Brag on Katie

Braggin' on Katie for a bit:

She just finished the whole school year!  Actually, classes go thru next week, but she gets to skip the whole week-- because she's exempt from all the final exams.  She got an A average in EVERY class!

We're so proud of her.  She worked hard!

She got a few end-of-the-year awards:  one for highest average in Spanish II and one for "pursuit of excellence in English 10".

Mother's Day

Because we are involved in things at our church, Sundays aren't the most restful day for us.  However, my family did a fantastic job of making yesterday a simple, sweet day for me.  For lunch, we picked up Chinese after church, and they set it all up on the deck.  LOVELY weather and it was perfect to eat outside.

I sure am blessed!  Thank you, Lord, for my wonderful husband and 4 wonderful children. 

Bangor Track Meet

Saturday was Katie's last track meet of the year-- a BIG one in Bangor, PA, almost to NJ.  More than 3-hour drive for us.  It was the ACSI Northwest regional, or something like that.

She and I went to it; rode with Jess and her mom.  The drive worked out really well-- sure beat doing it myself.  Plus, we got to watch how Jess and her mom interacted. :)  Very loving, but cracked us up that Jess is embarrassed by her mom just like Katie is.

We arrived in Easton in time for supper-- met some Faith friends at Chick-fil-A-- then went to our hotel.  Quite a luxury for Katie and I to have a room to ourselves.  We each even had our own beds!  

The whole team stayed at this hotel, since the coach had arranged a reduced rate if we made reservations early enough.  Team devos at 9pm, led by one of the senior girls (fantastic), and then we went right to bed.  Katie was still having allergy trouble and she was nervous about the meet.  I'm sure she would rather have been at home, doing nothing.

Meet went well, tho.  Fun to be there with a big group of Faith families, some of which are new friends and some are old church friends.  Other than a bit of rain at times, quite a bit of wind, and one 30-min thunder delay (they sent all 1,000 or so people back to their cars/buses!), the weather was nice all day-- comfortable and lovely to be outside. 

Here's Katie getting ready for her 100m.  Because there were 38 schools, there were several heats for many of these races.  Katie was one of 37 girls to run the 100m.  I think there were 57 boys.  If you're interested in seeing the results, let me know and I'll email them to you.  I don't know how to get them on here. 

This shows the track and half of the stands.  A lot of people, but the facility was made for it.

It was a long day, but I enjoyed learning about track and watching many different events-- shotput, javelin, long jump, triple jump (you'll have to ask Katie about that!), high jump, many races and relays.

This one is just for fun.  If you zoom and look closely-- find Katie in a gray sweatshirt, near the top.  This was after her last event was finished, so she was hanging out with the Faith fans.  See what's going on?

After finishing her 3 events, Katie had a lot of fun hanging out.  Plus, we went to Red Robin afterward with a group of us, and that was a lot of fun.

The high school girls team-- got 3rd place in the large school division!

The high school boys team-- got 1st place in the large school division!

West Virginia Countryside Thoughts

Since I did the post with all the photos from my Faith trips, I had some other related thoughts...

My favorite street names along the route:  Featherbed Road, Mouth of Opequon Road, Chicken Hawk Road.

Also in this area are: Stoney Lick Road, Traveller Road, Nocking Point.  Not sure where these people learned to spell.  Maybe they did it on purpose?

Because the roads are SO squirrely (is THAT a word?  maybe WV is rubbing off on me), I'm super glad neither Katie nor Abby are prone to carsickness.  Esp on days when we are running a little late.  Yikes!  Boden and Lea Anne, you'd better not ever move out here! :(

This winter we had WAY more precip than normal.  Mostly it was fun.  Got a little sickening by March, tho. Did cause quite a few potholes.  Every morning after another snow, it was exciting discovering where the new potholes were.  Many of the worst got a quick patch-up job; and, sorry to say, that's probably all they'll ever get.  Makes it a bit like a fun obstacle course!

Today it's almost 80 and just gorgeous!  All my annuals are planted; now it's fun to see how things grow.  I really do like working outside, tho, so I'm a bit disappointed to have that finished!

Micah's Literature Fair

This week we've been diving into all the craziness that fills up May and the end of the school year.  Monday was Micah's kindergarten literature fair.  Each of the kids got up to read their autobiography and show us the self-portrait they drew. 

We talked about other books and looked at some samples of their writing.  Boy, he has improved dramatically since last August!!

We also worked on writing/drawing something together. He's got a super-cute class (love those kindergarteners!) and it's fun to be with them for an hour.

Yesterday was Claire's literature fair.  Not nearly as fun. :)  I'd read her writing any day, but listening to a classful of 4th compositions just reminds me of the olden days!

Tonight Jenna has a concert.  Friday Katie has Labors of Love and I have to pick her up at a park. 

In between all this, I've barely been able to get the meals/laundry/dishes/lessons done!

I think it works out well, tho.  We get worked into a frenzy in May so we are just craving June with no school!  Otherwise, maybe I wouldn't have been ready for it. 

Food for hungry

The Grace kids packed lots of lunch kits for hungry people!

West Virginia Countryside

Since I spend about 5 hours a week enjoying this beautiful state of ours while driving to Faith, I thought I ought to document it. :)  And, at the same time, maybe some of you would enjoy seeing real West Virginia.  Well, at least how it is here in the eastern panhandle!

Sadly, I messed up the order somehow, and I don't have the time to figure it out.  Since most of you haven't done the drive with me, you'll never know the difference. 

Ruins of ...?

A few farms along the route

When my dad rode this route with me last month, he said this little piece of land had to be the flattest in all of West Virginia.  I quite think he might be right!  And it's the straightest section of road I ride on each morning-- maybe 2/10 mile?

The barn is fascinating, but it is always interesting to me how close some of the barns are to the road.

Even weeds are pretty! 

This is interesting-- we pass a teeny cemetery.  Maybe it's just a family plot?  I got out to look around last week.  Several of the tombstones are unreadable.  The earliest death date I could find was 1810.  All the last names I could read said "Light".

With the old style S's that look like F's, this says:

Reader, thou too must sleep

In death's dark silent night

Be virtuous and thou shalt awake

To life, to Joy and Light

Waterfall at the Opequon Creek

Old stone barn

Many, many! of these curves!

Love this piece of road-- on the right we pass a collection of shack-type buildings and trailers, then we go thru a one-lane railroad underpass, then we are in the modern world (see next photo).

The new Spring Mills High School, where Katie would be if she went to public school.  It's a tiny bit off the path I take to and from Faith.

A pretty new house they are finishing at the entrance to a new development.  I think this will be a model.

A boat by a small cattail pond.  There's no way they use the boat on that pond!

The location of the Battle of Falling Waters

Would LOVE to talk to the owners of this place.  I can't figure it out.  Very old original house (white-ish) and then they added on the porch and columns and the other pieces of house.  Totally different styles.  Out back there are several other buildings, all of different styles.  Always cars there.  Wish I knew what it was!

A farmer clearing trees to enlarge the teeny strip of land that often has corn

Apple orchards in bloom

Mountain view

Small market where I often buy our summer produce and apples and pumpkins

Abby's house-- sure have appreciated carpooling with them!  Otherwise, I'd be doing 10 hours a week of enjoying West Virginia!

Love the purple redbuds this time of year!

This one is in our development last week.  Now all those trees have leaves.

Katie's Volleyball

OK, so this unrelated.  Just happens that we saw it when we were riding to PA last weekend.  This house fascinates me.  On this end of the country, people lots of times delineate their side of the house by decorating it differently, etc.  Sometimes they have their own style siding or shutters or doors.  This was the first time that I saw the split go straight up to the peak and then look that different. 

On Saturday, after Katie's major battle with a monster ear infection that lasted all week and caused her amazing pain, she was better enough to go to her team's all-day tournament in Elizabethtown, PA.  About 1 1/2 hr from here.  She and I caught a ride with another family and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  (It's really too bad they don't play volleyball outside, but we grabbed every chance we could to be out in it!)

Katie's team is called Absolute Volleyball.  It's not a school-run team-- there are about 24 girls in it (2 different levels) from several different schools.  She practices each Friday 8-9:30pm from Jan thru May.  They have 2-4 tournaments.  Tons of experience and help from a great coach that we really have come to like.

I didn't get any good photos indoors.  It's just not my thing and we don't have a great camera for that.  However, during one of their breaks, they went out to the soccer field to practice serving with their coach.  So you can see pics of that. :) 

Below is the team for this tournament.  Nice group of girls.  They didn't win a thing, but they learned a lot.  Katie got to do a lot of hitting, and she LOVED that!

This Saturday, she has her last tournament-- in Dillsburg, PA.  I think the school will have volleyball once a week or so thru much of the summer, so she'll be able to keep her skills up.  Plus, she just plain enjoys it!