Accomplishments

Today is the last day of my daughter's first year of middle school. There were so many new things ahead of us last August when she started school. I think I was more nervous than she was. She jumped right into middle school and conquered it with flying colors. There are so many accomplishments I want to share with you - but I will get to that in a moment. You know the old saying they say "Kids grow up so fast?" It is so true. I am finding as our kids get older the time flies by even faster. I feel like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and in a few short hours she will "officially" be a 7th grader. My sweet angel that took me 4 years to conceive has 5 years left until she is an adult. (Momma is getting weepy)

This year I made several accomplishments myself. I am an over OVER OVER protective mother and this year I had to do some letting go. I know the months and years ahead of us will call for more of my letting go - I don't think I am truly ready for it - but I also know I cannot hold my child back. (Teary, teary eyes)

One of the first things I noticed that my daughter was growing up was by her school pictures this year. As I went to put her Fall 07 picture in the picture frame I compared it to the Fall 06 picture. In the Fall 06 picture she looked like a little 5th grader - so sweet and young. In her Fall 07 picture she had highlighted hair and no glasses - she totally looks like a young lady.

In elementary school she loved being a "parent pick up" or "car rider". She would beg me to get off early so that she could ride home with ME. I am heavily involved in the PTA and there were several days where I had to be at an event before or after school and I would tell her that she could ride with me to or from school. She would tell me that she would just ride the bus with her friends. =( I am still number one to her at home but I knew sooner or later her friends would become the cats meow to her.

So for some of her accomplishments:

* She started wearing contacts which I was a little leery about her doing. The first few weeks I believe she tore 3 pairs but ever since then she has done a wonderful job with them. She does a great job taking them out and putting them in each day. Great job K!

* In elementary school I would have to wake her up each morning, pick our her clothes, make her breakfast, brush her hair and remind her to put on deo and brush her teeth. Now this year she has been incredibly responsible by getting up with an alarm, picking out her own clothes (apparently I am not the fashion queen for her that I thought I was), she does her own hair, makes her own breakfast (she doesn't want me to do it). I still have to give the deo and brush your teeth reminders. =)

* She got a cell phone when school started which I was also a little leery about. She has been incredibly responsible with it as well. She only "lost" it once inside the house (of course the ringer was off so that is why it was so hard to find). She also did a fabulous job with her cell phone minutes. We opted for the Kajeet service which I highly recommend for small children. (www.kajeet.com) With Kajeet parents have all the control of the phone through the Internet. I can select the hours the phone is on, who she can and cannot receive calls from, etc. It was only costing me about $10 a month for the service. That is until she discovered texting with her friends. Now it costs me about $30 a month, which includes an unlimited texting pack. Still over all a great job with the phone.

* Her most major accomplishment is she carried a 4.0 gpa the whole school year long. She could not wait to get out of elementary school so that she could start getting "letter" grades opposed to numbers. My husband and I are strict with our kids about their education. We do not expect a 4.0 gpa but we do expect them to complete their work on time and to do it to the best of their ability. K took it upon herself to get all A's. She did extra credit when it was offered. She would bring home big assignments in order to give them that extra mile that she would not be able to if she just finished them in class. She was also extremely organized in her binder and for the most part brought home the needed materials to complete an assignment. I am very proud of her and I hope she continues to have those high expectations of herself as she continues her education.

I am glad this school year has come to a close. I think our kids all work so hard in school and deserve the summer break that they get. They need the time to relax their minds and have some fun - they have their whole adulthood to work. So to children everywhere have a great and safe summer! I think parents also deserve the break. Whether you are helping with homework or volunteering at school - we need the break to have some free time to ourselves as well. So parents enjoy the summer too!

Slip Slidding Away

Fishing ended up being so much fun! I caught two little fishies and my husband caught a nice big bass. We did the catch and release thing....which mine would have been releasers anyway. We also seen a couple deer and a snake (yikes!). We were fishing by the boat docks where boat owners come to put their boats in the water. It amazed me to see people with boats that had to cost thousands of dollars, in which they put hundreds of dollars of gas in them, only to have them in the lake 10-15 minutes and then they would load it back up and leave. It hardly seems worth it to me. Once we got home we found out that we were infested with tics. Yuck! Nasty little critters. I was the only one that had one embed his head in me and my husband had to burn it out of my stomache. Still 4 days later I feel like I have bugs crawling all over me.

Early Saturday morning a storm rolled through. Our dog is terrified of thunder and my husband is not the dog lover I am and refuses to let our dog sleep in our bed. So I had to go upstairs and sleep with her on the couch when she woke me up at 4:00AM crying because it was thundering so loud. It took about an hour for her to settle down and go to sleep. In the meantime my 50 pound dog was walking on my face, hair and body. At 8:00AM I am awaken again by my husband screaming "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I ask him what is wrong and all I hear again is "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I immediately think he is having a heart attack or something so I jump up to run down stairs. I had socks on my feet (remember I have a bum ankle....and I don't wear my brace at night time) and we have hardwood floors.....so you know where this is going? Things happened so fast but I believe my ankle gave out as I was running because I slipped on the floor and this all happens at the top of the staircase. The next thing I know I am doing a summersault and then was bouncing down the stairs on my back head first. Now I am screaming "Ahhhhhhhhhh!". I turns out my husband had a charlie horse and since I was not down there to rub it out he tried to get up and walk it out - which didn't work. I have a huge ugly bruise on my back and my right gluteus maximus hurts like hell but (no pun intended) other than that all is good.

Vote for DAVID COOK!!!!!!!!!

Vote for our hometown hero, DAVID COOK on American Idol tonight!!!!!!!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fish = fun????

A few weeks back my husband and I decided to take this Friday off so that we could have a 4 day weekend. Out of the blue he calls me yesterday at work and says "On Friday I want to do something really fun." I start thinking a movie, perhaps plant flowers in the yard, or go to some historical site. He then follows up with "I want to go fishing." So, I guess what he really meant was something really fun in his eyes. Fishing! Is fishing really fun? I mean, I have been fishing before and it is alright but the way he stressed that he wanted to do something "really fun" fishing was no where in my realm of thoughts. At home last night he was so giddy about going fishing on Friday. He was researching the different lakes of where we should go. He even got onto the Bass Pro Shops website and picked me out a pink and black fishing pole. We are having a little bit of controversy though. You see, I will go fishing, but I won't touch worms or fish. Toooooo slimey and alive! So he tells me he doesn't want to spend the day having to work my fishing pole because I won't touch the bait or fish. I am not budging - there is no way I am going to touch that stuff!!!! I probably should make it a point to go get me another book just in case I am too much of a pain in the hiney I will at least have something I can do while we are out at the lake. =)

sTori Telling by Tori Spelling

I don't know if I ever posted that I finally found the Tori book. I had to go to 3 different stores before I finally found it. Kel - you were right - it is a page turner. I read the book cover to cover in 3 days. I am big on passing my books on to others after I am done but I am going to be keeping this one. It may even become a part of my decor for a conversation piece. Good..good...good book! You will laugh and cry while reading this book.

Way to go Tori Spelling and Happy Belated Birthday!

This and that

Things are so much better in our world again. My husband took the child support check over to Brad's mom last night and she told him she was not even expecting him to pay this month since Brad has turned 18. My husband told her he had planned on paying her through this month but was going to begin the process of terminating child support. He told her about how he had talked to the lawyer and the cost of it being around $1000 to terminate. She told him she didn't want him to have to pay that and that she would sign whatever she had to so that he wouldn't have to. (Wasn't that nice?) So hubby and I did some investigating on the internet and found that we can file to terminate the child support on our own for the measly fee of $26.00. So we are going to go that route instead of letting some lawyer pocket the remaining $974.00.

I always like coming to work on this day. Not May 16 per say but today is our company picnic right after work so we always get to wear jeans to work. It is the ONLY day we get to wear jeans to work each year. I wish we could wear jeans every day. It is kind of silly that we can't. I work in a secure facility meaning no one is getting into my building that does not have badge access. You have to go through a bollard system where your id card is checked at the gate. The gate is manned by a Kansas City police officer. There are also two electric fences around the perimeter of our building. So while our downtown buildings are not as secure and guests/clients are allowed into those buildings no one comes to ours without approved access but yet we still have to dress up. I don't get it?? Anyhoo, I am grateful to have my Gloria Vanderbilt jeans on today.

So as I said we will head to our company picnic afterwork. We will go home get our kiddos, go get something to eat (food is provided but we never eat there - it is buffet style outdoors and flies are flying all around in the food - YUCK!) and then head to World's of Fun. Our company rents out the whole amusement park; however, we have so many associates that it is like going on any given day the park is open. There will be some 40,000 people there tonight!!! We are all looking forward to it.

Austin and Sean will be at the Chiefs stadium Saturday and Sunday because Austin is participating in a football camp. Kay, Blake, the dog and I will be at home. The one thing I want to get accomplished is to get my truck cleaned up. It needs to be vaccumed and washed so bad!!!

Oh an update on the Grain Valley trial. Eddie was found guilty on all four counts and will serve life in prison without parole. Justice has been served in this case. Will let you know the outcome of Taylor's when it is tried in August.

Later alligator!

PAYPAL SUCKS II

American's are beautiful people and a pleasure to work with.

I went to my American bank and talked with my American personal banker who graciously waved the overdraft fees from my bank account. I deposited my American money into my American bank account and life is peachy again. Once I was done with my transactions my personal banker asked "Is there anything else I can do for you today?" Such a refreshing difference from Paypal Supervisor Justin rudely hanging up on me on the phone.

Justin - if you are ever in the USA please stop by and see me and I will buy you a bag of American made Cheeto's and you can stuff them where the sun does not shine!

RED WHITE AND BLUE!!!!!

United Missouri Bank Rules

PAYPAL DROOLS!