Caitlyn

The school year is almost over. Caitlyn had her 8th grade award ceremony the other night. It was more of an irritation that anything.

As usual, it was crowded and many of the families were badly behaved...so we were pretty irritated before it even began. A good quarter of the kids getting awards didn't even show up to get them. They spent an inordinate amount of time on little specialty awards that had little significance. Spending time on awards that were not really available to all the kids and spending time giving awards to adults that worked at the school or helped out. This assembly should be for the kids who worked hard all year. Isn't that the purpose of sending our kids there?

Caitlyn got an award for history. She also got called for some bilingual award which she didn't even go up for because she thought (and for good reason) that it must have been a mistake). We thought that they must have made a mistake as she had only taken one measly quarter of Spanish last year during this weird elective rotation they put the kids on and could barely remember any of it.

Then they sped through the last awards which was the President's Academic Awards. You had to have a high GPA all year for this since they were in actuality giving the award before the year was officially over. They called the names one after the other with no pause for the kids to even make their way up. It was in no kind of order and we thought that they were going to pass over Caitlyn entirely (who has had a 4.0 gpa during her entire middle school career)  but called her up at the very end. Before they finished calling her name, the stampede of ill behaved parents were already surging forward shaking the stands we were sitting on and blocking our view somewhat of Caitlyn receiving her award.

In fact, the school normally has an award ceremony after the first semester for the kids but didn't bother to acknowledge them then either. They did manage to arrange a weeklong string of activities for those with perfect attendance because that's all they care about. They claim it is because attendance matters because there is a correlation between attendance and performance, but in actuality, they only care about attendance because that is how the school gets their money. So, as long as you show up all the time, they bend over backwards to pat you on the back. Actual performance means very little to them.

Now that I think of it, the school didn't do anything for the kids who worked hard and performed well, since the award they received was from the President...not the school. The school did nothing but tack on the delivery of these awards at the end of their own award ceremony, spending as little time and energy on it as possible. 

Mother's Day and more

It's been a fairly busy month thus far. Summer is just around the corner now. Emily had to take the AP Exam for her US History class. We won't know how she did until some time this summer. Unfortunately, no one is holding their breath on this one.
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The stake boundaries were redrawn...again. Our ward was dissolved and split into either the Mt. Rubidoux Ward or the Canyon Crest Ward. We ended up in the Canyon Crest Ward. Many of our friends are now in the Mt. Rubidoux Ward. I hate changes. The way they went about it was less than ideal. On the bright side, we were all released from our church callings. We don't, however, know what we might be called to do next. We didn't make it to the first Sunday meeting though as we had plans to get together with my family for Mother's Day.
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My nephew, Christopher graduated from USC. He already has a job lined up to begin at the end of summer with Adobe. We joined the family for a celebratory dinner Friday evening. He has plans to do some traveling this summer before he starts work. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and didn't get any pictures.
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Christian made me some fresh English muffins for my Mother's Day breakfast. He put in these neat

LED lights under my cupboard so that I have better lighting on my counter for cooking and stuff. Sadly, my kids hardly acknowledged me. Caitlyn worked on a watercolor card for me the day before but never finished it to give to me. Emily murmured a half hearted Happy Mother's Day in passing as we got ready to leave to see my mom. It sucks to have teenagers.

For Mother's Day, we usually plan a picnic or something for my mom but it was overcast and a bit cold out that morning. We ended up meeting up at my sister's house for lunch. We figured if the sun burned through, we would go to the park afterwards. We all decided on a Hawaiian menu for lunch. As an afterthought, my sister suggested that it might be fun to dress up for the occasion. Christian took some group photos for us that turned out pretty cute.

After eating too much, we decided to take a walk to the local park and get some air and exercise. Debbie, my brother's wife, went home to get some housework done. Christopher had been staying up late and partying a lot since graduation and stayed in to take a nap. My sister's husband and her youngest son had left the day before for the graduation of their nephew/cousin.

My sister beat Collin and Caitlyn at basketball. My brother and my mom reigned at bocce ball. They had a final round in the end and my brother ended up as the champion.

Afterwards, we returned to my sister's house for dessert which ended up to be dinner and dessert. We went home way too late.

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Unfortunately, after my nephew went to sleep that evening, he had some severe pain in his chest and couldn't breath. My sister ended up taking him to the hospital. Apparently, his lung collapsed. They had to put a tube in his chest to let the air out. He was able to breathe on his own after that.

After 4 days, he is finally being released from the hospital. He still has a small hole in his lung, so they had to leave the tube in. He has to go back on Tuesday to get a check up and see if the hole healed, otherwise, he might still have to have surgery. I guess if it is healing okay, they will take out the chest tube.

He was supposed to leave for his trip to Asia today. He had plans to travel around China, Japan and Korea, meeting up with his friends as he went. Of course it is all cancelled now, but we are thankful that he is safe at home for this emergency.

Caitlyn's Birthday

We continued Caitlyn's Birthday celebrations this past weekend. We had to delay her birthday party a week since we spent last weekend celebrating Garth's birthday in San Diego.

She got a bunch more presents. She got a lot of gift cards this year...must be part of the whole becoming a teenager thing. It becomes harder and harder to shop for them. Christian put together a new electronics kit for her. He is getting her pieces to make her own touchscreen alarm clock. She will be able to program it to work however she wants and she will be able to upload her own music or sounds to it. She will be able to put it together this summer as she will have to get up on her own for seminary next year.

She had a huge growth spurt this past year. She grew 3 5/8 inches over this past year. She is very nearly my height. The difference is negligible (unless she insists that she is now taller than me, that's when I insist that I am still taller...at least for another month or so).

We had more cake. Her birthday lunch is always shared with grandpa whose birthday is about a week before hers.

Grandpa Caldwell and Jackie rolled out of the door after the festivities. Marian stayed for a movie (and laundry). We were all still too full for dinner so we opted to just have some popcorn with our movie and called it a night.

April

Christian and I drove out to Orange County to meet up with a couple of my old friends from my Isuzu days. One of them is about to get married and move across the country. It was really nice meeting up with them for dinner. I haven't seen them in so long. We are going to attempt to get together one more time before Cindy takes off.
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We went down to San Diego the day before Caitlyn's birthday to celebrate Christian's youngest brother's birthday. Garth turns forty this year. It was quite a mile stone since they was not sure he would survive this long. He is severely autistic and lives in a group home. Christian's dad had a big party set up for 3 or 4 of the homes along with family, of course. He had the party catered with Mexican food. They even made homemade tortillas and everything on-site. I have to say, it was pretty good.

Afterwards, we stopped by his sister's house to chat for a while before heading back home.

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The next day was Caitlyn's Birthday. She turned 13. She is officially a teenager. We gave her one of Christian's presents before church so that she could wear it.

After church, we were going to continue with her birthday celebrations. I came home early during the third hour to get lunch ready for everyone. When Christian came home with the girls, however, he saw that there was smoke coming out of one our neighbors houses. But the neighbor was outside walking around nonchalantly outside of his home. He even waved at Christian. Christian came in and told me about it. He said that it seemed like his house was on fire but didn't seem to care or notice. He went back out to talk to him. Jim, our neighbor, was just walking back into his house. He told us later that he was about to jump into the shower. Christian had to knock on his door to tell him that he thought his house was on fire. He didn't even know. He had apparently smelled something but didn't think anything of it. The fire started in the wiring in his attic apparently so the smoke went up through his whirly birds and didn't even set off his fire alarm. 

Jim called the fire department and shut off his gas and electricity. He then went up on the roof with a hose to try to send water down into the attic. It didn't seem to do any good. His direct next door neighbor came out of the house and took up her hose to shoot towards his house but she was down on the ground and not near the house, so the only thing she managed to do was to water his lawn! Christian came back to change out of his church clothes and we hear the fire department coming in the distance.

By the time the fire department got here, Emily said that she could see orange flames starting she shoot out above the roof. They sent at least six fire engines over. It filled up our entire cul-de-sac. Some got blankets and things out to cover some of their valuables inside. Others probed the roof and got a chain saw to get at the fire. It wasn't too long before they got most of it out. The roof is pretty messed up and there was a lot of water damage in the end but most of their stuff and house was saved.

If Christian hadn't gone up there to talk to Jim, he would have jumped into the shower and never noticed a thing until the roof came down over his head. It was pretty crazy. He came down to thank Christian a couple of times because, who knew what would have happened if Christian hadn't gone up to talk to him. His wife had taken off to go shopping or something when I got home and didn't come back until the fire was almost out.

They ended up renting a nearby house and packed up all their stuff while the house gets fixed. Jim's new wife figured that it would be a good time to redo their kitchen and flooring and everything, so they probably won't be back in the house until some time next year.

Anyway, that was pretty exciting, to say the least. 

We went back to Caitlyn's birthday celebration. Christian made her her favorite shao mai for dinner. She got a few more presents and cake.

We will have her birthday party next week since we were in San Diego earlier.

Spring Break

The kids had their spring break at the beginning of the month. We didn't make any big plans as Christian still had classes. He doesn't get any break between classes except for after Christmas. The kids pretty much ran around feral around the neighborhood most of the time. Either playing with Caitlyn's friend and sisters whose grandmother lives a block over from us or the kids on our street. At some point, they all converged for a short time at our house and we were inundated with girls.

We took one morning off to take the girls climbing at the Riverside Quarry. There isn't really anything new there that we are actually able to climb. Most of the things that we can do, we've already done...many multiple times. But it's still good to get out to keep in practice. Emily chose to do Inter-Planet Janet. It is one of her favorites. She likes to pull over the overhang towards the top.

We each basically got to do two climbs. It's all we had time for. Emily led both sport climbs. Caitlyn hadn't really done My Planet Janet before because she couldn't quite reach to get up the overhang. But since she is basically nearly the same height as me, she should give it a try.

She wasn't very confident about going over it at first but she did great. It's more muscle than she is used to having to use. Christian went up like he was just scrambling over a hillside in his hiking boots. I like the climb but that last overhang is pretty strenuous. If I was a little taller (and lighter), it would be pretty fun. I guess that's why Emily likes it so much!

Caitlyn chose to do Taxman Max after. Emily set up the climb and Caitlyn and I went up after her.

That one was definitely too easy for Christian, so he decided to go up Dollars and Sense which is just to the right of Taxman Max so we were able to use the same anchor. 

After that, we were basically out of time. We went home to get some lunch and Christian had to get back to his school work.

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On Thursday, we met up with Christian's sister and her family again in Joshua Tree. They got a hotel for several days in Palm Springs and took day trips into Joshua Tree.

We went out to the Barker Dam area to take them climbing again. Our first climb was out on the Keystone Block. We climbed Keystone Crack (5.6).

That was a pretty fun crack overall. The Pierces did great...well the ones that attempted it anyway. Mike didn't do any climbing on this trip. For some reason, Brandon didn't even attempt it.

Afterwards, Christian looked into doing to arete but that didn't look too safe for everyone. Caitlyn decided that she wanted to go up the insane face of the block between the crack and the arete. Christian will usually encourage her to do anything she is will to try even if it looks difficult and crazy. 

She didn't quite go up in the direction she wanted to attempt but she found a way up and did really great. It was insane. Emily couldn't let that go without a challenge and attempted it as well.

After several attempts, she was not able to figure out a way up. Caitlyn is still the reigning face climbing champion. Emily is definitely a crack climbing kind of girl. Afterwards, since Christian had to go back up to clean the anchor and stuff, he made the attempt up the face as well.

He made it up and said that it had to be about a 5.10b climb. 

We moved on to the Dissolution Corridor. Christian had us climb up the blocky dike. I don't think that it is an actual route and it was pretty hard at one point because it is really awkward and slightly overhanging.

Everyone climbed this one. I think mostly because it looked easier with all the blocks jutting out, but in reality, I thought it was a lot more difficult that the previous crack. But everyone made it up...except for Mike, since he did not climb today.

Next was the Unknown 5.6, which is just to the right of the dike. I think that the dike was a lot more rigorous than everyone hoped so not everyone bothered to go up this last climb. Christian of course went up first. We used the same anchor Christian set up for the dike. Emily, Aron and I were the only other ones that climbed this one. Mason actually attempted it but couldn't find his way up the last hurdle.

That felt a lot harder than a 5.6. I didn't like it much. We were pretty wiped after the last two climbs, so we decided to take a hike to the actual Barker Dam since Aron's family had not been there yet. 

Afterwards, we headed out of the park together and Mike took us out to dinner. We had a bit of a rocky start but overall, it was a pretty good day.

We ended the week by sitting down together to watch General Conference.

March

Caitlyn just finished an after school program with the city called "Hands On History." They took a couple of field trips to talk about the history of the city and got a tour of Mission Inn. They got some quick classes on picture taking, interview techniques, etc. and made a final project to present at the end of their program.
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We went to visit with my family for Tomb Sweeping Day. My brother in law took us out to a big lunch when we were all done. We were so stuffed. Both Christian and Emily had homework to do still so we did not stay to visit after lunch and headed back home to get back to work.
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Caitlyn already registered with her first fall classes in high school. She has decided to give the IB program a try. We'll see how that goes, I guess. It hasn't gone too well for Emily. She has given up on the diploma program but is still hoping to get something out of the certificate program.
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Emily and Caitlyn went back to the dentist. No cavities again! They got their cleaning and got their molars sealed.
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Emily and Caitlyn finished the 3rd quarter of school. On the last day, Caitlyn had the day off and we went spent most of the day together shopping and Caitlyn took us out to lunch to her favorite Panda Express. Emily and her friends went to Castle Park after school.
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Christian continues classes and working on the problem with his truck.

Emily's Birthday

Emily turned 15 earlier this month. I can't believe that she will be learning how to drive soon. It's a crazy thought. We had a her grandparents on Christian's side over for her annual birthday luncheon, along with Marian. My mom stopped coming a number of years ago when her cataracts got worse. She's not comfortable driving to unfamiliar areas. They are supposed to examine her eyes to see if surgery might be called for soon, at least for one of her eyes.

We made Chinese food this year. She got a big gift card from Grandpa Caldwell and Jackie this year. Marian got her some shoes, clothes and another gift card for more clothes. She also got a fancy bath and lotion set from her.

We got her a soccer ball and another electronics kit to make an oscilloscope. Plus Christian put another kit together for her with all the parts she will need to make her first big project: a big LED cube. She saw the project online some time ago and wanted to make it along with some even bigger endeavors. 

On her actual birthday on Monday, her friends surprised her with a ton of gifts, along with balloons and cupcake. One of her best friends actually bought her a new pair of Vans high tops! She got a teddy bear and some clothes as well (although the clothes are too small).  She was really surprised and happy.

At home, she requested a special Italian dinner. A pasta we had some time ago that she really liked. Christian cured and cold smoked the pancetta just for the occasion. I also made some crusty sourdough bread to go with it and some angel food cupcakes with pomegranate/raspberry whipped cream. Plus she got a birthday note from Grandma Cheri (Christian's mom) along with some more birthday money!

Her growth spurts have finally started to slow down this year. She has not changed shoe sizes in the last couple of years and she grew lest than an inch this past year which puts her just shy of 5'6".