Prom Season

The month of April was Prom Season around here.

 Small T attended the Northwestern Prom with Curtis.

 Then a week later, she went to her own prom with Royce, a fellow classmate.

 The three cousins, all dressed up for prom....Small T, Awan, Z.

They didn't try to color-coordinate, I swear. It just happened.

Prom King (Joe) and Prom Queen (Small T).

My Last High School Graduate

Five days after my last final, Small T graduated from High School.

We kicked off the celebration weekend with a huge family BBQ on that Saturday.

Here's Small T holding her cake up for a photo.

Two of her cousins were also graduating and we all partied together.

Z is on the left, Awan in the middle, and Small T on the right.

These three were in the same class, in the same school.

Z belongs to my youngest sister, Annie, and Awan belongs to my second youngest sister, Marie.

Could any three kids look so different? Crazy, right?

The next day, Sunday, was graduation or commencement.

 Here is Small T receiving her scholarships.

 She's receiving her diploma.

 And now she's graduated. Look at that smile!

 Once again, the three cousins. :)

 The three moms with their children beside them.

 At the actual graduation party we held for her. I love this blue dress she is wearing and she's also got on the pearls that my uncle gave to her when she was 13.  Every girl needs a good set of pearls, in my opinion.

 Her graduation cake, cupcakes, and a small photo collage.

It turned out to be a wonderful, yet hectic, day.

Congratulations Tianna!

Senior Ad

Last week, I had to get my stuff in for Tianna's Senior Ad in the yearbook. I emailed my favorite photo of her to the advisor and filled out the paperwork with this quote:

I'm not super sentimental about stuff like this, but honestly, this brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. I think it says it all.

I Will Miss This

Guess where I've been? Yep.  The ball games. Again.

The only part I enjoy is watching Small T cheer. I'm not a big fan of basketball, even though the kids have all played.

 Small T is on the left.

Small T is in the middle.

I'm always glad when basketball season is over, but this is the last year I have any children in school (other than college). So, I'm probably going to miss it. Sometimes.

My Lucky Day!

I don't attend classes on Friday's, so I never know what I'll be doing on those days until I get up that morning.  Friday the 23rd of January was my LUCKY DAY! I got to babysit my newest great-niece, Zaylie! Her mom, my niece, Z (Zanna), is still in high school and needed an emergency babysitter and I was lucky enough to get asked.  Yay! Of course, little Sugar Bear (Zaylie) and Honey Bear (me) took a ton of photos and videos during our time together. Here are a few of my favorite photos:

 She loves to smile and she just turned 3 months old! She's a ton of fun, let me tell you.

 Of course, a lot of napping took place.

And she had a great time with Uncle Kenny. He had her laughing, which I had no idea that babies that age would laugh like she did. Crazy, right?

We haven't been asked to babysit again, but we're waiting for the chance!

Homecoming 2014-2015

Last night was Homecoming at our school. They played Madison. I only went to watch the cheerleaders though. Basketball is not my favorite sport.  Even when my kids were playing. With Small T being the Cheer Captain, she insists that I make an appearance whenever there's a home ball game though. So Big Daddy and I went. Here are a few Cheer Highlights:

 The Cheer Squad during the Girls game. Small T is on the right. The mascot does a great job helping the girls out!

 Small T...while they were announcing the other team. She's actually clapping, you just can't tell.

 At half-time of the boys game, our Cheer girls performed a dance. They did a great job too! Here's a photo of the squad in their dance outfits. Small T is 2nd from the left.

One final photo...Small T and Carissa.  Carissa is Small T's asst. captain.

A Sweet Gesture

Absent from my household this school year is Ty, my nephew.

 Do you remember him?

He stopped by last night to visit and he also brought me something of his to use. My school bag is so heavy that he is loaning me his rolling backpack.

We emptied my bag and filled the rolling backpack up.  It's completely full.  If I had any more textbooks, they wouldn't fit. I tried it out, and it's much better than my tote bag was. Thanks for the loaner, Ty!!! I really appreciate it!

Here We Are Again

Thursday afternoon found us in the doctor's office for 2 hours and then in the Emergency Room for several more. There's so much sickness going around that most everyone is ill, and has been for months now. With Small T having an autoimmune disease, she catches everything, and is seldom healthy. She's only been back at school a week and is sick already.

After fluids and medication, she was feeling a lot better by Friday afternoon though. Hopefully she will stay well for a bit now. It's quite the worry though and it makes it that much harder to send her away to college this coming Fall, knowing that we won't be there when she's ill.

Mississippi Here We Come

Small T will graduate from high school in May and has been applying to different colleges/universities for the 2015-2016 school year. Her first choice is Mississippi State University.  After much thought, my husband and I told her she could apply, and listed our conditions IF she would be accepted.  Well, guess what...she was accepted.  Oh boy.

After several days of sitting on the good news, she announced it to the world. She's thrilled, let me tell you.  I'm so-so with it, but it's getting easier to accept with each day that goes by.

She's going to be around a 12 hour drive from us, if anything should happen.  I'll be saving up airfare money this summer when I'm working full time again.  I'm going to miss her horribly.  :(

Happy Belated Birthday

My nephew, Dakota, turned 21 while he was in Afghanistan. On that day, we all got together, had a drink in his honor, and sent him a group photo, as he requested. While he was home visiting, he called all of us that lived here in town, and we met him at the bar for a little birthday party. We were the only people in the bar the whole night and we had a great time.  Actually, too great of a time.  lol Luckily, we all live within walking distance of the bar and Small T came and took all our vehicles home so no one would be out drunk driving.  She's a good girl. We played pool, listened to the juke box, danced, took our pictures with Santa Claus, and had an all around great time. Happy 21st Dakota! I love you mister! Here are a few highlights of our evening.

 Dakota and I.

 Dakota and his mom, my youngest sister, Annie.

 Big Daddy and I.

 Being silly with 2 of my 5 sisters, Dea (middle) and Annie (right).

 My sister Dea was telling me how to make a really good bread pudding.  lol

 Dea and I.

 Annie.

 My oldest son, Medium J, and I.

 Medium J playing some pool.

 Rose (Dakota's wife), Timmy (my nephew, son of Dea), and Medium J.

Big Daddy and I, acting silly for a selfie in front of the Big Pecan on the way home.

Christmas Vacation - In The Kitchen

 I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen during Christmas vacation. Some of it, simply out of sheer boredom. I'm so used to things being hectic lately that I didn't know what to do with myself and all that spare time on my hands. So I baked.  A LOT.

 It started with a double batch of chocolate chip cookies.  And a week later, another double batch.

 Then it went to a double batch of oatmeal scotchies.

 I tried something new to our house too.

 Holiday Ritz crackers.

 They were really good!  I ended up making 3 batches of these over the course of 2 weeks.  Medium J loved them!

 Another new thing I made was sugar cookies.  I've never taken the time to make them because of the whole "rolling out and cutting them" process.  I was surprised to see that it wasn't nearly that time consuming (or messy).

 I chose to sprinkle sugar on the top instead of icing them. I got a little too much sugar, I think.  lol

I don't have any photos, but I also made peanut butter cookies and peanut blossom cookies (which are my favorite).

I also made puppy chow (for my uncle and a friend's family too) and soda cracker candy (for my uncle).

 A friend shared a recipe for Cheese Logs.  I didn't make them, but I might next year. I'm not exactly sure what a cheese log is though.

 I also made cinnamon ornaments (for the first time).

 Little Miss E wanted to help.  She loved helping in the kitchen and I had to keep some cookie dough in the refrigerator for when she came by because she always asked to bake something.

 She did a great job cutting them out with the cookie cutter!

 And I chose to dry them over the course of a couple of days instead of baking them.  I love the way they looked when they were done.  I tried painting them, but didn't like it at all.