SUMMER SUMMER SUMMERTIME….

Whew, another school year in the books!  What a milestone year we've had in the Dailey house.  Taryn just finished up Kindergarten, Jayden finished 5th and Kiarra finished 8th so now we transition Kiarra to high school, Jayden to middle school and sweet pea will be a big 1st grader!  

3 kids in 3 different schools - YIKES!!

With his certificate... woo-hooo, onto Jr. High

Jayden had an amazing fifth grade year.  He was awarded with the Presidential Award at the end of the year and that’s something we are very proud of.  This basically means he had a great GPA all year, tested great on his STAAR tests (actually only missed one question on the math test), had a recommendation letter from 2 of his teachers and was considered an outstanding student for his behavior and attitude. I received many praise emails for Jayden throughout the year.  The compliments from teachers, front office staff, the principal and many others bring pure joy to my heart. I thank God often for my only son.  He is really excited about Jr. High and I’m excited to see him excel.

Miss Bailey, his homeroom teacher.

Mr. and Mrs. Wolman

Taryn had a great year too.  She absolutely loves school and cried the last few days knowing it was coming to an end. Her teacher was fabulous, seriously amazing…especially for a first time teacher (which I didn't know until the last week of school).  I was (and still am) often called Miss Martinez at home. Taryn catches herself quickly now and realizes before she fully says the name but I don’t mind. I’m honored to be called that name because she’s taken such great care of my baby girl these past 9 months.  Taryn finished up school reading at a level G (only need to be level C to pass), she knew every site word, sound, vowel, letter, etc. that she was tested on and that appears on her report card.  She is more than ready for first grade and if it was up to her, she’d start tomorrow!

Miss Martinez

Mr. and Mrs. Wolman

Kiarra has had a great year as well.  I previously expressed my apprehension for her going to a new school her 8th grade year, but I’ll say it again… she took it on with great courage and I’m so proud of her for stepping into this unfamiliar space at this age.  WoodCreek Jr. High has been a really great experience for all of us and I’m actually very glad we made the move when we did.  God timed it all perfectly for us and I’m so thankful. The 8th grade dance was here before we knew it and she looked so beautiful in her dress with her long straight hair.  We don’t straighten it often but when we do, it’s absolutely gorgeous.  She had a really great time at dinner with a couple of her closest friend and said the dance was a lot of fun.  The morning after the dance she has an audition in which she received a call back.  Nothing major but she’ll be performing in front of some top agencies in August so she is starting to prepare for that now. The athletics dept. at WoodCreek Jr. High conducts a huge sports banquet each year (I mean huge) and I was so excited that Kiarra won an award.  Again, being new to this school I was shocked that she made the volleyball team, let alone the A Team and then she got an award to top it off.  The final event of Jr High was the pop show for choir where she had a small solo in the Beyoncé hit Single Ladies.  She did a great job!  Her last year of Jr High was very memorable and one I hope she cherishes for years to come.  We also celebrated her 14th b-day in May.  It was a BUSY month for Kiarra.  She had a handful of friend over for a sleepover and we may or may not have gone to HEB and acted a little crazy….

We finally heard from Tamia.  She reached out to Kiarra so we now know all is ok with her. She said she finished up the year with good grades and is happy that it’s summer.  We typically have her for 30 or more days in the summer so it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. She also mentioned that she moved again.  Not sure where to as her Mom hasn't told us anything about it and if we ask Tamia too many questions, she’ll get punished for answering them so it’s best we just keep quiet.

Logan receiving his diploma (or 1 of the many scholarships)

In May, we drove to Iowa for my nephew, Logan’s, high school graduation.  First of all, I shouldn't be old enough to have nephews/nieces in high school (or kids for that matter), let alone GRADUATING! I had tears; I’m not going to lie.  The graduation was quite interesting. I've not been to a small town graduation for years so it was very interesting to Jeff and I that they announce EVERY scholarship for EVERY person.  I am very proud of Logan for his scholarships.  Some we knew about and others we didn't so they were a great surprise.  I’m a proud auntie!!  Congratulation Logan!!  After the ceremony, we headed to my brother’s house for the celebration.  We got to catch up with family that we hadn't seen since Christmas and meet the newest member of the family Caeden (that I made cry - still sorry Brent and Kelly).  It was a really short trip so we didn't get see everyone.  We drove up on Thursday night/Friday and back on Sunday evening/Monday.  Since we were there on Mother’s Day, Teige (and family) and Talan came over to Grandpa’s house that Sunday and after lunch we hung out all day.  The weather was beautiful!  I really enjoyed that time; it was great to catch up with them. My nephew will be going to college in the fall to play football so I’m looking forward to this next chapter in his life.  I was really sad that I didn’t get to see my niecers Makenzie but she was away at an all weekend softball tournament.  Can’t believe she is officially a SENIOR now!  Maybe she’ll come to Texas to go to college…

My other little cutie patootie niece turned 1 and had a very colorful birthday party.  She looked crazy funny in her big ol fat tutu.  We already know she is going to be spoiled because she received a sports car that she was pushed around in by Taryn.  That girl is a hot mess; she is the cutest 1 year old on the planet.  Taryn absolutely adores her (as we all do) and loves that she gets to be a big cousin to her.

And this brings us to SUMMER!  Thank GOD we all survived another school year.  I plan to take off as much time as I can to spend with the kids because 2013-14 school year will be starting before we know it.

Another cute little pic of Taryn and my Grandpa.  She was begging him to come to lunch with us on Mother's Day...

15 Years and Counting

Jeff and I met 15 years ago today, almost at this very minute. We met through mutual friends (many of you know our story so I won’t bore you with the play by play) and it’s a night we’ll never forget. To sum it up, Jeff’s friend was coming to my apartment to see my friend and couldn’t come unless he brought a friend. I’d only lived in Houston a few months and couldn’t explain to them how to get to my apartment so I decided we’d meet up the street in a parking lot and they could follow us. Looking back, this is so scary…two young girls meeting up with 2 guys in a parking lot and I didn’t know either one of them! Anyway, I was driving my little white sunbird and I whipped into the parking lot and they were already there. Jeff was immediately mad with his friend saying things like “you know I don’t like white girls man”... We chatted for a few minutes in the parking lot and they followed us back to my place. Our friends went out on the balcony which left Jeff and I stuck in the living room to entertain each other. Oh wait, at this time I only knew him as JD. Nothing was on tv on a Wednesday night and I have no idea what to talk to this dude about. After a few shots (yes, I broke out the Jack Daniels) we loosened up and started talking about all the “first date” type of stuff, where we work, where we grew up, our interests…. One conversation led to another and we had a great evening getting to know each other. The following two nights we went out and the rest is history. That is a picture from the night we met.

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Kiarra just finished club volleyball for the season. She played very well this season and we are extremely proud of her. She will attend the National Junior Honor Society ceremony tomorrow evening. She would have been inducted last year had Katy Junior High been a little more organized and not used an address and phone number for us that was 3 years old. It still blows my mind that they could get report cards to us at the right address, and call our cell phones several times a week with messages from the principal that were totally irrelevant but when it came to something this important they somehow didn’t have our current information… Ugh! Anyway, I’m very happy with this school and that she is able to be inducted this year and knowing she was supposed to be last year makes me proud as well…just wish she could of gone through it with all her friends. She also has her 8th grade dance this Friday evening and an audition this weekend. It’s a VERY busy and exciting week for Kiarra.

Jayden should be getting his leg brace off this week. He has a sleeve fracture of the patella and as of last week it was healing nicely so the doctor thought he’d only have to wear the brace another week. He’s been pretty cooped up for the past 3 weeks or so. He’s also been sick several times over the past few weeks. He caught some kind of stomach bug that would come and go. He’d be real sick one day and fine for several days and then sick again. I think he’s on the mend now. Thank God!

We’ve been debating on putting Taryn in gymnastics. I've been told she has perfect form when doing cartwheels and round-offs. I’m so used to her doing these all over the house that I didn’t really notice how awesome they were until someone at a volleyball tournament pointed it out to me. They asked me how many years she’s been in gymnastics and were surprised when I said she’d never had formal lessons. She basically taught herself with only a little coaching from me.

We haven’t seen Tamia since January so we can only hope and pray she is doing ok.

My nephew is graduating high school in just a few weeks. I can NOT believe he is going off to college this fall. It just doesn’t seem right that they are all growing up so fast. We can’t wait to see him walk across the stage to get his diploma!  It will also be great to see all of my family again.

SURPRISE SURPRISE

I love the month of February.  Things are back to normal after the holidays, the kids are counting down to spring break, Kiarra and my Mom both have birthdays, volleyball and basketball are in full swing and it’s a few months closer to school releasing for the year (something I look more forward to than the kids).

This year my Mom was turning 60 so I wanted to do something special for her. I was plotting with my brothers to come down and surprise her and I was going to put a small party together for her.  She hates surprises (like mother like daughter) but since it would be her kids and grand-kids coming, it would have been worth it.  Teige and family had a lot going on with Logan being a Senior, wrestling at the state tournament, etc. so they didn't think they were going to be able to make it.  I was trying to plan anyway but thing just didn't work out as I hoped for. There was a massive snow storm coming their way and the weather was looking real ugly all through Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.  Talan, Mollie and Makenzie were still planning to come so I was planning out how we’d do the grandioso surprise.  Since they were going to be driving all night Friday night, I gave them directions to the school where Jayden would be playing in his basketball game on Saturday morning. Thursday came and Talan started asking me questions he normally wouldn't ask.  We don’t talk often so for him to ask me ‘so, what are you guys doing tonight?’ and ‘what time do you get off work tomorrow?’ was so very suspicious to me.  BUSTED!!  I knew they were already in Houston or close by.  See, I hate surprises too so my head is now spinning at the fact they can show up at my house at any moment. Holy smokes, we kicked into high gear trying to get laundry done, toys picked up, sheets changed, and to top it off, I hadn’t got groceries yet!!  I was planning to do all that on Friday since it was my day off and I quickly realized I had less than an hour to do it all.  YIKES… well, laundry and groceries waited until the next day but the kids and I managed to get the sheets changed, dishes done, floors swept, carpet vacuumed and Taryns toys picked up in time for their arrival… but now how are we going to surprise Mom. I know she is in Katy on Thursdays after work so I called her and pretended like I was really upset about something and asked her to come over so I could talk.  At this point, I know Talan is already within 30 minutes from our house and she could take anywhere from 20 - 40 minutes. My heart is racing, who is going to show up first.  Thankfully, Mom showed up first so I laid a sob story on her and told her I quit my job… I even had tears (I should probably be an actress J).  I actually laughed a few times at the ridiculousness of my story but pulled myself together so she wouldn't notice.  Ok…on to the surprise.  I left the garage open so they could just walk into the house.  Jeff had to leave to pick up Jayden from practice at the same time I got a text that they were outside.  P-E-R-F-E-C-T!  Jeff started to leave and in they walked.  Talan said “Happy Birthday” and Mom just stared at him, did a double take and jumped up.  Priceless!  Mom was pleasantly surprised and I quickly confessed that I didn't quit my job.  They were pretty exhausted from driving 14 hours, many of them through snow and ice and since I had no food we had to go out to eat.  What better than taking them to our favorite Mexican restaurant Chuys. We had a nice dinner and went our separate ways. Talan and Mollie stayed with Mom and Kenzie stayed at our house.

Mom was supposed to work on Friday but her boss let her take a last minute vacation day to spend time with them while they were here. Our kids only had a half day at school so it all worked out well.  Jeff and Talan went bowling Friday morning while Mollie did some homework.  Makenzie, Kiarra and I loaded up on groceries and made snacks, cake balls, dips and food for the weekend.  Once Mom, Talan and Mollie finally came over, I took them around town to show them where the kids go to school, where they will go to high school, the new humongous high school, etc.  The remainder of the day we decided to just chill out and go to Katy Mills mall for a little shopping. Although Makenzie already has her prom dress, it was fun to look at dresses and see what she might like for next year. After our little shopping escapade, I made dinner while the rest played cards.  Taryn whooped everyone in the polish poker games that evening!

Saturday, Jayden had 2 basketball games so they were able to see him in action.  He played really well and had several points.  After his games, they all went to Traders Village while Kiarra and I worked on her scrap book.  I grilled up a feast including wings, burgers, hot dogs, bacon wrapped shrimp, queso, mac & cheese, baked beans, grilled veggies, etc.  After eating, I suggested we play hide and seek in the dark.  Talan, Mollie and Makenzie hadn't played this before and they later told us that they didn't think it would be fun.  We proved them wrong.  We had lots of laughs, and memories that we will talk about for years.

Sunday, we all slept in and it felt great… well until I realized we missed church.  Oops! We went to Moms for lunch and then headed to the outlets in Fairfield.  We did a lot of shopping while they were here.  We wanted to go to Galveston but it was chilly and it would have been late by the time we would have got there.  Makenzie, Kiarra, Jeff and I went to our favorite Sushi restaurant for dinner while the others stayed at Moms and ordered pizza.  They were planning to leave at 1:00 am so we let them rest and headed home to get our kids to bed.

It was so great to see them and spend time with them.  Each time we go to Iowa, everyone is always busy so we are limited on the time we get to see them. It was great to have them for 3 days, all to ourselves…especially you MAKENZIE!!

Kiarra has had several volleyball tournaments this year.  She has improved greatly and gets a lot of play time.  Tournaments are so exciting… stressful but exciting.  My back always hurts for a day or so after we have one from the intensity of each game.  We only have 3 tournaments left before the big 3 day, Lone Star Classic in Dallas in April. She’s done well in school, kept her grades to all A’s and B’s which I’m happy with.  Her 8th grade dance is in April which she is really excited about. 

Jayden has had a basketball game each Saturday for the past 2 months and has done really well.  Last night he scored 12 of our 25 points. They have a play just for him called ‘FIRE’ where he is able to make a fast break and go for a layup.  Basketball is pretty exciting too.  They are really rough with each other considering they are only 5th graders. Some kids think its football and go for a tackle.  It’s quite funny.  Jayden has maintained all A’s again.  He has really matured this year and has become so responsible.  I’m very proud of him for stepping up and taking on additional responsibilities.

Taryn is now reading level D, and may be moved to level E today.  It’s amazing to see how much she’s grown up this year as well.  Although she is still super cute, she’s not the cute ‘little’ girl anymore. She still loves to play babies and barbies and all that little girly stuff but she has so much ‘adult like’ behavior as well. I guess it’s because she has older siblings but I hear the other Kindergartners in her class and they all sound like babies, whining and throwing fits during the class parties.  She looks at them like they are crazy.  She comes home with the greatest stories.  I love her personality and the little lady she is turning out to be.  She’s always been our sassiest and I’ve prayed we don’t let her become too sassy.

Jeff and I are starting to make some changes around the house.  I’m super excited about this.  I’ve got someone coming to paint next week and then it’s onto light fixtures, ceiling fans, the kitchen and the pool!  I think we now know exactly what we want so it’s time to get it done!

Playing Catch-up

I’m appalled that it’s been a year since my last blog post.  I wrote a few times in 2012 but it was nothing I could post for the world to read.  2012 was a tough year for my family.  We had some good with the bad but we are all definitely glad for 2013 to be here.  We will make this a good year!

To catch you up…

Jayden’s finger healed properly from his surgery and he’s back to playing basketball.  He pretty much missed the whole season last year, only getting to play in the final playoff and championship game.  He was a trooper about it and attended most of the practices and games to support his team.  He turned 11 in the summer and is now in 5th grade.

Taryn finished pre-K in May and is now half way through Kindergarten.  She turned 6 in November and is as sweet and sassy as always. She loves school, loves to read and according to her teacher is a big helper in class.  She has no patience for people who are not following the rules (wonder who she gets that from) so her little stories each day are priceless.  She learned to ride her bike last summer so she is on the go!

Kiarra broke her knuckle at some point during the school year last year and had surgery on it over the summer.  It’s healed nicely as well and she was able to play volleyball for her school team and is playing club again this year.  We've seen great improvement in the past few months and really enjoy watching her and the girls play.  She will be 14 next month and is in 8th grade.

Tamia is now a freshman in high school. She’s in dance and is enjoying high school.

I hurt my knee early in 2012 and was in denial all year that I needed surgery.  After enduring months of pain, I finally had knee surgery in November.  They fixed my torn meniscus and my knee cap was crooked so they clipped a ligament to get it to straighten up.  OUCH, is about all I have to say about it. I didn’t miss much work, surgery was on a Thursday and I returned to work on Monday.  I just had my 6 week check-up and the doctor said it’s doing ok and she has cleared me to jog/run again.  YAY!

Jeff was healthy most of the year. It seems that the rest of us all had some major illness or surgery but he held down the fort.  His year was pretty stressful dealing with custody stuff but in the end, we have to remember that God is bigger than all our worries.  It’s been 18 months since Tamia told us she wanted to live with us and the court system is still stringing it along.  They’ve strung so long that she’s changed her mind back and forth a dozen times.  One weekend she wants to come live with us and begs us not to take her home and then her Mom decides to give her mass freedom and she thinks she doesn’t want to live with us.  It’s been an emotional roller coaster for Jeff, the kids and I.  Although we try to shelter them (especially Taryn) from it all, the reality is that it’s very difficult when it’s consumed so much of our time. 

On a happier note…

We bought a house in June.  The kids were so excited to have neighbor kids to play with again and design/paint their rooms to their likings.  We put pressure on ourselves to get into a house that was zoned to the high school that we want the kids to go to (and we thought Tamia would be living with us starting in the summer of 2012) that we looked past some of the things in the house that normally would of turned us away.  We also settled for this house knowing we could make the back yard beautiful with a pool and an outdoor kitchen.  The previous owners said they’d scoped out a pool so we knew it wouldn’t be a problem.  At closing, we discovered the backyard has a 14 feet easement!  FOURTEEN feet!!!  That is practically half of the back yard.  So much for the big beautiful pool.  Because of this, and a few other reasons, I hated the house for months…absolutely hated it.  I tried so hard to be grateful for what God has blessed us with and be positive for the kids but the reality was that I hated the house and as the days moved forward, I hated it more and more.  One day, soon after closing, I realized that the color of the bricks is the ugliest shades of light brown??... How does one not notice this when they’ve gone to see the house 5 times… I’ll tell you!  They, I, wore sunglasses that are tinted with red which totally changed the color of the brick!  I had those sunglasses on each time we went to see the house and didn’t notice how ugly it was until after we signed papers. Hmmm, not much I can do about this now.

Some of my dislikes in the house are fixable with a little paint.  With my knee situation, I was not able to paint so I’m still looking at the ugly baby blue that it’s my master bedroom.  As if it’s not bad enough to drive up to the house every day and tremble at the ugly brick, I walk into the master bedroom and tremble at the baby blue on walls.  Who paints the master bedroom and bathroom BABY BLUE!!!  Isn’t that for a nursery??!!  Again, it’s fixable with some paint and I have the paint, I’ve had it since June 29th!  I bought all the paint for the master and all the kids’ rooms and the only room we’ve painted is Tamia’s.  Kiarra, my Mom and I surprised her and painted it while she was visiting her Auntie for a day.  It was a rough day, but we pushed through and painted one wall hot pink, one wall turquoise and the other walls white.  It was a dark green so it took several coats to cover it.  It is bright but looks beautiful.  She loved it. 

My main annoyance with the house is the kitchen.  I did recognize the kitchen was not to my liking prior to signing papers but I looked past it since I was going to get a nice outdoor kitchen.  Our last 2 homes have had 20+ nice size cabinets. This house has 11 narrow cabinets.  We are talking to contractor now about rebuilding the kitchen so I’ll update you on that at another time.  It’s just crazy to me that a house of this size would have such a small kitchen. Again, it’s fixable - just time consuming and costly.

A great thing about the house is the closet space; we are not lacking in that at all!  I have a closet in my laundry room that I’m using as my second pantry to store the crock pots, roaster, rice cooker, etc.  I do love all the closet space.  I also love the sun-room and the office.  The dining room is a bit small, our table will not fit in there with the extensions so that pretty much sucks but the room itself is nice.  There is an awesome app ‘Houzz’ that is amazing so I've found a lot of great ideas for projects to make the house a home I absolutely love. 

With the new house, came the apprehension that the kids had to change schools.  A brand new elementary was being built in our neighborhood just around the corner from the house so Jayden is having to spend his last year of elementary at a new school. We are zoned to a different Jr High as well so Kiarra had to say “see you later” to all the kids she’s known since pre-school.  They’ll meet up again in high school. Neither of them had any problems with the change and actually Kiarra was glad to change. Jayden wasn't as ok with it at first but once he met a few kids in the neighborhood, he was perfectly fine and happy for the change.   

Another great thing about where we are now is all of our neighbors.  We couldn't have asked for better neighbors with great kids. We've had great neighbors before so this was very important to us and something that caused me great anxiety because you just never know what you are getting yourself into when you move. The day we moved in, our neighbors across the street introduced themselves and invited Jayden out to play!  This gave me such peace. By the end of the weekend, the kids were invited out to play many times and we’d met the majority of our neighbors.

The best thing about 2012 was the birth of our sweet niece Corinne.  She is a true blessing to our family.  She brings us so much happiness.

We were fortunate enough again this past Christmas to be able to go spend time with my family in Iowa.  I really love spending time with all of them. My niece and nephews are growing up too fast, so it was nice to be able to hang out with them and I finally got to meet my cousins’ new baby and my other cousins’ twins.  All in all, it was a great trip.

Fast forward and here we are.  We barely get home and the doorbell is ding-donging and it’s someone wanting to play or “hang out” with the kids.  I love this.  I’m also coming to terms with the fact that Jeff is not budging on selling this house anytime soon so we will move forward with the changes we want to make including adding a pool.  Only time will tell…