Friday, February 8, 2019

Basketball

With the elite team Isaak's on, he struggles to be at the top. The team lost all the games last season, and are winning all their games this season. Isaak gets nervous whenever they play.

On his school team he made 8 points one game, got a free throw point another game, and shot a side shot at yesterday's game. He's passed the ball more, and is more aggressive with a game face on.

I don't know if he needs to change teams altogether with his elite team? It's like watching a different kid play when he's playing with his classmates.


Random Tid Bits

  1. Isaak came home from school with a 15 page packet of homework. This time it was all his fault. He got it last week. He said it just showed up on his desk. He didn't know how to do one of the pages, so he didn't do it. He was unclear on when it was due. All this I believe, but he should have taken it home. I told him if he gets stuck on something he needs to move on, and ask for help with the thing he's stuck on. Little bugger got talked to by us. He was in tears. Then he stayed up until 9:30 working on it. I'm still annoyed with him! How is he ever going to do middle school?  

  2. I was swamped yesterday with reviews. At the school I work for we have pro reviews, where other teachers look at the projects to bump up the standard. The students had a review of their portfolios and their theatrical posters. I was beat by the end of the day. Secretly I kind of like it that busy. Do you like to stay busy?

  3. One of Travis' Aunts put on FB: How's 63? I know she meant the road conditions.

    I was in a smart ass mood, so I wrote, Well when you minus it from 100, it equals 37. It's the age Robin WIlliams died. It follows 62, and is preceded by the number 64. There are 63 Tractates in the Mishna, the compilation of Jewish Law. There are 63 Saints (popularly known as Nayanmars) in South Indian Shaivism, particularly in Tamil Nadu, India. In 1963 the assassination of the US President Kennedy happened. 63 seems like an important number.

    She's the same Aunt that always asks me how I get things to review. The first two times she asked I said, I've been writing a blog, since Isaak was born. Companies ask me to review things from time to time. It's a lot of work because I have to photograph the things, write about them, and share them on many social media channels. She responded with, I don't think I can do all that. She keeps asking me over and over again how I get things to review. I don't answer her anymore. Maybe I should just respond with, Items magically appear in my mailbox. 

  4. I texted Travis over lunch yesterday: Since we have Isaak's basketball game, and Mica's conferences should I stop and get Subway sandwiches for dinner? He texted: Sure, but don't give me condiments. I texted back: Ok. I'll make sure they give you a lot of condiments.

    I'm a punk ass. Really I didn't have them put any condiments on his sandwich.

  5. Travis digs condiments on burgers, brats, and hotdogs. For some reason he doesn't like them on Subway sandwiches. Mica never cares for any condiments. I wonder sometimes if Mica's really my child. LOL! Then he's crazy goofy, and I'm like yep he's mine.

  6. Mica's the brains in our family. He's certainly not a worker. It took him 2 hours to shovel our driveway when it snowed, and we don't have sidewalks. He kept needing a break!

    This is what the sink looks like after he brushes his teeth:

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

WW: Mica's Awards

I've been having a hard time getting back into blogging after Christmas. I have so many pictures, and things I could be sharing. I got sick for a few weeks, and just was slow with everything.

Travis, my husband has had quite a few studio visits, which is great, but his studio is the basement of our home. Lots of cleaning up.

Isaak's needed help with school work. More so than other years. He's just never connected with his teacher at all. He's also in a lot of basketball, so we run here and there for him.

I have a different teaching schedule this semester. It's doable. Just hard to get used to.

Now that I've given you the rundown, let's get started...

Mica's quite the character. He gets for the most part A's in school, he wins a lot of things, but if you ask him to do a task a home it's so very frustrating. Isaak, which is 2 years younger than Mica can move circles with chores around Mica. Mica's a great kid, just kind of lazy at home. We joke about how he uses most of his brain power at school.

Recently Mica was picked by his teachers to leave school to merge up with other middle schoolers, for a fun challenging day. They participated in something called Think Tank. I'm not sure what it all involves. I do know they put kids in random groups. They are not placed with kids from their school. They get a problem of sorts, and have to think how to solve it. Mica's group got 2nd place! He came home with a trophy and dog tags.




He also found out that he won 1st place for his Science Fair Project! That's a pretty big deal considering the school he goes to is a Science Magnet School. We thought his board would go on to the next level up, but I guess they went by ribbons. He gets a special ceremony at school. His project was on how long it takes to bleach different colors of hair. True fact: It took longer to bleach the red head's hair than it did the brown head's hair.

Funny tid bit: The girl Mica likes doesn't like him at all. Her parents walked over, Mica shook their hands, started explaining his board. Her Dad said to his daughter, "See this boy has his stuff together!" Ha! We all had a laugh about that at home.



Other things I don't have photos of: 

Mica was picked to participate in the Geography Bee at school, for the second year in a row. He didn't win. It's still a big deal he was picked at all to participate. 

He's really into an extra thing called Quiz Bowl. It's kind of like Jepardy, only there's no answering with a question. There are meets every other week. Mica's school group got 2nd place last Saturday! The school gets that trophy. There's tons of smarty pants kids that participate in Quiz Bowl, so it's pretty cool his school got that far! 

He was selected to take his ACT's, and does that this upcoming Saturday. We signed him up for the science selection. It will be interesting to see how he does.

#returntoniobrara Play Review

It was really great to visit The Rose Theater again! I like when we can get out to see something that's for older children.


Right now they are showing Return to Niobrara. It's for ages 8 and up or 4th grade to 10th grande. Perfect for my 10 and 13 year olds.


I really can't see smaller kids understanding the true meaning of the play. Even Isaak asked me questions. They had some future tense happening at the same time as past tense. We thought it was really interesting, but for young kids it could be confusing. I know Mica was happy to have a play that was more advanced to go to.


The set design was fairly simple, yet the symbol changed throughout the play.


For this production they didn't have a live orchestra. BUT they had live instruments playing like flutes, and other similar instruments.

About Return to Niobrara: 

There was two stories that went on in one play. The two stories came together at times.

140 years ago, Steven's great-great grandfather Chief Standing Bear stood up in court and demanded that a federal Judge recognize that Indians are "persons" under the law.


Today, following an altercation where Steven is bullied at school on account of his long hair, Steven must follow in his grandfather's footsteps and speak out against his school's attempt to force him to cut his hair, and ultimately, to erase his identity.

 

Steven has dreams about his Grandfather. His dreams made him understand who he really is.

When Steven stands up for himself, it was difficult to know what part of the constitution the school was violating. His hair was a part of his culture. The school wanted him to cut his hair. Was the school breaking freedom of speech, or were they breaking freedom of religion? Steven was a Christian, but being a Native American is more than being a Christian. It was interesting to see how everything worked its way out.


In the end the school realized they were wrong. Steven learned so much about himself.

Our family loves Native American culture, so we of course got into this play a lot. The whole message was so important!


Show Dates:

The show is at The Rose Theater in Omaha, Nebraska from January 25 - February 10, 2019.

February 8 at 7 | February 9 at 2 and 5 | February 10 at 2

Members can receive 4 free tickets, non members pay $20 per ticket.

Call: 402.345.4849 for tickets.

Lobby doors open 45 minutes prior to the show starting. I certainly would get there early to get a seat.


Cast and Crew:

Steven/Bear Shield – Kenneth Ramos
Betsy/Prairie Flower/Bright Eyes – Nathalie Standingcloud
Tom/Thomas Henry Tibbles – Dan Chevalier
Principal McGovern/General Crook – Nils Haaland
Mom/Susette Primeau – Allison Hicks*
Dad/Chief Standing Bear – Albert (Abby) Ybarra*
Jack/A.J. Poppleton – Kevin Ehrhart
Bob/Genio Lambertson – Christopher Violett
Chorus 1 – Zach Kloppenborg
Chorus 2 – Kyle Summers
Musician – Michael Murphy
* The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Artistic/Production Credits
Playwright – Mary Kathryn Nagle
Director – Roxanne Wach
Assistant Director – Meganne Horrocks
Scenic Designer – Kathy Voecks
Projection Designer – Brittany Merenda
Lighting & Sound Designer – Craig S. Moxon
Costume Designer – Sherri Geerdes
Hair & Makeup Designer – Erin Bragg
Production Stage Manager – Lisa Krabbenhoft
Director of Production – Erin M. Solemsaas
Technical Director – Greg Rishoi
Props Mistress – Devon Denn-Young
Assistant Projection Designer – Alex Pinchin
Scenic Charge Artist – Savannah Savick
Master Carpenter – Jackson Curtright
Lighting Apprentice – Elton Bradley
Scenic Apprentice/Run Crew – Austin Watson
Stage Management Apprentice – Kali Coates
Assistant Sound Designer – Christy Hernandez
Stitchers – Sherri Geerdes, Erin Bragg, Audio Helkuik, Jill Maenner
Ponca Consultants – Louis Headman and Randy Ross
Ponca Language Translation – Louis Headman
Fight Choreographer – Kevin Barratt
Special thanks to Allyson Currin, Louis Headman, Dwight Howe, Deirdre Lavrakas, Kim Peter Kovac, Randy Ross, Barbara Salvatore, Laurie Smith Camp, Steve Tamayo, Diana Vallier

The End of the Show:

They had a question and answer session. I liked that one of the main stars was there to answer questions. Then there was an autograph signing as well.


I'm really glad we were able to go! Everyone enjoyed it!

Disclaimer: I got tickets from The Rose Theater to help write this review. The Rose Theater did not tell me what to write. All opinions are my own. 

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