March in Review!

 On march 7 my Grandpa turned 90!! We are so lucky to have him around this long, and that my kids get a great-grandparent! He is my last living grandparent. He still does a lot and spends holidays with us and all kinds of stuff :)

Brooke started drivers ed! As of now she has actually finished. She stayed after school for 2 weeks from 3-6 pm (long day!!) and learned stuff in class. Then on that Saturday she went to a driving course and drove for 4 hours in a car. We have also been taking her out to drive at parking lots around town, and in my moms neighborhood. She has been doing pretty well! She had to take a big 100 question test on the last day. She was so worried about it but made a 96%! She gets to go on May 10 to get her permit. We already have an appointment scheduled. I just can't believe it's time in life for this!! 

I had been wanting to get my haircut forever, but I finally did it! I went to see Taylor who has done my hair a few times before. She always does a great job!!! I didn't realize just HOW LONG my hair had gotten until I saw the before and after pics! It feels SO great now... and it's so easy to deal with. She made it look really gorgeous while I was there. I told her there was no way it would ever look that way again :D I am really bad at doing hair... I think I am missing that girly gene, haha :D I did try again once but of course it looked awful. So for now I just use my straightener. It still looks good though! :)

While looking through old albums at moms house recently I found this pic of me and Katie!!! Katie is the one I wrote about on here several times... she survived Covid last year after we were basically told she would not live!! God is so awesome. Anyway, Katie's husband used to be the pastor at our church when I was 13 and she became my mentor for a confirmation class I took. I became stuck to her right away.. I always just loved her. I was a VERY shy kid (still am!) and I used to follow her around everywhere when we went on youth trips :D Anyway, we have stayed close all these years. She is like my 2nd mom! I couldn't imagine life without Katie. One thing I love about her is she has always allowed me to just be myself... I could sit with her and be quiet for hours (which I did alot back then!) and she'd just let me be! I loved just hanging out with her. She's an awesome woman... as anyone who knows her would say!!

I mentioned my bestie is expecting a baby girl late this summer. We have definitely been doing a lot of shopping getting ready for her! Gives me a great excuse to go look at all the cute stuff and buy her stuff too ;) I MAY have ordered Ensley her very first care bear on Amazon! ;) Me and her sister and soon to be mother in law are throwing her a baby shower in July. We have all decided on a honey bee theme and I am already going crazy planning! Yall know I love throwing parties ;) 

Ruby has been getting so big! She is almost as big as Max, our 10 year old cat! Max has been teaching her bad habits.. she loves to get behind the blinds in our bedroom window and sit in the sun. the blinds look awful now!!!! She also will sit in the bed and protest when I try to change the sheets. She is so sweet though.. she does this cute squeaking meow/cry when she wants someone. She sits outside the bathroom and cries if Brooke won't let her in. Anyway, she turns 1 year old this Saturday!! We may be having a small party to celebrate ;) 

Brooke got to be in her very first pep rally! Yes pep rallys are usually in the fall, but covid messed that up so they decided to do one in spring! She got to learn a dance with the JV AND varsity girls and go up in front of everyone at school. Her bff helped her with her makeup and facepaint that day :)

My BFF Jess and I went to freckled frog to do some painting. We both have made SO many pieces that we don't really need anymore but I decided to make one I could hang on the door when people in our family have birthdays! I wanted a cupcake but they were out so I decided on an icecream cone. It turned out really cute! I also had filled up my punch card so I got this one FREE!!! So that was awesome. 

Mom, dad and I went out to lunch one Friday at their country club. This feels so weird to say because I still can't believe dad is gone!!! :( He was rolling his eyes like usual when I took this selfie of me and mom outside the restaurant. But I am so grateful I spent a bunch of time with him this year......I will always treasure those memories.

Arnold and I went out to dinner for our monthly date night. We went to Carrabbas', one of our favorite places. That night it was PACKED.. and of course we were seated right near the door and the overflow of people were right on top of us... Kinda hard to have a romantic evening with all those people! ;)

Arnold and i have done a TON of puzzles. I guess that's our new hobby now! (so exciting haha) This is one we did recently. I love the birds :) 

Brooke had her winter sports banquet and awards ceremony for cheer. She got the "fearless flyer" award from her coaches. I am proud of how hard she worked this year and how much effort she put into learning things.. like flying! It makes me nervous everytime she goes up in the air but she does great! 

Her and Arnold at the dinner before the awards 

We don't have actual cable, we use a lot of streaming services. But Arnold bought the CBS app for a month for us to be able to watch the end of march madness and we got to see the Tarheels move on to the final 4 and then to the championship game!!!! Unfortunately they lost, but they had a great season and I'm proud of them! This meant a lot to me because dad was a huge sports fan and Carolina fan.. and he would have LOVED these games!!!!! Watching made me think so much of him :)