Posted on

School Registrations

Anticipating a move from Pleasant Grove to Bluffdale this summer, we went ahead and registered the kids for school up in the Jordan School District.   They are still registered for PG next year too in case we don’t get moved like we have planned on.

Caitlin

Caitlin completed 9th grade this year, which in Utah is at the middle school.  So she is now ready to move onto the higher education I suppose.

PGJH had a fairly well run routine for getting kids registered.  Caitlin wasn’t thrilled with her registration at PG High however.  There were a number of classes she wanted to get into that were unavailable by the time she was allowed to register.   She got into the core classes she needed, but the electives she wanted were filled.

I went over to Riverton High School a few weeks before the year ended to get her registered.  After handling the paperwork they gave me the login info to get her into classes for next year.

Surprisingly Riverton had all of her desired classes available except for photography.  She got into Physics, Digital Media, and Sign Language as well as her core classes.   I’m not sure if Riverton just has more teachers for those electives and that is why they were open, or if she lucked out that not as many people at RHS wanted those classes.

I think she is looking forward to the new year and moving into High School.   She turns 15 this summer, so personally I’m not ready for her to be a High School student.

Joshua

Joshua had an interesting year.   He started the year in 8th grade in MO and ended it in 7th grade at PGJH.   At his request, he’ll be going through 7th grade again next year.

His birthday is in late July.  That means that by Utah deadlines next year he should be one of the youngest 8th graders.  He doesn’t particularly like being one of the youngest, and so holding him back a year would make him one of the oldest 7th graders.  But because his birthday is so close to the deadline he the age gap isn’t any different.  By that I mean he is just as close to the 7th graders in age as he is to the 8th graders.   So socially it isn’t a big deal.

Academically he is plenty smart enough to have stayed in 8th grade all last year and move into 9th this year.   But because of the homeschooling time, and the time lost to fires, he does have some gaps in his knowledge.  He’s smart enough to move ahead, but he’d rather not.

So next year Josh will be in 7th grade, again, at South Hills Middle.  Because it is 7th grade there isn’t a lot of variability in his schedule like there is in Caitlin’s.  He’ll be where ever the 7th grade puts him.

Sports

A portion of his decision making in that regard was athletics.  He loves sports.  And while he is intelligent enough to move ahead, physically he knows he couldn’t compete athletically that way.  Being smart doesn’t make your body mature or grow any faster than anybody else.   That takes time, and he’s willing to spend that time (an additional school year) letting his body mature so that he has a chance to compete and play on sports teams.

Julie and I were torn on this.  We both value academic education very highly.  If he’d stayed ahead he could have graduated High School at 16.  If he moved up with this class he’d finish at 17.  By moving back he’ll finish at 18.   But that isn’t HIS goal.  And it is HIS life, so we will support his decision on how he wants to spend it and what goals he wants to chase after, even if it isn’t what we would choose.

We’ll compensate by getting him into concurrent enrollment, summer college courses, or other alternate education options.  There is no reason that he can’t excel at both academics and athletics as so many others have done.

Elementary School

All of the other kids are moving up a year as expected.  We’ll even be having a new one enter the system.  One of them did express some hope of doing homeschooling again.  So it is possible that we’ll have at least one at home with us.

I’d love to keep them all of the elementary kids home as I really, really don’t like public schooling.  At all!   But that might need to wait until we are more settled in.  As soon as we are I’d love to keep the kids at home around us.

 

And so that is what we have planned for next year’s schooling.  With 6 of 8 going to school the house will feel very empty I’m afraid.  Wish us luck!

Posted on

Examining My Motivation

This question was asked  during church this week… “What motivates you?”  I was able to sit through about 10 minutes of discussion before JR started fussing.  He was loud enough that I needed to leave so that he didn’t bother the rest of the class.   So I sat with him in the hall and thought about that singular question… what is my motivation?

Searching for Motivation

The first answer that came to mind to me is “I have no motivation.”   I didn’t share this with the class, but kept it to myself.   I do find it very hard much of the time to find motivation to do anything.  I’m in a depressed mood much of the time.

Even when I have the desire to get up and do something, quite often the chronic pain is there to change my mind.  I want to get up and be outside doing things, but knowing they are going to hurt while doing them AND continue hurting long after I’ve stopped makes it extremely difficult to do much at all.

Fear of pain

But that means that I am motivated to stay docile because of fear of pain.  Having many times experienced headaches so bad that they leave me vomiting or blacked out, I find pain avoidance to be highly motivating.

Now, because I know that continuing to gain weight will also cause more pain, I do find motivation to do what I can.  Even 8 years after being medically discharged I am still trying to find the threshold between activity and pain.   The same fear of pain that sucks motivation from me, also makes me want to get up and do what I can so that I don’t get worse.  It is a balancing act that I often feel I am failing at.

Love of family

Love for my family is the one thing that consistently overcome my fear of pain.  I will do what NEEDS to be done for them even if I know it will be painful.  Right now this is happening with getting my parents house cleaned out.  We NEED a permanent place to live.  Every day I wake up stiff, sore, and nauseated from pain.   But the clock is ticking toward start of the next school year, so I get up and get moving.

Before this though there were many days when I probably would have stayed in bed all day.  Or if I did get up, I wouldn’t go anywhere as I hate being in public.  If it weren’t that Julie hates this and it makes her feel bad, then I’d never leave the house.

But making Julie happy and wanting to see the kids is enough to get me out of bed and dressed.  It’s really been the only thing getting me to church for years.  Don’t misunderstand,  I love my church.  I have a deep and abiding faith in Christ.   But the pain and PTSD would be enough to keep me from attending except that Julie wants me there with the family.   So I go, for love of the family.

Other motivation?

I don’t know if I can come up with another one.  I don’t do much pleasure seeking, I don’t care about money, I’d rather not be famous.  While at Fort Huachuca I lost the will to live, and am only still here today because of my love for Julie and the kids.   There are occasionally things I would like to do, but they all largely go unfulfilled for reasons previously discussed.   And even when I do something that I “want to do” it is largely unsatisfying.

I have good moments of laughter and love, but am largely unmotivated toward anything in particular.   My decision making paradigm can basically be boiled down to pain avoidance and love of family.

I’d love to hear… what motivates you?

Andrew with his puppy
Andrew circa 2015 with our Great Pyrenees puppy ‘Chief’
Posted on

How the School Year Went for Me!!

School Year

It was an interesting school year for me.  Because of our house fire I attended two different schools in two different states, in two different grades.

Missouri

So, I started the year in Missouri, attending school at Couch Schools.  My parents thought they were registering me for 7th grade, but the school accidentally enrolled me in 8th grade.  The weird thing about it was i am 12 and was the same age as the 6th grade kids.  So I was much younger than the other 8th graders.

We didn’t catch the school mistake until i got my schedule for the school year and all my classes were in the 8th grade. I went home and told my dad about all of the error.  A couple of days later my dad went into the school office and told them that he was fine with me staying in 8th grade as long as they were. He knew that I was able to do the 8th grade school work.  They agreed, and I was left in the 8th grade.  I was doing perfectly fine having skipped 7th grade and was one of the smartest in the class.

Pleasant Grove, Utah

In late October we had a house fire and moved to Utah.  When we got here Mom took me to register for school again at Pleasant Grove Junior High.

Because of my birth date, and because we didn’t think we’d be living here for the entire school year I was placed in 7th Grade.  Now I am among the smartest in my class.  Rather than being 2 years younger than the kids in my class, now I am less than a year younger. All of my classes are a bit easier than they were in Missouri because the school has a lower expectation for my grade than they did for the 8th grade. However, my classes are teaching the things I learned in 8th grade in Missouri.

Most of the things we are being taught I know, however I am still learning a significant amount of stuff. This year in English our teacher has taught us verbs, when to use commas, how to write an essay, how to read and write an outline for an essay, how to combine words, what a compound word is, etc.  But I already knew all of these things from the school in Missouri. So, I didn’t get much from English this school year.

Friends

At first it was hard to make friends here because I came in the middle of the school year.  I didn’t know anyone. So for  a while I sat alone at lunch while I tried to make new friends during my classes. After a while I started to know most of the people and pick some friends. I started to become friends with a lot of people such as the people I would sit next to in my classes. At lunch and at our other free times I would just keep talking to everyone and soon became friends with everyone.

However, I still had some people I didn’t particularly like because most of the things they would talk about didn’t really seem like something I should be listening to. To avoid having that stuff in my mind I would just try to stay away from those people. After a while  I was still hearing things that I didn’t like listening to so I tried to just ignore them and chose not to let that inappropriate language linger in my mind.  I was able to successfully go through the whole school year without lingering on any of the things that I heard and knew were not right for me.

Conclusion

Overall the school year was pretty good.  I miss parts of it because we were moving, but I was still able to learn and enjoy the year.  I am hoping that next school year is just a good, if not better.  Hopefully I can get into classes that I want and that are exciting to me.   I’m looking forward to making new friends at a new school next year, and hopefully get to spend more time with them then here in PG.

 

Posted on

Book Review: Mafia to Mormon

Mafia to Mormon: My Conversion Story by Mario Facione

We had the flu at our house last week and I read Mafia to Mormon while I was down for my 24 hours.  Often times, non-fiction books can be heavy and laborious to read.  But not this one.  And let me assure you, you don’t have to be a Mormon to enjoy and learn from this book.

True Story

Let me begin with a very brief overview.  Mario Facione was a member of the Italian Mafia in Detriot back in the 60’s and 70’s.  But all of that began to change when he was flew into Salt Lake City, Utah, looking for his next big scam.  We got our copy from Jax’s grandmother’s estate so there was a little something extra tucked in the front cover.  Grandma Petersen had clipped a newspaper article from the Deseret Morning News on Dec. 6, 2005.  Entitled “Utah scam led to LDS faith and a new life for Mafioso,” by Doug Robinson, the article added to the intrigue of the book.

“As the title suggests, Facione joined the LDS Church and gave up his life of crime.  After doing a fireside a few years later, he was approached by a woman about doing a book.  Facione declined.

“‘I was scared,’ he says. ‘ I told her when I get through talking you won’t want to do this. When this gets on the street, you’ll evaporate with your family.’

“She persisted. He finally relented. He talked, she wrote (she still does not want her name published).  Facione put the project off for two more years because ‘I had to wait for two guys to leave the scene,’ he says, meaning they had to die. He also did a thorough check of the statute of limitations. The book took 18 years to complete.”

Content

The book encompasses how Mario got involved with the Mafia and his subsequent role as their “cash cow.”  But when two Mormon missionaries, who he mistakes for Feds, show up at his door, he finds his convictions changing rapidly.  His religious conversion is accompanied by loss of fortune and family, and his struggle to transition between two lifestyles, resulting in his potentially lethal request to get out of the mafia.

The book might be described as Mario’s realization of what is meant by the saying ” you cannot serve two masters.”  While discussing the many deals made in his life where a man’s word is his bond, Mario states, “Everything still comes down to a deal in my life, only this time the deal is between me and the Lord.”

Recommendation

I give Mafia to Mormon 12 out of 12 dozen rolls.  This book had me laughing, crying, and gasping in unbelief as I root for a member of the mafia.  And no, you don’t have to be a Mormon to enjoy it.

 

Posted on

What Is That? – Cleaning Out My Parents House

We have concluded the first full week of cleaning out my parents home in preparation for remodeling it.  Sometime later I’ll share some pictures to show what we’re doing.  In the meantime…

“What is that?” is the most common question the kids have asked while cleaning?  So far, the answers have included the following:

What is that?

a record player

hard foam insulation

every tax return my parents have ever filed (back to 1967!)

an entire case of unopened  Christmas lights

my Garbage Pail Kid collection

DB Cooper’s parachute

a slide projector

a dead mouse

a live hawk

a hand made Raggedy Ann doll

5 boxes up empty picture frames

my Yell Leader uniforms from high school

1990 World Book Encyclopedias (follow up question from the kids, “what’s an encyclopedia?”)

the watch my grandfather wore throughout WWII

the Amber Room panels

a gallon jar of  strike anywhere matches

another bag of unopened Christmas lights

a handmade foozle ball game

my handwriting papers from 1st grade/Kindergarten

20 years of my mom’s day planners

a 1960’s baby stroller

6 blocks of 22LR rounds

Amelia Earhart’s plane

30+ thimbles

my mothers Prom dress and my father’s Prom suit

grandma’s yearbook shirt (she embroidered over each signed name)

30 years worth of Ensign magazines

Another 2000 unopened boxes of Christmas lights

a dozen 72-hour kits

enough flashlights to signal Alpha Centauri

more antiques than the Smithsonian

Jimmy Hoffa

a Nintendo NES system

my youth sports trophies

the Treasures of Priam

the doll my mother was given as a newborn by a traveling salesman

the deer antlers that hung above my bed as a child

bugs… lots of bugs (Nikki supplied this answer)

two butter churn

a manual nut chopper (?)

and finally…

a wooden box that Kraft cheese used to be sold in

 

 

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming…

That kids have been fascinated by what we find.  Every item has its own history lesson attached, many of them about the family member who owned it.   We’ve enjoyed the stories we’d have never heard otherwise.  It’s even better when both Mom and Dad have drastically different stories about an items origin (“this came all the way from Egypt!” “No, we bought it at a store in Provo”)  Good time!

I wouldn’t say that we’re quite yet half way done with the house, and that doesn’t include the three car garage.  So I am sure that we will find some more absolute gems… maybe some religious relics and possibly a lost city or two.

I love you Mom…