BLUE JEANS AND MY BABY

My Philanthropist
Such a loving young lady!

Bennyfoo helps with the counting

Little Jia
Hard at Work

Well it is that time of year again, Katie has begun the Teens for Jeans drive at Flanagan High School. She has 110 pair so far! She doesn't think she will get as much this year as she feels everyone probably cleaned out their closets last year. She just put a Facebook message out to all the students at her school (don't even ask me how she did that). Now she is starting to pile them up in her room, at which time it resembles Anna's room on a good day and I refuse to go in there!

On the Jia front, she had a lot of homework tonight, they are starting to add and subtract two digit numbers which means "carry the one" ugh, I hated that, but she likes Math. Her teacher is also starting to concentrate on grammar so she usually has a page of that each night. She read a whole chapter book this weekend. They have a reading log and have to read everyday and turn it in at the end of the month.

I don't know about you, but when I was young (a million years ago) you went to school, came home, had a snack and went outside to play kickball.

Jia has a little fort set up underneath her princess bed, lots of Barbies, Barbie airplanes, books, games, etc.

Jia also lost another tooth tonight, it is not a big deal for her, she jumps out of her Princess bed, brings it over to me and goes back to bed. With Anna and Katie there was wiggling for days,tears, blood and lots of drama....

The First Last

Today was the first day of the girls last semester of high school. They started their last classes, and yes, I did cry.

Katie's Schedule: 1-A.P. Macroecomics
2-A.P. Literature
3- Ceramics
4- Yearbook

Anna's Schedule: 1: Biology II Honors
2: Teachers Assistant
3: A.P. Microeconomics
4. Yearbook

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Chinese New Year

The Parnhams in China

Gung Ho Fat Choy! Happy New Year from Jia-Li (Ye Ru Hui) and her family. It is the year of the Dragon.

A Compliment when I needed one most....

Katie (last night): "Mom, you should be a stand-up comedian!"

Believe it or not, when I was teaching 8th grade the kids had to take a career interest inventory. I took it with them every year just to see how it would come out. Every single time I did it the results came out:

1. Stand Up Comedian
2. Teacher

Maybe I have a new career waiting for me??

Hard to do..

I have to pick out 30 pictures that represent Katie and Anna's whole life, plus write an inspirational message (did that part) without crying. The girls leaving is good, but letting them go may be the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

Me and the "G"

Another missing tooth-this one happened at school
The going rate: $5.00

Jia wanted to take pictures tonight because she thought our shirts looked the same. She loves her shirt that she got for Christmas because it has a built in necklace and the jeans are skinny like Anna's.

Spent some time tonight waiting for Katie at a Student Government County Meeting, so Anna and I went to a Barnes and Noble close to where Katie was. Anna brought her homework, I bought her a treat and she did all her work. On the way home she informed me that she needed to do her homework at Barnes and Noble everyday because there was less distractions than home!

Round and Round

They just put a carousel in our mall. Jia is in heaven.

Cold Front????

Today it was 55 degrees - no question it is cold for South Florida. However, my family is bracing for a trip to the Arctic. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 37 degrees. Don't know what they are going to do, they already wore their warmest clothes today...

Kids do show up for school with blankets and bedspreads around them when it is cold, but I don't think that's going to happen here.

I have lived here since 1968, I am the least cold in the house. Anna gets the award for the most whining about being cold, and no one can figure out why Drew says he is so cold.

It's a Brand New Year!

A lot of silly pictures from our New Years Celebration (sitting on the couch, eating cheesecake and watching Dick Clark).

The girls opened their Kindergarten time capsules from when they went to Beacon Hill School. As you can imagine, this brought more than a few tears from me. According to the capsules Katie is going to make a career out of babysitting and Anna will be Super girl.

Jia almost made it (11:30) and then off to her princess bed she went.

We wish you great happiness and prosperity in 2012!