One of the buildings at Loyola...for more pictures and details you will just have to wait until I get time to put them on here!
March 30, 2009
Luckily it blew away from the house instead of towards it!
After posting about Becky making it to All-State I felt it should also be noted that both Brian and Kayla have also been to All-State. Brian went to large group All-State speech when he was a sophomore in high school...he played a "country hick" in a part that was written specifically for him! Kayla of course went to All-State band a few months ago by playing her bass clarinet. I truly am the mother of three "over-achievers"...and proud of all of them!
It has been a busy last few weeks, culminating in the triumph of Becky and speech. She has been doing individual speech for the last month, performing Storytelling by telling a slightly different version of Cinderella and also doing Original Oratory by writing her own speech about what you learn in high school. At district contest she got a one on both so she advanced onto state competition last Saturday. At state she had three judges for each thing and got a one on her Storytelling from each judge and on her Original Oratory she got two ones and a two...which made her rather upset! But yesterday the nominations for All-State were announced and BOTH of Becky's things made it! She will perform her Original Oratory and be honored for her Storytelling but not perform it. It is a big honor to make it to All-State and an even bigger honor to make it in more than one thing. As far as I can remember back this is the first time a "mixed one" (two ones and a two) made it to All-State. It will be a crazy time when we go because that is also the weekend we go to Chicago for her college visit...nothing like a four day weekend!
Yesterday morning I got up, took a shower and then when done turned the water off...or at least tried to turn it off. The hot water handle in the shower would barely turn, took both hands to get it shut off. I showed it to Dan, he figured the handle was just breaking and we would have to replace it. After all, the shower is old and normal wear and tear would do that. Okay, no big deal, I can afford to fix a shower handle, or even the whole faucet if necessary. Then last night Becky took a shower, when she was done she came to me and said there was a problem. I told her I knew about the shower handle and she said no, it was fine (weird!)...there was no hot water at all! What?! I went to the upstairs bathroom sink and tried that, sure enough, no hot water. So I went downstairs to the kitchen and tried there...no hot water. I told Dan, we went down to the basement to check on the hot water heater and make sure the breaker in the fuse box hadn't been tripped...no such luck...the hot water heater wasn't hot so it has died. Granted, that heater is old, old, old...but still! So today Dan is going to check into it, we are hoping it can be fixed with a new heating element because we cannot afford a new hot water heater right now. One good thing about it though...fastest shower Becky ever took!
We have lots of black birds at our house and they all like to perch in the top of the trees.
So everyone made it to the doctor today and everyone got treated for their "ailments". Dan had to have his blood pressure medicine increased, not a real big surprise there. Brian was tested for and diagnosed with ADHD, not a real big surprise there either. He was also tested for thyroid problems, but we are still waiting for those results. Kayla got her finger checked out and found out it is broken...all this time I have been telling her that it wasn't broken because she could move it. I officially won the "worst mother of the year" award for that one!
Brian was glad to finally have an answer (part of one anyway) to his troubles. He had gone to a doctor in Ankeny and was told they don't do the testing so they referred him to someone else...who then told him they don't take his insurance and sent him to someone else...who said it would be at least two months before he could get an appointment. After all that run-around I said forget it, come home to the family doctor who actually cares about the patient. We are both glad that he did!
Tomorrow is the day of the doctor at our house. Dan, Brian and Kayla all have appointments in Storm Lake with a doctor...all within an hour of each other! Dan has to make sure his blood pressure medicine is working, Brian is hoping to get some sort of test for ADHD done and Kayla has a jammed finger that just doesn't get better. Lucky Becky and I are healthy!