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...