feeling scholarly

The girls both made honor roll for the last grading period and the award ceremonies were both this week. Thankfully my clients are always willing to change appointment times to accommodate the girls. Actually my clients are just very very accommodating, end of story.

Rosie received perfect attendance also

so proud of herself, as well she should be.

Hah, look at the socks! This is Hamley her friend, I love this little boy he is such a good student and a sweet kid to boot. These two have been in the same class every year. P.S. I cropped the other child out of the photos but blogger decided she should be in it anyway. LOL

Lilys ceremony fell on a Wednesday and Wednesdays happen to be, Wear what you want Day, hence no uniform. 

cheesey grin!

Lily and her BFF, Misela. 

Congratulations girlies on all of your hard work. You both amaze me.

a weighty situation

In life there are no problems, only situations and every situation has a solution. This is Rosies mantra in life, she heard it many many times when we were down in Jamaica for the first time and has never forgotten it.

I am experiencing a situation at the moment with the school board. I received a letter on Monday regarding Rosie. The Florida Health Department randomly tests  the kids for various things and Rosie just failed, miserably, the height and weight test. Actually she did very well in her height but she is a scrawny little pickle and I recieved a note telling me such. (cos God forbid, I have never noticed this myself)

Now I am not one to stand about and do nothing and since everysinglethingIhaveevertried, to make her gain even an ounce, has been in vain, I have a fool proof plan. I have been trying since day one when we knew we had to get her fattened up for heart surgery and lack of doing so would cause her to have an invasive open chest cavity surgery whereas she could have a non invasive, via an artery in the groin, if she would only gain 5lbs, surgery. She gained 8 freaking ounces in 6 months. People the girls does not gain weight.

YES, SHE DOES EAT.  She loves fruit, she loves veggies. She hates sauce of any kind. She loves her food plain. She loves her food dry. She loves apples and strawberries.

DO NOT GIVE ME ANY ADVICE ON FEEDING HER AT ALL. I WILL SEND YOU HATE MAIL.

While we were in England Jeanne fed her, she liked some of it, when we returned I instantly started cooking the things here, she is eating those 2 things. Those things are not particularly fattening.

So what is my plan?

I'm going to get her to start smoking!

Then I am going to make her quit.  Everyone that packs up smoking gains weight.....all sorts of weight!

Think of the letters I'll get then!

Every situation has a solution. Situation solved.

Don't call 911 or the school board, I'm joking.

I did call the school nurse, I pointed out that she is Asian and that they need to use an Asian chart, she has never heard of such a thing and said I NEED to take her to a DR. It's a good thing I am not swearing anymore. I asked if they had checked her attendance as she is very healthy, then I remembered she actually got sick this year for the 1st time in 3 years and wished I hadn't said that.

Fuey. I wonder if I can ask to be excluded from any further random testing. My kiddies get great healthcare. I'm kinda freaky with that stuff.

Some kids are abused and neglected and i see the need for these tests and observations but can we be sensible with them, please.

I'm going to jump off of my New Years resoloution wagon for a moment,         &*^#$

living for thursdays

Since starting school I live for Thursdays. Once I file Thursday away for the week I am as a free as a bird until Monday. I am loving being so focused and just wish I could get through all of this a whole lot faster. I am hoping that once I get into subjects that I love that I can add more credits per semester. Get 'er done.

The girls have fallen back in to their school routines with no problems at all. I wasn't familiar with Rosies teacher  as for the first time she isn't following in her sisters footsteps. I was a little wary for the first day and then I realised she is amazeballs and I love her. Rosie will flourish under her tutelage.

I have a runner. Lily joined the running team and was immediately placed on the varsity team. This makes me laugh, a lot. Child is a swimmer and if you remember way back, she broke her arm during a short sprint during dry land training. Girly is thoroughly uncoordinated, thoroughly. I signed the waiver that stated, child could get hurt or even killed, and thought, sh*t, how many more casts are in her future. Oh well. I firmly believe that if you live through childhood with no scars you have no stories to tell. My sibs and I all have many battle scars and most started with fun. My seester wears most of the scars but my brother assures her they were all fun!

We are still trying to find as activity for Rosie at school but mainly they are things girly won't touch with a stick, dancing, and cheer leading. Yea, not her cup of tea.  I'm hoping she can start basket ball or something that appeals to the little Tomboy.

My brother and sister are bogged down with "stuff" and I hate not being there to help out and offer support. I love them dearly and wish I could carry some of the load. 

last weekend we were being threatened by a tropical storm, that was meant to be a hurricane and then downgraded to a tropical storm and by the time it got here it was only a depression. As much as I am thankful for that it makes me crazy that the media hypes it up, up, up. I have a very anxious child and as much as I play it straight with her, hearing all the nonsense at school just made her a basket case. Once the crazy thunder and lightening started she was a wreck. Arghh.

I try to empower her and let her feel she is in control. I had a light bulb moment that ended like this:

nutter

By giving her a flashlight that she wears she knows the second the power goes out she will be OK. She thinks that the second the power goes out I will crank up the generator. yea, not so much.

first day of school

I truly cannot believe that summer is over and that the girlies (and I) headed back to school today.

Since Lily started school the procedure for finding out your  assigned teacher has been the same; the Friday evening before classes start they are posted outside the school office. Not the greatest way but efficient and no one can complain or make a fuss as the person that posts them does so on their way out of the building and that is that.

We drove over on Friday and nothing, nada, butkus. Fortunately having a child with a social life paid off and we found out the information was posted on the portal. The only information however was the class assignment and we had no way of finding out who their classmates were.

Lily and I dropped Rosie off with her teacher Mrs Montilla and luckily, oh so very luckily 2 of her friends were in the class but not her close friend but she wasn't worried. Then I walked Lily over to the upper academy. I don't think either one of us thought anything of me walking with her until we were heading down the long hallway on the third floor and we both realised at once that I was the only 8th grade parent there. I quickly pulled her aside and pointed it out and she said the same thing at the same time. I said, I'm leaving, gave her a quick hug and scarpered. On my way to the stairs I saw her math teacher and commented to him I was all alone, he joked and said you are the 3rd parent, I've been watching. He thinks it's good that our kids don't mind, me too!

Then I headed home and realised just how much my migraine was killing me  quiet the house was. Sigh. Just a few short hours and I would be heading to get them and all would be back to normal.

Lily's schedule was all messy and she was flustered so she rang me. There are 6 periods in her day and she had 7 assigned classes. She is taking algebra 2 supposedly but her schedule showed pre algebra with 7th grade or some such nonsense. I told her it would get sorted and to calm down. She did and by the time I picked them up things were better. Her only beef now is that she has to do her virtual math in a classroom with a teacher that doesn't teach algebra 2. Crazy, but I know it will get sorted.

Rosie came out all smiles. She likes her teacher but she is a yeller. Apparently there is a child that, "just doesn't listen or stay in her seat" so the teacher yelled at her and it was loud. Rosie likes calm. She has a really small class with only 18 students, I'm thrilled.  I think both of them are going to have a great year.

Ready for 3rd and 8th grade

All ready in her mismatched Minion socks

That belt is her absolute favourite.

And then of course after they had done their homework and we had had dinner it was my turn.

That smile just might be fake considering I am holding a math book. 

We are all in this together.

( no, that is not an apple watch that lily is wearing. Everyone asks that. It is a1face

I had an OK evening. It's odd being in a class with kids. LOL there are some older people and I truly don't care but lets just get this done and not mess about?   K.

situations = solutions

Recently I went online to pay some bills and was smacked in the face by a harsh reality. I needed to do something fast. I immediately went online and applied for the RN program at the local college. I spoke with an admssions person who informed me that all the courses I took a kazillion years ago would transfer over, where applicable and I would be well on my way.

Of course this isn't going to be a fast solution but long term it will be an outstanding solution and nursing is something I wish I had done a long time ago. (actualy I would have loved to have been a surgeon but can you imagine the med school bills now? LOL). I  spoke to an advisor to see what exactly my next steps would be and basically my dream was shot down. I decided to give it one more shot and went and spoke to another advisor and I am now signed up for classes 5 days a week. So with a job, 2 kidlets and school don't expect much on this blog, oh that's right I barely blog now so you won't notice.

I am really giddy about this change, the kids are onboard 100% and we can't wait to sit down and all do homeowrk together. those are Rosies words.

The biggest change for them is with swimming. It wasn't their choice to give it up and I feel absolutely rotten about it but with the added expense of school and having to do it alone I have to cut out some extras. I also cannot be in 2 places at once and the professors probably won't want to teach from the pool deck. We have already discussed other options and I am hopeful something will prevail as they need to be busy.

I couldn't do this change at all if it wasn't for an extremely supportive family and Sista. I cannot imagine how people get through life without a family on their side. Thank you to every single one of you that has my back. I promise to get this done as quickly as humanly possible.

So there you have it, the scoop. Now I need to post from the cruise and the restof summer.

how proud ? so proud

It is that time of year again when all the awards start to get given out at school. Ya'll know how I feel about these things.  Me, no like.

Rosie came home with an award from school for fitness. She got a gold award from the county. Girl is a natural athlete. Each night she swims for an hour and then plays footie, or dodgeball or some sort of ball game for 2 more hours whilst her sister swims. she never seems to tire. Had she not won some award for her physical prowess I would have been surprised.

Great job, sporty 

little beast

Her awards weren't over with just those, Oh no she went ahead and took 2 more, one for perfect attendance and one for her grades. And as always, that's is all I will say about them.

entering the stage and shaking hands with all the admin"

Why yes, I am a fool. I removed her name from the top ones but not this.

I thank my lucky stars for these two, particularly the one on the left (yes I know, it is wrong to have favorites)

I love them

crazies

I love her......a tonne

But wait there are still more awards. She won all sorts of ribbons on field day.

This girl is non stop action and I am so very proud of her.

the other first lady

My girl had a project for school. She bought home a paper stating that they were studying influential women and her person was Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I refuse to do projects for my children. Rosie was shown how to use the computer for research and thrown to the wolves. I did cut the fabric for her as my sewing scissors could take your arm off.

The First Lady

When Rosie was searching Google Images for photos of Hillary she made a comment that cracked me up laughing, she said, Hmmm, there aren't many nice photos, she isn't very pretty. LOL
 I noticed that she printed out the black and white ones which are less harsh.

 Then she worked through her list of questions that have to be answered and wrote her essay.

clever little pickle

It's that time again, when the kiddies get rewarded for their efforts.

Happy little Pickle

And why do you think her smile was this big?

She smiled this big cos she saw me!!!

I dropped them off at school and headed to the supermarket. As I drove home I went past the school and saw a bazillion cars.

OMG!

Was it today?

I gunned it home flew in the house and ran to the fridge.

2nd grade: 9:30

Hah, lucky duck, you've got 25 minutes. She wasn't sure if I was going as I hadn't said anything to her. So when she saw me she smiled........BIG.

big

I falied to post the girls newest school pictures. I've had them a while.

Makes my brain itch that they are this big ~sigh.

lame, me not them

Hi, my name is Dawn and I suddenly suck at blogging.

Well over a week ago, closer to two in fact, Rosie had her award ceremony at school for honor Roll.

Indeed it was so long ago that the Seester and BIL were still here.

She was very very proud of herself, as were we.

Such a big smile

another award for perfect attendance 

Rosie was so so very happy to share this moment with her CUS and MUA. Having them at her school was so special for her.

CAS started walking back to the classroom with her.

Well done Pickle I am so proud of you for all of your heart work.

3 days down

After Lily's initial reaction to school on Monday I was a tad concerned. Lily has never been a big fan of the annals of learning, she finds it a waste of time. She is a smart kid and needs a challenge and even though she has been in the gifted class since second grade there still hasn't been much of a challenge.

From her very first day she has always been sent home with notes, letting me know how she doesn't stop talking. It took a few months before I even clicked that she wasn't talking to be disruptive but due to boredom. The older she got the less she chattered. phew. Last year the new principal at the school really amped things up for her and she LOVED school for the first time ever. Once you enter middle school you can move into honors and that was where she was but she needed to skip some grades. At the end of the school year, when they were planning electives this for year, Lily knew she was limited because she was going to be skipping grades again. (thank you Dr. P)

But Monday left her feeling blah all over again but Monday was just one day out of 180 and I knew it was to soon to tell. On Tuesday I picked them both up at 3pm and as much as I wanted to know immediately how things went I allowed her some time to start talking. She is once again a happy camper. She loves Geometry, and Physical Science. Her Odyssey of the Mind class, is the one that had her feeling blue of Monday, is now OK, but just OK compared to last year. Last year it was very small, this year it has grown, she misses the intimate group. Civics is terrible. The class itself is fine but there are 19 students and 15 of those are boys and boys are loud. That statement made me laugh. I asked if they were disruptive and she said no, just loud, everything they do is loud. Theatre is still a no go. I cannot believe my drama queen doesn't like drama. Language arts is ok. This is amazing as she was put off of any writing classes in 3rd grade by a teacher who I would rather soon forget. She loves the Language Arts teacher and this will make a world of difference and might just turn things around. This particular teacher, if you follow me on Facebook, is the Mother of Lily's classmate Mark. Mark and Lily have been classmates since pre-k.

I love that she has so many teachers who have kids in the school. Middle school can be tough but here she has teacher/parents always looking out for her. If/when she decides to do something stupid she won't just have to answer to a teacher but to the parent of one of her friends. Hah, kiddo I had some ulterior motives when I kept you in this school.

I think 7th grade will be a happy place for her again. I've filled out many forms and signed my name stating that I do understand that if my kid blows up the school in Science because she didn't follow the classroom rules and or chemical reaction rules I WILL be held accountable and they will not. Hah. And other forms stating that if she loses her electronic notebook or breaks it or vandalises it we will be asked to replace it at a cost of blah blah dollars. Somewhere in the stack were the usual homework, grade, coursework forms but they weren't nearly as exciting.

As always she is friends with the nerdy kids. I like this, nerdy is good. She balances out the nerdy with her athletic prowess on the pool deck. She is happiest when she is in her upper grade classes and when she really has to think.

As for Rosie, second grade still rocks. I saw her teacher yesterday at pick up and let her know that she made the first day of school so exciting that Rosie couldn't wait to go back for day 2. Rosie has received her first project assignment and had finished it already. She had to cover her composition notebook with various photos, articles, poems etc that describe her. It had to follow a rubric for each cover. Her cover is filled with photos of: swimming, Nannie, Grandpa, mad Uncle Andy, Crazy Auntie Sally, Uncle Colin, Uncle Jon, Lily, China, adoption, and Pete the Cat which is her favourite book. I did help her laminate it last night but that was all the help she got. She can't wait to turn it in.

The child is even reading a lot more willingly.

Her only complaint, one girl at her table screams in her ear all the time.

This child has come a long way from the times when I had to sit outside the classroom so that she could check I hadn't left her even though she had, in her grubby little hands, the keys to the car the whole entire time she was at her desk.
(one day when she is bigger, much much bigger, I will tell her how I had the spare set and would drive home and come back and be on the the bench at times arranged previously by her teacher and I. To begin with I had to stay on the bench the whole time but as her confidence grew I drove home) But not yet, she isn't ready yet. If she knows I tricked her then she might still think I will do it again and I cannot afford to go backwards, especially now with the life changes she is handling And if you are reading this and think you should tell her, I ask that you don't.  For now we will continue to forge forward and build her confidence.

So things are shaping up well for the school year. Only 177 more days to go before summer vacation but who is counting. Oh I am, that would me.

i should have tied them to the bannister

It has happened again. They have gone back to school. Each year this happens and each year I despise it more and more. You'd think by now I would just go with it but I don't. I fight it, inwardly, tooth and nail. I fester, quietly seething as the day grows nearer.

The girls were up bright and early, complaining that summer was over. They were ready to go. Everything was prepared the night before so all they had to do was get up, eat breakfast, and get dressed and ready.

Before I knew it was time to go.

Happy 2nd grader

All smiles....now

Who is this grown up 7th grader?

These pictures shocked me. She is growing up fast. 

I've got you little sis'

Lily painted Paws on her nails, the school emblem.

The first 2 days of school the parents walk the kids in. Rosie has to be in her class first so off we went. She was happy with her teacher assignment, as was I and she also had friends in her class but not her bestie Luka, sad sad sad. All was well but Ro just wouldn't be Ro if she didn't burst into tears. I just looked at her gave her a quick hug, wiped her cheeks and she was fine. Back to smiling. Odd kid this one. Then we whizzed across the school to the upper academy and bumped into every single teacher and stopped to chat before dropping Lily off with her much loved Ms Font. As we entered the building I noticed that there were not any other parents, well perhaps 3. I called Lily aside and pointed it out. She said she didn't care and wanted me to go. Score, she still wants me around.

I clock watched all morning and 3 just didn't come fast enough.

Rosie LOVED 2nd grade. Phew. She really loved it. Probably won't be so when the homework starts to pile up.  This is the first year she has stayed at school until 3pm.

Lily wasn't so quite so enthused. This concerns me. She will be doing a lot of language arts this year and this is not a favourite of hers. She is taking high school math which is fabulous so I know she is happy in that and most of her other subjects are honors classes so the challenge is there. I just hope she finds her "happy" like she did last year. She can't ever get the electives that she wants because she takes high school math so her electives are NOT what she wants at all. One of her favourite teachers bumped into us first thing and promised her he would steal her away if he could so that helped. I think she just needs to find her stride and she will be OK. Last year was such a great year for her and was the first year she was really challenged mentally that i think she is worried it won't happen again. I think she is wrong, this fabulous Principal is on to her.

 Lily will be 13 when this school year wraps up. Actually she will still be 12 she turns 13 the next day and Rosie will be 8. Holy sh*t

Lily in 2nd grade. ( a day when one of my cameras died. Note the green tinge to everything)

lets let them get a big head shall we

Last week the girls bought home from school a letter congratulating them for an entire school year of perfect attendance, no early dismissals and no tardies. In recognition of this expected behaviour outstanding performance, they were being taken out to a special luncheon at Chilli's Restaurant.

I mentioned on Facebook that it was rather ironic that the day of the lunch was May 29 and they would be missing school that day in order to fly down to Jamaica to participate in a swim meet that they have both qualified for. Not only ironic but also a little embarrassing. The following day I went to the office and handed in letters to their teachers from their swim Coach explaining the absence on that day and excusing them from the luncheon.

At pick up that afternoon, Mr Robinson, the asst principal came to my car window and said he had heard some sad news. I asked him what, and he said, I heard that your girls won't be at the luncheon. I smiled sheepishly and apologised. He said the school was very proud of them and that they must go and deserved to go. My phone rang the following day and it was his secretary informing me that he was trying to change the date so that the girls could be included. I was shocked, I got goosebumps and immediately said it wasn't necessary, that it was so so kind of him but he really didn't need to. She said he insisted.

On Friday the girls bought this paper home.

What a school. What a man. What an honor. How humbling to be thought of so highly.
They better not let it go to their heads. And even more ironic was when Mr. Robinsons secretary rang to tell me he was trying to change the date, I was in the card shop buying him a thank you card for being such a fabulous, caring, stick to the rules, asst principal.

 I absolutey love the school my girls are in. They aren't just numbers they are people, girls with an identity.