The Pre-Holiday Stretch

I've come to know this time between our school's fall break and Thanksgiving as the pre-holiday stretch. If you don't catch your breath now, you won't get a chance to before New Year's. It's certainly starting to feel like Thanksgiving, and the fall rains are setting in. The farmers are threshing beans when they can get into their fields and taking down tobacco when they can't. The leaves are falling full force now. The boys raked up a pile that was taller than they are last Saturday and enjoyed running the mower through as they pushed them out to the field.

HEALTH SPEED BUMP
I am glad to report that this was non-threatening and short-lived, but a couple of Sundays ago (the 28th) Mom was not feeling well and not interested in going to church. We knew by that she was ill. Long story short, we took Mom to NorthCrest that afternoon where she was diagnosed with a unitary tract infection. They kept her overnight and sent her home with antibiotics. A couple of days and she was back to her old self, however, we have seen the need to step up her care at home. Vicki has been spending most nights with her since then, and we've worked hard to have someone with her full-time now. I am certainly glad I am not reporting a broken hip, stroke, or heart attack.

FINISHING STRONG
Back on October 25 the boys participated in their final race of the season, and for Ben, his high school career. Both ran well and set new personal records. Nate finished in 21:40, improving his best time by 14 seconds! Not bad for his second season. Ben shaved 16 seconds off his best time, completing the course in 18:56! This earned him a coveted "18 Club" shirt. Both boys certainly finished strong.

It is worth mentioning that our girls' cross country team qualified to run in the state race last weekend where they came in fifth place as a team and one of our girls came in fifth place out of all the runners.

Now that the cross country season is over, Ben is going to basketball practice after school. They've already played two scrimmages and won both, and that's without the players who also play football as our football team is doing very well in the post-season. Our first game is Monday night.

CLUBS
Every school has a lot of clubs. Some clubs promote academic performance and/or community service (Beta, National Honor Society, Key Club), others are related to a specific field of study (DECA, FFA, FCCLA). Then there's other clubs that promote great experiences for students like Mock Trial or Model UN. We have many of these at DA as well as several opportunities for fun special interests.

Ben is very proud of the fact that he is one of the founding members of the DA Ping Pong Club. He and his friends rounded up a couple of ping pong tables and got our theater teacher to host them in her room. There's also a ping pong table at church that sees a lot of action. Now Ben is talking smack to Vicki because she has always been a tough opponent to beat. What's funny is that Nate is beating Ben in about half their games. So, Jones family, have your table ready. There's a showdown that's bound to happen when you see us next.

The yo-yo club meets in my room every Tuesday afternoon. Nate is a member of this club. This may be the most entertaining time of the week for me. We have everyone from beginners to those who can do quite impressive tricks. Nate ranks among the latter group. At home I frequently find him watching a YouTube video to learn a new trick, and it doesn't take him too long to get the hang of it. One of these days he's going to graduate to a yo-yo that uses an unattached string. Those tricks are truly impressive.

SENIOR YEAR STUFF
One thing about having a high school senior is that there are all sorts of things that come up that need to be done for graduation, even this far ahead of time. We ordered invitations the other week and have turned in measurements for his cap and gown.

The class has also selected their senior superlatives. Ben was honored as the boy with the most Christlike attitude, and Wilson was voted as the friendliest boy in the class.

I mentioned the senior research project earlier in the semester. To refresh, this is a capstone course at DA that teaches the students how to do a major research paper and presentation. Ben chose self-driving cars as his topic, though after reading his paper it is more about projected advances in car technology that also includes technologies like heads-up displays and alternate reality projection on the windshield as well as electric and hydrogen powered cars.

Ben had a big sigh of relief when he turned in his 10 page research paper on time last Monday. Now he just has to prepare for a 22 minute presentation to be delivered the Monday after Thanksgiving. He still has quite a few tough classes in his schedule, but this will be a huge load off his mind when it's done to be sure.

Meanwhile, the sophomores are getting info from our counselors about college planning.

JENNA NEWS
It's sort of hard to include news about Jenna when she's not at home, but here's what I know. Her walking is improving all the time, and she seems to be on track for full recovery six months after surgery. She's returned to work in the nursery at Grace Naz Church and is also working shorter shifts at Historic Perk.

Several weeks ago she and her roommates along with a few other friends came out for what has become an annual trip of supper at our house and seeing "Spirit," the play about the Bell Witch, in Adams. She came home again last weekend due to some Haiti related activities at church as well as work. She and Vicki also spent a lot of time cooking because her friends had a big Thanksgiving meal at their apartment Sunday when she got back to school.

LOCAL WILDLIFE
We are used to seeing deer and turkeys in the area on occasion. Every so often I hear coyotes in the distance or an owl hooting at night. I used to hear whippoorwills on summer evenings when I was a kid, but not now. One animal I have never seen around here is a bald eagle. That changed this week when we were leaving for school Tuesday morning and glanced over in the field across from the house and there was an eagle about 100 feet fro the road feeding on something. Never thought I'd see one that close to home. It was quite a sight.

Joe