We had a nice and quiet thanksgiving at Grandma's house.  Activities included: talking, eating, cleaning, talking more, cutting out snowflakes, eating more, and setting up Grandma's Christmas tree.

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The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was filled with a retileing project in preparation for getting new carpet next week. We managed to get all the old tile removed, the floor prepped, and the new tile laid out and cut.  

Reflections

Ruth won some Reflections things at her school.  She entered four areas and was in it basically to make money and to get points for her Sterling Scholar application.  She made $20 in gift cards with the two wins.

Election Woes

Ruth's debate team had an election party on election night.  Ruth drew a map of the US on a whiteboard and the team filled in the states as they were called.  It was a tough night for them, and a tough night at our house.   The next morning the debate team got together for a post-election breakfast just to console each other in their sorrow.  It was a tough week overall for all of us.  It just made it clear that the way that our family sees things is way different than others see things, including our own family and neighbors.

New Job

A month or so ago I got a phone call out of the blue from a local elementary school saying they had my resume and they wanted me to come and interview for a part time aid job. I was surprised because, while I had started looking at the job market again, the resume which they had was over a year and a half years old.  The amazing thing is that I had just told God two days before that if he wanted me to get a job that I needed some help opening some doors. So all things considered, even though I didn't really want to work as an aid again, I went into the interview just to see what they had to say.  A week later they called and said that I didn't get the job, but they wanted to hire me and they'd let me know if they had future openings. I just shrugged and went on with my life, not expecting anything.  Three or so weeks later I got a phone call from them saying they had a job for me and could I start at the end of the month?  It all seemed so surreal that I figured I better take the job.  I mean, how often are jobs just handed to you like that?  It's part time and has hours are in the middle of the school day.  So it's perfect.  I start the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Debate Judging

I got to judge at Ruth's debate tournament again this weekend.  This was a bigger tournament and there was a lot of competition.  Some of the kids I judged were amazing.  Ruth got fourth place, and was pretty happy with that considering the competition and that she'd been sick.  I took this picture of her before the competition.  Talking to walls is part of debate culture.  Before any tournament, you'll see tons of kids lined up against the walls giving their speeches and practicing their points.

Jared's Ukulele

Jared is still playing the Ukulele every day and he has an amazing talent for it, surpassing where many of my guitar students were after a year of lessons.   I love listening to him play and we've even played a few duets just for kicks.

New Adventures in Paraguay

We got word from Kaitlin this week that she's been moved from Asuncion to a city right on the border of Brazil.  She's a little nervous about the move as she was super happy in Asuncion, but she's excited to get more practice on her Portuguese.

More Debate

Yes, 'tis the season to hear about debate. Ruth competed in another tournament this week. I grabbed her for a picture late Saturday night after she had been at competition for 23 hours over 2 days.  She was exhausted because she had triple entered and then made it to finals in all three. One of her finals overlapped the other so she had to compete and then run across the school to be the last competitor in another one.  In the end she had gotten 1st in Humorous Interpetation, 2nd in Declamation, and 3rd in Poetry.  Her team got 4th overall which is a big deal because their team is really small so they rarely get any team level awards.  I guess one student getting 3 wins could help with that. 

Jared is a Star

Jared was given a rank advancement at our Scout Court of Honor this week. He's now a star scout. That's one rank away from Eagle. He also went on his last camp out with the scouts, as he will be moving up to varsity scouts next month.

Balancing the Books

This week between filling orders I actually tried to balance to books for my little hobby that pays for itself in preparation for the end of the year. I'm not making tons of money doing this, but I'm in the black so that's good.  I also made this commissioned Skyrim helmet.

Harry Potter Halloween

So here is what I've been working on in my free time for the last month. Ruth and I have talked about cosplay as Luna and Trelawney for a long time, but about 2 months ago I got it in my head that the whole family should dress up as Harry Potter characters for Halloween. And so it began.

The two Harry Potter robes were purchased on eBay. You can get them there much cheaper then I could ever sew them and they are pretty good quality.  I also got Ruth's tie off ebay.  Everything else was my creation.  Dumbledore's robe was a repurposed bathrobe. I sewed his hat. My dress and scarf. Ruth's necklace and earrings.  Jared's Quiditch armor and broom were all made by me.  We made our wands as a family home evening activity.   It's been good fun and a nice break for me to make things that don't have to compete in a competition but just for fun.

I've put up more pictures on facebook. These are different from those. We had so many good pictures!

Jared's First Band Concert

Jared played in his first band concert of the year.  He really loves band.  And he looked very handsome.

Debate Competition

I went with Ruth on Friday to judge at her 2nd debate tournament. I was lucky enough to get a bye the first round and was able to go with Ruth to her first round to see her compete.  This is the first time I've seen her compete.  She did really great and smoked all the competition in the room.  She has another competition next weekend.

Pumpkin Adventures

It's been a tradition of ours to spend a Saturday in October at my mom's farm where we usually find a pumpkin patch or do other fall activities.   This week we picked up my mom and then headed north to a Pumpkin Walk.  There was a park full of scenes from history or from pop culture made out of pumkins.  Some were all pumpkin, and others were just pumpkin heads but all were very creative and we had a good time walking around and looking at them.

After the pumkin walk we stopped to buy some cheese curds at the cheese factory there, and then we went to a farmers fruit stand (the kind where you drop some money in a jar after picking out what you want) where we got some pumpkins.

It was a fun day and it was great to visit with grandma and spend some time together.

Stake Choir

I forgot to mention last week that the stake choir I conduct sang at stake conference last Sunday.  I had around 30 singers and we sang two numbers.  One of the great things about conducting the stake choir is that I can choose more difficult music and my singers are usually a little more versed in music.  The choir responds better to direction both verbal and when I am conducting them.  It challenges me, because I have more control, but it's also a thrill when things go well.


Cosplay Contests

This weekend I competed in a couple of contests.  The first was a new cosplay contest at the Halloween Expo.  Because it was the first year for this one, the competition wasn't too crazy. The judges really liked my costume in judging and they asked some really good questions.  It's nice to be able to talk about your craft with people who really know what you're talking about.  What I didn't know at the time was that for this contest, pre-judging was the only judging - there was no stage portion - which was good for me because often, my stage presentation is my lowest score.  In the end I won Best-in-Show which means I won the whole thing.  This is my first ever Best-in-Show win.  As a prize I won a creepy animal scull plaque.

At the Halloween Expo I was also able to meet a few of the contestants from the TV show "Face-Off" .   Two of them even approached me to talk to me about my costume - they really liked it.  It was super cool to have some pros look at your work and approve of it.

Chuck accompanied me to the Halloween Expo as my handler, and he dressed up in his steampunk garb as well.  If anyone asked we were the tinman and the wizard of Oz steampunk style.   Chuck was a really good sport, and I was glad to have him watch me compete as he has never gone to any of my competitions before.

The Halloween Expo contest went a lot faster than I expected so I was done in time to hop over to our community Pumpkin Festival and compete in their costume contest.   Now there is a huge difference between a costume contest and a cosplay contest.  In cosplay you have to had made it yourself and you are judged on your level of craftsmanship, in a costume contest you are judged by which ones the judges (who usually know nothing about costuming) like the most. So you're competing against store purchased or "gag" type costumes, so you just never know how they are going to go.

Ruth competed in the teen contest as Astrid and won, and I competed and won in the adult contest.  That's my second year winning this contest in a row.

Before the costume contest Ruth had been working at the Pumpkin Festival as a volunteer for the Youth Council. For an hour she ran the pumpkin bowling booth - today her back is sore from setting up bowing pins (pop bottles).

Kaitlin Update

In Kaitlin's letter this week she seemed super excited and happy about what she was doing in Paraguay. She's still in the city and close the mission office. She loves her new companions and her health has been good.  She's now been out for a year and two months, and will be coming home the 2nd week of February.

And So It Begins

Ruth came stumbling into the house late Saturday night, after spending 23 hours over two days at the first debate tournament of the season, with a shiny first place trophy in her hand.   Debate season has started with the first tournament at the University of Utah. There, Ruth competed against varsity high school debate students from all over the state in the categories of Humorous Interpretation and, for the very first time, Dramatic Interpretation.   She felt good about her DI performance but didn't make it to finals in that category. She did, however, take her HI all the way to finals and then got the win.  She's really happy about it because she knows, since this was her first time competing with this script, that she can improve and be even more competitive in the future.  Her next tournament will be at the end of this month.

Jared's .001 %

This weekend we took Jared to Asian City to buy him some chopsticks and while we were there we also bought him some healing spheres. Since then he's been eating everything with chopsticks and the light clanging of the spheres has become a constant.  It's all part of him getting in touch with the .001 % Asian part of him that showed up on his grandfather's DNA test.  He also says he has learned enough in his Chinese class that he can count to 999 and call people names.

Bonus: While Ruth was away at the debate tournament and Jared was off at scout camp, Chuck and I went out on a long overdue date.