Back in the blogging saddle

What a blur the past two weeks or so has been. Busy busy. Girl scouts, PTA meetings, church, family activities. To briefly recap:

Teresa's visit was enjoyable, but far too short. And I was far too busy the entire time. Our schedules never aligned - she was out of town when I was off or available, I was busy with school and church stuff when she was in town and available. This resulted in me staying up waaaay past my bedtime a few nights in an effort to spend some quality time with her. But, you take what you can get. Teresa and Jacelyn did get to spend some time together. Teresa gave Jacelyn a soft little stuffed doggy that Jacelyn has named "Jacelyn-Mommy" and sleeps with every night.

Church is going well. RCIA classes on Wednesday nights, church services Sunday mornings. We hit the 8:30 mass because Jacelyn is still kind of half asleep and therefore far better behaved. I have a new catholic study bible that my dear sponsor provided me with (thank you!) that I am enjoying. I learned and forgot the 'Hail Mary' all in one night. I had it down, too, and now I can't get past the first line.

Girl Scouts are trooping along (ha!). We are selling nuts now, very expensive canned nuts. If Jacelyn sells 6 items she gets a new patch for her smock, and it's all about the patches, baby. If you've never been in girl scouts you don't know, but it's amazing what an incentive a patch can be. To parents, even. Last night at the parent meeting half the parents weren't interested in the nut sale until they found out there was a patch involved, and then everybody signed on. The girls are working on their magenta petal, so the theme this month is 'Respect Authority'. Here's hoping that sticks. There is a tentative field trip scheduled for sometime in October to visit the Myrtle Grove Fire Station, but that is on a Saturday, and Jacelyn will be visiting the Perdido Key fire station with her class that month, so I'm not going to feel too bad about missing that one, unless, of course, there is a patch involved.

School is going well. I went to my first PTA meeting. The day of the meeting I had a curious experience - when I was dropping Jacelyn off, a teacher I have never met said, "There's our little celebrity now!" as Jacelyn got out of the car. A student took her hand to walk her off and as they closed the car door I heard another teacher say, "Good morning, little miss famous". Wha? Fame as in infamy, maybe? Why does everyone know my child? I found out at the PTA meeting. The third grade class produced a five minute video in which Jacelyn was interviewed. They showed the video at the PTA meeting, and Jacelyn was adorable. You put a camera in front of the child and she turns it on (I don't know where she gets that from, certainly not me). She was being all cute, and her responses to the kids questions were funny. Her favorite food is broccoli. That never ceases to amuse and amaze. Her teachers were both very complimentary. They said she draws very well, with great focus. If told to draw a tree, you know that what she has drawn is a tree. That she is a well behaved, polite child who listens well (Huh? who? my daughter?) and follows directions well and is a pleasure to have in class. And is, of course, very smart. I ate it up. She's doing well there, and I'm really pleased with her and the school.

There was much discussion as to the emphasis placed on critical thinking skills and responsibility, which is cool. And within her class, they are following their planned curriculum but also moving at a pace dictated by the kids. With a small class of bright kids, they are moving faster than anticipated. They are also letting the kids guide some of the curriculum - they introduced days of the week earlier than planned, at the request of the children.

Jacelyn is adding one more activity to her schedule, and then we are done. She is taking up karate. We stopped by to watch a class, which she watched for a good hour, and then the instructor let her try jumping the way the boys in the class were. She was actually pretty good at it. During the course of the class we watched she kept turning to me and saying, "I like this, mommy". After the jumping, she was smitten: "I really, really like this, mommy". So we signed on. She can go to as many classes as she wants to in a week, and there are four classes in her age group per week. I am at work during all the scheduled times, so Brian's family will end up taking her most of the time, but they are very excited about it. Today will be her first class, in uniform and participating, and Brian is in town, so he's going to take her. I think it will be good for the two of them. She's got the little uniform and the white belt. She already has designs on a colored belt: "I want a yellow belt". I told her she had to work hard and do certain things to achieve that, and she said, "Oh, I'll do it". And I think she probably will. She can be a focused little child, when she wants to be. When it's her idea.

Well, I need some coffee and to get some work done, so I'm out. But that's what has been happening. That was long, sorry.