Great Expectations...That Weren't Met

Our school does something called Accelerated Reader. The kids choose a book off the AR list, read it, then take a test on it. The books are all rated by grade level and they are worth points based on their grade level, how long they are and how well the child does on the AR test. The kids have to have a certain number of AR points each quarter. For Kelly that number is 32. She reads every day so I don't know exactly what happened, but 3 days before the test deadline she clued in that she didn't have any points yet. She went to the school library and found a book worth 32 points so she could get everything she needed in one hit. The book was Great Expectations. Craig had just finished reading that book for English so if he had known he probably would have steered her away from it. Those of you familiar with it know that it is over 700 pages long and the writing style takes some getting used to. Kelly stayed up until 12:30 Monday morning finishing the book. I can personally vouch for her that she read the whole thing, inbetween bouts of tears of futility, because I stayed up with her until she was finished. When I picked her up from school Monday I asked her how the test went. She said, "I don't want to talk about it." I correctly guessed that she hadn't passed the test. She only got 8 questions right. The real gut punch was that AR is worth 100 and she got 0 so her reading grade dropped from an A to a B+. Next time I will send her to bed. A zero is a lot easier to take after a full-night's rest.

If you haven't heard, Craig was looking for a pair of plaid pants. We couldn't find anything loud enough until I hit on a golf pant website. They have plaid pants, but the others are so much better that he has decided on something else. The only problem is the cost. They are $90 a pair and I won't buy them for him because he doesn't need a new pair of pants. He printed out a picture and took it to school, asking for $1 donations. So far he has $50 in commitments, though only a few dollars in cold cash. I also put the picture on my facebook page with the story of how he was asking for donations at school and got 5 commitments from ward members. This totally cracks me up. I am amazed at how easy it is to bleed money out of people. The pair at left is his current favorite.