A House Full of Teenagers

The old groundhog didn’t see his shadow and it appears we are getting an early spring this year. It warmed up enough last weekend to wake up the tree frogs across the road. They were so loud we could hear them inside if the TV was off.

ANOTHER TEENAGER
Nate turned 13 on Valentine’s Day so we now have a house full of teenagers. He’s been really excited because it means a big raise in his allowance. I think he’s been looking forward to this raise for two years. Of course, another change for him is that he is about to hit another growth spurt. We’re just hoping it will wait a month or two until it’s warm enough to wear shorts for a few months. He’s already looking Jenna in the eye so it won’t be too long before our oldest is the shortest.

MAKER FAIRE
Nate has been involved in the Lego Robotics team at school this year. I was going to head up the team but when the bus driving opportunity came along I had to drop it. Nate stayed on and really enjoys it.

This team hopes to begin competing in the First Lego League competition next year. By the time the team was organized and purchased their equipment it was too late to make this year’s competition, however, they did set up a pretty impressive demo at the school’s Maker Faire a couple of weeks ago. As a matter of fact the whole event was impressive. There were almost three dozen booths set up in the Lower School gym with demonstrations and activities for most anything to do with science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). In addition to the Lego robotics you could build things with toothpicks and marshmallows, play with electric circuits, shake up your own ice cream, and even take in a show in a planetarium. We really enjoyed walking around and taking it all in.

THE TIN GRIN IS IN
Ben got his braces on Tuesday of last week (the 16th). We were prepared for his mouth to be really sore but he hasn’t complained about it hurting too much. Actually, old metal mouth is taking it all pretty well. That may be a different story when he is trying to play basketball with a big mouth guard in next year and can’t even call for the ball when he’s open. At any rate, he’s supposed to wear these things for 18 months. The first week has gone pretty well.

HAITI TRIP UPDATE
Now that Jenna is back home I know a few more details of the trip. As I said before, this was mainly a medical trip, but there were some of the 19 member team that took care of other projects, such as painting at the orphanage. One of Jenna’s best friends, Maegan, was part of this team. It was her first trip to Haiti and Jenna said she loved it.

I mentioned last time they had their medical clinic for two days and saw some 416 people. They also gave the kids at the orphanage checkups while they were there. The clinic was held in the church at the orphanage with the sanctuary being divided into rooms with twine and sheets. Jenna wound up assisting the doctor that went along and they made a good team. They also took a lot of second hand glasses and gave them to people whose vision tested poorly. I think a common story was how several older women got their livelihood back with a simple pair of reading glasses which restored their ability to sew or do other close up work.

Jenna said they didn’t have as much fun time with the kids at the orphanage as they had on previous trips, but they did take the kids to the beach one day which was fun for all. I think her favorite part of the trip was the Sunday night worship service where the offering became a big dance party for Jesus.

TREVECCA
I also wrote last time that Jenna had an interview at Trevecca University for a scholarship she is applying to receive. Vicki and I went with her that day and I must say that I am very impressed with the university. It was a big day which was both fun (at least for those of us not facing an interview) and full of information.

Jenna felt really good about her interview. She said the conversation went well and that the panel made several very affirming comments throughout. She also noted when we were leaving that they had not called the next candidate in and assumed they were still discussing her. We should know the outcome soon.

YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG
So we ate supper at Mom’s tonight. There were some dogs outside as we were leaving and Ben decided to bark at them. Of course, this got the dogs riled up and they barked back. Then they ran toward the house and Ben ran inside. We were laughing about this as we were driving home and in the conversation Vicki mentioned the scene from Stephen King’s Cujo where the person was trapped in a car without the keys and a vicious, rabid dog outside. At this point Ben said he could move the car from the inside if it were in neutral and he rocked back and forth. Well, when we pulled into the drive we stopped on a level spot, put the van in neutral, and made him try. His efforts were quite comical. Then he decided to get out of the van and just try to push it into the shed. Let’s just say he had better luck rocking the van back and forth from the outside but he didn’t make any progress until I got out and helped him. I had to get out when I did because we were laughing too hard. Youth is not a total waste on the young because it’s good for too many laughs.

Joe