Sweet 16 And Never Been Kissed

 We started off Sweet 16 with taping the door. The kids used to love doing this to each other. It has lost some  (all?) of its appeal now, but I did it for old times sake.

Daisy spent the day with her friend Sam at Six Flags. When we picked her up she surprised Daisy with a little birthday cake and she even brought a match for the candle when we sang Happy Birthday.

Unfortunately, it rained all day. They only got to go on two rides the whole time they were there. 

The birthday girl's choice of dinner: Cain's.

In addition to Six Flags being rained out, her big birthday gift was hung up somewhere in the delivery process. So overall she was a bit underwhelmed with her 16th birthday.

Even though she was underwhelmed with the day, I am anything but underwhelmed with her. This girl is as determined and as sassy as they come. My Daisy is not afraid to try new things. She is happiest when she is busy, which keeps me busy driving her there and back, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Daisy loves her family whole-heartedly, and I love her back just as much.

[May 30]

**outtakes**

12-10-7 And Zeke's Last Last Day

Well this happened fast.

This last day of school hit a little harder than all the others.

Here is my little boy, from the beginning to the ending, all grown up.

And there they go.

"Three fingers. Have a good day. Love you."

Last drop off for this guy.

Of course we did our 13-year tradition of last day of school ice cream with Grannie.

Time is ruthless.

[May 23]

My Lion(ess)

 I am on a couple email lists to be an extra. A TV series called Lioness is being filmed in Fort Worth. I submitted my interest for several opportunities. They emailed me back right away and explained that they were wanting me to audition for the part of 'mom!' 

This would be considered a 'featured extra,' meaning you would be in the actual scene and not just in the background. One of the main characters in the series is a doctor. He comes out and tells the parents that their daughter didn't make it through surgery and the mother faints. I was to send in a video of me fainting to audition for the part. 

In the initial email they also said if I had a husband or boyfriend that I could send a picture and he could actually play my husband in the scene. Abe and I thought it would be fun if we both could do it together. So I made Abe a profile on the site, and told them he would be willing to do it with me.

The day before the shoot Abe asked if I got an email from them. I said no, did you? He did. They wanted him to play the part of dad! I was like, "No way does he get to be the dad and I get to do nothing!!" But that's exactly what happened. 

Abe wasn't sure if he should go without me since being an extra is my thing and not his. But I told him he needed to go just to say he did it. I felt like the girl who just got dumped and was sitting at home feeling sorry for herself while her ex was out living his best life with his new girlfriend, or in this case, his new tv wife.😓

When he arrived, they bussed them from parking to an actual hospital. He then was sent to wardrobe. They gave him three outfits to model and took his picture in each.

He also went to hair, which is funny because he doesn't have a whole lot of hair to style.

As it turns out, there were three men there that the casting company was interested in playing the part of Dad. After getting dressed with wardrobe, they took each guy's picture in each of the three outfits and showed the director, who then picked one to be the dad. Unfortunately, Abe did not get picked. But they said he could stay and be background. At this point he had already invested a few hours, so he stayed.

It didn't take long for Abe to figure out that there is a whole lot of sitting around when you're an extra. After the extras had been sitting for a bit (as in hours), Abe suddenly woke up in his chair. No one was there! 😧 I get a good chuckle when I think of the other people who were waiting. First of all, he was probably snoring. Second of all, you know they were perplexed when it was time to leave; I'm sure they all looked at each other  like, "Are you gonna wake him? Because someone should. We shouldn't just leave him. But I'm not gonna wake him, you do it." No one chose to do it, so he just sat sleeping in that chair for who knows how long. 😆

After waking he walked outside to a tent to see if the group of extras were there. They were not. However, steak and salad was being served so he sat down to dinner. I'm pretty sure that meal was for the talent and not the extras, because extras get food like sandwiches and chips. But he walked in with confidence and nobody stopped him. Then he went back inside to a still empty waiting room.  Finally he found someone to ask. The group had traveled upstairs to a holding room. 

During filming the camera kept changing angles, and Abe thinks in the end he probably won't even be in the background. Such is the life of an extra. The night before and that night he kept getting texts about it. He was in the super secret "extras group chat" that I was not a part of. Like in high school and you just want to be a part of the group with the cool kids. 😐 One of the last texts was about the $150 he earned for a day of filming. If you wanna check it out for yourself, he will be part of Lioness Season 2, episode 4.

[May 22]

All The Things

 May is a busy time of the year with school events, and having a senior adds to the craziness. But we got it all done with only a few conflicts! One Friday we had a quiet before the storm and got in a family game night with lots of laughter.

Chuey always likes to be in the middle of the game.

We kicked off May with Abe's 50th birthday.

We missed Nathan's graduation from Auburn, but we're proud of his accomplishment!

Zekers earned his National Honor Society Stole to wear at graduation, signifying membership in this elite academic club. 

NHS was founded in 1921 and is based on the four pillars of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

A big tree fell over in the backyard, adding extra work for us (meaning mostly Abe) as we got it cut down into small pieces to carry to the curb and repaired the fence.

We bought and planted Geoftree to fill the gap. Zeke thought we should use the weird spelling, and I like adding GeofTREE to end instead of GeofREY. But I don't prefer that spelling, so I call it /gee-off-tree/.

This is how excited the kids were about our new tree.

Zeke and I attended the Alice Carlson Applied Learning Center senior clap out. 

All of the senior alumni return to their elementary as the little kids clap them down the hallway. Then they  all meet up in the library to catch up.

This was Cindy's class. Zeke is the only one in green.

Zeke and Izzy are the only two former classmates who attend Hills.

There was also a senior clap out for all of the feeder elementary schools. All of the Hills kids went to the middle school and all of the 4 elementary schools.

Since Zeke attended Waverly Park for kinder and 1st, he was part of the group photo for that school.

They posted some pics on their site and our friend who attended with us all those years ago saw it and sent it to me.

The assistant band teacher is also the middle school band teacher. So when we arrived, Zeke's band teachers were there playing a cadence, making it quite festive.

Ms. Hinds and Ms.Whiddon had the middle school band students create signs for each of the senior band kids.

Mata (Zeke's theatre teacher) posted this:

His band teacher handed Zeke his envelope of accomplishments on Senior Award Day. She told him how heavy it was, so he pretended that it was heavy to carry. When the principal shook his hand she commented on how humble he was. 😂 

I am proud of how hard this boy works. He received awards for earning his associate degree, Superintendent Scholar, International Thespian Society, OnRamps Honor (college classes offered through UT), blood drive, and Ann Brannon awards for Outstanding Achievement in Band and Academic Excellence in OnRamps Biology.

We enjoyed Eli's spring band concert.

We enjoyed Zeke's spring band concert, as well.

Zeke, Dom and A'Leena performed their winter guard piece at the concert.

Ms. Hinds honored the seniors with a sweet collage on a canvas.

Ms. Hinds also acknowledged another senior mother and myself for helping the band the past couple years. That was a sweet surprise!

Ms. Hinds and Ms. Whiddon were the first two teachers that Zeke met at band camp before school even started. They have been some of our favorites! Ms. Lagunas was the winter guard leader this year.

The whole family attended the band banquet, which was at Rollerland West.

Zeke was presented the Patrick S. Gilmore Band Award. Gilmore was a bandmaster during the Civil War, and he performed at inaugurations, festivals, centennial celebrations and the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. This award is presented to band members all across the nation and it honors outstanding high school band students and their achievements and commitment to the band.

I am thankful that Ms. Hinds and Ms. Whiddon see Zeke for what a great person that he is. I am also grateful that Ms. Hinds helped Zeke find his place at Hills. We were on our way to Kansas that first summer back to the US and I received a phone call from the high school. It was the band teacher informing us of band camp two weeks prior to school starting. After explaining that Zeke decided to take theatre class during that hour and he was going to drop band, she encouraged him to go to band camp any way; that way he would at least know a few familiar faces in the halls the first week of school. Once camp started he quickly remembered how much he enjoyed band and the rest is history. He found his people.

AdvisoCon is a big day at Eli's school. All of the students get to choose an advisory class each year. They learn specific things about that topic and go on field trips related to it. At the end of the year they present to the parents and other students.

Eli's advisory this year was textile arts. They learned to crochet and embroidery, among other things. Apparently crochet involves a lot of math skills.

Lijee made me an axolotl. Pretty impressive!

That's a lot of the things that kept us running through May. I am proud at how much effort my kids put into their school activities and academics. They continue to amaze me.

[May]