Latest stuff (with new picture)

Big news at our house....we have a bee hive in a tree in our front yard (pics on Danny's facebook, I think.) Oh Ty is fascinated with this thing! We discovered it when Ty hit one of the limbs with a baseball bat. (Isn't that how all major-leaguers warm up?) The bees immediately started to swarm and Ty and I scattered like scrambled eggs at the Huddle House. I called Danny and he brought home some powerful bug spray with a nozzle for long range application. Ty and I watched from the front room window and Ty hooted and hollered like we were watching a sporting event..."get 'em Dad", "woo-hoo!", "aw yea, take that bees", etc. We think the spray worked but neither of us are ready to go up to the hive to check!


Got back from my convention in Orlando on Sunday at midnight. That was a long day considering we started at 7am every day and I could barely function in my graduate class the next morning...but then again, most of y'all know I need my sleep. So, let me get to the good stuff, The Convention. This was for the Josten's Renaissance program which is an awesome program geared to make academics as celebrated on campus as athletics (the easy way to describe it!). It was created by Larry Biddle, who was an assistant principal at Conway High School (yes, in SC) twenty years ago. If you aren't aware of the program and your school needs some help raising academic, attendance, etc. then I suggest you check it out! We worked via "breakout session" for 3 days with awesome speakers! Erin Gruwell (from the Freedom Writers) was the speaker at our closing session and her story is inspiring for teachers working with unmotivating students. We also had Kevin Carroll speak at our opening session and he has written several books that are all motivational in nature. I purchased his Rules of the Red Rubber Ball and was able to have him sign the copy! (I purchased Erin's book as well and was also able to have it signed.) I asked Kevin how to go about having him speak in our district and he philosophy is awesome. He does not charge a speaking fee but he does require that a company sponsor him by purchasing lots of books for the district (not his books, but library books) and then he will speak for both the district and the company as a motivational speaker. His professional background is amazing and he is worth looking up if you aren't familiar with him! I was able to come away from the conference full of ideas and motivated to tackle them...it was a success. The awesome pool helped AND the fact that they surprised us with a trip to Disney Hollywood Studios on Friday night.

I tell you what, Jostens is an amazing company and really prides itself on being a great place to work and taking care of it's "people". Did you know the CEO of Jostens is 35 years old? Anyway, the surprise trip...they told us at 4pm in a group session that the busses were leaving in 15 minutes. Can you believe the surprise on everyones face? "15 minutes??? Today? Now?" That's all I could say! They also gave us each a $20 gift card to pay for food in the park, they closed the park at 7pm to the paying guests and our conference had the park to ourselves! They left open the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith rollercoaster, had a DJ, desserts and drinks just for us! I don't like the drops in roller coasters and was very afraid of the Tower of Terror, but I rode it (and will never again!) I rode the Aerosmith ride twice and was thrilled with that (no drops), especially the music throughout the ride!

Totally changing the subject, but in doing work on campus for my grad school, I am having a hard time with Word 2007. I know it makes me sound old, but I like my good 'ole Word 2003.