It's been a busy weekend for the Nortons. Sarah got a ticket for the Teen Author Bootcamp for Christmas. So Sarah and I flew to Utah on Friday evening. We are flying home later tonight...but so far it's been a fun weekend. Sarah LOVED all the writing stuff she learned. She made some new friends too. I got to spend 3 hours in Starbucks working on school stuff, then went to lunch and shopping with Bradshaw--didn't get a picture, but got 2 dresses! I also got to be in a commercial for Brian's company. I love how much Sarah loves writing. And it's a bonus to get to see my parents.
Here is another of the things that we did 2 years ago and then the world shut down. But when we had the banquet we didn't know what was coming 2 years ago. Our banquet was on Monday, and then the shutdown happened on Wed. We used the Mountlake Ward building's pavilion, so we could be outside. Parents were so happy. They kept exclaiming that it was the first potluck they had been to in 2 years. So much food, so many laughs. And it was chilly--so my new propane campfire got good use! Libby got the Most Inspirational award from the Girls team. It was amazing.
It is so weird to think about the last 2 years--as we celebrated Grandpa Brion in the last event we had before the pandemic shut the Norton family gatherings down. We are so blessed he is still with us! We've had lots of amazing adventures with him in the last few months.
Sarah and Ben got a chance to perform at a the spring Seattle Children's Chorus concert. It was so amazing. I chaperoned Ben's choir. My favorite part of the day was when we were waiting and instead of hangman on the board, the boys started playing Wordle. I helped them figure out the code, since we only had 2 colors of markers (Wordle uses 3 colors--so we went with an underlining in place of a yellow letter.) Loved it.
Also two of my students are in Ben's choir, so that was fun too.
Ben got to be a conductor in a song where the audience sings, and a dancer in a folk song. Geneva took some pics for me--as I kept leaving my phone in the green room.
The new hangman, Wordle.
Ben conducting the audience
They sang such cute songs! This hats song was so fun.
Sarah looking so grown us in the Lord Bless you and Keep you. My favorite!
Sarah's decision to wrestle was a long time coming. She went back and forth--ultimately deciding to be a manager. Then--she did a bit of manager work for SW--and it wasn't fun. Then she also found out about all these other awesome girls who would be wrestling. There are 5 who have siblings that are SW wrestlers (including Sarah) and one whose brother wrestled for Derek several years ago. It is so fun to see these girls rocking it! Maren came and was the announcer while I kept score. It was a fun match. And we beat Kellogg too!
Then on Thursday we had another match that was with 3 other teams so they made it into a mini tournament. Sarah won her bracket, getting 2 first round pins. (One match is longer that it seems--I just forgot to film for the first minute. Once I started filming, she got the pin 9 seconds later.). Her pinning move is called a bulldog :)
More selfies of Libby:
And a Sarah selfie!
You may be wondering what Ben is up to? Fortnite. And mostly keeping up with his homework, playing with friends, and mostly remembering his instrument for school. (He almost switched to sax, but Dad convinced him to stay with trumpet.)
This year I noticed that all of the Einstein Wrestling home matches fall on a Tuesday, when my students have instrumental and I can sneak out of school early. So I nominated myself to run the clock/scoreboard. It's really fun. And a little stressful. Hence my terrible photography of Sarah. But she won her first match (a JV match) against a girl who was definitely a bit heavier than Sarah. I am so happy that she is liking wrestling. Just like with Libby it's building confidence, athleticism and a fun bond with their dad.
On Thursday I couldn't make it to the match because of Parent Teacher Conferences. She lost, but still had fun.
Saturday was the district Drill tournament. (Note--would you take a selfie in a mirror that dirty?) Anyway, the girls met at SW @ 5:30 am. I helped bring breakfast and drive, since it's the only drill comp of the year I'll be able to attend. It was AMAZING watching all that dancing. There is some tension and stress in the air, but nothing like at wrestling districts--as it turns out all teams (basically) make it to state. After I drove a car of girls to the HS where the tournament would be--I was just about to settle in to a comfy couple of hours of work at a Starbucks nearby when Libby called to tell me her jazz shoes were still at the HS at home. So--I drove 1/2 hour back to SW and 1/2 hour back to Kamiak with her shoes. Ugh. When will I learn that I need to checklist with this girl?
Anyway, all went well with their dances. There were 3 teams in the 2A/3A Pom division. And SW Drill was announced as the winner. They got the trophy--took pics with it. Then the table called them back up (this is the moment in the picture) and took the trophy away saying there had been a miscalculation and they actually took 3, not 1st. Oh baby. That unleashed some serious weeping and wailing. As you can imagine. Libby held it together pretty well--some tough wrestling losses prepared her for this moment! But wow. Just wow. What a sad mistake. I felt bad for everyone involved. Not sure where the mistake was made--but it would have hurt so much less to be 3rd from the get go. But either way, they are on to state....but I'm off to Utah with Sarah, so I won't be with her in Yakima. So she better remember her shoes. (Don't worry--we will be preparing checklists and double checklists.)
How is it possible that I have gone another 3 weeks. Life is flying by.
But there have been so many things I need to record. So, let's start at the very beginning...
3 weeks ago...We got some awesome pictures of Libby at State.
And Derek...
And the girls both got to sing in their school choir concert(s). Due to COVID they held two concerts. One right after the other. So Grandpa and I planted ourselves and stayed for both the Middle School (Sarah) and the HS (Libby). Sarah had an awesome solo again :). Libby has just gotten back into choir because she had the drill class instead first semester. There were some interesting soloist choices, but overall the choirs sounded great!
Selfies of the week...
I took Libby and her friend to the outlet mall to return a pair of leggings that ripped on her first wear. (Stupid expensive clothes--never worth it. She hasn't worn the replacement leggings even once...but I digress.) Libby bought a pair of shoes with the babysitting money from the day before. And got home with two left feet. Ugh. Who doesn't try on both shoes? So we had to drive back up (30 min away) to swap them out. I also bought some crocs that hurt my feet. So overall it was a bust. But Libby loves her new shoes. One right, and one left and both the same size.
