IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

8 p.m. Wednesday night. We're done.

IT'S A MIRACLE!

THE BIGGEST PROJECT IN ANNA'S LIFE (SO FAR) IS COMPLETE! Anna is the yearbook Editor-in-Chief for her 3,241 person school. As an 11th grader this is almost unheard of. It has been a HUGE challenge for Anna. She had a new teacher that knew nothing about putting together a yearbook, Anna had to teach her.

And then... (here is my big beef about public school) budget cuts decimated the elective classes and they just dumped kids in the Journalism class who not only didn't want to be there, but were angry about it. Needless to say this hindered Anna and her small group of serious staff members in a big way. The class started out with 32 people and ended with 25, out of this 25 Anna had about 7 people that helped her.

This was the week of her deadline. Anna, her teacher, and her two most faithful staffers were at school until 8:00 p.m. (Last week it was 6:00 p.m.) All of this going on while Anna was holding down 1 AP class and 3 Honors classes.

I have seen the book on computer and it is a work of art. I can truly say that Anna put her heart and soul into this endeavor. Hope you get to see it, you will be amazed!

STETSON UNIVERSITY JUNIOR OPEN HOUSE

Saturday we traveled to Deland (Deland is a very, very small town in Central Florida about 40 minutes east of Orlando) for the Stetson University Junior Open House. Stetson University is Katie's first choice for college. It is a small private University with a very good reputation.

The Open House was very impressive. The schedule was as follows:

9:30-10:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast
10:00-10:30 Welcome to the University/both the Provost and the Dean of Admissions spoke, while the Gym was dark and pictures of happy college students flashed. As you may have guessed, the biggest dork Mom in history cried all the way through.

The students then went to workshops while the parents were given tons of information about Financial Aid. (Please pray to God for our deserving child)

When that was over we met up with the kids for what was called the "Explore Stetson" fair all facets of the college had booths lined up to give you amazing amounts of information.
First Stop: Pet Dorm Guy, this is where I practically got down on my knees and begged the guy to let Bennyfoo into college too. Katie has followed up with a letter and a picture of Benny in his Stetson collar.

I also had an interesting conversation with the head of the Theology Department who turned out to be the sponsor for both Invisible Children (Katie is running for president of this organization next year) and Habitat for Humanity. Stetson is heavily based on community service.

One of the organizations that appealed to Katie was the club that takes animals to nursing homes and other places, and trains service animals through the New Horizons Service Dogs .

I spoke to a student about the Honors Program , the Professor who runs the program was not there, but when I told the student a little bit about Katie she said that Kate seemed like a prime candidate and gave me his card. Katie has already written to him.

The last person I spoke to during this session was the Director of First Year and Transitional Programs. I wanted to know what the university could do to help shy students like Katie fit in to campus life, she was very nice and we had a long conversation , mainly about upperclassmen who "buddy up" with freshmen.

We then went to two more academic sessions, we split up so that we could see the most possible. I went with Anna who was very impressed with Stetson and is now declaring it her number two choice.

The day went well and the University was extremely impressive.
I'm just sorry we didn't take more pictures.

Please check facebook for some awesome Anna news....

If you read the post below this you will know that I will be participating in the BLOGGERS DAY OF SILENCE tomorrow.

On Saturday the family will wake up extremely early to travel to Deland to attend Stetson University's Junior Open house. Stetson is Katie's first college choice, and we really think it is a good fit for her. There is even a chance they will allow her to bring Bennyfoo (her very charismatic pug.)

What does it feel like to be me? Excited and thrilled for Katie, interested in knowing more about the college and a terrible heart pounding panic about traveling 4 hours away from home. First inclination--please, please don't make me go....second, I WOULDN'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD, and I won't.

FOR JAPAN WITH LOVE

PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS SITE:

http://www.forjapanwithlove.com/

FRIDAY, MARCH 18TH HAS BEEN DESIGNATED BLOGGERS DAY OF SILENCE

I WILL BE PARTICIPATING IN THIS ACTIVITY.

IF YOU FOLLOW THE LINK ABOVE YOU CAN MAKE A DONATION.
DONATIONS CAN ALSO BE MADE THROUGH THE RED CROSS.

A Scary Day

Don't judge, it was 7:00 a.m.

Jia getting ready to go to COSTCO with Dad, it's their favorite place

Saturday was the first day of Spring Break, but no one could breath a sigh of relief yet....it was

THE DAY

I think Drew and I were more nervous than the girls. When I asked them they said they felt prepared. It was

SAT DAY

I hate that so much relies on a (arguably) biased test. I thank God that my girls are motivated enough to work so hard.

The test was given at Drew's school. The whole family woke up at 7:00 to take them to the test which was 4 hours long. It consisted of reading, essay, grammar and math.

After that Drew and I took Jia to her Saturday class. It is called SWIFT and it is for children who are struggling with reading and phonics skills. Jia is struggling in school but she works very hard. Jia's teacher loves her, really gives her extra attention, she is also enrolled in speech and gets extra help from another teacher that works with her one on one. This is a 9 week course, every Saturday morning.

We have also just bought "Hooked On Phonics" to help her during the summer.

Sometimes it is hard to see the opposite side of things, everything either came really easy to Anna and Katie or they stayed up as late as they needed too for things to be right.

In other news, we have are traveling back to Stetson (Katie's first college choice) next Saturday for a Junior Open house. The trip is about 4 hours each way, we will do it in one day because of the animals. I would stay home, but this is sooo important and everyone else is too shy to ask questions. (once you get me out of the house, I am not shy) We will have a full report next week.

KATIE...MY LADY

OUR WONDERFUL KATIE, JUST GOT ELECTED TO THE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY. THIS WEEK SHE RAN FOR TREASURER OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR NEXT YEAR AND WON!!!
SHE IS OVER THE MOON WITH HAPPINESS.
FLANAGAN HIGH SCHOOL HAS (I BELIEVE) OVER 3,000 STUDENTS.
KATIE IS IN THE TOP 9% OF HER CLASS.
WE ARE SO HAPPY AND FILLED WITH LOVE FOR OUR BEAUTIFUL GIRL