I'm ALIIIVE!!

There have been some murmurings that I haven't posted in awhile. A great while apparently, so here I am with another post...

In a nutshell, we've done a lot of blog-worthy things, but I haven't posted because some of them would be repeat blog posts from years-previous, so in a nutshell:

* Kimberly and I have been skiing a couple of times, taking advantage of her freebie 6th-grade pass. Fun-times as always. Except the last time, the ski chair totally rammed into the side of my head because duh, I didn't turn to see it fast enough. Don't worry - they patched me up good with lots of band aids, and I signed all the paperwork saying I wouldn't sue them.

* Kimberly has been a busy lady of late - I'll post more about that later.

* And of course, the usual help with homework, cleaning the house, laundry, cooking dinner, making lunches, writing stories, grocery shopping...you know, the fun-things that generally take up most of my days.

What I did want to post about specifically, was this...

Have I mentioned that I love my job? I love being a stay-at home mom, taking care of my girls, while also getting to write about unique stories from the computer desk in our family room. Often though, a story will require actually going to the event. Thankfully, my editor allows me to take my kids with me - with Natalie in preschool, often it's just Megan. This was one of those stories where I got to bring both girls to a regional robotics competition down in Salt Lake with 43 schools from 9 different states where they used their $5,000 to $10,000 robots to shoot basketballs and teams with the most baskets garnered the most points.

Due to the nature of balls flying through the air and very expensive robots in the pit area, I had to have a press pass, a personal authorization from the regional director, and of course, sexy goggles. I had to chuckle when the guy handing me the goggles looked to my two 'writing assistants,' and not-so-happily informed me he would try and find some smaller goggles for them. Oops. Guess this was one of those stories I should have left them behind with my dear friends.

Anway, I didn't come out of that experience thinking I would write a blog posting, but as I have reflected on my experience, I am amazed at the things I learned from the high school students that I now want to share with you.

If you want to bypass my post and just read the story, here is the link: http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/03/15/woods-cross-high-team-calculating-how-win-robotics-contest

Otherwise, feel free to read on:

Here's the thing. These teams are competing against each other. You win, you move on to nationals, so you have the upper hand if your opposing team's robot isn't working, right?

This is not how they think. As I stood and watched the Woods Cross High School team frantically working to drill holes in their robot to drop it's weight so they could compete, I found out they were borrowing another team's drill. A team that might lose to this Woods Cross High team thanks to their help.

Last year, one team was missing a critical piece to get their robot to work, so a call was placed over the intercom, and another team happened to have a spare critical piece they shared. That very team borrowing the spare part succeeded in beating the team who lent them the part.

I love that story of pure Christ-like service and the ability to give of all you have. It was happening all over the place as these teams madly tried to get their large financial investments working. A call for duct tape, screws, you name it was being announced over the intercom, and you better believe that the teams got what they needed in a moments notice - all from other teams.

The story went even further. In the competition, three teams with their robots compete against three other teams' robots. So in one round, you might be working with one team, and in the very next round be competing against them. At the end of each round, they had to try and balance their robots on a see-saw-like platform. If they could work with the opposing teams well enough and get both sides robot's on the platform, they earned oodles of extra points.

Now that is what I'm talking about when it comes to a healthy sporting competition.

Here's one of the teams working on their robot in preparation for a competition - you can see the baskets the robots shoots basketballs towards.

I love my job. It makes me see how many wonderful Christ-like people are out there - and you know what? It's usually kids I learn the most from. Remind me to post about the two high schools I covered last Christmas who each raised $10,000 for a local charity. Talk about Christ-like service.