Belle Takes the Stand

Belle's middle school teaches the students about the law by having them act out real life cases that are current and undecided. It is a great teaching model and Belle loves the class.

Middle School Talent Show

Belle and three of her friends were in their school talent show. The performed a comedy skit that involved Belle trying to teach her friend how to drive a car in a simulated situation. They won third place in the school-wide competition, and we are very proud of them!

Cream of the Crop

Belle is one of six in her grade school to have gotten all A's, all the time.  We are so proud of her for so many reasons, and this is just one more.  Good job, Belle!

Belle Wins Second Place in Math Competition

It turns out that her 2nd place finish does not represent her real score.  Belle actually never finished  lower than first place in the three rounds of the competition.  She had maximum raw scores, but the competition converts raw scores to scaled scores and ties are awarded less than outright wins.  Way to go, Belle-Belle!

Where's Courtney?

Can you find Courtney in the crowd at this freshman orientation meeting?  Here's a hint - she's wearing black.

A Last Supper...

Before taking Courtney to BYU, we had one last dinner together at our family's favorite pizza-place, Jacaranda Pizza.

Belle Wins Another Award

Belle was feeling good and looking good when she won yet another honor roll award for getting straight A's in school.  Way to go, Belle!

Belle's Fourth Grade

Belle's teacher is Miss Albero, this year, and they seem to be getting along just fine.

Belle Lost Her Homework!

Audrey plays piano,
Belle's voice abounds.
Nova Eisenhower chorus is
happy faces, happy sounds.

100 Year Old Student Celebrates 100th Day of 3rd Grade!

Wearing the beautiful blue dress that her aunt Kathy made by hand, Belle was perfectly outfitted as a 100 year old woman for her school's celebration of 100 days of the school year. Belle is lucky to go to a school that has such fun ideas, friendly classmates, and excellent teachers.

Belle's School's Fitness-Fair

Belle's school had a fun-fair with an emphasis on environmental conservation and personal fitness. She and some of her classmates sang a couple of songs, and then she and her friend Emily played on all of the several fun attractions. The video of the dancing is short, but I tried to capture a taste of Belle's rhythm and grace.

Clinical Psychopharmacology

From taking master's level neurochemistry and neuroanatomy classes I am just so impressed by the genius that is throughout the construction, maintenance, and operation of the human body. I suppose that most medical students must have this same awareness, but it is new for me. I mean, I always accepted that our bodies were pretty nifty, but I never had any idea just how elegantly sophisticated and complicated our living bio-machines are.

A good example would be appropriate right here, but I am typing this while on a break and have little time and my brain is mostly fried, anyway. How about this feature: the Circle of Willis is a sort of fail-safe feature that ensures that blood supply can, at least temporarily, be distributed throughout the brain even when there is a blockage in one brain artery or another. How cool is that?

Nothin' Much is New...

"Hey, what's new?" you might ask.

My reply? "Nothing much." But then I remember, Courtney and Belle did just start back to school this past week. August 24th, to be exact. Belle loves her class -- she is in "gifted" with several of her past classmates and loves the activities and challenges that the energetic and friendly teacher gives the students. We parents love the 1:13 teacher/student ratio of her classroom.

Courtney is off to a great start in her junior year, although she did express anxiety over the advancement in years that accompany her advanced class-status. "Soon I'll be off to college, then I'll be getting married, have kids, and then die!" she told us after her first day back to school this year. It is almost tragic to stare death in the face at such a young age, isn't it? Audrey and I just had to laugh and laugh at that one...

My job remains pretty much unchanged, although I am preparing to begin a two-year masters program in psychopharmacology -- the class begins in a few weeks. I am grateful that I am not teaching early morning seminary this year. I do not now suffer from the sleep-deprivation headaches that I had had for so long several months ago. I am also grateful that we have a new Bishop for the Plantation Ward, our good friend Eric Penrod. He is such a good, patient, thoughtful, and learned man. He will be such an excellent leader of our ward family.

Audrey continues to work the finances at her job, and her employer has weathered the current economic storm pretty well. Aud is also the new Stake Relief Society President and has done just a wonderful job in the short few months she had been there. Tonight we ate a new salad that she is going to prepare for a RS gathering later next month.

Oh, there is one more thing, now that I think about it. Jenn and Walker had their baby on Sunday (30 August 2009) at about 6:30pm. He was 7lbs 2oz, 20 inches, 9/10 = Apgar. His name will be Atticus Walker Frahm. We spoke with Walker, who told a long tale of a longer birthing process -- I'll let him/her/them fill in the details -- but the end result has been an unqualified success with happy parents and healthy baby. We received the three pictures of Atticus, below, from Walker via cell phone. The resolution in the pictures is not great, but the subject is truly magnificant. Cogratulations, Jenn and Walker!

So, "what's new?" Well, in some ways, everything is brand-spanking-new once again!

Earth Day at Belle's School

To commemroate Earth Day Belle's school did some landscaping in their own front yard. Belle's teacher (Ms. Cooper) was active in the effort and they had fun getting their hands dirty together. Belle got a little bit more than just her hands dirty. She really enjoyed the manual labor and wore her dirt as a badge of honor.

Science Project Presentation

Belle watched and waited for her turn to present her Science Project to the class. Her wonderful teacher (Ms. Cooper) lent a little assistance to all the novice "presenters."

Belle's classmates ooohed and aaahed when she demonstrated how her Cartesian diver sank when she squeezed the bottle and raised when she let go.

Belle's Certificate of Achievement

Belle makes us proud for so many reasons. It is fun when others recognize how cool she is, too.

Way to go, Belle!

First Day Of School Deemed a Success

Courtney's day starts early 'cuz she attends seminary at 6am. By the end of the day she was quite tired but also very happy. She likes most of her teachers and loves the sequence of the classes she is taking and enjoys her classmates. She is correctly proud of herself for being chosen to be in an advanced section of the ASL class she is taking. She was one of only a couple 2nd year ASLers to be invited into the class with 3rd and 4th year students. She was hard at homework already tonight: can't fall behind in pre-calculus or you're in big trouble.

Belle couldn't control her smiles as she reported a perfect 30/30 score on her math assessment test. It was a timed test that she had rehearsed (per the teacher's instructions) and she had never done so well as she did today. Much of the credit goes to Mom, who taught her how to skip tricky questions and come back to them, and how to remember that 13 - 5 = 8. Good Mom!

The first day of school is always bus chaos, but we were unscathed. Neither of the kids got lost on the their buses, and they were both only a few minutes late arriving home.

Off to a good start. Only 180 school days left.

Belle is in the Second Grade

The Nova Eisenhower Elementary School Meet-and-Greet went well as Audrey and I accompanied Belle to meet her teacher and to get a look at her new classroom which friends she would be with again this year. We discovered that Sydney (left) and Ashley (right) were in her class. We also got a good feeling from her teacher, Ms. Cooper. Belle will be one of several bus riders. Since her school has huge geographical boundaries (the student catchment area is the whole of Broward County) the school does plenty of busing and they have become very proficient. They have given Belle a wrist band with her bus # on it for her to wear during the first week of school. Of course Mom will be waiting at her bus-stop. Doesn't Audrey look good?

Six Days Before School and Early Morning Seminary Begins Again

Dream Song 14: Life, Friends, is Boring

by John Berryman

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no

Inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as achilles,

Who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.

Back to School: the misadventures of Courtney and Belle

COURTNEY'S STORY, in her own words:


The bell rang, marking the end of my first day at South Plantation High School. I was very excited to get home and have a big glass of chocolate milk and lie on the big comfy couch, and tell my parents about my first day. That dream was soon crushed when I walked out to the bus loop and took a look at the white board to find out if my bus, 4204, had not arrived.

“Well, maybe they made a mistake and didn’t write it down” I said to my friend when I noticed that my bus number was not written in bold black numbers on the board. We walked out to where all the buses had parked and were waiting for their high school kids to finally meander their way to their bus. We walked up and down the two aisles of buses to not only find her bus, but to find out that the white board had not been mistaken, my bus was not here.

I walked angrily back across the bus loop, through the teachers parking lot, back to the white board, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades, to double check and make sure that my bus had not come. I found a bench facing the bus loop and I plopped down and hoped my bus would eventually show up.

At 3:50, one hour and ten minutes after school had ended, a bus came. I was sure that this was my bus I jumped to my feet, picked up my back pack and sauntered over to the bus. Of course you can probably guess what happened next, I realized that it was not my bus. By this time I had found someone who was riding the same bus as me and who was in the same position I was in. Both of us had no cell phone to call our parents and also had no clue where our bus was.

At 3:55 the tall administrator with the fuzzy gray beard and a business suit called out, “Anybody riding a bus that starts with the number 4 come and get on this bus.” He was pointing to the bus sitting in the middle of the bus loop. I and the other girl walked over and got on the bus and told the bus driver our address. He assured us he would get us home safely. There were about 15 other people on the bus, two of which had mental disabilities. The driver finally roared the bus alive and drove out of the school after about 2 minutes.

The first stop we had made was deep in the middle of a trailer park in a bad part of town. It was difficult getting there, due to all the pot holes and bumps we had to endure, but we had to drop off one of the disabled girls at her house. This girl was the only one on the bus who knew where she lived. We finally decoded her yelling, LEFT, RIGHT, and got to her trailer. Her mom was standing out side waiting for her as we inched in front of her house. Now that she was off the bus we had to go to another trailer park and drop off two other girls, but not at there houses, thank goodness.

After that stop we headed up to a big wealthy neighborhood called Plantation Acres. After that stop we made a couple more until we finally got to the neighborhood where the other disabled girl lived.

There was this boy on the bus who said that she lived in the same neighborhood as him and he would show us where she lived. He pointed out the house and went up and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. By this time it was 5:00, and I was supposed to be home at 3:30. After the 3^rd time he knocked the bus driver turned to the girl and asked if she lived here, she said no. “Great!” I thought as we were pulling out of the neighborhood, “my parents are probably freaking out wondering where I am, and we have to drop off this girl at her house, which we have no idea where it is!” The driver pulls out his handy walkie-talkie and somehow finds out what neighborhood she lives in, but he forgot to ask about one small detail -- what is her address! There were seven of us left on the bus, exhausted, hot, and sweaty. We had to go back to the neighborhood that we were just in previously, and try to find her house. I had been awake since 4:30 this morning and hadn’t eaten since 11:30 and was very miserable. After the 3^rd time of circling the neighborhood, we found her mom on the sidewalk sweat combined with tears dripping down her face onto the paper and cell phone in her hands. FINALLY!!!!!! She was dropped off and we headed out to the main road. We made two more stops and 4 people got off, now there were 3 of us left. The other girl and I lived about 5 minutes away, while the 3^rd girl lived 15 minutes away. He said that he would drop the 3^rd girl off and then circle around and drop us off next. We agreed even though we didn’t understand his thinking. We dropped her off and were then stuck in bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic back to our neighborhood.

After a minute or so of waiting in traffic the driver says “well, they just called me and they want me to pick up Seminole Middle, so I will pick them up and then drop you guys off at the same time.” We were so annoyed, but he’s the driver and he knows what he’s doing (or so we thought). Around 5:30 a lady was talking on the intercom “Mr. Williams, do you have a Courtney Frahm on your bus?”

Yes, that’s how I learned that my parents were down at the bus station and he was now dropping me off there. I finally got to my parents at about 6:00-ish and we were heading out to eat at our favorite pizzeria “Jacaranda”. After hearing all their panicking and how glad they were to see me I finally got a big glass of Sprite, and sat in a comfy chair at the Jacaranda Restraunt and told them all about my day.

The funny thing about this story was that the next day I found out that my bus had been at the school when that bell rang, but it was on the opposite side of school in a different bus loop. This could have all been avoided if I had walked 1 minute to the other side of school and gotten on my bus. As a result to this story I got a cell phone, so every cloud has a silver lining!

BELLE'S BUSING BLUNDERS:
Belle's bus didn't come to pick her up on the first day, so I eventually drove her along with four of the high schoolers that ride the same bus. When the bus was a no-show on the second day, leaving 16 kids of all ages stranded, I called the transportation center (I was on close terms with busing administrators after having gone through Courtney's adventure the night before). They radioed the bus and made the driver return for us. It seems that she had come-and-gone long before the scheduled time. Her supervisor assured me that it would not happen again and since then we have had no complaints about the bus. Belle likes her afternoon bus better than the morning bus, though, because it is air-conditioned and she has more friends her own age that ride with her.

Both Courtney and Belle are so happy about their schools that it is almost suspicious! But they both report many friends, pleasant teachers, and academic success (so far).