And the winner is.......

 Jenelle Cummings of Connellsville High School!

Jenelle drew the winning logo for our Finley's Fighters 5K/10K race this coming August.  We had about 30 entries for the contest - all high school and junior high students, and she was the winner.


It is a perfect design.  This logo will appear on all of our race shirts, as well as many things we use to advertise during the year.


If you know Jenelle - please congratulate her on a job well done.  Registrations for the race are coming out in the mail.  Some are out and the rest are on their way, so be on the lookout.  Get them back to me as soon as you can so we can start to plan.

Jack in the Pulpit

One of my Jack in the Pulpit flowers is in full bloom.  I moved this little plant last year.  I found it getting quite a bit of sun - which it didn't like - and put it under this pine tree.  I didn't have much hope that it would regrow because I put it under a pine tree where nothing seems to want to grow.

But it did appear.  It looked grim for awhile, but overnight, there it was.  And now it is the tallest one I have. 

Jack in the Pulpit are wild flowers.  Once I saw that these were going to like being under the pine tree (they like to grow among poison ivy in the shade, so big surprise) I went on a scavenger hunt for more.  I planted a total of 5 last year under that tree and all 5 reappeared and are not far behind this one in size. 

All in all - I think I found about 60 of them.  And I saved them all.  I moved them under the 9 pine trees we have, around rocks in the shade, and was happy to have something that loved the shade and would grow in my bare garden spots.  Yippee.

I took a picture of the biggest one since it is in full bloom.  I am just amazed that these are wild flowers.  And what Mat likes about them is that I get to plant obsessively for free.  It is a win win.

Skip ahead

I want to post about our trip to Six Flags, but I need to get the pictures first!  I didn't take my camera - so my parents are making me a CD of pictures.  Then I can post some of my favorites.

Today a ton of "end of year" papers came home from the little's Kindergarten teachers.  It is hard to believe they have around 30 days of Kindergarten left.  And we have less than that to make our decision about what they are doing next year.

We received some papers from the office about placement for next year.  They wanted us to list the strengths and weaknesses of our kids and things we thought the school should know about for placement for next year.  Kind of hard to fill that out since I have no idea what we are doing next year.  If they go to transitional, this paper doesn't matter - there is only one teacher.  But we don't have our conferences with the teacher until May 22nd.  That is when we will get the results of the testing and make the decision.  This paper?  Due to the office on May 15th.  How does that make any sense.

So.....I filled it out.  I figure they will have it if 1st grade is out destination, and if not - they can just throw it away.  But it is just frustrating.  This....not knowing.  Drives me crazy.

Worse than that?  Finley is in a miserable mood this week.  I think she is overly tired from the last 3 weeks worth of company, and she is fading.  She hasn't been giving her all in Braille - which is very unlike her.  She is basically refusing to read the braille with her fingers - saying she doesn't know what it says.  I have seen this trick.  When she doesn't want to try - this is what happens.  She could be tired, or she could just be being.....Finley.  I must say that at least once a month about that girl.

We had a talk with her tonight.  Pretty stern one.  She is on punishment until she gets back on track.  She has to get a good report from her braille teacher on Thursday.  And every day after that.  She needs to come out of this funk.  She is like a limp rag in the morning - just going through the motions. 

And she is standing REALLY close to the TV.  We back her up to her usual spot, and she gets closer.  Not sure what that is about.  Is she just going through something?  Eyes are tired?  Who knows. 

This LCA thing really stinks.  Not knowing stinks.  Not being able to do anything right now stinks.  Not knowing what is going on in that little brain of hers stinks. 

RDH12 Bunco Babes

Friday night we had our first fundraiser for our Foundation here in our new town.  We had a BLAST.  I have never played bunco, and I am so glad to say I went.  It was easy, and it was so much fun.  Thank you to Maria Davis for talking me into this fundraiser and making it a success.  And thank you to Amy Kinne for getting us her church (for free might I add) to hold the fundraiser.  And thank you to all the people who brought delicious food!!

We raised $1000 for our foundation this night.  It was awesome.  And we plan to do it again in July.

Enjoy the pictures!

These cupcakes were made by a friend of mine.  She is really talented.  The boxing gloves (our signature Finley's Fighters look) are made of chocolate and they say Finley's Fighters in braille!

 This lady was our big winner.  She won $100 for getting the most Buncos!  And she turned around and gave it back to our foundation.

 In this next picture - the lady in the maroon sweater is our cupcake maker!!

 In this next picture - the lady in the green sweater is Amy - who got us the church to have our fundraiser:

Fun weekend

This weekend was crammed full of events and fun.  I have taken a lot of pictures, so I am going to spread them out over a few days to make it easier.

Today, I am exhausted from all the fun, so I am going to just share a few.  I was so glad to have my sister in law Tricia, my nephews "E" and "J" and my mom in for a long weekend.  We had a packed weekend and tonight everyone was ready for bed.

Friday while the kids were at school, we took the little ones to a local indoor playground (since mother nature decided to make it cold and rainy) and it was a blast.  The kids played there for a few hours before it was time to come home for lunch and naps.  I am glad we went.

Friday night we had a Finley fundraiser, and I will share that tomorrow.  I will give you this great bit of news though.  The fundraiser raised $1000 for our RDH12 Fund for Sight.  We were so excited!

Busy Busy

The last two days have been a whirlwind.  I was cleaning like a mad woman for our guest and working in the yard.  So I have not been a good blogger.

Tomorrow we are having Bunco fundraiser for Finley, so I will take a lot of pictures and share on Sutrday - I WILL be back!!

Tuesday rain

Today is rained.

All day.  Dog was nuts - followed me all over the house dropping a ball at my feet.  Begging me to play with him instead of doing chores.

Arlington's softball game and lacrosse practice were canceled.  Not that I minded that nutso schedule getting the kabosh, but we have to make the game up, so......that stinks.

We went shopping for groceries instead (boring).  But we did get Panera Bread for Dinner.  (yipee!)

Since I was forced to stay inside all day, I cleaned the house since my mom and sister in law will be visiting in a few days.  They should be proud.  It looks a little more presentable than it did this morning.

A little.
Cainan got off the bus today and we were talking about how hard it was raining. He said "but it is good for the plants" "Yes" I told him. And then he said "it is also good for the pigs." "Pigs?" I asked him.... He said "yeah, so they can get their mud time"

Cute little weirdo.

Finley had me take her picture while we were in the car yesterday on the way to piano.

Don't worry, I was stopped at a stop sign.  I promise I don't click and drive.  

This is the kind of humor and random post you get on a rainy day in New England.