Ryley Stories

1. Ryley's first grade class is studying the basics of major world religions, specifically Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This week they are doing the segment on Christianity, and Ryley came home really excited. She said that she wanted to bring her Bible to school so that the kids who aren't Christians can see what a Bible looks like. So I let her. We stuck it in her backpack, and I sent her off to school -- not knowing what the reaction would be, but trusting God to take care of it and to honor my little girl's boldness.

This is what Ryley relayed to me when she got home:

Ryley to her teacher: "Guess what? I brought my Bible since we're talking about Christianity!"

Ryley's teacher: "Guess what? That can stay in your backpack! We aren't allowed to share books that haven't been seen by the principal."

It sounded snotty to me, but Ryley insists the teacher was super nice about it. :-) Either way, I told Ryley that I was really proud of her for wanting to bring her Bible and share it with her classmates.




2. This morning on the way to school, Ryley said, "I have a good question."

Me: "Sure. What is it?"

Ryley: "Do army people come home for Christmas?"

Me: "No, not always. There are a lot of families whose daddies are still at the war, and the mommies and kids are here alone for Christmas."

Ryley: "It's good that those daddies stay at the war so that it's not the worst Christmas ever."

Me: "What do you mean? What would be the worst Christmas ever?"

Ryley: "Like if the bad people came on Christmas.... That would be the worst Christmas ever. So it's good that those daddies stay there and protect their states."

Then she sighed, "I am so glad Daddy is too old to be in the army!"

Me: "Oh, he's not too old. He's just not in the army."

Ryley: "I'm glad."


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"The Mother of All Updates" or "A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words"

It was the most lovely day today. I am in love with the Christmasy transformation of our home this year...the tree next to the fireplace for the first time...an actual fire in the fireplace for the first time, too...sofas pushed back to make this beautiful room even bigger....

It snowed all day -- big, fat, chunky snowflakes. And we sat on the carpet next to our hearth tonight, drinking hot chocolate by the light of the fire and of the Christmas tree. It was oh so "Currier and Ives" of us.

I don't want this day to end. This day where I somehow never got around to taking off my little black dress, worn to church for my magazine release party...this day where our football team actually won big...this day where the house is as close to clean as it gets....

I have writer's block. I finally sit down to do this after a month's absence, and it is taking way more effort than I care to admit.

There's so much I want to talk about:

...like how Ryley gets confused and calls "Hanukkah" by the name of "Jessica"
...like how this guy at work said he would have guessed I was 37 or 38 because of my level of professionalism. (Ha. Thanks.)
...like how I am completely and utterly engrossed in reading the "Twilight" series. And so is Ryan.
...like how our puppy Juliet turned one year old today.
...like how our new traditions of the season are mistletoe and the fireplace. Ryley loves both!
...like how we decided to go to Chick Fil A for lunch yesterday and just happened to arrive at the same time a helicopter was dropping stuffed cows with parachutes.
...like how the fourth edition of my magazine was released today, and it looks so amazing. I dare anyone to find a mistake in it. :-)

And there are more interesting things, too, like the fact that Christie and I did our dutiful bridesmaid duty and threw Kendra the lingerie party of the century a few weeks ago....





We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful weekend with my parents!

Pappaw taught Ryley how to peel potatoes! She was so proud of herself!!





We practiced riding a bike without the training wheels:





Ryley practically bounced on this thing wherever she went:





We visited the Rhema Lights on Thanksgiving night! Ryley is at the age that she is just simply awed and overwhelmed by lights of this quantity. :-)









The next night my parents took us to the Dry Gulch Christmas Train. It took us using the map applications on three separate I-Phones to get us there, but it was absolutely wonderful!! The last time we went, I was pregnant with Ryley. Unfortunately, my pictures of the train itself didn't turn out as well as I had hoped they would. But there were plenty of other western-themed activities:











We got back home to Denver, and this week was certainly a busy one!

I took Ryley to our church's royalty-themed Christmas Tea on Thursday night. Our church does everything top-notch; it was an absolutely overwhelmingly amazing evening! How is that for adjectives? There really weren't words to express it. Ryley participated in a princess parade, so she got to dress up extra pretty. :-)





















Ryley had gotten it in her head that we were going to have "crumpets" with our tea. Not exactly sure what a crumpet is, I decided to tell her that the scones were crumpets. :-) She was satisfied.

The very next night, we had tickets to "Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy"...Yes, as if we had not already given our daughter enough visual stimulation in the previous seven days. But we had had these tickets for over a month, and the show starred Ariel and Tinkerbell, Ryley's absolute favorite Disney characters!

So here we go:



Ryley's reaction to seeing Mickey and Minnie was utter joy!!!!



The cast of "Cars" made an appearance:



And, of course, "The Little Mermaid":





Then we were reunited with "The Lion King." Simba's costume wasn't exactly family-friendly. If you only knew how long it took me to get this shot. Ryan and I were laughing so hard; I'm sure the people around us thought we were crazy!





And, finally, Tinker Bell and her fairy friends! Do you see anything mildly disturbing about the picture below?



Yes, that's right. Man with eye patch. We were sitting behind a pirate!













At the end, Ryley turned to both of us with a big, shy smile and said, "Thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for taking me here!" It was so worth it just for that.

And now that it is after midnight and I have successfully recorded our month of November and half of December for all of posterity, I am going to go to bed.

Have a wonderful week!!! :-)

"You are everything to me. You are the one I love."

My posts are few and far between. And even though it seems like these pictures were taken an eternity ago, I guess they're better late than never!

A week and a half ago, we added yet another chapter to the book on Weird Weather in 2009 with this October snowfall:



Some places in Denver reported 24 inches of snow. We only measured 13 in our yard, but it was more than enough!



Ryley got two days off from school, but I had to work both days.





We went to dinner on Thursday night and came home to this message in the snow:



The funny thing was that I had shoveled once early on, but eight new inches had undone all my work!

The next night was our church's Harvest Festival, and Ryley's best friend Amirah joined us for the fun. Ryley went as Ariel, the Little Mermaid, and Amirah is some sort of vampire princess.





Cake Walk: The girls did this at least five times and finally quit, sans cake.



I started feeling sick on Friday night, and by Saturday morning I was in the middle of full-blown Swine Flu. Because of the high fever and the fact that I slept A LOT, all of last weekend is kind of a blur for me. By the time I was diagnosed on Monday, it was too late to really treat it, so I've been dealing with it the old-fashioned way. I still have a pretty irritating cough.

You'd think that H1N1 would ruin my birthday. But since I had already planned to be off work on Tuesday to do magazine proofing at the church anyway, everything really worked out ok. I was tired, but it was nice to spend the day doing something I genuinely enjoy and am called to do -- point out other people's errors. Ha!

It was indeed a really nice birthday. Here Ryley poses with my new pink snuggie! It is so cozy. She and I spent all day today cuddled up in it and watching a "Little House on the Prairie" mini-series on the Hallmark Channel.



I also received a new IPhone, a coffee tumbler, a movie, and gift card/money so I could load up on Bath and Body Works goods and perfume. Yay! Thank you, my family!!

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Last night, Ryan and I went on a date. Beforehand, when Ryley learned of our plans, she asked if we were going to dress up really nice and drink beer out of really nice glasses. We answered that no, we don't drink beer, and also, we're going to dress normally. She was mildly disappointed and suggested that maybe we should consider a romantic date with candles, a tuxedo, and Coke in nice glasses. And she said:

"And you can say, 'You are everything to me. You are the one I love.' Are you gonna say that? Are you?"

Ryan and I were laughing so hard, especially since her voice lowered significantly when she quoted what we should say to each other. Where did she get this crazy picture in her head of what a "date" is???

So we did. We said it over our regular glasses of Dr. Pepper and Coke at Cheddar's.

"You are everything to me. You are the one I love." :-)

Life is good...especially when you feel good.