Lots of stuff since last post

OK. I am still lacking in the motivation to update this blog, but here goes nothing for our activivities since the last posting. In a nutshell, starting with the most dramatic news and going downward:

-Peri got assaulted at school(She is fine and didnt sustain any serious injuries)
This occured last Wed, 4/28/2010.


-Ella went to the prom in her lovely prom dress that she made.
Ella went to the prom with a bunch of swimmers this past weekend and had a wonderful time. She looked quite stunning in the dress that she made with many thanks to Cindy for her direction and coming down a few weeks before with Joanne. Thanks also to my mom with her guidance also. The prom was in Indianapolis and lasted from 7-11. Post-prom was from 12-2 at the high school. Sarah and I helped set up for the post-prom on Friday and Saturday. It was a county fair type prom, with carnival-type booths and numerous activities, including a broncing bull. (I did give it a test ride before the kids arrived and determined that this type of activity is definitely not for me. I am way to injury prone it seems at this time in my life and I think i lasted all of 7 seconds. It was fun though.) The operator of the bull, which was run with a computer, was very good and I observed the bull quite a bit from my vantage point from the game I was working(basketball shoot) and none of the kids really got tossed like a real rodeo. Ella lasted pretty good when I saw her ride with her long legs and "gumby" type bending to balance herself.

-Peri made JV cheerleader for next year
Peri made JV cheerleader last week for the high school. She was one of three freshman to make the JV squad for football and basketball. I guess you can pick which sport you would like to cheer for and Peri picked them both. Way to go Peri!

-Peri has had numerous track meets
Peri has had 5 track meets and has done quite well. Her best event has been the long jump and her best is 14 feet so far. She has a few firsts and a few seconds.
She also runs in the 400 relay and the 1600 relay. She is going to run in the 400 from my understanding, starting this week.

-Ella is swimming again in club
Ella started swim club a few weeks ago, so she is back in the pool most nights after school.



-Ella is participating in Academic Super Bowl
When Ella finished swimming, a good friend of ours asked her if she would like to participate on the Academic Super Bowl team. Ella said she would and they have qualified for state competition at Purdue this weekend.

-Peri is going to Washington DC this weekend with 8th graders from her school
Peri leaves Friday for Washington DC with a group of kids from the middle schools and numerous chapperones. It is Peri's first flight ever. She comes back Sunday evening. They do quite a bit of walking for the entire weekend, so they are pretty tired when they get back. Peri is rooming with 2 of her good friends and another girl.

-Peri is still dancing in competitions
Peri also had a dance competition this weekend and unfortunately, we got there 2 dances too late. Sorry Peri. We had to take Ella to meet the limo and get some pictures and thought we had time based on the dance schedule. They ran like 15 minutes ahead of schedule, so we did not make it on time. Dance competitions are never on time, let alone early.. Go figure. We tried.

-We went to the Final Four
We had a great time at the Final Four. Peri was rooting for Duke. Wassup with that? She is a rebel. We had a wonderful time.

OK, so I am still a slacker

Been a little while, so here goes nuttin'. Peri and Ella both got straight A's for the first trimester. Way to go, girls. Peri is busy with dance, cheerleading, cross-country. She hasn't run in a meet since her knee injury in the first meet that she ran. She is planning on running next week in an invitational. We are not expecting her to burn the course up due to the fact that she has only practiced on a very limited time schedule. Ella is doing conditioning for swimming which starts the end of this month. She is taking the SAT this Saturday, so good luck to her. Peri has just signed up for the Washington DC trip with her school in May. Sarah has been busy with work, home, aerobics and hauling Peri to all her activities. I assist when I can. I have been nursing a shoulder issue and it appears I might have rotator cuff tendinitis. It is just kind of painful, but I can still play ball and do stuff, except my shoulder has some weakness. I really noticed it affecting my jump shot, and that just isn't going to work. So, I started some physical therapy last week to strengthen and loosen the tendons. It seems to be going well. It may take a little time, but I will get it there. Last weekend I had my 30th year reunion. I had a good time and Sarah, well, at least she knew a few people and there was a live band that she seemed to enjoy. Anyway, that is about the extent of our life in the ville for the moment and I hope all are doing well and love ya'll.

Libby Update:
Libby finished her last round of chemo after they did not find any cancer from the tests that she had. The reason she still needs it is because it is protocol for this type of cancer. Sometimes with neuroblastoma there can be microscopic cells that hide. The chemo was quite a bit stronger than the regular rounds and she got rather sick. She came home Sept 24 and has limitations on where she can go because her immune system is low. Her mother is due with child this month. After the baby is born, Libby will have one more round of chemo that will be stronger than the last round. Just keep her and the family in your prayers.

Been awhile

Sorry for the long delay. It has been awhile. We have been busy the last month or so with many activities, some good and some bad. I will post some pictures when I get a chance. Well, the girls are back in school. Peri is running cross-country, dancing, doing gymnastics, and cheer leading. Ella is taking a ballroom dancing class with one of her cousins, she has gotten a vehicle to drive, and I believe she is going to do some conditioning soon for swimming. She decided to not participate in fall swim club to work on her studies. That is the good stuff. The bad stuff is we had a tree fall on our garage, doing a little bit of damage, but we are about to have that issue resolved. A friend of ours who does construction did the roof repairs and such, and we are waiting on his gutter guy to come and put up some new guttering. This happened numerous weeks ago. That is about all I know at the moment, and my ankle, which was sprained about 6 weeks ago, is healing and I hope to be back on the court soon, with ankle brace on. Keep Sarah in your prayers because the teacher who was next door to her, and was 58, passed away on Saturday while mowing her yard. The calling is today and then she is being transported out to Missouri, I believe, where most of her family resides. It was a bit of a shock.

Libby Update: Libby finished her last round of chemo a 2 weeks ago. She was back in the hospital the next week after running a fever and she received some blood to get her counts up. She is in for tests this week and has her last test is today. So far, all the tests have come back positive, from my understanding.

Thanks and hope everyone is doing fine.

There's a new driver in town....

Congratulations to Ella who passed her written test and is now an official licensed driver. Yeah. OK, so she still needs a car(which she reminds me about every minute), but we are looking. I have also included a picture of my friend at work Le'gretta's baby, Keira, whom I visited this week. She was born 6 weeks early, but she is doing fine, as is her mother. She is 1 1/2 weeks old in these pictures. Also included is a couple of pictures of Ella, who got bonked in the face yesterday at swim practice while they were playing a game. It broke her goggles, but she is fine. Ella swam this weekend in Seymour at an outdoor meet and she did fine. It was rather brisk out there for the swimmers, but not bad from a spectator point of view. It did not rain either. While we were at the swim meet with Ella, Peri had a cheerleader lockdown at the middle school with the other middle school cheerleaders. She was there from Friday night through Sunday morning when her grandparents picked her up. I have also included a couple of pictures from Peri's camp. I hope everyone is doing fine and have a good one!

Weekend over

Wow, what a busy weekend. Saturday Ella had to be in Columbus at 6:45, so we departed our house before 6. Ella swam in 4 events on Friday and 5 events on Sunday.
3:08.72 200 IM
1:13.58 100 free
3:08.68 200 back
1:40.73 100 breast
32.73 50 free
1:23.55 100 back DQ
2:58.00 200 free
1:42.48 100 butter
3:36.40 200 breast
These events are in meters, which are different from high school. Good job Ella, although we know you dreaded having to swim so early!
Peri had her dance competition on Saturday and received a gold for their performance and she attended the swimming with us on Sunday, which also merited a gold.
We also attended numerous Senior graduation open houses over the course of the weekend. It was busy, but we survived. I hope everyone else is doing the same.
Have a great one.

Track is done, but the fun is not done

Peri competed in her last track meet of the season last night. It was the conference and she was only long jumping. She jumped 12' 4 3/4" and finished in 9th place, missing 8th by 1/4". She had a very fine season and we are very proud of her accomplishments. Ella found out this week that her summer job working at the pool is not happening. The pool is having some issues and is not going to be opening this summer. She is working on lining some other things up. Ella is also continuing her swimming in club as is Peri continuing her dance and gymnastics and cheerleading. This weekend Ella has a swim competition and Peri has a dance competition. So, still busy here.

Libby update: Libby started her 4th round of chemotherapy yesterday. Please continue to pray for her and her family.

Peace and Love to all.

Latest updates

I hope everyone is doing fine. Peri is recovering nicely from her knee sprain, or whatever it was. She jumped in the county meet Wednesday and placed 5th, jumping
11' 9 3/4". She did not run in any events, but they only took the top 2 in those events. Peri has the conference meet coming up on Monday that she is only long jumping in. School is out today and Sarah took an overnight adventure to Madison with our friend, Cindi. Peri went home with a friend after school and spent the night. Ella went out with some friends for dinner last night. I dropped her off and then went over to Tim's to check out his new flat screen and surround sound that he had just gotten a few days before, thinking I could hang out there while she had dinner. Ella had informed me beforehand that she would just be an hour or so. Well, apparently, more than just her 3 friends that she was having dinner with "showed up", and needless to say, over 2 hours later, her friend brought her by Tim's house. I did get to see Bolt, the new movie cartoon. It was good. Today, Ella just hung out at home. I went to work.

Libby Update:
Libby had some stem cells harvested yesterday and can continue her chemotherapy next Thursday. They had some tests a few weeks ago and said that the tumors had shrunk by approx 2/3. It appears the treatments and the prayers are working. Please continue to pray for Libby and the family.

Love to All...

Life goes on...

Well, been awhile, but Peri is into track now and is doing great. Ella is working at the HS pool teaching swimming lessons and doing club swimming. This past weekend Ella did a retreat for preparing for her Confirmation at Lucas Oil Stadium in a few weeks. Her group leader approached us and spoke very highly of Ella and told us what a special daughter we had. We already knew that, and that we have another very special and talented daughter, also. At least they know how to act when they are around others. Ha ha.. Anyway, Peri has had 2 track meets thus far, the first last Tuesday when it was misty and 45 degrees and miserable. Peri participated in the long jump, 800, and 4x400 relay in both meets. The first meet Peri got 2nd in the long jump, 1st in the relay, and I think 4th in the 800. The second meet was a three team meet and Peri jumped over 11' which was the best of the season for her. She also ran a 3:15 in the 800, another best for her. Her relay team, which was a little different than the first meet, got 3rd, I believe. We have another meet tonight if it doesn't get rained out. Peri also had a dance competition this weekend in which her group got a High Gold performance evaluation. Great Job Peri!!! Love All.
Update for tonights meet. Peri got 1st in the long jump, going a season best 11'11". She also ran a 2:59 in the 800.

Swimming Banquet

Tonight was the swimming banquet. It was a pitch-in and the food was excellent. Ella received the mental attitude award and the girl's team won the Superintendent's Award, an award given to the sports season(winter) team with the highest GPA. The four seniors spoke and there was a nice slide show.

We talked to Tia, Libby's aunt and she said that Libby was doing much better today.
The blood infection is gone and the Dr. says that the blood test shows that the white cell count should start coming up soon!!! She said that she has been playing with the nurses and has been much more active today and has also eaten some. Her fever has dropped and also heard that the tumor in her check is going down. It is back to where it was when this all came about!! GOD IS SOOOOO GOOD!!! PRAISE THE LORD.
Lets continue to pray!!

PEACE, LOVE, AND ROCK N ROLL !!!

Senior Night Swimming and conference bball tourney

Senior night was fun for the kids. The 4 girls and 1 boy were honored after the diving and they all swam, even the young lady who was manager and another was only a diver, both, who had not swam in anything all year. We swam against Terre Haute South Vigo, and they beat us pretty handily. The boys are down to 8 swimmers, but one had gone home sick and they had like 30 boys on their team. Ella got to swim the 500, and she did a nice job (6:26) or something like that and she placed 3rd. I got to do timing on a lane by myself ( I am just talented that way ), so it was kind of hard to follow everything else that was going on in the meet. I believe Ella also finished 3rd in the backstroke which was only 2 events after she had swam the 500. Her time was 1:11, far off her best of the season, but she swam in 4 events on the night.

Peri was cheering for her 7th and 8th grade basketball teams who both had advanced to the finals of the conference tournament. They both won, beating teams they had previously beaten, I believe.

Oh yeah. Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Wooooo hooooo.... Today was the last day of early morning swim practice for the girls. I got up at 4:50 and took Ella in, then decided to sleep in a little this morning. I am on a flex schedule and had no meetings or deadlines at work, so I just decided to take advantage of that. I have been called numerous names from my loving wife for this action, although, it doesn't really faze me right now. I am sure she will shower me with kind and loving words when I actually see her. Love ya, Sarah!!

So, that's our Life from "the ville" for the last few days. Peace Out.

Franklin swim meet and cat drama

Ella had a swim meet last night at Franklin H.S. Both their boys and girls teams are very strong and we had seen them this past weekend at conference. Man, they have a new school and a new facility that is really nice. It reminded me of a small college campus. The coaches switched many of the swimmers to swim different events than they normally do, so Ella swam the 100 free, 100 breaststroke, and swam in the 200 relay and the 400 relay. It was a fun event for the kids, at least the ones that didn't have to swim the 500. So, that was the extent of our evening. Sarah and Peri caught a ride with my cousin to the meet and then we all rode home. We had a grand time on the way home as Sarah shared with us the drama of our little black cat Luna, who apparently was stranded on the outside of the screen of the porch by our bedroom window. He apparently had been out there from the time they got home from school until they left for the swim meet, approx 3 hours. Sarah tried being "cat whisperer" to lure him in, but nothing would work. She tried leading him around the ledge by holding turkey on the inside of the screen, but he just wouldn't go around the corner. She tried poking him with a stick, climbing on a table outside (she only had about 10 feet to reach him), getting a sleeping bag and trying to get him to jump into it (again using her "cat whisperer" ability. She got the other cat and tossed her onto the bag, as an example for Luna to follow, but I am sure Luna was just laughing his head off because I am sure that Eliza just ran like the dickens after being tossed into the sleeping bag. So, Sarah was certain that he would still be stranded there when we got home around 8:30. She was so confident, she bet Peri her chore of emptying the dishwasher that he would still be stranded there. Well, we got home and as we were entering the door from the garage into the house, yep, you guessed it, up strolls Luna. We laughed hard and of course Peri was pretty excited about that. Before we got home, there were alot of ideas as to how to rescue the cat. I thought I might swing down from the roof with a rope like a ninja, we could have tossed Peri up as a flying gymnast to grab the cat, grab 4 corners of a sheet and push him off to land in the sheet. I don't think shooting him was ever mentioned, but I think that could have been an option if we owned a gun. Ha ha.. Well, it's all good and I hope you all enjoy. Laugh whenever you can because it is just the right thing to do... Love y'all.

Ella swims great at Conference

The Mid State Conference meet took place on Thursday and Saturday at Mooresville High School. Preliminary heats were held on Thursday for seeding in the finals, which was Saturday. Top eight qualified for the finals and next eight were in the consolation. Ella was in the 100 backstroke and the 200 IM Relay and the 100 IM. Ella was seeded 4th in the backstroke and the team qualified 3rd in the relay. Ella was seeded 12th overall in the IM(this is not one of Ella's favorite races or strongest races, but she did great.), so she was seeded 4th in the consolation. So, for the finals, Ella place 3rd in the 100 backstroke. She did awesome. She knocked off over 2 seconds off her previous best time. Her time was 1:07.99. Her previous best was 1.10.34. She has been doing great and her mother and I are so proud of her. Ella also placed 2nd in the consolation round of the 100IM. She had a best time there also, but I can't remember what it was. Ella's 200 Medley relay team also placed 2nd, in which Ella led off and had her team in the lead after her awesome backstroke leg (31.72). The team placed second overall, which was awesome. It was a long day, leaving home at around noon and getting home around 9:30. I want to say Peri was quite a trooper for hanging out all that time to watch her big sister, but she didn't say too much about it (and if you believe the last part of that statement, then I have some swamp land in Florida I would like to sell you.) Peri, you did great too. Thanks for not complaining tooooooo much!