The End of a Season

 The definition of a season is: a time characterized by a particular circumstance or feature.  Or that's one definition.

We are coming to the end of a season.  My baby is graduating from elementary school.  This time next week, she will officially be a 5th grader...

 My, my. How time has flown.  

Our years at our little school have been an amazing experience filled with ups and downs, victories and a few defeats, but mostly they've been filled with love and a myriad of wonderful memories.

Kindergarten brought a new beginning.  New friends, new teachers, new places.  With it came a core group of kiddos and parents we have grown to love and friendships we both cherish.  We battled a rare blood disease and a year filled with constant blood draws. New experiences came when she was accepted into the gifted and talented program, and being pulled out of class each week.  Bust mostly it brought confidence.

1st grade brought new challenges.  Learning to live with ADHD, making more new friends and giving her a best friend.  She started gymnastics, found a love for reading, had sleepovers.  For me it brought PTA, new friends, and being a room mom.

 

2nd grade was pretty relaxed.  She had the same teacher as 1st grade, which she loved, started competitive cheer, and continued in the GT program.  She got her first note from a boy, and had a teeny crush for a boy.  More volunteer work for me and new friendships once again.

3rd grade started with heartache.  A school fire in the middle of the night right before school started, with the crushing news that one of our own set the fire.  It was a year filled with pain all around.  Ended friendships, bitter parents, being displaced from our school.  It was a year of tough decisions for me as the PTA president.  How to help, make the kids feel safe.  It was a year of change.

4th grade...this has been a year of learning.  For both of us.  A year of growing up, taking chances, cherished friendships, boys calling, mean girls and finding her own way.  A year of big decisions, with her asking Jesus into her heart {I couldn't be prouder}.  Bonding with her soccer friends, testing off the charts, and reading constantly.  A second year as PTA president, dealing with new parents, and being so very thankful for my dear friends.

 

 

 

 

 
As I look back, I see how very blessed we are.  We will always cherish these first years of school and all they've brought with them. 

This has been a year that ends a season.  A season of growth.  A season of love.  A season of learning.  
 

Kids & Technology 101

I'm just gonna be honest.  This post is sure to ruffle some feathers.  Some of you will give me high 5's.  Some will give me the evil eye in the carpool line.  And, I'm okay with that.  It's my blog and I get to say what I want.  I would like to say, that regardless of my feelings on technology, it doesn't mean I want to tar & feather fellow parents for their choices on their kids and the technology they allow them to use.

Let's get this started.

A key point to state is that my kid is 10.  My feelings are based on this.  Well, mostly.

I can't tell you how many kids 13 and under that I see with Facebook accounts.  I cringe when C looks over my shoulder and tries to keep up with my news feed.  It's the internet people, there is always going to be inappropriate content that pops up.  So why in a world where everything is in your face would you let your kid have a Facebook account?  No matter what, they will see things you won't like.  Personally I'd like C to hold on to her innocence a little while longer since she's oh, only 10.  And yes, I'm very familiar with privacy settings, but that doesn't stop everything.

I'm not some crazy freak mom who wants to shelter my sweet baby.  I am however, a very technology savvy mom who wants to equip my daughter with things at the appropriate time.  I'm pretty dang open with my kid, but that doesn't mean I want everyone else to be open with my kid.

Some of the most common things lately have been the iPod touch, iPhone, or any smart phone really.  I'm not opposed to these things, but I'm not thrilled about them being in the hands of kids either.  Caroline has had a phone since she was 8.  A plain old phone that calls and texts.  I felt that since we cancelled our home phone and I was having problems with her dad answering his phone when she was there for his weekends, that I needed to be able to get ahold of her when I darn well wanted to.  She knew the rules from day one.  You can call any of your 4 parents. You can text those 4 parents.  And in 2 years, she has handled it better than I ever dreamed.  She is now allowed to call or text her close friends on occasion.  She earned that for being responsible with it and not abusing the fact that she had a phone.

She wants an iPhone.  Bahahaha.  We've discussed it, we've enthusiastically debated it.  And I said yes...for about 1 day.

I decided I needed to research my options for privacy and security a little more.  I kid you not, the next day I saw roughly 10 instances that ruined all hope for her getting one.  Or for the pretty new iTouch to replace her 1st generation one.

Twitter, FB, Instagram, just to name a few...oye!  I use them all, but after seeing some similar aged kids that we know using these and the stuff I witnessed made me realize that yes, Caroline is still a baby in this world.  And I want to protect her from it.

I saw kids posting pics of other kids on school buses, with hateful commentary.  I saw kids who were following half naked people, or half naked people were following them.  I saw duck faces, booty pics, and pajama pics.  I saw little girls trying to be sexy and boys trying to be buff.  I saw them posting friends pictures and tagging them so they would get more followers...which is how I'm sure the half naked people ended up on their friends lists.  Is this what we're really teaching our kids?  No wonder they struggle in their teens, we aren't guiding them at the right time.

We are doing our jobs by wanting to give them the best possessions we can, which in turn helps them socially.  But at what cost?  Let's face it.  We don't want our kids to be picked on, we want them to be accepted.  And when the norm for being accepted revolves around all this in your face technology, we have to be careful what choices we make for our kids.  I'm well aware that we can 'police' the social media outlets we let our kids use, but good grief, who has time to check every app, go through the friends or followers list and make sure all is happy?  Not anyone I know.  Well maybe me.  But only because I'm already on these sites everyday and I'm pretty quick at giving things the once over.  And I work for myself, so I make the rules.

I make decisions about Caroline's friends based on what I know of them and when I see things that aren't okay for her age, posted by her little friends, I pause and think twice.  I.hate.that.

I always knew that as she got older I would be faced with tough choices, but I didn't think it would be this fast and over a phone.  I wish more parents didn't give in to the craze of having an                   {insert form of technology here}.  It makes it hard on all of us.  But, if you know me, I don't follow suit because it's cool, so for now, even if all her friends have an iPhone, she won't.

Before any nasty people start in about how I must have had a sheltered life, or I didn't have all the cool things, your wrong.  I did have strict parents.  But, I also had a mom who wasn't a fool and bought hot pink condoms to match my prom dress.  Nice.  I also was the only 16 year old I knew in 1994 that had a cell phone.  All my friends had pagers, and no, I wasn't a dork.

The moral of the story is that although I love technology and I want my kid to be socially up to speed, I don't know that I really want to put the burden of all that responsibility on my 10 year old.  Let's start with getting her to clean her room.

Falling Off the Wagon

I missed my 3rd Fun{ky} Filled Friday post.  I already fell off the wagon.  But, I've got my feet under me {I think}.  I had a lot of great things I wanted to post, but just couldn't get all my thoughts to be cohesive and make any dang sense.  Mom brain?

Part of the problem...mom overload.

I'm a social media/technology junkie, but I'm not so sure I'm ready for my 10 year old to be.  So when her teacher asked for permission to allow her to email me projects I was "iffie".  My feelings on this topic are saved for another post, but in the meantime, it did make me smile and cry when I saw my 1st email from my daughter in my inbox.

We love our kids right?  We even love them when they make us crazy...yes, yes we do.  But when it's 7pm on a Thursday night and they tell you they need a 50's Poodle Skirt for school the next morning...not so much.  Off to Hobby Lobby I went to find the necessary supplies, because lets face it, I wasn't going to be able to walk into a store that late and just pick out the perfect poodle skirt.  I pulled an all nighter.  Hello, I'm 34, and although I'm a slight insomniac, 24 hours of being awake is not what my body likes.  Oh, and a side-note, my munchkin wasn't even home, it was her night at her dad's, I'd like to see him make a poodle skirt at 10pm, so I had to take it to her the next morning.

When I showed up the next morning, barely walking with the biggest bags of my life under my eyes, it was all worth it.  She was beaming!  Her dad couldn't believe how good it was.  Seriously, he doubted my skills?  Moron.  Just kidding {sort of}. 

Work has also kept me on my toes, which is a total blessing.  Great things are in store!  I had an offer to do some shots for a local CrossFit, and dare I say it's the beginning of a great opportunity on all fronts!  CrossFit Waco is an amazing community of people and I am now one of them!  If your local, you need to get signed up, like yesterday.  Be on the lookout for my work on their website, the new Success Stories will be up soon :)

And since I'm now training there, we've been eating a little differently.  We already eat pretty much on the healthy side, now I'm just tweaking things a little more.

Thankfully, Caroline has a great coach at school who really encourages living a healthy lifestyle.  She teaches them the importance of what you eat and how you get exercise.  Every year she helps to encourage our kids to participate in a local marathon, Miracle Match Marathon.  The kids run a marathon over a period of time at school.  The last mile of the marathon is run at the Miracle Match Marathon during the kids run.  It's a great cause, a great event and it's awesome how fired up she gets our kids, if only she could get us parents in gear.

We had a great time!  Our tiny little school of just over 200 kids had 84 participate!  I rode with one of my besties and we really enjoyed watching how excited all the kids were.

It's time for me to get away from the computer and go to CFW and get my butt kicked for the day...oh joy.  One day I'll be happy about it, when I'm not so sore that it hurts to drive.

December

December.  It has come and gone in a blur.  I've had several witty, comical, loving posts to write this month, but let's just be honest.  I haven't had the time.

I actually have laughed quite a bit at that thought...I don't have the time.  Why shouldn't I?  I don't have an 8-5 job, I own my own business and work from home.  I blogged 3 times as much as I do now when I "worked" and ran my business on the side.  But I've come to the conclusion that when you're putting all your efforts into making a business thrive, some of what you love gets lost.  But that's another post...

Back to December.  I think I must have had an out of body experience in August when I volunteered to be the room mom for Caroline's 4th grade class.  With being PTA president, a mom, wife and business owner, why would I ever volunteer to take this role too?  Well, I only have one baby and it's her last year of elementary school, that's why.  And I like a little crazy in my life...apparently.

We baked, we made crafts, we shopped, wrapped presents, went to Christmas parties, painted nails and had lots of family time.  I'll induce picture overload shortly to show you just a little of what our December looked like.  It was a crazy, fun, exhausting juggling act.  And we loved every.stinking.minute. (well, most of the time)

We started the holiday fun with a Christmas play and the kid really threw me for a loop.  The music teacher asked all the girls if they had a costume they could wear to be a sugar plum fairy.  Of course all the girls that took ballet raised their hands...and so did Caroline (who is not in ballet).  After many hours trying to scrape together a costume, which meant hours of sewing and handbeading/bedazzling, I find out that she told the teacher that even though she wasn't in ballet, that her momma could make anything and would be glad to make a costume.  Although I wanted to cry over my lost sleep, I was incredibly touched that my girl had so much pride and faith in me.  And let me just say, her costume was by no means the prettiest, but to her, it was, and that was all I needed to make every minute worth it.

This next picture has a very special meaning to me.  This was taken at roughly 10am CST Friday, December 14th, 2012.  While I was at our precious tiny school of 260 students watching all of them and our staff in one room enjoy a Christmas musical put on by our 4th grade, the precious children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary were praying for their lives.  At the time, none of us knew what has happened.  I left the school about an hour later.  I got in my car, posted a pic to FB and drove off.  When I stopped for gas not 10 minutes later I pulled up FB.  And then I saw the news.  I sat in my car and bawled.  I still have no words for what I felt.  It took every last ounce of strength in me to not go back and get my one and only baby.  I just wanted to hold her, even though I was lucky enough just 10 minutes before to do just that.  I got to hug her, tell her how proud of her I was and tell her I loved her.  Those parents didn't get that.  I can't begin to tell you the thoughts that raced through my head.  Fear being at the forefront of my mind.  It hit me that our whole school was together in a single room...what if?  And then I just stopped and prayed.  I couldn't go there, not when so many were hurting.  I had to pray for Sandy Hook, I had to pray for our country.  So when I look at this picture, the myriad of emotions it evokes will always be with me.  Always.

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We has Christmas parties at school, decorated gingerbread houses, took a limo to see Christmas lights...in short, we ran on full speed at all times.  And we're exhausted!

 Caroline had some art displayed at Barnes and Noble

 Some very cold mornings!

 

 Pajama party at school!

  Shimmer the Elf

 Hubby's new helmet

Caroline got a few early Christmas gifts from her Great Aunt in Dallas.  We love us some Aunt Lisa!!!  And she loves to spoil Caroline, so needless to say, when she opened the box and saw the new American Girl Doll "Caroline", she was ab.so.lute.ly beside herself!

Then we had Christmas with the hubby's family and our precious 3 year old niece got to see sparklers for the 1st time!   Christmas Eve was spent at church with some of our very good friends, and we had to get pictures of all the kiddos!  Caroline was thrilled to have her 2 best friends with her that night!  We made the most of our time with Caroline since she was going to her dad's on Christmas morning, so we had a jam packed early morning at my parents house.

And probably my most favorite part of December was taking our very 1st Family Pictures!  I've never had family pictures made with Caroline.  This was one of the best days ever for me :)  I'll share more of those pics later :)

And now it's off to have another sleepless night....I'll be cleaning since we are hosting our friends and their kiddos tomorrow night for New Year's Eve!  Happy New Year to you and yours, may all your dreams come true and may 2013 be a blessed year!

Bragging Parents

It occurred to me today that parents are hard on more than just their kids.  Parents are hard on other parents.

I won't go into the differences we all have in parenting styles,  I just want to touch on the issue of bragging.

When do you consider what another parent says about their kids to be bragging?  Why is this on my mind?  Well, I've gotten some amazing news over the last few weeks and I am so unbelievably proud of Caroline!!!

  And as sad as it is, I feel like I can't share it.  As a friend, I don't want to make my friends who have kids the same age feel like its a competition.  And this may seem really silly to some of you, but be honest here...we all know those parents who constantly talk up there kids to the point that its annoying.  And I'm not saying they shouldn't be proud or that they shouldn't talk about it.  But, I don't want to be that parent, who is annoying and over the top with all their kids accomplishments.

I just want to be proud of my kid and share how proud I am.  She's pretty amazing :)

 I think what makes this hard for me is that we all know kids are very different.  They all have strengths and weaknesses.  They all excel in different areas.  I never want to be a parent who boasts and makes another parent feel badly about what their child is doing.

Caroline is very bright and bubbly and not shy.  Which is all wonderful.  But, she has downfalls just like other kids.  Some people don't consider ADHD a downfall, they think it's a crutch for bad behavior, an excuse.  Well, I hate to break the mold, but she is amazing.  She's not "bad", she just can't sit still.  But all that is beside the point...

People look at her and think what a spunky bright little girl, and because of that, I feel like I can't beam with pride and tell everyone how bright she is, what she achieved.  I have very dear friends who have kids that struggle academically and/or socially.  I can.not stand the thought of making them feel bad when I talk about Caroline. 

So I don't post on FB about it like my friends, I don't call a friend to share my news.  I just sit here with my hubby and we smile and talk about how proud we are.







How do you beam with pride for your kids?  How do you boast when they've broken the record?  When they've done an amazing job?

And it Begins

We made it through the start of school!  Whew!  It always stresses me out.  That fear of not getting us back into our "normal" routine.  And this time we had the added bonus of starting soccer practice again the night before school started, talk about wear a mom out.  But all in all its been a great transition.

You can totally tell C was worn out that first morning.  

I've also been super busy with my business.  Now that's it's cooled off some in Texas, people are ready to get pictures done.  I did an awesome Senior shoot 2 weeks ago and she totally rocked it! 

The gorgeous Jordyn

 This weekend I did a Bridal Session for the sweetest girl!  I can't wait to do the wedding in a few short months!

Beautiful Raley

 I also need to give a little update on C's room re-do.  Everything is just about done!  I just have all the trim work left, which is gonna take a little time.  There is a lot of cutting and measuring going into it since we are essentially striping one wall with 1 1/5 inch trim board.  Eventually...but, we did get the splatter paint floors done. And they.are.awesome!  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!

This is after the 1st two colors...

 

The finished result...

 

I have a whole list of blog posts to do, that I'm determined to get to.  So stay tuned!