A big bunch of randoms

I have some thoughts, not all of them could make a post on their own so I am just going to combine them.  I have a few award and tags that I am going to get up this week.  I am excited about doing them.

Bragging on my kid for a moment

I have an only child and she takes up a lot of my time so bear with me for celebrating her successes.  After the first nine weeks of school, her lowest grade is a 95.6.  I am one proud mama.  She is taking 4 pre-AP classes this year.  Her Algebra 1 class goes on her permanent high school transcript.  She is making a 98 in there.  So far so good as far as school goes.  She also found out yesterday that she is one of her teacher's favorite student.  That's always nice to hear.  We have student parent conferences on Friday.  I don't like them.  I want to talk to the teacher about my kid, not talk to my kid about what she has been doing.  We talk about that every day and I check her grades at least twice a week.  Sometimes I know her assignment grades before she does.  Her cello practices have been going good.  She has her first Sinfonia Orchestra concert on Sunday.  I am pretty excited for her.  We have to go find black pants for her though.  Her ones from last year are now capris because she grew all her inches in her legs.

A day of remembrance

Yesterday was the anniversary of my Father-in-law's passing.  He passed away 11 years ago.  We still talk about him a lot.  We know he would have loved being a grandfather to Elexis.  Before he passed away, he and Elexis would play marbles.  She was two.  She still vaguely remembers rolling the marbles under the couch.  Fortunately we got the marbles when he passed.  She also would stick the guitar pick in the hole of the guitar and grandpa would get fake mad at her and she would just laugh and laugh.  He could make my kid laugh harder than anyone I knew.  He was a great man.  One I was truly blessed to get the privilege of knowing.  He was a brick mason and a fantastic one at that.  When we were touring homes this weekend, my husband would judge every piece of brick work.  He would say "My dad would throw a screaming fit if one of his workers left joints like this" or "This would meet my dad's standards".  Our neighbor had my FIL brick him a mailbox.  I am so glad to get to look outside and see a part of my FIL everyday.  He passed away when he was 49 years old.  He died from skin cancer.  We are very diligent about wearing sunscreen and reapplying.  In 13 years, Elexis has only had one minor sunburn.  We are very good about screening our bodies for abnormal pigmentation or moles.  Unfortunately, my FIL's skin cancer grew on the inside.  One of his legs was 5 times bigger that the other one.  I made pants for him that would fit over the leg.  We really miss him a lot.

Dinner last night

I threw together something in the crockpot yesterday and it was a success.  I have no pictures of the meal but it was only three ingredients.  Pork chops, ranch dressing powder mix, and a can of cream of chicken.  Both of my extremely picky eaters loved it.  Usually I fix shake and bake pork chops because that is the only way the two of them can agree upon.  But, I took a chance and it was a success.  My husband said he liked it better than shake and bake.  Yay!  I am going to try more.  I am slowly trying to bring them out of their shells.

My last dentist appointment

Today I go get my final permanent crown.  It has been a long six weeks and I will not wait 2 1/2 years before going to the dentist again.  I will finally be able to eat crunchy stuff with my whole mouth again.  I am excited!  I do love our new dentist though.  I am sure he is loving us too...in fact we better be invited to the beach house I am sure he can build with as much money as we have paid... haha.

Here is a picture of my husband, his dad and Elexis.  This was before he lost all of his hair to chemo.  This picture sits on our mantle next to his urn.