An update

Yes, that really is a squid on Deirdre's head. All the girls did it during the dissection lab at CIMI.

Life has been really crazy the last few weeks. When we drove up to get Deirdre from the airport we were re-ended by another driver on I-15. Some idiot stopped in the car-pool lane causing all of us behind him/her to slam on our brakes. The woman behind just couldn't get her Suburban to stop fast enough. Our van was in the shop for three weeks and it cost her insurance $4500.

Below are the before and current pictures of Deirdre's old room. We decided to remodel. So far there is no drywall in two of the upstairs bedrooms or flooring. We are down to waverboard in bedrooms and the hall. I'll try to update as we go. Or I really should say as Jeff goes, since he is the one who is doing all the work so far.


There seemed to be so much more to update, so I was putting it off. But now, I can't seem to remember any of it. Clearly a reason for updating more often.

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."

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.

Soccer and CIMI

Deirdre had an overnighter on Friday at the Girl Scouts of Utah's main office as a trial run for CIMI. We are in countdown mode for that trip. Oct. 5 will be here sooner rather than later. They tie-dyed their airport shirts, ate (it seems non-stop), discussed The Island of Blue Dolphins, played games, and ate some more before going to sleep at 10:45. Parents begin picking girls up at 8-ish, but most didn't come until after 9:00, which was the actual pick-up time. D said she had fun and can't wait until October. She really likes the PA's (program aides) assigned to her group of nine girls. There are 24 girls including six PA's and 4 adults going.

They won their last game in soccer. It ended in a tie, so a best out of 5 shoot-out was done. The girls scored on three of four kicks. D was the goalie for the second half and missed one, but stopped several from entering. In defense, she has much improved. She goes up on the ball and has quite the leg on her. As goalie, she was drop-kicking almost to the center of the field. A shame there aren't more games. We only have four plus one "practice". The No. Sanpete teams are the same. No one is quite sure why the northern teams aren't playing us and vise-versa.