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Wednesday’s Hero

Lisa — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:14:59 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Deb

Capt. Ed Freeman
Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

While reading the info on Cpt. Freeman, I found that I couldn’t have put it better than this.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

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Lands End Giveaway!

Lisa — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:22:18 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

I love Lands End. They have some of most stylish clothes at a good price. They even have plus size items that look good, so they score 2 thumbs up in my book. I also love that they have a virtual model on their site. All you have to do is put in your height and weight (there are othere things you can customize too like eye shape and hair color). You then can pick up clothing to put on your model, and know how that looks on you. You can exchange out colors, sizes, and pretty much anything else you want. I could literally spend hours just playing with that.

Now, if you are interested in shopping there for yourself or Christmas, use this coupon code:

Code: OUTERWEAR
Pin: 1013

This code will get you free basic UPS shipping on any order you have from October 13 – October 20. Now, I know that times are tough. Lands End knows this also and wants to give one of my readers either a Women’s Half-Zip Pullover or the Women’s Sherpa Fleece. I will let the winner pick which one she would like to receive! What do you need to do to enter this contest?

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know which one you want and what color it should be.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

This contest will end October 29th at 8:00 pm CST and is for US residents. Good Luck!

Where is the accountability?

Lisa — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:58:49 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

You know, I seriously hate being negative on here. I really do. However, some thing just tick me off to no end, so you all have to hear about them.

If you are a regular reader here, you know about my struggle with the public school and that we are considering sending her to private school. Click here to read all about it.

Now, my taxes pay their salaries and getting someone to talk to me is like pulling teeth. Then they don’t really answer what I ask either. However, my favorite has to be the Chicago Tribune article I read this week that the schools districts are telling parents to ignore the state test scores since they were graded differently this year. However, at the state level, they are saying the grading is comparable to years past. So who is right? Who needs to recheck their job descriptions and find out that they have no right to tell the parents anything?

Seriously, where is the accountability? I hear over and over that public schools are better since they are accountable. Really? They won’t talk to parents, they lie about test scores, etc. Where is the accountability?

Here is what I have learned from the private school. They are very transparent. They don’t baby any parents. The principal even said at the open house that if 90% of the parents can do it right, they all should be able to and that they don’t put up with that crap. Every time I have called and talked to them, they have answered every single one of my questions. They told me the class size this year for every single grade (K-8). The people answering the phone were extremely knowledgeable. There has only been one question they didn’t know the answer to and she gave me the number of the person who would (and that person did!). I can come in anytime and tour the school, and their test scores are an open book that can also be looked at any time I want. Granted, I have to pay to get this type of service but don’t I pay the public schools too?

Halloween: Masquerade Time!

Lisa — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:51:51 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

It is hard to believe that Halloween is a little over a month away, and it is time to start looking at Halloween Costume Stores again. I remember rushing around last minute last year trying to find a superman costume for Will (As you can see, I did find one!). This year I am not quite sure what we are making the kids. I did find some Handy Manny costumes in Will’s size, so we may go with that. Madison changes her mind from day to day what she wants to be. Right now, she wants to be a fairy with wings or a princess. This is very surprising for my house due to the fact she is soooo not a girly girl. However, she is old enough to decide what she does and does not want to be for Halloween. She could be asking for much worse, so I am happy with a fairy or a princess. I think we are leaning towards a princess since last year she was supergirl, the year before that she was Tinkerbell, and the year before that she was a flower.

How do you decide what your kids are going to be for Halloween?

Public vs Private School

Lisa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:27:12 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

If you follow me on twitter, you will know what this post is going to be about. If you don’t, I’ll do a quick explanation of what’s going on.

I live in the Ridgeland School District 122. We have had a school referendum fail twice. After the last time it failed, my school district cut all of the music and art programs and supposedly the after school programs too. After the last referendum failed, I had posted about it on my blog and had quite a response from both sides of the referendum. However, here I sit, and Madison will go to kindergarten next year, and we have to decide where she is going to go.

I always said my kids would go to public school. I went to public school and I turned out fine. LOL However, my class size was never higher than 25 kids and that was in high school too. Since I have no experience with private school, I am reaching out to my readers to give me their opinion.

Here’s what I know for sure — there is no art class and no music class. Instead it is being “facilitated in the classrooms” — whatever that means. I had a huge concern regarding this “everyday math” I have been hearing about. However, my public school is not teaching that. Her class size would be 22 – 30 kids with only one teacher. In private school, she would have gym, music, art, and computer once a week. Her class size would be around 15 – 19 kids with one teacher and a teachers aide.

Oh and let me add, the referendum is again destined to fail. The administration gave them 10% raises over the summer!

If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Public or private?

Edited to add: Homeschooling is not an option. Madison does way better learning when it isn’t me. I can’t believe the amount of things she learned in preschool already.

Edited again 9/23: The school principal will no longer answer my questions. All my questions now have to go through the main district office. According to the District 122 Ridgeland office, there is no music or art at all. No classes will go over thirty. However, they will not create another class unless there are 60 kids between 2 classes (I hope that makes sense), so it could happen that both classes could be 29 kids, and they would not make a new class. They had no idea what the district was going to do if the referendum fails a third time. In the past, it was threatened that one of the grade schools was to be closed and/or they would go to grade school centers. When I asked about that, I was told that was up to the school board.

Also, the raise I talked about was given to the superintendent and the assistant superintendents.

Also the district was asked to put their finances online. 26 other local districts have. Mine has refused and has publically stated that in a local newspaper.