Dragonfly Nymphs

When Danielle and I were at the park a couple weeks ago, we noticed these dragonfly nymph exoskeletons on the reeds in the wetland area. The more we looked, the more we saw. They were everywhere! I don't know how I've never noticed them before. We thought they were neat. If you look, there is always something new to discover at the park.

More Achievements

The high school softball team finally had their awards banquet last week. One of the local businesses catered it for the girls and their families. There was a slide show with lots of great pictures and videos from the season. The girls got fitted for their championship rings. After eating, the coach called each girl up one at a time and said some nice things about them and gave them their awards. He was very complimentary to Danielle. She ended the season with the 2nd highest batting average on the team. There are a lot of very talented ladies on our high school team - this was quite an accomplishment, especially for a freshman. She earned a couple other awards, including the "Good Thief" award for having >10 stolen bases. Danielle has worked hard for years to continue improving her skills. It was nice to see all that hard work pay off this year in the form of playing time and good stats. She knows she still has a lot of work to put in, but that's all part of the fun. Once summer ball is over, she'll start preparing for the next season with speed and agility classes and by resuming weekly hitting lessons. There's always room for improvement.

Tyler was called to his manager's office last week. A guest emailed in to express her gratefulness for Tyler and his helpfulness. Tyler was kind of quiet about it all, but he told me he was working the slides and this lady was trying to carry up her disabled son so he could go down the slide. Tyler saw her struggling and helped her bring him up and get him settled. Whatever he did meant enough that the lady took the time afterward to send an email about him. It seems like just a small thing, but that made this mom's heart swell. Both of our kids make us so proud.

Celebrating Academic Achievements

The high school's end of the year awards assembly was Friday morning. It was invitation only for parents, and thankfully we received invitations for both kids! This is the first and last time Tyler and Danielle could be recognized at the same assembly since Tyler will be a senior next year -they have their own awards assembly - so it was really nice they both were recognized.

Tyler helping Danielle with her Honors Geometry homework one day last week.

Danielle received awards for all As, the Golden Science Award, and Outstanding English 9 student. She has worked very hard all year long and has kept most of her grades in the upper 90s all year. She gets nervous if anything falls below a 95. Some of the group projects just about pushed her over the edge, and her table expected her to carry them every time they had a team test in Honors Geometry. Those kinds of things are very frustrating for someone who is extremely serious about her grades, but she managed to pull it off. She just has to get through one day of regular classes and 3days of exams this week. I think she'll make it.

She said the principal handed her her award and told her he really enjoyed watching her play softball in the regional semifinal game on Wednesday. Lol.

 

Not just grades, but a good classmate

 

Tyler received his academic letter. In order to earn that, he had to finish 5 semesters of high school with a gpa of 3.5 or higher. There have been so many highs and lows over the past 3 years; There were so many times I worried he wasn't taking his school work serious enough, but obviously he was. He took honors and college classes and still finished with above a 3.5. He will have to apply for early admission considerations to colleges this fall, and these are the transcripts they will evaluate. I'm proud of him.

Danielle cheered for Tyler as he walked by. He acted like he was ignoring her, but I managed to catch the little smirk he made before he regained control of himself.

Tyler and Danielle are so different. They are different in so many aspects, including how they approach school, homework, course selections, and thinking of their futures, but both of them have successfully handled the stress and workloads. They both make us so proud we sometimes think we just might burst.

17520ish Days 'Til Retirment

Tyler's first day of work was today. He got a seasonal job at the water park I've been taking him to since before Danielle was born. He works in guest relations. Today he was a slide attendant. When we first started going, my favorite thing to do there was to get a tube in the lazy river, sit him on the edge of the tube so his feet hung in the water, and then float around the lazy river. Since that time, there has only been 1 year when we haven't had a season pass.

 

 

Ron's first job was at an amusement/water park, and it has become legendary in his mind. I hope Tyler can bore his children with stories of his first job's awesomeness someday, too. :)

Freezing Rain

A couple days ago we had freezing rain followed by snow. It was beautiful. The temperatures dropped really low, so even when the sun was out the next day, the ice didn't melt. Instead it glittered on the trees like diamonds. You could hear the branches clinking together like windchines every time the wind blew. It was so pretty.

 

Um, Mom?

A couple weeks ago the kids were involved in an accident on their way home from school. I was leaving the vet with Clara when Danielle called. "Um, Mom? We were just in an accident." Kind of a crummy phone call to get.

The kids were ok. A car a few cars in front of the kids stopped quickly to turn. Tyler and the cars in front of him all stopped in time; however, the car right behind Tyler couldn't. She veered off the road, completely missing Tyler, but the car right behind her rear-ended him. Several more cars had to veer off to the left or right behind them, but Tyler was the only one who was hit. It was mostly a line of cars who had just left the high school, and the kids are always so close to each other when they pull out. It could have been much worse.



Tyler did a great job handling everything. It was a very good learning experience for him, and it was nice as a parent to know your kid can handle things under pressure. I'm sure the other kid's parents didn't feel the same. Turns out he had just gotten his license back from a previous accident. The kid's dad reached out to Ron right away to let him know he would be happy to make things right (in other words, please please don't file a claim with your insurance company). There was just a little cosmetic damage to the bumper, so there really wasn't anything to report anyway.

A couple days later the mail started rolling in. It came to both the kids and to "the parents of". Danielle was a little creeped out that their information was so easy to access. Tyler was entertained.

This ended up being a good learning experience for the kids. It was a huge reminder to me to never be lax in praying for your children's safety.

Building Planes and Memories

Tyler had to construct a balsa wood plane from a kit for his college physics course. He and Ron spent the past week working on that. Of course, in usual Tyler fashion, he procrastinated until the last possible second to start it, so their goal was simply to finish it and not to make it look pretty. The plane was "guaranteed to fly as long as the directions are followed". The plane was too delicate to try flying before class, so it was anyone's guess as to if it would really fly or not. Tyler said his grade was dependent on whether or not it actually flied, but we weren't sure if the professor was joking (or Tyler was exaggerating).

 

 

They flew the planes in class on Friday. They went into the mezzanine in the gym, wound the rubberbands, and tossed the planes across the gym. They could try multiples times, but not all the planes survived the first flight to try again. Some planes went straight down and crashed, some didn't. Tyler ended up trying to fly his plane 6 times. On his 6th attempt it went 62', which put him in 2nd place. (The video is posted on FB.) The winning plane flew 69'. He ended up getting 100% on the plane and a bonus for winning 2nd place. I think Tyler & Ron were pleased with their accomplishment.

Personally, I enjoyed listening to the boys work together. Tyler is at the age where he's positive he's smarter than us, so I wasn't sure he would listen to Ron's advice. Sometimes Ron is a little bristly about that, so sometimes he doesn't listen to Tyler. None of that was a problem, though. They joked around and laughed and for the most part really seemed to enjoy working together, and Tyler was genuinely thankful for Ron's help. I think it ended up being a good experience for everyone.

Interestingly, Facebook reminded me that during this same week 10 years ago, the boys were working together on another project. That was a pretty good experience, too.

I'm so thankful Tyler and Danielle have Ron for their dad. They don't realize how lucky they are...which is exactly as it should be at this point in their lives.

Run Fast!

Our high school offers indoor track as a club sport (meaning it's recognized but not sanctioned). Since regular track & field season overlaps school softball season, Danielle has been looking forward to being able to participate in track in this way. She loves to run, but she also looks at this as a way to get faster for softball. Practices and lifting started at the end of November/first of December. She had her first meet this past weekend.

On the way in to the meet.

Indoor track is typically for the very serious competitors. At most of the competitions, D1, D2, & D3 schools are all competing against each other. And, all grade levels compete against each other. Some of those juniors and seniors looked like full grown adults! And boy, were they fast!! Danielle has always welcomed competition to help her improve her own skills, so it's the perfect environment for her.

Warming up

She did really well for her first meet and especially for being a freshman! She ran the 60m dash and the 200m dash. She was supposed to run the anchor leg of the 4x200 relay, but our first runner was accidentally tripped by another runner and our team ended up being disqualified because she dropped the baton. That was quite a bummer. Out of all the divisions and grades at the meet, Danielle finished 36 out of 101 in the 60m dash. She won her heat in the 200m dash and finished 45 out of 94.

Here is video from her 200m dash.

Danielle and Uncle Ron.

Indoor track state rankings are posted weekly. It's very early in the season, but Danielle is currently ranked 22nd in D2/D3 for the state in the 60m and 24th in the state for the 200m. Not bad for a new freshman!! If she can stay in the top 24, she'll be invited to compete at the state level at the beginning of March. Everyone will be improving as the season progresses, so it's hard to tell what will happen by then. I know she had a lot of fun and is feeling the excitement of actually being competitive in a sport that isn't her primary one. Her next meet is in 2 weeks. We're all looking forward to it!

Goodbye to 2018

2018 was a very good year for us. Ron and I started some lifestyle changes and lost around 200lbs between the two of us. We had a wonderful vacation. We got to watch a lot of softball and band performances. We spent time with our families, who all finished 2018 healthy despite some ups and downs along the way. The four of us spent a lot of quality time together this year, too. We finished out 2018 doing my very favorite thing - spending time together. The 2 weeks around Christmas and New Year are perfect for slowing down and remembering what matters the most, which is exactly what we did.

We all have different highlights for 2018, but here are mine.

2019 has it's job cut out for it. 2018 will be a tough act to follow. Happy New Year!

A Fun "Run"

I decided several months ago that I wanted to do a 5k. Before I had hip surgery I asked the dr if I would ever be able to run a 5k, thinking maybe someday I could do one with Danielle. He grimaced and told me I probably could do one, but only if I didn't run to train for it. Well, I don't know how you train for a run without running if you've never run that far...plus it does hurt if I run for any distance. So, I am destined to be a walker. That's ok. Before my hip surgery, I could hardly walk around the house. Even now there are times, especially when I'm walking at the park and enjoying the sites and sounds and breezes, when I remember how bad it was, and I'm so incredibly thankful just to be able to walk without pain. Running isn't really necessary.

I thought it would be fun to do a 5k together as a family. Ron and Danielle thought it would be fun and agreed to do it. Tyler took a little more convincing. When he finally stopped saying "absolutely not" and instead said "whatever", I took that as consent and signed us up.

We walked The Christmas Story Run 5k/10k on Saturday and we had a lot of fun. We stayed with Ron's parents before the race and had a great visit with them. The race was a lot of fun, and I think we're all glad we did it. Even our reluctant walker enjoyed himself. It was a fun atmosphere. My brother runs in this race every year, so we were excited to be able to see him and hoped we'd get to watch him collect a prize afterward. This year he had his sights set on winning the Masters Division - the over 40 age group.

You can certainly tell which one of us was in it to win it.

We hoped to finish in an hour, but actually finished in just a little over 45 minutes. Tyler and Danielle walked just far enough ahead of us that they could say they beat us. It was funny watching them turn around to look for us so they could be sure they were still far enough ahead. A couple times they slowed down and we almost caught up to them.  One time Ron was about 4' behind them when they turned around. They laughed and quickly picked up the pace.

It was a fun time and I'm glad we all did it together.

My brother did a great job and did win the Master's Division. Unfortunately his chip malfunctioned so they didn't have a record of his time. It was so sad watching the award that should have been his be given to someone who was at least 30 seconds slower. He did receive an email today that said they reviewed the videos and see that he was the winner. He will probably receive his major award in the mail. Hopefully it will be marked FRAGILE. It's not the same as getting it right after you've earned it with your family all there cheering for you, but it's something.

Our Thanksgiving

For some reason, I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year! We only had 2 days of school last week and had 5 days off. I'm sure that was part of the anticipation. It was so nice to have a little break. Thankfully the long holiday weekend was just as relaxing and enjoyable as I had hoped!

One of the weekend's highlights was having family over on Thanksgiving day. Ron smoked a turkey, my mom made a meatloaf, and we filled in the side dishes with a little something for everyone. And of course there was plenty of dessert. Oh, I almost forgot one of my favorites - my breakfast! I have been hungry for a gooey cinnamon roll for weeks. We enjoyed Cinnabon rolls for breakfast and they were every bit as wonderful as I remembered them being!!

 

 

This sign was by the register at the place I got our pies.

Jack was in the hospital right after Tyler's birthday and then we were busy, so we also celebrated Tyler's birthday on Thanksgiving. He wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry icing again, so that's what he got. Danielle bought me some decorator tips for Christmas last year. I haven't used them because we've been avoiding the sweets but we decided to try them out on Tyler's cake. Danielle had fun attempting to use them. The flowers turned out more like Smurf cowpies, but you can't be unhappy about more icing on a cake!

This is how we spent the afternoon - watching tv, eating dessert, talking, putting together legos, eating more dessert. It was just about perfect.

We have so much to be thankful for - high on that list for me is Jack's recovery after being so sick. It was so nice to spend the day enjoying each other's company...and eating desserts (did I mention that part?).

Ron and I got to spend a lot of time together over the long weekend, and we had some good family time, too. It was a very nice Thanksgiving break.