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A lot has happened since my last post, and I assume the same is true for you too, this is a busy time of the year. Hopefully you have some way to process what happens with you, this is mine, and I thank you for listening.

As I recall, my last post dealt with the Great Giveaway. After that was Monday, which was mostly finishing up the Great Giveaway, taking tables back to whoever we borrowed them from, taking to the dump whatever wasn't taken, and then collapsing, and recovering mentally and physically from the weekend.

Tuesday was a lot of fun. This particular Tuesday was Student Oceanography Club (SOC), at the MBA. The theme was "Seabirds" which can be really broad, but was focused on two kinds of seabirds, penguins and albatross, which included a visit from the only albatross in captivity, IN THE WORLD! Pretty cool, I even got to touch her, such a unique experience.

Wenesday was fairly quite, as I recall, just school and Nutcracker. The one really memorable moment was with the whole family watching a movie called "Christmas in Conneticut". The plot is irrelevant to the best part of the movie. All of the main characters are at a dance, and one of them hits a woman in the face with his elbow! I know, darkly funny, but his ignorance, the woman's reaction, and the fact that it made it into the movie added up to be something very funny. Props to Mom for spotting it!

Thursday was filled with school, Nutcracker practice, preparation for a trip to Fresno (more on that later!), and watching 3 episodes of CSI. That last event is mostly my brother's fault, he just had to get something when we went to the library. I got some very intresting books from the library, and I have really enjoyed them all. (All the ones I have read at least) So far I have read Freakanomics by Steven Levitt and Steven J. Dubner, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venktesh. I am working on reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollon. All of these books are very interesting, but for different reasons. I would have to say that Gang Leader For A Day and The Omnivore's Dilemma are the most to my liking. Both are to some degree systemic studies, and explorations of how to fix the flaws in those systems.

The trip to Fresno began early Friday morning, with everyone piling into the car, at varying degrees of wakefulness. 3 hours later, we arrived at our destination, the Vhears house, family friends who we have been friends with for nearly my whole lifetime, if not longer. Our families are the kind of families that just go together, they have 7 kids, my family has 5 kids, they homeschool, we homeschool, we are a rag-tag band of holigans in public on occasion, they are too. Put us together, hilarity is bound to ensue. Over the three days we stayed with them, plenty of hilarity ensued.

Friday was a time of settling in, reaquainting, and Josiah sleeping. Josiah, 14, slept more than 5 hours in the time after we arrived, which was a bit crazy, because he was just fine. The only major event besides Josiah sleeping was the fetching of the tree. The husbands, and all the children over 3 went to purchase a tree, which ended up being a blast! Someone had brought along a soft leather ball sized like a softball, and the whole patch of trees turned into an arena, with games of catch, monkey in the middle, and dodgeball. Eventually "someone just walked by that beam and it totally broke", causing trees to fall to the ground. Right about then my foot began hurting (it had (has) a nasty bruise on the big toe) so I sat in the car, waiting. Most of the rest of the time was playing games, eating (Thank you Sherri and Mom!), and being silly.

Saturday morning, for me at least, was spent tagging along with Josiah to his debate team's practice event. I was conscripted as a judge, and ended up hearing (twice!) why the U.S. should stop giving food to India and give more money for food to India. The first round was intresting, the second redundant. I could have argued both sides the second round, because I heard the same 5 or so points repeated ad naseum the first round. Once Josiah and I arrived back at the house, we played more games, ate more, and then after dinner watched a movie. "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". WOW! Just the sheer amount of comedic talent made it fun, seeing all the greats working on one project. The movie, without any big names, stood on its own feet, 3 hours of incredibly humor, on a couple levels, some great slapstick, but also some very funny puns, references, and double ententredes. While we were watching that, Gabi came home from her debate event somewhere not within a day's drive. Gabi is very similar to me in how we fit into our families, her older brother is out on his own, so she is acting oldest sibling, I am also like that, but because of Alex's handicap. Both nights, everyone went to bed later than 12, and some of us slept in. That night a bit of packing was done so that the next day we could easily jump in the car and be ready.

Sunday was probably the craziest day, specifically Sunday night. The morning/afternoon followed the familar pattern of eating, playing, hanging out, etc. That evening however, everyone loaded up into the two Suburbans, and walked through a neighborhood decorated for Christmas, then driving down "Christmas Tree Lane". People are really crazy about Christmas sometimes. There is a fine line between decorating and overdoing it, and that line is pretty hard for people with big houses and small lives. I will admit the fun part was just hanging with my friends. The chaotic event of the evening came at the Starbucks drive-through. I was in the Vhear's car, which Vance, the driver, turned off as we were sitting in line. When Vance went to start the car back up, nothing happened, so we ended up pushing the car out of the drivethrough. Normal type of event for us, things like that happen.

After arriving home at 1:30 Monday morning, I slept for 5 hours, then woke up for my last homeschool day at the MBA. I had fun, like always, but there was one moment that really stuck out as I was recollecting. I was at the coloring table, and a little girl came up and started coloring; she looked to be about 7 or 8, and she enjoyed talking more than coloring (I don't know anyone like that). We talked about animals, which one she likes, how she wanted to work at the Aquarium, how she likes bugs and baby harp seals, and then "Andrew and I really like animals, we love zoos and other places with animals and stuff, we find things everywhere, not just zoos. Andrew is my friend, he's a boy." Not only was her passion for animals encouraging, but her clarification of the fact that Andrew was a boy was so sweet and innocent. Things like that are why I love the Aquarium.

Tonight (Tuesday) is the dress rehearsal for the first act of the Nutcracker, very exciting! Most of today is going to be running errands. I imagine that I will have a post Sunday, probably.

Thanks for reading, have a great day.