Catch Up

The weekend got away from me; here's last week's review:

- Emma had "Battle Cry Week" at school.  This is basically a "homecoming week".  She had a crazy hair/hat day, a dress as your favorite fictional character day (she went as Dr. Who), sports jersey day, and a class color day.  On Friday they had a buffet style lunch with each class having a table of food items.  Angie made stacks of Reuben sandwiches for her.
- Nicholas had in-class spelling bee and won 1st place!
- Nicholas got to dress up as a Super Grammar Hero on Friday.  He went as The Interjection!
- Katelyn had a meet yesterday here in Hampton.  She did pretty well and placed on 3 out of 5 overall categories.  This Friday is State competition.
- Nicholas had his 1st volleyball tournament yesterday.  It was a "friendship" tournament with 3 grassroots teams from our club, 2 teams from Williamsburg, and 1 team from VA Beach.  His team was the youngest of the group so they got beat. However they gave it a good run and lost close ones at 20-25 on a couple games. Lots of nerves and lots of uncertainty on their part...but the experience was great for them.

Thursday Thoughts

Character - What is it?  If you have it will be tested-again and again-as you exercise the power of your choices: To do the right thing and to make it prevail at whatever cost; to always speak the complete truth; to assume responsibility; to be accountable for your mistakes as well as rewarded for accomplishments; and, to make these choices without calculation of risk or reward.

Number 1. Your most meaningful memories will be the times when your character, integrity, endurance, stamina or fortitude were most challenged and you had the courage to do the right thing. 

Number 2. The things that make you feel best about yourself will not be things you do for yourself, but the good things you do for others. 

Number 3. How to get ahead-the unfailing key to success = Always do the best at the job you have right now-the rest will take care of itself. How remarkable it is that prosperity, good luck and fortune come to those who work hard. 

Number 4. The experiences in your life that truly elevate the human spirit will not come from material rewards, but from moral and spiritual rewards that attend virtues of sacrifice, duty, honor and courage.

These are Jumper’s Rules of Life by General John P. Jumper taken from a SNCO Academy speech on 

27 June 2001 

Science Fair

Katelyn and Nicholas had their science fair on Friday.  Nicholas's project was a class effort, and they did a mummified chicken! Katelyn did her project on "Testing Height Differences".  She used one of her gymnast friends and tested jump heights without ankle weights, with weights, and again without weights.  Her project earned a blue ribbon (highest level).

Emma went to her school on Friday night for a movie night and pizza. Saturday she had another volleyball tournament; this time in Williamsburg. The team played pretty well and made the semi-finals again.  Unfortunately they couldn't get past the team in that round.  Katelyn had 2 hours of gymnastics privates on Sat morning and Nicholas had volleyball practice on Sun afternoon.  Katelyn has gymnastics practice/meet everyday for the next weeks leading up to her State competition!

Mid-Week

Wednesday = 1st day of school for the week!  Yep, the kids have had snow days on both Monday and Tuesday.  Crazy since on Sunday it was in the 70's.  We had a little freezing drizzle last night that has closed the James River bridge this morning too. Winter won't give up its grip.

Our community group went out to dinner and then to the movies to see Son of God last night.  Dinner was good (but service extremely slow), and the movie was an awesome reminder of the sacrifice He made for us.

Happy Birthday Angie!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife!  I love you honey!  Enjoy your day

Week in Review

Lots of action this week:

    - I went to Dad's on Tues/Wed to be with him & Mary when he had his Cardiac Ablation procedure.  It went well and it looks like his heart isn't going into SVT episodes anymore and his heart rate is back to normal! Plus he was able to come home from the hospital on Wed afternoon after a week +.  A good day for him!
    - Emma's drama class put on their Death by Dessert play again; this time for the school.  Katelyn's 6th grade class got to come up to the upper school and watch too.
    - After regular volleyball practice on Thursday night, Emma had a setting clinic to go to.  So we left one gym and immediately went to another.  When we got there Emma only had one volleyball shoe in her bag! Somehow she left it at the prior gym.  Luckily I was able to text the coach of the team that was practicing (came in after our team) and she found it and Angie was able to pick it up on Friday.
    - Nicholas came down with a low grade fever and not feeling well on Thursday night and he ended up staying home from school on Friday.  By Fri night he was back to almost normal.
    - Katelyn had a gymnastics meet yesterday and scored her personal best all around score!  Plus she was able to do a trick from the vault (half-on/half-off I think it's called) that she has been practicing.  A good day for her which is good as we're only a couple weeks away from State competition.
    - Emma had a volleyball tournament in Richmond yesterday.  She had a good day for the most part, and had one of her better serving days too. The team made it to the semi-finals but lost 1-2 in the best of a 3 game series. During the game her team had to work (ref), she was the up-ref...a big deal for her since last year when she tried the height got to her! No problems this time.  After the tourney we (her, Nich, me) went to Steak & Shake for dinner.