Happy Birthday, Christy!

Graphic coming soon!

Ron's widow, Momma to Cassie, Georgia, Justin and Cody!

Happy Birthday, Edwin!

Graphic coming soon

My friend Connie's husband, though he was my friend first, Daddy to Madison and Landon

One of my .....

cheerleaders has a famous dad!!! He's actor/comedian Shaun Jones. Check him out at http://www.funnyworldwide.com/
Let me tell ya, this dude is funny! (He's also the one that made the comment on us having everything together and treating the dads like they exist in my Saturday post.)
His latest work is the movie Shade with Jamie Foxx, Sylvestor Stalone, Melanie Griffith, Micheal Dorn and Thandie Newton. He plays Mr. OSE. Shoot now I gotta see it just a'cuz.

Anyway, I thought it was so neat that I had to share!!

Saturday

Well everything seems to be pulling together after a rough start this season. No, the boys aren't scoring any touchdowns yet, it's the organization of our teams I'm talking about. One of the fathers told my team mom that we really have it together and he's really glad to see the discipline I'm instilling in my girls. Not only that, we (me, asst coach, team moms) treat the dads like the moms and don't ignore them. He says that on his other daughter's team, there's very little in the way of organization, discipline and the dad's that are there are totally ignored. WOW! I had no idea... here I felt like the runt of the association, like a chicken with it's head cut off, etc, etc. and yet I've apparently got it together enough to have the respect of not only the dads but of our football team's parents as well (you know you've made it with the football parents when they interact with the cheerleader's cheers - and they were FULL of participation today --- after a run in with their team mom, I really thought I had blew it with them - nope even she's been great this past week!!). I guess I have learned how to crack that whip finally!! I don't write this to toot my own horn, I'm just so relieved that something is finally going right this season - caues my girls deserve to be able to have fun without the parents ruining it for them.

Anyhow, the football team and the cheerleaders all met in a central parking lot and decorated our cars for a caravan to our first away game (we only have 2 this season). Connie and I had gotten gold ribbon for the antennas and we of course had liquid window chalk to make Knight heads, pom poms, mega phones and of course all manner of names and spirit written. We were rockin'!!!

You should have seen that caravan! I was the next to the last car and at the top of one hill I could see the beginning of our caravan - we were just over a 1/4 mile long (stopped at a red light)! I don't know about our boys, but our girls sure were pumped because of it!

Everything went right on schedule ... we got a space beside our football team and stretched (I think I'm the only coach that stretches with the team and believe me, everyone seems to notice), went over our halftime routine, taught two of the girls some cheers we learned Thursday night (they were at curriculum night at school), got our buckets lined up and ready to go, got our permanent banner Connie and I slaved over set up so every one could see it, had the run-thru banner set up 5 mintues before the football team was ready and did an awesome job sending our boys out on the field. Then we set up our buckets in a line behind the girls with their water bottles right beside their buckets and actually started cheering on time!! We rocked and we looked awesome!

The girls did such an awesome job cheering today!!!! I'm so proud of them :-D It was HOT and they weathered it great! They looked so cute during their half-time routine~~ I can't wait for next week when they do their dance at half time! Oh man, they are going to rule the roost!!

Football Scores

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know how to see our football scores. Go to http://www.gwinnettfootball.com/ ..... click on Associations on the left hand side of the screen ... Select Lawrenceville in the drop down menu and click Go ... Toward the bottom of the screen you will see "Age Group/Conference/Coach Name" - click on William Scott. That will give you a list of all of our games and our scores as we play those games.

So far we aren't doing so hot, but our boys are having a great time and our girls are enjoying cheering for them! And that's what counts more than the score at the end of the game.

Go Black Knights!

Good Morning song

Bailey finally decided to teach me the Good Morning song today. I can't pin point the tune, but I'm working on it.

Good Morning Song

Hi, good morning friend
How are you today?
Let's go try to be a friend
To everyone today.

Happy Birthday, Seth!

Aunt Sonja's oldest

New Baby info

Congratulations, Seth & Naco, big brother, Tyler, and big sister, Hannah!

I visited little miss Ava this evening and she is absolutely beautiful (and what Maner baby hasn't been beautiful???)!!! She is so sweet and so tiny and oh so adorable :-)

So it took me 3 days ....

TO CUT THE GRASS!!! Stupid grass *pouts*

Paul had been in Kansas City for 50 days and unsure of when he was coming home so I finally had to bunker down and get the soaking wet, knee high grass cut. It was the ONLY sunny weekend available and not looking like another was coming our way. The majority of my neighborhood took to cutting their grass at the same time.

It was strange to hear lawnmowers cut out about every 30 seconds!!! It was a combination of soooo much grass filling up the bag fast and clumps of it getting stuck in the blades.

The first day of cutting I had to stop when it started raining - but I kept going until I couldn't get the lawnmower cranked again. The next day I decided to check the gas - sure enough I needed more gas. Well, it got too darn dark to cut anymore but I was determined to finish the lawnmower part of it. Of course, this is taking 5 times as long as it should have because of the stopping, emptying and unclogging PLUS I could only cut 1/3 the width of the lawnmower at a time or else it would clog immediately and stall out on me. Yikers! I had to turn on the back deck light in order to remotely see what I was doing. Finally I finished the grass... well the stuff I could do with the lawnmower anyway. The next day I had to do the weedeating since there was so much stuff I couldn't get with the lawnmower - like the junk up against the fence, playset, house, deck, mailbox and flower gardens, etc.

Gee I think I lost 10 pounds.

Orientation

What a day today turned out to be!!!

First off, we had to get up at 6:30am on a Saturday so that I could get Bailey and Morgan Haley ready for the babysitter and Madison and myself ready for the football game. I had concession duty this morning and had to report by 7:45. Madison got to help Connie work the gate some and ran around with some of the other cheerleaders while I worked the concession stand. When duty was over, I hurriedly got the girls ready for the banner run-thru, watched that happen, then I told the girls I wanted to hear them all the way at my school and I'd see them Tuesday at practice. Then I ran to change clothes (which I later found out I could have stayed in my coach's uniform cause it was waaay casual) and went off to orientation.

Ya know, I got this formal invitation to the mandatory orientation that said we'd meet the president and the dean, etc. No mention of anything else! Well I get there 15 minutes early (yeah me!) and see signs to check in at the middle table. Well, I do that and am handed a paper that made me think I was in the military again having to check into a new unit!! I did everything from getting my book voucher from my financial aid monies, having my student id made (glad I changed when I found that out!), got my parking permit, taking an English placement test and touring the labs with the dean of criminal justice and much, much more! It was a full day of stuff to do. WOW, I'm glad I told my babysitter I had no idea when I was going to be back cause there was no way to have predicted this was going to be my day. I had to cancel the rest of the plans I had for today it was so long.

Then when I did get back, Bailey and Morgan had just went to sleep and Connie was out shopping with her Madison, my Madison, Stacie and her daughter, Mercedes. So I wound up having the rest of the afternoon to myself. Once I got them all back home, we decided to go out to eat cause it was soooo hot and muggy (story on that in a minute). As a treat I got them ice-cream afterwards, then we went home and called Miss Mary to make a play date with Justin, Cody and Ashley. Bailey and Madison talked with Justin, Cody and Mary for near on 45 minutes!!

Anyway, my story on mugginess.... When I went outside to my car after finally finishing orientation, I noticed that my free hand felt like it was getting covered in a fine mist. It literally felt like I was grabbing water out of the air. So I switched my stuff to my now wet hand and let my dry hand swing by my side. Sure enough if that hand didn't do the same thing! It was one odd experience to say the least.

All By Myself & Good-bye Song

Bailey decided to share two songs he has learned this week with me this afternoon. I really wish you could hear him singing them! The first is sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice" and the second to the tune of "Brother John."

The first is called "All By Myself" ....

All by myself
All by myself
See what I can do
See what I can do
I brush my teeth
And my hair so neat
I put my socks and
Shoes on my feet
I can get my napkin and
My snack to eat
All by myself
All by myself

The second is called "The Good-bye Song" ...

Good-bye friends
Good-bye friends
Time to go
Time to go
Thank you friend for sharing
Thank you friend for helping
Love you so
Love you so

There's one more but he can't remember all the words to it. He says he needs one more school day to learn it before he can share it with me. It is called "The Good Morning Song."

Happy Birthday Dannon

A friend from childhood
August 19, 1974 - June 9, 2002

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jack!

I'll have a graphic up here soon. The site where I create the graphics is down right now.

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Space Ships and Torches

Today, Morgan Haley and my 'daycare' girl, Casi, ran all over the place! First, we met Connie and Landon for some cheerleading stuff and then we were off to have a light lunch and play on the playground until it was time for Story Time at Borders!

Today's topic was outer space. Not only did they read books about the moon but they made a craft too! With paper towel tubes, aluminum foil and red, orange and yellow tissue paper they made space ships if you hold the flame down and torches if you hold the flame up! They played with their crafts all day long - even when we went to Morgan Haley's dr appt.

Now while they were sitting there with the group of kids, those two wouldn't do anything! They just looked around like they were dumbfounded, like they didn't understand a word of what we said to do. But after we left the group, they played with those crafts like we'd had them for a week!!

Christian and Toree's first day of school

Christian and Toree started school today. Christian is in 7th grade and Toree is in 6th grade. Christian loves the newfound freedom of middle school. No walking in straight lines to different classes anymore and he has a locker for the first time! Toree has all of Christian's teachers from last year. He had a really good group of teachers so it's nice to "see" them again.

Here are their schedules ....

Christian's Schedule

A-Day

8:00am- Choir
Texas History
11:05-11:40am - Lunch
Advisory (30 min)
English
PE

B-Day

8:00am- Reading
Math Prep (Algebra 1&2)
11:05-11:40am - Lunch
Advisory
Art
Science

Toree's Schedule

745-755 Morning activities
805-935 SFA
940-1035 Math
1040-1125 Science
130-1215 Specials (Mon-Library, Tues-Study hall, Wed-Music, Thurs-Computers, Fri-Art)
1220-1250 Lunch
1255-140 Language Arts
145-225 Social Studies
230-315 PE/Band

Ron

Wow, can you believe it's been it's been 4 years since Ron died. I can't. Sometimes I still can't believe he's gone at all. He's definitely living on in his children though... there's no denying that. Even though I'll never stop missing him, it is getting easier. But at the most inconvenient times I'll get so pi$$ed off at him. At least those fits are few and far between now. Most of the time I just want to hug him or hear him talk - even though his voice has faded in my memories at all.

I love you, Ron!

First Week of School

Ah, the first week of school has gone pretty good!!

Madison had absolutely no problems whatsoever. She is riding the bus with her two best friends, Sarah and Kady. The only problems we ran into were the buses running waaaaaay earlier than scheduled, resulting in half the kids missing the buses. So with my complaint direct to the transportation director, who seemed to just blow me off like it was all my fault the whole neighborhood missed the bus, and my neighbor, Kevin, waiting on the bus after school to say something to the bus driver, who also blew him off and told him that there was no way she was finishing our neighborhood at 7:25 because she was starting the neighboring neighborhood at 7:25 .... it was all fixed the next morning. Apparently her clock was wrong OR something. Whatever it was, I'm just glad it's fixed! Other than that, school went GREAT for Madison :-D Her teacher even gave me a glowing report in the middle of the week.

Now Bailey, I had expected problems. I barely had one problem!! On the first day, he went in with his teacher and said, "Bye, Mom, see ya later!" I was like, where in the world is my son??? He had a wee bit of problem with rest time, cause he fell asleep the last 5 minutes of the hour long rest time, but his teacher was great and he was settled in a matter of minutes. Well, Tuesday I found out I could move him into the earlier class I wanted (from the 9-3:30 class to the 8-2:30 class) so we did that on Wednesday. Bailey wasn't thrilled with this. I had to pick him up and carry him into the room, but after that, he just scowled at me while playing with dinosaurs. When I asked him for a bye hug, he told me no while glaring at me with a hint of a smile, so I said ok and left. Not one little peep from him. When I went back in to get a car rider card from his teacher a few minutes later, he was with the rest of the kids watching a video while waiting for school to start. Later that day I had to check him out a little early for his hearing aid appointment, and he was playing with the other kids :-) Though his least favorite part of the day is rest time, he accepts it with little complaint now. Everyday when I pick him up, he tells me, "School was so fun today!" It's simply amazing ... He's changed overnight! In a good way, yes, but a little too abrupt for his mommy!

Hearing Aids

Yeah! Bailey finally has his hearing aids - which he calls his "ear tubes." He's doing so well with them so far. I'm proud of him!!!

The part that fits in the ear is blue and white swirls. Then a clear tubing hooks over and behind his ear where a flesh-toned aid sits. I think they look adorable. He even has a thing he calls his "necklace." It clips to the back of his shirt and attaches on to the tubing of the aids so that when he's messing with them or playing hard and one falls out, it isn't lost. He hasn't worn the necklace yet but he will this afternoon.

Wednesday he wore them from the time the audiological specialist put them in until bathtime when he reminded me that he needed to take them out! Good for him for remembering :)

Yesterday morning had him throwing fits about not wearing them. He had decided that the other kids would make fun of him. We finally decided to let him go to school without them and have him wear them when he gets home till he took a bath before bedtime. That worked pretty well. And he didn't throw a fit about wearing them to cheerleading practice either. But he refused to wear the "necklace" so I let him go without it.

It was a mixed blessing as last night one of the aids was nearly lost. Talk about a near heart attack!! We were at the high school stadium with the cheerleaders and he was playing with his "babysitter" (my asst coach's oldest daughter, Sarah). Well he wouldn't listen to her so she brought him to me and that's when I noticed it missing. Within 10 minutes we had Sarah, three other coaches and about 4-5 moms & dads in the stands looking for it. After 45 minutes of looking I finally spotted it just under a schoolboy's shoe!!!!!

As much as I hate that we went through that, I think it was really good for Bailey. He saw all these people looking for his "ear tubes" and everyone cheering when we found them!!! Now he doesn't think anyone will make fun of him for wearing them. He got up asking for them this morning. Though we did go without the necklace. But I made a deal with him, he has to wear the necklace when we go to get his vision and dental screenings done all the way until bathtime. I have a feeling it will go well :-)

Happy Birthday, Marshall!

(graphic coming soon)

Jeff and Charity's son