GimletBlog

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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August 15 – 20 was the second week of National Youth Leadership Training put on by the Chief Seattle Council.  I had the privilege of acting as the Assistant Course Director for Program (Assistant Scoutmaster for Program).

In order to create the program a youth staff had to be recruited and then trained.  They were trained over one Saturday, three weekend programs and finally the entire week’s presentations were given an additional run through the three days before the August 15 showtime.  The youth staff performed exceptionally well.

Thing One was a Guide and loved by his Team/Patrol.  His style of servant leadership showed.

Showtime happened and the participants arrived.

The Scouts that participated were great kids and it showed.  One Scoutmaster that came to the presentations at the end of the program stated that while some of his Scouts that had been in the past claimed they did not learn anything and were often bored, those same Scouts were the ones that stepped up and led his troop after the program.  He had asked his troop committee to send four boys this year rather than the two last year.  Like many things in life, the value of the lessons learned at NYLT cannot be seen immediately but change the way these young men react to future opportunities.

It really is a Scoutmaster’s secret to success.

• Upcoming NYLT sessions for the Chief Seattle Council

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See more of Thing One’s photos from Mount Adams in the Gimlet Gallery.

My family had other travel plans for the end of August so I didn’t think I would be able to climb Mount Adams with the Venturing crew (15-18 year-old young men in our church youth group), but when those plans fell through about three days before the pack check, the youth group leaders said I could still go.

On August 24 we went to REI to have our boots fitted for crampons and also picked up other rental equipment, like ice axes and tents. Then the leaders checked our backpacks to make sure we had everything, and also distributed our food and equipment.

The next day we met at the Stake Center at 1:00 pm with all our gear.

| …continue reading Thing One’s report: Mount Adams

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Since we last looked at Thing Two’s garden, a few tomatoes and radishes are now ready to be picked.

Thing Two is also excited because he recently completed his set of series 4 Lego minifigures.  The mad scientist was the most difficult one for us to find, but we finally did it!

The Team Gimlet: At-Home Unit probably needs to get out more.

But until that day comes, we’ll take it easy for these last few days of summer and watch the honeybees buzzing lazily around the peppermint blossoms.

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The garden is looking very green these days, with occasional glimpses of red.

It looks like our mystery tomato plants are producing small “grape” tomatoes.

More radishes are doing well.  Thing Two is looking forward to picking them.

The mint has grown quite tall, and the peppermint has blossomed.  Walking between the boxes or watering the plants is an easy, quick dose of aromatherapy.

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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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Friday night Team Gimlet drove to Camp Pigott for the last time (for the summer) to pick up Thing One and his gear.  His first year of camp staff is over!  We haven’t had time to hear much about it, but it must have been an overall positive experience, because Thing One already is planning on returning to camp staff next summer, and would like to work on weekend winter camp staff as well.

There was barely enough time to do laundry and catch a little sleep before Thing One and the Gimlet were on their way again, headed to Camp Sheppard for a week of NYLT staff.

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