Moving Sylvia to SIUe

Today was the big day. She's been collecting her things for months.

Dad, ever the packing expert, was able to fit it all into the Pilot, even though we planned to take the Kia as well and didn't need to!

We were all exhausted after the long night, but it was a nice drive. It's a little less than 3 hours from our house to the SIUe campus. 

We arrived early for Sylvia's 2pm check-in time, so we we entertained ourselves for a few minutes with SnapChat filters.

  <--Lil bro in denial of big sis moving

Sylvia got her keys and we waited for our move-in group to be called. 

We were allowed 15 minutes in the circle in front of her dorm to unload, so Sylvia and I went up to her room with a few things while Jeremy got everything out of the car onto a spot on the grass. 

I went back down to wait with Sylvia's things while he parked the car. There were students and staff helping with big carts, there are elevators, and plenty-wide staircases to get through. 

Even though it was hot, and there were Covid restrictions, we were able to get Sylvia's things in pretty quickly.

Sylvia loves this shirt, and Jeremy loves that she loves it. 

Eric and Marti gave it to him when we were in college!

The popular thing to do these days is to loft the bed only enough for the dresser and fridge to fit under.  

Sylvia is living in the Honors Focused Interest Community (FIC)

At one end of the hall is a social lounge.

At the other end of the hall is a study lounge. 

Her RA has decorated in a travel theme.

 

Checking out the mailbox--right past the lobby.

I am really in awe of how beautiful this campus is!! This is walking out the back of Sylvia's dorm.

Looking back at the dorm.

 

To the left is forest. The campus is a nature preserve.

We needed to get some food in this girl, since she hadn't eaten anything in 40+ hours. She said chicken salad sounded good, and I happened to remember seeing that there was a chicken salad restaurant on Yelp when we'd been searching for somewhere to eat in Edwardsville another time. We decided to try out Chicken Salad Chick, and we loved it!

We hit up Target and got Sylvia all the rest of the essentials we could--including cleaning supplies so I could clean and mop her bathroom before she used it. We stopped at BestBuy and Jeremy got her some EarPods. And we went back to campus for "the hard part."

Geese. 

Deer!  I feel like you could probably walk right up to them; they are not afraid.

There are art installations all over campus, and this one makes me laugh--a giant walker!

A little more arranging...

I think Jeremy had the hardest time. He didn't want to leave her, and didn't want to say goodbye. 

I especially didn't want to leave her knowing she wasn't feeling well and had so many orientation activities she wanted to attend over the next few days. All day, I kept having flashbacks to being in the hospital with her when she was born, and how we would say, "Sylvie, make your grumpy face." to her over and over when she was a toddler because she was so stinkin' cute when she did it. Time does pass too quickly over the course of a child's 18 years. But we are so proud of her, so amazed by her, and so looking forward for the adventures she has ahead as she sees the plans Jesus has for her unfold.

The Bible app Verse of the Day today is Sylvia's favorite verse and one of mine. Thanks Lord.  

HS Awards

About a month ago, the Ridgeview Review published the RHS Honor Roll, and the school sent the kids' award certificates home since there couldn't be an awards ceremony as usual.

Sylvia received the course awards for:

Chemistry 2

Spanish 3

Honors English

US History

Computer Science

and certificates for participating in Student Council and WYSE

Caeden made High Honors as well.

And he received course awards for Computer Science and Advanced English.

We are always proud of our kids. We are proud of how they work hard and achieve goals in learning and activities they are involved in. And we are proud of how they have handled the absolute insanity of what the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order did to the last 2 months of their school year. 

Last Day of School?

Today was the kids' official last day of school--more than 2 weeks early, actually, due to the COVID19 shelter-in-place order and remote learning.  Honestly, neither of them had much actual class work this week, but each had a few Zoom meetings to see their teachers and classmates and say goodbye for the summer.

I honestly almost forgot to do last-day-of-school photos, since they haven't grabbed their backpacks and driven off to school for 61 days!

Sylvia actually liked the online learning for most of her classes. She liked that she could go back and re-watch specific parts of lectures as many times as she wanted to. She liked the fact that classes and lectures weren't interrupted with other students' asking questions. She missed in-class discussions, friends, music, and lots of other things though. 

Even if the end of it was odd, there were plenty of awesome, amazing things during her junior year. 

Caeden did not like remote learning at all--except for Zoom meetings with his favorite teachers/classes, Biology and English. It wasn't that a lot of work was done during those Zoom meetings, but the teachers needed to see their kids just as much as the kids needed to see each other and their teachers! (On one Zoom with his English class, kids were apparently showing each other around their houses, and kind of having a show-n-tell where they were trying to come up with the weirdest random item they could find in their house.  One student showed up with a baby, and he won!) I know for sure that remote learning was just as hard for the teachers (if not harder) as it was for the students. For Caeden, it was very hard to stay focused and complete his work at home. He usually does almost all of his work in class, and he feels like home is where he unwinds and doesn't think about school work.  So staying on task with classes on his own was a bit rough. Also, Caeden is such a social person; not seeing his classmates and friends has been the hardest part. We did grant him the concession of SnapChat, and he has connected with so many friends that way...it has been the best thing for him, really...as much as I hate SnapChat and hate to say that.  

His freshman year started out loaded not only with new classes and high school academic responsibilities, but vocal jazz, marching band, cross country, and fall play keeping him at school for about 13 hours a day! Talk about ending the school year in complete opposite! 

Now officially a senior and a sophomore, oh wow!

I'm calling this group the "socially distanced skateboard gang."  Coby bought Caeden a skateboard and gave it to him today so he could actually skate with them; so sweet. And they got Jackson to come along too! 

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17