Matthew, the High School Marching Band Boy :-)

Just a few 'Proud Parents' pictures of our boy doing what he loves, playing the trumpet in the High School Band!  We're very blessed to have a great Band Instructor at our Middle School, who happens to also teach Band at the High School.  He gave the kids who want to do it the option of being a part of both Bands :-)

Matthew is an extremely dedicated trumpet player, and boy does he continue to just get better and better! 

'tooterull' - what is that?!

Ah, talking with my boy last night - he's telling me what he had been doing on the computer last night - he's learning about iWEb and iMovies and stuff in school in his Technology class, so he was explaining some of that to me. He then asks me if I know what a 'tooterull' is.

Well, I know a lot of things, but that was a new one on me, so I respond with a 'no, don't know what that is'. Ah, being the Middle Schooler he is now, he proceeds to laugh, saying he can't believe I don't know what a 'tooterull' is! I get a bit, well, grumpy that my getting bigger, not a baby anymore is trying to show me up. At this point, I start spouting off about teacher stuff, bookkeeping stuff, anything I can think of that he doesn't know anything about. He then proceeds to point out that the stuff I'm asking about isn't in the dictionary, but his is. All the while I'm thinking he's talking about something that's a proper name, not just a word.

And, then the light bulb moment for me!
He's not actually meaning to say 'tooterull' ...

he's meaning to say 'tutorial'!

Ah, now who got the last laugh dear Middle School son of mine?!

(by the way, this story was put on our blog with permission from that wonderful boy!)

Am I a pain in the butt parent?!

Okay, so first those are a few pictures of Matthew's first day of Middle School since I hadn't posted them before.

Now onto my post ... sad to say, I think I am ... or now that I think of it, I'm not so sad to say that. I think the administrators at my son's school might be sad to hear it though ;-). Okay, let's call it an 'involved' parent, rather than 'pain in the butt'. This is my son's first year at Middle School (6th grade), and being that I have an education background, you know, being an educator and all (okay, so it's been 11 years since I had my own classroom), I guess I feel the 'right' to question what's being done at school. Oh, wait, I guess I do have the right - he's my son, and it's his education we're talking about. Anyway, I have now emailed the V.P. a minimum of 6 times since the day before school started. All valid questions, but I am starting to feel a little too inquisitive. Eh, what the heck ... better to be this way than completely uninvolved, right?! I really do believe that parents should be involved, and I think it's okay that my inquiring mind wants to know!