Ryan & Erinn's Family: January 2020

In March and April there were funerals held for two moms from our school.

Angie Knight-Sarkissian passed away from leukemia (she had beaten it once, but it relapsed.) She's mother to three sweet kids, including Corinne's best school-friend, Sasha.

Charice Lawrie had been fighting ALS for about a year. It was what they call bulbar-onset, so she quickly lost the ability to talk and swallow. Her two kids, Ashlee and Zach Peralta, were Elise's and Evan's best school-friends.

It was so sad to see these families suffer. I take comfort from what I know about the eternal nature of human beings, but I also was very inspired by the way the school community and other groups came together to help. There was so much love being shared through this tragic year.

"Prayer Garden"

Highlands Latin School put on its first play! The Shakespeare Drama Club did As You Like It, with Elise playing Adam the servant, and Connor playing Le Beau and William. Both of my kids were nervous, but they did a phenomenal job! The play was directed by Marissa Standage and Chris Wheeler, who were amazingly able to pull it together with such limited time and resources.

Make-up

Cast Party

We hurried after school one Monday to the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve. It was an especially large bloom because of all the rain, and it was very windy. I left there feeling spiritually uplifted and a bit emotional.

School days start with Manners Moment (our morning assembly), then the students do 45 minutes of either dance or P.E. before moving on to either their encapsulated classes (grammar school) or Latin classes (upper school.) As a Latin teacher, I set up my classroom and teach from 10-11, then I usually go into my "office" (a tiny, sunny, empty classroom) to grade papers while Celeste is still playing with Olga and the other nursery kids. After I pick Celeste up, she always wants to see the water before greeting every type of flower we see on the way to the parking garage. I get about 1 1/2 hours at home to eat lunch and get a few things done before picking the kids up at 3:15. It's super busy, but I find it very fulfilling, too.

Manners Moment

I love my office.

Driving Home

Easter Week! We did all our traditional activities, including a Story Eggs hunt, the Primary Easter Egg Hunt, coloring eggs, Resurrection Rolls, and a visit to Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Story Egg Hunt

Primary Easter Egg Hunt

Fern, Celeste, and Corinne

Dyeing/Coloring Eggs

Resurrection Rolls

Easter Baskets. I gave each kid a clue as to where to find theirs.

Little Mac, the real rabbit, ate Celeste's chocolate rabbit!

Evan participated in his second Pinewood Derby at the end of April. He made his car all by himself, including polishing the axils and doing the whole paint job. Evan didn't win, but his car did do really well!

Ryan planned a trip up to the Bay Area so we could visit Pacifica Pier and go fishing for Dungeness crab. He bought a couple kinds of traps and some snares, and we spent two days trying to figure out how to use them properly. (Well, the kids and Ryan did - I spent a lot of the time in the van with a cold Celeste.) The Palmers came with us on the second day, and Ryan managed to snare a couple of crabs - one of which fell off while reeling it in. Everyone was really proud of their success, but sadly, nobody realized that you have to keep a crab alive to eat it. Apparently they build up toxins in their meat as soon as they die, so we didn't get to taste the awesome catch.

Caleb and Trenton's Birthday Party!

Free Breakfast

On the way home, we stopped for a hiking break.

Instead of Young Women's Camp this year, our stake decided to do a High Adventure activity, so Elise got to go river rafting on the King's River. She was extremely nervous, but ended up having a fabulous time. They were only gone one night, so to expedite things, Ryan and his friend drove up early to set up everyone's tents. The girls left right after school, drove five hours, and camped that night. Saturday morning they had breakfast and a devotional, ran the river for most of the day, then drove home by bedtime.