Picture Overload - 1st Day of 8th Grade

My beautiful daughter, Olivia.

Traditional picture by the lamp post

A close up (I used the flash so she's a little whiter than normal)

Striking a natural "I'm 13 and cool" pose

First time for highlights. She LOVES them.

Today is Olivia's last first day of middle school. Next year, it's on to the high school. She'll be one of over 3,000 kids. Yeah, that's H.U.G.E.! But, let's not go there yet. We'll get thru 8th grade and then move on.

This morning went very smooth. Olivia got up to her own alarm and ipod. She got ready, had breakfast and let me take pictures. Then, she was off. I did text her once I knew she was on the bus to see how everything was going. I'm sure she was overwhelmed with socializing because I never heard from her. Go figure.

I'm anxious to see how her first day was and read paperwork she'll bring home regarding supplies, etc that each teacher will require.

Here's to hoping the rest of the school year is as smooth as the first day.

A girl can dream, right?

The day before

Well, it's the last day of summer vacation for Olivia. It's the day before school starts. How in the world can my little girl be starting 8th grade? The last year of middle school. I really think time is flying too fast. I say it EVERY.SINGLE. YEAR. and I mean it.

A little later Olivia and I are going to head over to school so she can get her locker set up and take a quick tour to see where her classes are. Although the 8th grade open house isn't until next week (doesn't make sense to me), I feel it's best if Olivia gets a chance to see how far apart her classes are and how much time she'll have to socialize in between. We all know that's the focus of the day, right??!!

I've already asked her to get her clothes laid out and have everything ready today. A little over kill, but it makes me feel better. The less stress tomorrow morning, the better. Her backpack is ready and packed with the little bit she'll need on the 1st day. I know all the teachers will send home lists with detailed items needed, so I didn't buy too much ahead of time.

Over the past couple days I've been "reminding" Olivia that we WILL take pictures by the lamp post before she heads to the bus stop. It's a tradition! She'll be fine with it, but always likes to give me a hard time.

So, the next post I make will most likely be with the pictures taken on the 1st day of 8th grade.

Ready....set...study!

End of Summer

As an end of the summer event, Olivia and I went to a waterpark located about 1hr 20min away. We've been before and always have a good time. It's called Deep River Waterpark and you can get information here.

The day started very cloudy and dreary. As we drove I couldn't help but wonder if we were making the right decision. I knew the weather channel indicated it would be partly cloudy and a high of 84 but I sure was nervous.

Well, within an hour of getting there, the clouds broke apart and the sky turned blue with only a few puffs of white things left in the sky. It did get to the low 80's and was a perfect, perfect day. A great day to end the summer before school starts next week.

Cutie Patootie

I haven't posted any pictures of Leighton lately, but today I'm going to. I'm still babysitting almost every Friday which has worked out real well and is so, so much fun.

In 2 short months we will celebrating his 1st birthday. Time flies incredibly fast.

Leighton is unbelievably into music. It runs in his blood. Both his dad, Ryan and grandpa, Tom play instruments. He's got the beat!!

In addition to crawling all over the place, he pulls himself up on everything and even walks behind his push toy. He has 6 teeth. His 2 bottom arrived in April and all 4 on top (yes, all 4) arrived about a month ago all within a week of each other. Crazy, huh?

He's a messy, messy kid. It's hard to get a picture without something on his face, clothing, body, etc. Yesterday was no exception. Oh well. He's a great baby with a perfect disposition so I can deal with the messiness!

It's alot of fun having a little one around the house again. But boy oh boy is it tiring. Ha!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Groove, Inc.

This post is about my husband, Tom and the band he's in called Groove, Inc. Tom has been playing keyboards for over 40 years. He's been in many, many bands during his late teen/adult years. Some he has enjoyed tremendously, some not so much. This band, he L-O-V-E-S.

The guys in the band each have multiple years of experience in their own field of instrument. Each guy is a family man and takes their music seriously. They get a long great and truly enjoy and appreciate each other. That's hard to find (according to Tom).

Band members are:

Tom - keyboards

JR - vocals

John - guitar

Bill - bass

Shawn - drums

Some of the artists they play are:

Journey, Styx, AC/DC, Foreigner, Great White, Bon Jovi, Ted Nugent, Maroon 5 and many others. Lots and lots of good dance music.

Most weekends they are playing either Friday and Saturday nights, or at least one or the other. Very rarely do they have a weekend off. When they do, it's kind of odd having Tom home during the evenings (ha).

Last night the band played as close to home as possible (about 20 minutes from our house) and so we got a group of about 20 people to head out to support the band. They did not dissapoint. A GREAT time was had by all. Here are a few pictures of the night.

To end the post, I'll leave you with this video of Tom doing what he does best! Enjoy!