Triad Class of 2009

Quick post today before I begin my "at least one photo per day" quest for June.

Today was THS graduation. I go to graduation every year. I haven't missed one since I began teaching and I don't plan to. Before I was a teacher, when Bruce was already a teacher, I didn't understand his wanting to go to graduation every year. Now I don't understand how any high school teacher wouldn't want to go. How can you watch these kids for 4 years, see them mature, change, be idiots, make mistakes, grow up, and make decisions about their futures and then not want to see them off on their last big day?

Today was special. One of my best friends had a son who graduated. He was also the president of the student body this past year and gave a speech today. She (my friend) too is a math teacher at Triad and I ALWAYS sit next to her at graduation. Last year she told me I better have tissues for her this year because she was gonna need them. She did just fine though. I think the best part of the whole thing was that the seniors stood up and applauded us teachers as we marched into the gym, following them, to Pomp and Circumstance. It's been several years since the seniors have STOOD for us. They always applaud us, but this year they stood. That made my heart skip a beat and it makes all the idiotic things they may have done at some point through the years just go away. I cried a little when that happened.

Goodbye Triad class of 2009. I wish you all the best of luck always. Come back and visit.

Just Stuff

I have 7.5 days left to work this school year. The end really has not been too bad. Everyone else is out of school and it's not as awful as I had anticipated. I think that is because now, every day almost seems like the end.

I think that in June, I might try to do what I did last year and post 1 picture each day. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this since I don't get out of school until June 10, but last year I made it happen so I might try again this year. It was kinda fun and I know that some people enjoy a post each and every day.

We might be able to play ball tonight in St. Jacob. Keep your fingers crossed. I last talked to Bruce at 2:30 and he was going to try to work up one of the diamonds so B1 and her rec team could get their game in. She got rained out this week 2 games in her select league.

Tomorrow is my 41st birthday. Plans for the weekend include sleeping in tomorrow, walking, scrapbooking for a little while, and then going to Dave and Buster's with another family in the evening. Sunday, once again, I am choosing the Cheesecake Factory for my dinner with my parents, brother, etc. Sunday is also Triad's graduation, which I always go to and love.

That's about it for now. I'll check back in again on June 1!

Holiday World

We spent yesterday at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. I believe the former name of this amusement park was "Santa Claus Land." The first time we visited Holiday World was in 1999, when B1 was 2 years old. She spent a lot of time riding these little plastic canoes around a little path. She loved it. We loved the fact that not only did they have good rides for us adults, but a lot of rides geared towards the young kids as well.

Here are B1 and B2 applying sunscreen just before we went in Saturday morning.
We again visited Holiday World in 2002, when B2 was just 2 years old. Again, we spent a lot of time riding the little kid rides but also taking turns going on the adult stuff. Bruce and I both enjoy roller coasters and Holiday World has some that are supposedly in the top 10 in the US.

Here are me and Bruce waiting in line for the newest roller coaster, the Voyage (which is in the newest section of Holiday World, Thanksgiving).

One of the things that changed from the time we visited here in 1999 to the time we went in 2002 was that these little "Pepsi Oasis" buildings popped up all over Holiday World. The soft drinks are free! Yep, free! I think the park is owned by Pepsi now and so one of their draws is "free soda and free sunscreen (in the water park section). So, yeah, whenever you need a drink, you just go to the nearest Pepsi Oasis, grab a cup, and fill it up! They have a lot of choices too.....Pepsi products (of course), fruit punch, lemonade, tea, gatorade, and water.

Until this trip, we had not been back to Holiday World since 2002. This was not because we didn't want to go back, but simply because we do a lot of other things. Anyway, a few weeks ago, some people on B1's softball team asked us to join their group this year. We got our tickets at a group discount rate and we all stayed at the same hotel too, which was fun. I think if I counted correctly, there were 28 of us in all.....11 adults and 17 kids ranging in age from 4 to 17!

Here is B1 and her friend. They were some of the only "tweens" who would ride the roller coasters!

When you pay for admission to Holiday World, this also includes admission to Splashin' Safari.....their water park. We spent most of our time yesterday at Splashin' Safari (and no, I didn't take any pictures there). They have some new, neat water rides since the last time we were there. Bruce and I are adventurous when it comes to rides. We'll try just about anything as long as it doesn't spin (and he isn't real fond of heights like those "drop" rides have). Some of the other adults didn't walk around the water park like we did.....they were content to just sit, relax, and keep an eye on everyone else's stuff. I appreciate that! We, on the other hand, tried out just about everything, and enjoyed it all except for the family raft ride in the dark. Our boat (because of the weight factor) managed to really fling up onto the sides of the flume. At one point, I reached out to make sure that B2 was still with us because there was probably a real possibility that if she wouldn't have been holding on tightly, she could have been thrown out. There are several water rides there that the entire family can ride together (I think I counted 4 of them). We mixed and matched with other people and always rode with a different combination. We ended our day keeping our swimming clothes on with a t-shirt thrown over them, riding the ride called "Raging Rapids." This ride was not in the water park, but in the theme park instead. I always love these rides but I really hate getting my clothes all wet. I therefore usually skip it but I hate to do so. This time, it was perfect through, being already wet and in our swim suits. Since it was the end of the day as well, we were able to just stay on the ride for 5 consecutive rides! Yep, 5! Then, we just went into a restroom and changed back into our dry clothes.

We all ate dinner together at Santa's Lodge after leaving the park (which closed at 7:30).

Here are B1 and B2 (on the ends) with their friends waiting in line for a Turkey Shoot ride in the Thanksgiving section.

We had a great day!

I took this picture of B1's foot THIS MORNING. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since she sprained her ankle and her foot is still a bit swollen and obviously bruised. Now, I kinda feel bad about not reacting more dramatically (maybe that is the wrong word, but you get my idea.....) when she sprained it. I guess it must have really hurt! She has been very faithful about icing it still. She does this every morning and every night. We have a 5-gallon bucket in the living room and we fill it about 1/3 of the way with ice and water. By the time she soaks it for 15 minutes, her foot is numb.

In other news.....we are off to Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN this weekend with a bunch of other families. We are really looking forward to it as we have not been there since 2002. Even though my summer vacation is still a couple of weeks away, it's good to get things kicked off on a fun note!

Something in my gut told me to delete that last post......don't want it to come back and bite me in the butt.

So instead, here are B1 and B2 just being kids with our neighbors. Don't ask me what they were playing, but it looked like fun!
Some kind of train thing.....

Awwww......aren't we cute, posing for Mom!?!

And here is my new toy! I got it yesterday as part of my Mother's Day gift. Bruce also got a new phone, but not as spiffy as mine. Now I have a full keyboard to text on! What else can a girl ask for? Ha ha!

Ankle Update

Here is what B1's ankle looks like tonight. Although the bruise looks worse, she says the ankle feels somewhat better. She is walking more normal now too. Still, no softball until next week at least. The swelling is still pretty noticeable. Her toes have a bruise now too!

One Busy Week Followed By Another

Whew! Last week was a really busy one. This week won't be much different. Here's a summary:

Monday (5/4): Received the news of a local man/father/husband passing away, which really took the wind out of my sails. That evening, B1 had her first local rec league softball game and they won. We went to celebrate with ice cream afterwards.

Tuesday (5/5): B2 had art class after school, which I had to drive her to and pick her up from. In the meantime, I went to the grocery store and through McDonald's drive-thru to get dinner for us. She later had her first softball game, which they lost, and B1 had her first Belleville softball game, which they won. I stayed with B2 at her game while Bruce went with B1. We then came home and I stayed up until about midnight cooking food for the family of the man who passed away.

Wednesday (5/6): B2 had gymnastics class and I went to pick up our new vehicle, a Honda Pilot. I picked this out all on my own and made the decision to purchase it by myself too. We are keeping both of our other vehicles because with their mileage, they aren't worth much. I took my food to the family and spoke with the widow. She seemed to be doing OK and had a lot of family and friends around her. She is blessed to be surrounded by a lot of loving friends in her neighborhood during this time. Then B1 had another local league game but the Troy team didn't show up (afraid of us already!). So they had a practice instead.

Thursday (5/7): We quickly came home from school and changed to go to the visitation at the funeral home. All my sympathies go out to this family. I cannot imagine being the mother of 2 daughters the same ages as mine and being on my own now. I know God would help me, but my heart still breaks for them. Afterwards, B2 had a game, which they won!

Friday (5/8): This was garage sale day. We've had this garage sale planned for a couple of months now, so I could have told you back in March that it was going to RAIN HARD on this day! It always does when we have a garage sale. So it was pretty much a bust. Sigh. We were asked by another family to join them for dinner at a local pizza place, which we did, and then we went to Wal-Mart and seriously spent over $300. We hadn't been there in over 3 weeks and I did buy groceries too so I guess that wasn't just TOO bad, huh? That evening, at 10pm, B1 and B2 were playing "tennis" in the kitchen with a tiny, bouncy, rubber ball. Do not ask me what this game entails but while I was vaccuuming the living room floor, the loudest wailing I have ever heard came from the kitchen. It was B1. She had jumped up and when she came down, she landed on the side of her foot instead of the bottom. Screaming pain. I. Mean. Screaming. But in her defense, it swelled up (to me it looked like she swallowed a whole egg, it slid down her body and down her leg whole,and stopped on side of her ankle) immediately and actually kind of scared me and Bruce. We considered taking her to the emergency room but instead opted to call the trainer from Bruce's school. He put us at ease and told us we may want to go see the trainer at my school the following morning, which we did. She iced it that night and slept on the couch with it elevated. Here is what her ankle looks like tonight. The bruising didn't actually appear until last night.
Saturday (5/9): Garage sale day #2. Another bust. Anyone who knows garage sales knows that the second day is usually pretty lame, and ours was certainly that. We closd up shop about 11am. Bruce ended up taking B1 to the hospital to have her ankle x-rayed in the morning and after speaking with my dad on the phone, we opted not to cancel the plans we had for Saturday night. Those plans were for Bruce and me to drive to Kansas City and see.....Kenny Chesney.....in concert! YAY!!! I'm telling you, the show that he put on was amazing! He sings for 1.75 hours straight, dances, runs, and jumps around that stage, and doesn't stop. And I knew the words to every single song (and there were a lot of them!). He began this show by sitting up in some sort of swing thing which the crew managed to move around the entire arena, dangling him above everyone, until he finally ended up on stage at the end of the song! Awesome! We stayed in a Best Western that night and drove home the following day.

Sunday (5/10): Happy Mother's Day! Besides the trip to KC, I got home-made poetry book from B1 (she wrote all of the poems), a flower in a decorated pot from B2, and an azelia bush from Bruce. Supposedly they are hard to raise, so we'll see how I do. We stopped in Wentzville, MO on the way home and did a little shopping. B2 had pitching lessons at 4:30 and we then met 18 other members of my family at the Trenton House for dinner at 5:45. After that, we went to Bruce's mom's for a little while and finally home!

Today (5/11): I picked the girls up from school a little early and they had dentist appointments. While they were there (we know our dentist and his assistant pretty well), I ran to Kohl's to exchange my mom's Mother's Day gift (a pair of summer sandles which were too big for her) and then grabbed a couple things at Aldi's. B2 had another game tonight, which they won.

I think that's it for now. We have games all week again except Friday but B2 won't be playing this week. We will still go to the games, however, and cheer on the other girls. Hopefully she'll be back in the swing of things by next week.

Grief

Please forgive my lack of posting. I ask that you pray for a St. Jacob family who lost their husband/daddy today. This family has 2 daughters who are the same ages as B1 and B2. Their youngest daughter actually spent the night this past Saturday here with B2. The mom found the dad this morning unresponsive. I heard the siren go off about 6:45 or so and maybe 5 minutes later heard the sirens of what sounded like an ambulance or emergency truck. Little then did I know that it was for him. They are a great family, really good people with well-behaved children. You just wonder why it truly does seem like God takes the good ones. Please keep them in your prayers.