Glad for 6th Grade

There are not many kids who can say they have had the same 6th grade teacher.  This particular teacher has been at all the educational milestones too. This is Christina's high school graduation, and Ron was there at our party for Malaina's graduation from college.  Ron Firmage was a very instrumental piece to the Glad girls childhood.  He really had lots of interests that he shared with the girls.  He really liked insects.  They had to do bug collections and learn the different classifications of insects.  Malaina refused to kill the bugs, so he allowed her to sketch them instead and put a spiral book together that we laminated, we still have it.  He also allowed Jordan and her friend Ashley to read the NSYNC Story, over and over and over as their books of choice.  I was his personal Schoolastic "secretary".  I sent out the book orders, handled the money, and bought books for the class.  Just doing that one chore for him really gave me an appreciation of his dedication to the kids.  It was a lot of work!


He liked to read out loud to the class.  They read some real thrillers of survival by Gary Paulson, and others.  There is a special spirit a good teacher has.  They have to love children, have patience and be devoted to learning.  Unfortunately Ron does not teach anymore. He works at the administrative level now.  The No Child Left Behind act has taken all the fun out of learning and teaching.  No more scuba diving, camping, or trips to Goblin Valley. I think it is a shame that good teachers are leaving teaching because of some silly George Bush law.  But that is another story.

Christina + work = Amazing

Okay, I cannot hold back my bragging rights anymore.  I do not want to post it on Facebook, but I can do it here.

Christina will be graduating here in about 3 weeks.  She has worked so hard during high school to get good grades.  She has received the Presidential Multicultural Scholarship from Southern Utah University.  A four year merit based award.  Yes!  Payoffs at last!

She is graduating with High Honors!  A much deserved reward.  She was involved for several years in sports too.  It was not easy and sometimes the coaches were very difficult, but she stuck with it and gave it her all, and is a much loved teammate to her friends.

Christina earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award in 9th grade.  She loved working on all the goals. She finished all 6 years at Young Woman's Camp and came to dearly love and be loved by the Stake Leaders.  She and her boyfriend Brandon have become dear friends and respect each other and their values very much.  We love and trust them both to make good decisions.


I think for me, the greatest achievement for Christina is the fact that she is going to be a Seminary Graduate.  Having gone through early morning seminary myself, I know that the only difficulty to getting there is not wanting to get up!  But at PHS, Seminary is held during the day.  The temptations to skip are many!  As, one can imagine, boyfriends, homework, long lunches, 

etc... seem to make it easy to skip Seminary.  She made up lots of days missed because of sickness, etc, and her dedication to Seminary has helped her to grow by leaps and bounds. Our Stake Young Women's president has recommended Christina to be one of 2 youth speakers at graduation, the other coming from the Young Men.  Christina had to be vetted and approved by Stake leaders.  She is the most outstanding woman I have ever met.   Other than her two older sisters, that is.
 

Fantasy Land

So we had an eventful summer, filled with mad characters!

(Where else but Vegas?)

It may look like he is copping a feel, but it was only fantasy baby, yeah!

Here we are at the LanDesk company picnic at Lagoon. Double dating with Tiny and Brandon.

Christina turned 18 a few days into September.  She got lots of goodies from Malaina.

 

I felt it was important for Christina to have a special piece of jewelry to remind her of number 18.

Christina needs to know all her dreams can come true, and she is indeed a princess.  I fell in love with this Cinderella coach at a shop in Disneyland.  The wheels even turn!!

Tiny Tennis Player

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 I need to give props to my youngest child.  She is starting her senior year at Provo High this fall.  She has excellent grades, and is so nice and kind to all she meets.  I appreciate her special smile and attitude she brings to our home.  Her father and I trust her in all she does.  She is taking 2 classes at UVU this summer and is really enjoying all her new friends from this program she is doing. They just went to Donovan's Chop House  in  SLC,  the chef created a special beautiful vegetarian plate just for her. Christina is an active member of PETA and has been a vegetarian since she was 14. (almost 4 years)  I love that we both love to catalog shop together.  We just got 2 great big boxes in the mail filled with shoes, jeans, shirts, sunglasses, and skirts.  We love popcorn, and no bake cookies too.

She loves to head bang with her dad.  They have Kiss tickets for October.  Her newest form of entertainment is Ghost Stories on TV.  The Game Show Network, and I Almost Died, on the Biography channel.  We spent all of tonight watching the Bio channel about Motley Crue, Guns and Roses, and Tommy Lee.  When the US Open starts in August, we will spend hours upon hours watching tennis.  Christina loves Roger Federer, and Raphel Nadal.  We watched many hours of FIFA World Cup and Christina loves, loves, loves, all the beautiful Latino men. Her cute boyfriend is half Mexican. So he is Latino enough for her.

Christina has her faults, she does not care for little children.  She has no patience for racisits, or people who waste her time at school by not trying hard.  She has some anger when she drives, and sometimes uses bad language.  But by far, her good out weighs her bad.  She is a good Laurel President of the YW in our ward.  She was a YCL at camp this year and really grew close with the Stake leaders.  I love you Christina.