News from Miss Dominique

Things have been quite hectic the last couple of weeks. I have SO much that I need to catch up on, but have not had the time. Things will only be getting worse in the next two weeks. I wanted to at least give everyone a quick update on Dominique.

As many of you know, my "baby" will be turning 14 in less than a month. She is also hitting two "major" (major when you are 13 years old, lol) milestones before that. First is her Confirmation and second is her 8th grade graduation.

Dominique will be Confirmed tomorrow (May 13th). She has spent the last 8 months getting ready for this special day, including several hours of community service. Her community service included helping to bring Communion to local homebound parishioners, babysitting young children while parents were with older children at communion or reconciliation meetings, helping out at our parish Christmas bazaar, and other activities for our church. Besides community service, she had to be involved with several events within our Parish, as well as our town. She attended Easter Vigil Mass (a VERY long Mass, where adults are baptized, receive the Eucharist and our confirmed), she visited Quincy University Friary,volunteered at our Quincy Bridge the Gap event (a 5 & 10 K event that raises money for physical, mental and spiritual health in our area), attended several religious retreats and many other spiritually enriching events. For each event and service, she had to write how she was effected spiritually from being involved in each event. I am REALLY proud of how loving, caring, and selfless Dominique is. Unlike several of her classmates, who only volunteered because they "had" to, she really enjoyed helping others. Dominique is also very lucky that we found a wonderful lady in our Parish to be her sponsor.

Besides Confirmation, Dom will also be graduating from 8th grade. Which means....my baby will be starting HIGH SCHOOL in the fall. I still can NOT believe it. She graduates on May 22. Her last school day is this friday, the 16th. Then on Monday, she heads to STL to spend the day at Six Flags for her 8th grade trip. Let me say, she is SO excited. I have not seen her this giddy in ages. I love it! Seeing her excitement puts a smile on my face.

I also wanted to share some pics of her science fair. The 8th graders have to make an invention. The invention has to be a completely new product that has NOT been patented. Well, this was NOT easy. Luckily, we came up with a product by ACCIDENT. When Jason was painting Kaylas playroom, he put tape on the baseboards to protect them. When he tore off the tape, we noticed how all of the dust (yes, I SUCK at house cleaning) came off the baseboard. So, Dom decided to make a cleaning product. Well, since both Dom and I are vertically challenged, she decided to incorporate our "height issues" into her product.

The name of her invention is called "THE ADJUSTABLE ROLLING BASEBOARD CLEANER". It was made using an adjustable handle (extends for us short people), a paint roller and a "sticky" lint roller. Since the lint roller has "sticky" tape on it, it helps remove all the dirt and dust without any chemicals. It rolls back and forth, so there is not a lot of work (quick and easy...YEAH BABY!). The handle can adjust not only to help us short people BUT to reach high spots like above the doors. Her cleaner can be used to clean baseboards, crown molding and above door ways. Her invention was a MAJOR hit among teachers and moms. Honestly, I am NOT being bias, but her invention was definitely one of the top 3 out of both 8th grade classes. She had to do an oral and written report, as well as turn in several other assignments for the project. Then she had to attend the science fair, where she displayed her product and had to be prepared to answer questions. Out of over 300 points, she only missed 2 points. NOT bad!!!

Here are some pics from the science fair as well as her demonstrating her product.






Check back as I will be posting confirmation and grad pics!!