While participating in memory lane monday I pulled out my highschool scrapbook to dig out the picture of my car. Tonight I was getting around to putting it back in the closet to collect some more dust so that it wouldn’t get ruined and came across some articles that I wrote for my school newspaper in the 9th grade…

I thought I would share… I found them highly comical… especially when I wrote about cheerleading…(for those of you who don’t follow my other blog, I’m the assistant cheerleading coach this year… and I’m struggling… BIG TIME!)

You can hardly read what I wrote, so I’ll type them out for you here…

Freshmen Dream On
By Heather Moore 6D

How would you like to find Luke Perry under your Christmas tree? I’ll tell you a little secret, most of the freshman at Prendie would, too. Of course, not everybody would want the gorgeous-eyed Luke, they might want Christian Slater, Marky Mark Wahlberg, or Keanu Reaves, but then, let’s face it, who doesn’t? Most Prendie girls, when interviewed picked Luke, basically because he’s a knockout!

In reality, we know that it isn’t possible (sigh) to wake up and find the man of our dreams sitting under out beautifully decorated tree; a girls has to dream – right? After all, a girl has got to have something to think about during those exciting (?) science lectures!

Several of the girls interviewed enthusiastically (very enthusiastically) told this reporter why it would be a dream come true to receive this spectacular Christmas gift. “Luke Perry has nice eyes, nice hair, and an awesome bod”, said one anonymous freshman; he does, doesn’t he?

“I personally picked Luke because his eyes ‘just warm my heart’ … not to mention, he’s gorgeous!” says Krista McGroarty.

“Christian Slater is a good actor, cute, funny and hot,” said another shy freshman.

“Mark Mark’s my choice because he’s got a great bod and he’s nothing liek his brother,” said another.

Not all the girls interviewed thought that it would be a dream to find one of these men under their trees. Some even imagined waking up and finding Steve Urkel, or even worse, Peewee Herman. Now, that is a frightening thought! To some it might be the guy of their nightmares!

Did I mention that I went to Catholic School? An all girls Catholic School?

Give me a P-R-E-N-D-I-E! If you’re not a cheerleader, then you probably don’t know about the change in moderators. If you are a cheerleader, you know that last year Sister Jean moderated cheerleading and this year the position was handed over to Sister Carol.

Sister Jean has moderated cheerleading here at Prendie for thirteen years andtold me that in some ways it hard to turn over her position to Sister Carol, but in other ways it wasn’t. Like many people, from time to time, Sister Jean needed a change, adn also thought that the girls needed some new ideas. Watching new girls going from no coordination to producing great moves were som eof her most memorable moments; another was watching the varsity girls create a dance to perform during halftime.

Sister Carol, like Sister Jean, was never a cheerleader and she never wanted to be one either. During her school days, Sister Carol was a member of the basketball team. She appreciated the cheerleaders, because they were there each time to cheer the team to victory; they were there to support the team and that’s what Sister Carol wants them to this year for Prendie. She expects the girls to do their best; show other teams their pride in Prendie and their Prendie spirit.

If you’re trying out for cheerleading next year, you’ll probably find Sister Carol moderating. “If I’m here and I have a schedule that allows it, I would like to do it again next year.”

So how about you? Find anything comical from your yesteryears recently?

Until next time…

Heather

PS. Come visit me at despretly seeking sanity… any time

It’s definitely not anything near what we had, was it?

I can remember getting our first computer when I was in kindergarten… an Atari…. you know, with the cartridges… and basic where you could write the computer programming that would write “hello” across the screen… and space invaders and pac man? Didn’t I think we had the cool stuff?

Other than that, I can’t remember any other technological devices that we had. We didn’t even get a VCR until I was in the 4th grade. It’s how I was convinced that there was a Santa. We got a color TV (a big console one) and a VCR and I just knew that Santa brought them… he was too cheap to purchase them on his own.

But now? I look at all the things that my kids have… and even what I have… and I’m amazed by what I see.

Hand held video games.

Music players that are the size of a matchbox.

Portable movie players (although, much to my children’s dismay, we don’t have one.)

And this house? Has 7 computers.

Shocking, I know. And no, we don’t use all of them.

And no, I’m not rich. I used to work for a company that auctioned off old systems and I picked up one for the kids and then as I’ve upgraded, I pass along my hand me downs.

Our most recent acquisition is the Fly Pen*. Matthew’s been eying this for a long time now. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a pen that does a bunch of nifty stuff…. like record what you write and translate things into other languages and solves math problems. It’s incredibly nifty.

The first night that he had it, he wrote his essay with it (in the special notebook that it comes with) and we uploaded it to the computer and converted it to a Word document. Just like that. We also printed out the jpg that it created.

He’s been learning a few words in French and Spanish. He writes the words and immediately they are translated for you.

And he’s been mixing music. He’s becoming quite the DJ using the music mixing program that comes with it.

It’s also an MP3 player, but we’ll need to purchase some more memory to go in it if he wants to use it as that.

I was playing around on the website when we first got it and it kept talking about how it can help you with your homework. We have problems with homework… big time. And in a way it can, now, but I see greater benefits when he’s older. There’s an algebra feature in which you write the equation and then it walks you through step by step to solve it.

But I think the best thing feature that we’ve used thus far is the Essay Coach. The Essay Coach helps with brainstorming and outling and particular topic and Matthew has the most trouble with writing.

All in all, the Fly Pen is a pretty decent investment. We’re still learning the ins and outs of it and we did have a bit of trouble finding a computer (PC as it’s not Mac compatible) that had the required 512MB of RAM. But once we did, we were flying high with the fly pen.

But while we’re on the subject of learning, what do you use to help your children learn? Computer games? Hand held games? I’m on the prowl to look for more things that can help Matthew get caught up where he’s behind (particularly in math and writing).

Until next time…

Heather

I just posted this over at despretly seeking sanity and thought I would share here too!

Wow! Word hit fast about blog rush and, as usual, I’m behind the 8 ball. Because I was too busy to sign up and tell you all about it…

so just in case you haven’t heard, there’s a new traffic source in town… and it’s called blog rush… and the person behind it all?

Genius.

Of course, I knew this before he came up with this…

But basically, you sign up (it’s free!) and add a little snippet of code in your side bar.

That’s it.

(You can see it in my side bar!)

Basically, it puts your blog posts in the widget on someone else’s blog… and you get some on yours… now, more than ever, it’s time to have nifty title posts…

oh and did I mention that it’s relevant posts? Like, you won’t have posts about automobiles on your mom blog… you’ll have relevant content.

Genius!

So check it out if you’re not already a member and let’s rush!

Until next time…

Heather

Ok, so I’m working to get this Groovy Mom Blogger back in the swing of things. Because really? There are tons of groovy mom bloggers out there and this is a way for me (and you) to get to know them just a tad better…

This week, we’ve got Karen from surviving motherhood and it’s interesting how I “met” Karen… I won her book. (And threw a little fit because I didn’t think I needed her book….oh boy was I wrong! You can read more about my thoughts on her book here.)

And… if I can get my act together, we’re going to be having a little writing prompt/contest tied in to the book too…. when I can figure out how to (a) add 4 more hours to my day or (b) function without sleeping…

I digress… off my rabbit trail and on to meet Karen!

1. How long have you been a blogger?
I have been blogging for just over a year. 2. What do you like about blogging?

I think there are three things I like about blogging. First, writing is one of the best ways for me to think things through, so working out a blog entry often helps clear my mind. Somehow putting my experiences (and frustrations!) into words for someone else to read helps me gain perspective and maybe even learn my lesson. This thought leads to my second reason to like blogging: sharing experiences. I find few things more encouraging than knowing something through which I have gone, and about which I have blogged has been used by God to encourage another mom. There is a redeeming factor to blogging. I often read a “Thanks for sharing – I really needed to hear this today” type comment and think maybe, just maybe, my particular experience was worth the pain because God used it to minister to someone else. Finally, I like blogging because of the great friends I have made. There are a lot of wonderful women in the blogosphere!

3. How did you come up with the blog name? Honestly? I didn’t. My web designer came up with it. I think she was going for key word optimization for search engines. I have the Irritable Mother’s Survival Kit on my homepage, and I think “Surviving Motherhood” was a good fit for keyword optimization and a general description of my blog. Not too exciting, but that’s how it happened.

4. Tell us a little more about the mom behind the blog.

Do you want to be a featured blogger?

Drop me a note at relocatedyank @ gmail dot com and with Featured Blogger in the subject line!

Until next time…

Heather

You know how it works…

You read someone’s story or see a picture on a blog and it prompts you to do the same thing?

I did it…

Hope over to desprately seeking sanity today to see what’s going on!

Until next time…

Heather