Winner

As Kimball puts it, he's had a good competition month.


He and his VEX Robotics team were a part of the 1st place alliance that won in Denver and qualified to go to Nationals in March. (At the VEX competition, the boys had to maneuver a remote controlled robot that they had built and programed themselves to pick up objects and place them in storage hoops.)


Then, to his own amazement, he placed third in the District Spelling Bee and qualified to go to State, also in March.


For me, it felt very surreal watching Kimball win that spelling trophy.  I just can't believe he can spell like that.


I can't spell.  It's one of the two things I often tell people about myself as kind of a disclaimer.  The other one is that I'm directionally impaired.  At least that's what I've always called it.  I get lost very easily, even when I've been somewhere before.  I have to really pay attention to landmarks if I want to get back home after going somewhere new.  When I was earning my degree in Occupational Therapy, I learned the technical term is topographical disorientation.  But, hey, that's harder to spell.


So, on Saturday, I was sweating as the announcer presented Kimball with words like "repertoire" and "muumuu."  But Kimball spelled them with a nonchalance that hid the fact that he hadn't even thought he would pass the 100 word written test that took place earlier in the day.


If his direction sense wasn't so abysmal, I would swear he was switched at birth.


***I would like to thank spell check for making this post possible.

What Makes You Smile?

Everyone in the family knows I love the Foghorn Legghorn Christmas ornament that came with the cute, tough little chicken hawk that dogs his every step.  But what they don't know is the reason why I love it.

It's true that this giant rooster is one of my favorite cartoon characters.  It's also true that I enjoy it because it meets the character-Christmas-tree-ornament criteria that I hardly ever bend on:  To be hung on our Christmas tree the character that has been made into an ornament must also have something on it to identify it with Christmas.  No Star Wars ships or Super Hero Squad guys that simply look cool, but have no candy canes, presents, bows, etc stuck somewhere to let us know that this was made especially for Christmas.  (I still cringe whenever I catch a glimpse of the Broncos ornament Kimball somehow talked me into when he was in fourth grade.  I know some of you cringe to even think of a character ornament, but hey, we all have our quirks.)

No, neither of these is the reason I smile whenever I pick up these two Christmas fowls and hang them on the tree.  The reason I smile is...I don't know why I feel like I'm confessing as I write this but...I smile because whenever I look at those ornaments I remember that I bought them after Christmas at 50% off.

Yes, this fact says much about me.  I love a deal.  I will hold a grudge against an item for it's entire existence if I am forced, out of necessity, to purchase it at full price against my will.  The price will run through my mind as I give it a glance, and a scowl will automatically form on my features.

I once had a pen that I purchased when I worked at Hallmark that was extremely awesome.  It was a pen when you turned the bottom one way and a mechanical pencil if you turned it another way.  My co-worker showed me the new inventory once when I came in on my day off, and I told her to ring me up.  I was shocked when the register showed $11 as my total.  I had too much pride to admit that Mat and I were poor and couldn't possibly afford it, so I paid the money and left with the writing utensil held gingerly in a small bag.  Buyers remorse hung in the air as I explained to Mat what I'd done.  He, of course, laughed and wasn't bothered a bit.  I had that pen for twelve years before it broke.  I only stopped babying it for about the last five and never called it anything but "The Eleven Dollar Pen."

As I go through life, I am finding that sometimes a deal isn't a deal and it's just best to save up the money and purchase something nice, new and full priced when you need to.  But that doesn't mean that I don't still remember the jeans I got for $.50 when Kimball was a toddler.  They looked brand new and lasted through three boys, of course I remember them.  It doesn't mean that when Mat tells me he used the coupon I gave him to buy my Christmas present which made it a very inexpensive gift that I don't sincerely reply, "Well, I like it even better then."  And, it doesn't mean that I still don't remember the Christmas that I gazed longingly at the impressive Hallmark ornament display, knowing that I couldn't justify buying Mr. Legghorn and his sidekick at that price no matter how Christmas-y they looked, only to discover them on the half-off table one cold January day.  Sometimes we just have to treasure the little things that make us smile.