Andrew's transferred

Found out yesterday that Andrew was being transferred today and that he was going to be a zone leader. We were going to have to wait until Monday's email to find out where his new area was, but today we got an email from Sister Holt. She saw Andrew and took photos of him today...but I can't get them to save to Andrew's file so I can't show them here.

But she did tell us his new area is Oskaloosa. It's just a little bit East of Des Moines. Since he has only 4 months left we are guessing this is where he'll end his mission.

3 down, one to go

Well, about 1 hour after Ryan's cousin, Brent, passed his Eagle Board of Review and earned the rank of Eagle Scout, Ryan did the same thing.

We now have 3 Eagle Scouts...4 counting Glen...in the family. Since Alex is a cub scout until October, we have  a little bit of time to wait until it's his turn.

Congratulations Ryan and Brent!

Valentine's Day, snow, and San Fran

Glen and I rarely give gifts to each other for Valentine's day (or our anniversary), so I was a little surprised when he handed me a little box of chocolates. I thanked him and then recognized the box as a $1 purchase from Walmart (I had considered buying one to send to Andrew, but opted for a bag of candy bars instead). I questioned him about it. Nope. It did not cost him $1 but was free...he had been given it the day before at church, so he "re-gifted" it to me. I had to laugh. That's about our speed, and it's OK with me.

Hannah went to San Francisco with some members of the high school's reading club this week. I will see if she will attach photos here for us all to see. We've had such lovely weather the last few weeks...but it was snowing these last few days. We feel blessed that they made it over the mountain and back again safely (the pass was closed for a while when they were in California). Sounds like she had a good time. Besides seeing lots of good things (a Maritime museum, fisherman's wharf,  California Academy of Science, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, and a beach), she ate "vegan" for one day...and was thrilled that when they went to an ice cream shop there were actually 2 items on the menu that were vegan.

She lost her wallet in the science museum and some honest person found it and tracked her down. Lucky girl. Sarah said it was quite funny. Hannah would "overreact" to everything, so when she calmly told Nicole, my friend and trip chaperon, that she lost her wallet, Nicole didn't believe her at first. She had to tell Nicole 3 times before Nicole realized Hannah was serious. Too funny.

As for the snow, we woke up to several inches of snow on Friday morning...and it continued to gently snow for several hours. I couldn't take pictures because I let Hannah take my camera on her field trip. Then most of the snow melted. Saturday morning we woke up to more snow...and no electricity. It went off around 2-3 am and was finally back on around 11 am. Electricity is such a miracle. How happy we are to have it...and how happy that it happened on a morning we didn't have to do anything (my hair was a bit wild). If it had happened this morning (Sunday), that would have really messed us up.


Ryan will FINALLY have his Eagle Scout Board of Review this Tuesday night. If all goes well, they will approve his application and he will become an Eagle Scout.

It's transfer week in Iowa this week. We will find out on Wednesday whether Andrew will be transferred or stay in Ames for 6 more weeks. With 4 months to go and only 2 1/2 months in his current area, it's hard to say. Meanwhile on Wednesday, David and Jackie will be in Lansing Michigan picking up Adam from his mission! Time flies.

A few photos from Hannah's trip:

 a little bit of weather

a little local color

a little wildlife

a famous place

a little food

a little bit of Chinatown

a little bit of fun

a couple of cousins

a little bit of sand and surf

a little bit of a view

a little bit of muscle

 

According to Hannah, Glen is in the dog house. Why? Because he hugged the above girl,
calling her daughter, and asked how the trip went.
Problem being, above is Megan, the other redheaded girl who went on the trip.
I do think Hannah and Megan look a lot alike, so don't know that I really blame Glen much. Hannah does.

Here's a picture of Hannah, so you can compare her to Megan a little bit better.

Silver Beaver

Last night, we attended the Boy Scouts Award Banquet (or whatever it was called) in Reno. Glen, along with 3 others from Fallon and 4 others from the area council were presented Silver Beaver awards. Apparently it's not just for scouting service, but for also community service.

I would have preferred staying seated, but they made us all get up with Glen

Glen with his parents and sister Kathy

The Fallonite Recipients: Terri Pearson, Glen, JoAnne Baumgart, and Jim Shurtliff

Glen's family came out to support him. David, Jackie, Alan, Kathy, and Gary were there, besides his parents. And fellow scouter Eph and his wife Diane were there too. It was really nice.

They also presented 2 heroism awards to Scouts who had saved someone's life: Adam Kidd and Adam ???. Kidd saved his little sister from drowning in the Snake River in 2009 and ??? saved his mother from choking by performing the Heimlich maneuver in 2010. It was very touching.

So, congratulations Glen.

a close up of Glen's beaver

I'm a critic

Glen is looking for a musical to put on next year so we've been looking for ideas. Online we saw a play, The Fantasticks, that holds the record for the longest-running musical. We had never heard of it but Netflix had a movie version of it. The blurb said it was a musical comedy.

Well, there was music in it, but I didn't find it to qualify as a comedy. It was very weird and I greatly disliked it and don't understand how it made it into the record books. Maybe they changed a lot for the movie. I also think it should have been rate PG-13 and not PG as a bit at the Carnival was really not appropriate. The only familiar song in it was "Try to Remember" (which was beautiful). 

So, if The Fantasticks earns a thumbs down (or many), How to Kill a Mockingbird earns a thumbs up (and more). A fascinating book.

And can I say, since I'm critiquing things, that leftover Dominoes pizza really isn't that good? (30 pizzas were ordered to feed the honor band students visiting Fallon yesterday...the various schools participating said they'd be interested in buying pizza as a fund raiser for Fallon...and then all the schools loaded up their students on their buses and took them to local places to eat...the largest school choose to go to Pizza Hut-- the teacher said, when questioned later, that they had "changed their minds" about eating at CCHS, but because of the situation they agreed to cover the $200 cost of the pizzas...and since only 2 pizzas had been sold last night, that left a lot of cheap pizza today. I bought 2 for a total of $10, which took care of dinner, but I don't find it very appetizing). But at least I'm off the hook for dinner tonight. That's worth something.

Family Happenings

Glen was in the newspaper a few days ago. Glen is the Pony Express District Commissioner here...one of the "Key Three" for the Pony Express District, so he helped to present some awards to Mayor Kenny Tedford and former mayor and current city councilman Bob Erickson.

A few weeks ago Glen was involved in a beading ceremony where he received his beads for his Woodbadge participation a few summers ago. Woodbadge is where adult leaders participate in a week long camp and set goals. Then there is a year (1 1/2 years?) in which to accomplish your goals. If you do that, you get your beads. Glen's ceremony was a little past due...(speaking of which, Eric earned his Eagle last February and we still haven't had his award ceremony...).

Glen and I sometimes have communication problems and I don't know where the communication broke down here, but it did. I knew there was a dinner, but somehow I didn't know he was in anything and I was subbing for cub scouts that night (which I didn't have to do, but I really was the most logical choice), so  I was there for the dinner, but missed the beading ceremony cause I was off building treasure boxes with the bears. Luckily, his parents attended the dinner and were there to see him receive his beads.

On February 12th Glen will be receiving the Silver Beaver Award for the Northern Nevada Council (which includes part of California). Here is the blurb from the scouter.org website:

*****
Silver Beaver Award & Annual Recognition Dinner  

Now is the time to recognize the hard work of your fellow scouters by attending the Annual Recognition Dinner on February 12, 2011 at the Grand Sierra.  We will be honoring the Silver Beaver class of 2010.

JoAnne Baumgart
Kent Hanson
Linda Holmes
Glen Perazzo
Terri Pearson
Jim Shurtliff
Kevin Stebbins
Linda Woodland

The Silver Beaver Award is the highest form of recognition that a local council can bestow on a volunteer. Information about the dinner can be obtained from the council office 787-1111.
*****

Glen's upcoming play season includes The Psychic (directed by nephew Michael), The Secret Garden, and An Enemy of the People. Plus he still has to choose plays for his Junior High students.

Andrew is still in Ames serving as a missionary and doing well. Five months to go. I have to say, though, that I'm not really counting. Every once in a while I check. Now our nephew Adam finishes his mission in Michigan on the 23rd of this month. Amazing. Can't wait to see him and hear his stories!

Eric has started classes at the community college for this semester. Three are online and 2 are evening classes (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Plus he goes to Institute on Thursday nights (a religion class for college-aged students). This means that I am chauffeuring Eric around a lot, but I don't mind. And of course he reads a lot, picks at the guitar occasionally, and has just gotten his learner's permit for driving (so maybe I won't be doing all the driving for him soon).

Swimming practice has started for Ryan...and he then had swimmer's ear and had to sit out the second week of practice. Instead of swimming, he got some conditioning in by joining Hannah for her track team practice. He should have his Eagle Board of Review soon, and if he passes that, he and Eric will have their  Eagle Ceremony. He still has his learner's permit.

Hannah, who is counting the days until she gets her learner's permit on June 1st, started track practice when Ryan started swimming practice. It is so beautiful...they both have practice on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3-4:30. So, Glen just works at school and brings them home together. Love it. She and Ryan have been attending most of the home basketball games (they have a cousin, Michael, on the JV team and a cousin, Brent, on varsity) and having a great time cheering.

Alex is reading up a storm these days and recommends these books: Magyk, Flyte, Dragon's Breath, and Once Upon a Curse. He loves making smoothies. He is doing well in school. I guess that covers the life of a 10 year old.

I, Beth, continue plodding along. Don't know if my goal of paying off the mortgage by July 1st (when Andrew gets home) will be realized, but at least we'll be close. Which is good considering what the future holds (less pay, 2 kids in college, need a new car soon, summertime trips). My weight, cholesterol, triglycerides, and thyroid hormone levels are all high, so I need to spend more time on my health.

I like to listen to audiobooks when I'm in the car or cleaning and I just picked up To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I almost didn't get it, but am so glad I did. I am one of those who doesn't like to read (or watch) painful things and Glen's put on the play before. I know it's a painful story. But it's a classic and I felt I should at least give it a try. I am loving it. The painful *stuff hasn't started yet, but I am just so enthralled with the language and happenings of Scout and her family and friends (which the play mostly misses). Fabulous. Fabulous. Fabulous. We'll see if I still say that when I get to the trial.

As for reading books and not just listening to them, I am currently reading several. I am almost half-way through To the Rescue, which is a biography of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I especially recommend the chapters on his childhood. It will give every parent hope. Not that he was bad, but he was a little rascally. Fascinating story. Some of the "coincidences" in his life are awesome.

I am half-way through The Other Side of Heaven which is the story of Elder John H. Groberg's mission to Tonga. It's been made into a movie, which we own and love. There are some more lessons and introspection in the book than the movie, and of course it's fun to see what they rearranged for the movie. Once again, it's a fascinating story.

I'm Not Perfect, Can I Still Go to Heaven? Finding Hope for the Celestial Kingdom through the Atonement of Christ by Anthony Sweat is a book recommended to me by my sister. She gave me a Deseret Book gift card for Christmas and I used part of the money to buy this book (and it was on sale for half-price!). Brother Sweat is a seminary teacher and though the book is fictional it is based on his interactions with the teenagers he has taught. Good read.

I am also reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Spanish. I got it for my birthday. I am trying to improve my Spanish and I have discovered that reading a book (that you already know and love) in a different language really is a great way to work on your foreign language skills. I occasionally listen to movies in Spanish, too. My reading skills are definitely better than my listening skills. My goal is to read 6 pages a day. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. That's OK.

So, life is good and we are doing well or well-enough.

*I know that the English teachers push not using the word "stuff" but I'm doing it anyway. I like the word (since this isn't a formal paper, I think I can get away with using it).