Wordless Wednesday

This was me back when I was 17! I was at Disney and in those days I wore a size ZERO! Check out my tacky cut-off Guess jeans. Believe it or not this was stylish in those days. Dang I feel aged right about now! ;)

New Braces!

Finally, Brie got her braces! She has had them on for about 4 days now and is doing really well. I think the key is to not let other people's 'stories' influence you too much and make it a negative experience. I think it was way easier than we expected but we have a long 3 years and some oral surgery to go. She is already planning the colors of the little bands for the next 3 months and seems to like having them. I am impressed with all of the extra time she is taking to keep her braces and teeth extra clean. Thankfully she has accepted the fact that she has to give up a few of her favorite snacks and foods. She is still able to eat fairly well so let's hope it stays this way!

I will try to post a photo each month to show the progress her teeth will make.

The last jacket this child will ever get

Back in early November Dwayne and I ordered a Letterman's jacket for Chardie since she has expressed numerous times that she really wanted one. She has already lettered twice so we finally broke down and let her get it. As we made the order and picked out the patches, I asked the salesperson what the turnaround time was. He said roughly 6-8 weeks since it was the holidays time. He said that it would be closer to 8 weeks. You should have seen the look on my child's face. I think she was thinking more like 1 week. So for 7 weeks I had to listen to her complain and whine about how her jacket was taking forever. With all I went through having to listen to an impatient teenager I told her that this would be the last jacket she would get for the rest of her high school career. I also informed her that she better wear it all the time since we spent $200 on it. You see, my child is one of those girls that will love something and finally have it and decide that it is not quite her style.

Well the jacket came in on New Year's eve and she has almost not taken it off since then! She is so happy with it. We ordered a size small short since she is a little munchkin. She could not wait to go to school today to show it off. After all, she will be the only girl at her school that has one.

She loves the HUGE volleyball patch with her number on it. It is way bigger than we were expecting actually.
She wanted the embroidered letters for the back instead of the chenille. She is my classic baby.

Of course she has her full first name. She goes by "Char" at school but I think she wanted her full formal name since she is once again my classic baby. I am glad she finally got it so I don't have to hear about it anymore. Oh the things you do for your kids....

Celebrating excellence

The Ismail family went out to Red Robin for a special lunch in honor of Chardie and Brie. We wanted to celebrate their excellent report cards. They both got all A's and 1 B. Brie's one B was a 92 (an A is a 93) so she was very annoyed. Chardie was expecting to have 3 B's with how tough her college level classes are in combination with the volleyball season. She was able to pull it off and she currently ranks #4 in her sophomore class. We are so proud of both girls for being such diligent students and all around sweet girls. Now we can't leave little William out, he is doing a great job with his "school" time at home. He is making great strides daily and we are very proud of him. Here are a few photos of our lunch out...

Dwayne took this photo (the reason why he is not in it). I love these 3 sweet children!
Brie did not want to be in this picture because Daddy was being aggravating. The girls warned him before entering the restaurant- NO talking, NO foolishness, NO singing, NO drawing attention to any of us. Of course he broke at least 3 of these rules!!
We seldom go out to sit-down establishments to eat but this was a pleasant experience. William really behaved well and enjoyed his 'bottomless' fries!

If you have never had a burger from Red Robin I would recommend the Mt. Olympus Burger. It was divine!!

First day of school

Well the first day of school is finally here and the girls were up and ready! I charged my camera battery last night because I don't care how old you are, you will get your photo taken. Don't they look so pretty? I am so excited for them and they both have amazing schedules. We are all looking forward to a fantastic school year!

School's out!

It's official that school is out for the summer and I am kinda sorta happy about it. Happy because I have great kids that are fun to be around but not so happy because it takes me off of my regular schedule. I am one of those planning, scheduling and list making type of moms. I get crazy when things are out of whack or if there are too many people in my face while I am working. I also really like driving the kids to school and picking them up. There is something about the calm of the carpool line aka Willie's nap time. I guess Willie will have to adjust to having his sisters around more. He is usually perfectly calm when it is just the two of us. Oh well, I am glad to have my kids around regardless of how they act ;-) Happy Summer!!

Wordless Wednesday

My 15 year old. She is such an intelligent and compassionate girl. She is far from the typical teen.

Brie, artist and photographer

Briahnna went on a field study last week to Historic Charleston, South Carolina. They were required to bring a camera to take photos for a scrapbook project they were assigned. I could post all the photos but she did a great job don't you think? She already got started on her scrapbook and was lucky that we have a ton of supplies already at home. I used to scrapbook but lost complete interest once I had William. I was hoping to get my mojo back but I think it's gone for good. Brie loves anything dealing with art so I let her have at it. She is also a perfectionist and puts in the extra time to make her projects stand out. She never lets me help. My kids always impress me :)

Trashing your school is okay?

I was at Chardie's high school waiting in the carpool area (early of course) and was noticing the vast amounts of trash throughout the parking lot. The trash was made up of primarily of food related items and a lot of fast food bags and cups. The part that was most noticeable is how these fast food bags filled with empty wrappers and napkins were perfectly placed alongside the driver or passenger door in the ground. Only several yards away lies a HUGE metal trash can. It sits there empty. Last I checked, high school students range from ages 14-19. You would think that they know better than to do that. Obviously not. What burns me up is the groundskeeper is left to clean up all that trash do by himself. When Dwayne and I were in high school, students that were caught skipping school, cheating on tests, caught fighting or anything that could result in detention or in-school suspension were forced to do the grounds clean-up (work detail) of the school. We even would have to wake up at the crack on a Saturday morning and report to the school for work detail. It was so humiliating and trust me, you opted to stay away from trouble to not have to endure further work detail duty.

I decided to speak with the nice gentleman and asked if they ever have students help with cleaning up the trash. Sadly he said No and that the teachers, staff and administrators did not care about the matter. It seems they only look at graduating numbers to keep the school up on their quota and maintain a "good rating". Hmm, but these soon-to-be adults can't even show some respect and pride for keeping their school looking nice as well as protecting the environment? I was really pissed off to hear that. He says they get detention and they mostly just sleep. So you skip school and your punishment is to sit in a heated or air conditioned classroom and just chill out? That really sucks. It really, really does.

Teens and phone etiquette

As a parent to teenagers we have grown quite accustomed to them making and receiving phone calls almost on a daily basis. We have very strict yet fair rules when it comes to using the phone. They both have cellphones with texting but they have rules that go along with it. I am one of those moms that checks up to be sure that rules are not being broken. The girls know they have one time to mess up and that's it, phone is GONE. If a friend wants to contact them it must be done through the home phone. They are only allowed to have very very few people calling the cellphone and they are mostly only family. Now coming back to the home phone... When friends call the home phone they must simply acknowledge me or Dwayne and state their name and then ask for either of our daughters. Simple, right? You would not believe how many times these teenagers call our home and say "Can I speak to Chardonnay" or "Is Brie there?" Um, hell no. You don't get to talk to anyone unless you show some respect. This may seem like and overreaction on my part but hell, we pay the bills in our home. I teach my children that when you call some one's home and the parent or and adult answers you should have to decency to say hello and state your name and then say MAY I please speak with so and so if he/she is available. It is the parents' responsibility to teach their kids manners and common courtesy. Wow, I think this turned into a vent! Sorry :)

Allergy shots

Our daughter Briahnna has been suffering from headaches for years now and has gone through many doctor visits (including 3 Cat scans) to finally come to the conclusion that it is all sinus allergy related. It was recommended by our ENT Specialist that she gets a weekly allergy shot. As a mom I was not sure if that was what we wanted to do. I insisted that we try her on a different round of allergy meds and see how she did with it for 90 days. It worked very well for about 2 weeks and then the headaches were back. There is nothing worse than seeing your kid in pain and no matter what you give her she is not improving. We finally broke down and agreed to the shot. The alternative would be surgery and the doc says he really does not want to go that route. We started the first shot last week and we are not sure if it is really happening or just in her mind but it seems to have calmed the headaches down a little bit. The doc says that it generally takes 3-6 months to see improvement (they have to give you a longer time frame) and some people have been known to see a major difference within 30 days. I am really hoping we are one of those lucky ones. The great thing about the shot is even though it seems a pain to get it once a week, the office is close to home and it take a few minutes and you are in and out of the office with no wait or appointment. I will keep you all posted on her progress.

If anyone has had the allergy shot please feel free to share anything you think we might need to know. So far we have only heard positive things.

First day of high school!

Chardonnay started her first day of high school today and we are so thrilled for her. Dwayne and I attended a parent breakfast and got to meet some of the teachers, staff and the her Principal. We feel so confident that she will have an amazing high school career. I am glad that I am not sad at all. I am so overjoyed to watch all my kids grow up and will be excited to see what they become in their adult lives. After all, the goal is to watch them grow up and guide them in a positive direction to become productive citizens. I can barely wait to see her when she gets home today to tell me all the details of her day.

The girl was giddy with excitement! We had to make her calm down and take deep cleansing breaths on the way to school so she would not pass out over being so hyped up!

Growing up...

How does this happen so fast??

How can the once little girl in pigtails end up looking like this???

*faints*

Chardie was all glammed up for her 8th grade semi-formal dance.

Dwayne + daughter that looks like this = SHOTGUN.