Debbie DiFonzo - Lebanon, Marshfield, Buffalo Missouri Real Estate

Growing up in the 1970's and 80's, outside of Chicago, I have vivid memories of our local, "country stores."

This year has brought a new High School principal, a new Junior High principal,a new Elementary School principal and a new Superintendent to Laclede County R-1 schools in Conway Missouri. A few new faces and a few familiar faces in new spots has brought a new life to the district and ... a little more FUN.

The High School principal, Mr. Reeves, has helped revitalize our school spirit. He introduced our new slogan:

It's a great day to be a Conway Bear!

Mr. Reeves, and the Junior High principal, Mr. Lowrance, recently challenged students to exceed last year's attendance numbers: 95% for the year 2007/2008. (The state average for the same time period: 92.2%)

The students met that challenge - 95.3% for the second quarter of 2008/2009 - and the two principals find themselves paying up by sleeping spending the night up on the roof of the high school. They climbed up to the roof top at 7 pm tonight and will stay until 7 am tomorrow morning.

No rain or snow tonight; only a little wind. And, a rumor or two of water balloons. . .

I can't help but wonder if Mr. Reeves still thinks It's a great day to be a Conway Bear!

I am getting wimpy.

At first I thought it was old age - I did turn 40 this year, you know.

But, I think I have decided it's not the age, it's the location.

Having grown up in Naperville Illinois, about 32 miles south west of Chicago, we had some cold, wet winters. The wind would not only blow, it would whip. The snow would not only fall, it would keep on falling. And, once you had snow "up North" it stayed until spring.

I've lived in Missouri for almost nine years. Seem strange to type that - the time has gone by so very fast. The first year I was here, people would tell me not to worry about the weather - it was constantly changing. It didn't take me long to figure out: they were right! The weather here in South Central Missouri can change in a matter of minutes.

One of the first years we were here, it was 72* on Christmas Day. We washed the car outside and the neighbor was riding her horse in our pasture. That same year Ray golfed more in January than he had the June before!

Earlier this week, the temperature was in the 60's. The leaves are almost all gone, but for the most part, the grass is still green.

So you can imagine I was a little miffed when Grandma called about twenty mintues ago: Tell the kids to look out the window, snowflakes are falling!

What!

Snowflakes!

Granted they are not sticking to the ground, but they were falling none the less. Just the word itself sent a shiver over me and made my toes cold!

They have stopped now. I can hear the cars outside on the wet pavement. We have a very light drizzle.

My husband had to remind me, Deb, it is almost December 1st.

Okay. So. Your point is?

I love my four seasons and that is what I have here in Missouri. But, I have to admit, I am getting a little wimpy when it comes to Season No. 4: winter. Or maybe wimpy isn't the right word. Maybe just spoiled!

Snow was never a thought at last weeks Lebanon MO Christmas Parade.

Thanks to my good friend Don Rogers, I was tagged for the bookworm MeMe a few weeks ago. However, a few sick kids, work, my own case of the flu and the Thanksgiving holiday put my MeMe on the back burner. Tonight, it's a little chilly here in Missouri and I debated: read my latest book or play work on the computer. Ah, the MeMe will allow me to do both, at least for a little while!

The task at hand:

1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 56
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the next two to five sentences
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.
6. Do not use the Bible

I read something every night before bed. Sometimes a "foo foo" book, sometimes business related, sometimes I only make a magazine article if I'm tired. I had picked up this book a few months back. I dug picked it out of my reading stack last week after writing a post on the Law of Attraction and the Media.

My current read: Sacred Secrets: Finding Your Way to Joy, Peace and Prosperity

From page 56, the fifth sentence, and a few more:

This book is made up of 35 essays from various writers, teachers, and ministers. It is designed to take the blockbuster bestseller, The Secret, one step further.

For your own copy of Sacred Secrets, visit UnityOnline.org

I had no idea there was such an event: The National Geographic Bee.

Since 1989, the National Geographic Society has been hosting a Geographic Bee for students. First the students compete in their classroom or homeschooling group. One winner per classroom/group. Then the classroom winners go on to compete at the school level. One winner per school / homeschooling group. That winner will then take a written test, with the top 100 scores going to the State level Geographic Bee. One state winner will go on to national.

My daughter won her classroom round and this week participated in our school level competition. Many of these questions I could easily answer. But I have to admit, many of them, I just shook my head, thinking "I have no idea." Good thing Google is a co-sponsor of the Bee, as we relied heavily on the Internet to verify answers.

While my daughter was eliminated after the end of the third round, it was a great experience for her.

She can stand up in front of a crowd - in this case her school peers - with confidence. She picked up some geography knowledge that she otherwise would not have known and we were able to interact together to look up answers and facts.

Here are a few questions for the preliminary competition study guide:
Are you smarter than a 6th grade Geography student?

An important side note: Geography receives NO federal funding. While geography is a required subject in our schools, the No Child Left Behind Act does not fund this subject. We typically hear about those subjects that do receive funding: reading, math, science, teaching American history and foreign language assistance programs.