All In

The college girls have started classes this week so the kids are all in school once more.  Thinking good thoughts and praying every day for them.

Indie will have another rough workload this semester but is looking forward to an easy sprint to the finish line. She gave a presentation to 900 people yesterday as Chief Judge of the honor council.  She said it's just a bit more daunting when you are in an auditorium with a stage and a fancy podium. Her heart flipped a few times - but she didn't say anything about her stomach - I'm sure she did great!  She's been working on a book to give to the new Chief Judge next semester that is basically A Year In A Glance full of who, what, where, when, why and most importantly HOW to do all that.  I think it is an amazing contribution, especially knowing how much more difficult her job was without a manual!  She hoped to also start cross referencing case files for the use of future honor council cases brought before them but there won't be time. Instead she'll pass along that idea to the next judge who will likely continue the tradition of implementing a project to contribute to the future success of the honor council. She is studying for the GRE which will be on 9/22, and will begin applying to grad schools, but is considering the grad program at Mercer now as well, so maybe not a move to San Diego, Kansas or Wisconsin? I would be happy about that.

Taryn worked like crazy at the front desk for the past few weeks and as she likes to say, "made bank"!  All the freshmen are moved in, followed by the upper class men last weekend. She has a new roomie, a freshman girl, and I'm hoping they get along really well together. Taryn will be heading to the job fair in a few weeks hoping to land an internship. It's not the first time Taryn experimented with gravity and motion but it is the first time she almost ended up in a cast from it. When all the returning kids get together who knows what they'll come up with from their ever lovin' engineer-twisted minds. This time it was to see how many people this one dude could hold piggy back. Taryn jumped from a table to the top and fell off, hitting a chair with her shin on the way down. It seems I remember a similar scene with a human pyramid. Taryn really needs to work on her body-catapulting skills.  Or not.  I have no say in the matter!  Now that she's a humble Tigger and back on solid ground, she'll be nose-to-the-white-board and working hard to get that nasty Calc 3 out of the way!

Gib is studying with PrepNow tutoring for the ACT test a couple weeks from now. He recently scored a 31 on the math section so I am crossing fingers, toes, and everything and praying for a scholarship worthy score. In fact, I bribed him for one. We'll see! In October he will take the SAT as a follow up to his scores from his 10th grade test I made him take when Mariah took it, and he doesn't know it yet, but in November he'll take a Spanish SAT subject test.  Since he's in his 5th year of Spanish it just makes sense to showcase his foreign language skills as well as the Math, English & Writing capabilities. After the ACT on 9/8, he will begin his college admissions essays.  The goal is to be ready to submit them by October 1.  I have been spending alot of time trolling for top scholarship awarding liberal arts colleges with enrollment less than 5,000 and a sophomore return rate of greater than 80%. On the secondary preferences list is location no farther than a 5 hr drive, majors in the area of Business, possibly Human Resources Management or Industrial Engineering, or History, with a possible secondary education B.S. degree.  Mercer is actually a strong possibility since it has all 3 degrees. Mercer hits No. 9 in the U.S. News Best Universities (South Region) so it's a serious contender for alot of reasons, but scholarship potential is chief amongst them.  I told Gib he could use some leadership in a school club for his resume, so he is now VP of Ultimate Frisbee. Amazing. Good work Gibby!! That reminds me, there's a college in Wisconsin that has Ultimate Frisbee on the webpage as the unofficial school sport and they have the world record for longest game of Ultimate at 72 hrs. Will it make the list? We'll see about that as well.  And on the Eagle front, we are just waiting for the date for his Board of Review.

Mariah is enjoying her fashion consumer science class the most out of her extremely arduous class schedule. They have been covering personal appearance, fitness, and health. No surprise, when they had to identify all products that touch their skin and estimate the cost, (from shampoo to lotion, make up to nail polish) she hit mid-range of the number (15) but was the second most expensive kid in her class. Why oh Why oh Why! Mostly it was because of some special products we have to buy for her eczema. Nobody wants eczema anywhere, but especially not the face. So when Mike grumbled upon hearing this news, we pointed out he has only himself and his gene pool to blame. Mariah likes to talk about what they do in Theatre too - I got a text one day saying she had to chew like a cow. I sent back a reply that at least it was chewing and not what Indie had to do in her little skit in Kenya!! Chorus is going OK, and she hates PE. She even considered JROTC to get out of it, but I really think a semester in PE would be the better choice here. Algebra II, Spanish II and English (all honors classes) I don't hear much about - I wonder why?  She is pondering which of the 7 clubs she likes to join. I think it will be Art on Fridays at the middle school where the kids can get their fix from a very cool teacher they all love. She is also thinking Photography Club and possibly a community service club. I wanted her to look into the Rifle & Skeet Shooting Club but she didn't like the practice time of 3:30 to dark once a week from Oct-Feb. I'm a little bummed because 1) nobody would mess with her and 2) Fashion design majors who are mathematical genius and belong to the gun club aren't exactly thick on the trees. The things I could do with that to work with when it comes time to find a college!! I may still work on that one.  It has such potential.

I'm almost all IN for preschool. Next week is the week. This week we are cleaning everything and setting up classrooms. In fact, I have to leave now.

Not All In - poker was cancelled this week for Mike. Sad days.  Gib had some high hopes of a big payout to support his Sonic habit. Mike had high hopes to support all of our habits. Oh well, maybe next month.