Homecoming

Tonight was Homecoming for Wawasee High School.  For the first time in a long time there was a Homecoming parade.  The girls soccer team decided to participate in it and everyone attended.  Cam and I watched from the van along the parade route.  I had planned to get out, but it was raining for nearly all of it.  Meg and Doug were still able to spot us and Cam got out several times to get candy or take a picture of the Penguin.

After the parade Gabrielle came over.  Doug took them all to the game.  Cam was disappointed that Evan wasn't going to stay for it, but had fun with Ryden and Chance.  Meg enjoyed all of the festivities this week, especially the dress up days and the talent show.  Wawasee did not fair well during the game losing decidedly to Warsaw.  Doug picked Cam up in the fourth quarter while Meg stayed for the dance.

Doug and I had gone to Huntington's while they were out.  We were back well before the third quarter ended.  Doug fell asleep by 11, but I stayed up and graded papers until Meg came home.  We had planned on picking her up, but Paula brought her home.  She had a lot of fun and danced most of the evening.  She was surprised to hear that Doug switched her bed into her new bedroom.  She couldn't believe that after eleven years she had spent her last night in her old room.  After filling me in on the evening she headed to bed.  I finally finished grading papers after midnight.  It felt awesome to be done.

Of Course!

Tonight was student led conferences at Milford.  As the name states the students meet with their parents and inform them on how their first trimester is going so far.  Teachers are required to be there in case a parent has a question or two.  Conferences start at 3:15 and end at 7.  As an Encore teacher I stayed in my room and met parents and students there.  When there was down time I could grade papers or write lesson plans.

This year was different.  Since I am part of the 5th and 6th grade team I have to stay in the cafeteria.  The positive was that we were all available if a parent had a question.  The negative was that we couldn't really do much else.  I had hoped to grade papers, but there wasn't time for that.  I did get to meet with several parents that I had hoped to communicate with.  As a group we had 70% of students attend the evening.

One disappointing part was that I had to miss Meg's soccer game against Northwood.  I asked Mom to keep me up to date on the score.  Around 5:30 I first heard from her.  The game was tied 1-1 and Meg had scored.  By half time we were down 2-1, but I enjoyed the fact that Cam also texted me and let me know about Meg's goal.  It made sense to me that she scored.  She always seems to do that when I can't make it to the game.  Unfortunately for the team, Meg was the only one who scored.  The final tally was 4-1.  Doug did text me at the end to let me know about Meg's goal as well.  He said it was beautiful.

I was able to make it home by 7:30.  Cam was already there playing pool against Dad.  He had been ball boy for the Varsity game.  I tried to stop by the high school to pick up Meg, but she was in the volleyball game by then.  Doug arrived shortly after I did.  He was still excited about Meg's goal.  After he gave me the details he spent the rest of the evening finished the staining.  I ordered pizza for all of us and picked Meg up from the game.  It was definitely a long day for all of us, but we survived and are one day closer to Fall Break.

Remodeling

We started a remodeling project a month ago on the upstairs bathroom that was originally our master bath.  It is close to completion and we cannot believe how much better it looks.  In fact tonight when I was looking at it I almost forgot what it looked like just this summer.  Doug said he could not go that far.  The extra large garden tub that was losing tiles was still foremost in his mind.  I am not sure that I disliked that or the too small to turn around in shower more.  There also was a leaking toilet that was an issue.  The only part of the bathroom I really liked was the tile and we had put that in ten years ago.

To keep the project moving forward Doug had to stain the windows and baseboards tonight.  It wasn't quite as easy as we were told that it would be, but he did get it done.  Both looked nice and all that will be left to do is put polyurethane on it tomorrow night and one more coat of stain on the windows.      The countertops also go in tomorrow and the trim on Friday.  Next week the plumber should be back from a wedding and all will be done.  What a nice update to our home.  

Almost

The girls soccer team played Elkhart Memorial tonight.  Doug was hoping for his first NLC win as the head coach.  Meg had a chance to score early, but just missed.  Several other girls had nice shots as well, but sent the ball wide.  In the end Memorial took more shots on goal, and early in the second half finally connected on one that proved to be the deciding factor in the game.

I was disappointed for Doug.  I know that he has put a lot of work into soccer and I really hoped that it would show tonight with a conference victory.  He handled it well, however, and afterward had a lot of positives to say about the game and the season.  There is still hope as there will be another chance when they play Northwood on Thursday.  Wish I could be there, but I have conferences at Milford that night.

End of the Season

Tonight was Cam's last soccer game of the season.  They played against Goshen and he did well at right fullback.  Goshen was a tough team to play, but the boys held their own.  Even though they lost we were able to celebrate a wonderful first year of middle school soccer.  Cam liked his coach, had fun and learned a lot.  His skills improved as well as his stamina.  He made new friends and is already talking about next season.   It was all he could talk about at dinner afterward.

So Proud

We spent the morning at the mall and walking through campus.  We were happy that Cal wanted to spend that time with us.  We told him that he could pick our lunch spot.  Cam and Meg were thrilled when he chose Noodles & Company.  After lunch we walked back to the new media school to take a picture with the Ernie Pyle Statue.  We parked at the Union and were able to give Cal a ride back to his dorm before he met with his speech group.

On the ride home I had a lot of time to reflect on Cal's time at IU so far.  He has told us a lot of great stories.  My favorites have revolved around how well he is doing academically.  First, he has earned an A on each of the tests or speeches he has given so far.  In fact he received a 95 on his Accounting midterm - a weed out class for the Business School in which 30% have already dropped because they failed the midterm.  He was also sure earlier in the week that he bombed his Econ test which actually posted a 95 with the curve.  The class average was 70%.

Cal has also learned to navigate the social life at IU without being drawn into the party scene.  It does sound like he tends to hit up all of the events that offer free food.  He disappointed Parce and Chokey at the KFC buffet, however, as he couldn't keep up with either one of them.  The best story he told us this weekend was his experience with Jayce at a study group.  Jayce invited him to attend an Econ and Finite help session, but didn't quite give him all of the parameters.  As they left, Jayce asked him if he noticed that he was the only white guy in attendance.  At that point he told Cal that it was a study group for minorities.  It didn't surprised me at all  that Cal hadn't noticed.

Everyone's college experience is different and I wasn't sure what it would be like for Cal.  How awesome it is to leave him knowing that he has totally embraced the academic side of IU and has found means to fill his down time with positive activities such as basketball and intramural soccer.  He'll be home in two weeks for Fall Break.  Looking forward to seeing him then.

Family Weekend

This weekend was Family Weekend in Bloomington.  We weren't able to attend last night's induction ceremony at the Kelley School of Business, but we did make it to the IU vs. Wake Forest game this afternoon.  I believe that was more important to Cal anyway.  We had to wait to leave until after Doug and Meg's game with Warsaw this morning.  Luckily, it was at Warsaw High School, which put us 40 minutes closer.  Cam and I spent the morning after I picked him up from his slumber party getting ready.  The only glitch was the fact that Little Caesar's closed so we had to make alternate lunch plans.  There was a Marsh close by and we decided instead to tailgate in the van on the way down.

Leaving a little later helped as we missed a lot of traffic.  Cam and Doug made the game with three minutes to go in the first quarter.  The game wasn't the greatest, but they enjoyed meeting up with Cal at half.  He said the student side was pretty boring, but he did have fun going to all of the free tailgate parties beforehand.  I believe their favorite part of the game may have been listening to Doug getting heckled for wearing green, the opposing team's colors.

Meg and I watched the first half with Parce at his apartment.  Chokey went home for a funeral, so Parce decided not to tailgate.  Meg and I spent the second half shopping.  Neither one of us are really into football, so that worked out well.  We then picked Parce back up to meet the guys at our new favorite bowling alley, Classic Lanes.  It was as fun as we remembered from last time.  Parce and Cal went back and forth in the lead until the last frame where they tied on Parce's final ball.

We ate dinner at Upland Brewing Company.  It was Octoberfest and we each tried something new from the German menu.  Afterward the guys watched more football and Meg, Cam and I went Pokemon hunting.  Bloomington definitely has a lot more Pokestops and Pokemon than Syracuse.  Parce had to leave early in the morning and we were all exhausted from such a fun day that no one made it up past midnight.