updates on our children and grandchildren

Yes, in case you missed the reference or thought I made a mistake, come November we will not only have a grandchild, but grandchildren! Henry will be gaining a sister! We are very excited. Is it too early to start buying pink things?

Andrew has just a few more weeks left of his school year teaching 8th and 9th grade English at American Preparatory Academy. Heather finished her semester at BYU last month. And Henry is...

...rocking those shades, as his daddy put it.

Eric is taking a full load this spring semester at BYU-Idaho and is facing mid-terms right now. Good luck!

Ryan is only taking one class this semester and has just landed a second job. Besides working for BYU-I custodial, he will also now be working at Sonic.

Hannah has about 2 weeks left of her math subbing job at Swope Middle School in Reno. It sounds like a love/hate relationship. She seems to love the students, but when asked if she is thinking of switching her major to education, she gives a big "no." Once her subbing job is over in Reno, she'll be moving back home for the summer.

Alex has one more day of finals tomorrow. This summer he will be taking Drivers' Ed. Alex, who is a glutton for punishment, will also be taking an online pre-calculus class so he can take AP Calculus in the fall (along with AP Stats, AP United States History, AP Physics, Honors English, and Video Productions III ...I told you he was a glutton for punishment).

And speaking of Video Productions, here is a promo the class made to, what else, promote the class. Alex is on the screen for about 1 second at 21 seconds in:

Glen, who just had his birthday last Friday, also has one more day of school left. Last Thursday was his annual Academy Awards, which is always a great end to his theatre season.

On Saturday, there was an auction at our neighbors. I stayed for a little bit. Glen and Alan stayed all day. Glen really had fun. I still don't know all that he bought, but an RC car was one of his winning bids.

the ditch next to the auction was beautiful

 As for me, seminary ended last week. I still have seminary things to do, but at a slower pace. I really had wonderful students and will really miss seeing them in the mornings.

I have also been enjoying my Financial Peace University class immensely and highly recommend it to everyone. The last 2 weeks covered debt and "buyer beware." Next week is insurances. It's really fun as well as educational. Awesome, fabulous stuff.

track, H's graduation, DNA tests, G's play, and Mother's Day

The newspaper this week reported on Alex's track meet from last week (which I've already posted about, but since they mention Alex by name, I want to put part of the article here).

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/sports/a-new-generation/

The 4×400 relay team of Alex Perazzo, William Howard, [Tristen] Mathisen and [Zeke] Washington finished third at 4:07.62 , while the 4×100 team of Howard, [Kayden] Orong, [Caden] Bowman and Perazzo finished sixth at 51.34.

"Relays also ran very well," [Coach] Heck said. "I was especially proud of the 4×400. They ran really hard and held off a couple teams to get the third spot." [Alex says that that is not necessarily a good time for the event however]


On Friday May 12th, Truckee Meadows Community College had its graduation ceremony. Hannah didn't want to walk, but she could have. She earned her Associates. Congratulations, Hannah!!!

She obviously loves the balloon we got for her

Instead of attending the ceremony, she attended a Reno Aces ball game. This is what she posted on facebook:

Was there somewhere else I was supposed to be tonight? Oh well. #aceball #betterthangraduation

The Aces played the recently renamed New Orleans Baby Cakes.

My mom's Ancestry.com DNA results came back. We know her mom is of German stock and her dad is French Canadian.

This stuff totally fascinates me. This is how we compare. Numbers in ( ) are considered "low confidence" results. Remember that many areas overlap (Ireland is Ireland, Wales, and Scotland while Great Britain is England, Scotland, and Wales, for example).

                                  Dad        Beth      Mom
Europe West             21%       66 %       50%    wow...I'm more European West than either parent
Ireland                       22           13          21
Scandinavia               32           10          15
Great Britain             12            5             7
Iberian Peninsula      10            (5)         (1)

Then Mom and I each have a 1% "low confidence" of European Jewish.
Then
Italy/Greece             (2)                          (less than 1)
Finland/NW Russia (less than 1)           (1)

And mom has 3% "low confidence" West Asia, which includes places like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and is also found in Bulgaria, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Palestine, Romania, and Turkmenistan. Pretty cool.

Also, Ancestry now has something called "Genetic Communities." I had not seen this before. They are adding new things to their databases, I guess.

Dad has 3:
very likely-Settlers of the Coastal Carolinas (which we know is true)

possible: early settlers of New York (also true)

possible-early settlers of Georgia and Florida (also true)

Mom has 1:

possible-settlers of Western Pennsylvania (I don't know that that's proven, but it's probably true)

I have 2:

possible--early settlers of New York (of course)

possible-early settlers of Northeast (true)

So, Glen's play season is winding down. "Acting Can Be Murder" played Friday and Saturday nights and closes Monday night. One actor couldn't come, so our nephew, Ben, got to fill in. He did a great job. It was a funny play and the audience seem to really enjoy it. I know I did.

Wednesday night Glen's theater I students are putting on a one act version of "Oliver Twist" where Ben plays Fagan. Another one act, "The Gold Mine of Jeremiah Flats," will also be performed that night.

Ben is the actor on the left

Glen, Alex, Hannah, and I played Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Hannah creamed us all.

So, for Mother's Day, Hannah brought the fixins for S'Mores, which we made with the help of the microwave. We also played a game of my choosing. I chose "The Castles of Mad King Ludwig." We got it at Christmas and hadn't played it since. Hannah and Glen had never even played it before. Hannah dominated and made so many points that the score card didn't even go up that high. It was a blast. Of course, while we were playing, we got to talk to Andrew, Heather, Henry, Eric, and Ryan, plus my mom and dad. It was really a nice afternoon. I'm so blessed with a wonderful family.

We had a family dinner with Glen's extended family in the evening. The men prepared the food, as they always do for Mother's Day. Glen's contribution was a huge batch of baked potatoes. It was all delicious, as it always is, and we had a wonderful time.

So that brings us to one more week of seminary and two more weeks of school. It's so cool out this evening it's hard to believe that summer vacation is almost here!