School Awards

Everyone loves being on summer holidays!  The boys spent the entire day playing Rayman Legends and Ella spent the day doing, uh, whatever it is that she does.  They've earned a break though because they all did awesome this year.  First off, Deacon achieved his Kindergarten Diploma and despite what Bob Parr would have said about such an award, Deacon looked super cute in his mortar board.

Tyson won the coveted Leanne Hills Award for reading a ton of books in class.  This was a great accomplishment for Tyson because he went from not reading very much at the start of the year to being recognized for his reading by the end of it. 

Mason won awards for Language Arts, Academic Student Achievement, and Safety Patrol.  But just when people thought they had seen enough of Mason, he was called up at the end to receive the school's Student of the Year trophy which also came with a cheque for... $500.00!  Wow.  If I'd known that trying harder in school resulted in money in your pocket...  I would probably have a different career today :) 

Not even the challenges of Jr. High are enough to stop this family.  Ella was chosen as the very best student in her Woodworking Class.  The way I see it, one day she could present that plaque to her grandpa Jensen as proof of her worthiness to take over the empire of kitchen cabinet building.

Because the kids all did so well this year, we went out for Vietnamese to celebrate and to perform the Reading of the Report Cards.  I'm really proud of each of them.  But tomorrow they will need to change out of their pajamas at some point.

- C

Deacon turns Six

Yesterday our little man turned one year older and we tried to make it a special birthday.  The meals he chose for his birthday were Fruit Loops for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch.  After lunch we sat down and took a few more tries at passing the very last level of Super Mario Galaxy 2.  Deacon has been my little helper throughout the game and together we found all 120 gold stars and every comet coin.  Doing so, unlocked another mode where we had to find an additional 120 green stars, and only then did it unlock the secret Grandmaster Galaxy.  The final level is called "The Perfect Run" and requires you to do the entire level without getting hit by anything.  After all of our attempts, the day of his birthday was the day that we actually beat the level!!  We were jumping around and high-fiving like crazy.  

Deacon's choice for supper was... naamtok.  And this was Heather's best ever!  It was so good, I had to remind myself that it was Deacon's birthday and instead of my own.

During supper Deacon got some birthday phone calls from his grandparents and cousins.

To celebrate our earlier Nintendo victory, Heather quickly made him a separate cake in the shape of a green star.

And this year we tried something I remember from friends' birthday parties as a kid - money inside the cake.  Everyone else got quarters and dimes but there was a loonie in Deacon's piece. 

After supper we rushed to the baseball stadium to watch the first game we have been to this season.  The announcers wished Deacon a happy sixth birthday over the loudspeaker and a nice boy game him a fly ball he had caught.  We didn't stay right to the end because we had to fulfill one last birthday wish - going out for frozen yogurt and as much candy as you want to put in your cup.  Heather was not too keen for this idea because she is such a savvy shopper and pointed out that the candy would have been a lot cheaper if purchased at the grocery store.  But this is what Deacon wanted and I think it is more exciting this way.  And when I'm writing this blog I actually get the last word.

- C

An Unexpected Visit

On Saturday morning Heather started to tidy up around the house.  I thought that was a great idea and turned my attention to the clutter of the bookshelves and the family room.  Even the kids got involved (not voluntarily) in the big cleanup.  

At one point the phone rang and Heather stepped out of the room to talk.  I was so caught up in how productive we were being, I forgot to ask her about the call.  An hour later the doorbell rang and Heather came down and told me that the door was for me.  I asked her who it was and she got a weird look on her face and just said "it's someone for you".  I walked upstairs feeling a little frustrated with her answer and turned the corner and stopped....

Stopped even thinking for a second.  Because standing in my living room was Matt and Stacie Gruwell, whom I had served my mission with in Thailand.  Matt and I had lived together in the office Elders' house in Bangkok and I had not seen either of these amazing people since my mission over 18 years ago.

In fact, the last time I saw Matt was when I saw him off at the airport at the conclusion of his mission.  After returning home Matt and Stacie had started dating and eventually got married (both very lucky people).  At some point they moved to Pennsylvania where Matt has recently received tenure at Penn State University.  From here in Canada that seems like a world away, or at least that's my excuse for why I couldn't immediately grasp the reality of them both standing in front of me.  Instead, I stood there with a dumb look on my face and just repeated the word "what?" over and over.

It turns out that that they were on a family vacation, visiting different National Parks with their four children.  They were also in this neck of the woods to visit Stacie's sister who had married a Canadian boy and is now living in Calgary (what?).  Obviously, surprising-the-heck-out-of-Rausch was also on their list of things to do.   

We visited for a while but all too soon it was time for them to get back on the road.  I was sad that we weren't better prepared to entertain them and I wish we had known sooner so we could have spent more time together.  But on the other hand, I wouldn't have changed anything because it was such an awesome surprise!  Once we are finished our trip to Thailand this year we will have to start planning a trip to visit the Gruwells and some of the Church history sites in their area.  

I'm just not sure if we'll tell them we're coming...             

- C

Celebrating goals reached.

Last week we went into the city and looked at a '77 Fury.  I had stayed in touch with the owner for the past year and he had just notified me that he was ready to sell it.  I took money for a down payment because I was worried that the car was going to be too nice to pass up.  Fortunately for our budget, there were a couple spots of rust that made it possible for me to not buy it.

The real reason for our trip was to visit a donair restaurant in the North West that had the reputation of being one of the best in the city.  This was a reward we chose for having everyone in the family accomplish the individual goals we had set for the week.  Everyone did a great job and it really made a difference in our home.  The goals were:

Dad - be more patient
Mom - go a week without baking sweets
Ella - don't punch or kick dad
Mason - don't stress
Tyson - perform acts of service
Deacon - eat his vegetables

The restaurant (good but not our favorite) was close to Confederation Park so after we ate we went for a walk together.  We didn't know exactly where we were going but we saw that the paths led all the way to Queen's Park cemetery.

We cut across the cemetery in the direction of mom and dad's grave site and found it fairly easily.  The kids cleaned off the headstone and shared some of their memories of grandpa.  I was surprised when Heather read dad's date and I remembered that it has been that long and he and Deacon had not met each other in this life.  Even sadder to me is that neither kids nor Heather had the opportunity to meet mom.

It was a long walk back to the van and it would take its toll on our little yellow dog who would spend the following day sleeping.  But before heading home to Bayport, we stopped for icecream at My Favorite Ice Cream Shop (the name of the shop, my favorite is actually Village Icecream) and each tried to decide on which two scoops to get.  Hedghog was deadly-good and grape float was also a popular choice for the family.

Such a fun day, made it easy to propose another week of goals.  This week, along with maintaining our first set of goals, our family has decided to:

Dad - push ups and floss every day
Mom - be more patient
Ella - keep room clean
Mason - don't annoy Ella and Tyson (?)
Tyson - personal prayers morning and night
Deacon - no whining

We are finding that small goals like this are easy to attain, especially when everyone is helping to remind each other.  Goals like this are also delicious.

- C

Tyson's Cub Car

The annual cub car rally is real source of stress for me, especially since I don't have much in the way of woodworking tools (or skills if we were going to be honest about it).  This year Tyson wanted to build a car together and we decided that we would make a lego brick on wheels.  The design appealed to Tyson because lego is his favorite toy and it appealed to me because it is almost identical to the unfinished block right out of the box.

Tyson hammered in the wood plugs, polished the axles, and sanded and painted the car himself.  On the day of the rally none of us were nervous because we had decided to build a car that Tyson liked, rather than a design that would be the fastest. 

But then he started to win his races and my case of the butterflies got worse and worse with each heat. It was deja vu from two years ago when Mason's car won 1st place at his rally.

Tyson won each of his races but the overall standing was calculated on the combined times so we didn't know how he was doing compared to the 30 other racers.  In the third heat, his time was bested by four other cars, so it was just like the midpoint setback in the movies.  When it was all finished, Tyson was one of three boys called up and, after far too much suspense for my taste, it was announced that he got first place!  For his prize, he received a $10 gift card for Dairy Queen which we shared for a father and son celebration dinner.

As exiting as Tyson's special day was, I can see a major drawback to having two championship cars in the family...  When it comes time to build Deacon'scar, the pressure is going to be unbearable.

 - C