My heart stops when I remember how he was a little dude compared to now. He has become the sweetest young man. He tries so hard. He has a difficult road in front of him but I know he will succeed. Just being a mom makes it hard to watch. I’m just glad he is my child.

My youngest is playing the piano. He now is deciding whether to take up the trumpet, sax or guitar. *blink*. Hmmm… which way should I suggest he go? Which will be least annoying… the answer is…

Yaa, I don’t have an answer. It will be whatever he wants to play. Guess I’ll be finding another music instructor for the summer. Shoot me!

the Florida Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously reduced its passing score on the test from 4.0 to 3.0 for purposes of assigning school grades.

At 4.0, fewer than one-third of students scored at proficiency levels. At 3.0, that result rises to closer to 80 percent.

The HuffPost Miami stated:

As a result, 2012 FCAT writing scores in the state plummeted. Among fourth graders, only 27 percent scored a 4 or better as opposed to last year, when 81 percent of fourth graders got a 4 or better. The drastic dip in writing scores was also seen in eighth and tenth graders.

Wow. What went wrong? I can’t seem to find the answer to that one. Though there are a lot of opinions. Personally, I think the FCAT should be stopped. No no no… don’t get me wrong. I believe testing is necessary to make sure the children are getting educated. It helped that there was standards so you knew if you went from South Florida to North Florida, your child would be at the same level. But honestly… if you switch states… you can’t guarantee your child learned the ‘right stuff’ to keep up with the kids in the class in the new state. Again, I think kids should be tested. That teachers should have key indicators as to how well they are teaching. I just don’t think FCAT is the right answer. And this is a great example of why. Look at the difference between the two years. There will be a huge number of dollars spent on analyzing what went wrong. Ugh. Tax dollars at work – NOT. Drop it. Go back to having the schools test the kids and possibly set up a standard for half the key indicators for the teachers state wide while the school does the other half. That might just work. Maybe. Even set that some key indicators for kids. By the end of third grade they have to be exposed to cursive writing and pass a test on it.

Ok, off that high horse… I still can’t believe what I heard today.

One day Russ didn’t show up. Sam didn’t think much about it and figured maybe he had a cold or something.. But after Russ hadn’t shown up for a week or so, Sam really got worried. However, since the only time they ever got together was at the park, Sam didn’t know where Russ lived, so he was unable to find out what had happened to him.

A month had passed, and Sam figured he had seen the last of Russ, but one day, Sam approached the park and — lo and behold — there sat Russ! Sam was very excited and happy to see him and told him so. Then he said, ‘For crying out loud Russ, what in the world happened to you?’

Russ replied, ‘I have been in jail.’

‘Jail!’ cried Sam. What in the world for?’

‘Well,’ Russ said, ‘you know Sue, that cute little blonde waitress at the coffee shop where I sometimes go?’

‘Yeah,’ said Sam, ‘I remember her. What about her?

‘Well, one day she filed rape charges against me; and, at 89 years old, I was so proud that when I got into court, I pled ‘guilty’.

‘The damn judge gave me 30 days for perjury’.

I was thinking about getting illuminated house numbers just so I could be different. Particularly since I have had some out of town guests coming by at 7pm at night. It is still dusk/dark at that time. Though it is not that dark now adays… summer is a com’in. Yaa, luckily only the mail has been an issue this last couple of weeks. Everyone has found me just fine. I still wonder who came up with the road names in this neighborhood…

The boys had so much fun with them! I wore them as well. It was very cute. Particularly since the youngest brought home a ‘ticket’ for me to use that said he would dust for me.

They also gave me some Earth boxes. www.Earthbox.com I had an acquaintance that had some on his back porch. For over a year he grew stuff in them and it rocked. I am tired of growing stuff in the back yard for our squirrels, rabbits, caterpillars and the like. So I asked for some of these. Not expecting to get them. My hubby spent the day pressure cleaning the back porch so I could get them set up. And then… they didn’t come with coasters. They were optional. Luckily they came with $10 gift certificate. Though when I tried to place an order using them it said the number wasn’t valid. Guess I’ll be making that order today via the phone.

It was wonderful. They boys are great kids and I’m very blessed to have such a family. I just wish summer was here already.