What's in a name?

We decided pretty early in my pregnancy with Macy what her name was. We struggled a bit later with the spelling: Maci, Macy, Macey were three spellings we kicked around. I can't remember now which one I wanted and which one Bobby wanted, or why we ultimately decided on Macy as the spelling. I looked through my pregnancy journal tonight, and nothing was written about it.

Imagine my surprise tonight as Macy is working on her homework.

Macy: I've been spelling my name differently at school.

Me: Really?

Macy: (writes MACEY at the top of her paper) I like this spelling better.

Me: Why?

Macy: I don't know. It just makes my name longer.

When I was in middle school, 1 out of 5 girls were named Jennifer Lynn. I went through a phase where I said my name was Jenni, Jenny, and then started putting Lynne. Anything to make myself different from the others. That's the main reason Macy is Macy instead of Emily, Hannah, Chloe, Jessica, etc.

It cracks me up that she did the same thing I did, when I worked so hard to pick an unusual name for her.

We had a busy weekend. Friday night my sister had her annual bonfire. The weather was so unusually warm--we went in t-shirts and shorts. Many years we've worn sweatshirts and huddled around the fire.

Saturday Macy had a soccer game, and she was back to the usual just run around the field. Oh well.

We went to a fireman muster competition in the afternoon for Gladstone. The Kearney team did horrible, and took 3rd out of 3 teams. Oh well.

In the evening we made our last trip of the year to Worlds of Fun. Our girls absolutely love going, and the weather was wonderful. Very crowded, though. I would have rather had colder weather so the lines wouldn't have been so long. We had to cut our trip short because Kaylin burned her fingers. She was riding a little motorcyle ride in Camp Snoopy, and touched the headlight briefly. She held her own until she got off the ride, then she started sobbing. Her fingers blistered up, so we headed out. She cried herself to sleep before she got to the car! By Sunday morning she was fine, and was showing everyone her boo-boo.

On the way home from church, I asked the girls what they had learned in Bible class. Kaylin said, "God made stuff." I asked what kind of stuff, and Macy said, "you know, stuff." Right.

Macy had a soccer game tonight, and was playing her best. At the beginning of the second half, she was standing in the middle of the field for the kick-off. She kicked it so hard it went straight into the net without touching another person!

Pink Panthers

Macy is playing soccer right now, and her team is the Pink Panthers. Here is how her soccer seasons have gone:

Season 1: stood on the sidelines and sobbed
Season 2: ran around the field, but wouldn't go near the ball
Season 3: tried to play, but didn't want to take the ball away from anyone

We're optimistic this season will be her breakthrough season. She's already scored 3 goals in two games.

Cool laptops

All the teachers at the high school received cool laptops this year. They removed all the desktops, and we now use our laptops. They are a tablet, which means the screen swivels, I can close it and then write on the screen with a special pen.

It's really changed the way I grade papers. I now have the students submit their papers to me electronically. I have a site called Blackboard, which is what the colleges use for their online classes. The students turn their papers in, I download them to the desktop of my laptop, and grade them like that. I can use different colored ink just by clicking a button, edit and make comments on their papers. Then I hit a button and email it back to them. They open the attachment and see their grade. No paper involved.

Last night at the dance studio, while I was waiting for Macy, I was grading a paper like that. After I finished, I let Kaylin "draw" with the special pen. Even at 3 1/2 years old, she could changed the color of the pen once I showed her how. She had a ball scribbling all over Mom's computer.

Suddenly I was the coolest person at the dance studio. We had a flock of 12, 13, and 14 year-old girls watching Kaylin, and they were just mesmerized. One little girl looked up at me, and with awe in her eyes, said, "You are so lucky to have this computer." I just smiled and said thank you.

Halloween costumes

We purchased Halloween costumes tonight. Usually a few days before Halloween, we trek to the store to find out that everything in the girls' sizes are gone. Not this year! Thus the fun trip to Party America began.

First, the girls wanted every single costume on the wall. Too much to choose from: cheerleaders, witches, princesses, pirates, you name it, they wanted it. At one point Macy picked a Disco Diva, although I am positive she has no idea what a Disco Diva is. I steered her away from that one. They were also constantly distracted by the neat Halloween accesories: a red pitchfork, a bowl with a hand that grabbed you, a pirate face that stuck its tongue out. At one point, Bobby grabbed Macy and said, "Focus!!"

Ultimately, the decision was made by what costumes were 50% off. Kaylin will be Cinderella, in a pretty blue dress with matching gloves. It will be a perfect dress-up dress after Halloween. Macy will be Hannah Montana, complete with blond wig and rock star microphone.

For those of you unfamilar with Hannah Montana, she is the alter ego of Miley Cyrus, daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus. Hannah/Miley has a hit show on the Disney Channel and a CD. Her concert at the Sprint Center in December sold out in mere minutes, and tickets are being sold on ebay for outrageous prices. I just checked: the cheapest I could find was $70 for 2. I also found 4 tickets for $679--the $500-$700 range was pretty common. Then I saw 4 tickets for $1799.99! Outrageous.

Macy will be content with her blond wig and rock star microphone.

Macy's cheer

Last week Macy did a "spirit clinic" with the Kearney High School cheerleaders and Golden Girls, and then they performed at the football game on Friday. I'm putting the link to watch her cheer before the game. In case you can't make out the words, it was "Bulldogs, get down, and rock it all around." They did that three times.

They also performed at halftime, but the videographer couldn't find his daughter in the sea of kids, so there is no point in posting the link. You can't make out Macy.

Fireman muster

Last Saturday Bobby participated in a fireman muster at the Jesse James Festival. Kearney hasn't had a team for a while, and he was excited to get out there. There were about 4 or 5 other teams from other fire departments. It was hot, and the girls got bored quickly, but it was still fun. This first picture is Bobby and Nick, one of the part-time firefighters.
This is Nick and Bobby in some sort of hose competition. I won't begin to pretend like I know what they are doing. I think they had to unhook that gasket and that's all I know. I like the action shot, though.

This is Kevin and Dave, two other firefighters. I just think this is a cool picture. They were participating in a "barrel tug of war"--both teams shot water at a barrel hanging on a wire, and the first team to move the barrel over the line won.

This is Bobby and Dave, or "Mr. Happy Face". Dave was blindfolded, and Bobby had to guide him with commands to move the barrel with the spray of water. The team that moved the barrel the fastest won.

Bobby advising Dave how to move the water hose. The dots on the picture are actual water drops.

This is the Bucket Brigade. All 4 of them participated. Dave filled up the bucket, handed it to Nick, who handed it to Bobby, who handed it to Kevin, who threw the water on the roof of a little building similar to a dog house. The water ran off into a bucket, and the first team to fill up the bucket won.

This is the whole group, with Kevin holding the first place trophy. Kearney won the overall competition.

The guys really had a good time, and are talking about going to other fire department competitions around the area next summer.