We have a 16 year old! And other February happenings...

Even though this isn't chronological for February - I'll start with the big milestone birthday!

Mercer's birthday is always over the holiday break. He had baseball practice and/or games every day... including the evening of his birthday!  So, we took him out the evening before his big day (a late evening b/c he had to clean up after getting done with baseball ~6:30 that evening).

We took him to a restaurant that specializes in celebrating events.... and - this place was a bit over the top!  The name - Sugar Factory - says it all.  They have a candy store in the front where you wait and the desserts in the restaurant are insane!  Mercer ordered a "volcano explosion" shake: a chocolate shake with a donut and 2 brownies on top!  

Isabella ordered a shake and hers came with a slice of chocolate cake on top of it!

Mine & Todd's were pretty plain - we didn't order anything extreme. 

Mercer took a friend who ordered a plain milkshake too - however his came with some extras:  a candy necklace and a lollypop. Maybe they add the extras - even to the plain ones for the kids?  (Todd and I were just fine without all of the garnishes!)

The food was OK - nothing special (and it was overpriced). The service was good, though.  

Would we go back? Maybe to celebrate another kid's birthday - if they asked.  There was a table behind us with about a dozen people... they looked like they were celebrating a 5 or 6 year old's special day.  

They ordered this GIANT bowl of ice cream for the table - called a King Kong Sundae: 20 scoops of ice cream covered with hot fudge, caramel and strawberry sauces, caramelized banana, marshmallows, chocolate chip cookie chunks, a glazed donut, a vanilla cupcake, white chocolate strawberry, gummy bears, M&M's®, Skittles®, Oreo®, cookie crumbles rainbow and chocolate sprinkles, graham cracker crumbles waffle cones, unicorn pops, candy necklaces and topped off with whipped cream gummy cherries and sparklers!  (I pulled this off the website).  

They make an event of it... they dim the lights, blare the music, the waiters / waitresses come out with these LED light sticks and dance / sing happy birthday.  It was quite entertaining!  

The waiter knew it was Mercer's birthday and brought him out just a plain scoop of ice cream and sang - no light sticks or blaring music.  Perhaps he thought Mercer needed MORE ice cream to finish his meal since he had finished his milkshake?!!  

(I guess you get the big to-do with the music, lights and dancing when you order the big sundae?)

Mercer seemed happy - and we had a good time getting to know his new friend - a boy who moved here from Nicaragua a month ago and just joined their baseball team!  He spoke English very well / has family in the area.  BTW - Mercer, Isabella and I brought home leftovers. This kid - Edmon - he finished ALL of his food AND all of his milkshake!  (Mercer had to bring home the syrupy- donut home... he ate that for breakfast on his actual birthday.

(The next day, we saw Edmon's mom at baseball - I asked if he had a sore tummy from all of the food and she said YES!)

It's good that he had food left-over... as I left the house on his birthday before anyone woke up. I went downtown to a conference to judge some student work that my colleague roped me into.  I sort of felt bad to have left Mercer on his birthday, but at least my judging stint ended earlier than many other people who's last contests ended around 2:30 or 3.  I was able to get back home in time to take Mercer to his baseball game he had that evening.  (So Todd wouldn't have to take off work)

Todd told someone before the game who may have told the announcer that it was Mercer's birthday.  We waited and waited for him to play. The announcer introduced Mercer was taking the mound and also wished him a happy birthday! 

The coaches put him in the game to pitch with the bases loaded with 2 outs.  THANKFULLLY he was able to strike out the batter and end that painful inning!  The team was down by 9 runs and we were all so glad that more did not score with the bases loaded!  whew.

Mercer pitched several more innings.  He gave up a couple of runs, but the Blue Devils made a big come-back. 

Unfortunately it was not quite enough. His team lost that evening 12 - 9, but they battled hard the last few innings!!  He did get to cross the plate / contribute to the score inching closer to their competitors as well.

I kept hearing teammates - while he was pitching - giving him encouragement.  "It's OK kid.  Shake it off." (if he threw a ball or walked a runner).  "Great job birthday boy" (if he struck someone out).  

I had ordered cupcakes for the team (I know he's 16, but it's probably the last time we're ordering our boy cupcakes!) He didn't seem to mind. 

One parent sung to him & got some others to join in. 

Most of his teammates grabbed a cupcake - they didn't seem to mind. The siblings that got to partake... they didn't mind. 

 

The final thing of the night: the marking of the wall.

It doesn't look like he really grew at all!  (Maybe he'll have a late growth spurt?)  

I think he had a good birthday overall!

Other things that happened this month:  Valentine's Day.  We told Isabella that this was probably her last valentine's exchange at school - as when you get to middle school, they no longer exchange cards.  So, instead of buying cards, make special ones.  

She did the "marble painting" technique.  

It took her a few weekends leading up to the 14th to make the painted cardstock, then cut out after drying. 

They got to dress up in school on exchange day, so she wore a fancy dress. 

Her favorite exchange:  one of those cardboard hearts with 4 - 5 caramels inside. She was so excited!

Valentine's was the game-opener for Mercer's high school season.  So, we spent Valentine's under blankets / drinking hot chocolate at a high school baseball game. 

(I was grading, of course, because I had a grading deadline the next day)

M went into the game late. When he went up to bat, the bases were loaded.  He clocked on that went to the wall! 

The players on 1st, 2nd and 3rd crossed the plate.  His coach sent him on to go to home, but they got him out at the plate. It would have been fantastic if he got an in-the-park home run, but the 3 RBIs was still very exciting!!  

They won their opening game and played at the Marietta field the next night / won that game too as their 1st game on home-turf.

They have since lost a couple and won one more.  Overall- they're having a pretty good season to start... much better than the previous 2 years.

One thing that's really cool: "hometown hero" (former) Braves player, Dansby Swanson went to MHS. He went to another team last year (to the Chicago Cubs).... but he still has a house and family here in Marietta.  (His mom used to work at the elementary school where Mercer & Isabella went / he would come by the school sometimes then and make local news.)

In the off-season, Dansby was using the school's indoor facilities to do batting practice. On several occasions, he talked to & worked with the boys too. 

I'm sure that was inspiring for them!!

At the beginning of the month, I did another thing for school on a Saturday:  I went to the GA Tech Research Institute (not down-town, but just a little south of the square on the back of the nearby military base.) A civil engineering society has an event there where they test bridges to destruction and I tackled this as a quick project at the beginning of the semester. 

The 1st photo includes the bridges (10 out of 27 teams) that went to the competition... and here is the aftermath!  ha.

I'm not sure if I am going to do it again next year or not... not sure how much the students got out of it (26 of the 27 groups enjoyed it), but... it's not really a part of what I need to teach other than teamwork and scale.  But I do that with other architectural projects.  And... I had to give up a Saturday / it was a lot to manage "during" the project with the supplies and the cleaning / etc.

The event was educational for really little kids. None of my students attended so I got pushed 'til the end.  Had I known this, I would not have gotten to the event early.  (I did take some grading with me, so all was not lost.) 

My seniors / 3rd year students want to do the project after their big test in April.  I may let them... and then "test" with the engineering teacher downstairs at the end of the semester?  I still have a bunch of materials left.   (Right now they're working on the AIA competition that is due at the end of March)

We'll see next year (or maybe skip a year) if I do the project again with the Intro students.

Todd is plugging away at work. He says it will be a busy year -- as they've landed several new projects locally.  

We had winter break this past week. We started the break on the last day of school (Friday night) with Isabella's belt testing. She successfully moved from a yellow belt to an orange belt.  A couple of the moms told me what good form she had!

Saturday, I knocked out the rest of my continuing education for my LEED credential.  (Most of the courses I took also count towards my architecture license which is due for renewal next summer - 2025) so I'm good for awhile!

Then, on Sunday, I got a Shingles Shot. It was OK except that I did HOURS of yardwork (Todd and I have been clearing away growth at the back fence for a couple of weekends so that the neighbor can repair it) and.... apparently I was NOT supposed to do anything strenuous like yardwork or swimming (according to the CDC website).  I did not know this before I tackled all of the yardwork.  I thought it would be good to keep my arm moving / not stiffen up.  Oops.  I was down for the count for a bit!   

The front of our house has looked like this (above) for 2 weeks - curb full of cuttings. We still have a bunch in the back yard, but are hesitant to put it to the curb b/c we got a citation for too much this week!

Monday, I took the kids to their eye appointments.... (Isabella already got her new glasses - Mercer had practice and couldn't pick out new eyewear just yet). 

I took him to the school pretty much every day for practice.  I was going to go to the school to install more monitor stands, but.... naaah.... 

Tuesday, Isabella had her music lesson.  There was a "day" game on Tuesday followed by a dinner for the JV boys that evening. It was good to get to know some of the families + Mercer had a good time hanging out with the team outside the baseball facilities.

AND, I went to our neighborhood book club after the dinner!  I've almost finished listening to the book -- did that while cleaning / cooking throughout the beginning of the week.) 

Wednesday was a horse lesson.

Thursday was the day we took Mercer out to dinner. Friday was my conference / judging + another baseball game.  (both detailed above)

Saturday was more martial arts / another baseball game and a mani-pedi.  (and - started grading) Sunday is prep work for the coming week and LOTS of grading... getting back to reality!!

It was a BUSY week of running around / doing some clean-up of some things around the house in between the driving & activities.  I don't feel relaxed, but did get a lot of *good* sleep this week. 

Now, we have 5 weeks before the next break... and I've got 3 classes submitting competition pieces the day before break.  Wish us (me) luck!  ha.   It may be a little while before the next blog post because of that!

Winter is almost over.  Spring will be coming soon.  The daffodils are already in bloom.  

January has come-and-gone!

It seems like MUCH of January was a blur - we all were sick for parts of January sadly.  I had - over break / got better / got again after school started back whatever the mucous-y crud was that was going around.  Todd got it next... Mercer had it for a little while too.  Isabella avoided it.  But, sadly, she picked up strep throat a couple weeks later.  (probably from school since none of us had that)  She is now officially done with her antibiotics as of yesterday.  Fingers crossed - February will be HEALTHY!

We did a bunch of (little) things in January: 

- Our school system had a "comedy night" sponsored by a local credit union specifically for us teachers at the historic Strand theater.  We had dinner at home with the kids, then went up.  The comedian is married to a local middle school teacher (in the neighboring district) and had LOTS of material that we could all relate to!  Afterwards, we went to a speak-easy off of the square that we've never been to.  We had a drink and listened to music, then went back to reality!

- Starting the Sunday before MLK day, the youth had a "lock in." Mercer couldn't stay overnight because he had baseball tryouts on MLK day.  So he stayed 'til about midnight and we went to pick him up. He got to help out with a service project on Sunday, eat dinner with the crew and watch a movie.  He was not able to go the following day to help build a community garden.  He went instead to baseball tryouts.

- We had a snow day in the middle of tryouts (they were postponed), but there was no snow.  There *may* have been icy roads here & there, but we didn't see anything.  Isabella and I did stuff at home. Mercer walked up to the square for the day.

- Mercer had conditioning every day after school in January for baseball. He had tryouts over MLK day a little into the week following  Thankfully he made the JV team.  I don't know if he'll be pitching, but more than likely - he'll be in the outfield. He also has a powerful bat. 

One thing that is cool that has happened a couple of times so far:  the MLB player Dansby Swanson who is a shortstop for the Chicago Cubs - he still has a house here and a trainer.  His trainer has some sort of agreement with the high school to use their indoor facility, so they got to see him practice / he talked to the team.  (Dansby is a MHS grad and former Braves player 'til a year ago...he was - while playing for the Braves - a hometown favorite.  His mother worked at the elementary school where Mercer and Isabella went and every now-and-then there was "hoopla" about Dansby coming to the school.)  

I haven't heard Mercer complain about the indoor facility since that started happening... which he has over the previous years.  Ha!

Fingers crossed ( a pun on his broken finger from last year - wink ) he'll have a healthy season and gets a lot more play-time this year!  

- Isabella has been going to martial arts (when she was not sick) and horse-back riding a couple of times in January.  

She sort of stopped playing her violin and was focused on only her piano.  We had a conversation and she confessed -- she wasn't that interested in the violin anymore. She wanted to switch to the cello.  

So... we went to the music store and that's exactly what she did - traded the violin for the cello!  

She's only had 1 lesson so far, but it's not too bad.  It doesn't seem like it will be too tough of a transition for her.  ??

She was using a 1/2-size violin for the previous year and a half.  Last weekend, she was fitted for a 3/4-size cello.  She's definitely grown! 

She fully extended the stand on the bottom so that she could show her classmates that it COULD be taller than her - but she wouldn't actually stand up and play it (I don't think).  We had to print a picture so she could take to class and show her classmates.

- One thing that DID NOT happen:  any form of soup night.  We ate a lot of soup but as a family. Unfortunately with all of the illness in our house - we really weren't feeling like cleaning / prepping / serving lots of people.  January has come and gone and it felt weird that we didn't do it! 

- Todd has had a lot of meetings at night - building committee meetings and city council meetings.  His work is picking up a bit - including some new projects for this year.  They also hired another person and are back up to 4 employees.

- I've been busy with lots of school stuff - including going out to a site visit this past weekend for a student project.  The cool thing about the site:  it's where Isabella had her amphibian camp last summer! 

I learned MORE about what she did - she was here where the mesocosms for endangered amphibians are.... I just asked her about it and she said that they did stuff here.  Apparently these containers (and what's inside is a big deal)

This "field research center' (a converted residential garage) is the site for the student competition.  In their designs, they will be tearing down the existing structure / using the grade and the slab / driveways that are already established.

Interesting how 2 different worlds just came together! 

So far in January & early February - we're just plugging away!  Nothing major, but that's OK.

Baseball games will start in February AND Mercer has a BIG birthday coming up this month.  :/  yikes!