Picking up Speed

Tomorrow is a big day in the Gaunch household. For most everyone else, it's just the day you flip the calendar to March. But to us, it means we're picking up speed to the end of the school year. (OK, does anyone actually flip a paper calendar anymore from one month to the next or does it pop up automatically on our computers and phones?) Anyway, school dismisses at the end of May, so the 'official countdown' begins and is numbered in weeks...
11 weeks until Garrett graduates and 12 weeks until school is out for the summer!
Oh. My. Goodness.














So as we wrapped our last weekend of February, we spent it wisely. Garrett put the finishing touches on his Senior Thesis. As part of his graduation requirement, he must write a 25 page thesis on the topic of his choice.

This is basically a persuasive paper that he can have no solid opinion about going into the assignment. By the end, he must take a stance. Then on a determined evening in early April, he will stand before our school board and he has to explain and defend his thesis. Because of his desire to study biology and pre-med, he knew he would find a topic from this area. His thesis examines the benefits of umbilical stem cell research versus the more controversial embryonic stem cell research. Hmmmm... a little light reading anyone?






I however, spent the weekend doing a VERY mundane task. I counted to 50. Over and over and over again.

I'm the Box Tops for Education coordinator for our school. Fancy title... are you impressed? I am the school 'cheerleader' for this program and have an incentive program. The classes compete against each other for a year end party to see who can collect the most Box Tops. I collect them from each teach monthly and count them, announcing who is 'ahead'. Today, they had to mailed away to receive our school's refund check- that's $.10 per box top. Believe it or not, that adds up to a LOT of money. Our little school will receive a big check next month and that makes me happy!

Hannah spent the weekend out of town. She has participated in the Youth Leader Core program all year. Garrett participated in this church sponsored program last year. This group met for 5 weekends during the school year and teaches youth in 10th and 11th grade how to be better leaders in their churches and how to better disciples. The program ended with a church service that the youth prepared and led. Hannah's role was to serve as Worship Leader. She is learning to play guitar and had hoped to sing as well as play. But... its harder than it looks and so she sat the guitar down and just sang. But, she can really, really sing. She spoke very well in front of the congregation as she introduced the songs, too. We were proud!








Louie and Becca 'hung out' and little this weekend. Nothing big- just the usual weekend stuff. We did laundry, ran some errands, and I bought Garrett and Becca each a new pair of school uniform pants-they weren't going to last another 11 weeks!



Then, we got another piece of Garrett's school puzzle... a rejection letter from the Yeager Scholarship at Marshall University. Bummer. He and one of his classmates were both interviewed by phone on the same day... neither were chosen.



So as we flip the calendar in my classroom tomorrow to March, I KNOW my heart is going to flutter like it always does- in the next few weeks, all 3 kids will celebrate their birthdays! What a flood of memories- and this year, Garrett will be an "adult" as he turns 18.


We're picking up speed...

PS Garrett was in the local paper yesterday(2-27-2011). If you want to read the article online, you can find it at http://www.herald-dispatch.com Just search "National Merit" and you'll find him!

Not hibernating this winter!

Since we came back from Florida the first week of January, we've had a lot of fun- and a little bit of stress- doing LIFE in the Gaunch household. First of all, we got some exciting news right before we left for Florida that Garrett had been accepted as a student to Wheaton College in Chicago! But will he go there? That remains to be seen....

We had visited the college in the fall and he had applied. Getting the Welcome Packet in the mail was really cool! It made it seem so real. It's like one day we'll see the whole picture of where Garrett will attend college... and and it seems like every day since the new year, a piece has been added that makes it more clear. He applied for a full ride scholarship to Washington and Lee University but we were notified that didn't made the final cut. That's one piece. He visited WV Wesleyan College which has a good pre-med program. He was admitted and they offered his a scholarship... but it's his 3rd choice. Another piece. He visited another school called Grove City College in Pennsylvania that he really liked. They're similar to Wheaton in some ways but we don't know if he's accepted yet. Waiting on that piece. Found out a BIG piece this week- Garrett, who is a National Merit semi-finalist, was named a National Merit FINALIST. That will mean scholarship money at Wheaton. Another piece. And yesterday, I filled out a financial aid application for available Wheaton grant money. Waiting on that piece until mid-March to find out what his final tuition cost would be. AND he received notification from Marshall University that not only had he been accepted, but that he was being considered for the Yeager Scholarship. Big piece. He has a phone interview on the 19th and if he makes the cut, he will have a weekend of interviews in March on campus. (This is a full-ride scholarship with tons of perks) Are you dizzy yet? I have no idea what will happen NEXT week!!!

Meanwhile, life goes on. My sister and her husband came for a visit from Atlanta, which was nice. Here she is with Lou.

Rebecca is still playing middle school basketball, though the season wraps up at the end of the month. Also, she is memorizing the Gettysburg Address for school. During the 6th grade year at Covenant School, the emphasis is on the Civil War. There will be a big presentation for parents and there's a rumor floating around that Becca may portray Mary Todd Lincoln... This is a picture of Becca and one of her friends after a rough game- but they're still smiling!

Work is going well. Being in a Kindergarten class every day has its distinct advatages and disadvantages. Look how cute they are! We're teaching them to love maps- they are learning to identify the continents and the oceans. We have songs to help them remember the names. And they don't care if I can sing!

The disadvantages are, of course, that they are little germ carriers! Someone is always sick and I've pretty much kept a cold all winter. But we had a major celebration last week when we reached the 100th day of school!

We counted 100 steps into the classroom....

We had hid 100 pieces of candy that were numbered that the kids had to find and then place correctly on our number chart (there are still 2 pieces somewhere in the room).....

We let them jump on rolled out bubble wrap for 100 seconds (o.k., I jumped, too! Who could resist?)....

We also had 100 random objects that the kids got to put in water to see if they would sink or float. We worked 100 piece puzzles We used 100 marshmallows and toothpicks to create cool shapes. We decorated eye glasses with stickers that were in the shape of 100. And there were SO many more cool things. (Sometimes... other teachers just stop by our class because its such a fun place to be!)

Last weekend, Garrett and his friends who play in the band Torn in Two got together for a Battle of the Bands in the next county. They were one of 8 acts who were competing for the chance to participate in a concert/event on April 1st. They were allowed to sing 2 songs. They had a ton of fun and they WON! They were interviewed for a radio show and will get to sing again. I'm glad they won but I'm really glad they got an opportunity to sing and have fun together.

Tonight, Hannah was invited to go to a local high school Valentine Dance with her friend, Kramer. (Aren't they cute?) They both love to dance and even though they don't go to school together, we attend church together and they have tons of mutual friends- I know it'll be fun. And... Kramer is a senior like Garrett and just found out yesterday that he received a full scholarship to study marine biology in Florida. Go Kramer!