Annabelle's time has been consumed this week by the production of High School Musical that her musical theater class is putting on: a 4.5-hour dress rehearsal on Tuesday night and then 5 school shows spread over 3 days. Tonight is the one public performance, and I'm excited about seeing it. Annabelle plays student-pianist "Kelsi," composer of the musical that is the focus of the show.
I went to dress rehearsal and came away impressed as always at what a group of motivated kids (and a VERY motivated teacher) can do. Here are a few pics I snapped Tuesday night:
I also took a brief video clip. They were working out some issues with the microphones, but you can get an idea of the scale of the production:
Tonight was the night that FSU released admissions decisions for next fall. Mike is in! I think this is going to be the one. It has been a hard decision for him, because he has seen so many really amazing schools, each with something great to offer. There's a feeling at FSU though that makes it stand out. On both of our visits, things have just clicked. People have gone out of their way to be nice and helpful.
Speaking of Mike and school, this is a good time to share his senior picture, which we got just a couple weeks ago:
I can't believe he's really getting ready to leave for college!
OK, so maybe "springing" isn't an accurate description of what I'm doing. I sure could use the hour I lost this weekend, but I'm so happy to be back in Daylight Savings Time.
I'm getting ready for the final push of the semester with my classes. This is going to mean 2 fairly heavy-duty group projects plus keeping up with the regular readings and such. I registered this morning for fall. I'm just going to take one class (Metadata), as I figure I'll be busy enough just trying to get us settled into our new home in Kansas.
Oh, speaking of school! I got invited to join the honor society Phi Kappa Phi. My dad is also a member, which I guess means he and I are going to be brothers. I'm still trying to figure out if this makes me my own grandpa or not.
I hesitate to say anything, lest I should jinx it, but I think winter might be on its way out. I know we've still got some chilly days ahead of us, but tonight Annabelle and I walked the dog at around 6:30--it was still light out, and I wore sandals. Just a few weeks ago, it would have been pitch black at that hour, and I'd have likely been wearing snow boots.
The warmer weather definitely improves my mood and gives me more energy. I even made it to spinning class twice this week!
Spring fever might also explain why I have found myself so bored and frustrated with my hair the past few days. It just felt old and tired, and I wanted something NEW! So I took myself up to Louisville this afternoon and came home with a wash-and-wear 'do that's several inches shorter and feels several pounds lighter:
We had our swim banquet tonight. Swim season has really been a driving force in our family life for the past 4 years--seems we're always in the middle of the season or gearing up for the next one.
Here's this year's team posing for one last group shot underneath our spiffy new banner:
And Mike acting silly with his spirit scarf:
Mike's still not certain where he'll go to school next year, but one thing he does know--he wants to make a weekend trip back to Kentucky next February to cheer the Eagles on at Regionals!
I have some cool swim photos that the photographer from the post newspaper shared with us, and I'll try to get those uploaded tomorrow.
Mike and I spent last week traveling 2049 miles to check out 3 colleges. We got back last night, and I have been settling back into everyday life since then. I need to get back into blogging, but it just seems overwhelming when there's such a backlog of details to report. So I'm just going to jump back in by posting the pictures I took on our tours.
Monday was Auburn:
Tuesday was FSU:
And Wednesday was UCF:
We had a great trip, but I sure missed Annabelle. She and I have been making up for lost time. This afternoon we went shopping and then attended a performance of the University of Louisville symphony orchestra featuring Annabelle's bassoon teacher on the piano, playing a Rachmaninoff concerto. Now we're watching the Oscars. Check out Annabelle's predictions on her blog!
Wow, has it really been a week since I blogged last? I'm sorry about that. I keep meaning to toss something up here--I actually have some photos and video that I'm eager to share--but for some reason I just haven't gotten around to it.
I think I might have mentioned how miserable I was in school last semester? Well, I am the exact opposite of miserable this semester. I'm taking a marketing class and a management class, and they are just the perfect complement for one another. I am really enjoying them, but they're keeping me quite busy.
Oh, and speaking of school, remember how I blogged about that fabulous program set out by the Department of Defense to give military spouses $6000 to put towards education for portable careers? It's paying my tuition this year to the tune of about $2300, and I was looking forward to it doing likewise for my last 2 classes next year. Well, they shut it down, the bastards! I'm a little insulted by the fact that they couldn't be bothered to personally notify those of us already in the program but instead let us find out via the grapevine. Shame, shame, shame! It won't really change my course of action, as I maintain my freelance career to keep myself in tuition and Pilates and therefore already had the rest of my tuition money saved up. This is actually going to cause some spouses--including some friends of mine--to change their educational plans, and that just sucks.
We are getting ready to head out on Sunday for what I have termed the College Death-Tour from Hell. I'm looking forward to it, but it's gonna be intense: Auburn on Monday, Florida State on Tuesday, and University of Central Florida on Wednesday. We will semi-relax on Thursday and then drive back home on Friday and Saturday. Decisions will be made soon (I hope)! Within the past couple of weeks, Mike has gotten acceptances from Rollins and UCF and has been offered an Air Force ROTC scholarship as well. Nice to have options!
I just realized that I forgot to post a couple snow pics from last week when the kids got 2 snow days off from school. This does the best job of showing quantity:
And this probably does the best job of showing quality, as it was a very packable snow, and snowmen seemed to pop up in almost every yard:
Poor Ginger had trouble finding a potty spot:
It's still on the ground, and we're supposed to get MORE this weekend.
It was so exciting to be at State yesterday! The guys did their relay in 1:36.93, finishing in eighteenth place. This qualified them as second alternates, which earned them a trip back for finals today. Even though they did not wind up swimming today, it was cool to be invited back on official business.
Here is a picture of the boys the other night at their pasta dinner:
Tomorrow is the big day! The kids went up to UofL this evening for practice in the pool where the state competition will be held. I guess now they are at their pasta dinner, doing some last-minute carb-loading.
If you're interested in seeing the action, you can watch live video here. The boys start at 10 o'clock, and here is the lineup for Friday's events.
They're goin' to State, they're goin' to State! The boys' 200-yard freestyle relay is goin' to State!
Tonight has been just amazing. Mike's coaches and a few friends showed up at the house at around 9 tonight to deliver the good news. Oh, yeah, and to give him a mohawk:
Once Mike was properly styled, we all joined up with this merry band of barbers to shear Harrison:
Day 2 of Regionals was a real emotional roller-coaster, one that we'll be on through tomorrow night.
First the great news: Samantha Garrett qualified in 2 individual events for the State competition in Louisville next weekend, as did the girls' 200-yard freestyle relay. Go, lady Eagles!
After the girls' 200-yard relay locked in their ticket to State by finishing second in 1:50.94 (compared to the previous day's 1:53.81), there was a LOT of rejoicing at the spectator end of the pool. A circle of girls enveloped Coach Mason--who was completely overcome with emotion--in a giant hug:
Soon it was time for what we hoped would be a similar outcome for the boys' 200-yard freestyle relay. The boys had already taken a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay earlier in the afternoon, although they did drop their time from 1:52.51 to 1:50.51. The 200-yard freestyle relay was really their best chance at State, and it seemed certain that the girls' recent success in that event was a good omen.
They swam wonderfully, although at 1:37.63 they were just a smidge over the previous day's time of 1:36.87. You have to remember that all season, their eyes have been on breaking the 1:40 barrier, so this is just tremendous. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for one of the first 2 places, which would have meant a guaranteed trip to State, and they finished fourth.
As high as the Fort Knox fans had felt only moments before, that's how crushed the mood was after that relay. Mike didn't have too long to wallow in the misery though before it was time for his 100-yard breaststroke. He did amazing! Finished first in his heat for seventh place in our region with a time of 1:07.76 (down from 1:09.14 the day before, which was his first time ever going under 1:10):
Five minutes later, he was back in the pool with the 400-yard freestyle relay, which came in fourth with a time of 3:47.47, a full second off the previous day's 3:48.50.
The way that the competition is put together for State, the first 2 finishers from each of 5 regions in each event go. Then all remaining times across the state are ranked by speed, and the next 14 fastest competitors receive invitations as well. People who know what they are talking about in the world of swimming say that our boys have a chance of getting this call tomorrow night for their 200-yard freestyle relay.
And so we wait. Either the boys' season is over . . . or it isn't. Hard to know what to do or say. Mike has his gear packed and is ready to head out for 6 a.m. practice tomorrow so that if the call comes, he won't have missed a day of preparation. Oh, how I hope the call comes!
But whether they get a call or they don't, I wanted to take a moment to recognize what tremendous strides the team has made this year. I remember in Mike's sophomore year, his second year on the team, when the coach said at the end of the first day of Regionals that she thought we might have some kids qualified for the second day. Our reaction: "There's a SECOND day?!" Knox certainly hadn't made it that far in a number of years.
In 2007, Mike's first year swimming, neither team made the final rankings at the end of the meet. In 2008, our girls were in thirteenth place and our boys in fifteenth. In 2009, the girls were in tenth place and the boys were in twelfth. And this year, darned if both teams didn't finish sixth, putting the combined team in fourth place for the WHOLE FLIPPIN' MEET! They took runner-up in the team spirit category. And this Friday, Fort Knox will be represented at the State competition!
I guess it's true what they say: Knox does indeed rock the blocks!
Wow, the swim team did a fantastic job today! Kids were dropping crazy amounts of time, and if the bad weather holds off, quite a few of our swimmers will be back in the pool tomorrow for the second day. (If we get a snow cancellation, today's results will stand as the final results. Let's hope for decent weather so we can keep the season going as long as possible!)
Mike swam in one individual event (the 100-yard breaststroke) and 3 relays. He dropped about 3 and a half seconds from his time in that event, finishing in 1:09.14, which puts him in seventh place and in the consolation heat tomorrow:
The boys' 200-yard medley relay finished in fifth place in 1:52.51 (down from 1:58.09):
The boys' 200-yard freestyle relay finished in second place in 1:36.87 (down from 1:42.33):
And the boys' 400-yard freestyle relay came in fourth place in 3:48.50 (down from 3:59.02):
Keep fingers crossed for repeat performances tomorrow!
The past couple days have been absolutely CRAZY as I've been working like a mad woman to get us ready to take off to Versailles (rhymes with "fur whales") tomorrow for the regional swim competition. The only thing left on my to-do list for today though is to shower and pack, and neither of those should take long.
I just spent a little time playing with my new toy. I am going to be videotaping some of our swimmers' most competitive events tomorrow so that the kids who make finals will be able to review their performance and make any necessary adjustments. I decided that the time had come to get into the twenty-first century as far as camcorders go, so I dropped by the PX and grabbed a cute little Sony with a 60G built-in hard drive. Here is my first movie:
I can't believe another swim season is almost over. Wish Mike luck!
Normally I would try to have at least a cute picture to post for my birthday, but things are just crazy around here this week. It's all good stuff, but my schedule is a house of cards that threatens to come fluttering down when one thing changes (like getting snow on Saturday). I've had a nice day--got my new contacts, went to Pilates, took myself to lunch, and hit the grocery store before taking Annabelle shopping to complete her outfit for the dance and drop her off at her musical theater class. Fortunately I managed to finish the reading for one of my classes this week, which means I just have 2 papers to write, and maybe I can get them done tonight. Tomorrow will be busy getting us ready to go to Regionals on Friday.
So I'm here. I'm fine. I'm happy. I appreciate all the birthday wishes I've received. I could really just use an extra day in this week!
I have written here before about the school dress code. Like here, for example, and here and here and here. I thought I was done with the issue after last spring, when a watered-down version of the previous code was implemented that did away with some of the more moronic provisions, such as no capris for girls. Apparently I was wrong.
Thursday morning I was sound asleep when the phone rang at 8 a.m. and Annabelle's voice on the other end said: "Hi, Mom? Can you please come to the school and bring my black pants that aren't corduroy? Apparently I am wearing jeans." Jeans?! She was wearing the same gray cords that we shopped all over creation for back in the fall and that she has worn since that time without incident.
It seems that parents have been complaining when kids get caught for dress code infractions after having worn the offending item all day or--as in our case--for many days without issue. So a call went down on Thursday, telling the homeroom teachers that they should inspect the kids each morning and send all dress code infractions to the office ASAP. According to Annabelle, this was every girl except one in her homeroom.
By the time I got to the school, I was steaming mad. They called Annabelle down from Assignment School, where she was doing time with her fellow inmates, and I gave her the other pants. Then I went and had a chat with the principal.
It is important to note here that this is not the principal's policy. In fact, I would bet money that she is as tired of hearing about the dress code as I am of talking about it. But she let me vent, which I desperately needed. Her advice was that I should call and make an appointment to talk to somebody at the district office about it.
On my way home though, I thought, "Hell, nobody called and made an appointment for me to bring my daughter new pants! Sometimes life happens and you have to deal." So I drove over to the district office for a friendly visit.
I started with the superintendent of the Fort Knox schools, but ultimately wound up talking to his boss, the superintendent of the entire district, which also includes the schools at Fort Campbell. As he welcomed me into his office, he said, "Let me guess--your child got caught wearing jeans at school today!" I said yes and handed him the pants. A puzzled look came over his face, and he said, "But . . . these aren't jeans. Do we not allow corduroy?" I explained that the problem was not the fabric but rather that there were 2 rivets on each pocket and that the pockets were scooped out in the front rather than being set into the side seam. This explanation did not do much to reduce his look of confusion. He made a phone call to the school superintendent for clarification and came back explaining that he had not realized they were policing the kids for whether the pants were "jeans style" or not. All he cared about was that they were not "jeans," which to his way of thinking meant denim.
Friday afternoon, a new policy went out that states:
A trial period student dress code change for the rest of the school year will go into effect Monday, February 1. Beginning Monday, students may wear what is commonly called the jean-styled fitting pants in corduroy and other cotton fabrics, wool, and polyester/blended fabrics. Denim, spandex, and all other dress code policies remain unchanged and in effect. At the end of the school year, we will review outcomes and determine whether or not to make this one change permanent or not. Distractions and other ill effects are of major concern, but it is our belief this change will be well received and prove to be uncompromising.
And this morning, Annabelle's Facebook status was:
Annabelle Taylor is gonna wear her gray corduroy pants (yes, the ones with rivets) because I can :D
Harvey is amazed by all the fluffy whiteness (not unlike himself), but this is as close as he gets to it:
I've started feeding birds on my back porch, which is great because I get to see them up close. What I didn't count on was that it would make it twice as hard to keep Harvey off the counter:
The snow scuttled plans for the swim team's final meet before Regionals. Instead, they met at the pool for an extra practice and some frosty fun:
The snow also postponed Annabelle's play rehearsal until tomorrow, which meant that suddenly today became the only day that we could go dress-shopping for the JROTC military ball. She wants long, and I am telling you that EVERYTHING-BUT-EVERYTHING out there is short. We still managed to come home with 2 contenders, and now you get to vote! Will it be Dress 1:
or Dress 2:
(Keep in mind that either dress will need some alterations.)
Annabelle was one of 32 students nominated for recognition this month as Eagles of Excellence. The paper this week had a photo of some of these awesome students (Annabelle is all the way to the right in the front row):
Final winners were drawn at random from the slate of possibilities, but as they say at the Oscars, it's an honor just to be nominated!
Mike is doing an internship at the video production studio here on post. He gets school credit for it and is having a wonderful time with it. Today he got to the studio and discovered that his co-workers had made a giant poster of his epic newspaper pic from last week:
I just realized that I had forgotten to post my collage of books I read last year. 2009 was really a reading slump for me: 24 books in all, compared with 45 in 2008:
I'm trying to get back in the habit, however, and here's the tally so far for January:
Belated resolution: more reading, less Bejeweled Blitz!
I just got back this afternoon from a few days in south Florida. I flew down to visit my cousin Julie, and we had a fabulous time! Shortly before I left for the airport on Thursday, I got a call from a friend whose daughter is on the swim team with Mike. She asked if I had seen this week's Turret (post newspaper) yet. I said no, but that I had it in my bag to read on the plane. She wouldn't tell me what it was but just laughed and said to make sure I checked out the front-page of the sports section. This got my curiosity going, so when I got through security and was enjoying my hot chocolate at the airport Starbucks, I pulled out the paper and saw this photo, which was taken last week at senior night:
Isn't it perfect? I laughed my head off and showed the photo to a couple total strangers sitting near me.
I might not be blogging much for the next couple of days, so here are some things to entertain you while I am away. First, of course, there is always Lily the bear. She might have cubs any day now!
If bears aren't your thing and it happens to be daylight in California, check out the hummingbird cam. A mother hummingbird is taking care of 2 brand new babies:
Tonight was the last regular home meet of swim season, and it was the night when all the teams honored their seniors. We had a little bit of drama during the meet when the 200-yard freestyle relay came around. Another team got mixed up and wound up in the lane that Fort Knox should have been in, and Knox got cut out of the race entirely. This was a big deal because this relay team has just gotten consistently better and better all season long, and they have high hopes for Regionals. Losing an opportunity to swim it was just unthinkable. At the end of the meet, the officials allowed Knox to swim just for a time, and they blew it out of the water: 1:42.43, a new school record!
Mike's friend Mark was at the meet taking pictures with his amazing new camera, so I hope to have some photos to share. I took this one of Mike after the meet with the shadow box that was his senior gift from the team:
I spent today cleaning our upstairs hallway, which had become a dumping ground of sorts in recent weeks. Once I got all the Goodwill stuff cleared out, I moved Harvey's climbing tower in front of the window. He immediately hopped up on it and seemed pleased with the new location:
I wasn't able to attend the swim meet in Louisville today, as Annabelle had theater obligations down in E'town. It went great though--the boys' team finished first and the girls' time fifth (last year 3rd and 5th respectively), and Mike got 3 first-place finishes and one second-place finish. They also won the cork-screw relay, which is a fun race where the swimmers alternate freestyle and backstroke with each stroke. Mike is babysitting the trophies for the weekend:
You know how some things sound way too good to be true? I was suspicious when I first heard about the MyCAA program, which supposedly offers eligible military spouses up to $6,000 in financial aid to train for portable careers. Then in October I learned that a friend of mine was using the money to pay for her graduate school tuition, so I thought I would give it a shot. The application process is easy but not what I would call intuitive. Still, it didn't take long before my master's degree in library science was approved as qualifying under the program. Even once I was approved though, I couldn't quite figure out how to get the money from the Department of Defense to FSU. My friend suggested that I call the financial aid office and ask about "third-party payers." Sure enough, that was the magic language, and within minutes I was connected to a woman who gave me her email address and asked me to fill out a short form and send that along with my approval documentation to her.
I just checked my account, and sometime within the past 24 hours, my balance for 6 graduate credits dropped from $2,307.24 to $45.24, which is basically the technology fee and a slight increase in tuition from the numbers I used in filling out my application. How awesome is that?!
There are a few technicalities to be aware of. Timing is everything, as classes have to be within 90 days of starting at the time of the application in order to qualify. Also, they won't reimburse you for courses you've already paid for, so I will only get to use about $4,500 of my $6,000 allotment in covering my last 4 classes. I'm cool with that though and just wanted to spread the word that yes, this program does indeed work!
I have a new Internet obsession. Lily is a 3-year-old black bear, who is "denning" (fancy bear talk for "hibernating "?) in Minnesota. There is a webcam in her den, and you can watch every thrilling moment here. Often all you can make out is a large, fuzzy presence but no discernible parts, but occasionally she shifts position and then you can look her in the eye (or ear). She is due to give birth to cubs very soon, which should be interesting. Check it out!
Shortly after Thanksgiving, I sent 2 boxes of presents to Fred in Afghanistan. One showed up the day after Christmas, but the other was MIA. When the kids and I got home from Florida though, it was here at Knox waiting for us. (I had put the wrong address on the box, but it was the same wrong address I have put on every other box I have ever sent him.) I slapped the new address on the box and sent it back on its way, and it finally arrived late last week. So last night we gathered around the computer to watch Fred (FINALLY) open his Christmas presents, which was nice.
Yesterday, Fred also emailed me the pictures of him serving Christmas dinner in his dress blues:
I still haven't ordered a senior pic. I need to tally up the votes and get Mike's opinion. I'll let you know when I get that resolved.
It snowed today, and all the county schools around us closed, but not Fort Knox. I understand why it was a bummer for the kids--they had to go to school in the snow. But I was seriously disappointed as well, even though I still had a quiet, relaxing day. I just love having the kids home unexpectedly, and snow days are magical. Mike and Annabelle should have been here, piling on the layers to go play outside and then coming home looking like this:
Sigh . . . memories of Germany . . . weren't the kids little back then? They seemed so big.
Anyway, tonight I just happened to check the webpage for the installation, never expecting that they would have made a decision for tomorrow yet, and was pleasantly surprised to see that: "Fort Knox schools will be closed on Friday 8 January." Shortly after that, we got the recorded phone call from the school, so it's official. Snow day tomorrow!
My mom took a 1000-piece puzzle to the beach house over Christmas. We were working on it almost up to the very moment that we had to check out, mostly to prove a point to Jeff that yes-we-would-too-finish-it!!! Here it is:
I need to order Mike's senior pictures, and every time I look at the proofs, I just can't decide. I think there are just 2 basic images (1 and 2 are one shot and 3, 4, and 5 are another), but then I also have to choose color, sepia, or black and white. Help?
The final photos will have his head injury edited out. The night before senior pics, he looked through the scope of an unloaded air rifle and pulled the trigger and whacked himself in the head with the scope:
You might think that living on a military installation is dull and rather . . . um, uniform (pardon the pun), but I have seen the most interesting things in my neighborhood. I've had neighbors who were Jordanian royalty, for example, and I've watched Canadians and Marines battle each other armed only with pink flamingos and garden gnomes. Today I was setting out for Louisville when I noticed that the people a few doors down from me had something rather unexpected in their front yard. I hurried home for my camera, because I wouldn't want you to miss out on seeing this:
Last night was the party for Don and Mary's fiftieth anniversary, and it turned out quite nice. We went to an Italian restaurant in Auburn where we were able to have a private room for our party. We were even able to have Fred join us for the toast through the wonders of Skype! Here is the world's smallest family photo of our crowd after dinner (I had my camera set on video--duh!--so I will need to get a better picture from somebody else's camera):
My sister-in-law Teresa collected photos from everybody and assembled a wonderful album that we gave Don and Mary as a gift. We also ran out to the church and took a picture of all the cousins together yesterday morning and gave them this photo in a frame:
The kids and I drove home today. It's c-c-cold up here (19 degrees now, with a high of 24 for tomorrow). I have a million things to get done this weekend, but tonight is all about killing time on the computer.
