Serenade

Kaitlin getting sung to.

We started our week with Kaitlin being serenaded at our doorstep by a group of boys. Ben was singing and playing the guitar, inviting Kaitlin to prom. Kaitlin was excited.  Later in the week she said "yes" by decorating Ben's room with snowflakes.

Over the weekend, Kaitlin went to Snow College to attend a program they have for prospective students called Snow Blast.  She had a good time overall, but was a disappointed by the music and atmosphere at the dance they put on.  I was proud that I raised a daughter that has such high standards.

We've been working on Kaitlin's prom dress for awhile. For months she's been saying that she wants a Disney princess dress and she decided on the one from Tangled.  I found an old wedding dress at the thrift store for $6 that I dyed purple. This week we started work on the bodice for that dress. Kaitlin is doing as much of the sewing as I will let her.


Stake Conference

Always a great view from the choir seats

Twice a year our congregation meets together with other congregations in the area for one big meeting.  This year we were lucky enough to have L. Tom Perry, a member of the Twelve Apostles, that leads the whole LDS church, come and visit with us. We had a great couple of meetings with him and I was able to sing in the choir.  Our Stake (that's our group of congregations) was divided into two, since this area has grown so large.  The meetings were so well attended that many people were left sitting in the hallways or standing at the back, that was even with the meeting being broadcast to three other buildings.

Can We Fix It?

Chuck has been busy with projects lately. Last weekend our washing machine stopped turning. While I took eight loads to the laundromat, Chuck diagnosed the problem and ordered the part.  By the end of the week the part came, and after a few hours of work Chuck got the washer working again!  He also took his motorcycle's front tire in to get it fixed.  I took this picture to show you how he works on his motorcycle.

Solo and Ensemble

I mentioned last week that Kaitlin had been working hard preparing a solo for judging. She was nervous going in.  The scoring is 1-5, 1 being the best. Kaitlin said if she came out with a 3 she would be happy.   She must have done better than that because she got a 1-, which qualifies her to go on to regional competition.  Her ensemble got a 2+.

Sweethearts Dance

Sweethearts is a girls choice dance, and Kaitlin and her friend Susan hosted the date and dinner here at our house.  In the afternoon the couples went to the Frozen Sing-Along.  Ruth and I have wanted to go to that too, so we went as well, but sat on a different row from them.  You would think that Kaitlin would hate her mom going to the same movie as her date, but she didn't. In face she and Ben ran over to get into this selfie I was taking with Ruth.   In the evening the couples ate pancakes at our house before going to the dance. They seemed to have a nice time.

Kaitlin and Ben

Taft, Susan, Kaitlin and Ben

Honk Jr.

Ruth approached her auditions for the school musical a little bit different this year.  Instead of going for the lead part she actually wanted, she decided to go all out for a smaller part, one that she would be happy with, if she got.  When call backs came, there were seven girls called back for the lead part, but only two called back for the smaller part Ruth was going for. While we'll never know if Ruth would have gotten the lead, Ruth did get the smaller part, which offers a duet with a boy, 10 lines of dialogue and a death scene. She started rehearsals last week.  The show will be the April 9-11.


Singing

Evacuated into the cold.

Kaitlin's choir performed a concert this past week.  They tried some new things with lights and special effects.  The fog filling the stage was really cool looking until the fire alarms went off and we were all forced to evacuate into the freezing night.  The poor choir kids were all without jackets, so they stood and shivered. Luckily it wasn't that long until we were let back in to continue the concert.

Kaitlin has also been practicing Solo and Ensemble next week. She'll be singing a solo in front of some judges and then they will give her scores and feedback. She's pretty nervous about it.


School Stuff

Jared is back at school now, and started this term by dressing up like a fur trapper and giving an oral report. We got final word that Jared will be moving to a new elementary school that they are building not far from our house.  It will be his first and last year at the new school.

We registered Ruth for high school this week. It's the first time she's really had to make decisions about what direction she wants her future to take.  She's decided to move into the honors program and signed up for her first AP class. She also decided to take Spanish as her foreign language.   She and I sat down with her school counselor this week where they told us that Ruth had earned the highest score in the school, tying with another boy, on an ACT pre-test.  There are over 400 kids in her grade.  That really shocked us.  We knew that Ruth was smart, but we didn't ever think of her as being super smart like that.



Changes

At church I've stepped down as a Cub Scout leader.  Jared is done in Cub Scouts, and so am I.  I will still be working at the district level for the next few months, but I've given notice there as well.  I still have my job as the church choir director and I'll focus on that for now, until they give me something more to do.

Chuck's gone through a little re-organization at work that has changed his job responsibilities and shifted his desk a few feet.  He's leaving project management behind and will now be doing more research. His new group is called "Insights" where he'll be looking at trends and tracking progress in the company. He is mostly happy with the changes.