The Irony of it All

Kudos go out to my neighbor, B, who won his school's spelling bee today. When I heard he won, my first thought was, "I need to go to Bruster's and get him an ice cream cake to celebrate". My first thought for almost anything that needs celebrated is, "I need to go to Bruster's and get an ice cream cake". So after school, I ran a couple errands, and stopped by to pick up the cake. Yes, they had Oreo cookie cake already made up...life's looking pretty good right now. So the nice high school girl asked me what color I wanted the writing in. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Now having only girls to buy for, the colors pink and purple immediately came to mind. But being a boy, B may not appreciate said colors. Then I thought blue...blue is a boy color; too generic. Oh, wait...I know...his school color is green. So I decided on green, and all I needed to say was "congratulations". Simple, right?

WRONG! It is my hope that tonight was Miss High School Girl's first day on the job. After she found the green icing, she was trying to figure out how to make it write on the cake. Uh, oh. I think we're in trouble. That thought was confirmed when Miss High School Girl asked the "manager" who was a couple years older, how to spell congratulations. Oh, my...and my students wonder why I get so upset when they can't spell correctly.

So after they discuss the correct spelling of the word congratulations, she starts writing it on the cake. I notice there is much discussion occuring around the cake; I also notice how wobbly her hand is as she is writing. I really didn't think stopping by picking up an ice cream cake would be this difficult. I wait, and I wait, and. I. wait...

"Wait", I say. "How 'bout we just keep it simple and make it say, "Congrats". I really didn't mean to stress the poor girl out; I was simply trying to do a good deed. "No", came the reply. "she's almost got it". Oh, my goodness. Perhaps spelling should be added to the employment application for Bruster's. She was so proud of herself; she brought the cake over (we won't even go into the trouble she had trying to figure out how to unfold the box and fold the lid flap over...you can only imagine). I looked at the cake, paid for it, took it from the counter, and walked away shaking my head. After all that, I presented my neighbor with a cake that proudly said, "CONGRATULATION".

You can bet your bottom dollar my students will be focusing more on spelling in the coming weeks; you never know, they may work at Bruster's one day. Congatulation, B, we're proud of you!

P.S. Remember you have until December 3rd to vote for Susan so she can take her son to the Barth Syndrome conference this summer.

We've Almost Done It!

OK, let's face it. I've accomplished absolutely not a whole lot tonight. I wanted to show a clip from YouTube to my classroom tomorrow, so I went to my "technical support" and played with the triplets while she worked her magic...except her magic failed me this evening. Only I was ready to give up the ghost long before she actually gave it up. I should be logging on to the online gradebook checking Oldest Child's grades to see if, in fact, she has turned in everything like she says she has (gee, wonder why I have to follow up on that one!?!?). But instead, I have been totally productive and I just checked the voting for free air miles (see previous post) and Susan is running neck-and-neck with the first place person...she is within 1% of taking her family to the Barth Syndrome conference this summer! Come on, internets, you can make this happen for her. If my Sunday school class can raise enough money to send one family to the conference for a week, you can log on to vote and send Susan and her family to Florida for this invaluable experience. Remember you have until December 3rd to send her to the conference!

Susan Needs Our Help!

...and time is of the essence. If you don't know what it is, please go read about Barth Syndrome. We have very close friends who have a son, William, with Barth Syndrome. With the season of thankfulness in the air, they are thankful that he is one of the healthiest boys in the world with this genetic disorder.William is in an elite group. There are only around 100 boys in the world who have been diagnosed with this disorder. One of the other elite members in this group needs your help.Susan Hone's son also has Barth Syndrome. The Hone family lives in Canada and they are trying to win airline miles to be able to attend the Barth Syndrome conference this summer in Florida. This conference is very important as many physicians across the world attend. The boys are seen by the top docs in this field.Please take 2-3 minutes and read about their family and vote for them to be able to go to the conference. Voting ends December 3rd! And say a little prayer for all of these boys.

I found out tonight through my Sunday school prayer chain that one of the boys, Aldo, received a heart transplant on Thanksgiving day; talk about a family being thankful. I have been monitoring the rankings since Juju sent me her e-mail, and Susan is catching up. It would mean so much for her family to be able to attend this conference. So right now, I need for both of you who read my blog to go to the link and vote for Susan. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Christmas is in the Air

I'm really trying to get in the Christmas spirit. Really. I look at the calendar and see how many (or how few) shopping days there are 'till Christmas. I have the place picked out for the Christmas tree...once we get it out of the attic. I sit here waiting for the Christmas tree fairy to come decorate my house and I'll be all ready for the holidays. In the meantime, I found this wonderful new Christmas CD to listen to. Perhaps the Christmas tree fairy will hear it and come running!

Hey, I Know You!

I was doing my favorite thing in the whole world today...grocery shopping. Me and many, many, many of my best friends we shopping for Thanksgiving dinner today. After making my list and checking it twice, everything was loaded in the truck, chocolate and fountain Coke within arm's reach; ready to head home...to do my second favorite thing in the whole world. Unload the aforementioned groceries.

I am trying to adopt BooMama's philosophy of listening to Christian music in the car for two reasons. (1) It is difficult to bless other drivers out when you are singing along with 104.7 The Fish...sorta sacreligious dontchathink. (2) It is difficult to yell at Oldest Child and Youngest Child when singing along with 104.7 The Fish. And coming from someone who drives approximately, hmmmm, 7 minutes to work, I don't do traffic. Imagine my surprise when I turned my truck on and The 21st Time from Monk & Neagle was PLAYING. ON THE RADIO. NOT ON MY FREE CD THEY SENT ME (see my sidebar). I sang and sang and sang...right along with the radio. I'm telling you you will not be sorry if you go buy this CD; every song on it is absolutely fabulous. Then when you hear The 21st Time come on the radio, you, too, will be able to sing along.

Among the Living

Yes, I am still among the living, reading various blogs on a daily basis. Been keeping up with BooMama, Big Mama, and Rocks' wild weekend in Birmingham. Already logged in with Lynne at And Babies Makes Six so she can get some Ebates thanks to me. But that's about all I can muster.

I could tell you about going back to school after being off a week for Fall break and how I enjoyed my week off tremendously. And how Oldest Child went to Kentucky with Lynne and the babies.

I could tell you about trick-or-treating with my Sunday School class and what fun we had. It was even a great outreach ministry because of another occasion that was going on at our church during that time. Got to meet people I wouldn't have otherwise gotten to meet.

I could tell you about celebrating The Dude's 23rd birthday with him on Friday and how it is his first actual birth date since he was four that his dad has gotten to spend with him and how we took him and his favorite cousin out to eat Mexican. I could tell you that I originally set it up to meet at 6:30 for dinner. That would have worked perfectly except for one, small, tiny, minute detail. The resturant was 30 minutes away from the house and The Dude doesn't even get off work until 7:00. Guess he'd actually like to be there for his own party, huh?!

I could tell you how excited I am to be working out the final details of my aunt and uncle from WV coming to visit next Monday for dinner. Oh, by the way, it is an aunt and uncle I haven't had any contact with in the past, oh, say, twenty years...give or take a few years...That could lead into a whole 'nother discussion of the relationships that have rekindled in the past month since my father passed away.

These are the things I could tell you if, indeed, I had the energy to do so. But the truth is, I'm exhausted. I'm enoying reading the blogs and laughing with you. But between work, and homework, and housework, and life in general, I'm too exhausted to be witty right now. But alas, I wil prevail and I will return. The dance team is working on a new dance and you know you wouldn't wanna miss all the drama that entails. I think I hear a bubble bath with my name on it.