An Epic of Damon

Just wanted to share Ryan's Epic Poem he wrote last weekend for his english class. I have obtained permission from the author (Ryan) to post this. He recieved a 10 out of 10 for his grade with a comment from his teacher stating, "Wow Ryan, this needs to go into a book!"

Andy and I were really impressed with his work, so we wanted to share....Enjoy!


An Epic of Damon

The adventurer sat
All eyes fixed on him
“Gather round the fire
To hear a tale so grim,
In the time of dreaming,
Before the earth was old.
Myths were in the making,
Legends yet untold.

Damon was young,
Carefree and wild.
Approaching the age,
Where he was no child.
A man to be
And a task to be done.
A quest was assigned,
Thus this tale was spun.

Dread filled his heart
As he approached the doors.
The High School, behold!
The land of many wars.
Enormous halls of beige
And odors so foul.
Every minute sounded
A bloodcurdling howl!

His companions were few
But trustworthy still.
An adventure they were on
With mighty beasts to kill.
There was the giant Adam,
So large and tall.
Along with Phil
Sole maiden amongst all.

The trios set out to approach their fate,
When a messenger drew near.
He represented the sirens
Eight maidens of fear.
No student hadn’t heard
Of the tales of woe.
Of peers being slain,
With a single frightful blow

The sirens they called themselves,
When Gorgons they were.
Snakes upon their brows,
Scales instead of fur.
Bringing fear to Damon,
He knew his chore.
To slay the monsters
And silence their roar.

A meeting place was agreed
And violence was to be barred.
A democratic affair
With the dropping of guard.
Unbeknownst to him
There was a traitor among
The friends he called dear
And by them he’d be stung.

Preparation for battle
Was the meeting’s goal.
A declaration of war
To stay under control.
‘No deaths of innocents!’
Damon stated with goodness.
He had no weapons,
But he battled nevertheless.

A troll attacked
At that very moment!
Leaping and bashing
Within their weak tent.
Damon seized his fist
And grappled the beast
Beating it to submission
Until it was deceased

‘What treachery is this,
Who hast betrayed me?’
‘I t was I your friend,’
Bravely said she.
For then Phil stepped up,
Appearing most serpent-like.
For she was a Gorgon!
Wielding the most fearful spike.

She slew him there,
Amongst all his friends.
The tragedy of Damon
Is how this tale ends.”
Adam sat,
Relaying his story
In front of a fire
Lack of any glory.

He learned that day
How to spot an enemy.
To go with your gut
And to trust with a lea.
“If snakes they be
With evil tongues
Abandon those,
For better ones.

Stay close to friends
Of trustworthy traits.
Do not keep liars
Within your good grace
Good Allies are loyal
And friendly to a fault
An adversary will mock you
With speech made of salt.”

He left the townspeople
To ponder his words,
As he departed the village
Being alone as preferred.
Endlessly traveling
And telling of his friend
He’ll never forget him
Until the very end.

Bragging on Ryan

Just wanted to brag on Ryan a bit.

On Friday, we recieved a letter from the United States Achievement Academy (USAA) informing us that Ryan has been nominated by his math teacher for the Who's Who in Mathematics for the 2007-2008 school year. Ryan is a freshman this year and is in an Algebra 2 class, most of his classmates are sophmores. This is a huge honor, as students need to be nominated by thier teachers, and meet 7 standards, these include:

• Academics
• Cooperative classroom attitude
• Dependability
• Personal Motivation
• Enthuseasm for education
• Leadership
• Responsibility

Also, with this nomination is an opportunity to recieve one of 400 educational cash grants awarded by the USAA Scholarship Foundation. Ryan can apply for the educational grant, and if awarded (as a freshman) he can earn money now for college when he graduates in 3 more years....how cool is that! Earning money now for college. YAHOO!!!!

We are very proud of Ryan and his achievements. Keep up the good work Ryan!

Christmas in Sunriver, Oregon

Merry Christmas from Sunriver, OR! Check it out: http://www.sunriver-resort.com/

We took the family for a week of fun in the snow, time to relax, and hang out.

We arrived on Sunday night, unpacked, did some grocery shopping for the week, put up the Christmas tree (yes, we brought a fake tree with us...can't have Christmas without a tree. In fact we couldn't fit the tree in the car, so we tied it to the roof. You would think we were the Griswald's from Christmas Vacation), and decorated the tree. Rose & Ryan helped decorating the tree - Ryan put the tinsel on and Rose put the ornament balls on the bottom of the tree, all in one spot, of course, and Kevin supervised. Once all that was done, Rose went to bed, Andy and Renee relaxed in front of the tree, and Kevin & Ryan checked out the hot tub.

On Christmas Eve, my (Renee's) parents joined us in Sunriver. Andy and Renee cooked dinner that night (I think it's the only night we cooked dinner, I believe my mom did all the cooking - THANKS MOM! the food what DELICIOUS!) We had a really good ham dinner followed by doing dishes and heading to the Sunriver Resort. At the resort they had Christmas Carolers, free hot chocolate (it was cold out that night) and the lighting of the Christmas Tree. As a special teat, Santa stopped by for a visit before taking presents to all the good little girls & boys around he world. Rose was excited to see Santa, but if he got too close, she cried. After the lighting of the Christmas tree, the Sunriver resort has Santa's elves read Twas the Night Before Christmas. We did not stay for that...we headed back to our rental house, Andy read the Christmas Story (the reason we celebrate Christmas) and Twas the Night Before Christmas. We put out Nanimo Bars for Santa (b/c that is what he likes) and Rose went to bed. The rest of us stayed up playing cards and hanging out in the hottub, as the snow fell. It was so great to have it snow on Christmas Eve.

Christams Day is here! Santa was very good to us...we got a Wii :o) Of course, Rosie was spoiled the most. She got a shopping cart, sled, books, bracelets, clothes, and a vacuum cleaner. The rest of the day she was vacuuming and shopping (with her shopping cart, of course). Oh, we did bundle her up, went outside and played in the snow. Andy, Rose, Grandpa Ron, and myself took Rosie for a ride in her sled. We even found a small hill we pushed the sled down. She had such a good time!

The rest of the week was relaxing. One day we just hung out at the house, played Wii, went for walks in the snow, went to the pool, and relaxed! I think I took a nap everyday....Oh it was nice. We did go skiing up a Mt. Bachelor for a day. I forgot how much fun skiing is, since I had not been for about 4 years. The snow was great, once you got about 1/3 of the way down the mountain....look for Mt. Bachelor update soon.

We definitely had a GREAT time in Sunriver, and hope to do it again in the future.

We got our Christmas Tree this year from Cleveland High School (CHS) to help support the CHS athletic department...afterall, its the school that Ryan goes to. I think Rosie had more fun helping Andy put lights on the tree than picking out a tree.

Christmas Outfits

Here are the family Christmas outfits....Okay, Ryan's and Rosie's.

Here is Ryan's Tacky Christmas sweater he purchased last year. Its a little small this year, but that's what makes it all the more tacky. Ryan wore this to school the Friday before Christmas break. He is starting a new trend.

This is just a showcase of a few Christmas outfits of Rosie. She had a few more from her Grandmas. As Grandma says, she is not spoiled, just loved alot...and a little spoiled.


Here is Rosie's official Christmas dress

This is the Christmas tree dress. She is also holding a Christmas tree in her hand too.

Rosie helping "decorate" the Christmas tree. One of her favorite ornaments was a Mickey Mouse ornament I had when I was a little girl. She loved taking it off an putting it on the Christmas tree.

This is a cute outfit that her cousins Laura and Kayla use to wear. Its so nice of them to share their clothes when they out grow them.