Big Shot

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but in the past year, Matthew has come to really love wildlife photography. He spent most of last summer visiting places where he could take pictures of animals in their natural habitats. He has more pictures of birds than other animals, mostly because they are easier to find, but he has desires to find more wildlife for his photos. He even rented a professional quality camera a few months back and drove up to the bird refuge near Brigham City to spend a day nabbing some pics. He has a good eye and the patience to wait for the animals to appear, and his work has gotten really good. He took some pictures at a bird show last year and the non-profit who owns the birds uses his shots on their Instagram page. So, it’s not just me that thinks his work is good.

Last month a friend of Matthew’s told him that Herriman City was holding a wildlife photography contest. Matthew immediately decided to enter and spent several weeks combing through his portfolio trying to decide on which image to submit. He asked all of us for opinions and finally decided to submit a photo of a yellow headed blackbird, a picture that we all thought would be a fantastic option.

Our city is a small one and you have to be a resident of Herriman to qualify for the contest, so there were only about nine submissions. But as Matthew looked at some of the other images, he was sure that he would not win. He was looking at pictures taken by people with a lot more experience than he has and who own high end cameras that he certainly can’t afford right now. And yes, those pictures were amazing, but tonight the winners were announced, and Matthew won second place! There were cash prizes, which means he won $75, but that was not the exciting thing for him. Simply the fact that he won an award at all had him riding high! 

All the submissions will be posted in city hall for the week, which is not a super long time, but I’m thrilled that Matthew has gotten a bit of recognition for doing something that he loves and has a talent for. 

D.C. al Fine

This evening was the annual band banquet and the very last band event of Matthew’s last year of high school. The title of the event was a misnomer as it actually wasn’t a banquet but an awards ceremony/end of year celebration/seniors’ spotlight with light refreshments. Basically, it was a chance for the band kids to look at all they have done this year, thank this year’s band leadership, introduce next year's band leadership, and recognize the seniors who have finished their high school band journey. While not all the seniors received awards, the band teacher did present some to those students he felt most deserved them. Matthew received the Quincy Jones Musicianship Award, for contributions and creativity in multiple areas of music. He also received his music letter award as well as the eight additional bars he earned for participating in many music related activities over the past three years. There is only one student in the school who earned more bars in music than Matthew did (the president of one of the choirs) and Matthew is very proud of how much he has accomplished.

This year’s band experience ended as it started for Matthew, with some disappointment, frustration, and maybe even a little anger. He didn’t always see eye to eye with the band teacher and honestly, he had just cause for irritation on many occasions. But we won’t dwell on that, we’ll just say that Matthew was extremely dedicated and gave his all to the band program for three years. He spent hours and hours practicing and without any professional guidance, despite years of trying to find a private teacher for him, his ability increased remarkably, and he came away an amazingly skilled trumpet player. He set some high goals for himself and accomplished most of them, still giving his all those that didn’t quite come to fruition. He has faced some challenges and been put in some difficult situations, but he has risen to the occasion time and time again. While not an actual award of any kind, I think the fact that he was the only student invited to play with Hot House West at the last Jazz Mentors clinic and performance of this year speaks highly of his technical ability as well as his musicianship.

I think overall, Matthew is leaving the high school band program with a bit of relief. He is ready for what’s next. And when he returns from his mission, he is very much looking forward to joining the college band community.

On a lighter note, I have several other band related comments. First, the cupcakes I made for Matthew were about a million times better than the Walmart bakery quality cupcakes the rest of us got. AND as of this evening, I have officially unsubscribed from the band calendar. And it makes me so very, very happy. Because some events were on there twice-once as an all-day event and once with actual times, although most of the time they were just listed as all day events because obviously no one needs to know what time things are actually happening. And there were events almost every single day for something or other related to band. And every once in a while, the band teacher’s dentist appointments and such would show up on the band calendar…basically, being able to unsubscribe has been a fast, easy way to clean up my entire calendar. So, I guess that means I’m a little bit relieved to be done with the high school band program as well. 😂

Jack of All Trades

This evening was Matthew’s last band concert of the school year as well as his last band concert at the middle school. He has been highly involved in a number of different ways during his tenure at the middle school, and this evening he got to participate in most of them. 

Matthew plays in the advanced band and one of their numbers included a trumpet trio of which Matthew was a participant. He played the first trumpet part and those boys all sounded great! The band teacher presented several awards between numbers. Two ninth grade students are selected as outstanding students in each subject, and Matthew was selected as one of those students in band. He will receive a plaque at the official freshmen awards ceremony but was presented a certificate tonight. His name will also go on the plaque that is hanging in the band room. Matthew didn’t know about this beforehand and was surprised but not surprised, meaning that he didn’t know it was coming but wasn’t overly surprised that he was selected. I’m very proud of him for giving his all in the bands. He loves to play and has made a lot of progress in the past three years.

Advanced band was followed by a slide show, after which Matthew got to book it up to the tech booth to help stage crew solve some lighting issues. It seemed as if they could not get the lights to turn back on and after spending a few minutes in the booth, he jaunted backstage to work the problem from that end. He has been on stage crew for two years and during that time, he has worked very hard and proven that he is smart and responsible. Matthew is pretty much the head of the stage crew this year and more than once he has lamented the fact that once he leaves, the kids left behind are going to have a hard time keeping everything up and running. He has spent a lot of time and effort trying to get the younger kids up to snuff before he leaves but is at the point where he thinks things are going to be very rough next year. 

Once the lights were back in working order, the jazz band played. One of the first things we noticed is that Matthew is looks like the tallest trumpet player in the jazz band. (He said there is one kid taller than he is, but that kid plays kind of slouched over so he looks shorter than he really is.) When he was in seventh grade, he had to stand on a chair to be able to see over the sax players seated in front of the trumpet section, so that is proof of just how much he has grown! Matthew had several solos and although he was not particularly pleased with how he played (he got his braces off three weeks ago and is having a harder time adjusting than any of us thought he would), I felt like he did ok. The jazz band baritone sax player was fantastic though, and after the concert, Matthew shared with us the fact that he was the one who taught the bari sax player the music theory part of improvising a jazz solo. Matthew was really pleased that he had been instrumental in helping his classmate develop such a great skill. Matthew also sang a vocal solo for one of the jazz numbers. It was a Michael Buble song entitled “Everything” and I felt like he did a fantastic job. His face is incredibly expressive when he sings, and he was not afraid to let all the emotion of the music play on his face. Matthew is not one to overshare, so I had no idea that he would be singing this evening. That was a pleasant surprise for me. Of late, he has been singing non-stop, belting out showtunes as he goes about his activities here at home. And I love it. He sang all the time when he was tiny but stopped singing for a while as his focus was on other things, so I love that singing has made its way back into his life. He told us he was also supposed to play trumpet solos in the vocal breaks, but his lips were so dry that he was having trouble playing. It was bad enough that his lips just hurt. He is regretting getting his braces off right before all his end of year performances, but like I mentioned before, none of us knew it would be so tough for him to adjust.

It was a fun concert. Mentally, Matthew is completely done at the middle school and can hardly wait to move on to the high school, but I’m glad he has been so involved where he is and has taken advantage of so many opportunities. He wears a lot of different hats as school and each one has helped him learn and grow in fantastic ways.

Finding the Good

Due to COVID, a lot of normal school events were cancelled last year. And since last year was the first year our high school was open, this second year has held a lot of firsts for the school. Among those was this evening’s Principal’s Reception. The event was basically the invitation only awards ceremony for those seniors who have earned top honors in a variety of different ways during the school year. The original plan was to hold a nice dinner like our principal did at his last school, but the district wouldn’t allow that due to COVID. They did get permission to do refreshments though, and they got some fancy ones, so it was still a nice event.

Nathan was selected as the math sterling scholar earlier this year so when we received an invitation, he assumed that would be the only honor he received. However, he was completely wrong in that assumption. He actually ended up being one of the students who was called to the front most often. He was recognized for being the math sterling scholar, a student who excelled in both academics and the arts, the senior who was the top in the math department, and a student who had a 4.0 gpa as well as an ACT score 30 or higher (Nathan got a 31 on the ACT). The school gifted each one of the top award-winning students with a blanket bearing the school mascot/slash logo and when Nathan got called up for his second award that came with a blanket, they joked about there being only one blanket for student. If they had given one per award, I think Nathan might have come home with three…

It ended up being a very nice evening, one that Nathan enjoyed far more than he thought he would. Kev and I were finally able to meet his physics, math and ASL teachers and although Nathan has had a rough year (or three) in high school, the reception helped him recognize that there has been a lot of good as well. He just found the good in different places than he expected. He has loved his physics and math classes and has made some friends there. He helped create an end of year escape room activity for the statistics classes which he loved. His teachers loved it too. It’s not often that you get a student who understands the material so easily and gets so excited about it that he goes home and uses his mom’s white board to explain the newest cool thing he learned in school. He started learning ASL during his time on stage crew in middle school, but I don’t think any of us were expecting him to pick it up so quickly and to love it as much as he does. He took ASL 1 as a junior, skipped right to ASL 3 as a senior, and ended up being at the student at the top of the class. He has stood out as a positive influence and a good example in the school as a whole, something that the admin made sure to point out. Apparently, he has been optimistic and upbeat, something that the school has sorely needed this year, and people have noticed. I don’t think he had any idea how much of a difference he has made, but he has been a source of good in his sphere of influence.

So yes, this has been an extremely difficult year for him. It has held challenges that none of us could have predicted a year and a half ago. He has dealt with a lot of disappointment and discouragement along the way, as well as a good amount of frustration and stress. But he not only survived, he managed to thrive in adversity (though he may not have been aware of it) and has made a difference for those around him. And he has learned a lot both in the classroom and out. Adversity makes us stronger, and I hope that Nathan will be able to see the strength he has gained as he finishes a chapter in his life and prepares to move on to the next one.

 

He’s a Gentleman and a Scholar

A few weeks ago, Nathan submitted applications for Sterling Scholar. He was allowed to submit applications for up to three different categories, so he chose to apply for the award in math, music and science. Each student was only allowed to win in one category. The kids who submitted more than one application were asked to rate them in terms of which was their preferred and least preferred so that if they were being considered for more than one, the committee would know which category was more important to the students. Nathan chose math as his top choice, then science and music.

Nathan got some good news yesterday. He actually had the choir teacher congratulate him and when he looked confused, the teacher made him check his email…right now! So Nathan checked and discovered that he was the school Sterling Scholar in math. Needless to say, he was super excited! He honestly loves math. Not only does it come easily to him, but he gets so excited about it. He comes home and draws equations on my white board and talks about all the stuff that fascinates him. He is nearly giddy about it sometimes. It is actually really funny how excited he gets about it!

Today he got another bit of info. He is on very good terms with the majority of his teachers and as such, they share information with him that they would not usually share with a student. Apparently, he was the top choice in all three categories in which he applied, and they chose which award to give him based on his personal preference. This is definitely not information to share with other students, especially those who applied in the same categories, but talk about an ego stroke!

I’m so pleased with how well Nathan has done in school. He is a good student, he enjoys learning, and his enthusiasm for his favorite topics is so obvious. As someone who is a teacher by trade, having a student who is excited about learning is always enjoyable and never happens as often as you’d like. So I can see how he was at the top of the list three times.

Sentinel Strong

Despite the many changes in school routines due to Covid, our high school is doing everything it can to provide as normal a school experience as possible. One of those normal things is selecting students of the month and Sentinels of the month. Each month, ten students are selected as students of the month. They can be in any grade and are nominated by a teacher for being outstanding students in one way or another. The two Sentinels of the month are seniors who have excelled in a variety of ways and stand out for having a positive impact within their circles at the school. The entire faculty works together to select the Sentinels each month.

Last week Nathan got called down to the office and although he reacted to that news with trepidation, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was being honored as one of this school year’s first Sentinels of the Month and not being sent home to quarantine. The principal then proceeded to share with him one of the reasons he was selected. Over the summer, as Nathan was trying to figure out what his school schedule needed to look like, he emailed the physics teacher (whom he had never met) and basically asked her to change the period that AP Physics was taught so he could take the class. Apparently, it became widely known that Nathan has requested a change to the school master schedule so that he could take more math classes. And the school was able to comply which is not only pretty darn amazing but provided a great deal of entertainment value to the faculty. The whole thing made the principal laugh, but in a good way.

This morning Kevin and I were able to attend a small awards ceremony at the school. It was a light breakfast (sack lunch style in a nod to safely handling food in a Covid careful world) where each student was highlighted, given a nice certificate and presented with a 2020-2021 school pin. These particular pins are only given to students who are being honored in some way, so it is kind of a big deal. Nathan also received a small glass trophy (for lack of a better word). Each one of Nathan’s teachers wrote a paragraph about the impact he has had on the school and the reasons he stands out to them. Those comments were all printed on the back of Nathan’s award certificate and it was so fun to read about the person that he is at school. I’m so glad that despite his concerns about the possible implications of going to school in the middle of a pandemic Nathan has been a force for good in the school. It seems like there is not enough good to go around these days.

He’s a Winner! (Winner, Winner, Winner..)

It’s the time of year for awards ceremonies. Unlike when I was in school a million years ago, the ceremonies are always held during the school day and the parents are only invited if their student is getting a particularly special award. As such, I’ve attended a few here and there but haven’t been to all of them.

This year I got to attend Nathan’s awards ceremony. Last week the school principal called to invite me. He said they give an award akin to the Sterling Scholar award only on the middle school level. Each department within the school works together to nominate two ninth-grade students (one boy and one girl) that they felt excelled in their area. Nathan was nominated three times-choir, social studies, and English. They only allow each student to receive one award so the three departments had to come to an agreement about which one he would receive. Based upon the fact that there is a smaller pool of students to choose from, they let the choir teacher give Nathan the award.

Today was the big day and Nathan was super excited when he received his award. He also received a medal for having a 4.0 GPA for all three years he was at the middle school. And the funny fact about the day? After the ceremony, the theater teacher told Nathan that she and the choir teacher both wanted to give Nathan their department award and “fought it out” before the nominations were ever submitted. 😂

I actually think it’s unfortunate that they won’t give more than one award to each student. Nathan clearly shone above the rest in a variety of areas and I would have loved to see him get four!

Sisterly Love

When Malia said her prayers tonight, she thanked Heavenly Father for all the awards Matthew has won this week. How sweet is that? 😊

A Through Z and a Trophy!

Another school year has come and gone. Though it is hard for me to believe, Malia has finished kindergarten. Her teacher had a super fun way for the kids to count down to the end of school. At 26 school days before the end of the year, they started an “ABC Countdown.” Each day they had an activity of some kind that started with the letter of the day. For example, A was “animal day” and each kid was able to bring a small stuffed animal to school. G was “game day,” one of Malia’s favorites. They also had ice cream day, juice day, and the previously mentioned Kaleidoscope day.  The very last day was “zoom out of school” day. Each child made a cardboard box car at home and yesterday they took their cars to school and watched a drive-in movie. Once again, I surprised by how many cars were clearly parent work rather than the child’s work. I definitely helped Malia with hers, but she did the bulk of the job and she was enormously proud of how it turned out.

Today was the last day of school for grades 1-6. I went to the school an hour before it ended to pick up Matthew and Malia’s meds from the office and Malia happened to see a few gold trophies on the counter in the school office. She asked what they were for and of course, I had no idea. But a few minutes later the head secretary came over and congratulated Malia. We were flummoxed so she told us that the awards assembly had been earlier that morning and Malia had won an award for having perfect attendance. And guess what? The trophies were for the perfect attendance winners! Since the kindergarteners had already finished the school year, Matthew claimed Malia’s trophy for her which meant she had to wait a while hour and a half before he got home and she could see her trophy! But it was worth the wait!

So kindergarten ended with a vroom and an award. Malia has had a very successful year. She has learned a lot. She has made some friends. She has gained confidence and independence. She has loved school and her teacher. She has learned to read and is very prepared for the next big adventure: 1st grade!

Juvenile (Non)Delinquent

Have you ever been contacted by the Utah State Department of Corrections? I have. And the inquiry was about my son…although he wasn’t listed by name and I had to inquire about which one. After discovering the reason for the email, I chose not to tell Nathan knowing it would make things more fun later on. ;-)

A few days later, a package showed up on our doorstep addressed to Nathan. I knew what was in it, but he has no idea and was somewhat concerned when he saw that it was from the Utah Board of Juvenile Justice. But it was all good because he was a runner up on the state level for a nation-wide essay contest called “Do the Write Thing.” Each state had 2 finalists that went to Washington D.C. And while Nathan was not one of the lucky two, he was still thrilled with the honorable mention. He got a t-shirt, a certificate, a copy of the book that had the essays of all the winners and honorable mentions (it was exciting to see his work in there), and an assortment of other things.

I sometimes worry that coming after Daniel will be hard for the other kids because Daniel has done so well and has had so much success, but each of my children have blazed their own paths and had their own successes and I’m so proud of them all!

Journal Jar #2-The Most Surprised I’ve Ever Been

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a particularly athletic person. I can dance and I can play volleyball a little bit, but besides that I’m pretty useless. As such, P.E. was always the class I dreaded. I absolutely hated having to run the mile and a half knowing that I would be the last person to finish. Those classroom weigh ins and such were humiliating. And having to hang from the chin up bar in front of everyone knowing full well that I was never going to get my chin anywhere even remotely close to the bar was sheer torture.

So you can imagine my dismay when I got called down to the counselor’s office just after registration for 9^th grade and was told that due to the number of classes I was taking that were only taught during one period, the only P.E. class available for me was the class reserved for the girls’ basketball team. They had talked to the teacher and explained my situation. She had agreed that I could take P.E. at that time and could adjust to my abilities. To me, it seemed like just about the worst thing that could ever happen. But I wasn’t about to drop orchestra or one of my accelerated classes so I could take P.E. with the normal people. So I ponied up and agreed that it was a workable solution.

P.E. that year was one humiliation on top of another. Not only was I still the last one to finish the 1.5 mile run, but I was out there by myself for at least twenty minutes after the rest of the class went in. Not only could I not make a basket to save my life, but I didn’t even know the rules for basketball. The only unit where I didn’t feel like a complete dork was aerobics. Only then did my ability to be graceful put me just one step above all those Amazons. Now don’t get me wrong. Those girls were nice to me. They never teased me or treated me like crap. But we weren’t exactly friends either. It was a pretty miserable situation. One of the only perks was the fact that Cassidy, one of my best friends since kindergarten who lived just around the block, was in another accelerated gym class for the same reasons I was. She was marginally more athletic than I was, but not much. So at least I had someone to commiserate with.

Flash forward to the end of the year. As usual, I was invited to the end of year awards ceremony. That was not a big surprise for me. Neither were the majority of the awards I received. I think I received an award for orchestra and English that year. I know there were others, but honestly I can only remember for certain one specific award. As they got ready to announce the award for outstanding girl in P.E., I pretty much tuned out. I mean, there was no way I was getting that award. So after they announced my name, I just sat there for a minute. And then I started laughing. Right out loud. And my parents were sitting in the audience laughing. I walked up to receive my award, still laughing, and then they announced the winner of the second outstanding girls’ P.E. award. It was Cassidy. And then there were two sets of parents laughing. I’m sure everyone there thought they were the worst parents ever. But they weren’t. They were just as incredulous as their two academically inclined daughters. After the fact, we were told that we were chosen to receive those awards not because we were the best female athletes in our grade, but because we had tried the hardest to do the best we could in a tough situation. Only then did just a little bit of pride join the overwhelming humor of the event.

So there you have it. Most surprised I’ve ever been. And honestly, one of the funniest moments in my life.