IT'S A GIRL! (Girl Scout that is)

On June 6th Sierra had her promotion ceremony to celebrate bridging over from a Brownie to a Jr. Girl Scout! She has earned all kinds of badges this year and attended lots of events. (Not to mention selling 180 boxes of cookies!) She's planning on continuing in the fall, as long as it doesn't conflict with playing soccer. Way to go Sierra!!!!

Camp Green Meadows

We have been so busy around here lately! Last week it was time for the 3rd graders to go to camp and I got to tag along as a chaperone for the 2 day 1 night event. Sierra and I spent the day hiking and learning about nature and the Mewok Indians. We did Indian dancing, face painting and even ate a bug! In the evening we went on a night hike and had a campfire where we sang songs about "scat". Ahhhh 3rd grade, it doesn't get much better than that.

Graduation Celebration!

Castle Dearing proudly presents:
Tabatha Ann Nolen
(with her Dad Hal (my brother) and Mom Donna)
We are all so proud of her! She's not only stunningly beautiful but an amazing person as well! She's planning to attend Bible College for a year and then possibly go into nursing if nothing else strikes her fancy first. Congratulations Tab!

We're still alive!

I know, I know, I have not been keeping this updated as often as I would of liked to but life got in the way and I haven't had much time to sit in front of the computer lately.

There is so much going on lately I can hardly keep up with it all but here are some highlights!

MARCH:
Sierra was student of the month for February!
Sierra and I went on an overnight trip with the Girl scouts (more to follow)

APRIL:
Deven was Student of the month at school!
My parents went to Hawaii to celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary!
Both kids went to the dentist and there was only 1 cavity (we won't mention any names)
Deven's class went to a Civil War reenactment camp to learn about the war.
Harv was promoted to Capitan at his Fire Station!

MAY:
Harv turned 44!
Deven's class went to the NASA Challenger Space Learning Center (more to follow)
My puppies now tip the scales at over 55 pounds each! (more to follow)

Houston, we have a problem...

Deven's class has been very busy lately. Last week we took a trip to the Challenger Space Learning Center in Atwater, CA. It was really fun!


The kids got to re-live the challenger mission (as it was meant to happen) from the viewpoint of a mock space shuttle and mission control.


They all had their specific jobs to do from communication, data, life support, remote and so on.


They had to keep in constant contact with their
counter parts on the ground who were answering their questions and monitoring their progress.

At one point the kids in the shuttle had an airlock emergency that set off alarms and a count down with only 2 minuets of air left to fix the problem! Luckily, the kids in Mission Control were able to walk them through the fix and all was well.

A Civil War in our own back yard

In April, we had a group come to town that did Civil War reenactments. They set up huge camps with over 100 people on each side in period costumes with horses and cannons to actually reenact the battle each day over the weekend. It was quite a sight in our little town.

The best part was the day before the battle when Deven's 5th grade class got to tour the camps and learn allot of "behind the scenes" information. They got to talk with the people in charge of communications and found out how they sent messages across the battlefields.
They learned what it was like to be a medic on the field and got to see 1st hand the tools that they used. They were amazed that they were more apt to cut off a limb than to "waste" the time to try and save it.

We were able to speak with the ladies in camp that described what their day was like and the clothes they wore (and made). The kids could not believe that they were treated like 2nd class (or lower) citizens just because they were women.
It was a very interesting trip.

Long Barn Trip

I got to go with Sierra on a Girl Scout adventure in March. We went to a place called Long Barn which is about 2 1/2 hours from here in the Stanislaus National Forest. We shared a room with 7 other girls and 1 other mom for the evening where we ate and played games till all hours.

The next day after breakfast, we went ice skating for a few hours and then headed off to Columbia National Park (just above Sonora). We spent the rest of the day there wandering through the old gold mining town where we had lunch at the local saloon and even did some gold panning.