Cross Country Season

Cross Country season is over and Jeffery had a great season. Most of this season he set a new Personal Record at each meet then he hit a wall at the last two meets but he was still having a great season. At the District meet Jeffery was named as a member of the District VJ Academic Team.

Many of the team also had a great season too. The team this year had a mascot---- Yoda! Yoda even wore a team uniform and was at every meet and is planning on attending the team banquet.

Below is Jeffery and Yoda at the District meet.

Good news!

A week ago, early afternoon, we had a bad hail storm. It was golf ball sized hail, and it did a lot of damage to cars, houses and anything else that was outside.

We had 2 of our 3 vehicles, Randy's car and my van, damaged. The van even had the windshield cracked and the hood looks like someone had beaten on it with a hammer. The van goes into the shop next week for repairs. The boys car escaped damage, it missed the hail storm because it was at Kirkwood.

Today the insurance adjuster for the house came by.

The roof on the main part of our house is fine! I was worried about this because I was home at the time and heard how hard it was coming down. Too bad several of our neighbors were not so lucky.

The sunroom does have some damaged. That roof will have to be replaced and a couple of exterior wall panels. This is what we expected because we could see the damaged to the exterior wall panels.

The adjuster was surprised that we didn't have any screens destroyed or more siding damaged. This has been very common and I know several people who had their siding destroyed as well as their screens.

Randy did notice today that we probably lost one of our ferns because of the hail. It was looking good but now there is little left of it. Oh well, it probably would not have made it through the winter because I was the one who planted it. I do admit to having a black thumb.

Sometimes you have to laugh

There are times you have to laugh or you will cry. This saying is very true when you are dealing with a loved one with dementia.

My mother has dementia and is physically handicapped. Which means that there are many times that I have to tell myself to just laugh or to accept that she is not going to get better.

One thing I often have to remind myself of is that "life happens". Which to me means that you do what you can and don't worry about the rest. This is very true when dealing with Mom.

This doesn't mean that I do not get frustrated with her because I do. She could be doing better physically if she wanted to but she has convinced herself that many activities and almost all forms of exercise will make her sick so she will not do it. I keep telling myself that I can't make her do it, it is up to her.

At times Mom is very with it mentally and at others she seems like a bratty 5 year old. Since I never know which will be on the phone I have learned not to expect much.

I do feel guilty at times because Dad is the one who is having to carry the burden of dealing with her because my siblings and I do not live near them but they chose to live there just as the rest of us have chosen to live where we do.

I do remind myself when Mom is having a bad day that even if I lived closer it would not make a difference and my family comes first and there are times when I have to laugh because it is better than crying.

Continues to improve

This Cross Country season is being a great one for Jeffery. He is making marked improvements at each meet. The Thursday meet at Noelridge was a fast meet for everyone one. Many of our team set new personal records including Jeffery. His new PR is 20:32.

Jeffery set a new record

This season in Cross Country has so far been a really good one for Jeffery. This past Saturday he set a new personal record. He ran the JV 5K race in 20:59. Way to go Jeffery!!!

Cross country season has started

Yes it is that time of the year. What time is that you ask? The time of the year where I walk around golf courses and other large grassy areas cheering on people running across them, especially Jeffery and the rest of the team.

Jeffery is one of those people who loves to run but takes about a 1/4 mile to get into his groove. Yes that means he is a distance runner. This summer around everything else he was doing he ran almost 500 miles. He says that running gives him a chance to burn off energy, sort out thing that are bothering him and/or give him a chance to just enjoy the moment.

Yesterday was the first met of the season. This meet was moved from Thursday evening where it had a reputation of being extremely hot. It was much better being on Saturday morning instead. It was still warm but nothing like it has been the past several years, I don't think that anyone had to go to the hospital this year for a pleasant change.

The team is off to a great start. They came in third in all groups! That holds well for the rest of the season. I am not sure about Jeffery's time I think he was 34th but I am not sure.

More Disney

More about the music department trip to Orlando.

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom.

This was also the day that the Choir had their workshop. Jeff said that they had fun at the workshop. They sang several songs for a soundtrack for part of the Lion King. The choir joined us later that morning.

While the choir was busy the rest of us went to the Magic Kingdom. To get to the Magic kingdom we had to take the ferry across the lake.

Randy and I had fun exploring the park. One of the first things we went to was the Pirates ride because was a good place to start and mid morning we did the jungle cruise as a great way to relax. Randy said that he thinks the jokes on the jungle ride are the same ones he heard when he was there as a kid.

We then headed over to tomorrowland so Randy could ride Space Mountain. This was something he insisted on riding. He had been looking forward to it for years because when he was there as a kid it was closed.

While we were running around the park Jeffery and the rest of the choir returned and they also were running around the park. We only saw them at the end of the evening.

One of the girls in the group convinced Jeffery to try on some princess ears. Of course a picture was taken.
At the end of the day we all met up at near the flagpole at the entrance to watch the spectra magic parade and the fireworks afterwards.

This was the end of the day and our long day in the parks.

We did have one little adventure after we returned to the hotel for the night. One of the students was so tired that they fell asleep on the bus and unfortunately no one notices till curfew. After a looking for them for a good while it was suggested that they might have fallen asleep on the bus so the head bus driver was woken up so we could check the bus. Sure enough the student was still asleep in the bus.