Enjoying Fall!

Last night, Rayna remarked wistfully to her cousin, Bri, "I've never been to the Ozarks!"

(She has LIVED in the Ozarks for four and a half years now! Guess we forgot to tell her!)

Last week, Grant was checking over Rayna's math homework and found that she had put as the answer to one of her word problems, "Not enough information given." In her mind that was that!

Rayna remains the tooth pulling champion of this family! The minute she notices she has a loose tooth, she YANKS it right out. No dawdling for her! No lingering loose teeth--EVER! It is almost worrisome how quickly she will pull them out. Last month, she pulled THREE teeth in a single week and a fourth tooth the following week! (or something close to that!) I remember when Doug was her age, he was so zealous about pulling his own teeth that I feared he was possibly pulling out permanent teeth to get his dollar. I seriously worried over that! His never came out as quickly as Rayna's though...he would work them for several days before getting them out.

Rayna, cuts right to the chase. She mentioned a few minutes ago that she had discovered she had another loose tooth, then, a minute later, she happily came to me, tooth encased in a baggie to trade it for the traditional dollar. She told me that she didn't want to take the tooth with her to Lake of the Ozarks tonight to put it under her pillow because she thought I might lose her tooth before we got back home again (I save their teeth--don't know why!), so, she suggested it would be best if we just do the transaction in daylight before leaving home today! So much for the tooth fairy and the mystery of childhood!

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Last night, Doug went to a Fall party that everyone from Mrs. Young's class was invited to. It was nice for him to have a social event for once. Seems like Darcy is always on the go with her friends, but Doug doesn't get as much opportunity for socialization with his friends. One of the mothers of a student in his class organized the party and pulled off a really fun evening for the kids!

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Today we are off to "Lake of the Ozarks" where Darcy is meeting up with a lot of the friends she made last summer at Missouri's Scholar's Academy for their first reunion. The kids really BONDED with each other, those three weeks they lived together on the MU campus last summer and Darcy has remained in almost daily contact with many of her friends from there, since then, thanks to SKYPE and Facebook. They are all really excited about seeing each other again this weekend. Darcy's group has decided they are all going to dress as a character from Toy Story. Darcy is going as "Jesse".

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Grant joined a newly formed Bluegrass Gospel band this past summer--Red Letter Edition. They have played at a number of churches recently, including the Cowboy Church in Springfield.

(I'll get photos added in this post soon! Need to e-mail them to myself off my phone, first!)

Semester Wrap-Up

It's been a good semester! Darcy and Rayna both had straight A's and Doug got mostly A's with a few B's! Tonight, after school, there was an assembly for Bolivar Intermediate to honor those who had exceptional grades for the semester. Rayna was honored for straight A's. When we got home, I mentioned that I would put her certificate in with her report card in the box where I save that stuff. Rayna asked if I could FRAME it instead. I told her, "Certainly! We can put it in a frame and hang it on your wall!" To which she replied, "No. I want you to hang it on YOUR wall...so you can see it every day and remember how smart I am!" Oh! Okay!

Meanwhile, Doug's school (Bolivar Middle School) is ALL ABOUT motivation. Every time we turn around there is some sort of reward being handed out. Doug has gotten to get on the bus and go over to the Esquire Theater to see two movies so far this year ("How To Train Your Dragon" and "Despicable Me") for having all A's and B's for the quarter and not missing any school days and not incurring any disciplinary actions. If he qualifies all four quarters, then he will get to go to Branson to Silver Dollar City, too. Darcy got to do this both years she was at the middle school and they even gave her the money they would have spent on her ticket since she is a season pass holder and didn't need a ticket. The bus leaves early in the morning (on a school day) and doesn't get back until late in the evening. At the middle school, they also have ping pong tables set up in the lunch room for use any time and they have dances every hoopstitch (three so far this year). Doug LOVES middle school and Rayna can't wait to get up there!

Her Well Runs Rich With Drama!

A few days ago, an extremely somber Rayna knocked on our bedroom door. After being invited in, she sat her small frame down on the love-seat in our bedroom as heavily as though all the cares of this world were currently heaped upon her shoulders. In a sad, soft voice she informed her father and I that she needed help with a problem. Then, rather than going on any further, she silently handed me a letter. This was the cover:



I opened the letter as she watched...her dark eyes so sad...
And I silently read:
"Please talk to Doug about saying, 'Stop being bossy!' when I tell him to pick up something and other stuff..."

It was at that point that it took Grant and I all our parental prowess to grit our teeth and chew the sides of our tongues to keep from bursting out laughing!

The letter continued, "because after that, when you aren't looking or not listening, he'll say something that makes me want to cry, say something mean back, hit him or go run away. So please help me with this problem."

She signed it, "In need of somebody to help me, Rayna Lin Cochran"!




Later, I found myself chuckling once more thinking about her letter, which she had in no way meant to be the least bit humorous or dramatic, as she had explained how horrid Doug was to tell her to quit being bossy whenever she bossed him. It occurred to me that some of our prayers must strike God the same way! She absolutely had no idea that SHE was the one at fault! In her mind, it was unreasonable of Doug to snap "Quit bossing me!" when, instead, he should be grateful for her instructions! It was SHE who had been so sorely wronged!!! In fact, Doug was so awful, she was nearly driven to the extreme of committing violence or having to run away!

Performances

Well, tonight was Rayna's third grade Christmas concert and I TOTALLY forgot to bring my camera. Rayna posed for me as soon as we got back home, though! On our way home from the program, Rayna was talking about how nervous she had been and how she had had butterflies in her stomach which got Grant to remembering back to her younger years when she was never nervous about getting up in front of a crowd and was quite the little microphone hog! When she was little bitty, she always wanted to get up on stage with her sister and sing, but she wasn't satisfied not to have a microphone of her own, so Grant used to trick her by giving her a dead microphone (otherwise she would have drowned everyone else out!). Once, Doug and Rayna were both on stage singing "In the Highways" with Darcy and the Blake kids. Rayna and Doug were suppose to share a microphone between them, but a scuffle broke out early in the song and little bitty Rayna (maybe three years old?) emerged victorious as sole possessor of the microphone, to the amusement of the entire crowd (and embarrassment of her parents)! We can laugh at it now, though!!!

Doug and Rayna's letters to Our Soldiers...

The employees at my workplace gathered gifts to fill a number of "shoeboxes for soldiers" this year. Doug and Rayna each wrote letters to put in two of the boxes. Doug asked Rayna to help him with his, so she added a few words on the pages of his letter (in purple ink). This is Doug's letter:









And this is Rayna's letter...

The Zoo

This is a story Rayna recently wrote at school:
(I thought it was cute the way her memory of the trip she and I took to the zoo the day after her birthday during our own "skip day" had merged in her mind with the school field trip that I accompanied her on to the same zoo about a month or so later! When I pointed this out to her, she was initially upset at the "inaccuracy" of her story, so, I quickly pointed out to her that that would be called 'literary license' and that authors are allowed to tweak the details to make the story flow better or to make it more interesting! So, then she was happy with her story once more!)

Poor Mistreated Rayna

On the way home from school tonight Rayna told her daddy that Mrs. Daniels (the Vice Principle at Rayna's new school, the intermediate school) saw her last name on her lunch box today and paused at Rayna's table there in the lunch room to chat with her. She asked if Rayna was Doug's little sister and then asked Rayna to tell Doug "Hi!" for her. She then asked, "Does Doug like Middle School? Is he happy?" Rayna replied emphatically, "Of course he's happy! He goes to dances and parties all the time. All I get to do is lunch and recess!"

Guess Rayna set that record straight! Bet Mrs. Daniels won't be asking any more questions!

Well, Ransom is now two years old. If all goes as planned, she will be delivering her first litter of puppies early this November and the pups will be ready to leave the litter by Christmas Eve. We will put the money from the pups into our "China fund" to help offset the costs of our trip to China two years from now. If she has good sized litters and is a naturally nurturing mother, we will probably let her have two or three litters in all. The kids are all really looking forward to PUPPIES! I just hope they really comprehend that we are not KEEPING any of them!

Rayna cracked us up a couple of days ago. She brought home a flyer from school advertising the SBU Bearcat football game this weekend. One of the lines on the flyer said, "Test Your Skills Against the Bearcats" and Rayna was REALLY excited about that. She was envisioning herself going up one on one against one of those huge football players and she happily announced, "I know I'll be bruised and bloodied, but I want to test my skills against a bearcat!" When her dad didn't immediately promise to take her to the game, she told him, "Dad, we HAVE to go! They give you a PRESENT if you go!" Grant, corrected her and said, "No they don't!" To which she drew herself up and said, "YES, they DO...It SAYS so on the flyer!" Her dad asked her to show him where it said that and she instantly pointed to the line, "Present this for free game admission with adult present." "SEE!", she said, "Every ADULT gets a PRESENT!!!"

Spreading Her Wings...

Rayna's Uncle Eric called today to say he was about to pass through Bolivar and since RAYNA had TOLD him to visit her on JULY 17th (about a week ago she named THIS specific date!), he felt he must stop in, if even for only a minute or two, to tell us "Hello!" as he passed through on his way to Kansas City. The kids and I were at Jasmine's (Chinese Buffet) when he called. We had just gotten back from spending all day swimming and hadn't even gotten home yet to see whether or not Grant had returned from Springfield (where he had had his pre-operative visit earlier in the day--we HAD called him, before leaving the lake, to ask if he wanted to meet with us for supper, but, he confessed he had already eaten Chinese food for lunch in Springfield and wasn't interested in eating it again for supper!).

Anyway, Eric stopped in at Jasmine's to get his commanded visit in with Rayna...and to return ROSE (the bear/raccoon thingy) that she and her uncle have traditionally passed back and forth! (Every time she sees her Uncle Eric, she either GIVES him Rose to take to the office with him, or gets Rose back to take back to her house. She dearly loves Rose...and it delights her thoroughly that her Uncle Eric actually takes Rose to the office with him when it is his turn to take care of her!)

Somehow or the other, within minutes of Eric's arrival to Jasmine's, RAYNA and Darcy were dashing back to our house with him to pack a quick suitcase for Rayna. And, in a blink of an eye, she was packed and stowed away in her uncle's car, en route, SOLO, to Kansas City to help him pick her Aunt Jan up from Grandma and Grandpa Cochran's, where she has been staying for the past week. Rayna has had two sleep-overs at friends' homes in the past, but this is her first SOLO TRIP away from home! She will be coming home Sunday afternoon.

Rayna was pretty funny...when Eric first asked her, "Would you like to come to Kansas City with me?" She looked loyally at me and replied resolutely, "No. I would miss Mom!" I shrugged my shoulders and said, "You have to spread your wings sometime." She replied instantly, "OKAY!!! I'll go with Unkie!!!" And she didn't look back once!

Long Overdue

Rayna FINALLY began piano lessons yesterday! I have been promising her I would track down a teacher for her since we moved to Bolivar (a year and ten months ago)...she had even chosen piano lessons OVER joining soccer last summer. I was feeling awful that I still hadn't gotten her started on the lessons she has wanted for so long and that she has given up other opportunities (like being in soccer) for. It was the only broken promise that I am aware of that I have ever made to any of my kids...so, it was a weight off my conscience when she finally marched into the music store for her first lesson yesterday! She was thrilled. She came home and practiced for a half hour after her first lesson. I hope that continues!

On my hot tail...and the true cause of thinning hair!

Well, Rayna continues with her life-long talent for creative use of language! A few days ago I overheard her as she was playing a game of trouble with her Grandmother, exclaim, "You're on my hot tail!" (I think she was meaning her grandmother was hot on her trail!)



Then, tonight, she informed her dad she was watching BOTH her sister's soccer game and the game in the next field. Her dad asked her skeptically, "How can you watch BOTH of them at the same time?" She answered (as though it was QUITE obvious), "Well, I have TWO eye-balls!" Yeah...duh!






Earlier in the evening, she had approached her daddy with a solemn face and gravely asked him, "Do caterpillars have BONES?"






A few days ago, Doug was again reminding me (nagging me to death!) about his need for a haircut. I had been meaning to get him in for a haircut, but we've been busy and it has gotten pushed to the back burner for the last couple of weeks. Ever helpful, Grant suggested, "Why don't YOU just cut it rather than taking him in to have it cut." Mind you, I've been stuck cutting GRANT'S hair for over 18 years now because he refuses to go the barbershop in spite of the fact that I have absolutely NO CLUE how to cut hair and dread it every time I have to once more pick up the clippers. Grant's helpfulness fell flat though, when Doug, hearing his daddy's suggestion, replied in horror, "No!" His grandma asked, "Wouldn't you like your MOMMY to cut your hair?" (Mind you, this is the kid that has asked me at least 20 times a day for the past two weeks to take him to the barber.) Doug looked at me and then solemnly looked at his father and replied emphatically, "No. I be bald!" So, now I know...my son blames his father's thinning hair on his mother's lack of barbering abilities!

Leprachaun Songs in those English Pyramids

As we were returning home from Springfield late Saturday night, Grant had the radio playing. After about the third Celtic fiddle song in a row, Rayna's quizzical voice piped up from the back seat, "And WHY are we listening to LEPRECHAUN SONGS?!"

Earlier in the day, Grant, Rayna, and Doug had been watching a television program on Pyramids when Rayna turned to Doug and quizzed him, asking in an authoritarian voice, "Do you know where that's at? Do you know where that's at, Doug? That's easy, Doug. That's in ENGLAND! That's in ENGLAND, Doug!" So, Grant had to point out that, "No. The pyramids are in EGYPT! That's EGYPT, Rayna!"

Rayna's Riddle

As Grant, myself and the two younger kids were driving to Marshfield the other day to meet up with Darcy at her track meet, Grant and I overheard Rayna quizzing Doug, "I'm thinking of a color. It begins with "H" and ends in "K". What is it?"

Grant and I were both baffled. Doug went through several guesses and gave up. Rayna announced gleefully...

(ooops...I will wait to list the answer at the BOTTOM in case you want to spend a few minutes guessing yourself!)








Rayna announced gleefully, "Hot Pink!"

She had me stumped (as I discreetly eavesdropped!)!

Skinned Knee and Independence...and the Tradition Continues!

Even though Rayna, by nature, is a total drama queen, she has made great strides in exercising self-control when it is needed. Today was a case in point. The two littler kids and the three dogs and I went for a walk. We were probably a mile from the house when Rayna, running ahead ninety-to-nothing with Rivendell, fell and went skidding down the street. She did a number on her poor knee and one of her hands. She handled it quite calmly, though, without crying or complaining and walked all the way back home...stiff-leggedly and holding her dress up to try and keep it from getting bloody. Poor kid! After taking a couple of photos for posterity, we cleaned it up, smeared on the antibiotic ointment and covered it with a telfa pad. Half an hour later, she ran out of her room, where she had been playing, to happily announce that some blood had soaked through the telfa dressing. She is quite pleased that it is an impressive wound!

While I was cleaning up her wound, she was chattering away to me, but I got hung up when she mentioned they had been doing independence in Mission Friends earlier tonight when I arrived. Totally baffled, I asked, "Independence? Do you mean 'Independent study'?" "No," she replied. So began my game of twenty questions trying to figure out what in the world she meant by they had been 'doing independence'. After the upteempth question, Rayna was getting a bit frustrated with me and letting out a weary sigh, she tackled it once more and tried to explain it to me by using a different example than the evening's events: "We were doing INDEPENDENCE when you arrived. You know, like my school teacher does every morning when she writes down who is there and who isn't. She takes INDEPENDENCE!" With that, the light finally dawned for me. Of course! Every school teacher begins the day taking INDEPENDENCE! (that's ATTENDANCE for any of you that are as slow as I am!)

Hmmm...after initially posting this, it dawned on me that TOMORROW is picture day for Rayna. She had been planning on wearing a dress. Every Spring, they take posed pictures of the school kids, showing them from head to toe with a classy background. As we set out the kids' clothes for tomorrow, I explained to Rayna that she would need to wear jeans instead of her dress. I can just SEE her fancy picture with her bare legs and bloody dressing showing! This is beginning to seem like a tradition...last year, right before picture day, she went skidding on the pavement and skinned her chin and one of her cheeks and knocked out two of her teeth. Next year, the evening before picture day, I am going to lock her in her room!!!

Overheard

We had not yet opened our bedroom door this morning, when there came a little tap, tap, tap on the door. Grant called out, "What do you need?" and our youngest replied, "Don't forget about my SLEEP-OVER today!"

Apparently she was worried that we were sleeping in so late she might miss getting taken to the long awaited birthday party of her friend...which doesn't begin until 4:00pm TONIGHT?!

Her daddy reassured her that we had indeed NOT forgotten about her sleep-over and it was still many, many hours until it would be time to leave for it. As she skipped back to her own room, we heard her singing softly trailing away..."Ohhhh ho ho...I get to have time away from the fam-i-ly!"

And here I just thought it was our 13 year old that couldn't wait to get away from us...now I discover our 7 year old is also ecstatic at the possibility of getting away from us!

sigh

Parents are so under-appreciated!

Missed Calling...

Okay...I am a little slow to figure things out sometimes!

Tonight, Rayna was walking all over the house, holding to Ransom's collar, eyes squeezed shut. I had no idea what was going on until about her third lap through the house when she paused to happily explain, "I'm playing like I'm BLIND, Mom!" Evidently, it is an extremely engrossing game because it lasted a very, very long time tonight! Ransom seemed to enjoy the game as much as Rayna...maybe she missed her true calling!

Don't Give Me THAT Expression!

I overheard Rayna admonishing the dog, "I don't want to see THAT face any more!" Now, even the DOG, evidently, is making faces at her! ...and here I thought it was just her older brother that was always making faces at her!

Didn't YOU go to Pri-ammy School?

There are four schools in our town...the Primary School (Rayna's), the Intermediate School (Doug's), the Middle School (Darcy's), and the High School. Next year, Darcy will be moving up to the High School. Each of the two younger kids will have to wait a year longer before they each advance to the next school in line. Rayna is a bit upset that Darcy is moving on up to the High School WITHOUT her. This morning, Grant over heard her trying to convince her sister to wait at the Middle School until she could get out of Primary school and catch up with her! What cracked him up, though, is how she says "Primary"...she pronounces it "Pri-ammy" (rhymes with 'Tammy').

Last night, she mauled another word... Seeing a photo embellished business card that had been left on our doorstep, she exclaimed, "I KNOW that lady! She's a REAL ESTATOR! You can tell, because she always wears nice clothes!"

She's Seven Today!!!

Today is Rayna's seventh birthday! After eating breakfast, she was delighted to open her first present from the family (Hannah Montana headphones for her new MP3 player). Her hair was still wet when I took the present opening pictures. She always has been all about bows and ruffles...since it was her birthday today, she wanted to wear a dress to school. The oldest daughter thinks we are abusing her when we occasionally insist that she actually wear a dress to CHURCH, but the youngest thinks it is a treat to get to wear a dress to school! (Rayna ALWAYS wears dresses to church.)

All three of her sets of grandparents gave her money for her birthday (her preference). She was going to buy an I-pod and she had enough to buy one of the little I Pod Shuffles, but her frugality won out and she chose a Sansa MP3 Clip instead...but whatever you do, don't make the mistake I keep making and refer to it as an MP3 player! She will correct you resoundingly! She insists it is an "I Pod"! Whatever! Meanwhile, she passed her old AAA battery operated MP3 player on to her older brother. I need to remember to get him some more manly music on it, because it is getting a little embarrassing having him wear his "new" MP3 player, dancing around the house, singing along with all the Barbie songs ("I'm a Princess"...that genre)!

Wedding Buddies

One of Grant's students is getting married today.
Grant had originally planned on attending the wedding alone, but when little Miss Rayna heard there was a WEDDING in the works, she wasn't about to be left behind!

(I hadn't mentioned in my earlier posts, but the tradition has continued...Little Miss Rayna got a flower from an admirer in her class again this year...last year it was from Hunter, this year it is Tanner who is pining away for her. She is seven years old and has already left a trail of broken hearts...Tommy, then Hunter, then Tanner...)