Then she heard the 'click' and looked up and smiled...becuase she's so good like that.
Then she thought I was done and went back to her work. 'Click.'
Then she growled at me. 'Click.'
Then she said, "really?" 'Click.'
Then I was done.
Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Jordan at 14
On her actual birthday we didn't do too much...it was a wednesday so she had homework to do. She didn't realize I was taking this photo.
Then she heard the 'click' and looked up and smiled...becuase she's so good like that.
Then she thought I was done and went back to her work. 'Click.'
Then she growled at me. 'Click.'
Then she said, "really?" 'Click.'
Then I was done.
Then she heard the 'click' and looked up and smiled...becuase she's so good like that.
Then she thought I was done and went back to her work. 'Click.'
Then she growled at me. 'Click.'
Then she said, "really?" 'Click.'
Then I was done.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Day Before Thanksgiving
It's the day before the big feast and the girls and I have been cooking already. More info and photos when I post about Thanksgiving later in the weekend. First, an update since my last post.
Jordan had her first ever middle school orchestra concert. She is playing the violin. The concert was on Nov. 11th. School started on August 29th or something like that. We missed two weeks of school due to the hurricane. So that means that these kids have only been playing these instruments for two months. A concert? Really?
At the start of it, the orchestra director said to us that even if our kids go on to be in the high school orchestra and are playing mozart and beethoven, that no concert would be more beautiful than the one we would hear tonight. And I think she was right. These kids had never even seen these instruments before two months ago and here they were playing songs that we actually could recongnize. Now, granted, they were simple songs, but I recognized them. I was duly impressed.
At the end they did a funny thing. They had been playing Twinkle, Twinkle (like I said, simple songs) and one kid piped up and said that the song was so easy that they could play it hopping on one foot. And they did! Very cute. I wasn't prepared so I didn't have my camera ready, but I quickly took it out.
Next, another kid yelled out that the song was so simple they could play it with one hand tied behind their back. Half of the kids set down their instruments and used their bows to play a neighbor's instrument. Funny.
Lastly, someone called out that the song was so easy that they could play it in their sleep! All the kids in the orchestra laid down, all the while playing the song perfectly.
It was a fantastic ending to a really great performance! Jordan might continue on in orchestra and if she does I bet this is the concert that I will remember most.
Jordan had her first ever middle school orchestra concert. She is playing the violin. The concert was on Nov. 11th. School started on August 29th or something like that. We missed two weeks of school due to the hurricane. So that means that these kids have only been playing these instruments for two months. A concert? Really?
At the start of it, the orchestra director said to us that even if our kids go on to be in the high school orchestra and are playing mozart and beethoven, that no concert would be more beautiful than the one we would hear tonight. And I think she was right. These kids had never even seen these instruments before two months ago and here they were playing songs that we actually could recongnize. Now, granted, they were simple songs, but I recognized them. I was duly impressed.
At the end they did a funny thing. They had been playing Twinkle, Twinkle (like I said, simple songs) and one kid piped up and said that the song was so easy that they could play it hopping on one foot. And they did! Very cute. I wasn't prepared so I didn't have my camera ready, but I quickly took it out.
Next, another kid yelled out that the song was so simple they could play it with one hand tied behind their back. Half of the kids set down their instruments and used their bows to play a neighbor's instrument. Funny.
Lastly, someone called out that the song was so easy that they could play it in their sleep! All the kids in the orchestra laid down, all the while playing the song perfectly.
It was a fantastic ending to a really great performance! Jordan might continue on in orchestra and if she does I bet this is the concert that I will remember most.
Monday, November 10, 2008
So proud of this girl...
Jordan's last meet of the season was yesterday. She has worked incredibly hard for the past year and yesterday had her best competition yet. She received her highest scores ever in all four events and her highest all around score. Go Jojo!
Don't they look like they're ready to kick some butt?
Look at those legs!
Don't they look like they're ready to kick some butt?
Look at those legs!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Another First Day of School
A kindergartner (gasp!) a fourth grader (gasp!) and a middle schooler (gasp, gasp!). Jackson's face tells his whole story...not excited to be going to school. Jordan looks pretty happy and actually did seem pretty excited about today. Jensen has kind of a pained expression on her face but in actuality she was very excited to be heading off to Shadow Forest. She has her fisher price camera in her hands and asked if she could take it to school today to take a few pictures. Of course!! Girl after my own heart. Here are a couple of her photos:
Here's Jackson with his new bike he just got yesterday:
A couple of classroom photos and Jensen's new teacher, Mrs. Clift:
This was the moment of the day that pained me the most. Dropping Jordan off at middle school. When I took Jackson and Jensen I got to walk them into the school, go into the classroom, meet their teachers, see the other kids in the class. With Jordan going to 6th grade you get none of that. You drive them up, drop them off, and say goodbye. I don't know all the kids in her classes anymore, I don't know her teachers. I don't love that, I have to say, but I have to come to grips with it.
At the end of the day, all the kids seemed to be okay. Jensen had a great day and really seemed to like being at Shadow Forest. She's already scheduled a play date for tomorrow!
Everything seemed to go well for Jordan too. She got to all her classes okay, sat with friends at lunch and made it through the crazy, free-for-all dismissal process that's so unlike the orderly, sane elementary school dismissal.
Jackson had his typical first day..."horrible" was his exact word when he got home today. But that's okay. I've come to realize that Jackson does not transition easily from summer to school. It's hard for him and takes a good couple of weeks to get in the groove. I feel comfortable, though, with his teacher and his class. I think he'll end up having a good year even though he completely disagrees right now!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A new use for SU paper
Last Thursday was registration day for Jordan at Riverwood Middle school along with about 300 other incoming 6th graders. We stood in various lines to get her schedule, put money in her lunch account, get her textbooks, purchase a planner and a t-shirt, and the most exciting thing of all...get her locker assignment.
With that many people there at once it was a little nutty but also exciting to see so many faces that we knew. We found Jordan's locker (an upper one which is a bonus) and practiced her combination. At RMS they sell "locker shelves" which are basically 6 pieces of raw wood cut to fit inside the locker to stack on top of each other to form two shelves. Our neighbor is an 8th grade teacher at RMS and had given Jordan a set of the shelves at the beginning of the summer. She informed us that most of the girls do something cute with the shelves--paint them, cover them in fabric, etc.--and most of the boys leave them plain. We were at a little bit of a loss as to what to do with Jordan's shelves over the summer so we did nothing.
That day at registration you should have seen the production of mom's strewn all over the hallway floors frantically trying to cutely cover their daughters' locker shelves. We saw everything from fabric to different colors of duct tape being wrapped around the shelves to scrapbook paper. BINGO! I have tons of scrapbook paper that doesn't get used for scrapbooking so that was the perfect solution for us.
I found out that all the frantic preparations weren't really necessary that day since the school would be open everyday until school started so we could go back anytime and organize her locker. That day we went home and picked out some paper from my stash that Jordan liked. I went and bought a roll of clear contact paper and then got busy. We got the shelves covered and the next day (after Jordan got her braces put on...that's another topic), when it was much calmer, went back to put the finishing touches on her locker and put her supplies in.
These pictures are likely to be the only ones you see of Jordan at school this year and she really didn't want me to take these but since there was not another soul around to see her mom being a geek I didn't leave her any choice.
Doesn't this place look huge??
With that many people there at once it was a little nutty but also exciting to see so many faces that we knew. We found Jordan's locker (an upper one which is a bonus) and practiced her combination. At RMS they sell "locker shelves" which are basically 6 pieces of raw wood cut to fit inside the locker to stack on top of each other to form two shelves. Our neighbor is an 8th grade teacher at RMS and had given Jordan a set of the shelves at the beginning of the summer. She informed us that most of the girls do something cute with the shelves--paint them, cover them in fabric, etc.--and most of the boys leave them plain. We were at a little bit of a loss as to what to do with Jordan's shelves over the summer so we did nothing.
That day at registration you should have seen the production of mom's strewn all over the hallway floors frantically trying to cutely cover their daughters' locker shelves. We saw everything from fabric to different colors of duct tape being wrapped around the shelves to scrapbook paper. BINGO! I have tons of scrapbook paper that doesn't get used for scrapbooking so that was the perfect solution for us.
I found out that all the frantic preparations weren't really necessary that day since the school would be open everyday until school started so we could go back anytime and organize her locker. That day we went home and picked out some paper from my stash that Jordan liked. I went and bought a roll of clear contact paper and then got busy. We got the shelves covered and the next day (after Jordan got her braces put on...that's another topic), when it was much calmer, went back to put the finishing touches on her locker and put her supplies in.
These pictures are likely to be the only ones you see of Jordan at school this year and she really didn't want me to take these but since there was not another soul around to see her mom being a geek I didn't leave her any choice.
Doesn't this place look huge??
Monday, June 09, 2008
Weekend Update
Our weekends this time of year tend to revolve around swim meets and this week was no exception. We had our last home meet of the season which means I am now done with my volunteer duty. My job this year (and last) was to prepare the condiments (lettuce, tomatoes, onions) for our concession stand and to slice and bag watermelon to sell. It's an awesome job because I can do it in the air conditioned comfort of my home the day before the meet and be done with it. This last week was easier than usual due to the salmonella scare...no tomatoes to chop.
Jackson and Jordan have done pretty well swimming this year and have steadily improved their times since the season started. This year, they both moved up to a new age group. The age cut off is the end of May and since both their birthdays are in May they are among the youngest kids in their groups. Next year should be a better year for them competition-wise. They're still having fun though which is the whole point.
This year is our swim team's 20th anniversary and our coaches put on a show for the kids the morning of the meet last weekend. Even though the team started in 1988, their attire seems to be from '68 or at the very latest '78. But since I don't think any of them were actually alive in 1988 I'll cut them some slack. I think they would have looked just as great in leg warmers and oversized t-shirts knotted at the side and sliding off one shoulder. Too bad they didn't ask me for wardrobe advice. I have to say, though, that our coaches always go out of their way to make the whole swim team experience fun for the kids. And none of our kids know the difference between 60's attire and 80's attire anyway. It's all just old to them.
Every year I feel so grateful for our neighborhood swim team. I never had anything like that when I was growing up out in the country. It provides exercise, structure, teamwork, friendships, entertainment and so much more to summer days that could otherwise just waste away. Go Gators!
Jackson and Jordan have done pretty well swimming this year and have steadily improved their times since the season started. This year, they both moved up to a new age group. The age cut off is the end of May and since both their birthdays are in May they are among the youngest kids in their groups. Next year should be a better year for them competition-wise. They're still having fun though which is the whole point.
This year is our swim team's 20th anniversary and our coaches put on a show for the kids the morning of the meet last weekend. Even though the team started in 1988, their attire seems to be from '68 or at the very latest '78. But since I don't think any of them were actually alive in 1988 I'll cut them some slack. I think they would have looked just as great in leg warmers and oversized t-shirts knotted at the side and sliding off one shoulder. Too bad they didn't ask me for wardrobe advice. I have to say, though, that our coaches always go out of their way to make the whole swim team experience fun for the kids. And none of our kids know the difference between 60's attire and 80's attire anyway. It's all just old to them.
Every year I feel so grateful for our neighborhood swim team. I never had anything like that when I was growing up out in the country. It provides exercise, structure, teamwork, friendships, entertainment and so much more to summer days that could otherwise just waste away. Go Gators!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Middle School Already?
How did that happen? I can so clearly remember Jordan's first day of 3 year old preschool when we moved here to Kingwood. Can she really be headed to Middle School already? I better embrace it because it's coming whether I want it to or not.
Last week, we had parent orientation night at Riverwood Middle School. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with everything about the place. The band, the orchestra and the choir each did two songs and the orchestra, in particular, was really good. At the orientation, the principal told us that the orchestra director was named "Best String Educator" in the Houston area which is pretty impressive. Jordan has decided that she wants to take orchestra as her elective and to give the violin a try. She's even asked to start taking violin lessons this summer...how do you say no to that?
As for the classes, we're in a bit of a dilemma. We have the choice of taking the 4 major courses either "on level" or "honors." I'm sure she'll qualify for honors for all 4 but I've heard some parents say that the homework level is pretty crazy...4 hours per night...for a 6th grader! She's already said she definitely wants to take honors math and science and I think she should take honors reading/language arts. That leaves social studies as perhaps an on level class. I'm worried she won't have time for any sports (gymnastics or otherwise) if she takes all 4 honors classes. I guess we'll see. We still have a little time to decide. Any way you look at it, it's pretty exciting...especially for her. I'm nervous, but excited for her at the same time. It's really a great school and she's going to have the opportunity to explore a lot of different things before she gets to high school. And if she stays on the honors track she'll even have a few high school classes out of the way before she even gets there.
I just keep wondering...where did the time go?
Sunday, January 20, 2008
From Christmas to Today: Part 1
That posting everyday in December business really took a lot out of me. And I didn't even make it through the whole month. But I made it to Christmas, which was really the point anyway.
Since Christmas, we've actually done quite a bit so here's the round-up of what's been going on since then.
On December 28th, I had to take Jordan to the orthopedic doctor to look at her foot. She was playing tackle football with kids on the street, with no shoes on, and someone stepped on her foot. This actually happened on Dec. 23rd. Her foot turned pretty black and blue, but we figured it would go back to normal after a couple of days. By the day after Christmas her whole foot was bruised and it was still pretty painful so I made an appointment to take her in but couldn't get her in until Friday. It turns out she had three hairline factures. Her first broken bone(s). They gave her a boot to wear instead of a cast, which is great because she can take it off for showers etc. They said it would take about 4-6 weeks to heal. When we got home, Jim wanted to know if the doctor asked why we waited so long to bring her in. I was definitely feeling a little like a bad parent at that moment!
We took her in for a follow-up after about three weeks and the doc said to wear the boot for two more weeks and come back in. It hasn't really slowed her down much except in gymnastics where she really can't do much of anything except her conditioning. She's only been going to the gym for about an hour each time instead of the usual two hours.
On December 29th, which was mine and Jim's 17th anniversary, we left for a week in Michigan. We had a great visit and the kids got to see tons of snow which they loved and I don't mind if it's only for one week per year! The picture that is in the header of my blog was taken in Jim's mom's backyard. Beautiful.
We had our Christmas get-together with Jim's family on the 30th which was a great time. All but one niece was there...about 18 people in all. My niece, Kaity, gave me an awesome gift. My whole blog up to that point printed out in a book...with photos and everything! She had it done at blurb.com. It's so awesome and I'm going to do this every year with my blog. Thank you Kaity!!
During the rest of our visit we got together with two of Jim’s friends and their families and all went bowling; saw my mother…she’s apparently going to be moving to Phoenix at the end of February. None of us left in Michigan and she’s ready for warmer weather I guess; I took Jordan and my niece Kaity to Somerset Mall one day for a girls’ day of shopping; we took the kids to see National Treasure 2 one evening; we spent a nice New year’s eve with Jean and Jim’s brother Tom’s family. We all played games and watched the ball drop then Jean made us go to bed at 12:05 so she could get some sleep! Jim and I even got out for one night alone and went to dinner and a movie. We saw Juno which was okay as far as the writing and acting went but I was a little disturbed by the story…a 16 year old girl gets pregnant and everything goes so easily and smoothly for her. Wouldn’t want my teenage daughter to see that movie. Our flights to and from Detroit were uneventful which is always good and we even got 2 first class upgrades on the way home. I put a few photos from the trip below and you can see the rest of the pictures here.
This brings us up to about January 6th. :-)
Since Christmas, we've actually done quite a bit so here's the round-up of what's been going on since then.
On December 28th, I had to take Jordan to the orthopedic doctor to look at her foot. She was playing tackle football with kids on the street, with no shoes on, and someone stepped on her foot. This actually happened on Dec. 23rd. Her foot turned pretty black and blue, but we figured it would go back to normal after a couple of days. By the day after Christmas her whole foot was bruised and it was still pretty painful so I made an appointment to take her in but couldn't get her in until Friday. It turns out she had three hairline factures. Her first broken bone(s). They gave her a boot to wear instead of a cast, which is great because she can take it off for showers etc. They said it would take about 4-6 weeks to heal. When we got home, Jim wanted to know if the doctor asked why we waited so long to bring her in. I was definitely feeling a little like a bad parent at that moment!
We took her in for a follow-up after about three weeks and the doc said to wear the boot for two more weeks and come back in. It hasn't really slowed her down much except in gymnastics where she really can't do much of anything except her conditioning. She's only been going to the gym for about an hour each time instead of the usual two hours.
On December 29th, which was mine and Jim's 17th anniversary, we left for a week in Michigan. We had a great visit and the kids got to see tons of snow which they loved and I don't mind if it's only for one week per year! The picture that is in the header of my blog was taken in Jim's mom's backyard. Beautiful.
We had our Christmas get-together with Jim's family on the 30th which was a great time. All but one niece was there...about 18 people in all. My niece, Kaity, gave me an awesome gift. My whole blog up to that point printed out in a book...with photos and everything! She had it done at blurb.com. It's so awesome and I'm going to do this every year with my blog. Thank you Kaity!!
During the rest of our visit we got together with two of Jim’s friends and their families and all went bowling; saw my mother…she’s apparently going to be moving to Phoenix at the end of February. None of us left in Michigan and she’s ready for warmer weather I guess; I took Jordan and my niece Kaity to Somerset Mall one day for a girls’ day of shopping; we took the kids to see National Treasure 2 one evening; we spent a nice New year’s eve with Jean and Jim’s brother Tom’s family. We all played games and watched the ball drop then Jean made us go to bed at 12:05 so she could get some sleep! Jim and I even got out for one night alone and went to dinner and a movie. We saw Juno which was okay as far as the writing and acting went but I was a little disturbed by the story…a 16 year old girl gets pregnant and everything goes so easily and smoothly for her. Wouldn’t want my teenage daughter to see that movie. Our flights to and from Detroit were uneventful which is always good and we even got 2 first class upgrades on the way home. I put a few photos from the trip below and you can see the rest of the pictures here.
This brings us up to about January 6th. :-)
Saturday, December 01, 2007
So many things...
There have been so many things lately that I want to record. But I am such a bad journaler. Always have been as evidenced by this blog that has not been updated in almost (gasp!) 3 months. I so desparately want to remember day to day things that happen yet they are so easily forgotten. I know I need to write them down but how to find the time to do it?? I've really got to figure that out. In that vain, I'm going to do a post every day in December...called Daily December. Hopefully with a photo attached. I have no photo for today, but I'll post one for tomorrow.
Anyway, the most recent thing I never want to forget happened last night. We were having dinner with neighbors. A few of us were still sitting around after dinner chatting and Jordan and her friend Madison were talking in the background. All of a sudden I hear these words come out of Jordan's mouth: "Santa isn't real." Now, Jordan is 10 and at an age where she is certainly questioning the likelyhood of Santa. But Madison is only 8, same age as Jackson, and most likely still believes in Santa. And my daughter just told her that he is not real. I turned and gave her a look that would freeze you-know-where over. I took her outside and marched her straight home to her room. All the while she was sobbing and saying she was sorry. Jim and I took her up to her room all the while saying we just couldn't believe that she didn't think santa was real and how could she tell Madison such a thing and on and on. We walked out of her room and she was just crying and crying. Jim and I stopped and looked at each other. We really didn't know what to do. Here we were making her feel so bad about something that she was actually right about. We walked back into her room and point blank asked her, "Do you believe in Santa? If you don't, it's okay, but we just want to know." She said, "No, I really don't. I stopped believing last year." As Jim and I were trying to explain the whole thing about Santa, she looked at us and asked, "Why did you guys lie to me?" Jim and I both lost it at that point. How do you answer that question? At that precise moment, I understood those parents who say, "I've told my child from the very beginning there's no santa. I don't want to lie to them." I always thought those people were crazy and depriving their kids of great holiday magic. But at that moment I understood.
Anyway, she's 10 and no longer believes in Santa. Life is going by too fast. And that's my post for December 1st.
Anyway, the most recent thing I never want to forget happened last night. We were having dinner with neighbors. A few of us were still sitting around after dinner chatting and Jordan and her friend Madison were talking in the background. All of a sudden I hear these words come out of Jordan's mouth: "Santa isn't real." Now, Jordan is 10 and at an age where she is certainly questioning the likelyhood of Santa. But Madison is only 8, same age as Jackson, and most likely still believes in Santa. And my daughter just told her that he is not real. I turned and gave her a look that would freeze you-know-where over. I took her outside and marched her straight home to her room. All the while she was sobbing and saying she was sorry. Jim and I took her up to her room all the while saying we just couldn't believe that she didn't think santa was real and how could she tell Madison such a thing and on and on. We walked out of her room and she was just crying and crying. Jim and I stopped and looked at each other. We really didn't know what to do. Here we were making her feel so bad about something that she was actually right about. We walked back into her room and point blank asked her, "Do you believe in Santa? If you don't, it's okay, but we just want to know." She said, "No, I really don't. I stopped believing last year." As Jim and I were trying to explain the whole thing about Santa, she looked at us and asked, "Why did you guys lie to me?" Jim and I both lost it at that point. How do you answer that question? At that precise moment, I understood those parents who say, "I've told my child from the very beginning there's no santa. I don't want to lie to them." I always thought those people were crazy and depriving their kids of great holiday magic. But at that moment I understood.
Anyway, she's 10 and no longer believes in Santa. Life is going by too fast. And that's my post for December 1st.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
You know you're raising a southern girl when...
...one July morning in southeast Texas said girl goes outside at about 9:00 a.m. and says "Mom, it's cold outside." I burst out laughing and looked up the current temperature online. It was a frigid 85 degrees. At 9:00 a.m.
Just a little story I've been meaning to blog about.
Just a little story I've been meaning to blog about.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Happy 4th and other stuff
It's been a wet July here in Texas so far. I think I read in the paper that it's rained the last 23 days in a row...yuck. This year, the 4th of July was on a Wednesday...weird to have it in the middle of the week. It was overcast in the a.m. but we decided to go to the Kingwood parade anyway. It started drizzling about halfway through but we were sitting under some trees so we didn't get too wet. The kids don't seem to mind the rain.
We had just planned a cookout with some of our neighbors and luckily we have a porte cochere--a covered area over part of our driveway--on our house (never even heard of this until we moved to Texas but now wouldn't want to live without it). We grilled under there and set up tables to eat. The rain actually held out for most of the evening and the guys were able to set off all the fireworks they had purchased (probably $300 or $400 worth combined!).
On Thursday Jordan had a sleepover with her two good friends on the street, Madison and Kristina. She's been dying to have a sleepover since we moved back into the house but with early morning summer swim practices/meets we didn't have one until now. The girls all braided their hair, watched a movie, ate popcorn, listened to music, talked and stayed up late. Typical sleepover stuff. Luckily, Jackson was asked to spend the night at his friend Austin's house the same night so no little brother around to bug them.
On Friday we had the Kellers over for dinner. They have the distinction of being our first dinner guests since we've moved back in. I've hosted girls' night and some of the neighborhood friends have ended up eating over here after grilling out but this was the first time we've cooked for others since we've been back. It was a fun time!
This week (July 2nd) also marked the two year anniversary of our fire. We are so happy to be back in our house but things are far from over. We're still dealing with the arbitration case against our contractor and our Ford lawsuit hasn't even started yet. Currently our trial date is set for November, but our neighbor's insurance company just intervened in the suit so that will probably mean another delay. We have lost so much financially and emotionally that some days it seems like we will never recover.
On a happier note, this week also marked the first time in two years that we've had kids swimming in our pool. That was a good day! The kids have all grown so much in the past 2 years that our pool suddenly seems really small but at least it's ours and it's up and running.
We had just planned a cookout with some of our neighbors and luckily we have a porte cochere--a covered area over part of our driveway--on our house (never even heard of this until we moved to Texas but now wouldn't want to live without it). We grilled under there and set up tables to eat. The rain actually held out for most of the evening and the guys were able to set off all the fireworks they had purchased (probably $300 or $400 worth combined!).
On Thursday Jordan had a sleepover with her two good friends on the street, Madison and Kristina. She's been dying to have a sleepover since we moved back into the house but with early morning summer swim practices/meets we didn't have one until now. The girls all braided their hair, watched a movie, ate popcorn, listened to music, talked and stayed up late. Typical sleepover stuff. Luckily, Jackson was asked to spend the night at his friend Austin's house the same night so no little brother around to bug them.
On Friday we had the Kellers over for dinner. They have the distinction of being our first dinner guests since we've moved back in. I've hosted girls' night and some of the neighborhood friends have ended up eating over here after grilling out but this was the first time we've cooked for others since we've been back. It was a fun time!
This week (July 2nd) also marked the two year anniversary of our fire. We are so happy to be back in our house but things are far from over. We're still dealing with the arbitration case against our contractor and our Ford lawsuit hasn't even started yet. Currently our trial date is set for November, but our neighbor's insurance company just intervened in the suit so that will probably mean another delay. We have lost so much financially and emotionally that some days it seems like we will never recover.
On a happier note, this week also marked the first time in two years that we've had kids swimming in our pool. That was a good day! The kids have all grown so much in the past 2 years that our pool suddenly seems really small but at least it's ours and it's up and running.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Happy Birthday Jordan!!
More than a week has passed since your birthday which was May 11th (last Friday) aka "the day we moved back into our house" so it was and has been a busy birthday week! This was a big one...you turned 10. Double digits. Wow.
I'm going to relate a story that illustrates what a terriffic person you are. A day or two before your birthday Daddy and I were talking to you about how the timing is so bad for celebrating your birthday because we were in the throes of moving from the temporary apartment back into the house. We were explaining that we hadn't even gotten you a gift yet. We were feeling so guilty and neglectful as parents and promised to make it up to you. We told you that on Saturday or Sunday we would go out and get you whatever you wanted (this is safe to say to you becuase you never want much; if we ever said such a thing to your brother we'd have to be prepared to just hand over our wallets). A lot of kids I know would whine and complain and be pouty about it but not you. You said, "that's okay; moving back into our house is the best present." Wow.
It is almost the end of the school year. 4th grade is coming to a close and it's onward and upward to 5th grade. You had a great year at school...a teacher you really clicked with, great friends in your class, awesome grades, a spot on the "Rockin' Recorders," and now a spot on the safety patrol for next year.
This was also your first year of gymnastics competition. You did great and had a great time with your team. You continue to love gymnastics and still want to do it again next year.
The gymnastics practice schedule doesn't leave much time for other activities but you are on the GTR Gators swim team for another year. This marks your 5th year on the team. Every summer we have so much fun being part of the swim team even though it means getting up at the crack of dawn every Saturday for 6 weeks and daily swim practices. As I write this you and Jackson are at the first dual swim meet of the season with Daddy. I can't wait to see how you do this year.
All in all you had a great year even through all the upheaval in our lives. You've been so adaptable to all the moves we've had to make (first to the house on Fern Creek, then to the apartment, then to a second apartment, and finally back to our house on Misty River) and have continued to thrive. Hopefully in the next year there will be more stability in our lives and you will thrive even more and really enjoy the year of being 10!
You always make me and Daddy so proud in everything you do. We love you, Jordan!
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