My Nerdy-ness Is Showing. . .

Zach figured out a way to combine our two favorite games into one and, while I was reluctant to try it at first, I finally gave in and found that it was a lot more fun than I expected it to be.

Settlers of Catan is really a pretty friendly game, for the most part. As the players build communities, they work together by trading and helping one another as they help themselves. Cooperation is encouraged and winning would probably be quite difficult without a little teamwork.

Lord of the Rings Risk, however, isn't friendly at all. The object of the game is to wipe your opponent(s) off the board. Complete annihilation.

When the two games are combined, teamwork goes out the window and strategy becomes the name of the game. The rules are pretty simple and the game play doesn't change very much for either game. It's time-consuming because each turn consists of reinforcing armies, collecting resources, building cities and settlements as well as battling so we may be playing it all week . . . Rob is already making fun of us so I won't go into anymore detail here, but trust me, it's really fun. . .

We played for a few hours on Saturday and things were pretty even. After a few more hours on Sunday evening, Zach made some serious progress into my territory. This game may not take as long as I think. . .

Dr. Seuss. . .

Rob and Kurt have been very involved in a Music Theater of Idaho production of Seussical the Musical at The Civic Center. Every day last week they set up and ran sound for the rehearsals and then Friday night was the opening night. Photography is not allowed due to copyright restrictions so I was limited to taking pictures of the guys in the booth. It's a little bit stressful but they totally have a handle on it. . .

Gloria went to Thursday's rehearsal as well as the opening night. Rob borrowed a cat hat to make me feel a little better about so many lost photo opportunities. . .

The play went really well on Friday night. Most of the actors are kids and they really did a remarkable job. We'll have one more week with roughly 12 more shows. All of the shows are exactly the same except for a few cast changes. The two nights I was involved gave me very strange dreams so I can just imagine how Rob and Kurt will be feeling in a few more days. . .


The one photographer that is allowed to take pictures has a website here:

http://www.pricelessmemoriesstudios.com/

It's worth taking a look at. . .

Thursday. . .

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to drop Gloria off at the farm and pick her up when it was over so this one, cute little picture is all I have to show for Thursday's lesson . . .

Only 4 more lessons to go. . .

School. . .

Even though I consider myself a "math person", I still find myself avoiding Zach's Algebra II book. I know I can figure this stuff out with a little bit of review but it takes a lot of effort so I procrastinate as long as I can. Fortunately for me, Zach does really well at math so I've been able to get away with checking his work every couple of weeks rather than everyday. He only missed one problem on his latest test and I had to force myself to figure out the solution to the problem. The solutions manual has the answer but not the steps to get to the answer so I have to try to wrap my brain around it. My tired, tired brain. This was the problem:

• The area of this figure equals the sum of the areas of triangle AXP and the sector formed by the arc ABC. Find the area of this figure:

I really don't like sectors and arcs and triangles that stick out of circles. In fact, Geometry was one of my least favorite parts of math. . . So, I reviewed the lessons in the book and tried to find similar problems that might trigger something in the far reaches of my brain but there was nothing even close to the figure on the test. . . (I have to bite my tongue and not say things like, "you'll never, ever use this in the real world". . . )

Finally, Zach and I put our heads together and remembered all the right formulas and came up with the right answer!!

It's good to know that my aging brain can still wrap itself around a problem like this and even better to know that Zach continues to learn even when I don't keep up on my end of things!

And while I'm on the subject of school, this was a writing assignment that Gloria did this week. (The instructions were to think about a human emotion and assign each of the senses to it):

ANGER

It is the color of Ruby Red.

It is the taste of Sour Milk.

It smells like something is Dead.

It feels like a Bee Sting.

It sounds like Something Screaming!

It looks like a Volcano Erupting.

Days like this make me glad I've chosen to teach my kids. . . Other days, however, make me wonder. . .

Wednesday Misc

Quizzing. . .


Kid's Club. . .

Youth Group. . .

Set and Forget

Somehow we are managing to stay busy in spite of the slow season. It's not crazy-busy like the summer months, but steady-busy in a good way. The guys have been working on a big production at the Civic Center that will take a big chunk of time over the next two weeks but cameras aren't allowed so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to say about that. . . We also had a set and forget show at the Idaho Expo building that we set up on Tuesday. Well, I didn't set anything up but I did take Coke's and donuts so that should count for something. . .

This is our third year on this event so we know just what to expect and there is another experienced crew working with us so it's really not too difficult. . .

Of course, I can say that because I don't actually have to do anything on this event!!

Once again, all we provide for this set-up are lights. And all the stuff that goes with the lights. . .

This set-up will stay in place for almost a week and then it will come back down.

Not a bad day's work. Especially since I didn't have to do anything. . . :)

Birthday Lunch

We celebrated my mom's birthday on Monday afternoon. . .




Of course, I took lots of pictures . . .

It was the perfect way to recover from all of the house and yard work we did last week to get ready for our re-fi appraisal. Which went really well, by the way. . .

Valentine's Day ? ? ?

On Friday night we received a desperate call from someone who needed lights on Saturday night for a concert. Just lights. No speakers, no stage, not even a tech to run the lights. Just lights. Even though Kurt was busy with two more Saturday comedy shows at the Civic Center, Rob decided to take it on. It was a piece of cake. There are very few shows that go off without a hitch but this was one of them. Early on I handed Zach the camera and these pictures are all from his point of view:

It wasn't until early evening that Gloria even realized it was Valentine's Day. She asked if I would take her to Winco on the way home to buy her a box of Valentine candy and, like any good, thrifty mother, I told her we would wait until Saturday and then she could have two boxes out of the clearance basket. . .

It's OK, I lost my mother-of-the-year award a long time ago. . .