TimeHop & A Haircut

I love the TimeHop app.  It brings back memories previously posted on my social media and sometimes those memories have completely escaped me, until I see it that is.  Not this jewel that popped up yesterday.  I remember this morning very well.  She was so proud of herself for choosing her outfit of the day and getting all dolled up.  We only had a few errands to run, but she was ready.  It was the beginning of that sassiness waiting to break out.  Look at this sweet nugget...all of 2 years old.  My heart just explodes and melts at the same time.

Jump forward 6 years and here is my sassy girl after her haircut yesterday.  

She wanted so bad to get her hair cut before our vacation but we just couldn't get in to get it done.   She was so excited.  Her appointment was at noon so Christopher took her, but I surprised them both by showing up during my lunch hour. I needed to also pick up my tag for my car so I took an extra long lunch to see them and take care of business.

Here's the back of her hair...

She loves it and I have to say, she rocks it. Totally fits her spunky personality.  

My Girl

Bella and I were laying in bed the other night watching Barnyard.  She was laying on my shoulder (snuggling) like she always does and holding my hand. I wanted to take a picture but I couldn't get to my phone without disturbing us.  What I noticed in that moment was how little she STILL is.  At times, she seems like she is such a big girl but in that moment I realized that she really is still a little girl.  I love her little hands.  I love that they always want to hold my hand, give hugs and grab hold of my arm real tight.  I took a day off this week for Spring Break.  One day.  I felt guilty even asking for that one day because I have missed so much work to help with Tony and with my own stuff I've had going on.  We spent the morning and early afternoon with a friend of mine and her girls shopping and eating lunch.  The afternoon Bella and I ran to mall to get her a new dress for a wedding she is going to this weekend with her dad.  I had to go back to work the next day and she was not having it.  I left one very unhappy little girl Thursday morning and again today.  "Please ask your boss if you can get off early today mommy".  She kills me.  I did take these pictures yesterday morning...

Look at those sweets hands.  We polished our nails together the night before.  She wanted pretty nails just like mommy's.  Sometimes my heart just wants to explode with love for her.  I also realized that day that we have a lot of little things we do together that are very special to her and that means so much to me.  I often think I don't do enough big things with children but its at times when I need the reminder that all those little things really do matter to them.  They mean the world to me and I'm glad to know they mean a lot to them too.

30 Questions with Bella

As you know, Bella's birthday was Monday. That evening as we were getting ready to lay down, I decided I wanted to ask her a bunch of questions and write down her answers.  I have seen several others do this with their children every year on their birthdays so I decided to do it this year.  I found a list of 20 questions, but found additional questions I liked on other lists so I combined them all together and got 30.

Here are the results...

1.  What is your favorite color?
Pink

2.  What is your favorite toy?
Lil Pets Turtle Tank

3.  What is your favorite stuffed animal?
My big Bella puppy

4.  What is your favorite thing to sleep with?
My mommy and a stuffed animal

5.  What is your favorite fruit?
Green apple

6.  What is your favorite cereal?
Cheerios

7.  What is your favorite snack?
Chips

8.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Bacon and Pancakes

9.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
Yogurt

10.  What is your favorite dessert?
Cookies

11. What is your favorite drink?
Water

12.  What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner?
Chick-fil-A

13.  What is your favorite animal?
Puppy

14.  What is your favorite song?
Wildflower

15.  What is your favorite game?
Shopkins Board Game

16.  What is your favorite TV show?
Teen Titans Go

17.  What is your favorite movie?
Monster High

18.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Swing

19.  Who is your best friend?
Stella Greak

20.  What is your favorite subject at school?
Reading

21.  What is your favorite book?
The Thank You book.

22.  What is your favorite sport?
Cheerleading

23. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas and Easter

24.  What is your favorite thing to have for dinner?
Spaghetti

25.  What do you want to be when you grow up?
Art person

26.  What is your favorite thing about your family?
They all love me

27.  What is your least favorite family rule?
Be patient

28.  If you had $100, what would you buy?
Art stuff and shopkins

29.  What are you best at?
Art

30.  What do you like best about yourself?
That my mommy thinks I'm cute

Happy 8th Birthday Bella

Its true, my littlest nugget turns 8 today.  By the time she returns home from school, she will be a year older.  I am still baffled by this.  I mean seriously, look at this sweet baby girl....

And here she is in all her prissiness this morning....

And her silly side...

She is a fun mess.  She's lovable all the time, and not just to me or her family but to everyone she meets.  If you are a friend or acquaintance of mommy's you get a hug from Bella.  That's just who she is.  She is my social butterfly and a fashionista.  Her shirt in the picture says "My Mom Is My Stylist" but she handles her wardrobe most of the time.  She isn't afraid to show her sense of style.  Her brother will sometimes shake his head at her but I love that she is brave like that.  I never was and can still be hesitant in some areas.  Not my girl.  This girl gives hugs and kisses every single day.  She would give them to her brother as well if he let her.  She also tells you she loves you every single day. One of her favorite things is drawing and writing sweet notes to family and friends.  She loves paper.  Daddy and Lena gave her a stationery set with her initial "B" on it and she thinks its the best yet.  Journals....oh my goodness how she loves journals.  She will draw or write in them, and has several. She is very creative and I love that about her. She still has the largest collection of lip gloss and hand sanitizer of anyone I know and her love of jewelry and scarves is growing just like her mommy.  She is always ready to go somewhere, anywhere and loves just being with her mommy whatever I'm doing.  I hope she always likes that.  

Happy Birthday my silly beautiful girl! I hope you have an amazing day.  I love you to the moon and back Boo Boo!! XOXO

Mama Tried

In honor of losing one of country music's greatest legends yesterday, its a Merle Haggard kinda day. I have been listening to Country Legends radio when I can get it in. Yesterday the country music Gods made it all work so I could hear all the great Merle songs and tributes. When I picked Bella up from daycare, we were driving home and bam, they played "Mama Tried". Well this is one my girl knows. She may not know all the right words but dang it makes this mommy's heart happy to hear her belting out good ole country music. I'm raising her right.

Rest in peace Merle.  Thanks for all the great music. 

A Little Weekend of Love

Saturday morning I decided Bella and I would venture off to Pearland to do a little running around. She had received two of the same Shopkins play sets for Christmas. One of them came with a gift receipt to Toys R Us (thank you Joy) and thankfully, Pearland has one.  My little Boo Boo also got a James Avery charm bracelet for her birthday from the Hillier's and Square's.  We needed to have the bracelet sized and the charms added so James Avery was on our list of stops.

Our first stop was Sonic and a selfie!
 

Bella also still had a little bit of money to spend and let me tell you, it was burning a hole in her pocket!  We arrived and she started talking about a store with makeup that we had been to before and it had jewelry.  I couldn't figure out what place she was talking about but when she saw the pink doors, she squealed and pointed and then I knew.  Charming Charlies.  The makeup consists of lipgloss. Ha!  I promised if she were a good girl, we would stop by there.  Our first stop was Toys R Us where my girl was a little disappointed that they didn't have a bigger selection of Shopkins but opted for a little bouncing yapping dog, a pocket puppy and kitty.  

Charming Charlies was a disappointment for Bella as they no longer have a young girls section.  She still looked around and even asked the sales clerk if they had any lip gloss.  That sales clerk found me later to compliment me on what a polite and well-mannered daughter I had.  Made this momma's day! Bella left with a lanyard (aka, charm necklace) and I left thinking about this clutch....

After James Avery, a late lunch at Red Robin and quiet time looking at books at Barnes & Noble, we went back to Charming Charlies for that clutch and then perused Macy's home sale for a pasta pot. No luck at Macy's so we headed home as we were beat.  Bella told me when we were going home that she really loves girls day when its just her and I spending time together.  I hope she always feels that way.  

Sunday morning I made pancakes.  Heart-shaped pancakes.  I wouldn't call it a failure but it wasn't pretty.  

I'm telling myself practice will help.  Bella loved them regardless and ate every last bit.  The first one I removed the mold too soon and had spillage.  The second one, I used less batter but almost let it sit too long.  Need to adjust my heat.  Again, if I made pancakes more often I would know this.  I also used the griddle that is built in to my stove for the first time ever.  I consider that a factor in my slight success but not failure heart-shaped pancake morning.  I will try again!!

The rest of our Sunday consisted of burning limbs, raking a few leaves, boiling chicken for dinner that night (Crescent Chicken Rolls), baking muffins, watching football and a nap!  

And let me just confess something while I'm here. James Avery told Bella and I her bracelet would be ready after 4:00 Sunday.  I originally had every intention of driving back Sunday afternoon but after we finished burning limbs, I knew I wouldn't want to go.  Bella's tummy was hurting later in the afternoon so I convinced her to lay down with me to take a nap.  I had no intention of falling asleep but I totally did.  We both woke up about the same time and the first thing she asked about was going back to James Avery.  Y'all...I totally lied to my daughter.  I told her the lady from James Avery called while she was napping to let us know they didn't get her bracelet back but would call when they did.  I may have cringed when I told her because I was being an awful mommy in that moment but I just didn't want to go.  She was upset for all of 5 minutes (if that) and then she was good. 

So yeah, bad mommy for lying but good mommy for heart-shaped pancakes.  :)

Y'all have a good one.

A Day Off

My hat has always gone off to all the stay at home moms out there.  I've always said I could never be one, and I stand by that.  Having said that, I probably could have made it Bella's first year but then I would have had to get out.  Things were different with me when she came to us.

I'm saying this because Monday was MLK holiday so the kids and I had a day off.  From the time my sweet little bear woke up until she finally fell asleep that night, we played.  We played a lot.  My goal was not only spend the day doing fun things but also prove to my child we didn't have to leave the house and spend money to have fun.  I won that battle but mercy that child wore me out.  Christopher was around in the morning but left to go to his girlfriend's mom's birthday party.  Lucky guy.

We started out with a Frozen board game cousin Stephanie gave her for her birthday.  We played that for a bit and then I had the crazy idea to play Uno.  Y'all, I had to learn how to play all over again.  Laugh it up but I'm not kidding.  It had been that long.  So as I'm reading and learning I'm also teaching Bella.  I also learned they added some new cards to the game which helped me to win a match later and completely tick my son off at the same time.  Chris wasn't up for the first round but came in the room as we were coming to an end.  He helped Bella along when she got stuck.  Second round, Chris played. One of the new cards is a "swap hands" card which I acquired one of the three times my daughter slapped down a Draw Two card to me.  Chris is giggling because he's steadily slapping cards down just moving along through the game nicely and promptly calls Uno when the time comes.  Bella plays a card that allows me to actually play and I promptly slapped down my "swap hands" card and give Christopher my cards and take his one.  Oh y'all.  You would have thought the world had just ended.  

Chris:  what?!!? What are you doing?
Me:  Read the card buddy, give me your cards.
Chris:  No way, I'm not giving you anything, I'm going out.  That card is stupid, its new and its stupid.
Me: No, its an awesome card that I'm playing right now.  Gimme, gimme.  (laughing)

Needless to say, that was the end of the Uno run that morning and the end of Christopher playing games with us that day.  Lordy mercy, he was upset.

Bella and I then played a Shopkins game she got for Christmas and then broke for lunch.  One of our favorite things to do while cooking, baking or even playing games is to listen to Country Gold on the satellite.  We're sitting at the table eating lunch listening to music....

Me:  Bella, do you know who sings this song?
B:  (thinking for a bit) No ma'am.
M:  Johnny Cash
B:  Who's he?
M:  One of the greatest country/western singers that ever lived
B:  (turns her head quickly back towards me) More than George Strait???!!!!!
Me: (laughing) That's my girl!!!!

I laughed so hard.  Girl knows who George Strait is and knows her momma loves him.

After lunch we pulled out Qwirkle which we got for Christmas.  I learned about this game from my friend Steffani who plays with her daughter Ella.  So I'm reading and learning and teaching and we finally get started when Daddy and Lena stop by.  They love playing games with us so they sat down to visit for a bit and try to help me navigate through some of my questions about the game.  I'm still not clear on a couple things but it was a fun game. We didn't even make it to the end of a round because the resident 7-year old declared she was tired of playing and needed a break. It was around this time Bella decided we needed to go for a walk since it was so pretty outside so we ventured down the street and ended up making a loop by her school and came on back home to play chicken foot.  Now this she loved.  I have a set of Double 12s and Double 15s.  We made it through two rounds of chicken foot before she was done with that and it was on to coloring!!  Y'all, I love to color!  Seriously, it relaxes me.

The book I was coloring is full of doodling pages, coloring, blank pages for drawing, etc.  I gave it to Bella for Christmas.  One of the weekends she and Christopher were at their dads, I pulled this out and started on the page you see above.  She's colored on a few pages as well.  We colored for well over an hour and then I was done.  I was getting lazy at that point so I had to quit plus I needed to start supper.  I wanted to eat early, clean up and then go walking and work my way to an easy jog.  That didn't work out because the resident 16 year old wanted to go run with his buddy at 7:30.  I could have probably gone when he got home but I didn't for these reasons...

~I had lost my enthusiasm by then;

~It was after 8:30 when he returned;

~I still needed to polish my nails; and

~I had just hung up the phone with a friend.

And y'all, I was tired.  Playing games with Bella all day plum wore me out and by the end of the day, I was getting pretty snappy.  But...it was a fun day and Bella agreed!  We will have more days like that just not so close together.  One of my mommy flaws.  I can only take so much.   

Y'all have a good one!

 

Number 7

Lucky number 7.  That's how old my baby girl is now.  How in the world did that happen? I know I say it all the time but time really does fly by and it seems to be moving even faster these days.

This girl is truly a momma's girl.  She is always loving on me, asking for hugs and kisses or giving them to you just because.  She is also a little momma to her older brother.  Sometimes before I can give him the standard line when he's leaving for school or to run and errand, baby girl is hollering "be careful bubba, I love you!"  It is the sweetest.  Sometimes he will holler back, "I didn't know I had two mommies" and she will fire right back, "well you do so get used to it!"  Dish it girl!  She is full of love and gives plenty of it to everyone, even people she just meets.  

Saturday (which was her birthday), she wanted to go shopping.  Unbeknownst to her, she was going to be receiving a delivery that day.  I had no idea what time the delivery would arrive so I took my time getting ready to leave and then had to stall some more.  Finally, these showed up from Uncle Tony...

Y'all, I wish you could have heard the gasp and squeals that followed when this girl realized the flowers were for her.  It was awesome.  Uncle Tony also included a gift card with the flowers so that made it even better since we were on our way out the door to do some shopping.    

Bath & Body Works was having a big sale so that was a must stop.  Let me say, my girl is good at avoiding all things on sale.  LOL!  I still need to teach her a few things.  She picked out a few things and I added some antibacterial soap to my stash at home.  I'll give you one guess as to where we went next...Justice!!  It didn't take her long to have a small pile of things she wanted but it quickly diminished when I explained how much all of it was going to cost her.  I did pick up a super cute backpack with her initial B on it as part of her birthday present from mommy.  We call this her fun backpack.  Something she can carry all her fun things in when going places.  After that, we stopped for a cookie/pretzel snack and then made our way to Claire's.  

We also hit up Hobby Lobby, Target and tried to go to the party store that had moved to Clute but it was closed.  On.A.Saturday.  What.The.Heck.  Needless to say I was a bit disgruntled about that. We were having a birthday dinner party for baby girl Sunday evening.  She wanted her CiCi to make pasta with chicken sauce (also known as regular ole spaghetti and meat) for the party. CiCi was already booked for Saturday but could make it work Sunday evening.  Done.  Bella wanted a fish themed party as well because hello, everyone serves an Italian dish at a fish party.  Do you know how hard it is to find fish themed party supplies on short notice?  It proved to be very difficult.  After looking everywhere and being turned away from the party store in Clute, my backup plan was to get to Party City in Pearland first thing Sunday morning.  Y'all, they don't even have fish themed party supplies.  I did not expect this at all but quickly went into my additional backup plan.  Bright colors!  We had already ordered a cookie cake with a fish on it and while in Hobby Lobby the previous day, I picked up some fabric with fish on it to use as part of the table cloth so we had a couple few things.  Her gift bags to her guests would also have Goldfish snacks, gummy fish and worms in them so we had a little fish going here and there.  

To be honest, Bella didn't really care...she was just happy to have all her family over to celebrate her birthday.  I tell myself that I will get myself together and begin planning her party sooner rather than later but that never happens.  I blame it on this holiday called Christmas.  You may have heard of it.  Apparently its a pretty big deal.  :)

I have to say, watching Bella open gifts had to be my favorite part of the evening....her expressions and enthusiasm is priceless...

  

Daddy had told me he got her a card  but he wanted her to open it last so towards the end of gift opening, he brought out a bag for her.  Inside the bag was a box....

And inside that box was another box...

And inside that box was yet another box....

 This box had a little remote control red sports car!!

Now, to say she was excited about it would be a little dishonest.  She sat there with a look on her face of total confusion (I missed that picture) because everything she received before that was total girlie girl stuff.  But let me also tell you, that after that initial shock wore off, she has played and played with that remote control car more than anything else she received.  I told her I was so jealous because Pop NEVER got me a little red sports car! My sister also chimed in saying she never got one either!  LOL!!

All in all, her birthday weekend turned out to be really fun.  Bella also deemed it the best ever so that made my heart happy.  She received more money and gift cards to Justice we we'll be making another trip in the near future.  I told her she needed to wait and let them get new stock in so she'll have more to choose from.  That may have been a selfish play on my part because two days of Justice was enough for me.  Ha!

If only....

Bella:  Mommy...do you know what the bestest thing about Christmas is?
Me: What?
Bella:  We don't have to spend all our own money on things we want for Christmas because Santa brings us everything for FREE!!
Me:  Um yeah...he sure does.

Backwards Turkey

Today was "Turn Your Back On Disrespect" day at school and my girl was all over it.  You had to wear yellow or wear your clothes backwards. Bella claimed both!  She even requested to have her hair in a bun so you could really see her backwards shirt.

Funny how different your children are.  I know this to be true because there are some things my siblings and I are complete opposites about.  Take the weather for instance.  My sister loves the summer, loves the beach, loves being hot..the whole nine yards.  I, on the other hand, hate the summer.  Period. I prefer the cold.  This time of year is my absolute favorite, although Mother Nature needs to wake up and get with the program already!  This morning after Bella got dressed I told her to show off her outfit to her brother.  He just shook his head.  He was never one to participate in days like this at school.  He even voiced his disdain to it.  "More power to you sister but you'll never catch me doing that."  He just doesn't like standing out in the crowd.  Poor kid is just like his momma.    

Sunday I spent the day taking down Halloween stuff and changing up my my Fall decorations a bit.  I snapped a pic of the place mats I mentioned the other day.  So cute.

I used my lantern from Canton as my centerpiece for the table.  Loving it. I should tell you that not only is the lantern from Canton but my burlap runner and leaf runner are also from Canton.  In fact, those were some of my finds two years ago.  The leaf runner if pretty cool because you can manipulate the leaves if you want.  I would LOVE to showcase it on a mantel!  Sadly, I don't have one.  One of these days Missy, one of these days.

Right now, the table does not have the extra leaf in it so it currently seats four. However, I have been thinking about expanding for the holidays because the table decor I have in mind needs a bigger table.  Ha!  Lucky for me, this one expands.  Thanks momma ;)  

We will see how long before I can't stand it anymore and start breaking out the Christmas decor.  I'm good for now.  

Y'all have a good one.

Cheers Bella & Tony

The week before school started Bella was in a 3-day mini cheer camp at the high school.  The last part of the camp was performing Two Bits before the first home football game last Friday.  I thought it was pretty cool because the game was against our biggest rival-Brazoswood.  However...after 6 years, we lost to our rival in the last 4 seconds of the game with a field goal.  Ugh.  Don't even want to think about it really so I will share my pictures of the cutest 6 year old cheerleader I know in Angleton.

She really did good this year. You almost can't see her from where we were standing. This was the best her dad could get with his camera.  Our angle was bad.  She was behind the cheerleader in all of the pictures I took.  

That was her waving for me to come get her after they were done.  

Posing for pictures

I just want to kiss her face...

Our mommy-daughter picture afterward.  Always a must :)

She was loving on me during the football game.  Couldn't resist another picture.  Love this girl!

By the way...today is the 2nd day of September so guess what that means?1?  It means today is my brother's birthday!!  He turns a very young 51 today.  We're all getting together this evening for a birthday dinner at Giovanni's which will be so fun and so delicious.  

Hey...y'all have a great hump day & Happy Birthday Brother!!!

  

Back To School

Yesterday was the first day of school for us.  Christopher left at dark thirty for cross country practice so I didn't get a picture of him.  Had every intention of taking a picture of both the kids when we got home but it was late when we made it home and I had lots of paperwork to fill out.

Still loves holding my hand :)

Right after I took this last picture, it was time to head to her classroom and that smile disappeared.  Out came the tears and clinging to mommy for dear life.  I walked with her until I got to the front door exit and then had to let her go.  Ugh, I HATE leaving my children in tears.  I know she was fine 5 minutes after leaving me but still.  Turns out, she did have a great first day but the best part of the day was seeing her after work and the big hug I got.   Actually, she does this every day but yesterday was extra special.   I think she will be awesome in 1st grade!  

Hope y'all had a great Monday :).

Bellaisms

I don't know if these are so much Bellaisms as they are stories but I'm trying hard to document all the things this child comes up with because she is so funny.  I've been told several times that I need to write a book one day.  Maybe I will.

First up...grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  I was picking up some vanilla almond milk and the conversation went down like this...

Bella:  Mommy, I've tried that milk before and I don't like it.
Me:  Well don't worry, its for mommy. I picked up regular milk for you and Bubba.
Bella:  I don't like that milk, its taste like nuts.
Me:  is that so?
Bella:  Yep, yucky ole squirrel nuts.
Me laughing...as is the lady walking next to us because let's face, Bella's not being quiet about this and continues talking about how much she doesn't like this milk because it tastes like squirrel nuts and she just doesn't like squirrel nuts.

I can't make this stuff up y'all.

We ventured out Saturday to Hobby Lobby to look for a bowl or something to display the seashells Bella found at the beach.  We also popped into Kohls as well to see if they had anything left for school clothes.  As we're walking down an aisle Bella tells me that its just silly that everything costs money, so much money.  It would be really awesome if everything was free...then everybody could just get whatever they wanted.  Wouldn't that be awesome mommy?  Yes it would honey.

Icky Shuffle...
How many of y'all have seen the GEICO commercial below?  I have to tell you, its still one of favorite commercials.  Take a look if you haven't...

Bella and I were playing Go Fish one night last week (or goldfish as she calls it) while we waited for dinner in the oven...
Bella:  Do you have any 4's?
Me:  Nope, go fish.
Bella:  Drew it!!  Ooh...44!! That's me ladies!!  Get your cold cuts, get your cold cuts, get your cold cuts!!  All the while she was dancing in her spot while she'd reciting this commercial.
She's totally mine.

I hope y'all have a great Tuesday :)

Life Lately

To say that life lately has been happy, sweet and grand would be somewhat of a lie.  There have been moments like those, but there have been some struggles too.

Let's start with some happy stuff!  Miss Bella officially kicked her kindergarten year in the butt!  Sweet girl received a perfect attendance medal for the year as well as a certificate for A-B Honor Roll for the year.

Here she is accepting her certificate from her teacher, Mrs. Johnson and getting a hug :)

After all the awards were handed out, the kids performed a chant and my girl assisted on stage with the letter "T".   Each letter represented something they had learned during their kindergarten year.  It ended with them all screaming, "look out 1st grade, here we come!"  It was awesome.

Don't let this smiling face fool you.  That sweet smiling face right there below quickly faded to tears when somebody realized she wasn't going home like some of the other children were able to do, which by the way, really ticked me off.  So instead of fun smiling pictures of my girl with her awards, friends and teacher, I was explaining to my crying 6 year old who was holding on to me for dear life why she had to stay at school and mommy had to go to work.  It was awful (thanks parents).  I had to peel this sweet girl off of me and pass her to another teacher to help get her the rest of the way down the hall to her classroom.  What I found almost funny is, that is exactly what happened on the first day school back in August.  She ended up having a good day and all was right in the world again.

Another picture opportunity I missed out on was Bella giving her teacher the gift we made for her.  I really wanted to get a picture of them together with this but it didn't happen.  Thank you Pinterest for the cool year end teacher gift idea.  Isn't it cute?!?  We had a lot of fun making this.  Christopher even helped with this little project.

Speaking of Christopher.  Oh this child.  He made it to his sophomore year, but he will have to take Spanish again in the Fall.  Don't get me started.  He was struggling with English and Algebra as well but improved the latter part of the year.  It was all equal parts of not studying, not trying and just not understanding.  I've had several conversations with his counselor at school.  He is making improvements and using his resources for his 504 modifications but its gradually.  He wants very much to figure it all out on his own and not use the resources/modifications he has access to but doing it on his own is not working well for him.  We have been encouraging him to use the resources.  He saw an improvement in both Algebra and English once he utilized his resources so we are hoping he will continue this into next year and kick butt.  I am hoping and praying and praying some more that this next year will be the year that it all snaps for him and he gets it together. He also wants very much to show a goat at the fair through FFA.  He has to make improvements with his grades before I will allow that to happen.  I support him in wanting to do this.  I think it would be great for him, but this momma is not about to fork out the money for an animal he may or may not be eligible to show come fair time.  I want a better guarantee.  He asked for this animal late in the year.  I asked him to kick ass and take names with his grades.  He failed.  He will not get an animal for this next year.  I'm not going to reward him for failing.  I just can't do it. And believe me, it absolutely kills me to say no but he needs to show me he can be responsible and make the grades happen.  I know he can do it.  Just has to find his groove....

I will end on a good, happy note...

Look who graduated last week, Cori Ashley Rubio!!!!!  So stinkin' proud of this girl!!

And that's life lately....full of year end stuff!!

Y'all have a good one and I hope your summer is off to a great start!!