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Changing Schools – Again!

One of my favorite persons that I’ve met since coming back to Utah has got to be Les Hamilton.  We were in the same ward for a few months before a split, and have only talked a dozen or so times.   But every time I talk to him I like him even more than before.  He happens to be the AD at Summit Academy High School.

Good To Know

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we had gotten the kids all ready for school.  Well, last week Les shared a post on Facebook that Summit Academy High School was still accepting applications.   I had known that Summit was the closest school to my parents house, but I thought there was no way we could afford it.

When Les shared his post, I contacted him and told him I would like to consider it but that I was worried about cost since I’m a disabled vet who just lost everything.

Turns out I’m an idiot (no shock to the rest of you, I know).   Summit isn’t a private school…  it is a charter school.   No tuition!!  There is no reason my kids couldn’t attend.

Changing Again!

So I got online ASAP and put in applications for all of my kiddos.  They had room for all of them but Andrew, the one going into kindergarten.  They were reasonable enough to tell me that if I registered the others that they would “make room” for him.

So now the kids are all changing schools again.   It’s been a pain in the “lower torso” to take care of the withdrawals, fees, new schedules, and uniforms.   But I think the change will be a good one.   My kids are now attending Summit Academy schools in Bluffdale.

First Day

And this morning, despite the headaches and current life turmoil, we were able to successfully get the children off to school.  I think they were all even wearing clean clothes!

Nikki was nervous about the new school.  She really thrived at Central Elementary in PG.  She’s a bright little girl and I’m sure she’ll thrive here too.   Josh wasn’t interested in classes but more excited about Cross Country and Volleyball that both start after school today.

Caitlin just wants to find people she knows.  Kris and Charlee and excited to find friends too.  They all are looking forward to a great school year!

And so are we!!

Funny side note.   I called and withdrew the kids from the public schools.  The people who answered were all nice and polite and said it was no problem.

They all said they needed to note where the kids would be attending.  When I told them Summit, they ALL became much less polite, and borderline rude.   One of them asked the new school, and when I replied with “Summit Academy” I got back, “Summit?!  OK, got it” and she hung up on me.

I know there is political tension between public school advocates and advocates of other options.  But this was my first taste of it on a personal level.  I was a bit surprised at first.

I understand that public schools don’t want to lose the money that comes with each kid, but apparently they don’t understand that they are also losing the COST of the kid and the needed effort/energy to care for him/her.   But since they (and almost everyone else) focus on money…

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Penrod Family Reunion

Yesterday was the Penrod family reunion (Julie’s family).  The desired location was Payson Lakes in southern Utah County.   We had five out of six families show up and had a great time.

Highlights

With 26 people it was tough to catch them all on video or camera without making it a dedicated goal, which I didn’t.   I’m not sure even all of my own kids made it on here, so my apologies to anyone who feels like they got shorted or left out.

This was just a one day event at the lake.  We enjoyed the day just relaxing and playing water sports.   The paddle board and kayaks were a great hit and even the little kids loved the water.  I think all but three people got in and got wet.

Three of the families actually decided to do some camping the night before, and so they all got together for a pre-reunion campout.   The other two families (including us) arrived around 11 am and stayed until approximately 5pm.  It was about as much sun as I could take.

The sun burns were surprisingly mild and I was only worried about one child getting heat stroke/exhaustion (mostly because of the ride home with grandparents when the AC stopped working).

Lots of water, lots of fun, and lots of laughter.  It was a fantastic way to spend the day.   I hope that everyone else felt the same way.  We’ll look forward to the Penrod family reunion again next year.

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Running Log 6/12/17

Running Log 6/12/17

Location: PG Rec Center

Participants: Family minus Josh (Scout Camp) plus cousins Jake and Caly

Task: Caterpillars for 25 minutes.

Gold Star for the day undoubtedly goes to Andrew.  He needed some encouragement but he ran the entire thing.  He has never gone that far or that long non-stop before.  I was very impressed with him.  It was good to not see him quit, which is normally the problem.  He gives up on hard things, but not today!

Every else did just fine.  It was a nice slow pace so they didn’t quite run 2 miles.  They all ran well and I didn’t hear any complaining.

This is the first time we’ve done Caterpillars without a baton to pass back.  Instead, that last person would simply wait until they saw the person ahead of them finish their sprint, and then they would sprint to the front themselves.  This adds more sprinting by eliminating the time for the baton to be passed back.  They all handled it quite well.  The added runner helped mitigate the extra running.

Overall a very good run.  This is the first running log in a few weeks because we’ve been doing other things, so it was good to get back “on track.”  I was able to walk almost a full lap with JR at a VERY slow pace.  The time spent standing though took its toll and I was in quite a bit of pain at the end.  Lifting Steven to get a drink near the end was excruciating.

I have video for you today… Enjoy!

UPDATE: new video without the music that got blocked!

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Activities Galore!

It is the last week of school and we have been all over the place with activities.

Gymnastics

Last night we attended the gymnastics “showcase” for Kristie, Charlee, Nikki, and Andrew at Patterson’s Soft Landing Gymnastics.  I have never been to an event like this and it was great fun for me to see what the kids have been working on and learning this year.

I thought they all did great!  Of course I may be biased.  They all progressed quite far throughout the year and I am really happy for them.  Kristie was even offered a spot on one of their competition teams, but since we are moving she isn’t taking the spot.

The highlight for the night, at least for me, was watching Kristie easily climb their rope.  It took about 20 seconds for her to get to the top of their 25 foot ceiling.  I was impressed.  Any time I have picked her up I’ve asked if they ever climb the rope and she has always said no.  When asked afterward why she always told me no when she had obviously climbed it so well she said, “We haven’t practiced until just last week.  We got to try and I climbed up it.”   It was just that easy I guess.

 

Dance Event

One of today’s activities was the end of year Dance Festival at the elementary school.  This has been a tradition there since Julie attended.  Each grade practiced and preformed a dance routine for a large crowd of parents.

I know this event is popular and expected, but I’d rather have skipped it.  The music was low and hard to hear.  The choreography was repetitive (which is expected for a large group of little kids).   And I don’t particularly like large crowds.

The kids were just one among a sea of others.  Because my kids are so short they were often hard to see in the group.  It was as good an event as I’ve ever seen it be, but still not a “must see” for me.  Julie probably feels different about it.

Little Red Hen

Following the Dance Festival, Nikki was also involved in a class play of The Little Red Hen.  I took Andrew home instead of attending.  Julie went and said it was adorable.   She needs to get some GoPro practice though because there was nothing in memory despite her claims she had the whole thing recorded.

Paying Tribute to the Porcelain King

And just to make this week a little bit more difficult, we have had illness going through the family.  It started with Andrew and Steven on Sunday morning.  Both vomited and earned a get-out-of-church-free pass.  Sunday afternoon, after church, poor JR had his turn right in the middle of a family movie.

That passed just fine and we thought by Tuesday we were all in the clear.  Then right in the middle of the gymnastics showcase Steven had two more episodes:  once right in the middle of the seated crowd, and then again as Julie was carrying him outside.  She got him outside and five minutes later he stated he wanted to go back in.  Julie said, “you can’t.  You’re sick.”   “I’m not sick, I’m happy :)!”

That was yesterday.   Last night it was Charlee’s turn.  Caitlin woke us sometime after midnight to tell us that Charlee needed new bedding.  Lovely.

Today was Lagoon day for the middle school and Caitlin was early anticipating going for her first time.  She left the house all ready to go.  About 20 minutes later she was on the phone telling us that she was ill to and fighting nausea.  So she missed Lagoon.   She didn’t vomit at all today, but Lagoon would have been a bad place to test the fortitude of your stomach.

Can Summer Begin Already?

I am more then ready for the school year, and this week,  to be over.  We have more than enough activities planned for us over the summer to keep us busy.  Family reunions, remodeling a house, pool time, fishing, moving, and hopefully a trip to Martin’s Cove in WY to visit some friends on a mission there.   We have activities galore planned, so let the fun begin!

Charlee