School Daze: Logan's 3rd Grade Class

I am not sure if my little experience qualifies as a true "First Kiss" but I am counting it. When I was in the 3rd Grade  I was kissed by a girl named Carmen. Ar first I thought she was cute but then when she kissed me, I hated her. Hmmmm... now that I think about it, that was something that became standard.

Here is Logan and his 3rd grade class. Here I thought I was hot stuff in the 3rd grade and then I look at my kid and I think he is just a little kid. I wonder if he has a crush on any of the girls in his class.

Logan in 3rd Grade

Logan started the 3rd grade last week and that makes me feel a little old. I remember 3rd grade pretty well and it doesn't feel that it was THAT long ago. I hope he gets along with his teacher, I certainly didn't. 3rd grade was my worst one in elementary school.

Before he went to school...

The obligatory picture after his 1st day back to school.

Seriously, when did I get so old?

Professor Platis

A few weeks ago students from Utah State University came and visited Logan's school one evening and put on a science fair. They taught them how a science fair works and they performed experiments. Unfortunately we were unable to attend but Kristy wanted Logan to participate in their school's science fair a few weeks later. For Christmas Logan got a cool science kit that showed how water filtering works and cleans the water and he wanted to use that kit for his experiment.

The science kit showed how proper water filtering works and what order the filters (carbon, paper filter, sand and gravel) should be in to get the cleanest water. Logan's experiment was to change the order of the filters and see if it cleans the water as well. So he put it altogether with the help of his mom and found out the answer. Then he took pictures and put them on some poster boards and went to the competition last Wednesday night.

There were a lot of very cool experiments and all the kids did a great job. Then the same students from Utah State University came and judged each one. They interviewed each kid and see what they learned and then they awarded the best of each grade.

Kristy told me that one of the judges asked for his last name so we thought maybe he had a good chance of winning. They announced the 1st grade who won and then they said that the 2nd grade was the toughest one. It was down to two of them and it was hard for them to choose. And then they announced the winner.

Logan Platis!  (although they did pronounce our last name wrong)

He looked at us surprised and we shoved him to the front. He was quite the proud kid and he looked so cute up there with all the winners.  Good job Logan!

School Daze: Logan's 2nd Grade Class

When I was in 2nd Grade, I thought I knew a lot. I thought that I can be my own boss and that I am smart enough to do it all. Now I look at Logan in the 2nd grade and I think that while he is a bright kid, he don't know nothing!  He is just a kid!

I wish I had class pictures like this. I would have loved to remember the names of my fellow classmates.

What impresses me about my kid is that he will play with anyone in his class. It doesn't matter who they are, it doesn't matter what they look like, it doesn't matter what makes them different. I am extremely grateful for this, I know looking back in my life, I am glad that I grew up with lots of variety. Logan will even play with girls (and I told him that this will pay off...  ...more on that tomorrow) and he always has a good time.

He confided in me the other day (luckily he doesn't read my blog or else he would find out that most of what he does is blogged for everyone to see) that there are a couple of girls in his class that he thinks is cute. I asked him if he would marry a cute girl and he said he would and then I asked him what he thought "cute" was. And that is when he told me that there are two girls in his class that he thinks are cute. And then he told me, right at the last second (I was putting him to bed) that they think he is cute too. I have my suspicions on who they are but I may never know, he won't tell me.

I don't know whether to be proud of my boy or worry that this could be a sign of trouble for the future.

Tweeterbut

There are times when I know for sure that Logan is my kid. It is not like I have ever questioned that seriously, what I mean is that some times I know it for a fact.

Take the schoolwork he brought home yesterday:

In class they were given a creative assignment to make up a germ. And its name is Tweeterbut. I also think it is funny that his germ HATES other germs.

Random Ramblings

Day 293

I know what you are thinking.  TWO Random Ramblings in one week?

I just have a lot to say and some of them I wanted to say last Monday but I didn't want the blog to run to long.

Wednesday was Logan's first day back at school. He is now in the 2nd Grade! No longer is my kid a new child in school, now he is a vet in school. He likes his new teacher (which is good considering she is very professional and takes schoolwork VERY seriously) and he likes his fellow schoolmates.

This is Logan in the morning. He looks a little apprehensive doesn't he?

He looks much better after school.

Yeah, he is back to normal alright.

So I did something this morning that I didn't think I would ever do. I have to admit that I was motivated by my fellow blogger and cousin Jaimee and her first 5K race. I even went as far as making a goal to run a 5K this year or the next.

But curiosity got the better of me. Maybe the better saying would be curiosity killed the cat since I am dead tired.

I ran a test 5K run today. I went to the the Logan River trail where it is nice and shaded and is 2 miles long and I marked off where 3.1 miles would be, plugged in my iPod with some running music and hit the trail. I wasn't impressed with my time (29:23) but hey, it was my first "race" and I am still alive although I feel like those cats. We'll see when I do a real race.

By now you know that my favorite football team is the New York Jets. Last year they hired a brash and outspoken coach in Rex Ryan and I know he can rub people the wrong way. But I love the guy. The Jets are in the new season of HBO's Hard Knocks. The show is a reality sports documentary television series produced by NFL Films and HBO. The series follows the Jets through training camp and provides an in-depth perspective of the team's preparation for the upcoming season. As the viewer you get to watch all the team's inside jokes and pranks, players' family matters, and position battles. The series especially focuses on rookies' adjustments to the NFL, usually with the team's highest draft selection and an undrafted or journeyman player that looks to make the team.

I am hooked. Not only because it is the Jets but because of how candid the series is and what it is really like to be on a professional football team. I will warn you, it is pretty colorful in terms of language. Rex Ryan tells it like it is. If you like football I highly recommend checking it out. HBO has a censored version of the first episode streaming off of their website. You do have to register with HBO first but I used some fake info so I can watch the episode for free. I have only watched the first episode and after I finish this blog I am going to check out the 2nd one.

The Journals

Day 280

As I have mentioned before, I am very jealous impressed with my cousin Jeremy's drive to write in his journal. That was perhaps the biggest motivations for me to start this blog and to keep it going past the 365 mark.

I have never kept a steady journal except for my two year LDS mission to New York. I had a small Garfield journal that I kept for about two weeks in total that I still have. I still look through all these journals and I am happy that I kept some sort of journal. 

I got my first journal for Christmas from Santa Claus and I wrote some things in it that I would like to share.

Dec 23rd 1982

Today is the day I did it. I made it up which girlfriend I want. I want Tammy R + Carmen. I like Carmen better.

(*sigh* young love...)

Jan 8th 1983

Today I quit with Carmen. She is dumb very. I would like to have Tammy R.

(that didn't last too long... at least I am the one that broke it off with her)

June 22nd 1983

I love Olivia Newton John. I got her poster and tape. I can't wait for her to love me. She's cute, very cute.

(Okay... I didn't have her poster. I just took out the cover to the tape and hung it up on my wall next to a Star Wars card of Princess Leia. I still like Olivia Newton John)

(Yup... that's the one. I think I still have that tape lying around somewhere. Or hanging up somewhere...)

July 9th, 1983

This morning my sister's hamster died at 1:00AM. The hamster's name was Midnite. I cried. My dad held Midnite and put him under the bed. We are going to bury him (in the) backyard.

(I remember this pretty clearly. We did bury him in the backyard in our garden. My dad had him in a shoebox. Jennifer didn't want to cry because she had just put on her makeup. I tried to be strong and not cry so Jennifer wouldn't but I did anyway. My dad said a prayer and we buried him)

This was my next journal. My sister got it for me when I left for my mission and I am so glad that she did. I wrote daily the whole time I was on my mission. This was the first volume.

This was the last journal I wrote in. My second volume of my time spent in New York.

I am thankful for the many examples I have in my life that are writing in their journals and are doing a blog. I know that these writings will be valuable for our family and posterity.

School Daze: Grade Six

Day 270

I loved the sixth grade, not as much as I loved my fifth grade but still it was one of my favorite school years. I had a great set of friends that I would hang out with and I had my favorite teacher, Ms. Archer, for my second year in a row. Unfortunately this would be my last joyous school year until my sophomore year in high school. I get my fifth and sixth grade mixed up since I had the same teacher and I cannot remember when I got my ukulele. I think it was during my fifth grade but I cannot be sure. I will have to cover my uke days in a separate blog.

The last year of those good times. I am on the last row, 2nd from the right. Next to me is Neil. Alvin is the third from the left on the back row. Tammy is right below me in the white shirt and Eulilia was the second person from the left on the 2nd row. Alison, the girl I was cruel too is the fourth from the left on the front row.

Sixth grade impacted me quite a bit. There was stuff that I learned and did in the sixth grade that altered my life forever.

I had a new music teacher this year that was completely different from any other music teacher that I had before. Her name was Ms. Oskin and she was so kind and gentle but also very passionate about music. I remember listening to her intently since she had such a unique accent. I remember her class fondly, she would take each of us aside and teach us how to match notes with the piano. She told me many times that I had a natural talent in music, that I could easily follow music by ear. She also introduced me to the Beatles. We sang a couple of Beatles songs in class and she really showed why we should appreciate their music. It made me a fan and I was happy that my sister Jennifer had a tape of their greatest hits.

In the sixth grade I also flexed my writing muscles more and took my creative writing a lot more serious. We had various assignments but my favorite was "Teacher for a Day". We would write a story about us subbing our classroom for a day. I was already familiar with how it worked since I did one the year before. But this time I really wanted to knock this one out of the park. I worked hard on my story and Ms. Archer was very proud of my effort. She said it was one of the best stories she had read and was much better than last year's. It was the sixth grade where I really got the writing bug.

Ms. Archer was not afraid to tell me when I was too negative or a little out of hand. She mentions this for each of the three terms. I certainly don't see myself as being outspoken.

I also created my first comic book in the sixth grade. It was based on a DC character called Red Tornado, in fact it was a pure ripoff of the Red Tornado. I developed two six-panel pages and did an old-fashioned Flash Gordon-type ending. Ms. Archer liked them so much that she kept them so she could show them as examples to her new students the next year. Looking back, I wish I had kept them but I was very proud that she wanted to keep them. That character I created still exists although everything about him has changed except for his costume.

The Liberator!

One of the biggest influences on my life happened when I met Neil White. I had already been reading GI Joe and Transformers comic books but Neil introduced me to the X-Men and the larger Marvel Universe. Ms. Archer allowed us to read comics while it was reading time and we often would trade comics. Neil gave me a ton of comics to read including the Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men and many others. And I was hooked for life. I still read these books.

My first issue of Uncanny X-Men. I had no clue what was going on but I knew I liked it. I quickly bought up a bunch of back issues all the way back to #177.

This is Uncanny X-Men #525. So that means I have 348 issues in a row of this series.

So if you want to blame anyone for my comic addiction obsession, blame Neil.

I read (Ms Archer would read to us) one of my favorite books during this year called the White Mountains. We enjoyed that book so much that we read the entire Tripod Trilogy in class. When I moved to the States years later I found these books sold as a set in Waldenbooks and I was so excited to sit down and read them again and it took me right back to the sixth grade. I really should dig those out again.

This was also the last year that I participated in the Canadian Fitness Program. I disliked the running portion so I purposefully sat out which didn't make Ms. Archer happy. I still was awarded the Bronze so at least I had the whole set.

I was also very oblivious to girls. Sure I had my usual crushes but I had no idea that girls would like me. One girl had a tremendous crush on me and I didn't like her back. I was very cruel to her and if my son Logan did this to a girl, I would smack the living crap out of him for doing so. I feel bad about it now but back then I was just trying to save my life.

Ms. Archer didn't like me chatting so much with Brad and Neil so she moved me in front of Tammy which was right in front of Ms. Archer's desk. She was another girl that had a crush on me and I of course, had no clue. We would talk all the time during class and we became good friends. Alvin and Eulalia joined us and we called our group Snausages. Don't ask why. We were really good friends and we did a ton of stuff together during recess. Tammy and I shared Soap Candies and oftentimes during reading time we would find dirty words in the dictionary and share them and giggle. Tammy and I each had a pet rubber mouse that lived in our desks.

Ms. Archer knew that Tammy liked me. When I got permission to move my desk back near Neil and Brad she told me in confidence that Tammy liked me quite a bit. I played stupid (which was not hard since I really was when it came to the female species) and ignored her. Why would Tammy ruin a friendship by liking me?

And sure enough I got this note a few days later.

The reason the note is crinkled is because I immediately crumpled it up and threw it away. But then part of my was intrigued. So I got it out of the trash can, ran home after school and called my best friend Alvin and told him everything. Even though the note in plain English told me not to tell Alvin. I guess I didn't read it that closely. I kept the note because this was the first time that a girl I liked admitted that she liked me too. There may have been other girls that liked me that I liked but they wouldn't admit it. As you can see, I never answered and I never went on that date. Looking back, I should've just gone. Tammy was a hoot to be around but I guess I was not ready. So not only am I a little stupid, I am also a little chicken when it comes to girls.

School Daze: Grade 5

Day 236

Grade Five was probably one of my favorite grades of all my school years. Surprisingly I don't have that many memories of the fifth grade probably because it melds right into my sixth grade since I had the same wonderful teacher in Ms. Archer.

I don't think we had a class picture this year or at least I didn't get one. We only had a yearbook which is now very beaten up.

CONFESSION TIME: I had to alter these pictures with Photoshop because I ranked each one of my classmates with either a star, check mark or an "X". I don't want to offend anyone here.

What made this class so special was that it had one row of 6th graders and the rest was 5th graders. I really wanted to be a sixth grader and be like these guys. I thought they were so cool. It added a unique atmosphere to the class. What I enjoyed the most about having the sixth graders in my class is that I had a major crush on one of them. All I can remember about her is that she wore this awesome "Men at Work" t-shirt that I thought she looked so darn good in. Unfortunately that also led to one of my biggest regrets. I tried way too hard to get her to like me.

One of the things that I remember strangely enough is that Ms. Archer had a huge row of books above the cubbyholes. So if we didn't have a book to read during reading time we could get one of those. Towards the end of the 5th grade we would write and hide notes in one of the books on that shelf for other classmates. This was how we found out who likes who and how much. The problem with this system is that you would just watch to see who placed what note in what book. But it was way too much fun to stop and think about it.

Ms. Archer turned out to be my favorite teacher through Sifton. What I liked about her was that she was very patient, funny and was deeply concerned about her students. I have shared this story here on the blog but I think I will share it again. I felt that Ms. Archer cared more about me as a person than by just making sure I got good grades. Towards the end of the 5th grade I began to hang out with this other kid in my class and he was not the nicest kid. He would threaten other kids and bully some of them and threaten beatings but for some stupid reason I wanted to be like this kid. Ms. Archer noticed this too and saw that I was changing and not for the good. So she made the decision to move my desk away from him and back to some of my other friends. And she asked me to stay after school for a couple of minutes. She told me after school that I was not being true to myself and that I should stop trying to be like this kid. She then told me that I was not being nice and I would lose people's respect and friendship. At the time those words hurt since I liked Ms. Archer a lot. After walking home and thinking about it, I knew she made sense. So I eventually stopped hanging around this kid and went back to my normal circle of friends. What she did had nothing to do with school work, nothing at all with my grades but she was so concerned about me. What she did that day will stay with me for as long as I live.

I don't think it tastes like soap at all. More like Sen-Sens.

One thing that I remember about Ms. Archer is that the smell of Thrills gum made her sick. I love this gum and would chew it often after lunch but would always spit it out when I got back to class. One time I chewed it on purpose to make her sick and all it really did was make her mad. And she caught me and made me do a special essay.

One of the things she would do to make us quiet was institute the Traveling Essay. Whoever would speak last or make a noise last would get the essay. Fortunately I never got the Traveling Essay, unfortunately I didn't need to get the Traveling Essay since I got essays assigned to me on my own.

Now I know where Logan gets it from. I didn't know I was such a talker but so far all of my teachers have agreed. At least I was polite about it. It is really surprising that I never got that Traveling Essay.

We had a new principal of the school named Mr. Chester. And we didn't like him at all. He issued a rule that stated that all students were not allowed to pick up snow during recess. Of course we ignored this rule, how could you not ignore this rule when you had to go out for recess during the winter? We didn't throw snowballs at other kids but one time we were throwing snow outside. We were just seeing how far we could throw. One of our classmates saw us do this and she turned us in and he yelled at us like nothing else. His face got all red and looked like it was ready to explode. I thought for sure I was going to get the strap. He was such a jerk.

We were at the library one time and our Librarian was instructing us on what reference materials were. Ms. Archer told us what an almanac was and asked us to think of something we could look up. Michele (a nice girl but one we all thought was a bit off) asked Ms. Archer if she could look up sex. Ms. Archer didn't bat an eyelash. She opened the book and said she would see if there was anything new about sex we could find out. I remember looking over at Alvin and giggling about it. As if we knew what sex was anyway.

Our school had an indoor Floor Hockey League. We would have games before and after school and we would have a mix of 5th and 6th graders. We were named after the newest hockey team in the NHL, the New Jersey Devils. I really admired our Team Captain (I cannot remember his name, for some reason I want to call him Rusty) and we had a decent team but we were not loaded with talent like the Blackhawks were. I didn't think we could beat the Blackhawks but we did. And after a month or so, our team was in the school championship. The school decided to have the game at the end of the day and all the students were invited to attend. I was the only one in our class that was on one of the two teams fighting for the school championship. Ms. Archer was so cool enough that about an hour or so before the game she allowed us to make signs for the game to support me.

We won the game and I even scored a goal! We crushed our opponent 4-1. I usually played as a defender but my Team Captain wanted me to play Left Wing and so I did and that is when I scored the goal.

Every year in elementary school we would participate in the Canada Fitness Program and we would be awarded for how well we did. This year I was awarded the Platinum Canadian Fitness Award. The highest award you can get. The hardest part was the Endurance Run which we were all forced to do. Looking back that was probably what made me a fan of running. Still, I am glad that Canada made its students exercise.

One of the things that I really liked about Ms. Archer's class was creative writing. She usually had us write our own stories. One of my favorite stories to write was called "Teacher for a Day".  We would write what it would be like for us to substitute our own class. We could write serious or funny stuff, really whatever we wanted to write. She encouraged us to be as creative as we wanted to be. Writing was one of my favorite things to do in her class.

I was fortunate enough to have Ms. Archer again the next year. Which is why I am having a tough time remembering what happened in what year. I cannot remember if it was this year or the next that I joined the Ukulele club. I have a feeling it was this year since Mrs. Miller taught it and I had a different music teacher the next year. Hmmmm... I guess I will blog about that next time.

Congrats Logan!

Day 217

Yesterday was Logan's last day of the 1st grade. Holy crap on a crutch! Logan will be going into the 2nd grade next year!

Last Wednesday his class had a special presentation for the parents. The kids planned the program which featured songs about dinosaurs and they did some acting.

Logan looked tired and didn't look like he was really into the singing. But when it was his time to act, he took the matter seriously. Him and some of his friends did a small play called Signs of Spring and he was the Sun. He had his part all memorized and everything! When it was his time to say his words he said them really fast but very serious. All the kids did a real cute and good job.

Logan's teacher was awesome this year. She even won the Teacher of the Year Award. You can tell from how she speaks that she really loves the children. She even called this one of her best classes she has ever had. I am glad that Logan didn't drive her nuts all the time.

Logan did have some issues in class but Mrs. Petersen was very good with him. I remember her telling us a story about Logan disrupting the class. She was in the middle of teaching the class when suddenly she looked over at Logan's table (it was four desks put together in a square) and she saw his head poking out in the middle of the desks. What impressed me was that she laughed about it. She didn't laugh about it then, she told him to sit down correctly but afterwards she chuckled to herself. At least Logan's disruptions were funny and not rude.

We made Logan reenact the Head Poking Situation

Last night we took him out to special dinner. He choose to go to the Texas Roadhouse and we went and got Aggie Ice Cream after. When we pulled into the parking lot I noticed a university cop on the other side of the road. Logan for the life of him couldn't see him. Then when we were leaving he kept telling us that he saw a cow in the cop car that was crammed in the window. I was teasing him about it and I think he was teasing us as well and it was making Kristy laugh. Logan didn't like that at all. Finally he blurted out "Mom, don't laugh at my non-joke!" Now that was funny!