Greek Heroes of the Underworld

 Trey is doing a unit in school on Greek Mythology he was assigned the Greek God Hades, the ruler of the underworld to research. The irony is Dax is also taking a college-level class on Greek Heroes he was assigned "Satan".  I don't quite understand how Satan is a Greek God, but somehow they threw in a modern twist with a DC Comic character and that is how is he Satan.

The sixth graders had a "Wax Museum" where everyone dressed up as their Greek God and the parents got to do a drive-by.  I'm still loving this "drive by" way of doing some things.  This has been one good thing to come out of COVID.  

Derek did this a few years ago and he was Cupid.  I recycled the Tunic/Toga white dress that Derek used.  Then Trey came up with the Helmet.  He did well.  His idea was much better than I would have come up with.  Trey told me this Hadas character wore a helmet.  I was like "perfect you had a black bike helmet, put that on, and your done"  Trey insisted that was not going to work.  After he showed me a picture of what Hades actually looked like, I realized how stupid my idea was.

Hades during a pandemic wearing a mask.  This costume went to school in various parts so this is the only picture I got of the final product.

Now for the rest of the 6th Grade Greek/Roman Wax Museum

This is Cerberus (Ryan) the three-headed dog.  This is actually Hades' Dog in mythology.  I thought this costume was great.  Trey went to Preschool with Ryan and his mom, Karyn told me about Ryan's costume I was grateful for the Hades costume.  Not too difficut. I don't know how she pulled Cerberus off, but this is fantastic.

Some of these costumes were really clever.  I thought it was a great project.

Rookie Driver

 I am so happy,  Derek finally got his Drivers License.  Derek has been ready to get his license for several months, but because of COVID it wasn't possible because the DMV was shut down, then it was possible but it was a very long wait through the DMV.  

Derek really didn't feel an urgency to get his license.  Once Derek started his job at McDonald's I really wanted him to get his license.  I felt it was unnecessary to inconvenience (mostly me) and the other drivers getting him to and from work on Saturday and Sunday mornings., Waiting for him to call for a ride etc when he was capable.   Work wasn't the only place he needed me to drive him to and from especially when he was capable of driving himself, we just had to make it legal.  I told Derek for my Birthday I wanted my gift to be that he got his license.  Derek was sick the week of and the week after my birthday, so it didn't happen then.  

I then promoted the Driver's license to be my Christmas gift.  Derek set up his driver's test through the 3rd party on 12/8/20.  The third-party was about triple the price of the DMV ($25 vs $112 for the travelers license)  but the "convenience fee" was well worth it to get this task done.

We showed up,  filled out the paperwork, then waited to do the road test.  I was not near as nervous waiting for Derek to come back from his road test as I was with Dax. I don't think it had anything to do with their skill level being any different, I think Dax was just my first driver to go through that.

I saw Derek and the examiner come back in from the test.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the examiner walking toward me as she headed toward her desk.  Right as she walked past me she subtly said "passed"  I looked up and Derek was waiting in the line to complete the next steps.  I gave him a thumbs up.  I was so happy and proud of him.

I went home and got online to buy him  the Hamilton High student parking permit, although he couldn't officially park there until he received the permit which they would give him at school. They gave it to him at school on Thursday.

Friday morning Derek woke up and was getting ready to take the bus.  I said why are you taking the bus?  He said "because it is coming in a few minutes"  I reminded him that was the whole point of me getting him an HHS parking permit for $60.  I told him he can sleep in a little later and if he has to stay after school (often lately) I don't have to scramble to pick up him and Trey at the same time.  He grabs the keys and heads out to the car. As he fumbles with the keys to open the car  I hear the car panic alarm start chirping, then as he fumbles to turn it off it gets louder.  I start laughing because he is new to this driving thing.  I peeked out the window to watch him pull out.  Oh no!! It is garbage day and I could see that he was going to back straight into the garbage can on the street.  I kept saying out loud,  "don't hit the garbage, don't hit the garbage" bonk... he hit the garbage.  Luckily he didn't knock it over.  He pulled back in and moved the car way over to back out.  I was laughing at such Rookie mistakes that he will only learn through experience. 

When Derek got home from school I asked him how it felt to drive himself.  He said it was alright, but he would prefer to take the bus, it wasn't worth the hassle.  WHAT are you talking about? the freedom and independence of driving yourself versus waiting for the bus outside in the cold or heat (depending on the time of year) riding in the noise and chaos of loud kids blaring their music, and you could sleep in 15 more minutes.  What is wrong with this kid?  It turns out the windows were all fogged up and he didn't know how to use the defroster (We never got to that lesson learning to drive in Phoenix).  He actually didn't even know the defroster existed, and that he why he hit the garbage can because he couldn't see it.  He would rather ride the bus than deal with driving in frosted fogged up windows.  I showed him how to use the defroster, then the next morning he drove himself to work at 5:45 am.  It was wonderful for me.  Then I could go about my day and he drove himself home when he was done, I didn't have to wait around for him to call for a ride. We never know exactly what time he gets off, it just depends on how busy they are, so it is kind of a pain for us.

After he had been home from work for a bit we were talking and he went "wait so I can drive myself to Maricopa  (20 miles each way) to see my friends today" YEP.  OHHHH the realization of the freedom and independence of having a driver's license is finally sinking in.  It was a great moment for me.

Forgery

 I got this email from Treyson's Technology teacher.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, my name is Michelle Merillat and I am Treyson’s Technology teacher at Jacobson.  He was supposed to get a signed letter from you discussing ways to help him remember to bring his earbuds/headphones to school on Day 6 so that he has them for my class.  He brought the letter back to me with a forged signature.  Please talk to him about this and let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

When I initially read this, I thought it was odd that Trey would forge one of  our signatures.  I'm not saying he is perfect, but that just didn't seem like him.  I actually couldn't understand what she was even talking about at first.  I looked at the "parent signature"  and I thought that is not mine or Trey's handwriting (see his handwriting in the body of the letter compared to the parent signature)    What is going on???  Then I realized Trey used his "best" handwriting to write my name.  It isn't my signature, but it was actually legible. Why can't he write like that all the time. I was shocked that fine penmanship came out of his hand.

  I finally put it all together and this is my response.

Ms. Merillat,

I am so sorry about this situation.  I just talked to Trey about this, and I think I am partly to blame for this miscommunication.  Before the school year started I bought Trey two sets of earbuds.  

One for home and one for school.  When school didn't start up in person right away because of COVID, I ended up giving the second set of earbuds to another family member.  

I thought I had told Trey that and I would need to get him a new pair.  Maybe I did, maybe I didn't?? Either way, he didn't know what had happened to the second set and I forgot to replace them.  

 It turns out he thought he had lost the second pair and he was afraid to bring it up because he thought he would get in trouble for losing them.  We had a good talk about working out problems and not avoiding them. 

 He should not be afraid to come to his family with a problem

I will get him a new set today and he should be good to go.

I thought it was "funny/not funny"   Trey tried to forge my signature to deal with this problem.  I told him next time go to one of his brothers for help if he doesn't want to tell a parent, but don't ignore it.

How do I get that kid to write this nice everyday?

The Shady Dell

 I don't know why I like retro stuff especially Airstream Trailers from the 1950s and 1960s.

A few years ago I wanted this mini Airstream for my birthday. I even decorate it for Christmas and the 4th of July.

Curtis found out about this RV Resort  "The Shady Dell" a few hours south of us in Bisbee, AZ, an old mining town.  I know Curtis is more of a Luxury Resort kind of guy, but I saw this place and I knew I had to go.  Apparently, it is very popular because it was booked up for several weeks.  We ended up going on Thanksgiving weekend as a belated birthday trip for me.

I loved it, I thought it was so fun.   It really did feel like a step back into time. Old vinyl records and a record player, No Wifi.   So many little fixtures in the trailer reminded me of my Grandma's house that was built in the 1950s

Our Neighbor the "Tiki Bus"

The owner would drive guests to town in this old Taxi

An old Desoto Taxi

"God Bless this Trailer Home"

A real working toilet and shower.

Trying to watch old TV shows on DVD

I loved the details notice the old-style hotel key on top of the 1950s TV    

It was a fun weekend.  If you like old Travel Trailers or would like to take a weekend back in time.  This is your place.

Birthday Week

 It is the  Birthday week at our house.  This year was Treyson's "Golden Birthday" he turned 12 on the 12th.  However, as usual, we started celebrating on the 11th.  

The kids are always off school on the 11th for Veteran's Day, it is so convenient to have a celebration on that day.  We did not forget our Veterans.  We first made cookies and delivered a few to our Veteran Friends, Sergio, and Joe. Then we invited Trey's friends Soren and Marco to join us for an adventure at an Escape Room.  It was a great activity in the middle of a pandemic.  We really didn't want to invite a big group.

The Escape room theme was "Tony's Bistro".  We were in an Italian Restaurant, the owner had been working with the Italian Mafia, the partner had been arrested and we had to find the cash and get out before the "Feds" got to us.  Marco was the only one in our group who had done an escape room, so we really didn't know what we were doing or how they worked.  Needless to say, we did not escape.  We did make it to the second room, but we didn't get to the cash in time.  If we did an escape room again, we would have a much better idea of how they work, what to look for etc.  It was still very fun.

The Escape room gang.  Derek didn't join us because he was home sick :(.

After the escape room we came back to the house for Pizza and cake.  I had the neighbor girls pick up the pizza and set everything up while we were at the Escape Room.  It was so nice to have everything done when we walked in.  

Trey and his friends loved it,  they went all "Mafia Gangster" at the end.  It was kind of funny since Marco is a legitimate Italian, born in Italy and speaks the language.  Just a fun little twist to the day.

His friends gave him gifts cards to Target and Amazon as gifts.

Then on Trey's actual birthday, he was sick.  Not surprising since he had the sniffles for a few days before and Derek had been sick as well.  He even stayed home from school.  Kind of a bummer birthday, I'm glad we celebrated the day before.  He opened his gifts laying down.

The family gave him "Mario Odyssey" for the Nintendo Switch, a book about how to be funny, and a Tshirt talking about "Turophile -lover of Cheese"

Then it was my birthday.  It was fabulous.  I got lots of love from friends and family.  Flowers, cards, cakes, treats.  We went to dinner with our friends, Steve and Jane Thomas, Scott and Tiffany Andersen.  I usually go to lunch with my girl friends each year.  With COVID etc, we can't invite too many people and I just wasn't that excited about.  Janae and Steve had gift cards to Flemmings Steak house that they hadn't used. It was a nice change to go with our husbands, so the Thomas' treated us all to Flemmings.  It was a really fun night and Flemmings treated me well too.  They even gave me a card signed by the staff and a small box of chocolate truffles. I got a new kitchen remodel and furniture, so I didn't think I needed any more gifts.   It was a great week of birthdays.