My Cross Country Girl

This fall C1 has been doing Cross Country.

Last spring, the High School Cross Country Coach spotted her at Track practice and asked her name. He asked her why she didn't run Cross Country. He said he would remember her name and make sure that she signed up for the fall.

He held that promise.

She has improved greatly through the season and really enjoys it.

This morning she had a meet and I remembered my camera!

After they take off, you can always walk to about the halfway point and cheer them on.


As she approached the Finish Line, she was the third girl from her team coming in.


Her best time this season was 14:49. She came in just a little over that today.


Good job!

Going, Going, Gone...

As you may know, last school year was the last year we would spend in our old building.

The village that we live in had the opportunity to take possession of the old building and use it for whatever they liked.

They decided against keeping it because of costs involved, so the building was to be demolished.

Throughout the summer, our dear old building has gone through many changes beginning with the auction.

In early August, they fenced in the building and cut all the power.

It was no longer lit up at night.


Several local Fire Departments and the National Guard came in and used the building for training after all the exterior doors and windows were removed.

At this point, sadly enough, the building was an eyesore and needed to go...



Monday of this past week, demolition began and it.went.quick!

Monday they removed all the decorative concrete from the building. The village will use these pieces for a memorial they plan to build where the old building stood.

Tuesday the whole back wing was demolished and Wednesday the gym.




Thursday the rest of the building came down.



In four days, this was all we had left of our beloved Cridersville Elementary on Main Street.



Too soon, this too will be gone and we will have green space for the kids to play on.

This is going to take some getting used to...

First Day of School

School has started and here's the proof.

B started a week and a half before the rest of us did. He is going to the local Career Center this year. He is taking welding and loves it so far. He's like a totally different student. He's getting his homework done, going to bed early, and really seems to enjoy it. I'm so thankful for that!


C1 is in the Eighth Grade and at the High School this year. Yikes! How did my baby girl get this old!?! When I was in the Eighth Grade, we were just getting into Junior High. We were in Elementary School through the Seventh Grade. My, how things have changed!


C2 is spending his last year of Elementary School in our brand spanking new building! He is in the Fourth Grade and really likes it so far. I'm glad that he gets to spend one year in this school. It is huge and beautiful!


They are all growing up so fast.

Hopefully, we have a great year!

Silly Bandz

The big thing around here right now is Silly Bandz.

We buy them.

We count them.

We sort them.

We carry them around with us in plastic boxes.

We trade them.

And by "we", I mean C1 and C2...especially C1.

She took a picture of how many she had two weeks ago; she now has more.


And of course, we wear them...


Wonder how long this craze will last?

Children's Fountain

Last week, for something different, my cousin and I took the kids to the Children"s Fountain in Faurot Park.

At first, they didn't know quite know what to do.

"Just go play!" we said...

We were tired of hearing how boring the pool is getting, so we thought they would enjoy this.

Eventually, they did...



for about twenty minutes.

Then, they were ready to go.

So much for different; the next day, we were back at the pool!

Memories

When the school year finished, this was the last message that was put on the sign out front.


C1 said, "Why do they have to make it so sad? Who put that up?"

I told her it was Mr. G. that puts the messages up. She said she was mad at him. I then told her that Mr. T. tells him what to put up. She said she was really mad at him!

When I told Mr. T. what she said his reply was, "That was my goal. To make everyone sad."

I'm glad I got this picture when I did.

This sign too, is now gone...

Sold! To Bidder Number...

Saturday was the auction at our old school building.

It was weird to be there and look around the auction before everything started.

When I walked into the classroom that I had worked in for the last five years, it smelled like home. But, everything was gone. All that was left, was what was to be auctioned.


They had two rings going. One in the gym and one that moved from classroom to classroom. In the gym they were auctioning things that had come from the other two schools that had already had their auctions and anything else that the district had found in storage to get rid of. What was being auctioned in the classrooms were the things that were actually from our school.

We hung around in the gym for awhile and then went upstairs to see what was happening there.

That is where it really hit me that this was for real. We were really done in this building.

Why?

After the auctioneer finished in a classroom, everything was ready to be removed.

And people did not mess around...

In the office, our old kitchen supervisor bought the teacher mailboxes. She had retired from this school and wanted a memento. They were one of the first things that I saw being removed and it was hard to see.


I guess I just didn't realize that EVERYTHING would be sold. They sold ceiling fans, drinking fountains, restroom dividers, stage curtains, the gym floor. Everything went.

We went back in the evening to get the things we had purchased and the hand railings on the stairs were gone. Lockers had been taken out of the walls and blackboards removed.

C1 jumped in the hole that was left in a classroom where the lockers used to be...


C2 wanted one last picture in the classroom that he had spent the last two years in...


There was one very neat thing that we discovered.

We were walking by a classroom where the whiteboard had been removed. I noticed that there was writing on the blackboard that was underneath and went in to see what it was and got a nice surprise!


Hidden under that whiteboard for the last eight years was the signatures of all the students that were in that classroom when they had put the whiteboard up. One of them was B. Hidden all that time was his little nine year old signature.

Made a happy ending to a sad day...