Count Down To College

Good Morning Everyone,

I'm going to TRY and make this blog as short as possible! I have the day off and I need to get soooo much done today.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and preoccupied these days. My bedroom is starting to look scary. Covered with boxes, half packed suitcases, folded clothes on my bed to be packed, stuff from shoes to blankets. Getting Keegan ready to live on her own has been a non-stop project. Plus trying to get everything done from getting her a passport, filling out college forms to getting her banking and medical shots in order. I'm starting to feel very anxious :/ this is the feeling I was trying to avoid. I need to stop and pray.

I have been enjoying the summer with the kids. We have been hanging out a lot. Nothing special, just hanging out. Oh my gosh, I am going to miss my baby girl like crazy. I keep having these sentimental moments, and it's happening more and more the closer we get to separation. I remember when she was little, she would have separation anxiety when I would drop her off somewhere, now it's my turn.

Two weeks from yesterday we will be in St. Louis moving this girl into her dorm. For the 1st 3 days she will be going to a camp with her fellow scholars group. They will be getting to know one another. It sounds like a fun time. Although I had to sign a paper that I would not hold the camp or Wash U responsible if she were to drown, get struck by lighting, break bones, etc!! I'm not kidding. Good grief, I'm going to be relieved when she gets back from camp. They will be going down some river, plus they will be doing that zip line thingy. Meanwhile David and I will be waiting at the hotel for her to come back to Wash U to finish moving her in. They have a dinner planned for parents and students before we leave. We will be saying our goodbyes on August 25th, Keegan's 18th birthday. Weird huh?

It was so fun watching Dawson play lacrosse this summer. The only thing I hated was I felt like I was in the Phoenix heat, it was so hot every game. Poor Dawson would be exhausted, he would play one game then referee the following game. There were 4 teams competing. His team was tied for 1st place until the last game and lost. So they came in 2nd place. Dawson was the lead scorer on his team. He made 14 goals in 8 games. He is getting better every time he plays. I don't have many pictures attached, except a few more of Dawson playing lacrosse. I'm going to try and attach a video of him. Hopefully it will work. At the end of the video you will see Dawson make a goal (watch the net, you will see the ball hit inside). You have to keep your eye on  #27. Most of the time he is the player on the right side of the screen facing the other players. He tries to score the 1st time then misses. He jumps up and throws a little temper tantrum when he misses the 1st attempt. Then he gets the ball back and scores. I just watched the video, the quality isn't as good as my original, plus it is so small especially on your iPads.

David and I are plugging away working as usual. Mostly just enjoying our summer with the kids. Both kids are driving us around everywhere. We just ride along. Pretty cool.

Love to all of you. Please pray for Keegan's new adventures around the corner. Pray that God sends His guardian angels to watch over her and keeps her safe every single second. Thank you for your prayers.

May God bless you.

Love,
Marjie

Summer Is Here

Hello,

It has been so hot this week. I have to say that at times I am very grateful for our Wichita wind. Although the last few days there hasn't been much of a breeze, it feels very similar to Phoenix at times.

This past week our family had fun on a mini vacation. We spent 5 days in St. Louis so Keegan could attend a weekend seminar and pre-register at Wash U. Meanwhile the three of us cruised around the city checking things out. One day we went to their zoo. It was very big and free of charge! Luckily the weather that day was cloudy, still hot but bearable. The rest of the weekend we tried to stay in the air conditioning as much as possible.

Our goal was to find places around the university for Keegan to shop, ways to travel, banking, etc. She will have free access to the Metro bus and subway transit system. It looks like she can get anywhere in the city. So when she needs to go to the airport from the university it won't cost her anything. There is every kind of eating joint you could possibly imagine and all kinds of things to see and do. I don't think she will ever run out of places to go. This is exactly what she wanted, a big city like Phoenix. She has felt very confined in Wichita. I don't care; it was still a blessing for her to go to high school here. Plus it is a great place to raise a family.

She is very excited about her class schedule for the 1st semester. One of her classes is Irish Literature. They will be reading many books (approx. 12) written by Irish authors. It is a class for freshman only. There will be about 14-16 students in the class. During Spring break they will be going to Ireland!! Leave it to Keegan to find a way to travel her 1st year of college. When she enrolled she didn't even know how much money it would cost. Needless to say I'm still trying to find out about these minor details!! :-x The good news is she will be receiving a Home Depot Scholarship that might pay for most of it, I HOPE. Otherwise she will be waving to her classmates goodbye as they fly off to Ireland! As most of you know Keegan's dream trip would be Ireland. She thinks she is full-blooded Irish. Because of her hair and eye color, complexion, and name, you could drop her in Ireland and she would blend in with the rest of them.

Dawson is enjoying his summer every single day. He is a work out machine. He is so devoted to his body and still eating healthy. He plays on a summer lacrosse team. Because it is not as competitive as his spring league, I actually enjoy watching the game. No one is out to hurt anyone. It is a mixture of all players, JV, varsity and the men's team combined on each team. Dawson is also a referee for the lacrosse games before or after his game. Plus they pay him pretty good for doing it. Besides the activities I mentioned he spends a lot of time with his friends. He has a new girlfriend that I approve of. They only see each other maybe once a week. Her mom is stricter than I am!! (I love it) Her name is Molly and she's a real cutie. Because of Dawson's last experience with his x girlfriend (her wanting to be too serious) he is glad this girl seems completely different. I hope Dawson is always a gentleman and respectful of others.

David is still working and both of us are grateful for his job. Hopefully the US Postal Service will hang in there. Home Depot has been giving me plenty of hours, but just this week they started sending people home early because of over staffing. The summer months are always the worst.

I have the next two days off, so I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished. I just wish it wasn't so hot outside. My poor flowers are taking a beating. I can't imagine how the farm crops are doing with this heat and no rain.

You have probably noticed that my spell check is not working. Blaaaaa. :/ I am lost without it. Thank goodness my kids did not take after my little brain!!!!! I am so frustrated with my spelling inadequacy. ahrrrrrrrrr..... There I feel a little better.

Better go before I make a bigger fool of myself.

Love to all. I wanted to come visit everyone this summer, but it just is not going to happen. Our several trips to St. Louis are going to take a bunch of our time/vacation, and money. So until next year...everyone please stay safe/healthy and know how much I love you and will continue to pray for you. Take care and keep cool.

God loves you and wants you to spend time with Him. I would die if I could not turn to Him with all of my thoughts and concerns right now. I have a feeling the next few/many years He will get tired of my millions of prayers.

Miss you all,

Love,

Marjie

Keegan's Graduation 2012

She did it, Keegan is officially an International Baccalaureate (IB) high school graduate.

She took her final IB test the morning during graduation practice. None of the IB students were able to attend the practice, so they had to just follow the group during the ceremony. It wasn't too difficult since there were over 500 students in her class. In the IB group there were 77 students.

The program took a long time with each graduate going across the stage, but it was very organized, so it wasn't too bad. I was glad that we didn't have a party and expect our guest to sit through the long program. It was held in the stadium at Wichita State University. It was packed and loud. I couldn't hear for quite awhile. We must have sat in the area where there were a bunch of high school kids. They were {{{Screaming}}} every time their friends walked across the stage. At least a hundred times or more!

Afterwards we met our graduates outside. Trying to find Keegan amongst all those students was not easy. Later we went out for ice cream along with Keegan's best friend and her family.

I have attached many pictures. Some pictures are of Keegan's IB ceremony, where they received their stoles (the blue sash they wore over their shoulders). Only the IB students wore stoles, so they were easy to pick out. Then I have pictures at graduation where they received their diplomas. The high school will have better pictures for us down the road since no one could get close to the stage. They had photographers taking close up pictures the entire time.

I'm so glad Keegan is finished with high school. We can all breath now. Her last week with exams was painful.

Dawson is also ecstatic! His last day was Friday. Next week he doesn't have to go back the last 3 days to take any exams because he has straight A's. His school rewards the kids who do well. I think that is such a great idea. It really helps the students to do their very best in school.

We are ready for an exciting summer. I wish I could take off  this summer to be with the kids. I know they are probably happy that I have to go to work so they can sleep in and hang out with their friends, right?

God truly blessed Keegan with a great high school and excellent teachers. She will have so many fond memories and friends forever.

Remember God loves you and is with you every single day.

Love,
Marjie

Happy Mother's Day

Good Morning,

Happy Mother's Day to those of you women who have children, pets or feel like you have taken on the role of a mother at some time in your lifetime. I love Mother's Day. It is one of my favorite days of all. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful children and to think that "only" God knew how much I would love being a mom. I remember there was a time that I was totally content knowing I would not have any children. Now I honestly believe that being a mom is my most favorite thing I have ever done.

I am also blessed to have a beautiful mother. She is beautiful from the inside to the outside. Maybe one year I will make it home on Mother's day so we can celebrate the day together, "I love you Mom".

Today is also Dad's 80th birthday. "Happy Birthday Dad, I love you too." Needless to say I'm feeling pretty homesick today. It would have been a great day to be in Wisconsin to help celebrate this double event. Thank goodness for telephones, right?

We had some excitement this week in our family. Keegan came home from their annual high school Thespian awards banquet with 4 trophies. (Thespian simple means anything to do with theatre on or off stage.) She was nominated in 5 categories. She won 4 of them. "Best Actress" in a leading role. (This was from the last play she was in where her character had leukemia.) She also won "Best Actress in a One-Act" and "Best Student Writer", (she wrote and directed a play that was performed in front of an audience, I thought it was excellent). The award she is most proud of is for "Best Senior Thespian". All of the nominations and awards were voted on by her peers. We are so happy for her, she worked very hard this past year in theatre. Actually all 4 years of high school, especially since she has been in Wichita. I have attached several pictures.

The other excitement this week was that yesterday our whole family decided to travel to Oklahoma to watch Dawson play in his last lacrosse game/tournament for the season. Because it is a traveling league, half of the games were out of state. Keegan and I have not yet traveled with the boys. I could tell Dawson was so happy that his sister and I were going along with them.

They played 2 games. The first game was good, the second game was a nightmare. The other team was so mean, just flat out mean. A couple of times I think David had to hold me down so I wouldn't run out on the field to beat the crap out of the player who kept knocking Dawson flat on the ground. I was getting mad and I was afraid that someone was going to get hurt. Sure enough one of our players got hit so hard that they had to call 911 for an ambulance/EMT. Shortly after his friend was hit. The same kid who hurt his friend, then hit Dawson right across his chest with the stick while he was running. Dawson flew up and fell backwards on his back. It knocked the wind out of him. We watched him walk off the field very slowly. When he got over to the other side of the field I saw him take off his helmet and he was walking around really weird. I told David to go over there to see if he was okay. A few minutes later I saw Dawson laying down and a bunch of people were around him. When I got over there he was shaking and having a hard time breathing. He kept saying his fingers and arms felt numb and tingly. At this point I was scared. Some of the men from the EMT and the firefighters that showed up for the 1st boy came over to help Dawson. He had about 4-5 paramedics trying to calm his breathing down. They even had to put an oxygen tube in his nose to help his breathing back to normal. He was fine after they calmed him down. One of the paramedics told me that he believed that Dawson was hyperventilating and possibly had an anxiety attack. I didn't know this, but I guess when you hyperventilate it affects your neck and head, it also makes your extremities start to tingle and feel numb. Here is my medical opinion, I think Dawson got scared when the wind was knocked out of him, he said he was very dizzy when he walked off the field. I think he started freaking out thinking something was very wrong with how he felt, then his mind took over and he started to hyperventilate. I also don't think it helped him when he saw his closest friend being worked on by the EMT. I found out later that another friend of Dawson's had a concussion in the 1st half of that game. I hope they do something about that other team. Someday they are going to severely hurt someone. By the way, after that kid hit Dawson the referee threw him out of the game. Too bad he wasn't thrown out when he hurt the 1st kid. I'm sorry if that was all very hard to understand. We had a safe trip home. I am also glad I was there. I told Dawson "no more lacrosse", he just laughed at me. Whaaa.....!

This Thursday we will watch Keegan graduate from high school. There are almost 550 students in her class, so it will be a long program. The 4 of us will probably go out for dinner or ice cream afterwards. The following weekend Keegan has been invited to several graduation parties. I just can't believe it is even possible that my baby girl is graduating from high school.

May God bless you always.

Love,
Marjie

First and Final Choice

Hi Everyone,

I know it seems too soon to hear from me already, but I had to let you know our exciting news.

Keegan has made her final decision on where she will be attending college in the fall. Washington University in St. Louis will be her new home for at least the next 4 years. Last night she made the final commitment in writing and we paid her "non-refundable" deposits. It's a done deal. No more looking and no more waiting. I know that David and I are so relieved, so I'm sure Keegan is. Dawson is happy too. He was just as involved and encouraging his sister every step of the way.

It seems very ironic to me how this was the very first university she looked at a year ago during Spring break and it just happens to be her final choice. She fell in love with WashU back then and all year long kept thinking about her 1st love. In less then a year we visited 14 colleges in a total of 7 states. She applied at 5 colleges and loved all of them. Each of them had something unique that she liked. She kept wishing she could find one college that had everything. It finally had to come done to what school would give her the best scholarship. WashU (nickname from now on) has offered her an extremely generous financial award for the next 4 years.

Keegan worked her tail off throughout her high school years, she is now going to reap the rewards. We are so unbelievably proud of her accomplishments. In the meantime she has encouraged Dawson to work just as hard through his high school years so he can hopefully benefit too. He is already reading about certain colleges and making big goals for himself.

Her plan is to take the summer off and do a lot of reading and writing. She will continue to apply for more scholarships and she wants to enter some of her stories and poems into several contests. Hopefully she will keep making money to put towards her cost of living. Every little bit of money helps, right? I think she needs a break before she starts the whole school thing all over again. She will be in another honors program at WashU, it is considered to be very rigorous. Yikes, here we go again! :b

It's kind of exciting to think of all the things we need to do now to prepare her to be on her own. I get a little nervous when I think about how much she depends on me for doing probably too much for her, but I know Keegan, she is very mature and ready for the challenge. She has already grown up so much. Plus we will do a lot this summer to get her ready. I too didn't know how to cook, do laundry or a million other things when I left to be on my own. Huh, I guess I still don't know how to cook very well!!

I only hope she calls us and still will find time to keep in touch. Did that sound pathetic? Yes, I'm going to miss her like crazy, but not so much that I would want to keep her from her dreams and goals. I know it will be hard and I'm sure there will be lots of tears on my part. I just wouldn't have it any other way.

Not much more to tell except Dawson is going back to his lacrosse practice today for the 1st time after hurting his tailbone. He is doing so much better. I'm sure he will be sore tomorrow after being out of the game for so long. This summer he plans on playing on the lacrosse team, high school soccer starts up again. I'm sure he will be spending a lot of time at the gym and hanging out with his friends. Oh, and driving a bunch so he can get his drivers license next year.

Sorry, I didn't think this blog would be so long. I'm just so happy the college search is over, at least for a couple of years!! :/

The kids are almost out of school for the summer. Dawson has about 17 days left of school and counting down. Keegan only has like 7 days left, but in those 7 days she will be taking 4 very hard IB test. The day before the test date, the school gives the IB students the day off to study. She will even miss her graduation practice because one her IB test is scheduled during the same time and can not be changed. She said the only reason IB would reschedule a test, is if the country/world went into war!! No kidding. She will just have to follow the person in front of her on graduation evening!

Love to all of you. Thank you again for all of your prayers.
God Bless you,

Marjie

♫♪ It's Raining, It's Pouring ♪♫

Happy Easter everyone,

I hope you all had a nice Easter day. We didn't do much. The kids still don't believe there should be an age limit on finding eggs and baskets. The good thing is teenagers don't wake up early!

I'm only scheduled for 20 hours this week at THD, so I thought I would catch up on my blog. As you guessed by the title, it is raining outside. It has been off and on all week. My flowers are starting to bloom. Especially my roses. I picked a few this morning and put them in a vase. Our grass is so thick and green. I think we have had more rain these past few weeks than we got all last year. Everyone in Kansas is very happy about the rain. Hopefully this year the farmers crops will survive.

Crazy week for Keegan. I know what you are thinking...what's new, right? Most kids are happy that school is almost out for the year. Instead Keegan gets this sick look of anxiety on her face. I can tell she is thinking about how much school work, projects and IB tests that are scheduled yet. Each night she has been getting very little sleep because of homework due each day.

The Spring play that she is in starts this weekend.  It is called "Marvin's Room". Rehearsal has been late every night this week. Last night at dress rehearsal, I had to learn how to put an acrylic bald head on Keegan. It was not fun to apply and less fun for her to wear. During the play she has to wear 3 different wigs. I don't know much about the play, but I do know her character has leukemia. Keegan won't tell me if she dies or not. Regardless I'm taking a bunch of tissues. Keegan has expressed how sad she will be to perform her last play in high school. Personally I will be glad when this weekend is over. Needless to say when she doesn't get much sleep she starts to feel sick. She's been fighting a cold and a froggy voice all week.

I know you are all wondering if she has made her college choice yet. I think so, but you never know what could happen in the next 2 weeks. Her favorite place at this point is Washington University in St Louis. They have presented the best financial package so far. It won't be long and the final decision has to be made by May 1st.

Dawson has been out of sports the past few weeks. He fell hard on his tailbone! The 1st night he came home from practice after hurting it, he was in excruciating pain. We were going to take him to the emergency room but then we started reading about it online. According to what I've read, the tailbone usually has to heal on its own. It takes a long time, but it will heal. He is moving around rather slowly, but at the same time he is doing much better than when he first got hurt. His lacrosse team has not been doing so good lately. They seem to be on a loosing streak. I don't think it is because Dawson is out, but I'm sure it doesn't help his team either. This week he was supposed to play lacrosse in Arkansas. He's pretty bummed out that he can't make the trip with his team.

Dawson is really looking forward to the end of the school year. He is counting down the days and saying he is almost 1/4 of the way through high school. I'm not sure what he will be doing this summer. He wants to get a job. Although there aren't many places that hire 15 year old kids. He has also mentioned playing on a summer lacrosse team and possibly going out for the high school soccer team again.

One thing new with Dawson that I almost forgot to mention,  he just got braces put on his teeth. The 1st week was hard for him. Not so much because of the pain, but because his food was limited!! He is now back to normal and eating enough for 3 people. He is sad because he can't have his daily apple and almonds in his lunch bag anymore. You can hardly see his braces. On his top teeth his braces are clear. On the bottom teeth they are silver, but you don't notice them when he smiles.

I will attach a few new pictures along the side bar. Hopefully I will get more pictures during Keegan's play this weekend to send at a later time.

I will continue to keep you all in my prayers and please do the same for us. I know that I say this often, but I just can't say it enough. So many times a day I turn to God for help. It seems like lately not just day to day, but even moment to moment I have to stop and ask for help to not be feeling so much pressure and full of anxiety. God brings so much peace into my heart and mind. Thank you for your prayers.

I'm not sure where our travels will be taking us this summer. I think it will all depend on when and where we will be moving Keegan into college. If we do any visiting this summer we will probably be mooching off of everyone "AGAIN"!!

I love and miss all of you,

Marjie

Happy Spring?

Hello,

Where has the time gone? My last blog was "Happy New Year"! It seems like our winter flew by so fast. I think we had 3 or 4 dusting's of snow this year. The kids didn't have any snow days. Now our trees are starting to bloom. It's hard to believe that Spring is just around the corner. We have had some nice rain showers these past few days. I just hope the summer isn't as dry and hot as last year.

We are busy as usual and trying to keep up with the kids. I have a few days off, so maybe I can catch you up on what's new with the Hughes family. Sorry that it is old news for some of you.

Dawson has been in his glory. He is in the middle of his Lacrosse season and loving it. He was playing 7 days a week. Monday-Friday practice, Saturday games, and Sunday night, indoor Lacrosse games. His indoor team finished in 1st place. They were undefeated! I went to a few games and it was definitely exciting to watch. The ball stays live most of the time because they play off of the walls.  The game is very fast paced, so it's hard to always see who has the ball. Plus the indoor ball is a lot lighter weight. Almost turf ball weight. It's so light the guys would continue to run thinking the ball was still in their net, meanwhile the other team has picked up the ball and running the other direction. Kind of comical to watch. David was able to attend all of the games and was even their score keeper once in awhile. I think he wishes he could play Lacrosse too.

Dawson is the only freshman on the varsity team and he is a starter. He was pretty excited about that. His practicing has paid off. He spends a ton of time at the YMCA in an indoor racket/hand ball court. They let him take in his lacrosse stick and ball and hit off the wall. Because it's not a real common sport, it is not unusual for Dawson to have an audience watching him since the entire court has clear walls.

As you all know I hate how rough the sport is. Already Dawson has sprained his ankle, possibly broken a finger and has been knocked down silly a couple of times. Like the Energizer Bunny...he keeps on going! I was finally able to watch him play in 2 games this weekend. After one play, there was a huge pile up of guys, after each of them got up, I saw Dawson stand up from the bottom of the "pile" and walk away. YIKES!! Did that make any sense at all?

David can keep taking Dawson to the games. I will watch occasionally. It is a traveling team, so when they aren't playing at home, they are at another state. Last weekend they traveled to Oklahoma. The two of them have a good time together. Plus Dawson has been getting in some driving time. :b

Keegan has been buried with everything you could possible imagine. Maybe the worst yet as far as having too much on her plate. Since my last blog instead of semi-finalist for National Merit Scholar, she is now a finalist. She has also been nominated as a Presidential Scholar, which is quite an honor. We won't know the final status of each award until the end of April. We are proud of her no matter what happens.

The first weekend of March, Keegan preformed with her high school musical group. Kind of like a glee or swing choir group where they sing and dance to popular songs. She was so glad when it was over and she has decided, that it is the last musical she will ever be in. (I really doubt it!) She has always preferred plays over anything musical. Speaking of which, she just found out last week that she got the lead part to the upcoming Spring play. She was so thrilled. She has gotten a lot of big parts but this will be the largest part yet. It will be a nice ending to her senior year.

Okay, back to Keegan's busy month of March. This past weekend she was invited to attend St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She had such a fun time. She met so many people and was able to do a lot while she was there. I don't know if that will be the college she selects, but it was a great experience. She said it was fun getting a taste of the college life. I was so happy that she kept texting and calling me to keep me informed of what she was up to. They even had a web-cam in one of their main buildings. So one day we were talking on the phone together, meanwhile I was also on the computer, then she walks up to this web-cam and I watched her talking and waving to me!! The web-cam is called "Hi Mom". How cool is that? It was so nice to have her safe at home on Sunday.

This week Keegan and her Drama Club are taking off for New York City and Chicago. It will be a 10 day trip. They will see 9 Broadway shows and a bunch of famous sites during their trip. Coming back from NYC they will stay in Chicago to see a few more shows. Before she travels back to Wichita, she will be flying out of Chicago to St. Louis, Missouri alone. Before the weekend is over Washington University in St Louis has invited her to attend their Scholars weekend. She will have another opportunity to check out a different University before making her final decision.

Keegan has until May 1st to make her decision. We were kind of hoping that she would get to feel the cold temp while she was in MinneSNOWta, but it was pretty nice there during her stay. It won't matter anyway, I would be shocked if that becomes the reason she decides not to go there. It will all come down to who gives her the best scholarship.

She is getting blasted with homework. She will be loaded down from now until the end of her senior year. It is very hard for her to fit in all of these trips on top of everything else, but we keep telling her this is her future now. High school is pretty much over. Do well, but don't miss out on any important opportunities.

I know I always carry on how well Keegan does academically and I don't say much about Dawson. It is not because Dawson doesn't do well in school, he is doing an excellent job. We couldn't ask him to do any better. It's just that sports is his life. Just this week the boys and girls basketball teams from his high school "both" won the state championship, naturally Dawson was a huge fan.

It seems like the older the kids get the less pictures I take. I have my camera in my purse at all times, but finding the right moments is half the battle. Although I was able to get several pics of Dawson playing indoor and outdoor lacrosse. Only a few pics of Keegan. I will try to better. :(

Nothing new to report about David and me. We still are thankful to be employed. We are loving being entertained by our children.

Take care and may God bless you. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for Keegan's safety during all of these trips she is doing on her own. I will never understand why people do not turn to our loving God for help. I have had to turn to Him so much lately and handing everything over to Him so I am not so anxious about Keegan stretching away from our comfy nest and Dawson playing his rough sport.

Love to you all and miss you so much.

Marjie

P.S. Update on Keegan since I started writing this blog. She is in NYC and having a great time. She has seen 3 musicals on Broadway and getting ready to see 2 more today. They get back to their hotel each night around midnight and they get up around 6 AM to have breakfast at their hotel, then off to the Big Apple to have fun. Keep Praying.