Championship ring!

The El Dorado Wildcats held their football banquet and ring ceremony on Thursday, February 25, 2010! I realize that you really can't tell much from this picture but I wanted you to know that I have been telling the truth! The Wildcats really are state champs; you can read the word CHAMPIONS on the ring! The Cats are graduating so many fine young men. It is sad but exciting. Some of them are boys I taught in elementary school; some are students I met during my long-term sub situation in the EHS library last spring. Some I don't personally know but I feel as if I have gotten to know them by watching them on the field and listening to Jimmy and DanMan. You would be surprised by what you can learn about a person's character by the way he treats the water boy!

Yesterday was Math and Science Fun Day for DanMan's elementary school. A good friend of mine is the focus coordinator there so I have been volunteering in recent years. Yesterday, for the first time, I had DanMan in one of my groups and my friend took our picture. It is not a flattering photo of either of us but still I treasure it! Fun Day is a wonderful learning experience for every child at Yocum Elementary. I did my experiment with 1/4 of the 600+ children enrolled there so it was a L-O-N-G day! I had such a good time though. DanMan (and all the other kids) first tried to blow out a candle with a funnel by blowing through the small end. Then we turned the funnel around and blew through the large end. If the child managed to "aim at the flame" (my mantra for the day), blowing through the large end was obviously the most effective! This is DanMan's last year at Yocum but I imagine I will continue to participate in this activity. I feel kind of guilty because I retired from Hugh Goodwin Elementary and still think of it as MY school. HG does some wonderful learning activities too and I volunteer there as well. El Dorado has gone to a focus concept and DanMan and his parents decided that he would fit best at the Math and Science School. Maddy begins elementary school next year and she has chosen MY school - the Academy of the Arts!

Hannah's first dance!

My precious Hannah Banana went to her first dance Saturday night! I was lucky enough to be invited to go along dress shopping. Didn't we make a great choice?

Grandma with-the-cows 99th birthday party!

Tommy's mother turned 99 on February 1st. Many family members met at the St. Vincent Rehabilitation Hospital on January 31 to celebrate with her. She made me laugh so hard after she was pretty woozy on her way to her hip replacement surgery on MLK Day. A tech of some sort leaned over her and, saying he had to be sure he had the right patient, asked her her birth date. She replied "TWO - ONE - ELEBEN. I'm an old coot!" No, I didn't misspell "eleven"; that's how it came out! (Many thanks to Natalie Doss Costner for my blog tutorial. I THINK I should be posting a picture of Grandma and her sugar-free birthday cake when I click SAVE NOW.)

Over two years later!

I last posted to this journal over two years ago. I am ashamed of myself. With all of the cute people I have to report on, I should be posting daily!

Tom has a retirement date - June 1, 2010. He is counting down the number of weekends he has left to be "on call" - FIVE!

Jenny and Eric are expecting a second daughter, to be named Hattie in honor of her ninety-nine year old great grandmother. The baby is due in mid-April and will be born in Atlanta, their home until July of 2010. Eric is doing a fellowship at Emory in minimally invasive surgery.

Jimmy's Wildcats reached the state championship game in 2008 but lost to Lake Hamilton. In 2009, though, the Cats managed to win their first state title in 51 years!!!! We are so proud of everyone connected with the team! Jill created a book documenting the game from a Johnson perspective. It is a treasure!

The rest of us have no huge news but are well and happy.