February Happenings

The Aristocats auditions are over…thank goodness. Actually, they haven’t done call backs, that I know of. I don’t know if Hannah will get a call back. She was fighting off a terrible chest cold that kept her from really being able to sing good. We’ll see if they look past that and ask her back. There were a TON of kids that auditioned, including some very talented children. Then there were the fairly good children and finally the ones that you just CRINGED to hear. But all were cute, they were all very brave, and it was lots of fun. The kids all had a ball. And surprise of all surprises, after watching ALL of the auditions, Brynne decided to audition, too! I was shocked but very pleased that she felt comfortable doing that. She sang a Primary song: “ducks in a pond quack a happy song” is the first line. Brynne has really been going more “out there”. I noticed that at basketball she is one competitive little person. She is always virtually silent in large groups of people, but she’s got a determination in her.

I have been reading the BEST book! It will inspire and motivate you in your teaching. Any teacher or parent would find this a great book. It’s called “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” by Rafe Esquith. It was recommended to me by Josh’s cousin and our good friend Valerie. So far I am just loving it! I am getting so many ideas for homeschool and family life and things I want my children to learn. It’s fantastic.

We are doing a fun creative writing assignment. I asked the kids what they would do if they took an invisibility potion that lasted for 24 hours. How would they spend their time? We have had fun talking about our ideas. Brynne made a list of her ideas. Hannah is turning her ideas into a story (that was my ultimate goal: to get her writing). I’m trying to find inspiring ways to get the kids to do more writing without making boring assignments. This was my first attempt – an idea from the Rafe Esquith book. I thought I’d come up with a new idea every week that we can work on.

We head to Oregon on the 19th. The kids and I are looking forward to the trip. Josh leaves the same day for New Zealand...but of course, he's not excited. :-) He's relieved to even be going!
He got summoned for jury duty this week. The trial that jurors were being selected for happened to be an attempted murder case of a 17 year old being tried as an adult. It promised to be a longer trial. No quick 1 day thing! Josh forgot to postpone, and so he had to show up on Monday morning to see what would happen. A woman at the courthouse told him to tell the judge that he had a major trip planned, and most likely the judge would assign him to a shorter case. But Josh lucked out completely. The judge announced that the jurors were being released. The prosecution was dropping the case as they didn't have enough evidence.