Proud Parent Day

After just getting back from our quick one day trip to Austin, we woke up early this morning to go to the  annual Math Counts contest.  Thankfully, we remembered the contest yesterday as I did not have it written in my calendar.  We thought we would be staying with my mom for a nice weekend visit.  This will just have to be postponed until next weekend.

Homeschoolers were well represented as a whole, since the three coaches have all been homeschool moms at some time.  This was nice because we all got to sit in a room designated for coaches and chatter away the morning while we waited for the group to complete their math problems.  We did  spend some of the time reviewing the questions as well and enjoyed sharing information.

Henry was our only official home school competitor and he represented Angelina Area Home Educators well....he not only won a nice cash price for the Count Down Round, but then he went on to find out he was the high point individual for the group (of 18) who will go on to state contest in March!

 Also, Ms. Ginny helped coach the winning team who will go on to State.  While Ms. Kay coached the second high point individual from her school.
A funny thing happened with Henry.  I have always told him to try to put some kind of answer down for all the items.  His standard answer for items he does not know is 42 (This is the 'ultimate' answer from the Douglas Adams books.)  So, today there was a rather difficult question that involved series.  We (coaches) tried to answer it and the problem needed a special formula and would take some manipulations that would be challenging for all the students.  Then I saw the answer...42...and I laughed!  I announced that I knew Henry would get the correct answer.  The other coaches asked why I was so confident and I told them.  They laughed as well...since they tell their students to do the same thing in hopes that their standard answer will one day match up in a correct spot!  Sure enough...when I spoke to Henry...he had no idea how to work the problem and chose 42!  Awesome...and now I know something we should try to understand before the state contest next month!

It was an amazing MATH day all around!

Also, wanted to mention how awesome is doing with her new job.  The owner of the store sees her potential and has asked her to work as her assistant manager.  Any time the owner needs to be away, Amanda is to work the store.  She has already come up with new ideas to improve paperwork, finances and displays.

When she was a small baby, she loved to pass her hands across material when we were clothes shopping.  She loved the way the different material felt across her skin.  As she grew older, she would find ways to dress up.  At one point, we moved into a home that had a trunk of dresses left in the attic.  Amanda would wear those fancy clothes all over the house!  Fashion and design have been a favorite project for her throughout the ages.  All this has led up to her enjoyment of this job.  She told me it is her "dream job" and her happy smile each evening has proven that she does enjoy herself.

I am so happy for her to have this experience.

I am also so proud of her for being confident in her abilities and being able to show her strengths so quickly.  I look forward to hearing her adventures at the dress shop and will share with you when I can.

Today she also had a surprise.  Two of the customers she worked with were her good friends.  This might not seem too strange if they knew she worked at the store.  However, the odd part of it was the first friend was coming in for a bridesmaid dress that had been ordered long before Amanda took this job.  The other friend knew Amanda worked at the dress shop but did not know that was where the dress was coming from.  There was a lot of confusion and chatter among the girls.  The owner was a little surprised, but found the two episodes interesting.  Two girls....two dates for weddings...they chose this day and time to come to the store!