Speaking of Kyra. I knew it was coming... has been for a while, but no one believed me. Craig was served with legal papers by his ex-wife on Sunday. We go to court of Friday. It's interesting to see the games that attornies are willing to play, and they sadly get away with. They filed the papers on the 18th, but we didn't get them until late evening on the 23rd. Because they left a "0" off our address. I don't for a minute believe it wasn't intentional. They server told Craig he'd been looking for the house for days. Yeah, since there IS no 30 Our Street Name I don't know why you kept looking. I also don't know why you didn't drive the 200yards up our street to the POLICE STATION and ask them? Or even just around the corner to city hall... they SURELY know what numbers are on our street and if you gave them Craig's name they could have easily found him since he is on the Planning and Zoning Board. But really... they could have called him and told him they were going to serve them and he'd have told the guy when and where to meet him. Craig doesn't run from crap...
Its just funny that she wants to claim that Craig (or MINE and Craig's) parenting is faulty but ya know what? We're here, every day, doing what we can to help her. Where did YOU go when she got put in the hospital???? Ohhhhh yeah, California. And when you got back, you were home for what... a month? Then back to California for TWO MONTHS??? Did you ever offer to show up for a therapy session for Kyra? Did you ever ask if you COULD show up to a therapy session (not that you needed our permission because you have a legal right to it)? Did you ever call and talk to her therapist? Yeah, thought so.
So while the focus should be on Kyra and making sure she's getting the help she needs, you once again need to make it about you. I think that is so sad. But hey, if they think you will do a better job with her, I hope you do a better job than you did before. Contractures, driving while intoxicated, slapping her and making false claims against us to CPS didn't work so well for you before.
Oh one last thing... that other kid you mentioned in the court papers... how can you explain not doing the same thing "for" him. Especially in light of all the things you yourself told me about him and his "obvious mental problems" (your words, not mine)??? Isn't it the same thing? Yeah, see... you're so transparent. If this were really about you having REAL concerns about things, you'd have no choice but to do the same for him considering the relationship. What a sad game to play with your child's life.
In other news: Our 10th anniversary is coming on September 9! Wonder how many people never thought we'd make it? lol Oh yeah, and my sister is pregnant again.
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Her blog started getting alot of attention when her 4th child was diagnosed in-utero with a heart problem. Pretty soon, she's attracted MILLIONS of hits (and gets paid for them, kudos to her for that) but she told people they needed help so people paid for hotel rooms, sent T@rget cards and 2 people sent iPhones... and she accepted them both. Come to find out, she might not have needed as much help as she made it sound like.
Her kids are really cute and she takes aMAZing pictures, for sure but she gives advice like she's Super Nanny or something and it's just all so much bullshit... and it disgusts me that I bought into it for so long. Her husband is on probation for domestic violence (TWICE) and there's all kind of stuff out there. I'm not saying you have to tell people everything just because you blog... no way. But don't tell the story and skew it...if its off limits its off limits.
It won't be hard to figure out who this is...google it. Read her blog, then look at some of the "anti" blogs. You'll be surprised what you learn. DRAMA~
oh yeah... after taking a peek at my sidebar, I REALLY need to clean up my read list. I haven't looked at a couple of those in a year!!!
]]>Jamie and Jess GOT MARRIED!!!! LMAO I told ya, BEYOTCH, that you'd be maried by summer and LOOKIE LOOKIE who was right! I LOVE being right (yet another thing I do well!) Well, congrats. Ya know I love ya... but you know what this means, right? Craig will have design a "shower bar" for you!!! HAHAHAHAAA
Oh yeah, here's this: We attended the UTA athletic banquet with Ryan a couple of weeks ago. She used one year of NCAA eligibility for track but didn't use any of her basketball eligibility since she red-shirted as a result of transferring. SO... she'll be an athletic FRESHMAN in the fall and we CAN'T WAIT for BBALL season to start! This year of not getting to watch her was horrible, but we still enjoyed cheering the team on. Coach pulled her aside the other day and told her to come back prepared to play the 5 and to spend alot of time on the court during games. In high school she was lucky to get a minute or two on the bench each half during games but playing a 5 in college is WAYYYYYYY more physically demanding so this should be interesting. At 6'2 she'll be MOSTLY ok in height in the SL Conference but she's not bulky so she's got to get the upper body strength to match her lower body. We shall see! But here's the pic of that night... oh, and they have ordered the SL Conference Championship rings and should get them in the fall. BLING!!
Uhhh, back to me now... So there's a ton of crap going on here. Kids driving me up the fucking wall, yard work killing me, work needing to be done on the house driving me mad but my one place of complete peace in with Craig. I swear, with Jesus, Mary and Joseph as my witnesses that I do not deserve this man but whatever it was that convinced God to send him to me is my life preserver. He treats me like some kind of wildly expensive thing, like I'll shatter if I'm touched, while still driving me to realize that I'm stronger than I give myself credit for. He sees so much more in me than I've ever (maybe even ever will!) seen in myself but it does challenge me to try and be the person he knows I am. All of that, and I can honestly say that he knows my absolute worst, most embarassing secret... and loves me anyway. I'm so glad I shared that secret, even though I did it when I had no reason to ever believe I'd meet him face to face, because it's allowed me to see that I don't have to hide anything from him... and I don't. Oh don't get me wrong, I don't tell him everything... but neither do I hide anything. If he asks me about something that I don't particularly want to talk about I just buck up the best I can and tell the truth. He knows me well enough to know if there's more to a story or not... plus, I'm the WORST at keeping a secret... horrible. Especially if it's really good or really bad. (are there any other kinds???)
Anyway, we are coming up on our 10th wedding anniversary and I'd really like to do something special for him but don't really know what I want to do. Ideas??? Send 'em my way.
Alright, it's almost 4:30am so I really need to hit the hay. I see him laying there, sound asleep and I really need to go curl up there with him.
G'night...errrrr, G'morning!!
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I mean, really??? Did he think I doubted his destination when he left or now? LOL Sheesh, Craig... just wait. I WILL get my revenge. Can you say, "Nordstrom's shoe department?" Uh, huh. See ya when you get home Sunday, dear!!! LOL
In other equally boring news I now know the true, full meaning of what "Spring cleaning" really is. I won't terrorize you with the details but after dismantling my bedroom item by item I find myself shocked my dogs have any skin or hair left on their bodies. Yes, they're big Labs but how in the world have they shed THAT much hair and dander? It was pretty much the grossest crap I've ever seen and I feel the need to qualify that determination by informing you that I have watched several autopsies, one of which involved a be-heading-by-train and that had NOTHING on this. No wonder my allergies are already destroying me!
UTA plays in the semi-final game of the Southland Conference Tournament tomorrow and if they win I'll head down to Katy (basically Houston) on Saturday to watch them in the finals. She's soooo excited about the prospect of a Conference Championship ring~ and who can blame her? Next Friday starts her outdoor season of track but luckily her first outdoor meet is here at TCU, so we get to stay home next weekend and the week after for the UTA track meet. Then, we hit the road for Austin for Texas relays. She gets the automatic bid since she was last year's state champ, even though that was high school and now its college. She could compete even unattached.
The week after Austin we go to Lubbock for the Texas Tech meet, then back to TCU (yay!!) April 23 she'll be in Des Moines, IA for Drake's meet and I'm looking forward to making this road trip, believe it or not. My mother's family is from Iowa and Nebraska so I could make the drive through there and take pictures for my geneology stuff. Then on the 30th we head to UNT (Denton) for what I hope will be some sweet revenge, May 8th we're back on the road headed to Nacadoches for the Southland Conference meet. If she wins there, she'll move on. If not, she's done for the year.
That means we will have 3 weeks at home before we head to Rhode Island for all of Craig's stuff for the CVS Charity Golf Cl@ssic. At least that will be 5 full days of rest and relaxation for me. I can't wait!
Night!
You start with two bottles of Everclear...
... and pay careful attention to the label. My kids were particularly interested in the "Highly Flammable" part of the label. Its been a LONG time since I've taken a sip of this stuff and my GOD and I have to wonder why I ever would have. It smelled like fingernail polish remover.
Next, you peel 15 lemons and add the peels to the Everclear being careful to remove as much of the white "pith" as possible because it will make it bitter.
Throw it all together in a container that will seal tight and let it sit for one week in a cool, dry place. Be sure to mix it up daily. You'll notice each day that the liquid gets darker and darker and the peels get lighter while also getting thinner and more brittle.
In 7 days I'll post the rest. For now, my migraine is getting the best of me so I'm finishing up dinner then going to bed. Too bad this stuff isn't ready now!
As I've mentioned three billion times before, Ryan's scholarship is for basketball so they control EVERYTHING regarding her. She isn't allowed to miss any basketball practices to do track. So everything was fine until the UTA women lost their game Wednesday night. The problem isn't so much that they lost as much as it is Coach Morrow being unhappy with how they played. Oh shit, that is going to mean lots of running. LOTS.
To top all of this off, they get their travel itinerary for the next game. They were scheduled to leave at 10am Friday morning to head to Lousiana for their next game. BUT, Coach Morrow found out that Louisianna had scheduled UTA's practice time (you get court time at the venue of every away game) to be 6pm on Friday night (the game will be Saturday). But Coach Morrow doesn't like them to have to practice that late the night before a game so she changes it so that the girls have practice at 10am Friday morning BEFORE THEY LEAVE!!! This really puts a monkey wrench in things for Ryan. The track team had left Thursday, but Ryan couldn't go with them because of Thursday's practice and we planned to take her Friday morning. Now, even THAT won't work in the schedule. But there is a slim chance Ryan can get what she wants... but it will cost her.
So Ryan goes into practice Thursday knowing its going to be brutal. According to her, "Brutal" is much too mild a word to adequately describe it. She said it was the worst practice all year. But she knew she had to work her ASS off and give it every single ounce of energy in her body. MAYBE if she did that, Coach would allow her to miss Friday's practice. (I want to clarify here that Coach isn't just trying to be a hardass. She needs Ryan at practice because they only have 10 girls if you include Ryan, so practicing with an odd number is more difficult and after all, Ryan IS there on a basketball scholarship so we're not bitching!) Anyhoo...
She approaches Coach Morrow after practice and tells her the deal. Coach tells her to try and find out if there is anything she can do to change her jump time (she can't, but it was worth asking) Craig picked Ryan up after practice and brought her home but we had to wait on the call to Coach Morrow. FINALLY, I guess about 7:30 Ryan said Coach Morrow told her she had worked her ass off at practice and it was noticed. She was going to let Ryan go to the meet but ONLY because this was the conference meet. If it was any other meet, she'd be SOL.
So, we get to Houston at noon, eat and head back to the track. We're way early but Ryan needed to try and get her legs massaged to see if there was any help for them. My ex-husband and his mom showed up so we all just sat and chatted until it was time for it to start. I have to admit I rather enjoyed talking with them and just having a nice day.
The event started and Ryan was ranked 3rd (because of the last track meet) so she was jumping 3rd to last. It didn't take too long to get through the girls but Ryan didn't enter at opening height, so she came in on the 2nd round. By that time there were already 8 girls out. She takes off for her first jump and it was clear from about the 5th step that it wasn't going to be good. (The picture quality is HORRIBLE... not sure what we did, but you still get the idea, I hope!)
... yeah. Probably THE ugliest jump I've ever seen from her. Period. Needless to say, she missed. I just got a really bad feeling all of a sudden. Pretty soon, she's up again. Takes off... better form, same miss. Sonofabitch! She's going to be MISERABLE if she "no heights" for the meet!
Oh Lord... this is going to be painful. It's clear that there just isn't any spring in her legs. They are dead. So, she takes off for her third (and final) attempt... I nearly threw up! I mean, I didn't need her to win or whatever, but I just wanted her to be happy with whatever results she got and I KNEW this wasn't going to make her happy. And as I exhaled... she cleared the bar!!! Yay! So at least she'd be on the board even if she didn't clear any other height.
Alright, you know the drill... the bar goes up how far??? (Altogether now!!) TWO INCHES!! And we're right back where we started. Missed the first attempt. Missed the second attempt (in fact, I don't even think her shoulders made it above the bar because she just couldn't jump... I mean, at ALL) But somehow finds the energy on her third attempt and clears the bar. Whew!
Yes, yes... two more inches. Now, it's just Ryan and three other girls left (the #1, #2 and #4 ranked girls in the conference- Ryan is #3) but Ryan has all those misses! One other girl had one miss along the way but the other two were perfect. It was clear that this was the end of the road for Ryan. I don't even know how she ran up to the bar for those last three jumps but she did. But missed them all. One of the other girls missed here, too so technically Ryan tied for 3rd but was awarded 4th by virtue of having missed more attempts. 4th place!!!
So 4th place in the NCAA Southland Conference track meet as a freshman (who isn't even there for track) doesn't seem so bad to me. She said she was disappointed that she didn't do better but she can honestly say she gave it everything she had. That makes me happy. If you do your best, then the resulting score or place isn't top priority (in my book, and I'm a hard core sports enthusiast. I don't like those kids sports where they don't keep score. The object of a game is TO WIN. Not "win at any cost" but to work hard, play fair and give your best effort. Hopefully that will propel you to vicotry, but if not you did your best any that's whats important)
So, we snapped a picture out in front of the facility and hopped in the car for the 4hr return drive. Only it wasn't a 4 hr drive coming home because...
.... it was 5:30pm. On a Friday. In downtown Houston. Ugh So we resorted to what we always do when traveling. Every summer we drive all over the country for Ryan's basketball (always twice a year to Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham, Oklahoma City, Kansas, Chicago, and even Oregon... and we LOVE it but last summer was the last year they can play AAU or on the Nike and Adidas circuits if they have secured a scholarship so we didn't get to travel like that this summer...) Anyway, Craig has Sirius satellite radio, plus I brought my iPod and Monster cable and Ryan had her iPod so we turn up the music LOUD and we all sing at the top of our lungs. Oh yeah, Craig also plays the air drums... ALL THE WAY BACK TO FT. WORTH! It was a blast. We play everything from the Cars, Styx, Kansas, Neil Diamond, NSync, the Carpenters (LOL) and Disney songs (Ryan's favs). We're pathetic, but we have fun.
So, all in all, we're quite pleased! Happy weekend!
]]>And to top that off, their basketball coach has run them HARD this week. Ryan said today's practice was the worst- run, run, run was the name of the game, so her legs are not 100%. We'll see... hopefully she'll have a good meet. I don't especially care if she places. I mean, of COURSE I'd love to see that, but I'm more concerned with her doing her best. If she does that, then it doesn't matter if she wins or not.
We shall see...!
]]>We left the house about 9:30 this morning so that we could just take our time getting down to A&M, which is about 3 hrs away. I texted Ryan on the way (they were on a chargter bus) to see how she was feeling. She said she was excited, nervous and every other emotion you could think of. I asked her what her goal was and she said that all she really wanted to do was to make sure she cleared something so that she didn't "no height" for the meet. I thought that sounded fantastic, considering she'd only had two days of practice and hadn't jumped for height in more than 9 months. I said we're already so proud of you so just go out there and have fun.
So, we get into the facility and buy the program. And saw that 35 girls were entered. Shit! Plus, the #1 ranked high jumper IN THE NATION was there (Destini Hooker- Univ of Texas). Oh boy. This girl has a personal best jump of 6ft 5in. Yeah, she's good.
This was going to be torture and I just wanted her to enjoy it. She was seeded 10th (and that's because her coaches didn't want to use her 5' 10 jump and just entered 5' 7) so she was jumping in the 25th spot. That's both good and bad. It means that by the time she actually jumps (depending on the height she chose to enter at) alot of the girls would already be out. But that also means that she sits for a LONG time after warming up. They opened at 5ft 1.75in but she decided not to enter until the bar had been raised to 5ft 3.75in. By that time, there were only 18 girls left. When she stepped up by her mark and stood there looking at the bar and I swear it looked like I could see her shaking from where we sat and I couldn't help thinking that nerves were gonna get her.
So, off she goes and her approach and something was totally different right off the bat, but it didn't dawn on my what it was until later. (she went from and 8 step approach to a 10 step) It was ugly... and that's being kind.
But she cleared it. They cycle through all the girls who are still jumping. She and 9 other girls were still in it but there were still 4 who hadn't entered. And Destini hadn't even gotten out of her chair yet to walk around. She just sat there watching. So the bar goes up by 2 more inches. Ryan was starting to settle down and seemed pretty comfortable, but she was distracted a little by the activity on the track. A sprinter just ran the fastest time IN THE WORLD and the place got a little crazy for a few minutes. She looked caught off guard when they called her name, quickly stripped off her warm up and stepped over to her mark. I'm fumbling with the damn video camera and Craig gets the digital camera on just in time to catch it...
... so at the end of this round it was Ryan and 9 other who cleared and moved on to the next round. Plus Destini, who was still seated.
I couldn't help but hold my breath as I watched the officials lift the bar... another two inches. She misses her first attempt at 5ft 7.75in. Now, I was nervous because it looked like she just didn't have it in her. But they came back to her and she cleared it easily on the 2nd attempt.
You know what comes next... the bar moves 2in. Now let me clarify something. Ryan regularly cleared 5ft 10 in high school but regardless of what height she was clearing they NEVER moved the bar more than an inch at a time. It's a BIG change... so combine that with no practice and it starts getting dicey. She's the worst seeded of the girls left, so she's now the first jumper in the round. Not great. But we did get to see her listed in 1st place on the scoreboard!! (This is by virtue of having only one miss Since Destini hadn't entered yet, she couldn't be listed in any place. FYI: You get 3 attempts at each height. If you clear, you move on. At the end, it comes down to who clears the highest mark, but if two or more people all miss at the same height they go back and count your misses, so it's best to clear on your first attempts each time)
So, the bar goes up two inches again. It's Ryan, 2 other girls and Destini (who was entering at this height) Two of these other girls are nationally ranked; #1 and #24- and the girl who is ranked #6 in the NATION had been eliminated in the previous round!
So off they go. Ryan and the other unranked girl both miss all three of their attempts at this height and are eliminated. But Ryan only had the one previous miss and the other girl had 2, so Ryan WON 3rd PLACE!!! Sooooooooooooooo AMAZING!!!! (the girl from Texas Tech, who is ranked #24 didn't clear at the next height, but Destini did on her first attempt. She went on to clear 6ft 1.25in for the day!)
I'm so excited I CAN'T sit still!!! The Southland Conference track meet is next weekend in Houston. Ryan's jump would rank her in 3rd place going into that meet. But guess what????? The girls who are ranked about Ryan PLACED BEHIND HER IN THIS MEET!!! (Their ranking is based on their personal best jumps of the year and Ryan's can only be based on this meet since its her only one going in)
But there could be a wrinkle. Ryan's ability to compete in track has more than the average requirements. She can't miss any practices or workouts for the basketball team. Well, the track team will leave Thursday for next weekend's meet and there will be a basketball practice that day. So there is the chance that her bball coach won't let her go with the track team and that would mean she'd have to ride down to Houston with Craig and I Friday morning. That's a long time riding in a car when you have to get out and compete... so we'll see.
So while it wasn't a PERFECT track meet, it was beyond our wildest expectations and it's just wonderful to see her smiling about sports again. This year has been so stressful because of all the basketball stuff and this just balances all of that out.
UPDATE::: As I was typing this, Craig was checking out the National Rankings just to see how Ryan would stack up. We were SHOCKED to see that the list is already updated and Ryan is RANKED... #12 in the NATION!!!!! Destini is now ranked#2, so evidently there are alot of really talented girls pushing it
For the time being, anyway, things are running quite smoothly around here. Craig is SWAMPED at work and is looking at possibly promoting someone to be his assistant (or something like one) to take part of his workload. He's now not just managing the projects nationwide, he's managing the finances, project managers and projects nationwide. CV$ is the only client of his who hasn't backed off any of their planned stores, so there's alot going on and it seems (for him, anyway) that there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Ryan's first track meet is at Texas A&M a week from Saturday and I. CAN'T. WAIT!!!! Today is her first day of practice for track, but she has to go straight from classes, to basketball practice and THEN to track practice. Her legs are going to be SHOT! Basically, by the time the track meet comes around she'll still have only gotten in MAYBE 10 jumps, so we're not sure how well this will go. The coaches really want her at the conference track meet so they have no expectations of her jumping before that.... but the conference meet is only one week after A&M, so she's probably really feeling the pressure!!
Kyra is, simply put, just amazing me right now. She has been really working on some of her issues and REALLY opening up about her feelings. We tried for so long to get her to this point and just when we'd started thinking that her stubbornness would prevent her from doing it she goes and surprises us! She's been writing "a book" and she's really proud of it, so I'm hoping that her self esteem issues will begin to improve as her pride in herself over this project begins to show.
She and I sat outside yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours just talking about how she feels. We also talked about what she thinks her "issues" are and what I think they are. She really made a bold move at Thanksgiving to get her Mom's attention and now she's really regretting it now. She said she lied because- and I'm not sure I understand this totally, but...- she feels like, where her mother is concerned, she is in the parent roll and her mom is the child. I understand WHAT she's saying, but based on knowing the situation (albeit from my vantage point) I don't understand WHY she feels that particular way. She starts counseling today and I really believe she's motivated (finally!!!) to improve the relationships in her life because she's pretty much pushed everyone away from her. I really feed bad for her because its apparent that she's really hurting, but her previous counselor said that she wouldn't make any efforts to improve her relationships with people until she had almost no one left. In spite of how heart-sick I am that she's hurting that much, I'm really excited about whatever it is that finally made her realize that she's got to make some changes!!
Austin has a job interview today that I'm really hoping he gets! I don't know if they are interviewing alot of people or even if there is more than one of these positions open, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for him. There's alot going on for him right now too, so I'm really hoping for the best outcome here!
In other news around the house... I FINALLY got everything in Ryan's room packed away in the closet so that I can prepare to do the walls. (Her room is just... well, PACKED with Little Mermaid schtuff) I've already gotten the kids' hallway stripped of all pics, light switch covers, baseboards... all that crap! I'm starting in Ryan's room and then going down the hallway, then Kyra's room and THEN Austin's. I'm reblowing the texture on the walls, painting and all that entails. After we're doing with the kids' rooms and hall we'll start in the living room. THAT is going to take massive work (including jackhammering out the HUGE natural stone fireplace!) and after that it'll be the kitchen. The kitchen is going to be VERY labor intensive. We'll be taking out all the cabinetry and installing all new, plus all new appliances. We are considering (nothing even remotely concrete now) combining the two living rooms into one large one with a smaller office towards the back. I don't know, though. I'm hoping that Craig will be able to input our dimensions into his AutoC@d and then create a couple of different looks for us to choose from. In that program, he can actually do the design, then turn it into an actual pricture (rendering) so that I can see it because I don't look at blueprints and do well "seeing" what it will look like.
So, there. I think that's about it. Busy week. Kyra counseling, Ryan two basketball games plus track, Austin job interview, Craig working and Kristi, what else... shopping!! YAY!!!
]]>I don't know if I've ever blogged about it before but... my daughter, Ryan, is a Disney savant. No, really! She is! You say a phrase from a Disney movie and she'll spit out the title of it within about 5 words. Its really odd. You know the "Scene It" game (Disney version)? She got it for Christmas and she rather enjoys playing the game BY HERSELF just to sharpen her skills!
So, we always tried to tell Craig about the first Disney movie she fell in love with (after all the Winnie the Pooh movies) and how this ONE DAMN SCENE nearly undid my sanity! Picture this...
... Ryan, 3 yrs old and wearing her Little Mermaid dress (every damn day) sitting in front of a tv. We had just bought The Rescuers (not The Rescuers Down Under... that one came later) and I was just enjoying a rare moment of quiet while she watched the movie. She was totally into the movie and it was cute, so I started enjoying it too. Then, all of a sudden THIS scene pops up....
She has these HUGE blue eyes, you see... and she knows how to use them! God Almighty... she turned to me, with these MASSIVE pools of tears in her eyes... not falling down her cheeks (which I could have tolerated... I think) but just pooling there.... oh God, it was AWFUL.... She walked around for WEEKS saying, "It was 'doption day at the orphanage. A man and a lady looked at me, but they choosed a lil red headed girl..." Oh lord, just thinking of it is about to send me over the edge. It was a dark day in our household for a while.
So THEN, we try to tell Craig about this (several years ago when we first met) and he just missed the whole point... UNTIL we FINALLY found the damn movie and watched it again. And I'll be DAMNED if that girl (who at the time was probably 16) looked up at me with those same freakin' pools in her eyes and started it all over again. And we've been fine since then... until today when she sent me that dang link. It never ends!
Ugh
]]>So... are you ready for the FANTATIC news??? Ryan has FINALLY been cleared by the NCAA to jump for the UTA track team!!! All this time we were under the (mistaken) impression that because her scholarship to both UNT and UTA was for basketball (even though she agreed to jump at both schools) then she didn't have to get approval. We were quite wrong, but when UTA wrote to UNT to request release so that they didn't have to go through ANOTHER NCAA appeal, UNT went ahead and let her go!!! I will FINALLY get to watch my daughter compete in an NCAA event and I can NOT even come up with the words to say how excited I am!
It's killing me that she's going to have to wait 'til next year for basketball, but I still love watching her high jump. As the State Champion for 2008 she gets an automatic bid to Texas Relays (at UT combined college and high school meet that is HUGE! Ryan took 4th last year, but we were happy with that because we left the District track meet- where she took Gold- and drove straight to Austin for her to compete there). She is not allowed to miss any basketball workouts, but they will let her miss the "shoot arounds" which are done just before the team leaves for away games or a few hours before the home games, so she's really going to have to be on her game. She may not be able to handle a full load of classes, full basketball workouts AND full track workouts PLUS track meets, but she's gonna give it a shot and see how it goes!
Kyra is really doing well and seems to be coming out of her shell alot more. She is trying a little harder to be a part of things and says she is really alot happier these days. She is sick as a DOG right now and no matter how much I tell her she really ought to stay home from school, she insists on going. I love that tenacity about her but truthfully it would piss me off if another kid came to school that sick and then got my kid sick. But she's having a harder time keeping up her grades this year and I guess she's scared that missing even one class would mess her up.
Craig and I went to Boston last week and lets just say it was an interesting trip. I did NOTHING but sleep because the 5 days before leaving I had slept no more than 3 hrs each night. Craig's meeting on Thursday in Woonsocket, RI was going to last for 3 hours so I was gonna take the rental car and go (what else?!) shopping. Instead, I climbed into the backseat of the car and slept... so hard that even after he got into the car for the drive to Boston I didn't wake up... until we got to the Boston hotel. Jesus, it was soooooooooo cold there! It was 16 degrees when we got there and the morning we left it was 8 degrees. That's total crap and I don't know how people live like that! Ugh!
Oh, I forgot! Two weekends ago when we were at Ryan's game (even though she's red shirting she's on the roster and sits on the bench- in dress clothes- for the home games) the team sat at mid-court after the game signing autographs on the team posters they were giving away. So my baby girl signed her very first autograph- and of course, I snapped a pic of it (then had all the girls sign my poster for Craig's office). I'll have to find that pic.
So all in all, life is good. And now, I'm going to bed!
]]>I really need to get my house clean tomorrow. Its a pig stye. Ryan's team plays on Saturday then I'm hoping to get together with my cousin on Sunday to share and compare family pictures. That means I really have to get my butt in gear!
later!
]]>It's freakin' cold out today. It's only 32 degrees and it's not supposed to get above 38 for us today. In Texas, that's cold to us. Anyway. Kyra came out of her room this morning to eat breakfast and I noticed that she had a black long sleeve shirt on under her regular shirt. When I asked her what she was wearing she stepped all the way into my room and I saw that she had on... wait for it.... wait.... an Under Armor shirt! LMAO. She must get that style from her real mom. Or even her dad. Just not from me! I'm not trying to be mean, but I think that's some funny stuff.
In other news: I bought $14 bucks worth of scratch off lottery tickets yesterday and ended up winning $35. Not a big win, but still... I'll take that.
Also, I finally broke down on Friday and bought a pressure cooker. I even braved W@lMart to get it. My mom has been after me for several months to get one, so I finally did it and I LOVE IT!!! I cooked a pot of pinto beans (and didn't soak them over night) in under 15 minutes. Potato soup in under 10. It's crazy! My mom has made pot roast with potatos and carrots in under 20 minutes. Now, I'm just cooking like CRAZY!!! Love it!
Kyra goes back to school today, but other than taking her to school (since its sort of sleeting) I don't plan on leaving the house. Maybe I'll even lay in bed all day crocheting. Yeah, that's what I think I'll do. I've been up for 2 hours and I'm really exhausted!!! LOL
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