Bri's graduation

OK, so I had to squeeze in one more blog before we head outta here. This morning we attended Brianna's 5th grade graduation. She was chosen to be the one from her class to deliver a speech. She talked about her transition to Blueberry Hill Elem and how her teacher and friends made it so great. She was super nervous, but did a great job. There was a family breakfast before the ceremony. The whole class sang a song which was great. They are supposed to have school tomorrow, but we'll be in UTAH!!! (I mean we'll be "sick") See ya later!!!
"Hey mom, are you going to blog this?" says Brianna. I guess she knows me too well.

Friends

As we are getting ready to sign out from Hazelwood Ave and head back to Utah for a well needed vacation, I thought I'd introduce you to a couple new friends here in Mass. This is Mason's friend Kenny. He is in Mason's 3rd grade class and they have gotten together several times to play. It's nice for him to have a couple good friends here.
This is MaryPat. She is the wonderful lady who has been babysitting Cord for me while I sleep. We have been very lucky to have found her. Cord loves to go there and be with the kids. He gets excited when he sees her and he hates to leave. She reminds me a lot of my Aunt Terri which is why I was immediately drawn to her. MaryPat has her elementary teaching degree, but decided to stay at home with her kids. She love kids and goes out of her way to provide good opportunities for them to learn. Because we are staying here in Longmeadow, we will be able to have her continue to watch Cord after school starts again. Cord looks a little "drunk" because we had just woken him up from his nap so he could go to the doctor for his 18 month check up. He has only gained 3 oz since 3 months ago when we took him. At least he is slowing down, but he is still my little budda baby :).

Mike - by the numbers

Numbers are always fun to play with, since the only number in our checkbook is 0, here are others that are much funner to play with:

696 - Days until graduation from law school. Did anyone notice that we flipped into the 600's? It looks better than the 800's. It's nice to be able to say he's finished his first year of law school. Makes it seem like it's going fast. (which it is)

87.6 - His average grade for his first year of school. That puts him into the top 20% of his class. I guess all that studying and being gone for 2 weeks paid off. :)

• To put that into perspective: In a regular undergrad program, your score is based on how many correct answers you get. For instance, if you get 85 out of 100 correct, you get an 85%, or B. In law school's first year classes, it's scored differently. First, you're scored based on how many of the issues that the professor thought you should've gotten. Often, the best students get less than half of the points. (And that's after a 3 hour 13 page answer) Then that score is compared to the rest of the class. (graded on the curve). Depending on the grade distribution of the class, in general, only 5 people will get between 90-99 and anther 3-5 students will get between 86-89. About 35% of the class will score between 80-85 with the remainder scoring between 70-79. If you score below 70, you worry about what went wrong. If you score under 65 (very few do) you get to take the class over again. For instance, for Mike's mid-term Property class, the grade distribution was so tight that the difference between the #6 score in the class and the #45 (bottom 10%) was three points. It was really close. In an undergrad program, they all would've gotten between an 86 and 91, but in law school, 5 get 99-90, 5 get 86-89, 15-18 get 80-85, 20+ get 75-79, and the remainder get 70-74. Basically, you're not trying to "ACE" the exam as much as you're trying to outperform all your classmates. No one "ACES" the test.

3 - The number of internships he is working on this summer.

• City of Springfield Code Enforcement. He works in the courts to ensure that the codes of the city are kept.
• Working for Attornery Elizabeth Dougal doing odd projects, mostly dealing with trusts and wealth transfer/wealth preservation.
• As a CASA volunteer. He is appointed as a child advocate (similar to a guardian ad-litem) and serves as a representative of the court in seeking out the best interest of the child. This is not a summer internship, but a continuously running activity that he will do until he decides to not do it anymore.

32 - The average number of hours he is scheduled at Home Depot working in their window and millwork department. (Selling, you guessed it, windows, doors and moulding. Wonder why they put him there?)

Parent appreciation day

Today Brianna's class had a special parent appreciation day. They sang songs that each group made up themselves and served their parents treats. This is Brianna with her teacher Mrs. McCullough. She kept talking about how well Brianna has adjusted to this move. She has made great friends and just jumped right into the class. It's good to hear. They will have a 5th grade graduation ceremony thursday morning. Everyone was challenged to write a grad speech and then 1 person from each class would be chosen to deliver their speech. Brianna got chosen!!! So now we get to practice a speech with everything else going on.

This is Brianna's 5th grade class.

This is Brianna's song. My camera had a hard time turning on in time so I missed the beginning. They wrote this song to the tune from Emily Osmond's "I don't think about it". It starts out...."I don't think about, I don't think about it, even though you are right by my side. Your always there giving me all my math answers. Your always get me a cake for my birthday."

Happy Father's Day

There wasn't much to do today, but the kids and Mike enjoyed a nice family game of baseball in the backyard. For some reason Cord really loves baseball as well and is working on his pitch. He didn't do it here, but he has a cute little position he takes before he pitches the ball. It was a nice day for everyone and I love hearing the laughter as the kids are playing together. Mike is such a good daddy! He has always been interactive with the kids and has a good relationship with them. It's one of the many reasons why I love him!

Our thoughts are with our own fathers. It's so hard to be far away. This will be the first year in a while I don't make my dad and Mike's dad a pie. I guess I'll have to make it up to them next week. Love ya dad!!

Chelsea's violin recital

Chelsea had her violin recital today. It was held in one of the old New England churches here in longmeadow. I am very proud of her hard work and all that she has accomplished. Way to go Chelsea!!!

Packing up (again)

So here we go again!! We are spending the weekend packing up since we have to be out the end of June and the kids and I will be in Utah. I guess it's a good thing we didn't unpack everything, so it makes it a little easier. But I do miss my helpers (shelley). It's not as much fun to pack up by yourself. But on the bright side, just 5 more days and we will be on a plane headed home :)
I am excited about the house we are moving to. I do think it has A/C which will be nice, plus it is all on 1 floor (except the playroom downstairs). As we (I mean Mike) are hauling boxes down 3 flights of stairs, we will all be excited to be on the same floor. We will be able to pick up the keys to the new place on monday and Mike can start moving boxes into the garage. This way he can do the boxes a little at a time and then get some helpers to move the furniture that last saturday. Then we get to put everything together when we get back. I hope this is the last move until it's time to come home.

A little off the top?

I really love my baby's hair. But Cord's hair was getting really long and especially curly in this humidity. I could have made it look like a little girl hair do. But instead I decided I should just give him a little trim. You know how it is to try and cut a baby's hair. He wouldn't sit still. So I kept finding uneven spots in the back. So I finally got out the clippers on the longest setting so I could even it out. As I watched my baby's golden locks fall to the floor, I knew I had made a big mistake. Here's a couple of "before" shots.


When he climbed out of the high chair with his buzz cut, I wanted to cry. I kept telling myself that it's a nice cut for the heat and that hair grows back. But I miss my baby's longer whispy hair. Dad likes the cut, but what does he know?

More New England Firsts

This weekend we are learning the definition of the word "humidity". We are experiencing a "heat wave" where it hit the 90's with 100% humidity. Never living outside Utah, I have never experienced this type of misery. It's so hot and stuffy outside you don't feel like you can breath. But most of the houses out here don't have central air conditioning (especially in the old houses like this one). Mike found a couple small air conditioners in the basement that you set inside the windows. While daddy cooled down the main level for us, we enjoyed a little family "togetherness". Just a couple more weeks until we get to experience the "dry heat". :)

All around town you find fun trees that have their own "personality". Don't you think it's funky? I think it's really creative.

Chelsea's Orchestra concert

Last night we were able to attend Chelsea's Orchstra concert. She has come so far and we were excited to hear her play. She hasn't decided whether or not to take orchestra next year, but she really enjoys playing the violin.

Her mass bff Megan was in the choir so we got to hear her sing as well. It was a great, musical night with the orchestra, choirs, and band. It brought back memories for Mike and I of many middle school and high school concerts.

Orchestra concert

This song is the "Strings Meet the Masters". It's a combination of 3 pieces by Beethoven, Dvorak, and Tchaikovsky. It's was Chelsea's favorite piece. I know you can't see Chelsea (she is right behind where the teacher is standing, 2nd row, wearing a white shirt and black skirt - hahaha) but you can see how they sounded all together.

This is "The Bringer of Joy" by Gustav Holst from the piece "The Planets". This is about Jupiter. It begins with an exciting introduction then moves to a soft sweet melody which slowly crescendos to a strong and triumphant finish. Unfortuantely, my camera didn't record all of the piece (It's being stupid). But you can get the idea.

This is the "Oregon Trail". It paints a picture of families in covered wagons racing westward with dreams of an exciting and prosperous life. This song has many challenging rhythms and bowings. It requires the students to listen to each other, think and work hard. Again, my camer cut out before the song was complete.