A new trophy adorns our piano. Jeff won second place in the piano contest his teacher holds every year. He wasn't expecting to win anything, so he was very surprised when they called his name during the last recital. The smile says it all. (And the pink teeth and lips say a cherry popsicle accompanied the trophy.)

Jeff also had fun sharing an Arabic newspaper with his school class. At least we think it's in Arabic. It was used as padding in a package Kim sent, and Jeff had fun showing it off at school. It's pretty cool looking:


Brett is excited for an adventure this weekend. The 8th grade band is taking a two-day trip to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It will involve a little bit of performance and a whole lot of fun at Silverwood theme park. That little bit of performing will be the last concert of his middle school career, and it's a good thing since his concert pants are 4" too short. He has grown so tall this year!

We haven't heard anything from Kim this week since she's been in Egypt without Internet access. According to the schedule, she's due to hike Mt. Sinai tomorrow and then head back to Jerusalem on Tuesday. Come to think of it, that means she hiked Mt. Sinai today because her "tomorrow" is our "today." Wow! She's hiking Mt. Sinai today. I like that much better than her last field trip which was prefaced with, "Don't worry, Mom. We'll only be a mile inside the West Bank. It should be fine." Raise your hand if you would like your child any where inside the West Bank! Sheesh!

We did get a package from her, though. It's not every day your mailman arrives at your door and says, "You got something from Jerusalem," so that was fun. She bought two olive wood sculptures for Jim, and they're beautiful.






Bryce's English class just finished studying Huckleberry Finn. He's rather proud of the fact that he made it through the entire unit, including essay questions and class discussions, without ever reading more than the first five pages of Huckleberry Finn. Sigh. (How could he possibly be related to the girl who is disgusted that her Arabic class is conversational Arabic rather than an academic treatment of the language.) The fact that I could e-mail his teacher and inform her of that small detail has provided good blackmail material against a certain 16-year-old.

Overheard at the Dinner Table

Discussing the fact that the we need to buy a new tent because Brett lost our last tent on a scout campout . . .

Bryce: I'm sorry, but how do you lose a tent?