Michael, busy Homecoming week, speaking with a GA in attendance

LAST SUNDAY the 13th Grandma and Grandpa P had a family dinner to honor Michael. He was set apart as a missionary that night. Elder Perazzo entered the MTC on Wednesday (see the side bar for his address). Exciting times!

 

  front row: Alex, Maddie, Michael, and Joseph

 middle row: Thomas, Ben, Megan, Melissa, Daniel, and Brandon

back row: Tyler and Brent

HOMECOMING

It was a Disney-themed homecoming week at the high school and I am so sad, but I didn't get any photos of Hannah on the dress-up days. Maybe I can steal one off of facebook...

MONDAY (Peter Pan day) she went in her pajamas. Glen had his night shirt over his clothes. I originally put on my pajamas and then decided high school girls are so much cuter, so it was up to them to dress up and not me.

Monday was also the Powder Puff football game. Hannah played on the senior girls' team and started each half. Luckily, she was the only one in green sweatpants, so it was easy to follow her (her number was 00, which I thought was super cool). Seniors won 38-21.

TUESDAY (Toy Story day) she went dress as a cowgirl.

WEDNESDAY (Epcot Center--Cultural Day) she went as a tourist with my Uruguay t-shirt, camera, etc.

THURSDAY (Disney classics day) she went as Ariel from the Little Mermaid and used my good serving fork as her dinglehopper to comb her hair.

Thursday was also the day we got to go to the temple with Jiaxin!

Annalee, Nathan, Beth, Glen, Jiaxin, Jason, Denise, and Pat (David and Jackie also attended)

FRIDAY was green and white day and Hannah was with the tennis team in Truckee, California. She and Sam won their first match, but lost the second one.

Since they left at 6 am, I didn't see her at all, but happily I'm learning how to steal photos other people post on their facebook pages (thank you Sammy!). The team goes to the state competition in Vegas this Wednesday.

Sammy, Hannah, Garrett, Josie (in back), Hannah, and Becky

Friday night, after Alex and I went swimming with the scouts, Glen, Alex, and I attended part of the Homecoming Football game...the last quarter of the JV game, and boy, was it exciting. We won. Both games. It was a blast. At least Glen and I thought so. Alex was a bit neutral about the whole experience


SATURDAY
Glen was SUPER busy...
scouting Fall Camperall in the morning
Cleaning up the old Harmon School to get it ready for the church dance.
Putting make up on people who were participating in the zombie run (how fun is that? to have a 5k where you are chased by people dressed as zombies!).
Then he participated in the fundraiser for CAPS...it was an audience participation mystery dinner. They performed the play Next of Kin to raise money for the animal shelter here and Glen directed and narrated the play.
Then he showed up at the fundraiser for Shelly Hubbard--Tournament of Talent.
Then he helped at the school homecoming dance a little.
Then he went to the church dance at Harmon School.

I spent Saturday writing my talk for church, making goodies, and helping with the concessions at the Tournament of Talent. I am amazed at the work my friends, Terra, DonNell, and Jennifer did...I am a worker bee, but they are leaders. It was a fabulous evening and I think they raised over $6,000. My niece, Melissa, played the piano and sang "In the Arms of an Angel" in it. Our friend, Kara, and her daughter, Adia, won the competition. Those were the only 2 numbers I watched as I was usually at the concession stand. They were really amazingly talented.

TODAY--SUNDAY the 20th
So, Glen's High Council speaking assignment this month had him going to the Austin branch to speak (branches are smaller than wards...I was told there'd be about 30 people in attendance). Often speakers bring their families with them. Hannah, Geoff, and Alex came with us.

Just before the meeting starts, I find out that a General Authority for our church, Elder George Keele of the Seventy (our Area Authority), will be there. So, I'm speaking in a meeting where a GA will be in attendance and be the concluding speaker. I tried not to freak out and get nervous. I had been having a bit of trouble polishing my talk and had already been doubting how it would turn out.

Well, it went well enough, even though I lost my place and might have rambled a little and missed part of what I was going to say. It was a meandering talk using the scriptures "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest" and "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. " Those small and simple things being things like scripture study and prayer. If you are interested, I'm posting my original talk (not the scrambled and partially missing parts talk that I gave) to my other blog. Click here.

Afterwards, Elder Keele stopped and talked to us for several minutes and told us how wonderful he thought our talks were. His wife wasn't with him, so he was going to go home and do his best to share my words with her. I guess I believe him, but a part of me thinks that he's just a really nice man and does what he can to make people feel good about their efforts.

We had been invited by Paul and Kelly Young of the Austin branch to their house to have dinner. We had a wonderful time visiting. We haven't just visited with anyone for a very long time. It really was a wonderful Sabbath.

serving us up some dessert

enjoying the dessert

Alex can now claim, "Shotgun!"

Yes, heard today for the first time by Hannah from Alex was, "Shotgun!" as we were going to the car. It took her by surprise. I wonder how long he's been planning that. He turned 13 on Thursday and, according the the airbag advisory in our car, is now old enough to sit in the front seat.  Happy Birthday Alex!

Other big news in our household this week is that for the first time ever, the CCHS Girl's Tennis Team, of which Hannah is a member, won the right to go to State! That will be in 2 weeks in Vegas. Congratulations to the Lady Greenwave Tennis players.

I don't have a photo from this year's tennis, so last year's will have to do:

This next week is Homecoming Week and the Powder Puff football game is on Monday. Hannah will be playing on the Senior girl's team. Should be fun!


Today was our Stake Temple Day. It was a beautiful day to go to the Reno temple.

Ryan and Eric seem to be doing well on their respective missions. There isn't much news from Ryan's direction these last few weeks, but Eric got a new companion a week ago, Elder Loggins, and moved to a different apartment building.

Eric was able to attend the Priesthood session of General Conference last weekend and shook the hand of Elder D. Todd Christofferson, one of the Apostles. Eric has also had a change in his assignment. He now is doing what's called FamilySearch Waypointing. He explains it this way:

My first assignment is Bronx probate records, let's start there: a probate record, like wills and stuff, would take up more than one image, so a Waypointer would "index" the name of the person whose probate it is, once, and then assign a range of all of the pertinent images that that name applies to.

I don't totally understand, but that's OK.

Andrew and Heather are busy with school and work and are planning on coming here for Thanksgiving!


Glen is also busy with school He's busy with a dinner murder mystery that's being performed next Saturday as a fundraiser for our local animal shelter CAPS. He's got rehearsals for the upcoming play "Time Share" that goes on in November--Hannah's in it, by the way. At first she was just going to play the dead body, but she actually has a real role. And last Friday night, Glen portrayed Andy Drumm for the museum. Oh, and there's lots of scouting stuff going on, too.

My long-term sub job is a dream. I am subbing for an all-inclusion teacher, which means that I am not in charge unless they are short on subs (which has happened for 2 different classes so far). I am a co-teacher and just follow the lead of the other teacher. I don't have to decipher lesson plans! I usually go around and make sure the students are taking notes and help them with their math. The teachers with whom I'm working (Lund, Davis, Strasdin, and Marsh) are all fabulous and most of the students are great, too. I have 3 weeks down and 3 to go now.

So, that's what's happening with us. :)