BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01793 Eva and I went to Triple A today to apply for her learner’s permit. You now need to go and confirm identity and then take the test to get the permit. You can take the test online or in person. Eva has 60 days to study and can take the test any time she’d like. Then she has to take the test on a computer with a camera so that she can be monitored while taking the test. We’ll have to figure out how she’d like to do this when she has properly studied. Maybe after the play is over. Then she can get the permit so her uncle can give her a lesson. But I’m going to give her the first one.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01792 The pickup line for Andy’s school can be quite frustrating. From the first day there I decided that I’d get over to the line well before Andy got out of school. I do not like being on the road waiting in the line. If I get there early enough I can be right where Andy and the rest of the kids need to be picked up. There is always a car that parks right at the end of the road that forces all other cars to go around them in order to park. If you aren’t a fan of parallel parking you are sort of stuck. Why don’t they just pull up, they are going to have to do it as soon as the kids come out anyway. So this car (the second in the photo) was in the last spot. Or it should have been the last spot before the other car drove around me and instead of going in front of the last car in line they parked behind that car and hung out into the road. I got more frustrated than I needed to be over this act. I need to just park, listen to my audio book and let idiots be idiots...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01791 Andy has been working with their school’s drama department on learning how to run lighting for performances. Tonight was the talent show and Andy ran the one of the spotlights for the show. There were two kids on spotlights and Andy did a really nice job of running their spotlight. I hung out and watched the talent show just so I could watch andy do their thing. One week from tonight we’ll be back in the cafeteria for the band concert and we’ll get to see Andy and their trombone.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01790 This is our air purifier. We named it R2-D2 and when we have something extra good for dinner R2 gets mad. R2 gets mad because things like beef and bacon give off so much smoke that it gets the air purifier working on overdrive. R2 will go from yellow to orange to screaming red when we do grill indoors or make bacon in the oven. All that good smoke gets R2 angry.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01789 Our elf on the shelf has returned once again. We’re not sure if this is the last year that he’ll be flying around the house or not. Andy does not seem that excited to see Fitzy or find Fitzy every day like in years past. I am thinking that Andy may be humoring us this year. We’ll we’ve had a good run of creating magical memories for the kids over the years with this elf. Many people hate the elf for various reasons. He’s a tattletale and whatnot. But Fitzy has always been well received by the kids except for the one time that he ended up in the bathroom. Eva was having none of it when that occurred. We’ll see at the end of the Christmas season if this will be Fitzy’s last hurrah.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01757 Allison has finished all of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves pumpkins. The kids at school are really going to love these. Today was stripe test for Eva and I. The morning was a tough workout but I ended up pulling through. Eva did a great job at her stripe test, too. She is showing a fierce determination in each class. It is great to watch.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01788 Slept really well overall today and tonight while taking out the trash and recycling I looked up and the sky looked really cool. Lots of clouds and a big moon. The difficult thing about shooting with a cell phone is that it does not get great shots of the moon. I used Night Sight on the phone and that helped a bit but the moon is not detailed at all and it was pretty detailed.