Can you believe that it is almost the end of

MAY....it is unbelievable to me that this month and year have just flown by.  Is there something about getting older makes time seems to go faster or maybe it is just about being busy?

Whatever is causing it, it certainly is keeping on our toes and already summer is right on top of us and summer plans need to be organized and prepared for.  This will be Jena's first 3 month summer since pre-school because she attended a year around school for elementary school.  It will be an interesting change.  Hopefully we can use our time wisely and have some fun amid all of the craziness.

We do have some fun things planned including a wedding sometime near the end of the summer.  There will be girls camp, a trip with Gary's mom and sisters, family visiting here. 

We are off on Thursday for a half day visit in Provo for Jena's State Games for track and field.  As soon as she is done, we will be heading straight for Mesa to attend my niece's wedding.  Just Jena and I will be going because everyone else has conflicts.  We will have fun anyway.

A quote picked up from a recent adoption seminar that we presented this past weekend.

"No one is entitled to be happy.  Its the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,  Not the right to be happy.   No body has the right to be happy.  We have to earn it." 
               John Friel  "Keys to Successful Marriages"

Interesting thought---Of course, it is important that we pursue happiness in the right direction.  That might be different for different people but the general direction must be the same.  We seek in the direction of right and truth.

Special Olympic Week

Jena with the Olympic Torch

Jena and I have spent a bit of time together this past week.  On Thursday, we attend the Annual Law Enforcement Torch Run in support of Special Olympics.  We rode in the back of a truck through the northwest side of our county following policemen who were running with the Special Olympics torch for the summer games.  They do it as a fundraiser for Special Olympics and by going along we also earn money for our team.  Along the way, we stopped at Wal-Marts where they provided drinks and snacks for everyone and also gave us a chance to rest and visit with the policemen.  Also as we passed by schools in our district students and teachers came out to cheer and give high fives to the team members. So when we came to a school, we would get out and run by the students.  Jena liked it more than I thought because she can be a bit shy in these types of situations.  She got right into the whole mood.  The whole event took about 6 hours and we covered about 15 miles or so.

Friday we spent the morning at Primary's getting the results of her sleep study.  With her recent surgery, she has improved her difficulties with sleep apnea down to 8 incidents an hour which is in the moderate range.  He still wants her to use a machine at night, but we will be getting a newer more improved model that should be easier for her to sleep with.

Saturday, Gary headed off to the 100 year Camperee for Scouts with his Webelo Scouts, while Jena and I headed to another Special Olympics event--a large yard sale to support our team.  We were there for about 5 hours and sweet Jena folded and refolded clothes the entire time.  I had to force her to stop for a piece of pizza.  She was a great helper.  People want to hire her to come and fold clothes at their houses.

Saturday was also Jessica's birthday although she spent the day with her friends except for the time she came and hung out at the Yard Sale with us.  We will celebrate later in the week when we can get a majority of our family together--not an easy feat with work schedules, especially Tosha who is working two different jobs at the moment.  Jasper, her dog, was her early birthday present, so I guess all that is left is eating out together and cake and ice cream  (or cheesecake in Jessica' case.)

Award Night for Jena

Again apologies to my other children who did not get blog recognition for their achievements.  I will remind them however that I did send out a fairly regular e-mail to family and friends where I did highlight their achievements as they occurred, just now in quite the same format as a blog.

Jena received an award along with lots of other students for having a 3.5 or higher for each term of this year.  This caused a bit of problem for me beforehand because I wasn't sure how other students might react to this.  Jena has gotten a 3.5 or higher each term but she does have modifications and accommodations that help her in her school work.  She does want to learn and she works hard in many of her classes, but still there are differences in expectations, so I worried about it.  I talked to Gary, to the school counselor, to her teacher, and to some friends (Gary thought I could use some uninvolved feedback) and they all said that Jena should be honored like other students for her accomplishment.  So I decided to let her go to the awards night to receive her award.

And it was awesome........Jena was thrilled to see her name in the program and to walk up and get the award with other 7th grade students.  They were not to clap when the names were called since there was so many but when Jena's name was read, several students cheered for her and lots of people clapped.  She got a big smile as she walked across the front.  She said later that she "was touched" by their response.  That made us laugh.

Gary and I weren't actually there since Gary's sister had a medical emergency right as we were getting ready to leave, but Jessica was there to go with us so she reported the events for us.  Way to go, Jena.

May 1st---found us in Logan

for Jena's area track and field meet for Special Olympics.  This is the first year Jena has done track and field and she is enjoying it.  She runs the 25 and 50 meters events and also does the softball throw.  It was a beautiful drive up to Logan (which is about 1 1/2 hours north east of Syracuse) through some mountain ranges and up in altitude from where we are.  Spring was evident all the way there...but things changed during the morning

Here is some of her team gathering to walk in the Opening Ceremony.

Getting on her mark for the 50 meter dash.

She came in third on this event.

She then took first place in her division of the softball throw.  However, they didn't take the measurements correctly so we are not sure how far to actually threw the ball.  Oh, well.  She is showing great improvement from the first of the season.

The weather was a bit cold but it was enjoyable for a brief while.  Then the wind came up and clouds began to appear.

Things were okay if the sun was shining but if the clouds covered the sun, it was cold.  Luckily, our team had a tent with a heater so we could keep warm if we didn't need to be outside.  Gary had to step in and help with timing races since they were short of volunteers so he had to be outside all morning. 

Here is Jena waiting to get her metal in the softball throw. 

By now it was very cold and it had been raining off and on all morning long.

Gold metal!

Right after lunch and with several events still to do, it started snowing like crazy so they finally called the meet and we all ran to our cars.  No pictures of the snow as we were trying to take things down and get them out of there as quickly as possible.  I was so wet that it felt like it took hours to get warmed up again, especially since we had not thought we would need a change of clothes, although Jena, always prepared, had packed some for herself.

Now it is on to State Games at the end of May--we heard that it was 100 degrees last year during the State Games for track and field.  We are hoping not to have a repeat of that this year.