Birds

This past week, the door of our Pre-K class--4 & 5 year olds--has made me smile every time I passed it.  Apparently, they were given all of the same bird parts and left to their imagination when putting them together.  The result is this:

This is perhaps a great argument for a few things:

1.The continuation of head start and pre-k programs.  Most of these kids don't have this fun or stimulating stuff at home.  At least not the kids that go to my school.  Many come in with really low skills because they are treated like babies at home, even at 4 years old.  Our teachers should not have to teach half the class how to use a spoon.

2.  The need for art classes in school.  And music.  Not every kid will be Stephen Hawking.  We need to encourage this creativity.  No cookie cutter kids here!!

3.  And that leads into standardizing every kid...you can't tell me that these little minds are all going to get great STAR test results.  And, unfortunately, that is all that seems to matter.

I heart these kids.

Cute Laundry Room

I'm getting ready to paint mine, over spring break.  I am trying to find the perfect color but I'm not there yet.  But I found this on Pinterest and it is the cutest idea I have seen although I am not as talented as the person who did this and mine would never look this good.  But, even as 1 person, I lose a sock a week.

I take no credit for any of this.  It looks like Tami Montgomery is the genius here!!

Going for the ball

At least twice a week, we have a kid brought in to our nurse from the gym with a bump or bruise or scratch and the explanation is almost always that they ran into another kid, the wall or the floor "going for the ball".  99% it's a boy but we do get a couple of girls.  It's a competitive nature that I think is inherent in boys.  They play hard.  The want the ball and go for it.  I'm not saying girls are not competitive but we are more cerebral about it.

I tell this because there is a 22 year old named Robert Griffin III, or RG3 as they call him.  He won the Heisman Trophy last year for Baylor University, is a pretty good quarterback and from all accounts, a pretty good guy.  He was drafted by the Washington Redskins and had a pretty good year.  He had a knee injury a couple of weeks ago, then injured it again early in the game last Sunday and even then allowed to continue to play.   He played with heart.   And he went down hard and ugly.  His knee gave out in an extremely ugly way.  And his coach, Mike Shanahan is getting grief from all sides for not pulling him.  The Redskins were behind and it would take a miracle to win the game.  But for some reason, Shanahan let him play on.  I know  RG3 wanted to play.  He's competitive.  He would never be the guy who would not play because his leg hurts.  He wanted the ball.  But even though he's 22, he's still the boy who wants the ball.  And he is playing for a veteran coach who should not have let him go on.  The Redskins were not going to win this game.  Shanahan knew it.  We all knew it.  And his decision to let him play could cost him career or leave him with a permanent injury.  What the heck?

I know with guys football is king but too many football players play with injuries and we are just now seeing the consequences.  Players from the past have filed a class action suit against the league for injuries.  Heads, arms, legs.  They can't think, they can't walk.  And still we have to wonder if the league or coaches care.  Winning at all costs?  Are you a winner Shanahan?   Nope.

Buddy Holly Center

I headed to Tech today to see if I could take some pictured of the old Southwest Conference circle before they dismantled it and alas, I was too late.  The last time I was at Tech taking pictures, I got a picture of the Red Raider but did not think about taking pictures of the the other mascots.  And then I read in the paper that they had to destroy--er dismantle--it to but up some research building of some kind.   I took some other Tech pictures today but am not sure I like them, so I'm not posting them yet.  So...

I actually headed to the Buddy Holly Center since I'd never been there.  They have a display about Buddy's life in Texas and a small movie about him.  And a gift shop, of course.  And a museum with weird wood things.  The truth is, there is not much there.  I watched the movie until the much hated Maria Elena started talking about her great love.  Then I had to go barf.   Ok, I just had to go.

Just inside the Buddy Holly Center

The Center is in an old  train depot which later became a restaurant, oddly called The Depot.  So this sign is a tribute to the past.  

Railroad Crossing

Across the street is the 'Buddy and Maria Elena Park' or some ca-ca like that.  We like Buddy, we hate Maria Elena if you have not yet figured that out.  Basically his family is lucky they can still use their own name  without paying the bitch royalties...but I digress.   Behind Buddy is the West Texas Walk of Fame.

Buddy Holly & the Walk of Fame

It's me!!

Lincoln~~Spoilers

Today I went to see Lincoln and left wanting to see it again to see what I missed and just to see the performances again.

Daniel Day-Lewis played Abraham Lincoln, newly elected for his 2nd term and 4 years into an ugly Civil War.  He is a man of conscience who wants an amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery before the war ends.  He has already given the Emancipation Proclamation but worries it will not hold up if there is no amendment.  He has a timeline to get this done..certainly before the war ends and the southern states are recognized again.  Surely an amendment then would be defeated.   And he thinks his chances for passage are better with lame duck congressmen who have nothing to be accountable for in their districts.  His Secretary of State William Seward (the ever stellar David Strathairn) hires a team of what would now be lobbyists to secure votes.  He allows a Republican leader to go to Virginia to discuss peace with the rebels (Hal Holbrook) but again, needs the war to go on to get the amendment passed.  There is the ethical question,
how to decide which is better:  To let the war end and freedom for the slaves be delayed for God knows how long or let the war continue longer with soldiers dying and freeing the slaves now.  It's a tough choice and one of Lincoln's advisers tells him he has aged terribly over the last year.  It has to be a decision that tears a man apart and ages him quickly.    We all know the history but the debates and politics are amazing to watch anyway.  At the vote, the Speaker of the House wants to vote and the clerk says it's allowed but unusual.  The Speaker replies that this is not usual.  It's history.

Tommy Lee Jones is amazing as Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican congressman, who stands by Lincoln's side for not entirely unselfish reasons.  Sally Field is Mary Todd Lincoln, a protective mother and wife, not as popular as her husband and whose grief has taken her to some dark places.  Her problems wear on her husband too.

As he normally does, Stephen Spielberg takes a story and runs with it, getting the best performances out of his actors and writers.  I don't know who will win awards but Sally Field should be at least nominated along side Anne Hatheway, the front runner for Supporting Actress.  They won't allow the former Flying Nun to win a 3rd Oscar after winning everyone she was ever nominated for, bu I think she deserves it.

2013~~Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!

It's still 2012 where I am but I'll probably not be awake to see it it and  it's 2013 somewhere!!   So happy new year everyone!!

We already read about my 2012 so I wont rehash here.  Instead I'll put forward my plans?  Resolutions? Dreams?   Whateve you call them.  I have the standards.  Lose weight. That one is eternal.  Save money.  I need that one too.  Socialize more.  That one is hard for me.  Watch lessTV.  That one is getting easier because TV is kinda crap.  I need to read more.  Write more.  Be kinder and more patient.  

Today I watched Dr Phil.  I like him although I cannot take a steady dose of him.  Actually, he is ok but he has some mean and stupid guests and they just have crap I don't need to see too much of.  But today was about resolutions and, as usual, he makes sense.  So I'm going to do it for the weight loss. Here is his plan, paraphrased:

1.  Set a specific goal.  It's hard to achieve something without a name. I still don't have the courage to write a  startingnumber here but I'd like to lose 30+ pounds.  I'd be happy with 30 but will take more.   To that goal, Weight Watchers online.  

2.  Set a goal that has a measurable outcome.  That one is easy.  Watch out scale!!

3.  Assign a timeline.  Ok, 2 pounds a week is doable.   I've done it before on WW.  But I'm going to give myself more time.  30 gone by the first day of school for 2013 school year.  Late August.  I don't know the actual date.

4. Choose a goal I can control.  Easiest of all.  I make all of those decisions.

5.  Identify small steps.  I'll be using the online tool and I'll post the small steps here.  Prepare to be bored.

6.  Create accountability.  This is the hardest I think.  It says I should have a person I have to report to. I'm gonna have to think about this one.

7.  Set your environment up to succeed.  I can do this.  So many things are WW friendly.  I just need to be a better food diary person.

8.  Change your lifestyle.  Easier said than done but WW is just that.

I want all of these things every year.  And all any of us can do is try, try to be better.  Better than we did last year.  We can only hope for things to get better and easier.  We'll all see.  Maybe this will be my accountability. 

Fiscal Cliff?

I'm not a very political person.  I vote but am truly not sure what I do matters.  I live in a red state and the electoral votes are going Republican every time.  It's a fact.  I tend to lean Republican more than Democrat in that I don't want government too much in our business and I have figured out that there is nothing free in this world.   I do see that people need help and do believe in a hand up but not a hand out.  That being said, our country is in a financial mess.   The big disagreement today is how much to tax the top 2% of earning Americans.  That's not me.  But in the throw out the baby with the bathwater mentality of both partisan parties, a disagreement on something like the top 2% stops progress on the other 98% too.  These guys are willing to take more $$ out of my pocket (and I make less than $30,000 a year) to protect the Oprah's and the Waltons.  And the other thing that seems to be hanging it up is Dems want more spending cuts that the Repubs.  They can't start with some cuts and then add.  Again, the all or nothing crap.

In my humble and not worth much obviously opinion, what we need is a house cleaning.  We need some common sense elected.  What we need is my mom doing their budget.  She managed to take a cowboy's salary and manage a house, be the best stay at home mom ever and send 4 kids to college.  The country would be tough to budget but she could add a few more amazing moms and take care of it.

I heard President Obama speak on this today and he was talking about where some of the cuts had to come from and one that caught my attention was Head Start.  We have a Pre K/Head Start class at school and that entire system is interesting.  While we have a great playground that services the school, built less than 2 years ago, Pre-K is getting their own, fenced playground that only they can play in.  The will ride their tricycles that Head Start $$ bought, then have Head Start paid for snacks, while their teacher and her assistant use the Pre-K Ipads.   They had to spend the $$ provided to them by the program on stuff they did not need or they would lose the money.  How about saving some for a rainy day?  Not the government way.  Meanshile, the rest of the school was provided Smart Boards (the best teaching tool since phonics) via a bond package  but school administration has to struggle inside their budget to replace very expensive Smart Board bulbs which were apparently a surprise.  So Pre-K has money to waste while the other 6 grades in our school struggle budget wise.   It's just a rant.   So saying "cutting Head Start" is fiscally smart does not mean I think cutting the entire program is smart.   Great program, typical government irresponsibility in funding it.

Since my sweet mom is no longer with us my only suggestion won't really work.  I do remember 'Dave'  the movie where his accountant looked at the budget and asked  (paraphrasing) "Who does their books?  I'd be bankrupt if I ran my business this way."   Since mom's not available, maybe a few smart accountants could help.