Yup, I like him pretty well. :-)
On the 2nd, we sent Evan off to Cincinnati with his Aunt Valerie, and the rest of us shuttled my parents to the Columbus airport, where they began their journey to Israel.
On Sunday the 3rd, we made a quick afternoon trip to Dayton where we transferred Alli and Kait to Valerie's care for the next few days.
Monday was a busy day of work/school and preparation to take my students to Muncie, IN for Heartland Regional Student Convention. We left home around 7:30 Monday evening, and arrived in Muncie just in time to unpack and tuck in for a night of sleep before the excitement and chaos of the week began!
We had a young group this year - 1 senior, 1 junior, 1 sophomore, 2 freshmen, 3-8th graders, and 2- 7th graders. This was the first year that Ryan was eligible to compete, and he entered 9 categories. It's always interesting to see how things end up...there are often some surprises along the way. I wanted him to do a solo, but he wasn't completely sold on it. He had the flu a couple of weeks ago, and we just didn't get to spend as much time on it as we would have liked. I knew that it would be best for him to do a platform event his first year so that he would conquer some of the fears early on. His greatest fear of doing a solo was that he would get called to do a command performance at the one of the night rallies. I assured him that it wouldn't happen. With him competing against high school seniors, having an immature voice, etc., it just wasn't in the cards. He was a nervous wreck during competition, but he did very well. He was glad it was over with. :-)
He had table tennis in the afternoon and did well, but didn't medal in that category.
A few minutes after he finished table tennis, we received a call that Ryan's solo was chosen for a command performance. I immediately broke into a sweat, knowing that he did not want to perform in front of the rally audience, and quite frankly I didn't think I would be able to talk him into it. When we took him aside, his immediate response was, "NO WAY!" After the initial shock wore off, I explained to him the honor that it was, not only for him but for our school, and that it was his opportunity to use the song for ministry. After a bit of arm-twisting, he agreed. The Lord really helped him, and he did an excellent job! It can be a bit intimidating to sing in front of 200 peers plus guests, staff, sponsors, etc., and I was really proud of him for plunging in this year and challenging himself.
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| ...and I was wearing heels. :-( |
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| Archery |
It was a little excruciating for me to wait from Wednesday to Friday to see where he placed in his solo. :-) The screen came up with the top six places (not in order):
And they announced 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd...I couldn't believe he was getting this close...and 2nd place in Male Solo...Ryan Burley!
And to think...he almost had me convinced he should skip it for this year. :-)
This was my fantastic group of students. Other than being exhausted, it was a great week. The kids cooperated so well, and were so responsible. It made my job so much easier! Two of the nights, we didn't get to have supper until about 10 p.m. That's enough to make any teenager mad, but they were great about everything. :-)
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| Very happy kids holding our school award... 2nd place total points in athletics |
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| He probably wouldn't want me to mention this, but Greg was honored with the 2013 Heartland Convention Christian Character Award. |
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So glad Clayton and Leah were able to join us... Clayton is one of our students and lives in
Michigan. We look forward to doing this again!
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| A winter storm with lots of snow made things interesting and amazingly beautiful. Wish I'd had time to take pics all over campus. |
