Mon. 1/28/13 :: Academy Bound

Our school district will have a few different “academy” options available for high school students next year. Most of them are programs within the existing schools and focus on a specific area of study.  To be honest, I’m not sure how many of them were available in the past, since high school curriculum wasn’t really on my radar.

One is definitely brand new this coming year though. It’s tech oriented and will have courses that will blend subjects together, focus on student-led group projects, and include job shadowing to give a more real-world interconnected education. It will be a 4-year school (as opposed to the 9th-10th/11th-12th split that the other schools have) in its own building and will be limited to 150 students per grade level – pretty significant considering that the regular high school in our area has 600 per grade and the senior high has 1500 per grade.

There were required informational meetings before you could apply. The school will definitely have its drawbacks – no organized music program, no official sports, the location is quite a bit farther from home, not being able to easily transition back to a regular school if it doesn’t work out for you, being guinea pigs for a curriculum that is still being written and an “open concept” facility that is still under construction – but Matthew was really excited about it. His excitement dimmed slightly when he learned that his friends would not be applying, but we went forward with it, knowing he still had the opportunity to turn it down if he did get accepted.

Admissions were determined by a lottery, distributed by gender and current school. When the initial notifications went out last week, we were disappointed to learn that Matthew hadn’t gotten in and was 21st on the waiting list. Then I got a call this afternoon that they had a spot for Matthew if he still wanted it, but Matthew was still at school taking a sax lesson. I was excited for him, but a bit anxious about how he would react, knowing he’d had some reservations.

I picked him up at school and we chatted a bit about his lesson as we pulled out of the parking lot, and then I gave him the news.

He was over the moon. No hesitation at all. Excited to share with his friends, he immediately pulled out his phone to post “I GOT INTO THE ACADEMY! WOO-HOO!” on his Facebook. :)

When we got home, Kaylee and Mark were there to congratulate him and were all over me about not taking a photo of him getting the news, so we decided to fake it! LOL

Here’s Mark coaching him on how he should look…

And Kaylee gives her input…

I told Matthew I was having trouble getting an in-focus shot, so he offered to help by doing a self-portrait with his phone…

His admission required him to do an electronic acceptance from an email sent to his account. After deciding that trying to do it through the phone was too risky, he booted up his laptop and made it official.

Congrats, buddy! Hope you love The Academy!

Sun. 1/27/13 :: Feeling Futuristic

I always hang a calendar on the wall behind my desk so that I can quickly check what day of the week a certain date falls on (or vice versa) as I’m planning and organizing stuff. In the past, my only requirement had been that it have nice big numbers these old eyes could read while I was seated at my desk. Artwork I enjoyed was a plus, but the main thing was the numbers. Last year Mark had found me a three-month view one and I fell in love with added range. So when it came time for a new one, I definitely wanted the same type.

It turned out that the one I was using had absolutely no identifying marks on it anywhere, so we couldn’t tell who the publisher was or where we might have gotten it. We checked all our usual spots (and some not so usual spots) and had no luck. I looked online and found some with the same concept, but none with a design I liked as well. A few weeks ago, I finally gave up and just ordered this one from Amazon.

I’d been using for a week or so and had mostly gotten used to it. Hadn’t noticed anything odd. But eagle-eye Kaylee is a bit more observant than I am.

Do you see it?

…

…

How about now?

So today is apparently some sort of time warpy wormhole kind of day. LOL I wonder if I’ll have lots of déjà vu on Tuesday? ;)

Sat. 1/26/13 :: She’s a Star

Mark’s pal Ronald McDonald was appearing at our local McDonald’s today, so Mark took the kids over there for lunch and the show. Kaylee came home with this strange sparkly star-shaped rash on her cheek. ;)

Fri. 1/25/13 :: We Heart Photoshop

Almost immediately upon arriving home from school today, Kaylee announced that she was bored and wanted to make her Valentine box for school. So we went and found a shoe box, and I let her take over my computer and dig into my digiscrapping stash to make a design for the top. With a  refresher of a few basic instructions for using Photoshop, she was off and running.

She quickly had a design she was happy with, but apparently this was an exhausting process. ;)

:)

Thur. 1/24/13 :: Morning Foggier

Today’s fog is much less picturesque. If you like gray pea soup, today is your day.

Wed. 1/23/13 :: Morning Fog

There was a large isolated patch of fog settled over the park this morning. It was so pretty with the sun shining through it. I wish I’d taken my camera with me when I drove Kaylee to school. As I approached one particular intersection on my way home, I could see someone walking in the distance, and the backlit silhouette in the glowing fog was really cool. :)

Tue. 1/22/13 :: Balancing Act

The kids have each had one of these giant plastic balls for a few years. When sorting through some of the chaos in Matthew’s room recently, we came across his. He decided he didn’t want it anymore and gave it to Kaylee. Suddenly, what’s old is new again, and she has been constantly playing with them, which usually involves sitting on them in some form.

I know it’s somewhat common to sit on a large fit ball, but I don’t think those who do normally also use a ball as a footrest. Not the most stable configuration. ;)