Sass n school n college n so much appreciation.

What a crazy December.

And it is FLYING by!

My stress level has been higher then it ever has-even higher then when I was about to have a premie*I was so worried and stressed with Champ-Scared*. This stress is just a different kind of stress.

When we first started to have children, there were a few things that the Adorable One and I agreed upon.

1) We will not raise spoiled children.
2) We will not do everything for them-Teaching them to work hard.
3) We will not pay their way through college-They have to work their fannies off to get to where they are going to go.
4) We will not buy them a vehicle-They have to earn one.
5) We will teach them to Love and to be Kind.
6) We will teach them to Love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ-Never to point fingers at other religions.
7) We will teach them the importance of Prayer.
8) We will teach them that family comes first-ALWAYS!
9) We will teach them to laugh
10) We will teach them to respect others especially adults-Saying yes mamm and yes sir.

**These are not in any specific order**

We have done pretty darn good. We have struggled in a few areas, but are working hard to fix where we have slacked a little.

One thing that I have learned over the 18 years of parenting, is to never say never.

Situations can change that 'I will not' attitude.
Also, every child is different...The needs of one is different from the needs of the other.

The last few months, my focus has been on our oldest.
Cassandra finally made the decision to go to college, and to give college Softball a try.

Well, that isn't a simple 'Hey! I want to go to school' decision. At least not for Cassandra.
I held my ground for a long time, and was not going to help Sass get to college.

Cassandra was going to have to go to work. She was going to get all of her scholarships and grants all lined up. She was going to have to communicate with the College that she chose to go to and get everything set and ready.

Well, Sass did all of this...She has been able to get her school taken care of because of her hard work in High School, but everything else is going to have to be paid out of pocket.

Cassandra isn't going just around the corner, she is going clear across the country.
Why?? She has the opportunity to play Softball, Pitch, and attend a school that goes by the standards of her religious beliefs *That makes her Momma very happy*.
Also, this will give her such a great experience of being away from home, and having to learn to figure things out on her own-Meeting people and learning to deal with really cold weather!

Southern Virginia University...Around 36 hours away!

SOOOOO!!

We didn't know how we were going to pull this off. We didn't want to fly her and her not have a car.
We would never let her drive there by herself.
We thought about flying Sass to Virginia, and trying to ship the car to her...NO WAY! That cost a ton.
A friend mentioned that Michael and I could drive Cassandra there, and then fly home!
PERFECT!
This is how we will be getting Cassandra to school, except we will not fly, we will take a train instead.

Feeling determined, and with the advice of another mother, as a family we have taken on the task of getting Cassandra to college, doing fundraisers.

So, We have needed to earn money to pay for her Registration, Housing fee, and for the cost of getting her to Virginia. We jumped right into the fundraising...Not having a clue how to do it *thank goodness for people helping us out*.

We have sold pies. We have cleaned houses. We have had friends donate their services. We have made dinners. We have had a yard sale, and getting ready to do that again. We have sold baked goods. Cassandra has taken family pictures *Sass does an amazing job! I can't imagine how good she will become at taking photos...Seriously! I am impressed and proud*. We are selling raffle tickets, and trying to sale Scentsy Products through a friend of ours.

While we were setting things up for the yard sale, 
It got mentioned that it was feeling like we were begging for help. After I heard that, it has rang in my ears and has kept me up at night.

After feeling like a terrible human being, and a failure as a parent...Someone pulled me aside and told me that what our family was doing was awesome. We were working together to help Cassandra do something POSITIVE.

I can't express enough how much that meant to me to be told that we aren't begging for money...We were earning it, working together.

I am so very thankful for everything that everyone has done to help us out. There are no words! Times have been tough for families around us. It is Christmas time. Thank you for the time, the effort, the prayers, and for taking the time to send me messages. 

After this week, we will stop being so focused on earning money...We will spend time enjoying the time off. We will be moving the house around, rearranging bedrooms. We will paint, and I hope laugh and giggle building fires at night, doing nothing but enjoying our little big family!

We are headed for change...And boy! Are we going to miss our Sass.

** If you are wanting to help-Cassandra will be selling Scentsy Products until Dec. 26th.
You can go to www.kjeans.scentsy.us and click on Cassy's college fundraiser**

www.kjeans.scentsy.us