Catching Up Part 2

looking back at the last few posts, I realized I never posted any of the kids starting the school year.

Brianna is a freshman. I'm still in shock at this reality. Every morning I drive her to school and every afternoon I pick her up (and twenty other of her classmates who are trying to bum a ride home) at the HIGH SCHOOL and yet it still has NOT sunk in that I am the parent of a teenager in HIGH SCHOOL!!!! I still feel like I'm 12 myself, how can it be that I'm a mother of a 9th grader???? She has all A's and 1 B. She is smarter than I ever will be! Always teaching me new things. At the beginning of the school year, she attempted to tutor me in my parenting and eventually gave up and gave me a Big Fat 'F' in the Best Mom of the Year lesson because I wouldn't allow her to escape out of her HONORS Language Arts class and ease herself into a unchallenging, boring, average, way too normal for her, English class. In attempting to explain my reasoning, which sounded something like..."because I'm the mother and I said so" (my own mother's words), I was thrown into a month long detention. Her words ....I was the worst mother ever and I ruined her life.

BUT....she got over it and needless to say is getting an A+ in said class. Guess I didn't ruin her life TOO bad because she is still alive and breathing and continuing to prove her scholarly ways.

Elizabeth is the BIG woMAN on campus and rules the school in 6th grade. Aaaaand she has BIG attitude issues at home with her annoying parents always bugging her and not leaving her alone to sit and relax in her room and play on her Ipad all day!!! She plays the flute for the elementary school band and wears this really cool blue t-shirt during her band performances that says in big white bold letters, "I'M WITH THE BAND!" Love it! Recently, she asked me to help chaperone one of her band concerts and I obliged. Got to sit with 100 something squeaky students playing a myriad of different instruments that together all sounded like an old, dying kitten screaming out in pain. Except my Elizabeth, the tunes coming out of her flute that night seemed to dance and skip in the air, drowning out the noise coming from the students, her notes floated up higher and higher into the starry sky. They pranced around the Big Dipper finding their way to the milky colored moon and slowly kissed it goodnight. I might be exaggerating just a LITTLE bit. OR NOT!!!!

This is me chaperoning. Taking pictures and annoying her.

Emily is trailing behind Elizabeth in school and seems to still be getting the same teachers her sister enjoyed the year before. Which is awfully nice to already know what to expect from each one. I must admit, this kid has significantly improved in her studies. She's still the social butterfly that she always was and forever will be, but her grades are AWESOMENESS to a mother's eyes and I don't have to ride her cute lil butt as hard as I used to when it comes homework time. She has even started to like reading thanks to the book club her teacher has started. So what if she bribes the kids with hot chocolate and donuts to get them to join her club... it works! Emily has also joined the band this year and plays the trumpet. She sounds pretty good too!

She has emotionally matured as well. Less and less emotional meltdowns have lightened the burden of a weekday night filled with homework, soccer, ballet, cadets... etc.

 

Matthew, my son. My awesome, rad, ,inquisitive, athletic, boy.  One of the VERY FEW testosterone contributors of the family. I love him so. He reads ALL the time and is addicted to Pokémon playing cards. He is absolutely thriving in his soccer family. The season is almost over and he is already begging to do it next season. Yesterday, he received an award at school and just tonight asked me as I picked him up from his Christian Cadets religion class if he was indeed a Christian? A few weeks ago, he begged me to buy him a new bible because his mentor told him it was a REALLY good idea to read a little from the Bible each night before going to bed. Many nights, I find him passed out from reading, the Bible still in his hands. Did I mention despite all these great Christian like deeds, he's an absolutely good con artist?! He has mastered my signature to the point where I have to take a good hard look at it to confirm it is mine and not his! He has forged my initials on his schoolwork several times this year so far. We've had a few talks about this and during the last talk, I may or may not have mentioned some of the potential sentences one may be faced with when guilty of forgery under California Penal Code 470(a). He may or may not have started hyperventilating when his mother may or may not have talked about visiting the nearby jail so he could start getting accustomed to his new living quarters. Something tells me he won't be forging my signature again, for awhile at least.

 

Megan, my little fairy ballerina. She has started kindergarten and already went on her first field trip to a real working farm. Last week, I volunteered in her class and helped them all make home-made applesauce. She told me I was the best mommy in the whole wide world. I felt validated! For once, one of my children finally GOT IT RIGHT!!!! Need I say more?