We had a blessed Thanksgiving this year. Sam was able to drive down from Greencastle, Indiana, where he goes to Depauw University, to join us. And Rachel's mom, dad, and brother came over for the feast. Dylan's girlfriend, Rachel Ramsey (who I now call "Twix"), was also able to join us. It was a great time! … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2009
Honor 58 & Spelling Bee
November 24, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Kaylee did really awesome in this year's spelling bee. Last year, Rachel wouldn't let Kaylee live down her first round elimination on a word that they told her would be on the spelling bee. This year she made it through three rounds and even had a word - "solemn" - come up that we'd studied together. Yeah Kaylee! On a related note, I was hoping to see Anna compete. But for reasons of her own, she opted out.The Honor 58 situation, though, is a honor choir open to 5th through 8th grade students who qualify in a tough audition. Kaylee and Savannah both made it in and gave a great … [Read more...]
Dia de los Muertos & Cheekwood, Fall 2009
November 22, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Dia de los Muertos is the Latin American tradition celebrating the Catholic holiday of All Saints Day. Emily's Spanish class entered the contest at the region-wide tapete contest. Tapete (pronounced "tap-et-ay") is a traditional Mexican chalk art expressing a variety of traditional "Day of the Dead" themes. Since the Day of the Dead is not traditionally a sad or scary day, the scenes are usually very festive and bright. Emily drew the image for her team and they put it on pavement and ... WON! Great job Emily!The celebration was held at the very beautiful Cheekwood botanical gardens and, … [Read more...]
Injury at the Fall Festival
November 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment
If there's one thing I've learned about the annual expedition to the Lakeview Elementary Fall Festival, it's that all the girls will want to go to the MASH tent at least once, maybe many times. Fortunately, Anna was not really injured though Dylan had fun playing up all of the bandages and bloody marks on all the girls.(You can click on the images below of Katie (looking surly) and Ava (looking content) to see bigger versions of the pictures.) I went to the Fall Festival for reasons of my own, primarily to drink:And to eat all the yummy cakes we won in the cakewalk: … [Read more...]
MTSU Convocation
November 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I don't know how I managed to, but I forgot about posting the pictures from Dylan and Connor's convocation at MTSU. Dylan and Connor had everything hammered out and were ready to get settled into their dorm room. Rachel Ramsey came along to cheer on her boyfriend, Dylan. The girls, while tolerant, were not having an awesome time. They had a few sodas, enjoyed the shade, and mostly just hung out with us trying not to look too bored. Emily managed to have some fun too and, I think, looked wonderful when I snapped this picture of her. As you can tell, she especially enjoyed climbing in the … [Read more...]
Mustache’s Are The In-Thing, I’m Told
November 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment
As a joke, I bought Emily a pack of silly stick-on mustaches for her birthday back in the middle of summer. I was shocked by how much she - and all of the kids - enjoyed them!Katie and Ava wore them all day long. Ava's was light brown. Dylan, who was getting ready for some choir thing, decided to play up his suited look with a pipe just to make sure he was pulling off the English banker look. Jelly Bean added the Basset Hound flavor to the whole mix.I think he needs a bowler hat to go the full 100%. LOL! … [Read more...]
Health Data Outcomes
November 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I've opined in the past about how strongly I think the health care industry in the USA needs a does of information technology. One profession making impressive strides in this area is America's nurses. On the one hand, we have NDNQI, the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®). NDNQI is a repository for nursing-sensitive indicators collected at the nursing unit level. Since it began in the late 1990's, the program has added many hospitals as well as additional data points (that is, the quality indicators). Lots of useful resources and good reading can be found … [Read more...]
