I Beat The Odds - A Review

This post is in the 68th



Published at Imagineering


The NFL Draft ended yesterday at about the same time as I was finishing Michael Oher's book, I Beat the Odds. Oher (pronounced oar), was drafted in 2009 by the Baltimore Ravens and was the subject of the book and film The Blind Side.

I Beat The Odds tells a similar but slightly different tale than The Blind Side. Oher makes it perfectly clear that the Touhy family taking him in was just part of his dynamic transformation and not the only reason for his success. He does this repeatedly but not to take away the generosity of the Touhy's or to diminish the great changes that happened in his life because of the book and the film. He writes about the steps he took to get himself out of the ghetto and the life he was in because He wants others in his situation to realize that they don't have to be adopted by rich people to have changes in their life.



I really enjoyed this book. I have read many of the chapters out loud to my family and they enjoy it as well. This is an encouraging book and a must for anyone who works with or wants to help families in child services.

Nice Weather in April

And it only took 29 days!

For more Six Word Saturday click here.

Crackers to the rescue.

Wednesday was kind of a rough day at the old Izola Becker Home School. Rough on me at any rate and by the time lunch came around I was in a bit of a bad mood. It did not help my mood that I wanted soup for my lunch and we were out of crackers. I love crackers in my soup. I really do.

So, I decided to run out to the 7-11 which is less than a block from my house. I put my soup on simmer and gave Bunny a little more experience at babysitting.

Okay as an aside. Do any of you remember when saltine crackers were manufactured in a square with 4 crackers pressed together on a 2 by 2 grid? So instead of 4 towers stacks you had 4 more like cube stacks. I really liked when you could choose between the 2 styles. The tower stacks with the individual saltines were better for cheese and crackers. The 4 saltines in a square were better for soup. At least I thought so. You put the cracker in your bowl and then crunch it up into the soup. I was quite bummed when the 2 by 2 squares went away

So you know how saltine crackers come in 4 packages of vertical stacks of crackers? At 7-11 they were selling a box with 1 stack for $2.29 and a box with 2 stacks for $2.99 and they were not selling the traditional box at all. talk about paying for convenience.

Well, I decided to cross the street and see if the Mexican Grocery store sold crackers and the thing is they did. It was at a much better price.

So I bought these crackers . . .

And guess what? These were like the crackers of my old. Except instead of 2 by 2 squares of crackers, they were 2 by 4 squares.

So I broke the crackers in half and put it in a bowl.

Then I could break it up with a sppon just the way I like.

Eating soup the way you want can put a smile on any grumpy Dad.

COH Now and Then

Corn and Oil is hosting this weeks Carnival of Homeschooling. Along with the many other fine articles at this weeks carnival is Amy's excellent post, What About Finishing "School" Work.

Next weeks carnival will be right here at HSD. I am currently accepting submissions for next weeks fun. I will be commenting on my favorite 10 movies of all time between the home school stuff. So if and when you make a submission try to answer one of these questions in the space where you can make comments:

1) What is one of your favorite movies of all time?

2) What is one of your least favorite movies of all time?

3) What's a good movies you have watched in the last 3 months?

Click here to see all the details on how to submit a post. Or if you know the drill just click here to submit your post.

So have a good week, enjoy the current carnival and we will roll film here next week.

Just Call her A-Rol

Both my girls are fantastic readers, but Puppy is the only one who reads signs, magazine covers, and billboards aloud. Bunny Girl is too busy reading books at all times to take her nose out of one to read a sign or a magazine rack. The other day Amy and Puppy were at Walmart when Puppy saw this cover . . .

Here is a a transcript of the convo that followed:

Puppy: That is not true.

Amy: What's not true?

Puppy: She is not the most beautiful woman in the world, you are!!!

Amy: Thanks Puppy!

Puppy (Too worked up to accept thanks.) How can that magazine print stuff that's not true? What's wrong with them?

What's wrong with them, indeed? Puppy verifies what I have known for years. I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world. Now all she needs is an A-list nick name and we need a Bennifer like name for our marriage. How about Davmy? Or Amave?