Another Box Car joins our fleet

Two years ago, Ammon bought his first vehicle: an '89 Chevy truck. He's always wanted a truck for his first vehicle, and he and Josh shopped around for a while until he found one that was affordable and that he liked. Josh went in on the purchase of it, too, so that he could use it if needed until Ammon was old enough to drive. And it was useful: there was that time that our truck's transmission went out, so Josh used Ammon's truck for weeks to pull his mowing trailer with, and there were times when we needed more than one truck for hauling/loading/moving stuff. It was a good truck for Ammon and it served its purposes for Josh, too. 

Ammon got his learner's permit last summer, and his driver's license in January. It was expensive to add him to the auto insurance plan this past winter, but it was nice to have an additional driver so he could take himself to all his sports practices, work, and help with driving the boys to their activities. We told him we were happy to pay the insurance for him as long as he followed the rules. Well, unfortunately for him...that didn't last very long. In Idaho, you can get your license when you're 15, but you can't drive at night until you're 16. There was one night back in February that Ammon made some terrible choices while with some not-so-good friends. He lied to Josh and I about his whereabouts, and after inquiring with other kids' parents, we found out where he really was, and when we saw him, he was in the passenger seat while another 15-year-old friend was driving HIS truck around AFTER dark. Josh and I were both shocked--and I was also livid. There were several punishments that we gave to Ammon as a result of his terrible choices, and one was that he had to pay for his own car insurance. He also had to start paying for all his own gas. Both were very costly to him, and after a few months, he knew that he would have to get a different vehicle with better gas mileage in order to be able to keep affording to put gas in his vehicle. We used to have a small brown Honda Accord that we'd sold when he bought the truck, because he said he didn't want to drive a small car, but he soon realized how much more practical a car would be! He wanted to buy the silver box car from Josh and I, but I wouldn't allow it: I've come to just love our car! So, Josh helped him look online and found him a good deal on a 2005 Scion XB (the same model as ours). In May, Ammon bought the car and sold his truck, and has been happy with his purchase. It's a stick-shift (like ours), it gets about 30 miles to the gallon, and is roomy enough for Ammon, his friends, and all their stuff. It's a year older than our silver car, and has more miles on it, but it was also a lot cheaper than our car too. Once Ammon pays off the car (Josh helped him purchase it, so he has to pay Josh back his portion), he plans on purchasing some black rims for his tires to make it look "cooler". 

We now have 4 vehicles in our driveway: Josh's Dodge Truck, our Suburban (for when the family all goes somewhere together), my silver box car (for running back and forth to town and going on quick out-of-town trips), and Ammon's black box car. 

Also, I'm happy to report that he's been making smarter choices, both with his driving AND with his friends, since that incident! In fact, today he is driving to Idaho Falls and back all by himself for the first time to go to one of his Jr. IGA golf tournaments!

End-of-Schoolyear Summary

Yay! We survived another school year! Here's a summary of the good news from the school year at Pioneer Elementary:

This boy got straight A's, got 100% Attendance for the year, got referred to and started attending G&T (Gifted & Talented), liked his homeroom teacher Mr. Chinske, and officially ended his elementary school experience (next year he will go to the high school now that it's 6th-12th grades).

This boy had the same homeroom teacher Mrs. Baker for the 3rd time in elementary school, got straight A's, got 100% Attendance for the year, made new friends (some gave him the nickname "Meekai"), and had a positive experience in 5th grade.

This boy got straight A's in 2nd grade, was in the high-level reading group, loved doing math facts, enjoyed running in P.E., liked his teacher Mrs. Wilkins, and received the faithful attendance award for the year (he only missed one day due to the stomach flu),

This year was much different for me, because it was the first time I was working at the school without being the music teacher. I'm not going to lie: it was extremely difficult. I cried several times throughout the year because I missed it so much. But, I did get to work in the Kindergarten, which was the next best place for me. I worked with Mrs. Mark, and we had two very large classes, the AM and PM, both with 24 kids each. Mrs. Mark was great to work with, and allowed me to teach and take charge during certain times, because she understood that it was so hard for me to go from creating my own lesson plans to enforcing someone else's classroom structure and rules. I taught the kids the math center (which was so fun), I was in charge of the highest level reading group (which I loved), I read many books to the kids using my theater voices (which made my soul feel alive), and I taught the students lots of songs (which was glorious). 

Our PM class

I even got to write and direct Kindergarten Graduation this year, and I'm so glad! I've been in charge of it the last 4 years, and I didn't want to let it go. The new music teacher and the principal weren't going to have Kindergarten Graduation this year, but it's been a school tradition for over 10 years, and I said I would be more than happy to be in charge of it, because I wanted to see it continue. I had the kids help me write it: I asked them all questions for about a week, and compiled all their answers to create the program about all the things they learned in Kindergarten. Then I split the program up into easy 1-3 sentence parts, and gave the parts to all the students in my reading group, so we could practice them during the last week of our reading group time. There were a few kids who didn't want to speak, and other students gladly took on the others' extra parts. I was surprised that all the students even memorized their speaking parts! Then we had 8 songs to break up the program and the songs went along with what the kids spoke about. I played the piano to accompany them, we sang a couple songs a cappella, and Miss Jane, one of our weekly volunteers, brought her guitar and sang two songs with them, too. At the end, each student said their name in the microphone and said what they wanted to be when they grow up. The graduation was in the school gym this year (the other years it was in the Annex building, but they closed it along with the middle school last year), and although the sound wasn't the greatest (since the microphone wasn't hooked up to built-in speakers like in the Annex, just two large speakers on the floor), I think the program went wonderfully! I was so proud of the students, and I loved that everything all worked out!

I spent a lot of time with these kids; I went EVERYWHERE with them! In addition to class time, I also followed them to library, P.E., recess, and walked them to the bus every day. I really got to know all the kids, and I just loved them. I enjoy being around young students: they are so accepting and forgiving, and most are good-natured. When I was a music teacher, I occasionally got thank you cards, and once in a rare while, I received gifts from students. But as a homeroom teacher's helper, I was showered with gifts at Christmas and the end of school. I was so surprised with what I received, and it made me feel so appreciated and loved!

The gifts I received at the end of the school year

I especially love when students write their own cards and draw pictures for me. I used to have a display area in my music room for them, but since I don't have that anymore, I thought I would put photos on here of a few of them I got at the end of the year from my thoughtful students:

I'm glad we all ended the school year on a positive note, because I admit we are a little anxious about next year: Jonah and Micah will be in 6th grade at the high school which is all new for us because when Ammon was in 6th grade it was still in the middle school, we have no idea who Kanyon's 3rd grade teacher will be because one teacher had a surprise retirement, and another 3rd grade teaching position is vacant, and I don't know what/where my job will be, although right now the principal and Mrs. Mark are planning on me being in Kindergarten, but there are already 50 kids registered, and if more kids register, then another teacher will most likely be hired and I will be transferred to another position.

End-of-School Events

Our last day of school was Thursday, June 4. It was the latest we've ever gotten out of school before, due to the fact that the elementary school got a new roof last summer, so we started two weeks later than normal as a result. It was hard going to school in June; we were all ready to be done the end of May!! And it didn't help that the last week of school was especially chaotic, both during the day and in the evenings. All four kids were involved in multiple activities/events (not all of them were school related), and it was a juggling act trying to make it to all of them! Here's some of the school-end stuff that the boys did that last week (not including field trips):

AMMON:

Ammon was invited to attend the high school awards banquet, but we weren't sure exactly what his award would be for. Each department gave individual awards in different areas, and Ammon received his award from the music department. 

He earned his Academic Music Letter for being in audition group 2 years. Even though he's just a freshman, he was also in the high school's audition band last year as well. 

His band concert was the following evening. The jazz band played 3 pieces, and Ammon had a solo during one of the songs. It's also the same song and solo that he played at the Lagoon music competition. 

KANYON:

The same night as Ammon's high school awards ceremony (and a scout court of honor that the twins went to), Kanyon had his 2nd grade authors party. For two months, the second graders had all been working on creating a book. They all wrote their own stories, typed it up, drew pictures to illustrate the storyline, assembled it, and added nice covers to their masterpiece. At the author's party, all the books are on display, and everyone brings a potluck dish to share. Kanyon's book was called "The Fish". He decided to make a book about fish because that's something he knew he could draw pictures of! Two of his characters are named after people he knows in real life: Mr. Sloan is a missionary that has come to dinner at our house before, and Lisa is his aunt from Virginia that sends him postcards. He was very proud of his finished product, and was so happy to show it to us!

The inside of the front cover

There was a company that brought inflatables to town the last week of school, and we took Kanyon to it one night while the twins were at scouts. I went with Kanyon, and Josh went with the twins. Kanyon had so much fun jumping and playing with his friend Rudi and her brother Tane for almost two hours. When he jumped on the trampoline with harnesses, he did 8 back flips in a row. While he was waiting to go on that ride, a girl who was behind him in line said she had done 3 in a row, and no one else had been able to do that. He was determined to beat that, and did on his very first try too, which was so remarkable!

Kanyon was getting really good at climbing on the monkey bars at the school's playground, and he had me take several pictures of him playing on them while I was on recess duty. He liked playing with Merissa, and called himself her "bodyguard" during recess time.

I read to Kanyon's class once a week all year long, and the last book I read to them was a chapter book by Roald Dahl titled "Fantastic Mr. Fox". I finished it the week before school was out, so I said for the last week of school we could have a feast, just like the foxes did at the end of the book. I brought a feast to the class on the morning of the last day of school, and we watched a few short clips of the movie as well. All the food items were similar to something from the feast in the book: I brought chicken-in-a-biskit crackers (to represent the chickens), carrots (like they got for the rabbits in the story), donut holes (since one of the farmers liked to stuff goose livers in his donuts), ham and turkey slices (to represent those animals they ate), bacon bits (as a representative of the real bacon they had), apple cider (one of the farmers only drank strong cider), and blue marshmallow chicks (to represent the ducks from the story--close enough!). It was a fun ending to our weekly storytime!

At our school's Field Day, Kanyon was in the Medicine Ball Throw, the Hula Hoop Contest, and the 100m dash (that unfortunately I missed due to Kindergarten Graduation being the same morning). For the medicine ball throw, there was a mix-up in the line that he was in, and he was bumped up to the starting spot after someone a couple spots ahead of him backed out, and I wasn't prepared with my camera fast enough. This was right after he threw the ball, and it went far! I was really surprised because that ball is awkward and heavy! He got first place in 2nd grade boys.

Kanyon was a fantastic hula hooper! There were 6 second grade boys competing, and he got first place!! This again surprised me that he did so well because we don't even own a hula hoop! Although, I shouldn't really be surprised because he's always been good at keeping constant rhythm!

He kept turning around to see if there was anyone else still going

JONAH & MICAH:

The elementary school's field day was the day before the last day of school. The school had never done this type of large-scale event before, instead, the individual grades used to all have their own track meet. But we had a new principal and a new P.E. teacher this year, and other schools have done this, and they wanted to try it, too. They split the 1st-5th graders into 3 teams: Green, Blue, and Orange. There were kids of every grade on each team. Then the kids picked what events they wanted to participate in, and most had 1 or 2 representatives from each gender & grade on the team, then they all competed against each other. It turned out pretty fun, but there were some drawbacks. When they used to do track meets, the kids could participate in up to 4 events and most did, but in this case, they were more limited and most kids only did 2-3 events due to the limited capacity and the number of students involved. And because Jonah and Micah are in a predominantly male class (45 out of 60 are boys in their grade), they had even less choice of what they could do, which they didn't like. 

The stands were full of participants and spectators

There were always 2 events going on: one on the track, and one on the field

Jonah and Kanyon were both on team blue, and Micah was on team green. I didn't realize beforehand that they were supposed to wear their team's color to school that day--and apparently a lot of people didn't know that either, so some of the kids in Micah's class chose to have team spirit by writing their team name on their faces instead!

Jonah and Micah were each in a running event, but unfortunately I missed it due to Kindergarten Graduation being at the same time (thankfully Josh got to see them do that, but he didn't take any photos). Micah ran the 400m and got 2nd place, and Jonah ran the 100m and got 4th place. Micah was also in the water brigade, and Jonah was in the egg relay (which were both team events). They wanted to each do more events, but due to limitations they couldn't.

The day after school got out, Jonah and Micah had 11 year old scout camp. It was organized by the stake and was a 2-day event, and it was also their first scout overnighter. They met on Friday morning at the city park to pass off swimming requirements, then they headed to Cockrell Campground with the leaders, the other boys, and all their gear for the remainder of the activities.

Jonah and Micah are both in the back, near Kota who's wearing the green shirt

Josh went up in the evening and helped with dinner. It was the same night as high school graduation, so Ammon had to play in the band at that, and I had to conduct the band (for the first time ever) because Mr. A had to go to his grandpa's funeral. Because of his work schedule, Josh wasn't able to spend the night with them, but he was glad he got to go and spend time with them that evening. On Saturday morning, the boys went on a 5-mile hike. After lunch, they finally returned back home. They were tired, but they'd had a good time, and I'm glad the stake provided this activity for them because they got a lot of requirements passed off, and they had fun while doing it, too.

Micah's group returning from the hike

Jonah's group returning from the hike

June 2015 on FB

June 1: Buzzed this boy's hair tonight after he attempted to cut his own hair (not once, but TWICE) and he cut it to the scalp in a few spots (both times). He's not very happy with the new haircut, so I hope a lesson has been learned in the process!

June 2: I caught a glimpse of the future over the weekend when I saw an older version of Micah in the face of some stranger. The similarities are uncanny: same style of glasses, same hairstyle, same facial shape, same skin tone, similar facial expression. I'm pretty sure Micah will look a lot like this fellow in about 7 or 8 more years!  

June 3: I was so nervous/excited for my students' Kindergarten Graduation today that I woke up at 4am and couldn't go back to sleep! They did a wonderful job and I was very proud of them! And as soon as graduation was over, I watched my own children at the elementary school's Track & Field Day, and I was beaming with pride for their athletic skills, too. It's been a good, but exhausting, day!

June 4: Hooray for the last day of school!!! I'm so glad it FINALLY came!

June 5: Today is the FIRST day of summer 2015; Jonah and Micah left this morning to their FIRST overnight scout campout, I get to direct the band tonight at high school graduation for the FIRST time ever, and Kanyon declared he was going next door to Grandma's house, where he ate his FIRST ice cream sandwich of the summer!

June 6: Today felt like summer! Oh that's right...because it finally and actually is!!!

June 7: Watched "Pitch Perfect 2" with girlfriends at the theater last night, and loved it! I laughed so hard at everything the girl from Guatemala said!!! Also, the surprise of Pentatonix performing in the movie was fun to see, too!

June 8: Five years ago today we moved into our current home. Purchasing this home was one of the best decisions of my adult life!! I love having a bathroom connected to our master bedroom, a bathroom just for the boys (although I wish it had a urinal), an open kitchen, and a family room for the kids to play in that's separate from the living room. Josh surprised me today with a new air conditioner for it, and I'm loving being in the much cooler house (literally) on a hot summer day like today!

June 9: Only one Peony bloomed on my bushes this year. My goodness, it is beautiful to see and lovely to smell. I wish there were more of them!

June 10: This is my new favorite yogurt. I was introduced to it by my sister Lisa in Virginia back in February, and our local grocery store recently started carrying it, which makes me super happy!!

June 11: Science has been my least favorite subject for a very long time, and I'm not really sure why. I'm currently halfway through my college class 'Integrated Natural Science' (which I've been dreading for months) and I'm finding it extremely interesting and fascinating!

June 12: Josh and the boys went to Father & Son Campout tonight, so I spent a quiet evening at home alone, eating what I felt like (rice with chicken, cheese, & coconut), and watching what I wanted (a DVD of the original Broadway show "Into the Woods")! 

June 13: Oh Snap! I just realized today that some of the "weeds" I've been constantly pulling out of my flower box all spring are actually Snapdragons!!! Epic Green Thumb Failure!!!

June 15: I haven't been camping since March, and it is long past overdue to go again! So...today is the day to make that happen! (Even if it is just going to be a 24-hour excursion.)

June 19: I went golfing tonight for the first time this year. Josh and I played together on Couple's Golf League. The golf course was so beautiful and i just loved seeing the products of his daily hard work! Also, we made par on 3 of the holes, so that was a bonus, too!

June 20: Took Jonah on his monthly date tonight. He chose to go to the 28 Club, and he ordered his first Prime Rib! It was so big, he couldn't finish it all (although due to the angle of this picture, the scone looks about the same size as the large cut of delicious meat)!

June 23: Jonah, Micah, and Kanyon all scored goals tonight in their soccer games! It was exciting to watch them!

June 24: I feel so elated! I just took my Integrated Science college final and PASSED!! It's a huge moment for me due to mental challenges (I've always struggled with science), emotional blocks (I quit working on this class for 6 solid weeks because I didn't think I had what it took to finish school and become a teacher), and pressing deadlines (I was supposed to be done with this 4-credit class on June 12, and I didn't even start working on it until June 5th). I was able to get this 2-month class done in 2.5 weeks, and although it's taken up my entire summer thus far, it's been worth it because I feel so empowered and proud of myself at the moment!!

June 29: Took the boys to see the movie "Inside Out" today. I totally loved the mini-movie before it! Now I just want to say {sing} "I lava you"!!

June 30 [posted by Josh]: Sometimes my "office" is simply amazing! I loved how the clouds and shadows formed a direct line off Monument and Freeman peaks in the sunrise this morning.

June 30: I went on vacation for the first time this summer, and took the boys with me. We were gone four days, and had a great time with family and friends, but I'm so glad to be home and sleep in my own bed tonight! And apparently the boys were just glad to be home so they could all use our own toilet again. It seems as if 4 days is the max amount we can be gone, because as soon as we walked in the door, everyone had to instantly go poop!