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.

Three Videos

It's video night at the Family Circus blog.

1)Ruth Soccer Wizard...Yanni Style

Here are some highlights from Ruth's last soccer game.




2)Chaz's Band Concert

Here is a short segment of Chaz's last band concert. This will be his last performance on the French Horn as he is switching to trumpet from now on.




3)A Mouse in the House!

Chaz yelled from the bathroom today that there was a mouse in the bathtub. Chuck and I said simultaneously "a real one?" Listen closely and you will hear both Ruth and Jared begging Chuck to let them keep the mouse as a pet. Chuck then tells them that the mouse is "cat food."

Vakama Toa of Fire


I mentioned a few weeks ago that Jared wanted to be a Bionicle for Halloween. Well, I've been working feverishly on a costume for him. It was a fun challenge.



On Saturday Vakama Toa of Fire made is debut at our city's Pumpkin Festival. He entered the cotume contest. Unfortunately he didn't win (mostly store purchased costumes won in his category) but Jared still had fun. I, however, felt a bit robbed. After all that work to lose out to some kangaroo a mom bought at Costco was discouraging. Oh well.
























Primary Program


Today was my the Primary Sunday program at our church. 140 children sang and said lines for a 45 minute presentation. The whole thing went pretty smoothly. I had designed a system where children spoke at four different microphones. It all went well in practice, but during the performance the sound system started a loud hum, then the hand held mic I was holding went dead. I was on one side of the stand, and the mic was plugged in at the other side. So I dashed out the side door, ran around the whole chapel, entered in at the other side door and then went on the stand, crawling under the sacrament table in my dress to unplug the mic. It caused a bit of a commotion, but as soon as the mic was unplugged the humming stopped and the program continued uninterrupted.

After the program I was lamenting that we had had that problem. The technical aspect of the presentation was my job and I had felt as if I had blown it. Chuck cheered me up by telling me that everyone in the congregation had watched me jump up and fumble around under the table and then the loud humming (not feedback but static) stopped. He said that noone looked at me as if I had failed, but saw that I was so smart and capable that I was able to immediately act and correct the problem. So I ended up looking good... yeah... I meant for that to happen like that... yeah.

All in all, the program was a big success. Both Ruth and Jared had parts and they did a great job and they sang really well too.

Whew! I went home after church and took a nap.

One Night - Video

Today Ruth asked to see the movie we made last summer for a family reunion. We laughed as we rewatched it. I was amazed at how much the children have grown in just a year, especially Chaz. I've shrunk the file way down so you can view it. It looks a lot better on a bigger screen but you will get the gist of it.

Snow!

We woke up this morning to snow. Even now as I'm writing the snow is coming down. I'm not ready for winter. Ruth and Jared are excited though. This morning they were out playing in the snow. When Ruth came in she reported that the best tasting snow was on Chuck's truck. Yum!

Tomatoes

Have you ever heard that folk song about home grown tomatoes? It says something like "the only two things that money can't buy is true love and home grown tomatoes." In anticipation of the coming freeze and snow we stripped our tomato plant of all red tomatoes. I had enough to can 15 pints of crushed tomatoes. Oh they will taste good in spaghetti sauce this winter, but I will miss the sliced tomatoes with Italian dressing and feta for lunch. I haven't given up yet though, Utah is known for it's Indian Summers, so I've thrown a blanket over the tomato plants in hopes of squeezing out a few more weeks of those fresh tomatoes.

Learning to Speak Mom's Language

So this week I had plans to go out to dinner with some girl friends. I was talking on the phone while with one of these friends discussing where we wanted to eat. I asked her if she had any coupons and I checked mine and then we decided on a place. When I hung up the phone I found Jared with all my coupons out on the counter and a pen in his hand. He had written on the calender "Jared mom go artic cir." He then held up a coupon that he had found for the local burger joint and told me that he had found a good coupon so that we could go out to lunch together. See how well he listens to my phone conversations?? Looking into his expectant shiny eyes made my heart melt, and so on Thursday we went on a Mother/Son outing for ice cream at the Arctic Circle.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

In honor of her birthday Ruth wanted to write something on the blog this week:

Ruth: I WANT A E-MALL it was fun i got beads and bunnys and i had a b-day party i got enchanted move and a jernal it was fun love'ruth ;]

(Yes it is true, Ruth has been begging for her own email account and I haven't relented yet. I'm sure she will wear me down eventually.)

Ruth had a princess party that included making necklaces and going on a treasure hunt.


Kaitlin's Play

Kaitlin continues to practice for her Jr. High Musical, Dear Edwina, and she is having a great time. The dates for the musical have changed to November 20-22.

I've volunteered to be the Stage Manager for the show. I'm glad that I'm a stay-home Mom and have time to give to the school and the kids.

A note from Kaitlin: "Sometimes it get's annoying because the songs get stuck in your head and they play over and over and over and over and over until you go insane."


Conference weekend

On Saturday we went to our Grandma Snow's house for my great-niece's baby blessing (like a christening). We were able to visit with many of our family there and ate a lot of good food.

Twice a year all Mormons get to stay home from their regular church meetings and watch the Prophet and other leaders of our church speak. We call this General Conference. In Utah we get to watch this on TV in our very own living rooms! In Conference this year we heard a lot about trials and how the Savior will help us through them, and families and unity.

Here is a picture of the kids watching Conference.

Here is a picture Jared drew. It is him standing by the trampoline.