Yay Pictures!

Well, we couldn't figure out the problem with posting pictures to my blog.  So we had to move into Flickr and work through that.  I have finally figured out how to get everything done using Flickr.  So I have pictures.  For some reason I have been unable to just write-blog due to the lack of pictures. 

Here we all are with my 99 year old grandma.  We were so excited she got to come to Utah to see us all.  She will be 100 next April and we hope to have a big party for her!

 Isaac is taking Art at school.  He loves to draw so we figured it would be a good fit.  He is awesome at it.  His last assignment was a city drawing.  It was technical.  Here he is holding it.  He is next to he picture of my brother Aaron.  Aaron drew like this.  In Isaac's drawing, he added a little homage to his uncle.  He put a crack in the sidewalk with a flower growing out of it.  It's something my brother drew and titled "Beauty Amidst Bleakness".  (I need to put a close up picture on sometime!)  At parent teacher conferences yesterday, Isaac's art teacher was talking to another student before us and telling his dad that this assignment was a tough one and his B- was excellent.  Then we get up there and Isaac had 200/200 on it.  An A.  His teacher was so impressed with his work. 

Last week was our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  Officially it is our family's last one.  Not officially, I will be doing Pinewood Derbys as a leader for a while yet.  Sam's car came in 6th overall.  He had fun, though, which is most important.  Sam earned his Webelos badge a couple months ago (I'm so far behind) and has a compass point to boot.  He has been working on more badges to earn more compass points.  yay Sam.  (hi Laurie)

Isaac worked on his 7th grade Science Project recently.  I can honestly say I took no part in the creation and putting together of this project.  I will be earning no grade this year.  Isaac chose to use the hop switch on his air soft gun to shoot at 10, 15, 20 and 25 feet.  He had a great hypothesis and the results were very different than he expected.  And that's as far as I go.  Because I didn't do it, I didn't help, I didn't put the data in.  All I did was buy the board and glue where he told me to glue.  I will, however, much to his dislike, be judging the fair this year.  Only I can't judge his.  But it is awesome!  And this is the basement before the insulation and drywall.

 So here is a recent lesson I've learned.  First, something I already know.  I have a condition called Aquaphobia.  It's a fear of water and it's very real.  So I used that fear as a reason to never have my children learn to swim.  Sick, I know.  But you would think that I would have had them learn very early so that they wouldn't drown.  I mean, I wasn't going to jump in and save them.  But then I would always have Daniel with them in the water.  So it really wasn't a problem.  But then my dear Isaac was working on his 1st Class rank in Scouts.  And one of the requirements is to pass the BSA swim test.  Now Isaac can swim pretty well enough as a self taught swimmer.  But the BSA swim test was more complex.  So I did it.  I signed them up for swim lessons. 

Here is Ruthie (in purple). She is a great little swimmer and has no fear.  Luckily.  She began in level 2 and has advanced to level 3.  Ruthie has recently been sick.  She finally went back to school yesterday.  Whew!

Sam is a little more timid in the water, but he is an awesome swimmer too.  He was in level 2 with Ruthie and advanced to level 3. Here he is doing the back stroke.

Isaac loves this.  He was in level 3 and I was told level 3 is the most difficult level to pass. So I just reasoned that the next set of classes we do they will all be in level 3 together.  No such luck.  Isaac passed and is going into level 4.  As soon as he can do the 75 yards without tiring so much, we'll do the BSA swim test.  Cool!

And then there's the basement.  We had the dry wall guys come in all day Saturday to put it all up.  They are coming each evening and doing tape and mud. It's a long process and my house stinks.  By the family Christmas Party on the 16th, we hope to have  primer on all the walls, the ceiling painted, light fixtures put up and maybe the walls you see here painted.  But most likely the walls won't be painted.  I borrowed a large piece of carpet from my brother and that will help the floor.  Then we'll put some tables, chairs, games, toys and stuff down there.  In 2 of the bedrooms I am going to use chalk to make hopscotch runs and marbles rings.  Then the kids will have something fun to do and the carpet will go down over it all later. 

So there you have it.  There is probably so much more I need to catch up on, but I can't remember right now.  And now that I can get pictures back up, I hope to be blogging more.  After all, this will be a volume to add to my blog book collection!