Sarah Heads To the Basket

The painters have been here all day and it's freaking my cat out. She could hear them talking and laughing as they papered and taped off the windows. They'd slide their hands down with the tape and it was a kind of creepy-sounding. You'd think we'd be used to noises in an apartment complex, but w..........

Okay, I was gone for a minute. The FedEx man just brought a huge box of Burt's Bees skin care products to review for Pretty By Nature. WooHoo! I love my job.

Oh, here's Amelia........ And I can see Greg out front. All my kids are working their way home. Sarah, too. She started choir. Max's bus. This is a busy time of day.


I took some shots of Sarah playing basketball this weekend. She played in a tournament and now it's all over until next year. I loved every minute of watching those girls. They were so bold and scrappy. I know that I've said that before, but I've watched Sarah sort of retreat into a shell this year and it's been sad to watch. Basketball was an adventure. She was Larger Than Life Sarah again.

Here's Sarah heading toward the basket. In this game they played against their "sister" team. The other Notre Dame team - one was White and one was Blue, although they look black and white here.



This is from the second game. I really don't know what I'm doing with these action shots.


Is it wrong that I'm proud of her agressiveness in this shot? The first day we were shocked by how rough the girls got. They would knock each other over and grab the ball and roll around on the floor. Sarah got more comfortable with the more physical side of the game.

Heading back to the basket...........

We are transitioning at work again. We are changing Lifestyles over to Blisstree this afternoon. This was my last official Dating Dames post. After this I will be one of the Relationships team. I think they plan on having 5 of us.

Veggie Chic was going to be gone, but somehow it's going to make it and be part of.....food, I think. I was running out of time, they were due to lock us out, so I quickly wrote about my lunch, which was so damn good. And I'm giving away some skincare at Pretty By Nature.

Now I'm off to get Bay............

A Couple More Things......

A couple more things.......

Do you Facebook? (hope that link works)

And please check out Bay's work on our co-blog Girl Looks Swell. She is doing a great job and I'm very proud of her.

TGIF again

I'm sorry that I have not been updating regularly. I feel that so much is happening, but it's not interesting stuff. My day is taken up with Mom duties. And work stuff. Thank goodness it's Girl Scout cookie time - Samoas help me deal.

The teenagers got into an argument today and seeing Greg hurting and hearing him say, "I'm hurt," well it kills me. I love all of my kids - the ones I gave birth to and the one that I inherited. If Bay and Greg break up, I'm not going to stop loving that kid. I made a commitment. I do not take it lightly.

I'm going to take my patio shed apart this weekend. I have to, because they are going to paint next week. What a mess. Oh well. I've got a bunch of annuals to put up as well. that part with be fun.

Sarah has basketball twice tomorrow. It's the last weekend. I'm going to miss watching those scrappy girls.

Amelia

We got a new kitty. Her name is Amelia and she's from the Butte Humane Society. She's a "torti" - very colorful.

As you can see, Amelia and Sarah are already pals. I haven't been able to get good pictures of her yet. The light hasn't been good and the flash makes her close her eyes.

We are having some serious rainstorms here and there was a flood warning in counties in all directions. Butte County has a lot of clay, so the water just sits there.

Well, time to get everyone to bed. I hope that you have a great day!

Ruby Tuesday - Hanging With the Diggles

Here are some Ruby Tuesday shots from my trip. There are glimpses of red, not super bold-splashes. I hope that is okay. I just wanted to take part, since I have not in so long.

Below see Sarah shooting baskets with red on her hat, shoes, and hoop. Check out her hands. She has worked hard with her coach learning how to shoot properly. I love the way the one hand is sort of floating and any second that bowl is going to go "swish."

Greg in far background, Casey blurring by, Chance resting on couch, and my brother-in-law Matt, giving me a look. Red candle and clock on the table beyond Matt. Sorry this one was pushing it, but I love the action here and my bil's look.

Check out Trin's shades! Her new room is so pretty with big windows and a window seat. This was inside, no lights on, no flash, (that I remember) just pretty light from the windows.

The Little Mermain hanging with the gang. It looks like the Cabbage Patch dolls is singing. Also Trin's room.

Trinity and Sarah in the game room. Sarah asked for fruit and it makes me happy when my kids request healthy snacks. I'm not sure if you can see it, but the dot on Trin's nose is a rhinestone sticker. Her "nose earring."

Boy, I miss those guys!!

If you'd like to see more Ruby Tuesday photos or if you'd like to jump into the fun yourself, you can find it here at Work Of the Poet.

On A Clear Day

Bay and I took a ton of pictures of Trin last weekend. She's so darn cute. That's Bay up at the top, taking shots of Trin skipping. I took them from the bottom of the drive. She's so cute. So bold and confident. This one has a "Keep on truckin'" posture to it. Remember that? The "Keep on truckin'" guy - I think he was a pimp or something, back when pimp did not mean dressing fancy. For some reason I have him lumped together with "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown." He was the "baddest man in the whole damn town......badder than ol' King Kong.....meaner than a junkyard dog......" How did I get started on this.........??

Sarah is getting more comfortable with the basketball every day. Here she is wearing one of the boy's hats, dribbling the ball.

And Casey takes a shot. Look how long his hair has grown. He's getting so grown-up.

And here's Sarah again. She had another game today. I wasn't able to go, I was taking care of something with Bay, but Mom went. She loves watching the girls play. Sarah says that they won. I'm in this one, can you see me?

Okay, it's late and I'm off to bed. Happy Sunday to you......it'll be Sunday in only a few minutes.

Work and Decisions

I was so going to try to get back into the habit of writing everyday again, but I blew it. The time that I don't have is really beginning to get to me.

I decided that I'm going to give notice at the school on Monday. I will still work as a substitute and I talked to one of the second grade teachers about volunteering in her class, so I can still see Sabrina and Reece and Austin. No Nevah in there or Logan, though. Nevah is in a different class and for some reason she was out of school almost all week. I spoke to her teacher about it today and she laughed it off. The attitude of the teachers is one of the reasons that I made this decision. I don't want to work with those people anymore. I like my team, but hearing the teachers call students "stupid" or hearing my principal's attitude about a male student's struggle to figure out his sexuality , well it's just not an environment I want to work in anymore. If I could do anything about it, I would, but instead I'm called one of the "Lunch Nazis."

If I'm not working at the school, it will give me two more hours a day to finish my other work and maybe I can start taking photos again. I got so excited by the prospect of taking on more and more writing jobs that I......well, I kind of over-extended myself. This adjustment and the fact that I will still be working at the school at least a few days a month make this a very good compromise.

I feel some guilt about leaving the school, especially after writing it out here. I know that the kids need adults that they can count on and talk to, but I have 4 kids of my own, on my own and the way things are now, I'm too tired too busy to give them the attention that they need.
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I took some photos of my family. Here are a couple that have Bay in them. Doesn't Greg look "pensive" sitting on the bench. Chance is the blur. I used a no-flash setting and I got a lot of blur photos, which I like for some reason. I'll show one with my brother-in-law, Matt soon. Robin is to the right, doing something with her camera.




They are showing me Chance on the camera. Isn't Robin's new house lovely? It has lots of big windows and a great front and back porch. We had such a good visit. I wish we were there right now.