Last Week of School

Jared and I are on our last week of school.  Jared had his concert band concert last week and has one more percussion concert this week (who schedules a  concert on the 2nd to last day of school??) Jared finished the year with mostly A's and was awarded an Academic Letter for his high gpa.    I only have two days left of work and I am so ready to be done with my job. I will miss teaching. It was super satisfying to expose students to hands-on science and engineering and see them get excited about it.  But there isn't much future in my job and the pay vs stress ratio is a little out of balance.  I've put my resume together but don't plan on looking for work until the fall.


Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to Me

The weather has been downright depressing but I did have a very nice Mother's day and birthday this year.  For Mother's Day weekend we found a short break in the rain and planed the garden.  For my birthday we went out to dinner and then played Guitar Hero as a family (Jared is the best Guitar Hero Drummer Ever!).     Also during my birthday week, I appeared at a childhood cancer fundraiser gala at the aquarium.  The charity provided princesses and asked my group to provide Disney Villans. I got to spend the evening tormenting children as Mother Gothel and I even sang at the event.  It was tons of fun.

Spring was late in coming this year. While we usually enjoy several weeks of blooming trees and tulips, because of cold rainy weather, blooming was delayed and most of the trees' blooms came and went within just a few days.  Still, the longer days and warmer weather is a welcome relief.   We've spent several days in the last few weeks doing yard work.   Chuck built a box for our motorcycles trailer and we filled it with branches and prunings to take to the dump.  Because of my bad back last summer the garden boxes had gotten all grown over so I spent several days digging them out and turning the soil for a new growing season. 

Jared competed in the State Ensemble tournament with the same piece that I posted a video of last month. He also found out that he made it into Jazz Band at the new high school for next year. 

Ruth finished the school year at the U and finished Business Scholars. She got good enough grades to keep all of her scholarships and her internship agreed to keep her on over the summer even though she isn't taking summer classes.  Ruth is really excited to have a break from school as she didn't take any time off after her high school graduation.

Ruth and I have been busy with cosplay stuff. Ruth joined as a "prospective" member of HEROIC and went with me to a couple events this month. We put on a Marvel movie night for the Ronald McDonald house and then we also went to an elementary school fundraiser.   Ruth and I also competed in a little fanexpo cosplay contest this last weekend.  Ruth took 3rd place in her category with the Mandalorian costume she made a few years ago. and I won Best in Show which came with a cash prize. 

Chuck and I took our dual sport bikes out for our first off-road this weekend.  We had no experience and there was a steep learning curve.  We both dropped our bikes in separate incidents, Chuck hit a rut with his and I just took a big patch of sand too slowly.  We are a little scraped and bruised but fine, and our bikes are fine too.  It was a learning adventure.  Chuck got both spills on camera so maybe he will post them soon.

Spring FanX 

It's spring con season again. The spring comic con is smaller than the fall one but still pretty fun.  We were able to see panels by Zach Levi, John Cleese, Tom Felton, and Billie Piper. We went to a panel with the voice actors from the video game RDR2 that we've been playing for the last six months, and I was able to ask them a question.   Here are some photos. 

A week before FanX, Heroic was invited to a special preview party along with other prominent fan-centric groups in the area.  I got free tickets for attending as well as a t-shirt and free food. 

Heroic is a featured group at FanX and somehow I made it to the center of the promotional logo.  My cyberman is on there too! 

Chuck and I went together on Friday to some panels. 

We were dressed as Doctor Who characters.  I was Missy, Chuck was the War Doctor

Missy takes over the universe.

On Saturday I spent some time volunteering at the FanX booth.  We generally raise money for a charity, but this time for the first time we raised money for ourselves to help us cover operating costs for the year. 

Ruth and I had a great time hanging out on Saturday. We were stopped for a lot of pictures. 

This was my first time taking Hippolyta to FanX.  I expected to take lots of pictures with people dressed as Wonder Woman but I only found a few, which was surprising seeing as Linda Carter was one of the guests. 

Ruth worked super hard on her casual cosplay of SheRa. Her swords lights up and everything! 

Easter and Other Things

Ruth and Jared are getting a little old for baskets and egg hunts so we spiced it up this year by filling the eggs with cash. 

Chuck filling the eggs. 

Ruth has been working on several end-of-the-year projects.  This was a presentation for a business her group created for business scholars class.   

I've spent the last few months practicing with Kensington Choir.  We had our spring concert this last week and it turned out really nice. 

And on a side note, in the last entry, I mentioned that Ruth had been asked to make a powerpoint presentation for business presentation group that was going on from her college to compete at the national level (Ruth's group had gotten 3rd place).  We got word last week that their group won!  They were super grateful for Ruth's contribution and it is a nice feather for Ruth's cap. 

Leadership Conference

A couple of weeks ago Ruth took a trip with the business college to a leadership conference in southern utah.  As part of this trip she was able to spend the afternoon in Zion's park in the rain and attended a luau with fire dancers.  She said there was also a dance party but she skipped that and played Yahtzee instead. 

Then last week the marketing and communications department where Ruth is an intern received a special award for a marketing campaign they ran.  Ruth and her plus-one got to go to a fancy event at the aquarium where her team received the award. 

Ruth's been busy working on a lot of group projects this year and has gained notice for her beautiful powerpoint presentations.   A couple of months ago I mentioned that her team had placed third at a competition. The first place team approached Ruth last week and asked her to design a new powerpoint presentation for them to take to the national competition this month.  She sent them the finished product this week and they were really happy with her work. 



Regional Band Competition

Jared's band participated in regional band competition last week.   They didn't do well enough to go on to state, but Jared got complimented in front of the whole band for his 'magical" snare drum playing. 

Two Months To Go

I'm counting down the days until I am finished with my job.  While there have been some aspects of my job that I've really enjoyed, there have been other things I've hated about it and I will be glad when it's over. 

I've been putting more time in my workshop and have made slow but steady progress on my competition piece.  I've also done a few HEROIC events.

Oh, and some other exciting news is that I started therapy this month. I've never had therapy before and so far so go.  Would recommend.   I probably should have started years ago.

Rexburg Trip

Last weekend we had a fun trip up to Rexburg to visit Kate and Ben.  We had fun miniature golfing. going to the hotel hot tub, and visiting. We were happy to hear the good news that Kate had passed the test that will give her an ESL teaching credential, Kate got a good academic scholarship this year, and that they will be done in Rexburg at the end of the year when Kate will start student teaching. 

Band Concerts

Jared had two percussion ensemble performances this week, both competitions.  Jared did a great job!   Here is a link to a youtube video I've posted.  Jared is just right of the conductor in the grey shirt with the bow tie. He was playing the lead melody and even had a short solo in the song. 

Ronald McDonald House

I had a great experience with HEROIC at the Ronald McDonald house this week.  These kids were special in that they were all so open and loving to us.  I even had one girl that ignored all the disney princesses and ran up to me and hugged me around the waist because batgirl was her "favorite"! 

Spring Break

Ruth enjoyed a trip down to St. George this week with her boyfriend Quaid to visit Quaid's family.  While there they visited a little dinosaur museum and enjoyed the warm weather.   

Chuck has also taken advantage of the one or two warm days we've had by getting out on his motorcycle.  He has a new helmet camera and has been experimenting with it, so some ride videos will probably be coming your way very soon.

Earthquakes!

Two weeks ago or so I woke up in the night to a shift or shake and I wasn't sure what it was.  Then I heard Ruth get up and go to the bathroom so I just assumed it was her that had woken me.  About five minutes later there was a firm shaking that lasted a few seconds.  I jumped out of bed and scared Ruth half to death in the dark hallway.  "Was that just an earthquake??"   Only one other time in the past 13 years of living here have I felt an earthquake.   We have continued to have over 100 small earthquakes and the fault here, but I didn't feel any of them until a couple nights ago when I was woken again.  I heard it before I felt it, a wave of energy that lasted only a second, but enough to rattle the bed.     Last month I taught a unit on earthquake engineering at school and it's been fun to talk with my classes about their experiences with our little earthquakes.

Kate is a Prize Winning Poet

I don't talk about Kate much because she is off living her own life doing her own awesome things, but she gave me permission to share this news and her photo.   Earlier in the month, Kate entered a campus-wide poetry contest and she was the winner. Her prize was being able to type-set and print it on an antique printing press the school owns.  She said it turned out being pretty fun.

Cosplay Contest Winner

This weekend was Wizard Dayz, a small local con that HEROIC participates in.  I went on Friday and help set up our booth and then I stood at the booth for a few hours dressed as a Quidditch player. .  Word got around that they were looking for more entrants for their cosplay contest, so when the guy in charge came by my booth I signed up.   He asked me what character I was going to be and I told him that I didn't know because I hadn't decided.  I wanted something somewhat in the theme but also something that would be competitive.   The next day I worked the booth again, dressed as Trelawny from Harry Potter.  Chuck came at the end of my shift and brought me food.  Then he helped me put on my Hippolyta cosplay.   Hippolyta is something I made specifically for HEROIC and never really had any intention of entering her into any competitions.  At the master level at comic con, she would just not be competitive but at a little con like this, I thought she might have a chance.

This cosplay contest was a little different than any other I'd ever competed in. It was "living cosplay" meaning that for prejudging I had to stand in a designated area for 30 minutes and interact with the crowd. "Hidden" in the crowd were judges.    Working a crowd in costume is very comfortable to me because I do it all the time in HEROIC.  It was pretty quiet much of the time but I did get a few good chances to try to convince little girls to come to Therimacia with me to train to be Amazonian Warriors, or I talked with people about my daughter Diana and the Justice League, or I posed for some photos.  During this 30 minutes, my sword accidentally was broken (I gave it to someone to hold and they accidentally dropped it).  A friend ran back to the booth and tried to help me glue it, but to no avail.  I hoped this would not hurt my chances.   I guess I did okay because I won first place, which came with a medal and a $50 prize.  Of the winners at the contest, second place was also a HEROIC member, the winner of the beginner's category was from HEROIC, and "fan favorite" was also HEROIC.  So we had pretty good representation.

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.