GimletBlog

Thanks to snowstorms, we have had a day and a half off from school this week.  When Thing Two returns to kindergarten, he has something exciting to show the class:  he lost his first tooth!

The tooth has been bothering him for a few days, and we remembered that Bopa was always the one who extracted loose teeth from children and grandchildren (well, just Thing One), usually with the assistance of his vintage dental tools.  (We don’t know how or why he ended up with these terrifying implements, but a visit to the regular dentist was tame in comparison to Bopa’s tool kit.)  He would have removed the tooth long before now, but finally at lunch today Thing Two was having difficulty eating, so it was time for the tooth to go.

The tooth was definitely ready, but there were plenty of tears.   After it was out, Thing Two was asked, “Does it really still hurt?”

He paused mid-wail, and replied, “No.”  And that was that.

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Is it really the end of the year already?  To paraphrase another blogger, 2011 has been a year never to be forgotten and we hope never repeated.

Since we last posted in mid-October, the Gimlet and his employer parted ways just before Halloween, and the Things’ great-grandmother (whose 90th birthday was celebrated in grand fashion) passed away Thanksgiving Day, exactly six months to the day after Bopa died.   With so much sorrow and uncertainty occurring in a short space of time it’s been challenging to think positively and move forward, and we’re so grateful for the support of family, friends and our church community during this difficult year.  We’ve especially taken to heart some advice given to the Gimlet to focus on the abundance in our lives:  not just the good things we currently enjoy, but the great potential for future success:

• “The Liturgy of Abundance” by Dr. Walter Brueggemann (from religion-online.org)
• “Living the Abundant Life” by President Thomas S. Monson, January 2012 Ensign

We’ve had a genuinely happy holiday season, with plenty of delicious food, lively conversation, and continuation of the traditions from years past as we remember our loved ones who are no longer with us.  We agree it has been the sort of season they would have wanted us to have.  While we dropped the ball on blogging, our newest family blogger, Hå, has been busily recording all of the past months’ events in great detail.  (That is why she is the unofficial family historian!)  Just remember: it’s not shamelessly harvesting all of her hard-written content if we call it outsourcing.  Visit her blog and read all about our November and December there:

• We love Yulefest at the Nordic Heritage Museum
• Remembering great-grandma
• Thanksgiving 2011
• A day trip to Lynden, WA would not be complete without watusi cattle, caramel apple pie from the Dutch bakery, and a sedated angry cat in the back seat of the car.  Well, we could do just fine without the cat next time.
• Santa’s annual visit
• Christmas Eve dinner party

To provide our readers with a little original content, here are a few photos from a Christmas shopping visit to the Pike Place Market.

We had fresh Dungeness crab for Christmas Eve, but we buy ours at a neighborhood fish market much closer to home.

Seattle-native uncles will find it heartwarming to learn that Thing One discovered one of their favorite Market haunts (and a must-stop for any geek tourist):  Golden Age Collectibles.   Meanwhile, Thing Two keeps an eye out for more Daleks.

Several adventures are already in store for the coming year and will be revealed in good time … until then, best wishes to you and your families for an abundant 2012!

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Old Scoutmasters never die, they just smell that way become Committee Chair.

When last we left you, I was Scoutmaster in my ward troop and also the Boy Scout District Training Chair.   After a wonderful week as a Course Co-Director for NYLT, I hoped to be able to be Course Director in 2012, but was waiting to find out if I would have the opportunity.

Wow, the changes a month can bring!   First, I was asked to be the Stake High Councilor over Young Men/Scouting and sustained on September 11.  As that precludes being Scoutmaster, the Assistant Scoutmaster was asked to be Scoutmaster and I became the Troop Committee Chair the next week on September 18.  Meanwhile, on Saturday, September 17 I was asked to be a NYLT Course Director, and then Monday, September 19, I was asked to be the District Commissioner.   It appears that both life and the Boy Scouts abhor a vacuum of time!

So now, I am recruiting constantly:  As Troop Committee Chair, I recruit troop committee members; as NYLT Course Director I recruit staff and participants for the program; and, as District Commissioner, I recruit Unit Commissioners.   Beware — I may be calling you!

This ends my five and a half year stint working directly with Boy Scouts as a Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster.  I still am working with Scouts directly as the NYLT Director but it is not a weekly activity.  I once again return to working with adults to try and get them to run the program to help out the boys.

Scoutmaster is one of those “jobs” that really becomes a self-identification and that has been a little bit hard to let go of.   When the boys went camping last month, and I had nothing to do other than answer the new Scoutmaster’s questions, it felt odd not to be going.  However, next year Thing Two starts Cub Scouts and I get to start all over again!

Triple Threat: New scoutmaster, visiting Japanese scoutmaster, old scoutmaster

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Thing One is starting his junior year of high school.  His school class schedule includes AP French, Chamber Orchestra, and Drama.  At home he’ll continue taking BYU Independent Study courses, finishing up the sophomore language arts and geometry series, then working on US history, junior-level language arts, and Algebra 2.  As a junior, he’s now eligible to sign up for Running Start at the local community college, so we’ve started the admissions process and hope that he can enroll in community college courses beginning winter quarter.

While Thing One is nearly done with his public school experience, Thing Two has started kindergarten!  He attends Thing One’s old elementary school along with a few of his friends from preschool.  They aren’t in the same kindergarten class, but they meet up at recess and play together.

When we toured schools for Thing Two, we were intrigued by the local alternative school’s Expeditionary Learning curriculum, which we thought would be an excellent fit for Thing Two’s abilities and interests, but he didn’t get into that school during the open enrollment period and the waiting list was so long that there was no hope of him finding a place in one of the few available late summer openings.  As it was, it was only a few days before the first day of school when we finally were notified that Thing Two had been granted a spot at Thing One’s old elementary school, so that uncertainty made for extra stress this summer.

The school is large, and at first Thing Two was a little taken aback by the number of kids and size of the building, but the school does a great job of breaking the classes down into smaller groups, and in no time Thing Two was very comfortable and happy in his new surroundings.  He likes riding the bus every day (he sits with a new friend from another kindergarten class) and Your Humble Narrator is getting used to this empty nesting thing.

We’re very excited to be back at Thing One’s elementary school with its vibrant community and wealth of after-school opportunities.  In addition to kindergarten, Thing Two has a French class after school once a week.  He already speaks with a slightly different accent from his big brother.

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This summer Thing Two started to collect Lego minifigures.  For those who haven’t seen these yet, Lego has come up with sets of sixteen unique minifigures, individually wrapped in opaque packages.  Like the packs of Star Wars cards back in the day, these goodies pack both a cool minifigure and the thrill of mystery.  We like ThinkGeek’s name for these mystery treats: Schrödinger’s collectible.

That said, after a run of bad luck with the random choice, resulting in a soccer team, an artist colony and not much else, we wondered if there were some way to stop choosing artists and soccer players.

The very helpful folks at Math N Stuff guided us through the art of detecting each minifigure’s unique pieces inside the bag, which has worked almost perfectly.  (One notable recent incident we were sure we had found a figure we didn’t already have, but when we opened the bag, we found … a soccer player.)

If scrunching the packages isn’t good enough (or if you are looking for any excuse to play with a smartphone), yes, there is an app for that.  Mini Collector uses a combination of bar and dot codes to detect which minifigure is in the package.

We like Mini Collector because not only can we keep an inventory of the minifigures we already own, but then if the app detects a minifigure we don’t have, you can opt to keep its identity a secret, and preserve the excitement of the surprise.

Mini Collector is free to download and the support for the first three series of minifigures is included.  Series 4 (currently in our local stores) and Series 5 (coming soon) can be unlocked for $0.99 and $1.99 respectively.  We love The Oatmeal’s take on buying apps because we too are guilty of spending an unholy sum for our iGadgets, then balking at paying a whopping $1 for an app. (N.B.:  Depending on your family, The Oatmeal’s content is not entirely family-friendly; consider yourself warned.)

After seeing his big brother at work, Thing Two set up his own Trading Post in his room, complete with an open/closed sign which he carefully turns at bedtime and when he returns from preschool.  Unlike other trading posts, the customer may choose a minifigure, but the storekeeper both assembles and keeps it.  Thing One may have to teach him a few lessons in customer service.

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Introducing the newest addition to the family blogosphere:  Hå has started a blog to share family history stories and vintage photos, and any other odds and ends.

The title, Beware of the Rug, originates from misread street signs or overheard phrases gone terribly wrong.  For example, yesterday we were at the drive-through picking up dinner and Thing Two wanted to know what the kids’ meal toy was.  We told him, and after a short silence, he repeated back what he thought he’d heard:

“Smurf fingers?”

(So that’s why the “chicken” pieces are blue.)

Look for these stories to pop up on the blog now and then.

So far the blog posts have begun to tell the story of one branch of the family’s origins and emigration to the United States, as well as sharing traditional Norwegian domestic arts.  Welcome to blogging, Hå!

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While he’s working at scout summer camp, Thing One gets to come home Saturday afternoon, spend the night at home, and then The Gimlet drives him back to camp Sunday morning.   His usual work assignment is in the Trading Post, where he makes a lot of popcorn and reports that pocket knives are the top selling item.  He also does extra work around camp as needed, with the result that for the time he is home, our utterly exhausted Thing One does little more than sleep and eat.

The past two Saturdays he’s fallen sound asleep in front of the television after dinner.  It’s a milestone in parenting when mom or dad (or even mom + dad working together) can no longer pick up a sleeping child from the couch and carry him to bed.

All teenage first year staffers have to take a turn running the industrial dishwashing machines for the camp, otherwise known as working in the Dish Pit.  Last week was Thing One’s turn.  It was also the week that the camp was filled to capacity, with over four hundred scouts and scoutmasters using plates, bowls, cups, forks, knives, and spoons for breakfast, lunch, and dinner … and the cooks using pots, pans, and cooking tools to prepare food for them all …

Needless to say Thing One is very glad this week is over, and if he had ever entertained thoughts of a career as a commercial dishwasher, he is now considering other options.   Doing dishes at home doesn’t seem so bad now, either.

Thing One was able to come home a little earlier this week, so he arrived home just as we were heading out to pick up Thing Two from a friend’s birthday party in the park.  Thing Two was delighted to see his big brother and show him off to his friends (a few of whom have big brothers, but not BIG brothers).  And after his long week, Thing One didn’t mind playing with his little brother for a while.

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One of Thing Two’s new favorite creatures is the diatryma, also known as a giant prehistoric terror bird.  We discovered them while reading an encyclopedia of world history, and then he was able to examine a diatryma fossil during dinosaur day camp earlier this month.  When it was time to celebrate Thing Two’s birthday, generic dinosaur-themed desserts were too mainstream for the birthday boy, who specifically requested diatryma cupcakes.  This was a bit of a challenge (the bakeries within our budget don’t offer post-Cretaceous prehistoric designs), but Thing Two was very pleased with the flock(?) (herd? throng?) of diatrymas which greeted him at breakfast that morning.

Some of the cupcakes accompanied Thing Two to summer preschool.   While the original terror bird may have hunted small mammals, today the small preschool-aged mammals eagerly devoured the cupcakes.  Contrary to the expectations of some, diatryma cupcakes don’t taste like chicken.

Thing Two was so excited all day long and his cheerful enthusiasm was contagious.  He had a wonderful birthday and has been enjoying his gifts.

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