Today has been a good day. I got up and cooked all morning, we ate around 11:30. It was so good, if I do say so myself. After dinner, Darrell and I cleaned up the kitchen and put away the leftovers, then the kids and I went down to Granny and Papa's. I wanted Darrell to go, but he wouldn't. He said he would if we only stayed for 30 minutes. He irks me sometimes. I know his family is like the polar opposite of mine, as far as size and noise level, but he could suck it up once in a while and just go. He didn't go to Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve dinner last year, it's not like I force him to go to all these functions. But anyway. We drew names for Christmas, I got my mom and her boyfriend, Richard. Coincidentally, they got us as well. Ha! Hunter got Jacob, Mackenzie got Rebecca, and Shelby got Destiny. Jacob and Rebecca are my neice and nephew, and Destiny is my cousin's daughter. She and Shelby were both born on 2-28-02. Destiny was born in the morning, Shelby early afternoon. They're birthday twins. :)

Wow, I summed up the whole day in one paragraph. Hehe.

Mom and Richard didn't get to come for dinner today. Mom called around 6:30 this morning and said Richard's dad was in the hospital, so they were there all day. They thought he might have had a stroke originally, but it turned out to be double pneumonia. I was going to go pick up Sara to eat with us, but she was running a fever and was sick to her stomach, so she stayed home. Mom's supposed to come get leftovers sometime, probably tomorrow.

I got a call from an old friend last night. We were best friends from 4th grade up until high school. We kind of drifted apart by then. We never had a falling out or anything, though. She got married in 2000 and I went to her wedding and all. She moved to Atlanta even before she got married and just moved back to Tennessee this year. It's kind of weird talking to her anymore though. She and her husband split up earlier this year, I heard that he left her for another woman, but she didn't really say what happened. I'm glad to be back in touch with her, but she irritates me because she keeps going on and on and on about how much she's changed. I mean, she'll keep changing the subject back to how she saw this person or that one from school and their reaction when they found out it was her. How tedious is that? I mean, she's changed (apparently) dramatically, I get the point!! Geez. I invited her by for lunch one day next week. We'll see if she shows though. Last time she was in town for a visit she was supposed to get in touch with me and didn't.

OH! I have to mention this. Okay, to begin with, when the school has had programs, for instance the Gold Star Mother's program in September, the Veterans' Day program that the 2nd grade was in, and even the PTA meeting I went to this month, they have had a prayer. The person that did them at the programs were local ministers, so I don't know if that circumvents the church/state thing or not. All of these programs were on school grounds though. At the PTA meeting, also on school grounds, I believe it was a faculty member (not sure what he does) that did the prayer. That kind of irks me, but I'm overlooking it. Then, Hunter comes home on Tuesday and mentions that they pray everyday before lunch. So I question him about this, and find out that the prayer is actually done in the classroom before they go to lunch. I ask him if Mrs. R or Mrs. L say the prayer, and he says 'Noooo (like I'm a dolt for even asking), one of the kids do' So I ask him some questions and determine that the teachers have "encouraged" them to pray, but they don't force any of the kids to lead the class. The kids volunteer and if one doesn't want to do it they don't have to. I still have a problem with this. To begin with, what about the kids that are not Christian? I realize they're not forced to pray, but they do have to listen. Secondly, it is not up to the teachers to involve themselves in ANY WAY with my child's religious teaching. I am Agnostic, and I really don't like this. I don't have a problem if Hunter wants to pray, I'm never going to tell my children how or what they should or shouldn't worship, it's just the principle. Of course this teacher also has a plaque that says God Bless America and a picture of the Shrub. GAG! ;p So, I don't know what to do about this. I'm torn, because I want to speak up, but I am, quite frankly, afraid to do that in this town. You'd just have to live here or somewhere similar to understand, but I don't want to start a lot of unneccessary strife for my family over something like this. Ugh, moral decisions suck ass sometimes.