Gazette #22

The Garrett Gazette
10/25/08
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow, it’s been a long time! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get everything in, but…here goes!
Daddy has been working of course. I can’t really think of anything special about him except for that he’s great! I love him!
Mommy has been working as well, she’s been working a bit more than usual so that we could go up to Idaho next week without her missing too much. She has been going nuts with Young Women’s, Upstage, and 1-800-CONTACTS. We’ve had a few rehearsals for Wonka, but those nights are usually really busy.
As you may or may not know as of right now, Jakie got in a car accident. It wasn’t bad or anything, he just hit his head a little bit. Jessica was with him and she hit her head a little bit harder, but she’s okay too. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with his job now since he is never home (even less than before…if that’s possible) but I think he may have gotten a new job doing pretty much the same thing. If you want to know details though, you have to ask him!
I have been doing fabulous. I was in our school Talent Show a couple weeks ago. I sang the song “If I had a fine white horse.” I was told I did a fantabulous job and that I sound like Giselle from Enchanted. This week, on Tuesday I had my choir concert. We were combined with the 7th grade Drama kids. It was an interesting experience. As Perfect Harmony I only sang three songs at the very beginning, then right after that, my show choir sand “Bebop with Aesop” with everyone else participating in the concert. The play was pretty much boring but it was quite an interesting night. And last about me, I went to a Halloween party at my friends house! We had a lot of fun playing games and eating food! There were about 20 people who came and so we had lots of fun.
Emily has been having a lot of fun with Student Council I think. She is the reporter or something like that. (she takes the pictures.) I think she enjoys it a lot! She also went to her friend MaryJo’s Halloween party last night. She seemed to like it. She one a pumpkin for something. She was a cutie with her costume on. She was just a princess, with a lot of purple on, but her hair was curly, and she was gorgeous.
Bekah Boo…I can’t think of anything for her. She’s very into Hannah Montana and High School Musical still. It’s very annoying still. Umm, She loves to hang out with her friend Rylie and she even got to have a sleepover with her on Thursday.
Hannah is a nut! She is getting good at reading and she just loves to look at people’s stuff. Hannah didn’t like my concert much, she thought it was extremely boring…(not that I blame her.) I love Hannah, she’s doing well with her adding as well as reading. She’s so smart!
Happy Birthday Sydney, Mike and Suzie!!! Hope you had a good one!
Love,
Kirk, Dawn, Jake, Me, Emily, Bekah and Hannah

Bekalah

I really enjoy writing about each one of these little bundles of entertainment. And Bekah may be one of the most entertaining. She has her own sense of humor, and the funnest giggle. When she laughs, I can't help but smile. Even when she isn't trying to be funny, she says something to make us all smile. We all kind of build on it afterwards.

A good example of that was all of us watching a DVD last night. It was one of those scenes where the man and woman are looking at each other, and the romantic tension is high. Bekah piped up saying, "aah, they're going to meet." The disgust was oozing through her little voice. Sure enough, they met. And then they kissed again. Then the rest of us joined in with the,"oh, gross!" It was great.

Bekah is our butterfly. She loves to try everything. She goes from one thing to the next, and always seems to find something else to try. But there are some things that she will always do. She is our craft kid. Give her any paper, or cardboard, something to draw with, and a pair of scissors, and you can get some fun creations.

Like everyone else in our family, it just wouldn't be complete without her. She keeps us smiling, and provides a dramatic touch. The other day, she fell out of the neighbor's tree, and scraped up the bottom of her foot. Since then, we have had constant hopping, and "army crawl" all around the house. I know that I am always telling her to walk on it, or she'll hop the rest of her life. But I do get a kick out of watching her "army crawl" up and down the stairs (don't tell her though!).

I love that kid tons!

Gazette #21

The Garrett Gazette
10/5/08
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, it’s been a couple of weeks so I figured I’d write again. If you haven’t noticed I’ve kind of not been doing the Gazette weekly. I’m going to do it just when I have something to say. That makes it a bit easier for me so yeah!
Today was General Conference! We just finished the closing session of Conference and I loved every minute of it! Aunt Amelia came down with her friend Katherine and one of her young women, Shelby to see Conference at the Conference Center. They stayed at our house Friday, and Saturday night! We had a lot of fun with them down here. Amelia took Shelby and all of us girls to Cabela’s and Krispy Kreams and yeah! We had lots of fun and took LOTS of pictures!
It’s been quite warm down here all week. I thought I was going to die! It’s supposed to be fall now, so I was confused. Friday it was kinda rainy though, and then Saturday it just rained and rained and rained all day. It rained this morning too, but it’s stopped now! We are grateful for the rain, it has been very nice.
On Tuesday my school did a “Fun Run”. I call it my hate walk, because I’m not doing it for fun, and I wasn’t running! I ended up jogging a little bit and then sprinting the last tiny bit though. It was really hot, and I don’t think I’m gonna be doing that again anytime soon. UGH, two miles is just a little bit too much!
We get to start Willy Wonka rehearsals tomorrow! AHHH…I’m SO excited! I think my sisters are too! I’ll let you know later how that goes!
Love,
Kirk, Dawn, Jakie, Me, Emily, Bekah and Hannah

Littlebee

I can't tell you why one of her nicknames is Littlebee. I have just called her that for a really long time. I think it was after an evolution of other nick names, but I can't remember for sure. So, she will always be my Littlebee.

She is a great kid. Anything she puts her mind to, she can accomplish. A little over a year ago, maybe it was two years ago, she proved that to me. Without going into a whole lot of detail, I had asked Meg to have a "contest" with me to see who could go the longest without eating sugar. Meg wanted absolutely nothing to do with that! But, Emily said that she would do it. The rules were simple, the first person to eat sugar lost. If I lost, I had to get her a digital camera, if I won, she bought me dinner. I thought I could win without any problem. A week after we started, I bought Bekah and Hannah some treats while we were watching the play Aladdin (which Meg and Em were in). They asked me to open their treats for them. After fourteen years of taking an openers fee, I automatically took a sip of soda, and a bite of a candy bar. Bekah was pretty quick to point out that I had lost. This was about a permanent change, so I told Em what had happened, and quickly asked if she would agree to start over, with me upgrading to a nicer camera if she lost. Which she agreed to do.

Here two years later, we have modified the rules somewhat, but we still have cut back drastically on the sugar intake. Once a week, we eat a treat with sugar. Holidays, birthdays, special occasions, and most of the month of December are also fair game. But, she is still going strong. She ended getting a nice Camera anyway.

Emily has a very compassionate heart. An experience from a couple of year ago, brought that into focus for me and Dawn. My Grandmother was in bad shape, and we were told that she wouldn't be around much longer. So I took my family to visit her, and to say goodbye. She was in bad shape. she wasn't lucid, and didn't have her prosthetic legs on her. She kept complaining about being so hot. All of my kids were uncomfortable seeing her like this, and all of them had the normal reaction of not wanting to witness that suffering. So we let them leave. Emily had a different reaction, she folded a paper fan, and tried to help Grandma cool off. I think I still have that paper fan. It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of the tender heart she has. Grandma died the next day.

Emily is quickly becoming a lovely young lady. She is progressing in many areas. I realized her singing is quite beautiful at auditions for this next play. She is taking chances that are scary. She decided to get on the student council, and she did it. There is nothing that she can't accomplish when she decides that's what she wants!

Megabeth

I think that I may like this opportunity to write about my kids. There's plenty to write about. It might do them some good to read about it. Or they might just think it's lame.

I am trying to think of words that describe Megan. I think that anyone who knows her, can say that she is a little precocious. She knows what her interests are, and isn't afraid to let you know. Along with that, is a fierce loyalty to her values.

It's neat to watch her embrace Personal Progress in Young Women. I think she is trying to finish it all before she is fifteen years old. But it is helping her to decide what type of person she wants to be. And she is progressing nicely.

She is nuts about musical theater. I have to blame her mother and Cats for that. It was like a highly addictive drug. Once it was in their bloodstream, they always want more. But I can think of few better natural highs, than being able to get in front of people, and giving them wholesome entertainment.

It's been fun to watch how she has grown with each play as well. I think the first play that she auditioned for was Sound of Music. It was a disaster. If there was a part for someone who just cried, I think she could have been cast. She was too shy to do anything else. The next play that she tried to get into was Robin Hood. It took some support from Mom to get her started, but she squeaked it out. It was enough to get her cast as a villager. At some point they needed a girl to sing a little stronger. Meg could do it! and she sang out, "Flour for sale!" I think it was a great solo of three words! Next she auditioned for Aladdin Jr. and was cast as one of the narrators. She loved it! She had speaking lines, and sang, and was just glowing. After begging for days, mopping the floors with tears, and a long hunger strike, (alright, she only begged) we agreed to let her audition for The Truth About Cinderella. She was cast as Lady Scone. She shined again. It was tough for her, because the role was supposed to be an old busybody, but Meg couldn't do anything but young and beautiful. So now we have Willy Wonka Jr. and they're determined to get her to look and act old. She is cast as one of Charlie's grandmother, Josephina. She'll do a wonderful job!

Even though she is intensely involved in theater, she also takes piano, and is getting quite good at it. She is also involved in involved in show choir. Yet, she manages to keep up all her grades. She's pretty amazing.