Graduations and New Beginnings

2013-2014

Jackson graduated from Wood Gormley Elementary School in May 2014 and was presented with the Presidential Award for Educational Achievement! It was a great way to recognize his hard work, his commitment, and how far he has come. Congratulations, Jackson!

He is now headed to Monte Del Sol, a 7th-12th grade charter school with lottery admissions. The down side is that none of his friends got into the school. The up side is that Simon did his student teaching there so he knows a lot of the teachers, the students and the general culture. In many ways, the emphasis on community and the relaxed culture is a good fit for Jackson. Everyone is called by his/her first name, including the principle who is not called the principle but rather the "Head Learner", reflecting a co-learning environment. Much of the first week of school is spent in grade-level field trips, helping students to get to know each other, bond, and create a community. They also connect with the greater community through a mentorship program that I actually participated in last year, mentoring two Monte students in bioinformatics. I'm glad that Jackson I will be part of that program.

After student teaching at Monte, Simon also graduated with his teaching certificate in December of 2013. Congratulations, Simon! When Jackson got into the school that Simon had student taught in and where he might eventually apply for a job, his response was classic. "Simon might teach at Monte and you know what that means! Craziness!"

Pets

Lauren waged a successful pet campaign. She begged, she pleaded, she explained, she researched. She suggested guinea pigs because they are easy to take care of, they are soft and cuddly, they 'popcorn' when they are excited, and they adopt you into their herd. And they are much more practical than a horse, which is her first choice. She enlisted the help of her brothers to generate two pages of reasons we should get a pet. She even managed to extract a promise from Simon that we would get a pet eventually.

Then I found a couple of guinea pigs at the animal shelter. I was shocked when Simon suggested I get them as an Easter surprise. With Simon's parents in town and keeping kids occupied, I managed to carve out some time to put together a cage and get everything arranged, picking the guinea pigs up on Saturday and stashing them at work overnight, ready for Easter Sunday.

Saturday night, driving home with Lauren I heard a squeaking noise. Lauren had a big grin on here face and announced that it was a guinea pig. She claimed that she had a guinea pig stashed in the back of the car. While I knew it was her making the noise, I was nevertheless dumbfounded, given that I actually did have some guinea pigs stashed away! I played along wondering silently whether she had somehow gotten in on the secret but later learned it was just an amazing coincidence!

Sunday morning I got up early and picked up the guinea pigs. Simon even got up early to see the reactions. He called Lauren over to look at the cage and she got grumpy, thinking it was all a big practical joke. When she saw the guinea pigs she could hardly contain herself. Jackson was happy as well, liking the guinea pigs more than he expected. Lauren ran to tell Lachlan who absolutely did not believe her but was very excited when he finally was convinced to come check.

The guinea pigs, both female, were named Lily and Buttercup. Then we went back and got their child/nephew, Munchkin, when he was old enough to get adopted from the shelter. Lauren is wasting no time beginning her campaign for the next pet. Now she wants a dog!

Reality

2014

Lachlan knows everything about how the world really works...

"Mom, water IS a vegetable because 'vegetable' means healthy! Parents don't know much. Kids know!"

"My mind isn't smart. It knows everything! It knows about heaven and Jesus."

"Why do they call it a living room? It's not living. If it was living it would be a human and he would have arms and legs and a mouth and walk around and hair. The TV would be on the green carpet."

... while Jackson chooses to ignore reality all together.

"Realistic is so overrated. Who wants normal?"

"Sense is boring." [while programming surreal art at a Scratch workshop]

Nevertheless, Lachlan can transcend reality.

"With my scientist powers and my kill bad guys power I can make anything (but it's invisible)!"

Cooking

Spring 2014

Shortly after Jackson turned 12 he took me to task for not teaching him how to cook. I had apparently failed to prepare him adequately for his mission, where he would have to cook for himself.

I praised him for being concientious but had to defend myself. 1) He does know how to cook. I have taught him some simple dishes and how to follow a recipe which allows him to make an almost limitless number of more advanced dishes. 2) He has another six years before he will be old enough to go on a mission. No need to panic. 3) He regularly expands his repatoire by hopping onto the YouTube Simple Cooking channel. My mother would be proud that he is following in the tradition of three ingredient recipes!

Jackson is indeed quite adept at finding instructional information on the internet, especially through YouTube. He has not only taught himself many recipes but has folded some very complicated origami, taught himself some pretty amazing magic tricks, and built some cool contraptions, including a bamboo skewer shooter that resulted in one dead potato.

Camping

June 2014

The kids and I went to the ward camp out up Pecos Canyon at Jack's Creek. Simon refused to come as he cannot understand why anyone would willingly go camping and says so loudly and often. But we would be surrounded by friends from church so we packed up and went (actually Lauren packed up everyone, being very excited to go on her first camp out and going with her friend, Siri Burkman, to boot!).

We pitched our tent in the meadow amid the wild irises and next to the Burkman's tent. We played/talked with friends, explored the wooded hillside that led down to the creek, climbed over logs, and made s'mores around the campfire. When night came we divided the Mudge/Burkman clan into our two tents so the kids could sleep with their friends and went to sleep. Or at least we tried. Lachlan is apparently not a very good sleeper on camp outs in spite of having the warmest (down) sleeping bag. He made sure everyone in the campsite knew how miserable he was and couldn't understand why we didn't just pop home. I did manage to get at least a little sleep.

I was counting the trip a success while we were packing up to leave the next morning when suddenly Lachlan disappeared. He had been standing right next to his friend, Anders Burkman, when suddenly we could no longer see him but could hear him crying. Anders, in response to our questions, tried to pull Lachlan up out of the rather long grass. Anders' dad, Gilbert, reached them first and carried Lachlan to me saying that it looked like there was a problem. One glance at his somewhat squiggly arm told me it was broken. According to Anders he had stood on an unstable log and fell when it shifted.

Attempts to stabilize the arm were abandoned when it became clear that Lachlan was determined to fight these attempts, potentially injuring his arm more. After a blessing, we set off with Stacy Burkman at the wheel so I could sit with Lachlan and hold his arm. Gilbert stayed behind with the rest of the kids from both families, finished packing up, and drove the kids home, stopping by the Forest Service kids' free fishing event and generally keeping the kids distracted.

As it turned out, the closest clinic that was open was back in Santa Fe, an hour away. I never thought I would be grateful that a child had been up all night until Lachlan managed to sleep all the way back in spite of a broken arm! Of course, if he had been less tired, maybe his reaction time would have been quicker...

Long story short, he  broke both bones in his forearm most of the way through, chose a pink cast, and missed the first five weeks of his first soccer season. He endured the cast and the accompanying restrictions calmly, even though he missed opportunities to go to water parks and jump on the Burkman's new trampoline. His mother calmed down eventually as well. Lachlan's arm is still curved in a way it shouldn't be but the doctor assures me it will straighten out in about a year.

Simon has (mostly) refrained from his anti-camping soap box in spite of the excellent ammunition the broken arm gave him. He even went camping for a couple of nights with Jackson at scout camp, making this his first camp out since he was dating me. Love apparently conquers all, at least for a few nights each decade.

Budding Young Scientist

2013

Jackson:

"You can put this in the mudge messenger. Spit water up in the air and it comes back on you as mist!"

Joann:

"You don't find that at all disgusting?"

Jackson:

 "Well I pondered on that thought at first but then decided that it was worth it!"

Sacrificing himself in the name of science!

Horses

2012-2013

Lauren is a horse lover. She has always been desperate for horse back riding lessons and is constantly trying to figure out ways that we can keep a horse in the yard.

To see if reality met her expectations, we took advantage of a groupon and headed down near Albuquerque with her friend, Siri, and her mom, Stacy, to give the girls their first horse ride (April 6, 2012). When we got there, we saw some wild horses with a baby horse!

Turns out that Lauren was not nearly as intimidated by the huge horse as she was by the very loud and dominant instructor who spent the first hour having them trot around on their own two feet holding onto reins before she would let them get on her horses.

It was supposed to be a trail ride for the four of us but in the end she just had the girls riding around on the horses with her and her husband walking along beside. The instructor was worried about her horses behaving with the wild horses in the vicinity and she was worried that Lauren would be too nervous of the horse to control it, not realizing that the reason Lauren was pretending her eyes were watering from the wind was because the more the instructor got in her face trying to get her to answer questions to make sure she understood, the more upset Lauren got and the further into her shell she would withdraw. Anytime I tried to step in and encourage Lauren the instructor cut me off immediately and gave me a lecture about how the girls needed to follow her voice so she could make sure they were safe. She knew horses really well and would be a great instructor for some kids but, needless to say, she was not a good match for Lauren. When Lauren was still gung ho after that experience, we knew was serious about riding horses.

Her next opportunity came when we went to my parents' cabin in Teasdale, Utah, right after Lauren had finished kindergarten. There were lots of signs up for lessons so we checked around and signed up with the local sporting goods store. It turned out to be a great option since the horses were used to taking out novices and naturally followed the lead horse in single file. The "wrangler" was the polar opposite of Lauren's first instructor, being very easy going and personable, smiling all the while. She sat atop her horse and gave us a two minute lesson on handling the horse than hopped down and helped us all up and we were off, riding up and down the red rock hills and through the stream. Lauren got the incredibly tall, retired racehorse, D.K. who liked to be second in line. I rode right behind her on a horse whose name I can't remember. "What, Mom? How could you forget the name of a horse when it was one of the most wonderful experiences of your life?!?". My parents came behind, my Mom on Splash and my Dad on Duke (I think), with the wrangler's dog going ahead, behind, and everywhere in between. I couldn't convince Jackson and Simon to come, so they stayed home with Lachlan.

We liked it so much that we did it again the next year.

Now she is taking lessons at Nord Stable where everyone is pretty easy going and time is flexible. This is the first time she has ridden English style rather than Western. She started off on a tiny Shetland Pony named Lily. She was absolutely adorable in her black velvet riding helmet and peacoat on this little pony. But no one expect Karen Nord, herself, was allowed to say so. She was disgusted when some of the older girls started exclaiming over her and her pony.

She is too big for that pony now and rides several of the other horses, even jumping on occasion! She generally rides around the arena but takes the pony, Bucky, who is 30 years old and very docile despite his name, out on trail rides occasionally. She is learning more than just riding, coming in an extra day each week to help out around the stable.

She has liked all her instructors and they really like her. She is definitely one of their most committed students. She is currently working with Sarah, who says Lauren reminds her a lot of her when she was little. Sarah just got her masters at St. John's College but really just wants to work with horses even if she has to support herself with a real job so she can do it. Lauren gets along really well with Sarah, opening up to her though she was surprised to find out that Sarah isn't 14 years old. When asked why she likes Sarah so much, Lauren says that she is funny. When asked what else she likes about her, she says that that's all, though I think there is more too it than that!