A Great Summer To Remember

Wow! Almost 2 months since I've written a blog post. And, I have to say, I've kind of enjoyed the break. In fact, I've been trying really hard to be off of the computer more often in general. I kind of decided that there are times when you just have to revel in the moment instead of worrying about remembering it with pics or journal entries, so that's what I focused on doing this summer. I always hoped to some day use one of those websites that turns your blogs into a scrapbook/journal type book, but I don't know if I'll ever get to that. At the same time, I've realized that there are times I wished I had blogged about things just because when I'm 80 years old I can look back at my journals and it may be the only way I remember anything. I really, truly do have one of the worst memories ever. So many times people will talk about things or ask if I remember an event, and honestly I don't. If it wasn't for pictures, I probably wouldn't even realize I had actually been to this or that event. It's terrible!

This summer has been one of the best that I remember in a long time. In part due to the weather. The past two summers were record breaking heat summers and we were miserable. This year has been quite the opposite. In fact yesterday was July 28th and the temps only got into the 60s for the high and it rained all day. There have been some days perfect for going to the pool to cool off and other days when the windows could be opened to let the nice cool breeze blow through the house. Love it, love it, love it.

Another reason I'm thankful for the cooler temps is our air conditioner went out on us. We were gone on vacation for a week at the beginning of the month and when we got home it wasn't working. It seemed to run nonstop and was not cooling the house down. We finally had to start using the fan part of the a/c, the attic fan, ceiling fans, and standing fans to cool us off, but it wasn't too bad. Six days after vacation the kids left for church camp in Oklahoma. While they were gone the temps in the house got to about 83-86 degrees so I'm glad the kids didn't have to be home to endure that. We had some people come look at the unit and our pressure was really low. They could put freon in it that they said could last about two weeks or another year. They suspected there was a valve leak somewhere. We opted for no freon yet until we decided what exactly we were going to do. Last year during our house buying inspection they told us the a/c was a dinosaur but was still working, so we new this would be a not too distant thing we would have to replace. We decided to go ahead and replace the whole unit along with the furnace and there might have to be some new duct work done too. After we made that decision they gave us freon the day before the kids arrived back from camp. The new unit was scheduled to be put in last Thursday but we had a funeral to go to so rescheduled and it will all be done two days from now. I think we are spoiled people when it comes to a/c. It wasn't that many generations ago when they didn't have a/c, and there are plenty more people around the world who live without a/c.

The funeral we had to go to was for our beloved children's pastor's husband. She was in OK at church camp when she was told her husband was found dead. I believe what happened was he did not show up for work, so I think our pastor was called. She then called her son who went to their house and discovered his dad. Their other son who we are good friends with called Roger Saturday morning from Brazil where he had to go for work and told us what happened. His dad had a heart attack. He had a heart attack 7 years ago and I guess the doctor's had lost him during surgery, but revived him. Our pastor had always commented on how grateful she was that she's had her husband around as long as she had. He was only 58 years old. They were an awesome couple with awesome marriage and coming to know Christ testimonies. He was just as much a huge part of the pastoral staff and church body as his wife who is a paid staff member. He will be sorely missed, but he really does leave behind a wonderful legacy for and in his sons and his grandchildren. Roger was a pall bearer and I hope there are other things in the future that we will be able to help the surviving family with when they are in need.

Our vacation was wonderful! On a Tuesday night after Roger was done working and Lauren was done with her dance class, we drove to OK City and spent the night in a hotel so we could get up really early the next day and catch a plane to Houston, and then on to Orlando. We stayed one night at a Disney Resort, and then the next day were on a 3 night Disney cruise. This was the third cruise for Roger and I, and the second Disney cruise for our family--the first one being 5 years ago. We were on Disney's largest ship the Dream. We had a stateroom with a veranda which was fun to go sit on. We had one stop in Nassau, but didn't go into the city because last time we found it boring unless you take some kind of excursion, but we didn't. We also stopped at Disney's private island Castaway Cay which is one of our favorite stops. However, it was actually kind of chilly this day. We got into the ocean for a while, but I couldn't stay in as long as the rest of the family, so I enjoyed the sunshine on the beach. The broadway shows were fantastic, the food and restaurants were fantastic, the on board activities were fantastic--you just cannot go wrong with a Disney cruise. It is hands down our family's favorite type of vacation. When we got done with the cruise, we spent a couple of nights at another Disney resort and spent one day at Magic Kingdom, and one day at Epcot. The only way we were able to do any of this is because we had points in our Disney Vacation Club to "pay" for the resort stays and cruise. And, driving to OK City, staying in a hotel, parking our car for a week, flying out of OK City, the price for filling up the car saved a couple hundred dollars than flying out of Wichita.

The day we flew home from vacation was a Tuesday. We jumped in the car, drove home, got home at 5:30, then rushed Lauren to the YMCA to be there from 6:00-8:00 for her first night of competitive dance team try outs. Her second night of tryouts was Thursday and we found out the next night that she made the team. Thus begins a new adventure in her dance career--competitions. That is all still yet to be determined, but in the mean time they are meeting Tuesday and Thursday nights to work on dance skills through August and then in September more details will have been worked out as to what her year of dancing will look like. We know this is an exciting opportunity for Lauren, but the cost is crazy. I think I've already struck a nerve with the head coach because I am asking a lot of questions, but for two weeks now they have not had a parent meeting yet but want us to spend certain money already and I want answers as to why things can't be cheaper or why they are necessary at all. I have two other moms who agree with me and we are all trying to get answers. I am not a stage mom, but I'm also not going to sit quietly and just put up all of this money without asking questions first. Surely there has got to be some things that can change. Their response is to participate in fundraising and I counter that with if we could do away with some things or find cheaper alternatives then maybe we wouldn't have to worry about fundraising.  We'll see how things move along.

Roger and I had a fun week of date nights while the kids were away at camp. Monday we went out to eat and then to a Boy Scout parents meeting. The Wichita homeschool troop that is sponsored by the Wichita homeschool organization is disbanding because the new rules and regulations they voted on do not align with our Christian beliefs. The homeschool organization will sponsor us through December so those older boys earning their Eagle Scout have a chance to finish, but they will not support anything that requires giving more money to BSA like popcorn sales that happen in the fall. Roger and I are in support of this. There is a brand new organization that is trying to form called On My Honor and that looks like the direction our troop will be taking. We'll find out more as the months move on. Tuesday we went and saw Man of Steel and we both liked that movie. Wednesday I think we ate out for dinner, went to church, then went for yogurt afterwards. Thursday we went to Pacific Rim. I did not want to go to this at all but went and am sorry we spent the money to see this movie in Imax 3D. Roger liked it, but robot/machine movies are not my thing. I told Roger he owed me with a chic flick. We tried to find some chic flicks to rent for Friday night, but weren't successful, so we stayed home and I chose to watch a couple of movies we owned--Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Princess Bride. This week of date nights was so much fun for us because honestly we go about twice a year and that is not an exaggeration. It also got us out of the hot house due to the a/c problem, and I enjoyed my uneventful days to myself while Roger was at work. I planned on doing prep work for my homeschool co-op class I'm teaching in the fall, but ended up just reading and doing chores.

We put our old house up on the market at the end of June and have only had two showings so far. My prayer was that our house would sell quickly, but now I'm just praying for God to bring the right buyers along. We had an professional inspection done which has given us a list of things for Roger to work on while we wait for a buyer. We also had a professional cleaning crew come in and clean the house before we put it on the market and that was a huge mess. If you ever want to know who NOT to use to clean your house, ask us and we'll be glad to tell you. It's a long story that I'm not going to get into, but let's just say we were duped hundreds of dollars than what we were told, this is sad because this is a Christian woman who used to go to our church, and she will be reported to the Better Business Bureau. After all of this happened to us with the cleaning company and word got at about our ordeal, we were told by several people at our church about their own problems in dealing with this woman and her company. 

Other things we've done this summer was go to Botanica twice, the zoo and Exploration Place. We've been to the Y waterpark a couple of times, and the kids have enjoyed playing with the neighbor kids.

Last week the kids' curriculums arrived in the mail. The plan was to start school today, but they both ended up sleeping in until 11 a.m.! So, we will try for tomorrow. We always start slow and ease into a full blown routine. Plus, their friends and neighbor kids all have about two more weeks before their schools start, so I want them to be able to enjoy as much play time with them as possible. In the meantime, the kids did start reading their literature books that are part of their curriculums, so they are getting a jump start on that. I am hoping we can finish by the first of May!

Well, now I have to end and go bake some cookies for Evan's Boy Scouts Court of Honor dinner tonight. They receive any badges they've earned, or people get recognized for things. I've never been to one since I look at it as a special father/son time, and Lauren went once and was bored, so us girls may just stay home tonight. However, it would be a free meal for all of us and I don't have to cook except for the cookies that need to be brought.......

Anyways, that's been our summer so far. I've probably forgotten some things, but those can always be written about at another time. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Busy Weekend

I'm including Friday as part of our busy weekend in this post. On that day we had a skating party with from 10:00-noon with Maize Virtual Preparatory School, the YMCA P.E. class from 1:00-2:00, and then I had to run Evan out to a friend's house 30 minutes away so he could participate in a camp out on their farm that night.

Saturday morning Lauren and I went to a Pancakes and Pajamas breakfast at church. That was fun. There were about 10 tables each with a different decorating theme. I let Lauren pick which table she wanted to sit at and she chose a Hawaiian themed table. We both dressed in our pjs and slippers. Our pastor's wife spoke about choosing to see ourselves the way God sees us. After that it was time to get ready for Lauren's dance recital. It started at 2:00 and right after Lauren's final dance which ended at 4:40 we had to leave to get her to a birthday party that started at 5:00.

Lauren and her friend trying to win the toss and catch 5 pancakes game

Ballet costume

Tap costume

Sunday was Mother's Day and very quiet. Unfortunately Evan had developed a fever Saturday night, so I ran to church Sunday morning to teach Sunday School but then came home afterwards. Roger had been fighting a cold for several days, and Lauren had such a full Saturday that they all slept in Sunday and we simply stayed home all day. Naps were taken, movies watched, and it was kind of nice being lazy. I was given a pretty painting from Lauren, a Lilac smelling candle, and a t-shirt that says Awesome Fantastic Caring Understanding Mom! Oh, if only I could live up to those words more often. I have such a wonderful family!

Girl Scout Camp Out

Last weekend was a Girl Scout camp out. Our guys don't consider it a true camp out since we did not sleep in tents, but all of our activities were "real" camping activities. Lauren and I got to the place around 4:00 Friday. We had packed all of our stuff into a suitcase, and then also had to bring some food, lawn chairs, and a griddle.

Once we were there the girls played outside until it was time to gather fire wood and cook hot dogs followed by s'mores over an open fire. None of us moms knew how to build a fire but our leader had brought a book and we followed the directions, and it was successful!

Once it was dark we stayed inside the lodge and the girls played games and sat around talking until about 11:30. By this time all of us moms were wanting to go to sleep so it was lights out, but it did take about 30 minutes for the girls to settle down. Our group slept upstairs in a room with several bunk beds with mattresses. I didn't sleep too badly. I think everyone began waking up around 7:00.

Saturday consisted of introduction to learning about a compass, learning how to tie a knot with their handkerchiefs to make cute little hats, taking a hike, playing at the playground, a nature scavenger hunt, making pizza pita pockets for supper, and then Lauren and I came on home instead of staying the second night.

Starting out on the hike

I had no idea we would come out of the woods and be by the Arkansas River--this was my favorite part of the camping experience

We followed the sign to the o.w.c.--outdoor worship center

A fun hidden area with a labyrinth

The older girl scouts did sleep outside in a tent

I had much more fun doing this with Lauren than I thought I would. The camp was only 20 minutes from our house, but you really did feel like you were isolated from anything that had to do with a city. I am proud to say that I was not one of the moms who was on the phone talking to their husbands at all during this time, and I was pretty impressed with how much I was able to contribute when it came to figuring things out involving cooking and hiking. Now Lauren and I are ready to go on more camp outs with our guys!

Go Shockers!

I am a graduate of Wichita State University and when the men's basketball team made it to the Final Four this year you better believe it was a HUGE deal in this city. Roger was out of town when they played this game, but the kids and I were able to go to a friend's house to watch it with a group of people. The team did AWESOME, but I have never been so frustrated with a bunch of refs in my life. I have a hard time seeing when fouls are made because sometimes plays are too fast for my mind to process quickly enough what I'm seeing, but there were times when I could tell when a blatant foul was being made and the refs did not call it. It really seemed like our team was not only playing against the opponents, but also the refs. Unfortunately, we lost by 4 points, but that is just marvelous to me that we were that close. I hope it's not too much longer before we make it back into the Final Four, and hopefully move on to win the tournament!

Learning Addition

Sweet Lauren has always needed a little more time than those the same age as her when it comes to school. We have tried a few different math curriculums in hopes of her learning her math facts. Yes, unfortunately she has been struggling with basic addition. Please don't judge. She just has some kind of glitch that Hubby and I have been trying to figure out what it is in order to help her learn better. If it comes down to it, we may have to hire a tutor, or take her to a learning center that might be able to diagnose what the glitch might be. We've learned not to compare her to her brother who is more advanced in school, nor to other kids in her grade level. We've also learned that sometimes we need to take one subject at a time with her and focus on that for a while so as not to stress out and overwhelm her or ourselves. And guess what--it works! One of the beauties of homeschooling. We can adjust what we need to in order to help her progress and not worry about a timeline because she is learning, just at a different pace. I'll admit though, I do still worry sometimes, and try to keep her on an average timeline like others her age and grade, but in the long run, it's all going to work out. Her reading is an example. That didn't click and take off until this past fall, but now she reads chapter books all by herself and loves it.

This math thing has really been a doozy to figure out though. I have been in tears worrying about it. I mean, she has to learn her basic math facts in order to use it in every day life. Then one day, a fellow homeschooling mom sent out an email saying that her 3rd grade daughter was learning her times tables and when she succeeded with that they were going to have an ice cream sundae party. She printed out a picture of an ice cream sundae with different parts and once the daughter memorized and tested 100% on that particular number 1-12, than one part of the sundae gets colored in. When it's all mastered than the daughter gets a sundae party. She asked others if they wanted to join them. I thought this was a great idea and Lauren could do this with addition. However, there was a time line and I knew that would not work with Lauren. But, I took this mom's idea and tweaked it for us. After talking with Hubby, we gave Lauren the challenge that when she could master her addition facts 1-12 we would take her to Chuck-E-Cheese. She jumped at the challenge. We made a pepperoni pizza and put it on the fridge and each time she masters a number (meaning a timed test within 2 minutes and 30 seconds she needs to get 30 addition problems correct) than she colors in a pepperoni for the number she mastered. We are currently working on the 4s. She is understanding that as the number gets larger, it's too time consuming to count with fingers, so she is trying really hard to memorize. She's doing great and we're taking the time that she needs to master each number. So far we have been able to conquer one number a week. One day her test took her 3 minutes, so we studied a little bit more and the next day she was under the time limit. If this way of learning her addition facts is successful, I think we will do this for subtracting, and eventually multiplying and dividing. Here's her cute little pizza:

A Couple of Busy Weeks

Busy, busy...that's what life's been like lately. I keep looking at the calendar going why do we have so much going on. It's really not that much, and especially since we homeschool and are home during the day, when the activities come at night it's not like the kids have to worry about getting homework done, doing their activity, rushing supper, etc. like public school have to worry about, but still, it sure feels busy right now.

A couple of weeks ago Roger left on a Sunday to go to Mexico for his job. The night before he left which was the night after the robotics competition, Lauren had a fever and was throwing up. She was sick for several days while Roger was gone. Then, a couple of days before Roger came home I got sick. No throwing up, but tiny fever, run down, achy, miserable. Roger came home at 10:00 at night on Friday, shortly after I dropped off Evan at a city church where his Boy Scout troop was spending the night. I had been to this church before for a concert, but had no idea they had this community recreation center that had basketball, skating, billiards, concession stand and more! Roger went to pick him up at 7:30 Saturday morning. I asked him when he finally went to sleep Friday night and Evan said he was up playing the entire night! Well, okay, but considering he had a soccer game at 1:30 Saturday, the kid was wiped even after his 4 hour nap before his game. I went off on a little tangent to Hubby (I blame my miserable sickness) about how all of the Boy Scout activities have to be picked and chosen, especially when there are other activities around the same time. We need to choose some priorities and not try to be involved in every single activity that is offered. Too busy!

On St. Patrick's day Lauren and I went to see Disney on Ice--a first for both of us. The guys opted not to go and that was a really wise decision on their part because they would have been bored. I was a little bored, but it was fun watching Lauren enjoy the show. I think she sat on the edge of her seat the whole time. We had gotten some great ticket prices because this day they were having a special section for Girl Scouts. They sent Lauren a GS badge we ironed on to her vest, and they said to dress up in as much green as possible along with her vest and they would pick one of the scouts all decorated to sit in the front row for the show. We were some of the first people to arrive and find our seats, and waited and waited, but not once did we see them pick any G Scouts to sit up front like they said they would. We were pretty upset because we went out of our way to make Lauren all green. She had green leggings, shirt, and a great big green bow. At intermission we went out to get some cotton candy. After waiting in line, it wasn't until we finally got to the table that I realized the cotton candy was $12! What?! Yep, they sold it with a Micky Mouse ears crown, so I guess that's why the price. I still bought it for her since this was a special occasion and I knew things were not going to be cheap, but good grief!

Besides Lauren being all dressed in green for Disney On Ice, we had also painted our nails green. This was a great decision because it goes along with what we did a few days later in the week which has to do with an Emerald City.

Last week was Spring Break for all of the school districts. The kids did do some school like usual, but then I think one day I reduced their amount of normal work, and gave them one whole day off. Roger took off an afternoon and took us all to see Oz The Great and Powerful in 3D. I am a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan, so I was anxious to see this. We liked it. I think it's pretty neat the story they came up with as to how the wizard got to Oz. How the wicked witch of the West became her green mean self was interesting too, but it's a totally different story than how the Broadway musical Wicked teaches about her, so now I'm all confused LOL! The movie theater had this big cutout for the movie in the lobby and Lauren and I wanted our picture taken with it. Hubby commented after he took the pic that I always bend over with Lauren. I am just trying to bend over to her height a little, but when I saw this pic I said, "Good grief! I had no idea I bend over that much. The way my jacket is puffing out at my chest and stomach areas, and the way I am bent over, I look like a hunched over gorilla! Yuck!"

So, we had a busy "green" week. Wish I could say we will be slowing down a little, but I think we're actually getting busier if that's possible! Oh well, just a season.

Robotics

Our homeschool co-op, West Wichita Homeschool Ministries (WWHM) decided last year to start a Lego Robotics club which would compete in the Lego robotics competition held by Wichita State University every year. I was approached by my friend Erlene last spring to see if Evan would be interested in joining, and I knew he would be. This fall when WWHM started back up, the idea was a reality and Evan and 11 of his friends joined. We began our journey in the middle of November. The regular co-op elementary and middle school classes were done for the semester, but the high school classes still had four weeks left, so we began meeting during those last weeks on Mondays for 2 hours. In January, we began meeting Mondays and Fridays for 2 hours each. After a couple of weeks of observing the students mess around with basic robot designs and programming, our group of 12 divided up into 3 groups of four. Even though we were divided into 3 sub teams, come competition day all of our scores were combined as one team. I was asked to become one of the sub coaches and Roger as well for Evan's sub team. I was very excited to learn along with Evan and the other students and be a part of this club.

Team gathered to discuss agenda

Just practice teams, not official teams (only 9 out of 12 members present)

Teams learning parts and terminology through a scavenger hunt type activity

Learning about some programming

Practicing building

Testing to see if the robot can travel in a straight line

We prepared for months (November-March) for the robotics competition day at Wichita State University that was held yesterday, March 9th. The theme for this year's competition was The Hobbit. There were several different courses that the competition designers created based on scenes from the book/movie. Each of our sub teams chose a different course to build robots to race on. Our club was given the design patterns for the courses we chose and dads built replicas so that we could practice before competition day. Our sub team was the last to get their course built and it was torture. We had to wait a whole 2 weeks after the other sub teams had their courses built before we could start trying to successfully build a robot to traverse the course. While waiting, there really wasn't much the kids could do except practice designing and programming things they had been working on already. Once we got our course, we could finally start figuring out how to design our robot to be the perfect size, and figuring out how to program it to successfully follow the course.

Adding the black tape line the robot must follow to the finished course

From the beginning Evan's sub team was working really well together. There were four jobs that needed to be done on a team: builder, programmer, recorder/note taker, and tester. It took a couple of weeks but we finally figured out who would be best for what job. But, several weeks ago that all changed with two of our team members. Evan's team was 2 boys and 2 girls. The two girls are the ones who ended up giving us the most trouble and the most drama. What stinks, is one of these girls had WSU robotic challenge experience from participating on another team the last 2 years. She was excited to share her knowledge, and so was her mom, but when they weren't getting their way about things, the mom decided she was not going to help us any more by giving us tips and teaching the kids how to develop team spirit, and I think the mom's attitude transferred onto her daughter. A few weeks ago Roger and I were getting no participation, emotion, reaction from either of the girls. They were not wanting to help in any way and so Evan was picking up all of the slack that needed to be done. The other boy was trying to help in any way that he could, but just wasn't as knowledgeable with these things as Evan. Evan asked politely for help from the girls but the were just stonewalling him. He became so frustrated that he ended up in tears. Roger and I took our sub team into another room and talked to them about working as a team and all we got was dead silence. We talked with the moms about what was going on, and they made their daughters help, but you could tell the girls were doing so under duress.

A happy team

A silly team

Three weeks before competition day, we had a trial day at WSU. Evan and Roger could not make it because it interfered with a Boy Scout activity they had to do. I decided I would go anyways since I was a coach. Well, when Lauren and I got there in the morning, I had not brought a computer cord the team needed for the computers. So, back home Lauren and I drove to get the cord and then back to WSU--an hour of driving that took us. When I got back to the college, our head coach Erlene was trying to work with my team in my absence and she was so frustrated with the lack of participation she was getting. You have to understand something, Erlene is a wonderful peacekeeping, motivational, positive, diplomat who doesn't get rattled easily and for her to tell me how frustrated she was with my team, I knew she was understanding where my frustrations were coming from. After trial day, the mom we had been having difficulties with emailed Erlene and I that she and her husband decided their daughter needed to do a certain job on this team, and they did not want to discuss the matter with us. Nope, that wasn't going to happen, so Erlene, myself, this mom, and two other ladies who would be witnesses during the meeting all met to talk things out. Afterwards I was feeling peace and good about what we talked about, and it seemed like everything was at an understanding and resolved. Wrong! The next few weeks proved to be very trying.

So, yesterday was competition day. Evan was so excited! We dropped Lauren off at her friend's house whose brother was also on the team, so we picked him up and took him to WSU. Lauren rejoined us at 3:30. We arrived a little after 8 a.m. Doors to the gymnasium we would be competing in opened at 8:30. We filed inside, found our designated table and began testing and programming. There was also a table that we had to set up a display on including a notebook that showed samples of our progression as a team complete with worksheets, notes, and pictures. Besides the course racing, table display, and judges walking around scoring our team spirit, the students also had to do an oral presentation in a room with judges. They did a power point presentation where two members from each sub team spoke about challenges they had to overcome learning how to design and program their robots for their respective courses. The students had practiced all of this the night before and Evan was one of the chosen speakers for our sub team. After the official presentation the judges asked any questions they wanted to and any of the kids could answer. Only 3 coaches were allowed to go in. I was one of them, but at the last minute Evan wanted Roger in there so he went in with the group. All of the coaches came out of the room with positive things to say about how the kids did.

Our team was One Brick (the main brain of a Lego robot is called a brick) and our motto was "to rule them all"--reference to Lord of the Rings. Kids chose name, motto, and color and design of team shirt.

Nobody noticed until later on in the day that there was 1 too many "r"s in our last name on this cool name tag

Our sub team in front of our table display

Team huddle

Our team huddle about to filmed on WSU tv

Erlene being interviewed on WSU tv

Getting down to business

One of our sub teams being interviews on WSU tv

Team practicing presentation in the hallway

I was taking pics through the window in the door of the presentation room

Evan giving his part of the presentation using power point slides

I wish I could say the day was a success, but in some ways it wasn't. As soon as we began running our robot on the course, we started having problems. Oh my goodness what was going on? We had made successful run after successful run on our homemade courses. Our course was made out of pegboard and the course at the competition had one pegboard piece that was darker that our homemade course did not have and it threw our sensor that we were using to to maneuver the course out of wack because the sensor was made to follow the black strip of tape that ran through our course, but the darker peg board was too dark that the contrast of the board with the black tape was not different enough and our sensor lost the color difference of the tape and would get off track. (Did I lose you there? Sorry!) We spent most of the day trying to reprogram the robot to get passed that hurdle. For the last few months, we have had a WSU engineering student helping our group, and he spent the last few hours of competition day trying to help us with our robot. He had been helping the other sub teams throughout the day. I am happy to say that one of our sub teams did get their robot to successfully maneuver their course, so that was a wonderful success for our team. And, I am happy to say that Evan and the grad student were able to successfully figure out a complete new program for our robot that got us 350 points out of a possible 1000, but after all of our struggle, I was thrilled with that score. After having said all of that, the one disappointment I really had yesterday was the continuing drama of the girls on our team. From the start of the day, they checked out, didn't care, and completely disrespected Erlene, Roger and myself. We tried very nicely to ask them to participate and one of the girls whenever she was asked to do work kept telling us she needed to go to the bathroom or needed to go talk to her mom about something. The other girl told Roger a flat out no when he asked her to help build something for the robot, and a little bit later when Evan politely asked her to help she literally wagged her finger in his face and told him no. I had had enough. I told Erlene I was about to ask the girls to go home or I was about to take Evan home. Once again he had the weight of the team on his shoulders. The entire team took a break and Erlene, Roger, the mom we had been having difficulties, and our sub team went out to have a pow-wow about what was going on. It seemed like things got a little better after that, but without going into more details, I was very upset with these girls the rest of the day and had to try very hard to just accept that they were checked out, and just ignore their defiance and concentrate on helping out Evan and the other boy on our team who was caught in the middle of all of this, but was trying his best to help out Evan.

The sub team's course that was successful with 1000 points--spider from Lord of the Rings books

Evan and WSU grad student Mr. Gilmore trying to figure out the programming

Competition allows the teams to have as many practice runs with their robots as they want throughout the day, but they only get two official runs to earn the maximum number of points. Competition ends at 4:00 so we began our official runs at 3:30. The first run our robot got down the first ramp but then lost it's way. the second run, it got down the first ramp and made it all the way to the first wall and back to the first ramp. Each turn it made and when the robot passed certain points is what gave us points. We tried our best. At 4:00 the teams needed to clean up and at 5:00 had to be in a different building for the awards ceremony. We unfortunately didn't win anything, but I am so proud of the kids who gave it their all and tried their very best to work as a team, and learn how to design and program robots. I am looking forward to taking all of the knowledge we've gained this year and making better changes for next year. Most of all, I am proud of my son. This was all a new experience for him, but he had determination, passion, drive, energy, tried his very best to help his team work smoothly, showed his ingenuity and ability, and creativity with working with Legos, and came out of his comfort zone of speaking in front of others during the presentation. My heart is full with how well he did.

Team One Brick 2013