Something Virtuous, Lovely and of Good Report and Praiseworthy

Recently my old friend Katie posted about her daughter appearing in an Xfinity commercial featuring a new technology to help visually impaired people navigate in finding movies to watch. Their daughter Emily has been blind since birth. When Katie first sent the link I was curious about what technology could help the blind watch movies...and I wanted to see what part Emily would play in all this. I had no idea that her story and her imagination would be the whole focus of the project -- and the lengths that they went to to bring her vision to life. It was beautiful. I wanted to share it.

Apparently it aired tonight during the Oscars.




They also made a short documentary, narrated by Robert Redford, of the making of Emily's Oz.






Also, the Grove's did an interview this week on the Today show. I love that I got to see the whole family in this one. They are some of our favorite people and they moved out of state several years ago so we haven't had much opportunity to see them.



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I love this so much. I been smiling and smiling. There is good in the world. Thanks Katie and Tyler - we love you guys! And well done Emily...what a personality!
:)

Middle School

Our resident middle schoolers after the middle school dance today. Noble coordinated with half the boys in the 8th grade in wearing red(ish) bow ties and check out how cute Grace's new kitty skirt is!

Noble is in student government and serves on the dance committee. Today they put on their Valentines dance (almost a week after Valentines -- but who's keeping track?). The kids were largely in charge, so there were a few gliches --- like how the kid tasked with bringing the sound system bailed last minute and Noble had to scramble to get our drums amp packed up and back to the school in time for the dance. All in all it appears to have been a success. It doesn't sound like there was a whole lot of actual dancing going on, but plenty of goodies, balloons, loud music,  and Noble reports that an entire group did the worm across the gym floor.  I call that success!

The Way It's Done

I don't know that my life is busier than other people's lives. We all fill our 24 hours. But keeping up with six kids, a puppy, a husband working 2 jobs (and studying for his CFP), busy church callings (several), the house and bills, the cars (3), volunteering at school, and LAUNDRY....

It takes coordination. 

This morning as I was reviewing my weekly To-Do lists over a bagel and yogurt for breakfast I got the notion to take a snap shot of my clipboard. This clipboard is the secret to keeping things running around here ( project lists, shopping lists, school flyers, Dr.'s reminders, the dog walking schedule, To-Do's, important contacts...).

It seemed to me that it would be so interesting someday to look back at these details of our day-to-day life right now. It's a pretty good summary.

Just a few from the list:

* Yoga, scriptures (repeated)

* Scout Store

*Noble eye exam

*Pooper scoop

* call Midvalley Glass (another broken window)

*Make New Beginnings program

*PAY BILLS

*Basketball practice Jessie

* Ma / Pa Trek Meeting

* laundry (repeated)

I think everyone should take a picture of their To-Do lists for posterity.

River Makes a Visit to the Vet

It was time for River to be neutered.So we made his appointment for last Friday. He spent the weekend laying around looking like this. Poor guy.

In the end it hasn't slowed him up much. I had my fingers crossed it would help bring down the energy a notch. Oh well, we will just have to stick it out till his puppy phase has passed.

Everyday

I take more pictures these days with my phone than with our camera, which is too bad because the photos are not the best quality. But then again, it means that I get more candid moments because the phone is more handy. Here are a few from my phone over the past week or two. Images that tell the story of our life.

The most handsome man in the world lives here.

 #6 had an accident with the kitchen stool one day last week. He fell and hit his ear on the corner of the stool back. He kept waking up after he went to bed that night crying that his ear hurt; I worried that maybe he'd done some internal damage. I asked Mike to give him a blessing and called my dad at 10:30 to come and help (thank you Dad!). I am so grateful for the priesthood. This is Abner after the blessing. All is well. The next day he had no complaints.

 On Friday Tillman had a few school friends come over to "work on a project". Tillman had offered no further information when he asked if his friends could come over so I assumed it would be pretty straight forward and simple - maybe some research, writing, maybe putting together some kind of simple presentation. I learned my lesson: always ask for more information. Turns out it was a bit more elaborate. After dropping them off after school with Noble in charge, I ran to do some quick shopping for dinner. When I walked in the door they met me with their demands: a circuit board, wires, a power source and something to build an electric vehicle with. I stood there for a minute completely confused. What? What kind of project was this? They (in their cryptic 5th grade speak) explained that they had to build something that would move on its own using electricity. I asked if there were any official printed instructions I could look at because the stuff they were telling me made no sense. It seemed pretty complicated. 

Plus, it was due Monday, so his was their only shot at it. And we had like an hour. I drew a blank. 

Noble had been home from school that day incapacitated by a pinched nerve in his shoulder.  As I listened to Tillman and company I became more confused by the second, and I was in the middle of about 20 other things demanding my attention that afternoon. The surprise arrival of this crisis definitely threw me off my groove. Luckily I had Noble.  In desperation I looked to him and asked what we should do. Oh how I love, LOVE this engineering son of mine! Together we were finally able to get clarification about Tillman's project. Noble determined that we needed a small 1.5 v motor that he found on Hobby Lobby's website for less than $4 and a battery pack. And we decided that the vehicle could be constructed out of Legos. So the 5th graders and I ran to Hobby Lobby while Noble searched for gears and components in the Legos. Then he helped (*did most of the work*) put it together and tweaked the design till it functioned. I told Tillman that he had to give some credit to Noble in their presentation.

Noble is AWESOME in a crisis. He's like the Melton version of MacGyver. 

Post Script: Noble visited the Chiropractor the next morning for some intensive therapy for his pinched nerve. He can more-or-less stand up straight now. Notice his kinked posture in the picture. He definitely earned some respect by diligently stepping up that day when he could barely even move. Fist bumps.