::last day::

Today was (finally) Max's last day of Kindergarten!
I'm so glad it wasn't MY last day, because I don't think they have air conditioning there, and the last couple of times we've been in the school it's just been boiling hot. Yuck.
But anyway, this isn't about me and my intolerance for sticky warmth. It's about Max.

Yesterday they had a "End of the Year Celebration" and it was very cute. I appreciated that they didn't actually call it a graduation--since really, do kids need to "graduate" from kindergarten? I just see it as a small step in a very looooooong process.

But lots of people treated it like a graduation and brought their kids bouquets and such. Not us of course, out of the loop as we are, but who cares. We were there and that's what matters. Even Kris was able to make it, and he can't do much during business hours.

The kids got up on some risers and sang about five songs.

Check out the hordes of parents with cameras--you'd think the royal family was visiting or something.

And even after they cleared out the middle there were still people hunched everywhere.

Can you see Max? He's on the left up at the top middle.
They did a cute song about how everybody needs at least "four hugs a day" and then hugged the person next to them at the end. I could see Max's blush all the way from my seat.

It was all very cute. And short, which was good for everybody involved.


Then after the songs everybody got called down to the front to get a little completion certificate from their teacher and the principal. Yay kindergarteners!


Pretty exciting and intense! Max felt good, I could tell.

Then afterwards there were refreshments in the classroom. But it was SO hot in there, and extremely crowded. So Max snagged some goodies, we took a picture of him with his teacher and left.

It was really fun that we could be there for him, and that he could be so proud of what he's been involved in this year!

And in closing, I'm going to post a little video of the kindergarteners singing "Move Me Up To the First Grade."
This is seriously only posted for grandmothers (and grandfather's if they're interested.) Nobody else needs to feel obligated to watch it--especially if you read through this whole post! This is just for those lovely grandparents whom I know would've been sitting with us in the hot sweaty gym and smiling ear to ear.

Kindergarten performance 6/2010 from Ginna Hendricks on Vimeo.

Max looks a little out of place in his BYU hat among all the Red Sox caps, but we're all about being true to our school!!

::today::

Today at 12PM EST (unless he misses a connection, which we really hope doesn't happen) my youngest sibling Murphy comes home from his two year LDS mission to Argentina.
Because of all of our moving chaos, and bad scheduling of mission returns vs. graduations, etc., we don't get to be there. That's a bummer, but the good news is that he knows I love him anyway. I just hope he knows I'd be there if I could!

Murphy was my little buddy back in the day. He is almost 10 years younger than me. I feel like I took care of him a lot when we were little. I hung out with him and read with him and probably bossed him around way more than he thought he needed.

It's hard to grow up and move away physically, but it's so nice to have family that I know loves me and who knows I love them no matter where we all are!

Murphy, WELCOME HOME!! I can't wait to see you and we are all so proud of you!!!!

(he looks a bit/lot like Max, doesn't he? That might explain why I'm always calling them each other's names--"mur--max--mur--mah--whoever you are!!!")

::::

The other day Max and I took our friends Linda and Natalie over to our little playground by the (bay) beach and had a little photo shoot.
I thought I'd post a couple of the pictures here for people to enjoy because they just turned out so cute. But honestly I think it would be hard for them not to have turned out well, with such cute subjects.


Linda's husband is a 1st year resident in Kris's program, so they've still got a year to go. It's been fun getting to know them and hanging out this year.
Natalie is just a doll.

She and Max get along so well. There's a good 3 year age gap there, but it really doesn't matter because they're both so silly and so easy to get along with (generally, with Max) they spend the whole time giggling and being silly.
Like this:

No, he didn't hit her with the stick. I'm not sure what exactly the stick was doing--I think it was just a cool find. But they did tickle each other for a good while there.

And the silly boy alone:


We'll miss getting to hang out with you, Roberts! Good luck with everything!!!

::glucklicher vaterstag::

(photo circa 11/07)

Happy Father's Day to my best friend Kris!
He's fun, creative, hard working, patient, interesting and very sweet. (I could go on....and on....) Max and I couldn't do without him.

::reasons::

This morning when I was supposed to be thinking of a list of things to get done for the move I started thinking of a different list. And I liked it. It is:

Reasons To Be Excited To Move to New Mexico

1. garbage disposal
Maybe I've mentioned this on the blog before, but out here in Rhode Island (and maybe all of New England, who knows?) they just don't do garbage disposals. And since I'm a person that was brought up in "modern days" I'm very very used to them. And I love them. In fact I've found that not having one makes me want to do dish washing 100% less than before. And that's bad, because cleaning the kitchen is definitely low on my list of favorite household jobs. That crud catcher down at the bottom of the sink all full of disgusting bloated unidentifiable food particles? SO GROSS. Even just writing about it now makes me feel like puking, and the reality of it is so much worse.
SO--garbage disposal. GOOD!

2. Kris gets a real job
This is good and bad. Since we're buying the practice it's a huge commitment and a very intimidating undertaking--suddenly taking on a whole business with a big loan that needs to be paid, tons of different insurance policies, like seven employees, etc. etc. It's been crazy getting ready to take over, and I'm sure it will be stressful for the first while.
BUT he actually has a chance of making enough money to pay for our living expenses and student loans, and that would be exciting. The idea of having a real income is kind of crazy right now.

3. Kris only works four days a week
For now anyway. The current dentist is just doing four days. We may switch to five if we feel like we can get the office busier (see above about affording to pay living expenses, insurances, student loans, etc.) but for now the idea of Kris having a 4 day week, and those days NOT being 11 hour days is great!!

4. the dry air
I know there are some benefits to humidity. There have to be. But I can't think of them.
The real problem is that we basically live in the elements in this house--I'm sure I've mentioned this before. We don't have any sort of cooling system besides ceiling fans. And in the summer it gets hot, and HUMID. The humidity is really the problem with the heat. It makes the heat feel thick, it makes it hard to move. It makes you covered in sweat all the time. It makes even the shade hot. And the thing I don't like is that I can't really escape it inside the house. It's humid and hot in the house too. I just hate it. And I hate having all my papers turn all soggy. It's gross. And hate that it takes my hair hours and hours to dry. I could go on, but I won't.
So though I'm not looking forward to having to put lotion on Max every 10 minutes, since his skin is already dry out here, I do like the dry air. And it should make summers in a house with just a swamp cooler very nice.

5. a new schoolyard for Max with actual playground equipment
All Max's current school has is a big weedy field--really it's not even that big. It's got a couple of asphalt patches in it. One is a four square thing and the other has a couple of hopscotch things--one of which has been spray painted by some graffiti idiot to look like a phallus--and that's all I'll say about that. Max's new school will have at least two legitimate playgrounds. And it seems like it's going to be a nice place, with lots of community and parent involvement, so that's nice.

6. it's closer to the fam (and friends!)
Well this one's huge of course! Being within a reasonable day's drive and a quick 1.5 hour flight of both sides of the family (well, most of them anyway) is very exciting! It means that we can visit just for fun, and for weekends, and for big events like baby blessings and baptisms and birthdays if we want to. It gives us so much more freedom to be involved, and the best part is that I shouldn't have to do those insane 3 weeks trips anymore. Those are so exhausting. And the all day plane trips were too. So this is great!

7. serious improvement in house size
We're going to be paying a negligibly small amount more in monthly rent for at least 2X the house size. This means that we should have a nice room for guests (that means YOU!) and more than one bathroom! I'm excited to have a bathroom just for the grownups, and the guy that can't aim in his own. I'm really looking forward to it.

8. a garage!
We haven't had a garage for years, and when we had one we really liked it. The good news is, both cars should fit, and we should be able to get all the garagey sorts of stuff, like tools, bikes, camping stuff, crud, storage, etc. into the garage and out of the house, hooray!!!

9. better camping
This one is really for Kris, though I appreciate a good camping trip too. Not only does it rain less out west (which isn't necessarily a good thing normally, but good for camping trips) but you can actually go camping in the wilderness, not just a patch of wilderness that's basically in somebody's backyard. And there's more room, it's unlikely that the last camping site allowing dogs will fill up just as you arrive, as happened to us last year on the Cape.

10. swimming pool!
No, our house doesn't have one, but our little community we're moving into does. And Max is going to love it. What's better than being able to go to the pool in the summer?


The downsides of moving?
Well, moving of course, that's a big one.
I'm a little scared of rattlesnakes and coyotes, but I'm sure I'll have to deal with that somehow.
No beach within 45 minutes--crowded or not.
Leaving our friends behind in RI. We'll miss youguys. Come visit!

(photo by my mom)

::dinner::

We're trying to enjoy our last couple of weeks here. Enjoying moving preparations is never easy though, really.

The other day when Kris got home we decided to pick up a sandwich to eat in a local park area that's super pretty.
We're trying to soak in all the green, because I'm sure I'll miss it later. (But I'm not going to miss the humidity, I promise.)


We got a sandwich from Jersey Mike's. It's the local attempt at a sub shop. It's better than 99% of the sandwich places around. It's still a sad substitute for Planet Sub, or Sensuous sandwiches back in Provo. (Mmmm, now I'm getting hungry.)
But they do have big thin cut slices of dill pickle on the sandwich that are really tasty.


Kris was just glad to be done with another one of his (rather miserable) 11 hour work days.


Max was glad to be outside. And eating doritos.

But he was bummed because we said we were going to a park. But it wasn't exactly what he was hoping for in a park. He was looking for slides and fireman poles and that kind of thing. So in lieu of all that he decided to climb on the car and drive us nuts. And drive poor Sultan nuts who was stuck inside the car because we forgot his leash.

Can you see our new luggage carrier on top of the car? We're gearing up for the cross country haul!

Anyway, it was a nice evening outing. We're trying to have some fun and relaxation together in the midst of the chaos that is moving.

So far so good.

::interest/fascination/obsession::

A while back Max ran across a show called the Zula Patrol on Boston's PBS channel. It's a (poorly in my opinion) computer animated kids show that has a lot of silly stuff that happens, but also communicates a lot of solid info about space and more especially the solar system.

Max fell in love with the solar system. Suddenly he knew the names of all the planets, and the names of lots of moons. He knew the order of the planets and which was hottest, which was farthest from the sun. And some of the time he knew the WHY behind this stuff too. I was impressed.

We got some books from the library and read up even more.

And then some more books.

He's not interested in space ships that much. Not really interested in aliens or astronauts or black holes. Just the solar system. And I think it's both adorable and very fun.

The other day we were out to eat and here's what he created (with Kris) on the placemat.

Earth and an astonaut.

I'm pretty sure the planet and the rocket on the left are Kris's, but the right hand rocket is little Max's.

Saturn, by Max.

Once again I think PBS is great. I wouldn't even know he was interested in this stuff if it wasn't for them. Way to go PBS!

::more (different) work::

The other day Max finally came home with some challenging homework. (He liked it because it didn't include coloring!)
It was addition where the sums came to more than 10. Yikes--hard when you can't do it on your fingers!

Anyway, I had a fun time using my brain to think of how I could help him conceptualize and visualize the numbers and the addition.

I pulled out a pack of awesome colored paperclips and we made some piles of 10.


I think they helped him. It was fun to see him trying to think about it anyway, and he did figure out all of them on his own--with a little prompting when I saw a wrong number.

Go Max!

::::

Since there are never any pictures of me on here I thought I'd say hi.
I'm off to take Max to school here shortly, then I'm meeting Kris for lunch (we love to do that when we can.) Then back home to do more work on getting ready to move. There are so many little details to worry about!

Hi & bye.