A while ago Ruth was recruited to participate in an Ethics Case Competition. This week she met with her team and they worked together making a business presentation. She was very excited and surprised when their team got third place, as they were mostly freshman and sophomores and were competing against upperclassmen. One judge told them that it was Ruth's powerpoint (which was amazing) that put them over the top.  Ruth really enjoyed doing a competition again, as she has missed it.  She also did another presentation about cosplay in one of her classes where she received a lot of praise on her powerpoint and speech.  Debate has really given her a lot of skills that are transferring well into the business realm

We had our first snow day in recent memory this week.  Ironically, there wasn't an overly abundant amount of snow, only six inches in our area, but other areas in the valley had much more and there was also ice.  Ruth and Jared and I all got the day off and spent it lazing around the house.

This week we also started registering Jared for school next year. Because his high school is new and not open yet, it's been a rudimentary process involving checking boxes on paper forms. We are not sure what will happen with the new band and everything, so right now Jared is just signed up for the grade level band and we'll just have to see how all that pans out.

Link and Peaches are snuggled warm in their hutch.

Last Saturday Ruth, Chuck, and I marched in the 3rd Anual Women's march at the state capitol. The speakers were pretty good and the weather wasn't too cold.  Ruth had just finished reading Michelle Obama's book and she made a poster with one of her favorite quotes for the march.

Kensington Singers started up again after a two year hiatus.   It's so satisfying to be singing with these talented group of individuals again. I've looked into joining several choirs this past year but didn't find one that met my needs.  There is something about singing at this level that is food for the soul.

Jared had a few successes this week and so we offered to take him out to dinner to celebrate.  Jared requested my taco salad instead which I happily made for him. (He is such a quiet and reserved kid and I'm doing my best to meet him right where he is at - which sometimes is a challenge for extroverted me.)   Here is what we were celebrating: 

1. Jared finished driver's ed, all his ranges, and passed his driver's test on the first try.  He has about 10 more driving hours to log and then he will be ready to get his license.   That means we'll probably be in the market for a new "starter" car for him this summer.

2. Jared finished the semester with good grades. I never have to remind or nag him about school and he finished with a certificate of "competency" in CAD architecture. If you want to know the measurements of a standard door or hallway, Jared's your man.

3. Jared sold his first song.  I think I've mentioned that Jared writes and posts music online.  He has had some attention lately, and this week someone bought one of his beat tracks for a couple hundred dollars. Yeah, you read that right.   We had to do quick research on contracts and money transfers and all that. Jared had now made more money making music than anyone else in the family. :)

Other News not Jared Centric

Ruth started her new marketing internship at the business college and she really likes it.  She gets to design for their website and also for the informational TV's that are all around campus.  The only downside is the hour-long commute to and from.

I designed and built a new spray paint box.  This one hooks up to our garage vac.  Hopefully, it will reduce the amount of spray paint dust that covers everything out there.   I also started some new hours at my job, working two full days rather than 4 afternoons, which I like much better. Though I do find that I'm really tired after teaching 6 classes. 

December in Pictures

For the three of you that still read this blog occasionally, here are our highlights from December. 

Our washer broke down the first week of December. When we bought a new one they told us that they could not deliver until the end of the month. So Chuck and I strapped it down to our motorcycle trailer and Chuck spent the afternoon installing it himself. 

The first Saturday in December was my second time volunteering at Ignite, Encircle's yearly LGBTQ youth summit.  

Jared played in his band's Christmas concert.

I spent a Saturday with HEROIC volunteering at a Christmas party for endangered kids. This was my first trial run for Hippolyta. 

Jared turned 16!  We celebrated by having bacon pizza and then hanging around the house (that's what Jared said he wanted to do). Jared also went on several drives for Driver's Ed this month. 

We were super excited to have Kate and Ben with us over Christmas. We did so many fun things!  Here we are painting this year's Christmas ornaments. 

For this year's family ornament, I 3D printed a pokemon for each person and then we painted them. 

Some of the fun things we did is walked around Ikea, played some games, played the bells together, and we put together this gingerbread train. 

Our dramatic production this Christmas Eve was a reader's theater of The Christmas Carol. 

Every holiday includes making and eating good food. I'm not generally a traditionalist when it comes to holiday food choices but Kate wanted to bake a pie together and so we tried our hand at a new apple pie recipe.  It was the best apple pie I've ever eaten. (I'll link the recipe at the bottom of this post*). 

I didn't take any photos of Christmas day.  After opening presents, we played some games and went out Pokemon Go raiding.   The day after Christmas Kate and Ben went to spend some time with Ben's family and Ruth, Jared and I went to my family's Christmas party at my SIL's new house. 

It was so nice to visit with everyone. I got to hang out with some of my nieces and nephews that I rarely see and I got to meet two of their new babies - which was a treat. 

And a final note:  Quaid bought Ruth a video game called Red Dead Redemption 2. It's this amazing, totally immersive cowboy game.  It only took one playing session to have both Ruth and I hooked, so we've been spending every spare moment playing the game for the past 3 weeks.  We both finally finished today, new years Adam. 

*www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12682/apple-pie-by-grandma-ople/    We used Fuji apples - which were perfect. 

Note:  You may have noticed that I've been posting less often.  It's true.  After ten years of writing this blog really faithfully, my family has just shrunk to the size where I don't have as much to say.  So a bi-weekly format seems more fitting. 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We spent Thanksgiving day at my mother's house.  I had one sister and one brother there and their grown-up children and spouses, and Quaid came along with us again this year.   The food was good and the visit was nice.

That evening Kate and Ben came over and they spent the next day with us.  We went shopping and on Pokemon raids.   We cut snowflakes and chocolate dipped pretzels. It's such a fun stage for our family to have adult kids and no little ones; we are pretty free to come and go as we please.

November is here, the leaves are off the trees and the weather is getting cold.  The worst part, I think, is that it's dark so early and 5pm feels like 9pm.  Something in my primal DNA makes me want to build a pillow cacoon and sleep until spring. 

Jared and Ruth have both finished their first quarters at school. Both are doing well. Jared started driver's ed and finished his first range.  He is not super excited to drive but will drive if we ask him. Ruth went on a corporate tour she was excited about. It's fun to see her channel her passions into new things.

I've done two charity events with HEROIC, at one we were specifically asked to be Harry Potter characters,  the other was a Toys-for-Tots drive.  I've also finished most of my adjustments to Hypollita and Chuck put together some new shelves for my workshop.  Things are cleaned out there and ready for the next big project.

Riding the Hogwarts Express

It was raining and like 40 degrees so Hawkgirl's wings stayed in the car for our Toys-for-Tots drive.

New Shelves.  Always struggling to find enough room.

We had a pretty quiet Halloween.  A few days before, Chuck and I went to a trunk-or-treat & chili dinner.  We dressed like swashbucklers and while our car wasn't very decorated it did play "Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me," which people liked.

On actual Halloween, we didn't do much.  Chuck dressed as a pirate at work and Ruth had to work too.  I've been rushing for the last month to get my latest cosplay project finished by Halloween and I was able to finish by about 4pm Halloween day, but was so tired of looking at it by that point that I opted not to dress up at all.  Jared did homework and Chuck and I handed out candy and it was all good and fine.

A few days later I did put all of Hippotyla on, Wonder Woman's mother from the movie, and took some pictures.  There were some problems, as there always is with a first wearing, so I'll have a few more days of work on it.   But here are some preliminary photos:

Because Ruth's boyfriend has been pretty successful in his work for a political organization, Ruth has had the opportunity to attend several fancy functions, hobnobbing with various political and rich people.  This weekend she got to attend the Equality Utah Dinner, which was quite a fancy affair. She says she'll be glad next week when the election is over so she can get "her boyfriend back," as he has been working extra long hours.

Speaking of the election, we sat down and had an election night where we looked up info on all the candidates and filled out our ballots together.  Then we drove to drop off our ballots and play some Pokemon Go!