Sea World 2010

The first video from Sea World is Joseph's narration of the Penguin Encounter. It's quite refreshing to hear his perspective on things.



The next video is very short and is of the Beluga Whales.


The next ones are various photos from Sea World (including Shamu.)

I've  had this post in draft for a while.  I was waiting until I had all the videos put together.  Sea World was pretty fun.  We went on Atlantis 3 times.  I went on the other water ride once, but Joseph went on it twice.  They have this high tech dryers that will help dry you off for $5.  I did not use them, but another couple was done and told Joseph he could go in and use the rest of their time.  We watched a couple shows (Shamu; Sesame Street; and Seal, Sea Lion, Otter.)   I took photos of the fish in the aquarium there but did not compile them into a video.  

Birds, Sea Lions and the Ocean

Here are some photos Joseph took from the boat of the animals we saw.  I took maybe one or two, but Joseph took the majority of them.  I forgot to mention that we also saw the movie Oceans while on our trip.  Based on the ear flaps the animals are either sea lions or fur seals.

Trawling on the Ocean Odyssey

After breakfast, we went to the pier to take a ride on the Ocean Odyssey.  After a quick safety demonstration we left the pier and headed out into the Pacific Ocean.  I have never been on a boat in the ocean before. They had the children help set out the net (otter trawl.)  Then a couple minutes later, we all pulled on the rope to bring the net up.  Then the children sat around and learned about some of the animals that were caught.  Duplicate animals were tossed back into the ocean.  Joseph took some great photos of the animals, due to the release form, I can only post the photos without other children in them, so enjoy the video below.

The Otter Trawl

**ps stay tuned for what else we saw on the boat in the next blog....

Breakfast at Sharkey's

As part of the Oceanography trip we ate breakfast and dinner on Tuesday at Sharkey's.  It's a bait, tackle, kayak rental and food place on the pier.  The breakfast was continental style with eggs, bacon, pancakes and muffins, etc.  It was really good.  While on the pier, Joseph took pictures of the various birds he saw, fish that people on the pier had caught, animals in the tanks, and many other things.  I put together a little video of his photos, but since I don't have a photo release, I can't publish them as they have other people in them.  So please leave a comment and I can email you the video.

Oceanography Trip

Joseph and I went on an Oceanography trip this week.  The trip was a field trip as part of a school club.  The school hired Project Exploration.  They put on trips all the time for schools.  All year we've been attending the Oceanography club learning about the oceans and sea animals.  We left for California early Monday morning and upon arrival in San Diego we went to Coronado Beach to create sand animals and then we went to Seaport Village for dinner and to walk around.  Afterwards we went to the movies and saw the new Disney movie Oceans.  Then we headed to our hotel to sleep as Tuesday we were getting up bright and early for a busy day. These are Joseph's videos of his visit to Seaport Village.

Coronado Bridge

Seaport Village Part 1

Christmas Gift Shoppe

Seaport Village Part 2

What we did in 2009

So I've never done a Christmas Letter and I used to be so good at sending out cards. I actually do have a box of cards that I can use to send out. However, I've become lazy and haven't done it. So this year I am writing a New Year letter of what we accomplished last year. So if you don't care to read it, then you can move onto another of my blog entries instead.

Joe – He fixed the green car (Dodge intrepid) so now it works and Victoria can drive it to work. He went to Disneyland (and CA Adventure) for the first time for his and Victoria's birthdays and anniversary. He works in the Junior Nursery in the ward.

Victoria – She learned to make pumpkin desserts out of fresh (not canned) pumpkins. She went to Disneyland, CA Adventure and Magic Mountain this year. She also works in the nursery in the ward. She learned seasonal loan products (RVs, boats, etc) at work. She's been with USAA 2 years now and her 401k now is completely vested.

Adam – He received the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained a Deacon by his Papa. He serves as the second counselor in the Deacon's Quorum. He played softball for his school earlier this year (7^th grade.) He made the football team again for this school year (8^th) and made the basketball team (8th,) all that practicing with the scouts paid off. He went to camp Geronimo for the first time. He went to Magic Mountain to celebrate his entrance into teenager-hood. He got glasses. He got to play with the Ironwood marching band during halftime of an Ironwood Football game. He went to the temple for the first time with the youth. He got stitches earlier in the year when he collided with a fence at school and it cut his leg.

Joseph – He earned his Webelos and Arrow of light. He is in his 2^nd year of home schooling through AZ Virtual Academy. He is in 5^th grade. He started taking medication. He got glasses. He almost met a rattlesnake. He has recently started reading books and really enjoys them. He went to Day Camp during the summer.

Joshua – He turned 8 and had a fun Army party. He got baptized along with his best friend Aaron on the 4^th of July. He got glasses too. He earned his Bobcat (with help from Aaron's mom, too.) He is in 3rd grade and his teacher at school is one of the counselors in the Primary so he sees her almost every day. He loves his teacher. He got to go to Cub Scout Day Camp for the first time.

Sam – He had surgery. He spent his last year in nursery and will be joining the ranks of Sunbeams. He was potty-trained and had a big boy party. He turned three. He fell in love with Lydia (Aaron's baby sister.) He loves to talk and tell stories and his language has improved since we started blogging although he still can't pronounce eses (S.) He kissed a chick. He dislocated his elbow once when Joshua and he were playing.

I am sure there is more and find that as I blog more I'll have a better record for 2010. Happy 2010!!

The Strattera® Chronicles (part 2)

*WARNING: This will be a long blog entry as it contains a 10-day log of Joseph’s reactions to Strattera®.  It was started to identify any reactions he might have experienced.  I did not want to post it as a daily log.  I was going to wait the full 30-days, however I have found a 10-day log is still educational and will continue my 30-day log and will update every 10 days.*

Read about the first 10 days here.

Day Eleven

Joseph was picking on Sam and Joshua this morning.  Joshua was picking on Sam too.  We were busy packing to go home from Sedona.  We gave Joseph his medicine a bit early (picking on his brothers reminds us that he’s back.)  Afterwards he did pack up his things.  When they were done and had eaten we sent them out to play until we were ready to go.

Day Twelve

I was not home today (at work) so my experience was Joseph wasn’t working on his school work so I said we should give him his meds.  I asked Joe how the day went and he said after he took his medicine he stayed on task more.  Joseph did not finish a spelling assignment or a Literature assignment

Day Thirteen

Since I was at work again today, most of this is based on Joe’s assessment and my grading his schoolwork.  This morning was the same as yesterday.  Joe says after taking his medicine, he thinks it didn’t really make a difference.  He was off and on today when it came to doing his schoolwork.  He did not complete the Spelling assignment for today, however he finished the one from yesterday.  I cannot tell at this point if he completed the History Lesson.  I can see he worked on it, but I don’t know if he did the writing part as I don’t see it anywhere.  He completed yesterday’s Literature assignment, but not today’s.  We print out the weekly list so he knows where he falls behind and has to make up by the end of the week or work on Saturday.  I asked if Joseph did Math (his favorite subject) and Joe said he started it but then when it was too much he stopped working on it.  They did have fun with Science today studying motion.  In fact, they measured the weight of the centripetal force that an item created by attaching it to a scale.  That wasn’t part of the lesson, but they did it anyway.  He really enjoyed working on science.  He did not work on Art either. 

Day Fourteen

Joseph had difficulty staying on task and did not get enough work completed to account for a full day.  While he wasn’t able to get enough lessons done the last 2 days, he was able to get enough hours in.  He needs to make up hours he is behind so completing everything on his list is imperative.

Day Fifteen

It was as if Joseph didn’t take any medication today. He picked on his brothers whenever possible (chasing them around the house, doing things that would purposefully annoy them, etc.)  He didn’t stay focused on his work and didn’t get enough hours in to even account for a full day.  Today is the last day of the reduced medicine pill.  His pill today is equal to about ¾ of a full dosage.

Day Sixteen

Joseph had a hard time getting focused and getting work done, however once my parents called at 7pm to say they’d take the boys for the night, Joseph did get busy and got many assignments done in the next three hours before they got here.

Day Seventeen

Joseph was at my parent’s home most of the day so I am not sure what to report for him.  He told me he spent about an hour reading his book (for school.)  When I came home he was already home and acting normal like his brothers.  

Day Eighteen

I wonder if his Primary teacher noticed a difference in him today.  It’s getting near the end of the year.  He has difficulty with change and usually causes problems for his new teachers. 

Day Nineteen

Joseph had a great day today in regards to schoolwork.  He was able to complete multiple assignment and put in enough hours to help catch up on his hours.  I was at work so I was not able to observe his behavior.  I can only see the product.

Day Twenty

Today was like yesterday.  Lots done, I couldn’t observe his behavior.

Recap of the last 10 days:  It seems like the first part of the 10 days when he was on the 3/4 dosage that he didn't maintain focus on getting his schoolwork done, however when we switched to the full dosage he was more focused.  He's recently started reading more.  He's always been able to jump into a book and read, however now he is reading not to waste time but as something to do when he's done working.  I also found that since I was back on work I could not observe his behavior and therefore, had to rely on the observations of others or on merely what had been accomplished during the day.

The Strattera® Chronicles (part 1)

*WARNING: This will be a long blog entry as it contains a 10-day log of Joseph’s reactions to Strattera®.  It was started to identify any reactions he might have experienced.  I did not want to post it as a daily log.  I was going to wait the full 30-days, however I have found a 10-day log is still educational and will continue my 30-day log and will update every 10 days.*

Joseph has been home-schooling for over a year and has started to decline again in his schoolwork.  Some days he can get many assignments done, but after the first month of school, he started to decline.  He was getting behind in every subject and in overall attendance hours.  His teacher put him on an action plan today to bring his work up to par and make up for lost time. 

I took Joshua to the doctor for some allergy medicine and the doctor gave me a sample of Strattera® to try out on Joseph.  Straterra® was previously recommended as the correct medication for him to take, however due to the suicidal tendency side-effect we elected to try all other non-medical options for him first.  That was one of the reasons why we moved Joseph to home-schooling.  The other reason was that we felt the school really wasn’t going to do anything more for Joseph.  They refused to give him an IEP because they didn’t feel it was necessary.

 

Day One (11-20-2009)

We gave Joseph his first introductory dose at 5pm.  Like most medications Joseph needs to be weaned onto it.  When I switched from Dilantin® to Tegretol®, I had to wean off one while weaning onto the other.  So it’s understandable that he would start with a low dosage and work his way up to a higher one.  At first I wasn’t noticing any changes because he’d wrestle with his brothers and after removing them from him so he could do his work, he actually started doing work (after he already told Joe before taking it he was done for the day) and when he finished an assignment he asked for more.  When I switched him to another subject at first he contested and then he willingly moved on to the work.  Was this merely a placebo effect?

Day Two

Joseph took his dose at 10:15am.  We decided to start giving him the medication in the morning so it will give him the most benefit during the day.  He said he had a little trouble sleeping last night.  He said as he was laying there he’d feel dizzy as if the house was moving.  He’s noticed he has the burps (like the almost vomit kind.)  He sat next to me on the couch as started shaking like he was convulsing but he was doing it all himself.  He said there are words spinning in his head and he was trying to stop them by shaking his head.  The words in his head don’t hurt him but he is getting a headache.  He feels yesterday was perfect.   So far an hour later he is still acting just like Joseph always does.   Just when I think it is working because he seems focused on his art project, he starts humming, singing or making some ghastly noise.

Day Three

I was at work when Joseph took his medicine this morning and was gone most of the day so I was unable to observe his behavior.  After coming home, however he is still acting like his normal self.  When I asked Joe if he noticed anything different about Joseph’s behavior today, his reply was, “No, he was the same.” 

Day Four

Joseph took his medicine after he came home from church.  We finished up packing the car for our annual trip to Sedona.  His behavior was not noticeably different.  He did sleep in the car on the way up and when we arrived he unpacked his own suitcase and watched television with his brothers until dinner.  We sent him to bed a bit later than normal and he did have difficulty falling to sleep.

Day Five

We gave Joseph his last low dosage pill today because he was annoying.  He was playing miniature golf and getting frustrated when he was losing and he wasn’t remaining calm.  After we gave him his medicine, he still was rather active and did not want to work on school work.  By the end of the day he was two assignments short of his overall daily plan.  This took literally all day to complete 5 assignments.   The two remaining assignments he’ll have to make up tomorrow in addition to the 7 needed.  Tomorrow a slightly higher dosage starts as well.

Day Six

Joseph was a bit less difficult today.  He was able to complete all his school work for today as well as the two assignments left over from yesterday.  After wards, he had time to play.   I am not sure if he worked hard because the next 3 days are going to be vacation time or if he was just more focused.

Day Seven

This morning we competed in the miniature golf contest and Joseph was very active.  He kept “practicing” because he was bored waiting again for his turn.  He had not yet had his medicine so we can’t expect him to act differently.  After it was over, we went back to our room and ate breakfast and he took his medicine.  His brothers wanted to play outside afterward and so we made Joseph wait until it had been an hour.  Before sending him out to play we instructed him to behave, act calmly, and be respectful of our reputations (not so much that I care, but I wanted him to understand his behavior reflects on us.)  Joe checked up on him and he was acting fine.  I am watching him play in the pool right now and he is a bit crazy, however he is playing with other children.  It is the day before Thanksgiving and he’s swimming in a pool.  At least he is burning off extra energy so he can sleep well tonight.  Oh occasionally he has said he has a hard time falling to sleep.

Day Eight

Joseph was able to go out and play today with his brothers.  We didn’t hear any complaints.  He and his brothers have developed a rash and Adam is sick from eating cookie dough that was left out all night.  Other than those ailments, none of which affect Joseph he’s been fine.  We went to a park today and Joseph sat alone watching everyone else play.  Then I decided to do the fitness trail and he joined me.  We then played wall-ball, or a variation of it.

Day Nine

Joseph was acting a bit wild this morning so I reminded him to take his medicine.  He did before taking his medicine decide to build the racecar kit (like pinewood derby, but not as intense) that I had bought for him.  While his brothers played outside he sat mostly quietly watching television and building his racecar.  Later he played outside too.  I am watching him now in the pool and he is playing with his brothers and a guy that is playing with the kids in the pool.  I think he’s one of the other kid’s dad or grandpa.  The real test will be tonight when we get together with Joe’s siblings and their kids.  Ours will be the oldest there, but none the less, we’ll see how he acts tonight.  His behavior was fine tonight.  Only once did I hear someone else tell him to stop doing something and it was while he was outside playing.  In fact the three three-year-olds were wilder than he was.

Day Ten

Joseph took his medicine a little later today than normal. That was mostly due to him leaving to play mini golf and not being in our room to give him the medicine.  For the most part he was cooperative.  He worked on an Art project for school, the lesson he has yet to do, but we had time to just do the project.  Occasionally, he gets a bit wild, but for the most part he is okay.

Recap from first 10 days:

So far I've noticed Joseph is very wild in the mornings and that reminds us to give him his medication.  I don't know if the medication is working for him or if it gives him a placebo effect.  I try and ask him his opinion about the medication and he doesn't want to provide one.  He still has a hard time following multiple instructions.  I do like how he plays better with his brothers (not in the morning) and doesn't seem to cause as many problems as he normally does.

Twelve Eyes

Joshua has been getting headaches and nausea every now and then so we took him to the doctor. The doctor considered his issue could be due to allergies. Sinus pressure can lead to headache and nasal drainage can lead to nausea. I know headaches/migraines can also cause nausea so I wanted to rule out poor vision before we inundate his body with allergies pills since the diagnosis was probable. I scheduled an eye appointment for Joshua.



A couple of years ago we gave the boys color blindness tests found on the internet. It was discovered that both Adam and Joshua are color blind and Joseph is not. The boys (Adam and Josh) freaked out as they tend to do over trivial things. I then explained that I am not a doctor and the test was not given by an eye doctor and therefore I cannot accurately diagnose it.



My grandfather (mom's dad) was color-blind so it was quite possible that my boys could be color-blind as well. It would appear that my mother passed on her color-blind recessive gene to me and my dad gave me his non-color-blind gene. With that probability it would likely be that half my boys could end up color-blind so I would not be surprised if they were.



And now back to the story about Joshua. We went to Nationwide Vision for an appointment. He took all the vision tests and sat in the big chair and wore the eye doctor examination mask (as I like to call it.) It was determined that he is color blind (4 out of 5,) that he has 20/30 vision and is near-sighted. He was told he needed glasses to wear while in school, reading, or watching television. Really? So he told me to help him pick out the cheapest frames to save me money and we ordered his pair. While there I set appointments for Adam and Joseph too.



The very next day, Joseph had his eye appointment. He enjoyed looking at the frames and really liked the nice designer ones!! He took all the tests and got to wear the fancy eye doctor mask. His vision perfect, well almost. He had 20/30 in the right, 20/20 in the left with overall 20/20. He, on the other hand, was far-sighted with astigmatism. He was advised to pick out a pair of glasses to use for reading. We eventually settled on a nice shiny pair and he was so excited. At this point I've decided that Nationwide just wants to sell glasses and having an eye exam is really not about "eye health."



Adam attended his appointment a week later and the other two get to pick up their glasses. They acted like they are so cool. Josh was excited because he had always wanted to wear glasses. Poor kid, braces and glasses, luckily he's cute and can bypass all that teasing kids get. So Adam found out he is color blind 4 out of 5 like Josh. I don't remember ever hearing Adam's test results but I know he wasn't too bad. I know he is near-sighted in one eye and astigmatism in the other. He, like Josh, just needed them for school. He picked out about 20 pairs and we had to narrow it down. Writing this, I realized he is a lot like his mother.



Sam went for his appointment and picked out a pair of glasses that he would not take off. He was so excited he could be Dr. Daniel Jackson that he was highly disappointed when he didn't need them. I was told he was fine now but would need glasses in first grade. Seriously?

So here's your chance to guess which eyes fit the kid. All you get are the eyes and glasses.

A.

B.

C.

D.

Wow look how blue eyes vary among the boys.

Now you can check your answers by looking at face shots here

Joshua's Journal

We came across a journal that we think Josh made in 1st grade. We are guessing first grade only because one entry he referenced the Super Bowl and it listed the Giants and the Patriots. His last article was titled "Dum mom." It went like this:


“I Love you. Sarry for calling you Dum mom.”

Wow!  I wonder what I did to make him mad and call me dumb. I do, however, admire his cute apology.

Here are a few entries, let me know if you can decipher:

"My favorite part of Halloween is chuckrchreting and eting cande.”

“When I line up I poot my bubl in. When I line up I be cwiyit.”

“At breakfast I est pesaoue. At breakfast I est sosise.”

“When Rudolph’s nose turned green he strerts to fly and he is sileye.”

It was very interesting to read the whole journal. So is learning a new language harder than decoding 6-year-old’s free writing? I don’t think so.  May god continue to bless all the teachers out there who have to learn the phonetic spelling of all the words in the English vocabulary.

My Two Dresses

Adam and I went to Goodwill today to look around.While we were there I saw things on the rack that I had donated.It was a bittersweet moment.A couple of months ago, I cleaned out my closet with old clothes and added it to clothes others had given me to donate. I wanted to donate some of the more professional clothing to a women's center, however since I had everything mixed together in two boxes, it was easier to give all the items to Goodwill. I know I should give to Desert Industries instead of Goodwill, however GW is closer and has more locations and is more frequented.

Seeing these items on the rack was bittersweet because I was happy I had cleaned out my closet but sad that I have such fond memories of the clothes. The first was a navy suit dress that I purchased years ago. It looked very professional and fit me nicely (then.) It was navy and off-white and when I wore it I felt like I was dressed for success. I added it to the giveaway pile because it fit me many moons ago.

The second item I saw on the rack was my Prom dress. I saw this dress while shopping with friends for Homecoming dresses in October 1992. I fell in love with it then, but the price was out of my budget. So I continued shopping and found a beautiful dress, which I still have in my dress-up/Halloween box, to wear to Homecoming. Months later, I was shopping for Prom and the dress was on clearance!!! It was now within budget and I bought it and wore it proudly to Prom. I had broken my ankle that year so I wore a beautiful cast on one leg. It was a perfect accessory to my dress (that was me being sarcastic.) I wore the dress again the next year when I attended another school's Prom. I even loaned it to a friend who wore it to one of her school dances. I was able to fit into it 8 years later and wore it to a church Christmas party. Seeing it on the rack at Goodwill brought back all these memories. I hung onto it in hopes that girls from church might want to borrow it or that one day my daughter would wear it. Since I still don't have a daughter, it would be over 30 years old before it would be worn by her.

My wish is that these two dresses bring the same joy they've brought me. A woman might wear the navy dress to an interview and get the job that she's been looking for.
A young woman can feel beautiful at her school dance. That is the joy that arrives from donating time, items, or money to charitable organizations. By giving we receive. By sharing, others can be blessed.

Pumpkin Season

Since we brought home pumpkins the other day from Tolmachoff Farms, I thought I'd put them to good use. My friend Debbie once told me that her friend's mom always used the insides of the pumpkin to make the best pumpkin pie and she had taught her how to do it too. I am not a fan of pumpkin pie. I like the taste just not the texture so I have NEVER made a pumpkin pie. However, now that I have 7 little pumpkins lying around my house, I figured I need to learn how to do something with them.

On Thursday, I researched (googled) pumpkin puree, the official name of the canned pumpkin product. I found several recipes on how to create pumpkin puree. One way was to bake it and then other was to boil it with the skin still on. Either way, once it was softened it would merely peel off the skin. Then place the pumpkin in the food processor and process until it is smooth. I ate a few pieces of it and can't believe how good pumpkin is on its own. Two little pumpkins made a lot of puree.

So now I begin my search for pumpkin recipes. What I have found so far is pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, a pumpkin pie cake my mom makes, and I bought some oatmeal yesterday and it came with a cake recipe on the back, too. Today I am going to make one of those items. Most likely it'll be pumpkin bars, but the boys really want pie. Joe really likes the ice cream. I still have 5 more pumpkins to puree so I've got time to make many different recipes. I wonder if pumpkin would be good in chili. I can freeze the puree too for later.

PS I typed this with the new blog format in Word.

Sam kisses chicks

I know what you are thinking.  Sam is 3 and he's already kissing girls.  While I may say chick flick to describe, well, chick flicks, I don't usually call girls chicks.  Therefore, here is rare footage of Sam kissing a baby chick. 

Sam kisses chick


I actually felt sorry for the chick because the more he wanted to love it the stronger he'd squeeze it. 


We went to Tolmachoff Farms for a school field trip for Joseph.  It was $10 person and it came with admittance (which includes visiting all the things they have there - even the corn mazes,) a free small pumpkin, picking fresh produce, an ice cream sandwich, and a train ride.  Joseph finally got to meet his teacher.  When he came home and told dad about the trip he said about his teacher, "And she's good looking, too."  Joseph has always liked it when his teachers are good looking.  I allowed Joseph to do his own thing during free time, which I think he enjoyed because he often doesn't get to run free.  I was busy chasing Sam everywhere.  This would be why there are more photos of Sam than Joseph.  And I am not in any photos either, but I was there.   

Photos of our trip to Tolmachoff Farms

Adam's Musical Talents

In fourth grade Adam decide he wanted to be in orchestra. That year he learned to play the violin. When we went to the music store to rent his violin the owner talked with him about how very intelligent people play the violin. Albert Einstein played the violin. He told Adam to not give it up and he will learn to appreciate its beauty. We listened as he practiced every day. The best way to describe the sweet music he played is that it is like listening to a cat fight.

The next year the school provided the violin so we didn't have to pay for the rental anymore. That was nice. Again he practiced and we attend his concerts and it didn't sound as much like a cat fight, but I was still waiting for it to sound like heaven. Both years Adam even braved playing at the church talent shows.

So sixth grade comes around and we moved to another school. This year they tell him there are too many violin players and ask if he'll play the cello instead. He has been playing for 2 years and he can't play anymore because too many children already play. I am not sure if they were return students or new to the instrument. He decides to play the cello and the school provides it free of charge. This year he also wants to be in band. He decides he wants to be like Brad Anderson and play the saxophone. Brad Anderson for those who don't know him is a young man (couple years older than Adam)from our old ward who could play the piano, organ, sax, well you name it he could play it (except for the violin, which he could probably play now.) Adam really admired Brad so he picked the sax. They already had 2 alto sax players so he settles for tenor. Now he has to trudge 2 very large instruments home on the bus. Luckily he didn't have band and orchestra on the same day, so he only had to carry one at a time. These are deep low sounding instruments so the sound of his practicing wasn't so horrific. At the end of the year, the school sends home a flyer asking parent's if they'd prefer band or orchestra (only) the next year as they are dropping the program and it will be an after school program.

For seventh grade we are able to use a variance to get him into another school. They only offer band and it is during school time as an elective-type class. Adam must give up his cello, but can continue to play the tenor sax. He didn't sign up in the beginning of the year so he only plays second semester.

It's now eighth grade and Adam has signed up for band. The alto sax wasn't available so he sticks with tenor. He practices every day and is excited to play. His band teacher is the marching band leader at Ironwood so the students get to join the marching band on September 18th at the IHS football game. They aren't going on the field, but get to learn songs and play during the game. This will be an exciting opportunity for him and will teach him what opportunities are available for him in high school if he has a passion to continue playing the saxophone. Or maybe he'll go to back to violin or cello. Who knows?