Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The good, the bad and the ugly



Let's start with the good! We are all set for our Cape San Blas vacation! Spring Break here we come. We are the proud owners of a skim board and have a kids metal detector on the way...what else could you need for a fun spring break! The house we are staying in is quite unusual. The house is called the barnacle and it is round of all things.

It turns out that we are going to have some good friends in the area during our stay which should add to the fun!

Seafood, sand and drinks with tiny umbrellas!




Ok now on to the bad! We moved to Fulton County because of the great schools. We have definitely had some struggles with our school and there have been many times I have questioned our sanity on keeping Bennett in public school. Most of the time it basically came down to a financial decision that we just couldn't put him in private school. Of course, we always have other concerns such as the affect of uprooting him, etc. Then it seems right when we thought it was as bad as it could ever get we would get a fabulous teacher who would change our year. All this to stay, we have a fantastic teacher this year so we were going to be nervous about next year anyway...So now our lovely county doesn't have enough tax revenue to support all the schools in the county...so the answer is CUT programs (band is officially being cut). Really we are cutting programs in education? It is such the typical American philosophy, they put caps on taxes when times are good...well guess what happens when times are bad?? You don't have enough money. DUH! We all seems to know this except politicians. What school is going to look like next year for Bennett scares me. Cramped classrooms, bare-bones education, teachers right out of college with no experience because they can't afford experienced teachers. It is bleak.


This leads to me the ugly. There is a politician who is running on the platform of getting our part of fulton county (North Fulton) out of Fulton County and into Milton County. This would mean that our tax dollars would go directly into our own community. So what could be ugly about that? This particular politician is a Republican. I try not to be completely closed minded. I don't vote just based on party. BUT with what is going on Washington at the moment. It scares me to death to think that I could cast a vote for a politician based on 1 issue!!! I will tell you that this particular makes such a difference to whether or not Bennett is thriving. I would do it. I guess my democratic brothers and sisters aren't going to win any elections in Fulton county right now talking about raising our taxes by 1 point. So I am stuck with the ugly truth that I may have to do what parenting is all about...sacrifice yourself for the betterment of your child.

Click this link for more info on the history and size of Fulton County: http://fultoncounty.georgia.gov/03/home/0,2230,8307511,00.html;jsessionid=05EE372023C8C353F005ACB4E37E8BCD








Friday, March 5, 2010

11 months? Where has the time gone?


Can it really be 11 months since I have updated our blog. That doesn't seem possible. I have just booked our trip for Spring Break and it appears we are going to have a MUCH better time this year then last. We are heading to CApe San Blas for some R&R. I am looking forward to it more then I could have even imagined before I booked it!


4th grade is cruising by. Bennett just tested for his green belt and karate. Tonight we will be attending the belt ceremony. It is amazing that he started this summer. He has come along way!
When we return from Spring Break it will be standardized testing season (BOOO). We have just received our list of areas we need to work on for the CRCT. So we have a plan in place and poor Bennett will be doing practice tests until after Spring Break. He seems to be a freaking genius who doesn't test well. :)


2010 for the Lanier family is all about getting our act together so I am hoping keep our blog up will be part of that act :)


Monday, April 13, 2009

Spring time is here

Spring Break is over. Bennett went back to school today on this very rainy Monday. We had such a great time over his time off. It was action packed.
A few higlights:
  • a 36 hour camping trip

  • saw Monsters vs. Aliens


  • played mini golf


  • went to a Braves game





  • Easter!


Back at school the CRCT (standardized testing) starts on Thursday and doesn't until next week. Back to business quickly at the Lanier house.

Happy Springtime!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Snow day 2009 Part Deux


Really throwing snowballs at the photographer!
Posted by Picasa

Snow Day 2009

It rained for 3 days straight and we finally got some relief with some snow.

Murphy's first snow. He doesn't quite know what to make of it.

Gathering snow for snowballs on Daddy's car.

I love this picture.
Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Biography Book Report Gone Wild!



If anyone ever had to wonder if Bennett was truly related to me...how he does his school projects could be a big indicator that it is a resounding YES! He has a tendency to not being able to settle for just getting by...Luckily for him, he got this trait from me so when he wants to go for it whole hog I am right there with him.
So what am I talking about? Bennett had a biography book report assignment. They had to read a book and then create a doll that was in the likeness of their person. If you wanted to...you could have cut the doll out at school and color and decorate it or something lame like that. Well that wasn't good enough for my boy so...he decided he wanted to make his doll. So after a family trip to Michael's where is his perfectionist Daddy went down EVERY aisle to make sure we had the perfect ingredients to create MR. W.K. Kellogg!!!! We found a little tuxedo in the scrapbooking section that fit on this little doll that we find...and well you get the idea so here (drum roll please) is Mr. W. K. Kellogg and his box of corn flakes!

Mad props Bennett Lanier you rock! We definitely will get all of the 15 points that this part of the project gives (yes I said 15 points).
Blogger out!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

A complete blog on Bennett's first chess tournament


Sorry about my blog from the chess tournament. I was trying to be fancy and blog from my phone...as you can see it didn't work. Bennett's chess team went to the Regional Tournament yeaterday. He was part of the Lake Windward Elementary k-3 team. Bennett has been playing chess since the beginning of November so we were kind of nervous about how this would all go down. First let me get a little selfish and set this up for you. The tournament was at the Middle School right down the road from our house, Webb Bridge Middle. All the teams and parents sat in the school cafeteria and the matches were set up in the gym. You were asked to be there between 9 and 9:30 and the matches started at 10am. There were 5 matches that were an hour and half each. If that doesn't sum it up correctly...it was a REALLY long day. The school has no wireless...a wonderful cut in education which should be fixed. It is 2009 and our Middle Schools don't have wireless? Anyway that is a subject for another blog.

So Bennett lost his first match, won his second, tied his 3rd, lost his 4th and won his 5th. For his first tournament we were all super excited about those results. Lake Windward came in first in the region for K-3! They were all so excited! It was worth sitting on those chairs in the cafeteria for 7 hours! :).

So congrats to Bennett and the LWE Chess team!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

our first chess tourney

Today is bennett's first chess tournament. He is 1-1 with 3 matches to go. I can't figure out how to upload pictures hopefully I will keep work it out.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Breaking News!



Bennett got a haircut! Check it out!
The long hair was starting to bother him and I found him in his bathroom with some scissors and we both decided it was time for a trim!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Lego Mania


The Lego Artist

For Christmas and his Birthday Bennett received quite a few cool lego kits. He has been building them like mad. It is pretty amazing to see him following the directions of the kit step-by-step and putting together these creations. Here are some pictures from one set that he got the turns into 2 planes and a helicopter and a very cool Raiders of the Lost Ark set that he put together.
Stay tuned for more creations!