Thankfulness Journal #6

Days 221-240 cover August 8th through 27th. Summer is almost over!

Day 221- Old-fashioned hymn sing @ OC
Day 222- The kids' last day of summer vacation
Day 223- First day at a new school, and a happy ending when Pierce was accidentally put on a bus.
Day 224- Tracey Moore's 50th birthday and time with old friends
Day 225- OC's Back To School Blessing service
Day 226- Both kids had a great first full day of school
Day 227- All the wonderful memories we've made in this house
Day 228- Heard from Maria Ballard (Pierce's Ed. Aide from DuPont Hadley that was fired at the end of the year). She found a job at another school.
Day 229- A stomach bug (afraid the intense cramps I was having was from another kidney stone)
Day 230- Reagan got to experience a movie at a drive-in
Day 231- Reagan is old enough to watch some of the more grown-up movies
Day 232- Great Is Thy Faithfulness and He's Always Been Faithful
Day 233- Fantastic IEP meeting at Brentwood Middle!
Day 234- A POD to hold all of the boxes we've packed until our move
Day 235- Matching doors on all of our closets and bedrooms
Day 236- Having a husband to come home to (sang at the memorial service of a friend's husband)
Day 237- Fun with Cooper
Day 238- Melissa McAdory's hand truck/dolly
Day 239- Last Sunday to drive across town for church
Day 240- My programmable crock-pot

Thankfulness Journal #5

Here's 20 more things I was thankful for this year. These cover the days July 19th through August 7th. Hope all of my friends and family are having a wonderful Christmas!

Day 201- Opportunity to help the youth group bake cookies. I was also blessed to have several people tell me how much they love watching Pierce and Reagan interact and what great kids they are.
Day 202- Thankful for the opportunity Pierce has had to participate in a mission trip.
Day 203- Thankful for a husband that still loves me even after I act like a brat.
Day 204- Watched Tim baptize Reagan and got to hear Scott Hamilton's testimony
Day 205- Breakfast for dinner
Day 206- Reagan gets excited about a Bible study
Day 207- Extra funds for an emergency
Day 208- Chaperoned the youth group's "Mystery Trip" and climbed to the top of the world's largest treehouse.
Day 209- Start of the summer Olympics! And, thought the AC was broken, but it was just a tripped breaker.
Day 210- Saw the final Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises
Day 211- Thankful for everyone that works with Otter Creek's middle school youth group; mainly David Knox, Zac Smith, James Curtis and Hannah Whitney
Day 212- Brentwood Middle; what appears to be a great new school!
Day 213- MNC's accomplishment as the 2011 AA International Chorus Champions.
Day 214- CAMP NIGHT!! The chance to see how much my kids LOVE camp through pictures and videos
Day 215- Learning how to get my camera out of auto mode
Day 216- Got our bonus room packed up in a few hours
Day 217- Great face-to-face talk with my mom
Day 218- Wilson life group is back after a summer break
Day 219- Last day of counseling, and I finally found Ben and Jerry's Key Lime Pie ice cream!
Day 220- Free boxes

Thankfulness Journal #4

You may have thought I forgot about my Thankfulness Journal. While I have been lax in sharing these with you, I have been faithful to keep writing down my blessings this year. We only have ONE WEEK LEFT of 2012! Eek! So, I will bring you the rest of my Thankfulness Journal in daily installments from now until New Year's Day. Days 181-200 run from June 29th to July 18th. Here we go...!

Day 181- AIR CONDITIONING (Temp reached 109!)
Day 182- Night time walk on the beach
Day 183- Pixar (got to watch the latest movie, Brave, with the family)
Day 184- Found a sand dollar on the beach and watched the sunset over the ocean with Reagan
Day 185- A visit with Tim's family, especially his Papa who is in bad health; also, getting to feed flamingos!
Day 186- Our country, and the freedoms we are privileged to enjoy; also, fireworks over the ocean
Day 187- Universal Studios Express Passes. Cut our wait time in line by about 75%
Day 188- Reagan was chosen to get a wand at Ollivander's in Harry Potter World. She said she would remember it for the rest of her life.
Day 189- How great my kids have been on vacation: no bickering, begging, whining, or complaining
Day 190- A fantastic vacation with Tim and the kids
Day 191- A fun art camp for Reagan
Day 192- Cooler temps and a dreary, drizzly day
Day 193- Fried Cheesecake
Day 194- Reagan's first all-nighter at the Youth Group lock-in and subsequent naps from BOTH kids
Day 195- The kids got to visit with mom and Jeannie
Day 196- 7 straight days of rain after 2 weeks of 100+ degree temps
Day 197- The look on Reagan's face as she told us she wanted to be baptized
Day 198- Made my first purchase for the new house: a hammock for the screened in porch
Day 199- MNC's talented music team
Day 200- Learned that the song I've been humming since Reagan told us of her decision, and that I've been wanting to sing after her baptism (The Lord Bless You and Keep You) is on the worship schedule for that day!

This Old House

In 2 weeks, we will be moving from the north side of Nashville (Madison) to the south side (Brentwood). It's a move that we've toyed with in the past, but only seriously began to consider this summer. We will be almost across the street from our church, and very close to all of my chorus activities. We'll have a pool, more square footage, and we'll be in a great school. We are all at peace with this move, more so than I thought we'd ever be, but I've been pretty emotional at times about what we're leaving behind. Here's the story of our current house.

Fifteen years ago, we were a young, childless couple, on a tight budget, looking for our first house. We found a cute starter home in Madison. It wasn't the best area of town and the schools weren't great, but having no kids yet, that wasn't really a concern for us. About a year later, I gave birth to our first child. Imagine my surprise when Tim came home just a few weeks later to say that he had driven past a very cool house (only a mile away from our first home) that was for sale. It was old, but charming, and he thought it would be fun to remodel. To say I was apprehensive is a bit of an understatement; then I saw the place. My first impression of the concrete block house on 4 acres of land with 6 outbuildings was that it looked like the lair of a serial killer. However, the rock walls and huge trees all over the property gave it a bit of charm. The house would need quite a bit of work to make it livable, but we had an infant to take care of! I couldn't believe Tim was really serious. He finally convinced me to take the plunge by saying that he thought we could make it livable in 2 months (Tim, of course, does not remember telling me this). We closed on the property when Pierce was 3 months old in July of 1998. Our friends and family thought we were crazy.

Several months later, we were STILL working on the house. We'd knocked out walls, built new ones, replastered, and completely replaced the electrical. I honestly can't remember what the date was, but in early 1999, we figured it was safe to put our first house on the market. Of course, it sold quicker than we were expecting. Suddenly, we had to move into a house that didn't have floors or a kitchen. Tim scrambled to get things finished. A few days before moving, I took Pierce to South Carolina to stay with my parents for a week. He was almost a year old. I didn't want to, but the house still didn't have a kitchen, and I didn't want to live in those conditions with a baby. I came back to help Tim finish and get us moved. I have a picture of all of our living room furniture sitting outside for 2 days, because we still had no carpet in that room! The first night Tim and I spent in the house, a pipe in our only working bathroom burst. After the move, I went back to South Carolina and stayed with my parents for another week until the house was ready. When I came home, I was an emotional wreck. I'd had to spend several days away from my baby and then several more days without Tim; I'd left behind a nursery that I'd spent so much time decorating and that had sentimental value to me; I'd just moved out of a perfectly good house where everything was finished and working. I was crying and raging about all of this one night in our somewhat functional kitchen when Tim said something to the effect of "I just want you to be happy". That's when I yelled the words that still haunt me: "I WILL NEVER BE HAPPY HERE!!"

Well, we continued working on the house here and there; a new roof, new windows. When I got pregnant with Reagan, I insisted that the time had come for our master bathroom to be finished. When Reagan was a toddler, we hired a contractor to finish out the concrete block bonus room and to remodel the exterior. Tim's mother would come visit from time to time and help us with unfinished projects around the house. I think it made her a bit crazy to see so many things undone. As the years went by and we began to make memories in this old house, it began to grow on me more and more. People would joke with us about how far we would drive to church and how our little hilltop was becoming more exposed. I-65 had been widened and we could see it from our living room window. Also, the land across the street was cleared 2 weeks after we closed on the house. A new hospital opened 3 years later. The Emergency Room entrance was actually directly across from our driveway. This increased traffic on our narrow, windy street, bringing crazy drivers that nearly ran me off the road more than once. Our friends said that maybe the time had come to move on to greener pastures. My statement was always the same: "We'll never get rid of this place. I'll be buried in the back yard." I began to garden, and I had dreams of getting every inch of our 4 acres beautifully landscaped. We did another big remodel last summer. We knocked out walls, built a closet and pantry, and installed bamboo flooring. There are still many projects to be completed, but we've made this place into a home that I now love. I could never imagine leaving...

That is, until Tim's dad called a few months ago to talk to him about his house. His dad had a house in Brentwood that had been rented for the last 2 years. We'd toyed with the idea of buying this house a few years ago since we had become members at the Otter Creek Church in Brentwood. In the end, we decided that we couldn't possibly leave our house. But, a few recent events had made us reevaluate. Both of our kids entered the youth group over the summer. It seemed like we were constantly driving them to and from Brentwood for some youth event. I was already doing an excessive amount of  driving to Brentwood for chorus rehearsals and meetings. Then, Pierce had a not-so-good year at school. We were dealing with a difficult new principal and Pierce's one-on-one assistant was fired at the end of the year. When Tim's dad called to say that he was putting his house on the market, I told Tim that I was interested in talking about it.

So here I am, packing up the house that we've lived in for 13 years. I feel an indescribable peace about the move. I'm excited to be so close to most of our activities. Reagan is excited to be going to school with one of her very close friends from church. Pierce is excited to have a pool. Though we had a rocky start to the school year (Pierce was accidentally placed on a bus at the end of the first day, so when I came to pick him up, no one could find him. Ah, just another story for my book.), every other interaction I've had with the school reinforces my belief that we've made the right choice. But among all of the joy, there are pangs of sorrow. I'll never get to see what this place could've been. Our to-do list will never be completed. Actually, many of those projects we've put off will be tackled, but only to appeal to renters or buyers. One of the first things I said to Tim after making this decision was, "Oh great. I'll finally get this house looking just the way I want it, only to give it to someone else!"

I decided one day to make a list of all of the things I would miss about this house, and all of the things I would NOT. I just wanted to see which list would be longer. Interestingly, my "miss" list is longer than my "not" list, nearly 2 to 1. I couldn't have predicted that 13 years ago. This list is not complete; I keep thinking of more to add, and I'm sure I'll have a few more after the move. But this is a long post, and it needs to end sometime. Thank you for joining me on my walk down memory lane!

Things I WILL miss:

1. My custom shower/bathroom

2. The seclusion

3. All the work we've done

4. Charm of this place

5. Potential of how fantastic we could make this landscape look

6. All of our rock walls

7. The scripture engraved in tile behind the stove (Ecclesiastes 3:13- "That everyone may eat and drink, and find  satisfaction in all his toil. This is the gift of God")

8. Chef's Market Cafe (They have the BEST carrot cake I think I've ever tasted!)

9. View from our hill at night

10. Being so close to Opry Mills

11. Being close to Metro Center, and my favorite Greek place

12. Reagan's friends, Kaylee and Kaylin

13. My big white crepe myrtles

14. My tankless water heater

15. The round bathroom (converted from a water cistern that was part of the house)

16. Mowing around the grave of our very first family pet; our sweet puppy dog Annabelle

17. Our VERY secluded hot tub 

18. The wild turkeys that show up in our yard every spring

19. Being close to Olive Garden

20. Time alone in the car singing my favorite music

21. Driving past the cute little garden on Due West Avenue

22. My favorite garden center, Bates Nursery, that's just down the road.

23. Our cranky but sweet next-door-neighbor (She's the daughter of the man that built this house)

24. The root cellar in one of our out-buildings that kids refer to as "the cave"

25. Hearing people tell us what a neat place we have

26. Hearing Goodpasture's marching band rehearsing in the distance

27. Being 2 miles away from Old Time Pottery

28. Being 2 miles away from Dairy Queen

Things I will NOT miss:

1. The long drives

2. Hearing ambulances and life flight helicopters all hours of the day and night

3. Terrifying turn into and out of our driveway (Our driveway sits right on a blind curve. Someone hit me as I turned out just a few months after we moved in)

4. The trash that is constantly being thrown onto our street from passing motorists

5. The apartments at the end of our street, whose entrance is constantly strewn with clothes and furniture from a recent eviction

6. The crappiest Walmart I've ever shopped at, right across the street.

7. Feeling so susceptible to another break-in

8. How long it takes takes to mow

9. How much effort it takes to make this yard look decent

10. The over abundance of poison ivy

11. The condemned house and overgrown property next door

12. The invasive honeysuckle bushes

13. Getting nearly run off of our narrow, windy road by crazy drivers and ambulances

14. Hearing delivery guys complain about our steep driveway

15. Having to drive to a park if I wanted to walk (Our street was too dangerous.)

16. Metro schools

Angry Bird Cupcake Toppers

Like much of the world, my family is fond of the game Angry Birds. I played it for about a week. To say it was obsessive is a little of an understatement. That game was all I could think about. I couldn't sleep. When I did sleep, I dreamed about those stupid birds. I knew it was time to step away for good when one night, I was stuck on a particular board. I can't tell you how many times I played it, and I thought I had it all figured out. This was it: I was going to kill all those stinkin' pigs. The last bird flew (it was one of those egg-dropping white birds), I let the egg drop...and I missed the last pig. I was so frustrated, I threw my iPad across the room! And that, my friends, was the last time I played ANGRY Birds.

Anywho, Pierce loves the game, and is actually quite good at it. His birthday was a few months ago, and we'd planned to have some boys from his Sunday School class over for their bi-weekly devotional. I thought it would be great for Pierce to celebrate his birthday with them, so I wanted to provide some cupcakes. I couldn't do just plain ol' cupcakes, though. I decided some sort of Angry Bird cupcake toppers would be cute. The only store-bought things I could find were those little plastic rings. Not exactly what I had in mind. I decided to look around on one of my favorite sites, Pinterest. Surely, I could find good ideas for making them myself. I was surprised that I couldn't! There were lots of pictures of Angry Bird cupcakes, but they had either come from a bakery, been made by someone who'd given no instructions to help you replicate them, or they were pictures of marzipan toppers you could buy (VERY expensive, I might add!). What to do? As usual, I posed the question to my friends on Facebook. One of my friends that is quite the artist, shared with me a picture of a groom's cake she had just finished for a friend's wedding. She had replicated their wedding invitation by cutting flower and bird shapes out of sugar sheets. She had a lot left over, and offered them to me. Most of the colors I needed were there: red, blue, yellow, white, and green. Perfect!

I was able to find these black ones at my local Wal-Mart. It was about $5 for a pack of 2- 8 1/2" x 11" sheets.

I started with the pigs. I used the smallest plastic container I could find as my circle for their bodies. I traced around the container with a razor blade. For their snout, a nickel seemed just the right size.

For the pigs' nostrils, I used a straw to cut them out of the black sugar sheets. 

To save myself some time (and sanity), I bought a pack of sugar eyes at JoAnn's. To make them stick, as well as the snouts and nostrils, I used just a touch of canned frosting. I used the same size circle for the blue birds, but I used a Campbell's soup can for the red birds. The yellow birds were easy; I just cut triangles and rounded off the corners a bit. I free-handed the white bibs, beaks, eyebrows and feathers...

...like so! My one mistake was putting these on the frosted cupcakes the night before the party. The sugar sheets start to melt just slightly from the moisture of the frosting, so the next morning, my birds were a little droopy. It's best to wait right before serving to place them on the cupcakes.

So there you have it! I wouldn't dare call myself an artist, so if I can make these, you can, too. I should mention that the parents of the teenage boys were quite impressed; the boys, not as much. They were more interested in eating them than looking at them. Typical. Oh well! 

Thankfulness Journal #3

We are nearly half-way through 2012! Our summer has been crazy busy, but also a blessed one. Before we take off on yet another adventure, I thought I'd give you part 3 of my Thankfulness Journal. Enjoy!

Day 125- Reagan's love of singing

Day 126- Organization in Pierce's room

Day 127- Passionate women on MNC's Music and Management teams

Day 128- My iPod isn't dead yet

Day 129- Cloud cover and cooler temps while working outside

Day 130- Nearly 6 garbage bags full of clutter to take to Goodwill

Day 131- We found Tim's wedding ring! Missing for 1&1/2 years.

Day 132- A free meal (My chicken and goat cheese pizza was missing the chicken, so I got it for free)

Day 133- A completely empty inbox!

Day 134- Family that makes me feel special on Mother's Day

Day 135- Nothing on the agenda

Day 136- Not having a job out of the house, so I can do things like help a neighbor, visit a friend in the hospital, etc.

Day 137- Hearing Reagan get a case of the giggles

Day 138- The cheering and chanting for Pierce's friend, Kristi. She has cerebral palsy, and she sang a song in the school talent show.

Day 139- An extra casserole in the freezer that I could take to a sick friend

Day 140- Gorgeous gardens on a tour that raised money for a Lupus organization

Day 141- Watching TV in bed

Day 142- Free flowers!

Day 143- A bench in our shower

Day 144- Meeting Phil at Otter Creek, and hearing him greet everyone with, "God bless ya! It's good to see ya!". He's one of the most friendly, gracious, optimistic people I've met recently.

Day 145- Getting 2 of my landscaped beds weeded and cleaned up

Day 146- Watching Reagan with Pierce and the way she's learned to be a "big" sister to him.

Day 147- An extra freezer

Day 148- Our quartet performed at a retirement facility. Such sweet people.

Day 149- Men and women in our military that have made the ultimate sacrifice protecting our country; especially Tim's cousin, Kyle Jackson

Day 150- The "Kids Bowl Free" program

Day 151- After church jam session outside on a beautiful summer night

Day 152- A good Key Lime pie

Day 153- A new housekeeper

Day 154- Beautiful weather and good company while checking out the tree house exhibit at Cheekwood 

Day 155- A nature hike with friends

Day 156- A short but productive Chorus Management Team meeting, where some of my responsibilities were delegated elsewhere. 

Day 157- Mr. Bond The Science Guy that inspires Reagan to say, "Science is fun!"

Day 158- Reagan made honor roll for the year.

Day 159- Camp Discovery and how much Pierce loves it

Day 160- Having Andrea as a roommate for Summer Singsation and getting to know her better

Day 161- MNC's spark is back! 

Day 162- Great offer from FIL on his house in Brentwood

Day 163- Mother/Daughter pedicures

Day 164- Shopping with Reagan

Day 165- Yes Day

Day 166- Reagan is at a really fun age right now

Day 167- Discovering the Blooming Idiots garden and getting 5 sacks full of daylilies

Day 168- Improvements made to the tool/garden shed

Day 169- The fantastic dad that Tim is to our kids.

Day 170- Reagan had a blast on her first youth group sleep-away trip!

Day 171- Learning how to be a duck

Day 172- A busy summer

Day 173- Encouragement from my MIL

Day 174- Watching Pierce run up and give Jamon Martin a big bear hug; so thankful for him, Otter Creek Church Camp, and how much the kids LOVE it.

Day 175- The first responders to the WTC attacks (visited the memorial today)

Day 176- Catching up with friends from way back, Matt and Emilee Harris

Day 177- St. Paul's church, that took care of all of the search and rescue/recovery and cleanup volunteers after 9/11.

Day 178- Safe flights home from NYC

Day 179- Mom and Dad's 42nd anniversary

Day 180- My brownie portion-control baking method (brownie batter frozen in cupcake tins. Only have to bake six at a time.)

Yes Day

I'm sure I've said before that God blessed me with an amazingly compliant daughter. As the years go by, we're realizing that she is compliant to a fault. She does have her very own personality as well as some likes and dislikes. But Reagan is very much a people-pleaser. Many of you that have children with a more head-strong personality may say, "And your problem is...?". Well, my mother-in-law began to point out some things she noticed when Reagan was very young. She had taken Reagan to a movie, and she could see that Reagan was very interested in the popcorn in the lobby. She decided not to ask Reagan if she wanted any; rather, she would wait for Reagan to ask for some herself. She never did. Reagan was a little pouty as the movie ended and they left the theater. My mother-in-law asked her what was wrong. Reagan said that she was sad that they didn't get any popcorn. My mother-in-law was concerned that Reagan lacked the ability to speak up for herself. My mother-in-law is a very independent woman, so I took what she said with a grain of salt. I wasn't as concerned as she was. Lately, however, I'm seeing more and more how valid her concerns are.

As we all too rapidly approach the teen years (she's 11), Tim and I are realizing that we need to help Reagan become more independent and to make her voice heard. It's not exactly a lack of confidence or shyness. She makes friends very easily and is comfortable on stage in dance recitals or singing. I think she's just afraid of upsetting anyone, so she tends to go with the flow and along with decisions that others make without questioning. With the peer pressure that increases during the teen years, we feel it's VERY important for her to start making her own decisions and sticking with them, even if it's not always popular.

One idea I had recently was to institute a "Yes Day". I had read about these before and thought it would be fun. Pierce would be at Camp Discovery this week, so Reagan and I would have plenty of mother/daughter time together. I told Reagan about my idea: For a whole day, whatever Reagan wanted to do, my answer would be "yes". I did give her some guidelines. We couldn't do anything crazy like go to Disney World or get a puppy (Daddy would have to say "yes" to that last one, and that's NOT happening.) Since Reagan is not in the habit of making lots of demands anyway, I didn't really expect her to go crazy. I just wanted to make sure she didn't get carried away. We decided on Wednesday of this week.

Reagan's first request for "Yes Day" was to have Cracker Barrel french toast for breakfast. Before we got in the car, I suggested she bring her iPod along. I thought she might want to pick what we listened to. We cranked up some music from the Camp Rock soundtrack and headed out. Breakfast was delicious, especially since that happens to be one of my favorites, as well. She had expressed an interest in going to Build-A-Bear, since I had suggested a few days ago that we were close to 100 points (at which point you get a $10 coupon). We were over by Opry Mills, so B-A-B became our next destination. On our way, she asked if we could stop by the Lego store. "Sure...I mean, YES", I said. After looking around there, she asked if we could go to Claire's. She wanted to look at some best friend necklaces. She looked all over until finally finding a set that had 3; 1 for her and 2 other of her friends. I could tell she really wanted them, but I didn't ask. Finally, she blushed a little and sheepishly asked, "Can I get them?". YES. Our first purchase of the day was made. Then, we went on to Build-A-Bear. I had told her we had to spend another $28 to get to 100 points. She looked at all of the clothes and accessories, but kept coming back to one of their limited edition bears. Now, Reagan has 5 various B-A-B animals already. I normally wouldn't agree to getting another one. But, she finally asked for the bear. YES. That bear and a skateboard (because the bear just had to have wheels) would get us to our $28.

Next, Reagan wanted to go to McKay's Used Books. We had a $41 credit left over from our last trade in there. We found an American Girl movie (Chrissa), a wii game (wii Ski; she had been missing this game since it was stolen in our last break-in), and a book (The Tales of Beadle the Bard). We still had a $17 credit when we left. Free stuff! Reagan had no clue what to do next. We got in the car, and I pointed it towards home. I told her that unless she came up with a plan, that's where we'd end up. Just about the time we reached our exit, she decided she'd love to go to a pet store. YES. We looked around at all of the rodents (hamsters, rats, whatever. They're all the same to me), reptiles, and fish before we got over to the birds. Now, Reagan has said more than once that she'd love to have a bird. We've always explained why that wouldn't be a good idea. I was holding my breath. She stopped just short of asking, saying, "I wish I had a bird". She knew I'd have to break my rule for the day and say NO. So, we left the store empty handed. Whew!

We'd eaten breakfast kind of late. It was now after 2:30 and we were getting hungry. I had asked Reagan earlier where she wanted to eat lunch, and she couldn't come up with anything. Now we were driving aimlessly. I asked her what kind of food she wanted. ANY kind of food. "ANY kind?", she asked. YES. "Like, ice cream?" YES. She wanted ice cream. I asked where to go, and she requested Baskin Robbins. On our way, we passed a duck pond. She wished we had some bread, so we could stop and feed the ducks. I told her that Baskin Robbins was right beside a grocery store, so if she wanted, we could pick up a loaf of bread. We had our ice cream, got some bread, and went back to the duck pond. I can't remember the last time we were there; Reagan only vaguely remembered coming to this park when she was little. "That was fun!", she said.

Now it was time to head home and wait for daddy so we could go out to dinner later. She played her new video game, and told her daddy all about our day. Once again, she was stuck on figuring out a dinner location. She had thought about Applebee's, because she likes their cheese sticks. Tim gave her a few suggestions, with Dave and Busters being one of them. She liked the idea. We headed back over to Opry Mills. On our way in, we passed the Rainforest Cafe. I could see her eyes light up. "We don't have to eat at Dave and Busters; we could always go there after dinner", Tim said. Reagan asked if we could eat at Rainforest Cafe instead. It had been a really long time since we'd eaten there; Reagan was a toddler and had been terrified by the gorillas. We ate dinner, (along with the cheese sticks Reagan wanted for an appetizer), but turned down dessert. Reagan frowned, but I explained that since we were all full at the moment, we could get something somewhere else later. We headed down to Dave and Busters. We just wanted to play a few games of skee-ball, but to do that, you have to purchase something like a debit card for games. The cheapest card they had was $25. Reagan realized that was outrageous, so she was okay with us leaving. As we walked around the mall, we came up on a candy store. Reagan asked if we could go in; she'd never been in a candy store before (REALLY?! I don't know if I should feel proud or ashamed of myself.) We hadn't intended to buy anything, but Reagan picked up a Nerds gum ball out of curiosity without thinking, and we felt like we should buy it instead of putting it back. Since you can't really buy just one gum ball, we put together a small assortment of candies. On our way back to the car, we passed a Gigi's Cupcakes kiosk. Tim suggested that would make an excellent dessert, and Reagan agreed. We took our cupcakes home, where Reagan had one before bed. She told me she'd had a great day.

I know we have a lot more work to do on improving her assertiveness, but I think this was a fun little exercise. Earlier in the week I took her shopping. Usually, I shop the clearance racks while the kids are at school, so Reagan doesn't get the chance to pick out her own clothes. It was interesting to see some of her choices. I showed her a few cute tankini-style swimsuits, but she opted for a 1-piece. She's very modest (hope that continues through her teens). I'm having a blast with Reagan right now. She's at such a fun age. I'm still waiting for that big hormone switch to be flipped, and I'm trying to be optimistic instead of dreading having an emotionally crazy teenager. Come what may, I hope we're doing the right thing by helping her develop an independent streak.