Prom and fencing fun

Got to post this quick as the DH came back from his 40 mile bike ride full of pep and vinegar and wants to take us out to Sweet Ceces. =D He's so cool.

Ok, first is Ben's Prom.

No wait, first is info about Ben's new school.
It was clear that Independence wasn't working out for Ben. The teachers were too busy to help him; they have so many other children to think about and Ben was completely passionless and uninterested in school. So he was totally falling through the cracks. Furthermore...there was just other not-good stuff going on. After a particularly not-good thing, we decided to pull him out of Independence.

To cut a very long story short after several weeks of searching Bert found a school that we thought would work; I may post more about the school later when I have a little more time. I went to check it out last Weds. Ben went for the day on Fri to see if he liked it. He did. Bert and I went again the following Tues and Bert liked it so we signed him up, I went to Independence and withdrew Ben and he started at his new school Weds morning.

By Weds afternoon he'd been hailed as a rock god in his music class and was recruited to play with the band at the school prom on Fri, and perform a wailing solo. By Thursday he had a date to the prom and had joined the soccer team. He appears to be getting excellent grades thus far. We're thrilled.

Ben's Prom
When Ben went to visit the school we were surprised to see a member of our church there. We had no idea she attended this school. =) Ben heard that she wanted to attend prom but didn't want to go alone, so he asked her to come with him. And she did.

Anyway, the theme of the prom was a night in Paris. Look at the Eiffel Tower they built:


And by "they" I mean the students, teachers, and parents of the school. Some of them, anyway.

Here's a fuzzy picture I managed to get of the fast-moving couple:


Pic of them dancing:


Sorry the pictures aren't very good. All I had was my iphone and it was dark. And I'm not a very good photographer.

We were there until about 11pm helping to clean the room up (in this school everyone pitches in), so we slept in the next morning til about 8am. WOW! I can't remember the last time we slept in so late! =) Then we got up and got ready for:

Andrew's First Fencing Tournament

We drove down to Columbia. There were two other children in the 6-7 year old "junior fencing" section, both girls.

Here's Andrew suited up ready to go.




Look at that awesome lunge!!! That was his touch, I believe. =)


He played first against a girl a little older who had clearly been fencing longer. She beat him. Then he played against someone else and won. Then he played against that someone else again and won, then he played against the first girl again and lost. He came in second overall in the junior fencing division and got a trophy. He seemed simultaneously disappointed he hadn't won and thrilled to pieces with his trophy.




I have to say, Cheney Fencing is absolutely fabulous. The story of the owner and his brother is fascinating and I'll have to write about it at some point in time. Chris and his wife are so kind, gentle, and encouraging. They make fencing so much fun for Andrew. The tournament today was so well organized and run. As we were leaving Andrew said "Can we come to this tournament some other time? It was really fun." =)

Today at Kroger

After a ridiculously busy week and a late night last night cos of Ben's prom (more on that in a later post) we woke early to go to Andrew's fencing tournament (more on that in a later post). After getting home I threw down my first 10k in month WHOOT, then went through the strengthen/stretch routine. My gosh was I exhausted after that. But the shopping needed to be done, so off I went to Kroger. And this is what I I saw:

- A table set up outside. As a celebration of spring, Kroger was giving away free sugar cookies, and you could frost them yourself with a choice of all kinds of awesome coloured frosting. Of course, I chose purple. It was SO good.

- A beautiful little girl with HUGE eyes clinging fearfully to her momma as they approached the checkout.

- A little girl, about 3, tiny little thing, dancing along happily in the parking lot waving a receipt around like it was the most awesome toy ever while her momma grabbed her arm so she didn't dance off.

- A mother and son. The son put the cart away. When his back was turned the mother - and she just radiated giggles - hid behind a post. I was driving away so I didn't see the end of that one but I bet you she jumped out and said "BOO!" and they both laughed. =)

It was good stuff. And now I'm heating up the pizza and munching on carrots and celery and grapes while I get these pics off my phone so I can write a post about it.

For my Momma....

It's astonishing to me the number of really thoughtful, interesting posts I write in my head when I'm nowhere near a computer. Then when the computer is around I've forgotten everything. Oh well. =D

Andrew has taken up fencing, and thus far LOVES it. He has his first tournament on Saturday - that should be interesting, as he will have had only four or five lessons by then. =D

I promised my Mum I'd put up fencing pics, so here they are. Enjoy. =)







Bonus! =) Ben made a Wavves pic, and Emily made a decadent peanut butter pie. =)






Elder Nicoll posted a wonderful story about a young triathlete who helped competed with his disabled friend. Oh my, it made me cry.




We've been having lovely weather lately - beautifully cool in the early mornings, so great for running, heating up to about 85f in the afternoon. Unfortunately our air conditioner is broken soooo it's a tad bit uncomfortable and currently my feet are red, swollen and throbbing, and my rings fit on my finger now instead of falling off every chance they get.

About Me ABCs

I haven't done one of these in ages, and have felt quite uninspired in the blogging department, so when Jen posted this "About Me" I thought I'd nick it.

Age: 41

Bed Size: King

Chore You Hate: All of them.

Dogs: Maus, a Japanese chin, who's about to pop his clogs.

Essential Start of Your Day: Prayer, run.

Favorite Color: purple

Gold or Silver: gold

Height: 5'2"

Instruments You Play: Piano. I used to play descant recorder, treble recorder, and clarinet, but not anymore.

Job Title: Mum. The best title ever.

Kids: Emily - 20, Ben - 15, Andrew - 6

Live: TN

Mom's Name: Sandra

Nicknames: Don't really have any.

Overnight Hospital Stays: Penicillin reaction when I was a kid, baby deliveries, ovarian cyst. I think that's it.

Pet Peeve: I'm sure I have so many I can't think of any right now. Hmmm. One is when people use the wrong word their/there/they're, your/you're, its/it's. It REALLY irritates me that iphone *always* autocorrects to put in an apostrophe so I've been known to send texts with incorrect grammar and it drives me BANANAS ie "let's" instead of lets. Grrrr.

Quote From a Movie: You want only ONE movie quote? Uhhhh. Hmm. Because I read Jen's quote all I can think now is Napoleon Dynamite ones. =P
"You think anyone wants a roundhouse kick to the face when I'm wearing these bad boys? Fugeddaboutit."
"Take my arm. Other arm. MY other arm..."
"....the strength of a grizzly, the reflexes of a puma, the wisdom of a man..." =D =D
"I love technology, but not as much as you you see, but still I love technology..."
"Why you so sweaty?"
"I wish you'd get out of my life and shut up!" (My teen says that to me, tongue in cheek, occasionally.)


Right- or Left-Handed: Right

Siblings: 2 sisters; one older, one younger.

Time You Wake Up: 5.25am to take the teen to seminary.

Underwear: white

Veggie You Dislike: Kale, turnip, jicama,

What Makes You Run Late: procrastination, and the fact that the 6yo has a physical inability to move at anything faster than snails pace. "Hurry up. HURRY UP! RUN! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!" yields no appreciable increase in speed.

X-Rays You Have Had: Dental, Ultra Sounds

Yummy food you make: Sweet rice pudding - a recipe I got from a Jewish cookbook way back when the 20 year old was a 5th grader. I love that stuff. Unfortunately, I'm the only one who does. *sigh*.

Zoo Animal You Like Best: Huh. Do they have manatees in zoos? If so, the manatee.

That was fun. =)

How about you? Copy and past this list to your blog and after you fill it out, leave a comment so I can come see. =)