Saturday, May 31, 2008

Banking Today, Zooing Tomorrow

I'm sitting here sipping a cup of coffee, trying to wake up enough to go do the monthly banking. We also need some food so I've made out, and lost, a grocery list already. I'll need to go to WalMart today too because I need some cleaning supplies and those are priced too high in the grocery stores. We just don't have many shopping options around here.

Tomorrow we're going to the Memphis Zoo with Bubbie and Jerri and the chicklets. Krysten is out of town with some friends of Jami's so we'll only be herding Alexis, Jillian, Abby, MeriKate, and Zach. It should be a great photo op day.

James planted some potatoes in the garden this year because I was raising so much hell about the price of potatoes. He dug up two plants to see if they were ready for harvest but they need a little more time to grow bigger. After seeing these, I reckon there will be enough potatoes in that garden to supply the neighborhood with spuds cause there are a BUNCH of plants!

Friday, May 30, 2008

Photo Challenge

Canadian Visitors

"duck grass" ( what we call the algae covering a lake or pond)

River Walk on the Mississippi River at Helena, AR (it was flooded again last week)

Dabrah is the challenge host this time and she chose "liquid" for her challenge topic. We've had so much rain this month that I chose to take advantage of some of it for my entries. Be sure to click to enlarge for an bigger view.

Dabrah's other challengers are

Donna

Joan

Jeanne

Sally

Nita

Be sure to click on their links and go by and have a look at their creativity in this challenge.
Debrah mentions on her blog that Nita will be hosting and choosing the subject for the next challenge so be sure to visit her blog to see what's coming up next and please join us!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Borrowed from Crystal who borrowed it from Jenn

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins (I don't reckon wading in the same lagoon counts huh?)
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath
08. Said I love you and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day (for most of the time that I lived in England, I sounded like a Brit)
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was too drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs.
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites (If old castles and churches count I have)
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played a Computer game for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch (they don't have to be edible do they?)
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane (only a two seater and only for a few minutes)
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken some one's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed some one's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Para sailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved some one's life (when my son was a toddler he choked on some hard candy and I made him throw up to dislodge it)

There's a Moral Here

The boy rode on the donkey and the old psychologist walked. As they
went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the
old psychologist was walking and the boy was riding. The psychologist and
boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.
Later, they passed some people who remarked, "what a shame, he makes
that little boy walk." They then decided they would both walk. Soon they
passed some more people who thought they were foolish to walk when they had
a decent donkey to ride. So they both rode the donkey. Now they passed
some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor
donkey. The boy and psychologist said they were probably right, so they
decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their
grip on the animal and the donkey fell into the river and drowned.

The moral:
If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass good-bye.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Piddling around

The school bus arrived early today to discharge the Terrorist and these two little Munchkins. Tomorrow is their last day of school and they'll be home before noon.

The wheat is almost ready to harvest in the field in front of my house. Soon the country peace will be interrupted by the sounds of combines, tractors, and trailer trucks. After it's been cut they'll plant soybeans as a second crop.

I hope everyone is having a super day!

P.S. Y'all don't forget the Photo Challenge that's going on Friday over at Dabrah's blog. She's the hostess this go-round and her challenge choice she chose "liquid". Get your cameras out and get to shootin. YOU too Miz Sally!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Critter and Bloom alert

Southern Magnolia bloom.

Acorn gathering squirrel.

Pansies remind me of chubby cheeked little children. Aren't these pretty?

"Maybe if I'm still, she won't see me."

Zach and I rode around campus taking pictures the other day before his Tae Kwon Do class.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Talking to a Brick Wall

Because I'm still so upset over this same old continuous bullshit that we keep getting from the school, and I'm just too muddled to put the words down to explain what's going on again, I'm just going to post the letter I wrote to the school Principal yesterday about the matter. It explains it all.

Dear Mr. xxxxx,

At the beginning of the school year I included all relevant information I felt Zach's teachers would need in regard to his ADHD diagnosis when I filled out his paperwork, and I also sent an email to each of his teachers to inform them of the problems he might have. His ADHD effects his working memory, organizational skills, causes poor self-control, causes him to be over-responsive in many situations. He's easily frustrated which leads to him acting out and lying just so he'll be left alone for awhile, has poor use of self-talk, poor recall of the past, and poor future planning skills. It also takes him much (sometimes hours) longer to complete a task properly that it should under normal circumstances. But he can, and does, complete the tasks when I can stay informed and on top of what's going on in his classes. Many of these problems are controlled somewhat by the medications he is currently taking.

Last week( around May 14th) I received a note from Zach's spelling teacher telling me that, because he had not be completing and turning in his homework, he had an F in her class. Upon receipt of his 5 week report, which was supposed to have been prepared and issued a few days after April 18th, but was not actually sent out until April 30th, I knew he had a 69-D in this class, which came from an average of only 4 grades (2 A's and 1 B) but one grade was a zero because he had not completed his homework on one occasion.

He got in trouble for the D, I told him he had 5 weeks to make it up and that he'd better get busy. I stressed to him that there is no excuse for having a bad grade because he didn't do his homework, homework is like getting a good grade for free in each of his subjects when he completes it. He thought, still does to some degree, that all he had to do was make another 100 on a test and he'd have an A, he does not understand the grading process even though I've tried to explain it to him.

I am upset that I wasn't notified prior to last week that he was continuing to not turn in his homework in spelling. I sent each of his teachers an email on Jan. 24, 2008 asking them if he was turning in his homework because he wasn't bringing much home and when I asked him, he'd tell me he'd done it in class. His homeroom teacher is the only one who replied. I am also upset because Spelling is one of his best subjects and I feel this teacher, any teacher, should feel concern when an A/B student suddenly falls to a D or an F and I have to wonder why she wouldn't feel compelled to notify me earlier than she did.

I really feel as though the school is bound and determined not to aid us in any way to help Zachary do his very best in school due to the information I've received from you during conferences. There is nothing wrong with his intelligence but he does have a disability that makes it much more difficult for him to process the information and have the organizational skills to complete all needed tasks and educational skills needed without help and understanding. I do not feel that your administration and staff have been properly educated about what to expect and how to cope with children who have ADD/ADHD and that there are other students, and parents, in this district who are trying to cope with this disability who are being labeled as problems, or bad parents, unfairly because of this lack of education and understanding.

I do not intend to stop asking for help or doing whatever I can to see that Zach excels at the best of his ability. I will be working on resolution to what I feel is a big problem all summer.

Sincerely,

Brenda




Zach's other 3 teachers have helped a lot this year by keeping me up with what's going on with him. Because I told them I have to try to stay ahead of what he's doing, they've let me know as soon as they can when he's not keeping up with his work, or becoming too distracted (this led to an increase in his meds in December). They post homework assignments on their websites and pretty much keep the grades posted on the online pinnacle site (they do get behind with this a lot) that I check at least once or twice a week. His Math teacher and his homeroom/Science/Social Studies teacher both sit him in front, close to their desks and do all they can to keep him focused during class. One of his teachers even loaned me additional text books when she'd found out that I purchase his Math text every year so I can bone up on what he's doing in Math. This was a TREMENDOUS help because even when he remembers that he has homework, or bothers to tell me he does, there are times when he forgets the book he needs in order to do it.

This summer, after the 6'5" troll of a Superintendent that we have retires, I'm going to send a letter and all relevant diagnosis reports to request that the school give him an evaluation for Section 504 which is part of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is no guarantee that the school will do this but perhaps it will get their attention (at the very least take up some of their valuable time) and there are always appeals and higher authorities if they don't.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Quick One


I've only got about 15 minutes before that big, ole, yellow bus comes to discharge the Terrorist and his 3 little sisters but I thought I'd post to say I'm ok.

Frustrated, fed up, flustered, and fog-brained, but ok.

A rants a'brewin though, so ya'll watch out.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

LOST!

Has anyone seen a box of banana flavored MoonPies? Since not one single person in this house knows where they got off to, I reckon they've grown legs and walked off on their own. If anyone sees a MoonPie resembling the fella above, please let me know and I'll come fetch him.

I broke down and bought a box of this favorite treat of mine on Thursday after avoiding the MoonPie aisle at the supermarket for a whole month. I had a fresh cup of coffee this morning, a little peace and quiet, ( cause Zach and James had gone fishing) and I remembered the box of banana MoonPies that I'd hidden and thought to myself,

"Self, this would be the perfect occasion for one of them there MoonPies"

After Self tore into the cabinet, taking everything out at least twice, did a search of the Terrorist's hidey holes, and looked beside, and under, the man's favorite snacking spot for evidence, Self did a bit of cussing, stomping, and was near tears as she resigned herself to the fact that there would be nary a one tasty MoonPie to be had with her coffee.

I better not find out that those MoonPies went fishing.

Dammit, next time I lose my stamina in the MoonPie aisle, I'm going to buy some mousetraps to guard them with.


Saturday, May 17, 2008

Just can't fix ugly


The big fella above survived the tornado last week. He wasn't hurt (that's red paint on the shop floor, not blood), but he sure was in shock. He didn't even try to move while I was taking these shots. If he had, I'd have moved faster!

I know these are God's creatures but they sure have a look that gives you a bit of a shiver, don't they?

Friday, May 16, 2008

Photo Challenge

Bright and a little shiny.

PopPop's shiny money jar.

Bright.

It was Miz Donna's choice of challenge this time and it was a good un! Her other challengers were
Dabrah, Sandy, Donna, and Joan. And Nita joined in too.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Feeling Like Mrs. Murphy Again

Stuff has just seemed to "happen" these past few days, enough stuff to make me wonder if there's a conspiracy going on specifically in my universe.

The storm happened down on the farms and while James thought they only had 2 pivots turned over on their part of the farms and no hail damage, it turns out there were 3 and there was some hail damage. Stuff like this comes home with him and he gets cranky over little things which makes me cranky about everything.

On Sunday, (yep, Mother's Day) my freezer decided it would be cranky and start thawing out all of the food that was stored in it. We only bought it less than 15 months ago, but wouldn't you know, 15 months is 3 months passed the Sears warranty. We don't buy extended warranties on our appliances because the cost of a couple of years of those would buy a whole new appliance which, from my experience with Sears merchandise over the past 3 years, is probably what's going to occur in this household (repairs on dryer, washer, and now freezer and the oldest appliance is a bit less than 3 yrs old).

Yesterday the phone rang. It was that Sweetie Pie, Special K, calling, it's like she knew my soul needed a good bout of cleansing laughter and I surely do love talking and laughing with her. So we laughed and talked, and talked and laughed, and I was feeling really good until we had to say goodbye when the school bus came and unloaded all our "chillins"

One of the things we laughed about was my bad little cockatiel, Ya-Ya, and I had this little niggling thought in the back of my mind when I heard the school bus pull into the drive as we were saying goodbye, "Hmmm, why didn't Ya-Ya squawk their arrival?" He usually let's me know the bus is on the way when they're a mile down the road.

It got busy for a bit with the kids streaming in strewing homework here and there so I didn't think about my sassy bird again until Zach went into the kitchen and said, "What's wrong with Ya-Ya?" I ran in there and he was laying in the bottom of his cage barely breathing, and could barely open his eyes to look at us. He died a very short time later, and when James came in, he buried him beneath the rose bush for me.

I'm gonna miss my Ya-Ya.

My universe better get aligned here soon folks.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

After The Storm

This is the cotton picker that was pushed into the building by the apparent tornado. (click to enlarge photos) It was sitting over there beside the other one. A lot of the shop yard looks as though it's been swept clean, I guess the wind did that, but when the debris met the buildings, or trees, or a house, it just wrapped around it. There was pieces of the shop roof wrapped in the tops of trees (the ones left standing) and in the tops of power poles.
This is what's left of a storage shed in the shop yard. The employee who lives in a house next to this shed parked his truck there in case there was hail in the storm. I reckon hail damage would have been better than this.
This is what's left of the new ag plane hanger. There was an airplane tied down in there and the storm broke the tethers, gently? pushed it OUT of the hanger, and then proceeded to twist steel and metal hanger to look like this. The pilot went this afternoon, pulled the tin and other debris away from the path he'd need to take, then he taxied the plane out to the runway, and took off in it.
About 2 miles of power poles down. There were also trees down in the highway in several places but they took their pickups and pulled them out of the way.

Severe storms and those blasted tornadoes have seemed to taken a liking to Arkansas this Spring season. We dodged the bullet again last night but they didn't fare as well 10 miles south of us. Zach and I climbed under the dining room table when we saw our county was under a tornado warning until 9:15 pm last evening but all we had was a little wind, and a little hail, and rain, nothing nearly as bad as others we've had this Spring.

This morning our neighbor, who is also a farm manager for the same corporation my husband works for, came by to tell us that his farm headquarters took a hit. There are at least 2 miles (maybe more) of power lines and poles down, the new ag plane hanger they just built beside the farm shop is just a big pile of twisted metal and aluminum. The storm pushed a 6-r0w cotton picker about 25 feet into an old gin they used for storage, it broke the window out of a tractor, warped and tore the siding on the shop, uprooted trees, destroyed other storage sheds and buildings, tore part of the roof off, some of the siding, and some of the windows out of an employee house which sat next to the farm shop. Eleven irrigation pivots were toppled and twisted also.

James took Zach and I down to see the damage this afternoon.

At the farm my husband works at, down the road a few miles, there were 2 irrigation pivots damaged but so far that's the only damage they've found there.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Where did my mind go? I want it back!


That school bus that I love in the mornings has come to be a dreaded arrival in the afternoons. Zach's sisters get off the with him in the afternoons and the homework hustle begins. I'm not good at doing the hustle, never been good at doing the hustle, never will be good at doing the hustle, yet, there I go.

Krysten, who has ADD 3 times worse than Zach's, took 28 minutes (yep, I timed her) doing the avoid-my-homework thing by taking all of her folders, papers, and whateverthehell else there was, out of her 3-ring binder. Then she thought she'd spend another 28 putting them all back, but she was wrong, I looked up from Abby's homework sheet that I was helping with and told her she had exactly 3 minutes to get em in and have the first homework problem done or the fly swat was going to be swatting something bigger than flies.

Then there was the little problem I had with Abby's first grade spelling homework. There was a list of their spelling words at the top and you had to choose the correct word for stuff like, "which word rhymes with cow", (this wasn't really a fair question cause two of the words, how and now, rhymed with cow and they asked for WHICH WORD, not Which words) and "which word is what you live on", and the one that really, really stumped me, "which word is a past tense verb"?

Now, I am not stupid and I really don't believe I've forgotten that much, so I'm looking through the words and the only verb there is "started". I know start is a verb, and one of the rules for past tense is the added ed, but is "started" really a past tense verb?

Example: The girl started to leave the room.

Now, tell me what's Past about that usage? Hell, she hasn't left yet, she only started to.

Anyway, to avoid confusing the poor child, and myself, I told her she'd better wait and ask her momma about that one.

MeriKate can do her homework with little or no help but she has to get her foot in the hustle ring too by doing whatever she can to make things easier for herself, such as tricking me into telling her the answers and I'm easily tricked, especially after trying to figure out all that stuff about first grade spelling.

We now come to Zach, the one who claims to have no homework even though he has to finish reading a book for a book report, and has a major Social Studies project about a county and city in Arkansas to have done before May 16th. Getting him to sit long enough to grill him about what needs to be done and what he's completed is similar to giving a bath to an unwilling cat. I'm considering handcuffs in his situation. Seriously.

Maybe some of those fuzzy, furry, ones so they won't leave marks. I don't want to go to jail for child abuse,,, but it may be a way to get some uninterrupted rest.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

CPI, Recession, and all that Stuff

I don't know about y'all, but regardless of the numbers the good ol U.S. government is throwing at us, I do believe we're in the midst of a big, fat, recession.

In the US, the judgment of the business-cycle dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research regarding the exact dating of recessions is generally accepted. The NBER has a more general framework for judging recessions:

"A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough."

I'm not quite sure what most of that means, and I'm almost certain that it's not meant that I do (takes a degree in economics to know what the hell is going on). What I do know is that around the delta here, wages and salaries haven't risen even a penny but everything else sure has and my figures aren't gee-hawing with the Consumer Price Index numbers. Do the folks who come up with those CPI figures use the same calculators that the rest of us do?

The CPI claims that food prices, overall, have only risen 4.2% from March 2007 to March 2008, but I haven't seen even one item in the grocery store that hasn't, at least, increased that much. Many of the basic food items have increased so much that it feels more like I'm shopping in a jewerly store than a food store.

According to the CPI, beef prices have only increased 3.1% from a year ago. When I do the figuring I come up with an 87% increase, but then I'm only talking about that one package of 2 steaks that I could afford to buy a year ago. CPI figures eggs increased 29.9%, where I shop the increase figures up to a 68% increase, that's a big difference in calculations there. Maybe I need to put on a suit and tie so my brain will work better, ya think?

I've also been reading little tidbits here and there that the same good ol U.S. government is considering a tax on snack foods to combat obesity. Holy Shit, who can afford snack foods? I believe if they'd get their heads out of the fairway holes and their asses out of those plush chairs at the Country Club restaurants, they'd be able to look around and see that the normal, everyday working stiffs are having to supplement their meat dishes with a load of starchy foods such as pasta and rice (which has also risen ridiculously in price) so they won't go to bed hungry. That'll combat obesity right there, yessiree.

Dare I mention that it costs $1.50 more in gas for me to go to the grocery today than it did a year ago?

What's going to happen to the folks on fixed incomes, the ones working for minimum wage, the ones who haven't seen a raise over the past 2 or 3 years, the ones who were barely making ends meet to begin with?

Let's just fire all those folks over there in D.C. and start all over. I think we should buy them a Wal Mart calculator too.





Jerri took the two photos above of Jordan and Alexis at their ballgames. Jordan's team came in 2nd in their tournament last weekend and Alexis's team have won one and lost one.

Zach went fishing with his Pop-Pop on Sunday morning and all he brought home was this little dude. I told him that sure didn't look like a fish to me!

Monday, May 05, 2008

Ut Oh

There probably won't be anything left over for grocery shopping.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Another long day!

I'm sleeping in tomorrow and I MEAN it.

The MA tournament was great! Zach won 3rd place trophys in both of his events and the Chick won a 1st and a 2nd place trophy in hers. We think they did a super job for this being their first tournament and you know we're mighty proud of them.

Jordan had a ballgame today, Jaylen might have too, I'll let you know how the games went as soon as I hear from Trish. They're both excellent athletes and have really great coaches so I know they played their best no matter the ending score. I do know that Jordan has hit the ball over the fence for the first time this year, she's a slugger!

I hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Weary

The Chick and Beans spent the afternoon with me and my lap has been well worn today but they did find time to put their crayons to use and made sure I'd have enough art to put on display for awhile. We also watched a load of cartoons.

My lap got a rest when the school bus came to discharge MeriKate, Abby, and Zach, someone younger to play with! It hectic for awhile as I helped MeriKate with homework, talked Zach into getting changed for Tae Kwon Do, and refereed a few arguments, but then they all filed out to play outdoors for a bit before Jami came to pick up MeriKate and Abby.

After Jami picked up her girls, I had to redress Beans, who hates clothes and shoes in the worst way, because she was without pants, before I loaded them, and their drinks, into my truck for the drive to the Chick's and Zach's MA class. We stopped at Jerri's for a quick change and then we were off. The kids are getting ready for a tournament on Saturday so they went through their forms and steps and practiced the way they are to address the judges when performing their styles.

I think they'll do ok if they don't freeze up.



Zach came in from school yesterday with good news in one pocket and not so good news in another. His bad news was his 5wk progress report, he had a B in Math which is great, but a D in spelling, which is usually the one class he aways has an A or a B in. It seems that he's had good grades on his tests but decided to skip his homework for a few times, resulting in some zero grades, and those play hell with the grade average. Their homework carries as much weight as their tests do so he's got a LOT of work to do over these last 4 weeks.

I threatened to pinch his head off if he doesn't bring the D up.

The good news was that after almost 6 yrs of school, he finally made student of the month in his homeroom class! He kept his grades up in Science and Social Studies and behaved himself, I'm gonna frame that little announcement!