San Antonio

Last weekend Chase, Kenny, Mom, and I went to San Antonio so that Chase could participate in the state science fair competition. We had a great time even though he didn't win. He was up against some pretty tough competition ... you know, like the kid that has a theory about how to cure Alzheimer's Disease. And all of those other kids with projects whose titles were not even understandable to me. Yeah, the competition was pretty tough. But we had fun. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the weekend (there are more but I took them with Mom's camera and forgot to transfer them to my computer before she left to go back to NY):

Mom's first margarita! Awwww...


Chase, Kenny, and Chase's friend Ben drinking virgin Strawberry Daiquiris.

Chase & Kenny on our way to the Alamo.

This is Jeopardy!

On Wednesday Chase participated in a school Jeopardy contest. The entire school was invited to participate, but there was one catch: you had to read ten specific books that the librarian chose to be able to play. Chase started in early October and finished his tenth book on Tuesday afternoon. Ten of the 755 students enrolled at his school read all of the books and played the game. They broke the kids into two groups to play. The first five played Single Jeopardy while the other five stayed in another room. Then they came back and played the same exact board with the same exact questions. The six students with the top scores went on to Double and Final Jeopardy. Chase was in the second group and almost didn't make it to Double Jeopardy! There was a kid in his group that was insanely fast with the buzzer. When the very last question came up on the screen that kid buzzed in. If he had answered correctly Chase would have been in 7th place of the ten kids. Luckily, he didn't answer correctly. Chase buzzed in, got the right answer and moved on to the next round. That other kid made it into the next round as well because his score was a few hundred points higher than Chase's. During Double Jeopardy the game stayed pretty fair. All six kids were answering questions ... although some with more right answers than others. When Final Jeopardy began Chase was in 2nd place. He made a good wager, answered correctly and won the entire game!

The prizes were crazy good. I have heard that the librarian uses all of the book fair money for prizes, but I am not sure if that is correct. The first place winner was able to choose whichever prize he/she wanted from the table. Then the second place winner chose, etc. There were ten kids and ten great prizes. They also won some books and posters.



Here's Chase with his librarian and the prize he selected: a 16 GB ipod touch!!!!:

An Email Forward

I thought this was a pretty funny one and since I am at a loss for blog material right now I am going to use it here:

Shrek, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez were all having lunch together. Shrek said, "I have always thought that I'm the strongest man in the world, but how can I be sure?" Brad Pitt said, "I'm pretty sure I'm the hottest man alive but I've never had it confirmed." Jennifer Lopez agreed. "I'm told I'm the sexiest of them all, but sometimes I wonder."

They all decided that the best way to find out if their beliefs were true was to approach the wicked queen's mirror to confirm for them whether Shrek was the strongest, Brad Pitt was the hottest and Jennifer Lopez was the sexiest. They agreed to meet again the next day for lunch to discuss their findings.

The next day Shrek walked up with a smile. "Well, it's true. The mirror told me that I am the strongest man in the world."

Brad Pitt followed and boasted, "It is true, it has been confirmed that I am the hottest man alive!!"

Jennifer Lopez walked in, head bent, tears in her eyes and asked, "Who in the hell is Amy Lemaster?"

W.W.M.D.

One day when we still lived in NC my friend Mandy commented on how clean my house/bathrooms always were. Of course I beamed with housewifely pride. Then one day about a week later we were going to have a surprise guest and I quickly wiped down the bathroom with a couple of baby wipes. I had a fleeting thought about Martha Stewart and wondered comically if she would consider my bathroom "clean" after I only wiped it down with a baby wipe. That began my own personal joke about "What Would Martha Do?" I was reminded of W.W.M.D. tonight when I ran into the house after student teaching all day, yelled instructions to the kids to get ready to leave the house because we had to get to Chase's National Junior Honor Society meeting, which was followed by his informational meeting regarding his State Science Fair Competition, grabbed a piece of cold pizza, and ate it while I was peeing!! Would she consider this a real dinner? A piece of cold leftover pizza wolfed down while going pee for the first time after a hectic day spent with 21 kindergartners? I am guessing she would not.

All About Chase ...

While I have been busy with student teaching and Kenny has been sick/recovering, Chase has been just going on with his normal life. Here are some things he did over the past several weeks while Kenny and I have been trying to make it through each day:

Chase and his TRIYS group (Texas Research Institute for Young Scholars) met with the mayor last month to discuss better ways for our city to go green.

Basketball season just ended. His coach was one of the best coaches we have ever had. If you know me and sports you know we are not a good match. But I loved every minute of Chase's basketball games over the past two months. And so did he.

Chase competed in and won his class and school science fair competition. Then he went on the the regional competition and placed 2nd. He goes to the state competition at the end of the month. It should be a fun weekend in San Antonio.

On Thursday he got a letter in the mail inviting him to join National Junior Honor Society.

And through all of this he managed to pull off a report card that looks like this:

Math Pre-AP/GT: 96%
PE: 100%
History: 95%
Beginning Band: 99%
Science: 98%
Writing Pre-AP/GT: 100%
Reading Pre-AP/GT: 98%

Not that I am bragging or anything ;)