Carolyn turns 15!

Carolyn celebrated her birthday the Friday before school began.  The usual suspects attended her birthday party.  One of the girls has been at every party since 3rd grade!  They had a slumber party and seemed to have a great time.  Wow 14-15 year-olds have a lot of energy when having fun.

 Carolyn and I made owl cupcakes.  I thought the outcome was very sweet.

Eagle Scout

Matthew earned his Eagle Scout Award in the middle of July.  Yesterday (October 9th) we had his Court of Honor and it was lovely.

Here I am, placing his Eagle Pin on his lapel.

 He had to give a little Thank You speech.  he did a great job.  (note the change to the Eagle Rank neckerchief)

 Here is his memorabilia table.  It was fun and pretty easy to put together (me;  "Hey Matt - find me all your old scout stuff!")  The picture board took some time, given the need to gather photos from 100 picture CDs....remember the days when computer could only hold a few dozen photos and you had to burn a disk to clear up disk space.....yeah me too!)  I double dipped and found enough photos for his graduation photo board.  The scout picture board will make a reappearance that day too.

Joel was part of the color guard.  Carolyn did a prayer (no photo, she was behind me)

 My sister, Mary and her husband Gary joined us.  (Mary is the God-Mother of the year and took 35 pictures for me.)

 Both sets of grandparents were able to attend, which made the day even more special.

Our two week pup

Joel's expression sums up what it was like to live with Luna!

We knew Luna would only be with us for 2 weeks, while she waited between vaccine number one and vaccine number two, which had to take place before she could be neutered and adopted.

 Luna was "nicer" than Sassy, in that she loved everyone.  (Sassy didn't like strangers or other dogs.)  Unfortunately Luna also loved to eat everything including sandals and carpet.  Luckily, no major damage was done and we knew she was a puppy and would require closer care.  Sassy was a lap dog and Luna liked to play.  The hardest thing was that she wasn't a great sleeper!  Again - what we should expect because she was a puppy.  She wasn't with us as long as we had Sassy, which was probably a good idea - because we were all a bit sleepy by the end.

We had a lot of fun with our 2nd foster dog and will likely foster again next summer.  We won't foster when the kids are in school, since I am at work for too many hours a day to give a dog the love it would need.  (and don't want my house destroyed while I am away)

Matthew update

Matthew was accepted to the University of Iowa (ok - this was back in the summer).  Although they didn't have a cool video, their acceptance was still more exciting than Iowa State because the acceptance letter contained a scholarship.  (money trumps clever video)

To get the same scholarship from the Iowa State, he will have to wait until February when he will be hopefully selected to be a National Merit Scholar.  90% of the semifinalists qualify as finalists, so I am hoping he can be above the lowest 1000 of the 16,000 semifinalists!  If so, then Iowa State will show him the money.  (They did offer him money, just not as much as they are dangling in front of him if he is a National Merit Finalist.)  The University of Iowa doesn't require this to get their scholarship, which is nice.  I think Iowa State is his first choice right now though, so it looks like we will be waiting awhile!  He and Ken are at Iowa State today!  (Columbus Day.)  I can't wait to hear what he thinks.  He will go to the University of Iowa on November 5th.

Here is Matthew before going to Homecoming!  (He was asked to go by a girl (Alexis a fellow trumpet player), and told us of this fact about 1 week before the big day.)  He took her to Outback before the big dance.  (I asked him earlier in the week...did you tell her you don't like to dance?  ha ha....no)   I think he had a great time.

First Day of School 2016

Starting late again this year - August 24th

Joel = 7th grade (age 12) Prairie Ridge Middle School

Matthew = 12th grade (age 17) Centennial High School

Carolyn = 9th grade (age 14 for 1 days) Northview Middle School

Anna = 4th grade (age 9) Northeast Elementary School

Northern Minnesota

 Our summer adventure involved heading north to Minnesota

 First we rented a cabin that was located on Swan Lake in a town called Pengilly.  We rented kayaks and had a blast.  (but alas, no fish were caught despite much trying)

 The cabin had a lovely table from which you could watch the lake and a fire pit for s'more creation.

The cabin came with a row-boat, named after my friend Maria....wasn't that nice!

 After Pengilly we went to Duluth.  Here are the kids riding a zip-line on Spirit Mountain

 We went hiking after going to Spirit Mountain....which was my favorite

We spent one afternoon playing on the shore of Lake Superior

Everyone (except me) went on a boat trip.  Ken said I would have been fine, but I have a tendency toward sea-sickness on boats.  I like this picture because it shows Duluth's very cool bridge.  It was designed, but then not built in Duluth for decades.  In the meantime it was built in Chicago.

Duluth is very narrow, but long, built on a cliff/hill.  While the family was boating I walked up the hill that I had been viewing throughout our stay. (Our hotel was on the lake and you could view the city of Duluth from the hotel.)  It was a great hike.

We spent one night in Minneapolis on our way back to Iowa.  We went on a tour of an old flour mill.  It is a huge part of Minneapolis history and was a pretty nice tour.  We went to Mall of America, but it isn't my cup of tea.  

We arrived home about 10 days ago and I still haven't got the house back in order! 

Lucina

Like many families, our autumn months can be quite busy.  So this summer, when Carolyn wanted to make her costume so that she could trick-or-treat for canned goods in style, I was all for it!  We could make a costume that she liked and not have to complete it between our other fun fall activities.

Meet Lucina

 (I have learned that she is a strong female video game character....who knew?)

This is definitely in the top 5 of costumes I have ever made....possibly number one.  You will have to imagine the blue hair of Lucina until October!

Matthew's First Acceptance

Matthew applied to Iowa State last night at 5:15.  This morning at 9:15 he received a video.....it was very fun.  Here are a few still pictures from the video.  There might have been a tear or two (me) and a huge smile (Matthew).

Eagle

This guy had his Eagle Board of Review last night!  Since its inception in 1902, 2.01 % of the boys who joined Boy Scouts went on to get their Eagle.  Things have been trending higher such that in 2014 6.01%  of eligible scouts earned their Eagle.*  

The council member at Matthew’s board indicated that 4.4% of boys who join scouts get their Eagle.  So pick your statistic.  We know is was a lot of work and Matthew saw it through to the end!

*http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/03/30/what-percentage-of-boy-scouts-become-eagle-scouts/

Sassy girl

We are a foster family.

 This is Sassy, but she is rarely sassy!  She is sweet.

 The kids love her (well Matthew is indifferent).  Ken and I think she is really nice.

Carolyn is gah-gah go-crazy for this dog.

Luckily, the feeling is mutual.  If Carolyn walks in the room, the rest of us are chopped liver.  Unluckily, Sassy is not our forever dog.  No dog is our forever dog.  I just have too much on my plate to make room for a dog.  We have vacations, trips to eastern Iowa, college visits, plus I don't want to leave a dog 7.5 hours a day 3 days a week when I work.  Carolyn didn't go with us to the Foster meeting, which I thought was strange and indicated a lack of interest in the dog.  Well that wasn't true.  She wanted to keep the dog forever after knowing her about 3 minutes.  Sassy has a meet and greet tomorrow with a potential adopter.  The timing would be fine because Carolyn and Joel are doing "Christ's Hands", a service retreat at our church for 3 days.  Then we leave for vacation for a week, then Carolyn is at camp for a week, then we go to Burlington....not a good time to be dealing with the dog.

Truly the kids haven't reneged on their duty to the dog.  They do the feeding and the bagging of poop.  Still the house smells a little "doggy", there are dog things strewn about the place.....I just can't do it for 13 more years.  (Sassy is 2 and her breed (mostly dachshund) live to 15 typically.)  Anna will be long gone to college by then and I want to travel!

That said, isn't she a cutie.  If I wanted a dog, she would be a great choice.  She will be a great addition to someone else's house! 

Before and during....deck edition

 Here is the deck in need of an overhaul!

Matthew and Joel helped with deconstruction

Here is a before vs. after shot of the wood...and the picture makes the old wood look good compared to the reality of the old wood.  The new wood is beautiful and nicely sanded.

 Here is the deck after a 3 day weekend of construction (which was 99% Ken's handiwork....the boys can't be as much help with this part and Matthew was at HyVee for 2 of the 3 days)

Ken joked that he needed to go to work to get a break from his vacation.  In reality though, he was blessed with excellent weather over the 4th of July holiday weekend.  Today (7/5/16) there is going to be a heat advisory...but this weekend we had the house opened up because it was so lovely.  "AFTER" pictures of the deck to follow!  Hopefully in a week or two.  Work will slow down considerably now!

Blueberry picking

2011

 2016

 Today we went blueberry picking and came home with more than 10 lbs worth.  See the beautiful nest below.  The berry bushes were lovely!

Joel-fest

Here is Joel working on his Family Life Merit Badge - he is in charge of the garden.

 Joel was able to pitch some this year!  Go Tigers

At Carmp Mitigwa for the week

 Mess Hall

 The big event of the week - Joel was inducted into the Order of the Arrow.  He did his Ordeal and earned his OA sash.