I'm a Proud Great Aunt

Man, I keep walking into all these titles...

Like Grandma and Great Aunt. ( re: I am now a grandma from the last post )

When I married David, I found myself an aunt and great aunt instantly. Some of my "nieces" are even a little older than I am :) It's kinda weird but fun being a "baby-aunt". LOL.

ANYWAY, Tyler's one of the nieces' ( Sabrina - re: We went to Munday on Sunday ) son and since the family moved to Munday, he has been involved in ALL sorts of school activities, the latest one being in a one act play, where his team has progressed all the way to the State UIL ( University Interscholastic League ) Academic League in Austin this week/weekend. Tyler's usually pretty shy, so this is such a wonderful thing for him. Yay Tyler!

I won't be a bad great-aunt and post his picture on here, heheh, but here is the newspaper article in the Abilene Reporter News on Sunday ( with Tyler's picture on the front page! ) and a link to his profile HERE.


State Bound in UIL

By Sidney Levesque
Sunday, April 29, 2007

Heather Wilson, 18, makes up stories at Jayton High School every day. There was the one about a shark attacking a local teenager. Another story she concocted was about a local step-dancing group appearing on MTV.

Rather than landing Heather in hot water, her fictional stories are helping prepare her for the largest academic contest in Texas. She is among 138 students from the Big Country who are competing at the University Interscholastic League's state academic meet in events ranging from feature writing to accounting.

(Meet Heather Wilson and the other 137 contestants in our online blog. We feature a Q&A with each student, and comments are welcome.)

The meet starts Thursday and ends Saturday at the University of Texas in Austin.

Students make it to state by placing at the local, district and regional levels. Once they get to state, they can earn scholarships, letter jackets and glory for their schools. ''We take it very seriously. It's a big part of our school,'' said Heather, whose school is 84 miles northwest of Abilene.

The school is trying to rebuild its once strong UIL program, said Jodie Reel, Jayton's UIL coordinator. This year, the school is sending six students and three alternates to state. Not bad considering Jayton High has only about 50 kids. ''I'm incredibly competitive. I really like to win,'' Reel said.

To have a good UIL program, a school needs dedicated teachers and students willing to work hard and as a team, he said. Students must be willing to attend practice meets throughout the year and practice at school almost daily starting in January.

''As we have more success, kids are willing to step out of their comfort zone and consider some things,'' Reel said.

Heather takes a class set aside just to practice for UIL contests. She competes in feature writing. To practice, she uses prompts from past UIL contests. She writes a sample story and her teacher edits it.

''We would just practice all the time,'' Heather said.

She likes competing in feature writing because she plans to be an English teacher someday.

''It gives me an opportunity to be more creative in what I do and I really enjoy the competition. It gives me something to do other than athletics,'' said Heather, who participates in basketball, cross country and track.

This is the first year Heather has advanced to the state contest, and she admits she's a little nervous about the big competition, which will draw 2,000-3,000 students. ''It will be completely new and different for me,'' she said.

State academic meet

The University Interscholastic League classifies schools based on enrollment from 5A (the largest schools) to 1A (the smallest).

Academic competitions include contests in writing, acting, science and other disciplines.

Students compete at the district level, then advance to the regional level. Students who place in the top three at regional contests advance to the state contest in Austin.

See our UIL blog at: http://blogs.scripps.com/abil/uil/

Copy editor: Beverly Butman; Editor: Brien Murphy

"For I know the plans I have for you,"declares the Lord, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you,plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

I Just became a Grandma!

Our cat, Momma,

had 6 kittens right before midnight Friday right till the early hours of Saturday.. Here's some pictures and a short video.. The video might need a very quick adobe flash thingy download, which should be quite painless :)

We'll need another cattery! And a trip to the vet's when momma and her kitties are ready to be neutered/spayed..

A Snowy Easter Weekend

How often does one see..

snow on a rose on Easter in Abilene, Texas....

"Christ the Lord is risen to-day,"
Sons of men and angels say.
Raise your joys and triumphs high;
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.

Happy Good Friday

Why the picture of a Dog Shaking Off?

Well, when i came out of my room this morning to get Henry out of his overnight crate for him to romp outside, I smelt the distinct odor of poo.

I groaned inwardly, knowing what was ahead - i.e. having to clean his crate out.

Little did i know, Henry had had diarrhoea, and it had gotten on his coat and tail, and when i brought him out of the crate into the kitchen, he did exactly what the dog in the picture did. He shook himself off.

All over my kitchen... and me. And the stuff that came off of him wasn't clear blue water either.

Now, instead of cleaning poop in his crate, I have to clean it off the oven, the stove, the cabinets, the walls, the treadmill, the fridge, the counter, the kitchen table, the microwave, the toaster, the sink, the windows, every single thing that is in the kitchen, AND THE CEILING.

Someone bring in the HazMat team, please.

I admit I freaked and cried.

*sigh*

David was a sweetie and went out and got more antibacterial kitchen cleaner 409 stuff and paper towels for me, along with a chocolate doughnut.

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them:
for it is the LORD your God who goes with you;
he will not fail you or forsake you.
--- Deuteronomy 31:6

Of food and estate sales

It is always wonderful

to find little treasures at the Filipino Food/Grocery Store here in Abilene, and last week, the treasure was a bunch of longan, a fruit very similar to lychee. Cindy was brave and tried a couple, and thought they were pretty good. I think I'll try to grow some of the seeds :)

Longan literally means Dragon Eyes in Cantonese, because of the appearance of the flesh of the fruit and its dark round seed.

Read more about longan here in Wikipedia


A couple more pictures from the garden

David and I went to an estate sale at the home of the late explorer, Cadillac Jack Grimm, best known for his Titanic ( yes, THE Titanic ) explorations. We were there on Saturday, the second day of the sale, and everything had been cut to half price or less. Among the few items we got were 2 night stands and a bed - yup, we had had the mattress on the floor and 2 of those cube pouffes with collapsible tv trays on them for nightstands for almost 2 years now. LOL.

Click HERE for the article in the Abilene Reporter News on the estate sale.

"Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground‑‑trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

Genesis 2:8‑9