Mama Bear

I got to be "Mama Bear" again this fall.  I had to contact Weston's English teacher about the 9th grade reading material.  Weston came home one day disgusted with the book he was reading - "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian."  He showed me the passage he had read, and I was shocked to see it was on masturbation.  Another chapter talked about "metaphorical boners."  I contacted Weston's teacher to get him a different book to read and inquire about the book choices.  His teacher was helpful and provided the 10 books they got to choose from, along with the descriptions as given by the school.  I was disappointed to find that 8 of the 10 books had content warnings.  He chose a different book without a content warning, but it wasn't a great book either (about a white cop that killed a black teenager).  Weston's teacher hadn't even read the first book and thus wasn't aware of the content.  He also said he didn't choose the books.  All the book selections were chosen and approved by a district committee.  He said I could discuss concerns with the assistant principal.  I got essentially the same thing from the assistant principal, but he also gave a district contact.  I tried to contact her, but she never responded back to me at all.  I spent a couple of days collecting online reviews and additional content warnings for all 10 of the books for 9th grade English classes.  All 10 books needed content warnings.  They all had profanity.  Several had violence and sexual content.  The books that were supposed to raise cultural awareness were given negative reviews from members of those particular communities saying they weren't a good representation of their community.  It was all garbage reading material.  I sent my "book reports" to Weston's teacher, the assistant principal, and district administrator.  I also emailed several friends to warn them of the reading material for 9th grade.  At least I could raise awareness among other parents of what their kids are reading if the district won't do anything about it. We also realized (according to Owen) that it's better to take the separate Ethnic Studies class instead of the English / Ethnic Studies combo class because the combo class just has to read garbage YA modern novels that supposedly raise cultural awareness.  The separate Ethnic Studies class actually focuses on the history of racism and oppression of other groups in society.  

Here are the book selections for 9th Grade English

I also had to help Owen get into National Honor Society.  He had applied the end of October and then got a rejection letter in November.  We were shocked that he didn't get in and wondered how it was possible that he didn't qualify.  He has a 4.3 GPA, taking AP classes, has lots of service and leadership, along with glowing character reviews from his coaches and teachers.  He excels in all 4 areas of NHS - character, leadership, service, and scholarship.  He wrote his essay, got the required teacher letters, and turned in everything by the deadline.  I told him to follow up with the NHS adviser, inquiring why he didn't qualify.  At first, the adviser responded that the committee used a "holistic approach" to selection and he wasn't chosen.  She also said he didn't get one his teacher recommendations.  The teacher letters were actually in, so that wasn't the reason.  Owen had personally spoken with the teachers and had verified those were turned in.  Then the adviser said it came down to Owen not sending an email confirmation to her after moving his 20 service hours from his general hours to donate to NHS.  She mentioned in the email to let her know if Owen needed help moving those hours and then letting her know when the hours had been moved.  Well, Owen didn't need help going to the career center to complete that task.  He did that on his own, but he didn't know he was required to send confirmation to the NHS adviser after doing so.  Since he had failed to do that, she wouldn't re-consider him for NHS this year.  She simply told him to apply again next year.  After a couple of failed attempts by Owen to be re-considered, I asked him for her contact info - my turn.  She tried to tell me the same thing.  I pointed out that Owen is known for his good communication with his coaches and teachers.  Owen's volleyball coach actually gave him a shout out in the parent meeting as being great at communicating.  I also told her that communication wasn't one of the measured areas of excellence for NHS and how she could have communicated a little better by letting Owen know that he wouldn't be admitted if he didn't confirm moving his service hours.  I also pointed out that simply telling juniors to re-apply the next year was a disservice to their college success, since some applications for college have to be turned in before acceptance is given for NHS.  They needed the participation their JUNIOR year to be included on their college applications.  I further pointed out that Owen seemed to be held to a higher standard or targeted for one lapse in communication, disregarding his grades, character, references, and everything else.  It wasn't a "holistic approach" that was used for selection.  The NHS adviser admitted that there were other students who didn't send a confirmation email and didn't get in either.  She said that ALL students who didn't complete that task were rejected.  That was really sad to hear, and I knew it wasn't right.  She was worried that the students wouldn't communicate with her about attendance at NHS meetings.  It seemed to be a hidden communication test as part of the application process.  I pointed out that Owen took the initiative to reach out to her, to follow up and communicate - the very quality she was looking for.  Anyway, she didn't want to accept Owen into NHS, but in her last email, she reluctantly said that if I still believed Owen should participate this year, she could try to skirt the rules on requirements for getting in.  I thought that was great and said, "Let's move forward."  

She sent an acceptance email the next morning, so he did get in this year.  I felt bad for the other students who also got rejected for not sending an email, so I again contacted the assistant principal to make him aware of the application / admittance process for NHS.  He replied back that he spoke with the NHS adviser and they agreed to change the process a bit next year, with a check list and google form to confirm service hours.  That was good, although he didn't mention if the other students affected this year were offered admittance.  I did my part to be the parent advocate that these students didn't know they needed.

We learned from this experience:

1.  Don't give up when you feel like you've earned something.

2.  Follow up on all tasks and communication.

3.  Sometimes you need an advocate to help.

4.   It doesn't hurt to ask for what you want.

Fall Sports

Savannah did swimming again in the fall - August through November.  She got to participate in a couple of meets.  One of them had a fun "pumpkin push" at the end of the meet, where they got to swim while pushing a pumpkin.  She got personal bests in all of the races in her first meet, where she did 50m breaststroke, backstroke, and freestyle.  On her 2nd meet, she got personal bests on 3 of her 4 races.  She got 37.43 on the 50m freestyle, 44.22 on the 50m backstroke, and 1:25 on the 100m freestyle.  She didn't quite PR on the 50m breaststroke but swam a 54.78 (with a 53.34 PR).  She is doing really well.

Weston surprised us and ran on the school cross country team in the fall.  He literally had a pretty slow start, running a 28:33 for 3 miles on his first race.  It also was 95 degrees for that race.  He improved throughout the season, running in 7 races.  He had times of 25:30, 26:06, 24:13, 26:15, 23:28. and a personal best of 22:20 in his last race.  He ran a 7:26 pace for that last race, so he made a lot of progress through the season (dropping over 6 minutes from his first race time).

I had fun with his video montage.  When it came time to choose some music, I was cracking up at the fun easy-going music that somehow was pretty fitting. I did make a second video, which shows the difference that music can make in his perceived running style.

Weston did something funny this season.  On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, he went straight from CC practice to jazz band.  One day he got really hungry in band and asked his band director if he could run home and get something to eat.  He wasn't allowed to leave that day.  The next time, during the middle of his CC run, Weston stopped by home, made a sandwich, and ran out the door with it!  We tried to tell him he should just make a sandwich in the morning and take it with him.  He chose to just run by our house a few times during his run and grab a sandwich.  Funny guy! 

October Misc

It hasn't rained much this year, but one day we got a random hail storm.  The little ice pellets looked like snow on the ground as they piled in one spot as they fell off the roof.  

Owen and Weston had their first choir concert.  

Savannah painted some poster boards for one of the booths at a youth activity.  Our friend Nathan came home from his 2-year mission to Columbia.  We got to help welcome him home.  

We went to a Halloween party at a friend's house.  At the last minute, we decided to wear simple M&M costumes.  Owen taped the M's on different colored shirts.  

Book of Mormon Analysis

The end of September, I finished my Book of Mormon analysis, where I had searched for action phrases.  I was looking for things we were invited to do, not just any verbs throughout the book.  Repent is used the most times (94), followed by the invitation to come unto Christ (58), believe (56), remember (44), and hearken (30).  When combining some words into categories, it's repent (132), keep the commandments (78), be (73), pray (68), serve / do good works (65), come (65), believe (56), search the word of God (49), hear and hearken (48), remember (47), look to God / seek Him (43), love and interacting with others (38), exercise faith / trust in God (37), baptized / born again (36), do / act / work (31), praise and worship God (27), preach the gospel (26), rejoice / lift up (26).  I went all the way down to unique phrases said only once (over 100).  I wasn't surprised that God asks us over and over again to repent.  We need that constant reminder of things we shouldn't do or should be doing.  It's all about change and striving to be a little better each day.  We're asked several times to simply remember, such as "remember that God is merciful".  I was pleasantly surprised with how many times God tells us to rejoice, lift up our eyes or heads, cheer up our hearts, break forth into joy, or be of good comfort.  There is so much to rejoice and delight in despite these challenging times.  We can't keep our heads down or wallow away in despair.  We're meant to have and find joy in the journey and see that the Lord brings us joy.  Some of my favorite phrases are "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ", "stand as witnesses of God," "reconcile yourselves to the will of God," and "come with full purpose of heart and cleave unto God."  I enjoyed doing the analysis.  

The day after I finished my scripture analysis, President Nelson passed away.  As I woke up on Sunday morning, I had the hymn "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet" in my head.  I realized the song intersected with my scripture analysis.  We rejoice in a prophet, the gospel, every blessing.  We find it a pleasure to serve and obey.  When "dark clouds of trouble hang o'er us... there is hope smiling brightly before us... we doubt not the Lord nor His goodness... we'll sing of his goodness and mercy, we'll praise him by day and by night, rejoice in His glorious gospel, and bask in its life-giving light."  We have light in these dark times because of Jesus Christ, and we can repent because of God's grace.  Savannah was singing "Amazing Grace" in the shower after she learned of President Nelson's passing.  I think the Lord speaks to her though music, among other ways.  It was sweet to hear her expressing thoughts through song.  

It was interesting to listen and watch General Conference the next weekend.  President Dallin Oaks wasn't sustained yet as prophet, a new apostle wasn't named, and no new temples were announced.  The talks were good though.  We always enjoy relaxing at home for conference weekend and eating crumb cake.  

Savannah got to go on a youth temple trip the end of October. 

September Misc

 Alex went on a couple of work trips in September.  

Weston had a fun friend birthday party, which was steam punk murder mystery.  Weston had to go in costume as a steam punk adventurer. 

I cut my own hair the beginning of September and then cut it shorter again the next month.  I didn't really want a short hair cut unless I could maintain it on my own.  I didn't want to keep paying for maintenance cuts every few months.  Savannah looked cute for her school picture day.  She did a new painting of Kai.  She loves the dog!

A highlight for the month was having the missionaries over for dinner.  Elder Parks had just started his mission, with his home ward being my sister's ward in TX where her husband is the Bishop.  I got to show him the video Audrey had recently posted of the choir singing.  He recognized the soloist and got a little piece of home.  Owen's seminary class had fun making a pyramid one morning.  We discovered Weston's plastic spoon collection (from school), which he was carrying around in his backpack.  So weird.  It was pretty cool to see the dew drops on the spider webs.  It wasn't cool walking head on into one of those webs another day (when I didn't see the web).  When I discovered that I also had the giant SPIDER from the web on my hat, I flung my hat off pretty quick!  Blah. 

About the middle of September, our clothes washer broke.  We did some loads by hand before we got a new used washer.  The dryer still works.  Shortly after the washer broke, our fridge also stopped working, so we also had to buy a new used fridge.  We're not sure how long these used appliances will last, but we didn't really have money to buy anything (with our Utah housing woes). It was funny that we immediately covered the whole fridge with chore charts, reading charts, and magnets again - also a little weird.  

Anyway, Weston's mini fridge came in handy during the transition.  This was a little amusing, because we picked up the mini fridge a couple months earlier off the side of the road.  It said "free" and even though I said we didn't need it, Weston insisted that he needed it and wanted to bring it home and put it in his room.  I guess it turns out we did need that mini fridge for a bit - another of Weston's "prophecies."  He's had a few other times when he said or had some random little prophecy.  He asked for toilet paper for Christmas 2019 (right before the 2020 toilet paper shortage).  He said he wanted to visit Ukraine "while it still lasts".  A couple months later, Russia invaded Ukraine.  He wanted to buy Ford stock with his "Covid money" but Alex didn't let him.  And then Ford's stock prices went way up (should have listened to Weston on that one).  We say he has the gift of prophecy, but it just comes out at random times.  He can't predict the future or the stock market, but sometimes he says or does something that has us marveling.  

I did a lot of yard work, cleaning, organizing, and decluttering in September.  I made a lot of progress, but it also felt like I was just doing manual labor all month - which was tiring.

September wasn't a great month, but I also enjoyed Owen practicing singing for his solo for his choir class.  He doesn't like the way he sounds, but I enjoyed hearing him practice. 

September Birthdays

Birthdays seemed a little weird this year.  Alex's birthday started the night before with Alex's requested dinner (sweet and sour chicken).  Then some friends from church stopped by with a lemon cake, singing to me, thinking it was my birthday.  We still popped a couple candles in the cake and sang to Alex. I had already made his requested Twix cheesecake bars for dessert.  On his birthday, I made omelets for breakfast.  Then we started to head out to Weston's cross country meet, but the car had a flat tire.  We didn't have time to put on a new tire, so we had to go switch out for the truck (which Owen had taken to work).  Owen ended up having to walk home because he couldn't drive the manual car we left there.  We went to Weston's meet and then the temple.  We ended up driving all around Beverly Hills trying to find a ramp that was open to get back on the freeway.  We made it back just in time to go to a dinner birthday party for one of Alex's colleagues (not ever mentioning it was Alex's birthday while there). One of Alex's friends dropped by with some fancy cookies.  

On my birthday, Alex made German pancakes for breakfast and baked a cake to frost later.  I talked to Jared, since it was his normal day to call.  He didn't know it was my birthday though, even though a friend (Carrie) dropped by with a gift during our call that I showed to him.  He still didn't pick up on that it was my birthday. When it came time for dinner, Alex realized he forgot to get sweet potato fries (which I had requested).  He ran to the store to get those, along with some chocolate and popcorn.  Savannah frosted my cake while he was at the store.  As soon as he got back, we popped the candles on the cake and they sang to me right before Owen and Weston had to run out the door for band and basketball.  They didn't even have time to eat dinner or cake with me.  Nathan did remember my birthday and called me.  A friend (Ashlynn) dropped by with some flowers after dinner.  Savannah wrote me a nice card, and she and I watched a Hallmark movie.  It was a decent day, although I don't think anyone put much thought into it (if they even remembered). Oh well - just another birthday, another year older. 

I did go out to eat a couple weeks later with some friends and my friend Heidi paid for my "birthday lunch" (even though it wasn't my birthday anymore).