Lucy and Daddy on his first Fathers' Day. 

Google's Plot to Take over the WORLD

Wow! Just downloaded Picasa2 (well, at around 9PM--it's 11:53 PM now). So what have I been doing? Totally organizing 3 years worth of digital pictures. Wow! Picasa makes it so easy to organize, move pics, print, burn, publish to Hello or Blogger Bot. My little Cool Whip head below was published through Picasa.

Do you think Google will develop an OS soon? I mean really, all this stuff totally makes sense. Their maps (maps.google.com) easily beat MapQuest, googleworld is unbelievable, and all this other stuff. In the words of a very wise man, WOOF!

I'll be posting soon about my busy past two days. To sum it quickly--I have two interviews next week and begin part-time at Home Deepot.

My Little Cool Whip Head 

Summer Plans

Just wanted to give y'all some info on our summertime plans. Starting next week I'll work at Home Dee-pot for a few hours a week. Something for just a little extra money (and that discount card!) Kerry's still working at Sylvan. Lucy still isn't working, but there's hope for her yet.

Meeting the Flanigans in Topsail the middle week in July for the annual Drink Shoe Polish Fest '05. Lucy wasn't really sure of the ocean in OC, Md a couple of weeks ago, so this time we'll ease her into it more.

I'm working towards receiving my certification for web design this summer too. And redesigning my school website. So we'll be pretty busy.

The State of Education

It's really sickening that we, who educate and know the best about education, cannot publically comment on everything going on in this state right now. With the budget problems, both at the county and state levels, education in North Carolina is really going downhill.

Of course it began with "No Child Left Untested." As if one arbitrary test (and each state uses their own--how is that for validity and reliability?) can tell if a student learned in the course of a year and if the teacher taught in the course of a year. What this program does not account for are all the what ifs? Maybe the child's father passed away. Maybe she's not living with her parents. Maybe she watched the police arrest her dad. All of those things happened to people in my class this year. Ridiculous.

Anyhow, my employment is pending still. Many of the tech positions available have been converted from teacher assistant positions. The problem now is the great state of NC may reduce funding for TAs. So my dilemma is that if I accept a tech position now, and come fall the TA positions disappear, I could be stuck in kindergarten, first grade, etc. Blah!

A Real Redneck...

Yep, I'm from the North, but I've been redneckin' it the last couple weeks. We have been soooo busy! Went to a NASCAR race in Richmond with Kerry's dad (thanks for the sweet NEXTEL hospitality Luanne!). Then went to a Carolina Mudcats game where I threw out the first pitch. Kerry and Lucy went, along with Jenn, Tim, and Ashley, Robin, and family. Had a great time and definitely look to do that again! This past weekend met my folks in Ocean City, MD for the NASCAR race in Dover. Had a great time sharing the beach for the first time with Lucy Bea. She didn't eat too much sand, but seemed a little afraid of the ocean. Guess we'll try again in July when we meet Kerry's family at Topsail Island.

Still trying to finalize plans for next year. The DPI job didn't materialize as I would hope, but we have a few other possibilities. Keep us in your thoughts, and we'll keep you updated.