Big Beginnings

Ruth sang in her first choir concert this week at the middle school.  There were 160 kids in her beginning choir. No really, there were really that many.  There was also a beginning orchestra and a band, both so large that they filled the entire stage, easily 80+ kids each.  We take music seriously in our town!

Denner

Jared's been put in as the leader of his Webelo den in Cub scouts.  He gets to wear the "denner cords" to show his new position. His new responsibility include organizing the flag ceremonies and giving other assignments to the boys. He is also supposed to help set up and clean up activities, visit new scouts and remind scouts about meetings.



Communal Shoes

It all started when Kaitlin discovered that she could wear Jared's shoes and started wearing them to school, or maybe it started before that, when Kaitlin and Ruth started sharing shoes.  Either way, it all kind of surfaced a few weeks ago when I had a $10 off a $25 purchase coupon to the shoe store, but only $20 worth of shoes to buy.  Both Jared and Ruth were clamoring that they should get to buy an additional pair of shoes.  What's a mother to do?   And so the communal shoes were born.  Together, Ruth and Jared picked out a pair of shoes they both liked and they were dubbed the "communal" shoes.  These shoes belong to everyone and no one and are in high demand. The only problem is, who gets to keep them in their room?  So they often sit in "neutral" territory between the two rooms.

Mustang Award

Kaitlin and Mr. Fletcher (right)

I forgot to blog a couple weeks ago about Kaitlin being awarded the Mustang Award at her school. She was the student of the month and was given the award for exhibiting excellent character.  She was nominated by her AP Spanish teacher who stood up and gave a speech about why he nominated her.  It was very nice, at least I'm guessing it was, because he gave the speech in Spanish! They served us a breakfast after the awards (the ceremony was held before school) and between bites Kaitlin translated what he had said for me.  He had talked about the moment a concept  had 'clicked' for her and how, at that moment, he felt that being a teacher had been worth it.   It's true.  A month or so prior, Kaitlin had come home from school so excited because she had finally understood a concept in Spanish that she had never understood before. Kaitlin has a real thirst to be fluent in the language, and perhaps it is that thirst that her teacher notices, because he often takes extra time to explain things to Kaitlin one-on-one, when the other kids are working on the assignments.  Of the ten kids in the AP class, only a few are non-native speakers, and of those there is only one other Junior. So while Kaitlin struggles, she also is always working so hard.   I am proud of Kaitlin, and so happy that she had gotten some recognition for her work.

I've been thinking of teachers lately.  I was so grateful for Mr. Fletcher taking the time to nominate Kaitlin for that award, and then last week I went with Kaitlin to a funeral for the mother of one of Kaitlin's long time friends, who died from brain tumors.  We counted three different teachers in attendance, and then another teacher sang and played the guitar.  How amazing that the teachers took personal time out of their lives to support a student like that.  I'm just so thankful for good teachers that sacrifice so much.

Kaitlin at BYU

Brigham Young University

Kaitlin spent this weekend with her cousin, Stacy, at BYU to get a tour and learn about college life.  She had a great time with her cousin but it was also really eye opening for her.  She's glad that she still has another year at home before considering going off to college.  It also gave her a chance to talk to Stacy about her major, as Stacy is graduating in Secondary Ed, which Kaitlin is considering as well.

I made this sign.  Those are cupcakes in the shape of the olympic rings. To the right you see our "torch". It had a fan and light in it,  so the Eagle scout could "light" it. 

Blue and Gold

Team Lime getting ready to start a relay.

Our big annual cub scout dinner was this week. We did an Olympic theme and we went all out on decorations and activities. Each family was a "team" and they competed in different events.  Jared named our team "The Lime" (we are not sure why) and we had a flag an everything. We got the gold medal in the tricycle race.   I was in charge of the rubber band gun shoot, and also all the Olympic music that we played loudly throughout the evening.  It turned out really cute. I've blogged more about it on my craft/scout blog. 

Rehearsals

Ruth has started rehearsals for You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Kaitlin had another dance clinic for Footloose. Kaitlin was less sore after this one, so her endurance is increasing.

Happy Valentines

Valentines is one bright light in an otherwise dull, long winter.  Jared made this cool valentines box, and came home with a box full of candy.  Chuck and I went out to dinner and then to a community theater show. The girls reported uneventful holidays, other than reporting frustration with all the smoochy couples at school.

Relatively Speaking

Kaitlin and I both spoke in church today.  Kaitlin spoke about conversion and I spoke about spiritual spinach.   While we spoke, Ruth and Jared drew pictures of us.  This is the picture Jared drew.  I guess he was sitting behind a tall man.


Ruth is a Hipster 

Yeah.

Singing and Dancing

Kaitlin's Choir

Kaitlin has been busy this week singing and dancing.  Kaitlin's choir put on a fundraiser concert, and she had another dance rehearsal for Footloose.  The Dance rehearsal has left her stiff and slow moving today, but she had a great time.

Ruth put in a lot of practice this week for her audition for You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.  Unfortunately, she didn't get a lead part, but she is still excited to start rehearsals on Tuesday.

Forever Lazy

We found a good deal on some Forever Lazy's and bought one for each member of the family. Kaitlin and Jared have worn them every day since.  Ruth, so far, refuses to wear hers.




 

Discovering Harry

Can you see the numbers on his hand?

This week I noticed numbers written across the back of Jared's hand.  When I asked him about it, he explained that he was reading Harry Potter at school, and then he would write the page number on his hand so he could keep reading when he got home.  I'm a bit jealous watching him discover the wonderful world of Harry Potter for the first time.


All the World's a Stage

The girls and I drove to see my nephew, Benjamin, perform in the Shakespearean play As You Like It.  The production was very good and we had a good time.  I love that my girls are learning to enjoy Shakespeare as much as I do.

I didn't take any pictures so that will have to do.

Three Dates

I mentioned a few posts back that Kaitlin has had her ups and downs with dating. A few months ago, after some frustrating experiences, Kaitlin swore off dating.  She even passed on a couple of girls choice dances, declaring them not worth the work. So imagine my surprise when Kaitlin came home last week to report that she had been asked out three times in one day, and then a couple of days later she was asked a fourth time.  So this weekend she went on 3 dates, one on Friday and two on Saturday.  She reported to me later that going on three dates in 30 hours was fun, but she never wanted to do it again because it was exhausting. 


End of the Road

On Monday we went with Ruth to the regional Reflections, but Ruth didn't win. It's the end of the road for all our Reflections this year.


Thawing

After six weeks in below freezing temperatures we enjoyed our first day in the forties.  The sun came out and the snow started to melt.  All day I could hear the water trickling down the roof, and the house cracking; it was as if the whole house was sighing and stretching from a long sleep.


Scout Shirts

I started working on some scout shirts a couple months ago, but because of our never ending freezing temperatures I couldn't make any more.  So when it got warmer this week I started making shirts again.  I blogged about my process here.

I made this logo for my Webelos. Cool, hu?

Ticket to Ride

So happy to be on an adventure!

There were fish in the middle of the mall.

Long winters do crazy things to the psyche. On Saturday we knew we had to get out of the house. Jared was shut up in his room singing gibberish at the top of his lungs, and Ruth was on her third or fourth hour of screen time.  It was another cold day and we were packed into fog that left only about fifty yards of visibility in every direction.  So we bundled up and headed for the new Trax line that is only ten minutes from our house.  The kids were not too thrilled about the adventure at first but they warmed up to it as we went.  We rode downtown and visited the new City Creek mall, that literally has a creek running down the middle of it, complete with fish, and a dancing fountain.