Blog Challenge: Choose Joy

Darn it, I was doing so well getting these posted daily but yesterday started early and ended late and I literally was not on the computer all day. So I am post dating this and moving on.

I have two joys to post about. The first one is what got me up early and kept me out all day. The second is what got me back out in the evening and kept me out late.

Today DD#1 and I had the chance to volunteer at a lego robotics competition. I have never been involved in anything like this and it was really fun. Groups of kids work in teams to design, build and program lego robots to do tasks. They also have to make presentations in front of judges on a project, on teamwork and the technical aspects of their robot (I think, I need to find out more about all this) and then table competitions where they earn points based on how well the robot performs the tasks of the table. These kids are really fun and the teamwork they showed was amazing. These are middle school kids. They have learned to do the programing themselves. They have to because the coaches are not allowed to anything besides give advice once they get to the competition venue. DD was a timer, she and two of her friends sat outside the judging rooms and kept times for the presentations. Each group is given 9 minutes with a 2 minute warning. I was a "floater". My job for the day was to make sure that the next team for each judge and table competition was in place and ready to go in on time. It was challenging at first until all the teams got in the swing of where things were but it was fun. I never had to go watch any of the actual judging or competitions but I did get to watch the kids working with their robots on the practice tables. Let me tell you, the tasks these kids were programming these robots to do were not easy.

My second joy was my DH's company holiday party. DH started at this job back in October after leaving his previous company where he had been for 8 years. Up until now I had not been able to get over to meet any of his new colleagues. Tonight we all got together to celebrate the holidays and the company's success for another year. This is a little company. They increased their staff by 33% this year and are up to a grand total of 24 employees. All of the people I met last night were nice, funny and engaging. I also found out that one of the co-owners of the company has grandchildren who go to school with my DDs. It was just a fun night. I did not take my camera because I tend to hide behind it when I am in uncomfortable situations and I had to force myself to not do that last night so I don't have any pictures to share.

Until next time.....