where I talk with my inside voice
In January, I received a summons from St. Louis County to appear for jury duty in Clayton. The letter itself is not surprising – the surprising part is I’ve lived in the county almost my entire life and this is the first time I’ve been selected for jury duty. I showed up around 8:15am and waited around in the assembly...
Noah invited his friend David to spend the weekend at Oberhelman, so we drove out today to hang out with him and do a little target practice. Dinner, as usual, was yummy, and we played a game of Hitster too. It was a good time.
Well, Cosmos canceled our trip (which I had already paid in full), so I had to scramble to find an alternative. Luckily, Trafalgar has a very similar tour with dates that almost matched the other one. Of course, their tour costs more (which is why we went with Cosmos in the first place), and the updated airfare costs more. But...
Because of my volunteering, I was rewarded with the Boeing box seats at the Fox for a performance of The Phantom of the Opera. Because Noah wasn’t home, Josie invited her friend Selby to join us. This production has updated the set, but it is still impressive. I couldn’t resist snapping an illegal photo of my favorite number (“Masquerade”).
We had quite a snowstorm today that left about 8 inches on the ground and made it harder on the birds to find a meal. Lucky for this cardinal that Dixie provides her feathered friends a place to refuel. There’s a short video below.
The Crossroads Arts Council in Wentzville, Missouri, hosts an annual art show that showcases the work of high school students in the area. Homeschoolers aren’t explicitly invited, but they aren’t excluded either, so Josie entered three pieces in the show. She didn’t win, but we were all in agreement that the judging was, if not biased, at least flawed.
This year’s video Christmas Card doesn’t feature as much of Noah since he wasn’t around, but it was still a good year and we had a good time as a family when we were together. I am so proud of both of the kids and their accomplishments.
It wasn’t clear to me when I ordered the tickets back in July that Noah wouldn’t be home in time to go see our annual SLSO concert. He got home the day after. But it was okay, because Grandma Linda took his place, and she had never seen the symphony before. It was a such a good show, with just...
Not only was today the beginning of my two-week Christmas break, but I was also able to announce (finally!) the names of the first Mizzou students to be awarded the Pipes Family Foundation Scholarship. I hope this is the start of a long tradition, although I have to admit the selection process this year was longer and more painful than...
When something online seems to good to be true, go with your instincts. That’s what I learned as part of a recent purchase from a fly-by-night outfit called SantaLike. I did Google them before I placed my order and I did see some complaints on Reddit about the quality of the item, but I figured so much of that is...
The Missouri Botanical Garden hosts a huge Christmas light exhibition every year, but this is the first time we’ve ever gone. Laura invited us to join her and Jane to go see it, and we’re so glad we did. It was so pretty and the lights are really impressive. There was also a model train exhibit in one of the...
The whole trip isn’t booked yet, but last week I was able to get my tickets to the LEGO House Fan Tour and today I booked our flight to Billund. This is part of a larger Scandinavian tour next summer for Dixie and I (no kids this time). We are taking a bus tour of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which...
As per usual, we hosted the family for Thanksgiving, although the crowd wasn’t as big as some years because Laura didn’t come in town, we still had a good time and plenty of Dixie’s great food! We also corrected our mistakes from last year with the new smoker and the turkey was much better. There are a couple photos in...
Since the kids started with Rick Zelle as their piano teacher, this is the first time we’ve been invited to a recital. Josie played I’m Still Standing by Elton John, and did a great job. We are so proud of the kids and their musical abilities. A short video of her performance is included below.
I don’t know if it is actually possible to eliminate hunger in the United States – seems like if it were, we would have done it already – but after witnessing yet another government shutdown that lasted over a month and the suspension of SNAP benefits in Missouri, I proposed to the ECF grantmaking committee that we make an unsolicited...
Ever since I started working the MQ-25 program, I’ve been wanting to build a Lego model of the aircraft. I started working on this in September, and I probably spent about 20 hours in Studio refining the design. It took two weeks to order and receive all of the parts from Bricklink, but it is finally done. I’m happy with...
