21 May 2023

We had a jam packed week, and then a wedding, so we're dividing this week into two posts. First up are all the non-wedding events. Helen finished her English project. Her original idea was to create a book cover for the book, Frankenstein. She decided to turn the paintings in as they were, instead of taking photos of them and submitting her work digitally.

The paintings were inspired by a line from the book, "If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear."

Monday night was Helen and Gibson's school awards ceremony. Helen received an award for her high GPA. She will graduate 4th in her class. In the photo, Helen is wearing a yellow dress and is standing 4th from the right side.

Gibson made the Principal's List for his GPA. He is standing on the left side of the photo in a dark blue shirt.

Gibson also received a BIS LEADS award. LEADS stands for leadership, enthusiasm, academics, determination and success. He is in the middle of this photo.

Helen received the Global Citizen award presented by her CSB teacher, Mr. Rogan.

Both Helen and Gibson got to go back on stage one more time along with all of the students who had been recognized as students of the month throughout the year. The awards night was fun and we always enjoy seeing the variety of awards and the excellence they represent. We're most proud of Helen and Gibson for their hard work, the risks they have taken trying new things and the consistent high quality of their assignments.

Walking to school and back this week has been especially nice because of the poppies blooming along the road.

Sofi drove out to Oregon on Thursday with friends in two cars. About 100 miles away, on a remote stretch of road with no cell service, a rock got stuck in Sofi's wheel, causing serious damage to the tire and rim. They started to change the tire and realized her spare tire was flat.

Here's a photo of the wheel off the car that shows the damage. After a long wait, two friendly women gave Sofi a ride into a small town about 30 miles away where Sofi could call for help. There was not much help available after 10 pm in Northern California. The tiny town, McCloud, had a service station, but locked up the air compressor hose after hours. Sofi called Brandan and the two women gave her a ride back to her car so she could update her friends.

Soon after Sofi returned, A patrol car stopped by to offer help. The officer drove the group of friends and the spare tire to Mt. Shasta, a bit bigger town that had a working air compressor. Brandan met the group in Mt. Shasta. After talking over options, they decided to get everyone and the car home to Central Point. They drove slowly home because of the spare tire, arriving around 4 am.

Nate flew in Thursday night as well, but he beat Sofi by about 4 hours. The Hatches arrived Friday afternoon. This is a photo from Friday with Zina, Joe, Gibson, Nate and Sofi.

We had attended another awards night on Friday, recognizing the Kiwanis Career and Technical Education winners from 7 local high schools. Helen received the Marketing Award from Crater High School. There must have been some serious miscommunication at her high school. Every other school started with a presentation from the principal, followed by teachers introducing the students who received awards. None of the principals or CTE teachers from Crater attended. The main announcer for the evening asked each Crater student to introduce themselves and the accomplishment they were most proud of. The students did an excellent job, with clear and focused comments, but it was still funny for Helen to attend an awards program and present an award to herself.