Apostrophe Protection Society

Apostrophe Protection Society? Can you believe there is such a thing? Google it! I am an English teacher, I should know. I am no grammarian, but it is my mission to change grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, one rule at a time. . . (By the way, the comma is only optional in that last sentence between the words punctuation and and.)

My class came across an article how in Birmingham, England, the city has decided to do away with apostrophes on their street signs. Apparently they (Birmingham) could not decide if certain streets should be labeled King's Norton or Kings' Norton. Hmm?

My class also found that Jeff Deck, an editor, has made it his mission to travel the U.S. and fix errors on billboards and signs posted in front of businesses. So far he has traveled 5,000 miles! He carries markers, crayons, and even white-out, asking store managers to help them out!

All this research on grammar led me to the actual website of the Apostrophe Protection Society and then to joining "Apostrophe Catastrophe" on FaceBook. I'm helpless! I blame it on Lynne Truss- because now I'm reading her book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

Maybe my calling really IS to be an English teacher!

A Valentine's Day Tradition

As Valentine's tradition goes at the Heffner house, everyone gets to eat their favorite food for dinner on Valentine's Day. When I was growing up, my mom starting this tradition: each year she would ask my dad, my sister, and myself what our favorite food was and then she would secretly prepare it for us. We were not allowed to tell anyone else in the family what we chose, and it was always a surprise if we were having all main courses or all desserts for dinner.

So, last night the tradition continued. Everyone prepared their favorite food and brought it over to my parent's house. We were given instructions NOT to tell anyone what we were making! It was really difficult to keep this kind of secret.

The food was amazing! Our menu was:
Mom- chocolate covered strawberries
Dad- ribs
Bill- lasagne
Cassie- chocolate covered cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips
Grandma- potato salad
Auntie Sharon- Chicken and Rice
Auntie Heather- Buffalo Wings
Kristy- Garlic and Cheddar Biscuits

As you can imagine, we ate well! We've already started thinking about what we want to make for next year! Do you have any Valentine's Day traditions in your family?

How Would You Spend an Extra $100?

My Parents bought me a subscription to Real Simple Magazine for Christmas. It is a wonderful gift and a great magazine. Every month it features an article with this title "How would you spend an extra $100"? Someone writes in their reply and the magazine also provides a pie chart with the break down on how they would spend each dollar. I'm not sure if this is to make people feel badly about spending 68% of the money on wine or a purse, or just to show that some people actually would.

So I decided to think about what I would do if I came into an extra $100. . . here are some possibilitles
* Take Bill and I to dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ
* Save it!
* Buy blinds for one room in our house
* Go on a scrapbook shopping spree
* Buy books
* Have the carpets cleaned
* Buy a new pair of jeans
* Save it for a vacation

It seems like $100 is a lot of money, especially now! What would you do with an extra $100?

The Biggest Loser

The only show watched religiously at our house is: The Biggest Loser! I don't know if we're attracted to it because of the inspiration, drama or what. It has become a tradition this season that every Tuesday night Amanda comes over and we have "salad night" and watch it!

It is an especially special season for us because I know Mandi from the yellow team! She and I went to high school together and played volleyball for Meridian High and Club Idaho! A couple of weeks ago she invited a couple of girls we played volleyball with to come over and watch the show with her on Tuesday night. It was really amazing to see how great she looks (and to hear the scoop about being on the Biggest Loser ranch and about all the players!) It is so fun to cheer her on every week!

The Heffner-Hilton households also have their own Biggest Loser competition going on right now! We began on January 1st and will try our best to lose weight until July 4th. Of course there is money involved (and our pride!) I think my dad is in the lead, but I am proud to say that I have been steadily losing every week for 5 weeks! Nothing to brag about weight-wise, but at least I have been losing:)

So, for now we will be sticking to our salad-night-Tuesdays (I'm open to anyone with recipe suggestions!) and we'll be cheering on the yellow team!