Pomp and Circumstance

On to Kindergarten!

My blogging today is about our dear friends the Dunbars! Jack and Elizah Dunbar graduated from Pre-K today. Their graduation ceremony was really, really cute. All the kids were all dressed up and had these cute little paper mortar boards on their little heads. They performed songs lead by their fabulous music teacher Ashlee Dunbar. Their favorite song was probably The Bear Hunt but they also sang some sweet songs that made all of us attending try hard not to cry. At the end they each let go of a balloon with a prayer tied to it and watched them go up in the sky.

I remember Pre-K graduation being such a big step for Bennett, and the Dunbar twins are ready to go, they are off to start their Elementary School career. I asked Jack if he was ready for Kindergarten and he nonchalantly said yep! We send our best to them both and wish them a fabulous summer! Bennett is of course available for Elementary School advice sessions if needed. We are so proud of you!

Blog-ga-log-a-ding-dong!

Spring Soccer Season Comes to an End

Bennett finally had his last soccer game and soccer party where he got a very cool trophy! His team won all their games except they lost 1 game and tied 1 game! GO Lightning! Bennett played alot of offense and scored a lot and assisted alot. He became a really good passer this season and was able to set up his teammates for goals. Sounds a lot like David Beckham I know.

Guitar Hero

So Bennett was nice enough to pose for some Guitar Hero pictures. He has completed Easy and Medium and is half way through Hard. If you haven't done Guitar Hero I will tell you that is quite an accomplishment. To put it in perspective I am through Easy and half through Medium. To get to this point I actually spent 6 HOURS one weekend trying to beat Tom Morrell on Medium! It is not easy.

Lanier's Cook Out in spite of gross back yard

We aren't letting the fact that our backyard has no grass and tons of weeds in it stop of us from enjoying this gorgeous time of year. We have been cooking out like mad. Bennett and Mark cook, and the dogs sniff. This weekend we had hamburgers on Saturday and then Lamb chops on Sunday! Gourmet huh? You wouldn't think in a backyard like ours you could serve up such gourmet meals...but somehow we make it work.

Last...but certainly not Least! MOTHER'S Day 2008

So I hope all those Mother's out there had a great Mother's Day and were treated like the fabulous women we all are. I had a great Mother's Day. My family took great care of

me. There was breakfast, poems, flowers, naps, reading by the pool, dogs getting along and a delicious dinner to end the day. It was perfect.

SPRING FEVER!!!

Well folks it is official! The Laniers are totally over committed and have SPRING FEVER! Bennett can't concentrate in school and I have some many other-then-work commitments I am fading fast! We are excited school is almost out though! I was hoping this blog would be about Bennett's last soccer game which was supposed to be on Saturday but it got rained out this weekend.

So instead I am going to blog about how fast this school year has gone. Here is a picture of Bennett on the first day of school and if you check out our picture of the week you will see Bennett now. He seems so grown up to me after 9 months of schooling. He has mastered multiplication and they are now doing division...which he isn't having any trouble with. Amazing! That is all for now.

An up and coming author

Bennett Lanier...the next J.K. Rowling or Dr. Seuss??

Bennett Lanier celebrated the completion of his work of art "A Dog Named Jelly" with his class at the Lake Windward Elementary Author Tea.

Bennett had been working on his book for 6 months prior to it's publishing. Jelly is an amazing dog who over comes many different obstacles and in the end luckily does save the day! His owner is boy who is a scientist and inventor. Together he and Jelly are an stoppable team. Besides being interesting and creative "My Dog Jelly" was also the longest story with the most chapters in the 2nd grade class.

The Author Tea was a lot of fun for us parents and the kids. We read all the kids books and instead of the author signing the book the parents got to tell each child how much we enjoyed their story by signing it. A great momento to have for years to come. The comparison in Bennett's book from 1st grade to 2nd grade is amazing. Last year his book was on the history on Monopoly (a favorite game around the Lanier house). It was very factual and precise. This year our young author stretched the creativity in both his writing and illustrations. We are very proud of our young author and look forward to many more interesting stories!

Greeting from Tucson

So it is about 4am here in Tucson and I am of course awake! West coast travel is so hard. I will be here for 2 days so I don't want to change my internal clock so I guess today is just going to be a VERY LONG DAY! Here are some pictures I took yesterday while sitting around my hotel room bored out of my mind.

Here is my huge square bath tub, that I am afraid to actually take a bath in because I don't know if it is clean or not.

Here is a picture of my room that even after just being in it for 5 minutes somehow has stuff everywhere!

And finally here is my laying on the bed watching TV...this is my blog picture debut :)

Today is a full day of meetings and tomorrow I leave at 6:50 in the morning. Off for some caffeinated coffee...

A few pictures from Spring Break in Tally

A few pics from Queenie, GGMa's and Bennett's visit to the Junior Museum

The boys are back!

Spring Break is coming to an end. The Lanier menfolk made it home safely from Tallahassee this afternoon. It was so nice to see their sunburned smiling faces. It is really nice to have them home. I was getting very lonely here in Alpharetta all by my lonesome.

Next week is back to business. I am leaving my boys again and will be traveling to Tucson on business Monday-Wednesday morning. Keep checking in, there is more to come.

Drake's Spring Break

Spring Break is Party Time for Drake Lanier!

As the Lanier menfolk are in Tallahassee on their spring break the lone Lanier woman has been holding down the fort in Alpharetta. As you can see from the picture I am being taken advantage of! You can tell from Drake's expression, she knows she isn't supposed to be up there and she knows it! I think the quote from this pictures is "What?".

Announcing Queenie's New Arrival!

Check them out. I don't believe they have names yet but here are the newest arrivals to Queenie and Poppy's laundry room. And yes Queenie was so excited she sent pictures of her new babies! Next time you see Queenie and Poppy make sure to let them know how clean their clothes look!

I do enjoy that they are Seminole Garnet! Maybe we should name one Bobby and they other Bowden.

The Laniers are now bloggers.

Welcome to our first blog! I am going to try and keep this up on a regular basis for all of our friends and family near and far. We quite frequently relate to episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond...hence the name of our blog.



So it is Spring Break and Mark and Bennett are off in Tallahassee. They have been having a great time on the compound. Friday they are going fishing! I on the other am home with the dogs. Drake has decided it is ok to sleep on the sofa in the kitchen while her alpha dog is away...picture to follow soon. Rhosie could care less. I will tell you that alone time sounded a lot better before I had it. I am getting bored now and ready for my boys to come home. Tonight you might find me talking to myself or to the TV...how different that is from every other day I can't tell you.


So we have now entered the world of blogging! Check back soon for more pictures and updates!