Happy Thanksgiving 2012

This year for Thanksgiving, KJ was at her dad's. I went to see R for the holiday. He did not have J for the actual holiday, but we got him back later in the weekend.

Tuesday night I got to spend some snuggle time with my baby girl. I picked her up after work and we went to get my hair done. After that we had dinner with Granny and some of her friends. Since she was out of school last week I let her stay up until 1030. We watched Gnomeo & Juliet and cuddled on the couch. Then we went to bed and cuddled some more. The next morning was very sad when I had to drop her off and know I wouldn't see her for over a week.

They really missed each other!

Wednesday I left work at almost 4 and headed north. I got into town about 8. I.WAS.STARVING. But, just as I pulled up, R's uncle pulled up unannounced. Which is not a problem except I.WAS.STARVING. He stayed about a half hour and then we went to eat! We came home and went right to sleep. We had to get up early Thursday and finish cleaning and cooking for Turkey day!!!

Thursday morning we got up and started cleaning. We finished that and got all cleaned up for everyone to come over. His parents showed up and finished cooking. A little while later they went and got R's grandparents for lunch. We had a nice lunch and watched the Texans game. A little later his aunt, uncle, and cousin came over and we had dessert and finished the super stressful game! YAY! The Texans won, but I did NOT win any $$ on my squares :( After they all left, we headed into Waco and went to his Aunt's house for more food...I ate one piece of cake because there is no way I could have eaten any more!!

I posted this one on FB and he got grief for not smiling.

We did take one with him smiling, but I didn't look as pretty in this one :)

Friday R had to work half a day so I relaxed until he got there. When he got home, his parents got there with J and we put up the tree and got out the Christmas stuff.

Saturday we ran a bunch of errands and fed the cows and relaxed. I got the lights on the tree.

I thought these were so cute. They don't belong to R but I still loved the pic!!

Sunday we hung the lights on the house and ran a few more errands. We didn't go feed but we did go get some hay for the house. J and I played soccer and football in the yard for about an hour and a half AT LEAST. It was so fun! I love playing outside!! We had a great time together. It was some really great bonding time for us. It was such a nice day. I got a migraine not too long after that so I layed down for a bit. Then it was time to take J back to his mom's. I got a huge hug. It was great. I left to come home just a while later.

Monday was a parent meeting for scouts and Tuesday was a service unit meeting for scouts.

Tonight my sweet baby comes home!!!! I am beyond excited! We are going to get pedicures. Granny is going to go with us and then we will go eat. I want to read books with her (we have a ton of Christmas books to read this month). I also want to make a paper chain countdown and I need to get the advent calendar ready for when she comes home on Monday!! I can't wait for next week when everything goes back to normal!!!!!!! I have tried my best to be strong but I have had a few breakdowns. Especially when she tells me she is sad and missing me. It has really stunk being without her for so long. I have talked to her everyday, but it is not the same. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. I can't wait to get that baby in my arms! 8 more hours!!!

Back to Crawford tomorrow! We took Friday off. Ready for another weekend of RELAXATION!!!!

Hope you all had a great Turkey Day!

CARPE DIEM!!

catch up...again!!!

OK, I am catching up from the last 2 weeks and the weekends. I have been so busy at work and with life that I have been CRAZY with no time to post...

So...we had some softball games the 5th and 6th. We did well, but that is all in the previous softball post. Thursday the 8th we went to Spirit Night at Tin Roof BBQ. Kendall saw tons of friends and had a BLAST!!

KJ, Heidi, and Annabelle

KJ & Mia

Annabelle singing karaoke

Friday morning was the Veterans Program at PFE. Here is my little Brownie girl scout all ready to go.

Saturday we had our team party and then Mia slept over again. They had soooo much fun. We went to IHOP and to the movies to see Wreck It Ralph! It was such an adorable movie!!!! I laughed so hard!!! The girls liked it too LOL!

Sunday Mia headed home in the afternoon and since Kendall is at her dad's for the rest of the stinking month, we went ahead and put up our tree. We didn't get it decorated until Monday night before girl scouts, but it is such a beautiful little tree decorated with love by me and the bug.

Tuesday night the school put on the 2nd grade PFE Veteran's program again! It was so so cute! They did such a great job! After that we headed over to the daycare for their Thanksgiving feast.

KJ and her AMAZING teacher!

Wednesday was dinner at Mike's with Granny and PawPaw. PawPaw gave KJ $20 for the book fair! She was SO excited that it came from him!! Usually Granny is the one that gives her stuff, but this time it was PawPaw and man that was SPECIAL!!

This picture melts my heart! Look how she is cuddling Lulu and Hercules <3 td="td">

Thursday was her Thanksgiving feast at PFE. It was really cute. I brought her in Subway instead of eating that delicious cafeteria food. We went to the book fair after the lunch and it was so different than last year. She got FOUR CHAPTER BOOKS!!!! That is so crazy that she is big enough to be reading those!!!! She also got a new book mark and 2 posters that she had been wanting.

ready for the feast

I caught her with food in those cheeks :)

Friday I headed north to see my handsome. We had a nice relaxing weekend. Last night KJ wanted me to come over and see her at her dad's house. I did and she wanted to see my new phone so we played with it and took a few pics.

Tonight she gets to come home to my house for the night and then back to dad's until NEXT WEDNESDAY!!! UGH! It is stressing me out big time!

Thanksgiving is in 2 short days. I was invited to spend it in Crawford with R and his family. I am not going to get to see him for Christmas or New Year's so I took them up on the offer!

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving and I will catch you on the flip side!!

CARPE DIEM!

Softball - Fall 2012

Well, we just completed another season of softball! Kendall is getting so much better! I am so proud of her. She is really trying hard and their team did SO well!!

She was on the Heartbreakers with 4 other girls from her original team, the Ladybugs. Our coach was my friend Corrie and my friend Jordan assisted along with another dad named Aaron. All the girls did so well! We ended our regular season in 3rd place at 5-5. There were a few games where we got bad calls or made bad plays that we lost. But 3rd place is still great!! (There were 6 teams).

We played in the end of season tournament last week and the girls were fantastic. We played on Monday, 11/5, and won 14-6. That moved us to the next round. We had to play the 1st place team (the Bombshells). This team's coach is known for temper tantrums and protesting calls and just being a sore loser. We played them the week before and a call got reversed and there was all kinds of hoopla surrounding that game. Well, we played them Tuesday, 11/06, and ended up losing. The game went 6 innings and we only lost by one run. The score was 12-11 and the other team was SWEATING!!! It was awesome. We still got two bad calls that would have put us up by one run but at least we gave them a run for their money!! We were all so proud of our Heartbreakers!

Here are a few pics from the end of the season!

back row: Coach Jordan, Coach Corrie, Coach Aaron
Middle row: Cadence, Amira, Bailey, Mia, KJ, Hailey
Bottom row: Sophia, Samantha, Kylen
(Larissa is missing from this pic...)

My superstar!!!



Coach Corrie doing push ups after one of the games - he would
do a push up for every run scored!!
 

CARPE DIEM!

Presedential Election

Last week (11/06) we had our Presidential election. The tow candidates were the Barrack Obama (D, current president) and Mitt Romney (R). The state of this country under President Obama is scary. The national debt is ridiculous, Obama care is insane and unemployment in through the roof. I am not a racist person by any means and you can ask ANY of my friends and they will attest to that, but I do believe that the reason Obama is the President is because of race. Many people voted for him the first time in 2008 because of his color. He has done an awful job in the white house.

I am not ashamed to admit that I voted straight republican. I am a conservative and I am not afraid to admit that. That being said, I do believe in equal rights and women's rights, but the other things that the democratic party supports are too much for me.

Romney won the popular vote, but because of the electoral college and the swing votes, Obama was reelected. All I can do for the next 4 years is pray and keep my faith that He has a plan and everything happens for a reason. I have said this in my blog before that I would love to know the reason He does things, but that is not the way it works! So, please pray for our country these next 4 years that nothing too insane happens.

Kendall's class got in on the election action as well. Her teacher read them two books, "Duck for President" and "Otto for President". They made election buttons and signs and then got to vote for their favorite candidate. Duck one the election by one vote, but KJ voted for Otto. If only adult life was that simple. Here are some pics from her election!

CARPE DIEM!!!

Halloween 2012!

I love Halloween! It is such a fun holiday. I love scary movies and costumes. I think costumes are so fun. Somehow, I have only dressed up MAYBE 5 times in the last 18 years. I wish I had more, but I am not a very creative person so I can never think of anything cool to be. My costumes usually kind of suck. Kendall on he other hand, always has an awesome costume! I LOVE to dress her up and we go all out. Over the years she has been a pumpkin, a ladybug, a witch, Cinderella, a hippie chick, a devil queen, a zombie cheerleader and this year a pirate. I don't spare on her costumes. I get the accessories and paint her hair or face or whatever. It is more important for me to let her enjoy it then dress up myself.

WELLL, this year I kind of helped her decide what she was going to be. See, we are going on a cruise at the end of December that she knows nothing about. It is a Disney cruise and one night on the boat they have a pirate night. My dilemma was how to get a pirate costume bought without her knowing it. Well, just have her be a pirate for Halloween. It took much convincing, but after I agreed to be a pirate with her (I need a costume for the pirate night also), she was hooked. So, we were cute girly pirates this year.

She was able to wear her costume to school because they had storybook character day. I told her to tell everyone she was a pirate from Peter Pan lol. It worked. I wore mint to work because we had a costume contest there.

The contest at work was pretty awesome. I love to see people's creative ideas. Here are a few of my favorite...

After work I picked up KJ and we went home and had dinner before trick-or-treating. Her dad came over and we got on our way. We just went to the neighborhood behind my apartments. She only lasted a little over an hour and a half and was tired and ready to be done. She got tons of candy that I will probably have to throw away before Christmas to make room for that candy. Here are a few shots of KJ and I in our costumes!!

Parent/Teacher conference

In our district, elementary schools have parent/teacher conferences at the end of the 1st 9 weeks. I LOVE THIS! We are one of the few distrits that does this. I would love to have one every 9 weeks, but I know that is not possible...I love getting to know KJ's teacher and hearing about how she is doing. I think this gives me a great advantage because I know exactly where she statnds on all her subjects and what her strengths and weaknesses are and how to praise and correct. This is such a great advantage over just getting a report card sent home with nothing on it to tell you about your child except numbers.

One thing I don't like about our district is that we are in the 2nd grade and STILL are not getting number grades. The grades are done on a scale of 1 to 4. FRUSTRATING. I ahve no idea how these numbers are weighted and have never really been able to get that answer. What I have gotten was that a 4 is perfect, a 3 shows that they are above average on a subject and a 2 is they are doing great but have room for improvement. There are also about 40 things on the report card that get scored. It is overwhlming to sau the least. She got a couple 4's, TONS of 3's and a few 2's. I was not pleased witht he 2's. The teacher said the 2's were all new stuff they had just learned and the she is doing amazing.

Her reading ins coming along beautifully. In Kindergarten she could barely read. Her teacher did not teach them like I think she should have. In 1st grade she struggled in the beginning but really caught on in the 2nd semester. She ended up reading the most books in her class last year. SO, this was my biggest concern. At the beginning of the year, they want them to be at a level 16. When she was tested in September, she was at an 18 and her teacher said that at the time of the conference she was probbaly on a 20 or 22. So, that was great news! She is finally progressing well in that subject!!!

She told me that her reading comprehension was amazing. I was shocked when I saw that number. At the beginning of 2nd grade they want them to be at a 14 and the end to be a 16 (I think). She was at a 22 in SEPTEMBER!!!! Man. She may not be reading great yet, but she at leasts understands and remembers what she is reading! I was one proud momma!!!!

She said they were working on expanding her thoughts on her writing, but she had no problem in length (so her mother's child on the length lol). We were reading a few of her writing samples and we couldn't figure out a word. We were all three trying to figure it out when KJ pipes up from the back of the room and recites the whole sentence we were trying to figure out!! The writing had been done a few weeks back....mind like a steel trap much?!?! I was impressed as well as her dad and teacher too!

Math of course is her best subject. They took a benchmark test a few weeks back. It was 10 wordy questions. The teacher read the test to them. She said that KJ was the only one that worked ahead and still came out with a 10/10. The teacher was impressed by this. I was too! The only problem she has here is that she does the work in her head and doesn't show her work (her dad used to get into trouble for the same thing). So, we have been working on that one!!!

The only thing she said she really needs to work on is group or partner work. She said she has a hard time in those settings becuase she is so focused on getting the work done that she gets bossy to her friends because they are not staying on task or doing the work wrong. Honestly, I can't blame her on that one. That frustrates me too!!!!!

So, all in all, an AMAZING conference. I am raising a wonderful, kind, loving, SMART child! I am one proud mommy!!!!

She cracks me up. If she were Columbus, she would tell the world "I TOLD YOU SO".

I can tell by the handwriting that she did all the writing on this one.

overdue....

I posted last on 10/25. So much has happened since then.....I am going to try and break it up into a few posts as to not overwhelm you HAHA!!!

The weekend before Halloween was nice and relaxing. R and J were in town and we went to dinner with R's family Friday night. KJ was sooo glad to see everyone again. She hadn't seen them in months (due to the break-up). When they walked in she spread her arms really big and said " I'M BACK!!!!!". They all laughed and passed around hugs to her!

That night we were hanging with Liana and we did some pumpkin painting and cutting. This is KJ getting the guts out lol...

Saturday she had a game so we had stayed at Liana's that night and got up, had breakfast and then headed to pick up R. J was going to see some of his mom's family while in town so he didn't get to go with us. R had never seen a softball game before so it was a big deal. My brother was also in town so she really wanted to win for all her fans lol. They won the game 16-1 and she was stoked. She hit really well and scored a few runs too. We went home to change and we all went down to San Leon to have dinner with some of R's family. While we were driving there, I recognized my surroundings and remembered that my grandparents used to live on that street!!!! I looked and looked for their house, but I think after Ike it must have been torn down. It was still neat to be over there and remember those times!!

She is such a nerd. This is what she wore to dinner with the family. Well without the fancy glasses...

Sunday we got up and got ready for R's nephew's bday party! Before we went, we went to Bass Pro Shop to find some wrapping paper. Kendall got to color a mask for Halloween and there was a raccoon there too that she was dying to take a pic with...as a witch lol. The baby was turning the BIG 1. I can't believe it has already been a year since that little munchkin was born!!! WOWSA! It was a cute party and he even let me give him snuggles! I love babies!!! After the party it was time for R and J to head home :( It was a great weekend and I loved having them here!