Moments: Save the Last Dance '08 North Side DanceSkins

K with her buds in costume #1

Bein' silly with another buddy in costume #2

Still goofin' with some more buds in costume #3

Last practice...arms up!

Now arms out!

Sashe' 1-2-3, 1-2-3...

Special trio dance...Stairway to Heaven

Rock it Babe!

Work it Girl!

Attitude.


'Twas a great show, and the girls in all five levels worked really hard. Each group 1-V did a tap, ballet, jazz, and modern. K was in Dance 1V, and is looking forward to Dance V next year.....

Moments: Prom '08

Waiting for the Big Reveal! (er, for their dates to arrive)
Another view....
A flower for K's honey.
A flower for M's honey.
K and K.
M and N.
The two princesses and a handsome prince.
The two princesses and a second prince.
And princess number 3 joins in....
The two princesses and their Knight in Shining Armor.
Queen Mother with the royal daughters.
M and N with K and K. Can't believe these beautiful ladies are mine little girls.
M and N with her besty L and her date C.
K with her crowd. (It was IMPOSSIBLE to get the guys to hold still for a picture!)
Let's go already!
Sweet! And fun was had by all.

Misadventures: Um, yeah, I'll claim him.

Let me introduce my oldest hatchling.

Striking family resemblance, eh?

Misadventures: New Life and Motherly Instincts

Mrs. Robin thought she'd found the perfect place to build her nest. Unfortunately for her that place was a pot of gerber daisies I managed to kill off in a week's span and had placed just below my kitchen window on an old rickety shelf.....Fortunately for us, we can get front row seats for the coming show!

Poor Mother Robin must make the daily choice to overcome her naturally skiddish nature as she sits atop her precious blue treasures while bogart the big, loud dog comes bounding out the door to bark at indescriminate objects in the yard every hour or so. Sometimes instinct takes over and she 'flies the coop', only to hop,hop, hop back to her nest as soon as she realizes "oh, it's just that dopey dog again". She sometimes seems a bit nervous when I'm running water, or trying to get a closer look at her beautiful feathers and deep black eyes....but in all, she's a real trooper, risking unwanted gazes and bumbling beasts to protect her offspring.

When she's off her perch, we sneak out and take pictures of the stunningly vibrant torquoise eggs. I'm thankful the creator came up with this color, as it's my favoritest in the whole wide world....Here's B doing some show and tell:

Moments: I knew Jane Austen would play a role!

On Wednesday night, my oldest daughter won the Sterling Sentinel award for English/Literature. Seniors from 20 local high schools are nominated by their teachers in their respective area. The nominees then go thru a rigorous battery of essays, questionaires and interviews. M worked REALLY hard on all this, and was rewarded with a plaque and a cash award for $1500. We were proud parents for sure! Here's the official announcement made when her name was called:

The award recipient in the ENGLISH / LITERATURE category:
-Is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Forensic League and the Quill and Scroll Society.
- Is a Sectional Champion and State Semi-finalist in the Prose Reading category for Speech.
-Plans to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Communication with a focus on design and visual graphics.

Judges comments included:
-“Well-rounded … very aware of and interested in the world around them.”
-“A very personable and passionate young person who will succeed in whatever they decide to do.”
-“Reflects a passion for life that is not only refreshing, but encouraging.”

Please join us in congratulating our Sterling Sentinel Scholarship recipient in ENGLISH / LITERATURE …

From North Side High School: M(...) H(...)

Here she is with a proud papa!

And lastly, here's the write up in the News-Sentinel, which sponsors the program each year:

By Cindy Larson

of The News-Sentinel

M(...) E. H(...)
North Side High School

Achievements: H(...) has ranked in the top 10 of her class her freshman, sophomore and junior years. She has won a sectional championship in speech and was state semifinalist in the prose reading category in her freshman year. She was a member of the National Honor Society the last three years, and she was graphic design editor of the yearbook her junior and senior years.

Activities: As a senior, H(...) has interned at Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. in marketing communications. She also volunteered on a missions trip to Nashville and Franklin, Tenn., in Oct. 2007. At school, H(...) took part in choir her freshman and sophomore years, as well as varsity cheerleading the last three years.

Comments: Ellen Figel, a North Side High School teacher, decribed H(...) as “Not just a writer, M(...) is a communicator. Where most students present information in an expected format, M(...) gives it flair. She is all about the presentation. She never just does an assignment; she re-creates it.”

Plans: Her goal is to become an expert in all forms of communication, including world languages, art, logic, journalism, creative writing, vocal and theater, and to share that knowledge with others.

STERLING SENTINEL AWARDS 2008
The 24th annual Sterling Sentinel Awards honored area high school seniors nominated for the Sterling Sentinel scholarships in 14 subject areas. Since The News-Sentinel started the Sterling Sentinel Awards in 1985, we've referred to all the nominees as winners because it is an honor for them to be selected by their schools in their categories.

They are seniors at Allen, DeKalb and Whitley county high schools. The subject areas they represent are journalism, arts, athletics, business, drama, English/literature, foreign language, industrial/vocational, mathematics, music/instrumental, music/ voice, science, social studies and speech. The scholarship recipients in each category reflect the best of the best as determined by panels of judges who interviewed them. As always, students were nominated for the scholarships by their schools.

In early March, the young men and women appeared before the judges, who had previously studied their nomination applications. The judges -- educators, professionals in the student's field and News-Sentinel staff -- selected the winner in each category. The journalism recipient receives a $3,000 scholarship. Recipients in each of the other categories receive $1,500 scholarships.

The Sterling Sentinel Awards program is one of the ways The News-Sentinel recognizes the outstanding academic achievement of young people in our area. During the past 23 years, we have honored nearly 5,000 students from as many as 26 high schools, and we've given away more than half a million dollars in scholarships.

Moments: Making History.....

Two of my girls and I were volunteers for the Obama Town Hall Meeting today in Fort Wayne. We had a blast! You can see lots more pictures and details of our day on our other blog . I also posted his 11 minute speech. It was an incredible day!

Musings: 4 years ago

Four years ago my family and I began to settle into our new (to us) home here on Hazelwood Ave. We were giddy with a lower mortgage payment, closer proximity to the city, and a house in desparate need of some TLC that we knew we could give it. We thought this might be our 'forever house', a place where grandkids would run in the same yard as aunts and uncles had previously.

Enter Life, stage left. The only problem came when we needed to put our formerly homeschooled kids into the local district's classrooms. That wasn't even on our radar as we looked for homes. Now, having almost graduated one and 2 more coming up, the schools have become the giant elephant refusing to be ignored. so we're back to house-hunting again.

We've played thru several scenarios.....move to an outlying area where schools are 'quite' as drug infested or academically challenged. Oldest dd won't have any of it. And really, I don't want to live out there either. Suburbia scares me more than urbania. We don't 'fit' that mold, and I'd live in frustration trying to explain why we don't have brand new cars, hired help, the newest Wii and iPod every month. That's a reality I don't want to fight.

Now we're visiting private schools, thinking we'll stay in the district for the oldest one (with SEVERE limitations and boundaries), but purchase a smaller house with a smaller mortgage to compensate the tuition costs. Well and good, excpect younger dd is furious about leaving her friends in the public school.

And watching the political process trip thru it's ridiculous circuit has brought up the idea of Canada. Not really, but might be nice.

Add to this, we've seen a few houses we have liked, but they always sell before we can make an offer. So today, there's a Century 21 sign in the yard. No more messin' around. We're moving. Where? Dunno. When? Dunno. Why? Ummmm...... Because life just won't be controlled or planned. Because bringing 6 kids into the world tends to bring change every couple years. Because I think change is good.

I think it will all work out, but it will be messy and not perfect. I'm ready for that. It's been bittersweet getting this house ready for its next occupants, but it needs a family that can appreciate its size. I'm downwardly mobile, looking for a bit more simplicity than this home can offer me. No house is worth bad schools. Living smaller and freeing up finances seems more my style. Gives us more choices, and a (albeit fleeting) sense of control.

So, maybe we'll make it 5 years in our next place. Who knows? (If you do, please email me. I might seem okay with the unknown, but actually I'm rather weirded out by all this.)

Moments: Pics of some more of my gang!

Moments: Winter's Calm Fury

Moments: Hey! My son and his band are in the paper!

Read all about my son's band Alabaster Fox in today's Journal Gazette Weekender.

Of course I'm emmensely proud. Yeah, the masks are a bit weird, but that's par for the course for my first born (second from the right next to his purty wife).