Happy Birthday Chuck

Now that school has started we are getting back into a routine here at our house.  Ruth and Jared are both liking school so far and things are going well.   Ruth was invited to homecoming (which is a relief because it not being invited was getting stressful) and Jared has decided to audition for a youth orchestra and has been practicing his audition piece. I've been taking advantage of having some free time before I go back to work in a couple weeks by sewing a new project.

The extra special thing we did this week was celebrate Chuck's birthday.  We had pizza and homemade cinnamon rolls and then spent the rest of the evening resting and playing video games (Chuck's choice).  

Solar Eclipse

Like the rest of the mid-US we were excited for the mostly solar eclipse.  We weren't as excited as some people because we failed to get solar glasses before they sold out.  But I'm almost glad we didn't because it was pretty fun to hang out in the back yard and make pin-hole projectors using a colander, our hands, hair, trees and whatever else we could figure out.


First Day of School

I failed at getting a first day of school picture of the kids so you'll just have to trust me when I say that they did, in fact, start school.  Ruth is pretty happy about all of her classes, and Jared is only excited about band.


Scavenger Hunt and Renaissance Fair

On Friday night we dressed up as Harry Potter characters and participated in a scavenger hunt to win comic-con tickets (yes, we already have some but that's beside the point).   We checked our team in and were given clues to 10 locations around the city.  So for the next hour and half, we walked all around downtown looking for the clues and taking pictures at each place.  It was fun because there were a couple hundred of us all in costume playing, so we'd just ask other players when we got stuck on particular clues.   We were pretty exhausted and running out of time so we jumped in our car to get our last two clues and then made it back with 5-10 minutes to spare winning the tickets.   Go team!

The next morning we dressed up again, this time in our old-fashioned clothes to attend the Renisance Faire.  This event's been going on for a few years but we've never been able to go.  It was pretty fun. We saw lots of craftsmen and dancers,  I had a swordfight with a Viking, and Ruth had a dancing lion vomit lettuce in her face.  There was a scary moment when one of lancers lost control of his horse and was thrown into the audience, luckily no one was hurt.   All-in-all a pretty fun day even though we were hot and exhausted from the escapades from the night before.

Stake Choir

Saturday night my smaller choir performed for the adult meeting of our church conference.  I didn't have as many sopranoes as I wanted, but overall that performance went well.   Sunday morning was our big conference and my choir sang two numbers.  They but turned out really well and I was happy with them.  I had chosen some very difficult music this year and was happy that my choir stepped up to the challenge.

This was like the 3rd day of school, but at least I got a picture.  Jared refused to get his picture taken. 

Chuck and Ruth playing Viking games at the faire.

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Our cousin Ben got back from Germany!

Gearing up for Back to School

Ruth got laid off her job this week.  The heating and air company she worked for decided to pull all of their salesmen out of the Lowes stores and go to phone solicitations only.  Ruth wasn't that sad about the layoff but she will miss the paycheck.  In a way she is relieved to not have a work obligation with school starting next week, she can focus on the new school year and the debate team without distractions.

I spent a couple days this week volunteering with the high school PTA getting all students pictures taken and ID's issued.  The high school here is super overcrowded. The sophomore class is something like 1100 students.  They've started building a new high school that will open in two years.

Almost two years ago I started taking over the music room with all my cosplay stuff.  As my collection grew the music stuff got squeezed out more and more until finally the drums were moved to the exercise room and the keyboard to Jared's room.   Jared's spent hours a day all summer practicing drums, guitar, and bass in the exercise room.  As his collection of instruments grew, he started to feel really squeezed in his space. So finally this week Jared moved all the stuff out of the exercise room and declared it his room.  (Sorry Kaitlin, next time you and Ben come you'll have to sleep next to the treadmill.)

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Lazy Summer Continued

Things are still really quiet at our house. Last weekend Kaitlin and Ben came down for a couple days for a friend's wedding and we enjoyed visiting with them.  We got Kaitlin hooked on watching the Great British Baking Show while she was here.

This week we did some school shopping for Jared. He's grown several inches over the summer so was in need of new clothes and shoes. He wouldn't let me take a picture of him but here is a selfie of me and Ruth with the Target dog.   Jared is quite label and fashion conscious in addition to being in that in-between size, clothes can be quite tricky to find.

Ruth's been busy with work and spending time with friends.  She did a yard sale fundraiser with her debate team a few weeks ago and has done some volunteering with the city youth council.  Last night she spent several hours volunteering as a parking attendant at the city's Endurocross event. She had thrown her hat in the ring to be youth council mayor next year - so we'll see what happens with that.

 Chuck and I went on a date this weekend, out to dinner and then to watch the practice rides at the Endurocross. (The Endurocross is held at our rodeo grounds - it's where they set up a track of obstacles for dirt bikes to traverse).   We drove our motorcycles on the date which made it extra fun.

I've mechanized the wings on my Pharah cospay this week.  This required that I totally redesign the backpack to cover the linear actuator that I installed. It's taken a little doing but it's all working now, so just a few finishing touches and it will be finished. I'll post a video.

Lazy Summer

I didn't post last week because our lives have been pretty non-eventful.  All of our big summer things are done and we've been just sleeping in and hanging around the house, except for Chuck who still has to work.  Ruth has also been putting 15-10 hours in at her job, Jared has been making YouTube videos and playing the drums, and I've been playing Overwatch on the Xbox.  It's just lazy days for us.

Gaming Con

Last weekend was Gaming Con and my maiden voyage with Pharah.  I've been working on Pharah for over a year now and I was excited to get her out there and seen.    When I started working on Pharah the video game Overwatch had only been out a couple of months, what I didn't know then is that Overwatch would remain the #1 game for the next year, and when I went to gaming con that some voice actors from Overwatch would be the main guests. So not only was the suit a success but the timing was perfect.   I was out in the parkinglot putting on the suit and someone yelled out "Pharah!"  That was only with the legs on, so the Gaming Con crowd recognized and appreciated Pharah.

After a photo shoot with other Overwatch cosplayers they said the Overwatch voice actors wanted to meet us, so we were escorted to their autograph tables.   They were really nice and took pictures with us.  I even got tweeted!

Chuck went with me and helped me all day because I can't really function in the suit.  I can walk really well, but I can't handle things and manage the helmet and rocketlauncher very well.   He was super kind and patient with me all day as I was stopped over and over for pictures.  I couldn't have done it without him.

This was my first time competing at the Masters level.  The competition went pretty well.  I had a few technical difficulties; there were a few kinks I'll have to work out before the next con, but over all it went okay.   I won the Master's division, but not Best in Show.    Still a good win and mostly I was thrilled with how the day went.


Meet Link and Peaches

Link (above with Jared) and Peaches (with Ruth) are sisters and they are around 8 weeks old.  They are a lionhead/lop eared mix.  We adopted them on Friday after Chuck spent a few days earlier in the week painting the hutch and getting everything ready for the new arrivals.

Family Reunion

In spite of being burned out of our first location, my sister was able to find a second location on very short notice and we had a fun family reunion with my siblings and their families. We had a lot of fun evening activities with skits and games (I don't have any pics of those).   Here are some pictures from our outdoor adventures:

We spent one morning at a pioneer museum.

The water was so cold that it numbed our feet. 

This hike up Kannara Creek Canyon was the most fun hike I've ever done. 

Beside the waterfall was this death ladder you had to traverse. 

We saw some dinosaur prints.  It was super hot.

Spending an evening hearing stories from grandma.  I learned a few things I didn't know.

Trek

We had to leave the family reunion a day early so our kids could go on a Pioneer Trek with our church youth group.  They only get one chance to do this every 4 years so we didn't want them to miss out.  They both said it was okay but they didn't love it.

Jared front right.

Ruth on the back 3rd from the left. 

Happy Late Aniversary

Chuck and my 19th anniversary kind of got lost in all the wedding planning. So the day we sent the kids on Trek we took advantage of the alone time and spent the day at a fun center driving go-carts and playing mini golf  (not to brag but I did get the highest score on my laser tag team) :)