Sucks

Well I've been waiting for this moment since May and it finally came tonight. The Board that governs my place of employment decided tonight to enforce the policy against having relatives employed together which means I'm out of there. They've given me until October 16th to find another job but I'm obviously leaving at the first possible moment. I'm not going to give them one extra moment of my hard work...if they don't want me then they don't get my talents for seven more weeks. I know I sound bitter - and that's because I am. 10 years of dedicated service and being the employee that everyone knows that they can go to for assistance and they decide to let me go because I got married? I'm not going to be the one who suffers...I'll get another job. Good luck to them finding someone to fill my shoes at that job. They can easily find someone to fill my position but finding someone to fill my shoes? 10 years of knowledge of the job, I've held every position in the department, and I know my stuff inside and out. Ha. Good luck to them - they are going to need it!

Libby made friends today!

I picked up Libby this afternoon and she made several friends today!!! Whew! She has two friends in class so far...Katie and Melanie. She also made several friends in her afterschool program at school: Holly, Emma, and some other little girl whose name I can't remember right now. Unfortunately, she is most likely going to be going to a different afterschool program next week but at least she now knows these little girls and they are all also in 2nd grade so when she sees them at lunch, recess, and around school she can talk with them.

I need to change her afterschool program because I currently have her signed up at her school and the only downside to that is that when there are teacher workday/student holidays there will be no daycare and I definitely need daycare on those days. I'm going to check out the other program on Thursday afternoon and hopefully I can get Libby signed up with them. The only difference between the other afterschool program and the one that she is in right now is that the other one is open for teacher workdays/student holidays. Woo hoo! :-)

Today was definitely a success since Libby made friends! I couldn't be happier!!!!!!

First day of 2nd grade!

Today was Libby's first day of 2nd grade. She told me all summer that she was excited about starting a new school and meeting new friends. Well, the time actually came this morning and she was a little bundle of nerves. I could barely get her to crack a smile. I got her up and she got ready and had breakfast. Here she is at breakfast at least giving me a silly smile...

Before we left to head to school she asked if she could take some "friends" so she grabbed two of her favorites to make her feel better on the way to school...

We got to her classroom and she wouldn't look up at anyone...she just sat at her desk with her head down looking so sad.

I wish I had a magic wand that I could wave over her and make her not be shy! Her teacher emailed me after school that Libby did participate in class but at recess she was still shy and hung around the teacher the entire time of recess. :-( Hopefully in the next few days she'll start making friends because I hate seeing her so sad!! Keep your fingers crossed for her!

After I picked her up we came home and had dinner and then we had brownies that Ryan made. Brownies make everything better, right?? :-) We played outside for a while and then it was time for a bath and bed and that was our day.

Family fun day at Camp Kulaqua

This morning we went to church with Ryan's parents and then we headed over to Camp Kulaqua in High Springs - their church rented it out for the day for a Family Fun Day. Camp Kulaqua was great! We had lunch and then went over to the springs for a bit, then we headed over to their zoo that they have and we saw some black leopards,

a playful black bear,

a llama (in the background),

a beautiful tiger,

lemurs and several types of monkeys. From there we headed over to the go-cart area and Ryan rode by himself, Libby rode with me, and Ryan's little niece Deandra rode with Ryan's mom. Ryan came in 1st and Libby and I came in second (that is me and Libby in the background)...

It was a lot of fun out there racing on the track!! After the go-carts we headed over to the waterpark area and they did a few laps in the lazy river then Libby and Deandra went down the loopy water slide many times and then they went over to the wave pool for a while before heading back to the water slide and lazy river...

At 4pm it was time for us to head back home. It's still going to be a busy night. Libby just got a sky ball yesterday and I promised her we could play with it again outside this evening then we have to have dinner then a shower and in bed early tonight to make sure she is ready to get up in the morning for her first day of school. :-( I don't know which I'm more sad about...Libby's first day of school or my first day back from vacation. Ugh, I wish we had another couple of weeks just like the week that we just had!! At least we had a fun week this past week and finished it off having all sorts of fun today!

Tea room and play date

This morning Libby and I left to head to the Tea Room for our Friendship Day tea. Friendship Day was actually at the beginning of this month but we weren't able to go then because Tara was still out of town so we finally made it for our Friendship Day tea today. The four of us are in the Pink Hat Society - which is part of the Red Hat Society. Although my friend Kristina believes it to be a cult ;-) the point of the group is to embrace life with enthusiasm and even silliness and to have fun in everything that you do. After the Tea Room we met up with Libby's friend Riley at Funworks and for three hours they skated, climbed the rock wall, and played in the indoor playground. They had fun but at 6:00pm I was tired, hungry, and ready to go so we came home. Only one more day of summer break and then school start. :-(

Meet the Teacher day

Today was Meet the Teacher day at Libby's school! I can't believe how quickly our week flew by and now she has just two more days of summer break left!

Libby's teacher is Miss Davis...she has taught at Libby's school for three years, then moved down to south Florida with her fiance and taught there for a year and they relocated back here and she is back at Libby's new school. I called Ryan after we left the school and it turns out that one of Ryan's co-workers used to work at Libby's school and he is actually going to be returning to work at Libby's school and he knew Libby's teacher and said she was the best 2nd grade teacher there so that was encouraging! She seems nice and friendly. I hope that we have as great of a 2nd grade year as we've had in Kindergarten and 1st grade!

Build-A-Bear

This morning we slept in a bit and then just hung around the house. We left around 3pm and headed back to Kohl's once again to exchange yet another pair of shoes for Libby. We went earlier in the week to exchange the three pair that I previously bought for her because I had originally purchased her size 1 shoes (which is what she was wearing just a few weeks ago) but apparently now she wears size 3! When we took in the size 1's on Monday to exchange I apparently left with two pair of size 3 shoes and one pair of size 2 shoes. The size 2 shoes just wouldn't fit so we went back today to exchange that for a size 3 and NOW she is ready for school! :-)

After Kohl's we headed to the mall so that Libby could go to Build-A-Bear. Libby chose their new bear that is for Fall...it is a white bear with orange leaves all over it and an embroidered leaf on her nose and also one on her foot. How cute! She took her time picking out an outfit and shoes for her new bear but she new immediately what she was going to name her...Autumn Breeze. :-) After she had her bear we headed over to Starbucks. We were sitting there in Starbucks and she asked me what ages were teenagers and she asked me if I was a teenager. (I LOVE that girl!)

:-) That was possibly her attempt to make up for a comment she made earlier in the week, though. I was talking to her on Monday about our trip to St. Augustine that we were going to take on Tuesday and I told her that the city is over 400 years old and she said, "So, was that before you were born?" She was nearly grounded for that question! :-)

After Starbucks we left and headed over to Ryan's parents house because we were having dinner at their house tonight. We had dinner and then sat and chatted with them for a bit. They just got a new tv two days ago and they know nothing about it so Ryan was showing them how to work it. :-) After a few hours at their house it was time to come home and that sums up our day!

Movies and the park

Wow, I can't believe it is already Wednesday! Miss Libby only has four more days of summer break and then she has to start back to school. :-( I hate how time flies so fast.

This morning we left at 9:30am and picked up her friend Riley who was going to spend the day with us. We went directly to the park to get there before it was too hot to be outside and to be sure to beat the daily rain shower you are guaranteed to have in July and August in Florida. They played for two hours and then it was time to head over to the movies. Libby has been wanting to see G-Force so we went to see that. The girls really liked it...I love hearing Libby belly laugh!! That and her giggle are two of my favorite sounds in the whole world.

After the movie I had to make a quick stop in Wal-mart to pick up a few things that we needed and then it was time to take Riley back home. We got home right at 5:00 and Libby played some Webkinz on the computer for a while and then had dinner. After dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing until it was time for her to go to bed. She went to bed "early" tonight compared to what time she has been going to bed all summer but considering that we are now down to just four more summer days I figured it was time to start getting her back on track for school nights.

St. Augustine

Today Libby and I went to St. Augustine with Karen and her son Wyatt. We left this morning and got there at 10am so that we could beat the crowds. We were hoping to beat the heat, too, but that obviously didn't happen considering that we are in Florida...in August! :-)

We ate some great food and had fun walking around the Ancient City for a few hours. I've been there 100 times but this time I decided to get a little touristy and take some pictures of the beautiful architecture.

You smell like...

Today Libby and I had to go to Kohl's to return the shoes I bought her for school. It seems her feet grew in the last few weeks so we had to take her shoes back and get larger sizes. After that we had a few different stops to make and then our last stop was Toys R Us. My uncle gave Libby $20 yesterday when we were visiting him and it's been burning a hole in her pocket. She has had a specific Barbie in mind that she just "had to have". When we got to Toys R Us at first she couldn't find it but I finally found it and she let out a shriek of pure joy when I handed it to her. :-)

After she found her Barbie we went swimming for about a hour and then it was time to start getting some things done at home. I was out in the garage for a while moving things around since we just got some shelving units for the garage over the weekend. I was in the garage, in Florida, in August - which obviously means it was h.o.t and I was sweating. I came inside and Libby was standing next to me and she leaned in, sniffed me, and then said, "You smell like...cake!" Wow, I eat so much sugar I apparently sweat it! :-)

Libby is home!!

Libby finally came home yesterday! Whew! I couldn't be happier to have her home! Yesterday we just took it easy and hung out at home. Today Libby and Ryan went swimming until it was time for Libby and I to leave to go to the 13th birthday party of Karen's son. We were there for two hours and then left and went to visit my uncle who lives in the same neighborhood as Karen. We visited him for a couple of hours and then we left, stopped at the grocery store, and then came home.

This upcoming week is Miss Libby's last week of summer break so I'm taking the week off to spend the last week of summer break with her. We aren't doing anything big but we'll be sure to do a little something fun each day.

I found out something about myself...

Yesterday Ryan had to go to work (as he does every Saturday morning) and I went out to finish up some things I needed to get done. I then met up with my friend Karen and she and I went to my friend Amanda's for a Pampered Chef party. I would have sworn that it was the consultant's first time doing a show because she was all over the place...it turns out that she had been doing it for a year and a half! She definitely didn't do a good job in making me WANT to buy any of her product but luckily for Amanda I went in there with something already in mind that I really wanted from seeing in another friends kitchen. The second thing I was going to get Karen said that she actually owned and never used so she told me not to buy it and that she would give me hers. WOO HOO! :-) After about two hours there it was time to go.

My friend Machelle who lives in Orlando was in town for the weekend so after leaving the Pampered Chef party I met up with her. She had some shopping to do so I went to the mall with her. After doing that for a while I was starving so we went to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant that we had been wanting to try for a few weeks. I SWEAR I'm not much of a drinker - I just never care for it but we got there and we had to wait about 20 minutes for our table -and it was happy hour- so she twisted my arm and drug me over to the bar and I got a frozen margarita (I know Tanja, you are jealous!). :-) Well, the thing I learned about myself is...it turns out that after five margaritas I get a bit giggly. Not only do I get giggly but I also get awfully dang funny - at least that's what Machelle and I thought. :-) At one point sitting at the bar she was laughing so hard she was crying and she told me I should be a stand up comic...so of course I slid my bar stool out and stood up to continue with my humor. We had a great time! :-)

The boy is a shopper!

Tonight I somehow very easily talked Ryan into going to Kohl's with me. They are having another doorbuster sale (they do that every weekend, don't they? That's why Kohl's is moving very quickly up my list of "favorite stores"..it's starting to rival Wal-mart in my book!!). I'm still looking for P.E. shoes for Libby...I already bought her two pair of shoes for school but neither of which would be allowed in P.E. class because they don't have laces. I found a pair and they had a good sale price so I was all set. However, Ryan had other things in mind. We left there with Libby's shoes and Ryan got two dress shirts, two dress pants for work, a new pair of dress shoes, and a new dress belt. Oh...my...goodnesss. I nearly vomited at the checkout register! :-) My wallet had planned on just getting one pair of shoes...not one pair of shoes and half of a guy's work wardrobe!! :-)

Christmas in August

I had to switch my day off to Wednesday this week. Today I slept in until 9am which was nice! I got up and cleaned for a while...the only thing I didn't do was laundry and that was because there isn't enough of it to do, yet, since I just did laundry on Sunday. :-) After cleaning I ate lunch and then I started my Christmas marathon...I watched three Christmas movies and drank hot chocolate all afternoon!! :-) That's my kind of day!! :-)

Our Sunday

Today was a relaxing day...we slept in and then had waffles for breakfast. We went and took care of some shopping - in Chiefland of all places! Chiefland has the closest Wal-Mart supercenter to us now that we live in Newberry. Chiefland is a small very country town - but hey, it's bigger than Newberry! :-) After that we came home for a bit and I finished up the laundry and then we had to make a quick trip to Home Depot. We had a late lunch so I wasn't hungry for dinner but at about 8:30 I found myself in the kitchen making myself a small dinner that would satisfy even the strictest of health nuts...S'MORES! :-) Mmmmmm, good! :-)

School shopping...ugh!

This morning I decided to go out and do the shopping for Libby's school clothes because some stores were having door-buster sales this morning. What a waste of a day!!! I first hit Kohl's where I always find tons of clothes for Libby - and they are always on steep clearance or have a really good sale price. Well today I found nothing. Nada. Not a darn thing. I then headed over to the mall because JC Penney was also having a door-buster sale. There were people walking around with mounds of clothes in their arms and grabbing at things like it was the day after Thanksgiving sale! Me, I couldn't find anything. Not one single thing. Are you kidding me? I went into every store in the mall that has kids clothes and found NOTHING! Well, that's not exactly true...I did find two pair of shorts for me at Dillard's marked down to $7.49 each! :-) After hours of searching for clothes for Libby I finally gave up (simply because I was out of stores to try!). After a stinky day like that I did what anyone would do...I decided to drink away my problems...I strolled over to Starbucks and got a grande white chocolate mocha...that always solves everything!! :-)