I'm Not But A Little Proud

Two of Katherine's recent pictures...

The saddle is an incredibly detailed charcoal drawing. Honestly, I don't know how she does it. (Click on the image below to see the fine details.)


The snowcone is an oil painting based on a photograph that Katherine took. She's won two blue ribbons on this one and it now hangs in her dorm room.
Can't wait to see what the professors at SFA think.

August Busy

Summer is officially over around the first Monday in August because that's when volleyball practice resumes. Rebecca attended three days of practice this year and decided that she had more important ways of spending her time than getting yelled at for dropping balls. Hallelujah! This has changed our weekly schedule to be sure, and we are all loving the extra time. That's not to say we haven't been busy.

Here are the girls on the first day of school

August 16, 2010

Rebecca is a sophomore and the class president. Her classes are Algebra 2, Chemistry, Spanish I, English and World History. She will play basketball and run track. Abigail is in the 8th grade and her schedule includes Algebra 1, American History, English and Earth Science. She is playing volleyball and plans to play basketball and run track.

Rebecca had another milestone on August 25 -

She got her braces off!

Katherine moved into her dorm at Stephen F. Austin State University
on August 27. She begins classes on August 30. Her schedule
includes: Art - Drawing I, Art - 2D Design, English, U.S. History,
Math, and SFA 101 for a total of 16 hours.

Abigail and Emma after a long day of volleyball.

We are in the process of remodeling the upstairs of our house now that Katherine is gone. Rebecca has moved into Katherine's old room and Abigail has moved into Bec's old room. This left me with an entire room to devote to my scrapbook stuff (yay!!!) and to create a nice little alcove for Katherine to sleep in when she comes home. As rooms become less chaotic and more beautiful, I will post pictures.

Genetic Predisposition or Learned Behavior?

Can it get any scarier when you look at your child and realize, "Oh my! She's a mini-me!" This opens up the mind for all types of worry because, believe me, she not only received my best qualities but the worst ones, too!

Look at the eyes. The eyebrows. The smiles. And it really goes so much deeper than that, which got me to wondering...is she genetically predisposed to my personality type as well as physical attributes? And I think the answer to that may be a resounding "YES!" when she gets angry, storms out of a room, stomps up the stairs and slams her door, and Jeff looks at me and says, "Uh huh...little Genny!" By the way, I HATE it when he does that. It makes me want to storm out of the room, stomp up the stairs and slam a door or two.

The worst part of the "knowing her" (if she is indeed just like me) is knowing all the things she will have to go through before she realizes that she won't always be right and you can't control the behavior of others. Trust me. It's a lifelong lesson. I've always believed that if people would just do things my way the world would be a happier place. For all of us. Especially me.

The other thing to note here is that we do have many redeeming qualities that balance out our obsessive-compulsive tendencies and door-slamming skills:
~We are very loyal.
~We make good friends.
~We love to encourage others.
~It makes us happy when you are happy. (and giving gifts to you makes us happy)
~We are rule followers.
~We will always be on time. (which is 10 minutes early)
~Our closets are arranged according to color.

Sorry about that last one. It's just who we are.