Beauty & The Beast

As always in our household, our weekend was a weird juxtaposition of beauty and brawn. Saturday was our high school's annual Senior Beauty Walk and on Sunday we sat in the freezing cold to cheer on the boys lacrosse team. I guess this is what keeps us grounded and balanced. Not too much girly stuff, not too much testosterone.


Saturday morning was the lacrosse team's annual pancake breakfast fundraiser. I love this fundraiser because the boys do all the work! They sell the tickets, they greet guests at the door, they serve everyone and they clean up afterward. It's a nice chance to visit with the parents and I love seeing friends and neighbors support the boys. Both JV & Varsity won on Sunday against a team from Tallahassee. Varsity's win was ugly but a win is a win.


T had to be downtown at the Alabama Theater by 9 AM Saturday for rehearsals so she stopped by the pancake breakfast to eat beforehand and spend some quality time w/ Cosmo. She came home from rehearsal, showered and had her hair appointment at 2 PM. She had to be back at the theater by 4 or 4:30 PM so she grabbed a bite to eat and was in the dressing room in plenty of time to do her make-up and get dressed. Meanwhile, I had gone out to an early dinner w/ friends and was supposed to be at the theater before Cosmo & KJ to save some seats. Well, 65N traffic was positively horrendous and I really started to panic. I thought I was never going to make it in time and when I finally pulled up to the theater, I threw the car in park and jumped out. My friend parked the car while I ran in to find some decent seats. Fortunately, Cosmo & KJ made it to the theater a few minutes before me and were able to get seats for all of us.



T had a wonderful experience at the Beauty Walk and said it was so much fun! She had been looking forward to this night since freshman year and I'm so glad she has the confidence to put herself out there. She said one of the best parts for her was the dressing room. There were 106 girls total. She was in the first 50 and they had smaller dressing rooms. The second group of 50 were in one big huge dressing room. T was in a dressing room with a couple of girls that she wasn't really friends with / or had been friends with in elementary/middle school and they went their separate ways as they got older. She said it was really nice to bond a little and talk. They helped each other with their gowns and one of the girls was really, really late due to all that traffic and they all pitched in and helped her get ready. T said she got to spend time with some girls that she ordinarily wouldn't hang out with and that was really nice. So I guess that's what Beauty Walk is all about! I like the Beauty Walk because it's not a popularity contest, the kids don't vote, the teacher's don't nominate anyone. It's truly the judges decision and I like when someone out of left field wins (and of course I love looking at all those gorgeous gowns!). T said this year's winner is a very nice, very sweet girl and everyone was very happy for her.

And the Countdown Begins

Can't believe it's less than 2 weeks to Christmas. I'm on schedule and in pretty good shape: exterior decorated, interior decorated, 2 trees decorated; dining room table decorated; Christmas cards ordered, printed and 90% addressed; most of the gifts are wrapped; one Christmas party attended, two more to go; and I have just a few more gifts to purchase. Whew!


KJ had her first middle school dance this weekend and had a good time. She said it was "kind of lame" at first and then just when things were getting good, it was time to go home. It was only from 5:30 to 7 PM and it was a lot of work for just an hour and a half. I did KJ's hair and make-up and also helped LG w/ her hair when she came over for photos. KJ said I should be a hair & make-up artist for Chanel. She's too damn funny.


Saturday I attended my friend's annual "card addressing" party. I don't think I've ever seen a guest actually address their cards. Lots of good food and lots of good drink. I do love me some mimosas. I've always said I could start each day off w/ champagne!


T had conditioning Saturday morning and then worked at the store for a little bit both Saturday & Sunday. Sunday night Cosmo & T went to the soccer game at the Met (it will always be the Met to me) and had a really good time. Sounds like it was a great game! We had a nice family dinner when they got home and everyone was relaxed and ready for Monday morning.

Friday was T's visit to Ole Miss and I am proud and excited to say her college search has officially ended! She luv'd luv'd luv'd everything about Ole Miss . . . communications program, location, size, setting, safety, lax team. Everything. She's officially been accepted into the journalism program and as far as T is concerned, this is a done deal. Because of her grades she will qualify for the Honors Program, in-state tuition and additional scholarship money as well. Although it was kind of stressful at times, T conducted her search in a mature, wel-informed fashion and it was a learning lesson for all of us.

Because of lacrosse tournaments, she was inundadted with calls and letters from various coaches who had seen her play. Right off the bat she eliminated those schools that did not have her major. She handled herself so well each time a coach called. I know it was akward for her but she was very honest and told them up front thank you but she wasn't interested. She didn't want to waste anyone's time. After that, she did some research on the schools she was interested in and scheduled some visits. She found something she liked at each of the schools she visited but none of them were the total package the way Ole Miss was. FSC's campus was magnificent and she loved the idea of being in FL, spending time at the beach and learning to water ski. She loved the urban setting of Temple but there was zero lax $$$ and I worried about her safety. She loved the northern rural setting of Slippery Rock but didn't like the fact that her tour guide refered to it as a "suitcase" school. She worried about being 20+ hours from home and having nothing to do on the weekends. FSU was always a top contender but the out of state tuition would have sent her daddy into a tizzy. She also loved U of FL and of course, she loved Alabama. In the end, Ole Miss checked off every box on her list of criteria. Yay! Now we can relax and enjoy the 2nd half of her senior year! Whoop! Whoop!

Still No Balls

Yep. Two Christmas trees are up in the house and neither of them have balls or any type of ornamentation. Both trees have lights on them, but nothing else. We had such a busy, busy weekend it just got put on the back burner. Hopefully tonight we can have a nice family meal and then decorate the tree.

Thursday I went to see T perform at halftime of one of the basketball games. I luv, luv, luv that Christmas routine and the new costumes looked GREAT! They had a busy week: Wednesday was the bonfire, Thursday morning they had a pep rally and danced at 2 basketball games and Friday was the state championship game at Bryant-Denney. T went out with the girls Friday after the game as is their post-game ritual. Saturday afternoon they also danced at a local pageant and Saturday night she spent the night at a friends.

Not really sure what to say about the State Championship game. It was a GREAT game and I hate the loss for the seniors. The coach had a tough call to make and, although it didn't work out the way we all wanted, it was the right call. We had a lot of fun sitting with friends, the weather was perfect and I was a little sad because it was T's last football game. The night before the game I told her to "just enjoy the moment, rock the sparkley and work those boots!" One of their very last positions during the half-time show is is one hand in the air holding a long ribbon and the other hand is on their heart. While they were performing I watched her close her eyes at this point and take a deep, soulfull breath. I knew she was savoring the moment and that gave me chills. I am just so incredibly proud of her and I know she's had a lot of fun as a Bnette. She cried a little after the game but said she cried not because they lost but because it was over.

Saturday Cosmo & his little shadow finished decorating the outside and put up the rest of the lights. I did some shopping, ran a few errands and took a little power nap before we headed out to the engagmenet party. KJ was originally planning to go to the party but got invited to a friend's house at the very last minute. T met us at the party and left early to go out with friends. Had a nice time at the party, the food was wonderful, M's house looked beautiful and G&H are a very sweet couple!

Sunday we drove up to Ross Bridge to get some Christmas card photos done and Cosmo joined us for a bit on his way to his lax lesson. It was such a gorgeous day out we decided not to rush home and ended up walking around downtown and taking some photos. Cosmo called after his lesson and we met him for a late lunch at Cucina Superior in Brookwood. T was operating on about 3 hours of sleep so she came home and took a little nap and then met with friends to discuss their Spring Break 2012 plans. By the time she got home, no one felt like decorating the tree. Hence, we have no balls.

Senior Night

Last night was Senior Night during the BJHS football game. Having a Thursday night game really threw off my whole week for some reason. I thought Wednesday was Thursday and Thursday was Friday. I was wishing away the weekend and it was a terrible feeling! :-)

Senior Night was nice, the band parents were a little disorganized but there were TONS of us on the field and we just weren't sure what was going on. The Freshman Dance Team hosted a pre-game dinner for the Bnettes yesterday and gave them very nice gifts. During the half-time presentation the parents (i.e., me & Cosmo) gave our Bnette a beautiful bouquet of roses and I had to pin a a Senior pin onto her silver sparkley jacket. #1, "They" (whoever "they" are) told us we didn't have a lot of time and I had to get the pin on my child BEFORE "they" took photos. #2 T was not expecting the pin and I kind of came at her and scared the crap out of her and jabbed her. #3, the silver sparkley is very heavy and there was no way that pin was getting on that silver sparkley.

I thought I was going to cry and be emotional but I was OK. It's not the end of T's Bnette career nor is it the end of Senior Year. It's only October. We still have basketball season to get through, probably one or two more pep rallies and then we hit competition season. I still have a lot of time to cry and fuss.

Proud Mama Bear (and Poppa Bear, too!)

Addendum: Holy cow! Good thing senior year only comes around once in a lifetime. I have shelled out a small fortune for T this week: graduation announcements, deposit on the Spring Trip and senior yearbook ad. I really wish school administration would learn to spread this stuff out over the course of a couple of months. It's September. Do we really need to be ordering graduation announcements and caps & gowns already?? Seriously?? Yearkbook ad? Can't we do this in January or something???

So proud of both of my girls! Even though KJ's volleyball team hasn't won a single game yet this season, she hasn't given up. It's so easy to become angry at her teammates or become complacent because she knows no one is going to be able to return the volley, but she still has been giving 110% on the court. Every week we tell her she needs to be a leader, she's the only 6th grader on her team and she needs to show the less experienced girls how its done! She had school photos today and looked so pretty when she went off to school. I like her hair long and she had on new jeans and a pair of brown mary janes w/ a slight heel (I have no idea where these shoes came from; I had never seen them before but she said she found them in her closet. Huh! Amazing what you can find in there when you clean!). I can't believe how grown up she's getting! She's so funny and sassy and keeps us in stitches. She comes up with the funniest things sometimes!

Daughter #1 has made both of her parental units very, very happy. She got her most recent ACT scores back and we are all just over the moon! She killed it. She totally killed it. Unless a wild card pops-up after her Naples tournament this fall, she's got it narrowed down to 3 schools . . . two of the schools want her for lacrosse and each of the schools is different from the others in size, location and setting. One of the school is a super large university, one is a smaller school and one is mid-size. One is up North, two are in the South. It will be very interesting to see which direction she goes. She's got some tough choices ahead of her but whatever she decides, we are incredibly proud of her!

“You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does..." -- Tom Petty

Still Managed

Despite being really, really sick for a couple of days I still managed to have a very nice weekend. I didn't want to cough all over everyone so I didn't go to the Friday night football game but sounds like it was a heck of a game! Cosmo & the girls said it was CRAAAAZY! Go Bucs!

Tbone woke up Saturday to take the ACT's and had lunch w/ friends before heading to band practice. I kept my hair appointment w/ Jeffrey while Cosmo took KJ to her volleyball game. Unfortunately, her team lost. Fortunately, my cut & color came out great and I stopped for a pedi on my way home since I had already missed the volleyball game. Cosmo took KJ to TipTop for lunch and we met back at the house in plenty of time for the Alabama vs. Penn State game.

Cosmo put the TV outside and and it was an absolutely spectacular day! T got dinner on her way home from practice and we had such a nice family night. KJ talked her dad into starting a fire and we all just relaxed, ate, laughed and watched a lot of football. No s'more though. We had the choclate bars (which was really weird) and the graham crackers but no marshamallows.


This moring T & I went to the studio to view some of her photos. These aren't her "official" senior portraits. Mr. B just wanted to do a test run but they came out great and I'll probably end up buying a couple. The studio made it a really, really fun experience and had a slideshow set to music so we could view the photos and also gave her a book of proofs to look at. We picked out some photos for her yearbook senior ad and we also picked out a few for her model cards. The lacrosse photos are totally bad-ass and I know Cosmo will want one or two for the store.

KJ and I shopped for a dress for her for the wedding and we both bought shoes and bags. I luv, luv, luv the shoes I bought but KJ's not overly thrilled with the dress we, OK, the dress I forced her to buy. Everything was either too baby-ish or horribly inappropriate for a 6th grader. Same thing with the shoes. Either a "kitten" heel (which KJ positively HATES) or a stripper shoe. Fortunately, we're at the height of homecoming season and Macy's had a decent selection in the Juniors department.

Cosmo met us for lunch and then he & T headed to the airport. Unfortunately, their flight was delayed due to the late afternoon storm that rolled in. So very weird to be sending my oldest child off on a college visit. Made me think of the first time she flew on a plane. We were moving from Annapolis to Cincinnati right before T's 2nd b-day. I had promised her she could have "Sprite in a cup" on the plane if she was a good girl during the flight. Well, don't you know she fell asleep right after take-off. I had the flight attendant bring the "Sprite in a cup" anyway. We're about ready to touchdown and the crew asked us to put our tray tables up. Trying to avoid a potential melt-down mid-air, I actually woke T up so she could drink her "Sprite in a cup" before we landed. The poor thing could barely hold her eyes open and I made her chug a Sprite. I always keep my promises. :-)

Sat-Sun

Nice relaxing weekend before the craziness starts. The calm before the storm. Actually, the storms rolled through here Saturday afternoon and apparently a house in nearby Lake Cyrus was struck by lightening.


Had such a nice morning with T! She's been cleaning and organizing her room for the last couple of weeks. She went through all her clothes, her closets, etc. and wanted to start senior year off fresh. She wanted to find a way to organize all her jewelry and saw a craft she wanted to try. We went to the antiques store and found a window frame with 4 panels. It was very shabby chic looking and had already been painted a cool green. She kocked out the glass, cleaned up the frame a bit and alternated cork board and chicken coop wire and hung the window horizontally rather than vertically and now has an awesome jewelery organizer on her bathroom wall.

Saturday morning the photographer called and asked us to come down to the studio to take a look at some of T's proof's so they could start working on her senior model cards. She looks totally badass in the lacrosse photos and I love the photos of her in her pointe shoes. After our errands, we met Cosmo up at the lax store and had lunch with him. T stayed and closed up the store like a good daughter so daddy could go home and chill for a bit.

Saturday night was very, very relaxing. We rented a movie with KJ and had some nice family time. Just as I was about to go to bed, The Boy showed up and hung out for a while.

Woke up Sunday morning, everyone chipped in and helped clean. T played soccer mom and drove KJ to lax practice and then actually stayed to help the middle school team and to get some reps in herself. Cosmo bbq'd tonight, homework is done and backpacks are ready for tomorrow.