My Grandmother's 90th Birthday

 Today, my Grandma Betty (my mom's mom) turns 90 years old.

She was such a beautiful young woman...

My sister and I were always extremely close to my grandparents growing up...

This is really how I remember them. Sitting in their chairs reading the paper, talking or watching the news...

My grandparents were always so in love...

My grandfather passed suddenly of a heart attack ten years ago - just a few weeks after my grandparents' 60th wedding annivesary. I was completely devastated when I lost my grandfather. I don't know why I haven't blogged about him. He and I had a very special relationship - one that is hard to put into words. I still miss him every day. But that is another post.

This post is about my grandmother.

I love my grandmother very much. I am so glad she has been able to spend time with Briana...

You might have read in previous posts that she suffers from Alzheimer's Disease...

She lives in an assisted living home here in Georgia. She had lived in Florida, but my mom, aunt and uncle decided she needed to move a few years after my grandfather passed because her memory was going. And my mom wanted my grandma close to us here in GA...

 It is hard watching my grandmother fade more and more each day. My mom checks in on her several times a week to make sure she has everything she needs and to visit with her. It is really tough and exhausting for my mom, but I admire how dedicated she is to taking care of my grandmother. My grandma has had several mini strokes over the last year and no one is sure what is around the corner. But she is still here with us. I don't get to visit her as often as I would like - I really need to try and make more time.

It really is wonderful when my grandmother is in the moment - like when she saw Briana at Christmas...

Later today, our family is going to visit her and spend some time with her on her 90th birthday.

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma! Love you so much!

And If You Thought That Was Tough...

I snapped this picture yesterday of Bri's room (with waaay too many stuffed animals on her bed).

If you thought me giving away some of her toys was tough, just wait until her room is repainted later this week.

We are also having some other inside rooms painted and plan to have the outside freshened up as well. (I know it is a big shocker. I have always painted the rooms in my house myself. I decided to let someone else do it this time.)

B's room does needs a change. She wants an older look now. She already picked out a new comforter and we are choosing new paint this afternoon.

~ It will be ok. It will be ok. It will be ok. ~

I absolutely loved the color of this room when I chose it and I will definitely miss it. The light green/pastel baby days are over now.

Pictures of the finished product will come probably later next week.

~It will be ok.~

"Mama, I'm Just Too Big For All Of This Anymore"

  Giving away Briana's playhouse and some of her outside toys the other day was a bit rough for me. I had a hard time parting with everything. Doug found the playhouse online and thought it would be perfect for Miss B for her 2nd birthday. She absolutely loved it from the very first moment we gave it to her...

Here is some video of her playing in it when she was little (you will hear my kitty crying in the background - she is still a big "talker")...



It was a big hit at Briana's 2 year old birthday party...

It has been sitting on our back porch for 4 years now. Bri used to play in it all the time, but she rarely looked at it over the last year or so. I knew it was probably time to either sell it or give it to someone that would enjoy using it. I asked Briana first what she thought about giving it away and some of her other toys. She said that was fine. I asked her just one more time if she was absolutely sure. Then she said, "Mama, I am just too big for all of this anymore." It broke my heart. I knew she was right. They were things that I was hanging on to because I wasn't ready to part with them. They just reminded me of Briana's baby/toddlerhood.

We decided that Briana's friend Kira (who is 2) would be the perfect person to pass everything on to.

I cleaned everything all up and Doug took the playhouse apart just a little to get it into the car. We also gave Kira a small toy garden, a little toy mailbox and a small plastic slide.  You might remember the little mailbox - it was my mission to find that little sucker when I was consignment shopping back in the day. It was pretty popular at the time. I was so excited when I found it!

Here is Kira playing with it...

Here are Doug and Khalid putting the house back together at Khalid and Ansu's house...

Kira checking it out and Briana showing her around (Khalid decided to drop in too)...

A big thumbs up from Miss K...

And here is Kira enjoying the little slide...

It was definitely bittersweet giving all that stuff away. But I know it will be put to good use and will be played with a lot more now. And we will see it whenever we go visit our friends. I hope Kira has as much fun with all of it as Briana did.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

We are so happy the school week is done and that it went so well! We are ready for the weekend! Briana has been torturing playing with kitty Asia this morning. B started with wrapping Asia in her new cuddleuppet...

Then she added a robe, another blanket and slippers. She looks like she is thinking "help me", doesn't she? But she let Bri do it, and she didn't seem to mind too terribly...

Last night, Doug, Bri and I went out for some dinner and then we stopped at Michaels for a frame for me and a sketch pad for Bri. Except we left the store with much more than that. How the heck does that happen? It is a bad place.

It is only August, but all the fall and Halloween stuff is already out in the store. My daughter's face lit up like a Christmas tree...

She asked me to take a picture of her under this sparkly whatchamacallit...

I have to admit, I got a little twinge of excitement myself knowing that fall is just around the corner - my absolute favorite season.

And when we got home, we got the mail and a new Justice catalog was in there. She spent a long time circling things that she wants to use with her gift card. Unfortunately, the gift card isn't for a thousand dollars. She informed me that we can just buy stuff little by little over time - heh...

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We are looking forward to doing a little (more) shopping. :D

A Little School Update

This is a picture of Briana on her third day of school - which was Friday of last week. I didn't take one picture of her going to school this week. I usually take pictures for several weeks. I have exhibited major restraint. This is a first for me. Aren't you proud? Come on people! This is huge! LOL!

So let me give you a little update on what has been happening the last week and a half of school.

She did well the first (half) week of school ~ except for one afternoon (Thursday) when she was heading toward car line...

I found out Friday morning from Briana's teacher (who was there) that Miss B and her buddy K decided to duck into a classroom to look at a cool toy instead of heading outside to go to their car line spots. I knew it took quite a while for Bri to get into the car, but the teacher that put her in my car didn't say a word. I figured the delay was just first week craziness. The first week of car line is always nuts. But no, it was because teachers were frantically trying to find Briana and K. 

When Briana got home, I had a LONG talk with her. About not listening and also about safety. I told her she had a lot of people worried about her. She cried pretty hard about it when it sunk in. Hopefully, she will never do anything like that again. I was upset that this was one of the first impressions she was leaving on her new teacher. Bri was such a good girl last year. Always had good behavior. Don't know what possessed her this time. Her teacher was sweet about it and said Bri had been really good and helpful in class and not to be too hard on her.

When this week started, I was a bit nervous. I hoped she would listen and focus.

Monday evening, I was a bit nervous when she couldn't tell me the name of anyone in her class (except the two kids she knew last year). I posted a question on FB about Bri always taking a long time to get to know names and I got a lot of response from moms that said it is totally normal and not to worry. Briana has a tendency to lose focus when she is excited or in new surroundings. So, I worried that was the problem. I found out that it is really a normal thing for most kids.

The rest of the week was smooth sailing. She has had really good behavior. She is enjoying school and really likes her teacher. She learned two new names this week as well.

So despite a few bumps, we seem to be on a roll. Thank goodness.

And I thought it would be nice to invite Bri's friend ML for a play date yesterday afternoon. ML starts school on Monday, so it will be a little more difficult for the girls to get together with busy schedules and homework. I know ML's mom and I will try to make time to get the girls together as much as possible. :D

Swim, Swim, Swimmin'

Yesterday afternoon after school, I asked Briana if she wanted to go swimming. I always worry that she might be tired after a long day at school, but as you know, that is just plain silly. Bri is never tired after school. She gave me a super quick "yes" to my question.

The school system may say it is the end of summer vacation, but it certainly isn't the end of summer with temps still soaring into the low 90's. We arrived at the pool and no one was there but us for about 15 minutes. It was nice to have it all to ourselves.

Briana wanted to check out the kid area with the squirt water and slide...

Then it was back down to the main pool for some jumping, jumping and more jumping...

I told her she could jump just one more time before we left, and of course on the last jump she took in a little too much water. She started coughing and hacking a bit. She got over it fairly quickly and we headed home.

I definitely want to get in a few more swims before the pool closes in September. We have only been to the pool near our house twice this summer. We've done a lot of swimming ~ just not at this pool. Definitely need to make up for lost time!

Briana's Birthday Recap

I was pretty happy that Miss B's birthday landed on a Sunday this year so that we could spend the day together. It won't happen again for a while because over the next few years, she will be celebrating it at school. At least her birthday will always land during the first few days of school - before any testing and major stress days start to pop up.

It is always really cool to look at my blog in the morning and see this...

 We met Gramma and Papa at Steak N Shake (Bri's favorite restaurant) for lunch. I'm not a huge fan, but she loves the mac n cheese, fries and shakes...

 Can you tell?

Then it was time for an early afternoon movie (Ice Age 4) - and it was super cute. We really enjoyed it...

The girls sat in the row in front of the boys...

We left the movie and headed home for present and cake time...

It is always fun to watch Bri open gifts because she gets so excited. Gramma and Papa gave her a nightgown, a pink poodle cuddleuppet (which she desperately wanted) and a beautiful Chinese Barbie doll...

Mommy and Daddy gave her a few gifts too (not all pictured)...

She also received several phone calls with happy birthday wishes that day.

I finally got her into bed that evening (a little later than I should have). She had school the next day I hoped she would be able decompress a little from her crazy birthday weekend. Monday morning I brought in cupcakes for her class so she could celebrate just one more time.

Tuesday she looked at me and said "More birthday?" I told her sorry but it is finally over until next year!!!

Oh - and here are a couple of pics of me and Doug with our girl right before her party on Saturday!