A Year of Change

Today is a lot like yesterday, and the day before, and tomorrow. We seem to be busy every day with not a lot of room for time to relax. Although we ended up not having to go for drinks last night, they day still whisked by and it was bedtime before we knew it.

Today Ty is going to go “shadow” a kid at Homestake Peak which is the public school he might attend next year. We need to make a decision by Monday so he needs to check it out. Jag and I were at the high school for a meeting and when we left, he was pretty excited. He can take AP and DE (dual enrollment) classes which both give him college credit. He’s all about his future which is pretty cool to see. His electives such as weight training, business law, photography, entrepreneurship and other choices are pretty cool. Now that we’ve been there a few times he’s starting to get a feel for it. He has two baseball games today in Basalt which is by Aspen, but I think he might get snowed out. Yesterday his home base teacher wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for him, which is kind of a long read but well worth reading, so here you go,

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing in support of Jagger Fugate, a student transferring from Vail Mountain School to Battle Mountain High School for the 2017-2018 school year. Jagger was a member of my homebase this year and a student in my Geometry class. As a rapport driven school with small class sizes, Vail Mountain School fosters the opportunity to cultivate a strong relationship with each student on both an academic and personal level.
Academically, Jagger is a mature, responsible, and a dedicated learner at a young age. He instills the love learning and completes his daily work on time, thoroughly, and thoughtfully. He engages fully during our class discussions, brings forth new ideas, and asks insightful questions. It is impressive that he has developed such strong skills as a ninth grader; his class disposition is incredible. He is a leader among his peers and a class act to follow. He has strong math capabilities and has completed a full year course in both Algebra and Geometry at this point. The next natural class in his progression would have been along our advanced track where the students take Algebra II/Trigonometry. I have full confidence that Jagger would do well in advanced courses moving forward in mathematics. If he continued at Vail Mountain School, he would be on our track to take AP math courses as an upper classman. Should you have any question about his math placement for next year, please do not hesitate to contact me.
As a person, Jagger is polite, patient, and respectful. He interacts with both his peers and adults in a positive manner. He maintains good life balance between his active engagement in athletics, academics, family life, and his social life. At Vail Mountain School, Jagger has participated in cross-age activities with an open mind and shown leadership for our younger students. I know Jagger will be a great benefit to your school community!

Sincerely, Tanya Boderck Upper School Mathematics Department Chair

Pretty impressive, I told Lori, we’re really good parents! Ha. In any case, all his teachers feel the same way about him and upon reading this and seeing his report card (through 3 Quarters) the high school counselor said he didn’t need anymore letters to put him in the advanced program. Some of his classes will actually be with juniors and some with college students. Thank god he has my brain and Lori’s looks, ha! (he actually has part of her brain too)

Time to run, Ty by the way was recognized as the top student in his Computer Science and Technology Class with a 100.7 as his grade, pretty impressive as well. He was thrilled as he’s really into computer programming and coding, which is writing computer programs. Anyhow, that’s it, hope everyone is well. Have a great day and God Bless.

We’re smack dab in the middle of it. What you might ask? Well, we’re in the middle of the transition between winter and spring. For the next two weeks we have an unsettled mix of wet and sloppy rain and snow. There’s not enough snow for some more good skiing and not enough rain to wash the rest of the snow away, just a mix to mess up my clean cars on a daily basis. Up here, we say we’re entering the mud season. When the mountain closes in about 2 weeks, lots of people leave town for vacation as all the tourists are gone until June. Then the summer season starts. I actually enjoy 4 separate seasons and summer is our favorite time up here, so bring it on!

Yesterday Ty and I toured a couple schools. The Christian school was nice but too small and the public school was pretty neat as well. Right now it’s down to him staying where he is or going to the public school. We need to decide this week so we’ll keep you posted.

Jag is supposed to have a double header tomorrow in Basalt but I think the rain and snow will cancel the game. Saturday he’s supposed to play 2 games in Durango, which is 6 hours away, but again, I think the weather will prevent that too. We’ll see.

Today Jag and I meet with the high school counselor about his classes for next year. More to come on that tomorrow. Lori has a big day as usual. She worked 101 hours last pay period which is two weeks. This means she worked over 50 hours a week. She’s like a doctor without the big paycheck! Time to run so we can hit the gym before work and school, GB.

Lori’s in the shower, the boys are still sleeping and I’m writing away before I too need to get ready. Today we have lots going on as usual. Baseball, school, paperwork, phone calls, meetings, computer work and more. Seems like it never stops.

We made it up here by 11 am yesterday after picking up Ty a bit before 9am yesterday. He had a great time with his friend who he hasn’t seen for a while.

Tomorrow we have a meeting at the High School for Jag where we’re sure he’s going next year. On Ty, we’re trying to decide if we leave him in his current school for one more year which would be his last year of Middle School. Then next year he would join his brother at Battle Mountain. This wasn’t possible but over the weekend, Grandma Dixie generously offered to pay for a large chunk of the tuition which would make it doable. This is an extremely generous offer that caught me off guard but first we need to weigh all the options and make sure this is what would be best for him. In any case, whether we take her up on her offer or not, thank you very very very much!

It’s going to be a mix of rain and snow and sun for the entire week. Hopefully in a week or two, Spring will then be here in full force. I need to wake the boys so time to run. We hope everyone is well and that you all have a great day and week. Take care, be safe, enjoy life and be thankful for all you have, God Bless.

We finally headed out of town by about 10 and were in Denver by noon to drop Ty at his friend Jude’s. Then Lori and I headed downtown for some lunch and shopping before heading to our friends for dinner.

We arrived at 6pm and were there until a bit after 11. It was just the four of us and we had a great time. Tina made Cassoulet which is a French dish with duck, andouille sausage and cannellini beans.  Tina is an amazing cook and last night was another example.

We stayed at the JW Marriott which is a nice hotel in Cherry Creek. It’s now about 8:15am and we’ll head out soon to pick up Ty before heading up the hill. I did manage to get Jag a pair of new pants and a couple of shirts yesterday. He stayed home with Mojo and I’m sure is sleeping. Time to run but it was a really nice anniversary with our friends and we both had fun. Hope all’s well, GB

17 years ago today I was lucky enough to marry my beautiful wife Lori. It was the single smartest move of my life. She’s not only a great wife, but a great mother, co-worker and friend. She’s one of those people that the World is truly better off having in it.

Today Jag will be gone most of the day for baseball while Ty, Lori and I will head down to Denver. We’re going to drop Ty at a friends while Lori and I go to Jeff and Tina’s for dinner. We’re not sure if we’re spending the night or if we’ll drive up tonight. Now that we don’t drink, we have that choice. Ha, there is another benefit!

Yesterday Jag and I went to the High School to get a list of classes, meet the counselor and the basketball coach. Three kids from baseball said hi to him in the halls but it was like going from a small town to the big city. When the bell rang, the halls filled up with hundreds of kids, and then 3 minutes later, after the second bell, they were all gone! Before that we had his teacher conferences. We confided in the teachers he probably won’t be back to VMS next year to which they were all stunned and disappointed. One teacher, who led the Hawaii trip, stood up and gave him a big hug and was starting to cry. His math teacher said there’s things we can do to stay, but I told them I think we’ve already tried all possible solutions. His super cool Mandarin teacher, just stood up and said, “you’re not leaving” to Jag, when I shared the news. All said he should be in AP (advanced placement) classes which are basically a year ahead of where most kids are. So, looks like he’ll be taking Junior level courses in English, Math, Science and Computer Technology next year. All they did for 30 minutes was rave about him and they told us he was the top student in his class. He dressed up in jeans and a nice shirt and borrowed one of my neck ties. He looked like a prep student from some movie at some east coast school. One teacher said, “I like it, dress for success”. We asked them not to say anything to anyone, meaning students, but with the school wanting to double our tuition from $22,000 to $40,000, it’s 99% we’re moving on. We’ll keep you posted of course. You never know what’ll happen as we know the teachers are all going to the administration lobbying to keep Jag there, as he’s such a credit to his class and the school. We think he’s so great, they should pay us for him to go there! Probably won’t happen though.

Time to run, have a great weekend, God Bless.

I guess there’s a blizzard in Denver but looking outside this morning up here, the roads are wet but that’s about it. Last night we had Lori’s Company dinner and after Dr. C stood up and made a toast to everyone and the 2 new girls, he made a second toast to Lori! Then his wife made one to Lori also saying how much easier she’s made her life. Short story is they love her as they should.

Jagger  has his conferences this morning. The boys are still struggling with moving schools, especially Ty, but it is what it is. We’re all going to Denver tomorrow after Jag’s game around 4:30 or 5pm. Not sure what time our dinner is but I’m sure we’ll be late. Of course his game this Saturday, has a late start when all others have been morning games.

I picked up Lori’s car yesterday and the mysterious rattle turned out to be some loose bolts on the roof rack. They also detailed the entire car, buffing out all the scratches on the outside and cleaning the inside so it looks like a new car! Then of course, it rained! That’s about it, time to run, Lori is already out of the shower so I’d better get moving. Have a good weekend and God Bless.

This morning around 10 I’ll head back to Denver to get Lori’s car. I have a couple other stops but hope to be back up by 2 at the latest. At 5:30, we have a dinner for the two new girls Lori hired, with the whole clinic. I’ll have to leave at 5:45 to go get Jag from baseball and won’t be back until 6:30 but I don’t really eat anymore anyhow, ha.

We all need to leave in an hour so I’d better get moving. Everyone is coming to terms with moving to new schools although the boys would rather stay where they are. I spoke with the head of the school yesterday and he sort of indicated if we could pay another $6000 to $8000, meaning like $30,000, we could stay. Lori and I are frankly just over it. In fact, Jag academically, well be better off at the new school. Ty, by being in a new school where all the kids the year after next will all go to Battle Mountain too, will have a chance to make friends before High School. And by the way, where do they get off charging $26,000 a year per kid? Do you know that a year at Colorado State University (a good 4 year college in Ft. Collins) with room and board, is also $26,000 a year! Enough said.

Snow tomorrow up here and down there. Glad I’m getting in and out today. Time to get those boys up, take care and GB.

Looks like the boys will be going to new schools in the Fall. Our school didn’t give us enough financial assistance this year as apparently we make too much money. Now before we all get excited, we really don’t make too much money, we just show too many assets on our tax return. You see, I get a K1 that inflates our income showing my share of the profits from our Company. What it doesn’t show is that those funds or profits, never make their way to our bank account. They are all just left in the Company to cover previous years losses. Anyhow, we cannot pay $4000 a month for the boys to go to school which is about what it’d be. So we’re now looking at our options.

Jag will probably go to Battle Mountain where he plays baseball now. Good news is they have AP (Advanced Placement) classes where he actually gets college credits. A friend of ours went to Baylor starting as a sophomore after going there. Ty will either go to a public K through 8 school or we might get him into Vail Christian Academy for 1 year before he too would go to Battle Mountain. Ty in high school in one year seems like a shocker. Both kids were bummed as you’d imagine, but to their credit, understand and don’t want us to spend more than we can afford. Jag even said Ty could continue to go to our current school and Ty offered up the same but we’re just going to move them both. I told Lori, who was up most of the night worrying about it, to look at it as if Ty is going from elementary school to middle school and Jag from middle school to high school. The valley is small enough that they’ll still see their friends and our boys, being who they are, will make new friends. Of course there’s more drugs and bad stuff at larger schools but there’s drugs at our current school, just a higher caliber as Lori says, ha.

So that was the drama for the day. Jag skipped baseball practice and won’t get to play tonight as there’s a rule that if you miss practice the day before the game, you can’t play. We didn’t know that, but school was a big enough subject that we needed to talk about as a family.

Lori’s neck is killing her but so far, no bad headache. Her car is in Denver getting fixed and they gave me a Cadillac Escalade as a loaner, nice little car. I hope her car is fixed today.

I guess there’s another round of snow coming on Friday. Our 17th Anniversary is this Saturday, and we’ll be in Denver. There’s a camp in Michigan this summer that’d be really good for Ty. His friend Warner, who moved to Virginia, is going again this year. It’s July 10th to August 6th. The kids are gone 27 days and can’t take cell phones and can’t call home! For half the time, they are on a canoe trip camping up in Canada. Talk about a trip that’ll make you grow up, wow. I guess last year, Warner’s parents said it was like he left a little kid and came back a young man. Apparently not being able to call was much harder on Warner’s mom than Warner. The trick is to start sending daily letters two weeks before camp starts so they get a letter every day. If we can make it happen, we’ll be asking you all to write letters. We’re going to try to swing it now that we won’t be paying for school but it’s $5000! Apparently from all the reviews though, it’s well worth it and it’d be really good for Ty. We think it’d really help his confidence for going to a new school. So any and all birthday, Christmas, Anniversary or any other presents should be in cash for Camp Kooch-i-ching! Click on this link or paste in your browser to see more,

www.vimeo.com/152461070

Have a good day, God Bless.

Next up is today, Tuesday. I was wrong about jury duty for me, it was for Lori! Thankfully they didn’t need jurors today as she has a big marketing meeting from 8 until 12:30. Jag stayed home yesterday and both boys are late waking up today. I need to drop Lori’s car off in Denver today to try to fix the mysterious rattle no one can seem to find. Throw in baseball tonight and Ty staying after school and yes, we’re busy, again.

It’s 7 now and Lori needs to leave in 40 minutes as do mI and the boys. So time to run, have a good day and GB.

It’s a busy week as you can see from the title. Today we have Ty’s conference and Ty is off for the day. Jag still has a cold so he might be staying home. Tomorrow I might have jury duty, I’ll know later tonight. Baseball is Wednesday and Jag’s conference is Friday. We also have a dinner Thursday night for Lori’s office and a dinner this Saturday in Denver at Jeff and Tina’s who went to Italy with us last summer. That day is also our 17th anniversary. Seems like a lot longer, in a good way!

Today is also the first day of Spring. It’s getting mushy up here, on and off the slopes. After a few days of warm temperatures, everything will magically turn green. I’d better get moving so have a great week and take care of yourself. Get some exercise, you’ll feel better for doing so, GB