Today's flea market finds...

Rodney and I spent the day perusing the local flea markets and here's what we found:


Rodney found these $9 sneaker heels and just had to have them (for me.) I have no idea when I will wear them, but they are kind of interesting.


Next I found 8 of my emerald green Princess House Fantasia glasses in perfect condition - for $13.50. Considering a certain man has broken two of the ones I have, I figured he could afford to get me new ones. So, my set of 6 turned in to a set of 14.


This $3 book is educational... and you just flip it over for the husband side. We'll see if we learn something. :)

Daddy's Home!

The doorbell rang a little after 7:30 p.m. tonight... and guess who was there?



As you can see, the boys and the dogs were thrilled to see Daddy (I was, too, but I had been tipped off to his early arrival) and Daddy was thrilled to be home - and at the end of a long 14-hour drive.

Will's bussing situation has finally been resolved. Communication was, of course, the problem, combined with the district giving the bus driver the wrong area code to my phone number. Monday, I took Will to school - and apparently no one bothered to hear my voicemail message I left explaining he did not need a ride to school that particular day.

Tuesday, we waited for Will to be picked up starting at 7 a.m. No bus showed up, no one aswered the dispatch line, or called me back, so I had to drop him off... late. So I stopped by the school office to find out what was going on. The bus arrives to pick Will up at 6:44 a.m. I also informed them that he would not need a ride home, because we will go to Blue Angel Daycare instead. Ooookkaaaayyy....

Wednesday, Will was ready for the bus at 6:40 a.m. Still no bus. I finally was able to get a hold of dispatch. Dispatch called the school. The school said Will did not go to that school, that he went to Blue Angel elementary. When dispatch called me back, I assured them Will did go to that school, gave his teacher's name and said he had been in her class for two days. Dispatch apparently straightened everything out and sent a random bus over to our house (as seen below) and it took Will to school. Alone. Late.



However, Will's teacher, as well as his regular school bus driver called me and told me that everything had been fixed and this would not happen again. Apology accepted. Bus Driver Ms. McCoy said she would pick him up around 6:35 a.m. Peachy.


This morning, Will's bus arrived at 6:35 a.m. and he got on it. He said his bus driver was very nice and reminded him of his Grandma Peggy's cousin Nancy Lomelino.

Hopefully, this bussing saga has now ended.

Blog change

With the arrival of Niece Cheyenne, Nephew Brandon's blog has changed to http://thekasals.blogspot.com/, but is still a link on this blog over there to the right. If you want more Cheyenne birthday pics, click on over.

First day of school 2010

Well, the boys were probably jet lagged at 6:30 a.m. when I woke them up, but the good news is that school for Will starts 15 minutes later than it did last year, at 7:45 a.m. I drove him over today so we could meet his teacher and take all of his school supplies, Xan went with us and I think the hustle and bustle of the big school overwhelmed him. He stayed pretty close to me, was very quiet and his eyes kept moving around crazily. Will was very quiet, only ate a half of an apple for breakfast, but managed to feel fine by lunch.

This is Will with his teacher, Mrs. Manthei. He was very excited about his first day of school, explaining how the entire class got to vote on the class rules for the year. I love this and think that corporations should do this with their employees more often. Allow the employees to set their guidelines and goals and chances are they will surpass what management's expectations were for them. From what Will told me, this sounds very much like what the third graders did. They also have a class pet, a bearded dragon, named IceFyer (Will thought Ice Flyer would be better, since that's the local hockey team's name), which Will thinks is a lot of fun. He was also impressed that they ate lunch in their classroom (or outside, if the weather wasn't so disgusting) not in the cafeteria like everyone else.


Xan had a bumpy start to his day. He was put out that he did not get to play Wii this morning, like he usually does after Will's bus picks him up, but going to the big kid school was enough to distract him from that disappointment. He knows his teacher, Miss Karen, from the past couple of years, but he is in a different classroom now. He cried a bit and was clingy until I asked him to show Miss Karen his new light-up shoes. I said goodbye and snuck out while he was busy showing off his orange blinkies.



Xan is also having a tough time realizing that Ripley and Marble did not shrink while he was gone. My parents' dog is a 120-pound Old English Mastiff named Jewel, so size is relative when you have been hanging out with her. Yesterday, Xan was sure I had traded in our dogs for smaller ones.
"No, honey, these are the same dogs we have always had."
"I know. But why did they get smaller?"
"They didn't get smaller. You are just used to a bigger dog, so they seem smaller."
"I know. But what happened to the old Ripley and Marble?"
"Nothing. These are the same Ripley and Marble."
"I know. But they got smaller."
"No, they didn't."
"Yes, they did."
OK, fine. New tactic. "Well, they got older when you were gone and they shrank a bit."
"No, they don't look older. Did you trade them for new dogs?"
"No. Now, go take a bath."

The conversation continued out of the blue today, after dinner (which I did, in fact, cook):
Xan, while petting Ripley's head, "Mom, when are they going to grow?"
"They are done growing. This is as big as they get."
Frowning with confusion, "Oh."

We'll see what he comes up with tomorrow.

From this (too fast) SoCal weekend...

... here are some of my favorite photos from this weekend:

Forgotten photos from NC

I forgot to post these few pictures we took while I visited Rodney in North Carolina. The first one was taken at Red Lobster the night I got there and the last two are from when we visited the USS North Carolina (and the Cotton Exchange) in Wilmington that Saturday. Rodney was especially intrigued by the galley (kitchen) on the ship. Which, if anyone has been around him and encountered his love for food, shouldn't be surprising

In the past month...

... I have received some complaints about the lack of material on the Guthrie Gang blog. With the boys not here, things have not been too exciting up until recently. Here are the highlights:

Our niece/cousin Cheyenne Lee Kasal arrived August 4, 2010 at 2:50 a.m. She weighed in at 8 lbs., 9 oz. and measured 20 1/2 inches.

Joe and Gina are thrilled, but big brother Brandon preferred to ignore her until recently. I guess he was going with the whole "if I ignore her, she might go away" philosophy. Of my boys, Will was happy to see her, but had more of a "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" sort of attitude. Xan was the one who was really interested in her, checking out her little hands, ears, etc.



As of this week, I have been accepted to the University of West Florida Graduate Program.



I will start classes in a few weeks towards a Master's degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership. As Aunt Brenda said, "Oh, wonderful! Now, what does that mean?" In a nutshell, it means I will learn how to create and manage effective and efficient teams of people. I have been taking similar classes at UWF through the credit union and have really enjoyed them, and the professor, Dr. Athena du Pre'.


I am looking forward to the program. Now, if we can just get Rodney's GI Bill to come through correctly!

Rodney is doing well in his Advanced Course, maintaining a 99 percent average in his studies. He's doing a great job, despite sore knees and bruised ribs.

The Guthrie's are now on Skype... so, if you are, too, look us up: jessicaguthrie22.

The weather here in Florida has been, ahem, BALMY, to say the least. The reptiles and amphibians have been out en mass, from little green tree frogs to toads that I swear must weigh over a pound to these intersting little beige lizardy gecko things seen on the kitchen window.


The babies of these things keep getting in to the Florida room and I keep (carefully) picking them up and putting them back outside. It appears there is a nest of them in our porch roof.

One of the pictures I took of a wedding, our friends Tyler and Amber, made it on to a credit card billboard here in Pensacola this month:




I've been doing some scrapbooking/papercrafting this summer while everyone's been gone (I have also scrubbed the entire house, top to bottom, so don't think it has all been fun and games!). This is a mirror I created to be auctioned off for charity at Creative Escape, the event I taught at two years ago in Arizona.


The boys will be home Aug. 22, and start school, Aug. 23, so there will soon be plenty of updates!