Keree's 7th Birthday Extravaganza

We surprised Keree this morning with breakfast in bed. We made Keree close her eyes as my Mom sat her plate down in front of her and then we told her to open her eyes. It was so cute when she raised her hand up to her chest and goes "this is for me".

 Banana slices, apple slices, carrot cake muffin and chocolate milk

 After alot of giggling, over getting to have such a special breakfast in bed, she finally blew out her candle.

 

After we got dressed, we decided to use all the freebie birthday coupons she got. First stop was Build-a-bear. She had gotten a $5 coupon from the company but we ended up spending a little more (it was only $3.34 more). She ended up with a Cardinals t-shirt, Cardinal button-down shirt and some girl scout underwear all for KittyKitty. Once the Store Girl heard it was Keree's birthday, she also threw in some hairbows and gave Keree a special sticker. Keree was beyond thrilled and couldn't wait to get home and dress KittyKitty.

 Our next stop was Toys R' Us, where she had a $3 gift card. Our first stop was by the front desk. Keree got to pick out which birthday crown she wanted, of course she choose the pink princess one. We were disappointed because usually they give them a birthday balloon but they were out of helium and balloons. Boo!! Then they made the announcement on the store intercom that a special birthday girl was there. She just giggled anytime someone wished her Happy Birthday.We walked and explored the store. This was the first time for Keree to see one of the dancing dolls, so she had to try it out. It was so funny watching her dance with the doll. She finally decided after alot of thinking to get Tiana's Royal Turtle ride, plus it was on clearance for $3.22. (So we only paid 52 cents with tax).

Our final stop before heading home was to Pizza Hut. Keree had her monthly Book-it certificate, so she got a free personal pan pizza. While Grandma and Mommy got chicken alfredo pasta since neither one of us are feeling that great.

After lunch, Grandma and Mommy took at nap, while Keree played with some of her birthday gifts. Once we got back up, it was time to open presents. From us, Keree got some new tennis shoes, a winter cat headband, some stickers, a Brave hair set and a Spiderman bath chemisty set. Plus she got this really cool Brave card with a poster inside.

 Keree's Godmother and family got her the Secret of the Wings, Silvermist. Can you not see the excitement! She went crazy over her new doll. 

 Her Uncle N's presents are being delayed by Amazon and will hopefully arrive soon. But he did call, sing Happy Birthday and talk to her. Then he arranged for a very special birthday call to come at 6pm. So we got ready and then we sat there and waited.......and waited......and waited for the phone to ring. Finally at 6:01pm, Keree got a very special call from Mickey Mouse. He wished her a Happy Birthday. I taped the call on video because she was amazed by the whole thing.

 Then finally it was time for cake or cookie. Keree picked out a gigantic chocolate chip cookie with lots of frosting and M&M's on top. Of course, with Keree's current Fairy obsession, Tinkerbell also graced the cookie. We ended up all being so tired and not feeling well that we ended our night without eating a single bite of cookie. But before she went to bed, she did tell me that she had a great birthday and was so happy I was home.

Happy 7th Birthday

7 years ago at 1:15am you were born into this world.

 As I have done every year since your very
1st Birthday, this picture was taken at 1:15am.

And I'm so thankful that I was able to get
away from work and be here to take the picture.

Happy Birthday to my very sweet, very grown-up,
changed my life forever, Baby Girl.

My First Day

Well today was my first day and I survived. I have to say that going back to a full time, 8 hour a day job is hard after doing my own thing for the last 3 1/2 years. My day went like this,  I got up before 4:30am, out of the house by 5am and at the office by 6am. I wasn't meeting the guys who were training me until 6:30am. Luckily, the guys were just a bunch of good ole' boys and we got along great. Which honestly made the day go by alot better and even though I missed Keree. I wasn't sobbing and missing her, which was a huge improvement from yesterday. After 8 hours of work, it was time to head home. I called my Mom and Keree on my drive home. Of course, hearing their voices made me want to come home right away and being emotional, I started crying again. But I recovered pretty quickly. I took a picture of me in my new work clothes and sent it to Keree. She thought I looked pretty funny. After I got home, my night was spent talking to my Uncle, trying to watch mindless tv to take my mind off missing Keree and finally having to tell him, I need to go to bed to get up early.

Today's the Day....

This morning, we were all up bright and early. I can't believe today is the day, this will be the first time for me to be away from Keree for more than 10 hours. I gave Keree a great big hug good-bye. I walked them out to the car with tears running down my face and watched them drive off. Keree had an appointment at the hospital concerning the popping her good knee has been doing again. This is the first doctor's appointment that I was going to miss. I ran to Wallymart after they left, to pick them up some food for the next few weeks and also a few things for myself. Then, it was time to leave......I started to cry even harder, I'm know this is for the best of my family but honestly how can I really do this. I keep thinking, how can I really be away from Keree for weeks at a time. But even with the tears streaming down my face, I got in the car, started it and drove away. I cried as I drove, I cried through 3 States before I finally stopped for some lunch in Kentucky. Needless to say, I was so upset that lunch tasted horrible. So, I continued to drive and cry and threaten to turn back home. I kept trying to reason with myself that no job was worth being away from my daughter.

Then finally, I hit Tennessee. I still don't know how I got there because of all the crying I had done. I pulled over at the first rest stop into the state and called home. I told my Mom that I was turning around, that I was headed home. She laughed at me. Then Keree wanted to talk to me. She told me how her Doctor's appt went and then she told me "Mommy I miss you so much." Yep, I was going to turn around and go home. But I didn't. I got to my Uncle's house around 3pm....he was mad and told me that he wasn't expecting me. Umm, thanks alot, because I called you and told you and you said ok, that I could stay with you. I was honestly waiting for him to close the door on me and say that I can't stay there. With a Welcome like that, it made me being away from Keree even harder. We talked awhile and he asked me a thousand questions about this new job, which honestly most of them I couldn't answer yet. I called my Mom and told her I arrived safely. She told me about Keree's doctor's appointment, that her leg length is gaping too much. That instead of the 1/4" difference every six months, that suddenly it's almost 1/2" every three months. She told me that they need to increase the lift on Keree's shoes and hoping that will help the wear and tear that is happening with her good leg/knee. Then the Doctor said that come next year they we were going to have to have a long talk on lengthening. Something I didn't want to hear but knew it was coming, so were looking at another surgery.

After everything was said and done, I got ready for tomorrow. I packed my lunch, laid out my clothes and set my alarm. I feel asleep crying, scared at what lies ahead, missing my daughter and just wondering am I making the right decision.

Cookie Time

Today was the official start of the cookie selling season. We were suppose to be selling in front of a store but through a series of events, it didn't happen. Well, I still had to pick up our twenty cases of cookies. So we decided to sale them door to door instead. This way we didn't have to worry about delivering them to our relatives who would of normally bought them from us since we don't know when we'll be moving or how long we'll be in the area. We ended up selling 50 boxes in one day, so I think that was awesome. We probably could of done more but we had super cold, rainy weather moving in and it was killing Keree's legs.

 

 This evening, Keree opened up her very last Christmas present. Ok, it was already unwrapped but she hadn't opened the box yet. My Brother's girlfriend, got Keree the Monster High Create a Monster design lab. I wasn't sure if Keree would like it because whenever we go down the toy aisle and she sees the monster body parts, she tells me that they creep her out. I was sort of excited to try it but after reading the directions, realized it was going to be messy.

 I wish they could of figured out a better way with the water that is used to apply the tattoos. But Keree thoroughly enjoyed herself. She loved putting the tattoos on the dolls. And she loved picking out what went on her face, arms and legs. Still all I could think was it's so messy but then I thought, man, I wish we had another doll to design.  

 And finally, here is Keree with her finished Monster. Right now, she's calling her Miss Monster.

It's Getting Real

This morning, I got a call from HR at SCC. They couldn't figure out why I hadn't responded to their emails. Umm, maybe because I hadn't gotten them. So, I gave HR another email address to send it go and amazingly this time it came through both emails. I'm thinking that they had forgotten to send me anything! It gave me a few instructions with some paperwork I had to return for my background check and then she confirmed my address to send my drug test paperwork too. Wow, I guess this is really going to happen! We had some errands to run after I talked to the HR lady.

So when we returned home, this was all that was left of our snowman. Keree was sad to see it him melt. I was just happy that it was a little warmer outside today. Too bad it isn't going to last and soon it's going to be really cold again.

 

We also spent the day talking about buying an RV, RV living and  figuring out what lies ahead in the next few weeks and months. I've also been using my crockpot for cooking almost all our meals. It's just so much easier to be able to throw in all the ingredients, set the heat setting and walk away. I made Korean inspired ribs tonight and they were so good. They were so flavorful, tender and everyone ate seconds and thirds. I served them with a pickled style cole slaw.

Robotic Bugs

    This morning, we had to run a few errands and of course we ended up in the clearance aisles. We found a few other presents for upcoming birthday's and next years Christmas. I am a firm believer in not playing full price. Thank goodness, I'm pretty sure we are finished with presents except for Keree.
     Now Keree was thrilled because on a back bottom shelf, she spotted a Christmas Hex-bug. Now, Santa brought Keree a hex-bug in her stocking. He wasn't sure if she would like it but thought it was cool since she's on a JRFFL league through Girl Scouts. She didn't open it till New Year's eve but we had so much fun playing with it, that she really wanted another one. What I liked the most was that it was on clearance and instead of paying $6.99 for it, we got it for a little over a $1. She spent the entire afternoon building mazes for them to race around and stuff for them to run into.

Keree holding her Hex-bugs that she named Dasher and Dancer

A Conditional Offer

Today, pretty much started out as a lazy, uneventful day. I was spending the day packing, cleaning, sorting, etc. Then suddenly the phone rang, it wasn't any number I knew, so I let it go to voicemail. Yes, I admit, I'm one of those people. Most of the time, there is no voicemail left but this time it was different, there was a voicemail.....

 It started out as "Hi, Ms. This is Mister So-So from SCC. I came across the application that you sent in and would like to talk to you about it." I'll preface this and say, that since I lost my job shortly after Keree came home, I haven't had a good job. I've had jobs, here and there and even started doing Shows. Now I love doing shows, making children's clothing and accessories to sale but I'll admit that sometimes it's hard. It's hard because you never know how you will do, you don't know if the customers will be buying or just browsing and you also have to factor in the weather, economy, everything. So, back in December I was just surfing the net and came across this job post. It was a good job, I was qualified and thought, well heck it won't hurt to put in my application.

I quickly returned the phone call, apologized for not answering and we started talking. By the end of the conversation they conditionally offered me the job. All I have to do is pass my background and drug test. I was shocked!!! Actually, it was more like what just happened, did that really happen?? Now, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Plus, this will be a little weird, I haven't been in a normal 9-5 job for almost 4 1/2 years. Also, the biggest thing with this job is we will be going on the road full time. This job will have me spend 3-6 months in a job location before moving onto another job location. Being that I'm a single Mom, I can't leave Keree behind and not see her for months and months at a time. So, if this all go through, we have a new plan, we are getting an RV and were going to be living in it full time. Three days into the New Year and our whole lives are about to change big time!

Second Day of 2013

Well today was the 2nd day of the new year and what did we do......well I spent the day packing. Not only packing away Christmas decorations but also packing to move. I'm excited about what this new adventure is going to bring us but I'm also really having bitter sweet memories of this house. I mean it's the place I brought Keree home too. But I'm also glad not to have to worry about all the problems this house has either.

 The most excitement of the day we had was this little guy. Being that we live in the country, every so often we have a visitor get into our house. Well this guy was brave, we caught him actually sitting in our chair. We grabbed our Christmas cookie tin and trapped him inside. Keree didn't want us to kill him but she sure didn't want him inside the house.

 So I took him outside to the road's edge. He wouldn't move, so finally I sort of tossed and dumped him out. He sat there for a minute and then ran across the road. Since they always say, if you see one, there are more, once I got back inside, I sat quite a few traps to catch any more of our unwanted visitors.

On to a New Year....

When 2012 started, we really thought that this would be the year when our luck had changed. That by the end of this year all our troubles and worries would have faded away. Honestly, every year we start with those hopes and dreams.....well the year turns out worse than the previous year. So this coming year, we have no expectations. We are just happy to be together and even though we know we have some major life changes happening in the next few months, we are ready for the adventure. Because as long as we are together, that's all that really matters!

Our day started off by saying good-bye to my Baby Brother. We were sad that he had to head back to Michigan but we had got to spend 11 days together over the holidays. We made amazing memories together as a family. And to tell you the truth, life is more about the memories and time spent together.

 As for the rest of our day, we had a few errands to run and had hoped to beat the incoming snowstorm. Well we got caught up in the Clearance aisles (have a great start on next year's Christmas presents), so we got caught in the snow. It started snowing around 10am and will continue into tomorrow. We probably would have more snow on the ground in these pictures, if we hadn't used most of it for our snowman the other day. Once we got home, we spent some time packing, talking to out of town family and just relaxing (which isn't something we have done in the past few weeks).

I had hoped that Keree would make it till midnight this year, but that isn't the case. It's 10:50p and she's been asleep for about a 1/2 hr. And I have to say, I'm not sure I'll make it to midnight tonight either. Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!

Off to Tennessee

Well today, we are off to Tennessee for our big show. We are so thankful that my Uncle R has so graciously agreed to let us stay with him saving us some major bucks by not having to stay in a hotel. We started off our morning having to pack a large handful of things at the house. Then we headed to the storage unit for all the stuff that goes on top of the van. Now this particular pack was harder than usual! We have gotten some new display racks and as awesome as they are, they don't pack well. Here is Keree & KittyKitty hanging out while we packed at home.

We got a late start on the road. I wanted to be out by 10am, but we didn't finish packing till almost 1pm. So, we stopped for some lunch and that is where I snapped this picture. See Keree's hand sticking up over everything. We are really at the point were we need to a major upgrade in transportation. Actually, we been at that point for almost 2 years now. I'm leaning towards an RV and trailer, Mom just wants a truck and trailer and Keree thinks an RV would be pretty cool....as long as she can get a cat.

 As you can see, Keree was pretty snug as a bug but she was happy. She had a bag of books, games and her music to keep her entertained. For some reason, this drive was a hard one on me. I was exhausted by the time we hit Kentucky. And then it started raining on us, no, it was more than rain, it was blinding rain where I couldn't see the car in front of me. I thought about pulling over but then thought, nope I really need to keep going. I didn't want this trip to last any longer than it had to!

We called my Uncle when we hit the Tennessee border. We were just going to stop and pick up a bite to eat for dinner since it was after 7:30pm. But being the amazing person he is, he offered to make us dinner. We finally rolled into this driveway around 8:30p. We unloaded the few things we needed and then relaxed. I will tell you, he makes a crazy delicious meatloaf. Keree ate a huge plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. He wanted us to stay up and watch a movie, but we were all beat. Plus we still had tomorrow to visit before the show.

On the 2nd Day of December....

we spent our day working. In just a matter of days, we have a huge Show in Tennessee. My Mom and I have been making stuff non-stop. I've been making tons of larger hair bows and accessories and Mom has been making lots more couture dresses. Keree, like always, is so good and just does her own thing. She'll read, do her workbooks and then read some more. Since we forgot yesterday, Keree also got to eat both December 1st and 2nd in her advent calendar. I really had wanted a non-food advent calendar like the past few years but weren't able to find one. So Keree got to pick out this German made, chocolate one instead.

Movies & a Christmas Party gone wrong

Our morning started out with the Cans film festival. We donated enough cans so we could see two movies at the Theatre. Which as you know for us is a real treat, since Keree has only seen 2 movies so far on the big screen, Tangled and Brave (at the drive-in). We were so excited that we got to see Wreck-It Ralph and we got to see Brave again. I just love getting to see and hear her reactions to movies on the big screen.  I also gotta say that I loved Wreck-It Ralph and can't wait for it to come out on dvd so I can see it again!

 

 After our 4+ hours at the movie theatres, we went home and got ready for our annual Homestudy Adoption group Christmas party. Well, we purposelessly got there late. I was to the point of us not attending these group gatherings anymore but felt that since this maybe our last year and after some intense pressuring by my Mom...we compromised by showing up late and leaving early. Now the Christmas party was in full force, the little kids were watching dvds, while the few older kiddos (Keree and a few others) were coloring and talking about Santa. Now, Santa has always made an appearance and it is always a big deal because he brings the children one special present. Well this year, he didn't make it. What was worse was they gave a very awful excuse why he wasn't there. I'm so thankful that Keree was move involved in what she was doing than listening! I cringed at the thought because if she had heard what they said, it would have been our last year of secrets.

 Now as I said, the kids each get a special gift from Santa. Usually we get this amazing reaction from Keree over her gift but I think because it wasn't Santa that handed it to her....it just wasn't the same. Plus since she knows how to read, she was trying to figure out why Santa had went to Toys R Us for her gift, instead of just making them at the North Pole. We ended the evening with a group shot, this was the lowest attendance I have ever seen for a Christmas party, there was only 8 families there.

Break from the heat

Nothing really special about today. We did school, we worked on crafty stuff and we cooked. But in other news, it was cool today! No record breaking heat, it was actually in the 80's and just lovely.

Official 1st Day

We considered today, our 1st day of school and 1st grade. So what did we do? Well we spent the entire day in our pajamas. To be honest, it was so hot, it was actually cooler to stay in our pajamas. We did a full day of school today. We worked on math, french, science, geography, history and language. 

So what is Keree doing in our homeschool right now:
Math - right now we are working on two and three digit adding, we will be moving on shortly to greater, lesser, equal.
Language - we are working on learning the parts of a sentence (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, etc). She also has to write everyday a complete and proper paragraph in her notebook. Along with other activites.
Reading - she just started reading Chapter books. Before now, she would get upset that there was so many pages, so she would refuse to read them. But something just clicked a few weeks ago and she likes that she can mark her pages and then continue the story later.
Spelling - I will be using the spelling list from her old school, she will be learning the 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade list every week and then I test her on it at the end of the week. I looked at all three lists and couldn't help but laugh because they are so easy and honestly don't think they will be too much of a challenge for her.
Geography - we are learning about the 50 states
Science - we are learning about the solar system, space and space travel
History - we are learning about important symbols in the United States and their history
French - we are working on basic greeting, animals, colors and days of the week.

Last day of the County Fair

Today was the last day of the County Fair. Which it always makes me a little sad because we really enjoy our County Fair. We had to go in the morning and pick up Keere's premium's, ribbons and the money she had won. We started a tradition last year of having Keree get her picture taken with the premium she won Best of Show with. So here is her Dream, Believe, Love sign made out of recycled newspapers and magazines. 

1st Time Bowling

Keree was invited to a birthday party for her friend, Alicia (from kindergarten and scouts). We were quite excited because it was a bowling party and Keree had never been bowling. For everything we have done with Keree, it honestly surprises me that we haven't been bowling. Keree had so much fun, she used the smallest bowling ball there and it was still way to heavy. I had to help her carry the ball to the line and then she would roll it down the lane. 

Some of her technique was quite funny. It also was amazing her ball actually reached the end of the lane. The ball moved so slowly down the lane that her turn would last almost 3-4 minutes. There was also a time or two that it stopped mid-lane. I would then have to throw a ball down there to get it moving again. 

 Keree was so proud of herself here. Can you see that, she left only one pin standing! This was her best roll of the day.

 Keree and the Birthday girl, Alicia. 

Official Withdrawal

This morning, we had to get some errands ran and more importantly....we had to send off the official withdrawal paperwork to the school district. It's so silly, I mean they were the ones screwing around with us. But I wanted to follow the procedure to the letter, so there is no mistake and hopefully will prevent any questions in why we were chosing to homeschool this year. So here is Keree holding the official withdrawal paperwork before I went into the post office and sent it off. 

Otherwise, the rest of our day was spent doing school, working on craft stuff and just trying to stay cool.

County Fair Talent Show

This evening, was the County Fair Talent Show. This is Keree's 3rd year participating (she missed last year because we were out of town), she is also on the record books as being the youngest to ever compete at the age of 3. There was over 30 acts this year competing and Keree drew the #11 spot. We were also thrilled that my Aunt P was able to join us for the evening. Keree was so cute when she got on stage, she sang "I make my own sunshine" and even had a few dance moves to it. There was so much applause when Keree came off stage. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good still pictures because their lighting in there is so wonky that all of them indeed up either blurred or super dark. I did take a video also, so we at least have that. 

 It was after 9pm, when they finally announced the winners. We honestly was shocked by who the winner was, actually the entire crowd was shocked. But I had seen her Mom greet one of the judges before the competition started and they were old friends. Keree's scores were amazing except from the one judge. From Keree's scores and talking with the others that competed about their scores, she was either in 4th or 5th place this year. Honestly, it doesn't matter except for those who the audience really thought deserved to get something. A couple of people asked me if Keree was sad because she didn't win. I told them, she doesn't care, she got a ribbon and she knows she did a good job. I mean look at that smile, she's so proud of her accomplishment.

Opening Night of the County Fair

After doing a little bit of school this morning, we spent the rest of our day waiting for it to be 5 pm, so we could head out to the County Fair. Keree was so excited and couldn't wait to see how her premiums did. My Mom and I was curious to see how our Scouts did with their entries. We were so thankfully to see that all of them at least won a ribbon.Now Keree had over 70 entries, she got mostly 1st place awards and she 

also won Best of Show in the 18 & under Arts category. We were so proud of her. Her Bandanna dress got 1st place. Here seams are a little wonky but it just proved she really used the sewing machine and sewed it herself.

 Both of these t-shirts are hers, the brown one was a decorated t-shirt, which she added beads too the bottom of it. The other t-shirt was her tye-died one, she used the sharpie marker and rubbing alcohol technique so she was able to create some really awesome hearts all over it.

 This is her Crossstitch entry. I had gotten the idea off another blog (wish I could remember where I saw this because I would love to give credit to them). They had used checked dish towels for their Scouts to do crossstitch with. This way it created larger x's for them to stitch. Keree made this towel for her Great-Grandma's birthday in October.

 We are currently learning about the solar system and this is a mobile we created. It was a perfect entry into the Fair.

We had such a nice time walking around afterwards. Keree kept telling me that she would go on the boat ride this year, along with a few others. I had to laugh because I know Keree, I knew there was no way she was going to do it. When we got closer, she started to panic. Finally, she stopped dead in her tracks and goes "no, that doesn't look safe to go on." I chuckled because she also isn't tall enough to ride this anyway. We left the fair without riding any rides or playing any games.