Speech meet time of year

Last Friday Zane and Gunnar both earned high enough scores on their speeches to be among the 3 kids from their class to move on to the inter school speech meet in Spokane next week. Zane recited Proverbs 6:16-23, and Gunnar did Lou Gehrig's 1939 farewell address in Yankee Stadium. The boys also got blue ribbons for all A's first quarter.
Signe had her first secondary speech meet today, which involved about eighty 7th-9th graders. She delivered part of Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 "Man in the Arena" speech with such conviction that she was the only candidate chosen from the Historical Oration Category to perform it again in front of all the secondary students later in the day. It's quite special to be among only 7 kids chosen to recite their piece again, and she was pretty nervous as a petite 7th grader (the audience chuckled when they had to adjust the microphone down to her level) to stand in front of the big 12 graders. But she pulled it off great.

The Adventures of Perseus

Gunnar played the lead character of Perseus this morning in his 5th grade play under teacher Miss Clemans. Perseus went on a journey to cut off Medusa's head.

Tiiiiimberrrrrr....

This afternoon Nick enjoyed finally chaining up and dragging down the tree that got hung up on our fence in the wind storm last May. He invested in a nice new chainsaw, so he can get the branches and big stump chopped up for firewood. Later played Pandemic and Cranium with the kids while the rain raged outside, and Lucy didn't mind twisting like a pretzel if it meant snuggling by her master during a football game.

Irish step dancing

I did up Signe's hair while watching Gunnar's game, and immediately afterwards we headed downtown where her dance troupe performed at noon at the Farmer's Market. Thankfully the rain held back, and a nice crowd gathered in spite of the chilly weather.

Productive Saturday

Gunnar's final football game was in the Kibbie Dome today, and his team lost 14-6. Gunnar #44 was in the game for every play as a left tackle and outside linebacker, and had a nice fumble recovery. He is pictured with teammates Ebe Qualls and Ezra Sandmeyer. Ezra scored the only touchdown for the Black Thrashers. Cousin Ransom cane to watch, and Nick talked him into helping to work the chains.

Football

Gunnar's Black Thrashers team won their 8:00am game down in Kendrick, then got in free to the Vandals game vs Appalachia State. The Thrashers teams were honored after the 1st quarter.
Nick is on the sideline training to do something. (I'm not clear what... something about replays). You can barely see him in the middle of the last pic - look for the reddish shirt and bald head. We might need to invest in shirts with Vandals colors.

Sent from my iPhone

Working as a replay official at the Idaho vs. Appalachian State game today.

The face of a dog who is sorry.

Lucy got a late bath last night after noisily discovering a skunk in our back yard. Their meeting was not amicable. Luckily Lucy obeyed immediately when Nick saw the skunk and called her back, so we don't think she was directly sprayed, but she did bring inside with her a pervasive skunky stench. Our house is still mildly unpleasant-smelling this morning, but I can't detect an odor directly on the dog, so I think we had a pretty lucky escape to that adventure.

Lucy gets comfy

It is no wonder that we have a Very Bad Dog, who gets in trouble on a daily basis for curling up on the pillows on my bed (I try to remember to close the master bedroom door now). She knows she is guilty, but discipline hasn't stopped her crimes. I think we can partly blame Signe for encouraging her delinquency.