It's so funny the way little kids work. Well, kids Journey's age anyway. For now, they're all chums. Some days Journey enjoys being with her chums, some days she just likes it alone. Yesterday was a good day for her. She played with her friend Megan, was lovey dovey with Bradley, and got invited to Ella's birthday party. This is the first birthday party we've been invited to since November. Journey's looking forward to it!

Bradley was being very sweet with Journey yesterday, playing kitty with her and meowing at her, and holding her hand all through lunch and on the way to media. Ryan teased and asked if her was her boyfriend, to which she replied "No! He's just a boy!" She has no idea what "boyfriend" means. They're too little for that silliness anyway. We'll wait till she's 15 to utter that word. And by then, Don will want to harm the poor kid. I was very happy to see they were getting on like good friends again. They always sit together at the lunch table, where Bradley usually decides to try and make Journey laugh while eating lunch. He's a funny little kid! Journey sure appreciates him!

We were so happy to get Ella's invitation yesterday! Journey jumped up and down and screamed "YES! A PARTY!" I take it she's wanted to go to one for awhile now! I'm glad Ella is inviting her! They're going to bake pizzas and Ella's birthday cake at the party, so it sounds like a lot of fun.

Grace invited Journey to come play at her house again, because now they have a climber in the back yard. I told Grace I would call her mom and set up a date to play. The only thing that kinda worries me about going to Grace's house is that Journey stalks all three of her poor cats. They can't even get a drink from the water bowl without Journey being there watching them and squealing. I so wish we could get this poor girl a kitten of her own, but they would never allow us to in these apartments. I don't see why not, considering the carpet is over 12 years old, and if the cat rips up anything, it'll probably be our furniture. More than likely my retro couch. Still wish we could get a kitty though.

Journey's speech pathologist sent home a huge packet of papers that we could work on over the summer, and I'm extremely grateful. We'll need all the help we can get, and now I know what I can work on with her, as well as her reading skills, math skills, and writing skills. The 1st grade teachers suggested we get our child a primary journal to write in over the summer so they could practice writing sentences in. Depending on how many of those she's going to need in her classroom, I'll see if I can't pick a few up. Some of this speech work seems a little higher education for her, but we'll give it a try and see how it goes. It's tailored specifically for her.

Summer's just around the corner, and I can tell we're going to have a busy one! More guests are going to be able to come to Ryan's birthday party than I thought, and we're rounding out who we're going to invite to Journey's. I have all her classmate's parents' email addresses, so I don't have to send in paper invitations to school with her. That's a relief, because the 1st grade teachers told us they would rather we not, as kids get extremely upset when one gets an invitation and another doesn't. The kids start school right before Journey's 6th birthday, so I think on the day of her birthday, I'll bring in popsicles for all the kids to celebrate. I'll probably bring in the sugar free tropical flavored ones. Better for their teeth, and Journey loves the pineapple popsicles.

 

Just a quick note so I'll remember this as she gets older-Journey just lost her third tooth tonight! It's been threatening to come out for awhile now. She's been having trouble eating because of it, and has refused eating quite a few things because it was bugging her so much. Tonight, she finally lost it as Daddy was flossing her teeth! I'll try to sneak in there tonight to put the dollar in her pillow.

It's funny, because I just bought a pink travel sized q-tip container to keep her teeth in too. I was keeping them in their own separate baggy in the same blue q-tip container that I've housed Ryan's in since he's been losing teeth. I was thinking about how it was getting a little crowded in that container, and how I'd need to get another one soon for her own teeth, when I came across a pink one at the store, right before our trip to Ocean City. I thought, "How neat is that? A pink one! That would be perfect to put her teeth in for her very own!", so I bought it. It now houses all her teeth. Ryan's now houses just his own teeth.

I still wonder what I'm going to do with the teeth when they're older though....


 

Alright, I've had some time to think about it after I've stewed about it awhile.

Friendship is a two way street. Now see, I'm not that understanding of it, because sometimes I flub up, and I forget to put in some effort, in which case I get ignored or forgotten about. My best friends (that I didn't get until high school, might I add) are very much that we can go without talking to each other for months, and once we get to talking again, it's almost as if we never stopped. We keep connected mostly via the internet, considering one of us still lives in Colorado, another one lives in Washington state, another one lives in Minnesota, and the other one lives in Florida (and here I am, in Maryland). We're all scattered across the country. Last time I saw my best friend Suzie was when I was living in Colorado, and Ryan was a 6 month old baby, so I think December of 2006. The last time I saw my best friend Audrey was at her wedding in July of 2007. The last time I saw my best friend Amber was when we visited Colorado in 2008. The last time I saw my best friend Tuesday was when she came to visit her dad in Maryland in 2007. We haven't actually seen each other in person in YEARS. But still, we continue on. Sometimes, we're busy, but we're always there for one another when we're needed.

Most of my other friendships have failed, mostly because I didn't put the effort in. It's not that I don't like them; it's more that I'm very careful about what I say to whom, and I get caught up in things, and forget to make that call to say "Hey, how you doing?" or sometimes I don't get the chance to show up at an event of theirs due to money constraints and whatnot. Now, most people are understanding about this. My best friend from the area, Jenn, she is a great friend of mine. I trust her very much. I've let her watch my kids, she's let me watch hers, I even let her into the house when it looks like a wreck. That's how much I trust this woman. So Jenn, she gets some effort. Kelly, she gets some effort too, when I call to make the boys a playdate. I enjoy sitting with her and talking to her while the boys play. I make an effort to schedule a playdate for the boys, and make an effort to be there to talk to her. I know it doesn't seem like much, but we're not to the point where we're going out to dinner together or anything yet. We're just friends, and I'm fine with that. It seems like the less friends I have though (discounting my 4 best friends and my area best friend Jenn), the better I am at making effort to stay friends.

So anyway, getting to what I'm trying to get at here...
Journey does not put forth the effort to make friends. The kids like her alright, but they don't go out of their way to play with her because she doesn't go out of her way to ask them to play with her. It's not that she's a bum like her mother (though I'm sure that's part of the underlying cause), it's more that she doesn't have the correct set of social skills to do this. I've said it before, and I'll say it again-my daughter is socially awkward, and socially stunted. It's part of the developmental delay. With the help of her speech therapist at school, we're working on things called "social scripts", where we give her an idea of what she needs to say in order to express herself correctly. Something like saying "I'm sorry" when you hurt someone's feelings. Now, Journey hardly ever does that, because she doesn't play rough or say mean things. But I did remind her that she once made Spencer sad because he wanted to play with her, and she wouldn't let him. Since then, Spencer hasn't really asked her to play, because she doesn't really care to insert herself into any of the games. Now granted, she's not one for tag. She doesn't understand or care why kids are chasing after each other. Mostly she plays kitty with the other little kids if they have the attention span to play it, or play with the paraeducator, because she's the only one that really interacts with Journey. I have to explain to her daily that if she wants someone to play with her, she has to ask them if they want to play. And that, if they say yes, then she needs to play a game both of them want to play. Now, that's hard for Journey to do, because she's not interested in a lot of games that the other kids play, like tag. She mostly likes to run around and walk around, and wander about. She never stays on any part of the equipment very long. She has an imagination, but mostly she tends to stick to role playing games like kitty. She doesn't pretend to be a princess or anything else, she'd much rather play kitty. I'm not sure if a lot of kids can stomach playing kitty all the time, and running around aimlessly seems kind of a bore too. So for Journey to play with someone something they want to do, is out of her comfort zone. But, in order to make friends, she has to go outside her comfort zone, and try to put herself out there. Not many kids are going to come to her, play the only two games she wants to play, and come back for more, sadly. As much as I want them to, now that I've had some time to think it over, I realize that expectation is too high for many six year olds. I guess, I'm holding out the hope that someone will see that Journey is unique, and not only accept that, but embrace it. Most normal six year olds wouldn't see that or understand that. Basically, I'm putting the hurt and indignation on myself.

So I've taken it upon myself to let it go. Kids are kids. They won't be "deep" enough to understand that she's different and unique until they're older. Some will use that as a reason to chastise her, while others might find it intriguing and look to befriend her because of it. Right now, there are no six year olds deep enough to understand this, and I'm okay with that.

So from this point out, I'll invite whoever she asks me to to her birthday party. If they come, they come. If they don't, that's fine. I just want her to be happy throughout this whole ordeal. To me, irregardless of who plays with her at recess or whatnot, she's still the same happy Journey that she's always been.


 

Here I am, back again! Don't get used to it. Once something pops into my head, I decide to come and put it on here, for posterity. I always want to be able to look back at these little things that make up my children's childhoods, so as they grow, I'll have fond stories of them from when they were small. Who knows? It might even save their teenaged neck from me wringing it if they drive me up the wall!

So Ryan plays on this website that he got from school, called "Cool Math". On it is a game called "Papa's Pizzeria". In this game, you get customers coming in, giving you their smoothie orders. You take the order, and work off the ticket that they give you in order to fill it. Journey is very impressionable, and loves this game. She watches Ryan intently when he plays it. So now, she takes her "Candy Hello Kitty" (which is a Hello Kitty that we bought her at a candy shop in Ocean City. She has a white dress with multi-colored polka dots on it, and she's holding a lollipop.) and plays "Shake Shop".

She always starts out with Candy Hello Kitty asking "Do you want a sundae?" (which in Journey terms, means a smoothie. I don't know where she got the term sundae from, but I let her continue on with the game, I don't mind, and I don't feel like correcting her on her play pretend.) Now, sometimes she asks you, the person, directly if you want a sundae, a means to bringing you into her little game, or sometimes, she has you play Kiki Maow instead. Seeing as she's the only one that has ever voiced Kiki Maow, I don't find it fitting to be a good Kiki Maow, unless I'm shaking her little fluffy white head vigorously in agreement.

So you (as yourself or Kiki Maow) say "Yes", or you nod. If you say "Not right now," or "Maybe later", she'll be very disappointed, and say sadly "Okay." And leave you to go find something else to do.

"Okay!" Says Journey. "Medium or large?" She asks. I usually tell her medium. I'll even talk Kiki Maow and answer "Medium" with a meow. Sometimes, not often, but occasionally, she'll ask/answer for you. "Medium?" where you can just nod your or Kiki Maow's head.

"Do you want milk?" (which is a vital ingredient to a smoothie, or at least in Papa's Pizzeria it is. Ryan always booms out from another room when she's playing this "Of course they want milk Journ, you need it to make the smoothie! Otherwise it doesn't work!"). You politely answer "Yes", or nod Kiki Maow's head.

"Chocolate?" She asks. Sometimes you can offer up a different ingredient, such as cookie dough, strawberries, or blueberries. She'll take whatever request, as long as it's not outrageous. You say "Yes", or nod Kiki Maow's head.

"How old are you?" She asks. This is vital. Your age determines which blender she puts the smoothie concoction in. So you answer. She confirms, then she places it in the blender. You wait a few seconds.

"Okay, it's done!" She pronounces. If you think this is the end, you're wrong.

"Do you want cream?" She asks. This means whipped cream, for the top of the smoothie. You say yes, or nod Kiki Maow's head.

"Do you want sprinkles?" She asks. You say yes or nod Kiki Maow's head. "Rainbow?" She questions before she adds on the sprinkles. "Of course!" you reply, or you simply nod Kiki Maow's head. Now, I always find it funny that she asks if you want rainbow sprinkles, just because you would think she would link these two together, and say "Do you want rainbow sprinkles?", but instead she asks them as two separate questions, which makes me chuckle a little. I'm curious as to what would happen if I said "No, chocolate" or something to that effect. Perhaps, when we play the game again, I'll do that and see what the outcome is.

"Chocolate or strawberry syrup?" She asks. You offer up your preference for her. She squiggles her hand down around an imaginary cup.

"Do you want a cherry?" She asks. "Yes please!" you answer, or simply nod Kiki Maow's head.

"You're all done! Here ya go!" She says happily, and hands you your pretend glass of smoothie/sundae. You make slurping noises and then say "Aahh!". She giggles, and asks "Wanna play it again?"

I truly love her so. I hope she never changes.


 

So just a couple of happenings and things that I thought I would put down for posterity when I'm old and gray and don't remember much.

Firstly, I wanted to put down the nicknames we have for Journey. We have a couple for Ryan (Ry, Ryguy and The Boy are the only three I can think of right now), but we have a whole laundry list of them for Journey. At least, I do.
Of course, there's the obvious one, which is Journ. A lot of people call her Journ for short. (However, she has never gone by the two nicknames I went by when Journey was my nickname, which is Jour or Jourie. In fact, Jourie is my username on here.) Mostly Ryan, me, and her teachers, and a few other relatives and friends. There are also pet names we give her. My love, my lovey, sweet pea, Dolly, Dolly Face, Super Dolly Face, Beybey and Journey girl are our ones for her when she's as sweet as can be and a wonderful little girl (which is most of the time!). When she's being mean, or just bratty in any way (which is rare), we call her super dolly brat face, or a smarmy little critter or a rotten little animal. Yes, we are very weird. When Ryan was a baby, we called him a pooper when he was being rotten (instead of a little s**t so he wouldn't pick up the bad word and say it aloud), and Pooper just stuck with him till he was about 3. Then we stopped calling him that. I don't know why. But this, the pooper, and the smarmy little critter, is our way of saying you're being a brat, roguish, naughty, or any other word like that. We don't want to cuss around them, so we don't call them little shytes even though sometimes they can be. I'm sure at some point she's going to grow out of the nicknames we have for her, but I just wanted to write them down so we would remember when she's older.

I had two other things to write, but I can only remember one of them now. If I remember the other one, I'll be sure to come back and post it. But for now, I'll just go with my last thing. Journey's been reading to her class out loud lately. They let her read a book that she has, and she reads it aloud for all of them to hear. Well, today, she got to go into the pre-k and read a book to them! She read "Biscuit", which is about a little dog named Biscuit, who lives on a farm. There are many other early reader titles starring Biscuit, and she's read many of them. I'm so proud of her for getting to read aloud to the pre-k class, and to her old teachers from last year! The teacher in the pre-k class gave her a pencil as a thank you for reading to the pre-kers.

Most of our summer will be spent learning new sight words, reading more books, and working on addition and subtraction. Ryan is mostly going to be reading and math, multiplication and fractions, some division. There are only 5 weeks left of school, so I've got to have my summer plan in place. We'll be cleaning up house as well. Ryan needs to work on cleaning off his desk and cleaning up his room (I need to help him clean up all the clothes that don't fit him anymore, and donate those.), and Journey needs to clean her room as well. Maybe (with the help of Jenn) if I can get this house in shape, we'll invite some kids from school over to spend the day with us, and they can do things like paint, and playdoh, and play in their rooms, and video games. Our house isn't that big, but it's got some room to do some things in it. It would be nice to reciprocate and let some of the kids come to our house instead. It's a dream that hopefully with some help I'll realize.

Oh yes!! Now I remember! The second thing was about how Journey is now obsessed with the Nyan Cat. It's this little cat that has the body of a pop tart, and it's flying through the night sky with all the stars, and trailing behind it is a rainbow. It sings a song in a very fast tempo of "Meow meow meow nyanyanyanyan meow meow meow", and Journey just absolutely LOVES it. Every day after school she makes me play it. So I went on Etsy, and found some cool Nyan Cat stuff that I can get for her for her birthday, which helps out with the whole "What can I get Journey this year?" debate.It's so funny, because both the kids and me enjoy it, but Don is absolutely annoyed by it. Every time Journey asks me to play it, Don grumbles and tells me "Do you have to play that damned thing while I'm here?!?" To which I grin and reply "Yes.".


 

Journey wrote what I believe is her first story a few days ago. Granted, it doesn't really have an ending to it, and it's more a run-on sentence than anything else, but it's a start! My daughter is a writer! That makes me proud!

And now, for Journey's story. It's titled "Kitty and the little kittens".

"Kitty and the little kittens plant seeds and they wait and there's a pot of gold under the rainbow and the mom cat comes and dad cat comes."

And that, is Journey's story. She typed it all by herself on the computer, no help in spelling or anything. I was very impressed. She has an imagination. Ryan says the stories she tells are lies, but I've explained to him that they're not lies, they're just imaginative stories. Ryan's imagination is limited to his stuffed animals talking, and making up bigger better things for Super Mario Bros. games. He's very logical that way.

Other than that, not much else going on. Journey and I spend Tuesdays and Thursdays together when Ryan has soccer practice. We play games, watch videos, sing songs, and chat. It's really very fun! I love having that extra bonding time with her and her alone. I don't get as much one on one time with Ryan as I'd like though. I know that will change as soon as summer comes though...unless he gets invited to his friends' houses all summer long. I don't think that will be the case that often though. We'll see I suppose.

 

Journey is learning all about seeds in school, and how they become plants. As a project, they took a bean (I'm not sure what kind of bean; it was large and green), a moist paper towel, and put it in a plastic ziploc baggie, and taped it to the window. They did this for the whole class. Then they made an guess as to if the bean was going to sprout or not. Journey made the prediction that her sprout was not going to grow. The project was taken down from the windows and sent home. I don't know if some parents threw theirs away, or what have you, but I am a pack rat. I hold on to just about everything. So I placed the baggie with the bean sprout that had now successfully sprouted roots, in the kitchen. I left it there for a few days, to see what it would do. I asked Journey if she wanted me to throw it away, to which she replied "No, I want to save it."

This morning when I came downstairs, I decided to look in on our little bean and see if anything had changed. It sure did! It started sprouting! There's a huge stalk, and there are leaves coming out! I was so excited for Journey! I showed her here little plant, then transferred it to a terra-cotta potting plant with some potting soil this morning. I hope to continue growing it for her. I put it right next to the plant that Ryan gave me for Mother's Day in first grade. Yes, I still have it, and yes, it's still alive...but barely. I took it out of it's old dirt and put it in new potting soil to hope to revive it.

Also, my beautiful iris that I got for Mother's Day last year is growing so wonderfully! I have it in a large plastic pot outside, and it's sprouted all it's new beautiful long leaves, and it's growing two flower pods as we speak! I'm very excited for it!


 

My best friend from the area is moving away to Virginia on May 5th. I feel like I'm never going to see her again. Once she goes over that bridge, I might as well kiss any chance of seeing her goodbye, because we never have the gas to go over the bridge. When our friends from here moved to Locust Grove, Va. we didn't have a chance to see them either. Then they moved to Nevada.

It's like everyone I make friends with here moves away. I feel so alone. I don't make friends easily (I just don't trust people very well.), so when I do make a friend, I feel thrilled. Then when they move, I'm heartbroken.

We're going to go see her and her family on Saturday, so I'm glad that I get to spend some time with her before she goes. She says we'll see each other still. I hope she's right.

I have one more friend here, but we're not as close as my best friend and I are. We haven't gone out to dinner or a movie, or spent time at each other's houses. (I probably won't have anyone over until I can get this wreck tamed. I need someone to help me come in and take over it, it's ridiculous.) But she's a good friend. I'm glad I have her. I enjoy spending time with her when the kids go to the park, and we get to talk. I pray she doesn't move away, because not only would I be devastated, but Ryan would too (her son is his best friend).

I hope my friend is right. I hope we do get to still see each other. I'll definitely miss her being so close though.


 

Journey is an overly emotional child.

This frightens me, because I was also an overly emotional child, and I'm bipolar. I don't know if that means when she's older, she's going to experience bipolar, or if she'll miss that boat or not. I'm not psychologist, so I wouldn't be able to tell you, but yes, it worries me. I'm not nearly as strong a bipolar as most people are (Firstly, I'm a BP II, which means there's no mania. Hypomania, yes, but not out and out mania. Secondly, my depressive and hypomanic states are not severe in any way. They do not entirely derail my life, my family, my finances, etc. like they do for some people.), so I won't be too upset if she's a bipolar like I'm a bipolar, but still, I'd rather she just skip it altogether, considering she's got other things on her plate.

Journey is not able to explain her emotions though. She has trouble verbalizing that she's hurt, upset, angry, etc. She can't tell you WHY, or HOW, or WHAT. You just have to figure out from what she's showing at that moment to decide what her emotional state is.

Tonight, I had a shocker.

Now, Journey, for some reason, is not a fan of when Don puts her to bed. I don't know why this is. I've asked her, and she can't give me a response suitable enough to make me put her to bed every night instead. All I know is, she prefers me to put her to bed over Don. She groans every night its his turn, and cheers every night it's mine. I don't know what this means.

Tonight was no exception. It was Don's night to put her to bed, which she wasn't happy about in the first place. She was very weepy and mopey. I don't know why. Well, Don compounded the issue by raising his voice when she wasn't properly spitting out her toothpaste. Now, Journey doesn't know how to properly spit out ANYTHING. If she was choking, I would have to reach my fingers into her mouth and pry out whatever it is that's choking her. She can't spit anything out. I don't know why that is. And, Don was kind of impatient because his game was coming on, so he wanted her to hurry up so he could get back to his game. (Take from that what you will.) So he raised his voice, showing his impatience, and it set her off. She began her meltdown, sobbing uncontrollably, unable to continue on. I had to carry her to her room, she was so beside herself. I took over for Don because his game was coming on, and because she was beside herself, and I'm the only one that can calm her down when she's hysterical like that. So, I carried her into her room, and attempted to comfort her. I picked a book out for her because she was being irrational, trying to get me to read books that take awhile to read. (I don't know if she did that on purpose, to try and get me to spend more time with her, or if she was just doing it because she doesn't care, she's upset, and she's not thinking straight. I wish I could tell you. This child is a mystery to me sometimes.), I placed her on her bed, and began to read to her. She cried silently, listening to me read to her and show her the pictures in the book. After I was done, she began to sob louder again. I held her in my arms and attempted to comfort her. "Why are you crying Journey?" I asked her. I knew her answer would be "I don't know.". It was. "Is it because Daddy got loud when you didn't spit your toothpaste out?" I asked, knowing I hit the nail on the head. "Yes!" she cried. I held her and rocked her. "It's okay honey, he's not mad, okay? He just got loud. He's better now, okay? "

"But I'm not!" she tells me.

Color me shocked.

"Why are you not better Journ?"

"Because, you get mad at me when I do my homework! You always get mad at me when I do it!"

Again, shocked face.

"But...but...honey," I stammered. Do I really get upset with her during homework? I questioned myself. I know I take no nonsense when it's homework time, and I'm very stern, but I don't think I've ever raised my voice at her while she was doing it...have I?

"Honey," I continued, "I don't get mad at you when you do your homework,"

"But you get loud."

"Do I? I'm sorry if I do. I'm not mad though, okay?"

She started crying all over again. I gathered her in my arms and tried to soothe her. "It's okay honey, Daddy's not mad. No one's mad, okay? Sometimes we sound like we're mad, but we're not mad. Maybe we get mad at one time, but then we get happy again, okay? Nobody's mad at you."

I wish there was a way to show her that emotions come and go. You don't have to stay on one emotion at one time. You can feel a RANGE of emotions in a matter of minutes. It seems like she gets emotionally stuck sometimes. She stays happy as much as she can, even if someone's wronged her, even if something upsets her, even if the day goes downhill. If something DOES manage to get under her skin enough to make her upset, she stays in upset mode for a very long time, and it colors her entire day. Nothing you do, engage her with Kiki Maow, talk in Kitty Talk (which is discouraged at our house except for bed time), let her play her Hello Kitty game, NOTHING gets her out. Until she decides when it's over. She's a very stubborn little thing.

This, was definitely a first though. She's never been able to tell me something like this before. I don't know how she found the words to do it, but I'm glad she did. Now I just wish I could find the words to explain to her that feelings come and go, but love is forever. It seems like every time I try to explain this, she doesn't get it. Or maybe, she's just really upset when I tell her, and I don't think it soaks in. If it did soak in though, she wouldn't think we're always mad at her. I don't know. I wish I could talk to someone that understood this better than I do.


 

Today marks the end of our vacation. Well, as far as from Ocean City, that was on Thursday, but today is the end of the spring break vacation for the kids. Tomorrow they're back to school, and everything is back to the grind again. Journey is thrilled about this, as she's missed school and her routine very much. She did fabulous on the vacation though! The only thing that drove me and Don nuts is that the kids found something to complain about every day on our vacation at Ocean City. Too much mini golf, ice skating is too hard, we didn't stay in the pool long enough, bowling's too hard, we didn't stay at the beach long enough, blah blah blah. Don says next time we go on vacation, we're going to go just him and me, leave the kids with someone else.

All in all though, I think we all enjoyed it. We were all sad to leave Ocean City, but go home and go back to our normally scheduled lives we must. I took a TON of pictures! (I'm sure you all saw them!)

Today, we're just catching up on laundry, and hanging out till we have to wake up at 7:30 tomorrow morning and get going to school. I'm coming in for her class tomorrow, and then it's a busy week the rest of the week. We have a dentist appointment on Wednesday to fill a cavity for Ryan, and then I have a therapy appointment, then Thursday I have a doctor's appointment, and Ryan has a soccer game. We don't get any time to breathe until Friday! By then it's the weekend, so we'll be able to relax then. Then next week is the honor roll assembly for Ryan, and the Good Citizen awards for Journey (she got chosen as a good citizen this month! I'm so proud of her!), and then the week after that, Journey has a field trip to Elms Beach. Busy month this month! Glad we got some rest and relaxation in on spring break while we did!

The trip to Ocean City was so enjoyable. We got to do so much, and found great restaurants to eat at, and everything. I loved every minute of it. I hope we can do it again soon!