Explosive at School

It's not every day that you take your child to school and find the bomb squad parked out front. Such was the encounter Paige and Tyson had on Thursday. Come to find out, one of Tyson's fellow 6th graders had brought a homemade explosive to school. That's against school policy round here. The story was covered by all the KC news stations (see list with links below), one of which caught up with Paige in the following video. Glad to know that everyone was safe in the end.

Fox News coverage
Lawrence Journal
Kansas City Star
NBC Action News

Grandma's Winter Visit

She said she wouldn't have it missed it for the world. So in leaving Maggie and Grey Kitty at home, Grandma Shirlene came out to Kansas to help celebrate Tyson's ordination last Sunday. She made it just in time for Tyson's shrimp dinner (his favorite cuisine ... tails and all) ... and then on Saturday, we drove out to the Independence Visitor Center and then up the road to the Far West Historical Site. It was special having her here for Tyson's special day ... as well as to have someone else join us for a game of MIlle Bourne before she had to leave on Wednesday.

A Special 12th Birthday

Tyson celebrated his 12th birthday this past week ... and as far as birthdays go, it was a very special one. Turning 12 and having been found worthy by our church's bishop, Tyson received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. He was sustained by the local members and then received the Priesthood by the laying on of hands from his Dad. Needless to say, he's excited to have the Priesthood in his life - an opportunity to serve. He's already looking forward to passing the Sacrament this next Sunday. It was exciting to see his excitement too in receiving a new set of scriptures from his parents and grandparents. He got a "quad" that includes the Bible and the Book of Mormon and has already begun to mark his favoritte scriptures. We couldn't be more proud of him.

Home Remodeling on the Home Front

Normally the end of December is a great time to put the family scrapbook together, compile the annual DVD of home videos and more ... but with our computer still out-of-commission (since Thanksgiving), we put our efforts (and checkbook) towards some home remodeling projects that have been on the back-burner for some time. Since Cody had almost two-weeks off from work, it was a great time to buckle down and accomplish the following projects:

• Painted the living room ceiling (and finally cleaned the blades ... yuck!)
  
• Painted Tyson's room (one wall red like mom-and-dad's) and the rest "Family Legacy" brown
• Painted both the "little" bathroom and the "master" bathroom
• Re-painted the area over the fireplace
• Added wood planking along the hall-way
• Added wood planking in Tyson's room (he loves his "new room)
  
• Created a family display over the fireplace, complete with our 08 family picture and Family Proclamation
• Built a mirror-shelf-shutter combo for the living room - we finally have something for the big wall
  
• Built 2 smaller shelves - one for the dining area and one for the entry way
• Installed a chandelier in the living room
• Installed a new outlet in the food storage room
• Began building new self-rolling shelves in the food storage room
  

Whew! Now we're ready to celebrate a special birthday later this week ...

The 12 Palms of Christmas

Every Christmas is unique. This Christmas will go down as The 12 Palms of Christmas. On Tyson's list from Santa was an old school Palm IIIxe. Santa's search led him to a good deal on not 1 ... not 2 ... not 3 ... but 12 Palms for Christmas! Of course it wouldn't be any fun to put them all in one box so each one was wrapped individually in boxes of varying sizes. Oh the anticipation! Needless to say, Tyson was surprised on Christmas morning to see that the number of gifts under the tree had doubled! Hooray! He was estatic to see the first, excited to see the second, surprised to see the third, questioned the fourth, discouraged to see the fifth and so on ... till when the last one was opened, he was so frustrated and angry that he stormed out of the room kicking boxes on the way and tears streamed down his cheeks. He thought it was a mean joke and that each present would be something different. Santa's plan had backfired. It didn't help that Santa had also brought Paige the same cell phone that Tyson had wanted. Sigh. But we talked things through and after a brief hiatus, we returned to our Christmas and things got better and better. In fact, in the end Tyson was grateful for the 12 Palms that he received. He had them all taken apart and got 6 of the 12 working again. He loved 'em. Ahh ... and to think that there's only 12 more days till his 12th birthday.

Shop Projects by Tyson

Tyson enjoys dual-enrollment for his 6th Grade education - he does his core work at home via the virtual school, then he heads over to Tonganoxie Middle School for his industrial art classes. This semester he played the trumpet in band and made some cool projects with the 7th Grade shop students. There was a the candy machine (currently filled with pistachios), the Dr.Pepper lamp, the shelf (complete with routered edges!), candy dish and pencil holder. What talent! And while it's a talent that only a few of us can enjoy, his ability to whail on the trumpet is something the whole neighborhood gets to enjoy!

Ty's Computer Service

Tyson has opened his own "unofficial" home business. After a trip to city hall, he hopes to make it an "official" business. The name? Ty's Computer Service. The company motto? "The Cheapest Microchips in Town That Work the Way They Should." Working with an initial customer base of three, he provides just about any computer service that anyone will let him do. After all, he was able to successfully fix the Mitchell's computer when it wouldn't boot up or operate correctly. Viruses? Not a problem. He has a shop set up in the basement (rent-free ... for now) where he's laid out a few blankets as carpet or area rugs - we haven't decided which along with a few folding chairs for customers to sit and wait. What does a customer do while they're waiting? He's set up a tv and vcr (he hopes to upgrade to a dvd player soon) along with a radio from where they can choose the music of their choice. A webcam on the corner of his desk keeps an eye on them. He has one assistant named Justin, whose allowed to fire anyone, except for Tyson. His current assortment of computers (thanks to the local thrift store) include a handful of monitors, CPUs and enough memory to run a small firm. He has a financial program to keep track of his finances. He'll install Ubuntu on your computer for free. But you'll need to make an appointment, after all - he's downloaded a program to keep track of that as well.