I’m fighting another upper respiratory virus. This has been a bad year for them. Princess Girl and myself have already been sick earlier this winter.
Work in insanely busy. I can barely keep my head above water.
We are working hard toward Princess Girl’s high school graduation.
She has already been accepted into her top two schools. Now to wait on cheer tryouts.
Nationals for competitive cheer are just around the corner.
What a busy time in our lives!
1. I love watching Princess Girl and her friends enjoy their final year of high school. Some of those kids are serious HAMS for the camera!
2. I am glad the stretches the OT gave me are taking the edge off of the pain in my thumb/wrist. I can’t wait to be healed!
3. Don’t ever disparage me or the organization I am the president to our community members of when you are in the wrong.
4. Very busy weekend planned! Football, fill-in bartending for a friend, a surprise birthday party, cheer practice and maybe fill-in bartending again.
5. Dead beat dads make me want to vomit. I’d love to send Princess Girl’s to jail for all the money that he owes.
6. The boat is out of the water, cleaned up and put away for the season. I miss it already.
7. Some where this weekend I need to find time to fill the hot tub. At least we have that to look forward to since boating is done.
8. Gourd bowling is fun! So is having a gourd fairy leave surprise gourds on the mailbox!
9. I have committed Princess Girl to completing her college applications this weekend. Yikes!
10. I am astounded by all the Christmas/New Year’s conceived people I know. There have been nearly thirty birthdays in the last week and a half!
Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!
Or at least that is the consensus I have heard from Princess Girl and her friends (via Re-tweets).
The weather for the parade was fabulous.
The half time dance by Princess Girl and the other cheer leaders was very good.
Decorating for the dance and hair prep went off without a hitch. There was even time for a nap (although everyone and their brother decided to call, message or talk to me in MY nap window).
Pictures were very nice. Thank you very much to Princess Girl’s friend and her parents who invited such a large group into their home for snacks, pictures and champagne punch (for the grown-ups only of course)!
Princess Girl said dinner was good. And her vegetarian date even found something to eat (after it was re-made sans bacon).
And the dance? The best ever! Very cute picture backdrop. No complaints about music choices. No major dress malfunctions. With the exception of the accidental elbow to the eye Princess Girl smiled the entire evening.
We were truly blessed with a fabulous weekend for this, our final, Homecoming dance.
8/365 Matryoshka (Photo credit: Flооd)
My poor Princess Girl has a lot on her emotional plate right now. She has entered her senior year of high school. Being a “grown-up kid” is looming on the horizon. Each day, it seems, we have another “the last first of high school” event. Each day we have tasks due to prepare for her flight next year into the world of college and higher learning.
And I’m a pro at helping her handle these things. I know her. I know how to guide her to look at the exciting, happy side of these things instead of dwelling (too long anyway) over the sad, leaving home soon aspects. Oh I know, she still worries about all the changes. She is already missing her friends. But we are focusing on the positives. Things like how much fun she is going to have this year as “top dog”. Things like she will be the voice of experience for her younger friends as she goes through all of these events before them and can help shape and guide them in the next few years.
What I am not a pro at is helping her deal with her more adult feelings about how her dad has treated her for the entirety of her life. When she was younger, I followed her Pollyanna view. Hey, it’s her dad, but she is my Princess Girl. There was no way I was going to crush her beautiful little heart.
Now that she is nearly 18 and his actions frustrate her and break her heart on a regular basis because she is old enough to see that even if a dad lives a couple hours away that does not excuse them not participating in your life. She is old enough to see that dads who only spend an hour over lunch a couple times a year are not participating in their child’s life.
And all I can say is I am sorry. I tell her I wish I could change things for her. I wish I could fix it. Unfortunately, I am well aware, and so is she, that I can not fix his lack of parental participation.
And what I would really like to say is I am sorry your dad is a jackhole. I would like to tell her that I wish I could make your dad stop being a self absorbed tool. I would like to put his happy ass in jail for the money that he owes for her support.
But she does not deserve the weight of that on her shoulders. She does not need to bear any more of the burden of his actions than she already does. So I keep silent. I do not say those things to her.
But I think them.
Images of custom amirugami, an amirugami graduate in cap and gown. Self-made. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is not an apology, but advanced warning…
Princess Girl’s first day of her senior year of high school starts bright and early tomorrow morning.
That should be an ‘enough said’. But in case it is not… The next nine months are going to be an emotional roller coaster. All of the milestones and activities will remind me of how proud I am of her. They will also remind me of how soon she will be going off to college and starting the next phase of her life not so close to mom.
We have already done the photo shoot for her senior pictures. Gorgeous! I am thinking a second mortgage is going to be in order for all of the prints we will want. It is going to be nearly impossible to narrow down our choices.
[Sidebar: Princess Girl’s senior pictures are amazing. I will post some here as soon as I get the release. For those of you on Facebook, you can see some of them there. Or you can go to DashaDenger.com , Princess Girl holds the first three spots in Clients -> Portraits I.
If you are looking for a photographer for senior pictures I highly recommend Dasha. It was a fun, laid-back shoot. If you book with her, give her my name as a referral and we will get credit towards prints!]
The next thing we need to focus on is college applications. And school work. And cheerleading. And homecoming. And…
Busy. Exciting. Sad.
Here it all comes. We’d better get ready!
So Tugfest! Illinois won the Tug 6-5 in a tough, exciting set of pulls. The weather was beautiful. And the best part of the weekend…
Princess Girl won the Queen pageant!!!
Which, of course, makes me the Queen Mum.
She was beautiful. She was poised. She looked like she was having a ball!
I am so proud of her. She has been so excited!
She is already looking forward to the next pageant she can enter. 🙂
A See of Green 