BUSY Saturday

Saturday morning I had to set my alarm......ugh. NOT fun waking up on a Saturday at the same time that I get up on weekdays. We were at the soccer fields behind Gaither HS by 7.30 am for pictures. The photographer was on the ball this time-I guess that it pays to be the FIRST team because previously during tee-ball and soccer, it did not go quite so smoothly.

We were down three lil ones, but RED THUNDER played HARD with only 6 kiddos on the field and managed to pull out their third win of the season. The other team had like 14 kids and they were subbing like mad. Lemme tell you we had 6 seriously exhausted kids when we were done. Lil J came soooo close to making a goal. If he had been wearing his glasses(which he refuses to do during soccer) he would have gotten it right in. I think that he might reconsider this weekend and wear them. Frankly, he is afraid of getting hit in the face with them on and I "get that".

We dashed off the field to get home and ready for a trek over to UCF and the MS Annual Meeting where I was receiving an award for Volunteer of the Year. The keynote speaker was a research doctor at UCF doing some incredible research on stem cells that will someday......cure NUMEROUS diseases specifically diabetes. He was brilliant, which in my mind equaled all kinds of BORING. His speech was soooo far above my head it was frightening, but the rest of the day was awesome. I luv being able to see "friends" from my MS family.

Did you know that University of Central Florida is the 2nd largest university in the USA?? The MS chapter president said that in her intro and of course, I didn't believe her, so I googled it. Low and behold, I am guessing she had googled it too. Who knew?!! The medical school is magnificent and I will gladly send my son there so that he can find a cure for MS. LOL.

Just after the shindig ended, I received a text message that sent me into a FUNK. Many many years ago and truthfully, a WHOLE other lifetime ago, I was with another person and married for a total of ten years. While I would not change things if given the chance, this text message TRULY made me stop to realize that everything in life DOES happen for a reason.....not that I ever doubted that, but this confirmed what I have known for a VERY long time.

My heart breaks for a woman and her little boy that I have never met and another woman that I used to call my mother-in-law.
May the end be painless and yet another life lesson that my daddy taught me, Life is definitely, NOT FAIR!!

We were supposed to head back on Sunday to go to LegoLand, but neither dh nor I had the stamina to drive to Winter Haven so we will go this weekend. I hear it is great for kids that are lil J's age. I can't wait.

Off to go get ready for school. We will find out today which one of us who submitted a $500 mini grant back in August will be awarded the $$. Apparently, a school board member will be there to present the grant to one of us. I think that there are 10 of us in the running. Who knows, maybe this will be my week for winning awards?! I shall keep you posted. I do, however, HATE surprises, so............we shall see.

There is NO doubt

that life just seriously gets in the way of soooo many things that I used to have time for.....blogging, is def. one of them.

Last time I sat down to blog, I couldn't for the life of me even remember my password to log in to post......I have tooo damn many passwords and at work having to change it every 90 days to one that I have never used before just boggles my mind. Just about the time that I can remember it, I need to change it.

I used to love to go blog hopping and read, but NO time and with facebook on my thunderbolt and my tablet, it is just easier sometimes to keep up via FB. I know that sounds pathetic, and I am sorry for that.

We are in full swing now with school. It blows my mind that my "baby" is five weeks away from being 7 years old. How is that even possible? He is thriving in first grade and has yet to miss one question on math, spelling or reading tests. One year ago, he could barely read(and didn't even want to) while he is now going through MY classroom library to pick out books. Unreal.
He hasn't gotten ONE single behavior check this year either........and only one day on yellow!! His meds are working and HE totally knows it.

We are in our second season of YMCA soccer with Coach Chris. Lemme tell you........that man is a SAINT!! He has taught the kids sooooo much and seriously with only one hour per week, I don't know how he does it. Especially since practice is at 6.30 pm and their attention span at that time of night is GONE. We won our first two games and tied today agains the best team. Way to go RED THUNDER!!

This week I survived my pre-observation conference, my EET observation, post observation conference, ELP, SES AND our PTA Fall Festival Carnival. So, lemme tell you what tired means. LOL. Thankfully, a lazy day is in my future tomorrow cause I am gonna take full advantage of it. This afternoon we will head over to St. Pete to hit the pumpkin patch that we have gone to every single year since Johnnie and I met.......then dinner and then all of us will more than likely collapse. Dad's Club President outdid himself last night and then again this morning on the soccer field, so I know he is as tired as I am.

I hope to scrap something one of these days........lord knows I might finish up kindergarten school year one day soon.....a page here and a page there. Some might say, that isn't too bad, he is only in first grade, but PLEASE keep in mind, I have yet to scrap my wedding(8th anniversary was two weeks ago) or Joshua's birth, so yes, I am just a little behind.

We are looking forward to celebrating Joshy's 7th birthday in New York, so I def. see some winter clothing shopping in my future as well. I have NO complaints. My life is nearly.......perfect. A few xtra hours of me time wouldn't hurt. Then I might post more than once a year. LOL.

First Field Trip

On Friday, Joshy went on his first field trip as an elementary school child......his first ride on a school bus and my first time on a field trip as a chaperone/Mommy.

We had a fabulous time at Lowry Park Zoo, but oh was it crowded. There were 17 elementary schools there. I think that I saw more friends/former co-workers and former students than animals actually. The kids were very well behaved and truly enjoyed the experience. My only complaint is that we were literally RUNNING thru the zoo to get to see as much as we could before having to race back to the front of the zoo in time to get back on the bus. When we got back to school, we had lunch in the kindergarten classroom and then they rested....truthfully, the majority of them CRASHED and had to be woken up to get ready for dismissal. They were wiped out!!
I got some gr-8 photos that I can NOT wait to order prints of and scrap. Soooo cute.

I had hoped to get some scrapping done yesterday,, but instead, I spent about 2+ hours in my scraproom cleaning up the MESS of albums that had crashed onto the floor last weekend. I organized them all and put completed pages into their appropriate album. It felt good to get that all accomplished.

Monday morning and back to it this week. Hoping NOT to have quite so much going on this week. No car rider duty(hoooray), no conference night and all I have on my agenda today is getting lil J signed up for soccer at the YMCA.

Life is Good

Busy as usual, but good. NO complaints at all.

We had a fabulous visit with half of our Colorado family a few weeks ago. We spent a nice weekend with my sister, niece and oldest nephew. Dh and Ds had tons of fun with Brian and Lil J was quite the baseball star at his game that weekend.
We even did some exploring and despite the chilly rain, we spent a great afternoon at Rainbow River State Park. I can't wait to go back when the weather is a bit more cooperative. I am not sure that I have ever seen water that crystal clear.

The crop at O'leno was one of the BEST that I have ever attended. Super great group of women and so much FUN. I re-connected with some long-time scrappers from the original Florida Scrapper days and did NOT freeze my tush off!! Lemme tell you, down comforter, heating pad and leader cabin=perfection. Helen and I did lots of chatting and if you can believe this-I stayed up later than she did TWO out of THREE nights!! Helen has always been our night owl, but I was in the crop room until 2 am all three nights.
What fun we had and a very special shout out to Lydia who went out on Thursday evening and bought cigars to smoke in Daddy's honor. I was soooo touched. I miss that man and his stinky cigars. I also got 26 pages completed!! Now if I would just get unpacked and put things away where they belong.

Valentine's day was pretty laid back here. We don't do a whole lot of celebrating, but I did get luv from my special lil man(and he is turning into just that-a man, not my baby anymore). I cooked heart shaped everything for dinner(burgers, cookies, salad and red soda).

I can't believe that Feb. is nearly half over already. Walk MS is right around the corner. Hope to grow my team even more and get some volunteers recruited SOON.

Have a fantastic day. Wish there was something more exciting to share, but life is just that....life, not exciting.

Sad day yesterday

Lorry had to put Lil Baylee down yesterday!! What a terribly sad day. That pup~a~kid was so much more than just a doggie from day ONE. She was born on CG's tummy, June 15th when I lived on Orange Grove(several lifetime's ago). She was the biggest of the pups, most playful and of course, she became the pick of the litter.

My heart broke in August that year when she left Tpa to begin her reign as the Island Princess on Williams Island. My daddy would call daily(and sometimes more than once) to say, "I luv my puppy" and promptly hang up. He lived an xtra two years because of that "magnificent beast". She was spoiled rotten, luved to bits for those two years and hung her head in sadness for nearly six weeks after he left us all........

Now, moving on to Lorry.......she is NOT what anyone would call an animal lover. She conceeded to getting the puppy by repeating LOUDLY that she "wasn't walking her, feeding her, bathing her.............." none of it. HE would do it all.

Well, nine and a half years later, our Island Princess has left us to be with her/our Daddy. While our hearts are heavy and empty, I KNOW for a fact that there is one VERY happy Tinsky up in heaven.
I can hear him oh so clearly, "She is MY puppy and you have had her LONG enough".

Baylee, hope that you are enjoying lobster up there and don't forget, give him LOTS of kisses all over his FACE!!

You are truly the BEST pup and we miss you already here in Tampa!!

the REASON for the season

Despite the fact that admittedly I have spoiled(luved) my child a whole lot-yes, there is very little that my boy wants for, he has learned the REASON for the holiday season this year.

After trying hard to put away the TON of awesome gifts that he got for his birthday party and that he purchased with birthday $$ while at the Lego Store in Downtown Disney, I realized that he had received a couple of items that he already had or had already outgrown.......

We have talked about the fact that there are children who don't have much, etc etc, but it is inconceivable for my six year old. He lives in a loving home with both parents, yada yada yada.
Well, by golly, he GOT it.
We re-gifted and wrapped up a set of Hot Wheels cars to give to someone that we know who has a little guy who will adore them. Joshua RANNNNN to Aunt Sue's car a couple of weeks ago and the first thing out of his mouth was about how warm his heart felt because he had done this!!

Last night we took two shopping bags of items to the Toys For Tots box at Publix and he proceeded to place each one of the things from the bags into the box and told me again that his heart felt "100% good".

Yes, I admit, he is well luved/spoiled, and I don't deny-indulged, but he is one of the kindest little guys that I know and it makes MY heart feel incredible to know that he now understands the REASON for the season.

Happy Holidays!!

What a difference a couple of months can make!!

Things have really settled into a new routine and "things" are soooo much better, which in turn means, life is a much happier place.

My lil guy has gone from having his fingers having to be pried off the doorframe to go to school to being the October Star Student in his classroom for showing initiative!! I am not certain who is prouder-this Mommy of him, or my lil guy of himself. I KNOW that I could NOT be any prouder.
He is reading now, writing like mad and doing math that makes me know he ain't MY kid. LOL.

Tonite is report card p/u which means a VERY long day for me......I am still recuperating from the Fall Festival at school Friday night. We had perfect weather and an absolutely incredible turn out. The raffle baskets were awesome!! Waiting on the final tally of $$ raised, but I luv being the fundrasing VP for our PTA. It is really "neat" to be involved again with PTA, but as a parent. DH even grilled and sold a gazillion hot dogs with the Dad's Club. This may seem trivial, but 9 years ago, neither one of us would have ever suspected that we would have our own child.

Preparing now for said child's 6th birthday party-how is that possible? YIKES. I swear he grew a FOOT overnight Sunday.
I am going to actually get to scrap this weekend and I can NOT wait.

Off to report card check.

Have a fabulous Tuesday and enjoy this incredible weather.