It's finally over!

Last summer, a friend emailed us and asked if Sarah would like to participate in the Triad Area Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Student of the Year Campaign.  Our friends daughter recently competed and won.  

I asked Sarah if she was interested and while she was honored to be asked, she was hesitant.  Junior year is pretty hard (and important as it's the last full year of grades colleges will see as you submit your college applications in the fall of senior year), plus she was going to be a captain on swim team, serve as an officer for the school's Catholic Relief Services club, and was also going to be working on her Girl Scout Gold Award.

She weighed the pros and cons and decided to accept the nomination.  In early August of last year we had our first meeting with the local SOY coordinator for LLS and Sarah selected the team she wanted to help her with this venture.

Many, many, many more virtual meetings later and the 7 week campaign officially kicked off on February 18th.  It ended with the  gala this past Saturday night. Sadly, it was virtual as well but to make it more festive, we had appetizers, sparkling cider, and balloons.  The winner was announced at the end of the gala and Sarah came in second place!  She raised over $34,000 and received the Citizenship Mission Award as well!

While we were a little bummed that she didn't win first place, we are so very proud of our girl. She has worked so hard on this campaign.  She held meetings with companies to ask for funds, managed and met regularly with her team as well as with members of LLS, stepped out of her comfort zone and spoke to people she didn't know and learned how to make phone calls (kids today do not know how to do that!), learned the art of writing professional emails and other correspondence, and learned how to handle herself professionally.

The last 8 months haven't been easy.  There was a lot of hard work involved and every now and then, some tears.  But Sarah did not let any of this get to her.  She continued on with a fierce sense of determination. At one point, she realized she was not going to be able to do everything she had planned on this year and decided not to focus on her Girl Scout Gold Award until after the LLS campaign.  But now that the campaign is officially over, she hopes to work with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as her community partner for the Gold Award. 

I am so thankful for every single donation she received and for every person who donated. While it's easy to get caught up in the competition, it's important to always remember the ultimate goal of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Student of the Year Program - to raise money to find a cure to end blood cancer.  And with the help of so many friends and family members, we certainly did that! 

(And a special thanks to my faithful blog readers who donated money to this campaign even though we've never met in person.  💜)

A football update.

 I wanted to do a football update post. When I last left you we had completed our senior night and it was a loss for us.  At that point, that was our third loss with no wins.  The professional picture came back and I wanted to post it here for posterity.

The Friday after senior night we had another home football game and we weren't expecting to win that one - except WE DID!  And the best part about this game was that Peter's friend Daniel was able to break the school's all-time rushing record and now holds that record.  To do that at home with a win made it even more special.

That takes us to last Friday night.  We had an away game and weren't expecting to win.  In fact, it was this school's senior night. You typically play a weak team on senior night to ensure a victory.  

Our boys were pumped up and we scored fairly early in the game.  Then the other team scored.  Then we scored again but they scored again right before halftime.

We managed to pull ahead in the 4th quarter but we left too much time on the clock.  The other team scored with less than a minute to go and we thought all hope was lost.  However, we managed to pass the ball, the receiver caught it and ran SEVENTY YARDS down the field to score with only 29 seconds left on the clock.

IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE!  

And the best part of all was that Peter (who unfortunately has not gotten a lot of playing time this year) was actually on the field for that last play.  Due to an injured player, Peter had to switch jerseys so he could play offensive line and was on the field for that last play.  It was such an exciting game and I am so very happy for our boys.  (Who am I kidding - I'm happy for the parents and the coaches too! It takes a lot out of everyone to always be the underdog so any win feels like a huge deal for everyone.)

Our second to the last game was supposed to be tomorrow night but because they are calling for severe thunderstorms, it's been moved to tonight.  We play one of the best teams in the conference tonight so we really have no hope of winning.  Several of our players are hurt from last week's game and there hasn't been a lot of time to heal between games so we are going in even more of an underdog.  My hope for tonight is that no one else gets injured and that we can make it out without too much of an uneven score.  Those lopsided games are very demoralizing but also, I guess they are character building as well.

Here are a couple of pictures from last week's game.

Before the game (Peter is #22)

During half time.

In the locker room after the game!  Notice Peter's in a different jersey.

 

St Joseph of Cupertino's Intercession

You guys remember St. Joseph of Cupertino, right?  I've mentioned him here several times before.  He is the patron saint of students and test takers.  You can read all about him here if you are interested.

(Very) long story short in case you aren't interested in reading his life story, he was born in Cupertino in Naples in 1603. He wanted to be a priest but the other priests as well as his mother found him to be dull, lazy, and useless.  He had trouble remembering things when he studied and usually did poorly on tests but he wanted more than anything to be a priest. 

He asked to become a Franciscan, but they initially would not accept him. 'Finally he did join the Capuchins. However, for only a very short period of time. Eight months later, they sent him away. Sources say it was because he could not seem to do anything right. His mother was not at all pleased to have the eighteen-year-old Joseph back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan monastery. He was given the friars habit and put to hard work taking care of the horses.

He finally was able to enter the Franciscan order and, eventually, study for the priesthood. Although he was a good and holy friar, he had a very hard time with studies. During his seminary exams, the examiner happened to ask him to explain the only thing he understood knew well, and so he was ordained a deacon, and later a priest'.*

And this is how he became the saint of test takers.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because, in 2019, I started asking for St. Joseph of Cupertino's intercession whenever Peter and Sarah had tests or quizzes.  And then ultimately asking for his intercession every morning before they left for school.

Having kids in high school and nearing college is totally different than having kids in elementary school. You can no longer help them study by simply calling out spelling words or helping them memorize science terms.  Frequently they will  need your help with their homework and studying but you can't actually help them - not because you don't want to help them but you may not know or remember  the material or it's concepts or facts they just need to learn and understand on their own. 

Enter an intercessory prayer to St. Joseph of Cupertino.  There are a couple of prayers on the internet but this is the one I use:

O St. Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination, the only preposition you knew. Grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of Examination eg. History paper I ) examination. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.
O St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me
O Holy Ghost enlighten me
Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me
Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me. 

 Of course, I substitute "me" for my kid's names".  

And when they are really nervous or worried before a test or something they are doing at school, I will tell them I'm praying for them and then I will text them this prayer and remind them to pray for themselves.

This prayer isn't a magic pill for not studying. (Oh how my kids wish that were the case!) But it does bring me peace knowing that by asking for St. Joseph's intercession, I have a holy saint in heaven praying directly for my kids.  It makes me feel like I am helping them even when I am not able to physical help them.

And I will say that this prayer *works*.  My kids have had much success in their school work even when things looked bleak.  (And success isn't always an "A" but sometimes a kid feels successful when they are struggling with the material and can pull out a "C" even though they though everything was hopeless.)

So next time your student is in the midst of studying for a test or struggling with a lesson or you just want to help them a little, ask St. Joseph of Cupertino for his intercession and let me know how he came through for you.

 

 

*Taken from this website.

Spring, football, a book, laughter through tears, and cake.

It's a cloudy dreary Tuesday morning here so I thought I'd start with some pictures of the daffodils we have growing in our yard:

This is pictorial proof that spring is almost here!  Yippeeeeeee!

And just to brighten things up even more:

Lovely yellow tulips from Trader Joe's to brighten the inside of my house.  Y'all know I love me some tulips. 

Since the last time I posted, Peter has had two more football games and sadly we lost both.  It is looking like we may not win any games this year.  It's very depressing for him as he has been looking forward to this season since November 2019.  

This past Friday was Senior Night.  I still have my mask on in this picture so I am hoping the professional picture is better.  At least I won't have my mask on in that one!

Have you guys gotten your copy of Be Bold in the Broken by Mary Lenaburg yet?  Mary is my blog friend from way back and this is her second book.  I'm excited to read it because I thoroughly enjoyed her first book, Be Brave in the Scared.

Saturday, I joined my Care Group for brunch.  It was bittersweet but much needed. It was the first time we have all been together since our Christmas dinner in December.  In that time, one of my dear friends lost her husband to Covid and another one has been battling breast cancer. You know the quote from Steele Magnolias about "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion?" Well, I'm not sure if it's my favorite emotion but it summed up our brunch on Saturday and on that day, laughter through tears is what we all needed.  

 

And it didn't hurt that we all enjoyed delicious crepes.  Here's a few pictures of the dessert crepes we enjoyed after our savory crepes.

I got the results of all my blood work back and it's all normal.  Which means my aches and pains in my joints are just normal old lady arthritis and my weight gain is not thyroid related just over-eating, under-exercising related.  I figured this was going to be the case and honestly, it's the best news.  I don't need any other conditions or issues.  I guess my aches and pains just come with the territory.

Although, one of my kind readers, Pat Birnie, commented that she could recommend things to help. Yes, Pat!  Please!  I would love to know what you have found that worked for you.  I tried to email you back from your comment but it was a "no reply" email address.  So comment away on this post with anything that you found helpful. I am willing to look into anything at this point! :)

And finally, look at this pretty cake.  I baked it and Sarah decorated it.  I think she did a great job - especially considering she did it all with a plain plastic baggie the the end cut off.

Much too young....

Peter's first football game of the season was last Thursday.  His team lost but he was  happy with how he played (he made 8 tackles!) so he wasn't too bummed about the loss.  This team is one of the few this season that they had a chance at beating so it was disappointing to get the loss.  But, they will play them at home in a few weeks so maybe there will be some improvement.

The school they played was using Facebook Live for their video stream.  I have to give it two thumbs down.  This school is in the mountains and there is terrible cell service and I don't think they have wi-fi at their football stadium so the entire time the feed was freezing up and then when it started back it had jumped ahead to the live action so there were many times throughout the game that we missed multiple drives/plays.  It was very frustrating. At one point during the fourth quarter the feed was completely lost so we just sat there refreshing waiting for it to come back.  Two thumbs down.

This is a quick shot I took of the computer screen.  We tried to cast it from our phone to the TV using Chromecast but ended up switching to the computer because the video quality was better on the smaller screen.  This Friday there is an away game but we get to go so even though we will be cold at least we will get to see it!

Look at the pretty flower my bestie got me:

It's a gorgeous calla lily.  Doesn't it just scream spring to you?  And speaking of spring - it's sunny today!!!  YAY!!!!  

In other  news, I had my yearly physical today in which I discussed my aching joints with the PA. She's doing blood work to rule out rheumatoid arthritis.  I'm pretty sure it's just regular old lady osteoarthritis but if it is rheumatoid arthritis there are things that can be done to prevent it from getting worse. 

We also discussed my weight gain.  I'm pretty sure it's just regular old lady going through menopause weight gain but she is doing blood work to rule out thyroid issues.  Needless to say, they took A LOT of my blood this morning. 

Since I'm officially an old lady, I was planning on getting my shingles shot today but sadly they were out today but are expecting more in tomorrow. So now I will need to go back to get that.  I've had shingles once and I definitely don't want it again so I will be scheduling a nurse visit to get that taken care of.

As I was going through my list of bodily complaints with the PA, I said, "I'm much too young to feel this damn old."  Okay - I left the "damn" out because I'm polite but you get the idea.  And now I've been singing this all morning:

 

And do you know what really made me feel damn old?  When I was pulling up that video clip I read that this song was Garth's debut single  released on his debut album in 1989 which was THIRTY TWO YEARS AGO. 

If you need me, I'll be in my rocking chair for the rest of the day.

The campaign has been kicked off and hopefully football season is about to start!

I mentioned a while back that Sarah has been nominated to participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Student of the Year (SOY) competition.  Since the fall, he has been having meetings with her SOY advisers, assembling her team and holding team meetings, presenting to area businesses asking for donations, and in general working hard.

FINALLY - on Thursday evening her campaign kicked off! And of course, the kick-off celebration was a Zoom call. 

 

She has excitedly been watching donations start to come in.  She has set a very large goal for herself and her team.  We are trying to raise $40,000 in 7 weeks to fight blood cancers.  It's going to be hard to reach that goal but I'm hopeful that she can do it.  The great thing about LLS is that the money used for research to find cures for blood cancers are also being translated into cures for other types of cancers as well.  And since we all know someone who has been touched by some form of cancer, this campaign is for everyone. 

If you are interested in supporting Sarah in the fight to cure cancer, please use this link . It will take you to my fundraising page where you can make a secure donation online.  All donations are tax deductible.

In other news of things kicking off - football is set to start this week.  Peter was supposed to have a home game this Friday night but due to all the rain we've had (with more expected on Friday) they've moved the game to Thursday night and it's going to be played as an away game since our fields are too wet to play on.  

We are bummed out that we won't get to watch this first game in person but we are excited that they are having it.  We were worried that it was going to get rained out and subsequently cancelled with no chance to play it due to the shortened season and all the rules on regulations on how much you can play in a one week period.

I am hoping that the school that is hosting it will be showing the game online some where so that we can at least watch it.  

I went yesterday for my yearly eye exam and went to a new eye doctor!  He just so happens to be my good friend Wendy's husband and she just so happens to be the office manager. If you are local, check them out.  I can't wait to get my new frames in a couple of weeks! They had a huge selection of frames and were great at helping me (who is blind as a bat) select the perfect pair. 

We have sunshine today (praise the Lord!) and it's going to be 68 degrees so I am heading outside right now to get some natural Vitamin D!

A college tour, some tulips, and it's going to ice so I better get to the store.

We got a little ice last Thursday evening so school was on a two hour delay.  But Sarah had the state swim championships in Raleigh so she headed to school and got on the bus.  Thankfully the roads were clear and she had no problem getting there.

She was only swimming in one event - the Medley Relay.  She was swimming backstroke - her favorite. The girls came in 9th and Sarah was happy because she shaved a second off her time.  A second may not sound like a lot but trust me - it is! :)

Her event was the first one of the meet so she got to relax and enjoy the rest of the competition without feeling nervous for another event.  Even though she didn't get to spend the  night in Raleigh like they normally would, she had a blast.

One of the parents organized a welcome party and we all gathered in the extremely cold parking lot Friday night and welcomed the team bus back to the school.  We had posters, balloons, and cupcakes.  The kids were shocked to see us all standing there cheering for them when they got off the bus.  I wish I had pictures but it was cold and we were all cheering and waving signs so no pictures. 

On Sunday, Dan and Sarah and I headed to Wilmington, NC. Sarah is interested in possible attending UNCW and they are doing in person tours.  Since it's a 3 and a half hour drive we decided to spend the night in Wrightsville Beach.

It rained the whole drive there and the whole evening so we weren't able to walk on the beach (it was also cold) and we weren't able to explore downtown Wilmington.  And since it was Valentine's Day all the restaurants were packed.  We ended up at Mellow Mushroom for dinner and while that wasn't my first choice, it was Sarah's so she was happy.

 

Thankfully, the rain stopped on Monday and we were able to enjoy the campus tour without umbrellas! The campus is very nice.  It's a newer college but all the buildings are built to look like traditional classic old-school college buildings.  That was really nice I thought.  

At 14,000 undergraduates, I would consider this university a mid-sized school and I think Sarah would like that size.  She liked the looks of everything we saw and she definitely likes that the campus is just minutes from the beach so I'd so it's definitely a contender for her. 

Dan got me tulips for Valentine's Day and a little box of chocolates:

Yesterday was Tuesday but felt like Monday allllllllll day so now I'm shocked that it's Wednesday.  And not just any Wednesday but ASH WEDNESDAY!

How is it all ready Lent?  Honestly, I have felt like the whole entire last year has been a Lent so I'm not very ready for actual Lent.  Does that make sense?  I've ordered a book that I'm going to be reading and a few other things I'm going to try to do to make my Lent fruitful.  We'll see how it goes.

The sun is actually out today which I am planning on enjoying.  It has been cold, cloudy, and rainy for a week so to see the sun has been nice.  They are calling for more freezing rain tonight with the potential for a lot of downed trees and power outages so I'm expecting the kids to be out of school tomorrow.  They can do remote learning but if there are a lot of power outages I am predicting that school will just be cancelled as it's hard to log into your remote class if you don't have power.

Peter's been enjoying football practice.  He's been coming home every night with new bruises that he seems proud of.  They are supposed to have a scrimmage on Friday night. Not sure how all the ice and rain will affect that.  It's an away game so Dan and I won't be able to attend.  But parents can attend the home games so at least we can go to those four games.  Our governor is still only allowing 100 people to gather outdoors so only parents can attend.  I think that's ridiculous! It makes me sad that none of the students will be able to attend any of these games.   A petition was started online and has gathered over 38,000 signatures so far.  I doubt it will do much good but at least it's something.

Anyway, I'm off to the store to buy milk and bread ahead of the ice storm!  

 

Swimming, College Frustrations, and a Viral Recipe.

Sarah had some good swims on Saturday.  Her medley relay team did well enough to qualify for States which is a huge accomplishment because they are only taking the top 12 times this year due to COVID.  

She was disappointed in her backstroke time even though she PR'd.  She felt like she should have done better.  I'm proud of her and am so thankful that they even got to have a season at all.  If she had been able to swim this summer and fall, her times would have matched the times she set for herself but given the circumstances the fact that she was still able to obtain a personal record is fantastic!

Here's a picture of her and her friends from the conference meet taken from another mom's facebook page.

And here are some photos from the professional photographer from the regional meet:

Due to COVID, the team isn't allowed to go to Raleigh the night before and stay in a hotel so they will be leaving Friday morning in order to get there in time for warm ups.  Sarah's disappointed because half the fun of Sates is staying in a hotel.

Dan and I will be watching the live stream of her event which is the first event.  Sarah's excited that she is in the first event because that way she can enjoy the rest of the meet without being nervous. 

In other news, we watched the Super Bowl of Sunday.  I am glad Tom Brady won.  I think the Patriots did him wrong the last few years of his time there and I was happy that he got another Super Bowl victory.  There's plenty of time for Patrick Mahommes to work on beating that record.  

Now, we just need the Patriots or the Panthers in the Super Bowl next year.  Ha!  I don't see either one of our teams getting there any time soon!

Peter has been trying to complete extra forms and other requirements for colleges he's been accepted into.  Can I tell you how frustrating it all is?  Each school has their own website and within that website is ANOTHER website for housing and ANOTHER website for financial aid and ANOTHER.... you get my drift.

And each one of these websites requires DIFFERENT passwords and user names and each one has different requirements for length, special characters, etc.  It's very frustrating for an adult that is used to being frustrated by username and passwords but add in a stressed out kid who is trying to apply for housing during school hours because that's when the housing lottery opens and you get a lot of ALL CAPITAL TEXTS FROM SAID STRESSED OUT KID!  

Anyway, he said he got everything completed.  I hope so.  I am already praying for good roommates/suite mates, etc.  A bad living experience can ruin your freshman year in college.

Sarah and I tried the viral pasta recipe that's been taking TikTok by storm. Here's the recipe. 

We doubled the amount of feta and did not raise the temp and bake it for an extra ten minutes as she did in the original.  I wanted to but Sarah did not so...

It was delicious and I would definitely make this again.  It was so good, I would make it for guests.  And did I mention that it was easy?  

This is ours before we crushed the tomatoes and stirred everything up.  SO GOOD!!!

If y'all make this, let me know.

 

Conference Champs!

Last Friday evening Sarah and her team participated in the Conference Meet. And they did great!

Both the men's and women's team won the conference title!  Go Villains!  

Sarah placed first in the two relays she swam in and second in both of her individual events.  And she cut some time off of both.  She was very pleased with the meet.

The team has been working hard this week to prepare for Regionals on Saturday morning.  She's been up early and out the door at 5:15 AM to get to 6:00 AM practice.  I am very thankful that she can drive herself.  

As expected, they are not allowing spectators at the event but it will be live stream so I guess I'll be watching from my couch all day!

Here a picture that the team mom took of the team last week at their last practice before the conference meet.

Not everyone is in the picture as some of the year round swimmers were at their year round practice.

And here is a picture of Sarah's medals. I wanted photographic evidence because I'm sure at some point in the future, they will get tossed.  :)

And here is a quick video of Sarah coming on to the bus with the women's trophy!  Not sure why it is repeated four times but I'm just happy I was able to get it on here...