Summer is Here!

I've been REALLY lazy lately and haven't posted anything to the blog, facebook or actually anything in a long time. I can't believe summer is already here!

What you've missed:
•Annabelle graduated from the UTPA preschool! It was sad to say goodbye to everyone but we are happy to be moving on to Kindergarten. I definitely won't miss the preschool :)
•We rescued a puppy! Her name is Stella, she is a chihuahua/terrier and she very sweet (she has some fear issues but we're working on them)
•Justin started teaching summer school again, he will be done the first week in July and we're looking forward to some vacation time.
•Annabelle attended Kindergarten registration, she tested perfectly at Kindergarten level, we ordered her school uniforms, got more information on her school and found out she needed yet another TB test. So far we really like the school (the campus is beautiful) and she is super excited about the school year starting. We can't wait for Kindergarten orientation in August!
•We got a new roof! Finally! Hail damage in May stirred things up around here, we now have a new roof (a 2 day job that turned into a 12 day job) and we're waiting for news on our new fence and a/c repairs.

Our New Roof

Meet Stella

Preschool Graduation - Dancing to Hound Dog

Catching Butterflies

Stella is Famous - She was the Easter Seals Dog!

Annabelle & Teacher Joyce

Graduated!

• We've been spending our summer days with friends in their pool. Saturday nights watching movies in the park. And just hanging out at home being lazy!

Easter 2012

We hunted some eggs

Posed for the camera

Got an awesome new tutu from Aunt Lisa

Collected some farm fresh eggs

Dyed some eggs (one even came out black!)

Enjoyed the cake batter just a little bit too much!

And decorated our traditional bunny cake - mmmmm....it was delicious!

We had a really nice Easter!

And Annabelle is STILL sleeping in the shark tent. Tomorrow the tent moves to her bedroom like it or not :)

Annabelle has been sleeping in a shark-shaped tent in our living room for the past couple nights. She loves getting into it at bed time and playing her leappad and turning on her flashlight, she sleeps in that darn thing the ENTIRE night without getting up once & trying to get in our bed. I think the shark tent is a brilliant idea! Maybe we can just get rid of her bunk beds to make room for a separate home office for Justin? BRILLIANT!!

Preschool graduation is just around the corner. I had no idea there would be an entire ceremony complete with cap, gowns & tassel, guest speaker, dancing & singing, invitations. That one took me by surprise. So, I ordered a cap and tassel for Annabelle (we decided to forgo the gown since the preschool offered to let everyone borrow one and I could just imagine another graduation gown hanging in my closet collecting dust). Graduation photos are this week & I have been diligently working on Annabelle's "dance costume" for graduation which, for some odd reason, is a 50's poodle skirt? Not sure why the graduation dance involves the 50's since these preschoolers have no idea what the heck a poodle skirt is, I guess I need to rent the movie "Grease" and let her watch it?

The Easter egg hunts are getting ready to begin. There will be one at the library tomorrow, at Annabelle's preschool the next day and I'm sure there will be lots this weekend - just not sure if we will participate in any of the local public hunts since I know they will be a mess. Annabelle has still been practicing hunting eggs in our backyard, she's going to run circles around the other egg hunters!

The past few weeks have just sped by. Annabelle lost another tooth - this time a front one. She looks so goofy and cute with her new toothless grin. Her other front tooth is loose now too.
Spring break was this week, we tried to keep it low key and just spent time doing things we like to do (a.k.a shopping, eating, sleeping). I always envisioned us spending our spring break on the Island, enjoying the beach, since we live so close but it's so crazy with spring-breakers this time of year that we avoid it for the entire month of March.
Annabelle has been "practicing" Easter egg hunting, she has four eggs that she carries around in a basket and if she can talk Justin or I into hiding them she's thrilled. She's going to be a pro by the time the preschool has their egg hunt this year. Tonight when I was tucking her into her bed she insisted that I put all four eggs on a pillow next to her IN the bed. Silly girl of mine!

Rants from a sleepless night

It's 3 a.m. and I hear a little voice next to our bed "I had a bad dweam, can I sweep wit you?", I'm half a sleep but I manage to mumble "What was the dream about?" she says "skewetons" I say "Sure get in the bed". She snuggles up close to me and I move over a few inches, moments later she's taking up 3/4 of the bed and has expanded like a puffer fish. I have no idea how a child that small can make herself so big! I move over further and turn on my side, I'm now stuck in a tiny crevice between Annabelle and Justin, who is snoring like a buzz saw undisturbed. I feel a headache coming on so I pull myself out of the crevice and head for the medicine cabinet for some tylenol, I stumble into the kitchen where I drop the tylenol on the floor and realize I can't see a thing, my glasses are on the nightstand. Feeling around on the floor, I hope not to accidentally touch a six inch roach that seem to sneak into our house every night. I find the tylenol, take them, and head back to the bedroom. Looks like I'll be sleeping on the futon tonight. I feel through the dark until I get to the futon and sit down, I hear a soft meow-yawn and realize Edith, the once-homeless-with-a-heartmurmur now spoiled house cat has made the futon her bed for the night, I curl my legs over her, trying not to disturb her precious sleep, knowing my almost forty year old bones are going to complain about this tomorrow. I lie there wide awake now and think how fast time has gone by. Annabelle is growing up justasfastasthat and I can't believe she will be in Kindergarten soon, she has two wiggly front teeth, she can open the car door, pour her own drink, take her own bath and (YES!!!) wipe her own butt. She is getting so BIG! I worry about the impact of public school in South Texas on her future, that she won't get into the IDEA charter school since it's a lottery and I've never won a lottery before, that she is the .0001% of White, English speaking kids in a place where 99.999% of the kids are Hispanic and speak Spanish. I worry that she won't get the speech therapy from the public school system that she needs because the 99.999% Spanish speaking kids will be higher priority than a English speaking kid who can't pronounce her "L's". I worry that the drug wars will get worse and border violence will increase making it even more unsafe to live down here. I am a worrier, always have been, always will be. You'd think by now I'd know that worrying won't do one bit of good? I hear Annabelle make a soft sigh as she sleeps and realize she's going to be okay no matter what because I'll make it work, that's what Moms do. Some people go through life without struggles, going to the best schools, living in the best places, having the best of everything and does that make them any better than the rest of us? Of course not. She's going to be just fine...I'll make sure :) What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Annabelle & I made these Valentines for her preschool class.

I think the most impressive part is the back of them.
Annabelle wrote all her classmates names! My girl is growing up!

And we made these for our story time friends at the library.

Here we go again

School is starting again and things are already starting to get busy around here again. Justin is lucky to have such a long Christmas break but it always seems like it speeds by so quickly. We decided Annabelle should go to preschool since the preschool was open (even though college isn't in session), she actually WANTED to go so that made it an even easier decision. It was nice to spend some time with just Justin and no 5 year old. We went to lunch at a couple different "not so kid friendly" restaurants and enjoyed it immensely!

I predicted that 2012 was going to be a great year, well, it hasn't started out so great. Justin's Grandma was sick then fell and broke her hip. Soon after that, my Aunt & Uncle's house burnt down and then a wonderful family friend/relative passed away, it seems like every time I pick up the phone there was some new, awful news on the other end. I was beginning to wonder if things were really going to be great in 2012 but hopefully all the bad stuff is just getting out of the way of the awesomeness. Ya, that's it!

Annabelle and I visited the Edinburg library this morning for story time. The program was really nice (one of our friends was part of the program, he brought his cello and played for the kids). I'm not sure if Annabelle enjoyed the program or jumping on the cushioned floor and seats after story time more? Lately she's been very outgoing and will play with just about any kids she meets. This makes me very happy because it wasn't too long ago that she would have clung to me the entire time we were in a new surrounding.

Here are some funny things Annabelle has been doing and saying lately:

"Momma, I'm feel restless"...then she proceeds to grab a pillow and roll on the floor..."I'm gonna wrestle this pillow" (I finally figured out the connection between "wrestless" and "wrestling" haha!)

Ms. Diana gave Annabelle a pink plastic Easter egg at story time this week - it was supposed to be a "penguin egg". Annabelle loves that silly pink egg, she carries it around the house, sits on it, puts it in her pocket, puts it in her car seat. Unfortunately it has been lost twice now and both episodes ended with her in tears. But we've been able to recover it. Wish I had known how much she would love pink plastic egg, I could've saved a lot of money on Christmas gifts!

Annabelle told Justin "Mom always wants me to do things by myself, sometimes she treats me like I'm SIXTEEN"

Me: "Annabelle are you going to participate in the spring dance recital" Annabelle: "No, not unless you tie one of those really tall flags to your back so I can see you the entire time I'm on stage, at the last recital I lost you and I couldn't find you!"


 So, as the busy school semester begins I'm hoping we will get to sit on the patio this weekend and enjoy the sunset and the cool breeze and watch the tropical birds fly by as they head off to roost and just relax before the chaos begins again...