Permit

The last day of the year and Becca got her permit.  Normally you would need to drive for a year with the permit but she will be 18 before then.  Lucky her!

Christmas

We got to Skype with Ben.  That was pretty awesome.  It was good to actually hear his voice again.  I'm already looking forward to Mother's Day! You can read his updates HERE.

Stephanie took the role of handing out gifts this year.  My mom and Danny came for the day.  It was good to see Danny again.  It has been a long time.

I thought I would share this picture of the sweater jacket my mom gave Rad in case it ever goes missing when Ben comes home.  He has proof that it is his. haha

Note how bright the room is.  It isn't the Christmas lights on the tree making it that brights.  We had another sunny day.  It was in the low 70s on Christmas Eve and close to 59-60 on Christmas Day.  Crazy.  I feel like I'm in Florida again, except I didn't hear a lawn mower.

Squirrel at the Feeder

My office has 2 windows and I often see a squirrel running across the grill, climbing up the pole near the bird feeder but it eventually jumps to the ground. I always laugh at this. That has ended.  Today I looked out to see this squirrel jump from the pole to the feeder.  He was hanging on to the bottom of the feeder eating, then he climbed on top of the feeder.  Next thing I know he is hanging off down the side eating.

Note we still don't have snow. :(

I know what to do with the Amazon gift card my mother gave me for my birthday.  Time to invest in a bird feeder that keeps squirrels out.

Arrow of Light

Rad and I both had the opportunity to work with this Webelos (now Scout).  I worked with him from December to June fulfilling the Webelos and Arrow of Light requirements. All he had to do was learn the Scout Oath and Law.  Rad became the Webelos leader in September and got to work with him for 3 months on the new requirements they have.  He was able to earn a pin or two under the new program.  We had his Arrow of Light and crossing over ceremony tonight.  It was a great night.

I think we both agree that he is a smart, fun kid.  He has a lot of energy but he is able to focus and wants to learn and share what he does know.  I admire his mom for getting him involved in different opportunities that arise that encourage him to learn and grow.  She is great about getting out in nature with him, hiking, camping, etc.  She is pretty awesome!

November

November was a typical month of school, work, scouts, feeding missionaries, e-mailing with Ben, biopsies, follow-ups, student council, after school projects, etc.

I saw my great aunt a couple of times.  The first time we went to get some older pictures of family.  The container they were in wasn't in her room though.  No pictures.  I have to admit I was disappointed and yet, it worked out well because it was a busy few days with Thanksgiving and normal life.

I like visiting with her in the morning better because she focuses more on visiting with you.  This particular afternoon she was playing solitaire with a deck of cards that was missing about 5 cards.  It was somewhat amusing watching her play.  After she went through the cards she would announce she was going to cheat now because it didn't matter if she was cheating since she wasn't playing against someone.  She continue to add cards on top of the aces, offset if a number was missing.  She would be rather joyful that she was winning.  After a game she would rearrange the cards so they were red/black/red/black before she would deal out another game.  No shuffling.  An ace always was the first card face up.

Halloween

 The part of Halloween now that the kids are grown is dressing up the dog.

Young Women Medallion

The girls passed off their personal progress with the Bishop in September and received their medallion and certificate today.  They worked HARD to get it done.  They each had a schedule on the refrigerator for a couple of months listing 1-3 things to do each day so they would done by the time school started.   They each had to make adjustments a couple of times when they took a few days off from it but they DID IT!!!!  So proud of them.

Noteworthy Global History Assignments

The history class the girls are taking has some interesting assignments.  Over the summer they had a project to do.  I have to confess I was a bit disgruntled that there was a history project to do but no required reading.  I still think they should have several options to choose from but read a book or two over the summer for school.

Back to History, for the summer project they needed a journal.  I don't recall the details but I believe they needed 5+ entries writing as though they were the archaeologist or person making the discovery and a project to go with it.

Jessica's project was Mayan Hieroglyphics. She had several pieces that she made.  She used a paper that showed the hieroglyphics and etched them into the clay.  I must admit that I was very surprised by the style of the hieroglyphics.  She spent hours making these pieces.



Stephanie's project was Queen Hatshepsut.  I like the painting she did on the "walls".  She made the mummy by mixing some water with glue, strips of fabric and a barbie doll from the dollar store.




Another interesting assignment they had was to make posts using social media. Jessica chose Instagram.  The fortunate thing is I had a template for Instagram so she was able to create realistic looking posts easily.  A few of my favorite posts she prepared.






Stephanie tweeted.  Her "posts" looked like what you would see on Twitter as well.  She did it on another computer so I'm just sharing a few of my favorite things she wrote, not the actual assignment she put together.


Got my first necklace that is actually made out of gold instead of copper.  #bling #futuremuseumpiece

Just got a job to work on the pyramid.  #blessed #thankugods

Queen Hatshepsut . . . or should I say Pharaoh Hatshepsut is doing great!  #hatshepsutalltheway

Sleeping and tanning on the roof. haha #toohotinmyhouse #mudhouseprobs

Homecoming

Becca looked very pretty for Homecoming.  Mike was her date for the evening.  They had planned to go to dinner before but the restaurant was packed so they ended up going straight to the dance.

Rad had to stop by to drop something off and snapped pictures of Becca, Mike and her friend Cameron.

Powderpuff

Steph and Jess played Powderpuff this year.  Played may be too strong of a word.  The interesting thing about our girls is they want to go to practice but they don't want to play.  They just want the physical aspect, training and being with friends.  They want to be bettering themselves but they don't want to play or run at the track meet.  They were at the game, on the field supporting the team. :)

Another Birthday

The girls had a pretty nice birthday and they got a lot of nice gifts.  I ended up making a cake for Jessica and cupcakes for Stephanie based on their wishes this year.  Stephanie doesn't mind chocolate cake but she doesn't like chocolate frosting.  The frosting wasn't too sweet or chocolately but it still wasn't of interest to her.

September

September was a fairly quiet month.  Becca had her senior picture photo shoot.

When I set up the shoot, Scott mentioned that he knew of a field that had nice yellow flowers and hopefully they wouldn't mow the field before we got there.  Along the highway I see some nice flowers and expected that, above is what it looked like.  I had to trust his eye.  The next picture shows what his lens and editing did to the field (I used my iPod for the above picture).  Looks super snazzy.

Another picture I snapped of Becca while Scott was retrieving a ladder so he was at a good height for the photographs.

This is the picture she is using for the yearbook.

First day of school.

A quilt I finished.  I started toward the end of July and put it aside for a month when I completed the 12 main blocks. It seems odd to say the 12 main blocks when there are 49 blocks altogether, albeit there are a lot of half triangle blocks.  I will quilt it after the holidays and get the binding on.

Ben baptized Moses the middle of September.