The Summer of Andy

In 2008 I wrote a blog post entitled, "The Summer of Coby".  This year, however I can already say that this summer will be "The Summer of Andy".  Many of you might be wondering where I got this silly idea of naming a summer after someone.  Well, I got it from an episode of Seinfeld. If you follow this link, you will see the short clip of George Castanza announcing that this summer will be "The Summer of George". http://youtu.be/ZPS3qLtaFtw

Anyway, back to the summer of Andy.  Well, Andy has been working on trying to put together an Eagle Project.  He have searched high and low for a project that would be worthy of his efforts.  He has found several ideas but never really got them going.  Finally a project came available through the Twin Falls City Parks and Rec.  He was to organize and execute a plan to clear out an area of Derkie's lake for people that would like to kayak and canoe.  A 20 foot section of the lake front would need to be cleared and sand would need to be moved to create a nice beach to launch and extract small boats.  Below is a picture of the backhoe taking out the weeds.

Andy has also been working towards getting his drivers license.  We signed him up for Drivers Ed right at the end of the school year, which was a big mistake.  Trying to get through DE during Tennis, Concerts, Year end church and school activities is like herding cats.  Needless to say, he missed over half of his classroom times and only got a couple hours of driving done.  So, he had to go to the next class that started in June and continue to get his driving times in.

I tell you both of those stories to let you know that Andy finished Both of these huge tasks yesterday.  Andy completed his Eagle Scout Project on Saturday and finished his last driving hour the exact same day.  On a side note, I didn't die during the parent drive portion of his driving classes.

Way to go Coby!

Mom and Dad (Gordon and Susan Carter) drove up to Twin for Coby's graduation about a week ago.  They sliced out some time from their busy schedule to come and attend this momentous event.  While they were here that weekend, Grandma Carter (Susan) decided to make a poster that we could hold up for Coby when he stepped across the stage to receive his diploma.  I thought she had made a small poster that one person could hold up and try and draw attention to Coby.  But no, the poster was like 15 feet long. The poster said, "Way to go Coby!".  It was huge.  Below is a picture of the banner that they held up for him.

Of course, we were a little embarrassed to hold up this sign for Coby but it turned out to be pretty fun for all of us.  In fact, the local newspaper picked up on the story and mentioned it in the Times News.  So, to read all about it, you will need to click on this link.  Twin Falls High School Graduation 2012.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Carter for coming up and supporting Coby Carter at Graduation.

Senior All Night Party

The Twin Falls High School PTO puts together a party for the graduating seniors over at CSI every year to try and get the students to spend the night in a controlled environment so they don't go out partying and possibly getting into trouble or even worse.  So, Deanna and I volunteered to chaperon this all-night-party.  Deanna had access to a cotton candy machine so both of us stayed up all night serving cotton candy to the students.  While there, I had to take a few breaks to make sure that I stayed awake. At about 1:30am, I saw  Shane Schvaneveldt standing on the joust mat boasting his strength and challenging all parents and students to a battle.  Like a gallant warrior I decided to take him up on the challenge so I marched right over there, took off my shoes, removed my wallet, took off my watch, took out my phone and keys and stepped onto the bouncy house joust battling ground.  The standards that you are required to balance on were very shaky because they were supported by air, so right off the bat, you are uneasy and a little wobbly.

The challenge had been announce and I was there to meet his skills with my cunning.  I rose my battle gear in the air and prepared for a confrontation.  Round 1. After just one swing and a miss, I leaned too much forward and fell off my post.  AARRRGGHH!  "I'm better than that." I murmured under my breath.  Round 2.  I took a few stabbing pokes at my opponent but could not get enough forward momentum to be effective.  I took a couple of hits to the side and regained my balance.  Another couple of hits to the side and I felt myself falling backwards without any way to recover, so in a dramatic display of defeat, I through my battle bar into the air and took a leap back into the abyss of the air filled mat.  I was determined to do better this next time.  Round 3.  I was focused, I stratigized and made my play.  My opponent found himself leaning when he should have been swaying and he started forward towards me without a return hit to bring him straight and decided to just dive into my legs to try and get me to fall.  The chopping action of this dive took me down but not until after my adversary had already left his post.  Round 3 goes to me. Round 4.  I decided that I didn't have much strength left and this was probably my last round so I took my jousting stick and swung it around with one hand and tried to take out my opponent's legs.  The swing was hard, my aim was true and the blow landed just at his knees.  I knew that this pounding would disable my opponent at the knees and render him unbalanced to the point he would fall off his pedestal and dive for the mat below, HOWEVER, the impact was not as dramatic as I had expected.  I looked at him, he looked at me.  A grin came over his face and he laughed with a hearty gladiator like grunt, "Is that all you've got?"  I was shocked and found myself vulnerable without both hands on my weapon and took a couple of good shots to the side and head and in the end, took a devastating blow that rendered me unbalanced and defeated.  Again, in a show of dramatic theatrical display, I threw my arms in the air, spread my arms and legs out and took a final dive backwards to the mat.