep. Kyler's mom kept very good records of his earliest years in his baby book. Cincinnati was one of his first trips away from home in fact..

There were some hilarious journal entries that I want Kyler to post about himself. Only a 6th grader can perfectly describe the frustrations on vacation when Dad gets lost :)

And then there were some school memorabilia. Like this bracket from a 3rd grade contest of some sort where Kyler and I squared off.

And at least I lost to the champion.

And I think I was probably the best one to lose. Kyler probably wouldn't have been this kind if he'd been defeated.

Maybe it was a grammar contest. Obviously I still had some work to do...'You Did Good'

It was a fun way to start our weekend and get our burn tan on.

Replacing College Furniture

Ever since graduating college (for me anyways), I have been looking forward to the day when we could start replacing some of our college furniture. However, since we had just been living in apartments, I didn't want to buy a big piece of furniture with the fear that it wouldn't work in our next place or our house. So we dealt with the floral couch and hand-me-downs, all the while pinching pennies, waiting for the day when we could splurge on some stuff that we actually like.

Remember my floral couch? You can kinda see it here in this Christmas picture...

That was our main couch. I bought her my junior year in college, had it in two apartments in Bloomington, and kept it for our apartments in Harrison and Columbus. She was a trooper, but she was just not as fashionable as I wanted her to be. I guess she was stuck in her old ways. So we brought her with us to Cincinnati with the mindset that she would go in the basement in case we needed seating down there, but she was getting a replacement.

Insert replacement:

Our living room is so big that we knew we would have to fill it up with a lot of furniture or a big piece. And we opted for a big piece. Kyler doesn't really fit on normal-sized couches, so his criteria was that he could lie down on the couch, but other than that I got to choose what it looked like. To Kyler's embarrassment, I carried that floral pillow all around the furniture store until I found the exact size, shape, and color that I was going for with my future color scheme.

Next up:

Bedside tables.

One of the coolest things about our new location is our proximity to Ikea. So our first Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati, we took a trip to Ikea.

We picked up two end tables and a dresser. Kyler put our end tables together that night. We were so excited to replace the plastic Wal-Mart table he'd been using and the hand-me-down that was on my side. [Caution to future guests, those old pieces will probably end up in your room. You're welcome.]

Here's mine:

And his:

And our dresser is still in the making due to some missing parts that we have to go pick up...

All three pieces are the same style, but even the side tables don't match. It's not really my style to have everything match perfectly. But I do like the unified look...

And it feels good for all of our months of saving and just 'dealing' with what we had to actually own things that we truely love. And I know they're just things but doesn't everyone like being surrounded by pretty things? :)

Accidents Happen

Remember my post from last week where Kyler's featured all over our freshly-mown lawn? Well what I didn't share is that the awesomeness of our manicured yard was short lived. I received a phone call from Kyler at work a few days later, which is very rare, and he was not sounding like himself so I knew right away something was wrong. But let me back up a bit...

The night before the phone call, we decided to hang out on our back deck. It was getting dark and the the porch light wasn't working. So Kyler decided to change the bulb. And we quickly learned that the bulb wasn't the issue. Something was wrong with the outlet. And I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but when I returned to the deck, this is what I found...

Acutally, I just found Kyler standing barefoot on the deck with glass all around him. So I ran back into the house to grab his flip flops. He took maybe two steps, and the flip flop broke!

Needless to say, he was not a happy camper.

So he put the glassless fixture back up to help prevent any moisture getting into the electric part.

He kept telling me he could fix it. All he needed to do was X,Y,&Z. He hadn't started work yet, so he was going to look at it the next day, but I made him promise me he wouldn't mess with it until I got home from work. The last thing we needed was him to electrocute himself when I wasn't home...or really at all.

Fast forward to the next day when I get this strange phone call from Kyler at work. He kind of stuttered and I was just sure he had done something with that light and really messed it up.

But no, he was just calling to let me know that he had mowed the yard again, shorter this time. And everything was finished, front and back yard. And instead of pushing the mower to the top of the hill, he thought he'd leave the mower on and let it self-propel its way up the hill to the garage. And on his way up the hill, he ran over a stump. Insert silence on both ends of the line.

Finally, I was like 'what do you mean you hit a stump?'

And he was like 'um, basically, I killed the mower. I broke whatever it's called and that happened at the Middletown Park was and it cost $350 to repair.

And he was just so angry at himself. And I was trying not to laugh. [I know. Best wife ever.] But the whole time I was thinking, leave it to my husband to break a mower, not while mowing.

The good news is, we got a new mower. And Kyler just rants and raves about how awesome it is. And we also got a new weed eater. I think he quickly forgot about it 2 days of misfortune when he tried out his weed eater for the first time...

Gettin her ready...

Trying her out (in new flip flops)...

He was doing the Tim Taylor 'OH OH OH'.

The best part about all of these accidents is that no one was hurt, and the only things broken are just things. But that doesn't mean that I'm not ready for things to stop breaking or getting broken...they're expensive!

Kyler's 6th Grade Wisdom II

9/13/2000

Topic: Breakfast

I have breakfast everyday. We have different stuff everyday. We have lots of eggs. We have certain breakfasts for certain days. We have eggs, cereal, French toast, pancakes, or waffles. Cereal is my favorite breakfast. We usually have juice for breakfast.

9/15/2000

Topic: Spooky

One day I dreamed a nightmare. When I woke up, I saw shelves of skeletons everywhere. I went back to sleep. That scared me half to death. I slept peacefully. I will never forget when that happened. I can almost never watch scary stories or movies before I go to bed.

(Note: I originally sheduled these for Memorial Day week, but didn't realize that they had already published. I already had comments before I could retract them, so look for the series to continue Wednesday of Memorial Day week.)