A Great Mentor

Coach McCurdy is Derrik's basketball coach. We were lucky enough to have him as Derrik's JV coach last year and for Varsity this year and better be here for next year. He is such a great coach. He spends oodles of hours of time  helping these boys be great players and great people. More time than he gets paid for for sure. He is super tall too. Derrik is 6'2 now just for comparison.

Track Season Saturday

Kamryn was at a Girls Camp thing this weekend so she missed the track meet but Derrik went. It was in Maricopa, about an hour away. Doug worked on Friday night so I thought I would be all alone for the morning but Doug showed up after a few hours. Derrik didn't get us a schedule before hand so we waited all morning and finally at noon he went and did his high jump. It was so so hot outside. At least 95. The track program has not been what it was in the past because ALA got rid of the best track coaches we could have had in the state. Very disappointing. Some days the kids don't even have coaches. Derrik has been working as much as he can with what he has been given. Doug was a high jumper in high school and even went to state with it. He was able to give  Derrik some great pointers and with some more time he will be a great jumper like his Dad. Doug is going to go help him after practice on Monday.

He got out at 5'6. I took pictures and it is clear he just needs better technique as he is way over the bar. He has the height.

Then we had to wait around all afternoon in the heat for him to triple jump. He really like triple jump but again doesn't have much help. Doug unfortunately was not a triple jumper but he went in there and gave him the pointers he needed. He has been jumping really good but he would always scratch. This week he did awesome and took 4th. My friend Kyler that I work with is a very talented triple jumper and has a couple sisters on the team. He is going to help them a couple times a week and offered to help Derrik. Even though it is really hot and really long when it comes time to watch my kids I sure do enjoy it. Weird coming from a very nonathletic person.

It looks like someone has him on a string and he is a puppet flying through the air. Wish I had those muscles!

Spring Break On THEM

2 of my children were adopted for Spring Break. Derrik went with the Sherwoods to California. They went to 6 Flags Magic Mountain. Derrik says it is way funner than Disneyland. They also went to the beach. Jamie (the mom) and I work together. She is fully aware of what blood sugars are and what they need to be etc. She is such a great second mom to Derrik. He will actually listen to her too. She texted me that they were going to out for the day and she made sure Derrik put on sunscreen. I texted back thanks but he never burns. She said he said that too but she made him anyways. He sure did come back pretty brown! 

Kamryn was adopted by the Shepards. She went with them last year for spring break. They LOVE Kamryn. Their daughter is the only one left at home and she and Cloe have become great friends.  They went to Nevada. They went to the their ranch in Prescott and then to the Los Vegas Temple, a brief encounter at the Vegas Strip, did lots of shopping and plenty of make overs. They went to the Pawn Stars Show Pawn Shop. When she was at the ranch Sister Shepard gave her a sewing lesson and Kamryn sewed a beautiful dress! Her daughter doesn't like to sew so Kamryn and Sister Shephard bonded over sewing. Their dad use to own Milanos' Music Store and Kamryn drips talent in the music department so they just can't get enough of her. 

Derrik the Fishman

Derrik has been obsessed with fishing lately. Derrik and his friend Jayce have found a pond on some farm close by our house and they decided to stock it for themselves! They don't even know who it belongs too. They said they have seen the owner before and he didn't say anything. So they figure it was ok. I hope it is. I am glad they have something they enjoy and it seems like constructive fun so I let him. He has bought himself a hat to fish in even though he doesn't really burn but he looks the part.

One day they found an Iphone 6 in the pond and pulled it out. Derrik thinks he is going to fix it. We will see. I don't think rice will fix a fully submerged phone for who knows how long.

College Bound

Sadie has been thinking about her future a lot lately. She was at work and a client was asking her about where she was going to go to college and Sadie told her she wasn't sure. This lady worked at the community college that is close by our house and she gave Sadie a name of a counselor at the school and told her to give him a call. That got the ball rolling! 

Sadie called and the next day she had an appointment. I had to work and was not able to go. I was kinda worried about it all but she went ahead without me. Her intent I think was just to get an idea and help with her options. 

Just by chance (or divine intervention) the college was on Spring Break. Sadie went in and talked to the very helpful counselor and the next thing she knows she is taking a placement test. Since it was spring break there were no lines and she got right in. People kept telling her how lucky she was there were no lines. I have been there before and it took hours to get anything done due to waiting on so many people to do so little. After her test she found out she had bypassed a couple classes and even tested into honors classes. Since there were no lines she went right into the next step where the lady spoke to her about her grade and helped her outline a schedule. Towards the end she told she would have to go to "Coyote Day" because it was mandatory but they don't come around very often so she would have to check. Much to her surprise there was one starting in 5 minutes! So Sadie went to that and now she only has 1 step that had to do with financial stuff but since the paperwork I filled out was not in yet she will have to go back to that later. 

It was such a blessing that things worked out so smoothly. It showed her that this was what the Lord wants her to do. I am so proud of Sadie and her taking the next step. This college feeds right into ASU so everything will transfer and it is super cheap compared to other schools. I guess I have a college bound kid! 

Bunny Love

Doug and I were out trying to make our yard livable. Doug was digging holes for our new grape vines he bought when all of a sudden this tinny bunny pops out of a hole. Doug rescued it from our dog Bell. It didn't mind one bit being held. 

Look Alike

The older Derrik gets the more he is like his Grandad Slade. I am pretty sure he is more like him than any grandkid or even Alan's own kids. He looks so much like him. Sadie has always resembled her Granny Slade. She is a taller version of her. Judy had these pictures posted at a party and brought them over to show us. What do you think?  Kamryn is not a Slade. She has some things but mostly she looks like her momma and is her Granny Nelson.

Technical Difficutlites

I had my first musical production at the school this past week as the tech person. When I was given this position I knew nothing about sound or lights. Most people who do this job have been to school. I have learned everything on my own and I feel like I have done a good job even though I have a very long way to go and there is so much to learn. There is a reason they call these operators "Sound Engineers". The person who hired me had a lot of faith in me for some strange reason. Just because I can fix a computer does not make me knowledgable about all things that plug in. 

I have done lots of assemblies and concerts and shows and have not had too much trouble or anything I couldn't figure out. This week however was really a challenge. Dress rehearsals were ok and I felt like I had a handle on things. I loved getting to know the kids better and enjoyed watching them perform. On Wednesday they performed for the elementary school kids and they loved it and for the most part it went well. A few things were off and I had a little bit of feedback. Thursday the feedback was worse and I did my best to fix it. So many variables go into making sound work well. Friday the feedback was very bad and I even had a theater manager from a close by high school come in to the booth at intermission to see if she could help me. I took her suggestions, most of which I had already tried, and made it through the rest of the night. I felt so terrible for the kids as they have worked to hard for 2 months and it boiled down to these few nights of productions. 

Then the last night, a Saturday, I researched and researched. The director has a friend in who works for 2oth Centry Fox as a sound person and called her for advice on our situation. She sent her photos and told her the problems we were having. We discovered our stage is not build well for sound and has the bare minimum for acoustic cushion like curtain legs etc. I had a very steep hill to fix it. I spent all afternoon Saturday fixing and moving speakers and placing acoustic cushions under monitors, switching out all the batteries and testing each mic. Part of the problem with our sound was the frequencies of the mics and I put them all on new channels. 

Then I had each actor come up and  we reran scenarios and there was NO FEEDBACK! None. Not even a whistle or a groan. I was so happy and knew all the hard work was going to pay off.

We ended up starting 15 minutes late due to stage crew members not showing up and we had to adjust. The time arrived and the curtain opened. The kids started to sing and instantly I knew something was wrong! About every 3rd word started cutting out on most of the mics. It was a disaster! I felt dread and horror. Those poor kids who had worked so hard. We quickly decided we had to stop the show and fix the problem. They needed to be heard. 

It took 10 minutes and we got the frequencies fixed or so we thought. Most of the mics were working but the kids had been shook up and the energy level was very low. We then had 2 out of the 10 mics start to cutting out. I was at a loss and called a coworker who has experience on the sound board. He quickly came and discovered that those 2 mics had low batteries. I HAD CHANGED EvERY SINGLE BATTERY before it started! I have no idea why they were already low. At intermission we changed all the rest of the casts batteries. 

By this time the cast had very low energy and were discouraged. I felt personally responsible even though I had done all that I could humanly do to fix it. The kids did eventually get up to where they needed to be but a mic would start to skip here and there and it would worry them. I did learn so much and I feel like I have been to at least a semester of Sound Engineering School. I sure hate having hard lessons at the expense of others. I say next time we hire a sound engineer like most schools do for big shows. I am glad it is over thats for sure.

Aye Aye Captain

Doug got a boat. He had a boat but it wasn't quite what he wanted and he wanted to get out of debt so he sold it. He has really been working hard on paying off all our debt is just about there. He has worked a bunch over the last year to make his goal and refrained from purchases and made me be refrained as well. We only have our house left to pay for and it is a great relief even though it has been painful and not so much fun not being able to do and buy things we wanted.

Doug is now in a position to get the boat he wanted. He has been looking online for used boats and he found what he thought would be a good one. It didn't have any pictures but the boats he likes goes fast so we ran over to Mesa to look at it.

It sure was not a boat I would think would be a good one but to Doug it had all that he was looking for even though it looked rough. It took him a good hour of just looking at it before he made up his mind and let the poor man selling it move on with his life. He even talked him down a few hundred dollars. I think the guy said yes just so we would leave.

Doug was really hoping he made a good choice and took it out for a spin. He was very pleased with his purchase and looks forward to fixing it up. I see a lot of birthday gifts that have to do with this boat in the future.

A Momentous Occasion

Sometimes you just have to take a picture so you will never forget. Derrik's room is clean. This is a momentous occasion that must always be remembered.

Orange Blossoms

The first time I went to the Valley from my little mountain home town of Eagar Arizona, besides the 1 time I went when I was a very small child and only remember watching Charlottes Web on the TV in the motel, was when I was 10 years old with my Grandad and Grandma Nelson to be traded off to my other Grandparents to be taken to Thatcher for Spring Break. It was only for a few hours and we went to Baskin Robins and I had my first ice cream that had a thick plastic pink spoon. I was so surprised the big city was not like I had seen in the movies with big tall skyscrapers. It was exciting none the less. The most vivid memory besides the ice-cream was the smell of the orange blossoms. This was during the day too so they were not as strong as they are in the evenings. I could not get enough of the wonderful smell. I even tried finding perfume that mimicked the fragrance to hold on to it.

Then a few years later and probably the 4th time I went to the big city was when I was chosen to be in the All State Orchestra in high school. This time I spent the night and I was overwhelmed by the sweet smell.  It is kinda weird how smell can help you remember something.

This week I had been cooped up in the auditorium and I was feeling discouraged about some things when I caught a whiff of the childhood memory. It instantly made me relax and enjoy. What a blessing small things can be such as smell and beautiful flowers.