School Pics 2023

 

Okay, mine...haha.  I have worn my hair straight to school exactly 2 times this year.  This is one of those days.  Usually no time to dry.  I look surprised in this picture...and it's been a surprisingly good year.  The classes are NOT balanced.  I got a much easier, better class.  The schedules are NOT really fair...but I got a great one.  And, I love teaching seminary.  7 years in and I'm hitting my stride! So yeah, I'm surprised at what a good year it's been so far.  (knock on wood, right?). We borrowed Maren's Land Rover for Libby to drive and that's made my life even easier.  

Libby is having a great year.  Despite the med hiccup (I think I wrote about that? XR back in stock. Whew!) she's got really great grades, rocked her swim season and well--okay her room is still a big time danger zone.  But I'll take what I can get. She's driving all around town, running errands for me and her, picking up siblings, and so excited for wrestling season.  She's been a leader at organizing open mats and hyping wrestling around the school. Right now I'm waiting for her to finish the SAT.  I just registered her for her first AP exams for the spring.  Her boyfriend Andrew is still going strong (and we really do like him).  So here we go Junior year.  Let's do this. 

Swimming has been amazing for Sarah.  She's back spending time with her Meridian Park friend group and they are lovely.  So much fun.  (I love that I already know and love their families too). She's doing well in all classes except English (yeah, right?  WHAT?).  But I think she's figuring out you have to be REALLY on top of your work with some teachers.  She's actually looking forward to wrestling season I think.  (One of her friends is joining the team, so that helps :).

Ben is having a good 7th grade year so far.  His grades look excellent, he's got lots of buddies at school.  It's still hard that his best friend moved to Edmonds after the house fire last year.  But Story rides the bus to our house lots of weekends and sleeps over.  So Ben still gets to see him.  Ben is VERY much looking forward to his wrestling season.  Rhinos officially starts next week (although he has gone to the High School bootcamp a few times too.) 

I should also probably do a Derek update.  He doesn't get official pics unless he wins an award at the banquet.  Haha.  Football coaching has been an overall good experience this year.  He was head coach of the C team (mostly freshman and some sophomores.) They kept it simple and had some very satisfying wins and some frustrating losses.  I should know the record of his games, but I don't.  His police work life has been AWFUL.  They have had so many people leave/retire that his squad is a skeleton of its former self.  Most days there are 2 of them to cover the area where there used to be 10.  So his days are busy, busy, busy.  Seattle is on track to break the homicide record this year.  And so many of those have been in the north end.  Just this week alone he had 2 hard calls.  One was a guy who chopped up his roommate with a machete.  The other was a drug overdose where the man's mom explained that she would sleep well for the first time in 25 years, knowing that her worst fears had finally come true and she no longer had to worry about it.  Heartbreaking how hard she had tried to help her son.  And those are just the two he told me about.  He's having to rebuild his wrestling coaching staff as well, as one of his long time assistants moved and Clark can't coach this year either.  We're working on delegating the tasks that especially Clark did.  The schedule isn't finalized yet and it's stressing me out to the max, as I need to book some things that I can't book until I know when the girls' tournaments are.  So yeah, we're heading into the busiest season of the year in every way feeling a little uncertain.  But I'm sure it'll all work out.  One thing I know for sure--nagging won't help.  Haha.  20 years of marriage has taught me that! 

The End of Fall Sports

 In the last two weeks we've wrapped up the fall sports season.  It was AMAZINGly cold at times.  But it was SO fun to see the kids compete in new(ish) sports.  So many PRs for both girls.  So much good hard honest work in the water and on the field! They were all JV, but they were contributors in their own ways. 

One key way we contribute is by bringing Aunt Maren.  She's the winner for loudest fan ever.  For real.  And it's so great!  She's very into swimming because it's Jed & Rory's sport.  So she helped teach me the ropes for being a swimming fan.  We also bring the older Nortons.  So we're a crowd! 

We also contribute so much joy and rejoicing when we get a PR.  Libby's is louder and includes more flexing.  But Sarah just radiates joy when she does her best.  It's infectious and fun. 

What's great about the swim team is that all members are celebrated, even if they don't make the district team.  Love them all so much. 

And in swimming you get to sharpie on your body.  Because, why not? 

This is an older photo, from one of the first meets.  But it epitomizes Maren's contibutions! 

The Snohomish Aquatic Center has an elevator.  Geneva and Brion got to try it out! 

I love that these sisters got to do something fun together. 

Sarah ready to step up on the blocks. 

Libby ready to dive.  (way back there)

Ben's football career was mainly in the 5th quarter.  But in this last game against Kellogg, once the score was close to a 40 point divide, Ben got in for two plays.  One play was a fourth down, then he came out when Kellogg failed to convert.  The other play we intercepted the ball so he came out when the offense went back in.  When he went into the game and the announcer called his name (their last game was at the actual stadium with an actual score board and announcer!), the Norton cheering section went wild! Some nearby fans said they were now cheering for Ben too, even though they were Kellogg fans! 

Two favorite football quotes.  At the Meadowdale game, when Ben got hit in the 5th quarter, one of his teammates was sitting behind me and told his dad, "That's Ben.  He's the smallest kid on the team.  But he's really dedicated.  So I think he'll play a lot next year." 

Another was one night after practice he had a headache.  I asked what happened.  He said, "Lucas tackled me by the head....but to be fair, my head is at his waist...so he was reaching really far down."

Haha.  Love this kid. He's going to be a basketball manager if they'll have him. They'd be silly not to! 

Love all our fans, but these ones are pretty special. 

 

Rotary Cup 2023

We enjoyed the Rotary Cup this year, (The SW SC football game).  But it was for the company not the football.  SW played terribly.  Also this was bad news for me, as I made a wager with my coworker, our PE teacher.  If SC won, I have to lead PE warm-ups this week.  If SW won, he had to do Read a loud for my class. Guess who's leading PE warm-ups this week?  ME!  Haha.  

Lockwood's son had an amazing game, tons of yards, tackles, and even scored a touchdown.  He really supported his dad in winning this bet! 

Libby Update

 Libby is having a great school year!  And also a hard one.  I guess that's how it goes.  What's great is her school work.  She wants a car.  We told her that the requirement was no missing assignments.  She told me that was "impossible," that no one turns in all their work.  (Apparently she forgot that I'm a teacher.  And I actually know for a fact that most of my students turn in all their work.)

Anyway, she's actually living that reality.  She has had one or two late assignments, but despite having harder classes, she's getting them in!  I'm so proud of her.

Swimming is also going well.  While she claims to really not like it, she is getting better each meet.  I think she's had a PR in basically every meet.  Last week she swam the 200 free again (she swam that event in the first meet and her cap fell off...).  She dropped 14 seconds off that original time and got the "big drop" award for the week.  She rocked the meet this week with some big PRs too.

JV champs this week.  I'm really excited to see them rock it.

The hardest part is that she's been taking an XR (extended release) ADHD med for a couple of years.  Then, without warning, it was no longer available.  So we had to switch to a short acting med.  This transition has not been smooth.  Lots of emotional ups and downs.  (Just when we thought we'd leveled out--emotions spiked again.) We're working on tweaking the dose but yeah.  That's been tough.  

We won't let her hang out with Andrew without a parent at home.  That's something she's not a fan of either.  So we're trying to navigate that.  This week they tried a work around and he came and hung out on the trampoline with her while no one was home.  Yeah...sort of bending the rule...We weren't excited about that. 

SW Fall Concert & Sarah's Solo

 There is a long term sub for Sarah's choir this semster.  I'm not sure if it was her, the musicians, or the fact that I just read Life in Five Senses so I was super tuned into the magic of the music.  But the choir sounded great (as did the bands/orchestras).  Despite her cold, Sarah sounded great in her solo (duet and quartet really I guess.) 

Seminary Update

 Okay, I really love teaching seminary.  Our schedule of alternating days has made it feel so manageable.  I do Tues & Thurs and my co-teacher does Mon & Wed.  2 lessons a week is just enough.  I feel like I get to connect with the kids well in this way.  We are also just having fun! 

Here are some of the fun things we've done over the past couple of weeks.  (Wish I had taken more pics of their good work).

We wrote a Second Coming Story: I'm putting the link and trying to embed.  We'll see which works.

The Second Coming is Coming

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

read.bookcreator.com

https://read.bookcreator.com/PYXmGnR2u6T1wYJFNH5ZoWPj7rD2/6U6ik_avSMucZbUGMqD2PA

On another day, we built paper towers, to talk about how Christ can be our strength.  Sarah asked the key question as we were building.  (They had paper only.)  She asked, "Can't we just have some scotch tape?"  (YES!  The Savior is like the scotch tape.  We call him in and he can support and strengthen us.  He can stabilize us through our challenges.) 

I feel so thankful to be teaching seminary right now. 

7th Grade Benny

 So far Ben is loving 7th grade...except for a few things.  He has some big issues with new rules at school.  They can't eat outside.  They can't use their phones except for during lunch.  Like at all.  Not even in the halls.  (I love this btw).  And, he's really struggling to get his contacts in.  (We are still in the trial phase, and he keeps dropping them, getting a little something on them, then getting them in and the STING!).  He really needs them for football, and they'll be helpful for wrestling too.  But boy, it is a challenge.

This week he managed to wear them all day on Wed.  But then he only played like one play in the 5th quarter before he got tackled hard and sat out the rest of the game.  I wasn't there or I would have made him get back in there.  But anyway, too many things going on. 

I had to get Sarah to her concert and Derek had a game too.

His battle wounds I guess? 

Yes!  He actually got them in!