A Year of Change

It’s April 1st or April Fools Day. I woke up around 4am and dozed on and off until 6 as Jag is supposed to leave for Durango at 7 for baseball. It’s 6:15 now and he’s not really moving yet so I might have to interrupt my writing to get him moving. Last night he made it home by 7:45 after practice and pizza that the team went out for. I need to check and see if he’s going to go as they have two Varsity games and he doesn’t get much playing time being a freshman. He should stay home and get caught up on homework, school first!

Ty stayed after school to do some make up tests in Mandarin now that he has a new computer. He then went outside to watch the first half of the LaCrosse game until I could get back up valley to get him at 5. Lori came home around 3 as she already had 50 hours in for the week. I was proud of her for leaving early.

This morning we’re headed to the gym and then might run over to Aspen to see Bobby and Patty. Lori wants to do something fun today. The big snowstorm looks like it’s going to miss us as it stayed south, which we’re happy about. Looks like Jag is going to stay home which means I won’t have to pick him up at midnight tonight, whoo hoo. I am up early though, uggh.

Guess I’ll run and head out to our gym that opens at 7. The closer one (we go to two) doesn’t open until 8. Have a good weekend, GB.

Are you kidding me? April 1st tomorrow! You wouldn’t know it as tomorrow we’re supposed to get 5 to 10 inches of snow. Down in Denver, where the flowers and trees are starting to bloom, they’re supposed to get 15 to 20 inches! Being Spring, it’ll probably be a wet snow as well which is much heavier than the dry powder we covet for skiing. Oh well, that’s Colorado and it’ll probably be the last big snow of the year, but you never know.

I was down and up from Denver in good time yesterday, and thought I had to go down again today, but thankfully do not. Lori’s sales meeting went great! She was nervous, but Dr C gave her a big thumbs up and great job. She’s slowly transforming the clinic and staff into the team she wants which means operating under her procedures and policies. This includes everything from PTO (vacation time), to how they handle patients. As usual, she’s doing a great job.

I have computer and phone work today and am running to the grocery store. Not sure what we’re doing tonight, hopefully relaxing. Guess I’ll run as not much else to say, have a great weekend and God Bless.

Last night around 10pm I picked Jag up from his two baseball games in Basalt. He left school at 12:30 so it was a long day. He and some buddies on the team decided to wear cowboy boots and then line them up on the dugout facing the other team for good luck. It apparently worked as they won both games. Jag was walked and the coach also had him bunt. It’s pretty funny to see the boys in their baseball uniforms with cowboy boots on.

Meanwhile Ty shadowed a kid at Homestake and liked it a lot. He’s 99% sure he wants to go there. It’s full of diversity with every ethnic group but they’re all good kids. He was with an 8th grader all day and made friends with about 4 kids but they’ll all go to high school next year. We’ll have him go back in a month and spend a day with a 7th grader going into 8th, to meet some kids in his upcoming class.

Next Thursday Jag and I are in Aspen for the whole day as he landed a modeling gig that has a shoot at the Aspen Race Track. We’re not sure what to expect but apparently it’s a long grueling day. It’s for a few magazines through a friend of Lori’s who owns a magazine called Snow. The photographer is some guy from Miami who is a top fashion photographer, and I guess it’s the real deal, with make up and hair stylists and all that stuff. So here we go into his Super Model career. I told him he’ll do fine as he has a good Zoolander face, for those of you that know the movie, ha.

I’m off to Denver today for a quick turnaround to get some samples. Lori has a sales meeting at 7:45am and both boys need to get to school early for some extra work. Time to go, have a great day and God Bless.

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.