Kindergarten Homework

At what point to kids become responsible enough to be able to remember and start homework without a parent's reminder? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 5 years of age is not that point. So in effect by giving a child homework in kindergarten you are testing parents to see if they will support the education of said child.

All the studies in the world aren't going to convince me that giving homework to a 5 year old is a good idea until you can show me that it helps the latchkey kid in Chicago who's single mother works 2 full time jobs to pay the rent and put dinner on the table. You tell me that kid is getting his homework done. He's not and because my kid is the latchkey kid gets further and further behind the curve.

I'm not a supporter of forcing everyone to be treated the same so that the gifted children aren't challenged, but come on this is kindergarten.

I don't remember having homework until 8th grade. Maybe it hurt me in the long run. Maybe if I had been given homework when I was 5 I would be in a neurosurgery residency, learning how to treat the rest of the world like dirt (the only neurosurgeon I have ever know was actually a very nice man, but that doesn't play well into the stereotype).

Then again maybe I should just stop complaining and go help Spencer write his T's.

Happy anniversary LA

Now that the bums are in the playoffs I am going to tell you why we will be celebrating like it's 1988 in Corry households this year. We all know the Cubs aren't going to win anything. Seriously the Washington Generals are more likely to win than the Cubs are. The Mets aren't going to make the postseason. The Phillies aren't going to pose a challenge. The Brewers? Are you kidding me? The real reason the Dodgers are going to win is that they have given up 638 runs this year and a team ERA of 3.69. Both are second only to Toronto and since Toronto doesn't play in the NL West they won't have to be facing them. Pitching will take the Dodgers to the World Series. Nomar and Manny will get them past the Red Sox in 6 games.

How can I bet against the Dodgers on the 20th anniversary of the greatest sports memory of my life?

Taking the Morning Off

Today I get to go to Lunch!! I am so excited. I have a wonderful friend watching the kids and I get to go out and enjoy myself with other wives from the hospital. We are having this year's first meeting of the Spouse Network. (I don't know exactly what we are doing as it is our first meeting, but I assume it has something to do with interviews and the spouses that attend.) So to celebrate the occasion of having a Lunch out I decided to take the rest of the morning off. Makes sense right. We had playgroup here yesterday so I got the entire house cleaned on Wednesday. And I have gotten a lot of projects done this last week so I am feeling good about my accomplishments this week. So this morning I did manage to get Spencer to school and the kids fed breakfast and since I have had breakfast, I've have checked the menu of where we are going and picked my lunch item, (those who have been out with me know that this can take me a while.), checked all the blogs on my list, Looked at some quilt websites, and now I am off for a hot bath and my book. Every once and a while it is nice to just indulge a little.

The Ladies Man

We went to parent teacher night tonight. Aside from it being a total waste of time it wasn't too bad. That said I found out a bit about my oldest son. He is quite the ladies man. After dinner we went into the gym while waiting for the meeting to start and Spencer quickly found himself surrounded by 5 little girls. He spent the next 15 minutes chasing and being chased by said girls. Then I was informed, by Spencer, that he has a 5th grader that walks him into his class each day and she has been giving him gifts each day for the past week. I'm interested to see how that pans out.

Dollars and Health

I am disgusted by the current issues in our economy and I feel a need to elaborate on my opinions on this and other issues. Looking at the followers of this blog I understand that many of you don't care at all about what Jake thinks about finance and how wrong it is that the government is going to "fix it" with $700 billion (I could fix a lot of things with $700 billion). With that in mind I have created a new blog for my rantings. You can reach it here if you are interested.

Rest assured that any opinions not involving health care and finance will continue to be posted here. That includes most of the daily experiences that I feel a need to share as well as my views on the sporting world (just wait until the BCS standings come out).

Little "Indy"

So this morning I was putting Kristian in his car seat and accidentally hit his forehead with the seat belt. He began to whimper and pointed to his forehead so I proceeded to "kiss it better." He whimpered a little more and then pointed to the other side of his forehead. So I proceeded to kiss that better as well. He began to smile at this and pointed to his nose. So I kissed that better, by now Kristian figured this was a great game and continued until I had kissed just about every inch of his face. He is such a little cutie pie.

College Football

I'm trying to be a little more forthcoming in my blog titles so those of you who don't care for sports (Charlotte) can avoid wasting your time reading.

I just saw the new polls and as a Ute fan I have to say BYU is getting the shaft. Last week the Bruins were the darlings of the country after knocking off Tenn, but this week after getting blasted by BYU they are once again a lousy team from a one-team conference.

Are the Cougars going to be undefeated at the end of the season? I certainly hope not, but for the moment they are and in this day of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately college football they are a top 5 team.

This wasn't a normal college football blowout. Hall got pulled in the 3rd quarter after 7 touchdown passes. If Urban coached at BYU it might have ended up 100 to 0.

If BYU was a BCS conference team they would be in the top 5 now and everybody in the nation would be talking about them.

I hope they get to that top 5 ranking, and start having BCS dreams. The Utes are going to need another quality win now that Michigan has shown it's true colors.

Comforts of the Season

So the weather has started to shift here and it has me rather excited. I am sure that once we are in the middle of winter I will be wishing for spring but there are so many comforts that I love about the weather cooling off. Here are a few.

One - I love wearing thick heavy sweaters. I have actually been wearing long sleeve shirts for a few days now (partially because I have been sick) but today I pulled out one of my nice thick turtleneck sweaters and I have been so comfortable. Sweaters are probally one of my favorite articles of clothing to wear.

Two - Since I was a little girl I have always enjoyed a nice cup of Hot Pero or Postum and a slice of toast. When I was a young girl and we visited my Grandmother in Canada, my mom, sister, grandma and I would always enjoy a nice cup of Postum and a slice of toast (normally with Cheese Whiz on it) while playing a game of cards. I always loved these times. As the weather changes I find myself enjoying my own nice cup of Postum and slice of toast in the evening after the kids go to bed. Not only does it warm me all the way through, but it brings back fond memories.

Three - As soon as the weather starts to change I start playing the christmas music. Today the kids enjoyed some wonderful Clay Aiken Christmas. Nothing gets me more excited for the season that Christmas Music. And although I am a little sad that this will be my first Christmas away from family (excluding our little family of course) one can't help but feel the spirit when listing to favorite songs about the Savior's birth.

And Fourth - Nothing is more relaxing than sitting on a comfy couch (especially now that we finally have one.) and reading a great book while you listen to the rain fall or watch snow fall. I just love it. I have just started the Children of the Promise series and am thoroughly enjoying myself.

Confessions of a Dolfan

I am a Dolphins fan. I have been a Dolphins fan for as long as I can remember. I will be a Dolphins fan until I die (or until Utah gets an NFL franchise). I have suffered with the fins through thick and thin (mostly thin). Last season was rock bottom and after accepting how bad the fins were I actually had a pleasant season rooting for them while rooting against the Patriots (both were futile efforts week after week). With a new season came new expectations. The Dolphins aren't going to the playoffs this year, but the experts think they will get 4-6 wins throughout the season.

I wasn't expecting anything miraculous today and the Fins delivered as planned digging a 20-7 hole by the fourth quarter. Then something horrible happened. Pennington started driving the team down the field. He got them all the way down to the 2 yard line before turning the ball over on downs to the Jets dashing my dreams of victory. I had given up on them by this point and was resigned to waiting for next week for the first win.

On the ensuing Jets possession they went 3 and out giving the Fins wonderful field position for another drive only this time they actually went down the field and scored. The Dolphins again held the Jets to 3 downs and a punt then had just over a minute to march down the field. Aside from some poor clock management (a spike or two could given them another 15 seconds at least) Pennington was becoming the quarterback of my dreams (I dream of mediocrity as the Dolphins most recent quarterbacks would be better suited for the AFL than the NFL). With two possible plays left and a win in his grasp Pennington forgot he was a Dolphin and threw the ball to one of his former teammates sealing the win for the Jets.

Here I sit mourning over what could have been. It's gonna be another good year to be a Dolfan.

In other Sports news I believe the Charlie watch has begun. After a lackluster performance against the doormat of the MWC I just don't see the Irish keeping him for a 5th season. I heard a rumor that the ND alumni club of Southern California has $30 million in an account to buy out Weiss if the need should arise. I don't know how true that is, but having lived here in South Bend for 3 months and seeing all the silver spoons I wouldn't be too surprised.

Though I am not nor will ever again be a BYU fan I'm not too upset over the Washington call. I'm looking forward to using that play to discredit a possible BCS birth for the Cougs.

BCS the best and worst of college football

As you may have noted from past posts I am both a fan and a hater of the BCS. I hate it because it is unfair and doesn't result in a true national championship. I love it because it gives me something to talk about from now until January.

In the past I have been known to blast the BCS because it isn't fair to mid major conferences, but after last weeks Utah game I'm starting to see some flaws in my logic. First of all I think Utah got shafted during their undefeated year to have to play Pittsburg and the Boise State - Oklahoma game was one of the best games I have ever seen so nothing has been messed up too much with the mid major rules yet. The fault lies in the conferences themselves. Utah is now a top 25 team for beating Michigan. Sure they got them in the Big House and they played a pretty good game, but only a team from a midmajor college can go from an almost loss over a mediocre Michigan team to delusions of an undefeated season and a BCS bid. If Florida, or USC, or even Nebraska squeaks by an overmatched Michigan team you won't hear people talking about a dream season in the making. Each of these teams have numerous hard games down the road. Who do the Utes have to look out for now? That's right BYU. The same BYU team that will be in the BCS mix if they can get by UCLA and Washington.

Just for a second look past the UCLA-Tennessee game. We're talking about UCLA and Washington. These are not your PAC10 powerhouse teams here. Utah, BYU, Boise State, Hawaii (the Rainbow warriors set us back years with their recent bid, USC-Georgia, Illinois-Hawaii would have been much easier to stomach) have to play 1 to 3 games against BCS conference schools and if they win those they can usually punch their own ticket to the Fiesta Bowl.

The current system rewards outstanding play in mediocre conferences (see Ohio State, Illinois and any Big Least school) and punishes excellent play in outstanding conferences (except for LSU last year). When BYU and Utah finish the season with 3 losses between them one of them will get play in a BCS game and they will probably be facing a team from the Big Least or the ACC. Even if they happen to win that game it won't mean anything to anyone outside of Utah (and the scattered BYU grads across the country). On the other hand one of them could go through the season and punish their opponents by an average of 18 points a game and then be rewarded in January with an opportunity to play a major college football team from the Big Least or the ACC and nobody would care.

I've said it before and I'll say it again the 84 Cougars can not happen in today's system, and truth be told I think the majority of the college football viewing public prefer it that way.

One man's work is another man's vacation.

This is it folks, the blog about the Shed. It should be noted that my brother spent quite a bit of time putting together plans for this shed for which I am very thankful (and thanks ShaLiece because I think he did most if not all of it at home). I've heard it's nice to have accountants, physicians, dentists and lawyers as siblings, but none of them have given me free stuff like my brother Dilbert, er Bob (but really, thanks a ton Bob). I did raise the roof a bit, but otherwise I followed the plans like a cookbook. With no further ado here are the pics.

Please ignore the rather large pile of tree limbs, roots, and hedge bushes. We're getting rid of it one branch at a time with the weekly trash pick-up.
The post next to the house is where the fence was when we moved in. As you can see we moved the fence out about 12 feet giving us all kinds of new room on the side of the house. That was the project the first weekend of the month.

I know you were all wondering when I would put in a good rear shot so here you go. Melissa wasn't too keen on having the kids up on the roof with me, but this is quality family time here. Kris was enjoying himself on the ground the whole time we were up there.The shed may never be this organized again so I decided it would be beneficial to document this moment. Most people have built in shelves, but I was so indecisived as to where to put them I decided to just go with the shelves we already had. This way I can change it around when I think of a better way to do things.
With the leftover wood I decided to build the kids a playhouse. It's not as true and square as the shed, but the kids like it. Melissa put in the window including the crossbars and wouldn't you know it that is the kids favorite part. This started out as a family project, but as soon as the floor was built it became dad's project with the kids trying not to get hit with the hammer as they danced on their new floor.We're hoping to put a freestanding deck where the playhouse now sits (certainly not this year), so I may enlist my younger stronger brother to help me move the house across the yard when he comes to visit next month.Having spent every free minute the past month on this project I am certain of two things: 1; I enjoy working outdoors with power tools, and 2; I am not cut out for construction because the days where I did spend all day working on the shed were brutal. It's a good thing I have this doctor thing to fall back on.

Jessi's Room Revisited

So I finished a few more projects in Jessi's room. I got the shelves primed and painted and put up on her walls so that now all of her fun Cinderella Collection that her Aunt Corinne gave her is on display. Thanks again Corn!! Next, I finished the "art table" that I wanted to make. I had to cut some holes for holders for crayons, pencils, stickers and coloring books. Then I painted the entire thing white. I finished up by putting a little saying over her bed (they are the peel on and off stickers that I got at the Dollar Store and I love them) and last I put up the painting that Jennifer gave us for our wedding. All in all, her room is really coming along.

I like to think that it is almost done but there are still the curtains to go, painting her bookshelf and bed frame white, and possibly quilting a new bedspread to match the curtains, (if I ever find fabric I like for either :) I am so happy that finally our little girl can have a little girls room and not all white walls. This is so much fun!!