Busy week

Sunday Dax was awarded his official Boy Scout Eagle award in Sacrament.  Normally this is done at a special Eagle Court of Honor.  We realized that we really didn't have any family that would come, and there were no other boys that were close to earning their Eagle Awards.  It seemed a bit extreme to have a big Court of Honor under those circumstances, although we felt Dax did deserve some type of public recognition.  Dax decided he just wanted to go to Kokomo's with the family and get ice cream, and then have the Bishop present the award to Dax is Sacrament meeting like how they do the Young Women awards.  The Bishop was on board with the idea so we moved forward.

Dax got the official Eagle medal and patch, then there were also awards for each parent (Eagle Mom, and Eagle Dad) then he also earned the Mormon Battalion award for going on the hike a few years back,  although they don't award it until you earn your Eagle. The Mormon Battalion award is kind of cool looking, it is a neckerchief slide that looks like a cow skull.  Dax was kind of impressed with it.

Before church we went over all the do's and don't for Dax as he was getting his award, we thought we covered it all.  The Bishop called him up and he let Dax talk for a bit about his Eagle Scout project of the canned food drive.  Then he presented him with the awards.  Very nice.  A few minutes later  it was time for the Sacrament.  I looked up at Dax who was passing the sacrament and out of the corner of my eye, something looked strange about his tie.  He had put the cow skull neckerchief slide over his tie and he was wearing it as he passed the sacrament.  It didn't quite go for several reasons.

#1- Dax was in formal Sunday Clothes and the cow skull was more cowboy casual/scout uniform look

#2- The tie didn't need a neckerchief slide at the top as it was already tied around his neck.

#3- It just seemed odd during the Sacrament.

I told Curtis of all the do's and don't s we went over with Dax, we did not go over that one.  We just laughed.  As soon as he came and sat down we told him to take it off.  He had it on pretty good.

We are proud of Dax, and we are all happy to have that achievement behind us.

Curtis had a busy/ stressful week at work.  He is trying to restructure his business, with that comes a cleanse.  He is hiring and firing a lot of people.  He had a lot on his mind.  Twice this week he got up in the middle of the night (2:30 a.m.) and went in to work.  He has too much racing through his mind that he couldn't sleep so he decided he should just go into work.  I worry about him when he does that but I also know how much work can be accomplished when there are ZERO interruptions.

On Friday Dax had a school pool party at Hamilton Pool.  We went last year and had a great time.  Trey also had the Decades Dance at Hancock that he wanted to go to but we convinced him to go to the pool with us.  We were talking Doughnuts as our pot luck item and that convinced him to join us.  Derek went on a scout camp out up to Long Valley.  Curtis stayed home to sleep.  Dax, Trey and I went to Hamilton Pool and had a good time.  Trey met up with a kid from our ward, Nick Johnson, and they hung out and had a great time jumping off the diving board and going down the slide.  Nick's older brother Cole also goes to ACP.  Trey told me he was happy he went to Hamilton because he had a lot of fun even though it wasn't the Decades Dance.  I had a good time talking to Cole's parents while the kids swam.
While Trey and I were at the pool party we were nibbling on the tiny morsels of food left for dinner.  It was slim pickings by the time Trey and I made it to the food. Dax went ahead and got a decent amount.  Anyway Trey and I were eating together and he was telling me about how a woman from the Fire Department was at his school that day and taught him about fire safety.  Trey was telling me what he learned then he was asking me about how our windows opened etc.  When he first started telling me this stuff he was talking about hitting something with his hand and how to do it correctly, I thought as usual he was talking about a video game and I don't think I was very patient as I listened to him.  Then when he told me it was fire safety, I was happy to hear him talk about something else, but I was trying to rush him along and eat his food because I know Dax was ready to leave.

As we were leaving the pool and older woman (late 50's) told me how cute Trey was and she enjoyed listening to him talk.  I asked her when did she hear him, what was he talking about?  She said she was listening in as he was talking about the fire safety, she just enjoyed listening to him because he was so cute.
  It made me realize I need to appreciate every moment and he isn't always going to be this cute six year old telling me about the fire safety he learned at school that day.  That woman probably has grown kids and was missing her little kids when they were young.  When at the same time I was listening to Trey, but was not fully engaged and enjoying the moment as I should have. That was a good reminder.

On Saturday, Curtis, Dax, Trey and I (Derek was still at the camp out) went out to hit some tennis balls.  Curtis had just bought a tennis ball machine that serves balls automatically.  He has always wanted one, so I got him this (with his guidance) for our 20th anniversary gift.  By the time we made it to the court it was High Noon, and pretty hot.  We really had a good time hit the balls it shot out to us.  We all look forward to doing it again (hopefully a bit cooler temps).  Curtis needs a way to take out some of his frustrations, without hurting his back anymore. Hopefully this tennis machine is the answer.

Just another typical Saturday

Yesterday was a busy day,  Derek got up early and we dropped him off at Brother Sillinpaa's house @7:00 a.m. to meet with the other 11 year old scouts.  From there they went to Aarowhead pool to knock out the swimming merit badges.  Derek is my best swimmer, he has had swim lessons the longest of any kid.  I knew he would do well.  My friend Liz,who is in the Stake Primary Presidency was over seeing the event and she sent me these pics.

I think they look cool all together like this

11 year old scouts earning swimming merit badge.

After Derek was dropped off -Dax, Trey and I worked on the weed mess in the front yard.  Our grass looks terrible in the front, and it is because these weeds are spreading and killing the grass.  I had been working on the weeds early in the morning during the week before the kids got up.  I'm had made progress, but there are so many patches in them.  This time I'm determined to remove them 100% so they stop coming back.  We had a good time working.  As Dax and I pulled the weeds Trey would clean them up and dump them.  He called it the Weed Hotel and then Weed Prison.  He would make big piles of the weeds (the Hotel) then once they went into the trash can it became Weed Prison.  I enjoyed his stories he entertained us and helped the time pass for him.  I don't know about Dax as his grass allergies started bugging him after a bit.

We worked for about an hour until it was getting too hot.  Then I cleaned up and Curtis and I went to the Temple.  I had some family names I had been working on and it seemed a good day to get it done.  As we were on our way I got a text from my friend Tiffany Andersen, asking if Trey could play with her son, Soren that day.  I told her he could play, but we were one our way to the temple, so he wouldn't have a way to get over there. Tiffany just had foot surgery, so she still couldn't drive either.  Curtis and I decided Dax wasn't doing anything and it would be good for Dax to ride his bike over with Trey to Soren's house.  It isn't that far and they need to have more experiences like that.  Dax was reluctant (because he didn't want to)  I asked him if he knew how to get there, he said yes (they had done this one previous time, but Derek was with them and he is a better navigator), but I briefly went over the instructions again.  We went into the temple and turned our phones off.

We came out of the temple a few hours later, then went to lunch.  We got home and Derek was home, and we asked Dax how the trip to Soren's went? Apparently not that good.  First Trey's bike tires were low, so instead of pumping them up, or using another form of transportation like a scooter, Dax decided to walk.  It was about 10:00 by now and the temps are heating up.  Then they went the wrong way, ended up way far away by his friends Dallin Thomas' house (not terribly far, but far enough off course)  Then some other people from the Ward who live in that area near the Thomas' (John and Miriam Soubie) saw them all drenched in sweat and asked them what they were doing.  Lucky the Soubie's rescued them and dropped them off at the Andersen's house.  Then Dax walked from the Andersen's to home.  I don't know what they would have done is the Soubie's didn't rescue them.  We definitely need more experiences like this and finding their own way to their friends house.  It is too bad that society has turned us all into helicopter parents and the kids don't get many opportunities to be as independent as previous generations.

First Day of School-Jack the Bully

Dax Johnson 10th Grade Arizona College Prep

July 20th 2015-First day of School

Trey and Derek getting ready to head out to school

Trey Johnson 1st day of 1st Grade Mrs. Condos Hancock Elementary

Zaiden and Derek 1st day of 6th Grade

 The day is here, summer is over.  We went to meet the teacher the kids have a pretty good idea of who is and who isn't in there classes this year.

I was hoping Trey would enjoy 1st grade more than Kindergarten, and Derek would not have to worry about the Jerks from 5th grade.  Trey came home very happy.  The first day went pretty smooth for everyone, but I have to give some background story.

When school got out in May, I got a phone call from Derek's 5th grade teachers Mrs. Barutha and Mrs. Doerneman.  The 5th graders had an assignment to write something to the incoming 5th graders.  Derek's teachers were concerned because Derek had written such a negative letter.  We were on our way to Mexico so I never actually spoke to the teachers we just kept playing phone tag with each other.  I asked Derek what it was about and he said he wrote how the kids were mean and 5th grade is terrible and Derek doesn't have any friends.

All year long Derek had been complaining about this kid, Jack, and his friends being jerks to everyone, Jack calls everyone freaks and other names, picks on everyone, and really is a big arrogant jerk.  Derek can have a bit of a temper and he also told me how he would walk up to Jack, get right in his face and say "You Suck Jack"  This made me feel that although  there  was some animosity between the two,  Derek wasn't completely innocent either so I didn't think much of it.  Although he did continually complain about Jack.  All summer long he would tell me how when he goes back to school he is going to beat up Jack.

In the mean time as friends came to play this summer and as I spoke to their Mom's this kid Jack randomly kept coming up.  I heard the exact same complaints from these other kids (and Parents) that Derek had been telling me.  I finally realized that this Jack is a big bully and a problem to everyone.

A week before school started, when the teachers had gone back to work,  Derek's 5th grade teachers called me back to discuss this letter that had been written back before school got out.  They were very concerned about Derek, I was impressed that they still called me back after all this time.  We discussed it and I told them I talked to Derek etc. and I understood the situation.  They made sure that Derek would have a friend in his 6th grade class, so they made sure Zaiden and Derek got put in the same class.  I was very grateful they were looking out for Derek and that they did that.  I told them I thought the real problem was this bully Jack, and I told them I had been hearing about him from other kids and parents. This had been going on for a few years.   They took his name and said they would let the administration know.

When we went to meet the teacher we were happy that Jack was not in Derek's class, but two of his minions were.  Derek was still dreading school, the Bully and his Gang.  We assured Derek that the school had been notified, and if he still had a problem Curtis would go in and take care of it.

This first two days of school were ok,  no drama from Jack, by Wednesday it was back to the same story. Thursday morning I called the principal, Mrs. Hull.  She said she was made aware of it before school started and they had made changes so they wouldn't be interacting with each other.  I told her it was happening on the play ground and there was a big group of them.  She suddenly realized why we were still making a big deal of this, and the things they had done were not enough.  She said they would be watching.

On Thursday Derek didn't come home from school at his normal time.  I went out to find him and he was outside the house in tears.  He said they were picking on him again and he can't bear to go to school and deal with this anymore.  I finally got him inside so we could talk about it (it was hot outside I didn't want to be out there anymore, it was hard to get Derek to budge he was so upset).  He really did not want to go back to school as long as Jack had not been dealt with.

On Friday morning Curtis went into School with Derek and met with Mrs. Hull and Shari Ballard, another administrator.  Derek went in with a list of  about 15 names,  all of Jack's friends that had been harassing him. They had a good discussion.  Before Curtis and Derek went in to meet with Mrs. Hull, we told Derek if he didn't feel safe or comfortable with the situation after the meeting he did not have to stay at school.

Curtis came home alone (a good sign)  he felt they had a good handle on the situation and it would be handled.  Later in the day Curtis got a call from Mrs. Hull saying she had talked to Jack and he admitted to everything Derek accused him of.  Jack said he would work on changing.  Mrs. Hull also talked to Jack's  mom,  she was embarrassed and said she would also work to improve this behavior.
It felt like a victory for Derek.  Although, one of the minion friends still picked on him once he got back to class.

On Monday Derek went to school and two of the minions (in his class)  apologized to Derek.  He said he also overheard Jack's friends saying that Jack had In-school suspension.  Curtis told Mrs. Hull that since Jack started this whole bullying thing with his friends it needed to end with Jack telling his friends to knock it off.  It seems to be working.

Derek never saw Jack all week.  I don't know if he had in school suspension the whole entire week, or if they were just never in the same place at the same time.  Either way we are happy it was dealt with.  Derek is much happier at home and going to school now. That first week was rough. 

Often times I had heard that Hancock had a bullying problem and they don't really care to do anything about it.  I agreed with that.  Previously Dax had been bullied and it wasn't really handled that well, but we also never took it to Mrs. Hull.  I know Mrs. Hull is tough on bullies and she will end it.  She has earned that A+ rating for a reason.  Our home is much happier now.