My Best Friend...

Who knew that the dog that I never wanted would attach himself to me, follow me everywhere, sleep at the foot of my bed and become my best friend???

If I am working in the laundry room or hanging up clothes in the kids' bedrooms, he will find a comfy spot to sleep until... he hears me walk out of the room and he jumps up and follows me to my next chore!

Even now as I'm typing he is sitting at my feet until... I get up to pick up the elementary school carpool where he will join me on the armrest next to my seat!

Prom

Hillary went to the Jr. PROM tonight with Tyler Stahle. He plays basketball for WXHS (notice his height even with her 4-inch heels). She dislikes the obligatory PICTURE-TAKING before leaving for a dance but knows there is no way out of it. The follow-up 15 minute CONVERSATION between John and her date is equally unsettling to her. She'll probably get her dad back by extending her CURFEW... I'm just happy there are only two more DANCES this year--Sweethearts (girl's choice) in Feb. and Sr. Prom (boy's choice) in the Spring. That means we're getting close to being finished with walking, shopping, trying on, and buying, dresses. Yay! It amazes me that a girl can't wear the same DRESS with a different guy to a different dance even in a different year. What is that???! We've been lucky to find many good deals at Dillard's that both MOM and DAUGHTER have been HAPPY and SATISFIED with (thank goodness). The great thing is that Hillary will now have many dresses to take with her to COLLEGE next year!

What we did during our days off from school...

... finished Grayson's Science Fair poster (whew!)

... finished the final draft of Hillary's Sterling Scholar Portfolio (DOUBLE whew!)

Garrett's Happy Day!

Garrett finally passed the test and got his driver's permit. He wants to go out driving all the time and of course mom is the one available to go with him (he's actually a good driver--thank goodness)! So now we begin the 40 hours of supervised driving until he turns 16 next November...

Garrett also had a very eventful New Year's Eve with a small party at our house until 12:30 am. Hillary went out with friends until 1, Hailey went to a party at a friend's until 1 and Grayson went to a friend's house til 10. John and I got through watching about half of "Mama Mia" before taking a catnap but woke up in time to say Happy New Year and have a toast with Grayson, take kids home, wait for kids to come home and of course, clean up the mess 8 teenagers can make with food, confetti, bubbles and poppers!

Happy New Year!!!