Charlotte's Web?

                                     This is what happens when the boy is bagging feed.  

30 Hour Famine

My older boys participated in the 30 hour famine with our youth group this week. One way they raised money was this toilet. To get it removed from your yard, you gave a donation. For a few bucks extra you could send it to another house. They also went to neighborhoods and collected canned goods for our food ministry. That night they slept in cardboard boxes on the church lawn. Both boys have not stopped talking about it yet and Wyatt wanted to know when the next one was, he had so much fun! Thank you to our youth leader Bonnie, and all her helpers, for making it so enjoyable and memorable!

Family Portraits

My sister in law, Brandy, had an awesome idea when we were down at the beach for Memorial Day. Let's take all the kids to the point, when we return in June, and get a shot of all the grandkids for my parents before they leave for the misson field. Great idea, I said, let's do khaki's and solid polo shirts. Ha! The clothes were the LEAST of our worries. (as you can see one of my kids said I NEVER said "solid")
Posing all these people with everyone else standing behind us was quite comical. No one would listen to us, and the kids all wanted to run around and go swimming. If all are smiling one will be rolling his eyes (Levi). Or as you can see above "stagers" didn't get out of the shot fast enough.
We both decided that if we do it again next year we are paying a photographer to do it. Let them worry about getting the clear shot and staging everyone, and WE will worry about our kids smiling and acting like they are happy. Also they should be taken after a day of playing or with some type of bribery offered....like putt putt and the arcade.
The best shot ended up being one of everyone from the backside. At least then you can't see my 14 year old rolling his eyes, lol.

Middle School Awards Day's

This year Levi won an award for having the highest Math average in his group, the Hurricanes. The eighth grade is divided into three groups: Hurricanes, Beach Bums, and Pirates. You only change classes with your group of 80 or so kids. He also received a Presidents award for having a 90 or above average in all of his classes for all three years of middle school. The 8th grade doesn't give out behavior awards, but he was on Gold Level all year long. Uncle Shaun got to come, as well as my dad. Shaun kept asking me if the other kids were 7th graders. No, all the kids in here are 8th graders. He couldn't understand how big the middle school has gotten since he was there, lol.
Wyatt really rocked it out this year. He won an award for being on gold level all year long, an award for meeting and exceeding his Reading Counts goal all year in ELA, and an award for AB honor roll all year long. They are also divided into three groups called Panthers, Cheetahs, and Jaguars. Wyatt was a Cheetah this year. Our sixth graders had the highest and second highest Math and ELA scores in the county this year in their EOG's. The principal couldn't brag on them enough. Wyatt made it into the end of year slide show many times. I quite enjoyed his silly poses and faces. (if anyone can get me a copy of that I would be forever grateful)

Happy Birthday Levi!!!!

Okay, so I am a wee bit behind in blogging. Levi turned 14 on May 3. I really can't believe he is that old. I can still vividly remember calling the hubs and telling him it was time to go to the hospital.
His response was....are ya sure? Yep, my water broke, and the doctor said to go on and he would meet us there, was my response. As you can see, 14 years later, we spent the afternoon and evening at MPHS on the track.
He did very well. As we were leaving, he noticed the huge board on the stadium with all of the track records for the high schoolers. Talk about incentive. He didn't even have to say it outloud, I knew he was thinking how awesome it would be if he was on that board one day.
I am really not sure when the short, chunky boy turned into the tall, lanky boy that he is today. It was a gradual process that seems lightning fast presently. Happy birthday to Levi, my firstborn. I love you!

Cooking Project

One of Levi's elective classes is a cooking class. They had to do a project where they cooked a meal for the family and then made a power point presentation about it to show the class at school.
He had to plan out the menu, help shop for the food, clean up the kitchen afterwards, and none of the dishes could be "simple".
He chose meat loaf, homemade mac and cheese and baked beans. I really enjoyed this project and he did an amazing job. All my boys love to cook.
My favorite part was the kitchen clean up. Everyone enjoyed supper and his little brothers were impressed that none of us were poisoned or got sick afterwards, lol.

Getting Closer

This week the track meet was at Kannapolis Middle School. Here is the boy running the 1600. Several Harris Road boys ran a five minute mile at this meet. It was pretty amazing to watch. Levi is improving every week and has been running a six minute mile. His personal best.
I did get him over a hurdle. Not the shot I was hoping for, but I am getting so close I can taste it.

Track pics

Trying to get a good shot at a track meet is rather hard. Take one. Let's see......where is Levi? Yep, he isn't in the shot.
Take two. Try to get one of him actually over the hurdles. I got his feet.
Take three. Unless this is an advertisement for the Hickory Ridge track.....this is too far away.
Take four. He is the only blue runner in the leading pack of the 1600. Kind of far away, but I'll take what I can get.

And...yes honey....I was talking. But that wasn't the problem. I promise.

Term Paper

Levi had to write a five page term paper about a career that he was interested in. Of course in true boy fashion he did it the night before it was due. He chose farming.

L- Mom....I made a 95 on my paper.

Me- Great.

L- Now I have to finish it.

Me- What's left to do?

L- Type it, make a title page and the reference page.

Me- Okay.

L- I asked the teacher about the reference page and she said to put down my three sources.

Me- Hmmmmmmm.

L- I told her I only needed one source.

Me- What?

L- She asked me what the source was.

Me- And?

L- I told her it was my dad.

Me- What did she say?

L- She just laughed.

Perspective

Boy-I had to run an extra lap at track today.

Me-Why?

Boy-I was tapping on the cooler.

Me- You were tapping on the cooler......

Boy-Yeah. I was tapping on the cooler and Mr. Brooks told me to take a step back.

Me- Okay.....

Boy-So I took one step back and kept tapping on the cooler.

Me-You kept tapping on the cooler. (frowning)

Boy-Yeah. And then he got real mad and told me to take a lap.

Me-You KNEW take a step back meant to stop beating on the cooler.

Boy-He never said to stop tapping the cooler....he SAID to take a step back. Which I did.

Me-You directly disrespected his authority.

Boy-But mom.....

Me-What?

Boy-It was a great beat.

Reebok Reezig & Repeat

After looking at the Reebok website, emailing them and calling them, I found out that I can indeed return defective shoes at the store where I purchased them. I called the store manager and she said bring them on. Without a receipt and without the box. She didn't seem at all surprised that the shoe was falling apart.
Upon arrival at the store, I get two teenagers whom only seem interested in finding out if I am related to a buddy of theirs. They didn't have any of the cool colors the other stores did, and the boy was not happy. The workers wanted the original box and I told them their manager said not to bring it.
These were the only pair on the mens side that weren't white or solid black. At a different store I found out that MANY pairs of Reezigs have been returned. It seems Reebok may have rushed this design before it was tested properly. Notice how everything is thicker now and more reinforced. I think we will go back to a Nike running shoe after this is over and done with. Hopefully this pair will last the six week track season.

ReeBok ReeZig=Reebok ReeRip

Two weeks ago I purchased these running shoes from Reebok for the boy for track.
They are supposedly some "new" technology that is super light and thin, and the shoe is allowed to breathe as you run.
The boy loves wearing them to run in and says they are really comfortable. Problem? They started getting tiny holes in them last week, that have now started to turn into a rip.
I went back to Foot Locker, but they can't do anything because the shoes have been worn. They did say to contact ReeBok. I have emailed the company and am waiting a reply. Hopefully the shoes won't fall apart completely while we are waiting.

UPDATE: ReeBok told me I can return them to the store for an even exchange. Stay tuned.

Track

The oldest boy is trying out for track again this year. Seems the coaches have finally realized they actually need to cut a few (i.e. 20 or more) kids. Last year was crazy because they kept everyone and we had around 30 boys and 35 girls. This year they SAY they will keep 20 of each. Every sport at the middle school has a mandatory parent meeting. The main rules for the parents are: don't talk to the coach about playing time as this is not a rec sport, don't schedule doctor and orthodontist appointments during practices, and BE ON TIME for pick-up promptly at 6. Yesterday I was there at 5:58. I don't get in the pick-up line because I will lose my religion in it. I parked under the tree where I waited last year. As kids started running back to the auxiliary gym, I became uncertain as to whether or not the boy would remember this. I got out of the car and started walking toward the gym. I turned around half way there and saw the boy walking toward the car. We had passed each other in the bus parking lot.

Boy- MOM, what are you doing?

Me- (laughing) I didn't know if you would remember where I like to park.

Boy- I remembered.

Me- I can't believe we passed each other.

Boy- I can't believe you got out of the car.

Me- I didn't want to sit here all day.

Boy- Just DON'T get out of the car.

Me- What?

Boy- Do NOT get out of the car. Just wait here tomorrow.

Me- I can feel the love.

Baby Doll Project

The boy finally received his doll for family living class. These are the ones that cry, and you feed them, and change their diaper, and burp them. You get points taken off for head mismanagement or excessive crying, etc. He did very well with his baby girl. Only complained one time when it wouldn't stop crying.

Science talk

From the 13 year old in the car.

Him- Mom, did you know that matter cannot be created or destroyed?

Me- Hmmmmmm.

Him- The only way you could even THINK about creating matter would be to get a nuclear reactor and put one element into it and blast a proton in it and spin them around and you have a one in a million chance of them hitting one another and creating a new one.

Me- (crickets)

Him- Isn't that awesome!

Me- (silence)

Him- MOM!

Me- You lost me at proton.

MPMS v. C.C. Griffin (fast pin)

for my mom

Insight

Levi told me this on the way home from the last soccer games of the season.....

L-I saw a parent tell a lie today.

Me-What?

L-I saw a parent tell their child a lie.

Me-What do you mean?

L-The kid was running up the bleachers with his trophy. When he got to the top he tripped and the trophy fell onto the pavement. It broke in several pieces. The kid started to cry and the mom said, "Don't worry honey, we can fix this." "No you can't!", yelled the kid. The mom hugged him and said a little glue would do the trick and the kid sucked it up and they left.

L-Mom....no amount of glue was going to fix that trophy.....

Me-Probably not.

L-Man.....being a parent is really hard work.

Me-Hardest job on the Earth.

Wrestling

Wrestling season started a few weeks ago, but the matches started last week. Levi made starter in his weight class at Mount. That means he had to wrestle the four other boys from our own school, for the spot for last Thursday. Today he will have to do it all over again.
The top part is my favorite part of their whole warm up. I just love seeing all the boys in the circle together. Maybe I'll get a new camera so I can take pics in the gym that aren't dark and blurry before the season ends. ;) GO TIGERS!!!

Cabarrus County Fair

I took the boys to the fair on school night, so they each got in for one dollar. It was Levi's second time going . He also went with a friend on Saturday night, to ride rides, when our Sunday School class picked up trash. I haven't heard how much we earned for the building fund, but we had a blast.
This is one of the rides that the buddies were bummed about, because they are only about one inch too short to ride the big kid rides. Wyatt rode it several times. I was surprised that it wasn't that crowded and the darker it got the less people were there.
The last hour we were there, the kids could ride something and jump right back on it, and ride again. We definitely got our 20 dollars worth out of our wristbands.
How cool is this one? Levi and Wyatt had fun on it. I would let them go ride by themselves on the big ride side and give them a time, and we would meet up to see how everyone was doing. They were awesome at keeping up with it. In fact, one time I was 3 minutes late and they were pretty perturbed.
This one was like the Drop Zone at Carowinds. They rode it too many times and S got a little woozy. The girl in the middle has a brother on Wyatt's soccer team. We had so much fun! Every ride was running and, of course, it is super clean. Check it out next year. And remember, on Sunday you get in free with a canned food item for the Mount Pleasant food ministry.

Bush Hogging Corn Stalks