February 26 Update

Hello everyone! Last week was a busy one...hence no blog post, so I'll try to give you a recap here.

We started the week with a few of the big kids sick, which resulted in days home from school.

Jordyn had her 1 year immunizations, which Don took her to. It was very sad for both of them, but they did survive. Don says he'll never do that again.

Patience continues with her swim lessons. She got a bonus lesson again last week because Marianne lets her come whenever someone is not going to be at their lesson. She had a minor setback on Tuesday, resulting in a "time-out" on the side of the pool, and eventually being expelled from the pool because, where Patience is stubborn, Marianne is stubborn AND in charge. She returned the next day and did exactly what Marianne was asking her to do on Tuesday. Go figure...

Danica was with us three days this week (well, 2 1/2 really...more on that later).

My mom was supposed to fly in Friday evening for Jordyn's birthday and Dylan's jazz concert, but the flight loads looked heavy so she was going to try to come in at 2:30 instead. So, we made hurculean efforts to rearrange our day, including Danica's grandma picking her up at noon so I could fetch mom from the airport. I'm watching the Alaska Airlines website so I could track her flight, and it shows late. Well, shoot. We have club speeches Friday night and the schedule is getting tight. The next update on the website shows the flight is CANCELLED! I call her cell phone only to get a very depressed grandma...yes, the flight is cancelled (due to mechanical problems) so of course all of the paying passengers are getting routed on later flights, making stand-by travel impossible. Since she was going to have to fly out 5:00 a.m. Sunday, we decided it wouldn't be worth her trying to fly in on Saturday. That was a big disappointment to everyone involved : (

On Friday night, we had our 4-H club speeches. There were two heroes that night, and they both happened to be my sons : ) In 4-H, public speaking is a competitive event. You start at the club level, and the top speakers there go on to the district level; the top district speakers go onto regionals. For seniors, the top regional speakers go on to the provincial competition. For every 4 speakers, or portion thereof, a club can send 1 speaker to districts. So, if a club has 4 junior members competing, they send one on. If they have 5, they can send 2. Our club, which has EXCELLENT public speakers, had only 4 juniors competing. I needed one more junior to speak at the club level so we could send 2 speakers on to districts. But where would I find a junior who was willing to write and deliver a speech in 24 hours? Sean! That's right...I explained my dilemma and asked him to basically deliver an impromptu speech, understanding that my expectations were not that his speech would be perfect...he just needed to do his best. He did, and his speech was actually quite good! And, we did send on two wonderful speakers to disctricts. Our second-place speaker owes Sean a HUGE favor : )

The second hero of Friday night was Nathan. Nathan wrote and delivered an excellent speech on Friendship, complete with his signature examples from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. But the other senior speakers were pretty darn good, too. It was going to be a tight race. Seniors, after delivering their prepared speeches, have to deliver an impromptu speech. They all leave the room, the judges decide on a topic, and they come back in, one at a time, get the topic, have 1 minute to prepare, and then deliver a 1 to 2 minute speech. This year's topic was "The person who inspires me the most and why." Again, the other senior speakers were good. Really good. It wasn't looking good for Nathan. But HE NAILED HIS IMPROMPTU. It was the best unprepared speech I've ever heard, with the perfect combination of sincerity and humor, he had the audience laughing and crying. It was amazing, and I'm not just saying that because HIS SPEECH WAS ABOUT ME...it really was a fantastic impromptu...textbook perfect. I was so proud of him. He did place first, and will go on to the district competition this Friday night.

Saturday was another good day for our household. Dylan had his jazz concert on Saturday night, and we had planned for some time for Kelsey to babysit for us...but with Mom's plans falling through, everything kind of changed around, and instead of Kelsey watching the girls, Valarie came! It was great (mostly) except for she is clearly out of the "mom" stage and into the "grandma" stage, because both girls were still awake at 9:30 when I got home, both having a great time with Auntil Babadee, as she was letting them do anything they wanted... But it was great having her (thanks, Val!). And the concert was great! Mom would have loved it, especially "Georgia On My Mind." Dylan was in two jazz bands and one vocal ensemble, in which he had a solo. Unfortunately the acoustics weren't too good and it was difficult to hear him. But I'm sure it was amazing : )

Is that enough information? I could say that Val and I took Nathan, Sean, and Hailey shopping Saturday to get Nathan some clothes for his Ottawa trip...he needs "conference wear," which is inbetween casual and dressy. We got some incredible deals at Wal-Mart, and Val was able to lend her fashion expertise.

Yesterday a.m. Sean and Dylan had swimming, then onto church. I did some housework that I had been too busy for previously, in addition to 5 loads of laundry. Last night the kids (all but Jordyn) had movie night with a rented movie and popcorn. It's nice that Patience is getting old enough to do that. After the movie, we all participated in a "5-minute Room Rescue" (living room and girls' play area) and then it was off to bed for the girlies. The boys and I watched the amazing "Senators vs. Sabres brawl" on youtube.

It was a busy, but productive week. This week has the same potential...check back for updates!