Finals

I guess it is just that time of the year. Our school works on a quarter system and next week is the end of the first quarter. That makes it a very stressful time of the year for the kids (and anyone around them). Of course, in addition to the normal stresses with a heavy work load Alex and Sarah have some extra burdens to bear and last night was a tough night for both of them. Let me start with the hulk.

Alex - Alex is one of our most talented children and he's been blessed with good looks, a keen mind, a strong and quick body and pretty much everything else a young man could wish for. The only problem is that for most of his life school work has come quite easily for Alex so he has developed the bad habit of doing just enough work to pass his class and no more. To give you an example, Alex wrote a biology test last year and when the bell rang the teacher told the kids they could stay and finish the test rather than leaving for lunch. Alex knew he had all of the questions correct so rather than finish the last question and miss part of lunch he chose to skip the last question and leave. He could have had a hundred percent but he'd rather not miss his lunch. He couldn't understand why I was upset. This year we fixed him though. Knowing that he will just do the minimum amount of work to pass, we signed him up for four AP (Advanced Placement) classes. AP classes are much more difficult than regular classes but if you get a good enough grade they actually count for college credit. It is good to see him do a bit of homework for a change but boy does he get mad. We've heard many times how "dumb" it is that he has four AP classes. This week is more stressful than normal because a) its the end of the quarter, b) if he doesn't pass he can't play football, c) he had his cast removed and his thumb is still broken, d) much more homework than normal, e) more tests than normal and f) all of his long term assignments are coming due.

Sarah - is our loving, calm, sweet child with the easy going personality but last night she was the wicked witch of the west. To be fair she has also had everything come down at once, a) pms, b) needs to finish reading her book by Friday, c) write an essay on her book by Friday, d) had a bad day with her gastro-intestinal issues, e) English teacher made her re-write her bibliography, f) needs to read a chapter in "Lord of the Fly's and to top it all off, g) she is coming down with a cold.

Of course Lisa and I are always calm and even tempered so that we can maintain a sweet and loving atmosphere in our home at all times.

On a different note, I think I found some low cost student housing when I went running today. I've been getting bored with running around the neighborhood so I've been running over to the UCSD and looking for trails in the wooded area around campus. Today I was in a remote part of campus and I saw a fairly well worn trail so I followed it. All of a sudden it came to an abrupt stop in some very thick brush. I thought that was strange because the trail was so well worn. I decided to look into the brush and low and behold someone had a very nice camp set up there. There was a sleeping bag laid out and even though my eyes weren't adjusted to the dark I could tell it was set up fairly nice. It didn't look like a migrant worker. I was afraid someone might be in the camp so I turned around and got out of there but I got thinking that maybe Alycia could save some money if she found I nice spot around the U of U like that one.