Seventh Grade Essayist

Michael is very proud of himself.  He completed the rough draft of an essay last night that he feels is the best thing he's ever written.  I agree with him.  Last year, he wasn't stringing together two sentences in a row that made sense.  This year, he's completed an essay that makes a lot of sense.  I love his teachers here.

If he doesn't turn in an assignment, or if he needs extra help with it, I get an email before he's even left the classroom so I'm ready when he gets home.  And it's working.  He's engaged in a way that he's never been before and he's learning.  Just in case I ever have a question about the decision to move here, I get these almost daily reminders of how much better it is for my babies. 

(And yes, it makes them laugh that I call them babies when we are fast approaching the day that I will be the shortest person in the house.  See photos of the weinie roast below.)

Here's Michael's essay ...

Michael Verrette
Rough Draft
November 29, 2007

Three Things in Life

I understand middle school could be
easy, trust me, it isn’t.  in my essay I
will tell you about the things you need to survive middle school.  What you need is a funny bone, a wishbone,
and a backbone.

A funny bone is when you laugh at a
person calling you names, and they stop. 
I remember when people called me gay. 
I laughed; they stopped; but it wasn’t the funny bone that made me
laugh.  I just remembered a funny movie
at the time.

Having a wishbone means having a
little luck.  I know, because I had a
math test that I hadn’t studied for.  So,
I had a little luck.  O.K., a lot of
luck, and I got an A plus.

To have a back bone means to have
strength in yourself.  I don’t have a
backbone, but my little brother does.  It
lasts for 5 seconds.  5 second is long
enough to solve most of his problems or go get help from a teacher.  Like if there’s a bully bothering him.

Yep, middle school is gonna be
hard.  So remember the three things in
life.  The three things in life are a
backbone, a wishbone and a funny bone. 
So use them right to survive middle school. 

Shameless Plug

Overheard

Michael:  "Mom, Joe scratched me right on my favorite part of my leg!"

o_0: "You have a favorite leg part?"

Michael: "Doesn't everyone?"

Some Photos

My Mom skipped Thanksgiving decorations and went straight to Christmas.  This year, it's a blue/silver theme.  Fugitive informed me of this before I came so I could be sure the packages were wrapped to coordinate. 

My Daddy when he talks about things he feels strongly about will pick up his feet and stick his legs straight out.  I think this is endearing.  He has no idea what a cute little Daddy he is.

Tucker said, "Pappaw, the weinie roast idea you had last summer was your bestest idea ever."  Well, that got his Grandpa's attention so well that when we arrived for Thanksgiving Daddy couldn't help it, he had to repeat the event.  Al the boys were pleased. 

Throughout the week, I would just ALMOST catch the Fugitive, but this was the most of her that made it into a photo. 

I think hers do and his, not so much.
   

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

How Cool is THIS?

Many of you clicked the link and watched my friend Jim tell his life story last week.  I just got an email from him saying that he's won the Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Community Award for Volunteer of the Year. 

It should be on the local news there in Dallas tonight.  And he will be on the field for Thursday's game against the Packers (doesn't know yet whether that will be a pre-game or halftime thing) so any of you who are in the Dallas area and may be heading out to the game, wave to Jim. 

Heading Home From the Holidaze

Well, I remember now why I don't want to live in Arkansas.  It is fully peopled with my family.  And its much much much easier to get along peaceably with my family when I'm four states away.  Mostly, it's my mom.  I don't know why she is the way she is, and every time I'm around her I renew my vows to pursue peace, joy, patience, kindness, and gentleness of voice, spirit, mind, and soul. 

I know my Mom has had her share of difficulties.  And just in case I (or anyone) missed that from observation, she's been faithful to point it out to us at least hourly. 

Mostly on this trip, it's been my sister who's borne the brunt of my Mom's ranting, raving, silent treatment and demands.  I don't know how my sister puts up with it. 

I've never been able to stand up to my mother.  I know this about myself, so I have chosen to remove myself from the line of fire. 

I love my Daddy, and in many ways I consider myself to be a Daddy's girl.  Dad and I share our love of football, learning, puzzles, working with our hands, and dedication to our families.  I wish that I could have more time with him, but time with Dad comes at a cost that I can't afford to pay.

The kids have had a wonderful time with their cousins.  So that's been good.

I've eaten WAY too much food, because that's what I do when things are uncomfortable around me.  I hide my face behind a plate of food and compulsively work my way through to the end. 

We have one more baking project this morning, Mom wants to make Christmas goodies to share with the neighbors.  And by "Mom wants to make..." I mean Mom wants to make her daughters miserable by sitting at the table and yelling that we are doing it all wrong while we make the cookies and candies on her list. 

I know it sounds like I'm on the pessimistic side of the street.  I'm really not.  I know what Mom is like.  I know what coming here means.  And I still long to do this and to be here.  I miss my parents and my sisters and brother.  I miss my extended family.  I miss being in Arkansas when the HAWGS are riding high. 

But it remains that as I'm loading the car to go back home, I'm profoundly relieved and grateful to have a home where for all my mistakes, I have built a family environment that is much more peaceful, joyful, hug-loving, fun-sharing, kind, and safe than anything I lived with for the first 40 years of my life.

  Whooooooo Sooooooo Piggie!

   The Arkansas Razorbacks have defeated the team ranked Number 1 in the country before they met up with us. 

   How 'bout them HAWGS!!!

   Oh, yes.  We DID!  (Not that I would brag or exhibit other unsportsmanlike conduct or anything.)

I have Returned Victorious

from the thing I swore I would never do.  I went shopping at 5 a.m. on Black Friday.  I must have been insane.  In this little town there aren't a lot of options.  There's no Best Buy, no JCPenney, if you're gonna go out and act the fool about schtuff, there's only one game in town.  

Walmart.

Everyone in town was there.  My Junior High School choir teacher, whom I loved and who gave me encouragement and kindness during the time of my life when I was the most difficult to get along with, stood in line next to me as we waited for our chance to purchase crockpots for $2.98 and cd's for less than half price.  My friend, Becky, looking more asleep than alive and wishing that she was in Baton Rouge with the men of her family, hugged me and asked what I've been up to lately.  Susie, who's been Tucker's Sunday School teacher during the summer for the past three years was behind me in line at the checkout.  It was more fun than I expected to have at that hour.

Okay, I'll be honest, it wasn't the cd deal that got me out of bed.  It was the Garman GPS for $125.  I've been wanting one of these little babies ever since Mimi and I rented one last summer to guide us to South Carolina when my uncle died. 

There were some other things on my list, but the GPS was my gold ring, and I grabbed it. 

Seemed a bit ... well, unsportsman like to dance about in triumph and leave without even wrestling even one old lady for a George Foreman grill, but I didn't need further trophies.  I did my slow victory lap around the store, feeling smug and superior as all the people who didn't get there at 4 freaking o'clock this morning tussled over Bratz and digital cameras. 

And in the end, I kind of felt sorry for the poor little crockpots, no one seemed to want them even for $2.98.  So I picked one up for my brother.  It's only 6:22 in the morning and I've already finished doing what I need to do for the day.  So I'm going back to bed to finish out my rest before the Ark/LSU game this afternoon. 

It's D Mac's last chance at the Heisman.  And I'll be in my chair at 1:00 rooting for him. 

I haven't been posting the War Weasel Report this week and there's a very good reason for that.  My average word count per day since I arrived in Arkansas is less than 500.  I'm gonna have some serious writing to do when I get back to Albuquerque.  I'm making progress so slowly here that it feels like I'm going backward on the deal. 

But I've been working out a lot of stuff in my head, and since Fugitive is my inspiration for a lot of the scenes in the book, I've been taking notes.  I won't say that's begun to annoy her, but she's starting to give me the look whenever my pen comes out. 

* * * * * * *

If you haven't yet had the opportunity to view my friend Jim's story, please check out the link below.  I'll be honest, it takes about 25 minutes for him to tell it, but it's worth every second to hear about what he's gone through with his family, and what he brings in the way of life lessons is simply incredible.  I don't think it's possible for me to learn all he's trying to share about choice, responsbility, freedom, and forgiveness, but the story is so powerful that if I can take away any part of it and allow it to inform my decision-making, then I will owe him a debt beyond paying.

If you don't have Quicktime on your PC (all the Mac people may be excused from this part) you'll need to download it.  The video is in MP4 format which Windows won't recognize when you try to open the file.  Tell it that Quicktime created the document and you shouldn't have any more trouble after that. 

Jim's pastor makes a LONG introduction, but you can slide the timer over to the 7 minute mark and skip that part.

I watched it on my Mac laptop, if you have an iPod you can download it there, and I also downloaded it to the 2 desktop PC's here in my folks house, so I've tested it on multiple platforms and no one's system crashed in the process.   

I've been eating for two days ... pretty much non-stop.  Tonight, we're gonna feed the kids frozen pizza (we'll cook it first) and then we're going to a movie, we're going to find something productive to do, which will at least get me out of my Mom's refrigerator for a few hours.  o_0

(Turns out that this little town is little enough that the theatre is closed on Mondays)