Careers on Parade!

Cole's teacher enjoys performing and she exposes her students to the art of acting and reciting poetry as much as possible. That is one reason I have loved her as Kaleigh and Cole's teacher! When Kaleigh was in first grade her part in this performance was the Librarian. She dressed the part (a bit of stereotyping but whatever), and said her little poem.

This year it was Cole's turn. He actually chose this profession over Lumberjack, Motorcross rider, scientist and banker. If you haven't guessed by now, he is dressed up as a mechanic. He is perfectly happy to get up on stage and perform. I had a lot of fun today watching the performance and Cole did great! His friends (as seen is the group shot,)were as follows: Peyton-baseball player, Nathan-police officer, Cole, Matthew-inventor, Reese-actor, Justin-construction worker, and Cameron-banker. They all had fun and they did a Bible verse and a song as well.

Cole received a lot of compliments from the parents on his outfit! He thought he looked pretty good too, especially when I made his name patch and smudged his face with black paint (car grease). We had a nice rest of the day since the school was out early today, and we had lunch at MceeDee's too! Kaleigh had gone to a friends house and is still not back! Whew! She loves to hang out at Gracie's house! So if you think Cole looked as adorable as I do, let him know, I will let him read the comments on this post!

Cole and the Bee!

So today was Cole's spelling bee! We arrived at the place (another school around the corner) met up with grandma, and waited. We went into an assembly where they gave us the location of each grade's spelling bee and then a few other things, like rules and such, and we headed into the first grade spelling bee room. My stomach was in knots let me tell you! I was more nervous than Cole was! They did a practice round (which by the way, they can spell the word they get wrong and they get to stay in), then came the real deal.

Cole got the word "back", then "five", then "torch", then "motel", all of which he got right. In the fifth round, however, he got the word, "rude". That one was not one we really practiced, so he spelled it "r-o-u-d". Don't ask me why, but whatever, he did great!!! We are very proud of him for even making it to the bee! I mean he got through his class spelling bee (only 4 went through to the grade level bee) AND the grade level spelling bee (4 kids out of the entire 1st grade class -that is about 118 kids!) And during this spelling bee he stayed in through about 10 kids (there were about 20 in all) and then he got out. So he was pretty much in the middle of the group. During the last round he was in, a whole bunch of kids got out. But he stayed in until the next round. He was a really good sport too! No complaints at all. One of the kids from his school that really practiced like crazy, I mean this kid practiced through the Christmas break and started going into the dictionary once he knew all the 500 words on the given list! Of course with all that pressure, he got so nervous, he misspelled "jumped" He was devastated, crying and hugging his mom. He actually got out before Cole! I was pretty surprised, because I know the mom said how much they worked on stuff. I didn't say much because we only practiced every once in a while and not at all during the Christmas holidays! So, way to go Cole!!! Good Job!! Can you tell I am super proud of my boy?

My Latest Thing...

Ok, so I am extremely boring. Just for background, around Christmas our family used to mix dried fruit and nuts and have a bowl to snack on during the holidays. Well, I decided to have this same thing on Christmas Eve this year and it was actually a pretty big hit! I had made baked brie with almonds and cranberries for something else and threw the cranberries in with the dried fruit and nuts. Well, I finished off the mixture after Christmas and enjoyed it so much (especially the almonds, hazelnuts and cranberries) that I decided that would be my snack at work and home and wherever else I happen to go where I might need one! I even brought some to the movies! It is one of the healthier things that I eat. Otherwise my snacks range from cookies, chocolate, fishy crackers (what? I like them!) and other packaged treats. Oh and mint milano cookies too! So I figure if I am going to read a book and want something to snack on while reading (bad habit, don't get started!) I will eat nuts and berries. Wow, I sound like a bear, I think I will go hibernate now. I mean I am way behind! ZZzzzzzzz.

Mammograms should be called "Smashograms"

All you guys out there should count yourselves extremely lucky. At least they don't test for prostate cancer by squishing your...um... well, you know! We women have it tough. Not only do we have to have to birth children, but then from 40 on up, every year we are supposed to go and have two things squished flat as a pancake to test for cancer! Yeesh! I am guessing that a man created the mammogram, because I highly doubt that a woman would think to do such a thing! In any case I now have a full year before I have to be tortured again! Whew, what a relief! I never look forward to it, but at least there is no poking like the dentist!
Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for early detection of breast cancer but with all the technology out there, can no one find a better way to find it? I mean really! They can make computers do almost anything these days and they can see a full 3-d view of a baby in the womb. You would think that someone would figure out a less barbaric way to test for cancer in the breast! Ok, now that I have vented, I hope all women who read this will have their mammograms and if there are any doctors reading this, try something new, create a better way to test! Then maybe women will be more likely to come in and GET tested! Wouldn't that be great? Then we would have less breast cancer that kills! There would be more that would catch it early on and more that would be treated! Wow, that sounds good, doesn't it? So all you research techno-scientists, get on the ball! Please?

Happy New Year!!!

Well, we weren't planning any-thing special for New Year's Day, but we ended up having a nice morning of Christmas clean up and we then got a call from Carl's Uncle Kenton to see if we wanted to go to his house for some Ham and yams and veggies. Sounded good so we grabbed some chips and dip and headed over after lunch. Kenton is the one facing the little one, Taryn, (Carl's cousin's little girl).

Kenton is Carl's mother's brother. Carl's cousin and his wife were there as was Kenton's Aunt Esther (Carl's great Aunt). We watched the Rosebowl football game, SC vs. Illinois. USC won of course! It was fun, we took a nice family photo and Kaleigh wanted her photo taken with some of Kenton's pretty flowers. Then Cole acted silly so he got a photo in too! It was really nice, the food was yummy and we were able to just relax and still go somewhere. Tomorrow is another day and we will be going back to school next week, so for now we are still kickin' back and enjoying vacation! So again I say, "Happy New Year" to all friends, family and all you other people too!