A Gift for a Teenage Girl

My boys are invited to a Birthday Party for a friend from their youth group.  The Birthday person is a girl and I only have boys so this was a fun opportunity for me to create something fun and girly.  She is turning 13 and the fabric below is exactly what I thought of when I was trying to figure out what she would like.

I made her a mini tote with a wristlet band and a larger tote to match.  I think they turned out so cute! My DH asked me if I wanted to keep them, but I must admit I am a bit old to have purple skulls with cross bones!

This view shows the inside cell phone pocket.  Just what a girl needs, don't you think?

If you are interested in ordering such a gift for a special girl in your life, I will be happy to take orders.  The mini tote with the wristlet is $12.50 and the larger tote is $15.00.  You can get both for $25.00.  Just shoot me an email.

Thanks for stopping by!

1st Time Playing Soccer

My #3 has never participated in any sports.  I think because he is the youngest and his brothers are so active in school sports, this was on over sight on DH and my part.  So, this year we asked him if he wanted to play soccer.  His oldest brother plays soccer and so #3 knows a little about the game.  We signed him up with our local YMCA.

This is #3 at practice.  The weather was COLD for me, that is why he is wearing a sweatshirt!  Yeah, I'm his mama!

This is him in his uniform.  He looks so cute and yet so big!

Getting warmed up on game day with his team.  He is #2, but you can't see it in this picture.

This is one of the better moments in the game.  Can you see him? Almost, right?!?! This is his first time playing so he really doesn't understand and really doesn't care.  But the coach said he has "heart" so I guess that is a good thing!  I hope as his team practices more, he will understand the game and really try to play right!

New Glasses

My #2 recently got glasses.  This is a long time coming and I felt very guilty that his eyes were kinda bad due to me not taking him to an Eye Doctor when the school first told me to.  Boy, I felt like a bad parent.  This time, I got a note from the school again (last time he was in the 2nd or 3rd grade and now he is in 6th) so I told him I was going to take him.  The last time we had this conversation, years ago, he was VERY opposed to getting glasses but thankfully this time, he was excited.

He came home from school early due to a headache (he is my headache child and has always had more than my other two! Go figure, that should have told me to get his eyes checked, duh!) so I decided to make him an appointment that day.  The doctor was very nice and told me she went through the same thing with her daughter.  I told her about the notice from the school years ago but I figured he wasn't doing bad in school so he was ok.  She said the same thing went through her mind with her daughter. 

Anyways, he is near sided and has a stigmatism, a little bit from both his Father (near sided) and myself (a stigmatism) and she wants to see him again in 6 months.  She thinks his sight will improve within that six months.  When he picked up his glasses, the Eye Doctor asked him to look at the back of the store (we were in Wal-Mart) and then to take his glasses off and look at the back of the store.  He was amazed at how bad his sight is!

Ok, here is the big reveal.....

Isn't he handsome?

Home Schooling, Should I?

Home schooling has always been close to my heart. I believe in the concept and think it is great. However, I do not think it is for everyone. I have tried it once and after meeting a wonderful lady a few weeks ago that home schools her 7 children (she currently has a couple that have graduated), it has come into my mind and I cannot get the idea out!

I talked to DH about my desire to be more available for my boys and that the stress of relying on others (and they are truly a blessing!) has been hard on me. We have decided that we would pray about me quitting my full-time job at the end of the summer. I will still need to work to purchase food and gas but DH's paycheck would pay for essentials. I may have the opportunity to nanny a little one but if that doesn't work out, I will look for work outside the home a couple days a week during "Mom" hours.

What does this have to do with home schooling you ask? Well, I have brought up the subject to my boys and we have agreed to attend the Curriculum Fair here in Chattanooga in late July. DH isn't sure if this is a good idea since the last time I home schooled, it was very stressful! I explained that there were many, many, many factors that contributed to that stress. It was my FIRST year, I was miles away from my friends that were home schooling and didn't have the funds to meet up regularly; I did not know the intranet could be such an information outlet as well as a network through blogs, and on and on. Oh, and I was pregnant!!

So in light of all this pondering, I have been asking myself why I want to try this again. The first thing that comes to mind is that home schooling would be convenient. I know, this is NOT a good reason to home school and I am working that out in my mind!! The next thing is that I will be able to focus on my boy’s spiritual growth more. I would be able to schedule structured time for them to study and worship and pray. I will be there to help them when they have questions or are in situations that are confusing. Another reason is the flexibility for them to be involved in activities including volunteering. We recently volunteered (DH and I) at the Creative Discovery Museum and learned that they have a youth volunteering program for home schoolers as well as those in school. I have researched the local home school organization and see all the opportunities that are available for kids and it excites me.

The cons for my boys include being able to participate in sporting activities since they are very involved. But, the local home school group offers sports, just not all of them. They want to see their friends but I know they will have the opportunity to make new friends through scheduled get together’s with other home schoolers. They will miss out on school trips but I see that they will have the opportunity to be more involved in church activities where they can take mission trips which to me is more important anyways.

Ok, I think I'm done for now. I needed a place to write down my thoughts before they drove me crazy. What do you think?

[Oh and Mom if you are reading this, I was going to talk to you about this at some point but I guess now there's no time like the present :)]

Relationships

I told my DH that I would not post this story but it is just too good not to!!  In the future, this could turn out to be quite embarassing, but sometimes that is just what parents do, right?

Ok, here is the story:  I was in my local supermarket one evening this week and I spotted one of the cheerleaders from my boy's middle school.  I know this girl because last year she had a crush on #1.  As I approached the check out, her Mom told me she needed to ask me a question.  She wanted to know if I would allow #1 to go to the 8th grade dance with her daughter.  I must admit, I did know a little history of this situation and you will learn it as the story continues. 

I told this Mother that #1 did not want to go to the dance with her daughter because he had a girlfriend and did not want to hurt his girlfriend's feelings (I do not condone my boys having girlfriends but have learned that I can not prevent it either. That said, I try to inforce that God created my boys to like girls and that is natural.  However, the rules in our home state that my boys are not allowed to talk to girls on the phone, hold their hands or kiss them.  In my eyes, then why have a girlfriend????).  I was then informed by this girl that #1 and his girlfriend have broken up (WHAT?).  I did inform them that I find out all my information through one of #1's friends Mom's and that I did not that #1 and his girlfriend had broken up.

The Mom then asked me again if #1 could go to the dance with her daughter.  I did proceed to tell them that I was aware that this girl asked #1 to go.  Her response was, "I didn't ask him."  Hmmmm...interesting!  I asked her if she gave a note to #1 asking him to the dance and she agreed that she had.  I then told her that when I asked #1 about this (I learned this information from his friends Mom, remember?) he told me he threw the note away without reading it because he knew what it was going to say and he did not want to go to the dance with her.

The Mom again asked me if I would allow #1 to go (she is very persistant!).  I told her that #1's Dad and I had discussed it.  I told her that I didn't want him to go but that his Dad thought it was ok so we would have to discuss it some more and #1 would have to let her know.  This whole conversation was quite comical!

When I got home, I decided to talk to #1 in private (as not to embarrass him infront of his brother) about his love life.  I told him I had seen this girl in the store and about our conversation.  I asked him about the break-up with his girlfriend.  He confirmed that they had broken up.  When I asked why, he said she broke up with him because he was BORING!

HA! I was so excited to hear this I put my hands up for a high five (two of them actually)!  At this point, #1 was very confused as to why I was so excited! I told him that I was so proud that he was boring because if he wasn't then that would mean that he was paying too much attention to the girl and probably doing things he shouldn't be doing.  He still looked at me kind of funny but it didn't matter because I was so proud!!!

We ended the conversation with me telling him he shouldn't worry about girls anyways and he agreed! He even told his best friend that he didn't want a girlfriend and just wanted to concentrate on hanging out with his friends.  Wow, we might actually be doing something right in this game of parenting!! 

Awards Day

My #1 had his end of the year awards day.
Here he is patiently waiting for his awards (heehee)!

This is him getting his awards on stage. There was no graduation so the dress was casual!

#1 and his friends. I know he'll keep in touch over the Summer. We are so very proud of him and are excited that he will be going into the 7th grade. I just can't believe he is going to be a teenager in a couple of months, ahhhhhh!

Promotion Day

My #2 was promoted to middle school. He has completed his 5th grade year and is leaving the elementary school. I think he is quite excited to be going to the Jr. High! He will be with his big brother so that means I will be really busy with sports!

This is him getting his certificate from his teacher.

He got a Spirit Award!

Hanging out with his class. They played the recorder for a few songs to entertain us.

Awwww....him and his teacher. He is going to miss her.

Awana Derby Night

Last night was the Awana Derby Night at our church. The boys took 4 weeks to create their cars. They cut them out and painted them. It was so much fun and the whole church was invited to attend and watch the race. I must say, the ones who ran it were uber organized and everything flowed great! I am looking forward to next year already!

This is #2's car. I love the smiley face!

This is #1's car. It's a corvette (I think).

Here is the track the church was able to borrow and the crowd was much larger than it shows. The kids got to sit on bleachers close to the track while the adults were seated in the back! Too much fun :)

Skateboarder

Well, today is a day off, yay! It's a holiday, but to the kids, it's just another reason to not have to go to school. #1 is at a friends house and #2 has a friend over. #2 and his friend are the skateboarding type so I thought this would be a perfect time to tell you about our experience in Louisiana. We visited the local skate park in Lafayette (the boys really wanted to go) and it is unlike our Chattanooga park. For one, it's indoors (which is a must since Louisiana is so stankin humid) and it has different ramps and things. There are three extra large steps that #2 could jump easily and then there were 9 regular steps that he was contemplating jumping. As his mother who supports his ambition to want to go pro, I told him I knew that he could do it! There were some kids listening to me trying to pump him up and they couldn't believe I actually wanted him to try this. Well, it took him a while to psyche himself up but he did try it!!



#2 is the blur that you see in this picture in the striped shirt. Ok, this may not look high, but it was! He tried to land it three times but kept falling on one arm and I was afraid he was going to break it so at that point I needed to convince him to stop. His Dad had to help me but we convinced him to stop. I was so proud and so was he! He wants us to blow up this picture for him! I will keep up with the legacy that #2 will leave on the skateboarding world! We are very proud!