Dancing, Decisions, and Darn Good Reading!

This post is quite delayed, so I apologize for my slackness (if that’s even a word). This one is going to be brief and likely bulleted because there is too much going on in life right now (separate post to come soon) that is consuming us all emotionally. Yes, I just ended a sentence with an adverb, so now you really know this one will be short and sweet. Thank goodness I usually put more effort into these posts and the next one will be very heartfelt. I just want to get this one out of the way for now.

We attended a super bowl party at our neighbor’s house, I went to San Diego for a work trip, we went to a Valentine’s dance at Brayden’s school and made Valentine’s boxes at Hanleigh’s school. Brayden’s class took a field trip to the Nature Museum, which was cool and nostalgic since I remember going there when I was in elementary school. There were also a couple of snow days scattered throughout that time. We spent a quick weekend with Joe and Leslie and got to enjoy an adult night out with them and the Lowe’s. It was a bit too much fun. Sometimes I forget I’m 37. Shortly after that, I enjoyed a fabulous girls’ night with various circles of friends: neighbors, hip hop friends, and moms of Brayden’s friends. Not knowing how everyone would get along, I was slightly nervous, but we had a blast. We enjoyed some excellent Thai food, then went to see 50 Shades of Grey. I was laughing so hard because I thought we were going to get kicked out of the theater. It seemed like most of the girls had snuck wine into the theater and then we were all hootin’ and hollerin’ during the Magic Mike previews while one of my neighbors was dancing in the aisle. Absolutely hilarious! Then, we capped the night off with a few hours of dancing at a local bar. Again, I forgot I was 37. Needless to say, we have another dinner and dancing night on the books soon! I am very blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful women!

We enjoyed a family dinner one evening and a lunch with Grandpa & Grandma Hall and it was great to see everyone during each event. We met with the counselor at Brayden’s school to talk about Hanleigh and when to put her in kindergarten. Her birthday is in August and it was a point of contention in our household for a while trying to decide when to start her. After speaking with the counselor, she said she sees about half of the kids that start on time and the other half start later on. I was on the side of the fence in terms of having her go ahead and start since I could relate to my experience of also being an August birthday. However, what struck me was a point she made about how when Hanleigh is in middle school, if she were to start this year, she would eventually be surrounded by other kids that are an entire year older than her in the same grade and they would be dealing with social situations that she may not be ready to deal with quite yet. That really hit home and we’d rather her be on the older side and be the one that leads others, rather than follows those older than her. Am I looking forward to another year of daycare payments? No way. But, in the end, it’s the right decision.

Brayden is already on the sixth book of the Harry Potter series (and she started reading them during the Christmas break). Glad she doesn’t get the reading gene from her mother…I’ve been reading the same book for about 2 ½ years now (I overdosed on reading in grad school). Her reading level doesn’t surprise me as her school was just ranked the #9 best public school in US! So excited these girls are getting a wonderful education and will be all the way throughout high school. We are in an area where all three schools are ranked the best in the county!

Brayden-isms

• When I give her a kiss at night before I go to bed, she has been talking in her sleep, which is pretty funny. One time, she yelled her best friend’s name, “Cora!”
• One morning when I was waking her up, she was still half asleep and shouted, “You need to find the good morning hat!”

Hanleigh-isms

• We were out to dinner one night and she looked across the parking lot and into a CVS where she could see the large letters on the wall that said “Frozen Food.” Recognizing the word “Frozen”, she started getting excited because she wanted to go over there and see what types of “Frozen Food” there was. We had to explain to her that it wasn’t food related to the movie “Frozen”, but just food that was cold. I’m sure she was bummed.
• “When I toot and burp, my eyes water.”

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