High Five for Friday

What I'm grateful for this week...

Garage Door repair guys SUPER HEROES who are on call 24 hours/day, who come to your house at dinner time, who can fix anything, and who stay for three hours and then offer to program the remote in the van for you, too.  

What surprised me this week...

Flowering Buttercup and I had a talk several weeks ago about the constant barrage of pictures and status updates that she gets all day and night on her phone, and the effect it has on her.  Her friends (and their friends) post things that she may or may not want to see or read about at the moment they post it, but because she has a constant feed on her iPhone, and because it's always in her hand, she has no choice but to be subject to EVERYTHING instantly.  Sometimes you don't want to know exactly what your friends are thinking.  Sometimes, when you've had a particularly crappy day, you don't want to see the latest cheerleader photo shoot of some girl's perfect hair and chiseled 6 pack.  Sometimes it's better to not find out when people's relationship status has changed.  I am not a fan of social media and the pressure it puts on everyone, especially teenage girls.  

This morning, Flowering Buttercup casually announced that she deleted her FB and Twitter apps from her phone.  Her accounts are still there, but the constant access is gone.  I have no idea what prompted this, but it's a good thing, and I am really proud of her for making a change that was hard.  

What made me smile this week...
I wish I could capture all of the goofy, hilarious, insightful, and amazing things my kids say in a week, but Flowering Buttercup is the only one who regularly sends them to me via TEXT.  (Maybe that's a good reason to get all the other kids phones, too???)
The Scout Master was trying to access my blog this week via his iPad from HOU.  For some reason he wasn't seeing any recent posts, so I asked Flowering Buttercup to look at my blog from her phone and see if she could see anything new.  She texted me back and said "I don't even know how to get to your blog."  Serious???  I do this everyday and write 50% of my posts about my kids, and she doesn't even know how to get to it??  ugh...

Well, at least she realizes that she might miss me someday.  :)

What I loved this week...
My neighbor, Jill, has a daughter who LOVES to ride horses.  In fact, they happen to own a horse who they board at a nearby stable, and Jill takes her daughter there several times a week to ride.  Every now and then, they also take their younger son and they invite Mack to come along.  Jill texted me this picture from the stables...

Don't let that little scowl on Mack's face fool you.  That's his permanent, 9-yr-old "I-really-hate-having-my-picture-taken" face.  He actually LOVES going to the barn, and he LOVED being on that horse.  (Her name is Six.)  I don't think Mack has ever been on a horse before.  I was instantly grateful for all the people who fill up the space in our days with great things and who give my kids opportunities to broaden their little horizons.  We have the BEST neighbors!

What I'm LAUNCHING this week...

Photography Class at Colin County Community College

The Scout Master took me on a trial run to the campus last night.  It's so scary and exciting that I wanted to hurry up and just get in that class already and I also wanted to throw up all at the same time.  Ridiculous, huh?  

I hope this has been a productive, amazing, happy week for all of you and that you have a wonderful weekend to look forward to.