B's Birthday

Happy Birthday to our Brooklyn Carrol!  Can't believe my baby is 12!  Technically as of right now, 12 years and 5 days.  I won't go into the hours and seconds.  But I do remember growing up and making sure everyone knew I was such and such age and 1/4 or 1/2 and so on!  Well now I'm counting down to having two teenagers in the house.  Girls at that.  CAN NOT WAIT (said sarcastically!)

It was Little Caesar's for supper - a cheese, pepperoni, 3 meat and 2 packages of bread sticks to be exact (do you remember when you always got two pizzas from Little Caesar's and it came on a long piece of cardboard with a paper covering??)  Water bottles and one Dr. Pepper (that would belong to B.)  And a cookie cake to make us angry when it's all gone!  Donuts for breakfast and manicures for brunch!

Brooklyn, Sophie Steelman, Alexa Sanchez, Justice Renner

Looks like someone stole some chocolate!

At Hollywood Nails

Dance Competition

We made it through our first competition!  It was held at Keller High School in Keller.  Not having a clue what it was really all about, I think we managed pretty well.  I was terrified of the false eyelashes!  This task was assigned to Taylor, but she couldn't do it!  She did go to Target and buy them for me tho! We sat in the parking lot, put on the makeup and glued the spidery looking things in place!  I didn't see a DRAMATIC difference, but I guess just enough. 

So, if you've ever seen the show "Dance Moms" it was kind of like that but on a smaller scale - I think?!  For one thing we were at a school and I've never seen them perform on a gym floor.  But there were definitely moms there with the matching or semi-matching shirts supporting their dance school.  Moms with garment bags for each individual costume and rolling clothes racks.  And LOTS of bling and furry eyelashes! And there were Dance Dads too.  Now our dance instructor, Sommer McBee, is nothing like Abby Lee from the show - whew!  I would be out of there and could not/would not put my daughter through anything like that.  And of course it's television and I'm sure is scripted quite a bit. 

It was a pretty long day.  We had to sit on bleacher seats (should have brought a seat cushion!)  Luckily, it was very fast moving.  Each routine had to be no more than 2 minutes :30 seconds.  Lots of solos too.  Brooklyn is on the Youth Team and they performed a hip-hop, novelty and pom routine.  I loved them all!

Waiting to do their pom routine (they won Super Sweepstakes on this and the novelty routine - not sure what that means!):

They remind of the dancers in the Robert Palmer video, Addicted to Love!

Pictures from the novelty dance:

With Erin Jackson

The girls also took Super Sweepstakes in the Hip Hop and first place!  And wouldn't you know I don't have pictures of that dance!  I was trying to video it without success.  Luckily, we have two more competitions at the end of the month.

On our way home:

Until next time...

B's New Clubs

I think it's pretty cool that Brooklyn likes golf.  Let me rephrase that.....loves golf!  She really, really, really wanted new clubs for Christmas.  After searching on line, calling pawn shops, shopping trips out of town, we decided we would just get her a new set.  And we were in luck - one of our local golf shops here had a 2011 set for a $100 off!!  They are the Adams brand (okay....?!) and red.  She really wanted pink, but hey.....be happy!  She hit some balls in the yard with the protective plastic still on the clubs!  Luckily, just before we left to go play with her friend Alexa Sanchez, she reluctantly took the plastic off!

At Alpine Target Golf Center, Divine Nine Golf Course - really cute course....if they can be called "cute!"

We were freezing!

B was sweet to share her clubs.

Even with her daddy!



Illegal drivers!

I was the score keeper but was too involved in my Words With Friends on my phone.  They were all winners!



B and the Eye Doctor

Brooklyn has had headaches her whole life.  She had a couple of bad falls when she was a toddler and I have always been convinced the headaches are caused by that.  We have had an MRI and EEG, which were both negative.  The last week of school before Christmas break, she had one so bad she started throwing up.  Maybe it's her eyes?!  After her appointment this past week, she is okay!  It was funny watching her though - especially at that horrible glaucoma machine.  You never know when that puff of air is going to knock you out of the chair - oh the suspense!  And I couldn't help laugh!  The dilation of her eyes was kind of funny too - the after part with her lovely glasses and her one eye still huge!  I hate having drops put in my eyes, so I felt a lot of sympathy for her going through that part.  When the doctor was finished he asked her if she had any sunglasses.  Of course she didn't and he said, "Okay.  I'll give you some."  Not what B expected!  Old lady!

Since the eyes are okay, we headed back to the pediatrician.  And since our beloved Dr. Brown moved to Galveston, we saw Dr. Whitney (love her!)  She gave her a nose spray for migraines and in the meantime is working on a referral to a neurologist in Dallas.  We will see where that takes us!

Again, I'm thankful for my insurance!

Dancing Halloween Style

Brooklyn got to wear a Halloween costume to dance this year and perform for the other students.  Since we didn't really "dress up" this year, this is what she came up with!  Taylor cut and tied the shirt to help her out!  I love it when they're helpful and not hurtful (as Aunt Kimberlie would say!)

With Jack, the hobo dog

B's First Golf Tournament

Saturday, 10/22/11, the Cheyenne Club held it's 2nd annual charity golf tournament to benefit the Gregg County Rainbow Room.  Since I was there for work, I decided to let Brooklyn play in it.  It was held at the Longview Country Club and she had a wonderful time!

Bobbie Richards (from work) and Brooklyn

Brooklyn, Bobbie, Brandt Thorson (Rainbow Room board member) and Kyle Michalka (from work)

 



The team:  Drew Womack (I work with his wife Linda), Kyle, Bobbie & Brooklyn

The team mates had to scare the geese away!

This was a 4 man scramble and once they used Brooklyn's drive to start from!  She was feeling pretty awesome.  And several of her drives were just as long if not longer than some of her team mates!  Later that night she asked me when could she get on the course again!  She said, "that was amazing and not just the golf cart!"  They had a final score of 70 which is par for the course!

Par for Golf

Brooklyn is taking "Intro to Golf" in school and so far she loves it!  We have really been encouraged to have her participate in the First Tee Program.  We will start this in the spring and are very excited!  She had her first lesson with Mike Williams from the Alpine Target Golf Center / Divine Nine, on October 5.  He really helped her understand her pre-swing pose and compared it to a dance move - now that, we can relate to!  He had only positive things to say about her and that of course was a great esteem booster!

Can't wait for the next lesson and some time at the driving range!

B's Favorite Tree

Brooklyn has always appreciated nature - sunrises, sunsets, the flowers in the Spring, and beautiful leaves in the fall.  I believe she gets this from me and I know I got it from my mother.  My mom used to always say she wanted a dress the color of the sunset.  Well, that's a lot of colors!  And she would always point out the beautiful landscapes.  And Brooklyn can spot a Weeping Willow a mile away.  She LOVES them!  And why haven't we ever planted her one?  We know that they require a lot of water and water has been on short supply this year.  But even before this drought, we just never did.  We've look at our yard and tried to figure out the best place for one and that was it.  I would still love for her to have one.  We will have to plot the yard again!

And I'm chronologically out of order again - these pictures were taken at Kelci's high school graduation party in June.