Christmas 'Break' School

Some of us in the school worked hard to get some housecleaning and schoolwork done. We have had a busy couple of weeks and look forward to the routine on Monday!

Painting the Library

While half of campus was gone for the holidays, we took advantage of the fact that we needed less space (and that the students left here wanted to have as much 'vacation' as possible from homework) and painted the library. We are almost finished with the new arrangement. These students helped for almost eight straight hours and we got it done in one day.

Hard Work and Play At CRA!

Hey there, Walt here. I was recently handed the photo flash drive and was told there were several new pictures that could be put on the blog. Since I'm caught up on my items so far this week and I felt in a blogging mood, I thought I'd share them with you and yours! The activities range from our three-time-weekly karate class to our STAR Reading tutors to Nicolette's high school graduation to our very own boys basketball team! Here are the pictures...



The STAR Reading tutor team! From left to right; Porter, Noah, Shelby, Nisty, Nicolette, Morgan and Rafael. Read more about it at www.cedarridgeacademy/newsletter.html.


Shelby tutoring a student...



Rafael working hard with a student...


Porter helping tutor a young girl...


Noah engaging in some STAR tutoring...


Morgan helping this young lady with tutoring...


Nicolette's high school graduation! Congratulations Nico!


Zane and Alex V. gettin' down and dirty!


Shelby going in for a bump!


The P90X crew, led by Christine. Look at those fierce faces!


The proud and determined Cedar Ridge Shotokan class after passing their kyu exams. Congratulations everyone! From left, going up first, Sensei Christine, James, Brendan, Zane, Jake, Evan, Matt and Ryan. Going down, Jamie, Shelby, Morgan, Aly and Sensei Rob.


That's it for today! I hope you enjoy the pictures and hope they give you an idea of how your children are doing! Look for more coming soon... peace! Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrated!

Girls High Level Activity and Other New News

Hey it's Jamie. So the girls had another high level activity last Saturday to say goodbye to our Student Council President, Kat. We went to Marion's for dinner (which was so good as usual) and then we saw the new Disney movie Tangled. I personally loved the movie and I know the other girls did too. Everyone had fun and it was just a good time. Something really surprising but cool happened though. When we went into the movie theatre, we saw a couple of Christmas trees and guess what? One of them was...OUR CANDY TREE!! The movie theatre apparently bought a couple of the trees from the festival and they decided that a candy tree was a perfect fit for a movie theatre. I was so excited to see our hard work out in public somewhere. It was definately a pleasant surprise. Well, the holidays are here and the girls home is doing all sorts of fun things to enjoy the season such as decorating, making gingerbread people, coloring christmas pages, and so much more. It's going to be a fun Christmas this year. I am going to be taking over Kat's role as president in our student council when she leaves on Friday the tenth. I'm going to miss her more than words can describe...but I know she's happy and she's going to be successful in whatever she does outside of Cedar Ridge if she continues to apply what she has learned and gained here. I know she will. I wish she could stay, but this is only a small fraction of her life and it's time for her to move on, like other past Cedar Ridge graduates. It really gets me thinking about this place and how it's so full of love and healing and how I'm so grateful to be here and have this experience. I know Kat is too. Well, enough blabbing, we'll miss Kat and I'll update you guys sometime next week. Bye.

Hey everyone! It's Kat. Well like Jamie said I'm leaving on Friday so this will be my last blog post. I've really enjoyed student council and all of the opportunities it has given me. I'm going to miss all of the students and staff here and am so grateful for the support they have given me. I'm excited for the next chapter of my life and the journey ahead of me. Stick in there parents, the end is worth all of the hard work. I wish the best for all of you. Wish me luck!

What's up? It's Walt; I haven't posted in a while. Figured I'd post something about the boarding school since I'm the representative over there. I believe since my last post, we've gained about 3 students; two that were originally on the RTC side of campus and one that came straight from home. We now had staff on the weekends and things seem to be falling into place more. We've had a lot more rules put in place since we've started but a lot of them are there because of our actions. Anyways, the overall vibe is going great and I know for myself, I'm excelling by a far amount with my school items. I haven't been on since around Halloween time so I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving; I know we did!

Turkey day!!!

Hey Guys! Happy belated Thanksgiving, y'all! I never thought that being in Cedar Ridge for Thanksgiving could be as much fun as it was! Wednesday night, all of the Boys that were still on campus were moved into the Aspen home until Monday, so that more staff could have time off. I thought it would be an insane torture pit for the staff and students, but it was surprisingly relaxed and fun. Thanksgiving day we took the meals for the day into the big dome, fired up the heating pans and projector, and spent the whole day watching football and movies and pigging out on the amazing food. I swear there wasn't anyone that night that didnt have a stomach ache and 10 more pounds around the belly :) The rest of the weekend was normal.... well as normal as was possible with 16 boys in the same home. It was really awesome hanging out with the guys from the other home that we almost never see. It was nothing compared to being with my family, but it was an overall good weekend!

--Ryan

The Night of Candy Trees

Preparing for the show.

Brendan unloading the amazing sugar tree!

The making of our ginormous candy treats.

Jake, I know you're hungry, but there is NO way you can eat all that candy.

Nisty with her gigantohugemongous lollipop.

Now that's what I call a Max Impact candy neckelace.

The product of our talented (and slightly ADD) high levels!

comments on how we're doing from you parents would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

--Ryan

Christmas is a' Comin!

Hey it's Jamie. Well this last week was pretty busy. We had volleyball, tree trimming, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember (oops...). So the tree trimming was fun. Last Friday all the high levels on campus got together for a co-ed tree trimming. This year we're donating a tree to the Roosevelt Enchanted Forest to be auctioned off and raise money for charity. The theme is candy, so we made all sorts of fake candy and put some real candy on a sparkly white tree. At the end of the activity, there wasn't much time left to actually decorate it so it ended up looking a bit bare. It had the right idea, just not how we pictured it. So, that Sunday Kat, Darline, and I went over to the big dome to critique the tree and decide what we were going to do with it. The final decision was to re-decorate the tree and add more to it. Basically all Sunday the girls home workled on making more stuff for it and it ended up looking great. The student council is going to set it up on Wednesday and hopefully it'll get bought. We'll get plenty of pictures of it so I can show you guys. Well, yeah. Oh yeah, and the volleyball team won last week!! We one of our games (the first two games out of a possible three) and got a treat of ice cream at Rocky's. All of the girls were really anxious and excited considering we don't normally win. This is the second time we've won this season so Christine has had to take another look at her bargain of ice cream if we win :P. I know we'll win another game this Thursday, so wish us luck!!! Bye.

STAR reading program

Every Thursday, a group of seven kids from Cedar Ridge Academy leave campus at 10:30 to be at Roosevelt Middle School at 10:45. We help a group of kids who stuggle with reading, and read below their actual reading level. We go over a number of things to help their comprehension, ability to read the words (fluency) and ability to know the vocabulary they are reading. I really enjoy this, because I love kids. I love the atmosphere that they spread throughout the class room and their different personalities. We also get to play math games with them, which is a struggle for me because math is a weak point. So, regardless of who you are you are learning something. Cedar Ridge will be doing this for the whole school year, so everyone can have the experience.

-Lettuce

Cedar Ridge Life

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since we've blogged. There haven't really been too many things happening at the Ridge since Halloween, and things just started to pick up. For the past month and a half, Josh (the therapist) has been running a small group on Monday mornings with the sole purpose of making an incredible zombie movie and we just finished shooting! The students who starred in the film will recieve a copy of the movie after it is finished getting edited, and we might put it on the blog. No guarantees. Oh, and on the subject of Josh Miller, he's leaving us! :-( I don't know about you guys, but I know this news is very upsetting for me. Josh is awesome! I'm sure gonna miss him, and he's not even my therapist! We have quite a few students leaving us as well, either to the transitional boarding school (www.cedarridgeacademy.net), or home. I'm gonna miss everyone who is leaving and wish them best of luck going home! See you guys l8r!

--Ryan

Halloween Carnival Fun and Clean Up

Nicolette swabbin' the deck.

Uhh... Kat...? Why is Jamie's voice coming from your vacuum bag?

Walter letting out the destructive beast in him

I know they're called goldfish, but you really shouldn't eat them.

I've heard of bobbing for apples, but bobbing for fish? Really?

Looking at that food is making me hungry!

Behold, the great bust of Walter! (sculpted by Michelangelo)

Only at a carnival can eating food be this much fun :)

P.S. Any comments that you feel like giving on any blog post would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks!

Hey everyone it's Kat. Things have been pretty busy here at CRA for the past few days. As most of you know seminar was on thursday and friday of last week so those of us whose parents didn't come worked in the kitchen, helped set things up, and did some school. It was nice getting to see everyone's parents it and looked like everyone was enjoying themselves. Yesterday was Halloween, and we enjoyed candy, watched Lord of the Rings (not to my liking), and just had fun. It was a healthy, sober Halloween. Well have a good week everyone, I'll update you guys in two weeks because I'm going on a home pass.

Hi it's Jamie. So it was just seminar and things were way busy (as Kat just said). I went on pass and had a good time and most of the other students did as well. Now everyone's back and trying to get back inthe seing of things, but we'll be there in no time. This week the volleyball team refs the other games so nothing to exciting with that other than getting to have one of those sweet whistles (maybe I just get excited about that...oh well). The children's books are finally DONE and we are just patiently waiting to go over to Neola and donate them. Our next project is making a candy themed tree to donate to and auction so that's going to be fun. I'm sure we're going to be getting a lot of picturese of this stuff on here soon so keep checking. Well, thats about it things are going great for me here and I hope you guys had a good time with your students!!

Hello there! My name is Jake and I am a student at the Cedar Ridge Academy new Boarding school. Seminar this past week went great, and I went on pass with my mom. We had a good time, and i got a debit card i can use to supply myself with food at the boarding school so I can cook! My halloween was a lot better than my last one, and it was good to be in a controlled sober environment. Me and Walt painted our faces and had a blast hanging out at the home. I hope you all had a good productive seminar!

Yo! It's Walt again. Things seem to be going in a really positive direction on campus over the few days since our last post. Jake and I are learning and working on structure for the boarding school, whether it's actual school or leisure life and the rest of campus had a successful seminar. Several kids went on off-campus passes and almost everyone's parents came out. It was great getting to talk with some of the parents, especially ones that have visited in the past since I get to update them with how I'm doing myself, lol. I was on pass with my parents over the 4-day weekend and while things weren't necessarily great, it was, overall, a productive pass. We're currently planning another co-ed activity for the high-levels so we're keeping busy. Overall, the campus has a pretty positive vibe and people, like me, who were struggling seem to be doing better. Maybe it was getting to see our parents or the excitement of seminar in the air... hopefully everyone had a great Halloween! Signing off...

Cedar Ridge Academy Coeds Make Treat Bags for Workshop Parents

For Red Ribbon Week, Cedar Ridge Academy Student Council sponsored a coed activity making treat bags for our parents coming to workshop.

Cedar Ridge Talent Show Pics

The boys came to watch.

The girls are ready for the show!

Student council, Ryan, Jamie, and Kat, ran the show.

Staff Travis played his keyboard and sang and inspirational song.

Kat performed solo for the first time since being enrolled.

Marilyn sang with all her heart.

Therapist Josh led an aboriginal bluegrass band routine.

Kelsey did both a song and a monologue.

Wes' daughter Devani performed her gymnastics floor routine.

Wes' son Chase showed us his moves, impromptu style.

Harry Potter and Malfoy

Staff Charlie was really amazing with a Randy Travis song on the guitar.

History teacher Kimberly Hawks and husband Brian crooned a duet.

Science teacher Chad Hamblin is probably the most widely talented staff on campus, or even in the entire Uintah Basin.