http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb recent pleonast.com entries by user sjb en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=616689 Well, we have said "Good-bye" to 2008 and "Hello!" to 2009! I don't know about the rest of you, but we had a wonderful time in Jamestown, KY with Tim's parents for Christmas, and in Bowling Green with my family for New Years. The coming of a new year is always exciting for me, and this year has been no different. There is something about starting fresh. It gives me this ability to put failures behind me and re-commit myself to my goals. I love the prospects the new year holds. I will leave you with a picture of my family. It's the best one I have... the kids were not terribly cooperative. We had such a fun time in Bowling Green, all eleven of us, twelve if you include Dave Beltz. He hung out with us the whole time we were there, so I have adopted him as a third brother. =-) HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2009-01-07 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=612996 I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday, however you are spending it. We are at Tim's parent's house in Jamestown, KY where it is (finally) sunny and nice outside. The boys received new scooters from Santa and have been riding them up and down the driveway. The best gift, however, was from their grandparents... a Wii. They are golfing, bowling, and playing tennis to their little hearts delight. What's really neat to watch is Douglas coaching Todd. Todd, at almost five-years-old, isn't quite old enough to play any of these games well. But, he is taking patient instruction from his older brother. It's sweet to watch. (I wonder how long it will last.) Well, enjoy your holidays!! We are heading to Bowling Green on Monday to celebrate New Years (and have our own Christmas) with my family! YAY!! I can't believe it worked out for us to see them this year, too. =-) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (And for your entertainment...) Send your own ElfYourself eCards 2008-12-25 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=610395 So, my oldest son, Douglas, has perfect pitch. That means if you ask him to sing a D, he will. Or, if you play a note and ask him what note it is, he can tell you. So I'm talking to his music teacher the other day, Mr. Taylor, who told me this story, and I wanted to share it. I had told Mr. Taylor previously about Douglas' music ability, but, of course, he had to test him himself. Understandable. Mr. Taylor decided to "play" with him during class. He would blow a note on his trombone and then ask the students what note it was. None of them knew, of course, except Douglas. So, Mr. Taylor decided to try to trick Douglas. He blew a B flat. The other kids started shouting out "T" or "R" or "Z". LOL He called on Douglas and Douglas said, "A." Mr. Taylor thought to himself, "Yes, I got him!" when Douglas added, "sharp." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! (For those of you who don't know, A sharp and B flat are the same... 2008-12-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=609251 Just needed a new post! Not much going on to report, although we don't seem to slow down for any length of time. This month is always a little hectic with Christmas, Douglas' birthday, school parties, and church gatherings, and this year is no different. We headed to Little Rock today to do a little Christmas shopping. WOW. I don't miss the traffic! Thankfully, we can get almost everything we need right here in Conway (or on the internet), but it's fun to go to a bigger city to shop sometimes. Conway doesn't have a mall, so we try to hit LR for the holidays at least once. Well, nothing more to report. I hope you all are enjoying the season!! 2008-12-14 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=605662 Bad news. Douglas' class did not win the video contest. I am so disappointed. I even found myself with tears running down my cheeks as I drove home after I found out. Stinks. I guess I didn't realize how much I wanted them to win. Their video was so good -- the best one by far -- and I really thought they were going to pull it off. I don't really know what the judges are looking for, so it's hard for me to say what we didn't do right. Maybe the fact that the winners had almost 600 more votes than we had. I don't know. I hate it for the kids. They were so excited. Anyway, I knew some of you would want to know the results. Thanks for your support! Good news: As one of the finalist, Douglas' class will still receive $5,000 toward technology upgrades. That's something, at least. Have a good day. *UPDATE* The class won $2500. Sorry! I remembered it incorrectly. I have to say that Mr. Smith is so amazing because the kids were not upset at all. He told them how exci... 2008-12-03 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=605014 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly did. Mom and Dad got here Wednesday a week before Thanksgiving, and Jonathan arrived the Wednesday right before. We ate and sang and watched movies and talked and just enjoyed being together. The only downside is that David and Kristin couldn't come. Stinks to live so far away from them. Enjoy the rest of the week!! 2008-12-01 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=602588 Anyone seen the movie yet? It's terrible. Big disappointment. Read the books. They are better. 2008-11-24 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=600329 Well, the voting phase is over. Thanks so much to those of you who went and voted! For those of you who didn't, you are the reason we are in second place. OH, just kidding!! =-) We have started the judging phase, and the final results will be given on or around December 3rd. I will let you know!! Not much else going on around here. Tim returned a couple of weeks ago from his trip to China. He had an amazing time! We are glad he is back and that we are back into a normal schedule, whatever that is. I hope you all have a great week!! 2008-11-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=597668 If you haven't voted for "Click It" yet, GO DO IT!!! We only have until Friday, so go to www.eimakeover.com, register, and vote for "Click It". It's Douglas' class, it's really cute, and you'll make 25 1st graders VERY HAPPY!! Thanks! See how cute they are??!?!?! 2008-11-10 http://www.pleonast.com/user/sjb?l=5&entryID=595893 Funny how that little word holds so much value to people today. "Change has come to America," said Barack Hussein Obama last night at his acceptance speech. It's been his entire platform. I'm sick of hearing it, frankly. As a person who loves change and gets bored easily, I can understand how this is appealing to many. However, I think the question that hasn't been asked is, "How are we going to change?" As I watched the Obama supporters with tears of joy run down their checks, I wondered if they had any idea how Barack plans to change this country. It may not be for the better. Is he going to pull our troops and destroy all the progress we've made? Is he going to pull conservative radio so we no longer have an equal voice? Is he going to prevent us from bearing arms? We already KNOW he's a socialist. Amazingly, as I was listening to the election coverage this morning, Rick, from the Rick and Bubba radio program, told of the number of conservative Chri... 2008-11-05