Okay, before I start this, I would ask that you please not ask Kayla about anything to do with this. When it gets better, I will let you know.
We went to Miyabi's for her birthday tonight and then on to Open House. And then she cried the whole way home. She doesn't have any of her old friends in her class with her and she has several friends that she has been in the same class with for the last couple of years. She also got the one teacher that she didn't want. AND, when we walked into the classroom it was like stepping into another world. Gone were all of the fun cutsie things of grades past. We are talking tall desks and big chairs here and text books. I wanted to cry. And I still might before the night is over. Kayla hated all of it. It was very... sterile. Her teacher seems nice, but not your bubbly "I'm so excited to see you" kind of nice. So, Kayla has literally cried all the way home. She is still crying. I let her cry and let her vent and then finally told her that she had a choice to make. Dread it and make herself sick over it and walk into to school on Monday with attitude the size of Texas OR accept that God had a different plan for her this year, new friends, new adventures, and just try to make the best of it. Right now I think she is taking Option number 1. Okay, for all of my female readers who remember what it is like to not get the teacher you like or not be in the class with all of your friends, you know what she is feeling right now. I'm feeling it. I just want to vomit for her. Actually, I want to storm the principal's office and demand that they move her to a new classroom with her friends, a grandmotherly teacher, fun books and posters on the walls, and LITTLE desks. I'm not ready for all of this. It is, like, so pre-middle school. So, I'm going to take my own advice and accept that God has a plan in all of this... right after I have my tantrum and my five minutes of feeling sorry for myself and for my daughter.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Stinky News
Uh Oh!
Is it a bad thing that it is not yet 9:00 a.m. and we have already had two drama episodes. Yikes! I really hope that is not a sign of how the day is going to go.
I have a confession to make. I wasn't going to admit it, but I think I need to. I am raising a tree hugger. We are about to go green people! Seriously, Kayla has this very intense desire to save the world one tree and one light bulb at a time. Craig and I have been noticing this for while and to be perfectly honest with you - it was really annoying me that my 8 year old was telling me that I needed to not drive so much to conserve gasoline and that I need to turn the lights off, etc, etc. However, I have since become convicted that maybe this is something that I need to encourage -- a little bit. I am all about conserving, but when you get right down to it I guess I just think that God has this whole earth and universe in the palm of his hand and by the time it begins to fall apart I will be in Heaven with Him looking at the plans He has for a NEW heaven and a NEW earth. That being said, I still felt the need this week to really talk about this whole environmentalist thing with Kayla. I'm not even sure I spelled that "e" word right or not, so from now on I will refer to the "e" people as "greenies". So, I told Kayla that maybe we needed to make a better effort at being greenies by starting out doing something small like recycling our Coke cans or something. If you are a greenie, please don't freak out, but we don't recycle. (gasp) But, I started thinking to myself, how hard is it to throw a container out to throw our cans in??? But then that poses the question of where does this said container sit and what color should it be -- should it be green? Oh, and what kind of material should it be made of? Okay, I'm kidding, but, honestly the dilemma of where to put said container is weighing heavy on my mind. If I put it in the garage will I remember to take my can to the garage or just throw it in the trash can out of habit? And if I do that, I am not about to go digging through the trash to pull out all of the cans that I have accidentally thrown in there out of habit. Dilemmas, questions, oh my!
Okay, so onto the morning drama. I went into Kayla's room to run the vacuum cleaner and I opened her blinds and turned on the lights. AAAHHH!!! Major faux pas! That little girl walked right in behind me and turned the light off! At this moment I lost all sense of greeness. I just saw red! How terrible that something so little set me off. Actually it wasn't her turning the light off that upset but what came next. I said, "Kayla, turn the light back on". To which she replies, aghast, "But Mom, you are wasting electricity." Huh? This is where the red began to flash before my eyes! Only because we have come home after dark numerous times to find that her bedroom light has been left on. Oh, and the fact that I pay the electric bill every month and I know how much it is also flashed through my mind. Well, I must admit that I lost my temper. And I hollered. And then I had to apologize for screa, er, hollering. However, I also sat down to explain that there are many ways that we can conserve electricity but for the purpose of vaccuuming I need as much light as possible to see all the crud on the carpet. I also asked how many times she had left her light on when not in the room and, bless her heart, she said, "but mama, that was before I wanted to save the world." I'm sorry, but it was all I could do to keep a straight face, because this so goes along with Craig and I's talk about this the other night. In the same conversation that we had about encouraging her to be a greenie, we also talked about acting classes and/or modeling of some sort. And I could just see the Ms. PreTeen USA Paegant - I want to save the world and I also want world peace. Please forgive my warped sense of humor, but it really did crack me up.
And just so that I don't have to feel guilty about talking about my child in a negative way and bashing the "greenies", let me tell you this. I am all about finding my children's gifts and talents and encouraging them in their beliefs. Tyler is so easy - he wants to be a monster truck driving fireman. I can make that happen! Have you seen how many toy monster trucks and fireman gear that there is out there on the market. We can take trips to the fire station, we can go to the monster truck races! However, with Kayla it has been a little more difficult. She has tried lots of sports and stuff and just doesn't seem to LOVE any of that, but she has been expressing an interest in going green for quite awhile. I really feel like I need to let God lead me in this and lead me in encouraging my daughter to become who He wants her to be and in helping her to follow her interests. So, if you see me at the grocery store and I am carrying my reusable grocery bag just know that I am doing my part!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Update
I hate when I don't have a clever title for my blog entry. It just really irritates me and sets my blog off on a bad tone. I mean "updates" - where has my creativity gone? I'm so disappointed in myself:(. Okay, and now, I'm over it!
I have worked my fingers to the bone today. I spring cleaned the living room. I enlisted Kayla's help - that child is a whiz at wiping down molding, and she really had such a sweet attitude about helping that I'm probably going to have to pay her or something! I have molding from the chair rail down and it collects dust on purpose. That is it's function in life - to collect dust for me to clean when I have nothing better to. I got everything done - the dry wall that was sitting on my pictures and molding is now long gone. Family pictures from months ago that have been taped to the frame (to ensure proper placement in the collage) have now actually been placed IN the frame. We ran errands before and after church and got much done! Whew! More of the same tomorrow. Craig is done with the drywalling for a good little while so I finally feel like I can clean and it won't get messed up a few days later! Oh, let me tell ya'll - the kitchen is just coming along really well. Our countertops should be in on Friday. Maybe by the time my brother comes we will actually have them installed. Yea! For my inlaws' visit and Kayla's birthday this weekend I am just excited to have paint on the walls.
So, Kayla's birthday, that is the next thing. We are in birthday mode. Did I tell ya'll that she was having a spa party? My friend Abbie did the invitations and they are so cute. I would love to tell you where to view her cards, but I have no idea how to do that cool hyperlink thing. Abbie, HELP!!! Anyway, then I had another sweet friend who is a consultant for BeautiControl that just brought me over all kinds of goodies to use for the party. Thanks Heloise! So between all of that and the stuff that I was able to get through our embroidery vendors we are going to have a spa party like you have never seen! Kayla is so excited! Tomorrow night we are doing our annual trek to Miyabi. We are going it alone this year because we have Open House at school tomorrow night and we are going to be pushing it to make it through dinner and on to school in time. I hope she has a good class this year. Last year was great. No problem students, well, not really anyway and her teacher was so sweet. I'll keep you posted.
Tyler has his teacher "meet and greet" next week. Guess who his teacher is going to be? Aunt Janna! Yea! We have already told her that we expect for our child to get all "A's" and be teacher's pet. Kidding of course. Actually what I told her was, "look, I know he is going to be in time out ALOT, and we promise not to have any hard feelings toward you for making him mind!". Oh, I hope he does better this year!
Gertrude went home with Holly today. I'm so glad she is back from vacation. Gertrude was getting so lonely for her after being at my house for a month. It's so nice to look over in the corner of my dining room and see...NOTHING!!! She has been a trooper this month and worked very hard!
Okay, I think if I continue to type I am going to begin to babble, if I haven't already. I hate to babble, but I do it way too often!
What Lisa Has Been Doing
So, I just had to post a picture about what I have been up to this week. It seemed much more impressive in real life and I added at least two more boxes to this stack after I took this picture. Did I mention that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ebay! This is the back of my van after a good bit of my stuff ended yesterday and today.
More Beach Pictures
Every time we go to Myrtle Beach we HAVE to eat at Friendly's. I must admit that Craig and I are as bad as the kids. They love it, we love it... One day we are going to open one of these around here.
Pictures Galore
Okay, so remember that family fun day that I blogged about awhile back, you know, the family fun day gone all wrong? This is the fall that started it all! Tyler's crash and burn at the fountain.
