My Beautiful Katie

She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way.  She adjusted her sails.
                                                                                                             -Elizabeth Edwards

STETSON 2

Katie, Drew and Jia traveled back to Stetson for Hatter Saturday.  This was their day:
-speech from Dr. Libby, the President of Stetson
-parents went to a seminar entitled "The Benefits of Liberal Learning.
-Students packed 26,000 lunches-13,000 for those in Volusia County (this is were Stetson is, and there is  a lot of migrant workers.  The other 13,000 went to Honduras.  They did this in an hour and a half!
-Students were split up into their colleges and the parents with with then.  Katie is in the Discovery college, as she has not chosen a major yet.  They explained the Discovery program to the students.
-Lunch
-Katie got her ID badge and talked to the head of Residence Life, this is where Katie not only talked about Bennyfoo but about her ROOMMATE!!!!! She was on the Stetson site online and met a girl who seemed to be a carbon copy of Katie (with the exception of liking sports) Her name is Courtney and they chat everyday.  Drew met her parents.  I am just so thrilled that shy Katie may have the opportunity to not only have Bennyfoo, but a roommate.  We were a little concerned that Katie might isolate herself in her room with Bennie, so Courtney is a real blessing.  They won't find out until July, but they have both put the paperwork in.

She came home happy, which I am so thankful for after last weekend.  Lets hope this works out for her.
(picture is of Jia and the Stetson Hatter)

Katie's Bonner Second Interview Round

Ready to take on the world!

Ready to eat a lot of stuff!

Jia wishes her big sister good luck.

Beautiful Katie!

Mom's so proud!

The Parnham women traveled to Deland to take Katie to her second round interview for the Bonner Scholarship.  Eighty students applied for the scholarship and it was narrowed down to twenty.  On Friday night those twenty students (including Katie) traveled to Stetson to be interviewed by 14 different people.  Only ten students can be chosen, and the competition looked formidable, I am hoping that our beautiful and worthy Katie is chosen for this honor.  I worry so much.


Katie was very poised, and of course she was dressed as though she was applying to a job interview at a huge company.  Please, please, please say a prayer for her, she wants this very much.


Next week we go back to Deland for Hatter Saturday, this is when Katie registers for housing, register for classes, and gets her id and email.  All accepted students are attending this, and Katie is planning on meeting the girl she made friends with on Facebook.  She is also hoping that this is when she finds out if Bennyfoo is accepted.


Drew is going along on this trip, as I did not do well at all and was very unhappy with myself. 

On the Anna front, she goes to "Grad Bash" on Friday night, Seniors go on buses to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Orlando.  Katie hates roller coasters so she didn't want to go to this event anyway, so it worked out well.  Anna will only have to stay home from early Saturday morning until Saturday evening.

Anna's Silver Knight Reception

Anna and Mom at Silver Knight Reception

Anna standing next to the map that showed where
the nominees were going to college
very few outside of Florida

The event was held IGFA
Fishing Hall of Fame

The Flanagan High school Silver Knight nominees
each student shown is nominated in a different category

Tonight I was Anna's proud escort to the Miami Herald Silver Knight nominee reception. Anna is nominated in the Journalism category and it is a HUGE honor.

Tomorrow the Parnham women travel to Stetson University for Katie's final interview for the Bonner Program. She is so deserving, and so kind, please say a prayer for our little girl...

Katie Bonner Scholarship

Katie has had wonderful news! She applied for the Bonner Program at Stetson University. She found out a few days ago that she made it to the second round. This entails a visit to Stetson where she will be interviewed along with the other candidates. She will also attend sessions that summarize the Bonner Program.

This, along with the Honors Program (which she won't find out about for a while) are the most prestigious awards that Stetson offers. I have included a very short video about the Bonner program. Only 10 freshmen a year get accepted. If accepted Katie would possibly get around $10,000, but that number is a calculation. Please say a prayer that our deserving girl gets chosen for this competitive program.

Anna and Fabian

Cute picture...

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16-17

He has risen!

From Tim Tebow's Personal Blog

Mark 10:34 - "And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

- This is the entry for today in Tim's personal blog. I joke about Tim Tebow a lot, but he is a true inspiration in my spiritual life.

Today is a dark day in the lives of Christians everywhere. I just read an article that stated that we look at events in hindsight and know that the resurrection is coming, but for the disciples of Jesus Christ how much darker this day was...

Blessings to all my family and friends,

Lesa

Little School and BIG SCHOOL

The only pictures we got at UCF were in front of this pretty blue sculpture
on the way out

She is such a ham!

How I love this girl and her sisters...

Okay, another one of my phobias, I will not sleep in hotel beds or on pillows, so my
family bought me a sleeping bag
this is actually in the car
on the way home I slept door to door without budging
that was a good thing!

I know that I have been awful with my blogging lately, luckily Anna has been keeping you updated on her many activities. I can only blame my reluctance to post on one thing and that is my sadness about the events that are happening. Please understand that I am thrilled for the girls-so proud, so excited that they are excited, HOWEVER- these events, however wonderful they may be involves our precious girls leaving. This also involves many, many 4 hour trips for me that have me quite anxious, but knowing I would never miss going .
Although the two colleges are very close to each other, nothing has been scheduled at the same time.

We went to UCF to Scholars Day with Anna, the time was so structured that we never got to take any pictures. Wish there had been time to take pictures of the dorm rooms. I have seen my share and most look like prison cells, these are gorgeous, with furniture and a maid service! This was the first time Anna went to the school and I was very impressed with the way that she took the initiative to ask questions during the time that different organizations had booths set up for Q&A.

As for "little school" Jia's Science Fair was last night. Each class k-2 did a project with their teachers. Jia's class project was on acidity and what liquid would make pennies shinier. Their conclusion-lime juice. They also had stations set up for kids to do little science projects. It was run by one of the local high schools Science Honors Club (not K & A's school) The kids met well but they had projects on plate tectonics, erosion, acid rain etc. for the k-2 set, and no one had spoken to them about how to explain things on that level. Anyway, Jia loved the night, got pizza, had Dad AND MOM with her and then got to go to Barnes and Noble for a magazine. I did not take the camera--see how badly I am slipping??

I'll try to do better.

I found a roommate!!

Chelsea, my new roommate for UCF

I found a roommate for my fall semester at UCF. I had the ability to log on to a website called RoomSurf to potentially find a roommate for college instead of being placed with some random person that I don't really know. I had to answer a questionnaire and a survey and then it found potential matches. There were a couple of girls that seemed interesting but then I got a message from Chelsea (girl above) and I added her on facebook and then we talked for a couple of days and then two days ago, I finally asked if she thought she would want to room with me and she said yes and then I said yes, so we exchanged NID numbers (which are identification numbers that we have to use to request a roommate) and now, hopefully, we become roommates.

I know this picture doesn't really show her face fully but it was the first picture I saw of her and it was weird because I take odd and random pictures so she seemed like the picture roommate match for me :).



-Anna :)

The Yearbook Is Done!! (FINALLY!!)

Our 2011-2012 yearbook is finally done!! After countless hours of working on it day and night I am happy to say that our yearbook is done! It is a bittersweet feeling though because this is my last high school yearbook that I will be working on but I am sooooo happy that it is done. I have gone through a lot with this class and they have given me a lot of grief but I am happy that I have had a good support system within the class which includes the help of Katie who came on board this year to help me and she did a very good job. Around the end of April, beginning of May we should be getting our books in and I can't wait to see them!



-Anna :)

New York City!!

Me and Katrina on the plane to New York

I got a little excited :D

Columbia University- the place where this conference was held

Me, Katrina, and Alisha

Me, Katrina, and Tabatha

Me, Alisha, and Tabatha

Columbia University is right on Broadway

Our group on those big red steps in Times Square

My first air jump in the middle of Times Square with Tabatha

Our lunch one day was this HUGE slice of pizza. It was really good too!

Our group and Mrs. Santiago, our adviser. That is Vincent Van Gogh in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

On a bench in Central Park

The only pink tree we saw in Central Park

Under a very pretty walkway right before Strawberry Fields

John Lennon's Imagine

They (people in New York) call this "The Mall"

In front of a pretty fountain

On March 13th my group of yearbook friends, my adviser and her husband, and I departed to New York City to attend the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Spring Convention. This association awarded us a Silver Award for our 2010-2011 yearbook. We arrived in NY at midnight and then went to the hotel. Our hotel was the Hotel Pennsylvania and it wasn't the nicest of hotels but it was right around the corner from the Empire State Building, right across the street from Madison Square Garden, and a short distance from Times Square, so we really couldn't complain that much.

On March 14th we had our first day at the convention. On the way we stopped at a nice little place right by the University to eat breakfast, it was called Uni Cafe. After that we went to our sessions. My friends and I went to a lot of design classes and a couple on writing. Our first day in NY the weather was very nice, I would describe it as the way Florida would be if it was cold, it was kind of hot and cold at the same time. This was the first day we went to Times Square but first we went to dinner at Patsy's, it was a dinner with a yearbook representative from our yearbook company Balfour. Patsy's used to be where Frank Sinatra used to go and eat and apparently it is owned by the Mafia now. Anyways, it was really good Italian food :). After dinner we went to Times Square and it was amazing to see it in person rather than on TV. This is where we first went shopping and we went to the 4-story Forever 21! It was awesome! After our Times Square extravaganza we went back to the hotel, we were exhausted and we had to get up at 6:30 the next morning.

On March 15th we went through the same morning routine. Ate breakfast at the Uni Cafe, went to more of our sessions, had lunch at the place where we all shared a HUGE slice of pizza, and then the rest of our sessions. After our convention day we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This museum was huge and we really didn't get to see everything but we saw a bunch of the famous painters rooms, like Van Gogh, Degas, and Picasso. It was a very pretty museum and I would love to see it again. After the museum we went to Central Park and this Park is huge. We walked a long way through it and went to see John Lennon's Imagine on a part of the ground in Central Park. This is right across from where Yoko Ono's house is. By the time we finished walking through the Park we decided to try and go see the World Trade Center memorial but unfortunately we got there it was too dark and they don't light up the memorial so we couldn't see it but we knew it was there :). We also saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance. After this we were extremely tired so we went back to the hotel to prepare for our last day.

On March 16th we did the same thing. Breakfast at the cafe and our last 2 or 3 sessions. There was also an awards convocation that we could have gone to but we didn't have the time. We went to Times Square again and did some last minute shopping; we went to souvenir shops, H&M, and the M&M store. After this we went straight to the airport where we would finally be coming home.

I had a great time in New York City, and although I will not be in yearbook next year, I learned a lot to give back to my classmates and to teach them for next year. After this trip I realized how much I would love to return to just yearbook for next year. I loved seeing NY and it was a great trip that I will never forget.


-Anna :)