ICE ICE (SKATING) BABY

I think I used that title last year to post aboutice skating.

We are all set to go ice skating next Sunday Nov. 25 (the Sunday after Thanksgiving). We have to take 15 people to get the group discount so I hope everybody can come and bring a friend or we will have to pay a good bit more. There will be postcards going out this week with the details and we will talk about it tonightat youth group. See everybody then.

Blalock

Edit: This was posted before we decided to postpone our ice skating excursion. Please remember that we will not be ice skating on Nov. 25 but we will be going on Dec. 10. Remember we have to have 15 people to get the group discount so start asking your friends now to go with you. Every body have a happy gobbly Thanksgiving.

DO THE (DIET) MOUNTAIN DEW

So I really don't like diet soda. I mean it taste like swill. I really don't see how people drink it. But I have to have my sugar-filled caffeine-charged 12 to 20 ounces of soda fix. But apparently lots of regular soda (and no exercise) is not the way to go to keep a trim and svelte waistline. Who knew? So the other day I came across the new and improved tasting diet mt. dew. I've tried diet dew before and thought it was one of the foulest nastiest sodas ever (except maybe for that bubble gum soda). But you know what--I held my nose--I took a sip--and I atually liked it. It was pretty good. More that pretty good actually. I could actually drink it. A zero calorie soda with the caffeine I need. My day was made. So bravo to you, diet mt. dew. You have won me over. I'm a fan.

That is all.

MORE HALLOWEEN PICTURES

AND THE WINNER IS....

I've never been so proud of you, Princess!

CREEPY CRAWLY SPOOKY HALLOWEEN PARTY

We had scary finger cookies and a creepy cook-out and y'all had scary spooky movie trivia knowledge and pictionary abilities. And who can forget our impromptu field trip and costume parade. I personally thought Matt and Renee had the most creative costumes but the popular vote shows it is hard not to vote for a man in a purple princess dress! Here's some pictures with some more pictures to follow.

TELL YOUR TEACHERS INSTEAD OF DOING HOMEWORK YOU WERE DOING RESEARCH ON THIS TOPIC

Gregg Easterbrook in his TMQ column from espn.com discusses the
"homework conspiracy"

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post reported that new studies by Duke University's Program on Education conclude, "Elementary school students receive no benefit from homework." The new book "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn comes to the same conclusion, adding that in middle school more than 90 minutes of homework per night, and in high school more than two hours per night, backfire by reducing grades and test scores. The reasons are plain as the nose on your face -- too much homework leaves kids tired in the morning and makes them sick of education, while denying the time they need to goof off and be kids. Yet despite research showing large amounts of homework actively injurious to education, homework requirements have been rising steadily in public schools.

So tell your teachers that your grades and test scores will be better if they would quit giving you as much homework--even smart people that wrote books think so. See Sarah, at least one good thing has come out of Duke. So tell your teachers you will be doing less homeowrk so that you can do more fun stuff like youth group (but you didn't hear it from me).

FAITH

"Faith is not belief without proof, faith is obedience without reservation."

This quote from my Disciple Bible study lesson this past week really stuck out to me. Faith is more than a blind belief in something. We can all say that we have faith in Jesus Christ but it is through our obedient actions to Him that we really prove our faithfulness.