I’ve been giggling to myself this morning thinking about those Xmas family newsletters that some of my friends send out about how WONDERFUL their kids are and how great they are doing….yeah, right…

I haven’t written anything on my blog since school started.  At first, I was just so busy I didn’t have time, then I got so mired down with Clayton and his grades that I knew anything I wrote would be depressing.  But, now that Clay is actually trying a bit harder to improve his grades (with motivation from Mom since she took away all screen time during the week) I feel like I can actually go back to writing about what’s going on, but until he gets all his grades up I’ll just skip talking about his high school experience so far….I should say that Jackson is doing great in Middle School…almost all A’s, Shelby is doing her usual A’s & B’s.
On to Fall sports…Clayton is playing U16 soccer.   I am team manager.  Get to wear my little Coach t-shirt and everything!  The boys are great and don’t seem to mind the “old woman” coach on the field!  Even Clay is ok with it.  We have a pretty good team with loads of good players.   Shelby’s sports are on hiatus right now, volleyball will start back up for her in November.  She is busy with Cotillion, learning her manners and dance steps!

Jackson is playing roller hockey!  All 72 pounds of him.  We didn’t have too much hope that he’d be any good at this sport when he started but he worked his “be-hind” off this summer with camps and private lessons almost every day of the week for over a month. His private lessons with Jay helped him so much. He scored his first goal this past weekend!  He’s keeping up with the boys who have played before.  They did play him down with the U11 teams because he was so new and it has been the perfect fit for him.  He was not ready for the U12 Middle School team.  He’s loving it.  But I will say it is one stinky smelly sport…oh gosh, the smell of the equipment and the boys after practice or a game will make you gag. 

Look at the muscles on those legs!  tee hee….

During the first few games the temps were still really hot, even with the large ceiling fans in the hockey rink.  The boys were exhausted after the games but now that it’s cooled off a bit, they aren’t so wasted!  He’s a good looking hockey player, don’t you think? The pads almost make him look buff!

Well, that’s all for today.  I’ll keep working on getting back into the swing of taking photos and writing about Living in Loraland! 

For the first time I got a little choked up this morning when I watched my “almost” (22 days to go) 15 year old walk to the bus stop in the pitch dark to catch the bus. Clayton is starting his First year of High School.  I sat up by the curb near our house and he didn’t see me (it was 6:10 for pete’s sake!).  I waited until the bus came and it was more emotional than when he started Kindergarten!  I guess I’m slowly realizing that in so many small ways I’m losing control of my baby.  Four years and he’s off to college.  It was just yesterday he was kicking his feet in the tub water, giggling and smiling with a toothless grin and big blue eyes gazing adoringly at me.  Now I get “Nick Nolte” type mug shots:

And because I didn’t dare go down to the bus stop, this is the best shot I could get of him waiting for the bus in the dark (totally unimpressive photo):

But I did get a photo of him tossing his backpack once he got home (again not too flattering but there are no retakes when you have teen boys):

So then there was Shelby and Jackson’s to get to the bus.  Much easier to handle.  They don’t even get out of bed until 7:40!  Bright and sunny outside.  And, they actually allow me to take photos of them….even though Shelby was a tad bit “teen-agy” with me.

Jackson was the easiest:

Love the top right pic, every year Jack-man has to give me his goofy first day of school photo.  A kiss on the cheek and off he goes to the FIRST day of Middle School (6th grade).

Shelby begins her LAST year in Middle School (8th grade). Shelby for some reason wanted to wear an old Ralph Lauren shirt of mine instead of something new…Whatevah……

 

She does look cute with her new hair cut.  Then we must pose for her fun moment photo:

Then I got the obligatory sibling shot:

Just like Clayton, Shelby is asserting her own opinions and style.  Jackson, well he’s still my little guy, my get along guy and I’m going to enjoy our 3 years at Middle School.  I love you guys!

Well, I had to let go of some of my control over my baby girl today.  Mom has made all the decisions on her hair up until now.  Shelby wanted to do Locks of Love AGAIN. I didn’t want her to cut her beautiful long hair.  She really wanted to shorten her hair so I HAD to give in.

Here’s my darling  girl getting her hair combed out for the big cut!

The big SNIP!  Bye bye long hair.  10 inches gone!

Shelby no longer has long hair, but she does look really cute with the shorter cut and she is proud to have donated her hair TWICE to Locks of Love.  Someone will have a beautiful “Ginger” wig thanks to  Shelby’s  generosity. 

I think she looks older with short hair.  She likes looking older, I’m not too happy about it!   My baby girl is growing up!

Big event for me!  I got my new car….finally.  H decided to buy out the Acadia lease and drive it himself.  Good move on his part, he needed a nice car.  His POS Saturn just keeps having stuff happen to it (not to mention the deer hitting it in June).  The original plan was for me to keep driving the Acadia, then in the fall he would buy me a new car.  The Acadia is in excellent condition (if you ignore the repainted scratches Jackson and Shelby made on the side with their bikes and the tiny dent on the hatch where H put the garage door down while it was up….notice NONE of these things were done by ME)!

So we moved up getting my car and here it is, A brand spanking new Buick Enclave….
H says every Senior Citizen will be envious of my BUICK… He’s so funny……but I looked at this car when we leased the Acadia 3 years ago and wanted one….they were so new in 2007 that I couldn’t even get one to test drive at that time…they literally flew off the lots.  It is the nicest car we’ve had since the Lexus (which I personally hated).  It’s a happy white color (as opposed to the sad brown color so many drive around here).  It’s a dream ride, quiet, smooth and luxurious… and yesssss, it has that new car smell.  The layout of the seats is exactly like the Acadia which has worked so well with 3 kids.  It has that nifty remote start Onstar and XM Radio, IPod ready. 

As you can see Jackson fell in love with the car too!

Got the car on Sat. and it was love at first sight for both of us!  It’s kind of hard to hug a car as you can see below, but I gave it the old college try.   I’d better love it as H says I’m driving it for the next 10 years…yeah right…….that remains to be seen.  I’m loving it for now!

I have become a fan of short trips.  These long trips we take with the family end up being lots of work for me.  Not much of a break if I’m doing all the work, packing, laundry, cooking….. you name it.  So when I had lunch with Paula and Alex (to celebrate Alex’s 17th birthday) us girls decided a girly road trip up to Nashville was in order. This way Alex could look at Vanderbilt University and see if it appealed to her as she heads into the college selection time of her life!  All she wanted to do was see the campus, walk around and see the lay out of the school…hey I can walk and since I’ve been around Vandy for years, I can show her the basic layout of the campus (it’s not complicated).  She did not want an official tour or to meet with admissions yet so this was a perfect quick trip for the three of us!  Walk, eat, giggle, have fun…yep I’m all about those things so we found two free days and headed up the road for a quickie!

Paula drove the “Princess” van and we had such a good time chit chatting on the drive up.  We ran into NO traffic in Chattanooga (miracle) nor Nashville.  We stayed at the Vanderbilt Marriott, which is located very near the campus.  We got checked in and headed out on our walking tour.  We had arrived at 3:30 (CT) and we walked nearly 2 hrs.  The only thing we didn’t plan on was the heat wave hitting Nashville that day!  OMGoodness, it was a scorcher.  Later that evening we were told it had gotten up to 105°… yikes!  

Well we survived the heat, got back and cooled off   and went out to an early dinner at BB King’s Blues Club.  Had some surprisingly good Cajun food and got to hear a really good blues band. We walked around downtown,  something I had never done, nope, not something my Nashville family was ever interested in doing, too touristy!!

Here we are on stage at BB King’s…..

…..and waiting for the shuttle bus back to the hotel after our country music stroll…
The next morning, Alex and I went for a run from the hotel through Centennial Park.  We had a really good time and she was so fun to run with.  Wish my kids would jog with me! 

We got back and headed out to the Pancake Pantry for breakfast. We always recommend this place for breakfast as we’ve been going there for years.  It’s a King tradition. Looks like it will be a Jones tradition too the next time they visit Nashville!   Some of the best bacon in the south!  And the pancakes are to die for! Here’s Paula’s selection….


Paula’s food truly looked beautiful when it arrived.  But I was proud of my low fat breakfast with my sugar free pancake syrup that Paula thought was awful and uninspiring……I can live “healthy” with that!! 
We went to a neat vintage shop and bought a few things.  Paula is now the proud owner of a delightful 1960’s hat that is truly precious on her!  Since I thought she looked like a cupcake, we decided a trip to Gigi’s cupcakes was in order.  Does she look like a lemon cupcake or what! Cute as a button…..
We checked out the Parthenon in Centennial Park.  Here are my girls in front.     
Paula snapped this photo which is my absolute favorite photo from our girly road  trip.  Alex is smiling and it reminds me of our run around the Parthenon that morning!  I know I will treasure this photo. I  Love it so much!! 

We headed home after a brief visit at The Hermitage where I was a docent oh so many years ago.  Paula and I decided we needed a Starbucks when we got near Chattanooga.  Well, her Garmin GPS decided we were only 4 miles from one so we got off the interstate and followed that thing all the way up Lookout Mountain!  It took us to Rock City for Pete’s sake.  How could that be the closest one in all of Chattanooga!   
One last photo in Rock City then it was home to Hot-lanta!! What a blast.  I think more girly road trips are in our future for sure.  I don’t think I’ve smiled as much as I did on this trip in a long time!   Love my girls! 

Fourth of July weekend was pretty uneventful this year.  The kids didn’t really want to go see any fireworks.  Jackson absolutely didn’t want to go, the noise really upsets him.  Clayton asked us on Sunday night around 8pm if we were going after not saying a word all weekend.  Sorry buddy, should have spoken up sooner!  We grilled and got some sun (like I’m not dark enough already), read some books, watched some TV, did a little shopping.  Pretty laid back.

I did make a commitment to run 4 miles each day over the weekend in honor of the 4th!  I got my first two days in and then on Monday Hows asks us to come up to Forsyth and walk with him………………. 
Soooooo ….Shelby, Jackson and I drive up to the center to meet H and we then drive over to the Big Creek Greenway.  The Big Creek Greenway in Forsyth County is a 12-foot wide concrete and boardwalk path that meanders through the woods along the Big Creek. The greenway is a beautiful setting for walking, jogging, dog walking and biking.

Here we are setting out on our walk:

I’m hoping next year someone in my family or one of  my friends will get in shape and run the Peachtree Road Race with me.  Unfortunately, 2010 was the perfect year to run as the temps were 66 degrees at the start of the race, low humidity ….now that doesn’t usually happen.  Wish Susan had wanted to run it this year when I’m healthy and in shape as opposed to last summer when I was too heavy and sedentary!!  I’m not going by myself to run that race, half of the fun is the camaraderie of doing it with someone you know.  I’ll just keep running my 3 and 4 mile runs around here and try to do some 5K’s this fall…by myself.

Last day of school is finally here.     We can’t say “last” to Jackson or he cries.  Yes, cries.  He has loved 5th grade with Ms. Aronstein (Susan) our favorite teacher.  We all have a teacher we remember.  I have my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lora Haney (isn’t that cool that my first teacher had the same name… spelled correctly too!)  I think we bonded over our name. (She never called me Lori or Laura)… I used to go see her each year and have never forgotten how much I loved her class.

Jackson & Shelby have their Ms. Aronstein to love and remember.  Both were lucky to have gotten her for their Fifth grade teacher.  I was lucky to be selected as her room   mom twice!  Other kids may say they loved their teacher, but everyone wanted to be in Ms. Aronstein’s class.  Shelby naturally adored her because she was cool, pretty and young.  Jackson came home almost every day and when asked how was his day would answer “awesome”…When asked how was Ms. Aronstein he’d answer “totally awesome, as usual”.  Some people were just meant to teach and Susan is one of those people.  She really touched my children’s minds and hearts and she cares so much about all her children, gosh you just have to love her.

Let me tell you, teachers don’t get enough praise.  Hey, I was a room mom so I got to know the teachers, knowing that my kids would only benefit from me getting to know their teachers better.  I joined PTA only to be eligible to be a Room Mom.  I knew when Jackson got Susan as his teacher that his year  would  be good because I could talk to her as a friend about his “issues”.  She worked with him so sweetly all year. Her concern for him was so appreciated.  Jackson’s ADHD issues can be a challenge even with the pills.  He is insecure, he can be moody and his social skills are weak, but once kids get to know him they like him because he is easy going and a funny kid.  On the plus side, he is so sweet, funny, goofy, gentle, caring and would never hurt anyone intentionally.  And he’s smart as all get out!  (He just hasn’t realized it yet)

Susan and I have had a wonderful relationship and besides Mrs. Haney, Susan is my favorite teacher too!  ♥♥♥

The graduation was very nicely done (a bit long but we’ve come to expect that).  Here is a video of Jackson receiving his diploma from Ms. Aronstein:

Champions again…can you believe it!  Shelby’s team rolled through the PCBC v. Holy Redeemer VB tournament.  We ended up playing only one HR team, their 4th place team so that wasn’t much of a challenge.  Then we had to play two PCBC teams we had played in the regular season and PCBC tournament and had beaten before.  The games were much closer this time around.  The other teams had improved a lot, but we still were better. 

Our team actually did the bump, set, spike fundamental that makes for good volleyball.  None of the other teams did that.  They may have hit the ball three times, but it wasn’t on purpose.  Lots of balls off the walls, off the ceiling!  But the majority of our girls just did everything the way you want to see an improving team do.  We ended with only one girl who couldn’t serve over the net, but she did get one ball over in one game and made a point so that was very exciting.  If she had taken the game more seriously through the season, she would have achieved it sooner.  The main thing was they played as a team, they encouraged each other on every point.

Shelby was injured in the second game of the championship game.  She went down hard on her knee, I think her knee pad slipped right as she hit the floor.  We didn’t know if she would play any more but she came through and played the rest of the game after a brief break and was there for the tie breaker game.  That set the stage for our “Volleyball Diva” to come out. 

Shelby really punishes herself for any mistake she makes.  She had a lift call made on her that she just didn’t agree with and that set her off.  Add in the injury, it just wasn’t pretty for a while there.  Her coach told me he looks at it this was, Shelby is passionate about her play and that is a good thing, but there is a level where passion can become a detriment to your mind in a game.  When you reach that level of passion and go past it, you can shut yourself down in your head and that’s not what you want.  So while the passion is a good thing in a player, she needs to know when to not pass the line from passionate to petulant.  She is only 13 so she has time to work on this.  Shelby plays basketball the same way, she is her own hardest critic.  So we will work on this issue in the coming years.

Couldn’t end this post about the tournament without some photos of the twin towers.  Shelby & Stephanie did an excellent job at the games and we are so proud of both of them.  Go Double Champion Rainbow Warriors! What a Season!!!!!!