It's time...
...for me to be a Tante again!! My brother, Mark and his wife Sara are expecting baby #2 in October!! Henry will be 6 in June and they will be moving into a brand new house sometime this summer too! How exciting!
....for standardized testing in MN. At my high school the students are taking the MCA tests today and tomorrow. 9th graders are taking writing today, then tomorrow they are alternating between a Shakespeare activity in the theater and a study hall (just for 2 hours in the morning). 10th graders are taking the reading test and 11th graders are taking the dreaded math test. Close to 95% of our 9th grades pass the writing test on the first try. I don't know what the percentage is for reading, but it's not that high. Math. Over 60% of this test is at an Algebra 2 level. Many of my students cannot pass this test. Many mainstream kids cannot pass this test. I hope I could pass this test, but I know I wouldn't ace it! So the great state of MN has decided that the kids just have to fail it 3 times and they can graduate. Crazy, I know.
Connor and Elianna are also taking standardized tests this week, but theirs are the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Elianna came home on Monday saying they were fun :-)
....for the craziness of spring and summer sports! Elianna is playing in-house volleyball and traveling soccer right now. Once volleyball ends, she'll be playing in-house softball in addition to the soccer. Connor is playing school baseball and traveling baseball. It's a good thing we have friends we can carpool with to the games and practices!!
I took Connor and Truman to a baseball game yesterday of our daycare's son...it could be a long summer! I may need a babysitter on retainer! Truman didn't last a full inning before wanting to run all over...it was a whole lot easier when he just would sit on our laps or in the stroller :-)
....for Jon to start a new job. After 13 years he is leaving Memorial Blood Centers. He starts at Beckman Coulter on Monday, April 25th. This company makes tests and reagents that are used in hospital labs and blood centers. He will be the Manager of Assay Technical Support. So if a lab is having issues with a test and the front line customer service people cannot answer it, and it is determined to be a process problem, not the instrumentation, then Jon or his employees are the ones that try to solve the problem. That's just what I've gathered from him. Hopefully after he's there I'll get a little better idea :-)
....for me to start exercising and lose weight. It's been a long time coming! Hopefully I'll be able to update you after I lose some!
....to remember in this season of Lent and Easter the tremendous sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. How incredible it is to imagine a Father watching His Son suffer on the cross for MY sins. How amazing it is that Jesus then rose from the dead and conquered sin and death so that we may have eternal life. What a gift!
