Summer Start Up Catch Up

Hello to all my faithful readers. I want to say I am sorry for not writing in a while. Its been a little busy around  Casa Me. Why? Well I'll tell you. 1st of all we were gearing up for the end of year at Mini's school. Roo and I enjoyed working field day, Though Mini may not be the fastest, I was still proud that she competed and that she enjoyed herself. Roo worked the bounce houses while I worked some of the races and I had a really good time but I always have a good time at Mini's school. Then it was time for the end of the year and to say goodbye to the first grade. Mini received the "LifeSafer" for being a good friend and helper, A&B Honor Role for final six weeks. For the entire year she only had three B's and the rest A's. The first two B's were made during the first semester and the third B was during this last 6 weeks. Even through everything that has happened since February she still managed to finish with a A average for the combined grades and is reading at a 5 grade level. (I am one proud momma) She is excited about going to Second grade next year and we were even able to put the bully thing to rest. We are blessed with an awesome support system within the school.

OK, so during this end of the year madness we adopted some puppies. The M-I-L leaves down at the lake and there were some neighbors that lived behind them that upped and left, leaving behind their dog. Well their dog apparently was pregnant and she gave birth to 7 puppies. The mommy dog, we believe, was run over at some point leaving her puppies alone. Now I am one of those people who believe there is a special Hell for those who hurt animals and children and I cant stand the idea of these puppies not having being given a chance. So we brought them home. Now I'm not going to lie to you and play the ultimate humanitarian and  say we kept all seven puppies. We already have Abby and I don't have that kind of room or money. But we had already decided to keep one so that Abby had a friend to play with. Of course the one I orginally wanted got veto'd and Mini chose Jasmin who is white and brown. Roo (feeling a little outnumbered) got attached to a little chocolate puppy and since he would have been outnumbered (actually still is) I said we could keep him too. And he was graced with the name Hershey. Cause Roo couldn't pick out a name and I love milk chocolate things. In the picture below Jasimine (lft) and Hershey (rt) about 6weeks.

So to the left we have a picture of my older brother, Booboo. I'm sure I've said before but I'll explain a bit. We are like most siblings, we have a good times and bad. But I would like to think that in this particular stage of our life we are friends. We both can and have told some pretty embarrassing stories about each other but he is still someone that I have always counted on. Last year when Roo was gone for work I got the opportunity to Canton he asked if I missed Roo then pointed out that it was ok for me to be a girl every so often. (I roll my eyes here mainly because I am a girl about a lot of things. But sometimes the mushy stuff is hard for me to do) I have always looked up to him and for awhile there\] I wasn't liking him to much. We call that time the dark period cause well things weren't good. He forgot how to smile and to live life and I forgot how to be a sister and just became annoying. I know this and hopefully I'm getting better. Any way I digress... See Boo went through a bad time (not going into that not my story to tell) but then Boo met this really great girl. This girl really brought light back into his dark world and he began to smile again and began to become the brother I remember growing up with. (dripping with sarcasm). He brought her to our family and we have come to love her. Through the most difficult time in our life she stood by us. She stayed at the hospital when she didn't have to and stood by us in our grief and share in it with us. (wow I'm tearing up here. ugh) She introduced Mini to the world of zebra print and has shown me some very creative things by just being her. Thankfully, Boo decided to make her a permanent part of our family so now we are looking forward to a wedding at the end of this month.
So to left is our blushing bride to be at one of her showers. We got to do some fun painting. I have never done anything like that and it was really fun. Of course my cousin and I decided we wanted to throw her a shower for the family and we had a great time doing that as well. Now even though she has a thing for zebra her wedding theme is kind of a country chic thing her colors are turquoise and leopard print. (I think I misspelled that. grrr) And I really wanted to go with that for the theme. That week I learned there was a little glitch on my end. I had ordered cookies for the big day two of them were in the shape of a T & H (she like monogram things) and one was going to be done in the color while the other was done in the print with smaller heart cookies. When I called the bakery about picking them up the Friday it turned out that I had ordered them for the following Friday (crap) luckly Roo came to the rescue and did some quick thinking. and below was the result. Thank you to the Bakery at Walmart for helping me fix our glitch.

Hmm, I've talked about the end of school and how well Mini did, I've talked about my big bro and his wonderful bride to be. I've shared about the new puppies Hershey and Jasmine and the wonderful job a cookie cake turned out so whats left on my whole let's catch up? Oh right. *snapping fingers*

SUMMER!!!!!

I love this time of year mainly because it means we can sleep in for a bit but most importantly we are making some changes this year. See last summer Roo was in Cali and away from us for a bit. Though we had fun he missed him like crazy. Also last year around this time (Fathers Day) we believed we were going to be expanding our family and though we did expand it (not the way we thought but still.), I think we need to do some things different this year. So here is our summer plans. We are gonna chill. We are going to spend time as a family, we are going to go swimming Mini is going to go spend to some time with the in-laws. Roo and I are going to spend some much needed QT with each other. We are going to take the time for us. I'm going to take the time to enjoy the many parts of my family and the blessing that I have been given. Roo, Mini and I are going to discuss our future. We are going to encourage her and we are going to keep her entertained. I'm going to start over with me. I'm going to start letting things go and I am planning for my future. I'm taking my classes for my teaching certificate and I am looking forward to what comes next. Mini is going to have a blast with her new spy kit from Highlights where she can learn about the countries and their different things.I will continue to keep you updated hopefully a little more then the last little bit but you know sometimes life just keeps going around and I have to stand still in order to blog. Thanks for sticking with me through everything.

Oh yea, one last thing.

Mallard!!!!!

(this means duck)