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. 1/20/13 :: Birthday Take 2

We’d originally picked up this pie planning to have for a family birthday celebration at lunch before Matthew’s friends arrived yesterday, but the timing didn’t work out, and Matthew decided a pie and cupcakes in the same day was a little much anyway, so we saved it for today. Mark insisted we still put the candles on and sing to Matthew again. I’m not exactly sure what the look on Matthew’s face is all about, but it’s a pretty safe bet to assume it was in response to some crazy comment from Mark. ;)

Sat. 1/19/13 :: The Big 1-4

The boy turned 14 today! :)  He celebrated by having a couple of friends over for a few (very loud) hours of Magic The Gathering. Happy Birthday, Matthew! :)

Wed. 1/16/13 :: In the Bubble

Matthew rinsing his medicine syringe plunger. He was fascinated when he discovered that the water formed this bubble if he held it with the rounded end directly under the stream. I should have shot video of this, since it was actually much cooler than the photo shows.

Tues. 1/15/13 :: Idling at the Drive-Thru

Waiting in line at the pharmacy after picking up Matthew from D&D club. I find the permanent “both lanes open” sign ironic considering that the outside lane has been out of order for several months.

I tried to snap a picture of Matthew while we were waiting, but he was not cooperating. We’d given a friend of his a ride home as well and they’d decided to ride in the very back, which made it a bit easier for him to hide from me. So I snapped a cheesy self portrait instead. :)

A-HA! Gotcha! :)

Sun. 1/13/13 :: Pre-Bizarre Feast

Another photo by Mark. He took the kids to lunch at Fuddrucker’s on their way to Bizarro’s regular lecture this afternoon. More quiet time for me. :) Matthew really enjoyed the lecture. Kaylee decided maybe she’d stick to the kid-oriented ones from now on. ;)

Sat. 1/12/13 :: Bizarre Kid Magic

Bizzaro did a guest lecture for the Young Magicians Club this month and Matthew was called up to help demonstrate. He and Kaylee both really enjoyed the lecture… and it looks like the whole group had fun!

(Photos by Mark. I stayed home and took advantage of having the house to myself to get all kinds of super-productive things done be a big lump and watch a few hours of mindless TV. :p)

Tues. 1/8/13 :: iConcentrate

Matthew, curled up on the couch, intently studying a new game on his iPhone. He was being more cooperative than Kaylee (who kept sticking her foot in front of the camera), so I snapped a few pics before I reminded him that video games aren’t allowed on school nights. ;)

Sun. 1/6/13 :: Wii Race

Family game night – Sonic Sega All-Stars Racing. Intense competition.

I’m happy anytime I don’t come in last. LOL

Wed. 1/2/13 :: Chocolate Map

More oh-shoot-the-day-is-gone-and-I-haven’t-taken-a-picture shots. ;)

We’ve had a tradition the past several years of each having a piece from a box of assorted chocolates every evening in December leading up to Christmas – sort of our version of an advent calendar. Not all boxes of chocolate are created equal, and some years we’ve run out and had to buy a second box. This year for some reason we ended up with half the box still left (I suspect it was mainly due to skipping nights here and there due to late schedules or other sweets), so the chocolate has spilled over into the new year.

In any case, choosing chocolate is serious business… ;)

Tues. 1/1/13 :: The Way It Goes

So here we are again. Another new year. Another fresh start. Restarting this blog has been on my mind for a while.  I took far too few photos last year, let far too many moments slip by unnoticed.

There were a lot of moments I could have captured today… the kids playing Wizard101 head-to-head (now possible thanks to the new laptop we got Matthew for Christmas… and his birthday… and…) … Mark watching his new Spiderman movie, insisting the volume be cranked up for the full movie effect (although I don’t know how photos would have captured the noise level of the battle scenes)… Mark making his annual batch of kumla… and forgetting that you can’t put potato peels down the disposal… Me getting sprayed in the face with potato water as I attempted to plunge the clogged drain… The mess when it became clear that plunging wasn’t going to work and we had to disassemble the drain pipes. Ah, yes, our new year got off to a rockin’ start! ;)

But the habit of grabbing the camera isn’t back yet, so instead you get these (hastily shot with blinding flash) – the result of me remembering as the kids were headed to bed that I hadn’t taken a picture and asking them what I should take. We had just finished a game of Uno, in which Kaylee had declared herself the winner, in spite of coming in last…

Yep. Siblings at their finest. One more week of winter break to go.

And that’s the way life in the Jensen house goes. :)

Thur. 2/23/12, Part 2 :: Poker Face

One of the games Todd had taught Matthew was poker, and as more family began arriving Thursday evening, an intense (and apparently very entertaining) game got underway.

Wed. 2/22/12 :: Card Sharks

Uncle Todd spent some quality time with his nephew, teaching him card games. And then Matthew taught him one that he and his friends have played. Todd swore he was just making it up as he went along. ;)

I’m pretty sure those cards they’re using are ones my parents brought back from their Vegas trip in the 1970’s.

Kaylee was watching that TV in the background…

She looks so excited. ;)

Tues. 2/21/12 :: Revisiting Abe

Up in Illinois, we slipped away for a few hours for a return trip to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. It’s a very cool museum, but mainly Mark wanted to see their Ghosts of the Library show again, which uses an old magic trick as the basis for its presentation.  We all saw the show once, and then Kaylee and I looked at the gown exhibit and hung out in the kids interactive area while Mark and Matthew saw it two more times.

Thur. 2/16/12 :: I’ll Miss You, Dad

Love & miss you every single day.

Wed. 2/15/12 :: Practice Party

Done with her homework early, Kaylee volunteered to listen to Matthew practice his sax without even charging him one of the coupons she gave him for his birthday. She even sang and danced along.

The look on his face in this shot cracks me up. :)

Fri. 2/10/12 :: Yet More Gaming

Matthew, in his room, playing a bit of one of his X-Box card games (Yu-Gi-Oh I think) that he doesn’t play on our newer X-Box because it doesn’t have all his progress saved. He’s been playing this one a lot recently. It seems that he goes in waves of diving into one game or activity for a few weeks and then will abandon it completely, eventually circling back around to dive back into it weeks or months later.

Thur. 2/9/12 :: Borrowed Boredom Buster

One of Matthew’s friends had left these Munchkin card games behind last weekend, so he and Mark decided they would see if they could figure them out and play a bit while we have them here. They spent the better part of the afternoon and evening reading rules and analyzing strategy and explaining thing to each other, and I think they might have actually gotten to play a little bit too. ;)

Sun. 2/5/12 :: Thank You Breakfast

As a thank you to Kaylee for loaning him one of her magic tricks to use at the David Blaine show, Matthew surprised her with donuts this morning. I wish I’d had my camera out to capture her hugging him like he’d just saved the world when she found out. LOL

Sat. 2/4/12 :: Post Performance

Matthew, after his band ensemble competition at one of the other area middle schools. It was his first competition outside of the full band ones. Only three out of the six members of his ensemble showed up, but they still nailed their performance and scored a “I” (one or first or whatever).  Way to go! :)