Julie A. Duncan

Elgin had its First Annual Easter Egg Hunt to benefit the Relay for Life team. The girls got to hunt eggs, jump in bouncy houses, get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny, decorate eggs, and get some pretty awesome face painting done. It was the first year the team had done the event and they were really surprised with the turn out. They ran out of drinks and food pretty quickly. We were the last in line for the face painting and stood in line over an hour. That was okay though. At least the line was in the shade and we were waiting on Jordan and Ashley's friend Eva to come play with them at the park anyway. Ashley stood in the short line to just get a butterfly. Jordan, AKA Tiger Hailey was so excited to get a pink elephant! Hailey Ashley Jordan Swinging with Eva

I dropped off scholarship applications today. Without tuition assistance from being an employee in addition to taking twice as many hours, I need all the help I can get. First, here's my 300 word essay for the Comanche County Retired Educators Association which had the basic topic of why should you receive this scholarship, what are your plans, and include your gpa and finance information. This seems to be the same essay topic that most scholarship applications have. Comanche County Retired Educators Association 2012 Scholarship Essay by Julie A. Duncan It's after midnight, and I'm wide awake. My brain won't shut off. I keep thinking of ideas. What other ways can I help children learn? What other books can we read? What other opportunities exist for experiential learning? I close my eyes, but it does no good. I'll be tired tomorrow, but these are really good ideas. It's worth it. That happens to me more than I care to admit. You see, I have...

Jordan is nearing the end of her first season of gymnastics. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but she seems to be getting into it now. It's amazing how much stronger she is now than she was in August. She can do her bridge for at least a minute whereas in August she could barely push herself up. She was scared of the balance beam last fall and yet here she is on one foot in pictures below. Her handstand has come a long way and she's grown in her confidence in everything. Today they started their dance routine for the recital in May, which is of course Mother's Day Weekend. The rehearsal is Friday night and the recital is Saturday night. We won't be headed to Wilburton this year.

My Language Arts Methods course is a lot of fun. Not only does she give us practical advice and things we can do in our classroom for everything from language arts to parental involvement, classroom management, and even as substitutes, but she also has fun assignments. We were supposed to have three essay assignments. The first two she had us write practice essays for the OSAT. After the second one, she threw up her hands and said, "I can't do this anymore! These essays are just not me. The third one will be fun. Just wait and see." Our third essay was "written" in class. We headed to the library and created poems out of book spines. How cool is that? I thought it was going to be rather difficult, but it was surprisingly easy. It's amazing all of the titles. This would be a really fun activity at the beginning of the year when students are checking out the library possibly for the first time. They would be scanning the books and seeing what books they want t...

God provides what you need at the right time. I went to enroll as a full-time student today and when I expressed a little worry about it, my advisor, Tanisha Billingslea, said "I can do all things." She didn't have to finish the phrase. I knew it. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I replied, "If it's His will anyway. Sometimes I'm scared I'm just doing this all on my own." She reminded me that in those times of fear is when He shows us His greatest grace. I enrolled and came away with a little more peace. I've been amazed, and comforted, by the many students in my classes that profess to be Christians. In so many of our classes we end up doing some sort of "All About Me" project/poster near the beginning of class and the majority of them mention that the student is a Christian. They may be able to keep public prayer out of schools, but they can't keep Christ out of the school. My advisor, Tanis...

Hailey is working on getting in the Five-Star Club. If you can write your full name, say your phone number, say your address, say your birthday, and tie your shoes then you qualify for the Five-Star Club and get your picture on the board AND a coupon for free ice cream. Hailey is motivated for the ice cream! While we're still working on address, she remembered her phone number after just writing it these four times. I asked her the next morning and she still remembered it! I thought the phone number would be the hardest to learn. Actually, it's the address. However, having an address with the same number as your birthday sure helps! She kept getting stuck on the last part of tying her shoes so I pulled up You Tube. I thought watching a video of someone else doing it might help her because she's so visual. It did help, but in a different way. Someone showed a different way of tying shoes and it was easier than how the rest of us tie them. Hailey picked up on it righ...

One thing the girls love to do is to go to church and see NeeNee sitting in the choir. As soon as church is over they are running to the back to greet her. They also enjoy being able to walk to church since it's just a block away. Our weekends with NeeNee always end too soon. We grab a bite for lunch and then head back to Lawton. Trying to catch some fish to take home for our pond.

(Ashley guest blogs for today.) Today I am at a waterfall with Mike. He is our cousin. (uncle actually) . He invited us to go. Me and Mom got lost and couldn't find the others. We didn't know it was small. We found two small waterfalls. Then I saw a rock. I wanted to draw it. Then I looked again and it was gone. Then we caught up with the others. I looked for rocks and leaves. I found a rock that looked like a whale and I found a bumble bee rock too. I got a red rock and a rock I broke off of a big one. Then we went back to NeeNee's and got cake, ice cream, and Cherry Dr. Pepper and watched Animal Planet on TV.

The girls' favorite thing to do while we're in Wilburton is to visit the school playground. It's a short walk from NeeNee's and we usually end up there at least twice every visit.  We stopped by the library on our way back.

After a long drive to Wilburton, the girls didn't want to just sit around. It was pretty cold, but I agreed to a walk. We decided to just walk around downtown. We stopped by the little park there to see if the Geocache box we found last Fall Break was still there. It was, but the little paper that we had originally signed was gone. Someone had written that it was empty and stuck a receipt to write on inside. We signed our names to that and then threw away the battery that was inside. That didn't seem very safe. By the time we got back to the house, it was really cold. Love, Love, Love this picture! The GeoCache Box is a magnetic key box on one of the posts.

They had a talent show at church tonight for the children. Ashley played the piano and Jordan did a freeform dance. I know how hard it was for them to get up and do those things in front of all those children. I was really, really proud of them. They both did a good job. I asked Jordan if it was scary and she said, "Yes! And I was nervous, but it was fun." Everybody got a prize at the end - a Dr. Pepper with the words "You're a Pop Star!" on it. They both loved that! I love the look on Ashley's face!

Jordan and Ashley were invited to a birthday bowling party today. We decided we would go along and we would just bowl at another lane. This was all of the girls' first time to bowl. They were pretty disappointed when they finally figured out that it *wasn't* the person with the lowest points who wins. Hailey did pretty well after we had them but the bumper pads on and she learned to roll it harder. She got so excited to see the balls come out of the hole. Greg and I were both disappointed to learn that it's harder to bowl in person than on the Wii!!!!! Look! It's my ball!! Please, please, please knock some pins down! The birthday party over in the other lane.