MOM AND DAD BOTH STRUGGLING TO GET IT DONE

Dad has been so involved with his Circleville project that he even spent my birthday there, getting the roof tar-papered, insulating the walls, putting in windows and door...tons of fun. It wasn't that big a deal to be home alone however, since I spent my weekend finishing up the first yearbook deadline. It turns out that my two editors are master procrastinators and still didn't know which pictures to put on their pages. I helped them out by providing a large shot of Matt & Daren dressed in suits with their new Nevada Silver State Top One Hundred Scholars medals around their necks...it was the least I could do, since I'm still in the dark about most of this routine! I must admit that I learned more about creating yearbook pages this week than I have from all the training and workshops I've attended. There's nothing like hands on for a crash course in anything! Delfina & I stayed after school Friday until midnight and finished everything except Carmen's two pages. Carmen disappeared until Sunday morning at 10:00, so we spent 5 more hours finishing the rest. Monday morning it was all packed up in a shipping box waiting for me to take it to the post office. Monday night I was finally able to sleep! What a treat! So that's it for now. See you all over the holidays.

GREETINGS FROM GLENDALE

How are things going for everyone? We are keeping busy and doing great. October was full of fun activities. We had a great time in Mexico. Chris and I ( and Madyson) went on a sailing sunset cruse; it so so much fun. The captain let Chris drive the boat the entire time; he was excited. Aunt Becca and Uncle Nick were so nice to watch Leslie. The trip was tons of fun except when Madyson rolled off the bed and landed on the tile floor. She had us all worried for a few days, but she was fine. It must be that Whitney Thick Head!!!! Leslie had a great Halloween. She was a flying Unicorn. We went up to the Fair grounds for trunk or treat. October came and went so fast and now November is just about over. We had to speak in Sacrament Meeting the first of November. We are soooo glad that is over!! Chris has been going out with the missionaries just about every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; he is learning a lot. I worry about what he is teaching these young boys (you know Chris). Madyson is getting so big. She is a lot of fun. Leslie is a wonderful big sister. She helps all the time and is so protective of Mady. If we try to let Mady cry Les gets mad and tries to get Mady out of her crib. Tonight when I put Leslie to bed we were saying prayers, she prayed that Madyson would go on a mission and go to the EMCT. Big News--Chris and I had our first date without any kids for the first time in 4 1/2 months. Don Whipple offered to keep the kids while we went to a School Board Meeting. I think they should rename those meetings school boring meetings. I had to attend a meeting for one of my classes. So we turned it into a date. What fun!!!! What do you think of the new Harry Potter movie? We loved it even though someone pulled the fire alarm and we missed the last ten minutes. This week we have all had colds, and I got mastitis, so we aren't having much fun. We all have to take the bad with the good and the ugly. We are excited to see most of you for Thanksgiving, so until then!!!

MELANIE

We are all doing great, keeping busy, and staying healthy. We are anticipating Christmas in Logandale where the sun always shines and your boogers don't freeze inside your nose instantly when you walk outside. We will be in Logandale from Dec 23 to Dec 27, I hope some of you cool people will be there during that time too:)

Andy is doing clinical stuff everyday now, so if you want your teeth pulled let us know. He took us out to a barn last Sunday to take our picture. I haven't picked them up from Wal-Mart yet. We are crossing our fingers that there is a good one in there for a Christmas card. I am excited to announce my foot is doing much better and I have been able to run again. I don't even complain about the freezing temperatures outside, I am just feeling so happy to have two working feet again. I am also thoroughly enjoying teaching cycling classes. Today I am a little tired though, I taught at 6:00am and 8:45am.

The kids think they are getting bigger, stronger, smarter, cuter everyday. I just agree with them and tell them to eat all their dinner if they want to keep growing.

Check out our Halloween photos: www.learnmusic.org/family.htm

Love Andy, Melanie, Kambri, Michael, McKayla Atwood

MARTHA'S MAGICAL MYSTERY

Jeremy and I just came back from a dream trip to Boston. After actually going to Boston, I have to say it is every bit as beautiful in person as it is only dreaming about going there. It is a beautiful city and we really enjoyed the trip. However, it did have a few unexpected twists we weren't prepared for. The trip's main purpose was dental interviews, but I got to go along for the ride.

Last year when we were trying to decide where to apply to for dental school, I (miraculously) managed to talk Jeremy into applying to two Boston schools. Since then, he received invites to both schools for interviews. The next miracle was talking him into taking me along! Actually, it wasn't that hard; he's heard me talk about Boston enough to know I wasn't about to let him see the city alone without me.

So we left last Thursday the 14th for a five-day adventure to the most romantic spot in the US (I mean romantic in the sense of fall leaves blowing gently in the wind kind of romance). Our plane arrived in the city around midnight. The first shock was waiting outside the airport for our hotel shuttle. By the time the shuttle came, my entire face was numb with cold. By daytime the weather warmed up a little and we enjoyed the first day walking around the city looking at all the old buildings and some historic sites.

The nice weather was short-lived, and by the next morning I got a feeling of the kind of cold Mel experiences daily! In the night, a winter storm rolled in. Even though we checked the weather in the morning I didn't comprehend just how cold an eastern winter storm is (compared to a California or even Provo winter storm). I got all cutsied up for a big day touring the city. Jeremy and I took maybe 15 steps outside the hotel until we both turned around and ran back inside to re-bundle up. By then I didn't care how I looked and got wrapped up from the very top of my head down to my feet. We made a second attempt to brave the weather and made it to the city. It was the weirdest type of cold. It was raining, hailing, and snowing with a biting wind blowing all of the above in your face. A gust of wind unexpectedly came up and nailed me and blew my umbrella inside out. I desperately hung on to it so it would not blow away! After being outside for so long, the face and body numbed up, and you couldn't feel anything. That made the storm bearable.

Despite the weather we were able to still enjoy ourselves. Every so often we would go inside a building and thaw out. I'm still in awe at what a beautiful city Boston is. It is so clean and everything is so old and historic. There is a huge park (the nation's first park plus it was formally the spot where the soldiers rested for the civil war) right in the middle of the city. It has a pond with a lot of Canadian geese in it. There is also an old curvy like bridge over the pond. And there is an outside ice-skating rink in it. We didn't go ice-skating though because I wimped out because of my "delicate" condition. And there are so many trees. And a lot of statues. There is a really cool one of Paul Revere on a horse waving a sword. The trees still had a little fall-colored leaves on them so that was really pretty to see. There are cobble stone roads and in some neighborhoods they still use gas-lit streetlights. The houses all look so quaint nestled up together. Don't let the cobblestone fool you though. My excitement for getting to "stroll" down a cobblestone street was quickly put to a stop when I almost fell flat on my face!

Visiting the city was really a dream come true. I don't know about living there though. The driving is really crazy. Everyone honks the horn a lot. I saw people who were being cautious and kind of waiting to turn a corner, and the cars behind them would honk. If people slowed down for a yellow light, they would get honked at. I'm not sure I (or any of the other girls or Mom in this family!!!) would survive in that type of driving atmosphere. I know Jeremy and I are not really in the position to be picky about where we live for dental school though, so we'll see what schools accept Jeremy and we'll go from there. I just really hope I don't have to live in a place where I get honked at for the 'cautious' way I drive! We made it through the storm and I didn't even catch a cold or slip on any ice. All in all it was a very enjoyable trip and Boston met all my expectations of a dream come true.

BUBBLING BECCA

The folks in Tucson are all well. Nick and I are having tons of fun with Jonathan. Jonathan likes to show off his tricks including: blowing spit bubbles, smiling, giggling (sucking in and squeaking), standing (he is very difficult to "bend"), staring down the ceiling fan and playing "Stare." Stare is one of our favorite games he plays. He plays by refusing to stare at us. One of us could be holding him doing anything to get his attention and he will look in the other direction. If we put our face right in front of his he moves his eyes away and then his head. I'm getting better at this game and can actually win sometimes. I used to get too dizzy from moving my head back and forth in front of his to try and make him look at me. At school, he is the most popular guy in the music building. There are a few girls who have already asked me if they could marry him and one guy who asked if he could borrow him to help him pick up on girls (he got the idea after seeing me mobbed by the women of the music building)

Nick is in pharmacy school now. It sounds pretty invigorating. He has a few tests each week. He has been hired on as an intern at Safeway although he hasn't started yet. They have some training they want him to go through in Tempe. In fact they wanted him to attend training the same time as the Mexico trip. He told them he had a family reunion and asked if there was another option. He also said that he understood if there wasn't another way to go, but he just wanted to make sure. The lady in charge made a big fuss over him and said that she would not let anyone miss a family reunion. So now he is scheduled to train the following weekend. School is still going (on and on and on and on) for me. It actually isn't that bad. If there was a semester to do with a baby this would be it. My teachers are mostly understanding with him coming to class so I take him to three classes. Nick comes down to the music building to take Jonathan during two of my classes. Then a girl in my program takes him during another and Aunty Fawn watches him during master class. He has about a million girls lining up to baby-sit him, so things are working out nicely in that respect. My recital has been rescheduled, and rescheduled. The latest date is December 7th. Dr. McLaughlin didn't like the idea of the October 23rd recital, which is unfortunate for everyone who was planning on making it. (She didn't think I would be ready and I was hesitant. I can surely do a practice recital that day by anyone's request though.) The next few dates I had picked out conflicted with Harp Fusion performances. I actually haven't cleared the December 7th date with her yet. I don't know what she expects if that doesn't work for her either. Overall school is happening quite nicely. Actually it has been a few days since I wrote everything up to this point. So guess what? There is a Harp Fusion performance on December 7th too! Even after I've left Harp Confusion (as a fellow harpist put it) it still haunts me! Now Dr. McLaughlin decided she could cancel the Harp Fusion performance that conflicted with a previous date I picked. So November 16th seems to work. The only problem with that is that the music building must know one month in advance and all paperwork must be turned in one month in advanced. Unfortunately because Dr. McLaughlin didn't tell me she could do the 16th until yesterday (October 17th) the 16th still might not happen. I have been trying to get a hold of the right people since yesterday morning and still have had no luck. So as of now my recital date is still up in the air!! Talk about frustration!

Last month had some exciting times. On September 1st Nick blessed Jonathan. The whole weekend was a fun-filled adventure since Mom and Dad and Matt visited too. We all stayed up until midnight the first night watching a Tucson version of Frankenstein. We also enjoyed two different flavors of the month at Eegees. The Eegees flavor of the month is always a highlight in Tucson. Then early Monday morning Nick and I introduced Mom, Dad and Matt to the chile farm in St. David. After spending a couple hours in the field picking and on the roadside roasting and selling I think they really enjoyed themselves. Maybe it will become a tradition?

Also since I missed the last newsletter I didn't get to tell you about our exciting camping trip. We had so much fun at the reunion that we decided to go camping again the next week at Mt. Graham. We wanted to rough it out so we just found a lonely little place on the mountainside. That's right, no campground, which means no running water or bathrooms. So we set up our campsite and planned to stay a couple nights. We even set up the shade. I think we're getting better at doing that cause it only took about 15 minutes this time. Maybe we'll remember how to do it next year at the reunion? Jonathan roughed it out pretty well that first night. Everything went smoothly for us too. The next day we decided we'd drive down to the lake and have a picnic. So after our picnic we took a walk around the lake. The weather and sights were beautiful so we took our time. Then all of a sudden while we were on one side of the lake, thunder struck. The boom was louder than imaginable. Jonathan started getting scared but still did pretty good. We decided we'd better get back to camp and cover everything before the storm hit (with monsoons in Arizona you never know what to expect). Once we got back to our camp the storm did hit, and it hit hard. The rain didn't let up for a few hours. As soon as it did though we started a fire to get dinner going. It was still about an hour until dusk. Then the rain came back so we moved the hot coals under the shade to finish cooking dinner. Well what we thought should have only taken twenty or so minutes to cook ended up taking over an hour under the shade. This proved to be quite the misfortune because as soon as it was dark the invasion began. Hearing something in the bushes Nick shined his flashlight. Skunks! He shined his flashlight around the campsite and saw that there were quite a few each coming from another direction! Quickly he moved Jonathan and me to the truck. Once in the truck I tried flashing the headlights and honking the horn to try and scare the varmints. I had no luck. Nick told me to try turning on the engine. So smart! They turned around and scurried into the bushes. So I had skunk watch from the truck while Nick tried to finish dinner. The occasional skunk kept trying to creep out of the bushes for our dinner but starting the truck engine worked like a charm. While I was keeping to skunk duty I saw Nick jolt up and run to the truck. He jumped in and shut the door behind him. He had heard sticks breaking in the bushes and from Mt. Graham past experiences he knew it was a bear. Funny but we had noticed that it had been about couple minutes since the last skunk. So we sat in the truck for a while and waited for things to happen. Well we never did see a bear and the skunks stayed away (for the time being). What an adventure! (And I didn't even tell you about the skunk that snuck into our tent the next morning! Luckily I had taken Jonathan out of the tent moments before!).I think we'll use a campground next time.

My recital is officially December 7th. (This is a Saturday and the recital is scheduled for 2:30 in the afternoon.) Dr. McLaughlin is not coming. She said that she could go to a dress rehearsal. ARRRGGGG! So I've been spending a lot of time at the harp or stressing about the harp. Performing on stage sure is scary! Sometimes when I practice performing I do pretty good and other times I feel sorry for my audience having to listen to me!

Nick has started at Safeway now. He loves his job! It is so nice for him not having to worry about all of the other crises he had to deal with managing the plasma center. (Nice for me too since I don't have to worry about him having to go down there in the middle of the night and all the other crazy stuff he had to do there.) Tonight he is at a lab for school. At his last lab he came home with some lemonade flavored pink sun block for lips he made me. He also made an itch ointment that I used on some mosquito bites. I don't think I'll be trying out the suppository he is making tonight!

Poor Jonathan got his second batch of shots today. He was so tough! The five year old boy that went before him cried more than he did! Jonathan has been teething lately so that is sad too! He'll bite down on Nick's or my finger so hard that his face turns red and squishes up and shakes back and forth. But it is all for the better. I just wish he didn't make those big elephant tears in the process! He has also been talking a lot lately. He squeals, grunts, says "hi" (sort of), and all sorts of cute little coos. Plus his laugh has progressed immensely. He laughs out loud when he is in the mood. Before when he would laugh he didn't add voice to it. Now he adds voice to it sometimes so it is even cuter. Jonathan has grown out of his first level of clothes. It is amazing to look at some of those clothes and remember that he used to be that small!

We look forward to traveling to Logandale for Thanksgiving and can't wait to visit with the folks and their visitors. Love you all!!!!!

McKAY'S RUN WITH THE LAW

Last weekend I had an episode with the police again. Me and my roommates live in pretty nice apartments, but they are right next to the hood. So Friday night we walked across the vacant lots (2) to get to Walgreen's. It was chilly so we put on big coats and probably looked like convicts anyway. We purchased sodas and little Debbie oatmeal pie cookies. As we began walking back across the vacant lots to our apartments, we saw the police helicopter flying by. We decided to run around and pretend like we were in a cop-chase movie. Wouldn't you know it, the helicopter zoomed in on us in less than 5 seconds. We were engulfed in a beam of light brighter than any spotlight Chris has shown me. The beam seemed like a tunnel that we could never reach the end of. It was so bright we could only see to the end of the spot light, so it slowed our pace considerably. We split up and wouldn't you know, they decided to follow Dustin. So he was ducking behind walls and pushing over shopping carts, then he jumped over a fence and hid under some trees. As soon as he was out of the beam he ran inside our apartment. Then they came after the rest of us and we all got into the apartment. Well, the chopper hovered over our place for twenty more minutes shining their spotlight. Most of our neighbors saw us running, and so they knew we were the suspects. Vernon Applegate and I decided to go outside and take care of things, after putting on different clothes of course. When we went out, there were also two squad cars driving in our parking lot shining their spotlights all around. So we flagged them down and asked them what was going on. They said they were looking for some people who knocked off Walgreen's and ran into our complex. We told them it was us. So they made us two stand in the beam of the head lights as they questioned us. They said on the walky-talky "We've got the suspects, but they don't match the description." So I told them we went and changed our clothes. Then he said on the walky-talky," 10-4 air unit, we got 'em." They could see we weren't the criminal type, so they let us go and told us if the chopper ever spots in on us to just stand still and we would be fine. I don't think they understand how fun it is to play cops and robbers with real live cops. So I have been charged now with robbing Wally's and Walgreen's, but not convicted for either. This is my warning to any other convenience stores beginning with Wal-. Watch out!

MAGNANIMOUS MATT

I'll jump right into the good stuff. Last week (Thursday the 14 through Saturday the 16) I spent my time on an all expense paid trip at the Cal Neva Resort at Lake Tahoe. The occasion? They just wanted to treat me nice before they slapped a medal around my neck and gave me the biggest honor for Nevada students: The Silver State Hundred.

I filled out the application and sent it along with my resume and my writing sample (my narrative on eating Bryce Family Chiles). Then out of the thousands of worthy applicants, two hundred semi-finalists were chosen for a final selection process. Of these two hundred, over one hundred maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA, 60 were valedictorian candidates, 40 were student-body presidents, 6 scored a perfect 800 on the SAT math portion, 4 scored a perfect 800 on the SAT verbal portion, and 3 scored a perfect perfect 1600 composite SAT score! These were truly the best of Nevada I was competing against.

Thursday night was just kind of a mix and mingle night in the hotel lobby. Daren and I (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Daren made it too!) met group of kids from Foothill high school that knew our cousin Luke. They were almost all in band and three of them were drum majors for the Foothill Marching Band! They first recognized me as a "band kid" by my marching shoes that I was wearing with my suit. Can't pull a fast one on those band kids! It turns out that one of them was my roommate. It just happened to be the drum major that also played the trombone! So things were very exciting right from the first night.

Friday was the grueling interview process. Our interviews were scheduled throughout the day at the Sierra Nevada College, about a twenty minute drive. So of course there was a shuttle going back and forth all day as well. However, the shuttle never came for my interview. I just stood there on the street with about ten other really scared students that also soon had interviews. It just so happened that there was a guy driving a minivan that was going our way, so we crammed in and took off, arriving very promptly for our interviews. Phew! The interview itself was actually no sweat. The two interviewers and I discussed my future plans, current events, colleges, and a few other things. They also had me define a few words like "justice," "integrity," "honesty," "peace," and so forth. Pretty strange interview eh?

Friday there was a big fancy dinner with filet mignon, chocolate raspberry cake, and other delights. No winners yet though. But Saturday morning came another fancy banquet, this time with Governor Kenny Guinn and two tables full of medals. The atmosphere was very tense as they read the names of the semifinalists. When he finished reading the names and neither me nor Daren were on the list, we just about jumped to the roof. The rest of the hundred kids were doing the same. One by one they called the names of the Silver State Hundred, and one by one we received our medals and our picture taken with the governor. I was the second to the last one; you know good ol' "W" at the end of the alphabet. But anyway, we went almost directly back to the airport from there. (at the airport I deliberately set off the metal detector with my medal under coat just to show off!) We said goodbye to all our new friends and headed back to the great hot Las Vegas.

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