My Nephew, The Star!

My nephew, Tyler, has the lead male part in the annual school musical. We saw it last Friday night and were totally blown away by his talent. Who knew he could sing? It's not as if he's been singing in church for years or anything. He caught us all by surprise.

Our high school has a reputation for their always very successful musicals and they faced some challenges this year, so the local news did a segment on the show and an interview with Tyler and the female lead.

We're so proud. Go Tyler!

Here's a link to the news clip.

Annie Get Your Gun

The Group Effort

Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe science projects? Actually, I’m never enthused about any type of major homework projects, but science projects top the list. I am just NOT creative. I was whenever I was a kid but, that was like thirty years ago. I think it’s my mom’s fault. She’s very creative and spoiled us by doing 99.9% of all of our major projects whenever we were in school. We usually fell asleep at the table (pretending like we were actually helping).

Luckily for us, Lauren was born creative. I can’t recall any of her school projects being as stressful as Cassidy’s have been. Lauren always had her own unique plan and basically all I had to do was make sure it could fit into the car to get it to the school.

Now, with Cassidy, and even Caden, it’s a whole new ballgame. I have paid Lauren on several occasions to assist us with a few of Cassidy’s projects. I once paid her ten bucks to “decorate” and “dress-up” a paper turkey when Cassidy was in kindergarten. Last year she got twenty bucks for helping us finalize and decorate a show board on Brian Piccolo for the history fair. I’m usually only good for printing pictures off of the internet, cutting them out for the show board, and financing whatever supplies are needed, unless transportation to and from the craft store counts.

Cassidy recently had a science project that took quite a toll on the entire family. I’m not kidding when I say it became a team effort in order to complete. She tried verbally to explain what the requirements of the project were. The instructions she had in written form weren’t as complicated as she made them sound, but it still turned out to be quite a challenge.

She needed to make a Sun, Earth and Moon that revolved around each other, but not only did the Earth and Moon need to revolve around the Sun, they needed to revolve around each other as they were also revolving around the Sun. Did I lose you yet? If so, don't feel alone!

After brainstorming on what her options were, Cassidy and I set out for Hobby Lobby. It was like the blind leading the blind. After asking two or three sales assistants if they were creative, we found Martha and she had some great suggestions for us. I must admit I was very tempted to buy the thirty dollar remote controlled revolving solar system and just be done with it, but eventually concluded the teacher wouldn’t think that constituted much creativity.

We came home with our supplies and then it came time for Les to step in and try to help us figure out the logistics of the project. He came up with a technical plan that, until it was complete, made absolutely no sense to me. I needed to see it in order to grasp the idea and believe that it would actually work.

He stopped at three hardware stores the following day to get the needed wood and screws to help create the rest of the project. He also had to go next door to borrow some needed tools that we didn’t have on hand.

This was no easy task. There was major stress in the house for two or three evenings as we all banded together trying to get the project completed. Lauren spent several hours drawing, cutting, sewing and stuffing the Sun, Moon and Earth. Les had to measure, cut and construct the pieces of wood to ensure they rotated properly and that they could withhold the weight of the stuffed planets. Caden helped his dad saw the wood. Cassidy offered her services, walked around on eggshells and wrote the description of her project and its function in written report form. I supervised everyone, but doesn’t transportation, financing of the project and cleaning up the mess count for anything? (Oh, and let's not forget the trip to Hobby Lobby).

Talk about stress!

Well, in the end, we made a 95, so I guess there is something to be said for teamwork and a group effort! I just wish we could recycle it for next year when Caden has to do the exact same thing.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom,
Thank you for everything you do for all of us. You have always put your kids and grandkids first. Thank you for always being there for us, even when we don't deserve it.

I love you very much and hope you have a Happy Birthday!

(But my back is still going to be out whenever you guys finally move!) :)

Happy Birthday, Les!

Happy 41st birthday!!
(This is his newest toy/birthday gift. It's a smoker and we've all been eating like kings over the long weekend).

I love you VERY much and hope you have an awesome day.

The Picture Controversy

(Kim is on the far left)

Kim has made national news over an unfortunate incident that took place in November involving her 13-year-old daughter and two of her daughters friends. Below is a link to the original story from our local news.

Local news link

I was really blown away the day I logged onto my home page and saw Kim's photo staring back at me and then read the story. I thought it had blown over in the weeks following, but she was recently contacted by the Dr. Phil show and agreed to be on for a segment about mean girls and bullies. Kim and her daughter flew to California and filmed the show yesterday. The father of the accused girl was on The O'Reilley Factor a while back, and though I didn't see it, I heard O'Reilly wasn't very sympathetic to his argument in defense of his daughter.

The father has also set up a website in support of his daughter and has been rallying against the actions taken by the school district and the media attention. I spent much of last night reading his site but prefer not to post a link to it from here. It's very much a "he said/she said" kind of thing. Obviously, both sets of parents are trying to protect their daughters. It's actually a very unfortunate incident for everyone involved.

The controversy and argument for the father seems to be that the school district became involved in an incident that took place over a weekend in his home. The school became involved when the girls started sending the picture to other students during school hours on school property and punished those involved. I read that the girls have been reinstated to the cheerleading squad.

All of us girls (in the above photo) are talking about having a get together when the show airs. It's not everyday that someone you know and grew up with ends up being in the midst of a controversy that receives national attention. Of course, we all wish this had never happened in the first place.

I truly wish Kim and especially her daughter the best.

Note: If you're interested in reading more on this story google "**Alvin** cheerleader**".
The show will air on Monday, January 21st.

The Tattletale

I’m normally a mind my own business kind of person, unless something directly affects me, but not today. I told on someone today. Yes, I tattled.

We were at HEB and there was a lady in the store with a dog in her basket. It was a small to medium sized dog, sitting in the basket of her cart. The dog was minding his own business and not hurting anyone, but I must admit, I was very annoyed with the situation. Come on, everyone knows you can’t take animals into a grocery store. I thought it was pretty bold of the woman.

To be honest, I just couldn’t let it go so as we started to check out, I asked the cashier what their animal policy was and was told it was absolutely “no dogs”. I proceeded to tell her about the dog and she went semi-ballistic saying the health department could close them down for letting a dog inside the store. A woman checking out next to us turned around and said she had seen her, too and was just as appalled as I was over it.

Then, the lady with the dog walked up in line directly behind us. Luckily, I had already paid so we were walking off. Turns out we were parked right beside her in the parking lot, too. As we were unloading our groceries, she walked up and made a joke about them being kicked out of HEB. I admit, I felt a little bad, but then I kept thinking about how much Abby and Jaxon would love going out to the grocery store with me, but I’m a rule follower, unlike some people. I got into the car feeling a tiny bit of guilt, but continued to argue my point with Les, who had been ducking and embarrassed from my actions inside the store.

When we got home he told the kids and they unleashed on me for tattling “on the poor puppy who wasn’t hurting anybody”. I suppose I’m just a big tattletale, but what would you do? I hate it when people think rules don’t apply to them!