Bragging time

I have to take a few minutes to brag on my boy. I don't do that enough most days. He has been doing really well in school this year, especially in his reading. They are required to read enough books to have 25 AR points per nine weeks. (For those of you reading this that are clueless, that is the equivalent of 50 picture books.) So that means they have to have 100 points by the end of the year. Well, Spencer and another boy in his class reached the 100 point goal about ten weeks into school, so their teacher gave them a day off. They got to pick the day and they decided to do it together so they would have someone to play with. They got to bring their Nintendo DS's and Spencer brought his Playstation 2 (the teacher provided the TV) and she also had snacks for them. They are not supposed to bring any electronics to school so he was a little stressed. His teacher was laughing at him because he told her that he put everything in his back pack that he normally brings because he thought everyone would assume it was books and not check it. If anyone had even looked at his face, they would have known something was up for sure. There were no checks though and they got to enjoy a day chilling out as you can see in the picture. When they reach 150, they get another day, so we have some heavy reading going on at home. The other thing his teacher told me was that he tested highest in the class on his reading level. They test them every year at the beginning of the year so they know what level books they should be reading to challenge them. He tested at a 9.5 grade level. Since he is just in 4th grade, his teacher said to stick with 4-6 grade books. I said no problem. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find a fourth grader books he could read on that level? I did some research at work and found that the Janet Evanovich books that many of my friends and I enjoy are only a 3 to 5 grade reading level. How depressing is that! My fourth grader is out reading me! It was bound to happen I guess. I'm too old for reading challenges. There are plenty of others out there for me. I'll leave the reading challenges to Spencer for now.

Bonfire 2008

Well, it was time to have another bonfire party. We have not had one since after Katrina when we had so many limbs to burn. We had some more storm damage this year, so it was time to get some fun out of it. We also had a new feature this year - live music! That was a big hit. Steve's helper Matt that worked with him in the ladders last year plays with some other guys, so we asked them if they would play for our party. They were down a few key players so they found people to fill in from elsewhere. Come to find out the people who filled in came all the way from Louisiana down around the Houma and Raceland area. So we had some true Cajuns among us. They even had some original music. Good stuff! Of course we had a hayride and fireworks. That is a must. This year we had another first that was interesting. Someone called the police. Apparently a neighbor heard the fireworks and thought they were gunshots. They called the sheriff's dept. who in turn called us and when they didn't receive an answer, they sent out two cars. They were happy to see it was just a party. I told them to tell our neighbor thank you because I would rather have ones like that than ones that look the other way.

We had around 40 to 50 people here. I think everyone had a great time. I know we did. The weather was great. I don't think it could have went better. We can't wait until next time. It's time to start the next brush pile, so we'll be ready.

Time change confusion

The time change is always a big deal in our house every year. Steve is grumpy because the days are shorter. The cat is freaking out in the morning because she can't figure out why the house is still so quiet and no one is feeding her even though yesterday at the same time it was full of activity. This usually results in a lot of jumping on the bed and sniffing faces and meowing which makes Steve even grumpier. There was an unusual bit of confusion last night though. The three of us took our motorcycles for a ride to Lake to hang something at the library and then we went to supper in Forest at the Mexican restaurant. Naturally, it got dark while we were there since the time had changed the night before. The ride home was a bit chillier than we expected as a result of that as well. When we got home it was around 6 and Spencer announced that he was going to bed. I assumed it was to warm up. Well, lo and behold he was ready for bed! I talked him into getting up and taking a shower. Then Steve went in and said prayers with him. He was giving me this look that said "Are you going to tell him?" I was giving him a look that said "I will kill you and cut your body into small pieces and feed it to the dogs if you say one word." (You know that look. All mothers have it.) Well after that, Steve went out to the shop and Spencer did a couple more bed preparation things such as get his cat and a drink, etc. (You have no idea how many things he has to do to get ready for bed. That was part of where the look came from.) Then as he was rounding the hallway to head to his room after having said final good nights he stopped and looked at me and said "What time is it?" My shoulders dropped at this point and I was probably only about 5' 5" at that moment. I couldn't lie and say something cute like "Bedtime" as I would have when he was 3 or 4. I had to tell the truth. He can read and tell time now. With a huge sigh I said "7:20" to which he responded "Well I still have an hour and ten minutes then." And that's all I've got to say about that.