OH!!!! The Screaming!!!!

This morning as I was reading (or maybe just playing on the phone or computer) Melissa screamed at me. "MOM!!!!!"  It was the kind of scream that made me think she saw a bug or a mouse (not totally out of the realm of possibilities!) Then I heard some like "twenty" and I thought she wanted twenty dollars.

Then my slow brain computed what she said, "I MADE A 29 ON THE ACT!!!!!"

Then she ran into my room and jumped on me like she was two - legs and arms wrapped around me in a full body hug (of course, since she's my size, she ended up dropping because I couldn't hold her up!!!)

Oh, how proud and happy she is!!  Through-out the day she was come up to my side and say, "Hey, mom...guess what??  I made a 29 on the ACT." 

Thrilled, thrilled, thrilled!!! 

We even when out to dinner to celebrate at one of her favorite places to eat.  What a happy girl we have!!!

She will have to take the test again.  Every spring the school gives the ACT during school hours to all juniors (and whatever seniors that want/need to take it again).  She's already planning to study even more then than she did this time around - after all: she wants to score higher than Big Brother William with his 32.

Sibling rivalry.  I love it when it works in favor of my checkbook!

(From what we can gather without a formal visit to the school of her choice, this test score along with our alumni status should knock-out about 75% of her college expenses.) 

A Christmas Quiz

Last Wednesday night at church instead of continuing to teach on the life of Samuel, our pastor gave us a Christmas Quiz.  He ended had us "grade" it.  And he rewarded(gift cards to the local restaurants) the top ten highest scores - I'm happy to announce that I was one of them!  Here's the questions - see how YOU do!

1. Who told Mary and Joseph to go to Bethlehem?
2. According to the Bible, what form of transportation did Mary and Joseph use to get to Bethlehem?
3. Which Old Testament prophet has the most to say about the birth of Christ?
4. Who told Joseph to name the baby Jesus?
5. What does the name Jesus mean?
6. What does the name Emmanuel mean?
7. How did the shepherds find Jesus?
8. How did the Wise Men find Jesus?
9. What were the three gifts given to Jesus by the Wise Men?
10. Who ordered the execution of two year olds and younger?
11. What was the name of the priest who was told he would not die until he say the Savior?
12. Who visited baby Jesus the night of his birth?
13. How old was Caesar Augustus when he died in 14AD? (This was sort of a trick question since the Bible really doesn't say, but the pastor used it as a tie-breaker - we got points for being close.)

(Our pastor, also, added some questions about Samuel since we have been studying him, but I won't add those here.)


Answers:
1. Caesar Augustus to be numbered for a tax; 2. The Bible doesn't say; 3. Isaiah; 4. an Angel (possibly Gabriel, but the Angel is not named); 5. Savior; 6. God with Us; 7. Angels; 8. a star; 9. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh; 10. King Herod; 11. Simeon; 12. Shepherds; 13. 75



So? How did you go??  Let me know!!

The End of the Week....Somehow....

It's been one of those weeks that I find it hard to believe it's Friday already! This week really has flown by....it's been much busier than I excepted.

Monday I had lunch with my Tuesday Morning Bible study ladies.  Tricia had to work this Tuesday, so we moved our day up some.  We each brought part of a meal. I made curry butternut squash soup.  Oh, so, yummy!!  (but not according to my kids - they were glad this time around I was serving it to some one other than them!) We really had a nice and relaxing time, but it didn't last long as shortly after lunch it was back home for laundry and chores and cooking dinner and getting ready for a soccer game..

We all were excited that it was an early game - and we won! With a goal by William.

Tuesday I worked in the front office of the middle school.  It started out slightly crazy as it was the first day of 2nd quarter exams.  Instead of reporting to their homerooms, the students had to report to a different place for testing.  And of course, there were about 40 kids whom had NO IDEA where to go.  It took about 45 minutes to get them all sorted out.  I was very glad I wasn't in charge of it! I just helped out where I could.

After school it was more chores and cooking dinner and getting ready for a soccer game. (Sound familiar?)  We were excited that we won this game as well!! With 3 goals for William!!!!  He was just over the moon!!

Wednesday I drove over to my parents for a little while.  I entertained Dad while Mom has a doctor's appointment.  We went to the Outback to eat lunch.  They have a great little salad with candied pecans and blue cheese that I enjoy.  I do wish it has better lettuce though....it was a very white "green" salad....really needed more greens!!

After I got home it was more chores. Mainly, this week I have been working on my Christmas treats for my neighbors and my Christmas cards.  As I said in an earlier post, I had to recreate my address book due to it being lost when our computer crashed.  It took lots of hours tracking people down through facebook, an old yahoo address book I found, and through a white pages web-site.   I ended up using the yahoo address book and just updating as much as I could.  There was a lot of cleaning out as well.  Apparently, our yahoo account had kept every email address we had ever emailed something to.  Sounds like a good idea, but I really don't need to keep any address that has "customer service" in it.

I finally finished the new address book Thursday and so I was able to get all the Christmas cards addressed and stuffed and stamped.  I had not sent out cards last year, so I wanted to this year.  (As of now, next year is iffy!)

Thursday was also more chores - laundry!!   And getting ready for a soccer again.  This time it was a late game.  And we lost. And William got no goals.  Blaaaaaa.

This morning I finished the last of the Christmas sewing I wanted to do and cleaned my sewing room since I'll be having a guest tonight.  I'm sure my brother-in-law, David, would like to sleep in a room he can move around in with out the fear of stepping on a pins...or over an ironing board...  After that got all cleaned up, Melissa and I went out for errands.  She is looking for any reason to drive!  And it was nice to have someone with me as I went to the post office (Christmas cards are mailed!!!), dropped off recycling, and picking up those last few gifts.

We ended up stopping at the Goodwill - one of Melissa's favorite places.  She found a few things and I found some great books!  We were both happy.

And some how that's our week.  We have  few things planned for this weekend, but they should be relaxing.

Christmas and Friends

Years ago as we started to get pictures in Christmas cards, I really didn't know what to do with them after Christmas. I ended up putting them in a photo album. 

Until it got full. 

Hmmm. What to do.... Then I found this black photo box. I made dividers from left-over scrapbook card stock. On each divider I wrote the friends' names as well as their children's names as they started to come along. I, also, added how we meet and the location.  After all, as many moves as we have made and as many people we have meet, it all sort of runs together after all this time. 

The other day I sat down and went through the box to start a Christmas card list. Usually I use our address book in Ouook, but the computer it was on crashed...and they all were lost!  Yes, I was very sad and frustrated!! But thoroughly, enjoyed looking through the names and pictures of our friendships. 

Some have been lost to moves and years, but many are still in our life

- much thanks to facebook. 😍 I wish they all lived close to us. Through the years we have been richly blessed with wonderful friends! 

The Funny Side of Life with Teens

The other night at dinner the kids and I (Drew was working late) were just going over things upcoming.  One of the things I said that they needed to set some time apart this weekend to buy Christmas presents for their family members.  I told William while I enjoyed the NOLA Saints' pendant he gave me a few years ago, I did not need anything sports related this year.  Melissa didn't remember that particular gift, so I told her the story:  A two years ago William had a $25 gift card from Academy for helping out with a church soccer program.  He decided to use that to buy all his Christmas presents instead of his own money.  After all, why spend his own hard earn cash???

Apparently, he couldn't find anything for mom, but a Saints' pendant.

Drew and I have laughed at that gift often! (It's currently hanging in my side of our closet....yea...I had no idea what to do with it!)

Melissa enjoyed the story  and was laughing about it as well!

At some point we were all laughing again, and Ben put a sausage ball on my plate.  I looked at him  - very surprised because he loves these things! I asked him, "What? Are you full already??!!??"

"No - I just took it off of Melissa's plate."

OH! How I wish you could have seen the look on Melissa's face!!!  Totally shocked! Then we all started laughing again.

These kids are a lot of fun!!

Last night was the youth Christmas party.  They were told to look around their house and bring something they no longer want.  Melissa found two unopened VHS movies (Left Behind 1 & 2). William pulled out some old baseball cards my dad passed on to him (just a lot of commons - no one famous!).  I think Ben found a karate movie.

Then they came home.  Melissa got one of the best gifts of the night: a lava lamp.  William received a roll of toilet paper and one lone sock full of dead batteries!!  We thought that was a good gag gift - very resourceful!!  (Sorry....can't remember what Benjamin came home with....)

Being a Judge

Tonight instead of watching a soccer game (where we sadly lost), I was a judge at a local high school for senior projects. Currently, all seniors must complete a lengthy project which includes the student writing a detailed research paper as well as producing a "product". The last requirement to to preform a presentation. 

That's where I participate. It's been very enjoyable seeing what the students come up with. Tonight the best projects were the ones the students had a passion and a true interest in their subject.  One girl learned to shoot a bow, another to repurpose clothes, a boy learned to box, and another girl held a fundraiser to support a local home for unwed pregnant teenagers. 

This is my six or seventh time judging and I enjoy it every time! 

Weekend Update

Soccer....

While we won Thursday and Friday night, we lost Saturday morning 5 to 0....which, sadly, knocked us out of the tournament.  In soccer the amount of goals counts and when you lose by five, it pretty much is not good.  William was pretty bummed.

Melissa...

Melissa was able to make up all the work she missed being out of school Monday afternoon and Tuesday due to mono.  She probably should have stayed home at least another day, but she was done being sick.  She knew how much work she was missing and did not want it to pile up any more.  She did start some steroid medication and it has helped.

Election....

I did work the election yesterday.  As I have in the past, I enjoyed myself.  The day went by fast since we were very steady for the first part of the day.  After lunch it tapered off and was sporadic, but overall we had more voters to show up for this run-off then for the general election in November in our precinct (not sure what it was state wide, but heard it was less than November). I enjoy working and getting to know the ladies at my table.  We all are from different parts of the parish, so I'm don't think I would have met them otherwise.

Church....

This morning was the choir's Christmas concert.  As usual, they did a great job. But I will say, it's mostly the same music/songs they have done for the last two years.  Oh, well.  They did sound wonderful...nice way to get in the Christmas spirit.

Kids...

Melissa and Benjamin went to the youth retreat this weekend.  They seemed to have a good time, but I'm not sure what they learned spiritually....I guess time will tell if I hear more of the lessons or more of the games and socialization!

Soccer Tournament

Last night started a three day soccer tournament. We won 3-0. And the weather?? So nice!! Last year we froze at the tournament. This year we don't enough need a coat. 

But we are playing in the fog...

Thanksgiving Fallout

While we had a wonderful time with family over Thanksgiving week, William some how lost his wallet. Very frustrating! It had all the normal important items in it...driver's license, military ID card, the Wal-mart gift card he used as his gas card &, of course, a good bit of cash as he just got paid from a tutoring job. 

So, today j checked him out early from school to go to the DMV for s replacement license. (Too bad there's not a place to go to get replacement cash!) Thankfully, we hit it at the right time -we were in and out in 35 minutes. 

Probably a record. 

The Friday before Thanksgiving Melissa came home from school not feeling well. I gave her some meds and she took a nap. She felt better & over the next few days to a week really didn't complain too much (she has a high pain tolerance!) , but as it turns out, she felt bad still. 

By Sunday evening she was complaining, so I set up a doctor's appointment. Turns out she has mono. 

Yuck! Poor thing! I had mono at 16 as well. No fun! (Of course, I'm hoping she didn't infect the whole dang family that we saw last week!)

The thing about mono is that you can be a carrier & not even know it. Since I had it as a teen, Melissa could have gotten it from me as I could have become 'active' again and not known it. It has a 4-6 week incubation period, so it's hard to track down when you were infected. 

For the most part with mono you have headaches, a sore throat, fever, fatigue, no apptitite....  Her glands around her neck are swollen, but the great concern is her spleen could become swollen, as well. The doctor didn't think it was - hopefully, it'll stay that way. 

She stayed home from school today, buts wants to go back to school tomorrow no matter if she still feels bad. 

She missed one big test today, had at least one small quiz tomorrow...she wants to at least take them & try to stay caught up. With it being the end of a semester, its a bad time to miss school.