Family * Travel * Food

How teens are giving our community a little H.O.P.E. this holiday season

My high school daughter, Briahnna is one very busy student. She is involved in two magnet programs at school and takes all honors/IB courses. She is the sport's editor of her yearbook and is also involved in the Youth Action Council as well as H.O.P.E.. HOPE stands for Helping Other People Everywhere. The HOPE organization at her school collects coats, unwrapped toys and non-perishable food items for needy families in the community. Each year the HOPE chair sets a goal on how many food items they want to collect. The goal this year is over 20,000. Being involved in HOPE means that you have to sacrifice time on the weekends as well as after school. That is very hard with Briahnna's demanding courses, but she manages to get the job done! They have students volunteer for a time slot to collect food donations in front of grocery stores that have given them permission to do so. It's a win-win since the store will sell the items that end up being donated and the teens are able to have a secure place for collections.

As a family, we all pitch in and help where we can. I have volunteered to help purchase food items with any money they collect, since I know how to stretch a buck! Briahnna and a couple of her team members set up in front of Sam's Club last weekend and just in their 2-hour shift, they FILLED my very large car trunk and part of the back seat with so many donations! We helped her to get the items to the storage unit on the school campus to be sorted when they got back to school that following week.
I am so proud of Briahnna and her fellow HOPE team members for all of the time they are putting in to help others. Brie has really been enjoying herself despite having to wake up early some Saturday mornings. She is very passionate about this worthy cause.
We have used this time to explain how important it is to help others to little William. He really enjoyed helping to bring items into the food storage unit. He was sad when he learned that there are so many families who don't have a lot of food in their home. He was devastated when he found out that some kids may not get any toys for Christmas. I love that he is understanding it as much as a five year old can.
HOPE will collect food donations until the second week of December. They are already off to such an amazing start and I anticipate they will make their goal. All of the coats, food and toys will be delivered to a local food bank to distribute to needy families in our community. I look forward to attending the unveiling of all their hard work at the HOPE Assembly next month. I will be sure to post an update.
SHARE:

More good stuff from our talented teen

I just had to share Brie's latest art project that she is working on for school. She is currently in an advanced class and has been given some challenging assignments. This particular one is a large sketch/drawing of an elderly lady with a scarf on her head. If you saw the original photo she is using to do this project, you would be amazed how close it is to the real thing. Her project is not done and she still has add her final touches. So far, it looks amazing!
She is such a talented young lady and we are so very proud of her! Brie attended a conference for high school students in journalism yesterday and her yearbook teacher submitted a layout she did for the yearbook for a contest. It turns out, she won! My girl has so much talent and she continues to amaze us. I always tell people that she is the girl I dreamed I could have been. Way to go, Brie!

Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

The artist of the house, Brie

Our daughter Brie is such an outstanding artist. She had to draw a horse's eye for an art assignment and it blew us all away with how realistic it looks! She is in an advanced art class that she was recommended to be in from her teacher last year. She wasn't going to take the class at first, but decided to keep it. I am glad she did! There is no need to waste pure talent like that. Great job Brie!


Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

What do you do when you are allergic to everything?

For many years now, our daughter Briahnna has been going through treatment for a variety of allergies. Her first 2 series of allergy testing revealed that she was allergic to all the elements dealing with the outdoors as well as dust, mold, pet dander etc.... Today we took her to get tested since it has been about 3 years and this time was a big shock to us all. She had 30 different allergens injected into both forearms. The left arm was all  foods and the right was pollen, trees and other non-food things. She also had a series of individual outdoor allergens injected via needles into her upper arm. It turns out that she tested positive for everything! 

 You see how raised her skin is? She is allergic to just about everything it seems including all pollen, mold, grass, weeds, trees, dust, pets, and virtually anything that floats in the air.

She never had food allergies before and now she does. Although her food allergies are not all at dangerous levels, it still surprised us since they are the everyday type of things. Now she can only incorporate eggs, potatoes, chicken and several other foods into her diet every 4-5 days. Other things like tomatoes, pecans, peanuts and corn should be avoided all together. We were told that the symptoms of food allergies can vary from headaches, sneezing, itching, nausea or upset stomach. It was recommended for Brie to start a food diary to see what type of reaction she has to the foods she is more allergic to. If they are something she can live with, she can continue to eat them. She made the joke that she would not have been offended if she was allergic to carrots, cucumbers or other foods she does not care for to begin with. The good thing is she will continue on the allergy shots which have helped her immensely. She will have to go from one injection each week to three. Thankfully she is very laid back and does just fine with that sort of thing.

I do recommend that if your child shows symptoms of allergies, you should get them allergy tested. It is so important to know the triggers so you can do your best to avoid them. We were also told that allergy symptoms change every two years.

Do you or your child suffer from allergies that require regular treatment?
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Braces update

Brie has been in braces for about a year and 5 months now. Last year in December, she had oral surgery to have a baby tooth removed and to expose the adult tooth that has been growing in the roof of her mouth. It's hard to believe that she still had a baby tooth in the front at the age of 15! Not only that, it would not budge!! She got the tooth extracted at the dentist and went to a specialist for the other part. She had to be asleep for the procedure. It was a rough recovery at first, but luckily she was back to normal within a few days. Now her adult tooth has joined in with the rest of her teeth and is coming along well. We have seen a dramatic change so far and it looks like we will stay on schedule and she will have them on about another year and a half. She recently had some raised fillings put on a couple of her back teeth to help control her chewing. She was devastated and thought she would not be able to eat normally. Well that was short lived.  To say that you are required to watch a video on all the things to avoid with braces apparently meant nothing for Brie! She finds a way to enjoy all of her favorite foods with the exception of crunchy granola.

Thankfully her journey with braces has not been too bad. It has been really neat watching the transformation. The expense is enormous, but well worth every dime we are putting into it :)
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Wordless Wednesday {Art}

I just had to share Brie's work that she created in her art class at school. Brie says that this is a girl who is depressed because her secrets got out. This is a really big piece so I might have to end up getting it custom framed. We love it!

Those are locks and keys in the tree. Cool huh?
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Our experience with allergy shots

When my daughter Briahnna was about 7, she started suffering from severe headaches. It went from maybe 2-3 times a week to 24/7 over the course of a few years. We took her to the doctor and he recommended an MRI. It came out fine. He had her go through it again. Two tests later, nothing. He couldn't figure out what was causing it. He then sent us over to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. She has her first allergy test when she was about 10. Turns out she was suffering from all the elements in the air... dust, pollen, pet dander and everything else. She was put on allergy medication and it started to help. Her headaches stopped and she was feeling normal again. Well that lasted all of about 3-4 months. The ENT tried changing her meds and although it would work for a while, it eventually stopped. There was always the discussion about allergy shots and I was really not sure how I felt about it. I did know that I was really tired of seeing my child suffer like she was. Finally we gave in and started her on the allergy shot. She would go once a week and get check-ups to see how she was progressing every 3 months. Literally within her first 3-4 months there was a drastic change with the headaches. They were getting less and less. Now she has been going for the shots for about 3 years and lives headache free. It was one of the best decisions we could have made. I wish we did is sooner but like I said, I was very skeptical.

Do you or anyone in your family suffer from allergies? Do you get the shot?

Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Wordfull Wednesday | A priceless keepsake

Growing up as a child was not very easy for me. I had a very different upbringing from my peers and had a lot of self-esteem issues. Honestly, a lot of my days were very sad. I had this sheet I slept with every single night since I was very little (maybe  4 or 5). There was nothing glamorous about it. It was just a simple light blue bed sheet with butterflies on it.



There was something so special about this sheet though. Over the years it had become so worn that you can practically see through it. It feels like silk and has not one single hole in it. I left my parent's home when I was just 17 years old. I was not allowed to take anything with me but I did manage to grab my "blue sheet". I went through so much over the years but always had my sheet to comfort me. I still have this special sheet after all these years and have even put it in my will for Briahnna to have when I pass away. She has always had a thing for butterflies and it seemed fitting for her to have it. I no longer sleep with my sheet but I do keep it around the house to remind me how much I have grown as a person. 

Do you have a special keepsake that you won't let go of?
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Homemade is best

My 15 year old daughter Briahnna recently had a project for her Spanish class in which she had to bring in a food item from a specific country. She was assigned the country of Argentina. She browsed recipes and did her best to pick something that did not require us to have to buy too many ingredients. She chose Alfajores... basically two sugar cookies sandwiched together with dulce de leche (caramel). We almost considered purchasing store bought cookies and caramel but felt like it would have been cheating to do so. All in all, it was a long process of baking in batches and making the caramel filling. It took about 3 1/2 hours altogether. In the end it was well worth it. My daughter felt so proud of what she made and enjoyed her time in the kitchen. As for myself, I was so proud of my budding cook/foodie! She got to see and taste the difference by making something from scratch using high-quality ingredients. Her classmates and teacher enjoyed the cookies and she got an 'A' on the project.

She mixed up a batch of sugar cookie dough and I taught her a simple technique to make each cookie very uniform  in shape and size. 
The dulce de leche took about 2.3 hours to make! It came out really good though. This is one of those things that takes a lot of patience!
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Freshie!

Here is our high school freshman dressed and ready to start her first day at her new school!
You can't see it but her bands on her braces are in her school colors...orange and blue.

We attended the freshman parent breakfast and it looks like Brie is going to have an amazing year.

Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Update on the girls

Last week was a busy week. The girls completed volleyball tryouts and they both made the team. Chardie will be on Varsity and Brie will play JV and will also get to join in on Varsity practice as well as get a little play time if they need her. They are both pretty happy and are excited about the season. They also picked up their schedules and got all the classes they needed. Remember in past posts how happy I was to finally have both girls in one place so I don't have to be scattered around all over town? Well they will be going to the same school and will playing the same sport except their schedules are very different. One has early bird and the other doesn't. One will have early dismissal second semester and the other one doesn't. So, you know what this means.... yep, scattered around again. We came up with a solution for mornings though. I will take them at the 2 different times for a couple weeks until Brie becomes comfortable with her new school and then she will get dropped off early with her sister. She will be able to go to the library at that time. It still freaks me out that both my girls are in high school! As far as afternoons go I still have about 4 months before that happens. I am looking forward to the girls going back to school in a week so I can focus more on teaching little Will his school lessons at home.

Has school started back in your city yet? Are you prepared?
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Orbeez Review

I recently received an Orbeez Light-up Star Lamp to review. This toy came with packets of these itty bitty pellets called Orbeez that come in a variety of colors. When you soak them in water for 3 hours or overnight they grow into cool gel-like balls. With the Orbeez Light-up Lamp you choose 3 colors (must include clear as one) and once you "grow" your Orbeez, you drain them and fill them in the star container.

Once the star is filled you screw on the light-up cap and turn it onto the base (requires 3 AAA batteries not included). Now you just flip the switch and watch the Orbeez light up and change colors. It is such a cute item and I think any girl would like this. Although my daughters are teenagers this still appeals to them. Come to think of it, I am 37 and I want one for my desk!

Orbeez items can be purchased at Amazon.com, Kmart, Walmart, Target and ToysRUs (online and in stores for some major retailers)

Check Orbeez out on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Oldest child = Guinea pig

I was listening to the girls having a conversation the other day about high school issues. Chardie was explaining to Brie how good she has it since her big sister has already been there and done that. Chardie said that it is not fair that she is the guinea pig for everything and then Brie seems to have things so easy. It is hard being the oldest sibling according to Chardie. You work so hard to figure things out and it seems as if things are just handed to your younger siblings. We always have to remind Chardie that this is nothing new. It has been this way forever and she is not the only big sister to go through it. Hey, at least Brie has an excellent role model! Chardie makes Brie want to be even better. You can't beat that!!

The girls are having volleyball tryouts this week. They are both very excited about it and I look forward to the upcoming season. At least this year I will be at ONE location only. I am SO happy about that!

Have a great week my friends :)
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

When the hubby has the camera...

Obviously no one pays attention...

And there is usually a lack of focus.

I will admit, that face is adorable!!

Happy Friday friends! Have a great weekend and stay cool :)

Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:
I am so happy that the girls have returned from their volleyball camp in Charleston. They both had a great time and learned a lot. Of course after visiting College of Charleston, they are both considering applying there. I would be fine with that since it is only 2 hours away. It was certainly very quiet with them gone! Well, it's time to go cook them a big ole dinner. Have a great day friends! :-)
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

My girls are gone :-(

I woke up this morning at 4:30 so I could take the girls to meet up with their volleyball teammates to board the bus to Charleston for a 3-day camp. You would not believe the amount of stuff 2 teenage girls carry along for such a short time! I tell you what though, I miss them already. As a matter of fact I started missing them since Monday. William woke up this morning and gave his usual good morning greetings. He then asks to go downstairs so he can see his girls. Yep, he refers to his sisters as "my girls". I told him that they were not home and he got teary eyed. I am sure he will be missing them a whole lot too. I know the girls will have a blast and at least they can get away from the mountains of summer work they have for a few days. The upside to all of this is that we will actually have food in the house for the next few days!

Oh, one last thing...Chardie got her score from her AP European History exam she took in May for college credit. You get scored from 1-5 (5 being the highest) Guess what? My girl got a 5!!!! We are so proud!!!
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Go Brie!

We attended Briahnna's middle school athletic banquet last week to recognize all students that participated in the sports programs. For each sport the coach gave out 3 plaques to the athletes they thought were most deserving for a specific area. Briahnna was given the 'Coach's Award'. Her coach was pleased with Brie's readiness to work hard, perform well and be a team player. We are so proud of Brie and she certainly deserves this great honor. What a nice way to close out her middle school volleyball career. Next stop high school!


Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:

Playing at the park with the family

We all had a great time at the playground today. Dwayne was trying to take a few photos and William did not want to cooperate. Of course if I was a 3 year old surrounded by slides, monkey bars and swings I would not want to stop for photos either!

I love these kids! :)
Shelly, Mom Files
SHARE:
Blogger Template Created For Mom Files All Rights Reserved