like his old man...sort of

We got a note from school the other day saying that Cooper has qualified for an independent reading group in the gifted and talented program.

I was in a reading group in school as well, but it wasn't through the gifted and talented program. It was in the basement and we read illustrated Electric Company stories while the other kids read actual books.

almost like a real office

After months of having the computer stuck on a table in the basement we finally bought a desk and started to put the office together.

Special thanks to Chris for giving of his time and van to help me pick up the desk at IKEA.

I wish I had before shots, and I'm sure I have some snap shots of us in the room, but before the walls were white and dirty, there was nasty carpet on the floor and cheap miniblinds on the windows.

I will be slowly putting the office together, but it is so nice to have the computer and work space back.

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go?

You may never sing that Chris Tomlin song the same way again after reading this story.

Lightning exits woman's bottom

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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DIY

I still have some work to do, but here is my first picture of some finished trim.

Land of Lincoln

Cooper and Lincoln are spending the week with grandma and grandpa in the Land of Lincoln

I am at home desperately trying to finish the trim in our house that we tore out when we had the floors worked on. I am learning on the job.

It has been a lot of work and no one is going to mistake me for a professional, but it is a lot of fun and there is a certain sense of satisfaction of doing it yourself.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from their trip so far.

KidStuf

Well, I was really worried about KidStuf this week. It is the most time I have spent working with the script and the least I felt prepared since we started doing these. We practiced 5 or 6 times this morning and never were able to get through it.

The actual KidStuf performance went over OK. It was the best we did at the intro part. I forgot one thing I was going to do in my rapid response time, but all in all in went well.

I was missing some of my peeps.

Next month starts the new adventure of doing KidStuf after the service. That brings it's own new challenges. Especially for Chris as he does sound for 2 completely different services and for Michael who will add preaching to a day he already host and sings.

a long week

It has been a long week.

First Val got very sick Sunday night. She had to go to the ER. turns out she had an infection that hit her very hard. She was out from work until today. Tuesday we thought she might end up in the hospital.

I had some unexpected deadlines with some church stuff and trouble with my old computer handling such large files.

My little guy who had been sleeping through the night stopped. I blame teething.

I am more nervous about Kidstuf this week because my part is more scripted and requires timing, so that has me a little nervous for Sunday.

So I am glad this week is almost over.

garage sale 2: electric boogaloo

the garage sale went ok. especially considering we did no advertising and the 4 signs i put up kept blowing down. i am going to try it again this friday and saturday. val is working and on call so it will be me and the boys trying to handle things.

i have a couple of big items i am really trying to get rid of, including a computer desk, file cabinet and table. we will see what happens.

i am also trying to sell stuff on ebay

mainly stamps my grandfather took out of germany during ww2.

garage sale

Well, we are finally going to try to have our garage sale. After watching lots of shows like "Neat" and "Clean Sweep" I have become motivated to purge as we work our way around the house. So this saturday we will be having a garage sale to try to get rid of some of our stuff. If you are out an about stop by and say hi.

it's fun to stay at the YMCA

Last week Cooper went to the YMCA day camp. It was at camp Manitou, located in the Monticello area.

Each day he went from 8:45-3:45. I was a little nervous after our basketball camp experience, but he loved it. I think it is one of the best things we have signed him up for this summer.

He came back everyday happy, dirty and tired. We will certainly be doing that again next year.

updates

Lincoln: He is doing good and has pretty much taken to sleeping through the night which Cooper took about 3 years to do. At his 4 month checkup he weighed 16lbs. 6oz.

He is now wearing size 12-18mo clothing. All in all he is a pretty happy baby. Like they say, all he needs is to be held, changed and fed.

Cooper: Coop loves his little brother. Loves to gives hugs and kisses. We have tried to keep him active this summer since I can't spend as much time playing with him as normal. He is in t-ball, this is the last week for that. It has gone pretty well. At the last game he caught a fly ball and everyone cheered and gave him high 5s. He loved that.

He attended soccer camp and that went well. He went to basketball camp, that did not go well. Tomorrow he is going to a YMCA day camp. He is excited and hopefully it won't be too much for him.

Valerie: She is back to work and starting to get into a routine again. I think she has done pretty well for going back after 3 months off.

The House: We had a leak in our main floor bathroom so we ended up replacing all the flooring in our bathroom, entryway and kitchen. Most of the main floor. Thank heavens we had Chip Bauer we were able to call and help us get through it. Now the floor has been replaced but I still have to finish the trim. I also painted while the floor was out.

My dad and I pulled out the old laminate flooring. Forth of July weekend we recycled that floor and replaced the nasty carpet in my office. It is a major improvement. Next will be painting the office and then I am going to redo the whole set up. Val and I took our first trip to IKEA to look for office furniture. I found stuff I liked, but wow, that place is sensory overload. Plus we somehow passed by the carpets 3 times trying to get out. The warehouse part was like the scene out of "Madam Blueberry"

The Website: I just recently redesigned the MonticelloKids.com site. I had a booth at walk 'n roll and Cooper passed out magnets. Traffic has been increasing but I still am having trouble getting people to use the features like the discussion boards. I even have a contest going on the try to get that going.

Me: What can I say but I am plugging along. Still trying to balance that having 2 kids. Mainly it is making time for Coop. We going swimming on Fridays and put Lincoln in the drop off day care at the community center so we can have some time together.

I am really looking forward to getting the house put back together. The boys are going to grandma and grandpa's for a week in August, so hopefully I will get everything done in that time.

some pics