My daughter, the writer.

                                               

 Emily loves to write.  I mean she really really loves to write!!! She's always been the type of kid who loved to read & write but nowadays more than anything else she loves writing.  She will write for hours & hours a day, & if we didn't limit her time on the computer, it would be even more....ha.   She has files & files worth of stories on our computer.  When she was younger she would write her stories on "loose leaf" paper but none of the stories lasted very long that way... usually atleast a few papers would get unstapled from the group & important parts of the stories lost forever--or just get torn out or dog eared. Then she wrote in notebooks... we finally suggested that she start using the computer to write her stories on, since we realized how many "trees" she was killing, not to mention the expense of paper products that were needing to be bought. We should have made that suggestion a lot sooner... because she probably has 50 composition/ notebooks full.   Mind you.... she's only 13 years old!  She usually writes stories featuring her stuffed animals as characters.   Right now she's writing a story about a group of beanie babies whose one friend gets accused of doing something he didn't do & gets punished for it & how his friends are on a crusade to help him.  While the subject matter may seem immature, her writing is really good,  & well I guess if her subject matter doesn't change, there will always be a need for good children writers.   She puts my writing to shame...  I know I'm not much of "writer".  I just write... without really knowing "how" to write. With Emily it's different...she writes "correctly" including all those pesky rules on how to use commas, semi-colons, etc that I've never been able to figure out, she knows how to do correctly.   Anyone who reads my blog knows that me & grammar aren't really friends :)  We just received her NJASK scores the other day & Emily scored above proficient in Reading/Language Arts.   One of the line scores --said 39 points was the highest score possible.... Emily got a 30, & the state average was 19---- so see it's not JUST me "her mom" saying it...LOL!  Last year her teacher even told Emily that she got the highest grade in the class on the essay part.  Over the years we've been told by numerous teachers how good her writing is as well- I remember her first grade teacher telling us that Emily was the BEST writer at her age she'd ever had in her class, & she's been a teacher for well over 20 years.   I'm sorry to brag, but it makes me really proud that Emily is such a great writer.   Emily has always been better at expressing things in writing.   She may struggle a little with "social" interactions in real life but when she puts thoughts on paper they come out so clean & precise.   So Emily.... Please never give up writing--- I can't imagine you ever will BUT don't because you have a real talent!  I love your stories & I LOVE you too! --- mom.

Still "HAPPY" Day 2-8th grade!

First day of 8th grade for Emily! :)

Stuff... too much stuff.

So we've been trying over the last few years to get rid of  all the "extra" stuff we have.  Our house is small & when I moved in....   I had an apartment so I had "stuff" ... then when my mom & brother moved in, they had stuff & then Brian moved in & he had stuff,  so needless to say, we've accumulated a lot of "stuff" over the years.  Not to mention I (we) used to be much worse at holding on to all our "Stuff".  It's still difficult for me to get rid of some things.  You know... things I find meaning in.  Lots of Emily's things,  you know mostly things like school assignments, art work, her cute little hand writing from when she was just learning.  It's all so special to me.  BUT I'm trying,  it's sometimes difficult to let go of things.  But..... I do try & especially in the last few years we've really made a concerted effort... it's not always easy especially for me.   For a while we tried to have yard sales... BUT they are sooooo much work & you never really know how the day will go.  We got pretty good at them though.  We KNEW we had to put an ad in the paper,  the signs up,  price every thing in advance,  get up early... the yard sale nuts come early. (No offense) BUT we still didn't always do that well... plus people who go to yard sales generally are really really "CHEAP". (Again NO Offense-just speaking the truth here)  Anyway... A couple of years, we discovered this co.  called "load lighteners"  They come,  They take your stuff, & they sell it.  They get 40 %, we get 60%.... it's so much easier.  I would recommend to anyone who has tons of stuff.. trying to look up on the internet some company like this around where you live.  You don't have all the work & it's just one time to say "goodbye" to all your stuff, as opposed to a yard sale where every customer there takes a little memory away---& you must continually say goodbye to your stuff all day.  We have another batch of things for them to pick up... quite a bit actually so I'm excited to have a little more space, make a little money & happy to be one less step away from being a hoarder one day.  ;)  peace out!