Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Today was the piano ISMAA contest at Fairfield high school.  Meg signed up to play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  She has been practicing it a lot. It was the last new song she played for Jeanette, so it meant a lot to her.  At the beginning of the week she was frustrated as her band teacher encouraged her to change the tempo and showed her that she had to use the pedal throughout.  On Monday Meg was not sure that she could make the changes, but by today it all came together.  She played it beautifully and I was thoroughly impressed.  She earned a silver medal and a whole lot of pride from both Doug and I.  I am impressed with how much Meg takes on and how well she does at all that she attempts.  From music, to sports, to grades, to spelling bees and religion Meg works hard at everything she does and is a well rounded young lady.

After piano we watched Cameron's LYC game.  I was glad that Cal chose to go as Cam really liked that.  I do have to say I didn't recognize Cal at first as his hair has gotten so long.  After the game we found out that Cam had a lot of fun at Evan's party, but woke up with an earache.  Thus, it was another day of rest on the couch for him.  He spent it watching the 1960s Batman until he finally crashed at 3 p.m.  Tonight as he headed to bed he said, "Well, another weekend of fun leaves me sick!"  Hopefully, he will make it to school on Monday.  He has one more day to relax.

Another Friday, Another Party

Tonight was Evan's tenth birthday party.  Cameron was excited to attend.  He bought him several packs on Pokemon cards and made him a special Pokemon card.  Mom took him to Evan's at 5 and from there they were headed to Sky Zone in Fort Wayne.  He has never been and I know he will really like it.

Cal went to the game with Korey and Harry, so Doug, Meg and I decided to spend the evening shopping and going to dinner.  Doug waited for our table at Buffalo Wild Wings while we looked for shoes.  Meg didn't find what she was looking for, but she did get a cute athletic wear outfit.

Dinner was fun and Doug only had to wait thirty minutes before he was seated.  From there we headed to Kohl's and Target.  I found a new pair of pajamas and a tablecloth for St. Patrick's Day.  Meg bought a new pair of pants for her recital tomorrow.  Doug finally found shoelaces.

Meg told me tonight that she had a lot of fun.  She said that a lot of people her age complain about their parents, but she doesn't feel that way at all.  I was glad to hear that, especially since we spend a lot of time with her.

Delay Day

We had a delay this morning and one on Monday.  Delay days always feel chaotic as we try to get in as much as possible in the shortened time period.  My 7th graders were disappointed as we couldn't make our spaghetti sauce.  Their class was only 30 minutes long and it takes 25 minutes for it to simmer.  I didn't have to alter my plan as much for the rest of my classes.  None of them were cooking and we almost got through everything we wanted to.

I told my students today that I didn't think we would have another delay tomorrow, but it started snowing this evening.  Cal said the roads were very slick on the way back from indoor soccer.  A delay will change my plans for several of my classes tomorrow, but I guess we will just have to wait and see if it really happens.

Library Board

Tonight was our monthly library board meeting.  It was long, but I thought it went well for our director's first one.  We are still in the process of remodeling and that took up a lot of time tonight.  We did agree on the new circulation desk and a couple of other construction recommendations.  I asked that we table the furniture discussion until February.  It was to much information to digest in one evening and we hadn't seen the furniture packet until that night.  I know I made the designer mad, but we had already been there an hour and still had a lot of library items to attend to.  This woman isn't very organized and tends to talk a lot, so no one complained when we decided to wait another month.

We were able to get through the rest of the agenda in another hour which I thought was pretty good.  Only a couple of minor issues arose and so far our new director is doing a great job and she and Gisela get along very well.  We have another meeting in a month that will hopefully return to the hour goal that we set many months ago.

Bethany Christian

Cam spent the day at Bethany Christian on Thursday for an official visit.  He spent the morning in the 4th grade room and the afternoon in the 5th grade.  He said that he really liked it.  It was more "organized" and everyone was nice.  His only concern was making new friends.  I explained to him that it would be like camp.  At first he wouldn't know very many students, but within the first week he will have made a lot of new friends.  They had two specials a day.  Today was PE and music.  He liked that a lot.  He also likes how clean the school is.

I heard back from the director of admissions Friday.  Both the 4th and 5th grade teachers really liked Cameron and thought it would be a great fit for their classroom.  That did not surprise me, but I was glad to hear it.  We went ahead and started the application process.  Cam has to have an academic reference, so we decided to let Milford know that he would not be returning next year.  Cindy said that she was sad to hear it, but realized that we need to do what we feel is best for Cameron.  Doug, Meg and I think this will be a great experience for Cam.

Improvement

Tonight was our third basketball game of the season.  We were overmatched in all three, but this time I could see improvement.  Edgewood is a good team and we played them as well as we could.  We had worked on key skills in practice and introduced a new play.  It did help a lot.

The girls were happy at the end of the game as they did a lot better than they expected.  I realize that we still have a lot to work on.  Our next game is against Jimtown.  We have a chance of beating them if we keep on improving.  Either way it was nice to look like a team that had a plan.  Doug texted me after the game and said he could definitely see a difference.  I don't know if anyone else could, but that didn't really matter to me.

Four Days of Fun

Well, Cam's four days finally caught up with him.  Wednesday was his birthday, he spent the day at Bethany Christian on Thursday, Friday was the party and the circus and Saturday he had basketball and ski club.  This morning when they called from religion to say that he needed to come home, I wasn't surprised.

He spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and actually fell asleep for awhile.  I had him stay home from piano.  I did have to laugh when I picked him up from church as he said "four days of fun" is more than I can handle.  He is right, but I know he enjoyed it.  Friday was probably the kicker as they had gone to the circus for the day before he had his party.  It's a lot of fun for the students, but that alone can wear them out.  The trumpet he bought and cotton candy he ate helped him stay pumped up for the laser tag party. The ski trip was a good incentive to make it through his LYC game - one in which he scored six points in a lopsided victory.  All in all, however, his little body couldn't take another day of it.  Good thing we had nothing planned for the rest of today.  He is going to sleep in tomorrow and maybe he will be able to make it to school.