Report Cards & Homecoming Dance

First quarter report cards came home for all three kids last week.  No surprises on any of them, though, as I check their grades daily online.  Half the time I know what they scored on something before they do because the teacher enters the grade online before handing the papers back to them.  My youngest is in 2nd grade and they still don't get "real" grades, as in A, B, C or F.  They get "O" for outstanding, "S" for satisfactory and "N" for not satisfactory.  She got all "O's", which I was so happy to see.  She is one smart little cookie, but oh my goodness, she is a pill!  My 4th grader got one "C", which I was thrilled with as it was in spelling and I truly thought he would get an "F"!  That kid just. can't. spell.  At all.  He also got one "B" and the rest were "A's" so I was super proud of him, too.  And Alex... two "C's", two "B's" and two "A's".  I think I'll frame the report card and the next time she tells me school is too hard I'll knock her over her head with it!  Now starts second quarter where she is going to need to learn to manage her time a bit better as she will be *very* busy with Dance Team, the dance studio and soccer.  I really hope she can keep her grades up so she doesn't have to drop anything.

Alex had her first high school dance on Saturday night.  Two of her friends came over beforehand so they could all ride together.  It was really nice to see her with friends.  Alex looked lovely, as usual.  She was being a little bratty (or maybe embarrassed) and wouldn't pose for a decent photo, but here she is:

She said she had a good time at the dance, and it was much better than the 8th grade dance she had attended in May.  One of the girls that came over before the dance stayed the night and went to church with us the next morning.  

So far I feel like Alex is transitioning fairly well into life as an American high schooler.  It was very difficult for her at the beginning of the school year because high school is serious business, and putting the language barrier aside, it is vastly different than her school in Ukraine.  My hope for her is that she can continue to succeed in school and truly enjoy this time in her life.    

School, Just Dance & Puppy Love

Alex has had some ups and downs when it comes to school work and her self confidence.  For English Lit she had to read a book (the first of many) and write a report on it. Let's just say she was, errrrr......, resistant to doing the assignment.  In the end, after a bit of drama, she did what was required, and in typical Alex fashion went above and beyond.  Her score?  100%.  Thank goodness as now she can see that she is perfectly capable of doing it (reading & writing English) even though she isn't crazy about doing so.  She has moved on to her second book & report and is willingly reading and thinking about what to do for the report which is due at the end of October.  She scored 105% out of 100% for a project in Food & Nutrition as well as getting the only 100% on a different project in the same class.  After a rough start in Algebra she is "getting it" now and should get a solid "B" in that class and a low "A" in her Algebra support class.  Science is a definite challenge for her and the jury is still out on Health.  

Her Dance Team practice started this week (2X per week) and she seems to be enjoying that.  She also has dance class at a studio two nights a week, so she is getting lots of dancing in every week.  She wants to play soccer, too, but it is going to be a tight squeeze to get everything in.  Even though the soccer games don't start until February the required conditioning and weight training start now.  Not sure yet how that is going to all work out, but I guess we will figure it out.

She has a Homecoming Dance next Saturday and we went out and bought a dress earlier this week.  She asked it two of her friends could come over before the dance so that they could do each other's hair and makeup.  Should be fun for her.  

I finally broke down recently and told my husband that we could get a puppy.  I was the last holdout as I knew the majority of the training, care and cleanup would fall on me, no matter what everyone else "promised" to do to help.  I said nothing to the kids about it, though.  We both decided that we wanted a Black Lab.  Now, I know I am going to catch a lot of flack for this, but Jeff and I both felt it was the right decision to go to a breeder and not adopt from a shelter.  Labs are known for having a few significant health issues and we wanted to make sure that whatever puppy we chose came from healthy parents.  I realize that does not guarantee that the puppy won't have health issues down the line, but it does give us much better odds of that NOT happening.  Anywayyyyyyyyy......I found a breeder with a few different aged litters about three hours from our home.  I called my mom and asked her if she could come stay with the kids last Saturday so that Jeff and I could go look at the puppies and see if there was one we wanted.  I told the kids we were going car shopping and they couldn't go with us on the test drives.  :)  I knew we would be gone all day and I didn't want Alex to have to be responsible for R&M for that long, so that is why I had Grandmom step in.  To make this already long story a bit shorter, we both fell in love with the same puppy and bit the bullet and got him.  He sat in my lap for the three hour drive home without making a peep.  As we got closer to home I mentioned to Jeff that we could name him "Jagger", as in Mick Jagger, because he was such a rockstar.  We got home, snuck into the backyard and let the kids find us back there.  They were sooooo excited at first because they thought we were puppy sitting for someone.  When we told them the puppy was OURS they were insanely ecstatic!  We mentioned the name "Jagger" as a possible name and everyone agreed that it was perfect for him.  As of today Jagger is just a few days shy of his three month birthday.  He sits on command, retrieves like a pro, hasn't tried to eat Sushi (the cat), sleeps through the night in his crate and is awesome with the kids.  We are working on housebreaking which is exhausting (mostly mentally exhausting....not physically exhausting) and other commands.  We did have to move Sushi's food and water bowl as Jagger just won't stay out of them, but so far that is the only issue we have had with him.  All this kids love him, as do Jeff and I.  I think even Sushi is happy to have another 4-legged creature in the house!