Weekly Review June 12 '10

Tanner's 8th Grade Ceremony

Sorry for the blurry pictures! There weren't the best picture-taking conditions.

Getting his certificate from the principal and the assistant principle

With us

Seth playing with one of the carnations presented to us by Tanner.

Tanner with his Language Arts / Social Studies teacher. She just adores him!

Tanner with the middle school instructional assistant and his Science / Math teacher

With a good friend who came to the ceremony--she was in middle school with him last year.

Whew! It is late Friday night and I am tired. We had a very busy week, between last week of school activities and getting ready for vacation. If I gave you a play-by-play account of everything we did, I’m sure you would all get exhausted just reading about it, so I will spare you! But so you can get an idea of what we did all week, I’m going to give you a list of all the things we did instead.

So here it goes: checked on plane tickets & printed up boarding passes, checked on what we are allowed to pack (airline guidelines), arranged to have mail delivery stopped, went visiting teaching (Annette), eye doctor appointment for Scott, soccer practice, worked on the quiet book (the completed pages are all put together now!), worked on Eagle scout project application (Scott), visited new Deacons (Tanner), finished weather merit badge (Tanner & Jared), went to Relief Society meeting (Annette), got haircuts (Annette, Scott, Tanner, Jared & Seth), got hair color touched up (Annette), finished cleaning / organizing the kitchen (Annette), went to a birthday party (Seth, accompanied by Annette), pulled weeds in front and back yards (Annette), “graduated” from 8^th Grade (Tanner), went to an end-of-school-year party (Scott), got a learner’s permit (Scott), and packed & packed & packed!

Of course, in between all that, there was laundry, shopping, and cleaning. That translates into running from one thing to the next all day long, without stopping!

I just want to add a few details about some of the more notable events of the week. Scott got his learner’s permit on Wednesday. He is very excited about it and now asks if he can drive almost everywhere we go. He’s done a decent amount of driving the last couple of days, although we haven’t let him drive every time. Since he has not ever driven on the road until this week, we have opted not to let him drive in some of the trickier areas of town (such as downtown historic Frederick, with its one way streets and very narrow lanes) until he has a bit more experience under his belt. He’s done pretty well so far, though. Scott’s last day of school was Thursday—the high schools reserve the last day of school for make up exams, so if you don’t have any exams to make up you don’t have to go that day. One of his friends from church had the party that evening. Scott got a ride home with another boy in the ward, and got home very late!!!

Tanner had his 8^th Grade Ceremony Thursday evening as well. Seth didn’t want to stay home with Scott & Jared, so we took him with us. They had a nice little ceremony, including several students sharing talents. The most unique talent was one boy who played his accordion while singing “Another One Rides the Bus” by Weird All Yankovitch. He really got into it. At the end of the ceremony, they each got a certificate and then their parents had to come up so they could present us with pink carnations, and every student got a photograph taken with his / her parents. There were only 17 8^th graders at his school this year—10 girls and 7 boys—so that made it a nice, more personalized experience. After the ceremony, there were refreshments and mingling. They had a collage with baby pictures of all the 8^th graders displayed. Tanner didn’t want to leave as early as we did, but Scott was late for his party and Seth had had enough. We are proud of Tanner for making it this far. He has really grown and improved this year. He brought home his report card, and he got all A’s this term. His teachers had really good things to say about him. Next year, going to high school, is going to be a big change for him. I know he felt pretty sad today because he is leaving his little circle of friends (most of his class mates will go to different high schools) and the school that he has attended since 1^st grade. Because they are a small group, they have really bonded with each other. Thankfully, I do feel like Tanner is ready for high school now, and I know he will make new friends.

At the Relief Society Meeting, we had a yummy dinner of various salads (I wish I had the recipes) and I attended two classes--one on parenting and one on marriage. They were both very good, thought provoking and inspiring classes, so I am glad that I went.

Seth is still being stubborn about potty training, so I’ve just given up on it until after vacation. He has been giving me scares quite a bit lately because he has developed this habit of running away from me. Several times at the park or in other public places such as the library or restaurants, he has made a break for it—and I don’t just mean running to another part of the building—he goes straight out the door and heads for the street (or for the stream, when we are at the park)! He is remarkably fast, and I have discovered that the sandals I wear in the summertime are terrible when it comes to running in them. We have had several talks about why he can’t do things like that, but he just doesn’t get it yet. That is why we are taking a stroller with us to Utah!! He is doomed to be strapped into something until he learns not to run off.

Frank has also had an incredibly busy week. He’s had a lot of things to get done at work before we leave. We are all very ready for vacation!! It’s hard to believe that we will see so many of you so soon. We are very excited about it, though—even though we’ve heard the high in Utah tomorrow is going to be only in the 40’s. So that’s it for this week! Tomorrow we will be traveling most of the day.