Jam-Packed Halloween Post

Here is my JAM-PACKED Halloween post!!!

I wasn't feeling all that great in October, but there was no way I was going to let Halloween go by without decorating for my best girl. Bri loves Halloween way too much for that. So, I got the house all spookified for the scary holiday.

My house was all aglow...

Bri loves these foam kits. We finished the one in the middle this year...

Doug is responsible for getting the outside of the house Halloween ready. He adds something new each year. Bri and Doug had a big project in mind...

They made and added this fence to the front yard...

Bri got into the Halloween spirit several times when she headed to school...

Yes, I found her a Star Wars Halloween shirt. A must have...

We of course carved pumpkins...

My "ghost" pumpkin is on the left, Doug's "house" pumpkin is on the right and Bri's "teenager" pumpkin in the middle...

Can't carve pumpkins and not roast pumpkin seeds...

We attended our annual China adoptive families Halloween party a week before Halloween. It is always so good to catch up with everyone...

The kids love getting to carve pumpkins at the party...

Look at all these amazing creations (and amazing kids)...

I can't believe how grown up the kids are getting...

Smores time...

Bri and Ella silliness...

Then Halloween night finally arrived (Bri can't really see well without her glasses, so she wore her cool sunglasses for about 5 minutes at the start of trick or treating and then the real glasses had to go back on!)...

Once again, Briana trick or treated with her cousins/best pals...

Our house was ready...

Doug even had a fog machine set up...

Have to take a picture with our favorite neighborhood witch...

We ran into a beautiful deer that night, Bri's friend Ella...

Gramma and Papa also walked with us (Doug stayed home and passed out candy). Papa was in charge of the wagon...

Walking the neighborhood...

Bri's friend Ella's house...

Some of the sights around the neighborhood...

One house had "The Beast" handing out candy...

And our favorite house of the neighborhood is the "Zombie House." The owners decorate this house like a zombieland - it's awesome...

Check out these short videos of the house. So creepy...





If you make it to the front door of the zombie house, you get a full-sized candy bar - score!!!

After walking all around the neighborhood, we finally ended up back at my house. It looked so good at night...

Look at all the loot...

One of the best parts of the evening was when my older nephew kept saying what an awesome neighborhood we have. :) Bri and the boys had the best time.

Despite me not feeling the best, I think we still had a great Halloween season. I'm hoping for an illness-free Halloween next year!!

Halloween Costume Photo Shoot 2017

My gorgeous and super cool spy! That is what Briana asked to be for Halloween this year.

First, B actually wanted to be Gamora from "Guardians of the Galaxy." I ordered a costume and when we received it, it didn't fit her very well. We started then thinking about all that green makeup I'd have to apply to Bri, and she and I decided to nix the idea completely.

Bri's second pick - a spy. What do to, what to do...somehow I made it happen. Luckily, Bri already owned the leather jacket, so all I had to do was find the other stuff. It didn't end up being all that difficult. Once we put it all together, Bri was super thrilled.

Here are Miss B's previous costumes over the years...

And here is the photo shoot I did of my beautiful spy this year...

My next post is going to be "all about Halloween." It will be a long one, so be prepared!!!

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!

So How Am I Doing?

 Ugh - it's been a while since I blogged again. I know I say that all the time now. Life has been so busy. I blogged right around Thanksgiving, and then Christmastime totally sidetracked me and I have not been able to blog. Well, here I am. Better late than never.

I was thinking I would write first about Bri and how she has been doing lately. I have not really talked about how she's been handling middle school/life in general on my blog. I won't divulge everything, but I will share a little. I think I'll save that for my next post though. And then I have to catch up with a Halloween post and a Thanksgiving post. Geesh, I'm not sure I'll ever catch up.

So how am I doing? Well, better. I can't say that I am fantastic because I'm not. I'll say that I am pretty good. I'm definitely better than I was several months ago. Life has gotten back to normal for the most part.

My throat is so much better. I still have some moments of soreness and irritation, but overall, the throat is doing well.

I am still struggling with anxiety pretty much on a daily basis. It's not stopping my life thank goodness, but I often feel overwhelmed and extremely high strung. Kind of like a wound-up top. When I am anxious, I'm more prone to snapping at others (mainly Doug and Bri). I often worry about the next weird illness that is going to plague me - because that is pretty much what has happened to me over the last few years of my life. I'm constantly worried about relapse with my throat and/or sinus issues. I'm really praying that 2018 is much, much better for me.

I had been so ill toward the end of summer/beginning of fall that I hadn't made a hair appointment for many months. A few weeks ago, I was finally able to get out and get my hair done. It's amazing how little things can help your mindset...

During my sick period, I was not able to see any of my friends. I was beginning to feel so isolated. So when I started feeling better, I was finally able to go out and have some in person "girl" time.

I saw my friend Miranda for a therapy session lunch one afternoon...

 Miranda and I have been friends for many years and she is a person I can say really "gets" me and I "get" her too. We are both kind of crazy and we both totally own it. LOL!

I also had a nice lunch recently with my high school bestie Julie and I totally forgot to snap picture with her that day. :(  We talked for several hours and just caught up on life.

Back in October, I had a girls night out with some of my besties (we are all adoptive mamas). Mexican food, margaritas and a bunch of laughs are good for the soul...

In November, Doug took Bri and me out for a fancy dinner. I had been wanting to try a local restaurant that my late friend Carole's daughter Amanda works at. Because I had been sick for so long, I hadn't gotten a chance to check it out and I really wanted to. And it had been quite a while since I had seen Amanda and I was looking so forward to saying hello.

The food was so delicious...

It was so good to see Amanda and give her a big hug. I really, really, really miss her mom Carole. Especially at Christmastime.

My hubby knows I've been trying to move on with life and trying to feel better. It's an uphill battle. He surprised me with these flowers a couple of weeks ago (I think I'll keep him)...

And one day (a few weeks ago), when I wasn't feeling my best, I looked up at the sky while sitting in my car and saw this...

It looked like a rainbow smile. Was it a "hang in there" message from above? Maybe? I like to think of it that way.

I honestly wish I could write and say that I am feeling magnificent. I'm not sure if I'll ever feel "magnificent" or ever feel completely relaxed or at ease again. I hope I'm very wrong about that.

 I can say that I am enjoying Christmastime (even though this time of year is pretty stressful for everyone). I had a great trip to Chattanooga recently with some dear friends and I've also had some other really fun times in December (that I will blog about eventually). 

I have to give a super quick shout out that things are going amazingly well in Doug's work life. Good things are happening for him and he totally deserves it. He would never say it himself (he never brags on himself), but I'm super proud of him.

So that is what is going on with me. I'm really looking forward to a fresh start in 2018. I am praying for a happy and HEALTHY new year. 

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!