Already?

Alyssa came home from school yesterday and informed me that a boy in her class asked her to go to the dance with him!

She is 9 and in the 4th grade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff cracked me up. He got real pale and said "Already?"

HE HE HE!!!

My Response

To all my devoted readers...

NA NA NA BOO BOO - YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!!!

Just a response to my comments. Uncle Bruce is mine, and I am not giving him away nor am I borrowing him out! He's mine! All mine!!!

I truly am soooooooooooo sorry that you don't have your own personal "Uncle Bruce", but I am NOT sharing!

Bye, Bye old Tub!

We are busy, busy, busy! And to top it off, living in the midst of chaos. I know, what's new right? Well, this chaos is self inflicted!

We have a lovely cape cod home. We bought the house 10 years ago and have been slowly remodeling. I have wanted to remodel the bathroom for a long time. The problem is that we only have one bathroom! Well, we decided to take advantage of the long Easter weekend and start the remodel. The wonderful, amazing Uncle Bruce came over bright and early Friday morning and began swinging the sledge hammer at the old, HEAVY, cast iron tub. Thursday night, we tore off old molding, pulled down the old shower surround, and emptied everything out of the bathroom. So, back to Friday. Bruce had the old tub out in one hour!!! We then tore all the old dry wall out from around the tub. By the time Jeff got home from work at noon, Bruce was already working on the plumbing. By the end of the day on Friday, the new tub was installed and the plumbing was all in place! Saturday, the new dry wall went in and the shower surround was being installed. Sunday, the rest of the surround was installed and the caulking got done. Monday, Bruce had to stop over after work to replace the drain pipe that was leaking! Even after breaks for church, dinner, and the Easter Bunny, we have a working shower again! Yea!!!

We now need to replace the remainder of the dry wall in the bathroom and reinstall the vanity, prime, paint, and we are done! We are hoping to have it all complete by this weekend. I am repainting the bathroom cabinet and some of the accessories, so I have a lot of work to do!

So that is a summary of our chaos. Now, for some AWESOME news. Alyssa has been awarded "Student of the Month". The defining character trait this month was perseverance. We know how hard Alyssa works but having others recognize the fact that she doesn't give up is just priceless!!!

Also, more great news! Those of you that have been around awhile know that Alyssa has been lucky to have the most awesome, wonderful teacher, Mrs. M, for the past three years. Well, there has been a lot of realignment in the district for next year and YES, you guessed it, Mrs. M has been moved to 5th grade next year and Alyssa will be in her class!!! Someone is definitely looking out for us!!! Alyssa has been so successful in school and I have every confidence that the success will continue!

Update on the job search........... No change!!! There are so many BIG companies in our town closing that the unemployment rate in this city is almost 13%. We had a big manufacturing influence and the economy has hit hard! I applied for a job yesterday that had just been posted online 4 hours earlier. I received an email thanking me for my application, but there had been so many responses that applications were no longer being accepted! 4 hours people!!!

So, I'm off to work on the bathroom. We don't have a sink in there yet, but we can shower and use the toilet, I can deal!

I will try to check in when I can. In the meantime, you are all in my thoughts!

Progress

I am a proud Mom!

These last couple of weeks have been different. I posted that we have seen a resurgence of control issues. While that is true, we have also seen a change in Alyssa's overall behavior. We are starting to be "in tune" with each other. I remember having that kind of connection with my Mom, and I am now starting to have it with Alyssa! I can't describe how good that feels! We have been getting along better and Alyssa has been much more respectful!

Our home is calmer, more loving, and we are all working together! It is a wonderful feeling to see the security in my daughter's eyes! Change is possible, healing is possible. I know we will continue to have ups and downs, but I see a bright future ahead of us. My biggest wish for Alyssa has always been that she just be a normal kid. A child that knows she is loved no matter what, a child that is happy and feels secure. Alyssa is becoming that kid and it is the greatest feeling in the world!