birthday season

There have been 5 birthdays in our family since I last posted. The last post was just before Alex's birthday in October.

He has since finished his Eagle Scout project (weeding outside and then doing some painting inside the Old Harmon School building) and submitted his paperwork on time (with a few hours to spare). We are still waiting to hear from the scouting office that he has earned his eagle.

So, Alex is now 18. As an employee of Dairy Queen, he was given an ice cream cake for his birthday. It was decadent and delicious!

He is at an exciting time in his life as he has just 1 1/2 weeks left of his high school career. He finishes his 2 community college class this next Wednesday and then his 2 high school classes the Wednesday following. He is working on his mission papers, but that will take some weeks to complete before he can submit them.

Next in the birthday line up is baby Joy. She turned 1 in November. As she lives in Mesa, we did not get to celebrate with her. :( But Happy Birthday Joy!

Joy's birthday was a fun anniversary for me...it was day 365 of my Duolingo streak. Duolingo is a language learning site. They currently offer 37 different languages (including the made up language Klingon from Star Trek). Today is day 387 of my streak. Too much fun!

Eric followed with his big day 5 days after Joy's, turning 27 years old just before Thanksgiving. Our new tradition seems to be to skip the birthday cake and just have ice cream (he did request birthday cake ice cream--it's an actual product, in case you didn't know), but our 2 stores here didn't have it, so we had to settle on other flavors. It was still delicious.

Hannah turned 23 at the beginning of December. No cake. Just ice cream. No pictures. :( (bad momma).

Today is my 57th birthday. My friends and I got together earlier this week and used our silhouette cutting machines to craft as my "party.". We made address stamps using a silhouette mint, a plaque, an etched pie plate (mine reads "if you can read this you're too late), and a serving dish. Fun!

Last night the community college had the art show reception. Turns out one of my pieces (a heart-shaped box with a panda on it) earned a ribbon! I totally love making pottery!

Had our first snow this week. Tuesday morning there was some snow, a lot of which had melted by the evening. The next morning there was a lot more snow with a 2 hour delay start time for school to give the roads a chance to be cleared. It's beautiful out. I love to hear the snow crunching as I walk in the hushed silence.

My parents are currently staying with us for a bit before they travel on to spend Christmas at my sister's in Vegas. I love visiting. It's a great time of the year.

We are looking forward to the end of the semester, Christmas (I haven't even started decorating yet...that will probably happen later today or tomorrow), and the start of the new year. Hopefully, I won't wait 2 months in between posts in 2019.

Happy Birthday Angeles, Eagle Scout project, museum class, and pottery

First off, Angeles had a birthday last week. Happy Birthday, Angeles! Wish we could have been there to celebrate with you. (I stole this picture from facebook--facebook is great for that)

Alex will be 18 in 10 days. In scouting that means he has 9 more days to finish everything he needs to become an Eagle Scout. He has all the required merit badges, so he just has to complete his Eagle Scout service project--which was started yesterday.

A mile from our home is the old Harmon School, which my father-in-law had attended as a child (which has long since not been used as a school and is owned by the Harmon School Preservation Association). It sits vacant 99% of the time and has been the target of vandals quite often...as often as Friday night. Saturday some of us gathered to handle the weed situation around the school. We hope to be able to go in and paint a few rooms and well as over some graffiti this week.

Every year our local museum has a lecture series in the fall that is open to the public and that teachers can take for 1 credit, helping them to earn credits to renew their teaching licenses. Glen has been taking this class for years (every year is a different theme with different lectures so it is not considered repeating a class--which would have meant Glen could only take it once to earn credit for his license renewal).

Anyway, this is the first time I've taken the class with him. The topic this go-round is the Roaring Twenties: Booze, Brawlers, and Broads (yeah, not a topic I would typically be interested in). Last week we had our first class. Our guest lecturer came up from Vegas where he is a director at the Mob Museum. His topic was "Nevada's Rocky Relationship with Prohibition." It really was quite fascinating. Next week's guest lecturer will speak on "Tonopah's Soft Drink Parlors and the Rise of the Reno Gamblers."

Friday night the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and Glen, Eric, and I attended the homecoming football game. Well, at least the first half. It was a blow-out. We scored in the first play. Final score was 55-0. Our star quarterback as well as other football players and members of the Homecoming Royal Court are also in the marching band. I loved seeing them during half-time in their football uniforms, formal dresses, and band uniforms performing. Too much fun.


And, my pottery class is in full swing. We learned to throw pots on the wheel 2 weeks ago. I have 5 drying and 3 that had to scrapped. Last week we were taught how to make a coil pot. I am having such a blast!

my coil pot...still needs to finish drying then be fired and glazed