Test Scores are Back!!!

I'll have to admit that test return day is always a great day at my house. I have my struggles as a parent. I sometimes feel like I am not making any headway with the girls. Sometimes it feels like a thankless job, but when tests scores come in the mail I feel on top of the world. I usually feel like I am superwoman, and I have conquered Lexi Luther:)

Anyway, younger sweetie scored well enough on Science (95th percentile) to make it into Duke's Talent Identification Program!!!! I have to say that I am breathing a sigh of relief because if she didn't make it into that program like her older sister, we were gonna have to deal with a sad 9 year-old. No matter how we steer her otherwise, she insists on competing with her older sister. She worked hard to skip a grade like older sister, but since then she has been slack. She loves her projects, poetry, art, and music, but pretty much everything else has been ho-hum. Overall she was at 75th percentile, which is pretty darn good. In her true "just under the wire fashion" she will be able to keep her "gifted" status because of her Science score, so she is more than satisfied that she is still in the league with older sis. BTW - I am not complaining at all. My younger daughter is a phenomenal poet, actress, pianist, and Biblicist.

Older sweetie, who starts high school in the Fall, has done extraordinary in the testing department as usual. She is academia's dream student. Not more gifted than younger sweetie, but a high scorer in the way that schools want you to be. She scored a total 95th percentile, and above 90th percentile on 7 tests or subtests. What more can I say. She's a great tester. We have to work on her drive though because she wants to go to Yale. I need her to take things a little more seriously. You might think that because her scores are what they are that she is taking things pretty seriously, but that's not the case. She is naturally gifted in the 3Rs, but she refuses to be organized, focused and to give it her all. She wins at most everything, so when she loses due to lack of preparation, she freaks out !!! Big time. It's sad to see.


So I'll continue to do the happy dance over because my baby girls did well on National Standardized Testing. By the way we took the California Achievement Test. Now it's time to plan for next year.

Happy Father's Day

I love this time of year because I have some wonderful men who love me in my life. I usually replay in my mind all the special moments spent with my father, uncles, grandfathers, step-father, brothers and husband. Although many of them have had some serious short-comings that other women who have passed them in life would love to list, I am so very appreciative of how they have loved me.

Every since I can remember my father has always treated me as a sweet treasure. He’s always listened to me and laughed with me, and for much of my life he was the only one who told me he loved me. Although my mother would say he wasn’t a stellar partner and she could rehearse some pretty horrible love experiences with him, I am very thankful to her for allowing and encouraging a relationship between the two of us after they split. Until today my father and I talk and laugh have a ball on the phone because we live many miles apart. I haven’t seen his face in about two years, but I will see him again in July.



My step-father was also a huge blessing in my life. When he married my mother there were 4 of us children living at home. I was eight years old. He never disciplined us. He left up to my mother. He would quietly acknowledge that he knew we were doing wrong, but never offered a judgement one way or another. He has influenced my political views and my worldview, and I chose a husband a lot like him. He was hard-working, loving toward my mother, respectful toward us kids, and very intelligent. He and my mother split once all of us kids were out of the house, so I don’t talk to him much. Although, I have a lot of respect for him. One year I found his number and called him to say Happy Birthday after about 15 years of not speaking to him at all. I think it really floored him.

My Uncles have always been Wonderful to me everyday of my life. They have always guided me and protected me, and I am thankful.

Finally, the man I married is a culmination of all the best that I’ve known in the men around me. He shares many of their characteristics and most of all he loves me and my children dearly. I can’t think of a better example of a Father.

Thanks Haki for being a wonderful father. Happy Father’s Day!!!!

Beach Days

We moved to Florida to start our new life. We've been unpacking and trying to get the house in order. The first day we got here the girls set first things first and got a new library card. They love the library here because there is a new treasure trove of different books. We went to the thrift store to pick up some throw rugs and scored a mid-century buffet for the dining room.



The oldest daughter found some Manga Magazines, so we are loving life right now.

We take evening dips in the Gulf of Mexico. I love the beach after 6 or 7 pm at night. We watch the sunset while we swim in the water. Pretty awesome. Little baby is pretty crafty about eating sand. We really have to watch him. He loves, loves, loves sand.