AR & FCAT

The big news for today is that Libby reached 100 points in AR (Accelerated Reading)!! She's been working hard all year to reach 100 points before May 13 and she accomplished it today - a month early! As a reward, all students who have reached 100 points by May 13th get to go on a special field trip and Libby is very excited that she earned the trip. When Libby took her last test today and reached the 100 points she quietly called her teacher over and whispered in her ear that she just reached the 100 point mark and the teacher made the announcement to the rest of Libby's class so they could all congratulate her. Then the librarian came and did a video interview of Libby to be on tomorrow morning's announcements to let the rest of the school know that she was the newest member of the 100 Point Club! And, she reached 100 points during National Library Week - how fitting!

Also this week is FCAT testing. FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that is given to all students in grades 3-11. So, this is Libby's first year taking the standardized test. FCAT is a huge deal and if that didn't put enough stress on the children, 3rd grade is one of the grades where it is pass or fail. If they don't pass the FCAT then they don't pass 3rd grade! That's a lot of pressure for first timers! Yesterday and today she took the reading portion and felt like she did a really good job. Tomorrow and Thursday are the math portions of the test. Since she's been working so hard in school this week with the testing we've been having party nights at home to totally get her mind off of school. Last night she and Ryan swam in the pool and I stopped and picked her up cupcakes on the way home as a special treat for this week and tonight they played video games. She really likes the no homework and the party nights at home but she isn't thrilled about having to go to bed an hour earlier!

Also this week I made an Easter countdown for her. I started doing countdowns this past Christmas and she really enjoyed getting a little surprise each morning leading up to Christmas. I did another countdown for Valentine's that she really enjoyed, as well. I had every intention of doing a St. Patrick's Day countdown but time got away from me so when it hit me that we are getting close to Easter I quickly put together a little Easter countdown over the weekend. Each morning she gets to open an egg that has stickers, or candy, or a small toy. It makes it a little easier to get her up in the mornings and that's been even more helpful this week when I'm getting her up 15 minutes early so that she's not rushing around before going to school for the FCAT!

Our weeeknd recap

Saturday morning Libby and I were up early to head out for our monthly "Girls Day" get together with my friends. On the way we passed a field of flowers and I love taking Libby's pictures in fields of flowers (who am I kidding...I just love taking Libby's pictures - it doesn't matter where we are!) so we stopped and took her picture.
We met Karen at her house and then the three of us went to Jacksonville to meet up with Debs. Her birthday is April 21 so this was her birthday celebration. The four or us went to an antique mall and walked around until just before noon and then we went to a restaurant for lunch. Betty and Bri both us met us there and we enjoyed lunch...well, enjoyed lunch as much as we could with the noise level as high as it was. There was a table of about 8 people behind us who didn't understand the term "inside voices" and they basically screamed at each other throughout the entire meal. Whew, how they aren't hoarse by the end of the day confuses me!! After lunch we went to another antique mall and then went by our friend Jan's house. She had surgery a couple of weeks ago and still isn't completely back to normal and especially since we were going to be doing a lot of walking around antique malls on Saturday she had to miss our get together so we went by her house to see her and see how she was doing.
This morning my alarm clock went off to get up and ready for church but I had a pretty bad headache and just couldn't get going. So, instead we all had a lazy morning and Ryan made pancakes. A while later I started feeling better so we ventured out to do some shopping. Ryan got some more dress pants for work, Libby was more interested in novelty erasers so that's what she ended up getting, I got three tops and two shorts, and we even picked up a new dog bed for Denali and Bella. Denali sleeps on the dog bed sometimes but Bella sleeps on it constantly...she loves to lay on something soft and their current dog bed has lost a lot of its fluff so when we found a nice big fluffy one today we had to get it for them.

After all of that shopping we went by PetSmart because last Sunday our beta fish, Earl, died. Earl lived a good life - we had him just over two years and he was by far the easiest animal I've EVER had. He gave us no trouble while our cats and dogs were busy scratching up leather furniture, peeing on the carpet (which is why we replaced the carpet with hardwood floors!) and being general nuisances Earl just kept quiet in his little watery home and never gave us any trouble. Earl was a weirdo, though, and loved to float near the top of his bowl. We'd shake the bowl a little and he'd start swimming around again. He did that for the two years that we had him. Well, last Sunday night I walked into the kitchen and was about to get a glass from the cabinet I looked up at Earl's little bowl and he was floating on his side at the bottom of the bowl with his mouth open. Uh oh. I shook his bowl and he didn't move. I shook it more and he started to list to the other side. Oh man. I called Ryan in (Earl was "his" fish - which is why he had a name like Earl!) and told him the news. I knew he wouldn't be happy but I was surprised at how upset he actually was about Earl. :-( I went in to get Libby so that she could come say good bye to Earl (as soon as Ryan was convinced that Earl was dead he was very antsy to get him outside and get him buried) and Libby thought I was kidding with her. :-( I assured her I'd never kid about death so she came out and we all said bye to Earl. We took him outside and Ryan buried him right next to the spring flowers that Ryan had just planted out front earlier that day. Libby said a few kind words about Earl and he was buried. :-( Libby and I had planned on getting Ryan a new beta fish for his birthday (April 22) but this morning he was very anxious to get a new beta so we stopped to get a new fish. He didn't want one that looked just like Earl (he said it was too soon) so we got another one but he named him Earl the Second and he calls him Deuce. :-)

Pet Peeve

What is it with people in the check out line of the grocery store who won't use the litle divider when they put their groceries up on the conveyor belt? If they don't want to use the divider at least leave space between their groceries and those of the person in front of them! I was in the grocery store tonight with Libby picking up just a few things. The cashier started scanning my items and I looked away to scan my card, enter my PIN, put my card back in my wallet, put my wallet back in my purse, and then get my keys out. That didn't take long at all but like I said I only had a few items so by the time I looked back up the cashier had already scanned a gallon of milk that belonged to the guy behind me and he was about to scan the guy's case of bottled water. I stopped him tellng him that the water and milk weren't mine. I looked back at the guy behind me and he was just watching the cashier scan his items onto my bill. What?? Did he really think that if he didn't say anything that I'd just buy his stuff for him? If that's what he was expecting then he definitely had me pegged wrong! The cashier had to go up to the service desk to get a manager to come void off the milk and the guy behind me had the nerve to start huffing and puffing letting everyone else know how put out he was by having to wait even longer in the line for the cashier to go get a manager. I thought briefly about keeping the milk and that would have made the jerk behind me go all the way to the back corner of the store to get a replacement gallon of milk to buy for himself but he was buying whole milk and we don't drink that stuff.

Whew, I'm glad I got that out...it just REALLY bugs me when people just stand there and watch their groceries get scanned onto someone else's bill!

Getting ready for Easter

This was Libby's Spring Break from school but we didn't get to do anything. I felt bad about that because this is the first time that we haven't gone somewhere for her Spring Break but I have to save up all of my leave time for this fall. School was also out on last Friday so that morning before I went to work I took Libby to her best friend's house to spend the day with her. Maddy's mom took Libby, Maddy, and Maddy's brother shopping and out to lunch and then back at their house they played for the rest of the day. Libby spent the night and I picked up her up Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon Libby and I went to the Lady Gator softball game against Georgia. It was a close game until the 7th inning (the last inning for softball) with Georgia leading 6-5. We made a pitching change that didn't quite work out for us...by the end of the inning Georgia had spanked us 13-9. :-( During that disaterous last inning of softball we suffered an even bigger loss in basketball. We played Butler in the Elite 8 round of March Madness and lost. It was heart breaking. Everyone in orange and blue left the softball stadium looking like they just had the air knocked out of them. Libby and I had box seat tickets to the baseball game that started right after the softball game but I just simply couldn't take any more so we headed home instead of across campus to the baseball stadium (the baseball team ended up winning their game, though).

Sunday morning Libby and I met up with Ryan's parents at church while Ryan stayed home sleeping because he was having a very difficult time battling his allergies last weekend. After church we went out to lunch with them and then went home.

On Monday Libby went to work with me for the day. On Tuesday she was at work with me and then at lunch time we went to Ryan's parents house where his mom made lunch for us and then Libby stayed and spent the afternoon with her while I returned to work. On Wednesday Libby was at work with me for one last day and then Wednesday night she went to spend a few days with her father for the end of her Spring Break.

I had a very uneventful Thursday and Friday and that brings us up to right now. :-)

I did finally get around to getting the Easter decorations up so I'll leave you with shots of the entry table and the buffet table:
Here is a close up off that darling little bunny basket on the entry table. That basket was sent to Libby when she was a baby by my dear friend Tanja who always sends the most adorable gifts! The basket comes out every year to up the "cute factor" of our Easter decorations. :-)