Trip prep:
This week has felt a bit odd. It was Ivan’s birthday, I had PT on Wednesday morning, volunteer work Monday, work work all week, and I have to end work early to get to a haircut this afternoon.
It also seemed to fly by. Which I am overall okay with… even though I really do try to not wish my life away, I am feeling a little antsy with our trip coming up. I am in that phase where I have done most of the planning I’m going to do (could I do more, prepare more? most likely, but I’m calling it good) and basically would now just like to get the show on the road.
Plans for this weekend include really NO formal plans, which is kind of a miracle. Planning to clean the whole house top to bottom and then make everyone live in our shed in the backyard until we leave. LOL. Just kidding….
I would like to have the kids get “packed” this weekend, even if it means just packing everything, photographing it and then taking a few things out to use this upcoming week. We leave Wednesday night from O’Hare, but the boys will be at school Wednesday and Ivan and I are both working! I tentatively blocked my calendar after about 1 pm to tie up any loose ends, but we’ll need to basically be all ready to go the moment people get home. (The boys will need to leave school just slightly early, and Ivan will have to cut out by late afternoon, too.)
Luckily Charlie can just stay home, because my sister-in-law is house-sitting/ dog-sitting for us!! Yay! That makes that easy, at least.
Ethan sick:
Back to this week: One bummer was that Ethan was home sick for 2 days (Tuesday and Wednesday). He came home Monday after school not feeling great and ended up having a low-grade fever. By the next morning he had a fever up to 101, so obviously stayed home. It seemed like a virus…headache, fevers, some chills, etc. Not terrible or anything, and Ibuprofen helped a lot, but he was home for 2 days.
No school….
By yesterday he returned to school, but now today there is no school because the girls basketball team made State and the game is today. So, school is cancelled. Apparently it’s a school policy/ tradition to cancel school if any sports team is playing at State, to support attendance for those who wish to attend. Which is nice, but the game is in Green Bay (2 hours north of here) and also, I think Ethan does not particularly care much about the girls basketball team. 😬 (I mean, awesome for them! But he doesn’t have any female friends who play basketball and it didn’t seem like he and his friends were interested in traveling 2 hours to see it. I am sure if it were local they’d go. Also, being 16, I am pretty sure they are mostly just thinking “FREE DAY!!!”)
The other thing is, the boys hockey team also made State and that game was last Friday, so they ALSO had no school last Friday! This game was local, so he was actually going to go, but the tickets all sold out in like 15 minutes and he couldn’t even get one! So now he’s had 2 Fridays off in a row due to sports game that he didn’t attend, was off Tuesday and Wednesday sick AND will need to miss next Thursday and Friday for our trip!
Obviously can’t control getting sick, but I was like, UGH… bad timing… I was already feeling a little uncomfortable about pulling him 2 days for our trip, since he missed a bunch of school in October for our Mexico trip. (The flights/ itineraries were just way better if we left on Wednesday night versus Friday night, plus this allows us to come home on a Friday night and have the weekend to recuperate before going back to school + he’ll have tennis tryouts that first day back.)
Oh well, I guess. I’m sure in 5 years these couple extra days won’t matter, and his grades are good.
My volunteer job + college admissions:
One other thing I did this week was wrap up those Swim Scholarship interviews I was involved with. That was my volunteer role this year, coordinating the Senior Scholarships sponsored by the swim team. I ended up having to deal with our school PLUS the boys from the other high school. (They have a small team and I guess no parent willing/able to coordinate it, so since I was basically doing it anyway, I just did theirs, too…).
It turned out that only 6 of the total 11 seniors (between the schools) applied for the scholarship. It’s not a particularly “huge” scholarship, only like $500, and the application process involves submitting a fairly lengthy written application, 2 reference letters and then attending an interview with a panel of 5 committee members. (I didn’t decide on any of the requirements, I just had to coordinate it.)
I am sure some kids were like, eh, not worth the effort for only $500… lol. I heard a few rumblings though that some senior parents were basically requiring it though, because a) the interview process is a good experience, and b) $500 is $500!
I played no role in actually deciding who wins (one winner from each school), but I received all the applications and materials and had to organize it all into packets for the committee members and schedule the interviews. It was kind of fun to see all their various answers and lists of different extracurriculars, sports, volunteering, etc. Some of the kids had IMPRESSIVE resumes!
The interviews were Monday night, and then on Wednesday morning I had to notify the applicants who didn’t win and those who did.
Now I’m all done with that, so that’s nice! The scholarship awards will be presented to the winners at the school Awards nights in May, but I don’t have to do that part. The president of the board does that.
(One interesting side note- one of the 2 winners had a really great application and a super impressive list of activities, extracurriculars, leadership roles, volunteering…. However, Asher told me that this same boy actually just got deferred from UW Madison, whereas another one of the applicants had way fewer “impressive things” on his application, in my opinion, and already got in to UW! I guess I don’t know all the rest of the details about course loads or test scores, but I could see their GPAs and they were only about 0.1 apart. Both are going for Business. Anyway, it left me a little confused about the college admissions process, because after reading both scholarship applications, between the two, I would have absolutely put my money on the kid who got deferred getting in…) 🤷♀️
Anyway, that’s all for now- have a great weekend!!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that my past self had the sense to schedule and wrap up that swim volunteer work BEFORE our trip, instead of leaving it all for right when we get back…
P.S. Check out this week’s weather forecast (screenshot from yesterday). WACKY! It’s all over the place! That’s spring in Wisconsin…
GRATEFUL KAE 
Wow, that’s interesting about school being canceled for the sports games. Our football team went to state last year- it was the first time it happened in the history of our school so I guess they didn’t have a policy for it. They provided busses for kids who wanted to go to the game, but didn’t cancel school. But the kids who did go to school watched the live stream of the game, so a lot of kids didn’t go that day. So I guess in a way school was canceled- there were no regular classes. Anyway, you’re right- in the long run it won’t matter that Ethan missed some extra days now.
I think they should raise the amount of that swim scholarship! It does seem like a lot of work for $500. But on the other hand, $500 is still $500 as you said. Sounds like you had a good amount of work on that project- nice job getting it all done!
Ooh your trip is coming up- how exciting! Oh and one more thing- college admissions are completely nuts these days. My friend’s son is valedictorian this year and he didn’t get into a bunch of places. He did get into UF, but didn’t get into the “honors college” there, which he was really upset about. I feel bad for kids these days- there’s so much pressure on them. Getting amazing grades is no longer enough, they also have to excel in other areas. Seems tough.
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Well, the issue with the $$ is that it just comes from the Parent Booster club pot of money, so basically the little slush fund leftover from our team dues, and other fundraising our team has done like selling car wash gift cards, restaurant fundraisers etc. If we had some wealthy “sponsor” just for the scholarship, it would help a lot! lol. So I think the board tries to keep it fairly low just since there are a lot of other financial needs for that money for the team, like equipment (the swim backpacks), meals for the teams before meets, team shirts, and probably many other things I’m forgetting..
It would be infuriating to be valedictorian and not get into the school of your choice! But I suppose it must happen. So disappointing!
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Maybe the students applied to different schools at UW? I know my nephew got waitlisted but he applied to the engineering program at UW. Ultimately he ended up at the UofM where he was accepted without a deferral. The whole process is quite a mystery, though. I know my younger nephew who is a junior in HS plans to apply to the business school at the UofM which is incredibly competitive so he’s working with a tutor for something – ACT/SAT or something else? I think it’s bananas that you have to pick which college you are enrolling in within a university. When I started college, I thought I wanted to be a clinical lab scientist and then after one semester I changed my mind and decided on a degree in math. But those are different colleges within the school. And there have to be a lot of kids who don’t really know what they want to do!!
I’m sure Ethan will catch up but it’s a tough combo of missing school for HS championships + being sick + going to London. I am glad he got sick now and not during your trip, though!!!
I haven’t even thought about packing yet but our trip is so different since we are just hanging at the beach and then doing one excursion to Isla Mujeres. So it’s WAY easier to pack since the weather will likely be the same every day and we’ll mostly be in our swimsuits!! I also need to pack for the boys as they are going to my parents but I will leave that until Tuesday night.
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I have a friend who is the president of a highly selective liberal arts college in our area. It is really fascinating to talk to her about what the colleges are thinking about when they accept certain students. This school is much smaller than a state university, but they all have metrics to meet around getting kids from all over the country with different interests and different skills and different backgrounds. It isn’t always apparent what hole a given student fills. Ultimately, what I have learned from her is that college is much more about fit that anything else from both sides of the equation.
We are super lucky to have her insight. She has graciously offered to meet with my son to talk about his plans and interests and give him some thoughts about which holes he might fill at the schools he is interested it. I know other friends have found her perspective so helpful when their kids have been applying to college.
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School being cancelled for a State championship! I agree that it’s sort of sweet to support the team that way, but I would also be dismayed about losing another day of school. There are so many no-school days as it is!
I totally understand the feeling of pre-trip anxiety. There’s so much to do, and so much of it can’t practically be done until right before you leave, so it feels to me like a lot of motivation to do things with nowhere to put it.
Sorry to hear that Ethan was sick and very glad that it was pretty short-lived. Hope your weekend goes well!
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Oh, wow, that’s wild that they cancel school when a team gets to State! But I guess it’s a pretty big deal and the kids probably want to go and support their school/students so it makes sense. But I hadn’t ever considered the logistics of that (I went to a nontraditional high school so didn’t deal with stuff like that).
Your trip is so soon! I am considering a Paris/London trip in a few months so I will be living vicariously through your recaps!
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