Our children have us so proud of them that we could just about bust. This is the real reason I wanted to blog but figured I better give the other post as an update first.
Stephen & Joshua are both on YMCA basketball leagues again this 8-week session. They are both improving with leaps & bounds. It is really amazing to watch their progress from week to week. Who knows, maybe in the future, March Madness will have a greater meaning for all of us.
As for Rachel, all of the 8th graders at the school have spent the last 8 weeks studying different subjects for the regional Science Olympiad. Only 15 of them make the final team but all students are required to study & help build projects & attend the day of the competition. Rachel was sure that she wouldn't be competing but would just be there as a helper/coach for the day. The teacher has access to previous years tests for certain categories. By giving those & seeing their building skills, he chooses the 15 for the team & there is also criteria that has to be followed such as each person competing in at least 2 categories & also time schedules to consider. Well, when all was said & done, Rachel was chosen for 3 competitions: ecology, crave the wave, & a pentathalon. The first 2 are tests that she took with one other teammate. The last was her working with a team of 3 others to do 5 different activities that included both physical challenges as well as answering science questions.
The regional competition was last Saturday at Grand Valley State University. There were a total of 55 junior high/middle schools competing. Rachel did excellent! She came in with an 8th place (ecology), 11th place (crave the wave), and 17th place (pentathalon). Turns out that they give medals to the 8th place so she even came home with a medal.
Since this was our first time at the Science Olympiad, we didn't realize that the top 10 schools overall are then invited to go to the state competition. When we found that out it didn't seem too exciting because our school had only gotten 4 medals and most of them were around 7th or 8th place. We had only 1 first place. To everyone's amazement, including the coach/teacher, our school came in 10th place! The school is officially invited to send a team to the state competition! This is the first time in our school's 10 year history to have that honor! WOW! To have Rachel go from not even thinking that she would make the competing team to now having a medal & a chance to compete on a state level. It is really exciting! Science isn't even one of Rachel's major areas of interest but she applied herself anyway & now has great memories/honors to be proud of.
Of course, this means another 6 weeks of hard study, as the state competition is on May 2nd at MSU in East Lansing. The other thing is that her study time will have to be after school & not during science class now as they will be moving on to other areas of study & she'll have regular classwork to do in there as well as keeping up with all her other course work.
So, it should be pretty clear why Mark & I are so proud of these kids we have been blessed with. Now, I have something else to tell you that I am also rather proud of before I sign off of this post. My husband has lost 60# & 10 inches off his waist since last September. He has been logging everything he eats so he is watching his calories & eating much healthier. He also works out 5-6 days a week. We are currently participating in a challenge through the Y that keeps us motivated in our working out. Mark even goes mall walking during his lunch hours on days that he knows he won't be able to go to the Y in the evening. He still has a long way to go but he knows he didn't get this way overnight so it isn't coming off overnight either. Also, the way he is doing it is a lifestyle that the whole family can live with instead of a fad that no one can stick with for their entire life. I am really proud of all he is doing to keep himself around for our family as long as possible. We know this is no guarantee but it should help to ward off problems with his heart, diabetes, & all those other problems that arise with being overweight.
Well, I guess that is about it for now. I have to go make lunches for residents & do some cleaning before I get a resident up for work in a little while. I have been reading this while typing it, but if any of it doesn't quite make sense, remember what time I am doing this at=)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
First week of March
So it has been awhile again since I have blogged & we have some updating to do. That first week of March was really a stressful week. I went Sunday to Alpena (after getting some sleep since I worked Saturday night). I was able to be there for Mom's shoulder surgery which went rather well. She was a bit disappointed when she woke up & had a sling on her arm because she knew that meant that the dr. had done some work on the rotator cuff which meant longer recovery time. I then came home to GR on Tuesday in time to pick up the kids from school. Tuesday's are always hectic in the evenings & this was no exception.
While in Alpena, we learned that Pauline Joder had passed away. It was tough on Mom to know that she couldn't travel for the funeral. You could tell by the look on her face, she was trying to figure if she could handle it or how to work around not being able to drive. I told her that I would make arrangements to go to the visitation at least which was Wednesday (funeral was Thursday). Since the children had 1/2 day on Thur & Parent/Teacher Conferences, I knew that the funeral would not work out at all. My husband was concerned with my doing more travelling by myself, so he took the day off & we travelled to Fort Wayne together on Wednesday. It was rather nice having a day to spend together. The Joders were all very thankful that we came. They kept calling me "Melanie-Pooh". I did pretty good at recognizing everyone except for calling Holly, Cheryl (her mom's name). It was a pleasant visit considering the circumstances.
One thing I hadn't considered in my planning to attend the visitation, was the amount of fresh flowers, particularly roses, that would be in that small of an area. These are becoming my worst migraine triggers. The minute I walked in the room, I could feel one coming on. (I haven't even been at church for a couple of months because of renovations that are creating migraines.) I wasn't about to just say "hello, sorry she's gone" and walk out again when it had been so long since I had seen them and we had driven 3 hours to get there. So I was extremely miserable by the time we left there which made it a very good thing that Mark had come with me so he could drive home.
The other news of the week was that we also had a resident pass away that week. His visitation & funeral lined right up with Pauline's. Mark & I considered going to the visitation on the way home from Fort Wayne but I was in no shape to expose myself to more flowers. Actually, by the time we got back almost to GR, my chest felt heavy & tight. This really bothered Mark so we went to the ER to have it checked out. We were there till 2AM to have them tell us everything was fine. There was no signs of any heart problems or blood clots (they looked for these since I had been travelling so much that week.). I have also had a stress test since then & it pretty much confirmed that it was probably just the major migraine that caused the problem.
Then on Thurs, the kids had a 1/2 day due to parent teacher conferences at school & then they had no school on Friday. So that was how we started March. I ended up calling in to work on Tues. & Wed. that week but now everything is back to just the normal stress of everyday living. More to blog but will make it a separate post.
While in Alpena, we learned that Pauline Joder had passed away. It was tough on Mom to know that she couldn't travel for the funeral. You could tell by the look on her face, she was trying to figure if she could handle it or how to work around not being able to drive. I told her that I would make arrangements to go to the visitation at least which was Wednesday (funeral was Thursday). Since the children had 1/2 day on Thur & Parent/Teacher Conferences, I knew that the funeral would not work out at all. My husband was concerned with my doing more travelling by myself, so he took the day off & we travelled to Fort Wayne together on Wednesday. It was rather nice having a day to spend together. The Joders were all very thankful that we came. They kept calling me "Melanie-Pooh". I did pretty good at recognizing everyone except for calling Holly, Cheryl (her mom's name). It was a pleasant visit considering the circumstances.
One thing I hadn't considered in my planning to attend the visitation, was the amount of fresh flowers, particularly roses, that would be in that small of an area. These are becoming my worst migraine triggers. The minute I walked in the room, I could feel one coming on. (I haven't even been at church for a couple of months because of renovations that are creating migraines.) I wasn't about to just say "hello, sorry she's gone" and walk out again when it had been so long since I had seen them and we had driven 3 hours to get there. So I was extremely miserable by the time we left there which made it a very good thing that Mark had come with me so he could drive home.
The other news of the week was that we also had a resident pass away that week. His visitation & funeral lined right up with Pauline's. Mark & I considered going to the visitation on the way home from Fort Wayne but I was in no shape to expose myself to more flowers. Actually, by the time we got back almost to GR, my chest felt heavy & tight. This really bothered Mark so we went to the ER to have it checked out. We were there till 2AM to have them tell us everything was fine. There was no signs of any heart problems or blood clots (they looked for these since I had been travelling so much that week.). I have also had a stress test since then & it pretty much confirmed that it was probably just the major migraine that caused the problem.
Then on Thurs, the kids had a 1/2 day due to parent teacher conferences at school & then they had no school on Friday. So that was how we started March. I ended up calling in to work on Tues. & Wed. that week but now everything is back to just the normal stress of everyday living. More to blog but will make it a separate post.
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