Free Offer at Kodak

Go to the Kodak website today. They are giving away gift codes for $15.00 worth of merchandise. The offer, once you get your code, is good until November 5th. It would be a good time to upload some fall or Halloween pictures for printing or make a photo book.

We Love Fall

One of our K-8 moms, Kasie B. loves Halloween and fall and has her family's yard decorated with this great fall scene. If you would like to share your fall scenes just send a picture to myself gibsond2@k12tn.net or Misty dowdym1@k12tn.net
Thanks Kasie for sharing! Your yard looks great!

The Tallest of Smalls--a book review

The Tallest of Smalls by Max Lucado and illustrated by Maria Monescillo is a children’s story about wanting to fit in with the crowd. We’ve all felt the disappointment of not being chosen by the “in” crowd or wanting something very strongly only to find that when we have this thing, it is not all we thought it was going to be. In this book Ollie, a young boy learns these lessons the hard way, but in the end realizes that he is special and loved all the time when he meets Jesus. I don’t recommend this book for toddlers, I think the message and the vocabulary are too difficult for them to understand, but any school age child could feel empathy for Ollie.

The illustrations are bold, bright and appealing. If you want to gift this book there is a page in front to personalize. After reading this book aloud I felt like some of the rhyming patterns are tongue twisters and did not flow well. This story’s message of how we are all special and how we don’t need others approval is one that children cannot hear too often, but I wouldn’t pay the full retail price for this book.

I reviewed this book as a member of the Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger Program. http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

More Bus Duty Thoughts

I know you've heard the news. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Some people believe he didn't really deserve to win. I don't know about that, but I know the people who give the prize overlooked me, you see I had bus duty again last Friday morning. The person on bus duty does a lot for world peace and harmony. We see that the hungry eat breakfast, we resolve all sorts of conflict--especially those brought to our attention by the wronged party(aka tattlers). We control chaos while paroling the gym and then get the school citizens to class in a safe and orderly manner. We do this all alone with just our teacher voices and maybe some eye contract that says you better straighten up!
I'm just Saying!

My (almost finished) Fall Display...

Well...I have a fall display in my yard......FINALLY!!!!

The boys are very excited!

Click here to see how it all finally came together!

How did we do?

Do you have any great fall decorations to share?

I would love to see them!

Fall is my favorite time of year!

What Difference Do it Make?--a book review

An unlikely friendship and the stories about people that have been influenced by this friendship make an inspiring read in What Difference Do it Make by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. This is a follow up book written as a result of their first best selling title Same Kind of Different as Me. The chapters of the book give background about both authors and relate stories of people who have been influenced by their first book. It is an easy short read with only two hundred pages, but it will inspire you to try and become less judgmental of a person’s appearance.

I didn’t read the first book, but it would have been helpful to know a little more of the story. I found Denver’s straight forward to the point approach refreshing and consider him a person I would like to meet. Even though this whole story is based on a friendship formed by author Ron Hall and his wife Deborah while helping the homeless, there are many lessons to be taken away from this book. It reminds us that one person can make a difference and that we are all responsible for each other no matter what our life circumstances are. The first section of the book is the most powerful and it slows just a bit in the middle, but it is worth reading just to remind us in Denver’s words, “Jesus don’t need no help from no perfect saints. If He did, He wouldn’t a’ gone up yonder and left us down here in charge.”

I reviewed this book as a part of Thomas Nelson Publishers Book Review bloggers program.

Win a Banner from Queen of My House

Misty's at it again. Over at The Queen of My House she is giving away a vinyl banner. It is 24x36". Just think of all the ways you could use that! How about some one's upcoming birthday. You could hang it at the party, or decorate the yard! The banner comes from UPrinting.
She has several ways to enter, so what are you waiting for, get over there and enter.
There is also a give away for some custom greeting cards! Enter it too!

Two Wolves

My forwarding friend sends me all sorts of e-mails that I usually delete, but occasionally she sends one worth sharing!

Two wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, " My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all."

One is Evil. - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good... - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. '

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins? "

The old Cherokee simply replied, " The one you feed. "

Bus Duty Thoughts

At 7:45 this morning I was standing in the gym, alone with a couple hundred children, some coming in for the day and some going out for breakfast and some moving up and down on the bleachers and I couldn't help but think:
"This must be what it feels like to live in an ant hill!"

First Day of Autumn

Happy Fall, Ya'll
I will miss my flip flops the most!