Center College

We left at 6:00 am this morning in heavy rains. We were grateful it wasn't freezing rain or snow as was promised by the weather service. Our gratitude lasted until the rain picked up. We referred to this as "car wash rain" and it lasted the entire 2.5 hours to Danville, Kentucky. We faced thunder, lightning, big rigs, road construction, hydroplaning and the rain was unrelenting in the darkness. The sun didn't come up until we were almost there. We did stop for breakfast but I was so nervous I couldn't eat almost anything. Kirk slept just about the whole way.

We did arrive alive and the school was beautiful even if it was still raining. The Suttcliffe building above is the athletic building! Something like 15 of the campus's buildings are on the National Historic Register. I had never heard of Centre College before Kirk was being recruited. I was shocked to discover that US World News ranked them #44 nationally and Forbes Magazine ranked them #13, above MIT and Stanford.

I was very impressed with the school, the faculty and it may prove to be one of Kirk's more cost effective options, especially if he's entitled to any scholarship money. Centre is a D3 school and D3 schools don't do athletic scholarships, but they know they're expensive and try hard to find academic scholarship and grant money for their athletes. One thing that really impressed me about the school is that they don't schedule classes, labs, counseling, or any official school function between 4-7 pm. This allows teams to practice without having to sacrafice class or practice time. It also lets students eat dinner with each other and sort of "come home" from their day. It helps with time management. Kirk will be returning for an overnight visit sometime in February. I pray for better weather for that trip!

America's Funniest Home Videos

Ok, so I've been thinking I needed to wash the laundry room floor. I made a point of getting the laundry caught up today so that I could do that. I even vacuumed the floor. I hadn't gotten around to washing it just yet though. I didn't suppose that when I did I would make myself a candidate for America's Funniest Home Videos.

The pilot episode of Smallville was on and I was snug on the sofa and Jake didn't need anything at the moment. I heard a thud in the laundry room and from the sound knew that the laundry soap at hit the floor, probably during the spin cycle. (The bottle is too large to fit in the cupboard above the washer and I like to sit the spout right above washer's soap dispenser.) I didn't want to get up and knew the top was screwed on tight so I wasn't concerned.

About twenty minutes later I smelled something that was reminicent of nail polish, sort of a chemical smell that was trying really hard not to smell like chemicals. The show ended and I got up to move the laundry over and discovered the smell was coming from 110 loads of highly concentrated, high efficiency liquid Tide a-l-l over the laundry room floor...and under the washer...and under the doormat...and in the grout, and edging under the toe kick. Yeah, I've just spent the last hour squeegie-ing, scooping, washing and wet-vacuuming the floor. I'm sure I'll have to do it again once it dries. If I hadn't gotten the laundry caught up, it would have fallen on the dirty clothes, I could have scooped them up, and just washed them. Very little would have gotten on the floor. So much for being on top of the laundry...

Yesterday we drove up to Granville, Ohio to attend a football recruiting event for Denison University. According to US News and World Reports it's ranked 53rd among tier one liberal arts colleges. It's especially known for its biological sciences and pre-med program. This is is probably the kiss of death, but I really like the coach and the school. Founded in 1831, its a remarkably well-maintained and clean school. The alumni seem to be very loyal to this tiny gem of a school. It has only 2,096 students, all of whom live on campus, and extensive resources. I was pleased to listen to Coach Fletcher talk at length about his approach to coaching and the ways he uses those school resources to make his athletes better students. The football team has a higher GPA than the student body average and the graduating quarterback is a Rhodes Scholar contender. We saw the school mid year. It wasn't all dressed up for graduation and still, it was "happily situated" in the side of a hill with amazing views of the valley below. It was designed by the same man who designed Central Park in New York, Wellsley and Stanford Universities. It just feels good when you're there.

Unlike other schools which bring in 80 freshman to their football team each year, expecting drop-outs, Fletcher only recruits roughly 25 students. He carefully picks those who can make a difference in his program and who will likely get accepted to the school. Unlike other schools, he doesn't get any admissions "slots" to fill with the players of his choice. Of the current graduating class, he recruited 23 players and 19 are still playing. That is an unheard of statistic and says a great deal about this particular coach. The two things that impressed me the most were that he gave us as parents access to his players to ask them anything we wanted without his coach staff watching over their answers. Secondly he gave us 45 minutes of access to himself to ask anything we wanted. Like the New Yorker he is, his answers were frank, truthful, and unvarnished.

If Kirk were admitted and accepts a place on the team, he would be the only freshman running back. It's also possible a friend from his current high school team could be his room mate, something that makes going off to college a little less intimidating. He's a good kid and also going pre-med. This mommy's opinion is that it's a good match for Kirk. I guess when the admissions and financial aid letters come, we'll find out if he thinks it's a good match for himself.

Show Me the Money

We received notification today that Kirk has earned the Dean's Merit Scholarship from the University of Dayton to the tune of $44,000 over four years. That $11,000 a year would cover about a third of his costs. I think we'll be taking a closer look at Dayton. Hopefully we'll news as good from other schools.

Acceptance #2

Kirk received notification that he was accepted at the University of Dayton today! He has had conversations with their football coach, but not recently.

They like me...they really really like me...

Kirk received his first college acceptance letter today. He considers Heidelberg a "fall back" school, but the good news is that we now know for sure that he won't be living at home and attending junior college come next fall!

The football coach at Heidelberg realy likes Kirk too. They are a Division III school. I think Kirk is still holding out hope for a IAA school, but time will tell. He has several more applications still to submit.

More Surgery for the Morras

Jake saw his orthopedist today. The good news is that the leg length descrepancy is holding steady. While he's grown a lot in the last year, the difference hasn't changed. Since it's not impacting his mobility in a significant way, he won't have to have leg lengthening or stapling this time around.

He did, however, have some tumors that have grown quite a bit. Those are coming off in late February. He's having golf ball sized tumors removed from his femur and tibia where they meet at the knee and one from his right foot that rubs in his shoe. The doctor will decide when he gets in there if he'll put Jake in a knee immobilizer. We'll know then too how much school he has to miss before he can be up and about on the leg. He was in a full leg cast for two months the last time he had a tumor removed from his other leg two years ago. These tumors are benign, but have a statistical chance of becoming malignant. We're removing these three for Jacob's comfort and to reduce the possibility of malignancy since they are fast growing.
This isn't a picture of Jacob's foot, but lets you get an idea of how Jake's tumors look on x-ray.