Thanksgiving

Ruth and I started Thanksgiving by joining a neighborhood "fun run" for the local Food Bank. What Ruth and I didn't know going into it was that the fun run was actually a 3 mile run, one and a half miles down, and then one and a half miles up. Undaunted, Ruth road her bike and I ran. We finished in a little over 45 minutes. It was a beautiful morning in the low 40's and it has just finished raining so the air was moist and cool. Although I was tired (and my legs ached the rest of the day) I was glad we did it.

We drove up to the farm where my parents live and spent Thanksgiving with them. All my other siblings had other obligations so we had the whole holiday to ourselves. We made a table cloth using block prints, then we went on a hike up the mountainside and the kids collected treasures. After a very nice dinner we wrapped up the evening cutting snowflakes to decorate my mother's house. It's a family tradition and every year we all try to out-do what was done the year before. While we were cutting snowflakes, Chuck set up the digital boxes on all their TVs. All-in-all a very fine and relaxed holiday.

Chaz and I cutting out snowflakes.














Grandma cutting Jared's favorite Thanksgiving food.















Jared and Ruth showing off the coolest thing they collected on their mountain walk - bones!















We would like to apologize to anyone who might be offended by our thanksgiving hats.


Black Friday

Yes, Chuck and I braved the black friday sales but we didn't get up until 8am. Off to Walmart we went and scrounged down some deals with the other thousand shoppers. By the time we got out of Walmart (unscathed I might add) we headed over to Target for one particular gift. Upon arrival we learned that the thing we were seeking were sold out. Disappointed we headed over to the Christmas tree area to buy a new tree (we tossed ours out last year "I'm not going to duct tape this thing again another year" I said in my wrath). As we wheeled our large tree box to the front to check out I saw an employed pulling a cart loaded with returns for restocking. Looking closely as we passed by I saw it! The thing that we wanted that was sold out. I chased the employee down through the crowd looking at $5 DVDs (pardon me, excuse me, pardon me), and finally getting the employee's attention asked if I could have something out of her cart. "Sure" she said "one less thing I have to shelve." Score!!!

Hair Cut

I got my bi-annual hair cut this week. The lady that does my hair always blows it straight to be sure she got everything even. This woman has some secret hero power with hair because I, for the life of me, can't ever get my hair to go this straight. Anyway, I'm including a picture for any that were wondering what I look like with straight hair.

Dear Edwina

All encompassing this week was the performance of Kaitlin's musical Dear Edwina. I served as stage manager, whose most important job was to change the 5 body microphones between the 15 kids who were using the mics for their musical numbers. After a rough start on opening night on Thursday, the kids really hit their stride on Fridays and Saturdays performances. It was really amazing, they seemed to improve exponentially with each show. I was so proud of all the kids (which I grew to think of as my own kids) and especially my own kid Kaitlin. I asked Chaz to help on Monday, as I had one scene change that required heavy lifting. He was good enough to come to every practice and performance.

Kaitlin wanted to add: "The shows were so much fun. It was very satisfying to perform after all our hard work. I really loved the people I was working with and now I'm totally sad because it is over. And my life is so boring now."

I don't yet have a DVD of the whole show, but Chuck was able to take a few short clips of a few of the songs that Kaitlin sang and danced in. We were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Kathy and Amy come down to see the show. I posted a couple other videos (not included in these compilations) on my Facebook page.

Here are Chaz and Kaitlin back stage.

Kaitlin (on the left in the purple) is dancing with a boy named Dion in the song "Put it in the Piggy."

"Wait one more second, I'm almost ready!" That is what Kaitlin thinks this picture looks like. Really it is her singing in "RSVP."

A cast photo. Kaitlin is in the center in the green.

We all had a great time!

Archie's Angel

After musical practice on Tuesday Kaitlin and I rushed over to the store to get the new David Archuleta album. Kaitlin was so excited she speed walked down the isle and snatched one off the display. She clutched it to her chest as we stood to check out and barely was able to part with it to have the cashier scan it. I swear her hands were shaking as she fumbled with the plastic wrapping in the car. When we arrived home Kaitlin refused to leave the car, locking herself in. From what I've heard of it it seems like a pretty good album (there were even some songs I liked). You can read more about this on Kaitlin's blog (link to the right - if you need to be invited email me or leave a comment and I'll let her know).

Twilight Cram

Kaitlin took a break from the Archuleta overdose to read Twilight. On Saturday afternoon she disappeared. After an hour or so I went looking for her expecting her to be taking a nap or something and I found her with my copy of Twilight. She read the whole book that day, finishing late in the night. I guess she liked it. (She also reads much faster than me evidently because it took me 3 days to read the book and I felt like I read it non-stop).

Dear Edwina Coming this Thursday-Saturday!

Dress rehearsals start for Dear Edwina on Monday and opening night is Thursday at 7:00pm. It will be a very busy week for us! Everyone is invited, $5 at the door. Come watch Kaitlin sing and dance, and watch me move a table and some boxes.

Chaz gives up the Shag Hair

Yes it's true, we have prevailed upon Chaz to give up his dreams of shaggy skater hair. I cut his hair on Saturday and it looks much better (at least I think so). Chaz has the thickest wavy hair I have ever seen. If he were a girl he would be the envy of all his friends, but for a boy, it just didn't lay down over his ears, it stuck out everywhere all the time. Sorry Chaz - it's the missionary cut for you.

Lego Batman

Jared and Ruth are off-track. We have enjoyed spending many hours playing the Lego Batman PC game together. In fact I think Jared and Ruth would play all day if I let them. Usually when they start fighting with each other I know it's time for them to take a break and do something else.

Hard Drive Attack! Emergency Transplant Preformed!

It's true. Our main computer's hard drive died this week. Chuck got a new one and he has spent all weekend transporting our files from the old drive to the new one. Our new hard drive is 500 Gig. That is really amazing considering the computer I had when we were first married was not quite 1 Gig.

Dear Edwina

Kaitlin's musical practices are in full swing with less then two weeks to go until her opening night. She has made a lot of friends and is really loving doing the show. It looks like I have a thespian on my hands. My role as stage manager has also gotten busier as I'm now required at all the practices and I'm trying to work out the sound design. It is a real challenge working with middle school students who all seem to have a very short attention span. But when I step back and remind myself that these kids are just 12-14 years old, it really is amazing that they are doing so well.

New Year Celebration

Chuck and Chaz got to be part of the making of the New Year Celebration video that the church is making to be shown all the youth groups around the world this coming new years. They said it was a really amazing experience. The filming was held at the Conference Center which seats around 21,000 and it was totally full of teenagers. The show included music, speakers and dancing. The video will be free to watch online starting in the new year but don't count on seeing Chaz, he was in the nosebleed section.

Reflection's Video

Ruth and Jared turned in their Reflections entries this week. Ruth entered a video, photo and artwork. Jared entered a song (that he sang himself), photo and artwork. I've shrunk down Ruth's video here. As always, a lot of quality is lost when shrinking videos but you should get the gist of it.

This week Mom is not feeling like doing the blog so Chaz and me, Kaitlin, are doing the blog,on a deal that Mom gets to review and edit before we can publish it.

Halloween Festivities

Kaitlin: On Friday Chaz and I had no school because of the end of 1st quarter. So, I went with Mom and Dad to see the elementary school Halloween parade. Jared's kindergarten class was right on time, but everybody else in the school was about half an hour late. I chatted with some friends and then went to join Mom. There were 17 Hannah Montanas and about 40 Indiana Jones.

Chaz: What are we going to type now?

Kaitlin: I dunno. What else have we done all last week? Your line.

Chaz: Whats my line? Don't type that. HaHAHAHa.

Kaitlin: Well, we carved pumpkins. You tell me what to type.

Chaz: UMMM....I think the pumpkins were very good this year. I especially liked my Indiana Jones duck pumpkin.

Kaitlin: So, tell the people what we carved in the pumpkins.Or about the size of the pumpkins. anything will work as long as it amuses the masses.

Chaz: Well. Me personally. On Halloween. I tried to watch all the Harry Potter movies. (distracted)

Kaitlin: I will take over now. I carved a Mickey Mouse pumpkin and then Ruth carved a Minnie. Jared did a Gromit and then added some shapes on the side of his. Chaz did a classic cartoon he draws in his boring classes at school, but the pumpkin was small and it didn't work out. in all they are very cute. Chaz left around 9 to go watch a HP marathon with his friend Spencer and didn't come home till eleven. Jared and Ruth and Dad went trick-or-treating and so it was kinda a Mom and Kaitlin evening. We sat in the front room and played 10 rounds of Boggle and answered the door. It was fun. The End.

My name is Becky and I approve this message.

Becky: I wanted to add that Kaitlin has started her own blog on the agreement that it be invited readers only. She has already invited some of you. If you haven't received an invitation, Kaitlin would be happy to add you (as long as you aren't a stalker she said). Just email or post a comment here if you are interested.