Awesome Birthday Present

For those of you who missed the XBox presentation, I described it for my family here.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. The XBox is awesome, and Guitar Hero II is great, but I appreciate the thought even more. You guys are the best!

Rain-A-Thon

Today's Play-A-Thon became a Rain-A-Thon, but the rain didn't dampen our spirits! We raised over $300 towards Heifer International. Here's some highlights:

Ever wondered what $330+ in coins looked like? Ever wondered what it felt like? Let me just say that there's a reason that tub full of coins is on a hand truck! This is our load of Penny Wars coins just before I deposited them at the bank this morning.

GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!!

NOTE: Anyone can comment on the blog! Just click the word "comments" below.

Great idea!

This is a really neat idea Mr. Carter. I can't believe a gator fan thought of it.

PENNY WARS!

In case you missed the email, here's the results for Penny Wars 2007:
- 1st place: 7th period (DRUMLINE!) with 21 points
- 2nd place: ADVISEMENT with -1110 points
- 3rd place: 2nd period (Symphonic brass) with -1266 points
- 4th place: 6th period (Wind Ensemble) with -1397 points
- 5th place: 1st period (Symphonic woodwinds) with -2515 points

5th period also receives an honorable mention with $121.15 in PENNIES. Yes, there is a prize for honorable mention, so come hungry on Monday!

In all, we raised over $443!

When I got home, Mrs. Carter told me that according to the news, Toys for Tots was delivering their toys TOMORROW! So we decided to go ahead and buy the toys tonight. We went to Wal-Mart (where we ran into Austin W.) and picked up SIX bikes and two remote-control Hummers.

Here we are getting ready to check out with six bicycles!

Then we had to get them into our SUV! We had four bikes in the back, the remote-control cars on the seat next to Jacob, and two more bikes on the roof:

(sorry about the poor picture quality - it's a phone picture at night)

You should have seen the looks we got as we rolled through Wal-Mart! Thanks to everyone for being great sports and having fun with this. Start saving now for Penny Wars II, coming in 2008!

Why a band blog?

Thanks for asking!
Here's a few reason:
1. We used to have a website, but this is easier to maintain (and it's free).
2. You can participate by adding comments!
3. We can put important information and calendar events on the blog, so you'll have it for easy reference.
4. Mr. Carter is crazy.

A few guidelines for everyone:
- Please keep everything positive. This is not the place for gripes and complaints.
- If you need to mention a student's name, please use first names only, or first name and last initial.
- Get involved! Comments are on, so add your comments. Captains, if you did not receive an invite to be an author on the blog, it's because I don't have your email address. Email me and I'll add you as a contributor.

So, what to blog about today?
Today was a great day. First off, I am now the proud owner of an XBox 360 and Guitar Hero II! I really was surprised. Thanks to everyone who helped to make it happen -- especially Matt. Someone was taking pictures and/or video of the presentation; if that's you, I'd love to have some of the pics.

More to come, so stay tuned!