Victories!

The School District

I spoke at the school board meeting two weeks ago about the hazardous weather policies. The meeting room was packed--standing room only because they were honoring a bunch of kids for various achievements.  My turn to speak came early in the meeting and you could have heard a pin drop when I was done.

I could tell that the school board was listening intently.  The superintendent turned red and was shooting daggers at me.  I couldn't judge the audience's reaction because my back was to them, but when I returned to my seat, the man who as sitting next to me reached over, grabbed my arm, and said "you did a really good job."

The meeting carried on and I stayed until the end, when everyone was released so that the board could do business not subject to the open-meetings laws. And as I was leaving, two different board members came up to me and assured me that my message was heard and that something would be done. They weren't technically allowed to respond to me at all.  And one of them indicated that this was the first he had heard about this whole situation. (Odd, since I had copied them all on my original correspondence. It seems as though the school district is filtering what gets through to the board.)

So, this week I received a letter from the school board.  They are instituting new emergency procedures, creating an emergency operations center so that all key decision makers will be in the same room during an emergency, and purchasing a two-way radio system so that the administrators can communicate with each school during emergencies, even if there is a power outage.

I am thrilled with this result and proud to be able to show my kids that you can make change happen if you are determined.

Soccer

We won our first game this week!  Although it was a bit hollow, because we were playing my twins' team, and our team is much bigger than theirs.  We pummeled them, even though I intentionally played my girls in their lease effective positions the second half.  But my girls are really improving and coming together as a team.  I know I'm not the best coach in the world (hell, I'm still not straight on all the rules!), but I do think I'm good at letting my girls know when they do well. They are all in the awkward pubescent stage, and you can just tell that some of them really need that extra boost of confidence they get when they doing something great on the soccer field.

Fatness

I've lost about 10 pounds recently, without really trying.  I'm below where I was when I was sticking to the super-strict nutrisystem diet.  I think it's in large part because I quit buying bread.  I still buy sandwich bread, but no garlic bread or dinner rolls.  I love bread. I could seriously eat it to the exclusion of everything else, and I was adding bread to our meals every night.  So I guess cutting it out is a good thing.

Probably being on the soccer fields instead of at home in front of a computer or tv helps, too.  And since PS and TT are trying out volleyball and softball, both new sports to them, we've been spending lots of time in the yard practicing their various sports.