Terrifying

This all went down while I was across the street at the gym with my kids. Ahhhhh scary!!!

KEARNS, Utah (ABC 4 News) - ABC 4 News has confirmed a shooting outside Kearns High School in Salt Lake County. It occurred sometime before Noon on Wednesday.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office confirms a report of a 15-year-old male student who was shot outside the school, and went inside the school for help.

He is said to be in critical condition.

Kearns High School was placed in lockdown following the incident. Five other elementary schools in the area were also placed in lockdown as a precaution.

Three of those schools are Western Hills Elementary, Beehive Elementary, South Kearns Elementary, an unnamed charter and a private school.

Police say they have a person of interest, but had not yet taken that person into custody as of Midday Wednesday.

Inauguration

In homeschool today we will be watching the Inauguration of Barack Obama. No matter who you voted for, it is undeniable that this is huge in America's history. Yesterday we studied Martin Luther King Jr., it is really amazing to me how bad things were in the past and how far we have come that America would elect a black president. It really makes me proud.

Chemical Changes

Michael is teaching Reece in science about chemical changes and physical changes. There is no better way to learn about a chemical change than to make cookies! How could you not love science when you get to make cookies during school? These cookies are so good, I'm going to have to give them all away before I eat them all.

Texas Update #2

The weather was AMAZING. While Utah was getting a foot of snow, in Texas I was wishing I had brought more short sleeved shirts and some flip flops. What was I thinking bringing TWO COATS and 3 pairs of boots???? I guess I haven't lived there in 10 years and sort of forgot what the weather was like in the winter. It was in the 70's the majority of the time, I think it got into the 80's once.

My parents have two orange trees that the raccoons love to get into.


Notice the damage done here:

Grandpa took the kids orange pickin in the comfort of the backyard, the kids didn't even know they were being put to work.
This is only a small fraction of what they collected:

Fresh squeezed orange juice each morning, that alone was enough to make me start looking for real estate in Texas.


Good to the last drop!

Texas Update #1

For those of you whining about updating, here you go....the first installment, because hey, I'm too lazy to do it all at once.

We left bright (actually it was still dark), so we can't say we woke up bright and early. We woke up at the bum crack of dawn to get on the road to Texas. Oh yes my friend, we drove! It is a mere 24 hours, no problem!

The night before we left we got a snow storm, not a good thing. Luckily the snow stopped and gave the snowplows enough time to clear the roads before morning. We left around 6 a.m. and the roads were a little icy, so we were slow getting off. My brother met us at a gas station down in Provo so he could give us a few presents to take with us to Texas. Oh, did I mention that we took our Honda Accord? Not all the presents came out of the trunk looking the same as they went in! Not all people that went into the car came out looking as good as they did going in either.

A half hour into the trip, everyone was STARVING, we all ate breakfast of donuts. Around 10:15 I passed around some chocolate milk. At about 10:30 that chocolate milk made its way back out of Mason and all over his pillow and clothes. He also managed to fill up the a side holder in the car. Fun times. Thank goodness for a large container of baby wipes. If you see a blue pillow on the side of the road near Monticello, steer clear my friend. Michael and I looked at each other and decided that all we needed was for one of the kids to poop their pants and the trip would be complete. A few hours later Mason informed us that he had pooped his pants. Fantastic! We did think ahead and put him in a pull-up, but it ended up being a false alarm anyways.

We stayed the night in Amarillo and got to the hotel at about 11:30. We were planning on waking up at 7 the next morning, but that didn't happen. Luckily the second leg of the trip was much shorter than the first. We only had 9 hours to drive the second day. We knew we were in Texas as soon as we saw all the strip joints, Texas flags EVERYWHERE, and testicles hanging from the back of trucks. You've just gotta love Texas! We pulled up to my parents house around 7pm. My brother Adrian his wife Julianna and their baby Collin were already there, and my sister showed up shortly after.

One of my very best friends, Christine from High School was in town and our paths were just going to cross for a few hours. We woke up the next morning and drove over to see her, her cute husband, and her adorable baby Madison. I haven't seen Christine in years. Both her and her husband served in the Army and they served in Iraq together. Now he is going to be in the FBI and they are moving to D.C. for a while. Here are a few pictures of them.
More of our Texas trip to come....

We are back.

We are back from almost a 2 week vacation to Texas. We had an amazing time, my parents are great hosts. We were there long enough to get in lots of entertainment as well as have time to relax. I will be updating my blog soon! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!