My quick rankings of American Idol's Season 7 Top 20. My opinions of some of these kids seem to be very different from a lot of other people. Oh well. There were several that did manage to change in my rankings quite a bit since last week. The boys did do a lot better this week. Here they are in some semblance of my order from best to worst:

Top Guys: David Hernandez, David Cook, Michael Johns, Jason Castro, David Archuleta (I don't love him as much as the rest of America. Sorry.)

Middle Guys: Robbie Carrico, Chikezie Eze, Danny Noriega

Bottom Guys: Luke Menard, Jason Yeager

Top Girls: Brooke White, Carly Smithson, Syesha Mercado, Alaina Whitaker

Middle Girls: Asia'h Epperson, Kristy Lee Cook, Ramiele Malubay, Alexandrea Lushington

Bottom Girls: Kady Malloy, Amanda Overmyer

Posted in: American Idol, tv shows on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at at 12:31 AM 0 comments    

I'm kind of surprised at the lack of comments about the kid quotes. I think they're hilarious! Don't feel obligated though. Continuing on with the 2005-2006 fourth graders...

Kid 1: (singing) I'm in love with a stripper.
Me: Stop singing that!
Kid 1: Why?
Me: It's inappropriate.
Kid 2: (whispering) Yeah, they take their clothes off, man!

The next three quotes were all said by the same kid:
"We're going to Mardi Gras this weekend and my dad said my mom isn't allowed to drive back."

After the weekend... "I got some beads! You wanna know how? By flashing my titties."

And to another teacher: "I got beads by mooning someone"
Teacher: Where was your mother during all this?
Kid: In the car with a can.

"OK, don't take this wrong. Your momma's so fat she jumped in the ocean and the whales started singing 'We are family. Even though you're bigger than me.' (me staring at him) So you see. Whales are fat. But your momma's fatter. Don't take it wrong."

During the writing multiple choice section of the state test the smartest kid in 4th grade raises her hand... whispering: "I thought that a thesaurus was a dinosaur!"

"If you're sick, then why are you wearing a skirt?"

"Do you know my social security number?"

4th Grade Space Camp Quotes

We had a 12 hour bus ride with 37 4th graders then three full days with them. They had a lot of funny stuff to say...

While at a truck stop, he points at a shack nearby and says... "I'm 5% sure that my ancestors lived in that house."

"I weigh too little to pronounce it"

Kid: Did you wear that on Sunday?
Me: Today IS Sunday.
Kid: Aw, you smart. D----- fell for it.

"McDonald's fries suck now. They changed the oil."

Looking at a McDonald's apple pie box that a kid handed me... "Is that a camera?"

"My definition of square dancing is putting on a cowboy hat and jumping around."

Kid: We were taking my dog to the vet because we thought he was bleeding, then we realized it was just Mexican candy.
Me: What's Mexican candy?
Kid: You know, that stuff with a spoon where one side is watermelon flavored and the other side is Mexican flavored.

After riding G-Force, one of those rides that spins and presses you against the wall... "I feel skinnier."

Space Camp Staff Guy: What did the Chinese come up with that was important to space exploration?
Kid: Fortune Cookies?

While standing on a scale, squatting...
"I'm putting all my strength in my legs. I'm trying to weigh more!"

"What's Tang? It's Tangy!"

Holding up a girl's swimsuit... "Is this for girls or boys?"

Doing a commercial for beef jerky... "Are you tired of eating normal beef?"

Talking about the shower in the dorm... "I'm gonna stay in there all night 'cause the water bill's free!"

Posted in: kid quotes on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at at 1:16 AM 1 comments    

I keep getting tagged and keep trying to come up with things to say. Last time I was tagged I ended up posting 100 Things About Me, so needless to say I'm outta facts. So, Kristen, taking it in yet another direction, here are 7 things about me...

16

I Scored a 100%!

2,696,400How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard?

27% Geek

67%

64%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
(I don't know why this isn't higher!)

105

I challenge ANYONE to beat that! (It is WAY harder than it sounds!) I did it several times and went up each time and am still working on bringing it up higher. I credit my success completely on the fact that my sophomore roommate and I learned this song in its entirety.


If you have nothing better to do, try some of these and let me know what you got!

Posted in: dorkiness, tagged on Monday, February 25, 2008 at at 11:04 PM 1 comments    

D is about the funniest kid ever. For a four year old. Here are two videos highlighting last week in my life with the kid.

This is how he boxes on Wii Sports. It's completely hilarious. He is definitely getting a full body workout with this method. Sorry it's such poor quality. Their playroom is super dark and when I tried to brighten the video, it got fuzzy. But now you can actually see what he's doing.


The word I came up with to best describe this is beatboxing. He just started doing this one day for about 10 minutes. Sorry about the background noise. His grandpa was watching tv.

Posted in: D Man, video on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at at 10:16 PM 2 comments    

I'll keep this short. Here are my groups of the American Idol season 7 top 24 singers as I've placed them in three different groups and have listed them from best to worst within their group. Feel free to argue for your favorite or completely ignore this because you don't watch the show. It's just my opinion so don't attack me. (I feel like I have to say that these days.)

Top Guys: Michael Johns, Jason Castro

Middle Guys: Robbie Carrico, David Archuleta (those two are close to the top for me), David Cook, Colton Berry

Bottom Guys: Danny Noriega (almost in the middle), Jason Yeager, Chikezie Eze, David Hernandez, Garrett Haley, Luke Menard


Top Girls: Carly (Hennessy) Smithson, Syesha Mercado, Alaina Whitaker, Asia'h Epperson

Middle Girls: Brooke White, Kady Malloy, Alexandrea Lushington, Ramiele Malubay (All of these girls are about even for me and could all switch to my top list with minimal effort.)

Bottom Girls: Kristy Lee Cook (I want her in the middle!), JoAnne Borgella, Amanda Overmyer, Amy Davis


I obviously liked the girls WAY better than the boys. I'd be happy if there were 8 girls and 4 boys in the top 12, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Posted in: American Idol, tv shows on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at at 11:39 PM 1 comments    

Well things have finally settled back down in my e-mail inbox and on the counter for visitors to this page. In case you missed it, a FEW people (skip the first four) weren't very happy about what I wrote the other day. And that doesn't include the hate mail. I'll be careful from now on about who I mention on this page. I've been warned. :)

Posted in: on at at 12:36 AM 1 comments    

Our niece is so much fun to be around. A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Jon's dad's birthday. Here were some of the events:

Posted in: niece, the fam on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at at 2:04 AM 1 comments    

1. Open Google.
2. Type in "find Chuck Norris".
3. Click "I'm feeling lucky".
4. Laugh.

Posted in: funny things on Monday, February 18, 2008 at at 1:57 AM 1 comments    

I meant to post these the other day, but I forgot.

My 4th Graders Valentines Assignment (2006): Write something nice about every person and give it to them. These were some of my favorite ones. I've dashed out the names when written. The spelling errors are theirs, not mine...

* Your hair looks good
* You are a very good loser to kids
* Your cool and its not the cool you think it just means cool
* You're short but you think tall
* You can sing when it's a good song
* If your favorite color is yellow, mine is too
* (by the same kid as above): If your favorite color is red mine is too.
* Your silly in a good way
* Burps good
* Keep stylin
* Spanish girl
* you have the gratest hear due
* I like your shoes
* You're a good smiler
* Funny outburst sometimes stupid
* Loves to do something
* Loves to walk around
* All the girls like u sike HA!
* Keep pimpin Lean with it
* Is a gamer
* You fall alot but you're my friend
* Is nicer than her sister
* Is sweet not evil and my best friend
* Dear A----- C------ think you sweet. R-----
* Your birthday is closest to my dads
* You're the 2nd best reader and just read the book before you take the test
* You're short but you also smart
* You rock someone's world. I don't know who though.
* Is a kid that can read
* We will be friends until we get wrinkled and old
* Is weak and strong
* You're very good at throwing tennis balls
* You can be funny when you try
* Stephen is unpredictable (VERY true!)
* You are a good "tata teller"
* You have good manners, to me
* You are the best tallest friend
* Fun + friend = J------

And I'm going to go ahead and stay on the theme and post the same assignment... My 4th Graders Valentines Assignment (2007):

* I like your shous.
* You are kinda cool.
* You like to mess with me all the time.
* Your are nice - sighn E----
* You are so cool. You look like a Hotrod
* You are very good at being quiet.
* Is cooler than ice.
* You smell nice.
* Your nicer then nice.
* Your everything. Well, your very nice, and smart on your timetables.
* I like the way you talk. Would you teach me how to talk like that. (to Mexican student)
* You are a very good checker player.
* You good a math.
* Nice hair!
* Cool hair to?
* Cool but sweet.
* Your and stupindous friend and student.
* Cool jacket.
* You really like the razorbacks!
* Cool backpack!
* You is good.
* Your my best friend. P.S. You skatbord.
* He weres nice shoes.
* Has a nice hair doe.
* Has cool earings.
* Has long hair.
* Is not bad.
* Love Gap things.
* Do your best in shcool.
* Has very good hunting skills.
* Good little boy.
* I’m your friend.
* I love my sealf. (to self)
* You are very adventares.
* She has very long hair.
* You are cool when you like tinkerbell.
* Is sord of nice.
* You’re tall!
* Is a very nice person and he like mecanical pencils!
* He likes to talk!
* Is cool as snow.
* You got taste!
* Is a good, good, good, good, and good friend.
* You are a funny person and artes.
* You’re a real friend you’re a real Mikel Jordan.
* She is nicer than ever.
* You are so sweet you nock me off of my feet.
* You dress clean.
* You got the bling-bling.
* Is kind than my mom.
* I know my brother can be mean but that doesn’t matter. You rock.
* You razzle dazzle me.

Posted in: kid quotes on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at at 11:54 PM 1 comments    

I got a comment on my last post about someone putting a link to my poll somewhere so that everyone would vote for Taylor Hicks. I found out where. It's at the Taylor Hicks fan site. They've been coming and voting for him. I'm going to leave the poll up though because a bunch of people have come by that agree with me and have voted for others. So we'll just see where this goes...

Posted in: American Idol, poll on at at 12:52 PM 4 comments    

If you have watched American Idol for any time at all, I hope that you would agree with me that Taylor Hicks is easily the worst of the six winners so far. I never liked him from the time his big gray head walked into the auditions. His dancing, if you could call it that rather than seizing, is awkward and hard to watch and his voice just isn't that great. I have no idea how he managed to pull in enough votes to beat Katharine McPhee in season 6.
Apparently some producers somewhere have decided that they agree with me because Taylor no longer appears in the opening credits. During the opening credits of the show, they show performances of the past winners in the background of the animation. The jerky awkward clip of the Taylor was shown at the very end of the credits last season (Season 6). Now that season 7 has started and they have a new winner, Jordin Sparks appears at the end and Taylor Hicks is missing. That's fine by me. He was horrible. When he should be shown you can see his body seizing up on the screen, but they don't show his face. (It's hard to tell on this video, but you can notice if you watch it on the tv.)
I taped the credits and showed them at regular speed, then I slowed it down to show you where each person is and where Taylor isn't. Waste of time? Yes. Interesting? Maybe. Do you care? Probably not.

You probably didn't notice this either, but during all of the auditions with all of the backgrounds that have the former idol winners on it, they never showed Taylor's picture. Again, fine by me.

Also: New poll about American Idol on the side. Looks like the last poll had the most people liking reality shows, but ready for real tv to come back. Luckily the strike is over and we can all rejoice. :)

Posted in: American Idol, poll, tv shows, video on Friday, February 15, 2008 at at 2:56 PM 34 comments    

It looks like it's going to be a great season. From the looks of it, I think the girls are going to be quite a bit better than the boys this year. This seems to generally be true though. The girls who have won the show (Kelly, sort of Fantasia, Carrie, and Jordin) have done much better than the guys who have won (Ruben and *shudder* Taylor.) Of the 27 names that I put out there the other day, 15 of them were chosen for the top 24. However, half of the guys chosen have never been seen before, except for just a few seconds. The producers really seem to give certain people great advantages over others with how much they show them. It sure works for me! But when the voting starts, I always listen to everyone, whether or not I've heard them before. So here we go. AI Season 7 Top 24:


The Girls:
♥ Kristy Lee Cook - Amazing Grace girl
♥ Brooke White - The nanny who plays the piano and completely adorable
Alaina Whitaker - Only 16 years old
Kady Malloy - Did the impressions of Britney and Carrie Underwood in auditions
♥ Carly Smithson - Irish tattoo girl
Ramiele Malubay - Tiny asian girl

Amanda Overmyer - Rock 'n' roll nurse - I don't really care for this one
Amy Davis - I didn't like her in her audition

The Guys:
♥ Michael Johns - Australian guy
David Cook - Kind of sounds like Chris Daughtry
Chikezie Eze - Had auditioned in the past
Danny Noriega - Effeminate guy with pretty cool hair
Jason Castro - first time we've seen this guy
Luke Menard - Who?
Robbie Carrico - I wrote "pretty good, rockish" during his audition
Garrett Haley - Eh?
Jason Yeager - Who's this guy?
David Hernandez - Good not great
Colton Berry - I don't know

These are my thoughts based on not very much. The hearts are obviously for people that I already love. Those opinions generally don't change, but I'll let you know. I'll keep the AI posts shorter from now on. They should consist of People Who Need To Leave Now and People Who Should Be In The Finale. Happy (end of) Valentines Day!

Posted in: American Idol, tv shows on at at 12:59 AM 0 comments    

Posted in: bumper stickers, funny things, license plates on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at at 11:46 PM 3 comments    

Posted in: American Idol, tv shows on at at 12:47 AM 1 comments    

As you may have heard in previous posts, Jack's favorite thing to steal is socks. I'll be folding laundry and step away for ten seconds and he'll have grabbed a pair and run off. Tonight I came up with a punishment that he was not a big fan of:

I tied the sock around his mouth. If I just stare at him, he won't touch it, but if I go away, he pulls it right off. It's barely tied on there. I don't know if it will eventually keep him from doing it (I already did it twice tonight), but either way, it's really really funny.

Posted in: Jack on at at 12:33 AM 0 comments    

I can make one of those too!

Posted in: Jack on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at at 10:55 PM 0 comments    

Oops. It's been since January 23rd that I've posted about American Idol. Writing down everything that happened just wore me out, so I'm going to do this last audition post differently. Here is a list of the people I really liked from all of the auditions that I hope do well in Hollywood and a little description to help you remember them. Look for exclamation points at the end of people I really really like.
Philadelphia:
Junot Joiner - His mom took off her shoes. :)
Angela Martin - Looks like she sang at weddings
Kristy Lee Cook - Cagefighter - this girl was A-mazing!!
Chris Watson - I don't remember anything about him.
Brooke White - the nanny!
Dallas:
Alaina Whitaker - I don't remember anything about her.
Kady Malloy - did impressions of Britney and Carrie
Drew Poppelreiter - the farmer kid - He was excellent!
Nina Shaw - sang Whitney, from Burleson
San Diego:
Perrie Cataldo - the single dad of the boy with long hair - Very good!
Michael Johns - the Australian guy - Very VERY good!
Carly Smithson - disqualified two years ago for being a foreigner :)
David Archuleta - his vocal cords had been paralyzed
Charleston:
Jeffrey Lampkin - came with his sister and wore a tie on his head
London Weidberg - stopped singing to take care of her sick dad - Wonderful!
Omaha:
Samantha Sidley - Ryan came in and judged her and she sang Norah Jones
David Cook - sang Living On a Prayer, sounds like Chris Daughtry - pretty good!
Leo Marlowe - homecoming "queen" - feminine guy
Miami:
Brittany Wescott - 1/2 of the big girlfriends who came together, sang My Guy - good!
Ramiele Malubay - the tiny little Asian girl - She had a great voice!
Syesha Mercado - beautiful smile and big hair - sang Think and was great!
Atlanta:
Alexandrea Lushington - great-grandma was there with her - She was excellent!
Asia'h Epp... - her dad had just died - she sounded like she was straining but could be very good
I didn't get the end of her name because THIS was on the screen the whole show:

Etc. Auditions:
Cardin Lee McKinney - sang Dreamgirls - Simon didn't like her but I did
JoAnne Borgella - sang at Madison Square Garden - I liked her!
Chikezie Eze - has audtioned before
Danny Noriega - kind of feminine, but smooth good voice

And to wrap it up, one of the funnier things from this year's auditions:

1. Apparently the Holy Spirit's name is also Ashley
2. Her voice is more maturing.
3. Her vocal lessons have taught her some amazing skillz in making her scales sound like an ambulance siren.

Coming this week... My favorite: Hollywood week! Bring on the good stuff, baby!

Posted in: American Idol, tv shows, video on at at 9:32 PM 1 comments    

ABC now has a funny thing on their website called Sawyer's Nickname Generator. If you watch LOST, you know that Sawyer has given all of the losties their fair share of nicknames through the years. If you go to the site, you can put in your information and your own nickname will be given to you. Here's mine:

What's yours?

Posted in: LOST on at at 6:09 PM 2 comments    

I heart the Olympics!

Posted in: Countdowns, Olympics on Friday, February 08, 2008 at at 11:26 PM 1 comments    

Remember the time in February 2007 (that would be a whole year ago) that all of the Peter Pan peanut butter was recalled and subsequently removed from all grocery store shelves? That was a sad sad day. I have always only eaten Peter Pan peanut butter and in the last many years loved the Honey Roast Peanut Butter that Peter Pan made. They mix honey in with the peanut butter! Completely delicious.
When the recall occurred, I had to suffer through 6 months of Jif (blech). I was excited when, in August, the Peter Pan jars began to return to my local grocer's shelves. Finally the Jif could end! However, I still missed the Honey Roast. Over the past 6 months, any time I went to any grocery store, I'd stop by the peanut butter aisle to see if it was there. Alas, it was a no.
Until last night. I was in Wal-Mart, not even needing peanut butter, but checking nonetheless. And I saw the most wonderful thing on the shelf! You guessed it! Peter Pan Honey Roast Peanut Butter! Although I prefer the crunchy variety, which they haven't stocked yet, I could not leave without buying some!

If you've never tried it, I obviously highly recommend it. Go to the store and get some! Now!

Posted in: food on Thursday, February 07, 2008 at at 10:35 PM 1 comments    

I'm a good driver. I've never caused an accident and have never been pulled over. Every little dent and scratch on my 1994 Honda Accord is due to other people being too close to me in a parking lot or something. Until today. I've never been good at judging the distance to the curb when parking my car. This is an old picture of my car...

Notice that there is a black piece of plastic under the front left side, but not the front right side. This is due to the fact that I repeatedly ran the front of the car into curbs, eventually knocking that whole side loose and it ripping off about a year and a half ago. That was lovely.
Well today I was taking D to the park and pulled up a little too far once again. It hit the curb and I backed up, but I heard a new horrible sound that I'd never heard when backing off the curb before. The looks on the faces of the people sitting on the bench at the park weren't too promising either. When I got out of the car, this is what I saw...





The curb grabbed the lip under my car and just pulled the whole thing forward, breaking the little plastic pieces on either side that were attaching it to the part above it. Apparently this depth perception error is going to cost quite a lot because apparently that whole bottom piece of the car will need to be replaced. I'm going to start backing into parking spots.

Update: I took my car to Car Repair Guy this morning and he said he can fix it for about $100! Yay! That's better than a lot of bigger numbers.

Posted in: car troubles, oops on Monday, February 04, 2008 at at 11:30 PM 3 comments    

July 2005 we got married and I moved to Texarkana. I moved on up to fourth grade math and science. Here are the goobers I taught...

Posted in: kid quotes on at at 6:32 AM 0 comments    

Some weird lapse in time and space happened tonight. Between 10:18 and 10:24pm I had a huge inflow of visitors (who almost all stayed for less than 5 seconds, except for good ol' The Netherlands who stuck around for 9 minutes!) from (listed in order of visitation, including repeats)... Germany, Guatemala, New York, Colorado, USA, Michigan, Australia, Florida, Florida, Massachussets, North Carolina, Michigan, USA, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee, Argentina, Tennessee, Chile, Texas, Massachussets, California, USA, Alabama, The Netherlands, Mexico, Mexico, Canada, Canada, Louisiana, California, Canada, Mexico, Texas, Australia, Nebraska, Columbia, Texas, Dominican Republic, Madagascar, and Pennsylvania. All in 6 minutes. They all came from the Blogger website somewhere. That's just really really weird. Maybe my blog was listed on the front page for a few minutes or something.

Posted in: blog visitors, craziness on Saturday, February 02, 2008 at at 1:45 AM 0 comments    

Yay! We're back to me posting pictures! Here are some of the fun things I've done with the boys over the past two weeks.

Posted in: C Man, D Man, Wii on Friday, February 01, 2008 at at 9:57 PM 0 comments    

Sonic (the drive-in restaurant for any of you poor souls who happen to live somewhere that this wonderful place doesn't exist) copyrights a bunch of stuff. I was sitting waiting for my drink the other day and looking at the menu. I noticed how many words or phrases had that R with a circle around it. I wrote them all down:
Route 44
SuperSonic (Cheeseburger, etc.)
Sonic Size
Your Ultimate Drink Stop
Sonic Blast
Jumbo Popcorn Chicken
(Chicken Club) Toaster
Frozen Favorites
Sonic Boom
Your Morning Drink Stop
CreamSlush
Ched'R'Peppers
Ched'R'Bites
Wacky Pack
Sonic Wave
Ocean Water
And as a I drove out, a sign in the grass said something catchy about working there that was also restricted. Hmph. I should copyright something. Like the word "the".

Posted in: craziness on at at 12:05 AM 0 comments