We are through November and looking at Christmas...where does the time go? This year has gone by so fast. We had a great Thanksgiving gathering with family and watching some football. Everyone ate too much, but it wouldn't be the holiday if we didn't. Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did.
Erin - still doing great at dance. She really enjoys dance, but is thinking about doing something else next year. She has mentioned soccer and wants Dad to coach. Does she really know what she would be getting herself into with Dad coaching? We'll see if she still wants to when sign-ups start. Erin is doing great at school. When we discuss the favorite part of your day, Erin always mentions recess and lunch (my 2 favorite subjects too). She really likes science and math. She is reading the American Girl series and really likes it.
Emily - finished the soccer season. Her team finished in 3rd place (just missed the playoffs). Em had a good season. We are considering letting Em go to Houston for the ODP (Olympic Development Program) tryouts in January. I think she may still be a year away, but who knows. Em is competing in UIL again this year. She is an alternate for ready writing (creative writing), and is competing in math and calculator. They go to competition this Thursday, so wish her luck. Em has a 102 average in math...pretty bad when a 100 brings down your average.
Elizabeth - E finished cheering at her last football game of the season. It was cold, but she did great! The girls will be cheering at home basketball games this year. E has been really busy managing the workload of her freshman year. She just finished reading "Animal Farm" and hated it. She enjoys a simple, happy ending just like her Mom. She reads "Great Expectations" next.
All the girls continue to take gymnastics/tumbling. E is so close to having her roundoff backhandspring. Em is close to having her back-tuck. Erin is working on getting her roundoff into her backhandspring. So much fun to watch them get better every week.
After next week, we are on vacation....YEA!!!! Christmas will be here at the blink of an eye.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
October days
Time has really flown by on us. We've been so busy lately, we haven't had much time for anything other than our routines. Here's the latest for each:
Erin - Erin has been working hard in her dance and gymnastics classes. She is going to start taking some private tumbling lessons with a guy (Levi) that teaches Em and Elizabeth. He is great with the girls and Erin really likes him. We start that next week. Erin just completed a school play. It was titled, "A Kid's Life". Erin dressed as a cheerleader and had the opening speaking part. She did a great job and had a lot of fun. Erin loved Halloween. She dressed as a purple witch. She got to make the rounds with Mom and Dad alone this year. We caught up with some friends after a little while and Erin was ready to keep walking and talking. Mom and Dad were worn out. Erin is doing great in school with straight A's on her progress report again!
Emily - Emily has had a busy month. She is doing really well with her tumbling class. She is doing a round off triple back-handspring..next up is learning her tuck. Em has been playing really well in soccer too. Right now, she is our team's leading scorer. Most of her goals have come off free kicks...she has a hard shot. The team is in 3rd place, but has a chance to move to first....wish them luck! Em just found out she made the UIL creative writing team for Academy. She is still waiting to hear about calculator and math. Em had her first cotillion dance - 70's theme. She wanted to know if people really dressed like this...believe it or not, WE did. She had a great time! Em got to dress up in her Halloween costume for school. She had a great time, since she is too old to Trick-or-Treat with her parents. Instead of going with us, she went to a football game with Mikayla and her parents (Texas A&M). Em had fun, but was completely wiped out when she got home. Em has been going to every dance at the high school following football games. The school dances are usually middle school kids with some Freshman sprinkled about.
Elizabeth - E has been really busy too. She has 1 football game left to cheer at and then they will probably do some basketball games. E has had a great time cheering. E is doing incredible with her tumbling. She has just about got her round off back-handspring. She just amazes us everytime she does it! The guy (Levi) she works with is terrific and has been a blessing. E just started reading "Of Mice and Men". She was sad after the first chapter of reading...she's a happy-ending kind of girl. Wait until she gets to the end...I didn't have the heart to tell her what was going to happen. E is still doing great at school. E went to a Halloween party. She dressed as Minnie Mouse - too cute! Evidently, she was too cool to cruise with her parents and Erin Trick-or-Treating.
Melinda - Mel has a new principal at school. She really like him so far, and is hoping things will get better with the kids. She has had a challenging year so far.
Eric - Eric is traveling more now than he ever has. Still covering most of the DFW area, East Texas, and Central Texas through Austin. Eric highly recommends eating at the Salt Lick barbecue joint. It was absolutely great...aside from eating too much.
Erin - Erin has been working hard in her dance and gymnastics classes. She is going to start taking some private tumbling lessons with a guy (Levi) that teaches Em and Elizabeth. He is great with the girls and Erin really likes him. We start that next week. Erin just completed a school play. It was titled, "A Kid's Life". Erin dressed as a cheerleader and had the opening speaking part. She did a great job and had a lot of fun. Erin loved Halloween. She dressed as a purple witch. She got to make the rounds with Mom and Dad alone this year. We caught up with some friends after a little while and Erin was ready to keep walking and talking. Mom and Dad were worn out. Erin is doing great in school with straight A's on her progress report again!
Emily - Emily has had a busy month. She is doing really well with her tumbling class. She is doing a round off triple back-handspring..next up is learning her tuck. Em has been playing really well in soccer too. Right now, she is our team's leading scorer. Most of her goals have come off free kicks...she has a hard shot. The team is in 3rd place, but has a chance to move to first....wish them luck! Em just found out she made the UIL creative writing team for Academy. She is still waiting to hear about calculator and math. Em had her first cotillion dance - 70's theme. She wanted to know if people really dressed like this...believe it or not, WE did. She had a great time! Em got to dress up in her Halloween costume for school. She had a great time, since she is too old to Trick-or-Treat with her parents. Instead of going with us, she went to a football game with Mikayla and her parents (Texas A&M). Em had fun, but was completely wiped out when she got home. Em has been going to every dance at the high school following football games. The school dances are usually middle school kids with some Freshman sprinkled about.
Elizabeth - E has been really busy too. She has 1 football game left to cheer at and then they will probably do some basketball games. E has had a great time cheering. E is doing incredible with her tumbling. She has just about got her round off back-handspring. She just amazes us everytime she does it! The guy (Levi) she works with is terrific and has been a blessing. E just started reading "Of Mice and Men". She was sad after the first chapter of reading...she's a happy-ending kind of girl. Wait until she gets to the end...I didn't have the heart to tell her what was going to happen. E is still doing great at school. E went to a Halloween party. She dressed as Minnie Mouse - too cute! Evidently, she was too cool to cruise with her parents and Erin Trick-or-Treating.
Melinda - Mel has a new principal at school. She really like him so far, and is hoping things will get better with the kids. She has had a challenging year so far.
Eric - Eric is traveling more now than he ever has. Still covering most of the DFW area, East Texas, and Central Texas through Austin. Eric highly recommends eating at the Salt Lick barbecue joint. It was absolutely great...aside from eating too much.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Back at school
Finally took a moment to look at our blog and realized we hadn't posted anything since July (oops!). We started school and are in the middle of all the activities and school work, so we are very busy nowadays. Here are some highlights for everyone:
Erin - Erin is doing very well in 3rd grade. We just got her 6-week progress report @ 5 weeks (go figure) and she has all A's. There is more homework this year, but she is enjoying it. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Wilde. Erin is taking a hip-hop dance class this year. Erin participated in the Lil' Bee Cheer Camp. She got to spend 4 hours with some varsity and JV cheerleaders learning cheers and a dance. The girls got to perform at a varsity game for the entire 1st quarter. Erin had a great time and wants to do it again next year. Erin was bummin' a little that she didn't get to be in Eliazabeth's group.
Emily - Em is starting 6th grade the way she finished 5th grade...strong. She has all A's on her progress report too. Em got to start band this year. She is playing the clarinet. They had had 3 chair tests and she has been 1st chair 2 out of 3. This last Friday, she got 2nd chair and wasn't happy about it. There are 20 kids playing the clarinet this year. Em is back playing soccer again. Her team won a tournament in Austin right before the season started. They have played 3 games and are 2-1. Em may play up with the 13 year olds next year (96's).
Elizabeth - E is adjusting to high school life very well. She did not make the volleyball team. She is a JV cheerleader and that is taking up some time. She had such a great time with the cheer camp kids. E and another girls were in charge of the little guys (pre-K and K). E has been really busy with school work so far this year. She loves her teachers which makes it even better we made the school change. E is taking honors Geometry and English. E just read a Virginia Wolf book, "To the Lighthouse". We sat down and read with her and none of us can figure out what the book was about. We won't be reading anything else by her now. E is taking a tumbling class, with Emily, and doing well.
Melinda - Mel is off to a challenging year. She is not serving multiple roles and just being a teacher this year (YEA!!). She moved up a grade to 5th and is still teaching math. She is getting a new principal in December. Looks like there will be more of an adjustment period with that too. Remember Mel in your prayers.
Eric - the new (?) area Eric covers is requiring more travel than he has done in along time. Eric is also covering the open Austin sales position, so things have been a little crazy for the last month. It doesn't look like anyone will be hired soon, so he will keep covering both areas through the end of the year...if not longer.
Erin - Erin is doing very well in 3rd grade. We just got her 6-week progress report @ 5 weeks (go figure) and she has all A's. There is more homework this year, but she is enjoying it. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Wilde. Erin is taking a hip-hop dance class this year. Erin participated in the Lil' Bee Cheer Camp. She got to spend 4 hours with some varsity and JV cheerleaders learning cheers and a dance. The girls got to perform at a varsity game for the entire 1st quarter. Erin had a great time and wants to do it again next year. Erin was bummin' a little that she didn't get to be in Eliazabeth's group.
Emily - Em is starting 6th grade the way she finished 5th grade...strong. She has all A's on her progress report too. Em got to start band this year. She is playing the clarinet. They had had 3 chair tests and she has been 1st chair 2 out of 3. This last Friday, she got 2nd chair and wasn't happy about it. There are 20 kids playing the clarinet this year. Em is back playing soccer again. Her team won a tournament in Austin right before the season started. They have played 3 games and are 2-1. Em may play up with the 13 year olds next year (96's).
Elizabeth - E is adjusting to high school life very well. She did not make the volleyball team. She is a JV cheerleader and that is taking up some time. She had such a great time with the cheer camp kids. E and another girls were in charge of the little guys (pre-K and K). E has been really busy with school work so far this year. She loves her teachers which makes it even better we made the school change. E is taking honors Geometry and English. E just read a Virginia Wolf book, "To the Lighthouse". We sat down and read with her and none of us can figure out what the book was about. We won't be reading anything else by her now. E is taking a tumbling class, with Emily, and doing well.
Melinda - Mel is off to a challenging year. She is not serving multiple roles and just being a teacher this year (YEA!!). She moved up a grade to 5th and is still teaching math. She is getting a new principal in December. Looks like there will be more of an adjustment period with that too. Remember Mel in your prayers.
Eric - the new (?) area Eric covers is requiring more travel than he has done in along time. Eric is also covering the open Austin sales position, so things have been a little crazy for the last month. It doesn't look like anyone will be hired soon, so he will keep covering both areas through the end of the year...if not longer.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Melinda's Birthday
Amazing how the birthdays seem to pile up and time goes by so quickly. Certainly not what we thought when we were kids! We got to celebrate a birthday with Melinda last weekend. Thought it was very nice of everyone to start the celebration the night before with a bunch of fireworks for everyone to see. Melinda doesn't think it was just for her, but we keep trying to tell her it must have been. We had a nice relaxing day...ate some ribs, went to a movie (Transformers 2), and took Melinda to dinner.
Melinda will be staying at Thornton next year. Someone else got the open math position at Academy. None of us were very happy she didn't get it, but things happen for a reason. Melinda will be teaching 5th grade math next year. She will not only by moving grades (4th to 5th) but classrooms as well. They will open the school back up (asbestos abatement) and we will have about 2 weeks to help her get the room set up. It's an exciting and stressful time. We have a couple of birthday parties to take care of before we can get to thinking about going back to school.
Melinda will be staying at Thornton next year. Someone else got the open math position at Academy. None of us were very happy she didn't get it, but things happen for a reason. Melinda will be teaching 5th grade math next year. She will not only by moving grades (4th to 5th) but classrooms as well. They will open the school back up (asbestos abatement) and we will have about 2 weeks to help her get the room set up. It's an exciting and stressful time. We have a couple of birthday parties to take care of before we can get to thinking about going back to school.
Elizabeth - Cheer camp 2009
We made it through a week of Elizabeth being at cheer camp in Waco. E had a great time...Mom and Dad didn't enjoy it so much. There were quite a few schools that attended & some we had never heard of from the D/FW area. Academy won the big banana award! I'm not sure what it was for...I think it was most spirit all week (or something like that). On the dance portion of Academy's evaluation, they mentioned how strong a dancer E was during the routine. She was really excited to read it. E has a few things to do this summer for cheer, but otherwise she is in summer mode.
Monday, June 15, 2009
End of school - beginning of summer
We made it to summer! Everyone still has a few things planned for the summer, but it should be easier without juggling school in the mix. Melinda finally finished up this past Friday. YEA! The girls went up to Thornton with Melinda the last week of school in Temple. They got to see some old friends, and help Melinda pack up her room. She is moving to another room to teach 5th grade math next year. Here's what's up with the girls:
Erin - Erin finished the year with a dance recital that was great! She looked so serious when she came out with the other girls on stage to dance. Once she started dancing, she was smiling & having a great time. She was on stage for 3 dances and the final number. Erin plans to take some swimming with the high school swim coach. Erin's other plans for the summer include going to Sea World, Six Flags, the Great Wolf Lodge, and the swimming pool as often as possible. The common theme with her is the water. Erin had a great year at school and made the all-A honor roll. We thought it was really impressive since she changed schools in January and had to get used to a whole different way of doing things. She got used to everything quickly and made friends as quickly as Emily makes friends. For those interested, you can catch Erin poolside expecting to be waited on by Dad, or whoever else she can get to fetch her things.
Emily - Em had a very busy month or so at the end of school. Seemed like she had soccer all the time. Her select team made the playoffs, so we went down to San Antonio for those. The team tied 1 and lost 2. Em played well and had a great time. The next weekend after the playoffs, Em participated in a 3-on-3 tournament in Austin. We only had 3 girls on the team, so there were no substitutions. The girls played really hard, but you could tell we had never played 3-on-3 before. They lost all their games, but had fun (especially when we celebrated by going to Gattiland for pizza and games). Em just got back from the Texas A&M soccer camp. She had a great time! What's not to like....5 days and 4 nights of total soccer. She got to stay in the freshman athletic dorm located right across the street from the soccer field. Em went with one friend from Academy, Makaila. They got to room together, so everything was cool. Em picked up the nickname, Cricket, at camp. She has no idea why or what it means, but kind of likes it. Em also had a terrific year at school. She made the all-A honor roll, again. She also won medals for being the top student in math, social studies, science, and language arts. Dad teased her about not winning it for reading as well....slacker. Em signed up to be in the band next year. She has decided to play the clarinet, like her big sister.
Elizabeth - E finished her year strong as well. She received the National Junior Honor Society award, again. There were a bunch of kids from Academy that received the award with her, so it was pretty cool. E also was on the all-A honor roll. We thought it was really impressive since she made the transition in January and had to get used to a completely different way of doing things. E has been busy with cheer practice, and getting ready for cheer camp. She is "lights out" on the dancing parts. She is getting better with her jumps, and is a flier for the team. E plans on sleeping late this summer, texting her buddies, shopping, getting some "mall-time" in, and chillin'.
Eric and Melinda are just hoping they can keep up with the girls. Melinda applied and had an interview with Academy for a 4th grade math position. Keep us in your prayers...we hope she gets it so she can be out there with the girls.
Erin - Erin finished the year with a dance recital that was great! She looked so serious when she came out with the other girls on stage to dance. Once she started dancing, she was smiling & having a great time. She was on stage for 3 dances and the final number. Erin plans to take some swimming with the high school swim coach. Erin's other plans for the summer include going to Sea World, Six Flags, the Great Wolf Lodge, and the swimming pool as often as possible. The common theme with her is the water. Erin had a great year at school and made the all-A honor roll. We thought it was really impressive since she changed schools in January and had to get used to a whole different way of doing things. She got used to everything quickly and made friends as quickly as Emily makes friends. For those interested, you can catch Erin poolside expecting to be waited on by Dad, or whoever else she can get to fetch her things.
Emily - Em had a very busy month or so at the end of school. Seemed like she had soccer all the time. Her select team made the playoffs, so we went down to San Antonio for those. The team tied 1 and lost 2. Em played well and had a great time. The next weekend after the playoffs, Em participated in a 3-on-3 tournament in Austin. We only had 3 girls on the team, so there were no substitutions. The girls played really hard, but you could tell we had never played 3-on-3 before. They lost all their games, but had fun (especially when we celebrated by going to Gattiland for pizza and games). Em just got back from the Texas A&M soccer camp. She had a great time! What's not to like....5 days and 4 nights of total soccer. She got to stay in the freshman athletic dorm located right across the street from the soccer field. Em went with one friend from Academy, Makaila. They got to room together, so everything was cool. Em picked up the nickname, Cricket, at camp. She has no idea why or what it means, but kind of likes it. Em also had a terrific year at school. She made the all-A honor roll, again. She also won medals for being the top student in math, social studies, science, and language arts. Dad teased her about not winning it for reading as well....slacker. Em signed up to be in the band next year. She has decided to play the clarinet, like her big sister.
Elizabeth - E finished her year strong as well. She received the National Junior Honor Society award, again. There were a bunch of kids from Academy that received the award with her, so it was pretty cool. E also was on the all-A honor roll. We thought it was really impressive since she made the transition in January and had to get used to a completely different way of doing things. E has been busy with cheer practice, and getting ready for cheer camp. She is "lights out" on the dancing parts. She is getting better with her jumps, and is a flier for the team. E plans on sleeping late this summer, texting her buddies, shopping, getting some "mall-time" in, and chillin'.
Eric and Melinda are just hoping they can keep up with the girls. Melinda applied and had an interview with Academy for a 4th grade math position. Keep us in your prayers...we hope she gets it so she can be out there with the girls.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Melinda's Award
We have an award winner....and it's not the kids this time. Melinda received the 2009 Golden Apple Award. This is an award presented by the Temple Daily Telegram. The Telegram received over 100 nominations and chose 5 to receive it. A mother wrote in and described how Melinda has helped change her daughter from a kid that really struggled in math. The kid is now in a pre-AP algebra class and doing well. Melinda still tutors that kid to this day whenever she needs help. Pretty cool award to recognize teachers that make a difference. It was mentioned that Melinda has helped so many other kids whose parents feel the same way. I think what sets Melinda apart is she is able to identify where a kid needs help and focus on that area. Her kids always have a remarkable improvement over the previous year. We are incredibly proud of her!
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