Another Exciting Week Some good books

Not much happening - AGAIN
Anna went to a couple of Basketball practices and did not like it at all, she didn't like the coach yelling, hurry up, you have to be faster. At the urging of a couple of other girls she went out for cheerleading, and everyone makes the team. Because she is so small she was selected to be one of the "fliers" but 3 of the four girls who are her lifters have never done that before so there are some challenges in working that out- you can't fly if your lifters cannot lift and hold evenly. She seems to be having fun and says the girls are much friendlier than some of the girls she has had in her classes.

She as had some of the girls come up to her and tell her not to talk to some boy because that is so and so's boyfriend. In an effort to meet new people and make new friends, she asked one of the girls on the equestrian team if she could be her physics lab partner. The girl shrugged gave her " a look" and said , I guess, when another girl came up she said "is SHE working with us? Girl 1 said again with a shrug and a look, "I guess."

One of the girls whom she is working with in Spanish knew me from DI, and is a real sweetie, they seem to get along better.

Anna is frustrated because so many of the kids do not do their work and the teachers let them get away with it and don't feel like they can move on if 95% of the kids don't "get it."

For example: In English the kids were supposed to read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and have a quiz on it this week and because most of the kids have not read it, because it is "too hard" Anna-Lena has to read, it Charlie reads it then they discuss it because she is trying to understand the old southern dialect and she got it done. The teacher has given them another two weeks.

In Spanish they have taken the same "map quiz" three or 4 times. When one of the girls said something the teacher said, something about her being smart and couldn't she the teacher couldn't move ahead until the class gets it.

It seems to me that if the teachers would not coddle them quite so much and really expect them to do their work they would get farther,

On to more "cheerful" subjects. Brian, Shonda's boyfriend, got a nice 8 point buck this week, and his dad got a really nice one too. I don't have any pictures, maybe Shonda took some I can share later.

Only three days of work this week- I am taking Friday after Thanksgiving off, I don't usually do that. I don't plan on doing any heavy shopping either- I hate those crowds.

Oh, a hint for those of you who might be checking several blogs, if you subscribe to a feed, you only have to check one spot to see which ones have been updated. Go to Common Craft- Social Design for the Web for a better explanation.

I sent an e-mail to those I thought might be interested but in case I missed you- I added some family history pictures to my flickr account, last week. go to flickr.com and search for betzspt- it will pull up all of my pictures.
Anna also has an account- if you are interested search for annaleanwerner. You can also do an RSS feed on flickr accounts.

I just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen- It was a pretty good book. I'd be interested in what some of the rest of you thing.

I also read Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, the book chosen for the Libraries "Big Read" this year. I did not care for this one, but would be interested in what the rest of you thing about this one too.

For more light reading- A Bear in the Attic by Patrick F. McManus, I try to take some of these with us when we travel, It is something all three of us can listen to and enjoy together.

If any of you have read The Mitford Years series of books by Jan Karon, She is starting a new series, the first one Home to Holly Springs, and takes Father Tim back to his boyhood home.

Later - JB

Springport Homecoming-

As part of Springport's Homecoming festivities they are having a powderpuff football game tomorrow (Wednesday evening.) Each class has a team and they will play the other classes. That means the Senior class has 3 foreign exchange students who had never heard of football, until 3 weeks ago on the team. The rest of the girls aren't real sure what is going on either. They were practicing at the house last night this game should be hilarious. I have to work, until 8:00 but I will find somebody to take pictures and enter them later. The games start at 6:00 PM at the High School if anybody wants to watch.

Cross Country, Baby Showers, and Homecoming Floats

Well, another busy weekend
Friday Night Football, Springport beat Jonesville, after a scary first half, going into half time behind 7-14, they came out pumped, and beat them 35-14.
Yesterday Anna, had a cross country meet in Pittsford, she came in 5th of 50 and cut another minute off her time – three miles in 23.2 minutes. Her goal is to get under 21. There are 5 more weeks in the Cross Country season, so she has a good shot, if she keeps up that pace.

Shonda and I went to a baby shower for Michelle, my niece. Her due date is October 10 but there are lots of family members with birthdays in September and October. An uncle today, and apparently he, the baby has missed that one. My brother has a birthday next week, Arthur, the baby’s uncle on October first, one of my aunts on the second, my mothers on the 6th, and two of my uncles on the 9th. I guess we have a no money, pool going. Here is a picture of “the girls” Anna went to a battle of the bands last night in Jackson. She says it is not her favorite kind of music, (the head banging screaming kind) but it was fun.
Anna had a YFU meeting today
And it is homecoming week, the seniors are building their float at our house. That is always fun, one of the kids, Justin, is what Charlie calls a back yard engineer, give him a few supplies and he can figure out how to make almost anything. I think Justin was amazed that Charlie had so much stuff, he would say do you have…?, by the end of the day, he finished with “of course you do.”
Sometimes, it seems like a lot of work, but it is fun, and I think it helps to keep us active and involved. Here are couple of pictures, I can't show you too much. We don't want the competition to know what we are doing, too soon. :-)
Later, J

Horses shows and what are they talking about.?

Wow, a busy week-end. A two day horse show, trying to do laundry, and grocery shop.
I just finished the laundry(9:00PM on Tuesday,) and have not done the weekly grocery shopping.
The Springport Football team, beat Concord 40-0 on Friday. Even some of the team members said the third quarter was boring. Springport played the second string and Concord still couldn’t score.
This weekend was the district horse show, the first place team advance to regionals. I think Springport was only 4 points short.
I have to say, after watching horses for out of 8 days, I don’t get it at least not the finer points. One of the girls competed in a “trail pattern,” she had to make the horse side step a pole, open a gate, step over some poles, check a mail box and back up between two poles. I didn’t see any mistakes, she came in third.
I sat in the bleachers with people talking about the horses changing leads, (which foot they lead with) I never did see it, Charlie says when they lead with one side, it reaches a little farther than the other side, I can’t see it.don't all lead with their front feet? It’s like watching skating on TV and me being able to see the difference between a sachow and a lutz or whatever they call it.
The speed events were fun to watch, even the coaches said the fitting and showing (the picture on the left) and the equitation (the picture on the right) are kind of boring.
Oh, well, the idea was for Anna, to participate and have some new experiences, and get to know some new people. We accomplished that. Here is a neat picture of one of the Springport girls jumping.

Upcoming events:
This week-end a baby Shower and YFU meeting. Next week all week. The Senior class is building the homecoming float at our house, homecoming parade and football.

Horses

Anna-Lena had her first Cross Country meet on Wednesday, she finished 19, out of about 50. She ran 3 miles in less than 30 minutes. I don't think I can walk 3 miles without resting.

We decided not to go Up North this weekend; Anna-Lena had a cross-country practice and some horse stuff to do. She will be riding with the Springport Equestrian team, riding the horse of a friend, who teaches riding. We spent most of yesterday doing horse stuff, took her to see a horse show in Mason, she is a little confused by some of the terms and how they do things differently here than in Germany.

The picture on the left is Anna-Lena practicing in Finney. The horse she will be riding next week-end. The picture on the left is her riding in Germany.

Anna-Lena will be riding in the Hunt seat, Saddle Seat and Bareback class. I have no idea what that means except that bareback is without a saddle, the riders yesterday were wearing, derby hats and what looked almost like tuxedos. Most of the other Springport team members ride western, I believe this is the first time Springport has had anyone ride in these classes.

Then we picked up the horse, took her to another friends house who helped Anna with the showmanship part, leading the horse around the arena. That is a little different in Germany too.

The team’s first competition of the year is next Saturday, at the Ingham county fair grounds in Mason. I think they will be taking the horses over on Friday night, and the show is on Saturday. She is excited about being able to at the fair grounds with the coaches and other girls. More later. JB

Welcome to Michigan USA

Well, we picked up our new foreign exchange student from the Airport in Detroit, on Friday morning. The plane was right on time. Anna-Lena is the one on the right, Charlie is in the middle, and Lesley is a girl from the high school we took along so Anna-Lena would be able to make a friend early.

We took her to Cabala’s to show her around, it has been several years since I had been there and it was the original one in Nebraska., I had forgotten how really big it is.

She and Charlie started out riding on Saturday afternoon, but weren’t gone very long before they ran into an hornets nest, the ones who build nests in the ground. The horses went crazy, Anna-Lena jumped off her horse, tore off her sweatshirt, and headed for the house. She was stung about a dozen times. Luckily no major adverse reactions. Charlie went back to get his horse and said her shirt was covered with the bees. When he looked later, he surmised that the horses has stepped right on the nest and pretty much tore it up.

We had invited a few kids over to meet her on Saturday night. We were going to have a bonfire but couldn’t because of the burning ban.

Ok Plan B do hotdogs on the grill, while the kids hung out in the yard.

It poured rain.

Ok Plan C – move the grill to the carport, - and we made roasted marshmallows, for s’mores over the propane flame.

On Saturday Charlie took her to Katie’s house, another horse person, she came home all excited about watching the equestrian competition today.

Shonda Starts a new semester at JCC today. She will be working regular hours and not weekends, and makes more money. Yeah!