Frustrated

I am about to blog something that is going to seem unpatriotic especially at this time of year. However, I feel that the use of free thought and saying what you want IS as American as you can get. If you don't USE your rights, what's all the fighting for anyway?

My frustration is a 5th grade social studies test. The kid got a C which isn't bad, but isn't great. I looked over the test just to see what was going on. There were some errors that I totally understand marking down; they were only partial answers. That accounts for 5 points. What really bothers me is the multiple choice.

1. Why is the motto E Pluribus Unum a good saying?
a. Many people spoke Latin.
b. Coins display this saying.
c. Out of many states, one country was formed.
d. Americans share many ideals.

What would you answer? Could it be argued that it's not a good saying? Out of many, one. I have to admit that I haven't read the propaganda, I mean text book, to see what the answer that is expected. I have taken enough tests to guess that a teacher would probably say that D is the real answer. But, A is valid in that many more people DID speak latin, but it wasn't a universal language, so I would guess that's a flaw of that answer. B isn't good. It was on the coins after it became ONE of the mottos on the great seal that was approved in 1782 (first on coins in 1786). If you look on wikipedia (which is of course what I did) you will see that originally, the thought WAS C. That is what the kid answered and I can see the thought process to that. We are 50 states (and even then we were more than one state) coming together to make ONE nation. Many forms one. Sounds like the saying to me. Then there is D. I'm not 100% sure if that is the real answer, but it would have to be. However, we do NOT share ideals in this country. That is actually part of what makes us great. We can all think what we want. I think this question wasn't great.

Now this next one is the one that will get people mad at me. It's almost like I'm Obama running around without a freaking flag on my lapel.

Why is the Pledge of Allegiance important?
a. It shows our varied population.
b. It teaches us to memorize sayings.
c. It shows we have a strong country.
d. It tells the basic ideals Americans share.

Now, I KNOW I can argue that it's NOT important. It's not. Some people don't even say it at school. They really don't. Let's look these answers to the "pledge" question, right after I make a short tangent about the history of it. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This pledge was written for the most part in 1892 as a part of Columbus day celebrations. We won't start yet another tangent on my thoughts on THAT. The original author was a Baptist minister, yet he didn't put the god part in. He did feel it was a way to show solidarity. Interestingly, the other part that was changed was that he said "my flag" instead of "the flag of the United States of America". Then there is the under god issue that was added in the height of a war with Korea AND Germany. Have you ever noticed how all that propaganda comes out when there is some sort of turmoil.

But, regardless of all that, back to the question. A - it shows our varied population. Obviously that's not the right answer. I can't even twist that one to make it fit. Then B says it teaches us to memorize sayings. I have to be honest and say that right there is my answer. I contend that it's not philosophically important so I'll say if it has importance it would have to be so I can memorize something. I personally like mnemonics for memorization, but that's me. Next is C which states it shows we have a strong country. Go back and read the pledge again. This is ONE nation (be it under god or not) INDIVISIBLE... That's pretty darn tough. It can't be divided (reminds me of a song by Sham 69). Sounds like a decent answer to me. And finally D states it tells the basic ideals Americans share. I honestly don't think that. I think some people think this. But there are those that feel the that pledging to the flag is idolatry. (On a side note, I've thought this since I was a kid and remember getting in trouble at a young age for questioning this and the cross symbol. Maybe I was a Jehovah's Witness in a past life. I don't agree with all they have to say, but that's one thing I do agree that is biblically valid -not stating the what I feel about the bible either, but if you are saying you believe the bible, you might rethink how you feel about idolatry.) Then of course there are those that feel that this should not be considered one nation under god. So, people with this belief wouldn't share the ideals with people that do. With liberty and justice for all. THAT is an ideal for all of us, but different people feel differently about what that means. Wiki the word liberty. And justice? Justice for ALL. I'm willing to bet if you even think for a second, you can think of many injustices around you at any given time. Sure it's IDEAL to have these qualities, but I don't think all Americans share ALL the ideals in the pledge.

What is the correct answer you may ask. I don't think my answer of B is the right one. I know it's not C because that's what the kid wrote and she got it wrong. It would by default be D. I guess if the book says it is it must be. I just don't agree is all.

Here's the question for those that took the time to read this insane rambling: What to do. I found out that my child is not the only one to do poorly on this test. Do I let it go knowing it's the first test, the kids will get used to it, 5th grade is harder. Do I contact the teacher and if so say what? Obviously, this diatribe is for me to blow off steam. I need to be more assertive rather than aggressive if I contact the teacher. I CAN do that, but it wouldn't have helped with my frustration to talk nicely right now, but I CAN. Or should I save up my anger and write to the text book company? I could do that, but seriously I doubt that would do any good.

Done for now.

First day of school.

Today was the first day back for the grade school kids! I hope this means I'll be writing more as I'm a huge slacker. Oh well.

How's it goin'?

Well, things are good here. We've been running amok with the summer ball going on. I just posted about it on my kids sport blog. We got the kids' schedules for games and they are all on the same days of course. So, we have to miss a bit of each of the kids' games. It will all be running all summer long.

The kids get out of school on Thursday and I think they are looking forward to summer. I know Corey is, but Amory really loves school and his friends. They are both looking forward to being at the pool all summer long though. I do plan to keep them reading and stuff like that this summer. I don't like the summer slide, and I won't let it happen! They will come in next year at or above where they leave this year in reading and hopefully math.

So, this weekend, we went to a birthday party for one of Amory's friends. He was the only kindergartener going on the diving boards. The nut was also going off the highboard before any of the 4th graders would go off it. The kid is so insanely me it's not funny. His sister is so her dad. She watched the other kids go off the boards. I was always a swimmer and was always on the boards.

Sunday we went to Corey's second softball game. The team they played was pretty well matched with us. The only problem was one of their pitchers had some amazing power, and no control. She hit 4 of our girls. One girl had to get a pinch runner. It was insane. A new thing was our umpire let us steal first on a dropped 3rd strike. Corey struck out and went to 1st, but was mad at the strike out. Anyway, we don't know if that rule will stand up in the future games. It seriously confused our girls.

sup?

Nothing here. Last night, I went to a friend's house to play cards. We used to do that all the time ages ago. Finally we got back to it. So, we sat around and we were talking about one of our old friends that moved away that used to play with us. So, we texted her Kansas number. She (allegedly) replied back. That was funny because she told me she was keeping that number, but no one believed me. We had pizza. I ate some with pineapple. The one boy always gets that and now I like it. People new to our weirdness say, "Oh, you mean with ham or canadian bacon?" No, we mean no meat, just pineapple, it's GOOD. So, that was Sunday.

Saturday, we went and watched a friend's baseball game. They are 9 and they played one of the 10 year old teams. They didn't do too bad, but you can definitely see the difference a year makes. It was so cold Saturday morning, I couldn't believe it. Oh well, we got popcorn. After that, Corey had softball (I'll post about softball and karate over at the kids' sport blog which no one really reads, but I enjoy it so who cares.) We both got a lot of sun for how cold it was. But, my mom took us to eat a late lunch.

Friday was my last "vacation" day. We didn't really do anything all week, and Friday was even worse, I didn't do any house work like I'd planned. Oh well.

Thursday we went to a different kid's baseball game. They are good. The exciting part was the weird Kansas weather. We stopped at the gas station to get fuel and drinks (Corey was to have softball and she needed a gatorade). So, I pay at the pump and go inside where the kids already had picked out drinks (and were looking at snacks). I hear something weird and look out and it's HAILING. Golf ball sized chunks of ice were pelting towards the earth. Luckily, my jeep was under the gas pump's awning, not that it would matter. But, anyway, I try to pay for our drinks and food. My card is declined. I was furious, I knew I had money. I told him to throw out my gatorade because I'd already drank from it. He gave me and Amory our drinks because Amory had a fountain and mine was opened. So, I go to the ATM and of course, had money. I got $10 and went back and got the darn snacks and Corey's drink. Seems that this flash storm knocked out their whole system. By that time it wasn't raining and it looked sunny to the west. So, we headed to the game where it didn't even rain! So, we come back to town for Corey's practice and no one was at the field she was practicing. Turns out they canceled because of lightning and such. How weird on different sides of town there was completely different weather.

Wednesday was my birthday. We didn't do anything, which is fine. However, I boycotted the whole McDonalds thing that we always do on Wednesday (karate). We went to Pepperjax. I called in the order, and guess what, it wasn't even started before I got there. I was pissed. Turned out ok for me since I got a $5 gift card.

So it's prom season

And normally I don't even think about it more than noticing that there are dresses in the windows of the department store. Also, it's usually around my birthday, so I might notice it because it's my birthday (tomorrow). However, this year, Sunshine has on her blog a blog prom. That and my 10 year old LOVES prom dresses.

Yesterday was to come up with songs. I actually had to struggle to figure out any songs. Finally, I looked up what songs were popular back then that they MAY have played. I know they didn't play Quiet Riot's Come on Feel the Noise, those crazy kids kept saying "Girls fuck your boys" whenever it came on. Oh, and I'm sure everyone thought they were so smart. They also didn't play Billy Idol's Mony Mony people randomly would say... Well, if you were ever at a dance where they played it you know. I've heard that you can see Billy Idol mouthing something on the live version of the song. I don't remember that though, but technically, Vital Idol came out when I was really not that old. So, whatever. But, I kept thinking of what they may have played Bryan Adams' Everything I Do. I swear every "couple" said that was their song in those days.

So, basically the music at prom was probably crap. But, I did go.

What memories do I have of prom in general? In Hiawatha (that's where I lived in my high school years. I don't usually call it home town, but that was my high school home), we had banquet that was hosted by the juniors. This was a dinner at the Elks or something. I don't know. I'm sure the hometown people there would remember what it's called, I just remember it was on the end of 7th street. Anyway, no out of town guests can go to this (by out of town they mean people not in our school. You see, we could invite people from other schools and even graduates, but not sophomores or freshman.) Anyway, after banquet, you go to the prom at the National Guard Armory. That's where the juniors would decorate every chance they got the week before prom. And then after that was after prom. You got to go home, change, and get back to play games and stuff like that. You also won prizes. Ok, so in Hiawatha, all there is to do normally is go cruising. So, that's what we did as sophomores. We also took water guns. That didn't make prom goers happy, but what did we care.

Ok, so junior year. I went with a couple friends. The one girl's dad owned the ford lot, so we got a mustang convertible to drive. AWESOME. So, we rolled up and our dad's were in the crowd (the town shows up and takes pics). They gave us corsages escorted us to the door and Jennifer's dad parked the car. People had to park their own cars, so we were lucky to go in as a group. Then we ate a crappy ass dinner that was roast beef and green beans, and who knows what else. Then we went to the dance and hung out some more. After the dance, we went to the after prom party. Let me tell you now. I wanted my hair down. I don't have the picture from that prom, but it was bad. My mom just thought you HAD to have everything done. I hated every second of it. Also, I'm not a dress person, but that was fine. My hair was waterproof, combproof, you name it. So, I went to APP in jeans and freaky hair. I think in the raffle I won $20. Oh, and then we went to St. Joe, MO for breakfast and home to sleep.

Senior prom was almost exactly the same. I forced my boyfriend, Kenny to go. You may recognize the name since he's my husband now. He didn't go to his, but oh well, he must have not been too traumatized. He's still here (and grumbles about proms still). Anyway, I tried to inform the hairstylist to NOT screw my hair up, but she did. Apparently, I am the only person who thinks that hairspray and prom do NOT need to go together. So, again crazy hair and jeans to APP. This time I won jumper cables, so that's not bad either. It's not a TV, but oh well. Anyway, that's it. I don't need to worry about proms again for a few years. Here in Lawrence, they only do a senior prom. But, of course, you can go if you are younger if someone asks you. I hope I don't need to worry about that until Corey's senior year though. Seriously.

Gosh

I think I'm down to posting monthly. I haven't been too busy, just too lazy!

This weekend we had decent weather and not much going on. Our kids got free meals at On the Border from the dentist so that's where we ate lunch Saturday. Then off to Amory's last indoor soccer game. I haven't updated the kids' sport website, but he loved soccer. His main thing was he got a trophy. Poor kid didn't feel so great at the game though. He was seriously walking from one side of the court to the other and the ball would be zooming by.

Yesterday, we went out to eat and then after we settled a bit, we took the dog for a walk around the lake. The dog is impossible to walk on the regular collar, but we got him a harness and he's amazing. I already love this dog because he fetches, and now he goes for a walk! We are working on sit and stay. Sit works usually, stay, not so much.

Today, I did my weekly volunteer thing with my daughter's 4th grade. It's always fun. I go in for math. One kid in her class drives me nuts though. He's smart, but he keeps telling everyone how he's so smart. WHO CARES? Then he was getting the math questions wrong, so that's funny. My kid though, she's smart too. However, she missed a question and started crying. I wish there was a way to get her to not need to be perfect. I'm certain that is why she wants to quit so many things.

This is funny

So apparently I'm full of anger. But I have no pride. Oh well, I'll kick your ass for saying it. :)

Your sin has been measured. You have committed many sins, but Wrath is the mortal sin that has done you in. Just below, discover your full sinful breakdown and learn what it is about you that condemns you to hell.

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Very Low

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com