Whew!! Made it to MLK Day!!

I'm so happy the kids are off school on Monday.  Pretty bad that they have been back less than 20 days and I need a break!  We've been running late everyday.  Guess I'm just having trouble getting back in the swing of things.  Kids haven't been late to school, but we've been lucky with traffic or they probably would be.

Emerson is having trouble getting back in the swing of things too.  He has had two really bad days at school so far and one kind of bad.  Hoping each week gets better.  One day a kid told on him for saying the "F" word.  When I asked him where in the world he heard it from he said, "Remember, Parker told it to me last year in kindergarten".  Oh yes, I then remembered that wonderful day.  I wish I had asked him that in front of his teacher.  No telling what kind of language she thinks he hears at home.  (By the way, the kid that told on him was Parker's twin.....some kind of scam you think????)  Just kidding.

A few days later, the teacher overheard him say he was going to come to school and kill himself and everyone else.  Needless to say, it hit the fan!!  When we asked him why he said it, he said "Because Evan did".  His teacher told him she realized he had heard it from someone else but reminded him he had to make better choices in what he repeats and what kind of behavior he chooses.  He was supposed to go see the principal which would have resulted in a "time out from school" (like a day suspension for younger kids) and a note in his permanent file.  He ended up just seeing the counselor so I guess they decided it wasn't as bad as first thought.  I do need to talk to Evan's mom though.  We are friends and our two boys have gotten in trouble together before (my mention above of the "one kind of bad day").  I need to let her know Emerson implicated Evan.  She may have already heard the wonderful news though.  He really has no concept of what he said.  We don't watch the news and only told him about CT because we figured kids at school would be talking about it.  It isn't something we dwelled on.  I think he and the counselor got it all worked out though.  These two incidents both happened while waiting in carpool line when I was picking him up so now I park at the church, walk over and am there before he walks out the door.  So far so good.  I told him if I'm not there, not to talk to ANYONE before I get there.  It's like he has radar and as soon as he hears something he knows it isn't appropriate and has to repeat it.  

Carter didn't get a speaking part in the spring musical, but is part of the chorus.  It is an Elvis musical.  He has to sing and dance as a prisoner.  I'm guessing one number will be Jail House Rock.  He seems to like it.  He gets to swing girls around so it's got to be fun, right?  This is the time of year I wish we lived in Cordova.  Emerson and I hang out after school to pick Carter up at 5:30.  Jim does it two nights though so it's not that bad.  We've been going to the library and signing up for a study room so Emerson can do his homework and no one has to hear all the whining and crying :)  (that would be him, not me, really).

Hope everyone has a good week.

Brenda

Happy New Year!!!

Hope everyone got through the new year without incident.  Me, I ended up in the emergency room at about 6 pm needing stitches.  My dogs got into it and I did exactly what you aren't supposed to do - reached right in there trying to break it up.  I'm fine, I took the stitches out today (don't worry Carole, on Sunday I was working with a retired pediatrician and she told me it wasn't infected and looked fine, by the way the exact same thing happened to her daughter with her Aussie and she is a VET - now I feel less stupid).   I was in bed by 10.  I've never been much into New Year's Eve.  I worked on NYE for so many years, one year I babysat a supermodel's kid (I would totally tell you her name but for the life of me I can remember it).

We had a good, quiet Christmas.  Our friends the Gianotti's come over and we do a little Julegambling (a term derived when our exchange student from Denmark was here) playing Left, Right, Center with each person starting with five one dollar bills.  Place cards are lottery tickets but no big winners this year.  Every year the Jensens (our Danish family) send us Danish Advent scratch off tickets which is when we started Julegambling.  I sure hope we win one year so we can go over there!

Congrats to Carter!  I know that Eagle projects are a huge undertaking.  Parrish is working as a scanner at Stratton.   He hates it.  I am glad he is working and think it is so important as I have friends/family in both higher education and HR who deal with people both coming into college and out who have never had a "real" job.

All else is going along.  Belle and I skied together with Batman on Sunday.  It was beautiful and minus a few boot problems with Belle (skiing is such a labor-intense sport BEFORE getting to the mountain) we had a great time.  Parrish even came to eat with us after the lifts closed at which point a woman in her late 20's (who I only know by sight/mutual friends) came over to talk to P (apparently they know each other).  She looked at me, said "Hi!" and I said - "Hi! this is my baby."  She was a wee bit taken aback.   He would never lie about his age, but I imagine they rode together one day and he never offered up the information.

Carole, I have no wisdom to offer in the car accident department.  I am pretty doomed.

Miss you guys!  Cari you total suck for not writing on here.  I should start writing as you and making up outrageous crap.  Maybe I will.   Or maybe you will start writing and save me the trouble.  xoxo

do not turn left

Hummmph,
 

WAY back in november i was in the Walgreens parking lot next to White Station High School.
(julie, they torn down part of Eudora church and put up a walgreens across little perkins near Babcocks...just east of babcocks)

I was behind WG and after i dropped off Corinne I turned left (to get back on poplar ...headed east) .
A man heard a horn and accellerated( that was his story at the time)...hitting me after i turned left!!!

I get a call from State farm...."investigating"....
Since I made a left turn in the path of his parked car...  I AM GUILTY.

Learn from the dumbest thing i have heard in a while!!!

Forgot to talk about Eagle Project!

Long story short.....Carter organized a large group of scouts and dads (and two moms....me being one) to go to 5 Christmas Tree lots after Christmas and pick up the the unsold trees (those of you familiar with the Big Jim lots......Carter met "Big Jim" and worked out a "deal" with him.  Come to find out, he is actually a pilot with Air Trans).  Anyway the group collected 277 trees and transported them to Herb Parsons lake where they are going to be put into the lake and used as fish habitats since the water level in the lake is so low.

It was nice seeing Carter learning how business works and becoming organized and working out all the kinks.  He was a lot calmer than I was through the whole thing.  It was eye opening to realize how innocent minds work.  I could think of several things that could have gone wrong through the whole process (and kept them mostly to myself) but he remained confident and it did all work out.

Now he has to finish up all the report, get letters of recommendation, etc and submit everything to the big Eagle Scout committee in the sky and wait to see if they award him the designation.

Cari and I were saying how we always thought Eagle Scout was achieved by dropping the scout off in the woods and if he made it out, he got to be an Eagle Scout (or some similar feat).  I'm guessing we either had the wrong idea or they've changed it with the times.  Based on the projects I'm familiar with, it seems to me business is the focus as well as conservation or charity of some type.

Brenda

We Survived Christmas & Eagle Scout Project!!

Hey All,

Glad to hear from you Julie and Carole.  Carole, what the heck is an "appliance?"  Are we talking braces?

Glad to hear you made it to Jackson and back.  Working really sucks, doesn't it?  Messes up all holiday plans for sure.  I've been out for 3 weeks and hope they don't realize they don't really need me after all when I return on Thursday.  I realize I have a sweet deal and certainly don't take it for granted.

Even though Emerson didn't receive anything from his wish list (X-Box, Play Station, Wii U......what is that kid thinking?) he was happy with his Christmas which was a relief.  I figured he would be since he ended up with 2 Wii games among other things.  He seems to be happy with quantity which is good. We finally got Carter a cell phone.  I think I'm more excited about it than he is.  He is happy though.  We've limited him to 200 minutes a month ( a text is 1/2  a minute) and anything over, he has to pay for.  Should be a good lesson in self control.  Are we living in the dark ages or what?

Julie,  Emerson has been begging for an Elf on the Shelf since they had one in his kindergarten class last year.  I think I'm glad I never got one.  I've heard more than one horror story about it.  I have to admit there is a bit of guilt on my part though.  Thanks for the photo Christmas card.  It's so nice seeing all of our kids growing up even if we don't get to see each other in person.  Maybe someday..........

Dana, ditto for your card.  Amazing how the kids change so much.  Glad to know you are peeking in on the blog.

Best wishes to all for 2013 (rumor has it Cari is having a big New Year's Eve bash tomorrow night......just kidding, Cari).  I think I'll be in bed by 10:00 pm.

Brenda

we're back

less than 48 hrs in la and I swear I ate more salt than i do in a week.
my mom is losing the salt taste buds.
and of course the crawfish and  crabs did not help either!!
  fun time with the nieces an my children and my sister.
 my mom and dad are like energizer bunnies!!

 God keep them well!!
G'night
c

plan g -2

hi, 

every good plan has some wiggle room.

Mine needed HULA room.

Kevin broke his appliance. On monday I tracked down the dr...with LITTLE!!help from the service.

We were scheduled to go in 8:30 christmas morning for repairs.

Same laxed service that helped me reach him the first time apparently DID NOT 

inform him we had already left town!! christmas morning to avoid the storm of the century in the midsouth....complete with blizzard warnings!!

I get a call 1 hr into the drive asking if we were coming.

SOOO, yep with the storm of the century bearing down on us we head to Jackson MS to meet my wonderful dad and sister!!  they drove 3 hrs to pick them up for which i am forever in debt!!

Keith and i will head south on friday.

I did reap some benefit from the rendevous...a few crawfish and 2 boiled crabs!!

LONG, LONG drive in the windy rain back to memphis...but we are safe.

Waiting on  the ham to finish so we can enjoy some whoo food.

take care, be safe 

c