Trying to have a forgiving heart

I think that most of us want to think of ourselves as forgiving souls, at least, I do. I'm working so hard on stretching that forgiveness muscle right now and quite honestly could use some prayer, if you are so inclined.

Without going into too much detail, my girl has been mistreated. Not in a way that is physically damaging, but emotionally. What makes it worse is that it was by some people whom I entrusted her with for hours every week.

I'm heartbroken for her, for me, for what used to be "normal". We are going to have to find a new "normal" for my girl. It can be done, without a doubt, but it will be hard.

Please pray that I find forgiveness in my heart, but more importantly, that Paige finds it in hers. Life certainly has bumps in the road and it is those bumps who make us the people we are. Praying that this bump is resolved soon so I can have my happy girl back.

Father's Day Photo Shoot

It's no secret that I miss my dad sooo much. If you are my FB friend, you will see that I speak of him often. Father's Day is always a day I dread since losing my dad. I know I should rejoice in the fact that he is in Heaven and on most days I do, but Father's Day I allow myself to just feel.

Paige and my brother dread the day as well. This year, Paige asked me if we could do a photo shoot and if she could style it and pick the location. I was so excited to see what she came up with. Well, she did a GREAT job. She chose some of my dad's clothing and then we went to the Goodwill to pick up a pair of old frames to complete the look. She wanted to go to our local high school and take pictures on the track.

Before we went to our shoot, my brother came over and we all laughed and remembered funny times with my dad. It was very cathartic. I love, love, love my family!!!

















I hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating all of the fathers in your life!

Dance Recital

Another year of dance for my girl (and my mom and I) is over! Whew! It's been a whirlwind for us all, but most importantly for Paige. Her dance studio just puts on the most amazing show. My sister-in-law came for the first time and told me that she thought it was going to be a bunch of kids pointing their toes and parents oohing and aahing...after the recital, she had to pull up her jaw. She said she felt as if she had been to a broadway production. It really is quite impressive.

Paige has really worked hard this year to step it up. She has worked hard on her leaps, fouettes, Cjumps, and many other french words that I can't pronounce :) I was so excited to see her do her intermediate modern dance and it didn't disappoint, but the ABSOLUTE highlight of the second night was her intermediate hip hop performance. It ROCKED! After the girls were finished dancing, the crowd rose to their feet and were hooting and hollering. I was FLOORED! I am so excited for what is to come. Paige's goal is to dance for her High School dance team, who have been the national champs twice in the last 5 years. The coach talked to me at the end of the show and said "Paige is looking good! Can't wait for her to try out!". When I told Paige, she about jumped out of her skin.

I could go on and on and yes, I realize I am bragging, but hey...she's worked hard and I am proud...what can I say?! :)

Here are some pics and I am going to try hard to link a video if I can. Youtube is giving me fits.


Terrible pic of me, but I love my sweetie. This is what I look like after getting her through 11 costume changes. YES 11!!! Ugh :/


Paige's Godmother, Dawn.


Me and my friend, Shannon.


Cast of the ballet. The Little Mermaid.


Paige and her "girls".


Paige and friend, Avery. Look for Avery on the Disney Channel in CoC@ J@nes video in the next two weeks. She is a back up dancer!


Getting hugs from guh guh after the finale!


My brother Greg, sis n law Laurie, and me




Paige and besties being sassy backstage :)


Have mercy!


The girls were jellyfish in the ballet. Aren't they beautiful?

These videos are from previous dance competitions throughout the year. I am going to try hard to upload the wonderful dances from recital. They blow these out of the water. (Even though I think these dances are cute!)





Visit other black and whites at Lisa's!!!

Life

I finally had my last day of school on Friday. Woo hoo! I do have to go back for two days of inservice next week, but those are generally fun days and we get to go out for lunch (treat for teachers!). It has been such a long year. We had so much unexpected snow and our system didn't have that many built in snow days.

Anyway, I had a great year teaching 3rd grade. I learned a lot and hope to be more effective this coming school year.

Paige has been leisurely spending her days at the pool in between her many hours of dance practice. This week is her dance recitals. She has dress rehearsals downtown all day on Monday from 8 until 7, then has dances Tuesday night and Wednesday night. This year she is in a total of 11 dances. She loves it, but it stress me out so much to get her ready in between acts. Her dances are so different, so it's not like I can leave her hair one way and that works for the remainder of the night. She also has a ton of make up changes. It's going to be wild and crazy. Some days I wish she were still little and relied on my mom and I for everything and then other days I wish she could do her own hair, make up, and drive herself to and from dance. I need to just relax and enjoy every stage. She is growing so quickly!

On another note, her eye condition has come back with a vengeance. She is having a terrible time seeing out of one of her eyes and the white cloud that once was so pronounced is back on top of her cornea. We were seeing specialists at Vanderbilt and they thought she would have a cornea transplant, only to tell us that she wouldn't, and now it looks like we are back at square one. If you are so inclined, I would appreciate prayer for good news on June 16th as we visit the hospital again.

I will leave you with a video of the senior performance of Alice in Twisted Land...this is just a tidbit of all that goes into recitals...let the show begin :)

Awards Day

Paige is now a 7th grader! WOW, wasn't it just yesterday that I was holding her hand and walking her into Kindergarten?

She has had a wonderful 6th grade year at EMS. We were nervous that her safe coccoon at ILE would come to a screaching halt at middle school, but that wasn't the case. They kept the 6th graders contained to one area of the building and gave them a little bit of independence, but not so much that they could stray too far.

As a sixth grader you cannot play any sports, but there were a few clubs that you could participate in. Paige was ALL over that. She is a born leader. She stands up for what she believes in and gives everything 110%.

She became a member of Cougars Don't Do Drugs and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She met early each Wednesday for CDDD and on Thursdays for FCA.

CDDD became a club that she really enjoyed. She loved the teacher sponsor and also really bonded with the kids who were in the club. This year, a few of the students competed in a county contest and Paige and three friends placed 3rd in the county for their project. Because of the placement, she was invited to the Honors Assembly at the end of the year. I thought there would be more 6th graders invited, but apparently it was only around 12.

The assembly was very nice. At her middle school, after an awards banquet, they allow the students to leave with their parents for lunch. They let them come back at noon. We took all the girls to Cr@cker Barrel and had a great time.


Waiting in line for her award.




Paige and friends! Aren't they cute? I might be biased, but I think they are precious.








Mrs. Poe, the Principal


Sassy chicks :)


Me and my girl!


Sassy sisters :)

Looking forward to 7th grade!

Be Yourself - Everyone Else is Taken!

Quirky, funny, kind, compassionate, sweet, tomboy, talented, stubborn, smart, dry, independent, clumsy, fiesty, God fearing, fun loving, and precious.

These adjectives describe my little sister. Anyone who reads my blog knows the love that I have for this child. I love her as if she were my own. When she smiles, I smile. When she cries, I cry.

Paige had an experience last week that made her question the adjectives that I used ot describe her and it made me sad. Things did work out in the end, with valuable lessons to be learned along the way.

Since the fourth grade, a little boy in Paige's class has been pulling the edges of his eyes to Paige. Her fourth grade teacher took care of it for us then. In fifth grade it happened again. We chalked it up to "boys will be boys" and he is just immature. Well, wouldn't you know, Paige was walking to the gym on Friday and said kid stood in front of her and wouldn't let her by. He started pulling at his eyes again. This time, Paige's little guy friend (yes she still has the SAME boyfriend...ack), came up to the boy and shoved him out of the way so that Paige could pass.

I picked up Paige and two friends from school Friday afternoon to take them to a sleepover. As soon as they got into the car, Paige said, "He did it again". I knew exactly what she was talking about. I listened to her. I heard the sadness and doubt in her voice. It broke my heart. Paige is extremely well liked by her peers and sometimes they make her head too big. She is so full of positive self esteem, but she was like a wilted flower speaking about the incident.

For the life of me, I couldn't let this go on any longer. In fact, I probably let it linger for longer than it should have. I took P and friends to the party and came home and looked in the school directory and got this child's phone number. I dialed it up without really planning how I would handle the situation. His mother answered and listened and listened. She didn't sugar coat the situation or make excuses for her son. She apologized and said that she would talk to him.

The phone rang an hour later and she asked if she could bring "him" over to speak to Paige. I told her Paige would be home after the sleepover and they could come the next day. Bright and early on Saturday, the mom brought her son over. She stood back at the bottom of our steps and this young man rang the doorbell. Paige opened the door and received an apology from a teary eyed little boy. He didn't look so big and bad standing there with all of the adults around.

I was so proud of Paige. When he apologized she didn't say "It's ok", because she told me it's not. She told him that it really hurt her and that he needs to be more careful with his actions. WOW! I was stunned. He agreed and gave her a hug. She smiled and told him "let's still be friends, k?" He smirked and agreed.

Do I think they will ever be the best of friends? No. Do I think he learned something? Maybe. Did I learn something? Yep! My girl is a sweetheart and is forgiving and stands up for what is right. I love her so much!

Her dance competition was this weekend. At these competitions, the vendors sell tshirts with the companies name on the front and dancers on the back. This time, there was one more option. The shirt she chose said, "Be Yourself. Everyone Else is Taken". I couldn't agree more!!!









Check out other black and whites at my friend, Lisa's blog!

More Dance!

I will be sharing LOTS and LOTS of dance pics in the weeks to come, because, well, that's all we do. I say "we", because it IS a team effort. My mom takes Paige to her 10 hours of dance a week, Paige dances, and I am on take home duty. Paige loves it to the core, but I think we are going to re-evaluate our priorities for her 7th grade year. She wants to run cross country and study more (YAY!). I don't like her to be pigeon holed into one extra curricular activity. ANYWAY, I digress... this week was "dance picture week" or as I so lovingly refer it, "The week from HELL!" Sorry about the explitives, just stating my feelings :)

Paige takes: ballet, jazz, intermediate modern, advanced modern, intermediate hip hop, competition junior hip hop, competition senior hip hop... and she is practicing for the opener and finale of the recital. This child does it all at the studio...except for tap. She detests tap dancing...she says the noise hurts her ears. I think she might be like her sissy and have some sensory issues.

So, not only did the child have to go to the studio in FULL make up and hair for ALL of these class pictures, but her teachers called dress rehearsals since they were fixed up. I felt so bad for the kids...they were TIRED!

Here are a few cute shots from the week. I have a ton, but I am going to surprise Paige with them in her memory book at recital. Hi Paigee Waigee :) xoxo Proud of you and all of your hard work!



I was standing to the side of the photographer and this is blurry, but you get the gist of it. This is her advanced modern. It is an AMAZING dance!


She is the Ringmaster in the dance. Doesn't she look scary?!? :)


Paige and bestie, Ava Jo. They have been dancing together since the first grade. SWEET ANGELS.


Here are Paige and Ava when they were in the second grade!!! PRICELESS!!!


Run this town dance... middle school besties!


In my most southern voice, I bug her and tell her she is so, "Gangster!". She laughs hysterically and tells me I am such a nerd! :)

Stay tuned for many more and some videos as well!