First Day of High School

9th grade. Freshman Year. High School.

Private school.

Wow, these are some big changes. 

Today is Ally’s first day. It feels so big and important. She was so calm and relaxed about it. In the car ride to school, it’s about 25 minutes, she told me she thought going to our public high school wouldn’t have been good for her mental health. My heart just about burst. It’s true. It wouldn’t have been good for her. 2000 students, poor support, high stress environment. 

Never would I have thought I’d send our daughter to private school. But this school. We have so much hope and optimism. Small class sizes, true differentiated learning, lots of academic support as well as social and emotional support. Tons of executive function coaching. A competitive but small and accessible sports program. Arts classes. And some diversity. It’s just the ideal situation to set Ally up for a successful 4 years. I am incredibly grateful for the ability to send her to this school. And to all of the support we’ve had so far so she understands and is excited about this school and this opportunity. 

So much love for this smart, strong, beautiful girl. 

All summer she wore her “strength” charm necklace we got her after the pain clinic, and a butterfly necklace from Grandma and Poppy (silver). But last night she decided she wanted to wear her A initial necklace layered with something else. Gold jewelry she decided was what she wanted for the first day. 

She looks like herself. She was at ease getting ready, no nerves at all. She ate a good breakfast, which was wonderful.



One last smile for me as she got out of the car.

She promptly met up with one of her new friends and walked in. 

It’s a long day. 

Orientation today 830-300 and then volleyball practice 330-530. I’m going to miss her today but am so excited for her. 

August 29-September 4, 2021

It’s the last week of Summer. We are ready for September 8 and the start of school.

Sunday we attended a new family event at Ally’s high school. Ally made some new friends pretty quickly. These photos are from the schools Instagram page. 

But she was super happy to get home and hug Daisy. I think missing Daisy will be the hardest part of school. Being away from her cat for 10 hours a day is going to be hard.

Another week, another puzzle interrupted by Daisy.





Best text of the week.

Tuesday Ally had a follow up with her orthopedist and  her ankles are all better and she has no more pain.

We also played Uno, 11 games, Ally won 10. 

Ally loves it when both of her pets snuggle with her. 

We watched a movie one night. Re-watched Godzilla.

Ally got her haircut on Wednesday.



After the haircut we went to the pet store and Staples. We left with some Halloween costumes for Cloey (peacock) and Daisy (Hocus Pocus T shirt)



Ally got all the school supplies she wanted, came home and set up her school backpack.

Ally had physical therapy Thursday morning, her last session! And then came home and took the concussion test for school. 

Daisy of course is never far away.

We got a new full length mirror for our 3rd floor. It’s behind the barn door.

Friday we all got pedicures and Ally got a manicure.

Another puzzle



And PS5 playing COD

Ally did some art in the evening while watching TV.

Saturday morning Beth and Becky and Cloey went for a long walk at park on the water.

Back at home Ally organized lots on the 3rd floor, finished her final book for summer reading and we did a puzzle. 

The puzzle glows in the dark.





I think the hardest part of school next week for Ally will be being away from Daisy almost 12 hours a day. 

They are inseparable.

August 17-28 2021

Summer is plugging along. It’s been a pretty quiet few weeks. Lots of appointments, time with our pets, puzzles, gaming,  home decorating and some socially with friends. 

When we got back from Vermont Ally was dealing with an upset stomach for a while and felt pretty crummy. So we took things pretty easy and low key for a few days. 

We are all excited that Cloey and Daisy are starting to get along better. 



Puzzling!

Turns out Daisy is really active at night. She opens the closet doors, pulls open the drawers and drags clothes out of the drawers. She did all of that one night. 

After NYC with her new Jordan sneaker purchases we have been thinking about how to store her nee shoes. Some Pinterest research and we decided a trip to IKEA was the solution.

But first it was lunch work. Every Friday we have been home this Summer we have made and 10 bag lunches for our Church’s Friday Cafe (homeless meal pick up). 

Here we are at IKEA. 

Ally put the shelf together mostly herself.

Becky and I hung it up and then Ally styled it. 

No it’s not hung up crooked, it’s just that in our old house the floor and walls are not level and plumb. It’s pretty cute and yes the litter box remains in Ally’s room.

Saturday morning Ally and I went to Guatemala Girls at Gabi’s house. It was just us and Gabi and her mom. The girls went swimming for over an hour and it was nice to see some friends.

Then later for dinner we had Erik and his mom and brother over for dinner. The kids played PS5 upstairs and Becky, Deb and I talked in the living room. We all had dessert together later after dinner. 

I am just so grateful to have Daisy. She brings so much joy and love to Ally. (And us).

I took at at home COVID test after feeling sick for a few days. Negative! Such a relief. 

It was a really hot week. So lazy mornings in bed for Ally.

And puzzles most afternoons.




But we started thinking about changing up a wall in her room. These 3 prints below she’s had for a long time. 

So after lots of texting of photos back and forth and some talk about her vision of the wall. I came up with the above layout. 

Ally wanted all black and white. A mixture of words and art and she didn’t want anything “too perfect”

We had the Guatemala print and the Be you. 

We found a couple of quotes from her favorite show The Vampire Diaries that she was excited about and I just kept searching for things she would like. Which is a challenge when Ally does not always know how to tell me what she wants but is quick to reject things! 

Once the layout was approved. I ordered prints from Walgreens of the download files I purchased from Etsy. Then I did a mock up on the actual wall.

And hung it all up. Ally was pleased. 

We all love this Rohrshack inspired cat print above her and Daisy. 

We had managed to do the whole wall on a very tight budget using frames we had and inexpensive downloads and the Walgreens prints came out fantastic and were really low cost.

We all feel like this was a nice change to Ally’s room. It looks more like the room of a High School Freshman now than a middle school girl. 

On our trip to VT we got a puzzle at the LL Bean outlet. It was fun to put together.

Beth and Becky went to the beach during the hottest day of the week. But before and after the beach trip Beth helped move some furniture around at our house. Our bench is going to live at the 2nd floor landing for a while. It looks great there and we can easily open and close the window which we love, but the downside of that is Cloey can get on the bench and scratch at the screen. It is a second floor window and we really don’t want her to push the screen out and fall out the window!  The picture above was taken on Saturday which was cool weather, only 68 degrees after the 100 degree Thursday weather!

Daisy found an open window perch.

Saturday Ally was meeting her gymnastics friends at a local hotel for a pool party. 

The weather was not great so they didn’t really swim.



But hung out in the hotel suite. 

It was a sleepover party. But Ally did not sleep over. She came home at dinner to so she could eat and sleep well. Today, Sunday we have a new family picnic at her new school. 

One more week of Summer left!