Our 3rd grader

Happy Sunday  to everyone!

Alright, here I go again...being a proud momma! I just can't believe how much J'Bear has changed/grown up over the years. Today, I pulled together all of her Fall pictures since she's been in school. And wow, what a difference.

PreK-Fall

Kindergarten-Fall

1st grade-Fall

2nd grade-Fall

This years picture. 3rd grade-Fall

She is quickly losing that "little girl" face and is turning into a young lady. But she still has that sweet smile!

Anyway, that's all for now. I just had to share :-).  Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Talk soon!!

Change is good...

A few weeks ago, Jayla's teacher mentioned that Jayla seemed to be having a little trouble reading the board. She is already sitting at the front of the class. But I later found out that it wasn't JUST because she was sometimes having to squint to read what the teacher had written :-)...needless to say, we have a little social butterfly on our hands. I know...you're shocked! :-)

So I put it off for a couple weeks, just so we could make sure the squinting wasn't just for "show" or for attention. Jayla is quite the people pleaser and is always wanting to impress.  And I've noticed that she squints when she's trying to figure something out.  Not to mention, she has said that she thinks it's "cool" when I squint. Huh?

Do ya'll see where I'm going with this? LOL

ANYWAY..just before Spring Break, they had picture day at school. So I'll use this as the "BEFORE" photo.

She's so stinkin cute! But she looks so BIG! :-(

Then yesterday, I took her for her first "for real" eye doctor appointment.  Low and behold, the girl is blind as a bat. Ok, I'm just kidding about the blind as a bat part :-).  But she DOES in fact need glasses. To some extent, this didn't surprise me. I mean, I wear glasses, my mom & dad wear glasses, Mister M's mom & sisters wear glasses...so Jayla was just destined to have 4 eyes too, right? :-).

Well after having the really awesome (her words, not mine) experience of having air quickly blown into her eyes and having them dilated. Jayla had narrowed down her choices of specs to 4...ALL of which were pink of course :-).

And here are the winners. The black & PINK Barbie glasses.

I think she looks absolutely ADORABLE in them.

Normally, when Jayla hears the garage door go up, she squeals with excitement, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" and runs down to greet him at the door.  However, yesterday it was a little different. When the door went up, I heard, "My glasses are home! My NEW GLASSES are home!!" LOL (I had daddy pick them up for us so we wouldn't have to wait around for the hour and  1/2 to have them made).  But now that I look back, I'm not sure why we didn't wait. It's not like she could see anyway to even get her homework done. DUH! Dilation...remember? :-)

I haven't taken a photo of her in these yet, but due to her being a soccer player, the doc recommended she get prescription sport goggles too. Again...she looks adorable in those too.

Well, that's about all the news I have for today. Subject to change within the next few hours... Jayla has a follow up appt at the orthodontist today to see if she might need braces. ARGH!!! If she does, that's gonna have to wait...I'm still not use to her having glasses yet. But let me just go on record and say that, Jayla told me that she hopes she does have to get braces..."Mom, they're SO cool! And my friend even got some that are PINK!"

You're kidding me, right???

UPDATE: 9:41pm EST
Our visit to the orthodontist today was quite...um, interesting.  They do an x-ray of Jayla's teeth and call us back to meet with the doctor. He looks in Jayla's mouth...then at his notes...then back in Jayla's mouth. He tells her to put her teeth together...then looks at his notes again. He then asks ME, "When she was here last year, did her top front teeth hit behind or in front of her bottom teeth?" Uhhh, really? I dunno! Then he says to Jayla, "You ARE Jayla Bibbs, aren't you?" Uhhh, REALLY? She answers, "Uhhh, yes I AM!" He goes on to tell me that he sees NO problem with her teeth whatsoever and seems to stop short of asking why we're even there. He then says he thinks her teeth look great and seem to be very healthy for a growing 8 year old. And that IF she does need braces, it won't be for at LEAST another 3 years or so, if at all. And sends us off with an order to come back in Janurary 2012!

SWEET!!!

Ain't 8 GREAT?!?!?

In 2001, on this very day...actually, it was a Tuesday...but you get the idea :-) this sweet little baby girl was born into this world!!

 And today, in 2009. she's a BEAUTIFUL, funloving, vibrant, full of life 8 year old!

Happy, Happy, HAPPY birthday to my sweet little Jaylabear! I love you, baby!!

~~~

Stay tuned everyone...HOPEFULLY, another post will follow later on today. If all turns out well, I have something else birthday related that I need to share with you.

But before I go...guess what? THIS is my 500th post!  And what a day for it to be on...my baby's 8th birthday. How cool is that??? I'm thinking about doing some sort of fun drawing for you guys to celebrate my 500th post. Stay tuned for that!

Enjoy your day!

Just stopping by

Hey ya'll!!!

My goodness, I think I have been up to Jayla's school more these past couple of months than I was ALL of last year. SHEESH!! But it's great though. I love volunteering.  I work with a bunch of great people...so that makes it all worth while.  And Jayla has been blessed with some really wonderful teachers. Again, that makes my "job" a lot more fun and easier to have to do.

I've also been really busy with soccer.  Although there has been a lot of rain lately, which in turn, causes game cancellations, we've still been busy.  In fact, just this weekend alone, we had 4 games in 2 days!  And boy did we put some miles on the ole soccer mobile.  And for those of you who keep up with my statuses on Facebook, you'll see that out of those 4 games, we won 3 of them. YAY!! I love soccer!

ANYWAY...I have a few pictures to share with you.These are some I took at Jayla's game over the weekend.  She played goalie...the position that really "rattles my cage", so to speak. Of all the positions, goalie is the most dangerous.  But she really enjoys it. So I let her do her thing.  And she did great. Check her out...

NOTE: Please excuse the quality of the pictures. I got another new camera...Thanks Daddy! (a Canon this time) and I'm still trying to figure out how it works.

I've been up to a few more things since my last post too. A friend of mine asked me to do a craft show with her and another one of our friends. I recently learned how to make these cute little hair bows.  And being that I have a little girly girl...that was right up my alley.  We didn't do too well at the craft show. Guess people aren't in the market for hair accessories these days, lol. But I do enjoy doing them. In fact, I started another blog (yeah, I've been working on THAT too since my last post).  For those out there with little girls, you may wanna check it out. Click here to see my new "crafting blog".

Let's see, what else have I been up to? Oh, I'll be making a scrapbooking come back in the not so distant future too.  I was "elected" to be the school historian this year.  So I'll have to have that done by the end of the school year.  Gonna be fun!

I'm sure there's a lot more that I wanted to share with you in todays post...but it escapes me at the moment, lol :-).

Ya'll have a great week and I'll talk to you soon. Toodles!

Just cuz she's cute....

WARNING...WARNING...WARNING

Ok, you've been warned...
This post consists of a photo overload of a SUPER cute little girl!! :-)

I'm kinda in a hurry, as tonight is my weekly GNO...but I had to take a few minutes to share some recent pix of my baby girl. I will have a "normal" post in the very near future. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, here she is...

This is just a cute picture I took of Jayla...just because. I also took it to show off her new hairbow that I made. You like?


The 2009 Soccer season has begun. YAY!!! This season, Jayla moved up to the U10 team. And a new team it is. The same girls are on her team, we are just with a new "league". As you notice, no more black, red & white uniforms...again, YAY!!! lol And if I've got my information correct, they are no longer the Lil Stingrays. They are now known as the Brasil Stingrays...I think.

The head coaches daughter, and Jayla picked out the uniforms this season. They could choose from several of the "national" team uniforms. And they chose Brasil. I just LOVE the new look.

Here are a few more pix from this past weekends season opener.


Not sure what's going on with the socks being pulled up so high...I think she was just being funny. As far as her SHORTS being almost around her NECK...I got nothin! :-)


Aren't they a cute little team? The other 4 team members hadn't arrived when this picture was taken.

There's my girl running after that ball...and "Coach Daddy" in the background watching.

This is just a fun shot I took. She was standing in front of me getting ready to do a "throw in". For some reason, I love the lighting in this picture.

That's it for the soccer pictures. But I have a funny soccer story to share.

Saturday morning as we were getting ready for the game, this is the conversation that took place.

J-"Mom, what team are we playing today?"
M-"You're playing England!"
J-"Wow, England? That's cool. I hope we win."
M-"Baby, just do your best."
J-"OH! MOM...do you think we'll be able to understand them?"
M-"Huh? What do you mean?"
J-"I mean, will they have accents?"
LAUGHTER
M-"Uh, I doubt it! You play for "Brasil" and YOU don't have an accent!"
J-"Oh...right! DUH!!!"

Well, before I go, I have one more picture to share with you. Yesterday, Jayla got back her 2nd grade Fall pictures. Check her out...

She's so stinkin cute!

Ok, ya'll have a great night. Talk to you soon!

They were right...it DOES get worse before it gets better

...So, how bout THAT for a title? :-)

I have yet to figure out who "THEY" is/are. But today I'm gonna have to go with it.

Where do I begin? In my last post you may remember that my baby girl had been a little feverish? Well, I thought I'd try and do a good "mom job" and get her out of the house on Saturday since she seemed to be feeling better and had been fever free most of Friday. And knowing that she's a little like me, after a day or so sitting in the house, she got a little stir crazy. So again, I thought I was making a good judgement call by taking her to a soccer tournament.

It was outside.
It wasn't in a closed in area where she'd have to be really close to other humans :-).
It was close to home...just in case.
It was a way to give her some fresh air.
But little did I know that it was gonna be Sahara HOT!

Anyway, she seemed to be doing alright outside...except for the complaints of how hot it was out. We sat through 2 games (our team won them both...YAY!...and subsequently won the tournament) and other than being a little drained, she was doing well. I did, though, take the thermometer and the Childrens Motrin with us to the game, just in case.

So, we get home and Jayla started to heat back up, just a little. She just wanted to lay around and try to keep cool. Daddy went to a movie with another coach and a few of the boys from our team. So Jayla and I took our showers, popped some popcorn and had our own movie night:-). Jayla was starting to doze off and in fact, missed most of the movie and didn't touch her popcorn. I soon sent her to bed.

Around 10:30pm, when daddy got home, he went in to check on Jayla. He said she felt a little warm and asked when I last gave her some medicine. Being that I had given her a dose just after he left for the movies at 7pm. He decided to wait until 11 to give her anything else. 11pm came, he goes in to check on our little patient and take her temp again.He comes back to our room with super worried look on his face. Jayla's temp had gone up to 104.3! He gives her a little Tylenol and we then decide that we're gonna take her to the ER. And as we're getting changed, we hear Jayla get up and she throws up in the hallway! (this was a good thing!)

Once cooler heads and thoughts prevail, we decide to hold off on taking her to the ER. I get on the phone with a Kaiser Permanente advise nurse and Mister M. gets on the laptop with WebMD.

Long story short, we decide against taking Jayla to the ER, as her temp has started to subside. Fortunately, she had no other complaints or issues. The KP nurse said this was a good sign. But if she threw up again or the temp spiked again that we should take her in immediately. We gave her more Motrin and decided that she'd better sleep with us so we could keep an eye on her.

Well, considering that neither of us wanted to get sick (again), we opted to blow up the air mattress and let her sleep in our sitting room.

Her temp finally went down to something we were comfortable with and she remained fever free all day Sunday and yesterday. I chose to keep her home yesterday...just in case.

She went back to school today and did great. Now, she just has a runny nose. I'll take that over a 104 fever ANY day!

On a funny note, while Jayla was home with me yesterday, she commented about how she enjoyed sleeping in mommy & daddy's room. She also said that she was going to start moving some stuff out of her room and into our room..."so we could be one big happy family!" We are one big family...but we're all happier when Jayla sleeps in her own room, LOL. I immediately deflated the mattress (and Jayla's thoughts)...you know, out of sight out of mind :-).

Anyway, thank you ALL for your well wishes for Jayla. Thank God, we're on the upswing now and hopefully this will be it as far as her being out of school due to illness.

On another...and not so detailed subject...look what I got?

I got a new toy! The other cell phone I had was dying a slow, miserable death. I was getting a little pisturbed with it beeping at me telling me, "If you'd like to use the PTT (push to talk) feature, you must install the software." Normally, this wouldn't be a bad thing. But when it's telling me that and I'm not even TOUCHING the phone, let alone talking on it...there enlies a problem. It also liked to beep from time to time to tell me something about not being able to listen to music on the phone. Again, the phone could be in my purse or something when I'd get that little message. And how annoying is it for your phone to just randomly turn off or on as it sits idle somewhere? ARGH!!! Mister M. and I actually had the same phone for a while. You may remember the cute little purple one I had? That's the one, along with Mister M's that we just replaced with the above device. So far, I'm loving it!

Ok, that's it...sorry for the long post. But I just had to share ;). Enjoy your week and I'll be talkin to ya soon.

.......uhhhh, errrr, welll...I'm speechless!

...Ok, for those of you who know me, you KNOW that it's not often that I'm left without words. But being that I AM Jayla's mother, it happens.
~
Allow me to share this with you. I pick Jayla up from school yesterday and the following conversation takes place...
~
Me: "Hey sweetie, how was your day today?"
*
Jayla: quizzical facial expression - "It was ok."
*
Me: "Just ok? What happened? Did you have a bad day?"
*
Jayla: "Wellll, kinda."
*
she has now proceeded to take her purple folder out of her book bag and open it to show me.
*
Jayla: "Today we got our weekly reports...annnddd, I will understand if you tell me I can't watch TV when I get home today. I HAVE to learn my lesson!"
*
Me: quizzical facial expression with slight jaw droppage - "Wait a minute now, WHAT happened?"
*
NOTE: we are now in route to the gas station and she's trying to show me this purple "Thursday" folder. I tell her to wait until we get to said gas station and I'll look at the folder there. So we stop, I start pumping the gas and I read the paper in the folder. Which SIMPLY states that Jayla had a "minor" issue with talking too much (big SHOCKER) in class and in the cafeteria...on Tuesday and Wednesday. So as I'm reading this "send her up the river" worthy info :-D, Jayla has this PAthetic look on her face and says...
*
Jayla: "Mom, I'm VERY sorry about my talking. And I understand if you want to punish me by not letting me watch TV anymore. It's the only way I can learn my lesson! I KNOW better than to be a talker at school. I'm SOOO sorry, Mommy!"
*
Me: still bearing the quizzical facial expression - "Jayla, I know you're excited about starting back to school this week. However, although you should try and control your talking, this is not THAT serious! You know when it's okay to talk and when it's not ok. Just try and work on that, ok?"
*
Jayla: "But MOM! I need to learn my lesson! And it's ok with me if you need to punish me! But starting tomorrow, I will think before I talk too much at school."
*
NOTE: we are done pumping gas and are now on our short ride home.
*
Me:...yep, still looking confused and wondering whose child this REALLY is, says, "Ok, when we get home, you can get your snack and you won't be able to watch TV for 30 minutes!" (it is 2:45 when we get home...keep this is mind)
*
Jayla: "Mom, you're the best mom ever! I will learn my lesson, I promise! But maybe I should get my snack and not turn on the TV until 3:30! Doesn't matter to me...cuz, that's what I need!"
*
Me: "I think 30 minutes will be fine, Jayla!"
*
3:00pm
*
Jayla: "MOM!! Can I watch TV now? It didn't take me as long as I thought to learn my lesson!"
*
LOL
~
ANYWAY...we have successfully made it through the first week of school. Although, Jayla has accused me of picking her up too early (@2:30-school lets out at 2:15). She was also upset with the teacher because not only did she NOT give them homework one day...but she doesn't give it on Fridays...EVER! Again, I ask, WHOSE child IS this??? :-) I PRAY that this girl always has this type of enthusiasm for school and learning. However, I also pray that she stops being so hard on herself when she does "wrong". Love her to death though! What an AWESOME little girl!
~
How bout a flower fix? (bout time, right?) ;)

Enjoy your weekend!

2nd Grade...here she comes!

Where did the summer go?
~
It almost makes me sad that we went on our vacation so soon after last school year let out. But we had a fun summer and as always, I just love hanging out with Jayla.
~
Speaking of Jayla, today is her first day of 2nd grade! Ya'll, when I tell you that this girl was Soooooo excited to be going to school today...TRUST ME!!! She all but bolted out of bed this morning, lol. EVERYTHING about this morning and what this day holds just made her giddy!
~
And OF COURSE we had to take pictures of our cute little 2nd grader...check her out.
~
Oh, wait...before we see those pictures, let me share one more thing with you. For those of you who have little girls...more specifically, "brown" little girls, LOL...you KNOW that the hair has to be done. And what a major undertaking it is. Especially if you have a daughter who needs a touch-up or some hot comb action :-). Check out Jayla...BEFORE the touch up...

...a HOT MESS, right? I tried to have her make a sad face for her BEFORE picture. But the girl just can't NOT smile. lol

...And the AFTER....Ahhh, now that's better! She was royally freaking out on me while I relaxed her hair. We were clearly in MELT DOWN mode. Poor thing was just crying. But once we got done, she said, "The burning was all worth it...cuz I look KA-YUTE!" :-)
~
Ok, back to today...check out my little 2nd grader.
(note: Jayla told me to mention to whoever saw this picture, that she's not holding up the Peace sign - this time - that's a 2 for 2nd grade, lol)

I think this is my favorite picture of the day. She looks SO happy and SO KA-YUTE!!! :-)

We can't leave Trae out! He wants to take a picture with HIS 2nd grader too :-). Look at his tongue sticking out...love it!

Here she is at her new desk. Still looking as happy as can be.

...And we've gotta take a picture with daddy. Can't start the day off without ONE MORE hug.
~
Welp, that's about it for now. I can't wait to pick Jayla up from school this afternoon. I hope she's still excited. It'll be interesting to see how this week progresses. I mean, will the excitement continue? We'll see...stay tuned!
~
Enjoy your day!

You're kidding me, RIGHT???

...ok, let me set the scene for you...

I go into the playroom to tell Jayla that it's time for her shower. Only to find her sitting in a chair, under the curtain at the window. I hear her talking to herself (as she often does). But I couldn't hear exactly what she was saying. So I gently pull back the side of the curtain and peek in at her.

THERE I find my daughter holding a piece of paper with names of kids on it (and teachers) that have been in her class over the past 2 years. I look at her and notice that her nose is running. So I ask her what's wrong (this is where it gets interesting) and the conversation went something like this...

Mom: "What's wrong?"

Jayla: sniff..."I've just been crying, that's all!" sniff

Mom: "What are you crying about?" now looking a little bit closer at the paper she's holding

Jayla: sniff, sniff "Do you remember on the last day of school, I was crying?" sniiiiiffff

Mom: "Yeah???" trying not to laugh

Jayla: "Well..." sniff, sniff, "I was crying because I didn't want to leave school for the summer and I didn't want to miss my friends! AND I didn't want to stop learning and all that stuff!" "I didn't even WANT to have a summer break! I don't NEED a break!" "I wish I could go to bed right NOW!" sniff, sniff "and wake up and go to school!!" SNIFF

Mom: "Well, honey, I'm sorry, but school has to close for the summer which means you'll have a summer break. The teachers want to spend some time with their families too, you know?"

Jayla: "WELL...I don't WANT to have summer!" sniiiifff..."I want to keep learning all that I can and I want to go to school and I want to see my school friends! sniiifff

Mom: "Jayla, there's nothing I can do about that right now. But ya'll start back to school in about 2 weeks anyway. So you'll be back with your school friends and learning more real soon. Now c'mon and take your shower."

By now, Mister M. is looking at me mouthing, "What's wrong with HER?" :-) I tell him and he just smiles and shakes his head.

So, I go in the bathroom and run Jayla's shower. Soon, she comes in there with me, I give the "shower instructions" and I leave the bathroom. A few seconds later, I come back down the hall and see her reflection in the mirror. This girl is now looking at herself working up an OSCAR worthy, deep sorrow BAWLING!!!

Are you KIDDING me? :-)

So the loving mother that I am stops and says to my daughter, as sweetly as I can...

"Alright Jayla, that's ENOUGH!!!" lol
~~~~~
Ok, I know I'm wrong for posting this. But I just HAD to share it with someone. I just love this kid! I'm not sure who's she is...cuz she CAN'T be mine! :) She really cracks me up and keeps me on my toes.

Oh, and I'll have ya'll know, this is NOT the first "melt down" we've had this summer. The 1st one was cured by, "Well, if you don't take a summer break, you won't get to go on vacation!" That one went over like a charm! Probably because it was the truth.

This time...I got nothin!! LOL

...and so it goes, as Jayla's world turns...tune in next week for the, "MOM, what am I gonna wear (that's pink) on the first day of school? Do you think my teacher (whoever she is) is going to like it?" episode.

Out of the mouths of babes...

...ARGH!!! I have just been running around like a crazy lady lately. I forget that some errands and just life in general take on a different "dynamic" in the summer, when there's a 7 year old in tow.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having Jayla around everyday. She's GREAT company and makes for humorous day to day comings & goings. I'll tell ya, I just love this kid.

Case in point, yesterday, we were at Michaels. I'm on the hunt for some chandelier stickers or stamps or stencils, or SOMETHING. I've built a desk for my sewing machine and I want to decorate it with chandeliers. Don't ask me why...I just do and I just like them, ok? ;)

ANYWAY...we're wandering around Michaels and I'm looking for something that either is or resembles a chandelier...trying to get the creative juices flowing. As I'm thinking out loud, I happen to say, "I can't make a stencil because...because, I just CAN'T! I've tried and it ain't happenin!"

So Jayla hears my "thoughts", grabs me by the arms and says to me; "MOM! You CAN do it! Don't give up! You've told me not to quit and don't give up. So you can't give up and be a quitter either. C'mon Mom, YOU CAN DO IT!!"

Ok, so as her mother, what do I say at this point? I mean, she's right, I HAVE said that to her. And I'm sure, especially since she's only 7, I'm gonna say it again...and again. But seriously...I HAVE tried and I CAN'T do it!

So after laughing and getting over my shock of what she just said, I grab my daughter and give her a big hug and a kiss on her head. And I say to her...as sweetly as I possibly can; "Honey, you don't understand...I've tried and tried and really, Mommy CAN'T make a chandelier stencil! And not only that, I don't HAVE to...cuz I'm GONNA find one!" lol

To which she responds, "Oh mom, I believe in you...you can do it...you just have to TRY!"

Anyway, this "precious moment" as it was, goes on for quite a while. But needless to say, although my daughter called me out, so to speak, the search continues. I WILL find that chandelier stencil or stamp! LOL

So, anyway, last week I had to take Jayla to the doctor because she's had this annoying little cough for a few weeks now. She also complained of her left ear feeling, "stopped up - like when we were on the plane". And since she doesn't seem to be able to hear me that well when I call her name (unless I'm calling her to see if she wants some ice cream or to go to the park, lol), I thought I'd better get it checked out. We go to the movies to see Madagascar 2 that morning (VERY cute movie, by the way) then head to the doctor. Only for them to discover that she not only has an ear infection, but also a sinus infection. GREAT!!!

We are then sent to the pharmacy to get her prescription of Amoxicillian. ONLY to find that it's gonna cost us $60! Little did I know that we now have a $50 deductible on prescriptions every year. ANYWAY, I paid it we went on our way. 2 doses into the meds, it dawns on me, "Publix (grocery store) has FREE antibiotics with a prescription!" ARGH!!! I could've saved us $60! Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

We are now 8 days into the meds and only 2 more days to go. The coughing has pretty much gone away. However, Jayla claims that she might still have the ear infection though. (She knows this because she's gonna be a pediatrician one day, lol) I ask her why and she says, "Because I still can't hear YOU that good! I can hear daddy, I just can't hear you that good!" You're kidding me, right? LOL I think she's gonna milk this one...

I've been trying to get back in the swing of scrapbooking too. So I'm excited about showing off our vacation album when I'm done with it. I'm also gonna try and start on our anniversary album too. That way, I won't get burned out and bored with one event. We'll see how that goes.

Well, that's it for tonight. Ya'll have a great evening. Toodles!

I got me a cold!!!

Hello everyone out there in blogland! WARNING: CUTIE PIE ALERT!!! This post is "Jayla picture heavy!" ;-)

Oh my goodness, I don't know where to start this post today. I have a few things to share with you. Well, I'm a list kinda person, so maybe that's what I should do...

1. I forgot to share Jayla's 1st grade Spring picture with you. However, before I show it to you, I have to vent :-). In the Fall when the kids take pictures, you have to pay for the package in advance and PRAY that your childs class is photographed BEFORE the infamous spaghetti & meat sauce lunch, lol. We did alright in the Fall...no worries there. But in the Spring, they just sent you the package of pictures and you pay for what you want and send the rest back. Not a bad deal, huh? Well, for the past couple of years they have sent home the form for you to fill out with your childs information on it and you get to choose one of several background colors or in this years case, one of several poses. COOL!!! I chose the pose I wanted and had THE outfit picked out for Jayla - you know, the one that would show the best in the pose that I picked. Well tell me how come when we get the pictures back, it's NOT the pose I selected?!?!? Sure, it's a cute picture, but it's NOT the pose I chose. I asked Jayla about it and she said that the "picture guy" didn't even look at the form I sent with her. He just told her to go sit down and smile. So anyway, long story short, I called the photography company and lodged my complaint. ONLY to find out that I'm not the only parent to complain (this year), however, there's nothing they can do about it. Isn't it my luck that they don't do picture retakes in the Spring? There's no time! ARGH!!! Anyway, I showed them...I sent the entire package back...after I scanned one of the photos. I HAD to have a Spring picture of my daughter. But I refused to pay for something that wasn't what I wanted. Oh well, here's the picture. Her hair looked a little crazy...but she's still a cutie! ;)

2. While we're on the subject of pictures, we got our soccer pictures back a week or so after the school pictures. Now THESE, I'm happy with.

3. Last Friday the had what's called an "Author's Tea" at Jayla's school. They kids had to write a short story and they had to read it to an audience. The topic for Jayla's class was "Sea Animals". So each child had to pick a sea animal to write about. Jayla chose the Sea Lion. She says they're "really cute and really interesting!" :). For about a week, she had to practice reading her story and she did really well. There were a few words she had trouble with. But come time for the Tea, she was READY. She was so excited to be able to wear her favorite dress to school and read in front of me, grandma and the other parents. Here's her story...

It's so amazing to see how much the kids have learned over this past school year. They ALL did a wonderful job. After all the stories were read, we had cookies and, of course, tea :-). It was so cute watching all the kids running around getting eachothers autographs in their story booklets.

4. If you read my last post, you'll see that this past weekend we were in Columbus, Ga for the Georgia State Soccer Championship. Well, this is about the 5th or 6th time our U14 boys have been to this tournament. However, they've never made it to the finals. WELL...this time, things were different. Not only did they win all 3 of the games they played, but they made it to the finals on Sunday...AND WON!!! The U14 Stingrays are not only the #1 U14 team in our league, but now, the Georgia State Champions!!! WOOO HOOO!!!

As some of you may be aware, Mister M. not only coaches Jayla's U8 girls team and the U14 boys team (both affectionately named the Stingrays). But he also coaches a U16 boys team, called Barcelona. Yes...that's THREE teams! Barcelona also went to the State Championship this past weekend. So you can imagine what a busy weekend we all had keeping up with over 30 teenaged boys! Talk about FUN!!! The hotel we stayed in was also temporary lodging for a few other soccer teams as well as some softball and basketball teams. Again, talk about FUN!!! lol

Anyway, this is first time Barcelona has been to the State Championships, as this is only their 2nd season together. But they played their HYNIES off! They also made it to the finals. However, in the last 2 minutes of the final game, the opposing team scored. Which made us #2. ARGH!!! But still, being #2 in the STATE ain't too shabby! YAY BARCA!!!

5. Now about this cold...it was FREEZING in our hotel room - let's start with that! Then it was forcasted to rain all weekend. It drizzled a little and rained Saturday evening. So that was great to be able to get those games played. Being that our first games on Saturday and Sunday started at 8am, it was a little chilly outside. But the rain held off...UNTIL Barcelona's final game. About 20 minutes into the game, the sky opened up. So needless to say, we got caught in the downpour. Fortunately, we all had our umbrellas (well, except for the additional giant umbrellas that were conveniently located in the back of the van). Anyway, we got SOAKED!!! (because all I had was the little, Jayla sized umbrella.) They will only stop a tournament game if it starts lightning. SO...that's where I (think) I got my cold from.

Alrighty, I think that's all I have for now. I'm still a little tired from the busy weekend and this congestion isn't letting up. In fact, it's worse when I sit down in one spot.

Ya'll have a great rest of the week and I'll talk to you soon.

Oh, one more thing...after spending a little over $500 we FINALLY received our passports for our upcoming trip to Turks & Caicos. YIPPY!!!

See ya!

Happy Friday! Happy Weekend! Happy Mother's Day!

HAPPY - HAPPY - HAPPY!!!

~

Alright, alright...enough of all the happiness :-). I'm TIRED!!!

~

This has been a crazy week.

~On Monday, Mister M. worked from home, so that's always fun :-).

~On Tuesday - Cinco De Mayo - absolutely nothing exciting happened. Oh, other than Jayla starting her swimming lessons. That girl is a MESS! She has been wanting to take swimming lessons for quite some time now. But I wanted her to be comfortable in the water first. The instructor having to deal with a child who's scared of the water was a bit much for me...and I'm sure more work for them. SO, now that she will, without a second thought, jump off a freakin cliff into the water, I thought she was ready for lessons :-).

I mean, it kinda looks like she's having fun, huh? :-) And what's so great is, there are only 3 kids in her class. 2 boys that look to be about 8 or 9. Love that the class is so small.

~On Wednesday (Sixo De Mayo...lol), me and Mister M's mom spent the day together...at the eye doctors (oh joy!). Then we stopped by the mall where she picked up a few things and even bought me a big floppy hat for our vacation :-D. Thanks Mom!

~Then Thursday, was fieldtrip day. Sadly, the 1st grade classes only went on 1 field trip this year. And this was it. We went to the Chattahoochee Nature Center. I'm not much of an outdoorsy type (ok, I'm not outdoorsy at ALL). So it was quite the shocker to see me out there. Anyway, we wound up having a really nice day. Although it did get quite muggy and humid out. Oh and the mud was kind of an issue too. But all in all a good day. JAYLA on the other hand, about had a coniption! As we were finishing up our little tour of nature, a "dinosaur", aka, lizard, walked across our path. Before I knew it, the girl had practically CLIMBED up me! And that SCREAM!!!!! Makes my ears ring just typing it. THEN...yes, there's more. After the dinosaur fiasco, the "naturalist" who was giving us the tour, steps away for a minute to go get her little "friend" to show us. She comes back out with a 3 - 4 foot Eastern King Snake! (impressive huh, I remembered what it was called). Ya'll, I thought the girl was gonna start hyperventilating on me! She was BEEside herself! Alright, for the record, I don't do "dinosaurs" or snakes either. So I could kinda relate with the ole girl :-). But DOGGONE!! Anyway, after PROMISING her that she/we didn't have to touch or go near the snake, she was fine...kinda! Sheesh, what a day!

~

Thursday afternoon, as if the nature walk wasn't enough, Jayla had her 2nd swimming lesson. I'll tell ya, it's amazing what a difference 2 days makes. This girl was almost in fish mode yesterday. It was amazing. She just LOVES to learn new things and just absorbs EVERYthing! So yesterdays lesson was quite a treat to watch.

And NOW...for the coup de gras (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly). GUESS what Jayla got to do before her lesson was over? Check this video out...

...oh, and this one too.

Needless to say, she is LOVING her swim lessons. We still have 4 more lessons to go and once it's over, she'll receive a Level 1 Swimming Certificate. She's so excited.

~

Ok, well, I think that's about it for me today. But before I go, I'd like to wish all the lovely women out there a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY this weekend. And since I can't get these to all of you individually...he's some flowers for ya (aka, Flower Fix)

Toodles!

Back (hopefully) in the swing of things

I must say, I have truly missed blogging. Not that I have a bunch to share with you. But because I simply miss my blogland friends.

Honestly, I don't have THAT much to share today. However, I do have a few pictures and some tidbits of info that I'd like to get out there.

FIRST of all...You may remember back on 2/13, I did a post of my dad's surprise visit from NY? Well, we finally got the professional pictures back from that day. My dad and Jayla are so cute together. Check out the smile on this little girls face...Well, soccer season has started back up. Saturday, March 7th was opening day and it's the first time in MANY seasons that we've actually played on opening day. The Spring season seems to always get off to a bad start due to the weather. But, we got game 1 out of the way. Yes, "we" are still coaching 3 teams. And this season is gonna show what we...the Bibbs are really made of. One of our teams will now be considered a traveling team. Which means, we won't only play teams from our club. We'll play teams from different counties. So it's gonna be fun to see how many places we can be at one time...or how fast we can get from one venue to another :-). Wish us luck!
Speaking of soccer...check this out......I have sank to an all time low! Not only did I make a vow several years ago, that I'd NEVER drive a mini-van. But I also said that I would NEVER be a crazed soccer mom with magnets on my vehicle.

Well...I not only drive a mini-van, but I have...not 1...but THREE soccer magnets on my van. One of which has my daughters name on it :-). What has happened to me??? AND...not only do I choose NOT to wash my van...but I find myself wiping off a "special spot" for my personalized soccer magnet! (see above "cleaner spot") (Note: Miss Jacki thought it important enough to tell you this AND take a picture. Thanks, Miss Jacki!)

Oh, and to add to my current crazed state of mind...I sat in the rain (and cold) this past Saturday through TWO soccer games. Neither of which, do I have anyone playing on that is remotely related to me! I like to say that I do things like this because my husband coaches, and I'm being a supportive coaches wife. But, I'm starting to wonder if I really ENJOY it! I must! What do ya'll think? :-)

Before I continue, how bout a word from our sponsor.

...Ok, there weren't really any "words" from our sponsor. Just a couple of cute shots I thought I'd share :-). My grandmother bought Jayla this outfit for Christmas and it was finally warm enough (briefly) for her to wear it.

Oh, GUESS WHAT??? We are finally going to get to go on vacation this summer. We haven't been on vacation in almost 4 years. So needless to say, we're a little bit excited. THIS is where we're headed. I cannot WAIT!!! But I think Jayla is a little more excited that I am...she started packing yesterday, lol. (we're not leaving until May 31st!)

And just in case you think I've forgotten to share my little secret with you, I haven't. I know I've been talking about this secret for almost a year now. But it's just not time to share it yet. I want to make sure everything is 100% a "GO" before I share. So, I promise, I'll be ready to share it REAL soon...next month even :-D.

Alrighty, since I neglected to do the Friday Flower Fix (again) last week...here's a few shots for ya....

Okie dokie, that's about it for me today. My "sponsor" wants to read a Clifford the Big Red Dog book to me before she goes to bed. So I'd better pay attention...I may be quizzed later, lol.

Ya'll have a good night and I'll talk to you soon!