Detention!

Oh boy, if we can just make it 4 more months. Just 4 more months and beautiful graduation will be here without high school counselors and bored seniors. Come quickly spring!

This Wednesday Braeburn took his final math test through BYU independent study. They are proctored so he had to go to the office to take the test. The counselor put him in the school psychologists office since she was gone for the day.

Braeburn took the test (please pray for a passing grade!), and then noticed that the psychologist had some pre-written form note pads on her desk:

Please have ______________ report to the

school psychologists office immediately.

Sincerely, Esmerelda blah, blah blah.

---bring your books and your backpack----

Braeburn could not resist the opportunity and filled his friend's name in the slot and dropped the paper off on the office aide's desk as he was leaving.

The note was delivered to his friend in weight class. Spencer left class, changed his clothes, went to his locker and got his books and backpack and duly reported to the office with fear and trembling. The fear and trembling stopped when the counselor's secretary said, "I'm sorry Spencer, but the school psychologist isn't in today." Spencer said later, "that's when I knew that I'd been had."

Meanwhile, Braeburn is sitting in class and Mr. Cook, the counselor comes in. "May I please speak to Braeburn???" When they get to the hall Mr. Cook puts his hands on Braeburn's shoulders and solemnly asks, "Have you been stealing from the office?"

Next scene finds Braeburn sitting outside the assistant principal's office. He listens to bits of conversation around him, "Dude, I hauled like 3 pounds of marijuana into the bathroom..... Whoa that's awesome, this is like the second time in one day that I've brought a gun to school...." Braeburn felt a little out of place and was happy they didn't ask him what crime he'd committed.

Then Mr. Miller came out. (Just for reference, they are two Mr. Miller's at the school. Mr. Miller - rather large = Miller Heavy. And Mr. Miller - rather small = Miller Light) So this was Miller Heavy. To make a long story shorter, he asked Braeburn what "appropriate" meant. Braeburn thought and responded with a decent definition, but then realized he wasn't wanting a definition, he was wanting him to come up with an appropriate punishment. He then told Braeburn that Spencer might have been permanently emotionally damaged from the note and that the entire spectrum of consequences was available to him from doing nothing all the way to calling the police and sending him to jail for stealing.

(I shudder to think what the marijuana and gun folks get... oh wait, probably nothing happens to them... they're back in school the next day doing the same thing again....)

Anyway, Braeburn ended up with a day of morning detention and that was that. But at the end Mr. Miller finally said, "You know, Braeburn, that was pretty funny... I'm actually writing a book and you know what? I think you've made it into my book."

The End

Sunday Afternoon Nap

Sunday afternoon Mom and Dad and Gravenstein and Pink Lady (visiting from California) came over.

After awhile we noticed Mom and Dad were silent.... I think sunday afternoon's are just made for naps!

Sweetheart's Ball

Braeburn and Sam had a great time at the dance.

They actually went to the Elk's Lodge first to an old fashioned Jazz dance, which they said was great. Braeburn and his buddy, Spencer, also explored the basement catacombs of the lodge and got properly spooked. Too much time spent watching Psych I guess.

(I can't ever remember whether you underline or italicize a title. uggh.)

One Year Older, One Year More Talented!

Happy Birthday to Miss Golden Delicious!

She made her own cake this year with fantastic frosting flowers and butterflies. Amazing!

We love you!

Pistol Pete

Nova Spy has a new puppy,

introducing Pistol Pete, or Pete for short.

A Nice Vignette

Sometimes the house is clean and sometimes it's not. So tonight when I looked in the mud room and saw the milk pail shining and ready for morning, and the eggs washed, I was happy.

Invitation to "Sweethearts"

Ah Yes, another girl's choice dance - where girls are delighted and boys become very wary.

It is traditional to ask your date in a creative way, so Braeburn came home from school last week quite confused. He asked if I had been part of any plot? I said no and what was going on? He said he found all these strange words in his lunch and could not figure them out. He and his buddies had spent the whole lunch hour piecing together word strips that said things like, "pan" "man" "sink" "car" "if" "when" etc. They couldn't figure it out.

Then I remembered that we had been playing a game with Granny Smith's spelling words and had cut them up into strips and put them in a brown lunch sack to draw from. When the game was over, I had just folded the sack up and put it away. Then that morning, I had packed Braeburn's lunch in it. He and his buddies were trying to decipher spelling words into a message. One of Braeburn's friends had suggested they input all the words into the computer and graph out any similarities to see if they could figure out something, anything!

So that was a dry run, and everyone relaxed. But the next day he came home with a Garfield puzzle. He and Golden Delicious put the puzzle together and then flipped it over. On the back of each piece was a scripture reference. For instance, "2 Nephi 18:2, letter 7". Here they are trying to figure out the message.

After a long time Braeburn's part said, "Iesteao..." But luckily Golden Delicious had "February fifth, go to the dance..."

The suspense was killing Braeburn so he skipped to the end where we figured the girl had signed her name. It was a 3 letter word. The first letter was "S". I said do you know a girl named Sue? Braeburn said, no, but he did know a girl who's name started with S and this could be ok. So we pressed on, and finally had the whole message:

"Instead of Puzzling over what you are doing February Fifth, go to the Dance with Sam."

Braeburn was happy because Sam is a very nice and cute and he answered her back with some Europe through the Back Door book. He also helped his friend, Spencer, answer his date too. That involved going and getting a large refrigerator box and putting it on her porch in the middle of the night.

So, no sleep around here, but lots of excitement.