Spring

Someone once asked Ernest Hemingway how did he write his stories. He stated that first I have to clean the refriderator. I am in that mode today, my house desperately needs to be cleaned, yet here I sit at the computer!

We are having one of those freaky spring days, dropped down from the high 60s/70s to frost this morning. Had to cover the 2 tomatoe plants we bought to get early 'maters from. We have them in a sunny south location so they should flourish if they don't freeze tonight.

We have had a beauitul spring. It's been colder than usual so the spring bulbs have lasted forever. I think the tulips have been blooming since Easter. The azaleas are getting ready to bloom, the lilacs are blooming and so is the virbenaum. The later has the most fagarent smell. Just drifts on the breezes.

A Full Weekend

This has been one of those go at full throttle weekends, or at least Friday and Saturday were.  Thursday night Jake came home from play practice with the information that We were hosting Saturday night's cast party.  We have been telling him it was okay to invite people over so couldn't really object.  So Friday kent and I spent cleaning the loft and straightening up the garage which we have been doing anyway.  We worked until 5:00 on Friday, got cleaned up and took Mom and Dad to the VFW (they treated) for dinner then off to the school for the first night of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  They produced this musical when Alix was in 9th grade and she had a small part.  Jake was Reuban, one of the 12 sons of Jacob.  This musical is reknown for being produced different everytime it is done.  This time around
Reuban had an entire song to sing and Jake did an absolutely marvelous job of it.  I can't count the number of people who came up to me to say what a good job he did and they didn't know he could sing so well.  Well, frankly we didn't either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZxwJd7JxY
 

Update

Back in January I talked about working at the spagetti supper to earn money for Jake's Music Boosters account.  Last week the Singers went to Chicago on a 4 day event.  I didn't have to give the third payment as Jake had $260.00 in his account.  All of that was earned working 2 events, Summerfest (I planned and bought all the food and worked all day) and the Spagetti Supper.  

Everytime we have events like the Supper and Summerfest it is a nightmare to get volunteers.  If they would only realize how much money they can make for their kids' accounts by going beyond "show up for a 2 hour shift" mode.  

Eagle Scout!

Last night was a landmark in our household, Jake attained the rank of Eagle Scout.  This is an honor that is hard to achieve and few young men manage to do it.  Since Scouting started in 1912 only 1.5 million young men have attained the rank.  Jake joins the legion of such men as Sam Walton, Ozzie Nelson, Neil Armstrong and John Tesh.

Jake joined the troop in January of 2003 as a 7th grader.  He turned 13 shortly afterwards.  Many of our troop's Eagles have been earned by young men who started scouting at 11 years of age.  They usually attain the rank as 15-17 year olds and then quit scouts shortly thereafter.  Because Jake stayed active in the troop he has provided leadership to the younger scouts that previous Eagles have not.  Our current Scoutmaster is so high on Jake and his leadership that it almost makes a parent blush.

This has been a good month for the boy.  First he was accepted at his first choice school - an extremely prestigious selective all male college, then he scored 2/3 of the cost of attendance with a merit based scholarship.  Now Eagle - life is good.

Misc.

Just a catch up blog to bring you all up to speed on things here in Indiana.

• Daddy fell again last week next to his pickup in the back.  He tripped and fell.  No bruises that I know about.  I had to lift him up by his belt.
  
• Kent is home.  He spent March in ATL going thru training for a new plane, the 737-800. This plane goes all over, South America, West Coast, etc.  He already loves it.
• Mom and Daddy are pretty close to putting the Gaylord house on the market.  The roof still leaks around the chimney so that has to be addressed.  Mom was worried about the market up there but someone pointed out that you don't HAVE to sell it for less than asking if you're not in a hurry.  They are settling in here very well.  The cottage has been improved tremendously.  
• Mom has continued to walk with us in the morning around the park (1 mile).  Both Mom and Daddy walk around the block (1/3 mile) with the me and the dogs in the afternoon. Daddy has been able to do the walk the last few days without stopping to rest.
• Jake took 4 tests over 2 days at Wabash trying to win some Merit based scholarship money.  We got a letter on Monday that gave us the great news that he had earned scholarships that will pay for about 2/3s of tuition and housing.  He tested in the top 10% of the students on the Physics test and 7/25 were on a subject his Physics class hasn't studied yet.