If it doesn't kill you...it'll only make you stronger...

My goodness, a lot has changed on BLOGGER since I last posted. In fact, it's looking a little wonky. Not sure how to fix it. But I'll figure it out.

ANYWAY...how has everyone been?  I can't tell you how many times I've attempted to do a post only to get distracted by something else (mostly Facebook) and totally forget.  Well, today (Wednesday, 10/13), if it takes me a week, I'm gonna post something.:-)

In my last post, I mentioned that my oldest daughter was moving back home. At the time, we didn't know how long she'd be here. And quite frankly, we were a little scared to even guess :-).  She, her dog, Diego and her attitude all moved in about a month ago. Again, we didn't know how long she'd be here. In fact, she had no idea either. But as soon as she noticed that some things just don't change at "home", she quickly started making plans to relocate yet again.  I admit, it can be quite difficult and maybe a little embarrassing to have to  move back in with your parents. Fortunately, I don't know this from personal experience. But I'm just guessing.

Needless to say, we've had our "issues" since she's been here. And I've tried REALLY hard not to be on her too much. As I know this can't be an easy adjustment for her. On her own, when she was 18, she decided to give it a go at being a "real grown up".  And I must say, she's done pretty well. Made some mistakes along the way, as we all do. But some are a little more difficult to recover from than others. Which brings us to today. At the age of 25 (almost 26 in December), she had to move back home with mom, dad & little sister. Honestly, the attitude I can (kinda) deal with. But the dog pissin all over my house is yet another issue all it's own. Don't get me started!

I could go on and on about this. But I won't. I will spare you the gory details. But I will say this, her being back home has, in NO way, shape or form been an easy adjustment...for ANY of us. I will just add that some things never change. And attitudes, ungratefulness, selfishness and down right stubbornness, are some of the hardest to get over.  Let it be known, though, that I TRULY love my daughter. I thank God for her everyday. I just pray that she gets things together really quickly so that she CAN have the desires of her heart. It's really hard to impress on someone, especially your child, that attitude is EVERYTHING! People are watching. And things CAN get worse if you don't fix those PERSONAL issues.

ALRIGHTY...enough about THAT!!! :-) On to everything else that's been going on. So hold on, cuz I'm bout to bring it....:-D

Soccer season has begun (well, it actually started back in August). Did I tell ya'll that already? Anyway...it has :-).  J'Bear and her team (Brazil or Brasil, depending on where you're from) is doing really well this season. So far, they have won 3 of their 4 games. And I'm almost positive these wins have NOTHING to do with the BRIGHT, NEON, HIGHLIGHTER Yellow uniforms they got this season. Good GRACIOUS! Those things are bright. No wonder the teams they play can't score...the poor things can't SEE! LOL

J'bear scored for the first time in a really long time, a couple weeks ago. And I HEARD that it was an awesome goal. I wasn't there.:-( I was on a girls weekend getaway (more on that later). But she did score 2 goals last weekend. Those I did get to see. So now I feel better. :-). Here she is...

J'Bear ready for the Fall season in her Highlighter Yellow uniform.

J'Bear, Gracie and Ashlee

Quick side note. Since B and her dog have moved back in with us for a while, this is a common scene around our house. Poor J'Bear can't even have an afternoon snack in peace. LOL

Trae and Diego watching J'Bear have a snack :-).

Here's another common site in our house. Poor Trae is so tolerable of J'Bear dressing him up :-).  Mister M. says I should be ashamed to show these, lol. I think it's adorable!

Trae all dressed up (and humiliated) :-)

Several weeks ago, Mister M. had his 25th high school class reunion. We had a BLAST! His class is SO close and I just love that. Fortunately, a bunch of us live in the same area and are able to get together. But the reunions are always so much fun. We can't believe we've been out of school now for 25 years! (26 for me!) But we still clean up pretty well ;-).

Mister M's 25th High School Reunion

As I mentioned earlier, the last weekend in September, me and 7 of my Girls Night Out crew decided to go on a girls weekend getaway. Our friend, Lisa, has a lake house about 2 hours from where we all live. So we decided to pack it up and head there for a much needed weekend. We've been planning this weekend for about 6 months. So we were all really excited to finally get away.   Here are a few pictures from our stay...

Beautiful view of Lake Jackson.

Another beautiful lake view at sunset.

Me and my crew on our girls weekend getaway at the lake house.

We took a BUNCH of pictures!  3 of the 8 of us are professional photographers.

One of the girls that was with us, remembered that, years ago,  I'd made some chicken for GNO one night. So back 6 months ago when we started planning this trip, she asked if I'd make more. Well, the girl doesn't forget a thing! So I had to "let my YES be YES" and fry up a batch. It was a huge hit. Needless to say, we ate pretty well that entire weekend.

The Fried Chicken is ready!

YES, there was drinking involved over the weekend!  I made sure the old beverage bar was fully stocked with my DP. :-)

A little thirsty :-).

Takin it to the head!
I kinda like Dr. Pepper, LOL.

Lastly, as if I need another hobby...I found a new craft. I'm sure this has been around for a while. But I live a sheltered life and find out about things later than the average person :-).

I've been making accessories out of Duct Tape.  How cool is that? They have SO many colors available now. When I think of Duct Tape, I think of the old silver stuff. Not anymore. Check out the colors and patterns that are available now...

My Duct Tape wallet (The prototype).

Zebra print wallet made for my oldest daughter.

Hello Kitty change purse f/ J'Bear.

And a purse to match.

Duct Tape tote bag.

Inside the tote.

Well, that's all I have for now. I know it was a long post. But the fact that I haven't been posting wasn't because I haven't had anything to share. So I just did one big dump :-).  Thanks for reading! Enjoy the rest of your week. Until next time...I'm out!!!

Never say never...

Well, a bunch has happened since my last post. (wow, that line reminded me of my old Catholic confession days). :-)

Anyway, I don't quite have all of my thoughts together right now to go into much detail about what's been going on lately. However, I will say that nothing terrible has happened and everyone is doing great. Just been really busy...as always.

BUT...the reason for my post title, "Never say never..." is very easy to explain and a lot of words are not necessary to say...

Our oldest daughter, Briyanna, is moving back home for a while.

Not much else I can say about that at this time. It is what it is!  Stay tuned.......

3rd Grade...HERE SHE COMES!!

Well, the summer is over and it's back to school for our J'Bear. Yesterday...YES!, on a Thursday, was the first day of school.  And boy was she ready!

J'Bear was so ready to start school in fact, that the following conversations have taken place over the past few days.

Convo #1

Background info: Over the summer, Jayla was doing the 2nd - 3rd grade Bridge worksheets...you know, to keep her brain sharp over the summer. There was 1 worksheet per day - front & back."

M - "Jayla, Mrs. W said it might be a good idea for you to do the Bridge book over the summer, so that you will kinda be on top of things when you start back to school. What do you think about that?"

J - Oooo, can we go get one today? Maybe we can get the 3rd - 4th grade bridge too!!" 

(Everyday, Jayla did these worksheets and read for 15+ minutes a day. Once we got the book, the conversation, went a little something like this...almost daily.)

J - "Mom, can I go ahead and do my worksheets?" OR "Mom, do I ONLY have to do one sheet a day?"

M - "Are you kidding me? :-)

Convo #2
J - "Mom, why does the summer have to be sooo LONG? No one asked me if *I* wanted a summer break from school!"
M - "Are you kidding me? :-)

Convo #3
M - "Jayla, on Sunday, you're gonna have to start back going to bed at 9pm. You know school starts on Thursday?"
J - "Awww MAN! I wanted to start going to bed at 8:30!"
M - "Are you kidding me? :-)

Convo #4
M - "Guess what? We're going to do a little school shopping for you today!"
J - "Mom, I don't mind if I have to wear my clothes from last year. But I think I will need a pair of sneakers because my other ones don't fit. I'm sorry you & daddy have to waste money on clothes for me every year!"
M - "Are you kidding me?"

And...Convo #5 (occurred this past Wednesday evening)
M - "Hey, let's go ahead and take out the outfit you wanna wear for your first day of school tomorrow."
J - "Ok! And after we do that, I'll go ahead and take my shower so you won't have to tell me to. I'm in 3rd grade now, so you won't have to tell me to take a shower ANYMORE!"
M - "Who are YOU kidding?!?" LOL
(That "promise" lasted all of one night. I had to tell her 4 times last night to take a shower!) LOL

The first day of school finally came and Jayla was up at 6:05am! When I went to wake her up, she was laying bed, with her eyes closed and this big goofy grin on her face :-).  And she says to me, "SO...you must be looking for a little 3rd grader? WELL...HERE I AM!!! Let's get goin!"  

Needless to say, the first day of school was, "The BEST day of her life!"  I picked her up yesterday afternoon and she was telling all about her day...BEFORE she even got in the car :-).  Then, she crashed and burned when we got home. Guess they worked her little brain to death.

Today, the 2nd day of school, was ALSO the best day of her life!  Not sure how that works...but ok! Lol

Anyway, here's a couple pix of our 3rd grader.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Here I am again...

Hello everyone!!

I know my life has got to be a little crazy (but awesome) when, I remember that I started a post 5 days ago and never actually posted it!

As I always say, I'm not complaining...just pointing out the obvious....I'm BLOG lazy! :-)

But I will say that I have had so much fun this summer...and continue to.   I've been trying to get better about hanging out with friends, hanging out with my family, doing fun things with Jayla and just trying to have fun without spending too much (or any) money.

In those times of "hanging out", I've also been trying to do better about taking pictures. What's the fun in doing all these things if there are no pictures to share the memory?  So having said that, sit back and relax as I share some memories I've made over the past few weeks.

***

I very seldom remember to share pix of our sweet doggie, Trae.  So here he is. I love how he seems to always look so disgusted when I make him take pictures :-). But look at that face! How can I resist?

Speaking of looking disgusted...how bout a humiliated look? :-)  He's so tolerable of Jayla. He just sits there like a good boy and lets her do whatever to him. He's so sweet!

Soon after school let out, Jayla had one of her friends and soccer team mates, Ashlee come over for a sleepover. In these photos, you'll see that I gave the girls a Cucumber facial peel :-).  They had so much fun peeling the mask off.

Jayla also got to attend her first VBS this summer. Our good friends that live down the street, attend a church that is just outside of our neighborhood. And they invited Jayla to attend VBS with them. She had a BLAST and is already talking about going back next Summer.

The next 2 pictures are J'bear dressed up for "Rock Star" day at VBS.

This photo is of J'Bear with her hair done up for "Crazy Hair Day" at VBS.

Here's Mr. Trae again. Poor thing, just looks exasperated with all the picture taking. I think he was trying to climb up on the bed to get away from Jayla :-).

For those of you who either know or know OF Jayla, you'll know that she is VERY girly!  Still, at the age of 8, she LOVES pretend play and playing dress up.

These first 2 pix are of J'Bear in a dress I got for her (and altered) from the thrift store, that I paid $2.50 for! Which at first I felt bad about, considering it's a "Misses" dress and was priced at $10.  But after getting to the check out and being asked if I was 55 or older by a cashier in training, I didn't bother to correct the trainer when he told the trainee that all kids clothes were $2.50! :-).

Dontcha just love the GIANT hem on the dress? lol

NOTE: I have since covered the deep drop in the back of this dress :-).

A good friend and I were chatting about our daughters one day.  We were discussing their differences, with respect to how girly J'Bear is. She mentioned that her daughter is girly, but doesn't like to play dress up like Jayla does. Long story short, she told me that she had several formal dresses from different events she's been to or weddings she's been in. She hated to have to throw them away or allow them to continue collecting dust in her closed, so she offered to give them to Jayla.

So where does that leave me? That's leaves ME having to alter 7 womens dresses, sizes 8 - 12 down to a childs size 8! Fun stuff!!! (not so much!)  But if it makes my daughters prissy life happier, I'll endure it.

Here are a couple more that I've altered (or attempted to alter).  The first one is a mint green, former bridesmaid dress. I even made the shawl/wrap into a "veil".

This next one is the skirt of a 2 piece bridesmaid outfit. The skirt was the perfect length to make a dress out of :-).

For the 4th of July, we met up with some friends to see fireworks.  Between the 5 families that were there, these are all the kids!

The moms/wives....

The dads/husbands....

The fireworks....

Ok, now these next few pictures were taken under duress :-). And before I go any further, let the records show that I'm not one who is easily talked into things. Nor am I much of a risk taker.  For YEARS my friends, (one in particular...Stacey, who is next to me with the hat on) has been trying to get me to go hiking with her and our other friends.

Well, being that it was the weekend of the 4th, I OBVIOUSLY lost my mind and said yes! I mean, I don't even know HOW to hike. I had to call Stacey to find out, not only what I was supposed to take on this little excursion, but HOW I was supposed to take it! When she informed me that all I needed to do was take a back pack, I immediately had visions of The Disney Princesses and Dora the Explorer! THOSE are the only backpacks I know about!

Anyway, I managed to find one that was suitable for hiking. I mean, doesn't EVERYONE wear a pink & purple backpack hiking? :-)

Ok, when these first 3 pictures were taken, I was still pretty much in a good mood and kinda having fun! It was about 90 degrees outside. But being that we were by the water and mostly under trees, it wasn't too terrible.

Ok, NOW...the story  has changed up a bit. As you can see, my facial expression has changed a little. And I am sweating like a wrestler! And poor little Jayla! Her only complaint was that she was HOT!...and seeing her life flash before her eyes, LOL :-). Fortunately, she was with her friends (most of which are pictured in the 4th of July photo).

Did I mention that not too long after this photo was taken, I almost fell off the side of a small cliff?!? ARGH!!! I was  PISSED! Not at my friends...but at myself for thinking that I really wanted to go on this little outing.

But I did it and enjoyed the time with my friends. However, I have informed them to NEVER ask me to do this again. Simply because they said THIS was the easy trail!  My body was TICKED off at me (and my friends) the next day!

Last weekend, we were invited to my sisters house for a get together for Markell. Ya'll remember him, right? Well, this was the first time we've seen him in almost a year. He's still so very handsome...however, not so much in the following picture, LOL.

Here's he's pictured with his cousins/my girls.

And of course I had to get a shot with him too. This young man is 15 years old now and is almost 6 feet tall! I miss him so much!!

Lastly, we got together this past weekend with some friends we haven't seen in AGES!! We met for dinner and just got caught up with eachother.

It's always so great to get together with old friends. And even greater to feel as if you're picking up from where you left off from the last time you saw one another. I love these guys!

That's it for now...I'm sure I'll have more to share in the coming weeks. Our summer break will be over in about 2 weeks. I can't believe how quickly it has gone by. But Jayla is ready to get back to her normal routine of soccer and school. You guys, she'll be in the 3rd grade this year!! My baby is growing up so fast.

Until we speak again, enjoy your week and I'll talk to you soon!