Freedom isn't free

Thinking of those who have sacrificed and paid the ultimate price for our freedom this weekend.



It has been hard to post lately, just too nutty between work, running Hannah around, keeping up with the housework and errands... Life is good and today I had my first true day off in a long time. No work, no appointments, no place I had to be. It was great. I was actually giddy because I finally had a day to do whatever! I ended up laying around in bed too long watching HGTV with the pets, then headed out for lunch and to hit some thrift stores to see if I could score anything funky to decorate the back patio. Nope. But it was still fun hunting around. I went to the Habitat Re-Store, Salvation Army and two consignment stores before coming home to meet Hannah.

Next week, I will begin just working for community appointments. That should give me a quiet summer until Hannah starts back to school. She still has about a week and a half before finishing up.

Speaking of Hannah, she did great on her interim reports and scored in the top 25% of the state on all of her EOG (end of grade) exams. A "4" is the highest that can be scored on the tests (meaning highest of the 4 quartiles). She got her Dance & Drill team "spirit wear" yesterday and was happy to wear her new t-shirt and sweatshirt today.

It has been stiflingly hot. In the low 90s. The pool opened last weekend, so we managed to go once this week.

Last weekend, we went to see Heather at her parents' beach house on Sunset Beach (NC). I wish we had more time because we didn't arrive until almost 9 (since we were waiting for Hannah to get out of school) and then we had to leave after lunch on Sunday to get back. Saturday she had a cheer competition in Myrtle Beach (SC) which is about an hour from Heather's parents, so we did that in the morning, went to lunch, then Keith and Hannah had some beach time until it got dark. After basketball cheer season ended at school, Hannah began practicing and participating with both of the competition teams at the gym. The teams took 1st and 3rd in their divisions. The gym will wrap up with the end of the year "show" the day after Father's Day.

Along with Hannah's other activities, she has put in her month's notice for horseback riding. She hasn't wanted to go as often and I am not going to push her. I really feel like the experience has had a positive impact on her and hope that she may pick it back up again. I realize that she has had more going on and is involved in more activities than most kids, so I understand that she has probably just gotten tired of being overbooked. It will work out fine since the summer isn't as structured for us and she would probably be missing her lessons more often than not.

Dance & Drill will require 3 days of practice and then performances at Saturday home games, so she is going to be taking on more with that role, plus she is still planning on cheering at the gym. That is probably more than enough if she doesn't take on anything additional. She still loves the Chun Kuk Do and "cheer funk" dance class she is taking at the gym, but will have to put those activities on hold, most likely, during dance season at school.

Lots of stuff about Hannah lately. Trying to think if I have anything exciting to talk about in regards to myself... Nope, can't really think of anything. I think I live vicariously through my daughter and that is enough for me lately.

I sat down and scrapbooked quite a bit tonight. I think I was able to sit and enjoy myself since I didn't have a million other things I had to do earlier like I have most days lately. I just grabbed an envelope of photos without even looking at the pictures, and then set about scrapping them! It was fun because the envelope ended up containing pictures from when Elissa came to visit in 2008 and there were adorable pictures of our girls together getting makeovers and going shopping. I also had photos in there of Heather and I when we went to the beach last year! My plan is to continue to do as much as I can over the summer so I don't have all of the stacks.

I don't feel "guilty" like they say, for having stacks of photos waiting for a home. I really use my scrapbooks as my family photo albums and want to put all of the photos I have on paper, so I don't feel like I need to limit myself to one picture for each event. It takes me longer this way and it may not always be as clean and uncluttered as a result, but I like having the many pictures chronicled and put away. I can remember a time, not too long ago, when I was actually just waiting for the next batch of photos to come back from the store so I could scrapbook because I was completely up to date on my projects.

I've fallen behind since moving here. It seems like with a house that is twice the size of my old house and a daughter that is now 5 years older that it takes me 10 times longer to do all of my domestic junk. I do flutter with the FLY lady, so I have a system that works for me, but geez.

Well, I am going to head off to bed. I am up late since I was lazy all morning. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend and doesn't forget why we have Monday off.