"There's a lot of problems" with the English Language?

:WARNING:

:Random Uptight Rantings to Follow:

OK, I know that I am a language freak, but it really concerns me when I hear really "educated" people using the wrong verb in a sentence. I almost don't hear the verb "are" used in the plural with "there" anymore. I started noticing this a few years ago, and now it is all I hear, except from the other language freaks.

I thought that I might be wrong and that the rule might have changed, so I googled it.

Here is part of an article I found:
In sentences beginning with there is or there are, the subject follows the verb. Since there is not the subject, the verb agrees with what follows.

I hear "there's a lot of cookies" or "there's a lot of people" etc., etc.

I don't know why I even thought about this tonight. It is totally random.
I know that I don't have perfect grammar. My husband keeps me straight so I won't get too high and mighty. I mess up just like anyone, but when I hear it over and over it reminds me of when we went to Greece years ago. Our choir from Ole Miss was singing there and all over we were seeing them taking signs down and then we heard that they were taking down all of the English. They were passing a Greek only law. It seems that English had infiltrated their country so much that they wanted to take steps to preserve their heritage.

I know this is a silly post, because it probably doesn't matter much to most people. I personally don't think anyone should be ashamed of using good grammar. It is OK to have standards.

Not sure how much people care now. I have seen letters from teachers that made me want to cry. The grammar was so incorrect. I thought what could this teacher be teaching my child if she writes like this.

I may should delete this post before anyone reads it. I just think we shouldn't lower our standards as a country. We hear so much about school being dumbed down. As a teacher this really makes me want to do something about this issue.

OK.......I have said my peace and now I can move on. :)

I want to thank Jay for asking us to sing for the youth steak supper fundraiser. Matt and I love to sing together whenever we can. It has been a long time. He was so happy that he got to sing his favorite song by Lyle Lovett, "She's No Lady, She's My Wife". It's a classic.
We came home tonight with 4 ziploc bags full of baked potatoes, several bags of chopped lettuce, a huge bag of steaks and grilled chicken and even some peach cobbler. There was so much food left over that everyone left with bags of food. That takes me back to Pearson BC when we took home food from every church dinner because they had pity on us and our 4 children. Then, I was a stay-at-home mom, so that food really helped.

I am going to have to fight Matt for the piano this summer. He practices every chance he gets. Funny thing is, I am the one who really needs the practice. I am going to bring my keyboard home from school so we will have two here. We have found some great new websites that have public domain piano music. Bach, Mozart, etc. Alright.

OK, enough babbling. My eyelids are getting closer and closer together.

Hope your worship is great tomorrow. Praise God.

Now to something that really matters:
We need to pray for the Steven Curtis Chapman family. Their beautiful 5 year old was killed when one of their teenage sons was coming home and didn't see her in the driveway. What an awful accident. Here is the link to the page they dedicated to her. http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/
I am always so moved by how I see God working in this family. They are such an inspiration to me. Please lift them up in prayer.

Sorry, my thought train jumped around a lot tonight.

Benjamin's dream came true

This week has been unbelievable. Last Saturday was my birthday which I spent most of with my high school choir. This week we had state testing and then our spring concert/banquet was on Thursday night. There are always so many elements to putting on something like this. I had great help. The kids worked hard and pulled it off. I had some wonderful parents and fellow staff members come to my rescue with cooking and ticket taking.
I think everyone left with very good feelings. Not all students were able to come to the concert, so I have 3 final exams to give. I think a parent is bringing karaoke for class on Tuesday. Alright!
My mom came for the concert Thurs. night and was so much help. We went to see Prince Caspian Friday afternoon after going to Claire's school program. We had a good time Saturday getting ready for summer. Mom and I went to Home Depot and looked at outdoor tables, etc. Matt's and my anniversary is Tuesday, so I wanted to think of a great gift. It seems like for a few years we have been so busy that our anniversary got pushed together with our birthdays and Mother's Day and the end of school and ......
I hope he doesn't read my blog (I don't think he does.) because I am getting a baby-sitter and surprising him. If you have any good ideas for gifts, let me know.
Now to the title of my post. Later Saturday I took Benjamin to the Oxford Skate Park. He has been dying to go and I finally decided to take him. Another time when Matthew went, there were a lot of scary teenagers there and we weren't sure about our little guys going. I decided to check it out and it was fine that day. I think it depends on the day.
He had the time of his life. We need to get helmets before we go back, though.
Jacob wants me to take both of them tomorrow afternoon.
We are counting down to summer. I have kindergarten awards day and then all the other awards days the next few days. My exam is Friday morning and the kids are gone. Graduation is Saturday. The choir was going to sing, but I decided to take a break this year. All the faculty is going, though.
After Memorial Day I have a couple of days without students. Maybe I can get the risers in my room built then.
And then it is "summer time and the living is easy".

Finally....Amber are you happy? :)

Poor Olan Mills man. We had to reschedule our picture appointment a couple of weeks ago because Matthew was gone and then Benjamin was sick. Our make-up time was Tuesday at 9:00 PM. That's right.

Claire fell asleep in the van on the way and barely woke enough to have her picture made. She was playing the game of making funny faces because she was tired. It was one of those moments as a parent that make you proud. :) The man taking the picture kept saying " Oh....sissy looks asleep in that one, too." He managed to get a few pictures with everyone looking the same direction. Here is one:
My friend from church who is putting the church directory together has been very diligent about reminding us to get our picture made. I guess she had to because we were too sorry to remember to reschedule our appointment.

It is over now. My friend also is a photographer. I was really wanting her to take some informal pictures. That will be a little more fun, I bet.

Happy Friday!!

Too much to blog about

Since my last post we have had tornadoes in Oxford, band banquets, 100 year church anniversaries, friends losing loved ones, celebrating birthdays, girlfriends going with sons to band banquets, lots of bow and arrow shooting, choir banquets with kids getting to dress up and go with Daddy, contracts signed at Potts Camp, backyard springs, curtains made, etc.

I think you know that you are getting a little tired when you aim your van remote at your classroom door to unlock it. Tonight I did a survey with the Immunization dept. I don't think Matt could have laughed any harder listening to me trying to remember where and when Matthew was immunized. I have never felt so inept at anything in my life. A total failure. Hee, hee. I told the guy I didn't want to send him on a wild goose chase for information. He named all of these shots that Matthew has never received. As I said "no" over and over Matt merely said that we are stinky parents. About the question about Matthew's last wellness check-up......I had to say that he hadn't been for one of those in a really long time. I guess when your kids are so well that you just avoid the doctor's office. I am so thankful that we haven't had a real need to go.

Saturday is my birthday and I will be spending the morning with my high school choir getting ready for our concert on Thursday. A small group from choir will be singing the Irish Blessing at graduation on May 17th. I don't think they realize that this is the morning after prom. I probably need to make sure they are up on this to see if we really are going to have a group there. If they don't want to, my principal friend and I might sing the song we sang last year at the choir's spring concert. We always are secretly looking for an occasion to sing together. Too much fun. Here is the song we sang last year: For Good My mom can't tell us apart. I know it is not perfect, but hey, there you go. When I went blank on the words was when I saw rustling behind the stage curtain and heard talking behind stage. I am not that good to block out teenagers.

I was very honored by Emila Yusof's award of World's Greatest Mom
She is such a neat person. Wonderful artist.
I hope all you moms are getting ready for Mother's Day. I saw an article in myhomeideas.com about having a brunch for special moms. I wish I could have a brunch for all of you.

I have lots of great pictures of our weekend coming soon. Being at Pearson and hanging out with our friends was great. Oh, thank you, Kris, Calvin, Brian and Elizabeth for dog-sitting Coltrane while we went to our friends visitation. Sorry he whined so much.

This weekend I also got some good pictures of the kids in Mamaw's backyard. Making forts with Coltrane. Coltrane eating acorns. Good times.

Have a great week.
God bless you.

Weeping and gnashing of teeth

Most of my family is happy this morning. Jacob is going on a field-trip to the pizza farm (where they show how all the ingredients of pizza are made and then they see it made and eat it!), Benjamin is also semi-happy. He tried to make his stomach virus last one more day. He did the usual "my stomach still hurts a little" thing. He really likes to be at home. When he saw that it wasn't happenin', he got OK and got on the bus.
Matthew is pretty good. He got off pretty easy, in my opinion, from the confusion over his Disney World spending, etc., so I think he is just kind of flitting around hoping things don't change with our thought about this issue. Lots of his friends bought things for "themselves" and then didn't want them. I mean this happened about 4 or 5 times. One friend bought an "As I Lay Dying" t-shirt and curiously didn't want it. I discovered this one this morning. Something is up or either Matthew has a way of looking totally pitiful where people want to buy him things. Embarrassing. I don't think he cares, though.

Matt is slightly bitter that I have the day off from school, but not too much. He isn't showing any animosity towards me. :) He is learning Man of Constant Sorrow to do with the Lafayette Quartet. Fun! I wish I had thought of that one. My ensemble is doing Tuxedo Junction, what they consider old people music. Ouch.

Claire, on the other hand, left the house and got on the bus in tears. I hate to see my girl like this, but we have been dealing with the issue of her not wanting to read for school. I know playing with friends outside looks far more fun, but.............you still have to do what you have to do. I trusted her one time and just signed that she had read and found out later that she had NOT read. I said "no more". I had to stay late at school and got home around 6. I drove up and she was laying out on the driveway at Annie's house. I can't believe she is doing this at 7. They had blankets and pillows and an umbrella ( no bathing suits, just wrapped up in their own blankets) to shield them from the hot sun. Anyway, I asked her later if she had read. Well....no. I asked her to go read before supper....didn't happen. Before her shower.....didn't happen. (she just kept showing up talking about something totally different). Then, she wanted to stay up late and read and I had to think back on a sign I saw on a bakery door (referring to wedding cakes). It read "Your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part". I was ready for my girl to learn this. This morning I wrote her teacher a note saying that we would finish the book this weekend. I think the thought of letting her teacher down and facing the consequences was too much for her. I hated for her to leave like this, but I hope this has made an impression.

I know, I am mean. Most parents now-a-days would probably have bailed her out, but I want her to grow up to be responsible and maybe not come home and live with me when she is 30. (of course I would always take my child into my home if she or he were having a major life crisis, just not if they wanted me to keep doing everything for them.)

Today I am home with mom. I am so excited. Our day is wide open. Not sure what we will do. First, I have to get the garbage out, though. Exciting. :)
Tomorrow we are going to see my 95 year old grandmother whom I haven't seen in too long. she had to move to Alabama a few years ago. We are meeting two of my brothers who both live in Atlanta. I can't wait to see those knuckle-heads. (I have 4 big brothers just so you know). I say knuckle-heads with the most affection.

Have a blessed day. God is so good. I hope you all know that He loves you very much. Just thought I might link to this page on our website that talks about this, FYI. Who is Jesus?

I will find out today or Monday if I got he job in Oxford. I have a hint that I am supposed to stay where I am, I am just not positive. We'll see. Take care.

Claire misses Matthew

My Claire is sick today and that makes me very sad. I hate it when I can't do anything for my kids to make them feel better. She was complaining about being "car-sick" when she went to play disc golf with Matt, Neil and the boys. When I finally got to Oxford and picked them up so he could go back and play, she was very droopy. I had to go to Wal-mart to get a shirt for one of my choir guys (our pictures are tomorrow). Jacob had some birthday money that he wanted to spend and so we were in the toy section. My poor baby let us all know why she felt so bad. The bathroom was not close enough. Poor thing.
On the way home she started talking about missing Matthew since he has gone with his band to Disney World. She's in bed now, so I pray that sleep will do her good. Jacob really felt bad for her. He didn't quite know what to say, but he came to her room while I was in there and tried to ask her how she felt. So sweet. That was really good to see, since most of the time they aren't getting along.
Mamaw is coming to our house tomorrow. It will be so good to see her. It has been too long since we really got to be with her.
I have the second day of choir auditions tomorrow at school. Today went great. It is so cool to have kids coming into high school that are really excited about choir. Good attitudes, not discipline problems. I try not to let bad attitudes and discipline problems stop me, but it makes me breath a sigh of relief when kids do care. Makes my job so much easier. I am sad in a way that I will not be able to be around, next year, some of the kids in choir that have had problems because a lot of them aren't going to be in choir. I wish I could have made more of a difference. I guess you never know, though.
Matthew and his band are going to march in a parade while they are at Disney World. I hope it goes well. He was so excited. God bless those chaperones.
Matt and the kids are home tomorrow. Mamaw has said that Matt and I get a date tomorrow night when she gets here. Yea! It has been a really long time since that has happened. We won't know what to do. We are always like high school kids on a date when we get these. We don't take them for granted anymore now that we live further away from our moms. It takes a little more effort.
I can't believe that we only have a few more weeks of school. So much going on. Concerts, banquets, graduations. It is amazing that we don't have more conflicts with each other's school calendars. I think I will be going to prom this year. I've got to show all of my kids how a 36 year old white woman dances. They need to learn the real dances of the 70's and 80's, don't you think? The other day I saw a picture of me at prom my junior year. My sleeves were really "real big". I thought that was just a Napoleon dynamite thing. If it weren't 10:44 now and if I weren't up way past when I wanted to be, I would go get the picture and scan it for all to see. Maybe tomorrow. I certainly would love to have the figure I had in that picture.
Oh well. Have a great weekend.

Hay in my van, kids at school, Matt on a bus to Atlanta and me being a slug

I am so thankful that my school district built in some snow days this year. Last year we had to take snow days and had to make them up. Well, today is a day that was to have been a snow day. Since we didn't use it, we all got a little vacation. We'll get another in two weeks. Ahhhh............
I usually have many plans for my days off. Today my mind was set on my bed and watching parts of Nero Wolfe in between sleep. I have already had a little part of that, and am about to have more.

The kids will be home in about an hour and then it will be exciting. Matt has gone to Atlanta with the LHS choir. They are singing in a competition and going to Six Flags. He'll be back Sunday night.

My last elementary musical of this school year is Monday night. It is set on a farm so I went the other day and got two bales of hay. I took it to the auditorium so my family could fit in the van and that I wouldn't be smelling hay all weekend. But.....there is quite a bit left in the van. When the musical is over I am going to bring one bale home and let Jacob use it for archery practice with his new bow and arrows.

Well, have a great weekend. Matthew is doing a drama with his drama group for the conference at church. I was involved in this, but will be home with our peeps.
Weekends...................:)