first grade reading

this summer Cooper met with his first grade teacher for a reading assessment. he came home with the results today.

	Cooper's Score	School Average
Letter names	26 out of 26	25 out of 26
Letter sounds	28 out of 28	23 out of 28
High Frequency Words	20 out of 20	16 out of 20
Phonetic Set 1	5 of 5	2 of 5
Reading of Dogs	100% accuracy	78% accuracy

I credit his gene pool (mother) and television. God bless you steve and your little blue dog.

Rabbit Proof Fence

So I have decided periodically to post some movies that you might not have seen, but maybe should have.

Fist up is Rabbit Proof Fence

Set in 1931 Australia this movie is based upon a true story of three aboriginal girls who escape and head back to their home after being taken to be trained as domestic staff.

The DVD includes interviews with the actual girls (now women) of whom the story is based.

under the weather

Lincoln has been under the weather the week. It appears that he has an ear infection, a virus and is cutting 6-8 teeth.

It started Monday which was the fussiest day of his young life. Then Tuesday he was running a fever which has been off and on.

I have been sleeping with him downstairs so the rest of the family can get some sleep. It has given me some flash backs to when Cooper was young and Val was in residency and thus gone a lot of the time.

be a candle

The other day Lincoln and I headed to Target to pick up some formula and other groceries. We ended up in a slow checkout line.

When we made it to check out the girl working the register apologized for the wait. I said it was no big deal to which she answered, "I wish everyone had that attitude."

She went on to explain how she had started on the cash register next to this one and it had crashed. Apparently the lady who was checking out had gotten very upset and had been yelling at the checkout girl.

I told her that life is too short to spend it fussing over such small things to which she again mentioned how she wished more people treated her that way.

I tell the story not to brag about how great I am. More times than I probably want to admit I am the impatient one, but I write it as a reminder (to myself if no one else) how easy it can be sometimes to be a light in the world.

Too many times I think we only look for big opportunities to be a light. If we are going to be a light we want to be a spotlight and we miss the opportunity to be a candle. It can be pretty easy to be a candle and enough candles shine as bright as a spot.

So I challenge you and me to try to look for those opportunities to be a small light in someone's life. Maybe its holding a door open for someone, maybe its getting your neighbors mail, or maybe its just having a good attitude with the check out person at Target.

how about them Bears

Granted, the packers are not the powerhouse they used to be, but anytime the Bears can go into lambeau field and win is a good day. And then to hand greenbay their first scoreless game since 1991.

The Bears meet all three division rivals at the beginning of the season.

September 24 - minnesota

fundraising in 2006

alright, i remember taking home the order sheets door to door, to family and my mom took it to work. but that was the '70s and '80s.

now my son is in the school fundraising game and we can do it the new way.

so for family and friends that are far away but would like to support Cooper in his school fundraising, now through September 18th you can purchase items from Sally Foster

I thought the link was set up to automatically put in Coopers info, but if you need it his school # 255635 his student # 472877

web work

I am sitting at the computer with a sleeping baby on my chest. He has been really hard to get to sleep. While it is hard to get housework done right now, I can type on the computer.

A couple of things I have been working on:

I have been working for our dentist on creating a web site for them. It is in the beginning stages of getting the site up.

I also recently redesigned our church web site.

I had been playing with the idea for a while, but wanted to get input/approval from higher ups. Then someone convinced me to go ahead and do it.

I was getting really tired of the old site. There is more that needs to be done, but I like it better than the previous site.

chruch lady fired for...being a lady

"Since 1946, Mary Lambert has been a member of the First Baptist Church in Watertown [NY], and for the past 11 years, she's been the Sunday school teacher.

"But, last Thursday Lambert received a letter from the Diaconate Board telling her that she was dismissed from her position because the board had adopted the scriptural qualifications for Sunday school teachers.

"The letter Lambert received says, 'A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became sinner.'

"The letter was signed, 'Thank you for your anticipated cooperation. Very truly yours, Kendra LaBouf.' Kendra is the wife of City Council Member and Pastor Tim LaBouf."

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