Lots Happening...It Must Be May!

May is always a busy time, but with Rebecca graduating high school, it's even busier this year. Here are a few things that have taken place in the last couple of weeks.

First of all, on May 13th, Rebecca was part of the induction of this year's Juniors at North Reading High School into the National Honor Society since she's the Treasurer of this year's Seniors in the National Honor Society. Rebecca got things going as she led everyone through the Pledge of Allegiance.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, it was time for the officers to tell the incoming group a little more about the National Honor Society. Rebecca read her part...

...then lit a candle symbolizing one of the core values of a National Honor Society member.

She represented her class very well!

Then, a few days later, was another big event. It was time to release our turtle friends back into the wild. The painted turtle, "Duke of Turtle", we've had for two years. The other two are musk turtles, "Snappy" and "Snappy Junior", who we've both had about a year.

After taking a moment to figure out where they were, they began to come out of their shells and head out into the wild.

Duke took off so quickly that his head is out of the picture!

We enjoyed our time with the turtles and learned a lot about them!

On May 19, it was time for Rebecca's last high school track meet. Though she typically runs the mile, on this day, she ran the 800 meters race and finished just under three minutes.


We're very proud of Rebecca and the fact that she was very active during her high school years, not only in scholastic endeavors, but also in extra-curriculars like track, cross country, basketball and drama.

Then on May 20, we attended the Academic Awards at North Reading High School. These awards are by invitation only and only the students who are recognized for academic excellence are invited.

Rebecca was first recognized for academic excellence in Architecture, where her teacher called her a driven student in all classes and an overachiever...

...and then she was recognized as part of the top 5% of her class, the same group who was recognized recently at the North Shore Honors Scholars banquet.

Final exams are coming up this week and Rebecca has 8 of them in 4 days. After that, she's done with school and has Senior Week, including the Senior Prom and Graduation to look forward to. In other words, a busy May is leading right into a busy beginning of June!

Congratulations Rebecca...we're VERY proud of you!

Honors Scholar

Last night, Tuesday May 11, was the annual North Shore's Honors Scholars banquet, where the top 5% of 29 public and private schools in the North Shore area of eastern Massachusetts are recognized for their scholastic achievements. This top 5% amounted to 10 kids from Rebecca's school and she was one of them. This meant that Steve, Anne and Rebecca had to get a little dressed up for the evening...

...then it was out to the "rubber chicken circuit" to have dinner, hear a few speeches and then see the scholars, close to 300 of them, receive their certificates and engraved pen/pencil sets. (The students were uniformly impressed to see their names and their high school's name on their sets.)

The students were advised ahead of time to "leave their fish in their aquariums", meaning limp, fish-like handshakes. They were told to give firm handshakes and look the presenters in the eye, which they all managed to do very well. Note the smile and the eye contact as Rebecca shakes hands below.

As always, we were very proud of Rebecca. It's a busy season, so there are more of these kinds of things coming. Why is it that everything seems to happen in May?

WHO WILL BUY?

Saturday, May 1 was the North Reading town yard/garage sale. You give a small donation to the town and you get your address listed on a yard/garage sale map. Everyone in the family used the opportunity to clean some things out and as it turns out, one person's junk is indeed another person's treasure.

We didn't even work that hard at digging things out...mostly getting rid of the most obvious stuff that we don't use anymore. Though it looks quiet here, the yard was jumping from about 8:00 AM until after the stated closing time of 1:00 PM.

All in all, the kids cleaned up, splitting over $200 for their efforts. Most importantly, we cleaned out a lot of stuff. The rest, at least all of it that's worth something, is going to charity. The weather was perfect, 70's most of the day and sunny, so we couldn't have asked for anything more!

THE DECISION IS IN!

After much thought and a lot of college visits, Rebecca has made her decision. The thing is, I'm not sure that all of those college visits were necessary. It appears that Rebecca had actually made her decision when she was just under 3 years old! (See below)

So in case you're still wondering, Rebecca has been accepted into the Honors Engineering program at Northeastern University in Boston and she's taking them up on their offer. (She's turning down Tufts University, WPI, RPI, UNH, UMass-Lowell and UConn.)

Northeastern has a lot of positives, but they're perhaps best known for their Co-Op program. Her degree at Northeastern should take around 5 years. Here's how Northeastern explains this program...

Co-op (short for "cooperative education") makes a Northeastern education richer and more meaningful, providing students with experiences at home and abroad that help them develop the knowledge, awareness, perspective, and confidence to transform their lives.

Our co-op program, founded a century ago, is one of the largest and most innovative in the world. Students alternate semesters of academic study with semesters of full-time employment in positions related to their academic or career interests: in business, health care, education, engineering and technology, the visual and performing arts, and public policy, to name a few.

Some 6,000 Northeastern students are on co-op during some part of each academic year. Students have the option pursuing up to three semesters of co-op experience.

Co-op is closely integrated with our course curriculum, our scheduling, and our advising system. A network of co-op coordinators affiliated with each college support students in preparing for and succeeding on their co-ops.

So Rebecca is officially a Northeastern Husky! We're very proud of her!

SPRING IS IN FULL SWING!

Spring is in full swing in North Reading. Starting a couple of weeks ago, when our magnolia was in full bloom...

...and the forsythia was brightening the backyard...

...and the daffodils were popping up evreywhere!

Today...Erik gave the lawn its first haircut of the season and even though the magnolia is now sans blooms, the phlox have really perked up. There are buds and blooms everywhere and it looks and feels great!

STAY TUNED...COLLEGE ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON!

It's Decision Time!

The acceptances are in! Rebecca has applied and been accepted to...

University of Connecticut
University of Massachusetts - Lowell
Northeastern University
WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Tufts University
University of New Hampshire
RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Now is the tough part...making the decision! Stay tuned!

It's Picture Time!

We're just completing the rainiest March in Boston area recorded history. It ended with a bang, with two straight days of torrential rain. Now we get to start drying out with a possible 80+ degree day this coming weekend! Still, so much for that old thing about March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb. March went out more like a shark or some other ferocious water creature.

While we wait for Rebecca to hear from the last few colleges that she's applied to, here are some pictures! By the way, Erik just passed Mom in height and he's getting closer and closer to Rebecca!