Camping Yoda Style

            This weekend I went camping on a farm with my boy scout troop. The theme was wilderness survival, so I had to start a fire three different ways, flint and steel, magnifying glass, and those hand drill thingies.  And the big part, sleeping in a shelter that I would make and I did just that.

Yes, I did fit.

So that night was cold, wet and LONG

Also I caught some fish. pictures coming soon.

P.O.V. Switch

I was talking to Yoda at dinner the other day and something strange happened. He said, "Now that 'I'm 12, what if I did a few blog posts?"

I was SHOCKED, I thought it was a great idea. 

I said yes and and now I'm sitting at the computer with Yoda and he's waiting for me to give him the keyboard so he can type. I'll let him speak his thoughts and say what's been in his head for 12 years.

YODA SPEAKING:

"I am probably gonna write once and a while." Dang, those first words stink.

I have been writing a lot of poetry in honor of poetry month in April. So I've been writing some poems. I prefer limericks overall. I like the AABBA rhyme scheme. So I'll do some of that sometime and maybe tell you about my cubing (as in Rubik's Cubes TM) experiences like personal bests and me getting new equipment. Or tell you about my book tastes, I like that. This will indeed be fun.  Ooh maybe we can get Mimi to do a post... that would interesting....

Yes, this will be a cool experience. I will post once in a while.

See ya!

Random happenings

 

While she was here, my sister painted Yoda's room.  Yoda helped for like 5 minutes, she did the rest! 

Did I mention Yoda joined a new Boy Scout Troop?  It's a totally different experience.  Greg and Yoda have been very busy!

Mimi started driving! 

A note from the teacher

On the same day that everyone forgot masks, we got covid tests (yuck, but not so bad), and I got the bad news that my surgery was canceled... I got this good email from Yoda's 6th grade math teacher. 

"I just wanted to send you a quick email to share how nice your son has been to one of our new students at school.  This student has come to us from Japan, and speaks very little English.  However, to ensure he feels included in the group work, [Yoda] has been typing to him on the Chromebook using Google translate.  It just warms my heart, so I wanted to share.  He’s also doing very well in math!"

My sister's visit

My sister came to take care of me and the kids while I was recovering from my surgery.  She came anyway and distracted me from feeling terrible, even though my surgery was canceled because the hospitals are full.

One thing we did was go to Mimi's orchestra concert.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dnTmYuPvbdYcAlRrBjCWhrOW1x9I5hDZ/view

Hopefully that links works if you want to hear them play the Beatles song "ob la di ob la da"

Mimi is on the far right side of the stage. 

A little bit from us

 

 

While putting up a quilt, "First we put on the backing, then the batting, then the top."

Parker, "why isn't it called the topping?!"

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While Yoda talked about FDR, Mimi asked, "who was he again?  Oh, yeah, he was in Annie." (That's a theater kid for you!)

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While watching a minute of a Steelers football game, "Are they called the Steelers because they steal the game?"

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While I was missing Parker, now that he is gone away to school, "it must be a long time since I last checked in with Parker" then I looked at my phone and realized we had texted like 4 hours earlier. 

Slide

 

Sky

Over the summer Mimi had a few projects to keep her busy.  In non-pandemic years she would do some volunteering at the library.  Since that's not happening, they provided a bingo board full of activities.

For this activity Mimi was supposed to spend time in nature and take a photo of something that inspires her.  She was at girl scout day camp and took this during one of the camp fires. 

What's better than a s'more?

 

A BIG MAC S'MORE!

 

Off to school part 2

 Parker is off to college, yikes.  Photos below

Greg and Parker took off early on Wednesday, I stayed home to make sure the younger kiddos went to school and stuff.  Every year since he was 3 Parker has been totally ready for school, running off to the door without even looking back.  College made him pretty nervous and that felt out of character.  But he slowly warmed up to college as he was able to make a schedule and book a dorm room, he felt better and more excited. 

Parker moved in and hasn't seen much of his roommate.  He seems nice and laid back, which will be good, since Parker has already locked himself out of his room twice. 

He attended all the new student orientation meetings and met people.  The new parent meetings made us feel better, but we still felt a little like this...

They said, we work for you, contact us.  They also said, when they look at applications they look to see if the student will be a good fit, and then they consider grades to make sure they won't drown once they get there. In other words, your student belongs here. 

Greg spent time visiting with family and hiking.  Their last morning they hiked to the Y together. 

We did tons of prep before they left, and I'm so glad we did.  We missed a few things and it would have been a pain to have a million things to track down, instead of just a couple things.  Next time (hopefully there will be 2 next times!) we will shop earlier, and make sure the bed is as comfortable as possible.  And also bring quarters for laundry because of the coin shortage, ugh.  

Everyone will miss him, he's so nice to have around. 

First day 2021

School starts this week and I'll post photos soon...

First off, Mimi went to her first day of 10th grade.  Officially the first day at the main high school is just for Freshmen, but her little high school has their scheduling day the first day. 

Fall 2021

Parker isn't off to school just yet, but he did heroically wake up early just to drive Mimi to school.  Such a nice brother.  We then spent the day fighting the crowds of parents and college students buying stuff at Target. 

Yoda wasn't even awake before they left.  Middle school is the last of the schools to start their day.  He's pumped to take the bus with a few of our neighbors and friends. 

Some D&D

The plan was to take a few days off to go backpacking, but too many things got in the way.  Greg still took some time off, but they played many, many hours of Dungeons and Dragons!

Did I show off my custom Dungeon Master screen?  I could use some work, but it gets the job done :)