Happy Birthday Carolyn

Carolyn turned 20 yesterday!

She and Matthew celebrated with "Taste of Iowa City" and a Molly's cupcake.  I guess the "Taste" program allows you to buy tickets that you then use to purchase food at local restaurants.  They really had fun as they enjoy trying new and different foods.  Here they are at Matthew's apartment (with his bike in the background!!)

 

Inspired by a Para-Olympian

 

This 56 year old is in Tokyo completing in Archery.

I have now read 3 articles about her and she is such an inspiration. 

Her name is Lia Coryell and despite having a terrible childhood and being diagnosed with progressive Multiple Sclerosis in her mid 20s she has done such amazing things and inspired so many people along the way.

The top picture shows Lia with a little girl who was taught to do archery using her mouth due to an arm injury.  The bottom picture shows her with an archery team she helped coach. (I think from UW Lacrosse)

8/20/21 and 8/21/21 The Iowa City contingent returns to UI

 

Matthew returned to school on Friday.  No picture because I was gone to work when he left!  Ken took Carolyn to her new dormitory on Saturday morning.  He also brought Matthew his bike and retrieved Carolyn's "big stuff" from Matthew's apartment.

Then they all went out to lunch and grocery shopping!  I was sad all day.  Carolyn looks pretty happy here, but I think she was a little sad too.  Ankeny will be so quiet now!  (with much less laundry...eventually)  

Book donation

 I arrived at work on Friday to find this huge box of books in my office.

They were donated by my patients (2 sisters) who always pick a book to read when they come to the clinic.  They had their appointment last week and mom asked if we took donations.....(certainly!)

WOW.  How wonderful to share the love (of books)!!!

8/19/21 Another great (post) Olympic moment

 

This woman won silver in the Javelin.  She donated her medal via auction to help pay for a little baby from Poland to get a heart surgery.  

The people who bought it (a chain of coinvent stores in Poland) gave it back to her!

Show choir camp Part 2: Remix (new name for the group that is 2 groups combined for this year) Normally the 9th grade girls have a group to themselves.

Anna had show choir camp this week.  Here she is in the top row 2nd from the right.

Fun side note:  this choreographer used to play trumpet with Matthew in the band.

Here is 1/2 the group with the 2nd choreographer.  The cute girl with the pony-tail (who looks 15) is 2 years older than Matthew!  Anna is in the gray shirt 3 rows up behind the girl in the light tie-die.
 

Fun afternoon

 Carolyn, Joel and I went shopping, then the 3 of us plus Anna had a cooking afternoon.  (Matthew was at work when we started then crashed when he got home because he had to be up at 5:30 am for work.)

Of course I wanted a photo of our fun time:  

Here Joel said, "but they are searching for me" (and thus hiding his face)

but alas he knew I wouldn't give up and he went ahead and smiled.

After Joel practiced his show choir dancing (using the video) and Anna watched approvingly!  Her show choir camp starts Sunday.

We made salsa, lasagna and zucchini bread!  (Joel made cookies earlier in the day too!)  So now my kitchen is a mess, but it was a great time.  Joel asked the computer to play his song list entitled:  "Songs from before I was born: probably"  I love that he named a playlist this funny name.

Senior pictures!

 Joel had his senior pictures taken Monday night.  It was great fun.  We went to 3 locations and the photographer was fantastic.  (She also is an ER nurse, so we felt in good hands if we fainted!  haha)  Laura (the photographer) also took Carolyn's senior pictures.  I really like her because she gives  you all the digital photos to print for yourself.  So much less pressure than having to pick your favorites and not having access to the others.

Band Camp Week: Through the Looking Glass

Anna (in the middle with her flute) spent 37 hours at band camp this week.  (More if you count the lunch and dinner breaks.)  I think she had a good time, and had sore feet.  Friday night they played 2 of their songs for us.

I helped fit uniform jackets to the kids for 2 days.  I realized that for 14 months I saw almost no one expect Joelle (walking buddy), work-folks and people from church.  It was weird to talk to "strangers" again.  The kids were great and it was easy work.

 

Show Choir Camp Part 1: Spectrum

Joel's show choir started today.  The show isn't yet named, but here are the lyrics for the first part of the first song, that kind of explains things.....

High from the mountain the song would begin

Bringing fresh snow to bless our town

White blankets of beauty would pile all around

And everything would be the same, but now

The mountain stopped singing two seasons gone by

Oh how we yearn to hear her song

Without any winter, our people will fade

Basically it is a Swedish folk tale where the snow stops falling and the town has to save the snow mountain, which of course they do (a bit like the opposite of the Frozen movie, where they had way too much ice and snow).  So definitely a unique story!  This is a break in tradition from a group who did: Titanic, Belin Wall, Sorcerers Apprentice and Swan Lake in the past......all stories that would seem familiar.  (Although last year's, "The Giver" wasn't familiar to those who hadn't read the book.)  A+ for originality I guess.

Here is the artwork for their beautiful costumes (last year they just wore their own black and white and then their own colorful outfit):

And here is the group, they learned 2 dances on the first day of camp:

Joel is in the left middle of the boys....maybe 3rd row up above the kid who has his head a little sideways.

The kids had no show-choir camp last year.  We (parents) saw nothing until February or something ridiculous.  Now - day 1 - we already get to see dancing.  I am so happy!