My blessings...

Every night when I tuck Jaden into bed she says "Mommy could you cuddle me for 5 minutes?" If I am in the middle of doing something she asks if I will come back and cuddle her "even if I'm asleep." I know it will not always be like this, so I cuddle with her and hold her hand and rub her hair as she fall asleep...I'll take it for as long as it will last. She is the piece of me I never knew was missing until she was here.

I not only have this beautiful little girl, I am surrounded by love. Starting with my husband who I know will always be there to love and support me and continuing on to my amazing family and friends. God has truly blessed me with each and every one of you, and I know I am not good at showing it but I hope you all know how much I love each of you and count you all as blessings in my life!!!

Music to my ears

Jaden has never been the biggest fan of school. She likes to go and socialize and hang out with all her friends, but that's pretty much it. Usually when I ask her to tell me something good about the day she will list P.E., recess, sometimes even lunch, or ESD. If you ask her what the worst part is it would be work...she's not a big fan of work in school and especially of homework. Last year along with her other homework, she had to read 100 minutes a week. If you break it down over the course of the week, it really isn't that bad. To Jaden, however, it seemed like torture. Every couple of minutes it was "how much longer until my time is up?" She hated reading and looked at me like I was crazy anytime she saw me reading in my spare time...which wasn't often because if I have spare time, she thinks that should be Jaden time!!! This year she has to read 15 minutes 5 nights a week, so not quite as much as last year. We didn't get any reading done last night...not really sure why, it just didn't work out, so Jaden was reading tonight. She always tells me what time she started, so I can keep track and let her know when she can stop. Tonight when I told her that her 15 minutes were up she said "Can I keep reading, I LOVE these Judy Moody books." She got this book Thurs. from the library and is still reading it...she has decided to finish it tonight. Something has finally clicked, and she has found a book that she can't put down!!! Earlier this evening when I had her take a break so we could watch a movie together, she told me she was going to try saving her money so she could buy some of these books for herself. I am in a state of shock but so totally happy that my little girl has finally found a love of reading!!!

Please excuse the hair...it has been in a ponytail for soccer all day.

Yuck

My hands are raw from washing them every 5 seconds or putting on hand sanitizer every time I touch something, and I'm sure Jaden is tired of me constantly telling her to do the same...and all because the nasty flu is hovering all through our house. Someone said Friday, "I don't get the flu, so why should I get a flu shot." Saturday this someone came home from work with the flu, although of course said person didn't believe me when I told him that is what he had and so didn't go to the doctor until Wednesday afternoon to be told that he does indeed have the flu. Hopefully the flu shots Jaden and I got will hold up for us...or else you all better start praying for this someone who "doesn't need a flu shot because he never gets the flu!!!"

Oh yeah...someone turned 40!!!

Besides a busy week and weekend of soccer we had other stuff going on this weekend as well. Joey turned the big 4-0...not that he was looking forward to the occasion. Once it was here though I don't think it was as bad as he was imagining. Jaden got him to smile with a ton of stuff she made for him, including this card that said "I'm Daddy's angle."

She was right, she is definitely his little angle!!! Joey's mom Etta also came down to celebrate the momentous occasion. Jaden was happy to see her nanny!!!

Plus she had someone new to con into playing every game in her game closet with her. Luckily Nanny Etta didn't mind and played whatever she brought out, even if she had no idea what it was. Jaden had a ton of fun teaching her how to play Jenga...and I think they got the record...at least at our house, I tend to knock it over pretty early on. Nanny was worried J wasn't going to make it on this one, but she did.

Nanny made it crash just a couple of minutes later though!!!

Finally, some games

After weeks of rain, we finally got to play some games...2 of them actually. We had a game Thurs. night and another this morning. J played hard Thurs. night but we were a little outmatched and got shutout 3-0.



She hustled and fought hard all through the game though.

Saturday's game was the first game of the day. She had a good first half and scored a goal for our team...we won this game 4-1, but J was pretty much out of juice by the second half. Our team played good though, and it was nice to get a win!!!

J's been practice on bringing the ball down using her body...I try to talk her into using her head too, but she tells me that it hurts!!!

We spent a good portion of the second half being defensive...all of our team was pooped, but still we were able to hold on till the end of the game and only allow one goal, it was a lot of bend but don't break type of second half.

We still have a long season plus make-up games to go...hopefully most will be as fun as today!!!

Stuff I don't know

Jaden's school had their boosterthon funrun yesterday in the gym instead of outside because of all the rain we have been getting...hopefully we're in for a few sunny days before it comes back around to us on Monday. They were all supposed to get shirts to wear, but apparently they were running behind in getting them to the kids so they didn't get them until the morning of the run. Wednesday afternoon when Jaden came home we had this conversation about it.

Jaden - It's ok. I'm just going to wear a noodle strap shirt to school and then put my shirt on over it when I get it.

Me - I have no idea what a "noodle strap" shirt is.

Jaden - You know the ones with the little skinny straps that I'm not supposed to wear to school.

Me - Oh, you mean a spaghetti strap shirt.

Jaden (rolling her eyes) - Everyone at school calls them "noodle strap shirts" Mom.

So this post is really just a public service announcement to all you moms out there who don't know what noodle strap shirts are to save you from the eye rolls or the "what century are you from" looks. Although this could just be some weird thing J and her friends made up and it's not sweeping the country yet!!!

Stylin

Let me just start out by saying I hated wearing glasses. I got them in 5th grade because I could not see at all, otherwise I would have figured out a way to get by without them. Even after I got them I only wore them when I had to. I would sit in the back of the classroom and sneak them out of my purse and put them on long enough to see what was on the board and hope nobody looked in my direction, then back in the purse they went. About a year later my mom got me contacts thankfully, and I could actually tell who was talking to me from the other side of the hallway at school.



Apparently today's generation doesn't feel quite the same way as I did. My nephew Aaron was excited to get his a few years ago, and he looks great in them. Maybe it's the new styles they have today that make them not look so bad...I personally had the huge Sally Jesse Rafeal type for my first pair, although mine were blue instead of red. Jaden doesn't need glasses yet, and hopefully never will, but that didn't stop her from having to get a pair of fake glasses...she paid for these with her own money since I saw no need for them at all. She calls them "style specs." Not sure if this is their actual name or something she made up with her friends. She has no problem wearing them...to school, to shop, on trips, wherever the mood strikes her. I tell her I don't think she would find them nearly as cool if she HAD to wear them all the time though!!!

Please disregard the mess...for Jaden this is considered clean.

Just had to throw this picture in to let MeMaw know that the Reef's are still hanging in there over a year later, one more growth spurt though and I think we're done!!!