Friday, March 23, 2012

A Busy Week

Dear Elder Leete,

 We have had a busy week.  Dad flew off to New York early Tuesday morning and came back late Friday night.  He enjoyed the conference but described it to me as “drinking from a fire hose”. I guess he was getting an overload of good information.  He liked the location of his hotel- near Times Square so roamed there in the evenings.  He saw Lion King and said that it was phenomenal.  I guess he knows now why we all wanted to see it the last two times it was here in Portland. . . .  He spent the day Friday being a tourist before catching his late flight home.  He took the ferry to the statue of liberty and Ellis Island.  He even squeezed in a quick tour of ground zero before racing to the airport and barely making his flight.  He had a good time and showed us all his pictures this evening.  It wore him out, he went to bed early tonight, and isn’t feeling too good.  We’ll see if he makes it to work in the morning.

 Here back at the ranch we enjoyed the high school choir concert on Wednesday.  Dad had the camera, and mine isn’t working- so this was the first ever concert that we didn’t record.  It was very good.  It snowed, so we had to unbury the car and drive thru snow furies on slippery roads to get home.  Rachel talked me into a night walk in the green space that evening, so we bundled up and headed out at 10pm (Melissa was already in bed).  It was very beautiful and quiet.  Just a little strange to see all the cherry blossoms on the trees covered in snow.  It stuck, so the next morning school was 2 hour delayed.  It was sunny and warm so by the end of the day it was all melted except for some patches and snowmen. After school Melissa talked me into going on a walk with her in the sunshine (quite a contrast from the night before).  We saw that the snow did a number on the cherry trees- many lost some big branches all over the neighborhood.  But I was happy to see the blossoms still there.

 Thursday was the band concert.  They also sounded great.  It just was a little long.  There as a man sitting behind me that was visiting and was totally impressed- he was a grandpa that had been a music teacher at one time- he gave a standing ovation and later I saw him talking to the band director.  I agree that Westview does some pretty awesome stuff- a lot of talent in our area.


Tuesday Rachel planned a fun activity for YW that we all enjoyed.  Everyone came dressed in black.  We played volleyball in the dark with glow necklaces and glow bracelets all over the net.  We had a glow in the dark ball.  It wasn’t glowing too well so I went home and got my old volleyball and we broke a glow stick and smeared it all over the ball.  It looked way cool.  After that we took down the net, put on the bracelets and played soccer.  Rachel had bought only two colors of glow necklaces so we could tell who was on what team.  The deacons joined us later- then it started to get a little crazy….  Everyone had a good time.

Yesterday it was the Winter Classic.  Dad and I worked the doors for a couple of hours so got to see most of the Winter Percussion performances.  I decided that none of them were as good as when my kids were performing!   Westview looked good- they definitely have a style that I recognize.  We weren’t there for finals so I don’t know what the final scores are.

 The girls are now on spring break.  Tomorrow, Monday, Rachel has it planned to go get her drivers permit.  She also has lacrosse practice all week.  Melissa will be having Star Wars marathons- broken into several days- with Cami and Keturah.

 That pretty much covers our week.  Hope yours went well and you had success.  Share with us some of your missionary stories.

Love you lots,
MomJ




Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Cutting Down Trees and Digging a Moat

It was time to fix our sidewalk.  We have been watching the sidewalk move as the tree roots have pushed it up and have known that we needed to fix it.  Well unfortunately we got the push to do it- a walker fell and hurt herself.  So right away we got bids.  The neighborhood gave us permission to cut down the four maple trees- Brian decided to do it himself (he likes to use the chainsaw).  So down they came. 





We hauled them to our back yard and piled up all the branches. As the piles got bigger, and I saw how nice and straight and long the branches where I started to get alot of ideas of what I could do with all those branches!  I started googleing for ideas, pictures and plans and started a board called "Things to make out of Tree Branches".

After the trees were gone, the sidewalk guys came over and started ripping out the bad portion of the sidewalk.

They ripped out this section shown, and all the way to the corner.  They also took out a section up by the porch.  They would grind down another bump further closer to the mailbox (not shown).
Little did they know that the weather would turn, and it would rain and snow for over a month, and our torn out sidewalk would turn into a moat. It wouldn't dry out and be apporved for the cement to be poured until May 11! ( I know this becuase I backdated this entry.)

Friday, March 9, 2012

Westview's Music Man

We went and saw Westview’s Music Man on Friday.  Melissa looked gorgeous as she was all dressed up for the pit pictures and for when they got to parade across the stage for their bow (wasn’t really a bow, just a walk across and down to the pit). We really enjoyed the performance.  Dad is always surprised at the level of talent there is at a high school.  I enjoyed several of the kids from our ward and stake.  The pit sounded great too.
Melissa before the Friday show in her $10 designer dress we found at Goodwill.
(I hemmed it and used the portion I cut off to make straps.)

In the Pit


After the Show