Middle School!

Savana again impressed me beyond words! I've said it before and, I'm sure, I'll say it many more times in the future: she is truly the bravest person I know. She faces down dragons on a weekly basis and never wavers in her stance.

This week's challenge? Middle School Orientation! She is switching schools this year and heading into the unknown. It's a bigger school with new classmates, teachers, and choices. She's been at the same school, with the same group of kids, since Kindergarten. She now leaves that all behind and starts anew!

Orientation started out intimidating and escalated! The first task...opening her 1st locker! It didn't go well. Luckily, it didn't go much better for most of the other kids, either. She was allowed to bring the lock home with her and had mastered that bad-boy by bedtime!

Next, picking an elective. She had to decide, in under one hour, whether or not to take band. It was a big decision. If she wanted to take band at all in the next 7 years, she had to take it now. If you miss 6th Grade Band, we were told, it's extremely difficult to catch up later. Poor kid is still intimidated by the whole music process. Unfortunately, her Mom and several teachers were telling her that she should take band but she was leaning more toward swimming.

I went to talk to the music teacher and Savana sat in the bleachers trying to keep it together and not cry. She was mostly successful, with just a few tears escaping and sliding down her cheek! What a sweetie!! I really felt it was important for her to give band a try. Afterall, she could always try something different next year if she couldn't keep up! So, I cheated!!

I sat down next to my brave soldier and threw the biggest stick I could think of: traveling without Mommy! I told her that, if she stayed with band, she'd get a chance in High School to travel to Juneau (or other places) with the band and without me! She cocked her head and gave me that 'yeah, right' look (the one that says she knows I'll chaperone if there is any possibility) and gave me a little smile!

She took the pen from my hand and circled band on the elective sheet! Another dragon goes *poof*!! Now we'll just cross our fingers and hope it's not a disaster!

I can't wait to watch this clarinet slayer blossom :)

Deadliest Catch Story

How cool is this?! The crab boat Northwestern from Discovery Channel's show Deadliest Catch was docked in Craig today so we headed down to take a look. They were very accommodating to those of us who wanted to gawk for a bit. However, their insurance guys will be pleased to know, they refused to allow us on the boat to take a picture!


We got to meet Matt Bradley and Edgar Hansen. They were extremely nice, very friendly, and (as you can tell by the picture in which they stole Savana & Brynna's sunglasses) a lot of fun!

How cool are Edgar & Matt...they took the girls' sunglasses and wore them for the pictures!!

As I told them, everyone down south always wants to know if I have a Deadliest Catch story...now I do!

You can check them out at http://www.fvnorthwestern.com/ .

My New Dream Car

Well, the girls and I are home in Alaska...happily soaking up the rain and clouds! Don't get me wrong, I miss my family terribly but I was sick and tired of 90 degree days in the sun and fun! (Not that I would actually leave the cool air-conditioned house on those yucky days...do I look like a beach bunny?!)

Anyway, I tried to convince Van that we could afford this beautiful Lotus but he is SUCH the party pooper. "Where would you drive it? Gas is $3.80 a gallon! It's not a good family car." So on and so on...what a pessimist (or, as he says, realist)!!