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 |  Being a stay at home mom is never as cut and dry as you think it is. |
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Originally my pregnancy blog, now continuing on as the life of a mom and her two wacky kiddos thing till I don't want to write in it anymore  . So come on in and see what's going on in my world for a bit if you like...Be careful where you step, as the kids have all their Pokemon cards out! Feel free to hug a Hello Kitty plush! Come join in the fun, Super Mario Bros. and Hello Kitty style!![Merit Badge in Parenting
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Congratulations on your pregnancy*^*Smile*^*. You already are a wonderful mom to your son and I know this baby will be very blessed also
*^*Heart*^*SS](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Parenting-1180.gif) ![Merit Badge in Family
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In the midst of how you are feeling right now, know that it can be fixed & I'm proud of you for writing the poem that reflects how you feel. The love of your children clearly shines through. *^*Heart*^*](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Family-584.gif) ![Merit Badge in Journaling
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I'm so glad to be back blogging and reading yours. The kids have grown so much! I'm so glad that you, myself and T are still here journaling together!](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Journaling-2180.gif)   Thanks to all of you for your support, your comments, your love, your generosity and your time! Never met a greater bunch of people then on here! Besides, who else would want to listen to a rambling crazy mom, both during and especially after pregnancy?
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| Therapies (6y, 9m, 3w, 4d old) |
| As I said before, Journey is continuing speech therapy and occupational therapy throughout the summer. Today was the first time we saw he occupational therapist now that it's summer. She had her do quite a few things, and I'm impressed with all that Journey has picked up through her appointments. I venture to say Journey cuts better with a pair of scissors than I do! I'm dead terrible at cutting, But Journey is doing fantastically at it! Her gross motor is improving as well, which I'm very thrilled about. I'm glad we're continuing on with occupational therapy over the summer! So many good things for her motor skills! Speech is my biggest breakthrough this year though. I'm so impressed with what her speech therapist has done with her! We use scripts ALL THE TIME now. I especially have to pull out the scripts when she's upset for some reason. Though I'm mostly doing guess work as to what caused her to get upset, I think it's starting to help her understand more about her feelings. Right now, she understands that she's upset, but she can't really explain why. I'm trying to help her script why she's upset. That's a lot harder to do though, because it could be a number of things that causes her to get upset. She can't just use one script for when she's upset, but I'm trying to expose her to the script set up so she can go to that instead of being confined to "I don't know" and dissolving into tears. (*UPDATE!* Journey started crying when I told her it was time for bed, and I asked her why she was crying, and she said of course "I don't know", so I asked her if she was sad because she had to go to bed, which she said yes, and then I asked her why she didn't want to go to bed, and she responded "I'm just not ready to go yet". Good share Journ!) So far, it's starting to work. Questions she didn't have answers to, she's starting to find answers. I'm so proud of all the work she's putting into this! And the coup de gras-she initiates conversations now!!! On the second to last day of school, she held a conversation with one of her Daisy "Sister"s in the line to school before the arrival bell rang. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then she actually held a conversation with her for two whole minutes! Introduction, exchanges, ending, everything! I was blown away! I read in her report from her special ed teacher that they were having difficulty getting her to initiate or hold conversations with peers, and that's one of her IEP goals. But then I saw this, and I was just blown away! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes! I was so excited, I wrote it in the speech therapist's thank you card for the end of the year. Just today, we were at the park, Ryan was meeting with his best friend James to have a play date. Journey wandered around freely, doing what it is Journey does when she's on a playground and her brother is doing something different. Suddenly, she came upon a little girl who asked her something. She began responding. They talked for at least a minute, and then said good-bye. Again, wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it myself! My friend Kelly and I watched as she talked with this little girl, then left. I was so thrilled! I later asked Journey about the encounter. She said that the little girl told her her name, but she didn't recall it (that's fair, because Journey doesn't have the best short term memory), but that she also told her she was a Brownie Girl Scout! I was so happy for her! I can't wait to find out how well she responds at Girl Scout camp! She was merely floating along last year at Girl Scout camp, and I couldn't get much out of her in the way of what she did that day, or who she talked to (I'm assuming she didn't talk to anyone other than who was in charge), but I think this year, now that speech and our work and our scripts and everything has opened her up, I think that she's going to be able to tell me about the girls that are there, and who she talked to, and what she did. She's come such a far way from where she was! I'm so proud of her! We will continue to work every day, as best we can! |
| End of the year (6y, 9m, 3w old) |
| Today was the last day of school for the kids. They'll be out for nine weeks, and then go back in August 21st, two days before Journey's birthday (which also falls on a Friday). There's not a whole lot planned in these nine weeks to be honest. It all depends on how much time Don has that he can take off, and how much money we have, etc. Smithsonian's may be free, but Metro fare isn't, and neither is gas to get to the Metro stop. Ryan's best friend will be out of state right after his birthday party, and then out of country for the entire month of July, so Ryan won't really have an opportunities to see him during the summer. I hope he gets to see his other two friends during the summer at least. The summer is going to be most boring for Ryan, and I feel bad for him. If we had more money, we could send him to some sort of summer camp at least for a week that wouldn't be so boring. The only reason we're sending Journey is because we get financial assistance so she can go. I can actually send her for an obtainable fee, so why not put her in? I wish there was such a thing for Ryan. I wish they had grants for soccer camps or something so he could go. *sigh.* However, I have gotten him into Harry Potter this summer, and I'm thrilled that he's so taken by it! He's on Prisoner of Azkaban now. I'm curious to see what he has to say about it. We haven't had any big powwows about the books yet, but I'm waiting to see what he has to say. If he has any questions or particularly likes something, I hope he'll come to me and talk to me about it, and then we can Harry Potter geek out together! I've waited YEARS for this opportunity. I always hoped I would have a reader that would be interested in HP that I could share with them. Now I'm getting that opportunity! We've been working with Journey on her scripts. I didn't realize I needed to make scripts of her talking at the dinner table, talking to an adult authority figure (such as a camp counselor), and for when she's upset. The ones where she's upset are especially hard but helpful. She melted down the other night because she didn't want to go to bed. So I worked a script with her to tell us that she didn't want to go to bed because she wasn't ready yet. Then I had to break down why she had to go to her so she would understand and agree to go to bed. I feel bad, because I'm so used to Ryan telling me what's wrong and his reasonings with no qualms, that I forget that this is difficult for Journey to do. Emotions and feelings are hard to explain, and hard to pinpoint. She's been working really hard with her speech therapist to make it possible so that she can actually try to identify emotions on other people, as well as explain her feelings and thoughts for others to hear. We work all the time with the "I feel...", though I do most of the guesswork, and try to put together a script for her to use. I wish she would remember the scripts we make though. *sigh.* Oh well, we'll just keep trying. Other than that, not much else going on. Off to summer we go! |
| Meltdowns and shut downs (6y, 9m, 1w, 5d old) |
| Just when you think you're making progress and things are looking better, you get a set back and it upsets you. Journey HATES homework. Of any type. Sadly, she gets a lot of it. Homework from school, homework from speech, homework from occupational therapy. Now the speech and the occupational therapy aren't much, there are worksheets from speech, and there are just continuing skills being worked on for occupational therapy. I asked her yesterday if we could work on cutting like Miss Kristen (her occupational therapist) asks us to do, and she totally melted down on me. Just dissolved into a fit of tears, like I was asking for blood from her. And then she regressed back to the "I don't know"s, which drives me nuts. I sat very patiently with her, trying to calm her down, and kept reminding her that "I don't know" is not an answer. Nothing, no doing. Usually, I'm the only one to calm her down when she goes into a fit, but apparently since I started it, I helped roll it downhill fast. So frustrated and frazzled, I handed her over to Don to see if he had better luck with it than I did. (Small note: we try never to let Journey see that we're super frustrated. She can tell that I don't know what do to, but I don't throw my hands in the air and say "That's it! I give up!", I don't want to think she's a failure or that I can't help her. I try to say "Let's see what Daddy thinks" to try and get a fresh perspective into the situation.) Don, it seems, had much better luck with her than I did. She calmed down enough to listen to him, and then with some coaxing, started to work on her cutting skills with him while I went to a therapy appointment and lamented to my therapist how I felt like a failure when she melts down. It seriously can be maddening when she melts down like that. I try to get her to use her words to tell me what's wrong, and why she doesn't want to do it, but she just can't. All this time in speech therapy, and she still can't tell me when she melts down. Not to say that speech therapy isn't helping, it completely and totally is. She's come a great way from where she used to be. I just don't know what to do with her when she melts down like that and clams up. All she knows is she's upset. She can't say why, and she doesn't really know how to express what's going on, so she just freaks out instead. My therapist said if she says no, to just leave it at that, because sometimes people don't feel like doing something they don't want to do, and no one questions them about it. I tried to think of a time when Ryan didn't want to do something and just said he didn't feel like it, but the only time that comes to mind is when he was potty training. My problem is though, how do I get her to do homework without fighting her? It needs to be done. Some days she's agreeable, and she'll listen and we can work on it together, and other days it's just melt down city, and I can't get anything done (even anything I need to do for the family or someone else, like helping Ryan do something or starting to make dinner) until I can contain her and get her to calm down. I try to make it so she doesn't have to do it every night, where she can just do it two or three nights a week instead of doing it every night, but it doesn't seem to help. Should I maybe just have her do it every day? Get her used to doing homework nightly? I don't know. I'm so worried I'm doing this wrong. Thank goodness school's almost over and she no longer has homework...but for some reason, when she's asked to do work from speech or from occupational therapy, that upsets her more than if it's from school and her teacher. I don't know if she feels like work from those two places needs to be contained to those two places, or what the case is. I wish she could tell me. It's hard to guess. I think I'll tell her occupational therapist about it tomorrow, and see what she says. I don't want her to think that I'm forcing her to do something she doesn't want to do, but I want to show her that I'm trying to continue carrying out working on skills that she's working on in therapy at home as well. *Sigh.* |
| How kids grow (6y, 9m, 4d old) |
| There's a regional commercial here with a little girl that talks like Journey. She says "castes" just like Journey does. We giggle, because we love hearing Journey talk. She says things like "castes", "forestes", "vestes", "haded" and "sayes" instead of "sez". We think she talks absolutely adorable! I'm sure she'll soon grow out of it (she also says "fanks" instead of "thanks"), but for now it's precious to hear, and I love it. I allowed Ryan to do something I never have before the other day. I was still in pajamas and in need of a shower, so Ryan offered to go check the mail for me. Now, the mailbox is on the other side of the complex, across from the playground, so I wasn't so sure I wanted him to go by himself. Usually, I don't let them go by themselves. Ryan insisted it wasn't that far and assured me he could make it without any hassles, so despite my worry, I decided to let him go. As promised, he went straight to the mailboxes and came right back with the mail in his hands. It's so hard to let go. He's going to be 10 in less than a month, and it just scares me. I wish he didn't have to grow up. I don't like that he's going into his last year of elementary school this coming school year, but there's nothing I can do to stop it. I'm trying to give him more opportunities to grow and show some independence, but I really wish I didn't have to. I know someday I'm going to have to let him go, but I wish it wasn't coming up so soon. I'm not ready for the day he has to get off the bus by himself and walk two blocks to get home. I've already talked with his neighborhood friend Jante and asked him to keep an eye on Ryan and walk with him to get into the complex, but it doesn't make me feel any easier that my son, who will only be 11 at that time, will be walking two blocks by himself to get to our house, which I may or may not be there to greet him (I might be needing a job by that time) as he walks through the door. Scares the bejeebers outta me. He takes it easy on me though, and doesn't ask to do things that would give me a heart attack; he mostly keeps it easy on things and only asks what he thinks I can handle. I'm grateful for that. Kids grow so fast.  |
| The National Zoo (6y, 9m, 2d old) |
| On Thursday, Journey and I went on a field trip with the rest of the first grade class to the National Zoo. We had a wonderful time! I remembered from when I went with Ryan to the National Zoo three years ago. It was hotter than Hades that day; 99 degrees, heat index 102. I made sure to bring lots of frozen bottles of water for both me and Ryan, and we wandered the zoo with his then best friends Marissa (whom is now a casual acquaintance) and James (who is still his best friend). We had a fantastic time, but we were very much overheated. The kids lived in the misters that were all over the zoo, trying to beat the heat. Wonderful trip, miserable day to go. Thursday was a much better day. It was a bit humid out because it was trying to rain, but there was no rain, it stayed cloudy for most of the day, and though I was sweaty that day too, it wasn't nearly as bad as when I went with Ryan. We toured the zoo with Journey's best friend Bradley and his dad, and had a fantastic time! We looked at pandas, and small mammals, and elephants, seals, farm animals, lions and tigers, and animals you'd find in the Amazon. We had lunch by the new carousel that they erected in the park (I had never seen it before and it's been two years since I've been to the zoo before this), and generally just enjoyed touring around. The great thing about the field trip is we're not all touring as a group, we're free to wander around the zoo at our own pace and see what we want to see. I took quite a few pictures, and posted them on Facebook. All in all, I think Journey had a good time! And since she threw up in Jenn's van on the way back from Waldorf, we decided not to take any chances and gave her some Dramamine on the bus so she wouldn't get sick to or from the zoo. It paid off, as she didn't feel nauseous any time on the bus. We're having a pool party for the Daisies on June 3rd at a friend's house. There will be pizza and cake there, which I bet all the girls are excited about! I also get to dish out all the cookie patches that the girls earned during cookie sales this year! Journey's vest will be complete with all patches earned this year on it, hooray! Now I can schedule her appointment to get her pictures taken in her Girl Scout uniform and we can show off all her patches! Journey's also going to be going to Girl Scout camp this year! With some financial aid, we were able to pull off getting her to go, so she'll be leaving for day camp starting June 24th and ending June 28th. Ryan and I will have his birthday together that day, just me and him. I can't say I've ever had a birthday with Ryan when it's been only me and him before, in all the (almost) 10 years that he's been alive. We'll see what we can find to do that day. |
| The closing of the Daisy year (6y, 8m, 3w, 6d old) |
| We've had a very busy and fun time for the end of the Daisy year for Journey and her Daisy Girl Scout friends. Saturday was the Bridging Ceremony, put on by two Junior troops. The Juniors did a fabulous job of putting it together! Everything was decorated beautifully, and there were so many treats and refreshments to choose from! They also group ordered pizzas, which we could pay for if we wanted one (only $6 a pizza, which is a steal, considering when I buy Papa John's pizzas for birthday parties for the kids, the pizzas cost me somewhere around $10 a pizza. Our troop bought four to share), so there was plenty to eat there. The ceremony was beautiful! The Juniors decorated a bridge (like a small brook garden bridge...not sure where they got it, but it was adorable) with paper flowers and butterflies. The girls then gathered, bridging Daisies and non-bridging Brownies, to welcome the new Brownies that were coming. Each girl was called one by one to "cross the bridge" from being a Daisy into becoming a Brownie and meet the non-bridging Brownies on the other side. (I'm sorry, I'm tearing up just remembering it!). I took a lot of pictures, not very good ones, because my camera doesn't capture movement very well. The ceremony continued with bridging Brownies and non-bridging Juniors, and bridging Juniors and non-bridging Cadets. Everyone was invited at the end of the Juniors bridging into Cadets to take a huge group photo of all the girls in uniform, which is something that doesn't happen very often. We then had the girls at the end of the ceremony gather on the bridge and take a picture of all of them together. Only one of our girls was missing that night, but it was good to get a group picture of the 8 of them together. It was a beautiful night, very touching, and Journey earned her membership pin for completing one year of being a Girl Scout, and her bridging rainbow patch, which is her first patch for her Brownie vest when she gets it. The next day, Sunday, was the troop Build-A-Bear party. I promised Journey she would be allowed to pick the bear and outfit of her choosing, not of any influence of me, to her liking. This was her gift that she earned, she should be able to choose whatever bear she wanted (within reason of price; we wanted to make sure the girls all stayed around $35 a piece.) and whatever outfit (within reason) she wanted as well. She did a great job! She picked a brightly colored teddy, named her "Rainbow Sunshine", and got her a beautiful little sparkly spring dress. She also got the bear some underpants, to keep modest. Jenn found that hilarious, that bears could need underpants to begin with. We all shared a good laugh about it! We were only missing one girl at the Build-A-Bear party, so I took pictures of each girl and their bear and the process as well, and a group photo at the end. After that, we headed up to Mrs. Field's and got each girl a cookie as a special after treat. It was a fantastic day, Journey was so happy to spend the weekend with her Girl Scout sisters, as she calls them. The only dent in the day was that on the way home from Build-A-Bear, Jenn was giving us a ride in her new van to get back home, and Journey got car sick. I felt terrible, both for the fact that it was in Jenn's new van, and also because it put a sad note into the day that was supposed to be full of happiness. Journey shrugged it off though like a champ, and we continued on with our day, which was also meeting a friend and her two kids for dinner, and then going grocery shopping for the week. All in all, we had a great mommy/daughter day. I was thrilled to get that opportunity with her.Today was the last Daisy meeting of the year. At the end of the month last month, I had the parents chip in $4 a piece so we could buy a photo book for Jenn, and I bought her daisies for each girl to give her a stem of daisies each.I gave her one of the vases that I didn't need anymore for them, and also one of the moms bought daisy ribbon to tie around the vase. Jenn was very surprised and thrilled for her gifts, and I was very glad to present them to her. The girls got to have a fun little meeting, and got to sign their names on a little metal bucket that holds some sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Jenn also got me a Girl Scouts tote bag that I can sew my own personal patches onto (I have 3! Isn't that crazy?! I'm only a Girl Scout volunteer and I get patches!), and will hopefully come in handy next year when I plan to co-lead a Brownie troop with my girls in it. I will miss Daisies very much. It always gave me something to look forward to on Mondays, It was a joy to be a volunteer for the troop this year, I was so glad I got to get to know the girls better and spend some time with them. I'm going to miss having them all together. The good news though is that I may get to see up to 5, if not all 6 of my bridging Brownies girls next year when I co-lead the troop. That would make me very happy! I asked Journey if she was sad that Daisies meeting were over, and she said no. "It's not really over Momma," she said. "I'll still get to see my Girl Scout Sisters, and we'll always be Girl Scout Sisters." *tear* I love that little girl. |
| Upcoming summer (6y, 8m, 2w, 4d old) |
| So we have much going on for the summer coming. At least, for Journey anyway. Ryan is going to be bored out of his mind...but at least he'll have his clarinet with him! I've been on a mission lately to email anyone and everyone, trying to get plans put together, and see about the upcoming months out of school, etc. I'm even looking forward at next year. I've emailed Journey's current teacher, her special ed teacher, and the principal to try and get Journey a specific teacher next year. To be more to the point, Ryan's 2nd grade teacher. I think she'd be a perfect fit for Journey. I can't come out and specifically name her unfortunately, but I can say I'd like Journey to follow the same path as Ryan (which I hope means this particular teacher), and I've already put bugs in the ears of her current teacher (who funnily enough was Ryan's 1st grade teacher as well) and special ed teacher that I would like this particular teacher for Journey. I also emailed the particular teacher and asked her if she could possibly let the principal know that she's willing to take an inclusion class so Journey could be in her class. Sadly, the only one that can make the decision that she's going to be an inclusion teacher is the principal, so we're all left to cross our fingers and hope it works out well in our favor. I just know I've done just about everything I could to get her in that class. I also wrote an email to Ryan's band teachers to let them know that Ryan will need to borrow his clarinet next year as well in order to be in band again. His music teacher (which is the wife of the band teacher) emailed me back and let me know that not only can Ryan definitely borrow the clarinet for next year as well, but for $20, he can borrow it and practice on it all summer. I was ecstatic for Ryan about that! He adores the clarinet. I wish we could afford to get him one of his own right now, but we just can't come up with the money to get him a good clarinet. I'm thrilled to know that he will be taken care of for both the summer, and when school starts again for band. Journey and I have many Girl Scout sponsored events to take part in. Today, we went to a princess arts and crafts event, where Journey got to make a foam princess crown, do a watercolor painting, paint a ceramic princess crown jewelry box, and tie-dye a t-shirt. It did cost me money to put her into it, but it was well worth it. She not only got to keep all that, but get a special patch for her Daisy vest as well! I'll be putting it on her vest later tonight. Next weekend, we have the Build-A-Bear party for her Daisy troop, and also the Bridging Ceremony for those Girl Scouts that are going to be bridging to the next level. Journey will be moving on from a Daisy to a Brownie next year, so this Bridging Ceremony is definitely for her and the other girls that will be moving up. We were early bird registers this year, but sadly Journey won't be able to go to the early bird event at Camp Winona because Ryan has a soccer game that morning. (It would've been the last game of the season, but we had a rain out this morning, so more than likely it's the second to last.) Journey will, however, be able to go to Camp Gilbert Run this year, for Girl Scout day camp. We weren't able to come up with the $95 to send her, but I was able to get financial assistance, and it made the amount we pay more than reasonable. Hopefully they'll have the bus stop at the place next to our house this year. She's so excited to go! Last year, she went to one at the fairgrounds and enjoyed it, but she can't go to it again this year because it's for non-Girl Scouts. She's going to enjoy Girl Scout day camp this year, I just know it! She had so much fun at Encampment, and that was all kinds of fun in just one day. I can imagine they'll have much more fun all during a week there! Ryan has soccer till mid-June (thanks to two rain outs this season), and Journey has gymnastics until July 12th. Journey will also have speech therapy and social skills group every Wednesday morning throughout the summer, and occupational therapy every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. The only time she won't be seeing the speech therapist (who just happens to be her speech therapist at school as well) and her occupational therapist is when she goes to Girl Scout camp for a week. She will, however, make it to gymnastics that week, as Girl Scout camp ends at 3:30 pm every day. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep Ryan occupied and off of video games and the computer for most of the time during the summer. Maybe he'll have more playdates with his friends. We shall see.  |
| The makings of a storyteller (6y, 8m, 1w, 2d old) |
| Journey and I were walking home from school yesterday (Ryan stayed behind, as he had chess club that afternoon), and on our way home, we found a robin egg shell, perfectly broken in half. Journey was ecstatic over her find, and carefully carried the treasure home to rest in my iris pot. On the way home, as she held the egg shell in her small hand, she began to weave me tales of how the egg shell came to be found on the ground. "So the robin egg, it was in a tree, and the wind came and whoosh! It blew the robin egg from the tree, and it rolled and rolled across the grass, and away from the dogs, and onto the sidewalk. And a little robing popped out of the egg, and left the egg shell on the sidewalk, for us to find!" She told me. "Or maybe a squirrel saw it roll down the tree, and ran after it and stopped it from going in the street and the egg cracked open and a robin came out and flew away, and the squirrel left the egg for us to find!" She was so utterly excited to find it and tell tales of it's travels, I just couldn't help but beam. She may not be a writer yet, but she has the makings of a good story teller. It's only a matter of time before she puts writing utensil to paper or fingers to keyboard and gets all those stories out of her head and onto something tangible. |
| Still alive (6y, 8m, 3d old) |
| Sorry I haven't been around awhile, just been busy and feeling blah, not really wanting to journal. I know it's important to do so though, so here I am. Don and I enjoyed our little weekend getaway very much! It was very relaxing, and both mornings we made it up early enough to take part in free breakfast. Don later told me after we stayed there that the place was supposedly haunted. I laughed and told him "Well, that explains the lights flickering all the time." We had a moment when we were using the jacuzzi tub, when an hour after use, it turned on by itself and went into wash cycle. Apparently Don didn't read about that in the booklet that told about the room, and thus, thinking the bed and breakfast was haunted, that the jacuzzi in the room was too. I died laughing, and showed him the entry in the booklet that showed that it was just the cleaning cycle, and promised that the jacuzzi was not haunted. Apparently there was a tornado while we were there. I didn't think much of it, as I figured it was just really windy and rainy. I didn't see how so many branches and trees and power lines went down. The buildings were fine; no damage done to them. The power went out for most of the night, but they had it back up and running the next day. It must've been a small twister, considering it didn't do a lot of damage that a regular twister does! We went out in the storm to dinner that night, which I trusted Don to drive through, as he's an excellent all-weather driver. The kids seemed to have a good time at Jenn's house, which I'm glad about. Jenn said that because my kids were so well behaved, it rubbed off on her kids, and she didn't have a problem at all! LOL. Other than that, not much going on. The kids have today off, as it's a professional day, and all we have going on is gymnastics this evening. Though we celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary last weekend, our ten year anniversary is actually this weekend, or Saturday to be more precise. Ryan will be spending the night at a friend's house, so we'll only have Journey with us this weekend. Soccer keeps going on (until June 8th), and gymnastics already has another sign up for a session that starts in the middle of May. We'll see if I can scrounge up enough money to sign her up for another session. It's $83 a session, which is pretty expensive, but hopefully we can put it together to get her in. She just loves the classes. |
| Encampment (6y, 7m, 3w, 3d old) |
| Journey and I went to Encampment on Saturday, and had a blast! She said it reminded her a lot of the day camp I sent her to that was sponsored by the Girl Scouts during last summer, called "It's Your Summer, Explore It". She learned a few things at Encampment, such as how to build a fire, and how to use a wood burner tool, more about the Girl Scout Law, and a few new songs. She said she enjoyed it very much, and basically, I got to sit and watch her enjoy herself, as parents were to be seen and not heard at Encampment! It's for girls, run by girls (teenage girls, who are older troop members), and it's very empowering. All the teenage girls were dressed like princesses, and the younger girls (the Daisies) were insistent that they were the real princesses, and real fairies! There were a few skeptics among the Daisies, but all in all, they were assured that they were real. It was adorable! I don't know if Journey thought it was all real, but I know she enjoyed herself thoroughly. It's definitely an experience I want her to have again. It only comes once a year, so hopefully next year when she's a Brownie, she'll get to go again. That next time, she'll get to spend the night! I re-registered both her and myself for Girl Scouts next year. We're early registration, so Journey gets to go to a luncheon for being an early registrant. I'm not sure when that is, but I'll ask our troop leader again to find out. For sure, we're going to get her into Brownies, and hopefully, I can be a co-leader for the troop. I'd really rather not run the troop by myself, I'd like to make it more of a co-op, but we'll see how it goes. I need to talk to the person that helps recruit troop leaders, see what she says. Even if I'm not a troop leader (I'm hoping to be though), I'm a great help to whoever runs the troop, because of all my experience as Fall Product mom and cookie mom. Oh, and money manager, that too. I hope Jenn finds someone good to replace me to help her troop once I'm gone. Journey gets to join her Daisy troop in a Build-A-Bear party they're having for all the cookie money they earned. The girls got to decide what they wanted to do with all that earned money, and they chose to have a Build-A-Bear party. Journey LOVES Build-A-Bear (it's evident in her bedroom, she has nearly every single Hello Kitty they've made from there), so she's very excited for this! The girls each get to build one furry friend, and get an outfit for it. (Speaking of Build-A-Bear, I have a total $30 in gift cards and gift certificates to spend there at any time if I want. Rest assured, I'll be buying another Hello Kitty to add to the collection here soon!) They then get to get a treat from the food court as well. Money well spent I say! This weekend, Don and I are going to a bed and breakfast for the weekend to celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary. To some, that may not be a lot (I have a lot of older friends and relatives that say ten years is nothing), but to me, being married a decade is a big deal. It just goes to show the lifetime commitment Don and I have made to each other. We're going to our annual Red Lobster dinner (which we've been doing since our one year anniversary) on Saturday night. I got to choose a ring for Don to get me for our anniversary, and it's a beautiful silver ring with diamond accents and a sapphire heart. I love it, and I'm so glad he got it for me. The kids will be spending the weekend with my best friend Jenn, which I'm entirely appreciative for! I hope it's a wonderful weekend! |
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