Miscellaneous updates...

Hey all. It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Since that time, Alex has graduated from Phase I of DEFY, the DoD camp she was attending. For those of you that have been wondering where Alex has been in my posts, I was waiting for the camp to get started before I posted about it. Then, before I knew it, camp was over! So, I took a couple of pictures at her Phase I graduation.

Phase II starts in August. The kids go one Saturday a month and there's learning accompanied usually by community service or a field trip. At the end of the year-long commitment in May, Alex will graduate from the program and be eligible to be a "Junior Mentor" (when she's 12). It's a really neat program, gets the kids doing something besides watching TV. And, you've all seen the commercials about talking to your kids about stuff. This was, if nothing else, a chance for some of the information about drugs, tobacco, alcohol, gangs, and basic behavior to enter their brains. You could tell that most of the kids got something out of it. And, they made new friends that they wouldn't otherwise have met (because these kids live all over the island, and have parents in all branches of service.) Overall, I think it was an exceptional program that I was glad to have been able to let Alex participate in.

On a totally separate note, I wanted to share some unrelated pictures. Abby's been loving her Creative Dance Class, and you can tell from the pictures that she's trying to do her best. I am so proud of her!

And, lastly, I've been trying to get on the Elliptical Machine at least 3 or 4 days a week for the past 3 months or so. Is it working? Yeah, I think it's starting to work. (When and if you can see dramatic changes, I will post a picture.) Anyway, I think my consistent exercise habits are rubbing off on the kids, but on this particular day they were more just goofing around (note Abby's facial expression and the fact that Alissa is wearing skinny jeans on the machine!)

For us this is the last weekend before all 3 of my beautiful girls start school. Alissa is nervous, Alex is indifferent, Abby is thrilled. I am all of those, and scared, too. As I mentioned before, our lives change on Monday. Maybe that's a little dramatic, but we are definitely opening a new chapter in the Heffner family novel. I hope you will all say a prayer for my girls and their first day back to school, and a prayer that Mom makes it through the day too!

Have a great weekend everyone, I will post "First Day of School" pictures on Monday afternoon...