3rd Grade Spelling Bee

Addison was in the 3rd grade spelling bee! Only 23 out of 130 made it through to the grade-level competition. The first word was 'shrill'. The second word was 'subtracting'. The third word was 'priority'. She misspelled that word and got disqualified. It was still a win for her being in the top 23! We are so proud of her!

Fall School Pictures 2016

At this point, I'm not surprised that I never blogged about school pictures! Here they are!

Family Pictures Finally

It's been many years since we've taken family pictures! One day I saw a photographer had an opening and I jumped on it.

Tattoo Day 10/1/16

The big day finally arrived. It couldn't have been at a worse time. My appointment was at 4pm and I debated up until 3:30pm whether or not to go. It was a struggle to pull myself together. The distraction would be welcomed and nobody would know if my tears were from Buddy or the tattoo pain! 

Two of my dear friends went along to support me and I couldn't have done this without them! Once we finalized the drawing, it took about 2 hours to actually tattoo. There was probably a good hour of breaks I took too! We were there for a very long time! It hurt, y'all. It hurt a lot. And there were a few times they asked if I wanted to stop and come back another time. Hell no! If I stopped, I'd never go back! lol

Buddy (9/30/16)

I've started this blog so many times. There are a million thoughts in my head, but my fingers won't type them. Friday September 30th was going along fine. We were all excited for the weekend and ready to relax. Around 5:00pm we all loaded up in the van, including Buddy, to go pick up dinner. He was so excited to go and it was a treat for him when I let him make a quick trip with us. We got back home and ate dinner. Buddy ate too, just as he did every single time. Seriously, Buddy always ate at the same time we did. Afterwards, I let him outside. He went to the bathroom and then laid down on the patio as he has done a million times. I gave him a few minutes and then called him to go inside. He didn't move. Called again. He didn't budge. Called again. His eyes looked at me, but no movement. At that moment, I knew something terrible was wrong. I went and got a treat, which always got his attention. He wasn't interested. I called Blake to see where he was on his way home. He was about an hour away. I called the on-call vet, who said to take Buddy to the ER. 

I tried to stay calm for the girls sake. I didn't want them to be alarmed. I sat there for a minute on the patio with him trying to figure out how to move him to the van. He was 46 solid pounds and if there was something internal going on I didn't want to make it worse or hurt him. I called my friend and she was here in less than 5 minutes. She helped me load Buddy in the van and then took the girls to her house. Blake and I arrived at the ER at the same time. The ER staff was waiting for us and immediately took Buddy in to be checked. A tumor had ruptured and Buddy was bleeding internally. The vet explained the type of cancer was very aggressive. We could opt to do chemo/radiation and prolong his life by 1-6 months maximum, not knowing the quality of life he would have after surgery/during treatment or we could make the call. How could this happen? His last well-check was August 9th. He got a clean bill of health. The vet explained there would be no way to detect unless an ultrasound was done. Many times the cancer goes undetected until it's too late. I suppose just like in humans. I often think back and wonder if I missed any signs. 

We made the decision to let our sweet Buddy go to sleep and feel better. He was 13 years old. He lived the best life a dog could ever wish for and we had the best dog a family could ever wish for. One in a million. I went to pick the girls up and they asked about Buddy all the way home, but wouldn't tell them anything until Blake was with us. When we did tell them they cried and cried and cried. 

Our hearts still hurt daily and the emptiness is so great. 

3rd Grade Field Trip

Last month was Addison's field trip. The weather was amazing and we all had fun while learning some Texas history!

Happy Halloween 2016

Since Halloween fell on a Monday this year, I contemplated not going trick or treating at all. Addison & Alyssa didn't think they had enough Halloween festivities over the weekend though. In the end, we did go to a few houses on our street and then came back to hand out candy. 

Halloween Party

A friend throws an over-the-top Halloween party every year. This year, we decided to go! Addison won for best costume and we won for best group costumes!

Halloween Trunk or Treat

Our school held it's first ever Trunk or Treat the Friday before Halloween. We had 80+ trunks, food trucks, silent auction, silly string war, and much more! The PTA did an outstanding job and we are so happy everyone enjoyed themselves!

Party Weekend

We had too many parties one weekend and we couldn't make it to all of them! We had already committed to 2 of Addison's parties, so Alyssa didn't get to go to hers since the invite came later. She didn't mind once we got to the skating rink. They had the best time and nobody walked away with any broken bones! Just a few bruises and a blister!

9/30/16

Alyssa is fascinated by how you can hang a locust shell on your clothes! She loves doing it!

Flu Vaccine

The girls got their flu vaccine 2 weeks ago. Alyssa always gets the mist, but this year it wasn't recommended. Word on the street is that the flu strain this year is the same as last year and the mist wasn't very effective. So, she got poked and wasn't happy about it at all. Addison knew she was getting poked and was fine.

Prince Day

Prince Day was supposed to consist of getting a new tattoo, jello shots, and Purple Rain with my PG BFF! The tattoo didn't happen (long story), but everything else went as planned. I'm ashamed to say that my PG BFF had never seen Purple Rain. I know, how could I even be friends with her? I loaded her up with jello shots and made her watch it :)

3rd Annual Back-to-School Breakfast

For the 3rd year in a row, Addison and B are in the same class again! We continued our tradition of meeting for breakfast the weekend before school started! 

Substitute Teaching

Last year, I got my credentials to substitute teach. I was always busy with PTA that I never pursued any assignments. The week before school started, I was convinced by our school secretary to substitute as a prek aide for the first 2 weeks of school! It was the perfect schedule for all of us and we survived! The girls would hang out in the PTA room or harass their music teacher after school from 3:25-3:50 until I was off work. When I'm not subbing I'm still at the school anyway for PTA work! I'm the volunteer coordinator and absolutely love it! It's exciting to share with new (and old) parents all of the wonderful activities our PTA provides for the school and our students!

Lake Time 2016

It seems like a lifetime ago since we were at the lake!