BIG

        
         My girl had a BIG week.  It was one of those weeks that reminds me just how BIG she is getting.  Not size wise, but maturity-wise. And this momma wants to yell at the world "SLOW DOWN!!"
         She is 9.  But she sometimes acts 13.  I get the eye-rolling, the "duhs", the hand on the hip action, the "I Don't Want To Wear That!" yell, and all the loveliness that comes with a mother-daughter relationship.  But as much sass as I get, I get twice as much love and helpfulness.  Seriously, she is the biggest help with Bubba.

        
           This past week was Sissy's first attempt at the TAKS test- here in Texas that's the biggie test... Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.  I am sure every state has their dreaded "test-time" of year.  The thing I hate the most about these tests are how much hype it gets.  Starting in Kinder, these kids are terrified of TAKS.  The whole school goes into a lock-down and no one gets specials or recess (including the younger grades who don't take it).  All this for a 40 minute test...um, what goes on the other 6 hours of the day?  You should see the look in my kids' eyes when you mention TAKS.  It's ridiculous.
         That said, I purposely did not hype it up at home. Besides making her go to bed a little earlier, it was an ordinary day at school.  And I am happy to say, she did great.  And she realized it really wasn't that big of a deal after all.  Big Girl!

         This weekend, after 4 years in Girl Scouts (One year of Daisys & 3 years of Brownies), Sis "bridged" to Junior Scouts.

           They literally crossed a bridge.....

         Ok, so they ran across it.....

         As I have mentioned before, I am proud of my kids' Scouting experience.  It is an incredible organization that brings service, attitude, confidence, and volunteerism to these young girls' minds.  Some of the amazing things our girls worked on this year included organizing a council-wide food drive to stock our local food pantry, selling cookies for troops overseas, and learning about traditions around the world at the World Thinking Day.   And as a Junior, we look forward to tackling more projects that benefit our local and global communities.
         It has turned out to be so much more than just selling cookies and singing songs.  But not that cookie selling is not important to this former-salesman mom.

         Top cookie seller.....oh yeah!   Breeding her early to expect to win.... And people ask us where she gets her competitiveness from!  Huh?  Like you need to ask?