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A continuation of my original blog, "Surviving Motherhood". |
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Welcome to my world of middle school, high school, and motherhood. The life of a mom is never easy, especially as children grow, and especially when you have a special needs child. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| According to the blog updater, it says it's been 19 days since I wrote. Perhaps it's time for an update... School is flying by at a break-neck speed. Monday starts our spring break, where we'll have an entire week off to ourselves. I miss the days when we could afford to go to Ocean City, as it's been about 4 years or so, but finances are what they are, and I'm sure we'll be just fine and appreciate the break anyway. I know Dixon will be quite happy that the kids are home the whole week. He loves it when everyone is home. I wonder if it will confuse him because Don's not home? I guess we'll find out. There's a lot going on with our troop right now; we're discussing things like encampment, wrapping up badges, what we want to do with our cookie money, and putting on our own bridging ceremony. So far I have 8 girls signed up for encampment. I'll need the parents to put in the payment for them before May comes. I also need to let the girls know again that the glen shelters don't have cots in them this time. I hope they'll be okay with this. We also need to figure out what we're doing with breakfast on Saturday morning. We don't have to cook anything, but I do need to buy some stuff for it, whatever they want to do, especially if it's cost effective. I'd also like for us to do the lunch program there, which is $5.50 per person. I think it's a much better option than trying to spend more money for sandwiches and stuff. Either way, I'll run it by the girls and see what they think. I'll have to talk with them at our next meeting on the 21st and see, and get payment then. As far as our cookie money goes, the girls have some amazing ideas, including indoor skydiving, paintballing, going to a pottery place again, going to an amusement park, going to the zoo, going to a spa, going camping, or going to Build-A-Bear. Yes, seriously. When my girls were in Daisies, we did a Build-A-Bear party, and my girls say they want to re-live that magic again. They're so funny! As far as bridging goes, they almost all want to do our own ceremony. There will probably be some costs incurred, which I don't think they realize. We also need to discuss uniform and insignia options. Will the parents be paying for all of that? Last bridging ceremony, we decided to use troop money to pay for uniforms for the girls when they bridged. I'll discuss it with the parents more in May, and see what they think. I'm excited for us to do our own bridging ceremony again, which means I get to write another speech for my girls. More than likely, I'll be crying my eyes out again LOL. That always seems to happen. Ryan was given a course schedule that his 8th grade teachers have recommended him for for next year in 9th grade. Almost every class is either AP or Honors. I am so ecstatic over that! I don't want to burn him out though, but I'm super proud of him. His teachers think he's capable of such great things, and we think so too. Ryan ALSO made it into a youth orchestra here in our county! He had auditioned a couple of years ago, but they told him that because he doesn't take private lessons, they wanted him to do that before they let him in. He hasn't gotten private lessons as of yet (we can't really afford it), but his friend told him that the orchestra is more lenient about that requirement now, so he could try out again. The night that he tried out, not only did they tell him he made it, but they also had him stay for his very first practice! There's a pretty hefty cost to him being in this orchestra (we need to pay for tuition, and for his uniform, and the conductor asked that we try to get him to see a private tutor at least once a month), but this is for elite players; not just anyone can get into this orchestra. You have to be REALLY good in order to get in. The conductor even told Ryan that he was extremely talented, which made my week. This kid is amazing on clarinet. My guess is that he's going to make AVPA at the other high school...but I wonder if it will be too much clarinet for him. He might just choose the National Academy of Finance instead, which is more academically challenging. This kid has a super bright future ahead of him. Promotion time is looming close; and with that means extra costs. Journey's class photo as well as the entire 5th grade class photo is coming up, as well as her 5th grade t-shirt for Fun Day. We had to go and buy Ryan a nice business dress shirt and tie for his promotion, and paid for his 8th grade yearbook. We also paid for Journey's 5th grade yearbook. I don't know if Ryan has any other extra school costs (I know that there's a picnic at Blue Crabs Stadium for the 8th graders and their families sometime before they get promoted, but I'm not sure what those costs are or if there are any). but we'll certainly find out at the time comes I suppose. The end of this year is going to be amazing. So many memories, so many new beginnings. |
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