Busy few days

Wow, adding sports to our life has sped things up around here! Taking Erin to diving practice two nights this week, (the third practice is cancelled due to time trials at the pool) Kate to Lacrosse and Isaac to Scouts- some of these being overlapping commitments, has been a bit of a (an?) hectic adjustment. They each are so very excited about what they're doing, so it's worth it.

This was also teacher conference week, so I had the opportunity to sit with teachers and learn how well our kids made the transitition to PA. The general verdict is that they are each doing wonderfully well. It's always such a blessing to hear from the teachers what terrific children I have, by the grace of God. A new aspect to the conferences is that I was able to tell the teachers what wonderful schools and kids they have! Every one of the teachers with whom I spoke is from this area and their only teaching experience is right here. They have no idea what, in contrast to Florida, an improvement for our family these schools have been. So I think that I was able to give a bit of encouragement right back this week. Last night I met with a few teachers at the high school; not every teacher wanted a conference. It's a good thing that the girls weren't listening in, or they'd be rather puffed up today. Actually though, I'm pretty sure that they know their teachers love them. Especially Kate's Algebra 2 teacher, the school's head football coach. Mr. Vechio just smiled from ear to ear as he told me how happy he is to have her in class.

To illustrate the "small-townishness" that we are enjoying I have to mention that Rebekah's World Cultures teacher is a nephew to Rebekah's Sunday School teacher... We discovered this through a project he assigned soon after our arrival for which Bekah needed to take photos of the culture around her in which she included a picture of our new church. Small town/ small world.

Back to sports; specifically Lacrosse. Now, I'm already handicapped in that I don't regularly follow any sport, (just tell me when we score). But I ask you, Lacrosse? People running around with sticks,... Obviously no Mothers were present at it's inception. After watching Kate's first practice, which was mostly a lesson for many of the new players, I left wondering how anybody could have stuck with it, nay- survived- long enough to actually become good at this sport! The guys team has been playing for a number of years evidently, and the sticks, (or whatever they call them) appear to be extentions of their own bodies as they run, throw and catch the ball. Once they're good at it it's neat to watch, mesmerizing even. But it still baffles me. I'm so glad that Kate is having fun and wants to be involved. I'm also glad that standard gear includes a serious piece of eye protection and a mouthguard!

So we have had a busy week. I haven't even mentioned the power outage, finally meeting the PTO queen whose son has become one of Isaac's best buddies, the fact that she took Isaac and Erin with her kids to Chuck E. Cheese and I didn't have to go (yay!), and the preparations for a Thanksgiving dinner with our church family and the Chinese congregation that shares our church's building (Chinese appetizers! yum!).