Slacker's Anonymous

Hello, my name is Brenda and I'm a slacker. And a procrastinator. And sometimes I write out a whole blog only to delete because it seems frivolous, or whiny, or preachy, or just doesn't meet my expectations of myself. This is why I could never be a writer. I am WAY too hard on myself. In school I never wrote a rough draft. If I did I'd never get a paper done. A lot of times if I did write a rough draft I would end up not even turning the paper in because I would agonize about every last little thing. Fortunately by college, I was confident enough in my grammatical skills to just shoot from the hip, hit spell check and turn it in. I allowed myself one read through to make sure spell check didn't miss anything, then it got turned in. More often than not it I got an A. Once I even got singled out. That time I'm pretty sure it is because I made a very good argument. But I digress....its about time I posted a new blog!
I don't do family updates very often because nothing really changes around here. Kids go to school, I go to work. In between there I'm constantly doing laundry, trying to attend as many of the kid's events as I can, and of course I try to get some sleep. Luckily for me, Wes does most of the cooking, and the kids to do a lot of the cleaning, so I have time for sleep. I'm going to hate it when Wes goes back to work because I'll be back on cooking duty more often. But while things don't change much here, there are things to report. We'll go youngest to oldest just to make it easy.
Joel: Successfully finished out kindergarten! With flying colors I might add. Kindergarten awards are different from higher grades. His teacher gave out "candy awards" for the class. Each child got one, using a type of candy to describe an aspect of each child's personality. For example, the class flirt got Kisses, the class giggler got a Snickers. Joel got the 100 Grand award for being the class mathematician. His reading skills are so much improved, he loves pointing out all the words he knows on signs, books, magazines, and on tv. He's still obsessed with Mario and I have to limit his DS time or he'd sit on it all day. Some progress has been made with his toileting issues and I feel like we might finally be getting over a HUGE hurtle there.
Mackenzie: Is off to middle school! She had a very successful year academically and I can't wait to see what she has yet to accomplish. She's looking forward to playing softball in the fall. I'm a little disappointed in the league here, but not everyone can have a program like Kirkland American, and she's really excited about it. She recently celebrated her 11th birthday, but while she looks 8 years old, she can sometimes have the attitude of a 16 year old! She is completely boy crazy. I try to discourage as much as I can without it turning into encouragement. We'll see how that goes in the land of pre-teens this fall. Joey's band teacher really wanted her to be in the band (figuring musical ability ran in the family) but she decided not to. I hardly see her these days. She got a new bike for her birthday so she's off around the neighborhood all day. I usually have to send Joey after her because I still think she's too young for her own cell phone.
Joey: High school? Really?? Oh lord its scary being a parent of a high schooler! But exciting. I don't know who's more jazzed about marching band: him or me. Probably him since I'm the one that has to come up with the fees. But, I'm pretty stoked. I can't wait to go to football games and watch him play, and they are going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC this year. Mark your calendars, I expect you ALL to be watching. His class schedule is tough, but I'm confident in his ability to make it. He's very focused and motivated about what he wants out of high school and after. I wish I'd been that way. I also wish I could take the credit. But I've never pressured about college. I've only expected him to do the best he can and do things he is passionate about. His artistic ability amazes me. Although everyone else in the family gets to keep samples of his work, but not me. He's got a really cool circle of friends beyond the neighborhood kids that he's developed this year. They're all very down to earth, not too clicky or judgemental and I just love that he has that. This past year he's just grown up so much that I'm just bursting with pride at the young man he is becoming. I am so blessed to have 3 such great kids!
Briana: Is now living with us. Long story short, mom had to move, and has been staying with grandma, and she doesn't like it there, so she's been staying with us. She was going to move here permanently this summer anyway. She wants to go to Summerville high school. She's been playing softball this fall for the first time and shows a lot of potential. Her team is tied for first place, and if it ever stops raining long enough to dry out the field, they could have the play off to decide. She actually spends most of her time at Wes's sister's to be with her cousin. But I know Wes loves having her here. And she's really good at tag team teasing her dad with me, so I've really enjoyed it as well.
Russell: Sore subject, but we still see him every other weekend or so. It is what it is.
Wes: Had back surgery in April and is doing very well. The surgery has helped a lot, but he is looking forward to not having to wear the brace anymore. But for now he's happy that the staples are out. He should start physical therapy at the end of the month.
Me: Well, I already covered me. I could mentioned that due to the nature of my job, I've become an obsessive reader. Normally an average novel would last me a couple months. Now I'm lucky if I get 2 weeks out of one. That's about it, unless you want to hear my rant on shopping at Wal-Mart. What? No takers? Oh well.