October 18th

Duncan had to go to a music concert for orchestra. It didn't matter what kind, just that it got done. There was a choral concert at Woods Cross High, so Duncan and I went and had a good time. It was a little weird returning to the old school. It's been almost 20 years since I graduated....weird. It was fun seeing the old choir teacher up there, however I was a little bummed at how down hill the choir program was. I know...it's been almost 20 years. However, there were some songs that the Madrigals sang that I really thought Mr. H. would never have let slide by for a performance when I was an school. Oh well, enough of that. LOL!!!

October 11th Another False Alarm

I'm not sure what is going on. Duncan is driving me nuts!! This was one of many times he has called me to pick him up from school because something was wrong with him. He claimed that he was seeing a spot in his vision and that he had tripped at school and it had become bigger. Me, being who I am, and having the girls with there problems checked him out and rushed him into the doctor. Guess what. NOTHING IS WRONG!!! He did need a knew prescription for his glasses, but no problems. Help!! Is being crazy and needy normal for 7th grade?

September 20th

Duncan had been complaining a lot about his leg. We've even had some run in's with school because of it....don't ask......

First we had an appointment with Lisa to see what she thought about it. She looked at his leg, and poked and prodded. Where he hurt wasn't a normal place to hurt so she wanted to have his blood drawn.

When that didn't yield anything we had to have an x-ray taken.

That showed that he had a stress fracture.

So I set up an appointment with a sports med doctor to see what should be done.

Once again they took x-rays and this is what they found.

He has Osgood-Slaughters and has to be careful in his playing. When his leg hurts he has to sit it out. So far so good. He's only had a few issues. So all is well.

September 16th

Tori had her eye appointment with Dr. Bernstein on the 16th. I had to call 3 or 4 times just to get through to the doctors office. Once I got through they set me up with an appointment pretty quick.
As always Tori took everything in stride. The monkey even didn't eat breakfast just in case she had to have surgery that day. However, everything is fine. Dr. Bernstein said her retinas look good, and nothing to worry about. I asked him about the lattice degeneration that the other Doctor saw and he said, "I see what he was talking about but it's really not degeneration, more like scar tissue." So she's good for now.

"Dr. Lisa" called and let us know that Duncan's blood work came back fine. His blood cell count was fine, his arthritis numbers were normal. He did have some high numbers on one of the tests, I don't remember what it was, but basically you can have these numbers if you don't stretch out well before you run. So she wanted us to get x-ray's taken. We headed over to Lakeview and had another first for him. As a matter of fact Jason was the only kid we have had to have x-rayed before this one. Of course they sent us home to let us know that the X-ray doctor would contact our doctor.

Sad Stuff, but a proud Mama

Sunday morning was quite the shocker. Duncan had to go to BYC, so he was at church at 8:00 am. At about 8:10am we got a phone call from my sweet boy. One of our good friends had passed away that morning. He was diagnosed with cancer and we just found out about it sometime in July. It doesn't seem that long, but I know it has seemed like a lifetime and a blink of an eye at the same time for his sweet family. Duncan's buddy, who is also the Deacon's Quorum President, just happens to be the son of our sweet friends. I've worried for how Duncan would take the news.

When I got to church I immediately started looking for my boy. I thought for sure he'd been struggling to cope. When I finally found him he was sitting down where he was supposed to. He was the only Deacon there and he was doing his Priesthood duty. When I looked at him, he mouthed the words, "It'll be OK." Of course I was bawling all the way through sacrament meeting. =)

There was a baby blessing, and Duncan jumped up and had to go find the microphone. He is fairly new to the responsibilities of a Deacon so he wasn't prepared. However, he took everything in stride.

Of course since it was the first of the month it was Testimony meeting. Our ward has the Deacon's stand up front with a roaming microphone so that if anyone wants to bare their Testimony, but are unable to go to the pulpit they still are able to do so. He looked up a little frantic and ran up front to do his job. Not a look of frustration, he just knew that was his job.

I had to go home to compose myself after the meeting, so we took Jason home and I relaxed for a bit. When I ran back to church for Relief Society I walked past the stage door. There was my boy, standing behind the curtains. Mom instincts kicked in and I thought he might be struggling. So I walked up there and said, "What are you doing? Are you being a trouble maker??" The visiting High Councilman stepped out from behind another Curtain and said, "Oh no, he is being VERY helpful." He was getting the hymn books for Priesthood opening exercises. Once again, doing his job.

Relief Society just might have well been a cry fest. I'm not sure that there was a dry eye in the house. We all were feeling the ache and loss for this sweet family.

When we got out of class Duncan said, "Where's Dad?" I told him he was home with Jason. He said, "We have to go get him, I need him to be my partner for Fast Offerings." Again, not even close to shirking his duties.

The thing I am most proud of is the ache he feels for his friend. He doesn't know quite what to do. He loves his buddy, and wants to be able to make it better. Obviously this is not going to happen. He wants to make cookies. He wanted to stop at their house after doing fast offerings. He asked if he could call him. I told him it might not be pretty, but he could call him and show his support. He called and told his friend he was really sorry. Of course his friend really didn't want to talk. Duncan said he wasn't sure it was such a good idea to call, but I love him for his understanding. I love him for his love of his friend. I love him for his ability to be a responsible kid. What can I say.....I'm a pretty lucky Mom and I have a pretty good kid!!!!

Bag-O-Me

Duncan had an assignment in Honors English. I was quite impressed with his writing so I thought I would post it here.

Bag-O-Me

Have you ever heard of a person with only three characteristics? I sure haven’t. Because everyone has hundreds of traits, choosing just three is near impossible. I love technology, my family, laughter, and much more. But I managed to decide on a rock, a joke, and a bar of soap to tell Duncan Lutz’s story.

Rocks aren’t only for skipping you know. The reason I put a rock in my bag is that a rock is steady and stands firm. When dealing with a challenge I am steady. Experience has shaped me like a rock is shaped by the wind and the water. This has helped me learn how to treat others. Having an autistic brother has helped me learn how to take care for small children. Taking karate for four years helped me learn how to take care of myself.

The Joke represents a good spirit. I can laugh at myself, and I’m not easily offended. I have lots of friends because I’m easily liked! The way I think about laughter is that its fuel. One laugh can light up a whole room. Being happy is a choice and I make that choice a lot.

The bar of soap represents cleanliness both in thought, speech, and action. Soap can clean the outside of your body, but to really be clean you have to make good choices. A dirty joke may be funny to you but it may not be to someone else, so if you tell dirty joke others might lose respect for you. If you make good choices, and are respectful of others you will have a good reputation. I am a good example of that.

I am steady and firm in my convictions. I like to laugh and make people happy. I try to make good choices. That is why a rock, a joke, and a bar of soap represent me.

Court of Honor

Duncan had a Court of Honor last night. He got all of his awards that he earned at summer camp. He got the cooking merit badge, the motorboating merit badge, pioneering merit badge, and his canoeing merit badge. He's working hard, but struggling with his new found schedule. He really does just want to stay at home, as is seen by the fact that he was supposed to be camping tonight. Hopefully Jr. High won't kill him. =)

Mormon Channel and Back to School Night

Duncan had an awesome opportunity to be on a radio broadcast for the Mormon Channel. He was so excited he couldn't stop talking about it for three days. I got an email from the casting guy letting him know when to be there. I was checking all day, and the one time he

checked my email it was there. When I came downstairs to check again, I had an "out of office reply." I asked Duncan if he had sent a reply and of course he had. Here it is.

Hi Ben!

Thanks for the information I only have one question, what should I wear? I’m guessing what I would wear to church, but I’m not sure contact me.

But with the ‘going casually’ part I listened to some of the episodes to see what to expect well thanks bye!

Sincerely Duncan Lutz

This seriously made me giggle so I had to post it here.

Grandpa Siddoway took him out there, and was able to spend the time with him. Dick said he was so excited, he could hardly sit still. They said a prayer before they started and the lady prayed that they would be able to touch young people all over the world. Duncan said that made him nervous and he got really tense there.

Dick said he was quite impressed on the grasp the four young people had on Repentance and the Atonement. Duncan struggled with nerves for a little while but was able to pull himself around to being normal. I asked him if it was just a fun experience, or if it was both fun and spiritual. He looked confused. I guess he hasn't learned that a spiritual experience can also be fun...=)

Duncan said it was an awesome experience, and he would do it again in a heart beat. He said he will email the casting guy to let him know that if they ever need him again, he will be there.

They said that it will be aired in a couple of months. I'll post the link to the podcast here when it finally airs.

Look how studly he thinks he is!

This was the crew that did the show. They had one more kid that they called on the phone from idaho. He was for sure the youngest of the group.
After dinner it was time for Back to School Night. Duncan got to meet all his teachers, and we were able to pick up the supply lists and what not.

The most important thing was remembering his locker com and being able to open it.
He will have a lot of homework. He is in Honor's English and Honor's Science. He has a bug collection due on the 23rd, so he will need to kick it into high gear. Hopefully he will want to do his homework and I won't have to sit with him the whole time he's doing it. =)

Cooking Merit Badge

Duncan had to cook a full meal for his cooking merit badge. I wasn't sure he could do it, but he succeeded and it tasted pretty good. Of course it's pretty hard to mess up spaghetti. =)

Past Due Posting

The nice thing with having two cameras is I have a chance to take different kinds of pictures. The bad thing is sometimes I forget which camera has the pictures. On the 21st of July Duncan had a scrimmage under the lights. It was fun! The boys were very excited, and really wanted to play well. They did a good job, and it was fun to be there.

Duncans Hike

I can't believe how old Duncan is now. He and one of his friends decided they were going to finish off their Hiking merit badges. Last week they went on two 10 mile hikes two days in a row. They really are a good group of boys!!

Duncan's a pretty strong kid!!!

Friday

The girls got to sleep over at Grandma Child's house on Friday. We dropped them off and went to Duncan's soccer game. Jason fell asleep before we left the house, and he slept almost through the the first half of the game.

Duncan's team played soccer yesterday!! The actually executed passes, and they won the game!!! The score was 3-2. This was the first game Duncan's team won. They have been so close, and now it happened!!!

Duncan actually scored. The goalie did not have control of the ball, but the Ref couldn't see well and as is appropriate called it in favor of the goalie. However, I did get a picture of it.





Jason woke up and we walked the track that was around the field. However, he was still VERY tired and threw a fit for a while. I just stood there and watched the game.
The coaches were as excited as the boys. It was definitely a fun game!!!
And of course no game is complete without seeing a guy on a unicycle! Well, maybe not. However it was quite entertaining.

Soccer has Started

Duncan had his first soccer game today. No they did not win. But there was soooooo much improvement. They played more like a team, and there were very few players that couldn't keep moving.

The score was 3-1 for the other team, but last year it was 5-0 for the other team. A marked improvement. Hopefully our boys can get a win this year. They have so much potential. They just need to train a finisher.

Jr. High

REALLY? I'm not ready! I'm not ready! I'm not ready!!!

Ok, having said that. We had Duncans' Jr. High orientation last night. We dropped the kids off at my parents house and then drove over and spent a good hour and a half with Duncan.

The boy struts!!! I had to laugh every time he was with the group. He's going to do just fine.
We had a little show about the extra curricular activities in the gym. Nice!
He even looks right in the Jr. High desks. Sad isn't it?

Young Men

I can't believe that Duncan is in Young Men. Sigh!

Last week they went to the temple and did Baptisms for the Dead. He said he felt so peaceful and it was such a good experience. If I ever get him to settle down I'll have him do a blog post on it.

Then of course yesterday was the first time he passed the sacrament. He was so nervous and excited at the same time! I wanted to get there early, and get the full experience of being a Deacon. The whole time he was biting his cheeks as if to keep himself from smiling. When it was all finished he sat down next to his Dad, and whispered, "I passed the Sacrament." Brett smiled gave him five and that was that. =)

Aaronic Priesthood

My sweet baby boy was given the Aaronic Priesthood today. I can't believe he's twelve. He was called up in front of the ward to let everyone know that he would get the priesthood today and then they had him sit down. Brett sent him back up to ask the Bishop if he should have been sustained. The Bishop shook his head no so we thought maybe protocol had changed. However in Relief Society and Priesthood the Bishop and his Counselors ran around to all the classes and asked for a sustaining vote. Someone stopped Duncan in the hall and told him the whole ward would remember the day he received the Priesthood because it was a little unusual.

Brett gave the blessing, and there was a whole crew of men to support my baby. Grandpa Child, Grandpa Siddoway, Gary Sharp (Brett's Cousin), Bishop Robertson, Scott Cline, Keith West, and John Peterson. I love these men and am grateful for the example they are in my sons life.

Brett blessed Duncan with the ability to remain a good kid, (not exactly his words). I'm grateful for my husband and his worthiness to use his Priesthood. It sure makes this Mom feel a lot better.

After the blessing Duncan turned around to give his Dad a hug, and my sweet boy had tears streaming down his face. He is such a GREAT KID!

I had to take pictures!!! Grandma and Grandpa Child, Duncan, Grandma and Grandpa Siddoway. They are such a HUGE support.

Had to get pictures of my sweet family.
Duncan's best friend who was able to be there because he is the Deacons Quorum President.
Bishop Robertson. He's such a sweet guy, and put up with a crazy Mom who needed to take pictures of everything.
Then we celebrated Birthday's at Grandma and Grandpa Siddoways. Duncan, Grandpa, and Alaric. Alaric wasn't as excited to blow out the candles as these two were.
Then we celebrated Duncan's Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Child's house. Brett made the cake from scratch and it was absolutely divine!!!
All in all a pretty good day!

Duncan's Orchestra Concert

My lovely Father-in-law uploaded these for me!! Thanks Dick!!!

Tender Foot

Duncan received his Tender Foot at the Court of Honor last night. We're very proud of his hard work and how excited he is about being a Scout. He only has one more thing to get his 2nd Class as well. So he should have another award next time.

Duncan receiving his award.

Pinning me with the Mother's Pin
Good Job Baby!
Getting his patch for attending the Klondike Derby.

Of course we had to celebrate his accomplishment. =)

Nielsens Frozen Custard baby!

Jason didn't want any ice cream, only Grandma's Fresca.
This is my reassurance that I won't get stuck. I've got a good set of Mother's Pins coming along.