Class of 2014

I am pretty sure she was just born. I clearly recall changing her diapers. There is no way I have gotten that old.

But my baby graduated high school.

Yep.

It doesn’t even seem possible.

But there she is.

They held her graduation at Maverick’s stadium. They didn’t drag it out with a lot of long speeches and stuff.

And before you knew…

A high school graduate.

We took her out to dinner at the only place still open that late… Denny’s.

She is already enrolled in college.

Look out world. Here she comes.

Irony

So it's Labor Day.

I am not laboring. Not even a little. Not even a hint of labor. At 42 weeks into a 40 week process...

You could say I am a little frustrated.

You would think I would have expected this. Catherine was due on Labor Day. She was born on the 21st after they had to induce her too.

Apparently Tony Stark designed my uterus.

I have wasted two weeks of my maternity leave. Which sucks since I won't have more baby time. But was good because I think the stress of worrying I would go into labor at work, the general stress of working in a prison, the heat and the exhaustion are what sent me into the false labor that made me go on maternity leave in the first place. This has been a nice break.

It would have been even nicer with a baby.

Tomorrow the girls go back to school. After a year of home school, Catherine is ready to go back. They both have back packs full of supplies, books and brand new lunch sacks. Carolynn got her hair cut and then dyed it. She meant to die it like an auburn brown but it came out more purple maroon.

David has been back in school a week now.

And tomorrow night I check into the hospital and I don't check out again until I have a baby.

And then....

We begin a new chapter.

Until then....

Wordless Wednesday

See more Wordless Wednesday here.

Taylor... High School Graduate!
YAY!
May 2012

Run Over By A Reindeer...

Or something like that.

David finished his final for his animation class. It is quite awesome.



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When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.

Lights, Camera, Pictures!

As I mentioned previously, Carolynn is taking a photography class this year. Last unit she took some contrasting pictures. You can see them here. This unit it was all about lighting. Here we have her final pictures.

Top Light

Back Light

This one is also a back light photo. She realized she already had taken one after she spent 20 minutes trying to get that haunted house candle holder just right.

High Side Light

Under Light

Front Light

Check out her full portfolio on Flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/carolynnd

Contrasting Carolynn

Carolynn is taking photography this semester. Her first unit assignment was fun. And here is her work.

Gibby's Tennis Ball- Extreme Close Up

Gibby's Tennis Ball- Normal

In the Front Yard- With Flash

In The Front Yard- Without Flash

Serenity and Adrienne- Direct Light Portrait

Check out more of Carolynn's photography on her Flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/carolynnd

Not A Dry Eye

At the end of the last school year, Catherine sang in her final choir concert of the 6th grade. The final event of her elementary career.

OMG! Where did the time go? My baby is already in junior high. And next year she will be an official teenager.

Anyway, the concert was cute. They sand a bunch of songs. Did some cute little dances. It was fun.

At the end they had a special surprise for one little girl.

They gave a salute to our military at the end. They were singing and the principal called for someone special to come out. It was a little girl's dad. He was in the army and had returned from the Middle East that day. He had just made it to the end of the concert and wanted to surprise her.

She was so surprised.

And there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Including mine. And David's.

Home School 101

School started on Tuesday and it sure has been an interesting proposition. Catherine being home schooled this year makes for some interesting stuff. She is taking 6 classes. Plus I am teaching her about cooking, cleaning and gardening. Her classes are Language Arts, Life Science, World History, Algebra, Literature and P.E. Easy.

The first day went great. She was excited to learn. We did our shopping in the morning and ran some errands. Then we got started. We have made lesson plans going through the first three weeks. I use the curriculum from the school and then I add to it. We add videos, art, science experiments, and anything else I can think of. We went through the curriculum quickly. We watched a video about Pompeii and we read a lot of Harry Potter. It was fun. Day 2 went a little more bumpy. She was excited in the morning. We made cinnamon rolls and ate them while we got started. But there was a bump. Carolynn.

 People are getting more and more fed up with traditional public school. They don't have money to pay teachers. Programs are being cut. Classes are over crowded. The school the girls go to is a charter school. They have options for home schoolers plus they have classes. However, this year, the school is FULL. More children than they had anticipated have enrolled and they are currently using a small temporary campus while the permanent buildings are being built. They are set to open for next semester. And until then, there just isn't room. Since Carolynn's facilitator didn't sign her up properly last year for classes, she is doing home school for a few classes. And on Wednesday and Friday, she doesn't have to go to school until afternoon. Carolynn is doing home school for World History, Photography and P.E.

So yesterday morning, not only did Catherine sit down with me to get to work, so did Carolynn. This made for a lot of chatting and Catherine watching Carolynn and petting the dogs and cats and fidgeting around. She just wouldn't focus or anything. It took her forever to get anything done. FOREVER.

 I am sure we will work it out as we go. I will say that it is much more fun to home school kids who want to be taught. That semester we home schooled Carolynn when she was in the 8th grade was awful because she fought the whole time. This time we are having fun. Mostly. Sometimes.

Science Is Useful

At the end of the school year Carolynn had to do a science project. Her science project was titled “Which Laundry Additive Gets Stains Out Best”. We had fun and we learned something new.

First we started with a brand new pack of socks. David is now wearing them. Then we poured red Kool-Aid on them and let them sit over night. It left stains on our kitchen table. We didn't care. That kitchen table is old and the dog chewed one of the chairs.

First we used Clorox bleach. It got the socks pretty clean. There was some residual pink. Then we tried the Clorox 2. That left the most pink. We tried some Wal-Mart brand bleach. That worked about the same as the Clorox bleach. Finally, we used Borax. I never used Borax before. But it worked beautifully. No pink left and the socks were really white. It was awesome.

Now we have been using it in all of our laundry. It works wonders.

Friend Like Me

Last week, Catherine's school put on a play, Aladdin. Catherine was a feature player in this play as a street vendor. It was absolutely the cutest thing I had ever seen in my life. They did it on Thursday night and Friday night. David and I, as well and Sherri and Taylor saw the Thursday night performance and I met our friends Serenity and Adrienne to see it Friday night.

Mrs. Collins, Catherine's teacher, as well as the other teachers and parent volunteers and Mrs. Winkle, the music teacher, did a great job. They stayed late for practice at least once a week since September or October. The last few weeks they were staying every day.

It was fun and cute and the kids all were so great. I loved it so much. I took some pictures, but there is no video, as it was not allowed. (Though that didn't stop some people...)

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Here they are lining up at the beginning of the play. Catherine is the third one down.

Here they are singing in one of the scenes. That's Catherine in the middle in pink. One of her BFF's, Brittney, is next to her in grey.

Here is Catherine after the play modeling her costume.

Brittney in her costume. She had the monkeys. Did you see the monkeys? To view them she charges no fees. She's generous, so generous...

Another of Catherine's BFF's, and Brittney's sister, Dalia. She was a belly dancer in Prince Ali's parade.

This is the main cast after the play. Catherine's friend Sierra was Jafar. She was so great. Mrs. Collin's daughter was the Genie and she too was just adorable.

I did more stuff

I went to school and it was a half day.All week we have half days.I came home and did my homework and sat on my butt.

Wordless Wednesday

These are pictures David created for the digital imaging class he is taking now.

A Change Of Plans

So David’s mom came today. We weren’t expecting her until the weekend. We thought she was going to stay with David’s sister Gena and Robbie but there has been a change of plans. David and I picked her up at the airport this afternoon. This is my first time meeting David’s mom. She certainly is colorful. She is interesting too. The ride home from the airport was pretty fun. David sure is glad to see his mom.

She made the girls blankets with their name on them. Catherine’s is orange and Carolynn’s is green. They are really cute. Carolynn did some house cleaning while we were gone. As soon as Catherine got home from school, we all went to dinner at Red Robin. I had a Pub Burger and it was so awesome.

The girls had practices this evening. We went to the Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. I don’t know what we are going to do tomorrow. Maybe we will do some shopping.

Also, Catherine rode her bike to school today for the first time. She made it. I was not even worried.

Really.

You don’t believe me do you?

I wasn’t worried.

Despite My Death

David’s sister Gena and David’s friend Robbie came to spend the weekend. They came on Saturday (while I was on drugs) and they left on Sunday. Saturday night we had some spaghetti and played some games. We got a new game called Creationary. It’s like a Pictionary game but instead of drawing it out, you build it with Legos. It was pretty fun. We also played Apples To Apples. That game is always fun to play. Then I passed out. Despite the fact that I was drugged up, we had a good time.









After I went to bed, they all stayed up watching movies. On Sunday when I was at work they went out and saw a movie. I don’t know what movie.

Anyway, it is good that David’s sister and pal come to see him. Next weekend, his mom is coming to visit. I have a lot of cleaning to do on my days off to prepare.

On another note,today was Catherine's first day of the sixth grade. She had a good day, made some new friends and saw some old friends. Tomorrow if her first day riding her bike to school. Today we drove her because all of her supplies were so heavy.







And now I am off to work.

Apology

Dear David’s Dad and All My Other Readers,

I would like to apologize for my serious lack of updates lately. I hope the last few days have been entertaining for you all. We have been so busy around here and I work so much that sometimes I just don’t have time to write a dang thing. I need to stop and remember to breathe once in awhile.

Work has been going pretty well. I really do enjoy my job. In June, when the quarter changed, I went from working at the penitentiary to working at the women’s camp. There is virtually no violence there and it is much nicer. Too bad there is a ton of bickering. It drives me insane.

The girls are doing well. They are still on summer vacation. Catherine goes back to school on August 23. She will be starting the 6th grade and her final year of elementary school. She is very excited. She also just started her second season of soccer. Carolynn will be going back to school on September 7. She will be going into the 9th grade (by some miracle) and her first year of high school. How scary is that??? She is also still swimming on the Apple Valley Wave swim team. She is getting really good.

David is good too. He starts school mid August. He is also helping out with Catherine’s soccer team. His sister Gena moved to San Diego. (She is in the Navy now.) So we have seen her a few times. David’s friend Robbie also comes to visit occasionally. He came for his birthday last week and I cooked steak and we had an ice cream cake. David’s mom is coming to visit later this month unexpectedly. She will be here August 24 and will be in the area until September 8. She will be going down to San Diego to see Gena too. I understand David’s dad is also trying to plan a visit out. (Gena needs to be more cooperative with her schedule.)

Things are looking pretty good for a nice autumn. I am looking forward to cooler weather, my favorite holidays and maybe a vacation.

That is all for now. I promise to try and keep updating if you promise to try and keep reading them.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons I Can’t Wait For School To Start Again

1. The kids stay up way too late.
2. Catherine makes a mess every where she goes.
3. Catherine has friends over and her mess quadruples.
4. Carolynn spends all of her time saying how bored she is.
5. Home school stuff is kind of fun.
6. I can watch what I want on TV.
7. It would be a lot quieter in here.
8. I wouldn’t have to fight so many people for some computer time.
9. The kids eat so many snacks when they are home that you would think I don’t feed them ever.
10. Maybe Catherine would remember to shower more.
11. Carolynn might actually get dressed.
12. The kids will actually learn something.
13. Maybe our pets could get some rest.

Wordless Wednesday

Chicks and Pigs
Kindergarten at Catherine's School
June 3, 2010
Apple Valley, California

Soccer Mom

In case anyone didn’t know yet, Catherine has given up softball in favor of soccer. She has had two games so far. They haven’t won yet. Her team is black and white. They are called the Black Flames . They came up with that name themselves. Her coach, Roxy, is a college student. She is 20. She graduated from Granite Hills here in town in 2008. She is nice and the girls all like her. Catherine seems to be having a good time. She likes to go, she made some friends on her team and isn’t nearly as afraid of the ball.



Catherine is still doing really well in school. We found out recently that they are moving the 6th grade out of the middle school and into the elementary schools. So she will continue to go to the same school next year rather than on to middle school. That is fine with me. I didn’t like the idea of her in that middle school anyway. Catherine really wants to do home school like Carolynn, but they have programs for 7th grade and up. If she still wants to, she can start 7th grade there. I think she is a little jealous of the attention Carolynn gets with her studies, plus the art and field trips. We try to include her in as much of that as possible. She made a Picasso painting.

David plays games with her and she has friends too. She is just such a Catherine. We like her that way. Maybe now that my car is fixed, we can get her out to a Dodger game or at least a Maverick’s game. She is excited about summer coming and concerts in the park. She wants to swim and go camping. Last night she slept over at her friend Cady’s house.

That is pretty much the life of Catherine. And no, her room is still not clean.