Brianna... The Math Whiz!!

Brianna was nominated by her teacher and selected to participate in an exciting extra-curricular opportunity-- Washington School's Math Club!! This Math Club consists of kids who are skilled at problem-solving, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension. Each of these student will participate in a national problem-solving program called Continental Mathematics League (CML). Students participate with other students of the same age and grade level across the United States! Once a month, from January through March, these students will participate in a "meet", which will consist of a six-question test. Their scores are tabulated and sent to the CML offices in New York, where they will be ranked with other student's scores across the nation!! Brianna is very proud and excited to have accomplished this and looks forward to participating! Congratulations, Brianna!! We are rooting for you!!!

Disney On Ice -- 100 Years of Magic!

Last night, Brianna and I went to see the Disney On Ice show downtown... it was awesome!! They had just about every character from every Disney movie ever made!! We got to see Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Lion King, Pinocchio, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and many more that I can't even remember to name. And of course we can't forget to mention Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald!! The whole show ran about two hours long, but it sure didn't seem like it was that long! I was really disappointed when all the characters came skating back out on the rink for their "final bow".

This is the second Disney On Ice show we have been to. The first one was two years ago when they had the Jungle Adventures theme. Then the stories were Jungle Book, Lion King, and Tarzan! These shows never fail to amaze us with all the talent and "magic" that goes into it! I am already looking forward to the next one!!

Football Awards Banquet

Tonight was Zach's Freshman Football awards banquet. They started out at East High with all the freshman players and coaches, along with family, watching a video. The video was made by the coaches and it had little "snips" of highlights of all the games throughout the season. They also had baby pictures of each of the players (courtesy of the parents!) that were shown throughout the beginning of the video!! Some kids looked exactly like they do now, and some you would never have known it was them!! Of course, Zach looks like he always has from day one!! He is never able to deny that is him in a picture!!!


Zach received his Athletic Award certificate along with the '12' (for the year 2012) for lettering in football. Now he wants us to get him a letter jacket!!! The coaches had nothing but praise to heap on these kids tonight -- the kids also wanted to thank the coaches, so they presented them with signed footballs. Each football had "Freshman Football 2008 11-0 Record" on them and were signed by each player. The coaches really appreciated these and some even got a little emotional!


Lastly, the boys were ready to eat!! Part of the way through the season, the varsity head coach told these freshman football players that if they finished their season undefeated, he would take them out to eat!! I guess food works well as an incentive, since these freshman finished the season without losing a game! The coach stayed true to his word and took every single one of them out to eat tonight! The football players are big fans of buffet, so the coach took all 56 of them to the Golden Corral for supper after the awards banquet. Parents were able to come too if they wanted to pay for their own meal! We just dropped Zach off and went to Hardees for supper! I wasn't hungry enough to spend all that money on buffet when I knew Brianna and I wouldn't eat that much! Maybe next time, though, because Zach came home and told us all about all the food they had -- it sounds really good!!

Tribute to Uncle Frank...

Just got news today that my Uncle Frank passed away... he will be sorely missed by all, especially by his wife, children, and grandchildren.

Frank got sick over 4th of July and was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. He underwent extensive chemotherapy to fight this disease, but in the end it won him over. He was a strong fighter (and I heard he was a bit "head-strong" at times, too!) and mustered all his courage and faith into fighting this fight. I can only believe that he is in a better place now -- a place with no pain or sorrow and a place filled with loved ones that have passed on before him. Right now, I picture that he is sitting up there ice fishing!! Frank will live on in our hearts and in the stories we tell to keep his memory alive! There will be so many!! One that immediately comes to mind is when my Dad and I went up to Frank and Sharon's to help them insulate their house. It was in February but I am not sure of the year... the only reason I remember the month is because some of my cousins had a Valentine's Dance at their school that evening! I hung out with my aunt and cousins while Dad and Frank were insulating. (Aunt Sharon made the best peanut butter cake that day!!!) Dad and Frank were trying to hurry and finish up because there was a snowstorm heading our way... and Dad wanted to head south back for home before it hit. We got on the road towards home, but didn't make it very far out of town! The winds were blowing that snow so hard that we couldn't even see the road! Now, anyone that knows my dad would know that the weather must have been really horrible for him to turn around!! But turn around is exactly what we had to do... and we had the best time hanging out that night!! My cousins did go to their school dance, but it ended early and some of the kids were stranded in town. Frank and Sharon only lived a few blocks from the school, so several of my cousins' friends stayed at the house also! The boys went out snowmobiling and joyriding around, helping people that were stuck all throughout town!! I had so much fun that I was actually kind of disappointed when we were able to get out and go home the next day!!!

God Bless You, Uncle Frank! We love you! Until we meet again...

End of First Quarter

School has officially been in session for one full quarter -- a whole nine weeks already! Doesn't seem like it has been that long! Both kids got their report cards -- Brianna got all A's and Zach got four A's and two B's!!! We are very proud of both of them!! Keep up the great work, kids!! We love you!!!

Halloween 2008

This year's Halloween was a good night! For one thing, it was on a Friday night, so there was no need to rush to hurry up and get done so we could get home in time for bed. The other thing is that the weather was fan-tabulous!!! Brianna was a cheerleader this year, and since the weather was so nice, she only needed to wear a long sleeve t-shirt under her costume and she was comfortable. No need for jackets or mittens!! Wish it could be like that every year!!

CJ and I took Brianna out to the usual streets. We always hit the neighbors on our street and a few on the next block over. Then there are these two streets on the block behind us that hand out the best candy!! These people decorate their houses to the max for Halloween (they do it again at Christmas, too!!) and have to spend lots of money on candy because they have LOTS of kids knocking on their door!! Of course, we always hit these home every year!! We go up and down both sides of both streets, so that is actually a total of four blocks. Brianna always has to dump her bucket out in the car at least once if not twice before she is done with this neighborhood!! Needless to say, we are done once we hit these houses! Zach did not go out for trick or treat -- he hasn't for a while now! He stayed home and got ready for the Halloween dance at the high school, which was later that night. And no, he didn't wear a costume!!