6th grade

This was the first year I started to get kind of boy crazy. There was all the "who likes who" drama going on and everybody wrote those notes:

Do you like me? Circle yes or no.


This was also the time that all my friends were starting to wear bras and starting to develop into teenagers. I was not one of the first ones. I was somewhere in the middle. All of us girls talked about who was wearing a bra. All of the boys would go around and pop the bra of any girl who was wearing one.

Sixth grade was still considered elementary school back in 1980. We were the top of the elementary school. The big dogs of IA elementary. On May Day (IA's end of the year celebration) the sixth graders got to crown the May Queen and dance around the May Pole. We had a sixth grade chorus and even performed our own musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" (I was the Little Red-Headed Girl).

We would listen to Casey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown on Sunday afternoons and have our tape recorder on hand just in case we heard a song we liked. When a good song came on we would hit record and hold the tape recorder up to the stereo to record the song.

Sometimes on Sunday afternoons in the fall, the boys would all get together and play football in the vacant lot by the Fletcher's house (Josh Fletcher, Ann Wyndham's cousin). A lot of the girls would go over there to watch the game. We were the "cheerleaders".

I also remember wearing yellow ribbons for the hostages in Iran. I remember wearing those barrettes that you braided a ribbon into. Shoelaces with designs on them. Velour sweat suits. We played Pac Man and Donkey Kong when we went to RollerWorld in Greenville. We played tennis on the Commodore 64 at home. We listened to Leif Garrett and had posters of Sean Cassidy.

Fast forward 28 years. I have a daughter in the 6th grade. Oh. My. Gosh!

She is in Middle School.
She has her own locker.
She switches classes (7 periods a day).
She wants a cellphone.
She wants to go to the tanning bed.
She wants to get highlights in her hair.
She wants her ears pierced. (Thank goodness it's only ears!)
She probably needs to wear a bra. (I am trying to hold out on this one!!)
She downloads music from the Internet.
She is crazy about the Jonas Brothers.
She has posters of teen stars all over her walls.

How did I get here so fast?? Wasn't it yesterday that I was in 6th grade??

One week and 5 days...

That's how much summer we have left. The girls start back to school on August 7th. Don't you think that is a little early? I remember starting around August 16th and getting out around May 19th. What ever happened to that school year?

Also, why must we have "early" and "late" schools? Early schools start around 7:20am and late schools after 8:00am. Thank goodness we are a "late" school. Carlyn starts at 8:15am and Noelle at 8:30am. What ever happened to 8:00-3:00? We all went to school that way and did fine I might add. Why do we have to change things that work? I don't get it.
So I drop Carlyn off at 8:15 and yell "See you at 3:35." I drop Noelle off at 8:30 and yell "See you at 3:15." It just doesn't sound right to me.

Does this mean I am getting old and set in my ways?

The 'guest" in our garage

Dean and I were outside tonight trying to clean out and straighten up the garage. I had the shop-vac out vacuuming up spider webs and dead bugs. Dean was moving boxes around and called out to me to come look. This is what I saw:

That's right a black widow! Making herself at home in our garage. Getting ready to have many, many more black widow babies!

This is a shot right before Dean squashed her and her eggsack. Her web was very sticky and hard to get off the wall.

I just hope she didn't have any friends shacking up with her!

Starkville calls

Carlyn is headed to Starkville this afternoon to spend a few nights with one of her friends. She is so excited! If I offered her $1000 to stay in Southaven this week I don't think she would take it. She and Cat are going to swim at the country club, be creative at Dandy Doodlez, and catch a movie at the Hollywood Premiere Cinema. We are meeting in Tupelo at the mall.

Noelle is sad that she will have no one to play with. I am happy that she will have no one to argue with.

In other news, I have an interview with Olive Branch Intermediate School on Thursday for a school nurse position. I am very excited about this job and would love to get it. I am going to put on some major charm during this interview! The position is a nine month position so it is perfect for me and the girls. We would be on the same schedule.

Mom is coming on Wednesday to stay with the girls (now one girl) during my interview. She was going to take them both back to Grenada with her on Thursday but now it will be just Noelle. We are having a 4th of July get together in Grenada with Mom and Dad and Dean's family. (Cin, you know you want to come!)

I guess there is nothing else exciting happening. I hope Carlyn won't chain herself to a tree in Starkville so she can stay there. We are supposed to pick her up on Thursday. We'll see how that goes.

Happy Birthday.....

to Camden Noelle Patterson. She was born 7 years ago today at 2:07pm. Tomorrow night we are going to see Cats at the Orpheum to celebrate! (Noelle loves Cats)

She's still my baby, I don't care how old she gets!

Heaven on Earth

Enough said.

Good Golly....

Meet Molly!

Molly is the newest addition to the Patterson household. We got her on May 22 from our old neighbors in Starkville. For those of you who know she is Sparx's baby and Fiesty's niece. Sparx was the siamese looking cat with no tail. Molly does not have a tail either. She is very playful and has given me and the girls plenty of scratches all over. She is not as innocent as she looks in these pictures. We are glad we got her. She is keeping us entertained!