By the seat of her pants…

K’s grades posted this week. She received…drum roll please…four A’s! Whoo hoo! I am not sure exactly how it panned out for Algebra because at last look, she had a very high B and she was thinking that she may have been a percent away from an A. Then she said that three of the problems on her test were stumping her. I figured she would come out with a solid B, but either she did very well on the final or the teacher was merciful because an A never looked so good.

I’d like to say that K worked her butt off every week and was extremely studious….but no. There were a few weeks when I asked, “Did you finish xyz? Isn’t that due at midnight?” and she got the uh-oh look on her face…you know, at about 9PM. So a bit of nagging was also a contributing factor. She did take a fair amount of time on her final projects, I will give her that, and she did 99.9%..99.8%…well, most of her homework. Anyway, whew! It would be nice if she were able to have a completely work free winter break, but the time off from school is just giving her time to work on a lengthy scholarship application. She is finding time for friends and time to work at camp, so it is all good.

The next term, starts the second week of January. She is taking college writing, advanced advance algebra (how much does one person need???), health, and, out of the Fire Science department, Wilderness Survival…really hoping there are not a whole lot of really young firemen wanna-be’s in that one…yeeeaaaah, hopeful mama thinking there. She is totally enjoying college and looking forward to the next term, so we are all pretty happy with how this is all turning out and her early college program has been EXTREMELY easy to work with and her counselor is always super responsive and helpful. And now that I have put that out in the universe, she will quit and I will be stuck working with a demon.

K had her first adult team match and really upped her score, especially in the most difficult position, standing. She is just about shooting at 90% accurate in sitting and kneeling; almost 100% in prone (laying down); and more than 80% in standing. The adults competing are just exceptionally good, so she still has a long way to go, but it will be very soon when her score for prone is a contributor to the team’s standings. Keep in mind she is competing with a decent rifle, but not the level that the most of the adults shoot. Plus, the adults shoot with scopes, she uses a peep sight and a naked eye. When her scores finally make the next leap, it will really mean quite a bit.

K also went to a junior competition the other week. That one was obviously an off day for her. Her rifle was shooting rough (bolt was sticking), so she had it taken off the firing line to fix. Then when she went back she had to start where she left off and miscounted bullets. She got deductions for that —which she was told about before she was done — then she was given a little more info and misunderstood that…(sigh). Anyway, it was not her best score and once she didn’t score as high as she usually does in prone and the rest happened, she had pretty much lost her mental game. The targets were also different than she usually shoots, so that didn’t help. Oh well – experience points!

Last weekend, she was set to go to try out for the Junior Olympics —-keep you pants on, she was just doing it for the experience and would not have been a real contender (but stay tuned for next year! She just needs about a 5% improvement). They use electric scoring and we wanted to see that and see what the process was like. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it because she broke her bum. Talk about the seat of her pants! LOL!

Friday she was goofing off at PE and did a backwards roll on the hard gym floor when she heard a distinct “pop”. Then pain followed. She sat out for the rest of PE and could hardly walk within a half hour. Our weekend was filled with rounds of pain killers and lots of butt jokes. (Aren’t families awesome??) Tuesday, she had shooting practice and felt like she was better, but couldn’t do any kneeling because (apparently) a foot under a messed up tail bone is not too comfy. She is feeling much better and will (hopefully) be able to compete this week.

On Tuesday, she came (once again) really really very very close to moving up TWO levels in standing position….but two shots went wide and messed things up. She could almost taste the victory, but celebrated in her mind a second too soon. Well, I guess it will happen either this week at competition or next year. I mostly sit back and wait for her to show me her scored targets rather than watch every shot – it’s too nerve racking. I play cards or talk to friends to pass the time, so I don’t think on it. It is what it is. A night like that coming so close just makes you ach for your kid though. Fortunately, she is good humored about it and (after a little lamenting) says “next time!” A great attitude to have especially since we have seen a little bit of poor sportsmanship — parents who give their kids a hard time as well as competitors. At the last competition, we watched a teen leave in the middle. He saw his score, blamed it on the brand of ammo he was using, packed it up and walked out. His parent? She sat around talking about how the ammo was obviously not right (really?) and followed soon after. Honestly, the ammo does not drastically change a score. I felt like there was a learning opportunity here – push through, though things are not how you like – and it was lost. Not the first nor the last time this kid and others have walked out. I was able to at least use it as a learning opportunity with K, who did stick it out though things went really south, and she came out with a smile on her face. She could have gotten flustered because you shoot in timed rounds and her rifle needed to be quickly cleaned and lubricated, but she kept very calm and did what needed to be done. No throwing up of hands; she just dealt with it. KUDOS!