Dixon Ticonderoga

It's school supply time, again. Do I sound less than enthusiastic? Don't get me wrong, I love school supplies. New pencils, highlighters in every color, the smell of Crayolas, fine-tipped ball point pens in black ink and maybe purple, too. Spirals without bent corners, doodles and messy leftover strips from tearing out pages. Graph paper, sketch paper, copy paper, construction paper, college-ruled, wide-ruled. When I was younger, I remember telling my mom that when I grew up I wanted to open a paper store (this was before scrapbooking). She was like, "Paper? What for? You can buy paper at Fred Meyer." Jace and Benj were going through their pre-packaged school supplies (purchased from the school to support the PTO). They both had a box of 24 pencils. Benj's were Dixon Ticonderoga and Jace's were an off-brand. Jace eyed Benj's pencils and turned a little green. Then his lightbulb went on: "Benj, how about if I give you 12 of my pencils and you give me 12 of yours and then we can both have the same kind of pencils?" Benj didn't see anything wrong with this deal and agreed. Jace got 12 precious Dixon Ticonderoga's and Benj got to match his big brother. I do have a problem with teachers that request certain items that are almost impossible to find. I have no idea where they're coming from. A few years ago, Cait had an English teacher that requested an orange pocket folder with brads. Each of the classes had a different color and Cait's class got stuck with orange. I drove all over Houston looking for that orange folder. I found many without brads. I found many without pockets. They would not do and I was getting desperate. If it wasn't in hand, in class by Friday her GRADE would be affected. Can you believe it? "I'm grading you on how well your mother can drive all over the city to find the elusive orange-colored folder. You have until Friday then I start taking off points." What? I bought a red hoping that we could paint it. Then dumb luck stepped in. There was a girl in another class who couldn't find red but happened to stumble across the last orange in the state. We arranged a swap and the grade was saved. This year our elusive supplies include a Composition Book with 3 binder-holes, 5 x 7 index cards that are on rings with a plastic cover, and ABC dividers. I have until Friday.

Erin left for Provo today and so did all of our money. We miss them both. :)

8 IS GR8

When you turn 8 in our family, you get to do some "grown-up" things. Such as learn how to light matches and use a sharp knife. You also get a big plate at the dinner table and a big fork and knife to eat with. When we were setting the table for the birthday dinner, Benj had a great idea: "Let's throw away all of the little [salad] forks! We don't need them any more." Silly Benj!
p.s. Baptism coming up on Sept. 6--mark your calendar :)

Origami and Chocolate-Covered Bananas

Something funny happens between sisters when they know that there's a limited amount of time before, all of a sudden, they don't live in the same house any more. Origami, together, for hours. Producing fish, penguins, cats and paper airplanes out of tie-dyed paper. Making chocolate-covered bananas together. Nuts or sprinkles on this one? Sharing the same kitchen. Looking through family pictures together. I like how you did this scrapbook. Showing the other one how to get pictures on a disc for printing at CVS. I love observing this. My girls are growing up.

Knick-Knames

I am the first to admit that I shorten names-- a lot. I've heard that it's a girl-thing. That's my reason and I'm sticking to it. I was given quite a long, old-fashioned name and always longed for something a little spiffier sounding. When I was about 6 my dad asked me what name I would like to go by. There was quite a list to choose from: Eliza, Liz, Lizzy, Betsy, Beth, the list seemed to go on. He listed all the aunt Liz's that I had and how Grandma goes by Beth. After I thought about it, for not very long, I decided on Lizzy because it had two z's and a y. Wouldn't that be great to write in cursive! That lasted maybe a week and then Liz stuck. My older brothers affectionately called me 'greenyhead' (not even gonna capitalize that one) and now call me "Isa"--short for "Isabeau." In college I tried to go back to Elizabeth, but soon noticed how I wasn't answering when people called me. Habits. When Erin was born, I thought in the back of my head that Erin was a short enough name that no one would ever shorten it. Of course you can shorten it! I call her "Er" on a regular basis. And that's not all --when she was a toddler, I called her "scuba" for quite a while. When I heard someone else call her that, I heard how ridiculous it sounded and soon went back to her real name. Caitlin was called "Punkin" for a long time before we settled on Cait. And sometimes still gets called Caiter. Stefanie has been Stef forever but she prefers Stefi--with a heart over the "i." Jace, the only one lucky enough to be given a one-syllable name was actually Jacie for a while and is still sometimes Jacer, J-man, and Buddy. And then there was Benjamin. To me he's not a Ben, but he's called that at school and at church. I don't know any way around it. I've asked people to please at least add the "j" and call him Benj. I've even written notes to teachers, but all to no avail. Last Sunday I was subbing in Primary and heard everyone around him calling him "Ben." I looked around, "Is that my son they're talking about? I have no idea who this Ben is." Maybe shortening/changing names is a family thing--like genetics. You get it from those around you. It's contagious. Does every family do this? You try out a name and keep it around for a while. See how it fits in the setting. See how other people like it --or not. Dust it off occasionally and when it's out-of-date, chuck it.

Graduation !

The highlight of June was graduation! Yeah! Erin worked extremely hard in school and graduated in the top 8%. She was in National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Texas Scholars, and more. She was the winner of the CFWC scholarship and is now focusing on fall.

Other June activities: trumpet camp and scout camp for Jace, Girl's camp and EFY for Cait and Stef, dance camp for Stef, swim team, working hard for Erin and Cait learning to juggle two jobs. Lots of busy-ness and fun!

Need Some Blogging Help

I have been asked to teach a 20-minute Enrichment Night workshop on blogging. I am certainly no expert so I would like to ask for all of your help! Please take a minute and answer these questions for me-- Why do you blog? What got you started blogging? What sites help you be creative (name specific sites that help you do slide shows, templates, movies, music background, etc.)? How did you come up with your blogging name? Do you find it easy to manage or is it sometimes a headache? Is it worth your time? Any tips on security issues? What's the main thing you like/dislike about the blogging world? Have you ever surfed blogs of people you don't know? Anything else? Please answer as many questions as you can in the comment section of this post. If you have lots of info (which I welcome) email me at calm57@gmail.com . The meeting isn't until mid-August, so feel free to think on it or if you find new ideas or sites next month, come back and add to your comments. Thanks for your input! Liz