2017 Week 10: Full Week

Ha! As soon as I wrote the title for the week, I thought, aren't they all?!

So the old coloring I found, felt very fitting, and once again is proving true--God is faithful!

Monday, after a painful bout of food poisoning (probably some of the leftovers I ate) and hardly any food throughout the day, I felt greatly helped as I taught for four hours.

Tuesday, I decided to go to Mother's as planned. We had a good time and uncovered many more treasured family memories. It was also my "little" brother's birthday.

My lovely mother calling Alan to wish him a happy birthday.

Among the files I found this old photo of Alan. Another birthday, perhaps?

Couldn't resist borrowing a picture of cutiepie as she arrived at Nanna's.

This last week before the first competition, Mike has been working on the robot every day. Thursday was the big day when they had six hours to "unbag" it and restore the 30 lbs. of parts allowed to be kept out for continued improvement and practice. And after that they had to pack the trailer with everything--robot, a whole pit-worth of tools and team accouterments. So, that was a late night.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed Malachi's theater performance, maybe his last with the Delta Troupers. He was Mr. DePinna, a hilarious role, and Lexi was Mrs. Sycamore. It was fun to watch the play together with Stephan, Karen, Sam and Kristie.

Friday noon at Writers' Bloc we critiqued Karen's novel and enjoyed the time with our writer-friends.
Shortly after that it was time to head up to Mishawaka for the St. Joseph District FIRST competition.

Notice the fun spirit gear

Members of the drive team in various roles: waiting in the queue; checking out Spitfire; prepping for alliance selection

We were proud, excited and grateful as we watched our team climb the ranks from 17th to 4th seed. The drivers and Spitfire performed beyond our expectations. Though we were eliminated in quarterfinals, it was a great learning experience. Already improvements to the robot and game strategy are in the works. The next district competition is in two weeks.

In addition, our team won the Engineering Excellence award. And Michael Koch was nominated for the prestigious Woodie Flowers Award, quite an honor in itself!

Finally, our highest privilege and honor is to work with these young people and watch them grow from giggly immature teens into amazing youth and outstanding young engineers.

We were glad to be home again Sunday night after two very long tiring days--Mike on his feet the entire time and me mostly sitting on the hard bleachers for hours.
I must confess that I was worried about all I had to do when I got back and very concerned about my friend Viola whose daughter died unexpectedly while I was away. But am encouraged remembering that God is in control!