Cheerfest and STUFF

The last couple of weeks were spirit week for Kahuku High & Inter. School. Kids have spent these last few days doing all kinds fun things at school and of course they have a home game this Friday...Kahuku vs Kaimuki. So, last night was the cheerfest....a tradition that has been carried down for a long time at Kahuku. The High School spent a couple of weeks in the evenings to come up with a cheer for each grade and practice will the night of Cheerfest and then got together to show off who has the best cheer. I don't know if there are other schools who does this.

My son, Chris, is a Freshman this year and decided that he wanted to attend the cheerfest. Jen decided to attend it this year too, she has missed out two years before and I guess this year she finally decided to get out of her comfort zone and do something different. I was a little surprised that both Jen and Chris wanted to do cheerfest this year only because the last two years I've been trying to get Jen to do it (the cheerfest is only for the high school kids) and she never showed any interest. Usually my daughter Steph was the one who took interest in any school events (hmmmm, I wonder if Jen was a little intimidated being in the shadow of her older sister....since she started attending Kahuku, the upperclassmen and staff only recognize her as "Stephanie's little sister"). And of course Chris, my son who never really cared for outdoor or big crowd kinda deal so I was really surprised that they both wanted to give this cheerfest thing a go this year.

Anyways, the Cannon Activities Center at BYUH was packed with all the parents, friends, siblings, aunties & uncles, and grandparents who went to show their support. It was crazy with all the noise. Chris didn't want me to miss it or not get good seat, he called me around six thirty (the thing didn't start til eight) to tell me I need to get there already if I want to get good seating because there are already people lining up to go in. Of course, I didn't want to end up sitting in the bleeding section, I had to listen to him so I got there around seven with Steph and Jon and got ourselves some really good seats.

The kids looked sooooo cute and adorable in their uniform. Each grade has a different shirt design and I gotta say those were really cool designs they have on their shirts. Exactly at eight, the Freshmen got up to do their cheer...judges were introduced before the performance and the kids were told that the judging of the cheer would cover creativity, unity, most fun and least put-down cheer. I know I am being biased when I say this, but the Freshmen did beautifully...their voices were in totally harmony and I could hear what was in their cheer and the moves...wowser!! Next was the Sophmore..there weren't very many participants with this group...they too did a great job. After them was the Juniors...my daughter Jen was with the Juniors...again another beautifully done cheer. They had some really funny stuff in their cheer and kept people laughing almost through the whole cheer. The Seniors were last, they also did a great job, too.

After the Seniors number...the Principal and her staff did a number. Ok, I forgot to tell you that the theme for school's spirit week was Remember The Good Times..and in light of the theme, coordinators decided to do a little memory for Michael Jackson, they played a medley of some his greatest hits. So the Principal and her staff got up and sang "We Are the World"...it was beautiful. They have some vocally talented teachers in that group. The kids were soooo proud of their Principal and teachers they got up and held hands while they swayed to the song..it was kind of an emotional moment. (I'm not a big fan of Michael Jackson but that song is one of my favorite....I guess it's a good thing he wasn't the only one singing that song.)

Finally the moment everyone was waiting for...the award time. While the MC waited for the judges to finalize their decision (did I mention that Elvis was in attendance and was actually the MC for the event? Yep, he did..LOL.) there were some side awards that needed to be given out. They had four awards they gave out...one of them was on the best poster/sign design and that went to the Juniors. The other award was on the t-shirt design and that one went to the Sophmore, then best attendance award that went to the Seniors. The Freshmen were give the best sportsmanship award. To tell you the truth though, the Freshmen had the best t-shirt design and the Seniors had the best poster design. But oh well...they want to be fair so every grade gets something. Then the moment came, there were drumrolls from all around the house....the fourth place went to the Seniors and that was because they broke one of the rules so they were disqualified. Third place went to the Juniors, it took a while to register for them that they came in third because they honestly believe that they would've won either second or first place and I agree with them. I think second place should be theirs. Second place went to the Sophmore and yep....the Freshmen won first place. They were soooo surprised (this is the first time in the history of Kahuku Cheerfest that Freshmen come in first) that they went wild in their cheering. It was really fun watching the look on their faces when they realized they actually won first place. It was absolutely crazy fun and I was very happy for them...they totally deserve to win first place, they actually put in more practice time than any of the other grades. They would literally skip their lunch period to practice and my son later told me that their leader worked them hard and was not that hopeful they would come anywhere close to second or even third. So, can you imagine how euphoric they all must have felt to come in first? My son was so giddy he rubbed it in his sister's face..LOL..rascal. Jen was not too happy that her grade didn't even make second place, she actually had her heart set on it. So brother and sister were bantering in the car on the way home, all in good fun though...she was a good sport in that she was happy she lost to her brother, she just wasn't happy that they lost to the Sophmores...ahahah...little competive wench..lol.

So on the way home, Jen was all just ranting on and on...she still couldn't believe they came in third and then out of the blue she goes: "hey guys, do I have a dumb face?"
I was like "what you mean by that? what does a dumb face look like?"
"Oh, I don't know, I feel like my face look dumb."

That brought a memory I had a teenager. I was invited by my friend and her family to spend the weekend with them. We had to go to the country side for some family get-together, some kind of reunion or something, big feast, lots of people. We had to stay at my friend's grandparents' house and they happen to have a woman from the Peace Corps living with them. One of the things my friends and I liked to do in those high school days is to try to learn as much English as we could so whenever we come across a foreigner, we'd strike up conversations with them. So my friend and I were standing around chatting up a storm with this this lady when I noticed that my friend's uncle was talking to my friend's mom and the whole time he kept looking at me. I later found out that they were actually talking about me. The uncle was asking my friend's mom if I actually understand what that haole lady was saying and if I actually know how to speak her language. My friend's mom quickly responded that not only did I know how to speak English but that I was actually the smartest kid in the whole high school (I'm blushing right now because my friend's mom was totally exaggerating) and you wanna know what the uncle said after that?

"Oh really, I didn't know that" he said. "She looks like she might be retarded or something."
How embarrassing. So when Jen asked us about her dumb face, I told them about this incident and she was really mad about that...she thought that man was very rude but since it's been sooo long ago, I thought it was actually funny.

So what does a dumb face look like? A better question would be, did I actually look like a retard, and if so, do I still look like one? Or maybe I just look more like an idiot and if that's the case, I could totally use it to my advantage. Can you imagine how many secrets and things I shouldn't have heard or learned because people would just pass me off as an idiot so they can say whatever they want to say in front of me thinking I wouldn't understand...seriously, I can actually work for the government and be a spy or even work for a company and be spy to that company to find out all their secrets.

{insert mad scientist laugh}