Spring Update

Since this is the first update since Jan 3, most people have probably stopped reading this. So this is for all the "exceptions" out there. Or should I say "exceptional people" out there?

NASCAR

In February, Rod's brother, David, and his son, Jon, came down from Sacramento for a weekend of NASCAR races. Through a contact at church, we ended up with 4 tickets in the Toyota executive suite. We had seats (both outdoors & indoors) just above pit road, buffet lunch and unlimited drinks, and free Scan-view for the weekend, so we could listen to different channels. If you're not into NASCAR that doesn't mean much, but for us, it was great! Of course, our favorite drivers didn't win, but we still had fun.

CANCER RELAY-FOR-LIFE

In April a club from Rod's school participated in the 24-hour American Cancer Society Relay-for-Life. As a cancer survivor, Carolyn got to walk in the first lap. I'm getting too old to stay up all night in the freezing wind--especially when the teenagers won't stay up!

DISNEYLAND

For Carolyn's birthday in February, I got her 4 days of Disneyland passes. We finally got to go a couple of weeks ago, and had a great time. It's nice not feeling like you have to do everything in one day. We saw a great "Aladdin" show at the Hyperion Theater in California Adventure, then had one of the best meals we've ever had at the Cafe Orleans in Disneyland. We couldn't get into the Blue Bayou, so we had to "settle" for something less. It was great! The "less" was the price. We stayed until fireworks, then relaxed listening to a swing band before the long drive home.

Mostly we do schoolwork and yard work -- both of which seem to be perpetual.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

From Dec 20 - Jan 1, we celebrated Christmas with our entire family. If you count from the afternoon of the 20th to the afternoon of the 1st, that's 12 days.

Holly & Dan flew out from Washington, DC and join Tim & Stef and Carolyn and I for a wonderful Christmas week. They were one of the first flights out after the major DC snowstorm on Sat the 19th.

The most common Christmas gift was Wii, and Wii enjoyed playing it.

Mike & Kallie were in Colorado for Christmas Eve, and had a great dinner in the camp dining hall. We took Holly & Dan to LAX on Saturday, then left on Sunday for Colorado, arriving there Monday afternoon.

We opened more presents on Monday night.

We spent all week enjoying being Grandparents.

On New Year's Eve all the power in the valley went out while we were playing Wii, so we played Scrabble by kerosene lamp and candlelight. We had just fixed hot drinks, so it was a pleasant surprise.

We drove home Friday and Saturday through some pretty cold weather.

If you would like to see more pictures of our Christmas, here is a link to Snapfish

Now we are trying to get ready for school tomorrow. Like we'll ever really be ready. :)

The best kind of homework

As an AP Government teacher, it has been a real treat to spend a couple of days as a tourist in the Washington, DC area.

We took a "Monuments by Moonlight" tour of DC on Sunday night.

This picture is through the window of our tour trolley.

This is the Washington Monument from the FDR Monument across the tidal basin.

After Dan's promotion on Monday morning, Carolyn and I visited the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. We even got to sit in the court for a tourist lecture.

It was raining as we walked around the Capitol building.

Today we visited Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello. Very impressive.

For lunch we ate at Five Guys Hamburger, which is supposed to be the East Coast's version of In-n-Out, complete with red and white ceramic tile. Not!!!!! Can wait to get back to the real thing!

Tomorrow we plan to go visit the home of James Madison, that author of the Constitution. Now this is my kind of homework!

Major Daniel Hayden

On Monday, November 23, we got to attend the promotion ceremony of Dan to the rank of Major in the United States Army. It was a great ceremony. Dan was promoted along with one of his college-ROTC buddies, while a couple of others of his Army ROTC buddies, and most of his family were able to attend. To have it take place in Washington, DC was even an extra plus.

Congratulations, Dan!

Fall in the High Desert

I know it's not the real fall that people get in the North or on the East Coast, but it's what we get here. There's a little bit of color, and a little bit of cool. Our high temps have been in the 60's a lot, though we still get some 70s. Lots of sunshine. We haven't had any rain since the first week of June -- and that was unusual.

So today was spent raking up leaves, cleaning out old flower beds, and general yard work. Soon it will get too cold for that.

This coming week is the last game of our high school football season. Even though we lose, it is fun to go to the games. There's something special about a cool evening in a high school football stadium. So the seasons change here, too.

Soon we will be traveling to Washington DC and North Carolina during Thanksgiving week, then to Colorado between Christmas and New Years. A lot more weather variety coming up, that's for sure!

Daylight Losing Time

So it got dark in the afternoon. Not ready for that!

Last night we got all ready for the Trick or Treaters, but there weren't as many as before. Carolyn's class carved our pumpkin, and even made a scarecrow out of some of our clothes and newspapers.

So we sat them on the porch, and even sat out there ourselves. It was a pleasant evening, and we enjoyed the kids who did show up. Now we have a ton of chocolate left over. Poor us :)


We got a new bed for Coda, so she has one in the kitchen and one outside. She seems to like it a lot, if she would ever stay awake long enough to enjoy it.

Fall Festivities

School is in full swing. Carolyn is enjoying 1st grade, as much as she hoped. School also means Friday night football and Saturday activities -- in addition to grading papers.


My club called T.H.E. C.L.U.B. had a float in the Hesperia Days Parade. The kids built a little Ronald McDonald House, and we advertised that charity. We often cook meals there on Saturday nights.


We went to the Saturday NASCAR race on Oct. 10. One of my students gave us pit passes, so we were down there during practice. We got to see our favorite car up close. I also went down on Friday for qualifying, and got to see some of the drivers up close. I even shook hands with Jeff Gordon.

This weekend was our annual Missions Fest. We had several ministry partners with displays at church, and I preached a missions message titled, "Turning the World Upside Down" based on Acts 17.1-15. (I was assigned the passage based on our preaching rotation, so I turned it into a missions message.)

We were sitting on the patio at night listening to Harry Potter books, but now with school work and cooler weather, we are getting behind. Of course, I think the NFL on TV has a little bit to do with that, too.