Update

Tom takes Katie to school every morning and every morning, she has a ton of questions for him. She is such a thinker and wants to know everything about everything. Recently Tom taught her about trees giving off oxygen for us to breathe. She deduced from that that if we cut all the trees down, we won't have oxygen to breathe anymore. She has been very concerned about this ever since she figured that out. Well a couple of weeks ago, the highway department cut down the trees at the split of 321/21/176 and Tom goes through there every morning to take her to school. She thinks the state is trying to kill us now by cutting down the trees. Well this morning, when they passed that spot again, she asked Tom why we can't take all of the oxygen, while we have it, and put it in containers. (She's always thinking.) Tom asked her where would we get the containers to put all the oxygen in. She said "Well we could put it in pickle jars." Tom thought she must get that reasoning from my mom....never throw ANYTHING away cuz you can use it later....even pickle jars to hold oxygen. lol

The latest on Brittanie is that she is now officially less than 2 months away from graduation and I can't wait!!!! Her choir teacher is like a choir nazi and I have had enough. Since she started taking choir this year, he has called me periodically to gripe about Brittanie being out sick. It was never out of concern. He started and finished EVERY call with telling me that his class was very important and that she needs to be there. Brittanie (and most of the Sightler family) is cursed with a bad stomach and at one point during this year it was thought that she had a broken disk in her back. So she has missed alot of school and 99% of them are excused with doctor's excuses. But that doesn't seem to matter to Mr. Johnson. He called me on Valentine's Day to gripe about Brittanie missing his class the day before for the BIG JROTC inspection (after he had griped to another student about her being in JROTC instead of his class that day) and because she was absent on Valentine's Day. Well I promptly told him that I had to take Brittanie to the doctor first thing Valentine's morning because she was throwing up blood from the stress and most of her stress is from Mr. Johnson. Good Friday was the last straw. She took her final in Econ, went to English class, then went to the Army presentation at lunch that her JROTC program sponsored. She is the battalion commander so of course she had to make an appearance out there. They couldn't start the careers movie until 20 people got there, which was 15 minutes into her lunch. The movie was 30 minutes long and there was a lecture afterwards. Brittanie is going career Army so she definitely wanted to see all they had to show her. When the lecture was done, she went and talked to the ROTC guy. When she was done with that, she went on to Biology, which meant that she missed her choir class with Mr. Johnson. ALL of the teachers at her school were told that if a student misses a class or is late to class because they went down there, it is excused. Well he evidently was griping to the choir class about Brittanie missing his class because when she walked into Biology, Mrs. Skinner said "We were just talking about you being in trouble with Mr. Johnson." Some of the people who are in her choir class are also in her Biology class and they were talking about how mad he was at Brittanie for missing his class. Then Mr. Johnson calls Mrs. Skinner's class and asks her to send Brittanie to his class so he can talk to her. So now she is missing a required class to talk to the teacher of an elective class about one missed class! He chewed her out. She said he raised his voice and was glaring at her and just let her have it. He asked her why she didn't miss any of her other classes to go down there to which she responded with "Because those are required classes and this class is just an elective." He didn't like that answer at all. She was getting angrier by the minute and was literally biting her tongue to not respond to him and he asked her if she was grinding her teeth at him. He's lucky she did bite her tongue or it would have gotten really ugly. She doesn't need this stress!!! This is just a choir class. It should have been a simple thing to go in, sing, and forget about it. But instead he has made her and me miserable everytime she misses a class. I told her not to take that class but she loves singing and wanted to do it, so I agreed. I wish I had stuck to my guns and never let her take any classes with him.

Bottom line is, I am done. I talked to her guidance counselor on Good Friday and she told me that Brittanie can't drop the class because it would give her an F because it is too late for an incomplete. She wanted to try to stick it out. But after Good Friday, she doesn't want to stick it out any longer. I bet NO other teacher in the school called a child out of their next class to chew them out for going to the Army thing and missing their class. He is the most unprofessional pain in the butt I have ever encountered in all of the years Brittanie has been in school. Mr. Johnson is also known for grading on emotion. What I mean by that is that if he is mad at you, you don't get an A. Well after what happened, I'm sure she won't get an A. She needs to keep her GPA as high as possible to keep her class rank for the Life Scholarship and her Army ROTC scholarship. I don't want him giving her a bad grade out of spite because she missed his class. I contacted her principal, Dr. Maddox, about this and he asked the assistant principal to talk to me and read to me their stupid rule, which her guidance counselor had already told me about. But I told him that I won't accept that. My child should NOT have to stay in a class with such an unprofessional jerk for a teacher because of a rule. This should be considered a special circumstance because she doesn't want out because it is too hard or any other stupid reason. This is the teacher's fault. He gripes at his students because his choir is dropping in numbers each year and he says they aren't recruiting. Why would you want to get your friends to join that misery? I'm prepared to take this as high as I need to in order to get her out of his class. Well after me telling the assistant principal that his answer was unacceptable and I'm prepared to follow the chain of command all the way till I get her out of that class, he brought Brittanie into his office and talked to her. He told her that she was very articulate and wanted Dr. Maddox to hear her story. Dr. Maddox listened and took LOTS of notes and told her that he is going to do his best to get her out of there. He has to follow the proper procedures.

I have always liked Dr. Maddox and I feel confident that he will do his best to get her out of that class. He didn't make her go to choir today and for that I'm grateful. She has a field trip in Biology and her Biology teacher told them all to get permission not only from their parents but from their other teachers to miss the entire school day to go on this field trip. Well I KNOW choir nazi would never sign to let her go. So I'm going to ask Dr. Maddox to sign the paper for him.

We have never encountered such a thing before. Brittanie took choir from 3rd grade to 8th grade at Grace and her choir teacher was THE BEST!!! (PCC alum....actually got her Master's from PCC) She made choir a joy for everyone who took it and Brittanie LOVED it. Mr. Johnson definitely does not do that for his choir members. Brittanie said her fellow choir members all gripe about him but none of them actually tell someone that can do something about him. But that man messed with the wrong child this time. If you know anything about me, you know that I will never allow anyone to mess with my girls.

So that's the major deal right now. In other news, Brittanie's friend, Jeremy, has asked her to prom. He is a senior at her school too. Each senior is allowed to take one person and that person doesn't have to go to Swansea. So she is still going to take Courtney to prom with her so that she can enjoy prom but this way Brittanie will have a male date. She is thrilled about that. She was worried that rumors were going to start about her and Courtney being a gay couple and that is completely NOT the case. Courtney is so fun and sociable, she doesn't need Brittanie by her side at all. So as far as tickets go, Courtney is her date. But officially, Jeremy is her date. But she will be taking pictures with just Jeremy and then another one with Jeremy, Courtney, William, and Erica. Sounds like they are going to have alot of fun!

Wow!

Let me start this post by saying that I love my family and am proud of my Cajun heritage. That being said, I think so many of the old Cajun beliefs and practices are just plain retarded. I will never forget telling my mom that Brittanie's umbilical cord had finally fallen off (It stayed on for 7 weeks!). She asked me what I did with it. I thought it was an odd question but I told her I flushed it. She was horrified. She told me I was supposed to bury it under the window on the north side of the house. Ummm I lived in an apartment. She told me I could have buried it at her house. I thought that was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of. Oh and for all of you breastfeeding moms out there....when you get ready to stop breastfeeding, you can dry up your breasts real quick by expressing your milk on a hot brick. (have mercy!)

Well the latest story of retardation cost taxpayers money! It happened in the town that my parents grew up in and I still have lots of family there....Leonville, LA. I'm going to copy and paste the story here but you can go to DailyWorld.com and read it for yourself if you don't believe me.

Missing man found alive Deputies dredge Teche, but Leonville man was in Florida By Alexandria Burris
aburris@dailyworld.com


LEONVILLE - A dredging tool and an old wives' tale were used to find a missing man feared to have drowned in Bayou Teche. As it turned out, the only tool needed was a telephone to call and determine the man was alive and in Florida.

"Thank the good Lord that he's alive and well," said Jimmy Darbonne, a spokesman for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office.

Donald Knott, 43, was last seen Thursday on his way to check on fishing lines he set up along the bayou's banks, said Joseph Noel, Leonville's assistant police chief.

Knott's twin brother awoke around 3 a.m. Friday and found his brother's bed empty, he said.

The Leonville Police Department spent the rest of the day calling the missing man's friends to locate him.

Fearing Donald Knott had fallen into the bayou, the department asked the sheriff's office to dredge Bayou Teche for his body Saturday.

Leonville Police Chief Dalton Brown said Knott's disappearance was unusual.

"Normally, he never leaves his house at night," Brown said. "He would always come back to his house and sleep."

More than one hour into dredging the bayou, a suggestion was made to place a bowl with a lit candle into the water, with the hope the candle would float to the area where Knott had submerged.

"That's just an old wives' tale, but in a situation like this, we'll try anything," Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said. "I've heard of it working before. I've never seen it work, but I've heard it worked before."

A Leonville woman handed three bowls and two candles to Guidroz, who decided to use a plastic peppermint container in which to place the light. He placed the scented candle in the container and handed it to his administrative officer, David Meche.

"Go where y'all think he fell in," Guidroz said. "And back off."

Meche placed the container with the candle in the water near one of Knott's fishing lines. The bowl tipped but stayed afloat. It floated one way then back the other, before getting caught on a large wooden board.

The bowl got caught on a tree stump after it was freed from a board.

Guidroz then used a thin stick to poke it free. It floated down the bayou past Leonville Elementary and was gone.

The deputies continued to dredge the bayou for most of the afternoon.

Darbonne said Meche eventually received a phone call later Saturday notifying him Knott may have left for Florida with some friends who recently visited Leonville.

The office contacted Knott's unidentified friend in Florida, Darbonne said. The friend put Knott on the telephone, and Knott confirmed that he was OK.

"He was going to Florida to get a little job," Darbonne said.

The search for Knott wrapped up around 5 p.m. Saturday.

Katieism

Katie is trying to convince me that after 5 years of hating bananas, that she now likes them. I didn't even acknowledge what she said so she continued by saying "If you give me a banana, I'll eat it like an egg!" Then I had to laugh.

Last night, our friends, Frank and Lynn, came over to play Pictionary (which we try to do once a month). We had a great time. I got a 3 foot party sub from Steve's Deli, and we had chips and dip, and Lynn brought her always delicious brownies and we pigged out and played Pictionary. It was so much fun. Tom was in a great mood and when that happens, he picks on everybody. I love it when he is like that. But he told me that before they come back, I HAVE to study a map. I'm horrible at geography. I was an honor student all through school but I only learned history, geography, and science long enough to take the test and then it was gone. So I guess I didn't really learn it. I memorized it. It was just so boring to me. It has been no secret to Tom, Frank, or Lynn that I'm horrible at geography because everytime I have to draw a foreign country, I draw the US and then an arrow that points to the right. He knows that means guess some countries because I have no clue where that is. Well last night, Tom had to draw and make me guess "Spain." Let's just say, we didn't get it. LOL Make me do a complicated algebra problem or a chemistry problem, and I will be all over that. But don't ask me where Spain is. He even drew arrows to South America to let me know that they speak Spanish in the country he was drawing. But he was drawing it in Europe. I thought Spain was in South America. I thought all those Spanish speaking people were in South America and Mexico. I never cared to learn the truth. So now Tom is making me study a map before we play again. LOL

HAHAHAHA I don't get it???

Tonight Katie came out of her bedroom and ran in the living room and screamed "CHICKEN DINNER" and just burst out laughing. She laughed so much that she got the hiccups. We finally told her to stop so she asked if she could go in her playroom and do that. Tom told her yes, as long as the door was closed. So she ran in her playroom, closed the door and started screaming "CHICKEN DINNER" over and over again and laughing her hiney off.

I don't get it but it sure made her laugh. Tom looked at me and said "I think she's lost it." LOL

Let's hope her math gets better

Brittanie was outside waxing her car and Katie wanted to go out there too but I made her come to me so I could put her hair in a ponytail. She hates that but it is frizzy when down and I hate that. Well she walked outside with a mad face and Brittanie asked her what was wrong. She told Brittanie "Three words...She put my hair in a po ny tail." She was counting that on her fingers. LOL Glad I bought her a Math game for her L-Max for Easter. Maybe that will help. hehehe (I love how she made the word "ponytail" 3 different words when she was counting it on her fingers. Too funny!)

Katieism

Today, Brittanie went to get Katie something from Wendy's. Katie thought she was taking too long and came to me and said "Sissy should be back by now because Wendy's is just a suction cup away!" And then she put her hands together and pulled them apart and made a sucking sound with her mouth. Where does she come up with this stuff? lol

Miss Army Girl

Tonight, Brittanie came running down the stairs asking Tom to go outside with her. William had called her and told her to check her mail at the road. She was scared to go out there alone because it was dark. William was on the phone laughing at her saying "Come on Miss Army Girl. You want to go into the Army but you're scared of getting the mail?" If you think about it, it is pretty funny. But they went out there and all it was was a brick in the mailbox with "Tater and Goober say Hi" written on the brick in black sharpie. She was scared to death and it turned out to be a brick. Too funny! Buck up Army girl! lol

The hunt is on!

Katie enlisted Belle's help in finding the Easter eggs. They were plastic and I tried telling her that unless we put meat in those eggs, Belle isn't going to be of much help to her. But Belle is very protective and stayed with Katie everywhere she went in the yard.
Katie is terrible at finding things. I knew hunting Easter eggs would take awhile because she just isn't focused enough to find anything.Can you find the egg in the picture above? The two pictures below are how Katie was trying to find it.My little tomboy couldn't resist stirring up an ant pile while hunting for eggs. (above)
She was hunting for these eggs after 7pm. There was no sun. But check out how she was trying to find them. (above and below)
She would get so excited that she would start to run and the eggs would go flying out of her bucket and she would have to stop and pick them up.She had a blast out there hunting eggs, even though it seemed to take forever.

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a great Easter. Ours was quiet but good. We tried giving Katie her Easter basket first thing this morning but she had an attitude problem so we didn't. We had lunch at O'Charley's and when we got home she had a better attitude. We have always given very little candy to our girls and just given them gifts instead. This year, Katie got a Sonic the Hedgehog Math game for her L-Max and a My Little Pony Doctor pony set. Katie and Brittanie dyed Easter eggs. Katie's were colorful and holographic. Brittanie's were camouflage....of course. Brittanie went bowling with a friend who is doing AIT at Fort Jackson. His unit can't leave Post this weekend so they had to bowl on Post. She didn't mind that at all. She is in heaven around all those GI's. LOL Katie has been playing her L-Max all afternoon. Unfortunately, Tom has a migraine and has been sleeping most of the afternoon. When he gets up, we will hide the Easter eggs for Katie. If he doesn't feel up to it, Brittanie said she would hide them with her tomorrow.

Brittanie wouldn't let me take pictures of her today. But I finally got a couple of Katie when we got home from O'Charley's.

Tom Jr.

Today after school, I took Katie by McDonald's to get her a Happy Meal. While I was ordering, Katie was on the cell phone with my mom. My mom asked Katie if there is a toy in the Happy Meal. Katie answered her "You are just pretending to be stupid. You know there are toys in Happy Meals!" Katie's mouth with Tom's words. LOL

What a weekend!

We had quite an eventful weekend! Friday a black dog decided he wanted to live with us. He was a pretty dog but stupid and annoying and we already have one dog and don't want another one. So Saturday morning, Tom tied him to a tree in the front yard with food and water hoping that the owner would be looking for him and find him there. We know he had owners because the cord he was tied to was around his neck still...looking like he twisted until he broke the cord and got loose.

Saturday, Tom decided he wanted to get rid of the smaller trees and bushes in the yard and prunes some of the bigger trees so it will make it easier for him to cut the grass. Well he went to Lowe's and bought a chain saw, ax, rake, pruner, etc. and by the time he got home, the storm was brewing so he couldn't do anything with the stuff he just bought.
Brittanie had to attend the military ball at Airport High Saturday night and just as she and John were about to leave, the rain started coming down like crazy. Tom moved my van out of the garage and pulled her car into the garage so she didn't have to get into her car in the pouring rain in that big poofy pink dress. She would have been drenched before the door closed! Right after Tom got in the house from moving my van out and her car in, we start hearing a loud ticking sound....HAIL!! There was LOTS of hail for about 5 or 10 minutes. I haven't been out there but I don't think there is any damage to my van or Tom would have told me to call Allstate. But once the hail stopped, so did the rain and Brittanie and John were able to leave for the ball, which Brittanie described as "lame" compared to their ball. They were home by 9:30 (The ball started at 6:30.) so they changed clothes and went bowling. Brittanie beat him 2 out of 3 games! That's Tom's child....VERY competitive. She isn't going to let anyone win....not even a guy she is trying to win back.

Katie has been worried about that dog all weekend. She played with him alot on Saturday and Sunday. She asked what we are going to do if his owners don't find him. We told her we are calling Animal Control to come pick him up on Monday (which I did this morning). She asked what happens to him at Animal Control. Tom said the owners can go pick him up from Animal Control. She said "Well what if they don't?" He said "Then they put him to sleep." She said "Forever??" We told her yes. That made her cry. She went into her room and got a piece of paper and got Tom to write "Found Lost Dog" on the paper. Then she took a straw and taped it to the paper and was marching through the house chanting "Save the Dog! Save the Dog!" over and over. It was cute and sad all at the same time.

Brittanie told me that her best friend, Courtney, and her friend, Erica (who both came here Saturday to help Brittanie get ready for the ball) are home schooled and they won't get to go to prom.
I suggested that she take Courtney to prom. Courtney's boyfriend has already graduated so she can't go to his prom so at least she can go to prom with Brittanie and they would have a blast. I told her they can just go sit down or fix their make-up/hair during slow songs. So she called Courtney and she jumped at it. She was very excited that she would get to go to prom after all. She also asked if Brittanie had a friend that needed a date that Erica could go with. So Brittanie called William and he said yes, he would take Erica. So now they are all going together. William will end up with 3 girls to dance with. Now they don't have to sit out all out of the slow songs. They can just take turns dancing with William. So Courtney and Erica are so excited. Both of them have good jobs and will be able to pay for prom themselves. That's more than 90% of the guys at Swansea could do so they will all have fun dancing at prom and then going bowling after prom, and then to Waffle House and who knows what else!

****Katie is crying her little eyes out right now because Animal Control just came by to pick up the dog. It is so sad. But I'm just glad he is gone. We don't want or need another dog.

Swansea High School Career Fair

Today Swansea High School had a Career Fair....ya know to show students the careers available to them. Here are the careers exhibited:

1. All branches of the military, including National Guard.
2. Tattoo Parlor
3. Hair dresser
4. Mattress company
5. Wachovia Bank
6. Swansea Police Department
7. Guidance Counselors (represented by the Swansea High Guidance Counselors)

So what we have is 2 out of 7 professional careers. You know what they think of our students, huh??? How embarrassing!

By the way, the school got paper again.....but ran out again.

I scored 10 out of 13....I LOVE Commercials

See how you do. It is a quiz about matching the slogan to the product in commercials (some from the good old day)s.

Click here for the quiz.

I missed the Cottonelle commercial, the one where Robert Conrad dared us to knock a product off his shoulder, and the tobacco commercial. I don't ever remember a commercial about tobacco products in my lifetime. That must be a real old commercial.

Let me know how you do.

Lots of pictures

***Blogger.com was being stupid and not wanting to upload any pictures so I had to upload them somewhere else and put the html code in so I'm sorry that the side bar is obscuring part of some of the pictures.**

Last night was Swansea High School's military ball. Brittanie was very excited because she is Battalion Commander this year and for the first time ever, the Battalion Commander was allowed to sit at the head table.
She also gave permission to present the colors (flags) and then to retire the colors.


I am friends with the DJ (Red Fraley) and especially his beautiful wife, Jenn. So I asked him to take pictures of Brittanie for me at the ball so that's how I got the pictures taken there.

She looked like a beautiful princess Barbie that night. She was at the end of the receiving line and Hank's parents came through the receiving line. His mom is on the school board. Well his dad shook her hand first and told her that she looks gorgeous. Then his mom came up and said "I agree! You look gorgeous. The only thing wrong is that it should be my son standing next to this gorgeous young lady." She said that right there with Cameron standing next to Brittanie! She said she didn't know what to say. She just laughed and said thank you. Cameron said "Gee that made me feel like crap." LOL I love Hank's mom, Paula Ogburn. She tells it like it is. She's awesome.


Brittanie forgot the checkbook in the car and they wouldn't let anyone out of the building to go get it....probably due to Justin's inappropriate behavior in his mom's car at the military ball last year. So I won't have any professional pictures and unfortunately I was rushing taking pictures yesterday and my pictures look terrible. They look like they were taken by a retarded photographer. lol But here they are.

While waiting for her to come home, I also scanned the graduation pictures that she took in Louisiana at Don & Jan's. So here are those.