The World According to Leslie

I'm getting a little (sometimes a lot) slower with age. I didn't forget that my child had a birthday. I just didn't post anything here about it. On Friday, August 18, The Princess turned 14. She stayed up until midnight on Thursday just to be able to say "It's my birthday!" NO! I can't believe she's 14! What did we do for her Birthday?  EVERYTHING she wanted to do!! After getting up later than normal (she wanted to sleep in), we ate pancakes for breakfast. We went bowling. She's in a bowling league now and wanted to practice before the first games on Saturday morning! We met my parents at Sweet Frog for fro-yo. (YES! She got Birthday Cake flavored fro-yo!) Then we picked up her best friend to spend the night (after she got out of school). We picked up my parents. We went to Remedy Church for Kidz Krusade.  At the end of the night, they silly stringed her as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her!  (It was AWESOME!) Then we all (my...

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I promise.  We have had a couple of really busy weeks/weekends back to back. The Princess got older (last Friday)!! Just from last weekend (8/18-8/21) I have written down about 6 things I need to write about. I'm getting those "on paper" to share with you guys. Plus, with school starting for us, you know I'm busy.  What do you have going on now?  What's keeping you busier than normal?

Thirteen years ago today, I was at Forsyth Medical Center. At 2:10am, I had a baby. Today, that "baby" is my beautiful 13 year old Princess! She's smart! She's funny! She's talented! She's tall! (This year, she's 5'6"!!) She may be taller than me next year! She's more than I could have ever asked for and more than I ever expected! I love my Princess!  Happy Birthday!

After finding out last Monday that I have an aneurism behind my eye, I have been pretty calm and relaxed. That's mainly because my family is making me take it easy. :) I still do not know when I am going in for my neuro-surgical consult. I called and left a message for the nurse to call me. She called and they are waiting for the referral to be approved.  I guess that means it's not an emergency situation!!! Now.... I'm just waiting for lots of things to happen. Thursday of this week, 8/18, is a big day.  My Princess is going to be 13!!  WOW!  A teenager!!  Also, on Thursday, we have the Concord-Kannapolis "Battle for the Bell" Game! (Supposedly it is the last year that the game will be the season opener!!) We are CONCORD all the way! Go Spiders!! On Friday, the Princess starts softball try-outs for her 8th grade year! How did she get this old? Monday through Wednesday, we have the Kidz Crusade at church. I'm hoping to get to go. Saturday is the Pr...

Since July 10th, I have been sick. I have been to the ER 3 times in 3 weeks. I have not been out of my house, except to go to the doctor, for 3 weeks. On Thursday of last week, I had to have a spinal tap done to see if they can figure out these headaches. On Saturday, I ended up at the ER again because my neck and shoulders were completely stiff and painful. They gave me meds that made me sleep all day. Yesterday, my neck and shoulders started feeling much better.  I can now sit up for longer than 20 minutes at a time. My headache is only at about a 3-4 instead of a 8-9. On to better news..... We have finally decided where the Princess is going to go to school next year. She has agreed to play softball again at the school. We are excited. We just have to make sure that she gets the classes that she needs to get into the IB program in the high school. I'm still working on finding a full time job, but if I don't, I can always be a substitute teacher again this year....

On Saturday, we had a Duck Dynasty themed bowling party for the Princess. There were about 15 people there!   On Sunday, the Princess turned 10. She is still the most beautiful, thoughtful, adoring little girl. But, she’s becoming a young lady before my eyes.   On Saturday, she had softball practice. Then she wore camo to the party.   On Sunday, she was all pink and girly. She wore a skirt to church. After church, my mom took her to have her nails done!  PINK….of course!   She’s prissy, but tough.  I’m so glad God gave her to me. I just hope that I can be the mommy that I need to be for her. (I know I mess up sometimes, but I hope I don’t send her running to therapy! LOL)    Today, is my first day back at work. So, the Princess gets to go spend time with my mom. She is going to love that!

If you want to catch up on this Year in Review, you can get Part 1 and Part 2 .   August arrived!  LOVE AUGUST! August is Chasity’s birthday!  She is the best kid ever!  We have the simplest, but the best, parties for her.   This year, the theme was “Princess and the Frog.”  Unfortunately, I was so consumed with school and work (I started work the week before her birthday!) that I forgot to order the cake!   What does ANY good mom do when she forgets to order the birthday cake?  Well, duh, she calls her own mom in tears!    Then her mom (my mom!) said, we can just make a cake!   What does any good daughter (me) do when her mom says that?    She goes and gets a cute pan and lots of M&Ms and icing.  Then she shows up at her mom’s house to make the cake!   So remember this is the DAY BEFORE the party—Friday night!  Mom has worked all day. She’s kept Chasity so Tony and I coul...

Today is my baby girl's birthday! I guess I should stop calling her a "baby girl"!  She's a beautiful young lady now.  Today she's NINE!  Time has flown!  I remember the first time I held her.  Now, she can barely fit on my lap. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL GIRL!

I have so much to do: Finish my personal paper for school Finish all my modules for school Finish my final paper for school Finish packing to move Go to Tweetsie Get everything ready for work Have Chasity's birthday party Start new classes online at UNCC.  I only have 2 left!  Then I will graduate in December 2012!! Apply for Graduation. Get cap/gown for Graduation. I really do have a lot to do.  Next week, I start work so I guess I need to get it all done now! :)

Wow! This morning I woke up at 4:30am. I showered and got dressed. By 6:15am, Tony and Chasity were also ready. We made a couple of really quick stops and headed to Blowing Rock! We stopped at McDonald's in Mooresville for breakfast! Then we hit I-77 and climbed the mountain! :) We made it to Tweetsie around 9:30am! Around 10am, I had to buy a new memory card for my camera because I had finished filling up the one that I purchased in June! lol We took pictures on the horses and carriages. Then we rode "Tweetsie"!! The show on the train ride was AWESOME! Chasity told the cowboy that was on our train car that today was her birthday. Then she asked to have her pic taken with him. :) She told EVERYONE it was her birthday! The Can-Can dancers and Diamond Lil sang the birthday song to her. They said, "It's her birthday. Are you ready girls?" Then they sang, "This is your birthday song. It isn't very long! Hey!" Th...

A couple of weeks ago, my sister and my niece had their toenails painted.  Each of them had a design put on their big toes.    Chasity asked me if we could do that for her birthday.  I told her “we’ll see.”  That OF COURSE means (in 7-year-old terms) “sure…no problem”.    So she asked me yesterday if I would take her.  We didn’t have time to go yesterday, so we went today.   Each of us has hot pink polish on our toes.  Then we have designs on our big toes.  My toe designs:   Chasity’s toe designs:   Here they are TOGETHER:   Just before Chasity and I left the house to go get our nails done, I received a phone call about a job interview.  So tomorrow at 10am I am going to be interviewing for a teaching job.  It’s not far from where we live.  We wouldn’t have to move.  So I am praying that this is the job that God has for me.

Chasity's birthday is on Thursday. So....she has decided that this whole week should be used to celebrate her. In all reality, 8 years ago, this whole week was dedicated to her. I wasn't sure what day she would come, so I spent many of my days finishing her nursery, making sure all our stuff was packed for the hospital, and getting paperwork ready to take with us to the hospital. Then, I went into labor on Sunday, August 17th at 6pm. Chasity was born August 18th at 2:10am! Not bad! I was only in labor for 8 hours. One-and-a-half of those hours was spent riding to the hospital. We lived in Concord at the time and she was born in Winston-Salem. :) Now, I have the best kid in the world!!! And, I tell her that every day! We are planning to go to Tweetsie Railroad on Thursday (if Tony can get off work)!! Her party is on Saturday! Tomorrow, we are hanging out at the daycare for just a little bit, but then we are going to go find a bakery to do the...

On Tuesday, we moved Chasity's bedroom stuff into the new house. She has a few toys still here and her closet clothes. If the rain will stop, we will probably take that to the new house tonight! If it keeps raining, well, I guess everything else will go tomorrow! :) We also took my China cabinet and my china. You know the kind! The China we do NOT use! lol All the dishes we normally use were there already anyways! :) We've been paper plating and plastic utensilling since last week! :) Everything made it in one piece! So I got that set up in the dining room. The dining room table went also! :) So the dining room is basically set up! Chasity just has a few more things for her room! Tonight, we were supposed to move desks and such, but with the rain, I am thinking I'm not putting anything in an open trailer! We have flood warnings out until early afternoon! It's raining pretty steady today! (Wouldn't that be how it works!?) Anyways.... that's the mo...

Yesterday, August 18th, was Chasity's 7th birthday! It was the first time EVER that I was not with her for the entire day! :( I started my student teaching (with teacher workdays) yesterday! Chasity hung out with my mom for a little bit. Then she went to my sister's house! When Tony got home, we let Chasity pick where she wanted to eat. Anyone guess where we went? If you guessed McDonald's (with playland) you are RIGHT! We were there for a little while. Good thing we left when we did. A horrible storm came through right after we got home. The power even went out for a couple minutes! WOW! (Could you imagine PlayLand in the dark? lol) Anyways.... I think she had a great day! Until next time..... Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

This week is going to get things rolling for me.... It's going to get the school year started for me.... It's going to start getting crazy!! Let's see...what do I have to do this week? Monday: 11am--meet with friend to give them Chasity for the night Visit Papaw at hospital (oh yeah! more on that soon!) Go to Chasity's NEW school to turn in one paper Turn in one form for Student Teaching 6pm--Class for UNCC Tuesday: 9am--meet my Cooperating Teacher (CT) for my Student Teaching Get Chasity back from friend Visit Papaw at hospital Take flower to Grandmother's grave (for bday) Wednesday: CHASITY'S BIRTHDAY!!!! Begin Student Teaching (ST) with 1st teacher workday Thursday: Teacher workday #2 Open House at ST location Friday: Teacher workday #3 MOVE!!! (Or start unpacking to stay here!) If you think this schedule looks interesting, just wait.... next week will be even MORE fun when Chasity starts school! :) Until next time........

So....the date is set! We are MOVING! If everything goes as planned (does it ever?), we are moving on Friday evening! Tony will be home from work around 3:30-4pm. We are going to have friends from church and possibly some family come and help us....hopefully! Then, Saturday, we are hoping to have Chasity's party. However, I just found out last night that my brother, his wife, and their 5 kids, AND my sister all made other plans for Saturday! ARG!!! So....we may have to postpone Chasity's party until after school starts so that people will stop planning stuff and show up! It's not like they didn't know! I've been telling them since late May/early June what DAY the party is! Anyways.... the party will probably be a last minute decision..... unfortunately! However.... she WILL have one! I just don't know when! :) Until next time........

Have you ever had so much to do that you didn't know what to do first? Well, some of my stuff has actual dates on it. Like this weekend, we had Chasity's birthday party. A couple friends from school came. My entire family came. And... some people from church (who are close to us and who don't even have kids came)! It was great! There were two kiddie pools.... lots of water stuff to play with. The party lasted almost 4 hours by the time we got the last kid out of the water! Chasity was so adorable. She picked out a beautiful outfit to wear...before getting in the water. She got lots of really cool stuff (and more money than I currently have! lol)!!! Anyways... that's done and I can mark that off my calendar. However, I have a PTO luncheon coming up that I'm helping to serve the teachers for "Back to School". That's Wednesday. Then I'm scrapbooking on Saturday. I've been invited to a jewelry party on Friday night. Also, I start my c...