The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (Week In Review)

This has been a week that has been all over the map for me. For the most part, it was not a really bad week, but there were a couple of blips that I could have done without.

In the good category, Labor Day was a really good day. Briana went over to her sweet friend ML's house for a couple of hours to play. The girls are so silly together...

They just couldn't stop giggling...

Then Monday evening, Doug decided to hold soccer practice. He asked the parents if they wanted to attend a practice on Labor day, and most said yes. So he held it. Six out of our eight girls actually made it. The clouds were a bit ominous though...

About three minutes into practice, the heavens opened up. The rain was pretty steady for about 20 minutes. Doug wasn't sure if he should continue, but the parents said it was ok and to just go for it, so he did. Luckily I had an umbrella chair, but I got wet myself a bit.

It was better than running in 100 degree heat I suppose! The girls seemed ok with it...

The rain did eventually stop and the girls did a little scrimmaging. I was so surprised at how well they were already working with each other. I'm excited for our game on Saturday...

On the not so good front, Doug has been crazy slammed with work, my mom had a medical procedure this week and Briana has been without her teacher for almost two weeks (her teacher has jury duty and the student teacher has been taking over). I was also pretty stressed this week about Briana's hives possibly returning (thank goodness they haven't) and also her returning to running club.

Tuesday and Wednesday were ok days. I had a nice lunch with a friend on Wednesday. My mom also had her medical procedure on Wednesday and it was delayed a bit, so she waited longer in the waiting room than she should have had to. A bit stressful. She got it done though and so far so good.

Then Thursday was running club day and it was also picture day at school.

Briana was super adorable of course...

This is where the ugly comes into place. My ugly. My stress and frustration coming out in a not so nice or productive way. This happened yesterday after I picked Bri up from running club. But maybe it was the release I needed though because I am feeling better today...

As for running club, the weather was much more tolerable on Thursday afternoon and B's practice went smoothly for the first time. Hopefully we have finally hit our groove and it will continue to go smoothly. I had been thinking about it a lot of the day though.

As for picture day, that didn't go as smoothly.

I had to purchased Briana's school pictures in advance of picture day (which parents are required to do), so I did it online. After the purchase, I printed out a pass for Briana to hand to the photographer before she had her picture taken.

Picture day unfortunately also landed on Venture day. Crud. That meant two different classrooms and two different folders. To cover my bases, I printed the pass twice and placed it each of B's folders. I let her know about this - several times. There is no way this could get messed up now! Totally covered!

Right?

Nope.

I love Briana, but she isn't always the best at remembering things. I can repeat myself 50 times and she still often won't do what I need to her to do. It is because she isn't listening or focusing like she is supposed to. I reminded Briana no less than 10 times about that stupid pass. Over and over and over. The night before and that morning.

So what happened when she got home? Both passes were still in each folder. I thought to myself "How's this even possible?"


Of course being 8 years old and being caught with both passes, her story was all over the place. She was trying to explain. I was frustrated trying to figure out what happened. So I started to yell. Loudly. Not my proudest moment, but I was over it.

The gist of the story - B wasn't able to grab the pass right before picture taking because the class went directly from music class to the gym for pictures. No time to grab the pass. Ok - that's not her fault. One of her classmates in the picture line actually spoke up and asked the (student) teacher about the passes and/or envelopes (parents had an option to prepay by check). The teacher asked the girl "Did you turn yours in to me this morning?" Overhearing the conversation, Briana knew at that moment that she was already suppose to have turned the pass in that morning. Bri told me that she never heard an announcement about it - which is very possible in Bri's case. Not paying attention most likely. Maybe the teacher didn't make the announcement loud enough or maybe she didn't make one all. I don't know what happened. Even so, Bri had an opportunity to speak up for herself in that moment and say something, but she didn't. She said nothing. Even when she packed her bag up at the end of the day with both passes, she said nothing. She did absolutely nothing.

I was livid. I was livid because I had gone over this with her a million times. I told her that pass was supposed to be turned in. She had every opportunity to turn it in to her teacher - even if it was late/at the end of the day. And I have told her time and time again that she needs to speak up when something isn't right. She just won't do it.

Then I asked her what she expected would happen by doing and saying nothing.

Her answer.

"I don't know."

Every question I asked her that afternoon was...

"I don't know."

Yep - I lost it...

If you are a parent that says that you don't lose it with your kids, you are a saint, you are crazy or you are a big, fat liar.

So I yelled. Loudly. She was crying. I was shaking. It was all sorts of ugly. My stress and frustration just poured out. B went to her room. Then I went to mine. Then I went to my computer and sent an e-mail to her teacher explaining what happened.

And honestly, the whole picture pass thing wasn't really the issue. I know I will get the pictures somehow. It was the principle of the thing. I spend a lot of time prepping and preparing Bri for things. Sometimes she listens. Many times she doesn't. I often feel like I am beating my head against a wall. I know I am going to have to start letting her take the fall for things. And I know "she is ONLY 8." But then again "she IS 8." I'm not sure what she should or should not be able to remember or do at this age. I'm still on a major learning curve with this whole parenting thing. And I will let her take the fall eventually, but in this case, this was something I paid money for and I didn't want to mess around with it. So I sent an e-mail of course. (I did find out by paying online it should hopefully work itself out, but B's teacher isn't 100% sure about that.)

The rest of the night was just rough. B rubbed me the wrong way all night. I'm sure I did the same for her. She went to bed at a decent time but she wouldn't/couldn't go to sleep. I don't she actually fell asleep until 10PM. I had a rough time falling asleep too.

We woke up this morning and we both felt a bit better - and we just moved on from it. Hugged and made up. What else are you going to do?

 On a lighter note, when Briana came home this afternoon (Friday), she brought her "All About Me" project back home with her. She told me her poster had been picked to hang on the hallway wall outside her classroom. I think only 3 or 4 posters were chosen. I had no idea. That was pretty neat...

And we had one more soccer practice tonight before our big game tomorrow... 

 I'm sure our games will be a bit rough tomorrow because this is a whole new team of girls - all trying to get to know the game and each other. I think all the teams have been jumbled up pretty good, so everyone will be feeling things out tomorrow. We will see how it goes! Wish Coach Doug luck on his first game!

So that is the good, the bad and the ugly of this week.

I hate to lose my temper. I hate feeling stressed. I know I "shouldn't sweat the small stuff" as my grandma used to say. But I'm human, so I have to give myself a little break when I fall off the wagon.

I'm going to try to do better though. So many people have to deal with much "bigger stuff" in their lives than I do. I have it pretty good and I'm blessed. Bri is a great kid. I know that.

Autumn Moon Festival is on Monday, but we will be doing some stuff around the house for it this weekend. That should be fun. :)

Have a great weekend.