North Championship

Novice Girls won. Sarah was 9th. Emily was 10th. Novice Boys won. JV Girls won. Claire was 10th. JV Boys won. Daniel and Varsity Girls probably did pretty well too, despite the rain. We left early because of it. There are a lot of happy kids, parents, and coaches from St. Bonaventure tonight.

Book Scavenger

I started Book Scavenger at Oblock. Some teachers are participating by hiding, but no kids have found any to my knowledge. They may not even be looking. Now that they are all using their email, I may be able to communicate better than simply making announcements at lunch. It's more personal in a good way too like Jesus's relationship with us should be.

Emily "wins"

Emily "won" her first race today. She beat all the first and second grade girls in the race with her, but I think it is the kind of race where the boys and girls aren't scored separately, so she won't get an official win because some of the boys did beat her.

I don't know if there's a winner of the first Presidential Debate between Trump and Clinton. Claire and I stayed up to watch the first segment on taxes. She didn't really understand it, but wanted to watch them argue (and they did).

Signing

With my voice gone for the last few days, I've had some interesting interactions. The best by far was at Pizza Hut. I came in when an older lady was already at the counter, so I sat down on the bench to wait. She turned around a gave me a look. I didn't think much of it, but apparently she did. She came over to apologize for giving me the evil. I tried my best to say it was fine, but I had lost my voice. Once she knew I lost my voice, she told me how her cousin was born deaf and taught her some sign language when she was little if I wanted to learn some until I got my voice back. I politely nodded my head and she taught me the three most important swear words I should know in case I really wanted to swear at someone before I got my voice back! Normally, I would repeat back what I was being taught to make sure I got it right, but this time I just signed "thank-you" - a sign I knew already - when it was time to get my pizza and go.

No sub

I called off for today early yesterday, so the school could ask the same sub to come back, but Mr. Paris already had another job lined up, so it will be a different person today. Some good news (related to this illness) is I got to my goal weight of 143. 143 is special because its digits represent the number of letters in the phrase "I love you."

Work Days

I actually went to work Tuesday and Wednesday, but lost my voice by the end of Wednesday, so the things to offer up to God continue.

Sick Day

Sarah was sick Sunday and I got sick Monday. That's just something else to offer up to God if we bear it patiently.

Missed Birthday Party

Nancy went over to her parents' house with Claire and Emily for a birthday party, but Sarah was sick, so I stayed home with her. That's something to offer up to God.

Montour Mess

The Varsity Girls were participating in the Montour Invitational against a bunch of public schools. They were allowed to run 10 girls and only had 8, so two sixth girls were asked to run up and got yesterday off. So, Sam and Claire were asked and able to do it. That wasn't the messy part.

Our race started at 11:15, so we were asked to get there by 10:15, so we could see the boys race and get ready for our race. That day, however, the time and order of the races were rearranged, so our race started at 10:15. Our second best runner wasn't there yet. None of the girls got to warm-up properly. Despite all that, they still got second place. Claire came in 4th for the team. Savannah's 5th grade sister dressed to take the place of the missing girl and came in 5th for us, I think. So, we're really proud of them (and really disappointed with Montour).

Mistakes were made

We finished the Book Fair yesterday around 1:00 and I tried to finalize our financial statement by 3:00. There's an easy summary that you can print out from the scanner and input online, so that's what I did. The print out said I should have 29 credit card records and I did, but it said the total should come out to $605 and it was $590 instead. I was also expecting a record to be missing because of a receipt misfeed we had earlier that week on a credit card transaction. That missing transaction could have been for $15, but then I would have 30 records and not 29. In any case, I used what was on the print-out because that's what I'm supposed to do. After I submitted it and was putting the other summaries away, I found a print-out with 30 records. I was using the wrong print-out to finalize things online. I can't edit a finalized statement online, so I have to call customer service and go from there. I am disappointed in myself.

I had all of this on my mind when I got to go watch Sarah race at St. Mary's. They did well, but there were no results sent yet because the coaches were getting ready for a middle school girls race today, which became another story in itself. At least I have a lot of anxiety to offer up to God.

Open House

We had Open House yesterday. XC practice the day before. Some of the other parents caught me running 5 miles at practice when they only run 2. They told Nancy about it when she took the girls to practice yesterday and I was at Open House. At Open House I met some parents, including Chloe's mom, who went to Bethany with me. Her dad didn't come though. He also went to Bethany (and Phi Tau) with me. They won't be at Homecoming this year because they'll be in Italy. Good times.

James 4:17

XC Practice was cancelled, so I took whoever wanted to go running with me out to Avonworth Community Park. Claire wanted to go running, but not there, so it was just Sarah and Emily. It also gave me time for email and one of our aides responded to my MLK quote about those who do not respond to evil are equally guilty with James 4:17 (if you don't do the good you're supposed to, it's a sin). I liked that.

East Catholic Invitational

The Varsity Girls, which included our 6th graders, beat the world with a 22 point total. The lowest possible for 5 runners is 15 (1+2+3+4+5). Claire was 6th on the team and 15th overall. Abby was 8th, not even counting for our team, and 18th overall. Our 3rd-5th graders also won the JV race. Sarah came in 4th on the team, but would have been 4th if she had run in the novice race for 1st-3rd graders. As is was, Emily came in 5th, getting beat by 3 3rd graders and a second grader. We celebrated afterwards at Hoss's.

Pitt v. Penn State

The rivalry was renewed and Pitt came out on top. My dad enjoyed the game, of course. I saw him afterwards at Kelly's. I stayed home with Claire and Emily that day while Nancy went to see Ashley with Sarah. We watched Gone with the Wind (and I passed the AR test based on it). It was another good day of family time.

Book Fair Begins

The book fair began yesterday. It got off to a good start with Mrs. Yorkshire's class. My day got off to a good start at Chik-Fil-A, with a free Chicken biscuit (every Friday in September at the Monroeville restaurant). I had wrapped up all of my Lincoln editing, so I got to catch up on my IJBED reading at work. Nancy burned our chicken when I got home from work. It was a full day and I'm thankful for all of it.

Routine

All I can say about yesterday was it was a routine day.

Claire's first race

Claire came in 5th, 3rd on her team behind Anna and 5th grader Sahr. Carina was out on crutches. Sarah came in 25th, 9th on the team, which will make her very important in the OPEN race this year if that continues. Some of the kids in last year's Top Race look like they may be in the OPEN race this year because some of the younger kids are improving a lot. Persistence is paying off. Nancy mentioned how Sarah was dead last going out and beat a bunch of kids coming back. Claire also started second, but quickly fell to the back of a lot of her teammates (and others), who went out too fast.

Labor Day

We had a nice Labor Day overall. Claire missed XC practice because of her cold, but Sarah and Emily went and ran my 5 miles in 45 minutes. We thought Claire would be good enough to go to my parents' house, but Nancy had to stay home with her still, so only Emily and Sarah went swimming. Kat was at North Park's pool with Sequoia for the closing of the pool. We got to see Kat before we left though. Thank God for today.

Labor Day Eve

We got to go to the Mackins tonight since there is no school today. We didn't stay late though because the girls still have XC practice. First-come, first-served waivers started yesterday too, so I tried to fix our draft before we went over. I know who is starting for me each week, and I know who I would've started had I gotten who I wanted at the draft, but I haven't looked to see how they compare with each other and how they match up against our opponent. Only a few teams have entered their starting line-ups, but so far ours looks the best. I like that fantasy football sort-of counts as family time.

Villanova v. Pitt

I went to Pitt's Opening Game this year with my dad. They beat Villanova. We had planned on lunch at the Rib Fest until we realized there's nowhere to sit and eat there, so we stopped at a restaurant we passed on the North Shore called the Foundry Table, which was nicer. I offered to pay for lunch, but he only let me pay for my share. I got a $9 chicken sandwich. He got a $11 burger and $5 beer, which came to $31 with tip, so he paid $18 and I paid $13. He also paid $20 for parking. I wish I could've given that money to charity, but it was nice to spend time with my dad.

Sick

Sarah got our attention this week because she had to stay home from school and Grandma Mackin had to come over to watch her for a little while Nancy went to work. Nancy said it wasn't worth me staying home for that. Emily didn't feel good enough to go to XC practice, but she did make it to school. Both are planning to make up the missed practice Saturday (when I'm going to the Pitt game with my dad). I'm thankful for all of the family members in my life.