The Goat

(Since someone actually read and made a comment on my blog, I guess I'll have to continue. I decided the original title didn't really convey the contents of the blog; thus, the title change.)

My beautiful daughter, EJ, is planning on majoring in Agricultural Education in college. She wants to teach high school Ag and has been taking a lot of ag classes and is very involved in FFA (Future Farmers of America). If you knew us you might think this odd considering the fact that we live in a large city and have never lived anywhere else. However, I grew up in a small town of about 10,000 and both sets of grandparents lived on farms in the country. I think my love of small town and country living passed into my daughter's genes in utero. She has always wanted to live in the country and loves animals. So...the goat.

As a step toward earning her Lone Star degree for FFA, EJ is required to raise an animal. Two weeks ago "we" became the proud owners of a small goat named Samson. Thankfully, our school district has an ag farm and that is where Samson resides. From my prior post you may remember that EJ doesn't drive. So..."we" get to drive twice a day to the farm so EJ can feed the goat - every day, including Christmas! EJ is not a morning person and is not enjoying getting up early every morning, including weekends. Samson will be cared for until the end of February. After being shown at our big livestock show and the county livestock show, he will be returned to the food chain, as the teacher so gently put it. Hopefully, we will recover some of the money we put into little Samson. EJ is being a real trooper and doesn't complain much about having to arise earlier than usual. But, it has been only 2 weeks! And the show training hasn't even started.

I was opposed to the goat but knew that this was something EJ needed to do. I'm afraid I made her feel bad about doing it (with my ramblings on about what an inconvenience it was going to be for me). I'm not proud of that and I decided that this would be a family project. So...when EJ cannot take care of the goat for whatever reason, Mom and Dad will fill in the gap. We are also not complaining(yet). After all, our time with her is becoming short and I'm trying to be a better mom and enjoy this year - not always easy but definitely worth it.

New Driver

Our lovely daughter has never really felt the need to drive. She has friends who got their license as soon as they turned 16, but also has quite a few who waited. She was a little scared but mostly just did not want to put in the time to learn. And...after all, I drove her everywhere.

We elected to do parent-taught driver's ed. rather than paying $320 for a driving instructor. We had the material for a year before she would ever entertain the notion of learning anything about driving. Finally, in April of this year (1 month before her 17th birthday) we went to the DMV, she took her written test, passed and became the proud owner of a Learning Permit. Still, no driving. In our state, we have a graduated drivers' licensing program. You must have your learning permit for 6 months before it converts to a regular license (to give ample time for practice). For 5 of those months, no driving. Now, all of a sudden, she wants to drive all the time. Unfortunately, because of my husband's schedule, I'm doing most of the teaching. Can you say Valium?
Actually, she does pretty well but she hasn't driven over 40 mph yet. It will be nice when she can drive herself but I'm not anxious for that now.

Oh my, that was a lot of rambling. I'm not sure I'm going to be a very good blogger. I can report the facts but am not good at conveying the feelings and inner thoughts. I'll give that a try tomorrow!

My First Blog

Well, I am jumping in and attempting a blog. I thought it might be a good way to record our daughter's final year of high school. Bear with me while I'm learning!

My beautiful daughter just started her senior year of high school. I thought I was fine with it but have discovered I get upset over little things. Letting go anxiety, perhaps? The school year got off to a rocky start. It seems there was some incompetence in the school office and most of the seniors had their class schedule completely messed up. My daughter (we'll call her EJ) was supposed to be in: English IV, Prep for College Alg, Government, Varsity Choir, Ind. Study for Ag., ASL II, and student aide for a teacher. What they put her in was: Eng. IV, Prep for College Alg, Varsity Choir, ASL II, Government, Economics, Business Law, Wildlife Mgt., Range Mgt. Please!! However, she was on top of it and it only took 2 days to get it straightened out.

She likes most of her teachers and has taken on some new responsibilities, one being Varsity Choir. She's never been in school choir but has been in church choir since the age of 3 so her teacher put her in the varsity choir. She's excited but nervous. Also, she's student aiding for a teacher this year and that requires a little more responsibility on her part.

We're getting into the swing of things and I'm hoping for a great year. So much for the boring details. I'll try for a more interesting update later.