Gabrielle's Great Week!

Gabby had a wonderful week this week in school. I really hope this is just a start. Not sure if it's completely the change in her behavior or the teacher realized she had to change her approach to a much more positive style with her. She got on Blue and Purple this week. These are the two colors that are above and beyond the normal green. When a student gets purple, they get to take a "positive referral" to share with the principal and parent. We celebrated with her, and it was so good to see her happy and so proud of herself. I"m going to do my best to keep encouraging and hope we have many more of these days!

Long Weekend and Surprise Snow Day!

We had a pretty good weekend. We got to take Gabby to see Gnomie and Juliet and then Julio and I went out to dinner. It's always nice to eat slow and be able to talk without distractions and disruptions. Its been so helpful for us to be able to get out for a little while almost every weekend to focus on us.

Today we had a surprise snow day. I had a wonderful day. We took Tyler to Daycare so we could do somethings we like to do individually and then both of us spend quality time with Gabby. Right now, she seems to thrive on this, so it's brings me joy when I see her so happy. It warms my heart to hear Julio and her together. There are two peas in a pod and they don't even realize it! Today it was so funny listening to them work on seek and finds together. Later in the afternoon we played some hands of Strawberry Shortcake Old Maid. I got to do my bible study, play my games I do for relaxation, and work on some of the picture albums for the kids. Julio and I even got a nice nap in together! It was overall such a great day. It's these kinds of days, I feel like I"m moving forward and I"m making some headway with the things going on in my life. Now I have a short week as I look forward to hopefully another fun weekend with family!

Valentines Day, New Perspective and Long Weekend Plans!

The last couple of weeks we have enjoyed some fun times as a family. For Valentines Day, Julio and I went out to dinner and then did some shopping. Time alone was very appreciated after a lot of stress over the past couple of weeks. The kids each got a special stuffed puppy and big"cookie lollipop"!




As you can see Tyler's face was priceless!









Here both kids are posing before their Valentines day at school with the treats from mommy and daddy!















We continue to pray and work with Gabby and her having a successful year in school. This year has been a struggle for her I believe in general. It's been a challenge to meet every one's needs in our family as well as ourselves, but we are taking it one day at a time. As I pray for me to meet her needs and for him to meet the ones I can't, I am seeing things in a new light. I love my daughter. She is so special and would not want her any other way. I have let other people criticize her and make me feel like I am doing something wrong. I am doing the best I can. I can't do anything about where I am right now, but all I can do is rely on God and continue to get better and continue to keep trying and be the best mom I can be with who I am now. I understand her like no one else. She is like a mini-me. I understand how emotional and complicated she is that nobody understands her. I understand how she tries to hard to be good or to do whatever, but it's not good enough for other people or for herself. I get that, because I feel the same way.
Tonight I had a purely negative parent teacher conference. I heard words like passive defiant, active, hard to keep her focused, has trouble sitting still.....and it goes on. Although she is the smartest kid in her class....my focused and goal has changed to do everything in my ability to get her to realize how special she is, how much she is loved and that her best is enough. I know she is special and I would not want my daughter any other way besides energetic, social and creative!


I know God has big plans for her and I feel so privileged he has given me the responsibility to raise her, guide her, and teach her all I can.

We started this new process by having a mother daughter date tonight. We had dinner at a place of her choosing. It was great to spend time with just her and be able to talk to her. It made me realize a lot of what I described earliar. I went discouraged and left so encouraged.
We both had a great time. She is excited about the daddy daughter date tomorrow!

I'm looking forward to a wonderful long weekend. It will be so nice to have time to myself, time with Julio and spend some much needed time with them. I'm so glad that each day I can get up and know that one of them will make me smile and laugh and teach me something new.