CIMI update

"The girls had a great visit at the Long Beach Aquarium. Stephanie says they got to drag net some plankton, look at lots of marine life, and were still pretty excited to be on the way. There was also a chance that the girls were going to be shuttled to the ferry, eliminating the dreaded 10 minute walk with luggage. The girls were enthusiastically supportive!"

The above came in e-mail today from our "at home" contact. Every time a group of Girl Scouts travel, there has to be a "at home" contact person. This way if there is a problem, or in the CIMI trip case updates, this contact person does the contacting.

I ran into (not literally) Mr. Halling at WalMart. I have only met him once at Parent/Teacher Conferences. I kept asking myself "who is that man? why does he look familiar?" On the other hand he remembered me and asked how D was managing on her trip. Actually he asked "how's the world traveler?" It's interesting some of her teachers were excited for her opportunity to attend CIMI and others only saw it as missing class time. As a teacher, I know that what we do in class is the most important thing (it isn't really, but we all like to pretend). As a parent, I know that opportunities like this can't be missed.

On that point of not missing opportunities I nominated D (sneaking of me I know) as a student for the People to People Leadership Summit program. I also nominated some of my students, which is what they wanted me to do. I read about this program that was started by President Eisenhower in 1956 and it sounds fantastic. Of course I scoured the site for information regarding the cost, but it couldn't be found. I believe that by nominating her, we will receive information. All they wanted was an address, gender, and grade in school. The summits are held at places like Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, George Washington University, and Columbia. According to the website "As a Leadership Summit Student Leader, you'll join some of the world's top 6th through 12th graders for a week of interactive and hands-on training from top college students, college educators, and professionals in your area of interest."

The Beauty of the "Yester-years" of Gymnastics

This video of Oksana Omelianchik at the 1987 Worlds just blows my mind. No one has done a triple full punch front in years.



And just in case you thought release combinations on women’s bars were something new, take a look at Natalia Yurchenko back in 1983! The bars were closer together in 1983. Some of the moves couldn't be done today, because of the current distance of the bars. She just flies through the air. Ashley Postell of Utah, who finished her NCAA career last spring, and Courtney Koupets of Georgia are two of the best bars workers in college gymnastics right now. They both do absolutely amazing bar work with numerous release moves.

CIMI

This is the whole group that left for Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI). There are 28 girls from sixth through tenth grade and four adults. The girl immediately to the left of Deirdre is the one who she will probably hang out with the most. Hopefully she is in D's group. I don't remember her name or I could look it up in my information packet. They flew out this afternoon and return at 10:30 Friday night.

One of the girls designed the picture and at their last CIMI meeting they tie-dyed the shirts. They decorated flip-flops too, but I just remembered that so they're not packed with D's things. Luckily the adults made the reservations before all the new flight rules went into effect, so everyone could check two "bags"—for most this meant a suitcase and a sleeping bag. They snorkle several times—once at night, disect a squid, learn about the ocean and science.

Update

Well to save myself a little bit of money, I decided to become a Stampin' UP demonstrator. I did not do this to start a club or host scrapbooking nights. I have no clue what I am doing when it comes to cards or scrapbooking. I did this solely for the discount. I haven't decided if I will set up a website or not. It seems a bit much for something that will probably never be used. I already maintain a school website with numerous pages, a scout website with numerous pages, and this blog. That is about as much as I can reasonably do. Jeff only let me become a demonstrator with the understanding that it doesn't add any time to my life. Doing a club or anything would add time, so those are out. Scouts and scrapbooking/stamp club seem to take more time than he would like anyway, no sense in adding to those.