A Day At The Beach

We had such a good time at the beach today! I took my girls and my friend and her daughter accompanied us. We didn't get there until noon or so, but that was okay. The older girls LOVED, LOVED going in the ocean, riding the waves on their boogy boards! My little one was a little timid, to say the least, about going in the water at first (which is fine by me, I love sitting on the beach in my beach chair soaking up the sun -- with TONS of sunscreen of course though), but she soon overcame her inhibitions on it. She held my hand the majority of the time, which is still, fine by me! Near the end of our day my friend and I were able to sit in our beach chairs and the older girls took my wee one out in the water. Of course, them being older, wanted to go in deeper, and sort of forgot about the wee one. Well, she wanted to go in with them, so she started going out a little further slowly. I had to get up and usher her back close to the shore, and "remind" the older ones that they needed to stay close to the shore with her.

We ate lunch, the girls played in the sand for a little while, and my friend and I enjoyed watching the lifeguards surf on their breaks (at least I would HOPE they were on a break!).

Oh, and we also enjoyed the aircraft coming in every so often. We were on a military beach, which, I actually LOVE!! Compared to the rest of the beaches around here, there are VERY minimal amount of people on the beach. I can see my children VERY easily, I'm not freaking out looking for them every second, it's quite relaxing! My friend loved it too. We can't wait to go back again! Of course everytime a helicopter flies overhead, I think I'm in an episode of "China Beach". Man I loved that show! I will definitely be getting THAT when it comes out on DVD!

I love my girls SO incredibly much!!!! Even when they can get on my everlasting nerve, I still am SOOOOO grateful for them!!! I love having days like these.......

Summer Vacation is in Full Swing....

It has now been over a week since my eldest got out of school and is on summer vacation. Geez, can they still call it that now? You know, I know about all this "politically correct" bullshit, but you know, when I was growing up, it was Christmas Vacation, now it's "Winter Break". It was Easter Vacation, now it's "Spring Break" At least there was never any holiday in the Summer Vacation title, so at least it's still called that........

I can tell my eldest is getting bored. She's getting snappy more and more lately. Now, she'll be 11 later this year, so the hormones are starting to come in full swing. She can't wait to be able to do things. She has wanted to shave her legs ALL of 5th grade. I told her that after 5th grade is finished, she can start in the summer, so that way she can get good practice and won't start 6th grade with all those nicks and cuts on her legs that we all did growing up. Of course now they have shaving gels and razors that have "moisture strips" in them to help protect our legs. Hello!!!!????? Why did they not think of that when WE were growing up? I'm sure women have been shaving their legs for a long time before I started, back in the late 70's, you know? So the DAY she got out of school, she went in the bathroom and shaved her legs. Quite a bit of hair to get off there, you know.... Now she's going to have to deal with stubble for the rest of her life.....such is life.....

The girl has more bras now than I did growing up! And of course she likes them to be "padded" a little bit too. Gosh, did we have padded bras growing up or did we just stuff? LOL!! I never stuffed, didn't have to. Some people might say, "Well, LUCKY you!", but I never saw it that way. Growing up I didn't want them to be as big as they were (C cup). I wanted to be able to wear the cute strapless tops or string tank tops or halter tops. Noooooooo.....I had to wear something to support the boobs!

I've already had "the talk" with my eldest. I don't just have ONE talk, I talk about things every now and then. I want her to know that she can come to me about ANYTHING. I want her to know that I know a lot of things that she may not think I know about, but I've either done it, seen it, know someone who has done it, or heard about it.

This world is a scary place nowadays! I think back to when I was young. I had no problem walking to 7-11 by myself. Walking down the street to my friends, not a big deal! A couple of times in high school, my friend, Stacie and I would walk to our friend, Vicki's house, and I think even one time we walked all the way up to Julie's house. Helloooooo!!!??? Yea, can't do THAT anymore! And you know, I don't think that there are really any more perverts or people who want to do bad things to children than there were back then, but I think because we are so aware about it now, people are so much more cautious about it. But you know, you'd think that because there is SOOOO much more awareness about it, that it wouldn't happen as much, but these sickos keep doing it. It's so sad...............

Ahhhh......summer vacations..........I did enjoy them though....................wish I could have one again, just for a little while...............................enough of my ramblings for now..............................

:::::::::Sucking Up?:::::::::::::: I think not........

What can I say? I've been busy! Yesterday was the last day of school (for the year) for my eldest. I was SO extremely busy last week with all that! On Monday I had to work so I could take Wednesday off, Tuesday morning I went to Roller SkateLand with her class (the youngest was at preschool), on Wednesday I went to the Lakes with her class (youngest got to come with me), on Thursday I went to the park with my youngest's preschool class, and then on Friday I went to work early so I could get off early for the ice cream party for the last day of school for the eldest. I LOVED every minute of it!!!

I was the room parent (it seems so odd to say "was", rather than "am", since school's just out) for my eldest's class. I have to say, I enjoyed being the room parent SOOOOOO much!!! I got to know all of the kids, got to know more parents and got to help out so much more than I ever have in previous years. Since I work, and have Jordan, it's so hard to be able to help out on a regular basis in the classroom. I was able to help out a little more when she was in preschool though.

A couple of friends of mine kept teasing me that I was trying to be an "UberMom" with the room parent thing. In a sense, yes, I was. I wanted to be the best room mom I could be. :) I just didn't want to do it half-assed, you know? We would joke too, that I was just "sucking up" and would make sucking noises when I did something. (It's an inside joke, because one parent, who I absolutely can't stand, accused me of trying to "one-up" or "outdo" all the other parents. Whatever............ At least I can laugh about it now!)

I made a scrapbook for my eldest's teacher for the end of the year. It included a picture of each student an then a note of thank you or recognition to the teacher beside it. After that, I included most of the events that took place in their classroom, and then at the end of that, I had 4 pages of thank you notes from parents too. I could tell her teacher liked it a lot. He told me that he's a very sentimental person and he was very happy about it. (I actually got embarrassed and was at a loss for words, which is quite odd for me. )

Sooo :::::::::::::::::sucking noises::::::::::::, one up for me! HAHAHA!!! Oh, I am SOOOO joking about that! I made that scrapbook BECAUSE I know he's a sentimental guy and he is SUCH a wonderful teacher! In a way, he makes learning SO much fun for the kids! The kids are interactive in their learning, doing simulations in class so they learn about it while they are having fun! I appreciate all the work he does for those kids (including my own, of course), and I just wanted to show my gratitude. Plus I took a lot of pictures throughout the year (he takes tons and puts them on his class website so the parents can see what's going on in the classroom. And plus I love to scrapbook! I LOVE seeing people's expressions when I give them a scrapbook. I think it all comes down to the fact that I love to make things for people. My mom always loved the things I made for her. One year I made her a calendar and she loved it so much she didn't take it down after the year was over for quite a while! I made her two little scrapbooks as well.

So, was it "sucking up"? Hell no. I just like to show my appreciation for people who are nice. :)