Barons Dec 8th Update

The last two weeks have been the normal Christmas craziness. Here are a few things we’ve done –

• Went Black Friday shopping (mostly the girls)
• Had Thanksgiving dinner at my brother Stephen’s house – it was delicious and always so fun to get together.
• Kayla sang in a youth group at a Stake Musical Fireside
• Most of us went to our Ward Christmas party – Kayla sang in a youth group, Megan played her cello, and we ate Cafe Rio
• Last Saturday I went to a White Elephant Gift Exchange for hoyas (my favorite type of houseplant right now) in downtown SLC. I carpooled with a plant friend and before the event, we went to the Christkindlmarkt at This is the Place State Park. It was crazy busy. There was a half-hour or more line of cars just to get in. There were many vendor booths, food, a parade, performances, etc. It was fun but got pretty cold, especially eating outside.
• At the same time, Ruby went to Emma and Lili’s play at their school and Kayla went to Eliza’s honor band concert.
• Norm’s brother, Darrin, and family came to visit at the last minute so we got to see them on Sunday afternoon and catch up a bit, which was really nice.
• This week Kayla had a choir concert (she’s in two choirs at school) and Megan had an orchestra concert.

I was able to finally work it out with Kayla’s school counselors that she doesn’t HAVE to take math this year so we were able to drop her Mountain Heights math class at the end of the day on the last day of drop classes (which we didn’t even know at the time).

So now she can focus on catching up to grade level at Kumon and not stress about a math class she’s totally lost in. In order to graduate she has to take Secondary Math I (usually 9th-grade math), Secondary Math II and either Secondary Math III, Personal Finance or Accounting. Next year she will be in 10th grade and can either take 9th-grade math, accounting, or it would be kind of crazy but possible to take no math next year and take two math classes her senior year.

Ruby was sick the first three days of this week and is so happy to be able to go back to school, choir practice, and play practice.

Megan was promoted to shift supervisor at her work a few months ago (probably before I did these updates). She is younger than the other supervisors but I’m not surprised because she is a hard worker and good at telling people what to do.

She seems to like her job at Pharmatech because she can choose her own hours (not as much now that she is a supervisor), they are really flexible about things like time off, and it’s not too hard. She doesn’t tell me much about it but it sounds like it’s mostly counting packets of drink supplements and putting them in boxes. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that. It sounds like she has some good friends there too.

Tyler has been working at Los Hermanos Mexican Restaurant since he was 15 as a dishwasher. He is friends with the owner and his son and enjoys working with his hands and being busy. This week he is starting to learn to cook. He gets a raise plus tips now and I think it could be a good fit for him so I’m glad he gets to try it out. He will probably quit after he graduates to do something that will help him better prepare to be a police officer when he is 21.