"Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la...." Oops, right sentiment - wrong month. Maybe I'll look instead to Alice Cooper for inspiration and belt out, "School's out for Summer, school's out forever!" - though maybe you'll agree that the correct celebratory tune is probably "99 bottles of beer."

Yes indeed Summer is here and school bells atop scores of fine institutions of higher learning will soon rest quiet while our roads, parks, and waters buzz with the excited sound of freedom. A freedom defined by that ever-so brief time when we enjoy an unbridled, innocent sense that the world is our oyster...the last days of school.

After taking the scenic route through my twenties - an adventuresome journey withlots of turns, twists, and Twinkies - I went from the surreal life to real life in my thirties, and now sit on the threshold of the big 4-0. Perhaps it's because Darling Hubby and I stretched that youthful glow out to ridiculous lengths, like a dwindling string of Silly Putty, that we now take such joy in reliving all the pleasures of childhood with our brood: especially the school countdown.

Not that those hardworking teachers weren't feeding that frenzy each day by X'ing off days on the calendar. Every afternoon, my tots would scurry off the bus announcing that magic number....eleven days left, ten days left!

Like an eminent shuttle launch, I could see the white cloud of smoke curling up around their ankles. By the final day, the fevered pitch of excitement was a volcanic spew.

For my money, being an adult just can't compare. Sure I look forward to vacations - but that enthusiasm is equally tempered with the knowledge that the week will inevitably end in an avalanche of dirty laundry, spent energy, depleted funds, and great piles of unopened mail. In fact on a day-to-day basis, it seems the only tangible benefit to adulthood is eating potato chips for lunch, at least when no one is watching.

All those other adult perks come with baggage. You get to set your own bedtime, but work and bosses determine when the blasted, ‘stop-that-ringing-noise' alarm goes off. You get to pick your spouse, hopefully, but your mother - his mother - the travel agent - and the caterer all seem to get the final word on wedding plans. You get to pick what vehicle to drive, sort of.

Let's see, I need a car that seats at least half a baseball team, is easy to load, and can tow a camper a few weekends out of the year.

"I know what you are looking for, ma'am. You want the minivan, right?"

Wrong! No, dear car dealer, I want the zippy little two-seater, in red, with the convertible top and...hhmph,

"Okay the van. Does it come in red?"

Alas, at least my Mother Earth-size cruiser came with a moon roof and a reasonably hip sound system so I can blast my past: "Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do, but there ain't no cure for the summertime blues."

Laura Douglass writes for the Seven Lakes Times where this article originally appeared.

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Recently I saw a performance of the Drumming class from West Pine Middle School.  Wow - It was great!   Teacher, Marci Houseman, started this class this year at West Pine.  It is the only one at a middle school in Moore County.  The students make great music with lots of different drums and other percussion instruments.  Music touches people, and especially children, in such a positive way.  After seeing this performance and the result of the theme - Discipline, Respect United through Music, my real estate company, Realty World - Pinnock Real Estate will sponsor this class with the purchase of a drum that is needed.  It was a moving experience!  Congratulations to West Pine Middle School and Mrs. Houseman for your vision and dedication! 

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   In the end, it was a strawberry and I was quite surprised. For weeks there had been much wobbling, wiggling, and tugging, to no avail. That first little lost tooth was not to be yanked or hurried it seemed, much like its owner, Lindsay.

   Now I assure you reality television has nothing on the drama of raising a six-year old girl. Unlike my courageous son who lost his first tooth to a karate sparring match, my tiny princess of pink spilled many tears over the horrible pain of her "looth tooth." Luckily, that sweet strawberry finally saved the day.

   Per tradition, the tooth fairy was summoned that evening and produced something quite grand...girl money. Yup, a good old Susan B. Anthony dollar for my pink-wearing, tutu loving, Barbie lunchbox- carrying, Ugh - I'm going to make her a feminist if it kills me - daughter.

   For a chick who spends three mornings a week beating the stuffing out of punching bags and passionately enjoys throwing back a well-crafted brew, I know that someone up there must have had a great sense of humor when they sent me down this little angel to raise.

  We're like a cartoon team, Tough and Fluff.

   With seventeen months more experience at life and that wily creature, the Y-chromosome, on board, my son has also proved to be a mothering challenge. A much more jaded seven and half year old, recently when he lost another incisor Jack wanted to know if the tooth fairy would bring him $100.

   In my most understanding Mommy-tone I explained how that was a lot of money and the tooth fairy couldn't possibly lift it.

   "She could if it were a $100 bill," suggested my way-too-clever boy.

   Drat, foiled again. I think I liked Jack better last year when he got his first gift from the tooth fairy, a gold dollar. When he took that shiny treasure to Kindergarten for Show and Tell, a classmate exclaimed, "Now that is tooth fairy money!"

   Unfortunately, Darling Hubby and I expect to be on the tooth fairy's destination list for at least three or four more years. So far we've drained our coin cups of gold and silver dollars plus a few stray Loonies and Twonies from our frozen neighbor, the Great White North.

   At some point we may have to abandon our thrifty fairy route in favor of the more hip Hilton-esque model. I've heard the tooth fairy is known to toss around ten dollar bills these days. Yikes, and I thought my gas bill was outrageous!

   Thank goodness that economic stimulus check is in the mail - or is it? Maybe I'll just check under my pillow tomorrow morning. Come on, somewhere flying around there must be a tax fairy too, right?

Laura Douglass writes for the Seven Lakes Times where this column originally appeared.

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This past weekend my family and I went to New Hope Valley Railway http://www.nhvry.org/ for our first train ride.  We climbed aboard the No. 17 Steam Engine for our 1 hour train ride.  We rode approx. 9 miles and had such great fun. 

My daughter, Kaylee (14), seemed as thrilled as my son, Zachary(2), about the ride.  However he was not to thrilles with the noise of the whistle but other than that he had a  great time.

You can read about the Railway here http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1092992.html

The next adventure is coming this weekend when we will travel to Boone to see Thomas the Tank Engine.  I absolutely cannot wait to see his face when he sees Thomas in person for the first time and to learn he gets to actually ride on Thomas.  How exciting that will be!

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As a Realtor in the area, I routinely show properties to families. They always want to know about our schools, and I always say we have great ones.

Recently, however, a family came in that had done some research online. Using http://www.schooldigger.com/, they found our schools to be in line or just behind several schools in Cumberland County. I was not impressed with SchoolDigger, but I wasn't able to give any other recommendations either. In particular, Southern Middle School did not look very good, compared to other schools.

My girls attend Sandhills Classical Christian School, so I don't really have a way to evaluate the area schools personally. That's where you come in. I need your help.

It would be very helpful to me, and perhaps many others, if you would respond to this blog with your comments on our area schools. If you have a negative comment, please try not to grind the axe to hard. :)

 When Dan isn't drinking coffee at Panera, he sells real estate with Fore Properties.

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Add Doodlebugs to your list of places to shop for those Webkinz that the kids are crazy about!   All Webkinz Pets are NEW with original, UN-USED, secret code tags.   Hurry in, QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED!!!!! 

 We even have some hard to find, retired Pets.

WE ARE OPEN ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING MEMORIAL DAY.)

See you soon!     

940 Old US Hwy 1, S,   Southern Pines, NC       (910) 246-1500  

Recently,  I read a Blog written by Brian Buffini, a leader I admire.  It was named "You can do it, Briney" 

I have 3 daughters and 7 grandchildren.  When I read the blog, I wanted to share it with my dauthers, so I e-mailed it to them.  One of my daughters, Marci Houseman, responded with words that are "music to a mother's ears".  She said that I had always been her cheerleader and how that had helped her to accomplish things in her life.  She is a teacher at West Pine Middle School, ( a really great teacher, I might add) and the mother of 4 children.  Her plate is very full, and I appreciated her thoughtful reply.  And, to top it off, she gave me a "cheerleader" charm for Mother's Day. 

All that is said,  so that I can share the following words with you.  We all live in a high pressure world and need Cheerleaders from time to time.  There is so much negativity in our world, and having a cheerleader at home can make all of the difference.  I remember and understand the challenges parents face and admire parents who are working so hard to do the right things with their children.   So, to all of you wonderful parents who are working so hard - Keep up the good work! 

You can do it! 

"That was the phrase I heard most growing up as a child. My mother was consistent and relentless in encouraging me to believe in myself. As a young boy, I was very small and slight for my age. (I've filled out nicely in recent years!) I was also put into school early and I was typically a year and half to two years younger than my classmates. My mother didn't want me to know I was small or young or had any other potential shortcomings or excuses. She just consistently championed me to believe in myself.

 

A funny thing happened. I guess it worked! I can never remember a time when I didn't believe in myself. In fact not having many pictures of my youth, I don't ever remember being small or thinking of myself as small. Today, one of my youngest children is very small and slight, but I've kept up my mother's winning ways by telling him he's unstoppable and there's nothing he can't do. At every turn, his stature is an advantage to him. When he plays basketball, we remind him of the diminutive Spud Webb who at five foot seven was an all-star in the NBA.

 

Maybe you didn't have a cheerleader growing up, but there's nothing to say you can't be your own cheerleader today. Not only that, but I have found it even more empowering to become other peoples' cheerleaders. A word of encouragement spoken at the right time can be life-changing for someone.

 

The words we say to ourselves and others can make all the difference in the world. Make sure you're building up; not tearing down, encouraging; not discouraging, strengthening belief and not causing doubt. You can do it... "

  submitted by Lucretia Pinnock of Realty World - Pinnock Real Estate 910-215-6957 e-mail lucretiapinnock@nc.rr.com

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Wow - Flying with the Young Eagles! 
On Saturday, 2 of my grandchildren and I had a great experience at the Southern Pines Airport.  A wonderful group called the EAA Young Eagles sponsored a FREE flight for children 8 - 17 around Moore County.  Mike Jones, my neighbor in Southern Pines, told me about the flying opportunity.  Lindsey and Ben Houseman, my grandchildren, and I saw the beauty of our area from about 2000 feet!  Lindsey and Ben spotted schools, the Pinehurst Hotel, the train station in Southern Pines, and even my real estate office on Pennsylvania Ave. as well as lots of other sights.  They learned about the parts of the airplane, the color of the fuel, some flying principles such as lift, and were thrilled to hear our pilot "Jonesy"talk to them and the tower through their ear phones  It was an extremely smooth take-off, flight, and landing.  Mike is a great pilot!!!  Since there were no other children waiting in line, I went along for the ride!  I guess I was a "Senior Eagle".    It was a great experience to share with my grandchildren and a choice opportunity for children here in Moore County! 
I want to thank the Pilots who gave freely of their time on Saturday as well as all of the people who sponsored this great event.  The Air Force JROTC students from Pinecrest were there to help the children (and adults) with the paper work!  FYI - Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones) is the Chairman of Young Eagles and is an EAA member and Young Eagles pilot.  Each child received a great brochure with a picture of Harrison Ford and information about aviation.  At the end of the flight, Lindsey and Ben received a certificate signed by Pilot, Mike Jones, and Harrison Ford.  Another Wow! 
So, mark your calendars for May of next year.  This was the 6th year for this event.  Thanks for the information from my neighbor, Mike Jones, I was able to make a great memory with 2 of my grandchildren. And it was FREE.  When I hear about the schedule for next year, I will pass the word along!  It was great fun. 
And, by the way, after the flight, the afternoon was completed by a trip to the Ice Cream Parlor in Southern Pines.  Lindsey and Ben had chili/cheese fries, a hamburger, and a shake each!  And I must not forget that the vending machines at the airport have bargain snacks (Ben had a honey bun) and cold drinks for less than $1.00.  We won't miss it next year that is for sure.  Lucretia Pinnock - Realty World - Pinnock Real Estate 910-215-6957  lucretiapinnock@nc.rr.com  

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Soon, my son will be taking the End of Grade tests here in NC for the first time.  We are from Florida, where from the first day of school, they TEACH for the FCAT (our version of EOG).  Each paper the kids bring home is titled something to the effect of Practice FCAT math, writing, spelling, ect.  Here it has not been that way.  They just started talking to him about it after Easter.  I am dreading the test.  He did not do well on them in Fla, but he did pass.  But in Fla, we got lots of extra help for them.  They had classes before and after school to help the struggling kids.  Here, there is NOTHING.  No help at all.  If you ask for help, they tell you to go to Sylvan.  What is with that?  Do they have stock in Sylvan here?  The teachers do not give you extra papers for the kids to do,  they tell you to go to the kids school store and buy a book.  That is not what I am looking for.  I am looking for them to care about a stuggling kid.  I know that mine is not the only one struggling, so what do the other parents do?  Do they all send their kids to Sylvan?  If I had $5,000 for the cost of it, I would do it.  But I think there should be another way to help.

End of grade tests...they never had them when I was a kid. 

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Crescent State Bank has a campaign running until June 13th, 2008 to support the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. If you can help, please drop of any of the requested items at your local Crescent State Bank branch. See their web site for locations. Requested Items: Canned meals - stews, soups, tuna, ravioli, etc. Pop top cans a plus! Peanut butter Cereal Canned fruits & vegetables Rice Hygiene items - toothpaste, feminine products, shaving items, soap Infant products - diapers, wipes, formula, infant cereal (no loose glass or plastic jars of baby food as they have to be discarded due to health regulations) Paper products - toilet paper, paper towels Please make donations before June 13th For locations and contact information: www.crescentstatebank.com