11-09-06 POW

Hello all!
This has been a good week. LOTS of Halloween candy to eat....er...I mean...to TAKE CARE of for the girls while they are in school. It's been tough (more on that later). On a brighter note, this week was report card week. I'm honored, once again, to announce that both girls made the A/B honor roll. They both got all A's and one B. Alyssa's was in science and Sidney's was in Geometry (a 10th grade class). I am very proud of both of them! Here is Alyssa, proudly displaying her certificate. Yes, they got to choose dinner that night. I am so eternally grateful that they made it through the Golden Corral stage. Don't get me wrong, I love all you can eat dessert restaurants, but it was getting old. Almost made me wish that they DIDN'T do well on their report cards. Ha!
Sidney has set a goal for herself. She wants to be able to do the splits by the end of the year. She's almost there, I think she'll be able to make it. I remember watching a program on TV of Olympic gymnasts and the training they did. I told Sid that I'd stack some bricks on her head to help her stretch! She politely thanked me and told me she'd do her own training.


An interesting thing happened to me last week. I got the mail out of the box and inside was a fancy, embossed envelope addressed to "the parents of Alyssa Havas" with a return address from Washington, DC. Oh great, NOW what has she done? Is she being sent to a 5th grade boot camp?? I sat down, and it's a good thing. Let me type a little of what was in the letter:

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that in the next few days Alyssa will receive an official invitation to attend a 2007 People to People World Leadership Forum in Washington, DC. Allow me to offer my personal congratulations for Alyssa's achievements. You must be very proud. Selection for participation in the World Leadership Forum is based on the academic recommendation of valued and respected educators. Alyssa was nominated by educator Dana Sherwood (her teacher) of Colfax Elementary, who qualified Alyssa as an outstanding student with high academic standings and promising leadership potential.

I stopped at this point to read the outside of the envelope. Alyssa?!?!?!?! I kept reading:

People to People was founded in 1956 by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower with the premise that peace can be achieved through understanding. Making a difference in the begins with developing your child's own leadership skills and the World Leadership Forum offers a unique opportunity for Alyssa to join other highly motivated and accomplished middle school scholars from around the globe.

I had to stop again. I looked around the room several times, looking for the hidden cameras. I found none. Was this for real? It was signed by Mary Jean Eisenhower, President and CEO. Alyssa? I flashed back to the parent/teacher conference a few weeks back. You know, the one where I was "informed" of Alyssa's love of talking. She couldn't get votes to be V.P. of her class, but she gets invited to DC to be the next world leader. I was truly confused.

As promised, the VERY impressive invitation arrived a few days later. It had the dates for next fall (all in Sept and Oct) and an outline of their agenda for the 7 days. Capital Hill, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, Holocaust Museum, Arlington, Spy museum, Gettysburg, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Smithsonian, all the monuments and nightly Leadership Delegation Meetings, just to name a few. Extremely impressive. Lodging and all meals are included. Are you doing what I did? Yes: the math. They'll pick her up from the airport and stay with her 24/7, one supervisor for every 15 kids. She even gets high school credit if she writes all of this up and turn in the completion certificate.
Then it happened. I saw the price. Are you sitting down? All this can be hers for a mere $2,195! Yes, that is a comma in the price, not a decimal. Oh, and you have to RSVP by December 11th and send them the $300 deposit. I could go on and on about my shock and all of the details, but I'll give you the web link instead. http://www.wlfstudentleaders.org/default.asp . All kidding aside, I told her I was very proud of her, even if she didn't get to go. Alyssa for President????

The color of the leaves are absolutely beautiful again. I spent 30 minutes today just driving around to take in the beauty. I really wish I'd had my camera with me. This whole page would have been filled with Fall pictures. I did, however, take these of Ryan's tree last week. It was beautiful that day. The kids spent an entire afternoon raking three houses' leaves into a HUGE pile and jumped into it until the sun went down. Needless to say, I had leaf crumbles from my front door to my kitchen to the bathroom. Hey, it's only once a year, right????

Have a great week!

Amy and the girls