A Briana Update

 

I am the mom to a tween middle-schooler. That pretty much sums up life lately. It's tough sometimes. I'm not gonna lie. Heh.

I now get more eye rolls and "oh mom" responses than I even want to talk about. My perky, happy kid is still happy for the most part, but I can tell life is way more stressful for her than it used to be. I guess that is what life is about. You can't shelter your kids forever. I wish I could put B in a bubble and protect her from the world. But, middle school is teaching her how the world is out there - she has to learn to speak up for herself and somehow be heard in a crowd of many. She has to be more responsible and independent now. She has to juggle a lot more things. Overall, I think she is doing pretty dang good.

Here she is on her first day of school. She was super nervous...

Now we are almost done with her first semester of middle school. Just a few more days left. She survived it. Thank goodness.

It's been tough at times. I think the toughest part was her adjusting to middle school while I was very sick. I think she held a lot of her worry in because I wasn't completely available to listen. I did my best, but I wasn't always physically up to it.

Things came to a head one weekend in October. That weekend included a lot of sassiness and back talk. She even huffed at her soccer coach which isn't like her at all. After I got on her about her attitude, she finally opened up (and cried) that she was experiencing some stress with school - socially and academically. I would always ask her how day at school was and she would say "good" almost every time. She just wasn't sharing everything. Once we had a really long talk that weekend about some things she was upset and worried about, it seemed like a weight was lifted off of her and things were a lot better. She just had a lot of change going on in her life.

Bri still doesn't love school. She didn't love elementary school, and she seems to like middle school even less. I don't have final grades for her yet, but it's looking like she will make A's and B's this semester. Right now, advanced math is the subject she is kind of struggling with the most - it is a super fast-paced class. I don't think Briana will ever be a straight A kid, and honestly, I don't need her to make straight A's. As long as she is well-rounded and makes good grades, it's all good with me. Especially when my kid doesn't really like school. She'd rather be anywhere else than school. (Preferably in front of a video game - heh).

Her school is the "home of the wolves" - she wore her "wolfpack" shirt to school for spirit day...

She looks so grown up in her school photo...

She really enjoys her social studies class and her computer science class. She did an assignment in social studies where she had to write a "newsletter" about the London Smog. This was one of her favorite assignments...

She also won a drawing/coloring contest during the school's Egyptian-themed book fair. Full disclosure, she is not sure anyone else submitted a picture. But, she won! (I'm also not sure there are actually cacti in Egypt, but it is still a cute picture - heh)...

One thing Bri was excited to hear about this semester was her middle school was starting up a running club. She loved running club in elementary school and definitely wanted to continue in middle school...

There was a "hat day" at school one day and she joined in...

Briana has a couple of girlfriends in school, but the majority of her friends in school are boys. You can see her below chatting with her buddies in afternoon car line...

At lunch, she sits with all boys. In PE, she is usually hanging out with the boys. Waiting in car line - talks to boys. And what I find fascinating is that the boys actually treat her like "one of the boys." She loves to talk about video games, soccer, etc with them. I wish I had been that comfortable talking to boys when I was a kid.

 So with all the change that Bri was experiencing in her life, the one constant (or so I thought) was her soccer team. I assumed when I signed up with the Y in the fall that Bri would be playing rec soccer the whole (school) year. Well, nope - that is changing too now. Her rec coach decided to not coach in the spring and he started encouraging a number of the girls on Golden Eagles to look into an academy league associated with a completely different organization. (We tried Y academy and swore we would never try it again.)

Ironically, the man who coaches the U12 academy team not only coaches the girls soccer team at Bri's future high school, but he is also a PE coach at Bri's middle school. It really feels like it is "meant to be." Bri and a couple of her teammates went to a few practices with the new team (basically "trying out" for the team) and really enjoyed it. Bri and her rec teammates Ella and Megan will be joining the U12 academy SSA team in the spring. They all officially got invited and they all accepted. Bri is very nervous and very excited at the same time. (I have to admit, it will be kind of weird not rooting for the Golden Eagles anymore.)

The girls are ready to start in the spring...

Night time practice...

I had to send in a head shot for her badge for her new team...

After several weeks of stress, Bri and I met friends Amy, Mary and Garrett one evening for some Mexican food. It is always nice to have a night out with friends...

So, that is a very brief synopsis of what has been going on with Bri the last few months.

She is a really good kid. She is a work in progress. She's smart. She can be a huge pain in my butt sometimes. When the mood strikes her, she still enjoys cuddling with me (and Doug). A few teachers have said she is quiet, so I am trying to get her to open up a bit more. She isn't always the most motivated kid in the world, so I am trying to get her to work on that too. She is who she is though and I love her no matter what.

She is my best girl...

 But ~ please Lord give me the strength to survive Bri's middle and high school years! She's only 11 and I'm already exhausted!