Pre Thanks-Christmas!!

Sorry this is so late! Just a few picture from my travels pre- ThanksChristmas! There would be more, however, I forgot my camera at Kori's so nobody else got pictures..sorry! Stay tuned..pretty soon here I will have pictures up of ThanksChristmas!

Love you and Happy Holidays!

Kendall

Pumpkin Rolls! Yummy!

Caleb's Birthday Cake!

Awww...cute!!!

Millie and me! Not such a cute picture but oh well! She was helping to bake with

her little measuring spoon!

Super cute picture!

Haha! Kori dancing to some song!

I think it's a stare down over the sippy cup!

Love her!

Self-Portrait..she was supposed to be taking a picture of Kori and me!

Cute picture!!

(Doesn't everybody LOVE Kim's hair straight?!?!)

I gotta go...Back to Schooool (Grease 2 song..or Grease 1..don't remember!)

This is my oh so cute desk prior to classes starting! Kori had bought me all sorts of fun things to put on it and then her and Kim came over to help me decorate! I had HUGE plans of staying organized and keeping things all nice and neat!

And here is my desk in Week 6 of my classes! So much for the keeping things cleaned and organized! I will say so, although I know it looks messy, I do know where everything that I need is...or about where it is. I pretty much live in my spare bedroom now because I am always online checking the websites to make sure I am not missing anything!

As many of you guys know already, I have gone back to school! I am going for elementary education and have liked it so far. I'm only taking two classes this semester (Educational Psychology and Foundations of American Education) but they are keeping me busy! I feel like I work and do homework, work and do homework, and work and do homework!! Although I do manage to keep a little bit of a social life just so I don't go in sain!

Each class does a chapter a week, discussions, a quiz, and sometimes extra things added into that. On Monday's I write out my schedule (on a fun sticky note that Kori got me-it has days of the week on it!) and start reading my chapter for my Foundations class. Tuesdays, depending on which shift I work at work, I try to start on my Psychology chapter. I'm about 50/50 on keeping up with that schedule. Sometimes I don't get all of one chapter read in a night, so it gets kind of spaced out. Wednesday and Thursdays is spent doing discussions online, they are considered our lecture so we are expected to read so many of them and comment on them. It is very depressing when you get online and see you have 300 unread messages! During the weekend I do any of the extra projects, take quizzes, and read discussions!

It's helped a lot that I finally have gotten internet at my place, although I hate not getting to spend so much time at the Anderson's! I told the girls at work I'll probably lose 10 pounds because I'm not eating out there every night...only like four nights out of the week!

Anyhoo..there's the lowdown on how I keep myself busy!

Love,

Kendall

PS. Just wanted to say thanks to everybody who has been helping me out with this and putting up with me venting about it all of the time!

I think I messed up...

Okay...I posted a new one but must have messed up somehow because it is currently under my last post!! So please scroll down under the post "Busy Busy Busy" and enjoy! It is not a very big one, sorry!

Love
Kendall :)

Busy Busy Busy!!

July and August brought a lot of visitors from down South. It was so nice being able to spend time with each sister and their family! When we go down to Illinos it can be a bit overwhelming because EVERYBODY is at one place and sometimes I don't get to spend enough time with each person.

The weekend of July 4th our first guest arrived: Gail came up to spend the weekend with us. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of this, but I don't think there would have been any fun ones. We spent most of the day sitting out on Kim's deck. At night, we pretty much did the same thing. There were many games of Speed played and a lot of talking..aka...gossipping going on. Thanks for coming up Gail!

Mom, Kelly, and Colby were the next to arrive late July. They were up for a long weekend and we pretty much sat around and relaxed which was quite nice.

Then in the beginning of August the James crew "surprised" us up here. Being that I was so shocked that they were up here, I completely forgot to take pictures! Sorry! I had a blast hanging out with all of them and playing with the girls! Also, my Dad and Raylene were up at that time so they were in Clearbrook hanging out a couple nights.

The last and final group actually came in late August. Kori, Ben, and Amelia showed up very early on a Sunday morning and stayed for a week. I am sometimes overwhelmed by them staying in at my apartment (usually everybody stays out at Kim's), but I love every minute of it. I loved getting the few minutes every morning playing with Millie before I went to work.

Thank you to everybody (including all of my friends) who made the trip up here to visit!

Love,

Kendall

Millie and me! We tried to get a good picture of both of us but it just wasn't working for us, so this one will just have to do!

I really enjoyed having the Machlitt's staying at my place. It was nice being able to spend time hanging out with Kori again!

The highlight of their trip for me was when Kori told Kim that Millie didn't like cottage cheese, so of course, Kim tries to mix in a little bit of cottage cheese in with Millie's applesauce. The child actually ate the applesauce and spit out the cottage cheese, now that's talent!!

Jake with his gas mask on...silly boy!

Colby with her sly little look. I can't believe how happy yet silent she is!

Yup, that's what was going on during this visit. They were probably online talking bad about the rest of us to eachother!

Mom hanging out with Colby and Jacob while watching a movie!

GOOD MORNING BALTIMORE...I mean GONVICK!!!!

These little guys greeted me every morning when I got to work! The mom built the nest right above our side door! Although we all enjoyed seeing them every morning, it is nice to not worry about getting a little dropping on our heads!

Just wanted to say thanks to Grandma Budke for losing her camera and buying a new one and then finding the lost camera! If it wasn't for her, I would not be able to take pictures and post again! Thanks Grandma!!! Love you!!

Have a good day!!

Kendall

Turner and Chester

Turner watching some TV.

This is what sparked Turner's interest: bull riding.

Turner and Chester.

Chester and her new haircut. She was leaving hair clumps everywhere so my friend

Lexie offered to shave her. I LOVE not having hair everywhere, however, I do not think

she loves the new do!

Turner bored out of his mind while I watch the baseball game.

Now I know most of my family are not really animal people, however, I do not have any kids so this is all I've got!!!

Kendall

Illinois in July

Here are a few pictures I took when I was down in July for Grandma Rankin's funeral. Although it was a sad time for us all, it was nice having everybody together for a couple of days.

Thanks for checking in and not giving up on the Rankin Girls blog!

Kendall :)

Emma and me. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! She is turning into such a young lady!

Stop growing up Emma (mostly because you're almost up to my shoulders already!)!!

Anna and Sophia. She did such a good job getting Sophia to sleep-she was SO good that she

almost put herself to sleep!

Emma and Anna holding Sophia and Henry. They do such a great job helping

out with all of the little kids that are around!


I LOVE this picture of Henry and Anna! Henry looks like such a little man!!



Hmmm..who's who???

Colby about ready to pass out, but not wanting to miss out on anything going on!

Reading Anna's favorite book-Colby loves reading too!!

MILLIE!!!!!

Chris wearing Millie's sunglasses...

Scott chilling in the pool..nice farmer's tan!!

SPARKY!!!!

Rollin' On The River With Cletus! Oops, I Mean Creedence

A couple weekends ago a bunch of us met up in Fargo and went to a Kenny Chesney concert. We all had so much fun! There were two opening acts: Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert. I think I was more excited about those two than Kenny Chesney (not that he wasn't AWESOME as well, but I just love the other two).

Gretchen, Kim, and I drove down to Fargo early Saturday morning in order to get some shopping done and eat lunch at the Olive Garden(when you live so far away from restaurants, you get VERY excited about going to a city that has some good ones!). We made it down there right around lunch so we ate quick and then met up with our friends Noel and Ryan at the Fargodome to get our tickets and then met up with Jen and checked into our hotel room and THEN we finally got to get a little bit of shopping done! After that we went to our hotel bar where we met up with Jessie and Dusty and had a few beers, ate some appetizers, and then headed up to the hotel to get all dolled up!

Top night girls (and boys), TOP NIGHT!! :)

Love ya!

Kendall

Gretta and me getting ready for the concert!!!

Jen and Jes getting ready while Ryan mans the music on the laptop!

The bathroom was so crowded with all of us girls getting ready, we had to improvise a bit..I'm standing on the toilet curling my hair!

The Girls!

(Jes, Jen

me, Gretchen, Kim)

Us on the bus to the concert! Our hotel provided a bus that shuttled to and back from the Fargodome..it cost five dollars but worth it!

LADY ANTEBELLUM!!!! LOVE THEM LOVE THEM LOVE THEM!!!
By the way Mom and Dad, the middle guy is your future son-in-law!!

Jes and Dusty :)

Noel: Pre-concert..he wasn't too stoked about it!

Gretta and me...there was a really sad song!

Miranda Lambert!!!!

Kim and Jen!! Though it appears Kim can barely keep her eyes open,

she barely drank a thing all night...she had to play mom for all of us!

Here comes KENNY CHESNEY!!!!!

He floated up out of nowhere and over the crowd to the stage...awesome!

Jen was getting ready to watch "Twilight" when she got home!

She had to get her face ready for the vampires!

A little softer side of Jen...or maybe she's just picked out her next victim!

Kenny...from a distance....

A little happier Noel! Yay for beer!

Gretchen was pouting cause they didn't play her favorite song!! :P