The Latest and Greatest

Mariah got in a full set of braces, beginning the second phase of her Ortho work. As a four-peat patient family, they said we don't have to start paying until Gib is out of his braces in about 8 months. Mariah chose purple and green bands and so far has been very diligent about her brushing, flossing and fluoride. Halloween is going to be brutal. She got to go to a Sneak Preview of the new High School Musical movie last night for a girls birthday party - they had backstage passes for invitations - very cute!

Report cards came back and everyone did awesome! I'm so proud my kids are such good students because they do it all on their own. I do not stand over them, tell them to do their homework, or remind them of assignments and tests. Mike and I are obviously ready and willing to help if asked, but they only occasionally need us. I get the English papers, Mike gets the math.

Taryn was approached on Sunday by one of the young men at church, asking her to be part of their group costume this year - Power Rangers! She is going to be the Pink one and was asked if there was another cool girl who could be the yellow, since the only other girl who will give them the time of day in the ward besides Taryn couldn't come out for Trunk or Treat. We thought of a likely candidate, a sweet gal who T likes and is a freshman at her school. She agreed to be the Yellow girl Power Ranger. The other 5 Power Rangers are all guys from church. They all got together the other night to start making their costumes out of sweats, cardboard and duct tape, and made plans to meet before Trunk or Treat to watch one of the Power Ranger movies so they could get their "moves down"!!! Sounds like a blast!! (hahaha)

Indy is going to start training as a server soon. She is excited about that. I hope it will develop into a good job field for her to put herself through college. She is putting the finishing touches on essays for college admissions this weekend. It's been hard with work, life, her senior project and tests at school. Our goal was to have everything in this week, but if we can finish it up early next week, she will make the November 1st deadlines for priority scholarship consideration at all the universities she is applying to. Then when studying for mid-terms rears its ugly head, she will be coasting through just waiting to hear back from the colleges. She actually already got accepted into Northwest, but that was last on our list (well, actually, I am not sure it was ever on HER list) and was the practice-test run application.

Gib, I've discovered, is the most closed-mouthed child I have. Tell you what, you got a secret you want someone to keep - tell Gib. I sure won't be able to wiggle it outta him! I'm not giving up, and he sure is making this harder on everyone than it has to be. Man, all he had to do is give me a name and it would have passed over in a day or two, but nooooooo, he had to be all secretive. As a Perfect-Man-In-Training, he has alot to learn about women and secrets. Other than that, Gib is doing well! It's time to start selling Christmas Wreaths door to door (that's always fun) to earn money for his Scout account. Last year he got to go skiing on what he earned selling wreaths.

Some good news from me too! Our preschool received the highest score we've ever achieved in the certification assessment! We've always been a 3 Star program (the best you can be) and this year got a 6.2 something out of 7 which is unheard of!! Go us!

Tonight we have two costume parties - one for Mariah, one for everybody, then tomorrow is Trunk or Treat and Monday is the Colts game at the stadium! What a great few days we have ahead! For the costume party tonight, I think I will borrow some of T's duct tape and Mike & I will be soda vending machines. I saw it when I was looking for Power Ranger ideas for T. You tape the cans to the tape and dangle it around your neck - how easy is that?! Last year we were "lame excuses" - we try to stick to our true personalities here.