First game of her senior year!

I am going to try and not be emotional over every little event but it's going to be hard! Friday night was the first football game of Jessica's senior year. I am not ready for this!

Every home game the band gets together in the same spot - in the parking lot next to what was the band building when Mark and I were in middle school. It is the site of our first kiss, by the way (this thought grosses Jessica out so I have to mention it often). It is a detached building from the main school building. These building now house the county school administration offices. Anyway, the band parks their semi trailer here and then once everyone is in uniform, they form a circle and begin warming up. This parking lot is between two buildings so the sound is always amplified. It makes them sound twice as big as they are. I think this is a psycological ploy to spook the visiting band! So this photo was taken as they were warming up.

I took a bunch of other shots with my SLR. I'm thinking about documenting this whole season just in b/w. I have a handful of b/w shots from other years but I want to do this differently. Also, I can scrap them in colors other than green and gold. I won't miss the break from that!

Who is this kid?

Okay, I cannot figure out what is going on with Courtney. She has mentioned off and on that she would like to be a cheerleader. For those who know Courtney well, just the fact that she has said that is baffling enough. So, a few weeks ago the local high school cheer squad had a fund raiser where they had a half day "cheer camp" for girls K-5. Courtney came home begging to go. So we said okay. I talked to her everyday for a week about how she would have to participate and what she was going to have to do. She never backed down. I imagined meltdowns and me standing there right by her side the whole time. Well, we went and it was great! She participated in all the activities and had a great time! They told the girls that they could come to the first home game and cheer with the big girls on the field. This past Friday night was it! The uniform she is wearing is actually one that is for the older girls so that is why it doesn't fit real well. I still wasn't sure she was going to go through with it but she did! They cheered on the field for the first quarter and she did great! None of the girls this age are very coordinated but they all looked really cute! I'm still trying to put this emerging piece of Courtney's personality into what I know about her so far. I mean, my idea of a cheerleader type personality is the total opposite of Courtney. We'll see how this progresses! While she is enjoying it, we'll enjoy it! Go, Waves, Go!

She's crafty!

If I've heard "I'm bored" once this summer, I've heard it a thousand times. Courtney is going through a stage where every minute of her waking hours needs to be filled with doing something. I'm trying to teach her the joy of just sitting and enjoying the peace and quiet but I'm not having much luck there.

One of her favorite things to do is anything crafty. Right after saying, "I'm bored", she will say, "Can we do a craft?" I had actually planned to do several crafts this summer but I think we ended up doing only 3 -4 of the things I had actually planned. One reason it frustrates me to do a craft project is that I don't plan ahead and then I don't have the supplies we need. This past Saturday, I actually did a little planning and picked up some things at the store. We belong to a Strawberry Shortcake craft book club and we just got a new book with this craft idea. So, Courtney made a marshmallow "Pupcake" dog with a graham cracker/peanut butter dog house. It was pretty quick and fun enough to satisfy her creative itch. Then she ate it all up!

Lovin' paper bag albums

I remember when I first started seeing paper bag albums on 2Peas. I thought "Okay, that is over the edge and I am not even going there". I think part of that thought was because I didn't know where to begin and I didn't get the concept of mini albums. Tracie and I went to Scrapaccino one day and they had some blank paper bag albums for sale already sewn together. I thought I would give it a try. I have to admit I'm lovin' it! I think mini albums are a fabulous way to get a project done quickly. And this medium of using paper bags is so crazy it's almost perfect. I have done three, as you can see. The pink one is for friends. I have to get some pictures of my friends which I have very few. So this album is also making me document important relationships that I would have easily overlooked. Not the relationships but the documentation of those relationships. The upper right one is titled "Summer" and has random pictures of things we do in the summer. I plan on doing one for fall, winter and spring also. The lower one is titled "Mom and Me" and contains pictures of a mother/daughter camping trip Jessica and I took when she was 9.

Another plus for me personally, is that sense of actually finishing a project. I have discovered I have real issues with actully finishing anything. I haven't quite figured out why I have this issue but there it is. It feels great to look at these little, creative albums and know that they are pretty much complete. They really satisfy the creative part of me. It is so fun playing with all the elements, getting paint and ink on my fingers and using some of my yummy ribbon. I really need to find a source for some fabulous ribbon.

I just need a scanner so I can post the whole album on 2Peas!

She did good today

Today Courtney's class went to music during their related arts time. Ms. Crider is her music teacher and she has a great personality. Jessica had her as a music teacher and I know her through Girl Scouts. I have a tape and songbook around her somewhere of her singing all those silly campfire songs.

Anyway, Courtney loves her and her silliness. Evidently today Courtney did a good job in music class. She got to pick out a stamp, color of ink and where she wanted the stamp. I have no idea why she picked her forehead! (Sorry the picture is a little blurry, having camera operator problems!) You probably can't see it very well, she has a red star stamped on her forehead!

Senior Year

Well, here we go. The first day of Jessica's senior year. I'm not quite sure how I feel. Is this the beginning of the end or the beginning of the beginning of the rest of her life? I guess it's both!

Of course, mornings are not good "let's stop and savour the moment kind of times". In fact, as I took this picture her cell phone was ringing by the person she needed to pick up on her way to school. I'm really going to have to slow her down so she can enjoy this last year. Teenagers think they will have more freedom as an adult but actually they have more freedom as teenagers because they don't have all of the responsibilities of adulthood. Why are we humans never satisfied with our current state of affairs? I really need to work on this myself but teaching that to these girls seems impossible.

Courtney and I discovered a quirky thought. Today is Jessica's first day of the twelfth grade and it's Courtney twelfth day of the first grade. How wierd is that! (okay, I had retype that sentence three times because Kirsten is hanging on my arm!)

BTW, Tracie, yes I have a digi camera. It's not great, not what I want ultimately but it helps me post things! TFL!

Note to self...

Do not update your blog, do laundry or go to the bathroom unless Kirsten is asleep, restrained (in highchair or baby bed) or supervised by someone else.

Yesterday, while typing the entry below, Kirsten desided to decorate herself. I cannot figure out where she got the ink pen but she had fun with it. She also wrote on the wall a little bit. When I walked into the room, she pointed to her leg and said "Mess!" I tried to explain to her that this was bad and that I was not happy with the situation. Then I reinforced that by taking a picture! Would that be seen as mixed signals? Oh, well. This will be the first of many 'Messes' I'm afraid. Neither one of the other two ever wrote on the wall, by the way. I think they both wrote on themselves at some point.

She is in her highchair watching Baby McDonald right now. I did learn my lesson!

Just coasting along

I knew it would be difficult for me to post everyday but I had hoped to do better than this! Actually I have been waiting for a band camp picture to post but that will have to wait a little longer.

It has been one of those weeks. Monday I actually got a lot done. I finished up two projects for a couple of design clients. I did 5 loads of laundry (it never ends). I made a trip to Wal-Mart which took longer than it needed to because I had Kirsten with me and there were so many people there. Why!? On a Monday, in the middle of the day! Shopping, loading them into the car, driving home, unloading the car, putting everything away. All of this really sends me over the edge! And of course doing all of this in the sweltering heatwave we are going through!

So I felt pretty good about myself by the end of the day. But I have managed to do a whole lot of nothing since then. I really need to do some cleaning around here but I can't get motivated to do it.

I've realized I need to find a way to have some "me" time. That is as constant a battle as laundry, it seems! I really just need an attitude adjustment. I remembered a book I had from several years ago, so I started reading it again.


It's A Fresh Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson. Some of the ladies at my church attended a Women of Faith conference in Nashville a few years ago. Nicole was one of the speakers. She is awesome! She has one of those funny, creative, outgoing kind of personalities that I wish I could have. She does these fabulous skits and sings. Anyway, this book is about waking up your soul. This definatley is what I need. I couldn't really put a finger on what my problem has been lately, but that sums it up-I need to wake up my soul. I find I'm not overly excited about anything right now. I really need to spend about a week with someone like Nicole to get me going again! It's a great book and her "voice" on the pages is just as upbeat as she is. She has a couple of new books I'm going to look for this weekend. Check her out!

First week of First Grade

We have survived our first week of First Grade. Courtney loves it! She loves her teacher and she loves her related arts teachers (PE, art, music, library). Kirsten is adapting better.

The school Courtney is going to is one of the oldest in town. It has gone through many phases. Mark and I actually attended fifth grade there. At the same time, but we didn't know each other then. It would be interesting to know how often we almost ran into each other. Many years later, Jessica attended fifth grade at this school. Now it is back to a K-5 school and Courtney is there.

When I pick her up in the afternoons, we drive around the back of the school to a back entrance. While sitting in line I looked to my left and saw the playground I played on in fifth grade. It shocked me at first. I had flashbacks to the good, the bad and the ugly! I can remember just starting to get into popular music. I had a best friend, Sonya. She and I would sit over to the side, near the tree line and sing whatever song was going through our heads at the moment. I remember "Jukebox Hero" and "I love rock and roll" specifically. It seems like this year was also when differences started to be made among the kids. For some reason all the rich kids where in a class together. My class had recess with that class. Not so good memories there.

As you can see from the photo, this playground is fenced in and no longer used. I guess that made it more surreal to me. Some days fifth grade seems like yesterday and other days it seems like a time so far away and distant from me I wonder if that was really me in those memories. I was imaging last night that I could jump on those monkey bars and start twirling and flipping like I did all those years ago. I just might go over and try it!

Here we go....

I guess we are going to jump onto this Blog band wagon. I have no idea what we will post about or who read it. But we will try to have fun along the way!

As of today, Mark and I are 34, Jessica is 17 (for 3 months and 25 days, do you think she is counting?), Courtney is 5 and Kirsten is 18 months.

Jessica is in her second week of band camp. These have been the hottest days of this summer so far. Those kids have worked hard and have most of the show on the field. We are excited about this year! We'll keep you posted!

Courtney started first grade yesterday. I had prepared myself for her being nervous and not wanting me to leave her but we had none of that! Kirsten and I had lunch with her and she was very happy and seemed comfortable with everything. Kirsten on the other hand has surprised me. She walked around the house all day yesterday, whining, "Cory! Cory!" Today has been a little better but she still misses her. They have played really well this summer.

Mark is settling into his new job. He is going to have to go out of town this week. Hopefully, there won't be much of that.

I met with a design client today who is building a new house. I am designing her cabinetry for the kitchen, bathrooms and family room. This is the kind of project I enjoy the most.

That is a summary of our current events. More to come soon!