Celebrate every day...

My wife and I coach the Louisa Middle School Academic Team. It is such a joy to watch these students grow, compete and succeed in a league with the brightest students from the best schools in our area. We work with these kids from August until February each school year and, at this moment, we are in the thick of the league season building toward the District, Regional and State Competitions in January, February and March. Tonight our kids did very well and it is at a late hour that I write this blog. I’m not late because I just got home, I’m late because before I could even start writing this blog I wanted to let the teachers at our school and the friends and parents on Facebook know how proud I am of our students. Our precious students, students who want to do better, students with fragile egos that my wife does such a wonderful job of patching and repairing when they don’t meet their own expectations, students that never, ever let us down whether they finish first or last because we know that, on that night, they gave their best. Our parents give us their gifts from God to teach, protect, coach and encourage, for three years, until they move on to high school.

And what do we do with the money we get paid for coaching academic team every year? We go to Disney World. Where, for 6 to 10 days each year, win or lose, we are treated like champions. I wish we could take all our kids to WDW, we have taken people with us and, in the future, I’ll share those stories with you. We have had District champions, Regional winners and students that have ended the season ranked in the top 10 at state but we celebrate with them every day and celebrate with Mickey once each year.

                                        July, 2001: AAA, where can I go with $1500.00?

Need an excuse to go to WDW today?

In 1901, Anna Taylor became the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor was a school teacher attempting to secure her financial standing late in life by performing the stunt in attempt to gain fame and fortune. It didn’t really work. Too bad WDW didn’t exist at that time. She could have felt better about life in general without endangering life and limb. The moral: don’t go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, plunge into the Briar Patch with several close personal friends. You’ll thank me later.

In 1965, The Sentinel-Star headline reads, ”WE SAY OUR ‘MYSTERY’ INDUSTRY IS DISNEY!” Walk down Main Street, USA and look up to read the windows on the second floors. Some of those companies and names were buying land for the ‘Mystery’ industry.

Remember, your best excuse is: waiting for your dreams to come true.