Ladies and gentleman, we have a kindergartener

Wesley has officially started kindergarten - and he loves it! I have never known a child so excited to meet new people and experience new things. I wish I was more like that.

The pictures where Wes is wearing a teal shirt are the first "official" day of school. Our district phases in the kindergarten kids over three days.

The navy shirt photos are the first day with all the kids and his first bus ride, which is really the most exciting part when you're five. All his grandparents were at the house to see him off - such a blessing to have family that lives close!

Do not be alarmed by the large number of pictures I'm uploading. I never get this many good pictures, so I'm going to to post them all because it's my blog & I can do that :)  

the three of us

the "serious" face

the "excited" face

the "I am pretending to be a teenager" face

I love this picture!!

and this one as well

Wes with Doda and Pappaw

Wes with Grandma

my big boy getting on the bus

Wes will dance you out of here.

I'm an emotional girl, I can't help myself

Most of you win't get the reference to a Teri Clark song there in the title, but that's okay, it made me smile.

This week has been an emotional one for our family. Wesley starts kindergarten today (in 5 hours actually) and my Grandmother (my Dad's Mom) passed away. Grandma moved back to Ohio from Florida just three weeks before she passed away from lung cancer.

Last night was her memorial service, and I enjoyed getting to spend more time with my whole family, which it seems we don't do often enough. My Mom asked if I wanted to speak during the service, but I declined because I wasn't sure what to say and I didn't want to stand up & just cry the whole time with people wondering what I was saying (you know you've seen those people). I am so proud of my brother Scott though who read a beautiful poem.

At 3:30am, I woke up with the words I wanted to say. Since it's too late to speak at her service and I may have been too scared, I'm speaking them here. Here goes...

My Grandma & Grandpa would have been celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary on earth the day she passed away. I know that she made the choice to go when she did so they could celebrate their first anniversary in heaven together. Sure my Grandparents argued - I can still hear my Grandpa saying "Patty" in a resigned tone and my Grandma following up with "Bobby" in a more staccato, quick tone, but more than anything, you knew they loved each other. Not a fleeting "emotional" love, but a true, abiding love that ran away to Richmond, Indiana and got married despite their parent's objections that they were too young. In additional to my parent's marriage, my Grandparents are a wonderful example to me of what it means to love unconditionally. That is the one thing that will stay with me and I hope to pass on to my children.


And hopefully now I can get back to sleep. If not, it's gonna be a LONG day! I'll post kindergarten pictures soon & update you on the adoption.