I feel like so much has happened in the last month that to do an update would be overwhelming to me. I wouldn't even know where to start, so I have decided to highlight my favorite 3.5 events.
The first would be swimming. Yes those fish of mine have swim meets that suck up most of our weekends. I think we have been to 3 of them since I returned from Florida. D1 has won two trophies a 1st place and a 3rd place and even swam a divisional time, which now qualifies her to move on at the end of the swim season.
D2 is starting to put it all together. The last meet we went to she received her first blue ribbon and also swam in two events that were each 100 yds. That is 4 laps, which for a 6 year old is amazing!
Each girl continues to drop time and gain confidence in the pool. We are gearing up for our next two important swimming events, heartsmart and swim-a-thon. Both are long distance races that require great physical conditioning. The swim-a-thon is 2 full hours of swimming or 200 laps, which ever you get to first.
The next highlight is black friday/thanksgiving. I so wanted to do a separate post on this event because of the shear madness of everything. Let's just say my friend and I started shopping on Thanksgiving morning at 3:30 am. Not a pretty site.
It was a crazy world wind of events that I swear I am still tired from. Thanks to the great deals I saved tons of money and now am the proud owner of that new computer that is still in its box waiting for me to open on Christmas Day!
Just a snap shot of a community project I had my children do one school night.
Sure was cold, but taught my children a lesson in giving and not receiving.
But the last event I want to share is by far my favorite. It is something I will never ever forget about. As a matter of fact, it might go down as one of my greatest accomplishments to date.
As many of you are aware I am the PTO President at my children's elementary school. It is one of my time suckers. Because I am at the school a lot, I am often treated with insider information. It is a perk benefit I believe. Right after Thanksgiving vacation I had been made aware that the school nurse had become quite ill and was out of sick days. I noticed she had been in and out a lot, but hadn't realized she was working during the day and then driving straight to the hospital to recoup for a few days, only to return back to work to do the whole process again. The nurse is such a sweet, giving person. I personally think it is one of the worse jobs at the school. (Sick kids = barf = head lice = no fun!) Plus whenever D1 has her asthma issues she takes great care of her. She is a divorced mother of two children. A son in college and a daughter in high school, whom I also had the privilege to coach twice. Many school employees tried to give her sick days, when they discovered she was out but due to a corporation policy were not allowed to do so. This meant that every time she did not go to work, she did not get paid. She had been home at the time for close to two months with one more pending surgery still needed.
It really began to bothered me. It didn't seem right that people wanted to help but weren't allowed to do to some silly policy. I just keep thinking there had to be something I could do to help her. Many a days were spent, but I finally devised a plan. I wanted to find a few people to help me make lunch for the teachers who wanted to donate there sick days. I figured if they were willing to donate a sick day they would be willing to do something else. So I thought maybe the PTO could provide a delicious Italian feast and charge $5 dollars to anyone in the building wanting to help the nurse out. I thought if the PTO could feed about 50 people maybe we could raise $500. After picking a date out and sending one email blast to the entire school corporation ( 7 schools total ) the event was set. We decided to offer a carry out meal in case other buildings wanted to help her out as well. The new goal was to sell 75 meals and hopefully make $1000.
By the end of the meal/fundraiser, we served 152 meals. 89 were carry outs. I found wonderful parents to make all the desserts. Olive Garden cut us a deal on the breadsticks. My mom made all the pasta sauce and boiled the penne. One of my best friends mom made the salad. Both women did this for free. (Buying and making the food.) I helped my mom cook 15 lbs of pasta and assemble the feast. We cooked everything at the school and made a great little assembly line with more parent volunteers. The nurse came to the meal to sit and talk with everyone. We took a shoe box and decorated it asking for donations of at least $5.
At the end of the meal the money was counted, and double counted and drum roll.....
we raised $2560! 25 hundred dollars!!!!! An idea that was executed into my head and put forth buy 4 generous giving women raised two thousand five hundred sixty dollars! I had the honor of writing the check and physically giving it to the nurse that same afternoon.
I will NEVER, EVER forget the look in her tear stricken eyes, or the kind words that were quietly whispered into my ears as she cried on my shoulder. It quiet possibly was one of neatest experience of my life.
I most defiantly learned a valuable life lesson that day. I learned that giving without receiving might me the greatest feeling in the world. It was also a reminder that I am so blessed to live in a community that has a school corporation that truly cares about it's employees. This meal may have been thought by me and made by friends and family members, but it is the teachers and staff at all 7 schools who bought the food. Without them we would have never raised the money to give to the nurse. To me this says a lot about my community and my children's elementary school. Let's just say I have been "high on life" since!
This brings me to my final thought.
Tis the season to be Merry and Jolly!
and remember to
"Believe in the blessing that came on that night,
the star that we followed, shining so bright,
Leading us all to a love that will bring
Joy to all people, the birth of our King.
May you be truly blessed in this season of love."
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night....
