Pardon me while I brag about Taylor...

Sorry for the poor photo quality. The lighting in the auditorium at Taylor's middle school is really awful and this was the best we could do. But anyway, Taylor had his middle school awards night last week and we are so proud of him for all of his accomplishments. He has worked hard this year and done well, but we had no idea how many times he'd be called up to the stage. He ended up with eleven certificates in all.

He won outstanding achievement awards for math, language arts, science, history, and integrated academics. He received three band awards for outstanding participation, leadership, and diligence. He got an award for being on the high honor roll for all three years of middle school. And there was a certificate for being one of two students in the school who wrote and received an honorable mention for their history essays which were sent to a statewide competition put on by the State Bar of Michigan for Law Day. And he was one of only a few students who received the President's Education Award for outstanding academic excellence in honor of his 3.9 GPA over the three years of middle school. That one is a very big deal but all Taylor could say was that he should have been with the two other students who had a 4.0 overall GPA. He was cursing his typing class where he got the B+ that marred his otherwise perfect record. Oh well. Whether he is pleased with his accomplishments or not, we couldn't be prouder of him. He works so hard and we know that he'll do well in the coming years of high school and college.

Oh, and here is a short clip of one of the songs that he played in his recent band concert. This one was combined with the high school so you can't actually see him because he's one of the red shirts on the left hiding behind the white shirted high schoolers. But when you hear the brass playing, just imagine that you can see Taylor with his trumpet.