It's Been Awhile

Taryn complained I hadn't updated the blog in FOREVER.  Well she's right! (Neither has her dad but we'll just let that one go!)  In fact, I didn't blog the entire month of January.  I'm pretty sure we've lost our readership anyways.

Today is a SNOW DAY! Finally. First one of the winter. Patches of ice on the roads do it every time. Recently, Gib spoke of high school students organizing a bucket brigade to create an icy patch big enough to cancel school. They didn't do it and we only had a 2 hr delayed start with the ice storm just barely missing us last week. With the tornado outbreak on Wednesday we all lost a couple hours of sleep from 2-4 A.M. when we had to retire to our tornado shelters (aka the downstairs couch until Mom says run for the closet). We had no cable but we had power so between fb, twitter, and live feed on the computer we stayed informed. My head said it was OK and I really wished I had just gone back to sleep. I think the final tally was 12 tornados in TN - in every county around ours. Everyone say it with me "the bubble of no trouble".  However, the kids' high school had a roof on one wing torn off from straight line winds and there was ALOT of water damage in Upper D and Lower D halls. And yet school still was NOT cancelled, much to the entire county's dismay. C'mon what does it take?! Well, last night Gib said he was with his Ultimate team at a high school event to introduce the sport to freshmen and get them to sign up to be on the team. He was gone longer than I thought he would be and returned in a really good mood. Around midnight, the snowfall of 1" expected started and temps dropped to the teens. And today - school cancelled due to icy roads - coincidence?! You decide.

Taryn is back in the swing of things at MS&T. She had a super long break and was off for well over a month. Knowing her, she is REALLY glad to be back on campus! I am glad she likes it so much and pray for her continued success there. In case anyone was wondering, there is no apparent age limit on blanket forts. I'm sure it is a wonderful place to study.

When I saw the picture on the left, on my teeny tiny iphone screen, I had to look twice to see if it was Mariah or Taryn. The girls were not happy with me at all. Taryn's eyes look really brown - but the real clue is the signature tongue face - that's all Taryn.  It's really kind of strange because sometimes they really do look alot alike and other times not so much. Mariah just exclaimed "WE DO NOT!!!" and I am sure Taryn said the same upon reading this.

  Gib was leaving for backpacking trip and Taryn for college.

Mariah just got over Influenza Flu type A. A slew of OTC meds cost less than tamiflu. I came down with symptoms a few hours later but mine weren't severe and I decided I didn't need the tamiflu (or the expense). It took me a couple days longer to recover than Mariah so there you go - it does just what is says it will. Gib had an even shorter version of it from Friday-Sunday. While the flu shots we all got may not have prevented illness, I do think they helped us not be too too sick during our bout with the flu and since we were miserable enough, I'm glad we get vaccinated every year.

When Mariah returned to school she had 3 days of work waiting for her. One is a big assignment she missed two days of intro for -a research project for an English paper. I suggested something about fashion and she ended up choosing to compare 1920's to 1930's fashion trends and influences. We set off yesterday to
the real bookstore - the one where you can browse in person, turn real pages... anyway, we found this awesome history of fashion book. Within each decade are several chapters devoted to trends of the time, with pictures, sketches, & descriptions of outfits, details about how events shaped fashion and why, and notations next to illustrations to bring your attention to particular details of that design.  It's actually pretty interesting stuff.  She will have everything she needs to get started on her research and hopefully this book will be a resource for the next 3 years in Fashion & Design classes too. An inside look at 3,000 years of Women's Wear:

 One of Mariah's recent sketches. She hasn't had classes in sketching fashion design but she is really good at it naturally.

Mariah received an invitation to join Mu Alpha Theta - an academic honor society for math students in high school & 2 yr colleges. I have to laugh because she keeps insisting she doesn't really like math and I keep insisting it really is her best subject. She is at the age where it isn't cool to be really good at it. She took a phone call last night from a friend and was tutoring her for over half an hour. That should tell her something! Mariah is patient and good at explaining. I almost understood it - well haha not really, I had no idea what they were talking about nor do I want to know. I am just so thankful that my math dyslexia didn't pass to the kids and Mike's math ability gene prevailed. I hope Mariah enjoys Mu Alpha Theta or else I will hear for the rest of my life how much she didn't like math after all.

I am enjoying watching Mariah develop into a beautiful, kind and smart young woman. I'm going to emphasize the YOUNG here and restate that the dating age requirement has been changed to 20. It keeps going up... understandably. She is going to try to talk her way into a job when she turns 15 at Smoothie King. For some reason, she really wants to drive and have a job. If she gets hired, she will save her money for a mission trip with Good Shepherd to Ecuador this summer. She and Gib both hope to go, and whether we can afford it will depend heavily on fundraising success and how the next couple months go for us.






Gib is getting in backpacking shape for another run at Philmont this summer. I am so happy he gets to go again; he has had many great adventures with his Troop, but I think Philmont ranks at the top of the list. These pictures are from the Savage Gulf trip on Martin Luther King weekend.

Other than that, Gib is working really hard at Senioritis - whether it is to overcome it or make the most of it is an open debate. He plays Ultimate every chance he gets and is going to the Y with a friend after school almost every day. Even after a semester of weights, the workout they have started has him grinning in pain at how much his triceps hurt.

As far as the college search goes, we should be hearing soon from Samford with their scholarship award offer. He's been accepted into all the colleges applied to, and final decision time is approaching!  The FAFSA is in and financial aid offers will be sent out probably late Feb/early March. We are going to a preview at UT Martin mid-March and I anticipate that visit will be one in which Gib compares that campus feel/lowest cost of attendance to the next best offer and decides what he wants. In the event that he chooses the cheaper of his options I wanted him to at least get what he wanted in dorm life so I put in a housing deposit at UTM and accepted the scholarship. Well, actually GIB did all this, I was just the vehicle by which it happened. We needn't have worried - he doesn't want the posh University Village apartments I would have chosen for him - he wants the low rent, dorm roomie experience. Taryn helped Gib make his choice as to which hall he wanted. It's good to be Gib and have all us women helping him identify these things. Gib is thinking of majoring in Economics. He's getting an A in that class and finds it interesting, so we say GO FOR IT! I will die laughing if he ever has to read Richest Man In Babylon after all.

Indie is in her final semester at Mercer. Looking back and seeing how much she has grown, experienced, and succeeded there makes us happy and proud. She finally has an easy semester, which she worked really hard to make happen, and will enjoy the last few months until graduation.  However, she hasn't quite perfected the art of total relaxation (Gib could give her a few pointers) because she is applying for a part time job and was accepted to present her research in psychology at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (2013) in April.  Her abstract is on how moral identity is changed through international service aid experiences. She is excited and honored to be chosen as one of the presenters from among 3500 applications of undergraduate students across the country. Wisconsin in April should be lovely! I imagine she is just about done applying to graduate schools. A couple weeks ago she only had 2 left to finish.  

Mike will be Utah bound tomorrow! I know he is looking forward to seeing family and people he knows from Novell as he attends the BrainShare convention. Wonder what it will be like to go as an employee of CHS vs a Novell guy. Once a Novell guy always a Novell guy is my guess.

We will have to do the Superbowl without him here - but I know he is going to love watching it and cheering on SF 49ers with the clan.