I called Jared at 4:40 to let him know Karcyn hadn't come home yet. I asked him if she had mentioned anything about a meeting or club or anything else that she had after school that he forgot to tell me about because his head is all stuffy and clogged up. He said she didn't mention anything and immediately got on his Find My Phone app. There was nothing listed for her. All it said was "Location not found." Which means her phone is off. And she doesn't turn it off. She silences it for school, but doesn't shut it down completely. Ever. I drove around some more and then went back to the school. That's where she was last seen. I need to start with them.
I walked up to the front door, but it was locked and there was no one there to buzz me in. So I walked back down to my car and stood on the sidewalk. I called Karcyn. The call didn't go through. I called the high school and fortunately, I was able to connect with the attendance clerk. I let her know that Karcyn hadn't made it home from school and wondered if there might be any meetings or clubs or something going on after school that she might be at. The clerk told me to wait and said she would call to see if she was there. Oh good. If she does a page over the PA system, that would cover all of her classes. I waited for several minutes listening to that dumb automated message and stared up at the trees overhead, wondering where Karcyn could be. I pushed down any panicked thoughts. Not yet. Save those for when it's okay to be panicked.
Many minutes later, the clerk said she hadn't heard from anyone about Karcyn being there. She did see that Karcyn was marked present in her last two classes. She asked me who Karcyn's best friend was. I said she doesn't have one. She's friends with everyone who wants to be her friend. I did give her a few names of kids I've heard her talking about recently, including the young man who asked her out to homecoming and then had to cancel at the last minute because his family was going out of town. The clerk asked me for Karcyn's cell number in case she tried calling and said she'd make a few more calls and would call me back. She encouraged me to keep driving around the school in the meantime. By this point, it was nearly 5:00. Jared had already left the office and was on his way to look for her. And Cooper had gotten in his car to look for her too, leaving a somewhat distraught JJ at the house by himself.
There really wasn't anywhere else TO look. She's not a lost puppy who wandered too far from home. I jumped when my phone rang at 5:05, expecting it to be Karcyn. It was Calvin. He was supposed to be at tennis practice. They finished early and he needed a ride home. I was grateful to have a diversion and told him I was on my way.
After Calvin got in the car, I told him that we had a problem--Karcyn hadn't made it home from school. He was immediately concerned and started saying, "No, no, no." I asked him if he remembered what she was wearing that day (because poor Jared couldn't). A white shirt and jeans. Calvin said he saw her at lunch...they "had a moment." He came up from behind her and tapped her on the shoulder and ducked around to the other shoulder. Once she saw him, they just smiled at each other. Calvin started worrying, "What if that was my last moment with her?" We drove up to the junior high and back around to the house. I told him he can't think that way and that I was taking him home so he could wait there for her. He said, "No! I want to help look!" I told him there isn't anywhere TO look for her, really. Besides, JJ was pretty upset and he needed someone to comfort him. I warned Calvin not to go down any "worst case scenarios" with JJ. Just distract him in a good way. When we got to the house, Jared was there. We ran inside, but still no sign of Karcyn. Jared was already going down that forbidden path of gut-wrenching thoughts like any dad would.
Karcyn walks the same route home every day. It's predictable. The biggest concern is that her phone is off. There's no reason for it to be. Jared said if the high school can't tell us anything else, we have to call the police. We can't wait any longer. I agreed. I had Calvin grab the high school yearbook to help me find the kids that Karcyn sits with at lunch so we could give them both first and last names. We found three or four of them.
I called Chris at 5:17 to tell her there was still no sign of Karcyn and that I was waiting to hear back again from the school. The weekly youth activity was set to begin at 6:30 and Primary Activities was going to start shortly after that. Chris is YW president and I'm the Primary President. I told her that under the circumstances, I was considering cancelling primary activities. She said she'd definitely do the same with the youth activity...especially since 1/3 of the YW is missing and the only YM is her brother. While we were wrapping up our conversation, I got an in-coming call. It was the high school. I hung up with Chris and answered the other line. It was the clerk asking if Karcyn was home yet. I said no. She said she had to step away from her desk and wanted to make sure she hadn't missed our call.
I asked the clerk what she had already done on her end at the school so we didn't duplicate efforts and because we will need to call the police. She said she had called the teachers in her classes. She didn't get any answers though. I thought she was going to do an intercom page to see if Karcyn was in the building. Before I could bring that up, the clerk pulled up Karcyn's schedule and said she realized Karcyn is in the ag classes. She hadn't contacted anyone in the ag building. She was going to do that right then in case they were having a meeting. I waited on hold. And told Jared that there likely wasn't a meeting--there was no one parked outside the ag building except a district vehicle when I drove by thirty minutes ago.
I was on hold for quite a bit longer than I thought I would be--5-8 minutes. When the clerk got on the phone she said, "Has Karcyn made it home yet?" I said no. She said, "Someone saw her leaving at the front of the school around 5:05." Before I could say anything to Jared, the garage door into the kitchen opened and Karcyn walked in. I told the clerk, "Oh! She just walked in. Thank you!" and promptly hung up the phone. Cooper said, "Where have you been young lady?" We were all hovering and closing in on her. Jared got to her first and wrapped her in a big hug. Jared said we were so worried. Karcyn, not knowing anything about what had been happening in the past 70 minutes, said she was at math tutorials. What? That's exactly what I had asked the clerk about. But maybe Karcyn was meeting with a different teacher. Nope, she was with Mr. Nana, her Algebra 2 teacher. In the student center. If he had been in his room, they might have been contacted. Clearly, the clerk didn't do a page over the intercom to the entire school. Part of me is very relieved we didn't have to call the police, only because I would have felt awful that the school indicated she wasn't there, but she really was. What a waste of resources that would have been. Fortunately, we didn't have to call the police, but we were a mere couple of minutes from that point. For being off the grid, Karcyn's ultimate timing was perfect!
Jared held her for a long time before I was able to get her some loves. We all kind of questioned her at once. She got choked up, because she felt bad she had caused so much concern. I assured her she wasn't in trouble, we were just glad she's okay.
We explained that her phone was off, and we couldn't locate her, which was a red flag to us.
She said her phone died.
Usually she texts us that she has something after school.
By the time she realized she needed to tell us, it was 8th period and her phone was dead by then.
She didn't think about using another phone.
The math tutorial that day was something that she instigated and now she was back on track with math.
Jared and I were emotionally exhausted by that point. But the youth still had their sand volleyball activity and the Primary still had their activity, too.
The next day around 4:00pm, I got a call from Karcyn. "Hey Mom, just letting you know I'm walking home now." :)
UIL and Omega Crux: After JJ performed his own interpretation of the prologue to a book he was reading about dragons in our living room, I told him he should try out for the oral reading UIL coming up. I think he has a good chance at it, but his confidence is super low. A couple weeks later, he announced that he signed up for two events: spelling and oral reading. Both good choices for him. He didn't make the spelling team but I'm really happy he tried out. They were some tough words and he misspelled most of them by just one letter.
A week later was the oral reading try out. The kids were given three readings about cookies they could choose from. JJ selected the Chocolate Chip Cookie. He put a fun and sassy twist on the prideful chocolate chip cookie attitude. They students had to perform in front of three judges. There were at least three other boys auditioning and a handful of girls. JJ had to perform it two more times with the girls for a tie breaker, beating out the boys, but there was still one more day of try outs before they'd get the results. In the end, the judges selected two girls...and JJ!! I'm thrilled for him! I think this event is a great one for him to grow into.
Celebratory ice cream at The Spot for making the 5th grade UIL oral reading try outs!
*Our amazing "family" bowling coach, Scott Clevenger, has gifted Calvin with four bowling balls (worth around $900!) from his personal collection that he's paring down and recently gave JJ his 12 lb. Omega Crux. JJ has been like a kid at Christmas waiting to get it. And when he finally got to use it for the first time, he was really successful! His average is all the way up to 76 (he started at 53 a year ago). He scored: 89, 109, and 103! He's only scored over 100 twice since starting league (his first goal) and now he's getting over 100 in a three-game series!
*Look at this haul I got in the mail!! All free gifts for hosting an essential oils class. Yay me!!
*As I was leaving the high school one afternoon after subbing, this small quote on a small post-it note managed to catch my eye. It was actually the name of the person who said it. The Class of 2026 chose to post this quote: Education is the key to opportunity--by Gordon B. Hinckley.
Math My Way: I noticed some of JJ's math papers were incomplete and consequently his grades for these assignments have been egregiously low. I made him sit down with me and correct the ones he missed or didn't do. And if he doesn't like this routine, maybe he'll make sure to get them done during class time or as homework. One paper had "REDO" at the top...every single one was incomplete! I've done a lot of subbing recently and when I was visiting with Mrs. Lewis (JJ's math teacher) I was telling her that I think she should require him to take his math home so I can review it, sign it, and then he can turn it in the next day so that I can see what he's doing and if he's completed the work. She asked me if I saw the paper that was incomplete that had 20 questions on them that he needed to redo. I had. She laughed and said this was the best...the assignment was to solve the 3 digit by 1 digit multiplication problems. If the answer was an even number they had to color the footballs one color and if it was odd, they had to color them a different color. Mrs. Lewis said that JJ is smart enough to figure out that once he multiplies the first two digits together, he has his ones in the product which determines if the answer is even or odd. And so he stopped there! He didn't do anything else beyond that first step. She said it cracked her up and she explained to him that while he wasn't wrong, he needed to do the whole multiplication problem.
A Drug Test Down the Toilet: Karcyn was pulled from her 4th period class one day for random drug testing. They gave her a cup and said, "Put your pee in it." The obedient young lady that she is, she did her business in the toilet as usual and was about to use the cup to collect her pee sample from the toilet bowl. Except that there was a blue chemical in the toilet and LOTS of toilet paper. Despite the grossness of the task, she dipped to collect her pee anyway. When she saw the other students with "normal looking pee" in their specimen cups, she looked at hers (tinted blue) and thought, "Either they're all cheating the system, or I didn't do mine right." She asked a teacher if her pee was supposed to look like that. They asked, "Did you actually pee IN the cup?" She froze as realization struck and told them no. I think it's safe to say she "failed" her drug test. Haha! They said they'd put her name back in the system for random selection for another day. However, in her defense, they just said to put her pee in it. They didn't specify how she needed to do it. We all got a great kick out of this story and told Karcyn if she ever needed to write about an experience regarding communicating effectively, this would be perfect!
Philipinos Have a Bad Rap: While driving to Lubbock for bowling league one Saturday, JJ heard us talking about the Philippines and said, "The Philippines are very bad!" We were surprised by this judgment because we had dear friends in College Station from the Philippines and JJ's cousin, Connor, served his mission there. When we asked him why they're so bad, he explained, "Because they tried to take over Israel!" You mean the Philistines, JJ! Not the good people of the Philippines. Oh man. At least he's familiar with his Old Testament history. Haha!
*JJ sitting with his big cousin, James, in Sacrament meeting. James reminds me very much of Jake. It seems JJ feels the same way.
Bowling with the Bigs: Now that Calvin is in 9th grade, he registered to be a part of the West Texas High School Bowling Club (WTHSBC) in Lubbock. He's the only student from Snyder High School, so he will be participating on a co-op team with other bowlers that don't have enough members from their high school to create a team. He won't be able to compete at regionals or at state as a team, but he can compete as an individual. The week after try-outs to see who was on varsity, the owner of the alley, Bill Whitewood (an amazing individual, coach, and friend) told Calvin to go sit on the far end of the alley. So that's what Calvin did. He was all alone for awhile. But then, gradually, other high performing students joined him. I guess, out of 120-130 bowlers, Calvin is in the top 15. So they are keeping them together. I'm not sure if they are the varsity bowlers or how that all works, but we thought that was pretty cool. Bill told Jared they'd really love to have Calvin come up on Tuesdays, too, for practice. That's a LOT of driving and gas and time for us. But we said it would depend on Calvin and how his grades and seminary participation hold up.
Tall City Invitational: This year Karcyn got debate in her schedule at school. She wanted to try it last year, but it didn't work out. The debate class I remember when I was her age was a pretty demanding class. I was concerned it was going to be too much for her as an elective on top of all honors classes. Plus, she's never had debate before. Would she be able to participate? At the first booster meeting, Mr. Carlock told us that this year he has over 35 debate students, the largest he's ever had and as such, not every student will be able to attend every event. I figured it would be a win if Karcyn went to just one event before the end of the year. I introduced myself to Mr. Carlock at the end of the meeting and he said, "Ah, yes. Karcyn. You know, don't take this the wrong way, but I hadn't pegged Karcyn as someone doing debate, but she's got some mad research skills. I think she's got a chance of doing really well. I just need to figure out which event would be a good fit for her." I told him not to feel bad about his initial assessment of Karcyn. Many people underestimate her. Her own parents included.
Mr. Carlock wanted her to go to the first speech/debate tournament in Midland on 10/15. As he went around the class with his assignments, he pointed to a student and said, "I expect you to medal", pointing to another, "I expect you to get a trophy," pointing to another, "I expect you to medal", and pointing to Karcyn he said, "Let's just see how you do in the first two rounds." Haha! Karcyn told us on more than one occasion that Mr. Carlock believes in her and knows she'll do well. That belief paid off.
Karcyn participated two speech events: Domestic Extemp (DX) and Impromptu Speaking. She was 1 of 18 in DX and the only student from Snyder, and 1 of 36 in Impromptu Speaking with four or five other students from Snyder. She placed THIRD in both events in the first round, moving on to the second round. She's not sure how she performed in the second round, just that she didn't do well enough to advance to finals in Impromptu Speaking, but she made it to finals in DX! She cried when she found out. She was so excited! We didn't get results until 9pm while we were in Lubbock for stake leadership meetings. She was a finalist--4th place!! Trophies go to 1st-3rd and medals go to 4th-6th. She was competing against 15-20 more students. The fact that she got to finals was quite the accomplishment anyway--especially during her first-ever tournament. Mr. Carlock hugged Karcyn he was so proud. Snyder HS took 2nd place overall for a small school, defeating 12 other teams.
Wheeling and Dealing: I really dread this time of year. Every organization and school and event requires fundraising: FFA, the Hunter's Banquet, Ira School, 5th grade fall festival, choir, FFA meats and fruits, bowling fall festival, bowling for State, UIL, etc. I loathe fundraisers. And I can't afford to just "buy them out" or pay a "donation fee" to get out of it. One of the fundraisers for bowling is selling chocolate bars for $1. This one is bit easier. We can't do most of bowling fundraising because we don't live in Lubbock, but we can sell chocolate in Snyder. Jared took a box to the ER with some success. But Calvin took the chocolate bars to school and he sold over 40 in his first period class! He texted me at 11 and said, "I sold out." A few minutes later, "Do we have any more? People are making requests." Karcyn took a bag to school as well, so when Calvin saw her, he confiscated it and sold the rest. :) The next day, I was in Lubbock for a doctor's appointment and swung by the bowling alley to get another box since Calvin was having so much success selling the candy. Calvin told me to get two boxes. I hesitated because maybe his customer pool is getting saturated or running out of funds, but I got two anyway. I took a picture of the two boxes, sent it to Jared and said, "Tell Calvin I got the goods." Jared replied, "I hope his clients are reliable." :) Calvin suggested maybe he should up the cost and sell the candy bars for $2 each so one dollar goes to the bowling fund and one goes to him. "You know, a handling fee--I handle the chocolate, you pay the fee." We made sure Calvin knew that was NOT being honest with his fellow men and to stick to the established price of $1/bar.
Be still my heart...but not too still: Trina has been in the hospital for some heart issues and it made me reflect on my loop recorder that was implanted back in June. The next day (10/18), while I was subbing in 2nd grade at Ira, I got a call from the electrophysiologist cardiologist's office in Lubbock. The nurse said that they've been looking for an atrioventricular (AV) block on my loop recorder and they found one. I need to be seen in the office immediately. I asked what an AV block was. She said my heart was blocked. It didn't stop, but it was definitely blocked. (That didn't completely answer my question, but okay...) The next opening was at 4:45pm the next day. I asked if I needed to bring anything because I was coming from Snyder. She said no, if I need surgery, it'll be next week.
Cooper was kind enough to drive me up so I could work on some things. Bribing him with Chop Chop for dinner helped. :) I need to have all my appointments at that cardiovascular office at 4:45pm. It was empty!! All the other times I've been, the waiting room time for me to get back to a room is two hours! No joke. Add three hours of travel time and it's an all day event. I got right in and they did an EKG. Then the loop recorder guys came in to run their data report from it. Then Dr. Cervera came in. I had Jared on speaker so he could hear what the doc had to say in real time and not second hand from me, because let's face it, I can't always remember everything.
Dr. Cervera showed the other techs what he felt was an AV block and they agreed it didn't look right. They left and then Dr. C asked if I have passed out. I said no. He said that what he found is quite possibly an artifact of this defect that has been concerning him since he saw me in March. He pretty much had to convince me to get a heart monitor in March and then the loop recorder in April (but we didn't get it done until June after I was done teaching). I don't have any symptoms (like passing out), just dizzy spells every once in a while. The racing heart, the skipped beats, the palpitations...those happen and are sometimes annoying, but they won't kill you. An AV block could. So he likes to joke: I care about you more than you care about you. I admit, I have resisted a bit because of cost. We have a fairly high deductible (for health providers) and I don't want to be crippled by the cost associated with these medical tests or devices. The alternative could be disastrous, yes, I know. Which is why, in the end, I agreed to move forward with his advice.
There are three levels to AV blocks. The first two cause delays, not disruptions. The 3rd degree occurs when the signal between the atria and ventricles is completely blocked and there is no disruption between the two. None of the signals from the upper chambers makes it to the lower chambers. And mine was blocked. So I suspected the urgency to see me likely meant I needed a pacemaker. Dr. Cervera said that the problem with AV blocks is that they are unpredictable and left untreated they can get progressively worse. I could tell he was preparing himself to persuade me again, but I said, "If you think I need a pacemaker, we gotta do it before December 31st because we've met our deductible and out of pocket max for the year!" He just chuckled said, "I'll go get you a date and time" and left to go talk to his nurse. They scheduled me for the following week, at 6am. So we'll be leaving about 4:45am.
What I wasn't anticipating was the two week NO driving restriction! I think my disapproving response was something like, "You've got to be kidding me!" So the nurse said, "Well, maybe we can make it one week." Yeah, yeah, that would be great. I ain't got time for that. Might as well keep me in the hospital as a prisoner that long if I can't have my freedom and independence. Other restrictions: No shower for 1 week, I can't lift anything over 5 lbs. for 4 weeks, no lifting my left arm up or putting it behind my back for 6 weeks, and I have to wear a sling on my left arm for 6 weeks at night. Yay. I just hope I remember all the "do nots." I'm not used to not moving around.
*Before I left for this initial appointment, though, I had to take Rolo to the vet. He had been throwing up and having diarrhea since the afternoon before. He had to be tested first for Parvo. It's a very serious and often fatal dog disease that presents the same way so they had to do the test outside the vet's office so as not to contaminate the clinic. Fortunately, he tested negative for that, so they let him come inside to an exam room. The vet determined he had a doggy bacterial infection and wanted to keep him overnight to administer IV meds and for observtation. So I said goodbye to Rolo and then went to my appointment.
JJ and I went to pick him up after school the next day. While we waited for the techs to bring him out to us, I saw a lady come in with her pet who was obscured by a column. But the fur caught my eye--it was the color of Rolo's. When she came in through the front door, she was carrying a pomeranian--who looked as if it could be Rolo's sibling!
JJ and I were so entranced by the similarities of this Pomeranian. We met Terri McWilliams (owner of the McWilliam's pharmacy) and her dog, Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit McWilliams--or Honey for short. We loved her name! Honey's mannerisms and personality and looks were so much like Rolo's. She is a bit bigger and her fur is more coarse. And she has black outlines in the face and some light black shading to her fur, Rolo doesn't.
When the tech brought Rolo to us, we introduced the dogs to each other. And JJ suggested we do doggy play dates! :) I never got Terri's number, but it's a small town, so you never know.
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